“Right if you dare.”
“Shall I conquer and prevail? Give me your promise!”
“Everlastingly you may conquer and find fresh worlds to conquer.”
“May—but shall I?”
It was as if the torrent of molten thoughts stopped suddenly. It was as if everything stopped.
“Answer me,” he cried.
Slowly the shining thoughts moved on again.
“So long as your courage endures you will conquer....
“If you have courage, although the night be dark, although the present battle be bloody and cruel and end in a strange and evil fashion, nevertheless victory shall be yours—in a way you will understand—when victory comes. Only have courage. On the courage in your heart all things depend. By courage it is that the stars continue in their courses, day by day. It is the courage of life alone that keeps sky and earth apart.... If that courage fail, if that sacred fire go out, then all things fail and all things go out, all things—good and evil, space and time.”
“Leaving nothing?”