Lady Florence Dixie

“ He who would reap the grain of Happiness Must sow as he would reap. He must be just. And now I would point out that Truth derides, Derides with scorn all priestly superstition. If priests would be, they must adhere to Truth, They must not seek to bolster up a lie. Truth only dwells in Nature. She abides With her sole God, the endless Universe. Go, seek her there, and not in fairy tales, Proclaim her as she is, not cloaked in sham. Truth is a meteor leading on to more, Leading to where abounding knowledge reigns. Where Truth is not, Falsehood alone can be. ”

“ Vergli claims to be Prince of Scota too, He says that Merani was Hector’s wife. Nature, the One, true God, declares this too. Is Vergli wrong for clinging to the Right? My bores, I, Shafto, Prince of Bernia, cry, He is not wrong. He is the soul of truth, The soul of honour and of equity, The enemy of Selfish Privilege. He does not ask for the impossible, He does not prate of Man’s equality, He is not of the Anarchist brigade Whose muddle puddle laws would chaos breed. He simply asks that all men born should live, And have the opportunity to thrive, And not be born the disinherited. ”

“ Small wonder seeing they are human and This God is most inhuman. Oh! fair Truth Prevail, prevail, come quickly and prevail. Well, Vulnar, Life is fair and Life is Life— To us who know that Thought can never die And is the soul of Life, we fear not Death; Because we feel ’tis but an open door Where Life rejoins the Thought which cannot die, And starts afresh upon Life’s pilgrimage. I will not say farewell, we’ll meet again, You and my fair-haired, blue-eyed Escanior; We’ll meet, our forceful thought attracting us To be together. ”

“ Farewell! may all the blessings of our God Fall on your shoulders, dearest Isola.”
Fortunatus. “Farewell, Vergli. I thank you for your love, Man’s love is rarely generous and pure, Capable of Unselfishness, and true; ’Tis not my fault I cannot make return Of love so tender and so chivalrous. But mine is with Escanior, bound to his. Wedded with him for all eternity. Yes, we will meet again at Avenamore, Vulnar, and I, and Verita will come. Have hope, have confidence, though skies are dark, Behind the clouds shines the resplendent sun, Our cause shall triumph yet. ”

“ Work to make Man divine in heart and form, Teach him that beauty is assured to all Who shall be born of well selected mates. Teach him that ’tis a crime to the unborn To breed unhealthy offspring or oppress Woman with childbirth’s oft-recurring strain. Quality, not Quantity, should be the aim, 30 And every child should be the fruit of love, And not of lust, incontinence or greed, Which latter is ungoverned Passion’s child. Vergli, my son, these are thy Mother’s words, The mother who has lived and nurtured thee. Thou wilt be true, I feel it, for I know Thou art in truth born of my very bone. ”

“ But I assert they are not such, but friends, Faithful to Hector, our liege lord and King. My bores, I know Vergli; his soul is high He simply works for Justice and for Truth, He advocates fair play to every man, To every living, moving, sentient thing. His creed is, ‘Follow Nature, It is God, Inscrutable, but not impossible.’ The God to whom you offer sacrifice And before whom you kneel like hypocrites, Is an impossible, a defamed God, A brazen serpent reared aloft by Man, Dyspeptic Man, who dreamed a nightmare dream, And forthwith called it the Almighty God! Almighty lie! ”

“ And when we cry ‘Reform,’ retorts ‘Revolt,’ And dubs our movement ‘Social Revolution.’ Our noble Vergli calls it ‘Moral Force,’ Seeking a level where it can abide, And influence entire Society. And thus it is, dear comrades, without doubt, And therefore to attain it we must work, Using all forces which we can command. We seek not Anarchy, that’s not our creed, We ask for Human rights and Human laws, For true religion, and not Superstition. ”

“ Watch o’er our Bernis, Make him a hero not a bauble prince; Let him be what Isola bore him for, To be an honest and an upright man. And with this last word let me bid you rise And call unto your side your first-born son, Give him the right to be that which he is— The Prince of Scota and your rightful heir. Farewell, Hector! For Right and Truth I die, See to it that I do not die in vain.”
Warder. “Will you not take some rest? The hour grows late. I counsel you, young Fortunatus, sleep.” ”

