Transcript

004 - The Castle · Six Stories

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Speaker 1: Section four of six stories by George mac Donald. This
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Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Larry Wilson. Six Stories by
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Speaker 1: George mac Donald, Section four. The castle on the top
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Speaker 1: of a high cliff, forming part of the base of
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Speaker 1: a great mountain, stood a lofty castle. When or how
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Speaker 1: it was built, no man knew, nor could any one
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Speaker 1: pretend to understand its architecture. Every One who looked upon
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Speaker 1: it felt that it was lordly and noble. And where
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Speaker 1: one part seemed not to agree with another, the wise
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Speaker 1: and modest dared not to call them incongruous, but presume
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Speaker 1: that the whole might be constructed on some higher principle
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Speaker 1: of architecture than they yet understood. What helped them to
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Speaker 1: this conclusion was that no one had ever seen the
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Speaker 1: whole of the edifice, that even of the portion best known,
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Speaker 1: some part or other was always wrapped in thick folds
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Speaker 1: of mist from the mountain, and that when the sun
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Speaker 1: shone upon this mist, the parts of the building that
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Speaker 1: appeared through the vaporous vale were strangely glorified in their indistinctness,
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Speaker 1: so that they seemed to belong to some aerial abode
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Speaker 1: in the land of the sunset, And the beholders could
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Speaker 1: hardly tell whether they had ever seen them before, or
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Speaker 1: whether they were now for the first time partially revealed,
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Speaker 1: Nor although it was inhabited, could certain information be procured
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Speaker 1: as to its internal construction. Those who dwelt in it
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Speaker 1: often discovered rooms they had never entered before, yea once
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Speaker 1: or twice, whole suites of apartments of which only dim
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Speaker 1: legends had been handed down from former times. Some of
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Speaker 1: them expected to find one day secret places filled with
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Speaker 1: treasures of wondrous jewels, amongst which they hoped to light
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Speaker 1: upon Solomon's Ring, which had for ages disappeared from the earth,
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Speaker 1: but which had controlled the spirits, and the possession of
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Speaker 1: which made a man simply what a man should be
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Speaker 1: the king of the world now. And then a narrow,
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Speaker 1: winding stair hitherto untrodden would bring them forth on a
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Speaker 1: new turret. Whence new prospects of the circumjacent country were
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Speaker 1: spread out before them. How many more of these there
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Speaker 1: might be, or how much loftier, no one could tell,
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Speaker 1: nor could the foundations of the castle in the rock
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Speaker 1: on which it was built be determined with the smallest
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Speaker 1: approach to precision. Those of the family who had given
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Speaker 1: themselves to exploring in that direction found such a labyrinth
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Speaker 1: of vaults and passages, and endless successions of down going
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Speaker 1: stairs out of one underground space into yet lower, that
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Speaker 1: they came to the conclusion that at least the whole
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Speaker 1: mountain was perforated and honeycombed. In this fashion, they had
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Speaker 1: a dim consciousness too, of the presence in those awful
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Speaker 1: regions of beings whom they could not comprehend. Once they
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Speaker 1: came upon the brink of a great black gulf, in
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Speaker 1: which the eye could see nothing but darkness, they recoiled
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Speaker 1: with horror, for the conviction flashed upon them that that
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Speaker 1: gulf went down into the very simple spaces of the earth,
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Speaker 1: of which they had hitherto been wandering only in the
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Speaker 1: upper crust. Nay, that the seething blackness before them had
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Speaker 1: relations mysterious and beyond human comprehension with the far off
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Speaker 1: voids of space into which the stars dare not enter.
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Speaker 1: At the foot of the cliff, whereon the castle stood,
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Speaker 1: lay a deep lake in excess saved by a few
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Speaker 1: avenues being surrounded on all sides with precipices, which made
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Speaker 1: the water look very black, although it was pure as
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Speaker 1: the night sky. From a door in the castle, which
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Speaker 1: was not to be otherwise, entered a broad flight of
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Speaker 1: steps cut in the rock, went down to the lake
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Speaker 1: and disappeared below its surface. Some thought the steps went
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Speaker 1: to the very bottom of the water. Now in this
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Speaker 1: castle there dwelt a large family of brothers and sisters.
