"
"Go on," said Lenorme impatiently.
"Don't you think then, that one of the first things you would look
for in a goddess would be--what shall I call it?--an air of
mystery?"
"That was so much involved in the very idea of Isis, in her
especially, that they said she was always veiled, and no man had
ever seen her face."
"That would greatly interfere with my notion of mystery," said
Malcolm. "There must be revelation before mystery. I take it that
mystery is what lies behind revelation; that which as yet revelation
has not reached. You must see something--a part of something,
before you can feel any sense of mystery about it. The Isis for
ever veiled is the absolutely Unknown, not the Mysterious."
"But, you observe, the idea of the parable is different. According
to that Isis is for ever unveiling, that is revealing herself, in
her works, chiefly in the women she creates, and then chiefly in
each of them to the man who loves her."
"I see what you mean well enough; but not the less she remains the
goddess, does she not?"
"Surely she does."
"And can a goddess ever reveal all she is and has!"
"Never."
"Then ought there not to be mystery about the face and form of your
Isis on her pedestal?"
"Is it not there? Is there not mystery in the face and form of
every woman that walks the earth?"
"Doubtless; but you desire--do you not?--to show--that
although this is the very lady the young man loved before ever he
sought the shrine of the goddess, not the less is she the goddess
Isis herself?"
"I do--or at least I ought; only--by Jove! you have already
looked deeper into the whole thing than I!"
"There may be things to account for that on both sides," said
Malcolm.
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