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.He saw the body carried to the submarine, he saw it carried off far into the ocean, and then, sometimes in the vessel, sometimes out of it, he saw it change.Sometimes he saw men in a narrow room watching by it, crying out, hurrying to it, adoring it.But more often—though the dream itself was not often—he saw it floating alone in the middle of the sea, far away, far down, and he saw the eyes open and the hands move, and the whole body stir.Life was rushing back into it; power, spirit, imagination, whatever name sad incompetence found for it, was re-animating the willing flesh.He saw it walking in the waters and heard it calling through them.The creatures of the deep, octopus and shark, greed and ferocity, fled before it.Behind it, as it came, there was no more sea; in front of it the waters flowed into it and became the man who moved in them.Back from the shore they swept, out towards that advancing humanity, and all their mysteries were swallowed up in his shining lucidity.This was the vast of experience, currents and tides, streams and whirlpools, restless waves and fathomless depths, absorbed by man.The salt that tinctured it, as the salt of Sir Bernard’s amusement tinctured life, was absorbed also.Valuable as that preservative salt was, in the end it was infinitely less than the elements of which it was part, and to prefer it to the renewed body would be to prefer the means to the end, detachment to union.Irony might sustain the swimmer in the sea; it could not master the sea.A greater than Sir Bernard did that now, if indeed now, up the African sand or the English beach, that conqueror returned.If he returned.If he carried out the experiment of his vision, the purpose of his labours.If, first among his peers, when all believed him lost, he thrust himself from the place of shades back into immortal and transmuted life, if he held death at his disposal, if he knew how the vivid ecstasy of experience dominated all shapes and forms, all accidents of time and place.If he came now, humming those last songs which the greatest of the poets had made from his own vision of Ariel flying free, smiling at the blindness of extreme pain and the paralysis of extreme possession, guardian of myths and expositor of power … if he returned.If now, while the world shouted over the defeat of his allies and subjects, while it drove its terror back into its own unmapped jungles, and subdued its fiercer desires to an alien government of sterile sayings, if now he came once more to threaten and deliver it.If—ah beyond, beyond belief!—but if he returned.…About the AuthorCharles Williams (1886–1945) was a British author and longtime editor at Oxford University Press.He was one of the three most prominent members of the literary group known as the Inklings—the other two being C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien.Williams wrote poetry, drama, biography, literary criticism, and more, but is best known for his novels, which explored the primal conflict between good and evil.T.S.Eliot, who wrote an introduction to Williams’s All Hallows’ Eve, praised the author’s “profound insight into … the heights of Heaven and the depths of Hell, which provides both the immediate thrill, and the permanent message of his novels,” and Time magazine called him “one of the most gifted and influential Christian writers England has produced this century.”All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.This is a work of fiction.Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.Copyright © 1931 by Charles WilliamsCover design by Kat LeeISBN: 978-1-5040-0667-5This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.345 Hudson StreetNew York, NY 10014www.openroadmedia.comEARLY BIRD BOOKSFRESH EBOOK DEALS, DELIVERED DAILYBE THE FIRST TO KNOW ABOUTFREE AND DISCOUNTED EBOOKSNEW DEALS HATCH EVERY DAY!EBOOKS BY CHARLES WILLIAMSFROM OPEN ROAD MEDIAAvailable wherever ebooks are soldOpen Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company.Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.Videos, Archival Documents, and New ReleasesSign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.Sign up now atwww.openroadmedia.com/newslettersFIND OUT MORE ATWWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COMFOLLOW US:@openroadmedia andFacebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
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