QUÆRENS. It is not, I assure you, in a spirit of simple curiosity, dear Lumen, that I ventured to draw you forth from the bosom of the invisible world, where advanced souls partake of indescribable joys. But I have understood, perhaps better than you, the grandeur of the problem, and it is under the inspiration of an earnest, studious avidity that I seek for other aspects of it, still more novel than those you have given me, if I may say so, or rather more bold and more incomprehensible. As the result of reflection, I have arrived at the conclusion that what we know is _nothing_, and that what we do not know is _everything_; I am therefore disposed to welcome everything you tell me. I beg of you, if you will allow me, to share your revelations.... LUMEN. The fact is, my friend, I assure you, either you are not sufficiently able to understand, or you are too willing to believe: in the first case, you do not fully comprehend; in the second, you are too credulous, and do not appreciate my communications at their full value. However, I shall continue. QUÆRENS. Dear comrade of my earthly life! LUMEN. The remaining facts, which I shall now relate to you, are still more extraordinary than any that preceded them. QUÆRENS. I feel like Tantalus in the midst of his lake, or like the spirits in the twenty-fourth canto of the Purgatorio. I am as eager as the Hesperides holding out their hands for the fragrant fruit, or as Eve in her desire for.... [Sidenote: Travelling on a ray of light.] [Sidenote: Lumen sees the Revolution of 1848.]