whom she thought of as incapable of resistance, was herself, and all she meant _consciously_ was--O son, I can refuse nothing to one so earnest. But mark what followed: Alexander desisted at once--he asked for no further oracle--he refused it, and exclaimed joyously:--'Now then, noble priestess, farewell; I have the oracle--I have your answer, and better than any which you could deliver from the tripod. I am invincible--so you have declared, you cannot revoke it. True, you thought not of Persia--you thought only of my importunity. But that very fact is what ratifies your answer. In its blindness I recognise its truth. An oracle from a god might be distorted by political ministers of the god, as in time past too often has been suspected. The oracle has been said to _Medize_, and in my own father's time to _Philippize_. But an oracle delivered unconsciously, indirectly, blindly, that is the oracle which cannot deceive.' Such was the all-famous oracle which Alexander accepted--such was the oracle on which he and his army reposing went forth 'conquering and to conquer.' Exactly on this principle do the Turks act, in putting so high a value on the words of idiots. Enlightened Christians have often wondered at their allowing any weight to people bereft of understanding. But that is the very reason for allowing them weight: that very defect it is which makes them capable of being organs for conveying words from higher intelligences. A fine human intelligence cannot be a passive instrument--it cannot be a mere tube for conveying the words of inspiration: such an intelligence will intermingle ideas of its own, or otherwise modify what is given, and pollute what is sacred.