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Translator: Arcadius Avellanus

Produced by: Aur?li?nus Agricola

Insula Thesauraria

Ab auctore Roberto Ludovico Stevenson

Latine interpretatus est Arcadius Avellanus

Prostat apud E. Parmalee Prentice 37 Wall Street, New York City, N. Y.

Latin Press Printing Co., 336 West Girard Ave., Philadelphia, Pa.

For permission to publish this Latin version of Treasure Island, I take pleasure in expressing my thanks to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, American publishers on Mr Stevenson's works.

E. Parmalee Prentice

Disciplinae linguae Latinae, litterarumque Romanarum ac Latinarum studiosi et cultores aevi nostri universim in duo castra abeunt. Una eorum sunt, qui Latina lingua in rebus scholasticis veluti sermone vivo ac praesenti tamquam adminiculo utuntur, quos ideo Scholasticos appellamus. Hi fere sunt Magistri ac Professores Seminariorum Sacerdotalium iurisdictionis atque obedientiae Pontificiae Romanae. His adnumerandi sunt omnes sacerdotes, Ordinesque Religiosi in omni terrarum orbe, atque eruditi saeculares, sive laici, veluti professores, advocati atque medici, assecla Coetus Romani, vel, ut vulgo dicimus, Ecclesiae Romanae in omnibus terrae gentibus. -- Altera castra sunt eorum, qui a Coetu Romano desciverunt, et, quoniam civilitatem Romanam exuere nolunt, has disciplinas conservandas prosequendasque iudicant. Verumtamen, quum usum sermonis, et exercitationem in rebus scholasticis Latinis defectione amiserunt, Latinam linguam ex auctoribus Romanis eruere, atque tanquam ab extrinseco, in usum linguae introire tantant. Hos, fortasse, philologos recte appellabimus.

Nos in medio sumus, utpote qui et sermonem Latinum callemus, ususque scholasticos scimus, nec philologiae sumus ignari.

Cordatissimi quique ex castris philologorum, praesertim ex quo gentes e nuperna carnificina emerserunt, haud aliter de his disciplinis, quam scholastici sentiunt, palamque praedicant scientiam Latinitatis non modo ad culturam Romanam sarta-tecta servandam prorsus ex re generis humani esse, verum etiam ad animos singulorum civium omnium gentium humanitate, cultu, fide, probatis moribus imbuendos supremae esse necessitatis. Quin, nonnulli haud dubitant addere, si gentes omnium stirpium ac terrarum in pace, in concordia, atque intra Ius Gentium perseverare, tumultus, seditiones bellaque evitare velint, haud posse sine adminiculo unius linguae gentium, Latinae nempe, vivere, quam sine aere.

Atque haec est causa et ratio efficiens seriei voluminum Classicorum Montis Spei, quorum isthoc volumen Insula Thesaurariae est quintum. Quandoquidem materia substrata huius operis navalis ac maritima est atque piratae, ab omnibus litteris Romanis, linguaque Latina maxime aliena, nihil enim in hoc genere a Romanis ad nostrum aevum derivatum est, vix quisquam mortalium proinde animum induxerit ad fabulam istius indolis Latinitate donandam. Verumtamen si Latina lingua se ad quidpiam audendum ineptam comprobaret, quatenus nempe doctrina humana, non lingua ipsa, deficeret, tamen fatendum esset Latinam linguam ad usus modernos aptam non esse, ac, proinde, inutilem, nec in scholarum curriculis ferendam. Atqui haec ipsa est philologorum "confessio fidei." Quum vero nobis persuasissimum esset prorsus nihil in hominum mundo dari quod Latine edisseri - imo melius quam idiomatibus modernis -- nequiret, nihil supererat, nisi ut fiduciam nostram factis confirmaremus. Ausi itaque sumus tam tersa ac proba Latinitate quam qu? pares eramus, incredibile tentare, nova verba Latina creare, aut adaptare, nullis verbis barbaris admissis; atque haec est novitas rei, quam Humanissimis Lectoribus in omni orbe hoc volumine complexam porrigimus.

