They hesitated and studied my face, looking in vain for mockery, but at length they said, “Aten is the only god. He has created the land and the river, mankind and the beasts, and all that is and moves upon earth. He is eternal and was worshiped by men as Ra in his earlier manifestations, but in our own time he has revealed himself as Aten to his son Pharaoh, who lives by truth alone. After this, he is the only god, and all others are false gods. He spurns no one who turns to him, and rich and poor are equal in his sight, and every morning we greet him in the disk of the sun who blesses the earth with his rays, good and evil alike and offers to everyone the cross of life. If you receive it, you are his servant, for his being is love, and he is eternal and imperishable and everywhere present so that nothing can come to pass without his will.”
I said to them, “All this must be beautiful and just, but was it also his will when the stone just hit against the boy’s mouth so that it bled?”
The priests became confused and looked at each other and said, “You mock.” But the boy who had got a stone on his face, shouted at me, “He let it happen because I am not worthy of him and would learn from it. For I have been proud in my heart of Pharaoh’s favour as I am low-born, and my father herded cows, and my mother carried water from the river, until Pharaoh took liking of me so that I could serve his god with my beautiful singing voice.”
I feigned respect, saying, “Truly this god is a powerful god for he can raise a man from mud to Pharaoh’s golden house.” They said in one voice, “You are correct for Pharaoh does not look at a man’s shape or wealth or origins but only to his heart, and by the power of Aten Pharaoh can look into the hearts of all men and see even their most secret thoughts.”
I protested and said, “Then he is not human, for it lies in the power of no man to see into the heart of another, but only Osiris himself can weigh the hearts of men.”
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They conferred with one another, and said, “Osiris is nothing but a folk tale which is not needed by man when he believes in Aten. Though Pharaoh himself may passionately desire to be only human, yet we do not doubt that in essence he is divine, and this is shown by his visions during which he can live many lives in a short space of time. But this can be known only by those whom he loves. For which reason the artist has portrayed him on these pillars as both man and woman since Aten is the living force that quickens the seed of man and brings forth the child from the woman’s womb.”
Then I raised my hands mockingly and clutching my head with both hands said, “I am but a simple man, as simple as that woman just now, and I cannot altogether grasp this wisdom of yours. Moreover it appears obscure even to yourselves since you must take counsel with one another before you can reply to me.”
They rejoined eagerly and said, “Aten is perfect even as the disk of the sun is perfect, and all that is and lives and breathes in him is perfect. Human thought is imperfect and like a mist, and therefore we cannot perfectly enlighten you since we ourselves do not know all but must learn his will day by day, and his will is only known by Pharaoh who is his son and lives by truth.”
These words struck home, for they showed me that these priests were sincere in their hearts even though they dressed in fine linen and oiled their hair and delighted in the admiration of women and made fun of the simple. The element in me that had come to maturity, independently of my will or learning, responded to these words, and for the first time I reflected that human thought might indeed be imperfect and that beyond it there might exist such things as the eye could not see, nor the ear hear, nor the hand feel. Could it be that Pharaoh and his priests had found this ultimate truth and called the unknown outside human thought as Aten.
Until then I had thought that the human mind could open all doors and that knowledge had its limits, reachable by man, and while his knowledge increased, so increased his heart. But what had I achieved with all my knowledge? The greater had my knowledge become, the more dead had my heart become and the lower had I felt my life was, until my life had become but a still, low mud pool. I was utterly tired of myself and all my knowledge and skill. Therefore I had decided to bury my knowledge and skill and succumb myself to the cure of the poor. I
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