Shaping then said, 'What is this faraway other world of which you say "This is so - this is not so?" How happens it that you alone of all my creatures have knowledge of it?' But Hator spat at his feet, and said, 'You lie, Shaping. All have knowledge of it. You, with your pretty toys, alone obscure it from our view.' Shaping asked, 'What, then, am I?' Hator answered, 'You are the dreamer of impossible dreams.' And then the story goes that Shaping departed, ill pleased with what had been said.""What other world did Hator refer to?" asked Maskull.
"One where grandeur reigns, Maskull, just as pleasure reigns here.""Whether grandeur or pleasure, it makes no difference," said Maskull.
"The individual spirit that lives and wishes to live is mean and corrupt-natured.""Guard you your pride!" returned Spadevil. "Do not make law for the universe and for all time, but for yourself and for this small, false life of yours.""In what shape did death come to that hard, unconquerable man?" asked Tydomin.
"He lived to be old, but went upright and free-limbed to his last hour. When he saw that death could not be staved off longer he determined to destroy himself. He gathered his friends around him;not from vanity, but that they might see to what lengths the human soul can go in its perpetual warfare with the voluptuous body.
Standing erect, without support, he died by withholding his breath."A silence followed, which lasted for perhaps an hour. Their minds refused to acknowledge the icy winds, but the current of their thoughts became frozen.
When Branchspell, however, shone out again, though with subdued power, Maskull's curiosity rose once more. "Your fellow countrymen, then, Spadevil, are sick with self - love?""The men of other countries," said Spadevil, "are the slaves of pleasure and desire, knowing it. But the men of my country are the slaves of pleasure and desire, not knowing it.""And yet that proud pleasure, which rejoices in self-torture, has something noble in it.""He who studies himself at all is ignoble. Only by despising soul as well as body can a man enter into true life.""On what grounds do they reject women?"
"Inasmuch as a woman has ideal love, and cannot live for herself.
Love for another is pleasure for the loved one, and therefore injurious to him.""A forest of false ideas is waiting for your axe," said Maskull.
"But will they allow it?"
"Spadevil knows, Maskull," said Tydomin, "that be it today or be it tomorrow, love can't be kept out of a land, even by the disciples of Hator.""Beware of love - beware of emotion!" exclaimed Spadevil. "Love is but pleasure once removed. Think not of pleasing others, but of serving them.""Forgive me, Spadevil, if I am still feminine.""Right has no sex. So long, Tydomin, as you remember that you are a woman, so long you will not enter into divine apathy of soul.""But where there are no women, there are no children," said Maskull.
"How came there to be all these. generations of Hator men?""Life breeds passion, passion breeds suffering, suffering breeds the yearning for relief from suffering. Men throng to Sant from all parts, in order to have the scars of their souls healed.""In place of hatred of pleasure, which all can understand, what simple formula do you offer?""Iron obedience to duty," answered Spadevil.
"And if they ask 'How far is this consistent with hatred of pleasure?' what will your pronouncement be?""I do not answer them, but I answer you, Maskull, who ask the question. Hatred is passion, and all passion springs from the dark fires of self. Do not hate pleasure at all, but pass it by on one side, calm and undisturbed.""What is the criterion of pleasure? How can we always recognise it, in order to avoid it?""Rigidly follow duty, and such questions will not arise."Later in the afternoon, Tydomin timidly placed her fingers on Spadevil's arm.
"Fearful doubts are in my mind," she said. "This expedition to Sant may turn out badly. I have seen a vision of you, Spadevil, and myself lying dead and covered in blood, but Maskull was not there.""We may drop the torch, but it will not be extinguished, and others will raise it.""Show me a sign that you are not as other men - so that I may know that our blood will not be wasted."Spadevil regarded her sternly. "I am not a magician. I don't persuade the senses, but the soul. Does your duty call you to Sant, Tydomin? Then go there. Does it not call you to Sant? Then go no farther. Is not this simple? What signs are necessary?""Did I not see you dispel those spouts of lightning? No common man could have done that.""Who knows what any man can do? This man can do one thing, that man can do another. But what all men can do is their duty; and to open their eyes to this, I must go to Sant, and if necessary lay down my life. Will you not still accompany me?""Yes," said Tydomin, "I will follow you to the end. It is all the more essential, because I keep on displeasing you with my remarks, and that means I have not yet learned my lesson properly.""Do not be humble, for humility is only self-judgment, and while we are thinking of self, we must be neglecting some action we could be planning or shaping in our mind."Tydomin continued to be uneasy and preoccupied.
"Why was Maskull not in the picture?" she asked.
"You dwell on this foreboding because you imagine it is tragical.
