Dreams. 101 



talions. I saw the flashing of swords, as vast squad- 

 rons of horsemen mowed down the flying foe. I 

 heard the groans of the wounded, and the wild shrieks 

 of the dying. I passed unharmed through the con- 

 flicting hosts, looking upon the dying and the dead. 

 Wherever I chose to be, at once I was there. How I 

 passed I know not, — the fact alone I remember. As 

 my body was intangible, it was unaffected by the ele- 

 ments. Fire would not burn it; water would not 

 drown it. I could walk on the bottom of the ocean, 

 with a thousand fathoms of water above me. I could 

 plunge into the volcano's seething cauldron. Eocks 

 would not crush me, and precipices, down which I 

 plunged, were harmless as the level plain. Such a 

 being was I, and such were those around me. Shad- 

 ows, mere intellectualities, existing palpably to the 

 vision, having form and comehness, but unfettered 

 and unconfined by a fleshly body. Of such a body, 

 it seemed to me, I had never heard, save in the wild 

 theories of some metaphysical dreamer. Its existence 

 was a subject of derision, and those who upheld its 

 reality were regarded as idle visionaries, — nay, as pro- 

 fane rejectors of philosophical truths. 



"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream." 



