required of me.

When brought before me, I asked Vyora what he sought? He replied that
his whole desire, his soul's longing, was to be appointed a teacher,
that he might instruct youth, and see little children grow wiser around
him.

I regarded the man attentively, and put many searching questions. He
answered all in a remarkable way, and gave proofs of intellect,
knowledge, and perception beyond the masters who had passed through the
required ordeals, and was so gentle and modest withal, that it was
delightful to speak with him.

The father of Vyora had possessed wealth, but from the cruelty and
oppression of an enemy mightier than he, had lost both fortune and life,
and at his death left a family dependent on charity.

The widow, a woman of remarkable gifts and keen sensibilities,
prostrated by grief, died soon after, carried off suddenly by a disease
called, "Karni ferola," "Absorption of the vitality," [1] which at that
time baffled the skill of the physicians, who indeed had seldom
suspected its presence till the disease was beyond cure.

[Footnote 1: Answering to "consumption;" this disease
is now detected and cured in its germ.]

Vyora, himself an emaciated boy, unfitted for physical labour, was the
eldest of many brothers and sisters, who looked up to him in their
hunger. He was driven to beg their food.