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Speaker 1: They had never seen their father or mother. The younger
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Speaker 1: had been educated by the elder, and these by an
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Speaker 1: unseen care and ministration about the sources of which they
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Speaker 1: had somehow or other, troubled themselves very little. For what
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Speaker 1: people are accustomed to they regard as coming from nobody,
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Speaker 1: as if help and progress and joy and love were
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Speaker 1: the natural crops of chaos or old knight. But traditions
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Speaker 1: said that one day it was utterly uncertain when their
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Speaker 1: father would come and leave them no more, for he
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Speaker 1: was still alive, though where he lived nobody knew. In
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Speaker 1: the meantime, all the rest had to obey their eldest
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Speaker 1: brother and listen to his counsels. But almost all the
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Speaker 1: family was very fond of liberty, as they called it,
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Speaker 1: and liked to run up and down, hither and thither,
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Speaker 1: roving about with neither law nor order, just as they pleased.
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Speaker 1: So they could not endure their brother's tyranny, as they
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Speaker 1: called it. At one time, they said that he was
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Speaker 1: only one of themselves, and therefore they would not obey him.
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Speaker 1: At another that he was not like them and could
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Speaker 1: not understand them, and therefore they would not obey him.
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Speaker 1: Yet sometimes when he came and looked them full in
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Speaker 1: the face, they were terrified and dared not disobey, for
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Speaker 1: he was stately, unstern and strong. Not one of them
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Speaker 1: loved him heartily, except the eldest sister, who was very
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Speaker 1: beautiful and silent, and whose eyes shone as if light
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Speaker 1: lay somewhere deep behind them. Even she, although she loved him,
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Speaker 1: thought him very hard sometimes, for when he had once
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Speaker 1: said a thing plainly, he could not be persuaded to
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Speaker 1: think it over again. So even she forgot him sometimes
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Speaker 1: and went her own ways and enjoyed herself without him.
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Speaker 1: Most of them regarded him as a sort of watchman,
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Speaker 1: whose business it was to keep them in order, and
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Speaker 1: so they were indignant and disliked him, yet they all
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Speaker 1: had a secret feeling that they ought to be subject
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Speaker 1: to him. And after any particular act of disregard, none
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Speaker 1: of them could think with any peace of the old
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Speaker 1: story about the return of their father to his house.
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Speaker 1: But indeed they never thought much about it, or about
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Speaker 1: their father at all. For how could those who cared
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Speaker 1: so little for their brother, whom they saw every day,
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Speaker 1: care for their father, whom they had never seen. One
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Speaker 1: chief cause of complaint against him was that he interfered
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Speaker 1: with their favorite studies and pursuits, whereas he only sought
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Speaker 1: to make them give up trifling with earnest things and
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Speaker 1: seek for truth and not for amusement for the many
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Speaker 1: wonders around them. He did not want them to turn
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Speaker 1: to other studies or to assume pleasures, but in those
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Speaker 1: studies to seek the highest things, most and other things
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Speaker 1: in proportion to their true worth and nobleness. This could
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Speaker 1: not fail to be distasteful to those who did not
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Speaker 1: care for what was higher than they, And so matters
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Speaker 1: went on for some time. They thought they could do
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Speaker 1: better without their brother, and their brother knew they could
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Speaker 1: not do at all without him, and tried to fulfill
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Speaker 1: the charge committed into his hands at length one day,
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Speaker 1: for the thought seemed to strike them simultaneously, they conferred
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Speaker 1: together about giving a great entertainment in their grandest room
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Speaker 1: to any of the neighbors who chose to come, or
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Speaker 1: indeed to any inhabitants of the earth or heir who
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Speaker 1: would visit them. They were too proud to reflect that
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Speaker 1: some company might defile even the dwellers in what was
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Speaker 1: undoubtedly the finest palace on the face of the earth.
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Speaker 1: But what made the thing worse was that the old
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Speaker 1: tradition said that these rooms were to be kept entirely
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Speaker 1: for the use of the owner of the castle, And indeed,
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Speaker 1: whenever they entered them, such was the effect of their
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Speaker 1: loftiness and grandeur upon their minds, that they always thought
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Speaker 1: of the old story and could not help believing it.
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Speaker 1: Nor would the brother permit them to forget it now.
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Speaker 1: But appearing suddenly amongst them, when they had no expectation
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Speaker 1: of being interrupted by him, he rebuked them both for
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Speaker 1: the indiscriminate nature of their invitation and for the intention
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Speaker 1: of introducing anyone, not to speak of some who would
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Speaker 1: doubtless make their appearance on the evening in question, into
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Speaker 1: the rooms kept sacred for the use of the unknown Father.
