Chapter 28 of The Goddess of At-Vat-Bar by William Richard Bradshaw This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Nigel Fisher. The Grand Temple of Harrikar Twelve of the most handsome priests and priestesses constituted the guard of twin souls in waiting to the goddess. These escorted her into the grand court of the temple palace. Over a gigantic archway were sculptured the words Dear Pettisk, haunt, amy, care which meant two bodies and one soul. This was the motto of Egyptplosis the expression of ideal friendship an indicative of a system of life the reverse of that of the outer world of At-Vat-Bar which had for its motto one body and two souls. The architecture of the Supernal Palace was of amazing proportions and solid grandeur. Its aggregation of temples was sculptured out of one mighty block of pale green marble. The vast quadrangle seemed a tempest of imagination and art whose temples, terraces and towers were the expression of the infinite souls that formed them. The colour of the stone was beautifully relieved by broad bands of the vermilion metal terrelium that plated the walls with several parallel freezes which lent an amazing splendour to the scene and made us feel as though we were entering some palace of eternity where magnificence has no end. We had no time to examine the marvels spread before our delighted eyes for on the conclusion of our reception by the great officers of the palace we were conducted to chambers set apart for our use to rest and refresh ourselves to witness the exercises attending the installation of a twin soul on the following day. The chief temple at Egyptplosis was interiorly of semicircular shape like a Greek theatre, five hundred feet in width. It was covered like the pantheon with a sculptured roof and dome of many coloured glass. The roof was 130 feet above the lowest tier of seats beneath or 100 feet above the level of the highest tier of seats beneath. The walls were laboriously sculpted dado and field and freeze with bass reliefs of the same character as the golden throne of the gods that stood at the centre of the semicircle. The dado was 32 feet in height on which were carved the emblems of every possible machine, implement or invention that conferred supremacy over nature in idealised grandeur. Battles of flying waylels and races of bokeh kids were carved in grand confusion it was a splendid reunion of science and art. Higher up the field space which was 50 feet in height was broken by a gallery or cloister behind a tier of splendid pillars themselves carved with the emblems of art. The hidden wall as well as those portions above and below the cloister between dado and freeze were covered with endless representations of the creations of art. Heroic, eurythmic figures representing poetry, music, painting, architecture, etc. formed a mighty symposium. Highest of all, the enormous freeze fully 16 feet in width was one mighty band of solid terrelium. This had been cast in plates having sculptured symbols in high relief of the sublime emblems of Harrikar and portrayed scenes from the idealities and mysteries of Egiplosis. There were represented the fine and perfect figures of magicians in the midst of their incantations of sorcerers raising souls to life again. There were visions of the sorcery of love in all its mood and of the rapt practises of twin souls generating a creative force in batteries of spirit power. Above all rose the dome whose lights were fadeless. The pavement of the temple had been chiseled in the form of a longitudinal hollow basin containing a series of wide terraces of polished stone whereon were placed divans of the richest upholstery. In each divan sat a winged twin soul, priest and priestess, the devotees of hopeless love. On the throne itself sat Leone, the supreme goddess, in the semi-nude splendour of the pantheon arranged with tiara and dueled belt and flowing skirt of sea-green equelium lace. She made a picture divinely entrancing and noble. Supporting the throne was an immense pedestal of polished marble fully 100 feet in diameter and 20 feet in height which stood upon a wide and elevated pavement of solid silver whereon the priests and priestesses officiated in the service to the goddess. On crimson couches sat their majesties, the king and queen of at-vat-bar together with the great officers of the realm. Next to the royal group, myself and the officers and seamen of the polar king occupied seats of honour. Behind, around and above us filling the immense temple rose the concave mass of twin souls numbering 10,000 individuals, each seated with counterpart soul. As I gazed on those happy terraces of life, youth, love and beauty I felt exhilarated with the sensations the scene gave rise to. The garments of both priests and priestesses were fashioned in a style somewhat resembling the decorative dresses seen on Greek and Japanese vases yet wholly original in design. In many cases the priestesses were swathed in transparent tissues that revealed figures like pale olive gold within. The grand sorcerer chakra and the grand sorceress theobal occupied a conspicuous divan upholstered with a cloth of gold. The sorceress was a grand beauty, neither blonde nor brunette but her complexion would chameleon-like change from a rosy white to a clear golden hue. Her hair was bright copper, gleaming like the strands of metal. Her eyes changed colour incessantly, being successively blue and black. Her robe was a pale green silk, bound at the waist with a heavy syncture of gold. She wore a necklace of many coloured gems. The grand sorcerer wore a robe of moss green velvet embroidered with applique white silk lace resembling lotus bloom. Both wore dyed embers of emeralds. Other twin-souls were arrayed in equally splendid attire and seated on couches whose upholstery accentuated or harmonised with their fair occupants. Whatever the colour selected, I observed that each twin-soul priest and priestess wore robes of a consanguinous hue. However, the individual stuffs might vary in texture or quality. I also observed that in no case were the laws of taste in colour violated, and unerring instinct had guided every priest and priestess in achieving the most picante harmonies of colour. With garments in simultaneous contrast, each twin-soul sat on a couch upholstered in fabrics in pure contrast of colour. How I wished some great painter of the outer world could transfer to canvas that conflagration of beauty. Several twin-souls with garments that seemed beaten gold reclined on black velvet couches beside us. On an immense divan of white velvet nearby sat a group of priests and priestesses arrayed in stuffs that were the strangest tones of purple, brown, violet, green and red. A twin-soul in golden maze sat on a dark purple couch. A twin-soul in ecru sat on a salmon-coloured couch, while a twin-soul in mistosis blue reposed on a couch the colour of Australian gold. Celebrates and vestals in russet robes luxuriated on couches of magnolia green. It was evident their artists possessed a happy skill in creating such harmonies of costume. Sculptor, apostra and couturea formed the trinity of genius that wrought marvels of form and colour. Harrikar, the holy soul, was the deity who was symboled by the goddess and ministered to by such a retinue of souls. No doubt Harrikar was mightily pleased at such tribute of wealth, love and beauty. As far as an individual could appreciate such splendour, I must testify it was an eminently thrilling oblation. The votaries themselves were no solitary ascetics who practised heroic mortifications to obtain dominion over life or nature. Instead of the pale devotee who in other creed cultivates the desire to get away from all things earthly and whose every effort is to extinguish pleasure in life, every theopath of Harrikar cultivated a Greek perfection of body as well as a gothic intensity of soul. By what powerful incantation were the priests of Egypt plosives able to overcome the law of the outer world that all joy must be paid for in pain and that the joy was nearly always too dear at the price given. End of Chapter 28 Chapter 29 of the Goddess of At-Vat-Bar by William Richard Bradshaw This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Nigel Fisher. The installation of a twin soul. The sacred musicians of the temple surrounded the throne in solid circles, each arrayed in lordly attire. They flourished instruments of gold that rang out music of such depth and clearness of tone as to melt every soul in that vast audience into one thrilling whole. The sounding song was the incarnation of all things majestic and glorious. In its breathless measures were born the spirits of conquest, pride, inspiration, love and sympathy. The thrilling climax was wrought of passages eloquent of love, tenderness, reverence, joy, adoration and poetry. Again, with the music becoming more refined, a choir of singers in the high cloister in the walls sang as they walked to refrain of purifying sweetness. It was a wail of fidelity and love and both song and music moved in perfect accord. Thereafter, music alone was heard when the high priest Hushnoli and the high priestess Zulisa stood before us on the silver pavement beneath the throne. The blue-black hair of the high priestess fell around her olive face and shoulders like a cloud of darkness. She wore a robe of coral red silk and gossamer that with its foldings shivered like quicksilver, revealing a figure of olive marble beneath. Her shoulders, arms and breasts soft and heavy in mould were dimly seen beneath their coral veil. Her profile was perfect. Her eyes were jewels of swat fire. Her eyebrows made perfect arches above them, enhancing the beauty of her face. Her mouth was fine and tender and her lips red with kisses. The priest, whose noble features were olive green in hue, wore a splendid opaque silk bernouse of chamelea red, of heavier texture than that of the priestess. He wore boots of scarlet lacquered leather. Both wore dyed embs of cragen, the precious stone. A stone altar curiously carved on which stood a green bronze turtle of large size occupied one side of the front of the pavement. The turtle held its head stretched upward and through its open mouth a thin stream of blue smoke ascended. On the wide flat back of the turtle lay an open volume, the sacred Book of Egyplosis. The priest and priestess stood beside the altar, each reading an alternate stanza from the Ritual of the Goddess. While reading, the priests with loud voice followed the intoning of the High Priest and the priestess is that of the High Priestess, as follows. The Ritual of Hopeless Love. Priests, Harakar as the supreme soul and the goddess Leoni his supreme incarnation, from asceticism and indulgence she treads the golden path.  Let us follow her glorious example preserving purity of heart and life. Priests, let us adore a cupid agonized, worshipping the goddess of hopeless tender romantic love. Let us with our counterparts the most lovely of maidens become twin souls forevermore. Priestesses, let us love the shapely and active youths, the young men of soul and intellect, likewise those of courage and daring whose hearts and minds are in complete unity. Priests, let us add splendor of body to greatness of soul. May we excel in the chase, the dance and the race. Let us drink ambrosial wine and eat the juiciest of meats and clothe ourselves with the finest and strongest of tissues. Priestesses, let us have a beautiful companionship with our counterpart souls. Let us rejoice in the sun in the free winds of the sky and the glory of flowers and the pride of horses and elephants richly comparisoned. Let us treasure jewels. Let us possess emeralds, turquoise diamonds and rubies. Let us array ourselves with marvellous stuffs dyed with the richest colourings. Priests, let us here in search of the ideal find an ever-increasing nirvana of blessedness. Goddess of souls lead us to imagined higher and holy exaltations, keener and more blessed raptures. Priestesses, sweet mother of souls teach us to cultivate consoling friendships with sympathetic hearts. Give us longings for the utmost depths of love and tenderness. Let us possess fervid and impassioned souls. Priests, let us create a paradise wherein life is one long intoxication of love, beauty and soul culture found in the fascinating converse of soul with soul and intellect with intellect. Priestesses, may rapturous energies spring from hopeless loves. May the yearning for inaccessible pleasures fill us with blessed extravagance and holy madness. Priests, may we firmly poised on virtue become possessed of noble, delicate, enormous souls. May the meeting of spirit with spirit be too ecstatic for words to express. May the vows be written in each other's hearts. May the dueled ring bind soul and soul and in the commingled life may the holy compact be known that a perfect circle of souls has been consummated. Priestesses, secure by our compact and our vows from the tasting of forbidden fruit, may we always possess the happy intemperance of never satiated souls. Priests, may the sorcery of love procure for us the shuddering sensibility of sorrow without its agony as we possess the perfect delight of day without the cold and lugubrious shadows of the night. Priestesses, contact with life begets love and love begets sensation and sensation desire, but reason and culture control desire and so preserve the endless sweetness of our joy. Priests, the real mortal, the ideal divine, the real awakens desire, the ideal feeds it. The real is the maimed, the halt on the blind. It is the sepulcher of faith, the poor, the tawdry, the miserable. It is the measure of our imperfect attainment of the ideal. The ideal is the supreme made possible by love and charity. It is wide as imagination, perfect as love, calm as death. It is