ve in, with vast galleries of
paintings and sculptures, salons for music, and schools of science,
libraries filled with the rarest works of history, literature and
poetry, and, most precious of all, the daily dalliance with
counterpart souls, could not make these people happy. The one thing
denied, which any reasonable man would say was simply the price paid
for all this glory, was considered the greatest of all misfortunes.
The imagination has a strange habit of passing lightly over happiness
possessed and settling down upon a little thing beyond reach and
exaggerating it to the utmost.

The imprisonment of Ardsolus and Merga created a profound sensation
among the ten thousand inmates of the palace. Sentiment was divided so
much that two political parties were formed--those who believed the
erring lovers had met a just fate, and those who thought the system at
fault in providing no means of immediate escape, when to reside in the
palace became imprisonment and a living death to certain souls. The
latter party was composed of the more youthful section of the
priesthood, who sympathized with the unfortunate lovers. These latter
would have got up a demonstration in their favor did not the stern
rules of Egyplosis suppress any such outbursts of popular feeling.

On the day following the imprisonment of the erring twin-soul, the
question was being discussed in the apartments occupied by the
officers of the _Polar King_ and myself. We had been lodged in a noble
building not far from the palace of the goddess, while the sailors
were quartered in the fortress of Egyplosis, in company with the
wayleals of the palace itself.

"Your opinion of Egyplosis has possibly undergone a change since the
day of our reception," said the doctor.

"Well," said I, "I suppose the longer we stay here the more exact will
be our knowledge of this peculiar institution."

I had considered Egyplosis as a successful institution for developing
the human soul. Certainly Harikar with his beloved attributes required
a fit home for his complete development.

I had praised their oasis of love, of refinement, of rest, and of
beauty, and even ventured to assert that such a paradise was the
outcome of the love and purity of twin-souls. I forgot in my
enthusiasm the possibility of the soul being satiated with pleasure,
that life is a warfare ever seeking but never gaining repose, and that
we are led more by our passions and illusions than our judgment. I