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The Principles of Beautiful Web Design 4th Edition J.
Beaird Digital Instant Download
Author(s): J. Beaird, J. George, A. Walker
ISBN(s): 9781925836363, 1925836363
Edition: 4
File Details: PDF, 10.57 MB
Year: 2020
Language: english
i
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Notice of Liability
The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information
herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express
or implied. Neither the authors and SitePoint Pty. Ltd., nor its dealers or distributors will be held
liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in
this book, or by the software or hardware products described herein.
Trademark Notice
Rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the
names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of
infringement of the trademark.
Jason Beaird is a designer and front-end developer with over ten years of experience working on
a wide range of award-winning web projects. With a background in graphic design and a passion
for web standards, he’s always looking for accessible ways to make the Web a more beautiful
place. When he’s not pushing pixels in Photoshop or tinkering with markup, Jason loves sharing
his passion for the Web with others. He writes about his ideas, adventures, and random projects
on his personal site, jasongraphix.com1.
James George is a professional web designer from the United States, who is passionate about
the field of design. He loves connecting with other designers and developers. James enjoys
working closely with clients and businesses to create powerful, beautiful web design solutions.
You can find him on https://twitter.com/creativebeacon/Twitter2.
Alex Walker has directed SitePoint’s design thinking for two decades through front-end design,
50+ book covers and over 200 articles. His dream is to one day use CSS and SVG to create cold
fusion (the process, not the language). You can find him from time to time on Twitter3.
About SitePoint
SitePoint specializes in publishing fun, practical, and easy-to-understand content for web
professionals. Visit http://www.sitepoint.com/ to access our blogs, books, newsletters, articles,
and community forums. You’ll find a stack of information on JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, mobile
development, design, and more.
1.
http://jasongraphix.com
2.
https://twitter.com/creativebeacon/
3.
https://twitter.com/alexmwalker/
Table of Contents iii
Table of Contents
Supplementary Materials.............................................................................................xvi
Discovery ................................................................................................................... 19
Exploration ................................................................................................................ 21
Implementation ...................................................................................................... 21
Users Are Pleased by the Design but Drawn to the Content ...........23
The Logo....................................................................................................................27
Whitespace ..............................................................................................................29
Balance ..................................................................................................................................37
Unity ........................................................................................................................................44
Proximity ....................................................................................................................44
Repetition ..................................................................................................................46
Emphasis ...............................................................................................................................47
Placement .................................................................................................................48
Continuance .............................................................................................................48
Isolation ......................................................................................................................49
Contrast ......................................................................................................................50
Proportion ................................................................................................................. 51
Right-column Navigation...................................................................................56
Web Trends..........................................................................................................................63
Masonry Layouts....................................................................................................65
Assets ..........................................................................................................................75
Requirements ..........................................................................................................76
Sitemap ..................................................................................................................................77
Wireframes ...............................................................................................................78
Red ...............................................................................................................................84
Orange ........................................................................................................................84
Yellow ..........................................................................................................................85
Green .......................................................................................................................... 86
Blue ..............................................................................................................................87
Purple ......................................................................................................................... 88
White .......................................................................................................................... 89
Black ........................................................................................................................... 90
Saturation ..................................................................................................................92
Other Variants........................................................................................................116
Paletton ....................................................................................................................119
Colormind............................................................................................................... 120
Perspective .............................................................................................................143
Proportion ...............................................................................................................143
Horizontal Spacing..............................................................................................177
Table of Contents ix
What Now?........................................................................................................................220
Breaking ..................................................................................................................270
Preface
When my wife and I moved into our house, one of our first major projects was to update the
bathroom. The horribly gaudy floral wallpaper pattern, along with the gold sink fixtures,
obnoxious mirrors, and tacky lighting, made us feel like we’d stepped into a previous decade
every time we entered the master bathroom. Removing wallpaper is a tough job, but it’s even
more difficult when there are multiple layers of the stuff. This was the case with our bathroom.
Apparently the previous homeowners’ taste in wallpaper changed every few years, and rather
than stripping off the wallpaper and starting over, they just covered ugly with more ugly. Ah, the
joys of home ownership!
If there’s one thing our renovation adventures have taught me, it’s that there are strong parallels
between designing a room’s decor and designing a good website.
Good design is about the relationships between the elements involved, and
creating a balance between them.
Whether we’re talking about a website or bathroom makeover, throwing up a new layer of
wallpaper or changing the background color isn’t a design solution in itself—it’s just part of a
solution. While we removed the wallpaper and rollered some paint onto our bathroom, we also
had to change the light fixtures, remove the gold-trimmed shower doors, replace the mirrors,
upgrade the lighting, paint the cabinets, change the switches and plugs, and scrape off the
popcorn ceilings. If we’d just removed the tacky wallpaper and left all the other stuff, we’d still
have an outdated bathroom. Website design is similar: you can only do so many minor updates
before the time comes to scrap what you have and start over.