the unchangeable in the immortal. The real with its disappointments is soul shattering, but the ideal is perennial life. The more inaccessible the pleasure, the keener the delight in its pursuit. In love accessibility is death. Priestesses, by losing the real, we obtain the ideal. What others strive for we possess. Praise to Haricah for the most glorious of men, for precious vians, adiferous wines, rare and costly jewels, marvellous stuffs, and the hundred temples and gardens of egyptosis. Praise to Haricah for our counterpart's souls. Priests, praise to Haricah for the loveliest of women, noble, cultured and tender with whom Nirvana is ecstasy. Priestesses, Nirvana is the consummate gift of Haricah, the one everlasting sweetness. During the intonation of the ritual, the twin souls put into practice the manifestations of those endearments prayed for, and which they certainly seemed to possess. Throughout the entire congregation, priests and priestesses enfolding each other's arms, swayed caressingly together the fondest sighs were heard amid the recitations and the faces of lover and beloved were flushed to the colour of rosy flame. A tempest of restrained passion shook the entire congregation. What wonder that ruled by such a faith each twin soul splendidly apperelled in such an edifice should grow rich and strange, bold and delicate, and exhibit the intemperance of emotion excited by sensations so multiplied and extreme. I then saw a new meaning in the grandeur and efflorescence of the sculptures of the temple. I saw in the profuse decorations in the arabesque so fantastically entangled and unrolled a manifestation of the delicate sensibility that created them. Not only were real or natural objects idealised in art, but also conventional art or the record of what nature suggests, as well as how she appears to the soul of the artist. And what must have been the infinite wealth of suggestion to such souls as these to account for such mouldings and traceries on wall and roof, and such wealth of colour and attire, reflected and duplicated in the dueled windows of the dome. Here were souls fitted by nature and art to fuse and create suggestions of nature into shapes of eternal beauty. These flamboyant shapes and mystical colours presuppose the strange illumination as that had pierced tender and extravagant hearts. End of Chapter 29 Chapter 30 of The Goddess of At-Vat Bar by William Richard Bradshaw This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Nigel Fisher The installation of a twin soul continued. While Priest and Priestess were folded with mutual emotion, two of the loveliest souls took the place of High Priest and Priestess on the silver pavement. The girl was young and tender, gold and white in complexion with crimson lips. Her figure was swathed in a familial robe, the breast of which was embroidered in outline, a sea-green sun whose swaying rays reached the furthest parts of her garment. Her pale blue hair was crowned with a chaplet of daffodils. The youth wore a robe of scarlet silk, embroidered with a golden sun similar in design to that of the Priestess. His pose was singularly noble. These two souls were about to become Priest and Priestess, and after having taken the vows of hopeless love in the presence of the Goddess, Priest and Priestess in congregation of twin souls, they sang the following anthem, accompanied by a wailing storm of music from several hundred violins, entitled The Twin Soul. Priest. Love is a heated furnace that devours the thickest ice. Love is a sweet moist wind that cools the fever desert with its balm. There is no rain nor heat, yea even snow. Is warm and rosy to ideal souls shudder in life's sweetest ecstasies. If love that makes ideal life that dwells in fragrant silences makes green the grass and far more tender the diviner flowers, it surely makes both bold and delicate the warm superiority of flesh of that strange sacred soul that dwells with mine. For clear yet golden whiteness of the form that shines through pale green diaphony showing its pliant beauty is the fragrance of that wrapped soul that is all tenderness.  Clear blood-red rubies, the sweet hand-holds, red poppies and blue lotus, and the soft and sulphur-blossomed wind-flower if such dress in shrine a soul as perfect if the curves that make her form voluptuous describe the splendour of her soul and this I know love has no purer temple nor more sweet. The priest had sung alone so far and now both priest and priestess joined their voice in a marvellous song wilder, sweeter and more intense the violins stormed and wailed pathetic whirlwinds of ecstasy at times their insufferable moans caught the excited hearts of the audience and twin souls rise on their wings and revolving sweep around the amphitheatre locked in each other's arms priest and priestess sharper than pain we love and the caress keener than torment overmaddens us there is no fasting when our feverish lips meet in the shock that strikes the spirit dumb with swooning raptures the dilated soul intemperate with the enormous moan of passion would out-leap the strenuous will the flesh transfigured with the crisis reels stretches the chain of duty and would leap to grasp the tempting and forbidden fruit were not that virtue as our comrade now we lift our eager faces to the sun and feast on life and in each other's souls luxuriate confounded with delight for us no mouldy cloister waits its prey nor cave of darkness where existence mourns and dies beneath its scourgings we have made our grim novitiate with reality have known its agony for we were born so eminent for rapture that the pain all men inherit desolated us and spread a living terror in our souls so that through clouds of everlasting woe scarce claim the gleam of gladness or of love and earth was pitiless and brutal souls who cannot feel their ruled oh the wide world degraded by ignoble brutishness could yield no tenderness infinite for we who feed on rapture thus it was our souls on meeting in the thrilling kiss were fused it indissoluble embrace we who were famished in ideal love found sustenance and passed from death to life the song was perfect the strange fresh accents of the singers so full of love and passion melted every heart in the temple with their ecstasy one might hear such measures without thought of lapse of time and weirdly concerns ah if one could hear such melody forever more with a burst of dramatic joy the singing of the last stanza revealed whole worlds of rapture reincarnated in an earthly heaven now we have reached nirvana now above us open the wide gulfs of joy and luminous and glorious round us blow millions of flowers while afar their shines the mighty splendor of the exhaustless sea well in breathless joys thrilled through and through with majesty and sweetness we have grown athletes of joy in our agapamony eager and breathless we have found at last the fount of youth the magical argeals fruits of organic gold amid the leaves sparkle and around our island home our spread the veritable golden sands where upon our happy feet tread evermore the singers disappeared and in their places hundred wondrously arrayed figures moved in the dance of pure being on the silver pavement lithers leopards with unclad limbs and feet priests and priestesses danced all the ecstasies of egyptosis the dancers were so young so fresh so tender so beautiful and so innocent that it was a supreme joy to behold them rapture grew universal and lovers cried with hysterical shudderings the rainbow coloured throng moving to the music of the golden instruments flashed upon the pavement like joy taking possession of the world i felt intensely sad for lioni who sat like a statue of golden marble gazing on the abyss of joy beneath had the goddess no lover to press her to his heart amid the universal rapture alas the immense dignity of her position and the unalterable laws of at that bar alike prevented any single soul from feeding the intense hunger that consumed her accompanying the dancers the unseen choir and the cloisters began to sing a new opera of love and the strains of avliona bonadia stole upon the senses like the bewildering size of angels making one ache with delight a story of romantic love once more sculptured the faces of priest and priestess with angelic beauty as it rose on wings of song and swept in delightful moans upon the carbon stone it was a memorable scene one never to be forgotten the hieroglyphic walls carved in high relief with the instruments of empire the dome with its ten thousand fadeless lights the terraces of twin souls radiant with delight the marvellous dancers the superb music that seemed to shake the heart of the solid stone that enclosed us and high overall the supreme goddess in whose honour this adoration was made seated in bliss on the throne of the gods such was the situation at that moment it was a monstrous and splendid joy suddenly a roar of invincible music issued from gigantic tubes that pierced the body of the throne itself with fresh and warlike explosions of melody I was filled with a maddening delight until consciousness could hardly bear the strain any longer I cried aloud amid a cherimbozzo of song a hundred crated popacata pedal of sweet strains the audience enraptured with the climax became an inferno of passion, laughter, tears and felicity End of Chapter 30 Chapter 31 of the Goddess of At-Vat Bar by William Richard Bradshaw this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fisher The Mystery of Egyptplosis The palace of the goddess at Egyptplosis was a component part of the vast quadrangle known as the Supernal Palace the view therefrom embraced the wide inner garden of the entire palace of temples, discovering jungles of shrubs and flowers of all imaginable hues interspersed with lakes sleeping in their marble basins like enormous jewels fountains of solid silver gushed forth a brilliant foam of waters amid the empowering foliage and their glad priests in the society of priestesses sweeter than the flowers themselves dreamed life away an enthusiastic peace surrounding all was the high and glorious palace forming a background on the design of which imagination and art had been entirely exhausted the scene the day following the ritual of installation of a twin soul in the temple of Egyptplosis was a boudoir in the palace of the goddess it was a large apartment whose walls were hung with panels of rose-coloured velvet embroidered with grey-green silk foliage in one large tapestry the hands of a loving priestess had embroidered a scene in the garden of Egyptplosis on a dais upon a couch of soft red silk upholstery satelioni swathed in draperies of shrimp pink and pale peacock green embroidered with ivory white silk a large terracotta silk rug whose only ornament was an elaborate border covered the floor the goddess wore a belt of aquarium serpents having tulips in their mouths heavy terrelium bracelets adorned her wrists and she wore a diminutive tiara on her forehead I sat on a luxurious seat as a sole guest of the goddess I was rapidly learning from the divinity the mysteries of Egyptplosis I was especially anxious to find out how the jewel of 100 years of youth could be grafted into the ordinary existence an idea so splendid seemed to be the germ of earthly immortality we were discussing the subject of hopeless love and I asked her if she considered life and love were the same element life and love are synonymous she replied yes, I replied but does not the idea of inaccessibility create a worthless desire that is a desire for something that is forbidden or unattainable the majority of men I think will prefer an everyday love with all its risks and imperfections to the shadowy ghost of a hopeless love the hopeful love does no violence to nature such as is contemplated by the hopeless sentiment you hardly understand me said she the pleasure we aspire to is superior to any physical delight and is an end in itself it is romantic love that blooms like a single flower in the crevices of a volcano it is the quintessence of existence the rarest wine of life the expressed sweetness of difficulty and repression and long suffering the choicest holiday of the soul we are willing to pay the price of hopelessness to taste such nectar in the everyday world such joy only rarely exists interest, indulgence, ambition fortune, time, temper and marriage destroy it youth captivated by a beautiful face or a winning smile thinks it has discovered its true counterpart and so takes possession of the prize it finds afterwards it was mistaken and all its life thenceforth becomes miserable but I replied if the world at large had discovered love was the true one it would long since have acted on its discovery and put no destroying restraint or obligation on so precious a possession but the world found that a thousand accidents would infallibly open the eyes of both parties to the fact they possessed but few qualities in common or in counterpart and with such knowledge of good and evil they would infallibly separate hence the foundation of society would be torn asunder and the rising generation of helpless children become orphaned of home by the very bulwark of life society must have assurances that people do not get married simply as an experiment but are willing to honorably undertake the mutual sacrifice their act carries with it I have already admitted said she that a joy of spiritual love hardly ever exists in its virgin force in the everyday world I admit that the necessary regulations of society although they tend to destroy it must be enforced the at-bat bar nation rests on the marriage idea at one time in our history the people strove for ideal love and overthrew the ordinary marriage yoke without restraint of reason law and order disappeared and social chaos reigned the land was filled with the