The pr?tor and his family called at the quarters of the corps shortly after breakfast on the following morning, to escort the members to the Adolescentium. Instead of proceeding up the for? avenue to the temple gate, the pr?tor conducted them to the edificos sacerdotium, and from the court of the centre building led them to an intermural stairway, that commanded the only means of ascent to the temple walls, which were higher and distinct from those of the cinctus enclosure. The pr?tor in ascending explained that the houses abutting the wall upon the inner and outer faces, now occupied by the teachers, were designed in building to facilitate the mysteries of the temple ceremonies. Reaching the parapet we passed in its walk to a septum wall of an elliptic form, uniting at its distal extremity from the falls, with, but was in altitude higher than the cinctus. The outer and inner walls of the lower enclosure contained an oblong piece of ground of considerable extent. The interspaces between the walks were planted with fruit trees and vines, the mist of the falls veiling it from the brink of the precipice. The priests had undoubtedly availed themselves of these natural aids for the furtherance of their mysterious impositions; its counterpart of the northern temple being subject to the same interposed screen, which closed in the view to all beyond the walls. The undulating upward lift of the misty veil disclosed the familiar blossoms of the apple, pear, peach, and apricot, with other exotics 323of the temperate zones that the misty atmosphere favored; discovering to us the flavoring source of preserves which we had attributed to artificial production. The pr?tor informed us that the germs of these were of Manatitlan transportation. The fruitful view on either hand—for the temple garden was also under kindred cultivation—called forth expressions of admiration.

The pr?tor, addressing Dr. Baāhar, directed his attention to a pyre in the centre of the orchard enclosure. “That,” he said, “will answer your question with reference to the disposal of our dead during the siege; although it has been long disused for incineration, we still continue the practice in a less objectionable way. Opposite, at the extreme outer curve of the wall, you observe turrets rising above the parapet; these are the vents to ovens or chambers of incineration, and the urns bordering the garden walks are the family receptacles for the united ashes of the deceased. Our present method is of Manatitlan devisement, and it enables us to reduce the bodies to their material ultimatum. The northern garden is used for the same purpose, the alternation being dictated by the direction of the wind draught in its waft from the cinctus enclosure. We were advised by the Manatitlans that your people practiced inhumation, and supposing that you were prejudiced in favor of the burial rites of your ancestors, with the padre’s tenacity, we withheld our method of disposal until your objections had been anticipated by Manatitlan influence. As you have been impressed with the body’s corruptibility in diseased materialism, and adjunct manifestations of instinctive vitality, of voluntary and involuntary source, you will now regard with horror, akin to our own, the putrefactive process of decomposition which of necessity imperils the well-being of the living from the entombment of the dead. How have you been able to escape the conviction that 324your practice of inhumation is cannibalism in a double sense, as you virtually live on the products of recomposition derived from the decomposition of a dead ancestry, and are subject to corrupt inoculation from the putrefactive emanations of decay. The very fact of the festering incorporation of a dead ancestry with the earth from which you derive sustenance, has conveyed a shock to our sympathies, in your behalf, that exceeds our powers of expression, as it is so directly opposed to the current realization of purity. Have you never thought of the material analogy sustained by the bodies of the present generation’s reincorporation with the future, in resemblance to the ancient Egyptian theory of transmigration, which led them to associate their embalmed relatives with the bodies of reptiles similarly prepared? The bright array of vessels you see arranged in the colonnades on either side of the ovens are the body receptacles for incineration, but they were designed for bath basins, and used by the luxurious old Heracleans, when they visited the City of the Falls, for recuperation from the effects of excessive indulgence. Their massive thickness and primitive design, with the resistant qualities of the metal, has rendered them proof to wearing attrition through the ages they have been in use. The Dosch, on your first arrival, cautioned us not to be over hasty in making known to you the extent of our utensil resources in this metal, as he said you worshiped it as the god of your salvation, the largest possessors being esteemed the most godly, without regard to the means used in obtaining it. But what could we think of the sanity of your race, when they averred that this god of their worship was the inciter of envy, hate, and revenge, the ministering demons of murder, and its tributary types of woe? Still, with your ready appreciation of our affection, we can scarcely imagine that you were ever ready to sacrifice honor, honesty, and all the endearing ties of 325instinct to possess, as a devotee, its favors for aggregation, in excess of the requirements enforced by custom, which has made gold an equivalent for an endurable life with your race.”

Padre (excitedly). “He doesn’t mean to say that they are made of gold? Why there is enough to make the Jews believe that Heraclea is the New Jerusalem, and the pr?tor the promised Messiah!”

Pr?tor. “One would suppose from the padre’s excitement that he had been a worshiper?”

Dr. Baāhar. “A far off worshiper. His sympathy was excited for the failings of a race who were known in their prime as Hebrews. And it is recorded in legendary lore, that one of their number, named Judas, betrayed a person who declared himself to be a son of their god; but they scoffed, derided, and crucified him. He was the originator of the sect to which we belonged. But with regard to your process! are you able to reduce the bones as well as the flesh, without trituration or chemical aids?”

Pr?tor. “We first eliminate with a slow desiccating heat every evaporable compound of the body, restoring to the air its contingent elements in comparative purity. When desiccation is fully accomplished, the heat is increased for reductive calcination. This stage achieved, calcareous earth is placed in the niches of the oven for residuum absorption of its vapor, then the ovens are hermetically closed, until with the gradual increase of heat complete degradation leaves the organization of the body in ashen representation; through which can be traced, in opaque outline, the silvery white of the nerves, and all the corporate elements, from variation in form and color; but when gathered for the urn, the whole will scarcely exceed a deunx in weight. The urns, as you perceive, occupy allotted spaces beneath the trees of the avenue, without tablets, or chiseled inscription in memorial epitaph.”

