e
to you and go to bed. That is what, we in our dreamy, deluded way,
really imagine is the thing that happens. What really happens (but
hist! are we observed?) is as follows.

Out of the starless night of the Uncreated, that was before the
stars, a soul begins to grope back to light. It gropes its way
through strange, half-lighted chambers of Dreams, where in a brown
and gold twilight, it sees many things that are dimly significant,
true stories twisted into new and amazing shapes, human beings whom
it knew long ago, sitting at the windows by dark sunsets, or talking
in dim meadows. But the awful invading Light grows stronger in the
dreams, till the soul in one last struggle, plunges into a body, as
into a house and wakes up within it. Then he rises and finds himself
in a wonderful vast world of white light and clear, frankly coloured
shapes, an inheritor of a million stars. On enquiry he is informed
that his name is Gilbert Keith Chesterton. This amuses him.

He goes through a number of extraordinary and fantastic rituals;
which the pompous elfland he has entered demands. The first is that
he shall get inside a house of clothing, a tower of wool and flax;
that he shall put on this foolish armour solemnly, one piece after
another and each in its right place. The things called sleevelinks he
attends to minutely. His hair he beats angrily with a bristly tool.
For this is the Law. Downstairs a more monstrous ceremony attends him.

He has to put things inside himself. He does so, being naturally
polite. Nor can it be denied that a weird satisfaction follows. He
takes a sword in his hand (for what may not befall him in so strange
a country!) and goes forth: he finds a hole in the wall, a little
cave wherein sits One who can give him the charm that rules the horse
of water and fire. He finds an opening and descends into the bowels
of the earth. Down, among the roots of the Eternal hills, he finds a
sunless temple wherein he prays. And in the centre of it he finds a
lighted temple in which he enters. Then there are noises as of an
earthquake and smoke and fire in the darkness: and when he opens the
door again he is in another temple, out of which he climbs into
another world, leagues and leagues away. And when he asks the meaning
of the vision, they talk gibberish and say, "It is a train."

So the day goes, full of ee