altar, hearing our discussion in Latin, were not a little surprised,
and everyone expressed his pleasure in praise of me. Before I had
moustaches, my boy, I could read Latin, Greek, and French; I knew
philosophy, mathematics, secular history, and all the sciences. The
Lord gave me a marvellous memory. Sometimes, if I read a thing once
or twice, I knew it by heart. My preceptors and patrons were amazed,
and so they expected I should make a learned man, a luminary of the
Church. I did think of going to Kiev to continue my studies, but
my parents did not approve. 'You'll be studying all your life,'
said my father; 'when shall we see you finished?' Hearing such
words, I gave up study and took a post. . . . Of course, I did not
become a learned man, but then I did not disobey my parents; I was
a comfort to them in their old age and gave them a creditable
funeral. Obedience is more than fasting and prayer.

"I suppose you have forgotten all your learning?" observed Kuzmitchov.

"I should think so! Thank God, I have reached my eightieth year!
Something of philosophy and rhetoric I do remember, but languages
and mathematics I have quite forgotten."

Father Christopher screwed up his eyes, thought a minute and said
in an undertone:

"What is a substance? A creature is a self-existing object, not
requiring anything else for its completion."

He shook his head and laughed with feeling.

"Spiritual nourishment!" he said. "Of a truth matter nourishes the