Caesar or Nothing

Caesar or Nothing

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Caesar or Nothing, by Pio Baroja
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Title: Caesar or Nothing
Author: Pio Baroja
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8444] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 11, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAESAR
OR NOTHING ***

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CAESAR OR NOTHING
by PÍO BAROJA
translated from the Spanish by LOUIS HOW

CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
PART ONE
ROME
I THE PARIS-VENTIMIGLIA EXPRESS II AN EXTRAORDINARY
FAMILY III CAESAR MONCADA IV PEOPLE WHO PASS CLOSE
BY V THE ABBE PRECIOZI VI THE LITTLE INTERESTS OF THE
PEOPLE IN A ROMAN HOTEL VII THE CONFIDENCES or THE
ABBE PRECIOZI VIII OLD PALACES, OLD SALONS, OLD
LADIES IX NEW ACQUAINTANCES X A BALL XI A
SOUNDING-LINE IN THE DARK WORLD XII A MEETING ON
THE PINCIO XIII ESTHETICS AND DEMAGOGY XIV NEW
ATTEMPTS, NEW RAMBLES XV GIOVANNI BATTISTA,
PAGAN XVI THE PORTRAIT OF A POPE XVII EVIL DAYS XVIII
CAESAR BORGIA'S MOTTO, "AUT CÆSAR, AUT NIHIL" XIX
CAESAR'S REFLECTIONS XX DON CALIXTO AT SAINT
PETER'S XXI DON CALIXTO IN THE CATACOMBS XXII
SENTIMENTALITY AND ARCHEOLOGY XXIII THE
'SCUTCHEON OF A CHURCH XXIV TOURIST INTERLUDE
PART TWO
CATRO DURO
I ARRIVAL II CASTRO DURO III CAESAR'S LABOURS IV THE
BOOKSELLER AND THE ANARCHISTS V THE BANQUET VI

UNCLE CHINAMAN VII A TRYING SCENE VIII THE ELECTION
IX CAESAR AS DEPUTY X POLITICAL LABOURS XI THE
PITFALL OF SINIGAGLIA XII LOCAL STRUGGLES XIII
AMPARITO IN ACTION XIV INTRANSIGENCE LOST XV
"DRIVELLER" JUAN AND "THE CUB-SLUT" XVI PITY, A MASK
OF COWARDICE XVII FIRST VICTORY XVIII DECLARATION
OF WAR XIX THE FIGHT FOR THE ELECTION XX
CONFIDENCE XXI OUR VENERABLE TRADITIONS I OUR
HOLY PRINCIPLES! XXII FINIS GLORIAE MUNDI

PROLOGUE
THE AUTHOR HOLDS FORTH IN REGARD TO THE
CHARACTER OF HIS HERO
MORE OR LESS TRANSCENDENTAL DIGRESSIONS
The individual is the only real thing in nature and in life.
Neither the species, the genus, nor the race, actually exists; they are
abstractions, terminologies, scientific devices, useful as syntheses but
not entirely exact. By means of these devices we can discuss and
compare; they constitute a measure for our minds to use, but have no
external reality.
Only the individual exists through himself and for himself. I am, I live,
is the sole thing a man can affirm.
The categories and divisions arranged for classification are like the
series of squares an artist places over a drawing to copy it by. The lines
of the squares may cut the lines of the sketch; but they will cut them,
not in reality but only in the artist's eye.
In humanity, as in all of nature, the individual is the one thing. Only
individuality exists in the realm of life and in the realm of spirit.
Individuality is not to be grouped or classified. Individuality simply
cannot fit into a pigeon-hole, and it is all the further from fitting if the
pigeon-hole is shaped according to an ethical principle. Ethics is a poor
tailor to clothe the body of reality.
The ideas of the good, the logical, the just, the consistent, are too
generic to be completely represented in nature.
The individual is not logical, or good, or just; nor is he any other
distinct thing; and this through the force of his own fatal actions,
through the influence of the deviation in the earth's axis, or for

whatsoever other equally amusing cause. Everything individual is
always found mixed, full of absurdities of perspective and picturesque
contradictions,--contradictions and absurdities that shock us, because
we insist on submitting individuals to principles which are not
applicable to them.
If instead of wearing a cravat and a bowler hat, we wore feathers and a
ring in our nose, all our moral notions would change.
People of today, remote from nature