4142. CONCERNING MANSIONS. I have sometimes observed in sleep that in my garden at Stockholm there were various mansions of doves near the earth with stone entrances and enclosures and chambers of beautiful construction within. I wondered that there were such things in my garden and yet I had not known it; and that at a different height [above the earth], to which it was necessary to ascend by ladders [a similar sight was to be seen], and the same also at a third elevation, where were shepherds, meadows, and groves. During the last night also I had a vivid perception in a dream of a mansion near the earth in a garden in which was a chamber that I saw, and with the tenant of which I spoke in my dream. On awaking I spoke with the spirits around me, who answered me as if being themselves in a dream. Near the earth were artisans with whom a conversation was held concerning a census. - 1749, February 16.