From what appeared to me to be analogous to
bright-blue ice, streams of the richest tint of rose color or purple
burst forth and flowed into basins, forming lakes or seas of the same
color. Looking through the atmosphere toward the heavens, I saw
brilliant opaque clouds, of an azure color, that reflected the light of
the sun, which had to my eyes an entirely new aspect and appeared
smaller, as if seen through a dense blue mist.
"I saw moving on the surface below me immense masses, the forms of which
I find it impossible to describe. They had systems for locomotion
similar to those of the morse, or sea-horse, but I saw, with great
surprise, that they moved from place to place by six extremely thin
membranes, which they used as wings. Their colors were varied and
beautiful, but principally azure and rose color. I saw numerous
convolutions of tubes, more analogous to the trunk of the elephant than
to anything else I can imagine, occupying what I supposed to be the
upper parts of the body. It was with a species of terror that I saw one
of them mounting upward, apparently flying toward those opaque clouds
which I have before mentioned.
"'I know what your feelings are,' said the Genius; 'you want analogies,
and all the elements of knowledge to comprehend the scene before you.
You are in the same state in which a fly would be whose microscopic eye
was changed for one similar to that of man, and you are wholly unable to
associate what you now see with your former knowledge.
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