M. Hollydorf after morning salutation mustered his assistants for the
inauguration of the legitimate duties entailed by his commission; as he
had become fully impressed with the necessity of “working up” a
sufficient number of experimental proofs for the basis of a preliminary
despatch of intention. Selecting a retired portion of the latifundium
for his field of operations they commenced their labors in good earnest.
Of all the civilized nations of the world, we can claim for the Germans
a just preëminence in those departments of science devoted to the
investigations of the habits and associations of insect life. In truth,
the enthusiasm shown for insect explorations has extended itself to
every department of their national existence; from the palace to the
cabin particular attention is devoted to hunting, impaling, and
preserving their cadavers, arranged in order, genera, and species, in
mausoleum cabinets for mummified exhibition as shrines for the
enraptured gaze of Teutonic devotees. Even the mediæval Gael of the
Scottish Highlands never possessed, in living endowment, an attritive
iota of the associate luxurious zest imparted from their joint stock
investments, or the Egyptian, of yore, in his necropolitan collections,
a source of such vain-glorious gratification.
M. Hollydorf’s first day’s investigations were rewarded with the
discovery of old species, familiar to his eye, under new and strange
combinations, affording conclusive evidence of exotic transfusion in
propagation at some remote period. In semi-meditation, with a
disinclination for food and midday rest, he continued his preparatory
investigations while his assistants refreshed themselves with their
accustomed rations and siesta. Availing themselves of his invitation and
leisure, the prætor, Correliana, Mr. Welson, and Dow made their
appearance. Apologizing for interrupting his studies, Correliana
requested the privilege of subjecting a flower from her garden to the
magnifying power of the tympano-microscope? Assuring him, with its
presentation, that she felt certain, from its extreme beauty and purity
of fragrance, that it would attract a high order of animalculan
existence capable of appreciating its rare combinations. After a close
examination with his unaided eyes, he declared it to be of an unknown
species and as peculiar in its rare beauty, novelty of its perfume, and
delicate pungency of its impression, as the Heraclean representatives of
woman kind were superior and distinct from their civilized genera in the
purity of their habits and customs. With this combined pronunciamento of
comparison as a vent to his enthusiastic admiration, he placed the
flower in the field receptacle of the tympano-microscope for focal
magnifying reflection of its parasitic habituary residents, for
inspection and classification in substance and sound. With an
exclamation of surprise, compounded of fear and amazement, he started
back from the instrument exposing to view the petals and pistils peopled
with a multitude of diminutive human beings, who were convulsed with
sneezing spasms of laughter, which they tried in vain to suppress with
expedients in common use by our kind. The tympanum in sound articulation
reverberated their tiny cachinnations and sternutatory explosions with
such comical effect, that the prætor and Correliana were compelled,
notwithstanding all their efforts to avoid the impulsive sympathy of
contagion, to join issue with this mirthful introduction of our savans
to a kindred animalculan representation of our race. While equally
subject to the uncontrollable spasms of mirthful laughter and dumb
amazement, the spectators to this scene of apparent conjurement were
held speechless.
The leader of the diminutive apparitions at length leaped lightly, as if
propelled by a sneeze, upon the stage within the reflecting compass of
the tympano-microscope. Then, after a few ineffectual attempts to regain
his composure, he finally succeeded in obtaining sufficient control to
offer the following apologetic address, which gradually recalled us to
our senses; but not in sufficient degree for a realization of their
actual existence as human beings, free from the magic attaint of fears
conjured from superstitious instinct. He thrice repeated to attract our
attention from the stupor of amazement: “Men of science, and deliverers
of the Heracleans, our protogean affinities!” Our partial attention
secured, he continued. “If through the disability of our Dosch, or chief
advisor, our selection as Manatitlan ambassadors to welcome you, in our
people’s behalf as the preservers of our co-affinities in affection,
should prove a source of discredit from our undignified appearance on
presentment, it would prove a source of lasting sorrow. But we feel
certain that you will extend to us the favor of believing that we are
not inclined to untimely mirth, notwithstanding the example we have
given to the contrary. With the concerted desire to impress you at a
suitable moment with the reality of our existence as a race, Mistress
Correliana probably forgot the keen sensitiveness of our schneiderian
membranes to pungent odors, and with the intention of giving as much
eclat as possible to our introduction, selected from her garden the most
beautiful and fragrant flower of its parterres. The novelty of our
emprise withheld our attention from the flower until it was placed in
your hand for examination, then too late to effect an exchange, we
braced ourselves to resist its effects. Hence our humiliating condition
when exposed to your view and hearing! Thrown off our guard by the
transformation effected in our size and sound of our voices, and above
all by the consternation manifested in the expression of your faces, we
could not resist the impulse of our naturally mirthful dispositions.
