This dream had one feature in common with ordinary dreams; parts of it
were confused and fitful. But its unusual length and coherence were
remarkable. It consisted of a series of vivid scenes and singular
events in conformity with its general character and design. These were
announced (a notable fact) in its outset, and sustained throughout
(still more strange) in their appropriate relations.
The aerial _voyageurs_ took a general view of the Ganges and its
deltas. They paused to observe a Hindoo maiden, of the better _caste_,
launch upon its waters, in her amative superstition, one of those
small lights, votive to love and imagination, which floating down the
stream would by its course, accidents and fate, indicate what might be
the chequered destiny of her affections, or the fortunes of an absent
lover. And they noticed her as a specimen of the delicate symmetry of
form and sentient beauty of face, characteristic of southern Asiatic
females. The dreamy expression of soul on her countenance enthralled
the American. For a time he was human.
Geographical details but seldom attracted their attention. Their
general consciousness was that of travelling at night; yet there was
ever light enough when and where it was desired. The American conceived
the mortal wish to view a scene from the highest mountains in the
world. They were near the Himmalayas, and flew to their most commanding
peak. It appeared to be a bright day, and all the sensations of sublime
awe and admiration which a man could feel under such circumstances were
realized. This experience was entirely distinct from any impressions
produced during their usual aerial observations. The landscape seemed
to comprise every variety of object, from the grandest and most
startling, to the softest and most serene, and a delicious mellowing
sublimated the enchantment.
Now, anon, they are looking down upon the Euphrates and the Tigris,
and the classic slip of land between them. And in another moment a
twilight envelopes them, a contemplative mood ensues; and, then,
steals upon their consciousness the knowledge, inducing a singular awe
or uneasiness, that they are hovering over the Plain of Shinar. The
biblical Babel, the confusion of tongues and the scattering of the
nations crowd upon their reflection, and again immortal thoughts arise.
The disembodied remarks, “It is written that a drama occurred below,
which, it appears to me, is as mysterious in its meaning as it is
wonderful in its happening. The Divine frustration of the building of
the Tower of Babel, as a rebuke to the presumption of man, in the light
of an allegory, finds analogies in every-day life. But, as a fact, it
is classed among the miraculous. Which is it? The unity or variety of
origin of the human race is a vexed question; and man’s distinctiveness
from other animals, especially in the characteristics of reason and
immortality, may be regarded another. It has occurred to me that
attributing the ‘confusion of tongues’ to the miraculous, may have been
but an ancient priestly, as well as theoretic, pretext in favor of
the doctrine of the unity of the human race. The Babel statement is a
strange story of God’s ways.”
_Immortal._--“Even to immortals, God’s designs are not revealed, and
in many respects His ways are inscrutable. The past may declare His
nature, but never wholly His purposes. THE FUTURE IS HIS OWN. But as
His laws are unchangeable, inferences may be drawn by any being in
proportion to his faculties and knowledge. Their gradations are as
numerous as the stars. Nor is it permitted to _me_ to declare to _you_
in your mortal _status_, all I know in my immortal _status_. But the
unity or variety of human origin is of no present importance. The
differences of the human races, in language, color and structure, give
assurance against their amalgamation and homogeneity on earth.”
The dream assumes a new phase. In a grand hall, of shadowy sides,
suspended in mid-air, the parties recline in voluptuous chairs.
It is as if fitted for exhibitions. A moving superb panorama passes
before them, representing in their greatest glory, the following
cities: Babylon, Nineveh, Thebes, Troy, Tyre, Jerusalem, Bagdad,
Alexandria and Damascus. They alike saw them and seemed to be in them.
It was a curious, instructive and wondrous display. A reverse movement
of the picture then presented these cities or their sites as they are
now. Their inhabitants at the different periods, in varied masses
and actions, and male and female in every style and hue of Eastern
costume and countenance, created a strange and absorbing interest. The
kaleidoscopic phases of human nature will ever challenge curiosity,
excite observation and engender thoughts. The desire “to see and be
seen” by our kind, has a more suggestive and philosophical source than
mere vanity.
