It was indeed a fearful sight to see the contortions,
the agonizing efforts, of the poor creatures who had been touched by
one of these awful clouds, and were dissolving and melting into it by
inches without the possibility of escape or resistance.
"This was the only visible object that had the least power over the
phantoms, and this was evidently composed of the same material as
themselves. The forms and actions of all these phantoms varied very
much with the state of my health and animal spirits, but I never could
discover that the surrounding material objects had any influence upon
them, except in this one particular, namely, if I saw them in a neat,
well furnished room, there was a neatness and polish in their form and
motions; and, on the contrary, if I was in an unfinished, rough
apartment, there was a corresponding rudeness and roughness in my
aerial visitors. A corresponding difference was visible when I saw
them in the woods or in the meadows, upon the water or upon the
ground, in the air or among the stars."
"Every different apartment which I occupied had a different set of
phantoms, and they always had a degree of correspondence to the
circumstances in which they were seen. (It should be noted, however,
that it was not so much the place where the phantoms themselves
appeared to me to be, that affected their forms and movements, as the
place in which I myself actually was while observing them.
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