I had followed the speaker's words with fascinated attention, but now I said: "Dying, Heliobas? There is no death."
"True!" he answered, with hesitating slowness. "But there is what we call death--transition--and it is always a parting."
"But not for long!" I exclaimed, with all the gladness and eagerness of my lately instructed soul. "As worlds are absorbed into the Electric Circle and again thrown out in new and more glorious forms, so are we absorbed and changed into shapes of perfect beauty, having eyes that are strong and pure enough to look God in the face. The body perishes--but what have WE to do with the body--our prison and place of experience, except to rejoice when we shake off its weight for ever!"
Heliobas smiled gravely.
"You have learned your high lesson well," he said. "You speak with the assurance and delight of a spirit satisfied. But when I talk of DEATH, I mean by that word the parting asunder of two souls who love each other; and though such separation may be brief, still it is always a separation. For instance, suppose--" he hesitated: "suppose Zara were to die?"
"Well, you would soon meet her again," I answered. "For though you might live many years after her, still you would know in yourself that those years were but minutes in the realms of space--"
"Minutes that decide our destinies," he interrupted with solemnity. "And there is always this possibility to contemplate--suppose Zara were to leave me now, how can I be sure that I shall be strong enough to live out my remainder of life purely enough to deserve to meet her again? And if not then Zara's death would mean utter and almost hopeless separation for ever--though perhaps I might begin over again in some other form, and so reach the goal."
He spoke so musingly and seriously that I was surprised, for I had thought him impervious to such a folly as the fear of death.
"You are melancholy, Heliobas," I said. "In the first place, Zara is not going to leave you yet; and secondly, if she did, you know your strongest efforts would be brought to bear on your career, in order that no shadow of obstinacy or error might obstruct your path. Why, the very essence of our belief is in the strength of Will-power. What we WILL to do, especially if it be any act of spiritual progress, we can always accomplish."
Heliobas took my hand and pressed it warmly.