FANTASIA OF THE LIBRARY 91

Henceforth,
the visionary experience arises from the
black and white surface of printed signs,
from the closed and dusty volume that
opens with a flight of forgotten words.
The imaginary now resides between the
book and the lamp. Dreams are no longer
summoned with closed eyes, but in
reading; and a true image is now a pro-
duct of learning: it derives from words
spoken in the past, exact recensions,
the amassing of minute facts, monuments
reduced to infinitesimal fragments, and
the reproductions of reproductions.