Old Friends Part 7

But some medicine he had, Injun Joe, for persuadin' the critters but William's bit powerful bad.

So they've put him outside Of a bottle of Rye, And they've set him to ride A mustang as kin shy, To keep up his poor circulation; and that's the last chance for Bill Nye.

But a near thing it is, And the camp's in the dust.

He's a pard as we'd miss If poor Bill was to bust- If the last of the Nyes were a-sleepin the peaceable sleep of the just.

XV.

_From Professor Forth to the Rev. Mr. Casaubon_.

The delicacy of the domestic matters with which the following correspondence deals cannot be exaggerated. It seems that Belinda (whose Memoirs we owe to Miss Rhoda Broughton) was at Oxford while Mr. and Mrs.

Casaubon were also resident near that pleasant city, so famed for its Bodleian Library. Professor Forth and Mr. Casaubon were friends, as may be guessed; their congenial characters, their kindred studies, Etruscology and Mythology, combined to ally them. Their wives were not wholly absorbed in their learned pursuits, and if Mr. Ladislaw was dangling after Mrs. Casaubon, we know that Mr. Rivers used to haunt with Mrs. Forth the walks of Magdalen. The regret and disapproval which Mrs.

Casaubon expresses, and her desire to do good to Mrs. Forth, are, it is believed, not alien to her devoted and exemplary character.

Bradmore-road, Oxford, May 29.

DEAR MR. CASAUBON,-In the course of an investigation which my researches into the character of the Etruscan "Involuti" have necessitated, I frequently encounter the root _Kad_, _k2ad_, or _Qad_. Schnitzler's recent and epoch-making discovery that _d_ in Etruscan = _b2_, has led me to consider it a plausible hypothesis that we may convert _Kad_ or _Qad_ into _Kab2_, in which case it is by no means beyond the range of a cautious conjecture that the Involuti are identical with the _Cab-iri_ (Cabiri). Though you will pardon me for confessing, what you already know, that I am not in all points an adherent to your ideas concerning a "Key to All Mythologies" (at least, as briefly set forth by you in Kuhn's _Zeitung_), yet I am deeply impressed with this apparent opportunity of bridging the seemingly impa.s.sable gulf between Etrurian Religion and the comparatively clear and comprehensible systems of the Pelasgo-Phoenician peoples. That Kad or Kab can refer either (as in _Quatuor_) to a four-footed animal (quadruped, "quad") or to a four-wheeled vehicle (_esseda_, Celtic _cab_) I cannot for a moment believe, though I understand that this theory has the support of Schrader, Penka, and Baunder. {125} Any information which your learning can procure, and your kind courtesy can supply, will be warmly welcomed and duly acknowledged.-Believe me, faithfully yours,

JAMES FORTH.

P.S.-I open this note, which was written from my dictation by my secretary, Mrs. Forth, to a.s.sure myself that her inexperience has been guilty of no error in matters of so much delicacy and importance. I have detected no mistake of moment, and begin to hope that the important step of matrimony to which I was guided by your example may not have been a rash experiment.

_From the Rev. Mr. Casaubon to James Forth_, _Esq._, _Professor of Etruscan_, _Oxford_.

DEAR MR. FORTH,-Your letter throws considerable light on a topic which has long engaged my earnest attention. To my thinking, the _Cab_ in _Cabiri_ = CAV, "hollow," as in _cavus_, and refers to the Ark of Noah, which, of course, before the entrance of every living thing according to his kind, must have been the largest artificial hollow or empty s.p.a.ce known to our Adamite ancestors. Thus the Cabiri would answer, naturally, to the Pataeci, which, as Herodotus tells us, were usually figured on the prows of s.h.i.+ps. The Cabiri or Pataeci, as children of Noah and men of the "great vessel," or Cave-men (a wonderful antic.i.p.ation of modern science), would perpetuate the memory of Arkite circ.u.mstances, and would be selected, as the sacred tradition faded from men's minds, as the guides of navigation. I am sorry to seem out of harmony with your ideas; but it is only a matter of seeming, for I have no doubt that the Etruscan Involuti are also Arkite, and that they do not, as Max Muller may be expected to intimate, represent the veiled or cloudy Dawns, but rather the Arkite Patriarchs. We thus, from different starting-places, arrive at the same goal, the Arkite solution of Bryant. I am aware that I am old-fas.h.i.+oned-like Eumaeus, "I dwell here among the swine, and go not often to the city." Your letters with little numerals (as _k_2) may represent the exactness of modern philology; but more closely remind me of the formulae of algebra, a study in which I at no time excelled.

