{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_63028/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_63028","id":"gutenberg_63028","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63028","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Novels","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Science fiction","Short stories","Utopian fiction"],"text":"[Illustration:\n\n  Hand in hand, a dark-eyed lad and a fair-haired lassie approached.\n\n  Page 4.\n]\n\n\n\n\n                               REINSTERN\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration: BY]\n\n                          _ELOISE O. RICHBERG_\n\n[Illustration]\n\n                               CINCINNATI\n                     THE EDITOR PUBLISHING COMPANY\n                                  1900\n\n\n\n\n                               COPYRIGHT\n                     THE EDITOR PUBLISHING COMPANY\n                                 1900.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                                CONTENTS\n\n\n                             REINSTERN\n                             LOVE\u2019S DESTINY\n\n\n\n\n                              _REINSTERN._\n\n\nOn, and on, and on! For interminable hours had we been rushing headlong\nover yellowish-brown plains, punctuated here and there by willow-fringed\nstreams; past huge water-tanks standing guard over dreary little cabins\nalready cowering before the approach of fierce wintry assaults; past\nforlorn specimens of unkempt and altogether hopeless humanity, who\nstraggled away toward invisible habitations beyond the horizon, or,\nswaddled in accumulated filth and ragged shawls, squatted in solemn\nstolidity by the roadside for a vanishing glimpse of fleeting\ncivilization.\n\nFrom profitless window-gazing, to that supposedly restful twist\ninvariably assumed by the weary woman-traveler; from contemplation of\nbarren and boundless distance without, to closed eyes and anxious\nretrospection, within; from the sterility of facts present, to the\nincomparably cruel suggestions of merciless imagination, involving the\nhealth, happiness, even the life of loved ones left behind;\u2014till,\ngradually, Creation resolved itself into a jumble of indefinable sounds\nand fancies;\u2014a rumbling, jolting, wheezing dizziness:\n\nA crash and lurch brought every would-be-dozer to his feet, the train\nsuddenly ceased moving, and apprehensive of danger, we promptly\nresponded to the peremptory call: \u201cAll out here!\u201d to find ourselves on a\nwide springy platform surrounding a station-building quite unlike any\npreviously observed; in an atmosphere laden with the perfume of\u2014was it\npine-woods\u2014newly mown hay\u2014violets\u2014lilies or jasmine?\n\nIt seemed rather a mixture of many delicious odors. Fertile fields and\nwooded hills stretched away before us; men, women and children in ideal\npeasant costumes moved gaily about, chatting together, singing, dancing\nover the velvety sod, or leaping and swinging from the supple boughs\nwhile pelting each other with blossoms or gathering the luscious fruit\nwhich was everywhere temptingly abundant.\n\nThrough the shrubbery, glimpses of rock-built and vine-covered homes\ntold of individual prosperity; flowering mosses outlined the roadways;\nand luxuriant hedges, also in full bloom, divided the grounds one from\nanother; fountains and myriad birds filled the air with happy melodies.\n\nHand in hand, a dark-eyed lad and a fair-haired lassie approached,\nsaluted, and simultaneously asked in voices perfectly attuned, \u201cGuides\nfor the city?\u201d\n\nUrban instincts immediately awakened and asked, \u201cHow far is it, and how\nmuch\u2014by the hour?\u201d\n\nAgain, gracefully and respectfully saluting, they replied, \u201cThis is the\nCenter; the Fields are to the right and left; our services are paid by\nthe government.\u201d\n\nSlightly disconcerted at such unexpected hospitality, but also convinced\nthat our reputation as workers for the elevation of mankind had preceded\nus, and rather self-exalted thereby, we said, affably enough; \u201cVery\nwell; let the young lady show us about.\u201d With an indulgent smile, they\nexplained, \u201cWe always help each other.\u201d (\u201cBorn twins likely,\u201d being our\nmental comment.)\n\n\u201cThese buildings near the Depot, for the convenience of producers and\nconsumers, are the Supply Stations, whence are shipped the government\nproducts from fields and factories.\n\n\u201cProducers are supplied at cost, non-producers at a small advance. The\ngeneral Store-houses are farther down this, the Poplar Valley, but also\non the line of public travel.\n\n\u201cThe Mother-fields are to the right, in the Maple-valley, while the\nFather-fields fill the Elm-valley, to the left.\n\n\u201cYonder, where the hill-side appears checked with different tints, are\nthe Schools of Natural History.\u201d\n\n\u201cSchools?