We have all heard the wonderful story, recounted by Plutarch in his treatise1 on the Cessation of the Oracles2, how, in the reign3 of Tiberius C?sar, a ship sailing from Greece to Italy was becalmed for the night at the islet-rock of Paxus in the Ionian Sea, between the Echinades and Ithaca, when a loud and terrible voice from the land called Thamous the pilot. And he having responded at the third appeal, “I am here; what would you with me?” the voice, grown yet louder and more terrible, commanded him to announce on arriving at Palodes that Pan the Great was dead. Accordingly, when the vessel4 reached this place, whose site I believe the learned have not yet fixed5, Thamous stood on the prow7 and lifting his voice shoreward cried, “Pan the Great is dead!”—whereon were heard great moanings and lamentations, mysterious and multitudinous. Not having Plutarch at hand, I have refreshed my memory from Rabelais, who repeats this well-authenticated story by the mouth of Pantagruel, in the twenty-eighth chapter of the fourth book of his inestimable work, following soon on that tempest of all tempests wherein Friar John and Panurge so variously distinguished8 themselves. The good Pantagruel goes on to expound9 the story after his own manner, thinking that it referred not to the heathen god Pan, but to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, “ignominiously put to death by the envy and iniquity10 of the pontiffs, doctors, presbyters, and monks11 of the Mosaic12 dispensation....”
For with good right may he in the Greek tongue be called Pan, seeing that he is our All; all we are, all we live, all we have, all we hope, is him, in him, of him, by him. He is the good Pan, the great Shepherd.... at whose death were moanings, sighs, trepidations and lamentations in all the machine of the universe, heavens, earth, sea, hells. With this my interpretation13 the time agrees. For that most good, most great Pan, our only Savior, died at Jerusalem, reigning14 in Rome Tiberius Caesar.—Pantagruel, these words said, rested in silence and profound contemplation. A little while after we saw the tears rolling from his eyes, large as ostrich15 eggs. I give myself to God if I lie in a single word.” Notwithstanding the thrilling pathos16 of this close, and my deep reverence17 for Rabelais, with whom no commentator18 in holy orders known to me can be compared, except Dean Swift, I am inclined on this point to follow the ordinary opinion that Pan the great god whose death was thus miraculously20 announced was the Pan of the heathen Greeks. Christ had died, but only pro6 tem; had descended21 into Hell, but with a return ticket, and simply to harry22 that realm of Old Harry; in three days he had risen from the dead, in forty more ascended23 into Heaven; his reign had begun and the reign of the old gods was ended; the spirit was exalted24 ana the flesh brought low, this world and life were contemned25 for the life and world to come; Nature, the All, the great Pan, was annulled26, and the Supernatural Nothing throned supreme27. The poets have chanted this momentous28 revolution according to their religion, their phantasy, or their mood. Milton in his Hymn29 on the Nativity shouts harsh Puritanical30 scorn on the oracles stricken dumb, and the deities31 overthrown32. Shelley in a magnificent chorus of “Hellas,” “Worlds on worlds are rolling ever,” contests not the justice of their doom33, while in the final chorus he predicts the same doom for their conqueror34 in his turn, In our own day Mr. Swinburne in the “Hymn to Proserpine,” and elsewhere, has bewailed the dead immortals35, with nothing but aversion and contempt for the pale Galilean, the “ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of gibbeted gods.” Leopardi an early poem “To Spring,” beautiful but not of his deepest, regrets the banished36 divinities, and since the halls of Olympus are void, appeals to Nature to restore to his spirit its first fire, if she indeed lives. Schiller in his “Gods of Greece” passionately37 laments38 them; and Mrs. Browning more passionately answers him, crying, “God himself is the best Poet, and the Real is his song and the Real we accept perforce in its fulness, but discern not how it can derive39 from an unreal God. Novalis in his “Hymns to the Night” laments with Schiller the unsouling of Nature, “bound in iron chains by arid40 number and rigorous rule;” but goes on to celebrate the resurrection of Humanity in Christ. Heine in his. “Gods of Greece,” after declaring in his wild way that he has never loved the old deities, that to him the Greek are repugnant, and the Romans thoroughly41 hateful, yet avows43 that when he considers how dastardly and windy are the gods who overcame them, the new reigning sorrowful gods, malignant44 in their sheep’s, clothing of humility45, he feels ready to fight for the former against these. This change of the celestial46 dynasty is indeed a favorite theme with him. Elsewhere he pictures the Olympians holding high revelry, with nectar and ambrosia48, with Apollonian music and inextinguishable laughter, when suddenly a wretched Jew staggers in, his brow bleeding from a crown of thorns, trailing on his shoulder a heavy cross, which he heaves upon the banquet table; and forthwith the revel47 is no more, the divine feast disappears, the everburning lights are quenched49, the triumphant50 gods and goddesses vanish terror-smitten, dethroned for ever and ever. And again, in his incomparable “Gods in Exile,” he tells us what became of these dispersed51 Olympians during the Dark Ages, in the thick night of the noontide of Christianity; how they were transformed from celestial to infernal by the monstrous52 superstition53 of that baleful era; as we find the hoofs54 and horns of Pan transferred to the Devil himself; as we find Venus in that legend of Tannhauser which has fascinated so many poets, as well as great Wagner,—
Vous êtes diablesse!
