David Lindsay

“ She suddenly broke into a laugh, so rich, sweet, and enchanting, that he grew half inflamed, and half wished to catch her body in his arms. “Oh, Maskull, Maskull—what a fool you are!”
“In what way am I a fool?” he demanded, scowling—not at her words, but at his own weakness.
“Isn’t the whole world the handiwork of innumerable pairs of lovers? And yet you think yourself above all that. You try to fly away from nature, but where will you find a hole to hide yourself in?”
“Besides beauty, I now credit you with a second quality: persistence.” ”

“ The sky ahead, just above the horizon, began to be of a strange colour. It was an intense jale-blue. The whole northern atmosphere was stained with ulfire.
Maskull's mind grew disturbed. "Alppain is rising, Gangnet."
Gangnet smiled wistfully. "It begins to trouble you?"
"It is so solemn—tragical, almost—yet it recalls me to Earth. Life was no longer important—but this is important."
"Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you will be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day. Then you will ask yourself how you could have been blind." ”

“ He eyed her for a full minute. "Now we are passing from folly to insanity."
"Not at all," replied Oceaxe. "It is the too-sad truth. And when you have seen Crimtyphon, you will realise it."
"I'm aware I am on a strange planet," said Maskull slowly, "where all sorts of unheard of things may happen, and where the very laws of morality may be different. Still as far as I am concerned, murder is murder, and I'll have no more to do with a woman who wants to make use of me, to get rid of her husband."
"You think me wicked?" demanded Oceaxe steadily. ”

“ Looking through the window, he was startled by a new sight. The sphere was still there, but between it and the Muspel-world in which he was standing he perceived a dim, vast shadow, without any distinguishable shape, but somehow throwing out a scent of disgusting sweetness. Nightspore knew that it was Crystalman. A flood of fierce light—but it was not light, but passion—was streaming all the time from Muspel to the Shadow, and through it. When, however, it emerged on the other side, which was the sphere, the light was altered in character. ”

“ Tydomin watched him attentively. "Then your feeling is that your life is worthless, and you make a present of it to the first one who asks?"
"No, it goes beyond that. I feel that the only thing worth living for is to be so magnanimous that fate itself will be astonished at us. Understand me. It isn't cynicism, or bitterness, or despair, but heroism.... It's hard to explain."
"Now you shall hear what sacrifice I offer you, Maskull. It's a heavy one, but that's what you seem to wish." ”

“ They say that when the world was born, Krag was born with it—a spirit compounded of those vestiges of Muspel which Shaping did not know how to transform. Thereafter nothing has gone right with the world, for he dogs Shaping's footsteps everywhere, and whatever the latter does, he undoes. To love he joins death; to sex, shame; to intellect, madness; to virtue, cruelty; and to fair exteriors, bloody entrails. These are Krag's actions, so the lovers of the world call him 'devil.' They don't understand, Maskull, that without him the world would lose its beauty. ”

“ Existence is Faceny's world, relation is Amfuse's world, feeling is Thire's world."
"Can't we come down to hard facts?" said Maskull, frowning. "I understand no more than I did before what you mean by three worlds."
"There are no harder facts than the ones I am giving you. The first world is visible, tangible Nature. It was created by Faceny out of nothingness, and therefore we call it Existence."
"That I understand."
"The second world is Love—by which I don't mean lust. Without love, every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable deliberately to act on others. ”

“ Krag shot a penetrating glance at him. "More remarkable adventures than this would need to be arranged before we could excite Nightspore."
"Yet he is coming."
"But not con amore. He is coming merely to bear you company."
Maskull again sought the heavy, sombre star, gleaming in solitary might, in the south-eastern heavens, and, as he gazed, his heart swelled with grand and painful longings, for which, however, he was unable to account to his own intellect. He felt that his destiny was in some way bound up with this gigantic, far-distant sun. ”

“ Just as he was in the act of jumping down from the top of a boulder, his vision altered and he came to an automatic standstill. He was perceiving two worlds simultaneously. With his own eyes he saw the gorge as before, with its rocks, brook, plant-animals, sunshine, and shadows. But with his acquired eyes he saw differently. All the details of the valley were visible, but the light seemed turned down, and everything appeared faint, hard, and uncoloured. The sun was obscured by masses of cloud which filled the whole sky. This vapour was in violent and almost living motion. ”

“ Here she laughed. "I won, because I am the stronger-hearted of the two; he is the purer in perception."
"Thanks, Joiwind!" said Maskull simply.
The colors chased each other rapidly beneath her skin. "Oh, why do you say that? What pleasure is greater than loving-kindness? I rejoiced at the opportunity.... But now we must exchange blood."
"What is this?" he demanded, rather puzzled.
"It must be so. Your blood is far too thick and heavy for our world. Until you have an infusion of mine, you will never get up."
Maskull flushed. "I feel like a complete ignoramus here.... Won't it hurt you?" ”

“ Spadevil stopped, and gazed over the landscape in silence. In the evening sunlight his form looked more dense, dark, and real than ever before. His features were set hard in grimness.
He turned around to his companions. “What is the greatest wonder, in all this wonderful scene?” he demanded.
“Acquaint us,” said Maskull.
“All that you see is born from pleasure, and moves on, from pleasure to pleasure. Nowhere is right to be found. It is Shaping’s world.”
“There is another wonder,” said Tydomin, and she pointed her finger toward the sky overhead. ”

“ You take too much for granted, Krag. You have played the false friend once already.... I presume I'm a free agent?"
"To be a free man, one must have a universe of one's own," said Krag, with a jeering look. "What do you say, Gangnet—is this a free world?"
"Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man's privilege," returned Gangnet tranquilly. "Maskull is quite within his rights, and if you'll engage to leave him I'll do the same."
"Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won't get rid of me so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull." ”

“ Sometimes the green sparks were strong enough for a moment to move a little way in the direction of Muspel; the whirls would then accept the movement, not only without demur, but with pride and pleasure, as if it were their own handiwork—but they never saw beyond the Shadow, they thought that they were travelling toward it. The instant the direct movement wearied them, as contrary to their whirling nature, they fell again to killing, dancing, and loving.
Nightspore had a foreknowledge that the sixth window would prove to be the last. ”

“ There is nothing tragical in death, Tydomin, nor in life. There is only right and wrong. What arises from right or wrong action does not matter. We are not gods, constructing a world, but simple men and women, doing our immediate duty. We may die in Sant—so you have seen it; but the truth will go on living."
"Spadevil, why do you choose Sant to start your work in?" asked Maskull. "These men with fixed ideas seem to me the least likely of any to follow a new light."
"Where a bad tree thrives, a good tree will flourish. But where no tree at all can be found, nothing will grow." ”

“ Corpang looked again, like a man trying to accustom himself to a shocking sight. "Dare we believe this?"
"You must," replied Maskull. "You have always served the highest, and you must continue to do so. It has simply turned out that Thire is not the highest."
Corpang's face became swollen with a kind of coarse anger. "Life is clearly false—I have been seeking Thire for a lifetime, and now I find—this."
"You have nothing to reproach yourself with. Crystalman has had eternity to practice his cunning in, so it's no wonder if a man can't see straight, even with the best intentions. ”

“ Earthrid looked at her with a dignified expression.
"Neither you, nor any other person, can endure the thoughts which I put into my music. Still, you must have it your own way. It needed a woman to call it 'beauty.' But if this is beauty, what is ugliness?"
"That I can tell you, Master," replied Gleameil, smiling at him. "Ugliness is old, stale life, while yours every night issues fresh from the womb of nature." ”