What was he to do? He had thought he was looking into matters much
older--things over which the permission of lady Arctura extended;
and in truth what he had discovered, or seen corroborated, was a
thing she had a right to know! but whether he ought to tell her at
once he did not yet see. He took up his candle, and with a feeling
of helpless dismay, withdrew to his chamber. But when he reached the
door of it, yielding to a sudden impulse, he turned away, and went
farther up the stair, and out upon the bartizan.
It was a frosty night, and the stars were brilliant. He looked up
and said,
"Oh Saviour of men, thy house is vaulted with light; thy secret
places are secret from excess of light; in thee is no darkness at
all; thou hast no terrible crypts and built-up places; thy light is
the terror of those who love the darkness! Fill my heart with thy
light; let me never hunger or thirst after anything but thy
will--that I may walk in the light, and light not darkness may go
forth from me."
As he turned to go in, came a faint chord from the aeolian harp.
"It sings, brooding over the very nest of evil deeds!" he thought.
"The light eternal, with keen arrows of radiant victory, will yet at
last rout from the souls of his creatures the demons that haunt
them!
"But if there be creatures of God that have turned to demons, may
not human souls themselves turn to demons? Would they then be
victorious over God, too strong for him to overcome--beyond the
reach of repentance?
"How would they live? By their own power? Then were they Gods!--But
they did not make themselves, and could not live of themselves.
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