Ангел сошёл ко мне

<pre> Ангел сошёл ко мне и сказал: "О жалкий безумец! О мерзкий! О гибнущий! Жизнью своей ты себе уготовил в вечности огненную преисподнюю". Я ответил: "Покажи мне мою судьбу, и мы вместе решим, чей жребий лучше, мой или твой". Он повел меня сквозь конюшню, и церковь, и склеп, и в конце была мельница; мы прошли из нее в пещеру, и томительно долго спускались извилистым подземельем, и вот увидели под собой пустоту, бескрайнюю, как опрокинутые небеса, и на корнях растений повисли над пустотой; я сказал: "Бросимся в пустоту и посмотрим, есть ли в ней провидение, - если не хочешь, я брошусь один". Он ответил: "Смирись, юнец, когда расступится тьма, мы и отсюда увидим твой жребий".</pre>

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<pre> An Angel came to me and said: 'O pitiable, foolish young man! О horrible! О dreadful state! Consider the hot, burning dungeon thou art preparing for thyself to all Eternity, to which thou art going in such career.' I said: 'Perhaps you will be willing to show me my eternal lot, and we will contemplate together upon it, and see whether your lot or mine is most desirable.' So he took me thro' a stable, and thro' a church, and down into the church vault, at the end of which was a mill. Thro' the mill we went, and came to a cave.

Down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way, till a void boundless as a nether sky appear'd beneath us, and we held by the roots of trees, and hung over this immensity. But I said: 'If you please, we will commit ourselves to this void, and see whether Providence is here also. If you will not, I will.' But he answer'd: 'Do not presume, О young man, but as we here remain, behold thy lot which will soon appear when the darkness passes away.' So I remain'd with him, sitting in the twisted root of an oak. He was suspended in a fungus, which hung with the head downward into the deep. By degrees we beheld the infinite Abyss, fiery as the smoke of a burning city; beneath us, at an immense distance, was the sun, black but shining; round it were fiery tracks on which revolv'd vast spiders, crawling after their prey, which flew, or rather swum, in the infinite deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals sprung from corruption; and the air was full of them, and seem'd composed of them-these are Devils, and are called Powers of the Air. I now asked my companion which was my eternal lot? He said: 'Between the black and white spiders.'</pre>

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