THE LOVES OF SENSE AND SPIRIT By ROBERT DUNCAN MILNE, UNKNOWN

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2027, 4 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LOVES OF SENSE AND SPIRIT By ROBERT DUNCAN MILNE, UNKNOWN

" It h a communication for A','athi," ho said," from one of th 9 Brothers vi Tibet. She has asked a question, and now receives a reply." Ayatha ro3B, went to tha table, unfolded and read the contents of the paper, while a deep blush overspread her fair features. Was it fancy, superinduced by my mysterious suvloundings.'or did I really see upon Miriam Hathaway's beautiful face an expression of dark and peculiar import as she conoontrated her gaaa upon the paper her cousin was read ing? Agatha Howard put the missive into her p«eket and resumed her »eat. Again tho company relapsed into silence and meditation." T*n minutes more may bave parsed when a liouquffc of bpautiful flowers— tulip?, reses, magnolias, and ferns, among others — suddenly appeared on tho centre of the littlo ebony table, as if laid there by an invisible hand. " That is the sign," said Doctor H*thaway, turning to me, while the rest of the psrfcy rose and Miriam took up th« boquuet, " that we shall receive no more communications tonight. The leaving of these flowers is always the iutimation of farewell. You have now had a personal experience, though % slight one, of the results which the subtile natural agencips we aiao to control can effect. Space, time, and matter are, in effect, held in subordination to that wondrous fluid whhh pervades nature, and which is itself subordinate to the mind-power of those wno control it. Tho flowers you bave juit seen mysteriously produced in this chamber grew prsbably ten thousand railed from here. Tha latter which Agatha reaeived was doubtless penned among the mountains of Tibet. They wore not, however, transmitted hero bodily, a^d in the same form as they appeared to jour eyes. They were resolved into their elemental forms by the mighty mind-power of one of tha Brethren, transmitted in this form through tho medium of the all-parvading ether, and reproduced here as if created on the spot." *VY« hud by this time reached the receptionroom which I had first entered, and as I saw Armitage bidding good-night to tha ladies I did likewise, and, after a coidial invitation to repeat my visit, I accompanied my artist friend into the street. Six weeks had elapsed since my fimt introduotion to the Theosophical Society. 1 had been piesent upon several oocasiony at their semi-weekly reunions for communicating with the ocoult world. I had been witness of occurrences and manifestations even more axtraordmary and perplexing than tho3e I have already described. I had even gone so far as to intimate a denre to be admitted as a regular member, though notking definite had as yet been done ion that point. Meantime my observations of what was Going on uroand me had not been idle. I fancied I detected a certain tenderness in the natural relations of Julian Armitage and Agatha Howard beyond what was called for by the mere fortuitous belonging of both to tho same feooie'ny. I also fancied that tha attentions Dentowed upon her cousin by the handdouie artist were not pleasing to Miriam Hathiiway, and on more than one oocasion I thought I detected the came dark and peculiar expression that I observed when Agatha received the letter, on my first night in the blackdraped chamber, overclouding her beautiful features. Could it ba possible, I thought, that such earthly passions as love and j~nlousy could have entered into this little family circle, and, if so, would they not sap tho foundationn of those virtues by which alone the di«ciples of Theoaophy could hope to iirrive at the exalted knowledge which they aimed at? Old Doctor Hathaway remained tranquil and serene, presiding with dignity boia at th« musical recitals and the mystic and seleot meetings in tna bhek-drapei ohftmbttr 1 hud, meanwhile, brought a good deal of study and tnought to bear upon the subject, am), when I could spare the time, had improved my acquaintance with modsm thcosophieai literature, refreshed my memory upon the works of th.B Neo-Platoniats, and dipped into the annala of tho Rosicvucia* ptuioaophy. It waa under thesa circum-slt-jcea that I found myself, erio Monday aUeinoo», at the house on Van Now Avenue. Tao semi-weekly unions, I should here renifcjk, took place up»u Thursdays and SundAjy, and it was consequently an unusual thing for me to present myself at Dr. Hathnwuy & hoase »p»u a Monday afternoon. I hiv- 1 , however, accidentally left some papers them on ihe previous evening, and, as I had posing need of the same, was now calling lor them. A ring at the door-bell brougnt no response. A second ring was equally futile, and just as I was about to depau, chagrined at my ill-fortune, the door suddenly opened, mid I stopped mechanically into the hallway. Trio door thereupon closed, and, turning to see who had admitted me, I discovered to my surprise thai there was no one there. Tv iil'ing that the door had been drawn open by tne chain attachment common in many hai tsi, I had no hesitation in entering the «r?.