" "Here" and "There" were but relative
terms; certainly they corresponded to facts, but they were not those
facts themselves.... And since he now stood behind them he saw them on
their inner side, as a man standing in the interior of a globe may be
said to be equally present to every point upon its surface.
The fascination of the thought was enormous; and, like a child who
begins to take notice and to learn the laws of extension and distance,
so he began to learn their reverse. He saw, he thought (as he had seen
once before, only, this time, without the sense of movement), the
interior of the lighted drawing room at home, and his mother nodding
in her chair; he directed his attention to Maggie, and perceived her
passing across the landing toward the head of the stairs with a candle
in her hand. It was this sight that brought him to a further
discovery, to the effect that time also was of very nearly no
importance either; for he perceived that by bending his attention upon
her he could restrain her, so to speak, in her movement. There she
stood, one foot outstretched, the candle flame leaning motionless
backward; and he knew too that it was not she who was thus restrained,
but that it was the intensity and directness of his thought that
fixed, so to say, in terms of eternity, that instant of time.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161