Conforming to the latest design trends is a good way to ensure temporary public appeal, but how
long will those trends last? As far as I know, there was hardly ever a time when marquee and blink
tags were accepted as professional web design markup … but scrolling JavaScript news tickers,
“high readability” hit-counters, and chunky table borders have graced the home pages of many
high-profile sites in the past. These are the shag carpets, sparkly acoustic ceilings, and faux
wood paneling of the web design world. Take a trip in the Internet Wayback Machine, and look for
late-nineties versions of some of the top Fortune 500 and pre-dot-com, boom-era websites. Try
Preface xiii
to find examples of good and bad design. In the midst of some of the most outdated, laughable
websites, you’re likely to find some pages that still look surprisingly relevant. Most likely, these
designs aren’t dependent on flashy Photoshop filters or trendy image treatments. As you read
this book, keep in mind that good design transcends technology.
I’ve heard it argued that deep down, people really love “anti-marketing design.” The idea is that
we trust sites that have an unpolished appearance and feel amateurish. I think this argument
misses the point. No matter what type of website you’re developing, the design should be as
intentional as the functionality. My wife and I didn’t change the functionality of our bathroom with
the work that we did. We just fine-tuned the details, but it made a world of difference. Some
people might have been able to live with the bathroom the way it was, but I doubt you’d find
anyone who would say it was exactly what they wanted.
Similarly, if you’re spending time developing a website, you should take time to design it. Under
no circumstances should the design feel unpolished or haphazard. If you want to come off as
edgy, anti-marketing, and non-corporate, then do it, and do it well—but there’s no reason to be
ignorant about, or feel intimidated by, design.
Our goal with this book is simple: to present what we know about designing for the Web in a way
that anyone can understand and apply. Why? Because the basics of website design should be
common knowledge. We all live in and work on an internet that has been blindly covering up ugly
with more ugly since its inception. It’s time to break that chain and make bold moves toward
better design.
– Jason
This book comprises the following five chapters. You can read them from beginning to end to
xiv The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition
gain a complete understanding of the subject, or skip around if you only need a refresher on a
particular topic.
An awareness of design relies heavily on understanding the spatial relationships that exist
between the individual components of a design. The layout chapter kicks off the design process
by investigating possible page components. With these blocks defined, we discuss some tools
and examples that will help you start your own designs on a solid foundation. To wrap up this
discussion, we’ll begin a project that we'll follow through each chapter—Trashmonger.
Chapter 2: Color
Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of design is the topic of color selection. Chapter 2 sheds
light on this as we delve into both the aesthetic and scientific aspects of color theory. Armed with
these simple guidelines, and some tips for creating harmonious color combinations, you’ll see
how anyone can choose a set of colors that work well together to complement the overall
message of a website. Finally, we’ll look at how our color palette influences our Trashmonger
project.
Chapter 3: Texture
An aspect of web design that’s often overlooked, texture is the key to creating designs that stand
out. By understanding how the individual elements of texture function, you’ll learn how to use
points, lines, and shapes to communicate and support your site’s message on a number of levels.
We’ll then get to see firsthand how subtle textures helped shape the identity and character of
our example website.
Chapter 4: Typography
Chapter 5: Imagery
The necessary companions to any well-designed site are the images and illustrations that grace
its pages. In the final chapter, we’ll discuss what we should look for in the visual elements that we
use on our pages, and locate sources of legitimate supporting imagery. Of course, finding the
Preface xv
right image is often just the beginning. We’ll also learn some image-editing basics before we see
the final steps in our example project.
Conventions Used
You’ll notice that we’ve used certain typographic and layout styles throughout this book to
signify different types of information. Look out for the following items.
Code Samples
Where existing code is required for context, rather than repeat all of it, ⋮ will be displayed:
function animate() {
⋮
new_variable = "Hello";
}
Some lines of code should be entered on one line, but we’ve had to wrap them because of page
constraints. An ➥ indicates a line break that exists for formatting purposes only, and should be
ignored:
URL.open("http://www.sitepoint.com/responsive-web-
➥design-real-user-testing/?responsive1");
xvi The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition
Hey, You!
Notes are useful asides that are related—but not critical—to the topic at hand. Think of
them as extra tidbits of information.
Watch Out!
Warnings highlight any gotchas that are likely to trip you up along the way.
CodePen Demo
Supplementary Materials
https://www.sitepoint.com/community/ are SitePoint’s forums, for help on any tricky
problems.
[email protected] is our email address, should you need to contact us to report a
problem, or for any other reason.
Layout and Composition 17
Chapter
1
Layout and
Composition
18 The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition
For many web developers, myself included, the most intimidating part of the design process is
getting started. Imagine for a moment that you’re sitting at your desk with nothing other than a
cup of coffee and the business card of a potential client who needs a basic corporate website.
