Such upon the surface it appears to be, nor in fact does our ascertained knowledge, as Bickley would sum it up, take us much further.No prophet has yet arisen who attempted to define either the origin or the reasons of life.Even the very Greatest of them Himself is quite silent on this matter.We are tempted to wonder why.Is it because life as expressed in the higher of human beings, is, or will be too vast, too multiform and too glorious for any definition which we could understand? Is it because in the end it will involve for some, if not for all, majesty on unfathomed majesty, and glory upon unimaginable glory such as at present far outpass the limits of our thought?
The experiences which I have recorded in these pages awake in my heart a hope that this may be so.Bastin is wont, like many others, to talk in a light fashion of Eternity without in the least comprehending what he means by that gigantic term.It is not too much to say that Eternity, something without beginning and without end, and involving, it would appear, an everlasting changelessness, is a state beyond human comprehension.As a matter of fact we mortals do not think in constellations, so to speak, or in aeons, but by the measures of our own small earth and of our few days thereon.We cannot really conceive of an existence stretching over even one thousand years, such as that which Oro claimed and the Bible accords to a certain early race of men, omitting of course his two thousand five hundred centuries of sleep.And yet what is this but one grain in the hourglass of time, one day in the lost record of our earth, of its sisters the planets and its father the sun, to say nothing of the universes beyond?
It is because I have come in touch with a prolonged though perfectly finite existence of the sort, that I try to pass on the reflections which the fact of it awoke in me.There are other reflections connected with Yva and the marvel of her love and its various manifestations which arise also.But these I keep to myself.They concern the wonder of woman's heart, which is a microcosm of the hopes and fears and desires and despairs of this humanity of ours whereof from age to age she is the mother.
HUMPHREY ARBUTHNOT.
NOTE
By J.R.Bickley, M.R.C.S.
WITHIN about six months of the date on which he wrote the last words of this history of our joint adventures, my dear friend, Humphrey Arbuthnot, died suddenly, as I had foreseen that probably he would do, from the results of the injury he received in the island of Orofena.
He left me the sole executor to his will, under which he divided his property into three parts.One third he bequeathed to me, one third (which is strictly tied up) to Bastin, and one third to be devoted, under my direction, to the advancement of Science.
His end appears to have been instantaneous, resulting from an effusion of blood upon the brain.When I was summoned I found him lying dead by the writing desk in his library at Fulcombe Priory.
He had been writing at the desk, for on it was a piece of paper on which appear these words: "I have seen her.I--" There the writing ends, not stating whom he thought he had seen in the moments of mental disturbance or delusion which preceded his decease.
Save for certain verbal corrections, I publish this manuscript without comment as the will directs, only adding that it sets out our mutual experiences very faithfully, though Arbuthnot's deductions from them are not always my own.
I would say also that I am contemplating another visit to the South Sea Islands, where I wish to make some further investigations.I dare say, however, that these will be barren of results, as the fountain of Life-water is buried for ever, nor, as I think, will any human being stand again in the Hades-like halls of Nyo.It is probable also that it would prove impossible to rediscover the island of Orofena, if indeed that volcanic land still remains above the waters of the deep.
Now that he is a very wealthy man, Bastin talks of accompanying me for purposes quite different from my own, but on the whole Ihope he will abandon this idea.I may add that when he learned of his unexpected inheritance he talked much of the "deceitfulness of riches," but that he has not as yet taken any steps to escape their golden snare.Indeed he now converses of his added "opportunities of usefulness," I gather in connection with missionary enterprise.
J.R.BICKLEY.
P.S.--I forgot to state that the spaniel Tommy died within three days of his owner.The poor little beast was present in the room at the time of Arbuthnot's passing away, and when found seemed to be suffering from shock.From that moment Tommy refused food and finally was discovered quite dead and lying by the body on Marama's feather cloak, which Arbuthnot often used as a dressing-gown.As Bastin raised some religious objections, Iarranged without his knowledge that the dog's ashes should rest not far from those of the master and mistress whom it loved so well.
J.R.B.
End