, after a few months trial, fell away. It would be unjust
for me to say that the fault was with the missionary: times are not as
they used to be; the spirit of the Lord is not so rife nor so ardent now
as it was once, and the dwindling of our order was the reason given for
the proposal that some of us should take wives. The argument put forward
was that the children born of these marriages would be more likely than
other children to understand our oaths of renunciation of the world and
its illusions. It was pleaded, and I doubt not in good faith, that it
were better the Essenes should exist under a modified and more worldly
rule than not to exist at all; and while unable to accept this view we
have never ceased to admire the great sacrifice that our erstwhile
brethren have made for the sake of our order. That the large majority
was moved by such an exalted motive cannot be doubted; but temptations
are always about; everyone is the Adam of his own soul, and there may
have been a few that desired the change for less worthy motives. There
was a brother----

At that moment an accidental tread sent one of the puppies howling down
the dwelling, and Hazael, fearing that he might fall into the well and
drown there, sent Jesus to call him back. The puppy, however, managed to
escape the well in time, and the pain in his tail ceasing suddenly he
ran, followed by his brother, out of the cenoby on to the rocks. I must
go after them, for they will roll down the rocks if left to themselves,
Jesus cried. A matter of little moment, Hazael replied, compared with
the greater calamity of drowning himself in the well, for it is of
extraordinary depth and represents the labour of years. Wonderful are
the works of man, he added. But greater are the works of God, Joseph
replied. You did well to correct me, Hazael answered, for one never
should forget that God is over all things, and the only real
significance man has, is his knowledge of God. But we were speaking of
the exodus of a few monks from the great cenoby on the eastern side of
Jordan.

We came hither for the reason that I have told. We left protesting that
even if it were as our brethren said, and that the children of Essenes
would be more likely than the children of Pharisees and Sadducees to
choose to worship God according to the spirit rather than to wear their
lives away in pursuit of vain conformity to the law--even if this were
so, we said, man can only love God on condition th