A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

In a Japanese Hospital 30^
and more astounding complexities of substance,
more and yet more marvellous complexities of
mind, — and able at last to prolong the term of
its being from the primal duration of an instant
to the possible human age of a hundred years.
The sentiency is the riddle of riddles. Thought
has been proved a compounding of sensation.
But the simplest sensation perceptible is itself a
compound or the result of a compounding,
— :
perhaps the shock of a fusion, — the flash of a
blending ; —
and the mystery of life remains the
most inscrutable, the most tremendous, the most
appalling of enigmas.
From the terror of that mystery our fathers
sought to save their world by uttering the black
"On pain of sword and fire, — on
decree : —
peril of the Everlasting Death, — THOU SHALT
NOT think! "
But the elder wisdom of the East proclaimed
" Fear not to think, O child of the Abyss, upon
the Depth that gave thee birth ! Divining that
Formless out of which thou hast come, into
which thou must dissolve again, thou shall know
thy Being timeless, and infinitely One ! . .
20
."