from
their greyness and sameness, I would often drift in opiate peace through
the valley and the shadowy groves, and wonder how I might seize them for
my eternal dwelling-place, so that I need no more crawl back to a dull
world stript of interest and new colours. And as I looked upon the
little gate in the mighty wall, I felt that beyond it lay a
dream-country from which, once it was entered, there would be no return.

So each night in sleep I strove to find the hidden latch of the gate in
the ivied antique wall, though it was exceedingly well-hidden. And I
would tell myself that the realm beyond the wall was not more lasting
merely, but more lovely and radiant as well.

Then one night in the dream-city of Zakarion I found a yellowed papyrus
filled with the thoughts of dream-sages who dwelt of old in that city,
and who were too wise ever to be born in the waking world. Therein were
written many things concerning the world of dream, and among them was
lore of a golden valley and a sacred grove with temples, and a high wall
pierced by a little bronze gate. When I saw this lore, I knew that it
touched on the scenes I had haunted, and I therefore read long in the
yellowed papyrus.

Some of the dream-sages wrote gorgeously of the wonders beyond the
irrepassable gate, but others told of horror and disappointment. I knew
not which to believe, yet longed more and more to cross forever into the
unknown land; for doubt and secrecy are the lure of lures, and no new
horror can be more terrible than the daily torture of the commonplace.
So when I learned of the drug which would unlock the gate and drive me
through, I resolved to take it when next I awaked.

Last night I swallowed the drug and floated dreamily into the golden
valley and the shadowy groves; and when I came this time to the antique
wall, I saw that the small gate of bronze was ajar. From beyond came a
glow that weirdly lit the giant twisted trees and tops of the buried
temples, and I drifted on songfully, expectant of the glories of the
land from whence I should never return.

But as the gate swung wider and the sorcery of drug and dream pushed me
through, I knew that all sights and glories were at an end; for in that
new realm was neither land nor sea, but only the white void of unpeopled
and illimitable space. So, happier than I had ever dared hope to be, I
dissolved again into that native infinity of crystal oblivion from which
the daemon Life had called me for