“To the land, as far off as you can see. . . .”
“I care not about it! You always deceive me! You carry me away through endless space, and everything beautiful that I see disappears from my view. But yet . . . . there, behind the horizon, behind the sand of the desert, is a dazzling scene. . . . Are those silver grottos on a sea of light? Does the light there wave like water? Are those groves of light, cities of light, in a land of light? Tell me, Chimera, do people of light live there? Is that Paradise?”
“Yes, will you go thither?”
“Yes, oh yes, Chimera. There is happiness, the highest happiness, and there I will remain with you . . . .! ‘
“We are now approaching it. . . .”
“Let that land of light now stay, the paradise of glowing sunshine; do not charm away the land of happiness, O naughty Chimera: go to it now with me, and descend with me. . . .”
“We are there. . . .”
“Descend. . . .”
He descended.
“Have we not yet reached the ground of light?”
“Look below: can you see nothing. . . .?”