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Speaker 1: But by this time their talk with each other had
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Speaker 1: so excited their expectations of enjoyment, which had previously been
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Speaker 1: strong enough, that anger sprang up within them at the
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Speaker 1: thought of being deprived of their hopes. And they looked
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Speaker 1: each other in the eyes, and the looks said, we
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Speaker 1: are many, and he is one. Let us get rid
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Speaker 1: of him, for he is always finding fault in thwarting
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Speaker 1: us in the most innocent pleasures, as if we would
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Speaker 1: wish to do anything wrong. So, without a word spoken,
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Speaker 1: they rushed upon him. And although he was stronger than
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Speaker 1: any of them, and struggled hard at first, yet they
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Speaker 1: overcame him at last. Indeed, some of them thought he
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Speaker 1: yielded to their violence long before they had the mastery
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Speaker 1: of him, and this very submission terrified the more tender
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Speaker 1: hearted amongst them. However, they bound him, carried him down
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Speaker 1: many stairs, and having remembered an iron staple in the
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Speaker 1: wall of a certain vault with a thick, rusty chain
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Speaker 1: attached to it, they bore him thither and made the
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Speaker 1: chain fast around him. There they left him shuddering the great,
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Speaker 1: gnarring brazen door of the vault as they departed four
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Speaker 1: upper regions of the castle. Now all was a tumult
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Speaker 1: of preparation. Everyone was talking of the coming festivity, and
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Speaker 1: no one spoke of the deed they had done. A
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Speaker 1: sudden paleness overspread the face, now of one and now
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Speaker 1: of another. But it passed away, and no one took
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Speaker 1: any notice of it. They only plied the task of
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Speaker 1: the moment. The more energetically. Messengers were sent far and near,
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Speaker 1: not to individuals or families, but publishing in all places
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Speaker 1: of concourse a general invitation to any who chose to
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Speaker 1: come on a certain day and partake for certain succeeding
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Speaker 1: days of the hospitality of the dwellers in the castle.
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Speaker 1: Many were the preparations immediately begun for complying with the invitation.
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Speaker 1: But the noblest of their neighbors refused to appear, not
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Speaker 1: from pride, but because of the unsuitableness and carelessness of
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Speaker 1: such a mode. With some of them, it was an
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Speaker 1: old condition in the tenure of their estates that they
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Speaker 1: should go to no one's dwelling except visited in person
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Speaker 1: and expressly solicited, others knowing what sort of persons would
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Speaker 1: be there, and that from certain physical antipathy they could
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Speaker 1: scarcely breathe. In their company made up their minds at
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Speaker 1: once not to go. Yet multitudes, many of them beautiful
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Speaker 1: and innocent, as well as gay, resolved to appear. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: the great rooms of the castle were got in readiness,
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Speaker 1: that is, the proceeded to deface them with decorations, for
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Speaker 1: there was a solemnity and stateliness about them in their
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Speaker 1: ordinary condition, which was at once felt to be unsuitable
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Speaker 1: for the light hearted company, so soon to move about
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Speaker 1: in them with the self same carelessness with which men
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Speaker 1: walk abroad. Within the great heavens and halls and clouds,
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Speaker 1: one day, while the workmen were busy, the eldest sister
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Speaker 1: of whom I have already spoken happened to enter. She
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Speaker 1: knew not why. Suddenly the great idea of the mighty
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Speaker 1: Hall dawned upon her and filled her soul. The so
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Speaker 1: called decorations vanished from her view, as she felt as
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Speaker 1: if she stood in her father's presence. She was at
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Speaker 1: one elevated and humbled, as suddenly the idea faded and fled,
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Speaker 1: and she beheld but the gaudy festoons and draperies and
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Speaker 1: paintings which disfigured the grandeur, she wept and sped away.
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Speaker 1: Now was too late to interfere, and things must take
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Speaker 1: their course. She would have been but a Cassandra prophetess
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Speaker 1: to those who saw but the pleasure before them. She
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Speaker 1: had not been present when her brother was in prisoned,
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Speaker 1: and indeed, for some days had been so wrapped in
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Speaker 1: her own business that she had taken but little heed
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Speaker 1: of anything that was going on. But they all expected
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Speaker 1: her to show herself when the company was gathered, and
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Speaker 1: they had applied to her for advice at various times
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Speaker 1: during their operations. At length, the expected hour arrived, and
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Speaker 1: the company began to assemble. It was a warm summer evening.
