every one possessed of Mathias’s skill in dialectics.  They all knew Mathias and were imbued with much respect for him as a teacher, and were willing to instruct Joseph in psychology, taking up the lesson where Mathias closed the book.  So, putting his conscience behind him, Joseph listened, his ears wide open and his mind alert to understand that it was a child’s story—­the report in Jerusalem that the end of the world was approaching, and that God would remould it afresh—­as if God were human like ourselves, animated with like business and desires!  He heard for the first time that to arrive at any clear notion of divinity we must begin by stripping divinity of all human attributes, and when every one is sloughed, what remains?  Divinity, Joseph answered; and his instructor bowed his head, saying:  here is no matter for reflection.

The philosophers were surprised to learn that in Jerusalem many still retained the belief that God was no more than a man of colossal stature, angry, revengeful, and desirous of burnt offerings and of prayers which were little better; that the corruptible body could be raised from the dead and given back to the soul for a dwelling.  That Jerusalem had fallen so low in intellect was not known to them; and Joseph, feeling he was making a noise in the world, admitted that despite the knowledge of the Greek language he accepted the theory that the soul was created before the body and waited in a sort of dim hall, hanging like a bat, for the creation of the body which it was predestined to descend into, till the death of the body released it.  He was, however, now willing to believe that the souls of all the wise men mentioned in the books of Moses were sent down to earth as to a colony; great souls could not abide like bats in the darkness, but are ever desirous of contemplation and learning.  And on pursuing this thought in the Greek language, which lends itself to subtle shades of thought, he discovered that there are three zones:  the first zone is reason, the second passion and the third appetite.  And this his first psychological discovery was approved by his teacher, and many months were passed over in agreeable exercises of the mind of like nature, interrupted only by letters from his father, asking him when he proposed to return home.

After reading one of these letters, his unhappiness lasted sometimes for a whole day, and it was revived many times during the week; but philosophy enabled him to resist the voice of conscience still a little while, and even a letter relating the death of his grandmother did not decide his departure.  It seemed at first to have decided him, and he told all his friends that he was leaving with the next caravan.  But of what use, he asked himself, for me to return to Galilee?  Granny is in her grave:  could I bring her back to life I would return!  So he remained in Egypt for some time longer, and what enforced his return were the long plains, in which oxen drew the plough from morning till evening; and he had begun to long for clouds and for the hills, and the desire to escape from the plain grew stronger every day till at last he could not do else than yield to it.  By the next caravan, he said to himself.