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diff --git a/77376-0.txt b/77376-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd34050 --- /dev/null +++ b/77376-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10202 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77376 *** +FLAXIUS + +LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF AN IMMORTAL + +[Illustration] + +CHARLES GODFREY LELAND + +AUTHOR OF ‘THE BREITMANN BALLADS,’ ETC. + +LONDON + +PHILIP WELLBY + +6 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN + +1902 + + + + +Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, (late) Printers to Her Majesty + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION + +FLAXIUS AND THE FAIRY + +FLAXIUS AND THE GOD + +FLAXIUS AND ROOSEVELDT + +FLAXIUS AND HAMLET + +HOW FLAXIUS MADE THE FORTUNE OF EADWARD THE GRANDSON OF AEOLFRIC + +FLAXIUS AND ASMODEUS + +FLAXIUS IN FLORENCE + +FLAXIUS AND THE EMPEROR JULIAN + +FLAXIUS IN HADES + +FLAXIUS AND ADELINDÈ + +FLAXIUS AND THE WERE-WOLF + +FLAXIUS AND BREITMANN + +FLAXIUS IN INDIA + +THE WONDERFUL STORY OF MISS JESABELLE ROCKHARD + +HOW FLAXIUS SAT AS JUDGE WITH A JURY OF TWELVE DEVILS + +FLAXIUS AND THE BOOKSELLER + +FLAXIUS IN THE FUTURE + +THE EVANISHMENT OF FLAXIUS + +BREITMANN’S LAST BALLAD + + + + +FIRST WORDS + + +THE _raison d’être_, cause for existence, and origin of this book, may +be found in the following extract from a review of the _Florentine +Legends_, which appeared in the _Daily Chronicle_ of June 19, 1895:-- + +‘Mr. Leland frequently refers throughout his narratives to a certain +Flaxius. We were somewhat puzzled as to whom this Flaxius might be, +until we came across the statement that the author had once begun +a book entitled, _The Experiences of Flaxius the Immortal_. The +reflections of the Immortal are quoted extensively in this volume, and +we can only say we wish the Flaxius project a happy ending, and would +not be surprised if the new sage, racy of Italian soil, as he appears +to be, should even a little eclipse Mr. Leland’s old hero of Lager beer +celebrity.’ + +For which kind word all thanks, and from the heart, since it suggested +what had never been seriously thought of; for, in truth, the +experiences had no more been written than the books which appear in +the catalogue of the library given in the _Chronicle_ of Pantagruel. +Now, I have had all my life a strange love for works on varied +subjects, in unity of style, even as in Mendelssohn’s _Songs without +Words_ there are many melodies forming one work. Such were the best +sketches of Irving, and such was my first original venture, _Meister +Karl’s Sketch-Book_, which had the remarkable fortune to attract, most +unexpectedly, a very kind letter on it from Washington Irving, and +subsequently another of seven large closely written pages, critical +and laudatory, from Lord Bulwer Lytton, the novelist, who, with all +modesty be it said, took several palpable hints from it for his _Kenelm +Chillingly_, into which he introduced me under a pseudonym, as a small +_memento_. And it is in this style that the present work is composed of +different stories, which, however, make one _parure_, or, changing the +metaphor, of varied dishes in one dinner met. + +I beg the reader to pardon this fond disquisition, but it is natural +for an author to think fondly of his first work, as it is for a mother +to do the same by her first-born; and I was the more influenced to do +so by its having been in the same _genre_ as the present volume. + +The comparison, made by the reviewer of the _Chronicle_, between the +warrior-bard Hans Breitmann and his possible rival Flaxius, suggested +the idea of making the two meet in this volume, the result of which +encounter is two Breitmann ballads, never before published, with others +which had indeed appeared casually in another form, but not as yet +in any edition of the poems, and which will be assuredly new to most +of my readers. And as these later lays--of which I have only given a +specimen--all turn on marvellous mediæval legends of magic, I will +mention, by way of _avant-courier_, that I have in manuscript, and +have been writing or revising this thirty years, a curious collection +of _Ballads of Witchcraft and Songs of Sorcery_, which I cannot but +think would greatly please all lovers of _occulta_, and which will be +published should sign be given that it would be wanted by the public. + +I would end by recording that this work is most kindly and cordially +dedicated to certain friends who have greatly aided me at different +times in collecting Italian folk-lore, that is to say, to Miss Roma +Lister, who was from the first specially interested in Flaxius, and +to Mrs. Tessa Arbuthnot; whereunto I might add the names of all who +have for many years and in many ways shown friendship and cordial +kindness--of late in sad trials by illness--to whom be all thanks. + +CHARLES GODFREY LELAND. + +FLORENCE, _June 1902_. + + + + +FLAXIUS AND THE FAIRY + +OR, HOW HE BECAME AN IMMORTAL + +‘This work is a collection of Fables.’--_Sir Roger Lestrange._ + +‘There is no expression of politeness but has its root in the moral +nature of man.’--_Goethe._ + +‘There is no policy like politeness, and a good manner is the best +thing in the world, either to get a good name or to supply the want of +it.’--_Bulwer Lytton._ + +‘Politeness is like Generosity; nay, I am not sure that it is not +Generosity itself. But neither deserves respect unless perfectly +innate--unaffected and natural.’--_L’Accademia._ + + +LONG ago, when Time was in its early dawn--_à prima pueritia_, or in +its pink infancy--Flaxius the Neophyte was also in his youth; for which +reason he and the world got on very well together. He was far from +having attained to high magic, though of an eminently respectable old +priestly-sorcering family, and of fairy descent, but he had in him +those qualities which in any age advance the man who gets a fair trial. +And that we may the better understand what these qualities were, I +will narrate the first bud of incident, or rosy adventure, by which it +befell that he too rose in life. + +It happened one day that on the annual holiday or festival of Volterra, +in the first Etruscan age, lied about by Inghirami, Flaxius saw in the +street, among the many in the middle distance, a girl who was, _à prima +vista_, evidently not respectable, or was rather so far from it that it +might not have been said, _habet pudicitiam in propatulo_. Yet there +was nothing arrogantly offensive in the poor thing; she seemed to be of +that kind whose whole life, like the donkey’s, is a sad, mute speech to +the effect: ‘If you don’t care for me--and I’m not astonished that you +don’t--then don’t speak to me, but pray do not abuse me, for I can’t +help it--indeed I can’t.’ + +This silent-violet eloquence was, however, lost on a group of two +or three rude young men and girls who came howling along in high, +red-poppy spirits, and who, seeing the poor forlorn creature, proceeded +to hoot her in the manner peculiar to the virtuous vulgar of all ages, +by hurling at her terms intended to make her feel deeply that she was +indeed that which her sad attire proclaimed her to be. + +‘And out of the way of your betters, O Dirt, and into the dirt!’ cried +a youth, giving a bump to the Moral Calamity, which sent her reeling, +so that she indeed fell in the mud of the street, at which all roared +with laughter. + +Now in all the country round there was not a taller or more robust bull +of a young man than Flaxius, and seeing this, he gave the Guardian or +Vindicator of Morals and Holy Virtue a blow which levelled him likewise +in the grey dirt, and with as little difficulty sent the rest flying; +for there was that in his patrician appearance, quite as much as in his +iron strength, which inspired fear. He picked up the girl, bade her +be of good cheer, and not mind what had happened; there was something +marvellously moving and honey-comforting in his tone of voice, which +snatched a grace beyond the reach of skill. + +It is an art little known now to the world, that of the voice trained +to woo and win feeling, to inspire awe and emotion by musical tone--but +it formed a part of cultured magic in early times, and Flaxius was +at the head of the class in Enchanting natural elocution and Musical +morality. + +... And furthermore bestowed on her a silver coin, and was about to +depart, when the girl astonished him by saying, in tones as marked and +deeply magical as his own: + +‘Why did you pity me?’ + +Flaxius replied, ‘Because you, doing no one injustice, were unjustly +treated.’ + +‘Do you not see what I am?’ + +‘I see nothing beyond what I behold in all human beings, one cast by +fate or chance into a certain life. And few indeed are what they fain +would be.’ + +‘Then you despise no one?’ + +‘I very deeply despise all who make no effort to know or do what is +_better_. I despise all who can only--I say _only_--realise their own +dignity in the abasement of others. I despise the man who requires to +own slaves in order to know that he is free.... I feel....’ + +‘There are not many who feel as you do,’ replied the girl. And this +time in the voice Flaxius recognised that he was indeed speaking to +a _magia_, or one of the initiated in high wisdom. Therefore he was +not astonished to see in her eyes a strange and as yet unperceived +expression of marvellous intellect and electric beauty, and note a +divine dignity and grace in her carriage. She signed to him to follow +her, and he obeyed. + +‘No, there are yet few,’ he answered, ‘but there will ever be more and +more in the ages to come. I would that I could live to see the time +when all slavery and social injustice will disappear. But will it ever +be?’ + +‘Who knows,’ replied his companion. ‘Who knows how long we may live, or +how bad or good the world may become, or anything?’ + +‘Do not the gods know?’ said Flaxius, amazed. + +‘Who knows what the gods know?’ replied the _magia_. ‘They do not even +know what they know themselves.’ + +By this high time the pair had passed as if by enchantment, or in a +dream, into a strange mountain country, unknown to Flaxius. Wilder +grew the rocks and road until they came to a marvellous place where +the cliffs were like a vast range of rude castles all in one. As they +approached, Flaxius saw them change to magnificent ancient structures. +Then they entered a golden door, and soon were in a splendidly +furnished apartment. The _magia_ was now a being of unearthly beauty, +robed in light. Before her Flaxius forgot--it is to be desired that +modern realists would do the same--even the transcendental upholstery. + +‘Remarkable Young Man,’ said the beautiful being (pray be it noted +by the reader that all the phrases here given are far more poetic in +Etruscan), ‘I have brought you hither on important business.’ + +‘At your command, Daughter of the Most Beautiful,’ replied Flaxius. +This was a delicate compliment, according to magic, for it was from a +high formula of worship, and was therefore tenderly blasphemous in the +genitive. The lady smiled subjectively, not with her face, but in her +intonation, as she replied in the ablative absolute: + +‘Know that I was this day what I was, for being what those were who +insulted me, and truly in being every whit as base as they.’ + +‘This is a kind of poem,’ reflected Flaxius. [A great many of the +lyrics of that age were riddles, like some of the songs, and not a few +of the novelettes of the present time, to say nothing of Browning.] + +‘I was doing a deserved penance, from which you rescued me. Listen! +I was born of the fairy race, but by long study, penance, and prayer +to the Sublimities, rose to the higher order of spirits, beyond which +are the minor gods, such as those to whom the great deities assign +specialties in nature, or even in mortal life. My protectress was +_Thana_, the chaste goddess of the moon, or Diana, and as power was to +be gained by renouncing pleasure, I became proud of maiden _virtue_, +believing it was a virtue in itself, and not one of the means thereto.’ + +‘More and more interesting,’ reflected Flaxius, ‘And a neat +distinction!’ + +‘And one day, in my vanity, I insulted one of the beautiful attendants +on Turan or Venus, the Goddess of Beauty and Love; for I reviled a +Lasa, or one of the spirits who are attendants on and mistresses of the +souls which come from earth. Yes, I insulted her, much as I was this +day insulted by the mob. There was an appeal to the gods, and Tinia, +the Lord of All, sentenced me to assume the mortal form in which you +to-day first beheld me, and to endure the insults of men till I should +learn higher truth, and until I should meet with a mortal who would +treat me sincerely with true humanity. This I have done, and now I am +not only freed from penance, but find myself advanced far beyond what +I was,--going in golden glory ever on. Yet I say, in truth, that I did +not suffer once or in the least as a mortal, from the time that I was +struck by the great truth in all its branches, that no one should be +condemned for being what one is by fate, and that Inferno is not too +bad for a prurient prude on the prowl. + +‘But to _you_, who were in this my master, I owe great gratitude. By +penance and prayer I have accumulated much power which I proposed to +devote to advancing myself to higher lives. But it shall go to you in +the form of two wishes. I can wait for more and work a while longer. +Ask for whatever you can imagine, such as a mortal may require--wealth +or power, choose!’ + +‘Your ladyship,’ replied Flaxius, ‘is decidedly determined to prove +that in this world the less a man does, the better he is paid for +it. Having been already rewarded a millionfold by the sight of your +superb beauty, for what I declare in all sincerity seems to me to be +a mere little street incident, in which I casually comported myself +as a simply decent man should, I am, of course, to receive further +recompense beyond all human conception. ’Tis the rule. So be it! Yet I +pray you, most Beautifully Grateful, do not ascribe it to modesty or +virtue if I am not extravagant in my desire. I have heard of a man who +having been offered a wish by a god, forthwith wished that his future +wishes might all be granted. Cunning, that! And they were all granted, +so that in the end he became the most miserable creature on earth, and +ended by wishing himself to the devil, and got there, as must befall +most mortals who get all they want. Now as you, O Beyond-all-Dreams, +are inconceivably my superior in wisdom, it occurs to me that a +single wish guided by your sagacity would be more to my benefit than +a thousand emanating from my weak mind. Therefore, for a beginning, I +wish that your Divine Loveliness would kindly tell me what my second +wish should be.’ + +‘There is in that wish,’ replied the spirit, ‘a combination of +generosity, courtesy, and gratitude, such as a first-class god need +not be ashamed of. Well, I will choose for you a wish that would suit +few men. You shall live on earth, a philosopher, but ever in manly +strength and health, as long as you will, and to the end of time if you +choose it. You will see and feel so deeply into Nature--as I can well +foresee--that the passing away of other mortals, races, or kingdoms, +will be but as the passing away of other guests from a hostelry, or +as clouds from the sky. For to such as you are, O Humorist! to live +on earth or in heaven, amid ghosts or gods, would in the end be all +one and the same; you would note it all with curious observation, and +be the same unchanged in every age. For to him who has like unto thee +attained to seeing things absolutely as they _are_--gods or geese are +all one and the same.’ + +‘What a stupendous truth!’ thought Flaxius, ‘and how beautifully +expressed! I could go on listening to this lady till I should grow +thirsty--for fame!’ + +‘And they _are_ all one and the same,’ continued the spirit-lady, ‘to +him who is honest--which always means generous; they are all one and +the same to the upright or charitable. How do you like your gift?’ + +‘I am delighted, O my Eyes, beyond all expression, and now see how wise +I was to trust to your higher wisdom. To tell the truth, O Diva, I was +dreadfully afraid lest your grace might bestow on me wealth--I detest +business--unbounded dominion, ineffable winsomeness, æsthetic taste--O +Rubbish!--gratified ambition--O Emetics!--and power--not being, I +trust, a cad. For to tell the truth, I was fearfully afraid of all +earthly blessings, and so as to secure the least of evils, resolved to +take but one, as I was in politeness bound not to decline your offer of +sugar-plums, and therefore choose what it seems best to you to give.’ + +‘You are, O philosopher,’ replied the spirit, ‘so ingenious in your +generosity, that you make yourself almost discourteous. Man, I read +your heart, and know that you are no more free from desire than are the +gods; for to wish for nothing is to live no more. Now, will I hold you +firmly, and give you more, whether you will or not. Thy first wish was +no wish at all, O Flaxius; it was but a kindly gift to me to spare my +power, and aid me on my road to higher life. Therefore, a wish still +remains to thee, and I warn thee that the favours of the gods are not +to be lightly cast aside. Therefore, make a wish now for thyself, and +look that thou put into it all thy heart, and all thy self.’ + +‘Then, lady,’ replied Flaxius, ‘since I must ask for Something, I wish +to know in what manner I can best show my gratitude to you for all this +kindness.’ + +‘Go thy way for an incorrigible rogue!’ exclaimed the spirit, this time +with a divinely genial smile on her countenance. ‘I see that thou wilt +never be beaten at this game. Ages on ages hence, when thou may’st +take a fancy to leave the world, there shall be inscribed on thy tomb: +“Here lies Flaxius, never surpassed among men or gods in generosity, +courtesy, or coolness!”’ + +‘And the gratitude, O Marvellous One,’ exclaimed Flaxius. + +‘Thou canst show it best by remaining here as my guest, and regarding +my house as a home. When weary of wandering about in the wide world, +come here and rest, and ever be welcome. Here no haunting _Hintial_ or +Spirit of the Shadow can cast a gloom over life; in these fairy palaces +all is peace. ‘But remember, Flaxius,’ added the beautiful spirit, +‘that it is still not too late for thee to express and receive another +wish. By the eternal law of the Aesir, this must be done within the +fated, favourable hour when a spirit offers it. Opportunity is golden, +and I ask it as a favour.’ + +‘Then, your Resplendent Picturesqueness and Benign Benevolence,’ +replied Flaxius, quoting at hap-hazard what he could recall from the +Etruscan prayer-book, and grasping desperately in earnest at the first +thing he could think of which would be nice to have, or to be, ‘make me +an Original Character.’ + +The Peri of Loveliness raised the two most beautiful little hands which +Flaxius had ever seen, and slightly spreading the rosy fingers, struck +them downwards abruptly, even as mortals do when they ‘give it up’ in +mild despair, and are dead-locked, grassed, or gravelled. + +‘I hope I utter no blasphemy against the power of the immortals,’ +said the Beautiful One, ‘but I verily believe the gods themselves, +O Flaxius, can add nothing to thee as thou art in that respect. O +Tinia, father of the deities, ineffable, overwhelming, and unspeakable +Fulminator!’ she exclaimed, with the passion of a wildly inspired +divinity, ‘am I not right, and if so, give me a sign, that I speak the +truth? My destiny! what _can_ one do with such a man!’ + +Over all Northern Italy there roared such a peal of thunder as the +oldest _aruspices_ or _lucumones_ had never heard before. It rang in +Rome, and rolled beyond the Alps. Vesuvius, by fair Parthenopis, +answered it with the tremendous peal of an eruption, as Vulcan (termed +_Sethlans_, the earthly deity of fire) answered his awful brother of +the air. It drove the gods of the fields and roads, the fairies and +satyrs, _silvani_, fauns, _dusii_, and all their kind, in terror to +the mountain caves and forests. It pierced, like a spirit, to the +depths of the darkest caverns wherein reposed the ancestors, and the +dead amid the painted vases and mystic bronzes turned over in their +eternal sleep; and every statue in the land was found next morning +in a changed position, or bottom upwards. The _magi_ consulted the +_Ars Fulguritora_, written of yore by the nymph Begoe, to translate +the mighty peal, for unto them its words were a distinct language. And +as they overturned the holy utterance, syllable by syllable, from the +dictionary into Etruscan, it read: + + + ‘Fear not, O daughter, for thou speakest truth: + That is about the size of it, in sooth, + For well I ween on earth no queerer _cus_ + Did ever live than this thy Flaxius.’ + + + [_Cus_, be it observed, is a terminal noun signifying a person of any + kind--as _rusticus_, _grammaticus_, _clericus_, and many other kinds + of cusses--its use here being a proof of the immense antiquity of the + Sabine Latin version of the original from which this tale is taken.] + + _Ab hac origine et itinere terrestri illuc profectus est_--‘’twas thus + that Flaxius got his start in life.’ _Ab hoc disce_--‘learn from his + legend this,’ concludes the scroll: + + + ‘Be it a slipper or be she a shrew, + Be civil to women whatever you do!’ + + + + +FLAXIUS AND THE GOD + + ‘Every Divinity--no matter who-- + Is but the ideal of an age or race + Which makes its god, though it be not with hands, + Just in the form + which it would like to wear. + And every man in this is like his age.’ + + +AGES have passed away since Flaxius found himself one twilight in +autumn in the wild Lombard land of Northern Italy. Towering far as eye +could see, vast cliffs or mighty peaks sprang up like living forms, +with precipiced sides falling gracefully as classic draperies; bold +and strange and all unlike the rounded hills and undulating plains of +other countries. Before him spread, as if into a steel-blue eternity, +the shining Mediterranean; all about him seemed beautiful, cold, and +strange as in a dream. The western sky was one even hue of rich, ripe +orange turning into brown. Upon a distant headland rose an ancient +tower, by which rested a vessel with one long, sloping sail. A chill +stole o’er the whispering breeze, and the evening star shone gently +forth. + +And standing there high upon the mountain, the mystic magian and +undying one looked around among the rocks and said: + +‘Here it was that the Fairy, who is so obliging as to rule my destiny, +as yonder star is said to rule the heart, bade me come at dated day and +hour to meet with one, whose acquaintance, as she assured me, would +prove to be remarkably interesting. Truly with all my utmost stretch of +thought, be it in levelled prose or rolling poetry, I can conjure up +nothing personal here, or make any spiritual bread out of these stones, +but then, ’tis only purblind ignorance which vows that all is nothing +which it cannot see. Now, as there is no form near me, and as I can +with sorcerer’s sight see for fifty miles adown, and all around the +land and sea, I opine that he, the beloved personage, to keep the tryst +must come here on the wings of thought far sweeping. Light of my Soul, +I give thee half an hour!’ + +But as Flaxius made this last remark, he observed a Cypress plant, +about six feet high, with leafage reaching to the ground, a furlong +distant on a cliff, was evidently moving from its place towards him, +and, as it moved, was growing human in its form. The head became +distinct, the shoulders next, then the lower foliage unfolded in a long +dark robe. + +Like all illuminati--such as you and I--Flaxius drew critical, +philosophical deductions first, before examining vulgar details, in +these words: + +‘I wonder, now, whether the seeing saplings waving in the wind did not +first suggest to man, ghosts? But this is really a Being. Fairy mine, +I did not think that thou wouldst play a miracle on _me_! Thaumaturgy +among us is really too bad. But perhaps,’ he added, ‘it is a fancy of +the gentleman himself--habit becomes strict nature with us all.’ + +As the form drew near him, Flaxius recognised in the face and mien +of the stranger, though it would not be apparent to the world, +a Gymnosophist. So they were once termed, whom we should call +Brahmins--that is, Indian sages. Evidently the stranger had come far +astray into the Italian land. + +Now, as Flaxius had passed a century or two of his youth in company +with his friend Pythagoras in study at the leading Indian universities, +he understood the stranger at a glance. Therefore he addressed +him familiarly in Romany, which is a cousin to Hindi, which is a +grand-daughter to Sanskrit, and therefore all in the family and +generally spoken: + +‘_Latcho divvus prala! Būt mishto hom dikàv tute!_’ (‘Good day, +brother! Right glad I am to see thee!’) + +But the stranger gravely replied in the mother of Sanskrit, or ancient +Aryan of the Tertiary period: + +‘I am of older race than thou hast deemed. I was among the fathers +of those who first came into India from the far North, and I speak +the tongue which is destined in its descendants to encircle the whole +world. And thou, too, knowest it, Flaxius, as I know thee, for we have +met ere now, long since, beyond the Ganges, though thou now speakest +flippantly, like a mad college youth, in the language of the roads. But +thou art only a boy as yet in years, and wilt learn wisdom in time. And +the fairy who watches over thee has sent me here that thou mayst have +a lesson which will profit thee so far as thou art wise, and redouble +what there is in thee, be it small or great, and mend thy flippant +speech.’ + +To which Flaxius humbly and gently replied, in good Sanskrit: + +‘Few, indeed, O father, are the diamond dewdrops of immortality which +have fallen into my vase from the infinite heaven of wisdom; barely the +flavour of a taste of the Amrecta cup of true knowledge has come to me +from the depth of the soundless sea of Truth, and if thou canst add to +it ever so little, it will be most gratefully received. I am as one who +murmurs feebly in a sleep, mid broken dreams. I pray thee, waken me to +life and light!’ + +‘It is not from me, Flaxius,’ answered the Aryan sage, ‘that thy lesson +is to come, but from one nearer allied to thee in that philosophy of +life which thou art next to learn. My footsteps wander in the silent +paths, far beyond humanity and the visible scope of sense; thine have +not yet trodden all the ways of the world in which thou hast a part. +As yet, for thee, there is perfume in the green valleys, amid violets +and asphodel; for thee, birds still sing in leafy trees; for thee, the +lovely nymph amid the reeds still smiles and beckons with a cautious +air, and brave men welcome thee with the wine-cup in the weaponed +hall; for thee is yet the ring and the crash of arms, and the joy of +battle, and council among sages and kings. All of this I have left far +behind me--for it was my fate. Whether to press on through the ages, or +exhaust the age ere leaving it, is not a question for us. To every one +let his road and ours be plain. + +‘Now, as to him whom thou art here to meet. Here in this land, as +indeed in many others, long ere thy Etruscan ancestors had brought +Egyptian and Greek art or culture into their own rude strength and +tremendous superstition and faith in ancient forms, there were men who +after death became spirits, and were worshipped as gods. Yet even then, +so inherent was earth in their natures, they remained of the world +worldly, and existed in that nature which we of India ever aspire to +transcend. Among them was one who vowed never to quit this world and +human life till he had mastered its last secret.’ + +‘A most original and glorious god, that!’ observed Flaxius, ‘and one +rather to my mind. Was he, think you, square right or round wrong?’ + +‘Being assumedly in his right mind, he did nothing wrong,’ answered the +Aryan. ‘Nay, there is a point to come, in the dim and remote future, +where our paths will meet. But, to the god himself! Look about thee, +and tell me what thou seest?’ + +‘I behold,’ replied Flaxius, after a pause, ‘vast rocks, or remnants, +as it seems on closer look, of some tremendous architecture of long +lost ages, of rudest form, yet worked with giant will, so worn by time +and so tossed in confusion that few would trace in them the hand of +man. I myself did not at first observe that these were ruins of some +massy building.’ + +‘What modern culture would not note,’ replied the Aryan, ‘has, however, +been retained in popular tradition, for the wild shepherd who pastures +his goats amid these rocks, or the old crones while spindling in their +shade, record, in what has been called the “Gospel of the Distaff,” +tales of a time when there was a mighty temple in this spot--a +marvellous building of high walls and towers, from whose lofty summit +men beheld the sun while it was still dark on earth, or, as legend +grows in greatness, all night long. This tale their ancestors brought +from the icy North, where, indeed, it is true enough in a way, and ever +will be. + +‘Therein dwelt the god, who had been a mighty man, uniting in himself +all that was of the earth earthy, of human craft most crafty, of +strength the strongest, of honeyed sweetness the most sweet, of mortal +bitterness, the bitterest. He gave himself unto the very life of the +life of what the Egyptian Hermes has called the downward-borne elements +of God; but suffered not a fibre, a breath of that which transcends +life--or what we call the spiritual or divine--to mingle with, or +enter into his sphere. Hence, dealing only with material things, he +found that all things material do somewhere clash or fail, and that, +however high human thoughts may rise, there is always some higher point +whence they appear as mockeries and failures, or foolish incompletions. +He ended--supposing an end--by seeing in all things that which, +beginning as almost senseless fun, and witless laughter in apes and +boors, rises to humour and true wit in culture, flits as the paradox +o’er many a problem of life, thrills or charms or terrifies as contrast +or contradiction in the struggle of forces, appals and bewilders us +in the agony and suffering, pain and tragedy of the elements and man, +and ends all in death and new birth. To him in all is one stupendous +humour, whether in laughter or in weeping, or in the deepest human +wisdom--for in all lies _the paradox_ always visible from some point to +the god.’ + +‘Verily,’ observed Flaxius, ‘_that_ is having a keen perception of a +joke on a tremendous scale. And considering that all nature hath as +yet appeared to me as consisting principally of conundrums, I should +infer that our god will find no lack of work or of amusement for some +time to come. Truly, I begin to surmise that there is more wisdom in +the world than the wisest are aware of, and that the greater we become +the greater are our jests and the more poetic our _quodlibets_; yea and +that even a pun may be so sublime that a church may be founded on it. +It has indeed occurred to me many a time that many a doctrine, creed or +law divine, for which myriads of lives have been lost, is all _bosh_, +as ye say in your ancient Indian tongue, ‘mere noise and nonsense.’ +Like bricks set in a row on end by children, they only knock one +another down in due succession at the last. + +‘Therefore Humour in its highest and holiest, or most diabolical sense, +is the one true _aurea catena_, or golden chain which runs through all +things, so far as man can know them. Yes, it is like a tremendous rock +which I once saw even in thy native land, O Sage. It overhung the road +so terribly that the heart of him who passed under it quaked with fear, +but when it was passed, men, looking backwards, beheld that in the +sunshine it wore the form of a great grotesque face beaming with winky +laughter.’ + +‘Thou dost indeed rise to the occasion, Flaxius,’ replied the Sage, +with an expression which seemed almost like the reflected, far-away, +dim phantom of a pre-historic smile. It was his first for seven hundred +and fifty-three years, reckoning from the fifteenth of August, which is +the Ascension Day of Buddha. ‘Almost thou persuadest me that the god +has a convert ready-baked to his hand. But it is past the sunset, and I +know that we are awaited. Follow me!’ + +He led the way along a winding path or easy footway, now beside vast, +uplifted stones, now by the edges of tremendous cliffs, at whose base, +far below, was heard the sound of a torrent, like human voices laughing +together; overhead leaned, far out, graceful trees or shrubs, like +daring girls seeking to look below for coming lovers--kneeling on tufts +of waving mountain vines, softly lighted by the stars and rising moon. + +The breeze came from the sea to woo the night, and its cool breath was +pleasant to the giant-like young Etruscan, but the Indian sage drew his +cloak about him, and as he seated himself on a stone said: + +‘Yet a few minutes and we shall be before the ancient god. Know that +long ago, even during the days of the earliest dwellers in Italy, there +was a civilisation which far transcended that of savages, for wherever +there is a race with genius there will be work, however rude, to prove +it. At that time, the spirit of whom I spoke had here a temple. Then in +a later age, when other races such as thine, O Flaxius, invaded Italy, +these people, forewarned by divinity, left the marvellous image brought +from some Asian clime in which their deity had dwelt, and, walling +up the shrine with utmost care, laboured long to destroy all outward +traces of man’s work, and fled. + +‘Then the god, who had before ever been present in the statue, also +left the cave. But once a year does he return to it, to revivify +that which was once himself, unto mankind, even as in all countries +feudal possessions are held by the tenure of annual presence and the +performance of some deed. And the performance to which he is pledged, +is to answer to such words as may be spoken to him, which indeed are +few and far between, since among the spiritual and Theosophists, +there are not many who care for such inveterate old heathenism, and +hard-pressed, material, firm-baked worldliness as his. + +‘Thou, O Flaxius, having by mortal virtue won the grace of an immortal +_Fata_, or celestial fairy who is well nigh one of the gods, hast had +the strange chance of a man who is to be perfected in worldly wisdom, +and therefore art sent to confer with him who mastered it in the past. +Long it is, I ween, since he ever saw before his shrine such a neophyte +as thou art!’ + +‘And now let us enter!’ + +Saying this, he pressed aside the boughs and leaves of a dense thicket +or copse, finding again a passage, till he came to what seemed to be +a bare wall of rock. Here, he tapped thrice with his staff, whereupon +a door opened, and they entered a wide-arched hall illuminated by a +very soft and brilliant light, whose source was not visible, but seemed +to be in the air itself. A single and silent form, that of a youth of +beautiful, but strange type, as of another race, led them to the baths, +where they found, after their ablutions in perfumed water, fresh linen +garments ready for them. They were then taken to another apartment +where a meal was spread. It gave no great promise, being simply a cake +for each, with wine, which, however, in no wise astonished sages who +knew the secrets of transcendental cookery, and of draughts distilled +with Rosicrucian skill. And then, being greatly refreshed, the Aryan +spoke once more: + +‘Thou wilt now behold the god, and I bid and beg thee earnestly, +that thou, ere speaking, wilt consider long and very seriously his +countenance, following it to the very depths of its expression, and +through all the shadows and tones of meaning which it awakens in thy +memory or imagination. Now if thou art, as becomes a true student of +wisdom, keenly perceptive of the soul in the face--that is, a genuine +physiognomist--then wilt thou, with the aid of what I have told thee, +know enough to learn more.’ + +And with this they went into a great hall. At the further end, in a +wonderfully quaint shrine, which seemed like a dense swarm of blinking +jewels and living gems swimming in gold, was a most marvellous image. +It was apparently of some strange creamy-white or ivory-like material, +browned or veined by great antiquity into rich dark tones and blending +polished hues, as if time had completed on it with unusual care the +daintiest part of the hand-work of the artist. One would think it +had been made by Keats. In the form itself there was manifest a most +archaic rudeness; there was in it nothing of the divine grace of the +Greek, and yet it had not the ugliness of the old traditional forms of +the Egyptian, for he who made it had gone straight to nature, copying +what he saw there without convention. It was the converse of art. + +Flaxius bowed low before the form; the Aryan prostrated himself flat +on the ground, uttering a fervent prayer in many strophes, burning +incense withal, and chanting an invocation. But the young Etruscan +gazed boldly at the god, steadily and without fear, as a Norse champion +might have gazed at Odin or Thor, had either faced him. And as the +mystic light shone on the deeply inscrutable countenance of the Aryan +sage and the splendid self-confidence and jovial air of Flaxius, like +an Asiatic pre-figuring of the Roman or of the race predestined to +conquer the world,--and finally on the marvellous mystery of the god, +the wisest observer might well have thought that even in those days +such a trio was without its equal on earth. There they were, even as +they are to-day: the transcendental Oriental, the vigorous prototype of +the coming Europe, and the obscuring image of the giant Past--a goodly +picture for the artist who could do it justice! + +And what Flaxius first beheld in the face was the coarse and laughing +look, not even of the lowest faun or satyr, but of a boor or clown +‘grinning through a horse-collar,’ such as I have seen in a head of the +fourteenth century in an old hall in Herefordshire: a look changing, +an instant later, into the expression of a devil, with an unutterable +depth of malice and despair, as of lunacy in man. But whether it was +the play of the mystic light, or of something more marvellous within, +he suddenly saw a new soul in it, as of a higher and more cultured +fiend--a Mephistopheles who denied all things and smiled on all; and +yet it was the same face, and anon there came insensibly the expression +of the sage who, cold and calm, observes all human error and earthly +change, like one studying insoluble problems. + +‘Now we have come,’ thought Flaxius, ‘to the earliest Greek +philosophers, Cynic and Stoic and Epicurean--sunshine on ice!’ + +And anon it was the poet, seeking his similes and correspondences in +nature and man, caring not, so that he found the beautiful and vivid, +how contradictory the elements might be. + +‘Ha! art thou there, Hesiod--or is it Homer--or Sappho--or seest thou +thy singers of the Mahabarata and Kalidasa?’ inquired Flaxius of the +Indian. ‘Yes--’tis all the same--the simile and the antithesis--the +contradiction and anomaly which point man’s highest poetry.’ + +But the face was ever the same nor had it changed. + +‘And last of all I see the seeker into all,’ reflected Flaxius. ‘He +who from the lowest sense of incongruity, as from the deepest agony of +passion and faith, from the highest truth evolved by philosophy, as +from the whirling million-folded threads of the garment of God, draws +only the conclusion of strife and absurd change. The eternal Wheel of +the Law, held by a laughing fiend--all is Humour--and thus endeth the +first lesson!’ + +Then he spoke to the god. + +‘I perceive that I can see in thee no more, since I have got back to my +beginning. Doubtless there are in thee higher phases which I, the mere +pupil, cannot perceive. All of us cannot fathom everything. But what I +have learned during this past hour transcends all that I knew before, +and I must live ages upon earth to master it. Humour is the perception +of incongruity and imperfection, of contrasts and errors; the truest +humorist is he who sees it with the most philosophy and truth.’ + +There was silence, and then there came a deep yet soft and solemn voice +from the god: + +‘Thou hast learned all which I expected from thee--now learn to live +in life, and take it as it comes, since gods and men are all subject +to the same laws. _Seek_ continually. Knowledge is the soil which when +well cultivated yields the grain by which thou canst live. Children, go +in peace, I have spoken!’ + + * * * * * + +‘He spoke well,’ said the Aryan sage; ‘very well, but not beyond his +past. Mine is another road. The true and far-advanced sage, my Flaxius, +can by penance and contemplation rise through the ages far above all +changes and contradictions of nature and of matter, and pass through +the Gate of Nirvana--to eternal and unchangeable peace and happiness. +Whether it be, as some suppose, into absorption with the highest +happiness, or to pursue new fields of individual actions beyond all +that intellect has ever dreamed, I know not, but that he can escape +thereby the miseries of change, I _do_ believe.’ + +‘But that is only for one in millions,’ remarked Flaxius. + +‘Eternity is long,’ replied the Sage. + +‘I think,’ answered the Etruscan, ‘that as all truth is three-fold, +there may be yet a third way. What it is I truly do not know, but I +will think of it. Meanwhile I have enough to do for many a year, in +following out what I this night have learned. Before I endeavour to +excel in the higher heavenly mathematics and celestial algebra and +transcendental curves and equations, I will first master this earthly +arithmetic. Perhaps a few of your sages might find the gate of Nirvana +sooner if they would do so. You Theosophists forget that you are +here in this world as ants, and that the visions and thoughts of the +eagle--however grand and fine they may be--are misplaced in the emmet. +Speculations in billions of æons and millions of millenniums and blue +eternities are folly for men whose manifest measure of black and white +time is the change of day and night, the course of seasons and the +path of years. You narrate minutely what occurred for thousands of +Kalpacs to the gods, yet cannot trace your own human history accurately +for more than a few centuries. To me it seems that knowledge--like +charity--should begin at home. And like unto it, friend, but even +worse, do I find your esoteric reincarnation. The gradual evolution +of all men through revolving cycles, which requires for ‘complete +unfoldment’ a solar system on the seven principles through each of +which the soul makes seven rounds, in seven races, and so on through +seventy times seven sevenings, with seven times seventy new senses, +seasonings, and so on, ere you can get the human being into good form, +reminds one very much of the machine depicted by Hogarth. There are +in it steel wheels and springs, cogs, latchets, levers, eccentrics, +valves, and God knows what all--to draw a cork! + +‘You reply that Eternity is long, and by that saying you refute +yourself. For life seems to be all to him who is in it. And you require +man to master, study, understand, and in life live up to a system which +he can only comprehend, or do anything with in a million of years. +Wherein, O friend, thou art illogical. + +‘And yet, O Aryan, I thank thy faith, for the time was not quite lost +which I spent in studying it. For even as oysters lead to soup, and +soup to fish and good _pièces de résistance_, or beef and game, so +do I prophetically foresee that this thy Indian soup of speculation +will lead to German metaphysics, which will conduce to the fish of a +_Natur-philosophie_, which will bring man to the English roast beef of +Darwin and Huxley, and solid pudding thereunto. + +‘And I thank thee for introducing me to this god, in whom I find +incarnate the moral aspect of the mere materialism in which I, for the +time, live, move, and have my being. Truly, it is not quite enough +for one who would fain think that ’tis not all of life to live, nor +all of death to die, but it is all in all sufficient for the disciple +of Epicurus and Lucretius, which it is well to be for once in life’s +journey, wherein we must sometimes stop in queer inns of Hedonism. + +‘Now may we in the ages often meet! Farewell until our paths again are +one!’ + +And with this each went his way again into life. + + * * * * * + +‘_Hæc fabula docet_,’ wrote the great master as a note, ‘this legend +teacheth a lesson which may peradventure not be unto all quite so +plain as a fly in a milk-pan, or the sun at noon-day, _oculis subjecta +fidelibus_, or “before our werry eyes,” as the elder Weller hath +it, or as intelligible as one-third of the sermon of Arlotto was to +himself--_che n’intese lui_--for which reason, O refined reader, I will +explain it to thee! The ancient godkin whom I did interview represents +the practical wisdom of life as based on a narrow materialism which +sees in all things only atoms and chance, and believes that nature does +but carry out things to a certain extent when they fail, or roll the +stone up a hill, whence it comes tumbling back on Sisyphus. Therefore +his worshippers found in life only contradictions--and paradoxes +without end. Now it is true that these abound in life, and are the soul +of humour and of poetry, and exist from laughter up to sublimity in +everything material--yet is this crude materialism far away different +from that Evolution which I afterwards learned, which goes deeper +than atoms, and believes in infinite progress from stage to stage, +in ideals, and the ever-advancing power of volitional consciousness +or human will. In the course of progress through the ages, paradoxes +disappear, or else are succeeded by high and nobler and purer forms of +the complex and contradictory.’ + + + + +FLAXIUS AND ROOSEVELDT + + ‘When Julius Cæsar gave the deputies + From Gaul their rights and treated them as men, + All Rome roared out in rage, because in Rome + All foreigners were held as vile and low: + And thus it was that Cæsar showed himself + Most perfectly the bravest of mankind, + And fittest man of all to rule the state.’ + + _Comment by Miss Winifrede Orr, on the following chapter._ + + ‘And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying: This man receiveth + sinners, and eateth with them.’--_St. Luke_, xv. 2. + + +THE wise and great Flaxius in his steps from century to century did +much to endear himself to the men of the present, who take a pride in +their northern ancestry. For when no elegant Roman scholar would have +given a rusty denarius to know what was going on in the whole world, +north of Italy, our sage made himself intimate with Odin and Thor, not +to mention the God Frey (whose name is yet borne by descendants of the +old stock), had been favoured by Freya, had read the first edition of +the Edda scraped in runes on birch-bark, had suggested emendations in +it, and so on. He was a great friend of Olaf Tryggvason, whose true +history, and it is a marvellous one, yet remains to be written. And +here-and-thereing about, it happened that he came into the Netherlands, +where he made acquaintance with King Gambrinus the inventor of beer. +But, in fact, it was Flaxius who, having in India learned from Vishnu +the art of brewing _Soma_, which is now generally agreed to have been +India pale ale, taught him the secret. And not to digress, I would +here note that Bass has his name from Bassaro, a place in Lydia, where +Bacchus had a temple, which name is supposed to be derived from the +Hebrew _Bassar_, to gather in a vintage, because in those days beer was +regarded as a sort of wine, an idea still preserved by German poets, +who call it barley-wine. As for ale, Flaxius affirms that it is found +in the marvellous myth of Ale-sia, a city of Sicily, where there was a +fountain, which foamed up joyously at the sound of music, so that the +froth ran over the brim, just as Lager is believed to foam in the glass +when students sing. For which the reader may consult Pliny (_lib._ +3), and Solinus. As for the Lager, I have witnessed that miracle +myself--and hope to see it again. And it is also true, as it is lovely, +that the beautiful, clear Pilsener beer, as well as that of Vienna, +will leap up in joyous bubbles when it hears an orchestra play, as +ye may see for yourselves, according to Puttuli, if you chance to be +present when it occurs! And it is for this reason that the Cup of the +Winds, which is before me as I write, a goblet of the tenth century, +carved from wood, and undoubtedly a Lombard beer-cup, has on it the +four Modes in music, each represented by a female figure playing on a +musical instrument, and all their skirts blowing in a high wind, to +signify _aria_ or melody, which is a pun in wood, even as the Catholic +Church is one in stone. _Ergo bibamus!_ + +And while thus up-and-downing in the North, Flaxius came to Holland, +which had at that time been but recently taken by the Dutch. Now +at this particular period, or P. P., as a friend of mine used to +denote the great dates in the margin of his history, the Netherlands +were under the dominion of Siegfried the Dragon-killer (as you may +learn from Wagner’s opera), who had for a wife eventually the fair +Chriemhilde, so sweetly described in the _Book of Heroes_: + + + ‘Her heart in beauty burning--a ruddy ruby shone. + The gleaming of her eyelets was like the glowing moon. + She clad herself in roses and pearls as bright and rare: + Yet none came to the maiden to give her comfort there. + + She was right fair of figure and slender in the waist, + Like to a golden lustre, naught in her form misplaced; + Her hands and fingers perfect, each unto either trim; + Her nails so white and shining, you could see yourself therein. + + Her hair was bound in beauty with noble silken twine, + She let it flow a-downward, that lovely maiden fine. + She wore a crown with jewels, and all of gold so red. + Of Elberich the Dwarfling she had in truth great need. + + And in that crown bright shining lay a carbùncle stone, + Which even in the palace like a bright topaz shone. + Upon her head the ringlets in glossy masses lay; + They gleamed as clear and brightly as doth the sun by day. + + She stood alone, unheeded, right sorrowful her mood. + How beautiful her colour, it was like milk and blood; + And through her locks so purely the neck shone white as snow. + Ah! Elberich the Little felt deep the maiden’s woe.’ + + +Then in time her sorrow was relieved, and amid the conflicting jar +of legendary songs, it appeared that she married Siegfried. But her +great deed was to lay out a glorious and wonderful garden of roses, or +Rooseveldt, in German Rosengarten, of which Carlyle writes: + +‘Chriemhild, whose altered history makes such a figure in the +_Nibelungen_, had, it would seem, a rose-garden some seven English +miles in circuit, fenced only by a silk thread, wherein, however, +she maintained twelve stout fighting men, and these, so unspeakable +was their prowess, sufficed to defend the silk-thread garden against +all mortals. A good antiquary, Von der Hagen, imagines that this +rose-garden in the primæval tradition glances obliquely at the +Ecliptic, with its Twelve signs, at Jupiter’s fight with the Titans, +and we know not what confused skirmishing in the Utgard, Asgard, or +Midgard of the Scandinavians.’ + +Of the great battle of all the heroes of the North about or in this +rose-field, I will say nothing. Suffice it to write that in time the +fair Chriemhilde had a son by Siegfried, ‘though history passes it +over, oh,’ and this offspring grew up to be a glorious youth, who was +known as the Lord of the Rooseveldt, from his patrimony, being often +called simply Roosevelt, for brevity’s sake. And he was a credit to his +highly respectable ancestry, first making himself famous in learning +and letters, then in council, holding divers offices, and yet again +in a war with Spain, wherein he gained great renown, till in the +fulness of time he governed Holland, or had a kingdom therein, which he +administered with wisdom and grace. + +Now there are some folk who are brave in one way, and some in another; +some braving-mad when drunk, and others only bold while sober, or to +show off, or to gratify temper; but Roosevelt was brave all round, +having not only physical, but in the highest degree moral courage, for +he had that of his Opinions, which is the noblest of all. And Flaxius +to his great joy observed this. + +The king had soon seen in the Sage great wisdom and a genial spirit, +and had therefore made of him a friend. It came to pass one day that +as they were riding near the Rhine, they saw seated by the road-side a +poor man, of very dark colour, yet one who seemed as if he might be far +better than his looks. + +‘Whence camest thou?’ asked the king. + +‘With the sun whose livery I wear, from the South. I am of the dark +races, and was brought here a captive.’ + +‘What hast thou seen?’ + +‘I have seen sorrow, and felt oppression, heard curses, tasted +bitterness, and smelt the air of dungeons, and all because of my +colour, for God knows my soul is white enough, and were my skin the +same I should be called learned, and, perhaps, something more. Yet at +this minute I am hungry, and few, indeed, are they who would give me +food, and none who would eat with me.’ + +‘By Frey and all the gods!’ cried Roosevelt in anger, ‘come thou with +me, friend, and we will see whether no man will keep thy company! +For I am lord of all this land, and I swear that this day thou shalt +dine with me in my palace, sitting at my table with me, and may Loki +and Svanttowit, Teuston, Vith, and Busteric, Chrodo, Swackenhammer, +Irminsul, Hela, Hellwolf, Zernebock,[1] and the whole gang, do their +worst with me, if I stand not by thee!’ + +So they went to the palace, and the pilgrim was bathed and clad in +seemly garments; and when the horn was blown for dinner, and the band +struck up, lo! there sat the dark man at the royal table, and Roosevelt +treated him as he did the other guests. + +But the dark man behaved modestly, like any other gentleman, conversing +chiefly with Flaxius about foreign countries. + +‘There will be a row about this,’ said Flaxius to Breitmann, a northern +warrior, who spoke a barbarous Dutch, and who was something of a bard, +because he had sung a ‘bardy.’ He was Poet Laureate. + +‘You pet all you got on it,’ was the reply. ‘All de small minds who +had rader live in a liddle country dan in a pig von, will pe hoppin’ +mad. And efery man who has nodding boot a white colour to make him +resbectaple, and a crate many pious beople among dem, will fluke and +coorse and damn der Roosevelt; for peing too moosh like de Lord Jesus, +who did in his vay de fery same ding. I shall have to sing a song apout +dis.’ + +It is certainly true that what Breitmann (who as a poet was also +something of a prophet) predicted, came to pass. For there was great +rage all over the land, and people cursed, and ‘swore in high Dutch,’ +and abused their lord for being morally brave and good; and it was +noticed withal that everybody in the land who came of a race which had +ever grunted and groaned because it had been ‘persecuted’--and there +were a great many of these--all cried out the loudest against ‘the +nigger,’ to show their social superiority. But the king, knowing that +he had done right before God and man, cared not one broken straw for +them all. + +‘Go thy ways, O King,’ said Flaxius admiringly, ‘for the best and +noblest, kindest and bravest man who ever sat on a throne, and had the +least fear to do what is right. Others have been of good descent and +brave, some again brave and learned, others as bold and honest, but of +them all, thou alone art all, and with it the only one who dared be a +friend to the downtrodden and oppressed. Now for this, God bless thee, +Roosevelt, and thou shalt be blessed! And even if the future has no +more great or glorious deeds for thee, rest content. Thou hast shown +more true courage than any monarch before thee ever did, saving Christ, +the Lord of all the world.’ + +Then it came to pass in the year 1901.... + +But here the chronicle abruptly ends. + +History repeats itself. + + * * * * * + +Now the Laureate kept his word, and made a song, which he sang to a +harp, which song travelled from Scheveningen up the Rhine, till it +arrived, about a month later, at Cologne. It was thence transferred +to Heidelberg by a wandering Minne-singer to Constance, which lies on +the Bodensee, as is affirmed in a very ancient ballad, which consists +of nothing else but this fact repeated fifty times in different forms, +in which it bears a great resemblance to much modern intellectual +effort, as displayed in political speeches, sermons, and the like. +And from the Bodensee it was colported by divers wandering students +and Handwerksburschen through German Switzerland, till one warm day +it crossed the Alps and got to Verona or Berne in Lombardy, where I +believe it stopped, albeit there is a passage or two in the _Divina +Commedia_, which indicate that Dante had possibly come across some rude +Italian version of it. And this was the _Lied_, which I have followed +closely: + + + DER NOBLE ROOSEVELT + + ‘It is writ in many a shtory which came from olden time, + In legends full of glory, in many a minstrel’s rhyme; + Dot he who acted kindly since history began, + And gently to all beople, was der truest gentleman. + + And among de very truest of dis kind in der Welt, + As die Rose among de Ritters, I put der Roosevelt; + For brave in dis, or dat, in deed, is many a king or knight, + But Roosevelt’s der only von dot’s brave in all dot’s right. + + Grand in der crash of pattle among de cavaliers, + Grand in der rush of warriors among de breakin’ spears, + Vhen Odin to de Northmen his help in glory brings, + Und de Spaniards fly before dem all shkared like avery-dings. + + But vhere he show der grandest and rise to der Beyond, + On de oder side of Jordan, above dis eart’ly pond, + Is when he knows he’s in der right he’s efer at his ease, + Und in spite of all de tyfels, will do yoost what he blease. + + So Gott be-help him onwards unto a glorious end! + For de trodden-down and lowly efer find in him a friend. + Votefer snobs and copperheads against his name may bring, + Heaven pless dee for dy nople heart, O Roosevelt, my king! + + +[1] _Zernebock._ It was over this deity that George Borrow came to +grief when he ridiculed Walter Scott for making an old Saxon witch +swear by him. For the Saxons did adopt Zernebock, though he was the +_Cerneboh_ or black god of their Slavonic neighbours. + + + + +FLAXIUS AND HAMLET + +SHOWING HOW THE PRINCE OF DENMARK, WHEN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF +WITTENBERG, LISTENED TO THE LECTURE ON ROMAN HISTORY BY THE LEARNED +FLAXIUS, AND WAS TAKEN BY THE LATTER TO A BALL, AND INTRODUCED TO THE +FAIRY QUEEN. + +‘O valiant Hamlet, and worthy of immortal fame, who, being shrewdly +armed with feint of folly, covered a wisdom too high for human wit +under a marvellous disguise of want of sense, and in that subtlety +found means whereby he did protect himself, and yet revenge the murder +of his father long before.’--_Saxo Grammaticus_, Lib. 3. + + +IT happened once, amid the blaze, the splendour, and the symmetry of +the centuries, as they whirled magnificently on--many ere this of ours, +yet many more after wise Flaxius had his natal day--that the scholar +went to the University of Wittenberg to see what he could pick up in +the way of ideas. For, with all his experience and erudition, he was +always learning something new, as any man may at any hour in this world +school, if he be not too proud to note facts; as somebody’s wisdom hath +it in Latin: ‘_Ea est vera nominis existimatio quæ non ex sermonibus, +sed ex rebus istis deducitur_’; or, as an Englishman more concisely +expressed it: ‘There’s nothing like facts to learn from.’ + +And being a man of marked, yet modest mien, who conversed in Latin with +singular purity, and one who, when he so pleased, could construct his +whole discourse out of nothing but quotations from the classics--or +from the works of his auditors, which was even more agreeable to +them--he was soon held in great esteem. And having read in public a +paper, _De vera Essentia Verborum_, in which he demonstrated from A. +Artemidorus down to Z. Zoilus, that words have souls, he came to be +regarded as _clericus vel addiscens_, almost a professor. + +So it befel one day, when a certain teacher named Brunkenstrorphius +was incapacitated--owing to fourteen bottles of Rhenish wine the night +before--from lecturing, that Flaxius kindly took his place, and read to +his class in Roman history, the subject for that day being Nero. + +Now, as Flaxius had had the great advantage of having been long +personally acquainted with this emperor--to whom he was introduced +by Seneca--and had been present by special invitation at the +brilliant reception which was lighted by a whole congregation of early +Christians rolled in pitch and ignited, had talked with Locusta, and +seen the stupendous spectacle of the burning of Rome with an Imperial +orchestra of one, and received an estate for exclaiming, ‘_Artes omnes +novit Cæsar!_’ and was finally in at the death of that remarkable +artist, he had almost as good a conception of the true character of +the latter as sundry modern novelists and immoralists, who have so +black- or white-washed him by turns that his memory seems to be like +the Cathedral of Florence, or a zebra, or a chequer board, or a bad +photograph, or what the Liberal and Conservative press in turn declared +of G.O.M.--that is to say, an alternation of ebony and ivory, of coal +and alabaster, the raven and blanche dove, or a Prussian sentry-box, +or a cup jewelled in niello, or Saint Paul’s, or a cardinal’s +conscience.... + +According to Flaxius the emperor was in himself something such a +combination, well nigh beyond all the analysis of our modern moral +chemistry, the wondrous product of a monstrous age, a terrible Thought +elaborated with agony from a mighty but corrupt world, one who, in the +true spirit of history, was more a symbol than a man; mere bronze medal +from the iron die of his time. The lecturer could well nigh believe +that no Nero, _per se_, had ever existed at all, but had been a mere +_simulacrum_ or phantom set up in a high place, wherewith the Mighty +Powers who rule the world had mocked or lessoned man; a Pharos, or +beacon-tower with an effulgent burning-head, standing deeply footed in +the freezing-cold, damp, roaring sea--a giant giving light in agony, +and warning ships not to approach, and, like old Pharos, fearful in +his pride. + +There was a kind of daïs or higher range of seats and desks, at which +sat only the young noblemen who were studying at the University, and +among these was one who, to Flaxius--who was a marvellous reader of +men, not only by metoposcopia, or physiognomy, but by all which was +indicative of the soul?--seemed to be as far beyond all his fellows +as an eagle would be amid the dullest, pettiest featherlings of a +barnyard. Yet, though very quietly dignified, he was devoid of that +arrogance of rank which displayed itself so conspicuously in every +detail of dress, every gesture, and in the very intonation of every +word of the aristocracy of that time; for he was truly too much above +them to affect even their superiority--a thing in which the German +noble of the present day hath still almost everything to learn, +especially in Prussia. For even yet among these good folk, well nigh +all the joy of life, and mental life itself, consists in the happy +reflection that a majority of mankind are (by law, at least) their +_inferiors_; which stupendous idea (it being generally their only +possible one) they contemplate even as a Hindu saint contemplates God, +to the exclusion of all other conception. This reflection has been +concisely made into a law of ethical science by one of their number, +an Austrian named Von Mannteufel, in the words, ‘_Humanity, properly +speaking, begins with the rank of count._’ + +This young nobleman was, indeed, so elevated in rank that he could +well afford to dispense with vanity, since he was heir-apparent to +the throne of Denmark. His name was Hamlet, and there was that in his +appearance which would indicate--to even a less clairvoyant eye than +that of Flaxius--an original character of the strongest type, devoid +of the eccentricity which attracts comment, learned in philosophy +without pedantry, endowed with a personal grace of manner suggesting +natural courtesy and a marvellous observation by a quiet eye--all of +which might be seen in him by all. But Flaxius noted in him something +far deeper: a soul which, if not yet risen, was rapidly rising above +the storm and whirl of all things in life and time, be they great or +small, so as to behold in them all the mere passing show of a drama, +yet feeling all the time that _in that drama_ there would be incidents +which would wreck this mere mortal life and wrench his soul with agony. +He who has this tremendous dual action to undergo in life--that of +being a true philosopher, yet a great sufferer--will assuredly have +a strange foreboding of it, and to such a mind the idea of Nero, as +presented by Flaxius, in its similar doubleness, was a marvellous +revelation. He had long suffered from that problem which a great poet +has expressed by saying that-- + + ‘Not in that strife, + Wherefrom I take strange lore and read it deep, + Can I find reason why _I_ should be thus: + No--nowhere can unriddle, though I search + And pore on Nature’s universal scroll + Even to swooning, why Divinities, + The first born of all shaped and palpable gods, + Should cower beneath what, in comparison, + Is untremendous Might.’ + +All of which Flaxius the immortal, who could read the soul in the +glance, and who saw that he had before him one into whose essence +Immortality had cast its brightest rays, deeply divined. So it came +that he lectured to Hamlet alone, rising far beyond the rest of the +audience. And, mindful of his man, who, he felt, was thirsting to +think, he made good long pauses, which his auditors deemed were to give +himself rests to make new bounds. + +The lecture was at an end, and Hamlet, by a sign, intimated to his +friends that he would fain be left alone. When all were departed, he, +with courtesy beyond the time, arose and approached the professor, and +said: + +‘Learned master, thou hast touched with such unerring hand the +harp-strings of my heart, and drawn from it such marvellous chords that +I would gladly have them combined in more coherent melody. Even as a +bee in a bewildered flight, driven by the wind, at chance may light +upon----’ + +‘A flower,’ said Flaxius, ‘which gives him rest.’ + +‘And in which, too, he finds a honey-store, such as he never found in +flight before,’ subjoined the prince gently. + +‘Yet around which some curling petals close somewhat too tightly for +his eager search,’ added Flaxius, almost with a smile. ‘Truly to thee +who art born to be a prince among more than mortals, I will gladly lend +what aid I can to clear away the tangling, hindering leaves.’ + +‘Learned master,’ replied the prince, ‘I would first deeply reflect on +what I have heard, since I as yet toil slowly after you. And if it be +your pleasure, I pray you seek me this evening in my library.’ + +‘I will be there,’ said Flaxius, ‘with joy.’ + + * * * * * + +Flaxius the Immortal, and the prince who was unconsciously an aspirant +for immortality, sat at a table under antique, grotesquely carved +arches, before them a flask of Rhenish, and the works of Hesiod +and Homer. In the face of the Master there was the calm dignity of +centuries; in that of Hamlet the quiet of a summer sea, beneath which +tides are working which may break bounds in time of storm. They had +long held deep discourse, and during the time Flaxius had penetrated +more deeply with every utterance into the soul of the young man. At +last, after a pause, the Master said: + +‘He who has risen so far as to find a reality in the tremendous action +of the infinite in nature, and who has dwelt so long and earnestly on +the change of dynasties of gods from Saturn to Jove, of old worlds +into new, on man in his stormiest moods and the rabbit sporting in +the thicket, birds and clouds and life still circling on, till all +such thoughts are most habitual--has gone too far to retreat. He has +advanced beyond his fellows. If he be weak and break down under the +stupendous load he will go mad, and readily will men esteem him so, as +they do all whom they cannot understand. If he succeed, they may deem +him a poet or a god. But the imbroglio is sadly worse when the man is +not a hermit, or one alone in life, who can battle freely with his +destiny. If he be one who is enmeshed in some dire tragedy with others, +which he, being human, must humanly endure and suffer, and yet is +always having his wonted glimpses of the infinite, as prisoners catch +glimpses of the sun, then he has before him such a battle and a strife +as deserve to bend the decree of fate for very pity. Those who achieve +victory over it all live for ever. Now know there are two lives beyond +the grave: one the vital life which ever was, and can never pass away; +the other the life of our great deeds, imperishable in the mind of man.’ + +‘Ay,’ replied the prince, ‘and I feel in my deepest soul, great +master, not only that thou speakest truth, but thou ne’er wouldst tell +me this, didst thou not divine by some mystic power, all unknown to +me, that I am destined to such warring woe? Worst of all is it for me +that I have added into all of this the _weakness_ which must be truly +overcome, a wax in the bronze which must be melted out, a love of sleep +and ease and pleasant dreams.’ + +‘Go on, thou hast more to say,’ replied Flaxius. + +‘Well, this remains,’ rejoined the prince, after a long pause, a +draught of wine, and casting his glance briefly at the scrolls before +him.... ‘In all these lives of mortals in the past, who rose by power +to immortality, I find some golden glimpse vouchsafed to them of the +supernatural, some comforting assurance of beings now invisible to +me, of gods, guardian angels--“followers,” as my northern ancestors +called them, or the beautiful _Fylgia_ who flit over the ocean after +the heroes whom they protect. Truly, if I could only so much as see +and talk once with moonlight fairies and merry elves, or a sprightly +goblin, I, being only human, should have some strengthening assurance +that life is not all a struggle with mere mortals and matter. Even in +so little as what I ask, I should realise that I shall live. Do I speak +wisely?’ + +‘Yes,’ replied Flaxius, ‘there are men dying with hunger whom a crumb +may save. This much may be granted to thee. ’Tis little enough. All +over doth this outer life an inner life enfold, one of exquisite +beauty and grace, as the rough seaweed and grim, ugly moss, and +ragged madrepores, and hard crust envelop the exquisitely curved, +snow-and-rose-bloom, blushing shell, the only thing on earth which is +like in hues to a lovely maiden. Around and about us there circles ever +in viewless beauty and undreamed perfume, moving to music all unheard +by man, a thronging host of attendant beings; following sweet missions +and holy biddings; talking in mystic tongues, of which echoes may be +caught in the breeze, in the forest, and in tinkling springs or falling +fountains. Truly, I forget myself when I abstract my mind an instant +towards them from this our earthly sphere. Yes, ’tis but little for +thee to ask, who hast before thee such a destiny, to live immortal in +a poet’s verse! Yes, I will give it, and with all my heart, and thou +shalt see the light invisible, and hear the music never meant for ears, +to such degree as a beginner may. I see thee smile--well, be it when +thou wilt; but, as thy wont is, thou requirest time to think on what +I’ve said. Go, take an hour. There lies not far beyond the city gate, +in a wild place among the lonely rocks, an old and crumbling castle, +which all men shun as a haunted place; and in its hall fairies and +goblins hold their revelry from midnight till the morning red is seen. +Thither together we will wend our way.’ + +‘It might seem marvellous to me,’ said Flaxius, as he, with Hamlet, +walked forth in the summer night under the stars, ‘that thou, O +Prince, who livest in the contemplation of greater marvels, who seest +the miracle of the growth of flowers and the wonders of the circling +universe which amaze even the spirits of earth and air, shouldst crave +a mere glimpse of that which is after all only something new and +unaccustomed, did I not know how deeply the desire of what is new to +him is implanted in man. Yes, it is so deep that he who masters the +problem treads on the verge of the Infinite. I myself----’ + +But here he paused and said: ‘Yonder rises the tower, built, as +tradition tells, by a sorcerer who, chanting a spell, with every word +broke from the rock a stone, or conjured dust and air to solid blocks, +and moved them into place. And ’tis no more than man himself will do +in days to come; and none will deem the deed a miracle. Hence it is +written in ancient chronicles, _in veterum libris observatum est hoc +fieri_, that the building has ever been haunted, _nymphæis et fatis_, +and by those strange spirits of the elements, whose homes being in the +crimson gold of sun-dyed skies, or deep in earth, where marvellous gems +and metals abound; or in forests; like the _Silvani_ and _Oreades_; or +in streams like the _Naïades_, have by natural affinity a passionate +love for poetry, and all that is rare and beautiful, wild or strange, +be it in what form it may. For as nature is not only lovely and comely +in her very self, becoming more so the deeper we penetrate her veriest +being as _natura naturans_, so is she also in her freer actions often +gaily contradictory, merrily and quaintly discordant; jingling bells to +her sweetest music, and singing sweet _ritournelles_ of violets over +grey and ancient graves. For every one of which freaks, be they as mad +as they may, there is some echo of a goblin, Flibbertigibbet, fairy, +implet, bogle, browny, pixie, urchin, Puck, Robin Goodfellow, ouphe or +oaf, nixey or pixey, duergar or troll, sprite or pigwiggin, sylph or +sea-girl, salamander or fire-maid, Heintzelmann or Waldmeister, Kobold +or Bergmannlein as here called, siren, satyr, or faunus, lemur or +lamia; yea, and thereunto as many more as this outer crust of creation +hath manifestations, which in themselves are ideas and immortal types, +with a life such as science hath not as yet apprehended, though it will +also be clearly known in ages to come. For know, O Prince,’ continued +Flaxius, with an air which had in it something of the poet and the +god, ‘that in due time will dawn upon the world a science, of which +some of the learned now have not the faintest scent or touch, which +after denying and destroying the gods, goblins, and devils, _in toto +corpore_, as now believed in, will end by showing them in matter and +in truth, and that in a thousand times more marvellous form than any +fairy-tale maker ever fashioned or felt. For little as he knows it, +man, instead of leaving the marvellous behind him in remote ages, +began, in truth, utterly without it, and is now advancing towards and +into it, with giant footsteps. Ah, here we are at the gate of the +elfin-castle, + + + “which men did raise + In the ancient giant and goblin days + When they sat with ghosts on the stormy shore, + And spake in a tongue they speak no more!” + + +‘Now for a season be a child again.’ + +As they stood at the gate of the silent pile, they heard, far, far away +over many a hill and dale, the crowing of a cock, and the faint chimes +of midnight from the town, and then the cry of a sentinel owl from +the green-tapestried elfin-tower. To which Flaxius briefly replied +in a strange utterance of some fairy kind, when the gate opened, and +they found themselves in a scene, which would not have appeared quite +unfamiliar to any child who has beheld a gorgeous and exceptionally +tasteful _féerique_ in Paris, or an unusually marvellous Christmas +pantomime in London, combining all the splendours of Aladdin’s palace +with all the goblinries of Mother Goose, save that _this_ was a +thousand times more splendid, more varied, more grotesque, and more +amazing. And having entered, Prince Hamlet stood by the door rapt +in utter admiration at the marvellous art which in ever-changing, +never-resting beauty and quaintness, was displayed before him. + +‘The witches have their Sabbat in the Blocksberg,’ said Flaxius; ‘the +fairies and all their kin hold their own grand merry-makings, but much +oftener, being merrier folk, here and elsewhere. Witches and devils +select scenery suited to their taste; fairies conjure up their bright +magnificence and airy shows most gladly. In Germany they revel in +ancient halls of castles such as this, in imitation of the mortals who +preceded them, as is shown by the marvellous legend of the old Count +von Hoya.’ + +‘And _that_?’ said Hamlet. + +‘Was only this: that the fairies came to the old count and begged him +to lend them his great hall for a ball for a single night, with the +condition that he, the master, might be present, but that no other +mortal eye should behold the revel. So at the midnight hour: + + + In they came tripping, + Fairy-maids, elfin-men, + Little and beautiful, + Golden, gem-glittering, + Two-fold or triple-fold, + Ten-fold and twenty-fold, + Till the great hall, + Splendidly lighted, + Looked like the crown, + Thickly bejewelled, + Of a great monarch. + + +So they danced, as you see. And the jolly old Graf danced with them. + + + Small was the lady + Who was his partner; + Three inches high. + Often he lost her + In the gay multitude, + Seeking her, finding her; + Often he picked her up + Twixt thumb and finger, + By her small wings, + Even as children + In summer catch butterflies. + + +When all at once there was a dead pause. The music ceased, the dancing +stopped, while from above was heard an awful, scolding, human voice. It +was that of the old Countess von Hoya, who having heard the music, she +sleeping above, lifted a trap-door and looked down at the spectacle. +Truly she was in a great rage to see such a festive scene to which she +was not invited. It all died out like an extinguished taper. Tradition +says that the queen of the fairies gave the count in reward for his +kindness a miraculous sword, ring, and horn, which his family still +preserve; but to punish the countess, laid a ban upon her descendants, +that there should never be at one time more than one heir of the name, +and it has ever been thus as predicted.’ + +‘So in this life even spirits mimic man. A man confirms all things +unto himself,’ replied Hamlet. ‘This is a brilliant scene, surpassing +dreams,’ he continued, as the elfin guests came pouring in, ‘but I note +that they are not all butterfly-minikins.’ + +Which was quite true, for they were of all sizes, from that of smaller +humanity or lesser youth, down to the tiniest sprites who hide in +honeysuckles, and wear rose-leaves for cloaks. Among them all Hamlet +and Flaxius towered like giants; nor did they seem out of place, since +in the mien and eyes of both there was the expression of something not +of earth or common life, which is never absent from such men, but which +here, in the mysterious magic light which filled the hall, coming from +no visible source, seemed to proclaim itself with tenfold power. + +At the further end of the apartment was a throne of unknown splendour +and material, in which were intertwined thousands of strange +characters, red and black like ruby and sable onyx. It seemed as if it +might be a fairy antique, ancient of the ages, and on it sat, under +exquisite rainbow drapery, a female form, of such ineffable loveliness +that Hamlet murmured to Flaxius that he had found in it a new ideal +for beauty--it so surpassed, yet was so different from all he had ever +dreamed of woman’s charms. Thereupon the queen, for such she was--who +heard and perceived all things--looking at them, smiled, and beckoned +an approach, when all the small folk parted right and left, leaving +a lane by which they went their way unto the throne. And bowing low +before her, Flaxius, holding Hamlet by the hand, said in tones of +marvellous melody, learned of yore in the magic schools of Etruria: + + + ‘To thee, All-Beautiful! + Type of all Loveliness! + Queen of the Elfin world! + Life of all Fairy Land! + I with all reverence + Bring a young mortal, Hamlet of Danamark, + One little witting + What immortality + He may inherit, + Shouldst thou bestow on him + Thy benediction!’ + + +To this the Fairy Queen, gazing on Hamlet as with intense interest, in +which sympathy and deep pity were most perceptible, replied in tones +which might have checked the torrent in its course or called the eagle, +wooing him to hear: + + + ‘Well do I know thee, + Hamlet of Danamark! + Seldom was mortal, + Born to such sorrows + Never did mortal + Grapple more bravely + With a grim destiny + Than thou art fated + To find in the future.’ + + +Hamlet, in the same staff-rhyme, but in Danish skald-tone, which was +his humble best, replied: + + + ‘As to the swimmer, + A sea-wolf before him; + As to the traveller, + Grimmest bear meeting; + Or as the wren, + With the owl over her, + Is the foreboding + Of a great Norna + Unto the fated. + But when the Norna + Is Queen of all Beauty, + Mingling iron destiny + With golden compassion, + Giving the bitter + In honey well-coated; + Gently and tenderly; + Little the fated one + Recks what may happen. + [Mishap and misfortune + Are meted to many, + Few among mortals + Ever escape them.] + If the All-Loveliest + Gives him her pity + He’s to be envied.’ + + +Now as Flaxius was the politest man at heart on the face of the earth, +while the Fairy Queen was incarnate politeness itself, this lyric, +which had such a charming accompaniment of courtesy as went beyond +music, made the most favourable impression. And the Sage having, as +court etiquette then required, uttered his first words in metre, now +expressed himself plainly in prose, saying: + +‘Beautiful Spirit of the Strangely Beautiful, who alone givest to +poetry the elfin-charm of _Romance_, well do I ween that this young +Prince of Denmark is so entirely thy subject, and one so noble in +truthfulness, and so true in his devotion to thy charm, that he has +not uttered a word of flattery, in saying that the direst misfortune +of life seems to him to be but a little thing, since he has gazed on +thy face and felt thy sympathy. And truly, unto any on whom the Queen +of Faerie and Romance has once really smiled, this world and all its +woes need seem but a little thing, since it is perfect assurance of an +immortal life beyond. But, I pray thee, make this clearer to him, that +he may leave with a lighter heart and be the better able to endure his +fate!’ + +The queen, as if deeply reflecting and as deeply moved, replied in +gravely measured, softly modulated voice: + +‘Nepenthe soothes the vulgar mind alone; to the higher soul unfading +amaranth brings in time forgetfulness of pain endured, and bestows +keenest enjoyment of the glory to come in the far future. Romance and +poetry in purity and power can bend the decree of fate, and that boon I +bestow on thee, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark! Listen, for I predict that +thy life shall be a poem--and in days to come, long after thy earthly +sufferings shall be to thee as naught, I will create my greatest work +in the Greatest Poet of Romance whom the world will ever know. And he +shall sing thy life in his greatest song, and wherever on earth true +poetry is loved and known thou shalt be known and loved with it. +This can be done and this I swear to do. Thine be the amaranth--I can +no more. In proof whereof I place upon thy arm this golden ring of +amaranthine form.’ + +And as she spoke, all seemed to fade before his sight. Only to the last +he felt deeply gazing into his soul with infinite love and sympathy the +violet eyes of the Queen of Fairy-land and of Romance. + +When he awoke it was early morning. He lay on soft moss amid the +crumbling ruins of the old castle--in sunlight, hearing bird-song all +about him. By his side sat the Sage. + + + ‘He would have thought it all a dream, + Save that upon his arm + Was bound the gift of the Fairy Queen: + Titania’s wondrous charm.’ + + +‘_Tempus est abeundi_,’ quoth Flaxius. ‘’Tis time for us to go! But, +_litera scripta manet_, what is written by fate will come to pass, O +Hamlet, my son, and dear and gracious Prince. Breakfast awaits us, and +I must think over what I am to say in my lecture on the Emperor Titus.’ + + + + +HOW FLAXIUS MADE THE FORTUNE OF EADWARD THE GRANDSON OF AEOLFRIC + +‘It is wise for youth to bow to age’s wisdom.’--_Norse Proverb._ + +‘For truth is one and right is ever one.’--_Spenser’s Faerie Queene._ + + +IT was in the very old time of merry England. In the days when there +was so much merriment among those who were above the line of safety, +and so much misery for those who were below it as would have appalled +a modern sociologist. When a man who was out of prison, and not +positively starving to death, contrived to be happy. When, according to +the testimony of all writers from Caedmon down very nearly to Chaucer, +there was such suffering from all kinds of oppression among the poor as +to make the heart sick to think of it. Out of which very time there has +come to us such gay and festive song and chording of harps, twanging +of citterns, ringing of goblets, gay hurrahing, archery, dancing round +maypoles and valentining as to make one thrill with joy to think of it. +For the only rule of life then was: + + + ‘Eat, drink, and be merry while ye can, + For to-morrow we’ll perish, be sure, my man; + Make the most of what fate will lend you, + Then go wherever the priest may send you!’ + + +And it was in the north, at a time when Anglo-Saxon and +Danish-Icelandic were beginning to be English, and there was still +much sound old heathenism in men’s hearts, and witches rode over the +midnight sky, while fairies danced in moon-lit rings below--then it +was, I say, that the immortal Flaxius paused one fair day on his +pedestrian path in Northumberland. + + + ‘A tall spreading forest there he found, + With a woodman at work mid oak-trees near, + The strokes of his axe broke the silence round, + Till the traveller called aloud, “Come here!”’ + + +And he that was called came, and Flaxius looked at him steadily ere +he spoke, but with evident approbation and interest. He was a young +and lithe but strong and vigorous man, handsome, almost to beauty, in +face, with a straight nose and a keen, dark eye, in which there was +indeed naught repulsive, but something strange, such as one sees in +the glances of uncanny folk who know things of which they do not speak +to their neighbours. His dress was but little superior to that of the +ordinary peasant, but there was something in the manner in which it was +worn, as well as in the bold mien, and almost graceful bearing of the +youth, which indicated rank or ‘birth.’ + +‘God be with ye!’ said Flaxius to the woodman. ‘I would fain rest here +a while and chop a few words with thee, so thou be not too busy with +thy chopping of wood.’ + +‘Nay,’ replied the youth, with a quaint pursing of the mouth, ‘many +strokes fell great oaks, and many words bring merry jokes; while as for +the resting never yet saw I the time when I would not pause to listen +to those who are wiser than I am: + + +“He who listeneth to eld, +Himself shall be in honour held.” + + +As my grandfather was wont to teach me with many a brave tale to prove +it.’ + +‘Thy grandfather,’ replied Flaxius, who had meanwhile studied his face +more attentively, ‘was Aeolfric Adelwit, whom men called the learned +and the traveller.’ + +‘By Freia!--I mean the Holy Virgin!’--exclaimed the youth astonished +and delighted, ‘thou art either a wizard or one who knew him, and it +may be,’ he added, lowering his voice and looking round suspiciously, +‘perhaps a bit of both, for my grandfather who is now, I trust, +in Valhall among the heroes and sages--I mean in heaven among the +saints--was called a sorcerer by the fools hereabouts.’ + +Flaxius smiled. Each looked at the other with one eye closed; the +Sage shutting the right, and the youth the left, which is the sign by +which the initiated of all grades recognise one another, and the one +generally used by Mahatmas and others in the Karma business--as it was +by the augurs of yore--when there were true believers present or under +discussion. + +‘I was even about to take my noon-day rest,’ said the woodman, ‘and +if it please you to partake my poor meal--thin cider and bread and +bacon--I would it were for your sake wine and a capon!’ + +‘Knowest thou, O Eadward, grandson of Aeolfric,’ said Flaxius solemnly, +‘that whoever made a wish in that moment past--at that special position +of the planets--but unwittingly--obtained it. Behold!’ + +And saying this he opened the basket which the youth had taken from +under a thicket, and opening it drew forth a large cold roasted capon, +a manchet of bread, and a mighty flask, with fruit. + +‘By the divine banquet of the boar _Sahrimnir_!--I mean the Holy +Supper!’--cried the youth, ‘thou hast come in a lucky hour to get a +snack, O blessed traveller!’ + +‘Therefore,’ exclaimed Flaxius, producing a great silver goblet from +his pack, which he filled from the flask, ‘therefore, O my son, +_drink_!’ And just then the sunlight catching the stream awoke in it +a wide-spreading, ruddy gleam, and his whole face, yea his very form, +seemed to be bathed and steeped in ruby, ruddy light, as a piece of +red glass in a cathedral window. And so he looked more like a glorious +Bacchus, or merry Jupiter, transfigured and idealised into a gay +glory in a sun-set sky, wherein the early stars were piping merrily a +roundelay for vespers, and the clouds like fauns did cluster round to +hear. + +‘I have seen my grandfather, by Saint Eadward!’ said the youth, for +once getting in a Christian swear successfully, ‘draw good ale from +a hole bored in a beech-tree, which was thought to be a wondrous +sorcery--I meant miracle--by the folk hereabout. But he never managed +such a tap as _this_,’ he exclaimed, as he took a pull, which might +have half emptied the Gialahorn, and would have excited the envy of the +_Hornbruderschaft_, or Hard-Drinking Brotherhood, founded by the great +Bishop Johann von Manderscheit in the castle of Hoh-Barr. + +‘And by Odin who was fed on wine alone!’ (here he balanced the +religious equation), ‘and like his holy cup, it refills itself!’ + +‘I bestow it on thee, Eadward, grandson of Aeolfric, for thy +grandsire’s sake,’ said Flaxius; ‘and it shall remain full, I swear, +so long as thou remainest an honest man, a true kind heart, friendly to +those in need, and a good, valiant, joyous drinker and _bon compagnon_. +_Waes hael!_’ he added, taking a draught which was indeed _pari passu_ +with that of Eadward’s: + + + ‘Like and like do gladly greet, + Same with joy the same doth meet, + One good turn deserves another, + Therefore drink with me, O brother; + Even as in days of yore, + Commodus, Rome’s Emperor, + Drank his boon companions dumb: + _Exsuperantissimum_!’ + + +‘_Trinc hael!_’ replied Eadward, with a look of deep, steadfast, honest +gratitude. ‘And as I cannot speak my thanks, O my greatest benefactor, +therefore do I drink them!’ + +Nor was the young Norse-Saxon, as he said this, far unlike a jolly +troll or faun himself, for the glowing golden red of sun- and +wine-light shone over him and glinted in his hair, which was like waves +of topaz, hanging over his eyes and rolling down his shoulders like a +tufted oriole or aureole. + + + ‘When autumn browneth wood on hill, + And the nights are growing chill, + Then upon ye wagon strong, + Ye see caskés borne along, + Black and foul without as sin, + Full of wine and ale within; + Red fire wine and golden ale, + Where from many drinken hale, + With merry song and minstrelsie: + As I do drink, all-heart, to thee!’ + + +And he who had peeped into that shady dell on that summer day and seen +the pair, amid green leaves gay, with the wondrous wizard _aura_ or +rich flood of wine-light all round them, as they caroused and sang, +would have verily believed he saw two joyous pagan sylvan gods who, +hidden well away behind the age, had met to live the gay old times +again. + +‘And now tell me, Eadward,’ said Flaxius, ‘to a hair, how it goes with +thee in life?’ + +‘My grandfather, as thou knowest,’ replied the youth, ‘was learned, +and had travelled in many lands. He went to Norway, whence he never +returned. It was said that when King Olaf Tryggvason assembled all the +wise men in the old heathen religion in a house to which he set fire, +and in which they were burned alive, my grandsire also perished. And it +was a cursed deed, whoever did it. Something of Latin and other lore I +learned from my grandfather, who bade me keep it ever a secret, saying +that “he is a fool who shows his lore to any save to his superiors +therein.” But what land my grandsire left, my father lost, so that +all I have now is a field and a wood and mine own arms. Yet with some +wit, and selling and trading cattle, I keep my home, truly in no great +style.’ + +Flaxius mused and said, ‘I knew thy grandfather, and though he was not +far advanced as a magian, yet he had fairy blood from distant strain, +and he was, above all things, a good and honest man. And it is among us +a duty to aid the descendants of all such men, when they are deserving. +Now I will help thee to help thyself; but note well, Eadward, never in +thy life didst thou so need every virtue as thou wilt need them now to +succeed. For this is the usual secret of rising to Fortune. Some friend +puts our feet on the first step of the ladder, or guides us to it, but +we must climb the rest ourselves.’ + +‘Something like this,’ said Eadward, ‘did I once hear from my +grandfather: + + + ‘“Look well round thee with thine eyes, + Where’er thou art, if thou wouldst rise; + It is not by a single flight, + But step by step we gain the height. + So up the tree the emmet goes, + Even as Rolf the Giver rose.”’ + + +‘Well sung,’ quoth Flaxius, ‘and pass the cup! Now take this dried +leaf.’ He gave to the youth a doubled strip of parchment, like a thin +book, in which was indeed a leaf. + +‘To-night or to-morrow go, bathed and fasting, to bed. Then eat this +leaf and note what thou shalt dream. Do exactly to a hair what thou +mayst be told to do--nothing more nor less. After that all will depend +on thy own good sense, courage, and kindness. And when one year shall +have passed by thou wilt see me again, to render count of all that thou +hast done.’ + +So they parted with kind words, the youth to try his fortune, and +Flaxius, like Odin, ever onwards to the North. + + * * * * * + +A year had passed, and the Immortal Sage sat in a wild and +adventurous-looking place, deep buried amid lonely woods and cliffs, +by a headlong torrent, before the Odin-stone, a strangely shaped rock, +seeming like a Druidic megalith, through which there was a hole of a +foot in diameter. It was a striking object, and Flaxius well knew it +had a tale. For he had been there and then. + +He heard the trampling of a horse in the woods. He looked up and saw a +magnificent steed, on which sat a knight in splendid attire. The rider +dismounted; it was Eadward; and the two embraced. + +‘Yea, I have the flask, and it has never run dry,’ said the youth, +producing it. + +‘That tells a good tale,’ replied Flaxius. So they filled and drank. +‘And now let me hear the details.’ + +‘Make spede is a good rede,’ replied the knight. ‘This is the story +which I set before ye. + +‘As you bade, I ate the leaf, and went to bed. And in a dream there +came to me a white lady or a _Norna_. Such beauty did I never see +before. And she said, “Eadward, grandson of Aeolfric, go to-morrow to +the Odin-stone, even where we now are, and watch for one hour. Then do +as thou wilt.” Word no more spake she, but vanished, and I awoke. + +‘So I went with my cross-bow and knife to the stone. And here I watched +for one hour, yet I saw nothing. Then, as I was about to go, I saw a +strange thing. For there came creeping through the hole in the stone +a fox. And such a fox I never saw before, for it was of a beautiful +tawny, soft, golden colour; and on it was a large black cross. And +though I was in awe, something--it seemed like a voice--bade me slay +it. I did so, and skinned it, and wrapped the skin and put it in my +bag, and went my way. + +‘Now there is--it may be half a day’s walk from here--a rock on which +Ulf the Dane, in olden time after a great battle, had carved the image +of a wolf, with runic knots and letters, very curious to behold, and +there I paused a while to rest. And, anon, there came to me a man, an +outlander, as I weened; but he pleased me, and we held discourse. He +was not rich of apparel, but he had this horse here, and a better I +never saw; for truly, by Sleipnir!--I mean by the White Steed of Death +seen by Saint John!--there is not its like in all the land. + +‘So we talked, and I gave him of my wine. And we spake of elves and +wizards and dreams. And then he said, “I will tell thee a strange tale; +for indeed it was a dream which brought me hither, but, I fear, to +little purpose and no good, as the troll said of the long talk which +ended by his being turned to stone. + +‘“And this,” he said, “is sooth and truth.” And he sang: + + + ‘“Unto King Ulfbrand + Thus spake the wise man, + He the deep learned + Servant of Frey: + ‘Danger is over thee, + Wild screaming war eagle + On the moss-grown tree, + By the white cataract, + Calleth on death to thee! + And the claw of the bear + Has scratched runes on the beech-tree; + And thy realm will be lost + Unless thou winnest + The skin of a fox + Of colour pale golden, + With a black cross.’ + + +‘“Now the king was sore afraid, and offered his daughter to any of his +nobles who could win him the prize. And I, with small hope, asked a +witch, one whom I had greatly befriended--yea, saved her life and given +her shelter. And she studied her spells seven days and nights with +great pain, and then bid me obey my first dream. And I dreamed that I +should trust in and abide by a wolf for three days. And coming here by +chance I heard this rock called the Wolf; and so at hap-hazard here I +have remained, but nothing has come of it, and I fear me that nothing +will.” + +‘Then it came into my mind,’ said Eadward, ‘hearing this, that I myself +should go to King Ulfbrand and win a great reward. And yet again that +this would be foul play to the man before me, and that thou, Flaxius, +didst bid me to be generous and true. So I prayed in my soul to all the +gods.’ + +(‘And a sweetly-mixed mythology thou hast, my dear boy!’ reflected +Flaxius.) + +‘And then said to the man, taking the skin from my bag: “Is not this +what thou seekest? Take it in God’s name, for I believe it should be +thine.” + +‘Then he turned white and red for joy and amazement, and said: + +‘“I will not haggle and cheapen with thee like a pedler, for ill fate +befalls the man who is mean in buying such things. All that I have in +this world, save my land, is this horse and ten gold pieces and I give +them to thee, and I would I had more.” So I took his horse, but I gave +him two gold pieces for his journey as fare-gold, and so he went his +way. + +‘But I rode on, unthinking and wondering whether I had done wisely, yet +hoping hard as did Gautrek when he fought the bear. When, following +a road, I came upon a horse which had been hard ridden, with bloody +sides. It seemed to be dying, and yet anon, a furlong further in the +woods, I found a noble knight, lying by a brook, who seemed in as evil +case as the horse, for he was sore-bruised and could hardly move, and +barely speak. + +‘Then I asked him what it meant and he replied in pain: + +‘“For two days I have fled before a band of foemen who will be here +anon. And they seek my life.” + +‘Then I gave him to drink from thy flask, O master, and verily it was a +marvellous thing to behold how it revived him. For he rose up and said: + +‘“Had I thy horse I might even yet escape. There are men who would +fight thee for it, but thou hast, I think, saved me with thy wine and +I will do naught in dishonour. But if thou lovest God and hast man’s +faith in truth, I pray thee lend me thy steed, and it will be no loss +to thee.” + +‘As he spoke I heard far away a sound as of a mountain brook, and I +knew it was men riding at full speed, and as it became like a clatter +of hail and wind, I cried: + +‘“Take another drink of wine and mount my horse in the names of Odin +and Christ, and ride for thy life!” + +‘And he did, but paused to draw a ring from his finger and say: + +‘“Three days’ ride to the west lies the castle of my father the Earl of +Ellaborne. If thou canst, carry to him what is in the mail on my horse. +Show him this ring, and repeat the word Truth three times.” + +‘And with that he was off like an arrow and he had good cause to ride, +for ere I could have counted a hundred, there came a band of riders +fierce as wolves, who asked me if I had seen a knight pass that way. +Now they had not seen the foundered horse, for they came by another +path. And not being minded that they should slay the knight, I delayed +them while I could, giving them to drink, and then showed them the +wrong road, for between a lie and a die, or a man’s life, there’s short +choice. + +‘Now when I returned to the horse, I, being somewhat learned in such +matters, found him in better case than I deemed. And having poured wine +down his throat, and cared for him, and given him rest, he was soon in +good case to ride. And there was in the mails much gold, and certain +parchments which I had lore enough to discern were great state matters +for the king, and I saw that I had come into affairs of life and death +for all the land. + +‘And minding the proverb: “He must be a thin blade who would slip +between great stones,” I went by the loneliest ways, in dark valleys +and woodlands wild, till I got to Ellaborne Castle. And there was +mourning and all were in dire distress, weeping and heart-sunken, +because the old lord had heard his son was slain. But when I arrived +with the horse, which was known to all, there was mighty to-do, and +great questioning, but I spoke word to none, till I was brought before +the great earl, and it was pitiful to see how broken and sorrowful he +seemed. + +‘“And thou hast come to prove to me that my son was truly slain, hast +thou not,” he inquired, “since thou hast brought his horse?” + +‘“Nay,” I replied, “by Odin and Frey who brings fortune! I know he +escaped alive and well, for when I last saw him he was galloping away +on a safe road, mounted on the best steed in Northumbria, with his +pursuers on the wrong track. + +‘“Man!” cried the earl, “if what thou sayest be sooth, and if thou +didst aid him to escape, and saved his life, then, by God’s glory, thou +shalt have castle and lands--if thou canst prove it.” + +‘“For the proof, O my lord,” I answered, “here are the papers and gold.” + +‘“Ah, the papers!” cried the earl. “By the splendour of the Virgin, +though I love my son better than my own life, I had liefer he had +died than that those papers had been found by the enemy. What is thy +name?--Eadward--know that this day thou hast saved England!” + +“‘The proof, my lord,” I said, as I gave him the ring, “is this--and +the words, _Truth, Truth, Truth_! And know of a truth, for I will swear +it in any shrine, that I did not save thy son’s life for gold, or fee, +or aught promised or hoped for, save the price of my horse, nor would I +have stuck at that to keep a goodly knight from being murdered.” + +‘“True as gold art thou,” said the old lord, “and of good blood, for +now I know thou art the grandson of Aeolfric, who was noble, but poor +as he was learned.” + +‘Then he heard the whole tale from me and said: + +‘“Thou hast this day built up the fortune of thy house. And if the king +do not raise thee to honour, I will.” + +‘But the king treated me nobly, and the end thereof was that I am a +belted knight, and lord of castles and broad lands, for I went into the +war, and fate favoured me, and now I have wealth and fame. And I have +wedded a niece of the Earl of Ellaborne, whom I love better for herself +than for her possessions. All of which, Master, I owe to thee; and +thanks are all I can give to such a mighty master of fate as thou art, +but if I could give thee my life I would.’ + +‘I believe thee, my son,’ replied Flaxius. ‘But what became of the +young earl?’ + +‘He saved himself, and we are now as brothers. Yea,’ he continued +with a smile, ‘to him alone have I confided the holy secret of the +Miraculous Bottle.’ + +‘God-a-mercy,’ exclaimed Flaxius; ‘’tis well there’s not a headache in +a hogshead of it, else I trow ye had toped yourselves into Hela, or up +to Valhall. To fancy two young Norse-Saxons with an unlimited well of +wine is terrible! + +‘But, let us drink!’ + + * * * * * + +‘_Hæc fabula docet_--this fable teaches,’ annotated the master, ‘a +marked moral lesson, which is greatly needed at this present day, and +which no man has as yet taught. It befell about thirty years ago, when +people began to doubt the ancient doctrine of so much pudding here on +earth for so much piety, always punctually paid, that divers young +scape-graces of the press, who wished to appear, as Verdant Greens +always do, interestingly wicked and sceptical, began to write _comicas +fabulas_ or merry tales, wherein the little good boys all came to +grief; as, for instance, how Master Benjamin Benevolence gave his penny +to an old nigger and earned a whipping from his mother for so doing.’ + +These writers left out of sight the great fact, that, because there may +not be a Moral Providence which keeps a book account to a farthing with +all mortals, it still by no means follows that there is no decency, +honour, or honesty, or moral retribution left among mankind, as their +immensely funny tales would lead the heedless to believe. For, bad +as this world may be, there are still gentlemen extant, in dealing +with whom the current moral standards of Mark Lane, Houndsditch, Wall +Street, the Stock Exchange, and similar dens of sharps and sharks may +well be laid aside. There are still men who reciprocate generosity +with generosity, and the ‘devilish shrewd’ fellow is to them a natural +object of aversion. Because they know that he who cannot be _done_ will +infallibly _do_ his best friend in the long run; and the man who is +cheat-proof is a miraculous exception if he be not a cheat himself. In +short, that it is more creditable to be taken in than to take others +in, the which statement, when made by me to a young lady from Toronto, +was received with the astonished remark, ‘Well, that _is_ a new idea!’ + +Now it befell the young hero of this tale, or Eadward, to have to +deal with only honest or honourable men, and he did exactly what was +right under every circumstance, the result being that he was promptly +rewarded, showing that virtue is not always punished, as current +literature inculcates. And if there were one hundredth part of the +pains taken to teach youth the vast superiority of honour to wealth, +which there is to stimulate them to acquire the latter, then we should +indeed find far more gentlemen in the world, and, in due proportion, +due reward for decency. And there is many a millionaire who would give +half his money to be a gentleman, a man of true honesty and nobility of +soul; but there was never yet one who was truly of the latter who would +exchange aught with the former. For whatever the vast multitude of +howling cads may think, the gentleman is the superior in that in which +he _ought_ to excel; and this superiority or moral mastery is better +worth having than carriages, opera-box, and a fashionable family,--who +wish you were dead for your money. + +And this lesson--that there may be circumstances in life when the sharp +game is not the best, and when the very shrewdest would come to grief, +unless guided by natural generosity and nobility--deserves to be deeply +studied by the world in general, and sharp Americans in particular, to +judge by my personal experiences of both. + +And I would that the novelist and literary man, and all who write +for the public, would teach this thing in spirit and in truth, if +they can with real sympathy, and not go on for ever as most--ay, the +very utmost of the most do--preaching it in a formal, listless, ‘be +virtuous and you will be happy’ way, while they depict the advantages +of wealth and the merest mammon varnished with fashion and style, +with all the gush and fire and power of art which they possess. But a +book written with earnestness, setting forth _genially_ that _honneur +passe richesse_, is as yet among the curiosities, yea, the _rariora_ +of literature. There is indeed no lack of authors who say this thing, +and who think perhaps they mean it; but they do not send it home to the +heart, nor prove it, nor illustrate it, so as to awaken in the mind of +the reader a deep sympathy for honour as compared to wealth. No, not +one, as they should and perhaps could do. + +For it does not occur to you, O dearly beloved, that all these infinite +scenes of flirtation in Belgravia or Cameliadom, showing how She would, +and then wouldn’t, and then was _incomprise_, and anon capricious or +top-lofty-minded, or interesting and mysterious-miserable, and how He, +_pauvre malheureux_! with his gnawed moustachios and dreadful devotion, +are all nothing but the direct results of too much money and its +consequent idleness or _ennui_. And the other ways of plot-making, and +interesting the reader, are, with few exceptions indeed, all cakes from +the same dough. Therefore am I reminded of the French author’s recipe +for a novel: ‘_Commencez toujours avec un million_.’ + +And as it seems to me that literature for the multitude can hardly sink +lower than it has done into this swamp of wealth of late years, I have +hope that it will ere long begin to rise. + + + + +FLAXIUS AND ASMODEUS + +Out of mere mischief and mockery grew evil, even as Loki from playing +boyish tricks became the devil. To do evil is one thing, to study and +understand it is another, but in all ages men have confused the two. + + +’TWAS on a Syrian summer afternoon, therefore a warm one, that Flaxius +sat in the silent solitude of a ruined city of most ancient days, in +Midian, a place wherein the satyr has not even yet met the English +tourist, nor the Egipani, or demons of the lonely wildnesses, been +called to stand and deliver statistics to the German _savant_. + +He sat on a wedge-inscripted stone, about a young bird’s flight from +what had been of yore a purple-lined palace of sweet sin, but so +tremendous in its majesty, even in decay and decency, that the sternest +Puritan who ever iconoclasted a cathedral would have thought twice ere +ravishing this House of Baal. + +‘Beauty,’ said Flaxius, ‘may be its own excuse for being--very +naughty--but grandeur, even when touching in its old decay, is more +than an excuse; it is a vindication for the sins, however great, of all +who are possessed of it. And they were great in glory and splendour! +How great the men were who dwelt here in the olden golden time! and how +little idea has any man on earth in this age of small things, of what +it was to live in greatness, though it were in great delusions.’ + +As he said this--’twas in the first dimness of twilight--a breeze began +to stir the palms and he heard the hoot of an owl, which was re-echoed +far and far away by the monotonous and much more unmusical song of some +Arab peasant at his plough. + +‘I would like to know,’ quoth Flaxius, ‘whether the song of the owl +portends the death of that _peasant_ or the song of the peasant the +death of the owl? Methinks the owl has the worst of it, for the +ploughman hoots fifty per cent. more horribly. Now, of the nine +thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine divinations invented by Kai +Umarat, the first of the Magi, and first born of Adam, can I not find +one here at hand to settle the weighty question?’ + +As he said this, while idly digging in the sand with his staff, he +struck something hard, which shining, seemed to be of bronze. The sage +picked it up and found he had unearthed an axe of the richest and +deepest green _patina_. + +‘Just the thing,’ thought Flaxius. ‘Thou comest, as Germans say, “unto +the call.” It was by Axiomancy or the balanced axe that the ancients +were wont to decide a question--halfpence to toss not having been +then invented; and I can bear Pliny out in his assertion that the +game was extremely fashionable. In neolithic days they drew a circle, +bisected it with a line, put the _kelt_ in the middle, and made it +spin, inferring from the way it pointed when at rest whether Yes or +No had been vouchsafed. The thing still exists as a little game among +American Red Indians. They spun on their axes, _unde nomen derivatur_. +The Romans hung the hatchet with a cord; and if I remember aright, +Francesco della Torre Biana[2] declares that the fall of Jerusalem was +thus predicted. I wonder who predicted it?’ + +Whether it was from the ground, or the tombs, or the ruins, or the +great palm-tree was not apparent, but there was heard a hollow sound +like no earthly voice, but a sound as of wings. There was a mocking +tone in it which said: + +‘_I_, with that axe which thou holdest in thy hand.’ + +‘And who in the name of Desolation art _thou_ who dwellest here in +solitude?’ inquired Flaxius. + +And the voice replied: + +‘Aschmodai.’ + +‘What! Asmodeus, the Devil on two Sticks! Well, old friend, I was a +fool to put the question, for I now remember (and Wierus has said it) +that thou art the demon of all games and gambling. I would fain see +thee again. What ho, _Chammadai!_ _Sidonai!_ _Aschmodai_, appear! In +the name of thy master Am-oimon!’ + +‘Thou forgettest,’ replied the Voice, more mockingly than before, ‘that +according to the _Pseudomonarchia Dæmonum_, he who invokes Asmodeus +must stand firmly on his legs and call loudly.’ + +‘Well,’ replied the Magian, ‘I am seated firmly _sur mon séant_, which +will do just as well, _sans cérémonie_ among old friends, and since +thou hearest me it is loud enough. Come forth, I say!’ + +And, lo! there came forth from the doorway of the ruined temple an +unearthly form, in appearance awful and appalling, but so strangely +mingled with the grotesque, a demon with the laughing nightmare, that +the wisdom of this our age, and all its art of pen or pencil would have +failed to depict it. + +It paused in silence, seeming like a statue, and when the Magian +himself spoke, it was not in words but with Thought to the arch-demon +of delusion and of mockery: + +‘I see thee as thou art, O Spirit, who wert once mighty to impose on +man in so many forms, O stupendous scarecrow of the past, and its +jester withal, for the day is well-nigh gone by when mankind at large +can grasp thy paradoxes! Yea, they are rapidly becoming a vexation, or +a bore, or a trifle, as the idol of the past becomes the nursery toy of +the present. + +‘Truly, there was a time when Dante and Milton and many more were, +to every word, living truths for all who read them, and the form was +animated with the idea. Now, the Inferno burns no more, Pandemonium +and Theism and Satan are all mere senile fables. What remains is the +art of the poet--nothing more--a beautiful, petrified figure--very +beautiful--but--dead. And thy spirit, O Daemon, in its best meaning, +still lives in Aristophanes and Shakespeare and Chaucer, and Rabelais +and Villon; but the comprehension of it is dying--dying fast, O +Daemon!--and ere long they too will be petrifactions, wearing indeed +the outward semblance of what they were, but from them life will be +gone. Men think that they still enjoy the poet in spirit and in truth, +but what they really enjoy is only their own criticisms and sense of +vain intelligence--and with _that_ the signs of death begin. For where +intelligence and self-knowledge awaken, feeling for that which is +without us ceases. It was never meant that man should enjoy at once the +two extremes of pleasure--even as the Catholic moral casuist determined +that man could not combine the extreme of passionate love with the holy +sweetness of relationship. Yes, the humour and absurdity, and wild +contrast which was the deepest problem in human nature, become before +criticism a poor shadowy thing. And thus endeth the first lesson. Let +me look a while longer into thy eyes, O Daemon, and find a second.’ + +And yet anon to Flaxius, as he gazed on the form, it was as if he were +looking through some wondrous arch into a Vanity fairy-land, and, +advancing, saw at every step newer and stranger arches, richly and +wildly adorned; through which, as in a marvellous vista, he beheld +Infernos, Paradises, Fiddler’s Greens, Edens, Tom Tiddler’s grounds, +convents. These he knew were lupanars, witch-burnings at which holy men +sang hymns to God, martyrdoms for smoke, or the toss of a farthing, +millions killed in battles for quarrels about things which had no +existence, men and women tortured to death for not believing in nothing +but a farce--ages following ages, all mad with lies against Nature. +And busy in it all was the spirit Aschmodai or Asmodeus, whose business +it is on earth to turn chance to mischief, to inspire all the manias +and follies and delusions which make men fools in every way, and awaken +in them vanity and error. And it was no wonder that, as he beheld him, +something like a vision or a song swept through the soul of Flaxius. +For this was He + + + ‘Who grappled once with mighty Solomon, + And cast him from his throne, and then in turn + Was fettered heavily and made to work + On the great temple of Jerusalem, + To which he gave its last magnificence + Beyond the monarch’s hope, yet jeered at all; + Yea, at his chains as at his victory; + And who, as he was borne in fetters thus, + When all men deemed him sunk in deep despair, + Burst out a-laughing. “Wherefore art thou glad?” + Inquired a sage. He answered, “Lo, I laughed, + Because I saw a conjurer in the street, + Who promised unto all his dupes to tell + Where buried treasure lay, yet never knew + That such a treasure lay beneath his feet, + Even as he spoke during his conjuring.” + He too it was of old who tempted Job: + Nay, there are Rabbis who maintain to-day + ’Twas he who as the Serpent tempted Eve, + Not out of evil but from mockery, + Deeming the Tree and all a mighty joke, + The farce primæval, out of which has grown + A thousand-farcèd series which men call + The History of Man--which were indeed + A mighty jest to devils, as the frogs + Were to the boys of old--and might be too + Unto the baratrachians, were not + The pebbles which are cast, so sharp and large, + Yes, in a thousand times ten thousand forms, + As mocking devil, or as god supreme, + Asmodeus is known unto the world.’ + + +‘Do not forget,’ said Asmodeus, ‘my last--albeit my weakest and most +stagey and shallow incarnation--the Mephistopheles of Goethe. Yet he +made me say one good thing, when I call myself, “_der Geist der stets +verneint_.” Do you know what _verneint_ means?--for if you do, you know +more than most folk.’ + +‘I opine,’ said Flaxius, ‘that it means “denies.”’ + +‘That, and something more,’ laughed Asmodeus. ‘_Verneinen_ meant, +of yore, also to enchant, conjure, bewitch, or humbug. _C’est mon +métier_, I cast a spell on every work of man, and make thereof in time +a mockery--all mockery is denial in the end--denial is the bringing all +to naught.’ + +‘Truly, from thy point of view thou hast seen rare jests in thy time, +Aschmodai,’ said Flaxius. ‘A history of the world, written by thee, +with comments, would be amusing reading--as would the review thereof in +the _Presbyterian_--and I could find it in my heart to wish a plague on +ye both, did I not know that there are some grains of truth between ye.’ + +‘Ay, I should catch it hot beyond a doubt,’ replied Asmodeus, ‘for the +less intellect a man has the more he believes in it, and is therefore +the more furious with those who mock the sublime wisdom in whose army +he is a corporal. But what thinkest thou, Flaxius, of Thought?’ + +‘I read not long ago,’ replied the Sage, ‘an essay by a +she-philosopher, who said that as we ever deeper go into the subtlest +mystery of things, the more impossible it still becomes _not_ to +perceive an action as of mind, working co-relative with natural law. +The good girl left out of sight the small fact that thought and natural +law may be one in Nirvana. It is a marvellous, apparent law that man is +not allowed to solve the problem as yet; could he do so he would settle +down into superstition or atheism--both unprogressive.’ + +‘Ay,’ quoth Asmodeus, ‘thought and natural law now carry one +another alternately. See the boys in Florence when they play at +_scaricabarile_. One boy, back to back with a rival, locks arms with +him, and so they lift each other up and down.[3] ’Tis a game much +resembling polemics, because in it both of the combatants--whether +lifting or lifted--appear by turns ridiculous.’ + +‘Ah, well,’ replied Flaxius, ‘it is a vigorous game, and developes +muscle, as does all struggling. Out of peaceful parthenogenesis and +idleness, starvation, and the struggle for life, evolve energy and male +strength, intellect, and will. But, Aschmodai, what thinkest thou more +of Thought.’ + +‘Though I was one of the very first thoughts ever thought, if not the +first itself, as many think,’ replied the Spirit, ‘the answer to that +question is still unto me a mystery. Yet as we see that in life the +crystal precedes the flower, or organic growth, monsters come before +man, Egyptian pyramids before Greek and Gothic grace, barbarism before +enlightenment, so do I deem that natural law preceded thought and +involuntary action will, which was first, creatingness or a creator. +With the first motion in matter came the first act, in the unorganic +the organic was born;--but how this was it knew not, nor do we know, +O my Flaxius, for truly there is an immense amount of things which it +would be better for man to look after before he afflicts his small +soul with the problem of the egg and the hen. But so long as man shall +make a fool of himself, either as atheist, theist, or agnostic waiting +to see how the fight will turn, so that he, the Mugwump of faith, may +join the conqueror--even so long shall I, Aschmodai, live in glory and +triumph. This trinity has been my very life, even as alchemy drew from +the spirit of the three its _elixir vitæ_. And mighty have been the +mockeries and many the jests which I have drawn from it, nor is the +merriment as yet quite o’er--albeit I know that I am perishing--and +passing with the Triad fast away. Oh, it was glorious to behold the +Jew--the original inventor of man’s vilest vanity, Chauvinism or +national pride, who first created religious oppression, and believed +with Rabbi Jochanan that, “as the best of serpents deserves to have +its head crushed, so the best of Gentiles ought to be killed”--’tis +sweet, I say, to live to hear him raise the martyr’s cry, even as +the Pope is now raising it--“the po-oo-r Pope”--as a prisoner in the +Vatican! Then were the discoverers of the art of Martyrdom avenged +by seeing the humblest among them made the gods of the oppressors; +and so Men all rolled on into time, burning and torturing millions, +especially old women, for the love of Him whose one great doctrine +was mercy, charity, love, and sweetness. Then there were revolts of +the oppressed, and peasants’ wars and gladiators’ revolts, and French +Revolutions--alternate black and white--and in it all hell throve, and +I laughed.’ + +‘But thou art dying.’ + +‘Well, my Flaxius, I have had a call. Thou rememberest the tale of the +Three Warnings, or how Death promised a man that he should be signalled +thrice ere called away. So he became lame and deaf and blind--these +were the three.’ + +‘And when was thy first warning?’ + +‘When Christ preached unconditional altruism unto +mankind--cosmopolitanism and equality. That lamed me.’ + +‘And the second?’ + +‘When a Hindu set up a religion on the word _Sikh_. It means, “seek!” +What goes beyond faith, unbelief, or uncertainty is to inquire and +search and seek for truth. So I was deafened by that awful cry.’ + +‘And the third?’ + +‘Aristotle, Friar Bacon, Francis Bacon, Darwin, Induction, Evolution. +That will soon finish me. But the first blow was the worst, and I knew +it. I bore up well, and made a gallant fight, but I am dying. _Vicisti, +Galilæe!