life came to him and through his making them undergo the most agonizing physical and mental chores they freed themselves from suffering—that is, whatever they could not bear—by a new suffering, which, in time, brought them to a point of self-knowledge where their true development could begin. Those who were fastidious were given disgusting work, cleaning chamber pots, etc.; the weak were made to do hard labor, scrubbing, laundering, or cutting wood until they dropped—at which point Pergov would encourage them to greater effort—as in the case of the girl who had fallen exhausted on the stage. The demonstration on the stage was one example of how Pergov taught those who came to him to strip from themselves what was untrue, whirling it away—and it was an exercise based on dances he had seen in monastic temples of the East in which the monks purged themselves as they whirled, only apparently monotonously, into their essential selves. "He has," she declared, "at last made an exact science of Eastern mysteries that the Western mind can grasp." Mrs. Doyle said she was hoping to go to Rambouillet this summer as she knew that only through Pergov could she be reborn.
All the way home and most of the night Lucy and I talked about Pergov. I said I was glad I had gone because now I understood more clearly what Vermillion said about only wanting to dominate the canvas. That there were those who want to dominate others, dictate what others than themselves should do. Pergov was one of those dictators. Secondly there were those who want to be dominated, or disciplined, by some kind of Pergov, because they are too spiritually weak or lazy or don't want the responsibility of their own actions or decisions. Both of these two groups believe in discipline from the outside. Vermillion belonged to the third group who believe in real self-discipline.
Lucy's answer surprised me. "Oh, I don't know. Vermillion is selfish. He thinks only of himself. Maybe a man who cares enough to teach one discipline is better. One could learn a lot from a man like Pergov."
This seemed to me a reversal of what she had said about understanding what Vermillion meant by the bull having its head lowered by beating it down and her own conclusion after Horta's call-girl party that the world wants lowered heads in people. I hope this is no more than a last remnant of her old