One day, a little while after this, Satan appeared again. We were always watching out for him—Seppi and I—and longingⒶalteration in the MS for him; for life was never very stagnant when he was by. He came upon us at that place in the woods where we had first met him. [begin page 134] Being boys, we wanted to be entertained, and we asked him to do a show for us.

“Very well,” he said, “would you like to see a history of the progress of the human race?—its development of that product which it calls Civilization?”

We said we should.

So, with a thought, he turned the place into the Garden of Eden, and we saw Abel praying by his altar; then Cain came walking toward him with his club, and did not seem to see us, and would have stepped on my foot if I had not drawn it in. He spoke to his brother in a language which we did not understand; then he grew violent and threatening, and we knew what was going to happen, and turned away our heads for the moment; but we heard the crash of the blows and heard the shrieks and the groans; then there was silence, and we saw AbelⒶalteration in the MS lying in his blood and gasping out his life, and Cain standing over him and looking down at him, vengeful and unrepentant.

Then the vision vanished, and was followed by a long series of unknownⒶalteration in the MS wars, murders and massacres. Next,Ⓐalteration in the MS we had the Flood, and the ArkⒶalteration in the MS tossing around in the stormy waters, with lofty mountains in the distance showing veiled and dim through the rain. Satan said—

“The progress of your race was not satisfactory. It is to have another chance, now.”

The scene changed, and we saw Noah lying drunk on Ararat.

Next, we had Sodom and Gomorrah, and “the attempt to discover two or three respectable persons there,” as Satan described it. Next, Lot and his daughters in the cave.

Next came the Hebraic wars, and we saw the victors massacre the survivors and their cattle, and save the young girls alive and distribute them around.

Next, we had Jael; and saw her slip into the tent and drive the nail into the templesⒶalteration in the MS of her sleeping guest; and we were so close that when the blood gushed out it trickled in a little red stream to our feet and we could have stained our hands in it if we had wanted to.

[begin page 135]

Next we had Egyptian wars, Greek wars, Roman wars, hideous drenchings of the earth with blood; and we saw the treacheries of the Romans toward the CarthaginiansⒶemendation, and the sickening spectacle of the massacre of those brave people. Also we saw Caesar invade Britain—“not that those barbariansⒶalteration in the MS had done him any harm, but because he wanted their land, and desired to confer the blessings of civilization upon their widows and orphans,” as Satan explained.

Next Christianity was born. Then, ages of Europe passed in review before us, and we saw Christianity and Civilization march hand in hand through those ages, “leaving famine and death and desolation in their wake, and other signs of the progress of the human race,” as Satan observed.

Then the Holy Inquisition was born; “another step in your progress,” Satan said. He showed us thousands of torn and mutilated heretics shrieking under the torture, and other thousands and thousands of heretics and witches burning at the stake, “always in the pleasant shade flung by the peaceful banner of the cross,” as Satan remarked. And in the midst of these fearful spectacles, as an incidental matter, we had a marvelous night-show, by the light of flitting and flying torches—the butchery of Christian by Christian in France on Bartholomew's Day.

And always we had wars, and more wars, and still other wars—all over Europe, all over the world. “Sometimes in the private interest of royal families,” Satan said, “sometimes to get more land, sometimes to crush a weak nation; but never a war startedⒶalteration in the MS by the aggressor for any clean purpose—there is no such war in the history of your race.”

“Now,” said Satan, “you have seen your progress down to the present, and you must confess that it is wonderful—in its way. We must now exhibit the future. In a year or two we shall have Blenheim and Ramillies. Look!”

He showed us those awful slaughters.

“You perceive,” he said, “that you have made continual progress. Cain did his murder with a club; the Hebrews did their murders with javelins and swords; the Greeks and Romans added protective armor and the fine arts of military organisation and generalship; the [begin page 136] Christian has added guns and gunpowder; two centuries from now he will have so greatly improved the deadly effectiveness of his weapons of slaughter that all men will confess that without the Christian Civilization war must have remained a poor and trifling thing to the end of time. In that day the lands and peoples of the whole pagan world will be at the mercy of the sceptred bandits of Europe, and they will take them. Furnishing in return, the blessings of civilization.

