THE THRONE OF THE GODS, CALNOGOR.
The throne of the gods was the most famous institution in Atvatabar.
It was the cynosure of every eye, the object of all adoration, the
tabernacle of all that was splendid in art, science and spiritual
perfection. The great institutions of Egyplosis, the college of ten
thousand soul-worshippers, the palace of Gnaphisthasia, with its five
thousand poets, artists, musicians, dancers, architects, and weavers
of glorious cloths, and the establishments for training the youth of
the country in mechanical skill, were but the outlying powers that
lent glory to the throne itself. It was the standard of virtue, of
soul, of genius, skill and art. It was the triune symbol of body, mind
and spirit. It was the undying voice of Atvatabar proclaiming the
grandeur of soul development; that pleasure, rightly guarded, may be
virtue. The religion of Harikar in a word was this, that the Nirvana,
or blessedness promised the followers of the supernatural creeds of
the outer world, after death was to be enjoyed in the body in earthly
life without the trouble of dying to gain it. This was a comfortable
state of things, if only possible of accomplishment, and such a creed
of necessity included the doctrine that the physical death of the body
was the end of all individuality, the soul thereafter losing all
personality in the great ocean of existence.
The throne of the gods was a cone of solid gold one hundred feet in
height, divided into three parts for the various castes of gods, or
symbols of science, art and spirituality. The structure was a circular
solid cone of gold, shaped somewhat in the form of a heart. It was
indeed the golden heart of Atvatabar, proclaiming that sentiment and
science should go hand in hand; that in all affairs of life the heart
should be an important factor. The lower section, or scientific
pantheon, possessed bas-reliefs of models or symbols of the more
important inventions. This section was forty feet in height and
seventy-two feet in diameter.
The images of the gods themselves surmounting the lowest part of the
throne were in reality composite man-gods, that is to say, each figure
was a statue, life size, of the resultant of the statues of all the
important developers of each invention and was thus obtained:
As soon as any prominent inventor or developer of an invention died,
the government secured a plaster cast of his body, if such had not
been made prior to death, and this was preserved for years in a
special museum. When twenty or more casts of various developers of any
one invention had been accumulated these were placed on a horizontal
wheel, which revolved in front of a photographic camera, and thus the
composite outline of the future god was obtained. As many outlines
were procured as there were eighths of inches in the circumference of
the largest cast, and from the collective pictures the ideal cast was
made by the sculptor. The cast once perfected, and afterward draped,
was reproduced in solid gold and placed with appropriate ceremonies on
a pedestal on the throne itself. In like manner the gods of the arts,
poetry, painting, etc., were created, as also the priests of Harikar,
the Holy Soul.
The reliefs, or symbols of mechanical art, were originally cast on the
throne itself. These included the electric engine and locomotive,
electric healer, telephone, telegraph, the electric ship, elevator,
printing press, cotton gin, weaving loom, typesetting machine,
well-boring apparatus, telescope, flying machines (individual and
collective), bockhockid, sewing machine, photographic camera, reaping
machine, paper-making and wall-paper printing machine, phonograph,
etc., etc.
This department of the throne being the largest, was significant of
the material supremacy of the mechanical arts in the nation. Science
itself was a god named Triporus, fashioned like a winged snake, so
called because it was said he could worm his way through the pores of
matter so as to discover the secrets therein. This god seemed a
compound of our ancient Sphinx, or science, and Daedalus, or mechanical
skill, but with an entirely new meaning added to both.
[Illustration: THE THRONE OF THE GODS WAS INDEED THE GOLDEN HEART OF
ATVATABAR, THE TRIUNE SYMBOL OF BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT.]
The second or intermediate section of the throne was devoted to the
gods of art and their attributes. It was sixty feet in its largest
diameter, and twenty-four feet in height. It possessed also two
sections, the upper containing the statues of Aidblis, or Poetry;
Dimborne, or Painting; Brecdil, or Sculpture; Swenge, or Music;
Tilono, or Drama; Timpango, or Dancing; Olshodesdil, or Architecture,
etc., etc. In the lower section there were tableaux cast in high
relief illustrating the qualities of the soul developed by art, viz.:
Omodrilon, or Imagination; Diandarn, or Emotion; Samadoan, or
Conscience; Voedli, or Faith; Lentilmid, or Tenderness; Delidoa, or
Truth, etc.
The final section or tapering apex of the throne was thirty feet in
greatest width and thirty-six feet in height. It contained a throne
and three divisions. The lowest division contained the gods Hielano,
or Magic; Bishano, or Sorcery; Nidialano, or Astrology; Padomano, or
Soothsaying, etc.
The intermediate division contained the gods Niano, or Witchcraft;
Redohano, or Wizardry; Oxemano, or Diablerie; Biccano, or the Oracle;
Amano, or Seership; Kielano, or Augury; Tocderano, or Prophecy;
Jiracano, or Geomancy; Jocdilano, or Necromancy, etc.
The third division contained the gods Orphitano, or Conjuration;
Orielano, or Divination; Pridano, or Clairvoyance; Cideshano, or
Electro-biology; Omdohlopano, or Theosophy; Bischanamano, or
Spiritualism, etc.
The climax of all was the throne of the goddess. It was a seat of
aloe-green velvet that, revolving slowly in the centre of the
supporting throne, presented the goddess to every section of the vast
audience. Thus seated, the goddess radiated an Orient splendor,
herself a blaze of beauty and the focus of every eye. The music of an
introductory opera warbled its soft strains with breathless execution.
It seemed the carolling of a thousand nightingales, mingling with the
musical crying of silver trumpets and the clear electric chiming of
golden bells.