DEEAMS. 99 



yet in all this there seems to us at the time, to be no 

 violation of natural laws, nothing strange or mysteri- 

 ous. We recall them to our waking memory, and 

 wonder how it could be, that even in sleep, we did 

 not detect their impossibility. Why, and how is this ? 

 Does the spirit leave for a time its prison-house, and 

 wander, in fact, in a new and real world ? Are the 

 things we dream of, sober realities, existent as those 

 we see while in our waking hours ? Are there many 

 worlds, one within or around another, between which 

 the spirit and the body vascillate ? When the body 

 sinks to slumber, does the spirit, in truth, visit other 

 worlds, participating in their scenes, mingling with 

 other beings, and holding converse with other intel- 

 ligences ? Who can tell ? 



As I slumbered upon that bed of boughs that 

 night, strange visions passed before me. I was away 

 in a new world, and yet all that I saw was familiar ; 

 nothing seemed strange to me. I was among beings 

 that I seemed to know ; not men and women, but 

 rather the spirits of men and women; not as those 

 that had died, and whose bodies were mouldering 

 in the grave, they had form, but not substance ; 

 shadows that moved and spoke; that seemed formed 



