like me?"

"Yes, you are one of those few who are justly called the chosen of
God. You do the service of eternal truth. Your thoughts, your
designs, the marvellous studies you are engaged in, and all your
life, bear the Divine, the heavenly stamp, seeing that they are
consecrated to the rational and the beautiful--that is, to what
is eternal."

"You said 'eternal truth.' . . . But is eternal truth of use to man
and within his reach, if there is no eternal life?"

"There is eternal life," said the monk.

"Do you believe in the immortality of man?"

"Yes, of course. A grand, brilliant future is in store for you men.
And the more there are like you on earth, the sooner will this
future be realised. Without you who serve the higher principle and
live in full understanding and freedom, mankind would be of little
account; developing in a natural way, it would have to wait a long
time for the end of its earthly history. You will lead it some
thousands of years earlier into the kingdom of eternal truth--and
therein lies your supreme service. You are the incarnation of the
blessing of God, which rests upon men."

"And what is the object of eternal life?" asked Kovrin.

"As of all life--enjoyment. True enjoyment lies in knowledge, and
eternal life provides innumerable and inexhaustible sources of