"Oh, Alma, Alma! prince divine!" cried Babbalanja, sinking on hisknees--"in _thee_, at last, I find repose. Hope perches in my heart adove;--a thousand rays illume;--all Heaven's a sun. Gone, gone! areall distracting doubts. Love and Alma now prevail. I see with othereyes:--Are these my hands? What wild, wild dreams were mine;--I havebeen mad. Some things there are, we must not think of. Beyond oneobvious mark, all human lore is vain. Where have I lived till now? Haddark Maramma's zealot tribe but murmured to me as this old man, longsince had I, been wise! Reason no longer domineers; but still dothspeak. All I have said ere this, that wars with Alma's precepts, Ihere recant. Here I kneel, and own great Oro and his sovereign son."
"And here another kneels and prays," cried Yoomy.
"In Alma all my dreams are found, my inner longings for the Lovesupreme, that prompts my every verse. Summer is in my soul."
"Nor now, too late for these gray hairs," cried Mohi, with devotion."Alma, thy breath is on my soul. I see bright light."
"No more a demigod," cried Media, "but a subject to our common chief.No more shall dismal cries be heard from Odo's groves. Alma, I amthine."
With swimming eyes the old man kneeled; and round him grouped king,sage, gray hairs, and youth.
There, as they kneeled, and as the old man blessed them, the settingsun burst forth from mists, gilded the island round about, shed raysupon their heads, and went down in a glory--all the East radiant withred burnings, like an altar-fire.
CHAPTER LXXXIVBabbalanja Relates To Them A Vision
Leaving Babbalanja in the old man's bower, deep in meditation;thoughtfully we strolled along the beach, inspiring the musky,midnight air; the tropical stars glistening in heaven, like drops ofdew among violets.
The waves were phosphorescent, and laved the beach with a fire thatcooled it.
Returning, we espied Babbalanja advancing in his snow-white mantle.The fiery tide was ebbing; and in the soft, moist sand, at every step,he left a lustrous foot-print.
"Sweet friends! this isle is full of mysteries," he said. "I havedreamed of wondrous things. After I had laid me down, thought pressedhard upon me. By my eyes passed pageant visions. I started at a low,strange melody, deep in my inmost soul. At last, methought my eyeswere fixed on heaven; and there, I saw a shining spot, unlike a star.Thwarting the sky, it grew, and grew, descending; till bright wingswere visible: between them, a pensive face angelic, downward beaming;and, for one golden moment, gauze-vailed in spangled Berenice's Locks.
"Then, as white flame from yellow, out from that starry cluster itemerged; and brushed the astral Crosses, Crowns, and Cups. And as inviolet, tropic seas, ships leave a radiant-white, and fire-fly wake;so, in long extension tapering, behind the vision, gleamed anotherMilky-Way.
"Strange throbbings seized me; my soul tossed on its own tides. Butsoon the inward harmony bounded in exulting choral strains. I heard afeathery rush; and straight beheld a form, traced all over with veinsof vivid light. The vision undulated round me.
"'Oh! Spirit!! angel! god! whate'er thou art,'--I cried, 'leave me; Iam but man.'
"Then, I heard a low, sad sound, no voice. It said, or breathed uponme,--'Thou hast proved the grace of Alma: tell me what thou'stlearned.'
"Silent replied my soul, for voice was gone,--'This have I learned,oh! spirit!--In things mysterious, to seek no more; but rest content,with knowing naught but Love.'
"'Blessed art thou for that: thrice blessed,' then I heard, and sincehumility is thine, thou art one apt to learn. That which thy ownwisdom could not find, thy ignorance confessed shall gain. Come, andsee new things.'
"Once more it undulated round me; its lightning wings grew dim; nearer,nearer; till I felt a shock electric,--and nested 'neath its wing.
"We clove the air; passed systems, suns, and moons: what seem fromMardi's isles, the glow-worm stars.
"By distant fleets of worlds we sped, as voyagers pass far sails atsea, and hail them not. Foam played before them as they darted on;wild music was their wake; and many tracks of sound we crossed, whereworlds had sailed before.
"Soon, we gained a point, where a new heaven was seen; whence all ourfirmament seemed one nebula. Its glories burned like thousandsteadfast-flaming lights.
"Here hived the worlds in swarms: and gave forth sweets ineffable.
