The Green Face (16 page)

“I eventually realised”, explained Baron Pfeill, “that anyone
who is condemned to live in Europe needs a padded cell more
than anything else. Even just an hour in a room like this is
enough to transform the most neurotic fidget into a gentle mollusc for quite some time. I assure you, at times when I have so many demands made on me they’re coming out of my ears, the
mere thought of this soft room is enough to send all my good
intentions floating away, like fleas from a fox when it’s bathed
in milk. Thanks to this sensible arrangement I can, whenever I
like, avoid even the most pressing duties completely without
regret.”

“Anyone who heard you speak like that”, said Hauberrisser
with a laugh, “would be sure to assume you were the most
cynical hedonist imaginable.”

“Wrong!” said Pfeill, pushing the cigar-box with its curved
and bulging sides towards him. “Wrong and wrong again! I am
punctiliousness itself - towards myself. I know that your opinion is that life is meaningless. It is a delusion that I myself
shared for a long time, but it gradually dawned on me that all one
needs to do is to quit the rat-race and start living a natural life
once more.”

“And all this”, Hauberrisser gestured at the cork-lined walls,
“you call natural?”

“Of course! If I were poor I would have to live in some buginfested attic, but if I were to do that now, of my own free will,
it would be as unnatural as you could get. Destiny must have had
something in mind when it sent me into the world rich. Was it
to reward me for some deed I did in my former existence and -
touch wood! - have forgotten? That tastes a bit too much like
theosophical humbug to me. No, I think it most likely that fate
has allotted me the noble task of gorging on the sweet things of
this world until I am replete and desire a crust of stale bread for
a change. Well, I’m ready to do my bit. I could be mistaken, but
that wouldn’t be a disaster. Should I give my money to the poor?
At once, if you like; but first I would want to know the reason.
Just because it’s been written in so many fat tomes? No. And I
refuse to be taken in by the socialist slogan of `Get away from
the trough and let me get my snout in’. If someone is in need of
sharp medicine should I give them a syrupy draught? Water the
wine of destiny? That’s the last thing I want to do.”

Hauberrisser gave a wink.

“I know why you’re grinning like that, you old rogue”, Pfeill
went on in an irritated tone. “You’re alluding to those couple of guilders I sent to the shoemaker - by mistake, of course. The
spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. A gentleman doesn’t
remind a friend of his moments of weakness! I’ve spent all night
berating myself for letting myself go like that. What if it should
be too much for the old fellow and drive him out of his mind?
I’d be to blame.”

“As you brought the matter up”, said Hauberrisser, “I must
say that I don’t think you should have given him so much at
once; instead you should have -“

“let him starve bit by bit”, Pfeill broke in sarcastically.
“That’s all balderdash. I admit that if you follow your feelings,
much will be forgiven you because you have much loved, but
I think that before condemning me people should at least have
the decency to ascertain whether I am deliberately looking for
forgiveness. I intend to pay my debts, moral as well as financial,
right down to the last cent. I have this idea that long before I was
born my admirable soul was cunning enough to ask for great
wealth, as an insurance policy; so as not to be able to enter the
Kingdom of God through the eye of a needle. You see, my soul
just doesn’t like raucous hallelujahs and hates tedious music. If
only heaven were nothing but an empty threat! But I am firmly
convinced that there is such an institution waiting for us after
death. That makes it an extremely difficult balancing act on the
one hand to remain a decent person, and on the other to avoid
endingup in a future paradise. The blessed Buddha himselfused
to rack his brains over that problem.”

“And you too, as I can see.”

“Certainly. Just to be alive is not enough, is it? You seem to
have no idea at all of the demands that are made on me. I don’t
mean social engagements and such, I have alady wholooks after
the house and sees to all that as well; no, I mean the demands of
spiritual labour that come from my intention to - to - found -
a - new - state and a new religion. There, it’s out.”

“Good God, you’ll be locked up next!”

