DREAMS. 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, oae 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 



