And King Mammon ordered the guards to seize him and drag him to kiss his cloven foot.

In the midst of all that rage the Man of Rags stood motionless. They laid hands upon him to seize him, but, wonderful to see, his rags came away in their hands and everywhere his skin was bared, a blinding light issued forth, that struck us dumb. And all that multitude fell upon their faces, as fall the spears of wheat before the northern blast. For we knew it was the king, himself, in our midst.

And, in my dream, I looked up, and in the blue sky of noon, there was no longer any sun. For Hethe King, was the sun, descended upon earth. And the sky opened, and there came forth hands grasping flaming swords, which showered upon that doomed city, thicker than the hails of April. And there came a mighty voice from the sky, louder than the trumpets of an army, and it cried "UNMASK! UNMASK!"

And as the voice cried, a great whirlwind arose, which stripped us of our masks and disguises and left us naked to the terrible eyes of the king. And it was seen that all who had bowed to Mammon were dark and hairy, foul and deformed, and their nakedness was horrible to look upon.

But those who had been loyal to their king, those we had cast into the outer dark, were in their nakedness, brighter than seraphs.

And the earth began to gape and heave, and that mighty city to tremble, and bow, and crack. So cracks and bows the piled up ice when the freshets of spring are swelling in the nether flood.

And from all that naked multitude went up a groan, a cry, a wail, of shame and anguish, such as will echo in my waking ears (though it was but a dream) as long as life endures.

And a great horror was upon me, for I was smeared all over with the filth I had worshiped, and my nakedness was shameful to see. And I dreamed that I caught up a mask and mantle which the wind cast near me, and fled toward the city gate, across the shaking earth. Not faster speeds the terror-hunted chamois, flying for its life across the bosom of the downward thundering avalanche.

And ever as I ran, the clarion voice clanged in my ear, "UNMASK!" and the dancing eddies of the blast tore like raging hounds at mask and mantle. And ever as I flew I shot a backward glance, and saw that mighty city rained upon from above, engulfed in fiery breathings from below, and in the sea-like heavings of the earth the city was laboring and sinking, as a mighty vessel rolling in the storming brine, and foundering with all on board.

And at the city gate stood one on guard, whom I had known as an outcast, but his lazar-rags were fallen to earth, and the haughty terror of his face was such I dared not look upon it. And he raised a flaming sword which smote me down like a sudden breath from a furnace-door, and cried " UNMASK!"

And in my dream I was full of terror of the wrath behind me, and I knelt to that great angel. "Rememberest thou," I cried, "when thou worest a leper's habit, and none would give thee bread? I flung to thee the food my pampered hound refused."

"Yea, I remember," he said.

"Then let thine heart pity me now!" I entreated. "Let me pass you, let not the king look upon my nakedness! Let me go back to the world

I came from, and strive by prayer and penance to live and burn away the damning stains!"

And so ran my dream, he lifted his sword to let me pass. "There," said he, "is your world." And I saw that the whirl of filthy masks and dresses and tinsels was ever blown along the sky, until it rolled itself together like a ball of burs, and, in the image of a world, went ever falling into a gulf of shadows.

And I ran beneath that flaming arch, and leapt into the gulf. As stoops the hawk from the clouds to catch the fish he has dropped ere it can reach the wave, so flew my spirit to the world it had lost. And ere our earth had travelled a bow-shot in its flight through space I had overtaken it, and with a shock, an agony, a start, and a cry of unspeakable terror I woke into the world of men.

ROADS TO IMMORTALITY.

(CONTINUED.)

THE SHAFT.

--

Silbert remained several days with his friend, strengthened himself with his words, refreshed his heart with the sincere proofs of his friendship, and returned with a glad spirit to the work of reconstructing himself.

The meaning of his task soon became clear, and before a year had passed he was again with Fielding. The latter welcomed him and said: "We know the tree from the surface of the bark to the centre of the pith; but now it is needful to test it in its height and depth. Therefore I must ask you to visit with me a friend who is nearer perfection than I. He is no other than the Mohrland whom you know from the story of Caroline Rupert."

"I will go with you," said Silbert, "for you have guided me till now with such love and regard that I would do ill not to obey you."

The next day they set out, and found Mohrland in his office, surrounded by ores and other minerals, As he saw Fielding, he advanced to meet him, gave his hand, and said: "Ah, what an unlooked for pleasure! Have greeting, my brother What brings thee to me?"

