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THE GAY GNANI OF GINGALEE

DISCORDS OF DEVOLUTION

A TRAGICAL ENTANGLEMENT OF MODERN MYSTICISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

HARMONIC FICTION SERIES VOL. II

CHICAGO INDO-AMERICAN BOOK CO. 1908

Published 1908

DEDICATED to Those who are wise enough to be foolish--at intervals

PRELUDE.

Mother Nature contributes the elements and qualities and "temperament" of the individual; and no matter what the education, occupation, position or experience, those native tendencies persist.

One who is born with the disposition for mental frivoling and a keen sense of nonsense discovers that these tendencies persist with far greater tenacity than any impulses of anger or fear or other destructive elements. The writer of this little book has found them subordinate only to the thirst for knowledge and the love of truth.

When the author of this "romance" finally renounced the small gods of her personal ambitions, and surrendered the diverting occupation of newspaper work for serious instruction in the School of Natural Science, she merely restrained but never eliminated that Sense of Nonsense. The native tendency toward intellectual badinage and literary travesty persisted--and even to the present time it furnishes relaxation from the absorbing duties in connection with The Great Work.

Science, if it be Science, must take into account all of the facts of Human Nature; and Philosophy, if it be Philosophy, must include and assign to place every intellectual, native and normal tendency of the Soul.

Science and Philosophy that have no room for the incongruities of life and the frivolings of the intelligence are only partial mentors and masters.

The workshop occupies so much of life, thought and energy, that no one should refuse an occasional hour in the play room.

Confidence in the good sense of the readers of the Harmonic Series forbids the thought that this little satire should be mistaken for a reflection upon the Verities of the School of Natural Science, or that it could be so misinterpreted as to discredit the Harmonic Philosophy.

In so far as it is a travesty it deals, not with the facts of Science and the Truths of Philosophy, but with the people and the things which discredit both.

"The Dream Child" and the first sketch of "Discords of Devolution" were written at the same time and place, but at different desks.

This was done in Washington City, at the time of my separation from newspaper life.

The one stands for that earliest concept and ideal of the Great Law, while the other represents the undertone of nonsense which instruction, experience and self-denials have subdued but never eliminated.

The manuscript of this little volume has been read, from time to time, by friends who have urged its publication. This, however, was never seriously intended until the "Interlude" , was contributed by the TK, which interlude gives to the whole a definite meaning and purpose but vaguely suggested by my own work.

Except for this masterly arraignment of The Gay Gnani of Gingalee the author of this tale would have lacked the courage to publish it.

With this addition, however, the writer reconsidered, reread and retouched the Ms., and consented to an Experiment.

With this explanation, excuse and apology for the writing of the romance in the first place, and now for its publication, the author commits it to criticism--with a certain conviction that it has a mission of its own to perform. FLORENCE HUNTLEY.

INGREDIENTS.

"For what shall it profit a man if he gain a whole Drug Store and jar his Higher Self?"

PROPHET AND PROFIT.

"But my profession," pleaded the slim and pallid youth who stood wistfully eyeing the Soda Fountain. "You forget, my friend, that the vows of a Guru forbid such diffusion of force and waste of magnetism as occur in meeting those not of The Path."

"Tommy-rot!" bawled young Mr. Vanderhook as he continued to polish the already glittering faucet. "You've not seen her, and you hear me, there is only one in the box and what's more she can give cards and spades to any old band of mystical misfits on the top side the Earth."

"O, hang your profession--a couple of minutes anyway," interrupted the man at the fountain, "and come along. You're not going to shake Kankakee till you've seen my Very Best--the finest Chicago brand, the highest flyer this side your celestial belt. What d'ye say, and what'll you have?" and Bill Vanderhook looked anxiously into the other's face while his hand sought the "sweet cream" spigot.

"I'll go you," recklessly responded the young druggist, as he shoved the frothing fluid across the marble slab--"only let's get a move."

Alonzo Leffingwell's right hand closed vaguely but firmly upon the handle of the drinking-cup. With an air of utter indifference he poured the questionable compound into his system. Then his left hand sought his vest pocket--tentatively.

The Vanderhook drug store once more stood the treat.

Since infancy these two young men had been inseparable chums. The law of opposites had been satisfied. It had attracted and welded the affections of the stout, stocky, rosy and roystering Bill Vanderhook and the pale, pensive and passive Alonzo Leffingwell.

Bill's voice in babyhood was loud, resonant and cheerful, while Lonnie's was low, limpid and languid. In youth Bill's eyes, big, bold and black, had seemed continually searching for the hidden and forbidden things of fruit closet and melon patch. Contrawise, Lonnie's orbs, mild, misty and luminous, seemed forever scanning the unsatisfying deeps of space.

While nature seemed to have constructed Bill Vanderhook for a short-stop or a half-back, it had reserved Alonzo Leffingwell for the higher arts of mystical mysteries.

About the same time that Bill turned from bats to bottles and gave up the kicking of balls for the rolling of pills, Alonzo laid down his pen, took up his crystal and immured himself in his bedroom.

Naturally, the exactions of these widely differing occupations tended more and more to separate the two young men.

To Bill Vanderhook it meant an active daily life and a perpetual hustle in holding his father's trade and reaching out for the increase. It meant for him a frequent dip in the social swim, and great popularity among those who attended "functions" and presided at Chafing Dishes.

To Alonzo, his decision to become a "Wise Man" cut him out of pretty nearly everything in the town. It meant renunciation of all social and sentimental diversions of Kankakee. While upon the Druggist were fixed the obligations of citizenship which rooted him in his ancestral home, to the Mystic it meant only obscuration and retirement.

While Bill was now joyously "taking stock" and setting up new show cases, Mr. Leffingwell, in obedience to his "Higher Self," was packing his grip for India.

For he who aspires to the state of Gnanum must seek a more adequate asylum than that of Kankakee.

Alonzo was now well up in Yogum.

He approached Gnanum.

He apprehended the ALL.

Against all this Bill had violently protested. "Cut out this foolishness, and get the bats out of your belfry. Come," he implored, "and clerk for me. This is the Leader in Kankakee, and when you learn the business I'll make you my Pardner. Now what's the matter with THAT?"

He was strangely indifferent to the possible profits of the show-case and the soda fountain.

Once he had asked, with something akin to vitality in his tone, "How can you, Bill, consent to spend the whole of your earthly life in the weighing, measuring and compounding of cold, inert forms of matter?"

"And how can you," Bill had retorted in immeasurable disgust, "how can you consent to spend your life in heathendom, roosting on top of a post for forty years, till your fingers grow through your fists? And more," he continued loudly, "I'll have you remember that these same cold, inert forms of matter stand for big, warm and lively DOLLARS. D'ye hear me, Mr. Dyanzy Chooanzy? While you're munchin' raw fodder and meditatin' in mouldy caves on the manifold mysteries of mankind, I'll be livin' up to the Queen's taste in Kankakee--swell front--mansard roof--stunning wife--bank stock--and--who knows--but the legislature or Congress or even"--and Bill paused modestly before nominating himself to the Presidency.

Alonzo vouchsafed no reply.

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