«/ing-room, where I knew I had left my pa^rs. These I ftund without trouble, and then toek a ssat to wait for that member of thu family who had opened the door for me, and whs, I fait sure, would presently enter. Two or three minutes passed without any one appealing, and as one of the windows opening on the conservatory was open, I stepped in and took a seat among the shrub 3 ana flov/era. The afternoon was warm, the atmosphere of the place, laden as it was with potlume from exotic flowers and plants, induced a dreamy langour, and I found myself falling into a re/erie. My train of speculation naturally led in tlie direction 01! what 1 had witnessed in the ftouia I was in. I felt a strange longing to Jetwn more of the mydterioua realms of spirit luto which the members of the household bad penetrated. Wiut if I, too, should knock at the gatas oi thi* occult knowledge and explore the arcana witnin ? I already km w mat tho prime, and indeed necessary, condition for doing so was an earnest desire on me pait of the seeker himself. I also km. ,v that the door was alwayß opened if tho ngi i psrson knocked, but remained ever shut 1.0 1, iv approached of mere frivolous curiosity. I concenuated my entire mmd upon the aubjfcci, aud became imbued with it. I felt that 1 Wu'.a knocking at the gates— the question v/a.-, would the} be opened? Not many nutates padded before I experienced a very peculiar sensation — a gentle but very percep iblc thrill lav tnrou^n every portion of my body, as thougn I had suddenly become connected with the electrodes of a very mild lad' etion coil. The sensation, however, was uuliAe that which is produced upon the nervou > and muscular hydteni by electricity. It wa., of a much finer and more subtile ehu.ucter, general instead of local, all parYtKung— the very epnit and etherealkation of electncity, so to speak. At tne same time I tip -rit need an unuaual exultation of mmd, a j >yous aenaation, as though I had risen tup i'iur to tho oared and troubles of earth. Thi 11, in the open space amid the flowers, I saw a human figure dimly shaping itself before me. The head was bare, the face mild and intellectual, but of purely Oriental ca3t, the flowing beard Bomewhat grizzled, the loots, light robes falling in easy folds about the person. Strange to say, I felt no surprise at the appearance of this personage in the conservatory, but calmly looked and wait id. " Your invocation has been beard," said the figure, which had by this time assumed a distijtci bodily shape, in a mild and musical voice. " I have come to Eec you." Could it be possible, I thought, that the pre ianca uefore me c»uld actually belong to tiitb fraierfjity of adepts in ocoult knowledge whose reported home in the mountains of Tibet, aD i thai overpassed tha thou-

sandn of miles °^m^^^^^^^^^^^^| Bpeed of the electric n^^^^^^^^^^^^^J spokea caU ? The rmppfll^^^^^^^^^^H to impress one with the ihquu of awe. " You h&va divinod correctly,,' sai>l the figure, as if in an^vtr to oi/ latent thought. " 1 am, iadeed, one of the Brothcrhoo'l of whom v/ou have h<\ird so muoh sinci entering these clooim 8.»2<.un0 your aspirations are oinoera and not dictated by idle curiosity, I hd7P atiswiu?! them." "Bud how— how," I exclaimed, "'huve you come here, a3 I conceive, in bodily form and at a ioa incomprehensible speed? or are you really in bodily form, or merely an apparition projocted hinhpr by some mysterious moane, while your physioal body remains in Tibet ? Or are you neither, but a phantasm produced apparently bufore my visual Benses, but really rnevely a creation of my own brain through some eccult influence yon exeroiae over it even from thai mighty diatanoe? " "It U possible for me," responded the figure, " to reproduce myself by any of the nvatheds you hays mentioned. In the present instance, however, I hava coma in my own p^r=onßl and material body, the better to oonvinoe you of the rcahty of the control we eseroiflo over the elements and flaidg of nature." So saying, ha approaohed the place where I was paated and took me by the hand. His own was firm, warm, and solid. "Bat," I stammered, " it is incredible — inconceivable 1" "Not more so," he replied, "than the transmission and reproduction of the many article; you have scon materialised in this house. It is simply the working of the Barae law in the case of organic as of inorganic matter. The current if formed, the body itisintegrated at one end, transmitted