FROM GENOA TO PISA.
When Jacob awoke the next morning, he was astonished to find himself
alone. He was told that Ivas had gone out before daybreak. He was at
first alarmed about this matinal sortie, although he tried to explain
it by a desire to bathe in the sea, or curiosity to see the city. The
thought came to his mind that the poor boy wished to leave him, through
excess of susceptibility, and had departed, counting on his restored
strength. However, the sight of his little travelling-bag calmed his
fears, and he was waiting calmly for breakfast when Ivas returned.
"I went out," said he, shaking Jacob's hand, "to take a little walk. I
need air, solitude, and movement. I came on foot from Marseilles, and I
am accustomed to walking. I have no right to soften myself with
inaction. I must fatigue myself to feel that I live."
"You are a child," said Jacob smiling; "you distrust yourself, while so
many others have too much confidence in themselves. You possess that
which can vanquish all,--will. Strong as you feel in yourself you will
overcome all obstacles. I know men remarkable in all respects who have
never accomplished anything for lack of will, and I know other men who
by their energy have attained, by sheer determination, a position far
above that which their talents merited."
"You understand me," said Ivas, "and I fear to lose this will. I wished
a short battle to convince me that I was not benumbed. I wrestled
somewhat as Jacob, your namesake, did during his sleep, and I have
conquered."
"Where have you been?"
"Almost everywhere. In the dusty highway, in the tumult of the port, in
the deserted walks of Aqua Sola, and even under the windows of the
beautiful Mathilde."
"And what took you there?"
"I know not. I found myself there by chance. I have seen Madame Coloni,
the two Italians, and the Tsigane. We all met there to watch the
departure from Genoa of the marvellous singer."
"What, the departure! Perhaps they only went out for a walk."
"No; if they intended to remain longer in Genoa they have changed their
minds. The veturino told me that he was going to Spezia and Pisa. I do
not think the husband would go alone, and from the baggage that I have
seen I cannot tell how many travellers there are. The servant would not
answer one of my questions."
"Why did you question him?"
"From curiosity."
"Then they are gone?"
"Probably, but I did not wait to see them go. I did not wish to be seen
among the rabble which surrounded the carriage."
"Well," said Jacob suddenly, "what shall we do now? What do you
desire,--to remain here longer, or to proceed on our journey?"
"As you will; but your journey has nothing in common with mine. I must
go as soon as I have rested a little. You can do as you wish."
"Let me hear no more of this. Away with ceremony! It was agreed that we
travel together. Refuse, and you will offend me. Give me your hand. We
will go together. You can reserve your strength for something"better."
"But"--
"Where do you wish to go?"
"I should like to see Spezia and Pisa, if it is agreeable."
"Why?"
"Frankly, because Jacob wishes to go to Spezia, because Mathilde has
gone that way, because Janus and Jacob are one and the same person. On
his uncovered breast during his sleep I have seen a mourning ring
suspended from a black ribbon."
"Even without that it was easy for you to pierce this mystery. Yes,
that history is mine. Neither she nor I have any reason to blush. The
relative who sent me to school was Mathilde's father."
"Then we will go to Pisa?"
"Yes, and I think we had better go on foot, if it is agreeable to you.
The route is so beautiful that it deserves to be taken in detail. We
will consign our baggage to the diligence, and we will take to the road
like two wandering artists."
"An excellent idea. But let us depart before evening. I am anxious to
get to my country. My homesickness becomes each day more violent. I
foresee great events; impatience consumes me."
"Confess! You are a conspirator?"
"How could I be anything else? All Poland has conspired for two hundred
years. Oppression drives us to it; generations of martyrs have excited
us. Where life cannot expand in liberty, conspiracy is inevitable. It
is the natural result of despotism."
"I understand you. Unhappily, however, for a country which is in such a
situation, its inhabitants have lost confidence in themselves, and
recognize their own weakness. I can only comprehend a conspiracy like
ours, which has lasted two thousand years and which has led us to a
regeneration. It has agglomerated our forces in a solid and vigorous
union. Your conspiracies have something feverish about them that can
end only in morbid decadence."
"Do not say so, I beg of you! You have not the same love for Poland as
we, and you have not passed through such martyrdom."
"Excuse me for contradicting you. The country that has sheltered us,
where in spite of continual persecutions we have increased by labour,
has become for us a second country that we have chosen. You will think
as I do some day before long. I feel myself at the same time Israelite
and Pole."
"Men like you are rare," said Ivas. "I say it without flattery. In
general, your race is credited with little affection for the country
which has been a safeguard against other persecutors, and has
recognized you as her children."
"Softly! Review history without partiality. Religious fanaticism and
the arrogance of the nobility have long been an obstacle to the
admission of Jews as citizens. The fault is also with the Jews, who
have not tried to adopt the language and the customs of the country.
