Is There Magic in Numbers?

On such a point, reflected one man: "Would a true hero be reticent because he has nothing to say, or because he knows there is nothing to be said?"                                                                                                     

A man asked a mystic: "Is there magic in numbers?"

And received the reply: "Yes and no; no, if you think so, and yes, if you know better."                     

A traveler paused at a crossroads and pondered:  "I wonder which will give out on me first -- my body, or my thoughts?" And as he again began to walk, added, "I hope it's my thoughts."

Under the most extreme of definitions, the mystical hero would be a mute recluse.

 ("Most extreme," perhaps, but also perhaps "most promising," if one understands aright the internal application of words "mute" and "recluse."

J.