“Long, he can not be; for Love is a fervent fire.” “But what, if widely he dissent from your belief in Alma;—then, surely, ye must cast him forth?” “No, no; we will remember, that if he dissent from us, we then equally dissent from him; and men’s faculties are Oro-given. Nor will we say that he is wrong, and we are right; for this we know not, absolutely. But we care not for men’s words; we look for creeds in actions; which are the truthful symbols of the things within. He who hourly prays to Alma, but lives not up to world-wide love and charity—that man is more an unbeliever than he who verbally rejects the Master, but does his bidding. Our lives are our Amens.” “But some say that what your Alma teaches is wholly new—a revelation of things before unimagined, even by the poets. To do his bidding, then, some new faculty must be vouchsafed, whereby to apprehend aright.” “So have I always thought,” said Mohi. “If Alma teaches love, I want no gift to learn,” said Yoomy. “All that is vital in the Master’s faith, lived here in Mardi, and in humble dells was practiced, long previous to the Master’s coming. But never before was virtue so lifted up among us, that all might see; never before did rays from heaven descend to glorify it, But are Truth, Justice, and Love, the revelations of Alma alone? Were they never heard of till he came? Oh! Alma but opens unto us our own hearts. Were his precepts strange we would recoil—not one feeling would respond; whereas, once hearkened to, our souls embrace them as with the instinctive tendrils of a vine.” “But,” said Babbalanja, “since Alma, they say, was solely intent upon the things of the Mardi to come—which to all, must seem uncertain—of what benefit his precepts for the daily lives led here?” “Would! would that Alma might once more descend! Brother! were the turf our everlasting pillow, still would the Master’s faith answer a blessed end;—making us more truly happy _here_. _That_ is the first and chief result; for holy here, we must be holy elsewhere. ’Tis Mardi, to which loved Alma gives his laws; not Paradise.” “Full soon will I be testing all these things,” murmured Mohi. “Old man,” said Media, “thy years and Mohi’s lead ye both to dwell upon the unknown future. But speak to me of other themes. Tell me of this island and its people. From all I have heard, and now behold, I gather that here there dwells no king; that ye are left to yourselves; and that this mystic Love, ye speak of, is your ruler. Is it so? Then, are ye full as visionary, as Mardi rumors. And though for a time, ye may have prospered,—long, ye can not be, without some sharp lesson to convince ye, that your faith in Mardian virtue is entirely vain.”