, as if we were ascending a winding staircase, we found
ourselves, after a time, in the midst of a large dense cloud, and our
motion ceased.

By degrees the mist seemed to clear away, and I beheld a curious
phenomenon. I stood firmly, as if upon the solid earth, yet when I
looked above me the earth appeared over my head, whilst the sky seemed
under my feet.

"What is the reason," I asked, "that in this planet or aerial dwelling
of spirits, the laws of nature are reversed?"

"Your vision only is reversed," replied my guide, "because not being as
yet entirely freed from the body, your spirit savours too much of clay
to be in harmony with the spirits of this sphere. Everything in the
spiritual world is a type, and has a hidden meaning. As the sky is a
type of heaven, so the earth we tread is a type of material things. The
reason you see the earth above your head and the sky beneath your feet,
is that you as yet place material things above spiritual things. It is
difficult for you, as a mortal, to do otherwise, and therefore your
vision is distorted. I can, however, while I am with you, communicate a
portion of my being to you, sufficient for you to see objects as they
really are."

He then touched my forehead, grasping my temples between his finger and
thumb, when a new sensation came over me. It seemed as if I had been
suddenly lifted with the rapidity of lightning a mile or two higher in
the air, although my guide assured me that I had never moved from the
spot I was standing on. I appeared to breathe more freely, and
experienced a most exhilarating feeling of buoyancy, with an intense and
boundless expansion of mind.

The sky was now above my head and the earth beneath my feet, as in our
world. I found myself surrounded by a beautiful landscape that would
baffle all my descriptive powers to give any adequate idea of. Trees,
beautiful and curious, bearing fruit of gold, silver, or precious
stones, and of ferns that I had never seen in the world. Hills and
valleys of rich luxuriance, crags, waterfalls, lakes with islands,
magnificent palaces of the purest white marble in a style of
architecture truly sublime. Human forms, surpassingly beautiful, of both
sexes and of all ages crossed me at intervals, from blooming and
laughing infancy to hoary but hale old age, each stage of life bearing a
marked beauty of its own. Everyone seemed happy, and no one idle,
although the occupations of some were of a quiet, meditative so