from evelyn waugh

I had come to the surface, into the light of common day and the fresh sea-air, after long captivity in the sunless coral palaces and waving forests of the ocean bed.

I had left behind me--what? Youth? Adolescence? Romance? The conjuring stuff of these things, 'the Youth Magician's Compendium', that neat cabinet where the ebony wand had its place beside the delusive billiard balls, the penny that folded double, and the feather flowers that could be drawn into a hollow candle.

"I have left behind illusion," I said to myself. Henceforth I live in a world of three dimensions--with the aid of my five senses.

I have since learned that there is no such world, but then, as the car turned out of sight of the house, I thought it took no finding, but lay all about me at the end of the avenue.