— But alas! continued Schultz. Errare humanum est. Et nunc, reges, intelligite: erudimini qui judicatis terram.69
— Sir, I beg you! Midas reprimanded him again. State your case in straightforward language. Have you forgotten you are addressing the general public?
— I was saying, said Schultz sententiously, that all good things come to an end. Just when the going looks good, somebody’s gotta upset the applecart, because there’s always one bad egg, and that’s just the way the cookie crumbles… Anyway, let’s imagine the four classes in their proper hierarchy and in peace — O fruitful Harmony! O even-keeled Jubilation! But, then what happens all of a sudden? The battle-hardened Kshatriya throws the stone of scandal.
— What? How do you mean?
— Kshatriya’s essential virtue, answered the astrologer, is that of worldly governance and defence of the state. His corresponding vice is the sensuality of power, the pride of arms, the thirst for conquest. That’s why he is subordinate to Brahmin the metaphysician, who gives him prudent advice: “Don’t be getting out of line now,” and “You went a little overboard there,” and “Don’t forget you’re going to have to answer to the good Lord up above for the shenanigans you get up to here below.” But the time comes when Kshatriya just can’t help himself any longer. Fed up with the old man’s scolding, he decides to bushwhack him. So he goes ahead and rebels against Brahmin, robbing him of the top spot. And to pull it off, he’s had the help of Vaishya the bourgeois, who also had it in for Brahmin, because the old codger had become a real pain in the neck with his boring sermons about greed and so on.
— Accurate in substance, approved Mr Midas, though vulgar in form.
— Don’t forget I’m addressing the general public, Schultz reminded him venomously.
— So be it. We now have Kshatriya in the first position. What happens next?
— Alas! replied Schultz. With nothing holding him back now, and in thrall to his evil inclinations, Kshatriya soon shows his dark side. He started out as a hero of noble and amorous chivalry, and he ends up as an unjust conqueror; from an equitable king, he goes to being a despot; his former austerity gives way to overweaning pride; and his heroic nudity is at last clothed in the rich and heavy overcoat of worldly vainglory. Of course, all that luxury costs a mint! And where does Kshatriya turn for money, if not to the affluent Vaishya? But Vaishya the bourgeois professes a tender love for his doubloons; teary-eyed, he watches the increasing haemmorrhage from his pockets. And he weepily says to himself: “That’s what I get for helping out that tinpot general!” Time goes by, and Vaishya stops crying and thinks to himself: “If Kshatriya, with my help, could pull a fast one on Brahmin, couldn’t I do the same to him, if Shudra helped me out a bit?” It’s a tempting idea, and the more he turns it over in his mind, the more Vaishya gets to like it. Finally he enters into talks with sweaty Shudra, promising him all the tea in China; and when he sees he’s convinced, he waits for the right occasion. Meanwhile, pardner, you oughta see what a sorry pass Kshatriya has come to! Sick and tired of battles and honours, he lives now in his palace. He’s turned into a night owl, a party animal, a pretty-boy. What with champagne and women all the time, he’s completely lost it. Instead of a military helmet, he’s got a curly wig on his head. Wars don’t mean a thing to him any more; instead, he’s crazy about dances and carnivals. In short, my friend, a pathetic shell of a man! And Vaishya never takes his eye off him; as soon as he sees him weak and effeminate, he starts by needling him, then gets him riled up, and ends up cutting his throat just like that. Since then, Vaishya has been master of the situation and grows fat in the first rank of the hierarchy, quod erat demonstrandum.
— Not bad, said Mr Midas at this point.
Then he added venomously:
— Though your account seems influenced by recent readings of a certain Gallic metaphysician…70
At those words, the astrologer turned visibly red, not with embarrassment, as he told me later, but out of righteous indignation.
— Look here, sir, he stammered. If I used someone else’s schema, and nothing more than a schema, I have on the other hand fleshed it out in quite an original fashion. Moreover, my own contribution is coming up.
— Hmm! said the crowned man. There’s more to come?
— I have yet to get to the heart of the matter, replied Schultz. Do you really think I would have taken on Vaishya if that slob of a bourgeois had limited himself to hogging the community’s nickels and dimes?
— What other offense do you hold against him?
— That he has universally imposed his gross mystic cult.
— Explain youself, sir, explain yourself, grunted the man with the crown.
— Old Brahmin alone, Schultz explained, possesses the true mysticism, the one all men should follow, each according to his limitations. But Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra all have there own mystic cult as well, a private cult that each derives from his own inner inclinations. Thus, for example, Kshatriya worships the heroic as figured in its two values: honour and valour. The mysticism of Vaishya is an acute pragmatism that tends to glorify matter and the material in its single cypher — gold. Shudra, for his part, worships the manual work of trades and their techniques. When the four classes are in their proper order and act in fairness, the three particular mystic cults, responding symbolically to the universal mysticism, are three different human attitudes or forms of prayer addressed to the same Absolute. It is then that Brahma, in satisfaction, smiles a ninety-degree smile.
— Amazing! Mr Midas practically yawned.
— But, concluded Schultz, as soon as an inferior class usurps the first place in the hierarchy, it imposes its particular mystic cult on the world, universalizing that cult and thereby traducing all values accordingly.
— For example?
— During the reign of Brahmin, emphasis is placed on the religious aspect of life, and the scale of human values is constructed on a spiritual basis. When Kshatriya rules, emphasis shifts to the political, and man is measured by his nobility, honour, and valour. Now that Vaishya has taken over, the economic aspect is all-important, and man is measured by his cheque book. Brahmin used to say: “In the beginning is Being.” Then Kshatriya said: “In the beginning is Action.” Now Vaishya says: “In the beginning is Matter.” Brahmin waged wars that were religious crusades, and Kshatriya waged imperial wars. Now Vaishya makes war for economic reasons. As for the domain of art…
— That will suffice, interrupted the crowned man. If my memory serves, we left Vaishya in charge of the situation. Now describe for me how he imposes his mysticism.
— As I said before, obeyed Schultz, Vaishya’s mysticism tends to glorify gold. But Vaishya is not totally bereft of theological notions, and when it comes time to impose his mystic cult, he says to himself: “Gold is my god, and because it is a god, it must be made invisible.” Just like that, Vaishya shuts up his gold in underground vaults and steel-plated chambers. But then he muses: “Since the faithful won’t see my god, they should at least see him in images.” So he creates banknotes and offers them to the parishioners for their veneration. Vaishya still isn’t satisfied; he turns to the respectable Dame Architecture and tells her: “Thou who hast raised cathedrals for Brahmin and fortresses for Kshatriya, build thee now a temple to my god.” Respectable Dame Architecture obeys and builds a monumental Bank over the grave where Vaishya has buried his gold. Then Vaishya the bourgeois declares himself Supreme Pontiff of his god, and between his god and the faithful he inserts an army of priests in lustrous sleeves. Finally, recalling that Brahmin had a sacred liturgy and Kshatriya a chivalric liturgy, Vaishya, not to be outdone, invents an elaborately detailed banking rite, of which you are no doubt aware.