art of his system. He believes in moderation in all things, sleep as
well as the contrary. He almost invariably retires before eleven, but he
rises after eight hours of rest. He considers either more or less as
deleterious to health. I am inclined to think though, if Miss Harlan
will excuse my correcting her," she continued turning to Aunt Agnes,
"that he has once or twice in his life danced the German; for he has
told me that in order to develop his theory intelligently he has been
obliged to study extremes. The happy mean cannot of course be estimated
so intelligently by one who is without personal experience of the
overmuch or undermuch he reprobates. Those are his own phrases for
expressing excess or undue limitation, and to me they seem exquisite
specimens of nomenclature. But as I was saying, Mr. Spence has in the
course of his investigations sampled, if I may so speak, almost every
sensation or series of sensations to which human nature is susceptible.
For instance, he once spent the night in a tomb, so as to experience
what he has so exquisitely styled in a poem on the subject 'the
extremity of doleful comprehension.' You were alluding to the lines only
yesterday, Miss Harlan."

"They are Miltonic in their grim power," said Aunt Agnes.

"Then again, he lived upon dog and horse during the time of the Commune
at Paris. He says it was worth the experience of an ordinary lifetime as
illustrating the crucial test of discomfort. So in like manner he has
experienced the extremes of luxury and pleasure. I have been given to
understand that he even felt it his duty to intoxicate himself upon one
occasion, in order to be able to demolish more conclusively the
arguments of either form of intemperance; for he considers total
abstinence as almost, if not quite, on a level with over indulgence.
One's instinct of course shrinks at first from the idea of a deliberate
clouding of the senses being ever pardonable, but the more one examines
the matter the more innocent does it appear; and I freely admit that I
have come to regard an offence against morals committed in the interest
of science as not only excusable, but in some cases a positive duty."

"But," said Aunt Agnes, taking up the thread of her previous remark for
my further edification, "however Mr. Spence may have conducted himself
in the past for the sake of discipline, his habits to-day are
essentially sober and serious."

"Oh, dear, yes!" exclaimed Miss Kingsley; "h