第30章 THE BANQUET(6)

"You see these olives," he said."The contrast between the colours is pleasant to the eye, and we are content that these should be light and those should be dark.But, if they were endowed with thought and knowledge, the white would say, It is good for an olive to be white, it is bad for it to be black; and the black olives would hate the white olives.We judge better, for we are as much above them as the gods are above us.For man, who only sees a part of things, evil is an evil; for God, who understands all things, evil is a good.Doubtless ugliness is ugly, and not beautiful; but if all were beautiful, the whole would not be beautiful.It is, then, well that there should be evil, as the second Plato, far greater than the first, has demonstrated."EUCRITES.Let us talk more morally.Evil is an evil--not for the world, of which it cannot destroy the indestructible harmony but for the sinner who does it, and cannot help doing it.

COTTA.By Jupiter? that is a good argument.

EUCRITES.The world is a tragedy by an excellent poet.God, who composed it, has intended each of us to play a part in it.If he wills that you shall be a beggar, a prince, or a cripple, make the best of the part assigned you.

NICIAS.Assuredly it would be well that the cripple should limp like Hephaistos: it would be well that the madman should indulge in all the fury of Ajax, that the incestuous woman should repeat the crimes of Phaedra, that the traitor should betray, that the rascal should lie, and the murderer kill, and when the piece was played, all the actor--kings, just men, bloody tyrants, pious virgins, immodest wives, noble-minded citizens, and cowardly assassins--should receive from the poet an equal share in the felicitations.

EUCRITES.You distort my thought, Nicias, and change a beautiful young girl into a hideous Gorgon.I am sorry for you, if you are so ignorant of the nature of the gods, of justice, and of the eternal laws.

ZENOTHEMIS.For my part, friends, I believe in the reality of good and evil.But I am convinced that there is not a single human action--were it even the kiss of Judas--which does not bear within itself the germ of redemption.Evil contributes to the ultimate salvation of men, and, in that respect issues from Good, and shares the merits belonging to Good.This has been admirably expressed by the Christians, in the myth concerning the man with red hair, who, in order to betray his master, gave him the kiss of peace, and by such act assured the salvation of men.Therefore, nothing is, in my opinion, more unjust and absurd than the hate with which certain disciples of Paul, the tentmaker, pursue the most unfortunate of the apostles of Jesus without realising that the kiss of Iscariot--prophesied by Jesus Himself--was necessary, according to their own doctrine, for the redemption of men, and that if Judas had not received the thirty pieces, the divine wisdom would have been impugned, Providence frustrated, its designs upset, and the world given over to evil, ignorance, and death.

MARCUS.Divine wisdom foresaw that Judas, though he was not obliged to give the traitor's kiss, would give it, notwithstanding.It thus employed the sin of Iscariot as a stone in the marvellous edifice of the redemption.

ZENOTHEMIS.I spoke just now, Marcus, as though I believed that the redemption of men had been accomplished by Jesus crucified, because Iknow that such is the belief of the Christians, and I borrowed their opinion that I might the better show the mistake of those who believe in the eternal damnation of Judas.But, in reality, Jesus was, in my eyes, but the precursor of Basilides and Valentinus.As to the mystery of the redemption, I will tell you, my dear friends--if you are at all curious to hear it--how it was really accomplished on earth.

The guests made a sign of assent.Like the Athenian virgins with the baskets sacred to Ceres, twelve young girls, bearing on their heads baskets filled with pomegranates and apples, entered the room with a light step, in time to the music of an invisible flute.They placed the baskets on the table, the flute ceased, and Zenothemis spoke as follows--"When Eunoia, 'the thought of God,' had created the world, she confided the government of the earth to the angels.But they did not preserve the dispassion befitting masters.Seeing that the daughters of men were fair, they surprised them in the evening by the wellside, and united themselves to them.From these unions sprang a turbulent race, who covered the earth with injustice and cruelty, and the dust of the roads drank up the blood of the innocent.The sight of this caused Eunoia infinite grief.

" 'See what I have done!' she sighed, leaning towards the world.'My poor children are plunged in misery, and by my fault.Their suffering is my crime, and I will expiate it.God Himself, who only thinks through me, would be powerless to restore them to their pristine purity.That which is done is done, and the creation will remain for ever imperfect.But, at least, I will not forsake my creatures.If Icannot make them happy, like me, I can make myself unhappy, like them.

Since I committed the mistake of giving them bodies which dishonour them, I will myself assume a body like unto theirs, and will go and live amongst them.'