William Moore Ferrar

“ Demon of hell!' I shouted in a perfect fury of rage; 'away, liar and murderer! tempt me no more! What! was I, an intellectual being, born into this grand world, of a God-fearing mother, for nothing better than to help you to fill it with wickedness, violence, brutality, and bloodshed; with spite and malice, and hatred and jealousy; with pride, avarice, adultery, drunkenness, and every other abomination? Away, fiendish author of our rebellion and our madness! That human soul cannot exist which will not for ever curse you and the spirits that serve you. ”

“ Is it a dream? Is it true? It is Helen! It is Helen herself, as I live. Yes, Helen—my heroine, my darling! I am ready; wait for me; I am coming! Farewell, Ubertus! I shall be with you in your hour of need.'
And while he spoke he changed. What appeared to be a thick veil of blue gauze fell between him and me. His form assumed the likeness of a luminous cloud, which ascended into the air, and the two clouds mingled together and became one, ascending still higher into the air, and disappearing gradually from my sight. ”

“ Millions bewail their past follies and blunders; millions more are the victims of degrading vice, and lost in the mazes of the basest passions. Millions drink to the dregs the cup of pleasure, and fritter away their precious—their most precious—time in idle and senseless gratifications. Who are they who are suffering the agonies of incurable disease, and why am I spared? What have the poor wretches done? Religion saith it is a sin to murmur, or to think of wriggling ourselves out of our mortal envelope. Is the world beautiful, and am I cold and hungry? I cannot love or admire the world. ”

“ Discoveries of a wonderful nature have doubtless been made. We believe in the existence of heaven, but we cannot tell what marvels may be there to astonish and delight us when we get there. When I was in the world I thought only of the world, of my wealth, grandeur, and power, like the blind idiot and drivelling fool that I was. My cursed ambition and avarice deprived me of all sense and prudence, and thought of the terrible future; and had I served my God as well as I served thee, O King, I should not have been allowed to die in wretchedness on my way to the Tower of London. ”

“ They bask in the glory of their electric lights, and feel conscious of being heroes, with the attention, the eyes of beauty, and the criticism of the press, riveted upon them. It is no wonder that they should nearly explode with the pride of place and power, and be determined to show the world that the charming island which they govern is now, whatever it may have been once, no insignificant dusthole. The newspapers are teeming, day by day, with articles and letters full of remonstrances, warnings, and entreaties against their headlong course to financial destruction, but in vain. ”

“ If you persist in your own way, believe me, you will never see your Helen again; you will never see the light of the sun again, or the grass, or the trees, or the splendid lakes and mountains. The beauty of your person will be changed into the revolting similitude of a demon—perhaps going, like him, up and down on the earth, seeking whom you may devour! Love your Helen wisely, but not too well. Turn and seek, as you well know how to do, a happy and glorious immortality!'
He had risen from his knees while I was speaking, and now stood facing me with an offended air ”

“ If I am the gayest of the gay, you are, you are—pardon me—the fairest of the fair I Helen, I love you, I worship you!"
'She rose quickly from her chair, and appeared as if about to fly from the room, and replied hurriedly:
'"You are ill, Julius, you are talking nonsense; do not speak to me now, I cannot bear it—love me! a poor dependent girl, it cannot be!"
'"We do not all require our wives to be independent women," I answered, as I look her hand; "be my wife, Helen, my own darling, adored, happy wife! ”

“ Perhaps the time is approaching when you will be forced to admit that I am more than clever—that I am a great Genius! I am in possession of important and dangerous secrets, which it would not benefit even you to know. You alone, sir, in all your wide dominions, can be my master. Can I think of leaving the service of so good a master? Give me only a six months' holiday on the outside world, and I will gain for you a million of new subjects, each one as valuable to you as I am myself. I will not go about among the poor and forsaken men of the world ”

“ Our limbs may be smashed like rotten sticks, our shivering bodies pierced by the pitiless blast, or drenched by benumbing rain. Our best affections trampled under foot; the victims of rogues, liars, and villains; the dupes of egregious fools, who think themselves clever and wise. Is there mercy, is there peace, in store for us in the terrible future? What mercy have the winds and the waves, the tigers, scorpions, and serpents for us? Tell me, with your deep analysis of psychological metaphysics, if you have met with it in your dream world. ”

