"Pym stood for a moment, meditating; and then something--perhaps
something connected with the words several months before whispered into
his ear by Masusaelili--impelled him to say:

"'Good sir, we meant you no harm. Tell me, Allwise One, can you read the
future?'

"Before a reply came, there was a pause so long that, says Peters, Pym
was about to speak again. Then came the voice of this old man who had
investigated and pondered for thousands of years that only inexhaustible
study in the universe, the phenomenon of consciousness--the aged mystic
no doubt being pleasantly warmed and mollified by the appellation
'Allwise One.'

"'None but God,' said Masusaelili, 'knows of a certainty the future.
Truly wise men, and the lower animals, when they would penetrate the
future, use not the crude instrument termed _reason_; but rather do they
nestle close to the bosom of--what now call ye Him? Thine ancestors, the
barbarians of Britannia, when I was with them, named Him God. Thus, and
only thus, may the future become known to thee. Have faith, as the bird,
the fish, the little ant, which, _feeling_ God, act, and are not
disappointed. Think ye that the lowest of God's creatures would not have
heard His warning voice, or seen His beckoning arm, or felt His guiding
hand when in the air lurked this present danger? Yet reason told not
you! God shows to us the future, when we should know His edicts in
advance, always--always, if only we will look and hearken. But this,
good youth, God doth permit only to those who lean with full confidence
upon Him, as do the lower animals. To the consciousness of man it is
given, if but the right conditions be attained, truly to know what in