are carried the vibrations, and so the light of earth and heaven
reflected back and forward--apaugasma, a wonderful though helpless engine,
the ladder of Jacob, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending
on it. Thanks, I'll take the key. Mysteries to those who _will_ live
altogether in houses of clay, no mystery to such as will use their eyes and
read what is revealed. _This_ candle, it is the longer, please; no--no need
of a pair, thanks; just this, to hold in my hand. And remember, all depends
upon the willing mind. Why do you look frightened? Where is your faith?
Don't you know that spirits are about us at all times? Why should you
fear to be near the body? The spirit is everything; the flesh profiteth
nothing.'

'Yes, sir,' said Mrs. Rusk, making him a great courtesy in the threshold.

She was frightened by his eerie talk, which grew, she fancied, more voluble
and energetic as they approached the corpse.

'Remember, then, that when you fancy yourself alone and wrapt in darkness,
you stand, in fact, in the centre of a theatre, as wide as the starry floor
of heaven, with an audience, whom no man can number, beholding you under a
flood of light. Therefore, though your body be in solitude and your mortal
sense in darkness, remember to walk as being in the light, surrounded with
a cloud of witnesses. Thus walk; and when the hour comes, and you pass
forth unprisoned from the tabernacle of the flesh, although it still has
its relations and its rights'--and saying this, as he held the solitary
candle aloft in the doorway, he nodded towards the coffin, whose large
black form was faintly traceable against the shadows beyond--'you will
rejoice; and being clothed upon with your house from on high, you will not
be found naked. On the other hand, he that loveth corruption shall have
enough thereof. Think upon these things. Good-night.'

And the Swedenborgian Doctor stepped into the room, taking the candle with
him, and closed the door upon the shadowy still-life there, and on his own
sharp and swarthy visage, leaving Mrs. Rusk in a sort of panic in the dark
alone, to find her way to her room the best way she could.

Early in the morning Mrs. Rusk came to my room to tell me that Doctor
Bryerly was in the parlour, and begged to know whether I had not a message
for him. I was already dressed, so, though it was dreadful seeing a
stranger in my then mood, taking the key of the cabinet in my hand, I
followed Mrs. Rusk do