He spoke with bitterness; and Féraz glanced at him anxiously.
“I do not quite agree with you”—he said; “Surely honest folk always have their reward?—though perhaps superficial observers may not be able to perceive where it comes in. I believe in ‘walking uprightly’ as the Bible says—it seems to me easier to keep along a straight open road than to take dark by-ways and dubious short cuts.”
“What do you mean by your straight open road?” demanded El-Râmi, looking at him.
“Nature,”—replied Féraz promptly—“Nature leads us up to God.”
El-Râmi broke into a harsh laugh.
“O credulous beautiful lad!” he exclaimed; “You know not what you say! Nature! Consider her methods of work—her dark and cunning and cruel methods! Every living thing preys on some other living things;—creatures wonderful, innocent, simple or complex, live apparently but to devour and be devoured;—every inch of ground we step upon is the dust of something dead. In the horrible depths of the earth, Nature,—this generous kindly Nature!—hides her dread volcanic fires,—her streams of lava, her boiling founts of sulphur and molten lead, which at any unexpected moment may destroy whole continents crowded with unsuspecting humanity. This is NATURE,—nothing but Nature! She hides her treasures of gold, of silver, of diamonds and rubies, in the deepest and most dangerous recesses, where human beings are lost in toiling for them,—buried in darkness and slain by thousands in the difficult search;—diving for pearls, the unwary explorer is met by the remorseless monsters of the deep,—in fact, in all his efforts towards discovery and progress, Man, the most naturally defenceless creature upon earth, is met by death or blank discouragement. Suppose he were to trust to Nature alone, what would Nature do for him? He is sent into the world naked and helpless;—and all the resources of his body and brain have to be educated and brought into active requisition to enable him to live at all,—lions’ whelps, bears’ cubs have a better ‘natural’ chance than he;—and then, when he has learned how to make the best of his surroundings, he is turned out of the world again, naked and helpless as he came in, with all his knowledge of no more use to him than if he had never attained it. This is NATURE, if Nature be thus reckless and unreasonable as the ‘reflex of God’—how reckless and unreasonable must be God Himself!”
The beautiful stag-like eyes of Féraz darkened slowly, and his slim hand involuntarily clenched.
“Ay, if God were so,” he said—“the veriest pigmy among men might boast of nobler qualities than He! But God is not so, El-Râmi! Of course you can argue any and every way, and I cannot confute your reasoning. Because you reason with the merely mortal intelligence; to answer you rightly I should have to reply as a Spirit,—I should need to be out of the body before I could tell you where you are wrong.”
“Well!” said his brother curiously—“Then why do you not do so? Why do you not come to me out of the body, and enlighten me as to what you know?”
Féraz looked troubled.