The Blindmans World | Page 7

before us?"
"You have told me marvelous things," I said, after I had reflected. "It is,
indeed, but reasonable that such a race as yours should look down with
wondering pity on the Earth. And yet, before I grant so much, I want to

ask you one question. There is known in our world a certain sweet
madness, under the influence of which we forget all that is untoward in
our lot, and would not change it for a god's. So far is this sweet
madness regarded by men as a compensation, and more than a
compensation, for all their miseries that if you know not love as we
know it, if this loss be the price you have paid for your divine foresight,
we think ourselves more favored of God than you. Confess that love,
with its reserves, its surprises, its mysteries, its revelations, is
necessarily incompatible with a foresight which weighs and measures
every experience in advance."
"Of love's surprises we certainly know nothing," was the reply. "It is
believed by our philosophers that the slightest surprise would kill
beings of our constitution like lightning; though of course this is merely
theory, for it is only by the study of Earthly conditions that we are able
to form an idea of what surprise is like. Your power to endure the
constant buffetings of the unexpected is a matter of supreme
amazement to us; nor, according to our ideas, is there any difference
between what you call pleasant and painful surprises. You see, then,
that we cannot envy you these surprises of love which you find so
sweet, for to us they would be fatal. For the rest, there is no form of
happiness which foresight is so well calculated to enhance as that of
love. Let me explain to you how this befalls. As the growing boy
begins to be sensible of the charms of woman, he finds himself, as I
dare say it is with you, preferring some type of face and form to others.
He dreams oftenest of fair hair, or may be of dark, of blue eyes or
brown. As the years go on, his fancy, brooding over what seems to it
the best and loveliest of every type, is constantly adding to this
dream-face, this shadowy form, traits and lineaments, hues and
contours, till at last the picture is complete, and he becomes aware that
on his heart thus subtly has been depicted the likeness of the maiden
destined for his arms.
"It may be years before he is to see her, but now begins with him one of
the sweetest offices of love, one to you unknown. Youth on Earth is a
stormy period of passion, chafing in restraint or rioting in excess. But
the very passion whose awaking makes this time so critical with you is

here a reforming and educating influence, to whose gentle and potent
sway we gladly confide our children. The temptations which lead your
young men astray have no hold on a youth of our happy planet. He
hoards the treasures of his heart for its coming mistress. Of her alone he
thinks, and to her all his vows are made. The thought of license would
be treasop to his sovereign lady, whose right to all the revenues of his
being he joyfully owns. To rob her, to abate her high prerogatives,
would be to impoverish, to insult, himself; for she is to be his, and her
honor, her glory, are his own. Through all this time that he dreams of
her by night and day, the exquisite reward of his devotion is the
knowledge that she is aware of him as he of her, and that in the inmost
shrine of a maiden heart his image is set up to receive the incense of a
tenderness that needs not to restrain itself through fear of possible cross
or separation.
"In due time their converging lives come together. The lovers meet,
gaze a moment into each other's eyes, then throw themselves each on
the other's breast. The maiden has all the charms that ever stirred the
blood of an Earthly lover, but there is another glamour over her which
the eyes of Earthly lovers are shut to,--the glamour of the future. In the
blushing girl her lover sees the fond and faithful wife, in the blithe
maiden the patient, pain-consecrated mother. On the virgin's breast he
beholds his children. He is prescient, even as his lips take the first-fruits
of hers, of the future years during which she is to be his companion, his
ever-present solace, his chief portion of God's goodness. We have read
some of your romances describing love as you know it on Earth, and I
must confess, my friend, we find them very dull.
"I hope,"