"I would not dream; I must know."
"A little dreaming would not hurt thee, my Paolo; for sometimes it
seemeth to those who care for thee that thou needest rest."
"Rest is satisfaction," the lad answered quickly. "If there be a problem
to be solved, I would rather think than dream. I would rather come in
contact with the nobler activities--the mental and spiritual
forces--through the minds and works of men. I would find such attrition
more helpful than this phase of creation which thou callest 'nature,'
whose unfolding is more passive, depending on its inherent law."
"This also is of God's gift, Paolo mio," Fra Giulio had said yearningly.
"Sometimes thou seemest to find too little beauty in thy life, and when
I brought thee hither I hoped it might move thy soul."
"What can be more beautiful," the young philosopher had questioned
earnestly, "than the fitting of all to each, the search for hidden keys,
the linking of problems that seemed apart? These are the things that
move me. I must walk soberly, Fra Giulio, lest I miss some revelation,
so sacred and so mysterious is knowledge! And the love of it leaves me
no room for questions of outside beauty--this ordered beauty of hidden
law is so wonderful!"
For one moment, as Fra Giulio had looked at him, he fancied that he had
seen deeper into his eyes than ever before; then the veil had seemed to
rise up from the boy's heart and close over its depths.
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