diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42816-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42816-0.txt | 5723 |
1 files changed, 5723 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/42816-0.txt b/42816-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64bd34a --- /dev/null +++ b/42816-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5723 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42816 *** + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://archive.org/details/unveilingparalle00jone + + +Transcriber's note: + + The oe-ligature is represented by [oe] (example: ph[oe]nix). + + + + + +UNVEILING A PARALLEL. + +A Romance + +[Illustration] + +by + +TWO WOMEN OF THE WEST + + + + + + + +Copyright 1893, +by +Arena Publishing Company. + +All rights reserved. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + Chapter I. A Remarkable Acquaintance 5 + Chapter II. A Woman 28 + Chapter III. The Auroras' Annual 59 + Chapter IV. Elodia 88 + Chapter V. The Vaporizer 106 + Chapter VI. Cupid's Gardens 124 + Chapter VII. New Friends 147 + Chapter VIII. A Talk With Elodia 157 + Chapter IX. Journeying Upward 190 + Chapter X. The Master 220 + Chapter XI. A Comparison 248 + + + + +Chapter 1. + +A REMARKABLE ACQUAINTANCE. + + "A new person is to me always a great event, and + hinders me from sleep." + --EMERSON. + + +You know how certain kinds of music will beat everything out of your +consciousness except a wild delirium of joy; how love of a woman will +take up every cranny of space in your being,--and fill the universe +beside,--so that people who are not en rapport with the strains that +delight you, or with the beauty that enthralls you, seem pitiable +creatures, not in touch with the Divine Harmony, with Supreme +Loveliness. + +So it was with me, when I set my feet on Mars! My soul leaped to its +highest altitude and I had but one vast thought,--"I have triumphed; I +am here! And I am alone; Earth is unconscious of the glory that is +mine!" + +I shall not weary you with an account of my voyage, since you are more +interested in the story of my sojourn on the red planet than in the +manner of my getting there. + +It is not literally red, by the way; that which makes it appear so at +this distance is its atmosphere,--its "sky,"--which is of a soft +roseate color, instead of being blue like ours. It is as beautiful as +a blush. + +I will just say, that the time consumed in making the journey was +incredibly brief. Having launched my aeroplane on the current of +attraction which flows uninterruptedly between this world and that, +traveling was as swift as thought. My impression is that my speed was +constantly accelerated until I neared my journey's end, when the +planet's pink envelope interposed its soft resistance to prevent a +destructive landing. + +I settled down as gently as a dove alights, and the sensation was the +most ecstatic I have ever experienced. + +When I could distinguish trees, flowers, green fields, streams of +water, and people moving about in the streets of a beautiful city, it +was as if some hitherto unsuspected chambers of my soul were flung +open to let in new tides of feeling. + +My coming had been discovered. A college of astronomers in an +observatory which stands on an elevation just outside the city, had +their great telescope directed toward the Earth,--just as our +telescopes were directed to Mars at that time,--and they saw me and +made me out when I was yet a great way off. + +They were able to determine the exact spot whereon I would land, about +a mile distant from the observatory, and repaired thither with all +possible speed,--and they have very perfect means of locomotion, +superior even to our electrical contrivances. + +Before I had time to look about me, I found myself surrounded, and +unmistakably friendly hands outheld to welcome me. + +There were eight or ten of the astronomers,--some young, some +middle-aged, and one or two elderly men. All of them, including the +youngest, who had not even the dawn of a beard upon his chin, and the +oldest, whose hair was silky white, were strikingly handsome. Their +features were extraordinarily mobile and expressive. I never saw a +more lively interest manifest on mortal countenances than appeared on +theirs, as they bent their glances upon me. But their curiosity was +tempered by a dignified courtesy and self-respect. + +They spoke, but of course I could not understand their words, though +it was easy enough to interpret the tones of their voices, their +manner, and their graceful gestures. I set them down for a people who +had attained to a high state of culture and good-breeding. + +I suddenly felt myself growing faint, for, although I had not fasted +long, a journey such as I had just accomplished is exhausting. + +Near by stood a beautiful tree on which there was ripe fruit. Some one +instantly interpreted the glance I involuntarily directed to it, and +plucked a cluster of the large rich berries and gave them to me, first +putting one in his own mouth to show me that it was a safe experiment. + +While I ate,--I found the fruit exceedingly refreshing,--the company +conferred together, and presently one of the younger men approached +and took me gently by the arm and walked me away toward the city. The +others followed us. + +We had not to go farther than the first suburb. My companion, whom +they called Severnius, turned into a beautiful park, or grove, in the +midst of which stood a superb mansion built of dazzling white stone. +His friends waved us farewells with their hands,--we responding in +like manner,--and proceeded on down the street. + +I learned afterwards that the park was laid out with scientific +precision. But the design was intricate, and required study to follow +the curves and angles. It seemed to me then like an exquisite mood of +nature. + +The trees were of rare and beautiful varieties, and the shrubbery of +the choicest. The flowers, whose colors could not declare +themselves,--it being night,--fulfilled their other delightful +function and tinctured the balmy air with sweet odors. + +Paths were threaded like white ribbons through the thick greensward. + +As we walked toward the mansion, I stopped suddenly to listen to a +most musical and familiar and welcome sound,--the plash of water. My +companion divined my thought. We turned aside, and a few steps brought +us to a marble fountain. It was in the form of a chaste and lovely +female figure, from whose chiseled fingers a shower of glittering +drops continually poured. Severnius took an alabaster cup from the +base of the statue, filled it, and offered me a drink. The water was +sparkling and intensely cold, and had the suggestion rather than the +fact of sweetness. + +"Delicious!" I exclaimed. He understood me, for he smiled and nodded +his head, a gesture which seemed to say, "It gives me pleasure to know +that you find it good." I could not conceive of his expressing himself +in any other than the politest manner. + +We proceeded into the house. How shall I describe that house? Imagine +a place which responds fully to every need of the highest culture and +taste, without burdening the senses with oppressive luxury, and you +have it! In a word, it was an ideal house and home. Both outside and +inside, white predominated. But here and there were bits of color the +most brilliant, like jewels. I found that I had never understood the +law of contrast, or of economy in art; I knew nothing of "values," or +of relationships in this wonderful realm, of which it maybe truly +said, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." + +I learned subsequently that all Marsians of taste are sparing of rich +colors, as we are of gems, though certain classes indulge in +extravagant and gaudy displays, recognizing no law but that which +permits them to have and to do whatsoever they like. + +I immediately discovered that two leading ideas were carried out in +this house; massiveness and delicacy. There was extreme solidity in +everything which had a right to be solid and stable; as the walls, and +the supporting pillars, the staircases, the polished floors, and some +pieces of stationary furniture, and the statuary,--the latter not too +abundant. Each piece of statuary, by the way, had some special reason +for being where it was; either it served some practical purpose, or it +helped to carry out a poetical idea,--so that one was never taken +aback as by an incongruity. + +Some of the floors were of marble, in exquisite mosaic-work, and +others were of wood richly inlaid. The carpets were beautiful, but +they were used sparingly. When we sat down in a room a servant usually +brought a rug or a cushion for our feet. And when we went out under +the trees they spread carpets on the grass and put pillows on the +rustic seats. + +The decorations inside the house were the most airy and graceful +imaginable. The frescoes were like clouds penetrated by the rarest +tints,--colors idealized,--cunningly wrought into surpassingly lovely +pictures, which did not at once declare the artist's intention, but +had to be studied. They were not only an indulgence to the eye, but a +charming occupation for the thoughts. In fact, almost everything about +the place appealed to the higher faculties as well as to the senses. + +There comes to us, from time to time, a feeling of disenchantment +toward almost everything life has to offer us. It never came to me +with respect to Severnius' house. It had for me an interest and a +fascination which I was never able to dissect, any more than you would +be able to dissect the charm of the woman you love. + +With all its fine artistic elaborations, there was a simplicity about +it which made it possible for the smallest nature to measure its +capacity there, as well as the greatest. The proper sort of a +yardstick for all uses has inch-marks. + +Severnius took me upstairs and placed a suite of rooms at my command, +and indicated to me that he supposed I needed rest, which I did +sorely. But I could not lie down until I had explored my territory. + +The room into which I had been ushered, and where Severnius left me, +closing the noiseless door behind him, looked to me like a pretty +woman's boudoir,--almost everything in it being of a light and +delicate color. The walls were cream-tinted, with a deep frieze of a +little darker shade, relieved by pale green and brown decorations. The +wood work was done in white enamel paint. The ceiling was sprinkled +with silver stars. Two or three exquisite water-colors were framed in +silver, and the andirons, tongs and shovel, and the fender round the +fire-place, and even the bedstead, were silver-plated. + +The bed, which stood in an alcove, was curtained with silk, and had +delicacies of lace also, as fine and subtle as Arachne's web. The +table and a few of the chairs looked like our spindle-legged +Chippendale things. And two or three large rugs might have been of +Persian lamb's wool. A luxurious couch was placed across one corner of +the room and piled with down cushions. An immense easy chair, or +lounging chair, stood opposite. + +The dressing table, of a peculiarly beautiful cream-colored wood, was +prettily littered with toilet articles in carved ivory or silver +mountings. Above it hung a large mirror. There was a set of shelves +for books and bric-a-brac; a porphyry lamp-stand with a lamp dressed +in an exquisite pale-green shade; a chiffonier of marquetry. + +The mantel ornaments were vases of fine pottery and marble statuettes. +A musical instrument lay on a low bamboo stand. I could not play upon +it, but the strings responded sweetly to the touch. + +A little investigation revealed a luxurious bath-room. I felt the need +of a bath, and turned on the water and plunged in. As I finished, a +clock somewhere chimed the hour of midnight. + +Before lying down, I put by the window draperies and looked out. I was +amazed at the extreme splendor of the familiar constellations. Owing +to the peculiarity of the atmosphere of Mars, the night there is +almost as luminous as our day. Every star stood out, not a mere +twinkling eye, or little flat, silver disk, but a magnificent sphere, +effulgent and supremely glorious. + +Notwithstanding that it was long before I slept, I awoke with the day. +I think its peculiar light had something to do with my waking. I did +not suppose such light was possible out of heaven! It did not dazzle +me, however; it simply filled me, and gave me a sensation of peculiar +buoyancy. + +I had a singular feeling when I first stepped out of bed,--that the +floor was not going to hold me. It was as if I should presently be +lifted up, as a feather is lifted by a slight current of air skimming +along on the ground. But I soon found that this was not going to +happen. My feet clung securely to the polished wood and the soft wool +of the rug at the bedside. I laughed quietly to myself. In fact I was +in the humor to laugh. I felt so happy. Happiness seemed to be a +quality of the air, which at that hour was particularly charming in +its freshness and its pinkish tones. + +I had made my ablutions and was taking up my trousers to put them on, +when there was a tap at the door and Severnius appeared with some soft +white garments, such as he himself wore, thrown over his arm. In the +most delicate manner possible, he conveyed the wish that I might feel +disposed to put them on. + +I blushed,--they seemed such womanish things. He misinterpreted my +confusion. He assured me by every means in his power that I was +entirely welcome to them, that it would give him untold pleasure to +provide for my every want. I could not stand out against such +generosity. I reached for the things--swaddling clothes I called +them--and Severnius helped me to array myself in them. I happened to +glance into the mirror, and I did not recognize myself. I had some +sense of how a barbarian must feel in his first civilized suit. + +At my friend's suggestion I hung my own familiar apparel up in the +closet,--you may imagine with what reluctance. + +But I may say, right here, that I grew rapidly to my new clothes. I +soon liked them. There was something very graceful in the cut and +style of them. + +They covered and adorned the body without disguising it. They left the +limbs and muscles free and encouraged grace of pose and movement. + +The elegant folds in which the garments hung from the shoulders and +the waist, the tassels and fringes and artistic drapery arrangements, +while seemingly left to their own caprice, were as secure in their +place as the plumage of a bird,--which the wind may ruffle but cannot +displace. + +I suspect that it requires a great deal of skill to construct a +Marsian costume, whether for male or female. They are not altogether +dissimilar; the women's stuffs are of a little finer quality +ordinarily, but their dress is not usually so elaborately trimmed as +the men's garb, which struck me as very peculiar. Both sexes wear +white, or a soft cream. The fabric is either a sort of fine linen, or +a mixture of silk and wool. + +After Severnius and I came to understand each other, as comrades and +friends, he laughingly compared my dress, in which I had made my first +appearance, to the saddle and housings of a horse. He declared that he +and his friends were not quite sure whether I was a man or a beast. +But he was too polite to give me the remotest hint, during our early +acquaintance, that he considered my garb absurd. + +When, having completed my toilet, I indicated to him that I was ready +for the next thing on the program,--which I sincerely hoped might be +breakfast,--he approached me and taking my hand placed a gold ring on +my finger. It was set with a superb rubellite enhanced with pearls. +The stone was the only bit of color in my entire dress. Even my shoes +were of white canvas. + +I thanked him as well as I was able for this especial mark of favor. I +was pleased that he had given me a gem not only beautiful, but +possessing remarkable qualities. I held it in a ray of sunlight and +turned it this way and that, to show him that I was capable of +appreciating its beauties and its peculiar characteristics. + +He was delighted, and I had the satisfaction of feeling that I had +made a good impression upon him. + +He led the way down-stairs, and luckily into the breakfast room. + +We were served by men dressed similarly to ourselves, though their +clothing was without trimming and was of coarser material than ours. +They moved about the room swiftly and noiselessly. Motion upon that +planet seems so natural and so easy. There is very little inertia to +overcome. + +Our meal was rather odd; it consisted of fruits, some curiously +prepared cereals, and a hot palatable drink. No meat. + +After this light but entirely satisfactory repast we ascended the +grand stairway--a marvel of beauty in its elaborate carvings--and +entered a lofty apartment occupying a large part of the last _etage_. + +I at first made out that it was a place devoted to the fine arts. I +had noticed a somewhat conspicuous absence, in the rooms below, of the +sort of things with which rich people in our country crowd their +houses. I understood now, they were all marshaled up here. + +There were exquisitely carved vessels of all descriptions, bronzes, +marbles, royal paintings, precious minerals. + +Here also were the riches of color. + +The brilliant morning light came through the most beautiful windows I +have ever seen, even in our finest cathedrals. The large central +stained glasses were studded round with prisms that played +extraordinary pranks with the sunbeams, which, as they glanced from +them, were splintered into a thousand scintillating bits, as splendid +as jewels. + +We sat down, I filled--I do not know why--with a curious sense of +expectancy that was half awe. + +Across one end of the great room was stretched a superb curtain of +tapestry,--a mosaic in silk and wool. + +Severnius did not make any other sign or gesture to me except the one +that bade me be seated. + +I watched him wonderingly but furtively. He seemed to be composing +himself, as I have seen saintly people compose themselves in church. +Not that he was saintly; he did not strike me as being that kind of a +man, though there was that about him which proclaimed him to be a good +man, whose friendship would be a valuable acquisition. + +He folded his hands loosely in his lap and sat motionless, his glance +resting serenely on one of the great windows for a time and then +passing on to other objects equally beautiful. + +We were still enwrapped in this august silence when I became conscious +that somewhere, afar off, beyond the tapestry curtain, there were +stealing toward us strains of unusual, ineffable music, tantalizingly +sweet and vague. + +Gradually the almost indistinguishable sounds detached themselves +from, and rose above, the pulsing silence,--or that unappreciable +harmony we call silence,--and swelled up among the arches that ribbed +the lofty ceiling, and rolled and reverberated through the great dome +above, and came reflected down to us in refined and sublimated +undulations. + +Our souls--my soul,--in this new wonder and ecstasy I forgot +Severnius,--awoke in responsive raptures, inconceivably thrilling and +exalted. + +I did not need to be told that it was sacred music, it invoked the +Divine Presence unmistakably. No influence that had ever before been +trained upon my spiritual senses had so compelled to adoration of the +Supreme One who holds and rules all worlds. + + "He lifts me to the golden doors; + The flashes come and go; + All heaven bursts her starry floors, + And strows her lights below, + And deepens on and up! the gates + Roll back. * * * *" + +This I murmured, and texts of our scriptures, and fragments of +anthems. It was as if I brought my earthly tribute to lay on this +Marsian shrine. + +The gates did roll back, the heavens were broken up, new spiritual +heights were shown to me, up which my spirit mounted. + +I looked at Severnius. His eyes were closed. His face, lighted as by +an inner illumination, and his whole attitude, suggested a "waiting +upon God," that + + "Intercourse divine, + Which God permits, ordains, across the line." + +There stole insensibly upon the sound-burdened air, the hallowed +perfume of burning incense. + +I conjectured, and truly as I afterward learned, that I was in my +friend's private sanctuary. It was his spiritual lavatory, in which he +made daily ablutions. A service in which the soul lays aside the forms +necessary in public worship and stands unveiled before its God. + +It was a rare honor he paid me, in permitting me to accompany him. And +he repeated it every morning during my stay in his house, except on +one or two occasions. It speedily became almost a necessity to me. You +know how it is when you have formed a habit of exercising your muscles +in a gymnasium. If you leave it off, you are uncomfortable, you have a +feeling that you have cheated your body out of its right. It was so +with me, when for any reason I was obliged to forego this higher +exercise. I was heavy in spirit, my conscience accused me of a wrong +to one of the "selfs" in me,--for we have several selfs, I think. + +There was not always music. Sometimes a wonderful voice chanted psalms +and praises, and recited poems that troubled the soul's deepest +waters. At first I did not understand the words, of course, but the +intonations spoke to me the same as music does. And I felt that I knew +what the words expressed. + +Often there was nothing there but The Presence, which hushed our +voices and set our souls in tune with heavenly things. No matter, I +was fed and satisfied. + +At the end of a sweet half-hour, the music died away, and we rose and +passed out of the sacred place. I longed to question Severnius, but +was powerless. + +He led the way down into the library, which was just off the wide +entrance hall. Books were ranged round the walls on shelves, the same +as we dispose ours. But they were all bound in white cloth or white +leather. + +The lettering on the backs was gold. + +I took one in my hand and flipped its leaves to show Severnius that I +knew what a book was. He was delighted. He asked me, in a language +which he and I had speedily established between ourselves, if I would +not like to learn the Marsian tongue. I replied that it was what I +wished above all things to do. We set to work at once. His teaching +was very simple and natural, and I quickly mastered several important +principles. + +After a little a servant announced some visitors, and Severnius went +out into the hall to receive them. He left the door open, and I saw +that the visitors were the astronomers I had met the night before. +They asked to see me, and Severnius ushered them into the library. I +stood up and shook hands with each one, as he advanced, and repeated +their own formula for "How do you do!" which quite amused them. I +suppose the words sounded very parrot-like,--I did not know where to +put the accent. They congratulated me with many smiles and +gesticulations on my determination to learn the language,--Severnius +having explained this fact to them. He also told them that I had +perhaps better be left to myself and him until I had mastered it, when +of course I should be much more interesting to them and they to me. +They acquiesced, and with many bows and waves of the hand, withdrew. + +The language, I found, was not at all difficult,--not so arbitrary as +many of our modern languages. It was similar in form and construction +to the ancient languages of southern Europe. The proper names had an +almost familiar sound. That of the country I was in was Paleveria. The +city was called Thursia, and there was a river flowing through +it,--one portion of Severnius' grounds, at the back of the house, +sloped to it,--named the Gyro. + + + + +Chapter 2. + +A WOMAN. + + "Her face so fair, as flesh it seemed not, + But heavenly portrait of bright angels hew, + Clear as the skye withouten blame or blot, + Through goodly mixture of complexion's dew; + And in her cheeks the vermeil red did shew + Like roses in a bed of lillies shed. + * * * * * + In her faire eyes two living lamps did flame." + --SPENSER. + + +Thus far, I had seen no women. I was curious on this point, and I was +not kept long in suspense. Late in the afternoon of the day following +my arrival, Severnius and I went out to walk about the grounds, and +were returning through an avenue of eucalyptus trees,--of a variety +more wide-spreading in their branches than any I have seen in our +country,--when a person alighted from a carriage in the _porte +cochere_ and, instead of entering the house, came to meet us. It was a +woman. Though it was not left to her dress, nor her stature,--she was +nearly as tall as myself,--to proclaim that fact; her grace and +carriage would have determined her sex, if her beautiful face had not. +She advanced swiftly, with long, free steps. Her white dress, similar +in cut and style to ours, was relieved only by a girdle studded with +gems. She carried a little white parasol with a gold fringe, and wore +no head-gear to crush down her beautifully massed hair. + +I felt myself growing red under her lively gaze, and attributed it to +my clothes. I was not accustomed to them yet, and I felt as you would +to appear before a beautiful woman in your night shirt. Especially if +you fancied you saw something in her eyes which made you suspect that +she thought you cut a ludicrous figure. Of course that was my +imagination, my apparel, in her eyes, must have been correct, since it +was selected from among his best by my new friend, who was +unmistakably a man of taste. + +Her face, which was indescribably lovely, was also keenly +intelligent,--that sort of intelligence which lets nothing escape, +which is as quick to grasp a humorous situation as a sublime truth. It +was a face of power and of passion,--of, I might say, manly +self-restraint,--but yet so soft! + +I now observed for the first time the effect of the pinkish atmosphere +on the complexion. You have seen ladies in a room where the light came +through crimson hangings or glass stained red. So it was here. + +Severnius smiled, spoke, and gave her his hand. The glance they +bestowed upon each other established their relationship in my mind +instantly. I had seen that glance a thousand times, without suspecting +it had ever made so strong an impression upon me that in a case like +this I should accept its evidence without other testimony. They were +brother and sister. I was glad of that, for the reason, I suppose, +that every unmarried man is glad to find a beautiful woman +unmarried,--there are seductive possibilities in the situation. + +Severnius did his best to introduce us. He called her Elodia. I +learned afterwards that ladies and gentlemen in that country have no +perfunctory titles, like Mrs., or Mr., they support their dignity +without that. It would have seemed belittling to say "Miss" Elodia. + +I had a feeling that she did not attach much importance to me, that +she was half amused at the idea of me; a peculiar tilting-up of her +eyebrows told me so, and I was piqued. It seemed unfair that, simply +because she could not account for me, she should set me down as +inferior, or impossible, or ridiculous, whichever was in her mind. She +regarded me as I have sometimes regarded un-English foreigners in the +streets of New York. + +She indulged her curiosity about me only for a moment, asking a few +questions I inferred, and then passed me over as though she had more +weighty matters in hand. I knew, later on, that she waived me as a +topic of conversation when her brother insisted upon talking about me, +saying half impatiently, "Wait till he can talk and explain himself, +Severnius,--since you say he is going to learn our speech." + +I studied her with deep interest as we walked along, and no movement +or accent of hers was lost upon me. Once she raised her hand--her wide +sleeve slipped back and bared a lovely arm--to break off a long +scimeter-shaped leaf from a bough overhead. Quicker than thought I +sprang at the bough and snapped off the leaf in advance of her, and +presented it with a low obeisance. She drew herself up with a look of +indignant surprise, but instantly relented as though to a person whose +eccentricities, for some reason or other, might better be excused. She +did not, however, take the leaf,--it fluttered to the ground. + +She was not like any other woman,--any woman I had ever seen before. +You could not accuse her of hauteur, yet she bore herself like a royal +personage, though with no suggestion of affecting that sort of an air. +You had to take her as seriously as you would the Czar. I saw this in +her brother's attitude toward her. There was none of that +condescension in his manner that there often is in our manner toward +the women of our households. I began to wonder whether she might not +be the queen of the realm! But she was not. She was simply a private +citizen. + +She sat at the dinner table with us, and divided the honors equally +with Severnius. + +I wish I could give you an idea of that dinner,--the dining-room, the +service, the whole thing! It surpassed my finest conceptions of taste +and elegance. + +We sat down not merely to eat,--though I was hungry enough!--but to +enjoy ourselves in other ways. + +There was everything for the eye to delight in. The room was rich in +artistic decorations upon which the rarest talent must have been +employed. The table arrangements were superb; gold and silver, +crystal, fine china, embroidered linen, flowers. And the food, served +in many courses, was a happy combination of the substantial and the +delicate. There was music--not too near--of a bright and lively +character. Music enters largely into the life of these people. It +seemed to me that something beat time to almost everything we did. + +The conversation carried on between the brother and sister--in which I +could take no more part than a deaf-mute--was, I felt sure, extremely +entertaining if not important. My eyes served me well,--for one sense +is quick to assume the burdens of another,--and I knew that the talk +was not mere banter, nor was it simply the necessary exchange of words +and opinions about everyday matters which must take place in families +periodically, concerning fuel, and provisions, and servants, and +water-tax, and the like. It took a much higher range. The faces of +both were animated, their eyes beamed brightly upon each other. It was +clear that the brother did not talk down to her understanding, rather +he talked up to it,--or no, they were on a level with each other, the +highest level of both, for they held each other up to their best. +However, Elodia had been away for a couple of days, I learned, and +absence gives a bloom of newness which it is delightful to brush off. + +I did not detect any of the quality we call chivalry in Severnius' +pose, nor of its complement in hers. Though one would hardly expect +that between brothers and sisters anywhere. Still, we have a way with +our near women relations which never ignores the distinction between +the sexes; we humor them, patronize them, tyrannize over them. And +they defer to, and exalt us, and usually acknowledge our superiority. + +It was not so with this pair. They respected and honored each other +equally. And there was a charming _camaraderie_ between them, the same +as if they had both been men--or women, if you single out the right +kind. + +They held widely different opinions upon many subjects, but they never +crowded them upon each other. Their tastes were dissimilar. For one +thing, Elodia had not her brother's fine religious sense. She seldom +entered the sanctuary, though once or twice I saw her there, seated +far apart from Severnius and myself. + +Stimulated by the hope of some day being able to talk with her, and of +convincing her that I was a person not altogether beneath her +intelligence, I devoted myself, mind and soul, to the Paleverian +language. In six weeks I could read and write it fairly well. + +Severnius was untiring in his teaching; and every day strengthened my +regard for him as a man. He was an accomplished scholar, and he was as +clean-souled as a child,--but not weakly or ignorantly so. He knew +evil as well as good; but he renounced the one and accepted the other. +He was a man "appointed by Almighty God to stand for a fact." And I +never knew him to weaken his position by defending it. Often we spent +hours in the observatory together. It was a glorious thing to me to +watch the splendid fleet of asteroids sailing between Jupiter and +Mars, and to single out the variously colored moons of Jupiter, and to +distinguish with extraordinary clearness a thousand other wonders but +dimly seen from the Earth. + +Even to study the moons of Mars, the lesser one whirling round the +planet with such astonishing velocity, was a world of entertainment to +me. + +I had begged Severnius not to ask me to see any visitors at all until +I could acquit myself creditably in conversation. He agreed, and I +saw no one. I believe that in those weeks of quiet study, observation, +and close companionship of one noble man, my soul was cleared of much +dross. I lived with books, Severnius, and the stars. + +At last, I no longer feared to trust myself to speak, even to Elodia. +It was a great surprise to her, and evidently a pleasure too. + +My first brilliant attempt was at the dinner table. Severnius adroitly +drew me into a conversation about our world. Elodia turned her +delightful gaze upon me so frankly and approvingly that I felt myself +blushing like a boy whom his pretty Sabbath-school teacher praises +with her smile when he says his text. + +Up to that time, although she had been polite to me,--so entirely +polite that I never for a moment felt myself an intruder in her +home,--she apparently took no great interest in me. But now she +voluntarily addressed me whenever we met, and took pains to draw me +out. + +Once she glanced at a book I was reading, a rather heavy work, and +smiled. + +"You have made astonishing progress," she said. + +"I have had the best of instructors," I replied. + +"Ah, yes; Severnius has great patience. And besides, he likes you. And +then of course he is not wholly disinterested, he wants to hear about +your planet." + +"And do you?" I asked foolishly. I wanted somehow to get the +conversation to running in a personal channel. + +"O, of course," she returned indifferently, "though I am not an +astronomer. I should like to hear something about your people." + +I took that cue joyfully, and soon we were on very sociable terms with +each other. She listened to my stories and descriptions with a most +flattering interest, and I soon found myself worshiping her as a +goddess. Yes, as a goddess, not a woman. Her entire lack of coquetry +prevented me from making love to her, or would have prevented me if I +had dared to have such a thought. If there could have been anything +tender between us, I think she must have made the advances. But this +is foolish. I am merely trying to give you some idea of the kind of +woman she was. But I know that I cannot do that; the quality of a +woman must be felt to be understood. + +There was a great deal of social gayety in Thursia. We went out +frequently, to opera, to concert, and to crowded gatherings in +splendid homes. I observed that Elodia immediately became the centre +of interest wherever she appeared. She gave fresh zest to every +amusement or conversation. She seemed to dignify with her presence +whatever happened to be going on, and made it worth while. Not that +she distinguished herself in speech or act; she had the effect of +being infinitely greater than anything she did or said and one was +always looking out for manifestations of that. She kept one's interest +in her up to the highest pitch. I often asked myself, "Why is it that +we are always looking at her with a kind of inquiry in our +glances?