That the infection should reach and overpower the more staid humor of
our cousins, you will not wonder, when you recall your own and our
disordered extremes. If you will control your perturbed emotions for a
moment’s reflection you will be able to realize the irresistible nature
of our impressions under these combined effects. Withal, when our
existence and presence in auramentation becomes familiar as a recognized
reality, you will find in our joyous dispositions a ready explanation
for these ante phases of our first personal introduction.”
Upon this hint, Correliana conquered sufficient composure to introduce
the speaker as Manito, the Prætor of Maniculæ, the chief city of
Manatitla. Then with the accompaniment of a spasmodic inclination to
sneeze, as they leaned over the serrated edges of the petals, the
tribunes were introduced individually by name. This process was
lengthened by occasional suppressed tendencies to mirthful outbreaks,
which gave M. Hollydorf and his companions an opportunity for partial
recovery from their dazed state of amazement. When sufficiently restored
for intelligent comprehension, the flower was changed for one of less
pungent odor, and Manito from the rostrum point of a petal continued his
address.
“From our diminutive size we willingly subscribe to the designation your
nomenclature bestows upon insect animalities which are but partially
visible to your unaided eyes. Still we do not disdain our size, for with
the Manatitlans it has received the compensating privilege of a
perception that enabled them to distinguish the evident object of
mankind’s intelligent endowment above the instincts of associate
animality.
“Like individuals of your race, ours vary in size. Some among the
Manatitlans have reached in stature a height approximating in a remote
degree to your well formed dwarfs of a standard monstrosity in the
diminutive extreme sufficient for the excitement of wondering surprise.
Our own divisions are expressed in terms rating from the smallest in
stature, which are called tits; these form the masses, but with a
sensible diminution in numbers from an upward tendency to the second
degree of elevation from the majority. The middle class are styled
mediums. With every generation this grade has been increased in
proportion with the decrease of the tits, and ranks in status with your
“well to do” money grade of merchants and speculators. The giantesco
enjoys the highest statutory standing in the ranks of size, representing
your titled duke commanders, and subalterns of lordly and knightly
degree. But these distinctions are only perceptible to the eye, and in
no way arbitrary in the assumption of prerogative stature rights above
those below. As our scholastic term of education commences with the
infant at the age of two years: the first stage that directs and
controls the infantile perceptions and cravings of instinct is styled
pupillage, and is under the supervision of the censor and nurse, who
hold the instinctive exaggerations of parental fondness in check from
birth. This habilitative stage of matriculation is the most trying for
direction, as upon it depends the matriculant’s after power of self-
control. The second stage of nonage commences at seven, when the self-
devising perceptions begin to expand into individuality, that require
educated direction, and leading encouragement. At fourteen, or the
pubertal stage, the first indications appear for the premonitory
inauguration of status rank established for the distinctions of size.