"We lighted on a ring, circling a space, where mornings seemed foreverdawning over worlds unlike.
"'Here,' I heard, 'thou viewest thy Mardi's Heaven. Herein each worldis portioned.'
"As he who climbs to mountain tops pants hard for breath; so panted Ifor Mardi's grosser air. But that which caused my flesh to faint, wasnew vitality to my soul. My eyes swept over all before me. The sphereswere plain as villages that dot a landscape. I saw most beauteousforms, yet like our own. Strange sounds I heard of gladness thatseemed mixed with sadness:--a low, sweet harmony of both. Else, I knownot how to phrase what never man but me e'er heard.
"'In these blest souls are blent,' my guide discoursed, 'far higherthoughts, and sweeter plaints than thine. Rude joy were discord here.And as a sudden shout in thy hushed mountain-passes brings down theawful avalanche; so one note of laughter here, might start some whiteand silent world.'
"Then low I murmured:--'Is their's, oh guide! no happiness supreme?their state still mixed? Sigh these yet to know? Can these sin?'
"Then I heard:--'No mind but Oro's can know all; no mind that knowsnot all can be content; content alone approximates to happiness.Holiness comes by wisdom; and it is because great Oro is supremelywise, that He's supremely holy. But as perfect wisdom can be onlyOro's; so, perfect holiness is his alone. And whoso is otherwise thanperfect in his holiness, is liable to sin.
"'And though death gave these beings knowledge, it also opened othermysteries, which they pant to know, and yet may learn. And still theyfear the thing of evil; though for them, 'tis hard to fall. Thushoping and thus fearing, then, their's is no state complete. And sinceOro is past finding out, and mysteries ever open into mysteriesbeyond; so, though these beings will for aye progress in wisdom and ingood; yet, will they never gain a fixed beatitude. Know, then, ohmortal Mardian! that when translated hither, thou wilt but put offlowly temporal pinings, for angel and eternal aspirations. Start not:thy human joy hath here no place: no name.
"Still, I mournful mused; then said:--'Many Mardians live, who have noaptitude for Mardian lives of thought: how then endure more earnest,everlasting, meditations?'
"'Such have their place,' I heard.
"'Then low I moaned, 'And what, oh! guide! of those who, livingthoughtless lives of sin, die unregenerate; no service done to Oro orto Mardian?'
"'They, too, have their place,' I heard; 'but 'tis not here. AndMardian! know, that as your Mardian lives are long preserved throughstrict obedience to the organic law, so are your spiritual livesprolonged by fast keeping of the law of mind. Sin is death.'
"'Ah, then,' yet lower moan made I; 'and why create the germs that sinand suffer, but to perish?'
"'That,' breathed my guide; 'is the last mystery which underlieth allthe rest. Archangel may not fathom it; that makes of Oro theeverlasting mystery he is; that to divulge, were to make equal tohimself in knowledge all the souls that are; that mystery Oro guards;and none but him may know.'
"Alas! were it recalled, no words have I to tell of all that now myguide discoursed, concerning things unsearchable to us. My sixth sensewhich he opened, sleeps again, with all the wisdom that it gained.
"Time passed; it seemed a moment, might have been an age; when fromhigh in the golden haze that canopied this heaven, another angel came;its vans like East and West; a sunrise one, sunset the other. Assilver-fish in vases, so, in his azure eyes swam tears unshed.
"Quick my guide close nested me; through its veins the waning lightthrobbed hard.
"'Oh, spirit! archangel! god! whate'er thou art,' it breathed; 'leaveme: I am but blessed, not glorified.'
"So saying, as down from doves, from its wings dropped sounds. Stillnesting me, it crouched i
ts plumes.
"Then, in a snow of softest syllables, thus breathed the greater andmore beautiful:--'From far away, in fields beyond thy ken, I heard thyfond discourse with this lone Mardian. It pleased me well; for thyhumility was manifeat; no arrogance of knowing. Come _thou_ and learnnew things.'
"And straight it overarched us with its plumes; which, then, down-sweeping, bore us up to regions where my first guide had sunk, but forthe power that buoyed us, trembling, both.
"My eyes did wane, like moons eclipsed in overwhelming dawns: suchradiance was around; such vermeil light, born of no sun, but pervadingall the scene. Transparent, fleck-less, calm, all glowed one flame.
