For some weeks subsequent to the arrival of Captain Greenwood, the daily avocations of the corps were assimilated with those of the Heracleans, if we except the erratic disposition of Dr. Baāhar, which seemed to have become more enamored with entomological pursuits. In apology, he said, that the great beauty and ephemeral existence of the butterfly declared its special intention for the accomplishment of a transient purpose; and as angels’ terrestrial visits were few and far between, he had come to the theoretical conclusion that they were intended as relief vehicles for their conveyance during their earthly visits. For the verification of this theory he had increased his vigilance, with the hopes of catching an angel napping, which would recompense his trials from the jeers of an unbelieving world.

After the morning salutations, four hours were passed in the cultivation of the garden allotments in the latifundium, by all except the padre, curators, and artist, the former assisting the Kyronese in renovation in his vocation of carpenter; the latter named preferring pastoral occupations as more consonant with their instinctive affinities. From nine to eleven the time was occupied in the auriculum in conversational consultation for the exposition of Manatitlan usages, applicable for initiatory adoption by the Giga races. Thenceforward until the noon-day hours of meridian heat, devoted to repose in the shady colonnades, each individual employed his or her time in rendering 438neighborly aid or solace. When the shimmering heat shadows were reflected in gleams from the falling water indicating the sun’s decline, a slight refection was served.

From thence until evening song the time was occupied in associate consultations contributing to amusement and projective goodwill, embracing in scope devices for penetrating the armadillo shell of civilized vanity and selfishness. The ever changing novelty of thoughtful inventions suggested by these associations, were in moments of reflection a fruitful source of wonder to the members of the corps, from the constant increase of real enjoyment afforded, in contrast with the vague pursuits of instinctive pleasure followed with the routine regularity of the kitten’s pastime, by the civilized races. In the cultivation of associate worth they derived such abiding satisfaction from the increasing reach of happy perception, they were at times inclined to doubt their real identity as personal actors in the delusive scenes reflected from memory.

The self-imposed absurdities reflected from the accumulative worriments of business pursuits, and sensual gratifications were truthfully illustrated by Jack and Bill, in the quaint relation of their experience; who declared that their bodies had been launched and shipped with just sconce enough to eat, drink, scrub, chew, splice, smoke, and reef, under the old gaff, without the flutter of a sky-sail’s worth of thought more than what they were bid to do. “But thanks to Captain Greenwood, we’ve been saved from a dive into Davy Jones’ locker, where we once expected to be keelhauled in brimstone scaldings by Old Nick, without ever being able to take a squint beyond. Homsoever, now with the Dosch for a skipper, we’ve taken soundings, and know our bearings, so with a clear look ahead we can see a smooth surface in the channel without a ripple, or a scud aloft to take us aback from our portage.”

439Notwithstanding the constancy of the sailor’s ruder perceptions, the thoughts of the padre and Dr. Baāhar were often auramentally caught revelling in past visions of instinctive indulgence, so that it became necessary for the auramentors to remind one of his medical society, which held its stated meetings for the correction of ethical correspondence between its members in a beer cellar; and the other of a condition, in which he argued with his wife the propriety of retiring for the night with his boots on. Mr. Dow would, in like manner, be occasionally surprised in a mood of covetous calculation in anticipation of conferred honors and titles likely to be bestowed by potentates and societies in reward for his persevering merit, which had led to the discovery of the Kyronese, Heraclean, and Manatitlan races. But the slightest lisp of his first honors obtained for the discovery of a new species of crab, which was christened “Cancer Doweri,” restored him to a conscious appreciation of Heraclean example. M. Hollydorf and Captain Greenwood were proof to the lure of selfish thought.