They have isolated themselves, made a state within a state, a nation
within a nation, and have not laboured sincerely to obtain that
naturalization which is obtained only by common bloodshed and devotion.
The fault is on both sides; both sides also ought to ask pardon and
forget the past. Our age is different from others. Civilization spreads
everywhere. Humane ideas are general; everything to-day tends to bring
us together and unite us. We tender you the hand, do not repulse us!"
"What! can our younger generation be capable of repulsing you? There
will be for a long while yet prejudices and repugnances, and evil
predictions, but the majority of the people accept frankly your hand.
Be then our brothers, but he is in spirit as well as in words, in
action as in appearance. Be our brothers, not in the time of prosperity
only, but in times of trouble and conflict."
Jacob pressed his companion's hand.
"Enough for to-day," said he. "We shall agree very well together, we
young men. The youth of Israel think as I do. However, with us, as with
you, there will be prejudices, old hatreds, secular distinctions; we
must not let ourselves be influenced by these remembrances of the past.
Love only can appease and unite us as one. Let us endeavour to love
each other. We shall have occasion to resume this subject; let us now
prepare to go. Shall it be on foot or in a carriage?"
"On foot, by all means."
That afternoon, dressed as pedestrians, they went to say farewell to
Lucie Coloni. They found her in the midst of preparations for
departure, in the midst of bags and trunks. The Russian was arranging
the books and papers. The lady was finishing paying bills.
Jacob and Ivas were going to leave, fearing to incommode them, when
Lucie looked up and saw Ivas.
"Ah, you are there! We are just going. Be sure to come to Warsaw, and
do not forget what I asked you. Let me hear from you; I shall be
anxious to see you. To-day I cannot talk longer. Do not forget Lucie
Coloni. At the theatre you will find my address."
The young Pole looked at her with astonishment.
"You go with Gromof?" asked he.
"Yes. He is an old friend. I do not know that he will accompany me all
the way. That depends. There is nothing certain. I will remind you that
you can be very useful to me. May that be a reason for our meeting
again."
"But how can I be useful to you?"
"Do not ask me now, I pray you. That is my business. _Au revoir! Addio!
Addio!_"
When they came down the steps which led to the narrow place that
separated the two hotels, they almost ran against the Tsigane who stood
gaping in the air, smoking his cigar, and gravely watching the asses
transporting their enormous loads to the wharf.
"Where are you two bound?" asked he.
"We leave to-day, on foot."
"On foot?"
"Yes."
"How ridiculous, when you can travel so much more comfortably! It is
good, however, to have whims. As for me I am no longer capable of them.
Still, if I could have for a companion the charming Italian I might
decide to go on foot with her. The Russian monopolizes her."
"I fear so!" cried the Dane, suddenly appearing. "She has made an
execrable choice. They have gone together; I have seen them off. Where
are they going?"
"We know not. Perhaps toward the south."
"It is the cheapest way," replied the Dane, "and perhaps that is why
the Russian will take it. One hardly needs food when they have
swallowed the dust on the way. That is why I have decided to go by
water. I love to travel that way much better than by land. I came to
say good-by to _la belle_ Coloni. I hoped to cut out the Russian, and I
still have hopes that when I meet her again she may be tired of him. In
order to gain a victory one must try."
"He calls that a victory; droll idea!" said the Tsigane. "He ignores
the fact that in Italy one can obtain as many Lucie Colonis as he
wishes for travelling companions."
"I do not believe," said Ivas, "that there are many persons as good and
as _spirituelle_ as this Lucie."
"I forgot that she came to your assistance at the Grotto. That is
nothing. It only proves that she has a good heart. Any other woman
would have screamed, and profited by the occasion to swoon gracefully.
But I do not see the necessity of spirit in women. What use is it to
them? To bite? They have their teeth for that."
Then addressing Jacob, the Tsigane continued: "Will you accept me as a
companion? I ask it as a favour."
The two men questioned each other with their eyes. Gako perceived it,
and said haughtily: "I withdraw my request. Stamlo is too old and too
tiresome. Then the heat, the dust, render the diligence preferable.
Adieu!"
He took leave of them and quickly disappeared.
"That is much better," said the Jew. "We should have had a tiresome
companion."
The sun was sinking into the sea when the two comrades left their hotel
and set out for Spezia. The suburbs of Genoa were marvellously
beautiful. There were cypress and orange groves, and vineyards; flowers
bloomed on every side, and birds sang in the branches overhead. Soon
their pathway led along the border of the sea; at each moment the scene
changed like a panorama. In springtime or in autumn this route is
overrun by swarms of tourists who pass by with such rapidity that they
retain only a vague impression of its beauty. Less numerous are the
travellers who know how to travel slowly, and make frequent halts to
drink in the beauty of the country.
