Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-25

turbed blessed with immense wealth, the,
found pleasure IN relieving the suffering
and distress of others.
With his oval face, strong, well-cut nose
firm mouth, shaded by pointed blond
deep dimple and large black eyes, his ali
of distinction combined with a certaii
piquante, ODD grace of manner, he sug
gested warning angel-St. Michael or ST
Raphael-and but for his eagle eye and tn,
deep brown tint of his skin, would hav,
been almost too handsome for a man. III,
was of medium hight, thin, suelte, nervous
concealing muscles of steel under apparent
delicacy. His mind was worthy of his
body; benevolent fancies having richly en-
dowed him in his cradle with talents of ;
high order.
With such rival it will be seen thai
Octave de Savills had slight hope OF sue
cess. He was content to die quietly on hi
couch, notwithstanding the encouragement
with which the eccentric Doctor Balthazal
Cherbonneau endeavored to inspire him
He could not forget Plascovie it wai
simply impossible; why, then, should he
see her again? Octave was convinced that
she would never waver in her strong de
termination. her gentle frmness, her com
passionate coldness.
".
Two years had passed since the day wher
the Countess Labinska had checked Octave
in the avowal of love which trembled on
his lips, and which she could not hear
Octave, reused from his dream, had fed,
gloomy and hopeless. Since then Plas.
COVE had heard nothing from or of him.
More than once, alarmed by his silence,
she had thought sadly of the young man.
Had he forgotten her? Thoroughly free
from coquetry, she hoped it, but did not
believe it, for she had not misunderstood
the inextinguishsble fame of passion burn
ing in the eyes of Octave. This was the
only cloud in her happiness, the thought
that another suffered through her.
On her arrival in Paris the Countess La
binska had sent the ceremonious invitation
which Doctor Balthazar Cherbonneau now
turned mechanically between his fingers.
have listened most attentively," said
the doctor to Octave. land am convinced
that any hope on your part would be abso-
lutely groundless. The Countess will never
return your love.
"You see, then, that | have no reason
for making any effort to retain my hold on
the life which is slipping away from me-"
"I have said only that there exists no
hope from ordinary means, continued the
doctor g but uuquestionably it does exist
in occult powers known to modern science,
the tradition of which is pursued in those
foreign countries called barbarous by igno.
rant civilization. There, when the world
was In its first youth and freshness, the
human race, brought into contact with the
strongest forces of nature, were in posses
sion of secrets, believed now to be lost.
These secrets were at first transmitted from
the initiated to the uDinitiated in the mys-
ferrous gloom of the temples then written
in sacred idioms, incomprehensive to the
vulgar, sculptured in hieroglyphics on pan.
els the length of the crypts of d'Ellozs
Our Europe, absorbed in purely material
interests, has no conception of the hight of
spiritualism reached by the penitents OF In
dia-the long fasts and meditations, the
painful, almost impossible positions, main
tanned for years, SO emaciating the body
that, could you see them crowded under
the perpendicular rays of the sun, you
would believe them to be Egyptian mum
mics forced into these ape-hlle attitudes.
Their bodies are nothing more than chrysa-
lides cast off and resumed at will by the
soul, which, freed from all material links,
scars on the wings of hallucination to in.
conceivable nights. They have strange
visions, and while in this singular condi-
ton they mutter languages that have not
been spoken by any nation for thousands
of years. They are called madmen, fools !;
but they are almost gods p
Excited to the last degree by this ex-
traordinary harangue, Octave fixed his
eyes on M. Balthazar, naturally unable to
see any connection between the penitents
of India and his love for the Countess
Plascovie Labinska.
The doctor, perceiving 0ctave's astonish.
ment, made sign as if to prevent his
speaking.
4" Patience, patience, my dear invalid !;
you will presently understand that I am
not indulging in useless depression.
Failing to obtain any satisfactory an
swer from the subjects of the surgical am
phithesters, which showed me only death
when | was seeking life, l conceived an
idea, audacious as that of Prometheus in
scaling the heavens to obtain the sacred
fire: the idea of Selling and retaining the
soul, to analyze and, so to speak, to dissect
profound contempt for the materialism of
science, the nothingness of which had been
proved to me. | attempted by magnetism
to loosen the links connecting soul and
body. | very soon went far beyond Mes.
mer, Deslon, Maxwell, Paysegue, Deleuze,
and others equally skiilful in the most ex-
traordinary experiments, but | was not
yet satisfied catalepsy, somnambulism,
clairvoyance-I produced at will all these
astounding results inexplicable to the
crowd, quite simple to myself. initiated
myself retrospectively into the mys-
teries of Trophonius and Escula-
plus, discovering invariably in all the
marvellous powers attributed to them con.
centration or expansion of soul, produced,
perhaps, by the eye, a certain gesture OF
word; perhaps by the will alone, or some
other power quite unknown. Neverthe-
less, my scientific dream was not fulfilled
the soul always escaped me; felt it,
heard it, and had certain power over it
l benumbed or excited its faculties, but be-
tween it and me there was ever the veil o.
flesh, which, if torn away, would set it free
to take its flight was like the bird
catcher, who holds bird under net
which he dares not lift lest ne lose it in the
blue heavens above.
6 left for India, hoping to find the mo
de Penigme in that land STEPPED in the wis
dom of ages. l studied Sanscrit in all it
idioms, scientific and vulgar, and was able
to converse with pundits and brahmins
penetrated jungles, where the tiger
crouch Wandered on the shores of pond
sacred to the scaly crocodile. Pushing m,
way through forests, rendered almost i'm
penetrable by barrieades of acacia trees,
found myself face to face with an elephant
at the turning of narrow path leading
to the cabin of celebrated yoghi, and TO
days together sat by his side, listening t.
the vague nominations of his parched lips
In this way learned some words of mar
velous significance, some all powerful evo
cat ons.
81 studied the symbolic sculptures O
the inner chambers of the pagodas, never
seen by profane eye, but to which m.
brahmas role gave me access. A priest il
the Temple of Tirounamalay, to whom
revealed the idea which so absorbed me
told me of a certain penitent who hat