The prætor and his family called at the quarters of the corps shortly
after breakfast on the following morning, to escort the members to the
Adolescentium. Instead of proceeding up the foræ avenue to the temple
gate, the prætor conducted them to the edificos sacerdotium, and from
the court of the centre building led them to an intermural stairway,
that commanded the only means of ascent to the temple walls, which were
higher and distinct from those of the cinctus enclosure. The prætor in
ascending explained that the houses abutting the wall upon the inner and
outer faces, now occupied by the teachers, were designed in building to
facilitate the mysteries of the temple ceremonies. Reaching the parapet
we passed in its walk to a septum wall of an elliptic form, uniting at
its distal extremity from the falls, with, but was in altitude higher
than the cinctus. The outer and inner walls of the lower enclosure
contained an oblong piece of ground of considerable extent. The
interspaces between the walks were planted with fruit trees and vines,
the mist of the falls veiling it from the brink of the precipice. The
priests had undoubtedly availed themselves of these natural aids for the
furtherance of their mysterious impositions; its counterpart of the
northern temple being subject to the same interposed screen, which
closed in the view to all beyond the walls. The undulating upward lift
of the misty veil disclosed the familiar blossoms of the apple, pear,
peach, and apricot, with other exotics of the temperate zones that the
misty atmosphere favored; discovering to us the flavoring source of
preserves which we had attributed to artificial production. The prætor
informed us that the germs of these were of Manatitlan transportation.
The fruitful view on either hand—for the temple garden was also under
kindred cultivation—called forth expressions of admiration.
The prætor, addressing Dr. Baāhar, directed his attention to a pyre in
the centre of the orchard enclosure. “That,” he said, “will answer your
question with reference to the disposal of our dead during the siege;
although it has been long disused for incineration, we still continue
the practice in a less objectionable way. Opposite, at the extreme outer
curve of the wall, you observe turrets rising above the parapet; these
are the vents to ovens or chambers of incineration, and the urns
bordering the garden walks are the family receptacles for the united
ashes of the deceased. Our present method is of Manatitlan devisement,
and it enables us to reduce the bodies to their material ultimatum. The
northern garden is used for the same purpose, the alternation being
dictated by the direction of the wind draught in its waft from the
cinctus enclosure. We were advised by the Manatitlans that your people
practiced inhumation, and supposing that you were prejudiced in favor of
the burial rites of your ancestors, with the padre’s tenacity, we
withheld our method of disposal until your objections had been
anticipated by Manatitlan influence. As you have been impressed with the
body’s corruptibility in diseased materialism, and adjunct
manifestations of instinctive vitality, of voluntary and involuntary
source, you will now regard with horror, akin to our own, the
putrefactive process of decomposition which of necessity imperils the
well-being of the living from the entombment of the dead. How have you
been able to escape the conviction that your practice of inhumation is
cannibalism in a double sense, as you virtually live on the products of
recomposition derived from the decomposition of a dead ancestry, and are
subject to corrupt inoculation from the putrefactive emanations of
decay. The very fact of the festering incorporation of a dead ancestry
with the earth from which you derive sustenance, has conveyed a shock to
our sympathies, in your behalf, that exceeds our powers of expression,
as it is so directly opposed to the current realization of purity. Have
you never thought of the material analogy sustained by the bodies of the
present generation’s reincorporation with the future, in resemblance to
the ancient Egyptian theory of transmigration, which led them to
associate their embalmed relatives with the bodies of reptiles similarly
prepared? The bright array of vessels you see arranged in the colonnades
on either side of the ovens are the body receptacles for incineration,
but they were designed for bath basins, and used by the luxurious old
Heracleans, when they visited the City of the Falls, for recuperation
from the effects of excessive indulgence. Their massive thickness and
primitive design, with the resistant qualities of the metal, has
rendered them proof to wearing attrition through the ages they have been
in use. The Dosch, on your first arrival, cautioned us not to be over
hasty in making known to you the extent of our utensil resources in this
metal, as he said you worshiped it as the god of your salvation, the
largest possessors being esteemed the most godly, without regard to the
means used in obtaining it. But what could we think of the sanity of
your race, when they averred that this god of their worship was the
inciter of envy, hate, and revenge, the ministering demons of murder,
and its tributary types of woe? Still, with your ready appreciation of
our affection, we can scarcely imagine that you were ever ready to
sacrifice honor, honesty, and all the endearing ties of instinct to
possess, as a devotee, its favors for aggregation, in excess of the
requirements enforced by custom, which has made gold an equivalent for
an endurable life with your race.”
