The Woman Who Vowed (The Demetrian)

by Ellison Harding

  CHAPTER VIII

  HOW THE CULT WAS FOUNDED

  Before the dramatic climax of the Eleusinian festival, the firstincident of which closed the last chapter, and the thrilling sequel ofwhich I shall have later to narrate, I had become, in spite of myself,dragged deeper into the political arena than I wished.

  In the first place I had not remained an unmoved spectator of Neaera'sdance. It was very new to me and altogether bewitching. She had afaultless figure--or, if it had a fault, what it took away from the typeof ideal beauty it perhaps added to her feminine attractiveness. And so,on returning with Ariston to our bachelor quarters she was the theme ofour conversation. Ariston had passed through a phase of _tendresse_ forNeaera. Most of his generation who were of Neaera's class hadexperienced her novitiate. Even Chairo had not returned unscathed. Wefound him at the bath, and after a plunge into the bracing sea water welounged in our wraps on the couches prepared for that delightful moment.

  Chairo declined to take Neaera seriously: "'Il y des gens,'" he said,"'qui sont le luxe de la race.' She is a sprite created to awakesentiments which must be satisfied by others; or, perhaps, remainunsatisfied, and thus stimulate the brush of the painter and the pen ofthe poet. She is an artist herself; utterly without conscience or heart;but contributing greatly to the charm of life, and if not taken in tooheavy doses, altogether delightful."

  Ariston was more severe! "She is a calculating little minx with her ownends to serve; sometimes those ends are good and she secures a largefollowing by virtue of them; sometimes they are altogether bad, and thenshe uses the following secured by her good ends to attain the bad. Butthe worst of it is, she uses what she has of charm remorselessly and hasmore than once been summoned before the priests of Demeter."

  "That is no discredit," retorted Chairo. "The whole band of priestsought to be consigned to the shades. They are an unmitigated curse----"

  It was no easy matter to understand the working of the priestly systembut I gathered this from the discussion: According to Ariston, the cultof Demeter was organized mainly through the influence of the women toaccomplish a reform in the marriage system and an intelligent,scientific, and religious regulation of all sexual relations. The evilsto be remedied were threefold: To reconcile continence with love; toretain the sanctity of marriage without imposing a life penalty for asingle innocent mistake; and to secure, without compulsion, theimprovement of the race.

  In regard to the first of these three, it was recognized that no onefunction in the human body contributed so much to the health or maladyof the race as this; and that free love, which had constituted one ofthe planks of the Socialist party, would be fatal to the survival of thecommunity, in consequence of the physical and moral abuses to whichincontinence would give rise. The survival of the races which practisedcontinence over those which did not practise it was too clearly recordedin history for its lesson to be neglected. Thus, the promiscuous savagedisappears before the savage who exercises the continence, howeverslight, involved in metronymic institutions; these last disappear beforethe races which exercise the higher degree of continence required by thepatriarchal or polygamous system; and these last succumb in the conflictwith those which practise the highest degree of continence, known inour day under the name of monogamy. The lesson of history, then, is thatcontinence is essential to the progress of the race. The problemconsists in defining continence.

  This could not be done by written laws; the attempt to regulate sexualrelations by law had broken down in my own day. Divorce was the attemptof morality to rescue marriage from promiscuousness. The greatestimmorality prevailed where divorce was forbidden; in other words, theinstitution of marriage became a screen for immorality; women took thevow of marriage only the easier to break it, and even those who took itwith the sincere intention of being faithful to it, once the bond provedintolerable, finding no moral escape from it adopted the only immoralalternative. Divorce, therefore, was the only escape; and the easierdivorce became the more did the sanctity of marriage diminish; so thatat last it became impossible to decide which system resulted in moredemoralization--the one which maintaining a theoretically indissolublemarriage resulted in secret promiscuousness, or the one which throughdivorce by making marriage easily dissoluble opened the door wide to thesatisfaction of every caprice.

  The only force that has ever seemed able to cope with this problem isreligion. Religion for centuries filled convents and monasteries withmen and women who under a mistaken morality offered love as a sacrificeto God; religion has been the determining factor in the survival ofcommunity life; that is to say, those communities which were animated byreligion--such as Shakers, and the conventual orders--have relativelyprospered, whereas those which were not animated by religion haverapidly disappeared. Religion effectually preserves the chastity ofwomen, even outside of convents--as in Ireland--and has been the mainprop of such continence as survived during our time in the institutionof marriage. Religion, then, seemed to be the only human sentiment thatcould determine continence, and to some religious institution,therefore, it was thought this question must be referred.