“Nine years from now a Prussian prince will be born who will steal Silesia; plunge several nations into bloody and desolating wars; lead a life of treachery and general and particular villainy, and be admiringly called ‘the Great.’ Sixty-six years from now a Corsican will be born who will deluge Europe with blood and spread the Christian civilization far and wide. He also will be called ‘the Great.’ A trifle before his day, England will begin to swallow India. In his early manhoodⒶalteration in the MS there will be a Revolution in France whose bloody exhibitions will be a more terrible thing to see than even France will have known since the Bartholomew Day. All through the next century there will be wars—wars everywhere in the earth. Wars for gain—each one a crime on the part of the provoker of it.Ⓐalteration in the MS An English queen will reign more than sixty years, and fight more than sixty wars during her reign—spreading civilization generously; also with profit. England, desiring a weak State's diamond mines, will take them—by robbery, but courteously. Desiring another weak State's gold mines, her statesmenⒶalteration in the MS will try to seizeⒶemendation them by piracy; failing, they will manufacture a war and take them in that way; and with them the small State's independence.

The Christian missionary will exasperate the Chinese; they will kill him in a riot. They will have to pay for him, in territory, cash, and churches, sixty-twoⒶalteration in the MS million times his value. This will exasperate the Chinese still more, and they will injudiciously rise in revolt against the insults and oppressions of the intruder. This will be Europe's chance to interfere and swallow China, and her band of royal Christian pirates will not waste it. Now then,Ⓐalteration in the MS I will show youⒶalteration in the MS this long array of crimsonⒶalteration in the MS spectacles, so that you can note the [begin page 137] progress of civilization from the timeⒶalteration in the MS that Cain began it downⒶalteration in the MS to a period a couple of centuries hence.”

Then he began to laugh in the most unfeeling way, and make fun of the human race, although he knew that what he had been saying shamed us and wounded us. No one but an angel could have acted so; but suffering is nothing to them, they do not know what it is, except by hearsay.

More than once Seppi and I had tried in a humble and diffident way to convert him; and as he had remained silent we had taken his silence as a sort of encouragement; necessarily, then, this talk of his was a disappointment to us, for it showed that we had made no deep impression upon him. The thought made us sad, and we knew, then, how the missionary must feel when he has been cherishing a glad hope and has seen it blighted. We kept our grief to ourselves, knowing that this was not the time to continue our work.

Satan laughed his unkind laugh to a finish, then he said—

“It is a remarkable progress. In five or sixⒶalteration in the MS thousand years five or six high civilizations have risen, flourished, commanded the wonder of the world, then faded out and disappeared; and not one of them except the latest, ever invented any sweeping and adequate way to kill people. They all did their best, to kill being the chiefestⒶalteration in the MS ambition of the human race and the earliest incident in its history, but only the Christian Civilization has scored a triumph to be proud of. Two centuries from now it will be recognised that all the competent killers are Christian; then the pagan world will go to school to the Christian: not to acquire his religion, but his guns. The Turk and the Chinaman will buy those, to kill missionaries and converts with.”Ⓐalteration in the MS

By this time his theatre was at work again: and before our eyes nation after nation drifted by, during two centuries, a mighty procession, an endless procession, raging, struggling, wallowing through seas of blood, smothered in battle-smoke through which the flags glinted and the red jets from the cannon darted; and always we heard the thunder of the guns and the cries of the dying.

