Multatuli

“ To maintain justice, to protect the poor against the powerful, to defend the weak against the superior power of the strong, to recover the ewe-lamb from the folds of the kingly robber:—well, all this makes your heart glow with pleasure at the idea that it is your lot to have so noble a vocation;—and let any one in the interior of Java, who may be sometimes discontented with his situation or pay, consider the sublime duty which devolves upon him, and the glorious delight which the fulfilment of such a duty gives, and he will not be desirous of any other reward. ”

“ It was Walter’s pawn.
“I don’t know any fable,” he said, embarrassed; “and I don’t know French either.”
“I will help you,” cried Emma. “Le pere, du pere——” [97]
“That’s no fable! Go ahead, Walter!”
For some of the party it was a joy that Walter knew no Fable and no French. If it were only known how often one can do a kindness by being stupid, perhaps many, out of love for humanity, would affect stupidity.
But Walter did not think of the pleasure of the others—which he could not have understood. He wept, and was angry at Master Pennewip, who had taught him no French and no fable. ”

“ It is not His will that the sinner shall be lost, but that he may be saved by the Grace, in Christ, through Faith! And therefore our Holland has been chosen to save what may be saved of those miserable ones! Therefore has He, in His inscrutable Wisdom, given power to a land of small compass but great and strong in the knowledge of God, power over the dwellers in those regions, that by the holy and ever inestimable Gospel they may be saved from the punishment of hell! The ships of our Holland sail the great waters to bring civilization, religion, Christianity, to the lost Javanese! ”

“ Walter was silent.
“Do you think that everyone is bad? I suppose you hardly think that. There are plenty of people in the world who wish for the same things that you are worrying about. Why don’t they change the world?”
Again Walter was silent. The very simplicity with which Holsma put the question disconcerted him.
“I will try to help you out. Do you believe that I am a good man?”
“Oh, yes!” cried Walter enthusiastically.
“You think so? Well, I think so too. I should be ashamed not to be able to say that. Why don’t I reform the world? You often speak of Africa. ”

“ Think of the philosopher, who from out his cell tries to teach the people what truth is, if he has to remark that his voice is overpowered by devout hypocrisy or adventurous quacks. Think of Socrates, not when he empties the poisoned cup—for I speak here of the experience of the mind, and not of that which owes its existence to external circumstances,—how intensely sad his soul must have been, when he, who loved what is right and true, heard himself called a corrupter of youth and a despiser of the gods. ”

“ Chiefs of Lebak! there comes a time when all of us must die!
“What shall be said in the villages where we have had power, and what by the bystanders who witness the funeral? and what shall we answer if, after death, a voice speaks to our soul, and asks, ‘Why is there weeping in the fields, and how is it that the young men hide themselves? Who took the harvest out of the barn, and the buffalo that should have ploughed the fields out of the stall? What have you done with your brother whom I gave you to watch over? Why is the poor man sad? ”

“ Where will they be then, those insipid report-writers, that blindfold the eyes of the Government by their untruths? Shall those who before lacked the courage to put a manly word on paper, fly to arms and preserve for Holland the Dutch possessions? Will they give back to Holland the treasures that will be required to stamp out revolt, to prevent revolution? And finally, will they give back life to the thousands that have fallen through their fault? ”

“ And moreover, although there might sometimes be a disproportion between revenues and expenses, was not Max, “her Max,” destined for a brilliant career?—Ought not he to be soon in a position which would allow a free course to his high-minded passions without exceeding his revenues? Was not her Max destined to become a Governor-General, or a King? Nay, was it not strange that he was not yet a King? If she had any fault at all, it was her deep affection for Havelaar; and here more than ever it should be: that much must be forgiven those who have loved much! ”

“ Anyone who may feel vexed at my expressing my opinion without disguise should remember how many millions of money and how many human lives England would have been spared if someone in that country had succeeded in opening the eyes of the nation to the true state of affairs in British India, and how much gratitude everyone would have owed to the man who had shown the courage to be the Job’s messenger, before it was too late to redress the wrong in a less sanguinary manner than meanwhile became inevitable. ”

