time will come, I tell thee, when every one will be his own
guide and dragoman. The time will come when it will not be necessary
to write books for others, or to legislate for others, or to make
religions for others: the time will come when every one will write his
own Book in the Life he lives, and that Book will be his code and his
creed;--that Life-Book will be the palace and cathedral of his Soul in
all the Worlds."

BOOK THE FIRST

IN THE EXCHANGE

[Illustration]

TO MAN

_No matter how good thou art, O my Brother, or how bad thou art, no
matter how high or how low in the scale of being thou art, I still
would believe in thee, and have faith in thee, and love thee. For do I
not know what clings to thee, and what beckons to thee? The claws of
the one and the wings of the other, have I not felt and seen? Look up,
therefore, and behold this World-Temple, which, to us, shall be a
resting-place, and not a goal. On the border-line of the Orient and
Occident it is built, on the mountain-heights overlooking both. No
false gods are worshipped in it,--no philosophic, theologic, or
anthropomorphic gods. Yea, and the god of the priests and prophets is
buried beneath the Fountain, which is the altar of the Temple, and
from which flows the eternal spirit of our Maker--our Maker who
blinketh when the Claws are deep in our flesh, and smileth when the
Wings spring from our Wounds. Verily, we are the children of the God
of Humour, and the Fountain in His Temple is ever flowing. Tarry, and
refresh thyself, O my Brother, tarry, and refresh thyself._

KHALID.

CHAPTER I

PROBING THE TRIVIAL

The most important in the history of nations and individuals was once
the most trivial, and vice versa. The plebeian, who is called to-day
the man-in-the-street, can never see and understand the significance
of the hidden seed of things, which in time must develop or die. A
garter dropt in the ballroom of Royalty gives birth to an Order of
Knighthood; a movement to reform the spelling of the English language,
initiated by one of the presidents of a great Republic, becomes
eventually an object of ridicule. Only two instances to illustrate our
point, which is applicable also to time-honoured truths and
moralities. But no matter how important or trivial these, he who would
give utterance to them must do so in cap and bells, if he would be
heard nowadays.