love of knowledge, love of discovery, love of improvement, love of
progress of all kinds, would love to live. In fact, if I were now to be
told that at the end of five thousand years I must expire and cease, it
would fill me with gloom. Having seen so much, I expect more than most men
are capable of comprehending. And I shall see it all--see the centuries
unfold, behold the wonderful things of the future arise! The very thought
of it fills me with inexpressible joy."

For a few moments he remained silent. I could understand the state of his
mind, no matter how those mental conditions had been brought about.

"But you must not suppose," he continued, "that this earthly immortality
is without its pains, its fears, I may say its horrors. It is precisely
on account of all these that I am now talking to you. The knowledge that
my life is always safe, no matter in what peril I may be, does not relieve
me from anxiety and apprehension of evil. It would be a curse to live if
I were not in sound physical condition; it would be a curse to live as a
slave; it would be a curse to live in a dungeon. I have known vicissitudes
and hardships of every kind, but I have been fortunate enough to preserve
myself whole and unscathed, in spite of the dangers I have incurred.

"I often think from what a terrible fate I saved my master, Alexander
of the two horns. If he had found the fountain he might have enjoyed his
power and dominion for a few generations. Then he would have been thrown
down, cast out, and even if he had escaped miseries which I cannot bear
to mention, he never could have regained his high throne. He would have
been condemned to live forever in a station for which he was not fitted.

"It is very different with me. My nature allows me to adapt myself to
various conditions, and my habits of prudence prevent me from seeking