Through the long, long night of years;
Some are bright with heavenly radiance,
And others shine out through our tears.
They arise, too, like mystical flowers,
All different and all the same—
As they lie on my heart like a garland
That is wreathed around Mary’s name,”
“Good morning and a blessing1, comrade.” It was the greeting of the Jew to the knight2 who lay asleep under a palm the day after the flight. The sleeper3 slowly rising, murmured:
“I’m half vexed4 at thee, Ichabod; thou hast dissolved a dream filled with sights of home and mother.”
“I’ve brought lentils, barley5, and grape-clusters; they are better than dreams when the sun is up.”
“There are real joys just before us.”
“No; oh, no. I’m telling thee the smiling, clean-faced[114] truth. We’ll be safe at Jabbock’s city by sun set!”
“Safe? safe? I’m unused to that word; almost afraid of it. What does it mean in this country?”
“Oh, these cavalrymen! always on the charge; now here, now there. Thy thoughts go by habit, sometimes racing8 forward, sometimes retreating. A while ago thou wert as full of faith as Gideon, now thou art as timorous10 as Canaan’s spies.”
“My habits have grown fat by feeding on piebald experiences.”
“Experience is a lying prophet, when it counts without reckoning God.”
“I can not see a step ahead. That’s certainty to me, though thou callest it doubt. I know not how to hang rainbows upon the ghostly brows of the future when I’ve no power to lay hand on the ghostly form and have no rainbows.”
“He that lifted the burdens of the past from off us holds the changing winds of the future in His fists. One second of life goes ever with only one second of care. I learned this of Sir Charleroy long ago. Now he forgets his own teachings. Shall I call him Reuben, never excelling because unstable11 as water?”
“Call me slave: Uncertainty’s slave! Thou didst waken me from a dream of home, to the shock of remembering again that I was homeless, dead to all that once made life worth living. The gorgeous hopes of thy fertile mind are mocked by stern present facts.”
“Odd talk from one just dreaming of his mother; a good woman didst say? then very hopeful; all good women are. Then remember how thou didst lift me[115] to the very gates of heaven yesterday. Thou canst not see a step ahead? Well, then look back; miles; years. Was not our God in thy battles in the thickets12; in the mountains; in Jordan? My poor reasoning tells me that He has wrought13 too much for us to drop us now. He must get His reward in keeping us to the end.”
“Pick out the best, not the worst. We escaped the very Gehenna at Jericho, following murderers, the storm, slavery; now free, fed, rested, the eastern air washed and sunned to a tonic15. I’m drinking lotus balm out of it.”
“There it is; the sun’s in thy brain, poet-preacher.”
“No, I’m only giving thee back some of thine own sermons. I draw from my own heart no monster memories. If I’ve fought hard battles it sufficeth that I have fought them once. I’ll not recall their bloody16 sweat and tears for the sake of refighting them. No, I’m going back to the sweet, happy hours of babyhood; for I tell thee, knight, there is a world of joy to a man, scorched17 by stern experience, to forget himself sometimes back to the lullabys and warblings of the days of his innocence18.”
“I can’t do it.”
“I can’t help doing it, especially in this place! My whole being feeds on a present scent19 of home.”
“Thou knowest the country hereabouts?”
“My soul laughs in friendly converse20 with these crocuses, pinks, and asphodels, turning the velvet21, grassy22 plains to palace carpets. I’m saying to myself these blossoms must know me, their bowing heads[116] and offered odors being my reward for nursing their mothers when I was a boy.”
“Well, flowers are sincere friends; they never change and are all charitable. That’s why they are deemed fit presents to those in prison, or proper offering to be laid on the breast of the dead Magdalene.”
