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Page 1 of 41922 · PDF PAGE 273
King Lamus Intervenes 259 was still a faint smell of bitter almond in the air. It reminded me of how the dinner might have ended, and I trembled all over like a man in an ague fit. What was happening in me? Had I suddenly fallen in love with life, or had I simply become aware of the fear of death ? When we reached the fresh air, I knew it was the former. Lamus had made me feel. The effect of the drug had been to kill all feelingin me. My impulse to kill myself had not been so wholly negative’as I had thought. It was a positive craving for what …
1922 · PDF PAGE 14
CHAP. IT. 199 IV. VI. Vit. Contents BOOK III—PURGATORIO KING LAMUS INTERVENES FIRST AID THE VOICE OF VIRTUE OUT OF HARM’S WAY AT TELEPYLUS THE TRUE WILL LOVE UNDER WILL PAGE 247 262 280 297 315 333 348
1922 · PDF PAGE 275
King Lamus Intervenes 261 advantage of the fact to watch your discomfort as if it were somebody else. When you find that you can enjoy this instead of blindly rushing to heroin for relief, you will already have gone a long way in the direction of acquiring mental control.”’ Several times during the night Lala intervened vigorously in such a way that it was impossible for us not to give her our attention. We found out later that this was part of the plan, that we were being watched for symptoms of acute disquietude, and that whenever these appea…
1922 · PDF PAGE 345
…arid and the population could depend on rainfall instead of having to cluster in the neighbourhood of springs and streams for its water. King Lamus tied himself on the middle of a rope with Dionysus at one end and Hermes at the other; while we, under the guidance of Cypris and Athena, toiled up the goat track which made a zigzag on the grassy tongue. Their party attacked the rock buttress on our right. King Lamus made Hermes lead up the most astonish- ingly precipitous crags, with little advice and no assistance. But his hand was always within …
1922 · PDF PAGE 266
…. game of chess in which nobody can see more than two or three squares at once, and so it has become impossible to form a coherent plan. King Lamus is trying to train a number of selected people to act as a sort of brain for the world in its present state of cerebral collapse. He is teaching them to co-ordinate the facts in a higher synthesis. The suggestion is that of his old teacher, Prof. Henry Mauds- ley, with whom he studied insanity. Herbert Spencer, too, had a similar idea. But King Lamus is the first to endeavour to make a practical eff…
1922 · PDF PAGE 346
332 The Diary of a Drug Fiena hard for him. On these occasions, King Lamus would go up first, calling out instructions to note the exact places where he put his hands and feet ; and when it was the turn of Hermes to follow, as often as not he did so on a slack rope. His leader’s example had taught him how: to negotiate the difficulty. As for Dionysus, his methods were entirely different. He had neither the intellectual power of the elder boy nor his prudence, and he climbed with a sort of tem- pestuous genius. | At the top of the tongue, the go…
1922 · PDF PAGE 47
…:— ‘“O Thou naked virgin of love, that art caught in a net of wild roses! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” ‘‘ Quite so,” agreed King Lamus cheerfully. “ You'll excuse me, I know, if I ask whether you have any great experience of the effects of cocaine.” Lou glowered at him. I preferred to meet him frankly. I deliberately put a large dose on the back of my hand and sniffed it up. Before I had finished, the effect had occurred. I felt myself any man’s master. “Well, as a matter of fact,’’ I said superciliously, “ to-night’s the first tim…
1922 · PDF PAGE 347
CHAPTER VI THE TRUE WILL Lov and I were both utterly exhausted by the climb; and King Lamus reminded us that this was the formula of the Abbey of Thelema at Telepylus, that every one had to reach the top, step by step, through his own exertions. There was no question of soaring into the air by alien aid; and in all probability coming to earth with a bump. We had found ourselves repeatedly out of breath during the ascent, though it had only occupied three- quarters of an hour, and we should certainly never have reached the top without recourse t…
1922 · PDF PAGE 261
CHAPTER I KING LAMUS INTERVENES It is only three months ago; but it seems a lifetime. My memory is now very good, and I remember more details of the past every day. I am writing this account of the past three months, partly because my best friend tells me that it will strengthen it if I exercise it by putting down what has occurred in sequence. And you know, even a month ago, I couldn’t have recalled anything at all with regard to certain periods. My friend tells me that memory fails me in part because nature mercifully wishes to hide from us t…
1922 · PDF PAGE 37
…e. It was a livid, demoniac spasm. For some reason or other I had connected this verse of Lou’s mysterious chant with the personality of King Lamus. Gretel Webster understood. She insinuated another dose of venom. _ “Oh yes, Mr. Basil King Lamus is quite the ladies’ man. He fascinates them with a thousand different tricks. Lou is dreadfully in love with him.” Once again the woman had made a mistake. I resented her reference to Lou. I don’t remember what I answered. Part of it was to the effect that Lou didn’t seem to have been very much injured…
1922 · PDF PAGE 33
…at all. But as soon as the three men had turned their backs, she remarked acidly :— “I don’t think we’re dependent for our drinks on Mr. King Lamus. Let’s go round to the Smoking Dog.”’ Everybody agreed with alacrity. The suggestion seemed to have relieved the unspoken tension. We found ourselves in taxis, which for some in- scrutable reason are still allowed to ply practically unchecked in the streets of London. While eating and breathing and going about are permitted, we shall never be a really righteous race!
