A Dream of the Dead

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazines, September 1854. Signed "Hermides"
but written by Edward Bulwer Lytton.

A DREAM OF THE DEAD.

I DREAMED that I found myself suddenly in a place which impressed
me with an instantaneous sense of strangeness; it was like nothing I
had ever seen. I then became aware that my own state of feeling was
like nothing I had ever felt. It was a sensation of inexpressible
physical relief; all ailment, to which I had been familiarized, was
gone-gone all weariness, heaviness, inertment of muscle, of nerve, of
spirit. Time and its effects palpably-abruptly-lifted from me as a
load may be lifted from the shoulders of a tired and shaking man. I
was conscious of an elasticity and lightness of frame, to which that
of a vigorous schoolboy bounding into the playground can be but
inadequately compared. My first idea was that I was made young again;
my second idea, which flashed on me as conviction, made me aware that
I was dead. I said to myself, "I am dead, and amongst the dead."
With that consciousness came no awe, no fear, only the sensation of
unutterable strangeness, and a sentiment of intense curiosity. The
place in which I stood was the far end of an immense hall or chamber,--
so immense that it baffles all attempt to convey a notion of the
space. Its walls were proportionately lofty, it was without roof;
above it a dull blue sky, without cloud, without sun, moon, or stars.
Along this hall human beings, dressed as we dress in life, were
hurrying in various groups or detachments. But so vast was the place,
that while I was aware that there were millions of such beings within
the walls they appeared like tiny rivulets running on through a mighty
plain. I hastened towards one of these detachments, accosted a man,
and said, "Tell me, is it true that I am dead?"

"You are dead, of course," said the man impatiently, without
stopping. "And you, too?" I asked.

"All here are dead! We +are+ The Dead."

I caught the man by the arm, which I felt inquisitively. I
wondered to find it so material, contrary to all my preconceived
notions.

"But you are no spirit!" I said; "this arm is flesh and blood.
Can you explain?"

"Nothing is ever explained here," interrupted the man, shaking me
off. He hurried on after the rest, and disappeared within what may be
called a doorway; but there was no door. There were many openings as
for doors in the hall-none of them had doors. This also excited my
curiosity. Why no doors? I walked lightly across the floor, pleased
at the briskness of my own step, and again I accosted a fellow-inmate
on this strange place.

"I beg pardon," said I courteously, "but why is this hall left
unfinished; why no doors where these lofty openings are left?"

"Find out for your self; no explanations are given here."

"Stop one moment, I am a stranger just arrived. Many dear friend
have come here before me. Tell me, I pray, how am I to find them?"

"Find them! This is Infinity. Those who move on never return to
the same place; those who come after never catch up those who have
gone before."

"What! Shall I never even see my own mother?"

"Never. This is Eternity; once lost, for ever lost."

"But my own mother! What has become of her? Whither is she
gone?'"

"How do I know!"

"But I +shall+ overtake her," I exclaimed angrily.

"And if you do?" said the man drily, "you would not know each
other-you do not wear the same bodies as you did in life. Perhaps you
and I were intimate friends once. You do not know me now, nor I you.
No knowledge of each other amongst The dead."

The man hurried on through the opening. I was so amazed at what
he said that I awoke.

"This is the most extraordinary dream," I said to myself, when
awake. "How I wish that I could continue it!" In a few minutes I was
asleep again, and there I was-exactly in the same place in that hall
where the man had left me, near the opening. I followed a string of
passengers through that opening into a narrow corridor-the same height
of wall, the same dull blue sky overhead.

"How light it is," I said to a man in the throng, "and yet there
is no sun, and no moon, and no stars. Is it always so light here, and
is this day or is it night?"

"Neither day nor night. No day, no night, to the dead. Time
here is dead too!"

I tried in vain to keep this man in conversation. I tried in
vain to make friends with others; all answered curtly and impatiently,
shaking me off and hurrying on. What now began most to perplex me,
was the utter absence of all social intercourse. No one seemed to
talk to another; no two persons walked arm in arm. I said to
myself-"In every city on earth one stranger may accost another, and
get some information what he is to do-where he is to find a lodging.
Society seems dissolved here-every one for himself. It is well at
least that I feel so strong and so young."