--what is it that we expect her to do?" + +It was a great part of her charm that she was not _blasé_. She was +full of interest in all about her, she was keenly and delightfully +alive. Her manners were perfect, and yet she seemed careless of +etiquette and conventions. Her good manners were a part of herself, as +her regal carriage was. + +It was her unvarying habit, almost, to spend several hours down town +every day. I ventured to ask Severnius wherefore. + +He replied that she had large business interests, and looked carefully +after them herself. + +I expressed astonishment, and Severnius was equally surprised at me. I +questioned him and he explained. + +"My father was a banker," he said, "and very rich. My sister inherited +his gift and taste for finance. I took after my mother's family, who +were scientists. We were trained, of course, in our early years +according to our respective talents. At our parents' death we +inherited their fortune in equal shares. Elodia was prepared to take +up my father's business where he left it. In fact he had associated +her with himself in the business for some time previous to his +departure, and she has carried it on very successfully ever since." + +"She is a banker!" said I. + +"Yes. I, myself, have always had a liking for astronomy, and I have +been employed, ever since I finished my education, in the State +Observatory." + +"And how do you employ your capital?" I asked. + +"Elodia manages it for me. It is all in the bank, or in investments +which she makes. I use my dividends largely in the interest of +science. The State does a great deal in that direction, but not +enough." + +"And what, may I ask, does she do with her surplus,--your sister, I +mean,--she must make a great deal of money?" + +"She re-invests it. She has a speculative tendency, and is rather +daring; though they tell me she is very safe--far-sighted, or +large-sighted, I should call it. I do not know how many great +enterprises she is connected with,--railroads, lines of steamers, +mining and manufacturing operations. And besides, she is +public-spirited. She is much interested in the cause of +education,--practical education for the poor especially. She is +president of the school board here in the city, and she is also a +member of the city council. A great many of our modern improvements +are due to her efforts." + +My look of amazement arrested his attention. + +"Why are you so surprised?" he asked. "Do not your women engage in +business?" + +"Well, not to such an extraordinary degree," I replied. "We have women +who work in various ways, but there are very few of them who have +large business interests, and they are not entrusted with important +public affairs, such as municipal government and the management of +schools!" + +"Oh!" returned Severnius with the note of one who does not quite +understand. "Would you mind telling me why? Is it because they are +incapable, or--unreliable?" + +Neither of the words he chose struck me pleasantly as applied to my +countrywomen. I remembered that I was the sole representative of the +Earth on Mars, and that it stood me in hand to be careful about the +sort of impressions I gave out. It was as if I were on the witness' +stand, under oath. Facts must tell the story, not opinions,--though +personally I have great confidence in my opinions. I thought of our +government departments where women are the experts, and of their +almost spotless record for faithfulness and honesty, and replied: + +"They are both capable and reliable, in as far as they have had +experience. But their chances have been circumscribed, and I believe +they lack the inclination to assume grave public duties. I fear I +cannot make you understand,--our women are so different, so unlike +your sister." + +Elodia was always my standard of comparison. + +"Perhaps you men take care of them all," suggested Severnius, "and +they have grown dependent. We have some such women here." + +"No, I do not think it is that entirely," said I. "For in my city +alone, more than a hundred and seventy thousand women support not +only themselves, but others who are dependent upon them." + +"Ah, indeed! but how?" + +"By work." + +"You mean servants?" + +"Not so-called. I mean intelligent, selfrespecting women; teachers, +clerks, stenographers, type-writers." + +"I should think it would be more agreeable, and easier, for them to +engage in business as our women do." + +"No doubt it would," I replied, feeling myself driven to a close +scrutiny of the Woman Question, as we call it, for the first time in +my life. For I saw that my friend was deeply interested and wanted to +get at the literal truth. "But the women of my country," I went on, +"the self-supporting ones, do not have control of money. They have a +horror of speculation, and shrink from taking risks and making +ventures, the failure of which would mean loss or ruin to others. A +woman's right to make her living is restricted to the powers within +herself, powers of brain and hand. She is a beginner, you know. She +has not yet learned to make money by the labor of others; she does +not know how to manipulate those who are less intelligent and less +capable than herself, and to turn their ignorance and helplessness to +her own account. Perhaps I had better add that she is more religious +than man, and is sustained in this seeming injustice by something she +calls conscience." + +Severnius was silent for a moment; he had a habit of setting his +reason to work and searching out explanations in his own mind, of +things not easily understood. + +As a rule, the Marsians have not only very highly developed physical +faculties, such as sight and hearing, but remarkably acute intellects. +They let no statement pass without examination, and they scrutinize +facts closely and seek for causes. + +"If so many women," said he, "are obliged to support themselves and +others beside, as you say, by their work simply, they must receive +princely wages,--and of course they have no responsibilities, which is +a great saving of energy." + +I remembered having heard it stated that in New York City, the United +States Bureau gives the average of women's wages--leaving out +domestic service and unskilled labor--as five dollars and eighty-five +cents per week. I mentioned the fact, and Severnius looked aghast. + +"What, a mere pittance!" said he. "Only about a third as much as I +give my stableman. But then the conditions are different, no doubt. +Here in Thursia that would no more than fight off the wolf, as we +say,--the hunger and cold. It would afford no taste of the better +things, freedom, leisure, recreation, but would reduce life to its +lowest terms,--mere existence." + +"I fear the conditions are much the same with us," I replied. + +"And do your women submit to such conditions,--do they not try to +alter them, throw them off?" + +"They submit, of course," I said; "I never heard of a revolt or an +insurrection among them! Though there seems to be growing up among +them, lately, a determination strong as death, to work out of those +conditions as fast as may be. They realize--just as men have been +forced to realize in this century--that work of the hands cannot +compete with work of machines, and that trained brains are better +capital than trained fingers. So, slowly but surely, they are reaching +up to the higher callings and working into places of honor and trust. +The odds are against them, because the 'ins' always have a tremendous +advantage over the 'outs.' The women, having never been in, must +submit to a rigid examination and extraordinary tests. They know that, +and they are rising to it. Whenever, it is said, they come into +competition with men, in our colleges and training schools, they hold +their own and more." + +"What are they fitting for?" asked Severnius. + +"Largely for the professions. They are becoming doctors, lawyers, +editors, artists, writers. The enormous systems of public schools in +my own and other countries is entirely in their hands,--except of +course in the management and directorship." + +"Except in the management and directorship?" echoed Severnius. + +"Of course they do not provide and disburse the funds, see to the +building of school-houses, and dictate the policy of the schools!" I +retorted. "But they teach them; you can hardly find a male teacher +except at the head of a school,--to keep the faculty in order." + +Severnius refrained from comment upon this, seeing, I suppose, that I +was getting a little impatient. He walked along with his head down. I +think I neglected to say that we were taking a long tramp into the +country, as we often did. In order to change the conversation, I asked +him what sort of a government they had in Paleveria, and was delighted +when he replied that it was a free republic. + +"My country is a republic also," I said, proudly. + +"We both have much to be thankful for," he answered. "A republic is +the only natural government in the world, and man cannot get above +nature." + +I thought this remark rather singular,--at variance with progress and +high civilization. But I let it pass, thinking to take it up at some +future time. + +"How do you vote here?" I asked. "What are your qualifications and +restrictions?" + +"Briefly told," he replied. "Every citizen may vote on all public +questions, and in all elections." + +"But what constitutes citizenship?" + +"A native-born is a citizen when he or she reaches maturity. +Foreigners are treated as minors until they have lived as long under +the government as it takes for a child to come of age. It is thus," he +added, facetiously, "that we punish people for presuming to be born +outside our happy country." + +"Excuse me," I said, "but do I understand you to say that your women +have the right of suffrage?" + +"Assuredly. Do not yours?" + +"Indeed no!" I replied, the masculine instinct of superiority swelling +within me. + +Severnius wears spectacles. He adjusted them carefully on his nose and +looked at me. + +"But did you not tell me just now that your country is a republic?" + +"It is, but we do not hold that women are our political equals," I +answered. + +His face was an exclamation and interrogation point fused into one. + +"Indeed! and how do you manage it,--how, for instance, can you prevent +them from voting?" + +"O, they don't often try it," I said, laughing. "When they do, we +simply throw their ballots out of the count." + +"Is it possible! That seems to me a great unfairness. However, it can +be accounted for, I suppose, from the fact that things are so +different on the Earth to what they are here. Our government, you see, +rests upon a system of taxation. We tax all property to defray +governmental expenses, and for many other purposes tending toward the +general good; which makes it necessary that all our citizens shall +have a voice in our political economy. But you say your women have no +property, and so--" + +"I beg your pardon!" I interposed; "I did not say that. We have a +great many very rich women,--women whose husbands or fathers have left +them fortunes." + +"Then they of course have a vote?" + +"They do not. You can't make a distinction like that." + +"No? But you exempt their property, perhaps?" + +"Of course not." + +"Do you tell me that you tax property, to whatever amount, and for +whatever purpose, you choose, without allowing the owner her +fractional right to decide about either the one or the other?" + +"Their interests are identical with ours," I replied, "so what is the +difference? We men manage the government business, and I fancy we do +it sufficiently well." + +I expanded my chest after this remark, and Severnius simply looked at +me. I think that at that moment I suffered vicariously in his scornful +regard for all my countrymen. + +I did not like the Socratic method he had adopted in this +conversation, and I turned the tables on him. + +"Do your women hold office, other than in the school board and the +council?" I asked. + +"O, yes, fully half our offices are filled by women." + +"And you make no discrimination in the kind of office?" + +"The law makes none; those things adjust themselves. Fitness, +equipment, are the only things considered. A woman, the same as a man, +is governed by her taste and inclination in the matter of +office-holding. Do women never take a hand in state affairs on the +Earth?" + +"Yes, in some countries they do,--monarchies. There have been a good +many women sovereigns. There are a few now." + +"And are they successful rulers?" + +"Some are, some are not." + +"The same as men. That proves that your women are not really +inferior." + +"Well, I should say not!" I retorted. "Our women are very superior; we +treat them more as princesses than as inferiors,--they are angels." + +I was carried away in the heat of resentment, and knew that what I had +said was half cant. + +"I beg your pardon!" said Severnius quickly; "I got a wrong +impression from your statements. I fear I am very stupid. Are they all +angels?" + +I gave him a furtive glance and saw that he was in earnest. His brows +were drawn together with a puzzled look. + +I had a sudden vision of a scene in Five Points; several groups of +frowsled, petticoated beings, laughing, joking, swearing, quarreling, +fighting, and drinking beer from dirty mugs. + +"No, not all of them," I replied, smiling. "That was a figure of +speech. There are so many classes." + +"Let us confine our discussion to one, then," he returned. "To the +women who might be of your own family; that will simplify matters. And +now tell me, please, how this state of things came about, this +subjection of a part of your people. I cannot understand it,--these +subjects being of your own flesh and blood. I should think it would +breed domestic discontent, where some of the members of a family wield +a power and enjoy a privilege denied to the others. Fancy my shaking +a ballot over Elodia's head!" + +"O, Elodia!" I said, and was immediately conscious that my accent was +traitorous to my countrywomen. I made haste to add, + +"Your sister is--incomparable. She is unusual even here. I have seen +none others like her." + +"How do you mean?" + +"I mean that she is as responsible as a man; she is not inconsequent." + +"Are your women inconsequent?" + +"They have been called so, and we think it rather adds to their +attractiveness. You see they have always been relieved of +responsibility, and I assure you the large majority of them have no +desire to assume it,--I mean in the matter of government and +politics." + +"Yes?" + +I dislike an interrogative "yes," and I made no reply. Severnius +added, + +"I suppose they have lost the faculty which you say they lack,--the +faculty that makes people responsible,--through disuse. I have seen +the same thing in countries on the other side of our globe, where +races have been held as slaves for several centuries. They seem to +have no ideas about personal rights, or liberties, as pertaining to +themselves, and no inclination in that direction. It always struck me +as being the most pathetic feature of their condition that they and +everybody else accepted it as a matter of course, as they would a law +of nature. In the place of strength and self-assertion there has come +to them a dumb patience, or an unquestioning acquiescence like that of +people born blind. Are your women happy?" + +"You should see them!" I exclaimed, with certain ball-room memories +rushing upon me, and visions of fair faces radiant with the joy of +living. But these were quickly followed by other pictures, and I felt +bound to add, "Of late, a restless spirit has developed in certain +circles,--" + +"The working circles, I suppose," interrupted Severnius. "You spoke of +the working women getting into the professions." + +"Not those exclusively. Even the women of leisure are not so satisfied +as they used to be. There has been, for a great many years, more or +less chaffing about women's rights, but now they are beginning to take +the matter seriously." + +"Ah, they are waking up, perhaps?" + +"Yes, some of them are waking up,--a good many of them. It is a little +ridiculous, when one thinks of it, seeing they have no power to +enforce their 'rights', and can never attain them except through the +condescension of men. Tell me, Severnius, when did your women wake +up?" + +Severnius smiled. "My dear sir, I think they have never been asleep!" + +We stalked along silently for a time; the subject passed out of my +mind, or was driven out by the beauties of the landscape about us. I +was especially impressed with the magnificence of the trees that +hedged every little patch of farm land, and threw their protecting +arms around houses and cottages, big and little; and with the many +pellucid streams flowing naturally, or divided like strands of silk +and guided in new courses, to lave the roots of trees or run through +pasture lands where herds were feeding. + +A tree is something to be proud of in Paleveria, more than a fine +residence; more even than ancient furniture and cracked china. Perhaps +because the people sit out under their trees a great deal, and the +shade of them has protected the heads of many generations, and they +have become hallowed through sacred memories and traditions. In +Paleveria they have tree doctors, whose business it is to ward off +disease, heal wounded or broken boughs, and exterminate destructive +insects. + +Severnius startled me suddenly with another question: + +"What, may I ask, is your theory of Man's creation?" + +"God made Man, and from one of his ribs fashioned woman," I replied +catechetically. + +"Ours is different," said he. "It is this: A pair of creatures, male +and female, sprang simultaneously from an enchanted lake in the +mountain region of a country called Caskia, in the northern part of +this continent. They were only animals, but they were beautiful and +innocent. God breathed a Soul into them and they were Man and Woman, +equals in all things." + +"A charming legend!" said I. + +Later on I learned the full breadth of the meaning of the equality he +spoke of. At that time it was impossible for me to comprehend it, and +I can only convey it to you in a complete account of my further +experiences on that wonderful planet. + + + + +Chapter 3. + +THE AURORAS' ANNUAL. + + +It was winter, and snow was on the ground; white and sparkling, and as +light as eider-down. Elodia kept a fine stable. Four magnificent white +horses were harnessed to her sleigh, which was in the form of an +immense swan, with a head and neck of frosted silver. The body of it +was padded outside with white varnished leather, and inside with +velvet of the color of a dove's breast. The robes were enormous skins +of polar bears, lined with a soft, warm fabric of wool and silk. The +harness was bestrung with little silver bells of most musical and +merry tone; and all the trappings and accoutrements were superb. +Elodia had luxurious tastes, and indulged them. + +Every day we took an exhilarating drive. The two deep, comfortable +seats faced each other like seats in a landau. Severnius and I +occupied one, and Elodia the other; so that I had the pleasure of +looking at her whenever I chose, and of meeting her eyes in +conversation now and then, which was no small part of my enjoyment. +The mere sight of her roused the imagination and quickened the pulse. +Her eyes were unusually dark, but they had blue rays, and were as +clear and beautiful as agates held under water. In fact they seemed to +swim in an invisible liquid. Her complexion had the effect of +alabaster through which a pink light shines,--deepest in the cheeks, +as though they were more transparent than the rest of her face. Her +head, crowned with a fascinating little cap, rose above her soft furs +like a regal flower. She was so beautiful that I wondered at myself +that I could bear the sight of her. + +Strange to say, the weather was not cold, it was simply +bracing,--hardly severe enough to make the ears tingle. + +The roads were perfect everywhere, and we often drove into the +country. The horses flew over the wide white stretches at an +incredible speed. + +One afternoon when, at the usual hour, the coachman rang the bell and +announced that he was ready, I was greatly disappointed to find that +we were not to have Elodia. But I said nothing, for I was shy about +mentioning her name. + +When we were seated, Severnius gave directions to the driver. + +"Time yourself, Giddo, so that you will be at the Public Square at +precisely three o'clock," said he, and turned to me. "We shall want to +see the parade." + +"What parade?" I inquired. + +"Oh! has not Elodia told you? This is The Auroras' Annual,--a great +day. The parade will be worth seeing." + +In the excitement of the drive, and in my disappointment about not +having Elodia with us, I had almost forgotten about The Auroras' +Annual, when three o'clock came. I had seen parades in New York City, +until the spectacle had calloused my sense of the magnificent, and I +very much doubted whether Mars had anything new to offer me in that +line. + +Punctual to the minute, Giddo fetched up at the Square,--among a +thousand or so of other turnouts,--with such a flourish as all Jehus +love. We were not a second too soon. There was a sudden burst of +music, infinitely mellowed by distance; and as far up the street as +the eye could well reach there appeared a mounted procession, +advancing slowly. Every charger was snow white, with crimped mane and +tail, long and flowing, and with trappings of various colors +magnificent in silver blazonry. + +The musicians only were on foot. They were beating upon drums and +blowing transcendent airs through silver wind instruments. I do not +know whether it was some quality of the atmosphere that made the +strains so ravishing, but they swept over one's soul with a rapture +that was almost painful. I could hardly sit still, but I was held down +by the thought that if I should get up I would not know what to do. It +is a peculiar sensation. + +On came the resplendent column with slow, majestic movement; and I +unconsciously kept time with the drums, with Browning's stately lines +on my tongue, but unspoken: + + "Steady they step adown the slope, + Steady they climb the hill." + +There was no hill, but a very slight descent. As they drew nearer the +splendor of the various uniforms dazzled my eyes. You will remember +that everything about us was white; the buildings all of white stone +or brick, the ground covered with snow, and the crowds of people +lining the streets all dressed in the national color, or no-color. + +There were several companies in the procession, and each company wore +distinguishing badges and carried flags and banners peculiar to +itself. + +The housings on the horses of the first brigade were of yellow, and +all the decorations of the riders corresponded; of the second pale +blue, and of the third sky-pink. The uniforms of the riders were +inconceivably splendid; fantastic and gorgeous head-gear, glittering +belts, silken scarfs and sashes, badges and medals flashing with gems, +and brilliant colors twisted into strange and curious devices. + +As the first division was about to pass, I lost my grip on myself and +half started to my feet with a smothered exclamation, "Elodia!" + +Severnius put out his hand as though he were afraid I was going to +leap out of the sleigh, or do something unusual. + +"What is it?" he cried, and following my gaze he added, "Yes, that is +Elodia in front; she is the Supreme Sorceress of the Order of the +Auroras." + +"The--_what_!" + +"Don't be frightened," he laughed; "the word means nothing,--it is +only a title." + +I could not believe him when I looked at the advancing figure of +Elodia. She sat her horse splendidly erect. Her fair head was crowned +with a superb diadem of gold and topazes, with a diamond star in the +centre, shooting rays like the sun. Her expression was grave and +lofty; she glanced neither to right nor left, but gazed straight +ahead--at nothing, or at something infinitely beyond mortal vision. +Her horse champed its bits, arched its beautiful neck, and stepped +with conscious pride; dangling the gold fringe on its sheeny yellow +satin saddle-cloth, until one could hardly bear the sight. + +"The words mean nothing!" I repeated to myself. "It is not so; +Severnius has deceived me. His sister is a sorceress; a--I don't know +what! But no woman could preserve that majestic mien, that proud +solemnity of countenance, if she were simply--playing! There is a +mystery here." + +I scrutinized every rider as they passed. There was not a man among +them,--all women. Their faces had all borrowed, or had tried to +borrow, Elodia's queenly look. Many of them only burlesqued it. None +were as beautiful as she. + +When it was all over, and the music had died away in the distance, we +drove off,--Giddo threading his way with consummate skill, which +redounded much to his glory in certain circles he cared for, through +the crowded thoroughfares. + +I could not speak for many minutes, and Severnius was a man upon whom +silence always fell at the right time. I never knew him to break in +upon another's mood for his own entertainment. Nor did he spy upon +your thoughts; he left you free. By-and-by, I appealed to him: + +"Tell me, Severnius, what does it mean?" + +"This celebration?" returned he. "With pleasure. Giddo, you may drive +round for half an hour, and then take us to the Auroras' Temple,--it +is open to visitors to-day." + +We drew the robes closely, and settled ourselves more comfortably, as +we cleared the skirts of the crowd. It was growing late and the air +was filled with fine arrows of frost, touched by the last +sunbeams,--their sharp little points stinging our faces as we were +borne along at our usual lively speed. + +"This society of the Auroras," said Severnius, "originated several +centuries ago, in the time of a great famine. In those days the people +were poor and improvident, and a single failure in their crops left +them in a sorry condition. Some of the wealthiest women of the +country banded themselves together and worked systematically for the +relief of the sufferers. Their faces appeared so beautiful, and beamed +with such a light of salvation as they went about from hut to hut, +that they got the name of 'auroras' among the simple poor. And they +banished want and hunger so magically, that they were also called +'sorcerers'." + +"O, then, it is a charitable organization?" I exclaimed, much +relieved. + +"It was," replied Severnius. "It was in active operation for a hundred +or so years. Finally, when there was no more need of it, the State +having undertaken the care of its poor, it passed into a sentiment, +such as you have seen to-day." + +"A very costly and elaborate sentiment," I retorted. + +"Yes, and it is growing more so, all the time," said he. "I sometimes +wonder where it is going to stop! For those who, like Elodia, have +plenty of money, it does not matter; but some of the women we saw in +those costly robes and ornaments can ill afford them,--they mean less +of comfort in their homes and less of culture to their children." + +"I should think their husbands would not allow such a waste of money," +I said, forgetting the social economy of Mars. + +"It does not cost any more than membership in the orders to which the +husbands themselves belong," returned he. "They argue, of course, that +they need the recreation, and also that membership in such hightoned +clubs gives them and their children a better standing and greater +influence in society." + +Severnius did not forget his usual corollary,--the question with which +he topped out every explanation he made about his country and people. + +"Have you nothing of the sort on the Earth?" he asked. + +"Among the women?