Oh that I could read that most inimitable book once more
with the same solemn conviction of its literal truth, that I might
once more enjoy the same untold ecstacy!
"One other remark it seems proper to make before I proceed further to
details. The appearance, and especially the motions, of my aerial
visitors were intimately connected, either as cause or effect, I
cannot determine which, with certain sensations of my own. Their
countenances generally expressed pleasure or pain, complaisance or
anger, according to the mood of my own mind: if they moved from place
to place without moving their limbs, with that gliding motion
appropriate to spirits, I felt in my stomach that peculiar tickling
sensation which accompanies a rapid, progressive movement through the
air; and if they went off with an uneasy trot, I felt an unpleasant
jarring through my frame. Their appearance was always attended with
considerable effort and fatigue on my part: the more distinct and
vivid they were, the more would my fatigue be increased; and at such
times my face was always pale, and my eyes unusually sparkling and
wild. This continued to be the case after I became satisfied that it
was all a delusion of the imagination, and it so continues to the
present day."
It is not surprising that Mrs. Stowe should have felt herself impelled
to give literary form to an experience so exceptional.
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