“You should be aware of a distinction that it would be impossible for us to reconcile in your marriage adoption,” replied the Dosch. “You are strangers to our system of education, so that we are obliged to accept an alternative for your tests; as you must realize that the quarantine of a lifetime would not render you compatible according to our acceptation. But nominally all have complied with the probationary requirements; even M. Hollydorf, as Correliana proxied her twin sister. Still our chief dependence is in the incomparable beauty and goodness of the bride, which will render disagreement impossible. But I perceive that you have still another indigestible example that you would have reconciled. We have claimed that our ‘system’ of education renders the unity of affection between the marriage affiants indivisible; yet in seeming contradiction, your thoughts refer to the second marriage of the prætor with Correliana’s mother. We could have explained to you this apparent discrepancy, but for our wish that you might discover from the promptings of your own perception the admissibility of an association designed for mutual solace and companionship in bodily representation. The prætor Adinope when premonized of death’s approach, preferred the tribune Adestus, who had lost his wife, to the prætorship, as the chosen companion of his wife, under the temporal privilege of correlative correspondence in the body. With the dying prætor’s sanction, Adestus assumed the charge of the household and prætorial advisorship while the husband yet lived. You have in thought questioned this as an impeachment of the unity we profess in the assimilative fulfillment of our first affection. But I can assure you there is neither divorce or abatement in the troth unity of the first allegiance. In fact, they become more perfectly wedded in thought with those who have preceded them to the current realms of immortality; and in vicarious communion, commend without stint or prevarication the ever present manifestations they enjoy with their beatific spouses, and longings for the speedy consummation of a disembodied reunion. If Heraclea could furnish wives for Giga representatives, as well endowed with reason and as free from prejudicial taint as you are, the labor of educational induction in its inceptive stage would soon be accomplished. For in wifely Heraclean example, the joyous brightness would be reflected with such purity that it would irresistibly attract assimilative reciprocation, in thought, from all within reach of its influence, causing vanity, with its promptings for adornment, to become an exile beyond the reach of material redemption. With the current of your women’s affections once emancipated from the shallows of personal ornamentation, the clear depth of the stream would purify itself from the undertow of man’s grosser instincts, casting the refuse of precedental habits and customs back upon themselves, and the cycle shores of the past, with their memorial odors of instinctive corruption.”
Mr. Welson. “As you have answered these problems, which opposed themselves to our understandings, as stumbling blocks preventing our full appreciation of your wisdom’s infallibility, in a manner so practically agreeable, will you apprise me of the method you propose for reducing the appetites and passions of Giga humanity to an initial accord with the Heraclean standard? This request I proffer under the privilege conferred by your maxim, ‘that we should never cavil or criticise without being practically able to amend.’”
Dosch. “Although our maxim in application to your race lacks, or has hitherto lacked, the secondary power of example required for practical efficiency, we will answer your inquiry by holding your example as our prospective means of introduction. As an initiatory step for reciprocal purification, in prefatory advisement for the introduction of our protective system of education, and its inauguration of self-control and legislation, we shall auramentally propose an international dietary congress, for the studied adaptation of food in quality and quantity, for the healthy requirements of the body. With this as a basis for thought direction, we shall propose a method for the inductive substitution of a common language, free from sectional prejudices, by the introduction of international schools, kindred to our own, which in hostage reciprocation will eradicate the seeds of instinctive jealousy. Husband and wife are to be held as a unity for representative expression in congress; with the special proviso that the voice of the man shall alone bespeak the unity of intention in public assembly. Under the ruling of the dietary congress, stomach codes could be established for the mouth rejection of all indigestible and incompatible compounds, in solid or liquid form. This would emancipate the stomach from the arbitrary tyranny of individual hodge-podgery, relieving the body and brain from the incubus imposed by the unreason of ages. The prestige of a single generation’s restful rendering of these intuitive examples of reason would result in the utter abolishment of such songs as the ‘Watch on the Rhine,’ so characteristic in guttural expression of the indigestible philosophy of a German diet, and the more musical, battle-inspiring Marsellaise, instinct with the lighter French national régime, suited to the Zouave accompaniment of ‘Leap on, leap on!’ while in substitution there would arise blendings of song, and salutations replete with joyful gladness in the new-fledged accents of affectionate reciprocations. This innovation would effectually liberate the German language from the bondage of nose and stomach, and the French from the frothy sibilations of vanity, causing them to harmonize in peaceful goodwill, with contributions from every tongue, until special idiomatism would become involved in the sympathy of universal accord.”