wailings of orphans whose parents had deserted them and men and women formed new associates every day unbridled license devastated the country our law givers re-established the law of marriage as being the only law suitable to mankind man in the aggregate had not developed to a state in which the consummation of marriage could be dispensed with yet there were many among those who had advocated ideal love worthy of their theory although married to each other they had remained celibates for these, Egyptplosis was founded for the study and practice of what is rarely a higher development of human nature and in itself an unquestionable good it is the most powerful element in the production of creative energy of soul and personal beauty as you will have observed all our devotees are singularly beautiful in form and feature and possess spirit power to a high degree as the goddess spoke a few threads of her bright blue hair had strayed across her face her beautiful eyes flashed with the royalty of truth, tenderness magnetism and feeling she was the living illustration of her claims for Egyptplosis what you say, I replied illustrates that ordinary marriage is absolutely necessary for the well-being of society marriage is simply the application of reason and morality to blind, passionate nature the home circle is the origin of nationality, progress and wealth ideal love rested from the dragon of difficulty is, I think but rarely tasted in so real so practical an institution this is the experience of the nations of the outer world and how much better for man that it is so a roadway in proportion to its rhythm of undulation becomes useless hindering travel rather than accelerating it so also with love when settled in the calm security of marriage the mind is freed from the romantic extravagance the torture, the delight of hopeless sentiment thus men are free to devote themselves to the more serious purposes of life and achieve wealth and fame for themselves and their families I am nevertheless curious to see how your institution is conducted for hopeless love seems to me one of the most disquieting things in life its victims happy and unhappy resisting passion with regret or yielding with remorse are ever on the rack of torture they resemble the devotees of certain idols who pierce themselves with cruel hooks and are swung aloft in honour of their god it may be pleasure but not one in a thousand will ever achieve that degree of soul exaltation and physical abnegation to think it so and yet not one in a thousand lives in edgy plosis says the goddess the men who achieve anything I continued good and great in the world the men who build empires discover ideas who both rule and populate nations are all rewarded by a hopeful love it is only a hopeless love that sets up its mirage of false and never to be obtained joys hence I ask you the question what of edgy plosis the goddess smiled at my controversial attitude it is the old question she replied of conventionalism versus art of economic institutions versus nature and life just as we endeavor to rescue spontaneous invention and originality from the disease of the tasteless and laborious productions of a mechanical civilisation so we labour to create an earthly home for the soul in a world where superficial necessities will stifle it out of existence there was a time in the history of art when people talked of art and love both of which did not exist the octopus of commercial mechanical and economical life had strangled the soul in all its attributes men fought for treaties of commerce, treaties of marriage, deeds of property and all the while acted in defiance of their obligations they cheated each other, lied to each other, deserted each other incessantly love had taken wings and fled art had lost its language and its cunning life was no longer illuminated with splendid ideals it was no longer arrayed in the fair, fascinating garments that only the soul can weave history was no longer glorified by paintings and sculptured reliefs religion was no longer symbolised in the solemn magnificence of architecture or sculptured shrines of gods articles of daily use were made solely to make a profit and the widespread use of machinery was destroying the art, the soul the pure life of the people a paternal government seeing the tyranny of commercialism and the possible extinction of the soul itself has wisely in the spirit of patriarchal hospitality established the art institution of nafistasia and the religious institution of eduplosis for passions of the body and forces of nature love was the one great end of our religion for life is love I value your creed I continued to the fullest extent I value the idea that every intellect shall soul you practice the doctrine that hopeless love is that phase of passion that constitutes the most delirious possibilities of joy yet allow me to ask have you never discovered that there may be disappointments for even such guarded emotions as yours are your near fights perfectly happy we find in the outer world at least that no state or condition in life is perfectly pleasurable their joys die of their own NUI for no other cause we find happiness like a flower it has its period of bloom and decay the more intoxicating the beauty the shorter its life happiness long continued grows common fades and dies then again the human soul is always in a fever of unrest it always thinks what is beyond its reach is liberty as one of our poets has expressed it oh give me liberty for even were a paradise itself my prison still would I long to leap the crystal walls as I spoke I saw the goddess was an eager listener to my words was it possible that she might have an idea that even eduplosis might indeed be a prison but then her position her vows recalled to her the fact that she was love's religios an indissoluble part of the temple of love itself the goddess replied that sometimes impatient spirits had entered the palace but any incorrigible cases of insubordination were either imprisoned in the fortress beneath the palace or were expelled into the outer world the near fights entered the temple college while under 20 years of age each soul thereafter mingling freely with 5000 of the opposite sex chooses in a month its counterpart for life thus forming a complete circle the choice must be approved by a council of soul inquisitors who before the lifelong union is made see that both possess all the elements that will produce a high holy and pure blending of thought feeling emotion joys spiritual and intellectual whose every breath will be an ecstasy and at the same time possess reverence for each other and the power of resistance to passion and are able to walk in the pure path do you not think I replied that the temptation being ever present the struggle in the soul must in time exhaust than in feeble the moral powers producing disastrous consequences before the goddess could reply a terrible commotion was heard in the palace garden the shrieks of a woman mingled with the loud voices of men were heard in furious clamour and one of the royal guards entered the palace chamber in a breathless haste end of chapter 31 chapter 32 of the goddess of that vat bar by William Richard Bradshaw this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fischer the sin of a twin soul your holiness said the captain of the sacred guard as he entered the parliament Ard Solis and Merger has sinned against the laws and religion of eduplosis I crave permission to bring the guilty pair before the goddess with evidence of their guilt the goddess answering quickly ordered the priest and priestess to be produced the captain thereupon commanded his wayleels to bring the prisoners into the audience chamber shrinking between her guards the priestess Merger appeared to be bearing in her arms a lovely babe a rosy duplicate of herself following her came the priest Ard Solis also a prisoner the priestess was the picture of petite girlish beauty her delicate rose complexion was flushed with a feeling of shame and her handsome hazel eyes dilated with vexation and sorrow were filled with tears her lover was tall straight and athletic with a proud fine cut face the down of manhood was just showing itself on his upper lip I feel sorry for you both said the goddess did you weary of the joys of eduplosis Ard Solis threw back over his shoulder a falling fold of his white bernouse and drawing himself proudly up replied yes your holiness our life here is an imprisonment we have grown weary of its restraint and are eager to return to the outer world with all its cares and freedom the chamberlain at this moment announced the arrival of the high priest Hushnoli the secular as well as the sacred governor of eduplosis and the high priestess Zulisoas both entered the presence chamber Hushnoli saluting the goddess announced that he had come in search of the earring twin soul the high priest was astonished beyond expression at finding sin and shame in so glorious a retreat addressing the weeping girl he said do you know my child how unfortunate you have been you have committed the unpardonable sin in a temple of hopeless love did you not think your lifelong vows of celibacy and of the deep and tender joy of romantic love merger only replied by clasping her babe still closer to her breast and bathing it with her tears what excuse do you offer for your crime against yourself your religion and your fellow priests demanded the high priest of eduplosis your highness said the youth we have after due experience of our vows arrived at the conclusion that such vows are a violation of nature everything here bids us love but the artificial system under which we have lived arbitrarily is a line and says thus far and no further your system may suit disembodied spirits if such exist but not beings of flesh and blood it is an outrage on nature we desire to leave eduplosis and return to the common ways of men we may be there unfortunate but we will be free this rarefied atmosphere stifles us the high priest was horrified never before had a twin soul been so sinful so consumatious it revealed a state of things it would be terrible to contemplate if such conduct became contagious it meant the ruin of eduplosis I could detect however in the sight of the goddess a certain sympathy for the prisoners which perhaps it would just then be very impolitic for her to reveal it was clear that beneath all this ideal joy lay a slumbering volcano of passion that only awaited a favourable moment for a fierce outbreak the laws of this strange faith seemed not to have contemplated that to avoid temptation the security of moral strength and that to seek temptation is to paralyze the moral fibres of the soul the high priest grew pale with excitement are you aware of the enormity of your offence at heat the defiant youth for a moment of sinful delight you destroy your interregnum of a hundred years of blessedness and you, each of you have delivered a blow at earthly immortality the success of our religious system is proven by the fact that we have already lengthened the life of our higher offence for a hundred years or twice the duration of life in the outer world of Bimbisarol this is the last of many outbreaks of malfeasance to vows made in deliberation and a fresh exhibition of treason in the sacred college of souls I tell you this, said the youth in the ply you are slumbering on the edge of a volcano there are thousands of twin souls ready to cast off this yoke they only await a leader to break out in open revolt then sir, we will take care we shall suppress you as we have all similar cases in the cells of the fortress neither Egyptplosis nor at Vatbar will hear of your crime his majesty the king will, I have no doubt acquiesce in the wisdom of such a sentence the punishment is no greater than the crime said the high priestess I despair of Egyptplosis if such crimes become frequent what will our goddess think what will at Vatbar think of our holy temple when its own priests, the sacred devotees of Harikar the ministers of the supreme goddess and teachers of the people in their holy religion are found traitors will the government support rebellious and sinful souls in every luxury for the senses with every possible means for developing and achieving spiritual mastery over the physical world on the soul condition of hopeless love it will not hence I say this disobedience must be quenched in the spark or it will break out in ruin to our whole religious institution your punishment said the high priest unless you will repent of your misdeed give up possession of your offspring and live ever afterward as holy priests of hopeless love will be separate and solitary confinement for life in the fortress you will both be simply obliterated from the world as the high priest uttered these words the mother priestess gave a cry of terror and grasping her infant convulsively gazed with an appealing glance at the goddess we refuse to live as hypocrites said the youth we are no longer twin souls we are man and wife and demand to be set free will each of you said the goddess, renounced that obedience that makes you factors of deities will you dethrone ideal love will you throw away palaces and gardens and flowers will you forswear the delight of the companionship of twin souls we wish to be free your holiness said the youth with firm set lips do you no longer value the secrets of magic and sorcery do you renounce initiation into the secrets of nature to possess creative force to taste elixir of life the secret of the transformation of metals and above all the blessedness of nirvana knowing that love dies in possession do you desire to step forth from paradise into a hard cold realistic world where every experience is a spear driven into the flesh we dare our fate replied the youth we ask you goddess to set us