Ab amico semel iterumque audivi memorari machinamentum in Palatio Vaticano, Romae, in sedibus Latinitatis, quo homines aut merces aliaque onera in sublime tolluntur, aliquo vocabulo Graeco appellari. Atqui machinamentum illud notissimum in historia Romana est, partim ad tollendam aquam, partim milites in muros hostium, saepius descriptum , sed non nominatur, sed Flavius Vegetius Renatus perinde atque AEneas in suo tractatu "De Toleranda Obsidione" bis memorat sub nomine tollenonis, cuius effigiem etiam fert editio Lugd. Batav. anni 1645.

Hoc exemplo tantum sit ad ostendendum non omnia Romanis ignota fuisse quae ipsi nesciamus, nec proinde novis vocabulis opus esse, nisi prius certe constat rem prorsus novam, ac Romanis ignotam esse. Ut addam exemplum alterum. Conclamatum in toto mundo est paucis annis ab hinc, quum par rotarum fabricatores commenti sunt, cui singuli insidere, atque celerius vehi possent. Nomen aptum ad nostra usque tempora nullis linguis ei repererunt, et in sua inscitia continuo ad vocabula Latina aut Graeca recursant et ineptiunt, veluti velociped, bicycle, quum si vel parum Latine scirent, reperirent vocabulum Romanum birotam.

Minime igitur existimandum est Latinam linguam esse impotem, modernas autem terminis technicis scatere. Quin contra. Technici et fabri parum aut nihil sciunt Latine, et quum suae linguae eos fallunt, pro salute sua ad Romanos Graecosque recursant, ibi autem, quum sint imperiti, inepta vocabula exquirunt, unde fit ut termini technici modernorum idiomatum fere omnia absurda et absona reperiantur.

Machinatores et fabri ac technici, qui machinamenta comminiscuntur, partes, saltem Anglica vernacula, digitos, ungues, pedes, genua, oculos, talos, plantas, cubitos, simios, caudas, et huius generis nominibus appellant. Quum vernacula haud sufficit, praesertim apud chemicos, ad Latinam Graecamque linguas recurrunt, quae vocabula quam ipsi penitius non intelligunt, monstra Latinitatis et Graecitatis creant, uti aviare, submarinum, basis, automobile, locomobile, locomotivum, motor, tractor, elevator, cafeteria, restaurant, vitamen, et sic deinceps. Videamus singula:

a. Aviare, aviatio, aviator, verba, quibus volatum hominum, navigationem aeream ac navigatorem nostri technici significari volunt. Ipsi, utique de avi cogitant, quasi muscae, culices, papiliones ac vespertiliones non aeque volent. Nesciunt enim verbum idgenus Latine nullum esse; si autem esset, significaret a via in ?via, d?via , in tesqua, in deserta aliquem deducere. Latine eiusmodi homines aeronautas appellamus. Verum si e volare nova fingere volumus, licet eos volucrios, naves volucrias alites, alivolas appellare.

b. Submarinum, vocant navim, quae ad arbitrium sub aquam mergi et emergi potest. At inepte dictum. Sub mari nihil aliud est quam terra, cuncta alia sunt in mari. Tum navis idgenus non modo in mari, sed in lacubus, fluminibus, vino et lacte quoque mergeretur. Latine id nos mergulam appellamus, quoniam habemus mergum, mergulum, mergitem, quia vero de navi agitur, placuit formam foemininam in usum convertere.

c. Basis linguis modernis in diversissimos usus adhibetur, etiam volunt ea stationem mergularum significare occultam, unde mergularii suum victum, arma et iacula clam hostibus commode comparare possint. Nos eam suppetiarium appellamus.

d. Automobile figmentum Francicum imperitissimum, quo nihil est revera auto-immobilius. Homo est automobilis, animalia cuncta sunt automobilia, sed machilla ea non est. Itaque placuit nobis id Latine digam nominare, ad normam bigarum, trigarum, quadrigarum, in quibus iga iugum significat, d autem in nostro vocabulo de, i. e., d?iugum, ?-iugum, sine iugo.

