Part 51 (2/2)

Then they cursed the mountain, and me, and Him who made them, and came down to my cottage at night, and cried, ”One-sided and left-handed! father of confusion, and disciple of dead donkeys, see to what thou hast brought the land, with thy blasphemous doctrines! Here we are starving, and not only we, but the poor misguided victims of thy abominable notions!”

”You have become wondrous pitiful to the poor,” said I, ”since you found that they would not starve that you might wanton.”

Then once more Lillian came to me, thin and pale, and worn. ”See, I, too, am starving! and you have been the cause of it; but I will forgive all if you will help us but this once.”

”How shall I help you?”

”You are a poet and an orator, and win over all hearts with your talk and your songs. Go down to the tribes of the plain, and persuade them to send us up warriors, that we may put down these riotous and idle wretches; and you shall be king of all the land, and I will be your slave, by day and night.”

But I went out, and quarried steadfastly at the mountain.

And when I came back the next evening, the poor had risen against the rich, one and all, crying, ”As you have done to us, so will we do to you;” and they hunted them down like wild beasts, and slew many of them, and threw their carcases on the dunghill, and took possession of their land and houses, and cried, ”We will be all free and equal as our forefathers were, and live here, and eat and drink, and take our pleasure.”

Then I ran out, and cried to them, ”Fools I will you do as these rich did, and neglect the work of G.o.d? If you do to them as they have done to you, you will sin as they sinned, and devour each other at the last, as they devoured you. The old paths are best. Let each man, rich or poor, have his equal share of the land, as it was at first, and go up and dig through the mountain, and possess the good land beyond, where no man need jostle his neighbour, or rob him, when the land becomes too small for you. Were the rich only in fault? Did not you, too, neglect the work which the All-Father had given you, and run every man after his own comfort? So you entered into a lie, and by your own sin raised up the rich man to be your punishment.

For the last time, who will go up with me to the mountain?”

Then they all cried with one voice, ”We have sinned! We will go up and pierce the mountain, and fulfil the work which G.o.d set to our forefathers.”

We went up, and the first stroke that I struck a crag fell out; and behold, the light of day! and far below us the good land and large, stretching away boundless towards the western sun.

I sat by the cave's mouth at the dawning of the day. Past me the tribe poured down, young and old, with their waggons, and their cattle, their seeds, and their arms, as of old--yet not as of old--wiser and stronger, taught by long labour and sore affliction. Downward they streamed from the cave's mouth into the glens, following the guidance of the silver water-courses; and as they pa.s.sed me, each kissed my hands and feet, and cried, ”Thou hast saved us--thou hast given up all for us. Come and be our king!”

”Nay,” I said, ”I have been your king this many a year; for I have been the servant of you all.”

I went down with them into the plain, and called them round me. Many times they besought me to go with them and lead them.

”No,” I said, ”I am old and grey-headed, and I am not as I have been.

Choose out the wisest and most righteous among you, and let him lead you.

But bind him to yourselves with an oath, that whenever he shall say to you, 'Stay here, and let us sit down and build, and dwell here for ever,' you shall cast him out of his office, and make him a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, and choose one who will lead you forwards in the spirit of G.o.d.”

The crowd opened, and a woman came forward into the circle. Her face was veiled, but we all knew her for a prophetess. Slowly she stepped into the midst, chanting a mystic song. Whether it spoke of past, present, or future, we knew not; but it sank deep into all our hearts.

”True freedom stands in meekness-- True strength in utter weakness-- Justice in forgiveness lies-- Riches in self-sacrifice-- Own no rank but G.o.d's own spirit-- Wisdom rule!--and worth inherit!

Work for all, and all employ-- Share with all, and all enjoy-- G.o.d alike to all has given, Heaven as Earth, and Earth as Heaven, When the laud shall find her king again, And the reign of G.o.d is come.”

We all listened, awe-struck. She turned to us and continued:

”Hearken to me, children of j.a.phet, the unresting!

”On the holy mountain of Paradise, in the Asgard of the Hindoo-Koh, in the cup of the four rivers, in the womb of the mother of nations, in brotherhood, equality, and freedom, the sons of men were begotten, at the wedding of the heaven and the earth. Mighty infants, you did the right you knew not of, and sinned not, because there was no temptation. By selfishness you fell, and became beasts of prey. Each man coveted the universe for his own l.u.s.ts, and not that he might fulfil in it G.o.d's command to people and subdue it. Long have you wandered--and long will you wander still. For here you have no abiding city. You shall build cities, and they shall crumble; you shall invent forms of society and religion, and they shall fail in the hour of need. You shall call the lands by your own names, and fresh waves of men shall sweep you forth, westward, westward ever, till you have travelled round the path of the sun, to the place from whence you came. For out of Paradise you went, and unto Paradise you shall return; you shall become once more as little children, and renew your youth like the eagle's. Feature by feature, and limb by limb, ye shall renew it; age after age, gradually and painfully, by hunger and pestilence, by superst.i.tions and tyrannies, by need and blank despair, shall you be driven back to the All-Father's home, till you become as you were before you fell, and left the likeness of your father for the likeness of the beasts. Out of Paradise you came, from liberty, equality, and brotherhood, and unto them you shall return again. You went forth in unconscious infancy--you shall return in thoughtful manhood.--You went forth in ignorance and need--you shall return in science and wealth, philosophy and art. You went forth with the world a wilderness before you--you shall return when it is a garden behind you. You went forth selfish-savages--you shall return as the brothers of the Son of G.o.d.

”And for you,” she said, looking on me, ”your penance is accomplished. You have learned what it is to be a man. You have lost your life and saved it.

He that gives up house, or land, or wife, or child, for G.o.d's sake, it shall be repaid him an hundred-fold. Awake!”

Surely I knew that voice. She lifted her veil. The face was Lillian's?

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