For my part I was greatly surprised by this sally, for I could not understand how he could know of the arrival of a person of whom we had received no news.
"Assuredly", said I, "you have just seen him in a dream."
"If you call a dream", said he, "that which your soul can see as certainly as your eyes the day when it shines, I confess it."
"But", I cried, "is it not a dream to think that Monsieur Descartes, whom you have not seen since you left the world of the Earth, is three leagues from here, because you have imagined it?"
As I spoke the last syllable we saw Descartes arrive. Campanella at once ran to embrace him. They talked together at length, but I could not attend to their mutual expressions of regard, so much did I burn to learn from Campanella the secret of his divination. That philosopher, reading my passion upon my face, related the incident to his friend and begged him to agree to his informing me. M. Descartes replied with a smile and my learned preceptor discoursed to this effect:
"There are exhaled from all bodies elements, that is to say, corporeal images which fly in the air. Now, in spite of their movement, these images always preserve the shape, the colour and all the other proportions of the object whereof they speak; but since they are very subtle and very fine they pass through our organs without causing any sensation there; they go straight to the soul, where they make an impression, because its substance is so delicate, and thus they cause it to see very distant things, which the senses cannot perceive; and this is an ordinary occurrence here, where the mind is not involved in a body formed of gross matter, as in your world. We will tell you how this happens, when we have had leisure fully to satisfy the desire we both have to converse together; for, assuredly, you fully deserve that we should show you the greatest favour."[89]
Gonsales' Voyage to the Moon