And pride had we taken of ourselves to perceive those monsters which had
most of ugliness and horror to commend them; for, thereby did we stand
to have won the game of watching, until such time as a more fearsome
Brute be discovered. And so went the play; yet with ever, it doth seem
to me now, something of a half-known shudder to the heart, and a child's
rejoicing unknowingly in that safety which had power to make light the
seeming of such matters.
And this, also, is but a small matter; yet doth it bear upon the
inwardness of my feelings; for the memories of all my youth and of the
many Beasts that I had seen to peer across the Light, did come upwards
in my mind in that moment; so that I did give back a little, unthinking
of what I did; but having upon me the sudden imagining of that which
might come out of the Dark, beyond.
And I to stand a little moment, and presently had grown free in my heart
to have courage of farewell; and so did turn me at last to the viewing
of that wondrous Home of the Last Millions of this World. And the sight
was an astonishment and an uplifting, that indeed there was so mighty a
thing in all the earth.
And well might be that there were Monsters and Forces gathered together
about that Hill of Life, out of all the Darkness of the World; for the
thing was as a Mighty Mountain that went up measureless into the night;
and spread out upon the earth to the right and to the left of me, so
that it did seem to hold all the world with its might.
And in the nearer slope were there three hundred thousand great
embrasures, as well I did know; there being in all the four sides of the
Redoubt, twelve hundred thousand embrasures, as was set out in the books
of the schools, and upon the cover of Atlas-books as they still quaintly
to be called, and many another place, as might be supposed.
And half a mile upward was the lowest tier of those great window-places,
and above that, countless other tiers. And a great light came out from
them into the darkness; so that I looked up into the night many miles,
and yet did see them in shining rows; and did make separate each
embrasure from its fellow for a great way. But there grew yet more,
above in the mighty distance, so that they were lost in the upward space
of the night, and did seem to me presently but as a constant, glimmering
fire, that did shape a shining Peak into the blackness of the heavens,
dwindling into the utmost height. And thus was that Everlasting
Monument.
Then did it come to me that those little things, which I did see to
cluster against the embrasures, were in truth the countless millions of
the Mighty Redoubt; and this I could make out with some plainness in
those lower embrasures, which were the more near to me than they above;
for the Peoples were set against the light within, yet were as small
things like unto insects, in that distance, and within so Huge a Bulk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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