The initiatory discipline of the scholar entering upon his senior term,
induces the tractor disposition of the censorial advisor, in association
with his juniors; in place of your form system of “bullying” the nether
“fag,” whose weakness makes submission a virtue, when subject to the
classical distinctions of arbitrary power. The seniors become assistant
tutors to the censors and teachers from the age of fourteen until the
close of their twenty-third year, when they graduate; and after a
probationary term of three months’ “courtship,” with the connubial
censors’ selection of affiances, are married. This cursory glance will
serve for an introductory insight into our natural system of education
designed for the direction of our immortal endowment in perceptive
flight above the body’s ephemeral gratification of instinctive desire.
“Of other matters, pertaining to our actual realization of an enduring
happiness, you will be advised by our advisors; as our interview was
designed solely for your recognition and realization of our existence as
a race in diminuendo alliance with your own. Our associations with your
race are of a privileged description, which from the concentrated
acuteness of our sensitive perceptions, enables us to divine your
thoughts by auramental espionage. If you will give a moment’s
investigation to the impressions of thought, when free from the turmoil
of suspicious doubts, which now assail and render your efforts for
reasonable perception void, you will find that they are all distinctly
enunciated in the thalmus auditorium, which is the focal centre for
maturing sensorial observations. Our size, and practical knowledge of
the sensitive departments of your ears, enables our giantescoes to gain
the aural sinus without provoking titillation, and its proximity to the
vibrating portal, or vellum auditorium, permits our sensitive
perceptions of sound to realize your thought articulations before they
are matured for retentive comparison, or the vocalized utterances of
speech communication. So that in reality, we hold the gigas (the name
word we use for the designation of your race in contradistinction to our
own) subject to our direction, when free from the ruling habits of
instinctive indulgence, which defy control. As the previous knowledge of
our advisers has preferred you to their confidence, I will state that
our means of direction are through thought substitution, which the
giantesco is able to modulate with ventriloquial variations of voice for
the receptive nullification of those derived from their own sensoriums.
Of course, the effects vary with the intensity of the subject’s command
over his own sensorium, and the absorbing influence of educated
impressions imparted from habits and customs. As an example, I will now
state that M. Hollydorf, in his turmoil of doubts, feels that Mistress
Correliana has in some way imposed upon his confidence; but my informer
says that his impressions are in no wise capable of assuming the power
of self control, so that upon our own responsibility we will exonerate
Correliana from all deceptive intentions; as she was subject to our
control in withholding from you a knowledge of our presence, as the
mysterious source of her guiding premonitions, and means of obtaining
information of human affairs in the world beyond the inclosing walls of
their isolated city. Now, in turn, we ask you to withhold from your
companions the result of your day’s explorations, that you may observe
the influence we are able to exert for their mystification, and the
development of the intangible resources of instinct, which subserve for
the delusive beguilement of reason from the intelligent direction of
creative indications. This much, will prove sufficient for your night’s
cogitations, but to-morrow the Dosch and his advisors will instruct you
in the weightier matters pertaining to our educating system devised for
self control. As you are still hovering in the clouds of doubt, we will
regale your senses, for composure, with a musical olio. M. Hollydorf, at
the period of our first introduction, was considered an excellent judge
of music, and at times amused himself with amateur compositions, one of
which pleased me, and on my return to Manatitla I presented it to our
musical censor, who adopted and incorporated it with our salutations. We
will now render it, that you may pass censure or commendation upon the
accuracy of our version; for of all the selfish kleptomanias, that of
stealing musical compositions, and mutilating them in transposition for
an author’s reputation founded upon a lie, is the most contemptible
within the range of barren instinct. Fortunately, only the younger
branches of the Mouthpat tribes of our species have ever been guilty of
a witless invention base enough to seek gratification from so mean a
subterfuge.”
With this apologetic prelude Manito marshaled his choristers along the
borders of the dependent curves of the petals facing his bewildered
auditors and rendered the following stanzas with an effect that revived
them from their superstitious fears:—
“From darkness dread, the dawn appears!
Mother of day, whose dewy tears,
Distilled from the labors of the night,
Greet with joy, the sun birth of light.
“Hail, glorious mother of morn!
Beautiful type of woman’s form,
When hallowed from instinctive night,
She hails, at birth, a son of light.”
