The unexpected nature of this answer and the implied encouragement produced a deep impression on the mind of the gambler, but he answered:
"I shall never be reclaimed. I have gone too far. I have often tried to find the true way of life, and prayed for a single glimpse of light! Have you ever heard how Zeyd used to spend hours leaning against the wall of the Kaaba and praying, 'Lord, if I knew in what manner thou wouldst have me adore thee, I would obey thee; but I do not! Oh! give me light!' I have prayed that prayer with all that agony, but, to me, the universe is dark as hell!"
"There is light enough! It is eyes we need!" said the evangelist.
"Light! Who has it? Many think they have, but it is mere fancy. They mistake the shining of rotten wood for fire!"
"And sometimes men have walked in the light without seeing it, as fish swimming in the sea and birds flying in the air, might say, 'Where is the sea?' 'Where is the air?'"
"But what comfort is it, if there is light, and I cannot see it? There might as well be no light at all!"
"The bird never knows it has wings until it tries them! We see, not by looking for our eyes, but by looking out of them. We say of a little child that it has to 'find its legs.' Some men have to find their eyes."
"It is an art, then, to see?"
"I would even call it a trick, if I dared."
"Can you impart that capacity and teach that art?"