Library of Information on Women's Issues

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pattern is worked out?" God said, "Because in the light his forehead sheds each man sees faintly outlined that full crown." And I said, "But how is it that each stone is joined along its edges to its fellows, so that there is no seam anywhere?" God said, "The stones are alive; they grow." And I said, "But what does each man gain by his working?" God said, "He sees his outline filled." I said, "But those stones which are last set cover those which were first; and those will again be covered by those which come later." God said, "They are covered, but not hid. The light is the light of all. Without the first, no last." And I said to God, "When will this crown be ended?" And God said, "Look up!" I looked up; and I saw the mountain tower above me, but its summit I could not see; it was lost in the clouds. God said no more. And I looked at the crown: then a longing seized me. Like the passion of a mother for the child whom death has taken; like the yearning of a friend for the friend whom life has buried; like the hunger of dying eyes for a life that is slipping; like the thirst of a soul for love at its first spring waking, so, but fiercer was the longing in me. I cried to God, "I too will work here; I too will set stones in the wonderful pattern; it shall grow beneath MY hand. And if it be that, labouring here for years, I should not find one stone, at least I will be with the men that labour here. I shall hear their shout of joy when each stone is found; I shall join in their triumph, I shall shout among them; I shall see the crown grow." So great was my longing as I looked at the crown, I thought a faint light fell from my forehead also. God said, "Do you not hear the singing in the gardens?" I said, "No, I hear nothing; I see only the crown." And I was dumb with longing; I forgot all the flowers of the lower Heaven and the singing there. And I ran forward, and threw my mantle on the earth and bent to seize one of the mighty tools which lay there. I could not lift it from the earth. God said, "Where hast THOU earned the strength to raise it? Take up thy

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