I saw coming towards us a Ghost who carried something on his shoulder. Like all the Ghosts, he was unsubstantial, but they differed from one another as smokes differ. Some had been whitish; this one was dark and oily. What sat on his shoulder was a little red lizard, and it was twitching its tail like a whip and whispering things in his ear. As we caught sight of him he turned his head to the reptile with a snarl of impatience. 'Shut up, I tell you!' he said. It wagged its tail and continued to whisper to him. He ceased snarling, and presently began to smile. Then he turned and started to limp westward, away from the mountains.
'Off so soon?' said a voice.
The speaker was more or less human in shape but larger than a man, and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence smote on my eyes and on my body too (for there was heat coming from him as well as light) like the morning sun at the beginning of a tyrannous summer day.
'Yes. I'm off,' said the Ghost. 'Thanks for all your hospitality. But it's no good, you see. I told this little chap' (here he indicated the Lizard) 'that he'd have to be quiet if he came- which he insisted on doing. Of course his stuff won't do here: I realise that. But he won't stop. I shall just have to go home.'
'Would you like me to make him quiet?' said the flaming Spirit- an angel, as I now understood.
'Of course I would,' said the Ghost.
'Then I will kill him,' said the Angel, taking a step forward.
'Oh-ah-look out! You're burning me. Keep away,' said the Ghost, retreating.
'Don't you want him killed?"
'You didn't say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that.'
'It's the only way,' said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the Lizard. 'Shall I kill it?'
'Well, that's a further question. I'm quite open to consider it, but it's a new point, isn't it? ...there's time to discuss that later.'
'There is no time. May I kill it?'
'...Honestly, I don't think there's the slightest necessity for that. I'm sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it.'
'The gradual process is of no use at all.'
'Don't you think so? Well, I'll think over what you've said very carefully. I honestly will. In fact I'd let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I'm not feeling frightfully well to-day. It would be most silly to do it now. I'd need to be in good health for the operation. Some other day, perhaps.'
'There is no other day. All days are present now.'
'Get back! You're burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You'd kill me if you did.'
'It is not so.'
'Why, you're hurting me now.'
'I never said it wouldn't hurt you. I said it wouldn't kill you.'
...'Why are you torturing me? You are jeering at me. How can I let you tear me into pieces? If you wanted to help me, why didn't you kill the damned thing without asking me-before I knew? It would be all over byu now if you had.'
'I cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?'
The Angel's hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite. Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying.
'Be careful,' it said.' He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will! Then you'll be without me for ever and ever. It's not natural. How oculd you live? You'd be only a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn't understand. he's only a cold, bloodless abstract thing. it may be natural for him, but it isn't for us. Yes, yes. I know htere are no real pleasures now, only dreams. But aren't they better than nothing? And I'll be so good. I admit I've sometimes gone too far in the past, but I promise I own't do it again. I'll give you nothing but really nice dreams- all sweet and fresh and almost innocent. You might say, quite innocent...'
'Have I your permission?' said the Angel to the Ghost.
'I know it will kill me.'
'It won't. But supposing it did?'
'You're right. It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature.'
'Then I may?'
...Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth.
The Burning One closed his crimson grip ont eh reptile: twisted it, while it but and writhed, and then flung it, broken backed, on the turf.'
'Ow! That's done for me,' gasped the Ghost, reeling backwards.
For a moment I oculd make out nothing distictly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakeably solid but growing every moment solider, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man. Then, brigher still and stronger, the legs and hands. The neck and golden head materialised while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man... What distracted me was the fact that at the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought hte operation had faild. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks. Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with a mail and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled.
...'Do you understand all this, my Son?' said the Teacher.
'I don't know about all, Sir,' said I. 'Am I right in thinking the Lizard really turned into a Horse?'
'Aye. But it was killed first. Ye'll not forget that part of that part of the story?'
Lewis, C.S. The Great Divorce. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. pgs 107-114
As said by Mary Ellen Edmunds, "'Be ye therefore perfect' is a long process, not abracadabra."