The winged adventurers of a night recross from Asia to Europe, traverse
the famed Bosphorus, and reaching Constantinople, alight for a moment,
each on a minaret of the mosque, (formerly church of St. Sophia,) the
grandest temple to Mahomet and of the Turks. The view was grand, novel
and crowded with objects and memorials. It was the most noted point on
the line between the East and the West, and there were the remembrances
and insignia of both. These philosophic observers had carefully
noticed, of late, the influences and traces of men and events, systems
and creeds, times and powers, from Alexander the Great, in his primary
institution of commerce and in its mighty effects, down to the
condition produced by the late struggle by Turkey, France and England
on one side, against the aggressions of Russia and Northern hordes on
the other.
With their usual facility they next visit the palace of the Sultan.
Their presence surprised, but its character was deferred to and
welcomed. Turkish hospitality and courtesy are genial, when once
enlisted. The Grand Vizier himself directed their entertainment near
the person of his Majesty of the Crescent. In a stoical manner,
but with liberal temper, they discussed with the guests matters of
religion, government, social customs, moral subtleties and modern
developments and tendencies. The preconceived ideas and prejudices of
the American were greatly modified. The former Turk and Mohammedan of
haughty bigotry, fierceness and the sword, had subsided into tolerance
for the Christian, amity with the European, and deference to the
civilization, learning and powers of the Caucasian race. Once the chief
guardian and lookout on the ramparts of the ignorance, despotism and
superstitions of the East, he now would open its portals to the more
active spirit and mightier enlightenment of the West. All this was
elicited and defined in the harmonious discussions that interluded the
ceremonial observances.
The suite of apartments allotted to females in the larger
dwelling-houses of the East (called the Harem) is a portion sacred
to them and the head of the family, and forbidden to other masculine
intrusion. But, for the winged spirits, there was no objection to
their admittance to even the imperial Seraglio. Upon the invitation of
the Sultan, who led the way, they retired with him into the delicious
abode of the Sultanas and lady favorites of that mysterious Court.
Here for the first time gallantry so inspired the American that he
bowed, kneeled--yes, salaam-ed! This choice collection of beautiful
women, selected from beauties of different climes, and from races of
the higher types, presented every species of female loveliness in
form, feature and complexion. The Circassian prevailed in numbers and
attractions.
A golden-haired blonde from the North, with seraphic blue eyes and
lily skin, robust yet lithe and sprightly, was evidently the favorite
of the Sultan. But in contrast with her style, yet equal in subtle
fascination, reclined upon a divan in more haughty retiracy a tropical
being, (a near relative of the Sultan,) in whose hair was the sheeny
darkness of a thousand starry nights, on whose brunette cheek was the
rose’s richest red, and whose flashing black eyes and queenly figure
were now in dreamy repose. But they grew animated on the entrance and
in the presence of the party; and during their stay and devoirs, her
look often rested on the American, “and eyes looked” affinity “to eyes
that spoke again.” He became enthralled. His imagination conjectured in
her the contrarient higher qualities of a Semiramis, a Cleopatra and a
Zenobia. She filled it!
At an appropriate time, eunuchs from among the number in attendance,
conducted the guests to private apartments. The American dreamed he
slept and had a vision.
The warm radiance of Zulika’s black eyes still thrill his soul with a
loving passion. Mahomet, too, was associated with her in his thoughts.
He calls upon him to come and take him among the celestial Houris--“the
beautiful eyed--the black eyed.” The apparition of Mahomet is suddenly
seen; it somewhat startles, yet, also, composes his other excitement.
_Mahomet._--“Brother disembodied! You are still human in your thoughts.
Death alone can free you from them. Yet I know them; it is permitted
to _me now to learn what transpires in the universe_. It is also
vouchsafed to you, in your immaterialized state, to hold converse with
the departed spirits, yes, even the Houris, as you request. Among other
matters you wonder at the apparently inconsistent decrees I made in
regard to wine and women, for my followers on earth. The inhibition of
wine was for the masses, who are largely composed of the inconsiderate
and craving. Its use will induce the habit and disease of intoxication,
which is fatal to mankind, especially in warm climates. Temperance
should ever be a moral duty, and abstinence alone can secure it among
the many. ‘The joys of wine’ are only for the prudent and thoughtful,
and its healthful quality for the ill. It has its proper uses.”
