The Plastic Age - Percy Marks (classic literature books txt) 📗

To Hugh A

Cabinet Photograph Of A Standard Flapper. "Pet? My God!" He Cast His

Eyes Ceilingward Ecstatically.

Chapter 1 Pg 5

 

Hugh'S Mind Was A Battle-Field Of Disapproval And Envy. Carl Dazzled And

Confused Him. He Had Often Listened To The Recitals Of Their Exploits By

The Merrytown Don Juans,  But This Good-Looking,  Sophisticated Lad

Evidently Had A Technique And Breadth Of Experience Quite Unknown To

Merrytown. He Wanted Badly To Hear More,  But Time Was Flying And He

Hadn'T Even Begun To Unpack.

 

"Will You Help Me Bring Up My Trunk?" He Asked Half Shyly.

 

"Oh,  Hell,  Yes. I'D Forgotten All About That. Come On."

 

They Spent The Rest Of The Afternoon Unpacking,  Arranging And

Rearranging The Furniture And Pictures. They Foundher Adventure,  They Reach Mithila,  Where The

Hermit Presents Rama As A Candidate For The Bending Of The Bow.

 

  The King Beheld The Boy,  With Beauty Blest

    And Famous Lineage; He Sadly Thought

  How Hard It Was To Bend The Bow,  Distressed

    Because His Child Must Be So Dearly Bought.

 

  He Said: "O Holy One,  A Mighty Deed

    That Full-Grown Elephants With Greatest Pain

  Could Hardly Be Successful In,  We Need

    Not Ask Of Elephant-Cubs. It Would Be Vain.

 

  For Many Splendid Kings Of Valorous Name,

    Bearing The Scars Of Many A Hard-Fought Day,

  Have Tried And Failed; Then,  Covered With Their Shame,

    Have Shrugged Their Shoulders,  Cursed,  And Strode Away."

 

Yet When The Bow Is Given To The Youthful Rama,  He Not Only Bends,  But

Breaks It. He Is Immediately Rewarded With The Hand Of The Princess

Sita,  While Lakshmana Marries Her Sister. On Their Journey Home With

Their Young Brides,  Dreadful Portents Appear,  Followed By Their Cause,

A Strange Being Called Rama-With-The-Axe,  Who Is Carefully To Be

Distinguished From Prince Rama. This Rama-With-The-Axe Is A Brahman

Who Has Sworn To Exterminate The Entire Warrior Caste,  And Who

Naturally Attacks The Valorous Prince. He Makes Light Of Rama'S

Achievement In breaking Shiva'S Bow,  And Challenges Him To Bend The

Mightier Bow Which He Carries. This The Prince Succeeds In doing,  And

Rama-With-The-Axe Disappears,  Shamed And Defeated. The Marriage Party

Then Continues Its Journey To Ayodhya.

 

 

 

 

_Twelfth Canto. The Killing Of Ravana_.--King Dasharatha Prepares To

Anoint Rama Crown Prince,  When Queen Kaikeyi Interposes. On An Earlier

Occasion She Had Rendered The King A Service And Received His Promise

That He Would Grant Her Two Boons,  Whatever She Desired. She Now

Demands Her Two Boons: The Banishment Of Rama For Fourteen Years,  And

The Anointing Of Her Own Son Bharata As Crown Prince. Rama Thereupon

Sets Out For The Dandaka Forest In Southern India,  Accompanied By His

Faithful Wife Sita And His Devoted Brother Lakshmana. The Stricken

Father Dies Of Grief,  Thus Fulfilling The Hermit'S Curse. Now Prince

Bharata Proves Himself More Generous Than His Mother; He Refuses The

Chapter 1 Pg 6

Kingdom,  And Is With Great Difficulty Persuaded By Rama Himself To Act

As Regent During The Fourteen Years. Even So,  He Refuses To Enter The

Capital City,  Dwelling In a Village Outside The Walls,  And Preserving

Rama'S Slippers As A Symbol Of The Rightful King. Meanwhile Rama'S

Little Party Penetrates The Wild Forests Of The South,  Fighting As

Need Arises With The Giants There. Unfortunately,  A Giantess Falls In

Love With Rama,  And

 

  In Sita'S Very Presence Told

  Her Birth--Love Made Her Overbold:

  For Mighty Passion,  As A Rule,

  Will Change A Woman To A Fool.

 

Scorned By Rama,  Laughed At By Sita,  She Becomes Furious And

Threatening.

 

  Laugh On! Your Laughter'S Fruit Shall Be

  Commended To You. Gaze On Me!

  I Am A Tigress,  You Shall Know,

  Insulted By A Feeble Doe.

 

Lakshmana Thereupon Cuts Off Her Nose And Ears,  Rendering Her

Redundantly Hideous. She Departs,  To Return Presently At The Head Of

An Army Of Giants,  Whom Rama Defeats Single-Handed,  While His Brother

Guards Sita. The Giantess Then Betakes Herself To Her Brother,  The

Terrible Ten-Headed Ravana,  King Of Ceylon. He Succeeds In capturing

Sita By A Trick,  And Carries Her Off To His Fortress In ceylon. It Is

Plainly Necessary For Rama To Seek Allies Before Attempting To Cross

The Straits And Attack The Stronghold. He Therefore Renders An

Important Service To The Monkey King Sugriva,  Who Gratefully Leads An

Army Of Monkeys To His Assistance. The Most Valiant Of These,  Hanumat,

Succeeds In entering Ravana'S Capital,  Where He Finds Sita,  Gives Her

A Token From Rama,  And Receives A Token For Rama. The Army Thereupon

Sets Out And Comes To The Seashore,  Where It Is Reinforced By The

Giant Vibhishana,  Who Has Deserted His Wicked Brother Ravana. The

Monkeys Hurl Great Boulders Into The Strait,  Thus Forming A Bridge

Over Which They Cross Into Ceylon And Besiege ractical

Purposes,  He Attaches So Important And So Plain A Meaning.

