ay when she should
leave him he would bury his head in the lap of Mother Church and
submit without further resistance to the sable veil of assumed
authority which he knew she would draw across his mind. Convincing as
were the proofs which had come to him of the existence of a great
demonstrable principle which the Christ had sought to make a dull
world recognize, nevertheless he had as yet failed to rise permanently
above the mesmerism of human belief, which whispered into his
straining ears that he must not strive to progress beyond his
understanding, lest, in the attempt to gain too rapidly, he lose all.
To sink into the arms of Mother Church and await the orderly
revelation of Truth were less dangerous now than a precipitate
severance of all ties and a launching forth into strange seas with an
untried compass.

The arguments to which he listened were insidious. True, they
reasoned, he had seemed to see the working of mental law in his own
restoration to health when he had first come to Simiti. He had seemed
to see Rosendo likewise restored. But these instances, after all,
might have been casual. That Carmen had had aught to do with them, no
one could positively affirm. True, he had seen her protected in
certain unmistakable ways. But--others were likewise protected, even
where there had been no thought of an immanent, sheltering God. True,
the incident of the epidemic in Simiti two years before had impressed
upon him the serious consequences of fear, and the blighting results
of false belief. He had profited by that lesson. But he could not hope
suddenly to empty his mentality of its content of human thought; nor
did wisdom advise the attempt. He had at first tried to rise too
rapidly. His frequent backsliding frightened and warned him.

Thus, while the days sped by, did the priest's thought ebb and flow.
As morn broke, and the gallant sun drove the cowardly shadows of night
across the hills, his own courage rose, and he saw in Carmen the pure
reflection of the Mind which was in Christ Jesus. As night fell, and
darkness slunk back again and held the field, so returned the legion
of fears and doubts that battled for his soul. Back and forth in the
arena of his consciousness strove the combatants, while he rushed
irresolutely to and fro, now bearing the banner of the powers of
light, now waving aloft, though with sinking heart, the black flag of
the carnal host. For a while after his arrival in Simiti he had seemed