CHAPTER X.
MY JOURNEY TOWARDS THE END OF EARTH BEGINS.--THE ADEPTS' BROTHERHOOD.
My companion did not attempt to watch over my motions or in any way tointerfere with my freedom.
"I will for a time necessarily be absent," he said, "arranging for ourjourney, and while I am getting ready you must employ yourself as bestyou can. I ask you, however, now to swear that, as you have promised,you will not seek your wife and children."
To this I agreed.
"Hold up your hand," he said, and I repeated after him: "All this I mostsolemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steadfastresolution to keep and perform my oath, without the least equivocation,mental reservation or self-evasion whatever."
"That will answer; see that you keep your oath this time," he said, andhe departed. Several days were consumed before he returned, and duringthat time I was an inquisitive and silent listener to the variousconjectures others were making regarding my abduction which event wasbecoming of general interest. Some of the theories advanced were quitenear the truth, others wild and erratic. How preposterous it seemed tome that the actor himself could be in the very seat of the disturbance,willing, anxious to testify, ready to prove the truth concerning hisposition, and yet unable even to obtain a respectful hearing from thosemost interested in his recovery. Men gathered together discussing the"outrage"; women, children, even, talked of little else, and it wasevident that the entire country was aroused. New political issues tooktheir rise from the event, but the man who was the prime cause of theexcitement was for a period a willing and unwilling listener, as he hadbeen a willing and unwilling actor in the tragedy.
One morning my companion drove up in a light carriage, drawn by a spanof fine, spirited, black horses.
"We are ready now," he said, and my unprecedented journey began.
Wherever we stopped, I heard my name mentioned. Men combined againstmen, brother was declaiming against brother, neighbor was againstneighbor, everywhere suspicion was in the air.
"The passage of time alone can quiet these people," said I.
"The usual conception of the term Time--an indescribable somethingflowing at a constant rate--is erroneous," replied my comrade. "Time ishumanity's best friend, and should be pictured as a ministering angel,instead of a skeleton with hour-glass and scythe. Time does not fly, butis permanent and quiescent, while restless, force-impelled matter rushesonward. Force and matter fly; Time reposes. At our birth we are wound uplike a machine, to move for a certain number of years, grating againstTime. We grind against that complacent spirit, and wear not Time butourselves away. We hold within ourselves a certain amount of energy,which, an evanescent form of matter, is the opponent of Time. Time hasno existence with inanimate objects. It is a conception of the humanintellect. Time is rest, perfect rest, tranquillity such as man neverrealizes unless he becomes a part of the sweet silences toward whichhuman life and human mind are drifting. So much for Time. Now for Life.Disturbed energy in one of its forms, we call Life; and this Life is thegreat enemy of peace, the opponent of steadfast perfection. Pure energy,the soul of the universe, permeates all things with which man is nowacquainted, but when at rest is imperceptible to man, while disturbedenergy, according to its condition, is apparent either as matter or asforce. A substance or material body is a manifestation resulting from adisturbance of energy. The agitating cause removed, the manifestationsdisappear, and thus a universe may be extinguished, without unbalancingthe cosmos that remains. The worlds known to man are conditions ofabnormal energy moving on separate planes through what men call space.They attract to themselves bodies of similar description, and thusinfluence one another--they have each a separate existence, and areswayed to and fro under the influence of the various disturbances inenergy common to their rank or order, which we call forms of forces.Unsettled energy also assumes numerous other expressions that areunknown to man, but which in all perceptible forms is characterized bymotion. Pure energy can not be appreciated by the minds of mortals.There are invisible worlds besides those perceived by us in ourplanetary system, unreachable centers of ethereal structure about usthat stand in a higher plane of development than earthly matter which isa gross form of disturbed energy. There are also lower planes. Man'sacquaintance with the forms of energy is the result of his power ofperceiving the forms of matter of which he is a part. Heat, light,gravitation, electricity and magnetism are ever present in allperceivable substances, and, although purer than earth, they are stillmanifestations of absolute energy, and for this reason are sensible tomen, but more evanescent than material bodies. Perhaps you can conceivethat if these disturbances could be removed, matter or force would beresolved back into pure energy, and would vanish. Such a dissociation isan ethereal existence, and as pure energy the life spirit of allmaterial things is neither cold nor hot, heavy nor light, solid, liquidnor gaseous--men can not, as mortals now exist, see, feel, smell, taste,or even conceive of it. It moves through space as we do through it, aworld of itself as transparent to matter as matter is to it, insensiblebut ever present, a reality to higher existences that rest in otherplanes, but not to us an essence subject to scientific test, nor anentity. Of these problems and their connection with others in the unseendepths beyond, you are not yet in a position properly to judge, butbefore many years a new sense will be given you or a development oflatent senses by the removal of those more gross, and a partial insightinto an unsuspected unseen, into a realm to you at present unknown.
