careful
attempt at a statement of the case from a purely medical point of view,
his self-reproachful uneasiness at the strange interest which the man's
story has caused in him, the strange credulity which he cannot keep from
encroaching on his mind: all this is rendered with a matchless delicacy
and accuracy of touch and interpretation. Nor can anything be finer than
the representation of Lazarus after his resurrection, a representation
which has significance beyond its literal sense, and points a moral
often enforced by the poet: that doubt and mystery, in life and in
religion alike, are necessary, and indeed alone make either life or
religion possible. The special point in the tale of Lazarus which has
impressed Karshish with so intense an interest is that

"This man so cured regards the curer, then,
As--God forgive me! who but God himself,
Creator and sustainer of the world,
That came and dwelt in flesh on it awhile!
--'Sayeth that such an one was born and lived,
Taught, healed the sick, broke bread at his own house,
Then died, with Lazarus by, for aught I know,
And yet was ... what I said nor choose repeat,
And must have so avouched himself, in fact,
In hearing of this very Lazarus
Who saith--but why all this of what he saith?
Why write of trivial matters, things of price
Calling at every moment for remark?
I noticed on the margin of a pool
Blue-flowering borage, the Aleppo sort,
Aboundeth, very nitrous. It is strange!"

How perfectly the attitude of the Arab sage is here given, drawn,
against himself, to a conviction which he feels ashamed to entertain. As
in _Cleon_ the very pith of the letter is contained in the postscript,
so, after the apologies and farewell greetings of Karshish, the thought
which all the time has been burning within him bursts into flame.

"The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think?
So, the All-Great were the All-Loving too--
So, through the thunder comes a human voice
Saying, 'O heart I made, a heart beats here!
Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself!
Thou hast no power nor may'st conceive of mine,
But love I gave thee, with myself to love,
And thou must love me who have died for thee!'
The madman saith He said so: it is strange."

So far, the monologues are single-minded, and represent the sincere and
frank expression of t