f humanity his name became a beautiful, illuminated symbol.
The charges of impiety were answered: "His music makes us dream." Music
now became ruler of the universe, and the earth hummed tunes; yet
Illowski's maddening music had been heard by few nations.

Humble, poor, asking nothing, always giving, he soon became a nightmare
to the orthodox. He preached no heresies, promised no future rewards,
nor warred he against church or kingdom. He only made music and things
were not as before; some strange angel had passed that way filling men's
souls with joy, beauty and bitterness. Duties, vows, beliefs fell away
like snow in the sun; families, tribes, states grew restless, troops
were called and churches never closed. A wave of belated paganism rolled
over the world; thinkers and steersmen of great political and religious
organizations became genuinely alarmed. So had come the downfall of the
classical world: a simple apparition in a far away Jewish province, and
the Caesars fell supine--their empires cracked like mirrors! To imprison
Illowski meant danger; to kill him would deify him, for in the blood of
martyrs blossom the seeds of mighty religions. Far better if he go to
Paris--Paris, the cradle and the tomb of illusions. There this restless
demagogue might find his dreams stilled in the scarlet negations and
frivolous philosophies of the town; thus the germ-plasm of a new
religion, of a new race, perhaps of a new world, be drowned in the
drowsy green of a little glass.

Illowski, this Spirit that Denied, this new Mephisto of music, did not
balk his evil wishers.

"Paris, why not? She refused to understand Berlioz, flouted Wagner, and
mocked Rodin's marble egotisms, the ferocious, white stillness of his
Balzac! Perhaps Paris will give me, if not a welcome, at least repose. I
am tired."

To Paris he went and excepting a few cynical paragraphs received no
attention. The Conservatoire, the Academie de Musique did not welcome
officially this gifted son of the Neva; the authorities blandly ignored
him, though the police were instructed that if he attempted to play in
front of churches, address mobs or build barricades, he must be
confined. Paris had no idea of Illowski's real meaning; Paris, even in
the twentieth century, always hears the news of the world last;
besides, she conceives no other conquest save one that has for its
object the several decayed thrones within her gates. Illowski was not
molested and his men, despi