Usually, a business card speaks volumes about a company’s identity, and can be used as design
inspiration.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the card for Smith’s Services below. It’s black and white, all
text, no character. Bleurgh! Talk about a blank canvas! So, where do you go from here? You need a
plan … and you need to contact Mr. Smith. With some critical input from the client about what his
company actually does, and by gathering information about the content you have to work with,
you’ll be able to come up with a successful design.
Anyone, no matter what level of artistic talent, can come up with a design that works well and
looks good. All it takes is a little experience and a working knowledge of some basic layout
principles. So let’s start with the basics, and before long you’ll have the foundation necessary to
design gallery-quality websites.
pleasing, but our highest priority should be to meet the needs of our client. These needs may be
lofty and elaborate, or they may just be about making information available. If we fail to listen
carefully, though, the entire project will come falling down. The process of creating a design
comp, however, can be boiled down to just three key tasks: discovery, exploration, and
implementation.
What’s a Comp?
The word comp is an abbreviation of the phrase “comprehensive dummy”—a term that
comes from the print design world. It’s a complete simulation of a printed layout that’s
created before the layout goes to press. In translating this term to web design, a comp
is an image of a layout that’s created before we begin to prototype the design in
HTML.
Discovery
The discovery component of the design process is about meeting the clients and learning what
they do. This may feel a little counterintuitive, but gathering information about who your clients
are and how they run their business is vital in coming up with an appropriate and effective design.
Before you schedule your first meeting with a client, spend some time researching their
business. If they’ve asked you to design a website, they may currently be without one, but google
them anyway. If you’re unable to find any information about their business specifically, try to learn
as much as you can about their industry before the first meeting. Whenever possible, the first
meeting with a client should be conducted in person. Sometimes, distance will dictate that the
meeting has to occur over the phone, but if the client is in town, schedule a time to meet face to
face.
Keep in mind that this meeting is less about impressing the client, selling yourself, or selling a
website than it is about communication and establishing just what it is the client wants. Try to
listen more than you speak, and bring a pad for taking notes. If you bring a laptop or tablet with
you to talk about website examples, limit the time spent using it. Computers have screens, and
people tend to stare at them, which isn’t conducive to a good meeting or to note taking. If you
must drag some technology into the meeting, use a voice recording app to record the
conversation—with the client’s permission, of course. In my experience, though, pen and pad are
less threatening and far less distracting to the often not-so-tech-savvy client.
Even when I worked for a company in a big office, I had some of my most productive client
20 The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition
meetings at a café or over lunch. The feasibility of this approach depends on the client. If your
contact seems to be more the formal business type, don’t suggest it. In many cases, though, it’s a
good way to make a business meeting more personal.
Below are some of the questions I like to ask in initial client meetings, even if I’ve already
established the answer myself via a search engine.
What are your visitors usually looking for when they come to your site?
What are the problems with your current design?
What do you hope to achieve with a redesign?
Are there any elements of the current site that you want to keep?
How do you think your visitors will react to a new site design?
Sometimes I start off with more questions than those listed here. Use your imagination and try to
come up with some creative queries that will really give you more insight into the client’s
Other documents randomly have
different content
The very first aphorisms of “Light on the Path,” included under
Number I. have, I know well, remained sealed as to their inner
meaning to many who have otherwise followed the purpose of the
book.
There are four proven and certain truths with regard to the
entrance to occultism. The Gates of Gold bar that threshold; yet
there are some who pass those gates and discover the sublime and
illimitable beyond. In the far spaces of Time all will pass those gates.
But I am one who wish that Time, the great deluder, were not so
over-masterful. To those who know and love him I have no word to
say; but to the others—and there are not so very few as some may
fancy—to whom the passage of Time is as the stroke of a sledge-
hammer, and the sense of Space like the bars of an iron cage, I will
translate and re-translate until they understand fully.
The four truths written on the first page of “Light on the Path,”
refer to the trial initiation of the would-be occultist. Until he has
passed it, he cannot even reach to the latch of the gate which
admits to knowledge. Knowledge is man’s greatest inheritance; why,
then, should he not attempt to reach it by every possible road? The
laboratory is not the only ground for experiment; science, we must
remember, is derived from sciens, present participle of scire, “to
know,”—its origin is similar to that of the word “discern,” “to ken.”
Science does not therefore deal only with matter, no, not even its
subtlest and obscurest forms. Such an idea is born merely of the idle
spirit of the age. Science is a word which covers all forms of
knowledge. It is exceedingly interesting to hear what chemists
discover, and to see them finding their way through the densities of
matter to its finer forms; but there are other kinds of knowledge
than this, and it is not every one who restricts his (strictly scientific)
desire for knowledge to experiments which are capable of being
tested by the physical senses.
