MS-WU-MSS008-2-47

[1265] arises again as to which floor I am on, there is nothing to be
gained by my saying I am in a basement if there are tiers of
basements one on top of another. [1266] But the noises that I say rise
up from below, the steps that I say come climbing towards me, do
they really do so? [1267] I have no proof that they do. [1268] To conclude
from this that I am a prey to hallucinations pure and simple is
however a step I hestitate^[₰] to take.

[1269] And I honestly believe that
in this house there are people coming and going and even con-
versing, and multitudes of fine babies, particularly of late,
which the parents keep moving about from one place to another,
to prevent their forming the habit of motionlessness, with a view
to the day when they will have to move about unaided. [1270] But all
things considered I would be hard set to say for certain where
exactly they are, in relation to where exactly I am.

[1271] [^{start here} ][^[]And when all
is said and done there is nothing more like a step that climbs
than a step that decs^scends or even that paces to and fro forever on
the same level, I mean for one not only in ignorance of his positi
position and consequently of what he is to expect, in the way of
sounds, but at the same time more than half-deaf more than half
the time.

[1272] There is naturally another possibility that does not
escape me, though it would be a great disappointment to have it
corroborated, and that is that I am dead already and that all con-
tinues more or less as when I was not. [1273] Perhaps I expired in the
fi^[⁁]o[^o]rest, or even earlier. [1274] In which case all the trouble I have been
taking for some time past, for what purpose I do not clearly recall
except that it was in some way connected with the feeling that