The end of this speech was much more clearly audible to Egerton than the commencement; and also he found, without opening his eyes or making any effort, that Hartley's form was becoming visible to him.

"I see you now," he remarked, "but you look shadowy." "And so do you," was the reply; "indeed, I don't suppose I look as dim to you as you do to me. If you regard me as a phantom, so do I you, for your body is not you to my perceptions, but only an organism which you animate, and your spirit is not as clear as it might be. You will find that out when you try to exercise its powers. Now, come!-come with me!"

And Egerton-who had become convinced that he was standing beside the body which he had been in the habit of regarding as himself-found that, though no longer within its walls of flesh, yet its hold upon him was very great when he essayed to

"Tread the silent slopes of air." "I will tell you something of my history since we parted," said Hartley, "for I must interest you in order to loosen the bondage of the body from you;" and, taking Egerton's hand in his, he drew him away as he talked, and Egerton listened dreamily, though absorbedly, for his journey seemed to consist at first rather of a passing through states than any more intelligible mode of progress. But he was restrained from a too curious contemplation of these states of his own by his interest in the story which he had so long desired to hear. Thus, leaving his body wrapped in quiet slumber, he followed Hartley, listening to him the

while.

"I had already begun to believe that, as love and happiness had so

far been Elena's lot, nothing would awaken her sleeping soul but pain. I had even said so to her on the very evening of my death. It had hurt her, that speech of mine. The physical life was so much the more strongly developed that it held dominance in her character, and it rebelled against the insult to itself which my words implied. Never had I been so utterly hopeless of any possibility of happiness arising from our union as on that night. Indeed, I felt that a climax in our relations had come; we did but hurt each other when together, and although I was overpowered by a yearning which held me to Elena, yet did I feel as though I could never look upon her again. I knew that the bond which had united us on the physical plane must be snapped but how? Should we be the actors in one of those miserable domestic tragedies which form gossip for society? Surely no!

"My own death was a thing undreamed of as a solution; yet, when the accident came, and suddenly I knew that the knot was cut, and that I was launched upon the limitless world of spirit, how grand was the feeling of relief and the bounding forth of my soul! I was scarcely conscious of the death agony which must have torn my physical frame; with one passionate cry to Elena's spirit, I burst the bonds of the physical, and stood free of matter.

"For three dim periods of lessening mist I lingered in the border lands of the new life and the old death, held by the not yet decaying form. And while thus lingering, I knew that at last my soul had reached Elena's, and that the small vivid life of the newly awakened spirit had broken down that beautiful and strong physical life which to others had been Elena, and to me had been the cloud that covered her. "Pain had startled the child

soul! The Creator's hand was moulding the shape of my childwife. This I understood afterwards. At the end of those periods of which I spoke, I seemed on a sudden to emerge from the cloud of the transition. I found myself then standing upon a wide and breezy plain; my eyes wandered from the clear sky above to the fragrant-flowered soil beneath my feet. But immediately I became aware that I was surrounded by friends, who pressed to shake my hand and welcome me in their midst. I was not surprised to recognise them, and I was, just at first, oddly affected by the sense that the phase I had passed through on earth had obscured them to me. I was at home with them; and I soon began to understand that Elena was indeed my mate, but that my development of life had been more rapid than hers, and that my sojourn upon your foggy earth had for its principal purpose her companionship.

"And now they told me I was to resign myself to a temporary separation. For Elena, in her newly aroused state, was keenly sensitive, and ready for rapid growth; and she was to pass through some solitary experiences before our reunion. I was not easily reconciled to this, but my friends persuaded me, and they took me among them down to the shores of a great lake, and made me enter a boat. This boat was steered over the waters-which in themselves fascinated my delighted eyes, for I saw strange visions through their pellucid depths-to a great hall which opened on the lake. This was the Hall of the Poets; and it can only be entered from the lake, for water is the symbol of Truth. In this stately building-whose dome was so great that it seemed to lose itself in the sky-I listened to such discourse

as served to distract my thoughts. I could tell you much of this, but not now.

"When I left the hall again, I looked over the boatside, at the strange things which those mystic waters revealed, and lo! to my surprise, I beheld you, my friend Egerton, sitting by your fireside alone, and endeavouring to reach me by means of the spirit telegraphy-the touch upon the sympathetic chords. Instantly I was with you. But I found you in a most unpleasant fog, which you appeared not to notice. Many a time since, however, have I braved its discomforts, in order to establish a communion with you, but never have I completely succeeded till now, when I suppose our desire that you should be present on our wedding day enabled me to reach you."

