Over all the heaven above, over all
the earth beneath, there was no visible power that could balk the
fierce will of the sun: "he rejoiced as a strong man to run a
race; his going forth was from the end of the heaven, and his
circuit unto the ends of it; and there was nothing hid from the
heat thereof." From pole to pole, and from the east to the west,
he brandished his fiery sceptre as though he had usurped all heaven
and earth. As he bid the soft Persian in ancient times, so now,
and fiercely too, he bid me bow down and worship him; so now in his
pride he seemed to command me, and say, "Thou shalt have none other
gods but me." I was all alone before him. There were these two
pitted together, and face to face--the mighty sun for one, and for
the other this poor, pale, solitary self of mine, that I always
carry about with me.
But on the eighth day, and before I had yet turned away from
Jehovah for the glittering god of the Persians, there appeared a
dark line upon the edge of the forward horizon, and soon the line
deepened into a delicate fringe, that sparkled here and there as
though it were sewn with diamonds. There, then, before me were the
gardens and the minarets of Egypt and the mighty works of the Nile,
and I (the eternal Ego that I am!)--I had lived to see, and I saw
them.
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