. The true art of living requires us
to recognize that which is base in its true colors, but at the same
time, to avoid debasing ourselves by violent or passionate feelings
against that which is wicked or vulgar. You must remove hatred from
your heart, and be at peace with yourself. Hatred destroys the soul.
You must grow to feel that, viewed in the proper light, vice and crime
are simply defects. They may lead to a thousand sad consequences, but,
of themselves, have no existence; virtue alone is a reality. Come up
higher, unto where I stand, and you will find that you have been
tormenting yourself with mere shadows."

"I see the steps," said the queen; "help me up!"

"Naught can avail but self-help. Each must learn to be monarch of
himself, even though he wear a kingly crown. The law teaches us that,
in order to retain this command over ourselves, we must not permit
anger and hatred to dwell in our souls, or to poison so much of the
world as is given us to enjoy, be our share great or small."

"I had too much faith in virtue and kindness."

"Very likely. As long as one believes in mankind, there will be
deception and despair. We persist in judging our fellow-creatures by
what they are as regards us, instead of what they are as regards
themselves. And thus, as long as we believe in human virtue, we may, at
times, be perplexed at finding ourselves disappointed where we least
expect it. As soon, however, as we recognize the Divine in everything,
even though the possessor himself is unconscious of it, we have
attained a lofty standpoint, from which we feel sure both of ourselves
and of the world."

The queen hurriedly raised herself and, extending both hands to
Gunther, exclaimed:

"You are a worker of miracles."

"No, I am not that. I am only a physician who has held many a hand hot
with fever, or stiff in death, in his own. The healing art might serve
as an illustration. We help all who need our help, and do not stop to
ask who they are, whence they come, or whether, when restored to
health, they persist in their evil courses. Our actions are incomplete,
fragmentary; thought alone is complete and all-embracing. Our deeds and
ourselves are but fragments--the whole is God."

"I think I grasp your meaning. But our life, as you say, is indeed a
mere fraction of life as a whole, and how is each one to bear up under
the portion of suffering that falls to his individual lot? Can one--I
mean it in its best sense--alway