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 Accession No. 6 6% / J . Class No. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 A PSYCHICAL ROMANCE 
 
 BY 
 
 W. J. COLVILLE 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 DASHED AGAINST THE ROCK," "STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY," "TEXT-BOOK OF 
 MENTAL THERAPEUTICS,'' AND NUMEROUS METAPHYSICAL 
 AND OTHER WORKS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 BANNER OF LIGHT PUBLISHING CO., 
 9 BOSWORTH STREET. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 A PSYCHICAL ROMANCE 
 
 BY 
 
 W. J. COLVILLE 
 
 EDITOR OF 
 
 THE "PROBLEM OF LIFE" 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 ' DASHED AGAINST THE ROCK," "STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY," "TEXT BOOK 
 
 OF MENTAL THERAPEUTICS," AND NUMEROUS METAPHYSICAL AND 
 
 OTHER WORKS 
 
 USI7BRSIT7 
 
 NEW YORK 
 EDWARD LOVELL 
 
 142 WORTH STREET 
 
(Ol 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 ON THE THBESHOLD. 
 
 ON a bright summer eTening in 1887, a party of friends 
 were gathered on the balcony in front of an old-fashioned 
 but comfortable house on Sycamore Avenue, almost in the 
 heart of the business centre of New York. The house, though 
 a very large and roomy one, attracts but little attention from 
 the busy throng, as it is situated on one of those little fre- 
 quented thoroughfares which still remain as mementoes of 
 the old Dutch settlement of a by-gone day. 
 
 No. 312 Sycamore Avenue is at least one hundred years 
 old, and has a wonderful, though but little known history. 
 Like many residences of similar type, it has the reputation of 
 being haunted, and for that reason the present tenant, Dr. 
 Bernard Maxwell, is allowed to occupy a house of twenty-three 
 rooms on payment of an annual rent of $750. The owner is a 
 quaint old German with astrological proclivities, and though 
 he is rarely in the city, between proprietor and tenant a 
 feeling of generous friendship subsists though the two men 
 are about as unlike in appearance, disposition and sentiment 
 as two human beings can well be. 
 
 Gerald Gustav Mackenberger (the owner of the property) 
 is a man over sixty, delighting in solitude and given over to 
 the most ardent advocacy of stellar fatalism, while his tenant, 
 Dr. Maxwell, is a handsome, cheerful, healthy man of forty, 
 looking scarcely more than thirty. On the eventful evening 
 
2 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 when our story opens, Dr. Maxwell, a rising physician of the 
 Electric School was entertaining a party of friends from Ver- 
 mont, prominent among whom might have been discerned 
 the striking and by no means unpleasing figure of the Eev. 
 Onesimus Templeton, pastor of the Baptist Church at Saddle- 
 rock, Vermont. Mr. Templeton was the possessor of a face 
 which could not but attract attention, for though not beauti- 
 ful, it was strong and earnest, and the eyes shone with a 
 yearning pleading light, as though an unsatisfied but aspiring 
 soul was ever reaching through them to catch some knowledge 
 from the heavenly spheres as yet denied it. In general 
 appearance Mr. Templeton might be described as tall (five 
 feet, ten inches or thereabouts), slender, narrow-chested, and 
 inclined to stoop ; hair and eyes very dark ; hands small and 
 delicate for one so tall, but not lacking in nervous power or 
 sinuous determination. Raising his voice above the voices of 
 his companions, who were all buzzing together after the 
 manner of people gathered outside a drawing-room window 
 after dinner on a summer's night, his whole attitude one of 
 earnestness and deep conviction the reverend Onesimus, 
 addressing a portly lady at his side, exclaims: "My dear 
 Mrs. O'Shannon, I tell you there never was and there never 
 can be such a phenomenon as the one you have just described. 
 The Jaw of nature renders it impossible, unless (lowering his 
 voice to an awe-struck, and certainly impressive undertone), 
 which, heaven forbid, some imp of darkness should have been 
 permitted to read the thought in your misguided daughter's 
 mind." 
 
 " I tell you what it is, Mr. Templeton," replied the lady 
 thus vehemently and awfully addressed, "if you are going to 
 insinuate that my daughter Matilda is in league with the Evil 
 One, you may as well stop your endeavors to convert me to 
 your opinions on any subject ; for a better, purer girl than 
 my child you won't find this side the Atlantic, though I do 
 say it, who being her mother should let others sound her 
 praises." 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 3 
 
 " What's all this loud talking about between you two 
 this evening," breaks in a cheery, rich, round voice and Dr. 
 Bernard Maxwell, turning an amused glance on the excited 
 combatants who were evidently amusing the passers-by, sug- 
 gests that for the present, at least, all heated discussions on 
 psychology shall be abandoned, and the evening devoted to 
 more rational and edifying enjoyment, "for (said the good 
 doctor, smiling), when any two persons set out to convince 
 each other by means of verbal strife, no possible progress in 
 the work of mutual conviction can be made, as the needful 
 conditions for making ideas plain to the understanding are of 
 necessity absent, when either party is excited or in the least 
 belligerent." 
 
 By way of turning the subject into a more attractive and 
 gracious channel, without, however, altering the tide of the 
 discourse, Dr. Maxwell (who was a brilliant conversationalist 
 as well as a man of rare scientific and literary attainment), 
 began to relate an incident of his recent voyage from Paris 
 on the magnificent steamer, La Gascogne of the justly cele- 
 brated Transatlantique line. He spoke as follows : 
 
 " As I was sitting on deck one gorgeous evening in May, 
 the sun slowly sinking beneath the waters as one never sees 
 it set on land, I heard, or thought I heard a low, sweet, 
 girlish voice whispering in my ear, * Bernard, take care, I 
 implore you, or the electric battery for which you paid 6,000 
 francs in Paris will be utterly destroyed. I can see where it 
 is, if you cannot !' The voice, and more than that, the thrill 
 accompanying the mystic utterance, so powerfully impressed 
 me that I was being addressed by Heloiee De- Montmarte 
 (the daughter of the dearest friend I have in all the world, 
 and the man to whom I owe almost all my present success in 
 my life's undertakings), that I hastened to my stateroom, 
 and immediately discovered that my most valuable instru- 
 ments and apparatus were in immediate danger of ruin by 
 water. Hastily calling a steward, who quickly stopped the 
 leakage from the waah bowl, I just prevented the water from 
 
4 ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 
 
 soaking into the very place of all others from which I was 
 particularly anxious to exclude all dampness. Ruminating 
 on this extraordinary incident, I returned to my folding chair 
 on deck, and resuming my old position, gazing out upon the 
 water which the moon's soft rays were just beginning to 
 glorify, I fell to meditating on the wonderfully complex prob- 
 lem of mental interaction never wholly absent from the minds 
 of students of the nervous systems of men and animalg, which 
 has been for many years my specialty. As I pondered with 
 ever increasing surprise upon this most timely experience 
 which enabled me in the very nick of time, to save my battery 
 from serious injury, I saw a thin blue cloud cross the sky, 
 and from this cloud (apparently of ether), small but intensely 
 bright electric sparks proceeded. Thinking it might be 
 merely an optical delusion, I rubbed my eyes and looked 
 again, determined this time not to be mistaken, when a soft, 
 silvery laugh sounded at my elbow, and the clear, sweet tones 
 of Heloise De Montmarte's peculiarly liquid and unmistakeable 
 voice sounded clearly enough to me, though I am convinced 
 no other person heard any sound. She said, ' Why, Bernard, 
 have you forgotten what papa told you when we parted that 
 I should always be able to warn you when anything spec- 
 ially needed your attention? and here I am to fulfil my 
 father's word.' 
 
 " Almost dumbfounded, I answered her in thought, my 
 lips, however, moved but in inarticulate utterance : ' But pray 
 tell me where you are now and what yeu are doing T No 
 sooner had I given the words (mentally) to the ether, than a 
 reply came close to my ear : ' Why, here, of course, talking to 
 you. Papa's entertaining company in our salon, and I've 
 retired early ; my body is slumbering as peacefully as usual 
 in my own room in the house you know so well, 33 Avenue 
 de 1'Imperatrice, but I can't stay any longer now, so good- 
 bye, Bernard, and don't forget the alligator.' With these 
 words the voice became silent and the mysterious presence 
 had vanished from my side. I was alone, intensely alone it 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 5 
 
 seemed after this experience, though the deck was well filled 
 with passengers walking slowly and talking quickly as 
 steamer passengers usually do on a balmy moonlight night in 
 Spring." 
 
 "Oh, do tell us about the alligator," broke in Lydia 
 O'Shannon (a graceful girl of eighteen summers), " I do so 
 love queer pets. Is there an alligator in the house, and how 
 did you get him ?" 
 
 " Well (said Dr. Maxwell, laughing), if you are a good 
 girl, you shall see him to morrow ; he's asleep now in my 
 aunt's bath-tub ; he and she are great friends. Prof. De 
 Montmarte gave him to me three years ago when we were 
 travelling together in Florida. He seems to have grown up 
 as a member of our family, never snaps or tries to bite, but 
 why should he, when we treat him kindly and hold him under 
 due restraint ; is it not man's prerogative to hold the lower 
 creation in subjection ? What say you to this, Mr. Templeton, 
 does the theology of the Baptist Church tolerate so much 
 of theosophy ?" 
 
 " I really cannot decide such a question without giving it 
 long and prayerful consideration," responded the minister 
 addressed, " but anyway, I shall be delighted to see your 
 alligator whenever it is convenient to you to show him to me. 
 Can we not step inside now and have a little music ? Tour 
 electric system of lighting is such an improvement over old 
 methods, we don't dread the heat generated by it." 
 
 So saying, Mr. Templeton, accompanied by Mrs. and the 
 Misses O'Shannon, moved into the large, roomy salon devoted 
 to almost every conceivable modern use. Elegantly but sim- 
 ply furnished, it portrayed clearly the disposition of the man 
 who rented it ; no sign of niggardliness on any hand, neither 
 any presumptuous display ; all things solid, substantial, com- 
 fortable, cheerful, and withal beautiful. 
 
 Just as the friends were composing themselves and 
 assuming a listening attitude, for Miss Lydia O'Shannon was 
 taking her seat at the grand piano, which was one of Leven- 
 
6 ONE8IMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 stein's very best, a bright, handsome boy of twelve devoted 
 to Dr. Maxwell, who had been more than a father to him 
 when he was left an abandoned orphan eight years earlier, 
 threw open the door and announced, " Monsieur Alphonse de 
 Kabriet." Immediately following the announcement of the 
 name, a dashing but not particularly refined young man about 
 twenty-five years of age sauntered into the room, and seated 
 himself without invitation in the most spacious and comfort- 
 able arm-chair in the apartment ; of course he bowed and 
 murmured " good evening," on entering, but seeing no one 
 present who impressed him with any sense of special dignity, 
 he took no pains to alter his usual nonchalant manner, which 
 seemed to say more plainly than any words could express : " I 
 honor you by condescending to address you !" 
 
 Mons. Alphonse was of French descent, born and educated 
 in New Orleans, accustomed to the theatrical stage and 
 particularly to the box office, almost from infancy ; exceed- 
 ingly conceited, somewhat imposing in general appearance 
 and with an amazing amount of self-possession not unmixed 
 with a good supply of genuine " smartness." By means of 
 these qualifications he had always managed to elbow his way 
 either by sheer effrontery or subtle diplomacy, into the most 
 exclusive circles of society. Having no very decided views on 
 any subject, and knowing how to get on the right side of 
 almost every susceptible person he encountered, extremely 
 versatile in mediocre accomplishments, and speaking three 
 languages, English, French, and Spanish fluently, if not 
 always grammatically, he found himself by reason of no 
 special merit, and no one knew exactly how or why, in the 
 very midst of the most literary people in New York. The 
 object of his present visit to Dr. Maxwell was to interest that 
 gentleman in a series of lectures on Mental Science, for which 
 he was endeavoring to secure a distinguished audience. 
 These were to bo delivered by Mrs. Felina Catsleigh, who 
 having grown tired of unsuccessful theatrical ventures, had 
 taken up Metaphysics as a means of livelihood. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 7 
 
 Addressing Dr. Maxwell in his usual familiar manner, 
 Alphonse begins, " This Mrs. Catsleigh beats all you've ever 
 heard; you'll rave over her the first time you hear her, and 
 isn't she a taking woman in a drawing-room ! I don't pretend 
 to follow her all the time, she's often too deep for me ; but 
 it's sound reasoning, I tell you, you ought to get her before 
 the Medical Board; she'd open their eyes for them," and 
 with this fervid eulogy of the new aspirant to fame in the 
 ranks of " Mental Science Healing," Alphonse took from his 
 pocket a parcel of circulars (at least 200), elegantly printed 
 on toned paper, and about 100 tickets, pretty little conceits in 
 embroidered cardboard, bearing the following inscription : 
 
 " Conversations Extraordinaires, Mme. Felina Catsleigh 
 (of Paris) will give twelve lessons in Mental Science, teaching 
 you how you need never be sick or unhappy, according to 
 the latest revelation of Truth, at Poodleton Hall, W. Minerva 
 Street, Tuetdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Four weeks. 
 First lesson, Tuesday, July 21, at 3 P.M. Tuition fee, $25." 
 
 " Considering the season is off, the terms are very low. 
 All the other metaphysicians charge $50 and many of them 
 $100," said Alphonse, patronizingly, "you would be foolish 
 indeed, interested as you are in such things, to miss this 
 unique opportunity." 
 
 " Well, I will take six tickets," said Dr. Maxwell, and 
 straightway, that gentleman put $150 into the palm of the 
 courteous Alphonse, who still remained seated, and who after 
 remarking, " mighty good bargain," handed a receipt. 
 
 Mr. Templeton watching this transaction from his corner 
 opposite the new-comer, eyed him severely, and sternly 
 observed : " The new gospel is not as free as the old, I take 
 it. $25 for twelve lectures is not a very small price to ask, I 
 must say." 
 
 Though this remark was not intended for the ears of 
 Alphonse, that gentleman who had cultivated his hearing as 
 well as his sight to an unusual degree of perfection in his 
 favorite capacity of trained spy and confidential private 
 
8 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 detective, rose from his languorous position, and drawing 
 himself to his full height, Bneeringly replied, with a con- 
 temptuous jeer in his voice: 
 
 "You parsons are nice people to talk about a free gospel. 
 What with your fine churches hardly ever open, and your 
 big salaries for which you do next to nothing (I mean no 
 offense to you personally, sir, for I don't know you), you may 
 well try and keep people from every place of amusement, and 
 even endeavor to stop them from hearing lectures; it's all a 
 blind, I say, you are afraid if they gave a dollar to anybody 
 else you would go short. As to religion, that is well enough ; 
 but when it comes to taking the bread out of the mouths of 
 those who work hard for it, as you never do, it's another 
 matter. What say you, Dr. Maxwell ?" 
 
 "My dear air," said the gentleman addressed, "Mr. 
 Templeton is a minister and our guest, consequently, I think 
 it ill becomes you to assail the profession he honors, in our 
 house and in his presence. You cannot render a service to 
 your own ideas by such displays of feeling. I must reserve 
 my own opinion for a more suitable occasion, however, as I 
 have been appealed to, I confess I do not think Mrs. Catsleigh's 
 terms exorbitant; and I feel certain we shall receive more 
 than our money's worth in listening to her instructions. But 
 pardon me, we were about to have some music when you 
 entered. Will you not stay, and as I think it probable you 
 are yourself a singer, may I ask you to favor us after Miss 
 O'Shannon has given us that lovely gem of melody, Lambi- 
 lotta's chefd'anvre, ' O Give Me Wings'?" 
 
 Miss O'Shannon's voice was clear, sweet and musical, 
 not very highly cultivated, but tenderly expressive; and 
 though she often appeared a light, frivolous girl, when she 
 sang, her whole manner was altered ; it seemed as though 
 some wondrous inspiration fell upon her, lifting her entirely 
 above her ordinary self, transforming her into a gifted seeress, 
 blessed with the divine power of touching the deepest springs 
 of human feeling through the avenues of song. When the 
 
ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 9 
 
 touching strains had ended, and the breathless silence which 
 had fallen on the company was breaking, as the fair young 
 damsel resumed her ottoman at her mother's side, Alphonse 
 stepped forward, and extending his hand to the lady, said in 
 his most persuasive accents: "My dear Ma'amselle, will you 
 not accompany me in * Toreador ?' " Receiving an approving 
 nod from Dr. Maxwell, and "go, my child," from her mother, 
 the gentle Lydia allowed herself to be led to the piano by 
 Alphonse, who looking admiringly at himself in a pier glass 
 opposite, twisted the ends of his moustuche, and adjusted 
 his tie and watch chain, quite unnecessarily, while his 
 accompanist was dashing off the prelude. Then bracing him- 
 self as though a bull fight were in reality about to commence, 
 he shouted the boisterous composition of Bizet as though he 
 was singing to an immense audience in a great opera house, 
 apostrophizing the chandelier and waving a red silk handker- 
 chief in his determination to act the song as well as sing it, 
 he fairly persecuted the ear drums of his audience, who 
 moved quickly to the furthest corners of the room while the 
 performance lasted. Applause followed, and only too ready 
 to accept an encore, he gave his own peculiar version of 
 "Home Sweet Home," in a style that savored of bathos rather 
 than pathos. His voice was undeniably powerful, and many 
 of his tones were firm and good, but far too loud for a 
 drawing-roorn, while his excessive mannerism greatly marred 
 the effect of a vocally creditable effort. Looking unutterable 
 things out of his coal-black eyes at the company whom he 
 had so graciously deigned to delight (to use the language he 
 invariably employed when puffing himself in those of the 
 society journals to whose columns he could gain an entrance), 
 he subsided into comparative repose on a neighboring sofa, 
 where stretching himself at full length, he exclaimed : 
 
 "That is hard work, I tell you, I am hungry and thirsty 
 and tired into the bargain, I suppose you have something nice 
 going." 
 
 At these extraordinary remarks from a total stranger, 
 
10 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 Dr. Maxwell touched an electric knob, and almost instantly 
 a page appeared bearing a tray of choice but not extravagant 
 edibles; the conversation then took a gastronomic turn, 
 and one of the ladies addressed Alphonse in the following 
 terms : 
 
 " I have heard, but do not of course know how true it is, 
 that metaphysicians can eat anything ; now I'm a martyr to 
 indigestion and have just commenced to take electric treatment 
 from our host, but he doesn't allow me any meat even. I am 
 permitted to eat nothing but fruits and cereals, while my 
 principal beverage is hot water ; what does Mrs. Catsleigh 
 say on this subject ?" 
 
 " Well," responded that lady's representative, " you must 
 ask her yourself, blessed if I know. When we dine together 
 we have quail on toast, and lots of other delicacies, but some- 
 times when people are too nervous, she does tell them not to 
 eat pork and shell-fish and some other things discarded by 
 the Hebrews, of whom she seems very fond, especially when 
 they are free with their coin." 
 
 " Excuse my interrupting you," broke in the well-modu- 
 lated accents of Dr. Maxwell's always winning voice, "I do 
 not think either of you understand what I feel to be the true 
 position on the diet question. Mrs. O'Shannon concludes that 
 I attach as much importance to the simple question of diet 
 as those physicians who make obesity a specialty. I do 
 nothing of the kind, but my studies with the learned and 
 excellent Prof. Jerome do Montmarte in Paris, have led me 
 to study the science of correspondences in a way slightly 
 differing from that in which it is usually studied by the 
 reputed disciples of Swedenborg, a sage and seer for whom 
 I confess unbounded respect and admiration. I feel it to 
 be an essential factor in human development that we should 
 accrete and absorb such of the forces of the invisible kingdoms 
 of nature as correspond to those mental and moral traits we 
 seek to develop, avoiding all indulgence in such appetites as 
 tend earthward instead of heavenward. I am no advocate of 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 11 
 
 long fasts, except in exceptional cases where a temporary 
 rest from the work of physical assimilation is imperative, 
 but I do indeed contend that the ordinary diet of artificial 
 zation, miscalled civilization, is simply barbaric, it haying 
 neither justification in reason nor sanction in morals." 
 
 "But what is a fellow to eat?" questioned Alphonse, 
 excitedly. "You don't expect us to subsist on roots and 
 uncooked grains like some people who called at our rooms the 
 ther day and asked me to distribute * Korokoo-heshun ' 
 literature among Mrs. Catsleigh's students ?" 
 
 " Pardon me, my dear sir," replied the doctor, smiling. 
 " I have no sympathy with fanatical extremists, and I consider 
 cooked food in proper quantities and of the right kind, advan- 
 tageous to us all as we are at present situated. I do not even 
 banish meats entirely from my table, though I very rarely eat 
 meat myself, and I induce all my patients to gradually break 
 away from it, but the point I am aiming at is that there is a 
 science of feeding as well as of everything else, and this 
 science like all true sciences, has its foundation in spiritual 
 not in physical chemistry. I hold that under extreme 
 pressure of need, or in a state of unusually exalted spiritual 
 feeling, the influence of anything and everything usually 
 deleterious in its effects upon the human organism, can be 
 successfully resisted ; but under ordinary circumstances it is 
 disorderly and absurd to tell people to eat and drink anything \ 
 and everything because such words to the majority justify ] 
 unlimited physical license. I do not say that the teachers and 
 practitioners of ' Christian Science,' are other than extremely 
 temperate in their demands and habits in such respects, but 
 if they are bent on elevating the race, they must seek to wean I 
 people from excesses, not teach so as to imply their justifica- \ 
 tion. I shall take the liberty of questioning Mrs. Catsleigh on 
 these points as soon as she gives me an opening by raising 
 them in her lessons, which I shall attend faithfully, with a 
 view of learning all I possibly can of the system, of which, 
 from all I hear, she is a brilliant and successful advocate." 
 
12 ONE8IMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 " Oh, you and she will get on first rate," responded her 
 agent, enthusiastically, "she always enjoys talking with 
 doctors who know something, and I don't see that you and 
 she are far apart in theory, whatever you may be in practice, 
 but, bless me, it's 10:30, I must be going; I've three more 
 engagements to-night, so ta ta" And with this unceremoni- 
 ous leave-taking, accompanied, however, by a profound and 
 not ungraceful bow, the irrepressible Alphonse departed for 
 pastures new. 
 
 As soon as he was gone the party drew themielves 
 together in the pretty room, which was unusually attractive 
 when softly illumined by electricity, and as though feeling 
 some subtle sense of an invisible presence brooding near, all 
 sat in profound silence for about five minutes, after which a 
 soft, bird-like voice was heard piping in the room as though 
 a telephone connected the apartment with some distant salon. 
 No material telephone however, communicated with Prof, de 
 Montmarte's Parisian residence, and it was the voice of his 
 charming daughter, Heloise, which vibrated through the room 
 in clear, penetrating accents. Mr. Templeton appeared 
 thunderstruck; Mrs. O'Shannon visibly started. Dr. Maxwell 
 listened quietly as though thoroughly used to such experiences, 
 while Lydia gently rose, and taking her seat at the piano, 
 began playing as she had never played before, a soft, dreamy 
 composition of Schumann, the favorite composer of the lovely 
 Heloise, whom she had never seen.* 
 
 As soon as Lydia rose from the instrument, the mystical, 
 yet quite natural tones of the unseen visitor's voice spoke in 
 the following words : 
 
 " I who am bodily asleep in Paris have been commissioned 
 to visit you this evening and declare my presence thus, that 
 our new friend (indicating Mr. Templeton) may know that 
 
 *Tlie reader must bear in mind that tlie 0' Shannon's were on a 
 visit to Dr. Maxwell, and knew none of his European friends, indeed, 
 they had never crossed the Atlantic. Heloise and her father had never 
 met them in America. 
 
ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 13 
 
 the deep secret of his soul is not a secret to those who consti- 
 tute the circle to which he belongs, though quite unconsciously 
 to himself, save when an occasional glimpse behind the veil 
 of man-made dogma permits him to gaze upon the spiritual 
 temple of which the purest visible church is but a shadow. 
 In a few months from now the bonds will be broken, the 
 letter will be cast aside and the spirit revealed. You, my 
 friend (addressing Mr. Templeton personally), have been 
 reading Swedenborg in secret. You have pondered and 
 prayed over the Arcana Coelestia and Apocalypse Unveiled ; 
 you have struggled with doubts innumerable, and have 
 counted it sin to question the interpretation put upon Scripture 
 by your own and other evangelical sects ; but light is to come 
 to you very shortly, and through your own individual experi- 
 ence will you be led to cast aside all fetters of dead literalism, 
 and preach the gospel as its spirit is revealed to you." 
 
 To say that Mr. Templeton was startled would be to 
 utterly fail to describe a tithe of his palpable emotion. He 
 was literally convulsed with wonder ; his agitation knew no 
 bounds, and rising suddenly to his feet, he cried impetuously 
 in hia loudest tone, " My God, if this be true, how blind I 
 have been in fighting it. Swedenborg's works, the very 
 volumes alluded to by this mysterious, unseen speaker, are 
 in my bureau drawer at home in Saddlerock, Vermont. I 
 took them from a member of my congregation unknowingly, 
 for when she moved to Boston she gave me all her theological 
 library; these two books were among her collection; they 
 were uncut and had evidently never been lead hardly 
 noticed. Not feeling they were suitable for general perusal 
 by my visitors, I took them to my chamber and locked them 
 up among my private papers. They some way fascinated me, 
 and I have been for some time past reading them nightly 
 prior to retiring. This practice I only discontinued three 
 days ago when I came to visit you on my summer vacation 
 while my church is closed for renovation." 
 
 Once again the clear voice rang out through the apart- 
 
14 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 ment, " Have no fear, truth will not ask any of you to be itu 
 martyrs, though it calls on you all to be its fearless, tireless 
 advocates. My father requests you to assemble here next 
 Sunday at 10 P.M., to hold an electric stance, when I trust 
 the truth of spiritual telegraphy will be yet more convincingly 
 revealed to you. God's blessing is over you. I do not invoke 
 it, I declare it." 
 
 As the clear, bell-like utterance subsided into silence, 
 the household at 312 Sycamore Avenue felt a delightful 
 sensation of rest steal over its every member, and seeking 
 their respective couches did not find " balmy slumber " diffi- 
 cult to woo. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A PBIMA.BY LESSON IN SPIRITUAL SCIENCE. 
 
 " All ! might I soar beyond the sky. 
 And learning truth which ne'er can die, 
 Press on and on and never tire, 
 While listening to the angelic lyre, 
 Till comprehending music there, 
 Learn to make this small star more fair. 1 
 
 THE day following that on which our story opened was 
 the occasion of the commencement of Mrs. Catsleigh's 
 course of Metaphysical teachings, for which Dr. Max v, ell had 
 purchased six tickets, that he might invite his guests to share 
 the profit of the instruction with him. As not unfrequently 
 happens in New York city, during the heated term, this 
 Tuesday morning was mild and breezy. A delightful wind 
 was stirring, bearing with it " the odor of brine from the 
 ocean," and so far relieving the tedium of midsummer heat, 
 as to induce quite a crowd of persons usually too fatigued to 
 stir, to become pedestrians. 
 
 Dr. Maxwell who was always an early riser, was out 
 before 7, in company with Mr. Templeton who always rose at 
 that hour in winter, and at a still earlier hour in summer. 
 Sauntering along in Fuschia Park (one of those charming 
 little oases in the city, which makes New York next to Paris, 
 the most delightful of all metropolitan cities), the two gentle- 
 men fell to conversing eagerly on the subject of the previous 
 night's remarkable experience. 
 
 " How can we account for it," said the Rev, Onesimus, 
 " unless we accept your interpretation, which is that the 
 
16 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 phenomenon owes its origin to its alleged cause ? I cannot 
 see how it can be otherwise. Imposition in your house is 
 impossible and how could the cleverest impostor even though 
 a superb ventriloquist, or master of a concealed telephone, or 
 even phonograph, have known about those two volumes of 
 Swedenborg in my private possession under lock and key, 
 several hundred miles away. The circumstance is so start- 
 ling, novel, and withal so exasperatingly inexplicable from 
 the standpoint of my former prejudices that I cannot but 
 believe we are on the verge of some discoveries in the field of 
 mental science, whose importance to the world I do not dare 
 to estimate even in fancy." 
 
 " My dear Mr. Templeton," responded Dr. Maxwell, " to 
 me these singular occurrences have become so familiar, I no 
 longer wonder at them any more than at the triumphs of 
 electrical science. I experience communion with the unseen 
 world as naturally as I breathe or discharge any of the duties 
 pertaining to my avocation, all of which are startling and 
 incomprehensible to the inexperienced in such matters. I 
 never shared your prejudice against Spiritualism, and I never 
 knew what it was to fear any other devil than the lower 
 passions of our nature, which tempt us continually to err 
 until we have subdued them to the spirit. My father and 
 mother were both very liberal in their views, they never tried 
 to force me to accept any special religious dogma; I was 
 allowed to think and reason for myself. I went to a Unitarian 
 Sunday-school regularly for seven years, where the superin- 
 tendent and all the teachers were at one with the excellent 
 minister Dr. Bellows, in urging us to cultivate our own moral 
 instincts. I never knew a religion of fear, could never 
 understand why people had such dread of the Almighty, and 
 though the Unitarians with whom I was brought up were not 
 Spiritualists, my aunt who is now residing with me, and who 
 has an alligator for a pet, was during my boyhood a private 
 clairvoyant. Her circumstsnces were fortunately such that 
 she never needed to ask money for her services, she never 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 17 
 
 advertised, and her possession of a rare psychic gift was 
 known only to her intimate friends; only those of their 
 acquaintance who by expressing themselves as anxious to 
 investigate Spiritualism privately, were introduced to her. 
 She never tried to obtain communications for anybody ; the 
 lower forms of ' for tune- telling ' she detests, as I am sure you 
 and I do; but frequently in the midst of ordinary conversation 
 on the most indifferent matters, her fine expressive face will 
 grow suddenly illuminated and her whole manner change. 
 Then in a few exquisitely chosen sentences, she will point out 
 to her amazed and reverent listeners, exactly how they should 
 act in some important crisis. 
 
 Again and again, when a boy between twelve and fifteen, 
 I have sat spellbound on a footstool at her feet, receiving 
 counsel, wiser by far than even she (wise woman though she 
 is) could give me in her ordinary state. How she detests the 
 words ' control * and ' abnormal,' along with other common 
 phrases used to express the subjugation of one will to the 
 coercive dominance of another, with her it has always been 
 illumination, inspiration, prophetic insight, anything you 
 choose to call it; provided the word or phrase expresses 
 exaltation not depression of humanity." 
 
 " But," interrupted Mr. Templeton suddenly, " how can 
 your aunt then be in any sense a spiritualist or a medium, 
 she cannot suppose herself enlightened by individual human 
 minds, she must receive or think she receives a divine afflatus 
 lifting her completely above the ordinary plane of normal 
 consciousness to a much higher level of perception ?" 
 
 " Permit me to explain/' resumed the doctor, " there are 
 distinctly two, if not more, spiritualistic schools. One school in- 
 deed does depress the individual, by attributing everythingto 
 the action of the disembodied ' acting through the * embodied/ 
 as water pours through an unresisting pipe ; but this school 
 is as a rule, ignorant and bigoted, and has contributed noth- 
 ing but iconoclasm and platitude to the literature of the day. 
 It is to this school you must look for wretchedly ungram- 
 
18 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 matical speeches from the greatest grammarians "who ever 
 lived, and for direct messages from Osiris, Buddha, Plato, 
 Confucius, and of course Jesus and his apostles, couched in 
 language so ridiculous and conveying so little that one can 
 scarcely wonder at the ridicule heaped on its advocates by a 
 scoffing public. There is, however, another and ever enlarg- 
 ing school of truly intellectual and spiritually minded men 
 and women who look to spiritual communion rather than to 
 spirit control as the means of gaining genuine access to the 
 realities of the invisible universe. 
 
 " Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, whom 1 heard in New 
 York before I went to college, impressed me as the beau ideal 
 of intellectual womanhood ; she never for an instant repudi- 
 ated Spiritualism, though she constantly urged mediumistic 
 persons not to neglect self -culture. My aunt ar d Mrs. Britten 
 were once great friends, and when that lady was Miss 
 Hardinge, they were frequently companions in psychical 
 research. My aunt is a natural clairvoyant, whose gifts 
 displayed themselves spontaneously in childhood ; .they were 
 never of a physical order, tables and chairs were never 
 agitated in her presence; but advice, warning, prophetic 
 exhortation, and most marvelous insight into the past and 
 future of those about her, distinguished her as a possessor of 
 the rare gift of spiritual divination, which some of the most 
 enlightened among orientals possessed in Bible times ; and 
 speaking of the Bible, I shall hope, Mr. Templeton, that you 
 will join and assist us in our Bible-class, which meets at my 
 house every Wednesday afternoon. We are now discussing 
 the life of Joseph in the light of present day experiences, and 
 I shall have something to say on two diametrically opposite 
 kinds of divination mentioned in the story of his career, that 
 I am sure will interest you. Persons of all shades of opinion 
 fill my rooms to overflowing every week in the full season ; as 
 it is now late in July many of our usual frequenters have left 
 the city, but several who are at Manhattan Beach and other 
 accessible places come over as usual every Wednesday. I 
 
ONE8IMU8 TEMPLETON 19 
 
 hope you will not get tired of so much argument. Mrs. Cats- 
 leigh this afternoon (who, by the way, I have an intense 
 curiosity to watch and study as well as hear), and our Bible 
 reading to-morrow but, you told me you wanted to use your 
 present holiday in investigating psychism, as you expressed 
 it in your letter. I am, I think, as good as my word, if not 
 better, in affording you facilities ; my house is a perfect ren- 
 dezvous for persons who are studying the 'occult;' a word, 
 by the way, which I greatly dislike, though I can understand 
 it as signifying to many people an endeavor to bring hidden 
 things to light ; perhaps it is permissible, though I think 
 decidedly infelicitous." 
 
 As Mr. Templeton expressed himself as only too glad and 
 indeed most anxious to see and hear as much as possible 
 between that day and September 1st, when he must return to 
 Saddlerock, a neighboring clock sounded the hour of nine, so 
 the two friends hastened their steps homeward to join the 
 rest of our party at the breakfast table. They entered the 
 breakfast-room just as Mrs. Priscilla Finchley (Dr. Maxwell's 
 aunt and housekeeper) was pouring out the coffee and dis- 
 tributing the eggs. It was an invariable rule at 312 Sycamore 
 avenue that no one should wait for anybody else. Meals 
 commenced at the appointed hour punctually, those who 
 heard the gong and responded, took their seats at the table; 
 those who were out or engaged came in when it suited them. 
 This arrangement was necessary to the Doctor's comfort and 
 convenience, as his numerous professional duties made it 
 impossible for him to be a slave to tabular conventionalities, 
 and it suited every inmate of his household to perfection. 
 Visitors were never under the necessity of hurrying home to 
 get something to eat at a particular moment; the Doctor 
 kept " open house " literally, and simple but delicious food 
 was always ready for any one who wanted it, a few minutes 
 after such need was expressed. 
 
 Whenever the whole party could assemble at the table 
 they invariably did so, for nothing is so charming as to eat 
 
20 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 leisurely in pleasant company. Mrs. Finchley was a model 
 housekeeper ; though a true " Mary," she had enough 
 " Martha " in her disposition to prevent her from ever for- 
 getting the physical necessities of those for whom it was her 
 delight to provide. She was perfectly in sympathy with her 
 nephew and understood him thoroughly as well as he under- 
 stood himself, and the greatest charm of his development was 
 that he had reached a point where he had made his own 
 acquaintance; he thus knew exactly what he wanted, and so 
 did not manifest caprice. 
 
 Mrs. Finchley had just passed fifty-eight when we were 
 first introduced to her. Her hair was soft silver gray, orna- 
 mented with a simple lace head-dress, quite unpretentious 
 but of attractive design ; her complexion was youthful in the 
 extreme ; no paints, powders, lotions or cosmetics (foul relics 
 of barbarism), had been allowed to injure her exquisite white 
 skin ; her hands and face were entirely free from wrinkles, 
 and in her soft cashmere gown, ornamented with a single 
 epray of heliotrope at the throat, Bhe appeared like an elder 
 sister of her handsome nephew. He looked thirty, she 
 scarcely over forty; their ages were forty and fifty-eight 
 respectively. Workers they were and had ever been, but 
 worriers they were not. They rested in work, by working 
 restfully and resting actively they solved the problem of 
 health and contentment ; though always occupied they were 
 rarely if ever even slightly fatigued. 
 
 Miss Lydia O'Shannon looked very sweet and spirituelle 
 in a snow-white muslin gown decorated with pink rosebuds, 
 while her portly mother, in her elaborate robe de chambre, 
 which she insisted on wearing at the breakfast table, looked 
 like what she was, a very good-natured, but not exceedingly 
 reposeful Irishwoman of not quite the highest type. 
 
 Matilda O'Shannon was a gentle, nestling creature, per- 
 fectly enamored of Mrs. Finchley, by whose side she sat in 
 quiet happiness, scarcely exchanging a word with anybody at 
 the table, but evidently enjoying her coffee, toast and egg, 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 21 
 
 with fresh watercress, more than many a princess surrounded 
 by her courtiers, enjoys a sumptuous palace banquet. During 
 breakfast the party was talkative, as ail parties should be 
 when eating. One of Dr. Maxwell's inflexible rules for his 
 patients was, " Never eat rapidly, never eat when your mind 
 is unquiet, never eat in gloomy silence, never think of what 
 you are eating." If this rulo, a practical lesson in four brief 
 sentences, is studied and acted upon by dyspeptics, dyspepsia 
 will soon be no more. 
 
 After breakfast, the doctor having patients to see and 
 letters to write, the ladies with Mr. Templeton as their escort, 
 took a walk in the direction of Central Park. They started 
 up Fifth Avenue, talking pleasantly all the way, till they 
 found themselves within the park enclosure, ready to appre- 
 ciate the shade of the lofty trees after their long walk. 
 Mr. Templeton said to Mrs. Finchley: " Your nephew and I 
 have been freely discussing you this morning. He tells me 
 you have been a clairvoyant from childhood, but never 
 attempt to use your gift except when some inspiration comes 
 to you unbidden. I only want to say that if ever you feel 
 like giving me a message I shall be truly grateful, as since 
 last evening my mind has undergone considerable change 
 toward all such matters. I never scoffed, but I doubted and 
 feared until last night; the impression left upon me by that 
 astounding revelation, has killed my prejudice, considerably 
 allayed my fears, and made me intensely desirous of studying 
 for myself the mysteries of the borderland which I begin to 
 feel are not so mysterious to some of you as they have always 
 appeared to me." 
 
 While he was yet speaking, a sudden flash of light 
 seemed to flit over Mrs. Finchley's fine, intellectual forehead, 
 and answering him almost before his voice had died away, 
 she said, " Chosen of heaven, thou hast a mission of love to 
 fulfill. The world is thy church, and thy congregation shall 
 know the truth through thee as they have never heard it 
 before ; six weeks shall prove enough to open thine inward 
 
23 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 eyes, and at the end of thy vacation here thou shalt return to 
 the scene of thy former labors to break fresh bread and 
 present new wine to thy flock; changes are before thee ; 
 these in due course shall be explained. Rest! REST ! REST ! 
 Let not thy mind be anxious, nor thy heart grow sad ; there 
 is for thee reserved a noble chair in the prophetic college to 
 which thy willing steps shall soon be led. Trust ! TRUST ! 
 TEUST ! All will be well. Daily thy bread shall come and 
 to-morrow's work cannot be portrayed to-dn " 
 
 Words are dead, lifeless things on paper oftentimes, but 
 when from the lips of an inspired speaker accents fall glow- 
 ingly with living power, the human voice seems indeed a 
 telephone transmitting to earthly ears sounds begotten in a 
 higher world. So felt Mr. Templeton when Mrs. Finchley 
 ceased speaking, and the sudden accession of brightness left 
 her brow, and all relapsed into sweet meditative silence in 
 which more of truth perhaps is often realized by receptive 
 minds, than the most impassioned eloquence can express. 
 Slowly and peacefully wending their way back to the park 
 gates and through them to the nearest station of the elevated 
 road, the party wended their course back to Sycamore avenue 
 vfhere a light collation awaited them at 1:30. 
 
 By three o'clock they were all in their seats at Poodleton 
 Hall, awaiting the appearance of Mrs. Felina Oatsleigh. 
 About seventy-five people were present, fifty at least of them 
 middle-aged ladies of thoughtful mien and soberly attired. 
 A few gentlemen were scattered among the audience, mostly 
 literary and professional men; two or three young medical 
 students gave variety to the scene, as they were evidently 
 present to take notes and air their own superior knowledge 
 when the question hour gave them an opportunity. 
 
 Mons. Alphonse flashily dressed, sporting some very 
 large diamonds and generally to all appearance intent on 
 impressing everybody with his importance, bustled hither 
 and thither, talking loudly as he showed people to vacant 
 chairs, adjusted the light and made himself useful in twenty 
 
ONESIMUS TEMP L ETON 23 
 
 ways at once. At five minutes past three the curtain rose 
 (the hall was often used for theatrical purposes), and seated 
 on the stage in a reposeful attitude, her bare arm leaning on a 
 table decorated with a few books and papers, a choice bouquet 
 of roses in a very handsome porcelain vase, a lace handker- 
 chief and a large white feather fan, appeared the heroine of 
 the hour, clad in blue silk trimmed with white lace, her 
 raven hair and finely shaped hands glittering with rubies. 
 Slowly rising from her peaceful attitude, bowing and smiling 
 to her audience, Mrs. Catsleigh advanced to the front of the 
 platform holding a dainty manuscript in her hands : 
 
 " My very dear friends," she began in well modulated 
 accents, " we are here to investigate and if possible to solve 
 the problem of life immortal. Man is a thought of Deity, we 
 are not the clay of which our bodies are formed; we are 
 living, spiritual, eternal entities. God is good, and so are 
 we. Sweet friends, can we ever reach the sad, the suffering, 
 the toil-worn masses of mankind, until we realize the unity 
 of life and allow human brotherhood to mean for us infinitely 
 more than a stock expression. We must know ourselves to 
 know our neighbors, and when I think of the beautiful gracious- 
 ness which is ever indicative of a true reformer, I venture to 
 say if man is liberated at all from the bonds of error which 
 now oppress the race, it will only be through the blessed 
 matchless instrumentality of divine human love." 
 
 A murmur of applause ran through the room. Dr. Max- 
 well and Mrs. Finchley smiled and exchanged approving 
 glances. Mr. Templeton looked both surprised and delighted. 
 Many of the "blue stockings " clapped, and one or two elderly 
 gentlemen tapped the floor with their walking-sticks, and 
 said, " Hear, hear !" 
 
 Proceeding for exactly an hour in a similar strain, Mrs. 
 Catsleigh defined the distinction between spiritual, mental 
 and medical therapeutics, and ended by inviting questions 
 from the audience. As the audience was a very inquiring as 
 well as intellectual one, many persons availed themselves of 
 
24 ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 
 
 her offer which was most cordially extended to all present. 
 
 " We left our friends alone in the ground when we were 
 materialists," exclaimed an elderly gentleman in the rear of 
 the hall, " but now, since the light of immortality has been 
 revealed to us, we know they can never die ; at least, I speak 
 for myself and many friends of mine. Do I understand you 
 to say, Madam, that mediumship is a mortal delusion, and 
 that the departed never communicate with earth ?" 
 
 Mrs. Catsleigh immediately answered as follows: "My 
 dear sir, I do not think you have quite understood the drift 
 of my discourse ; or, perhaps you have attributed to me the 
 opinions of some one else. I am no one's echo, I have studied 
 with three or four of the most widely known Christian and 
 Mental Scientists, and I have dipped somewhat into Theoso- 
 phy. I am myself an independent thinker, and though I 
 quote from others, and often refer to something I have read, 
 I never dogmatize on what I do not understand ; and for the 
 life of me I cannot see how any intelligent advocate of meta- 
 physical healing is going to successfully refute the philosophy 
 of Spiritualism. As to the phenomena, that is another 
 matter, and I don't care to discuss it with my class because 
 I want to keep to my subject on the twelve afternoons we are 
 to spend here, and that is ' How to get well when you are ill,' 
 and what is more important yet, How to keep well when you 
 are not ill. 1 " 
 
 Herewith one of the medical students arose and put the 
 following essay-question to the fair lecturer : " We know 
 disease is in the air, it is a living creature, we can see it 
 through the microscope. Now, how is your thought or mine 
 or anybody's going to keep parasites out of the blood or eject 
 them after they have once entered? I grant you nervous 
 fancies can be dispelled by mental methods, but we all know 
 that, and in our college studies we learn to practice mentally 
 whenever mental cure is practicable. The regular school to 
 which I belong is the only truly eclectic school in the world ; 
 it is neither alopathic or homoeopathic, all 'pathies are 
 
ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 25 
 
 irregular, and all 'pathists are therefore quacks. Now how 
 are you going to improve on our methods or teach us anything 
 we do not already know ? You are simply taking a fraction 
 out of our perfect system and holding that up as the whole." 
 
 Having delivered himself of this grandiloquent effusion, 
 Mr. Horatio Bonen resumed his seat with an air which caused 
 his companion, who evidently thought him a lion, to whisper 
 not by any means inaudibly (whispers are rarely unheard at 
 a distance), "She is squelched this time." 
 
 "Is that a question or an essay*" began Mrs. Catsleigh 
 in reply. " If we have many of equal length our exercises 
 will certainly not have the fault of undue brevity, but 
 comments aside, I will answer you. My experience with 
 medical men has taught me two things. First, very few 
 doctors even attempt to teach the science of health to their 
 patients, probably because a fashionable clientele could rarely 
 be maintained if truth were very plainly spoken to aristocratic 
 invalids; second, doctors do not always know quite as much 
 as they think they do, and sometimes, what with mistakes in 
 diagnosing, prescribing, and ultimately in the compounding 
 of prescriptions, a large unnecessary mortality takes place. 
 If I am feeling unwell and take a dose of medicine, I learn 
 nothing, I do not know what occasioned my illness, I do not 
 know what I have been taking to remove it ; for, I am not a 
 Latin scholar, nor have I served as an apothecary ; I do not 
 know how the evil is overcome, nor how to ward off similar 
 attacks in future. I personally am not a physician but a 
 teacher, and doctor correctly translated means teacher and 
 nothing else. New granting your regular practice is all you 
 claim it to be, it may cure me at a certain time of a pain or 
 local ailment, but it does not instruct me in the science of 
 life. I was an invalid four years, often had to be helped off 
 the stage, and then took to my bed for weeks at a time, but 
 I never knew what ailed me until I was introduced to Mrs. 
 Amy Pushing, whom no doubt some of you know well. After 
 six weeks treatment from her I was well, and now I can defy 
 
26 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 the elements and eat everything I please. Six weeks with 
 Mrs. Pushing did for me what four years painful experience 
 with, I cannot tell how many eminent physicians, never began 
 to accomplish." 
 
 Applause ran through the audience at this testimony. 
 Some of Mrs. Pushing's friends, of whom there were several 
 present, became quite excited and cheered lustily, when the 
 discussion began to take a new turn. Rising slowly, at the 
 back of the hall, and speaking in quiet but ringing accents, 
 Dr. Enamel Plategold, President of the Crowningf alse Dental 
 University, a great authority on occult matters as well as on 
 dentistry, said : " Do you know that you arc doing very 
 wrong in seeking to interfere with the operation of inexorable 
 Karmi'3 justice ; to seek to hinder the working out of any- 
 body's Karma is a fatal error fraught with disastrous 
 consequences to all parties implicated ? " 
 
 Mrs. Catsleigh was equal to the occasion, for, literally 
 springing to the edge of the platform, her countenance 
 suffused with animation, her eyes glittering like gems, she 
 replied in positive and thrilling tones: "Does my would-be 
 opponent not clearly see that his absurd misapplication of 
 the law of restitution or compensation, rules out his practice 
 and that of all dentists, surgeons and physicians, fully SIB 
 much as mine or that of any Mental Scientist ; if every pain 
 we suffer is a result of Karma and we must suffer to the bitter 
 end ? Why extract a decayed tooth which gives pain to its 
 possessor ? Why apply ether, nitrous-oxide gas, or any other 
 anaesthetic to deaden sensation during the extraction ? Why 
 permit the surgeon's knife, or the physician's or nurse's pill, 
 powder, lotion or plaster to relieve bodily distress? And 
 (warming to the subject as she made a yet stronger point, 
 and gave a more effectual reply to her interlocutor), why not 
 put down education, for instruction such as I give is mental 
 unfoldment. I teach you Karmaites how to become capable 
 of making good Karma wherewith to replace evil, to use your 
 own favorite Sanskrit word, which the majority ol English- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 27 
 
 speaking people apprehend but dimly. If past existences 
 have yielded to us the fruits of suffering, so long as we remain 
 ignorant of truth, so long shall we suffer; whereas, the 
 moment new light breaks in upon our hitherto darkened 
 minds, we shall learn how not to evade but conquer Karma." 
 This answer was very warmly received by nearly every one 
 present, though it appeared to have little or no effect upon 
 Dr. Plategold who was evidently sincere, but so utterly 
 wedded to the curious theories of a certain cult which seems 
 to see no good outside of Hinduism, that he could not 
 understand how Mrs. Catsleigh's answer met the case. Like 
 many others, he persuaded himself that she was a gifted 
 sophist, and though he could not repudiate her conclusion, 
 there and then in adequate phrases, he fully expected to be 
 able to shiver it to atoms before the next lesson. The tide 
 now began to turn in a distinctly theological direction. The 
 speaker in her remarks had spoken of the divine indwelling 
 light in the soul of man, this she had styled man's veritable 
 savior. Mr. Templeton was naturally anxious to know how 
 a woman of her views would deal with the orthodox plan of 
 salvation ; and therefore in no carping spirit, but eagerly 
 seeking information, the Baptist minister addressed her in 
 effect as follows : 
 
 " You have told us that we have within us the means of 
 salvation from sin, sickness and death, you have spoken 
 glibly of the essential Christ which seems to me the platouic 
 but not the Christian logos, and though you have freely 
 quoted from the Gospels and said nothing whatever against 
 any portion of the sacred Scriptures, I fail to see how you 
 Bxplain redemption satisfactorily without a personal redeemer, 
 who was as truly a historic person as Julius Caesar." 
 
 " Well, I confess I don't know everything, and I am not 
 seeking to overturn anybody's religious convictions unless 
 they can be proved detrimental to human welfare. I cannot 
 accept the orthodox interpretation of vicarious atonement ; it 
 has always struck me as dreadfully unjust, and are not your 
 
28 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 ablest ministers and bishops to-day putting quite new 
 interpretations upon old creeds and catechisms? Now as I 
 understand the matter, God is never angry, we fancy He is 
 when we rebel against the light within, then when we adjust 
 ourselves harmoniously to the universe by means of a correct 
 understanding of truth and the practice of what we know, we 
 discover that our ideas of God's anger have arisen entirely 
 from our own fears and mental darkness. Of course, I cannot 
 cover the whole field of theology in an answer to a question, 
 but I think I have given you the key so that you may unlock 
 the subject at your leisure on the line I have indicated." 
 
 " Are you never ill ?" broke in a harsh, rasping voice 
 from the centre of the room, and all eyes instinctively turned 
 in the direction of a sallow, spectacled cynic, a critic employed 
 by the Weekly Venomspleen, a paper devoted to scurrilous 
 attacks on personal reputations in the pretended interest of 
 immaculate morality. 
 
 "Are you ever well?" queried Mrs. Catsleigh of her 
 sickly-looking questioner ; " the way to be well is to think no 
 evil, speak no evil, talk no evil, and WRITE no evil of any- 
 body or anything. We are none of us perfect ; I know I am 
 still very imperfect, therefore I do not enjoy entire immunity 
 from distress, but contrasting my mental and physical con- 
 dition to-day with what it was a year ago, I may say truly, I 
 am well. I was never so well before, never so capable of 
 sustaining exertion without fatigue, never so happy and 
 light-hearted as at the present moment ; and while I thank 
 God for everything, I owe my recovery, humanly speaking, to 
 my dear friend and teacher, Mrs. Pushing, whom I hope you 
 will all meet and learn to know and love as I do." 
 
 " What do you mean by God ? I don't know of any God * 
 Nature's enough for me," queried Mr. Henry Jackdaw, a 
 man of considerable ability, but weighted down with an 
 intolerable burden of egotism ; sub- editor of the Buried Age, 
 and vice-President of the " International Society for De-con- 
 stitutionalizing Religion. " 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 29 
 
 "What is Nature?" asked Mrs. Catsleigh. "Nature 
 means that which is born as well as that which gives birth. 
 When I use the word God, I do not try to fix in my mind the 
 idea of a big man, I mean to imply simply that all is GOOD, 
 and as good cannot be conceived of in its highest sense apart 
 from consciousness, I agree with Bulwer (Lord Lytton) in 
 believing that the Coming Race will style the Infinite all- 
 pervasive Mind which rules the universe, the All-Good. God 
 means the Good One, and I affirm that without a focal point 
 at which to rivet thought, philosophy is chaos and we are all 
 simply arguing in a circle or a maze. * All is Good, there is 
 no Evil,' will be the subject of my next lesson, then I shall 
 hope to discuss the subject with you far more fully ; it is 
 already 5:30, and from two to three hours is quite long enough 
 for any single session, even though the questions are diversi- 
 fied and represent many phases of thought. I do not wish to 
 be regarded as a dogmatist, I do not ask any one to accept 
 my conclusions; consideration is all I ask for my feeble 
 words. Not through oratory, but by an appeal to the intelli- 
 gence and heart of all before me, shall I ever seek to explain 
 as far as my limited knowledge will permit, the truth of 
 man's real being. I thank you more than I can express for 
 your kind and gracious attention here to-day ; you have, many 
 of you, supported me more than I can make you understand 
 in my somewhat arduous task of opening classes in mid- 
 summer in a new place before an unknown audience. Those 
 who come to learn will, I hope, be edified by an interchange 
 of thought ; those who know everything can of course learn 
 nothing more, and I rather wonder they waste their precious 
 time in this assembly. I invite you all to my reception on 
 Friday evening at the Quicksilver Hotel ; you all know where 
 it is, corner of Lemon Avenue and Orange Street. Come as 
 soon as you can, not later than 8 o'clock, and stay as long as 
 you are disposed to talk ; we'll try and have a social time 
 together. I always like to become personally acquainted 
 with my students, but I ^cannot call upon them all, they are 
 
30 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 too numerous, and live too far apart, and I nra far too busy. 
 My agent, Mons. Alphonse de Kabriet, who awaits you at the 
 door, will furnish you with all information you may require. 
 Again thanking you, au revoir till Thursday at 3 o'clock 
 prompt." 
 
 The curtain fell noiselessly as it had risen, and Mrs. 
 Felina Catsleigh disappeared, bowing and smiling behind its 
 advancing folds. 
 
 "Well, what do you think of her?" was Dr. Maxwell's 
 exclamation as soon as he and his friends were on the street ; 
 " she astonishes me, I cannot comprehend how such a woman 
 as she appears to be can give such amazingly profound 
 spiritual instruction. I would not have you imagine for a 
 moment that I think her an objectionable woman, but she 
 appears very worldly. Look at her general get-up; we know 
 she has been an actress, but I think stage dresses and effects 
 a little out of place at a Metaphysical matinee." 
 
 " I more than agree with you," responded Mr. Templeton. 
 " I confess I was almost shocked at first, she was, in my 
 opinion, most unbecomingly attired, and then her affected 
 mannerisms were completely out of keeping with the time, 
 place, and circumstances ; but of course you noticed how 
 quickly the most conspicuous of them left her when she was 
 without her notes and warmed up to her subject ; you I know 
 are something of a Spiritualist and your aunt is avowedly a 
 medium of a very exceptional order; do you think she is 
 under any ' influence ' while speaking, or do you agree with 
 Hartman in his work on ' Magic/ in which he attributes an 
 orator's supposed inspiration to the mental conditions of the 
 audience and quite ridicules the agency of ' spirits ' in the 
 matter ? you see I've been looking at some of the books on 
 your table." 
 