_Padre_ (excitedly). “He doesn’t mean to say that they are made of gold?
Why there is enough to make the Jews believe that Heraclea is the New
Jerusalem, and the prætor the promised Messiah!”
_Prætor._ “One would suppose from the padre’s excitement that he had
been a worshiper?”
_Dr. Baāhar._ “A far off worshiper. His sympathy was excited for the
failings of a race who were known in their prime as Hebrews. And it is
recorded in legendary lore, that one of their number, named Judas,
betrayed a person who declared himself to be a son of their god; but
they scoffed, derided, and crucified him. He was the originator of the
sect to which we belonged. But with regard to your process! are you able
to reduce the bones as well as the flesh, without trituration or
chemical aids?”
_Prætor._ “We first eliminate with a slow desiccating heat every
evaporable compound of the body, restoring to the air its contingent
elements in comparative purity. When desiccation is fully accomplished,
the heat is increased for reductive calcination. This stage achieved,
calcareous earth is placed in the niches of the oven for residuum
absorption of its vapor, then the ovens are hermetically closed, until
with the gradual increase of heat complete degradation leaves the
organization of the body in ashen representation; through which can be
traced, in opaque outline, the silvery white of the nerves, and all the
corporate elements, from variation in form and color; but when gathered
for the urn, the whole will scarcely exceed a deunx in weight. The urns,
as you perceive, occupy allotted spaces beneath the trees of the avenue,
without tablets, or chiseled inscription in memorial epitaph.”
_Dr. Baāhar._ “So, so,—certainly your method as a sanitary precaution
recommends itself for universal adoption; while to the doctor of a
sensitive disposition, it would prove a great source of relief, as it
will abolish the useless investigations of the coroner, founded upon the
re-slaughter and ghastly exposure of human remains to the gloating
vision of the horribly curious. Also the undertaker’s advertising
exhibitions, and processional pageantries, alike abhorrent with the
shambles of the coroner from the reek of contagious odor. And last, but
not least, the lying addendas of eulogistic instinct, bestowed in
sermons, prayers, and epitaphs charged with heavenly recommendations for
the unworthy.”
_Mr. Welson._ “Aside from the negatively politic advantages suggested by
the doctor, there is to me something touchingly reverent in mingling the
ashes of the good in a family receptacle, common to all in its memorial
expression; and in safety from the desecration of glacial selfishness in
track of gold, that, ‘for improvement,’ substitutes living tenements for
those of the dead.”
_Padre._ “But not in safety, Mr. Welson, if the urns are of the same
material as the furnace doors and ovens?”
_Mr. Welson._ “You are fearfully right, padre, in your suggestive
amendment, and a substitution must be adopted before your thoughtless
confessional exposure to Fraile Gallagato elicits the prying espionage
of his order. Nay, but you need not color so deeply, for we well know
that in intention you were guiltless of wrong. Nevertheless, you should
learn from your heedless dereliction, that the vagrant tongue of
confession is lost to judgment and discernment of the rights of self,
for you exposed the really good to danger!”
The silence of the padre showed that he sorrowfully acknowledged the
justice of Mr. Welson’s strictures.
