M. Hollydorf, after reading the secretary’s letter, would have suppressed the autographic missive; but the Dosch called his attention to it,—laughingly adding, that he had been advised of the contents by a third party, who was present during the process of dictation. Observing the flush that mounted to M. Hollydorf’s face, he said, “I perceive that our system of espionage is not fully sanctioned by your thoughts. But as our object is devoid of instinctive curiosity and malice, and solely devoted to the emancipation of your race from the impositions of selfishness, you will upon mature consideration approve of our course. We are fully aware of the difficulty you experience in divesting yourselves of the reverential awe inspired by the sounding appellations of king, emperor, prince, and other titles bestowed for self-gratulation in the flights of vanity. But if you will analyze the charter privileges conferred with these vapory titles, you will find that patents of nobility are the real talons of your standard emblem of nationality, which allows the grantee to become a participator with the imperial or kingly beak, in rending the spoils of oppression. In truth, the whole structure of your mythological and classical literature, upon which the anointed supremacy of kingly and noble power rests, is as vague and shadowy in its reflection, as a source of awe, as the sun photograph of an ass’s ears upon the ground for the intimidation of their owner.
“The privileged follies of the upper ranks, rather than their wisdom, is, from the contrasted meanness of self, the instinctive cause of reverential fear with the poverty stricken. The man who will accept the direction of others, when obliged to dissemble his own follies, not only contravenes the manifest indications of Creative intention, but demeans the natural honesty of his instinct below brute capacity. It is also equally evident that a man who will not deal honestly with himself, is not only unworthy, but will betray the trust reposed in him by others, and as an apostate to his human privilege demeans his instinct as far below the reach of the lower orders as his capabilities are above. With this class, who ape the privilege of ruling others when lacking the will for self-control, our espionage is no treason, but the study of instinct, devoted to selfish gratification, in search of means for emancipation. The craft of the diplomat, whose foxy instinct endeavors to fix the incentive stigma of a causeless war upon neighboring nations, as the precursor of slaughtered millions, for the absorption of coveted territory, should prove a source of reprobation, rather than praise, to the peaceful perceptions of instinct.”
In illustration of the covetous nature of the letter, which from the patriotic sympathy of shame you would withhold, we will state from the basis of auramental experience, that the victory of Germany over her Gallic neighbor, who lacked the leading energies of a man capable of controlling with inspired confidence her armies, will prove far worse than a defeat for the continued prosperity of the country. This is especially evident to our perceptions, as it has stimulated the policy of preparing the means while lying in wait for a pretext to absorb the coveted northern seaboard, under the present national control of Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Russia. Flattered by the prestige she has gained from consolidation, she forgets that her Gallic achievement was solely dependent upon fortuitous circumstances. With a mind capable of commanding unity of action, France would prove more than her equal in the battle field, of which the elder Bonaparte gave evidence in controlling the powers of Europe. You will perceive by the tendency of this prelude that we are fully prepared for the propositions contained in your autographic letter, which will of itself attest to our protective right of espionage, and will render it:—
Kaiserlant, Aug., 187-.
My dear Hollydorf, you will be pleased to hear that we hold the French disposition still handsomely in check, by fomentations skillfully applied by our prince of diplomats. But his mind is too expansive for the frivolity of cultivating the natural mushroom tendency of the Celt for intestine irruption. More anon! we have a conception in the womb of the future! Your discovery is truly astonishing! Many of the scientific scarcely credit it! Why not? It’s easy to believe if you only think so. A glance at Alsace and Lorraine for instance. Will the Manatitlans acknowledge fealty to Prussia in recognition of our rights of priority? Push the Dosch gently on the subject. It will be of advantage to the Dosch to subscribe for our protection, as we shall soon assume the leading role of Europe, which England can’t gainsay. You are authorized to act as our vice-imperator for the execution of a protectorate annexation. In case of obduracy how large a force of our veterans would you require for their subjugation? Answer in your next. The prince advises expectant treatment, with such placebos as your better knowledge of the characteristics of their blind side may suggest. As the giantescoes could be made especially useful in diplomacy and warlike operations, which with our progressive enterprise may soon occur, the enlistment of two or more corps would enable us to anticipate the moves of the enemy. The prince thinks it advisable to enlist a corps that understands the French language, as we are obliged to keep a sharp eye in that direction. We have also thought it advisable to keep the discovery a secret among ourselves for the present. Ask the Dosch if he can approximate in calculation the number of our animalculan subjects in Prussia, and learn where their chief cities are located! Would it not be well to have an animalculan survey of the empire, under Manatitlan engineers, for its topographical division into departments? You have, by the advice of the prince, been enrolled as a candidate for the honors of knighthood, and will hereafter be designated as the Count Palatine of Heraclea, and Viceroy of Manatitla. The king herald of the royal commandery only awaits the transmission of their national escutcheons for incorporation with the Prussian, and quarterings of your family, before the announcement of your full investment and title will be proclaimed. The prince of diplomats advises gentle dissimulation in the inceptive stages of your negotiations with the Manatitlans; and in the second insinuations with non-committal or evasive attachments; and boldness when fully prepared to offer your ultimatum. This plan worked admirably with the French, who are probably far more accomplished in the diplomatic art than the Manatitlans. If you had experienced the advantages of a married life, you could better appreciate the benefits of the preparatory stages proposed, from their successful adaptability for the quiet management of domestic affairs. We shall anticipate with increased interest the arrival of your next letters. Please present the Kaiser pipe to Dr. Baāhar with its accompanying sack of Latakia and Shiraz ammunition, as its smoke will aid him in resurrecting many interesting items from the ruins of old Heraclea. The gift you can render more acceptable by an appropriate presentation speech, at the close of a public banquet given at our expense. If you think it will enhance the acceptability of the gift, you can allude to its dedication by my own and the lips of the prince, which will be sure to impart to him a politic shrewdness that will outwit the Jesuits.
