o its source, the more terrible and vigorous
is its life. You'll see for yourself when we reach the head of the
valley that there are no living shapes there at all. That means that
there is no kind of matter tough enough to capture and hold the terrible
sparks that are to be found there. Lower down the stream, most of the
sparks are vigorous enough to escape to the upper air, but some are held
when they are a little way up, and these burst suddenly into shapes. I
myself am of this nature. Lower down still, toward the sea, the stream
has lost a great part of its vital power and the sparks are lazy and
sluggish. They spread out, rather than rise into the air. There is
hardly any kind of matter, however delicate, that is incapable of
capturing these feeble sparks, and they are captured in multitudes--that
accounts for the innumerable living shapes you see there. But not
only that--the sparks are passed from one body to another by way of
generation, and can never hope to cease being so until they are worn
out by decay. Lowest of all, you have the Sinking Sea itself. There the
degenerate and enfeebled life of the Matterplay streams has for its body
the whole sea. So weak is it's power that it can't succeed in creating
any shapes at all but you can see its ceaseless, futile attempts to do
so, in those spouts."

"So the slow development of men and women is due to the feebleness of
the life germ in their case?"

"Exactly. It can't attain all its desires at once. And now you can see
how immeasurably superior are the phaens, who spring spontaneously from
the more electric and vigorous sparks."

"But where does the matter come from that imprisons these sparks?"

"When life dies, it becomes matter. Matter itself dies, but its place is
constantly taken by new matter."

"But if life comes from Faceny, how can it die at all?"

"Life is the thoughts of Faceny, and once these thoughts have left his
brain they are nothing--mere dying embers."

"This is a cheerless philosophy," said Maskull. "But who is Faceny
himself, then, and why does he think at all?"

Leehallfae gave another wrinkled smile. "That I'll explain too. Faceny
is of this nature. He faces Nothingness in all directions. He has no
back and no sides, but is all face; and this face is his shape. It
must necessarily be so, for nothing else can exist between him and
Nothingness. His face is all eyes, for he eternally contemplates
Nothingness. He draws his inspirations fr