"

He looked at the steps; and they were wide and shallow, and trodden into
holes and valleys by many feet; and up those steps, and through the
open door, a throng was constantly passing, laughing and singing, and
pelting one another with flowers and spangles.

"Ah," said the boy, "this is, indeed, the House of Wisdom! for true it
is that I can tell by the steps, and by the people who go in and out."

And he entered the House of Folly.

THE GLASS

"This is extremely interesting!" said the man. "You say that I am not
one being but many, and that your glass will show me my component parts
as separate entities?"

"Precisely!" said the Wandering Magician.

The man looked in the glass.

"Here I see several beings!" he said. "Some of them are
distinguished-looking, that one on horseback, for example, and the one
with the lyre. But others have a frivolous air, and there is one with
positively a low expression; and yet he is attractive too, when I look
closer, and I seem to know him. What are these creatures?"

"These are your tastes!" said the Wandering Magician.

"Oh!" said the man. "Well, some of them are certainly elegant and
refined. But whom have we here? what strange pigmies are these?"

"Your virtues!" said the Magician.

"Dear me!" said the man. "Yes, to be sure, I recognize them. But what
makes them so small?"

"This is not a magnifying glass!" said the Magician.

"But they are pretty!" said the man. "Beautiful, I may say. That little
fellow with the twinkle in his eye and his coat out at elbows; he is
charming, if I do say it. But what is going on now? here comes a crowd
of big, hulking, ruffianly fellows, jostling the little people and
driving them to the wall. What a villainous-looking set! Their faces are
wholly strange to me; what are they?"

"Your vices!" said the Wandering Magician.

But when the man would have fallen upon him, he was gone.

IN THE SHADED ROOM

The shaded room was still; the doctor and the nurse sat watching by the
bedside; the firelight crept into the corners and whispered to the
shadows: there was no other sound.

"You think you are ready to go?" asked the Angel-who-attends-to-things.

"Yes!" said the man. "I have drained the Cup from brim to bitter lees; I
have read the Book from cover to cover. I am ready."

"Humph!" said the Angel-who-attends-to-things. "Well, come along!" and
he led the man out, but did not shut the door after him.

The man had