part do I explain the meaning that the
wicked man, having no divine irradiation, is without instruction of God
and knowledge of God's creations; he is as a fugitive from the divine
company, and cannot do else than hold that everything is created from
the world to be again dissolved into the world. And being no better than
a follower of Heraclitus--But who is Heraclitus? Joseph asked.

A clouded face was turned upon Joseph, and for some moments the sage
could not collect his thoughts sufficiently to answer him. Who is
Heraclitus? he repeated, and then, with a general interest in his pupil,
he ran off a concise exposition of that philosopher's doctrine--a
mistake on his part, as he was quick enough to admit to himself; for
though he reduced his statement to the lowest limits, it awakened in
Joseph an interest so lively that he felt himself obliged to expose this
philosopher's fallacies; and in doing this he was drawn away from his
subject, which was unfortunate. The hour was near by when the Essenes
would, according to rule, retire to their cells for meditation,
and--foreseeing that he could not rid himself of the burden which
Joseph's question imposed upon him--he abandoned Heraclitus in a last
refutation, to warn Joseph that he must not resume his questions.

But if I do not ask at once, my chance is gone for ever; for your
discourse is like the clouds, always taking new shapes, Joseph pleaded.
In dread lest all be forgotten, I repeat to myself what you have said,
and so lose a great deal for a certain remembrance.

Joseph's manifest delight in his statement of the doctrines of
Heraclitus, and his subsequent refutation of the heathen philosopher
caused Mathias to forget temporarily certain ideas that he had been
fostering for some days--that God, being the designer and maker of all
things, and their governor, is likewise the creator of time itself, for
he is the father of its father, and the father of time is the world,
which made its own mother--the creation. So that time stands towards God
in the relation of a grandson; for this world is a young son of God. On
these things the sage's thoughts had been running for some days past,
and he would have liked to have expounded his theory to Joseph: that
nothing is future to God: creations and the very boundaries of time are
subject.

He said much more, but Joseph did not hear. He was too busy memorising
what he had already heard, and during long hours he strove to come to