Time, in itself, is an illusion; it depends upon states of consciousness. When struggling in the black pool each moment seemed an hour, each hour a day. The same holds good for the man whose mind dwells on the things of earth alone and whose thoughts are sensuous in their nature. The secret of happiness lies in forgetting self, and any slight diversion, business or amusement, which brings this end, brings a proportioned happiness; but the happiness which comes from a willful and conscious forgetfulness of self exceeds all others, and brings a state of consciousness in which all sense of time is lost. As the boat was drawn swiftly through the water we became lost in each other's love. My heart, like hers, had now become responsive to the divine vibrations in the celestial soul, and the happiness that comes from this state cannot be told. Our thoughts were again brought back to earth by our boat coming to a stop on the sandy shore. At Hand in hand we stepped out upon the sand. The white-robed assembly stood around with heads uncovered in reverence to the sacredness of our love, when a beautiful woman advanced to meet me. A cry of joy escaped my lips. "Triumph of love," I cried, "it is my long-lost sister, Esmeralda!" Beautiful in youth, divinely beautiful now! Like all those gathered around, her face revealed her spiritual power and love. "My noble brother," she said, as I embraced her fondly, "I told you we would meet again, but neither you nor I ever dreamed of such a meeting." "My darling sister," I answered, "this indeed is happiness beyond all expectation; but may I ask concerning father and mother?" "They live," she replied, with a glad smile, "but still farther on, members of the Third Degree; and we shall meet them there. But, my brother, we have met more recently than you think." "When and where?" I asked in surprise. "Ah, that explains your silence and timidity as you stood beside the stately Turk; but why did you thus conceal your identity?" "I was forbidden to make myself known; you had trials to meet, and the occasion was also a test for me." At this point a noble-looking old man with a long gray beard and large golden girdle around his waist, advanced, and, bowing low, said in kind and gentle voice: "Brother, let your sisters lead you to the royal chamber." As he spoke he made a motion to the assembly and all formed in lines to make a triangle, he, as leader, forming the apex, while I, with Iole and Esmeralda at my arms, marched in the center. What a contrast since I had donned the robes of white! now all was beautiful and my trials seemed all passed. We crossed the cavern and entered a broad vaulted passage walled with marble and trimmed in gold and silver. Everything was lighted by a diffused light from no apparent source, and I could not help but marvel at the beauty of my brothers and sisters as their faces shone under its radiance. Fully half of those who formed my escort were women, and as we marched along the passage Iole said: "Yes," said Esmeralda, "and you can now more fully realize the grandeur of that philosophy which teaches that it is for the evolution of perfect man that the universe came into being." "Yes," answered Iole, "the chief end of God is to glorify man, and the chief end of man should be to glorify God." "And the latter can only be done through the former," said Esmeralda, "for it is only through man that God can be glorified." "Then," I replied, "if man but does his full duty to man, he performs his full duty to God." "That is the sum of all duties; man's duty is to man," they both replied together. We now reached a gilded gate which opened before us, and we entered a large, white chamber, hexagonal in shape and with a pyramidal roof. Around at the top of the walls was a golden finished frieze containing the twelve signs of the zodiac in relief, while at the side of the chamber, opposite the gate through which we had come, was a white throne, in the center of which, in a golden chair, sat a man of apparently middle age. His remarkably handsome face was beardless and gave him a youthful appearance, while his features looked like those of a man of age and thought. His uncovered head was crowned with thick and The Master-king bowed with a smile, and in kind and gentle tones addressed me: "Dear brother, gladly do I welcome thee in the kingdom of true brotherhood. It adds to our joy to see one more joined with the small minority. All greet you as our brother." As though in answer to his words, all the assembly around looked at me and cried in chorus: "Our brother, we greet you as our brother.'' How different this king from the kings of earth, I thought; he greets me as a brother, and does not deem a gentle smile and words of tenderness as inconsistent with severity and power. And now, without noisy cry or spreading gesture, "There is one God, one man, one Brotherhood, one truth; these are our corner-stones, upon these we erect our structure. "God is the Infinite and all-pervading Spirit, formless, immutable, eternal and incomprehensible to all save itself. "Man is an individualized manifestation of God in self-imposed conditions; a center in the Infinite Essence around which the spirit vibrates and through which it flows forth and reveals itself in the world of forms and things. "The one Brotherhood is humanity, the sum total of all the individualized centers of the divine activity, which, while