Page:The Great Secret.djvu/168

152 was no opportunity for covetousness. Want was unknown. We had conquered the disease of idleness, and no one did more than he felt disposed to do."

"But some must have done better than others."

"Yes; but they were ashamed to do less, although no one reproached them for their lack of ability or strength. We regarded such a condition of mind or body as denoting illness, and treated them as invalids, which, of course, they were; for the healthy man or woman must desire action and employment. Our scientists took such in hand, and quickly cured them."

"Yet you were human then, and if some did not covet their neighbour's possessions, they must sometimes have been rivals in love?"

Hesperia regarded the questioner with pitying eyes for a moment, and then she said,—

"Ages before I was born my people had discovered the secret knowledge which you have hardly yet grasped, that the breath of God is dual in its first earthly embodiment; also the test whereby to prove without a doubt when the separated breath again unites. It is only where blindness and ignorance makes mistakes that jealousy can occur, for each pair made for each other is as totally different as one leaf from another, from all other pairs. We had learnt to know our partners when we met, and therefore there was no confusion, for we could no more be deceived in our lovers or our friends. We knew also why we should like some better than others without any blame resting on either side; and by carefully avoiding our repulsions and keeping to our attractions, we prevented discord and lived all harmoniously in separate circles, which, by combination, could move side by side without friction."