"There is nothing here to alarm you. Come, let us descend these steps, and walk through the town!"
The voice and touch of the man rea.s.sured him.
Walking down the broad stone steps, they found themselves in a n.o.ble avenue lined with trees and adorned with sparkling fountains.
Everywhere the people looked happy. There was neither hurry nor effort, but the grandest monuments to human action were visible upon every hand. Such palaces of dazzling marble; such lace-like carvings in stone; such n.o.ble terraces and gardens; and open to all the world alike.
"See," said Ah Ben, "the people here are of one mind. There is no wrangling nor struggling for place. These palaces are the property of the public; and why should they not be, since man"s unity is understood? Exclusiveness is the result of ignorance, but privacy and seclusion may even be better enjoyed in the conditions prevailing here than in our own state of existence, and because of the unlimited power and material to draw upon. No man can crowd another after he has come to realize that all is mind, and that mind is infinite."
"But where is Guir House, and the estate?" inquired Paul, feeling as if the whole thing were an incomprehensible illusion.
"They have not been disturbed," the old man answered. "They are where they always were, _in the minds of those who perceive them, and upon whose plane they exist_."
"It is too utterly bewildering. These things appear as real as any I ever saw."
"Appear! They _are as real_. Let us go into one of these bazars, and see what the people are doing."
They turned through an open doorway resplendent with burnished metal and sculpture to where great corridors, halls, and galleries, stocked with properties and merchandise of every description, were crowded with people. No one was in attendance; and those who came and went, carried with them what they pleased. No money was pa.s.sed, nor did compensation of any kind seem forthcoming. "If anything strikes your fancy, take it," said Ah Ben. "All things here are free, and yet everything is paid for."
Paul asked for an explanation, which Ah Ben gave as follows:
"The city before you is located in the year 3,000, more than a thousand years in advance of our time. It is called _Levachan_, and will appear upon earth about 700 years hence; in about four hundred years from which time it will attain the size and splendor you now behold. We here see it in its spiritual state, which precedes and follows all material forms. It will begin its descent into matter, through the minds of physical man, about the time I have mentioned.
It is merely a type of a cla.s.s toward which we are tending, and I show it to you that you may see the vast strides we shall have made by that time. In the state of society in which we find ourselves, compensation is made by a system of absolute freedom in exchange.
Here, if a man wants a coat, he takes it, and the owner reimburses himself from the great reservoir of the world"s goods, which is open to all men as integral parts of a unit."
"What check have you upon the unreasoning rapacity of a thief, who will take ten times as much as he requires?"
"The system operates directly against the development of that trait.
Here, men are only too anxious to have their goods admired and taken; for, being certain of their own maintenance, they feel a pride in contributing to that of others, and there is no temptation to take that which can not be kept, since his neighbor has equal right to take from him an idle surplus. Here the laws are the reverse of ours, for here a man is encouraged in the taking, but never in the holding.
Wealth is measured by what a man disburses; hence all are anxious to part with their individual property for the advancement of the commonwealth, knowing that the _one_ can only thrive when the many are prosperous."
They continued their walk amid the marvelous wealth that surrounded them. There were fabrics of untold value; jewels of indescribable splendor; men, women, and children with strangely eager faces. They seated themselves upon revolving chairs in the midst of a great s.p.a.ce to watch the glittering show.
"But tell me what it all means," inquired Paul. "I feel as if it were a dream, and yet I am absolutely certain that it is not."
"You are right; it is not a dream. Levachan is as real as New York, Boston, or Chicago, although invisible to men of earth. Its inhabitants are as conscious of their existence as you and I are of ours. They are quite as alive to their history and probable destiny as any well educated citizen of America or Europe."
"But where is Guir House, and all it contained?" repeated Henley, unable to understand.
"Nothing has been changed by this any more than if you were in your bed dreaming it all. But to you it is incomprehensible, as I told you it would be, because your mind has never been trained to think in these realms."
"No," answered Paul, turning uneasily in his chair, dazed by the marvelous pageant that moved constantly about them. "No, I admit that it has not, and that the whole thing is utterly beyond me; and this, none the less, because I am aware that one of the fundamental facts of nature is that two things can not occupy the same s.p.a.ce at the same time. My previous education, instead of helping me, makes the situation more difficult. The Guir estate and this city can not both be here at once; of that I am sure."
"That is a mere a.s.sumption on the part of materialists," answered Ah Ben. "Not only two things, but ten million things, can occupy the same s.p.a.ce at the same time; for what is s.p.a.ce, and what is time?
