Produced by Al Haines. *THE CHARIOT OF THE FLESH* BY *HEDLEY PEEK* "Look on the Spirit as the rider! take The Body for the chariot, and the Will As charioteer! regard the mind as reins. The senses as the steeds; and things of sense The ways they trample on.... For whoso rides this chariot of the flesh, The reins of mind well grasped, the charioteer Faithful and firm--comes to his journey’s end." _The Secret of Death_. LONDON LAWRENCE & BULLEN, LTD. 1897 NEW YORK LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. 1897 [All rights reserved] RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY. Dedicated TO REV. S. A. TIPPLE FOR THIRTY YEARS MY FRIEND AND TEACHER In our definitions we grope after the _spiritual_ by describing it as invisible. The true meaning of _spiritual_ is _real_.--EMERSON. *THE CHARIOT OF THE FLESH* *PART I* *CHAPTER I* It is nearly eleven years since Alan Sydney left England, but I have only recently been released from my promise of secrecy. So sacred to me is the memory of our friendship, that, even now, I shrink from the task of narrating his strange and curious history. A strong impulse, however, urges me to break silence. The village of Anstead, near which we both lived, is in Surrey, possibly the best county in England to find mixed society. Here the old-fashioned farmers, the labourers who have never travelled as far as London, and a few country squires are mingled with, and influenced by, retired London shopkeepers, merchant princes--with or without H’s--and a sprinkling of literary and scientific dabblers; these last are regarded with suspicion by all, but especially by the retired Army and Navy magnates. Nobody seemed to know to which class Alan Sydney belonged, and strange to say he was admitted, chiefly, I fancy, because he was an eccentric bachelor, into all societies. As I am wealthy and have been a confirmed idler from my youth, the same privilege has been granted to me; a privilege of which, however, I am seldom inclined to take advantage. I had known Alan Sydney for some years before we became at all intimate. He fascinated, repelled and puzzled me. "Why," I would say to myself, "is this man so confoundedly unlike other men?"