They followed the ‘darkness visible’ of the _synthetical torch_, which, according to Mr. Mystic, _shed around it the rays of transcendental illumination_; and he continued to march before them, walking, and talking, and pointing out innumerable images of singularly nubilous beauty, though Mr. Forester and Mr. Fax both declared they could see nothing but the fog and ‘_la pale lueur du magique flambeau_‘: till Mr. Mystic observing that they were now in a _Spontaneity free from Time or Space_, and at the point of _Absolute Limitation_, Mr. Fax said he was very glad to hear it; for in that case they could go no farther. Mr. Mystic observed that they must go farther; for they were entangled in a maze, from which they would never be able to extricate themselves without his assistance; and he must take the liberty to tell them that _the categories of modality were connected into the idea of absolute necessity_. As this was spoken in a high tone, they took it to be meant for a reprimand; which carried the more weight as it was the less understood. At length, after floundering on another half-hour, the fog still thicker and thicker, and the torch still dimmer and dimmer, they found themselves once more in Cimmerian Lodge. [Illustration: _Mr. Mystic observed that they must go farther._] Mr. Mystic asked them how they liked his grounds, and they both repeated they had seen nothing of them: on which he flew into a rage and called them _empirical psychologists_, and _slaves of definition, induction, and analysis_, which he intended for terms of abuse, but which were not taken for such by the persons to whom he addressed them. Recovering his temper, he observed that it was nearly the hour of dinner: and as they did not think it worth while to be angry with him, they contented themselves with requesting that they might dine in the kitchen, which seemed to be the only spot on the _Island of Pure Intelligence_ in which there was a glimmer of light. Mr. Mystic remarked that he thought this very bad taste, but that he should have no objection if the cook would consent; who, he observed, had paramount dominion over that important division of the _Island of Pure Intelligence_. The cook, with a little murmuring, consented for once to evacuate her citadel as soon as the dinner was on table; entering, however, a protest, that this infringement on her privileges should not be pleaded as a precedent.