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 body, and this impious object leads to the destruction of the fair form he has preserved and of his own reason. For he falls in love with Lilith, and the declaration of his passion is followed by her crumbling away to dust. The shock to his highly strung organization results in his mental collapse, and from this he never recovers.

There are many passages of wild beauty and extraordinary power in this story, which occupies many pages in the telling before the superbly dramatic dénouement is reached. Heliobas, the wise physician of "A Romance of Two Worlds," but now turned monk, is introduced into the story, and warns El-Râmi that his atheistic experiment will prove fruitless:

"How it is that you have not foreseen this thing I cannot imagine,"—continued the monk. "The body of Lilith has grown under your very eyes from the child to the woman by the merest material means,—the chemicals which Nature gives us, and the forces which Nature allows us to employ. How then should you deem it possible for the Soul to remain stationary? With every fresh experience its form expands,—its desires increase,—its knowledge widens,—and the everlasting necessity of Love compels its life to Love's primeval source. The Soul of Lilith is awakening to its fullest immortal consciousness,—she realizes her connection with the great angelic worlds—her kindredship with those worlds' inhabitants, and, as she gains this glorious knowledge more certainly, so she gains strength. And