“Ah, dead Magdalene; for even the symbol of a broken promise; born to be a queen of love, by perverted23 love dethroned! Woman, man’s ward9, by man betrayed; the guide star setting in black night; the savior of human purity befouling all purity! Given the power by which Eve was to crush the serpent’s head and using it to breed all serpentine24 ills. This is Eve turning a volcano upon Eden. Put flowers upon her once passionate25, now dead, heart, in awful contrast! Nature at her worst is intensified26 anguish27; at her best an ocean of joy, an universe of light and song. So I learn of nature under man. Listen to nature’s perfumed throb28 now: these thousands of feathered songsters, millions of lesser29 creatures, whose melody is larger than themselves and more perceptible. Hear the humming, thrumming, buzzing, trumpetings. Oh, this is life as the All-Saving tuned30 it to utter joy! It widens, deepens, thickens; getting sweeter, louder, happier all the way. A tempest, set to music, knight. I’m caught in its whirl and join in its praisings. It comes over me as an insight of what nature really is. God cares for it all and made it thus, to throb and exult31!” Ichabod paused in transport. “But I sometimes think there’s a great waste of these things; there is so much in places where there is no human ear or eye to hear or see.”
[117]
“Reuben is narrow-viewed just now. Man is not all! God makes happiness because He is so full of goodness He must. Our rabbis call Him ‘The Fountain.’ There is no waste! He makes these things for His own joy, and, methinks, looks down from the circle of the heavens to say to what is in the desert or wilderness32, ‘Very good.’ Then, beyond this, I’ve sometimes thought He kept the processions of joy and beauty moving along; coming, going, dying, living, ending and beginning again, as a sort of practice; by action keeping all fresh and new. He causes things of beauty and power to pass through His divine alchemy from one glory to another, as the general causes his squadrons to move through the evolutions of the battle before the conflict. The Father is awaiting man’s hour, man’s return from sinning; the time for millennial33 advent34; then all delights, as if fresh born, all goods newly harvested, will appear to be multiplied, intensified, transfigured. That will be the beginning of hereafter.”
“Oh, Israel, the sun is in thy brain. I forget all logic35 of contention36, charmed out of words, by feasting on thy orisons, Go on, Jew.”
“Then I’ll say ’twas God, not chance, nor fate, that brought us to wander alone with nature. Read well nature’s book that lies open in the lap of the Great Teacher! Only stand close to Him and He will hold the torch, turn the pages and give the sure interpretations38 of the sweetness that feeds quiet, the picturesqueness39 which evokes40 smiles and the stately grandeurs which beget41 faith.”
“Israel, thou climbest the sun-ladder to rhapsody!”
“Whether soaring, climbing, or creeping, I know[118] not; but this I know, I’m tasting in these wanderings God’s kisses. They are in the flowers; my spirit rests on His as my body on the balm of the fresh breezes. Then, animate42 nature seems so contented43 and happy! Why, I’ve been ravished by the songsters; as I’ve said to myself, they echo the angelic anthem44 of heaven, peace. Had any such doubt as haunts thee, come to me, since passing Jordan, it would have been sung out of countenance45 by the winged warblers or dragged from my heart captive in floral fetters46 by Him that hath two staves, beauty and bands.”
“Oh, Ichabod, do not pause. Go on, I pray thee.”
“Then thou art glad to hear that nature is not a beautiful widow mourning her dead bridegroom through the ages?”
“I love to listen to thee.”
“Listen to a wiser. See those stately heliotropes. They stand above all of their kind with shining faces; great in aspiration47, great in devotion. All day they turn toward the sun and when their blossoms fade they leave a hardy48 seed. The winter may bury it, but it springs forth49 in vernal days, strong in the life it won by loving the summer sun.”
“Yes; life’s troubles are made by its people; the fewer people the fewer troubles.”
“While sharing their troubles may we not lessen53 them. No man may live to himself; we’re wedded54 to each other.”
“Yes, wedded to life. A royal phrase; since I’ve[119] been constantly either hating or loving it; fearing to live and then fearing to die. Wedded! ah, ha, ha; the wedded are those who most madly love and then most bitterly hate.”
“Say sometimes; then thou’lt be like the stopped horologue, telling the true time once in twenty-four hours, at least.”
“At least not on Dead Sea apples, fair without, ashes within. My poetry, if I have any, always sings in accord with the company it keeps.”
“How many more arrows in thy quiver, hast thou?”
“Only one, and that a question; does my master intend to foreswear marriage himself? He ridicules56 it.”
