with it a genial warmth; odours like those of the most balmy flowers
appeared to fill the air, and the sweetest sounds of music absorbed my
sense of hearing; my limbs had a new lightness given to them, so that I
seemed to rise from the earth, and gradually mounted into the bright
luminous air, leaving behind me the dark and cold cavern, and the ruins
with which it was strewed. Language is inadequate to describe what I
felt in rising continually upwards through this bright and luminous
atmosphere. I had not, as is generally the case with persons in dreams
of this kind, imagined to myself wings; but I rose gradually and securely
as if I were myself a part of the ascending column of light. By degrees
this luminous atmosphere, which was diffused over the whole of space,
became more circumscribed, and extended only to a limited spot around me.
I saw through it the bright blue sky, the moon and stars, and I passed by
them as if it were in my power to touch them with my hand. I beheld
Jupiter and Saturn as they appear through our best telescopes, but still
more magnified, all the moons and belts of Jupiter being perfectly
distinct, and the double ring of Saturn appearing in that state in which
I have heard Herschel often express a wish he could see it. It seemed as
if I was on the verge of the solar system, and my moving sphere of light
now appeared to pause. I again heard the low and sweet voice of the
Genius, which said, "You are now on the verge of your own system: will
you go further, or return to the earth?" I replied, "I have left an
abode which is damp, dreary, dark and cold; I am now in a place where all
is life, light, and enjoyment; show me, at least before I return, the
glimpse which you promised me of those superior intellectual natures and
the modes of their being and their enjoyments." "There are creatures far
superior," said the Genius, "to any idea your imagination can form in
that part of the system now before you, comprehending Saturn, his moons
and rings. I will carry you to the verge of the immense atmosphere of
this planet. In that space you will see sufficient to wonder at, and far