"Then said the greater guide This is the night of all ye here behold--its day ye could not bide. Your utmost heaven is far below.'
"Abashed, smote down, I, quaking, upward gazed; where, to and fro, thespirits sailed, like broad-winged crimson-dyed flamingos, spiraling insunset-clouds. But a sadness glorified, deep-fringed their mystictemples, crowned with weeping halos, bird-like, floating o'er them,whereso'er they roamed.
"Sights and odors blended. As when new-morning winds, in summer'sprime, blow down from hanging gardens, wafting sweets that never pall;so, from those flowery pinions, at every motion, came a flood offragrance.
"And now the spirits twain discoursed of things, whose very terms, tome, were dark. But my first guide grew wise. For me, I could butblankly list; yet comprehended naught; and, like the fish that'smocked with wings, and vainly seeks to fly;--again I sought my lowerelement.
"As poised, we hung in this rapt ether, a sudden trembling seized thefour wings now folding me. And afar of, in zones still upwardreaching, suns' orbits off, I, tranced, beheld an awful glory. Spherein sphere, it burned:--the one Shekinah! The air was flaked withfire;--deep in which, fell showers of silvery globes, tears magnified--braiding the flame with rainbows. I heard a sound; but not for me,nor my first guide, was that unutterable utterance. Then, my secondguide was swept aloft, as rises a cloud of red-dyed leaves in autumnwhirlwinds.
"Fast clasping me, the other drooped, and, instant, sank, as in avacuum; myriad suns' diameters in a breath;--my five senses merged inone, of falling; till we gained the nether sky, descending still.
"Then strange things--soft, sad, and faint, I saw or heard; as, when,in sunny, summer seas, down, down, you dive, starting at pensivephantoms, that you can not fix.
"'These,' breathed my guide, 'are spirits in their essences; sad, evenin undevelopment. With these, all space is peopled;--all the air isvital with intelligence, which seeks embodiment. This it is, thatunbeknown to Mardians, causes them to strangely start in solitudes ofnight, and in the fixed flood of their enchanted noons. From hence,are formed your mortal souls; and all those sad and shadowy dreams,and boundless thoughts man hath, are vague remembrances of the timewhen the soul's sad germ, wide wandered through these realms. Andhence it is, that when ye Mardians feel most sad, then ye feel mostimmortal.
"Like a spark new-struck from flint, soon Mardi showed afar. It glowedwithin a sphere, which seemed, in space, a bubble, rising from vastdepths to the sea's surface. Piercing it, my Mardian strengthreturned; but the angel's veins once more grew dim.
"Nearing the isles, thus breathed my guide:--'Loved one, love on! Butknow, that heaven hath no roof. To know all is to be all. Beatitudethere is none. And your only Mardian happiness is but exemption fromgreat woes--no more. Great Love is sad; and heaven is Love. Sadnessmakes the silence throughout the realms of space; sadness is universaland eternal; but sadness is tranquillity; tranquillity the uttermostthat souls may hope for.'
"Then, with its wings it fanned adieu; and disappeared where the sunflames highest."
We heard the dream and, silent, sought repose, to dream away ourwonder.
CHAPTER LXXXVThey Depart From Serenia
At sunrise, we stood upon the beach.
Babbalanja thus:--"My voyage is ended. Not because what we sought isfound; but that I now possess all which may be had of what I sought inMardi. Here, tarry to grow wiser still:--then I am Alma's and theworld's. Taji! for Yillah thou wilt hunt in vain; she is a phantomthat but mocks thee; and while for her thou madly huntest, the sinthou didst cries out, and its avengers still will follow. But herethey may not come: nor those, who, tempting, track thy path. Wisecounsel take. Within our hearts is all we seek: though in that searchmany need a prompter. Him I have found in blessed Alma. Then rove nomore. Gain now, in flush of youth, that last wise thought, too oftenpurchased, by a life of woe. Be wise: be wise.
"Media! thy station calls thee home. Yet from this isle, thou earnestthat, wherewith to bless thy own. These flowers, that round us spring,may be transplanted: and Odo made to bloom with amaranths and myrtles,like this Serenia. Before thy people act the things, thou here hastheard. Let no man weep, that thou may'st laugh; no man toil too hard,that thou may'st idle be. Abdicate thy throne: but still retain thescepter. None need a king; but many need a ruler.
