t this shall one day be,
shall be a thing that men shall talk of soberly, and as a thing soon to
come about, as even with thee they talk of the villeins becoming
tenants paying their lord quit-rent; therefore, hast thou done well to
hope it; and, if thou heedest this also, as I suppose thou heedest it
little, thy name shall abide by thy hope in those days to come, and
thou shalt not be forgotten."

I heard his voice come out of the twilight, scarcely seeing him, though
now the light was growing fast, as he said:

"Brother, thou givest me heart again; yet since now I wot well that
thou art a sending from far-off times and far-off things: tell thou, if
thou mayest, to a man who is going to his death how this shall come
about."

"Only this may I tell thee" said I; "to thee, when thou didst try to
conceive of them, the ways of the days to come seemed follies scarce to
be thought of; yet shall they come to be familiar things, and an order
by which every man liveth, ill as he liveth, so that men shall deem of
them, that thus it hath been since the beginning of the world, and that
thus it shall be while the world endureth; and in this wise so shall
they be thought of a long while; and the complaint of the poor the rich
man shall heed, even as much and no more as he who lieth in pleasure
under the lime-trees in the summer heedeth the murmur of his toiling
bees. Yet in time shall this also grow old, and doubt shall creep in,
because men shall scarce be able to live by that order, and the
complaint of the poor shall be hearkened, no longer as a tale not
utterly grievous, but as a threat of ruin, and a fear. Then shall these
things, which to thee seem follies, and to the men between thee and me
mere wisdom and the bond of stability, seem follies once again; yet,
whereas men have so long lived by them, they shall cling to them yet
from blindness and from fear; and those that see, and that have thus
much conquered fear that they are furthering the real time that cometh
and not the dream that faileth, these men shall the blind and the
fearful mock and missay, and torment and murder: and great and grievous
shall be the strife in those days, and many the failures of the wise,
and too oft sore shall be the despair of the valiant; and back-sliding,
and doubt, and contest between friends and fellows lacking time in the
hubbub to understand each other, shall grieve many hearts and hinder
the Host of the Fellowship: yet shall all bring