 " My dear friend, I am very glad to know you are reading 
 in this line ; the book to which you refer gives much salutary 
 advice, and were I to eliminate its objectionable portions I 
 would gladly put it into the hands of all enquirers, but as it 
 
ONESIMUS TENPLETON 31 
 
 stands, I must take decided exception to such statements as 
 the one you have specially referred to. Most specialists read 
 but one side and look at matters from one point of view only. 
 I find this a great drawback to the merit and reliability of 
 their teachings. Professor Huxley, for instance, whose Lay 
 Sermons embody much of the deepest wisdom I have come 
 across in modern literature, allows prejudice to completely 
 warp his judgment when he treats on Spiritualism. The 
 Seybert Commissioners of Philadelphia made a perfect wreck 
 of their investigations from the same cause ; it is not logical 
 to declaim against prejudice in the strongest terms, and then 
 manifest it immediately afterwards ; but this is exactly what 
 many educated persons are continually doing whose incon- 
 sistency is evidently not apparent to themselves. I cannot 
 see how an unbiased man can attribute to the mental efflux 
 of an audience, ideas and sentiments entirely foreign to the 
 opinions of that audience in all respects ; to go no further 
 than my own family, my aunt Mrs. Finchley, has frequently 
 persisted in giving communications to her friends utterly at 
 variance with their opinions and entirely beyond the scope of 
 her own experience, while that queen of platform orators, 
 Mrs. Britten, who was for many years my aunt's particular 
 friend, has been known repeatedly to go before large and 
 bigoted companies of people, and pour forth burning tides of 
 eloquence in direct opposition to their darling theories, to the 
 astonishment of all who heard her. I never accept anything 
 without proof, but to dismiss a great subject with satirical 
 flippancy and attempt to explain it away by means of a state- 
 ment utterly at variance with an enormous mass of thoroughly 
 authentic fact, is to impose on popular credulity and betray 
 one's own weakness. I repeat what I have said many times, 
 the simple philosophy of Spiritualism unadulterated with 
 cant and untarnished with absurd pretensions, is to me the 
 only philosophy which does or can solve the problem of life 
 here and hereafter. I believe the action of mind upon mind 
 to be in many cases utterly independent of the corporeal 
 
32 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 organism which mind uses as a workman employs a tool, or a 
 musician an ingeniously constructed instrument. When 
 Sunday evening conies and we hold our promised circle, I 
 shall hope to initiate you much further into the truth as we 
 perceive it on all those subjects ; now it is time for dinner, 
 and as we have had a good deal of mental food to-day which 
 we can digest at our leisure, I propose that after a light but 
 satisfying repast, we run over to Coney Island and see the 
 fireworks ; we can get there by 8:30 and be home again at 
 midnight." 
 
 "I for one, shall be delighted," responded Mr. Templeton, 
 with alacrity, and the rest of the party chiming in, they 
 quickened their pace homeward, then speedily adjusted their 
 toilets and after a delicious but exceedingly simple dinner 
 found themselves crossing the water under the light of the 
 silvery moon which was then at its full and just rising, in 
 ample time to reach the island for a display of pyrotechnic 
 skill, which to those who, like Mr. Templeton, had lived all 
 his days in quiet seclusion from popular gayeties, must 
 appear as a feat almost beyond man's unaided power to 
 accomplish. 
 
CHAPTER m. 
 
 SPIIUT AND LETTER. 
 
 I seek for Truth where'er 'tis found, 
 On Christian or on Pagan ground ; 
 The Truth alone can set us free 
 And lead us, Oh, our God to thee." 
 
 THOSE of our readers who have ever visited Coney Island 
 in summer, know how supremely beautiful is the whole 
 enchanting scene. The rolling of old ocean, the superb 
 strains of the incomparable band, the brilliant electric illu- 
 mination of the island, the gorgeousness of the palatial hotels, 
 and to cap the climax the unequaled pyrotechnic display in 
 the late evening, contribute to render the scene a veritable 
 realization of childhood's dreams of fairyland. Suddenly 
 transported from scenes of sober thought and strenuous 
 argument to this gay haunt of what should be pure and 
 innocent enjoyment, the minister from Vermont was affected 
 more strangely than he had ever been in his life before. On 
 the way home he was quiet to taciturnity, and seeing that his 
 mood was reflective instead of talkative, Dr. Maxwell, Mrs. 
 Finchley, and the three O'Shannon's fell to talking briskly 
 among themselves about the prospects of the world in the 
 20th century, if the present pace of improvement in mechanical 
 skill should become accelerated during the next few years. 
 
 Mr. Templeton, in his semi-recumbent posture on the 
 steamer deck, apparently dozing in an obscure corner, though 
 he had no wish to talk, listened with breathless wonder to 
 some of his host's astounding statements concerning man's 
 power over the elements. The fireworks had led Mrs. 
 
34 ONESIMUS TEHPLETON 
 
 O 'Shannon to question Mrs. Finchley as to the possibility of 
 bringing rain from tho clouds in periods of dearth, by means of 
 pyrotechnic display ; " for," said she, " I have always observed, 
 when fireworks have been let off in great quantities, showers 
 have fallen Boon after.'* This remark was called out by a 
 slight sprinkling of rain which led the party to seek a more 
 sheltered corner on the boat. 
 
 Dr. Maxwell, after listening to his aunt's brief reply to 
 her friend's question, volunteered some amazing information 
 he had collected when in France, from members of the 
 Academy, to the effect that rain can be produced at will by 
 human ingenuity; for provided Governments are willing to 
 make sufficiently large appropriations, scientists now living 
 are quite ready to construct and set in motion electrical rain- 
 producing apparatus, as they are also prepared to perfect 
 long talked of schemes of aerial navigation. Bulwer's wings 
 on his Vril-Ya in the " Coming Kace," are simple and quite 
 practical mechanical contrivances ; but until a new industrial 
 system is in vogue, these great inventions cannot be fairly 
 tested for lack of means, as the wealth of no individual is apt 
 to be available for such purposes, whose first cost would be 
 necessarily enormous. However, when co-operation shall 
 become universal, science will not be fettered as it now is for 
 lack of means, and in the next century education will doubtless 
 have made such rapid strides that the incredulity now so 
 prevalent whenever such subjects are broached will have 
 almost entirely disappeared. In the natural evolution of 
 events, unless some remarkable backward current sets iu, it 
 cannot be another half century before many of the most 
 Utopian expectations of the world's savans will be fully 
 realized, first in America and then in Europe. America will 
 doubtless take precedence even when European scientist B are 
 the projectors of the schemes, not because of the superior 
 intelligence of the American nation, so much as on account of 
 the readiness of a newer country to try measures which the 
 conservatism of the old world would wish to see fully per- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 35 
 
 fected Isewhere before favoring their introduction into 
 European countries. Talking in this strain with considerable 
 animation till the boat landed at the Twenty-third Street 
 pier, our friends regaled themselves with encouraging fore- 
 gleams of happier days in store, days we must not only hope 
 and pray for, but WORK for with all our might. By 1 A.M. 
 the household at 312 Sycamore Avenue was again rocked in 
 the peaceful arms of Morpheus, and it was late on the follow- 
 ing morning before any one awoke. 
 
 During the night Mr. Templeton had a singular prophetic 
 dream, and when he presented himself at breakfast just as the 
 others were about to rise from the table, his countenance 
 wore an unusually thoughtful expression. He was rather 
 silent, but not at all morose, nor did he seem mentally dis- 
 turbed, only intensely anxious to learn more of the mysterious 
 science on whose threshold he felt himself palpably standing. 
 Dr. Maxwell, divining his unspoken wish for a private con- 
 fidential talk, said pleasantly: "Come into the library about 
 11; I shall be disengaged for an hour then;. I have a good 
 deal to say to you. Now go, all of you, and visit the alligator." 
 The parties to whom the alligator had been mentioned before 
 (Lydia O'Shannon in particular) were all anxiety to see the 
 wonderful creature which dwelt in Mrs. Finchley's private 
 bath-room. 
 
 The house was one of those comfortable roomy ones, 
 built when land was cheap and people had no idea of squeez- 
 ing twenty people into a house too small for ten. The best 
 bed-rooms had private dressing-rooms attached, not little 
 closets, but good-sized rooms, much larger than the " elegant 
 hall chambers" so often let to single persons at fabulous 
 rents all over the city, and which are considered large if they 
 are as roomy as fair-sized dog-kennels. Mrs. Finchley's room 
 was over the drawing-room ; Dr. Maxwell's was a flight above. 
 Either of those rooms would have comfortably seated one 
 hundred and fifty persons had the furniture been displaced 
 by benches, and then there would have been room for a good 
 
36 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 sized platform at one end. Leading out of the main room 
 was a dressing-room more like a conservatory than a bath- 
 room. Ferns and tropical plants were growing freely there ; 
 one side of the wall was entirely of glass and looked directly 
 out upon the spacious garden which extended for quite a 
 distance in the rear of the house. In a bath-tub reposed a 
 small alligator from Florida, who awoke with a gentle start 
 and looked up with quite an intelligent expression when his 
 mistress called: "Jefferson, show yourself to these good 
 people." 
 
 "He is quite tame and never offers to snap," said Mrs. 
 Finchley, as slight signs of alarm began to be depicted on 
 the countenances of her guests, " now, get up, Jeffy, and fetch 
 the paper." The obedient creature slowly climbed over the 
 side of the tank, and following the lady like a lazy dog, slowly 
 advanced into the adjoining room, where picking up the 
 morning Times, handed it to her as though he fully under- 
 stood his business. She took it from his jaw just as she 
 would have done from the mouth of a favorite dog ; she then 
 fed him with varieties of vegetation upon which members of 
 his species thrive. He took his food from her hand with all 
 the docility of a well-trained horse, and then followed her 
 back to his own chamber, where he peacefully reclined on a 
 bank specially constructed for his accommodation on the edge 
 of the water. " Human electricity, that is all," smilingly 
 explained Mrs. Finchley, in answer to numerous inquiries 
 from those who had witnessed the performance. "Prof.de 
 Montmarte assured me the words of the Apostle James are 
 literally accurate according to his experience: 'Every kind 
 of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things of the sea, 
 is tamed by mankind.' (JAMES iii., verse 7, revised version.) 
 When true theosophy breaks through the encumbering mass 
 of oriental legend and superstition which now envelops it, 
 and when theosophists live as well as preach what Gautama 
 taught ; and when Christians put the precepts of the gospel 
 into practice, it will not be long before another Paul may 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 37 
 
 shake a viper from his unharmed hand, and man in the image 
 of Deity may exercise as well as claim divine prerogatives 
 and show himself the ' lord of nature all.' I am a very hum- 
 ble and untutored disciple of truth, but poor though my 
 attainments, and many my weaknesses, I have learned by 
 curbing my own rising anger and other base emotions, to 
 subdue in some measure the lower animals to my will ; as a 
 child, nothing grieved and angered me more than to see a 
 dumb creature ill-used. I used to collect pennies from the 
 children in my class when I taught in a Sunday-school, to 
 send to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 
 a noble society of which my nephew is a distinguished mem- 
 ber. When that dastardly villainy known as vivisection 
 dared to expose its viperish head clad in the borrowed plumes 
 of science in the college where he was studying, my nephew 
 (then only twenty- one) refuted the ablest professor on his own 
 ground and won a gold medal for the finest essay ever 
 presented on the subject. We will rule by kindness or not at 
 all; that is our motto. We leave cruelty to brutes and 
 savages, and in them we seek to overcome it. 
 
 " I was at one time in the presence of Dr. Anna Kingsford 
 in London ; she and I had more soul communion in one hour 
 than I have enjoyed with any other woman in a lifetime. I 
 shall never forget her. Fragile in body, but beautiful withal 
 beyond the ordinary beauty of fair women strong in 
 intellect, tender in heart, noble beyond description in the 
 purpose of her life ; this gentle, graceful heroine fought and 
 conquered the most virulent opposition on the an ti- vivisection 
 platform, and was to the French Academicians a star beaming 
 with celestial lustre. Dear, brave, noble, saintly woman, her 
 memory will live in the grateful hearts of humanity when time 
 shall be no more." 
 
 Visibly affected by Mrs. Finchley's emotion, her guests 
 repaired slowly to their various enjoyments. Mr. Templeton 
 had a long chat with Dr. Maxwell in the library ; and the 
 O'Shannons took books and fancy work into the garden. At 
 
38 ONE8IMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 1:30 they were all again at the table enjoying a well-cooked 
 lunch and pleasurably anticipating the Bible class which 
 commenced precisely as the clock struck three. Dr. Maxwell 
 and all the inmates of his household filed into the large 
 drawing-room which every Wednesday afternoon assumed the 
 appearance of a singularly attractive lecture room. At one 
 end on a small movable platform stood a handsome eagle 
 lectern containing a large open Bible, near by stood a fine, 
 sweet toned cabinet organ, and in its vicinity, a number of 
 young ladies who raised their tuneful voices to the accom- 
 paniment of the music, and sang very melodiously Samuel 
 Longfellow's beautiful and inspiring hymn, commencing : 
 
 " God of ages and of nations, 
 
 Every race and every clime, 
 Hatli received tliine inspirations 
 Glimpses of thy truth sublime." 
 
 During the singing no one entered, and no one committed 
 the atrocious vulgarity of whispering, much less of talking 
 aloud. "When the hymn ceased, Dr. Maxwell offered a short, 
 fervent aspiration, one could hardly call it a prayer, for it did 
 not at all resemble the ordinary prayer one is accustomed to 
 hear at religions gatherings, in which the Almighty is informed 
 of what He is and told how to act for the good of the universe. 
 An act of trust would better describe this helpful utterance, 
 which harmonized the thoughts of all present, and so unified 
 the atmosphere of the room, that a stranger entering could 
 not fail to be impressed with a delightful sense of one accord. 
 After this exercise, a young lady with a pure, cultivated 
 voice, sang "O, Best in the Lord." During the solo breath- 
 less silence pervaded the apartment ; by due attention to these 
 opening exercises, all minds were attuned for the instruction 
 which followed. The door which had remained closed during 
 tLe fifteen minutes occupied by the two musical selections 
 and the aspiration, was then opened for a moment, and a few 
 late-comers quietly slipped in and occupied seats at the reai 
 end of the room. No one embraced them or made himself 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 39 
 
 officious by turning round to stare ; and noiselessly as he had 
 opened it, the page closed it again, and listened as attentively 
 as any one in the assembly to Dr. Maxwell's clear and 
 forcible reading of the 44th chapter of Genesis, which con- 
 tains the singular story of the placing of Joseph's divining 
 cup in the sack of his youngest brother Benjamin, and the 
 consternation occasioned by its recovery in such a place. 
 
 For the benefit of the new-comers, Dr. Maxwell reviewed 
 briefly the events of the preceding chapters which had formed 
 the basis of past lessons, and then went on to explain the 
 divining cup and its use among the ancients. 
 
 "Cup-bearers," said the doctor, "were very influential 
 persons at oriental courts ; to be the king's cup-bearer was to 
 hold an office of peculiar dignity, for the sovereign's cup was 
 not simply a vessel out of which he drank, but one by means 
 of which he divined." 
 
 Reading an extract from Theophilus O'Hague's "Mys- 
 teries of Egypt," he proceeded as follows, almost in the words 
 of that writer. " "Wine, in the days of old, as drank in 
 palaces by men of renown, and in temples by participants in 
 the mysteries, was freshly produced just before it was par- 
 taken of. Rich, ripe clusters of the choicest grapes were 
 brought, fresh gathered from the vines; the juice of these 
 was squeezed into a golden or crystal goblet ; cups of gold 
 denoted the civil rank of those who drank from them ; crys- 
 tal vessels were for the use of seers or those possessed with 
 the faculty usually called clairvoyance. As the juice of the 
 grape in the crystal cup was held to the light by the cup- 
 bearer who knelt before the throne on which the distinguished 
 sage or sovereign sat, the great master would often see and 
 describe events taking place in various parts of the kingdom, 
 and sometimes in distant countries ; by means of such dis- 
 cernment many impending catastrophes were warded off, for 
 this fore-knowledge did indeed enable the wise men to make 
 provision against being surprised by enemies, and also by 
 this means did they prepare themselves to meet on-coming 
 
40 ONE8IMU8 TEMPLETON 
 
 storms ; foreseeing the approaching agitation of the elements, 
 the diviner would cause knowledge to extend through the 
 empire, in obedience to which, military preparations would 
 be made against foreign invasion; vessels, moreover, would 
 be detained in port, as heavy gales and angry seas were fore- 
 seen. 
 
 " So pacific in result was this most hallowed divination 
 that when the spies from neighboring countries came to see 
 how the land lay, they reported the well-armed condition of 
 its inhabitants, and through these tidings many premeditated 
 wars were nipped at their commencement. The crystal cup 
 of divination was, moreover, employed in courts of law, or 
 rather, in the Supreme Court, where a great and mighty 
 master presided, and his verdict was invariably correct, for a 
 most excellent spirit of wisdom and prophecy doth animate 
 those who were called gods, and these were none other than 
 the enlightened ones or illuminati who had by dint of much 
 cultivation of the soul and subjection of the flesh, rendered 
 their inward vision clear so that the secrets of nature were 
 revealed to them." 
 
 " To place the divining cup in the sack of his youngest 
 brother, was Joseph's method of testing and proving to the 
 world the fitness of that brother to associate with him in the 
 work of government and direction of the people." 
 
 It was always the object of the leader of the class to call 
 out the opinions of the members ; discussion invariably took 
 a practical turn, useless controversies being always avoided. 
 " For," said Dr. Maxwell, on such occasions, " we cannot 
 always decide on matters of genealogy where scholars differ 
 widely; and if we could accurately determine the precise 
 time and place of every event of which we read, how much 
 the wiser should we be ? I use the Bible not as an infallible 
 text book to be accepted as absolutely free from error from 
 beginning to end. I find it, however, the most compendious 
 and instructive as well as by far the most easily available 
 collection of documents extant, in which we may find, if we 
 
ONESIMU3 TEMPLETON 41 
 
 do but search for it, the jewel of eternal truth ; deeply buried 
 sometimes, I grant you, beneath a mass of legendary lore, but 
 even the most mystical portions contain many direct allusions 
 to matters of vital moment to us all." 
 
 Mr. Templeton, who had often conducted Bible classes 
 in his church at horns, listened with ever-increasing wonder 
 to the wealth of meaning Dr. Maxwell extracted from even 
 the harshest and obscurest passages, and not feeling like 
 asking questions, he listened quietly and attentively to every 
 word, whether it proceeded from a student or the teacher. 
 What struck him most forcibly was the unusual intelligence 
 and freedom of thought displayed by the very youngest of 
 the girls, who in clear, decisive, and yet modest tones, gave 
 her ideas with all the outspokenness of a great divine 
 whose position is so well assured that he fears no opposition. 
 Some of the members of the class were very near to ortho- 
 doxy; others were but little more attached to dogmatic 
 theology than was Charles Darwin ; occasionally an admirer 
 of Ingersoll would seek to point out a mistake of Moses, and 
 again, an ardent disciple of Swedenborg would insist upon 
 leaving the letter entirely and interpret according to corre- 
 spondence. What charmed him most was the absolute good 
 feeling which prevailed ; not an acrimonious exclamation was 
 made ; persons of the most divergent theories came together 
 and compared notes, while Dr. Maxwell firmly but good- 
 naturedly held his ground, fortifying his statements, not so 
 much by referring to "authorities," as by appealing to the 
 reason and moral feeling of all whom he addressed. 
 
 "Was Joseph justified in playing a trick upon his 
 brethren ?" piped the clear treble of Miss Symphonia Delsarte, 
 a young teacher in a Unitarian Sunday-school, delicately clad 
 in snowy muslin with violets at her breast. 
 
 " Do you think his action in the matter could fairly be 
 called a trick f ' responded the doctor. "It has never struck 
 me as such. Now, I call people tricky when they set traps 
 for others to fall into, and take delight in advancing their 
 
42 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 own interests at somebody else's expense. Practical jokes are 
 tricks ; any device is a trick which is used as an artifice to 
 beguile the unwary. But I see in Joseph's conduct only a 
 means of hurrying his brothers to a sense of justice and 
 effecting a condition of order otherwise not so easy of attain- 
 ment. Divine justice is personified in the conduct of Joseph, 
 but his personal conduct to an extent reflects the moral 
 calibre of his age and nation. The lesson we learn is that 
 the wrong-doers suffer for their own best good; thus the 
 sequel to the story proves that the writer's intention was to 
 demonstrate the unfailing triumph of justice." 
 
 "But, my dear Dr. Maxwell,** broke in the tremulous 
 excited voice of Mrs. Gerald Godfrey Hooper, a distinguished 
 member of Felix Adler's Society for Ethical Culture, "you 
 cannot maintain in the face of what we, alas, know to be the 
 case, viz.: that iniquity frequently triumphs while a just 
 cause is often defeated, that an equitable case is always 
 carried through. My own poor, dear, dead husband lost his 
 life fighting a wrong, and Dr. Adler gave us no comfort at the 
 funeral, but said the event cut him like a knife. Do help us, 
 if you can, out of this perplexity ; you don't know how 
 agonizingly it strains many of us." 
 
 To this sad questioning, the doctor quietly responded : 
 " I don't know that I can satisfy you, but I will say just what 
 I feel. This present term of existence ia but a brief episode 
 in eternity; sometimes events prove conclusively on earth 
 that virtue is its own reward, while vice is its own punishment; 
 but often, I grant you, it seems far otherwise. 
 
 " Now, I know what you would say just here, viz.: that 
 theologians have been telling us for centuries that we must 
 be content to suffer here, and await reward hereafter, which 
 many of you, perhaps, think very dubious counsel. I do not 
 agree with either Catholic or Protestant views of the here- 
 after, as ordinarily presented. I cannot believe in the 
 efficacy of 'indulgences/ or in people being delivered from a 
 state of purgation by purchased prayers ; nor can I sanction 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 43 
 
 the theory of the so-called evangelical, who tells me, if I take 
 his view of the atonement, and put my trust in the Son of 
 God, I shall be at once in glory after I have laid aside this 
 body. No, nor can I endorse what I consider the errors of 
 some of our theosophical brethren, who speak so much of a 
 separation of principles at death. I am convinced, and I 
 have had evidence enough to convince any reasonable being, 
 that this present term of experience we call earthly life is but 
 one link in an endless chain, and that when these bodies fall 
 away, we simply go on living. I was very pleased to hear 
 Mrs. Catsleigh agree to this yesterday. Very few who call 
 themselves metaphysicians make this plain. Mrs. Eddy is, 
 to my mind, not at all clear on this subject, and with the 
 exception of some passages in the works of Dr. Evans and 
 Miss Barnett, I have found very little lucidity of statement on 
 this subject. We must try and realize that we do not die and 
 then live again, we simply go on living, and I feel very sure 
 that death is much more a trying experience to those left 
 behind than to those who pass on. 
 
 " Now, if we realize that we are precisely the same 
 individuals after we have dropped the flesh that we were 
 before, what occurs to us in one state of existence is just as 
 real and satisfying as though it occurred in another. Let 
 me illustrate: One of us has earned a reward of effort; he is 
 not paid in America, but goes to France and the account is 
 settled there ; he receives so many francs instead of so many 
 dollars, but the amount is the same in value ; it is thus, 
 whether we receive our reward here or hereafter. My 
 opinion has always been that small results usually follow 
 quickly upon small transactions, while great consequences 
 take longer to become palpably fulfilled." 
 
 "What do you think we had better do to cultivate our 
 psychic powers ; do you advise us to sit in circles, or do you 
 repudiate what is known as mediumship ? I think it very 
 dangerous," said Mrs. Balaclava Nelson, a lady of some 
 standing in a well-known Episcopal Church, who had been 
 
44 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 slyly visiting clairvoyants, and lost a little money and got 
 herself sometimes muddled by contradictory communications. 
 "I think," replied the doctor, " we should use proper 
 discretion in all matters ; I cannot discountenance speech 
 because I try to put down lying and slander; the remedy is 
 not to cut out the tongue, for by so doing, we should destroy 
 our power to speak truly and kindly. Everything is danger- 
 ous in the hands of the unscrupulous. Think of the devasta- 
 tion which might ensue were some of my electrical instruments 
 to be viciously tampered with ; but am I to discontinue my 
 scientific studies and refuse to use the electric force which is 
 so mighty to build and to destroy, because danger attends 
 abuse? I think not, for were I to take such a stand, I would 
 but veto every advance in science, and lend my influence 
 toward a return to the barbaric chaos of ancient ignorance. 
 Now, as to the best method of developing, i. e., calling out 
 whatever psychic ability any of you may posses, I would say 
 avoid all promiscuous circles ; never sit in the dark holding 
 the hands of strangers, and never hold yourselves in a nega- 
 tive attitude of thought ready to be psychologized by any 
 influence temporarily in the ascendent. Sit alone, or with a 
 congenial friend, or a few trusted friends may sit together for 
 spiritual unfoldment ; but not only is it desirable to conduct 
 things in an orderly manner on the surface, if we desire 
 enlightenment on any subject, we must agree upon what we 
 seek; there must be unity of purpose, and when this is the 
 case, we draw to us what we steadily attract, for by the 
 focalization of thought on a given object, great results are 
 obtained. This is the secret of divination, and while it is 
 not necessary to gaze into cups or crystals, there are persons 
 who find outward aids valuable, as without some such assist- 
 ance, they find it difficult to concentrate their thought. 
 Concentration does not mean intellectual vacuity, but quite 
 the reverse. It signifies intense aspiration toward a given 
 center, so that harmonious influence may reach us from the 
 source to which we look for guidance." 
 
ONE8IMUS TEMPLETON 45 
 
 Thus ended the questioning. 
 
 As Dr. Maxwell ceased speaking, all present rose and 
 sang a new doxology, in three stanzas, written by Mrs. 
 Finchley and set to music by one of the choir. After the 
 exercises were over, tongues began to move rapidly, and it 
 was quite an hour before the front door closed upon the latest 
 of the lingerers. No sooner had the last of the company 
 departed, than a sharp ring at the bell, and a loud rat-a-tat tat 
 on the knocker, announced the arrival of Mrs. Catsleigh and 
 MODS. Alphonse, who had been invited to dinner. As not the 
 faintest intimation of " company " had been breathed, and 
 Dr. Maxwell and all his household expected nothing out of 
 the common, everybody was positively startled to see both 
 the visitors in the most elaborate evening dress ; of course, 
 they came in a carriage. Mrs. Catsleigh looked as though 
 she was dressed for a grand ball, or, possibly, for the banquet 
 scene in some elaborate play or opera ; her throat, arms and 
 shoulders showed to great advantage, as her firm, white flesh 
 contrasted with the scarlet satin of her long train gown ; her 
 abundant raven hair, twisted into a loose knot at the back of 
 her head, was pierced with a gold and diamond arrow of 
 great size and exquisite workmanship ; her white ostrich fan, 
 splendid rings, and bracelets, completed a decidedly striking 
 toilet, but not a particularly restful one on a hot July even- 
 ing. 
 
 Mons. Alphonse appeared as though he had no possible 
 object in life but to allow his fine figure to set off expensive 
 clothing to the best advantage. Though loudly, he was 
 handsomely dressed; his evening suit was of the latest 
 London pattern, his linen of the choicest, his patent leather 
 shoes fitted like gloves ; his hair was silky and glossy as a 
 raven's wing, while splendid diamonds glistened from his 
 shirt front and his hands like stars on a winter's night. 
 
 " Why, what have you been doing here ?" exclaimed that 
 gentleman, noticing the number of chairs (nearly 200), which 
 still remained in the drawing-room. Have you had a lecture, 
 
46 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 why didn't you lot us know ? Mrs. Pushing is in town, j'ust 
 run over from Newport ; called on us this afternoon and 
 begged permission to meet you this evening ; hope I have not 
 intruded, but I have asked her to dine here ; she will be here 
 by 6:30 at the latest, and it is after 6 now." 
 
 "I shall be delighted to see her," responded Dr. Maxwell, 
 "I'm very glad you asked her, but I wish we had known 
 it sooner; we have a very plain dinner and we are not dressed 
 for company ; we really treated you as old friends, though AYC 
 have only known each other a few days. I hope (turning to 
 Mrs. Catsleigh), you will excuse our appearance, but we had 
 no idea we should have the honor of Mrs. Pushing's com- 
 pany; however, we shall no doubt enjoy ourselves quite as 
 well as though we were more presentable, and as to the 
 dinner, though it's very simple, my cook usually makes things 
 palatable." 
 
 " Oh, that's all right," replied the lady, " I should never 
 have got myself up in this rig only Alphonse told me you 
 were going to the opera at ten, and we better be prepared for 
 a front- tier box." Then, suddenly seeing she had astonished 
 her host, she shook her fist at her escort, and said with 
 assumed petulance : 
 
 " Is this another of your falsehoods, you naughty fellow t 
 I shall soon send you to the right about, if you can't speak 
 truthfully ; this isn't the first time you've made me make a 
 fool of myself." 
 
 "I pray you not to blame him,'' quietly but quickly 
 interposed the doctor, " probably I did say something about 
 the opera, but I have been so much engaged it has quite 
 slipped my mind." 
 
 How far this embarrassing episode might have proceeded 
 it is difficult to conjecture, had not another loud ring at the 
 door-bell been quickly followed by the entrance of Mrs. Amy 
 Pushing, accompanied by her dear friend and submissive 
 satellite, Miss Theresa Hockmeir. Mrs. Pushing, be it dis- 
 tinctly understood, was one of the most popular teachers of 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 47 
 
 Mental Science who had ever visited New York ; the previous 
 May she had thirty-seven students in her class who had paid 
 her $50 each, and though her expenses for the month had 
 amounted to $350, she had laid away a clear $1500 as the 
 result of one month's teaching; she was now working at 
 Newport, but having some business to see after in the great 
 city, had run down on a flying visit. Being on friendly 
 terms with Mrs. Catsleigh, and knowing she was at a pretty 
 good hotel, she had written to her to secure a room at the 
 Quicksilver. Immediately on arrival, learning of the interest 
 being taken in her one subject by Dr. Maxwell and his 
 friends, she had expressed a wish to accompany her "sister 
 in the science " to that gentleman's residence, and was not 
 at all disposed to leave her factotum, Miss Hockmeir, behind 
 her. 
 
 Mrs. Pushing was a woman who never for an instant 
 forgot her dignity or lost sight of her own importance. A 
 Boston woman by birth and education, she impressed all who 
 met her as a person of culture as well as shrewd business 
 ability. In appearance she was rather commanding, of good 
 height, rather slender build, with piercing black eyes, small 
 and restless like a bird's ; her hair, which was not much 
 thicker than a cobweb, was very carefully arranged, being 
 evenly parted in front and tightly drawn up from behind to 
 the crown, where it was carefully combed over a silk pad of 
 exactly the same color. In front of this diminutive chignon, 
 which was worn exactly on the top of the head, was a very 
 handsome gold band studded with five large diamonds. Her 
 dress was of rich black silk ornamented with Mechlin lace of 
 fine quality. Her jewelry was valuable but not gaudy. 
 
 Miss Hockmeir was a quiet little body about ten years 
 younger than Mrs. Pushing, who followed the elder lady like 
 her shadow. This unobtrusive but useful little personage 
 did everything for her employer ; managed her business as 
 far as possible, attended to correspondence, interviewed 
 callers, and took the whole brunt of life upon herself. For 
 
48 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 these services she was fed and clothed, but very rarely had 
 even a dollar to call her own. 
 
 Dinner was served at seven, and a very pleasant meal it 
 proved to be, though Mrs. Pushing talked incessantly, and 
 entirely of herself and her doings. She related instance after 
 instance where she had literally "snatched from the jaws of 
 the grave," distinguished persons whom the best physicians 
 had pronounced incurable. 
 
 Miss Hockmeir occasionally ventured a sentence to add 
 still further to the effect of Mrs. Pushing's self-laudation, 
 though we must never forget that both ladies completely dis- 
 owned having any share in the work other than that of being 
 "Truth's trumpeters." 
 
 Mrs. Catsleigh and Alphonse appeared hungry, and did 
 full justice to the dinner, which was a very choice one. 
 Everything was perfectly cooked ; the courses were, however, 
 only four, and there was no attempt at display or excessive 
 garniture. At eight they rose from the table, and re-entering 
 the drawing-room, which had been cleared of its extra seats 
 and made very attractive, music was proposed as a relief from 
 excessive conversation. Miss Lydia O'Shannon sang more 
 sweetly even than on any previous occasion, her voice seemed 
 to grow richer and fuller with every fresh attempt she made 
 to exercise it. 
 
 "The dear child," said Mrs. Pushing, "I wish I might 
 have her with me for a week by the sea. I have a most 
 delightful little cottage, and Newport is charming at this 
 season. In my company she would grow so strong you would 
 hardly know her on her return. Judge Firefly's daughter is 
 visiting me at present, and her father says the change is 
 incredible, and only three weeks since she was prostrate with 
 pneumonia." 
 
 " May I ask you how you treat ? I do not fully under- 
 stand your system. Sometimes I have severe headaches and 
 feel very weary after mental effort. I wish you could tell me 
 how to shake off these unpleasant feelings T inquired Mr. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 49 
 
 Templeton, who was very anxious to hear more of the new 
 science for which so much had been claimed. 
 
 "Certainly," said Mrs. Pushing. "I will give you an 
 outline of my system, as far as I can, in a few sentences. I 
 see you are a minister, and you ought to give this truth to 
 your people. I treat all cases alike. I utterly deny sin, 
 sickness and death, which are but mental illusions, errors of 
 belief. I deny the possibility of sickness. I deny that I can 
 feel pain or be in any way affected by material things, for 
 we are all spirit and there is no matter. I do not want to 
 know what ails a patient, or anything about him. I can treat 
 people thousands of miles off as readily as though they were 
 in my presence, for mind makes nothing of time and distance. 
 I simply affirm that all is spirit, that all is good y and then 
 deny the opposite. I negative the affirmation of disease, 
 calling the disease by name in the act of denial when it has 
 been named to me ; otherwise I simply affirm with emphasis, 
 4 God is well, and so are you.' Nothing and no one can with- 
 stand the power of invincible truth ; read the New Testament 
 without prejudice, and you will see that we are the only 
 genuine Christians." 
 
 " What you say sounds very beautiful, but I must say 
 I cannot understand its application to cases of physical 
 ailment. Take, for instance, a broken bone or dislocated 
 joint, how can thought heal in such cases?" rejoined Mr. 
 Templeton. 
 
 "Spirit is everything," replied the lady, "and though 
 at present we have not fully learned to perfectly demonstrate 
 the science, if we are but faithful, the time will quickly come 
 when surgery as well as medicine will be entirely needless. 
 But there is a life to live as well as a gospel to proclaim. 
 We must practice the science individually." 
 
 To say that Mr. Templeton was satisfied with these 
 replies would be to claim too much for the effect of Mrs. 
 Pushing's eloquence, though she was a most effective speaker 
 
50 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 and gesticulated gracefully and freely, but introduced fewer 
 theatrical moves than Mrs. Catsleigh. Mr. Templeton was, 
 however, impressed, and when the visitors departed at a rather 
 late hour, he sought his couch not so much to sleep as to 
 pray and think over all he had heard that day. New light 
 was coming to him, but as yet it was but dimly breaking. 
 
CHAPTER TV. 
 
 THE MAGICIAN AND HIS WARD. 
 
 THE week ended pleasantly as it began ; Mr. Templeton 
 grew more and more satisfied that spiritual force was far 
 more directly operative in the affairs of earth than he had 
 hitherto imagined, and though his early training and mental 
 proclivities, intensified by a long course of special effort in a 
 determined direction, all led him to resist the encroachment 
 of new conceptions of life here and hereafter, the ice of 
 prejudice and ignorance was rapidly melting around his heart 
 and brain, and where hitherto the skies had been dark above 
 him, they were now becoming rapidly illumined with the 
 breaking dawn of a new and brighter day. 
 
 To a sensitive nature, many of the tenets of " orthodoxy " 
 are always appalling ; the dogma of endless punishment, that 
 hideous nightmare of theology which holds so large a class 
 of Christians in its gloomy and frightful embrace, together 
 with a view of atonement utterly irreconcilable with every 
 ennobling conception of divine or human justice, leadi gome 
 to despair and many to infidelity ; Mr. Templeton had never 
 suffered to the extent that many affectionate natures suffer 
 when contemplating these awful themes, but there had been 
 constantly with him a sense of sorrow and unrest as he dwelt 
 on the slender chance which " orthodoxy " concedes to the 
 great multitude of human beings of ever reaching the celestial 
 regions. 
 
 The fate of the heathen and of unbaptized infants had 
 often sorely perplexed him, and through Swedenborg's 
 
52 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 "Arcana Coelestia," and "Apocalypse Unveiled," had con- 
 siderably influenced him, he found that though the wondrous 
 seer of Sweden threw bright light on difficulties, there were 
 still many mysteries which remained obscure. In his last 
 sermon previous to his departure for his summer vacation, 
 two or three of the more progressive minds in his audience 
 had noticed a faint tinge of " advanced thought," and these 
 had decided within themselves that their preacher might ere 
 long, come out a little more broadly on the liberal platform ; 
 but with the exception of a very few sentences, there had 
 been nothing to indicate any approaching change of base. 
 How astonished then would those good people, hidden snugly 
 away among the green hills of Vermont have been, could they 
 have seen their much-regpected and steady-going pastor, the 
 very next Sunday at a Unitarian Church in the morning, at a 
 Catholic Cathedral in the afternoon, and oh, whisper it with 
 bated breath, at a seance, yes, positively at a seance in the 
 evening. 
 
 Sunday morning had been devoted to attending the 
 ministrations of a celebrated Unitarian minister from 
 England, who was preaching at All Souls' Church on Fourth 
 Avenue and Twentieth Street, in the absence of the regular 
 pastor. The whole service was impressive and the sermon an 
 excellent one ; but as the Rev. Paget Hope is not a man 
 given to cloaking his convictions or apologizing for them 
 either, the Rev. Onesimus heard some sentiments which 
 rather startled him. The text was from the 8th chapter of 
 Romans, and was a complete refutation of the Calvinistic 
 interpretation of that remarkable and difficult chapter of 
 St. Paul's most brilliant and scholarly epistle ; this however 
 Mr. Templeton could easily harmonize with, as the denomina- 
 tion to which he belonged was not given to belief in preteri- 
 tion, his wing of the Baptist Church being that known as 
 general or free will but when it came to an advocacy of 
 evolution, a denial of special creation, a sharp criticism on 
 the historical accuracy of some portio s of the gospels, and 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 53 
 
 to cap the climax, a decided allusion to Jesus as an excellent 
 but not infallible example to mankind, our hero winced 
 inwardly ; he was, however, greatly pleased with Mr. Hope's 
 kind and gracious toleration of the views of those who 
 disagreed with him, and could not but contrast this loving 
 and honest spirit of forbearance, with the spiteful acrimony 
 he had often seen displayed in other quarters. 
 
 At St. Patrick's Cathedral, he had been principally 
 impressed with the grandeur and solidity of the massive 
 edifice and the perfectly harmonious singing of the boys in 
 the sanctuary choir. The service consisted of vespers and 
 benediction, the sermon being omitted in the afternoon at 
 that season of the year. The great organ in tbe gallery was 
 silent, and the operatic soloists who sing in front of it wore 
 scattered at summer watering-places and else here. When 
 the last strains of the closing psalm "Laudate Dominvm" 
 had died away, and the chancel organ was pouring forth a 
 melodious postlude, Dr. Maxwell proposed to his friend that 
 they should stroll round the church and inspect its treasures. 
 As they were examining some exquisite carving behind one 
 of the altars, they were greatly startled at beholding two 
 individuals as utterly unlike as any two could be, the one 
 standing, the other kneeling in front of a beautiful shrine 
 erected in the Lady chapel. 
 
 The standing figure was a singularly handsome, but most 
 extraordinary looking man in the full glory of a splendid 
 young maturity; tall, shapely and faultlessly attired, his head 
 adorned with a magnificent crown of rich, bright golden hair, 
 his eyes green as emeralds, green as the deepest hue of the 
 Irish sea, green as the grass in early spring or as the sham- 
 rock of old Ireland dazzling, fascinating, winning, repelling, 
 terrifying, alluring, commanding eyes, eyes that could flash 
 lightning from their emerald depths, eyes whose glance could 
 cause the strongest opponent to cower before them, eyes that 
 could draw with irresistible magnetic force whoever could be 
 found susceptible to their imperious beauty; eyes that 
 
54 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 betokened strength perchance born of some great magician's 
 skill, but whose darting rays had no tale to tell of soft 
 emotions or of tender love. 
 
 The other figure was a boy not over fourteen, of slender, 
 supple form, with jet black locks, and dark brown eyes, full 
 of pleading, yearning wistfulness as they were riveted upon 
 the statue of the mother of Christ. With a brief imperial 
 touch of the tip of one finger on the kneeling boy's shoulder, 
 the stately man caused him to rise instantly and accompany 
 him down the aisle and out of the church. Though previously 
 absorbed in devotion and quite oblivious to his surroundings, 
 the child instantly responded to his master's will, as a dumb 
 animal might obey the slightest gesture of a powerful human 
 hand whose lightest touch could never be resisted by the 
 subject creature. This singular couple so impressed Dr. 
 Maxwell and his friend that they soon followed the mysterious 
 pair out of the church and walked for some distance behind 
 them, down Fifth Avenue, observing the perfect compliance 
 of the child with his director's every movement. The boy 
 wore on his head a scarlet cap, after a fashion rarely seen 
 except in Greece and the islands of the Mediterranean ; his 
 stately companion wore a straw hat of light and fanciful 
 design which rested carelessly on his abundant shimmering 
 hair. 
 
 " What can be the relation between those two ?" exclaimed 
 the doctor, " they are so utterly unlike ; the man must be a 
 Kussian and the boy a Greek, they cannot be related. 
 Surely, the child is not a servant, he appears of noble, at all 
 events, of gentle birth ; and his haughty, masterful attendant 
 cannot surely be his tutor. They excite my interest, they 
 constitute a psychological phenomenon. I would like to 
 investigate. That handsome man is certainly a tyrant; those 
 eyes are utterly devoid of mer y or compassion ; he suggests 
 to me a god of Norse mythology, dressed by a London tailor 
 and holding command over a Kussian army. It strikes me 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 55 
 
 he is a Kussian nobleman, but how the boy comes to be 
 associated with him is a marvel." 
 
 " His eyes are simply horrible," broke in Mr. Templeton, 
 " they positively made me shudder ; I shall never forget the 
 expression which came into them, and suddenly vanished 
 when he saw we were observing him ; conscious power, 
 egotism, vanity, disdain, all gleamed forth at once, he looked 
 at me as though I were a noxious reptile ; his glance in your 
 direction was somewhat less disapproving. I have a feeling 
 that we shall meet that man and boy when we least expect it, 
 and if we are not careful we may be led into some trouble ; a 
 man with those eyes would stop at nothing. In Mrs. Cats- 
 leigh's agent, Alphonse, we witness a combination of the low 
 cunning of the monkey with the vanity of the peacock; but 
 in this mysterious Russian, I can discern the tiger and the 
 serpent, which you will grant is not a very safe combination." 
 
 "You're waxing eloquent, my friend, in a direction which 
 has always interested me intensely," responded Dr. Maxwell. 
 " When I was a child I traced resemblances between my 
 schoolmates and all sorts of creatures, and seeking to verify 
 my fancies I studied the traits and habits of various birds, 
 animals and fishes, and found in almost every instance that 
 when I could trace a likeness to some lower creature in a 
 human being, the person in whom I traced it, behaved very 
 much like the animal he favored in appearance. But we are 
 now at our own door and I have a few preparations to make 
 for our gathering and experiments this evening, you will 
 therefore excuse me till 9 o'clock, when I shall join you in the 
 drawing room. Mrs. Finchley will preside at the dinner 
 table. Before a seance such as the one we are to hold this 
 evening, I eat nothing but fruit aiid bread, with pure water 
 for a beverage, which I take alone in my study. I advise you 
 all to dine lightly, but you are none of you gourmands, so my 
 advice is not much needed." 
 
 By 8:30, Mrs. Finchley, the O'Shannong, and Mr. Tem- 
 pleton were in the drawing room awaiting the arrival of 
 
56 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 guests. Only those who were well-known to our host, and 
 fully in sympathy with his views were ever invited to take 
 part in any circle under his roof; for, unlike foolish proselyters 
 he knew how dire were the results following upon the intro- 
 duction of an element of discord into " psychical research." 
 Shortly before 9 o'clock, five persons entered the room 
 together ; they were Prof. Kiddersley, a man fully seventy 
 years old, but in the best of physical as well as mental health. 
 a gentleman of the highest culture and truest refinement, one 
 moreover, who had been led to investigate Spiritualism in 
 consequence of startling demonstrations in his own family ; 
 Dr. and Mrs. Jarvis-Forbes, a singularly well matched couple, 
 who worked together in the direction of hygienic and other 
 reforms with perfect equanimity ; Mrs. Emily Gore Angus- 
 thorpe, an English lady of exalted social position ; and her 
 younger brother, fresh from his studies and pastimes at Cam- 
 bridge University, the Honourable Freddie Pugge Gore. 
 
 After a few minutes spent in pleasant social conversation 
 Dr. Maxwell entered, bowing and smiling to all his friends 
 and addressing some pleasant and appropriate word of 
 greeting to each,' but shaking hands with nobody. " Now," 
 said he, "let us commence the first portion of our exercises; 
 we need to collect our thoughts and direct our aspirations 
 unitedly to the common fount whence all good proceeds 
 before arranging ourselves into the circle which we have been 
 directed to form at 10 o'clock precisely. I feel a very agree- 
 able sense of harmony pervading the atmosphere to-night, 
 and I doubt not we shall witness something truly remarkable." 
 Then giving his arm to Miss Lydia O'Shannon he led her to 
 the piano and whispering, " Schumann's Eighth Nocturne, if 
 you please," left her at the instrument and took a seat by 
 himself in a distant corner of the room. During the exquisite 
 music, a gentle electric current was felt passing through the 
 room; this was due to an atmospheric distribution of elec- 
 tricity well known to some scientists and perfectly understood 
 by Prof, de Montmarte, Dr. Maxwell's instructor in science 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 57 
 
 While the current was gradually equalizing and purifying 
 the atmosphere, Miss O'Shannon, whose voice as well as 
 touch was daily increasing in firmness and purity, sang three 
 of Heinrich's beautiful German melodies in that fine com- 
 poser's native tongue. Just as the hour was approaching 10, 
 and the imusic about to cease, the front door-bell sounded 
 imperatively, and after a minute's interval a page knocked 
 timidly on the door, which was however opened immediately 
 with a firm hand, when the mysterious stranger of the 
 afternoon walked decisively to the center of the room, followed 
 by the Greek lad who acted like his shadow. Not apologizing 
 in the slightest for his intrusion but on the contrary express- 
 ing in every movement a sense of unbounded superiority, he 
 handed a note to Dr. Maxwell whom he had only glanced at 
 in the Cathedral that afternoon, with the air of an old 
 acquaintance, or to speak more correctly, with that of some 
 distinguished nobleman who consented graciously to patronize 
 a poor physician. On opening the letter the doctor's counte- 
 nance immediately took on an animated and cordial express- 
 ion, for he instantly recognized the well-known caligraphy of 
 his preceptor. The letter ran thus : 
 
 "DEAR BERNARD: I introduce to you, Count Katolowyn- 
 ski, who will I know be able to assist you in your studies; he 
 is attended by his protege, a singularly fine lucide. 
 Yours in the true Bond, 
 
 JEROME DE M. 
 PARIS, July 6, '87." 
 
 "How long have you been in New York?" enquired 
 Mrs. Finchley of the haughty Count, after the usual formali- 
 ties of introduction had been abruptly curtailed by that 
 gentleman's saying " introductions are needless, I know you 
 all." 
 
 "Three days," he replied, curtly, "we arrived on 
 Thursday from Paris. Now, if you wish this evening to be 
 other than wasted, we will commence at once with the 
 business we have in hand." 
 
58 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 " Zenophon, lie down on that rug," (addressing the boy 
 and pointing to a tiger skin on the floor). " Now, be still all 
 of you, don't move after you have drawn your chairs around 
 this centre. There, that is right, just a natural circle ; and 
 no one nearer than six feet from the centre. No matter how 
 you place yourselves so long as you are comfortable. Play a 
 reverie Mademoiselle (turning to Miss O'Shannon, who took 
 her place near the piano). Now, doctor, tell me where you 
 wish Zenophon to go, anywhere you like, and I'll send him ?" 
 
 To say that some of the company were startled would be 
 to express their feelings far too mildly, they were awed as 
 animals are apt to be immediately before a tremendous 
 electric storm, then after their agitation they sink into a 
 silent, awful expectancy of they know not what. Dr. Maxwell 
 was deeply interested, but otherwise unmoved ; Mrs. Finchley 
 felt rather nervous, but endeavored not to show it; Mr. 
 Freddie Pugge Gore felt uncanny and squirmed in his chair ; 
 the other ladies and gentlemen felt they were about to witness 
 something they would rather not have faced, still their 
 curiosity was aroused and they felt an undercurrent of eager 
 longing to see all that could possibly be shown them. Mr. 
 Templeton felt some of his old fear of witchcraft rising 
 within him, and began to feel that perhaps after all he had 
 been consorting with the devil, disguised as an angel of light 
 during the past week. The reverie which was one of Guardi- 
 celli's sweet mystic compositions, ended in "a low moaning 
 prayer to the angel of music, to baptize the earth with the 
 waters of melody from the fountain of Asphodel in the 
 Elysian fields," to quote from a criticism of the composition 
 in a fashionable musical review. 
 
 "Send him to our mutual friend," said Dr. Maxwell to 
 the Count immediately the music ceased. Instantly Count 
 Katolowynski walked round the recumbent boy three times, 
 hen breathed on his eyes and into his nostrils seven times, 
 keeping his own lips tightly compressed while Zeuophon 
 turned round upon the soft fur on which he lay, and after 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 59 
 
 breathing a deep and heavy sigh, seemed to be riven from 
 his form by some all potent spell ; his lustrous eyes dilated 
 and his lips began to move, uttering faint, inarticulate 
 sounds. 
 
 " What is it, quick," said the Count, as he watched the 
 pleased expression on the sleeping lad's illumined features. 
 
 " I see " clearly responded the entranced boy, " a beauti- 
 ful lady, with rippling golden hair, eyes as blue as sapphires, 
 and skin like the lillies fair ; she is beside a painting of the 
 Madonna like the one in this room, she has arisen early from 
 her couch and is at prayer ; her soul is far away from her 
 flesh. In the room acrogs the spacious corridor into which 
 all the doors open, is a man of venerable but almost juvenile 
 appearance; he must be fifty five at least but he looks quite 
 young ; the lovely girl is his only daughter, and between them 
 exists a subtle fluid chain of electric ether. Listen ! I hear a 
 voice, it says "await the coming of the Masterfrom across the 
 sea, he comes to-night from far Afghanistan, yea from his 
 holy temple there sequestered 'mid the hills, and he tells you 
 to be free." Freedom is the boon I crave, I am a slave." 
 
 At these last words the classic features of the Count 
 became convulsed with wrath; darting his eyes upon the 
 innocent victim of his displeasure he literally scorched him 
 with their burning rays. Not deigning to explain anything 
 to the wonder struck observers, he struck the boy a sharp 
 blow across the chest, then addressing Dr. Maxwell, said : 
 "Now ask your Parisian friends any questions you like, the 
 wiro of communication is laid and you will receive responses 
 just as though they were actually in your bodily presence, 
 this you understand, I simply mention the fact for the benefit 
 of the vulgar." At hearing herself denominated vulgar, 
 though the word was used only in the classic sense, Mrs. 
 Angusthorpe grew livid, but a spell being on her, as well as 
 on all the others, she kept her feelings to herself. The 
 doctor first asked "Can Heloise inform me when I shall 
 perfect my process for so electrifying my office that my 
 
60 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 patients will not need external treatment at my hands?" 
 " To-morrow," answered the boy, " the Master is here to-night 
 to celebrate your victory over the cruder elements of the 
 atmosphere against which you have so long been battling ; 
 to-morrow morning at 10 a woman suffering from paralysis 
 will be cured in your sanctum without any physical action or 
 mental force of yours ; Heloise is here now in spirit, she 
 smiles on me, but frowns on my director." 
 
 Againt Count Katolowynski flushed with rage, for this 
 was another pointed allusion to the subject upon which he 
 and Prof, de Montmarte and Heloise had decidedly disagreed 
 in Paris only three weeks before. The Montmartes had 
 insisted that Zenophon was to be liberated from his subju- 
 gator's will and that higher powers were about to take him 
 fully under their protection. The Count had resented this 
 prediction with positive vindictiveness and on the occasion of 
 their last meeting a fierce altercation had ensued. Heloise 
 had defied her stately antagonist and had commanded him to 
 yield up his prey and give the captive boy his freedom. She 
 had indeed assured him that she could and would rescue the 
 child whom he had in her presence lashed with a horsewhip 
 till he was insensible, and then restored by a magnetic 
 process only just before it was too late. Disgusted with such 
 despotism, and being herself a living embodiment of electric 
 force she actually fastened the Count's feet to the floor in the 
 presence of a domestic by her WILL, and then calling the 
 trembling boy to her side, said with the majesty of a queen 
 confering liberty on a captive subject, " I release you." The 
 boy looked at her with eyes full of gratitude and love, but 
 turning away his face, sadly replied, "I love my master, and 
 to him I shall ever belong." 
 
 Rightly indignant at this response and feeling certain 
 the mesmeric influence of the Count was the sole cause of 
 such an answer, she lifted her eyes and straightened her 
 form till she appeared an incarnation of divine justice resist- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 61 
 
 ing human tyranny and called aloud " Azoriel we await your 
 judgment." 
 
 Even the Count, magician though he was trembled when 
 he heard a heavenly voice vibrating clearly through the room, 
 "Zenophon, henceforth I am thy guardian." The boy 
 covered his face with his hands, then addressing Heloise 
 said, "I have seen your guardian angel; he is mine also/*' 
 
 Knowing how needless it would have been to interfere 
 any longer between the Count and the child, as a higher 
 power had interposed, she bade the man a cold, and the lad 
 a most gracious farewell ; and left the matter in the hands of 
 the unseen but glorious and mighty intelligence whom she 
 well knew to be the prompter of her father's greatest dis- 
 coveries in science as well as her own protector in every time 
 of need. Count Katolowynski never forgave her for this 
 scene and vowed he never would; but knowing the affair to 
 be no farce, he was really afraid lest the boy, who brought 
 him a fortune through his clairvoyant gift (and whom he 
 really loved in a brutal way despite his cruelty), should be 
 removed beyond his reach by some supernatural agency 
 against which bolts and bars afford no sort of protection. 
 In the voyage across the Atlantic, Zenophon had been sub- 
 missive and affectionate in the extreme, rendering him all the 
 prostrate homage he exacted ; reclining at his feet and gazing 
 up into his face, the little fellow would assure him that 
 heaven would be hell were not his sovereign there to rule 
 him ; but now for the first time since their arrival in America 
 that he had undertaken to experiment with the boy, though 
 as of old the mesmeric spell took full effect, in his trance the 
 child divulged unpleasant facts concerning their mutual 
 relations, expressing discontent with slavery and declaring 
 himself as soon to be released from his now irksome bondage. 
 These circumstances were sufficient to goad him to despera- 
 tion, and as people usually jeopardize their own interests 
 sorely, when they allow passion to run away with reason, 
 Count Katolowynski by his very determination to hold all 
 
62 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 and win more, staked all and lost, as the sequel will amply 
 prove. 
 
 The boy awoke feverish and fatigued, something quite 
 unusual, for he had lain in a dead stupor sometimes for days 
 at a time without eating or drinking anything while revealing 
 startling facts to a long succession of visitors almost without 
 intermission, and then awoke on the third or fourth day 
 bright and strong, beaming with affection on his master. 
 Now he was evidently under another influence and the power 
 of the Count was no longer in the ascendant. Thinking it 
 advisable to adopt decisive measures then and there, he threw 
 himself upon the child and by sheer force of will compelled 
 him to return to the magnetic state, which he did instantly ; 
 but no sooner was the boy asleep than everybody in the room 
 felt a strange electric shock, which to some was delightful 
 and invigorating in the extreme, but to others somewhat 
 disagreeable, according to the state of each recipient ; electric 
 sparks were seen in all parts of the apartment and the air 
 seemed alive with an unseen presence. Zenophon started in 
 his slumbers, exclaiming "the Master! the Master/" Then 
 instantly a clear, resonant voice rang through the air 
 accompanied by a sweet and powerful treble which those 
 who had heard it before recognized as the mystic voice of 
 Heloise. 
 
 The boy rose erect and clasping his hands upon his 
 breast, with eyes upturned, his whole frame and every feature 
 quivering with delight, murmured " at last I am free," and 
 with these words sank back on the tiger fur and was soon 
 breathing heavily as children do when sleeping sweetly after 
 unusual tension of the nerves. 
 
