QUOTE	Q250	42	0	42	5	“ And this also , ”
QUOTE	Q251	42	10	42	22	“ has been one of the dark places of the earth . ”
QUOTE	Q253	55	17	76	29	“ I was thinking of very old times , when the Romans first came here , nineteen hundred years ago -- the other day ... . Light came out of this river since -- you say Knights ? Yes ; but it is like a running blaze on a plain , like a flash of lightning in the clouds . We live in the flicker -- may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling ! But darkness was here yesterday . Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine -- what d'ye call 'em ? -- trireme in the Mediterranean , ordered suddenly to the north ; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry ; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries -- a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been , too -- used to build , apparently by the hundred , in a month or two , if we may believe what we read . Imagine him here -- the very end of the world , a sea the colour of lead , a sky the colour of smoke , a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina -- and going up this river with stores , or orders , or what you like . Sand-banks , marshes , forests , savages , -- precious little to eat fit for a civilized man , nothing but Thames water to drink . No Falernian wine here , no going ashore . Here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness , like a needle in a bundle of hay -- cold , fog , tempests , disease , exile , and death -- death skulking in the air , in the water , in the bush . They must have been dying like flies here . Oh , yes -- he did it . Did it very well , too , no doubt , and without thinking much about it either , except afterwards to brag of what he had gone through in his time , perhaps . They were men enough to face the darkness . And perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on a chance of promotion to the fleet at Ravenna by and by , if he had good friends in Rome and survived the awful climate . Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga -- perhaps too much dice , you know -- coming out here in the train of some prefect , or tax-gatherer , or trader even , to mend his fortunes . Land in a swamp , march through the woods , and in some inland post feel the savagery , the utter savagery , had closed round him -- all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest , in the jungles , in the hearts of wild men . There 's no initiation either into such mysteries . He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible , which is also detestable . And it has a fascination , too , that goes to work upon him . The fascination of the abomination -- you know , imagine the growing regrets , the longing to escape , the powerless disgust , the surrender , the hate . ”
ATTRIB	Q250	Marlow-19
ATTRIB	Q251	Marlow-19
ATTRIB	Q253	Marlow-19