W. H. D. Rouse
speaker
684 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
W. H. D. Rouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
at the corner of the street where the narrow populous lane of the camel-drivers crossed the colonnades a story-teller had bewitched a circle of people around him it was the same old tale of love and adventure that many generations have listened to but the lively fancy of the hearers lent it new interest and the wit of the improviser drew forth sighs of interest and shouts of laughter
a yellow-haired girl on the edge of the throng turned as hermes passed and smiled in his face she put out her hand and caught him by the sleeve stay she said and laugh a bit with us i know who you are the son of demetrius you must have bags of gold why do you look so black love is alive yet hermes shook off her hand but not ungently
i don't know what you mean he said you are mistaken in me i am poorer than you are but as he passed on he felt the warm touch of her fingers through the cloth on his arm it seemed as if she had plucked him by the heart he went out by the western gate under the golden cherubim that the emperor titus had stolen from the ruined temple of jerusalem and fixed upon the arch of triumph
he turned to the left and climbed the hill to the road that led to the grove of daphne in all the world there was no other highway as beautiful it wound for five miles along the foot of the mountains among gardens and villas plantations of myrtles and mulberries with wide outlooks over the valley of orantes and the distant shimmering sea the richest of all the dwellings was the house of the golden pillars the mansion of demetrius
he had won the favor of the apostate emperor julian whose vain efforts to restore the worship of the heathen gods some twenty years ago had opened an easy way to wealth and power for all who would mock and oppose christianity
demetrius was not a sincere fanatic like his royal master but he was bitter enough in his professed scorn of the new religion to make him a favorite at the court where the old religion was in fashion he had reaped a rich reward of his policy and a strange sense of consistency made him more fiercely loyal to it than if it had been a real faith
he was proud of being called the friend of julian and when his son joined himself to the christians and acknowledged the unseen god it seemed like an insult to his father's success he drove the boy from his door and disinherited him
the glittering portico of the serene haughty house the repose of the well-ordered garden still blooming with belated flowers seemed at once to deride and to invite the young outcast plodding along the dusty road this is your birthright whispered the clambering rose-trees by the gate and the closed portals of carven bronze said you have sold it for a thought a dream
two a christmas loss hermes found the grove of daphne quite deserted there was no sound in the enchanted vale but the rustling of the light winds chasing each other through the laurel thickets and the babel of innumerable streams
memories of the days and nights of delicate pleasure that the grove had often seen still haunted the bewildered paths and broken fountains at the foot of a rocky eminence crowned with the ruins of apollo's temple which had been mysteriously destroyed by fire just after julian had restored and reconsecrated it hermes sat down beside a gushing spring
and gave himself up to sadness how beautiful the world would be how joyful how easy to live in without religion these questions about unseen things perhaps about unreal things these restraints and duties and sacrifices if i were only free from them all and could only forget them all then i could live my life as i pleased and be happy
why not said a quiet voice at his back he turned and saw an old man with a long beard and a threadbare cloak the garb affected by the pagan philosophers standing behind him and smiling curiously how is it that you answer that which has not been spoken said hermes and who are you that honour me with your company
forgive the intrusion answered the stranger it is not ill-meant a friendly interest is as good as an introduction but to what singular circumstance do i owe this interest to your face said the old man with a courteous inclination perhaps also a little to the fact that i am the oldest inhabitant here and feel as if all visitors were my guests in a way
are you then one of the keepers of the grove and have you given up your work with the trees to take a holiday as a philosopher not at all the robe of philosophy is a mere affectation i must confess i think little of it my profession is the care of altars in fact i am that solitary priest of apollo whom the emperor julian found here
when he came to revive the worship of the grove some twenty years ago you have heard of the incident yes said hermes beginning to be interested the whole city must have heard of it for it is still talked of but surely it was a strange sacrifice that you brought to celebrate the restoration of apollo's temple
you mean the goose well perhaps it was not precisely what the emperor expected but it was all that i had and it seemed to me not inappropriate you will agree to that if you are a christian as i guess from your dress
you speak lightly for a priest of apollo oh as for that i am no bigot the priesthood is a professional matter and the name of apollo is as good as any other how many altars do you think there have been in this grove
i do not know just four-and-twenty including that of the martyr babulus whose ruined chapel you see just beyond us i have had something to do with most of them in my time they are transitory they give employment to caretakers for a while but the thing that lasts and the thing that interests me is the human life that plays around them the game has been going on for centuries
it still disports itself very pleasantly on summer evenings through these shady walks believe me for i know daphne and apollo were shadows but the flying maidens and the pursuing lovers the music and the dances these are the realities life is the game and the world keeps it up merrily
but you-you are of a sad countenance for one so young and so fair are you a loser in the game the words and tone of the speaker fitted hermes's mood as a key fits the lock he opened his heart to the old man and told him the story of his life his luxurious boyhood in his father's house the irresistible spell which compelled him to forsake it when he heard john's preaching of the new religion
Showing 281–300 of 684 · page 15 of 35
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