M. Hollydorf recalling the occasion and source of inspiration, glanced
at Correliana with a furtive look of anguish. For the prompting source
of the stanzas, was a longing desire that woman’s beauty should be
adorned with more lasting “graces” than those bestowed by the
fashionable dressmaker, dancing master, and boarding-school mistress, in
hopeful premonition of an immortality with joys exceeding the gossiping
allurements of a heaven of sense. The look of sympathy he received in
return banished from his thoughts doubts, and suspicions of supernatural
agency. Manito, observing the confidence expressed in his glance, and
the more ready belief of Mr. Welson and Dow, that the Manatitlans in
reality represented a diminutive department of human mortality, said,
that as his mission for the day had been fulfilled in degree beyond
expectation, they would not prejudice their success by prolonging the
interview, but would leave them with a new zest for the transmission of
one of their best melodies. He then rearranged his choristers and
rendered “Home, sweet home,” with an effect that caused them to join in
thought sympathy with the affectionate harmony of Manatitlan expression.
At the close the prætor and tribunes of Maniculæ bid their first giga
audience good-by, and disappeared from view. Correliana then signaled
the stoop of her favorite falcon Merlin from his circling wafts above
the latifundium; after a short perch of a few moments upon her wrist, he
was despatched, as she announced, to Maniculæ, bearing back the prætor,
Manito, and tribunes.
Mr. Welson was the first to break silence after their departure, with a
long drawn,—“Whew,” as a prelude to the exclamation, “Ah, ha! mistress
Correliana, we have the secret now to all your mysterious enactments,
which inclined those the least superstitiously prejudiced to credit you
with an inheritance tinctured with the pretensions of your sibylline
ancestry. But our wondering amazement is scarcely less than it would
have been under the superstitious impression that you really possessed
the power invoked by the ancient sibyl. Still the manifestation of a
visible source, however small, is far more agreeable to our
perceptions.”
Correliana answered, with a pleading smile, “You will surely forgive,
and pardon me for retaining a secret of such importance, in the face of
all your kind and confiding acts, now that you have learned that I
received it in trust from a source so well qualified with the essentials
of prudent direction? The Dosch, however, will more fully state the many
causes that rendered its retention desirable. But of this you can rest
assured, the Manatitlans are _bonâ fide_ representatives of animalculan
humanity; and when I state that we are solely indebted to them for our
redemption from the bondage of instinct, you will understand the nature
of our trust in their direction.”
Beckoning the stoop of a falcon, it alighted upon her wrist. She then
exposed, beneath what they had supposed to be an ornamental attachment
of designation, a howdah. Then taking from her pocket pouch a reel of
filmy thread,—attenuated to a degree that rendered it almost
imperceptible to the eye, she wound the free end around Mr. Welson’s
finger, then asked him to try its strength. With his utmost exertion,
tried with many devices for its separation, the thread remained
unparted. She then explained that the materials, from which, in perfect
combination, it was drawn, were mineralized with flexile and vis inertia
substances in adaptation for a great variety of purposes, subserving for
the protective furtherance of health, comfort, and personal purity. Also
for protective defense, “as it is impenetrable to the swiftest fledged
missiles when wrought into textile fabrics.” But its most esteemed
peculiarities are repulsive resistance to uncleanly cohesion, combined
with a nonconducting neutrality in the transmission of cold and heat,
causing the refuse excretions of the body to evaporate without
obstructing the rejecting orifices of the ducts, when used in its
adaptation for raiment. In part, we have been able to imitate this
valuable acquisition for the protective preservation of our persons from
decomposing agencies, which are constantly in a fermentable and
putrefactive state of conceptive action for the production of renewed
vitality varied in degenerative series. But of these matters the
Manatitlans will advise you in due time. In your present state of
perturbation it will but little avail to extend our conversation into
details that require for a complete understanding consecutive
exposition.
