ever, there below his feet. He stared down on the rocky floors. If
he could but see through them .... and the eye of faith could see
through them .... he should behold her writhing and twisting among
the flickering flame, scorched, glowing .... in everlasting agony,
such as the thought of enduring for a moment made him shudder. He
had burnt his hands once, when a palm-leaf but caught fire .... He
recollected what that was like .... She was enduring ten thousand
times more than that for ever. He should hear her shrieking in vain
for a drop of water to cool her tongue .... He had never heard a
human being shriek but once .... a boy bathing on the opposite Nile
bank, whom a crocodile had dragged down .... and that scream, faint
and distant as it came across the mighty tide, had rung intolerable
in his ears for days .... and to think of all which echoed through
those vaults of fire-for ever! Was the thought bearable!--was it
possible! Millions upon millions burning forever for Adam's fall
.... Could God be just in that? ....

It was the temptation of a fiend! He had entered the unhallowed
precincts, where devils still lingered about their ancient shrines;
he had let his eyes devour the abominations of the heathen, and
given place to the devil. He would flee home to confess it all to
his father. He would punish him as he deserved, pray for him,
forgive him. And yet could he tell him all? Could he, dare he
confess to him the whole truth--the insatiable craving to know the
mysteries of learning--to see the great roaring world of men, which
had been growing up in him slowly, month after month, till now it
had assumed this fearful shape? He could stay no longer in the
desert. This world which sent all souls to hell--was it as bad as
monks declared it was? It must be, else how could such be the fruit
of it? But it was too awful a thought to be taken on trust. No; he