l
as the body is but the garment of a day.

The effect of such a philosophy as this--which, indeed, with the
mind-readers is rather an instinctive consciousness than a philosophy
--must obviously be to impart a sense of wonderful superiority to the
vicissitudes of this earthly state, and a singular serenity in the midst
of the haps and mishaps which threaten or befall the personality. They
did indeed appear to me, as I never dreamed men could attain to be,
lords of themselves.

It was because I might not hope to attain this enfranchisement from the
false ego of the apparent self, without which life seemed to her race
scarcely worth living, that my love so pitied me.

But I must hasten on, leaving a thousand things unsaid, to relate the
lamentable catastrophe to which it is owing that, instead of being
still a resident of those blessed islands, in the full enjoyment of that
intimate and ravishing companionship which by contrast would forever dim
the pleasures of all other human society, I recall the bright picture as
a memory under other skies.

Among a people who are compelled by the very constitution of their minds
to put themselves in the places of others, the sympathy which is the
inevitable consequence of perfect comprehension renders envy, hatred,
and uncharitableness impossible. But of course there are people less
genially constituted than others, and these are necessarily the objects
of a certain distaste on the part of associates. Now, owing to the
unhindered impact of minds upon one another, the anguish of persons so
regarded, despite the tenderest consideration of those about them, is
so great that they beg the grace of exile, that, being out of the way,
people may think less frequently upon them. There are numerous small
islets, scarcely more than rocks, lying to the north of the archipelago,
and on these the unfortunates are permitted to live. Only one lives on
each islet, as they cannot endure each other even as well as the more
happily constituted can endure them. From time to time supplies of food
are taken to them, and of course, any time they wish to take the risk,
they are permitted to return to society.

Now, as I have said, the fact which, even more than their out-of-the-way
location, makes the islands of the mind-readers unapproachable, is the
violence with which the great antarctic current, owing probably to some
configuration of the ocean bed, together with the innumerable rocks and
shoals,