CHAPTER XXXI.
THE MYSTERY OF EGYPLOSIS.
The palace of the goddess at Egyplosis was a component part of thevast quadrangle known as the supernal palace. The view therefromembraced the wide inner garden of the entire palace of temples,discovering jungles of shrubs and flowers of all imaginable hues,interspersed with lakes sleeping in their marble basins like enormousjewels. Fountains of solid silver gushed forth a brilliant foam ofwaters amid the embowering foliage, and there glad priests, in thesociety of priestesses sweeter than the flowers themselves, dreamedlife away in enthusiastic peace. Surrounding all was the high andglorious palace, forming a background, on the design of whichimagination and art had been entirely exhausted.
The scene the day following the Ritual of the installation of atwin-soul in the temple of Egyplosis was a boudoir in the palace ofthe goddess. It was a large apartment, whose walls were hung withpanels of rose-colored velvet, embroidered with gray-green silkfoliage. In one large tapestry, the hands of loving priestesses hadembroidered a scene in the garden of Egyplosis. On a dais, upon acouch of soft red silk upholstery sat Lyone, swathed in draperies ofshrimp pink and pale peacock green, embroidered with ivory-white silk.A large terra-cotta silk rug, whose only ornament was an elaborateborder, covered the floor. The goddess wore a belt of aqueliumserpents having tulips in their mouths. Heavy terrelium braceletsadorned her wrists, and she wore a diminutive tiara on her head.
I sat on a luxurious seat, the sole guest of the goddess. I wasrapidly learning from the divinity the mystery of Egyplosis. I wasespecially anxious to find out how the jewel of one hundred years ofyouth could be grafted into the ordinary existence. An idea sosplendid seemed to be the germ of earthly immortality. We werediscussing the subject of hopeless love, and I asked her if sheconsidered life and love were the same element.
"Life and love are synonymous," she replied. "By love I mean thespiritual, ideal, romantic passion that is hopeless."
"Yes," I replied, "but does not the idea of inaccessibility create aworthless desire, that is, a desire for something that is forbidden orunattainable? The majority of men, I think, will prefer an every-daylove with all its risks and imperfections to the shadowy ghost of ahopeless love. The hopeful love does no violence to nature such as iscontemplated by the hopeless sentiment."
"You hardly understand me," said she; "the pleasure we aspire to issuperior to any physical delight, and is an end in itself. It isromantic love, that blooms like a single flower in the crevices of avolcano. It is the quintessence of existence, the rarest wine of life,the expressed sweetness of difficulty and repression andlong-suffering, the choicest holiday of the soul. We are willing topay the price of hopelessness to taste such nectar. In the every-dayworld such joy only rarely exists. Interest, indulgence, ambition,fortune, time, temper and marriage destroy it. Youth, captivated by abeautiful face or a winning smile, thinks it has discovered its truecounterpart, and so takes possession of the prize. It finds afterwardit was mistaken, and all its life thenceforth becomes miserable."
"But," I replied, "if the world at large had discovered that yourtheory of love was the true one, it would long since have acted onits discovery and put no destroying restraint or obligation on soprecious a possession. But the world found that a thousand accidentswould infallibly open the eyes of both parties to the fact that theypossessed but few qualities in common, or in counterpart, and withsuch knowledge of good and evil they would infallibly separate. Hencethe foundation of society would be torn asunder and the risinggeneration of helpless children become orphaned of home, the verybulwark of life. Society must have assurances that people do not getmarried simply as an experiment, but are willing to honorablyundertake the mutual sacrifices their act carries with it."
"I have already admitted," said she, "that the joy of spiritual lovehardly ever exists in its virgin force in the every-day world. I admitthat the necessary regulations of society, although they tend todestroy it, must be enforced. The Atvatabar nation rests on themarriage idea. At one time in our history the people strove for ideallove and overthrew the ordinary marriage yoke without the restraint ofreason. Law and order disappeared and social chaos reigned. The landwas filled with the wailings of orphans whose parents had desertedthem, and men and women formed new associates every day. Unbridledlicense devastated the country. Our lawgivers re-established the lawof marriage as being the only law suitable to mankind. Man in theaggregate had not developed to a state in which the consummation ofmarriage could be dispensed with. Yet there were many among those whohad advocated ideal love worthy of their theory. Although married toeach other, they had remained celibates. For these Egyplosis wasfounded, for the study and practice of what is really a higherdevelopment of human nature and in itself an unquestionable good. Itis the most powerful element in the production of creative energy ofsoul and personal beauty. As you will have observed, all our devoteesare singularly beautiful in form and feature and possess spirit powerto a high degree."
As the goddess spoke a few threads of her bright blue hair had strayedacross her face. Her beautiful eyes flashed with a royalty of truth,tenderness, magnetism, and feeling. She was the living illustration ofher claims for Egyplosis.
