hereafter, converse with soul, and revoke the Past, and sail prescient
down the dark tides of the Future. A brief and fleeting privilege, but
dearly purchased: be wise, and disbelieve in it; be happy, and reject it!"

Radclyffe was impressed, despite himself, by the solemn novelty of this
language, and the deep mournfulness with which the soothsayer's last
sentence died away.

"And how," said he, after a pause, "how, and by what arts would you so
awaken the imaginative faculty?"

"Ask not until the time comes for the trial," answered Liebhur.

"But can you awaken it in all?--the dull, the unideal, as in the musing
and exalted?"

"No! but the dull and unideal will not go through the necessary ordeal.
Few besides those for whom fate casts her great parts in life's drama,
ever come to that point when I can teach them the Future."

"Do you mean that your chief votaries are among the great? Pardon me, I
should have thought the most superstitious are to be found among the most
ignorant and lowly."

"Yes; but they consult only what imposes on their credulity, without
demanding stern and severe sacrifice of time and enjoyment, as I do. The
daring, the resolute, the scheming with their souls intent upon great
objects and high dreams-those are the men who despise the charms of the
moment, who are covetous of piercing the far future, who know how much of
their hitherward career has been brightened, not by genius or nature, but