The Plastic Age by Percy Marks (best mobile ebook reader .txt) 📖
- Author: Percy Marks
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Cabinet Photograph Of A Standard Flapper. "Pet? My God!" He Cast His
Eyes Ceilingward Ecstatically.
Chapter 1 Pg 5
Hugh'S Mind Was A Battle-Field Of Disapproval And Envy. Carl Dazzled And
Confused Him. He Had Often Listened To The Recitals Of Their Exploits By
The Merrytown Don Juans, But This Good-Looking, Sophisticated Lad
Evidently Had A Technique And Breadth Of Experience Quite Unknown To
Merrytown. He Wanted Badly To Hear More, But Time Was Flying And He
Hadn'T Even Begun To Unpack.
"Will You Help Me Bring Up My Trunk?" He Asked Half Shyly.
"Oh, Hell, Yes. I'D Forgotten All About That. Come On."
They Spent The Rest Of The Afternoon Unpacking, Arranging And
Rearranging The Furniture And Pictures. They Foundher Adventure, They Reach Mithila, Where The
Hermit Presents Rama As A Candidate For The Bending Of The Bow.
The King Beheld The Boy, With Beauty Blest
And Famous Lineage; He Sadly Thought
How Hard It Was To Bend The Bow, Distressed
Because His Child Must Be So Dearly Bought.
He Said: "O Holy One, A Mighty Deed
That Full-Grown Elephants With Greatest Pain
Could Hardly Be Successful In, We Need
Not Ask Of Elephant-Cubs. It Would Be Vain.
For Many Splendid Kings Of Valorous Name,
Bearing The Scars Of Many A Hard-Fought Day,
Have Tried And Failed; Then, Covered With Their Shame,
Have Shrugged Their Shoulders, Cursed, And Strode Away."
Yet When The Bow Is Given To The Youthful Rama, He Not Only Bends, But
Breaks It. He Is Immediately Rewarded With The Hand Of The Princess
Sita, While Lakshmana Marries Her Sister. On Their Journey Home With
Their Young Brides, Dreadful Portents Appear, Followed By Their Cause,
A Strange Being Called Rama-With-The-Axe, Who Is Carefully To Be
Distinguished From Prince Rama. This Rama-With-The-Axe Is A Brahman
Who Has Sworn To Exterminate The Entire Warrior Caste, And Who
Naturally Attacks The Valorous Prince. He Makes Light Of Rama'S
Achievement In breaking Shiva'S Bow, And Challenges Him To Bend The
Mightier Bow Which He Carries. This The Prince Succeeds In doing, And
Rama-With-The-Axe Disappears, Shamed And Defeated. The Marriage Party
Then Continues Its Journey To Ayodhya.
_Twelfth Canto. The Killing Of Ravana_.--King Dasharatha Prepares To
Anoint Rama Crown Prince, When Queen Kaikeyi Interposes. On An Earlier
Occasion She Had Rendered The King A Service And Received His Promise
That He Would Grant Her Two Boons, Whatever She Desired. She Now
Demands Her Two Boons: The Banishment Of Rama For Fourteen Years, And
The Anointing Of Her Own Son Bharata As Crown Prince. Rama Thereupon
Sets Out For The Dandaka Forest In Southern India, Accompanied By His
Faithful Wife Sita And His Devoted Brother Lakshmana. The Stricken
Father Dies Of Grief, Thus Fulfilling The Hermit'S Curse. Now Prince
Bharata Proves Himself More Generous Than His Mother; He Refuses The
Chapter 1 Pg 6Kingdom, And Is With Great Difficulty Persuaded By Rama Himself To Act
As Regent During The Fourteen Years. Even So, He Refuses To Enter The
Capital City, Dwelling In a Village Outside The Walls, And Preserving
Rama'S Slippers As A Symbol Of The Rightful King. Meanwhile Rama'S
Little Party Penetrates The Wild Forests Of The South, Fighting As
Need Arises With The Giants There. Unfortunately, A Giantess Falls In
Love With Rama, And
In Sita'S Very Presence Told
Her Birth--Love Made Her Overbold:
For Mighty Passion, As A Rule,
Will Change A Woman To A Fool.
Scorned By Rama, Laughed At By Sita, She Becomes Furious And
Threatening.
Laugh On! Your Laughter'S Fruit Shall Be
Commended To You. Gaze On Me!
I Am A Tigress, You Shall Know,
Insulted By A Feeble Doe.
Lakshmana Thereupon Cuts Off Her Nose And Ears, Rendering Her
Redundantly Hideous. She Departs, To Return Presently At The Head Of
An Army Of Giants, Whom Rama Defeats Single-Handed, While His Brother
Guards Sita. The Giantess Then Betakes Herself To Her Brother, The
Terrible Ten-Headed Ravana, King Of Ceylon. He Succeeds In capturing
Sita By A Trick, And Carries Her Off To His Fortress In ceylon. It Is
Plainly Necessary For Rama To Seek Allies Before Attempting To Cross
The Straits And Attack The Stronghold. He Therefore Renders An
Important Service To The Monkey King Sugriva, Who Gratefully Leads An
Army Of Monkeys To His Assistance. The Most Valiant Of These, Hanumat,
Succeeds In entering Ravana'S Capital, Where He Finds Sita, Gives Her
A Token From Rama, And Receives A Token For Rama. The Army Thereupon
Sets Out And Comes To The Seashore, Where It Is Reinforced By The
Giant Vibhishana, Who Has Deserted His Wicked Brother Ravana. The
Monkeys Hurl Great Boulders Into The Strait, Thus Forming A Bridge
Over Which They Cross Into Ceylon And Besiege ractical
Purposes, He Attaches So Important And So Plain A Meaning.
