“Sweet friends! this isle is full of mysteries,” he said.  “I have dreamed of wondrous things.  After I had laid me down, thought pressed hard upon me.  By my eyes passed pageant visions.  I started at a low, strange melody, deep in my inmost soul.  At last, methought my eyes were fixed on heaven; and there, I saw a shining spot, unlike a star.  Thwarting the sky, it grew, and grew, descending; till bright wings were visible:  between them, a pensive face angelic, downward beaming; and, for one golden moment, gauze-vailed in spangled Berenice’s Locks.

“Then, as white flame from yellow, out from that starry cluster it emerged; and brushed the astral Crosses, Crowns, and Cups.  And as in violet, tropic seas, ships leave a radiant-white, and fire-fly wake; so, in long extension tapering, behind the vision, gleamed another Milky-Way.

“Strange throbbings seized me; my soul tossed on its own tides.  But soon the inward harmony bounded in exulting choral strains.  I heard a feathery rush; and straight beheld a form, traced all over with veins of vivid light.  The vision undulated round me.

“’Oh!  Spirit!! angel! god! whate’er thou art,’—­I cried, ’leave me; I am but man.’

“Then, I heard a low, sad sound, no voice.  It said, or breathed upon me,—­’Thou hast proved the grace of Alma:  tell me what thou’st learned.’

“Silent replied my soul, for voice was gone,—­’This have I learned, oh! spirit!—­In things mysterious, to seek no more; but rest content, with knowing naught but Love.’

“‘Blessed art thou for that:  thrice blessed,’ then I heard, and since humility is thine, thou art one apt to learn.  That which thy own wisdom could not find, thy ignorance confessed shall gain.  Come, and see new things.’

“Once more it undulated round me; its lightning wings grew dim; nearer, nearer; till I felt a shock electric,—­and nested ’neath its wing.

“We clove the air; passed systems, suns, and moons:  what seem from Mardi’s isles, the glow-worm stars.

“By distant fleets of worlds we sped, as voyagers pass far sails at sea, and hail them not.  Foam played before them as they darted on; wild music was their wake; and many tracks of sound we crossed, where worlds had sailed before.

“Soon, we gained a point, where a new heaven was seen; whence all our firmament seemed one nebula.  Its glories burned like thousand steadfast-flaming lights.

“Here hived the worlds in swarms:  and gave forth sweets ineffable.

“We lighted on a ring, circling a space, where mornings seemed forever dawning over worlds unlike.

“‘Here,’ I heard, ’thou viewest thy Mardi’s Heaven.  Herein each world is portioned.’

“As he who climbs to mountain tops pants hard for breath; so panted I for Mardi’s grosser air.  But that which caused my flesh to faint, was new vitality to my soul.  My eyes swept over all before me.  The spheres were plain as villages that dot a landscape.  I saw most beauteous forms, yet like our own.  Strange sounds I heard of gladness that seemed mixed with sadness:—­a low, sweet harmony of both.  Else, I know not how to phrase what never man but me e’er heard.