of Power, Will, and Intenseness, that inspired me at first with something very akin to awe.
His garb was decidedly oriental, and became his features wonderfully, while at the same time it imparted a freedom and grace, that added to, instead of detracting from his dignity. Observing that I scrutinized his apparel, he smiled, and glanced sidewise at my own. I did the same, and it flashed upon me instantly that myself, instead of being habited after the fashion of the Occident, I to others must present the appearance of a sultana of the ancient East. Again my eye met his, and in that meeting there was a mingling too, for I felt and knew that he was mine, and I his own; that we two were henceforward to be as one—for a period at least, if not forever. Poor me—I did not then know how long 'forever' is. On earth, in love affairs, the term means two months, more or less. It stands for a longer period here, yet does not include the categories of all the eternities—quite. I had forgotten that states constitute the marks of duration in the Soul-worlds, and not the tickings of a clock; but so inveterate is the force of habit and ideal associations, that at first it was almost impossible to predicate sequences upon anything else than lapse of time, or to dissociate the memories of the past, and the menstruum of the events whereof they are the shadowy records, from the realities of the then present, and the action of the New Principia operative in the Soul-world. Besides this, I had been theretofore deeply tinctured with the folly-essence, so much of which has been distilled by modern eolists, and would-be philosophers, to addle the brains of sensible people, and to dilute what little of common ssnse themselves—the eolists—might chance to possess. I had with thousands
