MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. the voice of the unknown seemed to have turned him to stone. " And to me," said the sixth, " hast thou nought to say to me?" "Ay," replied the traveller, turning on him a look which read his heart, " ay, what Jesus said to Judas— but not yet. " The chief turned paler than his shroud, and a mur- mur running through the assembly seemed to demand the cause of tnis singular accusation. " Thou forgettest the representative of France," said the president. "He is not here," replied the stranger, haughtily, " and that thou knowest well, since his seat is vacant. Learn, then, that snares make him smile who sees in darkness, who acts in spite of the elements, and who lives in spite of death." " Thou art young," replied the president, " and thou speakest as if from divine authority. Reflect! boldness overcomes only the weak or the ignorant." A disdainful smile played over the lips of the stranger. " You are all weak, since you have no power over me ! you are all ignorant, since ye know not who I am ! Boldness, then, alone might overcome you; but why should one all-powerful so overcome." " Give us the proof of your boasted power," said the president. " Who convoked you ?" asked the unknown, becoming the interrogator instead of the interrogated. "The grand assembly." " And not without a cause has thou," pointing to the president, "come from Sweden—thou," and he turned from one to another of the five chiefs, as he spoke, " thou from London—thou from New York, thou from Zurich, thou from Madrid, thou from Warsaw, and you all," looking round the assembly, "from the fourwinds of heaven to meet in the sanctuaiy of the dreaded faith." " No," replied the president; " not without cause, for we came to meet .him who has founded in the East a mysterious faith, joining two worlds in one belief, en- twining mankind with the bonds of brotherhood." " Is there any sign by which you shall know him?" "Yes," said the president, "and an angel has re- vealed it to me." " You alone know it?" "I alone." " You have revealed it to none?" "To none." " Name it." The president hesitated. " Name it! The hour is come." " He will bear on his breast a diamond star, and on it three letters, the signification of which is only known to himself." "Declare the letters." "L. P. D." The stranger rapidly threw open his coat and vest, and on his fine Holland shirt shone like a flaming star the diamond and the three letters, formed of rubies." " It is he!" cried the president. " He whom we await?" asked the chiefs. "The great Copt?" murmured the three hundred voices. "Now!" cried the stranger, triumphantly, "do you believe me when-I say: ' I am he that is?"' "Yes!" said the phantoms, prostrating themselves before him. "Speak, Master," said the president, "speak; we shall obey." III.—L. P. D. There was silence for some moments, during which the unknown seemed to collect his thoughts, then he began: "Sirs, ye but weary your arms with your swords; lay them aside and lend an attentive ear, for you shall learn much from the few words which I am about to utter." All were profoundly attentive. " The sources of great rivers are sacred therefore unknown. Like the Nile, the Ganges, the Amazon, I know to what I tend, not whence I come. All that I can reveal is, ithat when the eyes of my spirit first opened to comprehend external things, I was in Medina, the holy city, playing in the gardens of the Mufti Salaaym. He was a venerable man, kind as a father to me, yet not my father; for though he looked on me with love, he spoke to me with respect. Thrice a day he left me, and then came another old man, whose name I may pronounce with gratitude, yet with fear. He was called Althotas, and him the seven great spirits had taught all that the angels know, in order to comprehend God. He was my tutor, my master, my friend—a friend to be venerated indeed: for his age was double that of most among you." His solemn tone, his majestic deportment, deeply impressed the assembly; they seemed trembling with anxiety to hear more. He continued: ¦'When I reached my fifteenth year I was initiated into the mysteries of nature. I knew botany, not as one of your learned men, who has acquired only the knowledge of the plants of his own corner of the world —to me were known the sixty thousand families of plants of the whole earth. My master, pressing his hands on my forehead, made a ray of celestial light descend on my soul ; then could I perceive beneath the seas the wondrotfc vegetations which are tossed by the waves, in the giant branches of which are cradled mon- sters unknown to the eye of man. " All tongues, living and dead, I knew. I could speak every language spoken from the Dardanelles to the Straits of Magellan. I could read the