The boy blushed vividly at being so called upon in the presence of his elders, but, at a sign from his father, he stood up before them, saying: "I did not suppose the talk of persons so young could interest those who are so much older and wiser, but, as ye desire to hear it, I can almost repeat it. As Theckla and I were running over the alphabets, in order to get the sound of the letters and the form of the characters, she came upon the letter ’A’ a second time, and she cried out: ’Oh, I know that one; it is Latin A, Greek Alpha, Hebrew Aleph.’ And I said unto her, ’Theckla, how knowest thou that the characters stand for these sounds?’ and she answered, ’Thou didst tell me so, and I did believe thee, boy, and that is how I know it.’ Then said I: ’Theckla, thou learnest the alphabet by faith only. If thou wert naturally constituted so that thou couldst not believe, thou couldst never learn anything not tangible to thy senses. If thou wert by nature even indifferent between faith and non-faith, thy progress in the acquisition of knowledge would be slow and painful. Thou shouldst therefore learn, from the learning of these alphabets, that faith is the first, most inevitable act of intelligence. Thou shouldst learn that belief precedes knowledge always, that Faith is the elder sister and leadeth Knowledge by the hand, and that without antecedent faith it is impossible to learn and to know anything except what is palpable to the senses; just as it would be impossible for thee to learn these alphabets without faith.’ And thereupon Theckla did pinch mine ear, and laugh at me, saying, ’That all seemeth to be true and plain enough, thou odd boy, but why art thou preaching at me now?’ And I did answer: ’Because, thou dear sister, some time thy faith may be demanded for another alphabet than this, even the alphabet of spiritual life; and, when that day shall come, I would have thee remember that just as all human knowledge is builded upon the basis of faith only, so it should not seem a hard thing unto thee that God hath fashioned thy nature so that thou must be incapable of learning even the alphabet of everlasting life except upon the very same condition of faith only. Faith precedeth all knowledge; believe and obey, and finally thou shalt know.’ I think this was about what was spoken between us concerning faith." "And it is most wise, beautiful, and instructive talk," said Am-nem-hat, "and serveth to complete the powerful utterances of thy father upon the same lofty and interesting subject. I do thank thee for repeating it." Then spake Hatasa, saying to Ammonius, "Suppose that one hath died without having known the truth concerning Jesus, and without having exercised this faith, is there no hope for such a one?"