When the song was ended, I heard a mind say, “I have the key of wisdom, and I will now unlock the door of knowledge.” Proceeding forward, he addressed us as follows: “True greatness is goodness; true wisdom is what will make the mind good. I have seen power in the hands of weakness. I have seen weakness mock at the voice of wisdom, and cast her reproach at its votaries; but the reproach rebounded on her own head. I have seen mind pleading for mercy at the gate of poverty. Alas! mistaken mind sought for bread where it was not, and the heart languished in despair. The voice of nature has been derided, and the weakness of ignorance has assumed dominion. Poverty is wrong, and wrong is poverty. No good thing has poverty to bestow. At its gate, the hungry wait, and wait to be disappointed. I have sought, but not found. I have wondered at my misfortune, and complained of the dealings of God. I have seen no key to unlock the mystery, and my soul has been disquieted within me. But I sought for bread where it was not, and for wisdom in a college of ignorance. Opinions were numerous, and as grainless as husks. Faiths were not wanting in number or variety, but no mind was satisfied therewith. Views of God were conflicting and contradictory, and my mind was worn with the wrangling of unsettled controversy. I sought for peace amid the turbulent waters, but found only agitation and discontent. I was as wild as the sea on which my bark floated, without hope or moorings, save the disputed and unsettled opinions of a dismal theology. In my dreams of the future, social good was never promised. Philanthropy was selfish, and charity not a span long. Goodness dwelt in temples, and virtue signified conformity to others’ views. Parsimony was common law, and beggars were common outlaws. Nature smiled then as now, but I saw not the smile. Brotherhood was without children, and conventional limits were drawn over the face of famishing souls. Imagination portrayed calamities, and wrongs sustained the wrong. “Pilgrims, I have a key. It will unlock the iron door, and show you the secret of all this mischief and wrong. It is a key of knowledge. It is a key which closes the door of hope. It bars the gate of joy. It shuts the portal of salvation. It wrongs the poor of bread. It aggrandizes the indolent from the labor of the industrious. It keeps mind away from its inheritance, and secludes the riches of heirship. I hold the key by which all this wrong and mischief has been done to mind, and I propose to open the door for your personal inspection.” He opened the door, and drew therefrom a book of seven seals. He began to unloose the first seal, when he said: