in our house of--"

"Your forefather, who, in the revival of science, sought the secrets of
Apollonius and Paracelsus."

"What!" said Glyndon, amazed, "are you so well acquainted with the
annals of an obscure lineage?"

"To the man who aspires to know, no man who has been the meanest
student of knowledge should be unknown. You ask me why I have shown this
interest in your fate? There is one reason which I have not yet told
you. There is a fraternity as to whose laws and whose mysteries the most
inquisitive schoolmen are in the dark. By those laws all are pledged to
warn, to aid, and to guide even the remotest descendants of men who
have toiled, though vainly, like your ancestor, in the mysteries of the
Order. We are bound to advise them to their welfare; nay, more,--if they
command us to it, we must accept them as our pupils. I am a survivor
of that most ancient and immemorial union. This it was that bound me to
thee at the first; this, perhaps, attracted thyself unconsciously, Son
of our Brotherhood, to me."

"If this be so, I command thee, in the name of the laws thou obeyest, to
receive me as thy pupil!"

"What do you ask?" said Zanoni, passionately. "Learn, first, the
conditions. No neophyte must have, at his initiation, one affection or
desire that chains him to the world. He must be pure from the love of
woman, free from avarice and ambition, free from the dreams even of
art, or the hope of earthly fame. The first sacrifice thou must make
is--Viola herself. And for what? For an ordeal that the most daring
courage only can encounter, the most ethereal natures alone survive!
Thou art unfit for the science that has made me and others what we are
or have been; for thy whole nature is one fear!"

"Fear!" cried Glyndon, colouring with resentment, and rising to the full
height of his stature.

"Fear! and the worst fear,--fear of the world's opinion; fear of the
Nicots and the Mervales; fear of thine own impulses when most generous;
fear of thine own powers when thy genius is most bold; fear that virtue
is not eternal; fear that God does not live in heaven to keep watch on
earth; fear, the fear of little men; and that fear is never known to the
great."

With these words Zanoni abruptly left the artist, humbled, bewildered,
and not convinced. He remained alone with his thoughts till he was
aroused by the striking of the clock; he then suddenly remembered
Zanoni's prediction of the Cardinal's death; and, seized w