Page 90 - 1931 Hartridge

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Academic Prize Essay
PHANTASMIA
C'LIMBKIt)he long, mellow beam of the setting sun.
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Up and up I went X
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into a golden glow so silent that clear, pure notes of music drifted from X the Great Beyond. The glow melted into a fairylike structure whose ex­ quisitely proportioned pillars went up into a blue space of wonderful X arches. Down long aisles of misty purple I walked. And then, without X
knowing how, I was in a lofty, circular room with a black-domed ceiling.
The entire wall was lined from floor to roof with hooks bound in lovelv X colors. The workmanship of the books was like none I had ever seen, so X
intricate was it and so delicately designed. whose depths I seemed to sink forever.
effort to gain all knowledge in the world.
dred years; all body had left me, and I had almost reached the Buddhist
state of nothingness when suddenly the whole room was filled with the knell-like tones of a great bell. The black dome receded to an infinite dis­ tance, and the sound of the bell overwhelmed and drowned me. Powder-
less, I looked up to see living sheets of violet, orange, blue, and silver. The colors danced and leapt in fantastic shapes. 'Gradually all shades melted into silver, and the silver itself blended into a beautiful country of
lake and island. The water, still as in the land of the dead, dimly shone under a pale moon. A castle stood high up on the crest of the largest island, a grim castle glistening like steel from its battlements. Willows
etched against the light were like shimmering veils of waterfalls. Four­ teen swans swam silently on the water. And then, with a beating of wings, they rose one after another into the air and poured forth from their throats melody rising higher and higher. My soul flew up with them, and
I uttered sublime poetry which increased in beauty with their music. The song reached a final height and ceased. I found myself lying in bed vainly trying to remember the lovely verses composed on that far-off shore.
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I sat down in an armchair into There I read and studied in an
I must have been buried a hun­
i\I. A. L., '31.
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