16. CHAPTER XVI.
MEDIA AND BABBALANJA DISCOURSE.
Our visiting the Pontiff at a time previously unforeseen,
somewhat altered our plans. All search in Maramma for
the lost one proving fruitless, and nothing of note remaining
to be seen, we returned not to Uma; but proceeded with
the tour of the lagoon.
When day came, reclining beneath the canopy, Babbalanja
would fain have seriously discussed those things we
had lately been seeing, which, for all the occasional levity
he had recently evinced, seemed very near his heart.
But my lord Media forbade; saying that they necessarily
included a topic which all gay, sensible Mardians, who
desired to live and be merry, invariably banished from social
discourse.
“Meditate as much as you will,” Babbalanja, “but say
little aloud, unless in a merry and mythical way. Lay down
the great maxims of things, but let inferences take care
of themselves. Never be special; never, a partisan. In
safety, afar off, you may batter down a fortress; but at your
peril you essay to carry a single turret by escalade. And if
doubts distract you, in vain will you seek sympathy from
your fellow men. For upon this one theme, not a few of
you free-minded mortals, even the otherwise honest and intelligent,
are the least frank and friendly. Discourse with them,
and it is mostly formulas, or prevarications, or hollow assumption
of philosophical indifference, or urbane hypocrisies,
or a cool, civil deference to the dominant belief; or still
worse, but less common, a brutality of indiscriminate skepticism.
Furthermore, Babbalanja, on this head, final, last
thoughts you mortals have none; nor can have; and, at
bottom, your own fleeting fancies are too often secrets to
yourselves; and sooner may you get another's secret, than
your own. Thus with the wisest of you all; you are ever
unfixed. Do you show a tropical calm without? then, be
sure a thousand contrary currents whirl and eddy within.
The free, airy robe of your philosophy is but a dream, which
seems true while it lasts; but waking again into the orthodox
world, straightway you resume the old habit. And
though in your dreams you may hie to the uttermost Orient,
yet all the while you abide where you are. Babbalanja,
you mortals dwell in Mardi, and it is impossible to get elsewhere.”
Said Babbalanja, “My lord, you school me. But though
I dissent from some of your positions, I am willing to confess,
that this is not the first time a philosopher has been
instructed by a man.”
“A demi-god, sir; and therefore I the more readily discharge
my mind of all seriousness, touching the subject, with
which you mortals so vex and torment yourselves.”
Silence ensued. And seated apart, on both sides of the
barge, solemnly swaying, in fixed meditation, to the roll of
the waves, Babbalanja, Mohi, and Yoomy, drooped lower
and lower, like funeral plumes; and our gloomy canoe
seemed a hearse.
