SADISTIC
BOO·KS
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one modelled upon the example of the animal kingdom. For this
reason in their speeches and their pamphlets they assign animal char–
acteristics to those whom they seek to destroy.
The antithesis of all this is something best described as benevo–
lence, a quality that equally becomes the mighty and the meek.
It
is a light without which the dignity of man cannot properly shine
forth. Benevolence is closely associated with what in us seeks power
and eminence, but also with our free creative energy.
It
goes back
to olden times, gracing the Homeric hero no less than the ancient
king dealing out justice in the market place. It represents the spiritual
side of power, and is based on a noble tradition whose symbol is not
the imperial purple but the ivory staff.
Benevolence implies a disparity among men which it brightens
and irradiates. Where it is kept alive, as the rule of law insists that it
be, the images and forms of civil life grow effortlessly. It creates
a climate
in
which civilization can thrive.
It
has enabled small cities
to take a nobler part in the history of our planet than vast empires
inhabited by uncounted millions, as tiny gardens will yield richer
harvests than immeasurable deserts.
It is a fine thing that we take our bearings in history by these
stars of the first magnitude. True, in this we resemble astronomers,
who must content themselves with what they see- as only the bigger
lights shine across the endless distances of space, so only an exalted
consciousness penetrates the fogs of time. Yet there is a degree of
brightness that triumphs over the obscurity of centuries; and Pericles'
Athens looms clearer in our vision than that Athens of the Middle
Ages, nearer to us by a thousand years, the few scraps of whose his–
tory Gregorovius has collected.
Still, when one thinks how mightily chaos and destruction ring
us round, it remains a constant source of astonishment that these
archtypes and exemplars of human order have preserved their radiance
through the millennia. In this sense the
Odyssey
is a great song of
clear reason, the song of the human spirit braving a world filled with
elemental horrors and cruel monsters, braving even divine opposition,
to reach its goal.
