Prætor. “The Dosch desires me to give you the assurance that the hydraulic power of the cataract has been so well tested for tempering in infancy and youth a tendency to volubility, that with the least inclination to fanatical superstition, the globular form of the earth might be esteemed the result of providential intention designed for the regulation of woman’s tongue, as it necessitates the waterfall in the flow of rivers.”
This humorous interpretation of design excited a smile; but Correliana assured the members of the corps, that the effect produced by the sound of the waterfall had been but little exaggerated, inasmuch as it directly induced a thoughtful mood, and disinclination to speak. After a moment’s thoughtful silence, she asked her father if the selection had in reality been made with the provised intention of inducting thought by interrupting speech; and if the women of Heraclea had at any anterior date given cause for the constant reproof of falling water, to chide them for the heedless use of the tongue? To which question the father replied, “You must recollect, Correliana, that many centuries have passed since the temples were dedicated to educational direction. Then, as you are aware, Indegatus had been subjected to traitorous annoyances, from which the Manatitlan Dosch of the period relieved him, enabling him to cope successfully with disaffection which had been fanned by woman’s tongue. The Dosch also desires me to remind you of the lessons you have been taught of the commune degradation of civilized women in Giga countries.”
Padre. “I have often heard of hydropathic treatment of scolding and gadding women, but this is certainly a great improvement, as it obviates by anticipation the ducking-stool.”
Descending from the temple walls into the garden court, the necks of Correliana and her mother were suddenly enclosed in the arms of a surpassingly beautiful form, whose face was concealed by a profusion of golden hair, which floated in glancing sheen, like the floss of the silk-tree, over the heads of the united three, closing from view the caresses, which seemed to impart to the atmosphere a reciprocal flow of pervading affection, causing each member of the corps to stand transfixed with emotions transcending by far the highest attainments of admiration. M. Hollydorf stood like a statue fully enravished from self, for he alone had caught a glimpse of the sunbeam’s features, as its rays darted from their concealment, animated with a glow of gladness, that had been lying in wait for a joyful surprise. Bewildered with amazement, he was seemingly lost to his personal identity, for he remained heedless and motionless, until recalled by the prætor’s salutation. “Luocuratia, my evoce, you must not forget the presence of our deliverers. This is M. Hollydorf, of whom your mother and sister have so often spoken.” Then leaving M. Hollydorf, with herself absorbed, he proceeded to introduce the other members of the corps, individually, the names of each Luocuratia pronounced mechanically, in repetition, without even the accompaniment of a furtive glance in diversion from the object of her first attraction. With her arms still encircling the neck of her mother and sister, she looked out from the veil of her hair, regarding M. Hollydorf with changing flushes of perplexed emotion coursing beneath her transparent skin, like borealian flashes beaming in a moonlit sky. Mr. Welson, whose quick perception had caught the source of the spell’s inspiration took the prætor’s arm, and then beckoning his companions, they joined the happy parents, who added to the fullness of their joy by introducing the members of the corps to their daughters. After enjoying the mutual flow of unbounded affection between parents and children, for a short time, as the centre of attraction, the prætor conducted them through the gate alcove of the garden screen, to an acacia hedge, through the interstices of which they could observe, undetected, the scenes of affectionate endearment, in animated, but silent flow, passing in the conscious enactment of thoughtful impression, between the clustering family groups.
