Saul, sullen, gloomy, and chagrined, over his discomfiture recently experienced, is visited, in his self-imposed seclusion at home, by Shimei, who, always by nature antipathetic to Saul, hates him virulently now for the affront from him received publicly in the late council. Shimei exasperates Saul with sneering, pretended sympathy for him over his defeat at Stephen's hands; at the same time disclosing the plot he has himself concocted, involving subornation of perjury, with alleged connivance on the part of the Sanhedrim in general, for the stoning of Stephen. Shimei gone, Saul, in the open court of his dwelling, sits solitary, brooding in the depths of dejection over the fallen state of his fortunes.
SAUL AND SHIMEI.
As if one, from some poise of prospect high,
Should overlook below a plain outspread
And see a bright embattled host, in close
Array of antique chivalry, supposed
Invincible, advancing, panoplied,
Horseman and horse, in steel, and with delight
Of battle pricked to speed, he—while that host,
Swift, like one man, across the field of war,
With pennons gay astream upon the wind,
And arms and armor flashing in the sun,
Moved to the sound of martial music brave—
Might ask, "What strength set counter could withstand
The multiplied momentum of such blow?"
And yet, as, let a rock-built citadel
Upspring before them in their conquering way,
And, through embrasures in the frowning wall,
Let enginery of carnage new and strange,
Vomiting smoke and flame from hellish mouths—
Let cannon, with their noise like thunder, belch,
Volleying, their bolts like thunderbolts amain
Among those gallant columns, then would be
Amazement seen, and ruinous overthrow;
So, late, to Saul's superbly confident
Assay of onset all seemed nigh to yield,
Till that the wisdom of the Holy Ghost,
Through Stephen speaking, made the utmost might
Of eloquence ridiculous and vain,
So was the duel all unequal, joined
By Saul with Stephen on that fateful day.
Though not ill matched the champions' native force
And spirit, and not far from even their skill,
Equipment disparate of weaponry—
Human against Divine, infinite odds!—
Made the conclusion of the strife foregone.
Had mortal prowess against prowess been
Between those twain the naked issue tried,
Saul, with his sanguine dash of onset, might
Perchance have won the day—through sheer surprise
Of sudden and impetuous movement swift
Beyond the other's readiness to oppose
An instantaneous rally of quick thought
And lightning-like alertness of stanch will
Mustering and mastering his collected might.
But the event and fortune of that hour
Resolved no doubt which combatant excelled
In wit or will or strength or exercise.
Stephen was fortressed round impregnably,
Saul stood in open field obvious to wound;
Saul wielded weapons of the present world,
Celestial weapons furnished Stephen—nay,
Weapon himself, the Almighty wielded him.
Saul knew himself defeated, overwhelmed.
By how much he had purposed in his heart,
And buoyantly expected, beyond doubt
Or possible peradventure, to prevail,
More than prevail, triumph, abound, redound,
And overflow, with ample surplusage
Of prosperous fortune far transcending all
Public conjecture of his hoped success;
By so much now he found himself instead
Buried beneath discomfiture immense
And boundless inundation of defeat.
For multitudes of new believers won
To Stephen's side from Saul's thronged to the Way,
Storming the kingdom of heaven with violence.
It was a nation hastening to be born,
Like Israel out of Egypt, in a day.
As Israel out of Egypt were baptized
To Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
So Israel out of Israel Saul now saw
Baptized obedient into Jesus' name.
Dissolving round about him seemed to Saul
The earth itself with its inhabitants,
And, to bear up the pillars of it, he
A broken reed that could not stand alone!
But, while thus worsted Saul forlornly felt
Himself, he by whom worsted missed to know.
His challenge was to Stephen; how should he
Guess that in Stephen God would answer him?
Unconsciously with God at enmity,
But with God's servant Stephen consciously,
Saul chafed and raged in proud and blindfold hate;
Half yet, the while, despising too himself,
Detected hating thus, by his own heart
Detected hating, his antagonist,
For the sole blame of visiting on him
The fortune he had purposed to inflict.