\u201d we interrupted, quite prepared to exploit the superiority of\ncertain educational institutions farther east, in the organization and\nregulation of which we had offered several valuable suggestions: \u201cHow\nmany schools have you?\u201d\n\n\u201cThey vary according to our needs; one for every ten students, from four\nto twenty years of age.\u201d\n\nWe neglected to dilate upon the immense advantages of our systems. We\nmay have been intoxicated by the invigorating atmosphere, the beautiful\nscene, or the chanting and enchanting guides.\n\nWe did, however, venture to ask, deprecatingly, \u201cDo you study only\nNatural History?\u201d\n\nWith a merry laugh, they answered, \u201cIndeed! That is much, we think: To\nlearn of the birth, growth, development and decay of Nature\u2019s products,\nfrom the tiniest manifestation of life\u2014animal, vegetable and mineral\u2014to\nman\u2019s perfect evolution, from this physical form into spirituality.\n\n\u201cWe, children, learn only the rudiments of each change, the Scientists\nand Philosophers make it their life work.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd live and die poor, here as elsewhere?\u201d we facetiously suggested.\n\n\u201cIndeed, no!\u201d they answered again, with a merry peal of laughter at so\ndire a possibility. \u201cWe have no \u2018poor\u2019 as you call them. The government\nis the friend of everyone.\u201d\n\nWith a skeptical sniff, and a suspicion that we were in the heart of one\nof those \u201cIdeal communities,\u201d of whose birth, growth and early collapse\nwe had read, we asked:\n\n\u201cWhere are the other schools, or are those enough for your population?\u201d\n\n\u201cOn Bald Hill, toward the east\u2014you can see the brick buildings and\nscaffoldings\u2014are the schools for Mechanics; where those who are so\nfitted by heredity, learn the use of tools and machinery.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe children of mechanics, must then follow their father\u2019s calling?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot necessarily: If a carpenter-man does not wish to raise\ncarpenter-children, he seeks a wife among the farmers, philosophers,\nprofessions or wherever his preferences tend. Their united desire calls\nto their home souls harmonious, in development with their intentions.\n\n\u201cYour people have not yet learned this law\u2014in Natural History;\u201d with a\nroguish twinkle, \u201cit is taught in our lowest grades.\u201d\n\n\u201cTaught to children?\u201d we asked horrified at this depravity.\n\n\u201cTo little children. Your people ignorantly imagine marriage and birth a\ngame of chance, attended by much nonsense and immorality; in which\nparents may draw anything from a blank or a monstrosity to a saint. You\nare here to learn the beautiful truth;\u2014or as much of it as you are\ncapable of grasping.\u201d\n\nTheir conversation seemed so illy fitted to their years, that we asked\ntheir age.\n\n\u201cFifteen and eighteen years of this incarnation, while you are nearly\nfifty; but, in Eternity, we are your seniors and can teach you to crush\nthe shell by which Earth-children have surrounded themselves.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou speak of \u2018Earth-children;\u2019\u2014are you not of them?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo; this is Reinstern. You have been brought to us to learn the\npossibilities of your people.\u201d\n\n\u201cIsn\u2019t Reinstern in the western part of the United States?\u201d we asked,\ngreatly mystified.\n\n\u201cIt is a planet as yet undiscovered by your astronomers, who waste\nlifetimes searching with telescopes for what the inner vision will\nreadily disclose when you allow the real self to predominate.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is a flimsy dream, after all,\u201d was our immediate conclusion, which\nthough unexpressed, was quickly answered.\n\n\u201cNo; you are not dreaming; but thoroughly awake, at last. Upon your\nplanet, generation after generation have been given over to materialism\nand hypocrisy; till Life, which is only embodied in Love and Truth, is\nnearly extinct; it is, in your best, torpid.\n\n\u201cAgain and again have Teachers and Physicians from a higher plane of\nexistence been clothed in your Earth-garb, and lived among you that your\neyes might be opened.\n\n\u201cYou have either persecuted or shunned them, but occasionally, after\ntheir departure, dully recognizing their mission and superiority, have\nworshipped their materialization; giving no heed to their precepts.\n\n\u201cIt is now feared, among the sister-planets, that Earth will lose her\nspirituality, which is her life, and become, again, a nonentity among\nthe spheres; a mass of corruption which must, eventually, return to its\noriginal state of floating matter, to be elsewhere utilized.