登陆注册
5236600000001

第1章 THE MAHATMA(1)

Everyone has seen a hare, either crouched or running in the fields, or hanging dead in a poulterer's shop, or lastly pathetic, even dreadful-looking and in this form almost indistinguishable from a skinned cat, on the domestic table. But not many people have met a Mahatma, at least to their knowledge. Not many people know even who or what a Mahatma is. The majority of those who chance to have heard the title are apt to confuse it with another, that of Mad Hatter.

This is even done of malice prepense (especially, for obvious reasons, if a hare is in any way concerned) in scorn, not in ignorance, by persons who are well acquainted with the real meaning of the word and even with its Sanscrit origin. The truth is that an incredulous Western world puts no faith in Mahatmas. To it a Mahatma is a kind of spiritual Mrs. Harris, giving an address in Thibet at which no letters are delivered. Either, it says, there is no such person, or he is a fraudulent scamp with no greater occult powers--well, than a hare.

I confess that this view of Mahatmas is one that does not surprise me in the least. I never met, and I scarcely expect to meet, an individual entitled to set "Mahatma" after his name. Certainly /I/have no right to do so, who only took that title on the spur of the moment when the Hare asked me how I was called, and now make use of it as a /nom-de-plume/. It is true there is Jorsen, by whose order, for it amounts to that, I publish this history. For aught I know Jorsen may be a Mahatma, but he does not in the least look the part.

Imagine a bluff person with a strong, hard face, piercing grey eyes, and very prominent, bushy eyebrows, of about fifty or sixty years of age. Add a Scotch accent and a meerschaum pipe, which he smokes even when he is wearing a frock coat and a tall hat, and you have Jorsen. Ibelieve that he lives somewhere in the country, is well off, and practises gardening. If so he has never asked me to his place, and Ionly meet him when he comes to Town, as I understand, to visit flower-shows.

Then I always meet him because he orders me to do so, not by letter or by word of mouth but in quite a different way. Suddenly I receive an impression in my mind that I am to go to a certain place at a certain hour, and that there I shall find Jorsen. I do go, sometimes to an hotel, sometimes to a lodging, sometimes to a railway station or to the corner of a particular street and there I do find Jorsen smoking his big meerschaum pipe. We shake hands and he explains why he has sent for me, after which we talk of various things. Never mind what they are, for that would be telling Jorsen's secrets as well as my own, which I must not do.

It may be asked how I came to know Jorsen. Well, in a strange way.

Nearly thirty years ago a dreadful thing happened to me. I was married and, although still young, a person of some mark in literature. Indeed even now one or two of the books which I wrote are read and remembered, although it is supposed that their author has long left the world.

The thing which happened was that my wife and our daughter were coming over from the Channel Islands, where they had been on a visit (she was a Jersey woman), and, and--well, the ship was lost, that's all. The shock broke my heart, in such a way that it has never been mended again, but unfortunately did not kill me.

Afterwards I took to drink and sank, as drunkards do. Then the river began to draw me. I had a lodging in a poor street at Chelsea, and Icould hear the river calling me at night, and--I wished to die as the others had died. At last I yielded, for the drink had rotted out all my moral sense. About one o'clock of a wild, winter morning I went to a bridge I knew where in those days policemen rarely came, and listened to that call of the water.

"Come!" it seemed to say. "This world is the real hell, ending in the eternal naught. The dreams of a life beyond and of re-union there are but a demon's mocking breathed into the mortal heart, lest by its universal suicide mankind should rob him of his torture-pit. There is no truth in all your father taught you" (he was a clergyman and rather eminent in his profession), "there is no hope for man, there is nothing he can win except the deep happiness of sleep. Come and sleep."Such were the arguments of that Voice of the river, the old, familiar arguments of desolation and despair. I leant over the parapet; in another moment I should have been gone, when I became aware that some one was standing near to me. I did not see the person because it was too dark. I did not hear him because of the raving of the wind. But Iknew that he was there. So I waited until the moon shone out for a while between the edges of two ragged clouds, the shapes of which Ican see to this hour. It showed me Jorsen, looking just as he does to-day, for he never seems to change--Jorsen, on whom, to my knowledge, I had not set eyes before.

"Even a year ago," he said, in his strong, rough voice, "you would not have allowed your mind to be convinced by such arguments as those which you have just heard in the Voice of the river. That is one of the worst sides of drink; it decays the reason as it does the body.

You must have noticed it yourself."

I replied that I had, for I was surprised into acquiescence. Then Igrew defiant and asked him what he knew of the arguments which were or were not influencing me. To my surprise--no, that is not the word--to my bewilderment, he repeated them to me one by one just as they had arisen a few minutes before in my heart. Moreover, he told me what Ihad been about to do, and why I was about to do it.

"You know me and my story," I muttered at last.

"No," he answered, "at least not more than I know that of many men with whom I chance to be in touch. That is, I have not met you for nearly eleven hundred years. A thousand and eighty-six, to be correct.

I was a blind priest then and you were the captain of Irene's guard."At this news I burst out laughing and the laugh did me good.

同类推荐
  • 少閒

    少閒

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 七言律

    七言律

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛法金汤编

    佛法金汤编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 长生胎元神用经

    长生胎元神用经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说大乘百福相经

    佛说大乘百福相经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 论语(国学启蒙书系列)

    论语(国学启蒙书系列)

    本书为语录体文集,主要记载孔子及其弟子的言行,因此称为语。《论语(国学启蒙书系列)》为该系列其中一册,丛书编者韩震等人采用活泼插图的表现方式,让读者在阅读中积淀文化底蕴,培养良好道德品质,从而受益一生。 “国民阅读文库”之“国学启蒙书系列”由权威教育专家及国学大师联袂编撰而成,为适应青少年的阅读习惯,采用了双色注音的方式;书中精美的插图帮助青少年加深对内容的理解;通过阅读精彩的故事,让青少年懂得为人处世的道理。可以说,这是一套为青少年读者倾力打造的国学启蒙经典读物。
  • 花滑白痴

    花滑白痴

    毫无花样滑冰天赋的顾霏柔从小和姐姐一起学习滑冰。姐姐天赋异禀,而她却像个花滑白痴。啪……她又摔倒了。“总有一天我也会clean的,我也会站在世界的高度。”顾霏柔趴在冰面上含着泪看着顾惜惜。“就凭你?这里可没有给猪吃的金牌。你赶紧脱下冰鞋,去梦里摸一摸金牌吧。你这猪一样的身材还想滑冰?嫁不嫁的出去都不一定吧。”后来,顾霏柔终于如愿以偿的赢得冠军......
  • 被我们误读的世界

    被我们误读的世界

    《被我们误读的世界》的作者袁南生是一位拥有14年五国五馆履职经历的资深外交官。他在埃及、印度、南美、美国等地担任外交官期间,见人之所未见,发人之所未发,将自己的海外亲历亲见汇集成书。在该书中,袁南生依凭白纸黑墨,带您感受印度的“苦感文化”,津巴布韦的“悠感文化”,拉美苏里南和美国旧金山的“罪恶文化”,跟您一起对比中国人的“乐感文化”,许多事实和观点令人耳目一新,深受启发。
  • 国家兴衰的传播动力机制研究

    国家兴衰的传播动力机制研究

    《国家兴衰的传播动力机制研究》是一部探究媒介、传播与国家命运关系的学术专著。以“传播何以改变国家命运”为研究命题,通过概念界定、理论推演、模型建构、案例分析来揭示国家兴衰中的传播奥秘,启发中国和平崛起的传播战略。在复杂系统理论的逻辑框架下,采用多学科交叉研究方法,深入分析典型历史事件、历史现象背后的诸多传播问题,清晰呈现媒介传播在历史兴衰中的动力机制,丰富发展了媒介理论,展示了传播思想的学术魅力。引证材料翔实,理论思考严密,宏大叙述鞭辟入里,精微分析智趣横生。
  • 过去

    过去

    叶勐,河北省作协会员。作品见于《人民文学》《芙蓉》等期刊。小说《老正是条狗》入选《2005年短篇小说年选》。《亡命之徒》电影改编。《塞车》被译成英文。《为什么要把小说写得这么好》获2008年度河北十佳优秀作品奖。现为河北省文学院签约作家。
  • 声优养成大师

    声优养成大师

    一个伪宅和另一个世界线的自己重合了。这个世界没有钉宫,也没有东山,没有佐仓……而他,成了一个即将倒闭的事务所的声优经纪人,面对自己的声优落魄潦倒的状况。既然穿越了,那就成为新世界的卡密!没有钉宫,那就造一个钉宫,没有东山,那就造一个东山。Lovelive不只是二次元,我还要办现实世界的学院偶像比赛!没有漫展?那就引爆同人界的原子弹!虚拟偶像?让洛天依和初音未来同台演唱!……而郝平,只想带着他的声优,在武道馆开演唱会。
  • 才不会是你呢

    才不会是你呢

    夏粒喜欢角落里的那个男生,他学习不算很好,个子不算很高,皮肤不算很白,男生嘛,总要黑一点才阳光,但夏粒喜欢他笑起来的样子,喜欢他在篮球场上的身影。到底是谁说早恋没有好处的,她可是深有体会呢。
  • 生命最后的读书会

    生命最后的读书会

    在得知母亲胰腺癌晚期后,威尔一直不知道该如何面对这件事并自然地跟母亲沟通。偶然的一天,他们开始阅读同样的书,为了在母亲之后的化疗中两人可以一起探讨这本书。两个人的读书会就这么开始了。在固定进行的读书会期间,他们开始了一段阅读广度和人生深度的对话之旅。从热门惊悚小说到经典畅销书,从诗歌到悬疑故事,从异想天开到精神层次探讨……穿插着作者对儿时的回忆、母亲的不平凡经历、各自的人生际遇,借阅读,他们探讨了勇气、信仰、孤独,感恩、学习倾听甚至葬礼等多个话题,分享着各自对文字和生命的态度和观点。最终,他们可以真诚地交换彼此对死亡的观点了。
  • 大荒武神

    大荒武神

    大荒之内百族并立,万国称雄,武道繁荣昌盛,精妙绝伦,武者强身健体,粗壮筋骨而力达千斤。其中高手,一拳打出暗合天道,江河倒流,大地碎裂,武道至极,破山河,碎日月,手握乾坤,不朽成神。 身世诡异的古昊出生在这波澜壮阔的大世界之中,从而掀起一页新的篇章。新建的书友群:162183876
  • 星际列车

    星际列车

    新书发布,地狱通告一个灵异的故事,有惊悚情节,对此不适的同学谨慎围观