Everyone who is not a dullard, or a man stupefied by some
predominant vice, has guessed, or even perhaps discovered with
some certainty, that there are subtle senses lying within the physical
senses. There is nothing at all extraordinary in this; if we took the
trouble to call Nature into the witness box we should find that
everything which is perceptible to the ordinary sight, has something
even more important than itself hidden within it; the microscope has
opened a world to us, but within those encasements which the
microscope reveals, lies a mystery which no machinery can probe.
The whole world is animated and lit, down to its most material
shapes, by a world within it. This inner world is called Astral by some
people, and it is as good a word as any other, though it merely
means starry; but the stars, as Locke pointed out, are luminous
bodies which give light of themselves. This quality is characteristic of
the life which lies within matter; for those who see it, need no lamp
to see it by. The word star, moreover, is derived from the Anglo-
Saxon “stir-an,” to steer, to stir, to move, and undeniably it is the
inner life which is master of the outer, just as a man’s brain guides
the movements of his lips. So that although Astral is no very
excellent word in itself, I am content to use it for my present
purpose.
The whole of “Light on the Path” is written in an astral cipher and
can therefore only be deciphered by one who reads astrally. And its
teaching is chiefly directed towards the cultivation and development
of the astral life. Until the first step has been taken in this
development, the swift knowledge, which is called intuition with
certainty, is impossible to man. And this positive and certain intuition
is the only form of knowledge which enables a man to work rapidly
or reach his true and high estate, within the limit of his conscious
effort. To obtain knowledge by experiment is too tedious a method
for those who aspire to accomplish real work; he who gets it by
certain intuition, lays hands on its various forms with supreme
rapidity, by fierce effort of will; as a determined workman grasps his
tools, indifferent to their weight or any other difficulty which may
stand in his way. He does not stay for each to be tested—he uses
such as he sees are fittest.
All the rules contained in “Light on the Path,” are written for all
disciples, but only for disciples—those who “take knowledge.” To
none else but the student in this school are its laws of any use or
interest.
To all who are interested seriously in Occultism, I say first—take
knowledge. To him who hath shall be given. It is useless to wait for
it. The womb of Time will close before you, and in later days you will
remain unborn, without power. I therefore say to those who have
any hunger or thirst for knowledge, attend to these rules.
They are none of my handicraft or invention. They are merely the
phrasing of laws in super-nature, the putting into words truths as
absolute in their own sphere, as those laws which govern the
conduct of the earth and its atmosphere.
The senses spoken of in these four statements are the astral, or
inner senses.
No man desires to see that light which illumines the spaceless soul
until pain and sorrow and despair have driven him away from the life
of ordinary humanity. First he wears out pleasure; then he wears out
pain—till, at last, his eyes become incapable of tears.
This is a truism, although I know perfectly well that it will meet
with a vehement denial from many who are in sympathy with
thoughts which spring from the inner life. To see with the astral
sense of sight is a form of activity which it is difficult for us to
understand immediately. The scientist knows very well what a
miracle is achieved by each child that is born into the world, when it
first conquers its eye-sight and compels it to obey its brain. An equal
miracle is performed with each sense certainly, but this ordering of
sight is perhaps the most stupendous effort. Yet the child does it
almost unconsciously, by force of the powerful heredity of habit. No
one now is aware that he has ever done it at all; just as we cannot
recollect the individual movements which enabled us to walk up a hill
a year ago. This arises from the fact that we move and live and have
our being in matter. Our knowledge of it has become intuitive.
With our astral life it is very much otherwise. For long ages past,
man has paid very little attention to it—so little, that he has
practically lost the use of his senses. It is true, that in every
civilization the star arises, and man confesses, with more or less of
folly and confusion, that he knows himself to be. But most often he
denies it, and in being a materialist becomes that strange thing, a
being which cannot see its own light, a thing of life which will not
live, an astral animal which has eyes, and ears, and speech, and
power, yet will use none of these gifts. This is the case, and the habit
of ignorance has become so confirmed, that now none will see with
the inner vision till agony has made the physical eyes not only
unseeing, but without tears—the moisture of life. To be incapable of
tears is to have faced and conquered the simple human nature, and
to have attained an equilibrium which cannot be shaken by personal
emotions. It does not imply any hardness of heart, or any
indifference. It does not imply the exhaustion of sorrow, when the
suffering soul seems powerless to suffer acutely any longer; it does
not mean the deadness of old age, when emotion is becoming dull
because the strings which vibrate to it are wearing out. None of
these conditions are fit for a disciple, and if any one of them exist in
him, it must be overcome before the path can be entered upon.
Hardness of heart belongs to the selfish man, the egotist, to whom
the gate is for ever closed. Indifference belongs to the fool and the
false philosopher; those whose lukewarmness makes them mere
puppets, not strong enough to face the realities of existence. When
pain or sorrow has worn out the keenness of suffering, the result is a
lethargy not unlike that which accompanies old age, as it is usually
experienced by men and women. Such a condition makes the
entrance to the path impossible, because the first step is one of
difficulty and needs a strong man, full of psychic and physical vigour,
to attempt it.
