The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) (69 page)

635 years ago he saw for the third time a human being A thinks, a
man n; ages before he had [seen] two at wide intervals of time, but
they were n too n far away to be clear: one a man, he thinks, the other
he thinks a child, but only head & shoulders showing, & they tossing
so, in their torment (he sees now it was torment, but that was only a
name to him then, he has had no personal experience of pain or unhappiness, papa's crime has not descended) couldn't make much out;
they soon disappeared behind the billows.

But he talked with the third, & determined to go to the world next
day & examine this curious race-& he has done it. "But this isn't
next day."

"Yes, by our count it is."

D-8

8

He has come out of mere curiosity to see what perishable men are
like; but now that he has read all about them, he hopes to find a way
to rid them of the Moral Sense; they can [not] get to heaven without
that, still, it is worth while, because without it this life w° be innocent & happy, &, brief as it is it would be better to be happy than unhappy. He must think out a way. [halfcircled]

His associates have always been his devil-(relatives) A brothers &
sisters. A-a vast multitude, not named, but numbered. They have
no wives nor children-there is no third generation.

They probably do not know their papa's history, as they have never mentioned it in his hearing. They are happy & busy. So is papa.
Has seen papa 2 or 3 times per million years but has not talked with
him.

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Has never seen a human girl or woman until now. Except in
heaven

X Hellfire Hotchkiss./Annie Fleming. He feels a strange & charming interest in her. By the books he gathers that this is `love"-the
kind that sex arouses. There is no such thing among his brothers &
sisters. He studies it in the books. It seems very beautiful in the books.
Presently the passion for Hl grows-becomes absorbing-is mutual.
Papa uneasy-he is the only person who knows 44's secret. 44 sees
that the happiness of hell A-which is purely intellectual-A IS TAME
COMPARED TO THIS LOVE. [emphasis added in pencil] He has found
more in this random visit to earth than he bargained for.

X

In time he is obliged to tell his secret to Hl-horror! (S) Heartbreaking scene. He has done wrong? Denies it. The word has no
real meaning to him, but only a

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pallid dictionary meaning. The THING does not exist to his feeling &
comprehension. How?

Thought is merely a n clumsy & inadequate n translation of feeling
into speech. If we are so made that we can't feel right & wrong then
the words are mere air to us-the same as they would be to a grasshopper.

"It is like pain (physical). You may talk about it all you like, I
get only the dictionary/intellectual meaning, not the shadow of a
real comprehension, for I have never felt a pain. You must feel a thought or the word that represents it has no value-talk to a stone
of pain? No use. (I) You have coarse combinations of sounds which
you blandly call music. Then you speak of the

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music of the spheres. Is it actual music to your ear? No. Then the
term is empty to you. To me it is ravishing-forever changing,
never silent. How do you know, when a comet has swum into your
system? Merely by your eye or your telescope-but I, I hear a
(strange sweet minor tone) brilliant far stream of sound come (singing) winding across/through the firmament of majestic sounds & I
know the splendid stranger is there without looking. Don't you see
that to you people the phrase music of the spheres is wholly meaningless, wholly unfeelable,-like right & wrong to me?

(He suffers when they play piano, guitar, violin, banjo, flute-A
sing. But he makes divine music himself. It is because he is listening
to the music of the spheres & reproducing it. It makes the audience
drunk

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with delight-this is because his translation of it is n coarsened & A
brought down to the low grade of their feeling; just as you can dilute
champagne with milk until a cat will like it, & prefer it to straight
milk, & get drunk on it. What is ch[ampagne]? I don't know; but by
reading I perceive that it is the finest & most delicate of wines.

(D) Vast dimensions of hell-which is a pigmy to heaven. Only
our Adam fell-hl is for his chn alone; in the other worlds the Adams
& the rest live millions of years till burnt out like the moon, then are
ferried over to heaven with their animals. ALL (our) our animals go to heaven for they have no Moral Sense; also the Presbyterians; the
rest go to hell.

Thinks if he can remove man's vanity, his Moral Sense may follow;
his vanity in attributing merits to himself; & his fool idea that
Selfishness is shameful; he didn't make it, & (can't be) the wisest thing

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he can do is to raise its ideals & make it help toward making this life
pleasant for all.

He has examined Selfishness by the books & found out that men
have a misconception of the thing, consequently they have clothed
the word with n the rags of A that misconception (& made it a)
whereas they should clothe it in its proper garb the white of innocence. For it is innocent & remains so-it can do no wrong.

He has been in heaven; so vast; meet plenty of people from other worlds; & at long, long intervals a Presbyterian. They are not
popular-avoided. Considered "queer" & of a low grade because
they have been defiled with the Moral Sense.

Heaven is not according to a history which he has been reading
"Pilgrim's Progress;" it is not so small; & Presbyterians are not so
plenty as that.

