Lite itself is only a \isi()n. a dream." . . . "Xolliing- ex- 

 ists; all is a (Ireatn. CJod — man — the world — the sun, the 

 moon, the wilderness of stars — a dream, all a dream ; they have 

 no existence. Xothin^" exists save empty space^and you: 

 And you are not you — \"ou have no body, no blood, no bones, 

 you are but a thought." . . . "In a little while you will be 

 alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes with- 

 out friend or comrade forever — for you will remain a thought, 

 the only existent thought, and by your nature inextinguish- 

 able, indestructible. Strange that you should not have sus- 

 pected years ago — centuries, ages, eons ago, for you have ex- 

 isted, companionless, through all the eternities. Strange, in- 

 deed, that you should not have suspected that your universe 

 and its contents were only dreams, visions, fiction ! Strange, 

 because they are so frankly and hysterically insane — like all 

 dreams: A God who could make good children as easily as 

 bad, yet preferred to make bad ones ; who could have made 

 every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one ; 

 who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; 

 who gave His angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required 

 His other children to earn it; who gave His angels painless 

 lives, yet cursed His other children with biting miseries and 

 maladies of mind and bod}'; who mouths justice and invented 

 hell — mouths mercy and invented hell — mouths Golden Rules, 

 and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and in- 

 vented hell ; who mouths morals to other people and has none 

 Himself ; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all ; who 

 created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the re- 

 sponsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably 

 placing it where it belongs, upon Himself; and finally, with 

 altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to 

 worship Him. 



You perceive now, that these things are all impossible, ex- 

 cept in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile 

 insanities, the silly creatures of an imagination that is not 

 conscious of its freaks — in a word, that they are a dream, and 

 you the maker of it. The dream-makers are all present; you 

 should have recognized them earlier. 



It is true, that which I have revealed to you ; there is no 

 God. no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, 



32 



