The century under our review may therefore be considered as
falling into four distinct periods, of unequal duration, each of specific
import and of tremendous and indeed unappraisable significance. These four
periods are closely interrelated, and constitute successive acts of one,
indivisible, stupendous and sublime drama, whose mystery no intellect can
fathom, whose climax no eye can even dimly perceive, whose conclusion no mind
can adequately foreshadow. Each of these acts revolves around its own theme,
boasts of its own heroes, registers its own tragedies, records its own triumphs,
and contributes its own share to the execution of one common, immutable
Purpose. To isolate any one of them from the others, to dissociate the later
manifestations of one universal, all-embracing Revelation from the pristine
purpose that animated it in its earliest days, would be tantamount to a
mutilation of the structure on which it rests, and to a lamentable perversion
of its truth and of its history.
- Shoghi Effendi (Preface to ‘God Passes By’)