"It has been ordained that a select few must from time to time pass overthe threshold that divides a mortal's present life from the future, andyour lot has been cast among the favored ones. It is or should be deemeda privilege to be permitted to pass farther than human philosophy hasyet gone, into an investigation of the problems of life; this I say toencourage you. We have in our order a handful of persons who havereceived the accumulated fruits of the close attention others havegiven to these subjects which have been handed to them by thegenerations of men who have preceded. You are destined to become as theyare. This study of semi-occult forces has enabled those selected for thework to master some of the concealed truths of being, and by the partialdevelopment of a new sense or new senses, partly to triumph over death.These facts are hidden from ordinary man, and from the earth-boundworkers of our brotherhood, who can not even interpret the words theylearn. The methods by which they are elucidated have been locked fromman because the world is not prepared to receive them, selfishness beingthe ruling passion of debased mankind, and publicity, until the chain ofevidence is more complete, would embarrass their further evolutions, forman as yet lives on the selfish plane."
"Do you mean that, among men, there are a few persons possessed ofpowers such as you have mentioned?"
"Yes; they move here and there through all orders of society, and theirattainments are unknown, except to one another, or, at most, to but fewpersons. These adepts are scientific men, and may not even be recognizedas members of our organization; indeed it is often necessary, forobvious reasons, that they should not be known as such. These studiesmust constantly be prosecuted in various directions, and some monitorsmust teach others to perform certain duties that are necessary to thegrand evolution. Hence, when a man has become one of our brotherhood,from the promptings that made you one of us, and has been as ready anddetermined to instruct outsiders in our work as you have been, it isproper that he should in turn be compelled to serve our people, andeventually, mankind."
"Am I to infer from this," I exclaimed, a sudden light breaking upon me,"that the alchemistic manuscript that led me to the fraternity to whichyou are related may have been artfully designed to serve the interest ofthat organization?" To this question I received no reply. After aninterval, I again sought information concerning the order, and with moresuccess.
"I understand that you propose that I shall go on a journey ofinvestigation for the good of our order and also of humanity."
"True; it is necessary that our discoveries be kept alive, and
it isessential that the men who do this work accept the trust of their ownaccord. He who will not consent to add to the common stock of knowledgeand understanding, must be deemed a drone in the hive of nature--but fewpersons, however, are called upon to serve as you must serve. Men arescattered over the world with this object in view, and are unknown totheir families or even to other members of the order; they hold insolemn trust our sacred revelations, and impart them to others as isordained, and thus nothing perishes; eventually humanity will profit.
"Others, as you soon will be doing, are now exploring assigned sectionsof this illimitable field, accumulating further knowledge, and they willreport results to those whose duty it is to retain and formulate thecollected sum of facts and principles. So it is that, unknown to thegreat body of our brotherhood, a chosen number, under our esotericteachings, are gradually passing the dividing line that separates lifefrom death, matter from spirit, for we have members who have masteredthese problems. We ask, however, no aid of evil forces or of necromancyor black art, and your study of alchemy was of no avail, although tosave the vital truths alchemy is a part of our work. We proceed in exactaccordance with natural laws, which will yet be known to all men.Sorrow, suffering, pain of all descriptions, are enemies to the membersof our order, as they are to mankind broadly, and we hope in the futureso to control the now hidden secrets of Nature as to be able to governthe antagonistic disturbances in energy with which man now is everywherethwarted, to subdue the physical enemies of the race, to affiliatereligious and scientific thought, cultivating brotherly love, thefoundation and capstone, the cement and union of this ancientfraternity."
"And am I really to take an important part in this scheme? Have I beenset apart to explore a section of the unknown for a bit of hiddenknowledge, and to return again?"
"This I will say," he answered, evading a direct reply, "you have beenselected for a part that one in a thousand has been required toundertake. You are to pass into a field that will carry you beyond thepresent limits of human observation. This much I have been instructed toimpart to you in order to nerve you for your duty. I seem to be a youngman; really I am aged. You seem to be infirm and old, but you areyoung. Many years ago, cycles ago as men record time, I was promoted todo a certain work because of my zealous nature; like you, I also had todo penance for an error. I disappeared, as you are destined to do, fromthe sight of men. I regained my youth; yours has been lost forever, butyou will regain more than your former strength. We shall both existafter this generation of men has passed away, and shall mingle withgenerations yet to be born, for we shall learn how to restore ouryouthful vigor, and will supply it time and again to earthly matter.Rest assured also that the object of our labors is of the most laudablenature, and we must be upheld under all difficulties by the fact thatmultitudes of men who are yet to come will be benefited thereby."