of desire. We must keep our eyes fixed on
the scientific side, and wait for the developments on the psychic side.

"Now, as to this stone box, which we call the Magic Coffer. As I have
said, I am convinced that it opens only in obedience to some principle
of light, or the exercise of some of its forces at present unknown to
us. There is here much ground for conjecture and for experiment; for
as yet the scientists have not thoroughly differentiated the kinds, and
powers, and degrees of light. Without analysing various rays we may, I
think, take it for granted that there are different qualities and
powers of light; and this great field of scientific investigation is
almost virgin soil. We know as yet so little of natural forces, that
imagination need set no bounds to its flights in considering the
possibilities of the future. Within but a few years we have made such
discoveries as two centuries ago would have sent the discoverer's to
the flames. The liquefaction of oxygen; the existence of radium, of
helium, of polonium, of argon; the different powers of Roentgen and
Cathode and Bequerel rays. And as we may finally prove that there are
different kinds and qualities of light, so we may find that combustion
may have its own powers of differentiation; that there are qualities in
some flames non-existent in others. It may be that some of the
essential conditions of substance are continuous, even in the
destruction of their bases. Last night I was thinking of this, and
reasoning that as there are certain qualities in some oils which are
not in others, so there may be certain similar or corresponding
qualities or powers in the combinations of each. I suppose we have all
noticed some time or other that the light of colza oil is not quite the
same as that of paraffin, or that the flames of coal gas and whale oil
are different. They find it so in the light-houses! All at once it
occurred to me that there might be some special virtue in the oil which
had been found in the jars when Queen Tera's tomb was opened. These
had not been used to preserve the intestines as usual, so they must
have been placed there for some other purpose. I remembered that in
Van Huyn's narrative he had commented on the way the jars were sealed.
This was lightly, though effectually; they could be opened without
force. The jars were themselves preserved in a sarcophagus which,
though of immense strength and hermetically sealed, could be opened