And luminous and glorious round us blow
Millions of flowers; while afar there shines
The mighty splendor of the exhaustless sea!
We dwell in breathless joys, thrilled through and through
With majesty and sweetness; we have grown
Athletes of joy in our Agapemone:
Eager and breathless, we have found at last
The fount of youth, the magical Arjeels;
Fruits of organic gold amid the leaves
Sparkle, and around our island home
Are spread the veritable golden sands
Whereon our happy feet tread evermore!

The singers disappeared, and in their places a hundred
wondrously-arrayed figures moved in the dance of pure being on the
silver pavement. Lithe as leopards, with unclad limbs and feet, priest
and priestess danced all the ecstasies of Egyplosis. The dancers were
so young, so fresh, so tender, so beautiful, and so innocent, that it
was a supreme joy to behold them. Rapture grew universal and lovers
cried with hysterical shudderings. The rainbow-colored throng, moving
to the music of the golden instruments, flashed upon the pavement like
joy taking possession of the world!

I felt intensely sad for Lyone, who sat like a statue of golden
marble, gazing on the abyss of joy beneath. Had the goddess no lover
to press her to his heart amid the universal rapture? Alas! the
immense dignity of her position and the unalterable laws of Atvatabar
alike prevented any single soul from feeding the intense hunger that
consumed her.

Accompanying the dancers, the unseen choir in the cloisters began to
sing a new opera of love, and the strains of an "Ave, Lyone, bona
dea," stole upon the senses like the bewildering sighs of angels,
making one ache with delight. A story of romantic love once more
sculptured the faces of priest and priestess with angelic beauty, as
it rose on wings of song and swept in delightful moans upon the carven
stone.

It was a memorable scene, one never to be forgotten! The hieroglyphic
walls, carved in high relief with the instruments of empire, the dome
with its ten thousand fadeless lights, the terraces of twin-souls
radiant with delight, the marvellous dancers, the superb music that
seemed to shake the heart of the solid stone that enclosed us, and
high over all the supreme goddess in whose honor all this adoration
was made, seated in bliss on the throne of the gods--such was the
situation at that moment.

It was a monstrous and a splendid joy!

Suddenly a roar of i