The Dabistan

160

had before; because each time they meet with the
beginning of a new meaning, finer than the former,
although they obtain these objects before their death.

It has been stated by some sages that, when they
were intent upon some high undertaking, they
declared after its conclusion: " How can empe-
^ rors and their sons enjoy such a happiness,
" which is still to be increased when all impedi-
44 nients will be removed." Know, men attached
to exterior evidence said, that whatever is commonly
believed of the last judgment, and what is connected
with the soul of the world, implies nothing else but
that, from the time when the Almighty God brought
forth out of nothingness into existence, the heavens,
the stars, the material bodies, the three kingdoms of
nature, and the essences, the duration of the world
shall extend to that period when he will again
plunge the whole into non-existence, and this shall
be " the other world."

The learned say besides, that the composition of
the human body, and its conjunction with the soul,
make but one period of time, although birth and life
appear two distinct periods ; the one comprising the
sensible and perceptible world, the other the ra-
tional and intellectual world: for

" Whoever is not born twice, shall not enter at the same time into the
"kingdom of heaven and that of the earth." *

1 This seems an incorrect quotation from St. John's Gospel, chapter III.