apparently separate, are one in life and essence. "Truth is the full, self-conscious realization of God within its individualized manifestations and the illumination that comes to each therewith. "God comprehends all truth; and man, as God individualized, can comprehend all truth through God in him." He ceased speaking; but the wonderful magnetism "Is my brother's number forty-nine?" I looked to the leader, and as he bowed I answered, "It is." "Then," she said, addressing the leader and king with bold unflinching eyes, "the meaning of this choice becomes revealed; fifty-one plus forty-nine makes the square of ten, whose meaning you all know." The gray-bearded leader gave an inquiring look at the king, who again leaned forward and addressed me: "I aspire to reach the highest summit, yea, even to God-hood does nay soul aspire," I answered, with a wonderful lightness of heart and consciousness of strength. Without reply the king made a sign to the leader, and he and Iole took their seats. The lightly draped Apollo at the right of the king now spoke: "I represent the sun, symbol of life, center of vitality and heart of the solar essence that throbs through all within the boundaries of our solar sphere. I am the spirit as it acts, and manifest in matter; but my sign conceals a mystery and has two meanings; learn thou this secret and thou shalt never die." He ceased, and the woman on the left, in a clear, musical voice, spoke: "I represent the moon, symbol of subtle matter, the essential substance necessary to form and growth. I am the vehicle of spirit and the base without which it could not act; my sign, too, conceals a mystery, and has two meanings; learn thou its secret and thy form, made perfect, will not dissolve." She ceased, and the king again spoke: Ever since the time when we met in the columned halls of Thebes and Memphis, Osiris and Isis As he spoke all eyes turned toward the zodiac above the throne; doing likewise, I saw a violet mist cover it. As the substance enveloped the sign, it seemed alive with golden atoms which moved and vibrated rapidly therein. The cloud continued but a moment, when it disappeared, and the sign was visible once more; but instead of the sun and moon as before, there was a golden disk with a white cross therein. As I wondered by what strange mechanism this phenomena was accomplished, the leader arose and gave the order: "To the hall of learning!" The assembly immediately arose, and, with united bow to the king, marched in double column from the hall. We proceeded along a passage not unlike the one through which we had entered, until we came to another vaulted chamber. The frieze of this chamber was also a zodiac with movable planets in the different signs, while the great stars also had their places. The walls around were covered with mystic symbols, circles, triangles, crosses, squares, lines, spots, letters, allegorical scenes and numbers. On the four sides of the chamber were four remarkable pieces of statuary: a golden lion, an ivory man, a gigantic eagle and a bull. In the center of the hall was a As he spoke he pointed to a large vulture carved from black material, which rested near him upon the table. "Ever since the day when we left the now lost Atlantis for a new home in the land of the Pyramids, the vulture, as a destroyer of all corruption and things foul, has been the symbol of a sacred power. The initiated hierophants of Egypt did not use the vulture symbol without reason; and, He paused a moment, as though to let the words impress me, and then continued: "Next, no man can enter here who has not killed all thoughts of self, and extinguished every selfish aspiration and all desires for life, unless that life has an unselfish purpose. The tests to try your pride and love of life, determined how you stood. When we asked you for your wealth, you doubted; those were there who could read your colors, and your thoughts were not concealed. Know that here no evil thought can be concealed, your mind is an open book. Know also that doubt is a canker-worm which ever breedeth fear and paralyzes strength; not doubt of forms, and creeds, and dogmas, but doubt of the eternal excellence and superiority of truth and justice. He who doubts not these eternal principles ever adheres to the right, confident that, no matter what appearances may indicate, he will in the end succeed and triumph over all. "Know, also, that we have no need of your money; what wealth we need, our knowledge of nature's powers enables us to get. Now hear the explanation and meaning of your further trials. "'O being! I would share myself with thee and make thee wise and God-like; I not only urge thee to the journey, but give thee this my promise: Through this awful pool of matter I will go with thee, and if thou wilt but rely on me will ever guard and lead thee to the free upon the other side. But before thou dost this journey undertake, listen to my warning: Two paths lie through this awful whirlpool; one straight and certain and not over-dangerous in its nature, the other devious and with many pitfalls which make it most dangerous and productive of much pain. The first is trod by those who take me for their guide and learn the nature of suffering by sympathetic identification with those who suffer, but who do not themselves bring suffering because they keep free from the causes which produce it. Many who start with me lose sight of