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Speaker 1: The dark lake reflected the rose colored clouds in the west,
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Speaker 1: and through the flesh rowed many gaily painted boats with
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Speaker 1: various colored flags, towards the massy rock on which the
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Speaker 1: castle stood. The trees and flowers seemed already asleep and
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Speaker 1: breathing forth their sweet dream breath, laughter, and low voices
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Speaker 1: rose from the breast of the lake to the ears
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Speaker 1: of the youths and maidens, looking forth expectant from the
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Speaker 1: lofty windows. They went down to the broad platform at
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Speaker 1: the top of the stairs in front of the door,
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Speaker 1: to receive their visitors. By degrees. The festivities of the
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Speaker 1: evening commenced. The same smiles flew forth, both at eyes
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Speaker 1: and lips, darting like beams through the gathering crowd. Music
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Speaker 1: from unseen sources, now rolled in billows, now crept in ripples,
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Speaker 1: through the sea of air that filled the lofty rooms,
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Speaker 1: and in the dancing halls, when hand took hand, and
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Speaker 1: form and motion were molded and swayed by the indwelling music.
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Speaker 1: It governed not these alone, but as the ruling spirit
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Speaker 1: took the place, every new burst of music, for a
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Speaker 1: new dance, swept before it a new accordant order, and
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Speaker 1: dyed the flames that glowed in the lofty lamps with
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Speaker 1: a new and accordant strain. The floors bent beneath the
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Speaker 1: feet of the time keeping dancers. But twice in the
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Speaker 1: evening some of the inmates started, and the pallor occasionally
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Speaker 1: common to the household, overspread their face, for they felt
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Speaker 1: underneath them a counter motion to the dance, as if
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Speaker 1: the floor rose slightly to answer their feet. And all
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Speaker 1: the time their brother lay below in the dungeon, like John,
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Speaker 1: the Baptist in the castle of herod when the lords
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Speaker 1: and captain sat around, and the daughters of Herodias danced
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Speaker 1: before them. Outside, all around the castle rooted the dark
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Speaker 1: night unheeded, for the clouds had come up from all
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Speaker 1: sides and were crowding together overhead. In the infrequent pauses
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Speaker 1: of the music, they might have heard now and then
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Speaker 1: the gusty rush of a lonely wind coming and going.
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Speaker 1: No one could know whence or whither, born and dying,
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Speaker 1: unexpected and unregarded. But and the festivities were at their height.
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Speaker 1: When the external and passing confidence which is produced between
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Speaker 1: superficial natures by a common pleasure, was at the fall.
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Speaker 1: A sudden crash of thunder quailled the music, as thunder
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Speaker 1: quails the noise of the uplifted sea. The windows were
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Speaker 1: driven in, and the torrents of rain, carried in folds
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Speaker 1: of rushing wind, poured into the halls. The lights were
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Speaker 1: swept away, and the great rooms, now dark within, were
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Speaker 1: darkened yet more by the dazzling shoots of flame from
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Speaker 1: the vault of blackness overhead. Those that ventured to look
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Speaker 1: out of the window saw in the blue brilliancy of
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Speaker 1: the quick following jets of lightning, the lake at the
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Speaker 1: foot of the rock, ordinarily so still and so dark,
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Speaker 1: lighted up, not on the surface only, but down to
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Speaker 1: half its depth, so that as it tossed in the wind,
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Speaker 1: like a tortured sea of writhing flames or incandescent half
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Speaker 1: molten serpents of brass, they could not tell whether a
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Speaker 1: strong phosphorescent did not issue from the transparent body of
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Speaker 1: the waters, as if Earth and sky lightened together. One
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Speaker 1: consenting source of flaming utterance sad was the condition of
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Speaker 1: the late plastic mass of living form that had flowed
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Speaker 1: into shape at the will and law of the music,
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Speaker 1: broken into individuals, the common transfusing spirit withdrawn, they stood drenched,
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Speaker 1: cold and benumbed with clinging garments. Light order, harmony, purpose departed,
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Speaker 1: and chaos restored. The issuings of life turned back on
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Speaker 1: their sources, chilly and dead, and in every heart reigned
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Speaker 1: the falsest of despairing convictions that this was the only reality,
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Speaker 1: and that was but a dream. The eldest sister stood
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Speaker 1: with clasped hands and downbent head, shivering and speechless, as
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Speaker 1: if waiting for something to follow. Nor did she wait
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Speaker 1: long a terrible flash and thunder piil made the castle rock,
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Speaker 1: and in the pausing silence that followed, her quick sense
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Speaker 1: heard the rattling of a chain far off, deep down,
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Speaker 1: and soon the sound of heavy footsteps, accompanied with the
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Speaker 1: clanking of iron, reached her ear. She felt that her
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Speaker 1: brother was at him, even in the darkness, and amidst
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Speaker 1: the bellowing of another deep bosomed cloud monster, she knew
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Speaker 1: he had entered the room. A moment after a continuous
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Speaker 1: pulsation of angry blue light, again, which lasting for some moments,
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Speaker 1: revealed him standing amongst them, gaunt, haggard, and motionless, his
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Speaker 1: hair and beard untrimmed, his face ghastly, his eyes large
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Speaker 1: and hollow. The light seemed to gather round him as
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Speaker 1: a center. Indeed, some believed that it throbbed and raising
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Speaker 1: from his person, and not from the stormy heavens above them.
