The Quest
Markus was silent.
"Why do you not answer now?"
"Because I am not being questioned."
"Not being questioned! What, then, am I now doing?"
"Raving," said Markus.
Again Bommeldoos flushed, and lost his composure.
"Be careful, my friend. You must not be impertinent. Remember that we may decide your fate here."
Markus lifted his head, with a questioning air, so earnest that the professor held his peace.
"With whom rests the decision of our fate?" asked Markus. Then, pointing with his finger: "Do you consider yourself the one to decide?"
Both of the learned ones were silent, being impressed for the moment. Markus continued:
"Why do not you now reply? And would you have decided otherwise had I not been what you term impertinent?"
Here Dr. Cijfer interposed:
"No, no, Mijnheer, you mistake. But it is not nice of you to offend a learned man like the professor here. We are performing a scientific task. You impress us as being a person of refinement and advancement, aside from the question of your being ill or not. For all that, it behooves you to have respect for science, and for those who are devoting all their efforts and even their lives to its development."
"Do you know," asked Bommeldoos, in a voice now near to breaking, "do you know what the man whom you have scoffed at as opinionated, stupid, and a ranter – what that man has written and accomplished?"
Then Markus's stern features relaxed, assuming a softer, more companionable expression, and he took a chair and sat down close beside his two examiners.
"Look," said he, showing both of his open palms, "your naked sensibilities protrude on all sides – from under the cloak of your wisdom. How otherwise could I have touched you?"
"Your wisdom – so much greater – does not, however, make you invulnerable to our opinion and stupidity," said Professor Bommeldoos, still tartly, indeed, but yet with far more courtesy.
"The most high wisdom of God does not make Him invulnerable to our sorrows and sins," returned Markus. "Wisdom is a covering which makes its wearer not insensible to suffering, but able to support it."
"Forever that speaking in metaphor!" exclaimed Bommeldoos. "Figures of speech do not instruct. A weak and childish mind always makes use of metaphors. Science demands pure speech and logical argument."
"Forgive me if I offend still further," said Markus, gently now and kindly, as he laid his hand on the black cloth enveloping the arm of the professor, "but it is exactly your own weakness that you cannot question. Science is the light of the Father. Why should not I respect it? And I know also what you have written and accomplished. But the most you did was to question imperfectly, and then to assume the complete reply. That one should find it so difficult and unsatisfactory to reply amazes you, because you do not realize the imperfection of your questions. But the finest and clearest responses – those that are most satisfying and intelligible to all – await those who have learned better how to question. If I esteem myself wiser than you, it is solely because I realize that we have nothing but metaphors, and that we must patiently and unpretendingly decipher as a communication from the Father the meaning of all these metaphors. While you imagine that, from your words and documents, one may comprehend His living Being."
"With your permission," interrupted the professor. "You seem not to have read what I have written concerning the logical necessity of an incomprehensible basis for reality. Did you consider me such a dunce as not to have perceived that?"
"To speak of things is not necessarily to understand them," replied Markus. "And so to speak of them is proof of not understanding."
"I know very well what the human mind can compass, and what not; and in my last work, 'On the Essence of Matter,' I think I have defined the utmost to which the human mind can attain," said Professor Bommeldoos.
"So did the Egyptians place the farthest reaches of the earth at the first falls of the Nile, to which the river was said to have flowed from heaven. And thousands and thousands of years passed away before they ventured to step beyond that boundary. And now the world is beginning to fraternize, and men to co-operate – now the barriers of the world are being removed to infinite distance. Who then shall term that which the human intellect can grasp, the extreme limit?"
"There remains a barrier, constituted by our material structure, just as there is a barrier because of our confinement to this terrestrial ball which we cannot leave," declared Professor Bommeldoos, loudly and oracularly, encircling his chin with his hand, as was his habit when in learned discussions. He seemed to have quite forgotten that he had before him a patient for examination.