The visit to the nymphatasium had been eventful, under the direction of the Dosch and Doschessa, in attracting an assimilative sympathy between Mr. Welson and a maiden teacher, C?luiformia by name, the daughter of the pastor Coryceb?us; this, through the intercession, or mediation, of the pr?tor and wife, had been matured for a surprise. The pastor had set his house in order for the return of his daughter, and the probationary reception of Mr. Welson. When the arrangements were perfected, the unwitting brides-wick was greeted at the portals of his thalmia when emerging for matin salutation, by the pr?tor, tribune censors, Kyronese, and Betongese, who escorted him after the morning song of praise, accompanied by the entire population to the pastoriza. At the portal the happy mentor received the embrace of welcome from the pastor, and one of equal zest in the expression 440of sincerity from the prospective “mother-in-law,” who introduced the blushing C?luiformia, radiant with affectionate anticipations, to the arms of her betrothed.

This consummation was the signal for the waiting choir of Manito, who made the tympanum resound with an anthem prepared for the characteristic expression of the Scotch instinctive type. Correliana, initiated into the proemic espousal dedication, directed the measure from Manatitlan lead. We give a rendering of the words in translation below:—
“From Scotia’s lock’d inlet shores,
Rough highland crags, and sombre glens,
Where heather glints o’er boggy fens,
And shivering, sighs lonely plaint;
In misty tears the lowland saint,
Of bracken braes, that rise from moors.
“With love, we hail the herald sage,
Who dares disdain the bogle chain,
Of myth-bound sects and all their train,
Whose fenny thoughts in muirk arise,
To obscure love’s creative skies,
With miasmatic hate and rage.
“All hail to his love’s perpetual vows,
That C?luiformia’s now espouse.”

At the close of the salutatory greeting, the parents bestowed upon the current unity of affection, in espoused accession, their joyful benediction, introducing them with a glad welcome to the freedom of their household colonnades. After their installation the assemblage dispersed to their daily avocations.

With Mr. Welson’s departure, the “quarters” of the corps seemed to have lost its active principle of vitality, and its members were to be seen in daily attendance at the house of Coryceb?us, after the morning salutations. Indeed, the transfer was so complete that the tympano-microscope followed in train, from the proposed consent of all, the Dosch remarking, that in their course they followed the universal 441“law” of attraction, that recognized the lead of strength, for self-control, as the predominating source of power for the control of others. This axiom you will find amply verified in all the motor relations of animate and inanimate matter, as well as in all the votive enactments of life. The sun, as the supreme source of effulgence and heat, attracts the lesser luminaries within the pale of its orbit, and as the revivifying source of vitality, force, and motion, it receives from instinct worshipful reverence; while in mundane expression, its effects are instinctively pre?minent in the attractive power of the preacher, lecturer, and democratic leader, for the control of the unthinking herd, as the oratorical expositors of sound. In your own relations you were controlled among your own people by precedental habits and customs, accepting them, without a questioning thought, as well approved by the ordeal of time. Away from your precedental theorisms, in enactment by the controlling majority, you were attracted by the influence of Correliana’s happy example over the Kyronese, and for the first time, with the majority, your thoughts were directed to facts for deduction and analytical comparison, which with the leading influence of Heraclean example has happily called forth into active life your latent appreciation of goodness. Following in its lead, after liberation, it has harmonized and rendered subservient your instinctive tempers, so that with the ascendant portion precedental argument is unknown, and politic prudence controls the less appreciative minority, even when opposed by the aggravations of material rebuttal. In apt illustration of the power of self command achieved by the pastoral members of the corps, while engaged in Olympic sports with the herd under the lead of the pastor Coryceb?us, Dr. Baāhar, the most pertinacious, politic, and irascible imitator of antiquarian revelations among you, having unwarily allowed his stronger 442passion for butterfly hunting to intrude upon the portion of the day set apart for the entertainment of the flocks in field gymnastics, was surprised while stooping to disengage a gaudy victim from the meshes of his net, by a disjunctive butt, in the rear, from the censorial horns and head of a precedental guanaco, which caused a cycle revolution of his body. Regaining his feet, he in wrath unthinkingly opposed himself to the sportive cause of his mishap, who was collecting his energies with blind zeal for the renewal of his “good old times salutation.” But with quick perception the doctor subdued his reactive wrath, and while the sportive ram was poising his head to follow up the advantage he had gained in reversing precedental ideas of naturalistic progression, he wisely concluded that diplomatic discretion would, for the occasion, be the better part of valor; acting upon the suggestion, with bipedal advantage, he dodged instead of opposing his body fatuistically with the adaged shield, “what has been, will be.” Notwithstanding his “presence of mind,” shown upon this occasion, he obstinately continued to pursue his predilection for fly catching, with increased zeal. Often in the midst of the most alluring conversation, devised for the reciprocation of instruction by Correliana, with a refrain of notes from woodland songsters to the musical tones of her voice, he would start wildly up, with his net raised “rampant” for the catch, with his eyes absorbed for the detection of the species and order of a butterfly attraction. When assured of rarity, he would rush forth with eyes and net upraised for the capture of the tempting lure. Gentle expedient, and every form of pleading inducement had been exhausted, that could be suggested for exampled persuasion, when an incident occurred which appeared in coincident similitude, like a conjunctive interposition, for the cure of his malady.