[begin page 138]

“And what does it amount to?” said Satan, with his evil chuckle. “Nothing at all. You gain nothing; you always come out where you went in. For a million years the race has gone on monotonously propagating itself and monotonously re-performing this dull nonsense—to what end? No wisdom can guess! Who gets a profit out of it? Nobody but a parcel of usurping little monarchs and nobilitiesⒶalteration in the MS who despise you; would feel defiled if you touched them; would shut the door in your face if you proposed to call; whom you slave for, fight for, die for, and are not ashamed of it, but proudⒶalteration in the MS; whose existence is a perpetual insult to you and you are afraid to resent it; who are mendicantsⒶalteration in the MS supported by your alms, yet assume toward you the airs of benefactor toward beggar; who address you in the language of master to slave and are answered in the language of slave to master; who are worshiped by you with your mouth, while in your hearts—if you have one—you despise yourselves for it. The first man was a hypocrite and a coward, qualities which have not yet failed in his line: it is the foundation upon which all civilizations have been built. Drink to their perpetuation!Ⓐalteration in the MS drink to their augmentation! drink to—”

Then he saw by our faces how much we were hurt, and he cut his sentence short and stopped chuckling, and his manner changed. He said gently—

“No, we will drink each other's health, and let civilization go. TheⒶalteration in the MS wine which has flown to our hands out of space by my desire, is earthly, and good enough for that other toast, but throw away the glasses—Ⓐalteration in the MSwe will drink this one in wine which has not visited this world before.”

We obeyed, and reached up and received the new cups as they descended. They were shapely and beautiful goblets, but they were not made of any material that we were acquainted with. They seemed to be in motion, they seemed to be alive; and certainly the colors in them were in motion. They were very brilliant and sparkling, and of every tint, and they were never still, but flowed to and fro in rich tides which met and broke and flashed out dainty explosions of enchanting color. I think it was most like opals washing about in waves and flashing out their splendid fires. But there is [begin page 139] nothing to compare the wine with, just as there was never anything to compare Satan's music with. We drank it, and felt a strange and witching ecstasy go stealing through us, and Seppi's eyes filled and he said worshipingly—

“We shall be there some day, and then—”

He glanced furtively at Satan, and I think he hoped Satan would say “Yes, you will be there some day,” but Satan seemed to be thinking about something else, and said nothing. This made me feel ghastly, for I knew he had heard; nothing, spoken or unspoken, ever escaped him. Poor Seppi looked distressed, and did not finish his remark. The goblets rose, and clove their way into the sky, a triplet of radiant sundogs, and disappeared. Why didn't they stay? It seemed a bad sign, and depressed me. Should I ever see mine again? would Seppi ever see his?

Until this day I do not know. I never asked, and Seppi never asked. It is best not to inquire too far, in some matters, if you want to be comfortable. I had doubts about Seppi's ever seeing his goblet again, and I know he had doubts in my case, for some reason or other. These doubts restrained us and we did not pry into each other's fate further than concerned the present life.

[ ] Ⓐtextual note

You must neverⒶalteration in the MS picture Satan as a solitary, but always with a lot of vagrant animals tagging around after him. Animals could not let him alone, they were so fascinated with him; and this was mutual, for he felt the same way toward them. He often said he would not give a penny for humanⒶalteration in the MS company when he could get better. You see they were fond of each other because in a manner they were kin, through their mutual property in the absenceⒶalteration in the MS of the Moral Sense. And kin in another particular, too—to him, as to them, there were no unpleasant smells. He said that unpleasant smells were an invention of Civilization—like modesty, and indecency. He said that to the pure all smells were sweet, to the decent all things were decent. He said that the natural man, the savage, had no prejudices about smells, and no shame for his God-made nakedness. Through intimacy with him we came to enjoy the society of many animals [begin page 140] which had previously been repulsive to us, but we drew the line at the polecat. He did not; and so when he wanted to play with that creature we kept our distance. Indeed we were obliged to do this, it was not an affectation; for, while a polecat is undoubtedly a comely and graceful animal to look at, none but an angel can get any real joy out of its company. As for me, I would rather live in solitude. Seppi felt the same way.

Of course out there in the woods we had a perfect managerie on hand. The wild creatures trooped in from everywhere, and climbed all over Satan, and sat on his shoulder and his head, and rummaged his pockets, and made themselves at home—squirrels, rabbits, snakes, birds, butterflies, every creature you could name; and the rest would sit around in a crowd and look at him and admire him and worship him, and chatter and squawk and talk and laugh, and he would answer back in their own languages.

