Hypatia — or New Foes with an Old Face by Charles Kingsley
page 105 of 646 (16%)
page 105 of 646 (16%)
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stately figure, and answered--
'Of the human race in general, my young friend. The philosopher must rise above the individual, to the contemplation of the universal .... Aha!-Here is something worth seeing, and the gates are open.' And he stopped at the portal of a vast building. 'Is this the patriarch's house?' 'The patriarch's tastes are more plebeian. He lives, they say, in two dirty little rooms--knowing what is fit for him. The patriarch's house? Its antipodes, my young friend--that is, if such beings have a cosmic existence, on which point Hypatia has her doubts. This is the temple of art and beauty; the Delphic tripod of poetic inspiration; the solace of the earthworn drudge; in a word, the theatre; which your patriarch, if he could, would convert to- morrow into a--but the philosopher must not revile. Ah! I see the prefect's apparitors at the gate. He is making the polity, as we call it here; the dispositions; settling, in short, the bill of fare for the day, in compliance with the public palate. A facetious pantomime dances here on this day every week--admired by some, the Jews especially. To the more classic taste, many of his movements-- his recoil, especially--are wanting in the true antique severity-- might be called, perhaps, on the whole, indecent. Still the weary pilgrim must be amused. Let us step in and hear.' But before Philammon could refuse, an uproar arose within, a rush outward of the mob, and inward of the prefect's apparitors. 'It is false!' shouted many voices. 'A Jewish calumny! The man is |
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