_Disembodied._--“In this regard you were right, as an expounder.”
_Mahomet._--“In permitting polygamy and even concubinage to some, I
reflected that as marriage would not be suitable or convenient or
possible to a number of men, I would be making a needful, wise and
saving provision for surplus women. The deprivation of wine, too,
rendered it more salutary; man will have one, and if he can, both. My
system was, also, designed to diminish promiscuous prostitution.”
_Disembodied._--“Clever excuse! But how will you defend the propagation
of your creed by the sword?”
_Mahomet._--“Mankind, so generally stolid or perverse in untoward
ignorance or selfishness, will usually require more or less coercion in
some shape, to be aroused into useful animation and effort, and to the
pursuit of good and happiness. The sword, like necessity, stimulates;
it is at times a great vivifier. It is even, occasionally, justice on
a large and peculiar scale; it is for man and nations, what the rod is
for the child.”
_Disembodied._--“Clever pretext, again! But you seem _now_ to think
that you were a better giver of law than of religion.”
_Mahomet._--“I was not a Prophet. I was right in but one religious
dogma: the declaration of the one God. And of Him, man is to himself
the most direct and proximate revelation. _Know thyself!_ It is both
duty and instruction. Come! sister spirits would confer with thee.”
_Disembodied American._--“But, oh, I would see more of _her_ whom I met
to-night.”
_Mahomet._--“She is your _affinity_; and when you are both freed
from the earthly, you will abide together on some Olympus in the
Illimitable. Let us to the Seventh Heaven!”
They sweep upward and onward, and on their passage see a vast and
bright globe, (a star or sun,) many times larger than the Earth. There
they see the souls of the most ignorant and obtuse of the dead, in
their second stage of existence or ordeal of improvement. It is the
first Heaven. They proceed on by other worlds--all abodes of Spiritual
Progression, and arrive at the seventh Heaven.
_Mahomet._--“The more favored and self-elevating of Earth when they
die, are at once transferred to the sphere most suited to them--some
few even reaching the sixth Heaven, at the outset upon eternity.
The seventh Heaven is the _first_ abode of achieved Goodness and
translucent Reason in the initial state of perfection. After and
beyond that, these become identical with Knowledge, which I believe
is eternally acquisitive and expansive. Here is my attainment through
centuries. I began my after-death career in the third Heaven. Zoroaster
his in the fourth. Confucius was permitted to pass the first, because
of his great mind and good intent; but he was assigned to the second to
learn there was a God and a Creator. Your travelling companion, who was
never mortal, is beyond me, and I know not his origin. Here I will show
you the most glorified women, who have come originally from earth.”
On the globe at which they had arrived, there was, as on Earth, all
variety of its own kinds or peculiarities.
The disembodied American was soon thrown into social intercourse. The
inhabitants appeared to have the human form glorified--called “the
image of God.” Here there was ideal beauty, infinitely varied like
the flowers of earth. The females were of heavenly and indescribable
loveliness. Their countenances beamed with sublimated purity and
affection. They thronged around him as “administering angels.” Their
sweet voices accompanied the music of the spheres, and their swelling
chorus joined the song of the morning stars, in the eternal anthem to
the Most High.
_Heavenly Houri._--“Mortal! Know that thy thought is vain, that
the passions of the body--of the earth--are here in some riper and
heaven-ized existence, and that their indulgence is but enhanced in
pleasurable degree. Here there is attraction--affinity--but it is of
the soul.”
_Disembodied._--“Then there is no Love here! I mean the feeling
peculiar to the sexes.”
_Houri._--“Yes. But there is no _material_ desire. _The sexes are
essentially complements of each other_; but these complements may
differ in their substance and proportions. When they are counterparts
of each other, then affinity is perfect. This affinity is _heavenly
Love_ and unalloyed happiness. Such a pair are the Bride and
Bridegroom of Eternity. Their children are the heavenly _thoughts_
which spring from such affinity.”
The startled brain of the visionist caused him to awake into his dream,
and he saw his Immortal companion bending over him with a smile.