light which they had seemed to cast
of old.

I looked at them until my heart was very sad, for there was no peace, no
safety, no hope; but all went heavily and sadly, groaning and weeping, or
laughing like madmen, until, sooner or later, they seemed all to perish
in the fearful pitfalls!

Then my angel-guide spoke to me again, marking my sadness, and he said,
"Hast thou well observed this sight?" and I answered, "Yes." Then he
said, "And wouldst thou see more?" So when I had said "yes," methought
we were once more flying through the air, until again he set me on my
feet, and bid me look down. Now here, too, strange noises reached my
ears; but as I listened to them, I found that there were mixed with them
such sounds as I had not heard before. Sweet clear voices came up now
from the din, speaking, as it were from one close by me, words of faith,
and of hope, and of love; and they sounded to me like the happy talking
which I had heard at the first between the glorious beings in the garden.

So when my guide touched my eyes, I bent them eagerly down into the
darkness below me.

At first I thought that it was the same place I had seen last, for there
was a busy multitude passing to and fro; and there was music and dancing,
and sobbing and crying; there were pitfalls, too, and wild beasts. But
as I looked closer, I saw that, in spite of all this, it was not the
place that I had seen before. Even at a glance I could see that there
were many more flowers here than there; and that many amongst the
pilgrims were going straight on, with happy faces, by a road which passed
safely by all the pitfalls. I could see, too, that at the end of the
road was a dim shining of that happy light which had been so bright in
the beautiful garden.

Now, as I looked, I saw that there were but a few who kept to this
straight safe road, and that many were scattered all over the plain. I
saw many leave this path even as I looked upon it; and very few did I see
come back to it: those who did, seemed to me to find it very hard to get
into it again; whether it was that its sides were slippery, or its banks
so steep, many fainted and gave up, after trying to climb into it again.
But it seemed quite easy to leave it; for every one who left it went on
at first lightly and pleasantly. Sometimes, indeed, they seemed greatly
startled after taking their first step out of it, and some of them turned
straight back, and after a few struggles, more