Saul of Tarsus: A Tale of the Early Christians — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Saul of Tarsus: A Tale of the Early Christians
John Stuart Mill · en
He was built on long, narrow lines, spare as a spear stuck in the sand
before a dowar, but Judean flesh rounded his angles and reduced the
Arabian brownness of complexion. He was strikingly handsome and tall;
not imposing but elegant, modeled for symmetry of his type, not for
ideality, for refinement, not for strength. His hands were delicate
almost to frailty, his feet slender and daintily shod. Never a Roman
walked so lightly, never a Jew so jauntily.
His presence was captivating. Naivete or impudence, carelessness or
recklessness, gravity or mockery were ever uncertain in their
delineation on his face, and one gazed trying to decide and gazing was
undone. Never did he reveal the perspective of a single avenue in his
intricate and indirect disposition. He forwent the human respect that
is given to the straight-forward man, for the excited interest which
the populace pays to the elusive nature.
It was hard to name his years. He was too well-knit to be young, too
supple to be old. The only undisputed evidence that he was past
middle-age was not in his person but behind the affected mood in his
soft black eyes. There was another nature, literally in ambush!
He had reached the gentler slopes of the Mount, when a young man
dressed wholly in white approached from the north. The wayfarer walked
hesitatingly, his eyes roving over the towered walls of the City of
David. There were other wayfarers on Olivet besides the man in white
and the man in scarlet. There were rustics and traveling Sadducees, in
chairs borne by liveried servants, Pharisees with staff and scrip,
marketers, shepherds, soldiers on leave and slaves on errands, men,
women and children of every class or calling which might have affairs
without the walls of Jerusalem. But each turned his steps in one
direction, for the night was not distant and Jerusalem would shelter
them all.
The hill was busy, but many took time to observe the one in white. The
men he met glanced critically at his fine figure and passed; the women
looked up at him from under their wimples, and down again, quickly;
some of the children lagged and gazed wistfully at his face as if they
wanted his notice. Even the man in scarlet, attracted by the wholesome
presence of the comely young man, studied him carelessly. He was a
little surprised when the youth stopped before him.
"Wilt thou tell me, brother, how I may reach the Gate of Hanaleel from
this spot?" he asked. His manner was anxious and hurried, his eyes
troubled.
"Thou, a son of Israel, and a stranger in the city of thy fathers?" the
other commented mildly.
"The Essenes are rare visitors to Jerusalem," was the reply.
"Ah!" the other said to himself, "the bleached craven of En-Gadi. Dost
thou come from the community on the Dead Sea?" he asked aloud.
"I journey thither," the Essene answered patiently. "I come from
Galilee."