And because our forefathers were a sad and earnest folk: because
they lived in a sad and dreary climate, where winter was far longer
and more bitter than it is, thank God, now; therefore all their
thoughts about winter and spring were sad; and they grew to despair,
at last, of life ever conquering death, or light conquering darkness.
An age would come, they said, in which snow should fall from the four
corners of the world, and the winters be three winters long; an evil
age, of murder and adultery, and hatred between brethren, when all
the ties of kin would be rent asunder, and wickedness should triumph
on the earth.
Then should come that dark time which they called the twilight of the
gods. Then the powers of evil would be let loose; the earth would go
to ruin in darkness and in flame. All living things would die. The
very gods would die, fighting to the last against the powers of evil,
till the sun should sink for ever, and the world be a heap of ashes.
And then--so strangely does God's gift of hope linger in the hearts
of men--they saw, beyond all that, a dim dream of a new heaven and a
new earth in which should dwell righteousness; and of a new sun, more
beautiful than ours; of a woman called "Life," hid safe while all the
world around her was destroyed, fed on the morning dew, preserved to
be the mother of a new and happier race of men.
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