With silent,radiant roll,the river swept onward,filling to the margin its smooth,soft,yielding channel.For,instead of rock or shingle or sand,it flowed over grass in which grew primroses and daisies,crocuses and narcissi,pimpernels and anemones,a starry multitude,large and bright through the brilliant water.The river had gathered no turbid cloudiness from the rain,not even a tinge of yellow or brown;the delicate mass shone with the pale berylline gleam that ascended from its deep,dainty bed.
Drawing nearer to the mountain,we saw that the river came from its very peak,and rushed in full volume through the main street of the city.It descended to the gate by a stair of deep and wide steps,mingled of porphyry and serpentine,which continued to the foot of the mountain.There arriving we found shallower steps on both banks,leading up to the gate,and along the ascending street.Without the briefest halt,the Little Ones ran straight up the stair to the gate,which stood open.
Outside,on the landing,sat the portress,a woman-angel of dark visage,leaning her shadowed brow on her idle hand.The children rushed upon her,covering her with caresses,and ere she understood,they had taken heaven by surprise,and were already in the city,still mounting the stair by the side of the descending torrent.Agreat angel,attended by a company of shining ones,came down to meet and receive them,but merrily evading them all,up still they ran.In merry dance,however,a group of woman-angels descended upon them,and in a moment they were fettered in heavenly arms.The radiants carried them away,and I saw them no more.
"Ah!"said the mighty angel,continuing his descent to meet us who were now almost at the gate and within hearing of his words,"this is well!these are soldiers to take heaven itself by storm!--I hear of a horde of black bats on the frontiers:these will make short work with such!"Seeing the horse and the elephants clambering up behind us--"Take those animals to the royal stables,"he added;"there tend them;then turn them into the king's forest.""Welcome home!"he said to us,bending low with the sweetest smile.
Immediately he turned and led the way higher.The scales of his armour flashed like flakes of lightning.
Thought cannot form itself to tell what I felt,thus received by the officers of heaven.All I wanted and knew not,must be on its way to me!
We stood for a moment at the gate whence issued roaring the radiant river.I know not whence came the stones that fashioned it,but among them I saw the prototypes of all the gems I had loved on earth--far more beautiful than they,for these were living stones --such in which I saw,not the intent alone,but the intender too;not the idea alone,but the imbodier present,the operant outsender:
nothing in this kingdom was dead;nothing was mere;nothing only a thing.
We went up through the city and passed out.There was no wall on the upper side,but a huge pile of broken rocks,upsloping like the moraine of an eternal glacier;and through the openings between the rocks,the river came billowing out.On their top I could dimly discern what seemed three or four great steps of a stair,disappearing in a cloud white as snow;and above the steps I saw,but with my mind's eye only,as it were a grand old chair,the throne of the Ancient of Days.Over and under and between those steps issued,plenteously,unceasingly new-born,the river of the water of life.
The great angel could guide us no farther:those rocks we must ascend alone!
My heart beating with hope and desire,I held faster the hand of my Lona,and we began to climb;but soon we let each other go,to use hands as well as feet in the toilsome ascent of the huge stones.
At length we drew near the cloud,which hung down the steps like the borders of a garment,passed through the fringe,and entered the deep folds.A hand,warm and strong,laid hold of mine,and drew me to a little door with a golden lock.The door opened;the hand let mine go,and pushed me gently through.I turned quickly,and saw the board of a large book in the act of closing behind me.
I stood alone in my library.