Page:The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart.pdf/156

152 loudly, on this event. And walking, now here, now there, among them, I listen. And behold, some rejoiced exceedingly, not knowing for joy where to go to. They pitied their ancestors, because, during their lifetime, nothing such had happened. They congratulated themselves because perfect philosophy had been fully given unto them. Thus could they, without error, know everything; without want, have sufficient of everything; live for several hundred years without sickness and grey hair, if they only wished it. And they ever repeated: "Happy, verily happy, is our age." Hearing such speech I also began to rejoice, and to feel hopes that, please God, I also should receive somewhat of that for which they were longing. But I saw others who were absorbed in deep thought, and were in doubt as to what to think this. Were it but true what they had heard announced, they would have been glad; but these matters seemed to them obscure, and surpassing the mind of man. Others openly opposed these things, saying that they were fraud and deceit. If these reformers of philosophy had existed for hundreds of years, why, then, had they not appeared before? If they were certain of what they affirmed, why, then, did they not appear boldly in the light, but express their opinions in the dark, and in corners, as if they were whizzing bats. Philosophy, they said, is already well established, and requires no reform. If you allow this philosophy to be torn from your hands, you will have none whatever. Others also reviled and cursed the reformers and