First, he knew that he had lost God. It was not that there was no God,
but that he had lost Him of his own fault and sin. He was aware that in
all other places there was God and that the blessed reigned with Him,
but not in the place where he was, nor in his heart. In all men that
ever I have met there was a certain presence of God. As the apostle told
the men of Athens, _Ipsius enim et genus suum_; ["For we are also His
offspring" (Acts xvii. 28.)] and, again, _Non longe est ab unoquoque
nostrum_; ["He is not far from every one of us" (Acts xvii. 27.)] and
again, _In ipso vivimus, et movemur, et sumus_. ["In Him we live, and
we move, and we are" (Acts xvii. 28.)] I have not seen a man who had
not this knowledge, though maybe some, such as Turks and pagans, may
call it by another name. But until death, I think, all men, whatever
their sins or ignorance, live and move in God's Majesty. Hell, Master
Richard told me, is nothing less than the withdrawal of that presence,
with other torments superadded, but this is chief. Master Richard told
me that that black fire of hell rages wherever God is not; and that the
worm gnaws in all hearts that have lost Him, and know it to be by their
own fault--_maxima culpa_. ["the very great fault."]

There be a few men in this world--the Son of God derelict is their
prince--who are called to this supreme torment while they yet live--if
indeed that man may be said to live who is without God--and of this
company Master Richard was now made one.

It was with him now as he had dreamed. Where God is not, there can be no
communion with man, for the only reason by which one perceives another's
soul, or understands that it is the soul of a man and has a likeness to
his own, is that both are, in some measure, in God. If we were more holy
and wise we should understand for ourselves that this is so, and see,