SEVEN SELVES

  In the silent hour of the night, as I lay
half asleep, my seven selves sat together
and thus conversed in whispers:

  First Self:  Here, in this madman, I
have dwelt all these years, with naught to
do but renew his pain by day and recreate
his sorrow by night.  I can bear my fate
no longer, and now I must rebel.

  Second Self:  Yours is a better lot than
mine, brother, for it is given me to be
this madman's joyous self.  I laugh his
laughter and sing his happy hours, and
with thrice winged feet I dance his brighter
thoughts.  It is I that would rebel against
my weary existence.

  Third Self:  And what of me, the love-
ridden self, the flaming brand of wild pas-
sion and fantastic desires?  It is I the
love-sick self who would rebel against this
madman.

  Fourth Self:  I, amongst you all, am
the most miserable, for naught was given
me but the odious hatred and destructive
loathing.  It is I, the tempest-like self, the
one born in the black caves of Hell, who 
would protest against serving this mad-
man.

  Fifth Self:  Nay, it is I, the thinking
self, the fanciful self, the self of hunger
and thirst, the one doomed to wander with-
out rest in search of unknown things and
things not yet created; it is I, not you, who
would rebel.

  Sixth Self:  And I, the working self,
the pitiful labourer, who, with patient
hands, and longing eyes, fashion the days
into images and give the formless ele-
ments new and eternal forms--it is I, the 
solitary one, who would rebel against this
restless madman.

  Seventh Self:  How strange that you
all would rebel against this man, because
each and every one of you has a preor-
dained fate to fulfill.  Ah!  could I but be
like one of you, a self with a determined
lot!  But I have none, I am the do-noth-
ing self, the one who sits in the dumb,
empty nowhere and nowhen, when you
are busy re-creating life.  Is it you or I,
neighbours, who should rebel?

  When the seventh self thus spake the
other six selves looked with pity upon him
but said nothing more; and as the night
grew deeper one after the other went to
sleep enfolded with a new and happy sub-
mission.

  But the seventh self remained watching
and gazing at nothingness, which is behind
all things.