CHAPTER LI.
IS THAT A MORTAL?--"THE END OF EARTH."
At length I perceived, in the distance, a crescent-shaped ring of silverluster. It grew broader, expanding beneath my gaze, and appeared toapproach rapidly.
"Hold; cease your desire for onward motion," said the guide; "weapproach too rapidly. Quick, wish with all your mind that you weremotionless."
I did so, and we rested in front of a ridge of brilliant material, thatin one direction, towards the earth's outer circle, broadened until itextended upward as far as the eye could reach in the form of a boldprecipice, and in the other towards the inner world, shelved graduallyaway as an ocean beach might do.
"Tell me, what is this barrier?" I asked.
"It is the bisected edge of the earth crevice," he said. "Thatoverhanging upright bluff reaches towards the external surface of theearth, the land of your former home. That shelving approach beneath isthe entrance to the 'Inner Circle,' the concavity of our world."
Again we approached the visible substance, moving gently under the willof my guide. The shore became more distinctly outlined as we advanced,inequalities that were before unnoticed became perceptible, and thesilver-like material resolved itself into ordinary earth. Then Iobserved, upright and motionless, on the edge of the shore that reachedtoward the inner shell of earth, towards that "Unknown Country" beyond,a figure in human form.
"Is that a mortal?" I asked. "Are we nearing humanity again?"
"It is a being of mortal build, a messenger who awaits our coming, andwho is to take charge of your person and conduct you farther," hereplied. "It has been my duty to crush, to overcome by successivelessons your obedience to your dogmatic, materialistic earth philosophy,and bring your mind to comprehend that life on earth's surface is only astep towards a brighter existence, which may, when selfishness isconquered, in a time to come, be gained by mortal man, and while he isin the flesh. The vicissitudes through which you have recently passedshould be to you an impressive lesson, but the future holds for you alesson far more important, the knowledge of spiritual, or mentalevolution which men may yet approach; but that I would not presume toindicate now, even to you. Your earthly body has become a useless shell,and when you lay it aside, as you soon can do, as I may say you aredestined to do, you will feel a relief as if an abnormal excrescence hadbeen removed; but you can not now comprehend such a condition. Thatchange will not occur until you have been further educated in the purelyoccult secrets for which I have partly prepared you, and the materialpart of your organism will at any time thereafter come and go at commandof your will. On that adjacent shore, the person you have observed, yournext teacher, awaits you."
"Am I to leave you?" I cried in despair, for suddenly the remembrance ofhome came into my mind, and the thought, as by a flash, that this beingalone could guide me back to earth. "Recall your words, do not desert menow after leading me beyond even alchemistic imaginings into thissubterranean existence, the result of what you call your natural, orpure, ethereal lessons."
He shook his head.
"I beg of you, I implore of you, not to abandon me now; have you nocompassion, no feeling? You are the one tie that binds me to earthproper, the only intelligence that I know to be related to a human inall this great, bright blank."
Again he shook his head.
"SUSPENDED IN VACANCY, HE SEEMED TO FLOAT."]
"Hearken to my pleadings. Listen to my allegation. You stood on the edgeof the brook spring in Kentucky, your back to the darkness of thatgloomy cavern, and I voluntarily gave you my hand as to a guide; Iturned from the verdure of the earth, the sunshine of the past, andaccompanied you into as dismal a cavern as man ever entered. I havesince alternately rebelled at your methods, and again have trusted youimplicitly as we passed through scenes that rational imaginationscarce could conjure. I have successively lost my voice, my weight, mybreath, my heart throb, and my soul for aught I know. Now an unknownfuture awaits me on the one hand, in which you say my body is todisappear, and on the other you are standing, the only link betweenearth and my self-existence, a semi-mortal it may be, to speak mildly,for God only knows your true rank in life's scale. Be you man or not,you brought me here, and are responsible for my future safety. I pleadand beg of you either to go on with me into the forthcoming uncertainty'Within the Unknown Country' to which you allude, or carry me back toupper earth."
He shook his head again, and motioned me onward, and his powerful willovercoming my feeble resistance, impelled me towards that mysteriousshore. I floated helpless, as a fragment of camphor whirls and spins ona surface of clear, warm water, spinning and whirling aimlessly about,but moving onward. My feet rested on solid earth, and I awkwardlystruggled a short distance onward and upward, and then stepped upon theslope that reached, as he had said, inward and upward towards theunrevealed "Inner Circle." I had entered now that mysterious thirdcircle or sphere, and I stood on the very edge of the wonderful land Iwas destined to explore, "The Unknown Country." The strange, peacefulbeing whom I had observed on the shore, stepped to my side, and claspedboth my hands, and the guide of former days waved me an adieu. I sankupon my knees and imploringly raised my arms in supplication, but thecomrade of my journey turned about, and began to retrace his course.Suspended in vacancy, he seemed to float as a spirit would if it werewafted diagonally into the heavens, and acquiring momentum rapidly,became quickly a bright speck, seemingly a silver mote in the occultearth shine of that central sphere, and soon vanished from view. In allmy past eventful history there was nothing similar to or approaching inkeenness the agony that I suffered at this moment, and I question ifshipwrecked sailor or entombed miner ever experienced the sense of utterdesolation that now possessed and overcame me. Light everywhere aboutme, ever-present light, but darkness within, darkness indescribable, andmental distress unutterable. I fell upon my face in agony, and thoughtof other times, and those remembrances of my once happy upper earth lifebecame excruciatingly painful, for when a person is in misery, pleasantrecollections, by contrast, increase the pain. "Let my soul die now asmy body has done," I moaned; "for even mental life, all I now possess,is a burden. The past to me is a painful, melancholy recollection; thefuture is--"
I shuddered, for who could foretell my future? I glanced at theimmovable being with the sweet, mild countenance, who stood silent onthe strand beside me, and whom I shall not now attempt to describe. Hereplied:
"The future is operative and speculative. It leads the contemplative toview with reverence and admiration the glorious works of the Creator,and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfections of hisdivine Creator."
Then he added:
"Have you accepted that whatever seems to be is not, and that that whichseems not to be, is? Have you learned that facts are fallacies, andphysical existence a delusion? Do you accept that material bliss isimpossible, and that while humanity is working towards the undiscoveredland, man is not, can not be satisfied?"
"Yes," I said; "I admit anything, everything. I do not know that I amhere or that you are there. I do not know that I have ever been, or thatany form of matter has ever had an existence. Perhaps material thingsare not, perhaps vacuity only is tangible."
"Are you willing to relinquish your former associations, to cease toconcern yourself in the affairs of men? Do you--"
He hesitated, seemed to consider a point that I could not grasp; then,without completing his sentence, or waiting for me to answer, added:
"Come, my friend, let us enter the expanses of the Unknown Country. Youwill soon behold the original of your vision, the hope of humanity, andwill rest in the land of Etidorhpa. Come, my friend, let us hasten."
Arm in arm we passed into that domain of peace and tranquillity, and asI stepped onward and upward perfect rest came over my troubled spirit.All thoughts of former times vanished. The cares of life faded; misery,distress, hatred, envy, jealousy, and unholy passions, were blotted fromexistence. Excepting my love for dear ones still earth-enthralled, andthe strand of sorro
w that, stretching from soul to soul, linked ustogether, the past became a blank. I had reached the land of Etidorhpa--
THE END OF EARTH.
INTERLUDE.