be practicable and easy for two persons to converse from shore to shore
across the Atlantic without any intervening medium, he would have been
laughed at as a possibly amusing but certainly extravagant romancer.
Yet that picturesque lie of yesterday is amongst the accomplished facts
of today! Therefore I am encouraged to ask your indulgence, in the name
of your previous errors, for the following and any other instances in
which I may appear to trifle with strict veracity. There is no such
thing as the impossible in our universe!

When my friendly companion found I could not understand him, he looked
serious for a minute or two, then shortened his brilliant yellow toga,
as though he had arrived at some resolve, and knelt down directly in
front of me. He next took my face between his hands, and putting his nose
within an inch of mine, stared into my eyes with all his might. At first
I was inclined to laugh, but before long the most curious sensations took
hold of me. They commenced with a thrill which passed all up my body,
and next all feeling save the consciousness of the loud beating of my
heart ceased. Then it seemed that boy's eyes were inside my head and not
outside, while along with them an intangible something pervaded my brain.
The sensation at first was like the application of ether to the skin--a
cool, numbing emotion. It was followed by a curious tingling feeling,
as some dormant cells in my mind answered to the thought-transfer, and
were filled and fertilised! My other brain-cells most distinctly felt
the vitalising of their companions, and for about a minute I experienced
extreme nausea and a headache such as comes from over-study, though both
passed swiftly off. I presume that in the future we shall all obtain
knowledge in this way. The Professors of a later day will perhaps keep
shops for the sale of miscellaneous information, and we shall drop in
and be inflated with learning just as the bicyclist gets his tire pumped
up, or the motorist is recharged with electricity at so much per unit.