rnal Good. For the
god is in all things and all things are in the god, whom men clothe with
such diverse garments and whose countenance they hide beneath so many
masks.

"In the tree flows the sap, yet what knows the great tree it nurtures of
the sap? In the world's womb burns the fire that gives life, yet what of
the fire knows the glorious earth it conceived and will destroy; in the
heavens the great globes swing through space and rest not, yet what know
they of the Strength that sent them spinning and in a time to come will
stay their mighty motions, or turn them to another course? Therefore of
everything this all-present god is judge, or rather, not one but many
judges, since of each living creature he makes its own magistrate to
deal out justice according to that creature's law which in the beginning
the god established for it and decreed. Thus in the breast of everyone
there is a rule and by that rule, at work through a countless chain of
lives, in the end he shall be lifted up to Heaven, or bound about and
cast down to Hell and death."

"You mean a conscience," I suggested rather feebly, for her thoughts and
images overpowered me.

"Aye, a conscience, if thou wilt, and canst only understand that term,
though it fits my theme but ill. This is my meaning, that consciences,
as thou namest them, are many. I have one; thou, Allan, hast another;
that black Axe-bearer has a third; the little yellow man a fourth, and
so on through the tale of living things. For even a dog such as thou
sawest has a conscience and--like thyself or I--must in the end be its
own judge, because of the spark that comes to it from above, the same
spark which in me burns as a great fire, and in thee as a smouldering
ember of green wood."

"When _you_ sit in judgment on yourself in a day to come, Ayesha,"
I could not help interpolating, "I trust that you will remember that
humility did not shine among your virtues."

She smiled in her vivid way--only twice or thrice did I see her smile
thus and then it was like a flash of summer lightning illumining a
clouded sky, since for the most part her face was grave and even sombre.

"Well answered," she said. "Goad the patient ox enough and even it will
grow fierce and paw the ground.

"Humility! What have I to do with it, O Allan? Let humility be the part
of the humble-souled and lowly, but for those who reign as I do, and
they are few indeed, let there be pride and the glory they have earned.
N