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sin. Learning is life, and ignorance is death. The only oblivion that can be felt is ignorance. The only pain is sickness, be it of the body or of the soul. The only rapture is perfect health, be it also of the body or of the soul. “Why, then, Orfeo, why, I humbly ask in my ignorance, did I receive the first flicker of a spiritual dawn when I became afflicted td 19 and doomed?” His words, his fervent sincerity, had tapped a small reservoir of wisdom within me which I had not known existed. I got up from the table, turned off the stove and brought cups, spoons and sugar to the table for our coffee. I answered him while doing this. “Because, Adam, the real value of yourself is that thread of essence within you, like the thread that weaves through all society. The bulk of you, in personality and aspect, was conditioned by society. You accepted things as those around you molded them. You had to make a success of yourself in that society, so you conformed. You forgot your childhood intuitions and instincts, 1 oe 1 xr almost giving your very soul to others around you. You even insulated yourself against the call of love from your other half, which can be filled only by a woman. You were capable, so success came easily to you. You are handsome, and except for your present illness, you are very healthy by earth standards in our present stage of civilization. You felt that others might be sick and infirm, but you, never; you felt like one privileged. “It was as though God had set a special stage to serve you in your string of successes, the end object of which you could neither see nor care about. You felt that God would give you a heaven after you had become totally successful. But you could not see that God does not expend one creature for the mere gratification of another. It is all a brew in the caldron of progress, Adam. You today, me tomorrow. Ignorance of the truth makes it so. We were put here from the beginning in c 1 Wow 1 makes it so. makes it so. We were put here from the beginning in a primitive state of mere survival, and all the elements and substances of attaining to perfection were provided us at the same time. From that nearly impossible condition, and purely 41 THE DANCE IN A GLASS