--we have not," I answered. + +"I did not specify," he said. + +"O, well, the men have," I admitted; "I belong to one such +organization myself,--the City Guards." + +"And you guard the city?" + +"No; there is nothing to guard it against at present. It's a +'sentiment,' as you say." + +"And do you parade?" + +"Yes, of course, upon occasion,--there are certain great anniversaries +in our nation's history when we appear." + +"And why not your women?" + +I smiled to myself, as I tried to fancy some of the New York ladies I +knew, arrayed in gorgeous habiliments for an equestrian exhibition on +Broadway. I replied, + +"Really, Severnius, the idea is entirely new to me. I think they would +regard it as highly absurd." + +"Do they regard you as absurd?" he asked, in that way of his which I +was often in doubt about, not knowing whether he was in earnest or +not. + +"I'm sure I do not know," I said. "They may,--our women have a keen +relish for the ludicrous. Still, I cannot think that they do; they +appear to look upon us with pride. And they present us with an +elaborate silken banner about once a year, stitched together by their +own fair fingers and paid for out of their own pocket money. That does +not look as though they were laughing at us exactly." + +I said this as much to convince myself as Severnius. + +The half-hour was up and we were at the Temple gate. The building, +somewhat isolated, reared itself before us, a grand conception in +chiseled marble, glinting in the brilliant lights shot upon it from +various high points. Already it was dark beyond the radius of these +lights,--neither of the moons having yet appeared. + +Severnius dismissed the sleigh, saying that we would walk home,--the +distance was not far,--and we entered the grounds and proceeded to +mount the flight of broad steps leading up to the magnificent +arched entrance. The great carved doors,--the carvings were +emblematic,--swung back and admitted us. The Temple was splendidly +illuminated within, and imagination could not picture anything more +imposing than the great central hall and winding stairs, visible all +the way up to the dome. + +Below, on one side of this lofty hall, there were extensive and +luxurious baths. Severnius said the members of the Order were fond of +congregating here,--and I did not wonder at that; nothing that +appertains to such an establishment was lacking. Chairs and sofas that +we would call "Turkish," thick, soft rugs and carpets, pictures, +statuary, mirrors, growing plants, rare flowers, books, musical +instruments. And Severnius told me the waters were delightful for +bathing. + +The second story consisted of a series of spacious rooms divided from +each other by costly portieres, into which the various emblems and +devices were woven in their proper tinctures. + +All of these rooms were as sumptuously furnished as those connected +with the baths; and the decorations, I thought, were even more +beautiful, of a little higher or finer order. + +In one of the rooms a lady was playing upon an instrument resembling a +harp. She dropped her hands from the strings and came forward +graciously. + +"Perhaps we are intruding?" said Severnius. + +"Ah, no, indeed," she laughed, pleasantly; "no one could be more +welcome here than the brother of our Supreme Sorceress!" + +"Happy the man who has a distinguished sister!" returned he. + +"I am unfortunate," she answered with a slight blush. "Severnius is +always welcome for his own sake." + +He acknowledged the compliment, and with a certain reluctance, I +thought, said, "Will you allow me, Claris, to introduce my +friend--from another planet?" + +She took a swift step toward me and held out her hand. + +"I have long had a great curiosity to meet you, sir," she said. + +I bowed low over her hand and murmured that her curiosity could not +possibly equal the pleasure I felt in meeting her. + +She gave Severnius a quick, questioning look. I believe she thought he +had told me something about her. He let her think what she liked. + +"How is it you are here?" he asked. + +"You mean instead of being with the others?" she returned. "I have not +been well lately, and I thought--or my husband thought--I had better +not join the procession. I am awaiting them here." + +As she spoke, I noticed that she was rather delicate looking. She was +tall and slight, with large, bright eyes, and a transparent +complexion. If Elodia had not filled all space in my consciousness I +think I should have been considerably interested in her. I liked her +frank, direct way of meeting us and talking to us. We soon left her +and continued our explorations. + +I wanted to ask Severnius something about her, but I thought he +avoided the subject. He told me, however, that her husband, Massilia, +was one of his closest friends. And then he added, "I wonder that she +took his advice!" + +"Why so," I asked; "do not women here ever take their husbands' +advice?" + +"Claris is not in the habit of doing so," he returned with, I thought, +some severity. And then he immediately spoke of something else quite +foreign to her. + +The third and last story comprised an immense hall or assembly room, +and rows of deep closets for the robes and paraphernalia of the +members of the Order. In one of these closets a skeleton was suspended +from the ceiling and underneath it stood a coffin. On a shelf were +three skulls with their accompanying cross-bones, and several +cruel-looking weapons. + +Severnius said he supposed these hideous tokens were employed in the +initiation of new members. It seemed incredible. I thought that, if it +were so, the Marsian women must have stronger nerves than ours. + +A great many beautiful marble columns and pillars supported the roof +of the hall, and the walls had a curiously fluted appearance. There +was a great deal of sculpture, not only figures, but flowers, vines, +and all manner of decorations,--even draperies chiseled in marble that +looked like frozen lace, with an awful stillness in their ghostly +folds. There was a magnificent canopied throne on an elevation like an +old-fashioned pulpit, and seats for satellites on either side, and at +the base. If I had been alone, I would have gone up and knelt down +before the throne,--for of course that was where Elodia sat,--and I +would have kissed the yellow cushion on which her feet were wont to +rest when she wielded her jeweled scepter. The scepter, I observed, +lay on the throne-chair. + +There was an orchestra, and there were "stations" for the various +officials, and the walls were adorned with innumerable cabalistic +insignia. I asked Severnius if he knew the meaning of any of them. + +"How should I know?" he replied in surprise. "Only the initiates +understand those things." + +"Then these women keep their secrets," said I. + +"Yes, to be sure they do," he replied. + +The apartment to the right, on the entrance floor, opposite the baths, +was the last we looked into, and was a magnificent banquet hall. A +servant who stood near the door opened it as though it had been the +door of a shrine, and no wonder! It was a noble room in its dimensions +and in all its unparalleled adornments and appurtenances. + +The walls and ceiling bristled with candelabra all alight. The tables, +set for a banquet, held everything that could charm the eye or tempt +the appetite in such a place. + +I observed a great many inverted stemglasses of various exquisite +styles and patterns, including the thin, flaring goblets, as delicate +as a lily-cup, which mean the same thing to Marsians as to us. + +"Do these women drink champagne at their banquets?" I asked, with a +frown. + +"O, yes," replied Severnius. "A banquet would be rather tame without, +wouldn't it? The Auroras are not much given to drink, ordinarily, but +on occasions like this they are liable to indulge pretty freely." + +"Is it possible!" I could say no more than this, and Severnius went +on: + +"The Auroras, you see, are the cream of our society,--the +_elite_,--and costly drinks are typical, in a way, of the highest +refinement. Do you people never drink wine at your social gatherings?" + +"The men do, of course, but not the women," I replied in a tone which +the whole commonwealth of Paleveria might have taken as a rebuke. + +"Ah, I fear I shall never be able to understand!" said he. "It is very +confusing to my mind, this having two codes--social as well as +political--to apply separately to members of an identical community. I +don't see how you can draw the line so sharply. It is like having two +distinct currents in a river-bed. Don't the waters ever get mixed?" + +"You are facetious," I returned, coldly. + +"No, really, I am in earnest," said he. "Do no women in your country +ever do these things,--parade and drink wine, and the like,--which you +say you men are not above doing?" + +I replied with considerable energy: + +"I have never before to-day seen women of any sort dress themselves up +in conspicuous uniforms and exhibit themselves publicly for the avowed +purpose of being seen and making a sensation, except in circuses. And +circus women,--well, they don't count. And of course we have a class +of women who crack champagne bottles and even quaff other fiery +liquors as freely as men, but I do not need to tell you what kind of +creatures those are." + +At that moment there were sounds of tramping feet outside, and the +orchestra filed in at the farther end of the _salon_ and took their +places on a high dais. At a given signal every instrument was in +position and the music burst forth, and simultaneously the banqueters +began to march in. They had put off their heavy outside garments but +retained their ornaments and insignia. Their white necks and arms +gleamed bewitchingly through silvered lace. They moved to their places +without the least jostling or awkwardness, their every step and motion +proving their high cultivation and grace. + +"We must get out of here," whispered Severnius in some consternation. +But a squad of servants clogged the doorway and we were crowded +backward, and in the interest of self-preservation we took refuge in a +small alcove behind a screen of tall hot-house plants with enormous +leaves and fronds. + +"Good heavens! what shall we do?" cried Severnius, beginning to +perspire. + +"Let us sit down," said I, who saw nothing very dreadful in the +situation except that it was warm, and the odor of the blossoms in +front of us was overpowering. There was a bench in the alcove, and we +seated ourselves upon it,--I with much comfort, for it was a little +cooler down there, and my companion with much fear. + +"Would it be a disgrace if we were found here?" I asked. + +"I would not be found here for the world!" replied Severnius. "It +would not be a disgrace, but it would be considered highly improper. +Or, to put it so that you can better understand it, it would be the +same as though they were men and we women." + +"That is clear!" said I; and I pictured to myself two charming New +York girls of my acquaintance secreting themselves in a hall where we +City Guards were holding a banquet,--ye gods! + +As the feast progressed, and as my senses were almost swept away by +the scent of the flowers, I sometimes half fancied that it _was_ the +City Guards who were seated at the tables. + +During the first half-hour everything was carried on with great +dignity, speakers being introduced--this occurred in the interim +between courses--in proper order, and responding with graceful and +well-prepared remarks, which were suitably applauded. But after the +glasses had been emptied a time or two all around, there came a change +with which I was very familiar. Jokes abounded and jolly little songs +were sung,--O, nothing you would take exception to, you know, if they +had been men; but women! beautiful, cultivated, charming women, with +eyes like stars, with cheeks that matched the dawn, with lips that you +would have liked to kiss! And more than this: the preservers of our +ideals, the interpreters of our faith, the keepers of our consciences! +I felt as though my traditionary idols were shattered, until I +remembered that these were not my countrywomen, thank heaven! + +Severnius was not at all surprised; he took it all as a matter of +course, and was chiefly concerned about how we were going to get out +of there. It was more easily accomplished than we could have imagined. +The elegant candelabra were a cunningly contrived system of electric +lights, and, as sometimes happens with us, they went out suddenly and +left the place in darkness for a few convenient seconds. "Quick, now!" +cried Severnius with a bound, and there was just time for us to make +our escape. We had barely reached the outer door when the whole +building was ablaze again. + +Severnius offered no comments on the events of the evening, except to +say we were lucky to get out as we did, and of course I made none. At +my suggestion we stopped at the observatory and spent a few hours +there. Lost among the stars, my soul recovered its equilibrium. I have +found that little things cease to fret when I can lift my thoughts to +great things. + +It must have been near morning when I was awakened by the jingling of +bells, and a sleigh driving into the _porte cochere_. A few moments +later I heard Elodia and her maid coming up the stairs. Her maid +attended her everywhere, and stationed herself about like a dummy. She +was the sign always that Elodia was not far off; and I am sure she +would have laid down her life for her mistress, and would have +suffered her tongue to be cut out before she would have betrayed her +secrets. I tell you this to show you what a power of fascination +Elodia possessed; she seemed a being to be worshiped by high and low. + +Severnius and I ate our breakfast alone the following morning. The +Supreme Sorceress did not get up, nor did she go down town to attend +to business at all during the day. At lunch time she sent her maid +down to tell Severnius that she had a headache. + +"Quite likely," he returned, as the girl delivered her message; "but I +am sorry to hear it. If there is anything I can do for her, tell her +to let me know." + +The girl made her obeisance and vanished. + +"We have to pay for our fun," said Severnius with a sigh. + +"I should not think your sister would indulge in such 'fun'!" I +retorted as a kind of relief to my hurt sensibilities, I was so +cruelly disappointed in Elodia. + +"Why my sister in particular?" returned he with a look of surprise. + +"Well, of course, I mean all those women,--why do they do such things? +It is unwomanly, it--it is disgraceful!" + +I could not keep the word back, and for the first time I saw a flash +of anger in my friend's eyes. + +"Come," said he, "you must not talk like that! That term may have a +different signification to you, but with us it means an insult." + +I quickly begged his pardon and tried to explain to him. + +"Our women," I said, "never do things of that sort, as I have told +you. They have no taste for them and no inclination in that +direction,--it is against their very nature. And if you will forgive +me for saying so, I cannot but think that such indulgence as we +witnessed last night must coarsen a woman's spiritual fibre and dull +the fine moral sense which is so highly developed in her." + +"Excuse me," interposed Severnius. "You have shown me in the case of +your own sex that human nature is the same on the Earth that it is on +Mars. You would not have me think that there are two varieties of +human nature on your planet, corresponding with the sexes, would you? +You say 'woman's' spiritual fibre and fine moral sense, as though she +had an exclusive title to those qualities. My dear sir, it is +impossible! you are all born of woman and are one flesh and one blood, +whether you are male or female. I admit all you say about the +unwholesome influence of such indulgence as wine drinking, late hours, +questionable stories and songs,--a night's debauch, in fact, which it +requires days sometimes to recover from,--but I must apply it to men +as well as women; neither are at their best under such conditions. I +think," he went on, "that I begin to understand the distinction which +you have curiously mistaken for a radical difference. Your women, you +say, have always been in a state of semi-subjection--" + +"No, no," I cried, "I never said so! On the contrary, they hold the +very highest place with us; they are honored with chivalrous devotion, +cared for with the tenderest consideration. We men are their slaves, +in reality, though they call us their lords; we work for them, endure +hardships for them, give them all that we can of wealth, luxury, ease. +And we defend them from danger and save them every annoyance in our +power. They are the queens of our hearts and homes." + +"That may all be," he replied coolly, "but you admit that they have +always been denied their political rights, and it follows that their +social rights should be similarly limited. Long abstinence from the +indulgences which you regard as purely masculine, has resulted in a +habit merely, not a change in their nature." + +"Then thank heaven for their abstinence!" I exclaimed. + +"That is all very well," he persisted, "but you must concede that in +the first place it was forced upon them, and that was an injustice, +because they were intelligent beings and your equals." + +"They ought to thank us for the injustice, then," I retorted. + +"I beg your pardon! they ought not. No doubt they are very lovely and +innocent beings, and that your world is the better for them. But they, +being restricted in other ways by man's authority, or his wishes, or +by fear of his disfavor perhaps, have acquired these gentle qualities +at the expense of--or in the place of--others more essential to the +foundation of character; I mean strength, dignity, self-respect, and +that which you once attributed to my sister,--responsibility." + +I was bursting with indignant things which I longed to say, but my +position was delicate, and I bit my tongue and was silent. + +I will tell you one thing, my heart warmed toward my gentle +countrywomen! With all their follies and frivolities, with all their +inconsistencies and unaccountable ways, their whimsical fancies and +petty tempers, their emotions and their susceptibility to new isms +and religions, they still represented my highest and best ideals. And +I thought of Elodia, sick upstairs from her last night's carousal, +with contempt. + + + + +Chapter 4. + +ELODIA. + + "If to her lot some female errors fall, + Look to her face and you'll forget them all." + --POPE. + + +My contempt for Elodia vanished at the first intimation of her +presence. I had expected to meet her with an air of cold superiority, +but when she entered the dining-room that evening with her usual +careless aplomb, the glance with which she favored me reduced me to my +customary attitude toward her,--that of unquestioning admiration. Our +physical nature is weak, and this woman dominated my senses +completely, with her beauty, with her melodious voice, her singular +magnetic attraction, and every casual expression of her face. + +On that particular evening, her dress was more than ordinarily +becoming, I thought. She had left off some of the draperies she +usually wore about her shoulders, and her round, perfect waist was +more fully disclosed in outline. She was somewhat pale, and her eyes +seemed larger and darker than their wont, and had deeper shadows. And +a certain air of languor that hung about her was an added grace. She +had, however, recovered sufficiently from the dissipations of the day +before to make herself uncommonly agreeable, and I never felt in a +greater degree the charm and stimulus of her presence and +conversation. + +After dinner she preceded us into the parlor,--which was unusual, for +she was always too sparing of her society, and the most we saw of her +was at dinner or luncheon time,--and crossed over to an alcove where +stood a large and costly harp whose strings she knew well how to +thrum. + +"Elodia, you have never sung for our friend," said Severnius. + +She shook her head, and letting her eyes rest upon me +half-unconsciously--almost as if I were not there in fact, for she had +a peculiar way of looking at you without actually seeing you,--she +went on picking out the air she had started to play. I subjoined a +beseeching look to her brother's suggestive remark, but was not sure +she noted it. But presently she began to sing and I dropped into a +chair and sat spell-bound. Her voice was sweet, with a quality that +stirred unwonted feelings; but it was not that alone. As she stood +there in the majesty of her gracious womanhood, her exquisite figure +showing at its best, her eyes uplifted and a something that meant +power radiating from her whole being, I felt that, do what she might, +she was still the grandest creature in that world to me! + +Soon after she had finished her song, while I was still in the thrall +of it, a servant entered the room with a packet for Severnius, who +opened and read it with evident surprise and delight. + +"Elodia!" he cried, "those friends of mine, those Caskians from +Lunismar, are coming to make us a visit." + +"Indeed!" she answered, without much enthusiasm, and Severnius turned +to me. + +"It is on your account, my friend, that I am to be indebted to them +for this great pleasure," he explained. + +"On my account?" said I. + +"Yes, they have heard about you, and are extremely anxious to make +your acquaintance?" + +"They must be," said Elodia, "to care to travel a thousand miles or so +in order to do it." + +"Who are they, pray?" I asked. + +"They are a people so extraordinarily good," she said with a laugh, +"so refined and sublimated, that they cast no shadow in the sun." + +Severnius gave her a look of mild protest. + +"They are a race exactly like ourselves, outwardly," he said, "who +inhabit a mountainous and very picturesque country called Caskia, in +the northern part of this continent." + +"O, that is where the Perfect Pair came from," I rejoined, remembering +what he had told me about Man's origin on Mars. + +Elodia smiled. "Has Severnius been entertaining you with our religious +fables?" she asked. I glanced at him and saw that he had not heard; +he was finishing his letter. + +"You will be interested in these Caskians," he said to me animatedly +as he folded it up; "I was. I spent some months in Lunismar, their +capital, once, studying. They have rare facilities for reading the +heavens there,--I mean of their own contrivance,--beside their natural +advantages; their high altitude and the clearness of the air." + +"And they name themselves after the planetoids and other heavenly +bodies," interjected Elodia, "because they live so near the stars. +What is the name of the superlative creature you were so charmed with, +Severnius?" + +"I suppose you mean my friend Calypso's wife, Clytia," returned he. + +"O, yes, I remember,--Clytia. Is she to favor us?" + +"Yes, and her husband and several others." + +"Any other women?" + +"One or two, I think." + +"And how are we to conduct ourselves during the visitation?" + +"As we always do; you will not find that they will put any constraint +upon you." + +"No, hardly," said Elodia, with a slight curl of the lip. + +I was eager to hear more about these singular people,--the more eager, +perhaps, because the thought of them seemed to arouse Elodia to an +unwonted degree of feeling and interest. Her eyes glowed intensely, +and the color flamed brightly in her cheeks. + +I pressed a question or two upon Severnius, and he responded: + +"According to the traditions and annals of the Caskians, they began +many thousands of years ago to train themselves toward the highest +culture and most perfect development of which mankind is capable. +Their aim was nothing short of the Ideal, and they believed that the +ideal was possible. It took many centuries to counteract and finally +to eradicate hereditary evils, but their courage and perseverance did +not give way, and they triumphed. They have dropped the baser natural +propensities--" + +"As, in the course of evolution, it is said, certain species of +animals dropped their tails to become Man," interrupted Elodia. + +She rose from the divan on which she had gracefully disposed herself +when she quit playing, and glided from the room, sweeping a bow to us +as she vanished, before Severnius or I could interpose an objection to +her leaving us. Although there was never any appearance of haste in +her manner, she had a swift celerity of movement which made it +impossible to anticipate her intention. + +Severnius, however, did not care to interpose an objection, I think. +He felt somewhat hurt by her sarcastic comments upon his friends, and +he expanded more after she had gone. + +"You must certainly visit Lunismar before you leave Mars," he said. +"You will feel well repaid for the trouble. It is a beautiful city, +wonderful in its cleanness, in its dearth of poverty and squalor, and +in the purity and elevation of its social tone. I think you will wish +you might live there always." + +There seemed to be a regret in his voice, and I asked: + +"Why did not you remain there?" + +"Because of my sister," he answered. + +"But she will marry, doubtless." For some occult reason I hung upon +his reply to this. He shook his head. + +"I do not think she will," he said. "And she and I are all that are +left of our family." + +"She does not like,--or she does not believe in these Caskians?" I +hoped he would contradict me, and he did. I had come to found my +judgments of people and of things upon Elodia's, even against the +testimony of my reason. If she disapproved of her brother's +extraordinary friends and thought them an impossible people, why, +then, I knew I should have misgivings of them, too; and I wanted to +believe in them, not only on Severnius' account, but because they +presented a curious study in psychology. + +"O, yes, she does," he said. "She thinks that their principles and +their lives are all right for themselves, but would not be for her--or +for us; and our adoption of them would be simply apish. She is +genuine, and she detests imitation. She accepts herself--as she puts +it--as she found herself. God, who made all things, created her upon a +certain plane of life, and with certain tastes, faculties, passions +and propensities, and that it is not her office to disturb or distort +the order of His economy." + +"She does not argue thus in earnest," I deprecated. + +"It is difficult to tell when Elodia is in earnest," he replied. "She +thinks my sanctuary in the top story of the house here, is a kind of +weakness, because I brought the idea from Lunismar." + +"O, then, it is not common here in Thursia for people to have things +of that sort in their homes!" I said in surprise. + +"Yes, it has gotten to be rather common," he replied. + +"Since you put in yours?" + +He admitted that to be the case. + +"You must think that you have done your country a great good," I began +enthusiastically, "in introducing so beautiful an innovation, and--" + +"You are mistaken," he interrupted, "I think the contrary; because our +rich people, and some who are not rich but only ambitious, took it up +as a fad, and I believe it has really worked evil. It is considered +aristocratic to have one's own private shrine, and not to go to church +at all except in condescension, to patronize the masses. Elodia saw +clearly just how it would be, before I began to carry out my plan. She +has a logical mind, and her thought travels from one sequence to the +next with unfailing accuracy. I recall her saying that one cannot +superinduce the customs and habits of one society upon another of a +different order, without affectation; and that you cannot put on a new +religion, like a new garment, and feel yourself free in it." + +"Does she not believe, then, in progress, development?" + +"Only along the familiar lines. She thinks you can reach outward and +upward from your natural environment, but you must not tear yourself +out of it with violence. However, she admitted that my sanctuary was +well enough for me, because of my having lived among the Caskians and +studied their sublime ethics until I grew into the meanings of them. +But no person can take them second-hand from me, because I could not +bring away with me the inexpressible something which holds those +people together in a perfect Unit. I can go to Caskia and catch the +spirit of their religion, but I cannot bring Caskia here. It was a +mistake in so far as my neighbors are concerned, since they only see +in it, as I have said, a new fashion, a new diversion for their +ennuied thoughts." + +"What is there peculiar about the religion of those people?" I asked. + +"The most peculiar thing about it is that they live it, rather than +profess it," he replied. + +"I don't think I understand," said I, and after a moment's +consideration of the matter in his own mind, he tried to make his +meaning clear to me. + +"Do you often hear an upright man professing his honesty? It is a part +of himself. He is so free of the law which enjoins honesty that he +never gives it a thought. So with the man who is truly religious, he +has flung off the harness and no longer needs to guide himself by bit +and rein, or measure his conduct by the written code. My friends, the +Caskians, have emancipated themselves from the thraldom of the law by +absorbing its principles into themselves. It was like seed sown in the +ground, the germs burst from the husk and shot upward; they are +enjoying the flower and the fruit. That which all nations and peoples, +and all individuals, prize and desire above everything else in life, +is liberty. But I have seen few here in Paleveria who have any +conception of the vast spiritual meanings of the word. We limit it to +the physical; we say 'personal' liberty, as though that were all. You +admire the man of high courage, because in that one thing he is free. +So with all the virtues, named and unnamable; he is greatest who has +loosed himself the most, who weighs anchor and sails away triumphant +and free. But this is but a general picture of the Caskians; let me +particularize: we are forbidden to steal, by both our civil and +religious canons,--the coarseness of such a command would offend them +as much as a direct charge of theft would offend you or myself, so +exquisite is their sense of the rights of others, not only in the +matter of property but in a thousand subtle ways. Robbery in any form +is impossible with them. They would think it a crying sin for one to +take the slightest advantage of another,--nay, to neglect an +opportunity to assist another in the accomplishment of his rightful +purpose would be criminal. We, here on Mars, and you upon the Earth, +have discovered very sensitive elements in nature; they have +discovered the same in their own souls. Their perceptions are +singularly acute, their touch upon each other's lives finely delicate. +In this respect we compare with them as the rude blacksmith compares +with the worker in precious metals." + +"But do they also concern themselves with science?" I asked. + +"Assuredly," he answered. "Their inventions are remarkable, their +methods infinitely superior to ours. They believe in the triple +nature,--the spiritual, the intellectual, and the physical,--and take +equal pains in the development and culture of all." + +"How wonderful!" I said, remembering that upon the Earth we have waves +of culture breaking over the land from time to time, spasmodic, and +never the same; to-day it may be physical, to-morrow intellectual, and +by-and-by a superfine spiritual bloom. But, whichever it is, it +sacrifices the other two and makes itself supreme. + +Severnius went on. As he proceeded, I was struck by the fact that the +principles of our Christian civilization formed the basis of +Paleverian law. + +"I wanted to give you some other instances," he said, "of the +'peculiarities' of the Caskians, as we started out with calling them. +There is a law with us against bearing false witness; they hold each +other in such honor and in such tenderness, that the command is an +idle breath. There is nothing mawkish or sentimental about this, +however; they, in fact, make no virtue of it, any more than you or I +make a virtue of the things we do habitually--perhaps from unanalyzed +motives of policy. You would not strike a man if you knew he would hit +back and hurt you worse than he himself was hurt; well, these people +have sensibilities so finely developed, that a wrong done to another +reacts upon themselves with exquisite suffering. The law and its +penalties are both unseen forces, operating on an internal not an +external plane. With us, the authority which declares, 'Thou shalt not +commit adultery,' becomes powerless at the threshold of marriage. Like +other such laws which hold us together in an outward appearance of +decency and good order, it is a dead letter to them up to the point +where we drop and trample upon it; here they take it up and carry it +into their inmost lives and thoughts in a way almost too fine for us +to comprehend. Because we have never so much as dreamed of catching +the spirit of that law." + +"What do you mean?" I demanded, with a wide stare. + +"Why, that marriage does not sanction lust. The Caskians hold that the +exercise of the procreative faculty is a divine function, and should +never be debased to mere animal indulgence. It has been said upon +Divine Authority--as we believe--that if a man look upon a woman to +lust after her, he has committed adultery in his heart. The Caskians +interpret that to mean a man's wife, the same as any other woman, +because--they hold--one who owes his being to lust and passion +naturally inherits the evil and the curse, just as surely as though +wedlock had not concealed the crime. Their children are conceived in +immaculate purity." + +My look of prolonged amazement called out the usual question: + +"Have you no such class in any of your highly civilized countries?" + +"No, I think not. With us, children do not come in answer to an +intelligent desire for their existence, but are too often simply the +result of indulgence, and so unwelcome that their pre-natal life is +overshadowed by sorrow and crime." + +"Well," said he, "it is the same here; our people believe that +conception without lust is an impossibility in nature, and that +instances of it are supernatural. And certainly it is incredible +unless your mind can grasp the problem, or rather the great fact, of +a people engaged for centuries in eliminating the purely animal +instincts from their consciousness." + +After a moment he added: + +"In Caskia it would be considered shocking if a pair contemplating +marriage were to provide themselves with only one suite of rooms, to +be shared together day and night. Even the humblest people have their +respective apartments; they think such separateness is absolutely +essential to the perfect development of the individual,--for in the +main we each must stand alone,--and to the preservation of moral +dignity, and the fine sentiment and mutual respect which are almost +certain to be lost in the lawlessness of undue familiarity. The +relation between my friend Calypso and his wife is the finest thing I +ever saw; they are lovers on the highest plane. It would be an +impossibility for either of them to say or do a coarse or improper +thing in the other's presence, or to presume, in any of the +innumerable ways you and I are familiar with in our observations of +husbands and wives, upon the marriage bond existing between them. +This matter of animal passion," he went on, after a little pause, "has +been at the bottom of untold crimes, and unnumbered miseries, in our +land. I doubt if any other one thing has been prolific of more or +greater evils,--even the greed of wealth. Men, and women, too, have +sacrificed kingdoms for it, have bartered their souls for it. +Countless homes have been desolated because of it, countless lives and +hearts have been laid on its guilty altar. We ostracize the bastard; +he is no more impure than the offspring of legalized licentiousness, +and the law which protects the one and despises the other, cannot +discriminate in the matter of after effects, cannot annul or enforce +the curse of heredity. With these people the law of chastity is graven +in the inmost heart, and in this matter, as in all others, each +generation acknowledges its obligation to the next." + + + + +Chapter 5. + +THE VAPORIZER. + + "Portable ecstasies ... + corked up in a pint bottle." + --DE QUINCEY. + + +I was glad when spring came, when the trees began to bud, the grass to +grow, the flowers to bloom; for, of all the seasons, I like it +best,--this wonderful resurrection of life and sweetness! + +Thursia is a fine city,--not only in its costly and architecturally +and æsthetically perfect buildings, public and private, but in its +shaded avenues, its parks, lawns, gardens, fountains, its idyllic +statues, and its monuments to greatness. + +Severnius took pains to exhibit all its attractions to me, driving +with me slowly through the beautiful streets, and pointing out one +conspicuous feature and another. Of course there were some streets +which were not beautiful, but he avoided those as much as +possible,--as I have done myself when I have had friends visiting me +in New York. It is a compliment to your guest to show him the best +there is and to spare him the worst. + +But often, too, we took long walks through fields and woods. When +Elodia accompanied us, which she did a few times, the whole face of +nature smiled, and I thought Paleveria the most incomparably charming +country I had ever seen. Her presence gave importance to +everything,--the song of a bird, the opening of a humble little +flower, the babbling of water. But other things absorbed most of her +time,--we only got the scraps, the remnants. When she was with us she +relaxed, as though we were in some sort a recreation. She amused +herself with us just as I have seen a busy father amuse himself with +his family for an hour or so of an evening. And I think we really +planned our little theatricals of evening conversation for her,--at +least I did. I saved up whatever came to me of thought or incident to +give to her at the dinner table. And she appreciated it; her mind +bristled with keen points, upon which any ideas let loose were caught +in a flash. The sudden illumination of her countenance when a new +thing, or even an old thing in a new dress, was presented to her, was +of such value to me that I found myself laying traps for it, inventing +stories and incidents to touch her fancy. + +Besides her banking interests, over which she kept a close +surveillance, she had a great many other matters that required to be +looked after. As soon as the weather was fine enough, and business +activities in the city began to be redoubled, especially in the matter +of real estate, she made a point of driving about by herself to +inspect one piece of property and another, and to make plans and see +that they were carried out according to her ideas. And she was just as +conscientious in the discharge of her official duties. She was +constantly devising means for the betterment of the schools, both as +to buildings and methods of instruction. I believe she knew every +teacher personally,--and there must have been several thousand,--and +her relations with all of them were cordial and friendly. Her +approbation was a thing they strove for and valued,--not because of +her official position and the authority she held in her hands, but +because of a power which was innate in herself and that made her a +leader and a protector. + +But I was too selfish to yield my small right to her society,--the +right only of a guest in her house,--to these greater claims with +absolute sweetness and patience. + +"Why does she take all these things upon herself?" I asked of +Severnius. + +"Because she has a taste for them," he replied. "Or, as she would say, +a need of them. It is an internal hunger. It is her nature to exert +herself in these ways." + +"I cannot believe it is her nature; it is no woman's nature," I +retorted. "It is a habit which she has cultivated until it has got the +mastery of her." + +"Perhaps," returned Severnius, who was never much disposed to argue +about his sister's vagaries--as they seemed to me. + +"All this is mannish," I went on. "There are other things for women to +do. Why does she not give her time and attention to the softer +graces, to feminine occupations?" + +"I see," he laughed; "you want her to drop these weighty matters and +devote herself to amusing us! and you call that 'feminine.'" + +I joined in his laugh ruefully. + +"Perhaps I am narrow, and selfish, too," I admitted; "but she is so +charming, she brings so much into our conversations whenever we can +entice her to spend a moment with us." + +"Yes, that is true," he answered. "She gleans her ideas from a large +and varied field." + +"I do not mean her ideas, so much as--well, as the delicious flavor of +her presence and personality." + +"Her presence and her personality would not have much flavor, my +friend, if she had no ideas, I am thinking." + +"O, yes, they would," I insisted. "They are the ether in which our own +thoughts expand and take shape and color. They are the essence of her +supreme beauty." + +He shook his head. "Beauty is nothing without intelligence. What is +the camellia beside the rose? Elodia is the rose. She has several +pleasing qualities that appeal to you at one and the same time." + +This was rather pretty, but a man's praises of his sister always sound +tame to me. "She is adorable!" I cried with fervor. We were walking +toward a depot connected with a great railway. For the first time I +was to try the speed of a Marsian train. Severnius wanted me to visit +the city of Frambesco, some two hundred miles from Thursia, in another +state. + +After a short, ruminating silence I broke out again: + +"We don't even have her company evenings, to any extent. What does she +do with her evenings?" + +"Who? O, Elodia! Why, she goes to her club. For recreation, you know." + +"That is complimentary to you and me," I said coolly. + +He brought his spectacles to bear upon me somewhat sharply. + +"Don't you think you are a little unreasonable?" he demanded. "You +have curious ideas about individual liberty! Now, we hold that every +soul shall be absolutely free,--that is, in its relations to other +souls; it shall not be coerced by any other. It is as though souls +were stars suspended in space, each moving in its appointed orbit. No +one has the right to disturb the poise and equilibrium of another, not +even the one nearest it. That is a Caskian idea, by the way; about the +only one Elodia is enamored of. These souls, or spheres, are extremely +sensitive; and they may, and do, exert a tremendous influence, one +upon another,--but without violence." + +"Your meaning is clear," I said coldly. "My powers of attraction in +this case are feeble. Is the club you speak of composed entirely of +women?" + +"Certainly." + +"Do not the men here have clubs?" + +"O, yes; I belong to one, though I do not often attend. I will take +you to visit it,--I wonder I had not thought of it before! But those +things are disturbing; we scientists like to keep our minds clear, +like the lenses of our telescopes." + +"Is Elodia's club a literary one?" I asked, though I was almost sure +it was not. + +"O, no; it is for recreation purely, as I said. The same kind of a +club, I suppose, that you men have. Of course, they have the current +literature, which they skim over and discuss, so as to keep themselves +informed about what is going on in the world. It is the only way you +can keep up with the times, I think, for no one can read everything. +They have games and various diversions. Elodia's clubhouse is +furnished with elegant baths, for women have an extraordinary fondness +for bathing. And they have a gymnasium,--you notice what splendid +figures most of our women have!