“I have already done so.”
“Well, ’tis well thou didst not live in Rome, for its citizens that dared to live amid the temptations and soul-crampings of voluntary bachelorhood were highly taxed for their disregard of the claims of society and the state.”
“Yet even the Romans ever deemed bachelorhood a blessing. In this opinion royal Claudius decreed that the sailors who brought to Rome a ship loaded from the wheat granaries of Egypt in the time of Agabus’s famine, should be as a reward permitted to remain unmarried. If I were a Roman and a sailor I’d pray for a famine and a Claudius.”
“A world without wives? What a world!”
So saying Ichabod caught up a stick and began marking on the earth.
“How now, Israel; some sorcery?”
[120]
“No—yet, may be, yes. I’ll picture a world without women.”
“What have we, man or beast?”
“Truly, I think partly both. The knight has described his Elysium and I have here pictured a fit king for it. Behold60 thy god, sworn celibate61. Egypt’s adored Kneph. Is this hideous62 enough?”
“A god! well he’s not handsome; a ram57’s head; four horns; two up, two down; armed as both ram and goat?”
“Both were sacred to him in Egypt; also the horned snake with which Cleopatra put out her life; poor, unfortunate man-wrecked beauty.”
“Oh, nothing, only Kneph would do well for a sailor, at Rome, under Claudius, in famine time!”
“My poet wanders, but yet stings.”
“So? Kneph was a god that boasted, or rather his spokesmen did, that he was the father of his mother. What economy! No need to be grateful to or love a mother; no need to wear a wife on the heart. The folly64 of a dark age by folly darkened in the mad attempt to lift up man without his purer better part.”
“How strange, Jew, whenever we touch a new belief, or an old one, new to us, we find peoples following an idea or ideal. There has been a crying through the world ever for a some one for pilgrim man to follow. How passing strange; our century wails65 the self-same cry; and somehow it always happens that this matter has something to do with woman. See; ‘Kneph’ was the monstrous66 birth of those who[121] thought man superlative, and greatness to be by being all man. How sharply the devotion to the Madonna cuts across this! She was mother of the noblest, and man in the begetting68 left out. Oh, my head’s full of thoughts, but they tumble along toward my lips without system or leader. I talk like a madman, though I think like a Seraph69.”
“I think, Sir Charleroy, that a healthy son of Adam sneering70 at all women, publicly, reproaches himself as being one who never knew a true one.”
“More javelins71! I’d swear, anyhow, that if I’d been Adam, no winged serpent of gaudy72 colors and honey tongue could have lured73 me from Paradise, Eve or no Eve!”
“If thou hadst been there thou wouldst have been lonesome with the speechless herds74; finding the new woman, would have loved her like the boy who mates just to see how it seems.”
“Oh, likely!”
“Then if thy ward or angel attempted to elope with the devil thou wouldst have gone along, too, from curiosity, as lad to a hippodrome, just to see the finish; or as thousands of men since Adam, tied to wayward women, have gone down with them to darkness, preferring hell with their idols75 to heaven without.”
“I suppose so. Oh, how strangely are the fates of men and women interwoven.”
“Then thou dost not now elect to live a hermit51, without the companionship of the frail76, fair and faithful sex which are said to double our joys?”
“Yes and multiply our sorrows!”
[122]
“Why so?”
“I expect ere long that we’ll meet some living blossoms.”
“By my token, that’s good news, Ichabod.”
“So, then, thou art ready to recant?”
Evening came, and the pilgrims supped on the meager77 meat they were able to procure78 in the fields.
“Now poet of the Palm Land mellow79 my dreams by possessing me of thy meditations81. What fixes thy gaze?”
“The monarch82 of the sky; after a day such as this has been, he seems to me to take his departure with a peculiar83 sort of triumphal sweep of his trailing splendors84.”
“But night, not the green-colored son of Osiris, conquers now, master.”
“Night never conquers. It merely lives by sufferance; often routed by the invincible88 spears of the sun. Darkness creeps forth here because the golden charger in masterful strategy has gone elsewhere to rout87 other armies of the dark kingdom. Lay this to thy heart, good Jew.”