 The Count sat down and watched the proceedings with 
 glowering displeasure, but he knew too well how absurd it 
 would have been for him to have attempted to direct the 
 current of events. The boy was now clearly beyond his 
 psychical embrace, but he trusted that though all fear and 
 enforced submission were over, love would yet continue to 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 63 
 
 dictate that absolutely willing surrender to another's -will, 
 which enables the psychologist to succeed far better than 
 when the subject's will is coerced in his interest. Contenting 
 himself as best he could with this anticipation, he affected 
 haughty, almost insolent indifference to all that transpired ; 
 and at length, as the voices completely absorbed the attention 
 of all present except himself, he noiselessly left the room and 
 wandered into the library. Other than the lights and voices, 
 there were no phenomena, and these voices were those of 
 people still living and actively engaged on earth, though their 
 psychic selves were for the time liberated from their ordinary 
 physical environment. 
 
 Mr. Templeton, who had never seen or heard anything 
 of the wonders of the hidden realm prior to his visit to New 
 York, if we except a low and ridiculous take-off of Spiritual- 
 ism, in the shape of bogus materializations palmed off by 
 itinerant show-people on the credulous villagers of Vermont, 
 was at last convinced that whatever explanations might be 
 given of the wonders now displayed, fraud could not account 
 for them. Ventriloquism was out of the question, as the 
 information given in answer to his own questions precluded 
 the possibility of the ventriloquist's art supplying the 
 responses, while mechanical electricity, with all its potency, 
 cannot reasonably be regarded as the source of definite human 
 intelligence. " And then," queried the minister, "what right 
 have we, whatever theologians may say to the contrary, to 
 give the devil credit for truthful, accurate information and 
 advice which if followed by us all would soon transform this 
 earth into a paradise. But yet," he queried, "how is it 
 possible for a girl in Paris, and a savan in Afghanistan to 
 make their voices heard in a New York drawing-room !" Let 
 this quotation from a rare old treatise on " The Faculties of 
 the Superior Man," suggest an explanation if it cannot fully 
 solve the riddle. 
 
 Theophilus O'Hague says : " So complicated and yet so 
 simple is the mechanism of the psychic form and so perfectly 
 
64 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 intelligible is the law which governs it, that though unknown 
 to the most of men, all adepts are aware that there is a 
 vibrating cord of vitality between the corporeal structure and 
 the travelling psychic ; while the will force of any twice-born 
 man is quite sufficient to guide his psychic body to the place 
 where he would be, leaving his earthly tenement asleep upon 
 his bed. When the travelling psychic can control surround- 
 ing ether to a sufficient extent, he can produce sounds and 
 sights audible and visible to those whom he visits psychically. 
 Would'st thou, oh tyro, on the threshold of the mysteries, 
 attain this skill, thou must thy rising anger well restrain, and 
 holding thyself above the allurements of dull sense, so live 
 superior to the fetid aura of a world of sin that thou canst 
 defy the unnatural limits sin imposed on the human race." 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 DIVINE HEALING. 
 
 THE following morning, notwithstanding the exciting 
 events of the previous night and the late hour at which our 
 friends had retired, they were all seated at the breakfast 
 table by 9 o'clock, and though a close observer would have 
 noticed an unusual thoughtfulness in the expression of all, an 
 unobserving stranger would have detected nothing out of the 
 ordinary. The extraordinary events of the previous night 
 had thrown a weird and almost uncanny glamour over the 
 whole aspect of affairs, in the mind of Mr. Templeton. For 
 some time past he had been giving thought to mystical 
 matters, now things he had hitherto deemed impossible had 
 been absolutely verified in his own experience ; he had now 
 passed the rubicon of doubt and could no longer remain a 
 skeptic toward what had been so abundantly demonstrated to 
 him ; but to a Baptist minister to whom a very real personal 
 devil had been a familiar figure almost from infancy, the 
 likelihood of what he had witnessed having emanated from 
 his Satanic Majesty seemed a possible though not probable 
 contingency. 
 
 The singular conduct of Count Katolowynski had excited 
 in his mind the strangest emotions. That gentleman had 
 returned to the drawing-room at the conclusion of the seance, 
 partaken of refreshments and chatted affably, but his whole 
 demeanor revealed to the perspicuous, his offended dignity, 
 desperate resolve, and scarce admitted fear. Zenophon had 
 remained in Dr. Maxwell's house all night and was still 
 sleeping soundly; the Count went to his hotel about 1 A.M., 
 
66 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 outwardly polite, but inwardly muttering vengeance. Dr. 
 Maxwell was unable to conceal a slight trembling of expect- 
 ancy as 10 o'clock approached, when (if the prediction so 
 singularly made was to prove true) he would meet a sufferer 
 from paralysis who would pay him a simple professional call 
 and there and then be restored to health and vigor. " To 
 doubt would be disloyalty," this line of Faber's beautiful hymn 
 kept running through his mind, and as in the past he had 
 received many verifications of almost equally wonderful 
 prophecies, he felt pretty well assured that this day was to 
 prove a singularly eventful one to him and to Mr. Templeton 
 whom he dotermined to invite into his study to witness all 
 that transpired. 
 
 Ten o'clock came, and just as the gong in the hall was 
 sounding the hour, the door-bell rang. The summons being 
 quickly answered by the ever ready page, a lady about fifty 
 years of age, with a pale drawn face, evidently with no use of 
 her lower limbs, was slowly carried into the house by two 
 attendants. As soon as these assistants had deposited her 
 in an easy chair in the doctor's office and had begun to detail 
 the symptoms and history of her case, she was abruptly 
 stopped in her narative by experiencing a decided electric 
 thrill ; we purposely avoid the word shock, as the true electric 
 system of practice never causes patients to suffer from the 
 violent action of the remedial agent which in its fiercer moods 
 is often destructive and dangerous rather than constructive 
 and beneficial. Whence came the thrill ? No treatment was 
 administered from any visible battery or in any external 
 manner whatsoever, and neither Dr. Maxwell, Mrs. Finchley 
 nor Mr. Templeton who were all in the room, felt anything. 
 A succession of thrills one after the other, following in rapid 
 sequence caused the invalid to exclaim, " What are you doing 
 to me, oh ! can it be true that miracles are performed to-day 
 as they were of old? Father Franciscati at the Hoboken 
 Monastery told us they were now possible and saints could 
 perform them ; he said so when I was carried into the church 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 67 
 
 and placed in a special reclining chair near the privileged 
 altar, but I was one of the many who had to be content with 
 the assurance that my affliction was for my good and there- 
 fore God would not remove it; several people were healed 
 during the novena in honor of S. Stanislaus, but I left the 
 church a little happier in mind, a little more resigned to my 
 condition, but none the abler to walk than when I entered it ; 
 but now I feel something, oh, so different from what I ever 
 felt before. I've been ill three years, I was struck the day 
 my only son was shot in Virginia ; nothing and no one could 
 help me. I've been everywhere and tried everything, and 
 should never have come to you had I not been recommended 
 to try Christian Science. I was directed to Mrs. Catsleigh 
 who said she never healed while she was teaching and she 
 directed me to you. What is this force? Do tell me, I can't 
 understand it. I feel my son standing at my elbow but I sc e 
 nothing; Oh! now he beckons me. Gregoire take me to you 
 if you can ;" and the lady sank into a deep motionless slumber 
 from which she did not awake till after 3 P.M. 
 
 When she awoke the change which had come over her 
 was so miraculous that even Dr. Maxwell, accustomed 
 though he had been in Paris to similar demonstrations of 
 electric power, could not believe his eyes when he saw the 
 once wretched-looking and prematurely aged woman, get up 
 without the slightest difficulty from her chair and walk across 
 the room as blithely as a girl. To say she was completely 
 cured by this one treatment would be to exaggerate, but she 
 had recovered perfect freedom in the use of her limbs ; her 
 system might need some days for recuperation before it 
 would be wise for her to return home, but to all appearance 
 she was as well as she had ever been in her life. Not 
 realizing that she had been in an electric trance for five 
 consecutive hours, she looked about her in a half-dazed 
 manner, and seeing the clock on the mantel point to 3:30, 
 consulted her watch which greatly astonished her by point- 
 ing to the same hour. 
 
68 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 "Where have I been and what has happened?" was her 
 first inquiry. " I saw Gregoire just for an instant, he took 
 me somewhere, I can't say where. I felt a cold, invigorating 
 current pass through my frame, then I dozed and woke to 
 find you all here just as you were when I fell asleep." The 
 doctor endeavored to explain to her that he knew by means 
 of electrical diagnosis that her difficulties had all arisen from 
 her deep grief at the sudden loss of her only son, and conse- 
 quently that no treatment could prove availing which did not 
 set her mind at rest in that direction. Electricity, though a 
 medium of communication between the " two worlds," is not 
 self -intelligent ; it is however, the externalized force of life, 
 which vibrates responsive to intelligence, it is therefore 
 employed to accommodate truth to human consciousness; it 
 is indeed the creative force in all nature and the destructive 
 agent also. The Brahminical Siva who is both destroyer 
 and reproducer is a symbol of divine electricity, this is known 
 to deep students of cosmogony. 
 
 When an apartment is properly electrified, conditions 
 are ripe for a manifestation of spirit, just as light streams in 
 through an open window, but is shut out by closed ones. We 
 bar the doors of our minds against the entrance of life by 
 follies and sins, and it needs that errors should be destroyed 
 ere we can consciously participate in the health which is 
 universally free to all who comply with the conditions 
 necessary to realize it. While the lady was engaged in con- 
 versation with the doctor (she was greatly refreshed and 
 strengthened by this converse), Mr. Templeton retained the 
 attitude of attentive listener ; he had not a word to say and 
 could not quite perceive how electricity could be the instrument 
 in accomplishing the restoration of paralyzed limbs when no 
 ostensible treatment was given. The explanations given by 
 Mrs. Catsleigh in her classes, which were mostly echoes of 
 Mrs. Pushing's theories, did not cover the ground to his 
 mind, for both these ladies taught that nothing had any 
 power to benefit or injure us except as we thought or believed 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 69 
 
 it had. The terms universal mind and race belief were used 
 to answer questions otherwise unanswerable, but until a larger 
 idea was shown him, he could never see how belief started, or 
 how poisons ever became such even in belief. 
 
 For the particular benefit of Mrs. Macmarcy (the lady 
 who had just recovered under this mysterious influence), Dr. 
 Maxwell took from his desk a precious MS. given to him by 
 Prof, de Montmarte, from which he copied the following for 
 her use. 
 
 "Electricity is everywhere throughout nature, and is the 
 only life of the world ; it is the true anima mundi of which 
 we read much in the writings of my sties ; while not itself a 
 conscious agent, it is the perpetual emanation from God to 
 all degrees and grades of life, and is the only channel through 
 which Creative Force works to ultimate expression. The 
 physical form of man is permeated with electricity, or it could 
 show no sign of life ; when a derangement occurs in the flow 
 of the currents through the system, disorganization ensues. 
 In cases of paralysis, an electric shock has been received, and 
 after it, the electric force has been prevented from flowing 
 freely or sufficiently to the parts affected. When one dis- 
 covers the exact cause of this derangement, it is necessary 
 to place the patient in an atmosphere completely free from all 
 antagonizing currents, and let him rest there under the 
 soothing spell of the recreative influence. 
 
 " Mind is inter-communicative on all planes of expression, 
 and as no soul perishes during its transit through the various 
 states it successively enters, it is possible to introduce friends 
 into the presence of those they specially love, by establishing 
 mental telegraphy. Harmony in thought is imperatively 
 necessary, without it no worthy results can be achieved; 
 mental discord would result in greatly intensifying the 
 ailment." 
 
 This and much more, the doctor read in a clear, well- 
 modulated tone to his delighted and much affected auditors ; 
 when he had closed the roll and returned it to his desk, 
 
70 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 Mrs. Macmarcy said, "I'm very hungry, may I eat some- 
 thing?" 
 
 From a closet in which he kept the few very simple but 
 immensely powerful medicines he employed in his practice as 
 a physician, he handed her a glass of what looked like ordi- 
 nary wine, but was very different, though made freshly every 
 morning in his own kitchen, from the juices of choice fruit; 
 this she eagerly drank and felt satisfied. At 6 o'clock she 
 joined the family at dinner, and no restrictions were placed 
 upon her quite considerable appetite. 
 
 The evening passed pleasantly in music and deep conver- 
 sation till 10 o'clock, when Mrs. Macmarcy was informed that 
 her room was ready and she must consign herself to the care 
 of Mrs. Finchley, for whom she had already conceived a warm 
 attachment. Mrs. Finchley conducted her to a pleasant 
 chamber next her own, where a bath was in readiness ; then 
 after bidding her a sweet good-night, and telling her to get 
 into bed immediately after bathing, left her with a few kind 
 words of assurance and heartfelt blessing to enjoy a truly 
 refreshing slumber. 
 
 Though usually a very light sleeper, and of late aubject 
 to much pain at night ; notwithstanding the excited, though 
 happy mental condition she was in, she fell asleep as soon as 
 her head touched the pillow, not to awake till high noon on 
 the following day, when she found the sun shining brightly 
 into the cozy apartment, beautiful flowers and luscious fruit 
 on a table beside her, and Mrs. Finchley entering with steam- 
 ing chocolate, delicious rolls and fresh dairy butter. 
 
 " Oh, how well I feel !" she exclaimed, as her hostess 
 deposited the tray and embraced her. "I have not only 
 slept soundly all these hours, but have had a lovely vision. I 
 must tell you about it ; it was so heavenly, so sweet, so grand ! 
 I feel as though I could never doubt anything again." 
 
 " Well," replied Mrs. Finchley, " you must take your 
 breakfast now, and then come down to the library and tell us 
 all ; we are quite united in this house, and though some of 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 71 
 
 our guests haven't had our experiences, they are very anxious 
 to receive light on all topics." 
 
 " Oh, I'll tell them all if you wish, but it's some of it so 
 strange I want to tell you first, then I can take your advice 
 afterward." 
 
 " Will it astonish you very much to know that both the 
 doctor and I know all about your dream, indeed we are cer- 
 tain it was not an ordinary dream at all, but a veritable 
 vision. Now, to make a long story short, you first went to 
 Paris and then to Heaven. You were introduced first to 
 friends yet living, who assisted at your restoration yesterday, 
 though you cannot quite understand how 3,000 miles is no 
 obstacle to a doctor's treatment of his patients ; then you saw 
 your son again, and he and you went together to those bright 
 realms of light for which he ia now being prepared. You 
 went with him beyond the orbit of this planet and saw a star 
 which in your childhood always fascinated you, and there you 
 learned much you could not learn from any books you have 
 read or sermons to which you have listened." 
 
 The astonishment depicted on Mrs. Macmarcy's coun- 
 tenance can be better imagined than described; she could 
 not perceive how other persons could be familiar with her 
 dream, for was not her vision mere imagination, a result of 
 highly wrought nerves ? 
 
 Perceiving her thought, Mrs. Finchley answered by 
 positively reiterating what she had previously affirmed, viz.: 
 that this vision was an actual experience, and one withal 
 vastly more real than are the transitory experiences of our 
 waking hours, when dresses, bonnets, calls and dinners 
 occupy so much of the feminine mind, while business cares 
 absorb the masculine. Explaining much of the law which 
 governs the interaction of minds in natural sympathy, she 
 taught her willing, eager pupil a great deal in a short time 
 concerning why in one case a doctor will be supereminently 
 successful and in another similar instance ignominiously 
 defeated after all his best endeavors; this is regulated 
 
72 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 entirely by natural affinities which material science unaided 
 can never explain. "Mrs. Macmarcy," she exclaimed, speak- 
 ing with singular impressiveness, " you have been led here by 
 Azoriel, whom you saw in your vision, and who conducted you 
 in your starry journey. Tour son could never have scaled 
 those heights had it not been that he was led on and borne 
 up by this most glorious angel, who is at this time revisiting 
 the earth to teach its inhabitants what ancient sages knew 
 right well. In a few days (you must remain here ten at 
 least), you will be strong enough to interpret for yourself the 
 shining courses of the stars, and then those astrological 
 predictions made to you in London seven years ago which 
 have greatly harrassed you, will be interpreted by a higher 
 law than that known to the old man with the lizards in the 
 bottle on his writing table in Princess Street. " Here was 
 another allusion to her private experiences by a stranger ; 
 that visit to the astrologer she had never divulged except 
 once to a priest in the confessional, who had told her never 
 again to dabble in such mummeries ; and here in New York, 
 a woman whom she never saw till the day before, knew all 
 about it. Truly, the ways of mind are marvellous, and the 
 agnostic is at best but a sorry dunce with all his boasted 
 learning. 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 
 A TRIP TO SIRIUS. 
 
 " Oh, when shall this dense vail remove, 
 
 And we behold the realms of day; 
 Oh, when shall these dull senses prove, 
 
 No obstacles upon our way; 
 Oh, when shall matter cease to bind, 
 
 And earthly limits all depart, 
 Oh, when shall kindred spirits find. 
 
 True unison of mind and heart? 
 
 We know not fully here below, 
 Our souls are yet in fetters bound, 
 
 Yet sometimes we can through a rift 
 Within the vail, the more profound 
 
 And glorious wonders of our life, 
 Discern, to lull to rest our strife." 
 
 , Mrs. Macmarcy partook of her lunch and felt quite 
 strong enough after it to accompany Mrs. Finchley to Dr. 
 Maxwell's study, where all the house party was assembled to 
 listen to her extraordinary narrative. As we have already 
 stated, neither the doctor nor his aunt were in ignorance of 
 the nature, or even of the details of her experience, for being 
 themselves in the closest sympathy with the intelligences who 
 were instrumental in her restoration to health, and knowing 
 how true it is that kindred minds communicate in sleep, they 
 had no difficulty in following the progress of her spirit out of 
 the darkness of affliction into the light of joy. Mr. Temple- 
 ton and the O'Shannons were not thus privileged, to them there- 
 
74 ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 
 
 fore, the recital of her vision was a stupendous and unlocked 
 for revelation. 
 
 Feeling the great and marvellous import of this event 
 most keenly, Mrs. Macmarcy unconciously adopted the air of 
 a person making an important deposition while she told her 
 story, which ran as follows : 
 
 No sooner had I laid my head upon my pillow, than I 
 felt conscious of a subtle, but most delightful and intensely 
 powerful presence beside me; no word but presence would 
 convey my meaning. I saw nothing, neither did I hear any- 
 thing, my senses of taste and smell were not appealed to, 1 
 was conscious of only one sense, feeling. I felt I was not alone, 
 still I could not attribute this feeling of companionship to the 
 idea that any other person was occupying the apartment with 
 me. In this sense of a lovely, yet utterly undefin able presence 
 with me I fell asleep; a delicious feeling of perfect rest stole 
 over me, such as I had never felt in any such degree of full- 
 ness since my girlish days. As soon as I was asleep, and I 
 was most vividly conscious of going to sleep, i. e., of passing 
 from an outer to an inner state of conciousness, I saw a bright, 
 handsome young woman approaching me; I could not feel 
 that she was one who had severed her connection with the 
 physical body, for I perceived what looked to me like a lum- 
 inous cord of light, very slender, white and fleecy, connecting 
 her with a form exactly like herself, lying in profound repose, 
 in a luxurious bed in a beautiful room. 
 
 " The location of the house in which the form was sleep- 
 ing, I could not define, as I had no sight whatever of anything 
 but that particular apartment. The radiant figure, who ap- 
 proached me with a graceful and tender smile, put both her 
 hands on my shoulders and said to me in pure, strong tones : 
 'You are well now, Harriet, and you know it ; never again will 
 you suffer as you have done for the past few years, which 
 seemed so long and weary to you, unless you return to your 
 old sad habit of grieving over the loss of your son's body 
 You have seen dear Gregoire and you can see him now con- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 75 
 
 stantly; but this is a privilege you can enjoy only so long as 
 you do not mourn a fleshly loss and keep the eyes of your 
 affection centered on immortal being.' 
 
 " Having delivered herself of this message, she beckoned 
 me to follow her to a most charming spot, a little distance 
 from where we were standing. At that point I perceived a 
 boat, something after the fashion of a Venetian gondola, but 
 seeing no water in the neighborhood I wondered of what use 
 a boat could be in such a place. Almost instantly this beau- 
 tiful young lady (whom I know now is your friend Heloise), 
 assisted me into it and as soon as she had taken her seat be- 
 side me, it began to rise and float through the air as though 
 conducted by some skillful serial gondolier. Swifter and ever 
 swifter grew the flight of this amazing vehicle. In it we 
 seemed to pass cities and even countries in moments of time, 
 compassing distances almost with the rapidity of thought, 
 I felt a novel sensation of wonder steal over me,but I was not the 
 least afraid. Suddenly the boat stopped and we alighted on the 
 summit of a lofty mountain, from whose height we could look 
 down upon the Earth and see it revolving in its orbit, a small 
 ball enveloped in a dark, murky atmosphere, through which it 
 seemed impossible any great light could penetrate. Other 
 planets were also discern able, some of them far brighter but 
 none darker than the earth; their moons were like fire-flies in 
 attendance on them, BO small did their satellites appear. I 
 still felt no sense of fear, only an intense feeling of release, as 
 though I had suddenly gained full deliverance from every 
 yoke of bondage that had ever oppressed me. 
 
 " No bird could feel freer than I, when with my graceful 
 companion at my side, I sat on that heavenly hill-top and 
 watched planetary revolutions with the deep enquiring inter- 
 est I had always felt when an opportunity was afforded me in 
 my youth to look at the stars on a clear night from a hill-top 
 in the neighborhood of my old Irish home. It suddenly oc- 
 curred to me to ask, where are we ? But before the words 
 
76 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 were fairly framed in my mind, an answer came from the lips 
 of my companion. 
 
 " c On Sirius; you know how you always admired the 
 " dog star " when you were little, and asked whether your 
 little pet doggie, who was run over in Dublin over forty years 
 ago had gone there; and how you cried when a priest told 
 you dogs had no souls and you must not ask such questions 
 This beautiful world where we now are, is peopled with be- 
 ings whose forms are so radiant and ethereal that you cannot 
 see them though they are all about you. Azoriel, my guard- 
 ian, is a ruler here, and all the inhabitants love him; He is so 
 great and good that he rules entirely by kindness, and yet 
 were injustice done to any, he would be so terrible to the evil 
 doer, that the sinner would wither beneath his glance, though 
 he would never in anger reproach or condemn him.' While 
 she was speaking thus to me I felt again, though in much 
 stronger degree, that sense of & presence with me which I had 
 felt before sleeping; this time, however, the feeling was ac- 
 companied with the sound of sweet music. Some one was 
 singing, perfectly, but I could not discern a syllable of what 
 he sang. I knew instantly that the song was a speech delivered 
 to Heloise and thought it contained references to myself. As 
 the angel was addressing her, her beautiful face lighted up with 
 dazzling, rapturous delight; she appeared as though she might 
 be his bride or sister, so nearly did the two resemble each 
 other, as I caught a glimpse of the singer's most glorious 
 countenance. 
 
 " As soon as the song ceased and the rapt expression of 
 ecstasy left her still smiling and exalted brow, I asked who 
 the celestial visitor might be, who thus addressed her as an 
 equal in a language she could certainly understand though it 
 was utterly unintelligible to me. She hastened to correct me 
 for speaking of her as the equal of this, her glorious master, 
 as she styled him, and assured me she was only his devoted 
 but very humble and ignorant pupil. He, however, evidently 
 took no such view of her, for the -words had scarcely left her 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 77 
 
 lips when I heard the melodious tones of the enchanting song 
 again, and this time Heloise looked down and buried her face 
 in her lily hands. I understood the purport of his words ; he 
 styled her his soul-mate, a radiant being from a higher world, 
 imprisoned for a brief term in a lovely earthly body, not to 
 suffer as an expiation for crimes committed on another orb, 
 but to live a sweet, happy life, joyous and free as a butterfly's, 
 for the sake of souls on earth who could be uplifted only 
 through her sojourn among them. 
 
 " As I listened spell-bound to this discourse and wondered 
 why I should have been chosen to listen to such wondrous 
 tales and privileged to enjoy such association, I ventured to 
 ask of Azoriel, ' Have you a blessing for my Gregoire, I ask 
 nothing for myself ; he was cut down in the flower of his 
 youth, while life was very sweet to him. I saw him yesterday, 
 but though his eyes beamed very tenderly on me he did not 
 shine like you or Heloise. I would suffer anything if I could 
 help him higher. Oh, can you show me any way that I can 
 help him, even though I am tortured to subserve his gain ? ' 
 
 " The face of Azoriel then turned toward me, and I be- 
 held a countenance so lovely, so divine, that I could have be- 
 lieved it to have been the Lord's, only there were no prints 
 upon his brow. 
 
 " * Daughter of a fallen star, though thou art,' he said to 
 me, ' such sentiments are worthy of the blessed ones who 
 never left the path of virtue to tread the by-paths of disobe- 
 dience to heaven ; to this request thou shalt obtain an an- 
 swer, Light divine shall henceforth enable thee to work with 
 Gregoire in the establishment of the first true college of the 
 soul which in this materialistic generation has been established 
 upon earth ; and as thou art now refined from the debasing 
 dross of self seeking love, thou needst not suffer more as thou 
 hast suffered in the past ; I was with thee yesterday when 
 thou wert hovering 'twixt life and death in a strange electric 
 trance ? I saw your need and your sincerity, and as I am one 
 of those commissioned now to rehabilitate the earth with 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 something of its golden aura of pristine light ere yet its people 
 fell from Arcadian innocence into the mire of selfishness and 
 its resultant pain, I lifted you from your low estate, not to 
 save you simply from a further discipline of pain from which 
 you merited release, but to call you out among the few faith- 
 ful workers who shall dispense the bread of life to the hun- 
 gering multitudes who yearn for what, alas, the churches do 
 not and the schools cannot give them. I was on earth in ages 
 past ; I dwelt where now the deep, dark waters of the Atlan- 
 tic roll, when Atlantis was fair and young, ere her people fell 
 a prey to wanton pride which compassed their destruction; 
 I trod with glee the hills and vales of the Pacific slope, when 
 peaceful nations rose to heights of bliss almost forgotten 
 now, a district where at this day a new race is forming and 
 the god of gold is contending with heavenly troops for mas- 
 tery. But thou art weak, as yet, my child, and canst not bear 
 too long a severance from the material robe in which thou for 
 many years to come, as men count time, must work for earth's 
 emancipation. I will now grant thy request ; I cannot bring 
 Gregoire here; he is not ready to breathe the air of this 
 bright star which thou canst breathe freely, for thou hast 
 suffered and borne thy purgation on earth. I will take thee 
 to him, and where he is thou wilt learn more of thy heaven- 
 born mission. You will not see me again during this jour- 
 ney ; Heloise is thine escort visibly ; I am thine unseen guard- 
 ian; fare thee well and call on me whenever thou art in 
 trouble.' 
 
 "The angel had no sooner ceased speaking than I real- 
 ized that I was passing down what seemed a steep declivity, 
 supported by Heloise, upon whose arm I leaned heavily, but 
 tenderly. Following, as though by instinct, every movement 
 of her will, I soon came to a place where at first I could see 
 nothing ; presently the idea of a military encampment came 
 to me, and there, surrounded by comrades in arms, I saw my 
 beloved Gregoire. At first he did not seem to see me, but as 
 my mother love penetrated the atmosphere around him, as 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 sunshine dispels a fog, he turned to me quickly with a sudden 
 flush of glad recognition, and smiling sweetly upon me, said : 
 
 " ' Your prayers, dear mother, have always reached me. 
 Whenever you have thought of me I have felt it ; but oh, this 
 visit from yourself in person is more than I dared to expect. 
 According to the canon of your church you have thought of 
 me in purgatory, though you have tried to believe I had ere 
 this entered paradise ; but, mother, I was no.t the pure, unsel- 
 fish boy you thought me. I loved you purely and unselfishly, 
 and sincere love for any creature, if that love is not quite 
 overgrown with foul weeds of selfishness, is a base on which 
 angels build when they seek to renew our characters. I was 
 restless and unhappy when I left the body, for I clung to 
 earthly things with a vigorous and desperate hold, and it was 
 only after bitter disappointments and much conflict, I gained 
 the measure of peace and satisfaction I now enjoy. People 
 make a mystery of the life beyond the grave ; they weave 
 complicated webs of fancy, and indulge in many unfounded 
 speculations, but in fact the whole question is decided by the 
 nature and object of a man's affections. I am the same im- 
 pulsive lad I was on earth, a little sobered and subdued, and 
 I hope a little wiser than when we shared a dear old home in 
 days gone by.* 
 
 " Much of his narrative I cannot tell ; it was too sacred, 
 too personal even to be mentioned to you, my dear and valued 
 friends ; but I was assured by Heloise that you, Dr. Maxwell, 
 and dear Mrs. Finchley, who has been like a mother to me, 
 knew all about it, as you had followed me in my wanderings, 
 and learned how Heloise, whom I should never h ave known 
 but for you, escorted me through space and took me to my 
 son. I cannot enter more freely into details ; the endeavor to 
 reproduce all I saw is quite beyond me, but I was assured I 
 should soon have other experiences which I may fully remem- 
 ber and recite, and even publish for the benefit of others." 
 
 When Mrs. Macmarcy had ceased speaking, Mr. Temple- 
 ton enquired how such experiences in the invisible world 
 
80 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 were reconcilable with scripture, and how a minister of the 
 gospel could possibly accept such doctrine a'nd continue to 
 perform his duties to his flock. 
 
 " Our church," said he, " teaches most emphatically that 
 there is no such intermediate state as you describe. We can 
 accept paradise but not purgatory, and does it not interfere 
 with accepting the finished work of Christ to imagine a place 
 of probation beyond the tomb? I do not say that I myself 
 am loth to credit your statement as actually true and not 
 merely a vivid dream; I have thought of these matters frequently 
 and have read Dorner and other German theologians who favor 
 what is called 'second probation,' and now I am in New York 
 at Dr. Maxwell's kind request, for the express purpose of re- 
 ceiving what light I can on all these matters, I beg of you all 
 to let me hear all you have to tell, whatever it may be. In all 
 humility I can faithfully declare I am a seeker after truth, and 
 though I may have to relinquish my prospects and take a fresh 
 start in life, I am willing to make any sacrifice or change if I 
 can but be sure I am being guided to lead souls to God, not 
 away from Him." 
 
 Mrs. Macmarcy, who was quite a novice in all such mat- 
 ters herself, and had trembled lest she should overstep the 
 boundaries of her own previous belief, sympathized heartily 
 with the Baptist minister, but could help him no further than 
 by assuring him she knew inwardly that all she related was 
 actually true. The strong corroborative testimony of two such 
 thoroughly trustworthy persons as Dr. Maxwell and his aunt, 
 in addition to her own sense of certainty within, had dis- 
 solved her doubts, as the sun melts an iceberg or dissipates 
 a fog, and she was now ready to devote herself in future en- 
 tirely to the discovery and promulgation of such truth as 
 
 might be revealed to her. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Ten days later she was perfectly strong, and had gained 
 twenty pounds in weight ; she then returned to her home in 
 Virginia, where she intended founding an orphan school for 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 81 
 
 delicate girls who might enjoy the comforts and attention 
 attainable only in a well regulated home, as well as the ben- 
 efits of a sound, moral and secular education. In this en- 
 terprise she was warmly seconded by friends of Dr. Maxwell 
 and Mrs. Finchley, and soon became a robust, hearty woman, 
 the center of a thriving community of growing girls, devel- 
 oping not only in physical grace and vigor, but in what is 
 far more important still, true womanhood which fits its pos- 
 sessor for usefulness on earth and indescribable blessedness 
 hereafter. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CLAIRVOYANCE DEMONSTRATED. 
 
 " They told me many wondrous tales, 
 
 Of how the angels come to earth 
 Swift, as on "wings of living flame, 
 
 To quicken nobler thought to birth. 
 I could not understand the thread 
 
 Of such discourse, until I saw 
 Before my very eyes the proof 
 
 Of Heaven's divine mysterious law. 
 Why should I harbor any doubt, 
 
 Or wherefore should I suffer dread; 
 Why is it not enough for me 
 
 To be by such wise counsel led ? " 
 
 Mrs. Macmarcy's narration of her vision had led Mr.Tem- 
 pleton into one of those strange reveries of his, which though 
 of every rare occur ence, had from early childhood largely 
 shaped the current of his life. Often when a boy he had been 
 the subject of strange experiences, which he dared no longer 
 relate to his austere parents after they had sent him several 
 nights in succession lunchless to school and supperless to bed. 
 As it often happens with children of sensitive temperament 
 who can take an outward or an inward interest in life as oc- 
 casion demands, the youthful Onesimus finding his spiritual 
 experiences distasteful to his relatives, (who attributed them 
 to the devil, insanity or disease according to their moods), soon 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 83 
 
 learned to agree with his surroundings and to refuse all in 
 vitation from the unseen to carve out a special environment for 
 himself. Neither reinarbably profound or superficial in his 
 conclusions, he simply addressed himself to his tasks with the 
 feeling that if God called him to the work of the ministry, God 
 would qualify him in some special manner for the work. 
 
 Mrs. Margaret Lesbia Templeton (his mother), became a 
 widow when he was only seven years old. His father, the Rev. 
 Aaron Edwards Templeton, had been pastor of the Saddlerock 
 Baptist Church for nineteen years; his wife married him three 
 years before the birth of their only son. After the good minis- 
 ter had resisted for nine years all the efforts of match-making 
 mothers and aspiring farmers' daughters to induce him to 
 enter the matrimonial estate, Lesbia Mintsheller had visited 
 Saddlerock one summer with an invalid mother who died 
 while on a visit to the place. Immediately after the funeral 
 Mr. Templeton discovered her penniless condition and utter 
 inability to sustain herself when left entirely to her own re- 
 sources ; but he did not realize how devotedly he loved her, 
 until one day after he had undertaken to provide for her sup- 
 port in the family of an old and valued parishioner, who had 
 known him from babyhood, with such delicacy thatpoor heart- 
 broken Lesbia Mintsheller thought God hadindeed sent good 
 Samaritans to her in the persons of Deacon and Mrs. Haggai 
 Ezekiel Macpherson-Smith, he found her weeping over her 
 Bible, tears in which resignation, sorrow, regret, faith and 
 hope were all blended like the hues of the rainbow. 
 
 Mrs. Macpherson-Smith touched him lightly on the 
 shoulder, whispering " Aaron my lad, there is the wife heaven 
 has sent you, as God sent Rebekah to Jacob, only it won't be 
 fourteen years, or seven either before you can make the par- 
 sonage what it ought to be." 
 
 The good man was then just thirty-four years of age and 
 though still in early manhood had become settled in bachelor 
 habits. His elder sister, Sophronia Angelica, a firm maiden 
 lady, kept house for him and never touched his papers or 
 
84 ^ ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 thought of entering his library without his special permission. 
 His ways were all regulated with mathematical precision, and 
 from the straight-line of this uncompromising rigidity no 
 deviation was ever permitted. One can imagine how such a 
 person who had positively shunned marriage, and was inclined 
 to a view of the celibacy of the clergy most uncommon among 
 evangelical Protestants, would start at such words from the 
 lips of a staid old deaconess, about as unworldly an old soul 
 as one would be likely to meet in a journey around the world. 
 With characteristic terseness and brevity, he said, " God's will 
 be done, "if the Lord has sent me to her; or, rather directed 
 her to me, it is not for his dust to question his decree. 
 
 He always alluded to himself as God's dust, it was a very 
 favorite expression of his in the long prayer at every public 
 service. The congregation would have felt that some familiar 
 and beloved portion of their liturgy had been omitted had 
 they not heard the phrase, "bless thy dust," which always 
 came after a list of petitions for all sorts and conditions of 
 people. Mr. Templeton put himself last and styled himself 
 dust in all sincerity, for he was really a very self-abnegating 
 man, and when his old friend told him God had ordained that 
 he should marry Lesbia, his first thought was only one of 
 complete surrender to whatever might be the inscrutable pur- 
 pose of the Almighty ; his second emotion was however of a 
 very different nature. The love which had slumbered but 
 never awoke, now asserted itself with all the intenser fervor by 
 reason of its long repression, and when Lesbia rose from her 
 absorbed attitude, and turned to greet the minister with 
 watery eyes which tried to smile, his pressure of her hand was 
 not the same as it had been before. She felt the change in his 
 touch and he ackowledged the involuntary, almost unconscious 
 response of her soul to his. The proposal was soon made, 
 and a mutual declaration of love was speedily followed by a 
 very quiet marriage. 
 
 Mrs. Templeton took up her abode as mistress of the par- 
 sonage, to the surprise of every one, it is true ; but so quietly 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 85 
 
 and naturally, that even the most voracious gossips found very 
 little to talk about. She was soon universally respected and 
 beloved, as she was her husband's companion and helpmeet in 
 all things; a very quiet, subdued minister's wife, whom no 
 one dared to approach with scandal; one of whom some stood 
 in fear, not on account of her imposing manner or command- 
 ing voice (she was gentleness personified), but by reason of 
 the perfectly frank gaze of her modest grey eyes, which 
 seemed to see through imposture, and her inveterate hatred 
 of gossip. She was a woman of comparatively few words; her 
 parents had both been Baptists ; she had joined a church 
 when only seventeen, and was therefore fully prepared for the 
 work in which she soon found herself actually engaged. 
 
 Her husband, though an excellent man and tenderly de- 
 voted to his fragile, yet healthy wife, was of a stern tempera- 
 ment and could not tolerate the slightest departure from the 
 creed of his denomination. His first and last wish for his 
 little son (Onesimus) was that he might be a minister, and if 
 possible, carry on the work in the very place where he himself 
 had labored. 
 
 When Onesimus was only six, his father's health began to 
 fail hereditary pnuemonia, doctors and anxious friends pro- 
 nounced his disorder ; his voice became feeble and uncertain ; 
 a minister from a neighboring village often assisted him in his 
 duties, and at length he resigned most reluctantly, amid the 
 tears and prayers of the people who never knew how much 
 they valued him until they felt he was to be taken from them. 
 
 Two months after his resignation, sea air having failed to 
 recruit his wasted energies, he passed from the body, triumph- 
 ant in faith, singing in a weak, quavering voice, " Rock of 
 Ages," as the spirit severed its connection with its earthly 
 tenement. His last act was to call the little Onesimus to his 
 side, and blessing him fervently, prayed that God might in 
 cline his heart to the work of the ministry and direct his steps 
 to the pastorate of the Saddlerock Baptist Church. After her 
 husband's death, Mrs. Templeton never fully recovered her 
 
86 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 energies, she was always plaintive, but still very useful in the 
 district. Though the succeeding pastor, the Rev. Martindale 
 Fischer-Bennett was a married man with a very energetic 
 wife, they were always good to Mrs. Templeton and the two 
 families decided to live together for economy and company's 
 sake. 
 
 As Onesimus grew up, he found himself more under the 
 tutelage of the Fischer-Bennetts than under the influence of 
 his mother ; they directed his studies and mapped out his 
 career ; his mother acquiesced in her usual quiet way, but 
 whether she fully endorsed all their opinions, her son never 
 knew. The Fischer-Bennetts left Saddlerock when Onesimus 
 was ordained, and they were not sorry to do so, as they de- 
 parted for a larger and more lucrative field of effort. Mr. 
 Templeton had lived alone with his mother since his settle- 
 ment over his father's church, and it was of her he chiefly 
 thought when the impending changes in his course of teaching 
 came most forcibly to his mind. 
 
 While in New York, in an atmosphere highly charged 
 with what might be called a " developing influence," the seer- 
 ship which his father most sternly rebuked and punished, 
 and his mother attributed to poor health in childhood, now 
 began to reassert itself with more than its original vigor; 
 reminiscenses of childhood's experience which before had 
 been faint, latent recollections, now returned with a vividness 
 he could never have supposed possible, and these remem- 
 brances crowded about him ; he called to mind singular epis- 
 odes in his mother's history, which convinced him that she 
 also was a dreamer of dreams and beholder of visions, but had 
 refrained from all mention of such things through fear of 
 offending her husband during his lifetime, and afterwards 
 from an over sensitive regard for his memory. She was a 
 woman who could never bring herself to feel that a true mar- 
 riage lasted only "until death " and her son had sometimes 
 felt (though scarcely willing to admit the thought even in the 
 privacy of his own chamber) that perhaps his fat her was much 
 
S TEViPLETON 87 
 
 nearer to his mother, and even capable of impressing her with 
 his wishes than their fixed beliefs permitted them to suppose. 
 
 But after all, however much may be said about churchly 
 antagonism to spirit communion, Christian literature of the 
 most pronounced orthodox type abounds with incidents in 
 the lives of foremost Christian advocates abundantly proving 
 how deep seated and widespread is a belief in communion 
 with " people from another world," even among those who are 
 supposed to be very strenuous in their opposition to such & 
 doctrine. 
 
 The day after Mrs. Macmarcy's narrative, while Mr. Tem- 
 pleton was pondering in solitude over some of his own ex- 
 periences, it occurred to him to search in Dr. Maxwell's 
 library for such volumes as might help him to ascertain the 
 views of some distinguished authors on the subject of visions 
 of the departed. Among other testimonies he came across 
 the following : 
 
 " The year just past, like all other years, has taken from 
 a thousand circles the sainted, the just and the beloved; there 
 are spots in a thousand graveyards which have become this 
 year dearer than all the living world ; but in the loneliness of 
 sorrow how cheering to think that our lost ones are not wholly 
 gone from us ! They still may move about in our homes, shed- 
 ding around them an atmosphere of purity and peace, prompt- 
 ings of good and reproofs of evil ; we are compassed about 
 with a cloud of witnesses, whose hearts throb in sympathy 
 with every effort and struggle, and who thrill with joy at 
 every success. 
 
 " How should this thought check and rebuke every worldly 
 feeling and unworthy purpose, and enshrine us, in the midst 
 of a forgetful and unspiritual world, with an atmosphere of 
 heavenly peace ! They have overcome, have risen, are crowned, 
 glorified ; but still they remain to us, our assistants, our com- 
 forts ; and in every hour of darkness their voice speaks to us : 
 ' So we grieved, so we struggled, so we fainted, so we doubted; 
 but we have overcome, we have obtained, we have seen and 
 
88 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 found all true ; and in our own heaven behold the certainty 
 of thy own.' " HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 
 
 " I believe there are angels of light, spirits of the blest, 
 ministers of God. . . . There have been times in which, 
 I declare to you, heaven was more real than earth ; in which 
 my children that were gone spoke more plainly to me than 
 my children that were with me ; in which the blessed estate 
 of the just man in heaven seemed more real and near to me 
 than the estate of any just man upon earth. These are 
 experiences that link one with another and higher life." 
 HENEY W. BEECHER. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CLAIRVOYANCE DEMONSTRATED. 
 
 As he continued reading and pondering over these beau- 
 tiful words, culled from the rich, ripe experiences of two 
 remarkably noble and useful lives, a strange sense of reverie 
 stole over him, and out of the deepening gloom which seemed 
 to encircle him, shutting out the surrounding scenery, a form 
 appeared so closely resembling his father as to make him 
 start suddenly, yet carrying with it a delightful feeling of 
 ineffable repose. Whether he was sleeping, dozing or wide 
 awake, he could not tell, he was certain however, that some 
 gentle pressure of the hand accompanied by the accents of a 
 clear, deep voice, impressed these words on hia brain, as 
 though they had been traced in letters of living fire : 
 
 "My son, let not any doubt disturb you in your religious 
 trust ; you are now to see truth far more clearly than I saw 
 it when on earth. Old doctrines must be freshly interpreted ; 
 the Bible is a mine containing precious ore, but it is the 
 hidden meaning not the superficial import you must seek; 
 with the kernel of the fruit, not any longer with its outer rind, 
 can you feed the people committed to your pastoral care. I 
 was, as you know, a strict adherent to literal forms when I 
 occupied the place which now you fill ; people then were not 
 prepared for what they are ready to receive now; do not 
 shrink from announcing your uttermost conviction, it is yours 
 to thaw the ice around the hearts of many, to break down 
 
90 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 lurking, unsuspected unbelief in the minds of many who still 
 adhere to olden customs which they cannot reconcile with 
 modern views of life. Tour place is not outside the church 
 but in it ; you must not cloak conviction, neither may you too 
 carelessly offend the weak, as many reformers do. Move 
 cautiously but conscientiously ; enlarge men's faith, do not 
 attack it ; broaden your sermons, do not attack prevailing 
 dogmas. Some little persecution awaits you, but the people 
 at large will follow you, and though some trials are before 
 you, they are not of a nature to cause any stout heart alarm. 
 Tour mother knows of what is going on in your secret mind ; 
 she has been a seeress many years, but never avowed it, out 
 of regard for me, for I used to be very bitter against all such 
 revelations. Thank heaven I am wiser now than then. I 
 have seen the folly and the wrong of mental despotism, and 
 had I my life to live over again I would never seek to cramp 
 the limbs or tie the wings of any soul. Tou will have a letter 
 from your mother in a day or two confirming what I say ; this 
 is an evidence I give you of my trustworthiness. This day 
 your mother is inditing you an epistle, in which she makes 
 full confession of her experiences from girlhood; when you 
 receive the letter you will hear from me again. Now farewell ; 
 you always have my blessing, but I give it you for old associa- 
 tion's sake." 
 
 Mr. Templeton awoke suddenly from his reverie which had 
 lasted several hours, and as he awoke he saw Zenophon, who 
 had been an inmate of Dr. Maxwell's house since the preceding 
 Sunday night, glide swiftly into the room and take a book 
 from one of the shelves. Feeling disposed to converse on the 
 subject nearest hia heart,, he stopped the boy, saying kindly: 
 
 " Come here, Zenophon, I want to ask you something 
 about your own life, about the trances you go into and the 
 visions you see. Do you suppose you could see something for 
 me ? I'm very anxious to get an explanation of a singular 
 occurrence which has just impressed me deeply." 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know, sir," replied the boy. " I'll try, 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 91 
 
 if you like ; I'll sit quite still and describe anything I see if 
 anything is shown me; but I've always been Count Kato- 
 lowynski's subject, and as I have been taken from him, I 
 don't know if I have any power left. I won't stay away from 
 him long for I love him though he does beat me sometimes ; 
 he has never been as kind to me as all of you here are, but he 
 is my master and I will obey him ; whenever he summons me 
 I shall return to him. If he comes here and wants to take 
 me away, I will go with him wherever he chooses." 
 
 No sooner had Zenophon thus testified his love for the 
 Count, who had so singular a hold over him, than a loud 
 double-knock and furious ring of the door-bell startled the 
 servants to their feet. Count Katolowynski, handsomer and 
 prouder than ever to all appearance, entered the study with a 
 supercilious nod to Mr. Templeton and a " so you are here, 
 Zenophon, I thought they hadn't devoured you." Then divin- 
 ing Mr. Templeton's wishes he instantly magnetized the boy, 
 who became quickly prophetic and said to Mr. Templeton : 
 " You will get a letter from your mother the day after to- 
 morrow by the early post." Zenophon here paused for a 
 moment and stood gazing earnestly on something no one else 
 could see ; he then read as from an unseen manuscript sus- 
 pended in the air, the following missive : 
 
 " MY DEAR AND ONLY SON It is not often I approach you 
 on a subject with regard to which our opinions may differ, but 
 of late I have had most singular and vivid dreams of your 
 father. I cannot feel that they are only dreams ; he visits 
 me night after night and holds long conversations with 
 me, and oh, my dearest boy, you must not be shocked when I 
 tell you he argues with me on theology just as he used to, tak- 
 ing difficult texts, throwing light upon them by comparing 
 them with others and then winding up with a short homily in 
 which he clenches his argument and brings home a lesson. I 
 cannot be deluded, why should I be, I have been a faithful 
 wife to him and mother to you according to my lights, and the 
 scripture even when it speaks most harshly, never says God 
 
92 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 sends delusion or allows it to come to those who are striving 
 to walk in His way. Oh, how I wish you could enter into my 
 feelings and share my experience, for my husband tells me in 
 these visions you are seeking light earnestly but are as yet 
 bewildered concerning many things, you cannot plainly see 
 the way ; it is simple when one finds it, it is indeed plain 
 enough for the wayfaring man to walk in without stumbling. 
 " You will perhaps call me a Spiritualist and even think 
 I am getting crazy, but even for your sake, I could not pretend 
 to deny, neither could I cloak the convictions which are daily 
 adding to my joy in this world and my hope for the next. The 
 minister at Pinchingtown is delivering a course of lectures on 
 1 Demonology,* and as our church is closed, a number of our 
 people go over there to hear this Mr. Mewle, whom many think 
 a fine preacher, but he grates on me. I have been occasionally 
 to the little Catholic church at Shoe Hill, and oftener for long, 
 solitary rambles amcng the hills. You will find me changed 
 when you return home ; I have lost much of my reserve and 
 I have developed an insatiate desire to visit sick people, and 
 they all welcome me with the brightest smiles ; the priest 
 at St. Catherine's tells me I would make an excellent sister 
 of charity, and wants me to enter the Convent of Our Lady 
 of Perpetual Help, opposite his church ; he is a good, self- 
 denying man, but completely wrapped in a mantle of creed. I 
 tell him I am no longer a Baptist, but I can never be a Ro- 
 manist; I must let God speak to me as He will, just in Hig 
 own way, through all the voices of nature and through His 
 children who have risen higher. I like the quiet, earnest 
 work of the Sisters but I cannot join an order ; I shall never 
 be acceptable again as a teacher in an " orthodox " Sunday- 
 school, for I cannot disguise my convictions. If you are still 
 " orthodox " when you return home I shall be quite silent if it 
 hurts you to hear me speak, but if, as I trust and feel assured, 
 the same change comes over you which has come over me, we 
 shall work together, not to depopulate the churches, but to 
 infuse new lift into the service of God, and to rach some 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 93 
 
 portion of the great unchurched mass which can never be 
 reached by prevailing methods. 
 
 " Write to me as soon as you can after receiving this ; be 
 quite candid with me, don't try to spare my feelings if you 
 think I am misguided, but intuition tells this letter will be 
 welcome rather than distasteful to you in your present mood. 
 Kemember me kindly to the family of your host, and give 
 them my thanks for their kindness to you. 
 
 "As ever, your devoted mother, 
 
 LESBIA TEMPLETON. 
 "SADDLEROCK, Vt., July 30, 1887." 
 
 After this marvelous display of clairvoyance (the day 
 after the morrow confirmed it), Zenophon awoke suddenly, 
 rubbed his eyes, resumed his former posture at Count Katol- 
 owynski's feet. When questioned as to his marvelous gift, de- 
 clared he knew nothing whatever about anything that was 
 given through him. After a few minutes' conversation Dr. 
 Maxwell and the ladies returned from an afternoon drive. 
 They were all quietly courteous to the Count, and he was in- 
 vited to dinner, but no one of them seemed pleased to see him. 
 
 The Count refused the invitation, saying it was his inten- 
 tion to give Zenophon an evening's amusement; they would 
 dine at Delmonico's, then visit Madison Square Theatre, 
 where "The Private Secretary," was being performed. After 
 the theatre they should take ices and return to the Hotel 
 Meurice, where the Count rented a splendid suite of rooms on 
 the grand etage. 
 
 Dr. Maxwell quietly said, "Zenophon, remember your 
 home is here; I shall expect you to-morrow, if you accept 
 your friend's invitation to-night. I do not forbid your going 
 with him, perhaps I have no right to use so strong a word, I 
 however disapprove of it, but act as you please." 
 
 Count Ratolowynski, bridling at these words, said, " the 
 boy belongs to me, and I shall hold him, though you do want 
 him, for some mercenary schemes of your own. I only let 
 
94 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 him remain with you the past three days to test his loyalty to 
 me. Say what you will, do what you will, he is mine always. 
 The farce on Sunday night was one of your contrivances; it 
 was well acted ; but it takes more than that to scare a man of 
 my nerve, so you had better reserve your private theatricals 
 for more gullible and appreciative spectators." 
 
 With this insolent speech the Count departed, the 
 boy following him like a dog, not however without casting a 
 grateful look on the inmates of the library, which said as 
 plainly as glances can speak : I am not leaving you for good, of 
 this I can assure you. While the Count and his subject were 
 on the street they maintained an unbroken silence, but as soon 
 as they were seated vis a vis in a cabinet particulier in the 
 grand restaurant, they found their tongues and chatted to 
 gether with all the exuberance of youthful glee. Count Ka- 
 tolowynski was a spy in the employ of the Russian government; 
 a trained diplomat to whom clairvoyant aid, such as that ren- 
 dered by Zenophon, was of priceless value. Never thinking 
 it necessary to be on his guard when alone with the boy, and 
 having taught him to converse fluently in Russian, he unfolded 
 to him all his plans for extracting secrets from the wives and 
 daughters of ministers from foreign courts and particularly 
 for utilizing Zenophon himself as a discoverer of all he de- 
 sired to know. 
 
 The boy's moral sense was usually keen, he shrunk from 
 every species of dishonorable conduct; still the fascination 
 of the Count's presence and magnetism was so great that even 
 after all that had transpired on the previous Sun day, he found 
 himself enraptured ; he admired his master even in his dis- 
 honorable enterprises. Strange it is, but none the less is it 
 true, that when under a spell exerted by beauty of person and 
 assertion of will, even the purest of sensitives are likely to be 
 entrapped, even to lend themselves to crime unless fortified 
 against all unhallowed influence by strongly confirmed knowl- 
 edge coupled with intense love of truth. Impersonal affec- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 95 
 
 tion for truth is the only infallible safeguard against mag- 
 netic witcheries and intoxicating spells. 
 
 The dinner was fit for a prince and cost $15, though the 
 Count only ordered one portion of each desired article and he 
 took but one pint bottle of Widow Clicquot The play at 
 Madison Square delighted them both, for the stately Kussian 
 had all a boy's love of ridiculous situations, and though it was 
 out of the "season" and many of the boxes and stalls were 
 vacant, the company played their best to the intensely appre- 
 ciative though unfashionable house. After the performance 
 and a feast of delicious ices and fancy confections at Tortoni's, 
 a walk up Broadway brought them to the Hotel Meurice at 1 A.M. 
 
 Count Katolowynsld's rooms were magnificent and su 
 perbly furnished ; three spacious apartments and a bathroom 
 constituted the suite. In an atmosphere of luxury and light 
 and in company with the imperial master whom he idolized 
 and who was in his most agreeable mood, it is not to be won- 
 dered at the boy soon fell asleep to the music of such thoughts 
 as had often allured him in the brightest hours of his past 
 revels in Eastern palaces and gardens with himself Grand 
 Vizier at a Court where his master was Absolute Monarch. 
 The softly tempered light, the faint odor of pastiles burning 
 in a rich antique vase on the mantlepiece, the rich draperies at 
 the windows and coverlets of the bed, which were all of oriental 
 design and had been specially procured to meet the Count's 
 fastidious requirements, naturally lent a strong suggestion 
 of the orient to the boy's meditations before retiring ; and 
 usually our dreams are an outgrowth from our thoughts dur- 
 ing the day though not in the limited sense to which 
 many people confine this statement. Exceptions it is said 
 prove many a rule, and to this rule for dreams a singular ex- 
 ception was found in the case of Zenophon, who, marvelous to 
 relate, went to sleep in a nightrobe in Count Katolowynski's 
 apartments in the Hotel Meurice at 1.30 A. M., and woke fully 
 dressed at 9 A. M., on a lounge in Dr. Maxwell's room at 312 
 Sycamore avenue, a considerable distance off. 
 
96 ONESIMUS TENPLETON 
 
 How he got there he could not imagine ; his eyes closed 
 on the splendors in the hotel, he was perfectly content with 
 his -surroundings ; but (seemingly without intermission of 
 time) he awoke to the tones of the breakfast gong in Dr. Max. 
 well's house. As he had been recently in that house for a few 
 days, he was not at all startled ; nothing was new or strange 
 about him ; but when he entered the breakfast room he was 
 greeted with exclamations of surprise by all present except 
 Dr. Maxwell. Then a sudden burst of recollection came over 
 him, and throwing himself at Dr. Maxwell's feet, as he had 
 been accustomed to fall at the Count's, he imploringly solicited 
 an explanation of so singular an occurrence. The good Doc- 
 tor could only reassure him by telling him that all was well, 
 and bid him eat his breakfast as though nothing unusual had 
 happened, then accompany him into the study and seek an ex- 
 planation from the unseen. 
 
 The following explanation was given through the boy's 
 own lips, who went into a deep trance immediately he entered 
 the study : " The powers who have charge of this young 
 hierophant, seeing the necessity of withdrawing him again 
 from pernicious control, guided him in his sleep to do the 
 right thing. At 7.30 he was made to get out of bed and dress 
 himself, he left the hotel like any guest going out to walk; he 
 was further guided to let himself into this house by means of 
 the key you have given him, and to proceed to your room after 
 you had left it. Enquiry at the hotel will confirm the state- 
 ment that nothing unusual occured. Count Katolowynski is 
 not yet up, when he discovers the boy is missing he will think 
 he has gone to church and will not search for him till noon, 
 when he will begin to grow wrathful; later in the day there 
 will be an explosion. The decisive moment has come and 
 Azoriel will assert his power finally. You are all going to 
 Paris in ten days, do not be surprised, you will be summoned 
 unexpectedly. Prof, de Montemarte has written for you ; you 
 will hear from Heloise long bfore you get the letter." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PREDICTIONS VERIFIED. 
 