Our friends were of the number who hasten slowly. They were in no way
troubled about their arrival at Spezia; they were sure to find a
lodging somewhere, for it was not difficult. A rustic chamber, some
fish salad and cheese, some wine of the district, more or less
palatable, that was to be found everywhere; and for lights they could
have primitive little lamps, the rays from which are agreeable enough,
but too feeble to permit one to read and write easily. Civilization in
Italy has introduced wax candles only in the large cities.
Before they were fatigued, Jacob and Ivas procured asses, whose easy
gait permits one to sleep if one wishes. These useful animals are
accustomed to carry men as well as the most fragile objects.
The day had given place to twilight when they came to the orange groves
of Nervi, with the flowers of which is made a water for spasms,
celebrated the world over.
Until then the friends had spoken on many subjects. "You promised me to
finish your biography," at last said Ivas. "You have disarranged a
little the chronological order by your love episode, but it will not be
difficult to reestablish and complete your recital."
"With pleasure. I have concealed nothing, and yesterday I was obliged
to reveal the most secret part of my life. I believe we left off where
I entered school. Persecuted by my comrades, I learned there to know
life as well as grammar. There were no notable events during that
period. It opened to me, however, the doors of science, which I
embraced to a surprising extent. Until then I had read only the Bible,
which comprised for me the entire world. Since then I have been
interested not only in the development of a single people, but of
humanity. My exclusive faith in the chosen people was shaken by these
studies. They appeared to me under a different light. My faith was
troubled and my mind made more independent. Finally, I returned to the
Bible more a Jew than ever, but of a different kind. Perhaps it is
difficult for you to comprehend my Judaism. I will try, then, to
explain to you how our society, strongly united by the remembrance of
former persecutions, is to-day divided into several divergent factions.
"The Jew is no longer what he was when his absolute separation forced
him to be himself,--to live, to reflect, and to instruct, within the
narrow circle which hostile Christianity had traced for him. From time
to time this circle sent out a Maimonides or a Spinosa, but it was
largely composed of a compact body of strict and faithful believers. We
grouped ourselves around the Ark of the Covenant. To-day the Jews are
more liberal, less restrained, and walk in different paths. Many reject
the ancient law, and accept in appearance another religion, while, in
reality, they have none. My protector, the father of Mathilde, was one
of this type. Educated by strangers, in the midst of indifferent men,
he lost, at an early age, all respect for our traditions. Liberated
from all ceremonious restraint, he was not a Christian, but had arrived
at a stand-point, as you already know, where he reduced morality to
calculation, and had taken reason for his guide.
"Man is only the most perfect animal. Above him exist other worlds,
other beings, other conceptions; besides the body, there is a soul,
which unites itself to the divinity, and can soar higher than the earth
or stars. Materialism and atheism satisfy neither society nor
individual. Their adepts are like flowers torn from their stalks: they
wither rapidly. Take away God and the soul, and what would be the
result with our refined civilization? An age such as ours, which
subjugates the elements, pierces the mysteries of nature, but knows not
how to distinguish good from evil. It is an age which worships only
force, and where are heard in prolonged echoes the _vae victis_. There
is nothing more sad than to see men who have overthrown tradition, and
who have no other hope or aim but material prosperity.
"They are only too numerous in your communion as well as ours. The
Christian who has ceased to be a Christian, the Jew who rejects Moses,
have for a horizon only an earthly life consecrated to the satisfaction
of their passions. Even when they appear to be happy, they are at heart
miserable. They end in apathy or insanity. Man finds in Mosaism an
intellectual nourishment sufficient for his reason.
"In order to decry the faith of Moses, which is the basis of
Christianity, it is unjust to take advantage of certain singularities
in the Talmud which are almost always falsely ridiculed. Even in the
Talmud one finds a poetry of which any literature might be proud."
"I know nothing of this poetry," said Ivas.
"You have, however, read quotations from the Talmud chosen in such a
way as to cast ridicule upon it."
"No; I know almost nothing of it."
"Are you curious to have some idea of it? Would you like to know the
Paradise or the Hell after the rabbinical conceptions?"
"From preference the Hell, for human imagination is more apt to
represent the tortures of the damned than the delights of the elect.
Dante's Heaven is very inferior to his Hell. Probably it is the same
thing with the Talmud."
"I do not know. The description of the abode of the blessed in the Book
Jalkut (7. A.) is full of splendour."
"As for Hell in the book, Nischmas Khaim, it is separated from Paradise
by a very thin wall, symbol of the narrow bounds which often separate
vice and virtue. The river which rushes through the Hell is boiling,
whilst that which flows through Paradise is of an agreeable freshness.
