o Joseph, who was
interested in the Essenes; but his search was for miracles and prophets
rather than ideas, and if he tarried among the Essenes it was because he
had come upon two great men. He fell to considering the question afresh,
and--forgetful of Mathias's admonitions that the business of man is to
meditate on the nature of God--he said: the Essenes perform no miracles
and do not prophesy;--an interruption to Mathias's loquacity which the
other took with a better grace than Joseph had expected--for no one ever
dared before to interrupt Mathias. Joseph had done so accidentally and
expected a very fine reproof, but Mathias checked his indignation and
told Joseph that Manahem, an Essene, had foreknowledge of future events
given to him by God: for when he was a child and going to school,
Manahem saw Herod and saluted him as king of the Jews; and Herod,
thinking the boy was in jest or did not know him, told him he was but a
private citizen; whereat Manahem smiled to himself, and clapping Herod
on the backside with his hand said: thou wilt be king and wilt begin thy
reign happily, for God finds thee worthy. And then, as if enough was
said on this subject, Mathias began to diverge from it, mixing up the
story with many admonitions and philosophical reflections, very wise and
salutary, but not what Joseph cared to hear at that moment. He was in
no wise interested at that moment to hear that he had done well in
testing all the different sects of the Jews, and though the Essenes were
certainly the most learned, they did not possess the whole truth. With a
determination that was impossible to oppose, Mathias said: the whole
truth is not to be found, even among the Essenes, and, my good friend, I
would not encourage in you a hope that you may be permitted ever during
your mortal life to discover the whole truth. It exists not in any
created thing: but glimpses of the light are often detected, now here,
now there, shining through a clouded vase. But the simile, he added, of
the clouded vase gives rise to the thought that the light resides within
the vase: the very contrary of which is the case. For there is no light
in the vase itself: the light shines from beyond the skies, and I should
therefore have compared man to a crystal itself that catches the light
so well that it seems to our eyes to be the source of light, which is
not true in principle or in fact, for in the darkness a crystal is as
dark as any other stone. In such