"Its duty, mortal! Do you listen to the teacher?"

"Spirit, I hear now. The child is informed about two languages spoken by
nations extinct centuries ago, and something also, O Spirit, about the
base of an hypothenuse."

"Does the child attend?"

"Not much; but it is beaten silly, and its knees are bruised against the
rocks, till it is hauled up, woe-begone and weary, to the upper plain. It
looks about bewildered; all is strange--it knows not how to act. Fogs crown
the barren mountain paths. Spirit, I am unhappy; there are many children
thus hauled up, and as young men upon the plain; they walk in fog, or
among brambles; some fall into pits; and many, getting into flower-paths,
lie down and learn. Some become active, seeking right, but ignorant of
what right is; they wander among men out of their fog-land, preaching
folly. Let me go back among the children."

"Have they no better guide?"

"Yes, now there comes one with a smiling face, and rolls upon the flowers
with the little ones, and they are drawn to him. And he has magic spells
to conjure up glorious spectacles of fairy land. He frolics with them, and
might be first cousin to the butterflies. He wreathes their little heads
with flower garlands, and with his fairy land upon his lips he walks
toward the mountains; eagerly they follow. He seeks the smoothest upward
path, and that is but a rough one, yet they run up merrily, guide and
children, butterflies pursuing still the flowers as they nod over a host
of laughing faces. They talk of the delightful fairy world, and resting in
the shady places learn of the yet more delightful world of God. They learn
to love the Maker of the Flowers, to know how great the Father of the
Stars must be, how good must be the Father of the Beetle. They listen to
the story of the race they go to labor with upon the plain, and love it
for the labor it has done. They learn old languages of men, to understand
the past--more eagerly they learn the voices of the men of their own day,
that they may take part with the present. And in their study when they
flag, they fall back upon thoughts of the Child Valley they are leaving.
Sports and fancies are the rod and spur that bring them with new vigor to
the lessons. When they reach the plain they cry, 'We know you, men and
women; we know to what you have aspired for centuries; we know the love
there is in you; we know the love there is in God; we come prepared to
labor with you, dear, good frien