ARJEELS.
I was full of impatience to witness the creation of the magical
island, where with Lyone I might find ideal delight. It was necessary,
however, for the grand sorcerer to make ample arrangements, not only
for the generation of sufficient spirit force to create the island,
but also a force sufficient for its continuance for an indefinite
length of time. It was absolutely necessary that there should be a
reserve force of ten thousand twin-souls to take the places of the
original legion of souls, when they would become weary of their
ecstatic labors. Only once before had Arjeels been created, and it was
thought a most wonderful thing that the sorcerer could preserve its
existence for a single day. Now it was contemplated to sustain the
island for months, and this required a continuous as well as a lavish
expenditure of spirit power.
The sorcerer had enlisted his full quota of twin-souls, and prepared
them for their heroic duty. The terrelium wand held by each soul was
connected with the wires of a helic having immense coils of terrelium,
that held by a rampant hehorrent of gold, formed an immense spiritual
battery in the centre of another subterranean temple. Wires led from
the battery underground across Atvatabar to the city of Mylosis, on
the seacoast most remote from Kioram, a thousand miles from Egyplosis.
The sorcerer announced a few days after the visit to the infernal
palace that he was ready to accompany us to Mylosis, whither the
queen's golden yacht had been sent to meet us.
The aerial yacht of the goddess flew swiftly over Atvatabar, bearing
the precious Lyone, the grand sorcerer Charka, and myself to the far
seacoast, the first stage in our journey.
The brightly flashing seas, the rose-colored sun, and the transcendent
concave of the earth encompassing us, with the near tropical splendor
of the country, made a scene of long remembered joy. But these
objects, so glorious in themselves, were made still more splendid by
the love that reigned in the souls that contemplated them.
In due time we reached Mylosis, where we found the royal yacht and a
reverent crowd of people awaiting us.
The sorcerer lost no time in connecting the subterranean wires with a
cable of terrelium on board the yacht, and, this being done, we
immediately set out to sea, followed by a crowd of pleasure ships,
conveying a host of people anxious to witness the miracle about to be
performed.
We anchored the yacht at a distance of fifty miles from the coast. The
grand sorcerer, surrounded by his acolytes, held in his hand a thick
rod of terrelium, the extreme end of the cable, whose further
extremity was connected with the battery in the Temple of
Reincarnation at Egyplosis. An exchange of messages along the wire
informed us that the ten thousand twin-souls had already begun their
dance of Pure Being upon the pavement of the greater temple.
Immediately a stream of flame leaped from the end of the rod, like
water spouting from a tube under enormous pressure.
"Now," said the sorcerer, "by virtue of the spirit power in this
cable, what I will to exist, will exist. I will that the magical
island of Arjeels shall rise above the waves."
"I wish the island," said Lyone, "to have an elevation of five
thousand feet in the centre, and at an elevation of four thousand feet
fill a crater of the mountain with a lake of cool water surrounded by
aerial gardens, and on the shore place a palace of rose-colored
marble, luxuriously furnished, with servants to wait upon us. All else
may be according to your own fancy."
"As your majesty wishes," replied the sorcerer, and as he spoke, a
high mountain rose instantly from the sea a mile away, creating
enormous waves, that threatened the safety of the yacht and the
congregated vessels. A feeling of awe silenced the host of spectators.
Instantly, as quickly as the sorcerer moved his wand, the mountains
became clothed with forests, and high up on the shoulder of the
central peak appeared a palace of rose-colored marble, whose
supernatural architecture seemed a celestial dream. The island was
thirty miles in length and about fifteen in width. From immense
cliffs, foaming waterfalls flung themselves downward to the sea.
Dazzled with their blinding beauty, we saw ravines engorged with
flowers. In green and glorious blessedness the island lay before us,
complete, like an enormous emerald in a setting of blue sea. We were
so awe-struck with the labors of the sorcerer, that it seemed a
sacrilege to set foot on the miraculous shores of Arjeels.
