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* On the night previous to this dream, Mrs Kingsford was awoke by 
a bright light, and beheld a hand holding out towards her a glass 
of foaming ale, the action being accompanied by the words, spoken 
with strong emphasis,—­” You must not drink this.”   It was not her 
usual beverage, but she occasionally yielded to pressure and took 
it when at home.   In consequence of the above prohibition she 
abstained for that day, and on the following night received this 
vision, in order to fit her for which the prohibition had apparently 
been imposed.   It was originally entitled a Vision of the World’s 
Fall, on the supposition that it represented the loss of the Intuition, 
mystically called the “Fall of the Woman,” through the sorceries 
of priestcraft.  (Ed.)
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my feet in a broad noon-day brightness, and before me an open country.  Hills, hills, as far as the eye could reach,—­hills with snow on their tops, and mists around their gorges.  This was the first thing I saw distinctly.  Then, casting my eyes towards the ground, I perceived that all about me lay huge masses of grey material which, at first, I took for blocks of stone, having the form of lions; but as I looked at them more intently, my sight grew clearer, and I saw, to my horror, that they were really alive.  A panic seized me, and I tried to run away; but on turning, I became suddenly aware that the whole country was filled with these awful shapes; and the faces of those nearest to me were most dreadful, for their eyes, and something in the expression, though not in the form, of their faces, were human.  I was absolutely alone in a terrible world peopled with lions, too, of a monstrous kind.  Recovering myself with an effort, I resumed my flight, but, as I passed through the midst of this concourse of monsters, it suddenly struck me that they were perfectly unconscious of my presence.  I even laid my hands, in passing, on the heads and manes of several, but they gave no sign of seeing me or of knowing that I touched them.  At last I gained the threshold of a great pavilion, not, apparently, built by hands, but formed by Nature.  The walls were solid, yet they were composed of huge trees standing close together, like columns; and the roof of the pavilion was formed by their massive foliage, through which not a ray of outer light penetrated.  Such light as there was seemed nebulous, and appeared to rise out of the ground.  In the centre of this pavilion I stood alone, happy to have got clear away from those terrible beasts and the gaze of their steadfast eyes.