  What actually happened was this: The constitutional convention, whichput an end to the old order of things and brought in the new, wascontrolled by the Socialist faction which believed in free love; aprovision, therefore, was inserted in the constitution forbidding alllaws on the subject of marriage. The same constitution, however,provided that all adults over the age of twenty-five years who hadpassed the necessary examinations--female as well as male--should have avote; and this last gave women a voice in political matters, which theysoon exercised with unexpected solidarity. They became a power in thestate, and threatened a modification of the constitution on the subjectof marriage, which would not only restore it to its originalinflexibility, but would impose penalties on both sexes for violation ofthe marriage vow, such as the world had not up to that time seen ordreamed of. The whole community was aghast at the conflict between thesexes to which this question gave rise, and all the more so, that womenhad become a fighting power that could no longer be disregarded. Thedrill introduced into the schools for both sexes had demonstrated thatin marksmanship the average woman was quite equal to the average man,and in ability to endure pain she proved altogether superior to him.Already the licentiousness that prevailed in Louisiana and the adjacentStates between Louisiana and the Atlantic seaboard had given rise to acivil war; and the women of the North had fought on the side of sexualmorality in a manner that opened the eyes of men to the existence of anew and formidable power in the state. The issue upon which Louisianahad undertaken to secede was upon the power of the federal Governmentto enact penal laws against idleness. Obviously, idleness is, under aCollectivist government, a most dangerous offence. Collectivism cannotsurvive except upon the theory that all the members of the communityfurnish their quota of work. It was supposed that this question could beleft to state legislation; and during a few generations every state didsecure enough work from its citizens to furnish the stipulated amount ofproduce to the common store. But as dissoluteness prevailed in theSouth, the Southern States fell more and more behind in theircontribution, and their failure was obviously due to the demoralizationwhich attended promiscuity in sexual relations. In the Northern States acertain sense of personal dignity had created a public opinion on thesubject, that prevented free love from producing its worst results;habits of industry, too, already existed there, and the creation ofstate farm colonies--such as existed in our day in Holland--where theunwilling were made to work prevented idleness from prevailing. In theSouthern States, the climate lent itself to all the abuses that attendthe surrender of self-control; the women never possessed the initiativenecessary for defense; the more the men abandoned themselves topleasure the less they were able either to govern or to tolerategovernment; and, as a necessary consequence, there was a relaxation ofeffort in every direction whether political, industrial, or domestic.

  Much agitation prevailed in the rest of the Union over the condition o
fthe South; the women, particularly, fearing that the contagion wouldspread, banded together to form purity leagues, with a view to meet theevil by a system of social ostracism; but before the sexual issue cameto a head, the failure of the Southern States to furnish their quota tothe common store raised an economic issue easier to handle. The federalGovernment passed a measure providing that in case any State failed tofurnish its quota, the President was to replace the elected governor byone appointed by himself, and the whole penal administration was to passinto federal hands, with power to the federal Government to createpauper colonies and administer them. This aroused the ferocity of thewhole Southern people, and it was at this crisis that the women of theNorth showed their prowess and initiative. They formed regiments whichrivaled those of the men in number, and even compared with them inefficiency. The seceding States proved utterly unable to resist theforces of the North, and were soon reduced to unconditional surrender.

  In the period of reconstruction which followed this civil war, therecame to the front in Concord a woman of singular ability, who united themystic power of the founders of all religions with a personal beautythat made of her the model of the great sculptor of that day--Phocas.She early developed a faculty for divining thought, which secured forher the wonder and awe of the entire neighborhood; and when uponreaching maturity Phocas took her as his model for a statue of Demeter,she entered into the spirit of his work and the spirit of his workentered into her. The statue was his masterpiece, and was moved fromcity to city until, coupled as it soon was with the personality ofLatona--for so the new priestess styled herself--it became the center ofa veritable cult. It drew the minds of men to the old Greek worship ofFertility and Death in the personalities of Demeter and Persephone, sothat Fertility became dignified by Death, and Death disarmed byFertility--both merging, as it were, into a notion of immortality dearto the hopes of men. The golden ear of corn that figured in the radianttresses of Demeter was shadowed by the death in the dark earth thatawaits it, and thus became to them an emblem of the annual resurrectionof the spring with its promise of a new after-life for man also.

