"And you really believe, Herr Kreisphysikus, that it is of some use? Well, I won't argue with you, because I don't understand--but that we should accomplish anything for the general good through morality, I mean, the same sort of morality for many or for all--that--that seems unlikely to me. I've always found that each man has his own morality, just as every Jew has his own _Shulchan Oruch_. And there is nothing too bad or too wicked for one man to do to another but that he can excuse it as being moral. I've experienced it, Herr Kreisphysikus--I"--he paused an instant--"yes, and why shouldn't I tell you? At the time when my only child forsook the faith of his fathers, he wrote me a letter, yes--and he explained the necessity for his taking the step, and in the finest words and thoughts told me how it is the highest morality to be true to yourself--not to what has been handed down to you by others--and how each must find in himself the moral laws of the world--and how each must free himself in order to strive unhampered toward the light. No one should abide by what others have offered him, for to take is--mercy! And the strong man must not kill himself out of compassion and mercy. But my son said of himself, he was strong, and for that reason, he said, he must go his own way pitilessly, and I should forgive him the pain he caused me--he was not one of those who quietly gives a little of himself here and a little there, as is the custom in narrow circles; he was one of the few--one of the magnificently wealthy--a great giver who gives himself to mankind!" His voice had risen as he conveyed the contents of the letter to me; but then, as though tired out, he added: "I know every word by heart. I read the letter a thousand times; and, do you know, Herr Kreisphysikus, so that I'd be sure to understand it and read it perfectly, he wrote it in Hebrew letters." He drew the Bible that always lay on the table closer to himself, took out a piece of paper showing signs of much handling, and gave it to me. It was the letter. The depths of my soul were stirred. "What could I do, nebbich, Herr Kreisphysikus? This letter was the only thing I'd ever read of philosophy. Then--yes, after getting it, I sat Shiveh! Because I learned from the letter: 'Be true to yourself.' And I was true to myself in being true to my religion. 'And each must find in himself the moral laws of the world,'--and the moral law of my world is to hold sacred what the God of Israel has commanded. But I hid my sorrow in my soul, and I never again reproached Madame Eichelkatz with having led him into error through her education. What could a frivolous Madame Eichelkatz do, and how could she hinder a man who 'gives himself to mankind,' nebbich? "She never saw him again, nor did he stand at her grave; because I got the rabbi to write to him he should not come. He answered with only two lines."