A new commandment I give unto you: that ye love one another.
This is the scientific law of life, the end, if not the beginning, of all human morality!
I was about forty before I came to understand its supreme significance. It influenced me in my conduct of the Saturday Review, as I have stated, in my desire to get the best men to work with me, careless of their opinions, and to set them, so far as possible, to praise and not to blame.
The message of Jesus has, I think, influenced my life more and more with every year I have lived since, but still I hardly dare call myself a Christian, because I also believe in the pagan view of life. Who can doubt that it is the first duty of man to develop all his faculties to the uttermost, and to enjoy all the beauties and pleasures of life so far as he can without injuring others? The doctrine of love for others only supplements and crowns this primary creed.
It seems plain to me that the intense spirituality of Christ's teaching has had an unexpected result in increasing sensuality and the sensuous expression of affection. Was it the love of the Magdalen-which, everyone knows, was the heart of the religious enthusiasm of the Middle Ages-which intensified and in some sense ennobled passion, or was this exaltation of the woman who had 'loved much' also a result of increasing sensualism- probably at once both cause and consequence?
It cannot be denied that the growth of sensuality is the chief note of all the centuries since. It is embodied to me in the coming to honor of the kiss.
Naturally, the kiss in the beginning was a purely maternal act: it is unknown to the Yellow and Negro races, who rub noses instead; in early Sanskrit literature, too, the kiss was always maternal or filial. The kiss seems to have been unknown as a token of love even to the ancient Greeks: there is no mention of a kiss in the love scenes of Homer; and among the ancient Romans, the kiss was a mere salutation.
It is possible that the Jews were somewhat more advanced; St. Paul advises his followers to greet one another 'with an holy kiss,' and there seems to me to be a strange confession in that 'holy.'
However that may be, the kiss in our time has become even more than a token of love: I cannot but recall Shakespeare's deathless lines to his dark lady:
Of many thousand kisses, the poor last
I lay upon thy lips.
Saint-Beuve, in one of his rare flashes of insight, says: 'Nous sommes tons aujourd'hui fils d'une litterature sensuelle' (We are all today children of a sensual literature).
It is curious to me that even the greatest have done so little to justify the new commandment of Jesus, to love one another.
Even Cervantes is silent on the matter: his Don Quixote will fight windmills, but is not Quixotic enough to preach the doctrine of love to his neighbor; nor does Goethe; and yet what can be plainer than the fact that unless this gospel of Jesus is learned and put to practice, the generations of men will cease to exist?
A scientist in London wrote me the other day that already they had under control five or six of the original elements. 'When we have control of a dozen,' he added, 'a man will go about with power enough in his waistcoat pocket to destroy a whole city like London or New York.' It seems to me possible that men may win power before goodness, and the race may then come to an untimely end. If not, its survival will be in great part due to the divine spirit of Jesus.
While passing this chapter through the press, news came to me of the recently discovered version of Josephus in the Russian language. This manuscript of 'The Jewish War' was found in Esthonia some twenty years ago; it is of supreme interest because it throws new light on the life of Christ, and even records events which are not to be found in the Greek text of the Gospels.
The original of Josephus' work was written in Aramaic or Hebrew (as is to be inferred from one passage), and the best scholars are now beginning to see that the newly found text was taken from this version; and that certain allusions to the history of Jesus were omitted by the writer from his Greek translation in order not to offend his Roman patrons. Here are some of the most interesting passages from the Russian manuscript:
At this time arises a man, if one may call him a man, who by his nature and behavior showed himself as if more than human. His works were wonderful, and he worked wonders, strange and powerful. Thus it is possible for me to call him a man; through looking at him in every way, I would also not call him an angel. And all he did, he did by word and command; as if by some inner power. Some said of him that our first law-giver had risen from the dead and showed forth much healing power. Others considered that he was sent of God. But he opposed altogether the Law; and did not hold the Sabbath according to ancestral custom. Yet he did nothing overtly criminal; but by word he influenced all. And many out of the people followed him and received his teaching. And many souls wavered, wondering whether by it the Jewish tribes could free themselves from Roman hands. Now it was a habit of his to stay much on the Mount of Olives in face of the city. And also there he manifested his healing powers to the people. And there gathered to him 'Slaves' a hundred and fifty, and many from among the Folk. When they saw his power that all was as he willed by means of the word, they besought him that 'he would enter the city and cut down the Roman soldiers and Pilate, and rule over us.' But that he scorned.
And thereafter, when the Jewish leaders got to know of it, they assembled themselves with the high priests and said: 'We are powerless and weak to stand against the Romans. But as also the bow is bent, we will go and tell Pilate what we have heard, and we will be untroubled; lest if he hear it from others, we be robbed of our goods and ourselves cut down and our children scattered.' And they went and told Pilate. And he sent and had many of the people struck down.
And as for the wonder-worker, he had him brought before him. And when he had tried him, he perceived that he was a doer of good and not of wrong; neither a rebel, nor a striver after political power, and he set him free. He had given heed to his perturbed wife.
And he went again to his accustomed place and did his customary works.
And at once again more people gathered to him, so that his works were more celebrated than ever; the Scribes became filled with envy and gave thirty talents to Pilate that he should kill him. And after he had taken, he consented that they should themselves carry out their purpose. And they took him and crucified him according to Imperial Law.
It was only natural that Josephus, when he turned his story written in Aramaic into Greek, should omit this bribing of Pilate, which would surely have offended the Romans. After most careful consideration, I regard this account as a wonderful addition to the Gospel story as we have it. It does not represent Jesus as divine; in fact it gives an almost modern view of the rarest spirit that has ever steered humanity.
CHAPTER XII
THE LAST YEARS of this century were dignified by an extraordinary proposal, which has been allowed to fall into complete oblivion: the Tsar Nicolas II sent in August, 1898, to all European rulers and to the United States, a proposal to bring about a great conference in order to ensure peace among the nations and put an end to the constantly increasing armaments that were impoverishing Europe. The Tsar's words were:
'The maintenance of general peace and a possible reduction of the excessive armaments which weigh upon all nations, present themselves, in the existing conditions of the whole world, as the ideal towards which the endeavors of all governments should be directed.'
The difficulties in reaching any agreement were of necessity great, but did not appear at first to be insurmountable. The conference met: all the nations sent of their wisest. The president was M. de Staal, Germany sent Count Munster, England Sir Julian Pauncefote, America the Hon. Andrew D.
White, Italy Count Nigra, France Leon Bourgeois, Spain the Duke of Tetuan, China sent Yang Yu, Persia her poet, Riza Khan, Servia the celebrated writer, Miyatovich. The young Queen of Holland put the great palace of the Hague at the disposition of the delegates. Alas! Even before the Congress met, signs of disagreement arose.
A little dispute between Lord Salisbury and Dick Olney of the United States put the chief difficulty in a nutshell. Suppose the conference condemned a war and a certain nation or nations began hostilities. How could the conference get power to enforce its decision? Plainly, the difficulty had to be met in some way or other, yet, though
