I See an Opal	19
	in vegetarianism as the cure of all human sickness and sin—"There is no vice stored in apples," he used to say, "and walnuts do not engender evil passions"—this Method was the passion of his life. It consisted of two circular leather pads, each divided into eight compartments num­bered from one to eight, and two bronze knobs. A for­getful pupil had to repeat a phrase or passage eight times, and after each repetition a bronze knob was shifted to the next number. But woe to the child who, after having travelled in woeful monotony round pad number one, could still not recite the passage without a single mistake. Pad number two was then brought into action to mark eight complete cycles on the first pad. If sixty-four repeti­tions could not engrave the details of the High Priest's breastplate on my very soul, nothing could. And now, for the first time confronted with gems, I thought with con­suming intensity of that hardly learnt tale of jewels and suddenly remembered that each of the twelve precious stones had borne in graven letters the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I bent over the table and looked at the collection closely, so closely that my mother asked me caustically if I were going to pick up the stones with my nose. I was only looking for the holy lettering, but I could scarcely tell her that. I could see only two flat stones that promised well. I picked them up quickly. One was highly polished, but not in the least lustrous. It was an oval of an ultramarine blue tint. My mother said it was a lapis lazuli. Wistfully I pointed to the engraving upon it. "What's that writing?" I asked. I knew it was neither