"Of course those nations could not
have resisted their doom. Go on, then: vault over your premises."

"If it be, then, my lord, that--"

"My very worshipful lord," interposed Mohi, "is not our philosopher
getting off soundings; and may it not be impious to meddle with these
things?"

"Were it so, old man, he should have known it. The king of Odo is
something more than you mortals."

"But are we the great gods themselves," cried Yoomy, "that we
discourse of these things."

"No, minstrel," said Babbalanja; "and no need have the great gods to
discourse of things perfectly comprehended by them, and by themselves
ordained. But you and I, Yoomy, are men, and not gods; hence is it for
us, and not for them, to take these things for our themes. Nor is
there any impiety in the right use of our reason, whatever the issue.
Smote with superstition, shall we let it wither and die out, a dead,
limb to a live trunk, as the mad devotee's arm held up motionless for
years? Or shall we employ it but for a paw, to help us to our bodily
needs, as the brutes use their instinct? Is not reason subtile as
quicksilver--live as lightning--a neighing charger to advance, but a
snail to recede? Can we starve that noble instinct in us, and hope
that it will survive? Better slay the body than the soul; and if it be
the direst of sins to be the murderers of our own bodies, how much
more to be a soul-suicide. Yoomy, we are men, we are angels. And in
his faculties, high Oro is but what a man would be, infinitely
magnified. Let us aspire to all things. Are we babes in the woods, to
be scared by the shadows of the trees? What shall appall us? If eagles
gaze at the sun, may not men at the gods?"

"For one," said Media, "you may gaze at me freely. Gaze on. But talk
not of my kinsmen so fluently, Babbalanja. Return to your argument."

"I go back then, my lord. By implication, you have granted, that in
times past the future was foreknown of Oro; hence, in times past, the
future must have been foreordained. But in all things Oro is
immutable. Wherefore our own future is foreknown and foreordained.
Now, if things foreordained concerning nations have in times past been
revealed to them previous to their taking place, then something
similar may be presumable concerning individual men now living. That
is to say, out of all the events destined to befall any one man, it is
not impossible that previous knowledge of some one of these events
might supernaturall