University of Virginia Library

10. X.

And Ipsistos sought the pale groves where the
voice dwelt, and he entered them with fear and
trembling. A mystery hung over them like that
which hangs above the mansion in the dreams
and darkness of the night. And a sound, like

that of a complaining water, that keeps a ceaseless
travel through all hours, and murmurs as it
has no rest, filled the groves; and he heard no
other sound. And he prayed that he might hearken
to the voice again; and it fell upon his ears
like a string smitten by the winds at a far distance;
and the youth lay upon his face and trembled, for
the words of the voice had no meaning to his ears.
But while he lay upon the earth, and moaned in
his grief, he felt the breathing of a warm air
around him; and when he looked up, lo! a bright
eye was gazing down upon him from the leaves of
the tree above his head. And he saw nothing but
the eye; but he straightway knew it for the eye of
the voice whose blessed sounds had sunk so deeply
into his heart; and he murmured a fond prayer of
thanksgiving for the blessing which had been
vouchsafed him, even according to the promise of
the voice in his behalf. “Thou shalt not see me,
— thou canst not see me, even if thou wouldst and
I were willing, — until the scales have fallen from
thine eyes, and until thou hast unlearned much
which stands in the way of thy knowledge now;
but” — and with glad heart, did he remember the
promise of the voice — “when thou givest up thy
whole soul in my service, then shall my features
come out before thee.” And the youth prayed
fervently for the consummation of the blessed promise,
for his heart was full of the beauty of the
eye which looked down upon him from the cloud,
and with the sweetness of that melodious voice
which had cheered him and led him on his rightful
path. And, even where he stood, did he build
an altar to the voice and the eye, and morning and
evening did he steal away from the press of the
city to offer up his homage to the divine spirit
which he so much loved. And the more bright
did the eye appear unto his eyes, and the more
musical the voice to his heart, so, in the like degree,
did the countenance of the goddess worshipped
by his people, put on frowns. And he now
saw what he had not seen before, that in her face
were the shadows of many passions of evil which
belonged to men. Was not her eye fixed upon
him with hate, and did she not smile upon those
whom he well knew to be base and unworthy, as
they brought her rich offerings which the hand of
violence had despoiled from the weak, and the arts
of the cunning had inveigled and taken from the
confiding. “And can the goddess be true?” asked
Ipsistos of himself, “whose judgments tally not
with justice. Shall she smile upon the wrong doer,
and share of the spoil which comes of the wrong.
Is mere power, which the wild colt hath in his
madness, — a power to destroy, — the sign of the
perfect goddess? Shall my heart receive her
laws for truth, and grow fond of her smile, when
it approves of violence, and the sin that spoils and
strikes?” And the voice in his heart answered
“No;” —and with free footsteps he hurried away
at evening to his lonely worship in the forest; and
while he prayed, a halo of light gathered about
his brow, and, looking upward, he beheld the perfect
face of the benign and blessing spirit which
he sought.