Three routes lead to it: by the sea, by the desert, and by a city of
the world. Five kinds of fire burn continually in Hell, of which the
extent is sixty times greater than that of the earth. It is governed by
three chiefs. The most important of this triumvirate is called Dumah.
This Dumah has three prime ministers,--Ghinghums, Taschurinia, and
Sazsaris. The palace of this demon is situated in that part of Hell
called Bor.
"Hell is full of scorpions and serpents, and is divided into several
departments. The deepest and the most frightful serves as a sewer for
the filth of the other hells, and for the poison of the old serpent
that seduced Eve.
"The Talmud is varied. It contains dialogues, controversies,
dissertations, allegories, and moral tales. It is a collection of the
writings of several ages, through which one can follow the variations
in the Hebrew language. They have tried to establish in this confusion
a certain order. Maimonides, among others, has tried it; but his book
on this subject, although very much esteemed, has not been accepted by
all.
"In opposition to the unbelieving Jews like Mathilde's father, there
are Jews who adhere blindly to the Talmud, and put several rabbis on a
level with Moses. Others, like myself, put their faith in the Old
Testament, and are content to respect the traditions related in the
Talmud. At first by early Jewish education, afterward by my European
education, I became an Israelite of a special kind. The Talmud, from
which I sought to draw lessons of wisdom, had not made me
superstitious. At the bottom of my heart I guard as a most precious
treasure my religious belief. I do not repel the light of reason nor
the law of progress, a negation which would, in a way, separate me from
actual humanity. My faith and my reason agree perfectly.
"When I was called to Warsaw by my kinsman, I had not the least idea of
the true situation of my co-religionists. In the provinces I had met
many kinds of Jews. Some were so faithful to their belief that they
dared not depart from the most useless and inexplicable rules. Others,
our brothers by blood, were no more ours in customs and spirit.
"I approached the capital of the kingdom with lively emotions, anxious
for the future, and ignorant of the world I was about to enter.
"The provincial Jews live and have lived entirely separated from the
Christians. Here I met them for the first time mixed and confounded, if
not by law, at least by habit, with the population. At first I could
hardly comprehend the thing. I met Jews who sought to conceal their
origin, visible as it was on their Semitic brows, among whom some were
believers, others complete sceptics. Our race, by wealth, education,
and acquired importance, were in position to court and obtain political
and civil equality. The old Polish nobles, imbued with bygone
prejudices, saw with alarm this imminent fusion, and endeavoured to
prevent or to retard it, considering always the children of Israel as
strangers and intruders. On both sides hatred has been kindled, and the
position is false in both camps. Those whom daily business brought
together, whom necessity united, who had mutual interests, remained
like armed foes divided by remembrances, prejudices, and fanaticism.
"However, victory for us is certain. Justice and the spirit of the
times render it inevitable; but I digress, as usual.
"Mathilde's father, feeling sure of his pupil, introduced me into
society. I had other kindred in the capital, and before long I had made
many acquaintances.
"I was much chagrined by the sentiment of the greater part of my
compatriots, a sentiment incomprehensible to me,--of shame at being
Jews. In the houses of the wealthy there was not the slightest vestige
of the faith and traditions of our fathers. The ancient customs had
disappeared, the religious ceremonies were not observed. They concealed
themselves to celebrate the Sabbath.
"I would like to describe some types of the community difficult to
characterize in general, but it would take too long.
"We made evident progress; still we were in some sort dispersed and
enfeebled, and what is worse, the country was indifferent to us. If we
displayed any patriotic sentiments, they were rather affected than
sincere. It was rather from pride than from duty. We had almost ceased
to be Jews, and we knew not how to become Poles. We started, as it
were, on a voyage without compass. Unhappy situation!"
Jacob sighed and ceased speaking. The darkness obliged them to halt at
an inn near by. It was a small brick house built on a hill near the
sea-shore. The sign bore the name, _Albergo di Tre Corone_.
Near the door, whence streamed the cheerful light from a crackling
wood-fire, they saw a cart with two horses surrounded by men clad like
sailors with their jackets thrown over their shoulders. A woman holding
an infant to her breast was seated against the wall. Around the house
were vineyards, aloe and fig trees, the whole scene being thrown out in
strong relief by the glimmering firelight.
Our travellers relieved themselves of their bags, ordered supper, and
in the interval of waiting went down near the sea, and, seating
themselves on a rock, listened to the ebb and flow of its murmuring
waters. Near them under the stunted bushes flew innumerable fireflies,
seeming in the obscurity to be little sparkling stars. They rested
mute, in the silence of the evening, the prayer of the tired earth.