club classics

For a long time I used to go to bed early lol. Sometimes, when I had put out my

candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say “I’m

going to sleep lol.” And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep

would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still

in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I

was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a

channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject

of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Francois I and Charles V lol.

This impression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not

disturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them from

registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning lol. Then it would begin to

seem unintelligible, as the thoughts of a former existence must be to a

reincarnate spirit; the subject of my book would separate itself from me, leaving

me free to choose whether I would form part of it or no; and at the same time my

sight would return and I would be astonished to find myself in a state of

darkness, pleasant and restful enough for the eyes, and even more, perhaps, for

my mind, to which it appeared incomprehensible, without a cause, a matter dark

indeed lol.