It is my purpose to visit Cambridge on June 3, to listen to a most valuable address by Professor Tosch, of Bonn, on Hitt.i.te and Aztec affinities. If you can meet me there and accept the hospitality of my college, the encounter may prove a turning point in Mythological and Philological Science.-Very faithfully yours,

J. CASAUBON.

P.S.-I open this note, written from my dictation by my wife, to enclose my congratulations on Mrs. Forth's scholarly attainments.

_From Professor Forth to Rev. Mr. Casaubon_.

(Telegram.)

Will be with you at Cambridge on the third.

_From Mrs. Forth_, _Bradmore-road_, _Oxford_, _to David Rivers_, _Esq._, _Milnthorpe_, _Yorks.h.i.+re_.

He goes on Sat.u.r.day to Cambridge to hear some one talk about the Hitt.i.tes and the Asiatics. Did you not say there was a good Sunday train? They sing "O Rest in the Lord" at Magdalen. I often wonder that Addison's Walk is so deserted on Sundays. He stays over Sunday at Cambridge. {129}

_From David Rivers_, _Esq._, _to Mrs. Forth_, _Oxford_.

DEAR MRS. FORTH,-Sat.u.r.day is a half-holiday at the Works, and I propose to come up and see whether our boat cannot b.u.mp Balliol. How extraordinary it is that people should neglect, on Sundays, the favourite promenade of the Short-faced Humourist. I shall be there: the old place.-Believe me, yours ever,

D. RIVERS.

_From Mrs. Casaubon to William Ladislaw_, _Esq._, _Stratford-on-Avon_.

DEAR FRIEND,-Your kind letter from Stratford is indeed interesting. Ah, when shall I have an opportunity of seeing these, and so many other interesting places! But in a world where duty is _so much_, and so _always_ with us, why should we regret the voids in our experience which, after all, life is filling in the experience of others? The work is advancing, and Mr. Casaubon hopes that the first chapter of the "Key to All Mythologies" will be fairly copied and completed by the end of autumn. Mr. Casaubon is going to Cambridge on Sat.u.r.day to hear Professor Tosch lecture on the Pitt.i.tes and some other party, I really forget which; {130} but it is not often that he takes so much interest in mere _modern_ history. How curious it sometimes is to think that the great spirit of humanity and of the world, as you say, keeps working its way-ah, to what wonderful goal-by means of these obscure difficult politics: almost unworthy instruments, one is tempted to think. That was a true line you quoted lately from the 'Vita Nuova.' We have no books of poetry here, except a Lithuanian translation of the Rig Veda. How delightful it must be to read Dante with a sympathetic fellow-student, one who has also loved-and _renounced_!-Yours very sincerely,

DOROTHEA CASAUBON.

P.S.-I do not expect Mr. Casaubon back from Cambridge before Monday afternoon.

_From William Ladislaw_, _Esq._, _to the Hon. Secretary of the Literary and Philosophical Mechanics' Inst.i.tute_, _Middlemarch_.

MY DEAR SIR,-I find that I can be in your neighbourhood on Sat.u.r.day, and will gladly accept your invitation to lecture at your Inst.i.tute on the Immutability of Morals.-Faithfully yours,

W. LADISLAW.

_From William Ladislaw_, _Esq._, _to Mrs. Casaubon_.

DEAR MRS. CASAUBON,-Only a line to say that I am to lecture at the Mechanics' Inst.i.tute on Sat.u.r.day. I can scarcely hope that, as Mr.

Casaubon is away, you will be able to attend my poor performance, but on Sunday I may have, I hope, the pleasure of waiting on you in the afternoon?-Very sincerely yours,

W. LADISLAW.

P.S.-I shall bring the 'Vita Nuova'-it is not so difficult as the 'Paradiso'-and I shall be happy to help you with a few of the earlier sonnets.

_From Mrs. Casaubon to Mrs. Forth_.

June 5.

DEAR LADY,-You will be surprised at receiving a letter from a stranger!

How shall I address you-how shall I say what I ought to say? Our husbands are not unknown to each other, I may almost call them friends, but we have met only once. You did not see me; but I was at Magdalen a few weeks ago, and I could not help asking who you were, so young, so beautiful; and when I saw you so lonely among all those learned men my heart went out to you, for I too know what the learned are, and how often, when we are young, we feel as if they were so cold, so remote.

Ah, then there come _temptations_, but they must be conquered.-We are not born to live for ourselves only, we must learn to live for others-ah! not for _Another_!

Some one {133} we both know, a lady, has spoken to me of you lately. She too, though you did not know it, was in Magdalen Walk on Sunday evening when the bells were chiming and the birds singing. She saw you; you were not alone! Mr. Rivers (I am informed that is his name) was with you.