The White and the Black
He used to say that the universe was being frantically contended for by two Powers: a White and a Black; that the White was the stronger, but did not find the conditions on our particular planet very favourable to his success; that he had got the best of it up to the Middle Ages in Europe, but since then had been slowly and stubbornly giving way before the Black; and that finally the Black would win — not everywhere perhaps, but here — and would carry off, if no other earth, at least this one, for his prize.
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Context: Jeffson recalls the theory of Scotland, an odd friend from his Cambridge days.
Not in a duel yet