On a morning which had been freshened with 443night showers, betokening the approach of the winter solstice, Coryceb?us led forth his flocks, attended by all whose inclinations were not stayed with the occupations of gardening and household employments. Conspicuous above the happy throng, whose voices were melodious with song and mirthful repartee, made vivacious with bantering chase, was raised the pennon net of Dr. Baāhar. But for the contrasting halo of exuberant gladness, the bevied groups, as they passed beneath the cinctus portal, might have been taken for actors in some memorial scene enactment, expressive of festive gayety in historic commemoration of ancient ceremonial rites. Nathless, upon nearer inspection it would have been readily discovered that instinctive pleasure, from anticipated indulgence, bore no part in the joyous emotions that flowed in sportive current from affectionate association. Even the pennon net, borne aloft in naturalistic ardor by the enthusiastic fly hunter, had received its characteristic “fields” of red, scarlet, blue, and yellow, from a peaceful Kyronese dye pot, under the baptismal hands of the mirth loving sisters Cleorita and Oviata. After their arrival and dispersion among the hill glades, selected for the grazing of their flocks, Dr. Baāhar, apparently forgetful of the net staff, supported on his shoulder, was imparting to a bevy of matrons the secrets of vegetative propagation and fruition, when his words were suddenly arrested by the shadow of a butterfly of large dimensions cast by its interception of the sun’s rays upon the flower of his speech demonstration. A glance upward, with an exclamation of enraptured covetousness, and all his impressions and energies were concentrated for the capture of the resplendent andean queen of butterflies. Bushing from among his pupils, heedless of apologies, instinctive gallantry, and masculine courtesies bestowed in deference to the weaker privileges of the sex, he started under queenly lead down the incline 444of the hillock, with eyes upturned, fixed upon the rainbow glints reflected from the swaying waft of the andean regina’s wings, which were radiant with cerulean tints, as if in blending to proclaim her ethereal source. Like the ancient falconer, who with frantic gesticulation was accustomed to wave his luring staff to attract the attention of an eyas gaffling, who in freedom soared after striking his quarry, the doctor, with outstretched arms, pursued the tantalizing evolutions of his intended prize, which were sustained just beyond the reach of his net,—when, lo! while in full career, from an opposite direction, the king appeared, and a sudden concussion followed in quick succession, causing the doctor to drop his net staff, and in reciprocation enclose with his arms the object he had encountered, which, with the impulsive instinct of woman’s self-possession in dangerous emergency, embraced with her arms his neck. With faces in near approximation, the objects of this strange conjunction in wondering surprise held emotional consultation; then, in freedom from the reflection of modest embarrassment, which would have caused sudden release, the right shoulder of the doctor became clothed in raven tresses, intermingling with his own flowing locks, his right arm having fallen instinctively to the waist for the support of the fair possessor’s yielding form.