Saul in such mood of rancor and remorse
Commingled—both unhappy sentiments
Still mutually exasperating each
The other—Shimei came to him.
Now Saul
And Shimei were two opposites intense
In nature, never toward each other drawn,
But violently ever sent asunder;
Yet chiefly by repulsion lodged in Saul,
Spurning off Shimei, as the good the evil;
For Saul instinctively was noble, frank,
And true, as Shimei instinctively
Was false, profound in guile, to base inclined.
But strangely, since that council wherein Saul
Fulmined his shame on Shimei's proffer vile,
Shimei had felt the other's scorn of him
A force importunate to tempt him nigh—
Perverse attraction in repulsion found!—
As evil ever struggles toward the good,
Not to be leavened with virtue issuing thence,
But leaven instead to likeness with itself.
So Shimei came to Saul, as knowing Saul
Spurned him avaunt with loathing; in degree
Attracted as he was intensely spurned.
He fain would feast his malice on the pride,
Seen writhing, fain would make it writhe the more,
Of Saul in his discomfiture.
With mien
Demure of hypocritic sympathy,
The nauseating vehicle of sneer,
Malignly studied to exacerbate
The galled and angry feeling in Saul's mind,
He thus addressed that haughty Pharisee:
"The outcome of your effort, brother Saul,
To vindicate the cause of truth and God—
And therewithal justly advance somewhat
Your individual profit and esteem
As rising bulwark of the Jewish state,
Whereby so much the better you might hope
Hereafter to promote the general weal—
This spirited attempt, I say, of yours
Has in its issue disappointed you,
You, and your friends no less, who, all of us,
Together with yourself, refused to dream
Aught but the most felicitous event
To enterprise with so much stateliness
Of dignity impressively announced
By you, and show of lofty confidence.
By the way, Saul, the grand air suits your style
Astonishingly well; I should advise
Your cultivation of it. Why, at times,
When you display that absolutely frank
And unaffected lack of modesty
Which marks you, really, now, the effect on me,
Even me, is almost irresistible;
I find myself well-nigh imposed upon
To call it an effect of majesty.
"But, to sustain the impression, Saul, it needs,
Quite needs, that you somehow contrive to shun
These awkward misadventures; the grand air
Is less impressive in a man well known
To have made a bad miscarriage, such as yours.
For in fact you—with sincere pain I say it—
But served to Stephen as a sort of foil
To set his talent off and heighten it.
You must yourself feel this to be the case;
For never since that windy Pentecost
In which we thought we saw the top and turn
To this delirium of delusion touched,
Never, I say, till now were seen so many
New perverts to the Nazarene as seems
You two, between you, you and Stephen, Saul,
Managed, that memorable day, to make.
It is a pity, and I grieve with you.
Still, Saul, let us consider that your case,
Undoubtedly unfortunate, presents
This one alleviating circumstance,
At least, that your defeat demonstrates past
Gainsaying what an arduous attempt
Yours was, and thereby glorifies the more
That admirable headiness of yours
Which egged you on to venture unadvised.
For my own part, I like prodigiously
To see your young man overflow with spirit;
Age will bring wisdom fast enough; but spirit,
Like yours, Saul, comes, when come it does at all,
Born with the man. Never regret that you
Dared nobly; rather hug yourself for that
With pride; pride greater, since, through proof, aware
You really dared more nobly than you knew.
"Some increment too of wisdom you have won
From your experience; not to be despised,
Though ornament rather of age than youth.
I may presume you now less indisposed
Than late you were, to reinforce, support,
And supplement mere obstinacy—fine,
Of course, as I have said, yet attribute
Common to man with beast—by counsel ripe
And scheme of well-considered policy,
Adapted to secure your end with ease.
Economy of effort well befits
Man, the express image and counterpart
Of God, who always works with parsimony,
Compassing greatest ends with smallest means,
To waste no particle of omnipotence.