ARIUS THE LIBYAN (continued 2)

"And which of the gods dost thou love and worship most?"

"I love none of them surely, but I fear and worship Ptah, Ra, and Hesiri-Hes, the cross old things; because mamma says that they are the most respectable; and I fear them much, especially the terrible, implacable, pitiless Ma-t."

"But do you not think," said Arius, "that you would rather worship some loving, compassionate, and holy deity, whom you could love, and obey because you loved him?"

"Oh, that would be funny, would it not?--for a girl to fall in love with a god! I never thought of such a thing before, but I believe," she added, with an arch glance at Arius, "that I would like a really nice handsome boy better than any of the plebeian gods!"

"What dost thou mean, Theckla, by saying 'the plebeian gods'?"

"Oh, I mean the new-fangled deities that have come into fashion during the last two or three thousand years--the cheap, low-priced divinities worshiped by the slaves and by the mechanics, like Sebek, the crocodile-headed, and all that contemptible crowd. Mamma says that we--that is, the nobility, you know--ought not to pay any attention to any of them except the dreadful old gods, like Ra, Ptah, Hesiri-Hes, and the other ancient divinities; because our own family is older and more honorable than any of them except the high, dreadful old fellows that have lived forever. Still, boy, thou hadst better worship even the wretched Sebek than to be an atheist or a Christian; for papa says so."

Then the boy's heart yearned to tell the beautiful pagan of the God in whom he believed, but, remembering his father's caution on that subject, he chose rather to avoid further conversation of the kind, and started off toward the bay to take his evening bath.

"Whither goest thou?" asked the little maiden.

"I am going to the bay to take a bath, as I do daily."

"That will be fine sport," she cried, "and I am going with you!"

And Theckla sprang to her feet, and ran along beside him. The boy reached the water's edge, and, casting aside the loose gown habitually worn about the farm, he plunged into the bay and struck out from the shore, the play of his limbs being almost unimpeded by the close-fitting under-garment reaching from the neck to midway of the thigh; and instantly the young girl, whom old Thopt had arrayed in the short, sleeveless kilt and long gown which the women usually wore, threw off her outside gown and plunged in after him, exclaiming: "Oh, it is nicer than Lake Mareotis! But I have swum with papa from the great Pharos to the Kibotos in the little harbor of Eunostos!" and she swam after the boy as gracefully as a mermaid. Soon she caught up with him, and, having placed her little hands upon his head, she suddenly straightened out her arms with all her strength, and raising herself up with a lithe and joyous spring above him, with all her weight she plunged his head down far beneath the surface, and swam laughingly away. The boy came up instantly and pursued the fleeing maiden, and as soon as he could catch up with her, which was no easy task, he said, "Thou shalt go under too, Theckla!" but she was so excellent a swimmer, and so quick and active, that for a long time she baffled all his efforts to get her head beneath the waves. She laughed and struggled, and defied him, and exulted greatly that he was not able to give her such a ducking as she had given him, until, at last, he wound his long arms around her, pinioning both of hers, and, clasping her to his bosom, stood straight up, and they sank together until his feet touched the bottom, from which he sprang upward to the surface. Then the lad kissed her and released her, saying, "Wilt thou dip me again, Theckla, or hast thou had enough of it?"

But the girl clasped her hands above her head, threw herself suddenly downward, and for a moment her little feet flashed above the water as she dived, and instantly afterward she clasped the boy's legs in her arms and pulled him again beneath the surface, and rose above the waves before he had recovered himself. And so they sported in the calm waters of the bay until the twilight began to thicken over the valley, when they started for the shore, and the girl swam beside him as lightly as a gull, and, having thrown their long gowns around them, hand in hand they walked back to the cottage.

Theckla's first inquiry was of her mother, and, finding that she continued ill, she obstinately refused to leave her after it grew dark, even for a moment, but stretched herself out upon the couch beside her and slept until morning.

So it was every evening. During the day-time Arius was her favorite companion, but she seemed to have an unconquerable aversion to darkness, and would not leave her mother's side while it continued. Ammonius told them to let her have her own way, as terror of the dark hours was part of the old religion in which she had been raised.

CHAPTER VII.

THECKLA FINDS ONE GOD AND HEARETH OF ANOTHER.

So passed the days away, and Arius and Theckla became as firmly bound to each other as if they had been raised together all their little lives. On the second day after her coming, Arius had resumed his usual tasks in the garden and in the fields; and when he came home at noontide she seemed rejoiced to see him, and demanded with playful imperiousness, "Where hast thou been all the morning, Arius?"

"I have been at work in the garden," replied the boy.

"At work!" she exclaimed; "digging with thy hands? Why, thou art not a slave!"

And the boy answered, laughing merrily: "Nay, I call no man master; I am as free as any Cæsar!"

"Why, then, dost thou work? Verily, I thought that none but slaves and mechanics ever labor."

"But thou dost greatly err. It is true that some Greeks, Romans, and Jews, suppose that none ought to labor except those whom they call 'vile'; or rather they call all who labor 'vile,' but I do not accept their monstrous definitions, having been thoroughly taught that the only man who is free is he who lives by his labor without dependence upon relatives, or upon the offices which are distributed by the favoritism of the dissolute and wicked creatures whom they call emperors, Cæsars, proconsuls, and such titles; and I am free-born, and will maintain my liberty."

"Why, then, dost thou toil?"

"Because we need to toil in order to live comfortably and independently, as we are not rich, and do not desire to be so; but I never will be any man's servant. And, also, because it is noble and right to toil in some way, and every one who is not idiotic, deformed, or afflicted, is unfit to live unless he follows some honorable and useful vocation."

"Thou art the very nicest boy I know," she said, "but it seemeth so strange to me that thou shouldst labor with thy hands, and shouldst talk as if thou didst believe that it is good and not degrading to do so. I never heard such things. But I will go with thee this afternoon and see what thou doest."

"Thou mayst do so," said Arius, "and thou mayst help me with my work if thou wilt."

But the little maiden held up her hands that looked like delicate wax-work, and laughingly cried out, "Even with these hands?"

"Yea," said the boy, merrily, "even with those, tender and pretty as they are."

So after the midday meal, when Arius went back to the patch of onions at which he was at work, Theckla accompanied him, and stood awhile watching him as he dug up the tubers.

"What is to be done with these?" she asked.

"They are to be gathered up into little heaps, and carried hence to the house, and stored away until wanted."

"Why, I can pile them up for you," she cried, and straightway she began to gather the onions up as fast as the boy dug them, saying: "I wonder what mamma would think if she knew I was learning to work? But it is good, and I will help thee every day."

"Thou shalt not weary thyself," said the boy, "and thou shalt quit as soon as thou dost desire to do so."

But she would not stop, and continued at the task for several hours, until it was completed, seeming to be delighted with her newly discovered ability to be of use.

"What other work hast thou to do?"

"Nothing else, Theckla, except to take some salt to the cattle in the pasture, beyond the field, and thou mayst go into the house. I will not be long absent."

"But I will not go to the house, Arius; I will go with thee, and see the large-eyed beasts."

"Come on, then," said the boy, and, taking up the bag of salt which he had brought from the barn, he led the way along the shore of the little bay until they had passed beyond the field, where they came upon the edge of the pasture-land, and there Arius scattered the salt along a great trough of wood, to which some of the cattle had hurried up as soon as they saw the boy, and others came one after another, until more than a score were contentedly licking up the salt; and among them a fine bull-calf that was peculiarly marked. The kindly-treated herd were tame and fearless, and, as soon as young Theckla saw the bull, she gazed at him with the most intense interest, and ran up to the animal, crying out, excitedly: "Lo, the god! the god! the beautiful young Apis!"

"What dost thou mean now?" said Arius.

"Why, boy," she answered, joyously, "thou art the most fortunate boy that ever lived. Seest thou not the god--the sacred bull--the beautiful young Apis? Seest thou not the black-colored hide; the triangular white spot upon his forehead; the hairs on his back roughened out into the form of an eagle; the crescent white spot upon his right side? Oh, if he hath a knot under his tongue in the shape of a scarabæus, the sacred beetle of Ptah, he hath then all the marks that reveal the bull to be a god! Wilt thou not look under his tongue and see?"

The boy gazed upon her with mingled pity, amusement, and contempt. He had read and heard of the worship of idols and of beasts, but had never before witnessed an actual exhibition of such idolatry. "Why, Theckla," he answered, "the bull is no more a god than thou art a cow. I am amazed that so sensible a girl should be capable of such folly as to think this beast a god."

"But he is an Apis, Arius, and the priests of the temple at Memphis would give thee his weight in gold for him. They would come hither in a royal procession to carry him hence; they would keep him for forty days at Nilopolis, and for forty days at Memphis, and the noblest of the women in the city would go in naked and worship him; and he would be fed like a great king as long as he lives, and when he dies he would become an Osor-hapi, a great god, and would secure thy soul. Surely the priests must know that he is a great god, or they would not build such grand temples in honor of Apis, and worship him with such magnificent and costly ceremonies and processions. I verily fear that thou art an atheist, Arius, but I have been raised up to be religious, and I know."

