either rise to a higher
consciousness on the ruins of a lower one, of no-consciousness,
rather, or go on seeming and simulating, aspiring, perspiring, and
suffering, until our turn comes. Death denies no one. Meanwhile,
Khalid's rhapsodies on his way back to the city, we shall heed and try
to echo.

* * * * *

"On the high road of the universal spirit," he sings, "the world, the
whole world before me, thrilling and radiating, chanting of freedom,
faith, hope, health and power, and joy. Back to the City, O
Khalid,--the City where Truth, and Faith, and Honesty, and Wisdom, are
ever suffering, ever struggling, ever triumphing. No, it matters not
with me if the spirit of intelligence and power, of freedom and
culture, which must go the rounds of the earth, is always dominated by
the instinct of self-interest. That must be; that is inevitable. But
the instinct of self-interest, O my Brother, goes with the flesh; the
body-politic dies; nations rise and fall; and the eternal Spirit, the
progenitor of all ideals, passes to better or worse hands, still
chastening and strengthening itself in the process.

"The Orient and Occident, the male and female of the Spirit, the two
great streams in which the body and soul of man are refreshed,
invigorated, purified--of both I sing, in both I glory, to both I
consecrate my life, for both I shall work and suffer and die. My
Brothers, the most highly developed being is neither European nor
Oriental; but rather he who partakes of the finer qualities of both
the European genius and the Asiatic prophet.

"Give me, ye mighty nations of the West, the material comforts of
life; and thou, my East, let me partake of thy spiritual heritage.
Give me, America, thy hand; and thou, too, Asia. Thou land of
origination, where Light and Spirit first arose, disdain not the
gifts which the nations of the West bring thee; and thou land of
organisation and power, where Science and Freedom reign supreme,
disdain not the bounties of the sunrise.

"If the discoveries and attainments of Science will make the body of
man cleaner, healthier, stronger, happier, the inexhaustible Oriental
source of romantic and spiritual beauty will never cease to give the
soul of man the restfulness and solacement it is ever craving. And
remember, Europa, remember, Asia, that foreign culture is as necessary
to the spirit of a nation as is foreign commerce to its industries.
Elsewise, t