ys a reason for every one of
its movements. While apparently incomprehensible, still it was in
accordance with an eternal law, that you were sent back here again after
an interim of over tour thousand years. My soul, which had been held a
captive during all that time, might have remained here for millions of
years had you not come back to release it from its peculiar bondage. But
you did return, and nature thereby demonstrated that it never forgets
anything, from the workings of the great living things of which the
suns, moons and planets are but mere organs, down to the minutest
microbe of the microbe. So you can readily perceive that at least two of
the bodies which your soul has inhabited were chosen to perform great
services for the human race. First, by a natural course of instruction,
you proved to the Sagemen over four thousand years ago that the soul was
indestructible. And now, through a mysterious operation of nature you
are brought back here in an inferior organism and have had a positive
manifestation of the identical principle thus established, in order that
you might resurrect and make known to all mankind the unalterable truth--
Natural Law. Do you not feel highly honored to be called upon twice for
such grand missions?"

"But I cannot understand," said I, "why nature, after having allowed the
Sagemen to reach such a state of physical, mental and moral superiority,
should destroy them just when they had reached the threshold of
success."

"Nature did not destroy the Sagemen," replied Arletta, "they
extinguished themselves in making an effort to accomplish something
beyond their powers. They tried to operate a law with which they had not
become sufficiently familiar to insure success. If one of your little
Apemen experiments with steam or dynamite and is blown to atoms, that is
his own fault, not nature's.

"For a thousand years the Sagemen had made remarkable progress along
scientific lines. They had mastered themselves, and had learned to think
both individually and collectively; and also to properly distribute and
enjoy the products of their combined efforts. They had acquired a
thorough knowledge of the particles of which the earth is composed, and
had secured control of the atmosphere that surrounds it. They had
harnessed the chemical properties of the sun after reaching the earth,
and had gained possession of many other valuable utilities by following
the course of Natural Law, but when they under