Terrible Goodness

Nature’s so terribly good. Don’t you think so, Mr. Stanhope?”
“That Nature is terribly good? Yes, Miss Fox….Yes. Very. Only — you must forgive me, it comes from doing so much writing, but when I say ‘terribly’ I think I mean ‘full of terror’….”

…he did not change his purpose, nor did the universe invite him to change. It accepted the choice, no more preventing him than it prevents a child playing with fire or a fool destroying his love. It has not our kindness or our decency; if it is good, its goodness is of another kind than ours. It allowed him, moving from shadow to shadow, cautious and rash, to approach the house where he remembered to have seen the rope….

— Charles Williams, Descent Into Hell