List Members,
Go to the page and read on down about the "cavern-bred monstrosity" and the
"chambers of mire, ooze, and creeping reptiles"-
"There were also, in side caverns to which I was led, combinations of
sounds and scenes in which floating strains and
fleeting figures were interwoven and interlaced so closely that the senses
of both sight and hearing became blended into a single sense, new, weird,
strange, and inexpressible. As flavor is the combination of odor and taste,
and is neither taste nor odor, so these sounds and scenes combined were
neither scenes' nor sounds, but a complex sensation, new, delicious.
Sometimes I begged to be permitted to stop and live forever 'mid those
heavenly charms, but with as firm a hand as when helping me through the
chambers of mire, ooze, and creeping reptiles, my guide drew me onward.
"But to return to the subject. As to my guide being a cavern-bred
monstrosity, I do not remember to have said that he was cavern-bred, and if
I have forgotten a fact, I regret my short memory. Did I say that he was
always a cavern being. Did I assert that he had never lived among mortals of
upper earth? If so, I do not remember our conversation on that subject. He
was surely a sage in knowledge, as you have experienced from my feeble
efforts in explaining the nature of phenomena that were to you unknown, and
yet have been gained by me largely through his instruction. He was a
metaphysician, as you assert; you are surely right; he was a sincere,
earnest reasoner and teacher. He was a conscientious student, and did not by
any word lead me to feel that he did not respect all religions, and bow to
the Creator of the universe, its sciences, and its religions. His demeanor
was most considerate, his methods faultless, his love of nature deep, his
patience inexhaustible, his sincerity unimpeachable. " Yes," the old man
said; " you are right in your admiration of this lovely personage, and when
you come to meet this being as you are destined yet to do- for know now that
you too will some day pass from surface earth, and leave only your name in
connection with this story of myself- you will surely then form a still
greater love and a deeper respect for one so gifted, and yet so
self-sacrificing."
http://www.holloworbs.com/Etidor43interlude.htm http://www.holloworbs.com/Etidor43interlude.htm