“ Are you justified in telling Mary things that will make her a heathen? Are you justified in shaking her in the conviction that there is no holy water but that of baptism, and no sacred river but Jordan? Isn’t this sapping the foundations of morality, virtue, religion, Christianity, and respectability?
I want you to ponder all this, Stern! Your father is an honourable firm, and I feel sure that he approves of my appealing in this way to your better feelings, also that he prefers to do business with a man who stands for virtue and religion. ”

“ There they crawl about in the loathsome serpent-holes of heathenish ignorance, there they bow the black and frizzy-haired head under the yoke of self-seeking priests! There they pray to God under invocation of a false prophet, who is an abomination in the sight of the Lord! And, belovèd! there are even those who, as though it were not enough to obey a false prophet, there are even those who pray to another God, nay, other gods, gods of wood and stone, which they themselves have made after their image, black, horrible, with flat noses, and devilish! ”

“ What amendment is to be hoped for much that is wrong, if there exists a preconcerted intention to bend and distort all in the reports to the Government? What, for instance, is to be expected of a population that, from its nature mild and submissive, has complained, year after year, of tyranny, when it sees the departure of one Resident after another, on furlough or on half-pay, or called to another office, without anything ever being done towards the redress of the grievances under which it bows? ”

“ As soon as it was quite dark, when nobody could see it, he brought forth the leaf in which he kept the ‘melatti’ which Adinda had given him under the ‘Ketapan’ tree, for he was sad because he should not see her for so long a time. The first day, and the second day likewise, he had not felt so much how lonely he was, because his soul was quite captivated by the grand idea of gaining money enough to buy two buffaloes, and his father had never possessed more than one; and his thoughts were too much concentrated in the hope of seeing Adinda again, to make room for much grief at his leave-taking. ”

“ Yes, you do hear; for from the text you have perceived that your God is a mighty God, and a God who will inflict vengeance—yes, you hear the breaking bones, and the crackling of the flames in the eternal Gehenna, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth: there, there they burn and perish not, for the punishment is eternal:—there the flame licks with a never-satisfied tongue the screaming victims of unbelief:—there the worm dies not that gnaws their hearts through and through without destroying them, that there may always remain a heart to gnaw in the breast of the God-forsaken. ”

“ And consider all those men, who will not listen to good counsel, who trample upon religion and morality, and see yourself in these men. Do not think yourself equal to Stern, whose father is so rich, and who will always have money enough, even if he does not like to become a broker. Only think that wickedness is always punished: look again at that Shawlman, who has no winter overcoat, and who looks like a clown. ”

“ Money, no doubt, will be obtainable, and for money one may buy bricks and mortar. One may pay the artist who will submit a design, and the bricklayer who does the masonry. But not to be bought for money is the lost and yet venerable sentiment that in a building-scheme saw a poem, a poem in granite, that spoke loudly to the people, a poem in marble, that stood there as an immovable eternal prayer. ”

“ Havelaar, I never served under any one like you;—there’s something very peculiar about you: don’t be offended.”
“Not at all; I know very well that I am not as all men——but what does that matter?”
“You communicate to others conceptions and ideas never heard of before.”
“No! they had fallen asleep in that despicable official stillness, whose style is: ‘I have the honour to be,’ and its feeling ‘the perfect satisfaction of the Government.’ No, Verbrugge! do not trouble yourself about it. ”

“ No, it shall not be said that the light which shines upon us will be hidden under the bushel, nor that we are niggardly in sharing with others the bread of eternal life! Cast your glance upon the islands of the Indian Ocean, inhabited by millions upon millions of the children of the rejected son—and of the rightly rejected son—of the noble and God-beloved Noah! ”

“ And still there was nobody on the path leading from Badoer to the Ketapan. Oh! she must have fallen asleep towards morning, tired of watching during the night, of watching for many nights:—she had not slept for weeks: so it was!
Should he rise and go to Badoer!—No, that would be doubting her arrival. Should he call that man who was driving his buffalo to the field? . . . . That man was too far off, and moreover, Saïdjah would speak to no one about Adinda, would ask no one after Adinda. . . . He would see her again, he would see her alone, he would see her first. ”

“ It all comes from that accursed book of Shawlman’s. With tears of emotion on his checks, the zealous servant of the Gospel endeavours to move him to turn away the eyes from the wisdom of men, to be introduced into the mysteries of the wisdom of God. With gentleness and meekness he prays him not to throw away the bread of eternal life, and to fall while acting thus into the clutches of Satan, who, with his angels, inhabits the fire prepared for him to all eternity. ”

“ The ships of Holland navigate the great waters, and bring civilisation, religion, Christianity, to the erring Javanese. No, our happy Holland does not desire salvation for itself alone;—we wish to communicate it to the unfortunate creatures on far-off strands, that there lie bound in the fetters of unbelief, superstition, and immorality,—and the contemplation of the duties that rest on us shall be the seventh head of my sermon. ”

“ Am not I allowed to go to Driebergen as soon as Fred is a broker? And who speaks of dysentery in the company of mothers and daughters? It is a fixed principle with me always to remain quiet, for I think it useful in business; but I must confess, that it has often cost me a great deal to listen to all the nonsense that Stern reads. What does he mean? What must be the end of all this? When shall we hear anything substantial? Of what interest is it for me whether Havelaar keeps his garden clean or not, and whether those people enter in front of the house or at the back? ”

“ But economy was a difficult thing to Havelaar. As for himself, he could be content with the bare necessaries of life; yea, even with less; but where others were in want of assistance, to help, to give, was a strong passion with him. He himself was aware of this foible; he considered with all the common-sense he had, how unjustly he acted in succouring any one, when he himself had a better claim to his own assistance, and felt this injustice the more when his Tine and Max, both of whom he loved so dearly, suffered through the consequence of his liberality. ”

“ For he knew the influence he had on the People, he knew how, when once the poor oppressed ones were called upon to repeat aloud and before the Court of Justice what at eve or at night they had whispered to him in privacy, he knew how he had the power to stimulate them, how the inspiration of his words would be stronger than the fear of revenge on the part of District-Chief or Regent. ”

“ Stagnancy is death. Without motion there is no grief, no enjoyment, no emotion. Sit there motionless for a while, and you will see how soon you will make a ghostly impression on every one else; and even on your own imagination, At a tableaux vivants, one soon wants a new figure, however impressive the sight may have been at the commencement. ”

“ Our high houses owe their origin to want of space: we seek high in the air what we miss on the ground; and so every maid-servant, who in the evening shuts the window of her bed-room under the eaves, is a protest against this crowding, even when she is thinking, what I can readily believe, of something else.
In those countries, also, where civilisation and over-crowding of the population have not yet pushed mankind high up, because of the pressure below, the houses are of one storey, and Havelaar’s did not belong to the few exceptions to this rule. ”

“ I will endeavour to explain how Havelaar arrived at this opinion.
Few European readers can form an exact idea of the height on which a Governor-General must stand as an individual, not to be beneath the dignity of his office; and it is therefore not too severe a judgment, if I maintain that very few, perhaps none, have been able to respond to so heavy a claim. Not to speak of the qualities of head and heart that are required, only cast an eye on the giddy height on which so suddenly the man is placed, who——yesterday only a citizen——to-day has power over millions of subjects. ”

“ He who a short time ago was still hidden among his acquaintances without being more than they in rank or power, feels himself suddenly, for the most part unexpectedly, elevated above a multitude infinitely greater than the small circle in which he had been before but imperfectly known, and I believe that I was not wrong in calling this height giddy; which, indeed, puts us in mind of the giddiness of one who sees suddenly a precipice before him, or which makes you think of the blindness that strikes us, if we come suddenly from a deep darkness into bright light. ”

“ O that it were said, “You invented that Saïdjah: he never sang that lay; there never lived an Adinda in Badoer!” O that it were said with the power and the will to do justice as soon as I have proved myself to have been no slanderer!
Is there untruth in the parable of the Good Samaritan, because perhaps a plundered traveller was never taken to the Samaritan’s house? Is there untruth in the parable of the Sower, because it is clear that no husbandman will throw his seed on a rock? ”