dark hiero- glyphics on those granite books—the pyramids. From Sanchoniathon to Socrates, from Moses to Jerome, from Zoroaster to Agrippa, all human knowledge was mine. "Medicine I studied, not only in Hippocrates, in Galen, and in Averrhoes, but in that great teacher, Nature. I penetrated the secrets of the Copts and the Druses. I gathered up the seeds of destruction and of scarcity. When the simoom or the hurricane swept over my head, I threw to it one of those seeds which its breath bore on, carrying death or life to whomsoever I had condemned1 or blessed. "In the midst of these studies I reached my twen- tieth year. Then my master sought me one day in a f;ove, to which I had retired from the heat of the day. is face was at the same moment grave and smiling. He held a little vial in his hand. 'Acharat.' said he, * I have told thee that» nothing is born, nothing dies in the world—that the cradle and the coffin are twins— that man wants only to see into past existences, to be equal to the Gods, and that when that power shall be acquired by him, he will be as immortal as they. Be- hold ! I have found the beverage which will dispel his darkness, thinking that I had found that which destroys death. Acharat, I drank of it yesterday; see, the vial is not full—drink thou the rest to-day ' ! " Yes; the most important post I take myself—the most perilous work shall be mine." " You know what passes in France, then?" inquired the president. The stranger smiled. " I know, for I myself have prepared all. An old " I had entire confidence in my venerable master, yet ¦ king, weak, vicious, yet not so old, not so weak, not so my hand trembled as it touched the vial which he vicious as the monarchy which he represents, sits ou offered me, as Adam's might have done when Eve pre- sented him with the apple. ** ' Drink!' said he, smiling. " I drank. " Then he placed his hands on my head, as he al- ways did when he would make light penetrate to my soul. " ' Sleep!' said he. " Immediately I slept, and I dreamed that I was ly- ing on a pile of sandal-wood and aloes. An angel,passing by on the behests of the Highest from the east to the west, touched the pile with the tip of his wing, and it kindled into flame. Yet I, far from being afraid—far from dreading the fire—lay voluptuously in the midst of it, like the phoenix, drawing in new life from the source of all life. "Then my material frame vanished away; my soul only remained. It preserved the form of my body, but transparent, impalpable, it was lighter than the atmos- Fhere in which we live, and it rose above it. Then, like ythagoras, who remembered that in a former state he the throne of France. He has but a few years to live. j Events must be prepared to succeed his death. France-. i is the keystone of the arch; let but this stone be un- | fixed, and the monarchical edifice will fall ! Ay, the ; day that Europe's most arrogant sovereigns shall hear ! that there is no longer a king in France, bewildered,, they will of themselves rush into the abyss left by the destruction of the throne of Saint Louis!" Here, he on the right of the president spoke, and his German accent announced that he was a Swiss. " Most venerated master, hast thou then calculated all?" he asked. " All!" replied the great Copt. "Your pardon if I say more—but on our mountains, in our valleys, by our lakes, our words are free as the winds and the waters—let me say then, that a great event is on the eve of arriving, and that to it the Fi ench monarchy may owe its regeneration. I have seen, great Master, a daughter of Maria Theresa travelling m state towards France to unite the blood of seventeen emperors with that of the successor of the sixty-one had been at the siege of Troy, I remembered the past. ! kings of France, and the people rejoiced blindly, as I had experienced thirty-two existences, and I recalled j they do when their chains are slackened, or when they * ' bow beneath a gilded yoke. I would infer, then, that the crisis is not yet come !" All turned to him who so camly and boldly had spoken to their master. "Speak on brother," said the great Copt;" if thy advice be good, it shall be followed. We are chosen of Heaven, and we may not sacrifice the interests of a world to wounded pride." The deputy from Switzerland continued, amidst deep silence, " My studies have convinced me of one truth, that the physiognomy of men reveals to the eye which knows how to read it, their virtues and their vices. We may see a composed look or a smile, for these, caused by muscular movements, are in their power, but the great type of character is still imprinted legibly on the countenance, declaring what passes in the heart. The tiger can caress, cai i give a kindly look, but his low fore- head, his projecting face, his