There was no hour-glass, but the suggestion was there just the same.
"Nevertheless," he went on presently, "there are some who fail their destiny, even as some chosen seeds refuse to sprout.

You will need besides your honesty such courage as is committed to few.
"Once on a time before the _Kali-Yug_ began, when the Aryans, of whom you people are descendants, lived in this ancient motherland, the whole of all knowledge was the heritage of every man, and what to-day are called miracles were understood as natural working of pure law.

It was nothing in those days for a man to walk through fire unscathed, for there was very little difference between the gods and men, and men knew themselves for masters of the universe, subject only to _Parabrahm_.
"Nevertheless, the sons of men grew blind, mistaking the shadow for the substance.

And because the least error when extended to infinity produces chaos, the whole world became chaos, full of nothing but rivalries, sickness, hate, confusion.
"Meanwhile, the sons of men, ever seeking the light they lost, have spread around the earth, ever mistaking the shadow for the substance, until they have imitated the very thunder and lightning, calling them cannon; they have imitated all the forces of the universe and called them steam, gasoline, electricity, chemistry and what not, so that now they fly by machinery, who once could fly without effort and without wings.
"And now they grow deathly weary, not understanding why.

Now they hold councils, one nation with another, seeking to substitute a lesser evil for the greater.
"Once in every hundred years men have been sent forth to prove by public demonstration that there is a greater science than all that are called sciences.