an delight."

"Then what virtues are derived from ascetic practices?" inquired the
sorcerer.

"Certain virtues of a negative order," I replied. "The adepts claim to
have power to create and transport matter; a claim which reliable
history does not, except in a few cases, recognize, and in a very
limited sense they have power to separate the soul from the body.
While the body remains in a comatose state, the soul traverses space,
holds consultation with similar souls, and returns to its mansion in
the body again."

[Illustration: THE LABYRINTH WAS A SUBTERRANEAN GARDEN, WHOSE TREES
AND FLOWERS WERE CHISELED OUT OF THE LIVING ROCK.]

"Your magicians," said the sorcerer, "weaken or kill the body without
imparting corresponding power to the soul. Now we of Atvatabar believe
that the body should be developed equally with the soul. We believe
that contact with the noblest and best of earthly things develops
power and beauty. We feed both body and soul on the perfection of
things, that both may thereby absorb perfection.

"In the brilliant activities of the supernal palace, and in the golden
calm of the infernal palace, priest and priestess, as twin souls,
naturally intermingle in the enjoyment of a long Nirvana of ecstasy.
We have not only the occult power to perform miracles like the
ascetics of the outer sphere, but the soul possesses an enormous
development of every noble quality without which our golden century is
impossible. We are able by means of our baths of life to obtain a
hundred years of glorious youth, during which period age and decay of
the body is suspended. Our devotees when they arrive at the age of
twenty years, when youth is fully developed, begin their Nirvana of
blessedness and love. They do not grow older during these years. The
eye is as bright, the pulse as bounding, the heart as lively, the
complexion as pure and lovely, the feelings as fresh, at the end of
the interregnum as at its commencement. Then when the golden century
is exhausted, the body begins to be twenty-one years old."

"Do you mean that a man who has lived one hundred and thirty years is
but thirty years old?" I inquired.

"Precisely," said the sorcerer; "why should we call a period age in
which there is no change?"

"Do all souls live until their century of youth is accomplished?"

"Not all souls. Many die of accident or in consequence of sin. With
some, Nirvana consists of but a single day's felicity, with others a
month,