SAUL AND SHIMEI.

As if one, from some poise of prospect high,

Should overlook below a plain outspread

And see a bright embattled host, in close

Array of antique chivalry, supposed

Invincible, advancing, panoplied,

Horseman and horse, in steel, and with delight

Of battle pricked to speed, he — while that host,

Swift, like one man, across the field of war,

With pennons gay astream upon the wind,

And arms and armor flashing in the sun,

Moved to the sound of martial music brave —

Might ask, “What strength set counter could withstand

The multiplied momentum of such blow?”

And yet, as, let a rock-built citadel

Upspring before them in their conquering way,

And, through embrasures in the frowning wall,

Let enginery of carnage new and strange,

Vomiting smoke and flame from hellish mouths —

Let cannon, with their noise like thunder, belch,

Volleying, their bolts like thunderbolts amain

Among those gallant columns, then would be

Amazement seen, and ruinous overthrow;

So, late, to Saul's superbly confident

Assay of onset all seemed nigh to yield,

Till that the wisdom of the Holy Ghost,

Through Stephen speaking, made the utmost might

Of eloquence ridiculous and vain,

So was the duel all unequal, joined

By Saul with Stephen on that fateful day.

Though not ill matched the champions’ native force

And spirit, and not far from even their skill,

Equipment disparate of weaponry —

Human against Divine, infinite odds!—

Made the conclusion of the strife foregone.

Had mortal prowess against prowess been

Between those twain the naked issue tried,

Saul, with his sanguine dash of onset, might

Perchance have won the day — through sheer surprise

Of sudden and impetuous movement swift

Beyond the other's readiness to oppose

An instantaneous rally of quick thought

And lightning-like alertness of stanch will

Mustering and mastering his collected might.

But the event and fortune of that hour

Resolved no doubt which combatant excelled

In wit or will or strength or exercise.

Stephen was fortressed round impregnably,

Saul stood in open field obvious to wound;

Saul wielded weapons of the present world,

Celestial weapons furnished Stephen — nay,

Weapon himself, the Almighty wielded him.

Saul knew himself defeated, overwhelmed.

By how much he had purposed in his heart,

And buoyantly expected, beyond doubt

Or possible peradventure, to prevail,

More than prevail, triumph, abound, redound,

And overflow, with ample surplusage

Of prosperous fortune far transcending all

Public conjecture of his hoped success;

By so much now he found himself instead

Buried beneath discomfiture immense

And boundless inundation of defeat.

For multitudes of new believers won

To Stephen's side from Saul's thronged to the Way,

Storming the kingdom of heaven with violence.

It was a nation hastening to be born,

Like Israel out of Egypt, in a day.

As Israel out of Egypt were baptized

To Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

So Israel out of Israel Saul now saw

Baptized obedient into Jesus’ name.

Dissolving round about him seemed to Saul

The earth itself with its inhabitants,

And, to bear up the pillars of it, he

A broken reed that could not stand alone!

But, while thus worsted Saul forlornly felt

Himself, he by whom worsted missed to know.

His challenge was to Stephen; how should he

Guess that in Stephen God would answer him?

Unconsciously with God at enmity,

But with God's servant Stephen consciously,

Saul chafed and raged in proud and blindfold hate;

Half yet, the while, despising too himself,

Detected hating thus, by his own heart

Detected hating, his antagonist,

For the sole blame of visiting on him

The fortune he had purposed to inflict.

Saul in such mood of rancor and remorse

Commingled — both unhappy sentiments

Still mutually exasperating each

The other — Shimei came to him.

Now Saul

And Shimei were two opposites intense

In nature, never toward each other drawn,

But violently ever sent asunder;

Yet chiefly by repulsion lodged in Saul,

Spurning off Shimei, as the good the evil;

For Saul instinctively was noble, frank,

And true, as Shimei instinctively

Was false, profound in guile, to base inclined.

But strangely, since that council wherein Saul

Fulmined his shame on Shimei's proffer vile,

Shimei had felt the other's scorn of him

A force importunate to tempt him nigh —

Perverse attraction in repulsion found!—

As evil ever struggles toward the good,

Not to be leavened with virtue issuing thence,

But leaven instead to likeness with itself.

