Floating Fancies among the Weird and the OccultHolmes, Clara H.
Science
Floating Fancies among the Weird and the Occult
Holmes, Clara H.
American fiction -- 19th century; Paranormal fiction; Short stories, American
His ideas became so tangled that it worried him, but he finally summed
up in this manner; each intelligence received that which was desired
purely, or believed implicitly; music, worship, beauty; each but an
expression of adoration. A narrow limit, truly!
Many vapory forms floated around him, gently touching him with shadowy
wings. One sweet spirit ever pressed closely to his side as they neared
him in their slowly circling around that central figure—like motes in
the sun. A thought wave flowed from her intelligence to him, which he
interpreted, “Come join with me. Let us worship together!”
He hesitated; the movements looked very dreamy and poetic, but what had
that to do with spirituality?
Each spirit beamed with benignant light; eternal sweetness wafted around
them like the odor of innumerable flowers heavy with dew. Thought waves
rippled from spirit to spirit, transparent as a pellucid sea, gentle as
when the sweet south wind fans it into low, languid swells; pure as are
the lilies, and sweet unto faintness, as is their odor. His desire
hungered piteously: “Oh, for the scarlet of the passion flower and the
gold of the homely dandelion!” The sweet spirit gently touched him with
filmy wings; a thought wave reached his consciousness: “Cease rebelling;
you disturb the heavenly harmony. Oh come! Come with me!”
It seemed that a sigh floated past him—it could not be—but oh, all
things were so unreal! Even the holiness and perfection seemed dreamy
and untrue—too cold and calm.
A shiver ran through his spirit, he felt his earthiness cling about his
spirituality as had sodden garments adhered to his physical form; he was
weighted down by a sense of unworthiness and imperfection. The teachings
of his humanity so held him in thrall that he could not climb the
heights of exaltation on a single thought as all these souls appeared to
do.
The alluring spirit came again; pressing still more closely, pleading
yet more fervently; a hint of earthly love in her prayer—vaguely
suggestive—as were all things else.
He felt the Lofty Intelligence looking him through and through, and his
mind turned with a mighty longing to his former habitation; to him it
seemed that the limitations of the flesh were not so narrow as this
circumscribed routine. In this place was no progression; on earth, one
might at least make an effort.
Reproachfully, compellingly, the Immaculate gazed upon him.
Sweetly, gently, the fair spirit lured him, until his will was
compelled, and side by side with her who had so sweetly entreated, he
joined the slowly revolving circle.
Having once consented, turning back was an impossibility; therein they
differed from those in the flesh. We easily slip from our effort after
higher things, and when we fall, fall far; they, having once turned
their spiritual gaze upward, could not turn away. As he floated on, side
by side with the Beauteous One, her sweet magnetism enveloped him like
the odor of wild wood flowers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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