great occiput, declare him tiger still. The dog growls, shows his teeth, but his honest eye, his intelligent face, declare him still the friend of men. God has imprinted on each creature's face its name and nature. I have seen the young girl who is to reign in France; on her forehead I read the pride, the courage, the tenderness ,of the German maiden. I have seen the young man who is to be her husband; calmness, Christian meekness and a high re- fard for the rights of others, characterize him. Now, 'ranee remembering no wrongs, and forgetting no benefits, since a Charlemagne, a Louis, and a Henry have been sufficient to preserve on the throne twenty base and cruel kings; France who hopes on, despairs never, will she not adore a young, lovely, kindly queen, a patient, gentle, economical king? and this, too, after the disastrous reign of Louis XV—after his hateful or- gies, his mean revenges, his Pompadours and Duharrys? Will not France bless her youthful sovereigns, who will bring to her as their dowry, peace with Europe? Marie Antoinette now crosses the frontier; the altar and the nuptial bed are prepared at Versailles. Is this the time to begin in France your work of regeneration ? Pardon if I have dared to submit these thoughts to you whose wisdom is infallible!" At these words, he whom the great Copt had ad- dressed as the Apostle of Zurich, bowed as he received the applause of the assembly, and waited a reply. He did not wait long. . " If you read physiognomy, illustrious brethren, I read the future. Marie Antoinette is proud; she wili1 interfere in the coming struggle, and will perish in it. Louis Augustus is mild; he will yield to it, and will perish with her, but each will fall through opposite de- fects of character. Now they esteem each other, but short will be their love ; in a year they will feel mutual contempt. Why then deliberate, brethren, to discover whence comes the light? It is revealed to me. I come from the East, led, like the shepherds, by a star, which foretells a second regeneration of mankind. To-morrow I begin my work. Giv e me twenty years for it—that will be enough, if we are united and firm." "Twenty years?'* murmured several Toices—"the time is long." The great Copt turned to those who thus betrayed impatience. "Yes," said he, "it is long to those who think that a principle is destroyed as a man is killed with the dagger of Jacques Clement, or the knife of Damiens. Fools!— them all. I saw ages pass before me like a train of aged men in procession. I beheld myself under the dif- ferent names which I had borne from the dtiy of my first birth to that of my last death. You know, breth- ren—and it is an essential article of your faith—that souls, those countless emanations of the Deity, fill the air, and are formed into numerous hierarchies, de- scending from the sublime to the base; and the man who, at the moment of his birth, inhales one of those pre-existing souls, gives it up at bis death that it may •nter on a new course of transformations. He said this in a tone so expressive of conviction, and, his look had something so sublime, that the assembly interrupted him by a murmur of admiration. " When I awoke," continued the illuminated, " I felt that I was more than man—that I was almost divine. Then I resolved to dedicate not only my pres- ent existence, but all my future ones, to the happiness of man. "The next day, as if he had guessed my thoughts, Althotas said to me, ' My son, twenty years ago thy mother expired in giving birth to thee. Since that time, invincible obstacles have prevented thy illustri- ous father revealing himself to thee. We shall travel; we shall meet thy father; he will embrace thee, but thou wilt not know him." " Thus in me, as in one of the elect, all was mysteri- ous—past, present, future. " I bade adieu to the Mufti Salaaym, who blessed me and loaded me with presents, and we joined a caravan going to Suez. " Pardon me, sirs, if I give way for a moment to emotion, as I recall that one day a venerable man em- braced me; a strange thrill ran through me as I felt his heart beat against mine. "He was the Oheriffeof Mena, a great and illustri- ous prince, who had seen a hundred battles, and at the raising of his hand three millions of men bent their heads before him. Althotas turned away to hide his feelings, perhaps not to betray a secret, and we con- tinued our road. " We went into the heart of Asia; we ascended the Tigris; we visited Palmyra, Damascus, Smyrna, Con- stantinople, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Moscow, Stock- holm, Petersburg, New York, Buenos Ayres, the Cape of Good Hope, and Aden; then, being near the point at which we nad set out, we proceeded into Abyssinia, descended the Nile, sailed to Rhodes, and lastly to