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Speaker 1: The lightning had rint the wall of his prison and
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Speaker 1: released the iron staple of his chain, which he had
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Speaker 1: wound about him like a girdle. In his hand he
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Speaker 1: carried an iron fetter bar, which he had found on
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Speaker 1: the floor of the vault. More terrified at his aspect
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Speaker 1: than at all the violence of the storm. The visitors,
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Speaker 1: with many a shriek and cry, rushed out into the
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Speaker 1: tempestuous night. By degrees, the storm died away. Its last
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Speaker 1: flash revealed the forms of the brothers and sisters lying prostrate,
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Speaker 1: with their faces on the floor, and that fearful shape
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Speaker 1: standing motionless amidst them. Still morning donned, and there they lay,
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Speaker 1: and there he stood. But at a word from him,
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Speaker 1: they arose and went about their various duties, though listlessly enough.
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Speaker 1: The eldest sister was the last to rise, and when
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Speaker 1: she did it was only by a terrible effort that
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Speaker 1: she was able to reach her room, where she fell
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Speaker 1: again on the floor. There she remained lying for days.
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Speaker 1: The brother caused the doors of the great suite of
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Speaker 1: rooms to be closed, leaving them just as they were,
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Speaker 1: with all the childlys adornments scattered about, and the rain
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Speaker 1: still falling in through the shattered windows. Thus let them lie,
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Speaker 1: said he, till the rain and frost have cleansed them
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Speaker 1: of paint and drapery. No storm can hurt the pillars
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Speaker 1: and arches of these halls. The hours of this day
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Speaker 1: went heavily. The storm was gone, but the rain was left.
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Speaker 1: The passions had departed but the tears remained behind, dull
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Speaker 1: and dark. The low, misty clouds brooded over the castle
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Speaker 1: and the lake, and shut out all the neighborhood. Even
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Speaker 1: if they had climbed to the loftiest known turret, they
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Speaker 1: would have found it swathed in a garment of cleaning vapor,
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Speaker 1: affording no refreshment to the eyes and no hope to
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Speaker 1: the heart. There was one lofty tower that rose sheer
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Speaker 1: a hundred feet above the rest, and from which the
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Speaker 1: fog could have been seen, lying in a gray mass beneath.
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Speaker 1: But that tower they had not yet discovered, nor another
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Speaker 1: close beside it, the top of which was never seen,
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Speaker 1: nor could be, for the highest clouds of heaven clustered
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Speaker 1: continually around it. The rain fell continually, though not heavily.
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Speaker 1: Without and within, too, there were clouds from which dropped
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Speaker 1: the tears, which are the rain of the spirit. All
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Speaker 1: the good of life's seemed for the time departed, and
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Speaker 1: their souls lived, but as leafless trees that had forgotten
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Speaker 1: the joy of the summer, and whom no wind prophetic
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Speaker 1: of spring had yet visited. They moved about mechanically, and
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Speaker 1: had not strength enough left to wish to die. The
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Speaker 1: next day, the clouds were higher, and a little wind
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Speaker 1: blew through such loopholes in the turrets, as the false
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Speaker 1: improvements of the inmates had not yet filled with glass
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Speaker 1: shutting out as the storm so the serene visitings of
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Speaker 1: the heavens. Throughout the day, the brother took various opportunities
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Speaker 1: of addressing a gentle command, now to one and now
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Speaker 1: to another of his family. It was obeyed in silence.