Having made the circuit of the oblong enclosure devoted to incineration,
and the orchard cultivation of vine and tree, our party descended into
the school enclosure, the garden of which was planted upon the more
abrupt incline of the temple hill. From thence by an ascending avenue,
we gained an esplanade overlooking the “court of the foræ,” within the
temple gates, where the children were congregated with their parents who
had already arrived. The prætor and Correliana, each holding in
restraint an arm of the impatient mother, whispered their desire that we
should remain silent, that unobserved we might witness the unalloyed
happiness of parents and children.
The eager impatience of the prætor and mother of Correliana, in joyful
manifestation, proclaimed that they, in the protective solace of the
second union, had been blest with sons. Looking through the fissures in
the rudely constructed doors, two youths, one past, and the other
verging upon puberty, were seen standing upon the pedestal plinth of one
of the pillars of the court colonnade, nearest to the gates, with eyes
fixed in expectant gaze upon the closing portals through which had been
admitted the groups of happy parents around whose necks were clasped the
arms of loving children. In their appearance, as they stood motionless
in the trustful support of each other’s arms, watching for the entrance
of their primal source of affection with eager eyes, we discovered their
relationship from the remarkable resemblance they bore in likeness to
Correliana. Although strikingly preëminent in the distinctive halo that
becomes inbred from the hereditary impression of matured judgment in
parental bequeathment, they did not greatly excel their companions in
personal beauty. Tall and graceful, they possessed in common with their
companions complexions of clear transparency, which disclosed the
movements of expression under emotional control, in freedom from speck
or taint. As the portals closed their eyes questioned each other with a
shadow of curious inquiry, not in doubt or anxiety, for the welfare of
their parents, but for the cause of their unwonted delay. Without being
heedless or lacking in sympathy for the happiness of their associates,
or unmindful of the cheering salutations of parents and children, it was
easy to trace in their faces emotional changes akin to sorrowful
disappointment. To restrain the mother’s yearning longer was impossible;
pushing wide apart the inner gates she stood revealed, uttering the
call, “Plautus—Adestus!” But affection in premonition had beckoned their
eyes to the source before the words reached them, and the eager parents
had hardly overstepped the threshold ere they were clasped in their
arms. The consummation of this greeting gave a freer flow to the general
expression of joy; the scholars, old and young, soon clustered around
us, eager to become known and recognized in the current reciprocation of
affection by name, bestowing in love such endearments, that for the
moment, with sadness, our own youthful impressions, barren of their
cheer, reappeared in contrasted desolation. But translated back to the
reality, by the warmth of glowing sympathy, with its unspeakable thrill
of tender emotions, the void of our past lives was relieved of its
selfish regrets. The teachers we had frequently met, and had found in
them such worth garnered with experience in the practical dispensation
of exampled goodness, that our nearest of kin stood afar off in
comparison with the reverent warmth of affection that these guardian
exemplars of youth attracted with the genial current of their sympathy.
Well did I interpret from my own impressions the retrospective thoughts
that brought frequent flushes to the faces of my companions when the
mirrored past was contrasted with the present.
After an hour spent in sweet communion with their parents, the children
were summoned by their teachers to guide us through the school
departments. The culinary dependencies were first visited; in these the
morning’s quota of children were engaged in the preparation of food for
our entertainment, with such cleanly decorum that our appetites were
revived in expectation. In the “workshops” and garden detachments
exhibited the useful combinations of labor, exercise, and amusement,
which practiced in communion, gave a sportive air of cleanliness to
their employments. During the infantile period, educational impression
was intrusted to the nurses, who while inculcating lessons of self-
control over the appetites and passions, attracted the affections above
the cravings of instinctive animality. Their assurance that goodness was
intuitive with the Heraclean children was fully sustained, for in their
intercourse they were altogether free from the petulant exactions of
selfishness. The teachers informed us that the Kyronese children, on
their first introduction, felt the loss of parental association, but
were soon weaned by the loving attention of censors and nurses, whose
experience enables them to attract, while increasing in strength the
ties of parental affection. After the first monthly visit of their
parents they became not only reconciled to their association, but
emulous of gaining the loving influence that relieved the Heraclean
children from petulance and selfishness. This appeared to us strange, as
they resembled the children of our own race, whose instinctive
selfishness is ever on the reach for more, from its first dawn to the
dim vision and palsied mumblings of extreme age. But in explanation, the
teachers said, that during the first days, their cravings could only be
satisfied by advancing a peremptory claim to everything they saw in the
possession of the Heraclean children; who were amused in supplying their
insatiable wants, and wonderingly curious in observing the effect
produced by their accumulations. When all the material resources of the
Heraclean children had been exhausted, the Kyronese were scarcely able
to move in their dormitories, which were nearly filled with the
miscellaneous collections that had been contributed for the
gratification of their miserly dispositions.