  To Latona the quality of the Greek myth most worthy of commemoration wasthe spirit of sacrifice, which made of Demeter the Mater Dolorosa of theancient world. The mother seeking her ravished daughter through all thekingdoms of the world, wresting her at last from the dark god--but for aseason only--and during the season of sorrow and solitude findingcompensation in caring for the sick child of a woodman in a foresthut--here was a myth for which Latona could stand and through which shecould draw men to learn the lesson of progress and happiness throughsacrifice. The long hours she spent with Phocas in the study of thesethings and the strength of his genius inspired her with a love for theman as well as for his art; but as the thought that she was born to amission slowly dawned upon her she withdrew from his companionship, as,indeed, from the companionship of her neighbors; performed the tasks sheowed the state with punctiliousness, and gathered about her a few womenwho responded to her exalted ideas. Her love for Phocas, about which allher earthly life centered, became to her the consummate sacrifice thatshe could make to this new religion that was slowly taking shape in her.She drew her votaries chiefly from the conventual order that hadgathered about the great cathedral on Morningside Heights; for theChristian religion had experienced a great change since the revolution.The Christian Church, released from the necessity of worldlyconsideration of wealth, was now sustained by those only who sincerelybelieved in her principles; and as soon as the city had been rebuilt tosuit the new conditions, those who had contributed their leisure to thebeautifying of the streets, turned their attention to the neglectedfoundations on the Heights. They found in the new Christian spiritsomething of the enthusiasm of the thirteenth century, and ridding thecreed of all save the principle of love which Christ had made thefoundation of His church, set themselves to embodying this principlewith its mystic consequences of sacrifice into gothic arch anddeep-stained glass, upon a scale and design heretofore neveraccomplished. Abandoning the transitional style at first contemplated,they adopted the general scheme of Chartres; but in lieu of the almostdiscordant steeples of Chartres they substituted a design taken ratherfrom what is left of St. Jean, at Soissons, varying in height anddetail, but identical in style, stimulating wonder without shocking it.The entrance porches of the western facade were inspired by Rheims andBourges, for there were five of them; the nave and choir towered to theheights of Beauvais; and in the center rose the spire of Salisbury. Thelateral steeples flanking the north and south approaches were completedwith the same bewildering variety as on the west front, and the apse,where rested the sanctuary, terminated the story with a cluster ofchapels that equaled, if not excelled, the _chevet_ of Le Mans; and soevery part of this tribute to Christ lifted itself up in adoration toheaven like a flame. It rose from a green sward, and adjoining it, onthe north side, was a cloister that in the hush of its seclusion broughtback hallowed recollections of a bygone age.

  It was from this cloister that Latona drew her following; for Latona,with her thoughts turned to Eleusis and not to Galilee, conceived of aworship which--though sorrow had a part in it--partook also of joy andthanksgiving; sacrifice assuredly, but for the happiness of this world,rather than for its mortification; an after life also, but an after lifefor which preparation in this world might through the greatunselfishness of a few assure the happiness of the many. So that whilesacrifice for the sake of sacrifice had become the underlying principleof the Christian religion, sacrifice for the making of joy became thecentral idea of the new cult. And Latona, as indeed every mystic, themore she dwelt upon these things, the more she grew to believe in hermission; she began by dreaming dreams and ended by seeing visions; shefound that fasting and asceticism contributed to lengthen and strengthenthe moments when, losing consciousness of this world, she seemed to findherself in direct communion with the divine. Her body soon showed thetraces of her spiritual life; she lost her beauty, but in the place ofit came a happiness so radiant that as she walked in the streets to herallotted task it caused men and women to stand and wonder.

  Meanwhile, her fame grew apace. But her personality was at first farmore impressive than her cult. The one was clear and striking, the othervague and even obscure. At last on a day that afterward became the greatfestival of the Demetrian calendar, Latona fell into an ecstasy thatlasted from the rising of the sun to the setting. She spent it on herknees, in adoration; rigid and motionless, with her hands held out asthough upon a cross; none of those about her dared intrude; whendarkness came she swooned, and those watching lifted her to her couch.For a week she lay as it were unconscious. Then she gathered hervotaries about her, and for the first time clearly enunciated her gospelto the world. This done, a strange sickness came upon her, she was, asit were, consumed by the fire of her inspiration; she wasted away, andwith her dying breath asked that what was left of her be placed in analembic, the gases into which her body passed be burned and the flame,so lit, be never extinguished.

