And this thing did strike me very solemn, as I did lie; and I do
trust that you conceive how that there was, in truth, afar above in
the eternal and unknown night, the stupendous desolation of the
dead world, and the eternal snow and starless dark. And, as I do
think, a cold so bitter that it held death to all living that
should come anigh to it. Yet, bethink you, if one had lived in that
far height of the dead world, and come upon the edge of that mighty
valley in which all life that was left of earth, did abide, they
should have been like to look downward vaguely into so monstrous a
deep that they had seen naught, mayhaps, save a dull and utter
strange glowing far downward in the great night, in this place and
in that.
And surely, as you shall have seen, I have set the Great
