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- 2026-01-30T20:48:09.931Z
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- 12210
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- CHAPTER LXXXIV.
Babbalanja Relates To Them A Vision
Leaving Babbalanja in the old man’s bower, deep in meditation;
thoughtfully we strolled along the beach, inspiring the musky, midnight
air; the tropical stars glistening in heaven, like drops of dew among
violets.
The waves were phosphorescent, and laved the beach with a fire that
cooled it.
Returning, we espied Babbalanja advancing in his snow-white mantle. The
fiery tide was ebbing; and in the soft, moist sand, at every step, he
left a lustrous foot-print.
“Sweet friends! this isle is full of mysteries,” he said. “I have
dreamed of wondrous things. After I had laid me down, thought pressed
hard upon me. By my eyes passed pageant visions. I started at a low,
strange melody, deep in my inmost soul. At last, methought my eyes were
fixed on heaven; and there, I saw a shining spot, unlike a star.
Thwarting the sky, it grew, and grew, descending; till bright wings
were visible: between them, a pensive face angelic, downward beaming;
and, for one golden moment, gauze-vailed in spangled Berenice’s Locks.
“Then, as white flame from yellow, out from that starry cluster it
emerged; and brushed the astral Crosses, Crowns, and Cups. And as in
violet, tropic seas, ships leave a radiant-white, and fire-fly wake;
so, in long extension tapering, behind the vision, gleamed another
Milky-Way.
“Strange throbbings seized me; my soul tossed on its own tides. But
soon the inward harmony bounded in exulting choral strains. I heard a
feathery rush; and straight beheld a form, traced all over with veins
of vivid light. The vision undulated round me.
“‘Oh! Spirit!! angel! god! whate’er thou art,’—I cried, ‘leave me; I am
but man.’
“Then, I heard a low, sad sound, no voice. It said, or breathed upon
me,—‘Thou hast proved the grace of Alma: tell me what thou’st learned.’
“Silent replied my soul, for voice was gone,—‘This have I learned, oh!
spirit!—In things mysterious, to seek no more; but rest content, with
knowing naught but Love.’
“‘Blessed art thou for that: thrice blessed,’ then I heard, and since
humility is thine, thou art one apt to learn. That which thy own wisdom
could not find, thy ignorance confessed shall gain. Come, and see new
things.’
“Once more it undulated round me; its lightning wings grew dim; nearer,
nearer; till I felt a shock electric,—and nested ’neath its wing.
“We clove the air; passed systems, suns, and moons: what seem from
Mardi’s isles, the glow-worm stars.
“By distant fleets of worlds we sped, as voyagers pass far sails at
sea, and hail them not. Foam played before them as they darted on; wild
music was their wake; and many tracks of sound we crossed, where worlds
had sailed before.
“Soon, we gained a point, where a new heaven was seen; whence all our
firmament seemed one nebula. Its glories burned like thousand
steadfast-flaming lights.
“Here hived the worlds in swarms: and gave forth sweets ineffable.
“We lighted on a ring, circling a space, where mornings seemed forever
dawning over worlds unlike.
“‘Here,’ I heard, ‘thou viewest thy Mardi’s Heaven. Herein each world
is portioned.’
“As he who climbs to mountain tops pants hard for breath; so panted I
for Mardi’s grosser air. But that which caused my flesh to faint, was
new vitality to my soul. My eyes swept over all before me. The spheres
were plain as villages that dot a landscape. I saw most beauteous
forms, yet like our own. Strange sounds I heard of gladness that seemed
mixed with sadness:—a low, sweet harmony of both. Else, I know not how
to phrase what never man but me e’er heard.
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