--and of course a wine cellar." + +"Severnius!" I cried. "You don't mean to tell me that these women have +wines in their clubhouse?" + +"Why, yes," said he. + +"And it is tolerated, allowed, nobody objects?" + +"O, yes, there are plenty of objectors," he replied. "There is a very +strong anti-intoxicant element here, but it has no actual force and +exerts but little influence in--in our circles." + +Severnius was too modest a man to boast of belonging to the upper +class of society, but that was what "our circles" meant. + +"But do not the male relatives of these women object,--their husbands, +fathers, brothers?" + +"No, indeed, why should they? We do the same things they do, without +demur from them." + +"But they should be looking after their domestic affairs, their +children, their homes." + +"My dear sir! they have servants to attend to those matters." + +It seemed useless to discuss these things with Severnius, his point of +view concerning the woman question was so different from mine. +Nevertheless, I persisted. + +"Tell me, Severnius, do women on this planet do everything that men +do?" + +"They have that liberty," he replied, "but there is sometimes a +difference of tastes." + +"I am glad to hear it!" + +"For instance, they do not smoke. By the way, have a cigar?" He passed +me his case and we both fired up. There is a peculiarly delightful +flavor in Marsian tobacco. + +"They have a substitute though," he added, removing the fragrant weed +from his lips to explain. "They vaporize." + +"They what?" + +"They have a small cup, a little larger than a common tobacco pipe, +which they fill with alcohol and pulverized valerian root. This +mixture when lighted diffuses a kind of vapor, a portion of which they +inhale through the cup-stem, a slender, tortuous tube attached to the +cup. The most of it, however, goes into the general air." + +"Good heavens!" I cried, "valerian! the most infernal, diabolical +smell that was ever emitted from any known or unknown substance." + +"It is said to be soothing to the nerves," he replied. + +"But do you not find it horribly disagreeable, unbearable?" I suddenly +recollected that, in passing through the upper hall of the house, I +had once or twice detected this nauseating odor, in the neighborhood +of Elodia's suite of rooms. + +"Yes, I do," he answered, "when I happen to come in contact with it, +which is seldom. They are careful not to offend others to whom the +vapor is unpleasant. Elodia is very delicate in these matters; she is +fond of the vapor habit, but she allows no suggestion of it to cling +to her garments or vitiate her breath." + +"It must be a great care to deodorize herself," I returned, with +ill-concealed contempt. + +"That is her maid's business," said he. + +"Is it not injurious to health?" I asked. + +"Quite so; it often induces frightful diseases, and is sometimes fatal +to life even." + +"And yet they persist in it! I should think you would interfere in +your sister's case." + +"Well," said he, "the evils which attend it are really no greater than +those that wait upon the tobacco habit; and, as I smoke, I can't +advise with a very good grace. I have a sort of blind faith that these +good cigars of mine are not going to do me any harm,--though I know +they have harmed others; and I suppose Elodia reasons in the same +friendly way with her vapor cup." + +The train stood on the track ready to start. I was about to spring up +the steps of the last car when Severnius stopped me. + +"Not that one," he said; "that is the woman's special." + +I stepped back, and read the word _Vaporizer_,--printed in large gilt +letters,--bent like a bow on the side of the car. + +"Do you mean to tell me, Severnius," I exclaimed, "that the railroad +company devotes one of these magnificent coaches exclusively to the +use of persons addicted to the obnoxious habit we have been speaking +of?" + +"That is about the size of it," he returned,--he borrowed the phrase +from me. "Come, make haste, or we shall be left; the next car is the +smoker; we'll step into that and finish these cigars, after which +I'll show you what sumptuous parlor coaches we have." + +As we mounted to the platform I could not resist glancing into the +_Vaporizer_. There were only two or three ladies there, and one of +them held in her ungloved hand the little cup with the tortuous stem +which my friend had described to me. From it there issued a pale blue +smoke or vapor, and oh! the smell of it! I held my breath and hurried +after Severnius. + +"That is the most outrageous, abominable thing I ever heard of!" I +declared, as we entered the smoker and took our seats. + +"O, it is nothing," he returned, smiling; "you are a very fastidious +fellow. I saw you look into that car; did you observe the lady in +blue?" + +"I should think I did! she was in the act," I replied. "And I +recognized her, too; she is that Madam Claris you introduced me to in +the Auroras' Temple, is she not?" + +"Yes; but did you notice her cup?" + +"Not particularly." + +"It is carved out of the rarest wood we have,--wood that hardens like +stone with age,--and has an indestructible lining and is studded with +costly gems; the thing is celebrated, an heirloom in Claris' family. +They like to sport those things, the owners of them do. They are a +mark of distinction,--or, as they might say in some of your countries, +a patent of nobility." + +"I suppose, then, that only the rich and the aristocratic 'vaporize'?" + +"By no means; whatever the aristocracy do, humble folk essay to +imitate. These vapor cups are made in great quantities, of the +commonest clay, and sold for a penny apiece." + +"Then it must be a natural taste, among your women?" said I. + +"No, no more than smoking is among men. They say it is nauseating in +the extreme, at first, and requires great courage and persistence to +continue in it up to the point of liking. There is no doubt that it +becomes very agreeable to them in the end, and that it is almost +impossible to break the habit when once it is fixed." + +"And what do they do with their cups,--I mean, how do they carry them +about when they are not using them?" I asked. + +"Put them in a morocco case, the same as you would a meerschaum, and +drop them into a fanciful little bag which they wear on the arm, +suspended by a chain or ribbon." + +Frambesco could not compare with Thursia either in size or beauty; and +it had a totally different air, a kind of swagger, you might say. I +felt the mercury in my moral barometer drop down several degrees as we +walked about the streets amid much filth, and foul odors, and +unsightly spectacles. + +I made the natural comments to my friend, and he replied that neither +Frambesco nor any other city on the continent could hold a candle to +Thursia, where the best of every thing was centered. + +We observed a great many enormous placards posted about conspicuously, +announcing a game of fisticuffs to take place that afternoon in an +amphitheatre devoted to such purposes; and we decided to look in upon +it. I think it was I who suggested it, for I had no little curiosity +about the "tactics" of the manly art in that country, having seen +Sullivan and several other famous hitters in our own. + +Severnius had considerable difficulty in procuring tickets, and +finally paid a fabulous price to a speculator for convenient seats. +The great cost of admission of course kept out the rabble, and, in a +way, it was an eminently respectable throng that was assembled,--I +mean in so far as money and rich clothes make for respectability. But +there was an unmistakable coarseness in most of the faces, or if not +that, a curiosity which bordered on coarseness. I was amazed to see +women in the audience; but this was nothing to the horror that +quivered through me like a deadly wound, when the combatants sprang +into the arena and squared off for action. For they, too, were +women,--women with tender, rosy flesh; with splendid dark eyes +gleaming with high excitement. Their long, fair hair was braided and +twisted into a hard knot on top of the head. They wore no gloves. Ah, +a woman's hands are soft enough without padding!--I thought. + +They went at it in scientific fashion and were careful to observe the +etiquette of the game; it was held "foul" to attack the face. In fact +it was more of a wrestling than a sparring match,--a test of strength, +prowess, agility. But I recoiled from it with loathing, and feeling +myself grow sick and faint, I muttered something to Severnius and +rushed out of the place. He followed me, of course; the performance +was quite as distasteful to him as to me, the only difference being +that he was familiar with the idea and I was not. + +As I passed out, I observed that many of the women were vaporizing and +many of the men smoking. I suppose it was, in part, the intolerable +abomination of these commingled smells that affected me, for I +experienced a physical as well as moral nausea. I did not get over it +for hours, and I was as glad as a child when it came time to take the +train back to Thursia. + +My disgust was so great that I could not discuss the matter with +Severnius, as I was wont to discuss other matters with him. There was +one thing for which I was supremely thankful,--that Elodia was not +there. + +A few days later, the subject accidentally came up, and I had the +satisfaction of hearing her denounce the barbarity as emphatically as +I could denounce it,--and more sweepingly, for she included male +fighters in her condemnation, and I was unable to make her see that +that was quite another matter. + + + + +Chapter 6. + +CUPID'S GARDENS. + + "O, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose." + --SHAKSPEARE. + + +During the time that intervened before the arrival of the Caskians, to +make their proposed visit, I gleaned many more interesting hints from +Severnius relative to their life and conduct, which greatly whetted my +curiosity to meet them. For instance, we were one day engaged in a +conversation, he, Elodia, and myself, upon the subject of the province +of poetry in history,--but that does not matter,--when dinner was +announced in the usual way; that is, the way which assumes without +doubt that nothing else in the world is so important as dinner. It may +be a bell, or a gong, or a verbal call, but it is as imperative as the +command of an autocrat. It brings to the ground, with the suddenness +of a mental shock, the finest flights of the imagination. It wakes the +soul from transcendent dreams, cools the fervor of burning eloquence, +breaks the spell of music. More than this: it destroys the delicate +combination of mental states and forces sometimes induced when several +highly trained minds have fallen into an attitude of acute sympathy +toward one another,--a rare and ineffable thing!--and are borne aloft +through mutual helpfulness to regions of thought and emotion +infinitely exalted, which can never be reproduced. + +I have often had this experience myself, and have wished that the cook +was a creature of supernatural intuitions, so that he could divine the +right moment in which to proclaim that the soup was served! There is a +right moment, a happy moment, when the flock of intellectual birds, +let loose to whirl and circle and soar in the upper air, descend +gracefully and of their own accord to the agreeable level of soup. + +On the occasion to which I have referred, I tried to ignore, and to +make my companions ignore, the discordant summons--by a kind of +dominant action of my mind upon theirs--in order that we might +continue the talk a little longer. We three had never before shown +ourselves off to each other to such striking advantage; we traveled +miles in moments, we expanded, we unrolled reams of intelligence which +were apprehended in a flash, as a whole landscape is apprehended in a +glare of lightning. It was as if our words were tipped with flame and +carried their illumination along with them. I knew that there never +would, never could, come another such time, but Elodia thwarted my +effort to hold it a moment longer. + +"Come!" she cried gayly, rising to her feet and breaking off in the +middle of a beautiful sentence, the conclusion of which I was waiting +for with tremors of delight,--for her views, as it happened, accorded +with mine,--"the ideal may rule in art, but not in life; it is very +unideal to eat, but the stomach is the dial of the world." + +"We make it so," said Severnius. + +"Of course, we make all our sovereigns," she returned. "We set the +dial to point at certain hours, and it simply holds us to our +agreement,--it and the _chef_." + +"That reminds me of our Caskian friends," said Severnius. "They have +exceedingly well-ordered homes, but occasionally one of the three +Natures waits upon another; the Mind may yield to some contingency +connected with the Body, or the Body waive its right in favor of the +Spirit." + +"I had supposed they were more machine-like," commented Elodia, with +her usual air of not being able to take a great interest in the +Caskians. + +"They are the farthest from that of any people I know," he answered. +"They have great moments, now and then, when a few people are gathered +together, and their thought becomes electrical and their minds mingle +as you have seen the glances of eyes mingle in a language more +eloquent than speech,--and, to tell the truth, we ourselves have such +moments, I'll not deny that; but the difference is, that they +appreciate the value of them and hold them fast, while we open our +hands and let them fly away like uncoveted birds, or worthless +butterflies. I have actually known a meal to be dropped out entirely +in Calypso's house, forgotten in the felicity of an intellectual or +spiritual delectation!" + +"Thank heaven, that we live in Thursia!" cried Elodia, "where such +lapses are impossible." + +"They are next to impossible there," said Severnius; "but they do +happen, which proves a great deal. They are in the nature of miracles, +they are so wonderful,--and yet not so wonderful. We forget sometimes +that we have a soul, and they forget that they have a body; there's no +great difference." + +"There is a mighty difference," answered Elodia. "We are put into a +material world, to enjoy material benefits. I should think those +people would miss a great deal of the actual good of life in the +pursuit of the unactual,--always taking their flights from lofty +pinnacles, and skipping the treasures that lie in the valleys." + +"On the contrary," he returned, "the humblest little flower that +grows, the tiniest pebble they pick up on the beach, the smallest +voice in nature, all have place in their economy. They miss nothing; +they gather up into their lives all the treasures that nature scatters +about. If a bird sings, they listen and say, 'That song is for me;' +or, if a blossom opens, 'I will take its beauty into my heart.' These +things, which are free to all, they accept freely. Their physical +senses are supplemented,--duplicated as it were, in finer quality,--by +exquisite inner perceptions." + +The morning after this conversation, Severnius and I took a long drive +in a new direction. We went up the river a mile or so, the road +winding through an avenue of century-old elms, whose great, graceful +branches interlocked overhead and made a shade so dense that the very +atmosphere seemed green. We were so earnestly engaged in conversation +that I did not observe when we left the avenue and entered a wood. We +drove some distance through this, and then the road branched off and +skirted round a magnificent park,--the finest I had seen,--bordered by +a thick hedge, all abloom with white, fragrant flowers, and fenced +with a fretwork of iron, finished with an inverted fringe of bristling +points. Within, were evidences of costly and elaborate care; the trees +were of noble growth and the greensward like stretches of velvet over +which leaf-shadows flickered and played. The disposition of shrubbery +and flowers, the chaste and beautiful statuary, the fountains, +brooklets, arbors, and retreats; the rustic effects in bridges, caves, +grottoes, and several graceful arches, hidden in wreathed emerald, +from which snow-white cherubs with wings on their shoulders peeped +roguishly, all betokened ingenious design, and skilful and artistic +execution. + +Beyond, seen vaguely through the waving foliage, were handsome +buildings, of the elegant cream-colored stone so much in vogue in +Thursia. Here and there, I espied a fawn; one pretty creature, with a +ribbon round its neck, was drinking at a fountain, and at the same +time some beautiful birds came and perched upon the marble rim and +dipped into the sparkling water. + +"How lovely! how idyllic!" I cried. "What place is it, Severnius, and +why have I never seen it before?" + +His answer came a little reluctantly, I thought. "It is called Cupid's +Gardens." + +"And what does it mean?" I asked. + +"Does not its name and those naked imps sufficiently explain it?" he +replied. As I looked at him, a blush actually mantled his cheek. "It +is a rendezvous," he explained, "where women meet their lovers." + +"How curious! I never heard of such a thing," said I. "Do you mean +that the place was planned for that purpose, or did the name get +fastened upon it through accident? Surely you are joking, Severnius; +women can receive their lovers in their homes here, the same as with +us!" + +"Their suitors, not their lovers," he replied. + +"You make a curious distinction!" said I. + +"Women sometimes marry their suitors, never their lovers,--any more +than men marry their mistresses." + +"Great heavens, Severnius!" I felt the blood rush to my face and then +recede, and a cold perspiration broke out all over me. There was a +question in my mind which I did not dare to ask, but Severnius +divined it. + +"Is it a new idea to you?" said he. "Have you no houses of +prostitution in your country, licensed by law, as this is?" + +"For men, not for women," said I. + +"Ah! another of your peculiar discriminations!" he returned. + +"Well, surely you will agree with me that in this matter, at least, +there should be discrimination?" I urged. + +He shook his head with that exasperating stubbornness one occasionally +finds in sweet-tempered people. + +"No, I cannot agree with you, even in this," he replied. "What +possible reason is there why men, more than women, should be +privileged to indulge in vice?" + +"Why, in the very nature of things!" I cried. "There is a hygienic +principle involved; you know,--it is a statistical fact,--that single +men are neither so vigorous nor so long-lived as married men, and a +good many men do not marry." + +"Well, a good many more women do not marry; what of those?" + +"Severnius! I cannot believe you are in earnest. Women!--that is +quite another matter. Women are differently constituted from men; +their nature--" + +"O, come!" he interrupted; "I thought we had settled that +question--that their nature is of a piece with our own. It happens in +your world, my friend, that your women were kept to a strict line of +conduct, according to your account, by a severe discipline,--including +even the death penalty,--until their virtue, from being long and +persistently enforced, grew into a habit and finally became a question +of honor." + +"Yes, stronger than death, thank God!" I affirmed. + +"Well, then, it seems to me that the only excuse men have to offer for +their lack of chastity--I refer to the men on your planet--is that +they have not been hedged about by the wholesome restraints that have +developed self-government in women. I cannot admit your 'hygienic' +argument in this matter; life is a principle that needs encouragement, +and a man of family has more incentives to live, and usually his +health is better cared for, than a single man, that is all." + +We rode in silence for some time. I finally asked, nodding toward the +beautiful enclosure still in view: + +"How do they manage about this business; do they practice any +secrecy?" + +"Of course!" he replied. "I hope you do not think we live in open and +shameless lawlessness? Usually it is only the very wealthy who indulge +in such 'luxuries,' and they try to seal the lips of servants and +go-betweens with gold. But it does not always work; it is in the +nature of those things to leak out." + +"And if one of these creatures is found out, what then?" I asked. + +He answered with some severity: "'Creatures' is a harsh name to apply +to women, some of whom move in our highest circles!" + +"I beg your pardon! call them what you like, but tell me, what happens +when there is an _exposé_? Are they denounced, ostracized, sat upon?" +I inquired. + +"No, not so bad as that," said he. "Of course there is a scandal, but +it makes a deal of difference whether the scandal is a famous or an +infamous one. If the woman's standing is high in other respects,--if +she has money, political influence, talent, attractiveness,--there is +very little made of it; or if society feels itself particularly +insulted, she may conciliate it by marrying an honest man whose +respectability and position protect her." + +"What! does an honest man--a gentleman--ever marry such a woman as +that?" I cried. + +"Frequently; and sometimes they make very good wives. But it is risky. +I have a friend, a capital fellow, who was so unfortunate as to +attract such a woman, and who finally yielded to her persuasions and +married her." + +"Heavens! do the women propose?" + +"Certainly, when they choose to do so; what is there objectionable in +that?" + +I made no reply, and he continued, "My friend, as I said, succumbed to +her pleadings partly--as I believe--because she threw herself upon his +mercy, though she is a beautiful woman, and he might have been +fascinated to some extent. She told him that his love and protection +would be her salvation, and that his denial of her would result in her +total ruin; and that for his sake she would reform her life. He is +both chivalrous and tender, and, withal, a little romantic, and he +consented. My opinion is that, if she could have had him without +marriage, she would have preferred it; but he is a true man, a man of +honor. Women of her sort like virtuous men, and seldom marry any +other. Her love proved to be an ephemeral passion--such as she had had +before--and the result has been what you might expect, though Claris +is not, by any means, the worst woman in the world." + +"Claris?" I exclaimed. + +"Ah! I did not mean to speak her name," he returned in some confusion; +"and I had forgotten that you knew her. Well, yes, since I have gone +so far, it is my friend Massilia's wife that I have been speaking of. +In some respects she is an admirable woman, but she has broken her +husband's heart and ruined his life." + +"Admirable!" I repeated with scorn; "why, in my country, such conduct +would damn a woman eternally, no matter what angelic qualities she +might possess. She would be shown no quarter in any society--save the +very lowest." + +"And how about her counterpart of the other sex?" asked Severnius, +slyly. + +I disregarded this, and returned: + +"Did he not get a divorce?" + +"No; the law does not grant a divorce in such a case. There was where +Claris was shrewder than her husband; she made herself safe by +confessing her misdeeds to him, and cajoling him into marrying her in +spite of them." + +"I beg your pardon, but what a fool he was!" + +Severnius acquiesced in this. "I tried to dissuade him," he said, +"before the miserable business was consummated,--he made me his +confidant,--but it was too late, she had him under her influence." + +Another silence fell upon us, which I broke by asking, "Who were those +pretty youngsters we saw lounging about on the lawn back there?" I +referred to several handsome young men whom I had observed strolling +through the beautiful grounds. + +He looked at me in evident surprise at the question, and replied: + +"Why, those are some of the professional 'lovers'." + +"Great Cæsar's ghost!" + +"Yes," he went on; "some of our most promising youths are decoyed into +those places. It is a distressing business,--a hideous business! And, +on the other hand, there are similar institutions where lovely +young girls are the victims. I do not know which is the more +deplorable,--sometimes I think the latter is. A tender mother would +wish that her daughter had never been born, if she should take up with +such a life; and an honorable father would rather see his son gibbeted +than to find him inside that railing." + +"I should think so!" I responded, and inquired, "What kind of standing +have these men in the outside world?" + +"About the same that a leper would have. They are ignored and despised +by the very women who court their caresses here. In fact, they are on +a level with the common, paid courtesan,--the lowest rank there is. I +have often thought it a curious thing that either men or women should +so utterly despise these poor instruments of their sensual delights!" + +My friend saw that I was too much shocked to moralize on the subject, +and he presently began to explain, and to modify the facts a little. + +"You see, these fellows, when they begin this sort of thing, are +mostly mere boys, with the down scarcely started on their chins; in +the susceptible, impressionable stage, when a woman's honeyed +words--ay, her touch, even--may turn the world upside down to them. +The life, of course, has its attractions,--money and luxury; to say +nothing of the flattery, which is sweeter. Still, few, if any, adopt +it deliberately. Often they are wilily drawn into 'entanglements' +outside; for the misery of it is, that good society, as I have said +before, throws its cloak around these specious beguilers, and the +unfortunate dupe does not dream whither he is being led,--youth has +such a sincere faith in beauty, and grace, and feminine charm! +Sometimes reverses and disaster, of one kind or another, or a +cheerless home environment, drive a young man into seeking refuge and +lethean pleasures here. It is a form of dissipation similar to the +drink habit, only a thousand times worse." + +"Worse?" I cried. "It is infernal, diabolical, damnable! And it is +woman who accomplishes this horrible ruin!--and is 'received' in +society, which, if too flagrantly outraged, will not forgive her +unless she marries some good man!" + +"O, not always that," protested Severnius; "the unlucky sinner +sometimes recovers caste by a course of penitence, by multiplying her +subscriptions to charities, and by costly peace-offerings to the +aforesaid outraged society." + +"What sort of peace-offerings?" I asked. + +"Well, an entertainment, perhaps, something superb, something out of +the common; or may be a voyage in her private yacht. Bait of that +sort is too tempting for any but the high and mighty, the +real aristocrats, to withstand. The simply respectable, but +weak-hearted,--who are a little below her level in point of wealth, +position, or ancestry,--fall into her net. I have observed that a +woman who has forfeited her place in the highest rank of society +usually begins her reascent by clutching hold of the skirts of honest +folk who are flattered by her condescension, and whose sturdy arms +assist her to rise again." + +"I have observed the same thing myself," I rejoined, but he had not +finished; there was a twinkle in his eye as he went on: + +"If you were to reveal the secret of your air-ship to a woman of this +kind she would probably seize upon it as a means of salvation; she +would have one constructed, on a large and handsome scale, and invite +a party to accompany her on an excursion to the Earth. And though she +were the worst of her class, every mother's son--and daughter--of us +would accept! for none of us hold our self-respect at a higher figure +than that, I imagine." + +"Yes, Severnius, you do," I replied emphatically. + +"I beg your pardon! I would knock off a good deal for a visit to your +planet," he said, laughing. + +By this time we had left Cupid's Gardens far behind. The road bent in +again toward the river, which we presently crossed. If it had not been +for the dreadful things I had just listened to, I think I should have +been in transports over the serene loveliness of the prospect around +us. The view was especially fine from the summit of the bridge; it is +a "high" bridge, for the Gyro is navigated by great steam-ships and +high-masted schooners. + +Severnius bade the driver stop a moment that we might contemplate the +scene, but I had little heart for its beauties. And yet I can recall +the picture now with extraordinary clearness. The river has many +windings, and the woods often hide it from view; but it reappears, +again and again, afar off, in green meadows and yellowing +fields,--opalescent jewels in gold or emerald setting. Here and there, +in the distance, white sails were moving as if on land. Far beyond +were vague mountain outlines, and over all, the tender rose-blush of +the sky. The sweetness of it, contrasted with the picture newly +wrought in my mind, saddened me. + +Some distance up the river, on the other side, we passed an old, +dilapidated villa, or group of buildings jumbled together without +regard to effect evidently, but yet picturesque. They were half hidden +in mammoth forest trees that had never been trimmed or trained, but +spread their enormous limbs wheresoever they would. Unpruned shrubbery +and trailing vines rioted over the uneven lawn, and the rank, +windblown grass, too long to stand erect, lay in waves like a woman's +hair. + +In a general way, the lawn sloped downward toward the road, so that we +could see nearly the whole of it over the high, and ugly, board fence +which inclosed it. Under the trees, a little way back, I observed a +group of young girls lolling in hammocks and idling in rustic chairs. +They caught sight of us and sprang up, laughing boistterously. I +thought they were going to run away in pretended and playful flight; +but instead, they came toward us, and blew kisses at us off their +fingers. + +I looked at Severnius. "What does this mean?" I asked. + +"Why," he said, and the blush mantled his handsome face again, "this +place is the counterpart of Cupid's Gardens,--a resort for men." + +"I thought so," I replied. + +By-and-by he remarked, "I hope you will not form too bad an opinion of +us, my friend! You have learned to-day what horrible evils exist among +us, but I assure you that the sum total of the people who practice +them constitutes but a small proportion of our population. And the +good people here, the great majority, look upon these things with the +same aversion and disgust that you do, and are doing their best--or +they think they are--to abolish them." + +"How?