He thought, as he explained to Miriam, that people who were in the world should take the world as they found it, without dreaming ceaselessly of another world to which, as yet, they did not belong; a sentiment that to some extent Nehushta shared.
Wishing, with the zeal of the young, to make a convert, Miriam preached to him the doctrine of Christianity, but without success.

By blood Caleb was a Jew of the Jews, and could not understand or admire a God who would consent to be trodden under foot and crucified.

The Messiah he desired to follow must be a great conqueror, one who would overthrow the Caesars and take the throne of Caesar, not a humble creature with his mouth full of maxims.

Like the majority of his own, and, indeed, of every generation, to the last day of his life, Caleb was unable to divine that mind is greater than matter, while spirit is greater than mind; and that in the end, by many slow advances and after many disasters seemingly irremediable, spirituality will conquer all.

He looked to a sword flashing from thrones, not to the word of truth spoken by lowly lips in humble streets or upon the flanks of deserts, trusting to the winds of Grace to bear it into the hearts of men and thus regenerate their souls.
Such was Caleb, and these things are said of him here because the child is father to the man.
Swiftly the years went by.