Mr. Welson. “You have found it necessary in coupling the doctor and padre with yoke mates, to adjust their ruling infatuations with like characteristic hallucinations of will-o’-wisp affinity! will you now expound to me my own, that led to the direction of my choice? For I will frankly acknowledge, that with studied aid afforded by Cæluiformia’s reflection, I have only been able to discover a lack of equality from my own instinctive imperfections.”
Dosch (with a joyous accompaniment of laughter). “You have an old ritualistic proverb of more than ordinary worth, recorded among your mythological oddities and traditional ‘saws,’ for the expression of Giga infatuation, which we will reverse for your especial benefit in aid of perception for the explication of the enigma you ask us to solve. The reading your experience confirms, in quotation, should be rendered, Sufficient for the day is the good thereof! and with us, Sufficient for the day is the exampled proof thereof!”
Their mirthful inclinations were stayed by the entrance of the padre and Madonnasta; the countenance of the former having reassumed the vacuity of expression peculiar to the fanatical rule of instinctive fear and prejudice, which in language we will allow him to express.
Padre (addressing the Manatitlans). “You must know that it is not my wish or intention to be ungrateful; but then one must have a care for the preservation of his soul; for what is the whole world to a man if he loses his own soul. I am certain you could not have failed to see by my actions, all along, that I had qualms of conscience that all was not right with me. Not that I would wish for a moment to question the motives of Heraclean example, or ever have, for I know that in purity it’s above my reach. But works, you know, are as nothing in the balance with one’s soul without faith, which works wonders. Neither can I blame you in any way, except that you reject the light, confident in your own good works; and I greatly fear that the sources of happiness you suppose to be real are the delusions of the devil, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. For what says Father Jaen, ‘Good works are of no effect without saving grace administered under the seal of confession!’ Well, after the strange marriages of Captain Greenwood, M. Hollydorf, Jack and Bill, with the sun overhead,—which I suppose is a pagan fashion,—and begging your pardon for expressing the truth of my mind, were no marriages at all, being extraordinary, without the sanction of the holy rites of the church, anointed under priestly seal, in sign manual of registry in heaven, which prevents divorce. (Addressing Mr. Welson.) Then you were espoused in another strange way, which shows that there is no regular sanctified method, as there should be. But yesterday, when Dr. Baāhar and Mrs. Isolita came together in such an extraordinary way, my eyes were opened, and I could not sleep, so I prayed to the virgin and her child fervently, which led to the miraculous discovery of her image, and only begotten son, just as the light was dawning, and while praying to her I was suddenly overcome with a slumber so peacefully sweet and deep, that I awoke to find myself dead in the belief of you all, at least those that saw me in that condition. In my vision I saw angels in tears, who seemed to express sorrow for the death of my body without the salvation of my soul by confession. Now, perhaps I was dead, for I found Cleorita and Oviata and the mayorong and his people and the Heracleans weeping, and felt uncomfortable in my body, as though I had just risen. Hardly had I begun to think, and had just bethought myself how I was overtaken, when I heard caress me (carissima!) spoken in an imploring way, at the same time found that Madonnasta had fainted in my arms, in an embarrassing way, which again bewildered me, until Cleorita and Oviata pointed to our crosses; then a light burst upon me, for I saw that she was a Christian among pagans, miraculously interposed for my reproof and her salvation, before I had sinned away the day of grace! All that I have said is true, and much more, if I could recollect it, which you would have seen if you had had faith like a grain of mustard seed. At any rate, I feel that the immaculate virgin and her holy son are my guardian angels, and the Manatitlans acknowledge that they are human, and depend upon good works for happiness, which is against the fathers and Scriptures, and I cannot, upon second thought, bring my mind to submit to your rites of marriage, which I fear are but little better than concubinage, that would endanger my soul and that of Madonnasta. From this you must know how anxious I am to depart, that Madonnasta may receive the rites of baptism and consecration for adoption into the bosom of our holy mother church. Then, after our regular marriage, we may return to assist in your conversion, if I am found worthy of confirmation in holy orders.”