“There, Jew; see the fleecy clouds over Jordan. How grand!”
“Yea, as I’ve often seen them; some like alabaster91 thrones, and others like ships on fire, while others are like silver castles, banded with cornelian and gold, with here and there hyacinthian shields hung on their battlements, all fresh as the stones in heaven’s foundation[123] walls! How they career and float along the empurpled ocean of the west! I forget myself even now into their midst. Oh, knight, such pictures, such visions make my soul shout in peals92 of holy laughter.”
“My Israel, the sun which woos the earth into making love to him with flowers never sets in thy brain; thou livest in the poet’s constant noon.”
“But we both are changing. Even the knight gets mellow. Hardship, the sun and faith are working in us both for good.”
“Getting to be? No; thou wert and art poet, painter and singer; all in one. If the world does not hear thee the Seraphim93 will, by and by.”
“I’ve noticed that souls unbent from some long, twisting pain, run, aspire94 and play. It is mercy’s rest, reward.”
“God fits some especially to catch passing joys, Ichabod.”
“Yea, and it all comes from a serene95 faith that all is very good as He made it. I’m just opening to the Sun Eternal, at whose right hand are pleasures evermore. I love thy wakening touch, my guide.”
“Ah, I’m a bungling96 player on the harp67 of thy soul, but I love thy melody. Child of nature, speak more and more to me.”
“I can but ill tell all. I’m dumb amid the waves of peace which enhalo, the hopes that thrill, the views of truth that fill my being.”
“I believe thee on my soul, Jew. I’d stop now to remember a little, perhaps to sleep, since so I can follow dreams that would craze me to contemplate97 awake; but if we now sleep, pray God our day-dreams go on and on.[124] I think we are pilgrims following spiritual truths. They’ll lead us on high; let’s not miss their direction.”
“One may sleep, master, when he can not think; for me, now, I’d rather court, awake, my mind’s guests, for a time, meanwhile gainsaying98 the lullabys of cricket and nightingale now floating out from every bush.”
“So be it. How shall we proceed to pass the time?”
“Can we set up an Ebenezer? God hitherto hath helped us.”
“I have it; we’ll to the feast.”
“Well, we have what some great kings have not, and so shall find joy in a feast. We have appetite!”
“Thou dost miss my meaning, though thy point is prime. We seldom think to thank the Giver for the power to enjoy as well as for the enjoyable. I knew a French prince, once, who said he’d give his birthright for one good dinner, and he was no Esau, either. He had dinners and dinners, but what were they along with premature99 decay gnawing100 at his vitals like a rat, while he himself could eat less than a babe?”
“Just so; I think, in loving nature, because we begin to understand her, we will be on our way to all the natural joy of which she is God’s interpreter.”
“But our feast?”
“The stars are out on the blue; their queen will soon come up from the sea, then I’ll induct thee into the feast of the ‘Rose.’ The rose is the queen of flowers, and flowers the thoughts of God!”
“The feast of the Rose! I’ve heard it was a licencious, heathen orgy!”
[125]
“It was then a shameful103 misnomer104. My Mary found it; transformed it. Out of it, through reverence105 of her, comes a beautiful observance. See here, Jew.”
So saying, the knight took from his bosom106 a string of precious stones and arranged them, as they glowed under the moonlight, on the ground heart-shaped.
The knight then questioningly observed the Jew.
The latter shook his head and remarked:
“I’ve seen such often among the Arabs. They have a prayer for each bead107 to be said the night after the death of one of their number, believing the shade departs not to Hades ’till the prayers are said. Thou dost not practice their enchantments108?”
“Bah! Never. My gemmed109 circle has a deeper, holier significance. Each pendant is to recall to mind some virtue111 or event in the saintly Mary’s life. Then there are guilds112 called, ‘Brothers of the Rosary.’ I belong to one such; each member is sworn to pray for all the others wherever scattered113. The Turks may have had a praying string, but the Crusaders have appropriated and applied114 it to nobler uses.”
“Tell me more of it, if there be more.”