free I will bring you both before the spiritual council said hush noly and as you are aware the sentence of the council as prescribed by the constitution of edgy plosis will be that you each of you be imprisoned in separate cells for life and the child removed and cared for in a distant part of the kingdom you will henceforth be obliterated from life the lovers convulsively embraced each other the beautiful merger weeping bitterly we will accept the punishment said our solace because we will give courage to the many twin souls already imprisoned and to those who as ardently desire freedom as ourselves they will never forget that we are fighting their battle against a monstrous wrong guards remove the prisoners said the high priest can nothing that I might say mitigate their punishment said the goddess your holiness is aware said hush noly that the laws of edgy plosis admit no other interpretation than that prescribed for such a case as this the foundation of the religion of at that bar must be preserved at any cost I urge for mercy said the goddess who honored the prisoners with her tears end of chapter 32 chapter 33 of the goddess of that that bar by William Richard Bradshaw this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fisher the doctor's opinion of edgy plosis my experiences in edgy plosis were teaching me that even the most perfect human organizations contain the elements of decay and death the human soul at variance with its own physical condition was hardly the best ideal of a god here was happiness piled upon happiness yet the recipients thereof were not happy disappointments and suffering are natural to man because life is supported on difficulty and a long continued happiness is the sure forerunner of disaster the reaction of misery lies somewhere concealed from the eye of happiness and if it does not at once show itself it will later on even in well guarded happiness if one single pleasure be admitted we experience more regret at its absence than pleasure over the bounties we enjoy hence a large proportion of twin souls were not holy in love with their life in the temple of souls however enamored they were of each other almost absolute freedom of action freedom from care physical and mental exercises soul development, the practice of magic the most alluring investigation of mental and spiritual themes the practice of art in all its forms and the investigation of inventive mechanism a palace to live in with vast galleries of paintings and sculptures, salons for music and schools of science libraries filled with the rarest works of history, literature and poetry and most precious of all the daily dallions with counterpart souls could not make these people happy the one thing denied which any reasonable man would say was simply the price paid for all this glory considered the greatest of all misfortunes the imagination has a strange habit of passing lightly over happiness possessed and settling down upon a little thing beyond reach and exaggerating it to the utmost the imprisonment of Ard Solis and Merger created a profound sensation among the 10,000 inmates of the palace, sentiment was divided so much that two political parties were formed, those who believed the earring lovers had met a just fate and those who thought the system was at fault in providing no means of immediate escape, when to reside in the palace became imprisonment and a living death to certain souls the latter party was composed of the more youthful section of the priesthood who sympathised with the unfortunate lovers these latter would have got up a demonstration in their favour, did not the stern rules of egyptosis suppress any such outbursts of popular feeling on the day following the imprisonment of the earring twin soul the question was being discussed in the apartments occupied by the officers of the polar king and myself we had been lodged in a noble building not far from the palace of the goddess, while the sailors were quartered in the fortress of egyptosis in company with the wayleels of the palace itself your opinion of egyptosis has possibly undergrown a degree of change since the day of our reception said the doctor well said I, I suppose the longer we stay here the more exact will be our knowledge of this particular institution I had considered egyptosis as a successful institution for developing the human soul certainly haraqah with his beloved attributes required a fit home for his complete development I had praised their oasis of love of refinement of rest and of beauty and even ventured to assert that such a paradise was the outcome of the love and purity of twin souls I forgot in my enthusiasm the possibility of the soul being satiated with pleasure that life is a warfare ever seeking but never gaining repose and that we are led more by our passions and illusions than by our judgment I forgot that while man resists pain he always yields to pleasure I forgot that he was created for difficulty which is the oxygen that feeds the flame of endeavor and that difficulty alone can develop efforts which pleasure so easily destroys I am of the opinion said the doctor that this institution is founded on a perversion of human nature this so called hopeless love is as we have just had proof one of the most disturbing elements in life its victims resemble tantalus who though steeped up to the lips in water can never drink they are the unhappy devotees of an idol and like the Hindus stick into their sides the hooks of a cruel passion and swing aloft in torture to the applause of an admiring crowd you evidently do not reverence hopeless love I remarked I consider edgy plosis he continued but a nervous asylum on a large scale this nervous temperament with its hysterical raptures and tears its painful sensibility its exalted spiritualism and irresistible sympathy departs so far from the steady temperate sphere of action that can alone stain alike the pleasures and disappointments of life as to become the object of pity these are the marks of a mental disease ultra romantic ideas and whimsical and unaccountable tastes are attributes of this temperament it is a kind of insanity not the insanity proceeding from hopeless mental aberration but founded on a systemic train of ideas born in a heated enthusiasm it may lead however to hopeless insanity doctor said the astronomer you are taking a very cold-blooded view of the subject you seem not to have discovered that life here is ideal from what you say one would think that love is a species of insanity that is precisely my idea replied the doctor haven't you observed how foolishly people act when in love prudence and judgment are thrown aside love pairs the claws and pulls the teeth of a man as rational animal love is supreme folly I think said the astronomer that the climate of this country has something to do with the present institution you see that the sun here never sets and were it not for its diminutive size would it infallibly turn the entire interior world into a desert such as the moon is at present where the outer sun's heat falls for 14 days on the one spot without intermission completely blasting her territories the mild yet incessant heat of swang creates a fervour of blood and a romance of temperament unknown in lands possessing night hence the practices of egyptosis are a natural result of climactic conditions the appetite for ideal love has been created by the climate and the religion of the country very naturally responds to the craving of such appetite who knows what excesses might not obtain if no such restraint were imposed on the most gallant youth of the country I think said the naturalist that the proper thing to do would be to have the people imitate the conduct of jacob of old and rachel jacob worshipped ideal love in the person of rachel for seven years and then married her if our commander would only propose such a scheme to the supreme goddess it might possibly be favourably considered do you really suppose that I that I possess any influence with the goddess or that any recommendation of mine would be able to change the constitution of that vatbar well sir said he if you will allow me to make the remark I think the supreme goddess takes quite as much interest in you as you do in her and would treat your opinions with great respect you think more than I have ever dared to think I replied and your thought savers of sacrilege the goddess belongs to her faith her country to prefer an individual soul is to dethrone herself as goddess and meet a painful death in any case whatever happens you can do it in any case whatever happens you can rely on the fidelity of your followers said the naturalist the subject was fast becoming embarrassing and I merely said gentlemen I'm assured of your fidelity so please let us dismiss the subject the hour for rest having been sounded I sought my couch but not to sleep the remarks made by my companions emphasised by my growing fondness for the goddess set me to thinking what the end would be of our discovery of that vatbar I wondered if Leonie was not sung by her devotees a chrysalis eager to hover and fly from her prison away could it be that the goddess might possibly if an occasion worthy of such a step presented itself fly from Egyptplosis renounce her throne, her crown her sublime office of supreme goddess of Harkar and with me retire to some far off country braving in the meantime the almost certain prospect of death for her sake I felt I could meet any situation however terrible but for my sake would she throw aside her unparalleled dignities even if in trying to escape we out flew in my own vessel their ships of war we could never escape the ubiquitous wayleels the magnic winged troops that could fight equally well on land, sea or air bah! I said such a dream is idiotic when I thought of the splendour of the position that she would be obliged to renounce for the sake of her love for the passing stranger and of the awful penalties that awaited transgression in one so exalted I considered that no craving of passion should dare to resist such difficulties here duty was resistance nowhere is Man exonerated from the penalty of having to pay a price for his possessions and even possession itself is not happiness better I said to myself to depart in peace than encourage the goddess in a desperate enterprise if indeed she had any such desires as my vanity attributed to her End of Chapter 33 Chapter 34 of The Goddess of Vat Vat Bar by William Richard Bradshaw this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fischer Leonies Confession The following day I again met with the goddess in the same magnificent department in her palace she was in a contemplative mood a white robe of the finest silk enveloped her showing to full advantage her superb figure her silky shadowed eyes shone with a mild translucent light the ripe beauty of her face was somewhat pale for some tearful memory possessed her over her shoulders fell the torrent of her hair while on her brow gleamed a diminutive diadem whose central part was fashioned like the throne of the gods she wore a heavy necklace of shrimp pink pearls as we reposed on wide luxurious couches a maiden of rare beauty bought us dishes of curiously prepared meats and wine of the finest vintage in flagans of gold from distant cloisters came the wafted echoes of singing priestesses breathing their intoxicating amens Leonie had been reciting her past soul experiences now and then pausing as the story would grow more sacred to me the revelations of the goddess were of breathless interest I dare not urge her too forcibly fearing to break the spell of her confessional mood she was pleased to say that my advent in edgy plosives had revived the past as no other event of late times had done she was willing to recall the sweet experiences of her early life prior to her elevation to the throne of goddess I knew that she was in that mood when confession to a kindred soul is most consoling to the heart I urged her to continue the story well she continued my parents who were people of importance in Calnicoa had destined me for marriage in the outer world but before I even knew of edgy plosives I had a daydream I saw with my waking eyes this temple palace as one might see it in a picture it glended as the reality I saw myself with a youth of noble aspect standing in a court of the garden and his arms around me he was tall and shapely as a palm tree and was all tenderness and devotion the picture vanished yet its influence remained it utterly transformed me from the undreaming girl that I was to a soul active and ardent already experienced in what life really was I learned that the mystery of life was love and longed for spiritual companionship with an inmate of edgy plosives was the dream fulfilled as you expected it would be I inquired exactly as I anticipated said Leonie I entered edgy plosives in spite of the earnest desire of my people to remain in the outer world and lead a life of barren conventionality had you not learned I inquired that it was impossible to overleap the purposes of nature without paying a penalty therefore that ideal passion will in time give way to the commonplace just as water follows the laws of gravity I knew nothing but that ideal love might be eternal it is the passion that makes a goddess human and the mortal divine within a month after entering the temple walls I discovered the very reality of the image I had seen years before he was my twin soul my lover my god at our first meeting we simultaneously burst into tears it was an ecstasy in which the body did not participate to any marked extent and purely to the region of the soul we accepted the vows made at the installation of a twin soul and became a completed circle being the goddess I said your lover must have died he died some years ago, she said