_The Professor._—“Ah! Doctor, it is always, ‘but’. Isn’t it all true, with no ‘but’?” _Dr. Roberts._—“Yes, I grant you that what Madam Purple said about the appreciation of nature is true, and even that the same thing applies to the appreciation of art and music and the drama. But—I was going to say—it seems to me your illustration is too lofty for the case under consideration. It is true one may rise to the greatest heights of consciousness under the influence of music and poetry and the contemplation of high ideals and if I understand you aright, Madam Purple, you hold these are the same high feelings that may be aroused by the grand harmonies of nature and by what perhaps is meant by the music of the spheres. Do I catch your meaning?” _Madam Purple._—“Yes, Doctor, you have caught the idea in part, but music and poetry and the harmonies of nature too often exercise only what I might call an unconscious and transitory influence—not deep-seated in any sense—because men will not open their eyes and lend their ears. The great anthem of nature is ever being sung; life is joy and harmony; but alas, there are so many who will not open their hearts to the song and the sunshine. But I see you wish to say something more, Doctor.” _Dr. Roberts._—“Yes, I grant this may be true, no doubt it is true, but to return to the old Greek tragedies, although there may be lofty ideas in them, I fail to see that they will produce the effect you anticipate. There is no music in them and they are altogether too cold and bare. Besides, what meaning do they hold, deeper than that which may be seen by the ordinary reader?” _The Professor._—“A meaning that the mere student of languages and literature will never find, but one that to the student of life, to one who recognizes that there is an inner life, will ever unfold more and more and reveal such beauties and harmonies that will thrill the very soul.” _Dr. Roberts._—“I do not see it, though I grant that high moral lessons may be contained in the old Greek poetry and tragedies, but at the same time there is so much that is mere fancy. We have passed the age of the childhood of the race when the mythological tales of the gods and goddesses were seriously taken. I do not deny that there may be many valuable lessons in these, but I certainly think that you are reading into them a great deal that is not there. Pardon my frankness, but I really wish to understand your position.” _The Professor._—“It is not a question of reading a meaning into them, but of being able to draw the meaning out, and to do this requires a master-hand. No modern scholar who is not a mystic will find it, and it is no wonder it has been lost to the ordinary reader.”