self as
an eagle among the children of men, soaring on high, and looking down
with pity and contempt on the grovelling creatures below.

As I thus wended my way, I beheld a young man of a mysterious
appearance coming towards me. I tried to shun him, being bent on my own
contemplations; but he cast himself in my way, so that I could not well
avoid him; and, more than that, I felt a sort of invisible power that
drew me towards him, something like the force of enchantment, which I
could not resist. As we approached each other, our eyes met and I can
never describe the strange sensations that thrilled through my whole
frame at that impressive moment; a moment to me fraught with the most
tremendous consequences; the beginning of a series of adventures which
has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it.
That time will now soon arrive, sooner than anyone can devise who knows
not the tumult of my thoughts and the labour of my spirit; and when it
hath come and passed over, when my flesh and my bones are decayed, and
my soul has passed to its everlasting home, then shall the sons of men
ponder on the events of my life; wonder and tremble, and tremble and
wonder how such things should be.

That strange youth and I approached each other in silence, and slowly,
with our eyes fixed on each other's eyes. We approached till not more
than a yard intervened between us, and then stood still and gazed,
measuring each other from head to foot. What was my astonishment on
perceiving that he was the same being as myself! The clothes were the
same to the smallest item. The form was the same; the apparent age; the
colour of the hair; the eyes; and, as far as recollection could serve
me from viewing my own features in a glass, the features too were the
very same. I conceived at first that I saw a vision, and that my
guardian angel had appeared to me at this important era of my life; but
this singular being read my thoughts in my looks, anticipating the very
words that I was going to utter.

"You think I am your brother," said he; "or that I am your second self.
I am indeed your brother, not according to the flesh, but in my belief
of the same truths, and my assurance in the same mode of redemption,
than which I hold nothing so great or so glorious on earth."

"Then you are an associate well adapted to my present state," said I.
"For this time is a time of great rejoicing in spirit to me. I am on my
way to return thank