Five Mem. Relations (Whitehead) n. 11

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11. The angels asked further, "In what manner did you believe that the destruction of your world would take place?" They said, "By fire, about which we have believed and prophesied many things: some of us, that flames from heaven would be cast down everywhere upon the earth, as they were upon the sons of Aaron, and upon the burnt offering of Elijah; some, that the fire of the sun would be let loose, would break forth, and set the universe on fire; some, that the central fire of the earth would break the crust round about it, and hurl itself forth everywhere, as it does from the fire-vomiting mountains, Aetna, Vesuvius, and Hecla; some, that a great comet would invade the atmosphere of the earth, and would set it on fire with the flame of its tail; some have said that the universe would not perish by fire, but would go to ruin, and fall to pieces, as does a house from age; and others have believed otherwise." When the angels had heard these things they said to one another, "O what simplicity! Arising only from utter ignorance of the spiritual world and of the angels, and of their heavens and earths, and also from utter ignorance of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word! Thence all things of eternal life have become mere things of the memory, and not of the reason; and if there be anything of reason, it is not above the memory but below it, where confirmations from fallacies counterfeit the light of reason. This was represented by what we lately saw, that the little flame fell down from the priest's head upon his shoe, and shone there; and this appears to us as if one were to take his hat from his head, and wrap it round the soles of his feet and thus walk."


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