“ Here I, advancing into that unknown, Upon whose threshold I shall shortly stand, Counsel thee Vergli to work endlessly To find the Truth of all things by research And by developing the Thought of Man. But Thought will never soar to heights sublime, Those heights where dwell the knowledge that we seek, Save in the brain of recreated Man, 29 By which I mean the Human perfected. It is not perfect to be full of lust, It is not perfect to have cruel hearts, It is not perfect to oppress the weak, Or to deny to all and everything The rights which Nature gives them as their own. ”

“ There should be no State Church, but liberty To every man to feel that his own creed Was not an outcast one and unendowed. Let conscience have its freedom and all creeds Be self-supporting, not ignored by State, While one alone is bolstered up as right. I counsel, therefore, Disestablishment; First giving compensation to the Clergy. Let all men pray in secret and display Fade, as should fade barbaric practices. Force not upon your Sovereigns the disgrace Of swearing false allegiance to a lie, What greater Moral crime than to exclaim ‘I do believe that which I don’t believe’? ”

“ Isola. “Vulnar, your invocation is not vain, Have I not half fulfilled it hitherto? See, I will act as you invoke, indeed. Vergli in prison! I will take his place, 59 And carry on the War for Right and Truth. Shafto, go prove your title to be Prince, Speak out the truth unto your fellow Bores, Arouse the gilded chamber where it sleeps, And shake those dressed-up tyrants called divines. Make Sanctimonious tremble in his shoes, Shiver the awful Serpent they have raised And bid them practise Sacrilege no more. Brave Vulnar, you will stand by me, I know. Vergli in prison! Echoes of Merani! ”

“ I sat and listened while Death told the tale, And learned how Erth had answered Hector’s prayer, And given him and Vergli, and Vulnar The pow’r to build on Erth a perfect State Which it has been my joy to look upon, And which here, or elsewhere, I’ll see again. For Thought is Life, it cannot die, it lives, And, in my Memory, I see that scene, Not in a dream but in Reality, When Vision wakes to Life my Thoughtful Soul. As Erth is, so shall this Earth be in time When Men believe the words of Isola. ”

“ Isola. “Why do men love me thus? What is the spell Which makes them love with such unselfish love? Oh! Vulnar, could I blame you for such love? Rather, I thank you for your brave devotion. Kind Vulnar, loving friend of Escanior, 117 ’Tis good, indeed, to have so true a friend; If it to you is joy to have loved me, Believe me, ’tis a joy to me, Vulnar. I would not sell your love for all the world; I would not barter it for Life itself. Such love in man is so uncommon, rare, To own a gem so rare is wealth, indeed. Yes, Death is nigh, that death men fear so much. ”

“ Merani, you so kind, with heart so large, Will understand and will forgive the King. Oh! sorry fate. How long must I sham on? How long must I approve what I detest, 110 And be a slave? What! sign my son’s death warrant? Never! I will not murder my own child. Thank goodness he escaped, and yet, alas! If they should catch young Fortunatus and Arrest Vulnar, the law will hang these men As murderers of the policeman Grett; And I shall sign approving warrant, I, The father of Vergli whose life they saved. Was ever man more sorely tried than I? ”

“ Comrades, I pray ye, give your hearts to Truth And let your reasoning be drilled by her. Laws or Religions founded on a lie Cannot be good, nay more, they are pernicious. Laws born of Truth must be what men should frame. I go to struggle to attain this end. Now, let me map a programme and a creed, Both of which shall be our unerring guide, And which shall ultimately Freedom win And give to all the disinherited That which is theirs, their own, their simple right, The right of all things living to enjoy And to preserve their lives in Comfort’s arms. ”

“ Woman and Man were born to be together, But Nature’s tie should bind the two as one. It is the marriage service, which no creed Should dare to trample on or overturn. See here I stand a disinherited, I am the Prince of Scota, yet denied By that false creed of Sanctimonious, The right to call myself legitimate. By that same creed my mother was condemned And called a Prostitute, while Isola, Who did not wish to wed my father, holds The empty title of a Consort Queen And stands by him his legal prostitute. ”

“ Suppose, Just for the sake of argument I pray, That when we die, our Soul, which I believe Is out of matter forming Mind and Thought, Should peradventure take possession of A life in an embryo state, and step Either into this sphere, or say, elsewhere. Would you not like to think that soul of yours Will not become the tenant of a slave, A Disinherited, a Misery, But rather a free mortal born to live And make the most of Nature’s Gift of Life? 84 Remember, ‘every mongrel has its day,’ If Life is as I say, you may become One of the disinherited of Erth. ”