And they often beguiled him to do unlawful things. They would tell him of friends of theirs caught in traps by poachers in the prince's preserves,Ⓐalteration in the MS and would lead the way and show him, and he would release the creatures and destroy the traps. There was a reward out for the transgressor, andⒶalteration in the MS the keepers were on the watch, but he did not care. This time it was as usual. A rabbit came with a pitiful tale and he started, we following and protestingⒶalteration in the MS as far as the fence, and he changing himself into a rough and ragged poacher as he went. He got a broken-legged rabbit out of a trap, healed it with a touchⒶalteration in the MS and let it go—and there were the keepers in ambush, and swarmed out and surrounded him, catching him in the act. Four of them. The chief keeper, Conrad Bart, spoke his mind freely, calling Satan hard names, and said—

“We have you at last, lousy vagabond, and now you shall pay with usury for the trouble and worry you have given us, and the nights of watching, and the scouting and the fatigue. And also for the deridings and revilings his Highness has discharged upon us for being less cunning than you and letting you outwit us so long. Oh, yes, you shall pay!”

Satan said—

“It is a mistake; you think me a poacher, but I am not. I give you my honor I am innocent.”

[begin page 141]

All the keepers laughed at that, and said “He gives us his honor —he!” and Bart said he ought not toⒶalteration in the MS tell lies, he had no art in it.

“I am not lying,” said Satan. “I am a stranger; you do not know me; you have not seen me before; then how can you know whether it is I whom you have been seeking, or another?”

Bart said, with an airy toss of his head—

“It is plain that whether I know you or not, you do not know me; or you would know that I do not waste my time and my master's in bartering arguments with your kind of vermin. Now then, drop it. And answer: what is your name, and where are you from?”

“I do not choose to tell my name, nor where I am from. And you are mistaken in thinking I do not know you. I know the four of you; and I know things about each of you which you would not like the magistrates to find outⒶalteration in the MS.”

It made them very angry, and three of them were for lashing him to a tree and flogging the insolence out of him; but Bart said—

“Wait—let him speak, we shall lose nothing. For eachⒶalteration in the MS separate lie that he tells he shall have a separate flogging. Begin. What do you know about Caspar, there?”

“That at midnight, ten nights ago, in a lonely place he hid something which the owner would much like to recover.”

“It is a lie!” shouted Caspar, and the others slapped their thighs in malicious joy to see Caspar snapped up in thatⒶalteration in the MS startling and ungracious fashion.

“Then let us go and fetch it,” said Satan.

“Agreed!” said all but Caspar, and were for starting; but Caspar begged, and took back the “lie,” and said he had spoken hastily.

“Then confess,” said Satan.

“I do,” said Caspar, but with an ill grace, and with a nod of his head as much as to say “you will pay for this,”Ⓐalteration in the MS whereat the others made merry again.

“It was a good guess, tramp,” said Bart, “and saves you one thrashing. But you are not out of the woods yet. Try again. What do you know about Johan?”

“That he also possesses something which does not belong to him. It is a piece of gold, and has a secret mark upon it. I know the owner and the mark. Also, I know where the gold-piece is.”

[begin page 142]

Johan burst into a wordyⒶalteration in the MS fury and called Satan the mostⒶalteration in the MS shamefulⒶemendation names, and threw off his jacket and challenged him to fight, but Satan was not moved. Then Johan's temper got so much the better of him that he made a mistake; for he swore he hadn't a gold-piece and dared Satan to prove the contrary.

“HeⒶalteration in the MS has sewed it up in the lining of his jacket, there,” said Satan.

JohanⒶalteration in the MS jumped for the jacket, but the others were too quick for him; and in the lining they found the coin.

Things were beginning to look serious. The men lost their levity, and looked nonplussed and ill at ease. There was a moment's silence, then Bart said, with the manner of one who has been relaxing himself with a childish game, but is tired of it and would return to matters of dignity and importance—

“Well, enough of this nonsense. Bind the loafer and fetch him along.”

“Ah,” said Conrad, with a sneer, “it is that way that the cat jumps, is it?”

“What do you mean?” said Bart.

“I mean that you've got us exposed, and now you would sneak out yourself.”

