w--that Beatrice Cenci was not "guilty" as
certain recently-discovered documents "prove" her, but that the Shelley
version of the affair, though a guess, is the correct one. It _is_
possible, by taking thought, to add one cubit--or say a hand, or a
dactyl--to your stature; you may develop powers slightly--very
slightly, but distinctly, both in kind and degree--in advance of those
of the mass who live in or about the same cycle of time in which you
live. But it is only when the powers to which I refer are shared by the
mass--when what, for want of another term, I call the age of the
Cultured Mood has at length arrived--that their exercise will become
easy and familiar to the individual; and who shall say what
presciences, prisms, _seances_, what introspective craft, Genie
apocalypses, shall not _then_ become possible to the few who stand
spiritually in the van of men.

'All this, you will understand, I say as some sort of excuse for
myself, and for you, for any hesitation we may have shown in loosening
the very little puzzle you have placed before me--one which we
certainly must not regard as difficult of solution. Of course, looking
at all the facts, the first consideration that must inevitably rivet
the attention is that arising from the circumstance that Viscount
Randolph has strong reasons to wish his father dead. They are avowed
enemies; he is the _fiance_ of a princess whose husband he is probably
too poor to become, though he will very likely be rich enough when his
father dies; and so on. All that appears on the surface. On the other
hand, we--you and I--know the man: he is a person of gentle blood, as
moral, we suppose, as ordinary people, occupying a high station in the
world. It is impossible to imagine that such a person would commit an
assassination, or even countenance one, for any or all of the reasons
that present themselves. In our hearts, with or without clear proof, we
could hardly believe it of him. Earls' sons do not, in fact, go about
murdering people. Unless, then, we can so reason as to discover other
motives--strong, adequate, irresistible--and by "irresistible" I mean a
motive which must be _far_ stronger than even the love of life
itself--we should, I think, in fairness dismiss him from our mind.

'And yet it must be admitted that his conduct is not free of blame. He
contracts a sudden intimacy with the acknowledged culprit, whom he does
not seem to have known before. He meets her by night, co