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SILENCE--A FABLE
ALCMAN. The mountain pinnacles slumber; valleys, crags and
caves are silent.
"LISTEN to me," said the Demon as he placed his hand upon my head. "The
region of which I speak is a dreary region in Libya, by the borders of
the river Zaire. And there is no quiet there, nor silence.
"The waters of the river have a saffron and sickly hue; and they flow
not onwards to the sea, but palpitate forever and forever beneath the
red eye of the sun with a tumultuous and convulsive motion. For many
miles on either side of the river's oozy bed is a pale desert of
gigantic water-lilies. They sigh one unto the other in that solitude,
and stretch towards the heaven their long and ghastly necks, and nod to
and fro their everlasting heads. And there is an indistinct murmur which
cometh out from among them like the rushing of subterrene water. And
they sigh one unto the other.
"But there is a boundary to their realm--the boundary of the dark,
horrible, lofty forest. There, like the waves about the Hebrides, the
low underwood is agitated continually. But there is no wind throughout
the heaven. And the tall primeval trees rock eternally hither and
thither with a crashing and mighty sound. And from their high summits,
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