The Cave of Spleen

 

The Cave of Spleen

 

This cave of Spleen is situated at the centre of the earth. The air is carefully shut out from the cave and it is shaded from the hateful light of the day. The only wind that always blows there is the east wind which causes fits of melancholy. The place is full of vapours which assume various forms: some are dreadful like hermit's dreams in his cells, some bright like the visions of dying virgins. of the cave is full of many funny, queer shapes which The interior represent those men and women whose weak brains lead them to fanciful ideas about themselves. There is a woman who thinking herself to be a teapot holds one arm, bending the other, another woman imagines herself as a pipkin and walks like the tripod. Under the influence of powerful fancy, men imagine themselves to be pregnant and women to have been turned into bottles calling for corks.