Daybreak; A Romance of an Old World Part 42

"We consider the circ.u.mstances of your leaving the earth and your journey hither the most remarkable thing of the kind ever heard of, and we have nothing in our experience on which we can begin to build any scheme for sending you off on so long a flight through s.p.a.ce. If you will only be content to stay here till we have progressed further with our investigations of the high civilization brought to light in our comet, perhaps we can help you. The remarkable people whose exalted condition is there represented may have had powers in this direction of which we cannot conceive. The subject will add even more zest to our researches.

"Why do you desire to leave us so soon? You have seen but few of our notable improvements, and learned comparatively little of the practical workings of our high civilization. And then I have been hoping the doctor would come fully into our belief before he went away."

"If you could hear what he has told me," I said, "you would see that he is already fit to be sent as a foreign missionary from this blessed world to the struggling earth."

"Good!" cried Thorwald. "I am delighted to hear it. If anything could reconcile us to the loss of your society, it is the knowledge that you will both he glad messengers of hope to your promising race. I rejoice that I have had a share in the work of preparing you for your mission.

"And now, suppose we all humor your conceit and give you our parting words, as if the s.h.i.+p were at hand which was to sail the mighty void, and bear you safely to your distant home.

"Come, wife, friends, the day is young and the air delightful. There is nothing to hasten us on our way. Let us ride leisurely along and take a little time to speed these earth-dwellers on their prospective journey with a few words of cheer.

"Foedric, what advice have you to offer them before they take their leave of us?"

Foedric was modest, as we had learned before, but he entered into Thorwald's plan with evident pleasure, and said, addressing the doctor and me:

"My friends from foreign skies, you do not need advice from me after you have been so long with Thorwald and Zenith, but I will send a message to your unfortunate fellow beings who have never had the pleasure of their acquaintance. When you have related your experiences and told them the condition in which you have found us, ask them to call us no longer Mars, but Pax, the world of peace. Our planet is red, but not with war. Its red is rather the blush of the dawn that ushers in the day of universal love. My word to men is to expect the advent of that day, and, expecting, to prepare for it. Useless, cruel, inhuman war must cease, with all strife and hatred and envy and bitter feeling; and then shall you begin to see the full measure of beauty in the song of the angels of which you have told us, and 'Peace on earth' will be a blessed fact and not a prophecy. Thorwald, I have finished."

"You have spoken well, Foedric," said Thorwald. "And now, what wise counsel will you give, Proctor?"

"From what I have learned in regard to the people of the earth," replied Proctor, "it seems to me they will be obliged to have a great deal of war there yet--war against a world of evils, which must be driven out with a strong hand before they can have peace. When each individual has subdued his own spirit, then there will be no more war, and no other enemies to conquer."

"Study the majesty and power of G.o.d as exhibited nightly in the starry sky, and learn to revere a being who holds in his hands a million worlds, and not only guides their movements but directs with a heart of love the minutest affairs of all their inhabitants. Look over the broad field of creation, and think of the earth, grand and beautiful as it is, as only one among the vast number of peopled orbs, all swinging in unison, parts of one plan, every one in its day sending forth a song of praise to its maker. So shall your hearts expand and burst the narrow bounds of selfish desire and trivial occupation, and you will begin to grow into the full stature of the sons of G.o.d."

Proctor spoke with such feeling that the doctor and I now began to think that these people must be in earnest and were really preparing to send us home in some way, but the latter idea was, as will speedily be seen, an unjust suspicion.

"Zenith," said Thorwald, "will you take your turn, after Proctor's inspiring words?"

"If we were in truth making our farewells to these friends," replied Zenith, "I should feel more sadness than I am conscious of now.

"My message, O men, shall be a plea for purity. If you would seek to make your world the better for your visit here, teach men everywhere to be pure, a hard lesson to learn, but one that will bring a rich reward.

First make the fountain sweet. Be pure in heart, and then your lives, and even your thoughts, will be pure. When you can fully obey the command, 'Think no evil,' you will need no other commandment to keep your lives unspotted. Such a requirement no doubt seems too difficult for you now, but the earth must come to its maturity by following the same high ideal which has ever been set before us. There is one law for all worlds, an infinitely pure and holy G.o.d commands us all to be perfect even as he is perfect, although to that perfection nor earth nor Mars, nor, perhaps, any other world, has yet attained."

"But, Thorwald, I fear you will not have time to give your farewell words before our friends depart."

"I shall not require much time," replied Thorwald, "but I should not like to lose the opportunity of adding something to what has already been said. I think we have been wise in having this talk, for those who could take advantage of such a novel way of coming to us may discover some means of going home again before we suspect it."

Then, turning to us, Thorwald continued:

"Go back to the earth, my brothers, and tell men to despair not in their conflict with evil; for G.o.d reigns, therefore the good will triumph.

