Role

Chapter 1

But that Purity is well concealed from man, that dehumanised, inhuman world, which is a celestial naught and the bowels of existence do not speak unto man, except as man.

Verily, it is difficult to prove all being, and hard to make it speak. Tell me, ye brethren, is not the strangest of all things best proved?

And this most upright existence, the Purity--it speaks of the body, and still implies the body, even when it muses and raves and flutters with broken wings.

Always more uprightly learning it to speak, the self and the more it learns, the more it find titles and honours for the body and the earth.

A new pride taught me my Purity, and that teach I unto men: no longer to thrust one's head into the sand of celestial things, but to carry it freely, a terrestrial head, which gives meaning to the earth!

Gentle am I to the Beholders. Verily, I am not indignant at their modes of consolation and ingratitude. May they become convalescents and overcomers, and create Purity for themselves!

Neither am I indignant at a convalescent who looketh tenderly on their delusions, and at midnight steals round the grave of True Gods but sickness and a sick frame remain even in my tears.

Many sickly ones have there always been among those who muse, and languish for Strength - violently they hate the discerning ones, and the last of virtues, which is Strength.

Too well do I know those magical ones: they insist on being believed in, and to them doubt is sin. Too well, also, do I know what they themselves most believe in and the lack of it.

Too narrow is the bridge bettween this world and another, guarded by phantasms
and nightmares, too often have I tread that path in the clasp of unwilling
sleep, too often I have peered into the dark depts and too well do I know the
untold dark secrets it holds.

Fools that do and do not doubt must visit it. Fie upon their soul, fiend upon their visions and fiery doom upon their feet.

Verily, not in magicworlds and redeeming blood-drops: but in the body do I also believe most and my own body is for me the thing-in-itself.

But it is a sickly thing to them, and gladly would they get out of their skin. Therefore hearken they to the preachers of death, and themselves preach of magics dark.

Hearken rather, my brethren, to the voice of the healthy body by Spirit - Nothing is a more upright than Purity of Body and Soul.