Who dares disdain the bogle chain,
Of myth-bound sects and all their train,
Whose fenny thoughts in muirk arise,
To obscure love’s creative skies,
With miasmatic hate and rage.
“All hail to his love’s perpetual vows,
That Cæluiformia’s now espouse.”
At the close of the salutatory greeting, the parents bestowed upon the current unity of affection, in espoused accession, their joyful benediction, introducing them with a glad welcome to the freedom of their household colonnades. After their installation the assemblage dispersed to their daily avocations.
With Mr. Welson’s departure, the “quarters” of the corps seemed to have lost its active principle of vitality, and its members were to be seen in daily attendance at the house of Corycebæus, after the morning salutations. Indeed, the transfer was so complete that the tympano-microscope followed in train, from the proposed consent of all, the Dosch remarking, that in their course they followed the universal “law” of attraction, that recognized the lead of strength, for self-control, as the predominating source of power for the control of others. This axiom you will find amply verified in all the motor relations of animate and inanimate matter, as well as in all the votive enactments of life. The sun, as the supreme source of effulgence and heat, attracts the lesser luminaries within the pale of its orbit, and as the revivifying source of vitality, force, and motion, it receives from instinct worshipful reverence; while in mundane expression, its effects are instinctively preëminent in the attractive power of the preacher, lecturer, and democratic leader, for the control of the unthinking herd, as the oratorical expositors of sound. In your own relations you were controlled among your own people by precedental habits and customs, accepting them, without a questioning thought, as well approved by the ordeal of time. Away from your precedental theorisms, in enactment by the controlling majority, you were attracted by the influence of Correliana’s happy example over the Kyronese, and for the first time, with the majority, your thoughts were directed to facts for deduction and analytical comparison, which with the leading influence of Heraclean example has happily called forth into active life your latent appreciation of goodness. Following in its lead, after liberation, it has harmonized and rendered subservient your instinctive tempers, so that with the ascendant portion precedental argument is unknown, and politic prudence controls the less appreciative minority, even when opposed by the aggravations of material rebuttal. In apt illustration of the power of self command achieved by the pastoral members of the corps, while engaged in Olympic sports with the herd under the lead of the pastor Corycebæus, Dr. Baāhar, the most pertinacious, politic, and irascible imitator of antiquarian revelations among you, having unwarily allowed his stronger passion for butterfly hunting to intrude upon the portion of the day set apart for the entertainment of the flocks in field gymnastics, was surprised while stooping to disengage a gaudy victim from the meshes of his net, by a disjunctive butt, in the rear, from the censorial horns and head of a precedental guanaco, which caused a cycle revolution of his body. Regaining his feet, he in wrath unthinkingly opposed himself to the sportive cause of his mishap, who was collecting his energies with blind zeal for the renewal of his “good old times salutation.” But with quick perception the doctor subdued his reactive wrath, and while the sportive ram was poising his head to follow up the advantage he had gained in reversing precedental ideas of naturalistic progression, he wisely concluded that diplomatic discretion would, for the occasion, be the better part of valor; acting upon the suggestion, with bipedal advantage, he dodged instead of opposing his body fatuistically with the adaged shield, “what has been, will be.” Notwithstanding his “presence of mind,” shown upon this occasion, he obstinately continued to pursue his predilection for fly catching, with increased zeal. Often in the midst of the most alluring conversation, devised for the reciprocation of instruction by Correliana, with a refrain of notes from woodland songsters to the musical tones of her voice, he would start wildly up, with his net raised “rampant” for the catch, with his eyes absorbed for the detection of the species and order of a butterfly attraction. When assured of rarity, he would rush forth with eyes and net upraised for the capture of the tempting lure. Gentle expedient, and every form of pleading inducement had been exhausted, that could be suggested for exampled persuasion, when an incident occurred which appeared in coincident similitude, like a conjunctive interposition, for the cure of his malady.
On a morning which had been freshened with night showers, betokening the approach of the winter solstice, Corycebæus led forth his flocks, attended by all whose inclinations were not stayed with the occupations of gardening and household employments. Conspicuous above the happy throng, whose voices were melodious with song and mirthful repartee, made vivacious with bantering chase, was raised the pennon net of Dr. Baāhar. But for the contrasting halo of exuberant gladness, the bevied groups, as they passed beneath the cinctus portal, might have been taken for actors in some memorial scene enactment, expressive of festive gayety in historic commemoration of ancient ceremonial rites. Nathless, upon nearer inspection it would have been readily discovered that instinctive pleasure, from anticipated indulgence, bore no part in the joyous emotions that flowed in sportive current from affectionate association. Even the pennon net, borne aloft in naturalistic ardor by the enthusiastic fly hunter, had received its characteristic “fields” of red, scarlet, blue, and yellow, from a peaceful Kyronese dye pot, under the baptismal hands of the mirth loving sisters Cleorita and Oviata. After their arrival and dispersion among the hill glades, selected for the grazing of their flocks, Dr. Baāhar, apparently forgetful of the net staff, supported on his shoulder, was imparting to a bevy of matrons the secrets of vegetative propagation and fruition, when his words were suddenly arrested by the shadow of a butterfly of large dimensions cast by its interception of the sun’s rays upon the flower of his speech demonstration. A glance upward, with an exclamation of enraptured covetousness, and all his impressions and energies were concentrated for the capture of the resplendent andean queen of butterflies. Bushing from among his pupils, heedless of apologies, instinctive gallantry, and masculine courtesies bestowed in deference to the weaker privileges of the sex, he started under queenly lead down the incline of the hillock, with eyes upturned, fixed upon the rainbow glints reflected from the swaying waft of the andean regina’s wings, which were radiant with cerulean tints, as if in blending to proclaim her ethereal source. Like the ancient falconer, who with frantic gesticulation was accustomed to wave his luring staff to attract the attention of an eyas gaffling, who in freedom soared after striking his quarry, the doctor, with outstretched arms, pursued the tantalizing evolutions of his intended prize, which were sustained just beyond the reach of his net,—when, lo! while in full career, from an opposite direction, the king appeared, and a sudden concussion followed in quick succession, causing the doctor to drop his net staff, and in reciprocation enclose with his arms the object he had encountered, which, with the impulsive instinct of woman’s self-possession in dangerous emergency, embraced with her arms his neck. With faces in near approximation, the objects of this strange conjunction in wondering surprise held emotional consultation; then, in freedom from the reflection of modest embarrassment, which would have caused sudden release, the right shoulder of the doctor became clothed in raven tresses, intermingling with his own flowing locks, his right arm having fallen instinctively to the waist for the support of the fair possessor’s yielding form.