So Shimei came to Saul, as knowing Saul

Spurned him avaunt with loathing; in degree

Attracted as he was intensely spurned.

He fain would feast his malice on the pride,

Seen writhing, fain would make it writhe the more,

Of Saul in his discomfiture.

With mien

Demure of hypocritic sympathy,

The nauseating vehicle of sneer,

Malignly studied to exacerbate

The galled and angry feeling in Saul's mind,

He thus addressed that haughty Pharisee:

“The outcome of your effort, brother Saul,

To vindicate the cause of truth and God —

And therewithal justly advance somewhat

Your individual profit and esteem

As rising bulwark of the Jewish state,

Whereby so much the better you might hope

Hereafter to promote the general weal —

This spirited attempt, I say, of yours

Has in its issue disappointed you,

You, and your friends no less, who, all of us,

Together with yourself, refused to dream

Aught but the most felicitous event

To enterprise with so much stateliness

Of dignity impressively announced

By you, and show of lofty confidence.

By the way, Saul, the grand air suits your style

Astonishingly well; I should advise

Your cultivation of it. Why, at times,

When you display that absolutely frank

And unaffected lack of modesty

Which marks you, really, now, the effect on me,

Even me, is almost irresistible;

I find myself well-nigh imposed upon

To call it an effect of majesty.

“But, to sustain the impression, Saul, it needs,

Quite needs, that you somehow contrive to shun

These awkward misadventures; the grand air

Is less impressive in a man well known

To have made a bad miscarriage, such as yours.

For in fact you — with sincere pain I say it —

But served to Stephen as a sort of foil

To set his talent off and heighten it.

You must yourself feel this to be the case;

For never since that windy Pentecost

In which we thought we saw the top and turn

To this delirium of delusion touched,

Never, I say, till now were seen so many

New perverts to the Nazarene as seems

You two, between you, you and Stephen, Saul,

Managed, that memorable day, to make.

It is a pity, and I grieve with you.

Still, Saul, let us consider that your case,

Undoubtedly unfortunate, presents

This one alleviating circumstance,

At least, that your defeat demonstrates past

Gainsaying what an arduous attempt

Yours was, and thereby glorifies the more

That admirable headiness of yours

Which egged you on to venture unadvised.

For my own part, I like prodigiously

To see your young man overflow with spirit;

Age will bring wisdom fast enough; but spirit,

Like yours, Saul, comes, when come it does at all,

Born with the man. Never regret that you

Dared nobly; rather hug yourself for that

With pride; pride greater, since, through proof, aware

You really dared more nobly than you knew.

“Some increment too of wisdom you have won

From your experience; not to be despised,

Though ornament rather of age than youth.

I may presume you now less indisposed

Than late you were, to reinforce, support,

And supplement mere obstinacy — fine,

Of course, as I have said, yet attribute

Common to man with beast — by counsel ripe

And scheme of well-considered policy,

Adapted to secure your end with ease.

Economy of effort well befits

Man, the express image and counterpart

Of God, who always works with parsimony,

Compassing greatest ends with smallest means,

To waste no particle of omnipotence.

“Count now that you have rendered plain enough

What single-eyed, straightforward stubbornness

Can, and cannot, effect in this behalf;

So much is gained; now be our conscience clear

To cast about and find some other means,

Than mere main strength in public controversy,

Of dealing with these raw recalcitrants.

They lacked the grace to be discomfited

In honorable combat fairly joined,

Let them now look to it how much their gross

Effrontery in overthrowing you

Shall profit them at last. I have a scheme” —

“Your scheme,” — so, from the depths of his chagrin

And anguish at the contact of the man,

Spoke Saul, unwilling longer to endure

The friction and abrasion of his words —

“Your scheme, whatever it may be, cannot

Concern my knowing; nothing you should plan

Were likely to conciliate in me

Either my judgment, or my taste, or please

My sense of what becoming is and right.

I pray you spare yourself the pains to unfold

Further to me your thought; your work were waste.”

