text: it is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which if you saw it now you would be strongly tempted to worship or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare all day long we are in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations it is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another all friendships all loves all play all politics there are no ordinary people you have never talked to a mere mortal nations cultures arts civilizations these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat but it is immortals whom we joke with work with marry snub and exploit immortal horrors or everlasting splendors