these it was mine to possess and to communicate, thou wouldst listen to me then, and obey me without a doubt!"
"It is true; and I can account for this only by the imperfect associations of my childhood — by traditions in our house of "
"Your forefather, who, in the revival of science, sought the secrets of Apollonius and Paracelsus."
"What!" said Glyndon, amazed, "are you so well acquainted with the annals of an obscure lineage?"
"To the man who aspires to know, no man who has been the meanest student of knowledge should be unknown. You ask me why I have shown this interest in your fate? There is one reason which I have not yet told you. There is a Fraternity as to whose laws and whose mysteries the most inquisitive schoolmen are in the dark. By those laws all are pledged to warn, to aid, and to guide even the remotest descendants of men who have toiled, though vainly, like your ancestor, in the mysteries of the Order. We are bound to advise them to their welfare; nay, more — if they command us to it, we must accept them as our pupils. I am a survivor of that most ancient and immemorial union. This it was that bound me to thee at the first; this, perhaps, attracted thyself unconsciously, Son of our Brotherhood, to me."
"If this be so, I command thee, in the name of the laws thou obeyest, to receive me as thy pupil!"
"What do you ask?" said Zanoni, passionately. "Learn, first, the conditions. No Neophyte must have, at his initiation, one affection or desire that
