208 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



"Thus far shalt thou go: here is absolute demarcation." 



The final utterance: 



"There is only I." 



In the Monthly Notices of the R. A. S., 11-48, there is a letter 

 from the Rev. W. Read: 



That, upon the 4th of September, 1851, at 9.30 a. m., he had 

 seen a host of self-luminous bodies, passing the field of his telescope, 

 some slowly and some rapidly. They appeared to occupy a zone 

 several degrees in breadth. The direction of most of them was 

 due east to west, but some moved from north to south. The num- 

 bers were tremendous. They were observed for six hours. 



Editor's note: 



"May not these appearances be attributed to an abnormal state 

 of the optic nerves of the observer?" 



In Monthly Notices, 12-38, Mr. Read answers that he had been 

 a diligent observer, with instruments of a superior order, for about 

 28 years "but I have never witnessed such an appearance before." 

 As to illusion he says that two other members of his family had 

 seen the objects. 



The Editor withdraws his suggestion. 



We know what to expect. Almost absolutely in an existence 

 that is essentially Hibernian we can predict the past that is, 

 look over something of this kind, written in 1851, and know what 

 to expect from the Exclusionists later. If Mr. Read saw a mi- 

 gration of dissatisfied angels, numbering millions, they must merge 

 away, at least subjectively, with commonplace terrestrial phenom- 

 ena of course disregarding Mr. Read's probable familiarity, of 28 

 years' duration, with the commonplaces of terrestrial phenomena. 



Monthly Notices, 12-183: 



Letter from Rev. W. R. Dawes: 



That he had seen similar objects and in the month of September 

 that they were nothing but seeds floating in the air. 



In the Report of the British Association, 1852-235, there is a 

 communication from Mr. Read to Prof. Baden-Powell: 



That the objects that had been seen by him and by Mr. Dawes 

 were not similar. He denies that he had seen seeds floating in the 

 air. There had been little wind, and that had come from the sea, 

 where seeds would not be likely to have origin. The objects that 

 he had seen were round and sharply defined, and with none of the 

 feathery appearance of thistle down. He then quotes from a letter 

 from C. B. Chalmers, F. R. A. S., who had seen a similar stream, 