326Dr. Baāhar. “So, so,—certainly your method as a sanitary precaution recommends itself for universal adoption; while to the doctor of a sensitive disposition, it would prove a great source of relief, as it will abolish the useless investigations of the coroner, founded upon the re-slaughter and ghastly exposure of human remains to the gloating vision of the horribly curious. Also the undertaker’s advertising exhibitions, and processional pageantries, alike abhorrent with the shambles of the coroner from the reek of contagious odor. And last, but not least, the lying addendas of eulogistic instinct, bestowed in sermons, prayers, and epitaphs charged with heavenly recommendations for the unworthy.”

Mr. Welson. “Aside from the negatively politic advantages suggested by the doctor, there is to me something touchingly reverent in mingling the ashes of the good in a family receptacle, common to all in its memorial expression; and in safety from the desecration of glacial selfishness in track of gold, that, ‘for improvement,’ substitutes living tenements for those of the dead.”

Padre. “But not in safety, Mr. Welson, if the urns are of the same material as the furnace doors and ovens?”

Mr. Welson. “You are fearfully right, padre, in your suggestive amendment, and a substitution must be adopted before your thoughtless confessional exposure to Fraile Gallagato elicits the prying espionage of his order. Nay, but you need not color so deeply, for we well know that in intention you were guiltless of wrong. Nevertheless, you should learn from your heedless dereliction, that the vagrant tongue of confession is lost to judgment and discernment of the rights of self, for you exposed the really good to danger!”

The silence of the padre showed that he sorrowfully acknowledged the justice of Mr. Welson’s strictures.

327Having made the circuit of the oblong enclosure devoted to incineration, and the orchard cultivation of vine and tree, our party descended into the school enclosure, the garden of which was planted upon the more abrupt incline of the temple hill. From thence by an ascending avenue, we gained an esplanade overlooking the “court of the for?,” within the temple gates, where the children were congregated with their parents who had already arrived. The pr?tor and Correliana, each holding in restraint an arm of the impatient mother, whispered their desire that we should remain silent, that unobserved we might witness the unalloyed happiness of parents and children.

The eager impatience of the pr?tor and mother of Correliana, in joyful manifestation, proclaimed that they, in the protective solace of the second union, had been blest with sons. Looking through the fissures in the rudely constructed doors, two youths, one past, and the other verging upon puberty, were seen standing upon the pedestal plinth of one of the pillars of the court colonnade, nearest to the gates, with eyes fixed in expectant gaze upon the closing portals through which had been admitted the groups of happy parents around whose necks were clasped the arms of loving children. In their appearance, as they stood motionless in the trustful support of each other’s arms, watching for the entrance of their primal source of affection with eager eyes, we discovered their relationship from the remarkable resemblance they bore in likeness to Correliana. Although strikingly pre?minent in the distinctive halo that becomes inbred from the hereditary impression of matured judgment in parental bequeathment, they did not greatly excel their companions in personal beauty. Tall and graceful, they possessed in common with their companions complexions of clear transparency, which disclosed the movements of expression under emotional control, in freedom from 328speck or taint. As the portals closed their eyes questioned each other with a shadow of curious inquiry, not in doubt or anxiety, for the welfare of their parents, but for the cause of their unwonted delay. Without being heedless or lacking in sympathy for the happiness of their associates, or unmindful of the cheering salutations of parents and children, it was easy to trace in their faces emotional changes akin to sorrowful disappointment. To restrain the mother’s yearning longer was impossible; pushing wide apart the inner gates she stood revealed, uttering the call, “Plautus—Adestus!” But affection in premonition had beckoned their eyes to the source before the words reached them, and the eager parents had hardly overstepped the threshold ere they were clasped in their arms. The consummation of this greeting gave a freer flow to the general expression of joy; the scholars, old and young, soon clustered around us, eager to become known and recognized in the current reciprocation of affection by name, bestowing in love such endearments, that for the moment, with sadness, our own youthful impressions, barren of their cheer, reappeared in contrasted desolation. But translated back to the reality, by the warmth of glowing sympathy, with its unspeakable thrill of tender emotions, the void of our past lives was relieved of its selfish regrets. The teachers we had frequently met, and had found in them such worth garnered with experience in the practical dispensation of exampled goodness, that our nearest of kin stood afar off in comparison with the reverent warmth of affection that these guardian exemplars of youth attracted with the genial current of their sympathy. Well did I interpret from my own impressions the retrospective thoughts that brought frequent flushes to the faces of my companions when the mirrored past was contrasted with the present.

After an hour spent in sweet communion with their 329parents, the children were summoned by their teachers to guide us through the school departments. The culinary dependencies were first visited; in these the morning’s quota of children were engaged in the preparation of food for our entertainment, with such cleanly decorum that our appetites were revived in expectation. In the “workshops” and garden detachments exhibited the useful combinations of labor, exercise, and amusement, which practiced in communion, gave a sportive air of cleanliness to their employments. During the infantile period, educational impression was intrusted to the nurses, who while inculcating lessons of self-control over the appetites and passions, attracted the affections above the cravings of instinctive animality. Their assurance that goodness was intuitive with the Heraclean children was fully sustained, for in their intercourse they were altogether free from the petulant exactions of selfishness. The teachers informed us that the Kyronese children, on their first introduction, felt the loss of parental association, but were soon weaned by the loving attention of censors and nurses, whose experience enables them to attract, while increasing in strength the ties of parental affection. After the first monthly visit of............