"Mohi! Yoomy! do we part? then bury in forgetfulness much thathitherto I've spoken. But let not one syllable of this old man's wordsbe lost.
"Mohi! Age leads thee by the hand. Live out thy life; and die, calm-browed.
"But Yoomy! many days are thine. And in one life's span, great circlesmay be traversed, eternal good be done. Take all Mardi for thy home.Nations are but names; and continents but shifting sands.
"Once more: Taji! be sure thy Yillah never will be found; or found,will not avail thee. Yet search, if so thou wilt; more isles, thousay'st, are still unvisited; and when all is seen, return, and findthy Yillah here.
"Companions all! adieu."
And from the beach, he wended through the woods.
Our shallops now refitted, we silently embarked; and as we sailedaway, the old man blessed us.
For a time, each prow's ripplings were distinctly heard: ripple afterripple.
With silent, steadfast eyes, Media still preserved his noble mien;Mohi his reverend repose; Yoomy his musing mood.
But as a summer hurricane leaves all nature still, and smiling to theeye; yet, in deep woods, there lie concealed some anguished roots tornup:--so, with these.
Much they longed, to point our prows for Odo's isle; saying our searchwas over.
But I was fixed as fate.
On we sailed, as when we first embarked; the air was bracing asbefore. More isles we visited:--thrice encountered the avengers: butunharmed; thrice Hautia's heralds but turned not aside;--saw manycheckered scenes--wandered through groves, and open fields--traversedmany vales--climbed hill-tops whence broad views were gained--tarriedin towns--broke into solitudes--sought far, sought near:--Still Yillahthere was none.
Then again they all would fain dissuade me.
"Closed is the deep blue eye," said Yoomy.
"Fate's last leaves are turning, let me home and die," said Mohi.
"So nigh the circuit's done," said Media, "our morrow's sun must riseo'er Odo; Taji! renounce the hunt."
"I am the hunter, that never rests! the hunter without a home! She Iseek, still flies before; and I will follow, though she lead me beyondthe reef; through sunless seas; and into night and death. Her, will Iseek, through all the isles and stars; and find her, whate'er betide!"
Again they yielded; and again we glided on;--our storm-worn prows, nowpointed here, now there;--beckoned, repulsed;--their half-rent sails,still courting every breeze.
But that same night, once more, they wrestled with me. Now, at last,the hopeless search must be renounced: Yillah there was none: backmust I hie to blue Serenia.
Then sweet Yillah called me from the sea;--still must I on! but gazingwhence that music seemed to come, I thought I saw the green corsedrifting by: and striking 'gainst our prow, as if to hinder. Then,then! my heart grew hard, like flint; and black, like night; andsounded hollow to the hand I clenched. Hyenas filled me with theirlaughs; death-damps chilled my brow; I prayed not, but blasphemed.
CHAPTER LXXXVIThey Meet The Phantoms
That starle
ss midnight, there stole from out the darkness, the Irisflag of Hautia.
Again the sirens came. They bore a large and stately urn-like flower,white as alabaster, and glowing, as if lit up within. From its calyx,flame-like, trembled forked and crimson stamens, burning withintensest odors.
The phantoms nearer came; their flower, as an urn of burning niter.Then it changed, and glowed like Persian dawns; or passive, was shotover by palest lightnings;--so variable its tints.
"The night-blowing Cereus!" said Yoomy, shuddering, "that never blowsin sun-light; that blows but once; and blows but for an hour.--For thelast time I come; now, in your midnight of despair, and promise youthis glory. Take heed! short time hast thou to pause; through me,perhaps, thy Yillah may be found."
"Away! away! tempt me not by that, enchantress! Hautia! I know theenot; I fear thee not; but instinct makes me hate thee. Away! my eyesare frozen shut; I will not be tempted more."
"How glorious it burns!" cried Media. I reel with incense:--can suchsweets be evil?"
"Look! look!" cried Yoomy, "its petals wane, and creep; one momentmore, and the night-flower shuts up forever the last, last hope ofYillah!"
"Yillah! Yillah! Yillah!" bayed three vengeful voices far behind.
"Yillah! Yillah!--dash the urn! I follow, Hautia! though thy lure bedeath."
The Cereus closed; and in a mist the siren prow went on before; we,following.
When day dawned, three radiant pilot-fish swam in advance: threeravenous sharks astern.
And, full before us, rose the isle of Hautia.