But Shimei, naught abashed, nay, rather more

Set on, imagining that he touched in Saul

The quick of suffering sensibility

Replied:

“Yea, brother Saul, I did not fail

In our late session to observe what you

Hinted of your unreadiness to accord

Your valuable support to my advice,

Advanced on that occasion loyally

However far outrunning what the most

Were then prepared frankly to act upon.

We weaker, Saul, who may not hope to be

Athletes like you, whose sole resource must lie

In studying more profoundly than the rest,

Are liable to be misunderstood

Not seldom, when, through meditation deep

And painful, we arrive to see somewhat

Beyond the common, and propound advice

Startling, because some stages in advance

Of the conclusions less laborious minds

Reach and stop at contented — for a while,

But which mere halting-places on the road

Prove in the end, and not the final goal.

You probably remember, when I told

The council that some good judicious guile

Was what was needed, not one voice spoke up

To second my suggestion. Very well,

The lagging rear of wisdom has since then

Moved bravely up to step with me, and now

We walk along abreast harmoniously

Upon the very road I pointed out;

‘ Guile’ is the word with all the Sanhedrim.

“But stay, you may perhaps not be apprised

Exactly of the current state of things —

You have kept yourself, you know, a bit retired

These few days past, a natural thing to do,

Under the circumstances, all admit —

Well, we have made some progress; I myself,

To imitate your lack of modesty

And don the egotistic, I myself

Have not been idle; all in fact is now

Adjusted on a plan of compromise,

My own invention, everybody pleased.

We shall dispose of Stephen for you, Saul:

Council; Stephen arrested and arraigned;

Production of effective testimony;

A hearing of the accused; commotion raised,

While he is speaking, to help on his zeal;

Then, at the proper point, some heated phrase

Of his let slip, a sudden rush of all

Upon him with a cry of‘ Blasphemy!’ —

Impulse of passionate enthusiasm,

You know, premeditated with much care —

And he is stoned; which makes an end of him.

Such is the outline; not precisely what

I could have wished, a little too much noise,

The Mattathias tinge in it too strong —

Still, everything considered, fairly good.

The moment favors; for the very fume

And fury of the popular caprice

Has put it out of breath; nay, for the nonce,

The wind sits, such at least my hope is, veered

And shifted points enough about to bear

A touch of generous violence from us;

Then, as for those our rulers, they connive.

“You see I have been open to admit

Ideas the very opposite of my own.

I am not one to haggle for a point

Simply because it happened to be mine.

The end, the end, is what we seek; the means

Signifies nothing to the wise.‘ Let us

Be wise,’ as our friend Nicodemus said,

That day, with so much gnomic wisdom couched

In affable cohortative, as who

Should say encouragingly,‘ Go to, good friends,

Let us be gods’; wisdom and godship come,

As everybody knows, with equal ease

Indifferently, through simple conative,

‘ Let us,’ and so forth, and the thing is done.”

This voluble and festive cynicism,

Taking fresh head again and yet again,

At intervals, to flow an endless stream,

From Shimei's mouth, of bitter pleasantry;

His vulgarly-presumed familiar airs

And leer of mutual understanding, felt

Rather than seen, upon his countenance;

The gurgling glee of self-complacency

That purred, one long susurrus, through his talk;

The insufferable assumption tacitly

Implied that human virtue was a jest

At which the wise between themselves might grin

Nor hide their grin with a decorous veil;

These things in his unwelcome guest, traits all

Inseparably adhering to the man,

Or fibre of his nature, Saul recoiled

From, and revolted at, habitually:

They rendered Shimei's very neighborhood

An insupportable disgust to him.

Still did some fascination Shimei owned,

Perhaps a show of wit in mockery,

Playing upon a momentary mood

Of uncharacteristic helplessness in Saul

( A humor too of wilfulness and spite

Against himself displacent with himself

That made him hold his sore and quivering pride

Hard to the goad that hurt it ) keep him mute,

If listless, while thus Shimei streamed on:

“Well, as I said, friend Saul, I had no pride

To carry an opinion of my own;

The scheme I brooded was a compromise.