"It seems to me a very odd thing," said Egerton, or rather Egerton's shadowy presentment, "that people should keep on having wedding days as your story suggests. You and Elena have already been married."

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"Ah! but not in the spirit. Elena, borne upon the broad white wings of an angelic messenger, has visited dark hell-spheres, has journeyed over regions of ice-cold existences, has been blinded for a brief space by a direct ray from the Sun Himself, in preparation for this day! Elena is no longer a child, she has been taught to prepare our home, a home in which, after this union, more real than any yet, we may endeavour to commence a more real living."

"And have you not seen her yet ?"

"Yes; it was this morning that we met-together we prepared the house to receive our friends. And now, look around, try to open your eyes, your swaddling clothes are a little loosened."

And Egerton, looking, became aware that he stood in the midst of a most golden and sun-gladdened land. His eyes were charmed by the yellow-hued meadow flowers which on every side seemed to smile and nod at him. Hartley, leading him by the hand, guided him along the path, which immediately rose up a pineclad hill. It was a broad pathway, on the sides of which grew delicate woodland blossoms.

All this life was so wonderful to Egerton that he could but gaze around, speechless, until Hartley said, "Here is Elena."

Raising his eyes, Egerton saw that they approached a house, which stood upon the hillside; but he did not more than momentarily observe it, for from its door issued a slight shape-a child-woman-a timid, bright being, like an opening flower-bud. Was this Elena? His perceptions could not identify her with the Elena he had known. He had not had the power to perceive the germ life within that earthly body, which had been rather hereditary than personally evolved.

She sprang towards them, and, as she advanced, Egerton became aware that she was clothed in flowers-white flowers and green leaves seemed to have woven themselves together to form a festal drapery. None but their own will could thus have trained them-and indeed it must be so-for as she came down the path her hands became filled with the delicate wayside blossoms-how, he knew not; she did not pluck them. But the flowers looked so animated that he paused, even while gazing upon the coming Elena, to wonder whether indeed the virtuousness of plant and flower life could lead it into a higher sphere of activity where it might escape its rootedness. Was that rootedness one of the earth thraldoms?

Elena placed her hand in his. She recognised him; but he felt that he had a new friend to make in her. And then she stepped to her husband's side, and Egerton, looking as they moved towards the house, thought that his spiritual sight must be dim, for the two shapes beside him seemed to blend, and separate, and blend again. He did not know that he was gazing on twain that were one.

His entrance to the house was made known to him by a sense of sweet warmth and a deep comfort that crept upon him. The walls appeared to embrace him, and the entrance to open itself for him.

They were in a large room, where was a table prepared; he saw richcoloured fruits upon it. The windows on one side opened upon the woodland, on another upon a garden and orchard; flower-sprays waved their smiles and scents in at each. Here Elena vanished; but Hartley drew Egerton with him, and they followed her to an adjoining room, where she was busy preparing food. preparing food. Egerton, watching, understood that she did this by means of her own virtue or will, without the same use of fire or other servants as in a less developed state are necessary for housewifely

use.

But his attention was distracted from her by a consciousness of presences. Many people began to enter, and Egerton was with perplexity aware that the individuals made impressions on him of different degrees of intensity. Some were living, breathing, definite forms; others were more remote; yet again others were altogether shadowy or dim. These last he felt to be really removed from him, although in relation to space they seemed close. Hartley was ployed in greeting and welcoming these many friends, so that Egerton was left for a while alone. He

em

realised this keenly and immediately, for he felt a helpless dependence upon his friend. This strange world was so new to him that he did not seem safe in it. So he remained motionless where he stood. Presently Hartley approached him with a pleasant but somewhat amused smile. "Now," he said, "you must realise how blind and dulled are the brightest of earthdwellers, when you are thus helpless, if left unsupported, in a purely spiritual state. Your soul is uncultivated, uneducated; your intellect is developed; but then, unfortunately, you left that asleep in your study armchair! You will forgive my plain speech, Egerton, I know; besides, you do but share the general lot of mankind. amazed, in looking back, to see how little I guessed my powers, how little I knew my capacities, and now you are illustrating that very thought of mine. Why, Egerton, you are a spirit like the rest of us here; how is it you can't find your feet?"

I am

"I can hardly be expected to, I think," said Egerton; "when you consider that I have never been in this world before. I must get used to it."