"Theckla," answered the boy, "I can take a goad in my hand and drive this sort of a god whithersoever I will; I can catch his tail in my hands and twist it until he shall bellow with pain. If thou wilt hold out to him an ear of corn in thine hand, he will follow thee about like a dog; and thou callest the beast a god! Theckla, I am verily ashamed of thy foolishness."

But the young girl looked gravely at her companion, and said in tones of solemn warning and reproof: "Arius, thou dost not believe in Ea, Ptah, Shu, Seb, Set, Mentu, Atmu, nor in Hesiri-Hes; and thou dost laugh at the sacred Hathors, and thou dost mock the bull-god Apis!--Boy, dost thou believe in anything? Or art thou an atheist?"

"Yea," cried Arius, laughing, "I believe thou art the brightest and the prettiest little pagan in the world; and some time I shall explain to thee what I believe, and convince thee of the folly of thy polytheistic and idolatrous notions. But not now, for thy god and the other beasts with him have salt enough, and we must return home."

They went back along the bay-shore, and the sun was nigh the tops of the distant mountains; and Arius, walking a little in advance of Theckla, heard a sudden plunge into the water, and looking back he saw the little maiden swimming boldly out into the bay, and immediately he plunged in after her. They swam, dived, raced, scuffled, and sported in the pure and healthful element until twilight began to gather over the lowlands, and then, hand in hand, they wandered back to the cottage, Theckla going immediately to her mother's apartment, whose side she would not leave so long as the night lasted--a horror of darkness being incident to the Egyptian religion, derived, perhaps, from the grand midnight ceremonies of the Memphian priests in which annually with torches and processions, and weird and impressive wailings, they celebrated the world-wide search of Isis for the dismembered body of the consort whose mangled limbs the hatred of the evil Seth had scattered about the earth.

Theckla wanted to tell her mother about the wonderful young Apis, but old Thopt peremptorily enjoined silence upon her, and forbade the sick lady to talk in her present excessively debilitated condition. For it was manifest that her recovery was exceedingly doubtful, and that even the slightest excitement or effort might be fatal to her. She lay quietly enough, and while she recognized Theckla, and seemed to understand the few Egyptian words spoken to her by Arete and old Thopt, which were carefully limited to repeating to her that she had been very ill, and must remain entirely quiet, and neither talk nor even think, she seemed almost to have forgotten the shipwreck and the loss of her husband; and the two women who watched her devotedly even doubted whether she knew that she was away from home. They looked forward with great anxiety to the time when she might grow strong enough to shake off this healthful lassitude of extreme exhaustion, and realize her unhappy circumstances. But the recent past seemed to have been blotted out of her memory, and she lay quiet and uncomplaining, apparently content with her surroundings; and the anxious nurses carefully avoided everything that could even by chance arouse her drowsy intelligence, and renew the consciousness of grief that seemed to slumber in her brain.

The Sabbath-day came round again, and, with the rising of the sun, young Theckla bounded out of her mother's room, calling aloud for Arius. It was usual on the Sabbath for the family at Baucalis to go to some house of a Christian in the vicinity, where would be gathered together a small assemblage of the faithful for religious services, or to have the neighbors assemble at the farm for the same purpose. On this day, however, Arete and old Thopt would be necessarily detained at home by the illness of the Egyptian Hatasa; and Ammonius, who still thought it prudent, both upon her account and upon his own, not to inform her that she was enjoying the hospitality of a family belonging to the hated sect that was everywhere spoken against, and that was persecuted throughout Libya even more bitterly than elsewhere in the Roman Empire, ordered that Arius should take charge of Theckla for the day, and determined himself to go to the assembly, in order to consult certain of the brethren about his future course in reference to his involuntary guests. Arius then informed his father about the singular recluse he had met with upon the mountain on the preceding Sabbath, of his promise to visit him upon that day, and asked his permission to go, saying that he would take Theckla with him if his father had no objection to suggest, and would invite the singular and learned old man to visit them. To this Ammonius readily gave his consent, and Arius thereupon told Theckla of the facts, and invited her to accompany him, to which she enthusiastically assented. The farm vineyard produced a wine almost identical with the famous Mareotic, which was praised from the mouth of the Nile to Athens and to Rome. It also produced figs, pomegranates, apricots, peaches, oranges, citrons, lemons, limes, and bananas, which the Christians commonly called the "fruits of paradise," because in that latitude they were in season the whole year through. It also produced various melons, among them a delicious watermelon, yellow on the inside, lotus, and olives. In their garden, also, grew the rose, the jasmine, the lily, the oleander, chrysanthemums, geraniums, dahlias, helianthus, and violets, and they could raise almost every vegetable known to both tropical and temperate zones.

Arius procured a basket, and enlisted the services of old Thopt by telling her that he was about to visit an ancient Egyptian hermit who dwelt alone upon the mountain, and desired to take him a lot of good things to comfort his loneliness; and that kind-hearted creature soon had a few bottles of excellent wine, some bread-loaves of finest flour, and quite an assortment of choice fruits, both preserved and fresh, packed into the basket, the whole crowned with a beautiful bouquet plucked by Theckla's dainty fingers. Arius, bearing his basket, and followed by the agile girl, pursued his way along the little bay until he had passed by it westwardly, and then began the long but gradual ascent of the mountain, upon a small plateau of which dwelt the aged eremite. In less than two hours they had reached the plateau in front of the hermitage, and soon beheld the ancient seated near his own door, his weary eyes gazing far away over the brilliant expanse of the Mediterranean. The approach of the two young people caught his attention, and with a genial smile the old man welcomed them. Taking the girl's hand in his own, he murmured: "She is a bright and lovely child, and a true daughter of Kem" (the Black-land). He spoke in the Egyptian language, which he knew Arius did not understand, but the girl answered in the same tongue: "Yea, father, I am from To-mehit" (the North-land), "and was born in Alexandria."

Then the ancient said with surprise: "How is it that thou speakest Egyptian, when thy brother knoweth no word of the strange old language? Or is he thy brother?"

This he said in Greek, and Arius answered, "Nay, she is not my sister, but is a guest in my father's house."

Then he succinctly narrated the story of the rescue of Theckla and her mother from the raft. The old man listened with much interest to the boy's graphic recital; and then, turning to Theckla, he said: "Child, art thou, too, a Christian like thy friend Arius; or art thou still in bondage to the false and fearful gods of Kem?"

Then the girl showed in her speaking face her loathing and abhorrence for the very name of Christ, and turning hastily to Arius she cried: "Art thou, then, a Christian? Belongest thou to that accursed and criminal association? Oh, say it is not so, or I will never, never love thee any more!"

But the boy drew himself up proudly and answered: "Yea, Theckla, I am a Christian, thank the boundless mercy of God! And, when thou shalt have learned what it is to be a Christian, I trust that thou wilt follow Jesus thyself, and love me and all other Christians more and more. For verily we are not such a people as thou hast been taught to believe us to be, any more than our bull is a god, as thou didst suppose."

"I do not very much believe in Apis," she said, "but the common people do. Ah! Arius, I am so sorry to hear this thing of thee! Why, if my mother had known that ye were Christians, she would sooner have died upon the raft than have gone into thy father's house, or to have suffered any one of you to touch her with your hands. Oh, I am so vexed to find that thou art connected with such a people!"

Then said Arius: "Thy mother is well cared for; and thou must let her know nothing until she hath become stronger; thou wouldst only distress her by informing her of the fact of our being Christians, and it could do no good to tell her."

Then the girl drew nigh to him with tearful eyes, and crossed her little hands upon his shoulder, and leaned her head against them, and, looking up into his eyes with sorrow and tenderness, said: "Ye have been so good and kind to both of us, that I can not help loving all the people at thy home, and I do love thee, although thou art a Christian; but it is a terrible thing; for papa says that to be a Christian is worse than to be an atheist."

These things all occurred in a moment, and the ancient, seeing that it had not been the purpose of Arius to inform the maiden concerning his religion, and that he himself had unwittingly brought about the disclosure of the fact, said unto them: "Come within and be seated, my children; I desire to talk to both of you."

And, when they had gone within, Arius set his basket upon the old man's table, saying: "I have brought unto thee wine, bread, and fruits, as a token of my reverence for thine age and learning. I desire to be friendly with thee."

The old man seemed to be much touched by the boy's speech and manner, and gently answered: "I thank thee, truly, and far more for thy kind words than for any gifts. Not often do the ancient enjoy the friendship of the young, although nothing else on earth can be more pleasant unto them."

"But the heart of a Christian needeth renewal," said Arius, "if it be not always both young enough to sympathize with the youngest, and old enough to sympathize with even the very oldest. The very core of our religion is the Agape, a love which is not measured by age nor accident, but goeth out freely to every one that needeth it."

The old man looked upon the boy with wonder, saying: "That is beautiful, indeed; there is no such truth in any other religion."

And the girl said, "That is good and strong, Arius, although it be a Christian dogma."