\n\n\u201cAs all progress in humanity is accomplished through loving effort for\nthe good of others, Reinstern is now making a vigorous attempt to\nelevate your people; to teach them the great truth that soul-life is one\nwith Universal life, and must be allowed its only expression, Love; not\nlove in the corrupt sense, received by most of your people, which is not\nLove at all, but only a low grade of selfishness. True Love seeks the\ngood of all, and thereby, wins the best for self. This too is\nselfishness; but such is a duty. The Father has clothed us in\nindividuality, that we may, through our own exertions, become stronger\nin virtue; unless we avail ourselves of the opportunities he supplies,\nwe are ungrateful and unworthy.\n\n\u201cOur bodies are self-built Temples in which to worship, not the outward\nmanifestations of His power, but His Spirit of Love, which, though\nall-pervading, all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving, must ever be\ninvisible to finite eyes.\n\n\u201cAccording as we truly worship and enjoy all within human possibilities,\nrecognizing His presence in every blessing, we live; if we ignore Love\u2019s\nvoice, we are committing suicide, crowding out of the physical, Life;\nhastening the decay,\u2014individual, national and planetary, which\ninevitably follows injustice and unkindness. This decay manifests itself\nin your ill-health, moral and physical.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo Reinstern people all speak English?\u201d we asked, rather quizzically,\nafter this broadside of philosophy.\n\n\u201cYou have been magnetically prepared for this experience, and\npsychically understand all that is presented: this is in the hands of\nthe electrical students,\u2014is one of their object lessons.\n\n\u201cWere it possible for you to come here unattended and unheralded, you\nwould see, hear and understand nothing, as our language resembles your\nthought communication. We are not so advanced in spirituality as in many\nother planets, the inhabitants of which float in the atmosphere at will,\nconversing at all distances as freely as you with your family around the\nbreakfast table. With such the physical is quite subordinate to the\nspirit; but we are much above your plane and do not appear materialized\nin your eyes.\n\n\u201cYour spirit is, for the time, magnetically maintained by those who are\nstriving for the salvation of Earth from annihilation.\n\n\u201cYou will carry your experience back to your people, and devote your\nlife to their uplifting. The physical life of those fortunate Earth\ninhabitants who have been found susceptible to our efforts, will be\ngreatly prolonged by our people, that all possible good may be\naccomplished.\u201d\n\nAfter a few minutes\u2014or hours, of riding,\u2014or was it floating? we found\nourselves in Maple Valley.\n\nWould that we were sufficiently gifted to paint that wondrously\nbeautiful scene! to portray the glories of human life among the Good,\nthe Pure, the True, the Happy! It were then indeed an object lesson to\nall of Earth\u2019s sorrowing people.\n\nTo the left, lay broad fields of grains and grasses, bending timidly\nbefore the fervent caress of August zephyrs; gardens of unfamiliar\nfruits and vegetables stretched before us; to the right rose tier after\ntier of grassy knolls dotted with low, spreading shrubbery; while\nfarther up the slope, ideal groves of magnificent Maples, seemed\nbeckoning to the pleasure-lovers.\n\nPerfectly developed humanity supplied the Highlights for the fascinating\npicture. The grassy knolls swarmed with babyhood, whose rosy-cheeked\nmothers in gay colored, tunic-like garbs, busied themselves among the\nrustling foliage;\u2014pruning, training, planting and cultivating.\n\nOne could hardly believe that work, considered by us as too\nlaborious,\u2014nay\u2014positively injurious for womankind, was being\naccomplished by this band of merry-makers.\n\nWhen we could distract our attention from the bewildering scene, the\nguides were saying: \u201cThese fields are tilled and the crops harvested by\nthe mothers of the Yearlings, as you see.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho owns or controls the fields and pays for the labor?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is government land.\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2014and the government?\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2014is officered by citizens who have outlived the parental term and\nsuccessfully graduated into full citizenship three or more children.\u201d\n\nAfter our mumbled comment, \u201cA premium on parentage, at last,\u201d we asked:\n\u201cWho takes care of the \u2018Yearlings,\u2019 as you have called them?\u201d\n\n\u201cTheir mothers;\u201d with a puzzled look at each other\u2014\u201cwith a little help\nfrom the Applicants after noon.\u201d\n\n\u201cWomen doing farm work and baby-tending? That seems incredible;\u201d we\nexclaimed.\n\nWith a peal of happy laughter that proved contagious, and a quickly\nexecuted, waltz-like whirl of amusement, they preceded the explanation:\n\u201cUntil children pass their first birthday, they accompany their mothers\ndaily to these fields, to roll about on the sod, dig in the soil or\nsleep in their baskets, while their mothers plant, prune, graft, harvest\nor cultivate according to the season; meanwhile, the Applicants are\nattending to the house and preparing for the noon home-coming; after\nwhich they share the Yearling duties.