general surmises about this large body. I could see the flames they had discovered, and could watch for myself many of the processes they had recognised by means of ingenious devices on a less than microscopic scale. The great glowing orb, though nine feet in diameter, was turning steadily round-a fact which my minute friends had known a long time before. Or rather I should say that the minute race of beings had known the fact for a long time, since the existence of these creatures was quite ephemeral, and even as my dream proceeded, though it appeared only to last a few days, many of these reasoning but to any thick sight invisible' creatures had been born, lived out their lives, and died.

Then I looked round on the dark space which surrounded me on all sides. I could perceive, but only as two points of light, the small globe on which were the little creatures so wonderful in understanding, and the smaller body which moved round it. But I could see also other small bodies. Not very far from me was one which was very brightly illuminated by the large glowing body. It was much smaller than the globe I had first seen, though larger than its companion. It was moving more quickly, and I could perceive that it was moving round the bright body at a distance of rather more than a hundred yards. Nearly twice as far away from the flaming central body I saw another globe, about one inch in diameter like the first, though from my present central position it looked larger and very much brighter. And

at a distance, about half as great again as that of the small globe first seen, I saw a body rather more than half an inch in diameter, and of a somewhat ruddy colour. I paid a visit to this small body, which was travelling, I found, at a distance of about five hundred yards from the great glowing body. It was a pretty little object, with greenish markings between the red parts which gave this body its ruddy aspect.

I could now see that, yet farther away-in fact, more than half a mile from the bright central body—there were many very small objects, little more than grains of powder they seemed to me, travelling in a sort of ring around the glowing body I had left.

My dream was not yet over, however. For I presently perceived yet other bodies, travelling at greater distances. About a mile from the central body was a globe much larger than any I had yet seen, except of course the fireglobe three yards in diameter which seemed set as a sort of ruler over these small orbs. The body now seen was fully ten inches in diameter. It was beautifully coloured, being striped with red and yellow and purple and brown belts, which seemed to me to owe their regularity of arrangement to the rapid turning of this body. It will seem surprising, if anything in a dream can be surprising, that although this globe was ten inches in diameter while the globe first examined was but one inch in diameter, yet the larger globe was turning round much more quickly, making, in fact, five complete turns while the smaller

made but two, for I tried both with a stop watch, and am therefore able to speak positively.

A singular circumstance about this large globe was that around it there were moving four little bodies, the largest being only about a third of an inch in diameter. These moved at distances of 2 feet, 4 feet, 7 feet, and 12 feet from the ten-inch globe on which they seemed to attend. These little bodies, though no larger than peas, formed to my judgment a pretty little scheme, their motions in particular being singularly regular and very nicely adjusted.

But nearly twice as far away from that great glowing orb three feet in diameter, which I now began to regard as far the largest body I was likely to see, I found a most remarkable system. There was a globe about 8 inches in diameter, and striped with belts much like the larger one I had just left, only it was of a more sombre tint on the whole. Around this globe there was a set of flat rings not touching the globe anywhere, though in some unseen way they were so associated with it as to accompany it unceasingly. These rings, regarded as a single system, had a span of upwards of twenty inches, and a breadth of nearly four inches. But there were several of them, unequally bright, and on a closer survey I could perceive that they were made up of a multitude of tiny grains each pursuing its own career as if journeying around the globe which was within the ring.

Even this, however, was not all. For this globe,

besides this curious little system of rings, had, like the globe before visited, a family of small bodies travelling round it at different distances. There were no less than eight of these tiny orbs. I noted that the sixth in order of distance outwards was nearly half an inch in diameter, and travelled at a distance of about 8 feet. The outermost of all, though not nearly so large-in fact, little more than a quarter of an inch in diameter-was distinguished by the wide span of its circular path, which lay at a distance of more than twenty-four feet from the centre of the ringed globe!

I was now about two miles from the great glowing mass, which looked very small because of its great distance. I could perceive, however, that farther away-some four miles from the glowing orb-there was another of the small globes, and though I did not visit it, my increased powers of vision enabled me to perceive that it was about four inches in diameter, and had four small bodies travelling round it. Yet farther away, some six miles from the central fire-globe, there was another orb of about the same size as the one just mentioned, and having only one small body attending upon it, or at least only one such body that I could perceive.

I now returned in my dream to the small body which I had first seen, and found the tiny reasoning creatures which I had watched before still continuing busily at work, collecting food, building houses, making roads, undertaking voyages, and--alas, poor little creatures!--quarrelling

among themselves, and engaging in combats by which thousands of their number were destroyed. I found that many of the matters I had ascertained during my journeyings were quite as well known to the more studious of these beings as to myself. In this power of learning facts about objects so far away from them the tiny creatures seemed to me to be very wonderfully gifted. I was, however, rather surprised to find that some among them. prided themselves as much on these powers as though in some way they had acquired them by their own exertions or goodness. To note the ways of some of these creatures -which to my vision seemed so insignificant and in fact contemptible, while they were manifestly very weak and short-lived—one would have supposed they had been mighty enough to construct not only their own little abodes, but the great nine-feet fire-globe which stood at the centre of the whole scheme of globes I had visited, as well as all these globes and the systems attending upon them. I was preparing to rebuke their folly, proposing in my dream to show them how wretchedly small and weak they were, and how little reason they had to pride themselves even on their certainly wonderful knowledge, since the more they learned the more clearly they ought to recognise their own insignificance: I was about, I say, to enter upon much wise discourse on this subject and kindred matters-not failing, in particular, to show them how very much stronger and greater I was than theywhen to my annoyance and disgust I found all my dimen