PSPECIASTES
OR, THE PROGNOSTICATOR
The names of the wiseThe numbers of the wise
Pspec 3
I called out from my own mind for the bbbnumbers of the wise, which would be revealed in their time to cccenumerate the ways of men; and they were counted out for me on the wall of my cell; and they gleamed like ice.
2And I read them with frozen eyes, and in my vision I knew that all of them were ainane, from the least to the most, without exception.
3I besought the numbers to show me order, but they danced in bchaos, like ctumbling dice, and I shivered at each roll; but as I called the numbers, they breathed new dfrost upon my wall, and laid their emeaning out for me.
4One is the number of flonely hearts, who will multiply themselves alone, and one will stay the same.
5Two is the number of love, which is a gfour-letter word, and will become a hfour-letter word, when a ilady will be laid, on a big brass bed.
6Three is the number jof mice and men, who will learn to be kblind, like the lfool on the hill, or mthe muse of the wise, who will never emerge from the ndark side of the moon.
7Four is the number of apocalypse, which will be lamented oall along the watchtower, until a pdark star gives qnew luster to the eve of destruction.
8Five is the number of the rslaughterhouse, where the seasy riders will mock the tgood soldier, ufrom here to eternity.
9vNine is the number of ultimate ice, which will bind up the wshattered with a strange love of xstill life.
10Nineteen is the number of nervous breakdowns, which will ride the ymidnight express until there is zblood on the tracks, and the passengers are aatorn and frayed, and the sky is full of bbpurple haze.
11ccTwenty-Two is the number of the ddcatcher in the rye, who will hunker on the Cloister Road, with one eesurrealistic pillow on his hand, and set a trap for the ffnowhere man, two thousand and one light-years from home.
12Forty-Five is the number of numbers, the dawn of a mellow yellow day, which will enter the gglimit and go for a ride, helter-skelter to hhstrawberry fields.
13Sixty-One is the number of the highway, from which a long black limousine will turn, bearing horsemen down a long and winding road, over the iiriver and through the trees, until they reach the jjdarkness at the edge of town.
14Sixty-Four is the number of kkpigs on the wing, and kings who will turn into cabbages, and little red oysters that will dine on feet.
15Seventy is the number of nothing at all, the zero that disgorges a llman of wealth and taste.
16Eighty is the number of something from nothing, when the mmbalow folk will find the nnsoldiers on the shelf, and pack them on the ootrain.
17Eighty-Four is the number of ppnightmares to come, qqand screams at the end of the night, when the crystal ship drowns in its rrbrave new world, and a locus called Kain unleashes the ssRaptor.
18ttAnd I have counted these numbers again and again, and their sum is inanity, precisely, with nothing left over.
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