Jurgen (33)
By:
October 29, 2015
James Branch Cabell’s 1919 ironic fantasy novel Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice, the protagonist of which seduces women everywhere he travels — including into Arthurian legend and Hell itself — is (according to Aleister Crowley) one of the “epoch-making masterpieces of philosophy.” Cabell’s sardonic inversion of romantic fantasy was postmodernist avant la lettre. HiLoBooks is pleased to serialize Jurgen here at HILOBROW. Enjoy!
Meanwhile the People of the Field had watched Pseudopolis burn, and had wondered what would befall them. They had not long to wonder, for next day the Fields were occupied, without any resistance by the inhabitants.
“The People of the Field,” said they, “have never fought, and for them to begin now would be a very unheard-of thing indeed.”
So the Fields were captured by the Philistines, and Chloris and Jurgen and all the People of the Field were judged summarily. They were declared to be obsolete illusions, whose merited doom was to be relegated to limbo. To Jurgen this appeared unreasonable.
“For I am no illusion,” he asserted. “I am manifestly flesh and blood, and in addition, I am the high King of Eubonia, and no less. Why, in disputing these facts you contest circumstances that are so well known hereabouts as to rank among mathematical certainties. And that makes you look foolish, as I tell you for your own good.”
This vexed the leaders of the Philistines, as it always vexes people to be told anything for their own good. “We would have you know,” said they, “that we are not mathematicians; and that moreover, we have no kings in Philistia, where all must do what seems to be expected of them, and have no other law.”
“How then can you be the leaders of Philistia?”
“Why, it is expected that women and priests should behave unaccountably. Therefore all we who are women or priests do what we will in Philistia, and the men there obey us. And it is we, the priests of Philistia, who do not think you can possibly have any flesh and blood under a shirt which we recognize to be a conventional figure of speech. It does not stand to reason. And certainly you could not ever prove such a thing by mathematics; and to say so is nonsense.”
“But I can prove it by mathematics, quite irrefutably. I can prove anything you require of me by whatever means you may prefer,” said Jurgen, modestly, “for the simple reason that I am a monstrous clever fellow.”
Then spoke the wise Queen Dolores, saying: “I have studied mathematics. I will question this young man, in my tent to-night, and in the morning I will report the truth as to his claims. Are you content to endure this interrogatory, my spruce young fellow who wear the shirt of a king?”
Jurgen looked full upon her: she was lovely as a hawk is lovely: and of all that Jurgen saw Jurgen approved. He assumed the rest to be in keeping: and deduced that Dolores was a fine woman.
“Madame and Queen,” said Jurgen, “I am content. And I can promise to deal fairly with you.”
So that evening Jurgen was conducted into the purple tent of Queen Dolores of Philistia. It was quite dark there, and Jurgen went in alone, and wondering what would happen next: but this scented darkness he found of excellent augury, if only because it prevented his shadow from following him.
“Now, you who claim to be flesh and blood, and King of Eubonia, too,” says the voice of Queen Dolores, “what is this nonsense you were talking about proving any such claims by mathematics?”
“Well, but my mathematics,” replied Jurgen, “are Praxagorean.”
“What, do you mean Praxagoras of Cos?”
“As if,” scoffed Jurgen, “anybody had ever heard of any other Praxagoras!”
“But he, as I recall, belonged to the medical school of the Dogmatici,” observed the wise Queen Dolores, “and was particularly celebrated for his researches in anatomy. Was he, then, also a mathematician?”
“The two are not incongruous, madame, as I would be delighted to demonstrate.”
“Oh, nobody said that! For, indeed, it does seem to me I have heard of this Praxagorean system of mathematics, though, I confess, I have never studied it.”
“Our school, madame, postulates, first of all, that since the science of mathematics is an abstract science, it is best inculcated by some concrete example.”
Said the Queen: “But that sounds rather complicated.”
“It occasionally leads to complications,” Jurgen admitted, “through a choice of the wrong example. But the axiom is no less true.”
“Come, then, and sit next to me on this couch if you can find it in the dark; and do you explain to me what you mean.”