"What do you mean?" said Hartley, laughing. "You have never been out of it. Man is but tied to his body for a certain proportion of his life in it; if he were not able to go to sleep at regular intervals and have a good clean dip into the ocean of spirit, he could never stand his embodied existence. Besides, even when awake in your body, you are but enwrapped with various obscuring or protecting formations and forces. You ought not to forget how to walk upon your own true feet."

"My own feet!" said Egerton reflectively, looking down as if for enlightenment upon the extremities in question, which he then observed

with some surprise to be very neatly covered.

"How does it happen that I am dressed?" he inquired suddenly. Hartley laughed again.

not

"You may as well ask how you come to be in a house, and among an intelligent company. You are The same a savage soul. state which allows of your admittance into a spiritual society, clothes you in accordance with your needs. We don't have to buy or make our clothes here-but we have to earn them. Your clothes are very presentable, my dear Egerton, but they are modest. Now the other day I happened to see the entrance into this life of a great preacher upon earth; he really arrived here in a dress resembling his usual dress in the physical, and looked much as you look now. But when the last links with his body were broken, and his physical death was completed, he appeared in a robe which seemed to me to be made of light-at all events it was radiant as a rainbow, and he looked a glorious fellow in it. But then his living and working had been deeply spiritual. He knew how to stand and how to walk when he got here."

"Who are these ?" interrupted Egerton. "Why, Hartley, I did not know your children were dead!"

The cause of this exclamation was Elena's advancing towards them; the two children, whom he easily recognised as Hartley's children upon earth, by her side. He knew them, as I say, immediately; yet he was puzzled, for they appeared older than he remembered them to be.

"Oh no," said Hartley, "they are not dead. Their physical forms are peacefully slumbering in their two little cribs; and I daresay the old nurse is at this moment thinking how

happy and bonny they look. They have been both with me and Elena before, like this; and we are inclined to make the most of it, for, unless there is something special in the constitution, it is only in early childhood that the spirit can so easily visit its real home. Indeed, the spirits which animate baby forms often do but touch the earth; their real life is led here. But, as the child grows, the spirit is drawn within its expanding shape until we wholly lose sight of it. And I am much afraid that we shall soon begin to lose sight of our children upon earth."

Elena, smiling timidly, yet with a brightness that appeared to irradiate the room, advanced to play hostess; and the whole assemblage sat down to the table, which was now beautiful and delicate in its completed aspect.

Egerton looked around him in wonder. Never had he made one in a company of real lovers before. The genuine gaiety of the scene surprised unutterably the dweller among earth phantasmagoria and "solid unrealities." It was like a draught of too strong a vintage: and he began to find that he was scarcely able to breathe easily amidst it. This feeling increased momently, but he consoled himself by the idea that it might partly be owing to some atmospheric change which he did not understand, for he saw the guests around the table looking upwards with siniles, and Hartley and Elena exchanging glances which told not only of extreme delight but of something ineffable. He then also raised his eyes and became aware that something was occurring. The air over the heads of the company seemed strangely clear, yet was full of gleams of colour.

"What is happening?" he cried to Hartley; "I-I breathe with difficulty!"

With a smile of sympathy his friend replied: "I expect you are beginning to pine for a little fog in your lungs. We are honoured more than we anticipated, by the presence and sympathy of spiritspheres higher and more developed than our own, and they bring their clearer atmosphere with them. This is exhilarating-glorious to us! I hope you can endure it, for it will, indeed, repay your suffering."

While Hartley spoke the change above grew more distinct: the upper part of the room had vanished, or was obscured by a radiant light, in which became visible smiling faces-faces calm with the peace that comes of wisdom, faces that glowed with the rays of love. Egerton looked with entranced eyes, even while he gasped agonisedly for breath. Suddenly there came floating gently down a cloud of white blossoms, that fell like blessings upon Hartley and Elena; and, as the blossoms fell, through the midst of the cloud which they formed, there seemed to open another and inner vista of light, and more faces glowed within it, and, as it opened, there came through it a deep, burning, blinding ray of intense light and heat and colour-pure, absolute.

The guests bowed their heads before it for its majesty who could bear? and Hartley and Elena, stretching out their hands towards it, seemed but one form, transfigured and transparent, illumined by the radiance that fell upon them.

This much Egerton saw, in a brief instant of agony and suffocation. Then, with a cry of grief and pain, he felt himself plunged in a darkness that wrapped and hid him..

He seemed to sink-down-down -through darkness, through pain, until at last he became aware that