HAVILAND"S PRINCIPLE
The final step in the progression of influences was, strange to say, a dream. Our residence was then on Grosvenor street,--a Florid Gothic one after the model of Desdemona"s House in Venice. My own little room was fitted up in a Moorish fashion.
After the scene with Quinet on Prospect Point, I sat up till a late hour, for I found a letter from Grace, telling jocularly of their journey just commenced in the delightful Old World, and seriously of Alexandra"s ambitions. I sat thinking with my arms folded on the table till I fell asleep. Then I felt at first that I was lifted up on the Mountain again, and leaving that presently, was carried out into s.p.a.ce far away among the stars. Phosph.o.r.escent mists and cloud ma.s.ses pa.s.sed over the region, and among these appeared various figures, the last of which was, that of a certain old Professor of ours.
The most apparently dissimilar things come to us in dreams. A lecture of the Professor"s had once greatly impressed me: "Conscience is Reason,"
he said. "To do a right thing is to do simply the reasonable thing; to do wrong is to do what is unreasonable.--
"Now think," he said, "what this means."
What could such words have to do with a dream?
"What is Duty?" he proceeded, "Whence the conviction, the mysterious fact, that whatever my inclination may be, I _ought_ to do some act--ought to do it though the cup of pleasure be dashed from the lifting hand, though a loved face most pale, though the stars in their high courses reel, and the gulfs of perdition smoke,--why is it that the grave, unalterable "Ought" must still demand reverence?"
His voice rose.
"Immanuel Kant!"
The familiar name caught my ear, and I attended.
"To him Heaven gave it to solve the problem. Think what Reason is! Be men for once and attend to one deep matter! Think what Reason is!--the divinest part of us, and common with the Divine, as with every Intelligence; speaking not of the voice of the individual, but one sound everywhere to all. It is more truth than metaphor to name it the VOICE OF G.o.d."
In my dream, the Professor repeated, as if with mystic significance, the cry: "Conscience is Reason!" and as these words vaguely reached me, his figure dissolved into a rolling cloud, which grew at once into a shape of giant form, and addressed me in echoing tones: "The unalterable Ought! the unalterable Ought!" reverberating from the depths and heights.
I awoke at the sound, and collecting my energies--for I had been half-asleep,--stretched out my hand to my note-book, looked up the lecture, and with the words swaying before me, read sleepily:--
"Leave us Reason in any existence;--strip us of sight, sound, touch, and all the external const.i.tution of nature, clothe us with whatever feelings and powers, place us in whatever scenes may come--but gift us with this universal faculty, our power of knowing truth. Otherwise, with rudder lost, we are dreamers on a drifting wreck, and where were the Divine One, and this harmonious architecture of the universe, and all things trustworthy, proportioned, eternal, exalting?"
"Leave us Reason, and, children of G.o.d, we may from any point start out to see Our Father, His voice indicating from within the paths to Him which somewhere surely lie near to everywhere. Leave us Reason, and, brothers of men, we recognize that each Intelligence is of value equal to ourselves, and more precious than aught else can be, and we perceive the due relations of an orderly world."
"The voice within in simple dignity commands"--
But the lines swam before me: I could not hold my head up: the Moorish room expanded to the height and magnificence of a Hall of Magic, the dream of starry s.p.a.ce returned and the pure lights circled in it singing to me in chorus. s.p.a.ce itself seemed to become the veiled countenance of a Mysterious Power, which "half-revealed and half-concealed" itself on every hand, and out of the midst of a dark-blue sky, appeared the form and face of Alexandra, like a Princess-Madonna, smiling, O so earnestly and kindly.
I started, and woke again. The Professor"s notes were still under my eyes, and I read the words, "Lose yourself and live as if you were one of the others. Exalted on this pinnacle you are prepared for any existence; you have learnt your path through eternity, and the world and its vicissitudes may sweep by you like winds past a statue."
As I slowly thought over all the dream, and comprehended its remarkable character, I conceived it as a revelation.
"The highest things,--I have found them at last!" I exultantly cried, in a final enthusiasm--"the total subjection of self and obedience of the whole life to Reason! What shall I care more for events and opinions, or any matter that but concerns myself and a fleeting world! I will seek in my actions ever the greater, finer, n.o.bler thing for all, and the rule will be aim sufficient!"
