“For no reason, unless it be to gratify some wish lying near thy heart. We neither act nor speak, much less decide a question concerning ourselves, except we have a motive.” “My motive is simple enough. Thou hast told me that love is the first triad. I love with all my heart.” “No need of words to assure me of this. I have foreseen it from the first.” “And thou hast not opposed me? Then thou wilt favor it?” The Dorado was as impulsive as a boy. “I will not oppose it. The great secret of initiation lies in the magnetic warmth of love. It is a threefold principle, the lowest phase of which is sex love. This is the poetry of sensation. It pertains to the material nature, and is therefore impermanent.” “Oh, Akaza! How canst thou say that my love for Kerœcia will pass away. I feel that it never can.” “In the sense of feeling, it certainly will not endure. But this phase of love has three parts. We reach divinity on its upper plane, because it becomes transmuted from animal desire to a soul influx. This will come as a benediction to sweeten the very fountain-head of thy individuality.” “Then I was right in claiming mine own. I have not broken my vow, even in thought,” responded Yermah hopefully. “But thou wilt. In so much as thou wilt imperil immortality thou must suffer. Be of good cheer. Whatever pain may come will soon pass. Nothing of the real love and union between thee will ever cease to be.” “The seventh labor,” Akaza continued, after a thoughtful pause, “is the slaying of the vampire of procrastination—the temptation to halt in the path of duty. Thou wilt naturally think thy work completed when thou art allowed to return to Atlantis.” “Why not?” “Thou wilt not return to Poseidon’s kingdom for many days. Atlantis is doomed.” “Akaza, what art thou saying?” In his excitement Yermah shook the hierophant’s arm vigorously. “Thou art forbidden to give to others what thou hast learned. The world needs thee more than thou canst imagine. Thou art now facing the eighth labor of initiation.” “I know this. But is it not true that I shall tip the spires of the temple building? Must I not do this with mine own hands?” “Thou must subjugate all internal and external hindrances first.” “What is that, if not what I have already mentioned? Was it not so from the beginning? In each colony visited have I not obeyed the laws? This year finishes my sojourn away from Atlantis. Thou wilt remember that I am to have my wish when the last labor has been completed.” “So thou shalt.” “Then I shall have Kerœcia for my wife, and live in peace.” “Thou wilt neither espouse Kerœcia nor live in peace. Marriage to thee is forbidden. Only the commonplace mortal is content to vegetate, procreate and perish.” Then after a pause, he added: “Thine is not only race condition, Yermah, but before thou wert born, the Brotherhood decreed it for thee.”