“Take back the words!”

“I won't take them back. You know you don't dare to let this devil's imp tell what he knows about you. Do you hear?—you don't dare.”

“It's a lie!” Then, his temper being up and hot, he made a mistake. “If he knows anything about me that I am hiding, let him out with it. Come—speak up, poacher and spy; and mind, if you utter so much as half a lie about me, I will not leave a whole bone in your body.”

“I shall say only the truth,” said Satan. “First, then, from to-day you will not be a keeper, but will be kept. You will be a public show and a curiosity, and will earn your family's living in that way.”

This made the others laugh, but not Bart.

“Damn your prophecies!” he cried.Ⓐalteration in the MS “Confine yourself to what you know about me.”

[begin page 143]

“Very well. Eighteen years ago a man was murdered near this village, for money. I know where the body lies; and with the body are the proofs that you did the murder, and not Jacob Hein whom you sent to the gallows for it.”

Before you could think, Bart's gun was at Satan's breast and his finger on the trigger. But he never pulled it; Satan turned him to stone—clothes, gun and all.

And while those others were staring at this strange statue he turned himself into Father Adolf. They took only one glance at him, then fled away, crossing themselves, and soon they had spread the news, and set the persecuted village wild once more. The way Satan was acting, he was sure to greatly injure Father Adolf's character, which was bad enough already, but I did not say anything. It would have been of no use; Satan would have said, “He is only a human being—it is of no consequence.”

Seppi was sorry for Bart's family, but Satan said he had done them a favor; that Bart was a fortune to them, now; they could exhibit him and get rich.Ⓐalteration in the MS

We met the crowds coming up, but he had already told us to keep away from him, and we were obeying. He said he should not be favorably received, and he was right. They fell apart and gave him a wide passage andⒶalteration in the MS were cruelly afraid of him, and showed his ecclesiastical authorityⒶalteration in the MS a servile deference by uncoveringⒶalteration in the MS to him and making humble obeisance; but the minute his back was to them they stoned him. They fairly rained missiles upon him, which struck and bounded off in sprays, but he didn't mind it, but strode contentedly along, acting like a person who was refreshing himself with a shower-bath, and much obliged.

Then we turned back. It was pitiful to see the family, their grief was so bitter. They flung their arms around the statue, and kissed it and cried over it, and could not be comforted. All the crowd admired the statue, and were full of wonder at its minute fidelities to fact, even the least little frayed and torn places in the clothes being exactly preserved, while as a portrait the work was perfection, and the murderous expression in countenance and attitude splendidly lifelike and animatedⒶalteration in the MS and true; so true and so real that when [begin page 144] womenⒶalteration in the MS found themselves suddenly in front of the malignant face and the marble gun they gave a little screech and jumped aside. The birds in the game-bag were perfectly rendered, and so was a fly that was on the left cheek; it was like the frozen flies you find on the panes, winter mornings, white-shrouded in glinting frost. Siebold the drunken artist was there, and he said there was not another work of art in Europe that could match this one for modeling and tone.

The coroner's jury took their seats and reverently uncovered their heads, and the keepers were sworn and gave testimony. They said they caught the priest red-handed, and that by the powerⒶalteration in the MS of his devil he had for the momentⒶalteration in the MS taken upon himself the semblance of a poacher,Ⓐalteration in the MS which deceived them and they did not suspect it was the priest. A quarrel followed, and the poacher tried to kill deceased, whereupon deceased, in self-defence, pulled his gun upon the poacher, but before he could fire, deceased, by blackⒶalteration in the MS magic and devil's arts, turned deceased into the present rock, as here exhibited; then assumed his own proper shape and said with many ribald oaths that if any durst lay a hand upon him, by God heⒶalteration in the MS would perpetuate his substance likewise.

Then the jury rendered a verdict that deceased had come to his death by the visitationⒶalteration in the MS of God. Also the fly.

The coroner was not willing to accept the verdict, because it included the fly.

The jury insisted that they could not exclude the fly without irreverence, sinceⒶalteration in the MS God in His inscrutable wisdom had seen fit to honor the humble animal with an equal share in His visitation.