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho are the Applicants?\u201d\n\n\u201cYoung men and maidens, who desire to marry, after having passed with\nhonor through several departments of Education and Preparation; and, by\nthe State Records, have proved their ability to provide for the material\nand spiritual needs of a family; and have received, from the Board of\nPublic Health their Certificates of physical fitness, are granted the\nApplicant\u2019s degree.\n\n\u201cThis entitles them to assist and relieve Fathers and Mothers in their\nhome and field duties, until they pass their twenty-fifth birthdays and\nhave selected life partners. If they can then show records of at least\none year\u2019s satisfactory administration of such duties, the Government\nissues their Marriage-license.\n\n\u201cThis is, in every family, a period of great rejoicing; each licensed\nchild being then honored by visits and gifts from all relatives and\nfriends; and, if he or she happens to have merited special recognition\nfrom the city or State, by any act of peculiar heroism or\nself-sacrifice, the Officials add a generous tribute.\n\n\u201cIn some notable cases, the bride or groom must build a house in which\nto store the Ante-wedding presents.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou make as much of the license-granting as of the wedding?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe public is not expected to take cognizance of the wedding day. It\nwould be regarded on Reinstern, as grossly immodest and cruel, to call\ngeneral attention to the exact hour wherein the young couple are legally\nempowered to exercise the marital privileges. It is the culmination of\nthe most sacred desires of the human heart.\u201d\n\nAs with curtained eyes, they bowed modestly before us, we felt\nunaccountably ashamed of our crude practices, though but dimly\ncomprehending the mystic purity of which we were thus vouchsafed a brief\nglimpse.\n\n\u201cShall we tell you more of the fielding system?\u201d\n\n\u201cIs there more?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have heard but the beginning. While the mothers and applicants are\nthus busied, the fathers are caring for the three-year-olds, the Buds,\nin the Elm-valley,\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2014and the two-year-olds are at home with the servants?\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have no servants; there is no dominating or servile class; all try\nto serve the same Divine Will, as interpreted by the Higher Self.\n\n\u201cOur oldest citizens are advisers in time of doubt; being more highly\ndeveloped and able to read the Truth more clearly through the delicate\nmaterial veil they will soon discard.\u201d\n\n\u201cDeath can have no terrors for them?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat you term \u2018Death\u2019, the change to the next higher plane of\nmateriality, is, with us, but the passing of night-time; we anticipate\nthe glories of the approaching dawn.\n\n\u201cYou are to see this change before you leave us. You asked of the\ntwo-year-olds, or, as we know them, the Restless. They are in the charge\nof the recently married women, who thus acquire a practical knowledge of\nthe motherhood to which they aspire.\n\n\u201cThey, also have field and garden duties, not so absorbing or laborious\nas those of the parents, for two reasons: The Restless need rather more\nattention than the Yearlings; and the young wives themselves require\nmore leisure for study and preparation.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut who earns the living for the family?\u201d\n\nAgain the waltzing whirl of suppressed amusement, before they said\ngravely: \u201cParents are the highest priced laborers in the land; mothers\nand fathers receiving equal honors, salaries and privileges.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is all very beautiful\u2014very\u2014too beautiful to be true.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is true; and its simplicity brings its realization within the reach\nof all. It must be realized by Earth: You have the conditions,\neverything, except the will to accomplish the change. All blessings are\nyours to take. You are only self-blinded; and by your bigotry, are in\ndanger of blood-poisoning.\n\n\u201cBathe your eyes in Truth; open them to His everlasting and all-powerful\nLove, and wash away the putrefaction that threatens your Eternal\nwelfare, your planet\u2019s existence.\u201d\n\nA radiant light enveloped them, an invisible choir flooded the air with\ncelestial harmonies; we bowed ourselves, reverently, before an unseen\nbut overpowering presence, and covering our faces answered, fervidly:\n\u201cWith Thy help, Lord, we will.