"I saw that DUTY is the Secret of the World."
It was only a question to choose my largest, finest, n.o.blest field of work for all. Difficulties disappeared, and the great aim soon appeared before me of the cultivation of the national spirit.
The nation must found and shape its own work on the same deep idea.
CHAPTER XLIV.
DAUGHTER OF THE G.o.dS.
"Soft was the breath of balmy spring In that fair month of May"
--GEO MURRAY.
Time flew brightly for some days, as an early spring, having poured its thousand rivulets out of the melting snows, began to dry the soil and instil into the willows and birches the essences that soon cover them with refreshing green, and earth suddenly teems with leafing and flying life, with odor of buds and laughing variety of shade and sun.
I, as is my nature, was deeply under the spell.
"Rossignolet du bois joli, Emporte-moi-t-une lettre!"
Alexandra was coming home!
St. Helen"s Island, named affectionately by Champlain after his fair young wife, Helene, stretches its half-mile of park along the middle of the River opposite the city of Montreal. It is at all times a graceful sight; in summer by the refreshing shade of its deep groves beheld from the dusty city; in winter by the contrast of its flowing purple crest of trees with the flat white expanse of ice-covered river. The lower end, towards which the outlines of its double hill tend, is varied by the walls and flagstaffs of a military establishment, comprising some grey barracks, a row of officers" quarters, and a block-house, higher on the hill. In former times, when British redcoats were stationed here, and military society made the dashing feature in fashionable life, when gay and high-born parties scattered their laughter through the trim groves, improved and kept in shape by labor of the rank and file, and "the Fusileers and the Grenadiers" marched in or out with band and famous colors flying, and the regimental goat or dog, and shooting practice, officers" cricket and football matches, and mess dinners, kept the island lively and picturesque, St. Helen"s was a theatre of unceasing charm to the citizens.
"Is she here yet?" I asked, eagerly grasping the hand of Grace, who, more exceedingly pretty than ever, had invited all their friends to meet them on the island, in the grove, "I am delighted to see you back. It is almost worth the absence."
"And I welcome you as Noah the dove, after the waste of waters,"
exclaimed she, laughing. "But I must answer your first question before it is repeated. No, _mon frere_, I am afraid she is not to be here to day. She is a little ill with fatigue."
"O my poor friend!" I exclaimed, and led Grace down the avenue of leafing trees in which we were; for this grove had been planted in regular walks by the garrison forty years before, and the turf had been sown with gra.s.s that sprang up at that season a vivid green. The dell had been a theatre of the gaieties of days past. To me it was deserted loveliness--a scene prepared and not occupied.
"Is she very ill?"
"No; merely tired. You see she is a thousand times more industrious than I. Nothing could content her over there unless she was putting out her utmost. She said it was her ambition to improve, like the great men and women; that she was strong and ought to make up for some of her imperfections by greater diligence. I never saw anyone so anxious to do a thing perfectly. The great Bertini in Florence said of her--"She will certainly be greater than Angelica Kauffman." ... "Alexandra," he said, "will rank with men." The egotism of the creature! You see there are others who admire her besides yourself."
"None more pa.s.sionately."
"I thought so.--But look this way, t.i.tyrus," said she, wheeling quickly and stepping forward. "How do you do, Alexandra!"
There she stood, pale and ill, but proud of carriage as ever.
"So you came after all? Here is Mr. Haviland, gladder even than I to see you!"
I saw Grace, in a moment, the duties of hostess being temporarily undertaken by Annie, walking down a path with soldierly Lockhart Mackenzie, who had come over from the "quarters" in his uniform.
Alexandra and I found ourselves wandering into the wood and climbing the hillside at the loftiest point of the Island, where, on the summit, the trees permitted us a wide view of the St. Lawrence, its islands and ships and the open country; while the afternoon sunlight fell brokenly upon the faint colors of her face and her golden hair.
"Do you admire distant landscapes?" I asked constrainedly.
"They remind me of high aims and the broad views of great minds,"
returned she, looking outward.
"You favor aiming high," I said, "I always thought so of you."