Blue-Eyes and Battlewick, Chapters XVIII-XXIII [pp. 273-294]

e Blue-Eyes and Battlewick.
is so subtle that it doth penetrate all
things, even granite rocks and densest
metals, more easily than light doth penetrate the unimpeding air. So rare and
fine are its particles, and so prompt of
motion, that not a thought, or hope, or
fear, design evil or good, or any action
whatsoever, cometh from out of mnan's
mind or-heart, but doth make for itself a
pathway in this ether-sea, and a motion,
arrested oft and turned aside, but never
so stayed that it causeth. not another
motion and another, never end(ling.
"Thou seest it is inhabited by spirits
pure and beautiful; and happy art thou
these alone to see; for, if it were permitted me, I could show thee here legions
of spirits, of visages so fell and malicesodden, of eyes so lighted with fires of
fiendish hate, that to thee, beholding
them, peace nor hope would evermore return. Utterly evil are they, born of the
nethermost Pit; let abroad to fulfil the
purposes of the Arch-Fiend, who hath
his pleasure in the depraved wills of
wicked men.
"Vexed by human thoughts and passions, and by the unceasing conflict of
lovely with unlovely spirits, this sea of
ether hath no rest. The cathedral spaces,
roofed with prismatic mists, the aisles,
the hollow domes, the corridors, the great
caverns jagged with long, dropping cones
of fire, which so delight thy vision, mark
the places and the fierceness of their
strife.
"How soft this respirable sea of clear
flame! Thy small hand may move freely
through its unresisting tide. Advance,
and it doth fly before thee; turn to either
side, and it will yield, receding to thy
lightest movement. And yet the LordCreator hath set a term inflexible to its
yielding, A law He hath imposed upon
it, whereby, at fit times and under certain
cmaditioos, its weakness is made strength,
beyond the strength of men or angels, resisting and impeding as neither adamant
nor wall of steel inlaid with steel resisteth. If this be hard to understand,
remember that what thou hast seen is
-but the shadow-form of Truth, coerced
from the inaccessible brightness of its
living self, that it may reach thee through
the weak organs of thy mortal sense;
and know that all I have told thee, or
shall hereafter show thee, hath reality
only so far as thy human apprehension
hath power to receive and comprehend.
"But now the aisled way reaches far
before us, inviting us along its elastic
floor to trace the length our permit gives.
Come."
With footsteps quickened by the upbearing force of the lucid pavement
whereon they trode, the white-robed pair
traversed that straight and stately aisle
throughl many a league of various and
dazzling light. Around them, all was
still as a summer's noon; but on either
hand, through the grotesque wall of protecting fire, was seen tl-he eternal strife of
opening spaces with opposing walls, and
the angelic shapes that endlessly renewed
the rapid but silent transformations there.
Unnoticed by these angels, the whiterobed pair went on, league aft- r league.
At length their steps were stayed.
"Dost thou remember yonder seraph,
who leans so patiently upon his spear
beside the rubied wall that closes fast
this aisle?"
"It is the same," answered Blue-Eyes,
"that lifted his spear to thee when we
watched his flight, with others, from the
house of my fathler's friend-the house
wherein they sang the song of' Home.' "
"The same. And canst thou tell why
hlie waits so patiently beside the ruddy
crystal wall?"
"I cannot guess."
"Ile waits because the power given
him admits not his further progress.
Never, of himself, could he pass that
wall. But one cometh now to whom is
given strength the first hath not. He
will find no wall to stay him there."
".I see but the seraph standing lonely,"
said Blue-Eyes.
"Hast thou forgotten the phantom we
saw speeding from thy father's house?
Behold! where that phantom cometh."
Looking where the angel pointed
with snowy hand, Blue-Eyes saw the
ether-sea stirred in quick commotion;
another aisle was formed, and along its
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LAPRIL