The Secret Power by Marie Corelli (dark academia books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: Marie Corelli
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There was a sudden hush as he spoke. He went on in gentle accents.
âHow wonderful it is that He should be THERE,âand yet HERE! No one need âdive deepâ to find Him. He is close to us as our very breathing! Ah!â and he sighedââI am sorry for all the busy âdiscoverersââthey will never arrive at the end,âand meanwhile they miss the clueâthe little secret by the way!â
Another pause ensued. Then Morgana spoke, in a very quiet and submissive tone.
âDear Don Aloysius, you are a âreligiousâ as they sayâand naturally you mistrust all seekers of scienceâscience which is upsetting to your doctrine.â
Aloysius raised a deprecating hand.
âMy child, there is no science that can upset the Source of all science! The greatest mathematician that lives did not institute mathematicsâhe only copies the existing Divine law.â
âThat is perfectly trueââsaid the Marchese RivardiââBut la Signora Royal means that the dogma of the Church is in opposition to scientific discoveryââ
âI have not found it soââsaid Don Aloysius, tranquillyââWe have believed in what you call your âwireless telephonyââfor centuries;- when the Sanctus bell rings at Mass, we think and hope a message from Our Lord comes to every worshipper whose soul is âin tuneâ with the heavenly current; that is one of your âscientific discoveriesâ- and there are hundreds of others which the Church has incorporated through a mystic fore-knowledge and prophetic instinct. NoâI find nothing upsetting in science,âthe only students who are truly upset both physically and morally, are they who seek to discover God while denying His existence.â
There followed a silence. The group in the loggia seemed for the moment mesmerised by the priestâs suave calm voice, steady eyes and noble expression, A bell rang slowly and sweetlyâa call to prayer in some not far distant monastery, and the first glimmer of the stars began to sparkle faintly in the darkening heavens. A little sigh from Morgana stirred the stillness.
âIf one could always live in this sort of mood!â she suddenly exclaimedââThis lovely peace in the glow of the sunset and the perfume of the flowers!âand you, Don Aloysius, talking beautiful things!âwhy then, one would be perpetually happy and good! But such living would not be life!âone must go with the timeââ
Don Aloysius smiled indulgently.
âMust one? Is it so vitally necessary? If I might take the liberty to go on speaking I would tell you a storyâa mere traditionâbut it might weary youââ
A general chorus of protest from all present assured him of their eagerness to hear.
âAs if YOU could weary anybody!â Morgana said. âYou never doâonly you have an effect upon ME which is not very flattering to my self- love!âyou make me feel so small!â
You ARE small, physicallyââsaid Don AloysiusâDo you mind that? Small things are always sweetest!â
She flushed, and turned her head away as she caught the Marchese Rivardiâs eyes fixed upon her.
âYou should not make pretty compliments to a woman, reverend father!â she said, lightlyââIt is not your vocation!â
His grave face brightened and he laughed with real heartiness.
âDear lady, what do you know of my vocation?â he askedââWill you teach it to me? No!âI am sure you will not try! Listen now!âas you all give me permissionâlet me tell you of certain people who once âwent with the timeââand decided to stop en route, and are still at the stopping-place. Perhaps some of you who travel far and often, have heard of the Brazen City?â
Each one looked at the other enquiringly, but with no responsive result.
âThose who visit the East know of itââwent on AloysiusââAnd some say they have seen a glimpse of its shining towers and cupolas in the far distance. However this may be, tradition declares that it exists, and that it was founded by St. John, the âbeloved disciple.â You will recall that when Our Lord was asked when and how John should die He answeredââIf I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?â Soâas we readâthe rumour went forth that John was the one disciple for whom there should be no death. And nowâto go on with the legendâit is believed by many, that deep in the as yet unexplored depths of the deserts of Egyptâmiles and miles over rolling sand-waves which once formed the bed of a vast ocean, there stands a great city whose roofs and towers are seemingly of brass,â a city barricaded and built in by walls of brass and guarded by gates of brass. Here dwells a race apartâa race of beautiful human creatures who have discovered the secret of perpetual youth and immortality on this earth. They have seen the centuries come and go,âthe flight of time touches them not,âthey only await the day when the whole world will be free to themâthat âworld to comeâ which is not made for the âmany,â but the âfew.â All the discoveries of our modern science are known to themâour inventions are their common everyday appliancesâand on the wings of air and rays of light they hear and know all that goes on in every country. Our wars and politics are no more to them than the wars and politics of ants in ant-hills,âthey have passed beyond all trivialities such as these. They have discovered the secret of lifeâs true enjoymentâ andâthey enjoy!â
âThatâs a fine story if true!â said Colonel Boydâ
âBut all the same, it must be dull work living shut up in a city with nothing to do,âdoomed to be young and to last for ever!â
Morgana had listened intently,âher eyes were brilliant.
âYesâI think it would be dull after a couple of hundred years or soââshe saidââOne would have tested all lifeâs possibilities and pleasures by then.â
âI am not so sure of that!â put in the Marchese RivardiââWith youth nothing could become tiresomeâyouth knows no ennui.â
Some of the other listeners to the conversation laughed.
