"It's as big a place as being head of Harvard College," she said, "and better paid than that used to be. Our highest and finest people study for this work. Real geniuses, some of them. The babies, all the babies, mind you, get the benefit of the best wisdom we have. And it grows fast. We are learning by doing it. Every year we do better. 'Growing up' is an easier process than it used to be." "I'll have to accept it for the sake of argument," I agreed. "It's the last point I care most for, I think. All these new consciousnesses you were so glib about. I guess you can't describe that so easily." She grew thoughtful, rocking to and fro for a few moments. "No," she said at length, "it's not so easy. But I'll try. I wasn't very glib, really. I spoke of religion, art, civics, science, industry, wealth, and efficiency, didn't I? Now let's see how they apply to the children. "This religion---- Dear me, John! am I to explain the greatest sunburst of truth that ever was--in two minutes?" "Oh, no," I said loftily. "I'll give you five! You've got to try, anyway." So she tried. "In place of Revelation and Belief," she said slowly, "we now have Facts and Knowledge. We used to believe in God--variously, and teach the belief as a matter of duty. Now we know God, as much as we know anything else--more than we know anything else--it is The Fact of Life. "This is the base of knowledge, underlying all other knowledge, simple and safe and sure--and we can teach it to children! The child mind, opening to this lovely world, is no longer filled with horrible or ridiculous old ideas--it learns to know the lovely truth of life." She looked so serenely beautiful, and sat so still after she said this, that I felt a little awkward. "I don't mean to jar on you, Nellie," I said. "I didn't know you were so--religious." Then she laughed again merrily. "I'm not," she said. "No more than anybody is. We don't have 'religious' people any more, John. It's not a separate thing; a 'body of doctrine' and set of observances--it is what all of us have at the bottom of everything else, the underlying basic fact of life. And it goes far, very far indeed, to make the strong good cheer you see in these children's faces. "They have never been frightened, John. They have never been told any of those awful things we used to tell them. There is no struggle with church-going, no gagging over doctrines, no mysterious queer mess--only life. Life is now open to our children, clear, brilliant, satisfying, and yet stimulating. "Of course, I don't mean that this applies equally to every last one. The material benefit does, that could be enforced by law where necessary; but this world-wave of new knowledge is irregular, of course. It has spread wider, and gone faster than any of the old religions ever did, but you can find people yet who believe things almost as dreadful as father did!" I well remembered my father's lingering Calvinism, and appreciated its horrors.