son. The abstraction has been
so brief, and the cause of it is so dimly defined, that the mind is
oblivious of what has occurred, except that, as the diverted
hemisphere again takes cognizance of its previous thoughts, and again
recognizes the environment of the present, the phenomenon of a dual
experience is noted. Of course the scene is identically the same as
that which is remembered, because it is the same scene. And the
previous experience will impress the individual as having occurred
long ago, in exact proportion to the date of that circumstance to
which one hemisphere has reverted.

Therefore, Leon did not, at this time, speculate upon the mystery,
which he thought he understood, but he welcomed the advent of a
long-sought opportunity, to trace out the cause of such an
abstraction, so fleeting in its nature.

He was occupied thus, for half an hour, but at length believed that he
had analyzed the experience. The turning-point, at which he had been
diverted, was when he first recognized Venus. And now he remembered
that occasion when he had gone upon a journey. Away from his home for
the first time in his life, he felt many sensations which I need not
record here. But one amusement had been to sit at night studying the
stars, and from them fixing the position of the buildings on the home
farm, in relation to those where he was then abiding. One evening,
when watching Venus, then the evening star, he was looking across a
pool of water, and trying to imagine himself back on Massabesic, with
the same planet setting behind the western hill, when, turning his
head, he saw a young and beautiful girl standing near him. As his eyes
abandoned the planet for the woman, he was startled by the thought
that the goddess had been re-embodied. A moment later, the girl asked
him for some information relating to the nearest way to her home,
which he gave, and she walked on. He had never seen her since, nor had
he thought of her again. But now, having analyzed his thoughts and
traced them back from the star to that girl, her face thus summoned
seemed to take the place of the planet in the heavens, and to gaze
down upon him with an assuring smile, which somehow made him feel that
the future might hold something for him after all.

What that something might be, he did not even try to guess. Therefore,
you must not adopt the conclusion that Leon thus suddenly fell in love
with a girl whose face had been seen by him but once. No idea