 O had I but the eagle eye 
 
 Which sees within, behind, before, 
 Which compasses all sea and shore, 
 
 And yet is ever turned on high. 
 
 Then would I leave this lower earth, 
 And on the wings of tho't and love 
 
 Soar to those eyries far above, 
 Where songs celestial find their birth. 
 
 But if awhile below I stay, 
 
 And dimly thro' the veil of sense 
 
 Behold life's glorious recompense, 
 Truth here may turn my night to day." 
 
 Dr. Maxwell, with his usual clear-sightedness, and con- 
 siderably aided by the talk he had with Zenophon on the mem- 
 orable day when the boy was so strangely delivered from 
 Count Katolowynski's hands, and guided by unseen intelli- 
 gence while in trance to make his way to the hospitable 
 home where the family had already come to regard him as a 
 son of the house thinking prevention better than warfare 
 with a person of the Count's irascible and unscrupulous dis- 
 position, and not being much pressed with immediate duties, 
 proposed to Mr. Templeton, Zenophon, Mrs. Finchley, and the 
 O'Shannons, that they should all go up the river as far as 
 Northwalk, and visit some old friends of Mrs. Finchley's, 
 
98 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 who had a large, hospitable country-seat in that pretty sub- 
 urb, where they were always prepared for company, and de- 
 lighted to see friends whenever they might call. 
 
 Not wishing, however, to arrive inopportunely, and being 
 anxious for Mr. Templeton's particular benefit to test Zeno- 
 phon's clairvoyance in a matter which admitted of easy and 
 speedy verification, the party above mentioned gathered round 
 the boy who always liked to recline on a rug in the centre of a 
 harmonious circle when he exercised his gift, and let Mrs. 
 Finchley, who was on intimate terms with the Codringtons of 
 North walk, interrogate him as to their present readiness to 
 receive visitors. Zenophon, who was always particularly 
 lucid under Mrs. Finchley's suggestions, at once began de- 
 scribing "The Cedars" and its occupants. "I see," he said, 
 "a venerable man seated at an escritoire writing a note of in- 
 vitation to you; it reads as follows : Dear Mrs. Finchley, do 
 come over to-day and bring all your friends. We shall hope 
 to see you to luncheon at 2, but if any of you can not get 
 here so early, be sure and take dinner with us at 6.30. We 
 want you to hear Mr. Vincent Hammer who is just from Scot- 
 land, and has been entertaining the Edinburgh professors 
 with his views on Theosopby. We have a conversazione this 
 evening ; he will read a paper ; don't fail us. Wife sends her 
 love, and urges her claim on your offer of help when we have 
 unexpected visitors." Yours as ever, 
 
 AMOS CODRINGTON. 
 
 The Cedars, Northwalk, July 31, 1887. 
 
 " Well," said Templeton," here's another case of most ex- 
 traordinary letter reading. I am intensely anxious about the 
 letter from my mother which I shall get to-morrow morning, 
 if this wonderful clairvoyance does not disappoint me; but 
 here is a letter that ought to come in an hour at latest. It is 
 already nearly 11, and how do they expect us to get out to 
 their house by 2 unless we get news before mid-day? 
 
 No sooner had Mr. Templeton spoken than the page knocked 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 99 
 
 at the library door and announced that Mr. Clarence Codring- 
 ton had called with a message, but could not wait to see any 
 one as he was hurrying into the city on business, and wanted 
 to get home early. He left word that his father and mother 
 were very anxious to see Dr. Maxwell and those of his friends 
 who could make it convenient to spend the day or at least the 
 evening at their place across the water. A letter was on its 
 way, but he brought word to give them more time for prepa- 
 ration. 
 
 Here was confirmation direct of Zenophon's perception ; 
 Mr. Templeton was delighted, and all were pleased and some- 
 what astonished at the immediate proof afforded of Zeno. 
 phon's ability to use his powers to perfection when separated 
 from the Count, to whoso mesmeric sway he had been inva- 
 riably accustomed to yield before passing into the ecstatic con- 
 dition. Without further delay they arranged their plans for 
 departure, and just as they were leaving to catch the one o'clock 
 boat, the postman delivered to Mrs. Finchley a letter ad- 
 dressed in Mr. Codrington's well-known hand. On tearing 
 open the letter she found it word for word as Zenophon had 
 read it; she handed it at once to Mr. Templeton, who was 
 overjoyed at this demonstration of the boy's positive accuracy 
 in an affair so nearly related to the one in which he was so 
 greatly interested. 
 
 They just caught the boat, and after a delightful hour on 
 the water, reached Northwalk just after two. Mr. Codring- 
 ton was at the landing stage with a drag, ready to take as 
 many as might appear, to his sylvan retreat about a mile dis- 
 tant. In a few minutes they were at " The Cedars," greeted 
 warmly by Mrs. Lavinia Codrington and Miss Florence Hope 
 (a delightful girl visiting them during the long vacation at 
 Vassar). Lunch was ready and they all partook freely of the 
 good things provided; a lovely drive and delicious sauntericg 
 through the extensive grounds which comprised the estate, 
 occupied all the afternoon until dinner, at which meal they 
 were joined by Mr. Clarence Codrington eon and heir: a 
 
100 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 young gentlemim of very prepossessing appearance, coupled 
 with such grace and dignity of bearing as can never exist 
 apart from delicacy of feeling and genuine culture in the true 
 sense of that often misapplied -word. 
 
 About 7.30, carriages began driving up, and pedestrians 
 arrived in considerable numbers. The billiard hall had been 
 arranged to seat at least two hundred people, and as many of 
 the Codringtons' friends and neighbors were greatly inter- 
 ested in Theosophy, the invitations extended were nearly all 
 honored by those who were at home on receipt of them. De- 
 lightful music was the order of proceeding for about half an 
 hour ; Miss Lydia O'Shannon and Miss Hope had become 
 great friends during the afternoon, and soon discovered that 
 they could play and sing duets together. It is the unchanging 
 experience of truly artistic people, that whenever they encoun- 
 ter congenial spirits they can rise together to artistic heights 
 neither can attain singly. 
 
 Dr. Vincent Hammer was a tall, rather prepossessing elderly 
 gentleman, who wore spectacles and spoke from manuscript ; 
 his delivery was good though not extraordinary; he was evi- 
 dently deeply imbued with the importance of his subject, and 
 being a "new-school" Theosophist not in very good standing 
 with the Aryan Theosophical Society, he seemed especially de- 
 sirous of making himself perfectly understood, and to this end 
 was particularly careful and precise in his statements. 
 
 The following is his paper handed to a reporter after the 
 exercises: 
 
 " Theosophy is the master-key to eternal life ; to the under- 
 standing of God and man. True Theosophy concerns itself 
 exclusively with man's spiritual development, with the finding 
 of Christ within, the Divine Logos or Word of the Eternal. 
 When we find God within, where Jesus and the Buddhas alike 
 say God resides, we truly realize our divine nature. Genuine 
 Theosophy is to this generation the Christ of truth arising 
 out of the tomb of error; it teaches complete self control, the 
 rucifixion of the senses, the liberation of the spirit from all 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 101 
 
 carnal passion, the resurrection of all that is divine within us- 
 Theosophy is complete spiritual science. Knowledge cf the 
 eternal is the only true science. To know Christ is to hear 
 the living Word which speaks in us from Infinite Divine Be- 
 ing. When Spirit is revealed, henceforth we have no thought 
 of death. The true Theosophist drinks inspiration from the 
 ever present spiritual life, the universe becomes to him an open 
 book. We must outgrow false ideas and sacerdotalism, and 
 become each one a true priest; our daily sacrifice must be the 
 daily surrender of our lower appetites to our higher prompt- 
 ings. 
 
 " The principles of Theosophy are love, wisdom and truth, 
 which reveal to us in measure as we can understand, the ab- 
 solute purity and perfection of the Divine Nature. Theoso- 
 phy is universal truth and universal religion; it is demonstrat- 
 ed spiritual science, and holds the key to all sciences and re- 
 ligions. In Theosophy we behold the essential unity of all 
 religions; Theosophists should study all religions, but dogmat- 
 ically enforce none. What does religion really mean ? Relig- 
 ere signifies to bind together, but does not imply a condition 
 of bondage other than that in which the lower nature is held 
 subject to the higher. This is truly at-one-ment or reconcili- 
 ation, the perfect harmony of all the elements in human na- 
 ture. Eeligion does not consist in belief in immorality, or in 
 God. Belief saves no one for it is merely intellectual assent 
 to certain dogmas. One can believe in religion and be devil- 
 ish; devils it is said believe and tremble. We can be so intel- 
 lectually unfolded as to believe in God without being in the 
 least developed in our truly spiritual nature. 
 
 " What does resurrection mean in our individual lives but 
 rising through death of the lower self to spiritual triumph. 
 Nothing dies in reality, only in seeming. The seed is not 
 quickened unless it undergoes the appearance of death, and 
 there is no quickening of the spirit unless there is a death of 
 the lower self; then from the sepulchre the rock is rolled 
 away a symbol of our new birth to a knowledge of Truth. 
 
102 ONESIMTTS TEMPLETON 
 
 Theosophy, which is true religion, is the science of right liv- 
 ing, and is in no sense a sacerdotal system. Divine wisdom is 
 the whole world's only religion for the future ; a religion which 
 meets every want and fully satisfies every lawful craving of 
 human emotion as well as intellect. 
 
 " The Divine Being is necessarily beyond the comprehen- 
 sion of man. Man is not equal to God, there must be there- 
 fore a mystery attaching to God for the human mind. That 
 which is on our level we may explain, whatever is beyond that 
 level remains unsolved ; God alone understands God, as man 
 alone can comprehend man. As Deity is infinitely above us, 
 Deity is beyond all definition ; the soundest metaphysicians 
 never undertake to define Deity. Agnosticism is a despairing 
 confession of honest men whose intellects are unable to solve 
 the problem of Being. Theosophists need not conflict with 
 Huxley or Spencer ; all divine things are unknowable to the 
 senses, but Theosophy teaches of spiritual intuition by which 
 we can arrive at some knowledge of Spirit, though to our re- 
 searches there can be no end. Intellectually we find not God 
 but Energy, Power, Force. The word God means the All- 
 Good, the Good One, nothing more, nothing less. 
 
 " Plato's immortal assertion, ' God geometrizes/ does not 
 imply Plato's acknowledgement of anything more than infinite 
 Mind ; no kind, loving God appears in that sentence. Infinite 
 power might be cruel. Many people know nothing of God 
 though they profess to believe in God; but not until they ad- 
 vance beyond belief do they find the Eternal. Beliefs imply 
 that some " school" is the custodian of special intelligence 
 from Deity, whose testimony is to be accepted by disciples as 
 final authority. The word Testament means something one 
 leaves behind him when he is going away; while the testator 
 liveth, such documents are of no effect. People who know 
 nothing of God but what they read in the Bible, and concern- 
 ing that venerable book we would indeed utter nothing disre- 
 spectful, believe in a God who has left a Testament. Practi- 
 cally it is so to them. Many Christians believe in a God 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 103 
 
 very far from this world and in no direct way concerned with 
 human affairs. There was, they believe, a time when God 
 spoke to the world, but he speaks no longer; God, for them, 
 has finished His book and has delivered the published volume 
 completed into their hands. How utterly incongruous is this 
 mental attitude with the teachings of Jesus: 'He hath been 
 with you and shall be in you.' It is expedient that I go away, 
 for when I have vanished from your sight the Paraclete will 
 be nearer to you than ever before, and will gradually lead you 
 into all truth. The disciples were directed not to receive truth 
 through any written revelation, but entirely by means of the 
 ever living presence of the Holy Spirit within them. Theos- 
 ophy places every individual soul on the solid rock of experi- 
 enced truth on which Theosophy itself is based. We must 
 build our social temple on the rock of impartial equity which 
 we can never find until we discover it in ourselves. Enlight- 
 ment is a matter of individual spiritual unfoldment ; God is 
 Love and Wisdom; absolute equity is the infinite principle of 
 Life. As we act divinely, we perceive a revelation of divine 
 wisdom in our own lives; all knowledge of wisdom proceeds 
 from the love of good in us which is the only divine love. Only 
 when we act from a motive of love directed toward good are 
 our acts truly wise. 
 
 " Man's best conception of Deity is that God is love. Love 
 is the highest element in the human soul, and is inseparable 
 from charity, which is love in expression. 
 
 " Henry James (an earnest student of Swedenborg, not the 
 novelist) declares in his admirable work, Society, the Redeem- 
 ed Form of Man, that in studying the problem of life one 
 comes to see ever more and more distinctly that the only pos- 
 sible cause of creation is that God being pure love he can not 
 love himself. Love must have an object, and this object is 
 humanity. Creation, then, is the result of the Divine love 
 seeking object and expression. By humanity, of course, we 
 do not mean exclusively the inhabitants of this one little plan- 
 et (we need not tell you that the earth is not the universe) 
 
104 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 We mean all intelligent inhabitants of all worlds, who united- 
 ly constitute the form of the Divine man or the progeny of 
 God, which is without beginning and without end. 
 
 " The true hidden wisdom is to be found in our own inmost 
 selves, not in books or scrolls. God's living word is Man, who 
 is the highest expression of Nature. The hidden wisdom 
 within our own souls must reach our intellects through devel- 
 opment of our own inner self, and in no other way. Theosophy 
 does not depend on legends, on belief in historical personalities 
 or on the truth contained in sacred books. It rests solely on 
 its own intrinsic value, and appeals to our moral nature. If 
 Buddha or Jesus never lived, the teachings are no less value 
 able to man. Precious stones have intrinsic value, and truth 
 is aptly compared to a priceless pearl. 
 
 "All divine teaching is demonstrated through its hallowing 
 influence on human life. Judge the tree by its fruits. Bring 
 all theories to the touch-stone of experience. Were we to find 
 that the teachings]of the Vedas (lived up to) caused war and 
 hatred to vanish from the earth, we should thereby know the 
 source whence these streams sprang to be a fountain of liv- 
 ing water, able to slake the spiritual thirst of mankind. 
 
 There is nothing of moral value in the Vedas that we do 
 not find in the New Testament also. The teachings attrib- 
 uted to Gautama and to Jesus are identical. We can well dis- 
 pense with controversy when we drink true inspiration. 
 Whether we look to Guatama or any other historic light of 
 India; or to Jesus, the historic light of Palestine; or to Osiris, 
 the legendary messiah of Egypt, we must never forget that 
 neither Osiris, Christ or Buddha, or what they typify, is ever 
 dead and buried. In spirit Jesus is working now as actively 
 as when he was on earth. The truth the Buddhas or Osiris 
 revealed is still operating in the world. 
 
 " Why seek ye the living among the dead?" Why watch 
 by a sepulchre when you can converse with the living spirit on 
 the highways of life ? When we liberate our intuition, the 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 105 
 
 sun within us sheds around our path its bright beams of ap- 
 preciable light and heat, (wisdom and affection.) 
 
 Those who bathe in the sunlight hourly appropriate its rays. 
 Not those who have analyzed the water or tested the depth of 
 the well, but those who drink the water of life reap its bene- 
 fits. Not our historic knowledge of a revelation of truth, but 
 our assimilation of it profits us. We must eat and drink, i. e. 
 appropriate the living Spirit of Truth, which is ever active 
 throughout the universe. The past has risen in the present ; 
 we must live to-day, not worshipfully regret the days of old, 
 Our present at-one-ment with the living Christ can alone bring 
 us into consciousness of truth. The truths of Spirit are not 
 apprehended by the intellect, but by intuition; later on, reason 
 grapples with inward revelation and defines it. Be guided 
 entirely by your individual intuition; be ever honest and in- 
 tensely earnest in your search for truth, and you will each one 
 of you discover all it is needful for you to know. 
 
 Races of Mahatmas may have spent ages in ferreting out 
 the truths of the universe, but their existence is not positively 
 known even to Buddhists. Truth is revealed only to those 
 who are in a condition to appreciate it. There is probably no 
 reluctance on the part of any genuine Jfahatmas to reveal 
 themselves, but no one can create eyes in us to discover truth 
 even if it visits us most intimately. 
 
 When Edwin Arnold was there, he held conferences with 
 the Buddhists of Ceylon, and received from them a very com- 
 plimentary address, eulogizing him as a true interpreter of 
 the Sanscrit philosophy. " The Light of Asia," they en- 
 dorsed with much affection. Conversing with them of Ma- 
 hatmas, he was told that the priests knew nothing of the ex. 
 istence of snch people; they could not be found, though they 
 were famous in Europe and America. At the same time these 
 Buddhists affirmed that there were many teachings in the 
 Sanscrit which, if followed out, would develop men into Ma- 
 hatmas (greatly unfolded souls.) 
 
 The Buddhists themselves think Arnold's faithful and mag- 
 
106 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 nificent portrayal of the career of the latest Buddha has done 
 more than anything else to recall the attention of the Hindu 
 people to a perception of the beauties enshrined in the Bud- 
 dhist religion, and it affords them a powerful incentive to live 
 up to these teachings. 
 
 We hear a great deal of Indian degradation, particularly of 
 woman's degraded condition in India. It can not be disputed 
 that many women in India are in a state of gross degradation, 
 but this condition exists in spite of the teachings of the San- 
 scrit philosophy which lead logically to the elevation of all 
 mankind, not in consequence of their religion. All the vices of 
 Christendom are rebuked in Scripture, but tolerated in Chris- 
 tian communities. No charge can be brought against the 
 Buddhist religion for the vices of Asia that can not be brought 
 against every other religion on earth with equal force and 
 justice. 
 
 As the religion of India is set forth in its sacred books, 
 it is a religion of the greatest purity and noblest wisdom. 
 No one who faithfully and studiously compares the ten great 
 religions of the world, will fail to find Buddhism the most 
 humanitarian, and Brahmanism the most metaphysical of all 
 known systems. Buddhism taught that nothing and no one can 
 come between us and God if we are loyal to each other. 
 
 We are, according to this philosophy, our own high priests, 
 mediators, and intercessors, absolutely free to discover truth 
 for ourselves by following in the path marked out by our own 
 intuition which gives : " Thus saith the indwelling Spirit" as 
 final authority. Too many people unfortunately are not con- 
 tented without some external lord or master to obey ; they re- 
 quire some one to do their thinking for them instead of ap- 
 pealing directly to the Lord within their own hearts, so as to 
 receive Truth from the source of all truth. It is only to awak- 
 en spiritual thought and intellectual inquiry that we ask you 
 to study Theosophy, not to induce allegiance to some hierarchy 
 of India; for to the Christian world ' follow Christ' is as neces- 
 sary as 'follow Buddha* can be to Orientals. I shall hope to 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 107 
 
 make myself further intelligible in other and ampler essays.'* 
 After the essay, other speakers being invited to address 
 the company, there was little time left for discussion. Mr- 
 Templeton was deeply interested, (he always was in such mat- 
 ters), but Mr. Hammer's paper raised far more questions in 
 his mind than it answered ; he therefore lapsed into taciturn- 
 ity on the way home, and scarcely slept the night following 
 through revolving these great questions in his eagerly inquir- 
 ing mind. Next morning the letter from his mother arrived 
 during breakfast, word for word as Zenophon had foreseen it. 
 Count Katolowynski had instituted legal proceedings based on 
 the claim that Dr. Maxwell had abducted Zenophon, and the 
 general atmosphere at 312 Sycamore avenue was highly ex- 
 cited though its elder inmates were quite unharrassed as they 
 had long since learned to trust implicitly in the final yictory 
 of Eight. 
 
108 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A SUDDEN DEPARTURE. 
 
 " If on the mystic shores of time 
 
 I stand perplexed and sad, 
 t is not that my heart rebels ; 
 
 For much I am most glad, 
 But what I know is very small, 
 
 The unknown is so vast. 
 I only long to reach some port, 
 
 And find an anchor cast. 
 I think, I dream, I sigh, I long ; 
 
 The answer must come soon. 
 The Lord of Truth will not deny 
 
 His child the asked-for boon. 
 In deep humility I crave, 
 
 And as I beg, I trust 
 And hope 'gainst hope that some day soon 
 
 This all impassive dust 
 Will change to flowers beneath the touch 
 
 Of life's mysterious spell ; 
 And I shall know with certainty 
 
 God doeth all things well." 
 
 Frequently it occurs when something disagreeable seems 
 close at hand, if persons who are interested in averting the 
 difficulty do but exercise their highest judgment aided by 
 such intuition as they may be blessed with they can effect- 
 ually convert the most perplexing affairs into occasions for 
 rejoicing. 
 
 Some such consideration as this was coursing through Dr. 
 Maxwell's mind the day following the excursion to North- 
 walk, as about 3 o'clock in the afternoon he sat alone in the 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 109 
 
 library, studying out the best method of dealing with Count 
 Katolowynski's impertinent and threatening missive which 
 lay open on the desk before him. The Count was in a blind 
 fury ; he refused to reason, nothing but legal action would 
 satisfy him. He had called twice during the day, and so 
 insulted the doctor, that long suffering man though he was 
 he was at last aroused to something like impatience. 
 
 Zenophon, he declared, should never with his consent, be 
 returned into slavery, let the Count do his worst. Whatever 
 Russian law might sanction; slavery could never be supported 
 in any court in England or America. This the Count knew 
 only too well, and consequently based his complaint on a 
 charge of abduction, and went so far as to concoct an elabor- 
 ate tissue of falsehood, which he had instructed his lawyer, 
 Mr. Wilbur Nayerjust, to lay before the judge with the utmost 
 emphasis. 
 
 But where was Zenophon? Count Katolowynski was 
 allowed to search the house from attic to cellar, but no trace 
 of the missing boy could he discover. " What new deviltry is 
 this?" he fumed. "Surely you have imperiled yourself 
 enough already by taking from under my august protection 
 the orphan whom I have sheltered as I would protect my life. 
 I will find Zenophon, though it be over your dead bodies, 
 and if you seek any longer to circumvent the course of equity 
 you will find yourselves between other walls than these. 
 Beware, I say, how you call out the Russian bear, you milk- 
 sop Americans, you conceited English puppies. I will let you 
 see what it is to trifle with the aristocracy of a country which 
 sends its own subjects to Siberian deserts for life for offenses 
 which are but trifles compared with yours." 
 
 "Hyde r Count," protested Dr. Maxwell, "I beseech you, 
 be considerate on your own account. As for me, I am in a 
 land of freedom, where allusions to Siberia can only provoke 
 a smile, but I assure you in this part of the world, Russian 
 serfdom is not tolerated, and your ' protection ' of Zenophon 
 will soon be called by a very different name. I warn you, if 
 
110 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 you attempt to recapture your escaped victim, you may regret 
 when it is too late, your rash resolve to play upon your claim 
 to Russian aristocracy while in an American city." 
 
 At this the Count became so abusive that Dr. Maxwell 
 summoned the servants to show him out, at which humilia- 
 tion he became so vituperative that the police would have 
 interfered had not the enraged "nobleman" seen the 
 absurdity of his bragadosia just in time to hail a cab and 
 drive pale with fury to the Hotel Meurice, where he roundly 
 abused the waiters, entered a complaint against the clerks to 
 the proprietor, and generally made himself odious and ridicu- 
 lous. But the reader will ask, where was the innocent cause 
 of this contention all this time? The answer is simplicity 
 itself: he had accompanied his new friends the day before to 
 Northwalk and was at that time reading a book of travels 
 under the trees in Mr. Codrington's park. His situation, 
 however, impressed him strangely ; he could not account for 
 much that he was experiencing ; occasionally his thoughts 
 turned regretfully to the old life and the master whom he 
 loved, even though he feared him; but a sweet sense of secur- 
 ity and bright anticipation was breaking in upon his long 
 fettered mind as the graceful form of Heloise floated through 
 his dream-like reveries, and beyond her power to fascinate he 
 felt the regal influence of the mighty Azoriel who now revealed 
 himself to the wondering child as his constant preceptor. 
 
 Zenophon's nature was intensely receptive ; his sensitive- 
 ness was extreme at every point; all his emotions were 
 intense; he could enjoy and suffer exquisitely; the smallest 
 things often afforded him intense happiness or plunged him 
 in abysses of despair. While under the complete mesmeric 
 control of another, his individual life had been submerged, 
 and often for days and even weeks together, he was scarcely 
 himself for a single hour; but now that this spell was almost 
 broken he would feel as though every living thing about him, 
 flowers and leaves, as well as birds and animals, were instinct 
 with feeling. A more singular impression can hardly be 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 111 
 
 imagined than the vivid realization of omnipresent conscious- 
 ness which steals over a highly organized nature at a time 
 when the deepest feelings of the inner being are intensely 
 aroused. Physicians may call such a state pathological 
 hypersensitivenes may no doubt measurably explain it, but 
 even if it be not best adapted, to our ordinary life on earth, 
 who shall dare to say that it does not t ake whoever experi- 
 ences it in a very real way across tne border which separates 
 the seen from the unseen, thereby revealing to the vision of a 
 seer some at least of the actualities of the mystic universe 
 which interpenetrates the physical as the spirit prevades the 
 body? 
 
 Mr. Tempi eton was restless during all that day; an 
 answer to his mother's letter had occupied him all the morn- 
 ing, but after he had posted the long missive he could settle 
 down to nothing. Feeling an insatiable desire to converse 
 with Zenophon he decided on going to Northwalk to visit the 
 Codringtons, who had most hospitably implored him to con- 
 sider their house one of his homes. Mr. and Mrs. Codring- 
 ton were both out when he reached their home about 4 p. M. 
 The footman who answered the door was very polite but not 
 communicative; he was one of those thoroughbred English 
 servants who know their place and keep it, and would no 
 more have thought of questioning his employer's guests or 
 visitors about their business than Le would have attempted 
 flying. 
 
 James Freeman had been with the Codringtons nineteen 
 years. His wife, whom he married five years after entering 
 their service, had been a domestic in the household even 
 longer, and still retained her place as Mrs. Codrington's 
 maid. These good people (Mr. and Mrs. Freeman) had 
 taken a great liking to Zenophon, whose every want they 
 anticipated; but his singular habit of meditating in the 
 garden in preference to chatting in the house keeper's room, 
 made them feel somewhat anxious about the boy, who had a 
 far-away look in his eyes and seemed embarrassed. Think- 
 
112 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 ing Mr. Templeton's society might be of benefit to him, the 
 courteous and deferential footman mentioned the fact of the 
 boy's being in the garden, and proposed sending for him if 
 Mr. Templeton would like to see him. Declining all invita- 
 tion to partake of cake and fruit (which James was instructed 
 to offer to all visitors), he wended his way through the lovely 
 grounds then in their richest summer glory and soon 
 came to the little leafy arbor, in which Zenophon presented a 
 picture any artist would have been glad to paint. 
 
 Dressed in picturesque Greek costume a little scarlet 
 turban on his raven curls, an expression of dreamy thought- 
 fulness rendering his mobile features remarkably attractive, 
 his whole air one of mystic, pensive expectancy the boy fully 
 looked the part he had been assigned to play by a higher 
 intelligence than that of his earthly comrades. As Mr. Tem- 
 pleton spoke quietly and kindly to him, questioning him 
 gently concerning the state of his feelings now that he was in 
 a strange house and among people who were not even 
 acquaintances until the day before, he replied that he felt 
 only two emotions : gratitude to all who had been kind to 
 him, and extreme wonder as to whither the mysterious current 
 of his strange, eventful life was bearing him. 
 
 He struck Mr. Templeton as a child " without a country," 
 in the fullest sense of that expression. He was a Greek by 
 birth, but so utterly cosmopolitan in all his instincts that 
 one could never tell if he had a scrap more regard for one 
 land than for all others. He talked freely when in a con- 
 versational mood, but never made himself obtrusive, and often 
 he showed a complete aversion to all conversation. At such 
 times he was evidently in eoinmuni jn with states not generally 
 perceived by mortals, for his bright, expressive eyes would 
 show such signal animation as can never light the counte- 
 nance of one who is indifferent or merely "thoughtful," and 
 certainly such bright expressions do not accompany sad 
 moods. 
 
 As Zenophon soon showed perfect willingness to speak 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 113 
 
 freely on any topic, Mr. Templeton interrogated him closely 
 as to the purport of his strange assertion, that the whole 
 party were on their way to Paris, except Mrs. O' Shannon and 
 her youngest daughter, who had decided to spend August at 
 the White Mountains. After gazing into vacancy, as it 
 appeared, for a few moments, he started suddenly, exclaiming, 
 " Oh, there's Heloise again, how eager she looks. " Come at 
 once," I see' written in the air in letters of flame ; she is in a 
 telegraph office in Paris sending a dispatch ; it is growing 
 late in the evening there, the lamps are lighted. Are you 
 ready to go? You MUST go. There are people you must meet 
 who will shape all your future career, you cannot meet them 
 here, only in Pars ; in London also you have a work to do 
 very soon, sooner than you can imagine. Look, don't you 
 see the letters, they are vivid to me, you must see them, 
 'Come on La Gascogne, sails August 9th. Dr. Maxwell, Mrs. 
 Finchley, Lydia O'Shanuon, you and I, are all going, and we 
 shall have lovely times across the water. The dispatch will 
 be at Dr. Maxwell's house soon after you get back. Count 
 Katolowynsld has changed his mind, he will not prosecute, 
 he sees it's of no use ; but he will follow us to Europe. Soon 
 after we get there, business will call him to Russia, a mes- 
 sage from the Czar ; the Count is a great nobleman, and one 
 of the most reliable spies in the pay of the Government ; the 
 message will come from the Czar direct, he will know the 
 cipher and obey instantly; there will be no war between 
 England and Russia for many years, though the papers will 
 go on declaring it imminent." 
 
 Proceeding in similar strain, passing rapidly from point 
 to point, Zenophon outlined the future of nations as well as 
 individuals, with an ease and apparent certainty that fairly 
 startled Mr. Templeton, who could not understand how any- 
 body, no matter how clairvoyant, could thus map out the 
 future. He could understand how Swedenborg might des- 
 cribe a fire already burning in Stockholm while he was far 
 away, but prediction of coming events he could not compre- 
 
114 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 hend, and being pastor of a Freewill Baptist Church, he had 
 a strong anti-Calvinistic horror of the doctrine of predestina- 
 tion. Seeing that Zenophon was decidedly in a "superior 
 condition," he put this question to whatever power might be 
 able to answer it through its agency If God endows man 
 with freedom of will, and without such freedom I utterly 
 fail to see how any man can be either virtuous or vicious in 
 any moral sense how can any power foretell 'the future 
 without coercing human wills, and thereby nullifying the pur- 
 pose of the Infinite a result self evidently impossible ? 
 
 In soft, but decided accents, the boy made answer in 
 these words: " Prophecy, that greatest of all spiritual gifts, 
 is not, in any sense, as you and many others imagine, fortune- 
 telling, not as though every detail of each human career were 
 planned out so that it must occur just so, and at just such a 
 time. There is, however, a clear-seeing faculty of spirit, 
 which wherever possessed, enables whoever enjoys it to see 
 the general drift of human occurrences, for not only must we 
 recognize an immutable law or order in the universe, we must, 
 if we are logical, attribute for esight to superior intelligence. 
 Speaking of your own personal career, we discern you to be a 
 man of more than average conscientiousness ; we know you 
 are superior to the corroding influence of monetary gain, 
 when offers of advancement are not in the way of loyalty to 
 sense of duty ; we see the powers which are about you, we 
 know the influences to which you are most subject, and we 
 are also conscious that you have been selected to perform an 
 important mission, which, however, you could put from you, 
 were you to sin against your convictions. This, however, is 
 well nigh impossible for you, for when a soul has awakened/ 
 as you have, to love of truth, the affections being wisely 
 directed, there is little likehood of material interests exerting 
 a too powerful sway over conduct. We observe further that, 
 in your case, there will not be a strong worldly inducement 
 for you to back-slide. Your mother, who is, at present, the 
 woman of all others nearest and dearest to you, will be 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 115 
 
 increasingly your coadjutor in every ennobling step you take 
 on your own and other's behalf, and the lady who is to be 
 your wife (to whom you have not yet proposed, but who is 
 growing more and move into your ideal of womanhood, while 
 you are fast becoming her hero, though she never thinks of 
 you in the light of a future husband) will be, in all respects, 
 well calculated to keep you firm in the path outlined by those 
 who direct your steps. 
 
 Now for the affairs of Europe. The invisible world is not 
 ruled according to the no-law theory. There is a perfect sys- 
 tem of government there combining all the best elements of 
 theocracy, paternalism, monarchy and republicanism, though 
 celestial government is like no form of government now on 
 earth. It is occasionally faintly outlined by such writers as 
 Henry Bulwer (Lord Lytton), and others who are not simply 
 novelists, but inspired genii. When you better comprehend 
 this wise government, you will see something of the law, which 
 enables the seer to foretell coming events. 
 
 After about an hour's converse on all sorts of topics, the 
 man and boy who had, by this time, grown to highly esteem 
 each other separated, as Mr. Templeton wanted to be back 
 at Dr. Maxwell's by seven o'clock for dinner, as he knew 
 arrangements had been made for a special seance immediately 
 after. 
 
 On reaching the house, he found everything just as usual 
 to all appearance, though there was a feeling of agitation in 
 the air, as if some surprising event were about to transpire, 
 or had already taken place. If it be true that "coming 
 events cast their shadows before them," this was not sur- 
 prising, as the circumstances of the evening more than 
 verified all suspicions. 
 
 After dinner the party seated themselves around a large 
 centre table in the library, in a seemingly purposeless man- 
 ner. Mrs. Catsleigh was the only visitor, and she was 
 particularly instructed to come alone ; to insure this, a car- 
 riage containing^ Mrs. Finchley and Miss O'Shannon had 
 
116 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 gone to pick her up, just as she was thinking where she had 
 better take her dinner (she never liked to board regularly, 
 and in warm weather a restaurant she had visited three times 
 always seemed stifling to her, and the food unpalatable). 
 
 She gladly accepted an invitation to dinner, and made 
 herself very agreeable at table, and being simply dressed in 
 white muslin, with japonicas in her hair and corsage, she did 
 not appear so conspicuous as on previous occasions. 
 
 Mrs. Catsleigh, who had exercised clairvoyance in child- 
 hood, soon began to shudder as though a current of cold air 
 were passing down her spine, but on being asked what she 
 saw or felt, she answered " Oh, nothing." 
 
 Mrs. Pushing had advised her to relinquish mediumship 
 altogether, declaring it incompatible with pure "Christian 
 Science," and Mrs. Catsleigh had half yielded to the importun- 
 ities of her instructress; but whenever she was in Mrs. Finch- 
 ley's company, she felt the old sensations (not at all unpleasant 
 ones), quite enough to remind her that it is easy to deny what one 
 will with the lip, but far more difficult to banish experiences 
 which pertain legitimately to the psychic department of science 
 and human experience. As the conversation drifted to the 
 proceedings of Psychical Research Societies on both sides of 
 the Atlantic, Dr. Maxwell commented forcibly upon the silly 
 attitude of many committees ; some of them being strongly 
 addicted to a narrow form of theology, which they are deter- 
 mined to uphold in spite of everything, while others are so 
 completely wedded to agnosticism that they do not wish to 
 know anything about what they have already styled " unknow- 
 able" but what is, in reality, simply the at-present-unknown. 
 
 As they were talking, a slight tremulous electric move- 
 ment was felt traveling round the circle, influencing all the 
 sitters. Mrs. Finchley was the first to give voice to the 
 influence, which made its presence felt thus palpably. 
 
 "Dear friends," she began, "before we finish our sit- 
 ting, we shall receive news telling us cf the need for our 
 presence in Europe and the blessings which will accure to us 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 117 
 
 from an Atlantic voyage. Our time of absence from home 
 will be brief but very fruitful. Prof, de Montmarte and 
 Heloise have already sent us word; -we ahall receive a tele- 
 gram from the Professor and a pyschic visit from his 
 daughter this evening in this room." 
 
 Scarcely had Mrs. Finchley ceased speaking, when a 
 clear, bell-like voice rang out in a soft, silvery peal of subdued 
 laughter : " I've come first to deliver my message in person ; 
 papa has sent his under the ocean. You must visit us at 
 once. La Gascogne sails on the th and that will get you to 
 Havre by the 17th, as she makes the passage in this weather 
 in eight days easily ; then you can be at our house the same 
 evening. This is important business, and you remember our 
 compact ; I shall always keep you to the terms of our agree- 
 ment. When there's a special reason for you and papa 
 meeting, I am to inform you by occult telegraphy, and papa's 
 letters are to confirm the reality of my visit and the truth of 
 what I have told you." 
 
 As the voice ceased, the door-bell rang loudly (messenger 
 boys usually ring thus to give people a sense of the impor- 
 tance of the messages they bear, -however lowly may be their 
 estimate of themselves). Not liking to interfere with a sea?ice, 
 the page gently slipped the cablegram, which had arrived 
 under the library door. Mr. Templeton picked it up and, 
 being asked to open it, read as follows: "Very important 
 business requires you here at once. Yourself, aunt and three 
 visitors. You can and will come. Jerome de Montmarte." 
 
 No sooner had they received these tidings than an officer 
 called at the house to inquire for Count Katolowynski, whose 
 presence he declared was very greatly needed in Russia. This 
 interruption to the proceedings proved an agreeable one, as 
 Col. Ozokoff Petrovonovonska was one of the St. Petersburg 
 celebrities, who in years gone by had been convinced of the 
 existence of unseen forces operating on man, through his 
 remarkable experiences with that most gifted medium, Daniel 
 Dunglas Home. The Colonel was a high-bred Russian of the 
 
118 ONESIMUS TEMPLE TON 
 
 noblest type, an officer of unimpeachable integrity though 
 well versed in all the intricate diplomacy of the Russian 
 Secret Service. 
 
 Count Katolowynski arrived soon after, purposing to 
 re-capture Zenophon by fair means or foul. His indignation 
 since his last interview with those whom he called the boy's 
 "dastardly captors," had risen to a pitch of boiling frenzy. 
 To be thwarted in any of his designs was gall and wormwood 
 to his imperial temper, while to lose the chief instrument in 
 carrying out his deep-laid plans for money-making and self- 
 aggrandizement, goaded him to lawless desperation. He car- 
 ried with him a jeweled stilleto wherever he went a deadly 
 toy, but so fascinating in its appearance that many delicate 
 ladies would play with it as they would with a fan or bracelet. 
 Determining to use force if persuasion and threatenings alike 
 failed, though not otherwise, the Count in faultless evening 
 attire, blazing with diamonds, his magnificent crown of golden 
 hair scintillating like an aureole about his head, his green eyes 
 flashing like huge emeralds of the purest water, did indeed 
 appear a formidable adversary to encounter. 
 
 Had Zenophon been at 'Dr. Maxwell's instead of at North- 
 walk, he would no doubt have seized the boy and walked off 
 with him quietly, had such a course been feasible, but under 
 present circumstances he was baffled, and to be foiled was in 
 his case an incentive to deadly revenge on his foilers. With 
 mischief in his eyes though politeness on his tongue, he 
 entered the library unannounced, having overawed the page 
 at the door; but when just about to prefer his claim, a gentle- 
 man came up to him with stately courtesy and friendly famil- 
 iarity combined, saying: "My good fellow, you and I are to 
 travel together to St. Petersburg. I am going on La Gascogne 
 to Havre ; she sails on the 9th. It is the gracious will of our 
 Sovereign that we make the journey to Russia together." 
 
 " Delighted, I'm sure,"replied Count Katolowynski, though 
 he bit his lip with inward vexation. Suddenly recollecting 
 himself, however, he turned to Dr. Maxwell, and said rather 
 
ONS8IMUS TEMPLETON 119 
 
 contemptuously, though not without some simulated affability, 
 "How do you and Zcnophon get on together? I shall want 
 my young friend to attend me on the voyage; the journey 
 would be intolerable without him ; he does everything for me 
 that I require." 
 
 " We are going on the same steamer ourselves," responded 
 the gentleman addressed, " so we shall all be able, I hope, to 
 be of service to each other. I think Zenophon had better 
 remain where he is till we sail, but I shall defer quite gladly 
 to our new friend Col. Petrovonovonska's decision." 
 
 " I propose," said the Colonel, " that the powers beyond 
 us decide. I am a Spiritualist, as every one who knows me 
 knows well, and for twenty-seven years I have never been 
 misled by any communication through my wife and 
 daughter." 
 
 Again the voice of Heloise rang through the apartment, 
 striking terror to the Count, but giving joy and satisfaction to 
 all the others : " Zenophon belongs to us ; he is Azoriel's pro. 
 tege; let any one seek, at his peril, to tamper with heaven's 
 lightning." Other messages followed, and when Mrs. Finch- 
 ley was influenced by the good Colonel's mother, the sturdy 
 Russian was fairly overcome. At midnight they separated to 
 their various houses, and peace reigned over all. 
 
120 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BOOKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. 
 
 " The waves are gayly dancing, 
 
 The ship sails bravely on, 
 The stars, the night enhancing, 
 
 Shine large when day has gone. 
 The night is cool and lighted 
 
 With phosphorescent gleam, 
 The porpoises are gamb'ling 
 
 Beneath the moon's soft beam ; 
 Upon the deck reclining 
 
 Are trav'lers from afar ; 
 They meet upon the waters, 
 
 And 'neath the polar star, 
 Enjoy for one brief octave 
 
 A friendship which will burn 
 Deep in their hearts forever, 
 
 For from life's mystic urn 
 They've drank together golden wine, 
 
 And thus are linked to Smyrna's vine." 
 
 After the startling tidings thus mystically communicated, 
 active preparations were hastily made for the quickly impend- 
 ing departure. Mr. Templeton was at first somewhat 
 reluctant to accompany Dr. Maxwell and the others on an 
 excursion, which was to cost him nothing all the expenses 
 of the journey and entertainment of the whole party in Paris 
 being met by Professor De Montmarte, who was a man of 
 large means and yet larger generosity. How this dis- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 121 
 
 tinguished scientist came into possession of his wealth, and 
 how he employed it may be of interest to those of our readers 
 who are seeking a solution of the financial problem of the 
 day, and can scarcely see how in the face of such awful, glar- 
 ing destitution as now prevails in all the great cities of the 
 world, a noble-minded man can live in luxury, while mul- 
 titudes are in poverty about him. 
 
 We do not wish to hold up Professor De Montmarte as 
 an ideal hero an absolutely perfect man, for if there is one 
 tendency we despise more than all others, it is to so exalt 
 some particular person that all others appear contemptible 
 by comparison. 
 
 The De Montmartes were a wealthy family belonging to 
 the oldest and richest aristocracy of France. "When Jerome 
 was a boy, his father lost a considerable amount of property 
 at a time when many noble families were reduced to absolute 
 penury, but he sought to retrieve his fallen fortunes in a truly 
 noble manner. Being heir-at-law to a considerable tract of 
 country in the south of France, which no one had undertaken 
 to cultivate, as it was considered sterile even to total unpro- 
 ductiveness this good and far-seeing man saw how by 
 judicious management he could redeem the land and thereby 
 give employment to a number of workmen who were crying 
 out for employment, but could get no work whatever. Many 
 of these were sturdy, stalwart fellows ; some single, some 
 married and with families. Many were too independent to 
 live contentedly upon alms, and were only too glad to accept 
 Clairmont De Montmarte's offer to cultivate his land for 
 their maintenance. 
 
 Living for awhile most economically himself confining 
 his wants to actual necessaries he and his family consist- 
 ing of his wife, one son and daughter, aged respectively 12 
 and 14 years took up their abode at Chassonville, the 
 nearest town to the estate. 
 
 Putting into practice some remarkable theories, dis- 
 covered by himself while pursuing the study of agricultural 
 
122 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 chemistry, some years earlier, this brave man and accomp- 
 lished scientist Bet to work to fulfil an old-time prediction 
 literally, " The wilderness and solitary place shall be made 
 glad, the desert shall bloom with the rose," and sure enough, 
 after a year's hard labor, bravely borne by director and 
 operatives together, the first positive evidence that the 
 scheme was to be a brilliant success crowned the efforts of 
 the noble crew. 
 
 When the produce of the land was carried to the city 
 markets, and there sold to good advantage, Mons. De Mont- 
 marte called the workmen together and asked them what 
 they expected for their services. During the preliminary 
 operations they had been supplied with house, food, clothing 
 and tools out of his private funds, but had received no wages. 
 
 After listening to the very modest request of the men, 
 the good philanthropist gave them three times the amount 
 they asked, thereby furnishing them with ample funds to set 
 up in business for themselves, should they desire to do so. 
 Not a single man left his employ. They were perfectly free 
 to leave at any moment, but they so loved their benefactor, 
 the thought of leaving him was most painful to them all. 
 
 Tear after year the estates continued to improve, growing 
 more and more productive and remunerative, until in 1887, 
 when Dr. Maxwell and his friends accepted Professor Jerome 
 De Montmarte's invitation to his Parisian mansion, that 
 gentleman's income amounted to 800,000 francs per annum, 
 i. e., $160,000, or 40,000, not a single fraction of which was 
 gained at the expense of any living creature, but in a manner 
 adding greatly to the prosperity of all the workers. 
 
 Eeaders of Count Tolstoi's "What To Do," if they 
 endorse all the views of that exceptionally conscientious and 
 benevolent, though decidedly eccentric, Russian nobleman, 
 may object to Professor De Montmarte's exceptionally large 
 income, and members of the Nationalist clubs, now being 
 formed all over England and America, taking, as a basis, the 
 excellent system advocated by Edward Bellamy, in "Looking 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 123 
 
 Backward," may use the words of Paul and exclaim, " I show 
 you a more excellent way." Possibly there is a more excel- 
 lent way, and the Nationalists are certainly better entitled 
 than any other party, at present, to claim to have found 
 it. The point, howeve r , we desire to emphasize is that 
 there are certainly diametrically opposite ways of becoming 
 rich the diabolical way, a method utterly unjustifiable, 
 viz. : that of enriching one's self by robbing others ; and the 
 rational, humane way of reaping advantages jointly with 
 others, by so conducting business as to add to the current 
 wealth of the world, by developing latent but as yet un- 
 acknowledged natural resources. 
 
 A less intelligent man than Clairmont De Montmarte 
 would have lived on the reduced income remaining to him 
 after his losses. He would have been poorer, but it would be 
 difficult to see how his poverty would have enriched any poor 
 people, as the money which had gone from him might have 
 been directed into a channel where it would have increased 
 the power of tyranny and monopoly, and he could have offered 
 no offset. 
 
 But, following the trend of pure science, he took into 
 partnership with himself a number of destitute people, the 
 cause of whose destitution was lack of employment. These 
 people were not brought into competition with their needy 
 fellow creatures in a manner to increase the number of appli- 
 cants for positions while the number of positions remained 
 about stationary. Positions were not simply found, they 
 were created for the applicants, and so created that the earth 
 itself was made to yield up the treasures which had been for 
 ages forming in her bosom, awaiting the time when some in- 
 telligent mind should learn the secret of how to unlock her 
 treasure-house. 
 
 While we have been explaining something of Professer 
 De Montmarte's theory of wealth and his ideas on permissible 
 and non-permissible property, we have left our friends to 
 prepare for the joufney. Tuesday, August 9, 1887, was a 
 
124 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 sweltering day in New York. La Gascogne was to sail at 
 3 P. M. During the morning, Dr. Maxwell and Mr. Temple- 
 ton went out to make final purchases and say good-bye to 
 particular friends. 
 
 Dr. Gustav Zimmerman, a young graduate of the Vienna 
 Medical University, had taken up his abode at 312 Sycamore 
 avenue. Though only twenty- four years of age, this young 
 physician could be safely entrusted with the most difficult 
 cases ; he was to remain as Dr. Maxwell's assistant, after that 
 gentleman's return from Europe. Circulars had been sent to 
 all Dr. Maxwell's friends and patients, informing them that 
 Dr. Zimmerman fully represented Dr. Maxwell in his absence, 
 ven to the conduct of the Wednesday afternoon Bible Class, 
 which was never discontinued. 
 
 All arrangements having been easily and effectively made 
 for carrying on his work, Dr. Maxwell had no fear of things 
 going wrong during his absence ; he could therefore give 
 himself up thoroughly to his new engagements unhampered 
 by the stupid egotism which causes many people to feel and 
 act as though they had so singular a commission from the 
 Almighty that were they to pass from earth the world would 
 collapse ; while, as it is, nothing can possibly go properly 
 except in that minute speck of territory which is the imme- 
 diate scene of their personal exertions. 
 
 Mrs. O'Shannon and her youngest daughter had left the 
 day previous for the White Mountains, glad to allow Lydia 
 the advantage of a sojourn in Paris under such exceptionally 
 favorable chaperonage. By reaching the landing stage at 
 2.30, and literally forcing their way through a crowd of people 
 all highly excited, many of them jabbering incessantly about 
 their luggage, which either had not arrived at the pier, or 
 had been misdirected, put into a wrong stateroom or other- 
 wise improperly dealt with, our party found themselves at 
 length on the deck of an exceptionally commodious steamer. 
 
 Though the rates are rather higher on the best French 
 and German steamers than on some of the English lines, 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 123 
 
 many people are quite willing to pay a little extra to avoid 
 crossing the channel when bound direct for the continent, and 
 the difference in price is after all only apparent, as the English 
 steamers land at Liverpool, consequently passengers en route 
 for Paris must pay passage from Liverpool to London and 
 thence to France ; while the French company takes its pas- 
 sengers direct to Havre, from which port the additional fare 
 is a mere trifle. Another reason why the French steamers 
 are so popular is that the service is almost perfect and the 
 cooking beyond criticism. Drawbacks there are on all lines, 
 many inside rooms being small, and close in hot weather. 
 These are, of course, cheaper than the best rooms, but persons 
 who can afford it, and wish to enjoy the luxury of travel under 
 the most favorable conditions, find it very poor economy to 
 pay $80 instead of $100 during the busy season. Our party 
 had been furnished with two of the very best rooms on the 
 vessel by Prof. De.Montmarte, who had ordered and paid for 
 them before inviting his guests. 
 
 Dr. Maxwell and Mr. Templeton shared an immense 
 room, with two spacious berths, and a sofa which was allotted 
 to Zenophon, who much preferred it to a berth. The two 
 ladies had one of the very finest rooms on board, containing 
 three full-sized berths and a luxurious sofa. They were all 
 good sailors (Mr. Templeton was the only doubtful one) and 
 anticipated much pleasure on the voyage. 
 
 At 3.15 the steamer set sail amid a perfect babel of 
 voices aiid noises of every description ; tears flow freely down 
 many cheeks, and handkerchiefs waved until friends on shore 
 could not possibly catch the faintest glimpse of them. Soon, 
 however, everybody settled down to the situation, though it 
 must 4 not be supposed that all were satisfied with their rooms 
 or the places assigned to them at the table ; and (as is usually 
 the case) those who had paid the least expected the very finest 
 accommodation, and complaiued most bitterly when they had 
 to put up with second best. At six o'clock the gong sounded 
 for dinner, and all the passengers hastened to the sumptuous 
 
126 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 dining saloon, where a repast was spread for them equaling 
 anything procurable in the finest Parisian restaurants. 
 
 The chief steward, an impressive young man, faultlessly 
 dressed, evidently enamored of his own attractions, with dark 
 wavy hair and a magnificent moustache, superintended the 
 seating of the guests, and made himself intensely popular with 
 almost every one before the meal was over. As there were 
 many brilliant persons on board, and French people are by 
 no means reticent and undemonstrative like the English, the 
 meal was a very sociable one. They did nots tolidly wait for 
 introductions when there was no one who could introduce 
 them, as they were nearly all entire strangers to each other; 
 they introduced themselves, talked across the table as well as 
 tc their neighbors, and made themselves generally entertain- 
 ing. Seated next to Mr. Finchley was a lady whom no one 
 could pass without notice, if brought into any kind of relation 
 with her ; for though as modest and retiring as the most 
 cultured and unassuming of women could well be, there was a 
 something about her fine expressive countenance and nobly 
 shaped head which called forth an involuntary tribute of 
 interested and respectful recognition. Mrs. Finchley could 
 not help observing that this lady partook very sparingly of the 
 delicacies set before her, and her refusal of claret was so 
 decided as to excite great surprise among the French people 
 present, who think no more of drinking vin ordinaire at lunch 
 and dinner than Americans think of taking iced water. 
 
 This lady, who was very plainly but elegantly dressed, 
 was evidently of noble birth; her features were intensely 
 aristocratic, and her imperial eyes showed her to be a descend- 
 ant of a house long accustomed to command. She appeared 
 quite youthful, yet thoroughly mature in mind as well as 
 body. When she smiled at a really good, clean joke, she 
 looked about thirty-five ; when her face showed displeasure at 
 at some innuendo which she detested, she appeared much 
 older. Though she took her meal almost in silence, she 
 addressed a few kindly remarks to Mrs. Finchley, who evi- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 127 
 
 dently impressed her favorably, and once she performed a 
 gentle act of gracious courtesy to a timid girl on her left, by 
 helping her out of an embarrassing position, with the ease 
 and grace of a polished diplomat ; but otherwise she appeared 
 not to seek the acquaintance or her fellow-passengers. She 
 knew she attracted some little attention, but refused to notice 
 it, and thereby avoided being bored with the inane questions 
 of inquisitive tourists, whose chief object in life seems to be 
 to practice the trade of busybody. 
 
 About ten o'clock, the moon having risen, a gentle 
 breeze arose from the west, making the night delightful after 
 the sultry day. The deck was filled with passengers, loath 
 to leave their steamer chairs, or to cease promenading or lean- 
 ing over the rails to watch the phosphorescent light upon the 
 water, which was extremely vivid. 
 
 Mrs. Finchley and Mrs. O'Shannon gazed amusedly at 
 some of the names on the chairs. After laughing quietly at 
 Porke A. Hogg, Chicago, Ambrose G. Pigg, Elgin, 111., Mrs. 
 Fumbling Cockroach, New York, Algernon C. Bootlesheimer 
 Cincinnati, and many others equally peculiar, they came to an 
 occupied chair placed close against the railing of the ship, on 
 which the name of Baroness von Eaglebald stood out in bold 
 relief. Looking at the occupant of the chair, who was just 
 then rising to get a better view of some particularly fine phos- 
 phorescent phenomena, concerning which the multitude were 
 ejaculating delightedly, they at once recognized their interest- 
 ing tablemate, who, bowing and smiling most graciously, made 
 some pleasant and instructive comments on the causes of such 
 beautiful phosphorescent illuminations following upon hot 
 and trying days, and then, her face lighting up with a glow 
 resembling inspiration, continued : 
 
 "I have just been reading in Cattlefield's 'Origin of 
 Human Emotion/ that, as the fairest scenes in nature are 
 only shown to us after some period of trying weather, so the 
 intensest joys of which human beings are capable can only be 
 felt after we have undergone some educational discipline in- 
 
128 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 volving what we often, in our ignorance, designate distress, 
 I have had many trials, but have learned to be thankful for 
 every one of them ; but, pardon me, I am soliloquizing aloud, 
 still I know you agree with me ; I know at once with whom I 
 can converse freely to our mutual advantage, and you are 
 ready for more, much more than I can express. I cannot say 
 let us be friends ; we are friends, and we know it." 
 
 Though attractive when in repose and particularly win- 
 ning when expressing mirthful feeling, the Baroness' face 
 was almost that of an angel when stirred by deep spiritual 
 emotion, and Mrs. Finchley was just the woman to call out 
 the holiest feelings from a deep and loving nature, while Lydia 
 O'Shannon, who was hourly ripening into a very graceful 
 and true woman, was just the sort of girl to attract a studious, 
 earnest women who had seen something of life in all its 
 phases, and knew how to distinguish unerringly between the 
 pure modesty of a thoroughly chaste nature and the simper- 
 ing, blushing prudery of a deceitful make-believe. 
 
 The three ladies remained chatting for about half an 
 hour until Dr. Maxwell and Mr. Templeton joined them ; after 
 a few polite words to the gentlemen the Baroness said she 
 was about to retire for the night but hoped to renew their 
 acquaintance on the morrow. 
 
 " I hope you have a pleasant room," said Mrs. Finchley, 
 " our rooms are delightful." 
 
 " Oh yes, thank you," replied the Baroness, but with the 
 air of a person who considered a stateroom a matter of no 
 importance whatever. 
 
