distance behind him. So shall it be with us when we wake from this dream
of life into the truer life beyond, and find all our present notions of
being thrown back as into a dim vapoury region of dreamland, where yet
we thought we knew, and whence we looked forward into the present. This
must be what Novalis means when he says: "Our life is not a dream; but
it may become a dream, and perhaps ought to become one."

And so I look back upon the strange history of my past, sometimes asking
myself: "Can it be that all this has really happened to the same _me_,
who am now thinking about it in doubt and wonderment?"




III

THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY

By THOMAS HARDY


"There was something very strange about William's death--very strange
indeed!" sighed a melancholy man in the back of the van. It was the
seedman's father, who had hitherto kept silence.

"And what might that have been?" asked Mr Lackland.

"William, as you may know, was a curious, silent man; you could feel
when he came near 'ee; and if he was in the house or anywhere behind you
without your seeing him, there seemed to be something clammy in the air,