My Library

sense of pointless perpetuity, for the pages were not read.) As a child, between four and five, while playing with his toys: "Suddenly a subtle change would come over the room, though everything looked the same... . I could only explain it to my small self by saying that 'things went wrong'.... When 'things went wrong', whether by daylight or lamplight, the light changed in a way similar to that described in the dream of the Double... the lamplight and firelight would grow dim, while another light—golden and coming seemingly from nowhere — filled the room." Another contingency of his childhood is, I think, of real significance. "Sometimes, just before falling asleep," he writes, "I would see through my closed eyelids a number of small mistyblue or mauve vibrating circles. Now I should describe this structure as somewhat resembling a mass of frog's eggs, and only just on the border-line of visibility. At first these circles would be empty, but soon a tiny grinning face, with piercing steel-blue eyes, would appear in each circle, and I would hear a chorus of mocking voices saying very rapidly, as though in tune with the vibration: 'That is it, you see! That is it, you see I' "Always they said the same thing, but I have never been able to trace the origin of these words or to fathom their meaning, if any. And, as the appearance of these faces always heralded a particularly nasty nightmare, I grew to dread their coming. "This state of things persisted for two or three years, though it must be remembered that it was only at irregular intervals of several weeks that I was able to see these circles; and then came a quite inexplicable happening. The vibrating circles appeared, empty at first, and lo and behold, they became filled with little glass ink-pots! And there was no nightmare!