olden so that he can not see the operations
of Thy Hands; but he is not very far from Thy Kingdom. Lead him,
Heavenly Father, in the way that he should go; open his eyes that he may
behold the hidden things of Thy Law; look upon him and love him, as Thou
didst aforetime another young man who had great possessions. Lord, tell
him that this earth is only Thy footstool; show him that the beauty he
sees all around him is the hem of Thy garment; and teach him that the
wisdom of this world is but foolishness with Thee. And this we beg, O
Lord, for Christ's sake. Amen."

Thus Caleb prayed, and Alan could not hear him, and could not have
understood him even if he had heard.

But there was One who heard, and understood.

CHAPTER VII

BROADER VIEWS

He proved that Man is nothing more
Than educated sod,
Forgetting that the schoolmen's lore
Is foolishness with God.

"Do you know what I mean to do as soon as Cousin Maria will let me?"
Elisabeth asked of Christopher, as the two were walking together--as
they walked not unfrequently--in Badgering Woods.

"No; please tell me."

"I mean to go up to the Slade School, and study there, and learn to be a
great artist."

"It is sometimes a difficult lesson to learn to be great."

"Nevertheless, I mean to learn it." The possibility of failure never
occurred to Elisabeth. "There is so much I want to teach the world, and
I feel I can only do it through my pictures; and I want to begin at
once, for fear I shouldn't get it all in before I die. There is plenty
of time, of course; I'm only twenty-one now, so that gives me forty-nine
years at the least; but forty-nine years will be none too much in which
to teach the world all that I want to teach it."

"And what time shall you reserve for learning all that the world has to
teach you?"

"I never thought of that. I'm afraid I sha'n't have much time for
learning."

"Then I am afraid you won't do much good by teaching."

Elisabeth laughed in all the arrogance of youth. "Yes, I shall; the
things you teach best are the things you know, and not the things you
have learned."

"I am not so sure of that."

"Surely genius does greater things than culture."

"I grant you that culture without genius does no great things; neither,
I think, does genius without culture. Untrained genius is a terrible
waste of power. So many people seem to think that if they have a spark
of genius they can do without culture; whi