--by legislation?" I asked. + +"Partly; but more through education. Our preachers and teachers have +taken the matter up, but they are handicapped by the delicacy of the +question and the privacy involved in it, which seems to hinder +discussion even, and to forestall advice. Though this is the only way +to accomplish anything, I think. I have very little faith in +legislative measures against secret vices; it is like trying to dam a +stream which cannot be dammed but must break out somewhere. I am +convinced that my friends, the Caskians, have solved the question in +the only possible way,--by elevating and purifying the marriage +relation. I hope some good may be accomplished by the visit of the few +who are coming here!" + +"Will they preach or lecture?" I asked, with what seemed to me a +moment later to be stupid simplicity. + +"O, no!" replied Severnius, with the same air of modest but emphatic +protest which they themselves would have doubtless assumed had the +question been put to them. "It was simply their personal influence I +had reference to. I do not know that I can make you understand, but +their presence always seemed to me like a disinfectant of evil. With +myself, when I was among them, all the good that was in me responded +to their nobility; the evil in me slept, I suppose." + +I made a skeptical rejoinder to the implication in his last sentence, +for to me he seemed entirely devoid of evil; and we finished the drive +in silence. + + + + +Chapter 7. + +NEW FRIENDS. + + "Having established his equality with class after class, of + those with whom he would live well, he still finds certain + others, before whom he cannot possess himself, because they have + somewhat fairer, somewhat grander, somewhat purer, which extorts + homage of him."--EMERSON. + + +It is scarcely egotistical for me to say that I was much sought after, +not only by the citizens of Thursia, but by many distinguished people +from other cities and countries. Among them were many men and women of +great scientific learning, who made me feel that I ought to have +provided myself with a better equipment of knowledge relative to my +own world, before taking my ambitious journey to Mars! They were +exceedingly polite, but I fear they were much disappointed in many of +my hazy responses to their eager questionings. I learned by this +experience the great value of exact information. In a country like +ours, where so much, and so many sorts, of knowledge are in the air, a +person is apt, unless he is a student of some particular thing, to get +little more than impressions. + +There was I,--an average (let me hope!) American citizen,--at the +mercy of inquisitive experts in a hundred different arts and trades, +concerning which, in the main, my ideas might be conservatively +described as "general." You may imagine how unsatisfactory this was to +people anxious to know about our progress in physics and chemistry, +botany, and the great family of "ologies,"--or rather about our +processes in developing the principles of these great sciences. + +With the astronomers and the electricians I got along all right; and I +was also able to make myself interesting,--or so I fancied--in +describing our social life, our educational and political +institutions, and our various forms of religion. Our modes of dress +were a matter of great curiosity to most of these people, and I was +often asked to exhibit my terrestrial garments. + +It was when the crowd of outside visitors was at its thickest that the +Caskians arrived, and as their stay was brief, covering only two days, +you may suppose that we did not advance far on the road to mutual +acquaintance. But to tell the truth, there was not a moment's +strangeness between us after we had once clasped hands and looked into +each other's eyes. It might have been partly due to my own +preparedness to meet them with confidence and trust; but more, I +think, to their singular freedom from the conventional barriers with +which we hedge round our selfness. Their souls spoke to mine, and mine +answered back, and the compact of friendship was sealed in a glance. + +I cannot hope to give you a very clear idea of their perfect +naturalness, their perfect dignity, their kindliness, or their +delightful gayety,--before which stiffness, formality, ceremony, were +borne down, dissolved as sunshine dissolves frost. No menstruum is so +wonderful as the quality of merriment, take it on any plane of life; +when it reaches the highest, and is subtilized by cultured and refined +intellects, it creates an atmosphere in which the most frigid autocrat +of society, and of learning, too, must thaw. The haughtiest dame +cannot keep her countenance in the face of this playful spirit toying +with her frills. The veriest old dry-as-dust, hibernating in mouldy +archæological chambers, cannot resist the blithesome thought which +dares to illumine his antique treasures with a touch of mirth. + +I was struck by Clytia's beauty, which in some ways seemed finer than +Elodia's. The two women were about the same height and figure. But +Clytia's coloring was pure white and black, except for the healthy +carmine of her lips, and occasional fluctuations of the rose tint in +her cheeks. + +I was present when they first met, in the drawing-room. Elodia rose to +her full stature, armed cap-a-pie with her stateliest manner, but with +a gracious sense of hospitality upon her. I marked with pleasure that +Clytia did not rush upon her with any exuberance of gladness,--as some +women would have done in a first meeting with their friend's +sister,--for that would have disgusted Elodia and driven her to still +higher ground. How curious are our mental attitudes toward our +associates, and how quickly adjusted! Here had I been in Elodia's +house, enjoying her companionship--if not her friendship--for months; +and yet, you see, I secretly did not wish any advantage to be on her +side. It could not have been disloyalty, for the impulse was swift and +involuntary. I would like to suppose that it sprang from my +instantaneous recognition of the higher nature; but it did not. It was +due, no doubt, to a fear for the more timid one--as I fancied it to +be. I had a momentary sensation as of wanting to "back" +Clytia,--knowing how formidable my proud hostess could be, and, I +feared, would be,--but the beautiful Caskian did not need my support. +She was not timid. I never saw anything finer than her manner; the +most consummate woman of the world could not have met the situation +with more dignity and grace, and with not half so much simplicity. Her +limpid dark eyes met Elodia's blue-rayed ones, and the result was +mutual respect, with a slight giving on Elodia's part. + +I felt that I had, for the first time in my life, seen a perfect +woman; a woman of such fine proportions, of such nice balance, that +her noble virtues and high intelligence did not make her forget even +the smallest amenities. She kept in hand every faculty of her triple +being, so that she was able to use each in its turn and to give to +everything about her its due appreciation. She had, as Balzac says, +the gift of admiration and of comprehension. That which her glance +rested upon, that which her ear listened to, responded with all that +was in them. I thought it a wonderful power that could so bring out +the innate beauties and values of even inanimate things. Elodia's eyes +rested upon her, from time to time, with a keen and questioning +interest. I think that, among other things, she was surprised--as I +was--at the elegance, the "style" even, of Clytia's dress. + +Although there is very little fashion on that planet, as we know the +word, there is a great deal of style. I had speedily mastered all its +subtle gradations, and could "place" a woman with considerable +certainty, by, let me say, her manner of wearing her clothes, if not +the clothes themselves. I have never studied woman's apparel in +detail, it always seems as mysterious to me as woman herself does; but +I have a good eye for effects in that line, as most men have, and I +knew that Clytia's costume was above criticism. She wore, just where +they seemed to be needed,--as the keystone is needed in an arch,--a +few fine gems. I could not conceive of her putting them on to arouse +the envy of any other woman, or to enhance her personal charms in the +eyes of a man. She dressed well, as another would sing well. Sight is +the sense we value most, but how often is it offended! You can +estimate the quality of a woman by the shade of green she chooses for +her gown. And there is poetry in the fit of a gown, as there is in the +color of it. Clytia knew these things, these higher principles of +dress, as the nightingale knows its song,--through the effortless +working of perfected faculties. But not she alone. My description of +her will answer for the others; the Caskians are a people, you see, +who neglect nothing. We upon the Earth are in the habit of saying, +with regretful cadence, Life is short. It is because our life is all +out of proportion. We are trying to cheat time; we stuff too much +plunder into our bags, and discriminate against the best. + +Clytia and Calypso and their friend Ariadne, a young girl, stayed with +us throughout their visit; the others of their party were entertained +elsewhere. On each of the two evenings they were with us, Elodia +invited a considerable company of people,--not so many as to crowd the +rooms, nor so few as to make them seem empty. Those gatherings were +remarkable events, I imagine, in a good many lives. + +They were in mine. At the close of each evening I retired to my room +in a state of high mental intoxication; my unaccustomed brain had +taken too large a draught of intellectual champagne. And when I awoke +in the morning, it was with a sense of fatigue of mind, the same as +one feels fatigue of body the day after extraordinary feats of +physical exertion. + +But not so the guests! who came down into the breakfast room as +radiant as ever and in full possession of themselves. With them +fatigue seemed impossible. We do not know--because we are so poorly +trained--the wonderful elasticity of a human being, in all his parts. +We often see it exemplified in single faculties,--the voice of a +singer, the legs of a runner, the brain of a lawyer, the spirit of a +religionist. But, as I have said before, we are all out of proportion, +and any slight strain upon an unused faculty gives us the cramp. The +fact is, the most of us are cripples in some sense. We lack a moral +leg, a spiritual arm; there are parts of us that are neglected, +withered, paralyzed. + +One thing in the Caskians which especially pleased me, and which I am +sure made a strong--and favorable--impression upon Elodia, too, was +that their conduct and conversation never lacked the vital human +interest without which all philosophy is cold, and all religion is +asceticism. + +It appeared that these people had taken the long journey not only to +meet me, but that they might extend to me in person a cordial +invitation to visit their country. Severnius warmly urged me to +accept, assuring me, with unmistakable sincerity, that it would give +him pleasure to put his purse at my disposal for the expenses of the +journey,--I having brought up this point as a rather serious obstacle. +As it would only add one more item to the great sum of my indebtedness +to my friend, I took him at his word, and gave my promise to the +Caskians to make the journey to Lunismar sometime in the near future. +And with that they left us, and left behind them matter for +conversation for many a day. + + + + +Chapter 8. + +A TALK WITH ELODIA. + + "It behoveth us also to consider the nature of him that + offendeth."--SENECA. + + +The longer I delayed my visit to Caskia, the more difficult it became +for me to tear myself away from Thursia. You may guess the lodestar +that held me back. It was as if I were attached to Elodia by an +invisible chain which, alas! in no way hindered her free movements, +because she was unconscious of its existence. Sometimes she treated me +with a charmingly frank _camaraderie_, and at other times her manner +was simply, almost coldly, courteous,--which I very well knew to be +due to the fact that she was more than usually absorbed in her +business or official affairs; she was never cold for a purpose, any +more than she was fascinating for a purpose. She was singularly +sincere, affecting neither smiles nor frowns, neither affability nor +severity, from remote or calculating motives. In brief, she did not +employ her feminine graces, her sexpower, as speculating capital in +social commerce. The social conditions in Thursia do not demand that +women shall pose in a conciliatory attitude toward men--upon whose +favor their dearest privileges hang. Marriage not being an economic +necessity with them, they are released from certain sordid motives +which often actuate women in our world in their frantic efforts to +avert the appalling catastrophe of missing a husband; and they are at +liberty to operate their matrimonial campaigns upon other grounds. I +do not say higher grounds, because that I do not know. I only know +that one base factor in the marriage problem,--the ignoble scheming to +secure the means of living, as represented in a husband,--is +eliminated, and the spirit of woman is that much more free. + +We men have a feeling that we are liable at any time to be entrapped +into matrimony by a mask of cunning and deceit, which heredity and +long practice enable women to use with such amazing skill that few can +escape it. We expect to be caught with chaff, like fractious colts +coquetting with the halter and secretly not unwilling to be caught. + +Another thing: woman's freedom to propose--which struck me as +monstrous--takes away the reproach of her remaining single; the +supposition being, as in the case of a bachelor, that it is a matter +of choice with her. It saves her the dread of having it said that she +has never had an opportunity to marry. + +Courtship in Thursia may lack some of the tantalizing uncertainties +which give it zest with us, but marriage also is robbed of many doubts +and misgivings. Still I could not accustom myself with any feeling of +comfort to the situation there,--the idea of masculine pre-eminence +and womanly dependence being too thoroughly ingrained in my nature. + +Elodia, of course, did many things and held many opinions of which I +did not approve. But I believed in her innate nobility, and +attributed her defects to a pernicious civilization and a government +which did not exercise its paternal right to cherish, and restrain, +and protect, the weaker sex, as they should be cherished, and +restrained, and protected. And how charming and how reliable she was, +in spite of her defects! She had an atomic weight upon which you could +depend as upon any other known quantity. Her presence was a stimulus +that quickened the faculties and intensified the emotions. At least I +may speak for myself; she awoke new feelings and aroused new powers +within me. + +Her life had made her practical but not prosaic. She had imagination +and poetic feeling; there were times when her beautiful countenance +was touched with the grandeur of lofty thought, and again with the +shifting lights of a playful humor, or the flashings of a keen but +kindly wit. She had a laugh that mellowed the heart, as if she took +you into her confidence. It is a mark of extreme favor when your +superior, or a beautiful woman, admits you to the intimacy of a +cordial laugh! Even her smiles, which I used to lie in wait for and +often tried to provoke, were not the mere froth of a light and +careless temperament; they had a significance like speech. Though she +was so busy, and though she knew so well how to make the moments +count, she could be idle when she chose, deliciously, luxuriously +idle,--like one who will not fritter away his pence, but upon occasion +spends his guineas handsomely. At the dinner hour she always gave us +of her best. Her varied life supplied her with much material for +conversation,--nothing worth noticing ever escaped her, in the life +and conduct of people about her. She was fond of anecdote, and could +garnish the simplest story with an exquisite grace. + +Upon one of her idle days,--a day when Severnius happened not to be at +home,--she took up her parasol in the hall after we had had luncheon, +and gave me a glance which said, "Come with me if you like," and we +went out and strolled through the grounds together. Her manner had not +a touch of coquetry; I might have been simply another woman, she +might have been simply another man. But I was so stupid as to essay +little gallantries, such as had been, in fact, a part of my youthful +education; she either did not observe them or ignored them, I could +not tell which. Once I put out my hand to assist her over a +ridiculously narrow streamlet, and she paid no heed to the gesture, +but reefed her skirts, or draperies, with her own unoccupied hand and +stepped lightly across. Again, when we were about to ascend an abrupt +hill, I courteously offered her my arm. + +"O, no, I thank you!" she said; "I have two, which balance me very +well when I climb." + +"You are a strange woman," I exclaimed with a blush. + +"Am I?" she said, lifting her brows. "Well, I suppose--or rather you +suppose--that I am the product of my ancestry and my training." + +"You are, in some respects," I assented; and then I added, "I have +often tried to fancy what effect our civilization would have had upon +you." + +"What effect do you think it would have had?" she asked, with quite an +unusual--I might say earthly--curiosity. + +"I dare not tell you," I replied, thrilling with the felicity of a +talk so personal,--the first I had ever had with her. + +"Why not?" she demanded, with a side glance at me from under her +gold-fringed shade. + +"It would be taking too great a liberty." + +"But if I pardon that?" There was an archness in her smile which was +altogether womanly. What a grand opportunity, I thought, for saying +some of the things I had so often wanted to say to her! but I +hesitated, turning hot and then cold. + +"Really," I said, "I cannot. I should flatter you, and you would not +like that." + +For the first time, I saw her face crimson to the temples. + +"That would be very bad taste," she replied; "flattery being the last +resort--when it is found that there is nothing in one to compliment. +Silence is better; you have commendable tact." + +"Pardon my stupid blunder!" I cried; "you cannot think I meant that! +Flattery is exaggerated, absurd, unmeaning praise, and no praise, the +highest, the best, could do you justice, could--" + +She broke in with a disdainful laugh: + +"A woman can always compel a pretty speech from a man, you see,--even +in Mars!" + +"You did not compel it," I rejoined earnestly, "if I but dared,--if +you would allow me to tell you what I think of you, how highly I +regard--" + +She made a gesture which cut short my eloquence, and we walked on in +silence. + +Whenever there has been a disturbance in the moral atmosphere, there +is nothing like silence to restore the equilibrium. I, watching +furtively, saw the slight cloud pass from her face, leaving the +intelligent serenity it usually wore. But still she did not speak. +However, there was nothing ominous in that, she was never troubled +with an uneasy desire to keep conversation going. + +On top of the hill there were benches, and we sat down. It was one of +those still afternoons in summer when nature seems to be taking a +siesta. Overhead it was like the heart of a rose. The soft, white, +cottony clouds we often see suspended in our azure ether, floated--as +soft, as white, as fleecy--in the pink skies of Mars. + +Elodia closed her parasol and laid it across her lap and leaned her +head back against the tree in whose shade we were. It was an acute +pleasure, a rapture indeed, to sit so near to her and alone with her, +out of hearing of all the world. But she was calmly unconscious, her +gaze wandering dreamily through half-shut lids over the wide +landscape, which included forests and fields and meadows, and many +windings of the river, for we had a high point of observation. + +I presently broke the silence with a bold, perhaps an inexcusable +question, + +"Elodia, do you intend ever to marry?" + +It was a kind of challenge, and I held myself rigid, waiting for her +answer, which did not come immediately. She turned her eyes toward me +slowly without moving her head, and our glances met and gradually +retreated, as two opposing forces might meet and retreat, neither +conquering, neither vanquished. Hers went back into space, and she +replied at last as if to space,--as if the question had come, not from +me alone, but from all the voices that urge to matrimony. + +"Why should I marry?" + +"Because you are a woman," I answered promptly. + +"Ah!" her lip curled with a faint smile, "your reason is very general, +but why limit it at all, why not say because I am one of a pair which +should be joined together?" + +The question was not cynical, but serious; I scrutinized her face +closely to make sure of that before answering. + +"I know," I replied, "that here in Mars there is held to be no +difference in the nature and requirements of the sexes, but it is a +false hypothesis, there is a difference,--a vast difference! all my +knowledge of humanity, my experience and observation, prove it." + +"Prove it to you, no doubt," she returned, "but not to me, because my +experience and observation have been the reverse of yours. Will you +kindly tell me," she added, "why you think I should wish to marry any +more than a man,--or what reasons can be urged upon a woman more than +upon a man?" + +An overpowering sense of helplessness fell upon me,--as when one has +reached the limits of another's understanding and is unable to clear +the ground for further argument. + +"O, Elodia! I cannot talk to you," I replied. "It is true, as you say, +that our conclusions are based upon diverse premises; we are so wide +apart in our views on this subject that what I would say must seem to +you the merest cant and sentiment." + +"I think not; you are an honest man," she rejoined with an encouraging +smile, "and I am greatly interested in your philosophy of marriage." + +I acknowledged her compliment. + +"Well," I began desperately, letting the words tumble out as they +would, "it is woman's nature, as I understand it, to care a great deal +about being loved,--loved wholly and entirely by one man who is worthy +of her love, and to be united to him in the sacred bonds of marriage. +To have a husband, children; to assume the sweet obligations of +family ties, and to gather to herself the tenderest and purest +affections humanity can know, is surely, indisputably, the best, the +highest, noblest, province of woman." + +"And not of man?" + +"These things mean the same to men, of course," I replied, "though in +lesser degree. It is man's office--with us--to buffet with the world, +to wrest the means of livelihood, of comfort, luxury, from the +grudging hand of fortune. It is the highest grace of woman that she +accepts these things at his hands, she honors him in accepting, as he +honors her in bestowing." + +I was aware that I was indulging in platitudes, but the platitudes of +Earth are novelties in Mars. + +Her eyes took a long leap from mine to the vague horizon line. "It is +very strange," she said, "this distinction you make, I cannot +understand it at all. It seems to me that this love we are talking +about is simply one of the strong instincts implanted in our common +nature. It is an essential of our being. Marriage is not, it is a +social institution; and just why it is incumbent upon one sex more +than upon the other, or why it is more desirable for one sex than the +other, is inconceivable to me. If either a man, or a woman, desires +the ties you speak of, or if one has the vanity to wish to found a +respectable family, then, of course, marriage is a necessity,--made so +by our social and political laws. It is a luxury we may have if we pay +the price." + +I was shocked at this cold-blooded reasoning, and cried, "O, how can a +woman say that! have you no tenderness, Elodia? no heart-need of these +ties and affections,--which I have always been taught are so precious +to woman?" + +She shrugged her shoulders, and, leaning forward a little, clasped her +hands about her knees. + +"Let us not make it personal," she said; "I admitted, that these +things belong to our common nature, and I do not of course except +myself. But I repeat that marriage is a convention, and--I am not +conventional." + +"As to that," I retorted, "all the things that pertain to +civilization, all the steps which have ever been taken in the +direction of progress, are conventions: our clothing, our houses, our +religions, arts, our good manners. And we are bound to accept every +'convention' that makes for the betterment of society, as though it +were a revelation from God." + +I confess that this thought was the fruit of my brief intercourse with +the Caskians, who hold that there is a divine power continually +operating upon human consciousness,--not disclosing miracles, but +enlarging and perfecting human perceptions. I was thinking of this +when Elodia suddenly put the question to me: + +"Are you married?" + +"No, I am not," I replied. The inquiry was not agreeable to me; it +implied that she had been hitherto altogether too indifferent as to my +"eligibility,"--never having concerned herself to ascertain the fact +before. + +"Well, you are perhaps older than I am," she said, "and you have +doubtless had amours?" + +I was as much astounded by the frankness of this inquiry as you can +be, and blushed like a girl. She withdrew her eyes from my face with a +faint smile and covered the question by another: + +"You intend to marry, I suppose?" + +"I do, certainly," I replied, the resolution crystallizing on the +instant. + +She drew a long sigh. "Well, I do not, I am so comfortable as I am." +She patted the ground with her slipper toe. "I do not wish to impose +new conditions upon myself. I simply accept my life as it comes to me. +Why should I voluntarily burden myself with a family, and all the +possible cares and sorrows which attend the marriage state! If I cast +a prophetic eye into the future, what am I likely to see?--Let us say, +a lovely daughter dying of some frightful malady; an idolized son +squandering my wealth and going to ruin; a husband in whom I no longer +delight, but to whom I am bound by a hundred intricate ties impossible +to sever. I think I am not prepared to take the future on trust to so +great an extent! Why should the free wish for fetters? Affection and +sympathy are good things, indispensable things in fact,--but I find +them in my friends. And for this other matter: this need of love, +passion, sentiment,-which is peculiarly ephemeral in its impulses, +notwithstanding that it has such an insistent vitality in the human +heart,--may be satisfied without entailing such tremendous +responsibilities." + +I looked at her aghast; did she know what she was saying; did she mean +what her words implied? + +"You wrong yourself, Elodia," said I; "those are the sentiments, the +arguments, of a selfish person, of a mean and cowardly spirit. And you +have none of those attributes; you are strong, courageous, generous--" + +"You mistake me," she interrupted, "I am entirely selfish; I do not +wish to disturb my present agreeable pose. Tell me, what is it that +usually prompts people to marry?" + +"Why, love, of course," I answered. + +"Well, you are liable to fall in love with my maid--" + +"Not after having seen her mistress!" I ejaculated. + +"If she happens to possess a face or figure that draws your masculine +eye," she went on, the rising color in her cheek responding to my +audacious compliment; "though there may be nothing in common between +you, socially, intellectually, or spiritually. What would be the +result of such a marriage, based upon simple sex-love?" + +I had known many such marriages, and was familiar with the results, +but I did not answer. We tacitly dropped the subject, and our two +minds wandered away as they would, on separate currents. + +She was the first to break this second silence. + +"I can conceive of a marriage," she said, "which would not become +burdensome, any more than our best friendships become burdensome. +Beside the attraction on the physical plane--which I believe is very +necessary--there should exist all the higher affinities. I should want +my husband to be my most delightful companion, able to keep my liking +and to command my respect and confidence as I should hope to his. But +I fear that is ideal." + +"The ideal is only the highest real," I answered, "the ideal is always +possible." + +"Remotely!" she said with a laugh. "The chances are many against it." + +"But even if one were to fall short a little in respect to husband or +wife, I have often observed that there are compensations springing out +of the relation, in other ways," I returned. + +"You mean children? O, yes, that is true, when all goes well. I will +tell you," she added, her voice dropping to the tone one instantly +recognizes as confidential, "that I am educating several children in +some of our best schools, and that I mean to provide for them with +sufficient liberality when they come of age. So, you see, I have +thrown hostages to fortune and shall probably reap a harvest of +gratitude,--in place of filial affection." + +She laughed with a touch of mockery. + +I suppose every one is familiar with the experience of having +things--facts, bits of knowledge,--"come" to him, as we say. Something +came to me, and froze the marrow in my bones. + +"Elodia," I ventured, "you asked me a very plain question a moment +ago, will you forgive me if I ask you the same,--have you had amours?" + +The expression of her face changed slightly, which might have been due +to the expression of mine. + +"We have perhaps grown too frank with each other," she said, "but you +are a being from another world, and that must excuse us,--shall it?" + +I bowed, unable to speak. + +"One of the children I spoke of, a little girl of six, is my own +natural child." + +She made this extraordinary confession with her glance fixed steadily +upon mine. + +I am a man of considerable nerve, but for a moment the world was dark +to me and I had the sensation of one falling from a great height. And +then suddenly relief came to me in the thought, She is not to be +judged by the standards that measure morality in my country! When I +could command my voice again I asked: + +"Does this little one know that she is your child,--does any one else +know?" + +"Certainly not," she answered in a tone of surprise, and then with an +ironical smile, "I have treated you to an exceptional confidence. It +is a matter of etiquette with us to keep these things hidden." + +As I made no response she added: + +"Is it a new thing to you for a parent not to acknowledge illegitimate +children?" + +"Even the lowest class of mothers we have on Earth do not often +abandon their offspring," I replied. + +"Neither do they here," she said. "The lowest class have nothing to +gain and nothing to lose, and consequently there is no necessity that +they should sacrifice their natural affections. In this respect, the +lower classes are better off than we aristocrats." + +"You beg the question," I returned; "you know what I mean! I should +not have thought that you, Elodia, could ever be moved by such +unworthy considerations--that you would ever fear the world's +opinions! you who profess manly qualities, the noblest of which is +courage!" + +"Am I to understand by that," she said, "that men on your planet +acknowledge their illegitimate progeny, and allow them the privileges +of honored sons and daughters?" + +Pushed to this extremity, I could recall but a single instance,--but +one man whose courage and generosity, in a case of the kind under +discussion, had risen to the level of his crime. I related to her the +story of his splendid and prolonged life, with its one blot of early +sin, and its grace of practical repentance. And upon the other hand, I +told her of the one distinguished modern woman, who has had the +hardihood to face the world with her offenses in her hands, as one +might say. + +"Are you not rather unjust to the woman?" she asked. "You speak of the +man's acknowledgment of his sin as something fine, and you seem to +regard hers as simply impudent." + +"Because of the vast difference between the moral attitude of the +two," I rejoined. "He confessed his error and took his punishment with +humility; she slaps society in the face, and tries to make her genius +glorify her misdeeds." + +"Possibly society is to blame for that, by setting her at bay. If I +have got the right idea about your society, it is as unrelenting to +the one sex as it is indulgent to the other. Doubtless it was ready +with open arms to receive back the offending, repentant man, but would +it not have set its foot upon the woman's neck if she had given it the +chance, if she had knelt in humility as he did? A tree bears fruit +after its kind; so does a code of morals. Gentleness and forgiveness +breed repentance and reformation, and harshness begets defiance." She +added with a laugh, "What a spectacle your civilization would present +if all the women who have sinned had the genius and the spirit of a +Bernhardt!" + +"Or all the men had the magnanimity of a Franklin," I retorted. + +"True!" she said, and after a moment she continued, "I am not so great +as the one, nor have I the 'effrontery' of the other. But it is not so +much that I lack courage; it is rather, perhaps, a delicate +consideration for, and concession to, the good order of society." + +I regarded her with amazement, and she smiled. + +"Really, it is true," she said. "I believe in social order and I pay +respect to it--" + +"By concealing your own transgressions," I interpolated. + +"Well, why not? Suppose I and my cult--a very large class of eminently +respectable sinners!