lay till another movement of the
corpse took it off. I would have shut the lids of the protruding orbs
that stood fixed in my head, if I had had any power; but I could not--my
whole face being swollen, and the muscles as rigid as if in death. I was
thus compelled to receive the vision into my mind; and the touch seemed
to cling to the decaying sensibilities, as if it formed a part of them.
It is impossible that my sufferings could have lasted many minutes
longer if the air tubes had been entirely closed; but, as if it had been
determined by the stern fates that I should be suspended for a length of
time between life and death, there were kept up, at almost regular
intervals, two or three whizzing sounds of the entangled and obstructed
apparatus--an indication that small supplies of air were at these
moments thrown in upon me. It was only these sounds, the dodging of the
pale-green corpse, the touches of its cold skin, the light of its glazed
eye, the dark figures of my two companions, and the general gloom of the
bell, relieved slightly by the greenish-hued yolks of glass, that I was
sensible of perceiving. The internal workings of my mind seemed to have
ceased. I had scarcely any consciousness of a conception--the whole
cerebral functions concerned in thought and feeling being limited to
undefined sensation, that had only some connection with the power of
external perception.

Even this partial state of consciousness had died gradually away, for,
during a short period, I was totally beyond the reach of the power of
any external object. There is a blank in my recollection of these
touches and visions, which, though scarcely at the time coming within
the province of mind, have since been the most vivid perceptions ever
treasured up in my memory. Yet that period of all but total death was no
relief to me. The dim hazy vision of all around me dawned again, like
the shadowy renovations of a fearful dream that has sunk in sleep, and
risen again as the troubled fancy regained a portion of its activity.
These indistinct shadows of consciousness, as they came in the wake of
the physical power that felt the quickening influence of another draft
of air, carried more insufferable sensations in their dark forms than
had accompanied my more distinct perceptions. They were mere filmy
traces, broken and unconnected--exhibiting to me sometimes only the
darkness of the bell, sometimes the mere face; occasionally limited to
the eye alone