 About midnight Mrs. Finchley and Miss O'Shannon 
 who had retired to their berths but were not asleep over- 
 heard a conversation in French, very excited on one side but 
 very calm on the other. The calm voice was undoubtedly 
 that of the Baroness who was defending her right to occupy a 
 lounge in the ladies' drawing-room, against the clamorous 
 importunities of the stewardess who insisted that under no 
 consideration were passengers permitted to remain anywhere 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 129 
 
 at night but in their staterooms, unless they promenaded the 
 deck, and in that case, their feet must move silently as a cat's, 
 or the other passengers would be made angry and broken of 
 their rest. Despite all vociferations, the Baroness continued 
 to recline on the sofa in the drawing-room clad in an elegant, 
 flowing robe of white flannel with a girdle round her waist 
 and a traveling cloak lined with rich fur over the dress; her 
 feet were sliod in easy walking boots, and in that costume and 
 in that place she resolved to sleep ; her stateroom, she 
 declared, was execrable, illy ventilated and occupied by a 
 woman who insisted on excluding what little air could enter 
 through the one small window which opened upon a gang- 
 way. 
 
 Mrs. Finchley at once thought how comfortable the 
 Baroness might be in her room, as one berth and the sofa 
 were unoccupied and most graciously offered her the accom- 
 modation ; having quickly attired herself, she went directly 
 to the Baroness, and in her gentlest and most persuasive 
 manner, urged her to accept the third part of her room ; the 
 noble woman, however, though evidently much pleased and 
 even grateful for Mrs. Finchley's kind solicitude, steadily 
 refused ; it was a matter of principle with her she said, to 
 hold a position she felt to be right when she had once taken 
 it, and she claimed her occupancy of a lounge in the ladies' 
 drawing-room was hers by right when she was not interfering 
 with the convenience of other passengers : and then smilingly 
 declared that she'really hated being cooped up in staterooms 
 and never slept while traveling except in the costume in which 
 Mrs. Finchley then beheld her. 
 
 Mme. Chouxfleur (the stewardess), was enraged and said 
 the Captain should be at once informed. When that officer 
 heard the case* much exaggerated by the greatly offended 
 woman, he shrugged his shoulders and replied, "eertainment, 
 il ne faut pas" thinking probably that some vulgar, half 
 drunken person had been interfering with the comfort of some 
 one but when he met Mrs. Finchley and heard her side of 
 
130 QNESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 the story, his attitude changed immediately, and on being 
 introduced to La JBaronne, he was obsequiousness personified. 
 This incident being soon noised abroad, the Baroness became 
 the center of much interest ; she hated notoriety and avoided 
 it as much as possible ; but without absolute rudeness and 
 unkindness, she could not refuse to give information to some 
 earnest minds who approached her on subjects in which she 
 was greatly interested, Spiritualism and Mental Science 
 among the number. 
 
 (She had met Mrs. Catsleigh in New York and taken 
 private lessons from her, with which she was measurably 
 pleased). An original thinker, of deep and versatile genius, 
 she never failed to interest all enlightened minds. As a con- 
 versationalist she was unusually happy, and was in some 
 respects almost the equal of those great women of France 
 whose salons developed the art of conversation into a science. 
 
 One evening in the early part of the voyage, when many 
 of the passengers were sick and the music-room was almost 
 deserted, Lydia O'Shannon sat down to the piano and played 
 exquisitely one of Heine's delicious nocturnes, while the 
 Baroness reclined at a distance seemingly asleep. She had 
 grown to feel very tenderly to the sensitive girl who strongly 
 resembled one of her own nieces, the beautiful Countess 
 Isidora di Padoma, who had married at eighteen a distin- 
 guished Italian nobleman, and was then residing in Padua, 
 whither the Baroness herself was bound. 
 
 As the music floated out upon the evening breeze, carry- 
 ing healing to the sick, consolation to the sad, hope to the 
 doubting and courage to the faint of heart, the sweet voice of 
 Heloise subdued almost to a whisper, but clear and sweet as 
 a nightingale's trill, sounded through the salon like a far-off 
 echo of some gie&tprima donna's tones, Ave Maria, plena di 
 grazie, sounded forth in sweet, liquid Italian, straight into 
 the Baroness* ear ; then suddenly the song ceased. 
 
 " What can this be ? Who can be singing thus * " 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 131 
 
 inquired the stately lady starting from her seat, a light of 
 pleased amazement illumining her expressive face. 
 
 Lydia, springing to her side, was in her arms in a mo- 
 ment, and the elder and younger ladies were united then and 
 there in the embrace of true and fadeless friendship. Heloise 
 stood between them. They both saw her, while above their 
 heads they saw as well as felt an electric thrill from the un 
 seen presence of Azoriel, which conveyed to both at once an 
 idea which expressed itself spontaneously in these words: 
 "We three have the same guardian and are in the same circle 
 of souls ; we can never be really separated, in time or eter- 
 nity." 
 
132 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 THE MYSTIC AT HOME. 
 
 "Over the mountains toward the sea 
 They told me was a wondrous land, 
 A country free from sin and doubt, 
 From fear and care ; upon whose strand 
 Angelic beings talked with men, 
 And showed how deities devise 
 Divinest moulds beyond our ken, 
 And how with magical surprise 
 A traveler once was led by guide, 
 Enveloped in a cloak of light 
 To reach a mystic cavern where 
 'Twas always day, yet always night. 
 A lamp perpetual shed its beam 
 Across the tesellated floor, 
 While hangings of rare tapestry 
 Shrouded the massive golden door ; 
 There worked the alchemists who change 
 Base metals into burnished gold, 
 Whose secret is alone revealed 
 To those who are both pure and bold." 
 
 As the voyage progressed, the days and nights passed 
 rapidly away without a ripple to disturb the harmony of those 
 passengers who had grown to look upon each other in the 
 light of dear friends, though their physical acquaintance was 
 of such recent origin. About twenty persons were vitally 
 interested in occult matters generally ; about fifty more took 
 a sporadic interest in psychic phenomena; a few prigs looked 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 133 
 
 upon the whole subject with supercilious contempt; while a 
 handful of stricitly "orthodox believers" regarded everything 
 except their own dogmas as soul destroying' heresy. It is 
 often very delightful, entertaining and instructive to meet 
 with large minds representing various schools of thought, out 
 of sight of land for days together, and hear them argue in a 
 friendly spirit, over doctrines which have lighted the fires of 
 the inquisition and sent men to the rack in their defence. 
 Under the calmer skies of this more liberal age, no gibbet 
 looms in view confronting with frightful sufferings all who 
 dare to express honest convictions at variance with the views 
 of a reigning majority, and while travelling, one meets many 
 more enlightened than bigoted people, as bigots are very apt 
 to be confirmed stay-at-homes, and when they venture forth 
 into the great world, they usually scent each other out and 
 herd together after the manner of clanish animals, who never 
 wander willingly into any company outside their own species. 
 Exclusive society rules, as well as restrictive denominational 
 customs are all relics of the clanishness of undeveloped races ; 
 while breath of sentiment, liberal education, and all the word 
 culture rightly means, greatly enlarges the area in which man 
 holds instructive friendly converse with his brother. 
 
 Night after night, when there were but few people in the 
 music room, LydiaO'Shannon improvised sweet strains on the 
 grand piano. At first she was left pretty much to her im- 
 mediate circle of friends, but soon the entrancing melodies 
 grew so well defined, her voice rose to such clear heights of 
 almost perfect tone, that one by one men, women and children 
 stole noiselessly into the saloon and were soon transfixed with 
 wonder and delight at the superb performance of so youthful 
 an artiste. 
 
 " Is she in training for opera ? " " Has she already come 
 out?" These and many like questions were constantly asked 
 of her friends, to all of which, calm, impassive negatives were 
 quietly given; still the impression was rapidly gaining 
 ground all over the ship and even in the minds of Dr. 
 
134 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 Maxwell and Mrs. Finchley, that Lydia was destined to be a 
 great songstress; one who would not only score brilliant 
 worldly success, charming the multitude by her sweet, clear 
 notes and wide range of tone, but would in addition to every 
 outward grace, touch those deeper springs of human feeling 
 which only vibrate in response to appeals which never rise 
 from simple loveliness of exterior form or classic purity and 
 depth of song. 
 
 Mr. Temple ton who constantly listened to the girl and 
 watched her intently while his ears drank in rich volumes of 
 harmony, was beginning almost unconsciously to himself 
 to love her with that deep, abiding, growing affection of 
 which only large, constant natures are capable ; he could not 
 well define his feelings to himself, he was not at all a sensuous 
 man and he detested flirtation. Marriage he did not think of 
 as yet, but he was beginning to realize that Lydia's presence 
 contributed something very real, quieting and ennobling to 
 his life ; he began to feel that he could be a far wiser and 
 happier man in her presence than removed far from her, and 
 such a feeling is one of the sweetest and surest tokens of the 
 dawn of pure and lasting love. 
 
 Zenophon, who enjoyed sailing exceedingly and had been 
 much accustomed to the blue waters of the Mediterranean 
 and Levant in his childhood, was happy as the day was long, 
 and nothing occurred to disturb the serenity of his enjoyment 
 or to ruffle the feelings of his new friends. Count Katolo- 
 wynski had been detained on business of the utmost 
 importance which came upon him like an avalanche, after he 
 made every preparation for departure on "La Gascogne." 
 
 Col. Petrovanovonska had been detained by the same 
 business, which consisted of important negotiations with the 
 Russian Minister at Washington, and other affairs of a nature 
 which would brook no delay ; the two gentlemen had been 
 thus forced to forego their passage, which they easily trans- 
 ferred at no pecuniary loss, and were now intending to sail on 
 the Nordeutscher steamer " Teufelheute," which would set 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 135 
 
 sail for Bremen on the 23d. Count Katolowynski's rage knew 
 no bounds, for despite his cruelty on some occasions, he really 
 loved Zenophon in the selfish way in which one person can 
 love another who is useful to him and also a means of 
 gratifying an ambitious and over-weening sense of self- 
 importance. Zenophon could never decide whether he really 
 cared for the Count or not, as when under his mesmeric sway 
 he idolized him, but when released from the spell he felt a 
 sense of security and rest, and enjoyed liberty as much as any 
 released captive. Zenophon's childhood had been in some 
 respects unnatural ; he was left an orphan at a very early age 
 and having to wander about in search of a livelihood, he was 
 sometimes employed to sweep a church and at other times to 
 assist the steward on board a yacht ; he always had enough 
 to eat and drink, something to wear and a roof over his head ; 
 his temperament was sunny and he had attained to something 
 of that higher carelessness which makes people contented with 
 few material advantages and little worldly wealth ; he was 
 usually happy, and he made people happy about him; he was 
 industrious when work was required of him, but his natural 
 temperament much resembled that of the best type of Hindu 
 mystic; he was introspective and psychometric, and from 
 babyhood had shown signs of spiritual precocity. 
 
 When Count Katolowynski met him he was in an out-door 
 church procession strewing flowers as the statue of the 
 Blessed Mother passed through the streets of an old Italian 
 city on the Feast of the Assumption (Aug. 15th.) The day 
 was very hot, but toward evening a cool breeze had arisen. 
 Count Katolowynski, who had been educated in the Russian 
 church, which pays great homage to the mother of Christ 
 though not in the exact manner customary in the church of 
 Rome, was greatly impressed with the beauty of the scene ; 
 but it was Zenophon's face that captured him. He knew at 
 a glance that the boy (then only nine years of age) was just 
 the one to yield to his will in everything and carry out many 
 of his designs which lacked fulfillment because of the absence 
 
136 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 of a competent coadjutor. He then and there accosted th 
 boy who went to his apartments that very night and began 
 his duties as valet de chambre to the imperious nobleman who 
 was then not much over twenty-one, but had achieved so much 
 occult as well as secular information that the boy was his 
 docile attendant from the very moment the imperial green 
 eyes had fastened upon him. From that day forward the two 
 had been inseparable. The Count had failed in nothing 
 during the six years they had been together; and now to be 
 compelled to bend to a mysterious, invisible power beyond his 
 strength, was indeed humiliating to the handsome despot, who 
 at twenty-seven had ten times the arrogance and determination 
 he possessed at twenty-one. But we shall meet the Count in 
 Europe, and need not now dwell further on his doings or his 
 character. 
 
 After a delightful passage, occupying exactly eight days, 
 La Gascogne reached Havre, August 17. Our friends reached 
 Paris the same evening about nine o'clock. As they landed 
 at the Gare du Nord, they observed a very handsome carriage 
 with a magnificent pair of white horses, which they instinct- 
 ively felt was intended to take them to the residence of Prof, de 
 Montmarte. Their impression proved correct, and the stately 
 footman, who was well known to Dr. Maxwell, at once 
 recognized him, and in a few moments the whole party was 
 comfortably ensconsed in the commodious equipage. 
 
 A drive of rather more than half an hour brought them to 
 the hospitable mansion which bore the euphonious title of 
 "Les Rameaux." This suggestively Oriental apellation 
 marked the stately dwelling as a house apart from all its 
 neighbors. It was approached through an ancient courtyard, 
 and was indeed a mediaeval palace containing many trophies 
 of the time of Louis Quatorze and yet earlier monarchs ; the 
 mullioned windows were left just as they stood four or five 
 hundred years before; nothing had been changed in the 
 design, but the stonework had been kept in repair and modern 
 improvements freely introduced into the interior. To describe 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 137 
 
 the beauty of the court around which the house was built, 
 would tusk the ingenuity of a descriptive artist ; those who 
 have seen the finest modern hotels, for example " The Coron-. 
 ado," near San Diego in Southern California and have enjoyed 
 the fountains and flowers in its splendid open court, have a 
 just conception of the design, but not of the beauty or 
 picturesqueness of this most lovely home. 
 
 Modern buildings have a new, almost raw appearance ; 
 and suggest nothing but modern capital and enterprise; in 
 California such structures are built principally of wood, and 
 being only a few years old, have a glaring look of newness ; 
 moreover privacy or anything approaching to retirement is 
 unimaginable in connection with a fashionable hotel at a 
 watering place. " The Palms," on the contrary, though in the 
 very midst of Paris, scarcely a stone's throw from a crowded, 
 bustling thoroughfare, and within five minutes' walk of several 
 popular resorts, was as silent as a tomb but for the distant 
 low murmur of city life, which scarcely penetrated the massive 
 enclosure like a faint echo from another world, hardly percep- 
 tible except one strained one's ears to catch it; and then the 
 house and its appurtenances reminded one of bygone times as 
 much as Oxford, Cambridge, York, or some other grand old 
 English city where every spot is associated with great epochs 
 in human history. 
 
 The contrast between the outside and inside of Prof, de 
 Montmarte's inimitable mansion was perhaps its most 
 fascinating feature, as there was nothing shocking to the most 
 aesthetic taste in this contrast, striking though it was. The 
 twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were 
 all holding their own in the form of the ceilings, the shape of 
 the windows, the paneled oak wainscots, the heavy doors, and 
 massive stairways. The nineteenth century at its best had not 
 turned out its predecessors, it had but heightened the charm 
 of their productions. The massive candelabra, naturally 
 associated with a bygone day, held their own in stately mag- 
 nificence, but electric light had banished wax or candle grease, 
 
138 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 but so gracefully had it accommodated itself to its surroundings 
 that it shed a graceful, mellow light in candle-shaped burners; 
 the candles of the new age, retaining all the beauty but none 
 of the inconvenience of earlier candles which often smoked and 
 guttered, and went out in a draught. The whole house was 
 warmed as well as lighted by electricity, which also served for 
 cooking. Prof, de Montmarte, who had studied gastronomy 
 as well as all other sciences, declared that food cooked by 
 electric agency was far more healthful that when prepared 
 in any other way, unless the direct action of the sun's rays 
 could be brought to bear upon it ; he further stated, that for 
 the eyes, electric light, properly tempered, was far preferable 
 to gas, candles, oil, or any other contrivance; while for 
 heating purposes, the culture of fruit and flowers, etc., elec- 
 tricity was utterly without a rival, and, strange as it may 
 appear to those who are bound by conventional notions, on 
 the hottest day in summer the house was kept perfectly cool 
 by the same electric force which warmed it completely 
 in winter. 
 
 While giving a few particulars concerning the house and 
 its management, we have left our friends in retirement in their 
 rooms, preparing for the late supper which was always pre- 
 pared for guests who arrived in the evening. Though very 
 embodiments of hospitality, Dr. Maxwell and his lovely 
 daughter never appeared to meet arriving guests, nor did 
 guests ever see their host and hostess till they met in banquet 
 hall or breakfast room to partake of a social meal. 
 
 The Professor and Heloise were so sweetly considerate of 
 the refined susceptibilities of sensitive visitors, that they 
 invariably sent kind letters ahead and a carriage to the station 
 but never presented themselves till their guests had changed 
 their garments, or at least removed the soil of travel. They 
 never forgot the smallest detail which could add to the comfort 
 of those whom they had requested to sojourn under their 
 roof; thus, if luggage was not immediately delivered, the 
 elegant and useful aids to the toilet and wardrobe which were 
 
OfrESIMUS TEMPLETON 139 
 
 plentifully supplied in all the guest chambers, enabled visitors 
 to make themselves very comfortable and thoroughly presentable 
 before they met their host or hostess. Five handsome rooms 
 were prepared (all opening on to one corridor) for the party 
 now just arrived. Mrs. Finchley and Miss O'Shannon were 
 provided with separate but communicating rooms; Dr. 
 Maxwell, Mr. Templeton and Zenophon had three rooms 
 which could open the one into the other if desired, otherwise 
 they were quite distinct. Each communicating room was 
 provided with a bolt on both sides of the connecting door, so 
 that under no circumstances could a person enter unbidden ; 
 and not only did Professor de Montmarte thus secure to each 
 unmarried guest that total privacy which every human being 
 sometimes needs if he or she is to live a truly individual 
 healthy life, free from nervous discords ; he always supplied 
 a married couple with two rooms on precisely the same plan, 
 as he regarded it cruel and barbarous to force or even persuade 
 any two persons under any circumstances, to occupy the same 
 apartment, unless in a case of absolute necessity. This noble 
 and wise man was a practical philanthrophist ; he demon- 
 strated the soundness of his views by carrying them out in 
 every detail of daily life ; by this means he won for himself 
 the respect due to a thoroughly practical man of science who 
 never advocated a theory the usefulness of which he could not 
 prove. 
 
 At eleven o'clock, an electric bell sounding in each of the 
 chambers, was a signal to the guests that they were expected 
 in the banquet hall. On leaving their rooms, they were 
 escorted by pages down the massive marble stairways to a 
 hall of such beauty they could hardly associate it with ordinary 
 pursuits such as eating, drinking and the entertainment of 
 company. 
 
 The banquet hall was like a fairy palace lighted with five 
 hundred miniature electric lamps. At one end of the table 
 sat Prof, de Montmarte, a man fully sixty years of age, but 
 loooking less than forty, though by his own deliberate choice, 
 
140 O:\ESUHfti TEMPLE TON 
 
 his hair was white as snow ; he was clad in a superb oriental 
 robe and looked the very embodiment of Eastern goodness 
 and wisdom. Directly facing him sat his beautiful daughter, 
 who in flowing white robes with no ornament save lilies of 
 the valley at her throat and in her superb dark hair, looked 
 like some bright goddess descended from above to grace a 
 banquet to which a few specially privileged mortals had been 
 invited by beings of a higher race. 
 
 As their guests entered, both host and hostess rose and 
 went to the very door to meet them, eyes and lips alike 
 expressing the depth and sincerity of the welcome they 
 extended. After cordially greeting the ladies and gentlemen, 
 Prof, de Montmarte kissed Zenophon on his forehead, while 
 Heloise placed both hands on his head and blessed him in the 
 name of Azoriel ; no sooner had the words left her lips than 
 a living sheen of electric fire encircled them, and the glorious 
 form of the angel was visible to all present. Dr. Maxwell 
 and Mrs. Finchley were awed in to reverent stillness, but they 
 were not the least afraid. Lydia O'Shannon cried gently, 
 but her tears were of deep and grateful emotion, not called 
 forth by dread. Mr. Templeton was startled, almost terrified. 
 The angelic form was not materialized; it was a form of 
 electric light without any semblance of flesh, blood, or 
 garments ; it could not be described as other than it appeared 
 electric light in the form of man and such a beautiful and 
 impressive form, so stately, wise and kind, that all who saw it 
 must have bent in reverential love; but coupled with this 
 wonderful graciousness was a keen, penetrative glance, which 
 evidently read through the most secret thoughts of the heart. 
 Not a word issued from this shape of flame, but whatever 
 Azoriel intended his pupils should learn he communicated 
 to them by influx into their minds. All present saw their 
 careers marked out in that moment, but not in the manner in 
 which fortune tellers mark out the future. It was inwardly 
 revealed to them what their work in life was to be, they were 
 shown their destiny, in the sense in which the word destiny 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 141 
 
 is understood by the truly enlightened. Then the gloiuous 
 presence vanished as it came, suddenly disappearing in a soft, 
 mellow, rainbow-tinted cloud of lessening light. Heloise and 
 her father smiled a radiant smile ; nc one present ventured 
 to talk over the matter at that time, and as quietly as though 
 nothing unusual had taken place, the host said to the page in 
 attendance, "LeonidaB, serve the pineapple," while Heloise 
 remarked to Mrs. Finchley, who was seated next her, " These 
 grapes are from our own hot house; the seeds came from 
 Palestine." 
 
 UiriTERSITT 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOW AEE THE DEAD RAISED, WITH WHAT 
 BODIES DO THEY COME ? 
 
 "Beloved friends, it cannot be, 
 This body which I cast aside 
 Can surely not victorious ride 
 O'er death, and then return to me ! 
 
 " But tho' this form of gathered dust, 
 Shall turn to grasses, trees and flowers, 
 To decorate earth's garden bowers, 
 In resurrection still I trust. 
 
 " The soul emancipate from clay 
 Surmounts the wreck of mortal things, 
 And on glad, tireless, golden wings 
 Appears in garments bright as day." 
 
 After a delicious night's rest, our friends were aroused 
 at 10A.M. by the sounding of a sweet, clear-toned electric bell 
 ringing in each of the rooms. As the bell rang, a tray con- 
 taining coffee, rolls, butter, cream and fruit, was brought 
 into each of the chambers by a perfectly disciplined attend- 
 ant, who opened the door and put it on a table just inside, 
 and then departed. Every one felt so perfectly at home in 
 Professor de Montmarte's delightful residence, that when an 
 hour later they assembled in the morning-room to discuss 
 plans for the day, it seemed as though they had all been 
 living there for weeks, instead of thirteen hours only. There 
 were no inquiries after health, such as " Well, how did you 
 rest; are you not tired after your journey? " etc. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 143 
 
 The good professor and his radiant daughter, who al- 
 ways felt and looked the very embodiment of the most perfect 
 health themselves, never suggested the thought of illness to 
 others. 
 
 "How bright you are all looking," Heloise did say, and 
 she meant it. They had all enjoyed eight or nine hours' per- 
 fectly unbroken slumber, undisturbed by any kind of dream, 
 and when they awoke, were all conscious of having slept and 
 mentally rested in some delightful, tranquil atmosphere, into 
 which no wave of discord entered. From eleven till one they 
 all agreed to drive in the Bois de Boulogne ; at half-past one 
 they would partake of luncheon, or dejeuner a la fourchette, 
 as it is termed in Paris; then during the afternoon they 
 would meet for mutual converse on the themes in which they 
 were most deeply interested ; dinner would be served at half- 
 past six, and half-past eight would find them in a theatre ; 
 thus they most agreeably planned out their first day in the 
 gay French metropolis, which, to Miss O'Shannon and Mr. 
 Templeton, was an undiscovered country, full of delightful 
 promise. 
 
 The drive was delightful, taken in a commodious drag 
 easily accommodating twelve persons, and as four strong 
 horses drew the vehicle, no one was tortured with the feeling 
 that cruelty to animals was practised to give pleasure to man. 
 The Bois was looking its loveliest ; rain had fallen a few days 
 before, refreshing the earth and removing the dust from the 
 trees now thickly covered with their deep, dark foliage; 
 the birds sang jubilantly in the fresh, clear air, for, though 
 the sun was high, a breeze was blowing, bearing with it the 
 far-off odor of the ocean, and the sweet, soft scents of the 
 lovely country, which divides Paris from the sea. 
 
 Nowhere in all the world is nature fairer or kinder than 
 in la belle France ; the torrid heat of the extreme south of 
 Europe is unknown equally with the dense fogs of the Chan- 
 nel Islands and the rigors of the Baltic coast. Paris is 
 moreover a sweet, clean, bright, smiling city, freer, perhaps, 
 
144 ONESIMUS TEMPLETOH 
 
 from disagreeable features than any other of the capitals of 
 the world ; to say that it is a wicked city is no truer than to 
 say that vice lurks wherever masses of human beings con- 
 gregate, ignorant of the divine law of harmony in accordance 
 with which all might live in peace, virtue and prosperity. 
 
 Professor de Montmarte was a whole-souled optimist, not 
 one of those gushing sentimentalists who smile at everything 
 and justify everything, but a grand, noble man of philosophic 
 temper, who, beyond and within all finite encrustations and 
 appearances, could discern the living soul of humanity 
 revealed in lineaments divine to the quick eye of spirit, if not 
 to the dull sight of sense. As they drove through the lovely 
 sylvan paths on that pleasant August day, the thoughts of 
 all the party seemed fully attuned to the harmonies of nature 
 everywhere displayed around them; a feeling of conscious 
 oneness with nature took possession of them, causing them to 
 feel that they and all nature understood each other and were 
 at peace. 
 
 On their return home they found a delicate repast await 
 ing them, but neither fish, flesh, fowl, wine or tobacco ever 
 entered " The Palms." Professor de Montmarte was a 
 vegetarian, and he never suggested to those who visited 
 him that they might possibly require anything, contrary to 
 the rule of his household. A member of the French Academy, 
 a man thoroughly conversant with all the natural sciences, 
 anthropology in particular, he invited friends to live and 
 thrive in those conditions most conducive to health and 
 happiness, in which he and his daughter luxuriated and in 
 which many poor sufferers found or recovered health, peace 
 and joy, to which they had long been strangers, or which, in 
 many instances, they had never previously known. Vege- 
 tarian cooking suggests to many minds, ordinary poor living 
 with meat left out ; to the intelligent expert in the science of 
 gastronomy, it means a mode of living compared with which 
 the ordinary diet of unnaturalism appears repulsive and 
 absurd as well as inhuman. 
 
OXESIMUS TEMPLETON 145 
 
 As it is not our present intention to compile a work on 
 hygienic cooking, we shall not give recipes for all the delicious 
 dishes on Professor de Montmarte's table, but we will name 
 among them mushroom, artichoke and sea-kale patties, which 
 are easily made, and when served with melted butter are very 
 substantial and satisfying. Bread made from entire wheat 
 flour, and omelettes of various kinds. The profusest abun- 
 dance of the choicest fruits, and delicate beverages made 
 from the freshest and ripest of fruits that very day, made the 
 meal one with which the most fastidious epicure could not 
 have been discontented. Fresh fruit beverages used instead of 
 wine, when steadily partaken of for even a short time, perma- 
 nently overcome all taste for spiritous liquors and other in- 
 toxicating drinks. 
 
 During the meal, which was partaken of very leisurely, 
 the conversation turned to the remarkable appearance of 
 Azoriel the evening before, the extraordinary nature of which 
 provoked the most earnest inquiry, particularly from Mr. 
 Templeton, who had been disgusted with some very coarse 
 materialism he had witnessed in Boston a few years previ- 
 ously. In the course of conversation, he said : 
 
 " I never could be made to believe that a solid form that 
 made the floor creak audibly when it walked, which issued 
 from a suspicious looking cabinet and touched me with a fat, 
 damp, intensely carnal hand, was a being from the unseen 
 world temporally shrouded in a veil of flesh, manufactured 
 through a gathering of a miscellaneous company of very du- 
 bious persons, whose conduct with these forms was to me 
 revolting in the extreme ; and then the money-making, circus- 
 managing atmosphere of the whole affair repelled me even 
 more than the particularly uninviting nature of the phenom- 
 ena presented. 
 
 " I went home from two of these seances with my mind 
 fully made up that Spiritualism was nothing but a mixture 
 of disgusting necromancy and audacious imposture ; and on 
 the strength of such experience I warned my congregation 
 
146 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 against the whole subject. Since I have been with Dr. 
 Maxwell and Mrs. Finckley, I have learned that there is much 
 in Spiritualism which commands respectful attention ; but I 
 have seen nothing akin to such wonders as I saw here last 
 night, except on one occasion when I was so completely over- 
 come I did not know whether I was in my senses or had taken 
 leave of them. Now what I want to learn, my dear Prosessor, 
 is your view of materialization, and how do the radiant ap- 
 pearances of your angel guardian differ from those solid forms 
 we witness at seances with American mediums, if the latter 
 may be at any time accounted genuine I" 
 
 "My dear friend,'* returned Professor de Montmarte, 
 " this subject may require ages for its complete elucidation. I 
 have been studying it diligently for the past thirty years, 
 but even now I feel but an infant in regard to it. I have, 
 however, arrived at certain conclusions all borne out by per- 
 sonal experience, which I shall be most happy to lay before 
 you. 
 
 " I never speak of these things save to those who show 
 themselves earnest in their inquiry into the hidden mysteries 
 of nature ; to all such I feel it a privilege and delight to offer 
 such knowledge as I have accumulated. But let us adjourn 
 to the library; in its cosy, tranquil atmosphere, where I am 
 accustomed to consider all deep subjects, I feel better able 
 to clearly express my views; it is a pet hobby of mine to 
 connect certain ideas with certain apartments. Of course I 
 could not do this were Heloise and myself confined to two or 
 three chambers; but as we have a large house which affords 
 every opportunity, I give myself the pleasure of indulging 
 this taste ; and I really find it a useful one, as no end of 
 people come here suffering from various disorders, who are 
 made whole while sitting in my office. I have two offices, an 
 inner and an outer ; into the outer I admit all applicants whom 
 I receive at all; into the inner I only take those persons 
 whom I feel are ready for something subtler than a little good 
 advice and a simple atmospheric electric treatment." 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 117 
 
 <c Are you then a practicing physician ?" pursued Mr. 
 Templeton, eager to learn something of the life of this re- 
 markable man without being inquisitive. 
 
 11 1 practice where I know I can be of service ; under no 
 other circumstances do I ever exercise the healing gift. As 
 to pecuniary recompense, I need none ; my estates are large, 
 my income more than sufficient for all the uses to which I 
 need to put money. I, however, counsel the wealthy, who 
 receive a blessing, to consecrate a portion of their worldly 
 means to the assistance of the needy ; and, above all, after 
 receiving light, to let it shine for the 'illumination of those in 
 darkness." 
 
 Heloise rose and led the way to the spacious library, 
 where Prof, de Montmarte conducted his scientific experi- 
 ments and did a vast amount of literary work, including much 
 correspondence of the highest importance with influential 
 persons in all parts of the world. The apartment was as large 
 as a good-sized chapel, the walls were covered with book- 
 shelves all round the room, from floor to ceiling, except where 
 the windows (seven in all), of Gothic design, filled with colored 
 glass, occupied the space. The books were classified as in a 
 great public library; a light iron gallery ran around the 
 room, facilitating the approach to the upper shelves. On the 
 catalogue 37,373 books were designated, ranging over every 
 conceivable subject ; many of these were curious, but none 
 were valueless, as they had all been carefully selected and 
 arranged in their respective departments with a view to sim- 
 plifying, as far as possible, the scientific and literary labors 
 of the privileged students who, from time to time, were per- 
 mitted to enter this sacred enclosure, dedicated to all knowl- 
 edge helpful to mankind. Several old manuscript volumes 
 were so rare that their only duplicates could be found in the 
 British Museum, while others, more priceless still, had no 
 known duplicates on earth.. 
 
 Always of a studious turn, Mr. Templeton was enrap- 
 tured with this massive and marvelous collection of the 
 
148 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 greatest thoughts of the world's great thinkers, so much so 
 that it jarred upon him to hear Heloise remark that she cared 
 very little for the best of books, as they became unnecessary 
 when one outgrew the need for reading and could launch out 
 upon the ocean of ungathered and unlimited information in a 
 purely psychic and unfettered way. 
 
 " My daughter is a seeress of the old Chaldean type," 
 smiled the professor, " she can procure for me in one of her 
 astral pilgrimages more knowledge than I can receive in 
 years by dint of hard study. Azoriel is her preceptor and I 
 am her pupil." 
 
 " Oh ! don't say that, my darling father, I am your child, 
 and from you I have learned more than I ever put in practice ; 
 but let us not discuss these questions now, I will take my 
 old place at your knee on my favorite footstool, while you 
 tell Mr. Templeton all you deem wise to tell him about the 
 astral body and its appearances." 
 
 As she sat at her father's feet, her eyes beaming with affec- 
 tion, she looked like a simple, artless child, very pure and lovely, 
 but, in no way, removed from the ordinary type of girlhood, 
 except by reason of her almost supernatural beauty. Seeing 
 her thus, Lydia O'Shannon, who was of a most affectionate 
 nature, and had often enjoyed the society of an intimate 
 friend whom she called a chum, sat down on another stool 
 next to Heloise and felt perfectly contented in her position 
 till she ventured to lean her head against her new friend's 
 shoulder, when suddenly she started to her feet as though 
 struck by lightning. Heloise laughed good naturedly and 
 said in her sweetest voice: 
 
 " Had I thought -you were going to apply for such a 
 severe shock, I would have warned you, but I'm never terrible 
 unless some one purposes evil, so you may feel quite easy; you 
 are stronger for the thrill that went through you ; they call 
 me living lightning, you are not yet prepared to come in con- 
 tact with my body without feeling the current almost too 
 forcibly. I allowed a very sweet girl to sleep with me one 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 149 
 
 night, because she wished to, and while I was asleep, she was 
 deposited on the floor six times in succession; at last she 
 went into an adjoining room and felt no more electrical disturb- 
 ance. I account for this only on the score of my being so 
 highly charged with electric force that I convey it to any one 
 who approaches me quite without intention; but I confess 
 when I wish to make persons feel it, I can do so readily. 
 But my dearest Lydia, you must not let this incident estrange 
 us or cause .you to be afraid of me ; I am, I assure you, quite 
 harmless where you are concerned, and I am not satisfied 
 with being harmless in your case, I am resolved to be your 
 friend in deeds as well as in words, before long you will learn 
 how we can be of use to each other." 
 
 The gentle Lydia, gazing with almost awe struck eyes on 
 the beautiful, queenly figure so graciously smiling upon her 
 and reassuring her in such kindly accents, felt that Heloise, 
 indeed, might be an aid to her all through her life, but she 
 could not foresee how, under any circumstances, she could be 
 of assistance to her vigorous, talented and strangely influen- 
 tial friend ; but so turn the tides of human affairs not seldom, 
 that those who deem themselves the weakest often find how 
 necessary they are to others, who, to all appearances, are the 
 least dependent of mortals. 
 
 Continuing the conversation between Prof, de Montrnarte 
 and Mr. Templeton, the elder with much gravity, but not the 
 slightest shade of arrogance, spoke as follows : 
 
 "I can say much to you which I should not wish to say 
 to ninety-nine out of every hundred persons who question me 
 on these subjects. The bane of Spiritualism has ever been 
 that it has by its very attractiveness and other worldliness, 
 invited lovers of sensation who are neither religious or 
 scientific, but flippant and unreliable in the extreme; also 
 many adventurers who sought to bend it to their own un- 
 worthy ends. By sensationers, hystericists and tricksters, 
 much havoc has been made ; and you, I judge, have seen far 
 too much of the dark and not enough of the bright side of the 
 
150 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 subject to enable you to clearly discriminate between its chaft 
 and wheat; materialization seems especially perplexing to you. 
 Now I refuse to affirm that all that passes current for genuine 
 phenomena is genuine, and I equally refuse to admit that it 
 is all fraudulent. Some persons are helped in an indirect 
 manner by ocular demonstrations; I do not, however, deem it 
 advisable to court such manifestions as almost invariably 
 take place under suspicious circumstances. The moral and 
 physical atmospheres of the places where they occur are often 
 highly impure, and as to the people who gather constantly to 
 witness them, their minds are not usually in a satisfactory 
 condition. That intelligent entities, apart from physical 
 organisms, can gather together atmospheric emanations and 
 condense them into similitude of flesh and bone, I do not 
 deny ; but Azoriel has given us a far different philosophy, 
 and has taught us to look, not to the carnalization of spirit, 
 but to its expression on a higher plane than that of gross matter. 
 
 " My researches in electrical science have convinced me 
 that electricity is the basis of all expressions of life ; ' the 
 germ of all life is electricity,' is a correct statement ; but I 
 beg you to understand that by .electricity I do not mean 
 simply those lower forms of its expression, which illiterate people 
 consider its all-in-all and frequently denominate galvanism, 
 when they employ it in medical practice. Electricity cannot 
 be generated it can, however, be attracted, brought to a given 
 focus and used for specific purposes ; then, when we have made 
 use of this omnipresent, all-vitalizing energy it returns whence 
 it came, and concerning it, the words can be fitly spoken, 
 applied, in the New Testament, to the wind and the Holy 
 Spirit : ' Thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it 
 goeth.' 
 
 " Spirit appears only in electric form ; the spiritual body 
 is an electric body, and when it is shown to man on earth in 
 its purity, it has no resemblance to a fleshy structure, it is a 
 shape of light. The form is perfectly, radiantly, gloriously 
 human ; but despite all that can be said on the other side by 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 151 
 
 carnalizers of a spiritual idea, there is neither scientific or 
 scriptural warrant for belief in a resurrection of a material 
 body, nor is there much to be gained by affording conditions 
 for what is vulgarly termed materialization. As you, Mr. 
 Templeton, will soon be called to teach scientific religion, 
 genuine theology, not a series of deductions from creeds, 
 articles, and catechisms, formulated to veil rather than to 
 reveal the spirit, I ask you to carefully study the stories of 
 the transfiguration of Jesus, and the descent of the Holy Spirit 
 upon the faithful at Jerusalem, with a perfectly unbiased 
 mind, without commentaries, and with all predilections due 
 to your training for the ministry, banished from your 
 thoughts. In these sublime narratives especially, and in 
 many others in somewhat less degree, you will find a full 
 recognition of the understanding of the early Gnostics, who 
 were all deeply versed in the science of spirit and its reveal- 
 ments. When the church externalized itself and sought 
 temporal dominion, it carnalized through misinterpretation, 
 the Scriptures it continued to venerate ; from before the time 
 of Constantino to the present moment, a disguise has been 
 thrown over the record. Among deeply versed clergy, this 
 inner truth, to which I am referring, is known, at least, in 
 part ; to the mass of the clergy it is quite unknown, so their 
 bald exotericism has, at least, the virtue of honesty. In your 
 denomination (Baptist) there is not probably one preacher 
 in five hundred who has the least conception of the tell-tale 
 histories on the shelves in my library, as all such books have 
 been from the first interdicted and excluded from divinity 
 schools as impious, while they really set forth the only pos- 
 sible basis, on which science and religion can stand and thrive 
 together in future generations. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism is not yet systematized; its later 
 developments will throw much light on the anachronisms of 
 earlier days; it is, moreover, difficult at present to get people 
 to investigate the subject impartially. I, as a man of science, 
 rather than a theologian, having arrived at conclusions 
 
152 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 through force of actually demonstrated facts, repeated most 
 convincingly over and over again in my own home, when only 
 my danghter and myself were present, cannot be expected to 
 feel as those feel who have darling hypotheses to sustain, 
 dcgmas to defend, and personal interests to serve. I 
 invite facts and let them speak for themselves. I have no 
 opinion where I lack information, and as to prejudice I des- 
 pise it. I will not say that any of their editors and contribu- 
 tors are other than sincere ; but when I glance over the pages 
 of the many spiritualistic, theosophic and metaphysical publi- 
 cations which I regularly receive from all parts of the world, 
 written in all languages and displaying all grades of thought 
 from driveling imbecility to dignified sagacity, I can but 
 smile and wonder how the general public is likely to fare at 
 the hands of such a strange multitude of conflicting 
 counselors. 
 
 " Azoriel instructs us not to ( answer ' anything, however 
 false, vituperative or ridiculous. We, however, communicate 
 anonymously through strictly impersonal articles of a scien- 
 tific nature with several European and American periodicals. 
 We never take sides, pay compliments or enter complaints. 
 When we have facts to record we relate them with no more 
 addition than a brief, explanatory comment when this is 
 needful, in consequence of the singular nature of the subject 
 matter. 
 
 " I could relate to you hundreds of instances of our re- 
 ceiving tidings of events happening in the remotest parts of 
 the world, telegraphed to us with lightening dispatch and re- 
 corded in this office, hours, days, and even weeks, before the 
 Paris or London journals received an inkling of the affair. 
 Were I to publish a hundredth part of what we verify every 
 year, this house would be beseiged with requests for every 
 kind of unlawful information. That is why we do not offer 
 to instruct the world at large in the art of electrical divina- 
 tion ; for were we to do so, all the Porke A. Hogges, from 
 Chicago and everywhere else, would be offering me hundreds 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 153 
 
 of dollars a sitting if I would tell them how to increase their 
 millions by adding further rascality to their already nefarious 
 traffic in human souls and bodies ; and then, on bended knee, 
 offer their hands, hearts and fortunes, to my pure, high- 
 minded daughter, who detests the very air they have polluted 
 with their disgusting presence." 
 
 "Porke A. Hogge," broke in Mr. Templeton; "that is a 
 name we saw on board the steamer on one of the chairs. We 
 were introduced to the owner before the voyage was over. 
 His views on ' the new Democracy ' were at least amusing. 
 He must weigh at least three hundred pounds, is fully as wide 
 as he is high ; has no hair, a smooth-shaven, shiny face, eyes 
 like little black beads, and the gait of a rhinoseros. Pardon 
 my uncomplimentary description of a suitor for your daugh- 
 ter's hand, but the offer strikes me as too ludicrous. Surely 
 it can not be that that man proposed to her ? Count Katolow- 
 ynski, I know, was dismissed from her presence abruptly for 
 some impertinence, but he is young, handsome and stately. 
 I could imagine his making her a proposal, but Mr. Hogge, 
 never." 
 
 " Mr. Hogge," rejoined the young lady's father, " is the 
 proud possessor of $17,000,000. What matters it to match- 
 making parents and misguided girls that the man is odiously 
 vulgar, shamelessly ignorant, and unmentionably immoral, or 
 that his wealth was literally stolen from his employees ; and 
 also gained by a barbaric disease engendering occupation? 
 My daughter has happily learned to place her affections on 
 far other treasures than those which money can purchase and 
 thieves remove. And besides all this, you probably are 
 somewhat acquainted with her peculiar mission, and have 
 divined that for her earthly attachments can never be of the 
 ordinary kind. For dear Lydia another destiny is prepared. 
 Marriage will bring to her and the man she blesses with her 
 love, and whose home she graces with her talent, more than 
 usual happiness. Zenophon is appointed to a work removed 
 from the ordinary. You, my friend, have much yet to learn, 
 
154 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 but your mind and heart are opening to the truth, as flowers 
 open to the sunshine. It will not be long ere you return to 
 your pulpit to proclaim what will be indeed glad tidings ; 
 the very near future will reveal your true work, its nature 
 and scope. You have questioned me on many themes which I 
 can not deal with all at once ; you must grow to understand 
 through intuitive perception, or you can not profit by the 
 statements of another to any great extent." 
 
 As the Professor ceased speaking, a gentle, tremulous 
 thrill pulsated through the room and strongly affected Mr. 
 Templeton, who instinctively grasped Prof, de Montmarte's 
 right hand, while Heloise took his left ; then slowly rising 
 into fulness of majestic form, in grandeur inexpressible, ap- 
 peared Azoriel, this time without causing Mr. Templeton the 
 slightest dread ; though as the radiant presence darted know- 
 ledge to his brain and showed him Lydia O'Shannon and 
 himself, as man and wife, working side by side with his be- 
 loved mother, in the old home amid the green hills of Ver- 
 mont, he was too overcome to articulate a syllable. At that 
 moment a flood of life coursed through his veins, such as he 
 had never felt before or even dreamed of ever possessing, as 
 his constitution had never been robust; and some of his 
 friends thought they detected symptoms of incipient con- 
 sumption. From that hour he had a new lease, of life; the 
 subtle process of electrical regeneration had then and there 
 commenced. The inrushing tide of force from the angelic 
 sphere, of which the angel was the center, started a physical 
 condition which no other treatment could commence; and 
 thus, in the three -fold manner in which a genuine spiritual 
 revelation ever appeals to humanity, this honest seeker after 
 truth found moral, intellectual and bodily strength and purity 
 flow together in one electric stream from the divine beyond, 
 calling forth the divine within. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A PARISIAN SUNDAY. 
 
 " We left our beds at dawn of day, 
 We drank our coffee, ate our bread, 
 Then hastened to the sacred fane 
 Where the most holy MASS is said. 
 Our duty to high heaven done, 
 We wandered gently to the Seine, 
 There took a boat and sailed away 
 Beneath the sun to yonder plain 
 Where emperors and kings have met 
 And great, decisive battles fought. 
 The air was restful, all was calm ; 
 We gave ourselves to pleasant thought, 
 We dined beneath tall, spreading trees 
 Whose arms for centuries have spread 
 Kind shelter over multitudes 
 Who, by their love of natural led, 
 Have found a Sabbath in the air 
 Conducive both to praise and prayer. 
 The day was hot, the night was cool, 
 We sauntered home at dying eve, 
 And felt when we retired to sleep 
 Our souls could heaven's high arches cleave. 
 That was our Sabbath ; say my friend, 
 Had yours more grace or holier end ? " 
 
 A Sunday in Paris will, doubtless, suggest to some of 
 our readers experiences far more pleasant than the mention 
 of a Sunday in England, while to those of Puritanical type (if 
 such there be) associations not so agreeable may be conjured 
 up. Whether the French nation be frivolous in spite of 
 
156 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 religion, or religious in spite of frivolity, or not at all religi- 
 ous, or not at all too frivolous, must be left to analytical 
 essayists ; suffice it for our purpose to affirm that, in spite of 
 all drawbacks, the continertal Sabbath is far preferable to the 
 puritanical, though neither is ideal. One day out of seven 
 devoted to rest, recreation, social and moral enjoyment, must 
 commend itself to all workers as a boon not lightly to be 
 esteemed. But London and Edinburg, and even New York 
 and Philadelphia are apt to be altogether too rigorous in their 
 mode of Sabbath observance ; not that in any of thoseci ties 
 people get too much rest, but every once in a while we are 
 made to feel that certain types of Protestants are a little too 
 fond of a union between church and state calculated to 
 imperil the freedom of citizens and their children in the 
 innocent enjoyment of the beauties of nature and of art on 
 the only day on which they can all enjoy them together. 
 
 In Paris one feels free, to say the least ; there is probably 
 no city on the globe so entirely free as the gay French metrop- 
 olis, and yet there are many sad drawbacks to the perfection 
 of Parisian life. But with these drawbacks we are not now 
 concerned. The few brief, happy days between their arrival 
 at Prof, de Montmarte's delightful home and the first Sunday 
 Mr. Templeton and Miss O'Shannon had ever spent out of 
 America, had passed all too quickly, but very profitably as 
 well as en joy ably ; and now at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning 
 all our party were in the library discussing- plans for the day. 
 They had reserved all church visiting till now, as the strangers 
 naturally wished to visit some of the grand old buildings 
 during the imposing services common to Sundays and festi- 
 vals, and hear the fine music, from which they expected to 
 derive benefit as well as pleasure. The Octave of the 
 Assumption was not completed, as the day was August 21st, 
 the churches dedicated to the Blessed Virgin were con- 
 sequently the most desirable to visit, though in all the great 
 churches and many of the smaller ones the services would b 
 very fine. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 157 
 
 In Paris there is a paper called Le Semaine Religeuse, 
 which gives a detailed account of the services for the current 
 week at all the churches in thr city ; it is a most useful guide 
 both to residents and visitors, as it enables people to go just 
 where they can derive the greatest pleasure and profit and 
 exactly at the right hour. All visitors to Paris want to see 
 the interior of the grand cathedral of Notre Dame, and be 
 present, at least, at one service, though the fact can hardly 
 be disguised that the music is much finer at the Madelaine 
 and St. Roch. High mass at Notre Dame commences about 
 10 o'clock, and thither Prof, de Montmarte, Heloise, Mrs. 
 Finchley, Dr. Maxwell, Mr. Templeton, Miss O'Shannon and 
 Zenophon wended their way on foot ; it took them just thirty 
 minutes to reach it from " The Palms." When they arrived, 
 a preparatory service held only in metropolitan churches was 
 in progress; the pleasant but monotonous chanting of the 
 choir, to the accompaniment of a fine organ, was well in keep- 
 ing with the subuded magnificence of the massive pile, which 
 does not owe its celebrity to any gorgeousness in decoration, 
 but to the perfect symmetry of its proportions. 
 
 Notre Dame is an architect's heaven, every line and curve 
 is exquisite ; the design may be pronounced faultless, and it 
 is carried out in every detail ; nothing is left unfinished any- 
 where. After paying the twenty five centimes (five cents) 
 apiece, which is expected for the use of chairs in the Nave at 
 the high mass, to the polite and kindly woman who conducts 
 visitors to seats, they had just time to give one all-round 
 glance at the stately building, when the immense organ in 
 the gallery pealed forth its glorious tones- and the procession 
 entered to celebrate the grand mass. Mr. Templeton, who 
 had never been deeply impressed with any Catholic service at 
 home, and had not expected any enjoyment from the ritual at 
 Notre Dame, however he might admire the building, was unex- 
 pectedly thrilled with delight; not only was the grand 
 music unspeakably inspiring, there was a sense of deep 
 spiritual fervor all about him, which lifted him from 
 
158 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 thoughts of earth to blessed realization of far nobler things. 
 
 As the beautiful Gregorian music proceeded, the incom- 
 parably rich voice of Heloise rose and fell as though in trans- 
 ports of adoration ; it was not, however, till the Sanctus that 
 the superlative effect was produced. A boy in the choir whose 
 clear, treble tones had led all the other voices again and 
 again through the high sustained melodies of the Gloria and 
 Credo, faltered slightly as he touched <?, and almost broke as 
 he was taking A. Heloise, grasping the situation instantly, 
 threw her voice into the choir and sang with the little fellow 
 in such perfect union that none but those familiar with her 
 voice and knew her power could have suspected anything 
 unusual ; her voice was, however, so much finer than anyone 
 in the choir that many comments were heard after the service, 
 such as: "Who was that boy who sang so divinely ; we never 
 heard so sweet a voice before." 
 
 The day was lovely, and all felt disposed to enjoy a portion 
 of it in the air. No thoroughly healthy people are poor 
 walkers, whatever nation they belong to, and all our friends 
 being in excellent physical condition though the day was 
 very warm, when they left the church, took a leisurely stroll 
 along the banks of the Seine for a full hour, which brought 
 them in due course back to " The Palms." At 3 oclock they 
 were in the Madelaine, where they enjoyed another rare 
 musical treat, and though there was no occasion for her 
 coming to any one's assistance, Heloise, who loved to sing as 
 the birds love singing, again added to the superb effects in 
 the choir by remaining motionless on her prie dieu, while her 
 voice sounded from behind the altar, where the fine choir 
 occupies stalls around the organ. At Benediction her face 
 gleamed with something more than earthly light, and it was 
 several minutes after the lights were extinguished on the altar 
 before she rose from her knees. When she did so, her face 
 had a far-away expression, and as they were going down the 
 steps, she whispered to Lydia O'Shannon, who, despite the 
 electric incident, was always at her side and growing to love her 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 159 
 
 devotedly, " You and I have been to two churches this after- 
 noon. I wonder if our companions had any idea of our taking 
 such a long voyage in so short a time ? " 
 
 Overhearing this singular remark quite incomprehensible 
 to the ordinary understanding, Mr. Templeton, who was now 
 betrothed to Lydia, said in an apologetic voice, " Pardon me 
 for hearing what may not have been intended for my ears 
 but the experiences I am now undergoing are sharpening all my 
 faculties, and whatever concerns my affianced bride interests 
 me deeply. I understood you to say that both of you had 
 attended two churches this afternoon, while we had only been 
 at one. May I ask an explanation of this new mystery ? Do 
 we understand you to say that while the service was proceed- 
 ing in the Madelaine, a service in which you showed the 
 deepest interest and during which you manifested peculiar 
 devotion, you were both conscious of being somewhere else, 
 and, therefore, oblivious to your earthly surroundings? Had 
 you appeared sleepy, rigid, motionless, or even indifferent, 
 I could have believed you were in a clairvoyant trance, but, 
 Miss de Montemarte, you sang seraphically ; were you uncon- 
 scious while singing ? 
 
 "Not by any means," responded both young ladies at 
 once, " we were never so vividly conscious as when we were in 
 the two churches, while you were only in one; the second 
 church can only be described as a church above a church, 
 reached by a ladder of light ; our bodies remained with you, 
 and our spiritual essence seemed to elongate itself so that we 
 were large enough to be in our places beside you and, at 
 the same time, in a far larger and much more beautiful 
 edifice ; we cannot imagine how far off when measured by 
 earthly distance ; after the benediction we stayed to join in a 
 magnificent Te Deum in the grander church. When the song 
 ceased there, we felt ourselves returning to our ordinary 
 dimensions, picked up our parsols and accompanied you down 
 the aisle of the beautiful earthly temple, where we had all 
 boen worshipping together. The universal church is a sub- 
 
160 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 ject upon which my father wishes to converse with you very 
 soon, certainly before you leave us," continued Heloise, " and 
 while our experiences do not at all accord with any orthodox 
 theories, and also throw iconoclastic Spiritualists into con- 
 vulsions of impotent fury, I am certain you will be glad to 
 hear them explained, and be quite ready at the right moment 
 to make them the basis of your future religious opera- 
 tions." 
 
 Walking slowly homeward, discoursing, as they went, of 
 the future of the French Republic and, then, of the coming 
 commonwealth of nations, which Professor de Montmarte 
 declared " could not be delayed much later than 1950, though 
 the full glory of the new age might not flood the world till 
 350 years later, their conversation turned to the supposed 
 impending conflicts between France and Germany and Eng- 
 land and Kussia. Such conflicts," he declared, " will not take 
 place ; there will be rumors of wars, but no wars, at all 
 events for a number of years to come ; and then, if war there 
 be, though fierce, it will be short ; it is not through a clash- 
 ing of swords, or firing of cannon, but through a conflict of 
 ideas the new cycle will bo ushered in. 
 
 "1881 was the first year of preparation; we are now 
 on our hands and knees, at least, most of s, creeping through 
 the narrow passage into the King's Chamber of the Great 
 Pyramid. Professor Smythe and others have seen an outline 
 of what is coming, but they are too hampered with literalism 
 to give the matter the universal exposition it demands. I 
 now have a work in manuscript in my library, which gives 
 accurate instruction how to decipher every portion of the 
 Pyramid ; but such a work would be pronounced profane by 
 the theologians, so I shall not show it to them ; they think 
 every one a heathen, unless he be outwardly Jew or Christian, 
 consequently they cannot accept God's revelation to the 
 earlier Ayran races ; peoples who were as far above the Jews 
 of the time of David and Solomon as our modern civilization, 
 is ahead of the savage customs of untutored aborigines." 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 1G1 
 
 Thus they talked as they walked, first upon one theme 
 and then upon another, until they reached their own door, 
 where a pleasant surprise awaited them in the person of the 
 Baroness von Eaglebald, their pleasant acquaintance of the 
 steamer. Having received a most courteous note of invitation 
 from the Montmartes to call upon them at any time, she 
 thought Sunday after vespers a good time to find them in. 
 She had just come from her favorite church, the beautiful St. 
 Augustin, and was anxious to show the professor, in whose 
 judgment she felt great confidence, an essay on the VEDAS, 
 written, apparently with automatic ease in her presence, by. a 
 delicate girl, only twelve years of age, whose educational 
 advantages had been confined to the ordinary curriculum of a 
 home school room, presided over by an English clergyman's 
 daughter, who served in the double capacity of governess and 
 lady's companion. The essay read as follows : 
 
 THE VEDAS. 
 
 The name Veda has grown to be a familiar one in the 
 ears of this generation. Every educated person among us 
 knows it as the title of a literary work, belonging to far-off 
 India, that is held to be of quite exceptional importance by 
 men who are studying some of the subjects that most interest 
 ourselves. Yet there are, doubtless, many to whose minds the 
 word brings but a hazy and uncertain meaning. For their 
 sake, then, it may be well to take a general view of the Veda, 
 to define its place in the sum of men's literary productions, 
 and to show how and why it has the especial value claimed 
 for it by its students. 
 