It would be hard to express in language the mixed emotions of those of the assemblage who understood the padre’s interpretation of his waking visions of the morning, bred in emergence from sleep to the impressions of reality. The face of Mr. Welson assumed an expression of humorous admiration, seemingly gratified with the padre’s revived superstitious simplicity, which gave encouragement to his playful disposition for quizzing inquiry. The microscopic reflections in like manner appeared to enjoy, for the moment, the “tutored” dismay evinced by the rambling impressions of the padre’s rehearsal, incoherent with the precedental intuition of faith expressed in his memory of words. Madonnasta’s face, although apprised of the padre’s mythological delusions, “underwent” the varied changes of curiosity, puzzled for the want of a clear interpretation of emotions so foreign to the affectionate current of sympathy. Mr. Welson and the Dosch were alike dreaded by the padre, when the tenets of his religion and its instinctive incongruities, supported by faith in impossibilities, were rendered farcical by the contradictory absurdities of his questioned exposition of the law, prophets, and revelation; for, with a few interrogations, they invariably made him feel the ridiculous mist of his self-involvement. His incoherency had been increased by the proboscidial waggish indications of Mr. Welson’s nose, which he felt was searching for a tender point beneath the superficial flow of his religious faith; so he mustered all the dignified acerbity possible for repelling attacks made for the exposure of his gullibility.
Mr. Welson. “You have preferred your former desire to leave Heraclea, and propose to take Madonnasta with you for sacramental confirmation and marriage. After the explanation you have heard of the cause that led her to adopt the memorial emblem, would it not be well to question her farther, that you may learn whether her disposition inclines her to the course you propose?”
Padre. “You know very well, Mr. Welson, that I cannot speak the Latin language, neither can she understand the English sufficiently well for the full comprehension of my wish. But what is there under the sun more evident than the common language of the cross, commemorative of our Saviour’s crucifixion? Why, my goodness gracious, man, can’t you see that its use in her husband’s death, was the inscrutable means used for her conversion? Then what led me to discover the virgin and her child,—which you had passed hundreds of times without noticing,—when I was in the greatest need for their intercession from the want of sleep? I know that you say it is the statue of an ancient mother of the household, reverenced for her “virtues,” but this, as you well know, would not account for the effect produced on me, when my prayers were directly supplicating repose?”
Mr. Welson. “Our faces undoubtedly show what we cannot deny. But our smiles are not provoked by a scoffing disposition; on the contrary they are more inclined to sadness than derision, for it is hard for us to conceive the incomprehensible nature of an obstinacy so void in perceptive appreciation, although by the reflection it forces upon memory the perverse insensibility and difference of our past lives to the true source of happiness. That you, of us all the most highly endowed with the natural manifestations of goodness, should prove so dull as not to realize the source from which the happiness you really feel is derived, bespeaks an infatuation that exceeds the measure of our comprehension. But as you have determined to leave us, it is proper for you to understand the true interpretation of your betrothed’s feelings in prospect of her removal from home.”
Dosch. “Before she is questioned, I would have the padre fully comprehend the true nature of the alliance he would assume with Madonnasta, for she, in common with the Heracleans, has a realizing perception of the unity still existing between herself and former respondent in the flesh. Her true impressions, excited by the symbol in your possession, were that your sympathies flowed in unison with hers toward the severed reflection of her own identity, and that you were the preferred successor chosen for the representative solace of her sojourn in mortality. To disabuse her of this gentle hallucination, imparted from the severed ties of instinctive association, would, if possible, be cruel. Still if your prejudices are over strong against soothing her partial preference in the interchange of proxied solace, it would be better for you to depart alone. If, on the contrary, you can reciprocate in substitution her instinctive affection, you will find her a constant source of happiness, that will advance your perception to an earthly realization of the joys imparted from a foretaste of immortality, through the current reciprocation of goodness. Now that my wife has explained to her your multiplied delusions, founded upon the sounding words, faith and saving grace, with their attendant instinctive inducements for the patronage of gross indulgences, I will state to her the motives of your intention which prompt you to leave Heraclea, also your desire to have her body undergo the ritualistic manipulations of the priests of your sect, for the salvation of its instinctive soul, and recommend that you bestow upon her during the relation your regardful attention.”
