Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Roman Emperors in Marble - 1. Julius Caesar and Augustus
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THE ROMAN EMPERORS IN MARBI E. y
his neck, to escape the diadem around his head. Man is
the measure of things, said the Grecian thinker. The
dominion of the world has the worth one sets upon it.
But if Gordianus were not a Julius Czesar, neither could
he look for rescue by a Brutus.
The most notable of Caesar’s later biographers and
judges is no doubt Napoleon III. In his preface to
LHistoire de Jules Cesar he has linked two separate his-
torical views together. For Caesar’s part, he is a " deter-
minist"—bows to the idea of an adamantine necessity.
Caesar, we must take as he was ; a mind so formed that
the temper of the time found in him the most faithful
expression—its head to think and its hand to execute.
A creative genius like this, must not be measured by the
standard of moral law, for above moral law stands neces-
sity—in the highborn writer’s language, La Providence.
Providence occasionally calls into being geniuses that
have a pre-ordained task, line mission providcntielle, to
fulfill here in the world. They are, namely, to point out
the way other people shall go. How far they themselves
act in the full consciousness of being messengers and in-
struments of Providence, is a question upon which the
author does not enter. Enough that when they work, it
must be in the lofty sentiment of their calling ; or when
they follow selfish passions and trample on all that has
been hitherto deemed holy, they are doing the work of
Providence. They could not act otherwise.
In that which concerns people in general, however,
the imperial thinker is not a " determinist." They have
received the precious but dangerous gift of freedom of
choice. They can go the way a heaven-ordained hero
has pointed out to them, or take another. Happy are
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