through it, and re integrated at the other. It is simply the law of the telephone or the telegraph applied to a higher purpose and extended to a wider field. We have heard of the tour of the world in eighty days, and of Puck putting a girdle around the earth in forty minutes. Once our currents are formed — or, to speak to your comprehension, our invisible rails laid or wires set— our speed is only bounded by the possibilities of thought. Will you come "with me. intruist yourself to my care, and expatience the practical working of thia, to you, wondrous and incomprehensible law ? Name a spot that you would like to see, or a scene you would like to witness." " I have often speculated," I answered, after some deliberation, "on the problem as to whether, in the removal of objects, for instmco, from one place to another by the ocoult law we have been considering, magnitude or weight does not interfere vrilh its successful application— in other words, whether it is as easy, or as possible, to transmit a house as a buuah of flowers or a pieoe of paper." " It is," replied the adept, " as possible, but it is not as easy. Control over tho ocoult fluids and forces of nature are conditioned as inexoiably as the physical dynamics of your western civilisation. Just as a ten-horse-power engine would be useless to propel an ocean steamer, so the control over the ocoult fluid, by which we perform the operations of transmission you have witnessed, must be proportioned to the magnitude of the work to be done. There is scarcely, however, a werk so stupendous which a combination of forces, on the pait of a sufficient number of those who hold them in control, would be unable to accomplish. Come with me, and I will give you proof positive of thia." So saying, he turned— still holding mo by lha hand— in aa easterly direction, remaining iot a few moments with eyes steadily fixed on vacancy. My senses became confused, my eyesight dimmed, and a strange noise rang in my ears. Instantly recovering myself, as I thought, I opened my eye** and beheld, with what astonishment can be conoeived, that I way no longer in the conservatory of Doctor Hathaway's houso on Van Ness Avenue. I stood Bear the margin of a very broad and pkcid river. At either side of me rose to a dizzy height a colonnade of columns, stretching away, it seemed, for miles into the dim perspective before me. "A moment ago," said the adept, with a grave smile— he was still holding me by the ha id as before — "we were in San Francisco. We now stand amid the ruins of the temple oi Karnak, on the banks of Nile, close by ancient Thebes. This is the answer to your question. Think you any architect of modern times would plan, or any engineer attempt to construct these miles of columns, each ninety feet high and each composed of but three blocks of btone, with the appliances which modern science now possessed ? The problem yet remains unsolved by modern engineering Boience. Granting that hydraulic pressure brought frsm the first cataract, more than a hundied miks to the south, might raise these huge bloaks to the necessary height, their adjustment would entail derricks and chains of most extraordinary strength— details which, at all events, are not even supposable in the case of the Cyclopean wall of Tiryna, in the Peloponnese. No ; you see before you evidences of that mighty force which, in the day a when these august monuments were raibed, waa not the sealed secret it now is. Hark 1 " he added abruptly, " I feel trouble in our current. You will now return to the oity by the Pacific, and witness some of the perils connected with the study of theosophy. Your experience of to day will be a lesson to you in more ways than one. It will show you not only the extent of the power that the adepts in the theosophical science control, but also the fearful danger to whioh those are exposed who would pervert its noble energies to sordid or selfish ends." The adept had not relinquished his grasp upon my hand since taking it in Doctor Hathaway's house. Again he turned and fixed his eyes upon the west. The same sensation of dizziness and blindness came over me as before, seeming to last only a few secoudrf, and when it passed away, I found myself seated in my old position among the flowers in the conservatory. Tho adept had gone, however. 1 was alone. It was night. This was what I realised first upon opening my eyes. Several hours, then, I reasoned, must have passed in a space of time whioh had apparently oocupied not more than a minute. The moon was shining over an angle of the conservatory in front, leaving the part where I was seated in shadow, while a faint light entered through the ourtained windows of the drawing-room on my right. My course was plainly to explain my presence there to the family at once, and narrate my extraordinary experience ; but when I essayed to get up to da ao, I found I could not m»ve ; and wjien, as a next resource, I tried to speak, I found that my vooal organs were likewise paralyzed. My brain, however, was as keen and active as ever. Bafore I had time to speculate upon my ati.