“Our own, as well as the donor’s curiosity was on the tiptoe of
expectation, to learn the next phase in this unexampled manifestation of
greediness. For a time, after they found that every portable article of
their entertainers had been transferred to their possession, they
employed their senses in handling, arranging, and nibbling, until tired,
satiated, and nauseated with the changes and selfish gratification of
taste. Then they began to look about for some new source of instinctive
pleasure; a view of each other’s treasures soon begot a covetous desire
for counter possession; this led to exchanges, and haggling endeavors to
overreach each other with infantile chicanery; this practice soon led to
squabbles that required our interference, which in turn rendered the
trading art unpopular. Next, in course, they commenced purloining, and
when the loss was discovered they used disparaging invectives which led
to a trial of strength for the recovery of lost articles. They next
proceeded to fortification, and constant guard, with occasional sallies
for reprisal, the skirmishing calling for our arbitration, and
restoration of the articles in dispute to the original owner, caused
this method of appropriation to be discontinued, at least in non-edible
articles, that could not be disposed of by the mouth. But at night their
accumulations of eatables were subject to each other’s encroachments,
and from over eating, to prevent robbery and discovery, they made
themselves sick, which called for the censor to enact the part of
doctor, with such success that food in excess of their wants became
decidedly distasteful. This diversion produced a thoughtful stay of
their selfish propensities, which in train caused them to look upon
their accumulations as incumbrances, and at first a somewhat reluctant
restoration of the least coveted articles to Heraclean proprietorship.
But as the kindly impression of goodness in bestowal began to expand,
the petals of affection opened for the full clearance of vagrant
covetousness. The grateful impressions of reciprocation soon brought
into play, with the elder, their hereditary mechanical resources, which
have since proved to them a revenue source of gladness. Of course we
aided in the advancement of the selfish fermentation for the removal of
the lees in the remedial process of clarification, and reaction of
covetousness for the exemplification of its effects to the Heraclean
children, to whom its impressions were new.”
The padre’s smiling face, already known to the Kyronese children, soon
ingratiated him as a particular favorite with the Heracleans, and in
their charge he soon disappeared, and was afterwards found in the
workshop demonstrating the advantage of paneling for strengthening and
rendering doors less cumbersome, the parents of the children regarding
his handywork with curious admiration. In the neighborhood of twenty
acres of land on the southern slope of the hill enclosure were
cultivated by the children as a garden and orchard, as well as for the
field growth of cereals, with an emulous desire for parental
commendation. The distinctions in size being mainly dependent upon age,
the Manatitlan gradations were of course impracticable, but the smaller
children were constantly under the supervision of their nurses and
censors, although not from necessity, as there was an affectionate
disposition on the part of the elder and larger boys to offer their
backs as steps, and hands as aids to assist the young and weak whenever
an opportunity offered. Indeed, the effect of their example, after a few
weeks of arbitrary sway, effectually cured the Kyronese children of
their fagging dispositions.
