BEAUTY OF PARADISE 27 
and you will be beautiful no more. Only you must 
fly fast, and you must not turn to look, for if you do, 
the brightness will blind you. You could bear it 
once when you lived in it and had known nothing 
else, but now that you have lived on earth you can- 
not. It would only blind you now.” So the Birds 
of Paradise flew towards the earth, and, when they 
had got a little way, the Phenix opened the gates 
(he had only been speaking to them through the 
keyhole), and, as the'splendour of Paradise streamed 
forth and fell upon them, their feathers were scorched 
in its excessive brightness, all except a few tufts and 
plumes which were not quite destroyed, because, you 
see, they were getting farther away every second. A 
little of their beauty was left, and that was enough 
to make them the most beautiful birds on earth 
(till we come to the Humming-birds), but they are 
very ugly compared to what they once were when 
they lived in Paradise. ‘Think then, what the real 
Birds of Paradise must be like when those that have 
left it, and have had their plumage scorched and 
spoilt, are so very beautiful. ‘That is the other way 
of explaining how there come to be Birds of Paradise 
living on the earth, and I think you will say that it is 
the more sensible way of the two. For as for people 
having ever believed that there were birds who had 
no feet or wings, and that lived always in the air with 
