Friday, December 20, 2013
O Otimismo de Carlyle: Dante vs. Maomé
Toda vez que releio as seguintes palavras de Thomas Carlyle em seu On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History comparando Dante a Maomé gargalho do seu otimismo: In a hundred years, Mahomet, as we saw, had his Arabians
at Grenada and at Delhi; Dante's Italians seem to be yet very much where
they were. Shall we say, then, Dante's effect on the world was small in
comparison? Not so: his arena is far more restricted; but also it is far
nobler, clearer;--perhaps not less but more important. Mahomet speaks
to great masses of men, in the coarse dialect adapted to such; a dialect
filled with inconsistencies, crudities, follies: on the great masses
alone can he act, and there with good and with evil strangely blended.
Dante speaks to the noble, the pure and great, in all times and places.
Neither does he grow obsolete, as the other does. Dante burns as a pure
star, fixed there in the firmament, at which the great and the high of
all ages kindle themselves: he is the possession of all the chosen of
the world for uncounted time. Dante, one calculates, may long survive
Mahomet. In this way the balance may be made straight again.
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