I asked God whether it was man or woman.
God said, "In the least Heaven sex reigns supreme; in the higher it is not
noticed; but in the highest it does not exist."
And I saw the figure bend over its work, and labour mightily, but what it
laboured at I could not see.
I said to God, "How came it here?"
God said, "By a bloody stair. Step by step it mounted from the lowest
Hell, and day by day as Hell grew farther and Heaven no nearer, it hung
alone between two worlds. Hour by hour in that bitter struggle its limbs
grew larger, till there fell from it rag by rag the garments which it
started with. Drops fell from its eyes as it strained them; each step it
climbed was wet with blood. Then it came out here."
And I thought of the garden where men sang with their arms around one
another; and the mountain-side where they worked in company. And I
shuddered.
And I said, "Is it not terribly alone here?"
God said, "It is never alone!"
I said, "What has it for all its labour? I see nothing return to it."
Then God touched my eyes, and I saw stretched out beneath us the plains of
Heaven and Hell, and all that was within them.
God said, "From that lone height on which he stands, all things are open.
To him is clear the shining in the garden, he sees the flower break forth
and the streams sparkle; no shout is raised upon the mountain-side but his
ear may hear it. He sees the crown grow and the light shoot from it. All
Hell is open to him.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74