 The Veda is the Bible of the inhabitants of India, 
 ancient and modern ; the sacred book of one great division of 
 the human race. Now, leaving aside our own Bible, the first 
 part of which was, in like manner, the ancient sacred book of 
 one division of mankind (the Hebrew), there are many such 
 scriptures in the world. There is the Koran of the Arabs, of 
 which we know perfectly well the period and author ; the 
 
162 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 Avesta of the Persian "fire worshippers," or followers of 
 Zoroaster; the records of ancient China, collected and 
 arranged by Confucius, and others less conspicuous. All are 
 of high interest, important for the history of their respective 
 peoples, and for the general history of religions ; yet they 
 lack that breadth and depth of consequence that belongs to 
 the Hindu Veda. This is what we have to explain : 
 
 The Sanskrit word Veda signifies literally knowledge ; it 
 comes by regular derivation from a root vid, meaning see and 
 so know. Here is found a first intimation of the relation of 
 the Vedas to us ; for this root vid is the same that lies at the 
 basis of the Latin video, I see (whence our evident, vision, 
 etc.), of the Greek oe oa, I know, and of our own Germanic 
 words wit, wot, witness, and so on. It is a sign of that com- 
 munity of language that binds together into one family most 
 of the peoples of Europe and a part of those of Asia, showing 
 their several histories to be, in a more peculiar and intimate 
 sense, branches of one common history. 
 
 In the following table is given a little specimen of the 
 evidence that proves this : 
 
 English, 
 
 two 
 
 three 
 
 mother 
 
 brother. 
 
 Germany, 
 
 zwei 
 
 drei 
 
 mutter 
 
 brudder. 
 
 Slavic, 
 
 dwa 
 
 tri 
 
 mater 
 
 brat. 
 
 Celtic, 
 
 dau 
 
 tri 
 
 mathair 
 
 brathair. 
 
 Latin, 
 
 duo 
 
 tres 
 
 mater 
 
 frater. 
 
 Greek, 
 
 duo 
 
 treis 
 
 meter 
 
 phrater. 
 
 Persian, 
 
 diva 
 
 thri 
 
 ruatar 
 
 
 Sanskrit, 
 
 diva 
 
 tri 
 
 matar 
 
 bhratar. 
 
 We know enough about the history of human speech to 
 be certain that such correspondences as these and their like 
 are scattered through the whole vocabulary and grammar of 
 the languages in question are only explainable on one sup- 
 position, viz ; that the tongues which contain them are com- 
 mon descendants of one original tongue ; that is to say, the 
 dialects of German, Slavonian, Celt, Roman, Greek, Persian 
 and Hindu are the later representatives of a single language, 
 spoken by a single limited community, somewhere on the 
 earth's wide surface, sometime in the immeasurable past; 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 163 
 
 where and when, we should like verj much to know, and 
 mean to find out, if we can ; but as yet we do not know any- 
 thing definite about it. We call this gre.it body of related 
 languages carrying with it, by inference, a relationship, also, 
 of the peoples speaking them the Indo-European or Aryan 
 family; and we acknowledge something of kinship with every 
 member of the family. It is not, perhaps, a very lively feel- 
 ing ; cousinship loses much of its charm, when expressed in 
 high numbers ; yet, as we have a certain warmth of sentiment 
 in foreign lands toward even an unrelated countryman, so, in 
 wandering up and down the wastes of human history, we 
 cannot but feel drawn toward those who really speak our own 
 speech. 
 
 One great division of this family of ours we find in Asia, 
 occupying Iran (Persia, etc.) and India; the Aryan division, 
 according to the best uses of this name, since the ancient 
 people of both of these countries, and no others, called them- 
 selves arya. Their oldest dialects of which we have any 
 record, those of the Avesta and the Veda, are hardly more 
 unlike one another than are English and Netherlandish ; and 
 as in the latter case, the narrow North Sea separates the two 
 parts of an only recently divided people, so in the former 
 case, the highlands and passes of the Hindu-Kush do the same. 
 
 As the English crossed the sea from Low Germany, dis- 
 persing the Celts, so the Indian branch of our kindred stole 
 into India (doubtless, earlier than 2000 B. C.), through the 
 same gorges that now connect and hold apart India and 
 Afghanistan, and began the conquest of the great and rich 
 peninsula. There we see them still, occupying, with their 
 own dialects, only the northern part of the country, while the 
 aboriginal " Dravididus " still hold the south, but permeate it 
 all with their influence and institutions, grown to number 
 many scores of millions ; possessed of a civilization of native 
 growth and high grade ; with literature and arts and relig- 
 ions that have overrun a great part of Asia in short, a lead- 
 ing factor in universal human history. All this, and how it 
 
164 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 came abcut is a matter of only recent knowledge. By a 
 strange fate, this easternmost branch of our family has fallen 
 within the last century or two, under the dominion of one of 
 the westernmost members, the English. 
 
 The story of its subjection is well known and need not be 
 more than alluded to here. The wisdom and wealth of Indiahas 
 always been the admiration of the world; it was not, however, 
 curiosity as to the wisdom that brought knowledge; rather, 
 greed for wealth. Almost everywhere in human history the 
 lower motives are immediately efficient, and a band of adven- 
 turous traders, seeking material profit, threw open also the 
 intellectual treasure-house of India. The wars and intrigues 
 by which the English commercial company became masters 
 of the destinies of the country, turning their charge over later 
 to the English crown, form a striking chapter of modern 
 history. For nearly 900 years India has been the prey of 
 foreign conquerors and oppressors. The English are merely 
 the last, and, by far, the best of their long series. They 
 found in this immense and highly civilized 'country a host of 
 varying languages, dialects of more than one great family, 
 with abundant literatures. They also found one language, 
 the Sanskrit, reputed of immemorial antiquity, held sacred 
 by the real Hindu everywhere, read by the educated, and 
 even spoken and written by the leading class, the priestly 
 caste of the Brahmins. Precisely so might the Mongols, had 
 they completely ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, have 
 reported to their countrymen concerning the diverse tongues 
 and literatures of that region, and t^e Latin as common 
 dialect of the learned, especially of the Romish hierarchy ; 
 the analogy is a close and instructive one. This was a suffi- 
 ciently notable condition of things ; but the interest of the 
 world was greatly heightened, when it was discovered that 
 this learned and sacred idiom of India, the Sanskrit, is related 
 to nearly all the languages now spoken in Europe, and with 
 the ancient ones that we most value (Greek and Latin), and it 
 is, in many respects, entitled to the leading place among 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 165 
 
 them ; for it casts more light than any other upon their com- 
 mon history and origin. 
 
 In the excitement of such a discovery, many scholars lost 
 their heads and extolled the Sanskrit and its literature far 
 beyond their deserts, even holding that this was the origin a 
 tongue of our division of mankind, and the source of literary 
 culture for the rest of the world ; and the echoes of these 
 errors may be heard dimly reverberating here and there 
 among the nooks and corners of literature even of our own 
 day. But, thanks in no small measure to what the Sans- 
 krit itself has taught us such matters are much better 
 understood now. Languages are certainly changing, and 
 hence we could never find the original Indo-European tongue, 
 except in documents coming down from the very period of 
 Indo-European unity ; and that lies, perhaps, thousands of 
 years back of the time of the earliest Sanskrit. We have no 
 reason to believe that any culture was carried from India to 
 nations beyond its borders until the missionary period of 
 Buddhism, not far from the Christian era. 
 
 But the study of Sanskrit, chiefly as the mainstay of 
 Indo-European comparative philology and of the general 
 science of language, has become an integral part of the sys- 
 tem of modern education, a department of classical learning 
 standing with Latin and Greek, and ranking next to them in 
 practical importance. All this is a necessary introduction to 
 an understanding of the value of the Veda. We need to note 
 what are the relations to us of the people to whom it belonged 
 and of the language in which it is written. The opening of 
 India, as we say, gave us the ancient Sanskrit language as an 
 instrument of linguistic research, and laid before us the 
 immense Sanskrit literature, as a part of the archives of our 
 division of the human race, to be studied and comprehended. 
 A task, this, of no small difficulty, and the more since the 
 element of history is wanting in this literature. The Hindu 
 is great in constructing systems of absolute truth, but he 
 despises a record of facts ; he has a scheme of astronomical 
 
166 OfrESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 cycles reaching back almost into infinity, and can tell pre- 
 cisely how many days ago the creation of the universe was 
 completed ; but he cannot give the real, prosaic date of any 
 event, civil or literary, back of our Middle Ages. We are 
 left in the main to work out, by internal evidence, the order 
 of succession of the parts of this literature, and then, with 
 help of the chance notices of foreign visitors, to determine 
 what we can as to their absolute date ; and the problem is 
 yet far enough from being solved. At what time were com- 
 posed those two tremendous epics, the " Bamayana " and 
 " Mahabbarata," in comparison with which the "Iliad," or 
 the " Odyssey," is but a ballad ? No one can tell, but it was 
 certainly a very long while ago. 
 
 How old are the laws of Manu, from which certain people 
 stoutly maintain that Moses must have derived his legislation 
 for the Hebrews? That is equally unknown. Of the latest 
 and best authorities some set them before Christ, others a 
 little after; and the period of the leading dramatic poet, the 
 author of "Sakuntala," has been reduced from 100 B. C., as 
 claimed by early students of India, to 5-600 A. D. But it is, 
 at any rate, possible in this literature, as in every other, to 
 lay out in a broad and general way the history of growth, 
 divide it into successive periods, and determine what is oldest 
 in it. Everywhere throughout it the Veda is acknowledged 
 as its beginning, is regarded as a revelation on whose author- 
 ity everything else reposes. 
 
 The sacred literature of Christianity does not point any 
 more clearly to the Bible as its foundation than the sacred 
 literature of Brahminism to the Veda. It was a considerable 
 time, however, before European research had cleared the way 
 for dealing directly with the Hindu revelation. The name 
 Hindu Veda to the Hindu signifies a very extensive and heter- 
 ogenous mass of writings, covering a space of time and 
 growth like that from Moses to Christ ; and the later parts of 
 it are those which the modern Hindu best undertands and 
 most values, as being nearest to his own age and thought. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 1G7 
 
 Manuscripts of its older parts were comparatively rare, and 
 less freely furnished to the curiosity of the stranger ; yet 
 they gradually gathered in European hands, and in 1805, 
 some thirty years after the opening of Indian literature to the 
 knowledge of the world, the illustrious English scholar Cole- 
 brooke, in an essay since become famous, was able to give a 
 comprehensive and fairly correct survey of the whole vast 
 field, without, however, at all fully comprehending the rela- 
 tion of its parts, or realizing the supreme importance of some 
 among them. 
 
 Yet a generation passed before anything further of con- 
 sequence was done; then the word fell into the hands of 
 the great German scholars, whose names will be always 
 associated with it Rosen, Both, Bentley, Weber, Aufrecht, 
 Muller and a new era was inaugurated in the study of 
 Indian antiquity and in that of the antiquities and religion of 
 the whole Indo-European race. As a matter of course, the 
 Hindus have all sorts of strange stories to tell about their 
 sacred literature that it is of divine origin, revealed from all 
 eternity, miraculously preserved and re-revealed at each new 
 destruction and recreation of the universe. Few Oriental 
 people have failed to claim as much as that for their scrip- 
 tures. Then they tell of a certain holy rishi or sage named 
 Vyasa, by whom the mass was collected and put in order. 
 Vyasa means arranger ; so it is as if people were to hold 
 that a saint named Editor brought into shape the two testa- 
 ments and the writings of the fathers for the after-use of the 
 Christian church. But the Hindus have done their full share 
 by handing down to us, with a reverential and painstaking 
 care that has not its equal anywhere else in the history of 
 literature, their sacred books, not at all comprehending their 
 historical relations and only in part understanding their con- 
 tents ; ours is the task to bring true order and intelligence 
 into the chaos. 
 
 We find the whole body of inspired writings divided into 
 four parts, each of which is called a Veda Big Veda, Sama 
 
168 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 Veda, Yojur Veda, and Atliarva Veda. Each division has its 
 schools of more special votaries, by whom it is handed down ; 
 each has its assortment of works, in prose and verse, devo- 
 tional, ceremonial, expository, and theosophic. But at the 
 head of each stands a collection of sacred utterances, chiefly 
 poetic, which we have no difficulty in recognizing as their 
 oldest part, the nucleus about which everything else has grad- 
 ually gathered ; all the rest presupposes these, as plainly as 
 the Talmud, the Old Testament, or the writings of the fathers, 
 the Nevr. They are in a language in many respects peculiar 
 and evidently older, a more primitive dialect of the primitive 
 Sanskrit. Among these four collections, the superior interest 
 of one is seen on the briefest examination; it is the Rig Veda, 
 an immense body of hymns to the gods, of sacred lyrics with 
 which the remote ancestors of the present Hindus praised the 
 divinities in whom they believed, accompanied their sacrifices, 
 and besought blessings. We cannot compare them with our 
 hymns, because these imply so much that is earlier, out of 
 which they have proceeded. The Vedic songs are more like 
 the Psalms of David. There are more than a thousand of these 
 songs, and they contain over ten thousand two-line stanzas 
 a body of text about equal to the two Homeric poems 
 taken together, or twice as much as the great German epic of 
 the Nibelungen. The collection is an orderly one, arranged 
 in ten books, chiefly according to a tradition of authorship 
 that appears to be genuine ; hymns of the same author, or 
 clan, or school of authors are put together. But the last book 
 is a kind of appendix to the rest, containing in part material 
 of a peculiar character, later, more superstitious, and with some 
 miscellanies of quite exceptional interest. Inside the divi- 
 sions, the hymns are arranged chiefly in the order of the 
 divinities. 
 
 The two gods most often worshipped, their praises 
 together fill almost the majority of hymns, are Agni and 
 Indra: Agoi (Latin ignis), the fire, the medium of sacrifice, 
 the divinity on earth, in bodily presence before the eyes of 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 169 
 
 his worshippers, the messenger between earth and heaven, 
 who bears the oblations aloft to the other gods, or about 
 whose flames the gods gather to receive their share of the 
 offering ; and Indra, the Thunderer, god of the storm, who 
 drives his noisy chariot across the sky, and hurls his light- 
 ning missile at the demons that are keeping the refreshing 
 and fertilizing waters imprisoned in the hollow of the clouds. 
 Hymns to Agni come first, those to Indra follow, and 
 after them those to otner gods. As specimens of the general 
 content of the Rig Veda, we cannot do better than quote a 
 hymn to each of these two divinities. The hymn to Agni, an 
 ordinary and undistinguished one, is the first of the whole 
 collection ; its stanzas are composed each of three eight 
 syllabled sections, with iambic cadence. In all the Vedic 
 meters, the first part of each section is of very free construc- 
 tion, as regards quantity. 
 
 TO AQNI REG. VEDA I, 1. 
 
 1. Agni I praise, the household priest, the heavenly lord of sacri- 
 fice, the giver most bounteous. 
 
 2. Agni, by bards of olden time and bards of our day, should 
 be praised ; he shall bring hither all the gods. 
 
 3. By Agni treasure may be won, and welfare, too, from day to 
 day ; in honor rich and numerous sons. 
 
 4. Agni, each sacred offering thou dost shield from harm on 
 every side, that surely cometh to the gods. 
 
 5. May Agni, priest, with insight filled, faithful, of favor most 
 glorious, come hither with the other gods. 
 
 6. What favor on thy worshiper, Agni, thou wiliest to bestow, 
 ;,hat failest not, O Angiros I 
 
 7. Unto thee, Agni, day by day, at morn and eve with worship 
 we approach and our obeisance bring. 
 
 8. Presiding o'er the sacrifice the shining guardian of the right 
 increasing in thine own abode. 
 
 9. As father to his son, do thou, Agni, be gracious unto us ; and 
 for our welfare cleave to us. 
 
170 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 The selected hymn to Indra is a more than usually 
 vigorous one. The verse sections are of twelve syllables, also 
 with iambic cadence. 
 
 TO INDRA KEG. VEDA. X, 38. 
 
 To us, O Indra, in this conflict glorious, 
 
 The toilful din of war, be helpful, that we win ; 
 
 Where in the foray, 'mid bold warriors ring adorned 
 
 The arrows fly hither and thither in the strife. 
 
 And open to us, Indra, in our own abode, 
 
 Wealth rich in food, flowing with kine and full of fame. 
 
 But we, thine allies, when thou conquerest, mighty one, 
 
 Just what we wish do thou, our friend, perform for us. 
 
 And to the godless men of Aryon or of barbarous race. 
 
 All exclaimed, " How marvelous a production for a girl 
 of twelve. Is she a seeress? " 
 
 "Beally, I don't know," responded the Baroness. "The 
 little creature is staying with her mother and governess in the 
 pension, where I am boarding. I took a liking to her imme- 
 diately, and she to me. May I invite her to one of your re- 
 unions ? " 
 
 " Certainly," replied both the Professor and his daugh- 
 ter. " Let us send our carriage for you this evening. We 
 have a few delightful friends, including two or three of your 
 fellow passengers, coming to us at 8. Bring the young lady's 
 mother with you, and the governess, too, if you think it desir- 
 able; but unless they are exceptional people, they may be 
 startled." 
 
 " I thank you a thousand times for your kind invitation, 
 and for myself and little Florence, I gladly accept it. I must 
 be going now. Au revoir till 8 o'clock." And the Baroness 
 departed. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 171 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EVENING WITH THE MYSTERIES OF SPIRITUALISM AND 
 THEOSOPHY. 
 
 " To Hindostan I gladly flew, 
 
 To learn of nature's mystic store ; 
 I conned the Vedas o'er and o'er. 
 But little of their import knew. 
 
 I dwelt amid the spicy trees 
 Of fair Ceylon, where hermits dwell ; 
 Their strange, weird tales I heard them tell, 
 
 But magic ne'er my soul could please. 
 
 Then homeward wended I my way, 
 With disappointment strong and keen ; 
 I felt I most unwise had been 
 
 To waste my youth's most brilliant day. 
 
 Within my berth with limbs at rest, 
 
 What is that fleecy form I see, 
 
 Bending in kindness over me ? 
 A voice I hear, Go, tea'ch the West. 
 
 How shall I teach ? I have not learned, 
 I answer with quick coming breath ; 
 ' Thou shalt pass through the mystic death, 
 Wherein illusions all are spurned.' 
 
 I see it now ; within my soul 
 
 I find the answer to iny quest ; 
 
 The East is now within my breast, 
 So let old ocean westward roll." 
 
 Eight o'clock came, and with it the Baroness von Eagle- 
 bald, attended by her young friend, Alicia Florence Kittens- 
 
173 OftESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 comb, who had acted as amanuensis for whatever intelligence 
 dictated the singular paper introduced in our last chapter. 
 Alicia was a small, slender child, rather backward in her 
 studies, of a retiring, diffident nature, but not at all nervous 
 or irritable. Having taken a great liking to the kind and 
 handsome Baroness, she gladly accompanied her wherever 
 she was pleased to take her. The child's mother, widow of 
 the late Rev. Theodosius Kittenscomb (an English clergyman 
 of liberal views, but no great force of character), was a gentle, 
 negative woman, enjoying very limited health and quite at 
 the mercy of Miss Laetitia Newmanhoff, who served her in 
 the double role of companion to the lady and governess to 
 the child. Mrs. Kittenscomb would have greatly enjoyed 
 visiting the Montmartes, but her head, she declared, was not 
 equal to it ; a vinaigrette, a fan and a book of sermons were 
 all she could stand that evening. 
 
 Miss Newmanhoff was glad of the opportunity to attend 
 evening service in the English Church, so Alicia went alone 
 with the Baroness to " The Palms," where they were most 
 hospitably received. Heloise, who was exceptionally kind to 
 children, though rarely very strongly drawn to any particular 
 child, set little Alicia completely at her ease before she had 
 been in the house five minutes, while her father, in his usual 
 gentle, courtly manner, removed the last trace of her embarrass- 
 ment, when he took both of her hands in his own and said, 
 with his accustomed knightly grace : 
 
 " You are a very valuable addition to our party, my young 
 friend ; your essay shows that you possess a very remarkable 
 gift. God bless you and keep you always pure as you now are. " 
 
 While the Baroness and Heloise were chatting freely on 
 the subjects which interested both of them, about fifteen 
 guests arrived, so that before nine o'clock the salon was well 
 occupied. The gathering was a very interesting and truly 
 remarkable one. Mme. laDuchesse de la Couronne Hauterne.led 
 the list of nobilities ; she was a very distinguished looking 
 woman, about fifty years of age, magnificently dressed, with 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 173 
 
 an imperial air and many a sign of deep intelligence, as well 
 as noble birth ; with her came Count Noumenoff Azakotoff, a 
 talented Kussian litterateur, as well as nobleman. Mrs. Fresh- 
 field, Miss Bluegrass and Miss Cuthay were American ladies 
 traveling together, and deeply interested in Theosophy. Mrs. 
 Delman Trice O'Neil was an Irish woman of rare wit and the 
 keenest humor, whom every one appreciated as a brilliant 
 talker, though her tongue was often called sharp and not 
 without reason. Mr. Puggie Terry looked as though some 
 tailor had sent his dummy to advertise wares and style ; he 
 was, however, honestly good-natured and had a serious pen- 
 chant for Spiritualism. Mr. Claphand Knowles and Captain 
 Dasher Dogshead were English gentlemen who had traveled 
 in India and knew more about fakirs than would fill a dozen 
 volumes. Last, but not least, came Mrs. Oman Caliph Kolo- 
 koon, a woman of the world, who had written eighty novels, 
 knew seven languages, had lived in twenty countries, been 
 received into eighteen religious denominations and was now 
 balancing between the Catholic Church and Aryan Theosophy. 
 In such a company, one would naturally expect fine conversa- 
 tion and no dearth of subjects to discuss, but so affecting was 
 the atmosphere of " The Palms," that after a few common- 
 place remarks, the whole company subsided into unbroken 
 and seemingly unbreakable silence. 
 
 After the spell had rested over the company about ten 
 minutes, Heloise and Lydia rose simultaneously and walked, 
 the one to the organ, the other to the piano. Heloise struck 
 off a few grand chords from Haydn's imperial Mass, when 
 suddenly the theme changed completely, and weird, sob- 
 bing strains wailed from the instrument, as though some ship- 
 wrecked mariners, in deepest distress, were calling for relief, 
 first to heaven and then to earth; Lydia, at the piano, 
 answered the call, which was again and again repeated by the 
 organ, which occasionally imitated peals of distant thunder ; 
 when, at last, the storm seemed to have subsided, and relief 
 to have come, the two instruments sounded together the intro- 
 
174 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 duction to Pellegrini's " Te Deum," which glorious hymn of 
 praise the two girls began to sing in swelling, soaring har- 
 mony, -when suddenly there burst upon the wonder-struck 
 ears of all in the salon, a full triumphal chorus of male voices; 
 it seemed as though the roof itself, as well as everything in it, 
 swayed and kept time with the melody. 
 
 When the song had ceased, a vision greeted the eyes of 
 all, seen distinctly by some, indistinctly by others, which 
 completely defies description, so heavenly was it in all its 
 parts. A cloud of light seemed to rest in the air, about mid- 
 way between the floor and ceiling; on this cloud were seen 
 seated a company of bright forms of dazzling beauty, in 
 number exactly agreeing with the persons present. From 
 out this cloud, one of the luminous forms reached down and 
 touched the special object of his charge till the whole room 
 was enveloped in the sheen of these supernal visitors. In that 
 moment the secret thoughts of each heart lay bare ; disguise was 
 impossible, each person saw himself as he really was inwardly, 
 though no one saw hia neighbor's condition. All were moved 
 beyond word, and few could bear the test without some feel- 
 ing of fear or humiliation. The scene soon passed away, and 
 all the company sat motionless, awaiting whatever new marvel 
 might be reserved for them, when Heloise, looking more 
 lovely than ever, her eyes burning with an intense light, her 
 whole frame quivering with a fervid inspiration, addressed 
 the gathering collectively and individually, almost in the fol- 
 lowing words : 
 
 " Children of the rising day, it is not by accident that we 
 are all here to-night; this moment is propitious for the 
 foundation of an order, which shall add another link to the 
 many which now forms the unseen chain, which binds the 
 Orient with the Occident. I cannot initiate you, nor need my 
 father do BO; your initiation is over, and henceforth you 
 belong consciously to the order of " La Stella Israf el ; " we 
 do not countenance such secret orders as impose upon their 
 members the use of signs and passwords, for such external 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 175 
 
 usages belong not to the customs of any order in which the 
 spiritual welfare of mankind alone is sought. 
 
 " Unlike as you appear in many things, and varying as 
 your unfoldment is, you are all members of the same circle of 
 souls ; you are each other's in a very near and blessed man- 
 ner, and you will be useful to each other in many ways ; some 
 of you, in times of danger and in far distant lands." 
 
 Speaking, then, to each one separately, she raised her 
 hand above the head of whoever she might be addressing in 
 fervent blessing, causing the electric fire, which issued from 
 her finger tips, to arouse to activity the special mental quality, 
 to which that portion of the brain corresponded over which 
 her hands were raised. Speaking to Mr. Templeton, she was 
 particularly earnest and explicit, and to him this act of hers, 
 following upon the revelation to sight, which had preceded it, 
 was a veritable ordination, far surpassing in solemnity and 
 depth of meaning the ceremony which had inducted him as 
 pastor of the Baptist Church, Saddlerock, Vermont. 
 
 Life now seemed to hold new meanings and to bristle 
 with new purposes for all who were thus assured of their 
 relation with each other, and the breadth and unanimity of 
 feeling which must henceforth guide them in all their under- 
 takings. After giving words of direction to all the older 
 people, Heloise seemed guided to speak with even greater 
 earnestness and feeling to Zenophon, and then to Alicia ; to 
 the little girl the scene seemed quite familiar, and when the 
 ceremony was at an end, she enquired smilingly and con- 
 fidently : 
 
 " Isn't your angel guardian the teacher who comes to me 
 at night and takes me off with him to heaven, and then sends 
 a pupil of his to help me comfort mamma, when she's sad, 
 and do lots of things to help poor people ? 
 
 "Yes, indeed," responded Heloise, "you are like many 
 other little ones, much nearer the spiritual kingdom than 
 those of maturer years, who, in the pride of intellect, rebel 
 coldly and heartlessly against all they cannot reduce to the 
 
176 ONES1MUS TEMPLETON 
 
 limits of their small calculating reason. Self -sufficiency is 
 the leading vice of the present century, and to it alone do we 
 rightly attribute the blatant materialism, frigid atheism, 
 hopeless pessimism, and the many other disastrous ills, which 
 threaten to so eclipse the soul that the world is left almost 
 without moral sunshine. You, my little prophetess, are one 
 of the little ones to whom it is given not only to know, but to 
 reveal the mysteries of heaven ; not a dim, far-away place of 
 which man cannot conceive; but a warm, living estate of 
 happiness and peace here and now to be realized by all the 
 truly faithful." 
 
 As Heloise ceased speaking, the face of Alicia Kittens- 
 comb grew radiant with an ineffable light, as though she saw 
 an angel. Stretching out her delicate white hands, she seemed 
 to spring from her mortal body into some ethereal realm, 
 where beloved friends were waiting to receive her ; then fall- 
 ing back upon a sofa, as though she were fast asleep, her form 
 became rigid, motionless as a statue, so still that it almost 
 alarmed those who were not familiar with the phenomenon of 
 electric trance. In this motionless condition she remained 
 until considerably past eleven, when some of the visitors began 
 to talk of going home. Just as the Baroness' carriage was 
 announced, and she was looking askance at the host and 
 hostess, not knowing whether it would be safe to try and 
 arouse the child, the girl awoke of her own accord, saying, 
 
 " Mamma expects me now ; I must go home ; but to-mor- 
 row I have a message for Mr. Temple ton, let him call at our 
 house, Avenue de Poissonarde 71, about noon. I can only say 
 that it concerns his mother and the place where she is ; I have 
 had a vision, but I cannot tell it now." 
 
 Though usually most retiring in manner, even to shyness, 
 she now spoke with all the firm assurance of a stately man or 
 woman in middle life ; and so altered was her appearance that 
 she seemed much taller and stouter, and in every way far more 
 robust than when she had entered the house three hours 
 earlier. This remarkable change, which was the commence- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 177 
 
 ment of a complete reconstruction of her physique, can be 
 scientifically accounted for, if the reader bears in mind that 
 though instantaneous regeneration of the body is very rare, 
 even the greatest works which take the longest to complete, 
 have a definite moment of commencement, as the foundation 
 stone of an immense and most durable edifice is laid at a 
 particular hour; under favoring auspices, all necessary con- 
 ditions being present, a foundation can be laid in less than an 
 evening, for a building of perfect symmetry and strength in 
 place of a weak and almost nerveless organism. The trance in its 
 highest phase is due to an unusual uplifting of consciousness ; 
 indeed, it is the result of consciousness being completely 
 transferred to another and higher plane. This transfer of 
 attention is vitally connected with a radical change in psychical 
 relations, a change so complete in many instances that all the 
 ordinary habits of the individual are superseded by completely 
 new desires. This state of entrancement is never induced by 
 drugs, fumigations, or other questionable methods ; it is only 
 to be brought about by a supreme attraction to a higher con- 
 dition of being. This fact is realized by many mental healers, 
 but it is very seldom that one encounters a person who under- 
 stands the modus operandi of the results in which he glories. 
 
 Explaining to the Baroness the great benefits accruing to 
 such sensitive natures as Alicia's from the hyper-sesthetic con- 
 ditions, Professor de Montmarte rigorously combated the 
 superstitions of abstractionists and explained logically how 
 soul acts on mind and mind on body. 
 
 " Soul," said he, " is a pure spark of deific fire, an electric 
 atom, an imperishable germ of life, which nothing can ever 
 destroy, containing within itself infinite possibilities ; mind is 
 its creation, the instrument it forms and uses to gain expres- 
 sion. This mind, in its derived consciousness, often feels and 
 acts independently of the soul, from whose wise and loving 
 guardianship it often proudly strays ; at such times it is like 
 a wayward child, foolishly rebellious against a tender and 
 watchful parent ; at other times the mind is entangled in the 
 
178 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 meshes of the thought threads issuing in every direction from 
 the innumerable mentalities which throng the air, and con- 
 stitute what the New Testament styles 'principalities and 
 powers of the air.' Whenever any mind gets entangled with 
 other minds, or runs off obstinately from the parental 
 guidance of the soul, the body suffers, physical disease being 
 nothing but an expression of mental inharmony. Sleep, when 
 profound, recalls the wandering mind to its rightful allegi- 
 ance to the soul ; but sleep is worse than useless, it is posi- 
 tively dangerous and attended with the most disastrous 
 consequences, if fallen into under the influence of violent 
 emotions, such as rage or fear, which often produce intense 
 exhaustion. Sleep, induced by opiates, being quite unnatural, 
 is rarely, if ever, beneficial, as the sleeper does not rise out of 
 surrounding conditions, but is benumbed, while held in them. 
 
 " Dreams are ordinarily no more than floating images, and 
 confused pictures of external things, the astral prototypes of 
 which are always in the air about us. The art of sleeping 
 properly can be acquired, but only by the pure minded or 
 those who purify themselves by earnest striving after higher 
 things than affairs pertaining to the body. Human elec- 
 tricity, when judiciously administered by a true savant, 
 introduces the patient into the sphere of the healer; and 
 there, if congeniality of desire is aroused, connections are 
 made which snap the links of the chain binding the darkened 
 mind to error. The intricate directions necessary for neo- 
 phytes commencing to tread in the higher way, are, in reality, 
 exceedingly simple, though minute. Such are never fully 
 revealed, except to those who are sincerely anxious to attain 
 to a more than usually excellent order of life. The average 
 worldling would scorn them, as the figurative swine trample 
 on the pearls foolishly thrown to them by the unwary, and 
 like these same degraded animals, they would rend, if they 
 could, the very hand which gave them such precious goods. 
 
 " It is worse than folly to seek to coerce the human will, 
 as all endeavor to proselytize but makes the sinner mort 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 179 
 
 obdurate in his ungodliness. Let your light shine every- 
 where, but do not seek, by forcible means, to turn back the 
 wilfully closed eyelids of those who love darkness rather than 
 light ; such must be left to the fruits of their own perversity. 
 Doubtless in the cycles of eternity every prodigal will return 
 home, but though most kindly welcomed when returning, the 
 desire to return must originate in his own breast." 
 
 " But, my dear professor," exclaimed the Baroness, who 
 seemed in no hurry to leave, though her carriage was at the 
 door and had been waiting twenty minutes, "do you not 
 think we ought to make an effort to bring the truth home to 
 the minds of all whom we meet. I have felt it both a duty 
 and a privilege to circulate a great deal of spiritual literature, 
 and I am now translating the remarkable inspirational dis- 
 courses and poems of Mrs. Kalzenheimer, of whom you have, 
 doubtless, heard, into French, German and Italian, as I meet 
 so many people of those nationalities. I hope you and your 
 lovely daughter are not going to tell me I am wrong in so 
 doing ; my motive is pure at any rate." 
 
 " I do not think you are doing anything but what is 
 perfectly right and very useful, provided you use discretion 
 and give your books to people who evince interest and desire 
 to learn. Books are silent messengers and can be laid about, 
 so that people with leisure and literary tastes can read them, 
 if they feel so inclined, without being compelled in any 
 way by any one; .then in traveling you, doubtless, meet many 
 who talk to you on serious matters, if you give them an 
 opportunity, and ask you for help and light. I only advise 
 caution and discretion. There are probably not more than a 
 thousand people out of the more than two millions now in 
 Paris, who would be really prepared for much that you would 
 rejoice to become acquainted with, and even in the single 
 thousand, of which you are one, I should not find, by any 
 means, all ready for the results of our deepest researches. 
 
 " My daughter and myself are happily quite indifferent 
 to the opinion of society ; the sneer of a popinjay is no more 
 
leO OXESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 to us than the scream of a parrot, or the jabber of a mocking, 
 bird ; but we give polly a cracker and say, ' pretty poll/ when 
 we pass the cage. We do not attempt to teach our doga 
 mathematics, our horses geology, or our cats astronomy. 
 And though human beings have, even at their lowest, powers 
 far beyond the animal, until their aspirations for higher 
 things are developed, they must play with the toys of intel- 
 lectual and moral childhood. I do not censure the church for 
 veiling its mysteries from the vuglar ; I do, however, most 
 strongly disapprove of any attempt to force back a rising tide 
 of honest inquiry. No child ever asks a question in sincerity 
 before he is ready to profit by a decent answer, which is not 
 an insult to his dawning reason. 
 
 " Heloise knew the secret of her birth at seven, and wrote 
 an essay on the vital functions at nine, which I preserve among 
 my literary treasures ; but she was an exceptional child. Her 
 mother was a Chaldean, descended from the purest and most 
 prophetic race of ancient days; her work on earth was 
 finished, when our child was five ; she passed away in a trance 
 of rapture after completing a work displaying such erudition 
 that scholars have offered me fortunes to be allowed to copy 
 it. Heloise sang the old Chaldaic jubilations of the resurrec- 
 tion in the original tongue to the ancient melodies she had 
 never heard, while kneeling among the lights and flowers 
 which surrounded the lovely recumbent form, dressed as a 
 bride, before committal to the sacred flames ; when the obse- 
 quies were ended, she spoke to me in her mother's voice and 
 her mother looked at me through the child's eyes, and imme- 
 diately after, the form of Azoriel enveloped her. From that 
 time forward she had none of the customary ills of childhood, 
 and when a terrible fever raged in one of the vilest parts of 
 the city, she visited, with me, dens which no one but priests 
 and sisters would enter. In not a single case were her 
 ministrations unsuccessful ; but after the most careful ques- 
 tioning, she assured me she had never seen a squalid dwelling 
 or a wasted face ; she persisted in her declaration that she 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 181 
 
 only fanned soul sparks which were feeble, to keep them from 
 going out. 
 
 " When a priest entered an apartment where we were, 
 and administered the sacraments to those who were supposed 
 to be dying, she would kneel motionless and tell me after- 
 wards that a presence entered brighter than Azoriel ; but I 
 am positive she never saw the outward form of anything about 
 us. Some one told her one day, when she was only a few 
 months over six, that her mother was dead and she should go 
 out to her grave and pray for her. The beautiful child's face 
 turned to the woman who addressed her, and she said with 
 loving sweetness and wisdom far beyond her years : 
 
 " ' Poor woman, I see you are unhappy ; you are seeking 
 the living among the dead ; my mother and I pray together, 
 sometimes in church, of tener among the roses in the garden ; 
 your mother is not dead, you may pray for her, but it is better 
 to rejoice with her ; don't go to the cemetery to find her ; 
 she's here with you.' And then my treasure went on to tell 
 her all about her mother ; she took away her fear of purga- 
 tory, explained everything which seems so impenetrable to 
 most people, and then sent the woman away to comfort 
 others, with the good news she had told her so sweetly and 
 lovingly. I know you are very much attracted to Heloise and 
 she is to you, so we can talk about her childhood together, as 
 I see it interests you. To the world in general my daughter 
 is a gifted young lady, well educated and particularly health- 
 ful, but nothing further. Alicia is now quite ready to go 
 home with you, and it is almost midnight. Bring Mrs. 
 Kittenscomb to see us next time you come ; we would gladly 
 call on her, but her chronic invalidism can be broken up 
 much more quickly in this atmosphere. Hiss Newmanhoff 
 will understand nothing and oppose everything ; she is a 
 good, high principled woman, but the narrowest interpreta- 
 tion of Anglican theology is all she can tolerate ; let her come, 
 if she likes, but don't urge her. Dr. Dynaspherus Nuovo- 
 motor, President of the Muscovite Hermetic Lodge, lunches 
 
183 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 with us at two to-morrow, at four he will read a paper ; as you 
 are interested in these matters, I invite you most cordially to 
 meet him. Two P.M., not a minute later, please. Mrs. Kit- 
 tenscomb had better come in the evening, when there will be 
 no strangers present, and I can set her right in less than a 
 fortnight, if she wishes it." 
 
 The Baroness and her young charge reached their apart- 
 ments at a quarter past twelve ; Mrs. Kittenscomb was sleep- 
 ing peacefully, she had retired at eleven with a greatly 
 modified neuralgia. Miss Newmanhoff pleadingly lifted 
 anxious eyes to the baroness, and murmured : 
 
 " Illustrious lady, I pray you to contemplate the indis- 
 cretion of keeping a child out to this hour; our good clergy- 
 man, Mr. Training Vyne, preached such a solemn sermon this 
 evening on youthful dissipation ; it impressed me deeply, and 
 our pet is not strong." 
 
 " My good woman," answered Lady Eaglebald, " I know 
 far better than you or Mr. Vyne either, what is the best for 
 Alicia; her mother confides her to me gratefully, and if you 
 will but allow yourself to see matters as they are, you cannot 
 deny a great improvement in Alicia during the past week. I 
 beg of you not to impress the child with your lachrymose 
 ideas; they are far worse for her than the latest hours, or 
 even the fashionable frivolties which your clergyman so justly 
 discountenances." 
 
 " Sad, very sad, pitiably sad," whispered Miss Newman- 
 hoff under her breath, and with a soft crooning, " tired lamb, 
 weary dove," she led the animated, though rapidly sobering, 
 child to the little iron bed, which, unfortunately for the child's 
 best welfare, was in the governess' room. 
 
 The following afternoon the baroness attended the 
 reunion at the Montmartes and met some delightful people, 
 among them Dr. Nuovomotor, who was the principal spokes- 
 man; ho was a writer of considerable ability, and favored the 
 company with an essay. The following paper, which had been 
 prepared for a widely -circulating English magazine, he read 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 183 
 
 to the company by unanimous request ; it was entitled : " The 
 Gist of Theosophy." 
 
 " While an immense amount of floating opinion is, at 
 present, circulating on the subject of 'theosophy,' there are 
 comparatively but very few persons who have set themselves 
 the task of so simplifying the tenets of theosophy as to make 
 its main doctrines clearly intelligent to the western mind. 
 The word theosophy, which signifies neither more or less 
 than divine wisdom, is, by no means, exclusively confined to 
 ancient Hinduism; it is a term properly applicable to all that 
 can legitimately be termed knowledge of the spiritual uni- 
 verse. Theosophy, in its modern form, is constantly associated 
 with the name of H. P. Blavatsky, because that most indus- 
 trious Russian lady did more than any other individual to 
 ransack the treasure-houses of eastern scripture to bring forth 
 the truth therein contained for the edification of Europeans 
 and Americana. 
 
 " Most students of Asiatic lore have been either Christian 
 apologists or confirmed sceptics. Their previous training and 
 fixed habits of thought have, therefore, largely disqualified 
 them for an unprejudiced performance of their task. Mme. 
 Blavatsky, on the other hand, has searched the records, not 
 with a view to prove certain foregone propositions, or to dis- 
 cover fraud and folly in the documents under review, but to 
 honestly express the information therein contained. Her 
 latest work, the Secret Doctrine, amply proves the honesty of 
 her endeavor and the ability she brings to the work. But 
 some of our Christian friends will inquire, Why go to the 
 Vedas for the truths we can find so perfectly revealed in the 
 New Testament? Why speak of Gautama, when we have 
 before us the example of Jesus ? The answer to such inquiry 
 is twofold. First, The New Testament deals almost exclu- 
 sively with ethics. Its moral code is, indeed, unsurpassed, 
 but on questions of science it is silent. Now the Hindu 
 records are not simply moral text books, they are scientific 
 treatises, as any one who intelligently peruses them will soon 
 
184 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 discover. Second, There is a widespread feeling in Christen- 
 dom that beyond the pale of Christianity all is heathen dark- 
 ness. Such a belief renders well nigh impossible any effectual 
 carrying out of the fundamental basis of theosophy the 
 universal brotherhood of man. 
 
 " Theosophy does not require of any one who embraces it 
 a surrender of the Christain religion, so far as its basis in the 
 New Testament is concerned ; at the same time it can not 
 allow that any one book, people, or system, can embody all 
 the divine wisdom known upon earth. The Bible, from 
 Genesis to Revelation, teaches the cardinal doctrines of theo- 
 sophy without amplifying them very clearly or extendedly. 
 These doctrines certainly include what are commonly called 
 ' Karma' and 'Re-incarnation,' teachings which simply need 
 clear and cogent statement to make them appear what they 
 are, thoroughly rational and scientific, and, above all, consist- 
 ent with man's highest conception of divine, impartial equity. 
 
 " The Oriental wisdom-religion does not acknowledge any 
 fall of man in the orthodox Christian sense. It teaches the 
 involution of spirit and consequent evolution of matter, and 
 in the exposition of this theory, it accounts for all the anoma- 
 lies visible in the external world by attributing them to the 
 experimental efforts of intelligent spiritual units seeking to 
 make their powers manifest. In consonance with the teach- 
 ing of the Kabbala and other occult works of olden time, 
 theosophy teaches that the external universe is an expression 
 of finite intelligences, necessarily limited in power and wis- 
 dom, but continually subject to the law of progress. These 
 intelligences begin at the foot of the ladder of expression and 
 work their way diligently and gradually to the top ; thus the 
 theory of transmigration is inverted in a manner very favor- 
 ably regarded by Rev. J. F. Clarke in his "Ten Great 
 Religions," and many other liberal and learned authors. 
 
 " Re- incarnation is usually ridicuously misunderstood. 
 People who utterly fail to comprehend it, talk an unlimited 
 amount of nonsense concerning another spirit usurping the 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 183 
 
 body of a new-bcrn child, and much similar folly, while theos- 
 ophy explains how a soul awaiting embodiment introduces 
 itself into earthly expression at the moment of conception 
 by itself breathing the breath of life into the primal germ. 
 In other words, conception is the result of spirit seeking 
 expression through an appropriate material medium. 
 
 " Karma only means sequence or the unvarying operation 
 of the law of cause and effect. Our present Karma is the 
 effect of all our past career, remembered or seemingly for- 
 gotten. Whatever trials and difficulties we now confront 
 come to us or try us, because of our moral, mental and physical 
 condition being what it is, and it necessarily is what it is at 
 any given moment as a result of all our past thinking, speak- 
 ing and acting. 
 
 " The doctrine of Karma is not fatalism, for it does not 
 teach us that all our lives are mapped out for us by the sover- 
 eign decree of inexorable fate ; it simply declares the universal 
 law which ordains that certain effects must ever proceed from 
 certain causes ; thus, while we cannot evade the operation of 
 Karma, we can, as we increase in knowledge of the law, so 
 frame our conduct, so govern our thoughts and affections, as 
 well as our speech and behavior, as to sow nothing but good 
 seed and consequently reap nothing but an agreeable harvest. 
 
 " Nirvana, or the state of supreme blessedness, is a con- 
 dition in which we know no care and suffer no pain. When 
 we have reached that celestial altitude, we are proof against 
 all that could possibly afflict or disturb us ; we are then above 
 the recognition of sin, sickness and death, and in a state so 
 exalted that for us Karma no longer operates. 
 
 "Theosophy does not allow that the penalty due to 
 transgression can ever be evaded. To forgive sin is to deliver 
 the mind from the bondage of evil desire. This can be 
 accomplished by purely educational processes. 
 
 " Spiritual Healing is acknowledged by theosophy, only 
 so far as it can be scientifically demonstrated as a means of 
 awakening the higher consciousness by appealing to the nobler 
 
186 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 principle in man ; phenomenal spiritualism is regarded as a 
 legitimate subject for honest painstaking investigation with a 
 view to ascertain the true source whence the phenomena pro- 
 ceed. The true theosophist lays the utmost stress on the 
 culture of the higher self, not on the suppression of the lower 
 instincts nearly so much as on the cultivation of the higher ; 
 and on the basis of this conviction, it is reasonably claimed 
 the elevation of humanity can be successfully conducted. 
 
 " Theosophy is religion, but it is not any limited system 
 or view of religion ; it is science, but it does not confine itself 
 to any particular department of research. It is, in a word, 
 compendious anthropology; it teaches man to look within, to 
 study his own permanent selfhood, to outgrow dependence on 
 external sources of information and authority, and find within 
 himself the true, perpetual light. Armed with the testimony 
 of the ages, with malice toward none and good will towards 
 all. Theosophy claims as its mission the unification of all 
 human interests, and the establishment of a perfectly natural 
 and yet highly spiritual church of humanity unconfined by 
 party, race, color or belief." 
 
 The paper was received with many tokens of approval 
 and called forth very little criticism, though Prof, de Mont- 
 marte entered more deeply into the history and development 
 of the central thought. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE POWER THAT MAKETH WHOLE. 
 
 The dying stars proclaim the sun 
 
 That weaker eyes could not behold, 
 
 And lower lights had not foretold: 
 
 Then die upon a bed of gold, 
 
 Because the grander light is born! 
 
 The highland rills that seaward glide 
 
 May vanish in the mountain side, 
 
 And, sinking through the voiceless earth, 
 
 Within the cold, dark caves abide; 
 
 But naught can stay their "second birth," 
 
 Or dim their resurrection morn: 5 
 
 Sometime, somewhere, in stronger tide, 
 
 And warmer light and broader sweep, 
 
 They rush to swell the distant deep, 
 
 That turns its awful palms to heaven, 
 
 That girdles with its mighty bands 
 
 All kingdoms, empires, realms, and lands, 
 
 Within whose all-embracing rim 
 
 The fleets of Nations sink or swim 
 
 Like fire-flies in the mist of even, 
 
 And on whose all-receiving breast 
 
 The Ages lay their dead to rest. 
 
 You cannot blind my inner sight: 
 
 I see the dawn behind the night; 
 
 Beyond the dawn I see the day; 
 
 And through the day I see the Truth 
 
 Arising in immortal youth! 
 
 The sunbeams on her forehead play; 
 
 The lillies in her tresses twine; 
 
 The Peace of God dwells in her face 
 
 And rolls the clouds of war away 
 
 Around her feet the roses grow; 
 
 Her tender bosoms swell and flow 
 
 With healing for the stricken race, 
 
 And in her eyes seraphic shine 
 
 Faith, Hope, "and Love, and every grace! 
 
 The Old recedes, the New descends! 
 
 Earth clasps the hand that Heaven extends 
 
 The Lion and the Lamb are friends! 
 
 James O. Clark. 
 
 UHI7SRSITT 
 
188 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 Mrs. Kittenscomb called on the Montmartes the same 
 evening, in company with the Baroness and Alicia ; she was 
 literally dazzled with the quiet splendor of their mode of life. 
 Having seen a great deal of the nouveaux riches, both English 
 and American, of whom not a few spend a good deal of lime 
 in Paris, it was a new revelation to her to find persons of 
 the highest and truest culture surrounded with all the 
 brilliant accessories of wealth, and, above all, was she 
 delighted with the utter absence of all "superior airs" among 
 these truly superior people. Dinner was just over, and the 
 whole party then domiciled at "The Palms " was in the lib- 
 rary, to which elegant and luxurious apartment the new 
 arrivals were at once conducted. 
 
 Professor de Montmarte looked very courtly in his pecu- 
 liar style of evening dress, which was purely oriental in design, 
 and suggested such perfect ease and comfort for the whole 
 body that the fops who consider no man a gentleman, unless 
 he makes himself a fright before he sits down to dinner, 
 actually wished they had the independence of character to set 
 decent fashions, instead of following idiotic ones, set by no 
 one knows who. Heloise, always lovely, never looked more of 
 an enchantress than when simply attired in a plain white 
 muslin dress with forget-me-nots at her throat and in her 
 hair ; her age was a topic of dispute among all the gossips ; 
 sometimes she looked less than twenty, at other times she 
 appeared so mature and displayed such wisdom that super- 
 stitious persons were wont to declare that her father was a 
 wizard who had lived through centuries, and his daughter a 
 woman of extreme age, whose youth had been miraculously 
 preserved by means of the fabled elixir vitce of the alchemists. 
 Such conjectures were, however, rumors without the slightest 
 foundation, save to this extent, that the professor, at sixty, 
 was more youthful and vigorous than any young man of his 
 acquaintance, in every respect ; while Heloise, though a very 
 young woman in years, was, indeed, wiser than gray-haired 
 sages, and possessed of such exuberant vitality and marvelous 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 189 
 
 recuperative ability that a strain upon her strength, which 
 would have prostrated any ordinary young woman (even the 
 strongest), had scarcely a moment's effect on her most extra- 
 ordinary but thoroughly natural temperament. 
 
 Physiologists and others talk a great deal of nervous, 
 bilious and sanguine temperaments, but completely ignore 
 the electric temperament; therefore, they utterly fail to 
 account for the marvellous powers of endurance and recupera- 
 tion displayed by many persons of fragile frames; for not 
 understanding human electricity, they can assign no adequate 
 reason for the presence of the spleen in the human anatomy, 
 nor can they declare its functions with any degree of definite- 
 ness. In this respect, as in many others, popular tradition is 
 ahead of schooled ignorance, and thus we have such words as 
 spleeny and tpleenish in our commonest vernacular, and these 
 words are rightly applied even by the most illiterate persons. 
 Whenever people are constantly losing their temper or mod- 
 erating force, and find difficulty in returning to an equili- 
 brated condition, it is on account of electrical disturbance in 
 the sjstem. These electric storms in the human organism 
 are invariably brought about by some mental discord ; thus, 
 persons who practise "mind cure" are generally right in 
 their premises, though sometimes faulty in their methods and 
 unsuccessful in their attempts, owing to their ignorance of 
 the means whereby electrical disturbances can be overcome 
 and prevented for the future. 
 
 Mrs. Kittenscomb had " seen trouble," her affections were 
 quickly aroused and easily wounded ; she had loved her hus- 
 band, and he had been very good to her according to his light, 
 but he never fully met the intense demands of her acutely 
 sensitive nature, which demanded understanding and respon- 
 sive love. Mr. Kittenscomb loved his wife, but he did not 
 fathom the depths of her nature ; he was a kind, liberal- 
 minded man, but lacked in penetration as well as in execu- 
 tive ability. Since his passing away, his widow had been left 
 to the care of Miss Priscilla Newmanhoff, who was of Anglo- 
 
190 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 German parentage, and though very religious, by no means a 
 comprehensive or comprehending woman; she understood 
 neither Mrs. Kittenscomb nor Alicia ; she was an efficient 
 governess and a faithful companion, if one needs nothing be- 
 yond a mechanically accurate discharge of perfunctory duties 
 in a perfunctory manner ; but in her hands the two gentle, 
 loving creatures who stood in need of what she could neither 
 supply nor appreciate, fared badly indeed. Professor de Mont- 
 marte had not talked with his visitor two minutes before he 
 knew exactly what ailed her, and told her plainly before all 
 his guests that all she needed was a complete change of en- 
 vironment during her convalesence, which would be rapid if 
 the necessary conditions were complied with. 
 
 " Make Miss Newmanhoff a handsome allowance and send 
 her to visit her relatives in England or Germany, as she may 
 prefer, and spend three weeks with us ; we shall be delighted 
 to have you and Alicia under our roof, but the governess-com- 
 panion is better off elsewhere ; we have no sympathies in 
 common ; you and your daughter are in our circle. Did I not 
 discover this by intuition I should not offer to take your case 
 and conduct it to a successful issue. We shall never see jus- 
 tice done to the ailing until physicians acknowledge the law 
 of adaptability ; bunglers with drugs and minerals kill more 
 than they cure, but poor fellows, they are oftener blind than 
 culpable ; still a degree of responsibility does attach to a man 
 or woman who undertakes a case, and holds out promise of 
 benefit to the patient, when he or she feels no assurance what- 
 ever that the treatment will prove advantageous. Oh ! for the 
 blessed time (now rapidly approaching) when selfish greed 
 and the hard, bitter struggle for the necessaries of material 
 existence will no longer veil man's moral insight and stupefy 
 his intellect so that self-interest instead of philanthropy con- 
 trols the relations of man with man ; but moralizing aside, to 
 come directly to our point, you, my dear madam, are what 
 people facetiously call 'a bundle of nerves,' you are a martyr 
 to neuralgia, and what is neuralgia but nervousness ? From 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 101 
 
 the Greek neuros, nerves, we get the English word neuralgia. 
 
 "Neuralgic affections are often called toothache when 
 pain is felt acutely in the face ; spinal complaint when the seat 
 of suffering is in the back ; liver complaint when the right 
 side is painful, and heart disease when the trouble is with the 
 left side. All such designations are evidence to me that peo- 
 ple learn nothing by symptomatic indications, their diagnoses 
 are invariably false. I have personally met during the past 
 ten years as many as two hundred persons who have had sound 
 teeth extracted in numbers to cure an affection of the nerves 
 which the dental operation greatly aggravated; while the 
 multitude who are dosed almost if not quite to death for ail- 
 ments to which they have no tendency though the statement 
 is made ex officio that they are dangerously ill with such dis- 
 eases is growing larger annually, so much eo that no honest 
 physician can venture much longer to experiment with the 
 human frame on the basis of a superficial regard for symptoms. 
 As to dishonest doctors, the public are finding out their devices 
 rapidly, and indignantly exposing them. I should prob- 
 ably be denounced by many devoted ' Christian Scientists ' 
 for employing electricity in treatment, but I should care 
 nothing for such denunciation, knowing it proceeded from 
 simple ignorance of electrical action on the human frame. 
 
 " Mrs. Eddy I regard as a very useful woman in many 
 ways, but though I am more of a metaphysician in one sense 
 than she is, I do not undertake to make abstract metaphysical 
 statement all-in-all in my practice. I shall give you one 
 remedy and only one; I agree with Marie Corelli, or her pre- 
 ceptor, that there are twelve forms in which this one universal 
 life-giving agent can be applied and manifested, but I should 
 have to enter into zodiacal therapeutics and expound the 'tree 
 of life,' mentioned both in Genesis and the Apocalypse, to 
 make my meaning clear and illustrate my subject, were I to 
 expatiate upon the twelve-fold demonstration. Suffice it to 
 say, that electricity is the unitary manifestation of spirit ; 
 only in electric guise is spirit ever revealed, and while elec- 
 
192 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 tricity is both the " savor of life unto life, and of death unto 
 death,' in electrical therapeutics, the savant invariably works 
 with the constructive current, if he be true to the irreversible 
 commandment of divine law ; ' Kesist not evil, but overcome 
 evil with good; ' the constructive current is, however, trans- 
 formed into an agent of destruction, when it expels foreign 
 material from the frame, the bacteria concerning which there 
 is, at present, so much glib prating, are driven out never to 
 return, their vacant places never to be reoccupicd by similar 
 disturbers of the peace, when the element of life enters in as 
 the superlatively strong man to evict the relatively strong, 
 who is, of necessity, comparatively weak, when contrasted with 
 the stronger. If you ask me how I explain the modus operandi 
 of regeneration, I can only answer in brief that new cells and 
 tissues, all vigorously healthy being formed, the old, decayed 
 cells and tissues are removed by natural expulsion. 
 
