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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[August 1, 1888 



trine of a future life. Tlie faith which had been a vague 

 comfort during active life, when its real significance was 

 little thought of, the faith which as death actually ap- 

 proaches may again become vaguely comforting, is at this 

 earlier stage of the close of life a source of distress and dis- 

 comfort. Something of the feeling of anxiety expressed in 

 the lines attributed to the dying Hadrian may be recognised 

 in the thoughts of the dying ere yet the heavy hand of death 

 is actually upon them : — 



Animula vagula blandula 



Hospes comesque corporis, 

 Qua; nunc abibis in loca ? 



Pallidula, rigida, nudula, 



Nee (ut soles) dabis joca.* 



But if such fears often attend the death of those who, 

 though they have not really believed during life that after 

 death comes judgment, and may come eternal tortures, have 



* Pope, in a letter to Steele, comments on the opinion that these 

 verses were trifling and unworthy ot Hadrian's death-bed. The 

 thoughts expressed by the dying emperor seem to him, he says, 

 most natural and appropriate. Doubtless he was right. There is 

 nothing of jest, though there is a humorous tenderness, closely akin 

 to pathos, in Hadrian's last words. Yet for a poet Pope shows but 

 slight appreciation of the essential quality of Hadrian's thought. 

 He translates it, both in prose and verse, into something wholly dif- 

 ferent — into the expression of reflections which would be neither 

 natural nor appropriate — since dying men are not apt to adopt arti- 

 ficial mental attitudes any more than artificially to pose their bodies. 

 "Alas my soul I " runs Pope's prose translation, "thou pleasing 

 companion of this body, thou fleeting thing that art now deserting 

 it I Whither art thou flying 1 to what unknown scene ? all 

 trembling, fearful, and pensive ? what now is become of thy former 

 wit and humour ? Thou shalt jest and be gay no more." Forty- 

 eight words to represent twenty ; or twenty-five if such words as 

 " vagula," "pallidula," &c., be regarded as double! Yet the mo.st 

 characteristic idea of the original is not conveyed at all. Pope's 

 translation of Hadrian's lines into poetry is better. Of course I am 

 not referring to his well-known "Vital spark of heavenly flame ! ' 

 which was written in response to Steele's suggestion that Pope should 

 show how the dying Christian would address his soul, but to the 

 lines: — 



Ah fleeting spirit I wand'ring fire 



That long hast warmed my tender breast. 



Must thou no more this flame inspire ? 

 No more a pleasing cheerful guest ? 



Whither, ah whither art thou flying ? 

 To what dark undiscover'd shore ? 



Thou seem'st all trembling, shiv'ring, dying. 

 And Wit and Humour are no more. 



Yet this version errs like the prose translation both in excess and 

 defect. There are ideas in it which the original does not contaiu, 

 while the characteristic idea of the original, the tender anxiety of 

 the dying man for his soul after it shall have left the shelter of the 

 body, is not conveyed. The seventh line is also singularly weak : 

 the suggestion that the soul of a dying man seems to be dying is 

 indeed a little worse than weak. Nor has the original a word about 

 seeming. As for the last line, it does not correspond at all with the 

 idea conveyed in the words, "Nee (ut soles) dabis joca." 



A correct translation of Hadrian's verses must suggest some- 

 thing ot their brevity, something of their quaintness, and some- 

 thing, also, of their roughness, all of which belong as much to the 

 little poem as the idea, missed by Pope, that it is for the soul and 

 not for the soul's host that pity and sorrow are to be expressed. 



The lines might, I think, be fairlv presented in some such way as 

 this :— 



Poor little wand'ring tender soul. 



This body's friend and guest. 

 What places will you visit now ? 



Pale, cold, and naked little waif. 



Unwilling now (as once) to jest. 



Even this is redundant, and a more accurate translation, which, 

 though rough, is not perhaps much rougher or quainter than the 

 original, might run : — 



Wand'ring tender ghostie I 



Body's friend and guest. 



What places seek you now ? — 



Pale, shivering, stript, 



Nor as of yore wilt jest. 



never reasoned out their unbelief, and in the weakness of 

 mind which (always or nearly always) precedes death are 

 moved by anxiety as vague as their past confidence had been, 

 how much longer and more seriously have those suffered 

 who have watched the deathbeds of those dear to them, 

 feeling certain that the dying have by their lives condemned 

 themselves to eternal punishment after death ! If this were 

 merely the creed (whether but professed or otherwise) of 

 those whose whole care during life has been to tell 

 other folk their duty, and to condemn the world in such 

 sort as to gain credit with the foolish for superior virtue, it 

 would not be worth considering. But alas I it is and has 

 been the faith, and being the faith the fear, of tens of thou- 

 sands of the really devout. Others than the evil — some 

 who are akin to men's fancies of what angels might 

 be — " beUeve and tremble," not for themselves, but 

 for those dear to them whose faith is not as theirs, 

 whose lives have not been all that these pure-souled 

 ones believe to be essential to salvation. It is only 

 the pulpit professors of religion who dare to repeat 

 the monstrous untruth that the belief in a future life has 

 on the whole brought comfort to devout believers. The 

 best of the believers, those really earnest in their belief, 

 refuse to be comforted by the thought of an eternity of 

 future happiness for themselves, in their anxiety lest those 

 dear to them should incur eternities of future torment, and 

 still less in their certain conviction that some among those 

 dear to them who have passed away must be punished for 

 ever and for ever. Just in proportion as we recognise 

 purity of heart and earnestness of devotion in those who 

 possess fulness of faith, are we certain — we who have 

 known and loved these simply believing single-hearted 

 devotees — that they suffer anguish unspeakable at the 

 thought of the probable future of many whom they love, 

 the certain future of not a few for whose welfere in the 

 next world they care more than for their own either in 

 this world or the next. 



The preachers who proclaim their conviction that belief in 

 a future life has been a solace to the hearts of those who have 

 loved and lost — to the parent sorrowing for the child, or child 

 for parent, to spouse widowed of spouse, friend left lonely in 

 the world for friend — either say they know not what or pro- 

 claim what they must know to be untrue. The pulpit preacher 

 of comfort in the thought of the everlasting life is ready 

 enough no doubt, beside the funeral baked meats, to speak idle 

 words of comfort to parent or child, to wife or husband, to 

 brother or to sister, of the dead who was so dear ; but scarce 

 are the words passed from his lips in which he tells the 

 sorrowers that their dead have passed to a happier life, 

 before he will proclaim to others his conviction that not 

 eternal happiness but eternal misery must be the fate of 

 most of us, of all who do not believe as he believes. It is 

 those, however, who really believe who really suifer in the 

 thought of all their belief implies ; and were it not that, 

 happily, their minds are not able to wholly grasp that 

 thought, their whole lives, after even but one of those they 

 loved had passed away under such conditions as would 

 render eternal hapjsiness doubtful or inconceivable, would 

 be lives of misery. Nay, it seems to me that they scarce 

 could live — or, at least, live sane; that they must either die 

 or go mad, if it were not for some vague thought that it 

 cannot really be as nevertheless their faith is ever 

 telling them it must be. Possibly few among those who 

 hold most earnestly the faith we are considering, and there- 

 fore feel most strongly that not to hold that ftiith is of itself 

 a sin to be punished by all that that faith threatens, have 

 perceived that did they accept all their faith teaches 

 logically the heart would be moved to anguish so exquisite 

 and so enduring that life or reason must give way. 



