him a telescope, to look through to the stars at night; which
stars, they told him, were other worlds, and that this little world
where he lived was but a speck compared with the rest of creation. In
looking through the telescope he saw into great depths--stars beyond
stars, in number far exceeding his powers of thought. They showed him a
microscope; and in looking through it he saw undreamt-of beauty in
familiar flowers and insects, and in all natural objects. They told him
of the useful and beautiful things that men had found under the
ground--coal, metals, and precious stones. Some of these they showed him
when polished;--the diamond, which seemed to have taken the rainbow to
itself and given it back in a flash, now of pure, now of many-coloured
light; the delicate opal, which looked like a rainbow vanishing; the red
ruby, the green emerald, the violet amethyst, the clear crystal, and
many more besides. They showed him lovely forms, that men had sculptured
in white marble; and paintings representing many things--now a stormy
sea with waves lashed into fury against the rocks--again a summer
evening landscape whose calm soothed his spirit. Scenes from the old
books were made to live again; and then, again, were painted familiar
objects. Wherever he looked, he saw more to see; whenever he listened,
he found there was more to hear. What surprised him most of all was,
that there were some men who did not care to find out and learn more
about the wonders in them and around them; and then he noticed that
those who would not use their eyes, and ears, and other senses, became
dim of sight and hard of hearing, gradually shrinking back into the
state they were before they had opened the doors of their cells.

"He thought of the barred door, and sometimes through its chinks he felt
something steal as once the sea-breeze stole over his garden wall. The
thought of that something followed him more and more.

"By this time he knew that all sights were not fair to look upon, nor
all sounds delightful; and whenever he saw and heard the sad and wrong,
he seemed to be most conscious of the something beyond his cell. He felt
that he was in the world not alone to learn its wonders, but also to
teach the ignorant, to help the weak, to be kind, and true, and brave,
and patient to all.

"Knowledge was a good thing, but goodness was better. The longer he
lived, he felt the less he knew; and the reason was, that he saw more
and more clearly