Your Kaiser.
M. Hollydorf acknowledged with a flush of shame the correctness of the Dosch’s verbatim rendering of the Kaiser letter. But the Dosch rallied him with the assurance that the effort was above the general average of the kind, and really acceptable as an aid in demonstrating the indifference of potentates for the real welfare of their subjects. “If,” he urged, “Newton, Humboldt, Arago, and other scientific celebrities, had occupied but half of the time in study for the practical relief of their race from the potential rule of selfishness, that they devoted to theories strained from debris gleanings of earth’s attritions, from counter elementary action, they would have secured in grateful reciprocation an ever enduring immortality, that would have lived with the endowment of their living impression, in the current of affection, to the garnered end of the allotted term of mortal representation. Instead of using their gigantic endowments for the development of man’s knowledge of himself, in privileged relation to creative design, for the fulfillment of indications vouchsafed for his affectionate direction, they endeavored to illuminate the precedental path of irrational delusions, and left their immense labors, under the seal of acknowledged greatness, as barren of sympathy for immortal direction, as the sands of Sahara are for the support of the Arab wanderer. We do not disclaim the collateral benefits to be derived from the cultivation of practical “science,” but to devote one’s energies to exhuming relics, tracing glacial tracks, chasing butterflies and other insects, for capture, without other motive than for classification and the gratification of curiosity, is as void of beneficial result as the youthful Gigas’ antiquarian search for postage stamps. The obstinate perseverance of the Scotch Animalculans in imitating the fanatical absurdities of their Giga exemplars, has become proverbial with our Manatitlan colonists, who render it “scratching for miracles to cure evils of easy prevention.” A reputation founded solely upon entomological pursuits will deservedly prove as short lived, and lack-worthy of sympathy, as the ancient family hunts of the Gaels, who left a breeding cause for wasted time spent in the pursuit of their bodies’ parasitic foes, when with ease they could have rid themselves of the pests, and added to their comfort by cleanliness. In our aerial study of botanical adaptation, we have observed the date palm, indigenous to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, growing at the mouths of all the large American rivers of tropical latitudes, corresponding with the current streams of the ocean setting from the Strait of Gibraltar. In Mexico and Yucatan, the date palm grows as luxuriantly, and yields as abundantly in exotic transplantation as under the favoring influences of native soil and climate. Even in the latifundium with its exalted altitude, you will observe that with cultivation it yields fruit of a quality far superior to the Egyptian, and has in reality proved the bread of life to the Heracleans. Now if the scientific of your race would but study these vicarious indications of nature for transplanting increase, and cultivate them in extension with intelligent zeal for affectionate bestowal, war, and its indigent charity sequence of doles, would forever pass away from the surplant of confiding love. But your race are now so wedded to the fruits of precedentalism, that if you, on your return to the haunts of civilization, should attempt to promulgate your present happy thoughts, without forestalling them with the substantial relation of your animalculan discovery of the Manatitlan race, your own relatives would denounce you as lunatic Utopiasts.”
CHAPTER XXII.
As the four were returning from the auriculum to the quarters of the corps, a week or more after the padre’s return, he overtook them and listened to their conversation unperceived. As each entertained one or two Manatitlan aura-lists in his ear, the conversation was strangely diversified in irrelevancy, which would have caused a stranger to the events transpiring, possessed with the least taint of superstition, to have supposed them insane or bewitched. The padre listened with wondering attraction to catch the drift of their mirthful sallies, hoping to learn the cause, or obtain a clew to their mysterious convocations. Their incoherent address of questions, which although unanswered, appeared to provoke outbursts of merriment, in one, without attracting the least notice from the others, caused him at first to think it was the prelude to one of Mr. Welson’s practical essays of humor designed to entrap him. But the earnest manner in which the conversation was conducted, and the unmistakable evidences of genuine mirth, put this conjecture to flight. His next suggestive impression was ushered in with a shudder; could it be possible that they were subject to a spell of enchantment, and that the seeming city of Heraclea was the abode of enchanters, the spirits of darkness against which the fathers had especially warned the heedless? This frightful ghost of a suspicion received such evident confirmation that he immediately had recourse to his rosary that had been bestowed by Fraile Gallagato, of Amelcoy, for numbering exorcising prayers. The rattling of the beads, with the muttering sound of his Ave Marias, attracted the attention of Mr. Welson, as he turned aside to allow the others to enter the puerta in advance, and he for the first time became aware of the padre’s presence. The anxious dismay of the padre’s countenance revealed the source of his emotions, prompting Mr. Welson to play upon his fears, but the Dosch auramented the inquiry:—
“Well padre, what is it that causes you to look so frightened?”