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* The dreamer knew nothing of Spinoza at this time, and was quite
unaware that he was an optician. Subsequent experience made it clear
that the spectacles in question were intended to represent her own
remarkable faculty of intuitional and interpretative perception. (Ed.)
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III. The Counsel of Perfection




I dreamed that I was in a large room, and there were in it seven
persons, all men, sitting at one long table; and each of them had
before him a scroll, some having books also; and all were greyheaded
and bent with age save one, and this was a youth of about twenty
without hair on his face. One of the aged men, who had his finger
on a place in a book open before him, said:

"This spirit, who is of our order, writes in this book,--'Be ye
perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect.' How shall
we understand this word `perfection'?" And another, of the old
men, looking up, answered, "It must mean wisdom, for wisdom is the
sum of perfection." And another old man said, "That cannot be;
for no creature can be wise as God is wise. Where is he among us