“The Soul of Lilith,” as we have inferred, displays its author in her element. It is a work which, from its nature, may be classed with “A Romance of Two Worlds” and “Ardath.” It possesses the same mystic properties, the same speculative endeavors to obtain knowledge that is denied to mortals.
“I have kept one human creature alive and in perfect health for six years on that vital fluid alone.”
This is the kernel of the story, which narrates how El-Râmi, a man of Arabian origin, possessing many of the mysteriously occult powers peculiar to the Indian fakir, injects a certain fluid into the still warm veins of a dead Egyptian girl-child called Lilith. In this way he preserves her body in a living condition, and the success of his experiment is proved by the fact that Lilith passes from childhood to womanhood whilst in this state, and answers questions put to her by El-Râmi.
It is the desire of El-Râmi, however, to make himself master of Lilith’s soul as well as of her body, and this impious object leads to the destruction of the fair form he has preserved and of his own reason. For he falls in love with Lilith, and the declaration of his passion is followed by her crumbling away to dust. The shock to his highly strung organization results in his mental collapse, and from this he never recovers.
There are many passages of wild beauty and extraordinary power in this story, which occupies many pages in the telling before the superbly dramatic dénouement is reached. Heliobas, the wise physician of “A Romance of Two Worlds,” but now turned monk, is introduced into the story, and warns El-Râmi that his atheistic experiment will prove fruitless:
“How it is that you have not foreseen this thing I cannot imagine,”—continued the monk. “The body of Lilith has grown under your very eyes from the child to the woman by the merest material means,—the chemicals which Nature gives us, and the forces which Nature allows us to employ. How then should you deem it possible for the Soul to remain stationary? With every fresh experience its form expands,—its desires increase,—its knowledge widens,—and the everlasting necessity of Love compels its life to Love’s primeval source. The Soul of Lilith is awakening to its fullest immortal consciousness,—she realizes her connection with the great angelic worlds—her kindredship with those worlds’ inhabitants, and, as she gains this glorious knowledge more certainly, so she gains strength. And this is the result I warn you of—her force will soon baffle yours, and you will have no more influence over her than you have over the highest Archangel in the realms of the Supreme Creator.”
El-Râmi reminds Heliobas that it is only a woman’s soul that he is striving for—“how should it baffle mine? Of slighter character—of more sensitive balance—and always prone to yield,—how should it prove so strong? Though, of course, you will tell me that Souls, like Angels, are sexless.”
The monk repudiates such a suggestion. “All created things have sex,” he declares, “even the angels. ‘Male and Female created He them’—recollect that,—when it is said God made Man in ‘His Own Image.’”
“What! Is it possible you would endow God Himself with the Feminine attributes as well as the Masculine?” cries El-Râmi, in astonishment.
“There are two governing forces of the Universe,” replied the monk deliberately; “one, the masculine, is Love,—the other, feminine, is Beauty. These Two, reigning together, are God;—just as man and wife are One. From Love and Beauty proceed Law and Order. You cannot away with it—it is so. Love and Beauty produce and reproduce a million forms with more than a million variations, and when God made Man in His Own Image it was as Male and Female. From the very first growths of life in all worlds,—from the small, almost imperceptible beginning of that marvelous evolution which resulted in Humanity,—evolution which to us is calculated to have taken thousands of years, whereas in the eternal countings it has occupied but a few moments,—Sex was proclaimed in the lowliest sea-plants, of which the only remains we have are in the Silurian formations,—and was equally maintained in the humblest lingula inhabiting its simple bivalve shell. Sex is proclaimed throughout the Universe with an absolute and unswerving regularity through all grades of nature. Nay, there are even male and female Atmospheres which when combined produce forms of life.”