"So that if he were a madman, he would continue to hold supremacy over
a nation, though his groom might be sane?"

"Your Royal Highness pursues the question with an unwise flippancy;"--
remonstrated the professor with a pained, forced smile. "If an idiot or
a madman were unfortunately born to a throne, a regency would be
appointed to control state affairs, but the heir would, in spite of
natural incapability, remain the lawful king."

"A strange sovereignty!" said the young prince carelessly. "And a still
stranger patience in the people who would tolerate it! Yet over all
men,--kings, madmen, and idiots alike,--there is another ruling force,
called God?"

"There is a force," admitted the professor dubiously--"But in the
present forward state of things it would not be safe to attempt to
explain the nature of that force, and for the benefit of the illiterate
masses we call it God. A national worship of something superior to
themselves has always been proved politic and necessary for the people.
I have not at any time resolved myself as to why it should be so; but
so it is."

"Then man, despite his 'supremacy' must have something more supreme
than himself to keep him in order, if it be only a fetish wherewith to
tickle his imagination?" suggested the prince with a touch of satire,--
"Even kings must bow, or pretend to bow, to the King of kings?"

"Sir, you have expressed the fact with felicity;" replied the professor
gravely--"His Majesty, your august father, attends public worship with
punctilious regularity, and you are accustomed to accompany him. It is