eakness; and there fell into the yawning furnace of the
world, one of the great oceans; and immediately made of itself steam,
and so brake upwards again, and tore the earth mightily in its swift
uprising.

And thereafter there was a mist and confusion and rain upon the world.
And, indeed, all very seemly put; and not to be taken as a light tale.

Then, in that ending of the book, there was one that did write, having
lived in a vast later age, when the Sun had come anigh to his dying, and
the upward earth was grown quiet and cold and not good to live upon. And
in that time the Mighty Chasm had been calmed by the weight of an
Eternity, so that it was now a most deep and wondrous Valley, that did
hold Seas and great Hills and Mountains; and in it were great forests of
kinds, and Lands that were good and healthful; and Places given over to
Fire, and to Steamings, and Sulphur Clouds; so that they held Poisons
that had ill for Man.

And Great Beasts were there down in that far depth, that none might see
ever, save by a strong spy-glass. And such there were in the Early
World, and had now been bred in the Ending by those inward forces of
Nature which did make the Valley a place of Good Warmth; so that there
was, as it were, once more the Primal World born to give new birth unto
such olden Monsters, and to others, new and Peculiar to that Age and
Circumstance.

And all this, indeed, did the book give also; but constrained and
difficult to take clearly to the heart, and not like to the wise plain
speech of the early tellings; so that I must even set it out here in
mine own speech.

And it did seem to me, by my reading, that Man had come at one time to a
great softness of Heart and Spirit through many ages of over-ease. But
that the World did come to coldness and unfriendliness, by reason of the
Sun's slow ceasing.

And there was presently, in naturalness, a Race upon the earth that were
hardy, and made to fight for their lives; and did perceive that the
Mighty Valley that cut the World in twain, was a place of Warmth and
Life; and so did make to adventure their bodies down that wondrous
Height; and were many Ages coming safe to the Bottom; but did find safe
places in the downward way where they built them Houses, and made to
live, and begot them children; and these grew up to that life of
constant and great climbings, and of hard workings upon The Road, which
was the One Intent of that People; so that the book did speak o