s one absolutely set apart from it, and through
that isolation attained a strange insight into its significance, and even
a kind of intoxicating joy. On me in my state of bewildered loneliness his
mood exerts an alarming fascination. It is dangerous to surrender one's
self too submissively to this perception of universal illusion unless a
strong will is present or some master passion as a guide; for without
these the brain is dizzied, and barely does a man escape the temptation to
throw away all effort and sink gradually into the stupor of indifference
or something worse. I have felt the madness creep upon me too often of
late and I am afraid. Ah, Jessica, in withdrawing the hope of your
blessing from me you know not into what perils of blank indifference you
have cast my soul. Shall I drift away into the hideous nightmare that
pursued O'Meara? I will seal up his book, and make strong my determination
to work and in work achieve my own destiny.

LIII

PHILIP TO JACK

It seems very lonesome in the big city without you, little Jack, and often
I wish that some of this pile of books around me were carried away and you
were brought back to me in their place. But it is better for you where you
are.

You must listen to everything Miss Jessica tells you about the trees and
birds, and learn to love all the beautiful things growing around you. I
remember there were four or five great trees in my father's garden when I
was a boy living in the country, and I loved them, each in a different
way, and had names for them and talked to them. One was an oak tree that
grew up almost to the clouds, and its boughs stood out stiff and square as
if nothing could bend them. That was the tree I went to when I had some
hard task to do and wanted strength. Another was an elm that always
whispered comfort to me when I was in trouble. I used to go to it as some
boys run to their mother, for I grew up like you without a mother's love,
and I did not even have any sweet lady like Miss Jessica to be fond of me.
You must ask Miss Jessica to teach you all she knows about the trees in
Morningtown, and you must listen to what she says to them. Perhaps she
will tell you about the famous oaks that grew in a place called Dodona,
and were wiser than any man or woman in the world. People used to talk
with them as Miss Jessica does with her favourite tree.

And now, dear Jack, I am going to tell you a story which I have made up
just for you. It isn'