\u201d\n\n\u201cAfter the third year?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe recently married men receive the graduating Buds into the Youth\u2019s\ndepartment, and devote their first year to them; their work is also in\nthe open air and completes the Field course.\n\n\u201cAfter these young benedicts promote a class of Youth, they receive\ntheir full certificates of Fatherhood. They are then of age, as you\nwould call it.\u201d\n\n\u201cAre not many of these young people unfit for the responsibilities, the\ncustody of children, the field work or\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have forgotten that marriage-licenses are granted only after the\nApplicants are fully qualified. Our Committee on Generation thoroughly\ninvestigate every case.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe five-year-olds?\u201d\n\n\u201cAre taken in groups of ten, by teachers, who, during the following two\nyears, instruct them in the first principles of birth, growth and change\nas presented by plant and animal life in field, forest, garden and home:\nThis includes much you would classify as rudiments of Physiology,\nChemistry, Astronomy, Psychology, Paleontology, Arithmetic, Language,\nGeography, History and Agriculture, besides Cleaning and Cooking. It is\naccomplished however without books or tablets, and, much of it outside\nthe class-rooms.\n\n\u201cFlowers, fruits, vegetables and grains; birds, fish, reptiles and many\nother forms of animal life, are germinated and developed to maturity;\nnurtured and experimented upon; but ever to the benefit of the life\ninvolved.\u201d\n\n\u201cAre your teachers men or women?\u201d\n\n\u201cBoth; always in pairs; the government believing that by constant and\nfamiliar association, only, can the present standard of purity and\nliberty be maintained.\u201d\n\nA strain of flute-like music interrupted us. \u201cA sick call,\u201d explained\nthe guides. \u201cYou see the flags floating from occasional nursery knolls;\nthey locate ailing babes, and demand attention from any passing mother;\nwhile every staff-whistle is distinctive and quickly recognized by the\nmother whose offspring has special need of her presence. Knowing this,\neach is free from that harrowing anxiety experienced by Earth mothers,\nwho must watch constantly over their teething or otherwise ailing little\nones; or suffer untold agonies with apprehension, during an absence;\nthus poisoning the nourishment, in preparation, which Nature intends to\nserve as a cure for every infantile ill.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut it seems positively cruel to force mothers with sick children into\nthe field.\u201d We were really indignant about it.\n\nAgain those merry children laughed in great glee at our innocence:\n\u201cReinstern mothers are forced to\u2014nothing; they are their own sovereigns.\nThey have fitted themselves for their positions, and their\nresponsibilities are the greatest possible\u2014the reproduction of the race.\nTheir salaries are generous, and continue without interruption or\ndiminution throughout the parental term.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow long is that?\u201d\n\n\u201cNever more than fifteen years, though contingent upon the age of\nmarriage. The term limit, in years, is from forty to forty five.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow do parents invest their earnings?\u201d\n\n\u201cAccording to individual tastes and preferences. As with you, many have\nbeautiful homes, with extensive grounds, indulge in Art Galleries,\nLibraries, Theaters, or Conservatories, while others devote the later\nyears to special sciences or enter the School of Physicians.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen even this hygienic regime entails occasional illness?\u201d\n\n\u201cAccidents will always attend immaturity and inexperience; Infinite\nWisdom alone can insure perfect harmony; but our physicians are also a\nsalaried class, who teach as well as heal. Ill health which\nincapacitates members of his families for daily usefulness, is recorded\nagainst the physician; and a succession of such reports count to his\ndiscredit, even to the extent of depriving him of his diploma. In such\ncases, he, through the advice of the sages, seeks a less responsible\navocation, or one for which he is better qualified.\n\n\u201cWe do not, like you, bribe our doctors to neglect their patients or\nretard their cure.\n\n\u201cOur medical course is in three departments: Chemistry, Magnetism and\nMateria Medica. The first concerns the elements and combinations forming\nthe physical body of man. Magnetism teaches the application of these\nprinciples and elements to the upbuilding and repairing of the body,\nwhile in Materia Medica we are taught to locate and extract these\nrequired principles from the animal, vegetable and mineral world. We\nhope to be physicians, after a time.