"Yes," answered Ian. "If to believe that not a lily can grow, not a sparrow fall to the ground without our Father, be pantheism, Alister and I are pantheists. If by pantheism you mean anything that would not fit with that, we are not pantheists." "Why should we trouble about religion more than is required of us!" interposed Christina. "Why indeed?" returned Ian. "But then how much is required?" "You require far more than my father, and he is good enough for me!" "The Master says we are to love God with all our hearts and souls and strength and mind." "That was in the old law, Ian," said Alister. "You are right. Jesus only justified it--and did it." "How then can you worship in the temple of Nature?" said Mercy. "Just as he did. It is Nature's temple, mind, for the worship of God, not of herself!" "But how am I to get into it? That is what I want to know." "The innermost places of the temple are open only to such as already worship in a greater temple; but it has courts into which any honest soul may enter." "You wouldn't set me to study Wordsworth?" "By no means." "I am glad of that--though there must be more in him than I see, or you couldn't care for him so much!" "Some of Nature's lessons you must learn before you can understand them." "Can you call it learning a lesson if you do not understand it?" "Yes--to a certain extent. Did you learn at school to work the rule of three?" "Yes; and I was rather fond of it." "Did you understand it?" "I could work sums in it." "Did you see how it was that setting the terms down so, and working out the rule, must give you a true answer. Did you perceive that it was safe to buy or sell, to build a house, or lay out a garden, by the rule of three?" "I did not. I do not yet." "Then one may so far learn a lesson without understanding it! All do, more or less, in Dame Nature's school. Not a few lessons must be so learned in order to be better learned. Without being so learned first, it is not possible to understand them; the scholar has not facts enough about the things to understand them. Keats's youthful delight in Nature was more intense even than Wordsworth's, but he was only beginning to understand her when he died. Shelley was much nearer understanding her than Keats, but he was drowned before he did understand her. Wordsworth was far before either of them. At the same time, presumptuous as it may appear, I believe there are regions to be traversed, beyond any point to which Wordsworth leads us." "But how am I to begin? Do tell me. Nothing you say helps me in the least." "I have all the time been leading you toward the door at which you want to go in. It is not likely, however, that it will open to you at once. I doubt if it will open to you at all except through sorrow." "You are a most encouraging master!" said Christina, with a light laugh.