he new day!

"We would speak the word of warning and counsel to the erring, and
tell knowledge to the perplexed. We would guide the ignorant in the
paths of prudence, and the young would sit at our feet and hear
us gladly in the school of life. Then folly would fade away as the
morning vapour, and the sun of wisdom would shine on all men, and the
peace of God would come with the counsel of the angels."

A murmur of pleasure followed the words of Uriel, and eager looks
flashed around the circle of the messengers of light as they heard the
praise of wisdom fitly spoken. But there was one among them on whose
face a shadow of doubt rested, and though he smiled, it was as if he
remembered something that the others had forgotten. He turned to an
angel near him.

"Who was it," said he, "to whom you were sent with counsel long ago?
Was it not Balaam the son of Beor, as he was riding to meet the
King of Moab? And did not even the dumb beast profit more by your
instruction than the man who rode him? And who was it," he continued,
turning to Uriel, "that was called the wisest of all men, having
searched out and understood the many inventions that are found under
the sun? Was not Solomon, prince of fools and philosophers, unable
by much learning to escape weariness of the flesh and despair of
the spirit? Knowledge also is vanity and vexation. This I know well,
because I have dwelt among men and held converse with them since the
day when I was sent to instruct the first man in Eden."

Then I looked more closely at him who was speaking and recognised
the beauty of the archangel Raphael, as it was pictured long ago:

"A seraph winged; six wings he wore to shade
His lineaments divine; the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast,
With regal ornament; the middle pair
Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold
And colours dipped in Heav'n; the third his feet
Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail,
Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood
And shook his plumes, that Heavenly fragrance filled
The circuit wide."

"Too well I know," he spoke on, while the smile on his face deepened
into a look of pity and tenderness and desire, "too well I know that
power corrupts itself and that knowledge cannot save. There is no cure
for the evil that is in the world but by the giving of more love to
men. The laws that are ordained for earth ar