The Plain--everything had vanished, and only
a sea of red mist was spread far below me. Gradually as I stared this
grew remote, and died away into a dim far mystery of red against an
unfathomable night. A while, and even this had gone, and I was wrapped
in an impalpable, lightless gloom.
_IV_
THE EARTH
Thus I was, and only the memory that I had lived through the dark, once
before, served to sustain my thoughts. A great time passed--ages. And
then a single star broke its way through the darkness. It was the first
of one of the outlying clusters of this universe. Presently, it was far
behind, and all about me shone the splendor of the countless stars.
Later, years it seemed, I saw the sun, a clot of flame. Around it, I
made out presently several remote specks of light--the planets of the
Solar system. And so I saw the earth again, blue and unbelievably
minute. It grew larger, and became defined.
A long space of time came and went, and then at last I entered into the
shadow of the world--plunging headlong into the dim and holy earth
night.
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