it is a testing-ground , a vale of suffering and temptation , to separate the sheep who will follow the shepherd of heavenly truth out of the valley of worldly lusts into the mountains of snowy purity and the eternal forms , from the blind goats who prefer bondage to the material world and its idolatrous images , said faunus , the oldest hermit , whose long hollow-cheeked face and drunken eyes ( thought calibur ) did indeed resemble a goats .