Levitation 227 



had led to the discovery, would be imprudent. 

 Then the real meaning of the strange hush in 

 the street began to dawn upon me. I said to 

 myself : 



" This silence is the Silence of Dreams ; I am 

 quite well aware that this is a dream. I remem- 

 ber having dreamed the same dream before. But 

 the discovery of this power is not a dream : it is 

 a revelation! . . . Now that I have learned 

 how to fly, I can no more forget it than a swim- 

 mer can forget how to swim. To-morrow morn- 

 ing I shall astonish the people, by sailing over the 

 roofs of the town." 



Morning came ; and I woke with the fixed re- 

 solve to fly out of the window. But no sooner 

 had I risen from bed than the knowledge of phys- 

 ical relations returned, like a sensation forgotten, 

 and compelled me to recognize the unwelcome 

 truth that I had not made any discovery at all. 



This was neither the first nor the last of such 

 dreams ; but it was particularly vivid, and I there- 

 fore selected it for narration as a good example 

 of its class. I still fly occasionally, sometimes 

 over fields and streams, sometimes through 

 familiar streets; and the dream is invariably 



