Bowl, 10th century Samarqand (Uzbekistan) or Nishapur (Iran)
"What do we know... of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are
absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are
constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we
pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with a wider, stronger, or
different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and
study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with
the senses we have.”
absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are
constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we
pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with a wider, stronger, or
different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and
study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with
the senses we have.”
H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond, 1934
Written November 16, 1920, published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan
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