Excerpted from Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising:

"Very old, them crosses are, rector," said Old George unexpectedly, firm and clear. "Made a long time before Christianity. Before Christ."

The rector beamed at him. "But not before God," he said simply.

The Old Ones looked at him. There was no answer that would not have offended him, so no one tried to give him one. Except, after a moment, Will.

"There's not really any before or after, is there?" he said. "Everything that matters is outside Time. And comes from there and can go there."

Mr. Beaumont turned to him in surprise. "You mean infinity, of course, my boy."

"Not altogether," said the Old One that was Will. "I mean the part of all of us, and of all the things we think and believe, that has nothing to do with yesterday or today or tomorrow because it belongs at a different kind of level. You can visit either of them. And all Gods are there, and all the things they have ever stood for. And," he added sadly, "the opposite, too."

<<