bodies of dogs, and cats, and frogs, and geese, and even
insects?"

"And call you this a monstrous doctrine?"

"Monstrous!" I exclaimed with surprise--"it is the _ne plus ultra_, the
climax of fatuity, the raving of a disordered imagination."

"So you do not believe in Metempsychosis?" asked he with a smile.

"I would as soon believe in demonology, or magic. There is nothing I
would not rather credit. Kenelm Digby's sympathetic powder, the
philosopher's stone, the elixir vitae, animal magnetism, metallic
tractors, judicial astrology--anything, in fact, would more readily find
a place in my belief than this nonsensical jargon, which is credited by
nobody but the superstitious Brahmins of India. But perhaps you are a
believer?" He shrugged up his shoulders at this last remark, stroked his
chin, and, giving me a sarcastic look, said, with a familiar nod and
smile, "Yes, _I am_ a believer."

"What!" said I, "you--you with your immense learning, can _you_ put
faith in such doctrines?"

"If I put faith in them," said he, "it is my learning which has taught
me to do so. If I were less learned, I might perhaps spurn at them as
erroneous. Doubt is as often the offspring of ignorance as of credulity.
Your great doubters are generally as ill-informed as your great
believers, and much more self-conceited."

"And do you really go all the lengths of Pythagoras?" I demanded.

"I not only go all his lengths, but I go much farther. For instance, he
believed that the soul never left the body until the latter was dead.
Now, my belief is, that two living bodies may exchange souls with each
other. For instance, your soul may take possession of my body, and my
soul of yours, and both our bodies may be alive."

"In that case," said I, laughing heartily, "you would be me, and I would
be you."

"Precisely so, my dear friend," replied the little gentleman, laughing
in his turn, and concluding with a sneeze.

"Faith, my good sir," my reverence for his abilities somewhat lessened
by this declaration, "I am afraid you have lost your senses."

"I am afraid you have lost something of more importance," returned he,
with a smile, in which I thought I recognised a tinge of derision. I did
not like it, so, eyeing him with some sternness, I said hastily, "And
pray, what have I lost?" Instead of answering me, he burst into a loud
fit of laughter, holding his sides while the tears ran down his cheeks,
and he seemed half stifled with a flood o