|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 23
Huldbrand was so full of strange anxiety and emotion, that he knew
not what answer to make her. He took her in his arms and carried her
over, now first realizing the fact that this was the same little
island from which he had borne her back to the old fisherman, the
first night of his arrival. On the farther side, he placed her upon
the soft grass, and was throwing himself lovingly near his beautiful
burden; but she said to him, "Not here, but opposite me. I shall
read my doom in your eyes, even before your lips pronounce it: now
listen attentively to what I shall relate to you." And she began:
"You must know, my own love, that there are beings in the elements
which bear the strongest resemblance to the human race, and which, at
the same time, but seldom become visible to you. The wonderful
salamanders sparkle and sport amid the flames; deep in the earth the
meagre and malicious gnomes pursue their revels; the forest-spirits
belong to the air, and wander in the woods; while in the seas,
rivers, and streams live the widespread race of water-spirits. These
last, beneath resounding domes of crystal, through which the sky can
shine with its sun and stars, inhabit a region of light and beauty;
lofty coral-trees glow with blue and crimson fruits in their gardens;
they walk over the pure sand of the sea, among exquisitely variegated
shells, and amid whatever of beauty the old world possessed, such as
the present is no more worthy to enjoy--creations which the floods
covered with their secret veils of silver; and now these noble
monuments sparkle below, stately and solemn, and bedewed by the
water, which loves them, and calls forth from their crevices delicate
moss-flowers and enwreathing tufts of sedge.
"Now the nation that dwell there are very fair and lovely to behold,
for the most part more beautiful than human beings. Many a fisherman
has been so fortunate as to catch a view of a delicate maiden of the
waters, while she was floating and singing upon the deep. He would
then spread far the fame of her beauty; and to such wonderful females
men are wont to give the name of Undines. But what need of saying
more?--You, my dear husband, now actually behold an Undine before
you."
The knight would have persuaded himself that his lovely wife was
under the influence of one of her odd whims, and that she was only
amusing herself and him with her extravagant inventions. He wished
it might be so. But with whatever emphasis he said this to himself,
he still could not credit the hope for a moment: a strange shivering
shot through his soul; unable to utter a word, he gazed upon the
sweet speaker with a fixed eye. She shook her head in distress,
sighed from her full heart, and then proceeded in the following
manner:-
"We should be far superior to you, who are another race of the human
family,--for we also call ourselves human beings, as we resemble them
in form and features--had we not one evil peculiar to ourselves.
Both we and the beings I have mentioned as inhabiting the other
elements vanish into air at death and go out of existence, spirit and
body, so that no vestige of us remains; and when you hereafter awake
to a purer state of being, we shall remain where sand, and sparks,
and wind, and waves remain. Thus we have no souls; the element moves
us, and, again, is obedient to our will, while we live, though it
scatters us like dust when we die; and as we have nothing to trouble
us, we are as merry as nightingales, little gold-fishes, and other
pretty children of nature.
"But all beings aspire to rise in the scale of existence higher than
they are. It was therefore the wish of my father, who is a powerful
water-prince in the Mediterranean Sea, that his only daughter should
become possessed of a soul, although she should have to endure many
of the sufferings of those who share that gift.
"Now the race to which I belong have no other means of obtaining a
soul than by forming with an individual of your own the most intimate
union of love. I am now possessed of a soul, and my soul thanks you,
my best beloved, and never shall cease to thank you, if you do not
render my whole future life miserable. For what will become of me,
if you avoid and reject me? Still, I would not keep you as my own by
artifice. And should you decide to cast me off, then do it now, and
return alone to the shore. I will plunge into this brook, where my
uncle will receive me; my uncle, who here in the forest, far removed
from his other friends, passes his strange and solitary existence.
But he is powerful, as well as revered and beloved by many great
rivers; and as he brought me hither to the fisherman a light-hearted
and laughing child, he will take me home to my parents a woman,
gifted with a soul, with power to love and to suffer."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|