Tell them you found a race of happy beings here, not perfect, but aiming toward perfection, having escaped many of the perils that belong to an earlier stage of existence. The earth, too, will one day be old. Will it be happy then? Your generation can help to make it so. With our history to guide us, and with the knowledge you have given us of the earth's present condition, we have high hopes of your race, and I venture the prediction that your world will see, in the near future, such an advance as you have never dreamed of. The era of a united effort to overthrow the evil forces is approaching, when all will press with eager, sincere hearts into the work, when money will be poured out like water, when men will begin to lose their selfishness and take each other by the hand as brothers, and when the dark places of the earth will grow bright with the light of the gospel.

"I do not wonder you want to get back there. I hope I should have the same desire if I were in your place. What a time in which to live, with so much good work to do, and such encouragement and sure reward!"

Thorwald's enthusiasm made him eloquent, and we all regarded him intently as he spoke. How well I remember that group of persons: Proctor, the devout astronomer; the stalwart and earnest Foedric; Zenith, the queen of all womanly graces; and Thorwald himself, our friend and brother, the rich fruit of an advanced development.

My companion and I were deeply impressed with the words we had heard, and could hardly realize that these friends were not aware that our life in Mars was nearly over, their farewells were so genuine.

But, hark! Thorwald is still speaking:

"Go back to the earth, I say, and--" a crash, a sensation of falling, a dull pain in my head, a new voice at my ear, saying,

"Why, Walter, are you hurt?"

During the effort to recover full consciousness I said:

"There, Doctor, the accident you expected has certainly come."

And then I opened my eyes and discovered that I was sitting in an undignified position on the deck of a vessel of some kind.

Again the voice, now more familiar and identified with a lovely face, said:

"You must have had that broken chair; I knew it would let you down some time. Don't you know me, Walter?"

"Why, yes, it's you, Margaret, isn't it? But where's the doctor?"

"Oh, how are you hurt?" cried Margaret in alarm. "Tell me, and I will run for the doctor at once."

This conversation had all pa.s.sed in a moment, and by the time it was finished I had extricated myself from the broken chair with Margaret's a.s.sistance, and was now wide awake. I had never expected to leave Mars without the doctor; but now he was gone with all the rest, and I was well content to find myself back by Margaret's side, and to hear her pleasant words, the words of a plain inhabitant of the earth, not too good to love me a little selfishly. A wave of intense happiness in the possession of such a love pa.s.sed over me. It was a feeling I had never before experienced in my waking moments and it must have illumined my face, for Margaret continued:

"I don't believe you are hurt at all. You look too happy to be in pain.

What have you been dreaming about, that makes your face s.h.i.+ne so? How thankful I am for this bright moonlight. I never saw you have so much expression before."

"Margaret," I replied, as soon as she would let me speak, "don't you remember you sent me on a quest for my heart? Well, I have found it and brought it back to you."

"How lovely to find it so soon," she exclaimed; "and I know by your looks it's a large one and full of love. But tell me about it. How did it happen?"

"Why, I fell in love with a voice."

"With a voice? Whose voice?"

"Well, it didn't seem to matter much. First it belonged to Mona and then to Avis, and part of the time to both of them."

"You make me jealous," said Margaret.

We were now standing, hand in hand, leaning on the rail of the vessel, in the full enjoyment of our new-found happiness.

"You will not be jealous," I answered, "when you know all about it. I have enough to tell you, Margaret, to occupy a week, I should think.

I have seen and heard a great deal, and seemed to be living amid other scenes for many months, and yet I notice the moon is but two or three hours higher than when you left me there in the chair to go and find your book. I shall take great pleasure in relating to you the entire experience when we have time. Perhaps I will write it out for you. I have been stirred as I never expected to be, but I a.s.sure you I have brought back my whole heart to you. Only," I added, as a sudden flash of memory startled me with its vividness, "I should like to hear that voice once more."

"Ah," said my companion, "why do you think of that so much? I fear you are not quite heart whole. What was there peculiar about the voice?"

"Margaret, it was the most exquisite music anyone ever dreamed of. I cannot describe my emotions or the intensity of my enjoyment whenever I heard it. First the voice belonged to a beautiful girl whom I thought we met on the moon, and who talked only in the language of the birds. Then she went to Mars with us, and there I heard the same sweet voice also from one of the n.o.ble women of that happy planet.

"Oh, what queer things we do in our sleep, and how supremely selfish a dreamer is. I once had a theory that we are all responsible for the character of our dreams, but I hope, my dear, that you will not call me to too strict an account in this case, I should blush to tell you how I loved each singer, and yet I know now it was only the voice that charmed me. I shall seek my pillow with delight to-night, to try and catch in my sleep some faint echo of that song, for I never expect to hear its like in my waking hours. You are laughing at me, and I don't wonder. Let me see. I dreamed that I dreamed that you and Mona and Avis were all one grand, sweet singer. I wonder what would have happened if I had staid there long enough to tell Avis something that was on my mind. Perhaps I never should have come away.

"But forgive me, dear Margaret, for my enthusiasm for simply a memory, and put the blame on my sensitive ears. And now, tell me what you have been doing during these long hours. Did you find the professor and get your book?"

"Yes, but I had to stay a few minutes and hear him talk. I hurried back, however, to be with you, and for my reward found you fast asleep."