 " I believe, indeed I will add, I know, that mental treat- 
 ment can be so given as to be all inclusive, but in such cases, 
 electricity is the agent employed by unseen operators in 
 rebuilding the frame, though, in many instances probably 
 in most, quite without the knowledge of the mental thera- 
 peutist." 
 
 "Excuse my interrupting," broke in Mr. Templeton, who 
 had been an eager listener to t e Professor's speech, "but 
 are we to conclude, once for all, that Jesus and the apostles 
 healed by electrical means, and that what you term human 
 electricity issued from the hem of Christ's garment, reaching 
 and healing the woman who had suffered twelve years from a 
 painful malady which Baffled all medical skill, and that the 
 same force entered into the handkerchiefs and aprons which, 
 according to the testimony of the Acts, were laid on sick 
 persons, and did this same force extend even to Peter's 
 shadow and permeate the anointing oil recommended by James, 
 when applied by the elders of the primitve church ? " 
 
 To this the Professor replied : 
 
 "I answer unreservedly, yes; but I may possibly take a 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 193 
 
 somewhat different view of some of these narratives to the one 
 you, doubtless, entertain, judging by the style of your interro- 
 gations. Now, in the case of the woman first referred to ; 
 what did the Great Healer say to her, were not his words on 
 several such occasions, 'Bo of good cheer, your faith has 
 made you whole,' or a statement to that effect ? Now faith 
 has three distinct elements : first, a sincere disposition toward 
 right; second, confidence in the right perceived ; third, open 
 spiritual vision, or unusually keen discernment of principle. 
 To say, * your faith has made you whole,' is, therefore, equiva- 
 lent to the declaration, ' you owe your restoration to health 
 to your faithfulness of disposition, your confidence in divine 
 truth, and your spiritual perception of what is needful for 
 your welfare.' Had I the time and opportunity this evening 
 to explain the ' way of salvation ' as I understand it, I am 
 sure I could settle your mind with regard to many mooted 
 theological questions, which still embarrass you; I will 
 endeavor, in a very few words, to explain what I understand 
 by salvation. 
 
 " The great and holy teacher, Jesus, was in his terrestrial 
 embodiment a perfect human being, radiating constantly an 
 untainted electric emanation; this absolutely healthy life- 
 essence reached out to all receptive minds and drew them to 
 him ; in him they found all the assistance they needed to 
 lead them to live a healthy life. But be cautious here, and 
 beware lest you attribute to an emanation from a physical 
 form what originates in the unseen realm of spirit, and only 
 ultimates itself in the perfect human physique. The power 
 exercised by Jesus was a power which delivered from the love 
 of sin ; his influence excited an ardent love of righteousness, 
 and led the suppliant for earthly benefit, to seek first the 
 heavenly kingdom of righteousness, following upon the dis- 
 covery of which, earthly blessings could be fully realized. I 
 am not intending to discuss dogmatic theology, which is 
 often a belligerent as well as a fruitless theme. I am invit- 
 ing you to glean from the New Testament practical help for 
 
194 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 daily use ; therefore, I emphasize those passages which teach 
 the latent possibilities of every human soul. "What think you 
 mean the words so often quoted, * The works which I do, ye 
 shall do also? ' Whoever uttered such a sentence was a true 
 scientist, a genuine teacher of men, one who explained the 
 road along which we all must travel, if we, too, would reach 
 the heights he had already scaled. Some persons were not at 
 all benefitted by personal association with the Christ; the 
 ever execrated Judas Iscariot had been as near the person of 
 his Master as the beloved and ever faithful evangelist John; 
 the people who caused Jesus to marvel at their obstinate 
 incredulity, were as near his body, and could have touched 
 hs garments as readily as those whom it appears were 
 instantly relieved of their infirmities. 
 
 " What constitutes the difference between a receptive and 
 a non-receptive state ? You may as well ask wherein a closed 
 window differs from an open one. People often open their win- 
 dows when they wish for light and air ; they close and barricade 
 them when they are afraid of breeze and Sunshine. We need 
 not go far to find analogies in the field of daily experience. 
 I am invited often to the homes of poor, misguided worldings 
 who offer themselves and children in sacrifice to the moloch 
 of fashion and display. See those unhealthy, wretched 
 women, clad in indecent garments which torture the ' human 
 form divine,' into a hideous caricature of nature ; witness the 
 poor, deluded worshippers of the upholsterer's creations, 
 whose sitting-rooms have the odor of tombs, and whose child- 
 ren are pentup in gilded cages, deprived of the rightful free- 
 dom of youth, for fear that carpets may be faded or soiled 
 and complexions grow ruddy through exposure to the light 
 and air. Were Jesus on earth to-day, many a * Christian ' 
 woman would be insulted and turn indignantly away, when 
 she found that tight-lacing, foot-pinching and complexion- 
 making were not permissible in ' the church of the first-born, 
 whose names are written in heaven.' 
 
 "We cannot disobey the law of God made manifest 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 195 
 
 throughout the illimitable field of nature, to gratify the ser- 
 pent of our lowest instincts without paying the penalty. I 
 would offer the sternest rebuke to those pseudo Christian 
 Scientists who teach the outrageous falsehood that we can be- 
 come superior to the effect of all external things while we 
 pamper illicit appetites and then presumptuously deny that 
 anything material can affect us; such travesties of gospel 
 teaching need to be scorched with the fire of truthful teaching 
 uutil they wither into ashes. I grant fully that when people 
 live as the gospel teaches them to live, they cannot bo harmed 
 by poisons, serpents or aught else noxious under other con- 
 ditions, but the impudent lie which affirms immunity from 
 consequence while error is indulged, is the vilest falsification of 
 the gospel ever fabricated by ' mortal mind ' in its most 
 ignorant degree of degradation. I do not read in gospel or 
 epistle that any one was ever permanently saved from suffer- 
 ing who was not redeemed from the love of error, and what 
 error is so gross, or affection so degrading as that which en- 
 slaves the reason in the chains of carnal appetite and frivolous 
 desire for the world's applause, while in the same breath we 
 are told to ignore all things material and all personal con- 
 cerns, and trust entirely in Infinite Spirit ? 
 
 "The absence of the jewel consistency, from any crown, 
 will rob the diadem of all abiding lustre ; I do not wish for a 
 moment to speak disparagingly of * Christian Science,' but I do 
 see rotten timbers in the vessel now launched upon the waves 
 bearing that inscription. But with regard to the handker- 
 chiefs, aprons, shadows and oil to which you have called my 
 attention, I should unhesitatingly pronounce many ancient 
 beliefs decidedly superstitious, and I can readily see how 
 many people in an oriental country would approach spiritual 
 life through the veil of their preconceived ideas and practices. 
 I do not accredit garments, oils or shadows with power to heal 
 the sick, but I do know that there is no shadow without some 
 substance to cast it, while wearing apparel is not, in the cases 
 referred to, valued for its own sake, but solely by reason of 
 
196 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 its connection with an owner or wearer who inspires confidence 
 and esteem ; and the very fact of the oil being ceremoniously 
 administered by persons in high standing among the gnostic 
 brethren of the first century, is to my mind, sufficient proof 
 that these outward things were nothing in themselves, but 
 only serviceable as they enabled very crude and undeveloped 
 intellects to lay hold of a truth whose naked beauty they could 
 not at once discern." 
 
 " Still," continued Mr. Templeton, " granting all you say, 
 and I most cordially thank you for your exceeding plainness 
 of speech and clearness of doctrine, is there not, after all, 
 something solid in the claim of the animal magnetist, or cer- 
 tainly in that of the psychologist, mesmerist or electro-biolo- 
 gist to whose instrumentality we undoubtedly owe some cases 
 of complete, and many of partial restoration to health ? " 
 
 " I do not see," resumed the Professor, " that 1 need to 
 alter my base, or in the slightest degree vary my position to 
 admit that a healthy state of mind overflows in a torrent of 
 healthy magnetism. I claim always that animal magnetism 
 is not what we should seek for ; too often it is most grievously 
 polluted and is not at all an agreeable or a safe thing to han- 
 dle when in a tainted condition. I put it to you as a reason- 
 able man, does it seem feasible that an unhealthy body should 
 communicate pure vital force to another frame? Of what 
 character and in what condition are the bulk of magnetic 
 healers and those who practice massage I do not suggest 
 that they are below the average man or woman, but are they 
 above mediocrity in any direction ? Anyone can give magnetic 
 treatment, but can anyone heal the sick by laying on of hands ? 
 Echo answers no ! Now, if we allow that many people whose 
 outward methods are defective, accomplish good because of 
 their goodness of heart and sincerity of purpose, I will agree 
 with you that all schools enjoy a limited amount of success, 
 and in this connection I beg you to note that ninety per cent, 
 of those who heal by such methods are Spiritualists and claim 
 to be mediums. Their own theory then, demolishes belief in 
 
ObESIMUS TEMPLETON 197 
 
 what is animal, and lifts the healing gift into a purely psychic 
 realm, where it is made to depend on the intelligent action of 
 unseen human beings. 
 
 " Mrs. Richmond, of Chicago, whose inspired addresses 
 I often read with much pleasure, though not by any means 
 friendly to certain phases of the Christian or Mental Science 
 movement, takes this latter ground and defends it forcibly. 
 Now, as I cannot deal with pluralities, such as laws andjorces, 
 continually without confounding those who come to me for 
 instruction, I bring everything to a point of unity and speak 
 of law and force in the singular. I am often provoked to 
 laughter by the absurd statements of many conceited scio- 
 lists who, ignorant of the very first principle, to say nothing 
 of the latest discoveries in chemistry, inform the readers of 
 some small newspapers that because modern chemists tell of 
 somewhere about seventy primates, therefore, nature does not 
 proclaim unity. To such unenlightened dabblers in science, I 
 would like to say that there is not a chemist of any repute on 
 either side of the Atlantic or Pacific who does not maintain 
 that all primates must be ultimately reducible to one abso- 
 lute primary. This essential primary I maintain, is elec- 
 tricity, which, in its turn, is but the outward garb of pure 
 spirit, itself ever invisible, the unseen cause of all things, 
 known only through its manifestations." 
 
 As the conversation proceeded, Mrs. Kittenscomb had 
 fallen into a profound slumber, from which she awoke sud- 
 denly after about an hour's enjoyment of most perfect and 
 refreshing rest, exclaiming: 
 
 "Oh, I see it all now; I have been grieving for the loss 
 of my husband's body, and now I am to blend my efforts with 
 his in enlarging the sphere of his present ministry. To do 
 this, to co-operate in his endeavors, I must forget self and 
 disembarrass my mind of all concern for material welfare ; 
 dear little Alicia, how often have you told me your papa was 
 with you in spirit, and I could not realize it ; now I have seen 
 him and he tells me that you must grow up as the flowers 
 
ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 
 
 grow ; I am not to tax you with stated lessons, and oh, he 
 bids me thank you sincerely, kind, good Professor, and you, 
 my lovely young lady, for the blessed offer of a twenty-one 
 days' sojourn in this delightful home. I have not rested for 
 twenty years until this evening ; I have slept often for many 
 consecutive hours, often forced into unnatural slumber by 
 poisonous opiates; now I shall recover, I know I shall; I 
 shall live not only for my daughter's sake, but for humanity ; 
 we shall travel together carrying tidings of comfort to the 
 sad, pointing the weary to the true fountion of refreshment. 
 Oh, how can we repay you for all your goodness, dear, kind 
 friends ? The Bible talks of entertaining angels ; we are being 
 entertained by angels, and you are among the fairest heaven 
 has commissioned to abide awhile on this dark globe to draw 
 its erring children nearer to heaven's light." 
 
 " My good friend," replied the Professor, " give God the 
 glory ; do not extol His humble instruments so highly ; it is 
 ' more blessed to give than to receive ; ' therefore, at present, 
 ours is the greater boon ; but as in the march of the cycles, 
 whatever good is given to others returns in blessing to those 
 who gave it forth, never fear that you or we shall not be quite. 
 Now throwing aside all thought of reward, which we do not 
 crave, your presence in our house will add to our pleasure and 
 that of all our guests ; your rooms are already in order, if you 
 will remain to-night; should you prefer to sleep one more 
 night in your old quarters, you can prepare to be our guests 
 (remember we take no one to board) by one o'clock to-morrow. 
 I know you would say that I am a physician and you will 
 insist on paying my fees ; I am nothing of that kind ; my 
 income is ample and derived from other sources. You are 
 Azoriel's guests, as such we rejoice to be privileged to enter- 
 tain you. Now let us consider this matter aettled and adjourn 
 to the music-room, where my daughter and her friend, Miss 
 O'Shannon, will give us some delightful music." 
 
 The party having assembled near the organ and piano, 
 tha two young ladies took their seats, each at her respective 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 199 
 
 instrument. Heloise's masterly manipulation of the great 
 organ whose jubilant and plaintive strains alternately rose 
 and sobbed through the spacious apartment, was greatly 
 enhanced by the sweet, sympathetic responses and blendings 
 of harmony, which issued from the superb piano whose key- 
 board Lydia Shannon's gentle fingers swept with all the skill 
 of an accomplished master's hand. At last their voices rose 
 together in a faultless rendition of the beautiful hymn, 
 " Holiest breathe an evening blessing, ere repose our eyelids 
 seal." 
 
 The singular charm of these renditions was that the 
 extempore melodies were played and sung together in as 
 perfect accord by the two performers as though they had 
 practised for days together to insure perfection. A power 
 greater than practice made practice in their case unnecessary. 
 The Baroness and the Kittenscombs bade their adieux shortly 
 before midnight, and silence once more wrapped " The Palms " 
 in its embrace." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 KNOWLEDGE APPLIED, OB POWER IN ACTION. 
 
 ' ' Even so would I act, 
 That, when this life is o'er, 
 I may face up its fact 
 Upon th' eternal shore, 
 Without a conscious blush 
 For duty left undone 
 Without a tearful sigh 
 For battles yet unwon. 
 Even so would I rise 
 Beyond this fading sphere 
 Into the cloudless light 
 Of heaven's pure atmosphere." 
 
 A period of unexampled profit and pleasure had drawn to 
 an end for our friends so delightfully domiciled at "The 
 Palms." During that time no one was perhaps so greatly 
 benefited as Mrs. Kittenscomb, who had completely recovered 
 all her original buoyancy of spirits and frame, and more than 
 her former love of life and keen appreciation of the beautiful, 
 under Prof, de Montmarte's spiritual electric treatment. 
 
 Miss Newmanhoff had departed in tearful dudgeon, and 
 yet with secret joy, to spend six weeks or longer with relatives 
 in Germany. That pious, but bigoted, lady had been once to 
 "The Palms," on the occasion of her kind employer's removal 
 thither. Impressed though she was, and that forcibly, by the 
 sumptuous magnificence she oberved there, and particularly 
 fascinated by the perfect and charming courtesy of Heloise, 
 she still remained firm in her impression (poor benighted 
 creature that she was, in spite of her piety) that to attempt to 
 heal the sick, except in accordance with the stereotyped 
 
ONESIMIJS TEMPLETON 201 
 
 methods of fossilized medical colleges, was to fly in the face 
 of Providence, and call down a curse on all who dabbled in 
 the "black art," as this Christian- heathen blindly, but blas- 
 phemously styled the method advocated in the New Testa- 
 ment on the highest conceivable authority. 
 
 " Beware of the wiles of the devil, Satan ia appearing to 
 you in masquerade; you think him an angel of light, while he 
 is the prince of darkness. Oh, my dear, dear lady, beware 
 how you imperil the interests of your immortal soul, as you 
 vainly strive to revivify your poor fleshly body in a manner 
 forbidden by the Almighty ! " remonstrated Miss Newman - 
 hoff. 
 
 " My good friend," responded Mrs. Kittenscomb, " you 
 have most strangely misconceived the situation. What you 
 term * forbidden of God,' I maintain is expressly commanded 
 in the gospel. I must say the electric agency employed is 
 new to me, but there is the only point of difference I can see 
 between the apostolic mode of healing and the system prac- 
 ticed by Professor de Montmarte; but you, who believe in 
 medicine and consult physicians, cannot be unaware that the 
 highest medical talent of to-day favors in some form electric 
 usage. I am not sufficiently well informed on the nature and 
 application of electricity to venture anything of an opinion on 
 its curative efficacy; but, when it comes to the purely spiritual 
 power of the Professor's treatment, a glance at your Bible 
 ought to convince you that regular physicians (not meta- 
 physicians) are advocating practicing what no prophet nor 
 apostle, nor Christ himself, ever sanctioned. If your view of 
 the case is the scriptural one who among the sacred writers 
 endorse it ? From a child I have been a Bible student, and 
 have held many conversations with eminent divines and cele- 
 brated physicians attached to the Christian faith on these 
 very matters, and I must say I never received any satisfactory 
 reply from any. My dear husband, in the last sermon he 
 ever preached, uttered the following words which have rung 
 in my memory thousands of times during my illness, when 
 
202 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 medicine seemed to make me worse rather than better, and 
 no one but Alicia could ever soothe my aching brow or give 
 me a moment's respite. 
 
 "In my opinion and that of many of the most distin- 
 guished bishops, clergy and laymen of our beloved national 
 church, there is in the present revival of religion in England 
 a cloud, as yet, perhaps, no bigger than a man's hand, arising 
 in t je East, betokening a downpour of healing rain, which 
 will revive the gifts of healing exercised in the primitive 
 church. Is it not sadly probable that oar present lament- 
 able destitution of spiritual evidences is due to our rigid 
 formalism, coupled with the still greater danger of a devoted 
 mammon worship ? I pray God this hopeful prediction may 
 be speedily fulfilled!" 
 
 Miss Newmanhoff who. well knew by much past experi- 
 ence that augument never convinced Mrs. Kittenscomb when 
 her lamented husband's views were in dispute, wisely refrained 
 from continuing the attack. She, however, firmly persisted 
 in her old way of thinking and remained obstinately deaf to 
 every persuasion and entreaty to investigate this subject for 
 herself. 
 
 Persons of her type are better left alone ; they are not 
 prepared to digest any different spiritual or mental food from 
 that which they so eagerly relish, and while they entertain 
 erroneous opinions on many points, despite their narrowness 
 and perversity of sentiment, they are often thoroughly con- 
 scientiousness people, in whom genuine goodness of disposi- 
 tion more than atones for lack of sympathy with more ad- 
 vanced ideas. 
 
 During Mrs. Kittenscomb's residence at " The Palms " 
 she had seen and heard many things almost too wonderful to 
 relate, and as her experiences were many of them private and 
 personal, specially connected with her family affairs, a narra- 
 tion of such would hardly interest the general reader, especi- 
 ally as we have already introduced accounts of phenomena fully 
 as wonderful. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 203 
 
 On the 2d of September the party were all sitting in the 
 library, about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when Zenophon 
 showed extraordinary signs of restlessness; he paced the floor 
 like a fierce animal in captivity, and kept exclaiming: 
 
 "Oh, my dear master, nothing shall ever separate us 
 again now we are once more united ! " 
 
 Professor de Montemarte and Heloise were actively en- 
 gaged in writing at their respective desks in the ppacious 
 apartment, and, being completely absorbed in their work, 
 hardly noticed the boy's singular conduct, which greatly in- 
 pressed all other members of the company. 
 
 Mr. Templeton and Lydia, who had by this time begun 
 talking of their approaching wedding, and who had grown 
 together into an understanding of the various signs which de- 
 note mesmeric influence, paused in their conversation about 
 the new life they were to live together to beg of the boy to re- 
 fuse to permit himself to be controlled by the will of Count 
 Katolowynski, who had that very day arrived in Paris from 
 Southampton, at which point the " Teuf elheute " had recently 
 deposited him. Speaking to the lad was evidently quite use- 
 less, and he continued to mutter to himself words of submis- 
 sion and endearment coupled with occasional outbursts of 
 sorrow for having ever permitted himself to be torn from the 
 embrace of his only true friend, and the only person on earth 
 to whom he could ever become sincerely and permanently at- 
 tached, and whose companionship he declared would consti- 
 tute his heaven in the life beyond. At length, he assumed a 
 defiant attitude, and with hands outstretched in evident 
 malediction toward his kind host and hostess fell on the floor 
 in a deep swoon, trembling violently. At length he became 
 cold as ice and rigid as marble. Shortly his features relaxed 
 and a triumphant, though sinister smile lighted up his marble 
 features; then, reaching out his hand to some form unseen by 
 all save himself, he breathed softly, " Now we are each others 
 for eternity." 
 
 In this passive condition he remained till dinner was an- 
 
204 ONESIMUS TENPLETON 
 
 nounced, when he suddenly sprang to his feet, rushed into the 
 garden, and took refuge in the summer-house a favorite haunt 
 of his, whither he often resorted to read, write and paint at 
 leisure. 
 
 All save the Montmartes, being painfully struck with the 
 unwelcome change in the boy's manner, were eager to inquire 
 into its cause; but, as it was a law at " The Palms " never to 
 ask questions on personal matters in the presence of servants, 
 even though they were not supposed to comprehend English 
 they impatiently deferred their comments till the meal was 
 over. 
 
 A storm had been gathering all day, and the party had 
 scarcely left the table when peals of thunder rent the air, 
 lightning flashed vividly, and rain began to descend in tor- 
 rents. Fearing Zenophon might be frightened at the storm, 
 Heloise who feared nothing and never caught cold, attired 
 in an appropriate outer garment and encasing her feet in 
 goloshes, ran to the summer house to bring back the boy or 
 keep him company. Weat was her surprise to find Zenophon 
 prostrate on the floor covered with the Count's magnificent 
 traveling coat of Kussian sable, the Count meanwhile singing 
 a strange, weird melody which Heloise at once detected as an 
 Indian song of the far-famed serpent-charmers. 
 
 As she approached, the Count abruptly ceased singing, 
 and bowing with mock deference said tauntingly : " So, my 
 fair enchantress, I have called you to me as well as my Greek 
 slave. Where is your protector now ? I want nothing of you, 
 and you know it; but if you attempt to interfere in the 
 Slightest degree with my moving Zenophon forever from your 
 father's house and guardianship, I will strike you dead where 
 you stand, and not a physician on earth but will declare you 
 were struck by lightning." 
 
 As he spoke, he drew from his apparel a small magician's 
 wand, in reality an electric contrivance of considerable medical 
 or surgical utility, but a deadly weapon when used with de- 
 liberate, foul intent by a desperado. Rising in the majesty of 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 205 
 
 her royal dignity, the imperial girl, whom nothing could 
 daunt, confronted the haughty and vindictive Russian in tones 
 of such stern and positive defiance that for a moment he 
 winced under the lash of her burning words; then stooping 
 over the sleeping form of Zenophon, she addressed him in 
 tones full of kindness, but penetrative with the voice of indu~ 
 bitable authority. 
 
 " Awake, thou art forever freed from the tempter's snare." 
 The boy moved restlessly, as though in an uneasy dream, then 
 turned his face in the direction of the Count, who immediately 
 breathed in his nostrils and said : 
 
 "Zenophon, you are mine forever; now come with me, 
 and heaven on earth shall be your portion." 
 
 The boy rose instantly to obey, when a more vivid flash of 
 forked lightning than any which had yet appeared, illumined 
 the summer-house as though with a blaze of lurid fire; instantly 
 a crash of thunder followed, making the frail building shake 
 as though rocked by an earthquake. The lightning had struck 
 the summer-house and passed directly by the side of the now 
 thoroughly frightened boy; his hair was singed, one of his 
 fingers smarted sharply, and his whole frame quivered with 
 fright and pain ; he was not, however, seriously injured ; in 
 his terror, he clutched the garments of Heloise, and shook 
 himself free of the Count's touch as though that handsome, but 
 unprincipled nobleman had besn the sole cause of his alarm 
 and suffering. Seeing his prey thus escaping from his grasp, 
 the mesmeric trance entirely over and the powers guiding and 
 working through his opponent on the verge of victory ; ren- 
 dered desperate with anger not unmixed with fear, he dared 
 to use brute force to recapture his victim ; in seeking to drag 
 the boy from her, he struck Heloise a smart blow on the face, 
 an indignity she had never in her life suffered from anyone. 
 
 A scene followed which words are powerless to describe; 
 the noble daughter of old Chahlea rose in the majesty of her 
 more than simply human strength, and with one touch of her 
 
206 ONESIMU8 TEMPLETON 
 
 finger on the Count's forthead, caused him to fall prostrate 
 on the ground. 
 
 " Who is struck by lightning, now ? " she queried of the 
 motionless form at her feet; "stir at your deadly peril; 
 Azoriel whom you despise, is mighty in righteous indignation 
 when sinners trample justice and human liberties in the dust; 
 I warn you, should you attempt to touch that boy, or lay a 
 finger on me, your beauty will be withered and your power 
 taken from you, never to be recovered on this side of the grave. 
 Zenophon is now a member of an order into whose sacred pre- 
 cincts such minds as yours can never enter, nor even know of 
 its existence, till purified by bitter suffering, from the veil of 
 error and selfishness which now beclouds them. Live for good, 
 use your gifts for the elevation of humanity, and this shock 
 will but add to your endowments by relieving you of much 
 that has kept you back from the ardent dream of your life ; 
 but attempt again to employ vile sorcery to others' detriment, 
 and as surely as justice reigns on High, shall your power be 
 taken from you, and as but a wreck of your former self shall 
 leave this place to-night." 
 
 Professor de Montmarte and Mr. Templeton arrived at 
 the spot at the moment Heloise was declaiming justice on the 
 offender ; her superb scorn, manifest in every feature of her 
 expressive face and every accent of her ringing voice, made her 
 appear a princess of an ancient temple, calling down vengeance 
 on an unrepentant criminal who sought the destruction of one 
 whom she had sworn to defend from all peril. The Professor 
 though usually so calm, at sight of Count Katolowynski on 
 his premises, evidently bent on mischief, was about to rush 
 upon the intruder and deal with him as he deserved, when in 
 an instant his daughter turned to him with flashing eyes, 
 firmly uttering the words : 
 
 " Father, he is Azoriel's prisoner ; leave him to a higher 
 power than thine." Then speaking to the Count, she said : 
 
 " Go ! now and forever, and remember the warning, ' Sin 
 no more lest a worse thing come upon thee.' " Docile as a 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 207 
 
 child, utterly subdued though unrepentant, the humiliated 
 Russian who had bribed servants to effect a clandestine 
 entrance through the Professor's grounds, moved out through 
 the garden in the drenching rain, speechless, amazed, con- 
 founded ; while Zenophon, already recovered from the shock, 
 said in clear, decided tones : 
 
 "Count Katolowynski, farewell forever; you and I can 
 never cross each other's path again." Without a word or 
 single backward glance, the once master of the now completely 
 liberated boy, strode rapidly through the enclosure and out 
 into the storm, to recover as best as he could from a blow 
 which had humbled his pride to the very dust, and deprived 
 him of the only ally he had ever found capable of so fully re- 
 sponding to his will as to furnish him the assistance indis- 
 pensable to the carrying out of his most treasured schemes for 
 self promotion through the banishment of his fellow country- 
 men to the awful wilderness of Siberia. 
 
 The storm subsided, quickly as it had arisen ; the thunder 
 sounded faint and distant, the rain passed off in a quiet 
 shower, and soon ceased altogether ; the stars shone forth one 
 by one, like eyes of angels watching the inhabitants of earth ; 
 a lovely night set in, made vocal with the songs of nightingales, 
 and perfumed with the breath of countless flowers which 
 always breathe their sweetest fragrance after a grand upheaval 
 of the elements, as though to return thanks to Heaven for 
 deliverance from the tempest, praise to the Power Divine 
 which, through the agency of nature's most dread convulsions, 
 purifies the earth and opens the way for fairer days, providing 
 healthier conditions for all things living. 
 
 The two gentlemen, Heloise and Zenophon, returned 
 quietly to the house and related something of their strange 
 adventure to the ladies awaiting them, who were more fascin- 
 ated than awed by Professor de Montmarte's guarded but 
 accurate recital. As soon as this was ended, Lydia went to 
 the piano, and under a decided and beautiful inspiration, 
 
208 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 sang that lovely melody "Zion"by Rodney, the refrain of 
 which is 
 
 "After the storm they rest in peace, 
 
 Where there shall be no night; 
 After the toil they find release, 
 
 After the darkness light, 
 Ended life's weary quest, 
 
 Never again to roam, 
 After the strife at rest, 
 
 After the wandering home. 
 
 The song was hardly finished when the postman brought 
 letters for Mr. Templeton and Mrs. Finchley, bearing the 
 American postmark. Before they were opened, Heloise, who 
 seemed to be in no way injured or upset by her recent en- 
 counter, said the moment they were delivered, "Dear friends, 
 we shall miss you all very much indeed, but the time has now 
 arrived when you must recommence your work in your old 
 homes, but for two of you how different, how much larger the 
 scope of the work and how much happiness in each other's 
 company. As you are Americans, and non- Catholics, we have 
 spoken to the American minister and you can be married next 
 Monday morning in the American Chapel, then you must start 
 for Lome. Dr. Maxwell, who has been closeted with my 
 father, when not shut up in his own room perusing rare manu- 
 scripts, during the past three weeks, will prepare you while 
 on the voyage for all you have to undertake when you reach 
 your homes; you will continue to see a great deal of each 
 other, and the fruits of your visit here will be apparent 
 immediately you reach America." 
 
 The letters, when opened, were to the following effect: 
 Mrs. Templeton wrote to her son saying the parish was in 
 great need of him, especially as the Eev. V. Mewle was making 
 most unwarrantable attempts to annex the congregation of 
 the Saddlerock church to his own, by dictating to them what 
 pastor they should elect in the event of Mr. Templeton not 
 returning. (Mr. Mewle said privately, Mr. Templeton never 
 
ON14&IMUS TEMPLETON 200 
 
 would return, as he was "shoveling in more shekels else- 
 where"), Mr. Mewle continued to -vociferate against every 
 liberal idea, and used his utmost influence to keep back 
 progress in every shape in the community. This honorable 
 and reverend gentleman had a nephew freshly graduated from 
 Yale, whom he desired to see in Mr. Templeton's place, and 
 three-fourths of whose salary he wished to claim on the plea 
 of influence and continued maintenance. 
 
 Mr. Mewle was one of the elect that could not err ; per- 
 fectly sanctified, a conductor of holiness meetings, and an 
 advocate of the hideous heresy that those who had once 
 discovered that they were God's chosen people, could do no 
 wrong, however they might violate every just law of earth as 
 well as heaven. Alas, for the ridiculousness of self-conceit at 
 any time ! but deeper woe to those whose spiritual pride and 
 arrogant self-importance lead them to mistake their own in- 
 superable vanity for complete evidence of the Almighty's 
 special interest in their small, mean selves. Mrs. Templeton 
 wrote with a heart full of gratitude, and a mind clearly awake 
 to the benefits her son had undoubtedly received from his 
 sojourn with such truly enlightened friends, first in New York 
 and then in Paris; she was very reluctant to tear him away 
 from such good company, but trusted she might have the 
 pleasure of welcoming Mrs. Finchley and Dr. Maxwell to her 
 humble but pleasant home amid the green hills of Vermont. 
 Though not exactly glad to take a second place in her son's 
 affections in future, she was prepared to welcome his bride 
 with motherly affection, and would vow faithfully never to be 
 that bone of contention in a family a meddling mother-in-law 
 ever is; she was sure Lydia and herself would be the best 
 of friends, and trusted Lydia's mother would reciprocate the 
 feeling she was desirous of extending to the kind-hearted 
 Irishwoman, whom she had seen only once, and then for not 
 over five minutes, amid the hurry of train departure at a 
 junction between S^ddlerock and New York. The letter 
 ended with an outline of her own experiences, which were in- 
 
210 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 
 
 tensely interesting and peculiarly gratifying to her son and 
 daughter-in-law-elect. 
 
 Mrs. Finchley's letter contained no very striking news, 
 but an urgent appeal to herself and nephew to return to New 
 York as soon as possible, as the gentleman left in charge of 
 the house and business had been suddenly summoned to 
 return to his parents in Germany, who were in great need of 
 his presence and assistance; he would not leave till Dr. 
 Maxwell returned and relieved him of all obligations; but 
 being a firm believer in Mrs. Finchley's clairvoyant gift, he 
 begged her to advise him what to do, and telegraph a response 
 if there was anything urgent to communicate. Dr. Maxwell 
 at once assented to the idea that their mission of delightful 
 experience in Europe was accomplishod for the present ; they 
 had seen wonders transcending those of fairy lore, and could 
 take the words Nunc >immittis appropriately upon their lips 
 as they wended their homeward way. 
 
 Mr. Templeton had most peculiar reasons for gladness 
 and thankfulness; he had emerged completely from under 
 the old shadow which had hung over his life and threatened 
 to entomb him in its embrace ; he had secured as his affianced 
 wife, a girl who was hourly developing into his ideal of woman- 
 hood, and for whom he entertained no rapturous, fleeting 
 passion, but a deep, earnest love, which with every new day 
 grew holier and more intense. Mrs. Kittenscomb, accompanied 
 by Alicia, was to join the returning party, as the lovely child 
 had seen in her visions an outline of the work she was to fulfill 
 in coming years, and her mother was wishful to escape from 
 the scenes too closely connected with the buried form of her 
 beloved husband, and the influence of relatives who had never 
 understood her. 
 
 Professor de Montmarte and Heloise heartily concurred 
 in the arrangement, and wishing all God-speed in their new 
 departure, made unusual efforts to make the closing days of 
 their friends' stay in Paris exceptionably agreeable. Having 
 consummated the special purpose for which they had been 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON 211 
 
 brought to "The Pulrns," there was now nothing to be done 
 bat enjoy the beautiful summer scenery and the delights of 
 unalloyed and ever-strengthening friendship. The last Satur- 
 day and Sunday in the gay French metropolis were days ever 
 to be remembered as landmarks in their career, veritable open- 
 ings of the doors of heaven. The opera never seemed so 
 entrancing as on that last evening at the Comique, when 
 Arabella Von der Stael took the Parisians by storm in her 
 superb impersonation of Clarice in " Le Singe de Mon Cceur* 
 the latest and most amusing creation of the ever enjoyable 
 Oufenstahl. 
 
 Monday morning at eleven o'clock, in the American 
 Chapel, the Rev. Clovis Herron of Chicago, made Onesimus 
 Templeton and Lydia O'Shannon man and wife. After 
 the formal ceremony, which was witnessed by only twelve 
 people, the party returned to "The Palms," and there par- 
 ticipated in nuptial exercises pertaining to higher spheres of 
 perception than the average mind can grasp. 
 
 END OF PART L 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 A PSYCHICAL BOMANCE BY W. J. COLVILLB. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 HAPPY HOURS IN LONDON. 
 
 " Oh, wherefore must we say good-bye 
 
 To scenes surpassing bright and fair? 
 Why should not nature for us all 
 
 Forever radiant graces wear? 
 Does not our life forever tend 
 
 To realms of light and joy divine, 
 Where through unnumbered happy years 
 
 We shall in God's own image shine? 
 Be this the truth; yet still our way 
 
 Toward such glad and shining light 
 Must ever be through duties done, 
 
 Till duty turns to sweet delight. 
 Thus every daily task appears 
 Lit with the beam of heavenly spheres." 
 
 The day for their departure from "The Palms" came 
 all too quickly for the happy party who had spent such an 
 unspeakably happy month beneath the hospitable shelter of 
 that truly magnificent but unspeakably homelike mansion. 
 Onesimus Templeton and Lydia O'Shannon being now man 
 and wife, Dr. Maxwell and Mrs. Finchley being needed at 
 their home, and Zenophon on the high road to success and 
 usefulness as an assistant to the good doctor, there was no 
 valid reason for their longer sojourn in Paris. So the 
 Montmartes, who ever put duty before pleasure, until duty 
 became at length pure delight, with many affectionate and 
 heartfelt adieux speeded the parting as they had welcomed 
 
2 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 the arriving guests. It was a lovely summer morning 
 though autumn was fast approaching when, having taken 
 refreshment at an unusually early hour, they rode to the Gare 
 du Nord to take the train which connects at Calais for the 
 steamer to Dover. Wishing to see something of England, 
 and having a few days to spare, they resolved on visiting 
 London and then returning to America on board one of the 
 magnificent Lloyd steamers which receives passengers at 
 Southampton. Arriving at Dover on a Saturday afternoon 
 they at once took an express to London and reached there 
 about 6 P. M., in ample time to refresh themselves with a good 
 dinner at the Hotel Metropole, and then attend the promenade 
 concert at Covent Garden Opera House. These concerts 
 which are given nightly on a superb scale during the off 
 season, when, according to "upper tendom," there is "not a 
 soul in town" present to the great public, consisting of be- 
 tween four and five millions of bodies who cannot get out of 
 town, a most exquisite and varied programme of the choicest 
 vocal and instrumental music for 1 shilling (25 cents). There 
 are higher-priced seats for such as desire to occupy them, but 
 the general admission is only 1 shilling to floor and upper 
 circle, and frequently from three to five thousand persons 
 sometimes even a larger number will be present on a single 
 evening. The beautiful Floral Hall, which joins the opera 
 house proper, is opened and beautifully illuminated with fairy 
 lamps and incandescent electric lights, making the whole 
 scene a fairy paradise. 
 
 The concerts begin soon after 8, and seldom conclude 
 much before midnight. The programme is so arranged that 
 people go in and out all through the performance and prom- 
 enade constantly without causing the slightest interruption, 
 except when some fine soloist is performing. Then a com- 
 plete hush falls over the vast throng; promenaders gather 
 round the band stand, and when the solo ends, a burst of ap- 
 plause rises almost sufficient to shake the building, massive 
 though it be. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 3 
 
 Our party, arriving about 8:45, found themselves imme- 
 diately in the midst of a scene fully as gay and inspiring as 
 any they had witnessed in Paris. The red coats of the Life 
 Guardsmen contrasting brilliantly with the dark attire of civ- 
 ilians, coupled with the numberless hues of the ladies' dresses, 
 cloaks and bonnets, made a grand scene of beauty and vari- 
 ety hard to match in any miscellaneous crowd. The large 
 orchestra in scarlet uniforms, sitting in an embowered en- 
 closure around which tropical plants blossomed in all their 
 native luxuriance, made the raised stand a pleasing cynosure 
 of all eyes; while standing in front of the musicians (most of 
 them singularly fine and handsome men) stood a petite girlish 
 figure dressed in snowy muslin, the very beau ideal of an 
 artist's dream of innocent grace and loveliness. This charm- 
 ing young songstress was none other than the seraphic 
 Signorina Lavinia Maria Ferranita, who for one season only 
 delighted the British public with a voice and style of unex- 
 ampled purity and sweetness, and then passed out of the mu- 
 sical sky like a comet whose destination is beyond the orbit 
 of human vision. 
 
 This delightful young cantatrice was warbling in the 
 purest Italian that gem from "Faust," Le Parlate tfAmor, 
 so deservedly a favorite selection all over the world. On her 
 lips every syllable was a pearl. Her delicate throat and 
 bosom heaved with deep natural emotion as she sang the 
 touching words in the beautiful tongue of her lovely native 
 land. When she finished singing, the house, breathless while 
 she sang, literally rose to its feet and pelted her with flowers. 
 Compelled to respond to a deafening encore, she rendered in 
 pure English, rendered all the more attractive by reason of 
 her piquante Italian accent* Karl Ambruster's majestic yet 
 pathetic ballad, "The Silver Shield." As she came to the 
 words 
 
 "If we but knew 
 What hearts are false, what hearts are true," 
 
 the vibratory quality of her rich, penetrating tones pierced to 
 
4 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 the very roof of the building and rang out into the corridors, 
 as though some angelic soul, awhile embodied on earth, were 
 petitioning heaven to endow a blind, often misguided race, 
 with such penetration as would enable truth, here and now, to 
 triumph^once for all over dethroned and vanquished error, 
 falsehood and wrong. Every one was moved (many to tears), 
 and the recall which followed came unmistakably from the 
 hearts' depths of the vast concourse of men and women, most 
 if not all of whom doubtless felt somewhere in their inner na- 
 tures an intense longing, which no words could voice, to know 
 absolutely how far they could dare to trust some one to whom 
 their affections went out, but of whose sincerity they were at 
 times, at least, painfully in doubt. 
 
 The sweet, modest figure returned and bowed grace- 
 fully, as Italia's daughters only can bow; but, after this rec- 
 ognition of the plaudits of the multitude, no amount of noise 
 and clamor could bring the lovely Signorina again before the 
 audience. When asked in private why she never responded 
 to more than one encore, she answered: "Singing does not 
 fatigue me more than it does the birds who sing nearly all day. 
 But the programme is long. There are a number of my 
 fellow-artists to appear, and I have no right to take their 
 time so that when they come on the audience will be tired 
 and about to leave." This true, womanly sentiment of regard 
 for others marked all her conduct. No one could accuse 
 her of the slightest tinge of jealousy. She gloried in the 
 triumphs of others, and was pained at their defeat. 
 
 One evening, when a timid little English girl had been 
 treated coldly by a supercilious mob, and had retired sobbing 
 to her dressing-room, almost heart-broken at the rude repulse 
 and overwhelmed with grief at the manager's refusal to re- 
 engage her (she was a true and conscientious artist, had an 
 aged mother and crippled sister to support, and no other 
 means of livelihood), Signorina Ferranita, who had made a 
 success that night enough to turn the heads of all the maidens 
 
OtfESIMUS TEMPLETON* 5 
 
 in the United Kingdom, threw herself at the manager's feet 
 with a passionate outburst of woe, crying, "Oh, you cruel 
 man! If you send away Miss Carrol you will break my 
 heart." Then, addressing the wounded song-bird in her 
 most caressing accents, said, "Darling, you and I shall 
 triumph together before the end of this evening's concert. I 
 am down to sing again, and when they call me back you and 
 I will respond together and sing that lovely duet, "Maying," 
 by Gounod, which we practiced for Lady Ambleside's soiree 
 at her house last week. "Oh, I could never face those people 
 again! They are too dreadful," wailed poor little Miss 
 Carrol. "But with me, whom they love, you will feel quite 
 safe," exclaimed the prima donna. "Now, remember, they 
 call me l La reina asolutaj and absolute monarchs insist on 
 their commands being obeyed. Now, la reina commands you 
 to sing with her to-night, and she will not be disobeyed." 
 
 When the fair young Italian next appeared on the stage, 
 the house which had frozen Miss Carrol greeted its bright 
 particular star with such thunders of enthusiasm that the ac- 
 companist had to stop and the fair debutante to bow repeat- 
 edly before she was allowed to proceed. Her selection was a 
 long and very difficult selection from Traviata, in which she 
 struck high C thrice. This feat capped the climax of all 
 former efforts. The audience became frantic with delight, 
 and when, after an absence of at least three minutes, she re- 
 turned, leading Miss Carrol by the hand, and the pianist 
 sounded the prelude to the forthcoming duet, a perfect shout 
 went up from the vast assembly. In the very height of her 
 triumph, tears raining down her cheeks, she publicly em- 
 braced her young friend (older by two years than herself), 
 and as their voices rose and fell together the rich soprano of 
 the one and deep contralto of the other blended so harmoni- 
 ously as to move to penitence and contrition the very cruelest 
 of the brutes who had hissed when an hour earlier a few 
 good-natured people had tried to get up an encore to encour- 
 age the shrinking little Englishwoman. 
 
6 ONESIMUS TEMPLETQN. 
 
 In Miss Carrol's interest Signorina Ferranita gladly 
 waived her ordinarily inflexible rule never to return and sing 
 twice after any selection, and tripped back joyfully with 
 her arm around Miss Carrol's waist, and as nothing else 
 in the way of a duet had been rehearsed between 
 them, they gave Glover's grand old composition, '-What 
 Are the Wild Waves Saying?" in a manner to win 
 for that good old favorite a higher reputation than it 
 had ever known before. Miss Carrol's reputation was by this 
 time thoroughly made. The manager, who had just before 
 threatened her with, discourteous dismissal, now craved her 
 pardon humbly on his knees, and to show the sincerity of his 
 conversion, there and then doubled her salary and signed a 
 contract with her for the remainder of the season, which 
 Signorina Ferranita witnessed in due form. 
 
 Hearing this beautiful and touching story of the charm- 
 ing songstress from an elderly gentleman in the Floral Hall 
 during an intermission, Dr. Maxwell expressed an earnest de- 
 sire to be introduced to this truly noble and selfless girl who 
 cared more for a stranger's welfare than for any honors lav- 
 ished on herself. He at once received the answer that she 
 allowed no gentlemen to be presented to her, except through 
 Lady Ambleside, whose guest she was and at whose place in 
 Croydon she was then staying. Dr. Maxwell, being a thorough 
 gentleman, respected her still the more highly for taking so 
 wise a precaution against the formation of undesirable ac- 
 quaintances, and frankly said to the elderly nobleman with 
 whom he was speaking (his companion was none other than 
 Lord Ambleside, though he was not aware of it). 
 
 "I should not think of pressing myself on any lady 
 whose true womanliness prompts her to thus protect herself 
 against intrusions which I have reason to fear are not alto- 
 gether unwelcome to many stage favorites; however, as my 
 aunt and a young married lady who is with her are both fully 
 as anxious as myself to form Signorina Ferranita 's acquaint- 
 
O3TESIMUS TEMPLETON. 7 
 
 ance, she may, perhaps, be willing to allow the two ladies to 
 enjoy a moment's interview. Do you know any one who 
 might be willing to introduce them?" 
 
 " I will do so myself most gladly, and you too, my dear 
 sir. I know before I have exchanged six sentences with a 
 man on the subject of a young lady what sort of a fellow he 
 is. You, sir, are a gentleman, every inch of you. I would 
 trust my daughter over the world in your care, and that's not 
 too much to say, though I have known you only ten minutes." 
 
 " I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude for your high 
 opinion, but can in all modesty assure you your confidence 
 will never be misplaced, if ever you honor me with any deli- 
 cate commission. But I fear we shall not see much of each 
 other, as I and my friends are returning to New York on 
 Tuesday, and when we shall be next in England I have no 
 idea. I am a physician, and cannot easily leave my home 
 practice frequently; just now I am returning from Paris, 
 where duty more than pleasure called me to make a brief but 
 most delightful and profitable visit. Many people think 
 Paris holds few save the ultra-frivolous; but it has been my 
 good fortune to find in that gay city the best friends and 
 most distinguished scientists I have encountered anywhere." 
 
 " I am somewhat acquainted in Paris myself," continued 
 Lord Ambleside; "do you know a Professor de Montmarte, a 
 wonderful man with (if possible) a yet more wonderful daugh- 
 ter? They live in a gorgeous place with an English name; 
 he is the greatest electrician in Europe, if report speaks truly. 
 They live very quietly, in spite of all their wealth, and are 
 very little known outside a small circle of immediate friends. 
 Madamoiselle de Montmarte has been the sole instructor of 
 Signorina Ferranita. I have tried to coax the young lady, 
 who bears the romantic name of Heloise, to visit England, but 
 she won't leave France except for Italy, and her father is 
 probably as obstinate, though in his younger days he was a 
 great traveler, and has, I believe, spent some time in Syria." 
 
8 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 "Why, we have all come from 'The Palms' this very 
 morning. We have been the honored guests of the Mont- 
 martes for the past few weeks. It is indeed a pleasure to 
 meet one who knows our dearest friends and benefactors. My 
 name is Maxwell; you may have heard the Professor speak of 
 me. I know he talks about me when my back is turned, and 
 I cannot help it," laughed the doctor, merrily, knowing how 
 flattering were Professor de Montmarte's expressions concern- 
 ing him. 
 
 "Are you Dr. Maxwell, Mrs. Finchley's nephew? Well, 
 I am delighted to meet you! Indeed, I have heard about 
 you. Well, the cat's out of the bag now; I'm Lord Amble- 
 side, my wife is Signorina Ferranita's chaperone. Come now, 
 call your ladies, and as the concert is nearly over and our car- 
 riage is waiting, be presented to la reina, as we all call her, 
 and then come out to-morrow afternoon to Croydon and dine 
 with us quietly en famille. We must get acquainted. How 
 sorry I am you must leave London so soon! Can't you defer 
 your voyage a week? Croydon is very pleasant at this sea- 
 son; we have a big house and hardly anybody in it till 
 November, and we can accommodate a regiment if necessary." 
 
 Thanking the whole-souled peer of the realm for his cor- 
 dial offer of hospitality, which he was compelled, though 
 regretfully, to decline, Dr. Maxwell led his new friend 
 to his aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Templeton, and Zenophon, 
 who were in a group listening to a fine Wagnerian 
 selection by the band. After the introduction, which 
 in this case was quite informal, Lord Ambleside, with 
 a kindly "delighted to meet you all," conducted the 
 party of five to his young "lioness," who was just then 
 adjusting her cloak and hat in readiness for departure. Off 
 the stage she appeared small and quite fragile. People were 
 often heard to remark, "How is it possible such a little body 
 can give out such a volume of tone!" But, immediately she 
 smiled and displayed delighted animation at meeting people 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 9 
 
 who knew and loved the preceptress whom she almst idolized, 
 Dr. Maxwell at once detected the infallible signs of well nigh 
 perfect health, which are ever present in a thoroughly electri- 
 fied organism, no matter how frail its build may appear to be. 
 
 In private, this latest idol of the British concert-going 
 public was a simple but charming and highly intelligent 
 Italian maiden, speaking English with a piquante foreign ac- 
 cent, which greatly heightened the charm of the Anglo-Saxon 
 tongue. No one thus meeting her could have connected her 
 in thought with the distinguished heroine of a great opera 
 house, whose praises were sounded by all the newspapers 
 without an exception, Lionized by the public, caressed by 
 the nobility, this child of nineteen summers had lost nothing 
 of the gentle, unassuming sweetness which characterized her 
 every movement when her voice led the maiden choir in the 
 chapel of Santa Cecilia, attached to the great cathedral at 
 Milan, where first her lovely voice, then very inferior to its 
 present excellence, had attracted the ear of Heloise, who 
 was assisting at evening devotions one beautiful night 
 during the November of the previous year. 
 
 Adding her petition to that of Lord Ambleside, that 
 they should all dine together at 5 P. M. the following day, 
 the charming cantatrice waved her hand in graceful adieu 
 as she entered the carriage bound for Croydon, while Dr. 
 Maxwell and his party returned on foot to the Metropole, 
 where they had engaged delightful rooms at a very rea- 
 sonable figure, and meals on the wise European plan of 
 paying for what you eat when you eat it, instead of fol- 
 lowing the American practice of paying a fixed rate for 
 board, as well as room, which usually means paying for 
 five meals a day if you eat three, as three are charged for 
 at the hotel anyway, and you generally eat one there and 
 two in other parts of the city, or its environs. 
 
 London grows instantly quiet on Saturday night di- 
 rectly the bell on St. Paul's tolls the hour of 12. As though 
 
10 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 by magic the previous noise and bustle ends, and Sabbath 
 quietude commences its not unwelcome reign over the weary 
 city and its teeming populace. Of course, one hears the 
 rumble of carriage wheels in the streets more or less all 
 night, if one is awake to hear it, but by comparison with 
 other times, Saturday night ushers in an era of unbroken 
 calm, though excursion trains and an enlarged omnibus and 
 tram-car service are making constant inroads upon the time- 
 honored custom of resting practically, as well as in theory, 
 one day out of every seven. 
 
 A good English hotel, with a French name, is apt to be 
 very comfortable, and none we know of is more so than the 
 Metropole, which is very conveniently and centrally situated 
 near to the proverbial "everything" a word which bunches 
 together churches, theatres, concert halls, shops, railway sta- 
 tions, etc., ad libitum, in one comprehensive word elastic 
 enough to be both a noun and an adverb, to suit existing 
 circumstances. 
 
 Rising about 9 A. M. on Sunday, our friends assembled 
 for breakfast a little before 10, and over their coffee discussed 
 their church plan for the morning. Perusing a long list of 
 services printed in the journals of the day previous, Dr. 
 Maxwell and Mr. Templeton were struck by the announce- 
 ment of a familiar name, as their eyes rested on the order of 
 services at Clarendon Square Chapel (Free Church), "Martin- 
 dale Fischer-Bennett will preach at 11 A. M. on 'Babylon and 
 its Downfall in the Present Era.' Strangers cordially 
 invited." 
 
 "Let us go and hear him by all means," said the doctor; 
 "why, he must be the very radical son of the very conserva- 
 tive father, who was your father's successor and your prede- 
 cessor at Saddlerock, Onesimus but what say the ladies?" 
 
 "Oh, let's go, certainly," assented Mrs. Finchley and 
 Mrs. Templeton, in a breath. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHAT IS THE MODERN BABYLON? 
 
 "How long, O Lord shall waiting souls 
 
 Wait on to see the promised day? 
 How long shall thine own image grieve 
 
 While pent within these walls of clay? 
 O hasten, Lord, the glorious hour 
 
 That bids all doubt and error flee 
 Revealing truth in all its might 
 
 And drawing man more close to Thee." 
 
 Zenophon, who greatly preferred a Catholic service, was 
 "dropped" at the door of a large Catholic church near by, 
 where the worshipers were assembling for high mass, as the 
 others made their way to the inviting, but unpretending, 
 chapel, where Mr. (not the Rev.) Fischer-Bennett officiated. 
 It not being the full season, the chapel was considerably less 
 than full when the four new-comers entered, and were con- 
 ducted to a gallery pew exactlv facing the pulpit, the regular 
 occupants of which were then at Brighton. Arriving five 
 minutes before 11, they had ample time to observe the build- 
 ing and its appointments before the service opened, and 
 though nothing of an imposing character met their gaze, they 
 were all struck with the exceedingly neat simplicity of the 
 whole. The chapel was evidently not a new building; it had 
 probably never been remodeled to any great extent since its 
 erection, as far as architectural design; but the fine organ, 
 which faced the congregation and reached from the floor al- 
 most to the ceiling between the galleries and behind the pul- 
 pit, as well as the handsome open pews of polished oak, fitted 
 
 ii 
 
12 ONJESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 with blue cushions, were recent additions or improvements. 
 The walls were tinted a pale blue; the old-fashioned square 
 windows were scrupulously clean, those on the south side (the 
 chapel fronted west) were screened with blue shades, those on 
 the north side were open, admitting plenty of fresh, cool air, 
 but not creating a draught. As soon as these details had 
 been digested and another hundred people or so had gathered 
 on the ground floor, and about fifty more in the three galler- 
 ies, swelling the entire congregation to a total af about 350 
 (the chapel could seat 1,000, if necessary), the organ pealed 
 forth a grand voluntary, as exactly on the stroke of 11 the 
 minister ascended the staircase of the handsome, rather high, 
 walnut wood pulpit, which exactly faced the gallery, in the 
 front of which our friends were sitting. 
 
 Mr. Martindale Fischer-Bennett (who always signed his 
 full name) was a young man about 30, with an earnest coun- 
 tenance, fresh complexion, clear blue eyes and chestnut hair. 
 Decision marked his every motion, though his views on many 
 topics were regarded as altogether too indefinite by many who 
 had attended the chapel during the pastorate of the much 
 more orthodox Rev. Hiram Oldenwheel, whom Mr. Bennett 
 had succeeded. 
 
 As the voluntary ceased, the music changed into an- 
 other key, and the choir sang in good time and tune an an- 
 them from the service book, which bore the title, "Common 
 Prayer, revised for the use of unsectarian congregations, with 
 a preface by Martindale Fischer-Bennett." This book con- 
 tained most of the essential portions of the Church of England 
 liturgy, though much of the phraseology and doctrinal teach- 
 ing was largely altered, and in the morning service many 
 parts of the original service were entirely omitted. The 
 service throughout was bright and impressively rendered, the 
 music of the "Te Deum" and "Jubilate" was really fine; the 
 hymns sung were from Dr. Martineau's Collection, though 
 Clarendon Square Chapel never would allow itself to be 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 13 
 
 called Unitarian, despite the fact that the Unitarians as a body 
 insisted that the difference in theology was like a controversial 
 tweedledum and tweedledee. As may be expected from the 
 subject announced Mr. Bennett's sermon was not an ordinary 
 one. As late-comers are the rule rather than the exception 
 everywhere, the audience reached 470 when the text of the 
 discourse was given out: "And a strong angel took up a 
 stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, 
 saying: Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, 
 be cast down, and shall be found no more at all." Rev. 
 XVIII. 21, (revised version.) 
 