-d.ng" position, I heard the sound of voices in the drawiug-room. Then one of the glass doors wa3 opened, and two figures stepped into the conservatory and stood in tho moonlight just wheie I could see them, myself unseen, through the flowers. They were Julian Artnitftge and Agatha Howard, and they were evidently unaware of my presence. "But, dear Julian," said Agatha, in low tones, " romembcr what we have undertaken to do. You speak to me of love; but, ah me 1 have we uofc engaged to keep all such thoughts froii our hearta ? It is not a direct violation of the rules under whioh our society was formed I " " Think you not, deare3t Agatha," leplied Armitage, in lunsionate accents, bending ovor her golden tresses and geutly circling her fair form with his arm, " think you not that there id something grander in nature than mere knowledge; that there are energies more ethereal and raoro potent than those whose highest action seem to be confined to controlling the mere brute matter of the physical woild ? What would knowledge be without a peopled universe to enjoy it, and how could a umms9 become peopled without love ? " "Ah 1 if I only thought so, Julian, murmured Agatha. " Sue tno*e stars," returned Armitage with fervor, pointing upward, " and that cold, pah), shining orb that floods us with its radiance 1 I swear by these changeless and majestic glories of the heavens, that your

J^^^^^^^^^Hhan all tho lore of all tho breathed or thought. to me, if there and vivify it ? W iat m^^^H^c Dia if I couM stop yon moont^^^ path, or pluck these stars from thiii eternal thrones, and lose your lova ? " T^e maiden le.mod hor sinning haa'i up in hifl breast. "BdliQva me, A«atha," the lovsr vent ou, in Pivno^t tone*, "our love is not tt l i' f>«bi^inw pinion of tho animal world, by whiuh moral & n nae, intellect, and spirituality are alike blunted and depraved, A love like oars i 9 tue purest and most ennobling sentimant that caa crown humanity. It is the brightest gem in the diadem of virtue, and, whatever theosophy may say, proclaims itself to me as perfectly consistent with the teaohinga of the highest philosophy." Armitage bent down and kissed her on the forehead. Aitur a short pause they turned back into the drawing-room by the same door they had entered. I still remained, as though spell-bound, speechless, and motionless. Not many seconds elapsed before I heard a faint, rustling sound at the farther and of the conservatory, bsyond the »pot where the lovers had stood. The next instant a female figure emerged, whioh I f»t •nee recognised as that of Miriam Hathaway. Her face was flushed, her eyes sparkled with an unnatural brilliancy, and her raven treises fell loosely over her shoulders. She advanced to the place where Armitage and her cousin had stood, stepped cautiously to the door leading into the drawmg-reom, and looked through it. "They are gone," she mattered. "It is just as I thought. Fool that I was not to see it long ago ! " She turned and seemed lost in thought. Then Imr lovely face took on a weird and unearthly splendor as she stood there in the moonlight, like tho incai nation of a loit, beautiful spirit. It needed nothing to tell me that I beheld before me a rival of Agatha, oven if I had not gueaaed it ueioro. Presently sho looked up, with a look of determination upon her features. " I will do it 1 " she muttered. "It they hare broken the rues of the 3ociety, why should not I ? Shall I bs bound by ideas whi«h they treat as idly as the wind ? Ah " — here she itarfced abruptly — I will do more 1 I will avail myself of the knowledge I possess to thwart their designs and bla9t the flower of their lovea. I will see whether my power will not •uilice to call to rsy aid One who can help ma if He will." Miriam Hathaway bent down and traoed with her forefinger upon the floor of the conservators some lines, which, however, left no vidible mark behind them. She then itepped into the space round which she had drawn the lines, and drawing her graceful and commanding figure up to its full height, remained motionless, booking steadily forward. Then, in her rich, melodious yoice, though in a low concentrated key, sho ohanted what sounded like a verse or hymn, in some language with which I was not familiar. After about a minute she paused, and seemed to wait for a response. I strained my eyes to see whether anything unusual would occur, but there was neither sign nor sound, Again the beautiful girl raised her arm, and resumed her invocation in what seemed to be even