institutions,--therefore the peculiar, though not at all unnatural
tint of the river this morning, is of course no mystery to you,
if, as I presume, you follow the Scientific Classes of Instruction
in the Physiology of Nature, of Manifestation of Simple and
Complex Motive Force, and the Perpetual Evolution of Atoms?"

Theos smiled,--the grandiloquent manner of this self-important
individual amused him.

"Most worthy sir," he replied, "you form too favorable an opinion
of my scholarly attainments! I am a stranger in Al-Kyris,--and
know naught of its educational system, or the interior mechanism
of its wondrous civilization! I come from far-off lands, where, if
I remember rightly, much is taught and but little retained,--where
petty pedagogues persist in dragging new generations of men
through old and worn-out ruts of knowledge that future ages shall
never have need of, . . and concerning even the progress of science,
I confess to a certain incredulity, seeing that to my mind Science
somewhat resembles a straight line drawn clear across country but
leading, alas! to an ocean wherein all landmarks are lost and
swallowed up in blankness. Over and over again the human race has
trodden the same pathway of research,--over and over again has it
stood bewildered and baffled on the shores of the same vast sea,--
the most marvellous discoveries are after all mere child's play
compared to the tremendous secrets that must remain forever
unrevealed; and the poor and trifling comprehension of things that
we, after a life-time of study, succeed in attaining, is only just
sufficient to add to our already burdened existence the
undesirable clogs of discontent and disappointed endeavor. We
die,--in almost as much ignorance as we were born, . . and when we