I plume myself upon a certain skill

I have, knack I should call it, in this line.

I like a pretty piece of joinery

In plot, such match of motley odds and ends

As tickles you with sense of happy hit,

And here you have it. See, I take a bit

Of magisterial statesmanship to start

With — go to Rome, as Caiaphas advised,

Though not quite on his errand; Rome agrees

To wink, while we indulge ourselves in what

To us will be self-rule resumed, to her,

A spasm of our Judaean savagery.

Thus is the way made eligibly clear

For brother Mattathias with those stones

He raves about on all occasions — rubbed

Smooth, they must be, as David's from the brook,

With constant wear in Mattathias’ hands!

Was it not grim to hear him talk that day?

His dream of Maccabaean blood aboil

Within his veins has been too much for him,

Made him a monomaniac on this point;

He sees before him visionary stones,

Imponderable stones torment his hands;

Give him his chance, have him at last let fly

A real stone, a hard one, at somebody,

Who knows? it might bring Mattathias round.

Stephen at any rate shall be his man,

His corpus vile, as our masters say —

Fair game of turn and turn about for him,

Dog, to have handled you so roughly, Saul!

Trick of Beelzebub, no manner of doubt.

“But here I loiter, while you burn of course

To hear what figure you yourself may cut

In my brave patchwork scheme of compromise.

I modestly adjoin myself to Saul,

And so we two go in together, paired —

A little of your logic let into

A little of my guile, and a fine fit.”

Shimei had counted for a master stroke

Of disagreeable humor sure to tell

On Saul, the piecing of himself on him

In plan, conscious of Saul's antipathy.

But Shimei still misapprehended Saul,

Lacking the standard in himself wherewith

To measure or assay the sentiment

Of such as Saul for such as Shimei.

Saul simply and serenely so despised

Shimei, that nothing he should do or say

Could change Saul's sentiment to more, or less,

Or other, than it constantly abode,

The absolute zero of indifference.

Half absently, through fits of alien thought,

And half with unconfessed concern to know

What passed among his fellow-councillors

Abroad, a little curious too withal

Wondering how any artifice of fraud

Could Saul with Shimei combine, to make

Such twain seem partners of one policy —

So minded, Saul gave ear, while Shimei thus

The acrid juices of his humor spilled:

“Here is the method of the joinery.

You know you put it strongly that the end

Of that pretended gospel which they preach,

Would be to overturn the Jewish state,

Abolishing Moses, and extinguishing

The glory of the temple, and all that —

Really sonorous rhetoric it was,

That passage, Saul, and it deserved to win;

But who can win against Beelzebub?

Logic turned rhetoric is my idea

Of eloquence, and my idea you

Realized; but Stephen, without eloquence,

Bore off from you the fruit of eloquence:

Never mind, Saul, it was Beelzebub.

Let rhetoric now go back to logic; you

Demonstrated so inexpugnably

The necessary inference contained

In Stephen's doctrine, hardly were it guile —

Though doubtless you will call it such, you have

Your sublimated notions on these points —

To say outright that Stephen taught the things

You proved implicit in the things he taught;

At all events, guile or no guile — in fact,

Guile and no guile it is, if closely scanned —

Here is the scheme:— We find some blunderheads,

Who, primed with method for their blundering,

Will misremember and transfer from you

To Stephen what you stated on this point.

These worthies then shall roundly testify

Before our honorable body met

To give the fellow his fair hearing ere

His sentence — said fair hearing not of course

Eventually to affect said sentence due —

Shall, I say, swear that they distinctly heard

Stephen set forth that Jesus Nazarene

Was going to destroy this place and change

The customs Moses gave us; bring about

In brief precisely what, with so much force,

You showed would surely happen” —

“Shimei” —

Saul interrupted Shimei again,

Surprised into expression by the shock

To hear himself mixed up in any way,

Of indirection even, in fraud like this —

“Shimei, I thought that nothing you could say

Would further tempt me into speech to you;

But you have broken my bond of self-restraint.