“There are but fifteen in my brotherhood115.”
“Only fifteen, no room for me?” said the Jew.
“Fifteen; to suggest the fifteen great events in Mary’s life; namely, the Annunciation; Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the Mother of Jesus; the Visitation; Mary in the Gospel spirit went quickly to tell her kinswoman of her promised favor; the Birth of Jesus, this was the crowning joy; then here is the gem110 that recalls the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Thou knowest, Jew, thy fathers often wondered how,[126] after all, a lamb, an animal, could stand between offended Deity and man. Jesus in the Temple was the fulfillment or explanation of the mystery!”
“Yea, truly, I’ve seen this. Oh, that all my people could also see it!”
“Then, here is the jewel that reminds us of the ‘Scourging at the pillar’ of Him ‘by whose stripes we are healed.’”
“Israel reads Isaiah with darkened mind, my loving guide. I’ve seen this. Oh, that my people could.”
“Here is the jewel that recalls the ‘Crowning with thorns’ of Him that hath to give, at His right hand, ‘pleasures forever more.’ He wore that thorny116 coronet that His redeemed117 should return with singing, crowned with everlasting118 joy.”
“I’ve felt it; feel it now. Hallelujah!”
“This one is to commemorate ‘Jesus bearing the Cross;’ this one ‘His crucifixion,’ and this ‘His resurrection.’”
“The hope of hopes by our Saducees denied!”
“Then we have here another to remind us of our Saviour120’s ‘Ascension,’ with His pregnant promise of a royal return to take at last His children home.”
“Come, Lord Jesus, even so, quickly!” cried Ichabod.
“‘Wait patiently for Him and He will give thee the desire of thy heart,’ oh, heir of faithful Abraham!”
“I weary sometimes, my loved teacher.”
“So do we, of our brotherhood; but here is a thought of rest; this bead recalls ‘Pentecost.’ We are led of the Spirit, which guides to all truth and comforts by the way.”
“But what has all this to do with Mary?”
[127]
“Oh, here are two beads121; one reminds us of her ‘Assumption’ into heaven, the other of her ‘Crowning.’”
“Was she crowned?”
“Yea, in heaven, for the Son of Mary promised to His faithful ones this exaltation; ‘I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me, ye which have continued with me in my temptation.’ Surely, she that followed him from the pains of parturition123, as an outcast, to the Cross and the sepulcher124, continued!”
“I would I could have been there to enter the race for such crowning.”
“Hallelujah! would I could shout it to heaven; no, I do; but rather to all Jewry!” exclaimed the Israelite.
“John was only a ‘voice crying in the wilderness,’ as he thought, but he was heard at the palace and down the ages. Even now I voice his words in this lone37 place.”
“Thou didst not tell me of the meaning of that black and red pendant,” said Ichabod, interrupting.
“Oh, Gethsemane, Jesus, the intercessor for the world, ‘who ever lives to intercede126.’ The black sign is of that.”
“Then I’ve a Saviour in glory praying for me. Oh, this is balm and water to me! Why do I dare to think of myself as a poor Jew! God pity; no, forgive me! I, repining sometimes and yet defended in glory; honored by royal adoption127, elected of God, called to kingship!”
“How we do go up and down; sometimes thou, sometimes[128] I. Now I’m leading, awhile ago ’twas thou. Yea, we are all dependants128; but this is healthful meditation80, Ichabod, and thy confession129 rebukes130 me as well.”
“Is this all of the feast?”
“Oh, no. Here are some tokens to remind us of Mary’s life; so brief, so useful. See, here, five gems131 that remind us of the wounds of her son; her wounds as well, for the sword that pierced Him pierced through to her soul also. At each of these emblems132 we ‘Rosary Brothers’ repeat the Lord’s Prayer. Last of all, reverently134 clasping this crucifix, we sacredly repeat the Apostle’s Creed, the same as I taught thee at Jericho.”
“I remember, as I do the water courses, when thirsty.”
“What think’st thou of all this formality? Is it like the Arabic mummeries?”
“No, they are mocking devils, are they not?”
