CHAPTER VI.

"Better is an age of Europe,
Than a cycle of Cathay."

TENNYSON.

MRS. DALGLEISH begun the many lessons she was to give the young Wetherills and their cousin with a lesson from the Bible. Her subject was "That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good." Maurice showed his appreciation of it by looking wistfully into her face; but he withdrew his eyes the moment he saw that their glance was comprehended. Florence was not disconcerted. She knew the interest of the lesson she was about to give. She had simplified it from a sermon she had once heard from the lips of a wise and deepthoughted minister. She had no scruple in adapting that, which had been of interest and profit to her, to those whom it was her province in turn to instruct. Though, indeed, she was already beginning to find that two at least of her charge had their "senses sharpened by reason of use," and were not unequal to the digestion of strong meat.

Here was another instance of soul echoes.

Would

In her

the vibration be caught up and prolonged? lesson she followed on the same track that the minister had done in his sermon.

She began by contrasting, in vivid word-painting, the condition of the savage and of the child of civilization. Briefly she noted the errors that had arisen, both from imperfect knowledge and the want of it. The incompleteness of all human knowledge, unaided by the light of revelation; the degradation of man, in the most advanced state of civilization, without the ennobling influences of religion, she illustrated by a glance at courtly Egyptians, and refined and scholarly Greeks, bending the knee to the animals over whom they were created lords; or falling down before images of wood and stone which themselves had made. "Professing

themselves wise, they became fools, and changed the image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

Hieroglyphs of God to the Egyptian eyes, not gods themselves," thought Maurice, but he did not interrupt the lesson.

The teacher's flow of words was increasing; her imagination was fired; the glow of it was caught both by Maurice and by Mabel. The former leaned his

elbows on the table, he fixed his eyes on her face, eagerly drinking in every word. Florence was conscious of the appreciation and interest. It aided her. She spoke as if she had been teaching for years; she almost forgot the need she might have to simplify; but, as even Hetty seemed interested, that did not much matter. Next she passed in review the different kinds of knowledge, with their varied influence on heart and mind, and on society. Then the means by which the treasure is attained: the faculties of observation, imitation, and perception, and those higher ones of reason, imagination, thought, and purpose which, according to their degrees, exalt a man above his fellows, giving to a Sir Isaac Newton his power to tread among the stars; to a Hugh Miller his ability to lie amid the beds of the rocks, or beneath the waves of the ocean; to a Milton his power to dream the dream of Paradise, and to scatter, amid the bitter leaves of political faction which fell upon his blindlytrodden path, the fragrancy of Eden blooms, the flowers of celestial vividness. She concluded the lesson with an allegory.

"That the soul be without knowledge it is not good." Musing upon this text, I fell asleep, and my spirit Seeing, yet unseen, I

seemed to travel a long way.

beheld a multitude of fair children and of infants,

who seemed to be occupied either with the sports of the nursery or the duties of the school. All appeared to be of royal lineage. Among them I saw two books; one a very large one, and of the group around it no two seemed to study it in the same manner. Approaching to examine its contents, I found no actual writing. It presented a series of rare pictures and of hieroglyphs, all of which symbolized, in some fashion, what the reader was expected to learn. These pictures were so various, and so beautiful, that it was no wonder that the little ones loved it. The other was a written book, plain and unadorned. I said to one who had accompanied me as guide, "Is this book a key to the larger one?"

"In some sort," said he; "the other also is useful to illustrate this; but it is of itself incomplete and imperfect."

And who are these children?"

"They are the children of a King; absent from Him, and of necessity kept absent till their education shall be complete, and they shall be deemed ready for presentation at Court."

"Is the standard of education fixed for them high?" "So high that none have ever attained to it."

"And yet are presented!"

"Not all of them, but their Elder Brother, having

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taken his place, and having great regard for them, uses much influence with the King. In Him is He ever well-pleased, and the dullest scholar, or the most rebel child, may claim his royal right of birth, if he but make application through Him."

"And, if he will not ?"

"Then he is exiled from the Father, and upon leaving school sent to an outlying colony belonging to the King's enemies, where are miseries too great to be described." "The King, then, is severe ?"

"If not propitiated through his Eldest Born. To-day one of His ministers has been deputed to carry to these children special gifts. With these only a few are favoured."

Filled with curiosity I waited. The courier arrived. The horses and chariot in which he rode were as swift as a flame and as silent. His entrance called forth no signs of joy from the children; they were totally unobservant of him. He gave not their gifts into their hands, but laid them upon them and passed away, as silently as he had come.

Strange were the gifts he was commissioned to carry. It is true that to a few he gave purses laden with gold; to others the title-deeds for estates; but not a few whom he approached received an arrow in the breast, and when, shocked, I looked for them to swoon, or utter the