Chapter 34: 341-348
Page 341
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Jabez
“And Coz begat Anub, and Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum. And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested” -- 1 Chronicles 4:8-10 (King James Version)
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...a Ring like a length of Ribbon clos'd in a Circle, with a single Twist in it, possessing thereby but one Side and one Edge...
“The Möbius strip or Möbius band (pronounced [ˈmøbiʊs]) is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component” – Wikipedia
It would seem, however, that a Möbius strips would have 2 edges. Is this smoke ring an impossible shape?
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Prester John
“The legends of Prester John (also Presbyter John), popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, told of a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. Written accounts of this kingdom are variegated collections of medieval popular fantasy. Reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Magi, Prester John was said to be a generous ruler and a virtuous man, presiding over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, in which the Patriarch of Saint Thomas resided. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Earthly Paradise. Among his treasures was a mirror through which every province could be seen, the fabled original from which derived the "speculum literature" of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, in which the prince's realms were surveyed and his duties laid out. At first, Prester John was imagined to be in India; tales of the "Nestorian" Christians' evangelistic success there and of Thomas the Apostle's subcontinental travels as documented in works like the Acts of Thomas probably provided the first seeds of the legend. After the coming of the Mongols to the Western world, accounts placed the king in Central Asia, and eventually Portuguese explorers convinced themselves they had found him in Ethiopia. Prester John's kingdom was the object of a quest, firing the imaginations of generations of adventurers, but remaining out of reach. He was a symbol to European Christians of the Church's universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity, in a time when ethnic and interreligious tension made such a vision seem distant” – Wikipedia
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The next day...
January 11, 1765
Acts have consequences, Dixon, they must
Might be of interest that this passage has a predecessor in Vineland: "What was she [DL] complaining about? Only that acts, deeply moral and otherwise, have consequences - only the workings of karma." (Vineland, p. 132)