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Speaker 1: The wind blew fresher through the loopholes and the shattered
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Speaker 1: windows of the great rooms, and found its way by
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Speaker 1: unknown passages to faces and eyes hot with weeping. It
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Speaker 1: cooled and blessed them. When the sun arose the next day,
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Speaker 1: it was in a clear sky. By degrees, everything fell
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Speaker 1: into the regularity of subordination. With the subordination came increase
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Speaker 1: of freedom. The steps of the more youthful of the
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Speaker 1: family were heard on the stairs and in the corridors,
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Speaker 1: more light and quipped than ever before. Their brother had
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Speaker 1: lost the terrors of aspect produced by his confinement, and
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Speaker 1: his commands were issued more gently and oftener, with a
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Speaker 1: smile than in all their previous history. By degrees, his
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Speaker 1: presence was universally felt through the house. It was no
23:17
Speaker 1: surprise to any one at his studies to see him
23:21
Speaker 1: by his side when he lifted up his eyes, though
23:24
Speaker 1: he had not before known that he was in the room.
23:27
Speaker 1: And although some dread still remained, it was rapidly vanishing
23:31
Speaker 1: before the advances of a firm friendship. Without immediately ordering
23:37
Speaker 1: their labors, he always influenced them, and often altered their
23:40
Speaker 1: direction and objects. The change soon evident in the household
23:45
Speaker 1: was remarkable. A simpler, nobler expression was visible on all
23:50
Speaker 1: the countenances. The voices of the men were deeper, and
23:54
Speaker 1: yet seen by their very depth, more feminine than before,
23:59
Speaker 1: while the voices of the women were softer and sweeter,
24:01
Speaker 1: and at the same time more full and decided. Now
24:05
Speaker 1: the eyes had often an expression as if their sight
24:08
Speaker 1: was absorbed in the gaze of the inward eyes. And
24:12
Speaker 1: when the eyes of two met, there passed between those
24:15
Speaker 1: eyes the utterance of a conviction that both meant the
24:19
Speaker 1: same thing. But the change was of course to be
24:22
Speaker 1: seen more clearly, though not more evidently, in individuals. One
24:28
Speaker 1: of the brothers, for instance, was very fond of astronomy.
24:31
Speaker 1: He had his observatory on a lofty tower which stood
24:35
Speaker 1: pretty clear of the others towards the north and east.
24:40
Speaker 1: But hitherto his astronomy, as he had called it, had
24:43
Speaker 1: been more of the character of astrology. Often, too, he
24:47
Speaker 1: might have been seen directing a heaven searching telescope to
24:51
Speaker 1: catch the rapid transit of a fiery shooting star, belonging
24:55
Speaker 1: altogether to the earthly atmosphere and not to the serene heavens.
25:00
Speaker 1: He had to learn that the signs of the air
25:02
Speaker 1: are not the signs of the skies. Nay, once his
25:06
Speaker 1: brother surprised him in the act of examining through his
25:09
Speaker 1: largest tube a patch of burning heat upon a distant hill.
25:14
Speaker 1: But now he was diligent from morning till night in
25:17
Speaker 1: the study of the laws of the truth that has
25:20
Speaker 1: to do with stars. And when the curtain of sunlight
25:23
Speaker 1: was about to rise from before the heavenly worlds, which
25:27
Speaker 1: it had hidden all day long, he might be seen
25:30
Speaker 1: preparing his instruments with that solemn countenance with which it
25:35
Speaker 1: becometh one to look into the mysterious harmonies of nature.
25:40
Speaker 1: Now he learned what law and order and truth are,
25:43
Speaker 1: what consent and harmony mean, how the individual may find
25:48
Speaker 1: his own end in a higher end, where law and
25:51
Speaker 1: freedom mean the same thing, and the purest certainty exists
25:55
Speaker 1: without the slightest constraint. Thus he stood on the earth
26:00
Speaker 1: and looked to the heavens. Another who had been much
26:04
Speaker 1: given to searching out the hollow places and recesses in
26:08
Speaker 1: the foundations of the castle, and who was often to
26:11
Speaker 1: be found with compass and ruler, working away at a
26:14
Speaker 1: chart of the same which he had been in the
26:17
Speaker 1: process of constructing, now came to the conclusion that only
26:22
Speaker 1: by sending the upper regions of his abode could he
26:25
Speaker 1: become capable of understanding what lay beneath, And that in
26:30
Speaker 1: all probability, one clear prospect from the top of the
26:33
Speaker 1: highest attainable turret over the castle as it lay below,
26:38
Speaker 1: would reveal more of the idea of its internal construction
26:42
Speaker 1: than a year spent in wandering through its subterranean vaults.
