Nestor

“ They in the sumptuous chariot sat again.
Forth through the vestibule they drove, and through
The sounding portico, when Nestor’s son
Plied brisk the scourge, and willing flew the steeds.
Thus whirl’d along, soon they approach’d the gates 230
Of Pylus, when Telemachus, his speech
Turning to his companion, thus began.
How, son of Nestor! shall I win from thee
Not promise only, but performance kind
Of my request? we are not bound alone
To friendship by the friendship of our sires,
But by equality of years, and this
Our journey shall unite us still the more. ”

“ If we are to accept the story preserved by Nestor we must see that Christianity was not then unknown at Kiev, because it tells how the princess went to Constantinople for the express purpose of learning about the true God; there she was baptised by the patriarch Polyeuctes, having the emperor, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, for her godfather. Olga became famous both for her wisdom and for her saintliness. "She was the forerunner of Christianity in Russia," says Nestor, "as the morning star is the precursor of the sun and the dawn the precursor of the day. ”

“ At seventy old Nestor drools and repeats his fables of his few years and many troubles. At fifty, even forty-five, most men are busy recounting the deeds, adventures and creations of their earlier years! ”

“ To calm their passion with the words of age,
Slow from his seat arose the Pylian sage,
Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skilled;
Words sweet as honey from his lips distilled:
Two generations [2] now had passed away,
Wise by his rules, and happy by his sway ”

“ Take a ship and go to Pylos to inquire of the aged and wise Nestor what he knows of thy father's fate. Thence go to Menelaus, in Sparta; he was the last of all the mailed Greeks to return home. If thou hear encouraging tidings, wait patiently for a year. At the end of that time, if thy father come not, celebrate his funeral rites, let thy mother wed again, and take immediate steps for the destruction of the suitor band. Thou art no longer a child; the time has come for thee to assert thyself and be a man. ”

“ After the Trojan war, Nestor retired to Greece, where he enjoyed, in the bosom of his family, the peace and tranquillity which were due to his wisdom and to his old age. The manner and the time of his death are unknown; the ancients are all agreed that he lived three generations of men, which length of time some suppose to be 300 years, though more probably only 90, allowing 30 years for each generation. ”

“ You think the lost mine man is watching us."
"I don't think anything about it," said Nestor. "I never imagine issues, and I never form theories. One thing I know, and that is that we shall find friends over in Mexico. You may even come upon some of the Black Bears there."
"I hope so," was the cheerful reply.
"In which case," continued Nestor, "you might take the suggested ride down the Rio Grande."
"Not with the mountains in sight, and a lost mine to find," exclaimed Fremont.
"And a brutal assassin to bring to punishment," added Nestor. ”

“ The naturalist and the boys had two rooms, while Nestor was by himself. Noddy and his chums disappeared after the meal, Pud Stoneham accompanying them.
It must have been about midnight when Nestor was awakened by hearing voices in the room next to his. At first he paid no attention to them, for he was sleepy. But he sat up suddenly when he heard some one say:
“They’re on the trail of a rich gold mine. I know, for I heard the old man talking about it.” ”

“ When he had thus spoken, he gave the goblet to Odysseus, and he in like manner poured out libations, and prayed to great Poseidon.
Then said Nestor as he took again the goblet, "Strangers, you do wisely thus to offer prayers to the gods; for they are far above us in virtue, strength, and honor. When men have failed to do aright, and have broken Heaven's just laws, they may still, by humble vows and supplications, turn aside from evil-doing, and soften the wrath of the ever-living powers." ”

“ But it is meet that the young men who came for the love of him should have an elder with them on the ship to-night. I shall abide with them.'
So speaking, the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, in the likeness of old Mentor went from the shore, and Telemachus went with Nestor and his sons to the high citadel of Neleus. And there he was given a bath, and the maiden Polycaste, the youngest daughter of King Nestor, attended him. She gave him new raiment to wear, a goodly mantle and doublet. He slept in a room with Peisistratus, the youngest of Nestor's sons. ”

