“Oh, you are young!—­you must be very young!” he said forbearingly..  “In a little time you will grow out of all this ill-judged fanaticism for an Art, the pursuance of which is really only wasted labor!  Think of the absurdity of it!—­what can be more foolish than the writing of verse to express or to encourage emotion in the human subject, when the great aim of education at the present day is to carefully eradicate emotion by degrees, till we succeed in completely suppressing it!  An outburst of feeling is always vulgar,—­the highest culture consists in being impassively equable of temperament, and absolutely indifferent to the attacks of either joy or sorrow.  I should be inclined to ask you to consider this matter more seriously, and from the strictly common-sense point of view, did I not know that for you to undertake a course of useful meditation while you remain is Sah-luma’s companionship would be impossible, . . quite impossible!  Nevertheless our discourse has been so far interesting, that I shall be happy to meet you again and give you an opportunity for further converse should you desire it, . . ask for the Head Professor of Scientific Positivism, any day in the Strangers’ Court of the Royal Institutional College, and I will at once receive you!  My name is Mira-Khabur,—­Professor Mira Khabur...at your service!”

And laying one hand on his breast he bowed profoundly.

“A Professor of Positivism who is himself never positive!”—­ observed Theos with a slight smile.

“Ah pardon!” returned the other gravely—­“On the contrary, I am always positive! ... of the UNpositiveness of Positivism!”

And with this final vindication of his theories he made another stately obeisance and went his way.  Theos looked after his tall, retreating figure half in sadness, half in scorn.  This proudly incompetent, learned-ignorant Mira-Khabur was no uncommon character—­surely there were many like him!

Somewhere in the world,—­somewhere in far lands of which the memory was now as indistinct as the outline of receding shores blurred by a falling mist, Theos seemed painfully to call to mind certain cold-blooded casuists he had known, who had attempted to explain away the mysteries of life and death by rule and line calculations, and who for no other reason than their mathematically argued denial of God’s existence had gained for themselves a temporary, spurious celebrity.  Yes! ... surely he had met such men, . . but where?  Realizing, with a sort of shock, that he was quite as much in the dark as ever with regard to any real cognizance of his former place of abode and the manner of life he must have led before he entered this bewildering city of Al-Kyris, he roused himself abruptly, and resolutely banishing the heavy thoughts that threatened to oppress his soul, he began without further delay to direct his steps towards Sah-luma’s palace.

He glanced once more at the river before leaving the embankment,—­ it was still blood red, and every now and then, between the sluggish ripples, multitudes of dead fish could be seen drifting along in shoals, and tangled in nets of slimy weed that at a little distance looked like the floating tresses of drowned women.