and, watching, watching,
watching! I did not ask God what they were, for I knew what the answer
would be.

And, further and yet further, in the evening light, I looked with my
shaded eyes.

Far off, where the sands were thick and heavy, I saw a solitary pillar
standing: the crown had fallen, and the sand had buried it. On the
broken pillar sat a grey owl-of-the-desert, with folded wings; and in
the evening light I saw the desert fox creep past it, trailing his brush
across the sand.

Further, yet further, as I looked across the desert, I saw the sand
gathered into heaps as though it covered something.

I cried to God, "Oh, I am so weary."

God said, "You have seen only one half of Hell."

I said, "I cannot see more, I am afraid of Hell. In my own narrow little
path I dare not walk because I think that one has dug a pitfall for
me; and if I put my hand to take a fruit I draw it back again because I
think it has been kissed already. If I look out across the plains, the
mounds are burial heaps; and when I pass among the stones I hear them
crying aloud. When I see men dancing I hear the time beaten in with
sobs; and their wine is living! Oh, I cannot bear Hell!"

God said, "Where will you go?"

I said "To the earth from which I came; it was better there."

And God laughed at me; and I wondered why he laughed.

God said, "Come, and I will show you Heaven."

...

And partly I awoke. It was still and dark; the sound of the carriages
had died in the street; the woman who laughed was gone; and the
policeman's tread was heard no more. In the dark it seemed as if a great
hand lay upon my heart, and crushed it. I tried to breathe and tossed
from side to side; and then again I fell asleep, and dreamed.

God took me to the edge of that world. It ended. I looked down. The
gulf, it seemed to me, was fathomless, and then I saw two bridges
crossing it that both sloped upwards.

I said to God, "Is there no other way by which men cross it?"

God said, "One; it rises far from here and slopes straight upwards."

I asked God what the bridges' names were.

God said, "What matter for the names? Call them the Good, the True, the
Beautiful, if you will--you will yet not understand them."

I asked God how it was I could not see the third.

God said, "It is seen only by those who climb it."

I said, "Do they all lead to one heaven?"

God said, "All Heaven is one: nevertheless some parts are higher than
others; those who r