sciences. A mouthpiece of their god, one
Gerbert, took lessons in physics, arithmetic, and music with us, and it
was said that he had sold us his soul. Centuries passed, and man's ways
remained violent. It was a world given up to fire and blood. The
successors of the studious Gerbert, not content with the possession of
souls (the profits one gains thereby are lighter than air), wished to
possess bodies also. They pretended that their universal and
prescriptive monarchy was held from a fisherman on the lake of Tiberias.
One of them thought for a moment to prevail over the loutish Germanus,
successor to Augustus. But finally the spiritual had to come to terms
with the temporal, and the nations were torn between two opposing
masters.

"Nations took shape amid horrible tumult. On every side were wars,
famines, and internecine conflicts. Since they attributed the
innumerable ills that fell upon them to their God, they called him the
Most Good, not by way of irony, but because to them the best was he who
smote the hardest. In those days of violence, to give myself leisure for
study I adopted a _role_ which may surprise you, but which was
exceedingly wise.

"Between the Saone and the mountains of Charolais, where the cattle
pasture, there lies a wooded hill sloping gently down to fields watered
by a clear stream. There stood a monastery celebrated throughout the
Christian world. I hid my cloven feet under a robe and became a monk in
this Abbey, where I lived peacefully, sheltered from the men at arms who
to friend or foe alike showed themselves equally exacting. Man, who had
relapsed into childhood, had all his lessons to learn over again.
Brother Luke, whose cell was next to mine, studied the habits of animals
and taught us that the weasel conceives her young within her ear. I
culled simples in the fields wherewith to soothe the sick, who until
then were made by way of treatment to touch the relics of saints. In the
Abbey were several demons similar to myself whom I recognised by their
cloven feet and by their kindly speech. We joined forces in our
endeavours to polish the rough mind of the monks.

"While the little children played at hop-scotch under the Abbey walls
our friends the monks devoted themselves to another game equally
unprofitable, at which, nevertheless, I joined them, for one must kill
time,--that, when one comes to think of it, is the sole business of
life. Our game was a game of words which pleased our co