There is a beautiful and singular passage in Dante (which has not
perhaps attracted the attention it deserves), wherein the stern
Florentine defends Fortune from the popular accusations against her.
According to him she is an angelic power appointed by the Supreme Being
to direct and order the course of human splendors; she obeys the will of
God; she is blessed; and hearing not those who blaspheme her, calm and
aloft amongst the other angelic powers, revolves her spheral course and
rejoices in her beatitude. (1)
This is a conception very different from the popular notion which
Aristophanes, in his true instinct of things popular, expresses by the
sullen lips of his Plutus. That deity accounts for his blindness by
saying that "when a boy he had indiscreetly promised to visit only the
good;" and Jupiter was so envious of the good that be blinded the poor
money-god. Whereon Chremylus asks him whether, "if he recovered his
sight, he would frequent the company of the good." "Certainly," quoth
Plutus; "for I have not seen them ever so long." "Nor I either,"
rejoins Chremylus, pithily, "for all I can see out of both eyes."
But that misanthropical answer of Chremylus is neither here nor there,
and only diverts us from the real question, and that is, "Whether
Fortune be a heavenly, Christian angel, or a blind, blundering, old
heathen deity?" For my part, I hold with Dante; for which, if I were so
pleased, or if at this period of my memoirs I had half a dozen pages to
spare, I could give many good reasons. One thing, however, is quite
clear, that whether Fortune be more like Plutus or an angel, it is no
use abusing her,--one may as well throw stones at a star. And I think,
if one looked narrowly at her operations, one might perceive that she
gives every man a chance at least once in his life if he take and make
the best of it, she will renew her visits; if not, itur ad astra! And
therewith I am reminded of an incident quaintly narrated by Mariana in
his "History of Spain," how the army of the Spanish kings got out of a
sad hobble among the mountains at the Pass of Losa by the help of a
shepherd who showed them the way. "But," saith Mariana,
parenthetically, "some do say the shepherd was an angel; for after he
had shown the way, he was never seen more." That is, the angelic nature
of the guide was proved by being only once seen, and after having got
the army out of the hobble, leaving it to fight or run away, as it had
most mind to. Now, I look upon that shepherd, or angel, as a very good
type of my fortune at least. The apparition showed me my way in the
rocks to the great "Battle of Life;" after that--hold fast and strike
hard!
Behold me in London with Uncle Roland. My poor parents naturally wished
to accompany me, and take the last glimpse of the adventurer on board
ship; but I, knowing that the parting would seem less dreadful to them
by the hearthstone, and while they could say, "He is with Roland; he is
not yet gone from the land," insisted on their staying behind; and thus
the farewell was spoken. But Roland, the old soldier, had so many
practical instructions to give, could so help me in the choice of the
outfit and the preparations for the voyage, that I could not refuse his
companionship to the last. Guy Bolding, who had gone to take leave of
his father, was to join me in town, as well as my humbler Cumberland
colleagues.
As my uncle and I were both of one mind upon the question of economy, we
took up our quarters at a lodging-house in the City; and there it was that
I first made acquaintance with a part of London of which few of my politer
readers even pretend to be cognizant. I do not mean any sneer at the City
itself, my dear alderman,--that jest is worn out. I am not alluding to
streets, courts, and lanes; what I mean may be seen at the West-end--not
so well as at the East, but still seen very fairly,--I mean The House-Tops!
(1) Dante here evidently associates Fortune with the planetary
influences of judicial astrology. It is doubtful whether Schiller ever
read Dante; but in one of his most thoughtful poems he undertakes the
same defence of Fortune, making the Fortunate a part of the Beautiful.