Chapter 20: The Celestial Globes

For A While, Many Thoughts Crowded My Mind, So That I Was Unable To Do Aught, Save Stare, Blindly, Before Me. I Seemed Whelmed In A Sea Of Doubt And Wonder And Sorrowful Remembrance.

It Was Later, That I Came Out Of My Bewilderment. I Looked About, Dazedly. Thus, I Saw So Extraordinary A Sight That, For A While, I Could Scarcely Believe I Was Not Still Wrapped In The Visionary Tumult Of My Own Thoughts. Out Of The Reigning Green, Had Grown A Boundless River Of Softly Shimmering Globes--Each One Enfolded In A Wondrous Fleece Of Pure Cloud. They Reached, Both Above And Below Me, To An Unknown Distance; And, Not Only Hid The Shining Of The Green Sun; But Supplied, In Place Thereof, A Tender Glow Of Light, That Suffused Itself Around Me, Like Unto Nothing I Have Ever Seen, Before Or Since.

In A Little, I Noticed That There Was About These Spheres, A Sort Of Transparency, Almost As Though They Were Formed Of Clouded Crystal, Within Which Burned A Radiance--Gentle And Subdued. They Moved On, Past Me, Continually, Floating Onward At No Great Speed; But Rather As Though They Had Eternity Before Them. A Great While, I Watched, And Could Perceive No End To Them. At Times, I Seemed To Distinguish Faces, Amid The Cloudiness; But Strangely Indistinct, As Though Partly Real, And Partly Formed Of The Mistiness Through Which They Showed.

For A Long Time, I Waited, Passively, With A Sense Of Growing Content. I Had No Longer That Feeling Of Unutterable Loneliness; But Felt, Rather, That I Was Less Alone, Than I Had Been For Kalpas Of Years. This Feeling Of Contentment, Increased, So That I Would Have Been Satisfied To Float In Company With Those Celestial Globules, Forever.

Ages Slipped By, And I Saw The Shadowy Faces, With Increased Frequency, Also With Greater Plainness. Whether This Was Due To My Soul Having Become More Attuned To Its Surroundings, I Cannot Tell--Probably It Was So. But, However This May Be, I Am Assured Now, Only Of The Fact That I Became Steadily More Conscious Of A New Mystery About Me, Telling Me That I Had, Indeed, Penetrated Within The Borderland Of Some Unthought-Of Region--Some Subtle, Intangible Place, Or Form, Of Existence.

The Enormous Stream Of Luminous Spheres Continued To Pass Me, At An Unvarying Rate--Countless Millions; And Still They Came, Showing No Signs Of Ending, Nor Even Diminishing.

Then, As I Was Borne, Silently, Upon The Unbuoying Ether, I Felt A Sudden, Irresistible, Forward Movement, Toward One Of The Passing Globes. An Instant, And I Was Beside It. Then, I Slid Through, Into The Interior, Without Experiencing The Least Resistance, Of Any Description. For A Short While, I Could See Nothing; And Waited, Curiously.

All At Once, I Became Aware That A Sound Broke The Inconceivable Stillness. It Was Like The Murmur Of A Great Sea At Calm--A Sea Breathing In Its Sleep. Gradually, The Mist That Obscured My Sight, Began To Thin Away; And So, In Time, My Vision Dwelt Once Again Upon The Silent Surface Of The Sea Of Sleep.