The discourse of the Dosch was here interrupted by the voices of Lovieta and Lavoca, calling for Don Guillermo, who gave an answering invitation for them to come in and see where he lived. This brought them to his knees in full chorus for the rehearsal of the marvelous impressions they had received. But in the rapid scan their eyes gave to the alcoved apartment they caught a view of the Dosch and Doschessa, with other Manatitlans reflected in the field of the table tympano-microscope, which hushed their voiced exuberance into regardful silence. The Dosch, after watching for a few moments their curious awe, reminded Mr. Welson that his wife was specially anxious for a personal introduction to his children in trust. This given, the Doschessa soon won their confidence, and imparted to the eager germ of Giga curiosity some of the winning traits of affectionate reciprocation encouraged in the Manatitlan schools for the enlightenment of thought perception. Her success was soon evident from the gathering mists that sparkled in rayed mementos of affection from their eyelashes to be resolved into tears, as an accompaniment to the plaintive vocals, “mamma, papa.” As the dew of inborn memories yielded to soothing direction, natural affection expanded, until it included, with the “extreme unction” of goodness, the infantile query of possibility for the redemption of Padre Molinero from self. In questioning expression, from the impressions of memory, they asked with a toddling perception of cause and effect, if it would not change him if he ate and drank less, so that his mouth would not make a noise so porcuno? Then, as if in thought consultation tracing the effect of renovation, they asked if a priest could be made as loving and respectable as Mr. Welson and Captain Greenwood by removing his hat, gown, and fat?
The Dosch laughingly replied, that if he and his kind would adopt the first restrictions mentioned, it would certainly indicate a desire to become respectable in self-estimation, and show a disposition to merit the confidence of others.
When well ingratiated in their affection, the Doschessa asked by what token they wished to be made sensible of her watchful care? This seemed to puzzle their ingenuity for the devisement of a tangible method of communication. But Lavoca, after demure consideration, said, that she thought it would be easy to kiss and embrace, if she could manage to continue as large as she then appeared.
The Dosch then explained to their ready comprehension, that their reflection in the field of the microscope was like the vanity of personal adornment shadowed in a mirror, which when removed left nothing but its vague impression for the delusive gratification of self. But the Doschessa said, if they wished to retain a lasting impression of her as she then appeared, they must keep themselves free from passion by bestowing their thoughts upon others; then she would be ever present with them to be kissed and embraced in thought, which was a reality that with goodness would last forever. They promised that they would always try to be good, but hoped if they sometimes forgot, she and the teachers would forgive, and let them try again. “Because,” Lavoca urged, “our people have not been good like yours, and we haven’t learned how to be always the same.” She assured them, that with all their disadvantages, if they tried to make their associates and teachers happy, they would forget their own selfishness, and feel that the merited affection of others would always make them joyous with gladness. Perceiving that they were still anxious in thought for an intuitive token of her affection conveyed in the language of a kiss, she proposed to comply with their wish, but cautioned them to be gentle in their reciprocation when they felt her pressure upon their lips. First to Lovieta, and then with an ear premonition to the more impetuous Lavoca, she imparted the loving thrill that ever attends the reciprocal blending of instinctive sense with the animus of goodness. Both were exultant in declaring that her kiss, although exceedingly small and tiny in its touch, was larger in making them feel more happy everywhere than any they had ever felt of their own kind, and were certain they should know whenever they were kissed by a Manatitlan. After this happy introduction of the novecetas to the Manatitlans, the Dosch and Doschessa accepted Mr. Welson’s invitation, and occupied their accustomed seats on the tragus of his ear; and then with the escort of Cleorita, Oviata, Lovieta, and Lavoca, started in search of the newly unionized, who were found enjoying the cool shade of the tamarisks on the terraced descent from the summit to the basin of the falls.
The Dosch, while the presence of Mr. Welson’s party was yet undiscovered, called his attention to the unity of expression exhibited by their faces as they gazed in thoughtfully silent meditation upon the fantastic sprays of falling water, whose misty vapor, bearing perennial freshness in dispersion to air and vegetation, represented in similitude their own thoughtful desires for the extension of their glad happiness to others. Mr. Welson’s face became subject to regretful shadows, as he passed in review the instinctive follies recalled to his memory in contrast by the constantly recurring variations in manifestation of the happy influence transmitted from hereditary self legislation. In thought he expressed thankful praise that his life had been spared to witness scenes which in truthful representation realized more of bliss than had ever entered into his most sanguine conceptions. In thoughtful admiration of the unionized beatitude expressed in the silent flow of current reciprocations, stimulated by the stentorian promptings of the Dosch in the lulls of the wind waft, he resolved to avail himself, without delay, of an example so pregnant with current joy. With lingering desire he motioned away his escort, then withdrawing himself without disturbing the mystic harmony of the wafting ingraft of affection, he sought within himself for an assurance of hopes that had surprised him while visiting the school for nynetas.
At the descending junction of the avenue with those of the basin and incrematium he met the prætor and his wife, who were accustomed on the occasion of a marriage to visit its sweet scented groves for communion with their current selves in purification from the body’s probation. They were quick to detect in the subdued but hopefully eloquent expression of Mr. Welson’s face, an undefined longing, and were not surprised when he unburthened to them his desire for their censorial consultation, and judgment after an explanatory intercession with the object of his premised thoughtful affection. With warm commendations in support of the wisdom of his choice, from her special adaptability, they immediately entered upon the eliminary negotiations required for a verdict of relief; the result of which will be detailed in a subsequent chapter.