“Why, madame, by a concrete example I mean one that is perceptible to any of the senses — as to sight or hearing, or touch —”
“Oh, oh!” said the Queen, “now I perceive what you mean by a concrete example. And grasping this, I can understand that complications must of course arise from a choice of the wrong example.”
“Well, then, madame, it is first necessary to implant in you, by the force of example, a lively sense of the peculiar character, and virtues and properties, of each of the numbers upon which is based the whole science of Praxagorean mathematics. For in order to convince you thoroughly, we must start far down, at the beginning of all things.”
“I see,” said the Queen, “or rather, in this darkness I cannot see at all, but I perceive your point. Your opening interests me: and you may go on.”
“Now one, or the monad,” says Jurgen, “is the principle and the end of all: it reveals the sublime knot which binds together the chain of causes: it is the symbol of identity, of equality, of existence, of conservation, and of general harmony.” And Jurgen emphasized these characteristics vigorously. “In brief, one is a symbol of the union of things: it introduces that generating virtue which is the cause of all combinations: and consequently ONE is a good principle.”
“Ah, ah!” said Queen Dolores, “I heartily admire a good principle. But what has become of your concrete example?”
“It is ready for you, madame: there is but one Jurgen.”
“Oh, I assure you, I am not yet convinced of that. Still, the audacity of your example will help me to remember one, whether or not you prove to be really unique.”
“Now, two, or the dyad, the origin of contrasts —”
Jurgen went on penetratingly to demonstrate that two was a symbol of diversity and of restlessness and of disorder, ending in collapse and separation: and was accordingly an evil principle. Thus was the life of every man made wretched by the struggle between his two components, his soul and his body; and thus was the rapture of expectant parents considerably abated by the advent of twins.
Three, or the triad, however, since everything was composed of three substances, contained the most sublime mysteries, which Jurgen duly communicated. We must remember, he pointed out, that Zeus carried a triple thunderbolt, and Poseidon a trident, whereas Adês was guarded by a dog with three heads: this in addition to the omnipotent brothers themselves being a trio.
Thus Jurgen continued to impart the Praxagorean significance of each digit separately: and by and by the Queen was declaring his flow of wisdom was superhuman.
“Ah, but, madame, not even the wisdom of a king is without limit. Eight, I repeat, then, is appropriately the number of the Beatitudes. And nine, or the ennead, also, being the multiple of three, should be regarded as sacred —”
The Queen attended docilely to his demonstration of the peculiar properties of nine. And when he had ended she confessed that beyond doubt nine should be regarded as miraculous. But she repudiated his analogues as to the muses, the lives of a cat, and how many tailors made a man.
“Rather, I shall remember always,” she declared, “that King Jurgen of Eubonia is a nine days’ wonder.”
“Well, madame,” said Jurgen, with a sigh, “now that we have reached nine, I regret to say we have exhausted the digits.”
“Oh, what a pity!” cried Queen Dolores. “Nevertheless, I will concede the only illustration I disputed; there is but one Jurgen: and certainly this Praxagorean system of mathematics is a fascinating study.” And promptly she commenced to plan Jurgen’s return with her into Philistia, so that she might perfect herself in the higher branches of mathematics. “For you must teach me calculus and geometry and all other sciences in which these digits are employed. We can arrange some compromise with the priests. That is always possible with the priests of Philistia, and indeed the priests of Sesphra can be made to help anybody in anything. And as for your Hamadryad, I will attend to her myself.”
“But, no,” says Jurgen, “I am ready enough in all conscience to compromise elsewhere: but to compound with the forces of Philistia is the one thing I cannot do.”
“Do you mean that, King Jurgen?” The Queen was astounded.
“I mean it, my dear, as I mean nothing else. You are in many ways an admirable people, and you are in all ways a formidable people. So I admire, I dread, I avoid, and at the very last pinch I defy. For you are not my people, and willy-nilly my gorge rises against your laws, as equally insane and abhorrent. Mind you, though, I assert nothing. You may be right in attributing wisdom to these laws; and certainly I cannot go so far as to say you are wrong: but still, at the same time — ! That is the way I feel about it. So I, who compromise with everything else, can make no compromise with Philistia. No, my adored Dolores, it is not a virtue, rather it is an instinct with me, and I have no choice.”