more earneit and impassioned tones than before. As ski finished I became sensible of a itir in the air, and en appearance as of a gray, misty vapor between Miriam and the glass wall of the conservatory. This vapor seemed to conoentrale, and take on the semblance of a human shape, though so dimly and vaguely that it was impossible to define its outline in thi dubious moonlight. A low whisper came apparently from the misty figure. " What wouldst thou ?" " I deuirB your aid," replied Miriam, in e'ear, unfaltering tones, " to bring b«ok joy te my life, to restore and reawaken the love that is lost, to crush out my rival, and ;win back my love to me." " I can aid thee," replied the voice ; " but knowB3t thou the penalty if thou failest 01 fallerest when thou givest the commission te the agent I will send thee ? Has thy training yet made thy courage 10 strong as to fit thee to cope with these beings whose power, if thou canst not control, will destroy thee? Tak< heed that thy spirit is fearless. Dost thou dare ? I send, but I warn thee." " I dare," answered the dark, beautiful form, with a defiant gesture. " I dare all fox the lore 'I have lost, if by that I regain it, Go, I command you." The misty figure faded slowly away, and again there was a pause of a minute'i duration. Then in the space between Miriam and tho conservatory wall, whert the shadowy igure had been, I beheld anothar cloud-like emanation fathering. It was not, however, the whitish semi-transparent mist I had seen before, but a black, murky oloud which oompletely obscured the glass beyond it, and even the moonlight from the figure of Miriam. The oloud seemed to roll sluggishly and convolute upon itself like a mass of slimy, crawling serpents. Was it fancy, or was it fact, what I then saw in broken configuration through and between the flower-stems that partially obscured my field of vision ? Was it merely the natural effect of moonlight and shadow projecting a vision upon a strained and heated imagination, or did I aotually see & portion of a face so lurid and terrible, bo hideous in its awful deformity, with eyes of such piercing and devilish malignity that I instinctively closed my own, powerless as I was to avert my head from the fearful speotacle? I fervently trust that I will never know. I had soarcely closed my eyes, to esoape the terrible impreasion, when I opened them again, startled by the piercing shriek that rang through the still night air. So awful and blood surdling was the sound, that I leaped fiom my seat and rushed forward to the centre of the conservatory. The spell of my paralysis was broken. As I did so Julian Armitage, Agatha Howard, and Dootor Hathaway came fiooking through the drawingroom door, in wonder and alarm. There lay Miriam groveling on the floor, her raven tressea floating over her shoulders in disheveled masses, her beautiful features convulsed with ghastly and terrible laughter. The lovely girl was a nspeless and raving maniac * « * ♦ * On me developed the onus of explanation. To others than members of a Theosophical Society my explanatory narrative, just as I have now detailed it, would have sounded like the maunderings of a weak mind or the vagaries of a diseased brain. To my friends, however, it was ample and convincing. It i had a great and immediate efieofc upon their mode of life. The Theosophioal Society of San Francisco was at once broken up. It was carried ncm. con. that the perils attendant upon the pursuit of oooult knowledge, together with the stringency of habit necessary to carry such pursuit to a successful issue, would not compensate the neophyte for the questionable benefits resulting from a control over the secret forces of nature. It is now a year qinco the occurrence of the foregoing events, and though old Dootor Hathaway still clings fondly to his old ideas, and sometimes talks of his contemplated pilgrimage to Tibet, my friend Armitage asd Miss Howard have married and settled down to the ordinary afiairs of life. As for myself, I have no wish to repeat my theosophieal experiences, but am quite oontent to accept the caution of my friend the adept, that they would be a lesson to me in more ways than one, feeling that I already know as much as is consistent with personal safety about the workings of tho oooult world.

We beard the other day of a belligerent gander in the flock of J. F. Stephens, Carroll County, which met with a singular accident three weeks ago. Making fight at a heifer in the lot he seized her by the forehead, when the heifer by the dextrous turn of a horn, struck the gander's neck and cut out the windpipe, leaving it hanging down. The old gander's wound healed over with the windpipe still hanging out, through whioh he breathes, and he teems to be as hearty as ever, though not as belligerent as before.