Instead, he stood in the very center of the floor, or at least poised
somewhere above it, for he could see at a glance, without turning, all
that the room contained. He directed his attention--for it was this,
rather than sight, through which he perceived--to the piano, the
chiffonier, the chairs, the two doors, the curtained windows; and
finally, with scarcely even a touch of surprise, to himself still sunk
in the chair before the fire. He regarded himself with pleased
interest, remembering even in that instant that he had never before
seen himself with closed eyes....
All in the room was extraordinarily vivid and clear-cut. It was true
that the firelight still wavered and sank again in billows of soft
color about the shadowed walls, but the changing light was no more an
interruption to the action of that steady medium through which he
perceived than the movement of summer clouds across the full sunlight.
It was at that moment that he understood that he saw no longer with
eyes, but with that faculty of perception to which sight is only
analogous--that faculty which underlies and is common to all the
senses alike.
His reasoning powers, too, at this moment, seemed to have gone from
him like a husk.
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