Published in 1887, A Vision of the Past is a dream related in the first person narrative style. On a "sultry afternoon in July" the unnamed narrator decides to sit down beneath a tree, after "toiling along a straight and exceedingly dusty road" for a respite from the heat and drudgery of the road. After falling asleep, the narrator dreams that he goes back into Earth's primordial past, where he sees a reptilian creature with three eyes, walking along the bank of a large lake in he shadow of a volcano. Soon, more of these creatures appear and the first begins a "philosophic discourse" with them relating on how they are the superior creatures who will reign over the earth forever. Knowing better, the narrator foolishly rushes into their midst and informs them that, on the contrary, will become extinct and are there only to prepare the way for the creatures who come after them, who in turn, will prepare the way for the creatures who come after them, and so on until the way is made for human beings, of which the narrator is a prime example. The creatures rush at the narrator, ready to devour him, and he makes a successful effort to wake up.
This story could be seen as a commentary on man's own egocentric sense of his immortal self, in that our society, thinking it is the most advanced in history and the future, thinks it will go on being so and that nothing better will ever come along to surpass its achievements; unless a creature that is further advanced than we are comes along, as the narrator in this story does, to educate us on our misguided sense of superiority.
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