Then spoke the wise Queen Dolores, saying: "I have studied mathematics. I will question this young man, in my tent to-night, and in the morning I will report the truth as to his claims. Are you content to endure this interrogatory, my spruce young fellow who wear the shirt of a king?" Jurgen looked full upon her: she was lovely as a hawk is lovely: and of all that Jurgen saw Jurgen approved. He assumed the rest to be in keeping: and deduced that Dolores was a fine woman. "Madame and Queen," said Jurgen, "I am content. And I can promise to deal fairly with you." So that evening Jurgen was conducted into the purple tent of Queen Dolores of Philistia. It was quite dark there, and Jurgen went in alone, and wondering what would happen next: but this scented darkness he found of excellent augury, if only because it prevented his shadow from following him. "Now, you who claim to be flesh and blood, and King of Eubonia, too," says the voice of Queen Dolores, "what is this nonsense you were talking about proving any such claims by mathematics?" "Well, but my mathematics," replied Jurgen, "are Praxagorean." "What, do you mean Praxagoras of Cos?" "As if," scoffed Jurgen, "anybody had ever heard of any other Praxagoras!" "But he, as I recall, belonged to the medical school of the Dogmatici," observed the wise Queen Dolores, "and was particularly celebrated for his researches in anatomy. Was he, then, also a mathematician?" "The two are not incongruous, madame, as I would be delighted to demonstrate." "Oh, nobody said that! For, indeed, it does seem to me I have heard of this Praxagorean system of mathematics, though, I confess, I have never studied it." "Our school, madame, postulates, first of all, that since the science of mathematics is an abstract science, it is best inculcated by some concrete example." Said the Queen: "But that sounds rather complicated." "It occasionally leads to complications," Jurgen admitted, "through a choice of the wrong example. But the axiom is no less true." "Come, then, and sit next to me on this couch if you can find it in the dark; and do you explain to me what you mean." "Why, madame, by a concrete example I mean one that is perceptible to any of the senses--as to sight or hearing, or touch--" "Oh, oh!" said the Queen, "now I perceive what you mean by a concrete example. And grasping this, I can understand that complications must of course arise from a choice of the wrong example." "Well, then, madame, it is first necessary to implant in you, by the force of example, a lively sense of the peculiar character, and virtues and properties, of each of the numbers upon which is based the whole science of Praxagorean mathematics. For in order to convince you thoroughly, we must start far down, at the beginning of all things." "I see," said the Queen, "or rather, in this darkness I cannot see at all, but I perceive your point. Your opening interests me: and you may go on."