"THE 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
passion 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 madman. 

Fifth Self: Nay, it is I, the thinking self, the fanciful self, the self of hunger
and thirst, the one doomed to wander without 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 elements 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 preordained fate to fulfil. Ah!
could I but be like one of you, a self with a determined lot! But I have
none, I am the do-nothing 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 submission. 

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