Malta. Before landing, a vessel came out to meet us, bringing two knights of the order; they saluted me and embraced Althotas, and conducted us in a sort of triumph to the palace of the Grand Master, Pinto. " Now, you will ask me, Sirs, how it came that the Mussulman Acharat was received with honor by those who have vowed the extermination of the infidels. Althotas, a catholic, and himself a knight of Malta, had always spoken to me of one only God, omnipotent, universal, who, by the aid of angels, his ministers, made the world a harmonious whole, and to this whole he gave the great name of Cosmos. I was then not a Mussulman but a theosophist. " My journeyings ended; but in truth all that I had seen had awakened in me no astonishment, because for me there was nothing new under the sun, and in my preceding thirty-two existences, I had visited the •ities before, through which I had lately passed. All that struck me was some change in their inhabitants, the knife kills the man, but, like the pruning-hook, it Now I would hover over events and watch the progress of man. I saw that all minds tend onward, and that this tendency leads to liberty. I saw that prophets had been raised up from time to time to aid the wavering advances of the human races; and that men, half blind from their cradle, make but one step towards the light in a century. Centuries are the days of nations. " ' Then,' said I to myself, ' so much has not been"re- vealed to me that it should remain buried in my soul; in vain does the mountain contain veins of gold, in vain miner penetrates to the bowels of the mountains, the lops a branch that the other branches may take its Elace. In the stead of the murdered king rises up a ouisXIIL, a stupid tyrant—a Louis XIV., a cunning despot—a Louis XV., an idol whose path is wet with tears of blood, like the monstrous deities of India, crushing with changeless smile women and children, who cast garlands before their chariot wheels. And vou think twenty year too long to efface the name of king from the hearts of thirty millions of men, who but lately offered to God their children's lives to purchase does the ocean hide its pearls, for the persevering |. that of Louis XV. ! And you think it an easy task to make France hate her lilies, which, bright as the stars diver descends to the depths of the ocean, but better ] of heaven, grateful as the odors of flowers, have than the mountain or the ocean, let me be like the sun, ' borne light, charity, victory, to the ends of the world ! shedding blessings on the whole earth.' j Try! try, brethren! I give you, not twenty years—I " You understand, then, that it is not to go through i give you a century. You, scattered, trembling, un- some masonic ceremonies I have come from the East. I known each to the other, known only to me, who only I have come to say to you, brethren, take the wings ' can sum up your divided worth, and tell its value—to and the eyes of the eagle! rise above the world, and ! me, who alone can unite you in one fraternal chain—I oast your eyes over its kingdoms! ! tell you, philosophers, political economists, theorists, "Nations form but one vast body. Men, though ' that in twenty yeans those thoughts which you whisper born at different periods, in different ranks, arrive all in your families, which you write with uneasy eye in in turn at that goal to reach which they were created, i the solitude of your old sombre towers, which you tell They are continually advancing though seemingly sta- i one another with the dagger in your hands, that you tionary, and if they appear to retreat a step from time may strike the traitor who would repeat them in tones to time, it is but to collect strength for a bound which j louder than your own—I tell you, that these thoughts shall carry them over some obstacle in their way. j shall be proclaimed aloud in the streets, printed in the " France is the advance-guard of nations. Put a i open face of day, spread through Europe by peaceful torch in her hand, and though it kindle a wide spread- ; emissaries, or by the bayonets of five hundred thou- ing flame, it will be salutary, for it will enlighten the ' sand soldiers, battling for liberty, with your principles world. I inscribed on their standards. You who tremble at the " The representative of France is not here—it may be ' name of the Tower of London ; you, who shrink at that that he has recoiled at the task imposed on him. ; of the prisons of the Inquisition, hear me—me, who am Well, then ! we must have a man who will not shrink { about to dare the Bastile ! I tell you, that we shall see from it—I will go to France." 'those dreaded prisons in rains, and your wives and "You are in France," said the president. children shall dance on their ashes. But that cannotbe