To begin at the beginning, one of the best-known C S Lewis quotes, "farther up and farther in," is taken from the end of the seventh Narnian Chronicle, The Last Battle, in which it is repeated several times (and is even used as a chapter heading.) A very similar expression was used by MacDonald in one of his own novels—also a fantasy, also towards the end, and also in the context of a spirit-soaring "good death." MacDonald's "farther in, higher up" is the likelier to have deeply influenced Lewis because Lilith was one of his favourite works, a fondness for which (if his biographer George Sayer is to be believed) seemed almost a passport to his intimate friendship.
“So they ran faster and faster till it was more like flying than running, and even the eagle overhead was going no faster than they. And they went through winding valley after winding valley and up the steep sides of hills and, faster than ever, down the other sides, following the river and sometimes crossing it and skimming across mountain lakes as if they were living speed-boats, till at last at the far end of one long lake which looked as blue as a turquoise, they saw a smooth green hill. Its sides were as steep as the sides of a pyramid and round the very top of it ran a green wall: but above the wall rose the branches of trees whose leaves looked like silver and their fruit like gold. “Farther up and farther in!” roared the Unicorn, and no one held back.
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“I was a youth on a white horse, leaping from cloud to cloud of a blue heaven, hasting calmly to some blessed goal. For centuries I dreamed—or was it chiliads? or only one long night?—But why ask? for time had nothing to do with me; I was in the land of thought—farther in, higher up than the seven dimensions, the ten senses: I think I was where I am—in the heart of God.
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