 "Probably all my hearers," commenced Mr Bennett, "are 
 familiar with the oft-reiterated protests against the iniquities 
 of the Church of Rome which many preachers base on this 
 prophecy; but with these worn theological acrimonies I wish 
 to have nothing to do this morning. I consider Babylon the 
 monopolistic, competitive system now prevalent all over the 
 civilized world, and from a strong text w r hich has long been 
 handled by protestant fire brands to denounce Roman Catho- 
 lic persecutors I shall aim to extract a new and universal les- 
 son, peculiarly appropriate at present, as we must all be feel- 
 ing more or less distinctly the convulsive throes antedating a 
 social eruption which promises to accomplish more than any 
 previous upheaval recorded in history. I unhesitatingly af- 
 firm that unless a peaceable reconstruction of the industrial 
 fabric is completed within the next 50 years at most, the 
 streets of our great English cities will run with blood and the 
 case will not be much, if any, better in America. Compro- 
 mises and concessions cannot stave off the impending crisis 
 much longer; it will soon be found impossible to bolster up 
 the decayed and antiquated structure of our present system, 
 which needs not razing to the ground through the ferocious 
 attacks of anarchy, but abandoning, as the masses betake 
 themselves to a new and healthy building adapted to their 
 ever growing needs. The angel who will accomplish the de- 
 
14 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 struction of our modern Babylon will be the angel -side of our 
 really good but terribly maligned human nature, and as this 
 angel-element in humanity is evoked and encouraged to build 
 a New Jerusalem on earth, so will the Babylon of selfishness 
 be destroyed by the co-operative industries of a harmoniously 
 unselfish people. I am no agitator of the alarmist type; I 
 consider it my sole mission to point to righteousness, and seek 
 to foster the better and truer side of those to whom I can ap- 
 peal; but not wishing to cry peace when war is imminent, I 
 raise a cry from this pulpit from week to week not to induce 
 hot-headed fanatics to attack monopolists, but to urge intelli- 
 gent workingmen and women to club together for mutual 
 work and welfare." 
 
 In the course of his remarks, during which he often be- 
 came glowingly though not feverishly excited, Mr. Bennett 
 mapped out an entirely new order of affairs, which, though 
 utterly at variance with most existing opinions, he declared 
 would be rendered actual on both sides of the Atlantic dur- 
 ing the next half century. As they were leaving the chapel 
 the comments they heard passed upon the sermon greatly in- 
 terested our party. To the majority of working men of the 
 mildly radical type Mr. Fischer- Bennett was a hero whom 
 they wanted to get into Parliament. To the smaller trades- 
 people, many of whom attended his chapel, he was "a mighty 
 fine gentleman, but very deep in bis harguments." To most 
 young men of progressive ideas he was "a live preacher, wide- 
 awake; none of your drones, don't you know." To the ortho- 
 dox frequenters of other chapels in the neighborhood, he was 
 "a stray sheep worse, a false shepherd"; while Mr. Mule- 
 herd, the Baptist preacher on the opposite side of the square 
 called him "a man of sin," on a Sunday evening, in a sermon 
 to young men concerning the Devil, with whom he seemed on 
 very familiar terms, and to whom many people ventured to 
 assert he showed a slight family resemblance. Mr. Templeton 
 was completely carried away with Mr. Bennett's forcible de- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 15 
 
 livery and advanced sentiments, and was on the point of pre- 
 senting himself at the vestry door, when Mr. Bennett himself 
 walked up to them (they were standing just outside the en- 
 trance waiting for Zenophon to join them), and with a very 
 gracious bow and pleasant smile, said: 
 
 "I see you are strangers in this neighborhood. Is there 
 anything I can do for you, or any place to which I can direct 
 you? You, sir (addressing Mr. Templeton), are a minister, I 
 see, by the cut of your cloth. I hope our service was not too 
 dreadfully heretical in your eyes. The Congregational Union 
 refuses fellowship with us entirely, though it has many mem- 
 bers who share my views exactly. And as to the Methodists 
 and Baptists, they think we are too shocking to be mentioned 
 without a shudder. Among Broad Church clergymen I have 
 several colleagues in general home missionary work. The 
 Unitarians are anxious to claim us, but I can't be other than 
 unsectarian myself; and, if a free church, in the fullest sense 
 of the word, is not an institution which can live in London, 
 well, there are other fields opening to me." 
 
 Your case seems very much like my own," responded Mr. 
 Templeton. "I am as you will probably know from my ac- 
 cent if not from my appearance an American; and, if I am 
 not mistaken, you are the son of the Fischer-Bennetts with 
 whom my boyhood days were spent in Saddlerock, Vermont." 
 
 "What! are you Onesimus Templeton, the quiet, studi- 
 ous, diligent, thoroughly orthodox and correct boy, of whom 
 my parents used to write to me so often? How comes it, then, 
 that you also are so much of a heretic? I think it must be 
 that we are living in days of new wine, when an imperative 
 necessity is felt for new bottles among all thinking people, 
 for the old bottles are exploding so rapidly and disastrously 
 under the pressure of the fermentation of new wine. Cannot 
 you come home with me to lunch, all of you? My sister, who 
 keeps house for me, is at Brighton, with the hirers of the pew 
 you occupied this morning. Being quite alone for the next, 
 
16 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 as I have been for the past three weeks, I have taken up my 
 abode at the Metropole, where the cuisine is excellent." 
 
 "The very place we are stopping at!" exclaimed Dr. Max- 
 well. "Oh! here is Zenophon, just from mass at St. Gabriel's. 
 We will now all go together and refresh the inner and outer 
 man at our inn with good food, and, I hope, still better conversa- 
 tion, Let's have dinner together in our private sitting room; 
 and, as you are only one and we are five, you cannot refuse 
 to be our guest." 
 
 "In these circumstances," genially assented Mr.Bennett, 
 "as I see you desire it, I will accept your offer to-day with the 
 distinct understanding that I can reciprocate to-morrow." 
 
 "Well, we have so much to discuss between us all, I dare 
 say," broke in Mr. Templeton, "we can well afford to waive 
 matters of ceremony and proceed at once to the subjects of 
 greatest interest to us all alike." 
 
 "Before we talk about anything, I insist on ordering 
 lunch," persisted Dr. Maxwell, when they had reached the hotel. 
 "Now, aunt, you do the honors of the table, just as when we 
 are at home. Here is the menu. Make your own selections, 
 and I will tell the waiter we want luncheon at once." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 "HOME SWEET HOME." 
 
 "Oh, call it not a foolish dream, 
 That aspiration of my heart, 
 Which leads me to diviner things 
 And bids me try a higher art. 
 Say, are there not deep meanings yet 
 To be discovered in God's law? 
 And who shall dare to claim that he 
 The whole at any time can draw? 
 Truth is my solace and my goal, 
 And will be while the ages roll." 
 
 Luncheon always proves a very pleasant meal when par- 
 taken of in good company, and on Sundays in England, where 
 it is customary to dine early on that day, the midday meal is 
 usually a very pleasant time for meeting friends and enjoying 
 the pleasures of hospitality. Half past three or four p. m. is 
 a fashionable time for attending a second church service, 
 though many people spend the afternoon quietly at home and 
 go to evening service at 7. Mr. Fischer-Bennett's chapel was 
 closed in the afternoon, though during the greater part of the 
 year the Sunday-school met in the school-room from 2.30 till 
 4, but this did not resume its sessions till the month follow- 
 ing, so his time was quite his own till the hour arrived for 
 evening service. 
 
 As they rose from the table, and all who were going to 
 Croydon began to make preparations to catch the 3.45 train, 
 Mr. Bennett proposed escorting them to Victoria station, if 
 they felt they had time to walk. 
 
 Cabs are cheap in London, which is one of the most con- 
 venient features of the city; you can at any time hire a com- 
 
18 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 fortable conveyance for two persons and ride a long distance 
 for one shilling; if the distance is beyond the shilling limit, 
 the fare is one shilling and six pence, or thirty-seven and a 
 half cents American money, and that sum will almost invaria- 
 bly carry any two persons to any terminus or place of public 
 resort, if their quarters in town are in any way central. Not- 
 withstanding this fact, and the innumerable omnibuses, and 
 great facilities offered by the underground railways, pedes- 
 trianism is quite a feature of London life, and to this fact 
 alone the uniformly superior health of the population may be 
 safely attributed. 
 
 Mr. Fischer-Bennett was a very practical religionist. He 
 attached sufficient, but not extravagant, importance to relig- 
 ious exercises. His chief desire, however, was to help people 
 to live more nearly to nature, and thus develop a healthy and 
 hardy manhood and womanhood, without which he declared 
 pietism degenerated into sickly sentiment, which instead of 
 ennobling, enfeebled character. 
 
 Mr. Templeton was greatly pleased with Mr. Bennett's 
 frank convictions and vital interest in every leading question 
 of the day; but when more spiritual themes were broached, 
 Dr. Maxwell felt inclined to chide him gently for displaying 
 so much incredulity. 
 
 As they walked through the delightful district which lies 
 between the Hotel Metropole and the Victoria Terminus, they 
 conversed upon the marvelous phenomena of Spiritualism and 
 the singular tenents of Theosophy, in which Mr. Bennett dis- 
 played a certain intellectual interest, as becomes a student 
 and a scholar, but it was clear to see that his affectional 
 nature was not at all touched by the sentimental side of Spirit 
 ualism, nor was his intellect enamored of the mysteries of 
 Hindu occultism. He was a man fitted to lead in all social 
 questions, but his spiritual insight was not particularly 
 keen. As the conversation glided from one topic to another, 
 Mr. Voysey's utterances on Spiritualism became for a few 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 19 
 
 moments the subject of discussion, Dr. Maxwell thought 
 them shallow and unworthy of a man in any sense great. Mr. 
 Bennett considered Mr. Voysey's position quite tenable, and 
 failed to see how M. A. Oxon, and other distinguished Spirit- 
 ualists who had replied in "Light" had met the case. 
 
 "Still," said Mr. Bennet, "I am not a scoffer, all I want is 
 truth; and, if any of you who believe more than I at present 
 can, are able to convince my understanding, I shall only be 
 too happy to listen to all you have to say and to carefully ob- 
 serve all you have to present to my senses and my reason. 
 
 "As to your experiences in Paris, I can say nothing. 
 Such things are quite beyond my ken, and while they may be 
 true, pardon me for suggesting they may not be true; but if, 
 as you say, Professor de Montmarte and his daughter are to 
 be reckoned among the most exemplary people you have ever 
 met, I can scarcely let incredulity swing over to the extreme of 
 credulity, and believe evil of others without the slightest 
 foundation. The cures you report to me are the most wonder- 
 ful of all. We hear of nothing like them in London. There 
 are, indeed, many alleged cases of healing by mesmeric and 
 magnetic means, but they are mostly of a dubious character; 
 and, by the way, I was introduced to a lady, recently from 
 Chicago, the other day, a Miss Dominus, a particularly intelli- 
 gent woman, with a frank, serious face and great command of 
 excellent language. She is the guest of Lady Steepleheight, 
 and is teaching what she calls Christian Science. I shall 
 avail myself of the first opportunity to listen to some of her 
 instructions. I am convinced she is honest, and that is saying 
 a great deal now-a-days, when we meet so many charlatans 
 who are making money and position everything, and shame- 
 lessly sacrificing principle in every conceivable manner to 
 exalt their personal caprices. Miss Dominus teaches gratui- 
 tously, which is remarkable, and, unless she had some private 
 means, would, I should think, be impossible. And, by the 
 way, there is a Mrs. Catsleigh here; she arrived only y ester- 
 
20 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 day from New York a decidedly stagy woman, traveling 
 with a fellow who must have been at some time a theatrical 
 agent, where bounce goes further than breeding. Monsieur 
 Alphonse de Kabriet influenced me against the whole affair 
 He was so persistent that I should spend five pounds for a 
 ticket admitting to one course of twelve lessons, that I plainly 
 told him such prices would not succeed in England, upon 
 which he rudely asked me if I thought people could live on 
 air, and whether preachers weren't paid higher than anybody 
 else. I refused to parley with him, and decidedly declined 
 the ticket. He left me, muttering, 'stingy cuss,' and that was 
 the last I saw of him. His diamonds were blinding, and Mrs. 
 Catsleigh at dinner looked like a second-rate star in the role 
 *Camille' a woman too stout to look the part, but determined 
 to act it, nevertheless. Her manners are very taking, and she 
 is a fluent talker, but the box-office air about both of them 
 (the agent in particular) repulsed not only me, but several 
 whom they have been trying to bring into their classes. They 
 are staying at the Owlshead Hotel, three streets from the 
 Metro pole. 
 
 As time was passing rapidly and nearing train time, their 
 conversation was abruptly terminated at the station gates. 
 
 The party for Croydon had just time to secure tickets and 
 seat themselves in a comfortable comp'artment before the train 
 started. A few miles delightful riding brought them to Croy- 
 don, where they found everything in readiness for their wel- 
 come reception, Lord and Lady Ambleside being delighted to 
 receive and entertain them. Lord Ambleside has already 
 been introduced to our readers. His wife impressed all who 
 met her in a friendly manner, as a woman of unusual intellect, 
 self-reliance and strength of character a trifle masculine, 
 perhaps, but, for all that, possessed of a sweet, womanly tend- 
 erness of feeling. She could rule with a hand of iron, and 
 quell insubordination with a glance or gesture. Still, she 
 was loved by more than feared her, as her genuine disinter- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 21 
 
 ested, intelligent regard for others' welfare stamped her as a 
 noble and true benefactress to all who sincerely sought coun- 
 sel to aid them to a higher life. The lovely Signorina Ferra- 
 nita almost idolized her; being an orphan she could not meas- 
 ure the depth of her affection for the stately lady, who had 
 taken her to her capacious heart and home, and was now 
 beginning to cherish the hope, in which her husband fully 
 coincided, that the gifted damsel might prove to her a daugh- 
 ter indeed, by soon becoming the wife of their only son, 
 Lord Currisbrook Clive, provided she could overcome her 
 first scruple against marrying an Englishman and a Protes- 
 tant. 
 
 Sunday dinner at the "Darning Needles," as the Amble- 
 side's Croydon house was named, was a delightful six-o'clock 
 affair, sans ceremonie; it was over before 7, just in time to 
 allow of the fair cantatrice attending vespers at the beautiful 
 church of St. Dominic, which is one of the features of Croy- 
 don architecture, and renowned everywhere for its splendid 
 music. Whilst she was absent, the conversation was very 
 mnch about her her past and her future. She was an in- 
 tensely romantic girl, but so conscientious and high-princi- 
 pled that the faintest shade of prevarication in another dis- 
 gusted her. Kind and generous to the utmost extreme as she 
 had proved in the case of Miss Carroll, and in numberless 
 other instances, she was high-spirited, though very gentle, and 
 so enthusiastic a devotee of art that her profession was to her 
 as sacred as ever his calling can be to the most devoted 
 preacher of the gospel. 
 
 About 8 o'clock, while they were chatting together in the 
 peaceful twilight, a servant announced a visitor. In the fad- 
 ing light they did not clearly see who was approaching, but, 
 on distinctly hearing the rattle (we cannot correctly say rus- 
 tle) of stiff brocaded silk skirts, Lord and Lady Ambleside 
 knew they were once more favored with the never-unwelcome 
 presence of their elderly American friend, Mrs. Fumbling 
 
22 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 Cockroach (pronounced Koroche for twenty-seven genera- 
 tions.) 
 
 The little lady who had been on the steamer with Dr, 
 Maxwell and his party, (no one except the stewardess had 
 really seen her except at the landing stages at New York and 
 Liverpool) was at least 75, and looked every day of her age. 
 Still, she was an active little body, kept fashionable hours, 
 wore a dark brown wig, dressed in almost juvenile costume, 
 and wished every one to know she was as much in the world 
 as any matron of 40, with marriageable daughters. Spiritual- 
 ism was Mrs. Cockroach's pet hobby you could not call it 
 her religion, for she took it more as a pastime than seriously, 
 and enjoyed nothing more than an innocent joke or a harm- 
 less bit of gossip with some familiar sprite who entertained 
 her at the strictly private seances in the residences of the no- 
 bility, which she was often invited to visit, being a very popu- 
 lar old dame in many quarters. 
 
 "My darling Lordship and Ladyship, how glad I am to 
 find you in ! I was afraid you might be at church, though I 
 never go in the evening. As usual, I have come for a cup of 
 your most delicious Formosa tea, some of your unequalled 
 bread and butter, and a talk with our dear spirit-friends, who 
 never seem so near me as in your presence. But I see you 
 have company. Any one I know?" 
 
 "Some of your fellow-passengers from America, I believe. 
 Let me introduce Dr. Maxwell, Mrs. Finchley, (his aunt) and 
 the Rev. and Mrs. Onesimus Templeton" responded Lady 
 Ambleside. 
 
 The new addition to the group caused the conversation 
 to flow in a more lively strain than before; and to those un- 
 acquainted with the ins and outs of English high life Mrs. 
 Cockroach's narrative must have been indeed instructive, as 
 well as amusing. But as soon as tea and muffins had been 
 disposed of, nothing would do but they must hold a seance 
 with Mrs Finchley as the medium. 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 23 
 
 Signorina Ferranita was a wonderfully gifted clairvoyant, 
 and often in private made wonderful revelations to her inti- 
 mate friends; but she objected to the kind of Spiritualism in 
 which Mrs. Cockroach reveled. Therefore, when that lady was 
 in the house, she often retired to her own appartment while a 
 seance was in progress. Mrs. Finchley, being such a very 
 different type of woman, and the girl having taken a great 
 liking to her at Covent Garden the evening before, the servant 
 was told to invite her into the drawing-room as soon as she 
 returned from church and had removed her walking apparel. 
 Zenophon had accompanied her at her request to St. Dominic's, 
 greatly to his own happiness, as he was of a nature to almost 
 worship artistic genius, wherever it might be discovered, and 
 the fair singer was one who never held herself aloof from 
 others unless she saw or felt some good reason for so doing. 
 With a lad as truthful and pure-minded as the little Greek, 
 she was thorougly at home in a single instant. 
 
 They talked together of their singular experiences on the 
 way to church and back, and found nothing in each other's 
 startling career to occasion surprise in the other. At Bene- 
 diction the beautiful singer reminded Zenophon so strikingly 
 of Heloise, as he knelt beside her, that he was convinced 
 something more than fancy caused him to see his beloved 
 Parisian friend and hear her voice joining in "Tantum ergo." 
 
 Returning to the "Darning Needles" about 9 o'clock, 
 they found Mrs. Finchley speaking with rare eloquence and 
 feeling to all in the room; and as they listened to her in- 
 spired words, they felt a communion of souls such as they had 
 rarely felt before. Though usually very shy of mentioning 
 her own affairs to any one particularly to a stranger and 
 never seeking to consult clairvoyants on matters where her 
 own affection and reason must, in the very nature of things, be 
 the only proper judges, she felt constrained, as soon as there 
 was a pause in Mrs. Finchlay's eloquence, to inquire, "Do 
 you see anything in store for me outside of my musical ca- 
 
24 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 reer, in which I take so much pleasure, and which I never 
 wish to relinquish?" 
 
 "Your true position is in this house," answered the good 
 lady impressively. "And, as you question as to your future, 
 I answer unhesitatingly, you would not do well to refuse the 
 offer of a hand which is accompanied by one of the truest 
 hearts in England. As Lady Olive you can still use your 
 musical gift for the highest ends, but a public operatic career 
 is not your destiny for longer than one year at most. I know 
 your religious feelings as well as I know my own. I will 
 not trouble you with theological controversy, knowing how 
 painful it is to you. I will only say, ask your beloved friend 
 and preceptress, Heloise, to advise you in the matter of your 
 marriage. We both know her far too well to harbor the faint- 
 est suspicion that she can be capable of giving any other sugges- 
 tions than those prompted by the far-seeing angel who guides 
 her life, and whom I have recently seen in my own visions as 
 a being of particular brightness and glory. Perhaps we may 
 receive some message from Paris this evening 1 . You have no 
 
 o o 
 
 doubt received communications yourself from Heloise in a man- 
 ner resembling that in which we were accustomed to get them 
 in New York." 
 
 To this suggestion of Mrs. Finchley's the lovely singer at 
 once replied: "Oh, I should be so glad to hear her sweet 
 voice trembling on the air, as I heard it once in my dressing- 
 room at Covent Garden. It was the first night I appeared 
 before an English audience, and I was very nervous, the 
 ground seemed quaking under my feet; then I heard the 
 sweetest song to which I have ever listened vibrating in my 
 ear, and quickly a star appeared before me, in the center of 
 which I read the words traced in letters formed of electric 
 light, 'Follow the star within, respond to the voice of the 
 Great Central Sphere of Being; so shall your success be as- 
 sured forever. Heed not the opinions of the world. Sing to 
 God and to His angels, and men will rejoice in the echo of your 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 25 
 
 song/ I was no longer timid. All fright vanished in- 
 stantly, I scored my first triumph, but never saw or heard the 
 audience till a gentleman handed me a lovely basket of roses 
 and japonicas, then I heard the whole multitude recalling me. 
 I responded to the recall, but again while I was singing I saw 
 only a star shining before my eyes; I felt the star was a veil 
 hiding the radiant features of invisible helpers and listeners. 
 Since that day I have never heard the voice, but whenever I 
 call for the star it shines before me. I think the Star of Beth- 
 lehem must have been a light seen by the shepherds and the 
 wise men in some such way, rather than one of the orbs in 
 the sky." 
 
 While Signornina Ferranita was thus speaking, and Mrs. 
 Cockroach listening with all her ears, a low, sweet Gregorian 
 chant sounded through the room: "Credo in unam sanctam 
 Catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam" 
 
 "Oh, do listen to the dear spirits; what are they singing? 
 Why, this is just like Mr. Higginbotham's dark seances, only 
 it isn't nearly so dark here. We shall get materialization di- 
 rectly. O dear, how beautiful! It sends the cold shudders 
 all through me," exclaimed Mrs. Cockroach, who could not in 
 the least distinguish between the silvery tones of the voice 
 then sounding and the harsh guttural tones produced through 
 a cardboard tube at the home of the illustrious Higginbotham. 
 Any way, she appreciated anything and everything which 
 seemed to her to emanate from the spheres invisible, and thus 
 enjoyed a great deal, and doubtless derived much solid com- 
 fort, though as an expert in discrimination she was a decided 
 failure. 
 
 "Why does she sing from the 'Credo?'" queried the 
 young Italian, who at once detected the voice of Heloise. 
 
 Instantly a voice penetrated the room, though no one saw 
 anything and the voice said: "Do you not remember, carris- 
 sima Lavinia, our conversations on the spirit and the body of 
 the church. Multitudes are in the body of the Roman fold 
 
26 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 who are quite outside the universal church of the spirit, while 
 many Protestants and some agnostics are fully in the circle of 
 the true church of the Spirit. The man who loves you and 
 wishes to make you his bride is a Catholic in our sense of the 
 word, if a Protestant in yours. You can marry him fearlessly, 
 but let your heart dictate to you and not our judgment, 
 Still, as you love him, and this fact you cannot disguise from 
 yourself at any time, say yes when next he presents himself as 
 suitor for your hand, he already possesses your heart." 
 
 The voice ceased suddenly as it had commenced speaking, 
 and the beautiful girl found herself held tightly in the em- 
 brace of Lady Ambleside, while Lord Ambleside pressed on 
 her snowy forehead such a kiss as fond fathers bestow only on 
 dearly cherished daughters. 
 
 "Be a good wife to our boy, and heaven reward you in 
 this world and forever," said the stately gentleman, who loved 
 Lavinia as though she were already his child in every sense of 
 the word. 
 
 "Let me pray over it for a week," responded the pure- 
 minded damsel, and next Sunday, if Lord Clive honors me 
 with a repetition of his proposal, I shall know how to answer 
 him." 
 
 With these words, (too deeply affected for further speech) 
 she hastily quitted the room and sought the privacy of her own 
 chamber, where for three hours she knelt before the ivory cru- 
 cifix her mother had loved devotedly, and entrusted to her 
 child while dying, and committed her life and all its concerns 
 to the Eternal Parent, who seemed to speak to her inmost soul 
 when prostrate before the representation of His infinite goodness 
 in opening a channel of grace so directly between Himself 
 and those of his children who now inhabit this dim, frail 
 planet, as the crucifix outpictures. 
 
 Night fell apace, all the household were wrapped in 
 slumber; Mrs. Cockroach had been long since called for by 
 her maid, and was sleeping serenely in an old-fashioned four- 
 
OJSTESIMUS TEMPLETON. 27 
 
 poster at Laburnum Villa; when at length a definite answer 
 seemed to come to the earnest petitions of the young suppli- 
 ant at the Throne of Grace. She saw a life of happy useful- 
 ness outspreading before her in a charming country house, the 
 ancestral home of many generations of Amblesides and Olives; 
 and when at length she betook herself to her pretty couch 
 surrounded with pink and white curtains of muslin and satin ? 
 and gazed upon a beautiful Parian statue of Our Lady of 
 Lourdes at the foot of the bed, it seemed to her as though the 
 placid features of the impassive statue faded out, and her 
 mother's form, warm, sentient and vital, stood before her 
 with hands extended in blessing. 
 
 The sun was high in the heavens when the rising bell rang 
 through the house next morning, and then three quarters of 
 an hour later summoned all the guests and inmates to break- 
 fast. It was a very happy, yet a serious rather than a merry 
 party which gathered round the table in the comfortable 
 dining-room, discussing the events of the preceding evening, 
 and talking over the future prospects of all the party. It was 
 with many a regret that Dr. Maxwell and Mrs. Finchley felt 
 compelled to decline all offers of prolonged hospitality from 
 the Amblesides. But with these good people DUTY BEFORE 
 PLEASURE was a constant life motto, and duty soon becomes 
 pleasure when pleasure is surrendered to it. After many warm 
 protestations of undying friendship on all sides, the visitors 
 left the Darning Needles about noon, took the 12:30 train to 
 London, arriving at Victoria about 1:15. 
 
 Having many things to do and much to see, time sped by 
 on rapid wings, till Wednesday morning at 8:30, found them 
 en route for Southampton, on the special express connecting 
 with the Lloyd steamer just arrived from Bremen on the re- 
 turn voyage to New York. A Lloyd steamer is a floating 
 palace. Persons desiring cheap accommodations when cross- 
 ing the Atlantic may find themselves comfortably suited on 
 the Hamburg- American packets; or, if their means allow a 
 
28 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 little higher rate, very nice accommodations can be secured 
 very reasonably on the Red Star line, whose steamers land at 
 Antwerp. But if one can afford one hundred dollars for each 
 person's passage, then the Lloyd is not only unsurpassed, but 
 probably unequaled, particularly if the intending passengers 
 are lovers of good music and an unexceptionable cuisine. 
 
 The band was playing merrily and loudly on deck, hand- 
 kerchiefs were waving and tears were falling, as the good ship 
 steamed out of Southampton water at 1 p. M. precisely. Mrs. 
 Kittenscomb and Alicia were on board, accompanied by Mrs. 
 Catsleigh, who had grown tired of London in a very few days 
 especially as she and her agent had squabbled over the mone- 
 tary arrangements, which to her, were far from satisfactory, 
 and the highly self-important Alphonse had secured a position 
 exactly to his liking as business manager to a new star, a 
 wealthy young American lady, whose uncle was willing to put 
 up any amount of money to bring his aspiring darling histri- 
 onic fame. 
 
 Mrs. Kittenscomb and her little daughter had arrived at 
 the Metropole while Dr. Maxwell and his party were at Croy- 
 don. She had met Mr. Fischer-Bennett, with whom she was 
 charmed, and at once requested him to introduce her to some 
 suitable lady, as she felt quite lost without Miss Newmanhoff, 
 from whom she was now finally separated, and must find some 
 one to fill her place. Mr. Bennett escorted her to Clarendon 
 Square Chapel to the evening service for on learning he was 
 a preacher and acquainted with her friends, she expressed a 
 great desire to hear him, and declared she was so strong after 
 the treatment she had received in Paris that she was not the 
 least tired after her journey; neither was Alicia, who struck 
 Mr. Bennett as the lovliest child he had ever met. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "The swift years pass and on their wings 
 They bear our brightest dreams away. 
 If we can but illusions spurn 
 We need not fear the future day. 
 But rather with exultant hope 
 Look forward to that dazzling good 
 Where higher love than earth can yield 
 Will satify the undying soul, 
 In patience we our lives possess 
 And gaze toward future blessedness." 
 
 As they were leaving the chapel, Mrs. Catsleigh, who had 
 attended the service alone and had sobbed into a lace hand- 
 kerchief during an affecting portion of the sermon came up 
 to Mr. Bennett, to whom she had been previously intro- 
 duced, requesting an interview, and complaining that all her 
 London projects were a failure, and she did not know what to 
 do in England nor how to get back to America. She was so 
 distracted, she said, she must tell her sorrows to some one that 
 very night or she would lose her reason. Had dear Mrs. 
 Finchley been at home she would not have troubled a gentle- 
 man, but she felt (and here she smiled through her tears in 
 her most entrancing manner) that so good and large-hearted a 
 man as Mr. Martindale Fischer-Bennett so eloquent a 
 preacher and truly a man of God would not be offended at 
 the tears of a poor stranded woman, whom fickle fortune had 
 cruelly abandoned in the wilds of the modern Babylon. 
 
 Mrs. Kittenscomb, whose feelings were very tender, at 
 
30 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 once implored Mrs. Catsleigh to come to her apartments, and 
 tell her everything, for she felt sure some way out of present 
 difficulties could easily be found. Mrs. Catsleigh was only too 
 ready to accede to such a proposition, as she was boiling over 
 with rage and disappointment, and hated nothing so much as 
 to have to repress her overwrought feelings. Good-natured Mrs. 
 Kittenscomb who was in love with the actress within half an 
 hour told her all her private history, and literally importuned 
 her to accompany herself and daughter to America, at the same 
 time taking from her purse a considerable sum of money, 
 which she insisted on her new acquaintance accepting without 
 a murmur, "just to pay necessary bills, you know, and provide 
 a few trifles for the journey." 
 
 "Well," said Mrs. Catsleigh, shrugging her shoulders, 
 and pursing up her lips expressively, "if you insist I would be 
 ungrateful to refuse. I haven't a penny in the world, and 
 this loan will really tide me over the worst place I ever did 
 get into. As soon as I get on my feet again, I shall return it 
 to you, as I could not accept a gift from one to whom I have 
 rendered no service." 
 
 By this time Alicia was on Mrs. Catsleigh's knee, with 
 her arms round her neck. Few children could resist the per- 
 fect portrayal of the mother on the stage, whose part Mrs. 
 Catsleigh played to perfection. Her "I adore children" 
 was simply irresistible, not only to the child adored, but to the 
 child's mother, the way to whose heart the speaker of those 
 words knew so well how to travel. It must not be inferred 
 that Mrs. Catsleigh did not like children, or that she was a 
 hypocrite; she was really fond of little ones, provided they 
 behaved well and she was not in a bad temper, but, whenever 
 she wanted a favor, she knew just how to approach the partic- 
 ular person from whom she felt, in the special circumstances, 
 it could most readily be obtained. 
 
 Dr. Maxwell was surprised, and not quite glad, to see her 
 domiciled with Mrs. Kittenscomb and Alicia, as he did not 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 31 
 
 feel her to be quite a suitable companion for those ladies; she 
 was too selfish and capricious to be safely entrusted with per- 
 sons of such tender fiber as these two ladies; but, as was in- 
 variably the case after a course of treatment with Professor de 
 Montmarte, persons hitherto weak and nerveless grew strong 
 and able to carry their own burdens and steer their bark safely 
 even in perilous shallows. 
 
 As the eight days of the voyage rolled quickly by, and 
 the shores of America began to appear in sight, not one of the 
 party who had been so happy in Europe felt in any way sorry 
 to return to their old homes, and take up afresh the thread of 
 time-honored duties. When the steamer had landed at the 
 New York pier, and the party at 312 Sycamore Avenue was 
 again what it was two months earlier, and Mr, and Mrs. 
 Templeton were talking of hastening to Vermont, it seemed as 
 thoug-h all that had been crowded into a few eventful weeks 
 could only be a dream one of those sweet, restful, inspiring, 
 happy dreams, from which the dreamer awakes with a sense of 
 strength renewed and new strength gained, at peace with 
 Heaven, himself and all mankind. 
 
 Dr. Maxwell was quite unable to go to Saddlerock, but 
 Mrs. Kittenscomb, proving herself an efficient manager of 
 household affairs, and Mrs. Catsleigh rising to the occasion as 
 a really valuable assistant in domestic management, Mrs. 
 Finchley consented to pay a week's visit to the Templeton 
 homestead, where a most enthusiastic welcome was accorded 
 her by the good mother of Onesimus. That kind faithful 
 woman won her way to Mrs Finchley's kind heart at the first 
 instant of their meeting; and as she saw how devoted the 
 newly-married couple were to each other, and how Lydia flew 
 to the arms of her generous mother-in-law, the hearts of all re- 
 joiced in the consummation of one of those rare unions on 
 earth, to which the words truly apply 
 
 "Those whom God has joined together 
 No earthly power can ever sever." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE NEW GOSPEL IN THE OLD PULPIT. 
 
 No more need sorrow drape the soul 
 At prospect of unending doom, 
 The universe is filled with love, 
 Death disappears, and lo! the tomb 
 Once freighted with most dark despair, 
 Now seems a silent, placid bed, 
 Whereon the wearied members lie; 
 While from the arching blue o'erhead 
 Bright angels with sweet voices chant 
 Songs of new life which ne'er shall end, 
 Warbling their carols beautiful 
 Concerning time, whose stream doth bend 
 Toward the fair circle of that heaven, 
 Where all God's children find a home, 
 However widely they have strayed, 
 Beneath the blue of heaven's broad dome; 
 God knows no lost and sees no dead, 
 All live by His true spirit led. 
 
 Once more it was Sunday morning, the bell was ringing 
 in the belfry of the Saddlerock Baptist church, when nigh on 
 10:30 o'clock, a crowd was pouring in through the wide 
 opened doors, to the already well filled edifice. Choice 
 flowers and evergreens, together with an extremely attract- 
 ive musical program, had been provided to add beauty to the 
 occasion when a devoted circle of friends welcomed back its 
 beloved pastor from his summer tour in Europe, and at the 
 same time extended its warmest greetings to his fair young 
 bride. Mr. and Mrs. Templeton looked very impressive and 
 earnest as they entered the church together. The minister 
 appeared deeply impressed with the new sense of intense ob- 
 ligation to withhold nothing from his hearers of the new light 
 which had been vouchsafed to him; his wife was a trifle trem- 
 
 32 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 33 
 
 ulous at thought of the new life of work and responsibility 
 which lay before her. They were both grave, but serenely 
 happy; not only were they more than contented with and in 
 each other; they could see far beyond the narrow horizon of 
 domestic bliss, and scanned the broad fields of universal help- 
 fulness to humanity, now stretching distantly before them. 
 
 Saddlerock was, on the whole, a conservative and some- 
 what benighted place; its people, with few exceptions, read 
 little and reasoned less, though some minds of more than 
 average brightness were to be found twice each Sunday in the 
 Baptist church, as well as in the literary and debating society 
 which assembled in the vestry every Wednesday evening after 
 the prayer-meeting. The greatest obstacle in the way of reli- 
 gion in the neighborhood, was the pastor of the adjoining 
 township, the Rev. Veeshus Mewle, a man of no more intelli- 
 gence or moral excellence than "Mr. Dyceworthy," the Luth- 
 eran pastor whom Marie Corelli has drawn with such a faith- 
 ful hand in her magnificent production, "Thelma." This con- 
 ceited but utterly unprincipled wolf in sheep's clothing had 
 taken advantage of Mr. Templeton's absence to berate him, 
 and malign his character to the members of his church, and 
 all under the assumed pretext of "duty, painful, sad duty, but 
 duty nevertheless." 
 
 Having resorted to the lowest cunning in bis efforts to 
 steal a march on Mr. Templeton and place his own nephew 
 in the Saddlerock pulpit, this " pious, elect, and godly" man 
 had announced, "Wolves in the clothing of sheep," as the 
 topic of his discourse the previous Sunday evening, and to 
 secure an audience, he had engaged the brass band of the 
 village "at great expense," to play for nothing and accompany 
 the fine vocal efforts of six young ladies who were announced 
 as having studied in Italy for three years, under the 
 best masters, but who had never left America. The 
 tricks of a nefarious trade were, in Mr. Mewle's opinion, 
 "glorifying God and hastening the salvation of souls." 
 
34 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 Had it not been for his recent experiences in Paris, 
 and his consequent knowledge of the utter folly and 
 even wrong of recognizing evil sufficiently to let it 
 trouble us, Mr. Templeton, who was (by inheritance from 
 his mother) very sensitive, notwithstanding his depth and de- 
 termination of character, would have been pained and grieved 
 at the knowledge of such hostility manifested ' by a brother 
 minister. As it was, he saw in Mr. Mewle the representative 
 of a mendacious theology, as well as of a dishonest social 
 practice. Feeling he could no longer fraternize either with 
 such a man or with his opinions, and that the time had come 
 for him to strike out boldly in opposition to the theories he 
 had once blindly advocated, it was with a firm, uncompromis- 
 ing tread that Mr. Templeton ascended the pulpit stairs, and 
 after conducting the devotional exercises with far more than 
 his old time earnestness and simplicity, preached a grand, 
 simple, eloquent sermon (if so friendly and conversational a 
 style of delivery could be said to resemble preaching), from 
 the text, "What went ye out for to see, a reed shaken by the 
 wind?" 
 
 Taking his start from the comparative degree of truth 
 revealed to the world by John the Baptist, and the superlative 
 measure of enlightenment dispensed by Jesus, Mr. Templeton 
 compared the twilight glimmerings of the old theology with 
 the glorious blaze of heavenly radiance now bursting upon 
 the world, though entirely unsuspected by the multitude, and 
 but poorly understood or even anticipated by the foremost 
 workers in the vineyards of reform. How many are there, 
 even among social and religious agitators, who have the least 
 conception of what the new industrial order will be? The 
 present state of the world is everywhere tottering to its fall, 
 but a new earth is about to be evolved, in which righteousness 
 will abide and be made manifest, and toward this new era of 
 universal peace and good-will every effort of the most igno- 
 rant and misguided is being directed by a power holding the 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 35 
 
 reins behind the veil, and in a manner far beyond present 
 human ken. 
 
 As no village, in America, and scarcely one in Europe to- 
 day, can be so utterly behind the times as to feel nothing of 
 the impending mental revolution, Mr. Templeton knew he 
 would be striking a responsive echo in the intellects and 
 hearts of all his auditors, many of whom were working men 
 and their families, if he gave them a brief outline of Prof, de 
 Montmarte's management of his property in the south of 
 France. As he expatiated upon the blessedness of co-opera- 
 tion and the cursedness of monopoly and competition, many 
 of his hearers longed to depart from the time-honored deco- 
 rum of a place of worship, and applaud lustily. As it was, 
 not daring to kick over the traces of eclesiastical decency, 
 they gave their minister that animated, whole-souled atten- 
 tion, expressed in illuminated countenances and rapt interest 
 which makes a speaker's duty one of the most delightful upon 
 the earth. 
 
 Passing from this topic to themes more transcendental, 
 he gave some little account of the marvels he had witnessed 
 in Paris; then spoke of London; related the incident of Sig- 
 norina Ferranita's bringing Miss Carroll to the front after she 
 had been snubbed by snobs and dismissed by a truckling 
 manager, and then warmed up with kindly allusions to the 
 work of Mr. Martindale Fisher-Bennett, the son of the ortho- 
 dox pastor who was his predecessor in the place where they 
 .were then assembled. 
 
 The discourse was a wonderful mosaic of narrative and 
 argument, intensely alive with the warmest and truest senti- 
 iment. Mr. Templeton never used to preach in that strain. 
 He formerly delivered didactic homilies or moral essays, always 
 used notes, and sometimes read from manuscript; but, since his 
 wonderful Parisian experience, he spoke quite impromptu and 
 from exalted inspiration. 
 
 As the large congregation slowly left the church, many 
 
36 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 were the comments upon the preacher's change of style. All 
 agreed that he was marvelously eloquent and thrillingly im- 
 pressive. Every broad, liberal-minded one among them was 
 delighted, both with his sentiment and oratory. There were, 
 of course, some of the old stagers who were fearful lest he was 
 on the high road to Unitarianism or Spiritualism, and felt it to 
 be their "painful duty" to construct labored notes during the 
 afternoon to hand to him before the evening service, implor- 
 ing him not to depart from the old standards. 
 
 Two or three of Mr. Mewle's particular friends could 
 scarcely walk quickly enough in their eager earnestness to 
 discuss Mr. Templeton's "blasphemy" with that "dear man of 
 God," with whom they regularly partook of cold mutton and 
 pie every Sunday at 1 p. m. Mr. Mewle's face beamed with 
 satisfaction, and he chuckled all over as he was assured by his 
 intimates that the Baptist Union would expel Mr. Templeton 
 ignominiously that all that was necessary to "kick him out 
 of the church of God" was to persuade him to have some of 
 his discourses published and revised by his own hand. These 
 heretical documents, which he would acknowledge as thor- 
 oughly authentic, would be more than enough to remove the 
 "blasphemer," and install the Rev. Tarantulus Mewle (nephew 
 of the Rev. Veeshus Mewle) in his stead. With these "pious" 
 ends in view they schemed and plotted through the peaceful 
 hours of a lovely Sabbath afternoon, completely ignorant of 
 the fact that their Sabbath-breaking was an offense infinitely 
 more heinous in the sight of heaven than even the bull fights, 
 at Seville, which, disgraceful to relate, occur on Sunday after- 
 noons in the open square in front of the Cathedral, and that in 
 a country professedly Christian and Catholic. 
 
 By 7 o'clock in the evening Mr. Templeton's church was 
 again crowded, more so than in the morning. His sermon had 
 created a sensation, and many who looked upon orthodox re- 
 ligion as a humbug were very anxious to hear him on "The 
 Old Fetters and the New Faith," which he had announced at 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 37 
 
 the close of his morning discourse as his topic for the even- 
 ing. The church was thronged almost to suffocation. Com- 
 p anies of workmen, who never attended a place of worship, 
 were present with their wives and elder children; and numer- 
 ous visitors from surrounding- hamlets availed themselves of 
 the moonlight evening to hear a prophet who had been reared 
 among them, but only just achieved notoriety. The lights 
 and flowers, the inspiring music and exquisitely touching 
 prayer, all prepared the minds of the throng to appreciate 
 what the minister was about to say before he uttered it, so 
 that when he came to the delivery of his discourse every 
 mind, with scarcely an exception, was prepared to drink in 
 some of the copious instruction which fell so finely from his 
 evidently inspired lips. 
 
 Fixing his expressive eyes upon the sea of upturned faces, 
 without apparently regarding any one in particular, the 
 preacher commenced in firm, well-modulated accents: 
 
 "My friends, this day is indeed an auspicious one in my 
 history. I have resolved to leave the Baptist Union, 
 for though I am a firmer believer in divine revelation than 
 when I addressed you three months ago, I cannot longer re- 
 main as a representative of a denomination whose avowed 
 tenets are not in accordance with the findings of my soul. I 
 trust I am still a Christian, but I am no longer a Baptist, nor 
 can I leave one sect to join another, as all sectarianism now 
 appears to me as a dwarfing of the soul's liberty, and a protest 
 against that true catholicity, which is the infallible seal of the 
 church of God. Do not think from these words that I am on 
 the threshold of Rome, Greece, or England; for, though I 
 believe in apostolic succession, and in "one Lord, one faith, 
 and one baptism," my eyes have been opened to the inner 
 meanings of things, the outer forms of which previously ap- 
 peared to me their all. We are, I am convinced, at the com- 
 mencement of a mighty revolution not like that of France 
 in the last century, when the deposition of religion and en- 
 
38 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 throning of vaunted reason coincided with belligerent cruelty 
 of the most astounding and horrible type, but a revolution to be 
 affected solely through the operation of the spiritual element 
 in man a force which uses moral suasion and intellectual ap- 
 peal as its only weapons. I have been thinking deeply of 
 late on the subject of divine revelation, and I can no longer 
 believe that it is intermittent or exclusive. The Scriptures 
 teach me plainly that inspiration is free as air and sunshine to 
 all who receive it. If we remain in darknass it is on account 
 of willful blindness on our part. 
 
 "You may wonder what I think of the hundreds of mill- 
 ions of "heathen," as we have been disposed to call the great 
 bulk of Asiatics and Africans, for whose conversion to technical 
 Christianity we have many of us expended much time, means 
 and labor. My present conviction is that they are as safe as 
 we, in the embrace of all-encompassing divine love. Christ 
 to me is no longer a restricted Savior, dwarfed in his abilities 
 by the extent of our contributions or the zeal of our mission- 
 aries. The Holy Spirit appears to me now as an all-persua- 
 sive emanation of divine love and wisdom, breathing with the 
 sovereignty ascribed to it by Calvin, but with all the impar- 
 tiality for which the Universalists of a century ago contended 
 so manfully. Were this church nominally Universalist, I 
 might remain its pastor and preach my convictions, but even 
 then I should feel the bondage of a sect, though an unusually 
 broad one. As it is, I must be free to speak and write as I 
 feel, for there is not, in my estimation, a greater crime, if one 
 so great, as compromise with conscience. 
 
 "My dear young wife, who comes among you as my com- 
 panion and helpmeet in all things, is one with me in all my 
 sentiments and ambitions; she and I, together with my dear 
 mother, have resolved to form the nucleus of an un sectarian 
 society here in Saddlerock, so, though I resign my pastorate 
 of this church, I hope to remain and work with you. 
 
 "Let the Baptist church of this place choose a minister ao- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 39 
 
 cording to its will one whose views harmonize with the con- 
 fession of faith and, though he and I cannot agree theologi- 
 cally, if he will allow it, we can co-operate philanthropically. 
 Henceforth I belong to humanity, and not to any sect. I feel 
 that those who would reach the masses of the great unchurched 
 must carry a gospel to the people "unhampered with the 
 dogmas of any body of people who place uniformity of belief 
 before the practice of virtue. I am not among those who see 
 nothing but error in the sects, nor am I one who anticipates a 
 decadence of faith or dearth of religious life in the next gen- 
 eration. Religion has been under a cloud, from which it is 
 now rapidly emerging; and, while man's faith in God will 
 grow brighter, his opinions concerning God must radically 
 change. Evolution to my mind, is not inconsistent with the 
 most fervid piety and simple trust in omniscient, omnipotent 
 goodness; but evolution cuts the ground finally from under 
 the old view of man's fall and subsequent redemption. Jesus 
 is more to me now than he ever was before, not as an atoning 
 sacrifice, but as a spiritual power, leading men to righteous- 
 ness by the mighty power of his boundless love and wisdom. 
 I cannot advocate uncertain dogmas, nor can 1 care what creed 
 a man professes if he be sincere at the same time, agnosti- 
 cism to me is no gospel. Affirmative spiritual truth is the joy 
 of my life, the satisfaction of my intellect, the object of my 
 inmost affection. I believe in miracles now more than I ever 
 did, but I have learned to refer them to the operation of un- 
 changing law, not to its suspension; by law I do not mean 
 a blind, self-existent necessity, but, on the contrary, the im- 
 mutable order of the Universe, expressive of God's change- 
 less power. 
 
 Proceeding in this strain for fully an hour, taking up, 
 point by point, the leading doctrines of the Christian religion, 
 Mr. Templeton led his hearers by a series of logically success- 
 ive steps to the crown of his argument, which burst upon them 
 as a thoroughly rational, though deeply spiritual view of the 
 atonement. His words on this subject were as follows: 
 
40 ONESIMUti TEMPLETON. 
 
 "And now, m j friends, we reach the apex of our pyramid, 
 the foundation of which is the perfect square of absolute divine 
 equity. How blindly and foolishly have men been prating 
 through the centuries of an opposition between the attributes 
 of the Almighty. God's attributes are distinct the one from 
 the other, but never can one be opposed to another, or God 
 himself would cease to be; for, whatsoever is at variance with 
 itself, by such variance is brought to destruction. 
 
 " "Mercy and justice are eternally inseparable; God is love 
 and wisdom. Divine Love is recognized by us when we are 
 confront ed with mercy in the scheme of providence; Divine 
 Wisdom is displayed to us when justice meets our view. Jus- 
 tice and mercy are in truth, as man and wife, when the two 
 are no more twain, but one spirit. This sublime verity how- 
 ever, is inconceivable by us until through inward purity, puri 
 ty of affection, desire, aspiration and WILL, we attain to the 
 glorified condition of those who see Eternal Good in 
 all. Jesus as a perfect, living, breathing, working ex- 
 ponent of the Divine Character, as hetraveled over the 
 earth, perpetually emanated virtue as a flower exhales 
 fragrance. This elixir of life, potent to heal all disor- 
 ders of men's moral, mental and physical condition was the 
 power by which he brought sinners to repentance, cast out 
 unclean demons, and healed all manner of bodily infirmities. 
 But what shall we say of those who, while professing to teach 
 in his name, revoke his express decision, and attribute to 
 charlatanism, delusion or the devil, every manifestation of 
 spiritual power akin to the phenomena occurring in his own 
 presence and that of his original disciples? When did he say 
 that the power to heal and dispossess the mind of unclean in- 
 fluences should be confined to one century, and that the age 
 of miracles should pass never to return? 
 
 "When, as a student at college, I studied eclesiastical 
 history, I was often so shocked at the records of gross immor- 
 ality in the church of the first three centuries, even among the 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 41 
 
 highest dignitaries, that I felt like throwing up my studies 
 and renouncing all idea of the ministry as my field of activity; 
 but consolation invariably came to me with the inward assur- 
 ance'that Christ's perfection, not the weakness of his prof essed 
 followers, is to be our guide and anchor, and thus through 
 'many a conflict, many a doubt,' I clung as it were, to the 
 hem of the garment of the Spotless One and realized how 
 weak are all human props, how breakable if not broken all 
 finite reeds. Now a new light has come to me in the shape of 
 an added revelation. During my sojourn in France, I have 
 seen the power of the spirit demonstrated, I have witnessed 
 Christ-like works performed, and not only have I been a privi- 
 leged spectator of cures wrought in others; I have personally 
 felt the blesing descend upon my most unworthy self, not only 
 in the opening of my interior vision and the unfolding of my 
 intellect, but also in the strengthening of my frame. I am to- 
 day a far stronger and healthier man than when I last 
 addressed you, but though I agree with the Christian Scientists 
 in their cardinal premises and central claims, I cannot join 
 their ranks, as I neither render allegiance to pretentious indi- 
 viduals, nor do I consider it necessary to deny the existence 
 of the material universe, because I believe implicitly in the 
 absolute sovereignty of spirit. 
 
 "Believe me, dear friends, atonement or reconciliation is 
 necessary to salvation present and to come, but it is our ac- 
 quaintance with truth and obedience to the divine voice which 
 speaks as the Holy Spirit in our own inmost nature, that con- 
 stitutes the reconciliation. Next Sunday I shall speak in the 
 morning on, "Why men believe in original sin," and in the 
 evening on, "In what sense is Christ our Savior?" Between 
 now and then the deacons and trustees of this church must 
 decide whether those sermons are delivered in this edifice, or 
 whether I shall accede to the request of some unsectarians 
 who wish to organize an entirely sectless society, which can 
 meet for worship, praise, and exhortation in our commodious 
 Town Hall." 
 
42 ONESIMUS TEMPLETQN, 
 
 As may be expected, such sentiments could not fail to 
 excite great and varied comment when expressed by a man 
 whose orthodoxy had formerly been sound, and who was still 
 the duly installed pastor of a Baptist society; nevertheless, so 
 progressive is the general trend of modern religious thought, 
 that quite a considerable number of members declared there 
 was nothing whatever to which they intended to take excep- 
 tion in Mr. Templeton's position. The almost unanimous ver- 
 dict was that he was a far better preacher than formerly, that 
 his young wife was a jewel of a woman, and they were not 
 going to unsettle their minister and run the risk of breaking 
 up their congregation and getting a most undesirable occu- 
 pant for the pulpit, because Mr. Templeton's views had ex- 
 panded and he no longer could preach the weird old doctrines 
 of infinite wrath and everlasting damnation. The trustees and 
 deacons held a private, special meeting that very evening in 
 the vestry, and with one exception, voted to refuse Mr. Tem- 
 pleton's proffered resignation, and as to the Baptist Union, if 
 it expelled them as a congregation, they owned their church 
 property and could worship God better perhaps, outside sec- 
 tarian limits than within the pale of an exclusive denomina- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Mewle was furious; his denunciations of Mr. Tem- 
 pleton became so acrid and ungentlemanly, that even his own 
 friends began to take sides against him; and then when he 
 began to wail and whimper and appropriate to himself the 
 blessing promised to those who are persecuted for righteous- 
 ness' sake, the mask fell completely off in the presence of 
 many of his old admirers. 
 
 #****** 
 
 It is a fair morning a Monday morning, and the 
 preacher is not "blue," he is never "blue" nowadays. All is 
 couleur de rose. It is nine o'clock on the Monday morning, 
 following the second Sunday of his ministrations since his re- 
 turn to Saddlerock. A pleasant party are discussing the sub- 
 
ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 43 
 
 i 
 jects nearest to all their hearts, as they linger over the remains 
 
 of a simple but delicious breakfast. They are seated in a 
 charming room overlooking wide pasture lands, with towering 
 hills not far distant. Mrs. Finchley, Mrs. Templeton Sr., Ones- 
 imus and Lydia Templeton, constituted a group once seen, 
 never to be forgotten; such rest, such peace, such harmony, 
 seldom prevail in any earthly household. They are talking over 
 matters in New York, of a wonderful cure of typhoid fever, 
 and another of total paralysis of the lower limbs just accomp- 
 lished by Dr. Maxwell, through the agency of spiritual elec- 
 tricity; they are also talking of Zenophon and the marvelous 
 progress he is making as a student of electrical therapeutics, 
 under the worthy doctor's kindly supervision, and of the 
 strange fate which befell Mrs. Catsleigh after one week's 
 sojourn under Dr. Maxwell's roof. Count Katolowynski re- 
 turned to New York, proposed to her and married her the 
 same day. On the day following, as Countess Katolowynski, 
 she left 312 Sycamore avenue, and with her husband sailed 
 back to Europe. Having lost control of Zenophon, the Count 
 was determined to secure as his subject, this singular lady, 
 who yielded at once to his mesmeric fascination, declared her- 
 self passionately in love with him, and glad to follow him to 
 the ends of the earth, his title and fine appearance being no 
 mean considerations in her eyes. Beaming with satisfaction, 
 she answered the questions in the marriage service without the 
 slightest tinge of embarrassment. Her effusiveness at parting 
 with Mrs. Finchley was melo-dramatic in the extreme; that 
 good woman could not feel glad to see her married to so ad- 
 venturous a fellow as the handsome Count, still there was 
 much that was congenial in their natures, and let us hope they 
 may have at least as much happiness as they deserve in their 
 new life together. 
 
 The lessons taught the Count by Heloise had evidently 
 been to his profit; and it is a noteworthy fact that no one ever 
 is brought into the atmosphere of a truly spiritual person with- 
 out reaping lasting advantage. 
 
44 ONESIMUS TEMPLETON. 
 
 Mrs. Pushing had just returned from Newport, where she 
 had taken a class in Christian Science, at $25 per student. 
 Fory-three students had paid her that amount during the sum- 
 mer, so she had managed to meet expenses, though on her 
 return to New York she anticipated much greater success 
 financially. She missed Miss Hockmeir fearfully, and was 
 exasperated beyond words when she found Mrs. Catsleigh, 
 whom she hoped to secure as her assistant, had married and 
 departed for Europe. Mrs. Pushing had endeavored to secure 
 as her assistant a Miss Sparrowcliffe, but that lady preferred 
 to reside in Boston, where she became secretary of the Grim- 
 alkin College of Spiritual Science, the chief teacher in which 
 institution was Mrs. Wolf Katzenheimer, who taught public 
 classes at $3 per student, and whose printed lectures sold at 
 five cents each. 
 
 As during the past four years our many characters have 
 not been idle, we shall, if the demand justifies, publish a 
 sequel to this story, in which the spiritual-electric system of 
 healing will be far more accurately and elaborately defined 
 than in the foregoing pages. 
 
 As the reader parts company with our heroes and 
 heroines, let him remember they are all characters in real 
 life, but so dressed as not to betray confidence, or invite un- 
 welcome attention to individuals, some of whom love retire- 
 ment far more than publicity. 
 
 The author, who has acted but as recorder and amanuen- 
 sis, assumes no responsibility for the words put in the mouths 
 of the characters. The reader must decide for himself how far 
 the theories they severally advance are tenable. 
 
 This story is a novel, and as a work of fiction it goes to 
 the world; but the author knows by personal experience that 
 in this, as in many other instances, "truth is stranger than 
 fiction." 
 
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