Forgetful of his net, and the vanished object of his first pursuit, he, in “good” Germanic Latin, free from the guttural ingesta inflection of saur-kraut, lager bier, sausage, and tobacco, offered apologetic consolation for the shock he had unwittingly occasioned, to which she replied in equally good English, “Pray, don’t mention it;” while with lingering fondness, her sighs and steps were made eloquent in responsive continuation, as he led her back in half-reclining mood to her parents. The pr?tor, who had witnessed the scene with a peculiar smile of satisfaction, explained 445the predisposing cause of the encounter,—inasmuch as it was appreciable to ordinary observation,—that it might not be thought an act of premeditation on the part of the female respondent, or her relatives.

“Our Heraclean marriage alliance is so closely interwoven with instinctive impression, hallowed by the unity of an affection independent of the body, that the rupture by death of either of the coaptive sexual individualities, leaves a void, from the material deprivation of functional reciprocation, so desolate to the female in its impression of lonely isolation, that instinct conjures some gentle hallucination, to supply the broken threads of sympathy in the weftage of the severed ties. This illusive visionary substitution is held as a consecrated indication of continued affectionate unity, for the survivor’s material direction in the body. Indeed, all our bereaved experience in some form this impression, in translation to some memorial object presented to view in the agony of instinctive disseveration. Isolita, the daughter of our cremator, who is now reclining in the support of Dr. Baāhar’s arm, had her attention attracted, while in the anguish of separation, by a superb andean butterfly, which floated over the body of her expiring husband, and with his last sigh settled for a moment on her head with wafting wings, as if by invocation to inspire her hopes in bereavement of a material emblematic source of communication and direction; then, from the court colonnades, soared directly upward until lost to view in the blending tints of ethereal azure. This scene impressed us all with its omenic signification, so that we could scarcely wonder that Isolita in her great sorrow received it as a presage of vehicular translation, to be treasured as a token of animus visitations from her departed unity in the flesh. Without doubt, she will hold the conjunctive act you have witnessed this morning as an intimated 446sign of direction for the selection of a scocius, or companion, for the completion of her earthly term of sojourn. The confiding trust, evinced from her retained position, already betokens her belief in the consummated fulfillment of delegated substitution. In like verification, you will observe that the doctor has abandoned his net, and the winged vanity of his pursuit, for the realization of a more happy and abiding achievement.”

In confirmation of the pr?tor’s prognostication, but a few moments had been numbered with the past ere a procession had formed headed by the cremator’s family, in hopeful conformity with the ceremonious rites they were disposed to accord in recognition of the instinctive liberalisms of sense which had been fostered by the doctor’s precedental education. Being obliged to pass the scene of encounter in their passage up the dale, the pr?tor’s face grew anxious as they approached the discarded net, but assumed an expression of gladness when the doctor passed it within the measure of a footfall, and without wincing saw it trodden under foot by the mother of his prospective affiancee. Relieved of his fears by the disdainful look cast upon it by the captured fly hunter, the family group of the pr?tor moved downward to meet the symbolical procession, and greet the advancing victor of self. While bestowing their congratulations, the fanatical fatuity, inherent with the expression of the doctor’s face, became broken and dissipated, as with mist clouds under the genial rays of the morning sun. In answer to the doctor’s application for the required sanction of his betrothal with Isolita, the pr?tor expressed his warm approval, with the hope that he would soon be able to derive his happiness from the prospective good his example would confer upon future generations.

“Still,” he continued, “without a clear knowledge of Manatitlan co?peration, in directing the wisdom 447of the ‘choice,’ I might have questioned the prudent propriety of the betrothal, from your pertinacious adherence to precedental habits, in defiance of the constant increase of self-inflicted misery. Especially, as I have learned from auramental source, that it has been the custom of the Germans, practiced from time immemorial, to render their wives servitas of convenience, rather than for the fulfillment of Creative intention, designed for the perfection of unity. From this isolating peculiarity of self-indulgent German instinct, it might be well for me to question, even now, whether in thought you treasure selfish desire that would detract by indulgence from the socius companionship of bereaved affection. Although naturally endowed with a strong instinctive predisposition, Isolita is in no way derelict in her full appreciation of an affection, matured in purity, independent of the body’s functions. Bethink you, in answering, of your deposed net?”

