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These things should be at our command; but the things which children know we must re-learn; and there is no truth more evident to the child nor more surely proved to the philosopher than that all which we see or hear depends for all its meaning on the soul of the world that no man sees or hears. Let this book be taken as a short and simple lesson-book in hidden meanings. Life gives us many lessons hard to read, and problems painful to unriddle; but here in kind and simple wise our lesson was made plain and the page was pleasant to read: for to the eyes of everyday, in varying scenes, among diverse races, and nations long since dead “the dear old nurse” showed us the things which follow. She brought us through the Gates of Gold and sent us to float on the serene water below a pleasant pasture; she taught us daily, dwelling on the other side; led us by moonlight to the Court of the King; showed us through sordid circumstance the silent romance on the golden hill, as she had showed us romantic incidents, even in the Desert City; then she surrendered us to the guardianship of her child Imagination who, through the voices of others, brought back for us the Oriental vision of the royal boat in the mysterious midnight solemnity. And from this our older guardian led us back, and blotting out for us sight and sound of a populous city by a transparent veil, made us understand how to trust the mightiness of the life of which we were part.