--should openly trample upon this time-honored +convention; the result would eventually be, no doubt, a moral anarchy. +We have a very clear sense of our responsibility to the masses. We +make the laws for their government, and we allow ourselves to seem to +be governed by them also,--so that they may believe in them. We build +churches and pay pew rent, though we do not much believe in the +religious dogmas. And we leave off wine when we entertain temperance +people." + +"But why do you do these things?" I asked; "to what end?" + +"Simply for the preservation of good order and decency. You must know +that the pleasant vices of an elegant person are brutalities in the +uncultured. The masses have no tact or delicacy, they do not +comprehend shades, and refinements of morals and manners. They can +understand exoteric but not esoteric philosophy. We have really two +codes of laws." + +"I think it would be far better for the masses--whom you so highly +respect!--" I said, "if you were to throw off your masks and stand out +before them just as you are. Let moral anarchy come if it must, and +the evil be consumed in its own flame; out of its ashes the ph[oe]nix +always rises again, a nobler bird." + +"How picturesque!" she exclaimed; "do you know, I think your language +must be rich in imagery. I should like to learn it." + +I did not like the flippancy of this speech, and made no reply. + +After a brief pause she added, "There is truth in what you say, a ball +must strike hard before it can rebound. Society must be fearfully +outraged before it turns upon the offender, if he be a person of +consequence. But you cannot expect the offender to do his worst, to +dash himself to pieces, in order that a better state of morals may be +built upon his ruin. We have not yet risen to such sublimity of +devotion and self-sacrifice. I think the fault and the remedy both, +lie more with the good people,--the people who make a principle of +moral conduct. They allow us to cajole them into silence, they wink at +our misdeeds. They know what we are up to, but they conceal the +knowledge,--heaven knows why!--as carefully as we do our vices. +Contenting themselves with breaking out in general denunciations which +nobody accepts as personal rebuke." + +This was such a familiar picture that for a moment I fancied myself +upon the Earth again. And I thought, what a difficult position the +good have to maintain everywhere, for having accepted the championship +of a cause whose standards are the highest and best! We expect them to +be wise, tender, strong, just, stern, merciful, charitable, +unyielding, forgiving, sinless, fearless. + +"Elodia," I said presently, "you can hardly understand what a shock +this--this conversation has been to me. I started out with saying that +I had often tried to fancy what our civilization might have done for +you. I see more clearly now. You are the victim of the harshest and +cruelest assumption that has ever been upheld concerning woman,--that +her nature is no finer, holier than man's. I have reverenced womanhood +all my life as the highest and purest thing under heaven, and I will, +I must, hold fast to that faith, to that rock on which the best +traditions of our Earth are founded." + +"Do your women realize what they have got to live up to?" she asked +ironically. + +"There are things in men which offset their virtues," I returned, in +justice to my own sex. "Where men are strong, women are gentle, where +women are faithful, men are brave, and so on." + +"How charming to have the one nature dovetail into the other so +neatly!" she exclaimed. "I seem to see a vision, shall I tell it to +you,--a vision of your Earth? In the Beginning, you know that is the +way in which all our traditions start out, there was a great heap of +Qualities stacked in a pyramid upon the Earth. And the human creatures +were requested to step up and help themselves to such as suited their +tastes. There was a great scramble, and your sex, having some +advantages in the way of muscle and limb,--and not having yet acquired +the arts of courtesy and gallantry for which you are now so +distinguished,--pressed forward and took first choice. Naturally you +selected the things which were agreeable to possess in themselves, and +the exercise of which would most redound to your glory; such virtues +as chastity, temperance, patience, modesty, piety, and some minor +graces, were thrust aside and eventually forced upon the weaker +sex,--since it was necessary that all the Qualities should be used in +order to make a complete Human Nature. Is not that a pretty fable?" + +She arose and shook out her draperies and spread her parasol. There +were crimson spots in her cheeks, I felt that I had angered her,--and +on the other hand, she had outraged my finest feelings. But we were +both capable of self-government. + +"It must be near dinner time," she said, quietly. + +I walked along by her side in silence. + +As we again crossed the brooklet, she stooped and picked a long raceme +of small white, delicately odorous flowers, and together we analyzed +them, and I recognized them as belonging to our family of _convallaria +majalis_. This led to a discussion of comparative botany on the two +planets,--a safe, neutral topic. In outward appearance our mutual +attitude was unchanged. Inwardly, there had been to me something like +the moral upheaval of the universe. For the first time I had +melancholy symptoms of nostalgia, and passionately regretted that I +had ever exchanged the Earth for Mars. + +Severnius had returned. After dinner he invited me out onto the +veranda to smoke a cigar,--he was very particular not to fill the +house with tobacco smoke. Elodia, he said, did not like the odor. I +wondered whether he took such pains out of consideration for her, or +whether he simply dreaded her power to retaliate with her obnoxious +vapor. The latter supposition, however, I immediately repudiated as +being unjust to him; he was the gentlest and sweetest of men. + +My mind was so full of the subject Elodia and I had discussed that I +could not forbear repeating my old question to him: + +"Tell me, my friend," I entreated, "do you in your inmost soul believe +that men and women have one common nature,--that women are no better +at all than men, and that men may, if they will, be as pure as--well +as women ought to be?" + +Severnius smiled. "If you cannot find an answer to your first question +here in Paleveria, I think you may in any of the savage countries, +where I am quite positive the women exhibit no finer qualities than +their lords. And for a very conclusive reply to your second +question,--go to Caskia!" + +"Does the same idea of equality, or likeness rather, exist in Caskia +that prevails here?" I asked. + +"O, yes," said he, "but their plane of life is so much higher. I +cannot but believe in the equality" he added, "bad as things are with +us. We hope that we are progressing onward and upward; all our +teaching and preaching tend toward that, as you may find in our +churches and schools, and in our literature. I am so much of an +optimist as to believe that we are getting better and better all the +time. One evidence is that there is less of shamelessness than there +used to be with respect to some of the grossest offences against +decency. People do not now glory in their vices, they hide them." + +"Then you approve of concealment!" I exclaimed. + +"It is better than open effrontery, it shows that the moral power in +society is the stronger; that it is making the way of the transgressor +hard, driving him into dark corners." + +I contrasted this in my mind with Elodia's theory on the same subject. +The two differed, but there was a certain harmony after all. + +Severnius added, apropos of what had gone before, "It does not seem +fair to me that one half of humanity should hang upon the skirts of +the other half; it is better that we should go hand in hand, even +though our progress is slow." + +"But that cannot be," I returned; "there are always some that must +bear the burden while others drag behind." + +"O, certainly; that is quite natural and right," he assented. "The +strong should help the weak. What I mean is that we should not throw +the burden upon any particular class, or allow to any particular class +special indulgences. That--pardon me!--is the fault I find with your +civilization; you make your women the chancellors of virtue, and claim +for your sex the privilege of being virtuous or not, as you choose." +He smiled as he added, "Do you know, your loyalty and tender devotion +to individual women, and your antagonistic attitude toward women in +general--on the moral plane--presents the most singular contrast to my +mind!" + +"No doubt," I said; "it is a standing joke with us. We are better in +the sample than in the whole piece. As individuals, we are woman's +devoted slaves, and lovers, and worshipers; as a political body, we +are her masters, from whom she wins grudging concessions; as a social +factor, we refuse her dictation." + +I was not in a mood to discuss the matter further. I was sick at heart +and angry,--not so much with Elodia as with the conditions that had +made her what she was, a woman perfect in every other respect, but +devoid of the one supreme thing,--the sense of virtue. She was now to +me simply a splendid ruin, a temple without holiness. I went up to my +room and spent the night plunged in the deepest sadness I had ever +known. When one is suffering an insupportable agony, he catches at the +flimsiest delusions for momentary relief. He says to himself, "My +friend is not dead!" "My beloved is not false!" So I tried to cheat +myself. I argued, "Why, this is only a matter of education with me, +surely; how many women, with finer instincts than mine, have loved and +married men of exactly the same stamp as Elodia!" But I put away the +thought with a shudder, feeling that it would be a far more dreadful +thing to relax my principles and to renounce my faith in woman's +purity than to sacrifice my love. The tempter came in another form. +Suppose she should repent? But my soul revolted. No, no; Jesus might +pardon a Magdalene, but I could not. Elodia was dead; Elodia had never +been! That night I buried her; I said I would never look upon her face +again. But the morning brought resurrection. How hard a thing it is to +destroy love! + + + + +Chapter 9. + +JOURNEYING UPWARD. + + "The old order changeth, giving place to the new, + And God fulfils himself in many ways." + --TENNYSON. + + +My conversation with Elodia had the effect of crystallizing my +nebulous plans about visiting the Caskians into a sudden resolve. I +could not remain longer in her presence without pain to myself; and, +to tell the truth, I dreaded lest her astounding lack of the +moral sense--which should be the foundation stone of woman's +character--would eventually dull my own. Men are notoriously weak +where women are concerned--the women they worship. + +As soon as I had communicated with the Caskians and learned that they +were still anticipating my coming, with--they were so kind as to say +it--the greatest pleasure, I prepared to set forth. + +In the meantime, an event occurred which further illustrated the +social conditions in Paleveria. Claris, the wife of Massilla, died +very suddenly, and I was astonished at the tremendous sensation the +circumstance occasioned throughout the city. It seemed to me that the +only respect it was possible to pay to the memory of such a woman must +be that which is expressed in absolute silence,--even charity could +not be expected to do more than keep silent. But I was mistaken, +Claris had been a woman of distinction, in many ways; she was +beautiful, rich, and talented, and she had wielded an influence in +public and social affairs. Immediately, the various periodicals in +Thursia, and in neighboring cities, flaunted lengthy eulogistic +obituaries headed with more or less well executed portraits of the +deceased. It seemed as if the authors of these effusions must have run +through dictionaries of complimentary terms, which they culled +lavishly and inserted among the acts and facts of her life with a kind +of journalistic sleight-of-hand. And private comment took its cue from +these authorities. It was said that she was a woman of noble traits, +and pretty anecdotes were told of her, illustrating her generous +impulses, her wit, her positiveness. She had had great personal +magnetism, many had loved her, many had also feared her, for her +tongue could cut like a sword. It was stated that her children had +worshiped her, and that her death had prostrated her husband with +grief. Of the chief blackness of her character none spoke. + +Severnius invited me to attend the funeral obsequies which took place +in the Auroras' Temple, where the embalmed body lay in state; with +incense burning and innumerable candles casting their pallid light +upon the bier. I observed as we drove through the streets that the +closed doors of all the business houses exhibited the emblems of +respect and sorrow. + +The Auroras were assembled in great numbers, having come from distant +parts of the country to do honor to the dead. They were in full +regalia, with mourning badges, and carried inverted torches. The +religious ceremonies and mystic rites of the Order were elaborate and +impressive. The dirge which followed, and during which the members of +the Order formed in procession and began a slow march, was so +unutterably and profoundly sad that I could not keep back the tears. A +little sobbing voice directly in front of me wailed out "Mamma! +Mamma!" A woman stooped down and whispered, "Do you want to go up and +kiss Mamma 'good-by' before they take her away?" But the child shrank +back, afraid of the pomp and ghostly magnificence surrounding the dead +form. + +Elodia was of course the chief figure in the procession, and she bore +herself with a grave and solemn dignity in keeping with the +ceremonies. The sight of her beautiful face, with its subdued but +lofty expression, was more than I could bear. I leaned forward and +dropped my face in my hands, and let the sorrow-laden requiem rack my +soul with its sweet torture as it would. + +That was my last day in Thursia. + +I had at first thought of taking my aeroplane along with me, +reflecting that I might better begin my homeward flight from some +mountain top in Caskia; but Severnius would not hear of that. + +"No indeed!" said he, "you must return to us again. I wish to get +ready a budget for you to carry back to your astronomers, which I +think will be of value to them, as I shall make a complete map of the +heavens as they appear to us. Then we shall be eager to hear about +your visit. And besides, we want to see you again on the ground of +friendship, the strongest reason of all!" + +"You are too kind!" I responded with much feeling. I knew that he was +as sincere as he was polite. This was at the last moment, and Elodia +was present to bid me "good-by." She seconded her brother's +invitation,--"O, yes, of course you must come back!" and turned the +whole power of her beautiful face upon me, and for the first time gave +me her hand. I had coveted it a hundred times as it lay lissome and +white in her lap. I clasped it, palm to palm. It was as smooth as +satin, and not moist,--I dislike a moist hand. I felt that up to that +moment I had always undervalued the sense of touch,--it was the +finest of all the senses! No music, no work of art, no wondrous scene, +had ever so thrilled me and set my nerves a-quiver, as did the +delicate, firm pressure of those magic fingers. The remembrance of it +made my blood tingle as I went on my long journey from Thursia to +Lunismar. + +It was a long journey in miles, though not in time, we traveled like +the wind. + +Both Clytia and Calypso were at the station to meet me, with their two +children, Freya and Eurydice. I learned that nearly all Caskians are +named after the planetoids or other heavenly bodies,--a very +appropriate thing, since they live so near the stars! + +My heart went out to the children the moment my eyes fell upon their +faces. + +They were as beautiful as Raphael's cherubs, you could not look upon +them without thrills of delight. They were two perfect buds of the +highest development humanity has ever attained to,--so far as we know. +I felt that it was a wonderful thing to know that in these lovely +forms there lurked no germs of evil, over their sweet heads there +hung no Adam's curse! They were seated in a pretty pony carriage, with +a white canopy top lined with blue silk. Freya held the lines. It +appeared that Eurydice had driven down and he was to drive back. The +father and mother were on foot. They explained that it was difficult +to drive anything but the little carriage up the steep path to their +home on the hillside, half a mile distant. + +"Who would wish for any other means of locomotion than nature has +given him, in a country where the buoyant air makes walking a luxury!" +I cried, stretching my legs and filling my lungs, with an unwonted +sense of freedom and power. + +I had become accustomed to the atmosphere of Paleveria, but here I had +the same sensations I had experienced when I first landed there. + +"If you would rather, you may take my place, sir?" said the not much +more than knee-high Freya, ready to relinquish the lines. I felt +disposed to laugh, but not so the wise parents. + +"The little ponies could not draw our friend up the hill, he is too +heavy," explained Clytia. + +"Thank you, my little man, all the same!" I added. + +It was midsummer in Paleveria, but here I observed everything had the +newness and delightful freshness of spring. A busy, bustling, joyous, +tuneful spring. The grass was green and succulent; the sap was in the +trees and their bark was sleek and glossy, their leaves just unrolled. +Of the wild fruit trees, every branch and twig was loaded with eager +buds crowding upon each other as the heads of children crowd at a +cottage window when one goes by. Every thicket was full of bird life +and music. I heard the roar of a waterfall in the distance, and +Calypso told me that a mighty river, the Eudosa, gathered from a +hundred mountain streams, was compressed into a deep gorge or canyon +and fell in a succession of cataracts just below the city, and finally +spread out into a lovely lake, which was a wonder in its way, being +many fathoms deep and as transparent as the atmosphere. + +We paused to listen,--the children also. + +"How loud it is to-day, Mamma," exclaimed Freya. His mother assented +and turned to me with a smile. "The falls of Eudosa constitute a large +part of our life up here," she said; "we note all its moods, which are +many. Sometimes it is drowsy, and purrs and murmurs; again it is +merry, and sings; or it is sublime, and rises to a thunderous roar. +Always it is sound. Do you know, my ears ached with the silence when I +was down in Paleveria!" + +I have said Clytia's eyes were black; it was not an opaque blackness, +you could look through them down into her soul. I likened them in my +mind to the waters of the Eudosa which Calypso had just described. + +Every moment something new attracted our attention and the brief +journey was full of incident; the children were especially alive to +the small happenings about us, and I never before took such an +interest in what I should have called insignificant things. Sometimes +the conversation between my two friends and myself rose above the +understanding of the little ones, but they were never ignored,--nor +were they obtrusive; they seemed to know just where to fit their +little questions and remarks into the talk. It was quite wonderful. I +understood, of course, that the children had been brought down to meet +me in order that I might make their acquaintance immediately and +establish my relations with them, since I was to be for some time a +member of the household. They had their small interests apart from +their elders--carefully guarded by their elders--as children should +have; but whenever they were permitted to be with us, they were of us. +They were never allowed to feel that loneliness in a crowd which is +the most desolate loneliness in the world. Clytia especially had the +art of enveloping them in her sympathy, though her intellectual +faculties were employed elsewhere. And how they loved her! I have seen +nothing like it upon the Earth. + +Perhaps I adapt myself with unusual readiness to new environments, and +assimilate more easily with new persons than most people do. I had, as +you know, left Paleveria with deep reluctance, under compulsion of my +will--moved by my better judgment; and throughout my journey I had +deliberately steeped myself in sweet and bitter memories of my life +there, to the exclusion of much that might have been interesting and +instructive to me on the way,--a foolish and childish thing to have +done. And now, suddenly, Paleveria dropped from me like a garment. +Some moral power in these new friends, and perhaps in this city of +Lunismar,--a power I could feel but could not define,--raised me to a +different, unmistakably a higher, plane. I felt the change as one +feels the change from underground to the upper air. + +We first walked a little way through the city, which quite filled the +valley and crept up onto the hillsides, here and there. + +Each building stood alone, with a little space of ground around it, +upon which grass and flowers and shrubbery grew, and often trees. Each +such space bore evidence that it was as tenderly and scrupulously +tended as a Japanese garden. + +It was the cleanest city I ever saw; there was not an unsightly place, +not a single darksome alley or lurking place for vice, no huddling +together of miserable tenements. I remarked upon this and Calypso +explained: + +"Our towns used to be compact, but since electricity has annihilated +distance we have spread ourselves out. We have plenty of ground for +our population, enough to give a generous slice all round. Lunismar +really extends through three valleys." + +Crystal streams trickled down from the mountains and were utilized for +practical and æsthetic purposes. Small parks, exquisitely pretty, were +very numerous, and in them the sparkling water was made to play +curious pranks. Each of these spots was an ideal resting place, and I +saw many elderly people enjoying them,--people whom I took to be from +sixty to seventy years of age, but who, I was astonished to learn, +were all upwards of a hundred. Perfect health and longevity are among +the rewards of right living practiced from generation to generation. +The forms of these old people were erect and their faces were +beautiful in intelligence and sweetness of expression. + +I remarked, apropos of the general beauty and elegance of the +buildings we passed: + +"This must be the fine quarter of Lunismar." + +"No, not especially," returned Calypso, "it is about the same all +over." + +"Is it possible! then you must all be rich?" said I. + +"We have no very poor," he replied, "though of course some have larger +possessions than others. We have tried, several times in the history +of our race, to equalize the wealth of the country, but the experiment +has always failed, human nature varies so much." + +"What, even here?" I asked. + +"What do you mean?" said he. + +"Why, I understand that you Caskians have attained to a most perfect +state of development and culture, and--" I hesitated and he smiled. + +"And you think the process eliminates individual traits?" he inquired. + +Clytia laughingly added: + +"I hope, sir, you did not expect to find us all exactly alike, that +would be too tame!" + +"You compliment me most highly," said Calypso, seriously, "but we must +not permit you to suppose that we regard our 'development' as anywhere +near perfect, In fact, the farther we advance, the greater, and the +grander, appears the excellence to which we have not yet attained. +Though it would be false modesty--and a disrespect to our +ancestors--not to admit that we are conscious of having made some +progress, as a race. We know what our beginnings were, and what we now +are." + +After a moment he went on: + +"I suppose the principle of differentiation, as we observe it in plant +and animal life, is the same in all life, not only physical, but +intellectual, moral, spiritual. Cultivation, though it softens salient +traits and peculiarities, may develop infinite variety in every kind +and species." + +I understood this better later on, after I had met a greater number of +people, and after my perceptions had become more delicate and +acute,--or when a kind of initiatory experience had taught me how to +see and to value excellence. + +A few years ago a border of nasturtiums exhibited no more than a +single color tone, the pumpkin yellow; and a bed of pansies resembled +a patch of purple heather. Observe now the chromatic variety and +beauty produced by intelligent horticulture! A group of commonplace +people--moderately disciplined by culture--might be compared to the +pansies and nasturtiums of our early recollection, and a group of +these highly refined Caskians to the delicious flowers abloom in +modern gardens. + +We crave variety in people, as we crave condiments in food. For me, +this craving was never so satisfied--and at the same time so +thoroughly stimulated--as in Caskian society, which had a spiciness of +flavor impossible to describe. + +Formality was disarmed by perfect breeding, there was nothing that you +could call "manner." The delicate faculty of intuition produced +harmony. I never knew a single instance in which the social atmosphere +was disagreeably jarred,--a common enough occurrence where we depend +upon the machinery of social order rather than upon the vital +principle of good conduct. + +I inquired of Calypso, as we walked along, the sources of the people's +wealth. He replied that the mountains were full of it. There were +minerals and precious stones, and metals in great abundance; and all +the ores were manufactured in the vicinity of the mines before being +shipped to the lower countries and exchanged for vegetable products. + +This prompted me to ask the familiar question: + +"And how do you manage the labor problem?" He did not understand me +until after I had explained about our difficulties in that line. And +then he informed me that most of the people who worked in mines and +factories had vested interests in them. + +"Physical labor, however," he added, "is reduced to the minimum; +machinery has taken the place of muscle." + +"And thrown an army of workers out of employment and the means of +living, I suppose?" I rejoined, taking it for granted that the small +share-holders had been squeezed out, as well as the small operators. + +"O, no, indeed," he returned, in surprise. "It has simply given them +more leisure. Everybody now enjoys the luxury of spare time, and may +devote his energies to the service of other than merely physical +needs." He smiled as he went on, "This labor problem the Creator gave +us was a knotty one, wasn't it? But what a tremendous satisfaction +there is in the thought--and in the fact--that we have solved it." + +I was in the dark now, and waited for him to go on. + +"To labor incessantly, to strain the muscles, fret the mind, and weary +the soul, and to shorten the life, all for the sake of supplying the +wants of the body, and nothing more, is, I think, an inconceivable +hardship. And to have invoked the forces of the insensate elements and +laid our burdens upon them, is a glorious triumph." + +"Yes, if all men are profited by it," I returned doubtfully. + +"They are, of course," said he, "at least with us. I was shocked to +find it quite different in Paleveria. There, it seemed to me, +machinery--which has been such a boon to the laborers here--has been +utilized simply and solely to increase the wealth of the rich. I saw a +good many people who looked as though they were on the brink of +starvation." + +"I don't see how you manage it otherwise," I confessed. + +"It belongs to the history of past generations," he replied. "Perhaps +the hardest struggle our progenitors had was to conquer the lusts of +the flesh,--of which the greed of wealth is doubtless the greatest. +They began to realize, generations ago, that Mars was rich enough to +maintain all his children in comfort and even luxury,--that none need +hunger, or thirst, or go naked or houseless, and that more than this +was vanity and vain-glory. And just as they, with intense assiduity, +sought out and cultivated nature's resources--for the reduction of +labor and the increase of wealth--so they sought out and cultivated +within themselves corresponding resources, those fit to meet the new +era of material prosperity; namely, generosity and brotherly love." + +"Then you really and truly practice what you preach!" said I, with +scant politeness, and I hastened to add, "Severnius told me that you +recognize the trinity in human nature. Well, we do, too, upon the +Earth, but the Three have hardly an equal chance! We preach the +doctrine considerably more than we practice it." + +"I understand that you are a highly intellectual people," remarked +Calypso, courteously. + +"Yes, I suppose we are," said I; "our achievements in that line are +nothing to be ashamed of. And," I added, remembering some felicitous +sensations of my own, "there is no greater delight than the travail of +intellect which brings forth great ideas." + +"Pardon me!" he returned, "the travail of soul which brings forth a +great love--a love willing to share equally with others the fruits of +intellectual triumph--is, to my mind, infinitely greater." + +We had reached the terrace, or little plateau, on which my friends' +house stood; it was like a strip of green velvet for color and +smoothness. + +The house was built of rough gray stone which showed silver glintings +in the sun. Here and there, delicate vines clung to the walls. There +was a carriage porch--into which the children drove--and windows +jutting out into the light, and many verandas and little balconies, +that seemed to give the place a friendly and hospitable air. Above +there was a spacious observatory, in which was mounted a very fine +telescope that must have cost a fortune,--though my friends were not +enormously rich, as I had learned from Severnius. But these people do +not regard the expenditure of even very large sums of money for the +means of the best instruction and the best pleasures as extravagance, +if no one suffers in consequence. I cannot go into their economic +system very extensively here, but I may say that it provides primarily +that all shall share bountifully in the general good; and after that, +individuals may gratify their respective tastes--or rather, satisfy +their higher needs; for their tastes are never fanciful, but always +real--as they can afford. + +I do not mean that this is a written law, a formal edict, to be evaded +by such cunning devices as we know in our land, or at best loosely +construed; nor is it a mere sentiment preached from pulpits and +glorified in literature,--a beautiful but impracticable conception! It +is purely a moral law, and being such it is a vital principle in each +individual consciousness. + +The telescope was Calypso's dearest possession, but I never doubted +his willingness to give it up, if there should come a time when the +keeping of it would be the slightest infringement of this law. I may +add that in all the time I spent in Caskia, I never saw a man, woman, +or child, but whose delight in any possession would have been marred +by the knowledge that his, or her, gratification meant another's +bitter deprivation. The question between Thou and I was always settled +in favor of Thou. And no barriers of race, nationality, birth, or +position, affected this universal principle. + +I made a discovery in relation to the Caskians which would have +surprised and disappointed me under most circumstances; they had no +imagination, and they were not given to emotional excitation. Their +minds touched nothing but what was real. But mark this: Their real was +our highest ideal. The moral world was to them a real world; the +spiritual world was to them a real world. They had no need of imagery. +And they were never carried away by floods of feeling, for they were +always up to their highest level,--I mean in the matter of kindness +and sympathy and love. Moreover, their intellectual perceptions were +so clear, and the mysteries of nature were unrolled before their +understanding in such orderly sequence, that although their increase +of knowledge was a continuous source of delight, it never came in +shocks of surprise or excited childish wonderment. I cannot hope to +give you more than a faint conception of the dignity and majesty of a +people whose triple nature was so highly and so harmoniously +developed. One principle governed the three: Truth. They were true to +every law under which they had been created and by which they were +sustained. They were taught from infancy--but of this further on. I +wish to reintroduce Ariadne to you and let her explain some of the +wonders of their teaching, she being herself a teacher. + +The observatory was a much used apartment, by both the family and by +guests. It was a library also, and it contained musical instruments. A +balcony encircled it on the outside, and here we often sat of +evenings, especially if the sky was clear and the stars and moon were +shining. The heavens as seen at night were as familiar to Clytia and +Calypso, and even to the children, as a friend's face. + +It was pleasant to sit out upon the balcony even on moonless nights +and when the stars were hidden, and look down upon the city all +brilliantly alight, and listen to the unceasing music of the Falls of +Eudosa. I, too, soon learned his many "moods." + +Back of the house there rose a long succession of hills, ending +finally in snow-capped mountains, the highest of which was called the +Spear, so sharply did it thrust its head up through the clouds into +the heavens. + +The lower hills had been converted into vineyards. A couple of men +were fixing the trellises, and Calypso excused himself to his wife and +me and went over to them. A neatly dressed maid came out of the house +and greeted the children, who had much important news to relate +concerning their drive; and a last year's bird-nest to show her, which +they took pains to explain was quite useless to the birds, who were +all making nice new nests. The sight of the maid,--evidently an +intelligent and well-bred girl,--whose face beamed affectionately upon +the little ones, prompted a question from me: + +"How do you manage about your servants, I mean house servants," I +asked; "do you have people here who are willing to do menial work?" + +Clytia looked up at me with an odd expression. Her answer, coming from +any one less sincere, would have sounded like cant. + +"We do not regard any work as mean." + +"But some kinds of work are distasteful, to say the least," I +insisted. + +"Not if you love those for whom you labor," she returned. "A mother +does not consider any sort of service to her child degrading." + +"O, I know that," said I; "that is simply natural affection." + +"But natural affection, you know, is only the germ of love. It is +narrow,--only a little broader than selfishness." + +"Well, tell me how it applies in this question of service?" I asked. +"I am not able to comprehend it in the abstract." + +"We do not require people to do anything for us which we would not do +for ourselves, or for them," she said. "And then, we all work. We +believe in work; it means strength to the body and relief to the mind. +No one permits himself to be served by another for the unworthy +reason, openly or tacitly confessed, that he is either too proud, or +too indolent, to serve himself." + +"Then why have servants at all?" I asked. + +"My husband explained to you," she returned, "that our people are not +all equally rich; and they are not all adapted to what you would call, +perhaps, the higher grades of service. You see the little maid yonder +with the children; she has the gifts of a teacher,--our teachers are +very carefully chosen, and as carefully instructed. She has been +placed with me for our mutual benefit,--I could not intrust my little +ones to the care of a mere paid nurse who thought only of her wages. +Nor could she work simply for wages. The money consideration is the +smallest item in the arrangement. My husband superintends some steel +works in which he has some shares. The man he is talking with now--who +is attending to the grape vines--has also a large interest in the +steel works, but he has no taste or faculty for engaging in that kind +of business. He might spend his whole life in idleness if he chose, or +in mental pursuits, for he is a very scholarly man, but he loves the +kind of work he is doing now, and our vineyard is his especial pride. +Moreover," a beautiful smile touched her face as she looked up at the +two men on the hillside, "Fides loves my Calypso, they are soul +friends!" + +When I became more familiar with the household, I found that the same +relations existed all round; mutual pleasure, mutual sympathy, mutual +helpfulness. First there seemed to be on the part of each employe a +distinct preference and liking for the kind of work he or she had +undertaken to do; second, a fitness and careful preparation for the +work; and last, the love of doing for those who gave appreciation, +love, and another sort of service or assistance in return. I heard one +of them say one day: + +"I ask nothing better than to be permitted to cook the meals for these +dear people!" + +This was a woman who wrote monthly articles on chemistry and botany +for one of the leading scientific journals. She was a middle-aged +woman and unmarried, who did not wish to live alone, who abhorred +"boarding," and who had found just such a comfortable nest in Clytia's +home as suited all her needs and desires. Of course she did not slave +in the kitchen all day long, and her position did not debar her from +the best and most intelligent society, nor cut her off from the +pleasure and privileges that sweeten life. She brought her scientific +knowledge to the preparation of the food she set before us, and took +as much pride in the results of her skill as an inventor takes in his +appliances. And such wholesome, delicious, well-cooked dishes I have +never eaten elsewhere. Clytia believed in intelligently prepared food, +as she believed in intelligent instruction for her children; she would +have thought it a crime to set an ignorant person over her kitchen. +And this woman of whom I am speaking knew that she held a place of +honor and trust, and she filled it not only with dignity but +lovingness. She had some younger women to assist her, whom she was +instructing in the science and the art of cooking, and who would +by-and-by take responsible positions themselves. These women, or +girls, assisted also in the housekeeping, which was the most perfect +system in point of cleanliness, order and beauty that it is possible +to conceive of in a home; because skill, honesty and conscientiousness +enter into every detail of the life of these people. The body is held +in honor, and its needs are respected. Life is sacred, and physical +sins,--neglect or infringement of the laws of health,--are classed in +the same category with moral transgressions. In fact, the same +principles and the same mathematical rules apply in the Three Natures +of Man,--refined of course to correspond with the ascending scale from +the lowest to the highest, from the physical to the spiritual. But so +closely are the Three allied that there are no dividing lines,--there +is no point where the Mind may say, "Here my responsibility ends," or +where the Body may affirm, "I have only myself to please." Day by day +these truths became clear to me. There was nothing particularly new in +anything that I heard,--indeed it was all singularly familiar, in +sound. But the wonder was, that the things we idealize, and theorize +about, they accept literally, and absorb into their lives. They have +made living facts of our profoundest philosophy and our sublimest +poetry. Are we then too philosophical, too poetical,--and not +practical? A good many centuries have rolled up their records and +dropped them into eternity since we were given the simple, wonderful +lesson, "Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap,"--and we have +not learned it yet! St. Paul's voice rings through the Earth from age +to age, "Work out your own salvation," and we do not comprehend. These +people have never had a Christ--in flesh and blood--but they have put +into effect every precept of our Great Teacher. They have received the +message, from whence I know not,--or rather by what means I know +not,--"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." + + + + +Chapter 10. + +THE MASTER. + + "I spoke as I saw. + I report, as a man may report God's work--all's Love, + yet all's Law." + -- BROWNING. + + +I have spoken of Ariadne, and promised to re-introduce her to you. You +will remember her as the graceful girl who accompanied Clytia and her +husband to Thursia. She had not made quite so strong an impression +upon me as had the elder woman, perhaps because I was so preoccupied +with, and interested in watching the latter's meeting with Elodia. +Certainly there was nothing in the young woman herself, as I speedily +ascertained, to justify disparagement even with Clytia. I was +surprised to find that she was a member of our charming household. + +She was an heiress; but she taught in one of the city schools, side by +side with men and women who earned their living by teaching. I rather +deprecated this fact in conversation with Clytia one day; I said that +it was hardly fair for a rich woman to come in and usurp a place which +rightfully belonged to some one who needed the work as a means of +support,--alas! that _I_ should have presumed to censure anything in +that wonderful country. With knowledge came modesty. + +Clytia's cheeks crimsoned with indignation. "Our teachers are not +beneficiaries," she replied; "nor do we regard the positions in our +schools--the teachers' positions--as charities to be dispensed to the +needy. The profession is the highest and most honorable in our land, +and only those who are fitted by nature and preparation presume to +aspire to the office. There is no bar against those who are so +fitted,--the richest and the most distinguished stand no better, and +no poorer, chance than the poorest and most insignificant. We must +have the best material, wherever it can be found." + +We had but just entered the house, Clytia and I, when Ariadne glided +down the stairs into the room where we sat, and approached me with the +charming frankness and unaffectedness of manner which so agreeably +characterizes the manners of all these people. She was rather tall, +and slight; though her form did not suggest frailty. She resembled +some elegant flower whose nature it is to be delicate and slender. She +seemed even to sway a little, and undulate, like a lily on its stem. + +I regarded her with attention, not unmixed with curiosity,--as a man +is prone to regard a young lady into whose acquaintance he has not yet +made inroads. + +My chief impression about her was that she had remarkable eyes. They +were of an indistinguishable, dark color, large horizontally but not +too wide open,--eyes that drew yours continually, without your being +able to tell whether it was to settle the question of color, or to +find out the secret of their fascination, or whether it was simply +that they appealed to your artistic sense--as being something finer +than you had ever seen before. They were heavily fringed at top and +bottom, and so were in shadow except when she raised them toward the +light. Her complexion was pale, her hair light and fluffy; her brows +and lashes were several shades darker than the hair. Her hands were +lovely. Her dress was of course white, or cream, of some soft, +clinging material; and she wore a bunch of blue flowers in her belt, +slightly wilted. + +There is this difference in women: some produce an effect simply, and +others make a clear-cut, cameo-like impression upon the mind. Ariadne +was of the latter sort. Whatever she appropriated, though but a tiny +blossom, seemed immediately to proclaim its ownership and to swear its +allegiance to her. From the moment I first saw her there, the blue +flowers in her belt gave her, in my mind, the supreme title to all of +their kind. I could never bear to see another woman wear the same +variety,--and I liked them best when they were a little wilted! Her +belongings suggested herself so vividly that if one came unexpectedly +upon a fan, a book, a garment of hers, he was affected as by a +presence. + +I soon understood why it was that my eyes sought her face so +persistently, drawn by a power infinitely greater than the mere power +of beauty; it was due to the law of moral gravitation,--that by which +men are attracted to a leader, through intuitive perception of a +quality in him round which their own energies may nucleate. We all +recognize the need of a centre, of a rallying-point,--save perhaps the +few eccentrics, detached particles who have lost their place in the +general order, makers of chaos and disturbers of peace. + +It is this power which constitutes one of the chief qualifications of +a teacher in Lunismar; because it rests upon a fact universally +believed in,--spiritual royalty; an august force which cannot be +ignored, and is never ridiculed--as Galileo was ridiculed, and +punished, for his wisdom; because there ignorance and prejudice do not +exist, and the superstition which planted the martyr's stake has never +been known. + +Ariadne said that she had been up in the observatory, and that there +were indications of an approaching storm. + +"I hope it may be a fine one!" exclaimed Clytia. + +I thought this rather an extraordinary remark--coming from one of the +sex whose formula is more likely to be, "I hope it will not be a +severe one." + +At that moment a man appeared in the doorway, the majesty of whose +presence I certainly felt before my eyes fell upon him. Or it might +have been the reflection I saw in the countenances of my two +companions,--I stood with my back to the door, facing them,--which +gave me the curious, awe-touched sensation. + +I turned round, and Clytia immediately started forward. Ariadne +exclaimed in an undertone, with an accent of peculiar sweetness,--a +commingling of delight, and reverence, and caressing tenderness: + +"Ah! the Master!" + +Clytia took him by the hand and brought him to me, where I stood +rooted to my place. + +"Father, this is our friend," she said simply, without further +ceremony of introduction. It was enough. He had come on purpose to see +me, and therefore he knew who I was. As for him--one does not explain +a king! The title by which Ariadne had called him did not at the +moment raise an inquiry in my mind. I accepted it as the natural +definition of the man. He was a man of kingly proportions, with eyes +from which Clytia's had borrowed their limpid blackness. His glance +had a wide compresiveness, and a swift, sure, loving insight. + +He struck me as a man used to moving among multitudes, with his head +above all, but his heart embracing all. + +You may think it strange, but I was not abashed. Perfect love casteth +out fear; and there was in this divine countenance--I may well call it +divine!--the lambent light of a love so kindly and so tender, that +fear, pride, vanity, egotism, even false modesty--our pet +hypocrisy--surrendered without a protest. + +I think I talked more than any one else, being delicately prompted to +furnish some account of the world to which I belong, and stimulated +by the profound interest with which the Master attended to every word +that I said. But I received an equal amount of information +myself,--usually in response to the questions with which I rounded up +my periods, like this: We do so, and so, upon the Earth; how is it +here? The replies threw an extraordinary light upon the social order +and conditions there. + +I naturally dwelt upon the salient characteristics of our people,--I +mean, of course, the American people. I spoke of our enormous grasp of +the commercial principle; of our manipulation of political and even +social forces to great financial ends; of our easy acquisition of +fortunes; of our tremendous push and energy, directed to the +accumulation of wealth. And of our enthusiasms, and institutions; our +religions and their antagonisms, and of the many other things in which +we take pride. + +And I learned that in Caskia there is no such thing as speculative +enterprise. All business has an actual basis most discouraging to the +adventurous spirit in search of sudden riches. There is no monetary +skill worthy the dignified appellation of financial management,--and +no use for that particular development of the talent of ingenuity. + +All the systems involving the use of money conduct their affairs upon +the simplest arithmetical rules in their simplest form; addition, +subtraction, multiplication, division. There are banks, of course, for +the mutual convenience of all, but there are no magnificent delusions +called "stocks;" no boards of trade, no bulls and bears, no "corners," +no mobilizing of capital for any questionable purposes; no gambling +houses; no pitfalls for unwary feet; and no mad fever of greed and +scheming coursing through the veins of men and driving them to +insanity and self-destruction. More than all, there are no fictitious +values put upon fads and fancies of the hour,--nor even upon works of +art. The Caskians are not easily deceived. An impostor is impossible. +Because the people are instructed in the quality of things +intellectual, and moral, and spiritual, as well as in things physical. +They are as sure of the knowableness of art, as they are--and as we +are--of the knowableness of science. Art is but refined science, and +the principles are the same in both, but more delicately, and also +more comprehensively, interpreted in the former than in the latter. + +One thing more: there are no would-be impostors. The law operates no +visible machinery against such crimes, should there be any. The Master +explained it to me in this way: + +"The Law is established in each individual conscience, and rests +securely upon self-respect." + +"Great heavens!" I cried, as the wonder of it broke upon my +understanding, "and how many millions of years has it taken your race +to attain to this perfection?" + +"It is not perfection," he replied, "it only approximates perfection; +we are yet in the beginning." + +"Well, by the grace of God, you are on the right way!" said I. "I am +familiar enough with the doctrines you live by, to know that it is the +right way; they are the same that we have been taught, theoretically, +for centuries, but, to tell the truth, I never believed they could be +carried out literally, as you appear to carry them out. We are +tolerably honest, as the word goes, but when honesty shades off into +these hair-splitting theories, why--we leave it to the preachers, +and--women." + +"Then you really have some among you who believe in the higher +truths?" the Master said, and his brows went up a little in token of +relief.--My picture of Earth-life must have seemed a terrible one to +him! + +"O, yes, indeed," said I, taking my cue from this. And I proceeded to +give some character sketches of the grand men and women of Earth whose +lives have been one long, heroic struggle for truth, and to whom a +terrible death has often been the crowning triumph of their faith. I +related to him briefly the history of America from its discovery four +hundred years ago; and told him about the splendid material +prosperity,--the enormous wealth, the extraordinary inventions, the +great population, the unprecedented free-school system, and the +progress in general education and culture,--of a country which had its +birth but yesterday in a deadly struggle for freedom of conscience; +and of our later, crueller war for freedom that was not for ourselves +but for a despised race. I described the prodigious waves of public +and private generosity that have swept millions of money into burned +cities for their rebuilding, and tons of food into famine-stricken +lands for the starving. + +I told him of the coming together in fellowship of purpose, of the +great masses, to face a common danger, or to meet a common necessity; +and of the moral and intellectual giants who in outward appearance and +in the seeming of their daily lives are not unlike their fellows, but +to whom all eyes turn for help and strength in the hour of peril. But +I did not at that time undertake any explanation of our religious +creeds, for it somehow seemed to me that these would not count for +much with a people who expressed their theology solely by putting into +practice the things they believed. I had the thought in mind though, +and determined to exploit it later on. As I have said before, the +Master listened with rapt attention, and when I had finished, he +exclaimed, + +"I am filled with amazement! a country yet so young, so far advanced +toward Truth!" + +He gave himself up to contemplation of the picture I had drawn, and in +the depths of his eyes I seemed to see an inspired prophecy of my +country's future grandeur. + +Presently he rose and went to a window, and, with uplifted face, +murmured in accents of the sublimest reverence that have ever touched +my understanding, "O, God, All-Powerful!" + +And a wonderful thing happened: the invocation was responded to by a +voice that came to each of our souls as in a flame of fire, "Here am +I." The velocity of worlds is not so swift as was our transition from +the human to the divine. + +But it was not an unusual thing, this supreme triumph of the spirit; +it is what these people call "divine worship,"--a service which is +never perfunctory, which is not ruled by time or place. One may +worship alone, or two or three, or a multitude, it matters not to God, +who only asks to be worshiped in spirit and in truth,--be the time +Sabbath or mid-week, the place temple, or field, or closet. + +A little later I remarked to the Master,--wishing to have a point +cleared up,-- + +"You say there are no fictitious values put upon works of art; how do +you mean?" + +He replied, "Inasmuch as truth is always greater than human +achievement--which at best may only approximate the truth,--the value +of a work of art should be determined by its merit alone, and not by +the artist's reputation, or any other remote influence,--of course I +do not include particular objects consecrated by association or by +time. But suppose a man paints a great picture, for which he recieves +a great price, and thereafter uses the fame he has won as speculating +capital to enrich himself,--I beg the pardon of every artist for +setting up the hideous hypothesis!--But to complete it: the moment a +man does that, he loses his self-respect, which is about as bad as +anything that can happen to him; it is moral suicide. And he has done +a grievous wrong to art by lowering the high standard he himself +helped to raise. But his crime is no greater than that of the +name-worshipers, who, ignorantly, or insolently, set up false +standards and scorn the real test of values. However, these important +matters are not left entirely to individual consciences; artists, and +so-called art-critics, are not the only judges of art. We have no +mysterious sanctuaries for a privileged few; all may enter,--all are +indeed made to enter, not by violence, but by the simple, natural +means employed in all teaching. All will not hold the brush, or the +pen, or the chisel; but from their earliest infancy our children are +carefully taught to recognize the forms of truth in all art; the eye +was made to see, the ear to hear, the mind to understand." + +The visit was at an end. When he left us it was as though the sun had +passed under a cloud. + +Clytia went out with him, her arm lovingly linked in his; and I turned +to Ariadne. "Tell me," I said, "why is he called Master? Is it a +formal title, or was it bestowed in recognition of the quality of the +man?" + +"Both," she answered. "No man receives the title who has not the +'quality.' But it is in one way perfunctory; it is the distinguishing +title of a teacher of the highest rank." + +"And what are teachers of the highest rank, presidents of colleges?" I +asked. + +"O, no," she replied with a smile, "they are not necessarily teachers +of schools--old and young alike are their pupils. They are those who +have advanced the farthest in all the paths of knowledge, especially +the moral and the spiritual." + +"I understand," said I; "they are your priests, ministers, +pastors,--your Doctors of Divinity." + +"Perhaps," she returned, doubtfully; our terminology was not always +clear to those people. + +"Usually," she went on, "they begin with teaching in the schools,--as +a kind of apprenticeship. But, naturally, they rise; there is that +same quality in them which forces great poets and painters to high +positions in their respective fields." + +"Then they rank with geniuses!" I exclaimed, and the mystery of the +man in whose grand company I had spent the past hour was solved. + +Ariadne looked at me as though surprised that I should have been +ignorant of so natural and patent a fact. + +"Excuse me!" said I, "but it is not always the case with us; any man +may set up for a religious teacher who chooses, with or without +preparation,--just as any one may set up for a poet, or a painter, or +a composer of oratorio." + +"Genius must be universal on your planet then," she returned +innocently. I suppose I might have let it pass, there was nobody to +contradict any impressions I might be pleased to convey! but there is +something in the atmosphere of Lunismar which compels the truth, good +or bad. + +"No," said I, "they do it by grace of their unexampled self-trust,--a +quality much encouraged among us,--and because we do not legislate +upon such matters. The boast of our country is liberty, and in some +respects we fail to comprehend the glorious possession. Too often we +mistake lawlessness for liberty. The fine arts are our playthings, and +each one follows his own fancy, like children with toys." + +"Follows-his-own-fancy," she repeated, as one repeats a strange +phrase, the meaning of which is obscure. + +"By the way," I said, "you must be rather arbitrary here. Is a man +liable to arrest or condign punishment, if he happens to burlesque any +of the higher callings under the impression that he is a genius?" + +She laughed, and I added, "I assure you that this is not an uncommon +occurrence with us." + +"It would be impossible here," she replied, "because no one could so +mistake himself, though it seems egotistical for one of us to say so! +but"--a curious expression touched her face, a questioning, doubting, +puzzled look--"we are speaking honestly, are we not?" + +I wondered if I had betrayed my American characteristic of hyperbole, +and I smiled as I answered her: + +"My countrymen are at my mercy, I know; but had I a thousand grudges +against them, I beg you to believe that I am not so base as to take +advantage of my unique opportunity to do them harm! We are a young +people, as I said awhile ago, a very young people; and in many +respects we have the innocent audacity of babes. Yes," I added, "I +have told you the truth,--but not all of it; Earth, too, is pinnacled +with great names,--of Masters, like yours, and poets, and painters, +and scientists, and inventors. Even in the darkest ages there have +been these points of illumination. What I chiefly wonder at here, is +the universality of intelligence, of understanding. You are a teacher +of children, pray tell me how you teach. How do you get such wonderful +results? I can comprehend--a little--'what' you people are, I wish to +know the 'how,' the 'why'." + +"All our teaching," she said, "embraces the three-fold nature. The +physical comes first of course, for you cannot reach the higher +faculties through barriers of physical pain and sickness, hunger and +cold. The child must have a good body, and to this end he is taught +the laws that govern his body, through careful and attentive +observance of cause and effect. And almost immediately, he begins to +have fascinating glimpses of similar laws operating upon a higher +than the physical plane. Children have boundless curiosity, you know, +and this makes the teacher's work easy and delightful,--for we all +love to tell a piece of news! Through this faculty, the desire to +know, you can lead a child in whatever paths you choose. You can +almost make him what you choose. A little experience teaches a child +that every act brings consequences, good or bad; but he need not get +all his knowledge by experience, that is too costly. The reasoning +faculty must be aroused, and then the conscience,--which is to the +soul what the sensatory nerves are to the body. But the conscience is +a latent faculty, and here comes in the teacher's most delicate and +important work. Conscience is quite dependent upon the intellect; we +must know what is right and what is wrong, otherwise conscience must +stagger blindly." + +"Yes, I know," I interrupted, "the consciences of some very good +people in our world have burned witches at the stake." + +"Horrible!" she said with a shudder. + +She continued: "This, then, is the basis. We try, through that simple +law of cause and effect, which no power can set aside, to supply each +child with a safe, sure motive for conduct that will serve him through +life, as well in his secret thought as in outward act. No one with +this principle well-grounded in him will ever seek to throw the blame +of his misdeeds upon another. We teach the relative value of +repentance; that though it cannot avert or annul the effects of +wrong-doing, it may serve to prevent repetition of the wrong." + +"Do you punish offenders?" I asked. + +She smiled. "Punishment for error is like treating symptoms instead of +the disease which produced them, is it not?--relief for the present, +but no help for the future. Punishment, and even criticism, are +dangerous weapons, to be used, if at all, with a tact and skill that +make one tremble to think of! They are too apt to destroy freedom of +intercourse between teacher and pupil. Unjust criticism, especially, +shuts the teacher from an opportunity to widen the pupil's knowledge. +Too often our criticisms are barriers which we throw about ourselves, +shutting out affection and confidence; and then we wonder why friends +and family are sealed books to us!" + +"That is a fact," I assented, heartily, "and no one can keep to his +highest level if he is surrounded by an atmosphere of coldness and +censure. Even Christ, our Great Teacher, affirmed that he could not do +his work in certain localities because of prevailing unbelief." + +"There is one thing which it is difficult to learn," went on Ariadne, +"discrimination, the fitness of things. I may not do that which is +proper for another to do,--why? Because in each individual +consciousness is a special and peculiar law of destiny upon which +rests the burden of personal responsibility. It is this law of the +individual that makes it an effrontery for any one to constitute +himself the chancellor of another's conscience, or to sit in judgment +upon any act which does not fall under the condemnation of the common +law. It is given to each of us to create a world,--within ourselves +and round about us,--each unlike all the others, though conforming to +the universal principles of right, as poets, however original, +conform to the universal principles of language. We have choice--let +me give you a paradox!