Читать книгу Another World: Fragments from the Star City of Montalluyah - Benjamin Lumley - Страница 54

"The humble and the proud are equally subject to the decrees of

Heaven; and often one is raised and the other brought low."

The system of education which I early inaugurated soon gave to my hand men of wondrous intelligence, fervid and eloquent emissaries, having at heart the success of my doctrines.

These men, themselves convinced, and earnest to convince others, I sent in all directions to prepare the people, and to discover genius and intelligence under whatever garb concealed, for I had determined that all should be encouraged to use their powers for their own and the general good, and be advanced accordingly.

Many things had happened to strengthen this, my early resolve. One incident I will now relate.

A beggar made many attempts to gain admission to my palace, but was turned away with blows; his prayers that he might speak with me were received with derision—he was looked upon as a madman, and not allowed to pass the outer gate.

This same beggar—Vyora, by name—saved the life of a little boy, the child of one of my leading men called Usheemee, "Men of truth."

The child would have been crushed to death under the wheels of a chariot, moved by electricity and drawn by fleet horses,[1] had not this same beggar rushed forward, regardless of peril, and saved the boy.

[Footnote 1: The beauty of our horses, the desire that the chariots should not be cumbersome, and the steep hills everywhere in Montalluyah, are the reasons why electricity is not used alone. When the horses stop, the electric action is suspended, and the momentum is neutralized simultaneously by a governor or regulator.]

The man refused money, and for his sole reward requested that he might be brought into my presence. The father told me of this, which seemed to him the more strange inasmuch as the petitioner refused to say what he required of me.

When brought before me, I asked Vyora what he sought? He replied that his whole desire, his soul's longing, was to be appointed a teacher, that he might instruct youth, and see little children grow wiser around him.

I regarded the man attentively, and put many searching questions. He answered all in a remarkable way, and gave proofs of intellect, knowledge, and perception beyond the masters who had passed through the required ordeals, and was so gentle and modest withal, that it was delightful to speak with him.

The father of Vyora had possessed wealth, but from the cruelty and oppression of an enemy mightier than he, had lost both fortune and life, and at his death left a family dependent on charity.

The widow, a woman of remarkable gifts and keen sensibilities, prostrated by grief, died soon after, carried off suddenly by a disease called, "Karni ferola," "Absorption of the vitality," [1] which at that time baffled the skill of the physicians, who indeed had seldom suspected its presence till the disease was beyond cure.

[Footnote 1: Answering to "consumption;" this disease is now detected and cured in its germ.]

Vyora, himself an emaciated boy, unfitted for physical labour, was the eldest of many brothers and sisters, who looked up to him in their hunger. He was driven to beg their food.

After the poor man had passed easily all the ordeals, I appointed him "a Character-Diver," to discover the qualities and detect the faults of little children,[2] and raised him from indigence to affluence.

[Footnote 2: See p. 19.]

The ability, industry, and wisdom of the man, and the good he did were beyond all praise, and I soon appointed him head of all the Character-Divers in Montalluyah.

This incident, with many others, engaged my most serious reflection. But for an accident, the powers of a truly superior mind would have been lost to humanity! Vyora was but the type of numbers, evidencing how capriciously wealth and honours were then distributed.