WEBVTT

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The last passage I shall read
is from the novel Augustus.

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At Will Andrews
moment of recognition,

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Andrews was in his early
20s, William Stoner

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was in his 65th year.

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And the passage that
I shall read now

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is spoken by Augustus
in his 76th year.

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We all know something about the
career of Octavius Caesar named

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Augustus.

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At the age of 19, he was one of
the three rulers of the Roman

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Empire.

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At the age of 27, he was sole
ruler of the Roman Empire.

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And for 50 years he was
emperor of that factual state.

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In his 76th year, knowing
that his days are limited,

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he takes a last vacation
on his small yacht

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down the coast of Italy
to the island of Capri

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where he has a house
and has friends.

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The whole of the last
section is a long letter

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that Augustus in his old age
is writing to the only friend

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of his who remains alive.

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His old friends Horace,
Virgil, and others are dead--

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he has no one.

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He is accompanied only by
his young Greek physician

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Philippus.

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And during the course of
this last letter to Nicolaus

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of Damascus-- a Damascus Jew--

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he has been convinced that
his life, the life of power,

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has been meaningless.

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He has sacrificed
himself, he perceives,

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to the needs of
the state and he is

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unsure of the cost and unsure
of the significance of what

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he has done.

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He has had a mild stroke
which he know presages the end

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and which he has
concealed from his doctor.

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This letter is written on
August 11 in the year 14 AD.

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Augusta speaks,
"During the night

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I did not move from my
couch but kept a vigil

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on the stars that move
in their eternal voyage

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across the great
dome of the sky.

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Toward dawn, for the first time
in two days, I dozed a little

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and I had a dream.

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I was in that
curious state where

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one dreams and knows
that one dreams yet

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finds there a reality which
mocks that of one's waking

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life.

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I wished to remember the
contours of that other world,

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but when I was awakened the
memory of the dream fled

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into the brightness
of the morning.

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I was awakened by the
stirring of the crew

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and by the sound of
a distant singing.

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For a moment in my
confusion I thought

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of those sirens of whom
Homer wrote so beautifully

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and imagined myself to be
bound to the mast of my ship,

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helpless against the call
of an unimaginable beauty.

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But it was not the sirens,
it was a green ship

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from Alexandria
that sails slowly

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toward us from the South.

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And the Egyptian crew
dressed in white robes

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with garlands on
their heads stood

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on deck singing in their native
tongue as they approached us.

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And the musky odor
of burning incense

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was born to us on
the morning breeze.

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We watched their approach
with some puzzlement

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until at last the huge
ship, which dwarfed our own,

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came so close that we could
make out the smiling swarthy

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faces of the men.

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And then the captain stepped
forward and hailed me by name.

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With some difficulty, which
I trust I concealed even from

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Philippus, I arose from my couch
and went to the deck rail upon

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which I leant while I returned
the greeting of this captain.

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It appeared that the ship
had unloaded a cargo of goods

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at the harbor between
Pozzuoli and Naples

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and had been informed
of my presence nearby.

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And the crew had wished before
they made their way back

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to their far Egyptian
Homeland to greet me

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and to give me their thanks.

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The ship were so close
I did not have to shout,

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and I could see clearly the
dark face of the captain.

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I inquired his name.

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It was Pothelios.

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And as the crew continued
its low singing,

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Pothelios said to me, 'you
have given us the liberty

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to sail the seas and
thus furnish room

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with the bountiful
goods of Egypt.

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You have rid the seas of those
pirates and brigands that

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in the past would have
made that liberty empty.

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Thus, the Egyptian
Roman may prosper

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and may return to his Homeland
secure in the knowledge

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that only the accidents of wind
and wave threaten his safety.

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For all this, we give thanks to
you and pray that the gods will

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allow you good fortune for
the rest of your days.'

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For a moment I could not speak.

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Pothelios had addressed me in
a stiff but passable Latin,

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and it occurred to me
that 30 years ago, he

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would have spoken in that
demotic Egyptian Greek

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and that I would have been
hard put to understand him.

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I returned the captain's
thanks and said a few words

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to the crew and
directed Philippus

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to see that each
member of that crew

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be given some coins of gold.

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And I returned to
my couch from where

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I watched the huge freighter
turn slowly away from us

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and move southward, its sails
bulging in the wind, its crew

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waving and laughing happy
in their safety and homeward

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voyage.

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And so now we too move southward
and our less bulky ship dances

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upon the waves.

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The sunlight catches the
flecks of white foam,

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the top of the little waves, the
waves slap gently and whisper

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against the sides of our ship.

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The blue green depth of the
sea seems almost playful.

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And I can persuade myself
now that after all there

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has been some symmetry
to my life some point

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and that my existence has
been of more benefit than harm

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to this world that I
am content to leave.

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Now, throughout this world,
the Roman order prevails.

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The German barbarian may wait
in the North, the Parthenon

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in the East, and others beyond
frontiers that we have not yet

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conceived, and if Rome
does not fall to them,

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it will at last fall to that
barbarian from which none

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escape time.

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Yet now for a few years
the Roman order prevails.

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It prevails in
every Italian town

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of consequence, in every
colony, in every province

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from the Rhine and the Danube
to the border of Ethiopia,

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from the Atlantic
Shores of Spain and Gaul

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to the Arabian sands
and the Black Sea.

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Throughout the world I
have established schools

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so that the Latin
tongue and the Roman way

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may be known and have seen
to it that those schools will

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prosper.

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Roman law tempers the disordered
cruelty of provincial custom

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just as provincial custom
modifies Roman law.

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And the world looks
in all up on that Rome

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that I found built
of crumbling clay

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and that now is made of marble.

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The despair that I
have voiced seems to me

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now unworthy of
what I have done.

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Rome is not eternal,
it does not matter.

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Rome will fall, it
does not matter.

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The barbarian will conquer,
it does not matter.

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There was a moment of Rome
and it will not wholly die.

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The barbarian will become
the Rome he conquers,

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the language will
smooth his rough tongue,

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and the vision of
what he destroys

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will flow in his blood.

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And in time that is
ceaseless as this salt sea

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upon which I am so frailly
suspended, the cost is nothing,

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is less than nothing.

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We approach the island of Capri.

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It shines like a jewel
in the morning sun,

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a dark emerald rising
out of the blue sea.

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The wind has almost
died and we float

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as if upon the air toward that
quiet and leisurely place where

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I have spent so
many happy hours.

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Already the island
inhabitants, who

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are my neighbors
and my friends, have

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begun to gather at the harbor.

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They wave and I can hear
their voices calling.

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'Gaily, gaily,' they call to me.

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In a moment I shall
rise and answer them.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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