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A Talk By The Euphrates
by
A voice answered back
“Radiant as a sunlit feather,
Pure and proud they go;
With the lion look together
Glad their faces show.”
My sadness departed; I would be among them shortly, and would walk and whisper amid those rich gardens where beautiful idleness was always dreaming. Merodach looked at me.
“You will find these thoughts will hinder you much,” he said.
“You mean–” I hesitated, half-bewildered, half-amazed. “I say that a thought such as that which flamed about you just now, driving your sadness away, will recur again when next you are despondent, and so you will accustom yourself to find relief on the great quest by returning to an old habit of the heart, renewing what should be laid aside. This desire of men and women for each other is the strongest tie among the many which bind us: it is the most difficult of all to overcome. The great ones of the earth have passed that way themselves with tears.”
“But surely, Merodach, you cannot condemn what I may say is so much a part of our nature–of all nature.”
“I did not condemn it, when I said it is the strongest tie that binds us here: it is sin only for those who seek for freedom.”
“Merodach, must we then give up love?”
“There are two kinds of love men know of. There is one which begins with a sudden sharp delight–it dies away into infinite tones of sorrow. There is a love which wakes up amid dead things: it is a chill at first, but it takes root, it warms, it expands, it lays hold of universal joys. So the man loves: so the God loves. Those who know this divine love are wise indeed. They love not one or another: they are love itself. Think well over this: power alone is not the attribute of the Gods; there are no such fearful spectres in that great companionship. And now, farewell, we shall meet again.”
I watched his departing figure, and then I went on my own way. I longed for that wisdom, which they only acquire who toil, and strive, and suffer; but I was full of a rich life which longed for excitement and fulfilment, and in that great Babylon sin did not declare itself in its true nature, but was still clouded over by the mantle of primeval beauty.
–December 15, 1893