t tremor came over me; but I said with an attempt at
indifference:

"You mean that I shall be dominated also by some great force or
influence?"

"I think so," replied Heliobas musingly. "Your nature is more prone to
love than to command. Try and follow me in the explanation I am going
to give you. Do you know some lines by Shelley that run--

"'Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?'"

"Yes," I said. "I know the lines well. I used to think them very
sentimental and pretty."

"They contain," said Heliobas, "the germ of a great truth, as many of
the most fanciful verses of the poets do. As the 'image of a voice'
mentioned in the Book of Job hinted at the telephone, and as
Shakespeare's 'girdle round the earth' foretold the electric telegraph,
so the utterances of the inspired starvelings of the world, known as
poets, suggest many more wonders of the universe than may be at first
apparent. Poets must always be prophets, or their calling is in vain.
Put this standard of judgment to the verse-writers of the day, and
where would they be? The English Laureate is no seer: he is a mere
relater of pretty stories. Algernon Charles Swinburne has more fire in
him, and more wealth of expression, but he does not prophesy; he has a
clever way of combining Biblical similes with Provengal passion--et
voila tout! The prophets are always poor--the sackcloth and ashes of
the world are their portion; and their bodies moulder a hundred years
or more in the grave before the world finds out what they meant by
their ravings. But apropos of these lines of Shelley. He speaks of the
duality of existence. 'Nothing in the world is single.' He might have
gone further, and said nothing in the universe is single. Cold and
heat, storm and sunshine, good and evil, joy and sorrow--all go in
pairs. This double life extends to all the spheres and above the
spheres. Do you understand?"

"I understand what you say," I said slowly; "but I cannot see your
meaning as applied to myself or yourself."

"I will teach you in a few words," went on Heliobas. "You believe in
the soul?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Now realize that there is no soul on this earth that is
complete, ALONE. Like everything else, it is dual. It is like half a
flame that seeks the other half, and is dissatisfied and restless till
it attains its object. Lovers, misled by the blinding light of Love,
thi