The Shepherd of Hermas

What is behind you you cannot see, but you see what is before you. Let go what you cannot see, and do not trouble yourself. But what you see, master that, and do not be curious about the rest, and I will explain everything to you, whatever I show you. Look then at the rest.

I saw six men who came, tall and glorious,[*](The six men) and alike in appearance, and they summoned a multitude of men, and they too who came were tall men and beautiful and strong, and the six men commanded them to build a certain tower above the rock. And there was a great throng of those men who had come to build the tower,

And the maidens stood round the tower, and told the men to make speed with building the tower. And the maidens held out their hands as if they were going to take something from the men.

And the six men commanded stones to come up from a certain deep place, and to go into the building of the tower. And there came up ten square stones,[*](The ten stones) beautiful and not hewn.

And the six men called the maidens and commanded them to take all the stones which were to come for the building of the tower, and to go through the gate, and give them to the men who were going to build the tower.

And the maidens put the ten stones, which first came out of the deep place, on one another, and they carried them together like a single stone.

And just as they had stood together round the gate, so the maidens who seemed to be strong were[*](The building of the stones by the maidens and the men) carrying, and they were stooping under the corners of the stone.[*](The meaning is that the four maidens kept to their original formation, with the four strongest at the corners, and the others in the middle of each side of the stone which they carried.) But the others were stooping by the sides of the stone, and so they were carrying all the stones. And they brought them through the gate as they had been commanded, and gave them to the men in the tower, and they took the stones and went on building.