e. Locomobile, locomotivum, figmentum -- ut putamus -- Americanum. His autem vocabulis partim machinam portabilem, partim talem designare cupiunt, quae vehicula, carros, vectacula, e loco in locum divectare valeant. At sol, terra omnia corpora coelestia locomobilia sunt; atque in hoc mundo nostro partim Sol ipse, partim vis attractiva molis telluris sunt sola locomotiva. Proinde aequum existimavimus nomen machinae effingere ex iusta radice Romana, cieo, verbo probo, et cietrum appellare, quo nihil aliud denotaretur quam machinamentum ad vectandos carros quacunque reoneratos.

f. Motor, tractor, elevator, vocabula Latina quidem, sed inepte applicita. Per primum enim cietrum, sive cietorium volunt indicare, quod alias machinas in motum, cursum, versationem agat, verset atque motet, quod eapropter motatorium posset vocari; alterum praesertim agricolarum cietorium est, quod aratra -- unum aut plura -- "discos," hirpices, per arva vectet, non modo "trahat," quod ex tractione vectura non necessario sequitur. Denique elevator hoc sensu est idem quod, ut supra ostendimus, Romanis tolleno vocabatur. Sciendum praeterea est praeceptum Emmanuelis Alvari, de terminatione -- or:

"or maribus servit, muliebris demitur arbor"

quod significat omne nomen substantivum Latinum, quod in -or exit, personam marem, h. e., hominem, non machinamentum, rem neutri generis, denotare.

g. Cafeteria, videtur esse figmentum Hispanicum, eodem modo, quo in locum vocabuli Romani classici, "peditatus," infanteriam, h. e., turbam, catervam, agmen "infantum," loco "pubis Romanae," "iuventutis Romanae" supposuerunt. Verumtamen in sua inscitia nesciebant -- teriam Latine -tarius, -ia, -um esse, in qua terminatione t pars radicis est, quo tamen caffa caret. Latine caffariam vocare licebit.

h. Restaurant, verosimile est Francorum deliramentum esse. Participium Praesentis Latine semper Subiectum activum, ergo plerumque hominem denotat, itaque restaurans homo est, non locus. Latine ganeam, popinam, cauponam istiusmodi locum appellamus. Non nostrum vocabulum est, sed memoramus tamen ut rem inconditam e centenis millibus "terminorum technicorum" idiomatum modernorum. E novissimis chemicorum esto

i. Vitamen, vel, ut ipsi ambigui scribunt, vitamine, atque vitamin, quo aliquid recens inventi ex genere substantiarum, quibus vita humana nititur, in quibusdam cibis. Imperitus Latinitatis medicus, aut chemicus fando audivit formativam particulam -men, atque -- mentum; sed iam nesciebat eam verbis tantum appendi, non autem nominibus substantivis, sic, ligamen, certamen, luctamen, h. e., ligo, certo, luctor. Quum hoc sit principium, vitamen, composi tum e vito, vitare, devito, evito, loco vitam gignendi, aliquid evitandum suadet.

Sufficiant haec pauca memorasse ad ostendendum Benevolis Lectoribus idiomata moderna suis terminis technicis minime gloriari posse si trutinae rationis iniiciantur et cum Latinis sive Romanis, sive Medii AEvi, sive nostrae propriae creationis compensentur. Romani a nobis vestitu, alimento, domibus, supellectili, artibus fabrilibus, agricolatu, mercatu, itinere faciendo, ludis, moribus multum differebant. Nec tamen existimandum est iis in omni humana occupatione verba defuisse; sed magna pars litterarum Romanarum intercidit, nec verborum monumenta ad nos pervenerunt, prohinc, etiamsi in vita Europaeorum quotidiana usque multa vocabula ut Latina circumferuntur, tamen, quoniam nulla scripta auctoritate confirmantur, iis, saltem publice scribendo, uti nemo audet. Quid de mercibus plumariarum, tenuariarum, ubi muliercularum stolae, subarmalia, strophia, mitellae, infulae, patagia, centenaque alia munditiei paraphernalia parabantur, venibantque omnino ut in nostris tabernis, nulla fuerunt nomina? Fuerunt certe, ac plurima horum etiam hodie exprimi queunt, perinde ut in omni negotio et industria, in fabricatura, mercatura, tabellaria, argentaria, bastagaria, modo sciamus. Haud exigua pars eiusmodi vocabulorum in variis meis libris iam evulgata est, sed, fortasse maior necdum descripta est. Si fata siverint, fortasse caetera quoque litteris committam.