"What you say," I replied, "illustrates that ordinary marriage, withall its limitations and, infelicities, is absolutely necessary for thewell-being of society. Marriage is simply the application of reasonand morality to blind, passionate nature. The home circle is theorigin of nationality, progress, and wealth. Ideal love, wrested fromthe dragon of difficulty, is, I think, but rarely tasted in so real,so practical an institution. This is the experience of the nations ofthe outer world, and how much better for man that it is so? A roadwayin proportion to its rhythm of undulation becomes useless, hinderingtravel rather than accelerating it. So also with love. When settled inthe calm security of marriage the mind is freed from the romanticextravagance, the torture, the delight of hopeless sentiment. Thus menare free to devote themselves to the more serious purposes of life andachieve wealth and fame for themselves and their families. I am,nevertheless, curious to see how your institution is conducted, forhopeless love seems to me one of the most disquieting things in life.Its victims, happy and unhappy, resisting passion with regret oryielding with remorse, are ever on the rack of torture. They resemblethe devotees of certain idols, who pierce themselves with cruel hooksand swing aloft in honor of their god. It may be pleasure, but not onein a thousand will ever achieve that degree of soul exaltation andphysical abnegation to think it so."
"And yet not one in a thousand, not one in a hundred thousand lives inEgyplosis," said the goddess.
"The men who achieve anything," I continued, "good and great in the world,the men who build empires, discover ideas, who both rule and populatenations, are all rewarded by a hopeful love. It is only a hopeless lovethat sets up its mirage of false and never-to-be-obtained joys. Hence, Iask you the question, What of Egyplosis?"
The goddess smiled at my controversial attitude, "It is the oldquestion," she replied, "of conventionalism _versus_ art, of economicinstitutions _versus_ nature and life. Just as we endeavor to rescuespontaneous invention and originality from the disease of thetasteless and laborious productions of a mechanical civilization, sowe labor to create an earthly home for the soul in a world wheresuperficial necessities will stifle it out of existence. There was atime in the history of Atvatabar when people talked of art and love,both of which did not exist. The octopus of commercial, mechanical andeconomical life had strangled the soul and all its attributes. Menfought for treaties of commerce, treaties of marriage, deeds ofproperty, and all the while acted in defiance of their obligations.They cheated each other, lied to each other, deserted each otherincessantly. Love had taken wings and fled. Art had lost its languageand its cunning. Life was no longer illuminated with splendid ideals.It was no longer arrayed in the fair and fascinating garments thatonly the soul can weave. History was no longer glorified by paintingsand sculptured reliefs. Religion was no longer symbolized
in thesolemn magnificence of architecture, or sculptured shrines of gods.Articles of daily use were made solely to make a profit, and thewidespread use of machinery was destroying the art, the soul, the purelife of the people. A paternal government, seeing the tyranny ofcommercialism and the possible extinction of the soul itself, haswisely, in the spirit of patriarchal hospitality, established the artinstitution of Gnaphisthasia and the religious institution ofEgyplosis, for soul development in harmony with the high destiny ofmankind. Harikar, or developed soul, is the natural sequence of thedevelopment of the soul and intellect, achieving the supreme virtue ofspiritual perfection, or dominion of the passions of the body and theforces of nature. Love was the one great end of our religion, for lifeis love."
"I value your creed," I continued, "to the fullest extent. I value theidea that every intellect shall enfold a soul. You practise thedoctrine that hopeless love is that phase of the passion that containsthe most delirious possibilities of joy, yet, allow me to ask, haveyou never discovered that there may be disappointments for even suchguarded emotions as yours? Are your neophytes perfectly happy? Wefind, in the outer world at least, that no state or condition in lifeis perfectly pleasurable. Their joys die of their own _ennui_ if forno other cause. We find happiness like a flower; it has its period ofbloom and decay. The more intoxicating the beauty the shorter itslife. Happiness long continued grows common, fades and dies. Thenagain the human soul is always in a fever of unrest. It always thinkswhat is beyond its reach is liberty. As one of our poets has expressedit:
"'Oh, give me liberty! For even were a paradise itself my prison, Still would I long to leap the crystal walls!'"
As I spoke I saw that the goddess was an eager listener to my words.Was it possible that she might have an idea that even Egyplosis mightindeed be a prison? But, then, her position, her vows, recalled to herthe fact that she was love's _religieuse_, an indissoluble part of thetemple of love itself.
The goddess replied, that sometimes impatient spirits had entered thepalace, but any incorrigible cases of insubordination were eitherimprisoned in the fortress beneath the palace or were expelled intothe outer world. The neophytes entered the temple college while undertwenty years of age. Each soul, thereafter mingling freely with fivethousand of the opposite sex, chooses in a month its counterpart forlife, thus forming a complete circle. The choice must be approved by acouncil of "Soul Inquisitors" who, before the lifelong union is made,see that both possess all the elements that will produce a high, holyand pure blending of thought, feeling, emotion, joys spiritual andintellectual, whose every breath will be an ecstasy, and at the sametime possess reverence for each other and the power of resistance topassion and are able to walk in the pure path.
"Do you not think," I replied, "that the temptation being everpresent, the struggle in the soul must in time exhaust and enfeeblethe moral powers, producing disastrous consequences?"
Before the goddess could reply, a terrible commotion was heard in thepalace garden. The shrieks of a woman mingled with the loud voices ofmen were heard in furious clamor, and one of the royal guards enteredthe palace chamber in breathless haste.