They are mental conditions, as are all the phenomena of nature.
Even your scientist will tell you that the infinite ether penetrates all substances, and that cast-steel or a diamond contains as much of this mysterious element as any other s.p.a.ce of equal size. The varying vibrations of this ether, or universal akasa, make the world and all that is in it; and these vibrations are interpenetrable and non-obstructive. Even on the material plane we see how the vibrations of light and heat penetrate those of visible and tangible substance, and how, in your more recent discoveries, light rays penetrate solid metals formerly called opaque. When I say that these vibrations are interpenetrable and non-obstructive, the statement must be taken as approximating the truth, and not as a finality, independent of all conditions; for by the power of the will, or as a result of mental habit, a man may either exclude or admit to his consciousness the thought vibrations of others. But you may set it down as a fundamental fact that there is nothing or no condition of which the mind can conceive that may not become an objective reality, which is the creative faculty in all of us. This city is here to us just as really and actually as were the trees of Guir forest a short time ago. By opening our inward sight, and putting ourselves in accord with another vibratory plane of existence, we are in full _rapport_ with a condition that makes no impression upon the members of the sleeping world not so impressed."
"But we left the house at midnight, and here we are in the broad light of day. Do you mean to tell me that the mind controls the sun itself? The thing is so astounding that I feel as if I were losing my reason."
"And did I not tell you that it was unwise to gratify curiosity in this realm when unprepared by a long course of training? But let me quote you a few words from one of our greatest philosophers"; and Ah Ben quoted the following from Franz Hartman"s "Magic, White and Black":
"Visible man is not all there is of man, but is surrounded by an invisible mental atmosphere, comparable to the pulp surrounding the seed in a fruit; but this light, or atmosphere, or pulp, is the mind of man, an organized ocean of spiritual substance, wherein all things exist. If man were conscious of his own greatness, he would know that within himself exist the sun and the moon and the starry sky and every object in s.p.a.ce, because his true self is G.o.d; and G.o.d is without limits."
"These thoughts are utterly beyond me," said Paul uneasily.
"As I told you they would be," replied Ah Ben, turning his chair and looking at his pupil with a kindly expression; and then, with his usual earnestness, he added: "But they will not be so always."
"And you tell me that these things are actually as real as the furniture in Guir House?" inquired Henley.
"Quite!" answered the guide. "Test them for yourself. Do you not see this magnificent dome above our heads, supported upon these wonderful pillars? Try them, touch them, strike them with your hand. Are they not solid? Apply every test in your power to their reality; they will not fail you in one--and, let me ask, what further evidence have you of the furniture of which you speak? Thought is real; and the man who can hold to his thought long enough endows it with objectivity."
"It is a mystery involving mysteries," sighed Paul; "and I could never even ask the questions that are crowding into my mind."
"So it is with all life," the old man replied thoughtfully, pressing his hand against his forehead as he gazed into the brilliant scene without seeming to look at anything especial; "and so it is with all life," he repeated in a minute; "it is a mystery involving mysteries!
What are dreams? Give them a little more intensity, as in the case of the somnambule or clairvoyant, and they are real. The trouble is, Mr.
Henley, that few of us ever come to realize that life itself is a dream; and when science recognizes that fact, many of the difficulties she now encounters will vanish. Let me repeat a few lines from the Song Celestial, or _Bhagavad Gita_.
"Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not; end and beginning are dreams, Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit forever; Death has not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems.
"These thoughts are better understood in the East," continued Ah Ben, "where the people give less time to _religion_ and more to the _philosophy_ of life. And what are dreams but a part of our inner existence? None the less mysterious because we are so familiar with them. There are numerous authenticated records of dreams that have carried a man through an apparently long life, but which have really occupied less than a second of time as counted with us; through all the minutiae and details of youth, courtship, marriage, a military career, war with all its horrors, the details of the last battle where death was inevitable, and where the last shot was fired and heard that brought the great change--of _awakening_, and the sudden perception that the entire phantasmagoria had been caused by the slamming of the door, which the exhausted sleeper had only that second opened as he dropped into a chair beside it. The facts in this case are proven; no perceptible time having elapsed. Time--time is nothing. Time is only what we make it. An hour in a dungeon might be an eternity, while a million years in the Levachan of the Hindoo would seem but a summer"s day."
