but when he said them, there seemed to be something behind the words;
while listening, it seemed to Joseph that sight had been given to him,
but his eyes proved too weak to bear the too great illumination, and he
had been obliged to cover them with his hands, shutting out a great deal
so that he might see just a little ... as it were between his fingers.
As we think of God only under the form of light, it seemed to him that
the revelation entered into him by his eyes rather than by his ears. He
would return to the sage every day, but what if he were not able to
remember, if it were all to end in words with nothing behind the words?
The sage said that in a little while the discourses would not seem so
elusive and evanescent. At present they seemed to Joseph like the mist
on the edge of a stream, and he strove against the belief that a
philosopher is like a man who sets out to walk after the clouds.

Such a belief being detestable, he resolved to rid himself of it, and
Mathias would help him, he was sure, and in this hope he confided his
life to him, going back to the night when Samuel appeared to him, and
recounting his father's business and character, introducing the
different tutors that were chosen for him, and his own choice of
Azariah, to whom he owed his knowledge of Greek. To all of which the
philosopher listened complacently enough, merely asking if Azariah
shared the belief prevalent in Galilee that the world was drawing to a
close. On hearing that he did, he seemed to lose interest in Joseph's
story of Azariah's relations to his neighbours, nor did he seem unduly
afflicted at hearing that only the most orthodox views were acceptable
in Galilee. His indifference was disheartening, but being now deep in
his biography, Joseph related perforce the years he spent doing his
father's business in northern Syria, hoping as he told his story to
awaken the sage's interest in his visit to Jerusalem. The Sadducees did
not believe that Jahveh had resolved to end the world and might be