Read it through once

He used this power to amuse us and to instruct us. He would show us scenes from distant lands — seas, mountains, cities — and then tell us their histories; or he would show human passions, or tragedies, and make us see the causes as plainly as if they were painted on a slate. In this way he taught us the weakness and the grandeur of men; yet he did it without a sermon, and by means of things that were in themselves mere play.