but
Shakespeare was a manifestation of mind! And that mind was an
interpretation, though very imperfect, of the mind that is God. Why
can't you materialists raise your eyes above the dust? Why, you would
choke the very avenues of the spirit with mud!"

"H'm! Well, your education seems to be--"

"Yes," she interrupted, "my education is beyond the vagaries that are
so generally taught in the name of knowledge. Intellectual education
is a farce. It does nothing for mankind, except to give them a false
culture. Were the so-called great men of the past really educated?
Here is an extract which I copied this afternoon from Hawthorne." She
opened her note book and read:

"'Ah, but there is a half-acknowledged melancholy like to this
when we stand in the perfected vigor of our life and feel that
Time has now given us all his flowers, and that the next work of
his never-idle fingers must be to steal them one by one away.'

"Now," she asked, "was that man really educated? In current theology,
yes. But that theology _could not solve his least earthly problem, nor
meet his slightest need_! Oh, what inexpressibly sad lives so many of
your greatest men have lived! Your Hawthorne, your Longfellow, they
yearned for the rest which they were taught was to follow death. They
were the victims of false theology. They were mesmerized. If they
believed in the Christ--and they thought they did--why, then, did they
not rise up and do as he bade them do, put death out? He taught no
such resignation to human beliefs as they practiced! He showed men how
to overcome the world. Why do we not try to overcome it? Has the time
not come? Is the world not sufficiently weary of dying?"

He looked at her intently for some moments. She seemed, as she stood
there before him, like a thing of gossamer and sunshine that had
drifted into his laboratory, despite the closed door.

"Say," he suddenly exclaimed, as a new thought struck him, "I'd like
to have you talk with my friend, Reverend Patterson Moore! Pat and I
have barked at each other for many years now, and I'm getting tired.
I'd like to shift him to a younger and more vigorous opponent. I
believe you've been providentially sent to relieve me."

"Well," she acquiesced. "You can tell Professor Hitt, and--"

"Hitt, eh? You know him?"

"Yes, indeed! He comes often to our house. He is very much interested
in these things that you and I have been talking about to-day. We have
regular meeting