"Divine Light, please withdraw this, my humble bodily picture, into
Thyself, even as Elijah was drawn up to heaven by a flame."
This prayer was evidently startling; the beam disappeared. My body
resumed its normal weight and sank on the bed; the swarm of dazzling
ceiling lights flickered and vanished. My time to leave this earth
had apparently not arrived.
"Besides," I thought philosophically, "the prophet Elijah might
well be displeased at my presumption!"
{FN30-1} This famous Russian artist and philosopher has been living
for many years in India near the Himalayas. "From the peaks comes
revelation," he has written. "In caves and upon the summits lived
the rishis. Over the snowy peaks of the Himalayas burns a bright
glow, brighter than stars and the fantastic flashes of lightning."
{FN30-2} The story may have a historical basis; an editorial note
informs us that the bishop met the three monks while he was sailing
from Archangel to the Slovetsky Monastery, at the mouth of the
Dvina River.
{FN30-3} Marconi, the great inventor, made the following admission
of scientific inadequacy before the finalities: "The inability
of science to solve life is absolute. This fact would be truly
frightening were it not for faith. The mystery of life is certainly
the most persistent problem ever placed before the thought of man."
{FN30-4} A clue to the direction taken by Einstein's genius is given
by the fact that he is a lifelong disciple of the great philosopher
Spinoza, whose best-known work is ETHICS DEMONSTRATED IN GEOMETRICAL
ORDER.
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