Dreams | Page 5

last. From the centre of the radiating flame in one looked
out a woman's face, laughing, dimpled, with streaming yellow hair. In
the centre of the other were merry laughing ripples, like the bubbles on
a glass of wine. They danced before him.

"Who are you," asked the hunter, "who alone come to me in my
solitude and darkness?"
"We are the twins Sensuality," they cried. "Our father's name is
Human- Nature, and our mother's name is Excess. We are as old as the
hills and rivers, as old as the first man; but we never die," they laughed.
"Oh, let me wrap my arms about you!" cried the first; "they are soft and
warm. Your heart is frozen now, but I will make it beat. Oh, come to
me!"
"I will pour my hot life into you," said the second; "your brain is numb,
and your limbs are dead now; but they shall live with a fierce free life.
Oh, let me pour it in!"
"Oh, follow us," they cried, "and live with us. Nobler hearts than yours
have sat here in this darkness to wait, and they have come to us and we
to them; and they have never left us, never. All else is a delusion, but
we are real, we are real, we are real. Truth is a shadow; the valleys of
superstition are a farce: the earth is of ashes, the trees all rotten; but
we--feel us--we live! You cannot doubt us. Feel us how warm we are!
Oh, come to us! Come with us!"
Nearer and nearer round his head they hovered, and the cold drops
melted on his forehead. The bright light shot into his eyes, dazzling him,
and the frozen blood began to run. And he said:
"Yes, why should I die here in this awful darkness? They are warm,
they melt my frozen blood!" and he stretched out his hands to take
them.
Then in a moment there arose before him the image of the thing he had
loved, and his hand dropped to his side.
"Oh, come to us!" they cried.
But he buried his face.

"You dazzle my eyes," he cried, "you make my heart warm; but you
cannot give me what I desire. I will wait here--wait till I die. Go!"
He covered his face with his hands and would not listen; and when he
looked up again they were two twinkling stars, that vanished in the
distance.
And the long, long night rolled on.
All who leave the valley of superstition pass through that dark land; but
some go through it in a few days, some linger there for months, some
for years, and some die there.
At last for the hunter a faint light played along the horizon, and he rose
to follow it; and he reached that light at last, and stepped into the broad
sunshine. Then before him rose the almighty mountains of Dry-facts
and Realities. The clear sunshine played on them, and the tops were
lost in the clouds. At the foot many paths ran up. An exultant cry burst
from the hunter. He chose the straightest and began to climb; and the
rocks and ridges resounded with his song. They had exaggerated; after
all, it was not so high, nor was the road so steep! A few days, a few
weeks, a few months at most, and then the top! Not one feather only
would he pick up; he would gather all that other men had found--weave
the net--capture Truth- -hold her fast--touch her with his hands--clasp
her!
He laughed in the merry sunshine, and sang loud. Victory was very
near. Nevertheless, after a while the path grew steeper. He needed all
his breath for climbing, and the singing died away. On the right and left
rose huge rocks, devoid of lichen or moss, and in the lava-like earth
chasms yawned. Here and there he saw a sheen of white bones. Now
too the path began to grow less and less marked; then it became a mere
trace, with a footmark here and there; then it ceased altogether. He sang
no more, but struck forth a path for himself, until it reached a mighty
wall of rock, smooth and without break, stretching as far as the eye
could see. "I will rear a stair against it; and, once this wall climbed, I
shall be almost there," he said bravely; and worked. With his shuttle of
imagination he dug out stones; but half of them would not fit, and half

a month's work would roll down because those below were ill chosen.
But the hunter worked on, saying always to himself, "Once this wall
climbed, I shall be almost there. This great work ended!"
At last he came out upon the top, and he looked about