After Correliana and her father had taken their leave of the four
favored witnesses of the new grade revelation in the status of humanity,
they remained standing in the same position, absorbed with contending
emotions of doubt and belief, until aroused by the approach of Dr.
Baāhar and the padre. Then, with a forced recovery, M. Hollydorf
announced his intention of discontinuing his explorations for the time
being; which afforded his assistants a desired relief, for with their
few hours’ occupation they had discovered in themselves an unwonted
dislike for the professional details of their occupation. While on their
way to deposit the tympano-microscope in the house designated by
Correliana as the one intended for the reception of the Dosch, the four
maintained their thoughtful silence until after they had bestowed upon
the instrument of revelation a careful disposal. Then M. Hollydorf
sententiously remarked, “Although still perplexed, I am confident in the
full integrity of Correliana’s assurance that these Manatitlans are
_bonâ fide_ embodiments of humanity, with intelligent capabilities
superior to our own! But it is hard to reconcile them with any of the
preconceived ideas of our race. They certainly advocate, with practical
demonstration, a more direct and reasonable way for the attainment of
present and prospective happiness, than that of redemption from sin by
saving grace?”
“By all that there is in us, capable of assuming the control of
judgment, we cannot avoid their own, Miss Correliana’s, and the
confirmation of our own senses in attestation of the fact of their real
presence,” added Mr. Welson.
“For my own part,” said Mr. Dow, “there is to me nothing more strange in
their discovery, than in that of the Heracleans, now that we have
recovered, in a measure, from the first startling effects. It has
occurred to me frequently, of late, that there must have been some
interior creative object in the gradations of instinct, and ultimate
alliance of superhuman intelligence with the highest grade? It is
certainly impossible for me to reason myself into the belief that we
have been endowed with a perception of goodness, and the necessity of
purity for its attainment, to have them dispensed with in life for the
substitution of the instinctive greed of selfishness, with the
accommodating proviso of repurification by an act of saving grace!
Neither can we disguise the fact, that we now think and act quite unlike
our former selves, with a sensible improvement in happiness, in freedom
from the selfish accessories we formerly thought necessary for its
assurance.”
At this point they were interrupted by the entrance of the prætor with
his wife and daughter, who came to inquire if M. Hollydorf wished to
suggest any change for the better accommodation of his instrument with
regard to light? In the expression of his satisfaction, M. Hollydorf
alluded not only to the wonderful preservation of the buildings, but
furniture, which appeared, in style, to have been coeval in manufacture
with the remnants seen in old Heraclea. In explanation the prætor said
that it was much easier to preserve from decay than to restore ruins.
But the means of preservation had been bestowed by Giganteo XVI., Dosch
of the Manatitlans, as a legacy to the sons of Indegatus, associate
prætors of Heraclea, who were the first of our race that became
personally acquainted with animalculan humanity. “You will find all of
the unoccupied houses of the city in like good condition with this, and
equally free for your inspection and occupation.”
As the occasion was opportune, M. Hollydorf consulted with those present
how he might prepare a statement of the day’s developments sufficiently
credible for the acceptable belief of the Home Society? The prætor
advised him to defer his cause of perplexity to the Dosch, who would
resolve it readily, from a personal knowledge of the characteristic
peculiarities of the members of the R. H. B. Society. Then Mr. Dow
preferred his petition for their united aid in the advancement of his
historical compendium of the Heracleans. This all were pleased to
accord, as it was through his indomitable perseverance that the
discovery was accomplished, before the City of the Falls had been
reduced to the tenantless condition of its senior counterpart. As he was
referred to me for special aid in compilation, from his lack of
knowledge in the constructive use of the Heraclean idiom,—which was to
us personally a source of mutual regret,—it will be well to state in
anticipation of a similarity in diction of our separate labors, that I
have been in no way beholden to him for the style I have adopted in
recording the historiographical account of the corps investigations. I
trust that this egoistic explanation will prove sufficient in efficacy
to redeem me from plagiaristic odium?