THE SHE-ANCIENT. No: you have been growing for two years in the egg. You began by being several sorts of creatures that no longer exist, though we have fossils of them. Then you became human; and you passed in fifteen months through a development that once cost human beings twenty years of awkward stumbling immaturity after they were born. They had to spend fifty years more in the sort of childhood you will complete in four years. And then they died of decay. But you need not die until your accident comes. THE NEWLY BORN. What is my accident? THE SHE-ANCIENT. Sooner or later you will fall and break your neck; or a tree will fall on you; or you will be struck by lightning. Something or other must make an end of you some day. THE NEWLY BORN. But why should any of these things happen to me? THE SHE-ANCIENT. There is no why. They do. Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough. And with us there is eternity. THE NEWLY BORN. Nothing need happen. I never heard such nonsense in all my life. I shall know how to take care of myself. THE SHE-ANCIENT. So you think. THE NEWLY BORN. I don't think: I know. I shall enjoy life for ever and ever. THE SHE-ANCIENT. If you should turn out to be a person of infinite capacity, you will no doubt find life infinitely interesting. However, all you have to do now is to play with your companions. They have many pretty toys, as you see: a playhouse, pictures, images, flowers, bright fabrics, music: above all, themselves; for the most amusing child's toy is another child. At the end of four years, your mind will change: you will become wise; and then you will be entrusted with power. THE NEWLY BORN. But I want power now. THE SHE-ANCIENT. No doubt you do; so that you could play with the world by tearing it to pieces. THE NEWLY BORN. Only to see how it is made. I should put it all together again much better than before. THE SHE-ANCIENT. There was a time when children were given the world to play with because they promised to improve it. They did not improve it; and they would have wrecked it had their power been as great as that which you will wield when you are no longer a child. Until then your young companions will instruct you in whatever is necessary. You are not forbidden to speak to the ancients; but you had better not do so, as most of them have long ago exhausted all the interest there is in observing children and conversing with them. [_She turns to go_]. THE NEWLY BORN. Wait. Tell me some things that I ought to do and ought not to do. I feel the need of education. They all laugh at her, except the She-Ancient. THE SHE-ANCIENT. You will have grown out of that by tomorrow. Do what you please. [_She goes away up the hill path_]. _The officials take their paraphernalia and the fragments of the egg back into the temple._ ACIS. Just fancy: that old girl has been going for seven hundred years and hasnt had her fatal accident yet; and she is not a bit tired of it all.