"You read the book of life from the end toward the beginning," said Markus, "and see the world upside down. Why do you babble of a dead dust which would establish a limit to the life of the soul? But all matter is made of living thought, and nothing is lifeless, or formed without life. Mountains and seas are thoughts of the earth; and planets and suns, and all life, are the thoughts of God. The stone at your feet seems to you dead; but neither does the ant that creeps over your hand perceive the life of it. You have built up your own body – "
"Out of existent material," cried the professor.
"There is nothing existent as the effect of other life, that you cannot search into. And the operations of your life meet on all sides the counter-influences of other lives. But all is spirit and life. Shall, then, a builder say that the house he has built defines the boundary outside of which he cannot go?"
"But a race like the human race preserves its permanent characteristics," interpolated Dr. Cijfer.
"Why do we term permanent the creatures of one day? There is nothing permanent, and there are no persistent races. Life is a flowing water, a flaming fire – never the same from one second to another. But in your ignorance you make fixed definitions, write dead words and dead books, and imagine that you understand the things that live."
There was an instant of silence. Then Markus added:
"You have yourselves created death, and placed the barriers. Your words are diseased and rotten; and with those words you would analyze life. Would you perform an operation with unclean knives? But with your dead words you cut into life, and thus spread death."
Another silence, and then:
"Purify your thoughts and your words. Put away that which is impure – that is, the superfluous. Make a science of words, as you have made a science of the stars – as exact and as sacred.
"Through co-operation and fellowship among scholars you have created a system of relations called mathematics. Make also such a system of significations, for you miss your mark with words, and fail to find that life which is the most beautiful and exquisite, as children miss the moths they would catch with their caps and with bags. And through co-operation and fellowship you shall create a demand, the response to which shall ring out like a revelation and an evangel – full, joyous, marvelous."
Markus ceased speaking, and gazed as though into the far distance. For a while they all waited, respectfully, to see if he was going to say more, for they had been listening eagerly.
Then Dr. Cijfer said, in a gentle tone: "Your views are surely worthy of consideration. Neither did I make a mistake when I thought you a person of advancement and refinement. But let me remind you that we are here for the purpose of making a medical examination. Without doubt you will now indeed reply to the simple questions that I shall put to you."
Markus, throwing a glance and a smile to Johannes, who had been listening with breathless attention, said to the learned men:
"I spoke not for you; that were fruitless. I spoke for him."
After that he uttered not a word. Dr. Cijfer questioned with gentle stress, Professor Bommeldoos with vehement energy; but Markus was silent, and seemed not to notice that there were others in the room.
"I adhere to my diagnosis, Colleague," said Bommeldoos.
Dr. Cijfer rang, and ordered the nurse to come.
"Take the patient to his ward again. He will remain, for the present, under observation."
Markus went, after making a short but kindly inclination of the head to Johannes.
"Will you not tell us now, Johannes, what you know of this person?" asked Dr. Cijfer.
"Mijnheer," replied Johannes, "I know but little more of him than you do yourself. I met him two years ago, and he is my dearest friend; but I have seen him rarely, and have never inquired about his life nor his origin."
"Remarkable!" exclaimed Dr. Cijfer.
"Once again, Colleague, I stand by my diagnosis," said Bommeldoos. "Initial paranoia, with megalomaniacal symptoms, on the basis of hereditary inferiority, with vicarious genius."
XVIII
In all this time the King and Queen were not yet married. That was the way of things in such lofty circles. They were still to attend many more banquets, to listen to many more speeches, and to make a great many more bows. I should judge, indeed, that they were just about half-way through.
And while most of the people acted as if they thought the ceremonies proper and pleasant, and took their part in the celebrations, there were others, who met to say that they were not altogether pleased. Such gatherings are called "indignation meetings." Of course they do not protest against the marriage of those two people – they have nothing to say against that – but only against the prolonged ceremonials. They consider the banquets, the fine array, the wine-drinking and the feasting occasioned thereby, both costly and unnecessary. They also consider the maintenance of a king and queen costly and unnecessary.
