And the spacious abode of Lehna Singh had loveliness enough to veil the
sordid character of the life that was lived within its walls. Atma had
not been ignorant of his kinsman's wealth and importance; but it is one
thing to hear of wealth and to ponder in critical mood the fleeting
nature of this world's weal, and quite another to gaze with the eye on
the marvellous results of human thrift. He wandered through lofty and
spacious apartments, whose marble arches seemed ever to reveal a fairer
scene than had yet met his view. A mimic rivulet ran from room to room
in an alabaster channel, and the spray of perfumed fountains cooled the
air. Flowers bloomed, leafy vines trailed over priceless screens, and
countless mirrors repeated the joyous beauty of the place. He beheld
with admiration the gilded and fretted walls and stately domes, the new
delights of a palace charmed every sense, and, appealing to poetic
fancy, awoke a rapture whose fervency was due less to the entrancement
of his present life than to the contemplative habit of one who had first
known harmony whilst gazing on the stars, and awaked to the
consciousness of beauty among the eternal hills. The ripple of the
streamlet in these palace halls revived a half-forgotten music of the
heart that had once responded to the gurgle of a brook.
"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter."
The sympathies that had once been in unison with the rustling thicket
stirred into more definite life when an artificial breeze swept by and
stirred the heavy foliage of rare plants. He had caught in other days
notes of Nature's vast melody. Stray notes were here made to beat to a
smaller measure. Thus Art interprets Nature. It was not The Song, but a
light and pleasant carol, which pleased the sense of many, and to the
ear of the few brought a haunting pain of which they did not know the
meaning. Such a one only sighed and said: "In a former birth I was great and good, and my life was sublime. The
ghost of its memory has touched me."
O melody divine, of fantasy
And frenzied mem'ry wrought, advance
From out the shades; O spectral utterance,
Untwine thy chains, thy fair autocracy
Unveil, have being, declare
Thy state and tuneful sovereignty.
Ye gifted ears,
To whom this burdened, sad creation
Sings, now in tones of exultation
Abruptly broken,
Anon in direst lamentation
Obscurely spoken,
Possess your souls in hope, the time
Is coming when th' harmonic chime
Of circling spheres in chant sublime
Will lead the music of the seas,
And call the echoes of the breeze
To one triumphal lay
Whose harmony, whose heavenly harmony
Sounding for aye
In loud and solemn benedicite,
Voices the glory of the Central Day,
And through th' illimitable realms of air
Is borne afar
In wafted echoes that the strain prolong
Through boundless space, and countless worlds among,
Meas'ring the pulsing of each lonely star,
And sounding ceaselessly from sphere to sphere
That note of immortality
That whispers in the sorrow of the sea,
And in the sunrise, and the noonday's rest,
And triumphs in the wild wind's meek surcease,
And in the sad soul's yearning unexpressed,
And unexpressive for perpetual peace.