exercising myself in the purification of my heart and in
preparation for the other world."

This ancient philosophical treatise, together with the mystical
passage from the original text of Esdras and the selected verses
from the Apocrypha, formed all Alwyn's stock of reading for the
rest of his journey,--the rhapsodical lines of the Prophet he knew
by heart, as one knows a favorite poem, and he often caught
himself unconsciously repeating the strange words: "Behold the
field thou thoughtest barren: how great a glory hath the moon
unveiled!

"And I beheld, and was sore amazed, for I was no longer myself but
another.

"And the sword of death was in that other's soul: and yet that
other was but myself, in pain.

"And I knew not the things that were once familiar and my heart
failed within me for very fear..."

What did they mean, he wondered? or had they any meaning at all
beyond the faint, far-off suggestions of thought that may
occasionally and with difficulty be discerned through obscure and
reckless ecstasies of language which, "full of sound and fury,
signify nothing"? Was there, could there, be anything mysterious
or sacred in this "wiste field" anciently known as "Ardath"? These
questions flitted hazily from time to time through his brain, but
he made no attempt to answer them either by refutation or reason,
... indeed sober, matter-of-fact reason, he was well aware, played