to yield place to the pictures which then began to come out in
succession, dimly at first, then strong and clear as actual scenes.

First I beheld a beautiful woman, with the sweetest face and most
perfect form conceivable. She was dwelling in a cave among the
hills with her husband, and he, too, was beautiful, more like an
angel than a man. They seemed perfectly happy together; and their
dwelling was like Paradise. On every side was beauty, sunlight,
and repose. This picture sank into the wall as the writing had done.
And then came out another; the same man and woman driving together
in a sleigh drawn by reindeer over fields of ice; with all about
them glaciers and snow, and great mountains veiled in wreaths of
slowly moving mist. The sleigh went at a rapid pace, and its
occupants talked gaily to each other, so far as I could judge by
their smiles and the movement of their lips. But, what caused me
much surprise was that they carried between them, and actually in
their hands, a glowing flame, the fervor of which I felt reflected
from the picture upon my own cheeks. The ice around shone with
its brightness. The mists upon the snow mountains caught its gleam.
Yet, strong as were its light and heat, neither the man nor the
woman seemed to be burned or dazzled by it. This picture, too,
the beauty and brilliancy of which greatly impressed me, sank and
disappeared as the former.

Next, I saw a terrible looking man clad in an enchanter's robe,
standing alone upon an ice-crag. In the air above him, poised like
a dragonfly, was an evil spirit, having a head and face like that
of a human being. The rest of it resembled the tail of a comet,
and seemed made of a green fire, which flickered in and out as though
swayed by a wind. And as I looked, suddenly, through an opening