THERE came Agathion and his dear wife, Elpenice, to visit Epicurus at the garden. A man of noble birth and wealth, happily named, for in truth he was the best of fellows, Agathion had long counted himself a faithful disciple of the philosopher. The urbanity and gentle wisdom of Epicurean doctrine appealed directly to his spirit. He sought the serene, and might possibly have found it, but for one overmastering fact which thrust serenity beyond his reach. As for Elpenice, though now a woman of thirty-four, she still held her beautiful head high, and few Athenian damsels might rival her in grace and charm, in dignity of deportment and delicacy of feeling. Intellect she lacked, but missed it not, being content musically to echo Agathion, who adored her. Nor was he at pains to make her happy, because what seemed good to him appeared to her perfection. They agreed in all things; their joys were one and they shared their solitary sorrow in equal proportions.
And now to Epicurus they came together, alighted from their litter, learned that the philosopher walked with friends, and went out, hand in hand, to greet him.
He whose torch of wisdom now burned brightliest at Athens had returned from exile, and his distracted nation enjoyed again some measure of freedom. His garden cost the sage eighty minæ, which is three hundred pounds of your money, and he had caused to be erected upon it a villa of small proportions but severe beauty. It was adorned with statues, fair terraces and pillars of a perfect Doric, from which supreme principle Attic architecture already began to relapse.
Epicurus walked with his first friend, Metrodorus; with Hermarchus, who in fullness of time was destined to succeed him; and Leontion, the wife of Metrodorus, a woman of great beauty and wisdom. Once a hetœra in Athens, now wife and mother, she contributed no little to the content of the philosopher and those who rejoiced in his company.
The group welcomed Agathion and his lady with pleasure, and together they passed over green sward, whence statues sprang, to a semicircle of rough-hewn marble whereon lay silken cushions. And there, reclining in comfort, the city man told his tale and won kindly hearing.
Epicurus stroked his flowing beard and fixed his eyes upon the guest. He had an art to concentrate upon the speech of even his least intelligent friends, for said he, “A man may find a pearl in the stupidest oyster.”
“Fountain of Wisdom,” began Agathion, “my wife and I are come about one dear to us, who nevertheless is streaking my hair with grey and bringing many tears into Elpenice’s beautiful eyes. The hardest blow is ever that struck by the hand of a friend; then what shall be said of a son who is not filial? We have, as you know, but one child; and that my wife and I — art-loving simple folk, who worship beauty, peace and privacy — should have created this particular boy shows how the days of miracles are not passed. Though faith weakens, wonders continue, and nothing more wonderful can be reported than this.”
“What is he called?” inquired Metrodorus.
“Typhon,” replied the distracted parent. “A singular name, I grant you; but in a fit of desperation, when he was cutting his teeth, ‘Typhon’ I called him, since the little wretch appeared to be half beast and half boy.”
“But do we not all begin so, dear Agathion?” asked the wife of Metrodorus.
“We do — so I have since learned,” confessed the father; “but, by Zeus! we do not all go on so. He is now seventeen years of age and a being so blusterous and barbaric, so ferocious and unexpected in thought and deed, that Typhon may well be his name. He is always seeking some new thing, bursting with doubtful inquiry, revelling in horrible energy, contemptuous of amenities, scornful of social observance, impatient of wisdom and dead to the meaning of art.”
“Now tell me some of his virtues,” said Epicurus.
“For them I refer you to his mother; honestly I do not know them,” replied Agathion.
“He has violet eyes, heavy and lustrous, exquisite teeth, a smile as charming as it is rare, and a body framed so nobly that again and again have our first sculptors prayed to him for the loan of it — in vain. He will not sit to them. He has a most original mind, but suffers no man to look into it; yet if they did, there might be surprises to reward them.”
“A lad of promise but no performance,” suggested Hermarchus.
“A lad of horrid performance,” declared Typhon’s father.
“He is a mannerless oaf, but very lovely to look upon,” sighed Elpenice.
“That is something,” declared Epicurus cheerfully. “So many mannerless oafs are not.”
“He is indeed lovely,” added Leontion. “I always pray that my boy may grow up like Typhon.”
“Do so no more, fair lady,” advised Agathion.
“Know you him, Leontion?” asked Elpenice.
“He has been pointed out to me as the handsomest young man in Athens. Praxiteles would have made him immortal.”
“His roughness will diminish with age,” prophesied Metrodorus, and then Hermarchus spoke:
“Oafishness is of the mind rather than the body,” he told them. “One knows greybeard oafs in Athens — sophists, who terrorise thought and win the knee — not of conviction but fear. People praise them lest they should be torn and rent on the horns of their vanity and brutality. They are sterile, vain fellows who parade their teaching under the cloak of wit — mistaking satire for wisdom. Whereas satire, in truth, is the cheapest of all accomplishments and a gesture of hateful pessimism.”
