DOI Artikel:
Joseph T. [Turner] Keiley, On the Threshold
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31083#0060
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ON THE THRESHOLD
AFTER the depression that followed the shock of the beginning of re-
alization and clarification of vision, I was plunged into deep thought
—thought that coursed back years upon years; that projected for-
ward eons upon eons; that took the now apart atom by atom; that under-
stood that the past and future were a continuous part of the Eternal Present.
I looked at self in the polished black mirror of truth and what I beheld
therein made me fear for the moment to think; and when I dared at last
with a strange new-born courage, I grew dizzy, sick almost at the vasts that
opened to my vision. I found myself alone in the silent, blue-domed desert
of thought, a pigmy before the mysterious, voiceless Sphinx—Life—looking
into its sublime, impassive face, into the nocturnal star-studded space beyond,
knowing for the first time the meaning of the aspirations of the great,
blind, struggling force prisoned within my body.
And I trembled with terror, even with horror of myself, for I had been
treating this great, blind, inscrutable colossus as a playful kitten and letting
the hours slip by like so many grains of sand.
And I cried aloud “Thou fool ” and then fell into silence.
Then from the lips of the Sphinx, like deep soothing music came the
words :
“ Peace. Fear not.
The Past and Future are the Living Present.
The whole outweigheth its parts.
Peace, Fear not.
Mould flowereth into Beauty.
The soul turneth dross to Gold.
Peace. Fear not.”
A calm came over my spirit for I knew that I had begun to understand
and that thereafter so long as my bones were clothed with flesh and sentient
with the breath of life, I would no more stumble on my way nor stray from
the road that led beyond the Sphinx. Joseph T. Keiley.
40
AFTER the depression that followed the shock of the beginning of re-
alization and clarification of vision, I was plunged into deep thought
—thought that coursed back years upon years; that projected for-
ward eons upon eons; that took the now apart atom by atom; that under-
stood that the past and future were a continuous part of the Eternal Present.
I looked at self in the polished black mirror of truth and what I beheld
therein made me fear for the moment to think; and when I dared at last
with a strange new-born courage, I grew dizzy, sick almost at the vasts that
opened to my vision. I found myself alone in the silent, blue-domed desert
of thought, a pigmy before the mysterious, voiceless Sphinx—Life—looking
into its sublime, impassive face, into the nocturnal star-studded space beyond,
knowing for the first time the meaning of the aspirations of the great,
blind, struggling force prisoned within my body.
And I trembled with terror, even with horror of myself, for I had been
treating this great, blind, inscrutable colossus as a playful kitten and letting
the hours slip by like so many grains of sand.
And I cried aloud “Thou fool ” and then fell into silence.
Then from the lips of the Sphinx, like deep soothing music came the
words :
“ Peace. Fear not.
The Past and Future are the Living Present.
The whole outweigheth its parts.
Peace, Fear not.
Mould flowereth into Beauty.
The soul turneth dross to Gold.
Peace. Fear not.”
A calm came over my spirit for I knew that I had begun to understand
and that thereafter so long as my bones were clothed with flesh and sentient
with the breath of life, I would no more stumble on my way nor stray from
the road that led beyond the Sphinx. Joseph T. Keiley.
40
