endure interminably, and still to be peopled with the kindly race of
man, whom I uphold to be much better than he thinks himself.
Nevertheless, I confide the whole matter to Providence, and shall
endeavor so to live that the world may come to an end at any moment
without leaving me at a loss to find foothold somewhere else."

"It is an excellent resolve," said my companion, looking at his
watch. "But come; it is the dinner-hour. Will you partake of my
vegetable diet?"

A thing so matter of fact as an invitation to dinner, even when the
fare was to be nothing more substantial than vegetables and fruit,
compelled us forthwith to remove from the Hall of Fantasy. As we
passed out of the portal we met the spirits of several persons who
had been sent thither in magnetic sleep. I looked back among the
sculptured pillars and at the transformations of the gleaming
fountain, and almost desired that the whole of life might be spent
in that visionary scene where the actual world, with its hard
angles, should never rub against me, and only be viewed through the
medium of pictured windows. But for those who waste all their days
in the Hall of Fantasy, good Father Miller's prophecy is already
accomplished, and the solid earth has come to an untimely end. Let
us be content, therefore, with merely an occasional visit, for the
sake of spiritualizing the grossness of this actual life, and
prefiguring to ourselves a state in which the Idea shall be all in
all.