ect, and talked of something else.

For my part, I also feel inclined to deviate once more from my subject,
and give some necessary explanations.

Miss X---- excepted, none of our party had ever been numbered amongst
the spiritualists, least of all Mr. Y----. We Theosophists did not
believe in the playfulness of departed souls, though we admitted the
possibility of some mediumistic phenomena, while totally disagreeing
with the spiritualists as to the cause and point of view. Refusing to
believe in the interference, and even presence of the spirits, in the
so-called spiritualistic phenomena, we nevertheless believe in the
living spirit of man; we believe in the omnipotence of this spirit, and
in its natural, though benumbed capacities. We also believe that, when
incarnated, this spirit, this divine spark, may be apparently quenched,
if it is not guarded, and if the life the man leads is unfavorable
to its expansion, as it generally is; but, on the other hand, our
conviction is that human beings can develop their potential spiritual
powers; that, if they do, no phenomenon will be impossible for their
liberated wills, and that they will perform what, in the eyes of the
uninitiated, will be much more wondrous than the materialized forms of
the spiritualists. If proper training can render the muscular strength
ten times greater, as in the cases of renowned athletes, I do not see
why proper training should fail in the case of moral capacities. We
have also good grounds to believe that the secret of this proper
training--though unknown to, and denied by, European physiologists
and even psychologists--is known in some places in India, where its
knowledge is hereditary, and entrusted to few.

Mr. Y---- was a novice in our Society and looked with distrust even on
such phenomena as can be pro-duced by mesmerism. He had been trained
in the Royal Institute of British Architects, which he left with a
gold medal, and with a fund of scepticism that caused him to distrust
everything, en dehors des mathematiques pures. So that no wonder he lost
his temper when people tried to convince him that there existed things
which he was inclined to treat as "mere bosh and fables."

Now I return to my narrative.

The Babu and Mulji left us to help the servants to transport our luggage
to the ferry boat. The remainder of the party had grown very quiet and
silent. Miss X---- dozed peacefully in the carriage, forgetting her
recent fright. The col