"Where will this end?" said the Lady, speaking more to herself than to him....
"...First to have learned that I walk from good to good with my own feet . . . that was stretch enough. But now it seems that good is not the same in all worlds; that Maleldil has forbidden in one what he allows in another."
"Perhaps my world is wrong about this," said Ransom rather feebly, for he was dismayed at what he'd done.
"It is not so," said she. "Maleldil Himself has told me now. And it could not be so, if your world has no floating lands. But He is not telling me why He has forbidden it to us."
"There's probably some good reason," began Ransom, when he was interrupted by her sudden laughter.
"Oh Piebald, Piebald," she said still laughing. "How often the people of your race speak!"
"I'm sorry," saod Ransom, a little put out.
"What are you sorry for?"
"I am sorry if you think I talk too much."
"Too much? How can I tell what would be too much for you to talk?"
"In our world when they say a man talks much they mean him to be silent."
"If that is what they mean, why do they not say it?"
"What made you laugh?" asked Ransom, finding her question too hard.
"I laughed, Piebald, because you were wondering, as I was, about this law which Maleldil has made for one world and not for another. And you had nothing to say about it and yet you made the nothing up into words."
from C. S. Lewis' Perelandra
2 comments:
My beliefs have changed considerably since the time I read it, but that was a great book.
A friend has lent me the whole trilogy, so I'm making my way through it...
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