and on his death by reason of my widowhood my gifts, my spirituality my love and my beauty I was elevated to the throne of the gods when vacant and was worshipped as supreme goddess of the faith it is utterly against our laws for a goddess as a mother counterpart she is supposed to belong only to Harrikar the ideal soul whom she so symbolizes hence I am obliged to dwell largely alone you doubtless regret the loss of your earthly counterpart I urged regret it, ah that was life she said for my soul then knew what spiritual freedom means I experienced ecstatic agonies bliss was pain and pain paradise I flew as a bird full of anguish bearing treasures of love and tears I desired self-sacrifice I wanted to smile on everyone to help everyone I loved life, I had no fear of death my capacity for rapture seemed to expand continually every scene I gazed upon trembled in a new blaze of delight thoughts like lightning rent open new worlds of passion and tenderness wherein I moved as a goddess peerless and supreme but when the tomb closed upon my heart of hearts I begged them to lay me by his side and seal the door on us forever the glory of life had departed and day after day I swooned upon the sarcophagus that held my treasure, my life Leonie was unusually excited and to divert her attention from the past I spoke of the present of her proud position as supreme goddess of at-bat-bar how does it affect you I exclaimed to be the recipient of such adoration as you receive as goddess at first it was soul maddening she replied I thought I should never be able to sustain such adoration my soul blinded and bewildered by the incense of song and prayer seemed unable to bear the intoxication even yet as I sit upon the throne of the gods fantastic astonishing emotions thrill me into swooning away oh it is incomparably glorious to hear around you those earthquake surges of prayer to see souls quivering with adoring love I feel at times as though I were the cone of a volcano radiating fire and flame into a burning sky then again I smile and feel as I smile as I have the power of a life and death oh you do not know what love is you do not know its tremendous power until you feel its splendid flame breathe from ten thousand souls clasping your shrieking soul in a blood crimson embrace if thoughts be things it makes me a creator if thoughts can chisel matter then I am gracious in face and figure men say my flesh is smooth as marble soft as velvet and bright as gold even as the forms of our priests and priestesses are sculptured and coloured by the thoughts of love only a goddess knows such thoughts as hers that burn in the soul like fluid gold imagination fills me at times with vast and phantasmal splendours adoration glorifies me like light raining upon the palms and palaces I see shapes of burning sweetness and the air around me is laden with the caresses of heavy strange perfumes unclothed raptures exquisitely soft and tender like heaven opening its wings flame upon the world happy voices ringing in the sensuous arcades of music fall on my ears the blown spray of immortal friendships yet it is not strange that all these delights violent and glorious as they are do not wholly satisfy the soul I continually long for something sweeter yet it seems the greater the joy the more enormous the capacity and no joy completely fills the ever expanding soul you think, said I, that even the rapture of a goddess is not wholly adequate to create a feeling of repletion of satisfaction in a soul such as yours it is contrary to our laws to think so yet at times I know I could forego even the throne of the gods itself for the pure and intimate love of a counterpart's soul you are not so desirous of the human soul in its collective form as you are of individual soul wholly yours I ventured shaken with a quivering thrill the soul ever seeks that which is beyond an individual said Leone having once loved the individual soul I know what such holy rapture means what are the difficulties to be surmounted in your quest of a counterpart soul I inquired with a secret delight the sacrilege of a goddess becoming attached to the individual to the exclusion of all other individuals the goddess elect must have been a novitiate and a priestess of Egyptplosis and the survivor of her counterpart's soul her experiences as a noble and pure priestess together with special beauty and popularity are the conditions for the peerless office of supreme goddess an incarnation of Harakar by her vows she can never again become the exclusive possession of any one soul she belongs to Harakar the universal soul it's a punishment for renunciation of your office and attachment to another soul a shameful death by bagnicity for the twin soul no goddess can resign her office no goddess can seek her lover and live not even an ideal affinity I asked why even ideal affinities who forget themselves are punished with lifelong imprisonment and their names blotted out of the priesthood as though they were dead said Leone are there many such transgressors of their vows in Egyptplosis I inquired there are I believe some 500 twin souls at present immured in the dungeons said Leone poor souls I murmured their apostasy was but their reformation I often think of them said Leone but I know I can never liberate them except by my own successful apostasy and yet when all else is peaceful and happy or at least appears so why should I become the leader of an insurrection that would precipitate a hundred times more misery on the nations to say nothing of the possibility of defeat I saw that a crisis had come to Leone a tremendous debate agitated her soul I forbore treading further on the sacred ground she with true delicacy was striving to hide the intensity of her proud unrest I felt that in time she would have the courage to take the irrevocable step that led to freedom or death as I sat devouring every word spoken by Leone I felt a strange power surrounding me an emanation of the soul of my beloved friend I resisted for a long time a sacrilegious desire to fling myself at her feet and clasp her in my arms I thought of her supreme dignity her love for her faith and her people and I knew one cold glance from her eyes would pierce me through and through like a sword the more I thought of my position at that moment the more amazed I became at the audacity that led me to ever think of claiming the soul of the goddess as mine much less my encouragement of an enterprise so desperate as we had already assuredly embarked upon as I gazed in adoration at the splendid soul before me the scene through the open windows seemed to grow more ideal there was a new glory in the gardens around me a finer flashing of fountains in the sunlight and a bolder chiselling of palaces and temples beyond and above there wheeled the roof of the world with its still more prodigious forests and mountains on a wider expanse of gleaming seas I sprang forward with a cry of joy falling at the feet of the goddess I encircled her figure with my arms and held up my face to hers her kiss was a blinding well wind of flame and tears its silence was irresistible in treaty it dissolved all other interests like fire melting stubborn steel it was the proclamation of war upon at vat bar it was the destruction of a unique civilization with all its appurtenances of hopeless love it was love defying death thenceforward we became like a new and formidable twin soul End of chapter 34 Chapter 35 of the goddess of at vat bar by William Richard Bradshaw this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fischer our visit to the infernal palace the infernal palace was a congregation of subterranean rockhewn temples under the spiritual control of the Grand Sorcerer Chaka and the Grand Sorcerer S. Ulysoas the Grand Sorcerer's domain was directly underneath the supernal palace of Egyptplosis an ornate pagoda of stone covered the entrance to the underground palace the descent was by means of a wide gradient of polished marble and there was also an elevator car beautifully decorated with electroplated sheets of gold and lit by electricity which was the most rapid means of descent to the pavement beneath a distance of 250 feet the procession of twin souls and attendants who carried Leonie and myself in a splendid litter of gold entered the palace by means of the inclined marble highway whose sculptured walls were radiant with electric light the many temples of the underground palace were devoted to the most occult worship of Harrikar there was an immense central edifice whose roof supported by lofty columns and sculptured in fantastic beauty rose 200 feet above the pavement here electric suns lit up what was merely the vestibule of a hundred temples all hewn from the same pale green marble with the equelium floors glittering like a fathomless sea as we entered this splendid abode of sorcery we were received by the august officials of the sanctuary the grand sorcerer Charca was a man of imperial presence gracious and subtle his flesh was the hue of silver bronze and he possessed noble features his hair was blue and his blue beard was trimmed into a rounded semicircle on his chin while his moustache spread nobly on either side of his lips a robe of emerald blue silk embroidered with silver flowers the grand sorceress the obul who accompanied him possessed the complexion of a pearl was arrayed in a robe of celestial blue silk and like the grand sorcerer wore a diadem of rubies our reception was extremely gracious the grand sorcerer sang he felt highly honoured with our visit as we passed down the palace pavement an immense bell opened its mouth gaunt and glorious bronze soft explosions of music swept in thrilling moans through temple and cloister the echoing walls resounding with returnals of enthusiastic peace as if inspired with passion I could hear the bells swing and roll on its delirious pivot uttering its deep-sounded fantasy I saw illuminating the sculptured archway of each temple on either side of us the name thereof in letters of incandescent light I saw the names Amano Domano, Herlano, Kilano Pridano, Redolano, Echithono Oximano, Giracano Oirilano, Orphitano Sedesano, Padamano Jockdilano, Nidilano Bishamano, Odolfano and many others indicating the various departments of soul development to which each temple was dedicated the sorcerer waved his wand and suddenly a band of priestesses appeared on the pavement moving in strange and fantastic measures their attire consisted of low-cut circles of bright and beautiful stuffs with short skirts having in front of each a sheaf of heavy folds that expanded and fell as the dancer moved all wore jewels and rings of precious metals on wrists and ankles their faces perfect in feature were pale rows in colour but marvelously delicate ranging themselves on either side of the immense isle they formed a delightful guard of honour the sorcerer and his retinue they were not only souls but the materialisations of souls that danced and sang as when on earth they were souls of former priestesses reincarnated by the sorcerer and who vanished when we reached the entrance to the temple of the labyrinth it was certainly a delicate and super-excited imagination that brought the splendid archway through which we passed into the grotto garden beyond neither Greek nor more Hindu nor goth ever conceived such archipers as were sculptured by the walls of the entrance of the holy of holies in the garden hewn from solid stone were interminable thickets and hedges in closing labyrinthine walks there were open spaces in which stood veritable trees with the strangest leaf and flower branch and stem delicately chiseled from the solid rock there were also acres of grass and flowers wonderful creations of art there were rose bushes heavy with their eternal bloom the flowers stained crimson as in life and the leaves there varying graduations of green fruit trees with pale pink flowers and leaves light and dark green stood amid the green grass that never wavered in the breeze an immovable stream-lit ran down its bed of carved irregularities between flowery banks and underneath a bridge formed of a single arch I looked up expecting to see the sky but my gaze met the solid heavens of stone and I knew again I was in a cavern the feeling was somewhat suffocating the garden was lit by an electric sun in the centre of the roof two hundred feet overhead the pathway, wide enough for six people abreast, led by labyrinthine delves to the pagoda of the sorcerer which stood in the centre of the garden the mazes of the pathway were so numerous that none save the initiated when once in the labyrinth could find their way out again it was a weird experience to find myself walking between the master twin souls of that subterranean palace exploring its many mysteries we arrived in due time at the entrance to a mighty temple at the further side of the labyrinth whose bronze door suddenly opened to receive us and the sorcerer bade me enter passing through a pillared porch we entered a wide and lofty space lit by tall windows and a roof of many coloured domes and glass that threw wonderful sights on the polished aquarium floors of the building the light that shone through window and domes produced by myriads of electric incandescent lamps that glowed in recesses of the rock behind each window this was the inmost shrine of the sorcerer as I walked toward the centre of the mysterious temple the sorcerer inquired if creative magic was cultivated on the outer sphere I informed the sorcerer that necromancy divination, magic, clairvoyance esotericism and theosophy were things known and practised in many countries but I added the idea there is that of self-abnegation and miracles are only to be performed by ascetics who practised the most rigid austerities men who desire to possess occult power live in complete