“ Why will you trust to an arm of flesh? Has the Demon, the prince of destruction, blinded your eyes? Have the treasures you have created here for yourself hardened your heart, and darkened your understanding? If Helen could speak I am sure she would now say: "My beloved husband, be not foolish, worship not me!" She is beautiful, but she is dust; her spirit is, I know, divine. These riches cannot redeem you from the wrath of your offended Maker. ”

“ Build a grand house in town; drive through the streets four-in-hand on the box of an elegant drag filled with fine fashionable ladies and gentlemen; give splendid entertainments to the rich, obsequious world, his wife, and all his family, and leave the poor and miserable beings of the earth most haughtily and severely alone. Be the great Oliver Ubertus, the wealthy, the proud, the generous grandee, the inventor of the celebrated larrikin couch—the favourite of princes, the Buckingham of the nineteenth century, the observed of all observers! ”

“ I found myself in a long straight corridor, walking as it were in a dream by the side of the Demon. He had reduced, for some reason, his abnormal height, and was now no taller than myself. The corridor, or covered street, was high and broad, and it was lit up by hundreds of glaring lamps, whose light dazzled my eyes. It had lanes opening into it, and numbers of ghostly-looking dwellings, with doors like our houses on earth, but without their cheerful and inviting appearance. Some of these were large, aristocratic buildings, residences evidently of great people ”

“ Apology, indeed! why, I have met with men made more bitter by an apology, who, if you had held out firmly against them, would have slunk away like very curs—not that I object to an apology, if one does wrong, but when a man grossly insults another, and then demands an apology, it becomes as rich as Falstaff's valour. If I live here two or three years longer, I'll blow up that infernal Parliament with dynamite and rackarock. I'll be the Guy Fawkes of the whole happy family.'
'Doctor, I will not, I cannot, shed blood, even a demon's blood, if he has any. ”

“ Destruction now stared us in the face. The panic-stricken negroes continued their wild flight, dragging our carriage over the heaps of slain, and through the long lines of infuriated soldiers. It was impossible to escape a miserable death now, and I calmly resigned myself to my fate. Their almost omnipotent master, notwithstanding all his power to save his precious bones when he pleased, was dashed from his chariot across a broken gun-carriage. The cannon-balls still flew around us in a perfect storm, and the musket-bullets like a tempest of hail. ”

“ At midnight exactly I was awakened by a tremendous crash of thunder rolling along the very ridge-pole of the roof. Springing from my bed, and throwing on an overcoat, I went out into the open air. The sky, to my great surprise, was still without a cloud, and not a breath of wind stirred the leaves of the trees; but the lightning flashed incessantly in blinding columns of flame, lighting up the gloomiest recesses of the immense forest, and sweeping with strange, ghostly, phosphorescent glow over the calm waters of the adjacent lake. The thunder still pealed out, crash after crash ”

“ Do you know that you have attacked the integrity of my empire, and made yourself responsible to me for the life of that valuable Minister? Answer me and excuse yourself if you can or dare; and let me not hear such a verbose abomination as that which your patron the Doctor has just stuffed down my throat.'
'The man of few words is the best man, sir; and as the carpenter is known by his chips, so is the murderer by his blood-stains. I have none; therefore I am innocent of the death of Partigan, sir.'
'This is quibbling—this is lying!' cried the enraged Demon. ”

“ I could not help reflecting, with a most painful feeling, that we were entirely at the mercy of the Demon and his diabolical driver; and what extraordinary or bloodthirsty notions might they not take into their heads? The most barbarous murder was to them no more than a puff of smoke. The balloon itself, though strongly constructed, was nothing but a child's toy in the strength of the elements of Nature. If it encountered a thunderstorm, a flash of lightning could annihilate it in a moment. ”

“ It will be impossible for me to prove my gratitude to him, unless you will graciously permit me to take him to my happy home in Tasmania, and introduce him to my family and friends. It is possible, sir, I admit, to thank him in words but words are often the despicable froth of empty and ungrateful hearts. I earnestly beseech you, sir, to let him come with us; he is too honourable to make any attempt to escape from you by unfair means.'
'Escape from me!' said the Demon, 'impossible; he cannot escape from me; I defy him to outwit me, clever as he is. ”