“Master, I wish I could be a Rosary Brother. Methinks it would help my ambling136 faith sometimes, if I could touch a token.”
“He above is all tender of baby faiths that can do no better than amble137. Remember the words of thy own Hosea: ‘I drew them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, I taught Ephriam to go; taking them by the arms; just as a mother teaches her babe to walk,’ is it not?”
“Even so. Does the Rosary help some to walk?”
“I believe it does.”
“Tell me more about it.”
“The Crusaders were the first to call Mary ‘The Rose.’[129] To almost all mankind that flower has ever been the emblem133 of pure, unselfish love, and when the soldiers of the Cross grew to understand the character of her that gave the world its Saviour, they could think of no title more fitting for that queenly woman.”
“I’ve an Egyptian rosary, knight. See, I wear it on this golden chain, next my heart, for its safety——”
“To ward off witchcraft138?”
“Bah! ’Tis a toy in usefulness. I keep it, thinking it may work incantation with the money-lender, and so save me sometime from starvation.” Then the Jew laughed aloud at his own wit. It seemed very ridiculous to him to liken his talisman139 to the real rosary or its saint.
“Wouldst thou let me examine it, Jew?”
The latter handed to the knight a chain and image.
“Egyptian?”
“An image of Neb-ta, sister of Isis, the wife of the Sun God Osiris. It was given me by a Copt priest, whom I saved from drowning in the Nile.”
“A Copt?”
“A Copt. He was a professed140 Christian141; but, like some of the ancestral Egyptians, sought to be right by being a little of every thing. He was very superstitious142, though he thought himself very broad-minded. He was quite certain that Coptic Christianity was true, though not equally certain that his pagan ancestors were in faith all false. He thought he’d be on the safe side by mixing a little of all creeds143 with his own, and so he prayed in Christ’s name and also Neb-ta’s.”
“A pretty fool, Jew.”
“Yea. He had a story about the goddess, very[130] pretty when not absurd, running somehow thus: When Osiris was cut to pieces by Set, a type of day slain144 by night, I think, Neb-ta went round the world with her widowed sister, Isis, to gather up the fragments of her spouse145. Isis is the moon above; below, reproduction. She is pictured in Egypt, as all the female deities146, with two eggs and a half-circle at the side, to express the latter idea. Isis has in her hand also this sign—a cross supporting an egg, to typify immortality147. The old Egyptian priest told me this sympathetic Neb-ta, if I trusted her, would reward me for saving his life, by defending my case in Hades. There is a good deal of mysticism in all this, but I rather prize the gift, since it reminds me that I once saved a man.”
“But, Nourahmal? Since thou knew of Mary thou hast saved a woman, Jew.”
The Jew was silent. The knight continued:
“These philosophic148, inseeing, sign-writing, symbol-making Egyptians were pilgrims, too; a nation of graal-seekers; after an idea, example. I see always the huge Sphinx coming before me when I think of them.”
“The Sphinx! Well, that’s strange. I’d never think of that, unless I happened upon something very big and very meaningless!”
“No, no; the people that rocked the cradle of religions in their infancy149, wrought all their theology into that one mighty150 symbol, to endure and challenge compare with all that man should find beside.”
“I do not see how!”
“The Sphinx faces the East—light!”
“True!”
[131]
“It can not reach that light toward which it looks, neither could the Nubians.”
“All true.”
“It was part man, part beast; but the upper part was man, and this is what we think we know, and all of man?”
“Oh, knight, Phthah, the ‘beautiful-faced,’ ‘secret-opener’ of the Nile gods has touched thee.”
“The Sphinx was like man’s thought; too great for words; at least such words as men can now fit to their lips.”
“I see; it’s all coming into my mind, master.”
“It sat still and was silent, but the world went on; the thought it expressed reached hearts after the men that formed the image had passed away. The truth lives ever, and can not die until it completes its purpose.”
“Thou art a magician, who pleases, astonishes, excites, instructs, and at the same time plays with me as if I were a pigmy!”
“It’s not I, but the truth. The Sphinx again! Its hugeness, truth expressed, appears mighty when placed by our sides.”
