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Quiet.
He waited until I was ready for him to continue, and there weremoments there when I thought that point might never come. Drawnto him as I was, totally enthralled as I was, I felt a sheer mortal desireto flee from something overwhelming, something that threatenedthe structure of my reasoning mind.
"When I was with God," Memnoch continued, "I saw as Godsees桰 saw the humans with their families; I saw the humans gatheredto witness and assist the birth; I saw the humans cover the graveswith ceremonial stones. I saw as God sees, and I saw as if Forever andin All Directions, and the sheer complexity of every aspect of creation,every molecule of moisture, and every syllable of sound issuingfrom the mouths of birds or humans, all seemed to be nothing morethan the product of the utter Greatness of God. Songs came from myheart which I have never equaled.
"And God told me again, 'Memnoch, stay close to me in Heaven.
Watch now from afar.'
" 'Must I, Lord?' I asked. 'I want so badly to watch them and overthem. I want with my invisible hands to feel their softening skin.'
" 'You are my angel, Memnoch. Go then and watch, andremember that all you see is made and willed by me.'
"I looked down once before leaving Heaven, and I do speak nowin metaphor, we both know this, I looked down and I saw theCreation teeming with Watcher angels, I saw them everywhere engagedin their various fascinations as I have described, from forest to valleyto sea.
"But there seemed something in the atmosphere of Earth that hadchanged it; call it a new element; a thin swirl of tiny particles? No,that suggests something greater than what it was. But it was there.
"I went to Earth, and immediately the other angels confirmed forme that they, too, had sensed this new element in the atmosphere ofEarth, though it was not dependent upon the air as was every otherliving thing.
" 'How can this be?' I asked.
" 'Listen,' said the Angel Michael. 'Just listen. You can hear it.'
"And Raphael said, 'This is something invisible but living! Andwhat is there under Heaven that is invisible and lives but us!'
"Hundreds of other angels gathered to discuss this thing, to speakof their own experience of this new element, this new presence ofinvisibility which seemed to swarm about us, unaware of our presenceyet making some vibration, or that is, inaudible sound, which westruggled to hear.
" 'You've done it!' said one of the angels to me, and let him remainnameless. 'You've disappointed God with all your accusing andall your rages, and He has made something else other than us that isinvisible and has our powers! Memnoch, you have to go to Him andfind out if He means to do away with us, and let this new invisiblething rule.'
" 'How can that be so?' asked Michael. Michael is, of all the angels,one of the most calm and reasonable. Legend tells you this; so doesAngelology, folklore, the whole kit and caboodle. It's true. He isreasonable. And he pointed out now to the distressed angels that thesetiny invisible presences of which we were aware could not conceivablyequal our power. They could scarcely make themselves known to us,and we were angels, from whom nothing on earth could possibly hide!
" 'We have to find out what this is,' I said. 'This is bound to theearth and part of it. This is not celestial. It is here, dwelling close tothe forests and hills.'
"Everyone agreed. We were beings from whom the compositionof nothing was secret. You might take thousands of years tounderstand cynobacteria, or nitrogen, but we understood them! But wedidn't understand this. Or let me say, we could not recognize this forwhat it was.""Yes, I understand.""We listened; we reached out our arms. We perceived that it wasbodiless and invisible, yes, but that it had to it a continuity, anindividuality, indeed, what we perceived were a multitude ofindividualities. And they were weeping, and very gradually, that soundwas heard within our own realm of invisibility, and by our ownspiritual ears."He paused again.
"You see the distinction I make?" he asked.
"They were spiritual individuals," I said.
"And as we pondered, as we opened our arms and sang and triedto comfort them, while stepping invisibly and artfully through thematerial of Earth, something momentous made itself known to us,shocking us out of our explorations. Before our very eyes, theTwelfth Revelation of Physical Evolution was upon us! It struck uslike the light from Heaven; it distracted us from the cries of thecovert invisible! It shattered our reason. It caused our songs to becomelaughter and wails.
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