Lilith

"But," I returned, hard to persuade where I could not understand, "how is it then that, when you please, you
take from that same door a whole book where I saw and felt only a part of one? The other part, you have just
told me, stuck through into your library: when you put it again on the shelf, will it not again stick through
into that? Must not then the two places, in which parts of the same volume can at the same moment exist, lie
close together? Or can one part of the book be in space, or SOMEWHERE, and the other out of space, or
NOWHERE?"
"I am sorry I cannot explain the thing to you," he answered; "but there is no provision in you for
understanding it. Not merely, therefore, is the phenomenon inexplicable to you, but the very nature of it is
inapprehensible by you. Indeed I but partially apprehend it myself. At the same time you are constantly
experiencing things which you not only do not, but cannot understand. You think you understand them, but
your understanding of them is only your being used to them, and therefore not surprised at them. You accept
them, not because you understand them, but because you must accept them: they are there, and have
unavoidable relations with you! The fact is, no man understands anything; when he knows he does not
understand, that is his first tottering step−−not toward understanding, but toward the capability of one day
understanding. To such things as these you are not used, therefore you do not fancy you understand them.
Neither I nor any man can here help you to understand; but I may, perhaps, help you a little to believe!"
He went to the door of the closet, gave a low whistle, and stood listening. A moment after, I heard, or seemed
to hear, a soft whir of wings, and, looking up, saw a white dove perch for an instant on the top of the shelves
over the portrait, thence drop to Mr. Raven's shoulder, and lay her head against his cheek. Only by the
motions of their two heads could I tell that they were talking together; I heard nothing. Neither had I moved
my eyes from them, when suddenly she was not there, and Mr. Raven came back to his seat.
"Why did you whistle?" I asked. "Surely sound here is not sound there!"
"You are right," he answered. "I whistled that you might know I called her. Not the whistle, but what the
whistle meant reached her.−−There is not a minute to lose: you must go!"
"I will at once!" I replied, and moved for the door.
"You will sleep to−night at my hostelry!" he said−−not as a question, but in a tone of mild authority.
"My heart is with the children," I replied. "But if you insist−−−−"
"I do insist. You can otherwise effect nothing.−−I will go with you as far as the mirror, and see you off."
He rose. There came a sudden shock in the closet. Apparently the leopardess had flung herself against the
heavy door. I looked at my companion.
"Come; come!" he said.
Ere we reached the door of the library, a howling yell came after us, mingled with the noise of claws that
scored at the hard oak. I hesitated, and half turned.
Lilith
"To think of her lying there alone," I murmured, "−−with that terrible wound!"
"Nothing will ever close that wound," he answered, with a sigh. "It must eat into her heart! Annihilation itself
is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it
chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil."
Lilith 97