  And it was done. The corpse of Latona gave birth to a new vestal firetended by new vestals, vowed no longer to barrenness, but to fertilityand sacrifice.

  Her words were preserved by many of her votaries, but their storiesvaried, as must indeed all such records vary in a world where mindsdiffer as much as inclinations. But the central idea remained and gaverise to a cult which, unsupported by the state or by law, acquiredcontrol over the minds of men, much as did the papacy in the eleventhcentury. Some, as Ariston, believed it to be founded on reason, butdreaded its power and increase; others, as Chairo, regarded it as anunmitigated despotism. The issue was to be fought out--as, indeed, suchissues generally are--through the conflict between personal passionsand political beliefs, each using and abusing the other and out of bothemerging, after the appeasement to which every struggle eventuallytends, into a clearer idea and a popular verdict.

  Meanwhile, the followers of Latona had built the temple of Demeter onthe old classic lines, and the solemn grove abo
ut the temple had notdetracted from the cathedral close, perhaps because each cult appealedto different temperaments; perhaps, also, because many found that thetwo cults appealed to the different sides of character and to thedifferent demands of each.

  The cult, though unsupported by any law or statute, had acquiredextraordinary power in the state. It undertook to summon before itscouncil all persons charged with offenses against Demeter--Demeterstanding amongst other things for the purity of domestic life. If theparty summoned refused to appear before the council, the matter wasreferred to the attorney general, who, under the influence of the cult,prosecuted the charge in the criminal courts with the utmost severity;and whether the person accused was convicted or not, a refusal to appearbefore the council resulted in a social ostracism so complete that fewventured to incur it. If, on the other hand, the party charged appearedbefore the council, the case was likely to be treated with leniency, andconviction seldom resulted in more than the imposing of some penitentialtask. Should it, however, appear that the charge was more serious thancould be dealt with by the cult, it was referred to the attorneygeneral.

  The cult was careful to abstain from any act or teaching which couldtend to encourage idolatry or superstition; thus, the statue of Latona,which had first inspired the Demetrian idea, was not placed in thetemple where it might be thought properly to belong, but in thecloister. The temptation to worship it, therefore, was removed. Indeed,it was for the purpose of making the worship of a graven image the moreimpossible that Latona had asked that her body be consumed and the flamefrom it perpetuated on the altar. A flame could remain an emblem; itcould hardly itself, in our day, ever become an object of worship.

  In this way was kept alive the idea that the divine, wherever else itmight also exist, exists certainly within each and every one of us, andthat by the cultivation of love and usefulness it can be made to prosperand increase in us. For men, the active scope of usefulness lay chieflyin the field of labor; for women, chiefly in the field offertility--neither field excluding the other--but rather both includingall. And so women contributed labor, in so far as labor did not impairtheir essential function of motherhood, and men contributed continenceas the highest male duty in the field of fertility.

  The duties of the male, therefore, were grouped into two classes, activeand passive; the former were for the most part exercised in willingnessto labor for the commonwealth without too grasping a regard for reward;the latter consisted mainly in continence, carefully itselfdistinguished from abstention--for it was a cardinal maxim of theDemetrian faith--as old, indeed, as the days of Aristotle--that humanhappiness could but be attained by conditions that permitted the dueexercise of _all_ human functions, each according to its laws. Sciencetherefore came to the rescue of human happiness by determining the lawsof human functions; and art completed its work by creating anenvironment which to the highest degree possible enabled every man andwoman to exercise all their functions with wisdom, moderation, anddelight, to the best happiness of all and the ultimate advancement ofthe race.

  And although the future of the race was forever present to the priestsof the cult, yet were men and women not expected to make any greatsacrifice beyond the immediate generations that succeeded them, theinstitution of marriage being carefully maintained because it kept alivethe care of the parent, each for its own offspring, thus providing forevery generation the protection furnished by paternal pride and maternalsolicitude.

  The purity of the domestic hearth, its reverential care of offspring,the lifting of motherhood out of the irreligion of caprice into thereligion of sacrifice; the exercise in all these matters of the highest,because the most difficult, of all the virtues--moderation--these arethe special concerns of the Demetrian cult.