Suborning perjury! That well accords

With what you slanted at in council once,

And what I trusted I had then and there

Made clear my scorn of. Shimei, hear — I set

My heel upon this thing and once for all

Grind it into the dust.”

“In figure, of course,”

Promptly leered Shimei, interrupting Saul;

“The thing goes forward just the same; you set

It under foot — in your rhetorical way;

I, in my practical way, set it on foot;

No mutual interference, each well pleased.

“But, seriously, Saul, you overwork

The idea of conscience. What is conscience? Mere

Self-will assuming virtuous airs. A term

Cajoles you into making it a point

Of moral obligation to be stiff.

Limber up, Saul, and be adjustable.

Capacity of taking several points

Of view at will is good. For instance, now,

Probably Stephen may, at various times,

Himself have stated quite explicitly

What your rhetorical logic showed to be

Inextricably held as inference

In his harangues. Take it so, Saul, if so

Render your conscience easier; I myself

Highly enjoy my easy conscience. Still,

Nothing could be more natural than that some,

Hearers non-critical, you know, should mix

What you said with what Stephen said, and so

Quite honestly swear falsely — to the gain

Of truth. And to whose loss? Stephen's, perhaps,

But other's, none. So, salve your conscience, Saul —

Which somehow you must learn, and soon, to do;

Unless you mean to play obstructionist,

Instead of coadjutor, in the work

You, with good motive, but with scurvy luck,

Set about doing late so lustily.

Conscience itself is to be sacrificed,

At need, to serve the cause of righteousness.

What is it but egregious egotism

To obtrude, forsooth, a point of conscience, when

You jeopard general interests thereby?

One's conscience is a private matter; let

Your conscience wince a little, if need be,

In order that the public good be served.

That is true generosity.‘ Let us

Be just,’ said Nicodemus; good, say I,

But in this matter of our consciences,

Let us go further and be generous.”

As one who turns a stopcock and arrests

A flow of water that need never cease,

So Shimei left off speaking, not less full

Of matter than at first that might be speech.

With indescribable smirk, and cynic sneer

Conveyed, sirocco breath of blight to faith

In virtue and in good, he went away,

Cheering himself that he had somewhat chilled

Within the breast of that young Pharisee

The ardor of conviction, and of hope

Fed by conviction,— but still more that he

Had probed and hurt the festering wounds of pride.

Saul's first relief to be alone again,

Rid of that nauseous presence, presently

Was followed by depression and relapse

From his instinctive tension to resist

The unnerving spell of Shimei's influence.

Saul found that in the teeth of his contempt

For Shimei, absolute in measure, nay,

By reason of that contempt, he had conceived

Shame and chagrin beyond his strength to bear.

That Shimei, such as Shimei, should have dared

To visit Saul, and drill and drill his ears,

With indefatigable screw of tongue

Sinking a shaft through which to drench and drown

His soul with spew from out a source so vile —

This argued fall indeed for him from what

He lately was, from what he hoped to be,

Far more, in popular repute. The sting

That Shimei purposed subtly to infix,

With that malicious irony and taunt

Recurrent, the intentional affront,

All of it, failed, blunted and turned in point

Against the safe impenetrable mail

Of Saul's contempt for Shimei. But that

Which Shimei meant not, nor dreamed, but was,

Went through and through Saul's double panoply,

Found permeable now, of pride and scorn,

And wilted him with self-disparagement.

He marvelled at himself how he had not,

At first forthputting of that impudence,

Stormed the wretch dumb, with hurricane outburst

Of passionate scorn; a quick revulsion then,

And Saul was chafing that he had so far

Grace of rebuff vouchsafed, and honest heat,

To creature lacking natural sense to feel

Repudiation. Comfort none he found,

No refuge from the persecuting though

Of his own fall. He tried to brace himself

With thinking, “If I failed, I failed at least

Not for myself, but God; I strove for God.”

But, ceaselessly, the image of himself,

Humiliated, swam between to blur

His vision of God. He could not cease to see

Saul ever, in the mirror of his mind,

And ever Stephen shadowing Saul's fair fame.