sciences, but with the
bewildering sophistries of the school-philosophies, and their aimless
wrangling over verbal conceits.

At that time I happened to be taking a young man's first enchanting
rounds upon the tread-mill of metaphysics. At the library I often
encountered Vannelle in search of some volume of which I had just
possessed myself. This led to an acquaintance. I was soon fascinated by
a power which streamed from his large, expressive eyes, and persuaded by
a voice modulated in a pathos and sweetness that I have heard in no
other person. His influence upon me at this time was not unlike that
which the mesmerists had just begun to exercise. Yet, while he showed an
interest in directing my inquiries along the paths to which they
naturally tended, he never communicated the results of his own studies,
or offered me the slightest assistance in generalizing my random
observations. What he thought himself, or by what writers he was
influenced, it was not easy to fathom. He was deeply acquainted with the
writings of the New-England Transcendentalists, then at their greatest
notoriety, yet never for an instant seemed giddy upon the hazy heights
where those earnest spirits soared.

Vannelle spent two years in Germany, and returned to America about the
time that my college-course was finished. The little I knew of him
during his absence was from the scattered notices of
newspaper-correspondents, who intimated that Herbert possessed the
privilege of friendly intercourse with men most distinguished for
knowledge in the Old World. Just before Class-Day, I received a letter
dated from X----, in Connecticut, inviting me, in terms which seemed
almost a command, to spend the summer at the Vannelle homestead. Herbert
had returned, and thus abruptly summoned me. Intending to postpone until
the autumn the study of a profession, I promised to come to him for a
few weeks,--a visit which might be extended, were it mutually agreeable.

There was, at that time, a day of weary staging after leaving the cars,
before arriving in the village of X----; there were also six rough miles
of carriage-conveyance before the traveller could attain the old house
by the damp river-marsh whereto I was destined. When I arrived there,
Vannelle stood at the door to greet me.

"We have six months' concern together," he said, as if delivering
himself of some studied speech,--"we have six months' concern together;
then we may stand at the parting of the