haws out. "You have gone through a great
deal," he continued thoughtfully. "That any one who wishes to create
must also experience is clear. Experience is his mother's milk, his
realm of roots; it is where the saps flow together, from which his forms
and figures are developed. But there is experience and experience, and
between the two there is a world of difference."

"Superfluous profundity," murmured Daniel, plainly annoyed. "To live is
to have experience." He took council with himself in the attempt to
devise a means by which he might get rid of the importunate chatterer.

The Goose Man again struck up his gentle laugh. He replied: "Many live,
and yet do not live; suffer, and yet do not suffer. In what does guilt
lie? What does it consist of? In not feeling; in not doing. The first
thing for some men to do is to eradicate completely the false notions
they have of what constitutes greatness. For what is greatness after
all? It is nothing in the world but the fulfilment of an unending circle
of petty duties, small obligations."

"There is a fundamental difference between the creator and all other
men," remarked Daniel, at once excited and troubled by the conversation
and the turn it was taking.

"Do you appeal to, depend on, refer to music in this present case?"
asked the Goose Man, his good-natured look becoming more or less
disdainful.

"In music every creation is more closely related to an unconditional
exterior than is true of anything else that man gives to man," answered
Daniel. "The musical genius stands nearer God than any other genius."

The Goose Man nodded. "But his fall begins one step from God's throne,
and is a high and deep one. Do you know what you are? And do you really
know what you are not?"

Daniel pressed his hand to his heart: "Have you ever known me to fight
for evanescent laurels? Have I ever tried to feed the human race, which
is a race of minors, on surrogates? Have I ever imitated the flights of
Heaven with St. Vitus dance, confusing the one with the other? Have I
not always acted in accord with the best, the inmost knowledge I had,
and in obedience to my conscience? Was I ever a liar?"

"No, no, no!" cried the Goose Man, by way of appeasing Daniel's unrest.
He took off his cap, and laid it on his knee. "You were always sincere.
There can be no doubt about it, your heart was always in your
profession. All life has streamed into your soul, and you have lived in
the ivory tower. Your