Villa Eden Part 225

"You did bravely, young--forgive me--my brother!"

On returning to the hall they all rose; and Weidmann, bidding Roland and Eric take Adams's hand, began as follows,--

"Here, while we clasp our dusky brother in our arms, you see what we are! Through the jubilations of our century, a sound pierces, which, in time to come, shall be heard no more: it is the sound of clashing chains, of the fetters wherewith our fellow-men have been bound.

Henceforth, these chains shall be but an emblem, a melancholy symbol.

We who are men, and who want to be men fully and entirely, we take one another by the hand, and form a living chain. My brothers, you will be told, and, perchance, will tell yourselves, that our Order is antiquated, without significance in these modern times; but I tell you it will never be antiquated, never insignificant, for they who are dedicated to the service of the free Spirit must ever hold one another in a living clasp.

"We know the deficiencies of our Order. It is a matter of great difficulty to found an a.s.sociation firmly upon a universal thought apart from any historical basis. This is our princ.i.p.al disadvantage as compared with the Church. Hence enthusiasts and hypocrites seek for an historical foundation; nevertheless, our Order is the stronghold of virtue; and its unity is doubly formidable in that it is a league of free men; for free men will not suffer themselves to be bound. Yet our league, were its name never mentioned, would have a most important bearing upon the solution of the social problem, as it is called, of which the slavery question is only a part. And it is the thing we want, not the name. No deliverance was ever wrought by mere calculation, and there can be no permanent effect produced without the co-operation of love. The l.u.s.t of pleasure and the l.u.s.t of gain would seem to be the essential characteristics of our time; yet I, and we all, proclaim aloud. Great is our century! Europe, with her ancient culture and her waning n.o.bility, is endeavoring to lay all men under an obligation to labor: America and Russia, to render all labor free. Ever since I beheld the great millennial wave bearing down upon me, I have lived a new and happy life. I have been filled with holy confidence; and, all unseen, our league is working towards the same end.

"Two principles are contending in this world, egoism and humanity. We meet selfishness by benevolence. The more thou servest others in love, the freer art thou. The more thou givest of thyself, the richer art thou. To every man we say, 'First free thyself from servitude.' Great things in this world come from small beginnings. To every one of you and to myself I say, 'Begin by abolishing slavery in thyself!' We have all a slave within us, a slave to precedent, to inertia, to obsequiousness. Free this slave within, and then wilt thou be worthy to emanc.i.p.ate the slaves around thee. And now, my new brothers, consider this. As the signs of intelligence which you have received are not verbal, but visible, sensible motions, as our own mutual understanding supersedes and transcends speech, so is it with the idea of our Order.

It is something older and broader than all single religious a.s.sociations. We seek repose and peace in labor and trade. To our doctrine each may give his own private interpretation, as every man speaks in his own peculiar voice, which can never be exactly imitated.

The deed alone, the free, righteous, n.o.ble deed, cannot be explained away, cannot be misunderstood, cannot be affected by any individual.

Ours is a brotherhood of n.o.ble deeds."

Turning to Roland he said,--

"To you, my young brother, much has been given; and you must say with your brother here, so rich in intellectual gifts, and this your other brother, now armed for free labor, 'What I am, and what I have, I have not _of_ myself, and so I have it not _for_ myself.' Self-sacrifice is self-exaltation. Your own highest good is the good of the whole world.

What you do, do not with the hope of reward from another; but be yourself your own reward. A revolution is now taking place in the minds of men, such as there must have been wrought when they first learned the fact of the motion of the planet on which we live. Mankind, who had always known slavery, and believed that its continuance was right, were long unable to conceive a different state of things; and it was thus with the authors of that great sacred book. I say, mankind could not conceive of labor as other than a disgrace, a curse p.r.o.nounced upon the race. But now, not by any new and external revelation, but through a free and natural unfolding of knowledge, we are enabled to get beyond this view. A new age is beginning. Labor is no longer a disgrace, but an honor; no longer a curse, but a blessing. No formal religion can sanctify labor; for it belongs not to the other world, but eternally to this. Were a medal to be struck to commemorate our century, it should bear upon the face the symbol of free labor, and upon the reverse, that of the love of nature. Neither has yet been represented by art. Our idea has not yet attained to many-hued loveliness, and to a picturesque variety; for philanthropy is colorless like pure light. Walk therefore in the light, and die for the love of your kind. You have lived in the light; live ever so, and in the eternal ideas of self-sacrifice and brotherly love."

Deeply moved, Eric made a brief reply. Roland, too, was called upon, but could only say,--

"My brother and teacher has expressed all that I feel."

Adams also offered a few words. He would try to show himself worthy the honorable brotherhood which had been conferred upon him.

The three now seated themselves in the ranks of the brotherhood, and took part in the transaction of some urgent and existing business.

