rs the Jewish inhabitants of the city.
Not till three months have expired do they venture to return to it; and
when Tsaddik and the other disciples seek the cave where their master
lies, they find him, to their astonishment, alive. Then Tsaddik
remembers that even children urged their offering upon him, and
concludes that some urchin or other contrived to make it "stick;" and he
anxiously disclaims any share in the "foisting" this crude fragment of
existence on the course of so great a life. Hereupon the Rabbi opens his
eyes, and turns upon the bystanders a look of such absolute relief, such
utter happiness, that, as Tsaddik declares, only a second miracle can
explain it. It is a case of the three days' survival of the "Ruach" or
spirit, conceded to those departed saints whose earthly life has
anticipated the heavenly; who have died, as it were, half in the better
world.[118]

Tsaddik has, however, missed the right solution of the problem. Jochanan
Hakkadosh can only define his state as one of _ignorance confirmed by
knowledge_; but he makes it very clear that it is precisely the gift of
the child's consciousness, which has produced this ecstatic calm. The
child's soul in him has reconciled the differing testimony of youth and
manhood: solving their contradictions in its unquestioning faith and
hope. It has lifted him into that region of harmonized good and evil,
where bliss is greater than the human brain can bear. And this is how he
feels himself to be dying; bearing with him a secret of perfect
happiness, which he vainly wishes he could impart.[119]

"NEVER THE TIME AND THE PLACE" is a fanciful expression of love and
longing, provoked by the opposition of circumstances.

The name of "PAMBO" or "Pambus" is known to literature,[120] as that of
a foolish person, who spent months--Mr. Browning says years--in
pondering a simple passage from Psalm xxxix.; and remained baffled by
the difficulty of its application. The passage is an injunction that man
look to his ways, so that he do not offend with his tongue. And Pambo
finds it easy to practise the first part of this precept, but not at all
so the second. Mr. Browning declares himself in the same case. "He also
looks to his ways, and is guided along them by the critic's torch. But
he offends with his tongue, notwithstanding."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 104: Ethics, VII. vi. 2.]

[Footnote 105: The story is told in Pausanias. A painting of Echetlos
was to be seen in