Having witnessed the children’s proficiency in a variety of useful
pastimes, we were invited to visit the culinary department a second
time, to see the food in its prepared state ready to be served. The
prætor observing our admiring surprise at the ease with which the
various manipulations had been accomplished, without bewraying with dust
and adhesive mixtures the persons and clothing of the youthful
principals and aids, said that each, with intuitive perception, felt
that purity within themselves was necessary for the sanction of
confidence in associate reciprocation. To be not only cleanly, but pure,
without a questioning thought of subterfuge, was clearly the motor
influence of every enactment, with the special desire that their
personalities should reflect the refinements of reality. “In all the
departments the children are taught by example, that their personal
individuality may become responsible to itself for acceptable purity to
others in current association; so that in health all their wants of
instinct are self supplied, although rendered facile by household
coöperation, without unnatural exactions that would beget impressions of
mentality. From these exercises of self dependence, the spirit of
emulation has proved an incentive to invention.
“So you will perceive, that instead of the classical renderings of
murder and its congeneric inhumanities, which the Dosch informs me
obtains the highest grade of your collegiate honors, our accomplishments
and refinements all aim to an increase in affectionate purity, and
confidence in association, for real perfection in living assurance of
immortality. He also informs me, that this evidence of maturity in
judgment would be looked upon with superstitious awe, as of supernal
agency, indicating a moribund state of precocity, while with the
Manatitlans and Heracleans it is esteemed as a necessary manifestation
for the fulfillment of Creative indications. But withal, it has been
hard for us to conceive how you have been able to avoid the impression
of the absolute cause and tendency of your misery; with the extremes of
want and superfluity in your midst, it should have warned your people
that they were receding from happiness. In like manner we are puzzled to
conceive upon what they found their present and future hopes of
happiness, when they are constantly at variance with their own kind.”
We were spared the full sum of his wondering inquiries, by Plauto and
Adestus, who came to announce the hour of refection. In mustering, the
padre and Dr. Baāhar were missing. The padre was found surrounded by the
children and their parents in the workshop, having just completed a
drawing shave, from a copper alloyed pruning knife, he was in ecstasies
from the keenness and permanency of its edge. Looking up, in questioning
appeal, to learn the nature of its alloy, his eyes met the prætor’s, who
answered that all their cutting instruments and tools were made from old
Heraclean swords, spears, and other warlike arms. “But of the metals
entering into their composition I cannot inform you, as all the
armorer’s records were destroyed in the sack of the old city; but I am
pleased if you have found them serviceable.”
“Serviceable!” exclaimed the padre, with astonished admiration, “why,
man alive, if it will hold the edge and work like this, you can make
your city the richest in the world, according to its size, by patenting
the combination, and live like princes upon the royalty!”
“If it will prove serviceable in advancing the peaceful prosperity of
the world, I will endeavor to learn the character of the metals and
method of composition,” answered the prætor; “but in the mean time lay
aside your implements, and join with us in partaking of the refection
prepared by the children.”
Joining in the search for Dr. Baāhar, he was discovered in a natural
grotto, engaged in sketching in outline a statue garlanded with fresh
vines. When aroused from his penciling meditations, by Correliana, he
accosted her archly in the apostrophic style. “Ah, ha! so, so, Mistress
Correliana, I have caught you at last? I see that your young gentlemen
still pay their garlanded respects to Sieba the Vendic goddess of love!
Moreover, in the future I shall claim a sort of cousinship with you, for
your Roman ancestors in borrowing the Arconan goddess of Rugen isle to
associate with their Venus, accepted a German as well as a Slavonian
deity. But where are the associate representatives of your borrowed
Nemisa—Flyntz, Zernbog, Iphabog, and others of the fraternal
godhead—which should be in company? I hope, for relation’s sake, your
people have not enacted the part of iconoclastics? for they were wont to
hold near association in Vendic mythology.”
