Gentola—Sir, I thank you for your replies to my not very coherent questions. You are aware that I have not been permitted to acquire such knowledge as would have unfitted my skeptical mind for the work in which we are engaged, but certainly I do not doubt the correctness of your statements. If the hour has not quite expired I should like to ask——
Von Humboldt—The hour has expired, and a pleasant surprise for you is at hand.
Gentola—Truly, sir, this is a pleasant surprise, and with my heart in my hand I greet you. It has been a long time since you bade us adieu.
Ha-Moufi—Gentola̤ ēmana̤, though absent in Spirit not so have I been in thought. And you, dear friends, how gladly I exchange with you loving embraces and words of kindliest greeting. You are aware that your movements and events relating to the Mission are known in our and other Spirit Worlds, and anxious hearts and eager eyes hope and watch for the success of the near culmination of the struggle between Spiritual and material forces. I have longed to be with you that I might share with you the preparation for and the anticipation of the approaching Spiritual enlightenment of my people. Scarcely have I been able to restrain my impatience, and only that my duties as a teacher have fully occupied my time, ere now I would have been with you. Now I rejoice to say that I shall be with you until the culmination of the Mission. But where is Zenesta̤ Ha̤o? I had thought to find him with you.
De L'Ester—I am pleased to say that soon he will join us, and also I desire to assure you that in again having you with us, our delight quite equals your own. Continually we have missed your genial presence and engaging conversation; so indeed you are more than welcome. Ere now Zenesta̤ and Aaron Poole should have arrived; doubtless they soon will appear. You have been informed that in the person of a gentle girl Re-embodied on this Planet Inidora̤ has found his other Self. Frequently Genessano visits them and gives favorable reports of their harmonious relations. When we shall be summoned to Da̤o Inidora̤, too, will join us.
What can so delay Zenesta̤ and Poole? Even as I speak of our wingless Angels they are approaching, and as usual are as radiant and joyous as two Seraphs. Ah, you tardy ones, you have completely upset our plans. Through your and Ha-Moufi's simultaneous arrival we had thought to overwhelm Gentola̤.
Poole—Should we offer the whys and wherefores of our late arrival you would not find yourselves edified. So I shall only say that it was unavoidable. Gentola̤, I am delighted to learn that your interest in these journeys from Earth to Ento and still more in our Mission of loving endeavor increases and also I am delighted to perceive that your Psychic Senses are unfolding and that your vital energy is not yet greatly lessened, all of which rejoices all of us. From your dearest ones in our Spirit World I bear to you fondest greetings and measureless love, which, with my own, I express in this embrace. But tell me, my sister, have you at any time regretted having given yourself to this grand Mission?
Gentola—Indeed no. Not for a moment have I regretted that I have been chosen as an instrument through whom loving Spirits may bring to a sorrowful people the priceless knowledge of the continuity of existence. It is true that such constant association with Spirits who have outgrown the frailties common to the physical plane has not enhanced my enjoyment of mortal existence, in which I find myself so painfully sensitive that I shrink from much that previous to this experience, scarcely, if at all, disturbed me. Still I do not regret having given myself to this service, for through it I have learned that I am my brothers' keeper, and that from this duty neither I or any one can, if they would, escape. Having learned this lesson, I cannot, if I would, escape knowledge of the injustice, cruelty, ignorance and degradation prevailing on our Sorrowful Star, and at thought of it my Soul grows faint. You assure me that through evolution Earth's immature peoples will, as have the Entoans, become elevated in their ideas of right, and I do not doubt it, but in the meantime one must lament the miseries of to-day. Nearly all of Earth's peoples believe more or less in a continuity of existence, in Heaven, Hell or in some unknown condition of rewards and punishments, yet neither that or any other belief prevents them from persecuting and even killing each other. How then is it that possessing neither a belief or a hope of continued existence the Entoans are so far advanced in all that constitutes a high standard of ethics, and is it thought that a knowledge of continuous existence will render them a more just or moral people?
De L'Ester—Observation of the peoples of various Planets, including Earth and Ento, leads us to the conclusion that religious beliefs exert but a very limited influence upon the inner life and conduct of either individuals or peoples, such limited influence being of a reflex character. Certainly Spiritual ideals are the outgrowth of evolution of individuals, and in a tardier degree of peoples, and are the natural sequences of the unfoldment of the infolded Soul. Morality is not a grace of some mental process, but a Principle inherent in the Soul of man. It is the objective consciousness of subjective righteousness, and when the Soul and the Ego are in harmonious relation each with the other a high moral standard is the result. Spiritual ideals enunciated by such exalted men as Buddha, Jesus, Confucius and others, were, and yet are, in advance of the masses who do not comprehend them, and by some who dimly catch their meaning they serve as ignes fatui with which they mislead the minds of the ignorant. Here and there are those whose Souls are irradiated by the light of the Divine Spirit. These do not kill, or counsel murder of their brethren, neither do they steal, or lie, or indulge in the baser traits of the unevolved human, and in time all of Earth's children will so evolve that gladly they will practice Ento's golden rule, "I will do unto my neighbor as I would have my neighbor do unto me."
No, simply a knowledge of the continuity of existence will not make the Entoans juster or more moral, but it will bring to them happiness immeasurable. They, as it were, now exist within a circle outside of which is nothing. No anticipated renewal of loving ties, no reunion with parents, with children, with consorts or friends. Naught for the dead but perpetual Silence; naught for the living but hopeless longing for the beloved dead, forever lost to sight, to touch, to all but undying memories and to measureless sorrow.