uth. "We ask you, goddess, to set us
free."

"I will bring you both before the spiritual council," said Hushnoly,
"and, as you are aware, the sentence of the council as provided by the
constitution of Egyplosis will be that you, each of you, be imprisoned
in separate cells for life, and the child removed and cared for in a
distant part of the kingdom. You will henceforth be obliterated from
life."

The lovers convulsively embraced each other, the beautiful Merga
weeping bitterly.

"We will accept the punishment," said Ardsolus, "because we will give
courage to the many twin-souls already imprisoned and also to those
who as ardently desire freedom as ourselves. They will never forget
that we are fighting their battle against a monstrous wrong."

"Guards, remove the prisoners," said the high priest.

"Can nothing that I may say mitigate their punishment?" said the
goddess.

"Your holiness is aware," said Hushnoly, "that the laws of Egyplosis
admit of no other interpretation than that prescribed for such a case
as this. The foundation of the religion of Atvatabar must be preserved
at any cost."

"I urge for mercy," said the goddess, who honored the prisoners with
her tears.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE DOCTOR'S OPINION OF EGYPLOSIS.

My experiences in Egyplosis were teaching me that even the most
perfect human organizations contain the elements of decay and death.
The human soul at variance with its own physical condition was hardly
the best ideal of a god. Here was happiness piled upon happiness, yet
the recipients thereof were not happy. Disappointments and suffering
are natural to man because life is supported on difficulty, and a
long-continued happiness is the sure forerunner of disaster. The
reaction of misery lies somewhere concealed from the eye of happiness,
and if it does not at once show itself, it will later on. Even in
well-guarded happiness, if one single pleasure be omitted, we
experience more regret at its absence than pleasure over the bounties
we enjoy. Hence, a large proportion of twin-souls were not wholly in
love with their life in the temple of souls, however enamored they
were of each other. Almost absolute freedom of action, freedom from
care, physical and mental exercises, soul development, the practice of
magic, the most alluring investigation of mental and spiritual themes,
the study and practice of art in all its forms, and the investigation
of inventive mechanism; a palace to li