"
I did so. Suddenly there came, as from the face of the cliff, a thing
like a cloudy jet of golden steam. It passed out into the clear air,
shaping itself in strange and intricate curves; then it grew darker in
colour, hung for an instant like a cloud of smoke, and then faded into
the sky.
"What is that?" I said, surprised out of my terror.
"I may tell you that," said Amroth, "that you may know what you see.
There is no time here; and you have seen a universe made, and live its
life, and die. You have seen the worlds created. That cloud of whirling
suns, each with its planets, has taken shape before your eyes; life has
arisen there, has developed; men like ourselves have lived, have
wrestled with evil, have formed states, have died and vanished. That is
all but a single thought of God."
Another came, and then another of the golden jets, each fading into
darkness and dispersing.
"And now," said Amroth, "the moment has come. You are to make the last
sacrifice of the soul. Do not shrink back, fear nothing. Leap into the
abyss!"
The thought fell upon me with an infinity and an incredulity of horror
that I cannot express in words.
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