“It returns to its native habitat in space, to assimilate the experiences through which it has just passed. This act has its fitting counterpart on the material plane. As the stomach digests the food it receives, and as the mind assimilates the ideas it conceives, so the divine self utilizes the experiences it gains. As the result of the physical function is bodily health, and that of the mental process is knowledge, so, also, the fruit of the spiritual operation is wisdom. To acquire wisdom, then, is manifestly the prime purpose of human existence.”
“Through what labyrinths we have to walk in order to find the Gates of Light!” said Yermah, deeply interested. “Existence is like chaos at first; and I begin to see that this is true on the three planes.”
“Certainly. Man has gone too far out in the life of the senses. It is only in his sleep that he perceives the manifestations of spirit. The true student must reëstablish the equilibrium of spirit and matter. Thereby he will obtain the ability to discern which are physical phenomena. He will perceive in the waking state such forms and apparitions as he saw before in dreams, and rise to the viewpoint where he realizes that physical forms are only the coarse and imperfect copies of those higher spiritual pictures presenting themselves to his interior senses.”
“Then our dreams are not without significance?”
“Their significance lies in the fact that they are the lowest state of spiritual life. In them a man is obliged to tolerate in himself the action of good and bad spiritual forces.”
Akaza arose, and picking up a small copper nut-oil lamp from a shelf-like projection of stalactite near at hand, he lighted it and led the way to a dim, shadowy cranny of the room.
Pausing before what appeared to be a pile of rush matting he handed the lamp to Yermah and began removing the outer layers. As soon as the rough-textured exterior was taken off, Yermah saw by the cloth wrappings that it was a figure of some kind. It proved to be a colossal head of diorite, a very hard variety of serpentine, or greenstone.
“This,” said Akaza, “is the head of Atlantis. It was contained in the ark which we have carried with us so long in our journeyings.”
“But the eyes are closed, the nostrils plugged, the mouth covered with a gag, and the ears padlocked. This is death!” cried Yermah, unable to control his emotion, shocked and awed by the spectacle. “She can neither tell her piteous story nor hear the supplications addressed to her.”
He examined the head closely, and saw that the countenance before him was that of a dead person. There was the relaxation of the upper eyelids which most forcefully expressed this idea. The head was covered with a skull-cap of shells and lines representing water. On the crown of the head was a rosette-like cap, with a button in the center.