In reply, the doctor said, “My net has subserved its purpose, in fulfilling its destiny of prestige; for, as you well know, I have expressed my full belief in the especial design of the butterfly’s vocation, from the unrivaled beauty of its embellishments, which indicate the celestial transport, in previsemental aid of angelic visits. This morning I have received satisfactory evidence of the fact, and for the future have no farther object for its use; or, as we might say in quotation, ‘sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ If you can assure me of Heraclean reciprocation in the bestowal of the angelic capture I have made this morning, I will endeavor to discard, with my net, precedental pursuits.”

The ingenuity of the insect savan’s reply bespeaking the sanity of his self-possession, the pr?tor repeated to him the peculiarities of Isolita’s widowed hallucination.

Still himself, the doctor replied, “I feel confirmed 448in my impressions of her angelic nature, from your acknowledgment of the fact, that as a woman she harbors but one hallucination, and that I have been preferred as an equal for association with her, a privilege which has yet afore been awarded, in civilized society, solely, to her sex’s insatiate unabridged vanity by the cajoleries of man.”

With this additional evidence of the doctor’s consciously sane appreciation of the happy conjunction his morning’s encounter “foreboded,” the espousal received general approbation. The pr?tor suggesting the efficient aid Isolita would be able to confer in systematizing his botanical labors, from the thorough knowledge of her acquirements necessary for fruitful vegetation, they departed upon their first united essay in botanical research, and were not seen again until the herdsmen sounded their calls for their return to the city; they then appeared crowned with floral decorations in overture anticipation of united reciprocations.

Of all the returning train the padre’s face alone remained subject to the fitful indications of thoughtful sadness. The conjurations of the day had separated him from his last mythological hold upon instinct, raising a happy barrier between him and the familiar conviviality of genial gossipings in the language of talk. Returning to the desolate quarters of the corps, after indulging freely in chirimoya and milk, he became subject to the indigestive broodings of instinct, barren of thoughtful resources for occupation. In this condition, disconsolate, he paced the deserted colonnades long after Mr. Dow and the curators of sound had retired to rest. But the Kyronese, with sympathetic consideration for his lonely plight, busied themselves in the court and cochina, ostensibly in preparation for the duties of the morrow, until, with the impression that he would prefer solitude for the melancholy nursing of his ruminations, 449they yielded to the drowsy influence evoked by the approaching midnight hour; and unaccustomed to the vigil unrest of anxiety, begot by the dismal forebodings of dread from a belief in mythological rewards and punishments, their eyes were sealed with such sudden surprise that little choice was permitted for the selection of easy positions for repose. Of late, mindful of others’ comfort, he saw these sympathetic vigilantes overcome with sleep unheeded. Even Coryc?us intermitted his thought auramentations with the solace of an occasional nap, and with the padre still waking, and walking in a mood of increasing nervous excitement, he at length sank into a dreamless sleep.