Such an opinion is, indeed, very uncommon, if not unheard of; for you remember that even the creatures of the pond into which Johannes dived with Windekind had found the need of a king who could eat a great deal. So, when Jan van Tijn and his wife got ready to attend that indignation meeting, Johannes wished to accompany them; for he was curious to hear what would be said there.
Like Marjon, Johannes was now in a boarding-house. He was with some friends of Jan – a worthy couple without children – who kept a total-abstinence coffee-house. The man was named Roodhuis, and he was tall and stout. He had a large, forceful face, light-colored eyes, and a small, fair moustache. He said little, and had a great dislike of alcohol and of soldiers. His wife, too, seldom spoke, but was very kindly and industrious. Through their little business they made a livelihood, and no more. They were interested in everything that concerned the labor movement, and received in their small assembly-place all of the leaders and speakers prominent in the struggle. In that little hall, too, choir rehearsals were held, and little plays were given – as often as possible, adverse to war and to alcohol, and in favor of the so ardently desired Freedom and Fraternity.
Here Johannes found board and lodging, for which he did not need to pay, because he lent a helping hand in the work of the place.
He had just been having a hard experience: he had bidden his little friends good-by. Although they had grown larger and stronger, and were therefore no longer so tender and delicate as when he first saw them, yet the parting was full of sadness.
"Why do you go away, Johnny, and where are you going to live?" they asked.
"I am poor, and must work to earn my bread," replied Johannes.
"Oh, but Mama will give you money – will you not, Mama? And you can always eat and live here. Then you will not need to work," said Olga.
"You can have half of my share of oatmeal every time," said Frieda; "I get more than I want, though."
"No, children," said the mother, "it is not nice nor well to live upon what one gets from another, without working one's self. That is parasitism, and sinful before God. Johannes knows this, and being poor he is good to wish to work."
"Well, then, dear Johnny," said Olga, "I shall pray that God will make you rich quickly – as rich as we are; and then you will not need to work, and will come back again."
"I don't think it nice of God to make Johnny poor and us rich," said Frieda, pouting.
"Fie, Frieda, you must not say that," said Mevrouw. And then Johannes went away swiftly and bravely before the tears came.
Later, he heard that Van Lieverlee, whom he had not bidden good-by, had told everybody that Johannes had left in a pet to live with some proletarians because of his having been repeatedly rebuked by himself on account of his excessive vanity.
In the little public room of the total-abstainers' coffee-house, "The Future," a large circle of congenial spirits sat waiting. Jan van Tijn was there, his wife, an infant, and the oldest girl. Marjon was there also, a neighbor having volunteered to care for the other Van Tijn children. Besides those named, there were about twenty other men and women in the little hall with its dirty, dingy hangings. On small tables in front of the visitors were cups of tea and chocolate. Many mothers had brought their infants. There was a dearth of talking and a deal of smoking; for it would have been too much, at the outset, to put a ban upon both alcohol and tobacco.
"Well, what did they find with their examination?" asked Jan van Tijn, as Johannes entered the smoky hall.
"He is not free yet," replied Johannes, "but he talked with them so finely and sanely they are bound to let him go."
"Good!" said Jan.
"Come here, Jo. Here's a cup of comfort for you, then," said Vrouw Roodhuis.
"But all the same," cried a man with a hoarse voice, a sallow face, and black beard, dressed in a brown Manchester suit, with a loose scarf around his sweater, and a pair of sandals on his bare feet, "you needn't think he will be set free. As soon as you begin to oppose that pest of hypocrites, you'll have the whole crew at your throat. That sort knows it all, every time – whether it be the pastor, or the dominie, or the general, or the professor – always the same pack; and if they once get you into their clutches you never get out again, whether in jail or in the madhouse or in the hospital; you never get out till they've given you a good start toward kingdom-come."
"Are they goin' to poison 'im?" asked a woman, in alarm. "What with? Ratsbane?"
"They'll poison him, for sure," answered the man in brown, "or they'll nag him to death, or starve him. They have methods and tricks enough – the villains!"
