The Night Land

And so came I, at last, nigh to the Circle that did go about the

Redoubt; and presently I was come to it; and something astonished was I

that it had no great bigness; for I had looked for this by reasoning;

having always a mind to picture things as they might be truly, and hence

coming sometimes to the wonder of a great truth; but odd whiles to

errors that others had not made. And now, lo! I did find it but a small,

clear tube that had not two inches of thickness; yet sent out a very

bright and strong light, so that it seemed greater to the eye, did one

but behold from a distance.

And this is but a little thing to set to the telling; yet may it give

something of the newness of all; and, moreover, shall you have memory

with me in this place, how that oft had I seen Things and Beast-Monsters

peer over that same little tube of light, their faces coming forward out

of the night. And this had I seen as child and man; for as children, we did use to

keep oft a watch by hours upon an holiday-time, through the great

glasses of the embrasures. And we did always hope each to be that one

that should first discover a monster looking inwards upon the Mighty

Pyramid, across the shining of the Circle. And these to come oft; yet

presently to slink away into the night; having, in verity, no liking for

that light.

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.