was a slight movement among the rows of white-garmented, white-cowled figures hitherto sitting so motionless,—­and with one accord they rose to their feet as a figure, tall, stately and imposing, came walking slowly across the chapel and stood directly in front of the flaming Symbol, holding both hands outstretched as though invoking a blessing.  It was the Master, Aselzion,—­Aselzion invested with such dignity and splendour as I had never thought possible to man.  He might have posed for some god or hero,—­his aspect was one of absolute power and calm self-poise,—­other men might entertain doubts of themselves at the intention of their lives, but this one in his mere bearing expressed sureness, strength and authority.  He wore his cowl thrown back, and from where I sat in my secluded corner I could see his features distinctly, and could watch the flash of his fine steadfast eyes as he turned them upon his followers.  Keeping his hands extended, he said, in a firm, clear voice: 

“To the Creator of all things visible and invisible let us offer up our gratitude and praise, and so begin this day!”

And a responsive murmur of voices answered him: 

    “We praise Thee, O Divine Power of Love and Life eternal! 
     We praise Thee for all we are! 
     We praise Thee for all we have been! 
     We praise Thee for all we hope to be!—­Amen.”

There followed a moment’s tense silence.  Then the assembled brethren sat down in their places, and Aselzion spoke in measured, distinct accents, with the easy and assured manner of a practised orator.

“Friends and Brethren!

“We are gathered here together to consider in this moment of time the things we have done in the past, and the things we are preparing to do in the future.  We know that from the Past, stretching back into infinity, we have ourselves made the Present,—­and according to Divine law we also know that from this Present, stretching forward into infinity, we shall ourselves evolve all that is yet To Come.  There is no power, no deity, no chance, no ’fortuitous concurrence of atoms’ in what is simply a figure of the Universal Mathematics.  Nothing can be ‘forgiven’ under the eternal law of Compensation,—­ nothing need be ‘prayed for,’ since everything is designed to accomplish each individual spirit’s ultimate good.  You are here to learn not only the secret of life, but something of how to live that life; and I, in my capacity, am only striving to teach what Nature has been showing you for thousands of centuries, though you have not cared to master her lessons.  The science of to-day is but Nature’s first primer—­a spelling-book as it were, with the alphabet set out in pictures.  You are told by sagacious professors,—­who after all are no more than children in their newly studied wisdom,—­that human life was evolved in the first instance from protoplasm—­as they think,—­but they lack the ability to tell you how the protoplasm was itself evolved—­and