What then? Despair over that? Is there not, in all conscience, under a loose equation (loose and operative only in extremes) room for all the lusts, the terrors, the wonders, the simplicities of the greatest as well as the least? Alexander may yet be again, or the devil himself in all his power and lurid glory, before he is crushed and set aside, for the time being, by his inherent antithesis, the thing which is not devil. And as for the religionist, may not Jesus, St. Francis, St. Simon Stylites come again? Let man fight for their return if he will. Who is to gainsay him?--not God, Force, the Universal Substance. Obviously it does not care how it expresses itself, so long as it achieves avid, forceful, artistic expression. PHANTASMAGORIA. CHARACTERS: THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE BEAUTY AMBITION PITY LOVE HATE DESPAIR REASON HOPE FEAR GREED FIRST } SECOND } THIRD } FOURTH } POWERS OF DARKNESS FIFTH } SIXTH } SERAPHIM CHERUBIM _Clouds upon clouds of birds, snakes, fish, animals, men, flowers, trees, planets, suns._ SCENE I--_The House of Birth_. SCENE II--_The House of Life_. SCENE III--_The House of Death_. SCENE I. THE HOUSE OF BIRTH SCENE: _Darkness and illimitable space. Æons of time, as measured by the illusion of time, elapse._ THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE, _as force, inert, yet all-in-all, rests quiescent. A faint pulsing begins. Without thought or reason, restless, chaotic, the idea of separateness and individuality generates--an insane dream. The cloudy length of a giant outlines itself, reclining in endless space. It appears and disappears, now a thigh, now an arm, only to fade again. The vague outlines of a brow and cheek appear, only to fade again. Æons of time elapse. The illusion reasserts itself. Cloudy fire-mists pour from his nostrils. Poles of light erect themselves from materialized temples. Blazing suns and meteors burst forth and swirl about his head. Strange and multitudinous forms manifest themselves--animals, birds, fishes, horned and winged things. They appear and disappear, as thoughts form and fade. He is blind, aged, insane. He erects imaginary titanic arms and rubs his changing, stupendous face with his changing hands._ THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE Oh, ho, ho, ho! Oh, ho, ho, ho! (_He sinks back wearily, all but the outlines of his head disappearing._) BEAUTY (_a thought_) (_Leaping, pink-limbed and perfect, from his brain, a figure of delight._) Lord, thou hast created me! I am thy perfect thought, thy happiest illusion! I will be worshiped! I will be worshiped! (_She springs sinuously among the spinning, changing spheres, a radiant smile upon her face, her arms tossed upward in delight._) THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE