“‘These,’ breathed my guide, ’are spirits in their essences; sad, even in undevelopment.  With these, all space is peopled;—­all the air is vital with intelligence, which seeks embodiment.  This it is, that unbeknown to Mardians, causes them to strangely start in solitudes of night, and in the fixed flood of their enchanted noons.  From hence, are formed your mortal souls; and all those sad and shadowy dreams, and boundless thoughts man hath, are vague remembrances of the time when the soul’s sad germ, wide wandered through these realms.  And hence it is, that when ye Mardians feel most sad, then ye feel most immortal.

“Like a spark new-struck from flint, soon Mardi showed afar.  It glowed within a sphere, which seemed, in space, a bubble, rising from vast depths to the sea’s surface.  Piercing it, my Mardian strength returned; but the angel’s veins once more grew dim.

“Nearing the isles, thus breathed my guide:—­’Loved one, love on!  But know, that heaven hath no roof.  To know all is to be all.  Beatitude there is none.  And your only Mardian happiness is but exemption from great woes—­no more.  Great Love is sad; and heaven is Love.  Sadness makes the silence throughout the realms of space; sadness is universal and eternal; but sadness is tranquillity; tranquillity the uttermost that souls may hope for.’

“Then, with its wings it fanned adieu; and disappeared where the sun flames highest.”

We heard the dream and, silent, sought repose, to dream away our wonder.

CHAPTER LXXXV They Depart From Serenia

At sunrise, we stood upon the beach.

Babbalanja thus:—­“My voyage is ended.  Not because what we sought is found; but that I now possess all which may be had of what I sought in Mardi.  Here, tarry to grow wiser still:—­then I am Alma’s and the world’s.  Taji! for Yillah thou wilt hunt in vain; she is a phantom that but mocks thee; and while for her thou madly huntest, the sin thou didst cries out, and its avengers still will follow.  But here they may not come:  nor those, who, tempting, track thy path.  Wise counsel take.  Within our hearts is all we seek:  though in that search many need a prompter.  Him I have found in blessed Alma.  Then rove no more.  Gain now, in flush of youth, that last wise thought, too often purchased, by a life of woe.  Be wise:  be wise.

“Media! thy station calls thee home.  Yet from this isle, thou earnest that, wherewith to bless thy own.  These flowers, that round us spring, may be transplanted:  and Odo made to bloom with amaranths and myrtles, like this Serenia.  Before thy people act the things, thou here hast heard.  Let no man weep, that thou may’st laugh; no man toil too hard, that thou may’st idle be.  Abdicate thy throne:  but still retain the scepter.  None need a king; but many need a ruler.

“Mohi!  Yoomy! do we part? then bury in forgetfulness much that hitherto I’ve spoken.  But let not one syllable of this old man’s words be lost.