Resumo de Essays: First Series (1841) *second Part*

In the early history of Asia and Africa, Nomadism and Agriculture arethe two antagonist facts. The geography of Asia and of Africa necessitated anomadic life. But the nomads were the terror of all those whom the soil, or theadvantages of a market, had induced to build towns. And in these late and civilcountries of England and America, these propensities still fight out the oldbattle in the nation and in the individual. The nomads of Africa wereconstrained to wander by the attacks of the gad-fly, which drives the cattlemad, and so compels the tribe to emigrate in the rainy season, and to drive offthe cattle to the higher sandy regions. The nomads of Asia follow the pasturagefrom month to month. In America and Europe, the nomadism is of trade andcuriosity; a progress, certainly, from the gad-fly of Astaboras to the Angloand Italo-mania of Boston Bay. The antagonism of the two tendencies is not lessactive in individuals, as the love of adventure or the love of repose happensto predominate. The Grecian state is the era of the bodily nature, theperfection of the senses, ? of the spiritual nature unfolded in strict unitywith the body. The manners of that period are plain and fierce. Such are theAgamemnon and Diomed of Homer, and not far different is the picture Xenophongives of himself and his compatriots in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. Ouradmiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural. Adultsacted with the simplicity and grace of children. They combine the energy ofmanhood with the engaging unconsciousness of childhood. I admire the love ofnature in the Philoctetes. I feel the eternity of man, the identity of histhought. To the sacred history of the world, he has the same key. When thevoice of a prophet out of the deeps of antiquity merely echoes to him asentiment of his infancy, a prayer of his youth, he then pierces to the truththrough all the confusion of tradition and the caricature of institutions. Hence,evidently, the tripod, the priest, the priestess inspired by the divineafflatus. The beautiful fables of the Greeks, being proper creations of theimagination and not of the fancy, are universal verities. What a range ofmeanings and what perpetual pertinence has the story of Prometheus! Beside itsprimary value as the first chapter of the history of Europe, (the mythologythinly veiling authentic facts, the invention of the mechanic arts, and themigration of colonies,) it gives the history of religion with some closeness tothe faith of later ages. Prometheus is the Jesus of the old mythology. He isthe friend of man; stands between the unjust "justice" of the EternalFather and the race of mortals, and readily suffers all things on theiraccount. It would steal, if it could, the fire of the Creator, and live apartfrom him, and independent of him. The Prometheus Vinctus is the romance ofskepticism. Apollo kept the flocks of Admetus, said the poets. The power ofmusic, the power of poetry to unfix, and, as it were, clap wings to solidnature, interprets the riddle of Orpheus. The transmigration of souls is nofable. And although that poem be as vague and fantastic as adream, yet is it much more attractive than the more regular dramatic pieces ofthe same author, for the reason that it operates a wonderful relief to the mindfrom the routine of customary images, awakens the reader's invention andfancy by the wild freedom of the design, and by the unceasing succession ofbrisk shocks of surprise. Magic, and all that is ascribed to it, is a deeppresentiment of the powers of science. The shoes of swiftness, the sword ofsharpness, the power of subduing the elements, of using the secret virtues ofminerals, of understanding the voices of birds, are the obscure efforts of themind in a right direction. The preternatural prowess of the hero, the gift ofperpetual youth, and the like, are alike the endeavour of the human spirit"to bend the shows of things to the desires of the mind. . His faculties refer to natures out f him,and predict the world he is to inhabit, as the fins of the fish foreshow thatwater exists, or the wings of an eagle in the egg presuppose air. Not less doesthe brain of Davy, anticipate the laws of organization. Does not the eyeof the human embryo predict the light? the ear of Handel predict the witchcraftof harmonic sound? Do not the constructive fingers of Watt, Fulton, Whittemore,Arkwright, predict the fusible, hard, and temperable texture of metals, theproperties of stone, water, and wood? Do not the lovely attributes of themaiden child predict the refinements and decorations of civil society? Herealso we are reminded of the action of man on man. I shall find in him theForeworld; in his childhood the Age of Gold; the Apples of Knowledge; theArgonautic Expedition; the calling of Abraham; the building of the Temple; theAdvent of Christ; Dark Ages; the Revival of Letters; the Reformation; thediscovery of new lands; the opening of new sciences, and new regions in man. Heshall be the priest of Pan, and bring with him into humble cottages theblessing of the morning stars and all the recorded benefits of heaven andearth. Hear the rats in the wall, see the lizard on the fence, the fungus underfoot, the lichen on the log. The idiot, the Indian, the child, and unschooledfarmer's boy, stand nearer to the light by which nature is to be read, than thedissector or the antiquary.

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