vably upon what lay at her feet--a man,
submerged in the pure light that fell from her presence, his dark face
stark and fine, lips locked, eyes shut, arms flung out cross-wise in
utter abandonment, like a figure of grief invisibly crucified upon his
shame. I stopped a few feet from him, arrested by a barrier I could not
pass. Was it sleep or death or some mysterious state that partook of
both? Not sleep, for there was no flutter of breath. Not death--no rigid
immobility struck chill into the air. It was the state of subjection
where the spirit set free lies tranced in the mighty influences which
surround us invisibly until we have entered, though but for a moment,
the Ninth Vibration.

And now, with these Listeners about us, a clear voice began and stirred
the air with music. I have since been asked in what tongue it spoke and
could only answer that it reached my ears in the words of my childhood,
and that I know whatever that language had been it would so have reached
me.

"Great Lady, hear the story of this man's fall, for it is the story of
man. Be pitiful to the blind eyes and give them light."

There was long since in Ranipur a mighty King and at his birth the wise
men declared that unless he cast aside all passions that debase the
soul, relinquishing the lower desires for the higher until a Princess
laden with great gifts should come to be his bride, he would experience
great and terrible misfortunes. And his royal parents did what they
could to possess him with this belief, but they died before he reached
manhood. Behold him then, a young King in his palace, surrounded with
splendour. How should he withstand the passionate crying of the flesh or
believe that through pleasure comes satiety and the loss of that in the
spirit whereby alone pleasure can be enjoyed? For his gift was that
he could win all hearts. They swarmed round him like hiving bees and
hovered about him like butterflies. Sometimes he brushed them off. Often
he caressed them, and when this happened, each thought proudly "I am the
Royal Favourite. There is none other than me."

Also the Princess delayed who would be the crest-jewel of the crown,
bringing with her all good and the blessing of the High Gods, and in
consequence of all these things the King took such pleasures as he
could, and they were many, not knowing they darken the inner eye whereby
what is royal is known through disguises.

(Most pitiful to see, beneath the close-shut lids of