Madonnasta, during the recital, devoted her attention to the close study of the padre’s personal peculiarities, which were described to her as a prevailing index of corrupting effect with the Giga civilized races. With the mention of tobacco and distilled liquors, that could not be disguised to his ear, his face assumed the scarlet hue of shame, while with downcast eyes and tremulous folding of hands, he pleaded in thought parental example and the encouragement afforded by priestly absolution. Quick to appreciate his regretful sufferings, she was attracted to his side, and with the soothing action of her hands imparted sympathy for his self-inflicted misery. Shamefaced from the constantly recurring examples of his heedless lack of purpose, he made no attempt to renew his promises of constancy, but remained silently submissive to the reprehensive admonition of the Dosch. “If,” continued the Dosch, “you and your race would give heed to the warning impressions of your bodily functions when oppressed, your perceptions from memory would soon act as a guard against incompatibles and excess. Functional experience as an example for good and evil, in provisional guard for the welfare of digestion and healthy assimilation, is better by far than the theoretical tests of chemical analysis and the empirical counter-actives of the doctor, which only serve to exhaust vitality, distempering in the process protective mental power designed for the corresponding elimination of instinctive purity and goodness. Our bodily perfection, which ignores in age the artificial aids of plaster and paint, for the concealment of living depreciation from unnatural causes, has been attained by the thoughtful provision of ancestral example, which constantly held in view, with themselves, their responsibility to future generations, with reactive profit to their own happy correspondence with material self. It should appear, from the example of your last experience, which has rendered you phantasmally mad, that judgment should be trained individually and collectively to recognize in representation the adaptability of food in quality and quantity for healthy support. The cherimoyer as a fruit, and milk as a vegetable production from animal elaboration, are each separately, with a recognition of time and quantity, well adapted for the nutriment of the human body. But you, as with your race, have paid the penalty of heedlessness, and in relative degrees can realize from self-experience the origin of war, gospel, law, and medicine, with their legions of phantasmal abettors, which renders life a waking nightmare of miserable variations in opposition to happy realization. In the calm quiet of Heraclean life, with associate correspondence in purity and goodness, your impressions and desires have been so occupied with happy realities, that even in reflection, from memory, the gala day celebrations that attracted your instinctive passions of sense with evanescent beguilement have proved an aversion to thought. Picture in impression your emotions, if in the distance you can imagine a scene so abhorrent to the realizations of affection, you saw a procession passing up the now peaceful avenue of the latifundium, heralded with deafening shouts, cannon, Chinese crackers, bombas, the clangor of cymbals, obstreperous shrillness of fifes, screechings, groanings, and dronings of bagpipes, the monotonous boom and clattering roll of drums, a procession with banners borne by soldiers in the popinjay “uniforms,” glittering swords, bayonets, and like paraphernalia of vanity and death! Or the horror that would suffocate your tender hopes inspired for the increasing purity and goodness of future generations, if the temple schools of germination should be usurped to give place to the stable ritualisms of priestly compostors! When, with the study of your personal requirements, you seek to make your habits inoffensive and agreeable to purity and goodness, you will be able to avoid the humiliating impressions evoked by your morning’s exposure, which were solely attributable to a heedless lack of attention to your former experience and advice of Anticipator, who warned you of the effects you provoked. From the effect produced upon your involuntary powers from indigestion, you can judge of the living nightmare freaks of insanity which have been provoked from ages of conceptive indulgence to give birth to hallucinations of your present progressive civilizations. Once entered upon the realities of self-legislation, in its current form of affectionate solicitation for the welfare of others, the germ of goodness will expand for reciprocation, until in revivication it embraces not only the human race, but in instinctive effect and degree the lower orders of animality.”