Then the ancient said: "I desire that ye will listen to me carefully for a moment, and thou especially, Theckla. Children, I am nigh upon fourscore years of age. My name is Am-nem-hat. In mine infancy I was placed in the great temple at Thebes, and dedicated to the service of Amen-Ba, Mut, and Kuhns, the Theban triad. My family was ancient and honorable in Egypt, and their influence and wealth opened the way for me to all priestly honors and learning. I remained in that temple fifty years, during twenty-five of which I was a priest, and I gradually mastered all the wisdom, learning, and mysteries of the priesthood, until my fellows determined that I should be elevated to the highest rank in the sacerdotal service, and I was ordained and inaugurated to be high-priest at Ombos, where I continued for five-and-twenty years longer. The triad which throughout all Egypt is worshiped as Hesiri-Hes, and Horus, we at Thebes worshiped as Amen-Ra, Mut, and Kuhns, and at Ombos as Ptah-Pukht and Imhotep. But, while during all these years I exercised the functions and exhausted the learning of the priesthood, I forever sought after Ma-t, the Goddess of Truth, she that in her own hall, in the lower world, is called Two Truths, by whom the dead are judged.--Dost thou know something of the fearful Ma-t, young Theckla?"

"Yea," answered the girl, with a perceptible shudder, "I know her well, and tremble at the dreadful thought of her! So wise! so hard and pitiless! so tearless, and yet so just! The terrible Ma-t, without mercy, incapable of love, unmoved by hate, implacable, emotionless, the fearful judge, the Truth!"

"Then listen to me, child! I worshiped through all these lonely years as a faithful, conscientious priest, and memorized the book of the dead, and studied the mysteries of medicine, of astronomy, and of mathematics, and sought unceasingly to know the awful Ma-t! Dost thou think that I am one who ought to know whether any of the gods of Kem are true or false?"

Then Theckla fell upon her knees before the ancient priest, and lifting her little hands to him she cried: "Yea, father, thou knowest! Ancient, honorable, learned priest, thou knowest! Teach thou Arius to believe in the three great gods, to seek the awful Ma-t, and to abandon the pernicious Christian faith, for thou art wise! thou knowest all the truth!"

"Listen then, Theckla. Five years ago, driven by the quenchless curiosity of an unsatisfied but earnest soul, I caused to be brought before me one who preached to men of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, because I had heard that these Christians were irreclaimable from the errors of their superstition, and I desired to test the question whether they could be persuaded to return unto the old religion. I kept him with me many days, while we discussed these things, and then sent him from me unconvinced. And afterward I fled from the temple secretly, in an open boat, in which I had placed my most valuable possessions, and floated down the Nile. Thence I wandered along the coast to Alexandria, where, for a great sum, secretly I purchased all the sacred writings of the Jews and Christians, and, after many days more of wandering along the coast, I found this spot and have since then dwelt here alone, still seeking for the truth. For--art thou listening to me, Theckla?--a horror of great darkness had fallen upon my soul. I know that Amen-Ra, Mut, and Kuhns, are not true gods! Apis is nothing but a bull; Anubis is only a jackal; Sebek is a crocodile and nothing more; and even the most ancient gods, if there be any truth in them at all, are only the visible emblems of some higher truth which the very priests have forgotten, if, indeed, they ever knew it. I have hoped and half expected to find that this unknown truth, this 'hidden' thing which is not Hapi, might be that which the Christians promulgate; but this I do not know. Nevertheless, my child, I tell thee that the gods of Kem are no true gods; and I counsel thee to learn of Arius that which he believeth! For falsehood is not profitable; and I realize that all my days have been consumed in learning and in teaching only errors; and it is sad and terrible."

Both of them heard the old man's confession with awe and sympathy, and when, overcome by strong emotion, he had ceased to speak, Theckla gave way to a passionate burst of tears; but, as soon as she could regain her self-control, she turned to the ancient and with strange earnestness exclaimed, "O Father Am-nem-hat, high and honorable priest, hast thou, too, become a Christian?"

"Nay," replied the old man solemnly, "I have only learned the bitter lesson that the gods of Egypt are all false: I have not found a true God yet, if any such there be."

"Thou shalt yet find him," cried Arius, "to the joy and consolation of thy spirit, and thine old age shall be filled with the peace of God that passeth all understanding; for he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh shall it be opened."

Then they were all silent for a time. Then some of the kids came up to the door, and Theckla, oppressed with the sadness and solemnity of the last few minutes, sprang up, crying out: "O the pretty, happy kids! May I go out and play with them?"

And the old man, with a pleasant smile, answered, "Yea, my child, if thou wilt not leave the plateau."

And Theckla bounded out of the house, and was soon engaged in a lively romp with the sportive young goats.

CHAPTER VIII.

WHO IS HAPI?

The absence of Theckla gave Arius the opportunity he desired to call out from Am-nem-hat a fuller expression of certain theological ideas suggested by the ancient during their first conversation, the remembrance of which had been the subject of frequent meditation ever since; and the boy said: "Since I last saw thee, Father Am-nem-hat, many circumstances have combined to prevent me from giving to the things which I heard from thee that careful consideration which I desired to bestow upon them; yet I have pondered much upon those philosophic views which thou didst utter concerning the dualism of God. I desire to hear more fully thereof; for although I know that Christianity is, for the most part, a practical, experimental thing, concerning the heart and the life of a man rather than a philosophical or theological system, concerning which Jesus himself had naught to say, as if he preferred to leave dogmas and ceremonies to the Scribes and Pharisees, so that it is possible for one to be a genuine and faithful Christian with little knowledge of philosophy or of science, yet it behooves the young especially to seek for information concerning every question that can arise out of the faith."

"Thou must understand," said Am-nem-hat, "that I do not assume to be a teacher of thy religion. Being set free from the bondage of Egyptology, and left, as it were, without any religion for the last five years, I have given much time and study to Christianity, reading the Scriptures, of course, by the light of all that I have learned of other systems, and seeking only to discover the truth. There is one thing, which I had long supposed to be true, which recent thought and investigation seem to establish beyond any great room for doubt. That thing is the fact that the old Egyptians believed the human spirit to be of divine origin, engaged throughout earthly life in a warfare between good and evil, and that its final state was determined after death by a solemn judgment rendered according to the deeds done in the body. This warfare continued through all the dynasties alike until during the eighteenth dynasty, the priesthood, fearing that the principle, or god of evil, was about to triumph, got together and obtained a royal decree, ratified by the sacerdotal order, to banish Seth (the evil god) out of Egypt, and out of the religion of Kem; but this action failed to have that salutary influence which had been expected from it. The fact itself was, perhaps, the most singular one in Egyptian history; but our sacred records leave no doubt that the royal and sacerdotal authorities united in a solemn decree for the banishment of Seth, in order to secure the future safety of the human soul. I have just as little doubt that originally they believed in one supreme God, who was conceived of as a dual being, combining in himself both the poles of spiritual sex-hood perfectly, and giving birth to a third divinity, by which the triad, that is constantly repeated under different names, was made complete. Hence I declared to thee that nothing could save the Christian faith from the imputation of polytheism except the assumption that the God of the Christians, like the original myth of all primitive faith, hath in himself a double spiritual sex-hood, of which Christ is the Son, 'begotten,' not created; 'conceived,' not made; divine, because as the son of man is human, the Son of God must be divine. If this is not true, then the Christ of these Scriptures, no matter how pure and exalted he may have been, was either a created being, or else he was only a mere appearance, a mere simulacrum of Deity, a pious fraud, who merely seemed to live among men, and to die for their justification, but did not do so in reality."

The old man paused at this point, but the boy, keeping steadily in view the matter which had aroused his own interest in the conversation, said, "But are there any proofs of the divine dualism and trilogy of which thou hast so confidently spoken?"

"I think so," said the ancient, "but the original idea has been overlaid and hidden for countless centuries by the myths and symbolisms and external ceremonies devised by ancient priests to express them for the common people, until the priests themselves perhaps only dimly perceived the original truth, and regarded the symbolism itself as true--a most bare and flagrant idolatry. For when, at some indefinite yet very remote period, religion became blended with government and the priests sought rather to control public affairs than to maintain a true worship, the religious idea became so degraded that the sun, which was originally only the symbol of a higher, unseen God, was mistaken for a God itself, and worshiped as such; and this degradation increased with ages, until finally any one who could build a sculptured sarcophagus, and pay for the embalming processes, ritualistic prayers, incantations, charms, and ceremonies, was declared to be in Hesiri justified. According to the inscriptions on the sepulchres, no rich man was damned, and respectability on earth and salvation after death were dependent upon money alone. There was nothing to be done in the way of restraining one's self from evil, nothing to be done in the way of active benevolence. The chief business of an Egyptian's life was to acquire sufficient wealth to build a costly tomb, and the most expensive event in a man's experience was his funeral. Hence the rich were all saved, and the poor were mostly condemned, without regard to personal character and action. Yet all the while the most pious and learned of the priests clearly perceived, even through the mists of error, superstition, and selfishness, which debased the ancient faith, the primitive truth that God was one--a dual being that was to become a triad by the generation of a Son."

"I think," said Arius, "that I comprehend the argument; yet I desire to hear the proofs of this divine dualism more explicitly stated."