\u201d\n\nThis wish was uttered with a deep joyousness that told of a riper\nunderstanding than is expressed when the Earth-born youngster, during a\nbrief cessation from banister-sliding or somersault-turning, exclaims,\n\u201cI am going to be a doctor\u2014a lawyer\u2014or a policeman,\u201d and yet there was\nan enthusiasm that was almost a parallel.\n\n\u201cYou have not mentioned lawyers.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have none; yours are an outgrowth of dishonesty and cruelty; a\nfinger pointing to dissolution.\n\n\u201cYour law is a demoralizing human rule, through the enforcement of which\nyou would compel mankind to do what should be in accordance with his\nardent desire. If he disobeys your petty law, you inflict\npenalties;\u2014even daring to shorten his physical existence. From the\neffects of this treatment, he, like you, must suffer for ages to come,\nso seriously is his growth retarded.\n\n\u201cWe, on the other hand, feel deeply humiliated by any act of wrong among\nour people, which demands public notice; it reflects upon the moral\natmosphere of the community.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo your people never, in anger, disappointment or unusual depression or\nexcitement, injure others, or trespass upon their rights?\u201d\n\n\u201cOccasionally;\u201d they admitted, sadly.\n\n\u201cAnd the punishment?\u201d We were most curious to learn the treatment of\nevil among the good.\n\n\u201cIf it be fully proved, before the officials, one has committed a really\nflagrant offense, he is uniformed in red, as a symbol of materialistic\ndomination, and sent to the School of Philosophy, where the Sages meet\nfor discussions. Your Socrates was a philosopher of their class. There,\nhe has the best possible atmosphere in which to recognize and correct\nhis faults.\n\n\u201cDuring this term of reformation, his parents, if still in the flesh,\nusually wear mourning, from choice, in recognition of their own\nshortcomings during his conception or earlier years.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow long is this term of punishment?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot punishment; development; we consider it the Second Childhood. The\ntime varies from one to six months of your counting.\n\n\u201cWe have only one bad case on our records,\u201d they added proudly.\n\n\u201cAre you allowed to state the facts?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is of public record and History: A father knocked down his own\nson\u2014because he kicked him.\u201d\n\n\u201cKicked his father?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes; poor little fellow!\u201d\n\n\u201cSurely the boy should be punished;\u2014not the father?\u201d\n\nAfter a startled glance of indignation, which quickly faded into pity,\nthey continued:\n\n\u201cChildren inherit all physical tendencies from their physical parents.\nIn the case under discussion, the lad received vicious inclinations from\nthe father, who had, however, so controlled his temper as to\nsuccessfully pass all ante-marriage tests.\n\n\u201cHad he taught that son by example the self-discipline he so well\nunderstood, the boy would never have disgraced us.\n\n\u201cThrough whose neglect was the boy injured? Clearly the father\u2019s. The\nmother was also considered at fault, to this extent:\n\n\u201cThrough a mistaken charity, a desire to shield her beloved from\ncriticism, she had endured, without complaint several outbreaks previous\nto the one reported; for this she resigned, temporarily, her maternal\nrights and colors. Our future generations must be protected at any\ncost.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen she finally delivered him over for the sake of the future?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe offense was committed in the field and was reported by the Agent,\nas it should have been by whomever witnessed the relapse.\n\n\u201cAll feared the most disastrous effect upon our community. You may not\nfully understand that such manifestations act as carrion, attracting\nfrom lower atmospheres those ravenous thought-creatures, bred by\nevil-doers, and called by some of your inspired writers, \u2018Elementals\u2019,\nwho swarm around unhealthy humanity, endangering the welfare of every\nsensitive organism within their reach, in their senseless frenzy to\nprolong a shadowy and useless existence.\n\n\u201cBereft of filth, they gradually lose their electrical vitality and\npower to harm; and finally disintegrate into crude matter.\n\n\u201cThis father was uniformed in red and delegated to the School of\nPhilosophy for one entire season. There he was also subjected to the\ninfluence of most refining music, and his reformation was complete; for\nwe have not a more patient and conscientious father or husband in the\ncity.\n\n\u201cHe was restored to his paternal colors and is a much better man than\never, for his victory over the parasites that were sapping his life.