Month: February 2026

'Like every other man, at least once in his life, I too have been carried up by Satan to the highest mountain on earth. Once there, he showed me the whole world and, as he did to Christ, said to me: "Now, Son of Man, what do you want if you are to worship me?" So I thought for a long time, because in reality a terrible ambition had long been devouring my soul. Then I answered him: "Listen, I have always heard speak of Providence, yet I have never seen her or anything that resembles her, which makes me think that she does not exist. I want to be Providence, because the thing which I know to be the finest, greatest and most sublime in the world is to reward and punish." But Satan bowed his head and sighed. "You are wrong," he said. "Providence does exist, but you cannot see her, because, as the daughter of God, she is invisible like her father. You have seen nothing that resembles her because she proceeds by hidden means and walks down dark paths. All that I can do for you is to make you one of the agents of this Providence." The deal was concluded. I shall perhaps lose my soul,' Monte Cristo continued. 'But what matter? If the deal had to be struck over again, I should do it.'

It was later, that I came out of my bewilderment. I looked about dazedly. Thus, I saw so extraordinary a sight that, for a while, I could scarcely believe I was not still wrapped in the visionary tumult of my own thoughts. Out of the reigning green had grown a boundless river of softly shimmering globes, each one enfolded in a wondrous fleece of pure cloud. They reached, both above and below me, to an unknown distance; and, not only hid the shining of the Green Sun; but supplied, in place thereof, a tender glow of light, that suffused itself around me, like unto nothing I had ever seen, before or since.

In a little, I noticed that there was about these spheres, a sort of transparency, almost as though they were formed of clouded crystal, within which burned a radiance, gentle and subdued. They moved on, past me, continually, floating onward at no great speed, but rather as though they had eternity before them. A great while I watched, and could perceive no end to them. At times, I seemed to distinguish faces, amid the cloudiness; but strangely indistinct, as though partly real, and partly formed of the mistiness through which they showed.