In my village there was a young man, fair as the moon and like Joseph. He fell into a well, and much earth fell upon him. At last someone pulled him out; but his condition and his situation had changed, and in two moments his affairs had been turned upside down. This young man, of excellent conduct, was named Muhammad, and was esteemed by everyone. When his father saw him in this state, he said to him: “O my son! thou who art the light of my eyes and the soul of thy father, Muhammad! be kind to thy father and say a word to me.” At last, indeed, his son spoke a word. “Speak, O Muhammad,” his father said again; “speak, tell me something more.” The child spoke, then breathed his last, and that was all.
Thou who art a novice in the path of spiritualism, and who observest! look at Muhammad and Adam; speak of Adam and the atoms, of the whole and its parts; speak of the earth and the mountain, of the heavens and the Ocean; speak of the fairies, the divs, men and angels. Speak now of the thousands of bodies formed of earth; speak of the hundred thousand pure souls. Speak of the painful moment of the surrender of the soul; say that every individual, that the soul, that the body, are nothing. If thou reduce the two worlds to dust and sift them, and a hundred times as many besides, what would remain? It would be to thee like a palace turned upside down, and thou wouldst find nothing upon the surface of the sieve.