still vaster sympathy.

[Illustration: ON THE THRONE SAT THE SUPREME GODDESS, LYONE, THE
REPRESENTATIVE OF HARIKAR, THE HOLY SOUL.]

All at once she gazed at me! I felt filled with a fever of delicious
delight, of intoxicating adoration. I could then understand the
devotion of Atvatabar, of hearts slain by eyes that were conquering
swords.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE THRONE OF THE GODS, CALNOGOR.

The throne of the gods was the most famous institution in Atvatabar.
It was the cynosure of every eye, the object of all adoration, the
tabernacle of all that was splendid in art, science and spiritual
perfection. The great institutions of Egyplosis, the college of ten
thousand soul-worshippers, the palace of Gnaphisthasia, with its five
thousand poets, artists, musicians, dancers, architects, and weavers
of glorious cloths, and the establishments for training the youth of
the country in mechanical skill, were but the outlying powers that
lent glory to the throne itself. It was the standard of virtue, of
soul, of genius, skill and art. It was the triune symbol of body, mind
and spirit. It was the undying voice of Atvatabar proclaiming the
grandeur of soul development; that pleasure, rightly guarded, may be
virtue. The religion of Harikar in a word was this, that the Nirvana,
or blessedness promised the followers of the supernatural creeds of
the outer world, after death was to be enjoyed in the body in earthly
life without the trouble of dying to gain it. This was a comfortable
state of things, if only possible of accomplishment, and such a creed
of necessity included the doctrine that the physical death of the body
was the end of all individuality, the soul thereafter losing all
personality in the great ocean of existence.

The throne of the gods was a cone of solid gold one hundred feet in
height, divided into three parts for the various castes of gods, or
symbols of science, art and spirituality. The structure was a circular
solid cone of gold, shaped somewhat in the form of a heart. It was
indeed the golden heart of Atvatabar, proclaiming that sentiment and
science should go hand in hand; that in all affairs of life the heart
should be an important factor. The lower section, or scientific
pantheon, possessed bas-reliefs of models or symbols of the more
important inventions. This section was forty feet in height and
seventy-two feet in diameter.

The images of the gods themselves surmounting the lowest part of the