It was scarcely half-past eight o'clock yet, and the indignation meeting was to begin at nine. So it was proposed to shorten the time with recitations and singing. And this was done. First some one sang alone – the song of a poor conscript who was forced to go to war, and had conscientious scruples about it. Then they all sang a song of freedom.
After that, a very young typographer recited, with great fervor, a poem describing the way the Jews made merry at the crucifixion of Jesus on Golgotha; how they even took their little children with them, and hoped the anguish would be prolonged, that they might have the more pleasure.
The description of that cruelty, vehemently expressed, made a deep impression, and they sat listening with open mouths notwithstanding that they had heard it many times before. When it was over they all stamped uproariously on the floor.
At that moment the door opened, and Markus stood at the threshold of the little hall.
"Hurrah!" cried Johannes; and the others, who had just before been shouting; "Hurrah for Golgotha!" now shouted "Hurrah for Markus!" They were all greatly excited and glad to see him free.
"Good-evening," said Markus, without giving token, himself, of being particularly glad. He wore again his customary workman's suit. From all sides hands were held out to him.
"I hadn't thought it," said Jan, "that they'd let you out of their clutches again. How did you manage it?"
"Let 'im have something to eat, first," said Vrouw Roodhuis. "Aren't you hungry, man? You couldn't have been in clover there."
"I shouldn't have had any appetite with all those mad folks about," remarked another woman. "And then, too, when they wanted to poison you!"
"Yes, I am hungry," said Markus. And then bread and milk were given him.
"Why did you come here again?" asked Marjon.
Markus replied simply, "I had something more to say."
After he had eaten, he asked, "Is there a meeting to-night? Who called it?"
"The politicians," replied the young typographer.
"Felbeck wants to be President of the Republic," said the man in brown.
"Is there to be a debate?" asked Markus.
"Listen! Hakkema is coming, too. Oh, there'll be a racket!" said Jan.
"You might say a little something, too, Markus," said Roodhuis. "You must give that confounded military set a good thrashing, just such as you give the pious."
"I never have given the pious a 'thrashing,'" said Markus.
"That's a damn shame!" said the man with the sandals. "Religion is the root of all evil."
"No, it's militarism," said Roodhuis.
"No, alcohol," said the young typographer.
"Neither of them! It's eating meat that does it," said a pale, slim little woman, not yet twenty. "First you slaughter animals, then you eat them, then you drink, and then you murder and steal. One thing leads to another."
"So long, I say, as the people let themselves be taxed and fleeced by kings and priests, so long as they bow to a boss – whether they call him patron or God makes no difference – so long shall we remain in misery."
"Now, Markus," said Jan, "put in an oar yourself. You know better how to pull than the rest of 'em, I should say."
"Well, I will tell you a story," said Markus, "if you will promise to remember it, and not ask an explanation."
"Why not an explanation?" asked the man in brown. "What does that mean? Is it a riddle?"
"I would just as soon be silent," said Markus.
"Come, now, Markus, pitch in! We won't ask you any more than you want to tell us."
"Listen, then," said Markus; and he began his story in a tone which constrained them all to silence.
"Once there were some field-laborers who were very poor – so poor that when they were asked how, with all their children, they could make both ends meet, they replied, 'The churchyard helps us out.'
"They had a rich landlord, and there was an abundance of land. But they were obliged to work so long every day, and so many days in succession, that they had no time to learn anything – not even the best way to plow and sow and reap. They did only the work they were bidden to do. So they remained dull because they were poor, and poor because they were dull. It seemed as if it would stay thus until eternity.
"But the landlord grew richer and richer, through the toil of his many laborers, and according to the increase of his wealth did he become more covetous and dissolute and indolent. And he demanded that his laborers work still harder because his desires were greater.
"But that they could not do. And the help of the churchyard was so very great that they were filled with fear.
"Then, through their great need, there came to one of them a little spark of light, and he said to the others: 'Brothers, this is all wrong. At this rate we shall very soon perish ourselves. We have hungered long enough. Let us slay him and seize the treasure we have collected for him.'
