experienced during my
spirit-wanderings. Heliobas stood in front of me with outstretched
hands, and his eyes were fixed on mine with a mingled expression of
anxiety and authority, which changed into a look of relief and gladness
as I smiled at him and uttered his name aloud.

CHAPTER XII.

SECRETS OF THE SUN AND MOON.

"Have I been long away?" I asked, as I raised myself upright in the
chair where I had been resting.

"I sent you from hence on Thursday morning at noon," replied Heliobas.
"It is now Friday evening, and within a few minutes of midnight. I was
growing alarmed. I have never known anyone stay absent for so long; and
you resisted my authority so powerfully, that I began to fear you would
never come back at all."

"I wish I had not been compelled to do so!" I said regretfully.

He smiled.

"No doubt you do. It is the general complaint. Will you stand up now
and see how you feel?"

I obeyed. There was still a slight sensation about me as of being
cramped for space; but this was passing, and otherwise I felt
singularly strong, bright and vigorous. I stretched out my hands in
unspeakable gratitude to him through whose scientific power I had
gained my recent experience.

"I can never thank you enough!" I said earnestly. "I dare say you know
something of what I have seen on my journey?"

"Something, but not all," he replied. "Of course I know what worlds and
systems you saw, but what was said to you, or what special lessons were
given you for your comfort, I cannot tell." "Then I will describe
everything while it is fresh upon me," I returned. "I feel that I must
do so in order that you may understand how glad I am,--how grateful I
am to you."

I then related the different scenes through which I had passed,
omitting no detail. Heliobas listened with profound interest and
attention. When I had finished, he said:

"Yours has been a most wonderful, I may say almost exceptional,
experience. It proves to me more than ever the omnipotence of WILL.
Most of those who have been placed by my means in the Uplifted or
Electric state of being, have consented to it simply to gratify a sense
of curiosity--few therefore have gone beyond the pure ether, where, as
in a sea, the planets swim. Cellini, for instance, never went farther
than Venus, because in the atmosphere of that planet he met the Spirit
that rules and divides his destiny. Zara--she was daring, and reached
the outer rim of the Great Circle; b