We determin’d therefore to wait their Arrival, which was in less than a Quarter of an Hour.  They accosted me very courteously, as I could gather from their Gestures, tho’ they seem’d surprized at the Size of the Cacklogallinians.  I was not less amaz’d at the Beauty of their Persons, and the Becomingness of their Dress, either of which I can give no just Idea of.  Let it suffice, that I seem’d both in my own, and in the Eyes of the Cacklogallinians, something of the same Species, but frightfully ugly.

These People are neither a corporeal, nor an aerial Substance, but (I know not how otherwise to express my self) between both.  They spoke to me in a Language I did not understand, but the Tone of their Voices, and the Smoothness of their Syllables, were divinely harmonious.  I bow’d my Body to the Ground three times, and offer’d my Credentials, which one of them took, but by the shaking of his Head, I found understood nothing of the Contents. Volatilio then address’d himself to them, which made them look on one another, as People who hardly believed their Senses.  As I had address’d these Selenites in the Cacklogallinian Language, I had a Mind to try, if speaking in those of the Europeans (for I understood, beside my own, the French and Spanish) I should have any better Success.  I therefore spoke in English, and, to my great Joy, one of the Company answer’d me.  He ask’d me, Whether I came from the World? if so, how I durst undertake so perilous a Journey?  I told him, I would satisfy his Curiosity in answering all his Questions, but desired he would give me some Time; for I had been so terrified by Phantoms, since my Arrival, that I was hardly capable of Recollection.

While I was speaking, a Man on Horseback ran full speed upon me with a drawn Sabre, to cleave me down; but the Selenite waving his Hand, he soon vanish’d.

“You need, said he, apprehend nothing from these Shades; they are the Souls of the Inhabitants of your World, which being loos’d from the Body by Sleep, resort here, and for the short Space allotted them, indulge the Passions which predominate, or undergo the Misfortunes they fear while they are in your Globe.  Look ye, said he, yonder is a Wretch going to the Gallows, and his Soul feels the same Agony, as if it was a real Sentence to be executed on him.  Our Charity obliges us, when we see those imaginary Ills, to drive the Soul back to its Body, which we do, by waving our Hand in the Air, and the agonizing Dreamer wakes.  We do also retain them by a Virtue peculiar to the Selenites, and as they sometimes administer a great deal of Diversion, we do it for our Entertainment, which is the Reason of those long Naps of two or three Days, nay, of as many Weeks, which cause the Wonder of your World.  The Souls of your impure Dreamers never reach beyond the middle Region.  But we delay too long inviting you to our Habitations,