Even a partial awareness of what it means to be a man--as above an animal--capable of thinking abstractly, conscious of the vastness of the universe and the littleness of the ego, asking the age-old questions about meaning and purpose in life, sometimes getting a glimpse of a few words of the answer through religion, art, Nature, mysticism, joy, suffering, or intelligence, even this is enough to make him wonder what follows in development after him, higher than himself, if not here then perhaps on other planets or in a fourth dimension. Such beings must already exist somewhere. Are they the gods of ancient fable and myth, disfigured or miscomprehended in human narratives by the passing of time? Were they visitors who helped infant humanity reach its teens and then left it, withdrew, except for rare appearances as avatars, angels, or lawgivers?
-- Notebooks Category 26: World-Idea > Chapter 4 : True Idea of Man > # 239
