English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
I had been pondering the elements that go to the making of the human
entity, and more particularly that new aspect of the theory of the
etheric body which presents it as a visible, ponderable, tangible,
highly organised, but almost incredibly tenuous, form of matter. From
that I slid to the consideration of the possibility of some essence
still more remote from our conception of the gross material of our
objective experience; and then for a moment I held the idea of the
imperceptible transition from this ultimately dispersing matter to
thought or impulse--from the various bodies, etheric, astral, mental,
causal, or Buddhistic, to the free and absolute Soul.
I suppose that at this point I fell asleep. I was not aware of any
change of consciousness, but I cannot otherwise explain the fact
that in an instant I was transported from an open place in the North
of London, and from all this familiar earth of ours, to some planet
without the knowledge of the dwellers in the solar system.
This amazing change was accomplished without the least shock. It was,
indeed, imperceptible. The new world upon which I opened my eyes
appeared at first sight to differ in no particular from that I had so
recently left. I saw below me a perfect replica of the Hampstead Garden
Suburb. The wind blew from the east with no loss of its characteristic
quality. The occasional people who passed had the same air of tired
foreboding and intense preoccupation with the miserable importance
of their instant lives, that has seemed to me to mark the air of
the middle-classes for the past few weeks. Also it was, I thought,
beginning to rain.
I shivered and decided that I might as well go home. I felt that it was
not worth while to travel a distance unrecordable in any measure of
earthly miles, only to renew my terrestrial experiences. And then, by
an accident, possibly to verify my theory that it was certainly going
to rain, I looked up and realised at once the unspeakable difference
between that world and our own.
For on this little earth of ours the sky makes no claim on our
attention. It has its effects of cloud and light occasionally, and
these effects no doubt may engage at times the interest of the poet or
the artist. But to us, ordinary people, the sky is always pretty much
the same, and we only look at it when we are expecting rain. Even then
we often shut our eyes.
In that other world which revolves round a sun so distant that the
light of it has not yet reached the earth the sky is quite different.
Things happen in it. As I looked up, for instance, I saw a great door
open, and out of it there marched an immense procession that trailed
its glorious length across the whole width of heaven. I heard no sound.
The eternal host moved in silent dignity from zenith to horizon. And
after the procession had passed the whole visible arch of the sky
was parted like a curtain and there looked out from the opening the
semblance of a vast, intent eye.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account