Beautiful spirits cannot always make their bodies beautiful, and evil people have often very lovely shapes and faces.  I confess I find all that very mysterious; heredity is quite beyond me.  If it were merely confined to the body and even the mind, I should not wonder at it, but it seems to affect the soul as well.  Who can feel free in will, if that is the case?  And now, too, they say with some certainty that it seems as though all their own qualities need not be transmitted by parents but that no quality can be transmitted which is not present in the parents—­that we can lose qualities, that is, but not gain them.  If that is true, then all our qualities were present in primitive forms of life, and we are not really developing, we are only specialising.  All this hurts one to think of, because it ties us hand and foot.”

Presently he went on:  “How ludicrous, after all, to make up our mind about things as most of us do!  I believe that the desire for certainty is one of the worst temptations of the devil.  It means closing our eyes and minds and hearts to experience; and yet it seems the only way to accomplish anything.  I trust,” he said, turning to me with a look of concern, “that you do not feel that you are being formed or moulded here, by me or by any of the others?”

“No,” I said, “certainly not!  I feel, indeed, since I came here, that I have got a wider horizon of ideas, and I hope I am a little more tolerant.  I have certainly learnt from you not to despise ideas or experiences at first sight, but to look into them.”

He seemed pleased at this, and said:  “Yes, to look into them—­we must do that!  When we see anyone acting in a way that we admire, or even in a way which we dislike, we must try to see why he acts so, what makes him what he is.  We must not despise any indications.  On the whole, I think that people behave well when they are happy, and ill when they are afraid.  All violence and spite come when we are afraid of being left out; and we are happy when we are using all our powers.  Don’t be too prudent!  Don’t ever be afraid of uprooting yourself,” he added with great emphasis.  “Try experiments—­in life, in work, in companionship.  Have an open mind!  That is why we should be so careful what we pray for, because in my experience prayers are generally granted, and often with a fine irony.  The grand irony of God!  It is one of the things that most reassures me about Him, to find that He can be ironical and indulgent; because our best chance of discovering the nature of things is that we should be given what we wish, just in order to find out that it was not what we wished at all!”

“But,” I said, “if you are for ever experimenting, always moving on, always changing your mind, don’t you run the risk of never mixing with life at all?”