“Tell me where I am! Shall I fling Neb-ta away as a bauble151, or beg its pardon for hanging so much meaning to a fool’s neck?”
“Vehement! The sun is in thy head!”
“But shall I sit and look as a Sphinx, or run mad because I can’t?”
“Be calm, and let me tell thee that the dwellers152 by the mighty Nile plagued themselves with lasting119 darkness when they banished153 the people whose leader’s face[132] shone from communion with Jehovah. They clung to some half truths, left them by the progeny154 of Joseph, but the half was dimmed by courted lusts155.”
“But my people had no Neb-ta, no women divinities to leave in Egypt.”
“No, yet Egypt, aiming to exalt122 the tender, the beautiful, the mother, incarnated156 certain virtues157, and lo, a woman deity! It was an effort to find the ‘Rose.’ The nation was in a vast, serious pilgrimage through all their dynasties after an idea, a pattern; an opportunity to reach and to express the best things. I tell thee, Jew, the heathen nations sit in darkness; this side and that, along the track of time, holding here and there a torch, waiting through the night whose hours are tolled158 off at century intervals159, for something, Some One. There have passed before them like phantoms160, gods and gods; man invented, man evolved; but none of these tarried, none satisfied. Oh, ‘the Isles161 wait for thee,’ Jesus, Thou Ideal Man, and also for the true conception of Mary the ideal woman!”
“For two Gods? Is Mary divine?”
“Did I say that? Nay162, as the child Jesus was subject to her, so she was subject to the Christ, at last. Christ was the Word, Mary His blessed echo; Christ the Sun, Mary the Moon that reflected that light, showing its beauty in woman’s life!”
“But now, what shall I do with my beautiful fright, Neb-ta, Sir Charleroy?”
“Put her away, in mind, amid the galaxies163 of woman deities; mythical164 in all but the pitiful sincerity of the adoration165 of their devotees and in the greatness of the truths they vaguely166 articulated. See, I’ll interpret:[133] Isis going round the world to gather up the fragments of her dismembered husband. Woman’s ministry167; the restoration of man; wife consecration168 to an only love. Then there was not only beautiful widowhood, second only to beautiful wifehood, but also the spinster sister. Hail Egypt! Thy Sphinx saw further than our peoples of boasted civilizations. At our best we never rose so near to a just altitude as to attempt the deification of the maiden169 sister, the omnipresent angel, who mothers other people’s children as if they were her own. Egypt worshipped motherhood, perhaps grossly, in adoring the earth’s fructifications, but she did not overlook those pious170 souls who in a glorious self-abnegation play waiting-maids to the real queens of earth, the child-bearers. I’d never tire praising the child-bearers, or all who love them, for they that bring forth a life are greater than the greatest kingly man-slayer on earth. The world is upside down; no religion is wholly false that aids to right it in any degree. Hail, creeds of Egypt, or any other land, that seek to efface171 from fame’s pages the names of life-destroyers that thereon may chiefly shine the names of those who give or save life.”
“Oh, oscillating Sir Charleroy, thou art just and courtly now.”
“Praise me, then! Mankind would average better by far than it does if all were right half the time.”
“Would I could gather all the threads of to-day’s blessed communings into a golden band to support over my heart faith’s breastplate.”
“I can give thee its summary: God, a beauty Creator, out of all things hideous in His good Providence[134] will emerge the fine, tender and loving. Neb-ta, Egypt’s ideal, carried the lotus, the flower of unrestrained pleasure, as her scepter; Neb-ta-like the influences that sway most human hearts to-day; but the Rose of the world has blossomed. Mary, the flower of women. They that love and serve, as that warm, red-hearted woman, shall at last reign in eternal bliss172 within the ruby173 walls of the New Jerusalem.”
“I’m with the knight, to proclaim thy Rose!”
“A good profession! It will be well if we remember that woman is as essential to religion as religion to women. As for man he needs the one as the interpreter of the other. Therefore, it was that God sent to earth a flower that could talk.”
