boon, seems to shrink from conceding it to man--the invisible
tribes that abhor him oppose themselves to the gain that might give
them a master. The duller of those who were the life-seekers of
old would have told you how some chance, trivial, unlooked-for,
foiled their grand hope at the very point of fruition; some doltish
mistake, some improvident oversight, a defect in the sulphur, a
wild overflow in the quicksilver, or a flaw in the bellows, or a
pupil who failed to replenish the fuel, by falling asleep by the
furnace. The invisible foes seldom vouchsafe to make themselves
visible where they can frustrate the bungler as they mock at his
toils from their ambush. But the mightier adventurers, equally
foiled in despite of their patience and skill, would have said,
'Not with us rests the fault; we neglected no caution, we failed
from no oversight. But out from the caldron dread faces arose, and
the specters or demons dismayed and baffled us.' Such, then, is
the danger which seems so appalling to a son of the East, as it
seemed to a seer in the dark age of Europe. But we can deride all
its threats, you and I. For myself, I own frankly I take all the
safety that the charms and resources of magic bestow. You, for
your safety, have the cultured and disciplined reason which reduces
all fantasies to nervous impressions; and I rely on the courage of
one who has questioned, unquailing, the Luminous Shadow, and
wrested from the hand of the magician himself the wand which
concentered the wonders of will!"

To this strange and long discourse I listened without interruption,
and now quietly answered:

"I do not merit the trust you affect in my courage; but I am now on
my guard against the cheats of the fancy, and the fumes of a vapor