had thought of Him dimly as sweeping into
His place of torment and despair all poisoned and diseased lives, all
lives that had clung to the body and to the pleasures of the body, all
who had sinned idly, or wilfully, or proudly; and I saw now that He used
men far more wisely and lovingly than thus. Into this lowest place
indeed passed all sad, and diseased, and unhappy spirits: and instead of
being tormented or accursed, all was made delightful and beautiful for
them there, because they needed not harsh and rough handling, but care
and soft tendance. They were not to be frightened hence, or to live in
fear and anguish, but to live deliciously according to their wish, and
to be drawn to perceive in some quiet manner that all was not well with
them; they were to have their heart's desire, and learn that it could
not satisfy them; but the only thing that could draw them thence was the
love of some other soul whom they must pursue and find, if they could.
It was all so high and reasonable and just that I could not admire it
enough. I saw that the boy was drawn thence by the love of his little
sister, who was elsewhere; and that the love and loss of the boy would
presently draw the older pair to follow him and to leave the place of
heart's delight. And then I began to see that Cynthia and Charmides and
Lucius were being made ready, each at his own time, to leave their
little pleasures and ordered lives of happiness, and to follow
heavenwards in due course. Because it was made plain to me that it was
the love and worship of some other soul that was the constraining force;
but what the end would be I could not discern.

And now as we went through the wood, I began to feel a strange elation
and joy of spirit, severe and bracing, very different from my languid
and half-contented acquiescence in the place of beauty; and now the
woods began to change their kind; there were fewer forest trees now, but
bare heaths with patches of grey sand and scattered pines; and there
began to drift across the light a grey vapour which hid the delicate
hues and colours of the sunlight, and made everything appear pale and
spare. Very soon we came out on the brow of a low hill, and saw, all
spread out before us, a place which, for all its dulness and darkness,
had a solemn beauty of its own. There were great stone buildings very
solidly made, with high chimneys which seemed to stream with smoke; we
could see men, as small as ants, moving in and out o