Temporal Power

Temporal Power

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Temporal Power, by Marie Corelli
(#11 in our series by Marie Corelli)
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Title: Temporal Power
Author: Marie Corelli
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6921] [This file was first
posted on February 11, 2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK,
TEMPORAL POWER ***

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TEMPORAL POWER

A STUDY IN SUPREMACY
BY MARIE CORELLI

CONTENTS
I. THE KING'S PLEASAUNCE
II. MAJESTY CONSIDERS AND RESOLVES
III. A NATION OR A CHURCH?
IV. SEALED ORDERS
V. "IF I LOVED YOU!"
VI. SERGIUS THORD
VII. THE IDEALISTS
VIII. THE KING'S DOUBLE

IX. THE PREMIER'S SIGNET
X. THE ISLANDS
XI. "GLORIA--IN EXCELSIS!"
XII. A SEA PRINCESS
XIII. SECRET SERVICE
XIV. THE KING'S VETO
XV. "MORGANATIC" OR--?
XVI. THE PROFESSOR ADVISES
XVII. AN "HONOURABLE" STATESMAN
XVIII. ROYAL LOVERS
XIX. OF THE CORRUPTION OF THE STATE
XX. THE SCORN OF KINGS
XXI. AN INVITATION TO COURT
XXII. A FAIR DEBUTANTE
XXIII. THE KING'S DEFENDER
XXIV. A WOMAN'S REASON
XXV. "I SAY--'ROME'!"
XXVI. "ONE WAY--ONE WOMAN!"
XXVII. THE SONG OF FREEDOM
XXVIII. "FATE GIVES--THE KING!"

XXIX. THE COMRADE OF HIS FOES
XXX. KING AND SOCIALIST
XXXI. A VOTE FOR LOVE
XXXII. BETWEEN TWO PASSIONS
XXXIII. SAILING TO THE INFINITE
XXXIV. ABDICATION
CHAPTER I
THE KING'S PLEASAUNCE
"In the beginning," so we are told, "God made the heavens and the
earth."
The statement is simple and terse; it is evidently intended to be wholly
comprehensive. Its decisive, almost abrupt tone would seem to forbid
either question or argument. The old-world narrator of the sublime
event thus briefly chronicled was a poet of no mean quality, though
moved by the natural conceit of man to give undue importance to the
earth as his own particular habitation. The perfect confidence with
which he explains 'God' as making 'two great lights, the greater light to
rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night,' is touching to the verge
of pathos; and the additional remark which he throws in, as it were
casually,--'He made the stars also,' cannot but move us to admiration.
How childlike the simplicity of the soul which could so venture to deal
with the inexplicable and tremendous problem of the Universe! How
self-centred and sure the faith which could so arrange the work of
Infinite and Eternal forces to suit its own limited intelligence! It is easy
and natural to believe that 'God,' or an everlasting Power of Goodness
and Beauty called by that name, 'created the heavens and the earth,' but
one is often tempted to think that an altogether different and rival
element must have been concerned in the making of Man. For the
heavens and the earth are harmonious; man is a discord. And not only

is he a discord in himself, but he takes pleasure in producing and
multiplying discords. Often, with the least possible amount of
education, and on the slightest provocation, he mentally sets Himself,
and his trivial personal opinion on religion, morals, and government, in
direct opposition to the immutable laws of the Universe, and the
attitude he assumes towards the mysterious Cause and Original Source
of Life is nearly always one of three things; contradiction, negation, or
defiance. From the first to the last he torments himself with inventions
to outwit or subdue Nature, and in the end dies, utterly defeated. His
civilizations, his dynasties, his laws, his manners, his customs, are all
doomed to destruction and oblivion as completely as an ant-hill which
exists one night and is trodden down the next. Forever and forever he
works and plans in vain; forever and forever Nature, the visible and
active Spirit of God, rises up and crushes her puny rebel.
There must be good reason for this ceaseless waste of human life,--this
constant and steady obliteration of man's attempts, since there can be
no Effect without Cause. It is, as if like children