恶魔麦诺克（英文原著 Memnoch the Devil）

　　"Thunderstruck, we examined its hands. Had it thumbs? Almost.

　　Thunderstruck, we surrounded its gatherings. Was speech comingfrom its mouth, the audible eloquent expression of thoughts? Al-most! What could be God's plan? Why had He done this? Wouldthis not rouse His anger?

　　"But the light of God flowed eternal and unceasingly, as if thescream of the dying ape could not reach it, as if the monkey torn topieces by its larger assailants had no witness to the great flaring sparkthat sputtered before it died.

　　" 'No, no, this is unthinkable, this is unimaginable,' I said. I flewin the face of Heaven again, and God said, very simply, and withoutconsolation, 'Memnoch, if I am not mocked by this being, if it is mycreation, how can you be mocked? Be satisfied, Memnoch, and enjoyamazement in your satisfaction, and trouble me no more! Anthemsrise all around you which tell me of every detail my Creation hasaccomplished. You come with questions that are accusations, Memnoch!

　　No more!'

　　"I was humbled. The word 'accusations' frightened or caused along pause in my thoughts. Do you know that Satan means inHebrew 'the accuser'?""Yes," I said.

　　"Let me continue. To me this was a wholly new concept and yet Irealized that I had been flinging accusations at God all along. I hadinsisted that this evolutionary process could not be what He wantedor intended.

　　"Now He told me plainly to stop, and to examine further. And Healso gave me to know again, in wide perspective, the immensity anddiversity of the developments I witnessed. In sum, He visited uponme a flash of His perspective, which mine could never be.

　　"As I said, I was humbled. 'May I join with you, Lord?' I asked.

　　And He said, 'But of course.' We were reconciled, and slumbering inthe divine light, yet I kept waking as an animal might wake, ever onalert for its lurking enemy, waking and fearing, But what is happeningnow down there!

　　"Lo and behold! Are those the words I should use, or shall I speaklike J, the author of the book of Genesis, and say 'Look!' with all itsfierce power. The hairy upright ones had begun a strange ritual. Thehairy upright ones had begun all kinds of different patterns ofcomplex behavior. Allow me for the moment to skip over to the mostsignificant. The hairy upright ones had begun to bury their dead."I narrowed my eyes, looking at Memnoch, puzzled. He was sodeeply invested in this tale that he looked for the first time convincinglyunhappy, and yet his face retained its beauty. You couldn't sayunhappiness distorted him. Nothing could.

　　"Was this then the Eleventh Revelation of Evolution?" I asked.

　　"That they should bury their dead?"He studied me a long time, and I sensed his frustration, that hecouldn't begin to get across to me all that he wanted me to know.

　　"What did it mean?" I pressed, impatient and eager to know.

　　"What did it mean, they buried their dead?""Many things," he whispered, shaking his finger emphatically,"for this ritual of burying came along with a kinship we had seldom ifever.witnessed in any other species for more than a moment梩hecaring for the weak by the strong, the helping and the nourishing ofthe crippled by the whole, and finally the burial with flowers. Lestat,flowers\ Flowers were laid from one end to the other of the bodysoftly deposited in the earth, so that the Eleventh Revelation ofEvolution was that Modern Man had commenced to exist. Shaggy,stooped, awkward, covered with apelike hair, but with faces morethan ever like our faces, modern man walked on the earth! And mod-ern man knew affection such as only angels had known in the universe,angels and God who made them, and modern man showeredthat affection upon his kindred, and modern man loved flowers as wehad, and grieved as梬ith flowers梙e buried his dead."I was silent for a long time, considering it, and considering aboveall Memnoch's starting point梩hat he and God and the angelsrepresented the ideal towards which this human form was evolving beforetheir very eyes. I had not considered it from such a perspective. Andagain came the image of Him, turning from the balustrade, and thevoice asking me with such conviction, You would never be myadversary, would you?

　　Memnoch watched me. I looked away. I felt the strongest loyaltyto him already, rising out of the tale he was telling me and theemotions invested in it, and I was confused by the words of GodIncarnate.

　　"And well you should be," said Memnoch. "For the question youmust ask yourself is this: Knowing you, Lestat, as surely He must,why He does not already consider you His adversary? Can youguess?"Stunned.