The darkness which gathers its deeper pall of blackness, in reversion to the brightness in vivid glow of the dying spark, had merged from the palpable coldness of its impression into the murky gray of the shadowy dawn, when there came a change so sudden and peculiar in the outward sway of the hammacas of the auramentor’s family,—suspended from the vibrill? of the tragus across the foss? to the ante-tragus,—that the forward lurch awoke the occupants. Curious to know the cause of a motion so unusual, Coryc?us hastened, with the recollection of the padre’s condition, to take an observation, in which his wife joined with sympathetic alacrity. They found the padre kneeling and bowing before a rough-hewn statue of an ancient Heraclean mother, with a child, which she supported in her arms, the while counting with a “vociferous” whisper the beads of the rosary presented to him by Fraile Gallagato, alternating his devotional manipulations by cross “cuts” on his forehead and breast with his index finger. The scene was so ludicrously absurd, in evidence of the superstitious revival of his religious instincts, that the auramentors passed to a neighboring branch to watch his motions and hear his prayers engendered from selfish 450fears, wrought by indigestion and sleepless innervation, aided by the changes of the night. The image had been closely veiled with a vine embossure of iriditrope, which had been noted for its close resemblance to the sculptured statues of the immaculate virgin, without being aware of the model beneath. By some coincident freak, combined with fear, mist, and muirk, confounding with the incertitude of vision-fancied resemblance, he had discovered the statue beneath, which tended to raise his phantasmic emotions to a pitch of fanatical devotion. Impressed with the belief that it was a special revelation, designed as a reproof for his “backsliding” departure from grace, and neglect of his opportunities for the conversion of the Heracleans, he ventured to unveil the miraculous discovery, before seeking inspiration through the celestial gates of bead prayer. Notwithstanding the impression made upon the family of Coryc?us by the ridiculous farce, there was a weird instinctive effect that reminded them sadly of the benighted condition of his race, who still made themselves blindly miserable with selfish labor, to the utter perversion of affectionate ease imparted from the current equality of self-legislation to the Heracleans.

After an hour’s devotional exercise with hands, and mumbling prayer dronings and enumerations, wearied nature closed the scene with sleep, and he sank forward with his body and face prone upon the virgin bed of vine, in dreamless oblivion. In this condition he was found, as the ruddy beams of day began to dispel the lingering misty light of dawn, by the mayorong, who in sad fright made the courts and colonnades resound to his calls for assistance. Fearing that the vital spark had forever fled from the prostrate form of the kind-hearted padre, who, in despite of his incertitude, begot from his thoughtless reliance upon instinctive impressions, was alike the cherished favorite of the Heracleans, Kyronese, and 451Betongese, the mayorong made no effort for his resuscitation. The shrill, wailing cry, reverberating in anguished appeal, reached not only his own people who were preparing for morning salutation, but the Heracleans, who hurried in the greatest consternation to the quarters of the corps to learn the cause of the fearful outcry. Proof to the mayorong’s mournful cry, hastening footsteps, and exclamations of the excited throng, the padre continued unconscious, the gathering assemblage regarding his prostrate body with blanched faces and horror-struck gaze. When at length their surprised emotions had subsided into thoughtful sadness, “presence of mind” revived under the impression of regretful sympathy, which caused Cleorita and Oviata to kneel and raise the padre’s head, and with the assistance of their grandfather to turn him upon his back. As gentle hands withdrew the dank hair that enshrouded his eyes, the fall of tears upon his face brought forth a deep sigh, as if conscious of the source from whence they came; this, with a muttered ave, was followed by a quivering stretch for relief from the stiffness of his limbs, significant alike of retained vitality and reviving consciousness. Then, as if under the herald impulse of a dream of dread, he, with a spasmodic start, suddenly raised his head from the pillowed lap of Cleorita, bringing his nose in abrupt contact with the toe of the figure that projected over the pediment of the statue. This brought forth, with tears, his accustomed ejaculation, “My goodness gracious!” while he administered to it extreme unction with the soothing touch of his hand. The grimaced accompaniment, in revulsion, brought forth, in contrast from the depth of sadness, an irresistible outburst of laughter, from the late mourners whose eyes were yet moist with the tears of sorrow.

Starting up, amazed at his own unaccountable position, and the assemblage of faces that bestowed upon 452him their gaze, with mingled expressions of grief and mirth, the padre’s fingers sought his hair for the disentanglement of his bewildered impressions. Failing in his attempt to recall the causeful events, his looks appealed to Cleorita and Oviata, whose eyes were glistening with gladness through their misty veil of tears, like the sun’s rays through the cilium of rosebuds sparkling with dew drops; but the anxious inquiries of new arrivals diverted explanation from them. Evil tidings are ever quick in spreading when borne by the scandalous impulse of gossiping tongues intent upon marvelous impression, but with sad sympathy the alarm had spread from portal to por............