第92章

Once I, too, ate flesh like a brute beast.When ye have done we will go out, and I will show you this great temple and the god whom men once worshipped therein."Of course we got up at once, and started.And here again my pen fails me.To give a string of measurements and details of the various courts of the temple would only be wearisome, supposing that I had them, and yet I know not how I am to describe what we saw, magnificent as it was even in its ruin, almost beyond the power of realization.Court upon dim court, row upon row of mighty pillarssome of them (especially at the gateways) sculptured from pedestal to capitalspace upon space of empty chambers that spoke more eloquently to the imagination than any crowded streets.And over all, the dead silence of the dead, the sense of utter loneliness, and the brooding spirit of the Past! How beautiful it was, and yet how drear! We did not dare to speak aloud.Ayesha herself was awed in the presence of an antiquity compared to which even her length of days was but a little thing;we only whispered, and our whispers seemed to run from column to column, till they were lost in the quiet air.Bright fell the moonlight on pillar and court and shattered wall, hiding all their rents and imperfections in its silver garment, and clothing their hoar majesty with the peculiar glory of the night.It was a wonderful sight to see the full moon looking down on the ruined fane of Ko^r.It was a wonderful thing to think for how many thousands of years the dead orb above and the dead city below had gazed thus upon each other, and in the utter solitude of space poured forth each to each the tale of their lost life and long-departed glory.The white light fell, and minute by minute the quiet shadows crept across the grassgrown courts like the spirits of old priests haunting the habitations of their worshipthe white light fell, and the long shadows grew till the beauty and grandeur of the scene and the untamed majesty of its present death seemed to sink into our very souls, and speak more loudly than the shouts of armies concerning the pomp and splendor that the grave had swallowed, and even memory had forgotten.

"Come," said Ayesha, after we had gazed and gazed, Iknow not for how long, "and I will show you the stony flower of Loveliness and Wonder's very crown, if yet it stands to mock time with its beauty and fill the heart of man with longing for that which is behind the veil," and, without waiting for an answer, she led us through two more pillared courts into the inner shrine of the old fane.

And there, in the centre of the inmost court, that might have been some fifty yards square, or a little more, we stood face to face with what is perhaps the grandest allegorical work of art that the genius of her children has ever given to the world.For in the exact centre of the court, placed upon a thick, square slab of rock, was a huge round ball of dark stone, some forty feet in diameter, and standing on the ball was a colossal winged figure of a beauty so entrancing and divine that when I first gazed upon it, illuminated and shadowed as it was by the soft light of the moon, my breath stood still, and for an instant my heart ceased its beating.

The statue was hewn from marble so pure and white that even now, after all those ages, it shone as the moonbeams danced upon it, and its height was, I should say, a trifle under twenty feet.It was the winged figure of a woman of such marvellous loveliness and delicacy of.form that the size seemed rather to add to than to detract from its so human and yet more spiritual beauty.She was bending forward and poising herself upon her half-spread wings as though to preserve her balance as she leaned.Her arms were outstretched like those of some woman about to embrace one she dearly loved, while her whole attitude gave an impression of the tenderest beseeching.Her perfect and most gracious form was naked, saveand here came the extraordinary thingthe face, which was thinly veiled, so that we could only trace the marking of her features.A gauzy veil was thrown round and about the head, and of its two ends one fell down across her left breast, which was outlined beneath it, and one, now broken, streamed away upon the air behind her.

"Who is she?" I asked, as soon as I could take my eyes off the statue.

"Canst thou not guess, O Holly?" answered Ayesha.

"Where then is thy imagination? It is Truth standing on the World, and calling to its children to veil her face.See what is writ upon the pedestal.Without doubt it is taken from the book of the Scriptures of these men of Ko^r," and she led the way to the foot of the statue, where an inscription of the usual Chinese-looking hieroglyphics was so deeply graven as to be still quite legible, at least to Ayesha.According to her translation it ran thus:

"'Is there no man that will draw my veil and look upon my face, lo! it is very fair? Unto him who draws my veil shall I be, and peace will I give him, and sweet children of knowledge and good works.'

"And a voice cried, 'Though all those who seek alter thee desire thee, behold! Virgin art thou, and Virgin shalt thou go till Time be done.No man is there born of woman who may draw thy veil and live, nor shall be.

By Death only can thy veil be drawn, oh Truth!'

"And Truth stretched out her arms and wept, because those who sought her might not find her, nor look upon her face to face.""Thou seest," said Ayesha, when she had finished translating, "Truth was the Goddess of the people of old Ko^r, and to her they built their shrines, and her they sought; knowing that they should never find, still sought they.""And so," I added, sadly, "do men seek to this very hour, but they find not; and, as this scripture saith, nor shall they; for in Death only is Truth found."Then, with one more look at this veiled and spiritualized lovelinesswhich was so perfect and so pure that one might almost fancy that the light of a living spirit shone through the marble prison to lead man on to high and ethereal thoughtsthis poet's dream of beauty frozen into stone, which I never shall forget while I live, though I find myself so helpless when I attempt to describe it, we turned and went back through the vast moonlit courts to the spot whence we had started.I never saw the statue again, which I the more regret, because on the great ball of stone representing the World whereon the figure stood, lines were drawn, that probably, had there been light enough, we should have discovered to be a map of the Universe as it was known to the people of Ko^r.It is, at any rate, suggestive of some scientific knowledge that these long-dead worshippets of Truth had recognized the fact that the globe is round.