“ Upon horizon’s face Soft lights are dying, slowly, as I die; Dying, but only to be born again As all is born anew in Nature’s arms. Behind the fading evening, darksome Night Looms like a ghost, and yet a fair-faced wraith. Around whom brilliant worlds irradiate And glorify the endless Universe. Behind dark Night I see the face of Dawn, Dawn, dimpled-cheeked and rosy like a child, Dawn that proclaims the birth of a new day, The offspring of Eternal Evolution. There is no end, Vergli, there is no end, Who dares to say the infinite can die? ”

“ Be honest, comrades, show that which men lack, The Courage of their own convictions. Hark! Truth’s silver voice is pleading for you now. ’Tis Vergli, Hector’s son, who has flung down The gauntlet of defiance against Wrong. Vergli, himself, a disinherited; ’Tis he who has proclaimed our sacred rights, The rights which human beings claim by right, Right, moral and divine, and by divine I mean, as you all know, by Nature’s law. ”

“ Vergli. “This is King Hector’s message, countrymen, In which the Spirit of Isola breathes— A Spirit whose chief element was love, Love the Creator of true happiness. Let this appeal go forth throughout the world And pierce into the brains and hearts of men. It shall prevail, because it is The Truth. It shall bear fruit, because it is pure seed. It shall establish its real Sovereignty, Because it is Reality not Sham. If all true hearts declare it shall prevail And work to bring about the Victory, That Victory will come with leaps and bounds, And bring rejoicing into ev’ry heart. ”

“ Man being fashioned in the shape of God, Is naturally the Superior Life, And Woman, but a bauble After Thought, Made for Man’s Comfort, and his Pleasure too, Is of no consequence, except as slave, As wife obedient, or as prostitute. And Vergli dares to say we preach a lie, And strives to waken Woman to the truth, Proclaiming her Man’s equal, shouting out She is not part of Man’s Almighty rib! ”

“ For all around, these outlaws of our Erth Wander and prowl in seething discontent. Men, women, children, all are victims of Unnatural laws, Nature’s base antichrists. Am I not a poor disinherited? Is not that lonely woman far away, That woman dwelling in fair Scota’s isle, Whom, ere you tied with me ignoble ties, You treated as a wife, who bore you seed, And loved you Hector as I love you not, Is she not too a Disinherited, One of the outlaws fashioned by your laws? Is not the son she bore you, Vergli called, Your rightful heir? ”

“ Oh! come to me, Success, ye whom I woo, Not that success for which Men strive so much. Not empty adulation and renown. I care as little for the world’s false praise As I care for its paltry condemnation. The true Success I ask to come to me, Is that the Truth, whose flag I hold aloft, And Justice and kind Love shall triumph o’er The reign of Falsehood, Cruelty, and Hate. For this I send forth thought waves far and wide, May their returning tide bring back to me My bride, Success, whom I court from afar. ”

“ What do we seek to win? Just human rights, And to be governed by diviner laws Than now prevail. Our revolution is The evolution of both Thought and Mind, Which working upwards yearns to find the Truth. Wander in Stairway’s slums. Is Truth found there? No, nothing but a huge and monster lie, The offspring of a Superstitious creed, That creed which Sanctimonious bids us hug, And which is bolstered up by Church and State. What has it done for us, that boasted creed? Why made us the poor disinherited, The outcasts of a sham Society, In which Sham’s influence is paramount ”

“ Death called it Erth. It was like my own Earth, And yet how different in every way. Everywhere Peace prevailed and Love enthralled, The Men were handsome and the Women fair. Bright fields of waving grain and fruits and flow’rs Made beautiful the human dwelling-places. There was no blood apparent anywhere— The moans of vivisected animals, The groans of millions slaughtered to make food, The awful cruelties of War and Strife, Had no existence on this planet Erth. Women and Men did not disgrace each other, But revelled in a sweet companionship, Sharing in all things as the sexes should. ”

“ I doubt it not, believing, as I do That Woman, disinherited by laws As false as they are wrong and execrable, 57 Has Mission, greater than to be a slave, That Mission to be Man’s true comforter By guiding him along the path of Truth, Not grovelling and fawning at his feet. Let her rise up and speak aloud that Truth, Let her assault base Superstition’s lie; ’Tis Superstition which has made her slave, The hideous lie of teachings orthodox. ’Tis they who have brought sorrow upon Man, Degrading Womanhood, in whose downfall Is swaddled up Humanity’s drear woes. ”