f the mystery of
omnipresence. It is difficult to describe this sensation, or the rapidity
with which it mastered me. In the state of mental exaltation in which I
was then plunged, all sensations, as they rose, suggested more or less
coherent images. They presented themselves to me in a double form: one
physical, and therefore to a certain extent tangible; the other spiritual,
and revealing itself in a succession of splendid metaphors. The physical
feeling of extended being was accompanied by the image of an exploding
meteor, not subsiding into darkness, but continuing to shoot from its
centre or nucleus--which corresponded to the burning spot at the pit of my
stomach--incessant adumbrations of light that finally lost themselves in
the infinity of space. To my mind, even now, this image is still the best
illustration of my sensations, as I recall them; but I greatly doubt
whether the reader will find it equally clear.

My curiosity was now in a way of being satisfied; the Spirit (demon, shall
I not rather say?) of Hasheesh had entire possession of me. I was cast
upon the flood of his illusions, and drifted helplessly whithersoever they
might choose to bear me. The thrills which ran through my nervous system
became more rapid and fierce, accompanied with sensations that steeped my
whole being in unutterable rapture. I was encompassed by a sea of light,
through which played the pure, harmonious colors that are born of light.
While endeavoring, in broken expressions, to describe my feelings to my
friends, who sat looking upon me incredulously--not yet having been
affected by the drug--I suddenly found myself at the foot of the great
Pyramid of Cheops. The tapering courses of yellow limestone gleamed like
gold in the sun, and the pile rose so high that it seemed to lean for
support upon the blue arch of the sky. I wished to ascend it, and the wish
alone placed me immediately upon its apex, lifted thousands of feet above
the wheat-fields and palm-groves of Egypt. I cast my eyes downward, and,
to my astonishment, saw that it was built, not of limestone, but of huge
square plugs of Cavendish tobacco! Words cannot paint the overwhelming
sense of the ludicrous which I then experienced. I writhed on my chair in
an agony of laughter, which was only relieved by the vision melting away
like a dissolving view; till, out of my confusion of indistinct images and
fragments of images, another and more wonderful vision arose.

The more vi