“ What can he do indeed but rush into the jaws of destruction, as the harnessed negroes rushed into the raging battle?
These thoughts swept painfully through my throbbing brain, and the Doctor, who perceived my uneasiness, arose from his chair, and bent over me. My eyes were closed as if in sleep. I felt something fall on my forehead which made me start with a thrill of joy. Was it a tear from that singular man's eyes which fell there? And yet how could it be? Demons cannot weep; perhaps he was not a demon. ”

“ Julius is waiting. Julius is rough and ready, and can keep the Demon quiet. Good thing for you. Are you coming or not? Poor fool—to fight with Partigan! As well blow himself up with an earthquake. But wait till you are my age, wait till you are five thousand years old. Your blood won't be so hot—he! ha! ho! Come along; all isn't well that doesn't end well. Julius has got you in hand. Julius is a genius, and leads us all by the nose. ”

“ Our Home Rule Parliament intends, doubtless, that we should all be happy and rich, yet it passes Acts which command what I must call tyranny and robbery. Tyranny, my dear sir, is the ruin of our world—the tyranny of wealth, of creditors, of pertinacious mischief-makers, of cursed political agitators. Must we always submit without a murmur to the iron-hearted disturbers of our peace?'
'You are a thinking man, Ubertus,' said the Doctor gravely; 'but many people would call you a downright fool. You know nothing at all about tyranny or cruelty. Your Government is one of angels. ”

“ Agnes was a good, but plain, girl, very quiet and reserved, with no accomplishment but a sweet voice. Helen had, in addition to her transcendent loveliness, every accomplishment which society in those days expected, and her parents could afford to give her. She could sing well, and play skilfully on the harpsichord. I was a plain young man, almost ugly in countenance, without any particular talents, ungainly in person, and averse to the elegant refinements of fashionable life. Banwell had a handsome face, a smiling, cheerful, winning air, and was a beau in dress and manners. ”

“ Lake Sorell, with all its charming sinuosities of island and shore, of mountain, marsh, and forest, lay spread out beneath us like a coloured map of grand proportions. Lake Crescent lay farther off, looking like a round polished mirror deeply set within a fringe of dark-green ribbons. The isthmus between the lakes came out in strong relief. A Bush fire was raging at Interlaken. The mountains and hills around us reflected the amber light of the setting sun, his golden rays softened and mellowed into the richest of ruby tints by the smoke of the distant fires. ”

“ Far below, among the subterranean mountains, echoed the hoarse roar of a tremendous waterfall, mingled with other far more fearful sounds.
'This is the Bridge of Folly,' said the Doctor; 'that island is the Island of Ignorance; the whirlpool is called Presumption, and the river itself is Infidelity.'
While we sat in our carriage on the centre of the bridge I was horrified to see an aged man advancing towards us from the opposite side. He was attended by a crowd of admiring followers, who, whenever he turned and spoke a few words to them, shouted and clapped their bands. ”

“ What could this extraordinary personage mean by his dog-kennel, and his coil of wire? Patience! patience! I should soon know. In the meantime, let my thoughts be pleasant. I anticipated certain death. No power on earth could save me now, unless—but I count it almost blasphemy to breathe that Name, a Name holy above all names, that is so often blasphemously spoken by the most unclean lips. To die was nothing; I had nearly attained man's allotted period; but to die in that pit of darkness, to be cast out, to be abandoned to wretchedness and despair! ”

“ It was felt that an august and Divine Presence was diffusing itself around, and a Voice breathed the solemn words, 'Love one another, as I have loved you.' A thrilling glow of inexpressible delight, tempered indeed by deeply humbled and remorseful thoughts, came to me, and then an intensely joyful burning of the heart as the unspeakable gift of love passed over us.
My conductor now led me into a smaller room, of which there were several opening into the great library. It was furnished in a very elegant manner, with every suitable convenience for a person of exalted rank. ”

“ You are as cunning as a fox, and as deep as the Pit of Acheron,' said the Demon.
'You said yourself, sir,' answered the Doctor, 'that, clever as I am, I cannot deceive, or outwit you, or escape from your power, and I know it would be useless for me to try; will you now doubt your own talents or your genius? I do not compare myself with you. I shall never try to emulate your superiority as a leader, or be your equal in strategy or finesse, or in the forethought and prudence that are inestimable, or in the unflinching bravery which levels mountains ”