The coronerⒶalteration in the MS said it was manifest to any thoughtful mind that the overtaking of the fly by the visitation was an accident, and not intentional.

The foreman retorted, “if there has been an accidentⒶalteration in the MS, then a verdict cannot be reached at all, since we have no way of determining which of the parties fell by accident and which by intention.”

The coroner advanced the theory that the foremanⒶemendation was an ass; which made a great stir, Siebold the drunken artist and some others [begin page 145] approving, and were called to order, and silence enjoined upon them. The coroner continued, “To the reflecting mind there is no difficulty here. The intention would necessarily be directed against the party in chief, which would be deceased, by right of his superior dignity as man, office-bearer and Christian, and not against the party of the second part, who, being without estate, position or legal recognition, cannot in reason claim precedence over the party of the first part in a so grave matter as the present, wherein the divine grace has manifestly purposed a rebuke to but one party and not both.”

The foremanⒶalteration in the MS responded with some heat: “How do you know there was an accident? Is it in the character of the Deity to deal in accidents? (Siebold—Good!) Is He so poor a marksman as to fire at one and bring down two? (Siebold—Good again!)Ⓐalteration in the MS How do you know what the fly had been doing? Are you in the secret of the privacies of God? Is it your highⒶalteration in the MS privilege to sit in judgment upon His acts and determine for Him which of them are intentional and which of them are due to heedlessness and inattention—at your salary? It is self-conceit gone mad, it is blasphemous impertinence.”

Several excited Jurymen. Stand by the verdict! stand by it!Ⓐalteration in the MS

The Foreman. Trust me to do my whole duty. Sir, thisⒶalteration in the MS jury cannot concede, without the most awful irreverence, that an all-compassionate Providence would lift its hand against even so humble a creature as a fly without just and righteous cause. We cannot and will not concede that this fly fell by accident. This fly was guilty of an offence which is hidden from us and which we are notⒶalteration in the MS privileged to pry into. What it did is a secret between itself and its Creator (and perhaps the coroner!) but it was guilty, and that guilt is witnessed and foreverⒶalteration in the MS established by its fate. Let it be a lesson to us all.

The Coroner. Then you stand to your verdict.

The Foreman, impressively. God helping us, we do; and to the issue we do solemnly commit our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. (Voices. Amen!) “Not even a sparrow falls,” and so forth and so forth; and neither does a fly. This Christian—such as he was [begin page 146] —this alleged Christian fell by the dispensation of God; this fly likewise. Such is the verdict, and by it we stand or fall. Wir können nicht anders.

All the assemblage burst into a bravo of applause.Ⓐalteration in the MS

The Coroner, with dignity. Remove the fly from the image, and exclude it from the verdict. On no other terms will I accept a finding of the court.Ⓐalteration in the MS

The Foreman, sternly. It shall not be done.

The Coroner. The inquest is closed. There is no verdict. The absence of a verdict determining the cause of the man's death debars me from issuing the necessary burial-permit; deceased must therefore remain unburied—Ⓐalteration in the MSthat is, in consecrated ground. He may be a suicide.

The family began to wail and plead, but the coroner was firm, saying, with a wave of his hand toward the image—

“The law must be respected. Remove the petrifaction.”

It was loaded into a six-ox van by twenty-two men and followed to the Bart homestead by the weeping family and by the public, who walked uncovered, and there it was housed from view and crape hung upon the door. There was a wake that night, and next day the customary funeral-feast; and in every way the due and usual decencies were observed, even to the sending out of invitations (with the date blank), to the funeral. After some months, when the season of first-mourning had expired, the public exhibition began, and was inordinately successful, children and servants half price, and crowds coming from all over the Empire, and even from foreign countries, and many Italian image-dealers paying a commission for the privilege of making and selling small casts of it. The family quickly grew rich, and in the next generation obtained nobility in Germany at the usual rates. After many, many years it was sold, and passed from hand to hand and country to country, and now for a long time it has been in the Pitti palace in Florence, earning its living as a Roman antique.