“We must build schools of literature, inspire the authors of the world with our fine creed, and thereby spread our doctrines to the myriad readers of every land and tongue. Who then, amongst our enemies, can kill the appetite when once ’tis roused to craving for the carnal? Give me the quill and the coming pen and press, and I can create thought at my bidding and turn the main streams of human endeavor into whatsoever channels I choose; and thus our river shall run full, while other streams are drying.
“With such a work how can our cause grow less or we go groveling under any foot? Impossible, my heroes! for we will live in glorious triumph to the end of time. On to your tasks, listening multitudes, and he who most successfully counteracts the so-called ‘Truth’ shall be a ruler in my kingdom, and shine more brightly than the radiance of all this region.”
Thus was the speech suddenly ended, and I heard the unearthly reverberations of the fiendish cheering by the mighty host, while the form of Satan vanished; but from his waning shadows Blackana came forth and in death-like silence again resumed his sullen attitude at my side.
CHAPTER XI.
SCHOOLS OF LITERATURE. FIRST AND SECOND DIVISIONS.
1. The schools described.
2. The literature of the world tainted by the teachers of darkness.
3. Satan’s rules for the winning author.
The College of Literature, in three grand divisions, occupied one of the most attractive sites of all the territory covered by the University of the World. It was owned and controlled by Satan, and was visited by the children of the human family from every portion of the earth.
Mr. World and Miss Church-Member came thither in a conveyance. They stood before the massive structure which comprised the first division of the College. Around them were the living fountains which, like pearls in billows of green, played upon the expansive lawn. While they strolled along the pebbled paths they were lost in admiration as they continued looking upon the stupendous building which towered far into the air and extended as far as the eye could reach. In breathless silence they noted first its size, then its durability, and marveled most at the splendid symmetry of the parts, each blending into a perfect whole.
“Heaven must have inspired so great and beautiful a design,” was the first comment of Miss Church-Member. “Those porticos hanging in mid-air, those domes and pillars, dreamlike, stand before me more like a hundred fabled castles than aught real to sight or touch.”