I passed my hands over my limbs. Yes, I was flesh and blood.
Suddenly I began to feel hungry. This amazed me. Again I accosted
one of the throng. ""an it be true that you feel hunger here! do the
Dead know hunger?"

"Hunger! Of course; you have a body, have not you?"

"And how can one get food?"

"Find out for yourself."

"Stop, must one pay for it?"

"Pay! Of course, of course; you cannot rob The Dead." The man was
gone.

I hurried on with the hurrying throng, and began to feel in my
pockets. In my right trouser pocket I found a sovereign and twelve
shillings in silver, exactly the sum that I had in my pocket when I
went to bed the night of that dream. Again I began tom wonder, "How
did I bring this money with me, why no more? Can I get more money?
Id this all that is to provide for me throughout eternity?" Several of
the crowd now stepped before a recess in the corridor; in this recess
persons were serving out coffee, which I observed those who took paid
for. I longed for the coffee, but I was seized with a prudent
thrift. I thought, "I must not fritter away any part of so small a
sum, until I know at least how to get more." I resisted the coffee-
shops, and continued to rove on-always in a building, always in a
labyrinth of halls, and chambers, and passages. I observed that none
of them seemed formed for residence, none of them were furnished,
except here and there was a thin comfortless bench against the tall
undecorated wall. But always, always a building-always, always as
within a single immeasurable home. I was seized with an intense
longing to get out. "If I could but find my way into the fields,"
said I to myself-"if I could but wander into the country, I have been
always so fond of nature."

Again I accosted a man. "How can I get out of this building?"

"You can't get out of it, you are dead."

"Yes, I know I am dead; but I still long to see nature."

"There is no Nature here. Nature is finite-this is infinity."

"But is infinity circumscribed in this building?-no escape from
these walls? Explain."

"Explain!: interrupted the man with great anger. As if I had
uttered something wicked; "nothing is ever explained here. Wretch,
leave me." And the man broke away.

I continued to stride on through the building, always trying to
escape out of it. Miles and miles, and leagues and leagues, I went on-
always between those lofty walls, under that unchangeable sky. And I
could never get a peep into what lay beyond; for to those walls there
were no windows.

I said to myself, "If I were alive I should have dropped with
fatigue; but I feel no fatigue-not the least tired. Still, if I am to
remain here, I should like to have a quiet lodging to myself. Where
can I rest?"

So again I stopped a man-I say a man; for hitherto I had seen
only men, no women-men such as one sees every day in Oxford Street or
Cheapside. I +stopped+ a man, say I? The expression is incorrect; no
man ever stopped at my bidding, but walked on while I spoke, and only
walked faster when he escaped. And never again did I come up to the
same man. Well, then I +accosted+ a man-"What are the rules of this
place? Can one have a home as on earth?-can I have a lodging to
myself somewhere?"

"Of course you can."

"Where shall I go for one?-how am I to contrive-?"

"Find out for yourself; no one helps another here."

"But stay. I have only got about me one pound twelve. Is there
difference of fortune is this place?-are there wealth and poverty?-do
some people come with more riches than others?"

"To be sure."

"And is it as good a thing to be rich here as it is on earth?"

"Better. Poverty here is dreadful; for here none lend, and none
give."

"I left a great deal of money behind me; can't I get at it now?"

"Certainly not; you should have brought more."

"Alas! I did not know I was coming here. But I am quick and
hardworking; I could make money easily enough in the earth I came
from. Can money be made here?"

"Yes!"

"How--how?"

"Find out for yourself."

The man escaped me.

I woke a second time, revolving all I had seen in my dream, and
much struck by the prosaic and practical character of the whole. "So
very odd," I said, "that money should be of use among the dead. I
will write down this dream tomorrow morning;" and I began to impress
all its details on my memory. While so employed I fell asleep again,
and again found myself exactly in the same spot on which I had last
stood in this singular dream. I felt my pockets-only one pound twelve
still. "What a fool was I no to take advantage of my waking, and
bring more money with me!" I said with a sigh.