The doctor’s illusive antiquarian nest was here robbed of its cuckold
eggs by a laughing exclamation of the mayorong, who in apologizing
explained, that the supposed garlands were vine disguised Kyronese
mousetraps, which were woven with leaves and flowers to prevent
detection from the instinctive caution of the little rodentian
marauders. This revelation collapsed the doctor’s enthusiasm for his
discovery, which he supposed to be a sure indication of the Heraclean’s
surreptitious worship of Pagan deities. Upon questioning the lad who had
fabricated them, he stated that they were made to capture the
destructive pirates of the banana patch, and that he had selected the
head of the grotto image to keep the leaves and flowers fresh until
night.
His denouement was a bonne bouche for the padre, who was in feudal
arrears with his Irish bulls begot from hybrid mythology. His mirthful
thrusts caused in the doctor’s mood a show of testiness, until
Correliana reminded the exultant padre that it was hardly generous to
pursue his advantage before strangers. With all his reverence and
submissive obedience to her will, he sottoriously muttered in thought,
“Does he think that a turban will make a turk, or a wreath upon an image
declare it to be an object of worship?” The mirthful flashes of the
padre’s eyes from beneath the wreath of Kyronese and Heraclean children
surmounting his shoulders, with the frequent checks he placed upon his
tongue, enhanced the humorous infection, to the evident discomfiture of
his snuborian foe. Naturally endowed with the elements of strong
affection, his habits had stimulated misplaced confidence, which had
placed him at the beck of imposition and negotiable friendships. Of
genial warmth, when the object was present, but with absence, his
remembrance would relapse into hibernating torpidity. These superficial
traits had subjected him to impositions without lessening his
susceptibility to repetition. The Dosch had recommended Correliana and
the prætor to observe his peculiarities closely, as from his superficial
range of impressions they would obtain an idea of the leading traits of
representative democracy, peculiar to the civilized races. Although in
the manifestations of innate goodness he was not only an exception to
the majority, but a rarity with the minority, still the evanescent
durability of his affectionate impressions, depending upon the
superficial current of precedental routine, that delights in the
sensational excitement of the senses, was a typical reflection of the
masses. “You will find a majority of those who patronize the legendary
motto, ‘What shall I do to be saved,’ like the padre’s original self,
when first encountered by Correliana. With a quid of tobacco in their
mouths, and a pipe projecting therefrom, and a glass of demonizing
spirits in their right hands, while from the effect produced ‘they cry
out in the anguish of spirit, What shall I do to be saved from the wrath
to come?’”
The refection was dispensed by the children in the garden colonnade, who
waited upon the requirements of their parents and guests with such
joyful alacrity that affectionate reciprocation reduced the limits of
food to an availing necessity, which caused the padre to exclaim with
impulsive fervor, “I wish to goodness gracious Jimmy and all the rest
were here!”
The day was far advanced, when the chief censor, in behalf of the
children, expressed their gratitude to the members of the corps for
their deliverance from the inveteracy of savage hatred. Then as a
closing memento, Correliana read the nuptial record of the few that were
about to graduate, that the members of the corps might hold the traits
in memory for personal comparison and selection of candidates in their
next day’s visit to the female school. At our departure, after evening
song, in which it was the children’s special delight to join with their
parents, we were made sensible of a grateful share in their affectionate
memories; but the padre’s kindlier, yet vagrant disposition, had been
discovered beneath its artificial mask of entailed habit, so at parting
he attracted the warmer flow of their sympathies which suffused his eyes
with kindly moisture. When he was finally permitted to overstep the foræ
threshold of the temple portals, he exclaimed with glistening eyes, “My
conscience sake alive, I feel as if every soul of those boys had passed
through me with gladness; and I can truly and thankfully say, that I
feel in the purity of their loving goodness as if they had offered me
the only object worth living for. What joy there would be, if our
Sundays could be spent in communion with parents and children free from
the alloy of selfishness?” The earnestness of the padre’s implied
petition met with a hearty response from all.