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"Was itthan Heaven?"

"Yes One has to say yes Of course, on reentry, one feels complete satisfaction in Heaven, especially if God is pleased; but the longing returns, the innate curiosity, thoughts see a mind in this fashion, but let me move on to the Thirteen Revelations

"The First Revelation was the change of inorganicet this forest It didn't exist then But look to the pool It was in pools such as this, caught in the hands of the ases fros started¡ªthe first organic molecules appeared

"A clamour rose to Heaven 'Lord, look what Matter has done ' And the Al sain, and as atched, there caanize theenes Indeed, no sooner had the one-celled foran to appear; and e had divined with the first organic molecules was now fully apparent; sos; they had a crude form of purpose, and it was as if we could see that spark of life and recognize it as a tiny, tiny evidence of the essence of life which we in abundance possessed!

"In suether; and as atched these tinyto forreen living things then take hold upon the land itself! Out of the water cli for reen things sprang the ferns and the conifers which you see around us, rising finally until they attained massive size

"Now angels have size We could walk beneath these things on the green-covered world Again, listen, if you will, in your iination, to the anthems of praise that rose to heaven; listen if you will to the joy of God, perceiving all this through His own Intellect and through the choruses and tales and prayers of his angels!

"Angels began to spread out all over the earth; they began to delight in certain places; some preferred the mountains; others the deep valleys, soreen shadow and shade "

"So they became like the water spirits," I said, "or the spirits of the woods¡ªall the spirits that men later came to worship "

"Precisely But you jump way ahead!

"My response to these very first Two Revelations was like that of ions; as quickly as we sensed a spark of life ean to sense the death of that spark, as one organism devoured another, or overran it and took its food from it; indeedmultiplicity and destruction!

"What had been y and inning of the Third Revelation Only it did not couished themselves from plants

"As atched their sharp, deterreater variety of choices, we sensed that the spark of life they evinced was indeed very si to these creatures? To these tiny animals and to plants?

'They died, that's as happening They were born, lived and died, and began to decay And that was the Third Revelation of Evolution: Death and Decay "

Memnoch's face became the darkest I'd ever seen it It retained the innocence, and the wonder, but it was clouded with so terrible that seemed a mixture of fear and disappointment; maybe it was only the naive wonder that perceives a horrible conclusion

"The Third Revelation was Death and Decay," I said "And you found yourself repelled by it "