creatures living there, and witnessing a thousand other things too
strange and wonderful to mention?

I invite you to listen as I tell a condensed story of a number of worlds
which I have visited, all within the boundary line of our own universe.
I cannot even tell a tithe of what I saw and heard, but must content
myself with giving a passing view of a thousand worlds, some of which
are situated in a very distant corner of our universe.

Well you may ask: "How could you travel from world to world and see the
various forms of human life, and then remain alive to tell a part of the
marvelous tale?"

If it is a mystery to you, it is also a mystery to me. I cannot describe
the pinions that carried me, nor tell whence came the strength that
moved my wings, any more than I can explain by what process I was
preserved alive in worlds of fire, in worlds of ice, and in worlds
without air. But the sight of all these things was as real to me as the
dreams of the night, and it must be admitted that dreams are often as
realistic as the acts of our wakeful moments.

For many years I looked outward toward the starry firmament, and at
times a deep yearning possessed me to speed away to converse with the
inhabitants of other spheres.

This hope I cherished so strongly that my thoughts completely
overpowered me, and ere I knew it I was living at the mercy of
indescribable emotions. All this continued during many revolutions of
the Earth on its axis. I felt as Columbus must have felt when he was
moving over strange waters. Then occurred the most notable event of my