I congratulated myself upon the decency with which I had composed the body and thought my friends would have little trouble on that score.

I saw a number of persons sitting and standing about the body, and particularly noticed two women apparently kneeling by my left side, and I knew that they were weeping. I have since learned that they were my wife and my sister, but I had no conception of individuality. Wife, sister or friend were as one to me. I did not remember any conditions of relationship; at least I did not think of any. I could distinguish sex, but nothing further.

I now attempted to gain the attention of the people with the object of comforting them as well as assuring them of their own immortality. I bowed to them playfully and saluted with my right hand. I passed about among them also, but found that they gave me no heed. Then the situation struck me as humorous and I laughed outright.

They certainly must have heard that, I thought, but it seemed otherwise, for not one lifted their eyes from my body. It did not once occur to me to speak and I concluded the matter by saying to myself: "They see only with the eyes of the body. They cannot see spirits. They are watching what they think is I, but they are mistaken. That is not I. This is I and I am as much alive as ever".

I turned and passed out at the open door, inclining my head and watching where I set my feet as I stepped down on to the porch.

I crossed the porch, descended the steps, walked down the path and into the street. There I stopped and looked about me. I never saw that street more distinctly than I saw it then. I took note of the redness of the soil and of the washes the rain had made. I took a rather pathetic look about me, like one who is about to leave his home for a long time. Then I discovered that I had become larger than I was in earth life and congratulated myself thereupon. I was somewhat smaller in the body than I just liked to be, but in the next life, I thought, I am to be as I desired.

My clothes, I noticed, had accommodated themselves to my increased stature, and I fell to wondering where they came from and how they got on to me so quickly and without my knowledge. I examined the fabric and judged it to be of some kind of Scotch material, a good suit, I thought, but not handsome; still, neat and good enough. The coat fits loosely too, and that is well for summer. "How well I feel," I thought. "Only a few minutes ago I was horribly sick and distressed. Then came that change, called death, which I have so much dreaded. It is past now, and here am I still a man, alive and thinking, yes, thinking as clearly as ever, and how well I feel; I shall never be sick again. I have no more to die." And in sheer exuberance of spirits I danced a figure, and fell again to looking at my form and clothes.

Suddenly I discovered that I was looking at the straight seam down the back of my coat. How is this, I thought, how do I see ray back? and I looked again, to reassure myself, down the back of the coat, or down the back of my legs to the very heels. I put my hand to my face and felt for my eyes. They are where they should be, I thought. Am I like an owl that I can turn my head half-way round? I tried the experiment and failed.

No ! Then it must be that having been out of the body, but a few moments, I have yet the power to use the eyes of my body, and I turned about and looked back in at the open door, where I could see the head of my body in a line with me. I discovered then a small cord, like a spider's web, running from my shoulders back to my body and attaching to it at the base of the neck in front.

I was satisfied with the conclusion that by means of that cord I was using the eyes of my body, and turning, walked down the street.

I had walked but a few steps when I again lost my consciousness, and when I again awoke found myself in the air, where I was upheld by a pair of hands, which I could feel pressing lightly against my sides. The owner of the hands, if they had one, was behind me, and was shoving me through the air at a swift but a pleasant rate of speed. By the time I fairly realised the situation I was pitched away and floated easily down a few feet, alighting gently upon the beginning of a narrow, but well-built roadway, inclined upward at an angle of something less than 45 degrees.

I looked up and could see sky and clouds above me at the usual height. I looked down and saw the tops of green trees and thought: It is as far down to the tree tops as it is high to the clouds.

As I walked up the road, I seemed to face nearly north. I looked over the right side of the road and under it could see the forest, but discovered naught to support the roadway, yet I felt no fear of its falling. I examined the material of which it was built. It was built of milky quartz and fine sand. I picked up one of the gravels and looked at it particularly. I distinctly remember that it had a dark speck in the centre. I brought it close to the eye and so discovered that it was a small hole apparently caused by chemical action of some metal. There had been a recent rain, and the coolness was refreshing to me. I noticed that, although the grade was steep, I felt no fatigue in walking, but my feet seemed light, and my step buoyant as the step of childhood, and as I walked I again reverted to my late condition of illness and rejoiced in my perfect health and strength. Then a sense of great loneliness came over me and I greatly desired company, so I reasoned thus: Some one dies every minute. If I wait twenty minutes the chances are great that some one in the mountains will die, and thus I shall have company. I waited, and while so doing surveyed the scenery about me.

To the east was a long line of mountains, and the forest underneath me extended to the mountains, up their sides and out on to the mountain top. Underneath me lay a forest-clad valley, through which ran a beautiful river full of shoals, which caused the water to ripple in white sprays. I thought the river looked much like the Emerald River, and the mountains, I thought, as strongly resembled Waldron's Ridge. On the left of the road was a high bluff of black stone, and it reminded me of Lookout Mountain, where the railroad passes between it and the Tennessee River. Thus memory, judgment, and imagination, the three great faculties of the mind, were intact and active.