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14

He has read up, now, & knows all about papa & about Christ's
great sacrifice for the Presbyterians. Admires Christ deeply. Likes to
go to Church & SS & listen-at first. But quits, because they say
such things about papa & his place.

He didn't know, before, that people suffered in Hl, & he does[n]'t
feel it or appreciate it now. Is it the way the spectacle of a misdone
Euclid problem makes one feel? "Oh, the feelings are not at all the same." 'Well, to me the pains of hell must remain a mere phraseno meaning."

Has read the (300) 600 books, now, 300,000 pages in 160 hours of
actual reading-he doesn't sleep, but loses time talking & at meals.
This education has occupied him 10 days.

He can n't A feel (sudden) anger, (like an animal, but can't hold it;)
can't conceive of the spirit of revenge; nor of avarice, nor of

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hoarding, nor of envy, nor of "ambitions" of any kind; nor of
jealousies; nor of adulations; nor of obsequiousnesses; (to monarchs
or any) nor of slaveries; nor of humilities; (admix) thinks well of the
cat because she is the only independent; says there is no such thing
as an independent human being-all are slaves; no such thing as
freedom of thought freedom of opinion, freedom in politics & religion

Man is a poor thing; but if he can get back his original innocence
he will be fine & worthy. [sidelined]

44 can love, like dog & others; & trust, like dog & others.

Praises of him he cannot understand-they are due to his Maker
solely, (he)-bring this forward at ONCE.

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The sense of humor-what is that-in the books? Is rejoiced to
find (he) it is in him, though in a sort of atrophied condition; but
knows that even the smallest seed can be developed.

When they laughed in school he didn't understand it-had never
heard a laugh before. Thinks it w° improve heaven & his part of hell
to import it.

And he couldn't understand the teacher's praise of his modesty;
why should he [be] vain of his gifts & take credit for them?-they
came from his Maker.

Group E

These notes consist of four consecutively numbered half-sheets of
Joynson Superfine paper in black ink. E-2 is on the verso of a canceled
p. 67 of the "Schoolhouse Hill" manuscript. The notes must have been
written after that page was discarded.

E-1

1

(Nephew) Son of Satan.

This world was 2 M yrs ago.

Man has been in it 7,000 yrs.

Remember seeing it made.

Satan ate the apple (& acquired not the knowledge of good & evil
for he had that before, but the disposition to do evil (-as the sparks
to fly upward or the water to run down hill.

(He) Adam acquired the Moral Sense from the apple in a diseased
form-insanity of mind & body; it decayed his body, filled it with
disease-germs, & death resulted.

The angels have the Moral Sense, but not in diseased form-just
the other way, the healthy way, disposition to avoid evil & dislike it.
They are sane,

I was born in heaven; my (father is an) uncles are archangel n s n,
but it is

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2

is no particular distinction; we have no rank-ambitions-care nothing
for them.

Heaven is merely for God & the angels-these exist in billions-&
for the people from this world. It is so recent that you see few; the
Christians are so very recent that I ran across none.

Hell is solely for this world-the other Adams did not eat the
apple, & the people & the animals never die. The animals in Heaven
came from here-there are none in hell.

Satan has been in hell but 7 days, now; I have not seen him for
6 months (150,000 years). (n I am so sorry for him-it is dreary
there. n)

Our hour is about 412A of your years.

I have (myriads of) several thousand brothers & sisters in hellborn since the Fall; I & (another) a myriad were born before the Fall.
We often go & play with those others, but they

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3

can't come to see us. They can come to me here, & they like to; will
serve me gladly. It gives them a holiday & they cool off. They have
horns, A spiked n tail & hoof, like papa. They are a part of the disease.
They like to do wrong, I suppose-in fact they must, since they, like
papa & you are morally & mentally insane. A Satan's original host
have large families n

If you could only get rid of the Moral Sense-& he!-& be like
the animals; they haven't it, & Adam hadn't it. If you & he could be
like the animals. The apple diseased his moral body & he feels the
fire-he & Adam could not feel pain before, but only pleasure. I
cannot feel pain either of body or mind, but only pleasure.

I have an intellectual (knowledge) notion of what pain is, (but) &
an intellectual compassion for a sufferer, but as I don't know what
pain is I can't feel the compassion. I am intellectually sorry for
comets that are lost, but I cannot cry about it. No doubt you can.

E-4

4

The redeemed in heaven-I will go & hunt one up & see what he
is like. Ah-he is (disappointed.) happy. Has lost the moral sense &
is like the animals--& like the angels, who know evil but dislike it.

I find they are just like the immortals in the other planets.

I am No. 45 in in n New n series n 9 A 86,000,000. I have seen all
my brothers & sisters at one time or another, & know them by Number
& features. There are some billions of them-all in heaven except
the few (millions) thousands born in hell in the past 7 days.