 

Such Is Free-Will When Looked At From A Distance. But Let Us Look At It

More Closely,  And See What Happens Then. The Result Is Strange. Like A

Path Seen At Dusk Across A Moorland,  Plain And Visible From A Distance,

But Fading Gradually From Us The More Near We Draw To It,  So Does The

Belief In Free-Will Fade Before The Near Inspection Of Reason. It At

First Grows Hazy; At Last It Becomes Indistinguishable. At First We

Begin To Be Uncertain Of What We Mean By It; At Last We Find Ourselves

Certain That So Far As We Trust To Reason,  We Cannot Possibly Have Any

Meaning At All. Examined In This Way,  Every Act Of Our Lives--All Our

Choices And Refusals,  Seem Nothing But The Necessary Outcome Of Things

That Have Gone Before. It Is True That Between Some Actions The Choice

Hangs At Times So Evenly,  That Our _Will_ May Seem The One Thing That At

Last Turns The Balance. But Let Us Analyse The Matter A Little More

Carefully,  And We Shall See That There Are A Thousand Microscopic

Motives,  Too Small For Us To Be Entirely Conscious Of,  Which,  According

To How They Settle On Us,  Will Really Decide The Question. Nor Shall We

See Only That This Is So. Let Us Go A Little Further,  And Reason Will

Tell Us That It Must Be So. Were This Not The Case,  There Would Have

Chapter 1 Pg 7

Been An Escape Left For Us. Though Admitting That What Controlled Our

Actions Could Be Nothing But The Strongest Motive,  It Might Yet Be

Contended That The Will Could Intensify Any Motive It Chose,  And That

Thus Motives Really Were Only Tools In Its Hands. But This Does But

Postpone The Difficulty,  Not Solve It. What Is This Free-Will When It

Comes To Use Its Tools? It Is A Something,  We Shall Find,  That Our Minds

Cannot Give Harbour To. It Is A Thing Contrary To Every Analogy Of

Nature. It Is A Thing Which Is Forever Causing,  But Which Is In Itself

Uncaused.

 

To Escape From This Difficulty Is Altogether Hopeless. Age After Age Has

Tried To Do So,  But Tried In Vain. There Have Been Always Metaphysical

Experts Ready To Engage To Make Free-Will A Something Intellectually

Conceivable. But They All Either Leave The Question Where They Found

It,  Or Else They Only Seem To Explain It,  By Denying Covertly The Fact

That Really Wants Explaining.

 

Such Is Free-Will When Examined By The Natural Reason--A Thing That

Melts Away Inevitably First To Haze,  And Then To Utter Nothingness. And

For A Time We Feel Convinced That It Really Is Nothing. Let Us,  However,

Again Retire From It To The Common Distance,  And The Phantom We Thought

Exorcised Is Again Back In an Instant. There Is The Sphinx Once More,

Distinct And Clear As Ever,  Holding In Its Hand The Scales Of Good And

Evil,  And Demanding A Curse Or A Blessing For Every Human Action. We Are

Once More Certain--More Certain Of This Than Anything--That We Are,  As

We Always Thought We Were,  Free Agents,  Free To Choose,  And Free To

Refuse; And That In Virtue Of This Freedom,  And In Virtue Of This Alone,

We Are Responsible For What We Do And Are.

 

Let Us Consider This Point Well. Let Us Consider First How Free-Will Is

A Moral Necessity; Next How It Is An Intellectual Impossibility; And

Lastly How,  Though It Be Impossible,  We Yet,  In defiance Of Intellect,

Continue,  As Moral Beings,  To Believe In It. Let Us But Once Realise

That We Do This,  That All Mankind Universally Do This And Have Done--And

The Difficulties Offered Us By Theism Will No Longer Stagger Us. We

Shall Be Prepared For Them,  Prepared Not To Drive Them Away,  But To

Endure Their Presence. If In Spite Of My Reason I Can Believe That My

Will Is Free,  In Spite Of My Reason I Can Believe That God Is Good. The

Latter Belief Is Not Nearly So Hard As The Former. The Greatest

Stumbling-Block In The Moral World Lies In The Threshold By Which To

Enter It.

 

Such Then Are The Moral Difficulties,  Properly So Called,  That Beset

Theism; But There Are Certain Others Of A Vaguer Nature,  That We Must

Glance At Likewise. It Is Somewhat Hard Tter Take A B.S.," He Said Softly. "Very Well." Professor

Kane,  Who Hadn'T Yet Looked At Hugh,  Picked Up A Schedule Card. "Any

Middle Name?" He Asked Abruptly.

 

"Yes,  Sir--Meredith."

 

Kane Scribbled H.M. Carver At The Top Of The Card And Then Proceeded To

Fill It In Rapidly. He Hastily Explained The Symbols That He Was Using,

But He Did Not Say Anything About The Courses. When He Had Completed The

Schedule,  He Copied It On Another Card,  Handed One To Hugh,  And Stuck

The Other Into A Filing-Box.

 

Chapter 1 Pg 8

"Anything Else?" He Asked,  Turning His Blond,  Blank Face Toward Hugh For

The First Time.

 

Hugh Stood Up. There Were