Part 15 (1/2)

C1.4, med. An Eastern picture. She is one of the Bible women, as Gadatas and Gobryas are brothers of Barzillai; she is sister of Ruth or Susanna or Judith or Bathsheba. Perhaps she is n.o.bler than any of them. She is also the sister of the Greek tragedy women, Antigone, Alcestis; especially Euripidean is she: no doubt she is sister to the great women of all lands.

C1.10 ff. Xenophon, Moralist. Cf. _Memorabilia_ for a similar philosophical difficulty about the will and knowledge. And for this raising of ethical problems in an artistic setting of narrative, cf.

Lyly. I see a certain resemblance between the times and the writers'

minds. _Vide_ J. A. Symonds on the predecessors of Shakespeare.

Araspas' point is that these scamps have only themselves to blame, being {akrateis}, and then they turn round and accuse love. (We are thrown back on the origin of {akrasia}: _vide Memorabilia_ [e.g. I. ii. v.; IV.

v.] for such answer as we can get to that question.) Whereas the {kaloi kagathoi} desire strongly but can curb their desires.

C1.13. Shows a confidence in the healthy action of the will. When Araspas himself is caught later on he develops the theory of a double self, a higher and a lower (so hgd., and so, I think, Xenophon and Socrates. _Vide Memorabilia_).

C1.16, fin. Cyrus || Socrates, his prototype here.

C1.18. Very natural and beautiful. Xenophon sympathetic with such a beautiful humanity. The woman's nature brought out by these touches.

Xenophon, Dramatist: the moral problem is subordinate, that is to say, is made to grow out of the dramatic action and characterisation.

C1.20. Notice the absolutely fair and warrantable diplomatic advantage given to the archic man: each step he takes opens up new avenues of progress. Herein is fulfilled ”to him who hath shall be given,” but Cyrus plays his part also, he has the wisdom of serpents with the gentleness of doves.

C1.21. This is the true rhetoric, the right road to persuasiveness, to be absolutely frank.

C1.24. The desire to be ruled by the archic man, which the archomenoi--i.e. all men--feel, is thus manifest. Notice again how the Mede's own character is maintained: he speaks as he felt then.

C2.8. The bridegroom will be found to be Hystaspas; but we have no suspicion as yet, without looking on.

C2.9. In this interview Cyrus' character still further developed. _Ex ore Cyri._, Xenophon propounds his theory of the latent virtue in man, which only needs an opportunity to burst forth, but, this lacking, remains unrevealed. Now it is a great G.o.dsend to get such a chance. It is thoroughly h.e.l.lenic, or Xenophon-Socratic, this feeling, ”Give me a chance to show my virtue.” (But has Cyrus a touch of superhuman conscious rect.i.tude?)

C2.12. The same thought again: it is full of delicacy and spiritual discernment: the more one ponders it the more one feels that.

C2.12, fin. For h.e.l.lenic or Xenophontine or old-world theory of the misfortunes which befall the virtuous, _vide_ Homer, _vide_ Book of Job (Satan), _vide_ Tragedians.

C2.15. Cf. the _Economist_ for praise of rural simplicity. It is Xenophon _ipsissimus_.

C2.17. Whose bad manners is Xenophon thinking of? Thebans'?

C2.20, fin. A very n.o.ble sentence. The man who utters it and the people whose heart and mind it emanates from must be of a high order; and in the _Memorabilia_ Socrates has this highest praise, that he studied to make himself and _all others also_ as good as possible.

C2.21. Notice the practical answer of Cyrus to this panegyric (cf. J.

P.).

C2.32. Prolix, Xenophontic.

C3.6 ff. Here also I feel the mind of Xenophon s.h.i.+mmering under various lights. The _Cyropaedia_ is shot with Orientalism. Homeric Epicism--antique h.e.l.lenism and modern h.e.l.lenism are both there. Spartan simplicity and Eastern quaintness both say their say. In this pa.s.sage the biblical element seems almost audible.

C3.7. This is in the grand style, Oriental, dilatory, ponderous, savouring of times when battles were affairs of private arrangement between monarchs and hedged about by all the punctilios of an affair of honour.

C3.12. N.B.--The archic man shows a very ready wit and inventiveness in the great art of ”grab” in war, though as he said to his father he was ”a late learner” in such matters. Cf. in modern times the duties of a detective or some such disagreeable office. G. O. Trevelyan as Irish secretary. Interesting for _war ethics_ in the abstract, and for Xenophon's view, which is probably h.e.l.lenic. Cyrus now has the opportunity of carrying out the selfish decalogue, the topsy-turvy morality set forth in I. C.6, C.26 ff.

C3.13. Cf. Old Testament for the sort of subterfuges and preparations, e.g. the Gibeonites.