Page:The Great Secret.djvu/162

146 I was in the flesh we had got past those slow modes of locomotion, although we still keep all the animals; but they are like ourselves, free from the earth's control.

Ages before I was born my people had discovered forces of Nature which superseded steam and electricity, although we had to pass through these primitive modes first, as the moderns are now doing. See, yonder sails the moon, over against where the sun is going down; by and by you will see the stars light up the darkening space, yet the real sun, moon and stars are hidden from us by layers of rock strata and soil."

"What are these then?"

"The same as our mountains, valleys, streams, gardens and palaces, embodied emanation from memory. They are real because you can also see them who have no memories to bring to your aid as we have, yet we have, by our powers, embodied the realities for you."

The new-comers looked at the upper sky, where, above the filmy mountains and amid the ambient space, hung a full moon, lemon-tinted and large, while Hesperia continued her revelations.

"The sun and moon are none the losers for our borrowing from them. They still shine as powerfully over the lands above, while we enjoy the materialisation of our memories."

By this time they had passed through the gateway and were in the city, looking round them curiously as strangers will. A fair city it was, with noble buildings lightly designed and rich in carvings, colour and gold, all the more fascinating from the warm lights and violet shadows spread over them from the slowly-setting sun.

It occupied the entire bed of the valley and up the sides of the hills, terrace above terrace, and building over building in bewildering grace and loveliness.