solitude subjecting themselves to cruel modifications they abstain from all fellowship with their kind they try to live even without food they absolutely mourn existence avoiding all contact with everything earthly they hope by renouncing all actions of life to enter more and more into the spiritual existence they believe they can build up an enormous soul out of the ruins of the body do you find that such a method produces a high development of creative power love, justice, conscience, truth temperance, order and benevolence said the grand sorcerer I cannot say, I replied that the devotees to whom I refer are conspicuous for those qualities certainly not for a highly active state of such qualities their abnegation develops fanaticism which is in temperance itself and fills them with hate towards those outside their creed the starvation of every appetite of pleasure withers up the appreciation for every form of human delight then what virtues are derived from ascetic practices? inquired the sorcerer certain virtues of a negative order I replied the adepts claim to have power to create and transport matter a claim which reliable history does not accept in a few cases recognise and in a very limited sense they have power to separate soul from the body while the body remains in a comatose state the soul traverses space holds consultation with similar souls and returns to its mansion in the body again your magicians said the sorcerer we can or kill the body without imparting corresponding power to the soul now we at Vatbha believe that the body should be developed equally with the soul we believe that contact with the noblest of earthly things develops power and beauty we feed both body and soul on the perfection of things that both may thereby absorb perfection in the brilliant activities of the supernal palace and in the golden calm of the infernal palace priest and priestess as twin souls naturally intermingle in the enjoyment of a long nirvana of ecstasy we have not only the occult power to perform miracles like the ascetics of the outer sphere but the soul which is an enormous development of every noble quality without which our golden century is impossible we are able by means of our baths of life to obtain a hundred years of glorious youth during which period age and decay of the body is suspended our devotees when they arrive at the age of twenty years when youth is fully developed begin their nirvana of blessedness and love they do not grow older during these years the eyes as bright the pulses in the heart as lively the complexion as pure and lovely the feelings as fresh at the end of the interregnum as at its commencement then when the golden century is exhausted the body begins to be twenty one years old do you mean that a man who has lived one hundred and thirty years is but thirty years old I inquired precisely said the sorcerer why should we call a period age in which there is no change do all souls live until their century of youth is accomplished not all souls many die of accident or inconsequence of sin with some nirvana consists but a single days felicity with others a month or a year up to a hundred years it is the ideal for which we strive and there is no reason why the body should not live one thousand years as well as one hundred when vitality becomes more developed I was astonished at the remarks of the sorcerer who remembered the case of Adam Noah and Methuselah I told him that men on the outer sphere had lived almost one thousand years you may be sure they never practiced the austerities of the ascetic life you have just mentioned they must have enjoyed life always turning their faces to the sun I think one hundred years is a great step towards immortality I remarked at twenty years the body is developed but even a hundred thousand years I think of the development involved in having power over disease and death power to create substantialities of matter do you create matter I inquired breathlessly I will show you what we can do replied the sorcerer if you will follow me the sorcerer led the way to seats upon a platform of silver on which stood in terrific grandeur the figure of a heron or dragon of gold whose eyes were blazing rubies he stood before the dragon at least twenty feet above the pavement of the palace presently the sorcerer shouted with a loud voice my host, my host and at once several thousand twin souls thronged into the immense temple dancing with naked feet on the polished aquarium pavement beneath the monster miles of wire were wound in a coil and to the wire were attached twenty thousand fine wires of terrelium each wire terminating in a terrelium wand the wires were held one by each priest and priestess who began to move in a strange dance on the pavement and sing an anthem to Harrikar as they moved more and more rapidly the clamour of bells arose and explosions of sound like bullets rained upon the drums shook the building in the semi-darkness the body of the heron seemed to quiver and as I gazed low a showering of blazing jewels issued from its mouth there were emeralds, diamonds, sapphires these flung upon the pavement scintillating with fire the colours of the stones themselves the sorcerer waving his terrelium wand shouted, HOLD IT IS ENOUGH and the seance was at an end he received the jewels that had been collected by his hierophants and descending offered me a splendid ruby as large as a hen's egg I looked at him with awe as I felt its size and weight he simply said, these jewels have been created by spirit power do you, I gasped with a feeling of mingled exultance and fear do you create matter the abnegation of hopeless love is the source of the spirit power by which we create matter such as this replied the sorcerer the twin soul is the cell that generates the creative force and can you create other matter than jewels I inquired eagerly the sorcerer gazed Leone for a moment who had been strangely silent in the presence of her most powerful spiritual coagitor and then replied yes we can create all things if necessary we can, for example, create islands in the sea with mountains, forests lakes, valleys, winding walks and thickets of flowers, palaces and pagodas I was breathless with excitement at such a reply oh that I could see such an island I rejoined and tread if but for a single hour its ecstatic shores you can both see it and walk upon it if the goddess so wills it, replied the sorcerer what is the command of your holiness he inquired I would like the commander to see Argeals if your priests and priestesses are willing to perform the necessarily arduous ritual involved in its creation replied Leone my hair offence, replied the sorcerer are only too happy to serve their goddess at all times and I will at once command them to prepare to execute the ritual for creating the magical island of Argeals your devotion, said Leone fills me with the purest joy as we conversed the large ruby I held in my hand had grown considerably less in size as though the elements of which it was composed had to a degree evaporated as unseen gases so that in a short time the jewel might wholly disappear the sorcerer, anticipating an inquiry as to its disappearance stated that all objects created by spirit power could only be maintained in their full material splendor as they were sustained by the power that gave them birth the creations were not additions to already existing elements they were simply focalisations of matter from the elements of the surrounding world held together by the force that withdrew them from their normal habitat as long as the spirit power remains supplied the jewels would in a few hours cease to exist because they were not enfolded with the power that produced them as to your magical island, said I addressing Leone, one of whose titles was Princess of Argeals your Principality situated it is located anywhere in the wide sea said Leone do you mean to say, said I, that Argeals is not a real veritable island of the ocean but only a ghostly island a mirage that retreats as we approach it a fantasy of the imagination Argeals is a real island with real rocks and waterfalls lakes and forests, birds and flowers there is a real palace and all the appurtenances of an ideal life all this is a materialisation of the ideal desires I was astonished at her reply once called into being I inquired how long can the island exist so long as the twin souls support it by never ceasing ecstasy so long as they perform their magical dances on the equelium floor of the temple of the dragon holding in their hands the terrelium wands once the island becomes materialised it requires thousands of twin souls to sustain and preserve its reality and it only vanishes when the twin souls are utterly weary of their ecstasy and when the twin souls grow weary of their joys what becomes of the island and its glories I inquired it can preserve the island for a long time said the sorcerer by having fresh dancers take the place of those that are exhausted but after the lapse of a month or longer when all are utterly vanquished with fatigue the spirit power becomes exhausted and the island disappears upon the sea I rose and enthusiastically crossed the sorcerer by the hand ah dear sorcerer said I will you show me this magical island the command of the princess of Argeals he replied will be obeyed end of chapter 35 chapter 36 of The Goddess of At-Vat Bar by William Richard Bradshaw this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fisher Argeals I was full of impatience to witness the creation of the magical island where with Leonie I might find ideal to light it was necessary however for the grand sorcerer to make ample arrangements not only for the generation of sufficient spirit force to create the island but also a force sufficient for its continuance for an indefinite length of time it was absolutely necessary that there should be a reserve force of 10,000 twin souls to take the place of the original legion of souls when they would become weary of their ecstatic labours only once before had Argeals been created and it was thought a most wonderful thing that the sorcerer could preserve its existence for a single day now it was contemplated to sustain the island for months and this required a continuous as well as a lavish expenditure of spirit power the sorcerer had enlisted his full quota of twin souls and prepared them for their heroic duty the terrelium wand held by each soul was connected with the wires of a helic having immense coils of terrelium that held by a rampant herrant of gold formed an immense spiritual battery in the centre of another Sumteranian temple wires led from the battery underground across at Vatbar to the city of Milosis on the sea coast most remote from Kioram a thousand miles from Egiplosis the sorcerer announced a few days after the visit to the infernal palace that he was ready to accompany us to Milosis with the Queen's golden yacht had been sent to Metis the aerial yacht of the goddess flew swiftly over at Vatbar bearing the precious Leoni the grand sorcerer Chaka and myself to the far sea coast the first stage in our journey the brightly flashing seas the rose coloured sun and the transcendent concave of the earth encompassing us with the near tropical splendour of the country made a scene of long remembered joy but these objects so glorious in themselves were made still more splendid by the love that reigned in the souls that contemplated them in due time we reached Milosis where we found the Royal Yacht and a reverent crowd of people awaiting us the sorcerer lost no time in connecting the subterranean wires with a cable of terrelium on board the yacht and this being done we immediately set out to sea followed by a crowd of pleasureships conveying a host of people anxious to witness the miracle about to be performed we anchored the yacht a distance of 50 miles from the coast the grand sorcerer surrounded by his acolytes held in his hand a thick rod of terrelium the extreme end of the cable whose further extremity was connected with the battery in the temple of reincarnation at Egyplosis an exchange of messages along the wire informed us that the 10,000 twin souls had already begun their dance of pure being upon the pavement of the greater temple immediately a stream of flame leapt from the end of the rod like water spouting from a tube under enormous pressure now said the sorcerer that you have the spirit power in this cable what I will to exist will exist I will that the magical island of Argyle shall rise above the waves I wish the island said Leone to have an elevation of 5,000 feet in the centre and an elevation of 4,000 feet fill a crater of the mountain with a lake of cool water surrounded by aerial gardens and on the shore place a palace of rose-coloured marble luxuriously furnished with servants upon us all else may be according to your own fancy as your majesty wishes replies the sorcerer and as he spoke a high mountain rose instantly from the sea a mile away creating enormous waves that threatened the safety of the yacht and the congregated vessels a feeling of awe silenced the host of spectators instantly as quickly as the sorcerer moved his wand the mountains became clothed with forests and high upon the shoulder of the central peak appeared a palace of rose-coloured marble whose supernatural architecture seemed a celestial dream the island was 30 miles in length and about 15 in width from immense cliffs, foaming waterfalls flung themselves downward to the sea dazzled with their blinding beauty we saw ravines engorged with flowers in green and glorious blessedness the island labour for us complete like an enormous emerald in a setting of blue sea we were so awestruck with the labours of the sorcerer that it seemed a sacrilege to set foot on the miraculous shores of Argeels at a sign