8
Continuing their walk, they followed an avenue of dazzling beauty, which led to a green hill overlooking the town, upon which stood a temple of transcendent splendor. The sunlight flashed upon its marble walls and _chevaux de frise_ of minarets. Paul was filled with amazement, and demanded an explanation.
"Let us climb the hill and see for ourselves," answered his guide, leading the way.
Crowds of people pa.s.sed in and out through the open portals of the temple; and when sufficiently near, Paul read the inscription above the princ.i.p.al entrance:
"_In Commemoration of the Birth of Human Liberty_."
"I am as puzzled as ever," he declared, with a look of resignation.
"It is the most stupendous and remarkable edifice I ever beheld!"
They pa.s.sed up by a marble terrace and entered the building through an archway so wide and lofty that it might have spanned many ordinary houses. Windows of jeweled gla.s.s scattered a thousand tints over walls and columns of barbaric splendor, where encrusted gems of every hue, scintillating with strange fires, were grouped in dazzling mosaics portraying historic scenes in endless pageant. It was a miracle of art and trembling iridescence. White pillars, set with jewels, rose and branched above their heads like the spreading boughs of gigantic trees. The throng of humanity surged hither and thither, and yet so vast was the nave of the temple that nowhere was it crowded. Paul clung closely to his comrade"s arm, fearful lest his only friend in this strange world should be lost to him. On they walked; Ah Ben having an air of long familiarity with the scene, while Paul was dazed and bewildered. Occasionally they would stop to examine some object of special interest or to take in with comprehensive view the marvels surrounding them. But the temple was too grand, too glorious for a hasty appreciation of its wonders.
Entering an elevator, they ascended to the roof and stepped out upon a mosaic pavement of transparent tiles. Looking over the parapet, they beheld a country of vast extent, where field, forest, and watercourse combined in a landscape of rare beauty. Beneath lay the marble city with its palaces, parks, and fountains. In the distance were shadowy hills and gleaming lights; and above, a sky whose singular purity was reflected over all. The height was great, but the roof so extensive that it seemed more like some elevated plateau than a part of a building. A mult.i.tude of spires rose upon every side like inverted icicles, and Paul was amazed to discover an inscription at the base of each.
"I have a distinct impression of the meaning," he said, looking up at his guide; "but how, I can not tell."
"Yes," answered the old man solemnly, "you now perceive that this stupendous temple commemorates the birth of liberty, or the death of superst.i.tions, and the consequent liberation of the human mind from the slavery of false belief. The temple itself is a monument to the whole, while each minaret commemorates the downfall of some scientific dogma, and the consequent release of the human mind from its thralldom. The limit of man"s power over his environment has been extended again and again; and even in your day, Mr. Henley, you have witnessed such marvelous advances as have adduced the aphorism, that this is an age of miracles. We speak from one end of the continent to the other. We sit in New York and sign our name to a check in Chicago. We reproduce a horse race or any athletic sport just as it occurred with every movement to the slightest detail, so that all men can see it in any part of the world at any time quite as well as if present at the original performance. We photograph our thoughts and those of our friends. We reproduce the voices of the departed. We commune with each other without the intervention of wires. We have lately pictured the human soul in its various phases. We see plainly through iron plates many inches in thickness, and look directly into the human body. Our food and precious stones are made in the laboratory, and a syndicate of scientists has recently been formed for the trans.m.u.tation of the baser metals into gold. When man can produce food, clothing, and all the precious metals at will; when he can see what is occurring at a distance without the necessity of lugging about a c.u.mbersome piece of machinery like his body--when all these and many other discoveries have been brought to perfection, the farmer and manufacturer may cease their labors. The necessity for war will no longer exist, as the righting of wrongs, the acquisition of territory, and the payment of debt will not demand it. But all these things and many more, Mr. Henley, will be brought to perfection before the liberation of man shall have been effected, which will be when he comes to understand that, with proper training and the ultimate development of self-control, there is no limit to his power.
As I have told you before, self-control is the secret of all power.
The day is not distant when the dogmas of science will be set aside for the spirit of philosophic inquiry. Then men will no longer say that they have reached the goal of human capacity or that they can not usurp the prerogative of the G.o.ds, for it will be known that we are all G.o.ds!"
Later they descended to the ground and pa.s.sed into the superb public gardens of the city. Seating themselves beside one of the numerous fountains sparkling with colored waters and perfumed with strange aquatic plants, they watched the brilliant scene that surrounded them. Aerial chariots flashed above, and men, women, and children moved through the air entirely regardless of the law of gravitation.