has penned the most marvellous tales. That man
sacrifices himself for the delectation of others. In order to write
something for the world to rave over, he takes a dose which makes him
rave, and which ultimately kills him. Dreamaline will make this
entirely unnecessary. Instead of the writers taking hasheesh, the reader
takes Dreamaline. Instead of one man having to smoke opium for millions,
the millions take Dreamaline for themselves as individuals. I would have
the scientists, then, the chemists, study the subject carefully, decide
what quality it is in hasheesh that makes a writer conceive of these
horrible situations, put this into a nostrum, and sell it to those who
like horrible situations, and let them dream their own stories."

"Very interesting," said the Bibliomaniac, "but all readers do not like
horrible situations. We are not _all_ morbid."

"For which we should be devoutly thankful," said the Idiot. "But your
point is not well taken. On each bottle of what I should call 'Literary
Dreamaline,' to distinguish it from 'Art Dreamaline,' 'Scientific
Dreamaline,' and so on, I should have printed explicit directions
showing consumers how the dose should be modified to meet the consumer's
taste. One man likes a De Maupassant story. Let him take his Dreamaline
straight, lie down and dream. He'd get his De Maupassant story with a
vengeance. Another likes the modern story in realism--a story in which a
prize might be offered to the reader who finds a situation, an incident
in the three hundred odd pages of the book he reads. This man could take
a spoonful of Dreamaline and dilute it to his taste. A drop of
Dreamaline, which taken raw would give a man a dream like Doctor Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde, put into a hogshead of pure water would enable the man who
took a spoonful of it before going to bed to fall asleep and walk
through a three-volume novel by Henry James. Thus every man could get
what he wanted at small expense. Dreamaline for readers sold at a
dollar a quart would give every consumer as big and varied a library as
he wished, and would be a great saving to the eyes. People would have
more time for other pleasures if by taking a dose of Dreamaline before
retiring they could get all their literature in their sleeping hours.
Then every bottle would pay for itself ten times over if on awakening
the next morning the consumer would write out the story he had dreamed
and publish it for the benefit of those who were afraid