Mark Antony : a comparative study in sub-hypnotic control, dominance or ascendency, and some of its causal factors / by J. Foster Palmer.

  • Palmer, James Foster.
Date:
[1913]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mark Antony : a comparative study in sub-hypnotic control, dominance or ascendency, and some of its causal factors / by J. Foster Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    moral deterioration as the greed of gain.* Indeed, “ the love of money,’’ as S. Paul says (not money itself, as Horace foolishly remarks!), is truly “ the root of all evils ” (irdvriov tQ>v kukuv). 1 believe that, in actual fact, the life of a millionaire is usually by no means a happy one. I cannot speak from personal experience, but I think we see and hear enough to convince us that this is the case. The constant anxiety inseparable from large holdings gets on their nerves, and even suicide is not unknown, or even uncommon, among them. Those who have read “ The African Millionaire,” by Grant Allen, will not wish to follow in his steps. This, of course, is an exaggerated account, and describes a man who had only one idea in life, an idea which had driven out every better thought and feeling. But there are also men (and the type is surely a more natural one) who have retained certain saving qualities, whose minds have still a place for generous impulses, and whose souls are not entirely eaten up with the gold ^jraze. Such a one was Antonio. With all his specu- lations, with all his anxiety to increase his wealth, with all his anti- Semitic pride and contempt, he had retained unscathed some of the primal virtues. He had never ceased, it seems, to relieve the necessities of those who were in need, or, as Shylock calls it, to “ lend out money gratis,” while his tender love for Bassanio, for whom he sacrificed so much, places him on a far higher plane than the mere self-seeking money grubber whose whole soul is in his possessions, and keeps him human. “ A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. I saw Bassanio and Antonio part: Bassanio told him, he would make some speed Of his return ; he answered—‘ Do not so, Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, But stay the very riping of the time ; And for the Jew’s bond, which he hath of me, Let it not enter in your mind of love : Be merry ; and employ your chiefest thoughts To courtship, and such fair ostents of love As shall conveniently become you there And even there, his eye being big with tears, Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, And with affection wondrous sensible He wrung Bassanio’s hand, and so they parted.” “ I think he only loves the world for him.”—(Act II, Sc. 8, 35-50.) This “ affection wondrous sensible,” which reminds us of the love of David and Jonathan, was his salvation. In other words, without * Maudsley. “ Divitias malorum omnium fontemesse.” t Book III, Ode 1(5.