22 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. II. 



though destined to be a book read by none but myself at 

 most times, yet there are some who love me, and take* 

 a kind interest in me, to whom this shall not be denied, and 

 there is one to whom it will be freely given ! But besides all 

 this, it is possible and by no means improbable that no one 

 will see it during my own life, but to whom it will be of 

 great interest when I am dead ; and though I might wait to 

 see who shall be my survivors, and address them particu- 

 larly, yet the possibility of my death being a violent and 

 sudden one, preventing the arrangement of such things as 

 this, has induced me to preface this book, that those into 

 whose possession it may designedly or accidentally come, 

 may perfectly understand the cause of its being written. 



" Several evenings ago I had a curious dream, different 

 from any preceding one, both as to kind and degree. I 

 awoke in the middle of the night surrounded by deep dark- 

 ness and utter stillness. I had the most distinct sensation 

 of having been dreaming, although the precise nature of the 

 dream I could not recollect. I felt a strange indescribable 

 sensation of great happiness, evidently a continuation of the 

 feelings which had possessed me immediately before awaking, 

 and there was no evident cause to excite such lively feelings of 

 delight. I had the sensation of being alone in some great 

 hall or boundless valley, in a state of the utmost loneliness 

 and stillness imaginable, yet pervaded with a feeling of 

 intense happiness, and that happiness calm and deep, in no 

 way partaking of the character of idle mirth or careless 

 levity, but . accompanied with a feeling of the deepest 

 solemnity and reverential awe felt for some invisible being 

 of great power, to whom I had some obscure idea I was in- 

 debted for the feelings of pleasure ; but my thoughts were so 

 intent on reflecting on the curious conditions of happiness 

 that I turned my attention very slightly to the cause of their 



