“Hail, glorious mother of morn!
Beautiful type of woman’s form,
When hallowed from instinctive night,
She hails, at birth, a son of light.”
M. Hollydorf recalling the occasion and source of inspiration, glanced at Correliana with a furtive look of anguish. For the prompting source of the stanzas, was a longing desire that woman’s beauty should be adorned with more lasting “graces” than those bestowed by the fashionable dressmaker, dancing master, and boarding-school mistress, in hopeful premonition of an immortality with joys exceeding the gossiping allurements of a heaven of sense. The look of sympathy he received in return banished from his thoughts doubts, and suspicions of supernatural agency. Manito, observing the confidence expressed in his glance, and the more ready belief of Mr. Welson and Dow, that the Manatitlans in reality represented a diminutive department of human mortality, said, that as his mission for the day had been fulfilled in degree beyond expectation, they would not prejudice their success by prolonging the interview, but would leave them with a new zest for the transmission of one of their best melodies. He then rearranged his choristers and rendered “Home, sweet home,” with an effect that caused them to join in thought sympathy with the affectionate harmony of Manatitlan expression. At the close the prætor and tribunes of Maniculæ bid their first giga audience good-by, and disappeared from view. Correliana then signaled the stoop of her favorite falcon Merlin from his circling wafts above the latifundium; after a short perch of a few moments upon her wrist, he was despatched, as she announced, to Maniculæ, bearing back the prætor, Manito, and tribunes.
Mr. Welson was the first to break silence after their departure, with a long drawn,—“Whew,” as a prelude to the exclamation, “Ah, ha! mistress Correliana, we have the secret now to all your mysterious enactments, which inclined those the least superstitiously prejudiced to credit you with an inheritance tinctured with the pretensions of your sibylline ancestry. But our wondering amazement is scarcely less than it would have been under the superstitious impression that you really possessed the power invoked by the ancient sibyl. Still the manifestation of a visible source, however small, is far more agreeable to our perceptions.”
Correliana answered, with a pleading smile, “You will surely forgive, and pardon me for retaining a secret of such importance, in the face of all your kind and confiding acts, now that you have learned that I received it in trust from a source so well qualified with the essentials of prudent direction? The Dosch, however, will more fully state the many causes that rendered its retention desirable. But of this you can rest assured, the Manatitlans are bonâ fide representatives of animalculan humanity; and when I state that we are solely indebted to them for our redemption from the bondage of instinct, you will understand the nature of our trust in their direction.”
Beckoning the stoop of a falcon, it alighted upon her wrist. She then exposed, beneath what they had supposed to be an ornamental attachment of designation, a howdah. Then taking from her pocket pouch a reel of filmy thread,—attenuated to a degree that rendered it almost imperceptible to the eye, she wound the free end around Mr. Welson’s finger, then asked him to try its strength. With his utmost exertion, tried with many devices for its separation, the thread remained unparted. She then explained that the materials, from which, in perfect combination, it was drawn, were mineralized with flexile and vis inertia substances in adaptation for a great variety of purposes, subserving for the protective furtherance of health, comfort, and personal purity. Also for protective defense, “as it is impenetrable to the swiftest fledged missiles when wrought into textile fabrics.” But its most esteemed peculiarities are repulsive resistance to uncleanly cohesion, combined with a nonconducting neutrality in the transmission of cold and heat, causing the refuse excretions of the body to evaporate without obstructing the rejecting orifices of the ducts, when used in its adaptation for raiment. In part, we have been able to imitate this valuable acquisition for the protective preservation of our persons from decomposing agencies, which are constantly in a fermentable and putrefactive state of conceptive action for the production of renewed vitality varied in degenerative series. But of these matters the Manatitlans will advise you in due time. In your present state of perturbation it will but little avail to extend our conversation into details that require for a complete understanding consecutive exposition.
After Correliana and her father had taken their leave of the four favored witnesses of the new grade revelation in the status of humanity, they remained standing in the same position, absorbed with contending emotions of doubt and belief, until aroused by the approach of Dr. Baāhar and the padre. Then, with a forced recovery, M. Hollydorf announced his intention of discontinuing his explorations for the time being; which afforded his assistants a desired relief, for with their few hours’ occupation they had discovered in themselves an unwonted dislike for the professional details of their occupation. While on their way to deposit the tympano-microscope in the house designated by Correliana as the one intended for the reception of the Dosch, the four maintained their thoughtful silence until after they had bestowed upon the instrument of revelation a careful disposal. Then M. Hollydorf sententiously remarked, “Although still perplexed, I am confident in the full integrity of Correliana’s assurance that these Manatitlans are bonâ fide embodiments of humanity, with intelligent capabilities superior to our own! But it is hard to reconcile them with any of the preconceived ideas of our race. They certainly advocate, with practical demonstration, a more direct and reasonable way for the attainment of present and prospective happiness, than that of redemption from sin by saving grace?”
“By all that there is in us, capable of assuming the control of judgment, we cannot avoid their own, Miss Correliana’s, and the confirmation of our own senses in attestation of the fact of their real presence,” added Mr. Welson.