as physical force.

For some moments the Hierophant regarded the young Vestal in
silence, but Sarthia was conscious that he was reading her inmost
thought and motive like an open book, even down to her vision of the
Astrologer and his fatal announcement regarding her life.

"My child," he said at length, "are you ready for the great change
now already at hand?"

"No, Father, not ready but resigned to what seems to be the
inevitable decrees of the planets that rule my physical destiny."

"Thou hast well said thou art not ready. Your life has yet but only
begun for you. Its experiences, its many lessons and duties, are all
unlearnt and you would pass to the spirit world immatured. Your
young soul, like fruit plucked from the tree too soon, would ripen
slowly, losing many of its flavors and never attaining certain of
its best and highest qualities, for as you well know, progress in
the next stage of existence depends upon the attainments in this.

"Thou art not ready, yet say you are willing to bow to the
inevitable. This is wise, still have you not heard it said many
times that man is the arbiter of his own destiny and that the soul
was the inheritor of God-like powers by which it could rise to the
plane whereby it ruled, instead of obeying the blind or planetary
forces of Nature?"

"True, O Venerated Father, I have indeed heard all this, but I am
very ignorant. Are there such possibilities for my soul?" and