"The proofs thereof, derived from the dualism in the original faith of the most ancient races (as the Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese), and from the fact that the monotheist Manes, or Moses, called his one God by a name which is the dual or plural number of a Hebrew noun, have already been suggested to you. But, in the ancient religion of Egypt, this dualism pervaded the whole system everywhere. There was even a dual name for everything--the one common, the other sacred or hieratic. The ancient name of Egypt, 'Kem,' signified both the 'Black-land' and also the 'black man' or people. The local name, Mizraim, was a dual word, signifying both upper and lower Egypt, in which 'To-mehit' was the north-land, and 'To-res,' the south-land, and the sacred name of the river, which the Greeks call the Nile, was 'Hapi'; and the same word was applied to Apis, the bull-god; and in both cases the word was used to denote 'the hidden,' 'the concealed,' the source of the Nile being believed to be undiscoverable, and the being of whom Apis was originally the symbol being yet 'hidden,' 'unrevealed.' No matter where, or by what name, the one supreme, self-existent, self-productive Creator of all things was worshiped, he was originally worshiped as a dual entity, a double god, at once father and mother of a third manifestation that was always a son. Primarily Apis, 'the hidden,' 'the concealed,' simply meant that this third person was yet unrevealed; but just as Ra (the sun), originally the symbol of the one God, became substituted for God himself, afterward Apis becomes the real 'hidden' thing, of which he was primarily only a symbol, and his spiritual form seems to have become Horus. Yet Ra is rarely associated with a female consort; but, when he is so, it is always with a female Ra, and never with an inferior being. But, even after this idolatry became established, the higher priests preserved the original idea of a dual god, to be made a triad by the generation of a son; and everywhere in Egypt, no matter by what local names their gods were called, this trilogy was affirmed in every temple. The very essence of the ancient Egyptology, therefore, is the idea of one dual god, that becomes a trilogy by the generation of a son. The same thing is true of the most ancient form of the Indian and Chinese polytheisms. Thou must perceive, therefore, that in the original faith of all the primitive nations, the divine being is Father-mother, which is one dual God, and a son. If, therefore, the Christian religion presents the idea of a spiritual dualism made a trilogy by the generation of a son, it maintains the very idea of the Deity, which is the core of all the primitive religions--Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, and, I think, Jewish also."

"If thou art not weary," said Arius, "I would desire much to hear thee declare how these views, which are entirely new to me, agree with thy reading of our sacred books."

"I will cheerfully state the result of my investigations," said the ancient, "again reminding thee that I read them only as I have done the sacred books of every other people known to me, and not as one having any especial authority to declare the meaning thereof."

"I know perfectly well as to that," said the boy, "but desire to know what thou hast found therein in reference to this opinion of thine."

"I have found first, as I have already suggested, that Moses, who was a monotheist, and a bitter enemy of all polytheistic ideas, constantly uses the plural number of a Hebrew noun to name the one God in whom he believed. According to the prophetic portions of the Jewish scriptures, I find that the Son of God was to be born of a virgin, and the trilogy was to be manifested to man by the incarnation of this son. Now, in the sacred books of the Christians, the four called Gospels, Christ is always called the Son of God, and Jesus is called Christ. Uniformly that which stands in the same relation to God that was attributed to the earthly manifestation of the divine nature by all original faiths is the Christ; that which in the Christian system occupies the same relation to the divine nature which was borne by the feminine side of the dual God of all the original faiths is called the Holy Ghost. This expression (Holy Ghost) occurs two hundred and twelve times in the New Testament, and in every instance the words are in the Greek neuter gender, which expresses nothing as to sex. The common declaration concerning Christ is that he was 'begotten' of God: a man is begotten of his father; he was 'conceived' of the Holy Ghost: a man is conceived of his mother. My interpretation, therefore, must be that these scriptures teach us that the one God is a divine dualism, a double spiritual Being, the Father-Ghost, and that the Christian trilogy is completed by the generation of a son of this Father-Ghost which is one double God; and that as far as sex-hood can be predicated of a spiritual nature, Christ, the Son, is a spirit begotten and conceived of God his Father-Mother, by whom the worlds were made, and who was afterward manifested in the flesh by assuming human nature. This is what thy scriptures teach me: I know not whether it be true; but it is a glorious statement of that which was the original faith of all primitive peoples before mankind lapsed into idolatry; for every high-priest in Egypt assuredly knoweth that polytheism was not the first faith of men."

"But," said Arius, "is not the Holy Ghost called 'he' in the paragraph from John which readeth--'And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that HE may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth HIM not, neither knoweth HIM: but ye know HIM, for HE dwelleth with you and shall be in you'; and in that passage which readeth as follows: 'But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, HE shall teach you all things': and do not these readings conflict with your idea that the name of the third person in the Christian triad expresses nothing as to sex?"

"I think not so," answered the ancient, "because it is evident that in these places the only thing that can be meant by the 'Holy Ghost' and the 'Spirit of truth' is the Paraclete, the Comforter; and while the Greek word for comforter is a noun of the masculine gender, the words 'Holy Ghost' and 'Spirit of truth' still retain their neuter form, although put in apposition with it; and the pronouns 'he' and 'him' take their masculine form from the word comforter, and not from the words Holy Ghost and Spirit, which are always neuter, and express nothing as to sex. Besides this, I do not find anywhere in the scriptures any characteristics which are essentially masculine ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and I do find many which are essentially feminine."

"Wilt thou state any other argument, if there be any, that maintaineth this grand idea of a dual God that becometh a triad by the generation of a son?"

"There is another," said the ancient, "which is conclusive to my mind that the doctrine of thy scriptures is as I have stated it. In Genesis it is written that God said, 'Let us make man in our own image'; and, also, it is written, 'Male and female created he them.' It seemeth to me that this 'image' and 'likeness' hath a deeper signification than the mere similitude of man's character to that of God can convey. God is a spirit, according to these scriptures, and no resemblance can be imagined between human beings and him in regard to physical constitution. So far as the characters constituted the 'image and likeness,' the books show that it would include only the first man on one side, and God the Father on the other. But the words are generic: 'us' and 'our' the triad, on one side, and 'man' (that is 'male and female,' the human race) on the other, and I suppose the 'image and likeness' spoken of is one found in the essential nature of man, in his constitution and relations. For as in heaven, so in earth; in both, the trilogy includes Father, Mother, Son: trinity is family; and the essential point of the image and likeness between the human and the divine subsists in the fact that human nature necessarily exists as a triad--father, mother, son; just as the divine nature must do. This seemeth to me to be the only ground from which it is possible to predicate divinity of Jesus Christ without involving the whole Christian system in the mazes of polytheism; for if he be divine otherwise than in this fact of generation, there must be more than one God. In strict accordance with this view, I have observed that in those nations which are ignorant of this feminine aspect of the dual god, wives are degraded--are mere chattels, mere slaves; in others, that (like Egypt) recognize the divine feminine nature, but hold that she is inferior to the masculine element of this dualism, wives are tolerated, are not shut up in seclusion, are not mere slaves and chattels; while among the Christians alone who hold the absolute equality of Father and Spirit, womanhood is glorified and made honorable; and Jesus himself elevated marriage almost, if not altogether, into a religious sacrament."

"The views you present seem very like the truth," said the boy, musingly, "and they are certainly grand enough to be true. But they are entirely new to me, and I shall not fail to give them such study and meditation as my sense of the magnitude of the subject involved may demand. I have never heard any discussion upon the nature of the relation of the three persons of our Christian trilogy."

"I think," said the ancient, "thou wilt find that it is a mere mistake to suppose that there are three, for the sacred books teach me that there are only two, the Father-Ghost, or double God, but one only; and the Son of this one God. The perfectest flowers in nature are hermaphrodites."

"But wilt thou inform me whether any perfect, self-producing creature, possessed of animal life, hath ever been discovered?"

"Never," answered the ancient. "The partial realization of such a condition, the rare approximations thereto, which have been curiously noted by Egyptian priests for centuries and myriads of years, have been universally regarded as a deformity, and not as a perfection. Yet the priesthood say that the fact was perfectly realized, according to Moses, in the case of the first man; for the first woman was not created as the man was, but proceeded out of him; and the account given by Moses afterward means just that. I could say many things upon this matter indeed, but for the fact that the oath of secrecy, taken at every step of his progress in the sacerdotal life by every Egyptian priest, was vast and solemn; intended to cover his whole future life, and secure his silence under every possible mutation of his own fortune. The sphinxes, with wide-open eyes and sealed lips, and faces that are inscrutable and calm, revealing nothing that might show a trace of any passion, emotion, thought, or purpose, and yet full of intelligence and power, are the perfect symbol of the Egyptian priesthood; and I know not just how far these obligations are binding upon me."

"I will not question thee," said Arius, "but will endeavor to profit by whatever thou mayst be at liberty to declare."

