The Arch-preposterous

“When we had recovered and Gornahoor Harharkh had pulled still another lever, which resulted in the whole surrounding space being restored to its former usual appearance, he first, with his customary angel-voice, again drew our attention to the ‘voltmeter,’ the needle of which constantly indicated the same figure, and then continued:

“ ‘You see that, although the process of the clash of two opposite component parts of the Omnipresent-Okidanokh, of the same power of “force-of-striving” still continues, and that the part of the surface of this construction which has the property of admitting the passage of the said “rays” is still open, yet in spite of all this there is no longer the phenomenon which ordinary beings define by the phrase “the-causes-of-artificial-light.”

“ ‘And this phenomenon is no longer there, only because by my last pulling of a certain lever, I introduced into the process of the clash of two component parts of Okidanokh, a current of the third independent component part of Okidanokh, which began to blend proportionally with its other two parts, owing to which the result derived from this kind of blending of the three component parts of the Omnipresent-Okidanokh—unlike the process of the non-law-conformable blending of its two parts—cannot be perceived by beings with any of their being-functions.’

“After all these explanations of his, Gornahoor Harharkh then proposed that I should venture to enter with him that demonstrating part itself of his new invention, in order that I might become, there within, an eyewitness of many particular manifestations of the Omnipresent and everything-penetrating Active-Element.

“Of course, without thinking long about it, I immediately decided and gave him my consent.

“And I immediately decided, chiefly because I expected to obtain in my being unchangeable and imperishable ‘objective-essence-satisfaction.’

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