u exhibit to the people."

"Only apparently," answered Pentaur, "only because that which transcends
sense is communicable through the medium of the senses alone. When God
manifests himself as the wisdom of the world, we call him 'the Word,'
'He, who covers his limbs with names,' as the sacred Text expresses
itself, is the power which gives to things their distinctive forms; the
scarabaeus, 'which enters life as its own son' reminds us of the ever
self-renewing creative power which causes you to call our merciful and
benevolent God a monster, but which you can deny as little as you can
the happy choice of the type; for, as you know, there are only male
scarabei, and this animal reproduces itself."

Nebsecht smiled. "If all the doctrines of the mysteries," he said, "have
no more truth than this happily chosen image, they are in a bad way.
These beetles have for years been my friends and companions. I know
their family life, and I can assure you that there are males and females
amongst them as amongst cats, apes, and human beings. Your 'good God' I
do not know, and what I least comprehend in thinking it over quietly is
the circumstance that you distinguish a good and evil principle in the
world. If the All is indeed God, if God as the scriptures teach, is
goodness, and if besides him is nothing at all, where is a place to be
found for evil?"

"You talk like a school-boy," said Pentaur indignantly. "All that is, is
good and reasonable in itself, but the infinite One, who prescribes his
own laws and his own paths, grants to the finite its continuance through
continual renewal, and in the changing forms of the finite progresses
for evermore. What we call evil, darkness, wickedness, is in itself
divine, good, reasonable, and clear; but it appears in another light to
our clouded minds, because we perceive the way only and not the goal,
the details only, and not the whole. Even so, superficial listeners
blame the music, in which a discord is heard, which the harper has only
evoked from the strings that his hearers may more deeply feel the purity
of the succeeding harmony; even so, a fool blames the painter who has
colored his board with black, and does not wait for the completion
of the picture which shall be thrown into clearer relief by the dark
background; even so, a child chides the noble tree, whose fruit rots,
that a new life may spring up from its kernel. Apparent evil is but an
antechamber to higher bliss, as every sun