Fielding responded: "A new friend has made his appearance; thou shalt help me to show him the way that Nature has designed for man." Mohrland now gave Silbert his hand and regarded him from head to feet, saying: "A well-built young man; Nature must rejoice in him." Silbert in the meantime had regarded Mohrland and remembered having seen him before. But whoever had told him at that time that he would go to school to learn of this simple miner, he would have branded as a liar. This and other things he thought when Mohrland continued: "Nature, my friend, goes its even course, guided by eternal laws; it is those we must seek to understand, then we shall walk on the right path; for we are called to live in the knowledge of them. I know you have begun already and the momentous question is for you to remain courageous. Realization of Immortality is your special aim. You have chosen a good problem which can be solved with safety, although with much effort. who pushes onward dauntlessly, is bound to obtain certainty. But enough for the present! I have now to make arrangements to properly attend my dear guests. How long will their visit last? Longer than usual, I hope?"

He

Fielding remarked: "If it is not inconvenient to thee we shall stay three days."

Mohrland expressed his joy at this announcement and left them for a few moments to give the necessary orders. The day passed rapidly with conversations on common topics, as the condition of society, the questions that were agitating the world, and the errors and extravagances to which man is liable in all departments. On the following morning Mohrland said: "To-day I will show our new friend something of my professional activity. I suppose he has never seen a mine and it will not be without interest for him to get a taste of how it is to live under the earth." They set out, and after a quarter of an hour found themselves at the opening of the shaft.

"Now then, let us descend" said Mohrland after he had properly prepared and cautioned Silbert. When they arrived at the bottom he showed him all the galleries and windings of the mine, and at last took him to a kind of a niche, in which there were a table, four seats and some books and papers." This is my sitting-room" Mohrland said, "here in the womb of the earth, in the grave, so to speak, I give myself to meditations on this world and that beyond, and can often hardly understand how the men above me can be so foolish as to worry and drudge for the few days they are allowed to stay there. Here,' I then say, 'is our home; the grave is the gate of life; it is from the earth that every valuable thing has to grow; for in all creation we have never seen an air, fire, or water-plant; from the earth all good things must come that are marked by definite outlines and attributes.'

"I have spent a good deal of my life above, and later only has fate assigned to me this sphere of activity, but I confess that here alone have I been able to pierce through all the mists that surround the life of man; it is here I obtained an equilibrium that formerly had been entirely unknown to me, and through which a new course of life began for me.

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6

"I had from my early youth been inclined to enter into theosophical investigations and to learn to understand the theorems of those wonderful philosophers; but as their writings are always incomplete and everything with them has to be taken metaphorically rather than literally, I was not able to solve the problem. I knew their metallurgy by heart; the applications they made of magnetic and sympathetic forces on life and even spirit, stimulated me to ever new research; but the band would not fall from my eyes. Here, deep below the dwellings of men, in the body of God, so to speak, I obtained a new, practical view of things. I am Pluto,' I imagined and supply the upper-world with metals. Where do I get them? Here they are; but where does this purity, lustre, and brightness in all the metals and stones come from? Do the colors and rays of Olympus penetrate even to Orcus? Does also Jove's power dwell in Plute, and can Jove subsist only with Pluto and Neptune? Everywhere there is light, everywhere water and air, everywhere metallic force. The heaven is in the earth, the earth in the heaven; and water and air are the messengers who prepare, work out, and purifiy all the forces and mixtures. Nature with all her heavens is one!' I enraptured exclaimed, Man also can attain to oneness, and thereby reach in his individuality the perfection of the Universe.

'Man is a living being,' I continued in my reflections; 'what relation, then, does life bear to the great whole? man has a body, sensations and thoughts.

The body is the earth, the thought is the light, and the sensations are the messengers between both. As Jove pervades and fills the earth, so thought must penetrate and fill the whole body; and on the other hand the thought needs the body wherein to shape itself and attract substance for its action. Without sensation and thought the body is dead, without a body we cannot sense, without sensation we cannot think; yea, without the body thoughts and sensations do not exist for us. But once that these constituent elements have found their harmonious and reciprocal action, the life of man is as lasting as the prime forces of the Universe.

'But how can we reach that harmony? How can the thought combine with the body? Does not the body exclude the thinking-faculty? The answer to these questions agitated my mind. As the light with its colors is spread through all the earth, so, correspondingly, the thought must fill the body. Now, what are the colors or elements, of thought? Answer: words, numbers, and forms.'