26:45
Speaker 1: But the fact was that the desire to ascend wakening
26:49
Speaker 1: within him, had made him forget what was beneath, And
26:53
Speaker 1: having laid aside his chart for a time at least,
26:56
Speaker 1: who was now to be met in every quarter of
26:58
Speaker 1: the upper parts, searching and striving upward, now in one direction,
27:03
Speaker 1: and now in another, and seeking as he went the
27:06
Speaker 1: best outlooks into the clear air of outer realities, and
27:11
Speaker 1: they began to discover that they were all meditating different
27:16
Speaker 1: aspects of the same thing. And they brought together their
27:19
Speaker 1: various discoveries and recognized the likenesses between them and the
27:24
Speaker 1: one thing often explained the other, and combining with it,
27:28
Speaker 1: helped to a third. They grew in consequence more and
27:32
Speaker 1: more friendly and loving, so that every now and then
27:35
Speaker 1: one turned to another and said, as in surprise, why
27:38
Speaker 1: you are my brother, why you are my sister? And
27:43
Speaker 1: yet they had always known it. The change reached all.
27:48
Speaker 1: One who lived on the air of sweet sounds, and
27:51
Speaker 1: who was almost always to be found seated by her
27:53
Speaker 1: harp or some other instrument, had till the late storm
27:57
Speaker 1: been generally merry and playful, though sometimes sad. But for
28:02
Speaker 1: a long time after that she was often found weeping
28:05
Speaker 1: and playing little simple airs which she had heard in childhood,
28:10
Speaker 1: backward longings followed by fresh tears. Before long, however, a
28:15
Speaker 1: new element manifested itself in her music. It became yet
28:19
Speaker 1: more wild, and sometimes retained all its sadness, but it
28:23
Speaker 1: was mingled with anticipation and hope. The past and the
28:26
Speaker 1: future merged in one, and while memory yet brought the
28:30
Speaker 1: rain cloud expectation through the rainbow across its bosom, and
28:35
Speaker 1: all was uttered in her music, which rose and swelled,
28:40
Speaker 1: now to defiance, now to victory, then died in a
28:44
Speaker 1: torrent of weeping. As to the eldest sister, it was
28:49
Speaker 1: many days before she recovered from the shock. At length.
28:53
Speaker 1: One day her brother came to her, took her by
28:55
Speaker 1: the hand, led her to an open window, and told
28:58
Speaker 1: her to seat herself by it and look out. She
29:02
Speaker 1: did so, but at first saw nothing more than an
29:05
Speaker 1: unsympathizing blaze of sunlight. But as she looked, the horizon
29:10
Speaker 1: widened out and the dome of the sky ascended, till
29:14
Speaker 1: the grandeur seized upon her soul, and she fell on
29:17
Speaker 1: her knees and wept. Now the heaven seemed to bend
29:21
Speaker 1: lovingly over her, and to stretch out wide cloud arms
29:25
Speaker 1: to embrace her. The earth lay like the bosom of
29:28
Speaker 1: an infinite love beneath her, and the wind kissed her
29:32
Speaker 1: cheek with an odor of roses. She sprang to her
29:35
Speaker 1: feet and turned in an agony of hope, expecting to
29:39
Speaker 1: behold the face of the Father. But there stood only
29:43
Speaker 1: her brother, looking calmly though lovingly on her emotion. She
29:48
Speaker 1: turned again to the window. On the hilltops rested the sky.
