Voices here and there in the long silence of the ages speak to answer that question.  Those who have passed through have left words behind them as legacies to others of their kin.  In these words we can find definite indications of what is to be looked for beyond the Gates.  But only those who desire to go that way read the meaning hidden within the words.  Scholars, or rather scholiasts, read the sacred books of different nations, the poetry and the philosophy left by enlightened minds, and find in it all the merest materiality.  Imagination glorifying legends of nature, or exaggerating the psychic possibilities of man, explains to them all that they find in the Bibles of humanity.

What is to be found within the words of those books is to be found in each one of us; and it is impossible to find in literature or through any channel of thought that which does not exist in the man who studies.  This is of course an evident fact known to all real students.  But it has to be especially remembered in reference to this profound and obscure subject, as men so readily believe that nothing can exist for others where they themselves find emptiness.

One thing is soon perceived by the man who reads:  those who have gone before have not found that the Gates of Gold lead to oblivion.  On the contrary, sensation becomes real for the first time when that threshold is crossed.  But it is of a new order, an order unknown to us now, and by us impossible to appreciate without at least some clew as to its character.  This clew can be obtained undoubtedly by any student who cares to go through all the literature accessible to us.  That mystic books and manuscripts exist, but remain inaccessible simply because there is no man ready to read the first page of any one of them, becomes the conviction of all who have studied the subject sufficiently.  For there must be the continuous line all through:  we see it go from dense ignorance up to intelligence and wisdom; it is only natural that it should go on to intuitive knowledge and to inspiration.  Some scant fragments we have of these great gifts of man; where, then, is the whole of which they must be a part?  Hidden behind the thin yet seemingly impassable veil which hides it from us as it hid all science, all art, all powers of man till he had the courage to tear away the screen.  That courage comes only of conviction.  When once man believes that the thing exists which he desires, he will obtain it at any cost.  The difficulty in this case lies in man’s incredulity.  It requires a great tide of thought and attention to set in towards the unknown region of man’s nature in order that its gates may be unlocked and its glorious vistas explored.

That it is worth while to do this whatever the hazard may be, all must allow who have asked the sad question of the nineteenth century,—­Is life worth living?  Surely it is sufficient to spur man to new effort,—­the suspicion that beyond civilization, beyond mental culture, beyond art and mechanical perfection, there is a new, another gateway, admitting to the realities of life.