Konx Om Pax

I8 KONX OM PAX Via“ v. Serpens Domus IV v. Benignitas Ratio Naturae Naturatae Adeptum _ Oportel Rationis Facultatem Regnare they sit in them all day and play silly games with counters, and ohl dear me, how they do cheat and quarrel. When any one gets a million counters, he is so glad you can’t think, and goes away and tries to change some of the counters for the things he really wants, and he can’t, so you nearly die of laughing, though of course it would be dreadfully sad if it were wake-life. But I was telling you about the ways to the Fourth House, and the third way is all full of lions, and a person might be afraid; only whenever one comes to bite at you, there is a lovely lady who puts her hands in its mouth and shuts it. So we went through quite safely, and I thought of Daniel in the lions’ den. The Fourth House is the most wonderful of all I had ever seen. It is the most heavenly blue mansion; it is built of beryl and amethyst, and lapis lazuli and turquoise and sapphire. The centre of the floor is a pool of purest aquamarine, and in it is water, only you can see every drop as a separate crystal, and the blue tinge filtering through the light. Above there hangs a calm yet mighty globe of deep sapphirine blue. Round it there were nine mirrors, and there is a noise that means when you understand it, “joy! Joy! joy!" There are violet flames darting through the air, each one a little sob of happy love. One began to see what the dream~world was really for at last; every time any one kissed any one for real love, that was a little throb of violet flame in this beautiful House in the Wake-World. And we bathed and swam in the pool, and were so happy you can’t think. But they said: “Little girl, you must pay for the entertainment.” [I forgot to tell you there was music like fountains make as they rise and fall, only of course much more wonderful than that.] So I asked what I must pay, and they said: “You are now mistress of all these houses from the Fourth to the Ninth. You have managed the Servants’ Hall well enough since your marriage; now you must manage the others, because till you do you can never go on to the Third House. So I said: “ It seems to me that they are all in perfectly good order.” But they took me up in the air, and then I saw that the outsides were