To reason only whether a thing be, is it not like
reasoning about a cap or a shoe, whether they fit or not, before they
are put on? and what must be the consequence of such reasoning, but that
you will not know whether anything exist, yea, whether there be any such
thing as salvation, or eternal life after death; whether one religion be
more efficacious than another, and whether there be a heaven and a hell?
On these subjects you cannot possibly think at all, so long as you halt
at the first step, and beat the sand at setting out, instead of setting
one foot before another and going forward. Take heed to yourselves, lest
your minds, standing thus without in a state of indetermination, should
inwardly harden and become statues of salt, and yourselves friends of
Lot's wife." With these words I took my leave, and they being indignant
threw stones after me; and then they appeared to me like graven images
of stone, without any human reason in them. On my asking the angels
concerning their lot, they said, "Their lot is, that they are cast down
into the deep, into a wilderness, where they are forced to carry
burdens; and in this case, as they are no longer capable of rational
conversation, they give themselves up to idle prattle and talk, and
appear at a distance like asses that are heavily laden.
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