walls of the universe?—the walls of the myriads of the shining bodies that mere number has appeared to blend into unity?
Oinos. I clearly perceive that the infinity of matter is no dream.
Agathos. There are no dreams in Aidenn—but it is here whispered that, of this infinity of matter, the sole purpose is to afford infinite springs, at which the soul may allay the thirst to know which is forever unquenchable within it—since to quench it would be to extinguish the soul's self. Question me then, myOinos, freely and without fear. Come! we will leave to the left the loud harmony of the Pleiades, and swoop outward from the throne into the starry meadows beyond Orion, where, for pansies and violets, and heart's-ease, are the beds of the triplicate and triple-tinted suns.
Oinos. And now, Agathos, as we proceed, instruct me! speak to me in the earth's familiar tones! I understood not what you hinted to me, just now, of the modes or of the methods of v/hat, during mortality, we were accustomed to call Creation. Do you mean to say that the Creator is not God?
Agathos. I mean to say that the Deity does not create.
Oinos. Explain
Agathos. In the beginning only, he created. The seeming creatures which are now, throughout the universe, so perpetually springing into being, can only be considered as the mediate or indirect, not as the direct or immediate results of the Divine creative power.
Oinos. Among men, my Agathos, this idea wouldbe considered heretical in the extreme.
