concealed, should cry out: “He is the first and the last, the Seen and the
Hidden....”(48)

These statements are made in the sphere of that which is relative, because
of the limitations of men. Otherwise, those personages who in a single
step have passed over the world of the relative and the limited, and dwelt
on the fair plane of the Absolute, and pitched their tent in the worlds of
authority and command—have burned away these relativities with a single
spark, and blotted out these words with a drop of dew. And they swim in
the sea of the spirit, and soar in the holy air of light. Then what life
have words, on such a plane, that “first” and “last” or other than these
be seen or mentioned! In this realm, the first is the last itself, and the
last is but the first.

In thy soul of love build thou a fire
And burn all thoughts and words entire.(49)

O my friend, look upon thyself: Hadst thou not become a father nor
begotten a son, neither wouldst thou have heard these sayings. Now forget
them all, that thou mayest learn from the Master of Love in the
schoolhouse of oneness, and return unto God, and forsake the inner land of
unreality(50) for thy true station, and dwell within the shadow of the
tree of knowledge.

O thou dear one! Impoverish thyself, that thou mayest enter the high court
of riches; and humble thy body, that thou mayest drink from the river of
glory, and attain to the full meaning of the poems whereof thou hadst
asked.

Thus it hath been made clear that these stages depend on the vision of the