“Discernible?” said the physician, “discernible?  Why then the veil?”

“And do you imagine that the multitude could look the naked truth in the face,

[In Sais the statue of Athene (Neith) has the following, inscription:  “I am the All, the Past, the Present, and the Future, my veil has no mortal yet lifted.”  Plutarch, Isis and Osiris 9, a similar quotation by Proclus, in Plato’s Timaeus.]

and not despair?”

“Can I, can any one who looks straight forward, and strives to see the truth and nothing but the truth?” cried the physician.  “We both of us know that things only are, to us, such as they picture themselves in the prepared mirror of our souls.  I see grey, grey, and white, white, and have accustomed myself in my yearning after knowledge, not to attribute the smallest part to my own idiosyncrasy, if such indeed there be existing in my empty breast.  You look straight onwards as I do, but in you each idea is transfigured, for in your soul invisible shaping powers are at work, which set the crooked straight, clothe the commonplace with charm, the repulsive with beauty.  You are a poet, an artist; I only seek for truth.”

“Only?” said Pentaur, “it is just on account of that effort that I esteem you so highly, and, as you already know, I also desire nothing but the truth.”

“I know, I know,” said the physician nodding, “but our ways run side by side without ever touching, and our final goal is the reading of a riddle, of which there are many solutions.  You believe yourself to have found the right one, and perhaps none exists.”

“Then let us content ourselves with the nearest and the most beautiful,” said Pentaur.

“The most beautiful?” cried Nebsecht indignantly.  “Is that monster, whom you call God, beautiful—­the giant who for ever regenerates himself that he may devour himself again?  God is the All, you say, who suffices to himself.  Eternal he is and shall be, because all that goes forth from him is absorbed by him again, and the great niggard bestows no grain of sand, no ray of light, no breath of wind, without reclaiming it for his household, which is ruled by no design, no reason, no goodness, but by a tyrannical necessity, whose slave he himself is.  The coward hides behind the cloud of incomprehensibility, and can be revealed only by himself—­I would I could strip him of the veil!  Thus I see the thing that you call God!”

“A ghastly picture,” said Pentaur, “because you forget that we recognize reason to be the essence of the All, the penetrating and moving power of the universe which is manifested in the harmonious working together of its parts, and in ourselves also, since we are formed out of its substance, and inspired with its soul.”

“Is the warfare of life in any way reasonable?” asked Nebsecht.  “Is this eternal destruction in order to build up again especially well-designed and wise?  And with this introduction of reason into the All, you provide yourself with a self-devised ruler, who terribly resembles the gracious masters and mistresses that you exhibit to the people.”