\u201d\n\nDuring the conversation, we had been slowly traversing the length of the\nvalley, noting as we passed, elastic health and unalloyed happiness upon\nevery side. Most strongly were we impressed by the vigorous girlish\nbeauty of the matrons, who were at regular intervals, as fondly absorbed\nin their nursing darlings, as the most devoted of Earth mothers.\n\nDuring these brief intervals, when the Nursery knolls were thronged with\nmothers, attention was called to occasional workers, who though resting,\nlike the others, from their field labors, were busily writing in small\nvolumes suspended from their girdles.\n\n\u201cGovernment Agents who keep the Time accounts that the mothers may not\nbe harassed or disturbed; they only of all the field workers are not\nparents.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy, if salaried and free, are they timed?\u201d\n\n\u201cTime is an important factor in determining the value of the crops;\nseasons differ in the amount required, as with you.\n\n\u201cThe sod and soil must at times be too cold and damp for these tender\nhuman germs.\n\n\u201cWe need every variation of temperature, and are, by this close\ncompanionship with nature, able to absorb the physical elements which\ngive us strength and endurance; by this very course, we are enabled to\npreserve a youthful vigor to which Earth-folk are strangers. During the\ntime of physical growth we court every opportunity for absorbing Force;\nthis, assimilated, we may in later years live according to our tastes\nand preferences, as we have then the power to attract and adjust\nwhatever may be required for recreation.\u201d\n\nWe suddenly became conscious of an uncomfortable rumbling and jarring,\nsimilar to the sensations we had experienced during the Earth-life, from\nwhich we had till now seemed so widely separated; as this confusion\nceased, we heard in those sweet tones we were rapidly learning to love:\n\n\u201cWe will dine now, if you wish;\u201d and simultaneously felt ourselves borne\nrapidly through space and finally into a large, airy apartment\u2014an ideal\ndining room.\n\nWe had hardly taken cognizance of its many beauties, before we were\nagain attacked with the jolting, rocking, lurching consciousness of\nEarth-life, and became dimly aware of harsh voices unpleasantly near\nus.\u2014\u2014\n\nOur guides announced us simply as \u201cVoyagers from Earth,\u201d in response to\nwhich the matronly queen who presided, greeted us cordially, directing\nus toward capacious easy chairs which nearly surrounded the room.\n\nAfter several ineffectual efforts to rise above the haunting spectres of\nour former life, we were dully conscious of being addressed by the host,\nas follows:\n\n\u201cYour Earth People are in their ignorance robbing you of this\nopportunity; being greatly disturbed over your absence from the body,\nwhich they have discovered notwithstanding our efforts to hold their\nattention elsewhere.\n\n\u201cThe one poor harassed soul, less gross than the rest, upon whose\ninstincts we have relied for your safe return, has yielded to their\nimportunities sooner than we anticipated, and has now resorted to\nPrayer. An earnest Prayer to the Father from a sincere and faithful\nheart is a Power we can not safely combat.\n\n\u201cYou must now return; but we will try to raise you again from the\ndepths, when you are in the quiet of your own home, alone, and the\nprospects are favorable.\u201d\n\nDeeply disappointed and violently struggling against the power that\nwould thus wrench us from the happy haven into which we had drifted, we\nheard\u2014O, so faintly, as from a great distance\u2014\u2014\n\n\u201cRest easily, Earth-child; you are doing yourself only harm. All will be\nmade clear in the Good Father\u2019s own time.\u201d\n\nThen the horrible whistles, the jolting of the train, and an indignant\nvoice saying:\n\n\u201cDidn\u2019t you see her shiver? Such a fuss over nothing! She is coming to,\nall right. Better keep your bottle for those that need it. Some doctors\nthink that brandy will start or stop the universe.\u201d This last in an\nundertone.\n\nWe opened our eyes very reluctantly, to find a red-faced, wrinkled and\nbe-whiskered man bending over us, with a breath strongly indicative of\nthe contents of a bottle held threateningly near.\n\nPushing it angrily away, we exclaimed in a far-from-Reinstern-like\ntone:\u2014\n\n\u201cWhy are you meddling with our affairs? We did not want to come back\nyet; we have not seen the father\u2019s field;\u2014not even had dinner\u2014and things\nlooked so attractive!\u201d\n\nHe shook his head with a professional air, and murmured: \u201cNot right\nyet;\u2014better,\u2014decidedly better.\u201d\n\nThen we sat up as straight as a clothes-pin, and glaring at the\npassengers about our seat rudely demanded:\n\n\u201cJust trot right off about your own affairs, now, all of you; you have\ntreated us shamefully, and,\u201d we sniveled and wept a little at this\npoint, \u201cwe don\u2019t even know your names.\u201d\n\nThe conductor now interposed: \u201cMadam, you fainted, and but for the\nkindness of this physician,\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cKindness of fiddlesticks!