The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1890-02-27
THE WERE WOLF.

Ky father was scholar of pro-
ssand erudition and marvellous attain
ments; he penetrated further into the
arcana OF philosophy than any man
of his generation; but he was totally
destitute of personal ambition, and
never could be induced TO put his dis
coveries and speculations into literary
form. Hence his name is unknown,
and, save TO the private friends with
whom he couversed, not a few OF
whom have acquired great reputation
by the Towering in them of germs
that he planted in their minds, his gi-
ant intellectual stature is as though it
had never been. 4 giant he was,
physically as well as mentally; a
brave, well balanced nature, sunny
and clear as the day; great, Jove like
head, with close curling beard and
hair. With ambition added, he would
have stood ahead and shoulders above
the makers of history-a king of the
world.
My mother was of another stamp.
She was beautiful, dark and passion
ate; as fierce in her loving as in her
hating. l have seen her throw her
self upon my fathers herculean
breast, her swarthy cheek against his
fair and ruddy one, her jet black hair
upon his yellow beard, her wild black
eyes gazing into the steady blue of his;
clingfng there like a snake, and kiss
ing him as the adder strikes poison
into its victim. But her hate-that is
scarcely to be described. Had destiny
made her ruler of nations, like Semi
ramis or Cleopatra, she would have
made their revenges look pale by con-
trast with hers; her cruelty towards
those who had kindled her resentment
was as raging and implacable as fire.
Not the agony, not the death of her
enemies would satisfy her; she must
annihilate them, body and soul; and
yet would have them exist through an
eternity of torture. But enough; such
were my parents.
was their only child, and l in
herited from both. My fathers brain
dwelt in the nature of my mother; but
the two influences counteracted each
other. had not his careless serenity,
nor her concentration and vividness
of emotional manifestation. appear
ed cold and ascetie; my passions were
intense, but they were silent and hid
den. The only fire which I permitted
to reveal itself was that which famed
in the furnace of my intellect-the
devouring resolve to know and fathom
all things, And, indeed, 1 absorbed
knowledge with an ease and swiftness
that astonished every one. Before /
was 20 knew all that the universities
can teach, and could have acted as
professor in any branch of either elias
steal or scientific study. But all this
was to me but as the lowest rung OF
the ladder on which l purposed to as
| cend beyond the clouds. My ambi
ton transcribed the limits of human
achievement in the past, and contem
plated conquests of domains which
| heretofore the eye of man had not
| been opened even to contemplate
Master of life and death, of space and
time, of matter and spirit-not less
than this was my aspiration. I be
lieved in my unequaled destiny, anC
was deeply determined to fulfill it
One faculty 1 possessed that neither
my father nor my mother ever mani
fested-that unexplained power of the
!
udice of time and space and the veil:
of physical substance. This endowed
me with singular control over thu
thoughts and impressions of others
and showed me upon how simple /
foundation the magic exploits of The
wizards of all epochs are based. Blu
magic is only seemfng-a srecious il
fusion wrought on sense. My aim wa
to make the seeming an actuality.
wished to create and to annihilate
not to trifle with phantoms and jug
gleries.
1 kept a gray Russian wolf in IN,
garden-one of the most savage of it
species. He was chained to a tree
not that I feared him, but that
wished his savageness to remain una
bated. Daily visited him, stared int
his mad eyes, and studied his nature
The wolf, the widest and most relent
less of all savage beasts, is the mos
closely allied of all to the foundation
of human nature After contempla
ting him for awhile l would feel my
self entering into his instincts an
cravings, aye, and outdoing him i
ferocity and brutal bloodthirstiness
My comprehension of him cowed him
he would crouch and howl and striv
to break his chain, lest should sprin
upon him and rend him. That whic
in man we call love is in the wolf
the undeveloped man-fear and h;
tired. He feared and hated me, an
I loved him for his fear and hatred
t The scent of his hot breath and shagg
fur soothed and pleased me, the glar
of his yellow eyes moved me to laugh
ter, and his snarling and whinin
tickled my very heart. From sue
f communions I returned refreshed an
stimulated; they appeased me, an
left me kindly and genial. Man, lik
a a fool, would ever keep himself With
| his own narrow castle. Let hil
emerge and invite to himself the viii
: forces of nature, which, indeed, is bu
his inchoate self, and the springs {
his life will become as the exhaustles
wells of Artesia, which are fed frol
the hidden reservoirs of the plane
itself
1t is affirmed by philosophers tn:
the love of woman enfeebles the q,
tons of the mind of man and ball
ambition. me&itated much upon thi
dogma, doubling its soundness. W
man is to man as his own self-as thu
which is Supremacy dear and intimat
to him. We yearn to endow ourselv'
with all powers and pleasures; and b
making woman ours, when yet 81
wears a separate form and aspect, v
enjoy her pleasure in our gifts, viii
not FORGETTING our own delight therein
What is woman but the concre
manifestation of that metaphysic
subtlety, mans selfhood-that whit
distinguishes him from the animal
the unconscious beipg-for whom
no choice, no right and wrong, !
conscience2 In loving woman, '
love the human quality in ourselv
the person that each of us is, al
that burns to subjugate and Guido :
rival persons. Were it not for her, '
should forget our separateness as
b. dividuals, and relapse into the univ'
Sc sal man, who knows no difference
~