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Thus Spoke the Platypus: Fragment

Utnapishtim sat upon his rock and his disciple stood at his feet and was listening to all the words that Utnapishtim was saying from out of his wisdom.  Now the time of afternoon meal came upon them and Utnapishtim bid his disciple to be seated on the grass.  Then he drew forth a fish and divided it with his disciple and bade him eat saying:

"Eat of this fish, oh my disciple, for Utnapishtim would be as this fish and would you not be as Utnapishtim?  Now learn from this fish for it has its beginnings here in the waters of my Lake but when its youthly-vigor and its power come upon it then it follows the Great River to the Sea and becomes a creature of the Sea, but when the time comes it returns from the Sea even to the waters of the Lake where it was born.  Does it not know the Lake because it knows the Sea; does it not know the Sea because it knows the Lake; does it not know the Great River from striving against it?"

Then the disciple of Utnapishtim was silent and pondered much the words that came from the mouth of Utnapishtim.  At last, the spirit within him moved and he opened his mouth and spoke to Utnapishtim thus:

"Oh my teacher, Utnapishtim, wisest of men, what can these things mean?  I am in great perplexity; save me.  I am in confusion; hasten to my aid.  Do not the Sons of Arius think this way: by cutting and making division.  Do they not say "know Light by Darkness, and Darkness by Light?"

Then Utnapishtim drew forth from his belt a knife and cut the fish and gave again a piece of the fish to his disciple and said:

"Take this oh my disciple and eat; eat and be refreshed.  Did I not tell you that Wisdom has a knife?  Did I not tell you that it is sharper than all the blades of the Sons of Arius, yea greater than the sword of the Prophet of the Sons of Arius?  But you are in error, for you do not discern the words that I have said to you.  Did not Wisdom divide Light from Dark, did not Wisdom divide the Land from the Waters, and the Waters Above from the Waters Below?  But the error of the sons of Arius consists in this: that they divide Man from Himself; and their folly is this; that they divide Man from Wisdom.  Know the Mountain from the Valley, know the Lake from the Sea, but do not know Man apart from Himself; do not know Man apart from Wisdom.  Cut the fish to pieces; you will not find it.  Cut it into a thousand pieces; it is not there.  Part the fish from the waters and it dies; part the man from Wisdom and he is no more."

Thus Spoke Utnapishtim

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