_Ly_. Dear me, what tiny things you make us out--not so big as the Pygmies even, but positively grovelling on the face of the earth. I quite understand it; your thoughts are up aloft already. And we, the common men that walk the earth, shall mingle you with the Gods in our prayers; for you are translated above the clouds, and gone up whither you have so long striven. _Her_. If but that ascent might be, Lycinus! but it is far yet. _Ly_. But you have never told me _how_ far, in terms of time. _Her_. No; for I know not precisely myself. My guess is that it will not be more than twenty years; by that time I shall surely be on the summit. _Ly_. Mercy upon us, you take long views! _Her_. Ay; but, as the toil, so is the reward. _Ly_. That may be; but about these twenty years--have you your master's promise that you will live so long? is he prophet as well as philosopher? or is it a soothsayer or Chaldean expert that you trust? such things are known to them, I understand. You would never, of course, if there were any uncertainty of your life's lasting to the Virtue-point, slave and toil night and day like this; why, just as you were close to the top, your fate might come upon you, lay hold of you by the heel, and lug you down with your hopes unfulfilled. _Her_. God forbid! these are words of ill omen, Lycinus; may life be granted me, that I may grow wise, and have if it be but one day of Happiness! _Ly_. For all these toils will you be content with your one day? _Her_. Content? yes, or with the briefest moment of it. _Ly_. But is there indeed Happiness up there--and worth all the pains? How can you tell? You have never been up yourself. _Her_. I trust my master's word; and he knows well; is he not on the topmost height? _Ly_. Oh, do tell me what he says about it; what is Happiness like? wealth, glory, pleasures incomparable? _Her_. Hush, friend! all these have nought to do with the Virtuous life. _Ly_. Well, if these will not do, what _are_ the good things he offers to those who carry their course right through? _Her_. Wisdom, courage, true beauty, justice, full and firm knowledge of all things as they are; but wealth and glory and pleasure and all bodily things--these a man strips off and abandons before he mounts up, like Heracles burning on Mount Oeta before deification; he too cast off whatever of the human he had from his mother, and soared up to the Gods with his divine part pure and unalloyed, sifted by the fire. Even so those I speak of are purged by the philosophic fire of all that deluded men count admirable, and reaching the summit have Happiness with never a thought of wealth and glory and pleasure--except to smile at any who count them more than phantoms.