Review of The Virgin Spring (1960) by Samantha I — 25 Jul 2008

"You see how the smoke trembles up into the roof hole? As if whimpering and afraid. Yet itâ??s only going out into the open air, where it has the whole sky to tumble about in. But it doesnâ??t know that.

So it cowers and trembles under the sooty ridge of the roof. People are the same way. They worry and tremble like leaves in a stormâ?¦because of what they know and what they donâ??t know. You shall cross a narrow plank.

So narrow you canâ??t find your footing. Below you roars a great river. Itâ??s black and wants to swallow you up. But you pass over it unharmed. Before you lies a chasm so deep you canâ??t see the bottom.

Hands grope for you, but they canâ??t reach you. At last you stand before a mountain of terror. It spews fire like a furnace, and a vast abyss opens at its feet. A thousand colors blaze there: copper and iron, blue vitriol and yellow sulfur.

Flames dazzle and flash and lash at the rocks. And all about, men leap and writhe, small as ants, for this is the furnace that swallows up murderers and evildoers. But at the very moment you think youâ??re doomed, a hand shall grasp you and an arm circle around you, and youâ??ll be taken far awayâ?¦where evil no longer has power over you.

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