Therefore my friend, learn how to count, to form and to speak through your body; then you will have the knowledge of the history of the world and of your own existence."

When they left the mine and entered the day-light, Mohrland said: "Here in the warm sunshine it is more pleasant after all, is it not?" But Silbert's thoughts were absorbed by that philosophy of Greek Mythology, to which he had so unexpectedly obtained the key. "The light is everywhere" he answered to Mohrland's question, "but we do not aim to seek and realize it. You have supplied me with a great deal of the substance of light there under the earth, and I shall prove my gratitude by kindling it."

The day passed rapidly to them in the contemplation of the beauty of Nature, and in conversations on her influence upon all departments of man's life.

On the third day Mohrland gave a festival to his guests, at which no one else was present. It was a great satisfaction to Silbert to hear for the first time those expansions of the soul that, coming from the very marrow of life, take hold of the innermost being and impart to it a new animation. Mohrland abandoned himself entirely to his inner feelings and gave enlightenment on subjects of the highest importance, intended to encourage and strengthen the soul-life of the new friend. At the conclusion of his speech he took hold of Fielding's hand with his right, of Silbert's with his left, and said: "We have found and will no more lose each other. In the Eternal there is a centre around which all things turn. In the circumference there is storm, at the centre there is calmness; we are standing there now, and in whatever frenzies the world may whirl around us, we seek immortality and in this consciousness remain happy and strong.

On the next day they parted from Mohrland with the promise to visit him again before a year should have elapsed. Fielding resumed his duties and tried to make up for what he had left undone. But Silbert, full of enthusiasm, returned to his farm-house in order to think, act, and practise according to Mohrland's suggestions.

The problem never left his mind: "The body has to learn to count, to picture forms, to speak. To the undermost of the earth the light of heaven penetrates and produces colors and forms. Well! It was on her

feet he put that young lady tormented by spirits. The feet are a part of the body, are its pillars; in them I will commence.

He continued also his other exercises with great diligence. Although he realized that the new task superseded the former ones, because, in fact, all were contained in the latter, he had not the courage to desist, and thus went on for five months, occasionally paying a visit to Fielding. But then the moment seemed to have arrived when a new crisis set in which would decide whether or not Nature would reveal her secrets to him. One day he appeared before his friend greatly deranged. "I cannot go any further" he said, "my forces leave me. Monsters stand up against me that are not found in visible creation. I have some courage, but since such powers conspire against me, I begin to succumb. Help me; for without your assistance I am lost!"

Fielding took his hand and felt an intense heat in it. His look was unsteady, as though he were afraid to let it rest on one spot; his lips trembled and seemed to be ready for speech, but the words stuck in his mouth. "Recover your calmness," said Fielding, "all will be right. If the enemy does not show up, we cannot attack him. Therefore, courage!" Silbert replied: "There is an Eternity! I have seen its realm; but I doubt whether I shall get there. My life is divided. On my skin there is a fire so fierce that I often feel as if I were in a fever. In my bowels a sea seems to wave. My heart has forsaken me; there alone I feel no life but more violent is the tumult in my brain. Noises of spirits, barking of dogs, satanic disputations in which the most evident truths are inverted into lies, phantoms of fire and darkness appear and persecute me every moment I yield to rest in myself. Yea, even now as I am talking to you, I am not free of such phantasmagoria, and I realize this state surpasses my physical powers, because I can find neither sleep nor refresh

ment."

Fielding bade him stay and live with him until the crisis should be over. "I must watch your condition myself," he said, "in order to suggest the true remedies."

Toward evening they were sitting in the garden alone, when suddenly Silbert's voice became as loud as though he had to talk to one at an immense distance. Fielding asked: "Why are you so fierce, my friend?” S. An internal power compels me to.

F. Try to master it.

S. I hardly can.

It impels me to cry out to all the world, that all philosophy is vain, and that blindness holds rule.

F. Who is in you that speaks thus?

S. Not I, it is something beside me that suggests the words which I have to utter against my will.

F. It is the lawyer that does not like to yield his crown and tries to suppress your true self.

S. There is a still thought in the background, I feel it plainly; but I cannot bear its words, for they thrill through all my nerves; I even think they touch the very marrow of my bones. Then I see

for moments

only - a new heaven, from which the breath of life seems to flow. F. That heaven is your goal; to learn how to calmly contemplate it, is our task. What you see between you and that heaven, are hindrances placed there by God and Nature to ward off from the gate the sinner, the weakling, the idler. The fire is the flaming sword that defends the en