her favourite white bear-skins, with a
smile on her lips.

Colonel Estcourt removed a rose-shaded lamp from the stand, and placed
it behind her, so that the light should not shine directly into her
eyes. They were all watching her intently in the full expectation of
something to be done or said that was mysterious and awe-inspiring.
Colonel Estcourt then seated himself on a chair opposite the couch. For
a moment their eyes met and lingered in the gaze, then hers closed
softly, and she seemed to sleep as peacefully and gently as a child in
its cradle.

No one spoke. Suddenly a voice broke the stillness--clear, sweet, and
sonorous--the voice of the sleeper, though her lips scarcely moved, nor
did the placid expression of her face change.

"What you desire to know is the storied wisdom of past ages, the fruits
of the deepest and most earnest research of which human minds are
capable. These fruits have only been gathered after long and painful
study, after severe training of every spiritual faculty, and the
repression of all lower material inclinations and desires. There is but
one among all who listen to me now, capable of undertaking such study,
or undergoing such an ordeal. The day is at hand when he may choose it,
if he will. They who bid me speak now, are willing that you should
learn some lesson to benefit yourselves, and your fellow men. They say
to you, oh Poet, `Perfect those gifts of your higher nature--yet be not
of them vainglorious, since, humanly speaking, they are not yours, but
lent for a purpose, and the brief space of earth-life.' Look upon every
beautiful thought, every gift of expression, as the direction of One who
has dowered you with the possibility of opening other eyes to the
beauty, and other minds to the understanding of such expression.
Remember there is a great truth in your favourite lines that _Karma_ is
`the total of a soul.' `The things it did, the thoughts it had, the
Self it wove, with woof of viewless time, crossed on the warp invisible
of acts.'

"There is another listener here--one who has wrestled with the secrets
of Nature. To him I say, `Be not over vain of the triumph gained by
simple accident of discovery. Turn that discovery to better uses than
the mere amassing of wealth. Let the poor, the sick, the needy, gain
health and happiness from your hands, and let their voices bless you for
good wrought amongst them. For nothing is so pitiful and so abhorrent,
as the