29:53
Speaker 1: Heaven and earth were one, and the prophecy awoke in
29:57
Speaker 1: her soul that from betwixt them were the steps of
30:00
Speaker 1: the Father approached. Hitherto she had seen but beauty. Now
30:06
Speaker 1: she beheld truth. Often she had looked on such clouds
30:11
Speaker 1: as these, and loved the strange ethereal curves into which
30:15
Speaker 1: the winds molded them, and had smiled as her little
30:19
Speaker 1: pet sister told her what curious animals she saw in them,
30:23
Speaker 1: and tried to point them out to her. Now they
30:27
Speaker 1: were as troops of angels, jubilant over her new birth,
30:31
Speaker 1: for they sang in her soul of beauty and truth
30:34
Speaker 1: and love. And she looked down, and her little sister
30:37
Speaker 1: knelt beside her. She was a curious child, with black,
30:42
Speaker 1: glittering eyes and dark hair, at the mercy of every
30:46
Speaker 1: wandering wind, A frolicsome daring girl who laughed more than
30:50
Speaker 1: she smiled. She was generally in attendance on her sister,
30:54
Speaker 1: and was always finding and bringing her strange things. She
30:57
Speaker 1: never pulled a primrose, but she knew the harm of
31:00
Speaker 1: all the orchid tribe, and brought from them bees and
31:03
Speaker 1: butterflies innumerable as offerings to her sister. Curious moths and
31:08
Speaker 1: glowworms were her greatest delight, and she loved the stars
31:12
Speaker 1: because they were like the glowworms. But the change had
31:16
Speaker 1: affected her too, for her sister saw that her eyes
31:19
Speaker 1: had lost their glittering looks and had become more liquid
31:23
Speaker 1: and transparent. And from that time she often observed that
31:27
Speaker 1: her gaiety was more gentle, her smile more frequent, her
31:32
Speaker 1: laugh less bell like. And although she was as wild
31:35
Speaker 1: as ever, there was more elegance in her motions and
31:40
Speaker 1: more music in her voice, and she clung to her
31:43
Speaker 1: sister with far greater fondness than before. The land reposed
31:48
Speaker 1: in the embrace of the warm summer days. The clouds
31:51
Speaker 1: of heaven nestled around the towers of the castle, and
31:54
Speaker 1: the hearts of its inmates became conscious of a warm atmosphere,
32:00
Speaker 1: of a presence of love. They began to feel like
32:03
Speaker 1: the children of a household when the mother is at home.
32:06
Speaker 1: Their faces and forms grew daily more and more beautiful,
32:10
Speaker 1: till they wondered as they gazed on each other, as
32:13
Speaker 1: they walked in the gardens of the castle or in
32:16
Speaker 1: the country around. They were often visited, especially the eldest sister,
32:21
Speaker 1: by sounds that no one heard but themselves, issuing from
32:25
Speaker 1: the woods and waters, and by forms of love that
32:28
Speaker 1: lightened out of flowers and grass and great rocks. Now
32:33
Speaker 1: and then the young children would come in, with a slow,
32:36
Speaker 1: stately step, and with great eyes that looked as if
32:39
Speaker 1: they would devour all creation, say that they had met
32:43
Speaker 1: the Father amongst the trees, and that he had kissed them,
32:48
Speaker 1: and added, one of them, I grew so big. But
32:53
Speaker 1: when the others went out to look, they could see
32:55
Speaker 1: no one. And some said it must have been the brother,
32:58
Speaker 1: who grew more and more beautiful and loving and reverend,
33:02
Speaker 1: and who had lost all traces of hardness, so that
33:06
Speaker 1: they wondered they could ever have thought him stern and harsh.
33:09
Speaker 1: But the eldest sister held her peace and looked up,
33:12
Speaker 1: and her eyes filled with tears. Who can tell, thought she?
33:17
Speaker 1: But the little children know more about it than we. Often,
33:22
Speaker 1: at sunrise might be heard their hymn of praise to
33:24
Speaker 1: their unseen father, whom they felt to be near, though
33:28
Speaker 1: they saw him not. Some words thereof once reached my
33:32
Speaker 1: ear through the folds of the music in which they floated,
33:35
Speaker 1: as in an upward snow storm of sweet sounds. And
33:39
Speaker 1: these are some of the words I heard. But there
33:42
Speaker 1: was such I seemed to hear which I could not understand,
33:45
Speaker 1: and some things which I understood but cannot utter. Again,
33:51
Speaker 1: we thank THEE that we have a father and not
33:54
Speaker 1: a maker, that thou hast begotten us and not molded
33:57
Speaker 1: us as images of clay, that we have come forth
34:01
Speaker 1: of thy heart and have not been fashioned by thy hands.
34:05
Speaker 1: It must be so. Only the heart of a father
34:08
Speaker 1: is able to create. We rejoice in it, and bless
34:12
Speaker 1: THEE that we know it. We thank THEE for thyself
34:16
Speaker 1: be what thou art, our root and life, our beginning
34:21
Speaker 1: and end are all in all come home to us
34:25
Speaker 1: Thou livest. Therefore we live in thy light. We see
34:31
Speaker 1: thou art, that is all our song. Thus they worship
34:36
Speaker 1: and love and wait. Their hope and expectation grow ever
34:39
Speaker 1: stronger and brighter that one day ere long the Father
34:43
Speaker 1: will show himself amongst them, and thenceforth dwell in his
34:47
Speaker 1: own house forevermore. What was once but an old legend
34:51
Speaker 1: has become the one desire of their hearts, and the
34:56
Speaker 1: loftiest hope is the surest a being fulfilled. End of
35:03
Speaker 1: Section four.