despise the
thin film of a tradition from which he was constructed. There never was
a Wandering Jew. There could not have been; it is impossible to
conceive of a human being sent forth to wander in wretchedness
forever. Moreover, suppose there had been such a man, what a poor,
modern creature he would be compared with me! Even now he would
be less than two thousand years old. You must excuse my perturbation,
but I am sure that during the whole of the Christian era I have never
told my story to any one who did not, in some way or other, make an
absurd or irritating reference to the Wandering Jew. I have often
thought, and I have no doubt I am right, that the ancient story of my
adventures as Kroudhr, the Vizier of the Two-horned Alexander,
combined with what I have related, in one century or another, of my
subsequent experiences, has given rise to the tradition of that very
unpleasant Jew of whom Eugène Sue and many others have made good
use. It is very natural that there should be legends about people who in
some way or other are enabled to live forever. If Ponce De Leon and
his companions had mysteriously disappeared when in search of the
Fountain of Youth, there would be stories now about rejuvenated
Spaniards wandering about the earth, and who would always continue
to wander. But the Fountain of Youth is not a desirable water-supply,
and a young person who should find such a pool would do well to wait
until he had arrived at maturity before entering upon an existence of
indefinite continuance.
"But I must go on with my story. At one time I made for myself a home,
and remained in it for many, many years without making any change. I
became a sort of hermit, and lived in a rocky cave. I allowed my hair
and beard to grow, so that people really thought I was getting older and
older; at last I acquired the reputation of a prophet, and was held in
veneration by a great many religious people. Of course I could not
prophesy, but as I had such a vast deal of experience I was able to
predicate intelligently something about the future from my knowledge
of the past. I became famed as a wonderful seer, and there were a great
many curious stories told about me.
"Among my visitors at that time was Moses. He had heard of me, and
came to see what manner of man I was. We became very well
acquainted. He was a man anxious to obtain information, and he asked
me questions which embarrassed me very much; but I do not know that
he suspected I had lived beyond the ordinary span of life. There are a
good many traditions about this visit of Moses, some of which are
extant at the present day; but these, of course, are the result of what
might be called cumulative imagination. Many of them are of Moslem
origin, and the great Arabian historian Tabari has related some of them.
[Illustration: "MOSES ASKED EMBARRASSING QUESTIONS."]
"I learned a great deal while I lived in this cave, both from scholars and
from nature; but at last new generations arose who did not honor or
even respect me, and by some I was looked upon as a fraudulent
successor to the old prophet of whom their ancestors had told them, and
so I thought it prudent to leave."
My interest in this man's extraordinary tissue of retrospection was
increasing, and I felt that I must not doubt nor deny; to do so would be
to break the spell, to close the book.
"Did it not sometimes fill you with horror to think that you must live
forever?" I asked.
"Yes," he answered, "that has happened to me; but such feelings have
long, long passed away. If you could have lived as I have, and had seen
the world change from what it was when I was young to what it is now,
you would understand how a man of my disposition, a man of my
overpowering love of knowledge, love of discovery, love of
improvement, love of progress of all kinds, would love to live. In fact,
if I were now to be told that at the end of five thousand years I must
expire and cease, it would fill me with gloom. Having seen so much, I
expect more than most men are capable of comprehending. And I shall
see it all--see the centuries unfold, behold the wonderful things of the
future arise! The very thought of it fills me with inexpressible joy."
For a few moments he remained silent. I could understand the state of
his mind, no matter how those mental
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