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carried away all? Yet at the end of that immense stretch of
time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have
ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years
eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain
rose again after it had been all carried away, and if the bird
came again and carried it all away again grain by grain, and
if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the
sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on
the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon
animals, at the end of all those innumerable risings and
sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not one single
instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then,
at the end of such a period, after that eon of time the mere
thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity
would scarcely have begun.
—A holy saint (one of our own fathers I believe it was)
was once vouchsafed a vision of hell. It seemed to him that
he stood in the midst of a great hall, dark and silent save for
the ticking of a great clock. The ticking went on unceasing-
ly; and it seemed to this saint that the sound of the ticking
was the ceaseless repetition of the words—ever, never; ever,
never. Ever to be in hell, never to be in heaven; ever to be
shut off from the presence of God, never to enjoy the beatif-
ic vision; ever to be eaten with flames, gnawed by vermin,
goaded with burning spikes, never to be free from those
pains; ever to have the conscience upbraid one, the memory
enrage, the mind filled with darkness and despair, never to
escape; ever to curse and revile the foul demons who gloat
fiendishly over the misery of their dupes, never to behold

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