them in that day when I sundered myself in twain and
launched Man and Woman on the earth still urges them:
after passing a million goals they press on to the
goal of redemption from the flesh, to the vortex freed
from matter, to the whirlpool in pure intelligence
that, when the world began, was a whirlpool in pure
force. And though all that they have done seems
but the first hour of the infinite work of creation,
yet I will not supersede them until they have forded
this last stream that lies between flesh and spirit,
and disentangled their life from the matter that has
always mocked it. I can wait: waiting and
patience mean nothing to the eternal. I gave
the woman the greatest of gifts: curiosity.
By that her seed has been saved from my wrath; for
I also am curious; and I have waited always to see
what they will do tomorrow. Let them feed that
appetite well for me. I say, let them dread, of
all things, stagnation; for from the moment I, Lilith,
lose hope and faith in them, they are doomed.
In that hope and faith I have let them live for a moment;
and in that moment I have spared them many times.
But mightier creatures than they have killed hope
and faith, and perished from the earth; and I may
not spare them for ever. I am Lilith: I brought
life into the whirlpool of force, and compelled my
enemy, Matter, to obey a living soul. But in
enslaving Life’s enemy I made him Life’s
master; for that is the end of all slavery; and now
I shall see the slave set free and the enemy reconciled,
the whirlpool become all life and no matter. And
because these infants that call themselves ancients
are reaching out towards that, I will have patience
with them still; though I know well that when they
attain it they shall become one with me and supersede
me, and Lilith will be only a legend and a lay that
has lost its meaning. Of Life only is there no
end; and though of its million starry mansions many
are empty and many still unbuilt, and though its vast
domain is as yet unbearably desert, my seed shall
one day fill it and master its matter to its uttermost
confines. And for what may be beyond, the eyesight
of Lilith is too short. It is enough that there
is a beyond. [She vanishes].

