In one of Stevenson's letters there is a characteristically humorous
remark about the appalling impression produced on him in childhood by the
beasts with many eyes in the Book of Revelations: "If that was heaven,
what in the name of Davy Jones was hell like?" Now in sober truth
there is a magnificent idea in these monsters of the Apocalypse.
It is, I suppose, the idea that beings really more beautiful or more
universal than we are might appear to us frightful and even confused.
Especially they might seem to have senses at once more multiplex
and more staring; an idea very imaginatively seized in the multitude
of eyes. I like those monsters beneath the throne very much.
But I like them beneath the throne. It is when one of them goes
wandering in deserts and finds a throne for himself that evil
faiths begin, and there is (literally) the devil to pay--to pay
in dancing girls or human sacrifice. As long as those misshapen
elemental powers are around the throne, remember that the thing
that they worship is the likeness of the appearance of a man.
That is, I fancy, the true doctrine on the subject of Tales
of Terror and such things, which unless a man of letters do well
and truly believe, without doubt he will end by blowing his brains
out or by writing badly. Man, the central pillar of the world
must be upright and straight; around him all the trees and beasts
and elements and devils may crook and curl like smoke if they choose.
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