David pushed the cap back from his eyes as Elizabeth spoke, and raised himself on his elbow, so that he could see her face. “There are degrees,” he said, “and it’s very hard to define. How would you define it?” “It’s not easy. ‘The unlawful influence of one mind over another’?” “That’s begging the question. At what point does it become unlawful?—that’s the crux.” “I suppose at the point when force of will overbears sense—reason—conscience. You may persuade a man to lend you money, but you mayn’t pick his pocket or hypnotise him.” David laughed. “How practical!” Then very suddenly: “So it wasn’t hypnotism. Are you _sure_?” “Yes, quite sure.” “But can you be sure? There’s such a thing as the unconscious exercise of will power.” Elizabeth shook her head. “There is nothing in the least unconscious in what I do. I know very well what I am about, and I know enough about hypnotism to know that it is not that. I don’t use my will at all.” “What do you do? How is it done?” His tone was interested. “I think,” said Elizabeth slowly, “that it is done by _realising_, by getting into touch with Reality. Things like sleeplessness, pain, and strain aren’t right—they aren’t normal. They are like bad dreams. If one wakes—if one sees the reality—the dream is gone.” She spoke as if she were struggling to find words for some idea which filled her mind, but was hard to put into a communicable shape. “It is life on the Fourth Dimension,” she said at last. “Yes,” said David, “go on.” There was a slightly quizzical look in his eyes, but he was interested. “What do you mean by the Fourth Dimension?” “We used to talk of that too, and lately I have thought about it a lot.” “Yes?” “It is so hard to put into words. Fourth Dimensional things won’t get into Third Dimensional words. One has to try and try, and then a little scrap of the meaning comes through. That is why there are so many creeds, so many sects. They are all an attempt to express—and one can’t really express the thing. I can’t say it, I can only feel it. It is limitless, and words are limited. There are no bounds or barriers. Take Thought, for instance—that is Fourth Dimensional—and Love. Religion is a purely Fourth Dimensional thing, and we all guess and translate as best we may. In all religions that have life, apprehension rises above the creed and reaches out to the Real—the untranslatable.” “Yes, that’s true; but go on—define the Fourth Dimension.” “I can see it, you know. It’s another plane. It is the plane which permeates and inter-penetrates all other planes—universal, eternal, unchanging. It’s like the Fire of God—searching all things. It is the plane of Reality. Nothing is real which is not universal and unchanging and eternal. If one can realise that plane, one is amongst the realities, and all that is unreal goes out. ‘There is no life but the Life of God, no consciousness but the Divine Consciousness.’ I think that is the best definition of all: ‘the Divine Consciousness.’”