\u201d we interrupted, \u201cwe were out of town, off on\na voyage,\u2014visiting friends,\u2014and should have returned in good time, if\u2014\u201d\n\nThe doctor hastily returned to his post, while the others with\nhorror-stricken faces, as promptly retreated.\n\nResourceless before their suspicions, we relinquished all intentions to\nelucidate, and added, simply:\n\n\u201cWho thought we were all right if left alone?\u201d\n\nWhereupon a mild-mannered miss of probably sixteen well-invested\nsummers, turned toward us to say, modestly:\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve seen people that way before; Aunt Sophronia often is; I don\u2019t\nunderstand it; but you didn\u2019t look a bit dead.\u201d\n\n\u201cDead!\u201d we ejaculated; \u201cWe\u2019d like to die that way often, every day or\ntwo. You must have some common sense.\u201d\n\nThen we straightened up our traveling cap, and stared savagely at the\noutside panorama of brown fields, while we tried to imagine a life of\nlove, truth, justice, charity;\u2014among idiots.\n\nLater, we convinced our fellow-passengers of our sanity, by expressing\nour grateful appreciation of their solicitude; how could they know?\u2014and\nassurance of our complete recovery.\n\n\n\n\n                           _LOVE\u2019S DESTINY._\n\n\n         Where the gray crag kisses the virgin sky,\n         And the fledgling eagles half-famished cry,\n         Where the sun\u2019s kind glance warms the cloud to tears,\n         And the snow-bank clings to the earth for years;\n         Where the lichens starve and the sad winds mourn,\n         There, a host of cupids at eve were born.\n\n         They came tumbling out from their rocky nest,\n         Nor regretful wailed for the rugged breast;\n         But astride the crest of a stream as blue\n         As the star-lit sky; with their arrows true,\n         Downy, sun-tipped wings and the briefest legs,\n         Just like dear young ducklings released from eggs.\n\n         They are fluttering, splashing in frolic gay,\n         Whirling here and there in the misty spray;\n         Now, anon, down dizziest steeps they glide,\n         All demurely, roguishly, side by side;\n         In their path, huge bowlders await, but see!\n         With a somersault they are passed in glee.\n\n         Through a rock-bound glen next they gurgling go.\n         \u2019Neath caressing, whispering branches, low,\n         For a splashing romp, undisturbed by fear,\n         In a broad lake, billowy, deep and clear;\n         But they\u2019re nearing, blindly, the crumbling edge\n         Of a ragged, cruel and treacherous ledge;\n\n         While those countless myriads are hurrying in,\u2014\n         Crowding, racing, chasing from brim to brim:\n         Hark! With hands clasped over an aching breast,\n         A poor Soul moans, \u201cCome to me, Love, and rest;\n         Long and patiently have I watched for you:\n         Fill my heart and home with yourselves so true.\u201d\n\n         Do you hear them chant, in their rapturous glee,\n         \u201cNever tires Love, Soul; we are not for thee.\n         We must on and on, like the water blue;\n         Bravely wait, work, hope, till your Love finds you.\n         Danger waits below; you are tempting Death;\u201d\n         She is calling, still; for, with bated breath,\n\n         Has she watched, benumbed, while a sportive elf\n         Laughing wildly, recklessly, cast himself\n         From their midst, to the surging depths below;\n         And she moans, \u201cDear Love, I shall miss you so.\u201d\n         \u201cLove but laughs at dangers; fear not;\u201d they say,\n         \u201cFancy not he dies: We all live for aye.\u201d\n         Right over they tumbled;\u2014she peers down to see\u2014\n         Not death;\u2014but mad revels of exquisite glee:\n         Joyous myriads whirled in the dashing spray!\n\n                \u00b7       \u00b7       \u00b7       \u00b7       \u00b7\n\n         Think ye not love dies in an hour\u2014a day;\n         \u2019Tis his dim, dull shadow, o\u2019er which men weep,\n         When a sun-cloud gives to the shadow, sleep;\n\n         But Immortal love, ever close beside,\n         Through life\u2019s midnight hours will undimmed abide.\n         Watch and pray, lone Soul, for the love that lasts;\n         Sighing not o\u2019er shadows another casts;\n         Lest a passion-cloud should engulf your way,\n         Till you, helpless and hopeless, drift astray.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n                          TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\n\n 1. Table of Contents added by transcriber.\n 2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.\n 3. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.\n 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.","title":"Reinstern","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":5502}