"That seemed to the others a good plan, and they wondered they had not thought of it before. Thereupon they slew the rich landlord, and divided his wealth. But, because he had lived a prodigal life, and since they themselves knew not the best way to plow, to sow, and to reap, they were in a short time still poorer than before.
"Then the son of the landlord, who had escaped, returned to them, and said:
"'You see it was stupid of you to kill your master, for now you are bound to starve, because you cannot manage for yourselves.'
"Then they replied: 'Be to us then a better master, and we will let you live.'
"And the son of the landlord, who had the knowledge of his father, directed their work. And he became rich, and they remained poor – so poor that the churchyard had to help, although not to the former extent. Yet was there land in abundance.
"But the spark of knowledge which that extreme need had awakened continued to shine, and that one laborer said to his fellow-workers: 'Brothers, still is it not well, for, although we do not yet die ourselves from want, our children die. And although it is not right to slay one's lord, why should it be right to make him so rich that he becomes idle and lewd and wanton? We labor hard, and our toil enriches him. But he saves nothing. When we struck down his father we did not find enough to feed us for a week. We must not suffer this, for our wives and children can live upon what he wastes.'
"Then said another: 'We have no need of the landlord, but of his knowledge. For when we had slain our lord we found ourselves no richer. Nor had we the skill to create new wealth. Therefore are we even more miserable than before.'
"At that, a third one said: 'Lacking our labor, must he die; but without his knowledge we must starve. Let us go to him, and say that we will not give him our labor unless he give us his knowledge. If he refuse, then we shall die with him; if he assent, then we shall all live.'
"This the laborers did. And the young landlord, fearful lest he die, taught all who asked him with what they must fertilize the land, and what to sow, and how to irrigate, and all the secrets of tilling the soil, so that they might live. And he also gave to every one that asked it some land to cultivate, and a handful of grain. 'For my forefathers also began with no more than this,' said he.
"Then some of them took the handful of grain and ate it up, because they were so poor and so greedy. And they squandered away their piece of land, and asked not for the knowledge wherewith to till it.
"But others, accepting the knowledge, cultivated their piece of land with the mouthful of grain. But because they had for so long suffered a scarcity they were overjoyed at the harvest. And those – the first – who had again become poor, they pressed into their service. So each became a landlord, and they each gave to the first landlord a share of what was theirs. Thus the first landlord remained very rich, while the others were even richer, and the very poorest remained as miserable as before. All that resulted was the renewal of slothfulness, prodigality, and killing. And the churchyard had to keep on helping.
"But the spark of knowledge, once lighted, continued to burn, and one laborer said to the others: 'Brothers, still it is not well, for we remain unhappy beings. The rich are unhappy through their over-abundance, and the poor through their poverty. What, then, shall be done that it be otherwise?'
"Then said another: 'Brothers, we have taken away from our landlord both his power and his knowledge. We have no further need of him. But what master is it then of whom we have need? For we are as miserable as before.'
"Then said another: 'Brothers, we still need a master, but one who will teach us wisdom and charity; for is it not ignorance through which some have eaten up their seed-grain; and a lack of charity that has caused others to waste all their harvest, and compelled the poorest to serve them?'
"Then they chose a master who taught them wisdom and charity, and that master said: 'You shall not give full possession of the land, for it is lent to all; and of your harvest shall you not – you and your household – consume more than is good for your health. And all the surplus shall you sow again; for there is land enough. And no man shall work for another who can himself work and yet does not.'
"And they did according to this command. And under that master they founded a realm of plenty that was called 'Freedom.'"
Markus was silent, and so for a while were his listeners. At last, the man in the brown suit said:
"Well, now, but they might have done that just as well without master or mandate."
"Say, Markus," said Jan van Tijn, "if you happen to know of such a gentleman, just quietly set me down on the waiting list. My word for it, if he's boss, I'll not go on a strike."
