THIRD PART.
46. XLVI. THE VISION AND THE ENIGMA. (continued)
"Halt, dwarf!" said I. "Either I--or thou! I, however, am the stronger of
the two:--thou knowest not mine abysmal thought! IT--couldst thou not
endure!"
Then happened that which made me lighter: for the dwarf sprang from my
shoulder, the prying sprite! And it squatted on a stone in front of me.
There was however a gateway just where we halted.
"Look at this gateway! Dwarf!" I continued, "it hath two faces. Two roads
come together here: these hath no one yet gone to the end of.
This long lane backwards: it continueth for an eternity. And that long
lane forward--that is another eternity.
They are antithetical to one another, these roads; they directly abut on
one another:--and it is here, at this gateway, that they come together.
The name of the gateway is inscribed above: 'This Moment.'
But should one follow them further--and ever further and further on,
thinkest thou, dwarf, that these roads would be eternally antithetical?"--
"Everything straight lieth," murmured the dwarf, contemptuously. "All
truth is crooked; time itself is a circle."
"Thou spirit of gravity!" said I wrathfully, "do not take it too lightly!
Or I shall let thee squat where thou squattest, Haltfoot,--and I carried
thee HIGH!"
"Observe," continued I, "This Moment! From the gateway, This Moment, there
runneth a long eternal lane BACKWARDS: behind us lieth an eternity.
Must not whatever CAN run its course of all things, have already run along
that lane? Must not whatever CAN happen of all things have already
happened, resulted, and gone by?
And if everything have already existed, what thinkest thou, dwarf, of This
Moment? Must not this gateway also--have already existed?
And are not all things closely bound together in such wise that This Moment
draweth all coming things after it? CONSEQUENTLY--itself also?
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