Wolffert chuckled. "Did he?" Then he sobered, catching my thought. "That is the most important thing for him at present, but wait. Let this develop." He tapped his forehead. "He may give you laws equal to Kepler's or a new philosophy like Bacon's. He may solve aerial navigation--or revolutionize thought in any direction--who knows!" His face had lighted up as he proceeded, and he was leaning forward in his chair, his eyes glowing. "I know," I said, teasingly. "He'll sell shoes--second-hand ones polished up for new." I was laughing, but Wolffert did not appreciate my joke. He flushed slightly. "That's your gentile ignorance, my friend. That's the reason your people are so dense--they never learn--they keep repeating the same thing. No wonder we discover new worlds for you to claim!" "What new worlds have you discovered?" "Well, first, Literature, next commerce. What is your oldest boasted scripture?" "I thought you were talking of material worlds!" "We helped about that, too--did our full part. You think Queen Isabella pawned her jewels to send Christobal Colon to discover America--don't you?" I nodded. "Well, the man who put up the money for that little expedition was a Jew--'Arcangel, the Treasurer.' You never heard of him!" "Never." "He did it all the same. If you would read something else beside your narrow English writings, Glave, you would learn something of the true history of civilization." Now and then Wolffert's arrogance, like Antipater's, showed through the rents in his raiment. "What for instance? since you appear to know it all." "Well, almost any other history or philosophy. Read the work of the thinkers old and new--and see how much deeper life is than the shallow thing called by that divine name by the butterflies and insects and reptiles who flaunt their gauzy vans in our faces or fasten their brazen claws in our vitals. Meantime, you might read my book," he said with a smile, "when it comes out." "Well, tell me about it meantime and save me the trouble. I sometimes prefer my friends to their books." "You were always lazy," he said smiling. But he began to talk, laying down his philosophy of life, which was simple enough, though I could not follow him very far. I had been trained in too strict a school to accept doctrines so radical. And but that I saw him and John Marvel and Eleanor Leigh acting on them I should have esteemed them absolutely utopian. As it was, I wondered how far Eleanor Leigh had inspired his book. XXXVIII WOLFFERT'S PHILOSOPHY (WHICH MAY BE SKIPPED BY THE READER) As Wolffert warmed up to his theme, his face brightened and his deep eyes glowed.