He turned to his friends when the song was ended, and invited them to be
seated on the divan at the western end of the room.

"You have come to-night," said he, looking around the circle, "at my
call, as the faithful scholars of Zoroaster, to renew your worship and
rekindle your faith in the God of Purity, even as this fire has been
rekindled on the altar. We worship not the fire, but Him of whom it is
the chosen symbol, because it is the purest of all created things. It
speaks to us of one who is Light and Truth. Is it not so, my father?"

"It is well said, my son," answered the venerable Abgarus. "The
enlightened are never idolaters. They lift the veil of the form and go
in to the shrine of the reality, and new light and truth are coming to
them continually through the old symbols." "Hear me, then, my father
and my friends," said Artaban, very quietly, "while I tell you of the
new light and truth that have come to me through the most ancient of all
signs. We have searched the secrets of nature together, and studied the
healing virtues of water and fire and the plants. We have read also the
books of prophecy in which the future is dimly foretold in words that
are hard to understand. But the highest of all learning is the knowledge
of the stars. To trace their courses is to untangle the threads of the
mystery of life from the beginning to the end. If we could follow them
perfectly, nothing would be hidden from us. But is not our knowledge of
them still incomplete? Are there not many stars still beyond our
horizon--lights that are known only to the dwellers in the far
south-land, among the spice-trees of Punt and the gold mines of Ophir?"

There was a murmur of assent among the listeners.

"The stars," said Tigranes, "are the thoughts of the Eternal. They are