At the conclusion of a pæan song of thanksgiving, they engaged in various pastimes, improvised from the joyous promptings of the occasion, in which both old and young participated. All their movements were so replete with the affectionate expression of gleesome mirth, song, and frolic wit, the paucity of lingual accompaniments was scarcely noticed. The impression of our own feelings, in unison, the padre recognized, who declared, upon his conscience, that he felt a brighter glow of conscious affection than words could convey, imparted from their silent expression of joyous reciprocation. He soon became so wrought with the intensity of affectionate participation, that he could not resist the attraction, but darted from ambush, exclaiming, “Upon my soul, I know that I shall be like a bull in a china shop, but I must be with them,” and was soon in their midst, with face aglow from smiling excitement. The young Kyronese maidens, from toddling infancy to seven,—the first stage in the course of instinctive life,—soon took possession of the padre by the right of preëmption, holding him captive from its conferred privileges of priority in discovery; but permitted the Heraclean parents and children to participate in their joy, although holding him as a special bondsman to their arbitrary sway. Detaining Cleorita and Oviata as interpreters, they enlisted the padre as the representative champion of his race in their pastimes. But as an agile athlete his career was more successful for the enlistment of mirth, than for either grace or speed, for he fared worse than Dr. Baāhar in his trial with the family of the prætor, as he was unable to hold the shadows of an old man, of an hundred and sixty years, and his wife. Indeed, his movements and appearance indicated that he was their elder in age, for with graceful steps of equal pace, they kept their shadows from his feet, when in the eye of the sun they were lengthened in the rise of the hill. The merriment caused by his defeat cast no shadow over his happy face, but with buoyant smiles he challenged Dr. Baāhar’s badinage with the desire of testing his right to criticise. This accepted, he was again defeated, without other evidences of chagrin than the frequent use of an apologetic if, in disjunctive evidence of his ability to outrun the best, when free from its restraint. The swift action and graceful motions of the Heraclean women, maidens, and men in running exceeded by far the highest descriptive flights of poetical imagination devoted to wood-nymph disportings upon the velvet sod, or those of the sea upon its margin of sand, in derivation from Grecian fable and song. While bestowing the warmest encomiums in the honest expression of admiration, the curiosity of the corps was excited to learn the means by which the graceful uniformity of the women had been preserved, in disengagement from the ungainly inheritance derived from the impression, supposed to be inherent with their first estate. For, with our civilisation, a broad expansion of pelvic continuations, with the angular articulation of the lower extremities, are esteemed as a progenic provision for ease in the functional speciality of procreation. The prætor answered from the dictation of the Dosch: “Our censorial guardians have, from the earliest date of Manatitlan direction, recognized the body’s unlimited capability for improvement, under the restrictive advisement of an education devoted to the kindly reciprocation of experience. Admonished by the negative effects, described as the resulting cause, that had produced with the women of your race unwieldy obesity, with a consequent lack of animus power for current communication independent of language, they studied to perfect themselves in the Manatitlan art of quality improvement, for increase in affectionate transmission, from the impress of exampled alliance, without words. The Doschessa invokes you to conceive in imagination the impression that would be made upon our women, if, without previous description they should discover a flock of your Giga belles swinging up the avenue of the latifundium, with the longitude, latitude, and circumference of their dresses in oscillating sway from the movements of their limbs in semi-revolution, at an oblique angle from their broad pelvic axis.”
Mr. Welson. “Fear would certainly be the first emotion, and I doubt if upon nearer acquaintance they would be able to discover in them qualities of merit sufficient for the stay of disgust. Unless, in their kindly pity, they should look upon them as samples of a female species of humans, who had in penance for stupidity been made to assume the role of jennies, self-condemned as beasts of burden to bear the material emblems of folly. Indeed, when fully impressed with the utter dearth of their conceptive intelligence, beyond the formulistic rites of fashionable instinct, and rote rehearsals of prayers for selfish preservation, from the goading effects of self-immolation styled conscience, even pity would be likely to suffer in trembling hesitation upon the verge of abhorrence.”
We will now leave the prætor and Dosch to entertain their guests in the courts and colonnades, while in reversion we complete our description of the garden tableau. After the prætor’s departure with his guests, Luocuratia, unmindful of aught else, gazed through her flowing veil of hair upon the face of M. Hollydorf, with the wondering daze of the fawn when surprised in its leafy covert by the gentle presence of woman. With one arm still encircling her sister’s neck, yet seemingly unconscious of her presence, she was recalled to herself, from the dreamy maze of her vision, by the voice of her mother. Then she asked with fluttering hesitation, “What is it?” Correliana caressingly removed the arm from her neck, then gathering her sister’s flowing hair from her brow, bore it back from her face, and while her mother bound it with a silicoth fillet, whisperingly, with the prelude of a kiss, replied, “It is yourself, Luocuratia, be calm, and to-night you shall know.” M. Hollydorf, who had attended Correliana like a doomed shadow, from the day they left the