At a sign from the sorcerer, the captain of the yacht fired one
hundred guns, and the vessel moved toward the romantic island. We came
close up to a white marble wharf, and Lyone and myself alighted upon
the sacred retreat. Everything seemed so natural, that we could
scarcely believe the solid rock to be sustained by self-sacrificing
love.
[Illustration: "BY VIRTUE OF THE SPIRIT POWER IN THIS CABLE," SAID THE
SORCERER, "I WILL THAT THE MAGICAL ISLAND OF ARJEELS SHALL RISE ABOVE
THE WAVES."]
The adorable sorcerer remained on board the vessel, as it was
impossible for him to leave his post of duty for a moment, while the
dazed yet happy inhabitants of Mylosis departed homeward in their
vessels.
It was arranged that when the spirit power that sustained the island
would become exhausted, owing to the utter weariness of the
twin-souls, the firing of a gun on board the yacht would be a signal
that Arjeels would disappear from upon the sea.
The moment both Lyone and myself stepped upon the magical soil we felt
an instantaneous increase of health and vigor. We did not at first use
our magnic wings for flight, but walked along paths that wound around
the beach of golden sand, shaded by towering palms.
After remaining for a time on the margin of the sea we rose on our
wings, and, like birds, encircled the island, rising ever higher until
we alighted before the palace created for Lyone, a gem of the rosiest
marble, covered with a dome of gold that flashed around it the light
of the sun. The architecture was broad and heavy with splendid
carvings, and surrounded by a pillared portico. The palace stood on
the shore of a beautiful sheet of cool water; elsewhere its shores
were thickly clothed with tropic foliage and aerial gardens of the
greatest beauty.
We had reached at last the holy of holies of ideal attainment, a
retreat of bewildering beauty. The weird and splendid proportions of
the palace, with its domes and towers ornamented with sculptured
arabesques, rising from the soft waters of the lake, a veritable
Fountain of Youth, all surrounded by the green and gleaming forest and
gardens without end, filled our souls with a new rapture. Everything
was so perfect and peaceful, so rich with life and beauty, so fresh
and sparkling, so unspeakably happy, that I said, "This is the end of
all toil and ambition, this is the perfect flower of life. Here is the
lake of immortality, and here the fabled gardens of the Hesperides."
Rayoulb, the chamberlain of the palace, and his acolytes, who received
us, were also the product of spirit power, the reincarnation of former
inmates of Egyplosis. They awaited us before the palace, announcing a
feast had already been prepared for us.
The interior of the palace revealed new wonders. Wide and lofty
chambers were hung, some with woven and painted tapestries, and some
plated with sheets of gold, illuminated by electricity with
many-colored designs in precious metal. Others were decorated with
tender and brilliant frescoes, in which the transparent plaster seemed
to hold in its depths the tones of gold, of ultramarine and vermilion,
in fabulous scenes. Woven and painted tapestries clothed the walls of
still other chambers, representing in entrancing colors the most
occult mysteries of Egyplosis. The banqueting chamber had a dome of
enamelled glass, that softened the light with many a caressing color.
Porcelain vases, gorgeous in depth and richness of color, containing
plants of the richest bloom, added to the apartment their decorative
grace. There were also an art gallery, a library, and a museum of
jewels.
On one side of the palace a square cloistered arcade surrounded a
marble court. In the centre of the court lay a square pool of crystal
water, whose basin had been chiselled out of the solid rock. The pool
was fed by a wide water-fall falling down a precipice on the pavement.
Here also were several pagodas containing chimes of bells and large
oblong vases of stone filled with blooming flowers.
Amid such splendor I began to realize that love has the power of
spiritualizing all things, of interfusing them with its own rapture.
Under its flame all colors brighten, all movement becomes divine, all
labor seems holy. The sea attains a deeper blue, the shores a brighter
green, the beloved one becomes more beautiful, more delicate and
supernatural. Love, indeed, is an ultramarine and ultramontane joy!
"This delight," said Lyone as she lay in her boudoir, plunged in
delicious blessedness, "fills my soul with universal peace. Hitherto
pained with the chagrin of life, I welcome this unwonted repose. Oh, I
am supremely happy!"
