Do
sit down and explain. Is the world going to be turned upside down? Are
we to have a new religion, or rather an old one brought to light, that
will upset what we've been hugging as truth for the last eighteen
hundred years. We've been pretty crazy over spiritualism on our side of
the water, but I guess this new philosophy can just make our mediums and
_seance_-givers take a back seat. Isn't that so?"

"My dear madam," answered Colonel Estcourt, gravely, "you really must
not call upon me to expound the doctrines of the East to the scoffers of
the West. I know a little--a very little--of this school of philosophy;
but I am not vain enough to attempt an explanation of its profound
wisdom. The mysteries of Nature demand the deepest and most earnest
consideration of the human mind. Do you think I could presume to rattle
off a few explanations or give the key to certain problems just to
satisfy the vague curiosity of an idle hour. I will only say one
thing--it is a thing that cannot be too often repeated and thoroughly
kept in memory. Every life has to live out itself, and work out for
_itself_ the higher mysteries that are shut within its own
consciousness. No one can do that for it, any more than they could take
its love, or its sorrows, or its misfortunes away, and bear them in its
place. If humanity took that truth to heart, and lived according to the
higher instead of the lower instincts, the world would be a very
different place."

"But," objected a pretty feminine voice in the back-ground, "what about
the obligations of position and society? I suppose the `higher
instinct' would tell us that amusements are a waste of time--vanity and
vexation in fact--yet even they have a good result, they give
employment, and help other folk to live. And it's a pleasant relief to
be gay and frivolous. It's awfully fatiguing to be grave and good.
Just look at us on Sundays. We're all more or less cross and
disagreeable, and I'm sure no clergyman could honestly say that he
wasn't heartily sick of droning and intoning that same eternal form
embodied in the Church Service."

"The higher life," said Colonel Estcourt, gravely, "is not a matter of
form. Far from it. It is an unceasing and inexhaustible pursuit; it
has infinite gradations, and is full of infinite possibilities. Its
tendency is to elevate all that is best, and eliminate all that is
worst, in man."

"Oh!" cried Mrs Jefferson with rapture, "I'm sure you