ll not
be able to pronounce it; therefore it may remain unmentioned. He knew
everything that a man on earth can know, or can get to know; every
invention which had already been or which was yet to be made was
known to him; but nothing more, for everything in the world has its
limits. The wise King Solomon was only half as wise as he, and yet he
was very wise, and governed the powers of nature, and held sway over
potent spirits: yes, Death itself was obliged to give him every
morning a list of those who were to die during the day. But King
Solomon himself was obliged to die too; and this thought it was which
often in the deepest manner employed the inquirer, the mighty lord in
the castle on the Tree of the Sun. He also, however high he might
tower above men in wisdom, must die one day. He knew that, and his
children also must fade away like the leaves of the forest, and become
dust. He saw the human race fade away like the leaves on the tree; saw
new men come to fill their places; but the leaves that fell off never
sprouted forth again--they fell to dust, or were transformed into
other parts of plants. "What happens to man?" the wise man asked
himself, "when the angel of death touches him? What may death be? The
body is dissolved--and the soul. Yes, what is the soul? whither doth
it go? To eternal life, says the comforting voice of religion; but
what is the transition? where does one live, and how? Above, in
heaven, says the pious man, thither we go. Thither?" repeated the wise
man, and fixed his eyes upon the moon and the stars; "up yonder?" But
he saw, from the earthly ball, that above and below were alike
changing their position, according as one stood here or there on the
rolling globe; and even if he mounted as high as the loftiest
mountains of earth rear their heads, to the air which we below call
clear and transparent--the pure heaven--a black darkness spread abroad
like a cloth, and the sun had a coppery glow, and sent forth no rays,
and our earth lay wrapped in an orange-coloured mist. How narrow were
the limits of the corporeal eye, and how little the eye of the soul
could see!--how little did even the wisest know of that which is the
most important to us all!

In the most secret chamber of the castle lay the greatest treasure of
the earth: the Book of Truth. Leaf for leaf, the wise man read it
through: every man may read in this book, but only by fragments. To
many an eye the characters seem to tremble, so th