"This expedition," I replied, "is not to observe the transit of Venus,
but the possession of Venus, to weigh each other's souls and read the
poetry written in every fold of the heart. It would be the perfection
of life if such reality of the ideal could surround us forever, but in
a world where the worm doth conquer, where the storm wastes the flower
and herb, such felicity is purchased only by the sacrifice of
ourselves or of others. But while it lasts let us prize its ineffable
joy. Hitherto," I continued, "philosophy has said that if we do not
want to be undeceived we should never visit the haunts of
imagination, for the fruits thereof are ashes, but we will create a
new philosophy, that will assert that the haunts of imagination are
ideally real, that the veritable Fountain of Youth has been
discovered, that Eldorado may be won."
The following day found us floating on the lake before, the palace in
a beautiful magnic boat. Musicians occupied a pagoda overlooking the
lake, and made the air sweet with their music. The lake seemed to fill
the crater of an extinct volcano, and miles away on its further shore
rose the lofty precipices of a mountain crest. It was most delightful
to float on its profound wave, at an elevation of four thousand feet,
and yet see the sea beneath us, and we surrounded with all the glory
of the interior world.
Birds, gorgeous as humming-birds, resplendent in burnished hues of
purple, garnet, and green, would flash amid the flowers, or chase each
other over the water. As for ourselves, we no longer feared our own
holiest emotions. Our deepest feelings were then in the foreground.
The mysterious carmine on the palpitating lips of Lyone was the symbol
of a warm, delicate, superexcited soul.
Lyone grew day by day more and more beautiful. She resembled the color
of a deep and mysterious gold. I crowned her brow with flowers and
wreathed her azure hair with wistful daffodils.
Another day we rode on soul-created horses to discover the odoriferous
retreats of the island. The pathways wound through flowery ravines,
that looked out upon the sea. The sweet cool air that filled the
splendid gloom of the palm woods seemed the essence of gladness. What
glorious vistas opened amid the luminous green of the forest! The
murmur of music filled the infinite ways of the island as our
cavalcade wound round its peerless hills or plunged into its abysses
of flowers. The spell of an ideal land was upon us, and we experienced
sensations hitherto unfelt in life.
"This," said Lyone, "is the ideal climate. Everything has become
transfigured; even the light of the sun is softer and more blessed."
"And the goddess of Atvatabar," I replied, "has become more delicate,
more supernatural, and more holy."
The island was one vast garden of tropical fruits and flowers, without
the malaria of decay. Everywhere nature, carefully assisted by art,
assumed the rarest beauty. Everything that savored of ruin and decay
was non-existent. There were no wild or poisonous animals. No deadly
serpent was coiled upon the branches, nor did poisonous insects crawl
on leaf or flower. Forests of trees of a strange tropical vegetation
abounded. There were the fruha, resembling dates; the caspariba,
resembling bananas; the dulra, resembling limes; the jackle,
resembling lemons; the congol, resembling oranges; the velicac,
resembling bread-fruits; the persar, resembling custard apples; the
phyorbal, resembling cocoanuts; the gersin, resembling mangosteens;
the huflar, resembling coffee; the solru, resembling plums; and
presuveet, or tamarinds lining the route. Fruits such as the troupac,
or citron; dewan, or guava; orogor, or mango; and ryeshmush, or
plantain gleamed amid the embowering foliage, and gardens of squangs
and the pineapples, aloes, nutmeg, cloves and spices of Atvatabar,
were on every hand.
One day, when floating on the lake, we heard with surprise and
infinite sadness the discharge of a gun, the signal that the island
was at an end. Spreading our wings, we awaited the catastrophe.
Suddenly a roar of thunder startled us, and Arjeels, with its majestic
cliffs, its green forests and rivers of flowers, fell in one
dissolving crash, and faded from sight. The lake and boat fell from
beneath us so rapidly, that we would have fallen headlong into the sea
had not our wings saved us. There flowed where the island had stood a
circular wave rushing to a focus. There was an upward spouting pillar
of foam, and all again was placid sea!
We flew downward to where the yacht awaited us, and alighting on
board, soon reached Mylosis.