It is a skull, crowned with roses, dominating the torso of a woman nacreously white. Below, a shroud starred with specks of gold forms something like a tail; and the whole body undulates, after the fashion of a gigantic worm erect on end.
The vision attenuates,—disappears.)
Anthony (rising to his feet):
"The Devil yet again, and under his two-fold aspect: the spirit of fornication, and the spirit of destruction.
"Neither affrights me! I repel happiness; and I know myself to be eternal.
"Thus death is only an illusion, a veil-masking betimes the continuity of life.
"But Substance being unique, wherefore should forms be varied?
"Somewhere there must be primordial figures, whose bodily forms are only symbols. Could I but see them, I would know the link between matter and thought; I would know in what Being consists.