It is a truth, that, as Edgar Allan Poe said, the eyes are the
windows for the soul, the windows of that haunted palace in which it
dwells. This is the very nearest interpretation into ordinary language
of the meaning of the text. If grief, dismay, disappointment or
pleasure, can shake the soul so that it loses its fixed hold on the
calm spirit which inspires it, and the moisture of life breaks forth,
drowning knowledge in sensation, then all is blurred, the windows
are darkened, the light is useless. This is as literal a fact as that if a
man, at the edge of a precipice, loses his nerve through some
sudden emotion he will certainly fall. The poise of the body, the
balance, must be preserved, not only in dangerous places, but even
on the level ground, and with all the assistance Nature gives us by
the law of gravitation. So it is with the soul, it is the link between the
outer body and the starry spirit beyond; the divine spark dwells in
the still place where no convulsion of Nature can shake the air; this
is so always. But the soul may lose its hold on that, its knowledge of
it, even though these two are part of one whole; and it is by
emotion, by sensation, that this hold is loosed. To suffer either
pleasure or pain, causes a vivid vibration which is, to the
consciousness of man, life. Now this sensibility does not lessen when
the disciple enters upon his training; it increases. It is the first test of
his strength; he must suffer, must enjoy or endure, more keenly than
other men, while yet he has taken on him a duty which does not
exist for other men, that of not allowing his suffering to shake him
from his fixed purpose. He has, in fact, at the first step to take
himself steadily in hand and put the bit into his own mouth; no one
else can do it for him.
The first four aphorisms of “Light on the Path,” refer entirely to
astral development. This development must be accomplished to a
certain extent—that is to say it must be fully entered upon—before
the remainder of the book is really intelligible except to the intellect;
in fact, before it can be read as a practical, not a metaphysical
treatise.
In one of the great mystic Brotherhoods, there are four
ceremonies, that take place early in the year, which practically
illustrate and elucidate these aphorisms. They are ceremonies in
which only novices take part, for they are simply services of the
threshold. But it will show how serious a thing it is to become a
disciple, when it is understood that these are all ceremonies of
sacrifice. The first one is this of which I have been speaking. The
keenest enjoyment, the bitterest pain, the anguish of loss and
despair, are brought to bear on the trembling soul, which has not yet
found light in the darkness, which is helpless as a blind man is, and
until these shocks can be endured without loss of equilibrium the
astral senses must remain sealed. This is the merciful law. The
“medium,” or “spiritualist,” who rushes into the psychic world without
preparation, is a law-breaker, a breaker of the laws of super-nature.
Those who break Nature’s laws lose their physical health; those who
break the laws of the inner life, lose their psychic health. “Mediums”
become mad, suicides, miserable creatures devoid of moral sense;
and often end as unbelievers, doubters even of that which their own
eyes have seen. The disciple is compelled to become his own master
before he adventures on this perilous path, and attempts to face
those beings who live and work in the astral world, and whom we
call masters, because of their great knowledge and their ability to
control not only themselves but the forces around them.
The condition of the soul when it lives for the life of sensation as
distinguished from that of knowledge, is vibratory or oscillating, as
distinguished from fixed. That is the nearest literal representation of
the fact; but it is only literal to the intellect, not to the intuition. For
this part of man’s consciousness a different vocabulary is needed.
The idea of “fixed” might perhaps be transposed into that of “at
home.” In sensation no permanent home can be found, because
change is the law of this vibratory existence. That fact is the first one
which must be learned by the disciple. It is useless to pause and
weep for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has passed.
It is a very well-known fact, one with which Bulwer Lytton dealt
with great power, that an intolerable sadness is the very first
experience of the neophyte in Occultism. A sense of blankness falls
upon him which makes the world a waste, and life a vain exertion.
This follows his first serious contemplation of the abstract. In gazing,
or even in attempting to gaze, on the ineffable mystery of his own
higher nature, he himself causes the initial trial to fall on him. The
oscillation between pleasure and pain ceases for—perhaps an instant
of time; but that is enough to have cut him loose from his fast
moorings in the world of sensation. He has experienced, however
briefly, the greater life; and he goes on with ordinary existence
weighted by a sense of unreality, of blank, of horrid negation. This
was the nightmare which visited Bulwer Lytton’s neophyte in
“Zanoni”; and even Zanoni himself, who had learned great truths,
and been entrusted with great powers, had not actually passed the
threshold where fear and hope, despair and joy seem at one
moment absolute realities, at the next mere forms of fancy.
This initial trial is often brought on us by life itself. For life is after
all, the great teacher. We return to study it, after we have acquired
power over it, just as the master in chemistry learns more in the
laboratory than his pupil does. There are persons so near the door of
knowledge that life itself prepares them for it, and no individual hand
has to invoke the hideous guardian of the entrance. These must
naturally be keen and powerful organizations, capable of the most
vivid pleasure; then pain comes and fills its great duty. The most
intense forms of suffering fall on such a nature, till at last it arouses
from its stupor of consciousness, and by the force of its internal
vitality steps over the threshold into a place of peace. Then the
vibration of life loses its power of tyranny. The sensitive nature must
suffer still; but the soul has freed itself and stands aloof, guiding the
life towards its greatness. Those who are the subjects of Time, and
go slowly through all his spaces, live on through a long-drawn series
of sensations, and suffer a constant mingling of pleasure and of pain.
They do not dare to take the snake of self in a steady grasp and
conquer it, so becoming divine; but prefer to go on fretting through
divers experiences, suffering blows from the opposing forces.
When one of these subjects of Time decides to enter on the path
of Occultism, it is this which is his first task. If life has not taught it
to him, if he is not strong enough to teach himself, and if he has
power enough to demand the help of a master, then this fearful trial,
depicted in Zanoni, is put upon him. The oscillation in which he lives,
is for an instant stilled; and he has to survive the shock of facing
what seems to him at first sight as the abyss of nothingness. Not till
he has learned to dwell in this abyss, and has found its peace, is it
possible for his eyes to have become incapable of tears.
The difficulty of writing intelligibly on these subjects is so great
that I beg of those who have found any interest in this article, and
are yet left with perplexities and doubts, to address me in the
correspondence column of this magazine. I ask this because
thoughtful questions are as great an assistance to the general reader
as the answers to them.
Δ
(To be continued.)
Through joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, the soul comes to a
knowledge of itself; then begins the task of learning the laws of life,
that the discords may be resolved, and the harmony be restored.
The eyes of wisdom are like the ocean depths; there is neither joy
nor sorrow in them; therefore the soul of the occultist must become
stronger than joy, and greater than sorrow.
THE HISTORY OF A PLANET.
N o star, among the countless myriads that twinkle over the sidereal
fields of the night sky, shines so dazzlingly as the planet Venus—
not even Sirius-Sothis, the dog-star, beloved by Isis. Venus is the
queen among our planets, the crown jewel of our solar system. She
is the inspirer of the poet, the guardian and companion of the lonely
shepherd, the lovely morning and the evening star. For,
by Mabel Collins,
Author of “The Prettiest Woman in Warsaw,” &c., &c., And Scribe of
“The Idyll of the White Lotus,” and “Through the Gates of Gold.”
Only—
One facet of the stone,
One ray of the star,
One petal of the flower of life,
But the one that stands outermost and faces us, who are men and
women.
This strange story has come to me from a far country and was
brought to me in a mysterious manner; I claim only to be the scribe
and the editor. In this capacity, however, it is I who am answerable
to the public and the critics. I therefore ask in advance, one favour
only of the reader; that he will accept (while reading this story) the
theory of the reincarnation of souls as a living fact.
M. C.
INTRODUCTION.
A LIFETIME.
Overhead the boughs of the trees intermingle, hiding the deep
blue sky and mellowing the fierce heat of the sun. The boughs are
so covered with white blossoms that it is like a canopy of clustered
snow-flakes, tinged here and there with a soft pink. It is a natural
orchard, a spot favoured by the wild apricot. And among the trees,
wandering from shine to shade, flitting to and fro, is a solitary figure.
It is that of a young woman, a savage, one of a wild and fierce tribe
dwelling in the fastnesses of an inaccessible virgin forest. She is dark
but beautiful. Her blue-black hair hangs far down over her naked
body; its masses shield the warm, quivering, nervous brown skin
from the direct rays of the sun. She wears neither clothing nor any
ornament. Her eyes are dark, fierce and tender: her mouth soft and
natural as the lips of an opening flower. She is absolutely perfect in
her simple savage beauty and in the natural majesty of her
womanhood, virgin in herself and virgin in the quality of her race,
which is untaught, undegraded. But in her sublimely natural face is
the dawn of a great tragedy. Her soul, her thought, is struggling to
awake. She has done a deed that seemed to her quite simple, quite
natural; yet now it is done a dim perplexity is rising within her
obscure mind. Wandering to and fro beneath the rich masses of
blossom-laden boughs, she for the first time endeavours to question
herself. Finding no answer within she goes again to look on that
which she has done.