âI cannot quite agree to thatââsaid a lady who had not yet spokenâ âNowadays the very children are âboredâ and ever looking for something newâit is just as if the world were âplayed outââand another form of planet expected.â
âThat is where we retain the vitality of our faithââ said Don AloysiusââWe expectâwe hope! We believe in an immortal progress towards an ever Higher Good.â
âBut I think even a soul may grow tired!â said Morgana, suddenlyâ âso tired that even the Highest Good may seem hardly worth possessing!â
There was a momentâs silence.
âPovera figlia!â murmured Aloysius, hardly above his breath,âbut she caught the whisper, and smiled.
âI am too analytical and pessimistic,â she saidââLet us all go for a ramble among the flowers and down to the sea! Nature is the best talker, for the very reason that she has no speech!â
The party broke up in twos and threes and left the loggia for the garden. Rivardi remained a moment behind, obeying a slight sign from Aloysius.
âShe is not happy!â said the priestââWith all her wealth, and all her gifts of intelligence she is not happy, nor is she satisfied. Do you not find it so?â
âNo woman is happy or satisfied till love has kissed her on the mouth and eyes!â answered Rivardi, with a touch of passion in his voice,ââBut who will convince her of that? She is satisfied with her beautiful surroundings,âall the work I have designed for her has pleased her,âshe has found no faultââ
âAnd she has paid you loyally!â interpolated AloysiusââDo not forget that! She has made your fortune. And no doubt she expects you to stop at that and go no further in an attempt to possess herself as well as her millions!â
The Marchese flushed hotly under the quiet gaze of the priestâs steady dark eyes.
âIt is a great temptation,â went on Aloysius, gentlyââBut you must resist it, my son! I know what it would mean to youâthe restoration of your grand old homeâthat home which received a Roman Emperor in the long ago days of history and which presents now to your eyes so desolate a picture with its crumbling walls and decaying gardens beautiful in their wild desolation!âyes, I know all this!âI know how you would like to rehabilitate the ancient family and make the venerable genealogical tree sprout forth into fresh leaves and branches by marriage with this strange little creature whose vast wealth sets her apart in such loneliness,âbut I doubt the wisdom or the honour of such a courseâI also doubt whether she would make a fitting wife for you or for any man!â
The Marchese raised his eyebrows expressively with the slightest shrug of his shoulders.
âYou may doubt that of every modern woman!â he saidââFew are really âfittingâ for marriage nowadays. They want something differentâ something new!âGod alone knows what they want!â
Don Aloysius sighed.
âAye! God alone knows! And God alone will decide what to give them!â
âIt must be something more âsensationalâ than husband and children!â said Rivardi a trifle bitterlyââOnly a primitive woman will care for these!â
The priest laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
âCome, come! Do not be cynical, my son! I think with you that if anything can find an entrance to a womanâs soul it is loveâbut the woman must be capable of loving. That is the difficulty with the little millionairess Royal. She is not capable!â
He uttered the last words slowly and with emphasis.
Rivardi gave him a quick searching glance.
âYou seem to know that as a certaintyââhe said, âHow and why do you know it?â
Aloysius raised his eyes and looked straight ahead of him with a curious, far-off, yet searching intensity.
âI cannot tell you how or whyââhe answeredââYou would not believe me if I told you that sometimes in this wonderful world of ours, beings are born who are neither man nor woman, and who partake of a nature that is not so much human as elemental and etherealâor might one not almost say, atmospheric? That is, though generated of flesh and blood, they are not altogether flesh and blood, but possess other untested and unproved essences mingled in their composition, of which as yet we can form no idea. We grope in utter ignorance of the greatest of mysteriesâLife!âand with all our modern advancement, we are utterly unable to measure or to account for lifeâs many and various manifestations. In the very early days of imaginative prophecy, the âelementalâ nature of certain beings was accepted by men accounted wise in their own time,âin the long ago discredited assertions of the Count de Gabalis and others of his mystic cult,âand I am not entirely sure that there does not exist some ground for their beliefs. Life is many-sided;âhumanity can only be one facet of the diamond.â
Giulio Rivardi had listened with surprised attention.
âYou seem to imply thenââhe saidââthat this rich woman, Morgana Royal, is hardly a woman at all?âa kind of sexless creature incapable of love?â
âIncapable of the usual kind of so-called âloveââyes!â answered AloysiusââBut of love in other forms I can say nothing, for I know nothing!âshe may be capable of a passion deep and mysterious as life itself. But come!âwe might talk all night and arrive no closer to the solving of this little feminine problem! You are fortunate in your vocation of artist and designer, to have been chosen by her to carry out her conceptions of structural and picturesque beautyâlet the romance stay there!âand do not try to become the husband of a Sphinx!â
He smiled, resting his hand on the Marcheseâs shoulder with easy familiarity.
âSee where she stands!â he continued,âand they both looked towards the beautiful flower-bordered terrace at the verge of the gardens overhanging the
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