with whom you have spent some time in their barren security. I do not
think you are suited for the work of recording the great scheme of life,
nor do I think you are made for a teacher. You are not sufficiently
impartial! For mere labour you are not suited; and yet I hardly think
you would be fit to adopt the most honourable task which your friend
Amroth so finely fulfils--a guide and messenger. What do you think?"

I said at once that I did not wish to have to make a decision, but that
I preferred to leave it to him. I added that though I was conscious of
my deficiencies, I did not feel conscious of any particular capacities,
except that I found character a very fascinating study, especially in
connection with the circumstances of life upon earth.

"Very well," he said, "I think that you may perhaps be best suited to
the work of deciding what sort of life will best befit the souls who are
prepared to take up their life upon earth again. That is a task of deep
and infinite concern; it may surprise you," he added, "to learn that
this is left to the decision of other souls. But it is, of course, the
goal at which all earthly social systems are aiming, the right
apportionment of circumstances to temperament, and you must not be
surprised to find that here we have gone much further in that direction,
though even here the system is not perfected; and you cannot begin to
apprehend that fact too soon. It is unfortunate that on earth it is
commonly believed, owing to the deadening influence of material causes,
that beyond the grave everything is done with a Divine unanimity. But of
course, if that were so, further growth and development would be
impossible, and in view of infinite perfectibility there is yet very
much that is faulty and incomplete. But I am not sure what lies before
you; there is something in your temperament which a little baffles me,
and our plans may have to be changed. Your very absorption in your work,
your quick power of forgetting and throwing off impressions has its
dangers. But I will bear in mind what you have said, and you may for the
present resume your studies, and I will once more commend you; you have
done well hitherto, and I will say frankly that I regard you as capable
of useful and honourable work." He bowed in token of dismissal, and I
went back to my work with unbounded gratitude and enthusiasm.

XXI

Some time after this I was surprised one morning at the sudden entrance
of Am