Such Is Free-Will When Looked At From A Distance. But Let Us Look At It
More Closely, And See What Happens Then. The Result Is Strange. Like A
Path Seen At Dusk Across A Moorland, Plain And Visible From A Distance,
But Fading Gradually From Us The More Near We Draw To It, So Does The
Belief In Free-Will Fade Before The Near Inspection Of Reason. It At
First Grows Hazy; At Last It Becomes Indistinguishable. At First We
Begin To Be Uncertain Of What We Mean By It; At Last We Find Ourselves
Certain That So Far As We Trust To Reason, We Cannot Possibly Have Any
Meaning At All. Examined In This Way, Every Act Of Our Lives--All Our
Choices And Refusals, Seem Nothing But The Necessary Outcome Of Things
That Have Gone Before. It Is True That Between Some Actions The Choice
Hangs At Times So Evenly, That Our _Will_ May Seem The One Thing That At
Last Turns The Balance. But Let Us Analyse The Matter A Little More
Carefully, And We Shall See That There Are A Thousand Microscopic
Motives, Too Small For Us To Be Entirely Conscious Of, Which, According
To How They Settle On Us, Will Really Decide The Question. Nor Shall We
See Only That This Is So. Let Us Go A Little Further, And Reason Will
Tell Us That It Must Be So. Were This Not The Case, There Would Have
Chapter 1 Pg 7Been An Escape Left For Us. Though Admitting That What Controlled Our
Actions Could Be Nothing But The Strongest Motive, It Might Yet Be
Contended That The Will Could Intensify Any Motive It Chose, And That
Thus Motives Really Were Only Tools In Its Hands. But This Does But
Postpone The Difficulty, Not Solve It. What Is This Free-Will When It
Comes To Use Its Tools? It Is A Something, We Shall Find, That Our Minds
Cannot Give Harbour To. It Is A Thing Contrary To Every Analogy Of
Nature. It Is A Thing Which Is Forever Causing, But Which Is In Itself
Uncaused.
To Escape From This Difficulty Is Altogether Hopeless. Age After Age Has
Tried To Do So, But Tried In Vain. There Have Been Always Metaphysical
Experts Ready To Engage To Make Free-Will A Something Intellectually
Conceivable. But They All Either Leave The Question Where They Found
It, Or Else They Only Seem To Explain It, By Denying Covertly The Fact
That Really Wants Explaining.
Such Is Free-Will When Examined By The Natural Reason--A Thing That
Melts Away Inevitably First To Haze, And Then To Utter Nothingness. And
For A Time We Feel Convinced That It Really Is Nothing. Let Us, However,
Again Retire From It To The Common Distance, And The Phantom We Thought
Exorcised Is Again Back In an Instant. There Is The Sphinx Once More,
Distinct And Clear As Ever, Holding In Its Hand The Scales Of Good And
Evil, And Demanding A Curse Or A Blessing For Every Human Action. We Are
Once More Certain--More Certain Of This Than Anything--That We Are, As
We Always Thought We Were, Free Agents, Free To Choose, And Free To
Refuse; And That In Virtue Of This Freedom, And In Virtue Of This Alone,
We Are Responsible For What We Do And Are.
Let Us Consider This Point Well. Let Us Consider First How Free-Will Is
A Moral Necessity; Next How It Is An Intellectual Impossibility; And
Lastly How, Though It Be Impossible, We Yet, In defiance Of Intellect,
Continue, As Moral Beings, To Believe In It. Let Us But Once Realise
That We Do This, That All Mankind Universally Do This And Have Done--And
The Difficulties Offered Us By Theism Will No Longer Stagger Us. We
Shall Be Prepared For Them, Prepared Not To Drive Them Away, But To
Endure Their Presence. If In Spite Of My Reason I Can Believe That My
Will Is Free, In Spite Of My Reason I Can Believe That God Is Good. The
Latter Belief Is Not Nearly So Hard As The Former. The Greatest
Stumbling-Block In The Moral World Lies In The Threshold By Which To
Enter It.
Such Then Are The Moral Difficulties, Properly So Called, That Beset
Theism; But There Are Certain Others Of A Vaguer Nature, That We Must
Glance At Likewise. It Is Somewhat Hard Tter Take A B.S.," He Said Softly. "Very Well." Professor
Kane, Who Hadn'T Yet Looked At Hugh, Picked Up A Schedule Card. "Any
Middle Name?" He Asked Abruptly.
"Yes, Sir--Meredith."
Kane Scribbled H.M. Carver At The Top Of The Card And Then Proceeded To
Fill It In Rapidly. He Hastily Explained The Symbols That He Was Using,
But He Did Not Say Anything About The Courses. When He Had Completed The
Schedule, He Copied It On Another Card, Handed One To Hugh, And Stuck
The Other Into A Filing-Box.
Chapter 1 Pg 8
"Anything Else?" He Asked, Turning His Blond, Blank Face Toward Hugh For
The First Time.
Hugh Stood Up. There Were
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