from the sorcerer the captain of the yacht fired 100 guns and the vessel moved toward the romantic island we came close up to a white marble wharf and Leonie and myself are lighted upon the sacred retreat everything seemed so natural that we could scarcely believe the solid rock to be sustained by self-sacrificing love the adorable sorcerer remained on board the vessel as it was impossible for him to leave his post of duty for a moment while the dazed yet happy inhabitants of Milosis departed homeward in their vessels it was arranged that when the spirit power that sustained the island would become exhausted owing to the utter weariness of the twin souls the firing of a gun on board the yacht would be a signal that Argeels would disappear from upon the sea the moment both Leonie and myself stepped upon the magical soil we felt an instantaneous increase of health and vigor we did not at first use our magnetic wings for flight but walked along paths that wound around the beach of golden sand shaded by towering palms after remaining for a time on the margin of the sea we rose on our wings and like birds encircled the island rising ever higher until we are lighted before the palace created for Leonie a gem of the rosiest marble covered with a dome of gold that flashed around it the light of the sun architecture was broad and heavy with splendid carvings and surrounded by a pillard portico the palace stood on the shore of a beautiful sheet of cool water elsewhere its shores were thickly clothed with tropic foliage and aerial gardens of the greatest beauty we had reached at last the holy of holies of ideal attainment a retreat of bewildering beauty the weird and splendid proportions of the palace with its domes and towers ornamented with sculptured arabesques rising from the soft waters of the lake a veritable fountain of youth all surrounded by the green and gleaming forest and gardens without end filled our souls with a new rapture everything was so perfect and peaceful so rich with life and beauty so fresh and sparkling so unspeakably happy that I said this is the end of all toil and ambition this is the perfect flower of life here is the lake of immortality and here the fabled gardens of the Hesperides Rehub, the chamberlain of the palace and his acolytes who received us were also the product of spirit power the reincarnation of former inmates of Egyptplosis they awaited us before the palace announcing a feast had already been prepared for us the interior of the palace revealed new wonders wide and lofty chambers were hung sung with woven and painted tapestries and sung plated with sheets of gold illuminated by electricity with many colour designs in precious metal others were decorated with tender and brilliant frescoes in which the transparent plaster seemed to hold in its depths the tones of gold of ultramarine and vermilion in fabulous scenes woven and painted tapestries clothed the walls of still other chambers representing in entrancing colours the most occult mysteries of Egyptplosis the banqueting chamber had a dome of enameled glass that softened the light with many a caressing colour porcelain vases gorgeous in depth and richness of colour containing plants of the richest bloom added to the apartment their decorative graces there were also an art gallery a library and a museum of jewels on one side of the palace a square cloistered arcade surrounded a marble court in the centre of the court lay a square pool of crystal water whose basin had been chiselled out of the solid rock the pool was fed by a wide waterfall falling down a precipice on the pavement here also were several pagodas containing chimes of bells and large oblong vases of stone filled with blooming flowers amid such splendour I began to realise that love has the power of spiritualising all things of infusing them with its own rapture under its flame all colours brighten all movement becomes divine all labour seems holy the sea attains a deeper blue the shores are brighter green every one becomes more beautiful more delicate and supernatural love indeed is an ultramarine an ultramontane joy this delight, said Leonie as she lay in her boudoir plunged in delicious blessedness fills my soul with universal peace hitherto pained with the chagrin of life I welcome this unwanted repose oh I am supremely happy this expedition I replied is not to observe the transit of Venus but the possession of Venus to weigh each other's souls and read the poetry written in every fold of the heart it would be the perfection of life if such reality of the ideal could surround us forever but in a world where the worm doth conquer where the storm wastes the flower and herb such felicity is purchased only by the sacrifice of ourselves or of others but while it lasts let us prize its ineffable joy hitherto I continued philosophy has said that if we do not want to be undeceived we should never visit the haunts of imagination for the fruits thereof are ashes but we will create a new philosophy that will assert that the haunts of imagination are ideally real that the veritable fountain of youth has been discovered that Eldorado may be one the following day found us floating on the lake before the palace in a beautiful magnetic boat musicians occupied a pagoda overlooking the lake and made the air sweet with their music the lake seemed to fill the crater of an extinct volcano and miles away on its furthest shore rose the lofty precipices of a mounting crest it was most delightful to float on its profound wave at an elevation of 4,000 feet and yet see the sea beneath us and we surrounded with all the glory of the interior world birds, gorgeous as hummingbirds resplendent in burnished hues of purple, garnet and green would flash amid the flowers or chase each other over the water we no longer feared our own holiest emotions our deepest feelings were then in the foreground the mysterious carmine on the palpitating lips of Leone was the symbol of a warm, delicate super excited soul Leone grew day by day more and more beautiful she resembled the colour of a deep and mysterious gold I crowned her brow with flowers and reed her as your hair with wistful daffodils another day we rode on soul-created horses to discover the ediferous retreats of the island the pathways wound through flowery ravines that looked out upon the sea the sweet cool air that filled the splendid gloom of the palm woods seemed the essence of gladness what glorious vistas opened amid the luminous green of the forest the murmur of music filled the infinite ways of the island as our cavalcade wound round its peerless hills or plunged into its abysses of flowers the spell of an ideal land was upon us and we experienced sensations hitherto unfelt in life this, said Leone is the ideal climate everything has become transfigured even the light of the sun is softer and more blessed and the goddess of at-vat-bar, I replied has become more delicate, more supernatural and more holy the island was one vast garden of tropical fruits and flowers without the malaria of decay everywhere, nature carefully assisted by art assumed the rarest beauty everything that savoured of ruin and decay was nonexistent there were no wild or poisonous animals no deadly serpent was coiled upon the branches nor did poisonous insects crawl on leaf or flower forests of trees of a strange tropical vegetation abounded there were the fruja resembling dates the cassabria resembling bananas the dillra resembling limes the jackal resembling lemons the congel resembling oranges the velacac resembling breadfruits the persar resembling custard apples the fireabaal resembling coconuts the gersin resembling mangosteins the hofflar resembling coffee the solru resembling plums the presuvite or tamarinds lining the root fruits such as the trupac or citron daewan or guava origour or mango a raishmush or plantain gleamed amid the empowering foliage and gardens of squangs and the pineapples allows, nutmeg, cloves and spices about that bar were on every hand one day when floating on the lake we heard with surprise and infinite sadness the discharge of a gun the signal that the island was at an end spreading our wings we awaited the catastrophe suddenly a roar of thunder startled us and our jeals with its majestic cliffs its green forests and rivers of flowers fell in one dissolving crash and faded from sight the lake and boat fell from beneath us so rapidly that we would have fallen headlong into the sea had not our wings saved us there flowed where the island had stood a circular wave rushing to a focus there was an upward spouting pillar of foam and all again was placent sea we flew downward to where the yacht awaited us and a lighting on board soon reached Milosis End of Chapter 36 Chapter 37 of The Goddess of At-Vat Bar William Richard Bradshaw this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fisher a revelation alas for the brevity of earthly joys the noble priests and priestesses had made a heroic effort to sustain our jeals but a month's incessant labours had quite exhausted their powers and the glorious island vanished with all its ideals sweetness as if to intensify our sadness when we reached Egyptplosis again we found the high priest Hushnoli impatiently awaiting our return to secretly report the proceedings of a late council of the king and government held in the council chamber of Egyptplosis I knew by the appearance of Hushnoli that something unusual had happened he hesitated to unfold his secret until requested to do so by the goddess it is a serious business said Hushnoli and I have been commissioned by his majesty to know the full meaning of the step both your holiness and his excellency are about to take and to see if there is no possibility of averting the terrible calamity that overhangs Egyptplosis tell me, said Leoni to the high priest what the council has been discussing and what it has determined upon your holiness, said he I should inform you that Koshnoli as chief minister of at Vatbar has received a report from his winged spies charged with the duty of watching the movements of his excellency and retinue ever since their arrival in at Vatbar the duty made it necessary to discover the real object of the illustrious strangers in visiting our country and consequently their actions have been carefully watched and reported and of course, said I my constant association with the supreme goddess has led Koshnoli to suspect me of designs inimical to the welfare of the kingdom listen to the report made by Koshnoli replied Hushnoli who unrolled a document he held in his hands and read as follows to his majesty King Elmeri Bulmakar Vatbar, greeting your faithful minister begs to report that his private wayleels have followed his excellency the alien commander Lexington White and followers from their arrival in Kioram until their reception at Egypt Plosis the illustrious strangers after landing on her soil travelled by sacred locomotive from Kioram to Kalnugur and were there the guests of your majesty after which they attended a feast of worship to the supreme goddess in Bormedofia the illustrious strangers were then received by her holiness in her palace of Tanje and here my wayleels from the ramparts of the palace saw his excellency the alien commander in company with her holiness enter the silver pleasure boat their long continued interview in the palace garden testified that a mutual affinity had drawn the illustrious personages together from later observation my faithful wayleels are convinced that in the palace garden of Tanje was begun the awful possibility of a twin soul of our deity and the alien commander and the consequent apostasy of the supreme goddess and her renunciation of Harrikar my faithful wayleels further report that while travelling on the aerial ship from Kalnugur to Egypt Plosis they obtained further evidence of the consummation of a deific and alien twin soul the principal sat apart from all others on a seat at the prow of the vessel and the report of their conversation will justify your majesty in believing that a sacrilegious twin soul already exists in defiance of civil and religious law her holiness and the alien commander being the illustrious components awaiting the further commands of your majesty with profound veneration your majesty's faithful servant Koshnili I gasped for breath at hearing so brutal a dissection of our hearts I was thunderstruck I could only ask Koshnili what he had to say on the situation that you love each other I need not ask said he that may be taken for granted but I might ask do each of you fully recognise the position you stand in do you know that your conduct menaces the throne of the gods itself I can understand the violence of love for a human soul in the breast of the goddess but what of her renunciation of Harakar if not already convinced I said I think her holiness will soon see that all this monstrous system of hopeless love is tottering on its throne it is an artificial society that must in time of its own accord crumble to pieces his majesty said the high priest has departed with his retinue to Kalnigur and has called the council of the government to consider the situation he held at the rank of the individuals who have offended against the sacred code of Advatbar and the monstrous impiety of defense itself constitutes a subject worthy of the most serious consideration of the government his majesty was extremely angry on hearing the report of Koshnili he characterised your excellencies conduct as unworthy of the hospitality you have received and as involving the ruin of both the supreme goddess and yourself what did Koshnili say when presenting the report I inquired Koshnili said that the affections of their beloved goddess had been withdrawn from their only legitimate object Harakai himself and had been