Ye may not find
A tranquil mind,
Though hence ye sail with swiftest wings.
Hail! voyagers, hail!
Time flies full fast; life soon is o'er;
And ye may mourn,
That hither borne,
Ye left behind our pleasant shore.
CHAPTER LXXXIII
They Land
The song was ended; and as we gained the strand, the crowd embraced us; and called us brothers; ourselves and our humblest attendants.
"Call ye us brothers, whom ere now ye never saw?"
"Even so," said the old man, "is not Oro the father of all? Then, are we not brothers? Thus Alma, the master, hath commanded."
"This was not our reception in Maramma," said Media, "the appointed place of Alma; where his precepts are preserved."
"No, no," said Babbalanja; "old man! your lesson of brotherhood was learned elsewhere than from Alma; for in Maramma and in all its tributary isles true brotherhood there is none. Even in the Holy Island many are oppressed; for heresies, many murdered; and thousands perish beneath the altars, groaning with offerings that might relieve them."
"Alas! too true. But I beseech ye, judge not Alma by all those who profess his faith. Hast thou thyself his records searched?"
"Fully, I have not. So long, even from my infancy, have I witnessed the wrongs committed in his name; the sins and inconsistencies of his followers; that thinking all evil must flow from a congenial fountain, I have scorned to study the whole record of your Master's life. By parts I only know it."
"Ah! baneful error! But thus is it, brothers!! that the wisest are set against the Truth, because of those who wrest it from itself."
"Do ye then claim to live what your Master hath spoken? Are your precepts practices?"
"Nothing do we claim: we but 'earnestly endeavor."
"Tell me not of your endeavors, but of your life. What hope for the fatherless among ye?"
"Adopted as a son."
"Of one poor, and naked?"
"Clothed, and he wants for naught."
"If ungrateful, he smite you?"
"Still we feed and clothe him."
"If yet an ingrate?"
"Long, he can not be; for Love is a fervent fire."
"But what, if widely he dissent from your belief in Alma;-then, surely, ye must cast him forth?"
"No, no; we will remember, that if he dissent from us, we then equally dissent from him; and men's faculties are Oro-given. Nor will we say that he is wrong, and we are right; for this we know not, absolutely.
But we care not for men's words; we look for creeds in actions; which are the truthful symbols of the things within. He who hourly prays to Alma, but lives not up to world-wide love and charity-that man is more an unbeliever than he who verbally rejects the Master, but does his bidding. Our lives are our Amens."
"But some say that what your Alma teaches is wholly new-a revelation of things before unimagined, even by the poets. To do his bidding, then, some new faculty must be vouchsafed, whereby to apprehend aright."
"So have I always thought," said Mohi.
"If Alma teaches love, I want no gift to learn," said Yoomy.
"All that is vital in the Master's faith, lived here in Mardi, and in humble dells was practiced, long previous to the Master's coming. But never before was virtue so lifted up among us, that all might see; never before did rays from heaven descend to glorify it, But are Truth, Justice, and Love, the revelations of Alma alone? Were they never heard of till he came? Oh! Alma but opens unto us our own hearts. Were his precepts strange we would recoil-not one feeling would respond; whereas, once hearkened to, our souls embrace them as with the instinctive tendrils of a vine."
"But," said Babbalanja, "since Alma, they say, was solely intent upon the things of the Mardi to come-which to all, must seem uncertain-of what benefit his precepts for the daily lives led here?"
"Would! would that Alma might once more descend! Brother! were the turf our everlasting pillow, still would the Master's faith answer a blessed end;-making us more truly happy here. That is the first and chief result; for holy here, we must be holy elsewhere. 'Tis Mardi, to which loved Alma gives his laws; not Paradise."
"Full soon will I be testing all these things," murmured Mohi.
"Old man," said Media, "thy years and Mohi's lead ye both to dwell upon the unknown future. But speak to me of other themes. Tell me of this island and its people. From all I have heard, and now behold, I gather that here there dwells no king; that ye are left to yourselves; and that this mystic Love, ye speak of, is your ruler. Is it so? Then, are ye full as visionary, as Mardi rumors. And though for a time, ye may have prospered, — long, ye can not be, without some sharp lesson to convince ye, that your faith in Mardian virtue is entirely vain."
"Truth. We have no king; for Alma's precepts rebuke the arrogance of place and power. He is the tribune of mankind; nor will his true faith be universal Mardi's, till our whole race is kingless. But think not we believe in man's perfection. Yet, against all good, he is not absolutely set. In his heart, there is a germ. That we seek to foster. To that we cling; else, all were hopeless!"
"Your social state?"
"It is imperfect; and long must so remain. But we make not the miserable many support the happy few. Nor by annulling reason's laws, seek to breed equality, by breeding anarchy. In all things, equality is not for all. Each has his own. Some have wider groves of palms than others; fare better; dwell in more tasteful arbors; oftener renew their fragrant thatch. Such differences must be. But none starve outright, while others feast. By the abounding, the needy are supplied. Yet not by statute, but from dictates, born half dormant in us, and warmed into life by Alma. Those dictates we but follow in all we do; we are not dragged to righteousness; but go running. Nor do we live in common. For vice and virtue blindly mingled, form a union where vice too often proves the alkali. The vicious we make dwell apart, until reclaimed. And reclaimed they soon must be, since every thing invites. The sin of others rests not upon our heads: none we drive to crime. Our laws are not of vengeance bred, but Love and Alma."
"Fine poetry all this," said Babbalanja, "but not so new. Oft do they warble thus in bland Maramma!"
"It sounds famously, old man!" said Media, "but men are men. Some must starve; some be scourged.-Your doctrines are impracticable."
"And are not these things enjoined by Alma? And would Alma inculcate the impossible? of what merit, his precepts, unless they may be practiced? But, I beseech ye, speak no more of Maramma. Alas! did Alma revisit Mardi, think you, it would be among those Morals he would lay his head?"
"No, no," said Babbalanja, "as an intruder he came; and an intruder would he be this day. On all sides, would he jar our social systems."
"Not here, not here! Rather would we welcome Alma hungry and athirst, than though he came floating hither on the wings of seraphs; the blazing zodiac his diadem! In all his aspects we adore him; needing no pomp and power to kindle worship. Though he came from Oro; though he did miracles; though through him is life;-not for these things alone, do we thus love him. We love him from, an instinct in us;-a fond, filial, reverential feeling. And this would yet stir in our souls, were death our end; and Alma incapable of befriending us. We love him because we do."
"Is this man divine?" murmured Babbalanja. "But thou speakest most earnestly of adoring Alma:-I see no temples in your groves."