--every one may have first choice of +inexhaustible material in infinite variety. But how to choose!" + +I quoted Milton's lines: + + "He that has light within his own clear breast, + May sit in the center and enjoy bright day; + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon." + +She thanked me with a fine smile. + +Clytia had come in a few moments before, but her entrance had been +such that it had caused no disturbing vibrations in the current of +sympathetic understanding upon which Ariadne and myself were launched. + +Now, however, we came ashore as it were, and she greeted us as +returned voyagers love to be greeted, with cordial welcome. + +She informed us that dinner was ready, and I was alarmed lest we might +have delayed that important function. + +The children had disappeared for the day, having already had their +dinner in the nursery under the supervision of their mother. + +Calypso had invited in his friend Fides. He was a man of powerful +frame, and strong, fine physionomy; with a mind as virile as the +former, and as clear-cut as the latter. The woman who had created the +dinner--I do not know of a better word--also sat at table with us, and +contributed many a gem to the thought of the hour. Thought may seem an +odd word to use in connection with a dinner conversation,--unless it +is a "toast" dinner! but even in their gayest and lightest moods these +people are never thoughtless. Their minds instead of being lumbering +machinery requiring much force and preparation to put in motion, are +set upon the daintiest and most delicate wheels. Their mental +equipment corresponds with the astonishing mechanical contrivances for +overcoming friction in the physical world. And this exquisite +machinery is applied in exactly the same ways,--sometimes for utility, +and sometimes for simple enjoyment. + +Ariadne's prediction had been correct, the storm-king was mustering +his forces round the mountain-tops, and the Eudosa was answering the +challenge from the valley. + +After dinner we went up into the observatory, and from thence passed +out onto the balcony, thrilled by the same sense of delightful +expectancy you see in the unennuied eyes of Youth, waiting for the +curtain to go up at a play. All save myself had of course seen +thunder-storms in Lunismar, but none were _blasé_. There was eagerness +in every face. + +We took our station at a point which gave us the best view of the +mountains, and saw the lightning cut their cloud-enwrapped sides with +flaming swords, and thrust gleaming spears down into the darkling +valley, as if in furious spite at the blackness which had gathered +everywhere. For the sun had sunk behind a wall as dense as night and +left the world to its fate. Before the rain began to fall there was an +appalling stillness, which even the angry mutterings of the Eudosa +could not overcome. And then, as though the heavens had marshaled all +their strength for one tremendous assault, the thunder broke forth. I +have little physical timidity, but the shock struck me into a pose as +rigid as death. + +The others were only profoundly impressed, spiritually alive to the +majesty of the performance. + +That first explosion was but the prelude to the mighty piece played +before us, around us, at our feet, and overhead. + +Earth has been spared the awfulness--(without destruction)--and has +missed the glory of such a storm as this. + +But the grandest part was yet to come. The rain lasted perhaps twenty +minutes, and then a slight rent was made in the thick and sombre +curtain that covered the face of the heavens, and a single long shaft +of light touched the frozen point of the Spear and turned its crystal +and its snow to gold. The rest of the mountain was still swathed in +cloud. A moment more, and a superb rainbow, and another, and yet +another, were flung upon the shoulder of the Spear, below the +glittering finger. The rent in the curtain grew wider, and beyond, all +the splendors of colors were blazoned upon the shimmering draperies +that closed about and slowly vanished with the sun. + +We sat in silence for a little time. I happened to be near Fides, and +I presently turned to him and said: + +"That was a most extraordinary manifestation of the Almighty's power!" + +He looked at me but did not reply. + +Ariadne, who had heard my remark, exclaimed laughingly: + +"Fides thinks the opening of a flower is a far more wonderful +manifestation than the stirring up of the elements!" + +In the midst of the storm I had discovered the Master standing at the +farther end of the balcony, and beside him a tall, slender woman with +thick, white hair, whom I rightly took to be his wife. I was presented +to her shortly, and the mental comment I made at the moment, I never +afterward reversed,--"She is worthy to be the Master's wife!" + +Although the rain had ceased, the sky was a blank, as night settled +upon the world. Not a star shone. But it was cool and pleasant, and +we sat and talked for a couple of hours. Suddenly, a band of music on +the terrace below silenced our voices. It was most peculiar music: now +it was tone-pictures thrown upon the dark background of shadows; and +now it was a dance of sprites; and now a whispered confidence in the +ear. It made no attempt to arouse the emotions, to produce either +sadness or exaltation. It was a mere frolic of music. When it was +over, I went down stairs, with the others, humming an inaudible tune, +as though I had been to the opera. + + + + +Chapter 11. + +A COMPARISON. + + "He who rests on what he is, has a destiny above + destiny, and can make mouths at fortune." + --EMERSON. + + "Work out your own salvation." + --ST. PAUL. + + +I had a feeling, when I retired to my room that night, as if years lay +between me and the portion of my life which I had spent in Paleveria. +But across the wide gulf my soul embraced Severnius. All that was +beautiful, and lovable, and noble in that far-off country centered in +him, as light centres in a star. + +But of Elodia I could not think without pain. I even felt a kind of +helpless rage mingling with the pain,--remembering that it was simply +the brutality of the social system under which she had been reared, +that had stamped so hideous a brand upon a character so fair. I +contrasted her in my mind with the women asleep in the rooms about me, +whose thoughts were as pure as the thoughts of a child. Had she been +born here, I reflected, she would have been like Clytia, like Ariadne. +And oh! the pity of it, that she had not! + +I was restless, wakeful, miserable, thinking of her; remembering her +wit, her intelligence, her power; remembering how charming she was, +how magnetic, and alas! how faulty! + +She gave delight to all about her, and touched all life with color. +But she was like a magnificent bouquet culled from the gardens of +wisdom and beauty; a thing of but temporary value, whose fragrance +must soon be scattered, whose glory must soon pass away. + +Ariadne was the white and slender lily, slowly unfolding petal after +petal in obedience to the law of its own inner growth. Should the +blossom be torn asunder its perfume would rise as incense about its +destroyer, and from the life hidden at its root would come forth more +perfect blossoms and more delicate fragrance. + +I had arrived at this estimate of her character by a process more +unerring and far swifter than reason. You might call it spiritual +telegraphy. The thought of her not only restored but immeasurably +increased my faith in woman; and I fell asleep at last soothed and +comforted. + +I awoke in the morning to the sound of singing. It was Ariadne's +voice, and she was touching the strings of a harp. All Caskians sing, +and all are taught to play upon at least one musical instrument. Every +household is an orchestra. + +Ariadne's voice was exceptionally fine--where all voices were +excellent. Its quality was singularly bird-like; sometimes it was the +joyous note of the lark, and again it was the tenderly sweet, and +passionately sad, dropping-song of the mocking-bird. + +When I looked out of my window, the sun was just silvering the point +of the Spear, and light wreaths of mist were lifting from the valleys. +I saw the Master, staff in hand, going up toward the mountains, and +Fides was coming across the hills. + +I had wondered, when I saw the Master and his wife on the balcony the +night before, how they came to be there at such an hour on such a +night. I took the first opportunity to find out. The only way to find +out about people's affairs in Caskia, is by asking questions, or, by +observation--which takes longer. They speak with their lives instead +of their tongues, concerning so many things that other people are +wordy about. They are quite devoid of theories. But they are +charmingly willing to impart what one wishes to know. + +I learned that Clytia's parents lived within a stone's throw of her +house on one side, and Calypso's grandparents at about the same +distance on the other. And I also learned that it was an arrangement +universally practiced; the clustering together of families, in order +that the young might always be near at hand to support, and protect, +and to smooth the pathway of the old. Certain savage races upon the +Earth abandon the aged to starvation and death; certain other races, +not savage, abandon them to a loneliness that is only less cruel. But +these extraordinarily just people repay to the helplessness of age, +the tenderness and care, the loving sympathy, which they themselves +received in the helplessness of infancy. + +The grandparents happened to be away from home, and I did not meet +them for some days. + +On that first morning we had Clytia's parents to breakfast. +Immediately after breakfast the circle broke up. It was Clytia's +morning to visit and assist in the school which her little ones +attended; Ariadne started off to her work, with a fresh cluster of the +delicious blue flowers in her belt; and I had the choice of visiting +the steel-works with Calypso, or taking a trip to Lake Eudosa, on +foot, with the Master. I could hardly conceal the delight with which I +decided in favor of the latter. We set off at once, and what a walk it +was! A little way through the city, and then across a strip of lush +green meadow, starred with daisies, thence into sweet-smelling woods, +and then down, down, down, along the rocky edge of the canyon, past +the deafening waterfalls to the wonderful Lake! + +We passed, on our way through the city, a large, fine structure which, +upon inquiry, I found to be the place where the Master "taught" on the +Sabbath day. + +"Do you wish to look in?" he asked, and we turned back and entered. +The interior was beautiful and vast, capacious enough to seat several +thousand people; and every Sunday it was filled. + +I thought it a good opportunity for finding out something about the +religion of this people, and I began by asking: + +"Are there any divisions in your Church,--different denominations, I +mean?" + +He seemed unable to comprehend me, and I was obliged to enter into an +explanation, which I made as simple as possible, of course, relative +to the curse of Adam and the plan of redemption. In order that he +might understand the importance attaching to our creeds, I told him of +the fierce, sanguinary struggles of past ages, and the grave +controversies of modern times, pertaining to certain dogmas and +tenets,--as to whether they were essential, or non-essential to +salvation. + +"Salvation from what?" he asked. + +"Why, from sin." + +"But how? We know only one way to be saved from sin." + +"And what is that?" I inquired. + +"Not to sin." + +"But that is impossible!" I rejoined, feeling that he was trifling +with the subject. Though that was unlike him. + +"Yes, it is impossible," he replied, gravely. "God did not make us +perfect. He left us something to do for ourselves." + +"That is heretical," said I. "Don't you believe in the Fall of Man?" + +"No, I think I believe in the Rise of Man," he answered, smiling. + +"O, I keep forgetting," I exclaimed, "that I am on another planet!" + +"And that this planet has different relations with God from what your +planet has?" returned he. "I cannot think so, sir; it is altogether a +new idea to me, and--pardon me!--an illogical one. We belong to the +same system, and why should not the people of Mars have the sentence +for sin revoked, as well as the people of Earth? Why should not we +have been provided with an intercessor? But tell me, is it really +so?--do you upon the Earth not suffer the consequences of your acts?" + +"Why, certainly we do," said I; "while we live. The plan of salvation +has reference to the life after death." + +He dropped his eyes to the ground. + +"You believe in that life, do you not?" I asked. + +"Believe in it!"--he looked up, amazed. "All life is eternal; as long +as God lives, we shall live." + +A little later he said: + +"You spoke of the fall of man,--what did you mean?" + +"That Man was created a perfect being, but through sin became +imperfect, so that God could not take him back to Himself,--save by +redemption." + +"And God sent His Only Son to the Earth, you say, to redeem your race +from the consequences of their own acts?" + +"So we believe," said I. + +After another brief silence, he remarked: + +"Man did not begin his life upon this planet in perfection." + +At this moment we passed a beautiful garden, in which there was an +infinite profusion of flowers in infinite variety. + +"Look at those roses!" he exclaimed; "God planted the species, a crude +and simple plant, and turned it over to man to do what he might with +it; and in the same way he placed man himself here,--to perfect +himself if he would. I am not jealous of God, nor envious of you; but +just why He should have arranged to spare you all this labor, and +commanded us to work out our own salvation, I cannot comprehend." + +It struck me as a remarkable coincidence that he should have used the +very words of one of our own greatest logicians. + +A longer silence followed. The Master walked with his head inclined, +in the attitude of profound thought. At last he drew a deep breath and +looked up, relaxing his brows. + +"It may be prodigiously presumptuous," he said, "but I am inclined to +think there has been a mistake somewhere." + +"How, a mistake?" I asked. + +He paid no heed to the question, but said: "Tell me the story,--tell +me the exact words, if you can, of this Great Teacher whom you believe +to be the Son of God?" + +I gave a brief outline of the Saviour's life and death, and it was a +gratification to me--because it seemed, in some sort, an +acknowledgment, or concession to my interpretation,--to see that he +was profoundly affected. + +"Oh!" he cried,--his hands were clenched and his body writhed as with +the actual sufferings of the Man of Sorrows,--"that a race of men +should have been brought through such awful tribulation to see God! +Why could they not accept the truth from his lips?" + +"Because they would not. They kept crying 'Give us a sign,' and he +gave himself to death." + +I grouped together as many of the words of Christ as I could recall, +and I was surprised, not only that his memory kept its grasp on them +all, but that he was able to see at once their innermost meaning. It +was as if he dissolved them in the wonderful alembic of his +understanding, and instantly restored them in crystals of pure truth, +divested alike of mysticism and remote significance. He took them up, +one by one, and held them to the light, as one holds precious gems. He +knew them, recognized them, and appraised them with the delight, and +comprehensiveness, and the critical judgment of a connoisseur of +jewels. + +"You believe that Christ came into your world," he said, "that you +'might have life.' That is, he came to teach you that the life of the +soul, and not the body, is the real life. He died 'that you might +live,' but it was not the mere fact of his death that assured your +life. He was willing to give up his life in pledge of the truth of +what he taught, that you might believe that truth, and act upon that +belief, and so gain life. He taught only the truth,--his soul was a +fountain of truth. Hence, when he said, Suffer the little children to +come unto me, it was as though he said, Teach your children the truths +I have taught you. And when he cried in the tenderness of his great +and yearning love, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, +and I will give you rest, he meant,--oh! you cannot doubt it, my +friend,--he meant, Come, give up your strifes, and hatreds, your +greeds, and vanities, and selfishness, and the endless weariness of +your pomps and shows; come to me and learn how to live, and where to +find peace, and contentment. 'A new commandment I give unto you, that +ye love one another.' This was the 'easy yoke,' and the 'light +burden,' which your Christ offered to you in place of the tyranny of +sin. 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to +them.' There is nothing finer than that,--there is no law above that! +We Caskians have been trying to work upon that principle for thousands +of years. It is all that there is of religion, save the spiritual +perception of abstract truths which we may conceive of; more or less +clearly, as attributes of God. Your Great Teacher explained to you +that God is a spirit, and should be worshiped in spirit and in truth. +Hence we may worship Him where and when we will. Worship is not a +ceremony, but profound contemplation of the infinite wisdom, the +infinite power, and the infinite love of God. The outdoor +world,--here, where we stand now, with the marvelous sky above us, the +clouds, the sun; this mighty cataract before us; and all the teeming +life, the beauty, the fragrance, the song,--is the best place of all. +I pity the man who lacks the faculty of worship! it means that though +he may have eyes he sees not, and ears he hears not." + +"Do you believe in temples of worship?" I asked. + +"Yes," he replied, "I believe in them; for though walls and stained +windows shut out the physical glories of the world, they do not blind +the eyes of the spirit. And if there is one in the pulpit who has +absorbed enough of the attributes of God into his soul to stand as an +interpreter to the people, it is better than waiting outside. Then, +too, there is grandeur in the coming together of a multitude to +worship in oneness of spirit. And all things are better when shared +with others. I believe that art should bring its best treasures to +adorn the temples of worship, and that music should voice this supreme +adoration. But in this matter, we should be careful not to limit God +in point of locality. What does the saying mean, 'I asked for bread, +and ye gave me a stone?' I think it might mean, for one thing, 'I +asked where to find God, and you pointed to a building.' The finite +mind is prone to worship its own creations of God. There are ignorant +races upon this planet,--perhaps also upon yours,--who dimly recognize +Deity in this way; they bring the best they have of skill in +handiwork, to the making of a pitiful image to represent God; and +then, forgetting the motive, they bow down to the image. We call that +idolatry. But it is hard even for the enlightened to avoid this sin." + +He paused a moment and then went on: + +"I cannot comprehend the importance you seem to place upon the forms +and symbols, nor in what way they relate to religion, but they may +have some temporary value, I can hardly judge of that. Baptism, you +say, is a token and a symbol, but do a people so far advanced in +intelligence and perception, still require tokens and symbols? And can +you not, even yet, separate the spiritual meaning of Christ's words +from their literal meaning? You worship the man--the God, if you +will,--instead of that for which he stood. He himself was a symbol, he +stood for the things he wished to teach. 'I am the truth,' 'I am the +life.' Do you not see that he meant, 'I am the exponent of truth, I +teach you how to live; hearken unto me.' In those days in which he +lived, perhaps, language was still word-pictures, and the people whom +he taught could not grasp the abstract, hence he used the more +forcible style, the concrete. He could not have made this clearer, +than in those remarkable words, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one +of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'" + +"I know," I replied, as he paused for some response from me; "my +intellect accepts your interpretation of these things, but this +symbolic religion of ours is ingrained in our very consciences, so +that neglect of the outward forms of Christianity seems almost worse +than actual sin." + +"And it will continue to be so," he said, "until you learn to practice +the truth for truth's sake,--until you love your neighbor--not only +because Christ commanded it, but because the principle of love is +'ingrained in your consciences.' As for belonging to a church, I can +only conceive of that in the social sense, for every soul that aspires +upward belongs to Christ's church universal. They are the lambs of his +flock, the objects of his tenderest care. But I can see how a great +number of religious societies, or organizations, are possible, as +corresponding with the requirements of different groups of people." + +"Yes," I said, glad of this admission, "and these societies are all +aiming at the same thing that you teach,--the brotherhood of man. They +clothe the poor, they look after the sick, they send missionaries to +the heathen, they preach morality and temperance,--all, in His Name, +because, to tell the truth, they cannot conceive of any virtue +disassociated from the man, Jesus. Jesus is the great leader of the +spiritual forces marshaled under the banners of truth upon the Earth. +In all their good works, which are so great and so many, good +christians give Christ the glory, because, but for him, they would not +have had the Truth, the Life,--the world was so dark, so ignorant. All +the ancient civilizations upon the Earth,--and some of them were +magnificent!--have perished, because they did not possess this truth +and this spiritual life which Christ taught. There was a great deal of +knowledge, but not love; there was a great deal of philosophy, but it +was cold. There was mysticism, but it did not satisfy. Do you wonder, +sir, that a world should love the man who brought love into that +world,--who brought peace, good-will, to men?" + +"No, no," said the Master, "I do not wonder. It is grand, sublime! And +he gave his body to be destroyed by his persecutors, in order to prove +to the world that there is a life higher than the physical, and +indestructible,--and that physical death has no other agony than +physical pain. Ah, I see, I understand, and I am not surprised that +you call this man your redeemer! I think, my friend," he added, "that +you have now a civilization upon the Earth, which will not perish!" + +After a moment, he remarked, turning to me with a smile, "We are not +so far apart as we thought we were, when we first started out, are +we?" + +"No," said I, "the only wonder to me is, that you should have been in +possession, from the beginning, of the same truths that were revealed +to us only a few centuries ago, through, as we have been taught to +believe, special Divine Favor." + +"Say, rather, Infinite Divine Love," he returned; "then we shall +indeed stand upon the same plane, all alike, children of God." + +As we continued our walk, his mind continued to dwell upon the +teachings of Christ, and he sought to make clear to me one thing after +another. + +"Pray without ceasing," he repeated, reflectively. "Well, now, it +would be impossible to take that literally; the literal meaning of +prayer is verbal petition. The real meaning is, the sincere desire of +the soul. You are commanded to pray in secret, and God will reward +you openly. Put the two together and you have this: Desire constantly, +within your secret soul, to learn and to practice the truth; and your +open reward shall be the countless blessings which are attracted to +the perfect life, the inner life. 'Ask whatsoever you will, in my +name, and it shall be granted you.' That is, 'Ask in the name of truth +and love.' Shall you pray for a personal blessing or favor which might +mean disaster or injury to another? Prayer is the desire and effort of +the soul to keep in harmony with God's great laws of the universe." + + * * * * * + +As it had been in Thursia, so it was here; people came to see me from +all parts, and there were some remarkable companies in Clytia's +parlors! Usually they were spontaneous gatherings, evening parties +being often made up with little or no premeditation. There was music +always, in great variety, and of the most delightful and elevated +character,--singing, and many kinds of bands. And sometimes there was +dancing,--not of the kind which awakened in De Quincey's soul, "the +very grandest form of passionate sadness,"--but of a kind that made me +wish I had been the inventor of the phrase, "poetry of motion," so +that I could have used it here, fresh and unhackneyed. In all, there +was no more voluptuousness than in the frolic of children. +Conversation might--and often was--as light as the dance of +butterflies, but it was liable at any moment to rise, upon a hint, or +a suggestion, to the most sublimated regions of thought,--for these +people do not leave their minds at home when they go into society. And +here, in society, I saw the workings of the principle of brotherly +love, in a strikingly beautiful aspect. There was no disposition on +the part of any one to outdo another; rather there seemed to be a +general conspiracy to make each one rise to his best. The spirit of +criticism was absent, and the spirit of petty jealousy. The women +without exception were dressed with exquisite taste, because this is a +part of their culture. And every woman was beautiful, for loving eyes +approved her; and every man was noble, for no one doubted him. + +If the sky was clear, a portion of each evening was spent in the +observatory, or out upon the balcony, as the company chose, and the +great telescope was always in requisition, and always pointed to the +Earth!--if the Earth was in sight. + +The last evening I spent in Lunismar was such an one as I have +described. Ariadne and I happened to be standing together, and alone, +in a place upon the balcony which commanded a view of our world. It +was particularly clear and brilliant that night, and you may imagine +with what feelings I contemplated it, being about to return to it! We +had been silent for some little time, when she turned her eyes to +me--those wonderful eyes!--and said, a little sadly, I thought: + +"I shall never look upon Earth again, without happy memories of your +brief visit among us." + +A strange impulse seized me, and I caught her hands and held them fast +in mine. "And I, O, Ariadne! when I return to Earth again, and lift +my eyes toward heaven, it will not be Mars that I shall see, but +only--Ariadne!" + +A strange light suddenly flashed over her face and into her eyes as +she raised them to mine, and in their clear depths was revealed to me +the supreme law of the universe, the law of life, the law of love. In +a voice tremulous with emotion--sad, but not hopeless--she murmured: + +"And I, also, shall forget my studies in the starry fields of space to +watch for your far-distant planet--the Earth--which shall forever +touch all others with its glory." + +And there, under the stars, with the plaintive music of the Eudosa in +our ears, and seeing dimly through the darkness the white finger of +the snowy peaks pointing upward, we looked into each other's eyes +and--"I saw a new heaven and a new earth." + + +THE END. + + +[Illustration: Books] + +_From the Press of the Arena Publishing Company._ + + +The Rise of the Swiss Republic. + +By W. D. MCCRACKAN, A.M. + + It contains over four hundred pages, printed from new and + handsome type, on a fine quality of heavy paper. The margins are + wide, and the volume is richly bound in cloth. + +Price, postpaid, $3.00. + + +Sultan to Sultan. + +By M. FRENCH-SHELDON (Bebe Bwana). + + Being a thrilling account of a remarkable expedition to the + Masai and other hostile tribes of East Africa, which was planned + and commanded by this intrepid woman. =A Sumptuous Volume of + Travels.= Handsomely illustrated; printed on coated paper and + richly bound in African red silk-finished cloth. + +Price, postpaid, $5.00. + + +The League of the Iroquois. + +By BENJAMIN HATHAWAY. + + It is instinct with good taste and poetic feeling, affluent of + picturesque description and graceful portraiture, and its + versification is fairly melodious.--_Harper's Magazine._ + + Has the charm of Longfellow's "Hiawatha."--_Albany Evening + Journal._ + + Of rare excellence and beauty.--_American Wesleyan._ + + Evinces fine qualities of imagination, and is distinguished by + remarkable grace and fluency.--_Boston Gazette._ + + The publication of this poem alone may well serve as a + mile-post in marking the pathway of American literature. The + work is a marvel of legendary lore, and will be appreciated by + every earnest reader.--_Boston Times._ + +Price, postpaid, cloth, $1.00; Red Line edition, $1.50. + + +COPLEY SQUARE SERIES. + + +I. Bond-Holders and Bread-Winners. + +By S. S. KING, Esq., Kansas City, Kansas. The most powerful book of +the year. Its argument is irresistible. You should read it. + + President L. L. POLK, National F. A. and I. U., says: "It should + be placed in the hands of every voter of this country." + +Price, postpaid, 25 cents; per hundred, $12.50. + + +II. Money, Land, and Transportation. + +CONTENTS: + + 1. A New Declaration of Rights. _Hamlin Garland._ + 2. The Farmer, Investor, and the Railway. _C. Wood Davis._ + 3. The Independent Party and Money at Cost. _R. B. Hassell._ + +Price, single copy, 25 cents; per hundred, $10. + + +III. Industrial Freedom. The Triple Demand of Labor. + +CONTENTS: + + 1. The Money Question. _Hon. John Davis._ + 2. The Sub-Treasury Plan. _C. C. Post._ + 3. The Railroad Problem. _C. Wood Davis and Ex-Gov. + Lionel A. Sheldon._ + +Price, single copy, 25 cents; per hundred, $10. + + + +IV. Esau; or, The Banker's Victim. + + "ESAU" is the title of a new book by Dr. T. A. BLAND. It is a + political novel of purpose and power. As a romance it is + fascinating; as a history of a mortgage it is tragic; and as an + _exposé_ of the financial policy of the old parties it is clear + and forcible. It is a timely and valuable campaign book. + +Price, single copy, 25 cents; per hundred, $12.50. + + +V. The People's Cause. + +CONTENTS: + + 1. The Threefold Contention of Industry. _Gen. J. B. Weaver, + Presidential Nominee of People's Party._ + 2. The Negro Question In the South. _Hon. Thos. E. Watson, M. C. + from Georgia._ + 3. The Menace of Plutocracy. _B. O. Flower, Editor of "The Arena."_ + 4. The Communism of Capital. _Hon. John Davis, M. C. from Kansas._ + 5. The Pending Presidential Campaign. _Hon. J. H. Kyle, State + Senator from South Dakota; Thos. E. Watson, M. C. from Georgia._ + +Price, 25 cents a copy; per hundred, $10. + + * * * * * + +Salome Shepard, Reformer. + +By HELEN M. WINSLOW. A New England story. Price: paper, 50 cents; +cloth, $1.00. + + +The Law of Laws. + +By S. B. WAIT. The author takes advance metaphysical grounds on the +origin, nature, and destiny of the soul. + + "It is offered as a contribution to the thought of that + unnumbered fraternity of spirit whose members are found wherever + souls are sensitive to the impact of the truth and feel + another's burden as their own."--_Author's Preface._ + +256 pages; handsome cloth. Price, postpaid, $1.50. + + +Life. A Novel. + +By WILLIAM W. WHEELER. A book of thrilling interest from cover to +cover. + + In the form of a novel called "LIFE," William W. Wheeler has put + before the public some of the clearest statements of logical + ideas regarding humanity's present aspects, its inherent and + manifest powers, and its future, that we have ever read. The + book is strong, keen, powerful; running over with thought, so + expressed as to clearly convey the author's ideas; everything is + to the point, nothing superfluous--and for this it is specially + admirable.--_The Boston Times._ + +Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Along Shore with a Man of War. + +By MARGUERITE DICKINS. A delightful story of travel, delightfully +told, handsomely illustrated, and beautifully bound. Price, postpaid, +$1.50. + + +Evolution. + + Popular lectures by leading thinkers, delivered before the + Brooklyn Ethical Association. This work is of inestimable value + to the general reader who is interested in Evolution as applied + to religious, scientific, and social themes. It is the joint + work of a number of the foremost thinkers in America to-day. One + volume, handsome cloth, illustrated, complete index. 408 pp. + Price, postpaid, $2.00. + + +Sociology. + + Popular lectures by eminent thinkers, delivered before the + Brooklyn Ethical Association. This work is a companion volume to + "Evolution," and presents the best thought of representative + thinkers on social evolution. One volume, handsome cloth, with + diagram and complete index. 412 pp. Price, postpaid, $2.00. + + + +The Dream Child. + + A fascinating romance of two worlds. By FLORENCE HUNTLEY. Price: + paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +A Mute Confessor. + + The romance of a Southern town. By WILL N. HARBEN, author of + "White Marie," "Almost Persuaded," etc. Price: paper, 50 cents; + cloth, $1.00. + + +Redbank; Life on a Southern Plantation. + +By M. L. COWLES. A typical Southern story by a Southern woman. Price: +paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Psychics. Facts and Theories. + +By Rev. MINOT J. SAVAGE. A thoughtful discussion of Psychical +problems. Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Civilization's Inferno: Studies in the Social Cellar. + +By B. O. FLOWER. I. Introductory chapter. II. Society's Exiles. III. +Two Hours in the Social Cellar. IV. The Democracy of Darkness. V. Why +the Ishmaelites Multiply. VI. The Froth and the Dregs. VII. A +Pilgrimage and a Vision. VIII. Some Facts and a Question. IX. What of +the Morrow? Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Is This Your Son, My Lord? + +By HELEN H. GARDENER. The most powerful novel written by an American. +A terrible _expose_ of conventional immorality and hypocrisy. Price: +paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Pray You, Sir, Whose Daughter? + +By HELEN H. GARDENER. A brilliant novel of to-day, dealing with social +purity and the "age of consent" laws. Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, +$1.00. + + +A Spoil of Office. + +A novel. By HAMLIN GARLAND. The truest picture of Western life that +has appeared in American fiction. Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, +$1.00. + + +Lessons Learned from Other Lives. + +By B. O. FLOWER. + + There are fourteen biographies in this volume, dealing with the + lives of Seneca and Epictetus, the great Roman philosophers; + Joan of Arc, the warrior maid; Henry Clay, the statesman; Edwin + Booth and Joseph Jefferson, the actors; John Howard Payne, + William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe, Alice and Ph[oe]be Cary, + and John G. Whittier, the poets; Alfred Russell Wallace, the + scientist; Victor Hugo, the many-sided man of genius. + + "The book sparkles with literary jewels."--_Christian Leader_, + Cincinnati, Ohio. + +Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Songs. + +By NEITH BOYCE. Illustrated with original drawings by ETHELWYN WELLS +CONREY. A beautiful gift book. Bound in white and gold. Price, +postpaid, $1.25. + + +The Finished Creation, and Other Poems. + +By BENJAMIN HATHAWAY, author of "The League of the Iroquois," "Art +Life," and other Poems. Handsomely bound in white parchment vellum, +stamped in silver. Price, postpaid, $1.25. + + +Wit and Humor of the Bible. + +By Rev. MARION D. SHUTTER, D.D. A brilliant and reverent treatise. +Published only in cloth. Price, postpaid, $1.50. + + +Son of Man; or, Sequel to Evolution. + +By CELESTIA ROOT LANG. Published only in cloth. + + This work, in many respects, very remarkably discusses the next + step in the Evolution of Man. It is in perfect touch with + advanced Christian Evolutionary thought, but takes a step beyond + the present position of Religion Leaders. + +Price, postpaid, $1.25. + + +Jason Edwards: An Average Man. + +By HAMLIN GARLAND. A powerful and realistic story of to-day. Price: +paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Who Lies? An Interrogation. + +By BLUM and ALEXANDER. A book that is well worth reading. Price: +paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Main Travelled Roads. + +Six Mississippi Valley stories. By HAMLIN GARLAND. + + "The sturdy spirit of true democracy runs through this + book."--_Review of Reviews._ + +Price: paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + +Irrepressible Conflict Between Two World-Theories. + +By Rev. MINOT J. SAVAGE. The most powerful presentation of Theistic +Evolution _versus_ Orthodoxy that has ever appeared. Price: paper, 50 +cents; cloth, $1.00. + +_For sale by all booksellers. Sent postpaid upon receipt of the +price._ + + Arena Publishing Company, + Copley Square, BOSTON, MASS. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42816 *** |