1922 · PDF PAGE 185
…al things have become tedious and stupid symbols. My words are veils of my truth. But I experience quite definite delight in this diary. King Lamus is always at the root of my brain. He is Jupiter and I have sprung from his thought ; Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom ! The most tremendous events of life are unworthy trifles. The sublimity of my conceptions sweeps onward from nowhere to nowhere. Behind my articulate anthem is a stainless silence. I am not writing for any reason, not even for myself to read; the action is automatic. I am the first-born …
1922 · PDF PAGE 175
Short Commons 161 but the words wouldn’t come. King Lamus went to him and took his hand. ‘ Drugs are the slope in front of us,” he said, ‘‘ and I’m wily old Eckenstein, and you're ambitious young Lamus. And I say ‘stop!’ and when you show me that you can stop, when you have picked yourself together and are standing on the slope laughing, I'll show you how to go on.” We knew at the back of our minds that the man was inexorable. We hated him as the weak always hate the strong, and we had to respect and admire him, detesting him all the more for t…
1922 · PDF PAGE 287
… of attack. It has become worth- less because their regular arrangement has been thrown into disorder. “At the Battle of Waterloo,” said King Lamus, turning from the wall and going back to his coffee, ‘“‘ Napoleon sent forward the Old Guard. A few minutes later he cried, ‘They are mixed,’ and drove in despair from the field. He did not have to wait to see them destroyed.”’ Lou’s breath was coming in great gasps. She had understood the essence of our friend’s tactics. We looked abominably ill ; we were actually suffering at the moment from the c…
1922 · PDF PAGE 320
… Diary of a Drug Fiend it, in its turn, becomes a measure of the grandeur of the rock. We walked up from the station to the residence of King Lamus, high on the hillside above the neck of Jand which joins it to the rock. The cliffs towered above us. They were torn into huge pinnacles and gullies ; but above the terrific precipices we could see the remains of successive civilisations ; Greek temples, Roman walls, Saracen cisterns, Norman gateways, and houses of all periods were perishing slowly on the gaunt, parched crags. It was very hard work …
1922 · PDF PAGE 344
330 The Diary of a Drug Fiend Object of familiarising the mind with ideas which normally excited. The whole system of King Lamus was to enable people to take no notice, that is, no emotional notice, of anything soever in life. A great deal of the fascination of drugs arises from the fuss that is made about them; the focusing of the attention upon them. Absinthe, forbidden in France, Switzerland, and Italy, is still sold freely in England, and no one ever met an English absinthe fiend. If any one took it into his head to start a newspaper campai…
1922 · PDF PAGE 75
…meant by saying the stuff didn’t have any special effect upon you. Why, you're perfectly gorgeous | ”’ “You bet Iam,” laughed Lou. “ The king’s daughter is all-glorious within ; her raiment is of wrought gold, and she thrusts her face out to be kissed, like a comet pushing its way to the sun. Didn’t you know I was the king’s daughter ? ” she smiled, with such seductive sublimity that something in me nearly fainted with delight. “ Hold up, Cockie,’’ she chirped. ‘“‘It’s all right. You're it, and I’m it, and I’m your little wife.” I could have to…
1922 · PDF PAGE 353
…mless hours. But nothing seemed to get me out of the fixed idea that life was heroin with intervals that did not count. For about a week King Lamus tried to get me out of my groove by giving me cocaine, and asking me to employ my time by writing an account of my adventures from the time when I began to take it. The drug stimulated me immensely ; and I was quite enthusiastic for the time. I wrote the story of my adventures from the night of my meeting Lou to our return to England from Naples. But when the episode was over, I found the old despai…
1922 · PDF PAGE 280
266 The Diary of a Drug Fiend of keeping each other up to the mark in the matter of recording the facts. I discovered what had amused King Lamus on the first occasion. I was conscious of a distinct shade of annoyance at having to get up and make a little cross. It had never occurred to me to break my word. There was a fascination in watching the record. The drive was a revelation. It was like coming out of a charnel house into the fresh air. A keen cold wind beat against our faces, almost blinding us. It was not until we reached the inn that we…
1922 · PDF PAGE 269
King Lamus Intervenes 255 this; that they started taking the drugs because life, in one way or another, was one too many for them. And what is the result? The drugs have not in the least relieved the monotony of life or whatever their trouble was, and yet they have got into a state very like that of death, in which they are impotent to struggle. No, we must conquer life by living it to the full, and then we can go to meet death with a certain prestige. e can face that adventure as we've faced the others.”’ The personality of the man radiated en…