_Madam Purple._—“Yes, I think Æschylus and Shakespeare may well be compared, for each taught the truths of life, though each veiled them in forms suited to the times in which they wrote. It is perfectly evident to the deep student that there is an inner meaning to the plays of Æschylus, and it may be that in his earnestness and endeavor to instruct the people and bring out these truths he became so enthused that he introduced some features of the Inner Mysteries, and although these could only be recognized and interpreted by Initiates, yet the story is he was condemned to death for this. It is true the inner meaning had to be clothed in a form adapted to the tastes of the people. In those days Greece had begun to retrograde, and the true idea of religion had become obscured in the minds of the masses. It had begun to take on a gruesome aspect, and that which had the greatest hold upon them was fear and the dread of punishment. Æschylus, like all great teachers, adapted his teachings to the mind of his hearers. Instead of taking them so high that they could find no foothold, he used their ordinary conception of religion and took them forward one step at a time. To have brought out the teaching in all its power and grandeur would perhaps have dazzled them, and being beyond their grasp would have seemed to them to be a tearing down of their present conceptions and ideals, and thus have thrown them back and into rebellion.” _The Professor._—“There are plenty of evidences of this in modern life, of would-be teachers who, ignorant of the laws of growth and development, seek to tear down and at the same time to dazzle their hearers with knowledge which they themselves have not half-digested, and instead of bringing light and freedom, they but imprison and fetter the mind more closely. It is just as though to hasten the growth of a tender plant a gardener would bring it out of a cool and shady spot into the full glare of the sun. Its life would be burned out by that which is the very source of its life.” _Madam Purple._—“But in Æschylus the teaching is there, though veiled. The wise teacher does not tear down until a new foothold has been found. He builds, constructs and educates, thus slowly leading to a higher level, disengaging the minds gradually from error by instilling a higher conception of truth. The inner teaching runs through it all like a golden thread in a many colored tapestry, now appearing, now apparently lost, but in reality only hidden from the casual observer yet present still to him who has eyes to see.