Collected Works (Vol. II)

THE SWORD OF SONG CALLED BY CHRISTIANS THE BOOK OF THE BEAST 1904 TO MY OLD FRIEND AND COMRADE IN THE ART BHIKKHU ANANDA METTEYA AND TO THOSE FOOLS WHO BY THEIR SHORT-SIGHTED STUPIDITY IN ATTEMPTING TO BOYCOTT THIS BOOK HAVE WITLESSLY AIDED THE CAUSE OF TRUTH I DEDICATE THESE MY BEST WORDS [This book is so full of recondite knowledge of various kinds that it seems quite ineffective to annotate every obscure passage, this has been done.} ‘“You are sad!” the Knight said, in an anxious tone; ‘‘let me sing you a song to comfort you.” * ‘*Ts it very long?” Alice asked. ‘‘Tt’s long,” said the Knight, ‘‘ but it’s very very beautiful. .The name of the song is called ‘The Book of the Beast.’” ‘*Oh! how ugly!” cried Alice. ‘¢Never mind,” said the mild creature. ‘Some people call it ‘ Reason in Rhyme.’ ” ‘But which zs the name of the song?” Alice said, trying not lo seem too interested. ‘*Ah, you don’t understand,” the Knight said, looking a little vexed. ‘‘ That’s what the name is called. The name really zs ‘Ascension Day and Pentecost; with some Prose Essays and an Epilogue,’ just as the title is ‘The Sword of Song’ you know, just in the same way, just in the same way, just in the same way...” Alice put her fingers in her ears and gave a little scream. “Oh, dear me! * This passage is a parody on one in “‘ Alice through the Looking-Glass.”’ 140 That's]. . Where references and explanations can be concisely given, harder than ever!” she said to herself, and then, looking determinedly intelligent : ‘‘So that’s what the song is called. I see. But what zs the song?” ‘*You must be a perfect fool,” said the Knight, irritably. ‘‘ The song is called ‘Stout Doubt ; or the Agnostic’s Anthology,’ by the author of ‘ Gas Manipulation,’ ‘ Solu- tions,’ ‘The Management of Retorts,’ and other physical works of the first order—but that’s only what it’s cad/ed, you know.” ‘* Well, what zs the song then?” said Alice, who was by this time completely be- wildered. ‘If I wished to be obscure, child,” said the Knight, rather contemptuously, “I should tell you that the Name of the Title was ‘ What a man of 95 ought to know,’ as endorsed by eminent divines, and that.. Seeing that she only began to cry, he broke off and con- tinued in a gentler tone: ‘‘it means, my dear .”’ Hestopped short, for she was taking no notice;; but as her figure was bent by sobs into something very like a note of in- terrogation : ‘“ You want to know what it zs,