Usque quo philologia penetraverit, imperitosque a vero seduxerit, exemplo sit catalogus librorum scholasticorum atque liturgicoram, in Italia impressus et evulgatus, qui casu nobis sub oculos cecidit. Tametsi in eo nulla est affectatio elegantiae sermonis, quin ipsa adeo Romana Latinitas negligitur, mirum admodum est documenta dogmataque Philologiae Germanicae inter vocabula, ut posta, maroquin, chagrin, aut Romana, uti Status, libros arcessere, scaturire , aut Graeca, uti praxis, paradygma , reperiri, veluti adparant, latina, hebraica, graeca, ius, iuxta, eius, tum jus, ejus, caelum, caelum, parochus atque paroeciae. Si iam haec lues philologiae Germanicae etiam in Italia grassatur, quin, quod longe plus est, in ipse medulla Latinitatis, in Hierarchia Romana, conservatrice priscarum veritatum avitorumque morum bacchatur, iuvabit pestilentiae istius ab altioribus fontibus repetere originem.

Ingenia Germanorum in speculationes Metaphysicas tam prona, post vicissitudines ieiunas Leibnitz, Immanuelis Kant, Fichte atque Hegel, quibus nihil demonstratum est, ad subruenda instituta Christiana conversa sunt, instaurata "Critica penitiori," quibus et vita exsistentis soon as it is felt.

"You think that the chief obstacle which is hindering the progress of true religion in the world at present is that while we will not learn from those who disagree with us we can obtain no new light, and that when we are willing to reach after their light we become also willing to let go what we have had, so that the world does not gain but loses by the transaction. This is, I admit, an obstacle to thought; but it is not the essential difficulty of our age."

"Let us consider," I said, in my pedantic way, "how my difficulty may be overcome, and then let us discuss that one you consider to be essential."

Toyner's choice of words, like his appearance, betrayed a strong, yet finely chiselled personality.

"You hinted, I think, that to your mind there was a more real obstacle, one peculiar to our age."

Ever since I first met him I have been puzzled to know how it was that I often knew so nearly what Toyner meant when he only partially expressed his thought; he had this power over my understanding. He was my master from the first.

He laid his hand now slightly upon my arm, as though to emphasise what he said.

"It is a little hard to explain it reverently," he said, "and still harder to understand why the difficulty should have come about, but in our day it would seem that the nights of prayer and the fresh intuition into the laws of God's working, which we see united in the life of our great Example, have become divorced. It is their union again that we must have--that we shall have; but at present there is the difficulty for every man of us--the men who lead us in either path are different men and lead different ways. Our law-givers are not the men who meet God upon the mount. Our scientists are not the teachers who are pre-eminent for fasting and prayer. We who to be true to ourselves must follow in both paths find our souls perplexed."

In front of us, as we turned a curve in the drive, a bed of scarlet lilies stood stately in the sun, and a pair of bickering sparrows rose from the fountain near which they grew. Toyner made a slight gesture of his hand. With the eagerness of a child he asked:

"Is it not hard to believe that we may ask and expect forgiveness and gifts from the God who by slow inevitable laws of growth clothes the lilies, who ordains the fall of every one of these sparrows, foresees the fall and ordains it--the God whose character is expressed in physical law? The texts of Jesus have become so trite that we forget that they contain the same vision of 'God's mind in all things' that makes it so hard to believe in a personality in God, that makes prayer seem to us so futile."

