after a while someone asked the expriest if it were true that at one time there had been two moons in the sky and the expriest eyed the false moon above them and said that it may well have been so. But certainly the wise high God in his dismay at the proliferation of lunacy on this earth must have wetted a thumb and leaned down out of the abyss and pinched it hissing into extinction. And could he find some alter means by which the birds could mend their paths in the darkness he might have done with this one too.
In Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West," a conversation arises when someone asks an expriest about a time when two moons supposedly adorned the sky. The expriest reflects on the current false moon and suggests that the existence of two moons might have been possible. He implies that the divine being, disturbed by the madness rampant on Earth, could have extinguished one of those moons to restore sanity and order.
Moreover, the expriest contemplates the might of a wise deity who, in response to humanity's chaos, would intervene by altering the cosmos to guide the lost creatures of the night. This notion underscores the themes of cosmic order and the struggle against inherent lunacy in the human condition, highlighting the deep philosophical questions that underpin McCarthy's narrative.
