“That I understand.”
“The second world is Love—by which I don’t mean lust. Without love, every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable deliberately to act on others. Without love, there would be no sympathy—not even hatred, anger, or revenge would be possible. These are all imperfect and distorted forms of pure love. Interpenetrating Faceny’s world of Nature, therefore, we have Amfuse’s world of Love, or Relation.”
“What grounds have you for assuming that this so-called second world is not contained in the first?”
“They are contradictory. A natural man lives for himself; a lover lives for others.”
“It may be so. It’s rather mystical. But go on—who is Thire?”
“Length and breadth together without depth give flatness. Life and love without feeling produce shallow, superficial natures. Feeling is the need of men to stretch out toward their creator.”
“You mean prayer and worship?”
“I mean intimacy with Thire. This feeling is not to be found in either the first or second world, therefore it is a third world. Just as depth is the line between object and subject, feeling is the line between Thire and man.”
“But what is Thire himself?”
“Thire is the afterworld.”