I now came into a desolate banquet-hall; in the midst was an
immense table, and several thousand persons were sitting down to a
feast. I observed ornaments of plate on the table, and great
profusion of wine. I approached; the table was full; there was no
room for me. And indeed, though still hungry, I had no desire to join
the banqueters. I felt as if I were not of them; no social sentiment
bound me to them. But now, for the first time, I perceived women-
women at the table. That sight gave me pleasure. I began to count
them. At first I only distinguished one or two; gradually the number
grew-so many that I ceased to count. "Well," I said, "now I shall see
something like gallantry and gaiety and affection amongst The Dead."
I was soon undeceived; people ate and drank as on earth, but without
mirth or talk-each helping himself. The men had no talk for the
women, the women had no care for the men. A dreary consciousness that
love existed not amongst The Dead came over me, and I left the banquet-
hall. I now came into another corridor, at the end of which, to my
great joy, I descried what seemed a more open space. I caught a
glimpse of green trees. A great throng was hurrying towards this
space. I pressed forward in advance of the throng, and entered first;
but I was disappointed; the space was still within the building, the
walls round it; only it resembled what the French call a +Place
d'armes.+ The trees, planted in a formal row on either side, as they
are in a +Place d'armes,+ were small, stunted, and the foliage
clipped. Looking more narrowly, I perceived that they were not real
trees, but of some painted metal; and I thought of the words, "There
is no nature here." While I was gazing on the trees, the lower end of
this court had become filled with the crowd; and suddenly; from an
opening opposite to that by which I and the crowd had entered, I heard
a regular tramp as of the quick march of soldiers, and presently a
defile of armed men came into the +Place+--so quickly that I had only
time to draw on one side to escape being trodden down. They hastened
to the upper part of the +Place,+ and formed themselves at the word of
command. Then, for the first time, I felt fear; for these soldiers
did not seem to me so human as all I had hitherto seen. There was
something preterhuman and ghastly in their aspect and their
movements. They were armed with muskets. In another moment, to my
inconceivable surprise and horror, they fired upon the crowd at the
far end, and then charged with the bayonet. They came so close by me,
that I felt one of the soldiers graze me. But I did not recede; one
the contrary, I put myself somewhat in the way of the charge. For my
predominant sentiment throughout all this dream was curiosity, and I
wished to know if I could be capable of bodily wound or bodily pain.
But the soldiers spared me, and charged only on the crowd below. In
an instant the ground was covered with victims - bruised, wounded,
groaning shrieking. This exploit performed, the soldiers departed
down the passage they had entered, as rapidly as they had marched in.

It seemed to me that I felt no pity for the crowd, and no
resentment against the soldiers. I only felt an exceeding surprise.
However, I approached the sufferers and said, "But are you sensible of
wounds, being already dead?" A man, mangled and lacerated, answered
impatiently, "yes, yes - of course."

"But still, being dead, you cannot be killed, and that is some
comfort."

I got no answer to this remark. The sufferers gathered
themselves up, no one helping the other; and, limping and groaning,
dispersed. I then addressed a man who was on of the few who were
unhurt. He was taller, of better mien, and with a less busy and
anxious expression of countenance than those I had hitherto
questioned. He gave me the idea of a person of rank.

"Sir," said I, insinuating into my manner all the polite respect
I could convey to it, "the appearance of soldiers here has startled
me; for where there are soldiers there must be Law and Government.
Hitherto I have seen no trace of either. Is there, then, a Government
in this place? Where can one see it? Where does it reside? What are
the Laws? Hoe can one avoid displeasing them?"

"Find out," answered the man, in the same form of words which had
so often chilled my questions, but in a milder voice.

"At all events, then, there is a law of brute force that prevails
here as on the earth," I said in extreme wonder.

"Yes; but on earth it is understood. Here nothing is explained."

"Can I know even why that crowd was punished; whence the soldiers
came; whither they have now gone?"

"Search - this is infinity. You have leisure enough before you;
you are in eternity."

The man was gone. I passed very timorously and very wistfully
along the passage from which the soldiers had emerged.

The object of my curiosity now was to get at the seat of that Law
of Force which was so contrary to all my preconceived opinions. I
felt a most awful consciousness of uncertainty. One might then, like
that crowd, at any time be punished; one did not know wherefore. How
act so as to avoid offence? While thus musing the atmosphere seemed
darker, and I found that I was in a very squalid part of the building;
it resembled, indeed, the old lanes and courts of St Giles's (only
still within the mansion), and infinitely more wretched.

