But the Wise Perceive Things about to Happen by C.P. Cavafy

“For the gods perceive future things,                                 ordinary people things in the present, but                                 the wise perceive things about to happen.”                                                                Philostratos, Life of Apollonios of Tyana, viii, 7. Ordinary people know what’s happening now, the gods know future things because they alone are totally enlightened. Of what’s to come the wise perceive things about to happen. Sometimes during moments of intense study their hearing’s troubled: the hidden sound of things approaching reaches them, and they listen reverently, while in the street outside the people hear nothing whatsoever.