Tortuga, thinking and acting from her prompting, even in matters pertaining to his professional avocations, had with the first glance that he caught of her sister’s face, stood like one transfixed, his eyes alternating from one to the other, until the attraction of Luocuratia’s involved his own. Placing Luocuratia in her mother’s charge, Correliana took M. Hollydorf’s hand and directed him to a vine-covered alcove in the lower garden walk. When seated, she said, “We are so thankful, for we are now saved from the inherent misery that broods like a pall over your people. You will now be happy, but not yourself again! If I should allow you to recover from the amazement of your surprise, without an explanation, you might think me lacking in truthful sympathy, which we hold, under direction, as the privileged source of our affection. Advised, from the first, of the instability of instinctive ‘love’ founded upon personal attractions, which is the ruling incentive for marriage with your race, I withheld from you a knowledge of my sister’s existence, and our twin resemblance, that her affections might not be invoked with peril; for as you have felt, we are endowed with the censorial essentials of perception in premonition of cause and effect. The long delayed visit to our schools was deferred, for the proof of your susceptibility to our current flow, and constancy in affection; and we are happy in being able to feel the assurance that the transfer of your allegiance to her keeping will be free from regretful reflection. Notwithstanding the long endurance to which you have been subjected, and the severity of the trial for the cure of your self-imposed humiliation, the result not only compensates for your suffering, but confirms the wisdom of the judgment that prompted the restraint, by enhancing the zest with the security of a happy fruition. The relief to me is unspeakable, for in my assisted study of your peculiarities we have learned that from your appreciation of our unselfish affection the idea of returning to your people has become repugnant beyond the endurance of thought. Your sensitiveness so well corresponds with Curatia’s in nature, that we are sure her influence will aid you in transferring your sole reliance for happiness to Heraclean keeping, but not in forgetfulness of your responsibility for the welfare of your people. But it is well for you to understand her inability to cope with selfishness, which we are informed, holds supreme control with your race. Even my bolder nature that dared almost inevitable capture by our savage foes, from the physical weakness of our people, from want, shrinks with the thought of incurring the instinctive abuse they are said to heap upon the good and evil alike, who oppose their gainful lusts.”
M. Hollydorf’s countenance was at first moved with reflective embarrassment, from the self-impressed accusation of inconstancy, but as Correliana made no allusion to his defection, except for the expression in grateful relief, his spirits gradually revived from selfimposed oppression. Yet in attempting to express his appreciation of the remarkable resemblance of features, his tongue refused logical utterance. In anticipation of what he wished to say, Correliana bid him rest easy on the score of the past, as a full relation of all that had transpired would in no way impair the confidence of Luocuratia, but would rather tend to increase the development of her affection from the preference you have shown for her resemblance. This tacit sanction, for the transfer, restored M. Hollydorf’s grateful impressions, which raised his spirits to an unwonted degree of elation. But a serious shade of thought having settled upon the brow of Correliana his apprehensions were again startled. Observing the relapse she hastened to reassure him, by asking, “How is it that you, and Captain Greenwood, have remained so long under the rule of selfishness, with natures so quick for the appreciation of our example?”
M. Hollydorf thoughtfully replied: “It was undoubtedly with us as with thousands of others, whose thoughts in association were under the control of evil example, in following the educated usages of the past with unquestioning and reverential reliance, expressed in the fatuous motto of society in all its grades, which contends that ‘what has been, will be, to all eternity.’ This willfully blind abrogation of creative indications for self-reduction to brutality, has been fostered by a religion that directly encourages evil by offering the means of redemption to the vilest, by rights and ceremonies which ignore the practical evidences of purity and goodness. Offering in substitution, vague terms which lure the stupid masses to present misery and a hopeless material end. A modicum of these prestigical word combinations, the padre has furnished for the education of your tonguester birds; but if you should pass through the streets of our cities, with every step, your eyes, nose, and ears would be saluted with defilements that would cause you to shrink with shame from your kinship with civilized humanity.”
“Alue!” exclaimed Correliana, with sadness, “we are so puzzled in our endeavors to understand the source of the misleading infatuation; as the means of happiness is so evident and easy, and their rejection so labored, inconsistent, and unnatural, pardon my sincerity, that we are constrained, from the testimony, to believe that civilized enlightenment, with your other vague terms, are in fact the wordy hallucinations of precedental madness. In the review of our past lives, under the impression of your example, we have absolutely acknowledged the impeachment, replied M. Hollydorf. Even Dr. Baāhar’s fantastical ideas of precedental ‘virtue,’ derived from the vicarious nursing of a maiden aunt, whose celebic worship was devoted to the curative inspiration of a pill-box, which imposed upon him the humors of medical study, has at last in so far yielded to the affectionate sincerity of Heraclean example that he secludes himself when he worships, with the smoke offerings of the pipe dedicated by imperial and princely lips, as a reflection of worldly honors.”