A vague and dreadful sense of loss began to oppress him, a feeling of nakedness as though the soul of him were already slipping free, passing into an appalling void, leaving an appalling void behind.

He lay quite helpless and sinking, sinking--slowly, terribly sinking into an overwhelming sea of annihilation.
With all that was left of his failing strength he strove to cling to that dim light which he knew for his own individuality.

The silence and the darkness broke over him in long, soundless waves; but each time he emerged again, cold, cold as death, but still aware of self, aware of existence, albeit the world he knew had dwindled to an infinitesimal smallness, as an object very far away, and floating ever farther and farther from his ken.
Vague paroxysms of pain still seized him from time to time, but they no longer affected him in the same way.

The body alone agonized.

The soul stood apart on the edge of that dreadful sea, shrinking afraid from the black, black depths and the cruel cold of the eternal night.