Even Dolores, who was Queen of all the Philistines, could perceive that this man spoke truthfully. “I am sorry,” says she, with real regret, “for you could be much run after in Philistia.”
“Yes,” said Jurgen, “as an instructor in mathematics.”
“But, no, King Jurgen, not only in mathematics,” said Dolores, reasonably. “There is poetry, for instance! For they tell me you are a poet, and a great many of my people take poetry quite seriously, I believe. Of course, I do not have much time for reading, myself. So you can be the Poet Laureate of Philistia, on any salary you like. And you can teach us all your ideas by writing beautiful poems about them. And you and I can be very happy together.”
“Teach, teach! there speaks Philistia, and very temptingly, too, through an adorable mouth, that would bribe me with praise and fine food and soft days forever. It is a thing that happens rather often, though. And I can but repeat that art is not a branch of pedagogy!”
“Really I am heartily sorry. For apart from mathematics, I like you, King Jurgen, just as a person.”
“I, too, am sorry, Dolores. For I confess to a weakness for the women of Philistia.”
“Certainly you have given me no cause to suspect you of any weakness in that quarter,” observed Dolores, “in the long while you have been alone with me, and have talked so wisely and have reasoned so deeply. I am afraid that after to-night I shall find all other men more or less superficial. Heigho! and I shall probably weep my eyes out to-morrow when you are relegated to limbo. For that is what the priests will do with you, King Jurgen, on one plea or another, if you do not conform to the laws of Philistia.”
“And that one compromise I cannot make! Ah, but even now I have a plan wherewith to escape your priests: and failing that, I possess a cantrap to fall back upon in my hour of direst need. My private affairs are thus not yet in a hopeless or even in a dejected condition. This fact now urges me to observe that ten, or the decade, is the measure of all, since it contains all the numeric relations and harmonies—”
So they continued their study of mathematics until it was time for Jurgen to appear again before his judges.
And in the morning Queen Dolores sent word to her priests that she was too sleepy to attend their council, but that the man was indisputably flesh and blood, amply deserved to be a king, and as a mathematician had not his peer.
Now these points being settled, the judges conferred, and Jurgen was decreed a backslider into the ways of undesirable error. His judges were the priests of Vel-Tyno and Sesphra and Ageus, who are the Gods of Philistia.
Then the priest of Ageus put on his spectacles and consulted the canonical law, and declared that this change in the indictment necessitated a severance of Jurgen from the others, in the infliction of punishment.
“For each, of course, must be relegated to the limbo of his fathers, as was foretold, in order that the prophecies may be fulfilled. Religion languishes when prophecies are not fulfilled. Now it appears that the forefathers of the flesh and blood prisoner were of a different faith from the progenitors of these obsolete illusions, and that his fathers foretold quite different things, and that their limbo was called Hell.”
“It is little you know,” says Jurgen, “of the religion of Eubonia.”
“We have it written down in this great book,” the priest of Vel-Tyno then told him, — “every word of it without blot or error.”
“Then you will see that the King of Eubonia is the head of the church there, and changes all the prophecies at will. Learned Gowlais says so directly: and the judicious Stevegonius was forced to agree with him, however unwillingly, as you will instantly discover by consulting the third section of his widely famous nineteenth chapter.”
“Both Gowlais and Stevegonius were probably notorious heretics,” says the priest of Ageus. “I believe that was settled once for all at the Diet of Orthumar.”
“Eh!” says Jurgen. He did not like this priest. “Now I will wager, sirs,” Jurgen continued, a trifle patronizingly, “that you gentlemen have not read Gowlais, or even Stevegonius, in the light of Vossler’s commentaries. And that is why you underrate them.”
“I at least have read every word that was ever written by any of these three,” replied the priest of Sesphra — “and with, as I need hardly say, the liveliest abhorrence. And this Gowlais in particular, as I hasten to agree with my learned confrère, is a most notorious heretic —”
“Oh, sir,” said Jurgen, horrified, “whatever are you telling me about Gowlais!”
