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Page 28
"You are a liar," said Helwyse, unceremoniously. "Why is not Satan,
who must possess this all-powerful knowledge, supreme over the
universe?"
Instead of taking offence (as Helwyse, to do him justice, hoped it
would; for his Berserker blood, which boiled only at heaven-and-hell
temperature, was beginning to stir in him),--so far from being
offended, the voice only uttered its peculiar quiet chuckle.
"Your frankness charms me! it proves you worthy to learn.
Satan--supposing there be such a personage--divides, with the other
august Being, the sovereignty of the spiritual world. Were I a cynic,
I should say he owned at least half of the physical world into the
bargain! But Satan is only a spirit, and his power over men is but as
the power of a dream. Were a Satan to arise in the flesh, so that men
could see and touch him, and hear his voice with their fleshy
ears,--there were a Satan! Already has the Incarnation of goodness
appeared to mankind, and, though the world be moved to virtue only
slowly and with reluctance, mark how mighty has been his influence!
What think you, then, would be the power of a Christ of evil, showing
to men the path they already grope for? I tell you, the human race
would be his only; Hell, full to bursting with their hurrying souls,
would outweigh Heaven in the balance; the teller of the secret would
be king above all,--forever!"
The sinuous voice twined round the listener's mind, swaddling the
vigorous limbs into imbecile inertia. But when before now did a sane
human brain let itself be duped by sophistry? This case were worth
marking, if only because it is unparalleled.
"And the only punishable sin is ignorance!" muttered Helwyse.
"Well, I have thought so, too. And I have questioned whether a man
might have power over himself, to put his hand to evil or to good
alike, and to remain impartial and impassive; and so make evil and
good alike minister to his culture and raise him upwards!"
"The question does credit to your wit," chimed in the voice of
darkness. "Whoever has in him the making of a deity must learn the
nature of opposites. The soldier will not join battle without studying
the tactics of the enemy. Without experimental knowledge of both evil
and good, none but a fool would believe that man can become
all-powerful."
"From the care with which you avoid speaking the name of God, if from
no other cause, I should suppose you to be the Devil himself!"
observed Helwyse, bluntly.
"Well, profanity is vulgar! As to my being the Devil, it is too dark
here for either denial or acknowledgment to be of practical use. But
(to be serious)--about this secret--"
The voice paused interrogatively. Lucifer, speaking through Helwyse's
lips, demanded sullenly,--
"Well, what is the secret?"
What, indeed! Why, there is no such secret;--it is a bugbear! But the
moral perversion of the person who could soberly ask the question that
Helwyse asked is not so easily disposed of. It met, indeed, with full
recognition. As for the subtile voice, having accomplished its main
purpose, it began now to evade the point and to run into digressions;
until the collision came, and ended the conversation forever.
"Unfortunately," said the voice, "the secret is not such as may be
told in a word. Like all profound knowledge, it can only be
communicated by leading the learner, step by step, over the ground
traversed by the original discoverer. Let me, as a sort of
preliminary, suppose a case."
Hereupon ensued a considerable silence, and Helwyse seemed once more a
detached atom, flying through infinite darkness without guide or
control. Where was he?--what was he? Did the world exist,--the broad
earth, the sunny sky, the beauty, the sound, the order and sweet
succession of nature? Was he a shadow that had dreamed for a moment a
strange dream, and would anon be quenched, and know what had seemed
Self no more? Strangely, through the doubt and uncertainty, Helwyse
felt the pressure of his shoulders against the cabin wall, and the
touch of the dead cigar between his fingers.
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