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1
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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2
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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3
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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4
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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5
barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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6
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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7
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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8
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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9
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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10
timorous
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| adj.胆怯的，胆小的 | |
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11
unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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12
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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13
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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14
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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15
tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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16
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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17
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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18
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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19
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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20
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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21
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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22
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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23
perverted
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| adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 )；腐蚀；败坏；使堕落 | |
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24
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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25
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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26
intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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28
throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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29
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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30
tuned
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| adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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31
exult
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| v.狂喜，欢腾；欢欣鼓舞 | |
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32
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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33
millennial
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| 一千年的，千福年的 | |
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34
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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35
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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36
contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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37
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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38
interpretations
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| n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解 | |
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39
picturesqueness
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40
evokes
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| 产生，引起，唤起( evoke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41
beget
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| v.引起；产生 | |
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42
animate
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| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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43
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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44
anthem
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| n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌 | |
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45
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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46
fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47
aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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48
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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49
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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50
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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51
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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52
hermits
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| （尤指早期基督教的）隐居修道士，隐士，遁世者( hermit的名词复数 ) | |
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53
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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54
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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56
ridicules
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| n.嘲笑( ridicule的名词复数 )；奚落；嘲弄；戏弄v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的第三人称单数 ) | |
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57
ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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58
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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59
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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60
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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61
celibate
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| adj.独身的，独身主义的；n.独身者 | |
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62
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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63
dawdle
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| vi.浪费时间；闲荡 | |
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64
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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wails
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| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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66
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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67
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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68
begetting
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| v.为…之生父( beget的现在分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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69
seraph
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| n.六翼天使 | |
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70
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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71
javelins
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| n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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72
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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73
lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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74
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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75
idols
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| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
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76
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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77
meager
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| adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的 | |
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78
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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79
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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80
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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81
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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82
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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83
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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84
splendors
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| n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 )；壮丽；光辉；显赫 | |
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85
exulting
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| vi. 欢欣鼓舞，狂喜 | |
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86
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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87
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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88
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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89
ointment
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| n.药膏，油膏，软膏 | |
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90
blister
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| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
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91
alabaster
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| adj.雪白的；n.雪花石膏；条纹大理石 | |
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92
peals
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| n.（声音大而持续或重复的）洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 )；隆隆声；洪亮的钟声；钟乐v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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93
seraphim
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| n.六翼天使(seraph的复数)；六翼天使( seraph的名词复数 ) | |
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94
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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95
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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96
bungling
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| adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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97
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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98
gainsaying
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的现在分词 ) | |
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99
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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100
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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101
commemorate
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| vt.纪念，庆祝 | |
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102
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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103
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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104
misnomer
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| n.误称 | |
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105
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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106
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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107
bead
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| n.念珠；(pl.)珠子项链；水珠 | |
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108
enchantments
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| n.魅力( enchantment的名词复数 )；迷人之处；施魔法；着魔 | |
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109
gemmed
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| 点缀（gem的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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110
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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111
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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112
guilds
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| 行会，同业公会，协会( guild的名词复数 ) | |
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113
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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114
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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115
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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116
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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117
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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118
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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119
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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120
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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121
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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122
exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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123
parturition
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| n.生产，分娩 | |
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124
sepulcher
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| n.坟墓 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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intercede
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| vi.仲裁，说情 | |
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adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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dependants
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| 受赡养者，受扶养的家属( dependant的名词复数 ) | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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rebukes
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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emblems
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| n.象征，标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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ambling
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| v.（马）缓行( amble的现在分词 )；从容地走，漫步 | |
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amble
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| vi.缓行，漫步 | |
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138
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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talisman
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| n.避邪物，护身符 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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bauble
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| n.美观而无价值的饰物 | |
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dwellers
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| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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progeny
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| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
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lusts
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| 贪求（lust的第三人称单数形式） | |
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incarnated
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| v.赋予（思想、精神等）以人的形体( incarnate的过去式和过去分词 )；使人格化；体现；使具体化 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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tolled
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| 鸣钟（toll的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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galaxies
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| 星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物） | |
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mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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consecration
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| n.供献，奉献，献祭仪式 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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ruby
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| n.红宝石，红宝石色 | |
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