Part 1 (1/2)
The Mahatard
”Ultiood hare was found which took the field at
There the hounds pressed her, and on the hunt arriving at the edge of the cliff the hare could be seen crossing the beach and going right out to sea A boat was procured, and the master and so the body in, gave it to the hounds A hare swiht not often witnessed”--_Local paper, January_ 1911
”A long check occurred in the latter part of this hunt, the hare having laid up in a hedgerow, from which she was at last evicted by a crack of the whip Her next place of refuge was a horse-pond, which she tried to swi, when the huntsht to see huntser pack waiting for their prey behind the wall”--_Local paper, February_ 1911
The author supposes that the first of the above extracts ht after the reading of it, just as he went to sleep, or on the followingjust as he awoke, he cannot tell which, there came to hi the command hich it ends With a particular clearness did he seeht as the way of the Spirit, and broad as the breast of Death,”
and of the little Hare travelling towards the awful Gates
Like the Mahatma of this fable, he expresses no opinion as to the merits of the controversy between the Red-faced Man and the Hare that, without search on his own part, presented itself to his mind in so odd a fashi+on It is one on which anybody interested in such reat-souled” ”One of a class of persons with preter-natural powers, ilish Dictionary_
Everyone has seen a hare, either crouched or running in the fields, or hanging dead in a poulterer's shop, or lastly pathetic, even dreadful-looking and in this foruishable from a skinned cat, on the domestic table But not e Not many people know even who or what a Mahatma is The majority of those who chance to have heard the title are apt to confuse it with another, that of Mad Hatter
This is even done of malice prepense (especially, for obvious reasons, if a hare is in any way concerned) in scorn, not in ignorance, by persons who are well acquainted with the real in The truth is that an incredulous Western world puts no faith in Mahativing an address in Thibet at which no letters are delivered Either, it says, there is no such person, or he is a fraudulent scareater occult powers--well, than a hare
I confess that this view of Mahatmas is one that does not surprise me in the least I never met, and I scarcely expect to meet, an individual entitled to set ”Mahatht to do so, who only took that title on the spur of the moment when the Hare asked me hoas called, and now make use of it as a _nom-de-plume_
It is true there is Jorsen, by whose order, for it aht I know Jorsen may be a Mahatine a bluff person with a strong, hard face, piercing grey eyes, and very proe
Add a Scotch accent and aa frock coat and a tall hat, and you have Jorsen I believe that he lives so If so he has never asked me to his place, and I only meet him when he comes to Town, as I understand, to visit flower-shows
Then I always meet him because he orders me to do so, not by letter or by word of mouth but in quite a different way Suddenly I receive an io to a certain place at a certain hour, and that there I shall find Jorsen I do go, so, sometimes to a railway station or to the corner of a particular street and there I do find Jorsen s meerschaum pipe We shake hands and he explains why he has sent for s NeverJorsen's secrets as well as my ohich I must not do
It e way
Nearly thirty years ago a dreadful thing happened to , a person of some mark in literature Indeed even now one or two of the books which I wrote are read and re left the world
The thing which happened was thatover from the Channel Islands, where they had been on a visit (she was a Jersey woman), and, and--well, the shi+p was lost, that's all The shock broke ain, but unfortunately did not kill me
Afterwards I took to drink and sank, as drunkards do Then the river began to drawin a poor street at Chelsea, and I could hear the river calling ht, and--I wished to die as the others had died At last I yielded, for the drink had rotted out allI went to a bridge I knehere in those days policemen rarely came, and listened to that call of the water
”Co in the eternal naught The dreams of a life beyond and of re-union there are but a de breathed into the mortal heart, lest by its universal suicide mankind should rob him of his torture-pit There is no truth in all your father taught you” (he was a clergyman and rather eminent in his profession), ”there is no hope forhe can win except the deep happiness of sleep Couuments of desolation and despair I leant over the parapet; in another one, when I beca near to me I did not see the person because it was too dark I did not hear hi of the wind But I knew that he was there So I waited until the ed clouds, the shapes of which I can see to this hour It showedjust as he does to-day, for he never seee, I had not set eyes before
”Even a year ago,” he said, in his strong, rough voice, ”you would not have allowed your uments as those which you have just heard in the Voice of the river That is one of the worst sides of drink; it decays the reason as it does the body You must have noticed it yourself”
I replied that I had, for I was surprised into acquiescence Then I grew defiant and asked hiu me To my surprise--no, that is not the word--to my bewilderment, he repeated them to me one by one just as they had arisen a few minutes before in my heart Moreover, he told me what I had been about to do, and why I was about to do it
”You know me and my story,” I muttered at last
”No,” he answered, ”at least not more than I know that of many men hom I chance to be in touch That is, I have not hty-six, to be correct I was a blind priest then and you were the captain of Irene's guard”