THE HISTORY CONCLUDED.
I think it is right that I should conclude the history of the conquest
of Atvatabar with my being crowned king of the realm.
I at once assumed my functions as ruler of Atvatabar. I was supreme
commander of the army and grand admiral of the fleet. In council with
the ministers of the government appointed by the Borodemy, I caused
the adoption of many beneficent laws, calculated to make my people
prosperous and happy.
Hushnoly soon departed, with his retinue of twin-souls, to found a new
Egyplosis on the sphere of Hilar, with Zooly-Soase as goddess. It was
with great grief that I parted with these beloved friends. Hushnoly
and his flock were not to be persuaded that nature herself was hostile
to their esoteric practices; so, to avoid antagonism, it was best that
we should part. I promised Hushnoly that, together with Lyone, I would
visit his globe some time in the future and see how his colony
progressed. He was an enthusiast who required a great many defeats
from fortune before he could see the fatal defects of his social and
religious system.
The grand sorcerer, as the pontiff of Remeliorism, or the ethics of
nature, achieved a triumph in restoring Egyplosis to the reign of
order, truth, justice, benevolence, and temperance. In time I hoped to
see the Christian faith rule the souls of those who had so recently
worshipped themselves under the guise of Harikar, the universal human
soul. I was anxious to see men and women possessing that serene poise
of passion that alone can sustain virile action. Lyone herself was the
first to be convinced that the human soul, with its limitations, its
narrowness, its impatience, its selfishness, its arrogance, its
cruelty, was a very inferior deity. It was true that rare ideal joys
might be purchased for a brief time under the old _regime_, but they
were only purchased at an immense price, out of all proportion to the
value received, and their possession produced a sickly sublimity
totally unfitting the soul for the practical duties of life.
Captain Adams and Sir John Forbes, excited at my good fortune,
declared themselves anxious, with my consent, to explore the further
hemisphere of the interior planet, in the interests of science,
discovery, commerce, and possibly conquest. They were anxious to
discover the continents that lie above and beyond Atvatabar,
surrounded by unknown Plutusian seas, and bear to their respective
countries some signal trophies of their daring and prowess in the
internal world.
It was arranged that on their return to Kioram, the _Polar King_, with
myself and Lyone on board, should sail with the _Mercury_ and _Aurora
Borealis_ for the United States. The sailing of the three vessels up
New York Bay would be a historic event, and great would be the
curiosity of the American people to see the Goddess of Atvatabar and
our retinue of wayleals as proof of the existence of Bilbimtesirol,
the interior world.
And now, my dear reader, we must part for the present. By a change of
plans on the part of Captain Adams, the _Mercury_, the vessel that
will bear the manuscript of my adventures in the interior world, is
already waiting to start on her voyage. I regret that many strange
things have been left unsaid. Many extraordinary experiences have been
omitted, because I am desirous that this brief history of the
happiness that befell me and my devoted sailors in Atvatabar should
be published without delay, to allay the natural curiosity excited in
the outer world by the story of our discovery of Plutusia.
You may possibly feel a desire to know the future fortunes of Queen
Lyone and myself in a part of the world hitherto undreamed of, and
when I again address you I hope to describe our future experiences on
the throne of Atvatabar. We purpose to apply a liberal portion of the
vast wealth of our kingdom to the pursuit of invention, art, and
spirituality, preserving and enlarging the existing palaces of
invention and art and the palaces of Egyplosis as institutions for the
development of the soul and its attributes of spirit power. It will be
our purpose to extend to the utmost limits the empire of mind over
matter in developing invention. In art, we will, by means of its
manifold radiant symbols, reproduce every idea of the soul shaped by
sentiment and imagination, and in sounding the abysses of the heart
express what is considered the inexpressible.
In spirituality, the science and art of soul and its manifestations in
the body, and after the temporary or complete severance therefrom,
will be investigated on a much wider basis than ever before, and
spirit power, apart from the worship of soul as deity, will be
developed and elaborated into an enduring force, possessing creative
energy. What boundless empire of life will not such ideas realize, and
how entrancing the story of such discoveries in the interior world of
the soul!
I may also, dear reader, request you to accompany me to other
undiscovered realms of Plutusia, where, according to report, exist
fairy-lands, peopled with strange, fantastic races of men and women,
as well as fabulous animals, with characteristics surpassing the
wildest dreams of fancy.
As shown on the map of the interior world, which forms the
frontispiece of this volume, many more continents remain yet unknown
to me, to explore which will be my ambition. If the rumors I have
heard of semi-spiritual men and semi-human monsters that dwell in
tropical environments, where mountains rise so high that there is no
weight on their summits, and where torrents of water roll upward,
sweeping away villages in their path; of rocks of gold suspended in
the air; of tribes dwelling on floating islands of jewels in the
empyrean, and of a thousand still stranger places and peoples, where
every phantasy of the imagination can be produced in reality by spirit
power, then, indeed, the story of my adventures will develop the soul
of the age with a profound delight.
I therefore bid adieu to you, dear reader, in the hope of meeting you
again, to feast you with these wonders. I hope to have you accompany
me on the _Polar King_, which, after a season of repair and refitment,
will most assuredly be launched for a still more adventurous voyage on
the waters of the interior sea. How many books have been written on
the discovery of the western hemisphere by Columbus, while, as yet,
but one has been written about the interior sphere, a region not less
important than the outer earth, whose geographical features are now
for the first time revealed to human eyes! What a wonder it would be
if one could travel to the moon or the planet Mars and return to the
earth to tell of all that he had seen or heard on those distant
spheres! Here indeed is no less a miracle that for ages two vast
planets have existed each unknown to the other, although only a
thousand miles apart, with the means of communication possessing but
few difficulties to be overcome. The mutual discovery of two such
worlds has opened up a future for the human race that may well strike
one dumb with its splendor. It has conferred on the meanest individual
a glory, a birthright of the spirit, as vast as the proportions of the
twin-planet. I will not further anticipate the future, and for the
present will ask you to accept from Lyone and myself a courteous
farewell.
THE END.
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[Illustration: "THE LOVE LETTER."]
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End of Project Gutenberg's The Goddess of Atvatabar, by William R. Bradshaw