The most wonderful I have ever seen, Joseph answered:  a remark that did not altogether please Mathias, for he added:  his power is in himself, for he is altogether without philosophy.

Joseph was moved to ask Mathias if the charm that himself experienced was not an entire absence of philosophy.  But he did not dare to rouse Mathias, whom he feared, and his curiosity overcame his sense of loyalty to the president.  If he were to take his leave abruptly, he would have to return alone to the village to seek the four proselytes, but their companionship did not attract him, and he found himself at that moment unable to deny himself the pleasure of the sweet refreshing evening air, which as they approached the river seemed to grow sweeter.  The river itself was more attractive than he had yet seen it, and there was that sadness upon it which we notice when a rainy day passes into a fine evening.  The clouds were rolling on like a battle—­pennants flying in splendid array, leaving the last row of hills outlined against a clear space of sky; and, with his eyes fixed on the cliffs over against the coasts of the lake, Mathias let his thoughts run after his favourite abstractions:  the relation of God to time and place.  As he dreamed his metaphysics, he answered Joseph’s questions from time to time, manifesting, however, so little interest in them that at last Joseph felt he could bear it no longer, and resolved to leave him.  But just as he was about to bid him good-bye, Mathias said that the Essenes were pious Jews who were content with mere piety, but mere piety was not enough:  God had given to man a mind, and therefore desired man to meditate, not on his own nature—­which was trivial and passing—­but on God’s nature, which was important and eternal.

This remark revealed a new scope for inquiry to Joseph, who was interested in the Essenes; but his search was for miracles and prophets rather than ideas, and if he tarried among the Essenes it was because he had come upon two great men.  He fell to considering the question afresh, and—­forgetful of Mathias’s admonitions that the business of man is to meditate on the nature of God—­he said:  the Essenes perform no miracles and do not prophesy;—­an interruption to Mathias’s loquacity which the other took with a better grace than Joseph had expected—­for no one ever dared before to interrupt Mathias.  Joseph had done so accidentally and expected a very fine reproof, but Mathias checked his indignation and told Joseph that Manahem, an Essene, had foreknowledge of future events given to him by God:  for when he was a child and going to school, Manahem saw Herod and saluted him as king of the Jews; and Herod, thinking the boy was in jest or did not know him, told him he was but a private citizen; whereat Manahem smiled to himself, and clapping Herod on the backside with his hand said:  thou wilt be king and wilt begin thy reign happily, for God finds thee worthy.  And then, as if enough was said on this subject, Mathias