CHAPTER XXIV.

The pr?tor 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 for? avenue to the temple gate, the pr?tor 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 pr?tor 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 323of the temperate zones that the misty atmosphere favored; discovering to us the flavoring source of preserves which we had attributed to artificial production. The pr?tor 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 pr?tor, 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 324your 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 325instinct 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 pr?tor the promised Messiah!”

Pr?tor. “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?”

Pr?tor. “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.”

326Dr. 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.

327Having 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 for?,” within the temple gates, where the children were congregated with their parents who had already arrived. The pr?tor 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 pr?tor 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 pre?minent 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 328speck 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 329parents, 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 330their 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, 331which 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.

332Having 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 pr?tor 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 co?peration, 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 333been 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 pr?tor’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 pr?tor; “but in the mean time lay aside your implements, and join with us in partaking of the refection prepared by the children.”

334Joining 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 335reminded 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 pr?tor 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 336of 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 for? 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.