teaching human beings the beautiful principles of Natural Law, as I
understood them, without expectation of compensation or future reward. I
would go forth, as Arletta had requested, and plant the seed of real
truth, justice, love, and equality in human hearts to the best of my
ability, and trust in the souls of men to further aid in its universal
and everlasting productiveness. I felt positive that the theory of the
Sagemen was right, and that the soul just released from Arletta was even
then beginning life in a different form. Would it not be criminal on my
part to make no effort to better earthly conditions for her future
welfare? Perhaps, conjectured I, the soul of my own mother, who died at
the time of my birth, might, even at that moment, be incased in a
degraded body, surrounded by want and misery, caused by the operation of
that selfish, brutal and murderous system, which encourages the strong
to squeeze the very light and hope from the weak, thus forcing and
keeping mankind in a state of continual degradation. A system that was
created in the beginning by savages, and which is upheld at the present
time by savages. And the Church, that gigantic symbol of ignorance and
stupidity, not only fails to protest against such a beastly system, but
actually advocates its continuance.

How long I stood there, seriously thinking on this subject, and forming
new and laudable resolutions for the future, I do not know; but at last
I awoke to the fact that I was still nothing more nor less than a common
adventurer, held captive on an isolated projecture in the middle of the
sea. This became more apparent as I faintly heard the ocean's waves
dashing against the rocks on the outside of the place. So, following in
the direction of the sounds, they became louder and more distinct, until
finally I found myself looking up at the very hole through which I had
bored my way so unceremoniously. It was night, and I could easily
distinguish the stars in the outer darkness. In making a careful survey
of the surroundings, I discovered that it was going to be a much more
difficult task to get out than it was to get in this extraordinary
grotto. The aperture was located about three feet above my head; was
barely large enough to squeeze through, and there was no way by which I
could climb up to it. I observed, however, that adjoining the hole there
was a huge marble pillar running upward and outward in an oblique slant,
and wedged in its posi