"Thou mayst some day find use for the fact that was well known to the priesthood, who were the repository of all knowledge in the land of Kem, that in the embryonic or total life, both in animals and in man, there is absolutely no distinction of sex. Up to a short period prior to its birth, it is impossible to determine whether the offspring will be male or female--from which fact it seems to follow that sex is not a primary or essential function of animal existence, but dependent upon conditions during gestation which centuries of investigation have failed to disclose. Dost thou remember how bitterly the sacred books of the Israelites, from Moses down, denounce Baal, and Ashtaroth, and the star-god Remphan, and all the secret rites of the national religions of all other people except their own, the Egyptians included? Hast thou observed that many of the ceremonies which other nations practiced as part of religion are denounced by Moses as crimes punishable with death? Hast thou observed that throughout the Jewish scriptures, and especially throughout the Pentateuch, there are bitter and vindictive laws and customs devised for the express purpose of segregating the Israelites from all other peoples, for building up, as it were, a wall of partition between them and all other nations--and this, notwithstanding the fact that it would have been natural and right for Moses and his people, if they believed themselves to be in possession of the truth, to seek to impart that truth to others, and so procure the universal acceptance thereof? Hast thou marked the fact that the missionary spirit, which was the glory of every other religion, so as to create continual wars undertaken for the sole purpose of forcing other peoples to adopt the religion of the conqueror, was constantly repressed by the Jewish laws and branded as a crime? And hast thou ever reflected upon the real signification of these facts?"

"Yea," answered Arius, "and I have been taught that God, by Moses, so commanded the Jews in order to preserve the peculiar people from being seduced into following after strange gods, and adopting the idolatries which were everywhere believed in. For the idolatries thou hast named, and every false religion which had for its symbol a moon, a cow, a cock, or any symbol intended to indicate the fecundity of Nature, was only the worship of that very mystery of sex of which thou hast spoken such strange things, the deification of lasciviousness, the apotheosis of sensualism."

"They finally became so, indeed," said Am-nem-hat, sadly, "when the original truth became thoroughly corrupted; but it was not so in the beginning. For if thou wilt keep in mind the fact that the original faith of every primitive nation held the true God to be a dualism that was to become a triad by the generation of a Son; if thou wilt remember that this Son was also held to be Hapi, 'the hidden,' 'the concealed,' 'the unrevealed,' even as unto this day the high-priest of every temple in Egypt will declare unto thee; and, considering these things, thou wilt not surely say that the grand roll of Egyptian priests, stretching back for more than thirty centuries of recorded history from this age of ours, were all mere sensualists. On the contrary, thou wilt see in these singular rites and ceremonies, even in their present degraded form, the signs and symbols of a deathless longing in the hearts of that grand, pure, holy race of sacred priests, and of a search prosecuted over land and sea, through heaven, and earth, and hell, during all the fruitless and slow-gliding centuries, by every art, science, and resource known to men--a longing and a search after Hapi, 'the hidden one,' 'the concealed Son,' 'the unrevealed Saviour,' for whom the whole creation groaneth--a sublime spectacle, sad and grand enough to move a god to pity! For while the crowd see only a splendid pageant in that annual festival in which, with torches and with magnificent display, the priests and the whole population at Memphis wander over the city, the river, and the lake, seeking in earth, and fire, and water, for the dismembered body of the dual god, thou wilt find among them aged, pure, sad, learned men, who see in the same grand spectacle the perpetual memorial of their world-old search for Hapi, 'the concealed'; and, if thou couldst gaze into their shut, silent, sorrowful hearts, thou wouldst see all the faculties of soul and spirit exhaling in a yearning prayer that he might come! and at the gate of every temple thou wouldst find the priestly symbol, the Sphinx, the sleepless watcher, cut out of imperishable stone, 'gazing right on with calm, eternal eyes,' till Hapi come!--for such is the true signification of Hesiri-Hes, whom the Greeks call Osiris-Isis! And even in the later and more degraded worship of the bull-god Apis, while the common crowd see only the apotheosis of sensualism, as thou hast called it, in the fact that, when a new Apis is discovered, devout women at Memphis, during forty days, expose themselves stripped naked to the gaze of the sacred brute, the sad-faced priests realize that the endless and unavailing search to discover Hapi, 'the concealed,' had sometimes been prosecuted by unlawful means, against which Moses, in the Jewish scriptures, denounced the penalty of death. And the period of forty days was purposely chosen in order to cover by a few days, in both directions, a lunation of the moon; for the worship of the moon-god universally connected the lunations of that planet with the sexhood of women. But thou wouldst greatly err if thou shouldst believe that in its original, undegraded form, this worship was sensualism; for it began with some new effort to wring out of the mystery of sex the secret of Hapi, 'the concealed'; and was glorified by the fact that it was part and parcel of the weary, world-old search after him! Oh, will he ever come?"

Then the boy sprang to his feet, to the very tips of his toes, his right hand vibrating, his head erected and bent forward, his dark eyes gleaming with mesmeric light, his whole form and face glowing with passionate and quivering emotion, and he cried aloud: "Thou art pious and aged and learned! Thou teachest me much! But I will also teach thee something! As surely as thou livest, Hapi, the Hidden, whom thou callest the desire of all nations, hath already come in the flesh, and his name is Jesus Christ."

"Perhaps so, perhaps so," said the ancient, mournfully. "But the priests of Kem, during the past three thousand years, often imagined that they had found him, and as often met with bitter disappointment. The Sphinx still watches with unwinking gaze for the solution of the mighty problem, and the old are difficult to convince."

But at that moment Theckla burst in upon them, flushed and weary with her romping with the goats, crying out, "O sacred Hapi, I am so hungry and so tired!" Then the old man spread out a linen cloth upon the table, and, at his desire, Arius and Theckla placed thereon the table-ware and the dainties taken from the basket which the boy had brought, while he took from a little spring nigh his hermitage a jar of cool, refreshing goat's milk: and they three did feast right joyously.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DEMOCRACY OF FAITH.

It was indeed a singular thing to hear, the usual conversation of those young people about religious questions upon which the greatest minds of subsequent ages have spent their force without exhausting them; but it should be remembered that everything like exact science was then in its infancy: all that was actually known of medicine, chemistry, geology, geometry, geography, botany, and even of mathematics, could be very quickly learned; and around this narrow limit of ascertained truth spread a boundless wilderness of vagrant speculation, in which the seeker after learning might wander a whole lifetime without ever being able to add one single valuable fact to the stock of knowledge; so that religion, whether Christianity or paganism, was universally regarded as the one thing that might most profitably be learned and known; and education, even from infancy, consisted in acquiring the knowledge of it: and this education was among the heathen chiefly objective, handling the visible, tangible symbols of a superstition which possessed only the most meager elements of subjective truth and power, except, perhaps, for the higher priests who had been initiated into mysteries unknown to the common people; while among the Christians the process was almost reversed. Christianity had no objective life, except in the person of Jesus Christ; and the subjective power which it possessed upon both intellect and consciousness had no assignable limits, inasmuch as it seemed to make the martyrs almost insensible to physical pain, and yet could produce a moral sensitiveness so acute that to be conscious of willful deception might work the death of the body, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to Peter about the consecration of their property to holy uses. This education among the Egyptians, especially among females of the higher classes, was chiefly oral, but among the Christians the young were taught both orally and by the written text.

One of the strangest and yet most logical results of the Christian teachings and practice (and one which has been, for very sufficient reasons, ignored by the theologians) was to develop a radical and uncompromising spirit of democracy throughout the Christian communities or churches. The early Christians uniformly held that they, as Christians, belonged to a kingdom which was in, but not of, the world--a kingdom for which no earthly potentate had right or power to legislate; and this living faith loosened the bond of allegiance and dissolved the sense of obligation as to all human authority, and was the negation of the lawfulness of temporal government over the subjects of the kingdom for which they recognized no king but Christ. While, for the sake of peace, they were willing to render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, by paying taxes to that government under which they lived, and by even yielding ready obedience to all laws and customs which did not come in conflict with the higher law of the kingdom, the rights of conscience, they universally regarded these laws as extraneous to their own organization, foreign statutes, imposed upon them from without; and, being solicitous to render unto God the things which are God's, they steadily abstained from any participation in the affairs of government, and quietly assumed the right to judge for themselves whether any law, regulation, or custom, prescribed by the sovereign power, or other human authority, was or was not such as they might conscientiously obey. And, while they would no more have thought of holding office under pagan rulers or of participating in their legislation and government than they would have thought of accepting the priesthood of a heathen temple and participating in its idolatrous worship, they obeyed all laws alike, except such as conflicted with conscience, and these they refused to obey in the very face of persecutions, torture, and death. But this fearless assertion of the rights of conscience necessarily involved the right to sit in judgment upon all human laws and the powers that ordained them, and to determine for themselves whether the law was lawful. That helpless spirit of blind obedience to the decrees of despotic governments which characterized the pagan peoples was, therefore, impossible to the Christians. In the very teeth of universally established law and custom, they steadily refused to bear arms, to own slaves, to seek any legal redress in civil courts, to follow the law of their domicile in regard to the ownership of property or the succession to estates of the deceased, just as they refused to sacrifice to the gods, or to call any man master. Under the same lofty conception of the rights of conscience, in lands where women were bought and sold like cattle, they refused to practice polygamy; and in lands where female chastity was unknown and plural wives and concubines were esteemed to be the insignia of honor and influence, they clave fast to that monogamic marriage which Jesus had elevated into a holy sacrament; and while throughout the world women were regarded as slaves, as domestic chattels, or, at the very best, as an inferior race and a necessary evil, so that the birth of a female child was looked upon as a household calamity, the Christian faith that the Holy Ghost conceived Christ before he was born of a virgin and manifested in the flesh, glorified and exalted the dignity of womanhood and maternity, and created the idea of personal responsibility, rights, and duties for both sexes alike. The logical tendency of Christianity was, therefore, to originate the idea of personal liberty for all men, unknown to the world before; to repudiate the heathen doctrine of the divine character and right of kings; to sit in judgment upon their laws, and to intelligently obey, or refuse to obey, them; in a word, to cultivate and exercise, as a matter of religious faith, that spirit of personal independence, both of action and of thought, which we in later times denominate democracy, the concrete form of which was the election of deacons, presbyters, and bishops by the people unto whom they ministered.