“I tell you that I have been roused to indignation by his Historia de Bello Veneris —”
“You surprise me: still —”
“— Shocked by his Pornoboscodidascolo —”
“I can hardly believe it: even so, you must grant —”
“— And horrified by his Liber de immortalitate Mentulæ —”
“Well, conceding you that earlier work, sir, yet, at the same time —”
“— And have been disgusted by his De modo coeundi —”
“Ah, but, none the less —”
“— And have shuddered over the unspeakable enormities of his Erotopægnion! of his Cinædica! and especially of his Epipedesis, that most pestilential and abominable book, quem sine horrore nemo potest legere —”
“Still, you cannot deny —”
“— And have read also all the confutations of this detestable Gowlais: as those of Zanchius, Faventinus, Lelius Vincentius, Lagalla, Thomas Giaminus, and eight other admirable commentators —”
“You are very exact, sir: but —”
“— And that, in short, I have read every book you can imagine,” says the priest of Sesphra.
The shoulders of Jurgen rose to his ears, and Jurgen silently flung out his hands, palms upward.
“For, I perceive,” says Jurgen, to himself, “that this Realist is too circumstantial for me. None the less, he invents his facts: it is by citing books which never existed that he publicly confutes the Gowlais whom I invented privately: and that is not fair. Now there remains only one chance for Jurgen; but luckily that chance is sure.”
“Why are you fumbling in your pocket?” asks the old priest of Ageus, fidgeting and peering.
“Aha, you may well ask!” cried Jurgen. He unfolded the cantrap which had been given him by the Master Philologist, and which Jurgen had treasured against the time when more was needed than a glib tongue. “O most unrighteous judges,” says Jurgen, sternly, “now hear and tremble! ‘At the death of Adrian the Fifth, Pedro Juliani, who should be named John the Twentieth, was through an error in the reckoning elevated to the papal chair as John the Twenty-first!’”
“Hah, and what have we to do with that?” inquired the priest of Vel-Tyno, with raised eyebrows. “Why are you telling us of these irrelevant matters?”
“Because I thought it would interest you,” said Jurgen. “It was a fact that appeared to me rather amusing. So I thought I would mention it.”
“Then you have very queer ideas of amusement,” they told him. And Jurgen perceived that either he had not employed his cantrap correctly or else that its magic was unappreciated by the leaders of Philistia.
Footnotes from Notes on Jurgen (1928), by James P. Cover — with additional comments from the creators of this website; rewritten, in some instances, by HiLoBooks.
* Praxagoras of Cos — Praxagoras, who lived in the fourth century B.C., was a physician of great merit. He belonged to the medical sect of the Dogmatici and was celebrated for his knowledge of medical sciences in general and especially for his attainments in anatomy and physiology. He was one of the chief defenders of the humeral pathology, which placed the seat of all diseases in the humors of the body.
* Dogmatici — The Dogmatic School of Medicine was founded by Hippocrates, and was so called because it set forth certain dogmas, which it made the basis of practice.
* Sesphra — The name of this third god of the Philistines is an anagram for “phrases.” Ses/phra — phra/ses. Sesphra is the deformed figure that Dom Manuel made out of clay, and to which Queen Freydis of Audela gave life.
* Gowlais — ?
* Stevegonius — ?
* Diet of Orthumar — ?
* Vossler — ?
* Zanchius — The priest of Sesphra evidently had been reading the section on Religious Melancholy in Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, for Zanchius is often mentioned therein. The Latin sentence just above is probably remembered from that book also, for Burton writes of a “pestilent book… quem sine horrore non legas.”
* Faventinus — At the end of Part 3, Section 4, Member 2, Subsection 2, of The Anatomy of Melancholy, Burton cites Faber Faventinus, along with Zanchius and the others mentioned in this paragraph, as an authority against atheism. Faventinus wrote in Latin.
* Lelius Vincentius — According to Burton, Lelius Vincentius was the author of a book on the immortality of the soul.
* Lagalla — Burton writes, “Amongst others consult with Julius Caesar Lagalla, professor of philosophy in Rome, who hath written a large volume of late to confute atheists.”
* Thomas Giaminus — This writer is also recommended by Burton.
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