And it seemed to me, when I had rested my soul with years, and when I had found Space and had stretched myself upon it, I awoke.
I lay in a great white empty place, and the whole world like solemn music came to me.
And I looked, and behold in the shadow of the earth, which came and went, I saw Human Lives being tossed about. On the solemn rhythmic music, back and forth, I saw them lifted across Silence.
And I said to my Spirit, “What is it they are doing?”
“They are living,” the Spirit said.
So they floated before me while The Great Shadow came and went.
••••••••
“O my Soul, hast thou forgotten thy days in the world, when thou didst watch the processional of it, when the faces—day-lighted, night-lighted, faces—trooped before thee, and thou didst look upon them and delight in them? What didst thou see in the world?”
“I saw Two Immeasurable Hands in it,” said my Soul, “over every man. I saw that the man did not see the Hands. I saw that they reached out of infinity for him down through the days and the nights. And whether he slept or prayed or wrought, I saw that they still reached out for him, and folded themselves about him.”
And I asked God what The Hands were.