But this habit of independent thought did not tend as in later times in the direction of ecclesiastical schisms; because, if any one embraced a doctrinal error, either it was maintained by him as an individual opinion; or if a mistaken zeal led him to proclaim it publicly, and seek thereby to bind the consciences of other Christians, the matter soon came to the knowledge of the churches, and, when the Church assembled to consider the alleged error, the Holy Paraclete directed the counsels of the assembled bishops and presbyters, so that their deliverances were infallibly correct, and were universally accepted as final. So that, during the first three centuries, no heresy could survive the condemnation of a Christian council, and no learning, zeal, and genius could give to heresy such vitality and power as to seriously threaten the peace of the Church. Even Peter could not force the observance of the rite of circumcision upon the free Christian communities; and the heresies of Menander, Cerinthus, Nicolaus, Valentinius, Marcion, Tatianus, Blastus, Montanus, Artimon, and others, perished almost as soon as they had been condemned.

It was perfectly natural, therefore, that while both Arius and Theckla were almost children in many respects, they should both be far advanced in religious learning, each of them in harmony with one of the separate systems under which they had been reared; and that they should be, in many attitudes of thought and feeling, a pleasing enigma to each other. The girl, although brimful of bright and pleasing fancies, had all her life been accustomed to accept as truth whatever was taught to her as such, and the very basis of her training had been implicit and unquestioning obedience to authority without reason, so that she had never, perhaps, attempted to exercise an independent thought, judgment, or inquiry about any question of religious, political, or social life, her existence having been passed in strict and unconscious conformity to rigid Egyptian customs, into the molds and forms of which she had been fashioned from her infancy. The illness of her mother, which left her to the freedom of thought, expression, and action, characteristic of every Christian household, was a new and intoxicating experience to the girl; and, whatever else it might be possible for her to become, it was manifestly impossible that she could ever again resiliate into the moral and social mummyism of ordinary Egyptian female life. The bondage of Egypt was broken.

But the boy, fixed and immovable in his faith in the few salient and all-important doctrines covered by the Apostles' Creed, as that creed was taught during the first three centuries, as to everything else, had been freed by his training from the shackles of authority, and so unconsciously enjoyed and exercised "the liberty of the gospel" in which he had been reared by questioning, investigating, trying every phenomenon--social, religious, and political--that came within the range of his observation and experience.

Am-nem-hat imagined that in these two youthful but well-instructed young people he beheld the living incarnation of the opposing civilizations under which they had been reared; and it was a pathetic and beautiful thing to see with what eager intentness he noted almost every inflection of their voices, every expression of their countenances, almost every peculiar turn and change of their thoughts, while he encouraged them to talk, hardly caring what might be the subject of their conversation.

At the beginning of their little feast the ancient said: "Arius, if ye Christians have any custom of thank-offering, prayer, or libations, before ye partake of food, I would desire to have thee perform or repeat it now."

Then answered Arius: "We make no libation or offering, nor are we restricted to any set formula for returning thanks to God; but generally we repeat the [Greek: Patèr hemon]."

"Wilt thou do so now?"

Then the boy said, "Yea, gladly"; and, while they watched him narrowly, he solemnly said: "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name: thy kingdom come: thy will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us daily our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive debtors: and let us not be led into trial, but deliver us from trouble: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the truth, forever."

Then said Am-nem-hat, "Theckla, what form of worship hast thou been taught to observe before partaking of thy daily food?"

And the girl said: "On solemn occasions, our fathers make libations; but it is not according to Egyptian customs, or religion, for a female to meddle with any sacred rite, beyond her own private devotions, as thou, O priest, must assuredly know."

"Dost thou know the reason, Theckla, that woman is thus excluded, not only from participation in the sacred rites, but from every place that is inconsistent with the idea that she must of necessity be either a slave or a domestic pet, having right to existence only as the appanage of a man upon whom she is dependent as slave, wife, or daughter?"

"Nay," she answered; "but I have been so taught, and, therefore, it must be right and proper."

"I will tell thee, Theckla, for it is verily a thing which every female ought to know. The reason of it is that the original idea of God was that of a dual being, equally divine and glorious in both aspects of his double nature. But nearly all nations, as they sank deeper and deeper into idolatry, degraded the feminine conception of this dualism, and some of them utterly lost it. In Egypt they have held Hes to be consort of Hesiri, and, although inferior to him, yet entitled to great honor. Hence the Egyptian women have never been shut up, kept in seclusion and ignorance, and esteemed only as slaves or as chattels, as is universally the case among nations that have entirely fallen away from the divine truth. But I tell thee, Theckla, that the religion of the Christians alone maintains the absolute equality of the Godhead, by maintaining the Holy Ghost, the Mother of Nature, to be consubstantial with the Father, and hence it alone elevates woman to her true position, and endows her with responsibility, respect and honor, rights and duties; so that, although all men on earth should reject and curse the Christ, every woman, who is true to herself and to her sex, should cleave unto him in spite of pain and even death itself. Do thou remember these things, Theckla; and, when thou shalt see with what respect, honor, and love the Christian husband treateth his wife and daughters, remember thou that the vast difference between them and other men, in that regard, ariseth not out of any difference in the nature or disposition of the individuals, but out of the difference in their religion only; for that faith regardeth women as persons, not as things. Forget not these truths, Theckla! for, whether it be true or false, Christianity alone hath ever done justice to womanhood, wifehood, maternity; and the woman who does not love and follow Jesus betrayeth herself and her sex."

"Surely thou, also, art a Christian!" said the young girl.

"Nay," answered Am-nem-hat; "I say not that to thee! For I can not understand what it is to be a Christian. But, having carefully studied this religion as I have done all others known among mankind, I do solemnly assure thee that it is the only one on earth that is fair and just to chaste and intelligent women. For it teacheth that the equal, consubstantial Holy Spirit conceived a Saviour that was virgin-born; and it so serveth to redeem all womanhood from centuries of contempt and degradation; for no man who hath an intelligent faith in Christianity can ever regard woman as the mere instrument of his pleasure, or as the mere slave of his will, but as a friend, helpmate, and companion, worthy of love, honor, and respect; so that, whether it be true or false, every woman should cleave thereto, because it is for her, at least, temporal salvation. For Christianity differeth as radically from all other religions in regard to the esteem in which it holdeth women as it does in regard to slavery and to the poor. And while the rich and the great may hate this system because it would deprive them of the social and political precedence which every other religion maintaineth for them, the slaves, the poor, and the women should never forget that Jesus Christ is the truest friend they ever had on earth."

Then said Arius, "Father Am-nem-hat, why art not thou a Christian, having views of our religion that are so wise and just?"

And the old man answered: "That thing, my son, I can not tell thee, nor can I comprehend it for myself. I can not understand what is the precise attitude of mine own spirit toward Christianity. Canst thou instruct me?"

"Nay, verily," said Arius. "In my heart I yearn for the power to say something that might open thine eyes unto the light; but my small knowledge and experience serve not to enable me to understand how it is possible that one so aged and so wise, so well instructed in our Lord's own teachings, can fail to be a Christian. But my father was an idolater in his youth, and he is learned in our religion. If thou wilt go home with us, thou shalt be received with honor and affection, and he, perhaps, can give thee aid. Wilt thou not go?"

"I thank thee much," said Am-nem-hat. "But the way is long, and the mountain steep, for one so old as I. And besides, it seemeth to me that, if human knowledge and patient thought could extort any final truth out of the mute lips of Nature, even I could have made her speak!"

"But," said the boy, "the tree of knowledge is not that of life. Even the most ignorant and depraved find peace in believing, and I have met with none so wise as thou. If thou wilt come to us, I will bring hither on to-morrow a she-ass, gentle and sure of foot, which my mother is accustomed to ride, and will walk beside thee to our home, if only thou wilt come."

"Yea," cried Theckla, "thou must surely come! For I will tell my mother that I have met the high-priest of Ombos, and she will long much to see thee."

Then Am-nem-hat, as if overpowered by their persuasions, replied: "Ye are both so kind to an old and lonely man that I can not resist your entreaties, and will even do as ye desire; for ye know not what pleasure the old may derive from the polite and hearty attentions of the young."

Then the two young people bade the old man a kind farewell, and, with the light heart of youth and health, took their way homeward down the mountain. And when they had come to the edge of the pasture-land they met with some of the cattle, and among them was the young bull-calf whose peculiar markings had so excited the wonder and superstition of Theckla; and Arius cried out laughingly: "Lo, Theckla! there is thy god, and thou shalt ride home upon the back of the beast."

And he cut a long withe and fastened it upon the horns of the bull, and led up the gentle beast, and, seizing the young girl in his arms, he lifted her astride of the fat, round calf, and led him along. And, when Arius mocked and ridiculed the young Apis, the girl joined in his merriment, and he was glad to see that she was fast losing all superstitious reverence for the brute, and for all the other pagan deities; for her growing contempt for Apis necessarily struck at her reverence for the whole system, of which a bull with a black hide, a triangular white spot on his forehead, a spread-eagle in the hairs of his back, a crescent white spot upon his side, and a knob like a scarabæus under his tongue, was so important a part.

When they had reached that part of the pasture which was nearest to the house, Theckla sprang from the animal's back, and, with some lingering doubt of his divinity still troubling her mind, she said: "Arius, I really wonder whether the Apis hath a knob under his tongue in the shape of a scarabæus? Wilt thou not look into his mouth?"

"I know not that," said the boy; "but, if he hath not a rather odd-looking spot under his tongue, he is the only bull-calf I ever saw that hath it not; and I suppose it would be easy to irritate and inflame this spot until it would look like a natural knob about as large as a good, lively beetle."

"I had never thought it might be possible for the priests to so deceive any one," said Theckla.

"Perhaps they did not do so," answered the boy; "but they may have been deceived by the cunning of those who had such beasts and desired to sell them."

Theckla sighed, but her reverence for Apis and for all of his mysteries was utterly gone forever.

CHAPTER X.

FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY.

During the time that Arius and Theckla had been absent at the hermitage of Am-nem-hat, a great change had occurred in the condition of the Egyptian lady, Hatasa, at the Baucalis cottage. Early in the morning she had fallen into a profound slumber, but before noon she had awakened suddenly, and in a moment afterward the whole house was filled with her bitter wailing. All at once the terrible sense of loss had overwhelmed her mind with impassioned force, and in heart-broken tones she repeated the name of her husband over and over again, and momently called aloud for "Theckla, darling Theckla! Where is my daughter, my only child?"

Then with great tenderness Arete told her that Theckla was well and happy, and would soon return with her own son, with whom she had gone to visit a near neighbor. The poor woman's grief seemed hopeless and unendurable. At one moment she would yearningly lament the loss of her husband, and at the next reproach the gods of Egypt with his destruction, and then, perhaps, pray to them in tones of hopeless supplication. "O Ra and Thoth!" she cried, "ye murderous, heartless gods, that have so cruelly bereft me, have pity upon Amosis, whom ye have snatched away to the under-world! O merciless and fearful Ma-t, that hast never had compassion upon any mortal, thou terrible Two Truths in thy dark halls sitting, unmoved by sorrow or pain, in the gloom of mournful Amenti, soften once thy stony heart, that thou mayst feel the sharpness of our earthly woe, so that thou judge not mine Amosis until I have builded his sarcophagus. O thou Hesiri-Hes! that cometh nearer to our human life than other dreadful deities, restore my husband's body to the land, that with due honors and uncounted cost I yet may have his mummy-rites prepared to smooth his pathway through the under-world!" Then, seeming to realize the uselessness of any prayer in the absence of the ceremonies of a funeral, she moaned in hopeless grief: "O terrible! to be cut off in youth, with no sarcophagus builded, and no mummy-cloth--cast off alone and friendless, into the darkness of Amenti! O fearful fate! to be called up for judgment, like a pauper, before the merciless, unsparing Ma-t!"

And so she would cry, as loudly as her feebleness permitted, until exhausted nature enforced silence upon her wailing lips.

"She calleth upon the ancient, fearful gods of Kem," said old Thopt, in a half-terrified whisper to Arete.

"She is without God and without hope in the world," whispered Arete. "May the compassionate Lord pity her and bring unto her the consolations of his grace!"

"My heart weeps for her," whispered old Thopt; "for the Egyptians are not as the Christians are. They have a shuddering horror of death, and it is to them the sum of all possible wretchedness."

And so the weary hours passed slowly, and, at last, came Theckla and Arius home; and the girl, bounding into her mother's room, cast her arms about her and kissed her passionately. And when the mother broke out into renewed wailings, the daughter said: "Nay, mother, why dost thou lament so bitterly? Surely thou art much better now, and father will soon return to comfort thee. Cheer up thyself with the hope of speedily returning health and strength."

"Alas! alas! thy father will return no more!--no more! Ah, nevermore!"

Then with startled, wondering eyes, the young girl gazed into her mother's face, crying out: "What meanest thou? He hath always come back from every absence joyously; why sayst thou 'No more--ah, never, more,' so sorrowfully? Surely he must again return to us!"

Then it seemed apparent enough that these Egyptians had such an awful terror of death, and the girl had been so carefully guarded against all knowledge thereof, that she could scarcely realize what thing was meant thereby; for the Egyptians said nothing of "death," but only, "He hath gone hence," or "He is the Hesiri justified."

"He is dead, poor child!" moaned the mother, "swallowed up forever by the cruel, unrelenting sea! Thou wilt see his face, and hear his voice, and spring to meet his fond caress no more," she wailed--"no more!"

"Is he, then, the Hesiri justified?" she asked, a nameless wonder and terror taking hold upon her soul.

"Oh, thou wilt break all my heart!" she answered. "He hath died without a sarcophagus and the mummy-cloth. How shall he, then, dare to meet the dreadful Ma-t in the dark hall wherein she sitteth as the Two Truths, judge of all the dead?"

Then the full desolation of her father's awful fate, and of her own mighty loss, for the first time swept her young heart with terrible distinctness, and, sinking down beside her mother, the girl blended her broken-hearted wailings with the woman's bitter cries.

"Leave them together," said Arete, and she and old Thopt quietly withdrew. And she informed Ammonius of the sorrowful condition of their guests, and, with her dark eyes full of sympathetic tears, she said, "It is a harrowing grief, and I was so young when I became a Christian, and view death so differently from them, that I know not how to offer consolation for such sorrow."

"Thou shalt leave them alone for the present," answered Ammonius. "The Egyptians have no consolation except those which their erroneous faith buildeth upon the sarcophagus and the mummy-rites--all external consolations--of which, in such a case as this, they are deprived. Let them alone. Perhaps the Lord will show us some way to aid them, or their violent grief will wear out itself in lamentations. All thou canst do is but to wait and hope."

The long night passed wearily away. Arete and old Thopt divided the watches thereof between them, as they had done ever since Hatasa came to Baucalis, to see that she wanted no attention which kindness could supply; but neither of them knew how to utter soothing words unto a grief that seemed so hopeless; for the religion of Egypt contained no word of comfort for such grief, and the beautiful idolaters were ignorant of that of Jesus. All that mother and daughter knew of religious faith kept forcing back upon their broken hearts the dreadful conviction that the soul's condition after death depended upon the building of a sarcophagus and the preparation of the mummy, in accordance with the rites prescribed in "The Book of the Dead"; and in such a case as this no mummy-rites could be paid unless the corpse could be recovered; and, although the sarcophagus might be builded, they did not know but that the father and husband whom they loved might be judged by the awful goddess Ma-t before this work could be completed; and none of the exceptions made by their religion in favor of those who fell in battle for the rulers of Egypt, or who perished by shipwreck, applied to the case of Amosis, for he had lost his life in a private quarrel after the shipwreck had happened. Their hopeless sorrow was pitiful, indeed; but the young girl fell back upon a final truth when she kept repeating to her mother, over and over again, her own convictions in such words as these: "Thou knowest that he was a good and upright man, doing only what he did believe to be right and just, and surely the greatest God of all, by whatever name he may be known, will be most merciful to him without a sarcophagus or the mummy-rites." And so the young idolater, not knowing the law, but doing by nature the things which are written in the law, became a law unto herself, and the unknown God, whom she did ignorantly worship to that extent which was commensurate with her faith, revealed himself unto her; and even from this unreasoning hope they both drew something of comfort. And during the night Theckla informed her mother of her visit to the old eremite Am-nem-hat, and of his having been priest at Thebes and high-priest at Ombos; and how ancient, wise, and good he seemed to be; and that he had promised to come to the cottage on the following day, and expressed the hope that out of his vast stores of wisdom he might be able to bring forth some truth that would yield them surer consolation; and this also somewhat comforted that bitterly smitten pair.

And early the next morning Arius went to the abode of Am-nem-hat, leading the she-ass on which his mother was accustomed to ride, and, having got the ancient comfortably seated upon the jennet, he led her down the mountain and unto the cottage of Baucalis safely, where all were awaiting the arrival of the priest to whose visit Hatasa looked forward with vague but earnest hope. And, when the old man had come, Ammonius, with great respect and tenderness, assisted him to dismount, and led him unto the house. And, having most kindly received him, they told him of the sorrowful woman, and how anxiously she had anticipated his coming, and he said, "Let me go unto her at once."

And, when he had entered her chamber, he stood in the middle of the floor, and, with his raised and extended arms crossed at the wrists in likeness of a cross (for the cross is ages older than Jesus), he looked upon Hatasa, saying: "Whatever God is greater than Ra, whatever God is wiser than Ptah, and whatever God is more merciful than Hesiri-Hes, and more just than Ma-t, by whatsoever name the great God of all ought to be known among men, I invoke him to bless and comfort thee, O daughter of affliction. May that truest and highest God lift up the light of his face upon thee and give thee peace!"