With ready and practised eloquence, the Major's host, the Grand Master, informed them that the Pope had condemned all Masonic leagues; and he read a protest to be adopted by the present lodge.

Weidmann asked if any brother desired to offer any comment, and the Doctor came forward, and said,--

"I move the rejection of this protest, and also the open acknowledgment of that notoriously false principle with which we are reproached in the bull of excommunication. I find Masonry as wordy at home as it is dastardly abroad; for dastardly it is, not to be perfectly open. It is all true! We recognize and acknowledge man to be morally complete, independent of any positive church; not necessarily hostile to the church, but independent of it. But this prevaricating, and ducking under ecclesiastical phrases, this spiritless sailing under false colors,"--

"A little less vehemently, if you please," observed Weidmann.

Quietly, but firmly, the Doctor continued:

"I move that the protest be rejected."

The Grand Master gazed helplessly about. He, with all his honors on his head, bring forward a proposition, and not have it accepted!--

The Doctor at length begged Eric, as one not yet bound by the traditions prevailing here, to explain his meaning more precisely.

Eric arose and said, that, though strongly inclined to agree with the Doctor, he was not quite sure where right lay. He could only permit himself to quote the words of a n.o.ble spirit now pa.s.sed away. Clodwig had seen, as in a vision upon his death-bed, the combatants of the present day dividing into two hostile camps, one of which rallied around the Pope, the other around the standard of free thought. A third party, agreeing partly with the former, and partly with the latter, he thought impossible.

The protest was rejected; but the Doctor's proposition, openly to acknowledge the justice of the Papal animadversions, was also set aside. At the close of the celebration the brethren sat down to a banquet. Roland was once more welcomed by the Banker with peculiar heartiness.

The youth asked the Major in a low voice, why Professor Einsiedel and Knopf were not members of the order.

"They are natural members of the a.s.sociation," answered the Major.

As they left the castle by the light of the full moon, Roland said to the Major,--

"To have lived a day like this makes death seem easy."

"I say with Claus," answered the Major, "we won't look for death till the very last."

And so their high-strung mood pa.s.sed over into merriment.

On the following morning, the Major begged for the Banker's advice on a matter bearing decisively upon his life; and in which the Banker could a.s.sist him more than any one else.

The Banker declared himself ready to render any a.s.sistance.

CHAPTER XIV.

A VOLUNTARY SACRIFICE AND A FULFILMENT OF DESTINY.

Flowers of all sorts were blooming in the conservatories, buds upon the artistically trained espalier trees were opening, and the park was resounding with songs of the birds, restlessly chirping and flying about at this time of wooing and mating.

Never before had Eric enjoyed the dawn of spring so intensely as now.

He was filled with the joy of love, and the heavy burdens which Fate had laid upon him seemed like an accident, a dream, which he could all at once shake off.

Early in the morning he would stroll in the park; a peculiar feeling of joyousness would come over him at the thought that Spring would soon reign over this, his own estate. Why should not these trees, these meadows, these plantations put on new bloom and verdure, now that they were his? And while wondering whether it would really ever be his lot to pa.s.s here an industrious and peaceful life, he could not free himself from a feeling of compa.s.sion for Sonnenkamp. The man had planted and fostered all this--where was he now?

Manna and the Professorin were walking with the Banker's daughter-in-law, who had been drawn thither by her desire to know Roland's sister, and her much praised mother-in-law. The three ladies had quickly formed a league of friendship, based on the foundation of a fine and liberal culture. Yet, though the inmates of the Villa were so happy together, each one harbored the restless longing to depart.

The ladies entered the conservatory.

A wave of aromatic perfumes floated towards them, and flowed around them. Their eyes were refreshed by the thousand hues of the newly-opened blossoms.

The Professorin spoke of the rest she should find in watching over the culture of these plants.

Manna expressed her intention of devoting herself, in the days that were to come, to botany, both theoretical and practical. The Banker's daughter-in-law promised soon to do the same.

With a feeling of pleasurable excitement, they sat in the green-house, where to-day, for the first time, the great windows had been opened. Manna sent for her harp, and they found that the Banker's daughter-in-law could sing several songs of which the harpist knew the accompaniment. It was an hour filled with the pure joy of existence, untroubled by one thought of the past, by one anxiety for the morrow.

Manna had caused a beautiful myrtle-tree to be placed on the table, wishing to weave from its boughs a crown for Lina, whose marriage was to be solemnized almost immediately. As she sat thus, with the blooming branches before her, Weidmann entered, and said joyously,--

"This tree bears leaves and blossoms enough for threefold bridal wreaths, and I hope they will be worn."

Then he told them that he came as the Major's amba.s.sador, to summon the ladies' attention to the story of Fraulein Milch.

The Major came in with the Fraulein, who, casting a strange look at the Banker's daughter-in-law, said,--