CHAPTER LXXXIV.
Babbalanja 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 of dew among violets.
The waves were phosphorescent, and laved the beach with a fire that cooled 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 have dreamed of wondrous things. After I had laid me down, thought pressed hard upon me. By my eyes passed pageant visions. I started at a low, strange melody, deep in my inmost soul. At last, methought my eyes were fixed on heaven; and there, I saw a shining spot, unlike a star. Thwarting the sky, it grew, and grew, descending; till bright wings were 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 it emerged; and brushed the astral Crosses, Crowns, and Cups. And as in violet, tropic seas, ships leave a radiant-white, and fire-fly wake; so, in long extension tapering, behind the vision, gleamed another Milky-Way.
“Strange throbbings seized me; my soul tossed on its own tides. But soon the inward harmony bounded in exulting choral strains. I heard a feathery rush; and straight beheld a form, traced all over with veins of vivid light. The vision undulated round me.
“‘Oh! Spirit!! angel! god! whate’er thou art,’—I cried, ‘leave me; I am but man.’
“Then, I heard a low, sad sound, no voice. It said, or breathed upon me,—‘Thou hast proved the grace of Alma: tell me what thou’st learned.’
“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.’