More than eighteen hundred years have passed since the death of the great god Pan was proclaimed; and now it is full time to proclaim the death of the great god Christ. Eighteen hundred years make a fairly long period even for a celestial dynasty; but this one in its perishing must differ from all that have perished before it, seeing that no other can succeed it; the throne shall remain void for ever, the royalty56 of the Heavens be abolished. Fate, in the form of Science, has decreed the extinction58 of the gods. Mary and her babe must join Venus and Love, Isis and Horus; living with them only in the world of art. Jesus on his cross must dwindle59 to a point, even in the realms of legend under Prometheus on Caucasus. For ages already the Father has been as spectral60 as Jupiter; for ages already the Holy Ghost has been but the shadow of a shade. And the last, not least, member of the Divine Royal Family, Satan the Prince of Darkness, Prince of this World, and Prince of the Powers of the Air, is no more alive than Pluto61, who also was born brother to the Monarch62 of Heaven. The Hebrew dynasty of the gods is no more; it has done much evil in its long sovranty, which we will try to forget now it ceases to reign; it has done some little good, whose remembrance we will cherish when it is sepulchred, Christ the Great is dead, but Pan the Great lives again, as Mr. Maccall told us in some lines published in this paper several years ago. Pan lives, not as a God, but as the All, Nature, now that the oppression of the Supernatural is removed. I may be told that Christianity is yet alive and flourishing, that its priesthood and its churches hold possession of Europe and America and Australia. So the priesthood and the shrines63 of the Olympians kept possession of the Roman Empire centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus. When the spirit of a faith has departed, that faith is dead, and its burial is only a question of time. When the noblest hearts worship not at its altars, when the most vigorous intellects abandon its creeds64, the knell65 of its doom has rung. At the risk of being thought bigoted66 or prejudiced, I must avow42 that to my mind the decomposition67 of Christianity is so offensively manifest and advanced, that, with the exception of a very few persons whose transcendent genius could throw a glamor68 of glory over any creed57 however crude and mean, and whom I recognise as far above my judgment69, I can no longer give my esteem70 to any educated man who has investigated and still professes71 this, religion, without grave deduction72 at the expense of his heart, his intellect, or his conscience, if not of all three. Miraculous19 voices are not heard in these days; but everywhere myriads73 of natural voices are continually announcing to us, and enjoining74 us to announce to others, Great Christ is dead!
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1 treatise | |
n.专著;(专题)论文 | |
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2 oracles | |
神示所( oracle的名词复数 ); 神谕; 圣贤; 哲人 | |
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3 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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4 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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5 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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6 pro | |
n.赞成,赞成的意见,赞成者 | |
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7 prow | |
n.(飞机)机头,船头 | |
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8 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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9 expound | |
v.详述;解释;阐述 | |
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10 iniquity | |
n.邪恶;不公正 | |
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11 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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12 mosaic | |
n./adj.镶嵌细工的,镶嵌工艺品的,嵌花式的 | |
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13 interpretation | |
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理 | |
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14 reigning | |
adj.统治的,起支配作用的 | |
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15 ostrich | |
n.鸵鸟 | |
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16 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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17 reverence | |
n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
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18 commentator | |
n.注释者,解说者;实况广播评论员 | |
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19 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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20 miraculously | |
ad.奇迹般地 | |
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21 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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22 harry | |
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼 | |
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23 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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25 contemned | |
v.侮辱,蔑视( contemn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 annulled | |
v.宣告无效( annul的过去式和过去分词 );取消;使消失;抹去 | |
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27 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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28 momentous | |
adj.重要的,重大的 | |
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29 hymn | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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30 puritanical | |
adj.极端拘谨的;道德严格的 | |
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31 deities | |
n.神,女神( deity的名词复数 );神祗;神灵;神明 | |
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32 overthrown | |
adj. 打翻的,推倒的,倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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33 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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34 conqueror | |
n.征服者,胜利者 | |
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35 immortals | |
不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 ); 永生不朽者 | |
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36 banished | |
v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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38 laments | |
n.悲恸,哀歌,挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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39 derive | |
v.取得;导出;引申;来自;源自;出自 | |
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40 arid | |
adj.干旱的;(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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41 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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42 avow | |
v.承认,公开宣称 | |
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43 avows | |
v.公开声明,承认( avow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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44 malignant | |
adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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45 humility | |
n.谦逊,谦恭 | |
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46 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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47 revel | |
vi.狂欢作乐,陶醉;n.作乐,狂欢 | |
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48 ambrosia | |
n.神的食物;蜂食 | |
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49 quenched | |
解(渴)( quench的过去式和过去分词 ); 终止(某事物); (用水)扑灭(火焰等); 将(热物体)放入水中急速冷却 | |
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50 triumphant | |
adj.胜利的,成功的;狂欢的,喜悦的 | |
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51 dispersed | |
adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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52 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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53 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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54 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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55 belle | |
n.靓女 | |
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56 royalty | |
n.皇家,皇族 | |
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57 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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58 extinction | |
n.熄灭,消亡,消灭,灭绝,绝种 | |
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59 dwindle | |
v.逐渐变小(或减少) | |
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60 spectral | |
adj.幽灵的,鬼魂的 | |
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61 Pluto | |
n.冥王星 | |
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62 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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63 shrines | |
圣地,圣坛,神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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64 creeds | |
(尤指宗教)信条,教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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65 knell | |
n.丧钟声;v.敲丧钟 | |
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66 bigoted | |
adj.固执己见的,心胸狭窄的 | |
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67 decomposition | |
n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃 | |
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68 glamor | |
n.魅力,吸引力 | |
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69 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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70 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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71 professes | |
声称( profess的第三人称单数 ); 宣称; 公开表明; 信奉 | |
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72 deduction | |
n.减除,扣除,减除额;推论,推理,演绎 | |
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73 myriads | |
n.无数,极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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74 enjoining | |
v.命令( enjoin的现在分词 ) | |
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