I shall not easily forget my first experience of this astral gallery. Along it at intervals were placed great electroscopes and magnetic magnifiers, that gathered in electric influences from various portions of the heavens. Almost every seat was occupied by one of the older inhabitants of the island, and as they sat with the focus of the huge instrument resting on their neck their faces seemed almost to have a halo round them, so brightly did they beam with ecstasy. Their eyes were closed, and I would have said that each was dreaming some dream of glory which inundated his being, had I not seen their eyes open for a moment as we passed, in consciousness of the world around; the vision came to their waking imagination. Then I looked up through the great magnifying domes and saw the stars and constellations mass upon the face of heaven, and huge spheres concentrating upon themselves the sheen of some starry circle. Thyriel led me to one vacant seat, and before I turned my back to the magnetic lens, I gazed upwards and saw the Southern Cross pouring down its silver arrows. I had not sat there long before a thrill came upon me which spread throughout my system; my pulse fluttered like a bird in contending storms; every nerve began to throb with expectation and delight; I could have created worlds in my ardour; sublime thoughts swam in from eternity upon my soul; I had the mother passion within me which would have moulded nobler spirits than my own. At last I felt the currents of my existence centre upon one realm of space and was conscious of countless life around me which struggled and mounted upwards. I felt my nature drawn to higher levels than any terrene existence I had ever known. I seemed to breathe with difficulty the diviner airs of greater purpose, and yet there were strains of discord from lower types of being revealing gradations in the new universe. Some orbs were already on the path of decay; and on them the higher life was succumbing to the weakened vitality. Others had just attained to life; and on them had settled migrants from other spheres, whose elevating powers they had exhausted. Some were flitting like ghosts about their mother suns with but a thin ethereal life now darting between atmosphere and solid crust. Only one planet in each system was passing through the climax in its history, and near it my rapture became too great to bear; my veins seemed on the point of bursting with the fulness of life; my soul was dragged above my natural level, till the physical bonds which fettered me were about to break, and I was glad to be attracted to other circling orbs that with coarser but stronger magnetism drew me to them. The median point of balanced joy was reached when, resting between two spheres, I felt their magnetic currents neutralise each other, and yet the higher influence of the new system raise the pulsing of my spirit. As full bliss was it when, darting from system to system, I experienced the power of life that