• almost as imposing and interesting as truth For a person of Walton's scientific pretensions, this is a remarkable phrase. As
    with other statements in these paragraphs, it bears a poised ambiguity in its significance,
    both justifying the super-natural as a realm of imaginative vision and casting doubt
    on its actual efficacy. Truth is, after all, here an unmodifiable standard by which
    all visionary comparisons are to be judged.