“Bad manners of the mind are difficult to cure,” replied Epicurus; “but where there is good there is hope. What says our Menander? ‘In every act the good man seeks to save’; and some of these old, rhetorical fellows are good at heart, though their fruit is bitter and the core thereof dust. They are better than their words, if we think of the same persons. They cast down, but create nothing; for though wit and satire may lift a fine monument to a man, they will never build a dwelling that human life can inhabit. Brilliant at night these sharp fellows, even as fireworks; but in the morning how often only ashes remain! They are deluded by success and adulation. They think, because the flock bleats applause, they are leading it into good pastures.”
“Laugh and sneer at human nature and there will be plenty to laugh and sneer with you; weep at it and others will mingle their tears with yours; seek to help it and you labour alone.”
So spoke Metrodorus, but the philosopher shook his head.
“Leaven your bitterness, dear friend,” he answered. “There are plenty of good, useful men and women left in Athens. But tell us more of your tempestuous son.”
“There is nothing more to tell,” answered Agathion. “We have told you all we know; and we bring him, as it were, to the feet of Epicurus, praying his generous wisdom to help us guide and guard the lad.”
From the dwelling there shrilled a silver bell, and the philosopher rose.
“Come and eat,” said he. “Fear not for Typhon. Dismiss him from your minds a little while and share our meal.”
They gathered anon about food and drink, and while their guests joined Leontion, her husband and Hermarchus, in baked meats and delicate but simple food, like a benevolent rabbit Epicurus nibbled the creamy heart of lettuce, broke a barley cake and sipped of water.
“You are too frugal, Master,” declared Agathion. “You brain workers should support Nature with far more generous fare.”
“Enough is enough,” answered the sage. “But think not that I cannot feast with the best of you. I have a Cynthian cheese in my larder at this moment, and shall undoubtedly enjoy a crumb or two to-morrow.”
“He won’t,” said Leontion. “He’ll forget all about it and only remember it to give it to the first beggar that passes.”
Then came Mys, nominally a slave, but also a wise man and the friend of his master. He brought a little skin of wine and poured it presently into goblets of glass.
Agathion, who understood and loved wine, was interested. He smelled and touched with his tongue, doubtful in secret of what the philosopher might give him, for a man who drinks not himself is never to be trusted in this matter; but, to his surprise, he found something, not only quite delicious, but unfamiliar, in his glass.
“This, now, is strange to me,” he said, “and fully as agreeable as strange — a light and buoyant vintage.”
“It is a gift,” answered Epicurus, “even as all the best I have to give again. It comes from the hill vines, that ripen their berries as high as a vine may venture on the mountains. At this altitude they are less heavily laden than the valley fruit. What you drink, Agathion, is sunshine that has passed through the body of a white grape.”
“Shall you be at the ceremony on Mars Hill?” asked Elpenice. “They lift a statue to you, and all who have seen it say that it is a comely piece and very life-like.”
“Can you ask?” inquired Leontion. “Of course he will not be there. For the artist’s sake he should be; but think not to see him.”
“Amyntor has forgiven me,” explained Epicurus. “He knows that I love him and his art. He flatters me, however, somewhat grossly in the new bronze. Such things are better left till a man be dead and his countenance forgotten.”
“Telamon says that it is most true and no flattery. He declares that he will never pass the statue without stopping to salute it,” said Leontion.
They passed half-an-hour in pleasant fashion, and the parents of Typhon prepared to take their leave; whereupon Epicurus returned to the subject that had brought them.
“Send him,” said he, “to me upon the day when they unveil Amyntor’s statue. Thither go all my friends, and I shall be alone, ready to welcome the young man and devote some thought to him.”
“You will not be alone, Epicurus,” interrupted Metrodorus, “for it was long ago planned that Menander spent that afternoon with you.”
“So much the better,” answered the sage. “Two heads are better than one, and Menander has a rare sympathy and understanding of youth. Farewell, dear Agathion; farewell, fair Elpenice. It is pleasant to see you here, and would that you both came oftener. Feel no fear for Typhon. You shall yet live to rejoice in him.”
When they were gone, Epicurus applauded his friend.
“A good fellow and more than that,” he said.
“Agathion loves art and wisdom. He is a patron worthy of praise, for his desires are just, and his sense sufficient to study all subjects with those best qualified to guide his judgment and elevate his taste.”
“He owns a veritable Myron of the best period as the loveliest thing in his house,” said Metrodorus.
“Nay, the mansion holds a far lovelier thing than that,” answered his wife — “a nobler work of his own creation.”
“He never created,” declared Hermarchus.
“I mean his son,” explained Leontion.