THE VISIONS OF SANE PERSONS. 523 



uniform black, subject to an occasional light-purple cloudiness and 

 other small variations. Now, however, after habituating myself to 

 examine it with the same sort of strain that one tries to decipher a 

 sign-post in the dark, I have found out that this is by no means the 

 case, but that a kaleidoscopic change of patterns and forms is continu- 

 ally going on, but they are too fugitive and elaborate for me to draw 

 with any approach to truth. My deficiencies, however, are well sup- 

 plied by other drawings in my possession. They are by the Rev. 

 George Henslow, whose visions are far more vivid than mine. His 

 experiences are not unlike those of Goethe, who said, in an often-quoted 

 passage, that, whenever he bent his head and closed his eyes and 

 thought of a rose, a sort of rosette made its appearance, which would 

 not keep its shape steady for a moment, but unfolded from within, 

 throwing out a succession of petals, mostly red, but sometimes green, 

 and that it continued to do so without change in brightness and with- 

 out causing him any fatigue so long as he cared to watch it. Mr. 

 Henslow, when he shuts his eyes and waits, is sure, in a short time, to 

 see before him the clear image of some object or other, but usually not 

 quite natural in its shape. It then begins to change from one object 

 to another, in his case, also, for as long a time as he cares to watch it. 

 Mr. Henslow has zealously made repeated experiments on himself, and 

 has drawn what he sees. He has also tried how far he is able to mold 

 the visions according to his will. In one case, after much effort, he 

 contrived to bring the imagery back to its starting-point, and thereby 

 to form what he terms a "visual cycle." The following account is 

 extracted and condensed from his very interesting letter : 



The first image that spontaneously presented itself was a cross-bow ; this 

 was immediately provided with an arrow, remarkable for its pronounced barb 

 and superabundance of feathering. Some person, but too indistinct to recognize 

 much more of him than the hands, appeared to shoot the arrow from the bow. 

 The single arrow was then accompanied by a flight of arrows from right to 

 left, which completely occupied the field of vision. These changed into falling 

 stars, then into flakes of a heavy snow-storm ; the ground gradually appeared 

 as a sheet of snow where previously there had been vacant space. Then a well- 

 known rectory, fish-ponds, walls, etc., all covered with snow, came into view 

 most vividly and clearly defined. This somehow suggested another view, im- 

 pressed on his mind in childhood, of a spring morning, brilliant sun, and a bed 

 of red tulips : the tulips gradually vanished except one;, which appeared now to 

 be isolated and to stand in the usual point of sight. It was a single tulip, but 

 became double. The petals then fell off rapidly in a continuous series until 

 there was nothing left but the pistil, but (as is almost invariably the case with 

 his objects) that part was greatly exaggerated. The stigmas then changed into 

 three branching brown horns ; then into a knob, while the stalk changed into a 

 stick. A slight bend in it seems to have suggested a center-bit ; this passed into 

 a sort of pin passing through a metal plate ; this again into a lock, and after- 

 ward into a nondescript shape, distantly suggestive of the original cross-bow. 

 Here Mr. Henslow endeavored to force his will upon the visions, and to repro- 

 duce the cross-bow, but the first attempt was an utter failure. The figure 