We came out of the shrubbery upon a bank that dropped before us to a level lawn. I found myself in the midst of a company of people among whom were the other members of the new School Council. Below, upon the lawn, there was a little spectacle going on for our entertainment--a morris-dance, simply and gracefully performed by young people dressed in quaintly fashioned frocks of calico; there was good music too--one or two instruments, to which they danced. Round the other side of the grass an avenue of stately Canadian maples shut in the view, except where the river or the pale blue of the eastern horizon was seen in glimpses through their branches. Behind us the sun's declining rays fell upon an old-fashioned garden of holly-hocks and asters, so that the effect, as one caught it turning sideways, was like light upon a stained-glass window, so rich were the dyes. I saw all this only as one sees the surroundings of some object that interests supremely.

The man who had been walking with me said simply, "This is my wife."

Before me stood a woman who had the power that some few women have of making all those whom they gather round them speak out clearly and freshly the best that is in them.

Ah! we live in a new country. Its streets are not paved with gold, nor is prosperity to be attained without toil; but it gives this one advantage--room for growth; whatever virtue a soul contains may reach its full height and fragrance and colour, if it will.

I always remember Ann Toyner as I saw her that first time. Her eyes were black and still bright; but when I looked at them I remembered the little children that had died in her arms, and I knew that her hopes had not died with them, but by that suffering had been transformed. As I heard her talk, my own hopes lifted themselves above their ordinary level.

Husband and wife stood together, and I noticed that the white shawl that was crossed Quakerwise over her thin shoulders seemed like a counterpart of his careful dress, that the white tresses that were beginning to show among her black ones were almost like a reflection of his white hair. I felt that in some curious way, although each had so distinct and strong a personality, they were only perfect as a part of the character which in their union formed a perfect whole. They stood erect and looked at us with frank, kindly eyes; we all found to our surprise that we were saying what we thought and felt, and not what we supposed we ought to say.

As I talked and looked at them, the words that I had heard came back to my mind. "His wife is the daughter of a murderer, and he has come up from the lowest, vilest life." Some indistinct thought worked through my mind whose only expression was a disconnected phrase: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth."

In the years since then I have learned to know the story of Toyner and his wife. Now that they are gone away from us, I will tell what I know. His was a life which shows that a man cut off from all contact with his brother-thinkers may still be worked upon by the great over-soul of thought: his is the story of a weak man who lived a strong life in a strength greater than his own.

In the days when there were not many people in Fentown Falls, and when much money was made by the lumber trade, Bartholomew Toyner's father grew rich. He was a Scotchman, not without some education, and was ambitious for his son; but he was a hard, ill-tempered man, and consequently neither his example nor his precepts carried any weight whatever with the son when he was grown. The mother, who had begun life cheerfully and sensibly, showed the weakness of her character in that she became habitually peevish. She had enough to make her so. All her pleasure in life was centred in her son Bart. Bart came out of school to lounge upon the streets, to smoke immoderately, and to drink such large quantities of what went into the country by the name of "Jamaica," that in a few years it came to pass that he was nearly always drunk.

Poor Bart! the rum habit worked its heavy chains upon him before he was well aware that his life had begun in earnest; and when he realised that he was in possession of his full manhood, and that the prime of life was not far off, he found himself chained hand and foot, toiling heavily in the most degrading servitude. A few more years and he realised also that, do what he would, he could not set himself free. No one in the world had any knowledge of the struggle he made. Some--his mother among them--gave him credit for trying now and then, and that was a charitable view of his case. How could any man know? He was not born with the nature that reveals itself in many words, or that gets rid of its intolerable burdens of grief and shame by passing them off upon others. All that any one could see was the inevitable failure.

The failure was the chief of what Bart himself saw. That unquenchable instinct in a man's heart that if he had only tried a little harder he would certainly have attained to righteousness gave the lie to his sense of agonising struggle, with its desperate, rallies of courage and sinkings of discouragement, gleams of self-confidence, and foul suspicion of self, suspicion even as to the reality of his own effort. All this was in the region of unseen spirit, almost as much unseen to those about him as are the spirits of the dead men and angels, often a mere matter of faith to himself, so apart did it seem from the outward realities of life.

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