“ It so happened that Nestor, the Bishop of Antioch, who entertained the philosophical views of Theodore of Mopsuestia, had been called by the Emperor Theodosius the Younger to the Episcopate of Constantinople (A.D. 427) . Nestor rejected the base popular anthropomorphism, looking upon it as little better than blasphemous, and pictured to himself an awful eternal Divinity, who pervaded the universe, and had none of the aspects or attributes of man. Nestor was deeply imbued with the doctrines of Aristotle, and attempted to coordinate them with what he considered to be orthodox Christian tenets. ”

“ He from whose lips divine persuasion flows,
Grave Nestor, then, in graceful act arose; ”

“ Too bad I can't take Nestor down there and clean out that sharp-suited gambler. Too bad the law forbids calculators like Nestor to enter establishments such as Sliman's Snake Eyes Club. Wow! What Nestor wouldn't do to Sliman's roulette wheel. And as for the dice game—! Well, he'd pay Sliman the five hundred and that'd be all! He was through!! From now on he'd better devote his time to Judy. Of course, he reflected, she was a trifle expensive for his one thousand kredit allowance, always wanting jewelry and those cute Martian minks, but—His thoughts shifted. ”

“ Then up rose Nestor in his place, and spake: "Had any other told us this dream, we had thought it false; but seeing that he hath seen it who is chief among us, let us call the people to arms."
Then the heralds made proclamation, and the people hastened to their places. ”

“ A handmaid brought pure water, and barley-meal in a basket, while one of Nestor's sons stood ready with an axe, and another held a bowl to catch the blood. Then Nestor dipped his hands in the water, took barley-meal from the basket and sprinkled it on the head of the beast, and cutting a tuft of hair from the forehead cast it into the fire. The prayer was spoken, and all due rites being ended he who held the axe smote the heifer on the head, just behind the horns. ”

“ Then found he Nestor, the clear-voiced orator of the Pylians, arraying his comrades and urging them to fight, around mighty Pelagon and Alastor and Chromius and lord Haemon and Bias, shepherd of the host. The charioteers first he arrayed with their horses and cars, and behind them the footmen, many and valiant, to be a bulwark of battle; but the cowards he drave into the midst, that were he never so loath each man must needs fight perforce. ”

“ Among these were Athemas and Demephon, who gathered a host to avenge themselves and said they would spare neither man, woman, nor child. Nestor however, who was old and wise, asked them to what purpose they would reign as kings, if their people should be destroyed, and bade them rather win by fair speech than by threats. ”

“ What country parson among all the nine hundred and odd within this unwieldy diocese has lived a simpler or more devoted life than our Nestor— [Greek: γέρων ἱππηλάτα Νέστωρ] —he who for more than threescore years and ten has gone in and out among his people, and doing his pastoral work so naturally, so much as a matter of course, that no one thinks of20 his being a rich man, except when those towering horses of his stop at our lowly portals and have to be corkscrewed into our diminutive stables? ”

“ Diomed, Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, Philoctetes, and Idomeneus. Nestor himself is the most prominent and the typical one of this set who are the Returners through Hellas.
(2) . The second one of those who have succeeded in getting home is Menelaus, whose sweep is far beyond that of Nestor and the immediate Greek world, taking in Egypt and the East. He was separated from Nestor, having delayed to bury his steersman; then a storm struck him, bore him to Crete and beyond, the wind and wave carried him to the land of the Nile. He is the Returner through the Orient. ”

“ Nestor relates to him all that he knows or has heard of the Greecians since their departure from the siege of Troy, but not being able to give him any satisfactory account of Ulysses, refers him to Menelaus. At evening Minerva quits Telemachus, but discovers herself in going. Nestor sacrifices to the Goddess, and the solemnity ended, Telemachus sets forth for Sparta in one of Nestor’s chariots, and accompanied by Nestor’s son, Pisistratus. ”

“ The Russian records begin with the chronicle attributed to Nestor, a monk born about a.d. 1056, who lived at Kiev and died about a.d. 1114, so that his time coincides with the beginning of the Norman period in England and the conquest of the Seljuk Turks in Armenia. He is regarded as the Livy or Herodotus of Russia, the father of its history, the writer who collects the legends of antiquity and brings the story down to the period of authentic history; but more is attributed to this celebrated monk than is now allowed to be his own work. Still Nestor is the first of the chroniclers. ”