appropriated not even by a holy priest of the temple not even by an ordinary citizen but worse than all by an infidel a heathen, an adventurer and a stranger emanating from some terror incognita that might owing to the fatal discovery of Advatbar one day send its hordes to ravage the country with fire and sword the council he continued knew the penalty for such treachery and abuse of hospitality on the part of a desperate fanatical stranger as well as such apostasy on the part of the goddess he demanded the immediate arrest of the guilty parties the king had sufficient evidence to convict and execute both individuals by reason of their high treason against both the government and faith of Advatbar did the king approve of Koshnili's demand I inquired his majesty said Hushnili said that a matter of such importance required the greatest circumspection her holiness was known to be the most pious and popular supreme goddess on the throne of the gods and although it was evident she had insulted her car still if the quiet expulsion of the strangers from Advatbar soil would prevent further disgrace of their faith and country he would prefer to issue a decree of expulsion rather than the decree for the arrest of both commander and goddess to reduce the possible calamity now overhanging the nation to the least possible proportions it would be necessary to act at once rather than to await the development of a more complete evidence of affection between the guilty parties Admiral Jolnar deprecated the violent measures advocated by Koshnili and supported the idea of the king to quietly expel the strangers he said that if the decree of expulsion were entrusted to him he would see that it was carried into effect without delay the council could rely on the royal fleet doing its duty Koshnili was angry at his idea of immediate arrest not being acted upon suppose these strangers he said refused to leave and being warned by your royal mandate so fortify themselves with insurrection in favour of her holiness that might possibly defeat the royal arms and in the end we ourselves be sacrificed by the present timid vacillation the crisis is a serious one and demands a desperate remedy the governor Laldomere said Koshnili rebutted the arguments of Koshnili he pointed out that the laws of hospitality demanded that the strangers should receive consideration at the hands of the king even if guilty they might receive fair warning to depart after which if the commander proved insurmicious more stringent measures could be taken should the commander in defiance of the royal mandate endeavour to consolidate his affection for her holiness doing further sacrilege to our faith ecclesiastical law has the remedy of death for those who would dethrone our faith and lead our beloved goddess to take the irrevocable step of abandonment of her supreme office after considerable discussion it was decided to act on the suggestion of his majesty the king that without bringing the matter before the barodomy a decree of expulsion be handed to Admiral Jolnar for execution on the parties to be expelled from the kingdom the decree is already in the hands of Admiral Jolnar for delivery to your Excellency End of Chapter 37 Chapter 38 of the goddess of At-Vat Bar by William Richard Bradshaw this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Nigel Fischer Leone's manifesto to king and people I ask your holiness said the high priest if you will really take so determined a step as that indicated by the action of the royal council the thought of such a thing strikes me dumb with fear Hush no Lee said Leone I have ever found you faithful to my interests and will now confide in you my purposes you are a man of wisdom calm and conservative and can rest happy in the possession of your counterpart's soul your character has become molded by your novitiate until you have become a part of the institution itself to think of any other state of things is to you an impossibility on thousands of souls here your inflexible laws have only developed a rebellious energy that will someday utterly destroy the fabric of eduplosis the true union of souls is not artificial restraint and the present calmness is only the pause that preludes the explosion but do you supreme goddess indeed desire to leave us forever will you profane your holy office will you dispoil the temple of ideal love said Hush no Lee with emotion you think it monstrous said Leone that I should desire to uproot principles so fixed and permanent you can judge then how fierce must be the passion that causes me to antagonise duty consecrated by the ties and memory of my holy office to break away from a responsibility so supreme I said argues alone an extraordinary force your very system creates just such a love as this here souls are required to meet in rapture and yet to stand balanced as it were on the thin edge of naked swords and fall neither this way nor that the development of a purely romantic love feminates the race the example of eduplosis if carried out universally would obliterate the nation in one generation the nation is wiser than its creed let us therefore choose the wiser path it was the dream of your noble parents said Hush no Lee to Leone to see you supreme goddess of eduplosis when you obtained this peerless honor they died your mother dying implored you to remember your vows and to be ever true to your high office love only duty was her last sigh if you love what else there is but a cruel death for you and your memory will be an everlasting disgrace will you the ideal of hopeless love be the first to prove faithless what you say is true I said replying for Leone but what is duty Leone not only owes a duty to her office but also to herself her duty to herself is to rise up and break down this monstrous environment that chains down her soul and her duty to these 10,000 souls is to tell them that an institution that constantly antagonizes nature is immoral here refined souls I continue seek the cloister not for peace but for ecstatic anguish they love and weep and thus agitated they grow at once weak and violent and can never accommodate themselves to the serious purposes of life thus sacrificed on the altar of a false god weary of a life of barren blessedness you will discover if you put seriously inquiring to it that this palace is purely a prison for thousands of noble souls as I spoke I should only clasped his head with his hands and groaned with the downfall of eduplosis he murmured well delights, farewell tenderness farewell mystical chivalrous love do not be so dejected said Leone your imagination gives you but a capricious view of the future which will be even nobler than the past the high priest could hear no more and left us seized with the fright test of the future and mourning the anticipated downfall of eduplosis Leone far from exhibiting fear grew enthusiastic over our projected coup d'etat and would certainly if successful create an organic change in the constitution of the kingdom we discussed the situation at length we discussed the situation at length and determined to leave eduplosis for Calnagore forthwith our departure from eduplosis was attended with impressive ceremonies our journey to Calnagore being made in the aerial ship of the goddess on our arrival at Tanjai we discovered that the king and government had held their council unknown to the people we did not think it expedient either to make public the determination of the goddess I ordered my officers and sailors to Qoram forthwith to take command of the polar king my instructions to captain Wallace were to have the ship fully supplied with stores and remove her from the basin where she lay in the outer harbour of Qoram and there await further orders after a considerable period of inactivity the ship's company were nothing loath to get on board again with the prospect of another voyage I confided to the officers the possibility to be engaged in hostile operations and ordered the ship to be put in fighting trim without delay the officers and men were tended the dignity of riding into Qoram in the sacred locomotive and their departure was made amid the enthusiasm of the populace as for myself I remained at the palace of Tanjai the residence of the goddess to assist Leonie in preparing her manifesto to the people it was a painful crisis for her who was the symbol of ideal love to be the first to renounce its delights in every day union with a beloved soul for days her decision trembled in the balance her avowal of being led captive by human love would be a national catastrophe she trembled for her 10,000 devotees in Egiplosis it seemed a cruel and heartless trampling underfoot of throbbing hearts that were thrilling with faith in their goddess when I saw Leonie prepared to abandon Egiplosis for my sake when I knew she would forever resign that splendid throne swept by whirlwinds for the sake of being clasped to my heart when I saw her risk even life itself for the simple love of one adoring heart I then knew what love really was as Dante says joy past compare gladness unutterable exhaustless riches and unmeasured bliss at last the decision was made Leonie had decided that the ideal love of Egiplosis was only suited to disembodied spirits and not for those breathing elements of matter that are unable to exist in the spiritual state the following was the text of her manifesto to the king barodamy and people the avowal of Leonie supreme goddess of at-vat-bar holy ruler of the palaces supernal and infernal of Egiplosis queen of magicians mother of sorcerers princess of Argeals etc etc to his most excellent majesty King Almeri Bulmakar and the people of at-vat-bar the supreme goddess presents her respectful salutations and desires to inform his majesty the king and the people that her ardent soul sensitive to the tender feelings of human affection desires to live no longer without a counterpart's soul the love of ten thousand souls does not satisfy the craving for the love of but one soul she has been told to love Harakar the unseen she reaches out her lips but they do not meet with love's delirious kisses her heart withering within her because of the soul loneliness has taught her to seek liberty to love the soul of her choice she resigns her seat on the throne of the gods as goddess having discovered her counterpart's soul she hopes that reform and not destruction will guide the king and his ministers in dealing with Egiplosis in this crisis given at her palace of Tanje in this the 11th year of her deification of supreme goddess Leonie this memorial fell upon the people like a shell of terrorite no one had ever suspected the crisis was so real the king had lulled himself with the belief that as my sailors had already departed to embark upon the polar king I would possibly quietly follow them and leave the country without his having the trouble of even asking me to go the message of the goddess however opened his eyes to the true state of things and I forthwith received the following decree from his majesty at the hands of Jolnar, admiral of the royal fleet Almeri Bulmakar king of Vat Vatbar white commander of the ship, polar king et cetera, et cetera, greeting it having come to our knowledge that you the said Lexington white having conceived an affection for the sacred person of our illustrious supreme goddess Leonie spouse of Paracar, holy ruler of Egiplosis mother of sorcerers, et cetera in defiance of our holy faith and laws of this realm and furthermore it having come to our knowledge that the said supreme goddess has so far forgotten her holy duty as to reciprocate your affection be it known to you that the penalty is justified by the laws of our realm for your heinous offence which is sacrilegious treason is death by magnitude for both guilty persons to inform you of the law and the penalty for your crime and to give you an opportunity of renouncing your affection for our supreme goddess and for your immediate departure from the soil of Vat Vatbar we send you this our decree commanding you as follows that you forthwith renounced your treasonable affection love and interest in the personality of said supreme goddess that you embark together with your officers and seamen and board your ship the polar king within one week from the date hereof and forever leave our realm of Vat Vatbar and the surrounding seas thereof you must not again return to this our realm in any manner whatsoever or send messengers or correspond or conspire with any inhabitant thereof particularly with our said supreme goddess under penalty of death both for yourself and for your entire crew given at our palace in Calnagore in this the 56th year of our reign Almeri Bulmakar king of Vat Vatbar I received the document from the hands of the admiral with deep respect and requested him to assure his majesty king Almeri Bulmakar of my profound regard and deep gratitude for the hospitable reception we'd received from his majesty and his people during our stay in the glorious kingdom of Vat Vatbar I stated that we were at present in the act of leaving their country on a voyage of further discovery but could not say that we would not again return to Vat Vatbar we should be most happy to obey the command of the king but should we receive the message to return from the supreme goddess ere we left the interior world we might possibly return notwithstanding the royal command and brave the wrath of his majesty in that case said the admiral it would be my duty to prevent you from landing on at Vat Bar soil and should you succeed in eluding the vigilance of the fleet your apprehension and that of your people by his majesty's wayleels would mean the execution of your entire party we are a proud nation and our army and navy are invincible as well meant warning whereupon he withdrew from the palace End of chapter 38