In my heaven-uplifted dream, I thought I saw a circular spacious garden
in which all the lovely landscapes of a superior world appeared to form
themselves by swift degrees. The longer I looked at it, the more
beautiful it became, and a little star shone above it like a sun. Trees
and flowers sprang up under my gaze, and all stretched themselves
towards me, as though for protection. Birds flew about and sang; some
of them tried to get as near as possible to the little sun they saw;
and other living creatures began to move about in the shadows of the
groves, and on the fresh green grass. All the wonderful workings of
Nature, as known to us in the world, took place over again in this
garden, which seemed somehow to belong to me; and I watched everything
with a certain satisfaction and delight. Then the idea came to me that
the place would be fairer if there were either men or angels to inhabit
it; and quick as light a whisper came to me:
"CREATE!"
And I thought in my dream that by the mere desire of my being,
expressed in waves of electric warmth that floated downwards from me to
the earth I possessed, my garden was suddenly filled with men, women
and children, each of whom had a small portion of myself in them,
inasmuch as it was I who made them move and talk and occupy themselves
in all manner of amusements. Many of them knelt down to me and prayed,
and offered thanksgivings for having been created; but some of them
went instead to the little star, which they called a sun, and thanked
that, and prayed to that instead. Then others went and cut down the
trees in the garden, and dug up stones, and built themselves little
cities, where they all dwelt together like flocks of sheep, and ate and
drank and made merry with the things I had given them. Then I thought
that I increased their intelligence and quickness of perception, and
by-and-by they grew so proud that they forgot everything but
themselves. They ceased to remember how they were created, and they
cared no more to offer praises to their little sun that through me gave
them light and heat. But because something of my essence still was in
them, they always instinctively sought to worship a superior creature
to themselves; and puzzling themselves in their folly, they made
hideous images of wood and clay, unlike anything in heaven or earth,
and offered sacrifices and prayer to these lifeless puppets instead of
to me. Then I turned away my eyes in sorrow and pity, but never in
anger; for I could not be wrathful with these children of my own
creation. And when I thus turned away my eyes, all manner of evil came
upon the once fair scene--pestilence and storm, disease and vice. A
dark shadow stole between my little world and me--the shadow of the
people's own wickedness. And as every delicate fibre of my spiritual
being repelled evil by the necessity of the pure light in which I dwelt
serene. I waited patiently for the mists to clear, so that I might
again behold the beauty of my garden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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