with the fervor of his imagination, even Henry, I believe, felt his soul
lifted to unaccustomed heights. We hung upon his lips, and, without a
word, waited for him to continue. Presently he murmured, in an undertone:

"Yes, all this I foresaw in my dream. A world of crystal, houses that
seemed not made with hands, reaching toward heaven, and a people,
beautiful beyond compare, dwelling in the aerial home of birds"; and
then, addressing us, in his ordinary tones: "You will see that the
capital, which we are unquestionably approaching, is to a large extent
composed of this airy architecture."

And it turned out to be as he had said--when, indeed, was it ever
otherwise? As we drew nearer, the aerial structures which we had first
seen began to tower up to an amazing height, just perceptibly swaying and
undulating with the gentle currents of air that flowed through their
traceried lattices, while behind them began to loom an immense number of
floating towers, rising stage above stage, like the steel monsters of New
York before they have received their outer coverings, but incomparably
lighter in appearance, and more delicate and graceful; truly fairy
constructions, bespangled with countless brilliant points. Yet nearer,
and we could see cables attached to the higher structures, and running
downward as if anchored to the ground beneath, but the ground itself we
could not see, because now we had dropped lower in the air, and a long
hill rose between us and the fairy towers, whose slight sinuous motion,
affecting so many together, produced a trifling sense of dizziness as we
gazed. Still nearer, and we believed that we could see people in the
buoyant towers. A minute later there was no doubt about their presence,
for the _colors_ broke forth, and that marvelous interchange of chromatic
signals, which had so astonished us as we drew near the coast, was
resumed.