familiar with
cold steel and lead to be afraid of either. Do you know anything about
odyllic force, doctor?"

"No, I do not," I replied, glancing sharply at him to see if there were
any signs of his delirium returning. His expression was intelligent,
however, and the feverish flush had faded from his cheeks.

"Ah, you Western scientific men are very much behind the day in some
things," he remarked. "In all that is material and conducive to the
comfort of the body you are pre-eminent, but in what concerns the subtle
forces of Nature and the latent powers of the human spirit your best
men are centuries behind the humblest coolies of India. Countless
generations of beef-eating, comfort loving ancestors have given our
animal instincts the command over our spiritual ones. The body, which
should have been a mere tool for the use of the soul, has now become a
degrading prison in which it is confined. The Oriental soul and body are
not so welded together as ours are, and there is far less wrench when
they part in death."

"They do not appear to derive much benefit from this peculiarity in
their organisation," I remarked incredulously.

"Merely the benefit of superior knowledge," the general answered. "If
you were to go to India, probably the very first thing you would see in
the way of amusement would be a native doing what is called the mango
trick. Of course you have heard or read of it. The fellow plants a mango
seed, and makes passes over it until it sprouts and bears leaves and
fruit--all in the space of half-an-hour. It is not really a trick--it
is a power. These men know more than your Tyndalls or Huxleys do about
Nature's processes, and they can accelerate or retard her workings
by subtle means of which we have no conception. These low-caste
conjurers--as they are called--are mere vulgar dabblers, but the men who
have trod the higher path are as far superior to us in knowledge as we
are to the Hottentots or Patagonians."

"You speak as if you were well acquainted with them," I remarked.

"To my cost, I am," he answered. "I have been brought in contact with
them in a way in which I trust no other poor chap ever will be. But,
really, as regards odyllic force, you ought to know something of it,
for it has a great future before it in your profession. You should read
Reichcnbach's 'Researches on Magnetism and Vital Force,' and Gregory's
'Letters on Animal Magnetism.' These, supplemented by the twenty-seven
Aphorisms