I travel,
a winding high mountain road which is reachable only by a steep path.
I travel - a path to Philosophy, edged with sharp stones and prickly thorns and acacia trees.
It is an isolated road, with the occasional mountain goat, and the occasional fellow traveller whom you meet on your way up - I pass them all.
I travel alone.
The road becomes more desolate; more isolated, the higher we ascend.
No fear! Brethren! You must show no fear if you wish to pursue the path.
And moreover, you must leave everything behind, everything. Carry nothing on your back, save the skin stretched taut on your very bones and those pearls of sweat decorating your brow - like a crown. Of Philosophy.
A King indeed - of your own castle.
It's tough. I know It is tough. Nobody said it was going to be easy, but you must be confident and steadfast in your resolve. Often you will espie a path, that leads back down to the plain - I know how tempting it is, but you musn't. You musn't take it.
Sometimes you will come to a precipice and look down on the verdant valley below. A violent attack of dizzyyness and vertigo may grip you and draw you over the edge - but steady! Steady my friend! You must remain in control of yourself and cling to the jarring rocks with might and main and utmost fibre.
Utmost fibre.
In return for your endeavours, as payment in kind for all that hard work, you will eventually... reach the top...
And when you do:
The whole world you will see beneath you. Its sandy deserts and morasses will vanish from view, its uneven spots and moraines will be levelled out, its glaciers will no longer cut you with their jagged corners, its cities will look like smears of grease. Its aches and pains and troubles - so far - so distant - so small. its jarring sounds will no longer reach your ears. The truth of the worlds roundness, its wholeness and its completeness will be revealed to you - as a purple-blue smudge of a horizon - that curves.
that curves - There is no escape from a Sphere
At night, as you sit on the mountain top, with a cool breeze stirring you to ponder, with the stars piercing your skull with their light spears, with the great heavenly machine with its planets and celestial spheres sounding your depths with its immensities - you will cry.
Oh yes you will definitely cry.
Oh my,
For you are here - and at this moment - you can see it all in an instant
Eternity - and the truth:
Life is a Jest
And all things show it
I thought so once,
But now I know it
___________
