And so came I, at last, nigh to the Circle that did go about the
Redoubt; and presently I was come to it; and something astonished was I
that it had no great bigness; for I had looked for this by reasoning;
having always a mind to picture things as they might be truly, and hence
coming sometimes to the wonder of a great truth; but odd whiles to
errors that others had not made. And now, lo! I did find it but a small,
clear tube that had not two inches of thickness; yet sent out a very
bright and strong light, so that it seemed greater to the eye, did one
but behold from a distance.
And this is but a little thing to set to the telling; yet may it give
something of the newness of all; and, moreover, shall you have memory
with me in this place, how that oft had I seen Things and Beast-Monsters
peer over that same little tube of light, their faces coming forward out
of the night. And this had I seen as child and man; for as children, we did use to
keep oft a watch by hours upon an holiday-time, through the great
glasses of the embrasures. And we did always hope each to be that one
that should first discover a monster looking inwards upon the Mighty
Pyramid, across the shining of the Circle. And these to come oft; yet
presently to slink away into the night; having, in verity, no liking for
that light.
And pride had we taken of ourselves to perceive those monsters which had
most of ugliness and horror to commend them; for, thereby did we stand
to have won the game of watching, until such time as a more fearsome
Brute be discovered. And so went the play; yet with ever, it doth seem
to me now, something of a half-known shudder to the heart, and a child's
rejoicing unknowingly in that safety which had power to make light the
seeming of such matters. And this, also, is but a small matter; yet doth it bear upon the
inwardness of my feelings; for the memories of all my youth and of the
many Beasts that I had seen to peer across the Light, did come upwards
in my mind in that moment; so that I did give back a little, unthinking
of what I did; but having upon me the sudden imagining of that which
might come out of the Dark, beyond.
And I to stand a little moment, and presently had grown free in my heart
to have courage of farewell; and so did turn me at last to the viewing
of that wondrous Home of the Last Millions of this World. And the sight
was an astonishment and an uplifting, that indeed there was so mighty a
thing in all the earth.