“Don’t worry, I’m no revolutionary.”

“And are there many in your sect, yet?” asked Hauberrisser
with a smile, suspecting it was all a joke.

Neill gave him a sharp look, paused for a moment and then said, “I’m afraid you seem to misunderstand me, as usual. Can’t
you sense that there’s something in the air, something more
palpable than ever before, perhaps since the world began?
Prophesying the end of the world is a thankless task, it’s been
predicted too often down the centuries for it to be credible any
more. In spite of that, I think that those who feel such an event
is approaching will be proved right this time. It doesn’t have to
mean the destruction of the earth, the destruction of a way oflife
is also the end of a world.”

“And you think such a drastic change in attitude could take
place overnight?” Hauberrisser shook his head doubtfully. “I
am more inclined to believe that some devastating natural
catastrophe is imminent. People don’t change from one day to
another.”

“Did I say that natural catastrophes would not occur?” cried
Pfeill. “On the contrary, I can sense their approach with every
nerve within me. But as far as an abrupt change in human attitudes is concerned, I hope you only appear to be right. What do
you base your assumption on? How far back in history can you
look? Only a miserable couple of thousand years! And even
over that short period haven’t there been enough sudden outbreaks of spiritual contagion to make one wonder? There have
been children’s crusades - though I grant you that it is unlikely
whether mankind will ever rise to a bureaucrats’ crusade. But
all things are possible, and the longer they are in coming, the
more probable they are. Until now men have torn each other
apart for the sake of certain dubious invisible beings that are
careful notto call themselves spirits but’ideals’. I think the hour
has finally come forthe war against these invisible enemies, and
I would like to play a part in it. For years I have been aware that
I was being trained in spiritual warfare, but until now I have
never had this clear feeling that a great battle against these
damn’d ghosts is at hand. I tell you, once you start clearing out
all those false ideals, there’s no end to it. You’ve no idea what
piles of humbug brazenly posing as truth you have inherited.
That’s what I call founding a new state, you see, this clearing the
mind of intellectual lumber. However, out of consideration for
the existing order and out of courtesy towards my fellow human beings-God forbid I should try to impose my views about inner
truthfulness and unconscious hypocrisy on them - I decided
from the outset that my state - I call it the Germ Free State
because it has been thoroughly disinfected of the spiritual vines
offalse idealism - should only have one subject, namely myself.
I am also the only millionaire of my belief. I have no need of
converts.”

“I see you’re not much of an organiser, then”, said Hauberrisser in relief.

“Nowadays everyone thinks they can organise; that shows
how wrong it must be. What is right is always the opposite of
what the herd does.” Pfeill stood up and started walking up and
down. “Even Jesus did not attempt to organise people, he just
set an example. Madame Rukstinat and company naturally
assume the right to organise all and sundry. Only nature and the
world spirit have that right. My state will last forever, it doesn’t
need an organisation. If it did, it would have failed.”

“But, my dear Baron, if your state is to have any point at all,
it must eventually consist of more than one person. Where are
you going to find your citizens?”

“Listen. If one man has an idea, that just means that many
others will have the same idea at the same time. Anyone who
doesn’t see that doesn’t know what an idea is. Thoughts are
contagious, even if they are not expressed; perhaps most contagious when they are not expressed. I am firmly convinced that
at this very moment a large numberhave already joined my state
and eventually it will flood the world. We have made great
progress in physical hygiene, people even disinfect door-knobs
so as not to catch some disease, but I tell you, there are certain
slogans that transmit much worse diseases, racial and ethnic
hatred, for example, demagoguery and such. They need a much
stronger disinfectant than we use on door-knobs.”

“You want to eradicate nationalism, then?”

“I am not going to weedkill things in other people’s gardens
that won’t die of their own accord, but in my own I can do as I
like. Nationalism seems necessary for most people, I admit, but
it is high time there was a `state’ whose citizens were held
together not by borders and a common language, but by their outlook; that will still allow them to live as they like.

