CHAPTER XVII. REUNION IN THE SPIRIT-WORLD.

 

 

 

LUCIAN, the stranger who had recounted his conventional marriage to the Society, approached him the evening after their return. The same careworn expression marked his brow, and nervous tension his manners.

 

"You have returned, brother, from your earthly mission?" said Hero. "I have," answered Lucian, in mingled accents of shame and sorrow. "Have you fulfilled that mission?"

 

"Speak not of it to me," said he—" speak not of it to me! How can I teach when I have such sins resting on my shoulders? I cannot say to others, do this, when I have done the contrary myself."

 

"You spoke not of such disobedience when I saw you."

 

"No, for I did not then regard it as such; but when, conversing with a circle, I saw my own case in one of its members, the conviction burst upon my mind: I saw for what I had suffered so much, and recognized that punishment as just I could say no more of love, when I had disregarded its just laws, and I fled away confounded. O mighty Sage! a burning hell has encompassed me ever since, from which I cannot escape."

 "You are guilty?"

 

"Guilty! yes, a vile, guilty wretch! It is a long tale, soon told. I loved a maiden, and she loved me. We played and sang together in our childhood, and in our youth our lot was always cast together. She was confiding, unaffected, and retiring in her manners. She was always what she appeared, but she did not fill my ideal. I at length saw one who, under­standing my peculiarities, used art, and was the ideal of my dreams. She made me forget my first love, and for a time love her. But when the art appeared, love vanished, and I was miserable. The maiden of my boyhood died of a broken heart, or worse, for she threw her sensitive life away in desperation, Oh, to think of this! To remember the pleasant days we passed together—that I, in whom she had placed her confidence, should cause her death, intensifies my suffering."

 

"Human affection," replied the Sage, "is more precious than diamonds; and he who crushes them is severely punished. I understood your situation when I first saw you, but considered it best to allow you to find it out for yourself, as it would be for your good."

 

"But I was ignorant of the injury I was inflicting; I knew not unanswered affections recoiled with such force. I supposed love but a transient passion, soon and easily subdued."

 

"Cause and effect will eternally operate; and punishment must necessarily follow crime. The prejudices of earth are such that there is no mean between friendship and love. The opposite sexes are forbidden to be friends of a higher order. The suspicion of parents or neighbors is immediately aroused. Marry, or stand clear, is the motto. The individual thus deprived of society, as necessary as breath, rushes hastily into marriage without due consideration. Love is not a passion neither is it transitory, but it is the uniting of two souls into one; and unions founded on its basis will exist, growing stronger and more intricate, when yonder mountain shall have changed to vapor and passed away. This is true marriage—an eternal union of soul, thought, and being. Passion is secondary, and will perish with the conditions on which it depends, but spiritual love is as lasting as time, and develops more and more in the Spirit-world. It seeks one object, and clings to it through life and death, and puts forth its immortal bloom a thousand ages hence, under the shadow of the throne of omnipotent mind. Love is a delicious dream of the soul, which may be realized. It expands the wings of thought, and adds power to genius. But love crushed back to its secret fountain, stifled by the proud soul, is blasting and destructive."

 

"Oh, that I knew Mary loved me still—that she did not hate and despise me!"

 

"You disowned your Mary in the world, and through long years scorned and despised her."

 

"I never despised her—I loved her! I thought it friendship, but you well know I could not manifest that in the jealous world without scandal."

 

"You threw away her love."

 

But I was led astray, and afterwards compelled to do so. I condemned her not for her course nor despised her."

 

"Did you sympathize with and pity her?"

 

"May God bear record that I did! How often have I prayed that I might find her and tell her of my repentance and remorse for the wrong I inflicted on her!"

 

"Why have you not found her?"

 

"Because in heaven I am repelled from her."

 

During this conversation his eyes were cast on the ground, daring not to meet the searching gaze of the Sage. The latter now took Mary by the hand, saying:—

 

"Lucian, here is the Mary you disowned and crushed by refusing her love. She forgives you all."

 

Mary, who bad restrained herself during the conversation, was now completely overcome as Lucian caught her in his arms, exclaiming:—

 

"My own lost one!" But recalling the wrongs he had inflicted he withdrew his embrace, saying:—

 

"It is not for me to be thus happy! I am not—cannot ask Mary to accept me. I am unworthy, and have thrown it away. She must despise me now."

 

"Not so," said the Sage; "she forgets and forgives." "Speak, Mary, speak! Is this true?"

 

"Yes, Lucian, a thousand times," she replied, in a sweet voice, smiling through her tears.

 

No violation of law receives so severe a punishment as that of treachery to confiding love. The affections send out their tendrils to twine around some human heart, and if they find no support, or are ruthlessly torn from their object, they lie prostrate and broken.

 

"Can you now teach mankind?" asked the Philospher.

 

"I feel free to go now. No crime is on my brow. I have just found heaven; its peace and joy encompass my heart. I have been in the opposite condition ever since I left earth. I feel seconded by a noble being, and conscience no longer reproves me."

 

"You can now add this precept to your teachings: 'Teachers should follow their own instructions, and not attempt to teach until they are themselves comparatively pure.'"

 

"I will delay no longer, but at once execute my mission on earth." "Our prayers attend you."