A form lies motionless upon the ground within the thickest shade
of the rich fruit trees. A young man, one of her own tribe, beautiful
like herself, and with strength and vigour written in every line of his
form. But he is dead. He was her lover, and she found his love
sweet, yet with one wild treacherous movement of her strong supple
arm she had killed him. The blood flowed from his forehead where
the sharp stone had made the death wound. The life blood ebbed
away from his strong young form; a moment since his lips still
trembled, now they were still. Why had she in this moment of fierce
passion taken that beautiful life? She loved him as well as her
untaught heart knew how to love; but he, exulting in his greater
strength, tried to snatch her love before it was ripe. It was but a
blossom, like the white flowers overhead: he would have taken it
with strong hands as though it were a fruit ripe and ready. And then
in a sudden flame of wondrous new emotion the woman became
aware that the man was her enemy, that he desired to be her tyrant.
Until now she had thought him as herself, a thing to love as she
loved herself, with a blind unthinking trust. And she acted
passionately upon the guidance of this thing—feeling—which until
now she had never known. He, unaccustomed to any treachery or
anger, suspected no strange act from her, and thus, unsuspicious,
unwarned, he was at her mercy. And now he lay dead at her feet.
And still the fierce sun shone through the green leaves and silvern
blossoms and gleamed upon her black hair and tender brown skin.
She was beautiful as the morning when it rose over the tree tops of
that world-old forest. But there is a new wonder in her dark eyes; a
question that was not there until this strange and potent hour came
to her. What ages must pass over her dull spirit ere it can utter the
question; ere it can listen and hear the answer?
The savage woman, nameless, unknown save of her tribe, who
regard her as indifferently as any creature of the woods, has none to
help her or stay in its commencement the great roll of the wave of
energy she has started. Blindly she lives out her own emotions. She
is dissatisfied, uneasy, conscious of some error. When she leaves the
orchard of wild fruit trees and wanders back to the clearer part of
the forest beneath the great trees, where her tribe dwells, when she
returns among them her lips are dumb, her voice is silent. None ever
heard that he, the one she loved, had died by her hand, for she
knew not how to frame or tell this story. It was a mystery to her, this
thing which had happened. Yet it made her sad, and her great eyes
wore a dumb look of longing. But she was very beautiful and soon
another young and sturdy lover was always at her side. He did not
please her; there was not the glow in his eyes that had gladdened
her in those of the dead one whom she had loved. And yet she
shrunk not from him nor did she raise her arm in anger, but held it
fast at her side lest her passion should break loose unawares. For
she felt that she had brought a want, a despair upon herself by her
former deed; and now she determined that she would act differently.
Blindly she tried to learn the lesson that had come upon her. Blindly
she let herself be the agent of her own will. For now she became the
willing slave and serf of one whom she did not love, and whose
passion for her was full of tyranny. Yet she did not, she dared not,
resist this tyranny; not because she feared him, but because she
feared herself. She had the feeling that one might have who had
come in contact with a new and hitherto unknown natural force. She
feared lest resistance or independence should bring upon her a
greater wonder, a greater sadness and loss than that which she had
already brought upon herself.
And so she submitted to that which in her first youth would no
more have been endured by her than the bit by the wild horse.
The apricot blossom has fallen and fruit has followed it; the leaves
have fallen and the trees are bare. The sky is grey and wild above,
the ground dank and soft with fallen leaves below. The aspect of the
place is changed, but it is the same; the face and form of the woman
have changed; but she is the same. She is alone again in the wild
orchard, finding her way by instinct to the spot where her first lover
died. She has found it. What is there? Some white bones that lie
together; a skeleton. The woman’s eyes fasten and feed on the sight
and grow large and terrible. Horror at last is struck into her soul.
This is all that is left of her young love, who died by her hand—white
bones that lie in ghastly order! And the long hot days and sultry
nights of her life have been given to a tyrant who has reaped no
gladness and no satisfaction from her submission; for he has not
learned yet even the difference between woman and woman. All
alike are mere creatures like the wild things; creatures to hunt and
to conquer. Dumbly in her dark heart strange questionings arise. She
turns from this graveyard of her unquestioning time and goes back
to her slavery. Through the years of her life she waits and wonders,
looking blankly at the life around her. Will no answer come to her
soul?
A LIFETIME.
Sitting, singing, on the steps of an old palace, her feet paddling in
the water of a broad canal, was a child who was becoming more
than a child; a creature on the threshold of life, of awakening
sensation. A girl, with ruddy gold hair, and innocent blue eyes, that
had in their vivid depths the strange startled look of a wild creature.
She was as simple and isolated in her happiness as any animal of the
woods or hills—the sunshine, the sweet air with the faint savour of
salt in it, her own pure clear girlish voice, and the gay songs of the
people that she sang—these were pleasure enough and to spare for
her.
But the space of unconscious happiness or unhappiness which
heralds the real events of a life was already at an end. The great
wave which she had set in motion was increasing in volume
ceaselessly; how long before it shall reach the shore and break upon
that far off coast? None can know, save those whose eyesight is
more than man’s. None can tell; and she is ignorant, unknowing. But
though she knows nothing of it, she is within the sweep of the wave,
and is powerless to arrest it until her soul shall awake.
