The Kindly Ones - Anthony Powell [83]
‘The sword of Mithras, who each year immolates the sacred bull, will ere long now flash from its scabbard.’
‘You’ve said it.’
‘The slayer of Osiris once again demands his grievous tribute of blood. The Angel of Death will ride the storm.’
‘Could this situation have been avoided?’ I asked.
‘The god, Mars, approaches the earth to lay waste. Moreover, the future is ever the consequence of the past.’
‘And we ought to have knocked Hider out when he first started making trouble?’
I remembered Ted Jeavons had held that view.
‘The Four Horsemen are at the gate. The Kaiser went to war for shame of his withered arm. Hitler will go to war because at official receptions the tails of his evening coat sweep the floor like a clown’s.’
‘Seems an inadequate reason,’ said Duport.
‘Such things are a paradox to the uninstructed – to the adept they are clear as morning light.’
‘I must be one of the uninstructed,’ said Duport.
‘You are not alone in that.’
‘Just one of the crowd?’
‘Reason is given to all men, but all men do not know how to use it. Liberty is offered to each one of us, but few learn to be free. Such gifts are, in any case, a right to be earned, not a privilege for the shiftless.’
‘How do you recommend earning it?’ asked Duport, stretching out his long legs in front of him, slumping down into the depths of the armchair. ‘I’ve got to rebuild my business connexions. I could do with a few hints.’
‘The education of the will is the end of human life.’
‘You think so?’
‘I know.’
‘But can you always apply the will?’ said Duport. ‘Could I have renewed my severed credits by the will?’
‘I am concerned with the absolute.’
‘So am I. An absolute balance at the bank.’
‘You speak of material trifles. The great Eliphas Levi, whose precepts I quote to you, said that one who is afraid of fire will never command salamanders.’
‘I don’t need to command salamanders. I want to shake the metal market.’
‘To know, to dare, to will, to keep silence, those are the things required.’
‘And what’s the bonus for these surplus profits?’
‘You have spoken your modest needs.’
‘But what else can the magicians offer?’
‘To be for ever rich, for ever young, never to die.’
‘Do they, indeed?’
‘Such was in every age the dream of the alchemist.’
‘Not a bad programme – let’s have the blue-prints.’
‘To attain these things, as I have said, you must emancipate the will from servitude, instruct it in the art of domination.’
‘You should meet a mutual friend of ours called Widmerpool,’ said Duport. ‘He would agree with you. He’s very keen on domination. Don’t you think so, Jenkins? Anyway, Dr Trelawney, what action do you recommend to make a start?’
‘Power does not surrender itself. Like a woman, it must be seized.’
Duport jerked his head in my direction.
‘I offered him a woman in the bar of the Royal this evening,’ he said, ‘but he declined. He wouldn’t seize one. I must admit Fred never has much on hand.’
‘Cohabitation with antipathetic beings is torment,’ said Dr Trelawney. ‘Has that never struck you, my dear friend?’
‘Time and again,’ said Duport, laughing loudly. ‘Perfect hell. I’ve done quite a bit of it in my day. Would you like to hear some of my experiences?’
‘Why should we wish to ruminate on your most secret orgies?’ said Dr Trelawney. ‘What profit for us to muse on your nights in the lupanar, your diabolical couplings with the brides of debauch, more culpable than those phantasms of the incubi that rack the dreams of young girls, or the libidinous gymnastics of the goat-god whose ice-cold sperm fathers monsters on writhing witches in coven?’
Duport shook with laughter. I saw that one of Dr Trelawney’s weapons was flattery, though flattery of no trite kind, in fact the best of all flattery, the sort disguised as disagreement or rebuke.
‘So you don’t want a sketch of my love life in its less successful moments?’ said Duport.
Dr Trelawney shook his head.
‘There have been some good moments too,’ said Duport. ‘Don’t get me wrong.’
‘He alone can truly possess the pleasures of love,’ said Dr Trelawney, ‘who has