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this is the result I warn you of—her force will soon baffle yours, and you will have no more influence over her than you have over the highest Archangel in the realms of the Supreme Creator."

El-Râmi reminds Heliobas that it is only a woman's soul that he is striving for—"how should it baffle mine? Of slighter character—of more sensitive balance—and always prone to yield,—how should it prove so strong? Though, of course, you will tell me that Souls, like Angels, are sexless."

The monk repudiates such a suggestion. "All created things have sex," he declares, "even the angels. 'Male and Female created He them'—recollect that,—when it is said God made Man in 'His Own Image.'"

"What! Is it possible you would endow God Himself with the Feminine attributes as well as the Masculine?" cries El-Râmi, in astonishment.

"There are two governing forces of the Universe," replied the monk deliberately; "one, the masculine, is Love,—the other, feminine, is Beauty. These Two, reigning together, are ;—just as man and wife are One. From Love and Beauty proceed Law and Order. You cannot away with it—it is so. Love and Beauty produce and reproduce a million forms with more than a million variations, and when God made Man in His Own Image it was as Male and Female. From the very first growths of life in all worlds,—from the small, almost im