“My blossom, my beautiful wild flower,” said a voice close beside
her. A young boatman had brought his small vessel so gently to the
steps she had not noticed his approach. He leaned over his boat
towards her, and touched her bare white feet with his hand.
“Come away with me, Wild Blossom,” he said. “Leave that
wretched home you cling to. What is there to keep you there now
your mother is dead? Your father is like a savage, and makes you live
like a savage too. Come away with me, and we will live among
people who will love you and find you beautiful as I do. Will you
come? How often have I asked you, Wild Blossom, and you have
never answered. Will you answer now?”
“Yes,” said the girl, looking up with grave, serious eyes, that had
beneath their beauty a melancholy meaning, a sad question.
The man saw this strange look and interpreted it as clearly as he
could.
“Trust me,” he said, “I am not a savage like your father. When you
are my little wife I will care for you far more dearly than myself. You
will be my soul, my guide, my star. And I will shield you as my soul is
shielded within my body, follow you as my guide, look up to you as
to a star in the blue heavens. Surely you can trust my love, Wild
Blossom.”
He had not answered the doubt in her heart, for he had not
guessed what it was, nor could she have told him. For she had not
yet learned to know what it was, nor to know of it more than that it
troubled her. But she put it aside and silenced it now, for the
moment had come to do so. Not till she had learned her lesson much
more fully could the question ever be expressed even to her own
soul, and before this could be, the question must be silenced many
times.
“Yes,” she said, “I will come.”
She held out her hand to him as if to seal the compact. He
interpreted the gesture by his own desire, and taking her hand in his
drew her towards him. She yielded and stepped into the boat. And
then he quickly pushed away from the steps, and, dipping his oars in
the water, soon had gone far away down the canal. Blossom looking
earnestly back, watched the old palace disappear. In some of its old
rooms and on its sunny steps her child-life had been spent. Now she
knew that was at an end. She understood that all was changed
henceforth, though she could not guess into what she was going,
and she waited for her future with a strange confidence in the
companion she had accepted. This puzzled her dimly. Yet how should
she lack confidence, having known him long ago and thrown away
his love and his life beneath the wild apricot trees, having seen
afterwards the steadfastness of his love when her soul stood beside
his in soul life?
A long way they went in the little boat. They left the canals and
went out upon the open sea, and still the boatman rowed
unwearyingly, his eyes all the while upon the beautiful wild blossom
he had plucked and carried away with him to be his own, his dear
and adored possession. Far away along the coast lay a small village
of fishermen’s cots. It was to this that the young man guided his
boat, for it was here he dwelled.
At the door of his cot stood his old mother, a quaint old woman
with wrinkled, rosy face, wearing a rough fishwife’s dress and coarse
shawl; her brown hand shaded her eyes as she watched her son’s
boat approaching. Presently a smile came on her mouth. “He’s
gotten the blossom he’s talked of so often in his sleep. Will he be
happy now, the good lad?”
He was truly a good lad; for his mother knew him well, and the
more she knew him the deeper grew her love. She would do
anything for his happiness. And now she took to her arms the child,
the Blossom, and cherished her for his sake. Before many days had
passed the fishing village made a fête day for the wedding of its
strongest boatman. And the women’s eyes filled with tears when
they looked at the sad, tender, questioning face of the beautiful Wild
Blossom.
She had given her love without hesitation, in complete confidence.
She had given more; herself, her life, her very soul. The surrender
was now complete.
And now, when all seemed done and all accomplished, her
question began to be answered. Dimly she knew that, spite of the
husband at whose feet she bowed, spite of the babes she carried in
her arms till their tiny feet were strong enough to carry them down
over the shore to the marge of the blue waters, spite of the cottage
home she garnished and cleansed and loved so dearly, spite of all,
her heart was hungry and empty. What could it mean, that though
she had all she had none? Blossom was grown a woman now, and
there were some lines of care and of pain on her forehead. Yet, still,
she was beautiful and still she bore her child-name of Blossom; but
the beauty of her face grew sadder and more strange as the years
went by, the years that bring ease and satisfaction to the stagnant
soul. Wild Blossom’s soul was eager and anxious; she could not still
the mysterious voices of her heart, and these told her (though
perhaps she did not always understand their speech) that her
husband was not in reality her king; that he heard no sound from
that inner region in which she chiefly existed. For him contentment
existed in the outward life that he lived, in sheer physical pleasure, in
the excitement of hard work, and the dangers of the sea, in the
beauty of his wife, the mirth of his happy children. He asked no
more. But Wild Blossom’s eyes had the prophetic light in them. She
saw that all this peace must pass, this pleasure end; she recognised
that these things did not, could not, absolutely satisfy the spirit; her
soul seemed to tremble within her as she began to feel the first
dawn of the terrible answer to her sad questioning.
CHAPTER I.
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