Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and WomenMacDonald, George
Science
Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
MacDonald, George
Fantasy fiction
I will end my story with the relation of an incident which befell me a
few days ago. I had been with my reapers, and, when they ceased their
work at noon, I had lain down under the shadow of a great, ancient
beech-tree, that stood on the edge of the field. As I lay, with my eyes
closed, I began to listen to the sound of the leaves overhead. At
first, they made sweet inarticulate music alone; but, by-and-by, the
sound seemed to begin to take shape, and to be gradually moulding
itself into words; till, at last, I seemed able to distinguish these,
half-dissolved in a little ocean of circumfluent tones: “A great good
is coming—is coming—is coming to thee, Anodos;” and so over and over
again. I fancied that the sound reminded me of the voice of the ancient
woman, in the cottage that was four-square. I opened my eyes, and, for
a moment, almost believed that I saw her face, with its many wrinkles
and its young eyes, looking at me from between two hoary branches of
the beech overhead. But when I looked more keenly, I saw only twigs and
leaves, and the infinite sky, in tiny spots, gazing through between.
Yet I know that good is coming to me—that good is always coming; though
few have at all times the simplicity and the courage to believe it.
What we call evil, is the only and best shape, which, for the person
and his condition at the time, could be assumed by the best good. And
so, _Farewell_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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