{"id":2428,"date":"2013-07-13T01:41:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:41:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:33","slug":"53-conversations-of-the-dead-littletone-percival-vol-01-early-cultural-writings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/01-early-cultural-writings\/53-conversations-of-the-dead-littletone-percival-vol-01-early-cultural-writings","title":{"rendered":"-53_Conversations of the Dead – Littletone-Percival.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nV <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nLittleton, Percival <\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tL<\/font><\/font>ITTLETON<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAfter so long a time, Percival, we meet. It is strange that our \t\t\tways, upon earth associated and parallel, should in this other
\nworld be so entirely divergent. \t\t\t<\/font> \t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tP<\/font><\/font>ERCIVAL<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWhy is it strange to you, Littleton? The world in which we \t\t\tfind ourselves, is made, as we have both discovered, of the stuff of our earthly dreams and the texture of our mortal character. \t\t\tPhysically, our ways on earth were parallel. We walked together
\nover Cumberland mountains or watched the whole sea leap and \t\t\tthunder Titanically against the Cornwall cliffs. You were stroke
\nand I was cox in the same boat on the Isis. We bracketed always \t\t\tfor College honours and took the same class in the same subject in the Tripos. Afterwards too, we entered Parliament side by side \t\t\tin the same party and by an august and noble silence helped to
\nadminister the affairs of our country. But what greater difference
\n\t\t\tcould divide men than that which existed between our bodily frames
\n\t\t\tand moral constitutions? You, the tall, fair, robust descendant of the Vikings; I, dark, spare and short from the Welsh
\nmountains. You, the hard-headed, practical, successful lawyer; \t\t\tI, the dilettante and connoisseur, who knew something about
\neverything except my own affairs and could deal successfully \t\t\twith every business that did not concern me.
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tL<\/font><\/font>ITTLETON<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nYet we clung together; our tastes often lay in the same direction;
\nour affections were similar, and even our sins connected us. \t\t\t<\/font>
\n<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tP<\/font><\/font>ERCIVAL<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWe completed each other, I think. Our tastes were very dissimilarly
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 486<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nsimilar. We read the same book; but you tore the essence
\nout of it briefly, masterfully, and then flung it aside, satisfied \t\t\tthat you had made even the dead useful to you; I wound my
\nway into the heart of its meaning like a serpent and lay there \t\t\tcoiled till I had become one with it, then wound myself out
\nagain replete and affectionately reminiscent of the soul that had \t\t\tgiven me harbourage. As for our sins, let us not talk of them. We have been too tediously familiar with them after death to \t\t\tcherish their memory. But even there we differed. You sinned
\nvoraciously, robustly, with gusto but with very little of feeling; \t\t\tI stumbled in out of excess of emotion and could not recover
\nmyself because of the vibrant intensity of my memories. <\/font>
\n<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tL<\/font><\/font>ITTLETON<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nLet me know what worlds harboured you, since we parted.
\n<\/font> \t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tP<\/font><\/font>ERCIVAL<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nLet me rather hear your experiences.
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tL<\/font><\/font>ITTLETON<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe details fade in the retrospect and will not bear
\n\t\t\ttelling. Certain periods of mortal agony there were, each with its own
\nphysical surroundings, that I long to forget but cannot. Some of \t\t\tthem recalled strangely, not in detail, but in kind, Greek Tartarus
\nand Catholic Inferno. I was the prey of harpies, I was hunted and \t\t\ttorn and devoured, I experienced the agonies of the men I had
\nsent to the deliberate and brutal torture of our jails or beggared \t\t\tof their honour or their property. I renewed the successes of my
\nlife and sickened of their selfishness, boldness, hardness. Money \t\t\tbecame as
\nred-hot metal in my hands and luxury was a gnawing fire that embraced my body. I lingered in regions where love \t\t\twas not known and the souls of the inhabitants were hard and
\nstrong as bronze, dry and delightless as the Sahara. O Percival, \t\t\tPercival, when I go again upon earth, I shall know love and
\nexecute mercy.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 487<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tP<\/font><\/font>ERCIVAL<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nHad you no hours of respite, entered no regions of happiness?
\n<\/font> \t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tL<\/font><\/font>ITTLETON<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThat, I believe, is yet before me.
\n<\/font> \t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tP<\/font><\/font>ERCIVAL<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nI too have had experiences similar to yours, though different in \t\t\ttheir nature and quality. I have sickened of the repeated weakness and selfishness of my life, I have experienced in my soul \t\t\tthe sufferings of those I had injured. I can understand why the
\nChristians believed Hell to be eternal; it was a memory in the self \t\t\tof the moral endlessness of those torments. But I had my release. I have lived in Elysium, I have trod the fields of asphodel. And \t\t\tin those happy experiences l have deepened the strength and
\nquality of my love, intensified the swiftness of my emotions, \t\t\trefined and purified my taste and intellect.
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tL<\/font><\/font>ITTLETON<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWhat is this world in which we meet?
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tP<\/font><\/font>ERCIVAL<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe heaven of comrades.  
\n<\/font> \t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 488<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

V   Littleton, Percival   LITTLETON After so long a time, Percival, we meet. It is strange that our ways, upon earth associated and parallel,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-early-cultural-writings","wpcat-49-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}