_’ + +As he spoke, the full golden Syrian moon shone o’er their heads in an +unclouded sky, a gentle breeze was wantoning in the palms, yet from +afar there came a jackal’s cry, and then the booming of a lion’s roar. + +‘I shall pass away, my Flaxius, but I shall live again in some form; +evil or good, my spirit cannot die. For there is a _good_ in me--a +good of strength--and while matter casts a shadow, or contrasts and +paradoxes exist, I shall be. All in a softened form I well previse. As +the sun which set is followed by yonder moon, so shall I be softer, and +yet as eternal. When God shall assume a higher form, I shall inherit +the old throne and sceptre.’ + +‘Yes,’ replied Flaxius, ‘it well may be. Shelley and sundry other +inspired lunatics had that idea; ’twas known to the Greeks, not without +thy aid, O Aschmodai! For thou hast always thrown doubt and a fine +frenzy and confusion over all great truths.’ + +‘_Rectè dixisti_, thou speakest truly,’ answered Aschmodai. ‘Had all +been all at once, nothing had ever been.’ Son Flaxius, thou too art +a moon, and thou art my son; but thou wouldst fain enjoy the paradox +without the pain. As the old hard-griping peasant grows rich, unheeding +of what misery he makes, while his cultured heir grows gentle and +amiable, so wilt thou, and the world which has been enriched by the +past, grow milder. _Le diable est mort--vive le diable!_ + + * * * * * + +‘_Hæc fabula docet_,’ penned the sage, ‘that men, with all their +wisdom, do not train their wondrous power of putting numbers together +to make sums, or the faculty of deduction, by means of which stupendous +results of prophecy may be attained. This might be increased to a +degree which would seem to us miraculous. Edgar A. Poe had strange +intuitions of what might be in his theory that he who observes all +antecedents and possible combinations may surely foresee consequences. + +‘And, as his name reminds me, Poe mentions that at Palæchosi, in +Sparta, there is existent on a stone an inscription L.A.S.M., which +is probably a part of GELASMA or Laughter, indicating a shrine to the +merry god. Apropos of which M. Marcel Schwob remarks that laughter is +destined to die away with advancing culture. “It is,” he declares, +“a mere _tic_, a gross physical manifestation of the perception of +disharmony in the world, which will vanish before complete scepticism, +absolute science, general pity, or intolerance of suffering and respect +for all things.” This idea should assuredly please Anglo-Americans, +among whom, while a sense of humour increases, the laugh diminishes, +till we generally find in their greatest jesters men who never laugh at +all. + +‘But M. Schwob errs in his _Essai de Paradoxe sur le Rire_, when +he declares that this species of contraction of the zygomatic +muscles is peculiar to man, it having been an indication of his +feeble intelligence and the conviction of his own superiority. The +Newfoundland dog laughs at times, and that with an expression which is +completely human. I had heard of this several times before I witnessed +it, and also heard that the expression, though droll, was so uncanny +in a dog as to awaken something like awe, as I, indeed, experienced. +These dogs have a keen sense of humour, entering with intelligence into +the games and romps of boys. But the error of M. Schwob, as well as +that of Matthew Arnold, is to believe that seriousness or mere gravity +is essential to genius. The French writer is of opinion that laughter +expresses only sneers, sarcasms, vanity, and short-witted scepticism. +It means far more than this to greater minds. As the Schwobian view +is diabolical, so is there, on the other hand, a divine humour, a +sweet and sacred _gelasma_, which we only do not associate with sacred +things and grandeur, simply because we know nothing about their true +inner nature and are not at home there. There is a sweet laughter of +innocence, purity and youth, in which a smile always irradiates the +face, lighting it to higher beauty. Is not a smile divine? Is not +all beauty as the smile of God in nature? And there is also a bitter +smile--a sardonic laugh--the very life of Aschmodai, and the meaning +of this chapter is that this laugh is vanishing in the world, and with +it the brutal bray and idiotic ‘yawp’ and silly snigger of the vulgar +mind; but that the merry musical laugh of the gentle heart, and the +smile divine which thrills the heart of love like wine, will remain to +man, after asinine seriousness shall have vanished for ever. + +’Tis a delicate thing to draw the lines which divide the gold from the +dross, and show how the _harsh_ humour will be neglected in Shakespeare +and Rabelais, as theology is dropped from our admiration of Dante, but +all of them will live in so far as the angelic smile beams in them. + +Note that had this world been without variableness or the shadow of +turning, darkness and light, or night and day, rise and fall, it had +not been at all; and that, while there shall be change and contrast and +evolution, or nature itself, there will be humour, which is the soul +and life of laughter, and though it has been easily checked in this +priggish _fin de siècle_ (when dolts have well-nigh got the upper hand, +and dismal dulness shadows all the land) yet with the great coming +Renaissance of Nature, which is just beginning to show under the aid +of science, as the morning redness comes with the rising sun, men will +laugh merrily once more, not in bitterness, but in love. + + +[2] _Epistolæ delict, sive de Magia_, lib. i. cap. 24. + +[3] _Scaricabarili_, ‘unloading barrels.’ ‘Ludus est puerilis quil’a +duobus tantum peragitur. Alter enim alteri terga vertunt, brachiisque +mutuo implicatis, se alter alterum vicissim humo tollunt. Unde +significare volentes duos alterum in alterum alicujus peccati culpam +refundere dicimus: _E fanno a scaricabarili_. Inter hoc autem et +illud de quo supra: _Fare a scaricalasino_, ea est differentia quod +hoc significat alterum in alterum culpam suam rejicere; illud verò +simpliciter alicujus criminis culpam a se dimovere.’--_Angeli Monosinii +Floris Italicæ Linguæ Libri Novem_, A.D. 1604. + + + + +FLAXIUS IN FLORENCE + +OR, THE GOBLIN OF THE TOWER DELLA TRINITÀ, BY THE PORTA SAN NICCOLO. + +‘They do not speak as mortals speak, Nor sing as others sing: Their +words are gleams of starry light, Their songs the glow of sunset +bright: Or meteors on the wing.’ + + +THE following story belongs to this book ‘in good faith of all sorts,’ +be it salted, pickled or sugared; since it was originally the first +ever recorded of the great and good Flaxius. But as it was of Florence, +Florentiny, so, following the saying, ‘first come, first served,’ and +being engaged on _The Legends of Florence_[4]--in which book the lovers +of romance and the occult will find many a rare treat, showing how all +Florence is a charmingly haunted city--therefore did I first introduce +the sage in it to the world. + +And in the introduction I said that the legend is of great antiquity, +since there is a hint of it in an ancient Hebrew work by Rabbi ben +Mozel-toff, or the learned Rev Gedauler Chamar, besides being found +in poetic form in my own great work _The Music Lesson of Confucius_; +also in a marvellous cabalistic manuscript which I bought in sight of +Santa Maria Novella, which describes how the _Bathkol_, or Daughter of +the Voice, may be caused to be heard within our soul, and teach us all +kinds of magic. + +Money is the root of all evil, and Flaxius, who went to the root of +everything, of course wanted it. How he often got it is set forth as +follows: + + +FLAXIUS AND THE ROSE + +Midnight was ringing from the cloister of San Miniato in Florence on +the hill above, and Flaxius sat by the Arno down below, on the bank, by +the square grey tower of other days, known as the Niccolò, or _Torre +della Trinità_ because there are in it three arches.... + +It was midnight in mid-winter and a full moon poured forth all its +yellow light over Florence as if it would fain preserve it in oil--or +amber--and over the olive groves till they looked in the distance like +moss-agates in topaz. + +‘Or I,’ quoth Flaxius, to carry out the simile, ‘like a fly in hock!’ + +Yes, it was a clear, cold Tuscan night, and as the last peal of bells +went out into Eternity and faded in the Irrevocable, thousands of +spirits of the departed began to appear, thronging like fire-flies in +June, through the streets, visiting their ancient haunts and homes, +shops and shades, greeting, gossiping or arranging their affairs just +as the peasants do on Friday in the great place of the Signoria--as +they have done for centuries. + +Flaxius looked at the rolling river which went rushing by at his feet, +and said: + +‘_Arno mio!_ you are in a tremendous hurry to get to the sea, and +all the more because you have just had an _accessit_, a remittance, +of rain from the mountain-banks. _Buon pro vi faccia_, much good may +it do you! So every mortal fain would rise and run. So every shopman +hurries to become a great merchant when he gets some money, and every +farmer a signore, and every signore a great lord, and every great lord +a ruler at court and over all the land--_prorsum et sursum_. And when +they _get there_, or when you get to the sea, then ye are all swallowed +up in greater lives, interests and actions; and so the rivers run for +ever on--longer yet ever seeming less unto yourselves. And so--_ad +altiora tendunt omnes sic_--all to the Higher ever doth aspire, the +flower-edged torrent and the Florentine.’.... + +When he suddenly heard above his head a spirit-voice, clear, sweet and +strange, singing not in words, or on the ear, but by tones of unearthly +music, of which languages there are many among the unearthlies, each +unto its ‘chaos,’ all being wordless songs or airs suggesting speech +and yet conveying ideas more rapidly. It was the Goblin of the Tower to +him of the tower next beyond on the further hill, and he said: + +‘How many ghosts there are abroad to-night!’ + +‘Yes; it is a fine night for ghosting. Moonlight is mid-summer for +them, poor souls! But I say, brother, who is yonder _Frate_, the dark +monk-spectre, who always haunts your tower, lingering here and there +about it? What is the spell upon that _spirito_?’ + +‘He is one to be pitied,’ replied the goblin of the _Trinità_. ‘He was +a good fellow while he lived, but a little too fond of money. He was +afflicted with what the doctors called in Rome, when I was young, the +_amor sceleratus_, or _sal aeratus habendi_. So it came to pass that he +died, leaving a treasure, _mille aureos_, or a thousand gold crowns, +buried in my tower, unknown to any one, and for that he must walk the +earth until some one living wins the money. For money is as life to all +men, and he who destroys it is, in a way, a murderer.’ + +Flaxius pricked up his ears. He understood all that the goblins said, +but they had no idea that the man in a scholar’s robe who sat below +knew Goblinese. + +‘What must a mortal do to get the gold?’ inquired the second goblin. + +‘Truly he must do what is well-nigh impossible,’ replied the Elf of the +Tower, ‘for he must, without the aid of magic--note that--bring to me +here, in this month of January, a fresh, full-blown rose.’ + +The voices were silent; a cloud passed over the face of the moon; the +river rushed and roared on; Flaxius sat in a Vandyke-brown study, +thinking how he could obtain peace and repose for the ghostly monk, and +also get the _solatium_ or reward. + +‘Here is,’ he thought, ‘_aliquid laborare_, something to be worked +out. Now is the time, and here is the chance, _ingirlandisi di lauro_, +to win the laurel wreath. A rose in January! What a pity it is not +four hundred years later, when people will have green-houses, and +blue-nosed vagabonds will be selling red roses all the winter long in +the Tornabuoni! Faith! it is sometimes inconvenient to be behind, or in +advance of the age! + +‘_Eureka!_ I have it!’ he at last exclaimed, ‘have it by the neck and +tail! I will _spogliar la tesoria_, rob the treasury and spoil the +Egyptian. _Si non in errore versatus sum_, unless I am stupendously +mistaken, monk, thy weird will soon be dreed, thy penance prophesied +will soon be o’er!’ + +Saying this he went into the city. And there the next day, going to a +fair lady of his acquaintance who excelled all in Italy in ingenious +needlework, he had made of silk a rose; and so deftly was it done, that +had it been put on a bush you would have sworn that a nightingale would +have sung to it, or a bee sought to ravish it. + +Then going to a Venetian perfumer’s in the Via Vacchereccia close by +the Signoria, the wise Flaxius had his flower well scented with best +attar of roses from Constantinople, and when midnight struck he was at +the tower once more, where he called to the goblin. + +‘_Che vuoi!_ What dost thou seek?’ cried the elf. + +‘The treasure of the monk.’ + +‘_Bene!_ Give me a rose?’ + +‘_Ecco!_ There it is!’ replied Flaxius extending it. + +‘_Non facit_--it won’t do,’ answered the goblin in Latin, thinking +Flaxius to be a monk. ‘It is a sham rose of silk, artificially +coloured--_murice tincta est_.’ + +‘Smell it,’ replied Flaxius calmly. + +‘The _smell_ is all right and sweet, I admit,’ answered the guardian of +the gold. ‘The perfume is delicious’--here he sniffed at it seriously, +being like all of his kind enraptured with perfume--‘and that much of +it is, I grant, the real thing.’ + +‘Then tell me truly,’ replied Flaxius, ‘and swear by thy great +ancestress Diana, the mother of the Spirits of the Night, and her +sister-daughter Herodias, and her Nine Cats, by the Moon and her +eternal shadow Endamone, and the word which Bergoia whispered into +the ear of the Ox, and the Nails of Nortia, and the Lamia whom thou +lovest!--what is it makes a man? Is it his soul or his body?’ + +‘Man of mystery and master of the old Etruscan hidden lore!’ replied +the awe-struck goblin, ‘it is his soul.’ + +‘And is not the perfume of the rose its _soul_, that which breathes its +life, in which it speaks to fairies or to men? Is not the voice in song +or sweetened words the perfume of the spirit ever true? Is not----’ + +‘I give it up,’ replied the goblin. ‘The priest may turn in now for a +long, long nap. Here, take his gold, and may you have a merry time with +it; there is a great deal of good drinking in a thousand crowns, to +say nothing of the eating! Do you ever play at dice, old man, _ludere +latrunculis_? When you do, I promise you three sixes. By the way, I’ll +just keep this rose to remember you by. _Addio, a rivederla!_ Good-bye +and _au revoir_!’ + +So the bedesman slept among his ashes cold, and Flaxius, who was +a stout carl for the nonce, with a broad back and a great beard, +returned, bearing a mighty sack of ancient gold, which stood him in +good stead for many a day. And the goblin is still there in the tower. + + * * * * * + +‘_Hæc fabula docet_,’ wrote Flaxius, as he revised the proof with a red +pencil for which he had paid a penny at Ancora’s ancient stationery +shop in the Via Condotti, ‘this tale teaches that in this life there +is naught which hath not its ideal side or idol inner-soul, which may +raise us to high reflection or great profit if we will but seek it. + +‘The lower the man the less he sees, and the lower he looks, but it is +all to his loss. + +‘Now every chapter in this book, or in that of thy life, O my son, or +daughter! may seem to thee to be only a rose of silk, yet do not stop +at that, but try to find therein its perfume. + +‘For thou art thyself, I doubt not, such a rose, even if thy threads, +as in most of us, be somewhat worn or torn or faded; and yet thou +_hast_ a soul far better than many deem who see thee only from a +distance. And this my book is written for the perfume, not the silk of +my reader. And there is no person who is better in any way than what +the world deems him or her to be who will not find in it comfort.’ + +But, friend, how was it that it came to pass that I found out this +veritably and authentically ancient legend of the Tower of the Triple +Arches, which, when I wrote, rose opposite my window over the Arno? My +dear reader, it was written down for me by a witch, in very truth, who +had learned it of her strange kind and with it many more, which you +might have collected as well as I, if you could have kept such company +and wandered in such paths as I did. And know that the Sleepy Hollow +of the Hudson is not more haunted by marvellous spirits of a bygone +age, or more strangely shaded with legends of goblins and fair, quaint +mysteries of the golden time than is this city which is named from +Flowers, or it may be from Flora, _la belle Romaine_, the beautiful +sorceress who bewitched all with love. Villon asked what became of her: + + + ‘Where is there left on earth a trace + Of Flora once the Roman fair? + Or Archipiada and Thais, + That bright and ever queenly pair? + Echo will fling the question back + O’er silent lake and streamlet lone, + All earthly beauty fades away, + Where have the snows of winter gone?’ + + +Here the old Roman enchantress yet lives as much as she ever did in +fact in Rome,--for she was there only a world-old Indian myth of +pleasure and beauty,--in the city of the Lily. And here indeed there +is, according to legend, a goblin by every bridge, an elf in every +tower and old palazzo, a fairy of the ancient Roman kind in form, +changed to a later hue in colour, a witch _aura_ lingering in many a +darkling corridor and chamber, a something between sweet perfume and +the conjurer’s fumigations to raise spirits. I have learned that in my +barber’s shop opposite the great column of Cosimo, San Zenobio once +wrought a miracle, and in my café, a fair maid was bewitched into a cow. + + + ‘All over doth this modern life + An ancient life enfold.’ + + +These things you may read in full in many a story, as set forth in +_The_ (aforesaid) _Legends of Florence_, which grew out of the first +draft of the sketch of Flaxius. + +[4] _Legends of Florence_, 2 vols.: London, D. Nutt. + + + + +FLAXIUS AND THE EMPEROR JULIAN + +‘The Emperor Julian in his _Cæsars_ gives the preference to Marcus +Aurelius, who having been greatly honoured for his merits, replied +modestly “that it had always been his care to imitate the gods.”’--_The +Spectator_, No. 635. + + +‘I SHOULD really like,’ said Flaxius to his attendant pocket-imp, +Puttuli, ‘to see this grand young man, our Emperor Julian.’ + +[‘_Grand jeune homme_’ was a term applied in later days to Mr. James G. +Bennett, of the _New York Herald_ by the _Figaro_, but Flaxius was the +inventor of it.’] + +‘Nothing easier,’ replied the goblin. ‘You give the _atriensis_, or +janitor, a hundred _nummos_ or _sestertios_, or a ring, or any trifle, +and so you may be admitted to a private-public view. For a _sestertium_ +he will manage an opportunity to speak to Cæsar. But you can have +a good street view for nothing, and I think,’ added Puttuli as he +critically eyed his master, ‘if he saw you he might speak to you; he +isn’t at all particular as to his company.’ + +‘_Gratias tibi ago_, thank you for the compliment,’ replied the sage, +‘but as it concerns an emperor, we may as well do things genteelly. +Assume a respectable form, if you know how----’ + +(‘_Gratias tibi_, or _not_ tibi _ago_,’ murmured the imp.) + +‘----and hire a place _dans la première loge_. For a _sestertium_.’ + +‘Would your excellency like to carry a _bouquet_?’ inquired Puttuli +impudently. + +‘A good idea! Yes, order me one of rue, concordia and verbena.’ + +‘Well, of all the nosegays that ever were nosed, that is the queerest,’ +answered the servant. ‘But, _fiat voluntas tua_, my lord’s will be +done! A great deal of rue with plenty of concordia, and most of all +verbena. I will go to the pretty herb-seller in the Suburra. She has +the vegetables.’ + +‘I must choose a lucky day,’ said Flaxius. + +‘To-morrow,’ answered Puttuli, ‘is the three hundred and sixty-fifth +day of the year three hundred and sixty-five A.D.’ + +So it came to pass that, twenty-four hours after, Flaxius stood in the +grand hall of the imperial palace amid the row of suitors and courtiers +and other great or wise, or otherwise, folk who awaited audience of +Julian. He looked at the emperor with approbation. + +‘I knew the first Julian,’ he reflected; ‘the man who bought the +empire at auction and resigned in sixty-six days. He was indeed a +_caducus_,--a word which will live in later days as _cad_--an imperial +snob. This is a horse of another colour.’ + +Meanwhile the emperor who had the keenest eye in Rome for observing +all sorts and conditions of men, and who, after sitting an hour in +the amphitheatre, could describe the appearance of everybody present +who was anybody, had not failed to note the tall and stately form of +the philosopher, and his grandly flowing beard. Now Julian, having a +very fine beard of his own, was deeply interested in this subject, as +appears from his great work _Misopogon_, meaning ‘Enemy of the Beard,’ +that is to say of wisdom, to say nothing of his ‘Letters.’ And as +Flaxius had a very beard of beards flowing and curling in indescribable +magnificence, and as he wore the purely white, long-flowing robe which +indicated the professional philosopher, a being dearer to the emperor +than the prettiest woman living, he gazed at Flaxius with what became +absolute approval or admiration. + +‘By Esculapius and Jupiter!’ he exclaimed, ‘that is a good-looking man. +Something in my line, I think! Who is he?’ + +‘Cæsar!’ replied Puttuli, who had assumed the form and voice of +Bumbulbulus, the court factotum, ‘that is the great Flaxius, a sage +who has travelled all over the world, and who is reported to know +everything from the works of Moloch the Pismirist, up to those of God.’ + +‘That is a large order,’ replied the emperor reflectively, ‘_magnum +postulatum est_. But bring him here that I may measure him.’ + +‘That will take more time, O Cæsar, than it would for him to measure +you!’ thought Puttuli, as he departed. ‘He needs a long line who would +sound such a sea as the Master. Come now! I think we are as good as +established at court.’ + +Now the emperor had for many years been devoted to magic and _occulta_, +and observing the herb-bouquet which Flaxius bore, grasped its hidden +meaning with great pleasure. + +‘_Salve_, Cæsar!’ said the sage. + +‘_Salve, adepte!_’ replied the monarch. ‘So thou hast mastered the lore +of the Etruscan, as I read by the _Concordia_, “_Janus adorandus cum +quo Concordia mitis_,” as Ovid saith; of Egypt, as the rue proclaims; +“_cingebat rutæ quæ coma multicomæ_’; and of Persia, I see by the +verbena, _Verbenasque adole pinguis et mascula thura_. Hem! Virgil!’ + +‘I have heard, even in the remotest region of the earth,’ replied +Flaxius, ‘that what Cæsar could not do in the way of apt quotation was +not worth doing.’ + +‘_Um!_ I flatter myself that I know a thing or two,’ replied the +emperor--the very phrase occurs in his _Epistolæ_--‘but like Apicius +with the British oysters, I am always ready for a few more. And I read +it in thee, O Flaxius,’ he added, suddenly changing his whole mien +and manner, and looking through his tangled locks with that strange, +unearthly glare which so impressed his contemporary familiars, as if he +had become another man, ‘that thou canst teach me much which I do _not_ +know, therefore I ask thee to sup with me to-night.’ + +The emperor said this, turning away so abruptly, that all present +who did not know his ways inwardly thanked God, according to their +heathen or Christian faith, that they did not stand in the shoes of +that philosopher with the flowing beard. But those who knew him better +looked gravely, and said, ‘Cæsar hath found a new friend!’ + +But Flaxius himself was deeply amazed when Julian, leading him to a +table, by which stood a single Greek servant--there was no other soul +present--showed him with some pride that the meal consisted only of a +grilled fish and _garum_, with bread and olives, new cheese and fruit. + +‘There is your supper, Flaxius!’ he exclaimed, ‘and much good may it +do you!’ + +‘By the lance and laurel bough or olive of the god Honour, whose temple +is by the Campidoglio!’ cried the sage, ‘what am _I_, O Cæsar! that +thou shouldst treat me with such esteem!’ + +‘_Non rectis oculis aspice_, never do you mind _that_,’ replied Julian. +‘Truly if I were going to entertain a Bythnian prince or a sow-bellied +contractor for the army, whom I hoped some day to crucify, I would +have given him a hundred courses of ortolans stuffed with oysters, and +galantine with truffles and pistachios, and all that sort of thing. But +to a philosopher whom I wish to treat as a brother, I give just what I +am accustomed to eat myself. One cannot be a slave at the same time to +his brain and his belly--_non potes Tethidem simul et Galateam amare_, +as Lucian says.’ + +‘Now, I see,’ reflected Flaxius, ‘that when a man is a gentleman +at heart, he can turn even his vanity to a kindness. A marvellous +character is this Cæsar, and one who will do much to be misunderstood +in history.’ + +So they held wondrous discourse of great and glorious things in +philosophy, over which the emperor quoted nearly all the Orphic +sayings, with the Poemander of Hermes, and finally came to what he had +been aiming at from the first, by bluntly asking: + +‘Knowest thou aught of magic?’ + +‘O Cæsar! do not think I seek to quibble or raise a sophistical cloud +between us,’ replied Flaxius, ‘if I ask thee what is the meaning of +magic.’ + +‘It is,’ replied the emperor--who had been there before--‘the violation +of the laws of nature.’ + +‘And what is nature?’ asked the Sage. + +‘H’m!--the eternal order of things--the action of laws, or _potentia +quatenus in potentia_.’ + +‘Rather vague, yet good so far as it goes. But, Cæsar, if there be +but one substance, though you call it matter in one form and spirit +in another, and one eternal law manifesting itself in infinite forms, +there can be no violation of them. Miracle or magic is only _something +which man cannot explain_, something which puzzles and astonishes him. +_Si placet_--give me an example for a miracle!’ + +‘I am devilish thirsty,’ replied Julian. ‘That _garum_ or fish-sauce +is pungent enough to make a Nazarene drink a gallon of strong Sicilian +wine. Now, if you could pour me any kind of wine which I may call for +out of one and the same bottle---- + +‘It may be done, O Cæsar! but remember that to do this one must invoke +the invisible spirits or forces of nature, whom we call the gods, to +aid in such mysteries.’ + +After a long pause of reflection, the emperor slowly replied, +‘Granted.’ He did not see that Puttuli, reduced to his natural stature +of three inches, and who sat unseen behind him, advanced his thumb +to his nose, and waved his fingers, making thereby an ancient and +mysterious Egyptian sign used by the priests of Memphis when they +initiated some great sage to their rites. + +Then Flaxius winked to Puttuli, who presently reappeared in the form of +Bumbulbulus. + +‘Go to my rooms,’ said the sage, ‘and bring hither the ancient goblet +of Bacchus!’ + +The goblin obeyed, and returned with a very large bottle of black _cuir +bouilli_ or moulded leather. It was of graceful shape, apparently of +great antiquity, covered with exquisite silver relief, representing the +deeds of Bacchus. Handling it with great reverence, Flaxius pronounced +over it in a voice which was half-singing, such as one may hear to this +day among witches in Italy when they chant the following: + + + INCANTATION TO BACCHUS + + ‘Golden master of the earth! + King of joy and lord of mirth! + By thy mother the divine, + Of the ancient Cadmean line! + Semele of Earth the pride; + Who of Jove’s great splendour died! + By the Seasons, who in truth, + Nursed thee from thy early youth! + Or fair Ino, who they say, + Brought thee from Arabia! + By the lion’s form you wore + When gods and Titans fought of yore! + And by the holy miracle + Of which the morning poets tell; + When from Naxos thou didst sail + With a gentle, favouring gale, + And pirates sought to conquer thee + But fell into captivity: + By the hour when thou did’st go + To the darkling realms below, + And brought thy mother, “ever bright,” + To the upper world of light, + And all that Nonnus ever sung + Of thee with mystic, golden tongue! + I conjure thee--the all-divine-- + To give me what I ask, of wine!’ + + +Saying this he took a small gold cup and said: + +‘Now, Cæsar, ask for what wine thou wilt.’ + +‘Let it be Cæcuban,’ replied the emperor. + +Then Flaxius poured forth wine from the bottle into the cup, and +extended it to Julian. + +‘Cæcuban it is, sure enough,’ replied the emperor when he had drunk to +the last drop, which he poured _super naculum_ upon his thumb-nail. + +‘Wilt thou have another draught?’ inquired Flaxius. ‘If so--of what?’ + +‘Falernian,’ answered the emperor. + +‘_Sit_,’ replied Flaxius. ‘Here you are. But, O Cæsar, I have not hung +an ivy garland as yet round the cup, as the conjuration requires.’ + +‘_Vino vendibili suspensâ hederâ nihil opus._ Good wine needs no bush,’ +answered Julian. ‘The miracle is wrought, and I wish that all were as +agreeable. And now, Flaxius, since thou sayest that all miracles can +be explained by natural causes, I pray thee to naturalise me this, for +verily _ut turris super omnes_, it is a huckleberry above my persimmon, +and I would like to know how it is done.’ + +‘Easily enough, O Cæsar. The bottle is made from a certain flexible +substance, and it contains many chambers or cells, in each of which +there is a different kind of wine. When I press on any one of these it +pours forth its content.’ + +‘Then the incantation was all gammon?’ remarked Julian. + +‘Not so, O Cæsar. It made the miracle.’ + +‘_Hum-um-um-ump!_’ replied the monarch. ‘And yet, Flaxius, it still +seems to me that there are and must be miracles surpassing all human +skill and knowledge, which the utmost wisdom cannot compass or explain, +and _never_ will.’ + +‘Can your Greatness give me an example?’ replied Flaxius. + +‘It is written in thine own ancient Etruscan chronicles,’ replied +Julian, ‘that in the early time the mysterious nymph, Begoe or Bergoia, +before the world, and in the Capitol, slew an ox by whispering in his +ear a single word. Now, I believe, that had I tried, I might have +worked out an explanation of thy Holy Bottle; but in the miracle of +Bergoia I have reflected many a time and oft, without solving it, +and therefore do I conclude that it _was_ a violation of the laws of +Nature.’ + +‘O Cæsar!’ replied Flaxius, ‘great is the man who can infallibly decide +where human reason leaves off and Divinity begins, for, _nusquam est, +qui ubique est_, that which is everywhere is nowhere, and this is true +of miracle. But what if I perform for thee--openly before all thy +court--and all Rome if thou wilt, that same miracle?’ + +‘By Hercules!’ cried Julian, amazed and delighted beyond measure, his +wild and mysterious eyes gleaming so as to make a very respectable +miracle of their own if he had but known it, ‘thou art a man of gold, +set with gems--the first real sage I ever found in the stuffing of +this duck of a world. And you really will in good faith--_honestus +Indicus_--slay the ox with a whisper!’ + +‘Thou shalt see it, O Cæsar,’ replied Flaxius. ‘But it seems to me +that the miracle would be improved on, if instead of an ox we were to +substitute a man. For it might be said by the sceptical that we had +poisoned the ox beforehand.’ + +‘By Medea!’ exclaimed the emperor admiringly, ‘I never thought of that!’ + +‘While if we take a man who declares himself to be in good health, +there can be no suspicion. Now, Cæsar, thou hast, I doubt not, in thy +prisons more than one unlucky wretch condemned to the torture and the +crucifix, to whom a quick and painless death would be as a divine +blessing and great joy?’ + +‘_Depone!_ bet your head on it!’ cried Julian. ‘I sent one this morning +to the Mamertine--hell would be too good for him--and I meant to give +him a foretaste of it by means of preparation.’ + +‘He will do,’ replied Flaxius. + +So on the following day, when the emperor and his court and all Rome +assembled in the great amphitheatre, there was led in a ferocious, +giant-like and bitterly wicked-looking Gaul, who, expecting to be +tortured to death to make a Roman holiday, was on his best behaviour as +regards defiance and dying game. + +‘Man, whence comest thou,’ asked Flaxius. + +‘From Lutetia,’ was the proud reply. + +‘_Ame de boue_,’ thought the sage in a language of the future, and then +asked: + +‘And what is thy religion?’ + +‘I worship the devil; it was the last fashion ere I left home.’ + +‘You expect torture!’ + +‘I do not fear it. It will pain me, but when dead, I shall be amply +revenged on ye all, if hate and hell can do it.’ + +‘If I could give thee out of pity a sudden painless death, wouldst thou +declare that thou in all thy health and strength forgivest all men?’ + +The Gaul glared at him stolidly and grimly and then uttered in a +strange tongue which none understood. + +‘_Mais, nom d’une pipe, pourquoi pas? J’aurais bien de quoi m’amuser +sans me soucier de ces b-là!_’ And then in rude Latin he said: + +‘I consent. Hurry along with your washing, and get the pigs in!’ And he +made the declaration. + +Then Flaxius, who bore in his hand a long wand, as all the Magi were +wont to do, touched him with it, while whispering a word in his ear. +And the man fell dead at full length, while a thrill of awe and a +murmur rose from all Rome, at sight of this mighty deed. And the great +and wise and even the good, or such few of the latter as were present, +_rari nantes_, thronged about him, and adored him. + +‘And now, Flaxius,’ said the emperor, as they sat in solemn concert +over the Holy Bottle, which his highness was never tired of admiring, +‘if thou canst explain to me on natural grounds how thou didst slay +that Gaul, then “by Gaule!” as Julius Cæsar said to Vercingetorix, I +will believe, or disbelieve, anything!’ + +‘Yea, Cæsar, I will do it,’ replied the sage. ‘Now if thou wilt +remember Begoe or Bergoia, her who slew the Ox with a single word, left +to Rome a book on the _Ars Fulguritorum_ or the averting, that is to +say, managing thunder and lightning, and this book, which is in the +ancient Etruscan tongue, and hard to understand, for those who know the +language, is even yet in the temple of the Palatine Apollo, where I +read it. And it explains that the lightning is caused by an invisible +but terrible secret force, which like heat pervades all things while +seen by none, and this is the awful power of the Divinity to smite the +earth, and it was by means of it that Bergoia slew the Ox. And know +that there was in my wand a charge of condensed thunder and lightning, +quite strong enough to knock a bull sky-high.’ + +‘But the word?’ asked Julian who had not quite recovered from his +ideas of miracle. + +‘Truly, Cæsar, the word was _Electricity_, which is as yet unknown, but +which in ages to come will be the great heritage and power of mankind. +For as when thou art done with a garment thou givest it to a servant, +so the gods when they have somewhat worn out their attributes and +glories, hand them over to men.’ + +‘_Semper similem ducit Deus ad similem_, and so the gods lead ever like +to like. Ah, it _is_ wonderful. And now, Flaxius, the light begins to +shine in on me, and I see that there is indeed a higher and far more +wonderful magic and miracle than the poor, thin Thaumaturgy which I +sought for once. For true magic is the mastering the awful power and +secrets of nature. Now I see that because thou mightest explain to me +by natural means how Christ fed the multitude, or raised the dead or +healed the sick, it would be none the less wonderful, for genius, even +the genius to amaze and nothing more, is miraculous.’ + +‘That will be better understood, O Cæsar, in times to come when science +shall have risen to glory, by means of such stupendous genius that no +man can help revering it.’ + +‘Ah!’ said Julian with a deep sigh, ‘happy the age and happy mankind +when there shall be but one faith, whatever it be! Thou wilt never +know what I have suffered between the old faith in the Gods and +Christianity. As Terence says, I think, somewhere in the _Andria_: + + + ‘“How happy could I be with either, + Were t’ other dear charmer away!”’ + + +‘Yes, Cæsar, yours is a hard case, and all the harder because you wish +heart and soul to do what is right.’ + +‘Orcus and hell, heathen and Christian, take me if I don’t!’ replied +the emperor in a passion and looking as wild as a panther on the +spring: he who had seen him then and there would have believed him to +be some young god enraged. ‘What the devil _can_ they expect a man +to do who has seen what _I_ have seen, and gone through what I have +endured? Well, I began in good faith enough as a Christian, and in +truth I was cut out for one as few young Roman gentlemen are. I was +never sensual, cruel, nor over-selfish.’ + +‘Right you are, O Cæsar,’ thought Flaxius, ‘and a very good Christian +gentleman you’d have made, if your guardians had let well alone.’ + +‘So I, with a deep love of ancient heathen beauty and art and poetry, +was put into a cloister, where the meanest, monkish, shaveling spite +made a sin and a shame of all that I loved. It was not belief in their +own faith, but the bitterest hate of what they called heathenism, which +chiefly inspired every one of them. That was their real religion--all +the rest was mere form--the adaptation to their ritual of what I knew +were old Oriental ceremonies. Then I began to think out, O Flaxius, +what has ever since been the idea of my life: Why cannot man keep the +old faith in Beauty, and all that was charming in the old religion, and +unite with it the humanity and higher truth of Christianity.’ + +‘There will perhaps be a time, in the dim and remote future,’ quoth +Flaxius, prophetically quoting Gladstone, ‘when that idea will occur to +others.’ + +‘So I dreamed that I, as an Eclectic--having read something of Ammonius +Saccas the Egyptian--would be the apostle of the new combined religion. +Well! time passed, and after I had become Cæsar, it occurred to me +to examine all the faiths into which Christianity had split, and a +nice job it was! Pheugh! everything from Trinitarians, Arians, and +Unitarians down to Cainites, who worship the flesh and sin and the +devil, all hating the common enemy but hating one another worse, like +the Jews who slew one another in the siege of Jerusalem while all +fought Titus. + +‘O sage,’ he resumed, ‘when I think how beautiful and noble, how +holy and perfect were the conceptions of Christ, and how it was His +ideal that every man should commune directly with God, and when I see +how each one of these sects steps in and proposes with saints and +forms to do for you what you should do for yourself, I cannot wonder +at the scarcity of Christians. Yet there is a stupendous truth in +Christianity, the truth of human rights, which even they cannot crush. +_Magna est veritas et prævalebit._’ + +‘And the old religion?’ asked Flaxius. + +‘Well! it admitted the Beautiful and let a man philosophise freely, +and did not make devils out of all the sweet and fair conceptions of +poetry, of fauns and nymphs and Oreads and all; and so, as I believe +that nature must prevail in the end with man, I went back to it. Yet +the old religion is not humane. It admits slavery and inhumanity, it +allows the grosser passions of cruelty and lust full play, evil nature +as well as good, and it needs reform. I would fain be that reformer.’ + +‘Now here is a great man,’ thought Flaxius, ‘who is either two hundred +years behind his time, or a thousand or more in advance of it. He means +well, but is out of the age.’ Then speaking aloud he said: + +‘Cæsar, there was once a king of Bithynia or Cappadocia or some such +country, who had a mind to marry. Now the king next door had two +daughters; both were beautiful, but one was as Venus and the other as +Minerva. One was beautiful and voluptuous, witty and charming, while +the other was wise and just, humane and ever careful that no one should +be oppressed. Now which of these should he have married?’ + +‘Had I been in his place, I would have married both,’ replied the +emperor. + +‘But that was impossible.’ + +‘H’m! Well, in that case I should have taken the wise one.’ + +‘That,’ said Flaxius, ‘is what he did, and it is what the world will +do: it will adopt the religion which, despite all the corruption with +which man surrounds it, promises the greatest good to the greatest +number.’ + +‘I believe that thou art in the right, O sage!’ replied the emperor +slowly. ‘However, _jacta est alea_, the die is cast, and I shall ever +remain Julian the Apostate. But what will be the end of it all?’ + +‘Thou wilt die nobly as a king should die--in battle for thy country.’ + +‘Then,’ said Julian, ‘I am content.’ + + + + +FLAXIUS IN HADES + +SHOWING HOW FLAXIUS WENT DOWN INTO HELL, AND OF THE MARVELLOUS THINGS +WHICH HE SAW AND LEARNED WHILE THERE + +‘To the Esthete who regards all Nature and Eternity as a mere paint-box +for art, hell is a necessity, as is illustrated by Ruskin when he howls +that “in the utmost solitudes of Nature the existence of hell seems to +me as legibly declared by a thousand spiritual utterances as that of +heaven.”’ + + +‘THEY manage these things,’ said Flaxius, ‘I verily believe, better in +hell.’ + +‘You have been in hell, I suppose,’ said the goblin-snob, with the most +civilly impertinent air in the world, to the sage. + +‘Strange!’ reflected Flaxius, ‘that a place which may be readily +reached in a minute, if we may believe the common exhortation of +the vulgar, or even in an instant by the aid of electricity as +they manage it in America--with I forget how many volts, but “in +a demi-volt”--should be unknown to me. I must consult the Fairy. +Decidedly, my education has been neglected. I have not yet made the +grand tour.’ + +Flaxius was living then near a town in the Austrian Tyrol, in a lonely, +grey, and ancient ivied tower and small house, hidden away in the +mountains; and there, with his usual disregard for appearances, he had +installed a small gypsy family whom he had found camped in the woods, +three chairs, a table, and a stupendous service of gold plate: this +last not for luxury but because it was the first which, as a buried +treasure near by, came to hand. The Goblin of the Tower had revealed +to him its existence, and he used it because it saved him the trouble +of going to town for crockery. His servants had instructions, whenever +sent to buy anything, to steal one half the money, and then half of +what they bought, under penalty of severe punishment, which had the +natural result that whenever they could do so without detection, they +never stole anything. Once, indeed, when his boy Lajos impudently +brought him a manifestly superabundant supply of fruit for a half +florin, or more than he expected, did Flaxius proceed, I cannot say +to spoil the child, for the young devil was beyond all spoiling, but +to break a rod on him. Whereupon he fell on his knees in tears, but +was pardoned on promising never to be honest any more. Even Flaxius, +great as he was, could not have his own way in everything, for things +got to such a pitch at last, that these gypsies would tell the truth +before his very face openly with the utmost impunity, and even without +blushing. + +It was midnight, and Flaxius the Immortal sat alone in his baronial +hall. True, it was only about twenty feet in length and fifteen +in breadth, but it was a hall. The walls were rich, or, at least, +ragged, with Roman-picturesque and very-much-battered stone carvings, +representing a lettuce-like confusion of crockets and finials, in which +were nestled angels as ugly as devils, and devils not much prettier +than the angels, like crayfish, or _écrevisses_, in foliage, the whole +resembling an early Christian or Pre-Raphaelite salad which would have +enchanted a Gothiconolator. + +There was in the hall a large black Cat and an Owl, both of whom +had come in uninvited from the Without, and joined the family, on +speculation, from a desire for human sympathy and love, also for mice +and any little edible odds and ends which might be obtainable. There +was, too, a florid chimney-piece, so large that the hall seemed to be +only a portion of it, or adjunct, just as the body and tail of the +pricklefish seem to be only a part of his vast ogival jaw. In it blazed +a fire, and by, or in that fire, sat the house goblin. His name was +_Slangbrand_, and he was engaged in swallowing live coals, and then +blowing out a storm of sparks from his nose, or _de retro_--as ye may +see exemplified in Callot’s picture of Saint Anthony--anon swallowing +the poker like a juggler, and then rising and falling on the smoke, +up and down the chimney, like a ball in a fountain, to the great +admiration of the Cat and the Owl, who constituted his audience. + +Then Flaxius himself took a coal from the fire, placed it on a small +silver dish on the table, and sprinkled on it a powder which burned, +emitting an intensely aromatic and most agreeable but strange perfume, +the magian meanwhile murmuring an incantation. A beautiful, soft light +diffused itself all over the room; ’twas like a delicate, rosy Aurora +with a memory of moonlight, and not without stars, for in it shone +two celestial eyes, and then anon the Fairy stood revealed to her +worshipper. + +‘Joyful greeting to thee, Flaxius!’ said the _Fata_. + +‘Deepest reverence to thee, O loveliest in form as in spirit, of all +thy kind!’ replied the magian in a tone of deep sincerity. + +‘And how goes the world with thee?’ inquired his queen. + +‘With the world ever something new, as of old. As for me, and it was +for this that I summoned thee, I would fain go----’ + +‘Go whither?’ inquired the fairy. + +‘Go to hell!’ replied Flaxius. + +‘Wherefore this unprovoked hostility?’ asked the spirit. + +‘It was not spoken in the vocative,’ replied Flaxius. ‘I did but +indicate the route which I fain would take, not commend it to thee, +though by the twelve gods!’ he added passionately, ‘happy indeed would +he be who on such a journey could meet with such an Eurydice!’ + +‘Flaxius,’ replied the fair one, ‘thou hadst ever so much modesty as to +declare thyself unfit for heaven, and too much pride to allow that thou +wert fit for the lower regions. Therefore didst thou elect to remain +on earth to study and master its problems as thoroughly as it was in +thee to do so, maintaining that of the few magians who like thyself had +mastered immortality, too few prepared themselves, as they should do by +studying the rudiments.’ + +‘Ay,’ replied Flaxius with his worldly smile. ‘They are mostly like +boys who would fain run straight from their school to their dinner, not +tarrying just for a little wholesome exercise to give a better appetite +and health. But the truth which forces itself on me more and more is +that hell and earth are so nearly allied that it becomes more and more +difficult every day to investigate the one without knowing the other, +even as a knowledge of chemistry becomes essential to an astronomer.’ + +‘You are quite right,’ replied the fairy. ‘_Sit tibi voluntas_, you +shall have your wish. Fortunately it is extremely easy to get there, +especially to obtain a place as permanent boarder, but even as a casual +visitor I can assure you special honour. All the great geniuses of yore +made a three days’ visit to the realm; it was a ceremony _de rigueur_, +a kind of court presentation which no well-bred immortal could omit. +I do not consider,’ she added reflectively, ‘that hell is exactly the +place to which I would recommend parents to send their boys for an +education, but for men of intelligence there are a great many valuable +ideas to be picked up there. And when would you depart?’ + +‘Now, if you please.’ + +‘Said and done then,’ answered the spirit. ‘_Dicto citius_, as Virgil +used to say to you--_in un batter d’occhio--in un balen--in un amen_! + + + ‘In a wink and in a flash, + In a snap, and at a dash, + While a priest “amen” could say! + From this earth now pass away + To the mystic world below, + Which all men dread yet none do know!’ + + +As she uttered this incantation, Flaxius sank back in his great +arm-chair to a deep sleep. The fairy looked at him with a loving +glance, evidently with earnest and sympathetic thought, kissed his +forehead, and softly sighed: + +‘Ah well, Eternity is long!’ + +And turning to the goblin she said: + +‘Slang, take heed that no mortal enters this house for three days +and nights, and see that the master here be not disturbed! And do +ye,’ she added to the Owl and Cat, ‘take care also that no noise be +made hereabouts, and if ye do your work well, ye shall become witch +and wizard in human form. Farewell!’ Saying this she winged her way +heavenward: + + + ‘To the joyous realms afar, + Where the angel dwellers are.’ + + +Now of the four members of that happy family, it would have been +difficult to say who was the most delighted. Flaxius surely, because he +had been sent to hell; the Owl and Cat certainly because they hoped to +rise to the most degraded state of humanity; or Slang assuredly, simply +because he had been spoken to by a queen and charged with a commission. +And the three latter solemnly swore among themselves that if a mouse or +bird so much as ventured to cheep or chirp about the house, they would +rend it limb from limb, and have it served up for supper. According +to the Penal Code of the Goblins. V. CXXXIIIV, _libro alto, capitulo +nullo, folio nigro_. + + * * * * * + +As all the richest and most artistic or artful adornment of cathedrals +or palaces, diamonded with panes of quaint device, ‘innumerable of +stains and splendid dyes,’ and twilight saints and dim emblazonings, +with half unearthly, holy, elfin shade, is all as trash and +gingerbread, compared to the greenwood with its ineffable beauties of +summer, and golden glory of autumn, so is all earthly music ever played +mere scrannel-piping contrasted with that in which the soul of Flaxius +seemed swept away, as he sank to sleep under the spell of the fairy. +For he always loved music in every form, however made or by what mind +composed; and that which now seemed to be life itself and waft him on, +was what he would have had idealised for him, or that which he would +have wanted had he known how to want it. This fulfilment of ideals +in every form was the introduction to and the great moral lesson of +Inferno. For therein lies such temptation as is mercifully spared to +man on earth. + +‘By the glory of the gods!’ said Flaxius, rousing himself to strength, +‘if the devil can bring art like this to bear on common mortals, who +the devil can be saved? Truly it was high time for me to get out of the +ruts of earth for a season, when there are such tremendous paradoxes as +_this_ to solve outside it. And I thought that the problem and puzzle, +and contrast, and anomaly were confined to life--_me stupide_! Verily, +I say unto myself, Flaxius, that I foresee I shall find the very humour +of humour in the mystery of hell, as this music intimates.’ + +And the music dying away, yet not quite vanishing, for Flaxius while +he was in Inferno always heard it--just as in a garden we scent +perfume of some kind, rising or falling--he found himself on the +summit of a marvellously pleasant hill amid rocks and trees, grass and +wild-flowers, with a mossy bench under an arbour, such a place as of +all others he loved. He sat down on the bench and saw that there was +before him a tremendous, yawning mountain gulf or valley, miles deep, +but what lay beyond he knew not, since it was all covered with a veil +of rolling, purple cloud of richest hue, in which he saw eyes of light +wander like stars.... + +Then he perceived standing by his side, a very beautiful woman, young +and lithe, holding a flask. + +‘Have I not known thee of yore, O sister?’ asked Flaxius in Etruscan. +‘Art thou not of the _Lases_, who receive the spirits of the departed?’ + +‘I am of the Lases, and I am Alpan, or Alban, the Fairy of the Dawn, +and their chief,’ said the maiden gently, ‘and I am sent by the lord of +this land, whom men know as Pluto, to welcome thee. But first--behold!’ + +And as the music, sweet beyond dreams, again rose gently--as in a +play or orchestra--the Lasa waved her hand and, the purple cloud +vanishing, revealed to Flaxius such a vision of stupendous and +beautiful palaces--all forming one--as he had never in all the +splendour of the antique world seen the like of. He recalled Babylon, +Memphis, Persepolis, Athens, Alexandria, Rome, the temples of Greece +and of Egypt in all their massive mystery, the marvels of the Buddhist +structures of Cambodia and India, the awful grotesques of America, the +stately Lombard-Norman cathedrals of the West--the Gothic glory of +Europe--and all seemed to be poor and wretched, yea, squalid, beside +the grandeur, magnitude, and elaborate perfection of what was now +before him. + +‘This must be,’--he said, but he could speak no more, so overwhelmed +was he at the sight. + +‘Yes,’ added Albana, reading his thought. ‘It is--Pandemonium--the +first structure ever erected.’ + +‘Ay,’ replied Flaxius recovering, of course to make a reflection, +‘and I see that architecture has step by step sunk, as man has risen. +Another paradox! And this,’ he suddenly exclaimed, ‘is hell!’ + +‘Yes, Flaxius,’ replied the fairy with a sad smile, ‘and be thankful +that thou comest here as an immortal who will depart as soon as thou +shalt have learned the mystery, for verily with thy love and knowledge +of the beautiful in art it had also gone hard with thee.’ + +‘Another paradox!’ thought Flaxius. ‘So, _tout lasse, tout passe, tout +casse. En avant!_’ + +‘And now,’ said Albana, ‘for new sights! But wait! Drink from this +flask! All who enter this realm must do so!’ + +‘I know it of old,’ said Flaxius. ‘It was the draught of the mysteries +given me by the Fairy when I was made immortal. I drink to thee,’ he +said, ‘O terrible ruler of this wondrous world! Yes, to thy realm and +to thy mystic spouse! and with them to the angel of my dreams! and also +thee, my fair, angelic guide!’ + +As he said this, there came from the depth below an ebony car or boat, +exquisitely inlaid with gold in richest profusion, which rose slowly, +quivering with the music, to their feet. Then there was a far, soft +sound as of melodious chimes of a thousand bells. + +‘Enter with me,’ said Albana. And having entered, they floated slowly +over the gulf: they saw the city palace in new forms, while far beyond +a landscape of marvellous beauty also developed itself, and in it +too were other palaces, towns, towers, burgs, and villes or villas, +castles, and immense ranges of crenellated, arched walls with glorious +gates, and over the walls grew or hung masses of trees or clustering +vines, bright with a mystic beauty of their own. + +They landed at the edge of an immense marble precipice, which was +however richly carved far adown with quaint devices, the more beautiful +for moss and grey lichen. There appeared to be nothing freshly new, yet +nothing ruined in the whole land; all spoke of an old time for ever +young. + +‘You see no escort,’ said Albana. ‘You are too great a visitor to be +received with a cortège, or a procession, as we welcome the small great +men of earth. It is long indeed since any one was received with such +honour as this. You are deemed to be above ceremony.’ + +‘Charming!’ thought Flaxius, ‘the greatest mark of attention which +I ever received in my life is the most devoid of all semblance of +politeness. Another paradox, but this I understand.’ + +‘I think, beautiful Albana,’ he remarked, ‘that your company alone is +here considered the highest compliment which can be paid to a guest.’ + +‘His majesty the king has said so,’ replied Albana simply. Meanwhile +they had been passing along streets and scenes of surpassing +magnificence or beauty, and after traversing a garden of the gods came +to an immense open portal which they entered. And so on and ever on +through stupendous colonnaded corridors, and cloistered squares with +innumerable groups of statuary and fountains like vast rivers trained +to play, great as the Nile when freshets fill its flood, leaping on +high a mile, then roaring down through arches strange and high, falling +over thundering waterfalls, broad and deep as Niagara, by towers like +that of glorious Babylon which met the clouds; and above and beyond and +higher yet again, like stairs of mountains beyond mountains growing +dim, were walls of citadels like snowy marble, with a coral blush in +the sunset, and domes like diamond, and pearly spires, glinting with +gold in every form of grace. + +When at last passing along a turquoise-walled and opal-paved arcade, +to which unbroken divans of lapis lazuli, inlaid with silver, seemed +more beautiful for inexhaustible masses of all shades and kinds of blue +flowers hanging from vines, growing in vases of sapphire, so that the +very air seemed to be of a dreamy azure hue, they came to a door and +passed into a hall. + +Wherein sat, not on a throne, but in a throne-like, ebony, high chair, +at a table, a man of god-like mien and marvellous dignity. + +So far beyond anything human in his awful beauty was he, that Flaxius +was more deeply impressed by him than by all the wonders which he had +thus far beheld. And truly, as Flaxius reflected, when a man has passed +some scores of centuries in forming ideals of the beautiful and finds +his ideal outdone, ’tis time to look about for _new powers_! + +The Olympian Jove with a shade of Lucifer, the Spirit of the serene +heaven mingled with the darker yet still beautiful earth below, the two +united as by a spirit in the eternal yet ever intermingling ocean of +the eye. Such he appeared, and Flaxius recalled Goethe: + + + ‘The soul of man + Is like the water. + From heaven it cometh + To heaven it riseth, + And thence at once + It must back to earth + For ever changing.’ + + +Moreover there was in the wonderfully grand face something +sympathetically human, and humanly chevaleresque, even touching in +genial moods on the ‘devilish handsome fellow.’ ‘I have heard,’ thought +Flaxius, ‘of a town in Western America, wherein appeared a married +lady of such irresistible beauty that all the male inhabitants of +the place, even unto the deacons, gave up the commandments, or more +especially one of them, as a bad job. A few like his majesty, turned +loose on London society, would convert Mayfair into a divorce court.’ + +For he had at times a smile, a laugh which went like an electric +flash of champagne to the heart of your heart, which is the reason +why the inhabitants of a certain American State, with the exquisite +poetry peculiar to their refined natures, call apple brandy ‘Jersey +lightning,’ it being so potent that a taste thereof goes flashing and +coruscating through the soul, suggesting Etna in full play on the great +fourth of July Day of Judgment, when the _sæculum_, or _fin de siècle_, +or the age, is to be dissolved in sparks, since having gone up like a +rocket it is to come down--like the stick! This glance had Pluto, and +Flaxius found it useful, because by means of it his majesty rendered +clear, or, as one may say, coloured, like an artist, the outlines of +his spoken arguments. + +‘You are truly welcome, Flaxius!’ said the Lord of the Underworld, ‘as +are all immortal mortals who have raised themselves as types of ideas +to such a power that they can pass my realm as tourists between heaven +and earth without becoming mine. Ah! that is a very vulgar error on +earth that I pass my time in trying to catch souls! Did men but know +how I pass all my life in painful effort to get rid of them! Well, I +have seen here in days of yore, each for his three days, Adonis--ah, +_he_ stayed six months, by request of my wife! Orpheus--music--poor +fellow!... Socrates, Buddha, Dante--you know the list--and so on down +to Emanuel Swedenborg. And every one of them saw hell after his own +fashion--and then raised it after his peculiar style to earth, and no +one interfered with the seeing thereof.... + +‘But, my Flaxius,’ resumed Pluto, with a genial smile, ‘is there any +reason why we should not drink, although we are in hell?’ + +‘_Raison de plus_, most men would surely think,’ replied Flaxius. + +And at the word there were before them two goblets creaming and +streaming over; and Flaxius noticed that the infernal care of details +was exquisitely carried out in this, that the _drops_ which are +generally a great drawback to the over-brimming beaker, did not fall on +his clothes and wet or stain them, but, becoming diamonds or pearls, +rebounded dry. + +And the draught was transcendental--so cool, so piquant, so enlivening! +Pluto smiled. + +‘Confess, Flaxius,’ he said, ‘that hell is not, as you find it, exactly +what man imagines it to be?’ + +‘True,’ said Flaxius emptying his goblet, which refilled itself; ‘and +yet I imagine that I am as far as ever from knowing what it is!’ + +‘And that distance,’ replied the monarch, drawing his own glass, ‘I +will diminish for thee, O thou Sage of Sublime Common Sense, for thou +shalt have a nearer perception of the truth and what Inferno is than +any of thy predecessors.’ + +Now, Flaxius, comfortably seated in a high-backed chair, with the +towering, Jacqueline can, or goblet, foaming before him, listened, +_arrectis auribus_, graving every word which he heard on the tablet of +his soul, even as Alba seated on a Greek tabouret at a little distance +was doing on a leaf of ivory with her stylus. [And here notes Flaxius +in the margin: ‘It is a curious fact that Alban is depicted in Etruscan +vases as holding a stylus or pen, and that the witches of Tuscany, who +still know her as Bellaria, declare that she is the spirit of the Pen, +and is the one to be invoked by all who would write, _i.e._ compose +well. _Aurora Musis amica._] + +‘Know, my Flaxius,’ began his majesty, ‘that earth and all its trials, +troubles, and torments, diseases, and miseries, ceases even for the +worst and wickedest when they come here. We begin with them all _de +novo_, on an entirely new system--the old body is gone and we are done +with it. Physical torment ceases with the old life, for even the most +earthly. Only ideas and earthly ideals remain, and to these is given +full scope and free play. All begin here with unlimited freedom and +indulgence.’ + +‘If I may interrupt your majesty,’ said Flaxius, ‘I would remark +that many people would suppose that you are, by inadvertent error, +describing heaven.’ + +‘Yes,’ replied Pluto, ‘that is indeed the heaven of every fool. But +it is the surest way to come to grief in the long run. The ultimate +extreme of hell or of punishment is for every man to be left utterly +to himself, to have his own way, to follow his own fancies, to rule as +he lists, and do uncontrolled just what he likes. Few and far between +have those mortals ever been who, gifted with power, would not damn +themselves on earth if left without guidance or control. + +‘Now this is _hell_, and if thou wouldst know what the word really +means, I reply, “a place where every one can do just what he pleases, +and have all that he wants.” Every one entering here is supplied +with such a world as he desires, with corresponding scenes and +companions--he himself unconsciously drawing them all from memory and +imagination. But note--for it is an important point--that they believe +it all to be real, and in a certain sense it is so, for they have given +to them the power, which science will some day give to man on earth, of +perfect synthesis by volition--that is of drawing out the elements by +_will_ from the _prima materia_ or _materialising_ unseen elements, or +conceptions.’ + +‘I understand,’ said Flaxius. ‘Gods in a small way. Demiurguses. Make +things!’ + +‘They think so,’ laughed Pluto. ‘All here believe for a long time--as +they believed like fools on earth--that all which they saw on earth or +see here is real. What is real is unchangeable and eternal. Who lives +in Evolution, as all do on earth or in matter, lives in the Transient. +It is when they realise by mere satiety the unreality of things that +their punishment comes--that of despair. Then after a season they begin +to exert themselves to seek higher ideals or something new, which +being attained, there comes again satiety, and then renewed effort, +every new stage becoming easier, until at last man rises to the gods +or God. The best experience disappointment and rebuffs; but they go +on. The wise who on earth have shaped better ideals, the altruists and +benevolent philosophers or Christians, and people who have not meddled +with others, or lived entirely in the eyes and opinions of others, or +revelled in notoriety, or been selfish and tyrannical in the small +or great relations of life, these do not remain long in our world of +shams. The honest poet or artist or man of letters is let off very +easily, as indeed are all who have been kinder to mankind than mankind +has been unto them. + +‘The world is ever advancing,’ continued Pluto, ‘and to satisfy the +soul with what is for the time around it on earth, or to think of +carrying it on for ever into the future, as _all_ creeds do’ added his +majesty significantly, ‘is _to stop_. (Flaxius, my son, be thou not +like to them, but keep that holy emblem the Cup going.’) They both +drained, and the Lord of Hades resumed: + +‘The selfish nature thus gratified and satisfied with temporary forms +does not lift its mind to, or progress with--Evolution.’ + +‘Ha!’ quoth Flaxius, ‘light is coming fast; I do begin to feel I +have indeed immortal longings in me! This then is the faith so long +foretold--which is neither Buddhist nor Christian, nor Material.’ + +‘Ay, Flaxius, it is the very truth, as it seems to me every one might +surmise from the very infinity of creative forms in nature, from the +ideals which they declare and the inexhaustibility of matter and force. +All goes on, slowly it seems, but there is eternity to work in, and its +great law is progress. + +‘Now Evolution is the creation of new laws from old, of new types +from others exhausted, of new ideals, as new patterns are created _ad +infinitum_ by a revolving kaleidoscope, a continual out-blossoming and +ripening of flowers which were once small, wild blossoms and are now +hundred-leaved _grandifloræ_. And these again will be raised to newer +and more magnificent forms. And you need not ask what is to become of +Man in all this, for, rely upon it, where all is progressing, all is +well. He who is magnanimous, and who can grasp in its fulness all this +scheme, will not be afraid to cast himself headlong into the foaming +flood and trust to its bearing him safely on. Fortune favours the bold, +and he who _is_ afraid, whimpering “What is to become of poor little +_Me_?” will be carried away in time all the same. But that man never +loved the beautiful or nature who feared death. + +‘Now we may consider all mankind on earth as a single man in +hell--living in Evolution, yet ignorant of it, opposing it with his +self-formed, conservative ideas--an old woman sweeping out the sea with +a broom--and you have the key to the whole.’ + +‘It appears to me,’ observed Flaxius, who had listened to these remarks +with evident approbation--if the taking a drink ever and anon and +sighing with content could be interpreted as ‘Hear! Hear!’ or ‘fervent +applause’--‘that there is a marvellous spirit of romance and poetry +and wild adventure in Evolution as you set it forth, and exquisite +inspiration to a higher devotion, and a purer and far more vigorous +religion than man has ever before dreamed of. For this faith in nature +with her ever-unfolding ideals, and that of self, in “_What_ I know +not, but in the best, _that_ I know!” is so bold and knightly that +before it all that was ever presented to man seems poor and weak and +dim. The Church and conventional cant, or modern life, have well-nigh +crushed out in man every trace of daring or chivalry, and this religion +has in it that which will revive such qualities on a far higher scale +than was found in the Middle Ages.’ + +‘Saving this, Flaxius,’ added his majesty, ‘that Evolution asks man +to understand pure science as a basis and accept its deductions as to +evolving ideals, and not rely entirely on tradition which is well-nigh +folk-lore. And when the simple truth of anything has once been studied +or accepted, the poetry and romance soon follow. _Crede experto +Roberto!_’ + +‘Ay, by the Father of the Fathers of Faith!’ exclaimed Flaxius, ‘your +majesty has had some experience. May I venture to inquire,’ he added, +‘what part this ever “freshly fresh and newly new,” as the Hindus sing +it, this ever-beautiful and good young lady whom I see here has in your +tremendous _pension_, or boarding-school for eternity?’ + +‘Eternity!’ said Pluto, with a smile. ‘Nay, you have not yet heard the +last word. But as for Albana----’ Here he gave a glance of ineffably +respectful, fond kindness at the subject of their discourse. ‘You have +seen in life in many lands noble women who, as Sisters of Charity +or slummers--go anywhere to do good. Albana ranges through hell, +earth, and heaven. The pure soul is everywhere at home, and love hath +no bounds. We are not so cruel in our punishment as to leave souls +entirely to themselves in the task of rehabilitation. She and her +sisters--love and love alone--suggest to the despairing new ideals of +life.’ + +‘Ay,’ cried Flaxius, ‘hell is the gate to heaven, that I see. A lesson +which I should have learned on earth. Yet man has been there longer +than I without learning it. It must be so--“Pluto, thou reasonest +well,”’ he added. (And to himself, ‘I suppose the reviewers will light +on _that_ as a typographical error.’) + +‘And now,’ said his majesty, ‘the lecture is over for to-day. Go with +Albana as a Beatrice through my realm and visit the condemned in their +homes.’ + +‘And the _last word_ to which you alluded?’ inquired Flaxius. + +‘It is,’ said Pluto, with a smile, ‘that all which you have seen, or +shall see here in Hades, as I have indeed plainly said already, is, to +speak Sanscritically, only Maya, or Illusion. All smoke, but it rises +from a real fire. _Ite!--missa est!_’ + + * * * * * + +‘And what did you think of the Lower World?’ inquired the Fairy of +Flaxius. + +‘That it is misnamed, O Soul of the Violets!’ replied the Etruscan, +‘since it appeared to me as being one degree higher than this. For in +it the average Philistine and guinea-pig and sinful gossip are gently +led or induced to find out that they are fools or evil-doers, and that +he who gives himself most earnestly to life goes deepest into death. +Now man is destined to slowly learn this lesson through the ages, and +as he progresses in it, Science will, step by step, overcome death. +So that as we become idealists, so shall we also advance into earthly +immortality. That, your Fairyness, is what I conclude from what I +beheld. In fact I am so smitten with admiration at the beautiful +humanity of hell as I saw it, that I can only declare that if there is +really no such place there _ought_ to be one!’ + +‘It will do just as well if you write and publish an account of it,’ +replied the fairy. ‘The main thing is to teach mankind the great +lesson that most men left to mere commonplace and earthly ideals must +inevitably damn themselves.’ + +‘Beyond this, O Loveliness,’ resumed Flaxius, ‘I was induced to +reflect, that to avoid hell, satiety, and despair, it is necessary to +have an iron _will_, and one formed on the strictest moral lines. And +he who can make a perfect will unto himself, so as to make his whole +soul or intellect obey his spirit or conscience or God-within, has won +all that he needs in time or eternity. This, O Life of Endless Light! +is the great lesson of Orcus.’ + +‘It would have been well worth going there to learn that,’ said the +fairy, ‘had it even been all fire and suffering. But haste and write it +down, for many there be who need the lesson, which is the highest of +all in true wisdom. + + +‘He to whom the devil grants +All he wishes, all he wants, +However gaily time be passed +Will catch the devil at the last.’ + + + + +FLAXIUS AND ADELINDÈ + +A LEGEND OF THE EARLY LOMBARD DAYS, BEING ONE OF THE VISIONS WHICH +FLAXIUS HAD WHILE IN HELL + + ‘Said Chider the immortal, the ever young: + “I passed by a city, a man stood near + Plucking fruit that in a fair garden hung. + I asked, “How long has the city been here?” + He said, as the clustering fruit he caught, + “There was always a city in this spot, + And so there will be till time is not.” + Five hundred years passed by as before: + I was standing upon that spot once more.”’ + + +WHILE the learned Flaxius repeated these lines with strange feeling, +as if recalling to him missing memories, he looked intently at every +object round as if he would wring from it some buried mystery or +long-hidden secret. It was twilight-tide in the last golden-brown of +a Carpoccio sky. Broad and wide in the rapidly dimming distance were +undulating hills covered with vineyards and olives, like a waving sea +topped with green foam; here and there were hamlets of white houses, +and above them stately towered castles, like shepherds watching flocks +of sheep at eve; long lines of stone walls, flowing with maiden-hair or +helmeted with cactus--all softly fair and far away! + +It was a beautiful picture; but what interested the man of many years, +and by-gone lives, was what lay close about him--the grey and mossy +relics of an ancient ville--it may have been a quaint, small town of +well-marked fortalices, or a brave and beautiful little city in Lombard +times--now all abandoned in its solitude. Here and there a run of ivied +wall and a square tower still held themselves up respectably, as if +opposing a stout heart to bad fortune;--a fine thing to see in any +ruin, be it of man or marble. There were hillocks--ruined arches--and +now it was all a home for ghosts and owls, or else some shadowy +night-hag wandering slow. + +And as Flaxius considered the masses of ferns and weeds, and saucy +acanthus, and golden blossoms of many kinds, and arrogant asphodels, +which seemed to crowd themselves into the ruins and say: ‘Poor things, +_we_ will protect you and make everything look respectable,’ the sage +reflected: + +‘’Tis all, as in every city--where _la génération qui vient se moque de +la noblesse qui va_--golden blossoms or guinea-pigs--flaunting weeds, +rotting while they cover that which is older and nobler!--_avanti!_ +Dandelions--_pisciacane_ in Italian--with your flowers like golden +florins, and your dandy-lions of sons, begone!’ + +As if in answer to him he heard a bell from some church cloister far +away strike twelve, softly and slowly, as if the chimes had been +transfused through the honey-golden summer air which lingered into +night. And with the last note all the weeds and flowers vanished; +the ruins revived, shooting up again into ancient glory; towers +rose from the dust--façades en-niching many a form of forgotten +saints--transfigured and idealised, and over all zig-zagging and +working wildly into life-like, pictured dreams, innumerable arabesques +of old Lombard vines and monsters, warriors fighting dragons whose +tails ended in branching dragon-wort and dogs who were half dog-wood, +chasing wolves who were three-quarters wolfsbane--puns in stone, for +those who can read them. + +Stern and unmoved sat the man of many ages, looking at the wondrous +transformation scene, as if at the opera. Like one who has had for +years a season ticket, he keenly looked to see if it were well done, +for he was a member of the Eternal Press which reports history, the +great _Times_ of all time. + +And verily he who has mastered the course of the circling ages in +chronicles, and feels their soul, and has learned their lesson, may sit +like Mephistopheles before the Sphinx and put such mocking questions as +he will, with all the might of all that man may dare. + +Then, one by one, and two by two, lights began to appear in the +windows, and a great beacon fire, at first all violet, and anon waving +into blended emerald and scarlet flame blazed out on the summit of the +donjon-tower. And soon all the scene was translucent and fluent with +a wondrous glow as if an Aurora had been suddenly born, or the Goddess +of the Four Winds, amid blazing laurel and roses while the fairies sang +a pæan of welcome (as a Romagna legend tells the tale). For with the +out-bursting light, there rose a strange, sweet chorus of unearthly +voices in the long-forgotten, Lombard-Gothic tongue; and Flaxius hummed +softly to the air: + + +‘Five hundred years have passed by as before: +I am listening to the song once more.’ + + +Then shadowy forms were seen among the shades, as if born from them, +and blending in them, and as the light grew, they too became beings of +light and colour and beauty, lords and ladies of the olden time with +their pages and maidens dressed in the Latin-Lombard style; in which +as in its sculptures, a rude, Northern strength submitted to, and was +blended with, Romano-Greek grace and ornament, even as Hercules was +subdued by Omphalé. + +‘Five hundred years,’ hummed Flaxius, ‘that garb once more!’ + +In step with the music, and as if moving with the waves of coloured +light, gracefully and stately as swans in a dream, there came by a +walking group of gentlemen and ladies, who, seeing Flaxius, paused +while one from the latter said to him in old Italian: + +‘Mortal, since thou art here sleeping at midnight and in full +moon-tide, thou hast won the power to behold us, and share our +festivity. Join us and enter the castle.’ + +Gravely and almost sadly answered the man of the ages in the old +Lombard-Gothic tongue: + +‘I am as little mortal as ye are immortal, ye shadows of ghosts of days +long passed away! But what ye offer me in courtesy, I do with thankful +courtesy accept. My lord Agobard of the Amal race, I was by your side +when you routed the Romans at Ravenna, and when you retreated, beaten +yet glorious before the Huns in the Mark of Tuscany. Know that your +name is still to be read in old chronicles. My Lady Chlodoviga, now +Luisa, I am glad to see that your fire-sapphire eyes still flash as +fiercely from under your golden hair as they did when we last met.’ + +‘Knowest thou _me_?’ exclaimed a giant-like and ancient warrior, with a +vast grey beard, yet who had all the fire of youth, and by whom stood +a younger noble who was like the elder in all save age. ‘Am I still +remembered on earth?’ + +‘Well do I know thee, Master Hildebrand, and not I alone but all men +living, where’er resounds the German tongue and German hymns to God are +sung, for all men who can read it have read the Song of the Father and +the Son, of thee and of my Lord Hahdubrand now by thy side, unto whom I +offer greeting. While the Book of Heroes shall live ye will live in it.’ + +‘And _thou_, great master, who hast the serpent tongue of Gunlaug?’ + +‘Ask me not, but I am of the sorcerer race of the God Frey, and was ere +thou wert born.’ + +So in music and light they all gravely passed into the castle, through +brilliant, buzzing groups, harpers and horn-players and _citharœdi_ +making music--threading the mazes of a torch-dance, till my Lord +Hildebrand led Flaxius before a lady seated beneath a canopy on a +double chair like a throne. The canopy was of light-brown silk from +Sicily and on it were heavily embroidered dragons and leafy branches in +black and gold, with many red and gold disks. The throne was of dark +nut wood and ivory. + +She who sat on the throne was a queen of beauty, of a beauty long +passed away with the chivalry and romance of the early Gothic time. +For every age, as Flaxius said, has its own beauty, which busts or +portraits never portray to those who come after, though they may have +been perfect likenesses, any more than the dried flower retains its +early perfume. For there was in the woman’s face a nameless, stern, +firm will, an unfamiliarity with little things and small sentiments, +the steady glow of a soul which knew only great aims and was used to +great efforts, and such were all who were leaders in those days, and in +each other they all read their like, which is a noble thing for noble +minds. Yet there was in her eyes a glow and glory of beauty and of +passion which betrayed unearthly blood and immortal longing, and as she +looked with a smile of welcome at Flaxius, there flashed into his mind +a feeling of joy which she little suspected, that he was not one who +could be bewitched or silenced or bullied by any magic: + +‘Five hundred years have passed by as before, I gaze upon those eyes +once more.’ + +‘I present to your princely highness,’ said Lord Hildebrand, ‘a +stranger of great wisdom, whom we found within the domain. Who he may +be, Lady Adelindè, I cannot divine, but I warrant him well worthy a +warm welcome.’ + +‘It is given with a good will,’ replied Adelindè in a deep, sweet +voice, which was as marvellous and strange as her eyes, and which +seemed like their light changed to sound. ‘And be not alarmed or +astonished, sir stranger, to find yourself in what is doubtless to you +a marvellous scene of enchantment.’ + +‘I am not,’ answered Flaxius simply, as he gazed at her. ‘There is +nothing here so wonderful as thou art.’ + +Now be she fairy or sorceress or ghost-devil of a peeress or diabolical +princess, a woman is always a woman, and the Lady Adelindè, who was +something of all of these at once, divined that Flaxius was no common +mortal such as she had been accustomed to catch and cajole now and +then, to turn out of doors that he might find himself Rip van Winkled +or Barbarossa’d or Seven Sleepered and seven years older in the +morning, lying with a rheumatism on a cold stone. The lightly-rosy snow +of her fair cheeks flushed to richer red at the steady glance of the +stern, grey-blue eyes of her grim guest, in whom she at once felt a +power perhaps beyond her own--_chi sa?_--and it was with a tone into +which she infused her very best sorcery--the kind formerly conserved +for kings--that she invited Flaxius to rest himself beside her on the +throne. + +‘You will join our banquet?’ she asked with another professional smile. + +‘I have had nothing to eat all day,’ replied Flaxius, in true old +Lombardo-Roman tone. (Note that there was a great deal in this manner +and tone, and the princess caught it.) ‘For we all require food,’ added +Flaxius. ‘Mortals or spirits, all eat and drink.’ + +‘_We!_’ reflected Adelindè. ‘The “mortals _and_ spirits” was an +after-thought! I wonder who or what he is!’ + +‘Even mortals,’ continued Flaxius, ‘require scent and taste in their +food, else it would not nourish them. Mere spiritual beings live simply +on taste and scent, while the still more refined, or divine, exist on +perfume alone. You, fairest Adelindè, have, I doubt not, very often +dined on a daisy, had the scent of a pink for an _entrée_, and a sniff +of a rose for dessert, but that much you absolutely required. There +were even mortal queens of yore who were thus refined. Chrimhilde was +one. The chronicle does not mention it, but it is true that when our +old friend Hildebrand, with hero Hagen, ravished her rose-garden, they +destroyed her larder.’ + +‘No, he is not a common mortal,’ flashed Adelindè through her mind, for +she always thought in sheet-lightning ere she spoke. (And I pray you +note that this metaphor is truthful enough, for a later Latin writer +tells us that the voices of all unearthly beings are like thunder, +there being even in their softest, dulcet tones--_si symphonia canere +vel ad tibiam versus fundere_--even when they sing their sweetest +in symphonies or pour forth their souls unto the witching flute, a +softly murmuring undertone, or strange, dark suspicion of the grandeur +of the Voice of God as it speaks in the stars.) And the spiritual +sheet-lightning of Adelindè’s thought was materialised in her glances. + +Meanwhile the banquet, or revel, grew wild and bold. Flaxius ate +like a mortal, or like three--(‘Decidedly he is only human,’ thought +Adelindè)--and drank like four, five, or six. But there was no change +in the grey-blue eyes, or in his voice. + +‘No, he is in-human,’ reflected the lady. ‘Mortal man could never drink +like _that_!’ + +Yet she had seen stout drinkers in her time, in the old +Roman-Longobardi days. Yes, they drank like bricks, for, as ye know, +a dry brick will absorb its own equivalent of fluid. Which the Latins +rendered, _Ranas superat bibendo_, and the old Italians ‘like a German’ +or a cardinal--cardinal virtues being, alack, more like carnal vices in +those days. + +Wilder pealed the music, louder laughed and roared the company. From +a revel which would have maddened a mortal, it became a Sabbath of +sorcerers and witches, a Pandemonium of passions, an Inferno broken +loose. Even the figures in the marvellous mosaics on the vaulted +ceiling above--saints and kings and queens and warriors brave, such +as we still see at Ravenna--became animated and danced or embraced, +trailing after them gorgeous and jewelled robes, so that as there had +been over much decay and silence and death before in the ruin, even so +there now seemed to be as much excess of life and tumult.... A reverend +bishop reeled and tumbled down ... while saints too fondly fondled +saintesses--a rosy wine-light seemed to tinge the air, as if the very +hall itself were drunk, and all were swimming in a ruby sea. _Quasi +vinis Græcis Neptunus suffudit mare!_ + +The princess, wild as a mænad, wanton as a faun, had cast herself on +the heart of her guest, while she seemed joyous as a mad panther,--the +maddest of all things when gay,[5]--but she still realised to her +unbounded awe, that she in all _deliria_ of delight had never for an +instant cast a charm or fascination over her mystic guest. + +But what was to her astounding, well-nigh petrifying, a thing new +to her since a thousand years, the princess felt a mighty thrilling +influence in her heart, a new-born spirit speaking in her soul, that +she herself was at last being won, instead of being the winner! But why +this should have so fearfully struck and startled her, not without a +joyous after-glow of hope, will appear anon. + +‘Great and marvellous man,’ she at length exclaimed, recovering her +breath--then bursting into her true self and life,--’twas like a pale +moon exploding into a noonday sun--‘tell me who or what art thou, now +speaking our long-forgotten Lombard tongue, knowing all my court and +me, inaccessible to my power, and oh, that I should ever dare to think +and dream it! perhaps mastering me!’ + +‘Dost thou desire it?’ asked Flaxius calmly. + +‘Does the lost soul desire to be freed from hell?’ cried the princess, +in a long, wailing tone of a spirit in despair. ‘Does the prisoner +on the rack wish the torture to cease? Man of mystery!’ she suddenly +cried, ‘dost thou know my life and my doom?’ + +‘Well do I know it,’ replied Flaxius, ‘and now look me well in the +eyes, thou daughter of the old Lombard line of kings, and yet a +spirit’s child, for thy fated hour has come at last. Yet ere I tell +thee more, answer me, great soul, what has this life which thou didst +take of thy own free choice--when thou hadst liberty to choose among +all--what has this life become, which was, as thou didst once declare, +the only heaven thou couldst understand?’ + +‘It has become a hell,’ replied Adelindè, with an immortal shudder; +‘a hell of weary, worn-out, oft-repeated imagery of splendour, a +tiresomeness of idle power, with the real torment of the conscience +that I was--a fool!’ + +‘He or she is a long way advanced towards freedom or wisdom,’ quoth +Flaxius, ‘who has found out that he--or she--is a fool. Well, lady, +thus it was that centuries ago there lived on earth a beautiful +princess of the Lombard line, who had a sorceress mother, and a fairy +Amal-Alruna ancestress, and who, having been trained to all the +mysteries and magic of the North, as well as of Rome, and of many +races, attained to such power as had rarely been given to woman. Yet +through it all she retained beauty and the love of power and pleasure, +of magnificence, and the keen, fierce delight of preying on the hearts +and lives of men, and of living, even as thou livest here now, Adelindè! + +‘And having gained great power, and on one occasion by mighty worship +and great services to _Tinia_--the great ruling spirit of the Tuscan +land--obtained full and free choice as to her future life for ever, she +said: “What that life for saints may be I know not, but this I know, +that the life which I now lead is all that heart can desire, and I +would fain live it so long as a single fibre of my soul remains as it +is.” + +‘Near and dear to her in those days was one who had lived in the +ages, and been her teacher, and more, and had tried to win her from +her worldly wont, and all in vain. So they went their ways, she to +splendour and pageantry in life and after life, and he to study and +observe in existences beyond her ken. And in her gaiety and luxury the +ages rolled on, and as they rolled, there wore away the happiness of +her elfin life, and torment set in, the torment ordained to every one +on earth who succeeds in having to satiety and excess his own will.’ + +‘Man, thou speakest true,’ wailed the princess, as the voices of +revelry sank lower, and the figures fading began to pass away, and the +lights grew dim. The music became softer in its modulations, and the +mind of Flaxius ran insensibly into unspoken song, in accompaniment +with the line: + +‘Five hundred years have passed by as before.’ + +‘One by one,’ he resumed, ‘the enchanted princess lost her passions and +longings. She had delirious desires, keen appetites, an immortal and +beautiful thirst, an exquisite appreciation of all that is beautiful, +dainty caprices, delicate and true. Wit, humour, whim, wild-will, and +Attic salt were as life to her; she revelled in music and song and +letters--as thou dost in this life, or as thou didst when in the body.’ + +The poor princess grew tearful; the marble pallor of her fading cheek +might have made sorrow in the hardest heart. + +‘Yes, it all wore into triteness and commonplace, even the being hungry +and eating, desiring and realising the same things over and over +again, for _she_ had a soul, and every soul is damned, as soon as it +is clogged and stops working, like a bee that has wished itself into +eternal honey.’ + +Adelindè cried on. + +‘But one thing survived--it generally _is_ about the last thing to die +out of any woman’s heart--and that was the desire to fascinate men, to +win them, to impose on them, and to have her own way. She felt it in +her head and heart like a curse; she knew it was the poison of her +soul; everything else grew stale, but that kept fresh. + +‘And it had been decreed that if she could ever meet a man who could +resist and conquer her, the spell would end; but, alas, she had wished +for and won such a stupendous stock of enchanting charms that she was +perfectly _irresistible_ and simply distracting, which is a thing that +stands between many a woman and her salvation, in all ages. For it has +kept more souls in the dark, and made more ugly fools, who might have +become spiritually beautiful, than any cause on earth. So from such +mothers many men are fools: an Agrippina has always a Nero for a son.’ + +Crushed to naught, fair Adelindè wept, till, lifting her eyes to those +of the guest, a sudden, tremendous convulsion, one of transcendent +rapture, mingled with strangest amazement, thrilled over her. She bent +on him a glance which might have split a stone. + +The music played on ever more softly, more sweetly to their words in +perfect time. + +‘Now I know thee, Flaxius,’ she cried. ‘_Vicisti_, thou hast conquered! +The last link of the chain which bound me for centuries to earth is +broken. And even in the hour in which we meet, beloved master, and in +the instant of our love, because it is our love, and I am conquered, +I leave thee for the better life beyond! But, ah! to have remained +with thee, I would have gladly endured this ghostly existence, which +had become a torment. All this is ended. Now these walls will know +me no more; the peasant benighted will no longer see strange lights +flickering over the ancient ruin; the enchantment has departed, and +the spell of golden glory and glamour will no longer shine at midnight +in these halls. The wanderer may now safely sleep here; he will behold +no longer the elfin array, or my Lombard lords and ladies of the olden +times, nor be enchanted by their queen. Sound for the last time my +fairy music--your sweet strains will never more be heard in the court +of Adelindè! Farewell, O master, we shall meet again soon, and full +often in a better life--such as thou hast chosen--a life not clogged by +earthly desires or petty worldly aims.’ + +As she said this, the princess cast herself in a last passionate +embrace on the breast of Flaxius, and as she did so, he felt that her +life and form were passing away to a purer, more idealised existence. +The figure faded, the features, the face, last of all the ineffable +splendour of the Sorceress’s eyes, in which there was the radiance of a +divine, parting smile: she spoke no more, the music died away. + +‘O love, in thy glory go!’ said Flaxius. ‘Never yet passed into life +eternal a sweeter soul, never yet was a fairer goblet of the ancient +time remelted into a nobler form. O love, in thy glory go! Lovelier +form did never fade, brighter rose was never broken. ’Tis but a brief +minute since thou wert in thy inferno of despair, and now by one +instant’s flash of love and humility, thy beautiful soul is passing +through the golden-pearled portals, and through the halls of the +heavenly unknown. Even I cannot tell, not in this short space, what +sphere contains the fairy soul that hath forsook her mansion in this +earthly nook. O love, in thy glory go!’ + +Silent and alone sat Flaxius as the shades vanished one by one. Last of +all there stood before him the giant forms of Hildebrand and his son +Hahdubrand. The warrior pressed his hand and spoke no word, but Flaxius +read in his eyes deep and full feeling--the knowledge of all that had +passed, and a farewell. + +‘Yes, farewell, my brave old companion of ancient days,’ said Flaxius. +‘Thou, too, mayst pass away to lands beyond. Thou didst battle for +glory and fame, and hast learned from me that it has been truly won. +_Du kannst zu Land ausreiten_--so, warrior, fare thee well!’ + +So he sat there till all had passed away, the glitter and glamour of +chivalry and a fairy court; till the high towers had become a low, grey +ruin, and the spiders’ webs hung again in the palace halls, and there +were vines on crumbling walls, and the stones, themselves to ruin grown +like him, seemed death-like old. Then, as in waves, the weeds grew +again up to where he sat; and as the rising sun cast its first ray on +him, he started as if from a dream. + +‘_Comedia luget, scena est deserta_,’ he murmured. ‘Now if I wished +to preach a new faith to mankind, Adelindè has given me the text. For +I now see that hell _is_ the place where every mortal can have to his +heart’s content his own desire, as Pluto declared. And this hell may be +on earth, in life, and all may know it in their very hearts. + + * * * * * + +‘_Hæc fabula docet_,’ wrote Flaxius on the revise, ‘two or three +morals not mentioned in the conclusion. _Item_, the Spirit that is in +the trees, the Being in green leaves among the groves, the rocks and +waters, or the wanton weeds, reveals unto the poet wondrous things +which, being written, are as real in truth, in beauty, and in goodness +for the world, as aught that ever happened in the past. He who has +mastered this in every sense lives in a fairyland while here on earth, +yet they are few who ever master it. + +‘And yet again that great prosperity gives birth to a vanity which is +often an intermittent weakness in men, and a steady madness in women, +as may be clearly discerned in the memoirs or lives of all who have +flourished in the atmosphere of courts, wherein, as in a hot-house, +things worth no more than weeds in nature or in their proper state, +are as exotics, nursed up into such condition by prosperity, that they +despise every flower or plant which grows in the open air. For who, +indeed, has not known some feeble-minded man or woman whose head has +been so turned by having everything he or she wanted, that either is +fain to scream as at some great inhuman injustice when a miracle is +not wrought in some dire need--as in the want of “diamonds like the +duke’s”!’ + +‘Now it was in the instant when her vanity was humiliated for ever, +and she realised that there was, indeed, a man who was too much for +her, that Adelindè first saw herself in very truth as she was, like +Hawthorne’s Man of Straw, and grasped the tremendous truth of Christian +humility. Which is enough time for a great mind to be saved, just as +one handful of powder will in an instant overthrow a lordly tower, +while it may require a ton thereof, and a long time, to destroy a +mud-bank. + +‘But every mortal, be he who he may, has learned a great lesson, and +taken his first step to divinity, when he has learned in very truth +that he is not a god. + +‘Finally, there are many who imagine that old age cannot attack a man +while he has health, strength, and physical or worldly appetite. And so +long as he is a brute or a fool, were it for a thousand years, he could +indeed go on eating, drinking, and frolicking with his kind. But with +experience there comes a soul, and to that soul in time a weariness +of all that earth contains, be it what it may. Now it is a curious +thing to observe that as the average growth of intellect in England +has increased--I pray ye here put on your studying-caps--the average +of life and the duration of vitality and intelligence has increased +with it. When the great Duke of Marlborough pleaded extreme old age in +asking for merciful indulgence--he was then sixty-three--no one thought +it strange. ’Tis hardly worth the while to say, that now, few people +would lend grace to such a plea, for life is lengthening, and ‘twill +lengthen on slowly--it may be--surely, into wondrous Time. + + +[5] The frolicsomeness of a panther suggests intoxication. In this it +surpasses all other animals. Therefore the car of Bacchus is drawn by +panthers. + + + + +FLAXIUS AND THE WERE-WOLF + +THE WONDERFUL STORY TELLING HOW RANDOLPH OF UPSALA ATE THE SHEEP, AND +HOW MR. RANDOLPH OF WALL STREET DEVOURED THE LAMBS. + +‘Now there are some people who think that those who believe they are +Were-wolves only suffer from what is called by doctors _Lycanthropia_. +But others hold that they are indeed changed to brutes, and this cannot +be denied, and those who deny it are all infamous liars.’--_Peter +Goldschmied_, _Hexen Advocat._ 1705. + + +IT happened once in the days of sword-songs and sagas, runic sorcery +and sea-dragons, that Flaxius found himself in Sweden on a summer +eve, gazing at the town of Upsala. He sat upon the little hill before +it, where, as tradition tells, Odin was buried. Ye may see his bones, +to-day, in a paste-board box in a case in the Stockholm Museum, where +I who write these lines was allowed to reverently touch them, which +is indeed a favour only accorded to a pious few who still worship the +gods, disguised as folk-lorists and archæologists--_quorum pars sum_. + +Now as Flaxius looked upon the strange city, and the old tower, +with its eight arches typifying the eight rings or armlets of the +All-Father, he observed here and there on the walls, swinging in the +wind, the corpses of the strangers who were caught straying about the +country, and were then sentenced to _sus per coll_, or be hanged, slung +up, or hitched to swing, dangle, swaggle, and go bibbety-bob in the +breezes, as a sacrifice to Odin. + +‘A somewhat severe custom,’ mused Flaxius gently, ‘yet doubtless +not without its peculiar advantages. The stranger within our gates +often seems to us well worthy of being gated, when he gets the entire +government of cities into his hands, and runs the taxes--into his own +pocket; as I with eye prophetic do foresee will be the case one day in +Western lands, but late discovered by these valiant Norse. + +‘But for the Sacrificed on yonder walls. I remember how upon a time +in Rome when Nero made full oft grim martyrdoms, that a disciple +of Paulus asked--hearing me declare that there was humour in all +things--if it could be found in the awful conception of a God dying +as a criminal to show his humility and love for the world? And I can +recall how Odin once coming as stranger, or in some disguise, into this +very town, he being their god, was seized at once and hung on yonder +wall, as a due sacrifice unto himself. Over which thing he merrily +exults as if it were a wondrous racy joke, as we may read in the Edda: + + + ‘“For nine nights, + I hung on the wind-rocked tree + A sacrifice unto myself.” + + +‘Truly the idea was too much for me, but not for the All-Father of +the Northern gods, who found a grotesque humour in the conception +of a Creator baffled by his own work. So he carried out the jest by +being hung. Ah well! he lost the game after all, which shows that the +Scandinavians were not good myth-makers. We managed these things much +better in Etruria, Greece, and Rome. “There’s nothing sacred to a +pioneer,” says a French proverb, and Odin was the _Sapeur_ and leader, +and discoverer for all the North. The Norseman and Norman were his +children. Od or Hud was his name as “the traveller,” and Henry Hudson +was of the blood. Like an old traveller, Odin would have his joke. + +‘But as to this custom of stringing up, or scragging strangers, and +making them dance upon nothing in honour of the Lord Odin, it behoves +me to look to myself with care unless I too would wear a tight cravat, +and I care not for such worldly vanities.’ + +Saying this he wandered on and away, till he came to a lonely place +amid rocks and trees by a headlong stream, where he paused. Suddenly +his attention was caught by a cry, which he found came from a pit hard +by. It was a deep and powerful voice. And to it Flaxius replied: + +‘Who calls?’ + +The voice answered: + +‘I am one who has fallen into this pit, and have not the power to come +forth.’ Then he sang in staff-rhyme: + + + ‘“To catch the Band-olf, + To take the Adelolf, + Bertolf, Eginolf, + Frekulf, Aistolf, + Hedenolf, Ingolf, + Kelolf and Kunolf, + Orkulf, Ordulf, + Ludolf and Rachulf, + Ralf and Ranulf, + Wolfram and Tackolf, + Theodolf, Unolf, + Wolfart and many a wolf, + Men with the sword, + Bearers of Lances, + Go forth to battle. + To catch the Were-wolf, + They dig the pit-fall, + With runes and sorcery, + Witch-rhyme and magic, + So well they guard it + That the wild wolf-man + Falling into it, + There must remain, + Starving, a prisoner, + Until a sorcerer, + Pitying, comes to him, + Breaking the witch-spell.”’ + + +‘Which means in prose,’ said Flaxius, ‘that a poor devil of a +sheep-stealer, _alias_ a were-wolf, is here in the pit--more’s the +pity! There is to my mind indeed--I know not why--something less of +crime in stealing mutton and venison than some other things; in fact +I remember that a great Etruscan dramatist, now forgotten, once made +deer-poaching almost sacred. And I recall how a bold, brave man said +to a judge in my hearing: “Jedge, I’m glad you punished that mizzable +creeter so severely for stealing hens. Being naterally strong in the +back, it _hes_ befel at times when the country was thinly settled, that +I myself have now and then inadvertently stolen a sheep, but I allays +had the moral grandeur to refrain from Hens. _Hens!_ O the low, poor, +ornery, medium-minded cuss!--he orter to be _ashamed_ of himself!”’ + +The man in the pit uttered an exclamation not over-pious. + +‘It would serve these Swedes right, for their hanging strangers at +Upsala,’ pursued Flaxius, ‘if I were to pull this poor devil up into +the light of day. Let us see how they have laid their hocus-pocus of +runes and witch-knots! Why rubbish and trash!’ he exclaimed with a +scornful laugh, ‘an old Roman witch who tells fortunes for a penny +would undo this sorcery with a pin! Ahem, let me try: + + + ‘Aldebarantiphoscophornio! + Bombochidescluninstaridé sarchides! + Tarchun, Hinthial, Tara! + + +There--the charm is broken! Were-wolf, my son, come forth!’ + +And sure enough the pittite came forth. His appearance was _not_, +to draw it mildly, as Flaxius observed unto himself, ‘absolutely +prepossessing.’ _Punchius_, a celebrated Roman jester of the Lower +Empire, once remarked of such an appearance, ‘that he would not be a +nice customer to meet of a dark night in a lonely lane, on the loose.’ +For he was red all over, as if with excessive health, and awful in +muscle, an over-done Hercules, like to the Cacus of Baccio or Bandinell +in the Signoria of Florence. His arms hung out from his sides like +a turtle’s fins, because the bulging biceps were so great. His hair +was red and dishevelled, and his eyes glared from under it with +unmitigated ferocity, like those of a wild cat staring from a pig-pen. +He bore on his left arm a wolf’s skin. + +But suddenly, ere Flaxius could speak a word, the two found themselves +surrounded by a crowd of furious rustics, who had evidently been +ambushed on the watch, in the forest, about the pit. They rushed upon +the pair with angry cries, accusing Flaxius of having delivered the +Were-wolf, also of being a stranger, and ere they were aware, cast over +them a net in which they were helpless. + +‘_Flagrante delicto_,’ thought Flaxius. ‘Misplaced humanity oft leads +to woe. He who lets a rat out of a trap loses his cheese. What next?’ + +The next was that the culprits found themselves imprisoned in the +witch-tower. Its walls were about twenty-five feet in thickness; there +was just room in it for two to sit on a bench, and there was one grated +window to admit air. + +They looked at one another. Flaxius began to sing a song written some +time after by the Trouvère, Marie de France: + + + ‘“When lays abound, ’twould ill beseem + Bisclaveret were not a theme; + Such is the name by Bretons sung, + And Gar-wal in the Norman tongue.”’ + + +‘_Gar-wal!_’ exclaimed the other prisoner. ‘That means me--a were-wolf. +’Tis not our tongue, and yet I know the word.’ + +‘So I suppose, my son, therefore I sang,’ rejoined Flaxius. ‘So now +while we are resting a space, from our romantic adventure, ere we get +out of this somewhat limited apartment, I pray you tell me all your +story clearly ... in simple words, and few.’ + +‘By Fenris!’ exclaimed the Were-wolf, ‘I will tell you the truth. Loki +and Hela take me if I lie! I was a free, simple _bonde_, a plain small +farmer, and I lived from a flock of sheep. It was my all, and hard was +my life withal. Now I had a rich neighbour, and one year my pasture +was ruined by flood and storm, and this man being crafty, and I as +simple as a child, he persuaded me to pasture my sheep on his farm for +half the lambs to come. But he so managed by head-craft and law-craft, +as to take from me all I had; and when I followed my claim at the Thing +or court, it went even worse with me, and I was cast into debt, and +made a thrall or slave. + +‘Then I was mad with rage. Short words, master--I met a witch who +gave me a spell, and I made myself a were-wolf. Then I slew all that +man’s sheep ... one by one ... I set fire to his home--his family all +perished in the flame--he escaped, lame and a beggar. And I was made a +Wolf’s Head.’ + +‘Truly a pretty tale!’ remarked Flaxius. ‘Apuleius might have made +something of it. _Entre chien et loup_ in this twilight, my son--or +_entre nous_--hast thou more to narrate?’ + +‘Yes. I had taken from my foe’s house a goodly treasure of gold rings +and coin, which I have concealed. Now, if any sorcerer would take the +wolf-spell from me and change my face, I would buy me a ship and go +a-pirating as a Viking, and so reform and lead an honest life.’ + +‘Truly men’s ideas as to _honesty_,’ reflected Flaxius, ‘are indeed +somewhat involved--or as we may say--conventional. But what dost thou +think, my son,’ he said aloud, ‘as to our present prospects?’ + +‘Simply, my lord, that we shall be burned alive to-morrow in honour of +Odin.’ + +‘All lost--except honour,’ quoth Flaxius. ‘But, my son, I have no fancy +to figure as a _rôti_, albeit I propose to be a _pièce de résistance_. +Let us for once in our harmless and innocent lives vary the monotony of +moral goodness by evading the law. All novelty is pleasing.’ + +‘And how shall we do it?’ asked the man amazed. + +‘Thou art a strong carl,’ replied Flaxius, ‘and I warrant me that thou +couldst tear yon window grating out of its place. And I--’tis a mere +trick, my son--can increase thy strength ten-fold. Only drink now and +then from this flask. So, so! bully boy, to work! Work while I sing to +thee a magic spell taught by the great Ir-Ving. + + + ‘“Hinculus dinculus trinculus! + Holy boly bum! + The Latin for chain is _Vinculus + Nunc inspiratus sum_!”’ + + +It was with intense awe that the Were-wolf listened to these words, and +in full faith that he attacked the grating, which he pulled away as if +it were straw. + +‘Now try a stone, my son!’ exclaimed Flaxius. ‘Nay--take a pull first +from the flask. There is a spirit therein, unknown to thee--_spiritus +vini Gallici, duæ unciæ, fiat potatio_!’ + +Crash came a stone weighing a ton, then another, then a third. The +Berserker rage was on the giant. Soon he had made a hole through which +one could have driven a coach, but he kept on. + +‘Softly, softly, my dear boy!’ interposed Flaxius. ‘Thou art too good +an actor, and wilt bring down the whole house about our ears. Now, if +thou art ready, I see the new moon rising o’er yon trees. Ha! Hesperus! +I give thee greeting fond! Come to the green wood; let us haste away!’ + +It was a drop of twenty feet from the window, but the red man took +it like a mountain goat, and then caught Flaxius in his arms, like a +ball, albeit the latter was none of your light-weights, neither was he +small. Now, as the Wolf was still _berserk-wode_, or half-mad with the +tremendous magic potion, he gave a fearful yell, turning townwards, + +‘And shook his gauntlet at the towers,’ + +when catching up Flaxius on his back, he ran with him, ‘as a fox might +run with a goose,’ thought the passenger, at headlong speed, along the +road and into the woods, crashing through boughs and thickets, over +rocks leaping, through torrents splashing; a-down a force or waterfall +here, up a hill there, while Flaxius sang: + + + ‘“Va petit postillon! + Va en avant, vite, vite! + Tu vas comme l’aquilon + Sur ta jument favorite? + + Go on, my postillion! + Before thee lies the way! + And thou art like an eagle fleet + Upon thy gallant grey!”’ + + +Truly the similes were all a little mixed, but they were in a devil +of a shaking, jumbling hurry, and there was no pause till they found +themselves far away in a lonely land, where it seemed as if the cock +never crew, the sun never shone, and the wind never blew. There the +Berserker threw himself matt and flat on the ground, out of wind, and +dead broke. And then Flaxius noticed that he had in his right hand a +sheep, which he had caught up on the way as he ran. + +‘Truly there is a good soldier lost in this man,’ said Flaxius. ‘He +can forage even during a retreat.’ So there was resting, cooking, and +camping _au clair de la lune_; and the next day they went on, and so +to the North for many days more. The wolf-man seemed to be bound for a +certain place, and Flaxius followed to see what would come thereout. + +When on a time as they sat in a sunset on a headland overlooking a +fiord, and far away from Upsala, the Wolf-man said: + +‘Master, wilt thou take from me the spell which forces me when the moon +is full to don this skin and raven as a wolf? For, anon, I shall begin +to feel fierce convulsions throbbing, and wild commotion in all my +blood, and raging madness for murder in my whole soul, the time for it +being nearly come, and then I spare neither beast nor human being. Now, +if thou dost not care to work the charm, there lives near this place, +a-down in yonder dale, a Finn who is a famed sorcerer, and to him will +I go for relief.’ + +Flaxius replied musingly, more to himself than to his follower: + +‘Yes, it is true. Long, long ago in Greece, I made research into the +_Lycanthropia_, which is one of the oldest mysteries of mad humanity. +And it was in happy, sunny Arcady--_et in Arcadia ego_--where all was +like a proverb of sweet peace, that it first showed itself to the world. + +‘In that land, my son, was a wicked king named _Lycaon_. Once it +happened that the great god, who was as the Odin and Frey of your faith +in one, whose name was Zeus or Jupiter, and in Etruscan, Tinia, came +in disguise to this Lycaon, who, to test the divinity or magic of his +visitor, set before him human flesh cooked as mutton.’ + +‘But that was a _great_ sin!’ exclaimed the Wolf-man, who was listening +with round eyes and full belief. ‘To treat a _guest_, who should be +sacred to the vilest of the vile, in such wise was _nidering_.’ + +‘It was _très_ low-flung, my son,’ said Flaxius, who had a habit of +prophetically borrowing phrases from vocabularies of the future. ‘Yes, +_niederträchtig_, scandalous, ribald, scrubby, pitiful, vile, infamous +conduct--_infra dignitatem regis_. And it was promptly punished, for +Zeus, on the spot, turned the king and his sons, who had had a hand in +the little game, all into wolves--the first wolves ever seen--and they +ran howling away through the door into the darkness, like mad.’ + +‘’Tis a fine tale,’ said the Wolf-man. ‘And so the first of us was a +_king_, and if he was wicked, he was bold to dare such a deed.’ + +‘But whence came this _mania_,’ continued Flaxius, talking to himself, +‘since there is a scientific cause for all things? _H’m-h’m!_ the +Arcadians were of the primæval race of the Pelasgi, who dwelt secluded +from the mob of Asiatics, Egyptians, Levantines, and God knows what +all, who fused into Greeks in time. In lonely valleys, deep in mountain +dales, they pastured flocks, fought with the beasts of prey, and +kept unchanged a mass of the wildest tales of sorcery and witchcraft +in freshest faith. So they knew _fear_ in its strangest form--the +_panicus terror_--which seizes on mobs of men or beasts, and the +_deliria_ of spectres, as no other Greeks knew them. Out of such fear +grew the bewildering _insania zoanthropica_, and the awful _insania +metamorphosis_ of which Nebuchadnezzar was the prototype. Finally +we get to the _dementia lycanthropia_, so interestingly exemplified +in thee--O my son!’ he exclaimed, turning to the other, who had sat +open-mouthed with wonder and admiration at the speech, of which he had +not understood one word. ‘By the way, what is thy name, my son?’ he +continued. + +‘Ranulf, the mad wolf, is what men call me,’ said the other proudly. + +‘_Mon fils, ce n’est pas l’instant pour la vanité humaine_,’ rejoined +Flaxius mildly; ‘but as regards removing this disorder of thine, I +would fain see how thy Finn will work it. I promise thee a cure in any +case.’ + +They went down and on, till they came to a large, low cottage, buried +amid birch-trees and willows. At the door sat an old man weaving +baskets, droning to himself an ancient lay, while by him crouched an +immense cat of some wild kind. The Finn was dressed in furs and woven +bast, or softened willow wood in strips; his face was withered, but +his eye was keen as an eagle’s, and as his glance met Flaxius, the two +understood one another, + +‘The curse of Ilmarin, or of Fenris, lies heavily on him,’ said the +Finn, indicating Ranulf. + +‘He hath a double curse,’ replied Flaxius, ‘with him it is _at leysa +or laedingi eda at drepa or droma_,--the wolf hath two fetters to +break--for he is firstly mad, and secondly outlawed, so that he must be +mentally cured, and then disguised so as to escape the law. And I would +fain see, my brother, how thou workest thy spell.’ + +‘By the Great Oak!’ exclaimed the sorcerer with a shrewd twinkle of his +eye, ‘I doubt not that our methods are much alike. But if it please +you, O wise lord from the far Out-gard, to see my simple work, I will +most willingly do my best.’ + +Saying this he took them into a room which was closed and windowless, +but in which burned a large, rude Lapland lamp; and having made Ranulf +drink of a certain potion, he rubbed him over with an ointment, in the +smell of which Flaxius detected certain ingredients which were to him +far from being unknown. + +‘Ahem!’ he reflected, ‘extract of mandragora, opium, henbane (order +_solanaceæ_), sulphur, bitumen, verbena, _amico mio, dove diavolo avete +pigliato tutte queste coglionerie_--where the devil didst rake up all +this stuff? Yea, from the very ends of the earth do these Voodoos and +conjurors correspond, and the Shaman of Kamtschatka sends the _Ammanita +muscaria_ unto Timbuctoo for sorceries. Proceed, O friend, I pray thee +with thy work!’ + +The Finn laid the patient on a bed, lighted a pan, in which were +strange fumigants, and bade the Were-wolf look him long and steadily in +the eyes; which he did with ten owl-power till he began to blink like +a judge after luncheon, and finally went into a deep sleep. Then the +shaman, taking a kind of large, oval-shaped tambourine, covered with +reindeer skin, on which were drawn many mysterious, rude figures, began +to beat it gently, while he sang in strange and evidently carefully +measured and elaborately trained tones, the following: + + + ‘By the soul of him the father! + By the mighty Wainamoinen! + By the sun and moon and planets, + And their light upon the water! + And the water all surrounding, + And the forest by the seashore, + And the bear within the forest! + And the runic mystery written + On his paw, and by the letters, + Which the lightning writes in darkness, + Only read by Ilmarinen! + By the One, Three, Five and Seven, + And the Four which causes growing, + Ever giving, life-begetting: + Wolf, I charge thee leave this mortal! + + + Fly along the running river, + Fly across the ferny mountains, + Fly into the pine-tree forest! + Flee across the birch-edged meadows! + Hasten to the oak-bound valley, + Or where slopes are dense with beeches, + Wade in haste through shallow water, + Where the fishes dart in terror! + By the rock on which the warriors + Cut of yore their strongest record, + With the mesh of interlaces, + Which avert the witches’ glances: + Wolf, I charge thee, leave this mortal! + Leave him so that when awaking, + He shall never more remember, + That he ever wore the wolf hide!’ + + +Thereupon was heard near by the sound of a wolf howling, and, as one +would think, praying and expostulating with the shaman, who was, +however, very firm, and when the Wolf was over bold, began to sing +again: + +‘Fly along the running river!’ + +Till at last the Wolf was heard at some distance, and then still +further away; his voice ever less audible, until it seem to disappear +amid rustling leaves, and mingle with the wind. + +‘Admirably played, my brother,’ exclaimed Flaxius; ‘Apollo never did +the trick better. Hypnotized to perfection and cured--like a ham! Yes, +the wolf will be no longer at his door. And, my dear doctor, I like +your _mise en scène_, your drum and your poetry and perfumery. By the +way I can give you a hint or two as to improving the narcotics in your +ointment, and yet, who knows? perhaps for your rough folk you have the +best _fiat lotio Cras mane sumendus_.’ + +‘And if Ranulf would like to go a-Viking,’ said the shaman, ‘there is a +rich man hard by who has a fine ship to sell cheap, with forty men all +armed, and well.’ + +‘Just like your provident kindness,’ responded Flaxius. ‘Always the +same thoughtful old chap. And now for your fee--you won’t take it--ah +yes, _inter doctores_, among us members of the Faculty, of course. But +permit me,’ he said, producing from his pocket a second flask of the +mystic alchemical, spagirical essence, ‘to present to you a medicine +which is as yet unknown in the North. Taste it and try its virtue on +yourself! _Jameson, Dublin._’ + +Saying this he uncorked the bottle, presented it, and the Finnic +sorcerer, as the saying is, ‘took a sight’; that is to say, the bottle +ascended at an angle of forty-five degrees from his mouth, so that +his vision glanced exactly in a line with the side, as if it were a +pistol. He took very deliberate aim, was in no hurry, being evidently +determined to make a line-shot, hit the bull’s eye and bring down the +game, and then _clucked_. The shot had been fired. Then turning to +Flaxius he spoke no word, but uttered a _wink_, and such a wink as +Flaxius had never seen before in all his mighty experience. The charge +had gone home, and he had brought down his racoon, killing him dead at +a shot.[6] + +There was a Finnish shaman sorcerer who had a wondrous interview with +Hibernian spirits all that night, and who was found next morning buried +in a magic trance. And far out at sea there was a solitary Viking sail +bearing southward, and from the oarsmen came the chorus of a song in +Icelandic: + + +‘Sing hey! sing ho! for the land of flowers!’ + + + * * * * * + +Ages had come and gone, and the cobwebs and dust had gathered three +inches deep in crust on many an old bottle of wine in many an ancient +cellar, when Flaxius found himself of a bright, crisp, autumn day in +the city of New York, presenting a letter of introduction to a retired +stockbroker, whose home was situated up the river, in the Catskills. +This gentleman was named Randolph, and Flaxius was much pleased with +him. He was a genial, jovial, merry-go-tumble man in a general way, +with a quaint American _mot_ for every circumstance, and quick at +filling the kettle whenever there was any fun to be boiled; but he +had withal evidently a tremendous hard pan, or substratum, of what is +called _horse-sense_, which is a sixth sense supplied by nature to her +Western children. He was immensely powerful, in fact a perfect picture +of excessive ruddy health, being one of those enviable muscular beasts +who can bend a horse-shoe, or tear in two a pack of cards; and he had a +tremendous shock of red hair. + +This ‘powerful party’ took a great liking in turn to Flaxius, forcing +him to come at once, ‘to stay his time and plenty of it,’ at his villa +on the Hudson; where, what between reed-bird, venison, soft shell crab, +terrapin and snapper soup, Spanish mackerel and blue-fish banquets, +pretty faces, festivities, drives, and gaieties, the guest drew +comparisons with the pleasures of ancient Rome and Paris, not in all +respects favourable to the latter. + +It is an invariable rule in life, that however powerful and reticent +a nature like that of Randolph’s may be, it inevitably runs into +intimate confidence when it meets with another of the kind of Flaxius. +Mercury does not melt more surely into lead than the strong animal soul +combines with a stronger intellectual power. And the end of it was, to +abridge the tale, that one day Mr. Randolph told to his guest the story +of his life. + +‘I was the son,’ he said, ‘of a farmer who lived in one of the eastern +counties of Massachusetts, and who, being favoured by fortune, +accumulated about one hundred thousand dollars. I was an only son; was +sent to Harvard, graduated, and went to practise law in New York. + +‘Now with all these advantages, and some plain, hard-working common +sense to boot, I still fell into the teeth and claws of a rascal. All +that I can say in my own defence was that he took in and ruined many +a far shrewder and more experienced man than I was. He was eminently +pious, having what we here call ‘New Jersey piety,’ the kind which +forms a part of every-day life, even as the skin does of the body. It +is never laid aside, even by the thief in prison or by the keeper of +the lowest den of iniquity, as was shown in the case of the Wickedest +Man in New York, who was withal perfectly sincere in his piety and +neither a Pharisee nor a hypocrite. + +‘This man was a stockbroker, and he induced me by a series of +marvellously ingenious tricks and devices to intrust to him the +whole of my property. He was one of those great ‘operators’ who are +technically said to live by slaughtering sheep or lambs.’ + +‘Ahem!’ interrupted Flaxius, ‘you said _lambs_, I think. So he got all +your flock?’ + +‘Every handful of wool, and left me as bare as the back of your hand. +It was by a very simple swindle. He invested my money, or that of +others, in stocks, which were manipulated or depreciated by tricks to +far below their value. If a man is a thorough rascal it is easy in the +immense range of insecurities to find something which can be thus run +down, or up. So my broker, when they were _down_ bought them in for +himself--it did not take him long to use up my hundred thousand. When +all was gone, one of his clerks told me the whole story. + +‘I calmly and deliberately determined that I would devote my life and +all its energies, without one qualm of conscience, to revenge. I swore +I would hunt him, as a wolf.’ + +‘Ah! I beg your pardon,’ exclaimed Flaxius. ‘But this is becoming +extremely interesting.’ + +‘As a wolf hunts a deer. So I went into Wall Street and worked as few +have ever done to learn all its tricks and devices, and I had a great +advantage, for while others worked for money, I only sought to learn +how to work. + +‘Well, it came to pass in time that I knew that my enemy had invested +a very large part of his means in a certain manufactory, which was in +a remote district, several days away from New York, with which it had +only a partial railroad communication. I managed long and well, till I +contrived to have it telegraphed that the entire town had been utterly +destroyed by fire, and then we cut the telegraph wire, and tore up the +rail. For three days we had that stock down to nothing, and bought it +right and left.’ + +‘The wolf was loose,’ remarked Flaxius. + +‘You bet! And the best of it was that we ran it all over town that mine +enemy had got up the whole thing himself to bear the stock! So be sure +he was tee-totally ruined, but then he had _mis-cal-cu--lated_!’ + +Mr. Randolph uttered this with an expression which was distinctly +lupine, showing his teeth in a style which recalled to Flaxius an +ancient witch-tower in Upsala, and corpses hanging on the walls in +the evening sunlight, and a story about certain sheep and lambs, _et +cetera_. + +‘Yes, it was a glorious, a noble operation,’ continued Mr. Randolph, +‘and perfectly successful. I got my hundred thousand back again with +interest, every _plunker_ of it. “Plunker” is Cambridge College for a +dollar.’ + +‘_Palanco_,’ interpolated Flaxius. ‘The Florentine for a two soldi +piece. The same size.’ + +‘And that was only the beginning of my luck,’ continued Mr. Randolph. +‘For of course the truth oozed out, and it gave me a magnificent +reputation, in Wall Street.’ + +‘Truly enviable,’ remarked Flaxius. ‘Were there many, think you, among +your--colleagues--who would have done the same?’ + +‘No,’ replied Randolph proudly, ‘not a beggar of them. They hadn’t the +nerve for it.’ + +‘It seems to me,’ reflected Flaxius, ‘that the ideas of mankind as +to honesty are somewhat conventional. _Où, diable, va l’orgueil se +nicher?_’ + +A few days after, Mr. Randolph invited Flaxius to take a sail in his +yacht. And as they went along before the breeze, the host said: + +‘I don’t know why it is, but the being on board my craft and hearing +the waves, makes me feel as if I were an old Norse _vikingir_. Strange, +isn’t it? By the way, my family was of Swedish origin, and yet the name +Randolph is _Virginian_.’ + +‘H’m!’ replied Flaxius, ‘Ranolf is Norse enough. It means a raging +wolf.’ + + * * * * * + +‘_Hæc fabula docet_,’ wrote Flaxius on the blank end of the revise, +‘this fable teaches, that life is very much the same old dish over +again: the solid beef or game of the dinner in the olden time re-cooked +a little and laid lightly on toast for a more refined modern breakfast. +And whether it was Thou and I indeed, or the Elements and Forces which +make us, this much is certain, that _somehow_ and _somewhere_ we ever +were, and as _something_ ever shall be still acting. This is as much +of immortality as a wise man requires, and a deal more than most of us +deserve. Let us pass on to another story.’ + +[6] Mr. A. Savage Landor, in his very interesting book of travels among +the Ainus makes mention of the marvellous power of expressive winking +with which these northern savages are gifted, and I have observed the +same among Red Indians. They learn it from their pow-wows or shamans. + + + + +FLAXIUS AND BREITMANN + +‘It is told in ancient story how to the Flemish court, +There came a knightly minstrel who made them royal sport, +That was as brave a Recké as ever yet was seen, +At fighting or at singing he won the prize I ween! +So stately in the festal hall, he caught each lady’s eye. +And when it came to revelling he drank the cellar dry.’ + + +WHILE swimming onwards down the stream of Time, it chanced all in the +merry, golden hours of spring, when rivulets dance, and birds are on +the wing: + + + ‘And a starry silver glory + Is at daybreak over all, + When the dews, like gems in story + On the queen like blossoms fall,’ + + +that Flaxius, when in Innspruck, sat one afternoon in a shady +beer-garden by the rushing river, listening to two nightingales in a +cage, which were singing duets or holding talk in nightingale tongue, +with two wild ones outside. The latter were complaining bitterly of +the hard time they had of it to pick up a living; while the imprisoned +ones bewailed that their engagements to sing to select audiences did +not allow them the least liberty, though they lived in luxury, being +taken in whenever it rained and fed on ants’ eggs, _ad libitum_; which +are the same to nightingales as Whitby oysters, caviare and _pâté aux +truffes_ are to us. + +Flaxius observed that a broad-shouldered, big-bearded, tall, and +knightly man, who seemed to be half soldier and as much minstrel, +sitting at the next table, also listened to the bird-songs with a +smile, as if he partly understood them. On a closer examination, +Flaxius recognised in him the Ritter Hans Breitmann, whom he had met in +earlier times,--the same Breitmann, having in a small and very quiet +way a humble little sixpenny immortality, just as the odd fish in +nature have been preserved from the earliest types, while better kinds, +which shone more brightly in their day, have vanished. + +The sage bowed to the minstrel, the Breitmann waved his beer-mug to +Flaxius, and the two drank politely, one to the other, and to old times. + +‘You seem to understand bird-language,’ remarked the other. + +‘_Nun_, yoost a liddle,’ replied the bard, who spoke all tongues in a +curious patois. ‘Enough to get hints or dips for songs. All poets know +someding of it, most of dem a crate deal petter as I. Yoost so de Gypsy +Zigeuners play bird-songs--de whole orchestra--nefer twice alike, _ach +ja! alles sehr schön_, peaudiful!’ + +‘Could you sing me a song learned from the nightingales?’ asked Flaxius. + +‘Cerdainly,’ replied Breitmann, ‘mit bleasure,’ and, draining off his +beer, he unslung the lute from his back, tuned two chords, hemmed, and +then sang of-- + + +LONG, LONG AGO + + ‘When de nightingale was singing, + All in de cool of eve, + To de pleasant breeze, + And de birds were flingin’ + Perfume from de trees, + _Hei da, ri dé! + Hei da, ri do!_ + + I sat by my love so fair and gay, + As we had sat for many a day, + And _ach! wir warn so frô_, + Loving--as dere we lay! + + Dame Nightingale, de wood bird small, + Sang to us a melody, + How love outliveth all + Whate’er on earth may pe; + _Hei da, ri dé! + Hei da, ri do!_ + “Love passeth all both great and small, + So now sing afder me!” + + We sang old songs togedder, + Songs of de merry time, + And light ash any fedder, + We maked full many a Rhyme, + _Hei da, ri dé! + Hei da, ri da + He da ri da Laun!_ + Unto a lute we sang dis lay, + And so we passed de live-long day + Until de Sun went down. + + We sang old songs togedder + Of loves long passed away, + All in de pleasant wedder + Ash in de grass we lay. + _Hei da, ri da + Hei da, ri dá!_ + No more can I rememper, yet + What I recall I’ll ne’er forget + So long as life is gay!’ + + +And as the Breitmann sang and tinkled his lute, the nightingales who +were present joined in--’twas like Jenny Lind and Parepa Rosa in a +duet. I mention this, because in a later age the souls of the two caged +nightingales did actually reappear in human form as J. L. and P. R.; +even as vultures whom I could mention have reappeared on the Stock +Exchange; and black-beetles as clergymen about town; and butterflies as +professional beauties; and divers ducks as doctors; and an old owl as +Premier. But to return. + +As they sat there at twilight tide, talking over old times when they +had met at the court of brave King Roosevelt in Holland, there came the +sound of a far-off bell ringing vespers, and Flaxius said: + +‘Ever since the earliest times men have believed that there was a holy +influence in the sound of a bell. The old Etruscans and their children, +the Romans, made them of bronze, and sometimes of silver, all to keep +away witches and evil spirits. In fact, from the immense number which +are found, it would seem as if there had been, at least, one to every +human being. + +‘And dot was kept up py de Christians,’ added Breitmann, ‘who peliefed +a great deal still more in dem, and to dis tay it is said dot witches +are afraid of bells, witch is de reason de priests keep a ringing +dem all the while. As you see py de woonderful story of der bell of +Kaltern, here in Tyrol.’ + +‘Tell it,’ replied Flaxius. + +‘I can sing it if you would care to hear it,’ answered Herr Breitmann. +‘Dot comes easier to me.’ + +‘All the better,’ quoth the sage. + +And Breitmann chanted: + + +THE BELL OF KALTERN + + ‘Oh the church bells at even, + How sweetly they ring! + Like angels in heaven, + They murmur and sing! + Where music can travel + Their echoes are found: + And naught that is evil + Can list to the sound: + So softly, so quaintly they chime in their play, + So gently, so faintly, then dying away, + Fading out, with the day. + + Now no witch can hold out where the church _Glocke_ hang, + For the bells being blest they’re afraid of the clang: + At the very first sound when ’tis heard _they_ are lost, + And shrivel like roses when touched by a frost; + And the devil himself would be off on the wing + When the great bell of Kaltern began with its ring, + Ha, that “busted up” as a terror to see + In grand scatteration the whole company: + And good Christians, like us, aren’t more frightened of hell + Than the witches were scared by the sound of that bell. + Until at the last, when their patience was past, + And the very end-thread of the skein being spun, + They swore there must certainly something be done. + And something they did too at once in the cause: + And you soon will surmise what the handiwork was. + + There’s a widow in Eppan + With glance like a dart, + A terrible weapon, + Which strikes every heart, + With the softest of laughter, + The sweetest of smiles, + Lord knows what comes after, + When once she beguiles! + And this lady of Eppan + Is charmingly dressed. + She feeds upon capon, + With wine of the best. + Though whence she derived all her food and the clothes, + Or how she got these things, or came to have those, + Is what she did never to any disclose, + Which kept people talking as all may suppose + Either “over the pumpkin”[7] or “under the rose!” + + Now when people before them have always a curtain, + There’s something behind it, not right, _that_ is certain. + And all were assured that this beautiful widow + Hung out what the French call a very large _rideau_; + [In German Gardine; a kind of a pun; + Since in dialect, girl and a curtain are one.] + But Hermann von Valk, + A chivalric young blade, + Who was not of talk + Or of scandal afraid, + Was all the more taken, + Enchanted and shaken, + Enraptured and mashed, + Bèglamoured and smashed, + By the beautiful eyes and the wonderful mystery + That seemed to envelop this Lamia’s history. + And one day when in sport the fair widow would task him + He swore he would do anything she might ask him, + He cared not a straw, if ’twere that or were this, + If she only would give him one rapturous kiss! + + With the winsomest smile, + That would fetch you a mile, + And a soft in her voice + That would give you no choice, + But to do as she wanted. “My dearest,” said she, + “I can only ask something chivalric of thee, + Such as noble young gentlemen ever perform + When their hearts and their heads are courageous and warm. + And that which I want, you can easily grant-- + It isn’t a matter of shall I? or shan’t-- + In fact ’tis as easy as jumping a hurdle. + Just climb a church-steeple while bearing this girdle, + The steeple of Kaltern--you know it full well-- + And binding--you _shall_ turn this belt round the bell: + Bind it and wind it, when you have twined it-- + When this is done and my love is returnéd, he + May kiss, if he like, to the end of Eternity.” + + Now as you may have guessed, + This young Hermann von Valk + Was not--truly confessed-- + A man easy to balk; + So as soon as the widow her yarn had spun + He jumped to his feet and cried eagerly--_done_! + “For such a reward I here swear, by my soul! + I’d belt all the bells in the land of Tyrol! + Give me the girdle! I’ll tell you what, + I’ll return this evening”--and off he shot. + + Now though this Hermann had no scrupulosity, + Yet, as a German, he’d great curiosity, + Which thing is the mother of all suspicion, + So he turned it all over with great precision, + And he said to himself, “I wish I could tell + What it is that she means by a-belting the bell? + It’s very mysterious--hem!--let me see! + Suppose I first try it a bit on a tree! + There is nothing at all in the way to prevent + Such a little and harmless experiment.” + So half-unthinking and half in joke + He bound the girdle about an oak. + + It was a grand tremendous tree, + As vast as man did ever see, + Standing alone so grave and solemn, + With trunk as tall as the highest column; + But scarce that girdle was brought around, + And scarce the belt on the bark was bound, + When a crash like a thousand thunders came, + And before his eyes all swam in flame, + As if hell had broke loose in very fact, + And from top to bottom the oak-tree cracked, + And the fragments flew afar and wide: + While Hermann von Valk lay stunned aside. + + The bells, in time, had rung several tenses, + Before the young gentleman came to his senses, + And, when he got there--“My life!” said he: + “I am glad that I tried that belt on a tree, + For if I had bound it round the bell, + Which the witches all fear, like poison and hell----” + + When having said this, he suddenly stopped + As if an _idea_ on his senses had dropped, + And he roared “_Donnerwetter mit Hagel und pitch!_ + Now may I be shot! but the widow’s a witch! + _Es leuchtet mir ein!_ I behold it clear + As I see yon moon in her silver sphere; + That was a nice little task the “widder” + Gave me to do, now I come to consider! + Suppose instead of a tree, I had placed + That elegant article round my waist! + _That_ were a beautiful change of scene? + The devil take her--where would _I_ have been? + So sure as Bohemians drink _slivovitz_, + Burst to pieces and blown to bits, + So now I will go to my home, alone, + Beautiful Madame--with you I’ve done + I can stand a great deal,” he said with a sigh + “But not the devil--and so good-bye.” + + By this adventure you plainly see, + That two of a trade can never agree, + What one had tolled, the other can’t tell, + And a belle, if a witch, is afraid of a bell!’ + + +‘Well sung, Herr Breitmann,’ exclaimed Flaxius. ‘And the tones were as +sweet as the story is strange.’ + +‘Vot do you really dink of it?’ inquired the singer with some interest. +‘Can it pe true?’ + +‘H’m! very likely. You must know, friend Breitmann, that from much +strange but little thought of proof, I believe that from the Etruscan +and Roman priesthood, the witches and wizards of a later time inherited +much knowledge, and many strange secrets regarding electricity; and +this granted, we can explain many of the most remarkable miracles +attributed to them. Now, admitting that they were up to producing a +spark by a small charge and making an explosive, the widow’s belt +becomes intelligible. In fact, a few ounces of dynamite----’ + +‘Vould pe a mighty crate power, when a woman wanted to plow a man oop,’ +laughed the minstrel. ‘And denn dere was poison, vitch dey understanded +petter still. As is set fort in a pallad of de town of Munich.’ + +‘I would like to hear it,’ replied Flaxius. + +‘_We_ would like to hear it,’ sopranoed the nightingales. + +‘_I_ would like to hear it,’ chirped a sparrow on the wall in +_contralto_. + +‘And we also,’ cooed the baritone spirits of the evening breeze, as +they stole through the dense foliage, rustling overhead. + +The Breitmann tuned his lute, and sang the ballad of + + +NARR HANS’L[8] + + ‘Oh! Munich is a merry town, ’tis writ by many a pen, + And all its city counsellors are wondrous merry men, + And when they meet for banqueting, to revel or to sing, + From the Rathshaus to the Frauenkirch you hear the music ring. + + And every master hath a squire that on his lord must wait, + To fill his goblet up with wine or change or fill his plate, + And it always was expected, like the chorus to a song, + He must laugh at all his master’s jokes and help the fun along. + + Now one of these attendants was an odd fantastic wight-- + You could see it in his features that something wasn’t right-- + An anxious, solemn countenance with sorrow interwrought, + Like one who knows that he is mad, and trembles at the thought! + + And if cruel people vexed him when his heart was stirred with drink, + He would rave and cry the maddest things that any one could think, + And scream and weep and beg them all for mercy in his pain, + Which made them roar with laughter and begin to tease again. + + They called him the Narr Hans’l, that is Jack Lunatic. + And all the lords resolved one day to play this man a trick. + So they made him eat a herring till he almost died with thirst; + And then gave him wine to quench it, but that was not the worst. + + For the wine had all been mingled with pepper for a trick, + And a subtle drug or medicine, which made him sadly sick, + So that he ran about in pain, with many a mad grimace: + It made the noble gentlemen all roar to see his face. + + Well, well! the fun was over and the jest was half forgot: + When again there was a banquet in that ever merry spot, + And since Narr Hans’l made such sport for every guest--to dine, + They chose him for the Kellner, or Master of the Wine. + + The music pealed so merrily, there all was _Saus und Braus_, + Till the chairman gave the word “Schenk’ein!” and then the sign “Trink aus!” + And this was at the Ending, when every gentleman + Must drink the _Supernaculum_--drain to the last his can. + + To a drop upon the thumb-nail, nor leave behind a “rest.” + And the wine for this last drinking was of the very best; + Every cupful cost a florin--of that there was no doubt, + It glowed like golden sunlight when Hans’l poured it out. + + Ha! What can be the matter with the noble President, + That he looks as pale as ashes and extremely discontent? + And now he’s falling backwards in deadly agony: + And now--O Lord! the others are all as ill as he! + + Ha! What can be the matter with Narr Hans’l through it all? + He is laughing, he is screaming, he is dancing in the hall. + He is changed into a devil--he gave a comic sigh, + And played upon his _Cithern_ as he saw the _Herren_ die! + + There are four-and-twenty dead men a-lying in the room, + The tapers burning lowly, all fading into gloom; + The waiters with the music have all in terror fled: + There sits alone Narr Hans’l, a-singing to the Dead! + + A-singing wailing ditties, all in the saddest strain: + How they poisoned him with pepper, and he poisoned them again. + Till he screams: “It all is over--and the wine is of the best!” + He drank a flowing goblet, and is lying with the rest.’ + + +‘It is a sad song!’ murmured Breitmann, as he struck the last chorus. + +‘Very sad,’ replied the nightingales. + +‘It makes me cry,’ chirped the sparrow. + +‘Mournful, indeed,’ sang the evening breeze. + +‘Well, away! There’s a lesson in it for all,’ concluded Flaxius. + + * * * * * + +_Comment by the Editor._--If there are any readers who would prefer +these ballads of Hans Breitmann in the original German English, he +or she may find them, and many more quite as good or better--or even +worse--in a little book entitled _Hans Breitmann in Germany_, published +by T. Fisher Unwin. Of which book, several critics remarked that there +was so much German in it as to render it unintelligible, which, as +elsewhere remarked, was much like declaring that there is too much +Latin in the poems of Virgil or Horace, or, in truth, of Merlinus +Coccaius, or the bard who sang the Polemo-Middiana. So reflecting on +him who proposed to make a translation of Carlyle’s _Sartor Resartus_ +into English, the editor has ventured to clothe these two Breitmann +ballads in so much of our current tongue as his humble means permitted. + +Which reminds him of a little story. + +There was once a French artist who found a picturesque old beggar on +the Pont Neuf. + +The beggar was striking. + +_Il sautait aux yeux_, he leapt to your eyes. + +He was seventy years of age. + +He had a long white beard. + +He was clad in a long, picturesque, ragged gabardine. + +A gabardine is a dressing-gown. + +For ladies it is a _peignoir_. + +Short sentences make long copy. + +Copy is paid for by the page. + +To return to our sheep. + +The beggar held a long, rude staff. + +Like Esculapius. + +Or a Chinese barber. + +The artist was charmed with his appearance. + +He asked the beggar to come next day to his studio. + +The beggar assented. + +Now as he had never had his portrait taken before, + +The beggar supposed that he must come in his best. + +That is to say _endimanché_, that is to say in Sunday togs. + +So he removed his beard, + +And appeared in a shabby steel-pen or tail-coat. + +With a cane with a glass head, + +And his shoes blacked, + +And a red waistcoat. + +When the artist beheld him, + +He exclaimed with horror, + +‘_Oh, mon Dieu!_ + +You are spoiled, you are spoiled!’ + +Now if this artist had been a Leonardo da Vinci, who could make a +beautiful Madonna out of an old man as a model, he would have copied +the beggar all the same, seeing the Reality which was in him. + +But he did not see it. + +[7] ‘Over the pumpkin’ (also the sun-flower) _i.e._ openly, these being +very visible objects. + +[8] Jack-fool. + + + + +FLAXIUS IN INDIA + +THE STORY OF SAKHARA AND ARJUN, WITH THE WONDERFUL TRANSMIGRATIONS OF +DSCHIM CROW. + +‘Gli Indiani e i Persiani e in generale tutti gli Orientali ammettevano +la Metempsicosi come un dogma particolare al quale erano molto +affezionati.’ + +_Gran Dizionario Infernale da Francesco Pique._ + + +NOW it befel once in the golden time, meaning the good-olden or +aureate age, which Hesiod and other poets write of, that Flaxius +having seen the dragon world, with all its thousand brazen eyes of +glittering cities, and looked bravely at them, and read their meaning, +found himself in north-western India, in a then famous city called +Chotahazripoora. As for the date, it was somewhere the other side +of the year One, which is tolerably accurate chronology for Indian +records, which were not very well kept by the Sanskrit Civil Service +about that time, or any other, with all their wisdom. + +And in this particular _poora_, which is in Greek and Gypsy _foros_, +whence _forum_, so called from its great wealth, Flaxius became a great +man at court, because he despised riches and was a sage, being, of +course, greatly honoured and admired and coloured up as an incongruity, +and inexpensive at that. And at last the king consulted with him on +all matters, social, familiar, or financial, from taxing a province +down to buying a new bayadere. In all of which the Immortal displayed +singular sagacity and exquisite good taste. + +This monarch had, of course, three sons, by which ye may know that +I have started on a fairy tale, the head of which is, as usual, the +part which comes last, or the youngest. This third became very dear to +Flaxius, because he was a brave, frank, innocent, clever youth, worth +looking after and loving. And his name was Arjūn. + +Now in the gust and whirlwind, and flit and flow of hailstones and +rain-drops which make the pelting incidents of court-life, there being +little rest or peace in it, Flaxius began to note that a cloud was +coming over the soul of Arjūn, and from this ante-chamber of the dream, +he soon passed to the bright hall of perception, that his pupil or +friend was in love. And ere long the expected confidence came in these +words: + +‘Thou knowest, O wise among men, that I have never set my heart on +love of woman. For the article in its best quality has ever been so +exceeding cheap and abundant about our court, and I have had so freely +my pick and choice of _primeurs_, that it was unto me only as my meals. +Moreover, all the books which I have studied have taught me that the +preferring one girl to another is mere idle fancy, even as tastes in +food are simply the result of caprice and custom, and that female +nature is all, in fact, folly. This I did steadfastly believe, till it +chanced that one day in the woods far beyond the city I met with a maid +of exceeding beauty, who, as I found by conversation, was so witty and +wise, original and good, that it soon appeared to me that I had all +along been in ignorance and error as to what Woman might be. And, in +short, all my philosophy went to the Seven Hells, where it may remain +for ever for all I care, being in love through and through--dyed in the +grain. + +‘And this girl, Sakhára, is the daughter of a Brahmin of kingly race, +but exceeding poor. So when I told my father of my love----’ + +‘Why then,’ interposed Flaxius, + + + ‘“Fire flashed from the monarch’s eyes, + And high his wrath began to rise.”’ + + +‘Yea,’ replied Arjūn, ‘and, in short, he swore by the Cow that I should +never marry her unless it were shown to be the special will of the +gods.’ + +‘H’m!’ observed Flaxius, ‘I have noticed that the special will of the +gods is generally manifest in anything to which we agree, and could +the king be brought to assent to this, in any way, the divine sanction +would soon be perceptible. Therefore, my son, fret not thy soul, but go +and amuse thyself, for in love-troubles, as in all others, he who is +least uneasy comes the soonest to ease. I will see what can be done.’ + +It came to pass that the next day, Flaxius, while walking in the +forest and listening to the chattering of the holy monkeys in the +trees o’erhead--whose conversation was, however, of a most frivolous +and unholy character--met with a man who was evidently a poor devil on +general principles, but who appeared to be a decidedly superior person, +when one investigated the particulars, for he had a very intelligent +face of dark hue, a keen, shrewd eye, and a goodly mien. He was clad in +black. + +‘I beg you, great sir,’ he said to Flaxius, ‘to take heed how you speak +to me or even look at me or let my shadow fall on you, else you will +find yourself in for hell or a long penance, for I am a pariah, and my +name is Dschim Crow.’ + +‘And I,’ replied Flaxius, ‘not being a fool, and having travelled in +many lands, and seen the vanity of all things human, would probably be +ranked with you, could the Brahmins read my soul.’ + +‘Ay,’ answered the outcast, ‘’tis one of the precepts of our +philosophy, that mankind are all divisible into the found-out and the +not-found-out.’ + +‘A good saying,’ replied Flaxius. ‘Have ye then a philosophy?’ + +‘We are the only true philosophers,’ answered the Pariah, ‘for ours is +the sole system that teaches the error of excess of wisdom, law, and +goodness. As is shown by our literature, which comprises every work of +true humour ever written in India.’ + +‘Better and better,’ said Flaxius; ‘and I believe you the more, because +such a literature is the natural result of such a principle. And what +are some of the works to which you refer?’ + +‘There is, firstly,’ answered the outlaw, ‘the story of “Vikram and +the Vampire,” in which the _Baital_ teaches the sage in a series of +twenty-five lessons how to show himself a fool just two dozen times, by +being over wise. + +‘Secondly, the “Life of the Gūrū Simple,” by which we may learn that a +good man may be a great goose. + +‘Thirdly, the “Marvellous Tale,” showing how Boorum-bunder Pop, the +Buddhist, broke open a poultry-house and stole all the fowls, by virtue +of the holy fourteen formulas of Sakhya Mūni. + +‘Fourthly, how Ah-Sin the Chinese sage, who had been converted to the +true religion, and came to the Gate of Nirvana, descended to earth, and +meeting Brahma on a pilgrimage in human form, cheated him out of all +his money at cards. + +‘Fifthly, how the holy Brahmin, Baro Chor, pilfered from the divine cow +of Waschischta a pint of the milk of experience, from which he churned +the butter of wisdom, which is in twenty thousand _slokas_ or verses. + +‘_Parraco tute_,’ replied Flaxius in Prakrit, ‘I had rather thou +wouldst read it than I. Any more?’ + +‘There is the divine legend how Krishna, the chastest of the gods, made +love, in extreme, to twenty thousand milk-maids all at once, with the +moral of “Be virtuous and you will be happy.” After which he was always +blue in the face.’ + +‘Truly, I do not wonder at it,’ remarked Flaxius. ‘I have seen a man +look blue for less than that. Any more?’ + +‘Well there is the Thieves’ Bible teaching the divine worship of Kàli, +which they study devoutly in spirit and in truth, all the more because +it teaches them how to commit burglary, personal theft, and murder. + +‘And with this the _Bāro Lil_, or Scripture of the Trablūs Dom, who +call themselves the Rom or Romany, teaching the sanctity of stealing +shirts from clothes-lines, the piety of pilfering hens, the holy art +of passing off bad horses for good, and the divineness of telling +fortunes.’ + +‘A goodly library!’ remarked Flaxius. ‘Dost thou know aught of magic?’ + +‘I have picked up a few tricks,’ replied the Pariah, ‘which I learned +from a Mahatma, such as the three card game, thimble-rig, floating in +the air, putting cigarettes under cushions, and sending letters from a +distance. My one great game is, however, to turn a girl into a tree, or +the reverse. But with all my fine accomplishments I could never conjure +up my wife or a dinner, and I need a meal now, most deucedly.’ + +‘Friend,’ said Flaxius, ‘I will conjure thee up a good dinner and teach +thee the art of doing it, if thou wilt impart to me those tricks of +thine.’ + +‘By Yamen!’ cried the jovial Bohemian, ‘thou art generous, for I deem +thy secret worth forty of mine any day. He who hath a woman may have +nothing to eat, but devil the place was I ever in where, if I had a +bountiful dinner, I could not get a girl to share it with me. By the +way,’ he inquired, ‘does this dinner of yours embrace drink--not water, +you know, but _tátto pani_ or spirits?’ + +‘Also that,’ said Flaxius with a smile. ‘Behold!’ + +There was not far from them a large earthenware pot, left by some +traveller. Flaxius bade the Outcast dig a hole in the ground. In this +the pot, upside down, was half-buried. Then he chanted in a mystic +ancient Indian tongue: + + + ‘Baro duvel dikkamì, + Kūshto hāben, well avri! + O choro Rom se bokalo, + Kekno māss, kek kokalo; + Kekno kil, ne kel pā mui: + Bitcha leste sari dui, + Te tatto pani kater Rom, + Om mani padmi hom!’[9] + ‘Mighty spirit, look on me! + Let a dinner come from thee! + Outcast hungers here alone, + Hath no meat and ne’er a bone. + Cheese nor butter for his mouth, + Send to him, I pray thee, both! + Also spirits in this hour, + O Jewel in the lotus flower!’ + + +And this done, the feast began, for on removing the pot there appeared +beneath it a rice curry, surmounted with a fine piece of roast beef, +garnished with chillies, two chupattis or wheat-cakes, jaggree sugar +and a great flask. + +‘Now by the thousand years in hell, which I am to catch for eating that +beef,’ exclaimed the Outcast, ‘I call that a good meal. Thank the devil +and your lordship--if ye be not one and the same--and for what I am +about to devour, make us truly thankful,’ as the tiger said when he ate +up the Buddha. _Yeck lav se tacho sā desh_: + + + ‘One word’s as good as ten, + Leather away--Amen!’ + + +‘And _toddy_--by all the goblins!’ he exclaimed as he sampled the +bottle, ‘strong and abundant enough to demoralise an elephant. Verily I +can now be clear through to the further end of my ideal of bliss, for, +as your lordship knows, _that_ man is a _bachtalo beng_ or lucky devil +who knows when he is well off, or as the great Sanskrit poet, Jan Kitz, +sings: + + + ‘“It is a flaw, + In happiness to see beyond our bourne, + It forces us in summer skies to mourn, + And spoils the singing of the nightingale.” + + +‘Therefore let us _not_ see beyond our bourne--at least not till we get +there; which, as our great ancestor Cain says in his precepts, is more +than most men manage to do.’ + +‘Was Cain thy ancestor?’ inquired Flaxius. ‘I would fain hear the +legend if one there be?’ + +‘Thou shalt hear it in spirit and in truth,’ replied the Outcast. ‘In +the spirit of toddy, and on the truth of a gypsy, know then, what is +known to everybody of every language, and in every land, that in the +beginning were Cainos and Abelos. And unto them was a sister. And +Cainos slew his brother and took his sister to wife. But she, being +told that it was wrong, fled from him, and took refuge in the sun, +where she dwells to this day. Then Cainos for all his sins was sent to +live in the moon, and because it is cold, there he is always bearing +thorns to feed the fire. And longing for his sister, he, in the moon, +ever pursues her. But others say that when the sun has set and ere the +moon has risen, then they meet, which accounts for their love lasting +so long, since they do not see too much of one another. But however +it be, they are gods of all us wanderers, because they are always +wandering over the heavens. And we are their descendants, and therefore +under a curse, for which indeed we do not care a curse--when we can get +toddy! + + + ‘“When the evening fire is burning, + And the women return from town; + And the crows to their nests returning, + We will drink till the moon goes down: + + And merrily sing and prattle, + While music rings over the plain; + And if there’s enough in the bottle, + We’ll drink till she rises again.” + + +‘Now the sun is called in our tongue Kam or Kàn, and the moon Tchen or +Zen, even as tongues turn it, hence we their children are the Zen-kan +or Zingan. And this is the true story of our race, whence ye may see +what a fine lot we are. + +‘And now, your Illustriousness, since it takes two to make a bargain, +or as a bargain requires a pair, which must consist of a couple, +and as duality demands separate units, or a double of singles, and a +duplicate repeated units, and twins bi-fold births, and as according to +the Vedas there are needed twice-five fingers to make a hand-shake, and +the Shastras assert that if one parent be wanting there can be no child +born-- + +‘Heaven-a-mercy, man!’ cried Flaxius, ‘what the devil art thou driving +at?’ + +‘Only this, O heaven born! that as thou hast kept thy word and given +me the dinner without an end, and the flask inexhaustible, I will +forthwith repay, reciprocate, discharge, settle, acquit bequests with, +strike a balance, clear off old scores, liquidate, poney up my dues +to the tune of “On the nail,” and show myself a man of honour and a +gentleman by telling thee how to turn a tree into a girl or a girl into +a tree, albeit I do not guarantee the quality of the timber. But by +their fruit shall ye know them.’ + +‘’Tis well,’ answered Flaxius. ‘Proceed with thy process.’ + +And the Outcast proceeded. But here I must draw the veil of secrecy +over the mirror of curiosity. I did not mind, O reader, letting thee +know how to raise a dinner by means of sorcery, but I draw the line at +girls. For there are, as it is, rather too many girls in the world if +we may believe the Census, and too few trees, if we are to put faith +in agricultural newspapers, and therefore I think it just as well that +this metamorphosis be not added to those of Daphne and the Dryads. + + * * * * * + +When Flaxius returned to the _Ruppeny-gav_ or Silver City of +Chotahazripoora, he went straight to the golden palace or _Sonafilisin_ +and entered the _Tatcho-bar Kamora_ or Diamond Chamber, where he found +the king shadowing the day time of his lordly soul in the dark void of +night with sleepless woe, which is to say that he was in a gloomy fit +of the blues and bored to death. + +‘_Sarshān_, your majesty. How art thou?’ inquired Flaxius in the court +tongue. + +‘_Sarshān yer kokero, puro!_ How are you yourself, O ancient?’ replied +the mighty monarch. ‘As for me, I am in trouble. I have, as thou +knowest, more than a thousand mothers-in-law in my family?’ + +‘Yea,’ replied Flaxius, ‘and I have known a man ere now to be always in +hot water with only one.’ + +‘And they are all nagging me to get first of all my three sons married, +and then the daughters. Canst thou see a way out of it?’ he added +anxiously. + +Flaxius reflected a long time, in order not to make his wisdom too +cheap, nor yet ‘to set himself by flippancy too light, too high above +the level of his king,’ and then replied: + +‘Thou knowest, O sublime Superiority, that I have deeply studied the +science of dreams, and can command them. Therefore will I somnambulate +in sleep, and draw conclusion from its imagery. + + + ‘“The figments and conceits, the myths and fads, + The grey chimeras and the visions blue; + The phantasms and shadows of the soul, + The whims and vagaries and rhapsodies, + Extravaganzas of the booming soul, + The hum-bugs which go sailing in the dark, + The air-drawn dodgers and the bug-bears wild, + The Flying Dutchmen in the sea of sleep, + The castles in the air and homes i’ the moon, + Utopias and fair Atlantises, + The happy valleys of the bards of yore, + The fairy lands and the Millenia + Of Prester John and of Micomicon, + Wherein Alnaschar found _le pot au lait_, + And where the fay Morgana rules supreme, + Shall be explored down to their deepest dream, + And the last shadow of their last ideal, + And the last fairy coin struck in their mint + Be studied deeply in the minutest case, + To answer well thy question, O my King!”’ + + +‘_S’e pmi duvel!_ As my Spirit may help me!’ cried the monarch in +admiration. ‘I will say this for thee, Flaxius, that beside thee as a +bard Kalidasa is nowhere, and that what thou canst not do in poetry is +not worth a-doing. Therefore, let us drink!’ + +And they drank. + +When Flaxius appeared the next morning before his majesty, it was with +the grand and important air of a man who has been dreaming on a royal +order, and filled up every detail in first class style. The courtiers +looked at him with awe, and even his Highness regarded him with a +kind of fearful respect, as if apprehending that he might go off, or +explode, or burst in some mysterious way. He was manifestly relieved +when an attendant maiden brought to the sage a golden goblet of Soma, +or India pale ale; and when the wise man had drained off about a pint +thereof, he sighed as if all danger of a conflagration was for the time +extinguished. So great a thing is it to be known to be possessed of a +secret. + +‘By your majesty’s royal command!’ said Flaxius--and all around became +as still as the mice-stars in heaven before the cat-moon--‘By your +majesty’s royal command I dreamed and I found myself in a far isle of +light holding a trumpet shell of pearly hue, which Glendoveers do blow +whene’er they meet. Then from a bowery strand just opposite--an island +of the sea--there came enchantment with the shifting wind that did both +drown and keep alive my ears. And as I listened all my sense was filled +with that new blissful golden melody; a living death was in each gust +of sounds; each family of rapturous, hurried notes, aunts, cousins, +nieces, daughters, all most beautiful, fell one after one, yet all at +once, like pearl beads dropping sudden from their strings.’ + +‘Ahem!’ muttered the Outcast, who had in the daring disguise of a +respectable person found his way into the assembly. ‘It seems to me +that I have heard something like that before!’ + +‘Then,’ continued Flaxius, ‘there rose amid wild clouds incarnadine, +the form of Siva with his glory on. He bore in one hand the _Triçula_ +or trident; and without speaking, he pointed impressively at its three +points.’ + +All present were in breathless awe. + +‘Then he disappeared, and I beheld the terrible Vishnu. He held up his +three fingers and vanished in turn. + +‘And anon from the cloud there came an awful Rakhshi or demon. And he +held up three arrows--winked at me and nodded, and disappeared in a +clap of thunder! + +‘From which I learned, O king, that thou must gather together all the +most beautiful princesses who are eligible. Then turn all the people in +the town out of their houses for one day, and put a princess into every +house.’ + +The excitement was at its height. + +‘Then, O king, let thy three sons, armed with bows and arrows, send +each a shaft at random into the city. And where it hits, there will +each bride be found.’ + +‘What thou hast said, O Flaxius, shall be done,’ replied the king. + +And it was done, _secundum artem_, in the proper way. Each prince +took his place at the great window, and let fly an arrow. The eldest +and the second-best son, one after the other, hit a house. It was +considered a great miracle that both of them were perfectly delighted +with the success which attended their aim, but Flaxius, observing a +wink in the eye of the Outcast, elicited from him the fact that both +of the princes, who were excellent archers, had been previously and +respectively in love with these very girls, and that there had been, in +fact, a little arrangement made by the help of the gypsy. For as Rum +Kove, the poet, sang in Zend: + + + Full many a shaft at random sent + Hits mark the archer surely meant. + + +Now it happened that Arjūn, the youngest, could pull the long bow +better than any of them; in fact, he had been heard to say that he +could split a hair at a hundred yards, or hit a thunderbolt with a +bolt head as it passed whizzing by. And there was in the armoury of +the palace a mighty bow which no one else on earth could bend, which +he chose for this occasion, but by the secret suggestion of Flaxius +he aimed over the town. And when he discharged the arrow, he gave the +bow and it, at the instant, a peculiar impulse, which skilled archers +understand, so that the shaft flew miles away far into the forest. + +Then messengers were sent to trace its course, which they did; and +on returning repeated that they had found it sticking in the top of +a tamarind-tree, in the foliage, like a hairpin passed through the +chignon or gathered hair of a maiden. + +So the king summoned Flaxius and all the learned men to know what +should be done. And it was unanimously agreed that Arjūn must marry the +tree; there being many precedents to prove that trees were a kind of +human beings, only that they grew with their heads in the ground, their +forked branches being legs. Also, that according to legends of many +lands, men have descended from them. + +[On which subject the Outcast expressed his assent, _sotto voce_, to +Flaxius, but added that he believed the said men had first ascended +them to steal fruit.] + +So there was a procession formed; and going to the tamarind-tree, the +king and prince and all concerned bowed before it, expressing hopes +that it was in good health; and finally proposed the marriage. When at +that instant came a charming breeze, before which the tree bowed its +head as if in assent, and the match was concluded. Then rich gifts were +laid before the bride and left there with a guard, and the king and his +cortège returned home. + +When lo! the next day there were found spread on a table in the grand +hall of the palace, other gifts, exceeding rich, with a purple scroll, +on which was inscribed in letters of silver: + + + ‘The Tamarind herself commends, + And to the prince these presents sends, + And humbly begs of him that he + Will seek the forest speedily; + Unto the spot where she doth bide, + And bear away his loving bride.’ + + +So they all went once more. And when they were before the tree, they +saw it slowly shrink to smaller space, its foliage turning into curling +hair, till in its place there stood a maiden fair. + +And this was, of course, the fair Sakhara, who being found to be of +royal blood, was duly wedded to Arjūn--the king sagely observing that +‘it was manifestly the will of the gods.’ And here endeth the story of +her and of Arjūn. + +Now by the powerful influence of Flaxius there was a special +investigation of the case of the Outcast, by the entire College +of Brahmins, with a view to his rehabilitation, since there were +precedents for it. And it was found that in a previous existence, +a million of years before, he had been a Crow. And of him the most +learned of the Brahmins discovered the following history of his Jatakas +in an ancient Sanscrit scroll: + + +THE HISTORY OF BHUSANDA + +Contemplate steadfastly the divine glory, cast thy soul into the +sparkling depths of the infinite sea, whose fishes are gods, whose +waves are the ages! + +It is written in the Ramayana, it was told of yore by the Rishis. Once +there was a man named Bhusanda, who was the Crow that related to the +eagle Garuda, the bird of Vishnu, the deeds of Rama to convince him +that the latter was greater than Shiva and Vishnu. + +Nor was Bhusanda utterly evil, neither was he bad, but the spirit of +mockery was in him, for, ever doing good deeds, he wanted reverence; he +was as a silver bell with a flaw. + +And when a youth, Bhusanda was worshipping Shiva in the temple, there +entered the holy Gūrū, his teacher. And Bhusanda, seeing him enter, for +a jest, being also mightily exalted with ideas of his own wisdom, did +not greet or notice his Gūrū. Which thing the teacher, in his extreme +humility and mildness, would have passed unnoted. But the God above, +in his rage at this insolence, thundered from heaven at Bhusanda the +awful doom of eternal damnation. + +Then the Gūrū who knew not revenge or anger, flung himself on his face +before the God and prayed for a remission of the sentence. And the God, +relenting, said: + +‘He shall pass through one thousand transformations, in all of them +shall he be poor, but crafty and wise. He shall adore Vishnu, yet ever +call aloud my name!’ + +Then after his death, he became a serpent, and so passed through a +thousand forms, and at last became a Brahmin again. Yet was he still, +as erst, incorrigible; and the devilry of quizzing and satire would not +leave his heart, despite his goodness. Among men, gods, and devils, no +one dared so much as he for a joke. + +Now there are ten sons of Brahma, even the ten Rishis, and these are: +Daksha, Pulastya, Agni, Washishta, Brigu, Atri, Maritshi, Narada, +Pulagen, Kratū. Each of them--all of them--truly an awful _gooroo_! And +one day when one of these was lecturing on the attributes of God, his +own father, Bhusanda, ventured to differ with him in opinion, yea even +to contradict him. Whereupon the Rishi, in a rage at such stupendous +impudence, condemned him in his next life to become a crow; which he +did, but took it all so cheerfully, and continued to say so many good +things, that the Rishi, to soften the sentence, taught him to call the +name of _Rama_. [Whom the Romi or Gypsies worship, and from whom they +take their name, the crow being among the Brahmins the symbol of the +sun, who is the mother of the Romany.] + +Now when Rama was born, the Crow flew unto him, and accompanied him in +all his childhood; and as the god performed his great deeds, Bhusanda, +every morning, on the top of the Blue Mountain, narrated them to all +the birds assembled, who spread them over all the world. And so in +due time it was written that he should become a man again, named +Dschim Crow, and turn up some day or other at the court of the city of +Chotahazripoora in company with a great and marvellous sage named F----. + + * * * * * + +Here the manuscript ended abruptly, and it seemed to one or two experts +present that these last lines were in a somewhat different ink from the +rest, and looked like a later addition. But these profitably held their +peace. And as it was a tremendous feather in the caps of the assembled +Brahmins to have discovered the long lost Crow, they made the most of +him. + +Whereupon the Crow fell into a trance, which lasted many hours. And +when he recovered, he narrated how Rama had appeared unto him in a +vision, and assured him that every one of the Brahmins there present +was destined to become a number-one god in the next generation, and +to keep on rising for nine hundred and ninety-four million _Kalpacs_, +and then attain Nirvana; also that the whole party, including himself, +while here on earth, would be deemed incapable of committing any sin +or crime. He had indeed received, as a first instalment of plenary +indulgence, a special dispensation and injunction to drink _aràk_ +toddy in honour of Rama, to be supplied to him by the Sacred College. +Whereupon he was invested with the yellow thread, and declared to be a +saint. + + * * * * * + +It was midnight, and Flaxius and Dschim Crow sat on either side of a +pearl-inlaid table, on seats set with gems, and between them was the +Holy Bottle with gold cups. + +‘_Well!_’ observed Flaxius, ‘of all the in-fer-nal, lying, cold-frozen, +brazen, impudent, cheeky humbugs whom I ever encountered on earth, +thou, my son, dost take the cake! But yesterday a Pariah, and to-day +directing all the Brahmins as their chief!’ + +‘_Que veux-tu, mon vieux?_’ replied the Holy Crow, who in his new +capacity of divine of course divined all the languages of the future: + + + ‘Surely ’tis not by modesty + That gods attain to what they be: + For face, and cheek, since time began, + Were aye the noblest part of man, + And he who hath but impudence + To all things hath sublime pretence. + + +For the very essence of the most orthodox religion is that man is to be +saved by faith alone, good works being only manifestations of faith; +and of all faith ever roasted or toasted, stewed or brewed in the +kitchen of theology, there is none like a holy faith in one’s own self, +pious auto-reliance, devout assurance, divine audacity, and sanctified +looking-down on everybody, which latter is the true secret of all +ecclesiastical supremacy and influence, as we saints well know. + +‘And note you, that this full faith and belief in oneself is neither +egoism nor egotism, but only religion _directed inward_, devotion +which has gone to the heart instead of striking outward into +Pharisaical displays of modesty, wherewith the world is more deluded +and gulled than by all the good honest boldness ever obtruded on it. +For he who believes in his lucky star brings to the battle of life +nine-tenths of victory. Therefore, O illustrious patron, I pray you +believe that this which you call Cheek in me is indeed no vanity or +idle desire to be admired by the world, for which I verily do not care +three straws, esteeming its praise or blame as all stuff and taradiddle: + + + ‘Trumpery, trash, rubbish and hum, + _Fatras_, frippery, bubble and scum, + Leather-prunella, drugs and chaff, + Refuse, sweepings, sediment, raff, + Trifling, paltry, petty or small; + Frivolous stuff worth nothing at all, + Hardly anything, no great shakes; + _Peu de chose_ and as farthing stakes, + Gimcracks, whim-whams, gammon and sells, + Fiddlestick, fudge and bagatelles, + Paltry, pitiful two-penny flams, + Fribbling, beggarly, pitiful crams; + Not worth mentioning, nor a rush, + Stuff and nonsense, humbug and tush! + + +‘For verily at _that_, and nothing more, do I esteem vanity and +the notice of the world or personal notoriety, or puffs, while, to +my taste, all applause, homage, hero-worship, clapping, hosannahs, +glorification and acclamation, raw or cooked, save so far that there +is _Fun_ in it all, may go to the devil and shake itself! But he who +is what you may call self-superstitious, or guided in all things, +as he thinks, by a _dæmon_ or star, or fairy, or fate, or strange +omens, by occult desires, and coincidences, always becomes strangely +self-confident, and yet not _vain_ or egoistic, because he feels as if +he were a wheelbarrow trundled by his god-- + + + ‘Or a top spun by a boy, + Or clay in the potter’s hands, + Or dough being kneaded, + Or a horse in harness, + Or paper under the pen, + Or a maid taken by force, + Or potatoes being mashed, + Or type being set, + Or a garment being shaped, + Or a rocket set fire to, + Or a fiddle being played, + Or an arrow shot from a bow, + Or a cake being mixed, + Or a twine in cat’s-cradle, + Or a sermon being preached, + Or a puppet being played, + Or a pig driven to market, + Or a football in a game, + Or a top being spun, + Or a boat being steered, + + +or anything or anybody under external direction. Now the egoist +believes himself to be, and the vain man is sure that he is, the actor +and the thing acted on, all in one, but the blind believer in self is +only confident that he is well-directed. _Eccomi!_’ + +‘A subtle distinction,’ said Flaxius, ‘and not without truth.’ + +‘Moreover, and this should be noted,’ resumed the Holy Crow, ‘he who +is by God’s grace even a little of a Humourist is above all men most +likely to be misunderstood in this matter. For verily, I swear by this +Holy Bottle, that when _I_ took no notice of the Gūrū, for which Shiva +wished to send me to hell, ’twas not from vanity of great wisdom, (as +those lying old devils the Brahmins declared), but just to see what +sort of a rum face he would cut; and when I disputed with the son of +Brahma as to the divine attributes of his father, I hope I may be +split, salted and dried in hell like a fish, if it was that I pretended +to know more about the Governor than he did, devil a bit! Nay, it +was only that the fiend of Fun inspired me to a stupendous, palpable +absurdity, which, rightly understood, was an act of the deepest +reverence. But the Rishi was a fool, even as the Brahmins and old Vish +himself were also, and Shiv into the bargain.’ + +‘I believe thee, O Crow,’ replied Flaxius, ‘and it is true that the +dull world often attributes to self-conceit that which is truly an +artistic or humorously inspired conception. Many a creator and artist +have I seen carried away by pride or faith in his inspiration, who had, +God wot! little pride in himself. But, O Dschim Crow, he had, as thou +ever hast, the sublime enjoyment of the joke, or idea, albeit gods and +men missed the point!’ + +‘Amen,’ quoth the Crow. ‘Let us drink!’ + +‘And now,’ quoth Flaxius, ‘that the sun shines, thou wilt, I suppose, +begin to make hay, or lay up money for the rainy days.’ + +‘By the Wheel of Heaven, not I!’ exclaimed the Crow. ‘He that saves up +money keeps it from circulating, which is a great crime, yea, a robbery +of the widow and the orphan. Albeit, should such a chance occur of +saving up money at another man’s expense, as once befell me, I will not +say that I will utterly reject it. One ought to have cash in hand for +holy charities and small treats.’ + +‘I pray thee, tell me the tale,’ answered Flaxius. + +‘That will I,’ exclaimed the Crow, after a drink. ‘Once upon a time, +when Bramadatta was reigning in Benares in Kasi, it befell that I +was born, and when I grew up I had a small place under the treasurer, +Bunder Shroff Kash. + +‘One day I bewailed that I was poor, and the treasurer, overhearing me, +told it to the king at his elbow; and the king, calling me, said: + +‘“Excellent young man, it is very easy to get rich. Remember that _a +penny saved is a penny earned_. Now to encourage, I will give thee an +order on the treasury, commanding that when thou shalt have saved a +penny it shall be doubled.” + +‘“May your glory endure for ever, O Life of the World!” I replied; “but +while you are about it, make it _pence_.” + +‘He did so, and the order was written. But the king forgot to limit the +payment! He thought I would only draw once, or a penny at a time, but I +knew a trick worth two of that. I went with my penny and drew another. + +‘The next day I came and said, “I have saved twopence, pray pay the +equivalent.” The next day I brought fourpence, and the next eight; and +so it went on, till ere long the treasurer begged for credit. Now I +paid the treasurer a handsome percentage to keep quiet--and he quieted. +But at last the thing got beyond all bounds, and the treasurer one day +informed the king that he was bankrupt, and owed more than the whole +kingdom was worth, and all the world with it. For the sum due me was: +_Lakhs of Rupees_ 972,687,265,390,221. + +‘Then the king got into a fine rage, and would fain have had me put to +death. But the treasurer said, “Your majesty, it would be better to +compromise with such a brilliant financier, and employ him to collect +the taxes”; which was done. + +‘When this lesson was ended, the Supreme Deity, the All-Knowing One +himself, repeated this stanza: + + + ‘“With humblest start on a trifling capital + A shrewd and able man will rise to wealth, + E’en as his breath can nurse a tiny flame.” + + +‘And there are many tables and fables in which something like this is +to be found, or will be, as, for instance, _The Jātakas from the Pali_, +edited by Professor E. B. Cowell, who will in a future age be known as +a great, good, wise, illustrious, and learned Sanskritist, and in the +Parables of _Buddhagosha and Dhammapady_ (or the Accused Irishman), and +the _Divyāvadāna_, and the _Kathā Sārit Sāgara_. But mine, note ye, +is the Original Jacobs, and the first true prototype, model, pattern, +precedent, protoplast, mould, ensample, matrix, and paradigm of them +all. All the rest of them being mere re-echoes, shadows, reflexes, +apographs, and adumbrations of mine. _Selah!_’ + +‘And how long dost thou expect to remain here in clover, O Incarnation +of Bhusanda, and favourite of Rama?’ inquired Flaxius. + +‘I hope to run the machine of the Sacred College,’ replied the Crow, +critically eyeing his liquor, ‘till a spring breaks, or a screw comes +loose--or, what is quite as likely, till I find the affair is slow and +the fun giving out--when I will start as a _yoghi_ on a pilgrimage, or +a Banjari or Nāt--_jeckno covva miri hai_----’ + + + ‘’Tis all one to me, + Where on earth I be; + So I only pass the time in jollity, + Where the girls abound, + And good drink is found, + And a changing round of life I ever see. + With a tol-diddle, + And a rol-diddle, + And a tol-de-rol-de-rol-de diddle dee! + + +‘All-so, _camarado, buona sera_! Meet me again in life when life seems +dull!’ + + * * * * * + +‘_Hæc fabula docet_,’ wrote Flaxius, ‘that in this life we should not +be too much guided by appearances. For, firstly, the Tale of Sakhara +and Arjun as it occurs in the _Asiatic Journal_ of 1829, whence it +was transferred by Grimm to his work on _Women’s Names derived from +Plants_, might seem to many to have been the original source, whereas +it is only a mutilated and abridged version, as appears from the fact +that I, who had so much to do with the plot, am not mentioned in it, +nor does Dschim Crow once occur in the story. Neither are there in it +those beautiful specimens of Indian poetry in the original Romany, or +Romanyana, dialect (allied to Sanskrit) which prove the fidelity of my +text. + +‘Secondly, that the king did not surmise that there was any “working of +the oracle,” as regarded the shooting of the three arrows, or that the +will of the gods is sometimes managed even by such characters as the +Crow. For it was the Crow, indeed, who pulled all the wires, wrote the +lady’s letter, and told all the needful lies on this occasion. + +‘Thirdly, that it came not to the surface, neither did it appear to +man, that Dschim Crow, who was an expert penman, added that little +postscript to the old manuscript. + +‘Fourthly, that it is most probable that the vast majority of my +readers will fondly believe that I am the author of the old MS. +_History of Bhusanda_, whereas it is really given in the _Ramayana_, +and extracted therefrom by Nork in his _Symbolisches-mythologisches +Real-Wörterbuch_, vol. i. p. 259. + +‘Fifthly, that Brahma, Siva, Vishnu and Co., including all the saints, +were utterly mistaken in the true character of the Crow [even as a +reviewer sometimes is at the present day when he adventures into +literature]. Now, this showing how the Hindoo Trinity made a fool +of itself firstly, by putting Pantagruelism into a Crow, and then +expecting to ever get it out, is, I am sure, one of those subtle +sarcasms of the Pariah literature, which worked its way into the +regular Scriptures, somewhat in the same way as the erotic, or +erratic, melodrama of the Song of Solomon was insinuated (probably by +some Hebrew joker) into the Old Testament. + +‘Sixthly, that as there are substances, which to the vulgar sense +seem to be one and the same, yet which chemistry shows are radically +different elements, so there are natures like that of the Crow, which +do not care twopence for applause, or what the world thinks of them, +and yet are called _egoistic_ when their inspiration consists in +yielding to influences which, had they guided them, might indeed have +caused them to be called vain. + +‘Seventhly, that the Crow, being incorrigible and incurable, will +continue to manifest himself as a poor devil, and be considered as “a +comic fella, doncher know,” and as nothing but a swell jester--until +gods and saints get more sense.’ + +[9] This exquisitely beautiful incantation poem will be readily +intelligible to every Sanskritist, with the exception perhaps of the +last line, which is in a later vulgar dialect. It means, accurately +translated: ‘I am a gypsy foot-traveller.’ In common dialect it would +be, ‘_Ro-mani pat-engro shom_.’ _Omani_ for ‘Romany’ occurs in _The +English Gypsies and their Language_. + + + + +THE WONDERFUL STORY OF MISS JESABELLE ROCKHARD + +WITH A SERIOUS VINDICATION OF HER PROTOTYPES + +OR FLAXIUS IN ENGLAND + + ‘And thus outspoke ye Oracle: + A very truth to thee I tell: + If thou canst a woman finde, + With such an earth-subduing minde + And with soule so stern and deepe, + That she can a secret keepe. + Then know of verie truth that she + A great Enchauntresse soon will be, + A queen in soothe or faery.’ + + +IT was five o’clock tea at Lady Puddlebrooke’s--a somewhat famous +weekly rendezvous, which many called ‘The Meet,’ because there +assembled on the occasion so many gallant hunters of gossip, and +harriers of character, who were soon let slip in full cry of the +_chronique scandaleuse_ of the day. The which chronicle, be it +remarked, by the way, is by far the most wonderful flying leaf, as such +journals were once called, which was ever compiled, since every soul +implicitly believes that there is in it the name of Everybody else, and +that all which is said of others in it is true, while their own names +are never there--or, if there, invariably attached to falsehoods, and +out of place. + +Now, while all the good Christians, philanthropists, nobly honest +agnostics, angelic virgins who had been presented, dignified and +ferocious matrons, clergymen, positivists, and other seekers after +truth, were--as a nasty, cynical journalist who was present, +remarked--‘ravening and battening on their garbage,’ which meant +repeating what they had read in the society papers, or preparing what +would soon appear in them, Flaxius had withdrawn to a quiet corner +and an easy sofa, where he was joined by Miss Jesabelle Rockhard, a +lady of whom all her friends said: ‘It certainly cannot be denied that +she is good-looking’; others limiting this praise to ‘_distinguée_,’ +while some reduced it to ‘striking,’ which she certainly was, being a +hard hitter in conversation, and not above fibbing when it came to a +scratch. That she was ‘highly intelligent’ and an _esprit fort_, gifted +with the unscrupulousness which she herself graced with the name of +Will, was manifested at a glance, and impressively set forth by the +first utterance of her voice to any reader of the human heart. + +She was between afternoon and twilight as regarded age, and of very +limited means; facts which she stated with the utmost candour to +everybody. Nor was she devoid of a certain intuition or clairvoyance +as regarded ability in others, as she had creditably shown by divining +that Flaxius was a character. She determined that she would draw him +out to the last hair, and completely ascertain all there was in him. +In forming this resolution she had, as the Americans express it, +unconsciously, ‘taken out a mighty big contract,’ which was the further +impeded by the fact that the party of the other part knew exactly how +much stock she held, and what was her capital, while she--poor little +soul--knew nothing at all as to the resources of the adversary. + +But she came up to the assault gallantly. There was something in her +very smile with its pinch in the lips, and in the ring of her keen +voice, which seemed to say: ‘I’m arch and airy, with the gay, sarcastic +tone of society; you must accept all my stings with a delighted +air--and you’ll be in bad form if you don’t. Beware! beware!’ + +‘Ah, Mr. Flaxius, just as one would expect--withdrawn from the +gossiping, frivolous crowd. You set up to be intellectual, I believe.’ + +There are certain very common and very silly speeches of this kind +current, which tease sensible people, because they are hard to answer. +So true is it that a fool can roll a stone into a well which fifty wise +men cannot get out. But Flaxius replied with divine suavity: + +‘If being out of the swim is a sign of setting up to be intellectual, +then, I suppose, as you are here, that you also advance the same claim, +and would fain remind me of it.’ Here the smile was beautifully genial, +as if to say: ‘’Tis all my fun.’ + +‘Confound his cheeky impudence!’ thought Miss Jesabelle. And she +promptly countered. + +‘So you _do_ set up to be intellectual, then? Oh, you needn’t deny +it--you’ve admitted it.’ + +‘True,’ exclaimed Flaxius, ‘and I have heard from other people +the same of you. And yet I am not sure,’ he added, in so dreamy, +meditative a manner, that he seemed to be thinking of anything except +Miss Rockhard, ‘that ’tis not better to be able to set oneself up +independently--though ever so little--than to have to rely on others to +do it for us!’ + +And looking at Miss Jesabelle with a smile that was child-like and +bland, he added: + +‘Ask me some more of those hard questions, please!’ + +‘I really believe,’ answered the lady with some acerbity (‘Aha!’ +thought Flaxius, ‘the first blood drawn!’)--‘that you must have +belonged to the Disagreeable Club, whose members make a practice of +irritating and retorting, like cabmen.’ + +‘Ah!’ exclaimed Flaxius, ‘if I had not, I should have been indeed +ill-qualified for conversation with an advanced young lady of the _fin +de siècle_. How often she reminds me of a Spanish fairy-tale. May I +tell it?’ he asked, like a little boy. + +‘Oh, certainly, if it amuses you,’ replied the young lady in a tone +half-contemptuously vexed, yet half interested in this extraordinary +stranger. + +‘Once upon a time,’ said Flaxius, ‘there were three brothers, and the +two elder were a pair of awful blackguards.’ + +‘Truly, it begins beautifully!’ remarked Miss Rockhard scornfully. + +‘Doesn’t it?’ quoth Flaxius gleefully. ‘And it’s nothing to what’s +a-coming. Well, there was a king of the country, and he had a beautiful +daughter--at least she was _distinguée_, or what you might call +_stunning_, for she was awful at being disagreeable, and could shut up +any man in chaff, or worse--not to draw it too fine. And if anybody +dared to answer her--oh, then she became angry! + +‘Now the king, finding that his daughter kept his court all the time +in an uproar, issued a proclamation, saying that whoever could beat the +princess in abuse should have her to wife, and welcome. Then the two +elder brothers rejoiced, each being sure that he would win the prize. +But the younger, who was a sort of Saint Johnny, with no great gift of +the gab, went and sat sorrowfully in the woods, weeping to think he had +no chance to win the princess, and wishing he had passed his boyhood in +playing chuck-farthing, and hanging about the docks with other little +guttersnipes, and had not wasted it in going to school and church and +penny-readings. + +‘And while he sat there weeping, and eating a great slice of +water-melon, mingling his tears with the seeds, there came by an Irish +fairy of his acquaintance. + +‘“An’ what is it yees wape-in an’ bodderin’ about, _alanna_?” she asked +kindly. + +‘Then the youth told her his trouble, and how he would like to win the +princess, but wanted that _copia verborum_, or elegant “fluency of +sass,” as it is called in America, which was necessary to secure it. + +‘“Och, _monoma diaoul!_ and tear and agers!” exclaimed the fairy, +“sure, if it’s nothin’ but blay-gairdin’ is naded, it’s mesilf that’ll +tache ye how to bate thim all intoirely. Pattherin’ an’ cantin’ is it! +and me here that blissed the great Daniel O’Connell in his cradle, an’ +gave him the illigant spache that shut up all the sass in Parliamint. + + +‘“Great O’Connell, the Libherather, +An’ salvathor of Oireland’s oisle! + + +‘“Whoop! _Fa-na-ballah_, and Erin-go-braugh!” cried the fairy as she +danced in a ring, brandishing her broom. “And now, ye divil, sit down +till I give yees a lisson in polite litherature.” + +‘I forbear for certain reasons to give you the conversation which +occurred between the princess and the two brothers, in which they +were utterly silenced. Then, turning to the youngest, she exclaimed +scornfully: + +‘“And I suppose you, with your white egg-fruit face of an idiotic +scallawag, set up for being intellectual--intellectual enough to smash +_me_--that is, if you know what the word means, you Number Three +Mackerel with the head gone!” + +‘“It is just like your ante-penultimate superfluitancy to mundivagate +anent my candicancy,’ replied the youth indignantly. ‘Thou tramontarian +tomboy-trollope and trull-cat, thou quadruplicate quean, mopsy minx, +and metaphrastic harridame--reintegrated in thy deligration even to +conquassentiality--thou mere projectile of an eolipile--nay, I go so +far as to call thee a true ultimatum of the fourth effusion--dug up +by a divarication of conduplicated metatarsity--thou art all this as +thy conscience deterrates ... yea and thou art moreover addicted to +_lipothymy_ and all such enormities and vices!” + +‘Thereupon the princess gave it to him back, with all that there is +in Grose’s _Slang Dictionary_, and Romany to boot--which was pretty +bad; but when he retorted with a passage from Browning’s _Sordello_, +she gave it up, and fell into a fit of rage, foaming at the mouth. And +having recovered, she married him, and they lived like the devil ever +after.’ + +Now Flaxius had the gift of voice, and with it that of the +story-teller, to the degree of well-nigh transcending language itself; +for one could read the full meaning of every word in his intonation, +and eyes and gestures; these latter were never extravagant, but +strangely significant, as they well might be, since he knew as only the +priests of old knew the wonderful Sign Language which men have found of +late years on every Etruscan vase--much of which is still found even +among the peasant-children of Italy. And as a small group of guests had +gathered round to hear the legend, there were roars of final laughter, +in which Miss Jesabelle herself joined with a good-will, for she had +begun to realise that there was a lion in this man, and as the story +had been told for _her_, she shrewdly made the very best of it. + +‘You tell a fairy-tale so well,’ she said to Flaxius, when they were +again together, and no one near, ‘as to make one regret that there are +no more fairies or magic, or rather that such fancies never were.’ + +‘And if there were,’ replied the sage, ‘you and the world would still +necessarily remain in ignorance of them.’ + +‘Permit me,’ replied Miss Rockhard, ‘to differ with you. I _presume_,’ +she added, with a slightly sarcastic expression, ‘that I am _quite_ as +likely as you are to be acquainted, or possibly familiar, with all that +has been investigated by science--the London Library and British Museum +being open to all--and I can assure you that despite Madame Blavatsky +and Mr. Sinnett and Colonel Olcott--very nice men they are--not the +slightest scientific proof of the existence of fairies or magic has +ever been detected.’ + +‘Very true,’ rejoined Flaxius imperturbably. ‘I did not say that +they existed. I only assert that, from the very nature of things, +if they do, they _must_ be concealed from man as he now is. The more +indubitable proof of such occult matters would bring about a premature +confusion in humanity which would have disastrous results.’ + +‘_I_ presume _not_, in certain minds at least,’ said Miss Rockhard, +with an expression which denoted that she considered herself to be one +of this favoured few. ‘How can you explain however,’ she added, ‘that +few, if any, know the mysteries?’ + +‘Simply because there are so few people living who can keep a secret +or hold their tongues. The one great or tremendous task of the ancient +priesthoods, as of the modern Jesuits, was not to get great ideas, but +to train men to keep quiet, and not to tell tales out of school.’ + +‘There again you are _quite_ wrong,’ remarked the lady. ‘If mere +firm reticence would attract revelation, _I_, certainly, would be +among the favoured. On that subject you need not speak further, for +it simply does not admit discussion. I have kept,’ she added, ‘in my +time a secret of vast importance, on which the fate of a great family +depended, for many months, till it all blew over.’ + +‘And then,’ reflected Flaxius, ‘came the great blow-up in consequence +of her blowing, or letting it out. I remember it all. Truly she +deserves a lesson for all this. Do you know,’ he added amiably, ‘I +think, Miss Rockhard, that this matter may possibly be tested. There is +an ugly little old story about certain nuns who wanted a Pope to make +female confessors, and he promised to do so if they would keep a box +unopened for a day. They all swore on their salvation to do so; but +the Pope was hardly out of the convent before they all ran to the box +and lifted the lid, when out flew a bird, which vanished through the +window.’ + +‘If you think that a silly and slanderous old tale, which is only +disgraceful to one who tells it, is an _argument_,’ said the lady, ‘I +have no more to say.’ + +‘But I have this to suggest,’ replied Flaxius. ‘I have heard--for I do +not assert it--that there is even now in London a person who is endowed +with such strangely supernatural gifts that she may be ranked with the +witches or fairies.’ + +‘At a guinea a visit, I presume,’ remarked Miss Rockhard with her +sarcastic smile more fully developed than ever. ‘_Merci_, my means do +not permit of such expensive researches into occult philosophy.’ + +‘Ah, that is the most remarkable part of it all,’ replied Flaxius. +‘She takes nothing; nay, she invariably makes very valuable gifts; but +on the strictest conditions of secrecy--and she is to the last degree +exacting in this respect--as also that those whom she favours shall be +gifted with superior intellects--not led by mere curiosity.’ + +‘And you expect me to believe this?’ + +‘Certainly not. I never said a word as to belief. I only say that _I_ +believe you will incur no kind of risk or cost if you seek her.’ + +‘And you will obtain access for me to your witch?’ + +‘She is not _my_ witch, and I have no desire whatever to send you to +her. I only say that if you will promise on your honour to observe +sacred secrecy even as to knowing of her existence, I will give you her +address.’ + +‘Very well, I swear!’ + +‘She lives in Devonshire Street, near Regent’s Park. There is her card. +But I give you every warning. What you seek will require great truth, +secrecy, and self-command. And remember’--here the face of Flaxius +assumed an expression which Miss Rockhard had not seen before, and +under which she for an instant quailed, it was so marvellously strange +and dignified, as if he had forgotten himself into grandeur--‘remember +that if you succeed, I shall expect no thanks, and if you fail, yours +alone is the responsibility.’ + +‘Oh, I accept it,’ replied Miss Rockhard, recovering her flippancy. +‘Thanks awfully. I accept the _entire_ responsibility. What fun!’ + +And so with all her grace and vanity she swept away. + + * * * * * + +At four o’clock on the following afternoon--or ‘morning,’ as it +is called by those who probably look for midnight at fourteen +o’clock--Miss Rockhard found herself in Devonshire Street, seeking +the dwelling of the witch-fairy. And it was very naturally with an +intensely sarcastic smile that she finally discovered on a door a small +silver plate bearing the words: + + +MISS ALBAN, + +DRESSMAKER. + + +‘I might have expected it would be some humbug of the kind!’ thought +the fair Jesabelle. ‘I wonder whether the fairy drops her h’s. But let +us enter all the same into this Egyptian Hall and take a miracle or +two.’ + +She rang, and was admitted by a very pretty maid to a hall which was +somewhat singularly, but most artistically, decorated with antique +objects, the real meaning of which was, however, hardly apparent; and +was then conducted up a broad old staircase to a large _salon_, in +which the visitor detected a most extraordinary and original taste, +as regards furniture, without the least obtrusive sign of expenditure +or cost. There was not a thing in the room which looked as if it +had been the ‘gem’ of a bric-a-brac shop, or worthy a place in the +great Rothschild pawnbroker collection of Frankfort, or bought at a +Demiduffer sale, and many of the antiques would not have been valued +at twopence by the Jew; but even Miss Rockhard, albeit her archæology +was of the slenderest, save on Chippendale, lace, Japaneseries, +Chineseries, crockeries, glass, Sèvres, and rococery in general, or +trash in particular, could not help admitting that there was a hidden +depth of knowledge and artistic taste in what she saw, which had +nothing in common with bargains, fashion or the shop. + +Suddenly looking up, Miss Rockhard saw before her a lady who, though +beautiful, was not to be lightly described as ‘a beauty,’ considering +the usual vulgar associations with the word. There was a depth of +expression and moral truth, allied to strength of character, in her +face which would have shamed into oblivion the charm of a Helen, who +was (according to Flaxius) only a professional beauty of the popular +kind after all. ‘And such,’ adds Flaxius, ‘I have invariably found all +fashionable belles of the season (“whom every one is talking about”) to +be.’ + +‘I am Miss Alban,’ said the lady to the visitor, ‘and I shall be +pleased to aid you in the object of your call. You desire indubitable +proof of the existence of supernatural or magical influences or beings, +and I can supply it.’ + +‘You are, ahem! I believe, a--dressmaker,’ said Miss Rockhard, with +considerable sarcasm. For she felt with every word and glance that +Miss Alban was immeasurably her superior in exactly that in which she +would have liked to be great herself: or in calm self-possession, +penetration, and the terrible art of influencing others, and being +invulnerable. Therefore it was with something like suppressed +exasperation, wrapped up in a smile, that she exclaimed: ‘A dressmaker!’ + +‘I appear to every one,’ replied Miss Alban, looking the other clearly +in the eyes, ‘as the ideal ministrant of what they most desire in life. +What _you_ prize above everything is simply to appear well before +everybody, be it in good looks or clothes as regards the body, and +accomplishments and setting people down and “besting” them as regards +the mind, which all amounts to mere show or dress, and therefore I +appear to you as a _modiste_.’ + +‘I confess,’ declared Miss Rockhard, who had always, with all her +failings, a substratum of frank courage as regarded her poverty and +unavoidable defects, being therein no snob, ‘that as I have only one +decent evening-dress in the world, and am getting to the end of my +twenties, or to a time when dress becomes more needful, and as I live +for society, I _do_ regard externals with love and envy. But as for the +proof of enchantment----’ + +‘I promise,’ replied Miss Alban, ‘to fully and perfectly convince and +satisfy you before you leave this room, that there is such a thing +as magic, by which I mean simply to show you something absolutely +inexplicable by _your_ knowledge of science.’ + +‘I ask no more than _that_ as regards your sorcery,’ said Miss Rockhard +with a complacent smile. + +‘While as to dress, I promise that you shall be at no expense, and for +life, the best dressed woman in London, or even in New York or Paris. +But on one condition.’ + +‘I know--absolute secrecy. That for me is a mere trifle.’ + +‘It is no “mere trifle,” as you will find, but, especially for you, a +terribly difficult and onerous task. For know that the secrecy must +be without speck or flaw. You are not to say that you have _heard_ +of fairy dressmakers or jest with people who ask you whence you had +your garments, in such a way as to cause surmises as to the truth; and +if you fail you must not say, “_I thought_ this or that,” as people +of weak minds always do. There is to be no allowance for thought, or +prevarication, or independence, or misfortune or excuses. If you can +persevere in merely keeping a secret to your own advantage, I promise +you that dress shall not be the limit of my favours, and you shall lead +a long and happy and highly-honoured life. But if you fail, that is, if +by the _least_ inadvertency, or even accident, you betray the secret, +you will incur a terrible disgrace, and a suffering and humiliated +life. Consider well, and do not let your vanity lead you to ruin.’ + +‘I think,’ said Miss Rockhard, with the same old contemptuous smile, +‘that we may proceed to the proof. As I happen to know my own mind a +little better than you probably do, I am better aware of my capacity +for secrecy. I accept your conditions.’ + +‘The proof is very easy,’ replied Miss Alban, taking from a drawer in +a cabinet what seemed to be a large walnut. ‘Did you ever hear of the +famous wardrobe walnuts of the witch tree of Benevento? Legend says +that a prince once filled a palace with the splendid garments in +cloth of gold, ermine, velvet and pearls, which he drew from this one +nut.[10] Now, are you ready?’ + +‘Certainly,’ replied the visitor. + +‘And should I perform this miracle, you will, unconditionally once and +for all accept it on your honour as a proof of magic power? If not, we +will try something else.’ + +‘No,’ answered Jesabelle, who was thinking more of being beautifully +attired than of all the miracles or oaths ever heard of. ‘The dress +will be proof enough in all conscience.’ + +As she spoke, her outer garment fell off, and she stepped out of it, +while Miss Alban, opening the walnut, drew from it what seemed at +first to be a mere cobweb, which she shook and shook out into greater +fulness, till she placed it on Miss Jesabelle who, to do her justice, +had really a fine little figure, just made to be very well dressed, +with the one drawback of large feet and hands. + +‘Now tell me,’ said the dressmaker, ‘what colour or material or style +would you prefer?’ + +‘Nothing extravagant as regards expense,’ replied Miss Rockhard, ‘no +cloth of gold or pearl-embroideries or anything to make people wonder +where the money came from, when all the world knows how poor I am. Grey +silk will do; but as elegant, original, and beautiful in fit and fold +as a robe can be.’ + +‘_C’est fait_,’ said Miss Alban. ‘Rise and look into yonder glass!’ + +Then Miss Rockhard looked and could hardly believe her own eyes, such +a vision of beauty was before her. For, as has been already intimated, +she was really very ‘good-looking,’ with a fine figure, both being of +the kind which are incredibly improved by tasteful dress, so that she +came out (like fireworks) in a grand ball, or at a fête, when fortune +favoured her. + +But never before, under the most benign influence of a grand cheque +from her benevolent aunt, had she bloomed out like this. It was more +than a fit, more than modelling to the form, more than artistic +folds after any painting, for there was in the fluent grace and easy +elegance of that skirt and bust an æsthetic apocalypse. ‘Which is,’ +pencils Flaxius, ‘a big word for a man, but not too much, under the +circumstances, for a woman.’ + +Even the fairy smiled, being feminine, at the success, and said: + +‘There is still a trifle or two wanting.’ She took from the drawer a +wisp of straw, a coarse cord, or circle of clothes-line, and a simply +_horrid_ brooch of brass and glass, or of agate, which seemed, from +afar off, to have been bought in a common toy shop in the Burlington +Arcade, or under the cliff in Brighton, for threepence. She fastened +the wisp of straw round the wrist of Jesabelle, and lo! it became a +massy bracelet of gold in old Etruscan style, which would have maddened +Castellani, and sent a whole ball-room into convulsions of envy. The +brooch turned to a brilliant bouquet of diamonds, while the rope, with +eccentric, yet pretty, taste, remained exactly as it was, but in pure +gold, and, being tied in a bow-knot with folding ends, formed a very +original and elegant head-dress. + +The world hears a great deal about the tact of women, but there is a +great deal to be said on the subject--for and against. For while she +believed she had the keenest insight into everything, Miss Rockhard, +like all of her class and kind, had no more tact than an oyster, or +a hedge-hog, when it behoved her to suppress her needless pleonasms, +sarcasms, and little spasms of ‘pure cussedness.’ And over and above +all this, petty scepticism had so worked into all her being that as +soon as she had got over the first flush of admiration at her dress, +the old devil whispered in her ear not to show too much astonishment +or gratitude, ‘which means,’ he said, ‘that she has been too much +for you.’ Therefore, with exquisite good taste and characteristic +refinement, she said: + +‘Well, it’s an awfully clever bit of hanky-panky, I must say. I wonder +how on earth you do it!’ + +The fairy looked at her gravely, and replied: + +‘You said seriously, before I showed you this marvel, that if I could +effect it you would accept it once and for all as a proof of my power, +and your first words are an utter denial of it. You are neither +spontaneously grateful at heart, nor graceful nor polite in words. +Society and petty persiflage and small sneering and flippant sarcasm +have killed in you every noble quality. But I will give you another +proof which will defy doubt. Observe! Though your figure is good you +have undeniably immense hands, and your shoes, as you are aware, really +look like badly built gondolas. It is a great pity and it cuts you to +the very soul. Now, if I reduce these extremities of yours to something +like smallness and harmony with the rest, will you believe?’ + +What the reader may very well believe is that this speech was as gall, +worm-wood, coloquintida, nux-vomica, rue, quassia, extract of aloes, +acetic acid, verjuice, vitriol, and strychnine to the palate of Miss +Rockhard, but the end thereof made her forget all these amaritudes, and +she gasped out: + +‘Yes.’ + +‘And I am to hear nothing more about “hanky-panky,” or “how it is +done”?’ + +‘No.’ + +‘Then be it done!’ The fairy bade her be seated and took one of her +hands in her own, and began to sing a spell in a tongue which sounded +softly but strangely: + + + ‘Tāni-rani, sove a lay! + Chovihani chivs apré! + Tiri waster, tiri piri, + Boro dukkerin mi-deary! + Me bitchava lende sā, + Tinkni-bitti, vel ajā! + + Little lady, go to sleep! + Witch lays spell upon thee deep! + On thy hands and on thy feet, + Let the charm be strong and fleet! + So I order one and all + To become both neat and small!’ + + +So Miss Rockhard did indeed go to sleep, and on awaking found herself +in her own home, lying on the sofa in her own room. + + + ‘She would have thought it all a dream, + Save that round her form + Was still the dress of the fairy queen, + Which fitted her “like a charm”; + And her hands and feet were extremely neat, + And become intensely small; + “’Tis well, ’tis well,” said Jesabelle, + “For now I shall beat them all.”’ + + +It was not long before Miss Jesabelle Rockhard found that the fairy was +right in declaring that it was not such an easy matter to keep a secret +when its results are brilliantly paraded before society. Therefore the +successful alchemists of the olden time were said to live so plainly, +and to go in disguise, dodging about the world, as did Thomas Vaughan, +to escape observation. And as even they found it a fearful task, +it may be supposed that Miss Rockhard, who had a ten times harder +secret to keep than theirs, with not one-tenth part of their sense or +experience to keep it on, began to wonder anon whether she had not +spoken over-hastily when she commended her own powers of discretion as +a subject not open to discussion. + +‘The female sex,’ writes Flaxius in his great Analysis, ‘differs from +the male mostly in this, that it never takes naturally or instinctively +to rum or tobacco, neither does it ever feel conscience or remorse. +Fear of discovery it does indeed experience, and very sincere regret +or sorrow at incurring punishment, but whether any one woman since Eve +ever _regretted_ anything on principle, or _per se_, is as yet among +the unfound-outs. + +‘Wherein I discover,’ he observes, ‘a great and wise provision of +nature. For when we consider what a vast quantity there is of confused +conscience and misplaced remorse in man, we cannot be too thankful +that woman is _not_ afflicted with the same calamity; it being very +evident that if she were, humanity must needs take a fresh start on new +principles. Therefore do I opine,’ he adds, ‘that “Things,” as Germans +call the evolution of humanity, are going on best as they are, although +I did have a tin of spoiled caviare brought to me this morning for +breakfast.’ + +As regards the dress and jewellery of Miss Rockhard, it was a +complete--or, as the French say, an insane--success. Her friends and +the public admired it with an envy which, as she often perceived, +amounted to agony; and there were peeresses who suffered the tortures +of the damned, and with them millionairesses who panted like harts +for the water-brook, with desire to learn the secret of those +transcendental toilets; which was all like nectar and ambrosia to her +small soul. And as she had the thin good sense and cautious taste to +rarely use expensive fabrics, and was very chary with diamonds and the +like; and being clever, soon acquired a stock of evasive phrases and +satirical retorts for the most direct questions, she might have long +escaped detection. + +The first error which she committed was the very common one for all +her kind, of ingratitude. For as regarded Flaxius, the very fact of +her success irritated her, when she reflected that he had entirely +established all his assertions, and completely got the better of +her--after all her assumption of superior intelligence--and as she +recalled him, every time she donned a dress, with renewed vexation, +the feeling grew in time to tormenting hatred, there being no +vindictiveness like that for benefits received. Nor was she any better +disposed towards the fairy, since every time she was teased by +questioners she said to herself: ‘Pest take the creature! why couldn’t +she just as well have given me the clothes without any condition. ’Tis +ever the way with these mysterious snobs, they always do everything by +halves in a petty way, so as to render gratitude impossible. I believe +that vulgar teasing is a part of their low nature.’ + +Now when the moral obligation to keep a secret is gone, and the +buttresses are, so to speak, knocked away, it generally requires but +a little push to overthrow the whole building. And this push came ere +long from an unexpected quarter. + +Miss Jesabelle Rockhard was born, and lived, in undeniably good +society, but had never had more than very scanty sniffs of ‘the purer +atmosphere of _Dukedom_.’ As the melancholy Jacques, with refined wit, +remarks, even the word is ‘a spell to call fools together,’ albeit +printers have spoiled his spelling. Now it befell that a duchess of +twenty-four carats, a dame of irrepressible power, stronger at every +point than poor Miss Jesabelle, and one whose _flamberg_ or six-feet +two-handed sword was not to be lightly turned by the latter’s fencing +foil--fenced she never so wisely--had set her whole soul on learning +the secret of the exquisite toilets. Hitherto Miss Rockhard had only +gentler breezes to resist, but now there was a cyclone brewing, before +which, had she been wise, she would have fled unto the uttermost parts +of the earth. + +The duchess soon learned--indeed ’twas common talk--that the now famous +Miss Rockhard guarded with great care the secret of her dresses. +She made adroit, special, long-continued inquiry--who would not be +detective for a duchess?--and the more she was confirmed in the report, +the more obstinately was she determined to penetrate the mystery. + +‘O thou poor Jesabelle,’ writes Flaxius, ‘whom I did greatly love with +all thy faults--since devil a one was there of them thine own--all +being drawn from good society--how gladly would I have averted from +thee the fate which I saw gathering over thy graceful head; how gladly +would I have clucked unto thee, as the cock clucketh unto the hen to +come to him when he has found a grain, albeit he often swallows it ere +she gets there!--or done anything in reason, to _paratonnerre_ away the +crash and flash in the dark gathering cloud--it could not be! All that +we _could_ do was to await the explosion, pick up the pieces, glue them +together as well as possible and so, _en avant_! + +‘It is written in the Babylonian chronicle of the great Rabbi Ganef Ben +Nofgur, that “even as a monkey will, in doing mischief, manifest as +much mind as would make him the equal of man, so a woman, to find out +a secret which is none of her business, will show the genius of seven +devils. For ten measures of intermeddling were sent down by Aschmodai +upon earth, and the daughters of Israel got nine of them.”’ + +From which ye may understand that the duchess, finding that the +treasure was deeply buried, and craftily enchanted, took great +precaution and pains to disinter it. Firstly, she was merely affable +to Miss Rockhard in the winsome way which shows that any one has +taken a special, an _unconscious_ liking--which is a particular form +of humbug treated more fully by Patrick Mac Iavel in his Treatise +on the Art of Blarneying. She set on to Jesabelle an artless niece +who Jesabelle thought was a fool, and who ended by fooling her--Miss +Rockhard--completely. Then the duchess began a series of fondlings, +pettings, little intimacies, and careful confidences, invitations +to dinner and the opera--sending her carriage freely for her on all +occasions. In a word, she wound round the victim such an insidious +mesh of obligations that at last she judged that the roast was done to +a turn, and ready to be served, carved and eaten. + +So one night at a reception at the ducal palace, to which Jesabelle had +come in consequence of most ingenious and urgent desire--in the utmost +magnificence which she dared--her jewellery on this occasion being +rather seriously splendid and dangerous--the hostess struck her _coup_ +by displaying the most passionate admiration of her guest’s attire. +Then with great adroitness she led the conversation to the fondness she +had for Jesabelle, which subtly trained towards the obligations and +kindnesses, which had by this time run up to an alarming sum. And then, +suddenly recurring to the dress, she said: + +‘If you are, indeed, as you say, deeply grateful to me for anything, +and are sincere as I am in friendship, my dear, then acquit it all by a +mere trifle, and tell me truly, without any equivocation, the secret of +your marvellous dresses....’ + +Miss Rockhard would very much have preferred seeing an insane anarchist +flourishing a bomb, and a carving-knife come dancing into her +drawing-room, to this simple question from her dearest friend. And the +agitation of her features showed it--almost fearfully. The duchess was +delighted. ‘Now for an adroit _coup_,’ she thought, ‘and I have it.’ + +‘I dare say, my dear,’ she added with sweet persuasion, ‘that there +is really no great mystery in it after all. You girls are so fond of +making up romances. Perhaps I can even aid you with it, if perfect +secrecy, experience, and love can aid. But it will not be confiding a +secret, you know, for we two are one, and ’twill be as if you told it +to yourself.’ + +When one feels a secret like an intolerable burden, or a pack of coals +on one’s back--heavy as sin, and burning as remorse--the bearer catches +at any excuse for betraying it. Nor was Jesabelle a little piqued by +the artful hint: ‘I dare say there is really no great mystery in it +after all.’ And, perhaps, the duchess, with her vast knowledge of life +and invincible _prestige_, _could_ solve the mystery, so that no harm +or loss could come of it; and driven to the wall as she was, and at +her wits’ end, for a rupture with her Grace meant social ruin, she +actually caught at the last straw--‘it will not be telling a secret, +since we are one’--as if it had been a rope thrown by a life-buoyant +philanthropist. + +‘You will not say,’ remarked the duchess, somewhat sarcastically, ‘that +it is a fairy-gift.’ + +At that word, Jesabelle in despair and anger exclaimed--’twas as if the +very devil spoke for her and used her tongue: + +‘It _is_ a fairy gift!’ + +The duchess uttered an appalled scream; there was a chorus of +‘Ha’s--ho’s--oh dear me’s!’ through all the gamut heard from those +around--_Tableau_! + +‘What is the matter?’ cried Jesabelle terrified. + +‘_Look in the glass!_’ cried the duchess, pointing to a twenty-foot +mirror opposite. + +Miss Rockhard looked, and saw an awful sight. It was herself, arrayed +in nothing but her under-garments, with a wisp of straw on her wrist, +a piece of clothes-line rope about her head, and on her bosom a great +threepenny brass and glass brooch. And amid her surroundings this +costume looked ten times worse than it had done in Devonshire Street. + +‘A lunatic! a mad woman! Wonder how she got in! Hope she won’t attack +us! Wonder if she’s got a pistol? We shall all be killed! Run for the +police!’ was heard on all sides. Miss Rockhard fainted. Some mysterious +friend--she knew not who--stepped forward, wrapped her in a cloak, and +conveyed her in a carriage to her home. Yet heavily as the blow fell +on her, it struck the duchess at once almost as severely. For after +all her pains, and after driving poor Jesabelle to the wall, and to +insanity, all that she had got was, ‘It is a fairy-gift,’ at which even +a child would laugh. She might well have exclaimed, ‘I have brought my +pig to a fine market, to be sure!’ as the Princess Iona Mic Flanagan +remarked, after she had driven a swine from Dublin to Cork, where it +was eaten by a wolf; the incident was sung in Tara’s Psaltery, and +recorded in the _Leabhair Ruad_, or Red-Book of the Nine Masters, in +_Shelta_. + + * * * * * + +When Jesabelle came to herself in the morning, a brief half-hour of +deadly, sickening despair was succeeded by a good healthy reaction of +rage at the duchess, the fairy, Flaxius, and all mankind. Even as the +hero Hans Breitmann ungratefully wished that his teacher, Professor +Schmitzerl, ‘vas in hell’ for teaching him how to ride on a bicycle, +did Miss Rockhard wish that all those whose favours, gifts, and +applause she had once so anxiously sought were all at the bottom of +Inferno, and the devil dancing on them, because they had given her in +fullest measure what she most ardently desired, yea, perjured herself +to obtain! + +I have here arrived, _O lector benevole_, thou _best_ of readers, at +what is to us, I trust, the most interesting point, that is to say the +crisis in this eventful history. It happened once during the American +War that after the Confederates had been defeated in a battle, certain +gallant Southern ‘chivs’ or chivalric officers, attempted to account +for the failure: one attributing it to a sudden rise in the river, and +another to a division not coming up in time; till at last one startled +them all by asking, ‘If they didn’t think the Yankees had something to +do with it?’ + +Even so, after making out that everybody had been against her, and +shown themselves a pack of contemptible wretches, did it occur to Miss +Rockhard that she Herself had counted for something in the game, and +had something to Do with It. And being now, as it were, thrown into +solitude, and having a fine, vigorous mind, and being withdrawn from +the society which had so fearfully warped it; she began, so to speak, +to straighten out again morally, and recuperate. She felt no remorse +at all, but she began to study that which had made her err: a society, +with its ideals of the most adroit slander; knowledge of all that is +none of our business, ostentation, wealth, rank, and birth, though ever +so evilly sustained, or disgraced or dishonoured; the adroitness of +shallow sarcasm and silly flippancy; and the real meaning of vogue and +fashion; and finally the awkward, blundering manner in which even these +wretched fancies were carried out by nine-tenths of their devotees, +real and accomplished men and women of the world,--the true article +being a great rarity even in Belgravia. + +Her self-examination was long and searching, sparing herself no pang, +being as pitiless to the Me as to the Them. Having no other on whom +to exercise her sarcasms, she turned them all on her own follies--not +raving in despair, and calling herself a fool, but, as she indeed +always did, finding out what was in the object thus illuminated and +shown up. And it did her an immense amount of good. She had an awful +crust of old dead shells, and a fearful lot of foul sea-weed to scrape +away from the ship, ere it would sail well; but she _did_ it! + +For to do Jesabelle Rockhard justice, she had pluck and bottom, grit +and endurance, and was not the kind of girl to throw up the game of +life because she had lost a fairy wardrobe, or even the favour of +a duchess; and not being French, but right valiant English of good +fighting stock, she resolved to show fight, and put a good face on a +bad game. + +All at once it occurred to her that the long and earnest reflection +which she had given to herself and to society had developed the serious +and sustained analysis of character which forms the real power of the +novelist, and that which elevates him above the story-teller. She was +seated at Brighton in the shingle on a fine day at noon, under an +umbrella, when it came into her mind that as a novelist she could enter +on a new life. It was like a great revelation, for with her clear, +vigorous, well-informed mind, she grasped all the possibilities of such +a career, and its tremendous power. + +Once in history, when women came a-cropper in any earthly way, they +went into a convent; now they go into a publisher’s--that is to say, +they write or re-write a novel. + +All geniuses are white-washed. + +A woman of genius may pawn her reputation when an obscurity dare not +look over the fence. + +Make yourself a celebrity, and society will do the rest. + +Nine-tenths of notoriety consists not of what people know, but what +they say about anybody. + +If you have sinned, there are two ways to be forgiven. Either repent +your evil deeds or describe those of others. + +The most certain way to make two thousand a year by writing novels is +to tell all your friends in confidence that you earn one thousand. + +Understandest thou this--or what? + +A gypsy woman of her acquaintance from whom she bought bouquets, and +whose shrewd observations had often amused her, came up and gave her +what is called in tramp slang a _lyover_, in Romany a _ruzhia_, and in +English a flower. + +‘Tell me, Amalthea Cooper,’ she inquired, ‘what do you understand by +society? Give me a sixpence worth of information!’ + +‘When any kind of a lot of people gets together anyhow,’ replied +Amalthea, after a grave pause, ‘it’s a mob. When there’s a-many that +generally assembles, such as three or four _tans_ or families, it’s +what we calls in our language the _Sweti_, or our world. But when they +are of the same kind of folk, and are invited to a drop of tea or beer, +or to have something and a talk--and one, may be, plays a tune on a +fiddle--why, that’s society.’ + +‘And what do they talk about?’ inquired Jesabelle. + +‘Well,’ answered the gypsy with a smile, ‘mostly about how one has been +sent to _staripen_, or prison, for stealin’--and what a fool he was to +let himself be took--and how other folks has run off with one another +wives, and the like um-moralitys, and how some larrups their _romis_, +or _morts_, which is wives and missuses, and all such little _rakapen_ +or gossip--and that’s what I calls society.’ + +‘_C’est tout comme chez nous_,’ remarked Miss Rockhard. ‘Here is your +sixpence, Amalthea. Decidedly I will take to novelling.’ + + * * * * * + +It was a magnificent success, as great as the toilets had been, and to +Miss Jesabelle in her new mind infinitely more gratifying. She didn’t +deserve it, good people may say, but somehow Jesabelle _did_ write +brilliant books, and rose to the top of the wave. Even the incident of +the evening at the duchess’s was now narrated as an eccentricity of +genius, and when it was mentioned men in the clubs said: ‘Ah, my dear +fellow, excuse me, you haven’t got the right rendering of that story.’ +Finally it settled into two versions: one of the sporting world, which +found its way into the _Blue ‘Un_, that ‘Jes’ had done it for a wager, +which was in a way true; and the other more humane legend, that it was +at the request of the duchess, who had begged her to sing the ‘Lunatic +Bar-Maid’ in character. + +And her novels were stinging, I warrant you. As she became amiable +personally she grew savage in literature. She gave it to society and +fashion _à la_ aquafortis; and as society did not see itself but only +its friends in her scathing speeches, it was perfectly delighted. She +did not touch lightly and gently and pityingly, as I have done, on its +poor little imperfections; she ripped them up as with a scalper in the +hands of a Red Indian, or a familiar tormentor of the Inquisition at a +five o’clock tea. I never could learn that it did any good, for even +the victims felt pride at being shown up in good company as worthy of +note; but her books sold, and she was famous. + +‘Heaven help their souls, they’d rather be’ _et cetera_. + + * * * * * + +It was more than a year after the events here narrated had taken place, +and Miss Rockhard had greatly improved on her celebrity by a ‘stunning +second,’ or another novel, that she found herself again at Brighton, +seated as before under a white umbrella. She was reading proofs, which +is of itself a bliss to a young writer, as strong minds as hers love +to speak of ‘_my_ publisher,’ and this was mingled with a mild, vague +impression of children digging with wooden spades, negro minstrels, +ballad-singers, flower-girls, bathing-machines, the flow of a thousand +voices, the broad-spreading, blue ocean, and ships far off and out at +sea, with the sun upon their sails. + +When lifting her eyes they encountered the gaze of another pair, which +for an instant half prolonged her dreamy mood in dim conjecture, till +she recognised in the other the somewhat remarkable character who had, +indirectly, had such a wondrous influence on her fate. It was indeed +the Great and Wise Flaxius, _in propria persona_, who had taken unto +himself a pennyworth of chair at a little distance, which distance he +promptly proceeded to diminish when he perceived that the lady had not +forgotten him. + +‘It is a long time since we first met,’ said Miss Rockhard. ‘Nearly two +years.’ + +‘Nearly two thousand years,’ replied Flaxius in a strangely solemn +voice, _wie Glocketon und Orgelklang_. ‘Yes, quite two thousand, though +learned critics of the _Kethubim_ differ as to the date, and Jochanan +and Ben Hillel think--but never mind! ’Tis so.’ + +‘And who was I then?’ inquired Miss Rockhard, entering, as she thought, +into the spirit of one of Flaxius’s strange jests. + +‘Truly a _femme incomprise_, and one who died, in fact, misunderstood, +just as you might have done had you made your exit some two years ago, +since at that time you did not really understand yourself.’ + +‘I think,’ replied the dear young lady, ‘that is strictly true of the +whole silly sisterhood.’ She said it with a deep blush, though not a +blusher in a general way, for she recalled the last interview, much in +sorrow, not at all in wrath. ‘But who was I, two millennia gone by?’ + +‘The wife of King Ahab of the Jews, the very much distinguished +Jezebel.’ + +Truly this was a shake for Miss Rockhard, and the blush came up as a +flush somewhat heightened; yet she said with a smile: + +‘I regret that you only remember me as the greatest iniquity of the Old +Testament. I am curious to know if you admired me very much in that +character?’ + +‘Not in that character, but in your true one, which, I declare +sincerely and without paradox, has been most cruelly misrepresented.’ + +‘As it is a personal matter,’ rejoined Miss Rockhard, ‘I need not say +that I am all expectancy and attention.’ + +‘Very well. Who is it that describes Jezebel for us? A personal enemy +of extreme bitterness, and one of a race approving death and murder in +any form, when any one of the _Goyim_, or Gentiles, is concerned.’ + +‘I never thought of that,’ said Jesabelle reflectively. ‘And religious +antipathy must have been stronger among the Hebrews than in any other +race, for they were strong-minded.’ + +‘Yes,’ replied Flaxius, ‘it is too generally lost sight of in Church +histories that those who make the best martyrs are also best martyring +others. But to return to Jezebel. The first and chief crime with which +she is charged is remaining steadfast to that polytheistic Syrian +religion in which she was brought up, and to which she was in duty +bound to be attached, since her father was King of Zidon, and in a +sense its head. The King of the Jews married her, and was fascinated +by the charms of that splendid and sensual system which seemed so +attractive, compared to the grim, Hebrew, ascetic monotheism, which +gave no joyousness to this life, neither did it promise a future as did +the Syrian, so that it came to pass that the greatest and wisest men +among the Hebrews often adopted it, and it more than once happened that +nearly all Israel went over to it. + +‘Now bear in mind, my friend,’ said Flaxius with a smile, ‘that in +reading the Book of Kings we generally go as in a torrent of headlong +agreement with the writer, who assumes, as a matter of course, that +everybody who is not a Hebrew monotheist, and an implicit believer in +all that the prophets are _said to have said_, and all that is told +about them, is utterly wicked beyond all sinners, and deserving death.’ + +‘That is true,’ assented Miss Rockhard. + +‘The prophet whom Jezebel threatened in a rage because he had put to +death the priests of her own religion, who were probably her intimate +friends and relations, is Elijah--Elia--who with the masculine +termination appears in Greek as Helios, the sun, who, like the latter, +goes up to, or over, the heaven in a chariot of fire, after performing +the preliminary Moses-miracle of dividing the water of a stream. I +think that we may set aside Jezebel’s sins as regarded this very +mythical character as dubiously inconsiderable. And when we reflect +that the Hebrews slew one hundred thousand Syrians in one day, as we +read in the twenty-ninth verse of the twentieth chapter of Kings, +simply for differences of religious opinion, the whole war being +stimulated by prophets and priests, the slaughter of a few prophets +ascribed to Jezebel may well pass as an incident of war. These great +bands of one hundred and fifty prophets seem to have been identical +with the roaming _Darweesh_ of the Arabs, whose business it is to stir +up war. We are accustomed to feel awe at the prophets, because they +usually appear singly in their majesty, like God, but these bands of +one hundred and fifty, all prophesying _en masse_, rather detract from +the dignity of the profession. + +‘Now, as regards Naboth’s vineyard, it was unquestionably a wicked +deed. Ahab had offered Naboth, the Jezreelite, a _better_ vineyard for +his own, or its worth in money, and Ahab was the king. The refusal was +a bitter blow before all the world; so bitter that the king became ill, +and seemed to be dying, because he had been, as he conceived, insulted. + +‘Now there is no proof that Jezebel cared two-pence for the vineyard, +but she was passionately fond of her family and husband. She had +been born and brought up to familiarity with excess of bloodshed for +trifles; she had seen all the priests whom she revered, and _one +hundred thousand_ of her own people killed for adhering to their own +religion, and as she preferred the life of Ahab to that of Naboth, and +being an unquestionably clever and vigorous woman, she easily contrived +to have the latter put out of the way. One _evil deed_ does not excuse +another, but it is worth observing that pious King David was guilty +of a very similar, but far viler and more nefarious transaction, as +regarded Uriah’s wife, for which _he_ was indeed only vicariously +punished, while Jezebel was made to suffer not only by loss of husband +and son, but most cruelly _in person_. + +‘Now we come to the end of the tragedy. Jehu, after having murdered +Jehoram in a cowardly and treacherous manner, returned to Jerusalem. +And here the narrator by a most ingenious little touch of art has +contrived to say something of Jezebel which has done more to make her +appear infamous by her biographer than every thing else accusative--if +indeed he meant it--which may be doubtful. It is the simple statement +that, “When Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she +_painted her face_ and tired her head, and looked out at a window.” +From which has come the popular saying of “painted Jezebels,” +suggesting vile women covered with rouge.’ + +‘And even rouge is not quite a sin; if it be, God help Belgravia!’ +remarked Miss Rockhard. + +‘And yet she was not even rouged,’ added Flaxius, for the Hebrew +original says, “put her eyes in painting,” which means that she drew +lines with _Kohl_ or antimony powder under her eyelashes, as was the +usual custom with _all_ women, good or bad, all over the East, where +it is common to this day. It amounted to no more than putting on a +bonnet or drawing on a pair of gloves. As for “tiring her head,”’ +added Flaxius solemnly, and almost sadly, ‘when I think how Isaiah and +Jeremiah must have tired the heads and hearts of all Israel with their +lamentations, I can pass over Jezebel’s work. It was her own business. + +‘And when the brutal and cowardly assassin Jehu entered, she addressed +him as only an injured wife and mother and a woman of marvellous wit +and deep feeling could have done, with the cleverest, keenest, and most +succinct sarcasm or reproach ever uttered. It was simply, “Had Zimri +peace who slew his master?” Few at the present day realise how stinging +this question was. To an extremely superstitious and brutal man like +Jehu, fearful of omens, and uneasy as to the crimes of regicide, it was +maddening. But the woman never existed who wouldn’t have said it, if +she could have thought of it.’ + +‘I am sure that _I_ should, under the circumstances,’ replied the young +lady, ‘though I knew that all the vengeance in the hand of man was to +follow.’ + +‘So she was thrown out of the window, and Jehu killed her, stamping the +bruised woman under his own feet in his frenzied rage, so that, as it +is written, “some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the +horses,” showing how high it must have jetted up, and how savagely she +was trampled on by the infuriated Jew. + +‘Even the eating of Jezebel by dogs is told in such a manner as to +convey an impression of infamy and guilt on her part. But if Jehu, or +any other Jew or Gentile, or anything eatable, were thrown to the dogs +in Jerusalem to-day, they would soon finish it. When the soul is gone, +it matters little how the poor shell of humanity is treated. But I +find something very degrading and disgraceful in the manner in which +the writer dwells upon and exults in the fact that the ‘carcase’ of +Jezebel was insulted, and that dogs ate her flesh. It would have been +more creditable to Elijah, and to all concerned, if they had given her +burial as became a king’s daughter. For she was queenly, and showed no +fear in her last moment, and when she knew that death was at hand, she +calmly made her toilet, as a lady would, to appear well, like Queen +Catherine, to the last, and greeted her foe with a richly deserved +reproof, and not with prayers for mercy. Yes, she died like one of +royal race.’ + +‘Mr. Flaxius,’ said Miss Jesabelle, ‘do you know that if I should ever +come into court, as defendant, in anything from pitch and toss up to +murder, anarchy, or high treason, I should like to have you for my +counsel. I believe that you would make me out an angel, even to my own +conviction.’ + +‘The usual formula of polite society would be,’ replied Flaxius, ‘to +say that I have always been convinced myself of the fact. But as I have +not, and would be very much puzzled to know how to dispose of any such +feathered anomaly, all I can say is that if you were no more guilty +than I believe Jezebel to have been, I would accept the case with +alacrity, and clear you, if there be such a thing as justice in the +land.’ + +‘Since you have defended Jezebel so well,’ replied the lady, ‘perhaps +you could say a word for Herodias. I always understood that the +_Advocatus diaboli_ was the prosecuting attorney, but in this case he +appears for the defence.’ + +‘Herodias,’ said the sage, ‘was a bird of a very different colour, +but, like all the rest, she was a _femme incomprise_. And to begin +with, the original of the name, who is to this very day recognised +among the older witches in Italy as their queen, jointly with Diana, +was of remote Oriental origin, or the same as Lilith of the Jews. She +was eminently the fair demon of fascination who was “simply killing,” +and you must bear it in mind that something of all this devilry was in +the mind of the good Christians who wrote about the lady of the New +Testament who danced Herod off his head and the head off Saint John. +And the original Herodias was as certainly the goddess of dancing, +which was a serious and terrible means of bewitchment in the olden +time.[11] + +‘In regard to the transaction described in the later Scripture, it is +marvellous that no writer has ever treated it from a modern-society, +Christian, five-o’clock-tea, practical point of view. Suppose a +lady--an intelligent, accomplished widow who has had a pleasant life +as wife of the governor of Paryobberee, or Cathay. The governor dies, +his brother succeeds to the appointment, and marries the widow, as was +strictly commanded in the Old Testament; from which book sundry moderns +derive the command that a man is not to marry his wife’s sister.’ + +‘Consistency, thou art a jewel!’ interpolated Miss Rockhard. + +‘Well he marries the widow, or, it may be, the fraternal divorced wife. +Then uprises a clergyman of a new sect, with what were considered +eccentric new views, who has tremendous influence among the people, +and informs the governor that his marriage is illegal. And _then_, +fancy the feelings of Herodias! On one hand divorce and perhaps death +or poverty, with a charming daughter just coming out; on the other a +prophet of the wildest description. And it was considered to be such a +remarkably natural, trifling, and commonplace thing in those days to +put anybody to death who was in your way, if you had the power to do +it; just as good John Calvin did with Servetus when the latter got in +_his_ way, or as some millions of heretics were disposed of, mostly +with antecedent torture, by “meek, merciful, all-Christlike Mother +Church.” And so Herodias did what the grand majority of worldly-minded, +High or Low Church, Christian matrons and mammas would do to-day, under +the same circumstances--if they could--and put Saint John out of the +way. + +‘This is the legend of Herodias.’ + + * * * * * + +There was a long silence, when Flaxius said: + +‘Now tell me, if under the same conditions of secrecy as before, and +with all your recent experience and newly acquired wisdom, would you +accept the marvellous wardrobe of the fairy Alban once more, for if you +will take it you shall have it, forthwith?’ + +Miss Rockhard had for months reflected on and studied this very +question to its very lees. But she took a minute--two minutes--to her +reply, and when she spoke it was with emotion close to tears, but with +firm voice: + +‘Oh, I thank you from my very heart, for I feel deeply that this offer +_now_ is a thousand times kinder than was the first. But I have had +my lesson, and I hope I do not need another--when I _do_, you will, I +hope,’--here she looked up with a sad, sweet smile. + +(‘She is immensely prettier than she used to be,’ thought Flaxius.) + +‘You will I hope not spare me. But as for the wardrobe, it is best +where it is--in fairy hands. Nor would I know anything more of magic or +_occulta_ or mysteries, for I have learned what few know, that no human +nature, unless perhaps it be gifted as few are, and has had years of +training, can keep, or is fit to know, such secrets. It will be time to +attend to them when we shall have exhausted science.’ + +‘Yes,’ replied Flaxius, ‘when you exhaust science a little more, you +will indeed find that magic is beginning in earnest.’ + +‘And so,’ added Jesabelle with a smile, as they rose to depart--I dare +say it was in the direction of Mutton’s, to lunch--‘we learn from past +trials and bitter storms how in future to keep under shelter, and seek +only the sunny way. + +‘“For all experience is an arch where through Gleams that untravelled +world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever as we roam.”’ + + * * * * * + +_Haec fabula docet,_ ‘ye morale of whych lytil historie,’ pens Flaxius +as usual on the galley, ‘is that we should, firstly, not believe the +worst of anybody, be it derived from their own manner, and demeanour, +or from oral or written report, and above all have patience with them, +and try to help them to a better state. For, verily, this Miss Rockhard +was a hard nut to crack, and enough to daunt the devil, or any decent +man as I first met her, and a hard time I had with her, yet did she +come out ‘all right as a trivet,’ a _trivet_ being, as ye know, dearly +beloved, a _tripod_, and the reference ‘all right’ to the infallible +accuracy of the Delphic oracle, which is, however, a fact not generally +known. For of all things a three-legged stool stands most securely. + +As for the manner in which any evil report may be cruelly and +undeservedly attached to a name, there is still a word to be said for +belle Jezebel of Hebrew history. When I of late defended her character, +I was rebuffed with the remark that there was in the Book of Kings a +distinct assertion that she was a--ahem!--social evil--and a witch: +this being the speech of Jehu, Kings II. 9, v. 22. + +Now be it observed that the expression here employed is to be found +over and over again in the Old Testament, and in almost every instance +is used not to signify any adultery or individual immorality, but to +discredit the Syrian religion. It was a very nasty and unmanly form +of abuse which the Hebrew prophets, and Saint John, used far too +freely, on _all_ occasions, to characterise everything theological +which displeased them; just as sailors and the like use ‘bloody,’ _et +cetera_, very often with no meaning whatever, or as the gentlemen and +ladies of Houndsditch cry out _noffgur_ and _ben-noffgur_, and so +forth, far too freely to all offenders. This speech of Jehu’s was, it +is true, used not in the Pickwickian sense, but most certainly in the +theological, which is the next thing to it. For the first impulse of +the _odium theologicum_ is, to be ‘nasty.’ + +Now a good tough nature like Jesabelle’s, when really honest, is +all the better and cleaner for a good mangling. As was beautifully +expressed by the ancients as follows-- + +[Illustration] + +that is, three V’s, meaning _Virtus virtute virescit_, Virtue +flourishes by virtue, signifying that like the chamomile it grows the +more for being trampled on. To the present day this sign is often to +be seen on the walls of Florence, scratched in chalk or charcoal, and +prefixed to the names of popular favourites. It is generally believed +to be a monogram of _Evviva_! + +[10] Vide _Etruscan-Roman Remains_, by Charles Godfrey Leland: London, +Fisher Unwin. + +[11] Here the chronicler of Flaxius would fain get in a little +_réclame_, by mentioning that Herodias and Diana have a small book to +themselves in _Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches_, by Charles Godfrey +Leland. London: D. Nutt. + + + + +HOW FLAXIUS SAT AS JUDGE WITH A JURY OF TWELVE DEVILS + +‘Sono demoni chi rappresentano il popolaccio del inferno, mentre che i +diavoli ne sono i principi e i gran signori.’ + +‘There are demons who represent the populace of hell, while the devils +are its nobility and great gentlemen; and some of these have left a +name, such as it is, in books on strange subjects.--_Del Diavolo, a +Treatise_, 1870. + + +THE Sun had drowned himself in the sea, and his widow, the Sky, after +dissipating the evening gold which he had left, was contracting a +second marriage with Night, who brought her as settlement the silver +moon and the whole heavenly sack of stars, when Flaxius wandered along +alone by the wild, wailing waves, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling, +and hearing the sweet-salt, vapoury ocean breeze. So he went on--it was +a lonely coast--till he encountered a shepherd established in a hut of +stones and turf; a tenement so small as to bear to its inhabitant the +relation a shell bears to a tortoise. + +‘Is there any place hereabout,’ asked Flaxius, ‘where I could lodge for +the night?’ + +‘None for near a five mile,’ answered the herd, removing the slender +pipe of clay from his lips; ‘leastwise none where yer could get _hin_. +That is, ’cept the Devil’s Den, a hold ouse, furder on, and _there_,’ +he added emphatically, ‘I reckon yer’d only be too glad to get _hout_.’ + +‘Why?’ inquired Flaxius. + +‘’Cos it’s ruined--wuss than Jane Shoree hever wus by the royal +_rep-ro-bate_,’ replied the herd, who appeared to have some tincture of +letters. + +‘Is it roofed?’ + +‘Roofed and water-proofed,’ was the reply. ‘’Taint _there_ that the +affliction commences. I mean ruined in reppertation and char-ac-ter. +It’s mellincolly and hin bad sperits--leastways bad sperits is in +hit--an’ always were--since the smugglers left hoff usin’ hof hit. Hits +‘osts his ghosts.’ + +Flaxius gave the man a deeply pensive look, and a small silver coin. +The herd replied with a six-pence-ive smile of gratitude. ‘Sir,’ he +exclaimed, ‘“you are a good Lot,” as the lady said to her ’usband +before she turned to a piller hof salt.’ + +‘How can I be a lot, being but one?’ inquired Flaxius. + +‘Hi call a cove good com-peny when a penny come to me from ’im,’ +replied the shepherd. ‘You stand six hof ’em. You’re more’n a cove, +you’re a whole covey hof birds, a multitood o’ virtues, a ‘arf dozener.’ + +The sage went on from pile to pile of pebbles, or earth, marked with +whitewash to serve the coast-guards as guides in darkness, till he +beheld before him the shelter which he sought. It was a dilapidated +stone house of the Jacobean time and style; not unpicturesque, +gracefully draped with ivy, and as it stood in the light of a full +moon on a rising rocky platform, with a sea-view circling round, there +was in it something which irresistibly recalled scenes in theatres and +novels, smugglers, witches, Guy Mannering, and Anne the uncanny of +Geierstein. + +But what gave it specially this appearance to Flaxius was the gleam +from within of a light, which he knew at once was lit by no mortal +match and fed by no earthly oil or fuel. It rose and fell, quivering +and thrilling like a Northern light, sometimes causing the building to +appear as if in flame, and then shrinking to an arrowy ray, or a mere +needle, changing to many hues in which, however, a sulphur blue ever +predominated. And with its changes there rang in time and measure, high +or low, unearthly laughter, strange shouts or ululations, sinking to +stranger humming or buzzing, and passing to a dreamy melody in softened +shade, all at once broken up by a startling blare and flare and wild +vociferation in strange tongues. + +It required little reflection for the Magian to conjecture the nature +of the company from whom such sounds proceeded, nor was he astonished, +after opening the door, entering the hall, and uttering the wizard +greeting, which proclaimed his nature, to see the sight which met his +eyes. + +Round about a great block of sandstone, which served for a table, +and on which stood two open cases of gin, several loose bottles, a +ten-gallon demijohn of whisky, a raisin box full of Perique, or _favori +du diable_ tobacco, and an ancient, much-thumbed manuscript bound +in sheet-iron, sat lolling and sprawling in all the extravagance of +unconventional ease, on divans or seats, also of stone, twelve demons, +or spirits of that kind whose mission it is in life to busy themselves +especially with all that is mischievous, reckless, stirring, wild, +eccentric, or subversive. That is to say, they are always occupied +with what they call ‘whooping it up’; aiding and encouraging youth to +paint towns red, inspiring Celtic politics, whether French or Irish, +organising riots, editing society newspapers, evoking up divorces, +anarchising, and filling police courts with cases. They were all +smoking and drinking, and seemed to be earnestly occupied with some +extremely interesting subject of debate; the intensity or moderation of +which was manifested in the _crescendo_, or _diminuendo_, of a flame +rising from a great terra-cotta vase, and by the tones of their voices. + +‘Hallo, old Flax, is that you?’ cried the only one of this precious +company with whom the Sage had ever before made acquaintance. This was +Slang--not by any means the worst of them, since his mission merely was +to corrupt language, and invent all kinds of new, grotesque forms of +speech. ‘_Mozeltoff!_ luck to you, old cove, _sās tute a kairin tiro +kokero_?’ he continued in the tongue generally spoken among devils and +goblins, ‘how have you been doing since they let you out?’ + +‘_Kūshti adosta_, well enough,’ replied Flaxius in the same tone and +tongue, for there never was man on earth who could so adapt himself +gracefully to the most varied society or ‘all shorts and editions’ of +life. ‘May I venture to ask for what purpose you gentlemen are here +assembled?’ + +‘_Lel a swägler an’ a cutter a mūl-tatto-pani_, take a pipe and a drop +of brandy before we get to _biz_,’ exclaimed Slang, dusting a seat +obsequiously as he spoke; and indeed it was quite evident, despite +their swaggering impudence and their feet on the tables, that the whole +party of demons were deeply sensible of the honour of entertaining such +a distinguished guest. Flaxius accepted the refreshment, and sat down. + +‘What you behold,’ said Moloch, the _diavolo_ of Pessimism, ‘is a +sad spectacle and a melancholy instance of diabolical deterioration, +showing how even natures which have received every blessing of hell +and all infernal advantages from the devil himself can become depraved +to mere _inertia_. We are now a jury here assembled to try one of our +number for his reputation. You, sir, though happily exempted from all +such mutations, are aware that the limit of moral existence is one +thousand years for a member of our order, unless he by progressive +energy or genius advances himself, in which case he receives a renewal +of his social lease. Now there is one of our number known as _Sneak_, +who during all his snivelling millennium has never got beyond where he +begun--or vulgarity and idle folly--including carrying and retailing +petty gossip, teaching foolish old club-men and ladies how to twaddle +about divorces and marriages, elopements, and relationships, gleaning +trash and mean slander from low servants, and sticking _just there_. +Such an existence, we hold, is too contemptible for even the meanest +devil in Inferno; hence this jury, to decide whether the creature shall +exist among us any longer; and as our judge has failed to put in an +appearance we respectfully request your Wisdom to take his place as +referee.’ + +‘I consent with pleasure,’ said Flaxius. ‘Produce the culprit!’ + +A truculent-looking demon named Dobble, whose department was +quarrelling, the prize-ring, rencounters, and rows, here arose, went +to a corner, put a box under his arm, brought it to the table, opened +it, and took from it a form pressed flat like a pair of trousers in +a trunk. This he unfolded--blew it up like a bladder by means of the +stem of his clay-pipe--and gave it a drink of whisky, when lo! the form +assumed some semblance of, if not humanity, at least demonity. It was +a wretched-looking phantom, something in it recalling a battered Punch +or tattered Ally Sloper, a Paul Pry, a thing without a conscience or +moral sense, yet not without prying inquisitiveness or petty cunning--a +poor _simulacrum_ of a popular, paltry jest. It sat up and grinned, and +leered, without a trace of fear, as if--all its function finished--it +had nothing else to do but to die game, as vulgar, second-hand +tradition enjoined its kind to do. + +‘I appear here,’ said Moloch, not without dignity, ‘as _advocatus +diaboli_, or public prosecutor. The entire life and actions of this +sneak, whom I will not honour with the name of devil, or even imp, are +so well known to all here present as to render a formal indictment a +work of supererogation. Yet that all due formalities may be properly +fulfilled, I ask the accused if he demands that any accusation be made?’ + +To which the culprit replied by casting up his head, and saying, in a +tone which would have elicited roars of applause in a music hall: + +‘_Ya-ap!_ Who’re _you_? Shut up!’ + +‘An indictment is therefore needless. Let me here remark, gentlemen,’ +said Moloch, with great impressiveness, ‘that though we may all be +demons, and even the humblest of our order, our mission is _not_, as is +vulgarly supposed, to do evil. It is simply agitation and action.’ + +‘To keep things a-bilin’,’ interposed Slang. + +‘Quite true. The honourable gentleman who has just interrupted me is, +for example, often accused of mere vulgarity, but unjustly. He may be +a rude poet, but he invents new similes and vigorous racy words which +are often wanting. I myself--in many ways--by introducing Pessimism +to society, and by raising the question as to whether life is worth +living, caused a discussion which rendered me worthy of receiving a +renewal of my lease of life. The pugnacity of my colleague Dobble has +its silver lining--it provokes resistance, argument, and conclusion. We +may all be a rough lot with a hard bark, but there is _wood_ in us. But +the accused is all rotten bark and no bite, and _hollow_. Vulgarity, +twaddle, gossip, and small-talk are all one and the same thing; and +the mind devoted to them alone stagnates and putrefies. The spirit of +it dies very slowly, gentlemen; but if nothing better can be said of +this _fin de siècle_, it must be at least admitted that this century +has witnessed no advance in vulgarity and the pettiness which kills for +everything. Gentlemen, I await your verdict?’ + +‘GUILTY, in large capitals,’ cried Slang, who seemed to be foreman. +‘We’re all agreed like a rope of inyons.’ + +‘Prisoner,’ exclaimed Flaxius, ‘have you anything to say why sentence +of non-renewal of existence should not be passed on you.’ + +‘Oh, a’nt I just?’ screamed Sneak in a Punch tone. ‘Call _me_ vulgar +do yer, yer vaggabones--me that moves in the highest circles among the +biggest suckers! Listen to _this_!’ And with that, he drew from his +pocket a fashionable weekly newspaper, well known on every stand, and +proceeded to read from it such a mass of drivelling silliness relating +to the pettiest acts or tastes of the upper classes, including that +of royalty itself, and all that constituted what _it_ regarded as +‘Society,’ that even Flaxius was fain to drink another glass of brandy, +and light a cigar to enable him to sustain the infliction. At last it +came to an end. + +‘There!’ exclaimed Sneak triumphantly. ‘That’s what Erbamala, the great +_noveliste_, and I call human nature. The best art is the depicting +that--it pays best--and I’m the spirit who inspires it all. There I +rest my defence.’ + +‘The defence,’ said Flaxius, ‘has aggravated the offence.’ + +‘Well, my time is not out, and you’ll find that I shall drag on awhile +longer.’ + +‘True,’ observed Flaxius, ‘but observe that there _was_ a time when you +had a place, such as it was, among those who are here present. Now it +is lost; even the demons of the present day disown you. Therefore I +pronounce you dead _de facto_, for those for whom you now live among +mortals have no intellects. Begone!’ + +The foreman opened a window, and the living dead whisked out of it, +like a great carrion blue-bottle with a buzz. + +‘Did the deceased leave any property on which to administer?’ asked +Boodle, the modern incarnation of Mammon. + +‘Yes, he left ME,’ piped a small voice. And a sharp little imp, two +inches in height, sprang on the table. ‘I’m _Puttuli_.’ + +‘Immortalised by Musæus,’ said Moloch. ‘You were used to go about to +people’s pockets and report what you found therein to your master.’ + +‘Yes, but I can do more than that,’ replied Puttuli. ‘I can observe and +report anything.’ + +‘Well, none of us want you,’ cried Slang, ‘you little, sneaking, +spying villain. So be off with you by the first boat--quicker than +immediately, if not sooner.’ + +‘Nay,’ said Flaxius, ‘he may be useful if properly employed. With your +permission, gentlemen, I will take him.’ + +And as there was no dissenting voice, the wise Flaxius departed +with Puttuli in his pocket. And he soon found that he had indeed a +pocket-companion, and voluble--if not valuable--_vade-mecum_, for +the diminutive imp was what a distinguished American writer calls an +‘amoosin’ little cuss,’ and ‘especially good at beguiling off the odd +corners of the weary hours.’ + + * * * * * + +‘_Haec fabula docet_,’ wrote Flaxius, ‘or its moral is--not what too +many satirists so sadly wail--that Sneak actually represents the spirit +of this bottom of the century, but its very dregs, which are, however, +stirred up too much by the spoons of small writers into what would be, +but for them, a clear, exhilarating beverage. The very devils, whose +agitation in a certain way leads ever to something that is good, find +their work hindered by this imp of pettiness. Prosperity and peace, +or its stagnation, engender the birth of such mosquitoes. A roaring +torrent of even dirty water is better, for it will wash itself clean +ere long, but a standing pool only creates vile insects and malaria. + + + + +FLAXIUS AND THE BOOKSELLER + + ‘“L’amour des livres est plus utile que vous ne croyez,” dit le + capitaine, “car je trouve dans mes études un calme qui vous manque. + Vous ne soupçonnez pas tout ce qu’une manie a de précieux, docteur! + Elle occupe comme une passion, et n’a aucun de ses tourments. + Croyez-moi, puisque la vie n’est après tout qu’une voiture mal + suspendue qui nous conduit à la mort, les sages sont ceux qui baissent + les stores, sans songer au but ni aux cahots.”’ + + _Souvenirs d’un Bas Breton, par Émile Souvestre._ + + + ‘Few are the men who know what lives do hide, + Or dream what demons lurk, or fairies flit, + In places which to them seem dull and tame, + Even as a drop of water to the eye + Appears to it like naught; but take to it a glass, + And lo it is a sea with monsters filled, + Devouring, making love, or raging wild-- + Full many a heart is like that water drop.’ + + +THE day had been grim and ill-tempered--flitting fitfully through all +the phases of bad weather--promising at times, like a deceitful child, +to be good, when it would clear a little into curling mists, through +which there came a doubtful ray of light--when straight anon there fell +a dismal fog, then wild rain, maddened by the roaring of the wind--for +’tis terrible mourning when any one cries aloud and weeps at the same +time--_laut aufweinend_--as the Germans say. + +Oh, I warrant you that the rusty weather-cocks, as they whirled round +and round, and screamed as if crowing to the _Wilde Jäger_, in the old +town of Nuremberg, and the wind low-waving like the deep baying of his +hounds made a fine witches’-chorus that night--yea, the very gutters in +their unwonted joy at becoming bounding brooks sang gurgling songs as +they hurried along to leap into the Pegnitz.... + +‘’Tis a _Sauwetter_--yea, a _Hundeswetter_--a swine and dog weather,’ +exclaimed the little old man to Flaxius, as the latter refuged himself +just long enough to turn his umbrella, which had been reversed into +a great goblet by a sudden squall, under an arch. This arch was over +the projecting doorway of a shop; ’twas immensely massive from the +old, bold time, and I warrant you that Albert Dürer and Willibald +Pirckheimer and Hans Sachs and all of ’em had passed under it often. + +‘I could make better weather,’ added the old man, ‘with only a rusty +tea-kettle and a pint of----’ + +Flaxius looked up. There was a little, half-obliterated sign over the +ancient door, which had once proclaimed to the world that here was a +_Buchhandlung_ or book-shop, but like an ancient warrior, with stress +of time and battling with the elements, it had forgotten most of its +letters. + +‘You sell books?’ replied Flaxius. + +‘How do you know _that_?’ asked the little man, with a quick, +suspicious glance, as if a secret which he wished to keep hidden had +been revealed. + +‘And you have for sale a fine copy of the _Emblemata_ of Iselburg +in old German rhyme, published in Nuremberg in Fifteen Hundred and +Seventeen ... and a superbly bound exemplar of the _Altdeutsche Wälder_ +of Grimm.’ + +‘Not for sale--not for sale--oh, no!’ exclaimed the little old man +eagerly. ‘They belong to my private library.’ + +‘Also the _Mascarades Monastiques_ of Rabelli,’ pursued Flaxius +pitilessly. + +‘’Tis sold,’ cried the Bookseller, as if alarmed. + +‘It isn’t; but never mind, I don’t want to buy them, yet I would like +to see your collection.’ + +‘_A--ch, so!_’ responded the ancient, visibly relieved. ‘_Komm herein, +du lieber Gast, wenn du nichts im Beutel hast._ + + + ‘“Enter as a welcome guest, + If thou really nothing hast, + If thou’rt poor then sit thee down + If thou’st money, get thee gone!”’ + + +And with this invitation, he led the way into a marvellous old German +interior, which looked as if it had been painted by some artist who +was, as I once heard a French artist say, ‘mad on the Middle Age and +earlier time.’ For it was heavily arched, and looked like the crypt +of a cathedral, or the _Stube_ of the Giant Tavern in the Hof-Gasse +of Innsbruck, which is, indeed, lovely to behold, and far away finer +than the Auerbach Keller of Leipzig. All around were books: books of +tarnished gold in old ivory-parchment bindings; books in tremendous +plank covers of old oak, knobbed with bronze or iron, like castle +doors; books in marvellous cut-vellum, with rich Gothic grotesques, +and silver clasps of extravagant richness; books on shelves and heaped +up in piles like rubbish; everywhere books--and _such_ books! ’Twas a +vision, a dream, an endless promise of a bibliomaniac’s paradise! + +And there the two sat for hours turning over the black letter of the +olden time, like two wizards evoking the spirits of the dead, which, +indeed, the scholar always does when he reads reverently in such books, +which were made, and once studied, by the departed. For it is in his +thoughts that the writer lives in after ages, and he is ever with us as +we read. + +The dealer was enchanted also with his guest, hearing the wondrous +words and ponderous stories, strange, which were uttered in calm, +solemn tone; and a rapt shuddering stole over him as they turned some +old and legend-leaved book, mysterious to behold, while he learned +priceless secrets enhancing the value even of what he most esteemed. + +Flaxius took up an old work--_Das Schachzabel-spiel_ of Jacob Manuel of +1536. + +‘There seems to be something in the binding,’ he said. ‘Perhaps some +old paper. May I examine it?’ + +He bent back with care the thin parchment, and drew out a manuscript of +perhaps twenty leaves, which had been put in to stiffen the binding, as +waste-paper. + +‘This is indeed a find,’ he solemnly remarked. ‘A great discovery.’ + +‘What is it?’ + +‘A manuscript play as yet unknown, by Hans Sachs, entitled _Die Weisse +Rabe_, or, _The White Raven_, with the motto from the _Renner_ of +Trimberg: + + + ‘“Selten wir gesehen haben + Swarze Swanen und weisse Raben. + + Seldom have we ever seen + Black swans or ravens white I ween.” + + +It bears the signature of the author: _Hans Sachs_.’ + +‘Blessed be the storm which drove thee to my gate; blessed be this day +and hour, and the mother who bore thee, and all and everything dear +unto thee!’ cried the Bookseller. ‘Lo, it has been the dream of my life +to find that play--I have seen it in visions, I have prayed for it; I +would have given a finger, an eye, yea, my choicest book to even behold +it.’ + +‘And now it is thine,’ replied Flaxius gently. ‘And indeed it was--_de +facto_--thine own discovery, since thou didst lead me here, and it was +in thy possession.’ + +The old man clasped the manuscript to his heart, and kissed it +reverently; there was silence, save for the pattering of the rain, and +anon a thunder peal, which seemed like a joyous _salvo_ fired off in +honour of the event. The Bookseller rose with tottering steps. + +‘I will return anon,’ he said. + +He came back, bearing two ancient bottles covered with dust and +cobwebs, and two tall, magnificent old glass goblets. + +‘There is no better wine, and none so old in Nuremberg,’ he exclaimed. +‘I would not have offered it to the emperor; but, verily, we will +carouse therewith--_vinum bonum et suave lætificat_.’ + +‘_Gurgle, gluck, gluck!_’ sang the Wine as it came forth again into the +world after a century of slumber. + +‘Hearest thou?’ cried the old man. ‘_Gluck, gluck!_ They are words of +good omen. This day I have had good luck.’ + +And he drank solemnly--_feierlich_--to his guest. + +‘The wine,’ said Flaxius, as he touched his glass to his host’s--it +was like the ringing of cow-bells heard afar on a mountain side in +the Tyrol--‘is like a butterfly long imprisoned as a chrysalis under +earth, which now comes forth to shine in light for a brief space--the +butterfly gladdens the child, and wine gladdens man.’ + +‘And poetry like that gladdens everybody,’ cried the host; ‘albeit I +confess that I love it best when it is printed in a rare old book.’ + +‘What is this?’ said Flaxius, taking up a little manuscript. + +‘Truly a quaint thing, a fourteenth-century transcript, or translation +of a far older work of earliest German times, the _Vision of Baldemar_, +now lost. It is unique. I pray you accept it as a gift.’ + +Flaxius would have declined the offer, but the old man, who had +inquired the name of his visitor, took a pen and wrote therein in +a very ancient, but distinct, hand, which seemed to be uniform and +contemporary with the writing of the manuscript itself: + + + _To the Moſt Learned and Very Honourable + DOMINO FLAXIO_ + + _This Work is preſented with humbleſt Regards as a trifling + Teſtimonial of inexpreſſible Gratitude from his + Moſt Devoted Servant_ + + _BUCHERWURM SCHMOKER._ + + ~‘Hast mir geschassen großes Glück;~ + ~Doch wenig geb’ ich Dir zurück:~ + ~Giebst Du mir Was,~ + ~Schenk’ ich Dir Das.’~ + + ‘_Great pleasure hast thou made for me + But little I return thee. + Thou giv’st a lot, + I but a jot._’ + + +‘What a thing,’ thought Flaxius, ‘it is for man in this life to set +his mind on something, and when so setting to make a dead set, cooking +all his victuals, as the gypsies say, “_adré yeck Kekavi_,” in one +pot. For they hold by tradition--the Romany cook-book being as yet +unpublished--that when all conceivable food is thus boiled it acquires, +like Mississippi punch, an additional agreeable flavour with every +new ingredient, eggs, carrots, ham, butter, chickens, bread, turnips, +honey, hedgehogs, snails, oatcake, rice, herrings, a sucking-pig, +mutton-chops, raisins, bacon, cold plum-pudding, cabbage and anything +else edible being welcomed to the _mixtum-compositum_; which is +declared to be so palatable that the author of _Rookwood_ assures us +that when Dick Turpin the highwayman first tasted it he actually shed +tears of delight. + +‘So hath it been with the venerable Bucherwurm Schmoker who hath +cast into the one passion of antique literature all the emotions and +feelings, hopes and affections of life. I have heard that among the +Five Thousand Commandments which were appended by the devil and Society +to those of Moses--the which I do propose some day to publish--there is +one which says, “Put not all thy eggs into one basket.” But there is +great pleasure in breaking commandments, especially when one desires, +like the French lady, to make with them an _omelette aux confitures_; +and there is also great delight in concentrating our feelings, as the +devil observed when he saw that the mystics united the excess of piety +with that of earthly pleasure. “_Cela suffit_”--quotha. + +‘This venerable Schmoker seems to me like the thorn-bush of the poet, +of which it would be hard to say how it could ever have been young, it +looks so old and grey, like rock or stone all overgrown with lichens to +the very top, or thoughts of some primeval time which fain would give +it all the grime which they have gathered up. Yet underneath this aged +thorn there is a lovely hill of moss, wherein are exquisite curling +lines and scarlet-orange-tawny-sable-ivory flowers, which, seen with +a glass, do to perfection resemble the enlacements and tracery and +fancied flowers of an illuminated manuscript; and therein and therefore +do the fairies love to dwell and sit love-making of a moon-lit night. + +‘And if I think thereon I needs must laugh, remembering that all the +world thinks that such an erudite old Dryasdust leads the most arid, +infestive, humdrum, prosy life, given to old and long-forgotten things, +buried in the rust of antiquity, palætiology, archæology, which all, +like the Dismal Grove in Tieck’s wondrous tale, do but conceal a sunny +elfin-land of quaint caprice and merry, wanton joy. As every antiquary +and folk-lorist who is anything better than a mechanical maker of +tables, and a clipper and collector of variants, well knows. + +_Serious_, indeed! Now, an’ I had time, good people, I would tackle +Calvin, Knox, and Chalmers, and Young of the _Night Thoughts_, and show +you what Mephistopheli, what humbugs, what subtle deceivers of self or +others, and what mad humorists they all were, and in what Hampton Court +mazes they led their followers. For, meaning it or not, it came to +that; and ye who cannot perceive it, think that the partition six feet +high, over which ye cannot peep, is the top of heaven’s wall. Yea, I +repeat: For, meaning it or not, it comes to that! + + * * * * * + +‘_Vale, Corcule!_ Good-night, old Parable, for there is in thee a +deeper meaning than men divine. Sleep well, O mirror of ten thousand +books, whom I have made happy by adding unto them “one volume more!” as +Dibdin sweetly sang.’ + +When Flaxius opened the door, it was a bright, full-moon-lit night; +clear and fresh, and gently breezy, gauzy cloudlets flitting now and +then before the stars, like transparent veils blowing away or waving +before the eyes of Eastern girls. So he went to his dwelling, and +the night being young, sat down to read the little book, which ran as +follows: + + +BALDEMAR’S TROUME + + THE VISION OF BALDEMAR + + As in slumber once I lay + In a wood one summer day, + All beneath an oaken tree, + With green leaf-curtain, fair to see; + Flowers peeped upward from below + To the sun as he did go, + And the drops fresh from the showers + Looked lovingly upon the flowers, + Like bright eyes as clear as glass, + Or diamonds glittering in the grass; + And all around from many a bloom + There came a pleasant, fresh perfume, + While in the forest all day long, + Dame Nightingale did tell her song.[12] + + By me ran a spring full clear, + And it sounded to my ear, + With its steady murmuring, + Like children who a lesson sing, + Or as one who reads alone + To himself in single tone; + While the wind in harmony + Rustled sweet in every tree. + Flies and bees the measure kept + All in chorus--so I slept. + + Now whether I from sleep awoke + To life again beneath the oak, + Or whether I did deeper sink, + In dreams, I know not what to think, + Yet this I know that I was there, + Where I had been, but in the air; + And all around there was a change, + Unto another life and strange, + As if one should sleep in spring + When all is green and burgeoning; + Then wake in autumn to behold + The trees all clad in red and gold; + For other sounds I seemed to hear, + Other scents were in the air, + Elfin light shone all around, + And new herbage on the ground, + There full silently had come, + As strangers move into a home. + + There I sat but had not known, + It was on the Wildè Stone[13] + That I had fallen into sleep, + Since there the elves their watches keep, + And he who sitteth there an hour + For all that week is in their power. + But this secret well I knew, + And now lived to find it true, + That the man who passes well + Into the spirit of the spell, + Meets with nothing to alarm, + Nor will come to any harm; + Many marvels he may learn, + Many wondrous things discern, + If he sleep an hour alone + In faith upon the Wildè Stone. + + As in silence still I sat, + Marvelling in amaze thereat, + I soon heard a sudden sound, + As of a footstep on the ground, + And looking up, there in the wood, + A vision fair before me stood: + When all at once the forest rang, + In chorus all the birdés sang, + And wondrous flowers in bright array, + Came shooting to the light of day,[14] + And in all her beauty’s sheen + Before me stood the fairy queen. + + Thus she spoke: ‘O minstrel dear! + Long have I longed to see thee here! + For it is in our destiny + That if not placed in poetry, + Although we live in lordly state, + With wealth and power and titles great, + We’ll pass unto oblivion’s shame + Unless some poet notes our name. + There is more life in one small song + Than in a century ‘mid the throng, + With all their work, and war and strife; + Song only is eternal life. + ‘Mid all great deeds--too great to last-- + Men seek the poems of the past, + And one sweet lay, as all may see, + May make an Immortality. + It may full long forgotten lie, + Yea sleep for many a century, + Hidden away in darkling nook, + Yet be revived in many a book: + For though states fade and tongues may die, + There is no death for poetry, + Since unto it we well may say: + “A thousand years are as a day,” + ’Tis God’s own voice which, when it spoke, + In poetry the silence broke: + To inspiration doth belong, + And it alone, the power of song. + + Even we who are of fairy kind + Are least of all unto it blind, + Since all the life which we receive, + Legends or lays unto us give. + For all of our appointed time + Is measured by the poet’s rhyme, + Unless we’re sung we soon are not, + And even our name would be forgot: + Therefore to me, O Baldemere! + Thou art indeed of men most dear. + Long I have lived in hope to be + But mentioned in thy minstrelsy: + Even in one line be’t low or high, + For then I know I ne’er can die.’ + + All had grown silent as she spoke, + No sound the forest stillness woke: + The nightingales had ceased to sing, + The brook had stopped its murmuring, + A sudden peace had come to pass + Over the wrangling flowers and grass,[15] + For well I noted all had been + Listening with joy unto their queen, + With some sweet hope that they might be + Included in the poetry: + And this I did with love recall, + That fairy life is in them all. + + Her voice again the silence broke, + And wavering with the sunshine spoke: + As it came flickering through the leaves: + As broideress her pattern weaves, + Singing meanwhile a melody + With her design in harmony, + And thus she said: ‘O come with me + And thou a wondrous sight shalt see + Fit for a song, my Baldemere, + If thou canst read its meaning clear, + For we must go.’ I naught could say, + So followed as she showed the way. + + Right wild and rugged was the road, + Through passes strange, which long we trode: + Great rocks above us darkly hung, + While peaks like towers o’er them sprung, + And grim and griesly was the way, + Scaping so oft the light of day, + We did not seem to climb a steep + But rather down in earth to creep, + Wherein we heard and time again + The sough of winds, the rush of rain, + Then wended from a passage cold + Into a forest grey and old + Where every tree seemed all alone, + For they had changed long since to stone; + Every leaf and twig was there, + As if they had been carven fair, + And all y-wrought in imagery + As men do work in ivory, + Making for brides their caskets rare: + Anon we came unto a stair; + Each step whereof was wondrous broad, + And strangely high. It was with awe + I asked its meaning, and was told, + ’Twas made by giant hands of old. + Yet up we went, nor did we stop, + Till we had gained the mountain top, + Where in the twilight golden brown + Upon a bench we sate adown. + + Long it was ere I could speak, + For both my soul and tongue were weak + With all the wonderful surprise + At what was spread before my eyes; + For never yet in dream or scroll + Came such a picture to my soul, + Nor yet in visions told of eld, + Compared to what I there beheld. + + Straight from our feet like any wall, + An awful precipice did fall, + Ne’er had I thought of one so steep + It seemed ten thousand fathoms deep, + While down below a valleyed bay + Spread beyond vision far away, + And the wild waters of that sea + Showed all that in eternity, + Since earth hath been or Time began, + Was ever seen by living man. + Rising from darkness into light, + Then fading into sheen more bright, + A life which was a sparkling spring, + And then anon evanishing, + For there were forms of women fair, + Like ivory--then lost in air, + Or buried in the billow-caves, + As goblins vanish into graves, + Strong warriors with stretching arms + Pursuing still those wondrous forms, + + Or revelling as at glorious feasts: + With all were mingled fearful beasts, + Up-leaping, roaring, rioting, + Withal full many an idle thing, + As minstrels carolling their lays, + And forms of long-forgotten days, + And dwarfs who dwell in mossy stone, + And spectres flitting all alone, + And dead men floating in their shrouds, + With dragons breathing fiery clouds, + Blinding all round with ruddy light, + And then in darkness lost to sight: + There too were castles, halls, and bowers, + With wondrous battlements and towers, + Beyond them others rising high, + And others still unto the sky, + With gardens broad and forests fair, + Yet ever fading into air, + And fields with fountains interlaid, + Where troops of merry children played, + With gentle deer and snow-white lambs, + And nuns a-singing even-psalms; + Fading anon with all the rest, + Like sun-set clouds into the West: + On earth there is no thing I ween + Which in that sea could not be seen, + All that is common, all that’s rare, + All that is humble or is fair + With every known or unknown thing, + Coming to life and vanishing, + All blending, tending into one, + As vapours fade before the sun: + Chasing, embracing, or anon + In deadly strife, and then agone: + Therein I felt all that can be + In Life to all Eternity. + + Long at that wondrous sea I gazed, + As one half pleased but more amazed, + Till step by step upon my soul + There came the feeling of the whole, + And then a strange and boundless awe + As I conceivéd what I saw, + Until the thought which seized me there + Became too terrible to bear, + For what surpasses poetry, + I ween is far too much for me: + Life hath its limits, and this strife + Is far too great for mortal life: + A shudder seemed in me to rise, + And, over-borne, I closed my eyes + When a soft whisper in my ear + Said, ‘’Tis enough, O Baldemere!’ + And as the fairy to me spoke, + I started at the word and woke. + + I lay upon the Wildè-Stone, + All in the forest and alone, + Deep-thinking on the things I’d seen, + And then I sang, ‘O Fairy Queen! + Thou shalt in deed recorded be + By Baldemere in poetry: + God grant that this my humble lay, + May live in truth for many a day. + Would I could give it grace divine! + Not for my honour, but for thine!’ + + + * * * * * + +‘_Haec fabula docet_,’ wrote the master, ‘firstly, that there is no +earthly immortality like that of Song. Now it is to be noted that in +their day and time men give little real heed to any save a very few +of the greatest living poets, treating minor bards with a neglect +which history clearly shows is most undeserved. For the _vitality_ of +even fourth-class poetry is marvellous. It is recovered and reprinted +centuries after it has been forgotten by all. What scholar is there who +when raking over piles of fifteenth-century, theological, legal, and +even historical rubbish, which will only sell for waste-paper, has not +been charmed at finding in it--O happy man!--a book of ballads, or even +of poetry of _any_ kind? ’Tis little thought upon, this life of song. +There’s not one poet of the present day, however small his art and weak +his lay, who hath not better chance to live for aye, and speak at times +to some congenial soul than any other fancied famous man. + +‘There is many a small being--ay, more than any dream--who will live +like a fly in amber, merely because he has known, conversed with, and +thereby identified himself with some poet, so small that even the fly +did not know that the other had ever rhymed at all. It is little to +the credit of any civilised country that it can excessively honour and +envy and glorify an Upper Ten, or Twenty Thousand in Great Britain, +or a Four Hundred in America, and not include in the number more than +a dozen poets. If people cared more for poetry they would enlarge the +number, for there are in very truth some hundreds cruelly ignored--all +sneering critics to the contrary. + +He is an evil being, to me, who would belittle, crush, or condemn +almost any poetry whatever. For even in the very mediocre, where there +has been inspiration and love, there is a gleam as of something divine, +which I must needs reverence. Truly, indeed, the muse may have been +only a very small fairy, elf, or goblin, or even a witch, but it has a +spark of the supernatural or occult; treat it tenderly therefore, as +something born with mystic powers! + +And there is also a lesson in the Bookseller himself, which, rightly +read and widely understood, would do good in the world. There are +thousands of people who would fain travel into foreign lands and see +strange people, when there are all around them in life men far more +marvellous than Turks or Indians, or beings well-nigh as queer as +goblins. They go about silently like shadows in a kind of twilight of +society, living in a fourth dimension, enjoying senses all unknown to +us, hearing sounds which never reach our ears, lit by a light which +never cheered our eyes. Such are the collectors and readers, like this +old man, who steep their very hearts of hearts in the feelings of +the past, and give to every thought that chiaroscuro of the romance +of age which is the final beauty of art. It is one of the sarcasms +of truth that such a Dryasdust, who has become among fools the very +type and symbol of common-place dulness, is in reality all the time +in a fairyland too fine for the Philistine with his great horny eyes +to even perceive; for he in a blackletter book feels with exquisite +sympathy all that romance which was in all life in an earlier age, +feels it directly and _in itself_, while another only gets a coarse +burlesque or imitation of it from novels, plays, and Lord-Mayor-Shows +of poems. + +There are very few in this world who feel or even understand in +reality this spirit in which the Bookseller has his being, more’s the +pity!--for it brings a great deal of happiness to the possessor. Hand +in hand with it, like a twin, goes the fairy of Collecting. This spirit +too is far misunderstood. He who, having got together more money than +he can spend, ridicules the collector of postage-stamps or buttons is +like the lunatic in Hogarth’s picture, laughing at his like. They are +all, one or the other, inspired by what the gambler-scholar Pascasius +Justus called the _insatiabilis habendi libido, similis ventriculi +magnæ voracitatis_, the unsatiable desire of possession, which is +like a gnawing, ceaseless hunger, the which, as he adds, may do no +harm if it be properly supplied with good food. The delight of the +collector is in renewing certain pleasant feelings which he experienced +before, which some think is nine-tenths of the pleasure of love, or of +intoxication, or anything else; and that in very truth man is _man_ +because he has more memory and passion than any other animal, and more +ganglion. Nay, there have been rakes and Don Juans who found their +chief pleasure, not in pleasure, but in accumulating conquests, that +is, by collecting, by adding to the list which some pitiful Leporello +bears. + +Now, as Collecting is a human-animal instinct (as is shown by the +raven, magpie, and other creatures), and love and religion and art were +nothing more in their beginnings, it may be that as we improve, it too +may be developed to a holy thing or a great institution; for in it lies +the secret of history and of folk-lore and of preservation of relics; +which will be clear to ye all when ye read my great work on the science +of collecting in all its branches. + +[12] + + ‘Vor dem Walde was sîn ganc, + Dâ diu naktegale sanc.’ + + _Walther von der Vogelweide._ + +[13] + + ‘Der arme Grêgôrius, + Nü beleip er alsus; + Uf dem Wilden Steine, + Aller gnāden eine.’ + + _Hartmann von der Aue._ 1320. _Gregorius._ + + +[14] + + ‘Bluomen springent, + Vogellên singent, + Wünneclîchen schal.’ + + _Leutold von Seven._ A.D. 1230. + +[15] + + ‘Alsô stritents ûf dem Anger + Bluomen un de Klë.’ + + _Leutold von Seven._ (_Maienwunder._) + + + + +FLAXIUS IN THE FUTURE + + ‘What I was is passèd by, + What I am away doth fly, + What I shall be none do see, + Yet in that my beauties be.’--_Old Epitaph._ + + +I KNOW not to what land or region strange the immortal Magian betook +himself, after this century had reached its end and tumbled over +Time’s great precipice. All that I know is this, that it was in some +realm within the realm of shadowed sense, where he forgot the stars, +the moon, and sun; where he forgot the blue above the trees; where +he forgot the dells where water runs; where he forgot the chilly +autumn breeze; where he forgot there had been newspapers or stocks or +pigeon-shoots at Hurlingham, or wondrous things at the Aquarium, or +Piccadilly or the Savile Club--yea, all of earth and what there is of +life--most useful, beautiful, æsthetical--all this had vanished like +the lightest dream. + +Now whether he had dipped a while in Dîs, to talk with Pluto, whom he +much admired, or sailed to some celestial violet star, to exercise +strange senses here unknown, expanding in the fourth di-men-si-on, this +is certain, that it was about the time when the Twentieth century had +attained its majority of two thousand, Flaxius found himself again on +earth, suddenly dropped from some supernal height or upward shot from +the great world below. + +... Seated on a very comfortable bench under the lee of the Great Wall +of China in a remote corner of Manchuria, he was not there a minute ere +he realised that remarkable, not to say radical, changes had swept over +the face of the whole world since his evanishment. + +For he observed, firstly, that the Great Wall, which he had last +seen in a most dilapidated, eroded, crumbled, and top-worn state +of oxidation and moss-grown rustiness, was now, so far as he could +behold--and it wound like a serpent up and down rolling hills, and over +tremendous rocks for half a century of miles, till it vanished in an +invisible, grey thread--completely restored as if by contract, all its +ancient towers being likewise correctly renewed, as if by some Chinese +Gilbert Scott. At its base, at the rate of about one to the acre, were +bungalows of graceful construction, but all without chimneys,[16] rising +from tufted groves and gardened plains, in whose architecture the old +Chinese style seemed curiously mingled with other influences. A very +striking feature indeed was that of many colossal towers, about a mile +one from the other; every one, as Flaxius estimated, being about one +thousand feet in height. + +Hearing a rustling sound hard by, he, looking up, perceived a man +alighting from what he at once understood was a flying-machine. It had +come unseen and noiselessly as an owl, whence, as Flaxius divined, it +had proceeded with incredible speed. The new-comer, who seemed to be +about thirty years of age, was a man of attractive countenance, manly, +and evidently intelligent, altogether the right sort of man for the +right sort to meet. He was clad in a graceful, but extremely practical +garb of some material new even to the Sage. As for nationality, he was +certainly European, and probably English, but his first greeting to the +Immortal was in a singular jargon, which appeared to be based upon the +Pidgin, once dear to Flaxius in bygone years. + +‘_Come sta_, my flin? What one-piecey man you be? My no savvy you--_no +hè te jamas visto_--never look-see you before one-time, allo my life-o!’ + +‘I understand you,’ replied Flaxius; ‘but I also speak English.’ + +‘Oh, of course,’ replied the stranger with a genial smile, ‘only a +fellow gets so into the habit of pidgining; it comes from flying +about----’ + +‘Naturally,’ observed Flaxius. + +The stranger darted at him a quick glance, and then looked about +anxiously, as if fearful that some one had overheard them, observing in +a hurried, low tone: + +‘I say, don’t do that again. Joking’s against the law, you know.’ + +‘I did not know it,’ replied Flaxius. ‘But why are you so much +astonished at not knowing me?’ + +‘Because,’ replied the stranger, ‘I cannot recall ever meeting anybody +in all my life whom I had not seen before. You know how it is nowadays, +when everybody goes flying about, and all the world is acquainted. And +as you are evidently a superior sort of person, I am indeed _utterly_ +amazed at not knowing you, because I would have sworn that from China +to Peru there was not one gentleman with whom I was not, I may say, +intimate.’ + +‘But you must count your acquaintances by _millions_,’ replied Flaxius. + +‘Certainly,’ answered the stranger gravely. ‘I know nine hundred and +eighty-four million, seven hundred and fifty-eight thousand, four +hundred and twenty-eight men and women by face and name. Since the new +system of accretive memorising has come in, and the whole world has got +mixed up, and keeps mixing, everybody knows everybody.’ + +‘And does everybody now know everything?’ inquired Flaxius, as nearly +astonished as he had ever been during the whole course of his long and +well-spent life. + +‘Well, among all the whiter people of age, I think it may be fairly +asserted that every grown-up person knows all that man has ever known. +Of course, only the most advanced scientists and deducers are really +well acquainted with the knowledge of the future. But who, in the +name of the Prima Materia, are you, who put such incomprehensibly odd +questions?’ + +‘I have been,’ replied Flaxius, ‘out of the world for a century, and am +utterly ignorant of all that has taken place during that time.’ + +The stranger did not seem to doubt the assertion, nor to be much +astonished, as he merely remarked: + +‘I have heard there were a few of the very far advanced who could do +that, and you look like one of them. And I suppose, of course, they +keep it a secret. So if you wish it, I will say nothing to anybody. Now +to know what has been doing since you left, is a long story. Do you +know where to lodge to-night?’ + +‘No,’ replied Flaxius, ‘unless it be _à la belle étoile_.’ + +‘We can sleep in any of these bungalows,’ replied the stranger. ‘I have +_coupons_ entitling us to rooms and food, and medical attendance, and +social attentions, anywhere in the world.’ + +‘I have plenty of gold money,’ observed Flaxius. + +‘_Money!_’ exclaimed the stranger, as if astonished. ‘Well, certainly, +money can be exchanged for coupons, and coins are rising rapidly in +value for collections and museums. But coupons, issued in all cities, +pass current all the world over at par. But let us get to our quarters +and I will tell you the rest!’ + +He invited Flaxius to enter the machine, in which there was room for +two, and a trunk, with some comfortable wrappings. Then as he turned a +handle they shot off, upward and onward like the wind. As they flew, +they overtook two other _aerevolantes_ like their own, when Flaxius’s +friend, exclaiming, ‘Good fellows, good luck!’ ignited several +small coloured squibs or minute rockets--it had by this time grown +dark--which were responded to by a single red spark from each. + +‘I invited them to meet an interesting stranger whom I have just +discovered,’ remarked the stranger with a laugh. ‘My name is Oakford,’ +he added, ‘and it is Pidgined into Oakforto. _Yours?_--Flaxius. That +will become Flasio or Flaso. Ah! here we are!’ + +He stopped at a large and somewhat singular, though pretty house, +before which sat in a garden at tables several well-dressed ladies and +gentlemen, of a somewhat Eurasian appearance. An elderly woman examined +the coupons which Oakford presented. + +‘Take double,’ he remarked. ‘I want extra food. This is a distinguished +man of science.’ + +Hearing this, the landlady and all the rest present rose and bowed low +to Flaxius. But with all their politeness it was evident that they were +utterly amazed, which Oakford explained by saying: + +‘They have all travelled so much that they never saw a stranger before +in all their lives.’ + +‘Now, for a paradox I call that a good one,’ reflected Flaxius. ‘That +at least remains in the world.’ + +‘May I mention the fact that you have been absent from the world for a +century?’ inquired Oakford of the Sage. ‘These are all gentlemen and +ladies--that is, well-educated and of strict principles.’ + +‘Certainly,’ replied Flaxius. + +‘This, my dear friends,’ then resumed Oakford, ‘is a scientist and +philosopher of the very highest rank, since he has been absent from +the world for more than a century. As you are all aware, only one among +many millions ever achieves such extraordinary power, and from it you +can draw your own conclusions.’ + +The party, which had been augmented by the arrival of two additional +gentlemen with ladies, all gazed at Flaxius with an expression of such +sympathetic intelligence as he had rarely met among mortals in the +earlier time, and then, approaching him very reverently, bowed and +worshipped, each addressing him a short prayer, after which the sage, +perceiving that a benediction was hoped for, gave it with impressive +feeling, to their very great satisfaction. + +‘You must understand,’ explained Oakford, ‘that the religion which now +prevails is, that the Creative Force manifests itself in the ascending +series of ideals, and most perfectly in Man; therefore we worship him +in one another, but chiefly in the advanced scientist, since it is to +the power in him that we are chiefly indebted for inventions, and all +that does us any good.’ + +‘Ah!’ exclaimed Flaxius, ‘you have somewhat changed religion as it was +a century ago. Then, men chiefly worshipped, firstly, themselves, and, +secondly, Politicians, who, instead of doing any good to anybody, made +all the devil’s own mischief they could in every way, and were all the +more admired for it.’ + +‘You speak of the Devil,’ remarked Oakford. ‘It must have been curious +to live in the world when people believed in such a being, and thought +they saw his influence manifest in all things.’ + +‘H’m!’ quoth the sage. ‘If you have succeeded in getting the devil +entirely out of everything, and removed all traces of his existence, +I will say this for you, that you have more than realised my greatest +expectations and fondest hopes.’ + +‘Nay, we have only got rid of the initial D; but that is the first +step. By scientifically supplying natural wants and discouraging the +development of needless ones, we have very much extinguished the worst +forms of selfishness.’ + +‘Ah, that initial D!’ said Flaxius. ‘The Dee----! + + + ‘“There was a jolly miller + Lived by the river Dee, + Who sang, As I care for nobody, + Then nobody cares for me!”’ + + +‘I grant that _evil_ still remains in many a form,’ resumed Oakford; +‘but science and philanthropy have combined to a degree which would +once have been deemed incredible (being supplied with all the power +which mankind could contribute, to investigate and extinguish it). +The vast interest which all mankind took a century ago in the idle +squabbling of windy politicians, that is in mere factional, silly +quarrels about nothing, or human cock-fighting in oratory, has been +supplanted, owing to the ascendency of the man of science, by a general +and serious interest in what really concerns our earthly welfare. +Perhaps we have _not_ accomplished so much as you may have anticipated, +but to this we have really come: increased liberalism has so far +diminished prejudices, that the world has pretty well agreed as to what +it really wants, first of all.’ + +‘A tremendous progress,’ interpolated Flaxius. ‘It is nine-tenths of +the battle won. To know what we want is almost equivalent to having all +we need.’ + +‘Well, let us toilette and then refresh!’ said Oakford. ‘Here is your +room. If you want anything, press the button, and speak.’ + +‘And then the servant will come to receive orders?’ + +‘No; for you must first form in your own mind an image, by volitional +pseudophia--that is depicting by will--and this image is, with your +voice, conveyed to the chambermaid. Thus you want two silk towels, you +close your eyes, form their image, and order. The maid touches the +button, closes her eyes, beholds two silk towels, and brings them. Some +men of science--in fact, I can do it myself, to a certain extent--make +the towels for themselves at once out of the atmosphere, by a peculiar +mental, physiological process, but the less expert prefer the maid.’ + +‘H’m!’ quoth Flaxius, as a very lady-like, pretty damsel appeared. +‘I should think, indeed, that with many travellers the volitional +physiological effort would be chiefly exerted in that direction.’ + +‘The position of servant in a house specially frequented by men of +science,’ pursued Oakford, ‘is regarded as a great honour, and only +conferred on highly-educated and deserving persons. This young lady,’ +he continued, ‘is the only daughter of the celebrated Kien-Long-na, +who first converted rose-leaves into butterflies, he being, indeed, +a leader among the mighty minds who broke away the barrier between +organic or inorganic creative chemistry, and proved that living +creatures could be made in the laboratory. It is even said that he has +actually succeeded in making a human child, but as regards that, his +daughter, here, can give you better information. + +This was said with the utmost gravity, and the lady chambermaid +responded quite as seriously, but with interest. + +‘Yes; it is true, he has established the fact beyond all question that +it _can_ be done, by sub-etherising protoplasm, even in the fourth +grade, but I must admit that the specimens of work which he has thus +far produced are not remarkably creditable to his skill, nor very +attractive.’ + +‘Now, if I had heard that a century ago,’ mused Flaxius, ‘I should +have taken the liberty to deny it, but I suppose that science has +even extinguished Frenchmen by this time. By Nemesis! I would like to +know what this chambermaid thinks when she turns over--if she ever +does--specimens of what constituted nine-tenths of the reading of young +ladies at the end of the last century; or what she thinks, if she +indeed stoops to think, of those who revelled in it, or supplied it! +Holy Science! thou hast indeed taken a great deal of fun out of life, +but thou hast outbalanced the loss with abundant, honest decency!’ + +‘I must explain to you, also,’ said Oakford, ‘though you doubtless +surmise it, that such positions are in request, because it is only in +a comparatively few great families, or establishments, that servants +are kept at all, since scientific appliances now enable people to do +everything for themselves. Waiting has become a refined and elegant +accomplishment, which can only be properly filled by ladies of superior +education. In fact, it is very mortifying to a girl to have it said +of her that she is always seen as a guest, and never as a waiter. It +enables a young lady to see society and the world, and become more +intimately acquainted with people of intellect.’ + +The supper, or evening refreshment, did not surprise Flaxius as a +novelty, because it was precisely the same as that which he had +enjoyed during his visit to the God of Ancient Days, and on other +transcendental occasions. It consisted simply of a cake to each guest +with a bottle of what--for want of a better term--I may call wine. +Both, however, were the very perfection of food and drink. + +Turning to the assembled company, Oakford said: + +‘I propose, my friends, to give to our distinguished guest some account +of what changes have taken place in the world as regards food, since he +last honoured this planet by residing in it, and will be pleased if you +would kindly aid me in so doing. To begin with, I think I may broadly +state that chemistry, as the word was understood, completed its first +stage, or that of Analysis, about a hundred years ago, and then began +to attempt Synthesis, or the combination of the elements.’ + +‘It was at the same time,’ remarked the waiting-maid, ‘that the +elements were reduced to one.’ + +‘Quite right. One of the first results of Synthesis was to make not +only metals but all kinds of substances, including every variety of +food. For a long time men persisted--as many of the less educated still +do--in liking only imitations of what they had preferred in earlier +ages, such as meat and fish, or certain vegetables and fruits. I myself +have several times eaten mutton-chops, and once a roasted chicken, and, +I think, I once ate a pea.’ + +‘History repeats itself,’ mused Flaxius. + +‘But in a very short time good palatable food was produced so cheaply, +and in such immense quantities, that finally every human being was +supplied for nothing with a daily ration; it being now the fundamental +law that all who are born are entitled to food, lodging, clothes, and +facilities for mental improvement and recreation.’ + +‘Did not this have the effect of creating a vast mass of idlers?’ +inquired Flaxius. + +‘My dear Master,’ remarked one of those present, ‘you will probably +have conjectured that during the past century history has been made +more rapidly, and the world has passed through more important changes +than it had during all its earlier period of warfare and theology, with +incoherent, spasmodic, or despairing struggles. We have had terrible +trials, and as yet are only beginning to realise what we have still to +do. In fact I often think that we have thus far done almost next to +nothing, with all our science, and that the one great glory of this our +century is that we have reduced a chaos to something like order, and +have produced a mere beginning from which those who are to succeed us +may proceed with something like union and mutual intelligence.’ + +There was a general murmur of approbation at these words, when Oakford +again spoke: + +‘There was much idleness and more discontent than ever, more +complaining over dainty food, than there ever had been during famines +wherein thousands died of starvation; the reason being that those who +were the most intelligent and industrious could still earn more than +others and feed better. But man is really after all a working animal, +and as the grosser and more intolerable kinds of labour were relieved +by mechanical invention, and agriculture and raising animals gave way +to artificial food, and education and culture advanced, great changes +and improvements came about. And though, as I truly said, we are far +from being out of all these social troubles, we think we see our way +out, and have in the main succeeded in conquering those horrible pests +of poverty, dirt, disease and social discontent, which once raged so +terribly when you were formerly in the world. Even at the end of the +Nineteenth century, when there was such a sad period of pessimism and +doubt and despair, and such warring elements of labour and capital and +religion and politics, men had done great and good work, it would seem +as if by mere instinct to do good. Ay, it brought forth Evolution. + +‘And Evolution, which had been conceived and born, as one may say, by +the _Natur-philosophie_ of Germany, was warmed to new life or re-born +in England by the genius of Darwin, Wallace and their supporters. From +the beginning, it in turn developed science, and science, technical +art. One of the first great inventions which followed the era of +synthesis in chemistry was this production of artificial food in vast +quantities at a very cheap rate. When attention was drawn to this, +chemists soon found out how to vary its texture or substance.’ + +‘That is to say,’ remarked one present, ‘that it was made like meat +or bread or vegetables to suit association of tastes. After a time +this association greatly diminished; but it was discarded with great +difficulty. People are so conservative as regards food and taste, +and so convinced that what _they_ are not accustomed to is unnatural +and vile, that it rose to the magnitude of a great national, or +rather world, question. But after a while the artificial food became +so palpably superior to the natural, both as to taste and uniform +wholesomeness, that the former had to give way. Now the poorest man +has by legal right a daily ration of food, such as a king would have +relished in the old time. + +‘Then came another invention, which was simple enough, yet which had +great results. It was the production of cloth fabrics of all kinds, in +incredible quantity, very rapidly and at a very trifling cost.’ + +‘That sounds to me,’ replied Flaxius, ‘like what Tennyson called “a +fairy tale of science.” There was a story in the olden time in Florence +that a brownie or household goblin once served in a family, where he +did all the work--swept the rooms, cooked the dinner and played with +the children--for nothing.’ + +‘That I suppose,’ remarked the waiting-maid, illustrates the earlier or +theistic stage of society, and a Divine Providence.’ + +‘Ahem!’ coughed Flaxius. ‘Well, the goblin was greatly loved by the +eldest boy, Marco, who, observing that his elfin friend had only a red +cap and a tattered and very scanty shirt for apparel, had made and gave +to him a full suit of red velvet. Whereupon the goblin declared that as +he was now a fine gentleman, and had dreed his weird or served his time +out, he would work no more.’ + +‘I see,’ quoth the chambermaid. ‘That was the Church after it had +attained to violet robes and gold croziers with jewelled mitres, and +ceased to be useful.’ + +‘_Um!_ Well, the goblin ere departing gave Marco a stick, assuring +him that whenever he would say to it, “Stick, turn, _risvolge_!” or +“Unroll!” it would unroll cloth, velvet, lace, or any stuff, to any +extent. And by means of it, Marco fulfilled a government contract, and +supplied all the clothing for the Papal army in less than a quarter of +an hour, besides dressing up all his friends in purple and fine linen, +_ad infinitum_.’ + +There was a laugh at this, and Oakford said: + +‘That story would not astonish any child of this generation, for we can +really roll out cloth with as great rapidity. What is to me utterly +incomprehensible, is that people who knew enough to make even such +simple toys as steam-engines and telephones, did not begin long before +by making cheap cloth. In fact I am astonished that the man who had the +wit to make that tale had not the sense to learn from it how it could +be done. Why, the very roller suggests the whole. For even then men +knew how to make paper by the mile, and also felt, and the step from +these to fibrous and cloth-like stuffs was extremely simple. However it +really required the great discovery of making _fibrine_, which followed +immediately after that of the nature, identity and relative conditions +of inorganic and organic substance. After that, people spun all kinds +of fibre out of anything. Now clothing, like food, is supplied from the +government manufactory gratis to everybody; the result having been to +destroy the vanity of dress or ostentation of mere clothing, for now +that gold and diamonds are cheap, and everything can be made, we have +very different ambitions. + +‘Perhaps the greatest factor in producing our present state of society +has been _Aerostation_ by flying-machines. The first were so rudely +constructed that it is said that every other man who used one lost +his life by it. This proved to be such an extraordinary attraction to +Americans that they all went in like lunatics for flying. They flew +races, and fought duels in the air, and roamed all over the earth in +machines, in which no man now living would dare to go a rod. We have +specimens of them in our museums, and I have seen bold aeronauts stand +before them almost mute with horror. Even so Columbus ventured over the +Atlantic in a crazy little craft. Ah, Master Flaxius, you must have +seen awful deeds in your time, and marvellously bold men who had no +fear of death or suffering. + +‘Yet pray observe, friend,’ he continued, ‘that we do not travel so +much to behold scenery or man as men did of old. For now, he who sits +in his study can see all things on earth and hear all distant sounds by +telegraph; in which art we are making every day new discoveries, even +to dispensing with wires, and seeing all the world while we sit still.’ + +‘I can hardly believe,’ remarked a lady present, ‘that there ever were +people who dared to travel night and day in steamboats, much more +in locomotive-trains. My blood almost curdles when I think of such +reckless, fiendish courage! But, I dare say,’ she added after a pause, +‘it was only the madly-brave, like the Berserkers of an early age, who +really did such things out of bravado. Master,’ she suddenly exclaimed, +‘did you ever _see_ a locomotive?’ + +‘Truly,’ exclaimed Flaxius, ‘I travelled in my time during nearly a +century many thousands of miles in such trains, with ladies as gentle +as yourself, to say nothing of innumerable maids and children, but +none of us ever imagined that we were doing anything remarkably brave. +But I believe,’ he added, ‘that any of my companions would have been +terrified at the idea of flying through the air like sky-rockets as you +do.’ + +‘Ah!’ exclaimed the waiting-maid, ‘but _that_ is a very different +thing.’ + +‘Ah, h’m!’ mused Flaxius. ‘Women with all their science still retain +certain traces of their primeval savage logic--or nature.’ + +‘After the first stages,’ resumed Oakford, ‘when the flying-machine +was very much improved, and made very cheap, it was at first terribly +abused. Thieves pounced down like hawks on property, and with the +vehicle to carry two or three, an era of abduction and elopements +with women began. Then there was organised a grand World Detective +Flying Association, which pursued thieves into the very depths of +Greenland, or Thibet, or anywhere else; the result being that in the +end the dangerous classes were almost extirpated. For when they became +dangerous to everybody, instead of to a few, there was a general war on +them.’ + +‘And the abductions and elopements?’ inquired the Sage. + +‘Well, Society found itself obliged to compromise a little on _that_ +question, which I must freely admit is in rather a dubious condition +even at the present day. While the rights of persons and things to +immunity from attack are more strictly observed than ever, it has +in due proportion been discovered that conventional and sentimental +rights or wrongs disappear with great rapidity among cosmopolites, and +that the emancipated woman claims the same privileges as man. Still, +on the whole, from all that I have learned in books, we get on far +more peaceably and pleasantly than you did in the days of duels and +divorce-courts, and all that. When people have nothing to do but fly +away like birds in order to part, divorce becomes too easy, and so +they end by pairing like birds. Those who have a turn for a kind of +domestic life and families--and they are in a great majority--follow +it; and those who have not, do pretty much as they like, and are left +alone unnoticed. Society gladly takes care of all the foundlings--very +good care indeed--and it is a fact that while there was at first a very +great increase in the number of such children they are now diminishing +very rapidly.’ + +‘About ten per cent. per annum,’ remarked a lady. + +‘And last year nine and four-sevenths diminution,’ added the +waiting-girl. + +‘As you have observed,’ said Oakford, ‘the flying-machine has led to an +universal lingua-franca or pidgin English; and this has induced perhaps +millions to speak good English. The old nations are breaking up and +diminishing so rapidly that millions really belong nowhere. If a man is +too warm any day anywhere he mounts his _flyer_, and can in most cases +be, in an hour, on a mountain or by the sea, or _vice versa_. Whatever +his calling is, he can find employment enough to pay his bill in any +city. There is no mountain so high, no valley so deep, that you will +not find some house of entertainment or shelter there. War is unknown, +armies and navies have vanished before cosmopolitanism; the Frenchman +has found to his amazement that he is not precisely the leader, type, +and ideal of all culture, intellect, and intelligence on earth; the +American no longer passes most of his time in informing every one how +much grander, more beautiful, and in every way superior, everything +is in Amùraca or Amáraca to everything everywhere else--in fact, he +has ceased to talk about himself and his country altogether, because +everybody has been there. In like manner, the English, the German +officers and nobility, the Spanish, the provincial gentry of Italy, the +niggers of Barbadoes and Sierra Leone, the Jews, and Irish have all +slowly abandoned the opinion that they are God’s special favourites and +the _fine fleur_ of creation, put into this world solely to convince +everybody else how degraded they are in comparison with themselves. +There is no use in nations annexing other countries--nobody cares where +he belongs; the only binding laws are those of society, or mutual +agreement, and as the latter grow in force, those of nations and creeds +and circles vanish. Even the home does not exist for millions. + + + ‘“And now our dream of science is to pass + In mental vision over all the world, + Seeing and knowing all, for we have found + New senses in mankind which still reveal + New qualities, conditions, and ideas, + And myriad beings who inhabit space, + Whom men of old divined in feverish dreams. + And as we are, there is no spot on earth + Unknown unto its humblest habitant, + While lenses quite perfected now reveal + The smallest secrets of the starry world; + And yet we deem that we have little won, + But in bold hope keep ever pushing on.”’ + + +‘You will probably be very much struck,’ remarked another of the +company, ‘with two very general facts as you come to see the world as +it is. Firstly, the great improvement which has resulted from advanced +hygiene, sanitary laws, and physical culture. Even a century ago men +had begun to discover that cleanliness meant life and health, and that +at the end of the reign of Queen Victoria the average of life was more +than one-third greater than it had been a century before. Now, the +death-rate in the most unhealthy parts of Europe is only three in a +thousand, and there is great complaint as to that.’ + +‘It is to be noted,’ added Oakford, ‘that it was not till about 1920 +that the great question arose as to whether politics, or action on +public questions, should be a mere matter of faction, like Guelf +against Ghibelline, Red _versus_ Green, Big Endian _contra_ Little +Endian, in which people sacrificed everything to see their public men +take the place of the ancient prize-fighters and quarrel. People began +to weary of Grand Old Gladiators, controversialists, co-rivals, and +champions of all kinds, and said it was time that measures took the +place of men. In fine, the principle became a party with the motto, +“A plague o’ both your houses,” and the end was the substitution of +questions of practical utility for “politics,” diplomacy, foreign +quarrels, and court-intrigues. + +‘When this principle was once adopted, it became a burning question, +and was acted on with great energy. When people awoke to the fact that +they had really been fooling themselves more than they had been fooled +by their leaders, and that they themselves were really the government, +if they did but know it, men of science and of action, yes, men of +great, vigorous, and practical minds, nurtured in evolution and true +principles of history and sociology, sprung up like a race of giants +and extinguished the talking politicians and mere scholars. It was +perhaps the turning-point in History itself, and to us it ranks even +above the Reformation in Germany and the Emancipation in America, for +it was the substitution of the practical human interests of all for the +idle power and ostentation of a few. + +‘Then it was that the accumulations of capital made by a few, or by +syndicates and trusts, were transferred to governments for the use of +the people, so that it seemed providential that they had acted as they +did. + +‘It is wonderful that at the end of the nineteenth century when these +and a hundred other causes had clearly begun to work, so few foresaw to +what they would lead. Men did not note that the immense accumulation of +capital and rapidly increasing ease of making money would inevitably +transfer it all to government and revolutionise society. “It will not +come in _our_ time,” was the cry. They did not realise, either, the +great law that population diminishes and improves in proportion to +culture, and least of all did they comprehend the unity and tendency of +all this with improved sanitary reforms, education, transit by air, and +free food and clothing, with less hard work, or gross labour. Indeed, +until these advances had been made, they could not be co-ordinated, yet +it is in that that the very life of society and progress lies. + +‘Among the first great public measures which took the place of mere +words, such as Conservative and Liberal or Republican and Democratic, +was that of health and cleanliness, which at once led to gentler +humanity and abhorrence of cruelty, both as regarded men and animals. +Men became at first intolerant as regarded seeing others suffer from +poverty, and finally detested pain in every form. I dare say that you +can recall much which would now seem incredible to the greatest brute +now living.’ + +‘Truly, I can,’ replied Flaxius. ‘There was a very good sort of man +named Alexis of Piedmont, who wrote a book of quaint odds and ends of +amusement, in which he gave a recipe how a goose could be roasted +alive. It was very ingenious indeed, but cruel to the last degree of +torture, and it ended with these words, “Then take it from the fire +and serve it up, and though roasted it will still be living, and will +cry out loud while it is being carved, which is a very merry thing to +behold.” It was republished in many books for generations after. And +in fact there was a great deal of amusement at the very end of the +nineteenth century, much patronised by the very _élite_ of society +which was very little worse than this. Bulls were literally tortured to +death in Paris in imitation of Spanish sport, gentlemen were present at +prize fights, ladies at pigeon shooting; and, perhaps, no day passed +in which some magistrate did not let some wretch guilty of horrible +and infamous cruelty to children or women escape with ten shillings’ +fine, or a few days’ imprisonment. Even a man guilty of cruelties, very +far surpassing anything ever told of Red Indians or inquisitors, or +torturers of the Middle Ages--I say this advisedly--cruelties wickeder +than a thousand murders, was after public trial only sentenced to ten +years’ imprisonment! And the general manner in which such things were +treated was to smile complacently and say, “Ah, yes, but a little +roughness and knocking about makes us manly.” Under the same impression +there survived in society, among the most refined people, a vast +amount of covert satire, innuendo, vexation by assuming superiority, +sneers--in short, the vileness of building self up on the abasement +of others, as one may see in half the humorous pictures setting forth +the coarse fun of the time. Torture by the _peine forte et dure_ was +not abolished by law in England till the year 1823 or thereabout. Yet +all this did not make people braver or more manly. It crushed and +frightened the weak, or the majority; it developed bullying, and it +drove the would-be dignified into reserve, _hauteur_ and coldness, +which was all in fact only a masque for mean cowardice and vanity. +Yet there were with all this certain curious antitheses, not without +great beauty, which I apprehend you have now quite lost. There was, in +the cruellest ages, the Madonna-like saintly meekness and innocence, +yea, purity, which I apprehend has now taken very different form--or +vanished. There was a romance and personal character in it all, which, +I suppose, is now unknown to you.’ + +‘It is true that we have lost immensely since we have been guided +solely by science and common-sense and utility,’ remarked an elderly +man who had not before spoken. ‘We have lost much of domestic life +or home-feeling, and as I infer from what I heard from old people in +my youth, and extensive study of ancient books, we have no longer +the sweet and genial ideals or inspirations of art and faith, poetry +and humour, which once fired the world. They have all sunk to the +level of very inferior races and children, who, indeed, are rapidly +growing ashamed of them. But then we have gained what compensates for +it all a thousand-fold. We are no longer sentimental or despairing or +pessimistic, nor is the poison of soft sorrow in our every cup, and +in every kiss. In fact, if a man of a hundred years ago were among +us now he would probably decide that we do not know what love is; +and to judge from the poems and novels of the olden time, I should +say that it is decidedly lucky that we do not; for such a mass of +misery, philandering, caprices, quarrels, tears, and agonies, as men +anciently went through with, according to their romances, before they +could accomplish the extremely simple and prosaic end of marriage--or +similar union--passes all comprehension, suggesting a mixture of hell +and lunacy. Add to this, that, with all their “beautiful poetry” and +genial humour, every biography of the time shows us lives steeped in a +deep consciousness of woe and suffering, with so little mitigation of +it, according to their own deepest convictions, that one must needs see +very plainly that they paid a fearful price for all their delightful, +domestic affections and devoted loves of one fond heart, for their +home circles and piety and fine art of all sorts. Yes, an awful price, +not worth the whistle. We at least do not wail and howl, and sing and +pray. When anything is wrong with us we go to the doctor, and if he +says we are all right, we get on the flying-machine, and skim over the +seas, and mountains. When we are not busied with science, or practical +matters, we are engaged in taking our recreation, and between the two +we have really no time for sentiment of any kind.’ + +‘I observe,’ replied Flaxius, ‘that you are rapidly losing, or have +entirely lost, home-ties, domestic feelings, the warm attachment to +a native land, or patriotism, devotion to a church or religion, with +all the ancient form or spirit of art and poetry--in fact nearly all +that once was supposed to form all that a man ought to live for, +including the ideal of self or character. But with it you have lost +their terrible sorrows; and you have gained stupendously more than you +have lost in a grand philanthropy which the men of the past regarded +as mere moonshine, or Utopian. Everything in its time. Every man is +your friend now--no one your enemy--quarrelling is bad form, for it is +unscientific. I see in you the beginning of an entirely new race of +beings. You are neither happy nor unhappy, as those words were once +understood--in short you would have been utterly incomprehensible to +everybody a hundred years ago. But they would in the end have feared +you like giants, and vanished before you as the Red Indian is crushed +morally by the white man. Therefore you are great, and I, a man of +the ages, tremble to think what awful, what stupendous, power you are +destined to attain. You will master every law of nature, and conquer +death and the grave, space and time. What were the greatest glories of +art and the highest flights of poetry or genius are already beginning +to appear to you as frivolous and rococo, because they were founded on +false or vanished unrealities, while you are pressing forward into such +a realisation of the real in all its immensity as it never entered into +the heart of man to conceive. Ye are already dreaming of doing--nay, ye +have in part done--what Homer of old would not have dared attribute to +the gods. Ye take unto yourselves wings, and are in the earliest rosy +dawn, even in the depths of ocean ye are there. Ye spin forth gold or +pearl or diamond from the air, as ye will, when ye will, or will soon +do so. It is as easy now to create and combine atoms as to breathe; to +build a towered castle is easier and cheaper than it was to construct +a cottage of yore. And it is all but the beginning of the beginnings +of the very rudiments compared to what is to come. You will read with +perfected lenses the minutest secrets of all the stars, discover new +senses, and through them new orders of existence not now perceptible +to man. And with every new discovery will come ten more daring dreams +of others, far, far beyond it, and they will also be realised. In +such illimitable achievements man must pass so far beyond all old +conceptions of every kind that all will shrivel up and vanish. Terribly +grand wilt thou be, O Humanity of the future!’ + +There was a pause, when the eldest one again spoke. + +‘Thou hast understood us. Humanity has hitherto been in its boyhood, +pleased with its pretty toys and fancies, indulging in passion or +despair at every trifle. Now it is advancing to eternal manhood, and +growing serious, which means more truly happy. It is leaving the +paternal home, and all petty ties and beliefs, and going out into the +world to do and dare. In the past lay the fabled, infinite power of the +gods; in the future lies the illimitable might of man. What man has +_never_ done, man can do, is the motto of the future.’ + +Then the waiting-maid spoke more gaily: + +‘But to prove to our guest that art has not as yet quite left +the world, and that we still retain some trace of old-fashioned +entertainment, I propose that Master Oakford, who is an expert in +hypnotising, give us all a pleasant drama, with magnificent scenery and +dresses, so that we may all have something cheerful in our memories +before we retire to rest.’ + +This proposal met with general approbation, and Master Oakford +explained it to Flaxius as follows: + +‘You must know that we now have spectacles, theatrical entertainments, +operas, and exhibitions of the most varied description, for all the +world, at no expense whatever. In every family there is some one who is +the special hypnotiser, and in larger assemblies masters on a greater +scale. These masters--of whom I am one--store their memories with all +that can conduce to entertainment. Then we keep by us, or, indeed, +generally find in every house, an infinite amount of music, songs, +speeches, or dialogues, such as were once recorded on tinfoil, but +which are now kept imperishable on a new and better material. + +‘When the performance begins, I hypnotise all present; impressing it +on their minds that they are about to see a certain _spectacle_, and +that they are to vividly behold certain scenery or persons. By this +method, and the aid of phonographs and monologue, I give them a very +perfect entertainment. Pray note two things: one is, that I _will_ them +to vividly remember all that they have seen, when they awake; secondly, +that the art of understanding, and of enjoying such plays, is very much +improved with practice.’ + +‘Much of this,’ remarked Flaxius, ‘was known to the Egyptian, Chaldæan +and Etruscan priests of yore, and it perished with them, or lingered in +broken fragments among witches and sorcerers. I know so much of it that +you need not hypnotise me, who am, indeed, master of the art, but I +will most gladly enter into sympathetic perception with both the actor +and the audience.’ + +Those present sat in a semi-circle, and by unanimous request, Oakford +was requested to give Shakespeare’s play of _Macbeth_. It was only +necessary for Flaxius to take the hand of one of the auditors in +his own--it chanced to be that of the pretty waiting-maid--to close +his eyes, and bring his perception into mutual sympathy with hers, +which is a peculiarly delicate, cerebral, voltaic, volitional, vital +act, and the condition for enjoying the play was complete. Then the +pretty waiting-maid--who, as has been already intimated, was also a +distinguished chemico-physiolobiologiste--retired within her inner +consciousness, but with one hand--so to speak--on the door of that +department of her memory which was labelled Macbeth (Shakespeare, +English), ready to let out the imprisoned images. That is, she went +into hypnotic sleep, to see the things which eye could not behold. + +All present were apparently insensible. Soon Flaxius heard the softest, +strangest sound, which rose to a grand peal of exquisite music; and +then, trembling, sunk and quivered into a strange, half-fearful, +half-fantastic, witch melody, like a forest through which flitted at +intervals--ever and anon inaudible or lost--a wild, yet exquisite +waltz--a butterfly in a thunder-cloud. Meanwhile, there was perceptible +all around a gradually developing, rising, and spreading scenery +of barren moors, with encircling rocks and mountains, vast trees +waving in the wailing wind--a torrent. And with it all there was an +indescribable, mental, general impression, apart from what was seen or +heard, as of another mighty wind, or spiritual opium, disposing the +beholder unto _fascination_. + +‘I have beheld many a magnificent _mise en scène_,’ reflected Flaxius, +‘but never anything like this. It would have been an art-wonder of the +world a century ago, and it is only a mere family-charade and a game of +puss-in-the-corner or proverb, for people now. They have mastered art +beyond our wildest dreams--only to despise it!’ + +Then the play went on, improving at every pace, as Oakford became +inspired, rising in grandeur and beauty, impressiveness, and the +subtle sorcery of more than mere skill. The music became a marvellous +opera of accompaniment in no excess, yet mighty in effect, while the +scenery was that of nature in her grandest or most enchanting moods. +Best of all was the acting, in which the auditor seemed unto himself +to be the one who spoke--and so it rolled on to an end. With a final +finely accentuated, biological-cardiac pressure of the hand--such as +in earlier ages would have ignorantly described as a fond squeeze--the +pretty waiting-maid awoke. + +‘You are a great artist,’ said Flaxius to Oakford. + +‘So, so. I am far from being first or even great. Nor is it considered +any great accomplishment among educated people nowadays to give such +games in such style. It is only our child’s play, O Master, just as +the performances of Thespius sank in later ages to the level of the +mob, though they had improved in quality. And you now understand, that +while we understand and practise art a hundred times better than our +ancestors did, we do not esteem it at one hundredth the part of its +ancient value.’ + +‘I understand,’ said Flaxius. + +‘Go to Rome or Greece,’ pursued Oakford, ‘and you will see the +Colosseum, and Forum and Parthenon, and all the most celebrated +buildings of antiquity restored in all their beauty, but even the +school-children now regard them as mere curiosities, illustrations of +a barbarous past--pretty enough in their small, naïve way--but mere +savage trifles compared to the works of science; why, we could now +do in a week all that Egypt built or unbuilt in six thousand years. +And we have the fullest, deepest secret of their art, too--the very +spirit of its spirit--and don’t think so very much of it either. Ah! +you nineteenth century men wrote an awful lot of rubbish, which they +called Criticism. After it died out, art began again--travelling a long +way after science, it is true--but ages in advance of where it had +gone before. All of the Ruskins and Taines of the last century look +to us like ants toiling over lumps of sugar, which they believed were +mountains. Very industrious ants they were, and good judges of white +sugar, too; but not of real Alps or Himalayas of eternal snow.’ + +‘Truly,’ observed Flaxius, ‘there were a few even in their own time +who began to suspect that human genius was not quite exhausted in the +Renaissance, and also that there was better nutriment for man than the +confectionery of pictures, or the iced-cake of a Milan Cathedral. All +very fine, very fine indeed for weddings and Christmas-trees, _tempi +passati_. Well, as nature is an artist, I suspect that art after all +has only begun afresh, on a grander scale than ever.’ + + * * * * * + +‘_Haec fabula docet_,’ wrote Flaxius, as usual on the proof, ‘that all +mankind are pretty generally mistaken in believing that certain habits, +prejudices, customs, usages, modes, and ideas, in or according to which +they and their fathers grew up, are eternal and innate laws of human +nature never to be removed. For all things may be taken out of us, even +conceit, by the cork-screw of time or the air-pump of science; and it +is the most marvellous manifestation of the age that none foresee what +a tremendous pop and what a stupendous out-flowing of the champagne of +genius there will be when the stopple shall be drawn from the final end +or mouth of this century bottle! + +‘“It will not come in my time,” said a young _savant_ to me in the +last generation when I told him that ere long cities would be lit by +gas. “’Tis all very fine, and perhaps possible, but we shall not live +to see it.” And within five years after, the city wherein he spake was +illuminated as I had predicted. Friends, the child is born unto whom, +ere death, naught which I have here written will seem strange, for he +will have seen the better part, or enough to make a proof, with his +own eyes. Ye may more safely say that a piece of wax can _never_ be +moulded into a certain form than declare what man or society will never +be; but what is most wondrous of all in that which I predict, is that +the spirit of the change is coming _soon_--even as a French Revolution +comes so suddenly upon those in power, and who are the most learned in +the signs of the times, that they have not time to move their office +furniture. For the salts are all in solution, the liquid will hold no +more, and ere long a voice or a book will precipitate the vast and +brilliant crystals by sound or shock. + +‘For that is to be for which Jesus Christ most ardently longed, and +which is the one great theme of the New Testament, that a time will +come when patriotism, the tenderest ties of home, the form and letter +of formalised religion, the great distinctions between poverty and +wealth, yea, every harsher, oppressive, conventional law which is _per +se_ useless shall disappear in a grand cosmopolitan altruism, at the +very name of which time-serving, petty fools now jibe and titter, even +as they sneered in ancient Rome at the new Christianity, which is now +coming again in the dazzling, all-glorious, white cloud of science. Let +them laugh that will, and exalt their old idols, crying that there is +this and that which man will never do. “_Upharsin_ is writ on the wall.” + +‘Woe unto the false prophets who give tips for races, be they on horses +or politicians or religion--’tis all one--for both the horse and the +demagogue are doomed to pass away. + +‘Woe unto those who live in the trash and rot and folly of gossip and +fashion, for their memory will stink in the ages to come. + +‘Woe unto the Jew and the Yankee, the Greek and Parsee, the Englishman +and Dutchman, the great former of trusts and syndicates, yea, the +promoter and swindler, be he who he may, for in the great future +history of iniquity his name will not be forgotten. + +‘Woe unto you who shall struggle in the last hour to maintain your +cracked and decayed old creeds and worn-out fads, screaming that “they +all agree perfectly with science, which was sent to support and prove +them.” + +‘Yea, woe to the old Jerusalem which stoned the prophets, for +there shall not be left one stone upon another of all her ancient +temples, gambling-dens, policy-offices, stock-exchanges, lupanars or +society-newspapers, in human form or literal. + +‘Woe unto Jerusalem; and, finally, woe unto myself! For I, too, with +all my small writing will be whirled away with the rest, down the back +entry of Time into the gutter of semi-forgetfulness, to be carried +away into the River of Oblivion. And rightly too; for how would any of +us of the present day seem among the glorious ones who are to come? +Verily, as a great divine once said of sinners or dissenters in heaven, +we should “look like pigs in a parlour.” Therefore let us all go in +peace--and be thankful that there will be far better than we are to +succeed us! + +‘But, “if not impossible it is only possible, at least it will not come +in our time,” cries all the world, when science foretells these reforms +of the future. Here I am reminded of what was once written by Paul +Féval, a muddled romanticist, who, however, in his dunghill of rubbish +had at times a pearl, and he said, when speaking of steam as applied to +boats and railway trains: + +‘“It took many years before that learned and illustrious body, the +Admiralty--_la marine de l’état_--took into consideration that force +which repelled the wind, and laughed at the strength of currents. It +is true that at the same time the Academy professed the opinion that a +velocity of ten leagues an hour on a railroad would stifle respiration +in a man and kill all who would risk it. Yet it would be foolish to +blame our marine or our academics for this--for _le monde est ainsi +fait_--such is the world. Every progress afflicts some interest or +irritates some vanity. + +‘“Ancient wisdom said, ‘If you doubt, consider carefully.’ Modern +wisdom cries, ‘If you do not understand, then _hinder_!’ Can we ever +enumerate the men and ideas put to death in the name of the idiotic +phantom whom sages call IMPROBABILITY? + +‘“Horace said that the man must have had a heart triply clad with +bronze who first on a frail plank dared all the terrors of a raging +stream. It is admirably true. Add to it that the sages of his time +would have abused that man with all their might. + +‘“And yet in every age those men so wise still cast themselves in vain +before the path on which humanity was bound to pass, for spite their +spite humanity marched on. Improbability, grotesque scarecrow as it +was, recoiled with its fogs before the light. Miracles, once declared +impossible, are now seen undisturbed in every street. It was only forty +years ago, and now you may find men living on their ‘shares’ whose +hands once tried to stop the march of steam.... And if another marvel +should arise they would laugh at and abuse it, crying, _Cela ne se peut +pas_, it is impossible.... To say now that anything is impossible, a +man should have not only a heart shielded by triple bronze, but the +tenfold skin of a jackass.” + +‘And we should consider all this when any one now dreams of the +future, for the true age of ease has only just begun. Certain chemical +discoveries made of late years have drawn from all intelligent men of +science the opinion that we are advancing very rapidly indeed to a +cheap, wholesale production of all scents and flavours in perfection. +This means very cheap food of every taste to suit, or the enjoyment +of all delicacies--mere imagination or association being set aside. +Herein--all consequences being considered--is something stupendous, +since enjoyment of taste in food is one of the greatest factors in +life, and a great stimulant to industry. When this shall be somewhat +relieved, industry will be more at leisure and liberty to devote itself +to higher things. “It may be that the Chinaman of the future will run +the machines which the Aryan will invent.”’ + +[16] Since this chapter was written I have observed that a great +prophet, W. W. Astor, the author of _Looking Backwards_, noticed this +same want of chimneys in the future. + + + + +THE EVANISHMENT OF FLAXIUS + + ‘She came in her beauty bright as day, + To where in his sleep her true knight lay. + She held in her small and light-bright hand + A plaything, a brilliant moon-gold band; + She wound it about his hair and her own, + Still singing the while, “We two are one.” + All round them the world lay poor and dim, + Aloft in her glory she rose with him. + They stood in a garden fair and bright, + The angels do call it “Land of Light.”’ + + _Aslauga’s Knight_, by _La Motte Fouqué_. + + +WHEN time had worn away long centuries, and a sweet spirit, more +subdued and soft, had breathed a deeper love and gentleness into the +heart of man, as culture grew, and ruder errors had been cast aside +among traditions of the suffering ages, Flaxius sat alone before +the rocky palace, far away in the remotest recesses of the Northern +Apennines. It was a blest and fairy-hallowed spot, where, in the +stillness of the golden eve, amid the rustling leaves and dewy grass, +he heard the solo or the chorus sweet of airy voices locked in unison, +faint, far-off, near, deep, solemn, gay or sweet, as if serenading the +rising stars, as they came one by one to the windows of heaven. + +But it nowise disturbed his reverie, for he was reviewing, as he +had seldom done, all his life. He had a stupendous memory, and an +all-embracing perception, with an immense power of concentration of +mental force, such as will some day be taught in schools, when men +shall be wise enough to examine and seek into truths set before them, +instead of manifesting their petty vanity by ridicule. As with the +spirit of a recent dream, while all its forms still freshly haunt +the soul, the great life-pageant swept before his eyes: dark forms, +forgotten for long centuries to man, nor seen in art nor sketched in +song, a living stream of shadows strange and fair, and images of great +world-ruling men, and sages who had made deep laws of life, and sent +their power like an endless thrill, beyond them--far--into eternity! + +‘It was to be, yet it is wonderful,’ thought the Sage, ‘and, perhaps, +to me the more in wonder sweet, since these fair forms that in long +order glide, still growing fairer as the world goes on, were dimly and +yet long ago foreseen. True, inductive prophecy began with science; +evolution first taught man how to evolve by a deeper logic than had +e’er been known to schoolmen, or the mere psychologist, what _was_ to +come. None the less wonderful to one who sees how a blind force with +time has worked itself into a wondrous thinking Deity!’ + +‘And the Deity, Flaxius?’ said a sweet voice, in which there was the +echo of a smile. + +The Fairy Albinia was beside him. + +‘And the Deity? How dost thou behold it?’ + +‘What it will be is far beyond my view. I know it was--not even what it +is. God grows with all that God may greater be, and awful is the mighty +law of growth. I _know not_ why it is that all _must_ grow, because it +is a law unto itself, and slow, indeed, our growth is unto it.’ + +‘But in what form dost thou behold it now?’ + +‘I see it now in man and in what science shows--how man will see it in +the time to come is now full surely all unknown to man.’ + +‘And how didst thou discover God in man?’ + +‘Even as Plato saw it in the ideal, which is the very soul and +counterpart of the most real science. May I speak?’ + +‘Yes, speak; I feel my soul now speaks in thine.’ + +‘All nature types,’ said Flaxius, ‘in ideals. None ever yet beheld a +perfect rose, yet seeing many roses, we infer what a true rose may be. +So in all things, for nature never took a single form, be it beautiful +or base, which had not an ideal never won. And of all things, there +never was a form which in itself united the ideals as we behold them in +the higher Man. + +‘For, indeed, in the rose or in all flowers, or in aught else, there is +no colour so beautiful as the living hue of a fair human being. Apart +from sentiment of love, the artist knows that that is the hardest of +all hues to win. And again, as regards form, no animal or plant, or +aught that lives, combines such perfect outline, strength and grace, +converging ever into an ideal. No wonder that many have committed the +error of looking to art more than to nature, when we reflect how the +artist feels this marvellous truth.’ + +‘And, therefore, it was well in its time, Flaxius, that men worshipped +art, since it made them work unconsciously to a great end.’ + +‘Yes, it was well and glorious _in its time_,’ replied Flaxius. ‘Now it +is rising to a higher aim. But to resume. There is no sound so sweet, +no power of modulation in all conceivable variety as is found in the +human voice, for it can breathe all passions, fears, and every phase of +thought. I say even thought, though men class music with emotion only. +But to a higher sense all utterance is music given in a million forms. +Yes, man is the ideal of all ideals combined, and ever tends to unite +them in himself, even by the common law which forms them all.’ + +‘This, then, my Flaxius,’ the Fairy said, ‘forms a new law, that man +shall gradually draw towards man as he perceives this truth. What is +religion?’ + +‘Religion,’ replied Flaxius, ‘is the sense of a higher Power on which +we must rely, even as the child looks to the parent, who is its ideal +of all protection and authority. To this is added _wont_ or habit +fixed, which runs to second nature; therefore man forms his tradition, +and adheres to it long after he has learned that other men are greater +than the parents; and this is the history of every creed on earth.’ + +‘And so the form still takes the place of truth, yet still a form is +indispensable.’ + +‘Yes, it must be, because in forms we live,’ said Flaxius slowly. ‘A +wondrous truth which leads to constant war. Strange is the history of +the ancient forms which one by one the world has cast aside. Therefore +the Egyptians typified the Holy Ghost, or the all-pervading Spirit of +Life, as a serpent which annually casts its skin, and is renewed in +brighter hues.’ + +‘And man must have a form to worship or incarnate the Power which he +adores.’ + +‘Ay, and it is to that which I would come. The Hebrews worshipped God +in a fixed law, sternly expressed, a law immutable, and this they had +incarnate in a Book. This was their form from which they jealously +excluded every trace of human shape. Because ’twas written that no +living man could ever see the real form of God, they worshipped God’s +great voice; that is to say, the echo of it as expressed in law. +Therefore when prophets spoke no more on earth they still retained a +kind of fairy faith that the _Bath Kol_ or echo of the Voice was heard +at times in a consecrated arch--I think ’twas in the Temple. Now ’tis +still. It was all the conception of Hebrew nature incarnate in an ideal +man whom they called Jehovah. + +‘Then came the Greeks who personified nature in all her forms, and +represented every passion or feeling as a deity. They saw God in +statues, and felt religion in art ideals. Something they lost in +vigorous, early strength, but gained a thousandfold in thought and +grace. They made a progress toward ideal man.’ + +‘And out of all a new religion grew,’ replied the Fairy in her sweetest +voice, ‘which was as far beyond the Greek ideal as that had been beyond +the Hebrew law.’ + +‘Yes,’ answered Flaxius in earnest tone, ‘and could the real spirit of +Christianity, as Christ meant it, have been combined with Greek art +and perception of natural beauty--as the poor young Emperor Julian +desired--have been realised, the world might have seen a wonderful +religion. But ’twas all for the best, as now I truly see. As fast as +islands raised their sunny peaks above the blue sea, and grew green +and beautiful, there came the barbarians in multitudes to settle on +them--in early times the Hun and Visigoth, in later days the negro and +Chinese--struggling on, struggling ever, sweeping on; and yet true +culture gained upon it all.’ + +‘And thou see’st also, Flaxius,’ said the Fairy, ‘that had the Julian +religion triumphed, man might have lived so long in sweet content of +art and love and pure humility, and all the softness of his gentleness, +that vigour might have died and strength been gone. Progress needs +strife.’ + +‘Ay, and more than that,’ added Flaxius. ‘Those barbarian struggles +gave the strength to man which was needed to create science, which +in due time raised up a higher art, and then revived the Christian +dream of love in altruism fed with greater force. It all led to nobler +ideals.’ + +‘And religion?’ + +‘Religion from awe and fear became love mingled with +reverence--reverence before the mighty Mystery of Power hidden in Man +himself. After the Greek worship of statues came the picture-worship of +the Renaissance, and then another age of confusion, and the warring of +new elements and the death of the old art. + +‘Now the ideal is in Man himself; and the world, instead of books or +statues or pictures, cultivates humanity, and sees Divinity in itself +in a new ideal. This is the most advanced exponent of the Mystery of +Power. Even of old, when any man loved, he began by making the utmost +of the loved one, or the pair did so mutually; it is touching to read +in every fond romance, and every poem of the ancient times, in myriads +of novels and letters, how they all began with the _elements_ of true +worship. Each hoped to find in the other something which would ennoble, +transfigure them to another or a higher life; and they were in the +right, and in all cases it _might_ have been, had they known how to +persevere in it; but outer influences were too strong, while their +perception of the truth was weak. + +‘What is the power of the vast Unknown which circles through all space +and gives us life, or how it lives in us or what it is--a spirit or a +force which gives itself unto itself, a consciousness in us--is a great +mystery beyond our ken. But this we have learned after long centuries, +that he who _wills_ can win so much of it by ever striving unto pure +ideals, and pressing steadfastly unto the great, that he can win +himself tremendous power, aided therein by love and mutual will.’ + +‘Now art thou coming to the highest truth.’ + +‘Ay, such a truth as hath no counterpart: for if two people love in +very truth, seeing in one another the highest ideal of the will or the +possible power of becoming what they will, and each strives in all +things to be perfect to the other--then will they worship God in very +truth. For if thou canst maintain in me high self-respect and I in +thee, we make a wondrous power in ourselves, which well maintained may +rise to miracle. For this I do believe in very truth, that love alone +can make our souls divine, and when we do believe in very truth, that +we are the ideal form of God or holy pictures of the highest power, +or living laws or Bibles, and if we do carry out the laws therein +expressed, it is in us to win such wondrous might as magic claimed in +ages long gone by. For this we need no other higher aid than mutual +love and _will_, which well maintained will raise us ever to a nobler +life. + +All men who _love_ live in a fairyland, and all who _will_ may aye +remain in it, if they will make their love the law of life, believing +truly that they are divine, or growing in divinity and hope. + +‘And they who believe in very truth and faith, that each is holy--that +the Almighty Power, though but a spark, dwells in them, and that it may +grow into a flame, and hold to this as they perhaps have held to some +old creed or tattered form which never held a truth--will know what +’tis to be divine. + +‘Yet now and then we all have transient views when standing by the +rushing flood of life, that there is in it _force_ and light unknown; +“those eddying balls of foam, those arrowy gleams, that o’er the +pavement of the surging streams welter and flash” are glimpses of the +truth which, understood, might give new life to thee. + +‘I do not say that this can only be between a man and a woman when they +love, because if we believe that all mankind do form the arch-ideals +of the world--that is by more or less as they are formed--then I can +see how step by step all men will become links in this true golden +chain--the _aurea catena_ of which of yore Pythagoras once dreamed, the +chain which binds the highest with the lowest all in one. + +‘So have I loved thee, O my golden one, since the old days of the +Etruscan age, so shall I love thee through eternity; while different, +we were yet ever one in truth, and ever nearing as the time went on. + +‘And now my heart is filled with earth, and I have seen it to its +glorious heritage and know ’twill soon be heaven; therefore I, my +mission ended and my task complete, will join thee in thy life and +never part. I know that heaven is in love and thee.’ + +And as he said this word the Fairy smiled and wound her arms about him, +and a light as of a rainbow of the brightest hues, blended with music, +quaint and wildly sweet--the spirit of the dream of olden time--came +over them and hid them from my sight; but when it vanished both of them +were gone, and Flaxius was seen on earth no more. + + * * * * * + +‘But what of God?’ asked the Fairy as they sat in Elf Elysium amid +shadows of perfumed foliage, by dancing rivulets, where all was like +the best and most beautiful on earth, rising to higher and more +glorious form. For thou hast shown how by love and finding ideals +in one another, we can refine and exalt our nature; yet that is not +religion.’ + +‘I will tell thee what I believed on earth,’ answered the Sage, ‘and I +think I shall not change my faith, though I rise far beyond this life +of beauty. + +‘When men believed in spirit and matter, as separate, all was confusion +and void; and the wisest went unwittingly wandering about from error to +error like lost souls, seeking in eternal darkness one mocking _ignis +fatuus_ after the other. Then after years of study I perceived that all +must be matter alone, visible to my senses it is true, but also refined +in infinite forms beyond all human, sensual or sensitive perception. +For all that poets and supernaturalists have ever imagined spirit to +be, is outdone in fineness by what science is boldly suggesting and +proving. + +‘As there are in nature extraordinary or extravagant exaggerations of +the powers of the senses, as is seen in vultures, which can perceive a +small object a hundred miles away, so there are as likely other senses +not known to man, other dimensions which he cannot understand, and +forms of matter which he cannot perceive by “sense.” This is no idle +conjecture. Every new experiment in a laboratory, every discovery, +makes it more probable. A few years ago, or within sixty years, man +seemed to be in blind ignorance, comparing what he then knew with what +he has learned. This is even more evident from the revelations of +hitherto unknown forces, the fact that light is not _per se_, but the +impression made on us. Therefore there may be worlds unseen in infinite +number and series, and existences or intelligences of incalculable or +infinite power. There may be a God, whose existence has a reason for +being, according to Materialism, but none whatever in a spiritual _a +priori_ faith, founded on and supported only by mere tradition. + +‘But what does man know in full or in truth? If we take the simplest +problem in nature--the sprouting of a bean. All the wisdom of all +time cannot explain why it is that it grows up a bean-vine through +the ages, ever renewing itself. To suppose that there are _infinite_ +millions of concentrated vines or germs in every bean is absurd, or, if +true, it only increases the marvel. Therefore, an idea or subject once +formed must be the coalescence of certain forms of matter with certain +laws, according to which certain material is attracted or thrown off +for ever, like being drawn to like. But oh, how infinitely beyond +human knowledge or perception is the fulness of this least of natural +problems! + +‘And there are millions of creations, deeper and deeper, all calling +forth in every phase admiration for the infinite ingenuity and +adaptation which are revealed in every creation. Observe the ant, +which by instinct alone, as we call it, can execute tasks and problems +in architecture a thousand times more difficult than any which man +has ever achieved. What it all means is this: that beyond and out of +_our_ small mental system, with its distinctions between understanding +and reason and self-consciousness and “I am”--which is all much more +mechanical and akin to atavism and mere instinct than we imagine--there +is a stupendous power of creation, with an infinite amount of what _we_ +gladly call thought or mind, when _we_ develop a similar ingenuity. +And, in fact, it is amusing, that men who consider that a very little +discovery of the laws of nature is the greatest proof of their having +intellect, should doubt that intellect, of a kind unknown to us, is the +creator of it all. + +‘Now what exists in the realms unknown to sense no one can say, but +that there are intelligences who exert ingenuity and power in creation +is palpable enough, as the bean proves; therefore a series of beings +and gods, or a God, is an inevitable deduction. + +‘It is also proved by science, that the human _will_ can be so +_incredibly_ developed by a certain training and discipline, within +the reach of all, and very easy, that we may control our tempers, our +desires, or increase our determination, to a miraculous extent.[16] +This, too, is all a result of modern physical science, or “mere +materialism,” and it has done more to establish pure morality and a +well-based belief in God than all that psychology ever imagined. For +like the rational faith in God, it is a direct result of evolution. + +‘The result of the two deductions is, that directing the developed will +towards God with all our heart, or towards love, in sincerity and zeal, +we arrive at all true religion and possible happiness. For the pure +will, independent and free, and marvellous in power, must co-exist with +_Altruism_, which is the kernel of Christianity. Love God and man. For +to be _free_, we must co-ordinate with moral law, and what this is, we +learn by the experience of life, every man according to his measure and +allowance. We should all do well enough, if we all did as well as we +could, never minding the quibbles of would-be law-givers. + +‘All magic, and what man regards as spiritual or transcendental +learning and theosophy and soul-wisdom, is embraced in perfect belief +in and reliance on God, and action of our developed will. All that +mystics and theosophists have written amounts to no more than this: +_Believe in God and in thine own will, aided by God_. + +‘“God helps those who help themselves” is a great truth to be ever +borne in mind; nay, so true, that nearly all prayer is mere idle +ceremony, and of small avail, however fervent it may be, if there be +no _will_ exerted, no energetic effort to be and do good by those who +are capable of effort. For the Creator Himself is ever working by +Evolution. Who shall say that even Omnipotence, like Thor, does not do +battle with, ere it conquer, the stupendous Jötuns or barbarous giants +of brute forces in nature, or the “downward-borne elements of God,” as +Hermes Trismegistus called them. + +‘As Creation is the will of God realised in action, so the will of man +vigorously exerted is responded to by the divine Demiurgus. Therefore +prayer should be will, and will, prayer, which may be fully apparent in +time, though, perhaps, not at first. + +‘What is most to be considered, above all earthly interests and +desires, or human wants or ideas, is the illimitable, stupendous, and +glorious power and nature of God. Here Evolution has lifted man far +above all that the most inspired prophets or bards of Judæa or Egypt +or India ever conceived. For they were limited to what was apparent to +the senses, and, indeed, to this world, as the only one. But to him +who actually understands that there are twenty million suns with solar +systems, and so on for ever, and that it is probable, as Paracelsus so +strangely guessed, that there are races and worlds to us invisible and +intangible, living as it were through, and in, this life, the Creator +must be more than He ever was, even to Moses. + +‘Now the more the stupendous, original, creative power of God is felt, +the more capable do we become of realising--that is, rising to and +drawing near unto Him. By so doing shall we understand that all was +made in and by and for Him, as the only one, and not for us. Before +this awful and glorious truth all other considerations should vanish, +for His Will should be all--He is the Master and the Lord for ever. + +‘All who believe this, will desire to do good work for its own sake, +and create that which shall in the future be developed into greater +good, rather than seek for pay or reward, which latter may be left to +God or unseen divine agents, who know better than we do what we need, +and who _do_ aid the true servitors of God. + +‘The true servitor is the one who _lives_ in the infinite power, +goodness, and glory of God, who exerts his own will and strength +or effort to the utmost to do, and to be, good, and whose devotion +consists not so much in mere praying or begging for alms, instead of +trying to earn wages, as of recognition of His Omnipotence. + +‘Yes, if it be God’s will that I should pass away into nothingness, +then would I prefer it to the most blissful immortality without His +desire, for what am I before Him, save His creation from nothing, born +to obey? And so far from thinking that such want of a future releases +man from moral obligations, I hold that such a faith is the highest +stimulus to do our best while we live, and avoid all sin. + +‘Therefore, O man, trouble not thyself, as to a future, so that thou +lovest and obeyest God, and treatest man as another self, and livest +thy utmost mental life in will and prayer. For unto him whose prayer is +will and will is prayer, all may be granted. + +‘And remember that there is nothing taught more explicitly in the New +Testament, than that man should commune _directly_ with God without aid +or intervention, chiefly by worship, and by using his will in every way +to that end. + +‘In very truth--_Vicisti, Galilæe!_ Thou hast conquered, O Christ!’ + +[17] Vide _Have you a Strong Will, etc._, by Charles Godfrey Leland. +London: Philip Wellby. + + + + +BREITMANN’S LAST BALLAD + + +THERE was once an American hodge-podge, comic melodrama of a kind now +passed away--in which there was heard from time to time ‘one warning +trumpet blown’ behind the scenes, for no assignable reason ‘save to +heighten the effect.’ This it invariably did, and especially after the +curtain had fallen, when the clarion notes were heard as an Encore. +Even so has it been with Breitmann in this book, and so at the end +doth he sound Farewell as follows speaking from his very heart as to +the war: + + +BREITMANN ON THE BOERS + + Dot I war born a Deutscher is fery blain to see, + Yet dere are dings in vitch I tont fall in mit Germany, + Bein’ rader too cosmopolite--and hafe peen all along-- + To dink a man should always go pro patria--right or wrong. + + Usque ad aras an honest man may tramp, + But if folk would take him furder he hat petter shoot de camp; + Und I shtops right off my warblin’--of dot you may pe sure, + If asked to sing in chorus mit any kind of Boer. + + Somedimes, when in queer circles, dis ding is fery true, + I hafe found mineself compulsioned to heurler avec les loups; + Dot is to howlen mid de wolfs, but nefer yet, py jigs! + Did I get to such abasement as to grüntsel mid de pigs! + + You may read in der Zoölogie, or Natur Historie, + Dot pigs are de most tyronical of all de peasts dot pe, + For dey drives or stinks all oders away from where dey feed, + Und dis is vot de Boers tried in Africa, indeed! + + + Und ash dey are most tyronical whene’er dey get a chance, + So Fate is most ironical in endin’ deir romance, + For dey’ve gone from pad to worser, and are endin’ de debates + Mit all de world, in sympathie--excep’ de ’Nited States. + + Und, exceptin’ yet again in dot, all dose who had been booted, + Or sent away from Europe--id est, been ‘persecuted,’ + Und who, as is but natural, did von and all agree, + To persecute de nigger, wherefer he might pe! + + Ash dere were books were printed two hundred years a-back, + Of de horrors and de torments inflicted on der Black, + By de Boers in far Sout’ Africa, among de slaves dey got, + De Bushmen und de Kaffirs, likevise der Hottentot. + + Now he who will beat a nigger, as I often heard dem say, + Will torment a white man, if he dare, when von comed in his way; + So de Boers in Sout’ Africa in monner most forbidst, + Ottempted to compose oopon de English in deir midst. + + Und dere dey all slopp’t ofer, forgettin’ dey might catch + A chap mit bigger boots and soles, when in a kickin’ match. + Yet dey kept der game agoin’ like der fery teufels at play, + Und efen in a gorner some are kickin’ yet to-day. + + So de Boern getten from Germans uncommon sympathie, + Likevise from efery Frencher and de whole of Italy; + Pecause dey are ‘few in numper,’ and likevise ‘fery prave,’ + Which mit dem excuses eferything, howefer a man behave! + + Now if your house vas burgled, I’ll bet upon my life, + If der burgular should shoot your son, likevise pesides your wife, + Dough he fought like der fery teufel, you hardly would fergive + Der feller for all his pravery, and hope dot he might live! + + But de cent in de molasses barrel, or de secret hid away + Is dis--dot de Germans wantet for demselfs Sout’ Africa; + Dey hat hopes dot a dime was comin’ when ofer all de land + Dere wouldt rise a schmell of sauer kraut to der Medit’ranean. + + Yoost as Fra Benevento, in his elegie sublime, + Did hope der schmell of incense wouldt rise in efery clime, + From blesset Roman Churches, so de Deutschers von and all + Did dink dis blesset nonsense wouldt cerdainly pefal! + + As for de liddle Fräntshmen, it is as plain as sin, + Dey wanted Jean Boule out of Egypt, likewise demselfs darein’; + Dough vot dey’d do if dey got dere is not fery blain to see: + Dot is to judge by deir sookcess in any colonie. + + Keep up dy heart, O England; maintain dy glorious pluck! + Der von who bears most poundin’ is der von who gets de luck! + For it is of ancient story und splendid as de stars: + It is efer de freest people who endure de bitterest wars! + + Keep up dy heart, O Britain, despite de envious jeers + Of German, French or Dago, of suffering and tears; + Whatefer fools have said to thee of errors in the past, + Thou art Gott’s best civiliser, and wilt conquer at the last! + + + + +Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, (late) Printers to Her Majesty at the +Edinburgh University Press + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + - An em-dash was added to the epigraph in “Flaxius in India.” + + - In “Flaxius and the Bookseller,” there is blockquote with long + s (ſ). These have been retained since they seem to be an intended + artistic decision. + + - Some clear misspellings and wrong capitalizations were changed. + Other inconsistent spelling and usage of diacritical marks in the + original text have been preserved. + + - Text between _underscores_ represents italics. Text between ~tilde + symbols~ represent Blackletter. + + - Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of their + sections. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77376 *** |