Chapter 10
When they came to Utza, Hoab cried out: What do my eyes behold! As I live, here are people who once belonged to Zeredho, my own heaven! By what strange law did they leave my kingdom to come and dwell in these torments?
Fragapatti caused the avalanza to stop so that information could be obtained. Then he called the druj to the ship, and thousands of them came, ragged and debauched. Hoab knew many of them, and he said: Do you know who I am? And they answered: Yes, Hoab, God of Zeredho. Again Hoab spoke, saying: Why did you leave my glorious kingdom to come and dwell in this hell of iniquity?
They answered, saying: A pity that we left, indeed! But since it is so, it is so. Hear us, then, O Hoab, this is the reason: Even as mortals often leave Purity in order to revel in sin. Other than that, we do not know.
Then Fragapatti spoke, saying: Jehovih says: I have given man many talents. Because the roadways are not open for their growth, he plunges into darkness. Do not think that you can draw a line, and say: O man, you shall not do this, or, you shall do that. || For you are powerless to hold him, whom I created to go forward. And if he does not find a way to go forward, he will turn and go backward.
The drujas said: Yes, master, Zeredho did not fill our souls; we were thirsty for amusement and lightheartedness. We heard no voice but Utility. We sheared off all ornament and diversion, and art, and, finally, even music. We would gladly hear from Zeredho, to find out if they have ceased to talk, and perhaps to live, because, in fact, Utility has spoken!
And they laughed, and frolicked about like idiots and fools, mingling with harlots, thieves, liars and drunkards.
Fragapatti caused the ship to move on a while, and then stopped, and called other drujas, and questioned them in the same manner, and received answers of the same character.
Again they moved onward, and the same was repeated; finally, they came to a place where all was darkness and noise and confusion, where the denizens did not even heed the ship, nor the calls made to them. Then Fragapatti spoke to Hoab, saying: Has it been proven to you that man cannot stand still? Hoab said: It is true. This matter comes home close to me. I perceive now that had I not come out of Zeredho, I would not have witnessed these things, nor would I have seen Zeredho as I now see it.
Fragapatti said: Do not be hasty against your own philosophy, for I will show you your own wisdom by and by. So they traveled seven days in hell, the lowest division of hada, where there was neither government, nor order, nor truth, nor virtue, but torments, wailings, and cursings.
Fragapatti said: You have seen that all these many people do not know their own darkness.
Hoab said: Is it not true, O Chief, that no man knows his own darkness? Who, then, is safe? Who knows he is not on the downward road?
Fragapatti said: You have said man is the All Highest. But does it not come home to us all, as it did to the ancients, that to do good with all our wisdom and strength, and have faith in this, that we are on the road to the All Highest?
Certainly you have proven, said Hoab, that Zeredho is not the All Highest, for it cannot retain its people. Even hell has prevailed over her. And does not hell prevail over all self-righteousness, and over riches, kingdoms and empires? If, therefore, hell prevails, is not hell the most powerful? And if the most powerful is not hell, then the All Highest possible must be most powerful. The ancients were happy in ignorance, for in believing in an All Person, a Creator, and that they would ultimately see Him, they had an object in view. But with the growth of wisdom, we find we cannot realize such a Person, and so have no object in view ahead of us. And with that, we recoil upon ourselves, and all is dead.
Fragapatti said: Has man no lesson from the past? In the ancient times the Gods persuaded mortals to make stone idols and worship them. And they were sufficient until man attained more knowledge. Again the Gods came to mortals, inventing a large man-God in the sky, persuading them to worship him. He was a sufficient God till man learned to commune with angels; and the angels contradicted that philosophy. But hear me, O Hoab, do we not have a lesson in this, which is, that we must ever have an All Highest Person so far ahead that we cannot attain Him? If this is true, then when we have surpassed a Person whose figure and condition we can comprehend, is it not incumbent upon us to create within our own souls the thought of an All Person beyond our comprehensibility?
Hoab said: It seems so. But how can you teach your soul to think of an All Person beyond man’s comprehensibility?
Fragapatti said: For a basis to reason from, let us consider the etherean, the atmospherean and the corporeal worlds to constitute His body; and the motion within and between these as the manifestations of His Power and His Wisdom. Since, then, we ourselves have these things in part, we find, also, we have another attribute embracing all the others, which is combination concentrated into one person. Shall we not, then, give to Him, Who embraces all things within Himself, combination concentrated into one Person? Otherwise, He is our inferior, which cannot be. Therefore, being ourselves persons, are we not mere offshoots from the All Person? Otherwise, we could not have attained personality. Does a child not take its personality because its mother was a person? Can man have an entity unless he receives it from an entity? Could man be a person, unless he sprang from a Person?
Hoab said: You are a great light, O Chief! Truly, you have unfolded a universe before me! Yes, there must be an All Person! O if only I had seen this philosophy before!
Fragapatti said: Do not be infatuated, O Hoab, with sudden appearances. For were I to show you, first, what it is to believe in an All Person, Whose magnificence surpasses the universe itself, and then that man can attain to be one with Him, even as a note in music is one within a tune, I would so far enrapture your soul that you would do nothing but listen. Let us, therefore, suspend our research awhile, so that we may devise some resurrection for this hell of suffering millions.