In a certain sense people are right to laugh at someone who
sayshe intends to transform mankind. But they overlookthe fact
that all that is needed is for one person to transform himself root
and branch. His achievement will never fade, whether the world
recognises it or no. Anyone who does that tears a hole in the
established order that will never heal, whether the rest notice it
immediately or in a million years. All things that come into
being remain, they only seem to disappear. That is what I want
to do, to tear a hole in the net in which mankind has caught itself;
and notby preaching, but by escaping from the meshes myself.”

“Do you think there is any causal connection between the
catastrophes you believe are imminent and the change of attitude you assume is about to come over mankind?” asked Hauberrisser.

“Of course, it will always seem as if it is some physical calamity, a huge earthquake, for example, that makes men search
their conscience, but that is an illusion. The question of cause
and effect, or so it seems to me, is quite different. We can never
perceive causes; all that we can see is the effect. What appears
as the cause is only the first symptom. If I let this pencil go it will
fall to the floor. Every schoolboy would assume that letting go
of the pencil was the cause, but I don’t. Letting go is simply the
first, unmistakable sign that it is going to fall. Every event that
precedes another is its symptom. The cause is something completely different. It is true that we imagine we are capable of
bringing forth an effect, but that is just a terrible delusion, that
is just the world making us see things in the wrong light. In
reality there is one mysterious cause, and one cause alone,
whichmakes the pencil fall to the ground and which, beforethat,
made me let go of it. A sudden change in men’s attitudes and an
earthquake may well have the same cause; but that the one
should be the cause of the other is completely out of the question, however plausible it might appear to common sense. Each
is an effect as much as the other. One effect cannot produce
another, at most, as I said, it can be a first sign in a chain of
events, but nothing more. The world we live in is a world of
effects; the realm of true causes is hidden. If we should ever discover it we would be able to perform magic.”

“But to be master of one’s own thoughts, that is, to discover
their hidden roots, would that not be the same as performing
magic?”

Neill came to a sudden halt. “Of course! What else? It would
take us to a distant peak from which we would not only be able
to view everything, but also to make everything we want come
about. At the moment the only magic we men perform is with
machines, but I believe the hour is at hand when a few at least
will be able to perform it through will-power alone. All those
marvellous inventions, all those admired machines are nothing
more than blackberries that we gathered along the path that
leads to the summit. What is of value is not the invention itself,
but man’s inventiveness, not the picture - it’s value is measured
in monetary terms at the most - but the ability to paint. Any one
picture can fall to pieces, but the ability to paint will not be lost,
even if the painter should die. What remains is the power that
has come from heaven; even if it should sleep for centuries, it
always awakens when the genius who can reveal its majesty is
born. It is a great comfort to me that what our worthy merchants
manage to cheat our artists out of is merely the mess of pottage
and not the true blessing.”

“You’re not letting me get a word in edgeways”, Hauberrisser broke in. “I’ve had something on the tip of my tongue for
ages.”

“Why don’t you say it? Out with it, then.”

“But first of all another question: have you any reasons or -
or signs for saying we are approaching a turning point?”

“Hm. - Well. - I suppose it’s more a matter of feeling. I’m
really pretty much groping in the dark myself. There is one
thread I’m following, but it’s as thin as a spider web. I think I
have found certain boundary markers which tell us when we are
entering anew area. It was a chance meeting with a Juffrouw van
Druysen - you will meet her today - and something she told me
about her father that gave me the idea. My conclusion- perhaps
a completely unjustified conclusion-was that such a `boundary
marker’ in human consciousness is a similar inner experience
for all those who are ripe for it. And this experience - please don’t laugh - is the vision of a green face.”

Hauberrisser grasped his friend’s arms excitedly, suppressing an exclamation of astonishment.

“Forgoodness’ sake, what’s the matterwith you?“exclaimed
Weill.