me when the vapors gather around them; then, not hearing or listening to my guiding voice, but deceived by the perfidious beauties which ever tempt them, they take the second path. Great is their misery! long and painful is their path! Thus deceived, they may descend so low and stray so far that I can no longer reach them; then they die; absorbed in matter their substance returns The speaker paused; his deep and earnest words had stirred my soul and roused my intuition, and It told me the hidden meaning of his dialogue. Iole, evidently anticipating what he next would say, now clasped my hand and held it as the speaker continued: "As in the universal evolution two paths lead to Nirvana, so here below two paths lead to this chamber. Your loving sister sought to lead you here through the path of love and light, but, like most, you wandered and had to take the dark and downward path into the depths of earth. A skeleton, which symbolized the death of spirit in the tomb of matter, led you on until you reached the very slime of earth and fell into the pool. But thou hadst not entirely lost sight of thy inner self, and listening to its promptings thou hast won. Hadst thou been blinded by thy fears and doubts He finished, and those around repeated in chorus: "All hail our new-born brother! All hail our new-born brother!" The orator took his position in the ranks, and the gray-bearded leader, with a bow to Iole, made a motion, and the assembly immediately formed into couples and departed. "I will leave you to your other sister," said Esmeralda, as she took the arm of a tall blonde brother. "What is the course?" asked the leader, as he passed Iole. "The law shall rule," answered Iole, as he departed, leaving us alone in the room. "Now, my dear brother, I will explain some of the symbols; but remember that some symbols have more meaning than can be given in the largest book, and these symbols have many keys and therefore many meanings." As she spoke, she led me to the white pyramid connected with the black cube by the slender thread of green. "Recall the words of the orator, and the meaning of this symbol will be plain," she said, as I gazed in silence at this truly marvelous work. "The white pyramid symbolizes the higher self, As she paused for a moment I questioned "But, Iole, can anything be destroyed?" "Not in its essence," she answered, "both matter and spirit, as such, are eternal and indestructible; but their individualized or special combinations are not unless the will that rules them so wills. At this separation of the lower from the higher, or spirit from matter, spirit returns into the Universal Spirit and matter into the universal matter; but the individuality that came from their union is lost. Know that the occult teaching that man can lose his soul is most scientific when correctly understood. All souls either attain to spiritual individuality and pass on to God-like perfection, or are dissipated and dissolved. Many men now live on the earth whose higher souls have left them; such are the monsters who sometimes appear in the forms of men and startle the world with their wickedness. But this is a vast and deep study—this study of the soul; let us proceed to the other symbols." Near by rested a large black cube, and as we came to it she said: "This you no doubt understand, but it has many meanings; let me explain: "This black cube symbolizes the four elements or principles which make the lower man; that is, She pressed a spring, and the ends and sides of the cube unfolded on the floor and formed a cross, four squares high and three squares broad. "You see," she said, "that by counting the center twice there are seven squares, which symbolize the seven principles which make the complete man. As a black body is an instrument of torture for the spirit which inhabits it, so here we have the cross likewise an instrument of torture; and as man with arms extended makes a cross, so also does the cube gilded. Likewise man with arms extended makes a square of four equal measures; the four which make his height being equal to the four which make his width, and four times four equal sixteen, a perfect square, and the fourth power of the duad, two. Such is mystic mathematics." We closed the cross into its cubic shape and approached the other wondrous symbol. For a moment she stood by in silence; then in a deep, solemn and soul-stirring voice, said: "This explains the mystery of Christ, the meaning of the crucifixion and the mystery of pain. The black cross, as just explained, represents man's lower nature, this body, a tomb for the spirit and au instrument for its torture. Nailed upon or fastened to this cross, or form of flesh, is the Divine She paused, and I thought—how beautiful, yet how pathetic, this interpretation of the story of Christ; how much misunderstood this wonderful allegory, teaching a universal truth. "Iole," I said, "I see that you give an allegorical interpretation to the story of Christ; do you believe that a historical Christ existed?" "That a character existed around whose life the Christ-story was builded, I have no doubt; but the Universal Christ, the divine in man, has always existed and has never died. All ancient Scriptures have an esoteric meaning, and under the forms of allegories and symbols the great truths of the universe and man, the macrocosm and the microcosm, are veiled; but veiled soTHE WHITE BROTHERHOOD.