"So then," I said, "I do see poverty here at last," and I felt
with proud satisfaction my one pound twelve. A miserable-looking lad
now was beside me. He was resting on a heap of broken rubbish.
Looking at him I observed that he was deformed, but not like any
deformity I had seen in the living. I cannot describe how the
deformity differed, except that he showed me his hands, and they were
not like human hands, but were distorted into shapeless knots and
lumps. And I said, "No wonder you are poor, for you cannot work with
those hands. Man's physical distinction from the brutes is chiefly in
the formation of his hand. Your hand is not the hand of man."

And the lad laughed, and that was the first laugh I had heard
amongst the dead.

"But are you not very unhappy?" said I in amaze.

"Unhappy! No! I am dead."

"Did you bring your infirmities with you, or did you contract
them here?'

"Here."

I was appalled.

"How! By what misfortune or what sin?'

The lad laughed again, and jumping off his block of rubbish,
sidled away, mocking at me as he went with a vulgar gesture.

"Catch me at explaining," said he, and was lost.

Now a sort of despair, but an intellectual despair, seized me. I
say intellectual, for with all my amaze and all my sense of solitude
in that crowd, I never felt sad nor unhappy; on the contrary I kept
constantly saying to myself, "After all it is a great thing to have
done with life - And to feel so well and so young!" But my intellect
oppressed me; it was in my way; my curiosity was so intense, my
perplexities so unsolved, even by conjecture.

I got out of the squalid part of the building; and in a small
lobby I encountered a solitary being like myself. I joined him.

I said, "You and I seem both alone in this vast space. Can we
not explore it in company?'

"Certainly not; my way is not your way, nor yours mine. No two
have the same paths through infinity."

"But," said I, angrily, "I always understood on the earth, that
when we left it we should come into a region of spirits. Where are
the angels to guide us? I see them not. I have seen poverty and
suffering, and brute force. But of blessed spirits above mankind, I
have beheld none. And if this be infinity, such spirits must be
here."

"Find them out for yourself then, as I must find them out for
myself. This is my way, that is yours."

"One word more; since I cannot discover those who have gone
before me, whom I loved, I will wait for some one whom I have left on
earth, and he will be my companion, for he will be as strange to this
place as I am, and will want a friend, as I want some one. Tell me
where I can watch and see the dead come here from life."

"Yes, +that+ I can tell you. There are plenty of places in which
you will see the dead drop down - there is such a place close by. You
see that passage; take it, and go straight on."

I did as the man told me. I came to an open space always between
blind walls, but the other wall seemed far loftier, soaring up, and
soaring up, till the dull blue sky that rested on it appeared
immeasurably remote.

And down at my feet from this wall dropped a man. "You are one
of the dead," said I, approaching anxiously, "just left the world of
the living?"

He seemed bewildered for a moment; at last he answered, rubbing
his eyes, and in a kind of dreamy voice, "Yes, I am dead."

"Let us look at each other," said I; "perhaps we were friends in
life."

We did look at each other without recognition. But, indeed, as I
had been told, not amongst the myriads I had met, had I recognized one
being I had ever known on earth.

"Well," said I, "this is the strangest place! There is no getting
on in it alone; no one will put you into the way of things. Let you
and I be friends now, whatever we were before. Take my arm; we cannot
fail to be more comfortable, if we keep together."

The man, who seemed half asleep, took my arm, and we went on
together. I was very much pleased and exceedingly proud to have found
at last a companion. I told him of all I had witnessed and
experienced, of all my doubts and perplexities. He listened with very
little interest or attention, still I was glad that I had got him safe
by the arm.

"I don't think that it is such a bad place," said I, "if one
could once get into he way of it. But the first thing is to find a
lodging to ourselves; and are you not hungry? I am. By the by, what
money have you brought with you?"

Thereon my man looked at me suspiciously, and extricating himself
from my arm, broke off; and though I hastened to follow him, he was
lost in the infinity, and I felt that I was once more amidst infinity
- dead and alone.

So I awoke, and I wrote down this dream just as it happened; and
attempting no explanation, for no explanation was given to me.