Then, sitting down beside her couch, he took her hand in his, saying kindly, "Daughter, what is thy name?"

"Hatasa," answered she.

"Art thou of Alexandria?"

"Yea," she said. "But my family were of Thebes, where lived and died my father Ahmad, and my grandfather, Butau, and many generations more."

"Butau, of Thebes!" said the old man. "Hast thou, then, never heard of Am-nem-hat, priest at Thebes, high-priest at Ombos?"

"Surely so," she answered. "For the same wise and holy priest was the brother of my grandfather Butau, the great general, and I have often heard my parents speak of the sacred priest with reverence and pride."

"I am that Am-nem-hat, and thou hast found a kinsman in whom thou mayst implicitly confide."

Then seized she his hand, and, kissing it, she cried, "I do rejoice thereat, and welcome thee as kinsman, and as sacred priest most pious and most wise."

Then she poured out to him the burden of her heart, and asked him if there was any hope, her husband having builded no sarcophagus, and having had no mummy-rites. And the old man answered mournfully, "Daughter, as an Alexandrian, thou shouldst know the vast temple of Serapis which standeth before the magnificent street, two hundred feet wide, in Rhacotis, the western and Egyptian quarter of the city--the grand and beautiful temple which containeth the statue of the god that was brought thither out of Pontus?"

"Yea, father," answered she, "from childhood I have known the holy temple well."

"And didst thou also know the wise and pious Raph-nath, high-priest of that temple, who died there some fifteen years ago?"

"Yea, verily, I remember him quite well."

"He and I were boys, at Thebes, in the great temple together. All his lifetime we were friends. When he felt that his physical powers were failing, and that the end of his long and holy life was fast approaching, he sent unto me to come to him and spend his last days with him; and so it happened that I was at Alexandria when the ancient high-priest died. We did talk much and often of our long religious lives; much, of our learned ignorance; much, of the destiny of the human soul; much, of the truth. When I did ask of him whether he had any special request to make concerning his own funeral rites, he answered me in some such words as these: 'Nay, my brother. Let the obsequies be simply conducted, but in accordance with the rites and ceremonies prescribed for a priest's funeral by 'The Book of the Dead.' For although both thou and I be well aware that the sarcophagus is naught, and the mummy naught, and that no rites nor ceremonies which men can devise in any way concern the soul after death, yet, because the law and order system of Kem hath been for so many centuries built up on these vain things, I desire that the usual forms be all observed at mine own funeral. Although surely no high-priest of Egypt ought to think that it can make any difference to the soul how, or when, or by what means, a man may depart this life, or whether any funeral rites are paid or not; for thou knowest that the true purpose of religion is to control the living, and that the dead are far beyond the reach of human agencies.'

"'On what, then, dependeth thy soul's condition in the other world?' I said.

"'Surely,' he said, 'upon nothing that any priest can do or leave undone, but upon whether the man hath done his duties well according to the best of his faith and knowledge.'

"And afterward, and almost in the hour of his dissolution, I said unto him again, 'Brother, how farest thou?' And he answered me, saying: 'The light of life within me burneth low and flickereth. It will soon go out. But I fare well and peacefully.'

"'And thou hast no fear of awful Ma-t, my brother, and of the silent hall wherein the Two Truths judge the dead?'

"And smilingly he answered me: 'Nay, Brother Am-nem-hat. No man attaineth to the high-priesthood in Egypt without having learned that the things of which thou speakest are for the people--not for the higher priests--part of the system which we administer, not final truths for us. For I know, as thou also knowest, that above and beyond the grand Egyptian triads, there must be some supreme God over all whom we ignorantly worship; who is patient because he is eternal, and merciful because he is all-wise; and having all these years discharged, as faithfully as human frailties might permit, every duty that came under my hand, I look away above the gods of Kem, and trust myself unshrinkingly in the hands of the unknown God, in whom we both believe.' And, almost in the same moment, the old man quietly departed.--Daughter, for thee and for thy great sorrow there is no consolation in the religion of Egypt. All of the consolation I can offer is to tell thee plainly that the things which the high-priest Raph-nath declared unto me upon his bed of death are true; and, as the sum of all my learning and priestly life, I say unto thee that thou canst do nothing else for thyself, nor for thy husband, nor for any human soul, except to cast thyself and him upon the mercy of the unknown God, hoping and believing that all is for the best."

The old man's voice was tremulous, and his grand, pure face was full of compassion as he uttered these words in tones of inexpressible and uncomplaining sadness, and with impressive earnestness.

"And this is all?" she cried--"all that the old religion of Kem, stripped of its outward, ornate forms and ceremonies, has to offer to the broken-hearted?"

"Yea," answered Am-nem-hat. "This is all, indeed. And it is little; and the prevailing sadness of all wise men grows out of this; yet the heart that loves and trusts may find that even this is enough to reconcile it to the grand and pitiless course of nature. So saith the philosopher Seneca: 'We shall adore all that ignoble crowd of gods which ancient superstition hath gathered together in a long course of years, only so as to remember that their worship is rather in accordance with custom than with reality or truth.' And again he saith, 'The God is near you, is with you, is within you'; and again, 'There is no good man without God.'

"And Epictetus also saith: 'If you remember always that, in all you do in soul or body, God stands by as a witness, in all your prayers and your actions you will not err, and you shall have God dwelling within you.' And he saith: 'Great is the struggle, divine the need; it is for kingdom, for freedom, for tranquillity, for peace. Think on God; call upon him, thy champion and aid, as sailors invoke the great twin brothers in the storm. And, indeed, what storm is greater than that which ariseth out of powerful semblances (appearances of evil), that drive reason out of its course? What, indeed, but semblance is a storm itself? Come, now, therefore, remove this fear of death, and bring as many thunders and lightnings as thou wilt, and thou shalt soon perceive how great tranquillity and calm are in that reason which is the ruling faculty of the soul.' And he saith further: 'Thou must be absolutely resigned to the will of God. Thou must conquer every passion, abrogate every desire.' And one greater, sadder, diviner than them all, even Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic Emperor, declareth: 'Surely life and death, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all things happen equally to bad men and good, being things that make us neither better nor worse, therefore are they neither good nor evil.' And he saith of every man: 'Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage; thou hast come to shore; get out. If, indeed, unto another life, there is even there no want of gods; but if unto a state devoid of sensation, thou wilt cease to be held of pains and pleasures.' And he saith: 'Then pass thou through the short space of time conformably to Nature, and end the journey in content, just as the olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing Nature that produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew; ... accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, and finally waiting for death with a cheerful mind.' And so I say unto thee: No man can do more for thee, for thy husband, or for any human soul, than to fall back upon the mercy of an unknown God, and seek for peace in the grand hope that all is for the best."

"I can not live on that," she murmured. "O my husband, all my heart yearns after thee, and it will break within me unless I can find some clearer, higher assurance of the mercy of Egypt's gods for thee, or of this dim and terrible unknown whom Am-nem-hat declares to be in truth the only one. I can not live in this void uncertainty and darkness! O Amosis, my husband! O ye cruel gods!"

"These good people among whom I find thee," said Am-nem-hat, "are followers of the new God, Jesus Christ, a sect that is everywhere spoken against. I have, however, a very favorable opinion of Jesus and of his religion, and I take it for granted that thou dost not know the truth concerning them. Perhaps they could teach unto thee some consolation for thy sorrow."

"The hated Christians!" she cried out, bitterly. "Why, when my lord Amosis lost his life, he was even then upon his way to Rome to obtain from the Emperor power and authority to extirpate the impious and terrible association from Egypt. If they had known this fact, perhaps I had been already reconciled, or at least silenced, by the icy hand of death."

"Nay, nay, mother," cried Theckla. "That is but an unjust thing, for they knew from the first, and from thine own unconscious talk, that father desired to destroy them all; and the lad Arius, their son, charged me that I should not tell thee until thou wert stronger; for that it might distress thee, and could do no good. He is a true-hearted boy, and I think a wise one also."

"And they have treated their known enemy with more than sisterly care and kindness," said Hatasa. "Surely it is most strange!"

But Am-nem-hat said: "I have seen the Christians tortured, decapitated, burned at the stake, and have heard them even with their last breath pray to their God to forgive those who punished them with such torments. It is a new and most strange religion, and possibly it might do thee good. No gods of Kem can aid thee in thy sorrow."

"I wish that I could see the boy," she said.

And Theckla sprang up quickly, saying, "I will bring him unto thee."

And thereupon she went forth of the room and sought Arius until she found him; and she said, "Arius, my mother desireth much to speak with thee concerning thy religion."

And the boy said, "I go unto her gladly, and may the Lord direct me what to say unto her!"

And when the boy had come into that room where she was, Am-nem-hat said: "I have discovered that Hatasa is the granddaughter of my brother, and she seemeth very dear to me, that am childless. Thou knowest the great sorrow for which I have been able to offer no consolation, except to bid her cast herself upon the mercy of the unknown God in some way, and seek for him if by chance she might find him, and obtain mercy. For neither faith nor philosophy, as I have learned them, goeth one single step beyond where this dim, uncertain light guideth the soul, and we must therewith be content."