A third Commission was afterwards sent, who reported that they found at the spot previously reached, on either side, two vast circles, the diameter of each of which was one hundred times the height of an ordinary individual; that the material occupying space within the circle differed slightly from that without it; and that it appeared as if a vast cylinder of space had been pushed through without disturbing the matter external to it. They also reported that the former Commissioners had never approached the origin of the mischief, but had simply worked their way, at right angles, to a {416} line which might terminate in it at the distance of a thousand miles, more or less, either on the right or on the left hand of the point they had reached.
〈DISTURBED VISION.〉
At this moment a sound like the roll of distant thunder recalled me to this lower world, and interrupted my interesting communion with the world of Spirits. That noise arose from the chimes of the cathedral clock. Spending a few days at Salisbury, I had wandered into the cathedral, and being much fatigued, had selected the luxurious pew of the Dean as a place of temporary rest. Reposing on elastic cushions, with my head resting on an eider-down pillow, the vision I have related had taken place.
On removing the pillow I observed a small piece of matter beneath it. This, upon examination, turned out to be a morsel of decayed Gloucester cheese. The whole vision was now very clearly explained. The verger had evidently retired to the most commodious pew to eat his dinner, and had inadvertently left the small bit of cheese upon the very spot I had selected for my temporary repose. It was clear that my Spirit had been put, en rapport, with the soul of a mite, one of the most cultivated of his race.
If the reader will glance over the following brief explanation, he will be fully convinced that my solution of this vision is the true one.
- Parallel Passages in the Creation of the Universe and in the
Birth and Education of a Gloucester Cheese.
- References.
- a. Milk gushing into the milk-pail at the rate of twenty gushes per minute. Alternations of greater and less heat.
- b. Rennet being thrown in, the milk curdles.
- c. Curds compressed into cheese. {417}
- d. Cheese turned over daily during 121 days.
- A few minutes’ difference in the time of the dairyman’s attendance to perform this operation made the days slightly unequal.
- e. Cheese lifted up and pitched into a cart.
- f. Cheese jolted in cart during half a day on its way to to be shipped at Gloucester.
- g. Cheese pitched from cart into ship.
- h. Ship sails with the cheese for Southampton.
- i. The motion of the waves makes the mites sea-sick for three days. Multitudes die.
- j. Cheese taken from ship and pitched into a cart; as in the period e.
- k. Cheese conveyed in cart to cheesemonger at Salisbury—the mites dreadfully jolted,
- l. Cheese pitched into cheesemonger’s shop, as in e.
- m. Long period of repose of the cheese on the cheesemonger’s shelf.
- n. A cylindrical cavity made and piece taken out for a customer to taste. Portion of cylinder replaced. Air being let in, a part of the cheese becomes rotten, in which large worms are produced, giving rise to the story of the dragon.
〈EXPLANATION.〉
In order to discover the month in which the cheese was made, I remarked that, since it was turned over on its shelf in the cheese-room exactly 121 times, it must have been first placed there in some month which, together with the three succeeding months, had a number of days exactly equal to 121. {418}
〈CALCULATION.〉
I then computed the following Table:—