Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 209
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[Page 209]
sic. [diagram of the constellation Ursa Minor, one star marked "A".] The large star A. being the polestar because it marks the site of the north pole in the celestial sphere. Many others are there of which I might write. Let these suffice to indicate to you my line of mental action when rambling in the Egyptian atmosphere near the shadow cast by the grand pyramid Cheops. Long ages before the Christian era began the Egyptians were famous as astronomers. No wonder because the atmosphere must have been then as now clear to look through leaving the heavens for most nights in the year a canopy of blue bedecked with shining spots that never fail to attract the admiration and the wonder of the thoughtful.
There never has been a time since man was, wherein no one of capacity lived. Is it wonder then that some amongst the residents of these sandy wastes has laid his body outstretched upon the sands, his eyes turned upwards, and his brain tissues working in thoughts as to the why and the wherefore of the blue wherein so much could be combined into such strange shapes, which was bound to be contrasted with common living objects around. The bull, the ram, the fishes, the goblet, the goat, the bowman, the scorpion, the balance, the virgin, the lion, the crab, the twins. The moon & the planets to stand out as greatest by night. The Sun to put all into obscurity from his rising to his setting. And here we are. Whence? Why? Hence? Man! Woman! How? The mind within, as great an enigma, as himself?
Many spend every possible moment stowing material into its receptacles, that it may be poured out at suitable moments, and in form which others may or may not think fit and proper. You in Maitland. I in Egypt. Of different generations each. Blessed are the thoughtless, to them all problems are easy because there be no solution required. Blessed too may be the thinking, because they know that within their capacity attempting the solution is sufficient mental exercise to repay itself, without finding explanation.