III. HEAVEN In this third chapter, we come at last to the map itself, or rather to a first general outline of it. We must begin at the end. For this map is the map of a road, and it is only in the light of its end that any road makes sense. If you ask why it turns this way or that, the answer will always lie in a consideration of the place it is going to: till you know that you cannot even know that it is a road, but only that it looks like one; still less can you know whether it is a good road or a bad road. Therefore, if this map is to be drawn rightly, we must begin at the end. What is the right end of the life of man? In other words, what should the road of life lead to? Faced with this primary question, men have tried various ( ways of arriving at the answer. The atheist makes an effort to place the end of the road at death: the road of every man’s life runs inevitably to earth in a newly opened grave. But atheists, at any time in the woHd’s history, are exceptional, almost freakish. And for the generality of men, the question of what is the end of life, is simply the question of what comes after death. In this at any rate, the generality of men are right. But after this initial correctness there is every variety of error. Some men have decided to work out for themselves what they think “ 28