That sounded very pleasing and reassuring. Was the great enigma about to be solved now, and every trouble smoothed away? "But," said Johannes, hesitating, "Markus feels really at home only when he is among poor and neglected people--Kermis-folk, and working men. He looks like a laborer, too--almost like a tramp--he is so very poor. I never look at him without wanting to cry. He is very different from you--utterly unlike!" "That is nothing. That does not signify," said Van Lieverlee, with an impatient toss of his head. "He dissembles." "Then you, also, think...." said Johannes, hesitating, and resuming with an effort, "You think, Walter, that the poor are downtrodden, and that there is injustice in wealth?" Van Lieverlee threw back his head, and made a sweeping gesture with his right arm. "My dear boy, there is no need for you to enlighten me upon that subject. I was a socialist before you began to think. It is very natural for any kind-hearted man to begin with such childish fancies. The poor are imposed upon, and the rich are at fault. Every newsboy, nowadays, knows that. But when one grows somewhat older, and gets to be-hold things from an esoteric standpoint, the matter is not so simple." "There you are," thought Johannes. "As Markus told it, it was much too simple to be true." "Do not forget," resumed Van Lieverlee, "that we all come into the world with an individual Karma. Nothing can alter it. Each one must bring with him his past, and either expiate or else enjoy it. We all receive an appointed task which we are obliged to perform. The poor and downtrodden must attribute their sad fate to the inevitable outcome of former deeds; and the trials they endure are the best medium for their purification and absolution. There are others, on the contrary, who behold their course in life more clear and smooth because their hardest struggles lie behind them. I really sympathize deeply with the unhappy proletarian; but I do not on that account venture to lower myself to his pitiful condition. The Powers hold him there, and me here--each at his post. He still needs material misery to make him wiser. I need it no longer, because I have learned enough in former incarnations. My task, instead, is the elevation, refinement, and preservation of the beautiful. Therefore I am assigned to a more privileged position. I am a watch-man in the high domain of Art. This must be kept pure and undefiled in the great, miry medley of coarse, rude, and apathetic people who compose the greater part of mankind. This cultivation of the beautiful is my sacred duty. To it I must devote myself in all possible ways, and for all time. The beautiful! The beautiful! in its highest refinement--sleeping or waking--in voice, in movement, in food, and in clothing! That is my existence, and to it I must subordinate everything else."