“ If so, what was he there for?"
"That will show in time," replied Nestor, with a little pause after each word.
"But," insisted Frank, seeking to argue the matter in order to bring out the opinion of his chum, "these other men had strong motives in doing what was done there, and you don't indicate any motive the fourth man might have had!" ”

“ This would be a comparatively easy task; for it is not so much because the Romanists receive the council of Ephesus and anathematize Nestorius that the Nestorians are backward to join their ranks, but because of the new and unheard-of doctrines which they are required to believe in order to become 'Catholics.' If, therefore, they saw a reformed church agreeing with them in doctrine and discipline, saving the heresy of Nestorius, there can be little doubt that a speedy union with their brethren would be effected. ”

“ Yea, and if these also will go, then we two, I and Sthenelus, will abide and fight till we make an end of the city, for it was the gods that sent us hither."
Then Nestor spake: "Thou art brave in war, son of Tydeus, and excellent in council above thy fellows. ”

“ While their leader was tormented in an African oasis, many of them emigrated to the Euphrates, and established the Chaldean Church. Under their auspices the college of Edessa was founded. From the college of Nisibis issued those doctors who spread Nestor’s tenets through Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, China, Egypt. The Nestorians, of course, adopted the philosophy of Aristotle, and translated the works of that great writer into Syriac and Persian. ”

“ He would put in his poem, a loquacious old fellow, like me, and he would call him Nestor. ”

“ He wanted to take things easy and let the young men exert themselves. 'Let me,' he said, 'play the part of Nestor and talk to you in a garrulous sort of a way; give you good advice, which you do not always heed. ”

“ Then, however far back our impressions may go, we find others still older (for our years are multiplied in youth) ; descriptions of scenes that we had read, and people before our time, Priam and the Trojan war; and even then, Nestor was old and dwelt delighted on his youth, and 156spoke of the race, of heroes that were no more;—what wonder that, seeing this long line of being pictured in our minds, and reviving as it were in us, we should give ourselves involuntary credit for an indeterminate period of existence? ”

“ Others say that it was composed of young men attached to each other by personal affection, and a pleasant saying of Pammenes is current, that Homer's Nestor was not well skilled in ordering an army, when he advised the Greeks to rank tribe and tribe, and family and family together, that So tribe might tribe, and kinsmen kinsmen aid, but that he should have joined lovers and their beloved. ”

“ From the above it will be seen that the Nestorians believe the Spirit to proceed from the Father, as do all the Churches of the East agreeably with the creed drawn up by the Council of Constantinople, a.d. 381; but the doctrine of the Procession is hardly ever adverted to in their rituals in a purely doctrinal form. ”

“ There is such a thing as attempting too much. Many a missionary has attempted such great things, and so many, in a new field, that he has accomplished little, and perhaps nothing as he ought. Your surveys may extend over a great surface; but a richer and speedier harvest will crown your labors, if your cultivation is applied to a single field."
The Nestorians are a branch of the ancient Christian Church, and derive their name from Nestorius, a native of Syria and Bishop of Constantinople, who was excommunicated by the third General Council at Ephesus, in the year 431. ”

“ And because he could not reply to what the Patriarch had written, he spread abroad the report that the Easterns were one with Nestorius, and therefore were to be called 'Nestorians.' And this name has been applied to them from that day up to the present time, and they find it difficult to cast it off, and cannot get rid of it, although they dislike it, because it takes its rise from a man who was not one of them, whom they never saw, one who was not of their language, neither their Patriarch, who was young and they old in the faith. ”

“ Nestor a sweet-tongued old-man, but [Pg 168] an Old-man: and Tully (whom I honour in his vertues, and excuse in his ouersightes) an eloquent Selfe-loouer, but a Selfe-loouer. He that thought to make himselfe famous with his ouerweening and brauing Il'e, Il'e, Il'e, might perhaps nourrish an aspiring imagination to imitate his Ego, Ego, Ego, so gloriously reiterated in his gallant Orations. Some smirking minions are fine fellowes in their owne heades, and some cranke Princockes iolly men in their owne humours: as desperate in resolution, as the dowtiest ranke of Errant knightes ”