. Aye,
as aptly this, as the other. Miserable child of doubt, how art thou
beset! Let the vain pedant prate of his philosophy, let the soldier
boast his valor, the learned scholar his scepticism, and the worldling
laugh his scorn, yet do they each and all yield homage to this belief.
There comes a time of honest self-confession, of secret meditation to
all, and then the boding spirit rises to his proper mastery: then does
instinct smother argument: then do the darkness of the midnight hour,
the howling wind, the rush of the torrent, the lonesomeness of the
forest and the field, shake the strong nerves; and the feeble, pigmy
man, trembles at his own imaginings."

In such a strain did Lindsay nurse his doubting superstition; and by
these degrees was it that his mind soothed itself down into a calmer
tone of resignation. In proportion as this fanciful and distempered
philosophy inclined his reflection towards the belief of preternatural
influences, it suggested excuses for Mildred's seeming contumacy, and
inculcated a more indulgent sentiment of forbearance in his future
intercourse with her.

Towards the confirmation of this temper an ordinary incident, which, at
any other time, would have passed without comment, now contributed. A
storm had arisen: the day, towards its close, had grown sultry, and had
engendered one of those sudden gusts which belong to the summer in this
region. It came, without premonition, in a violent tornado, that rushed
through the air with the roar of a great cataract. Lindsay had scarcely
time to retreat to the cover of the porch, before the heavy-charged
cloud poured forth its fury in floods of rain. The incessant lightnings
glittered on the descending drops, and illuminated the distant landscape
with more than the brilliancy of day. The most remote peaks of the
mountain were sheeted with the glare; and the torrents that leaped down
the nearer hill-sides sparkled with a dazzling radiance. Peal after
peal of abrupt and crashing thunder roared through the heavens, and
echoed with terrific reverberations along the valleys. Lindsay gazed
upon this scene, from his secure cover, with mute interest, inwardly
aroused and delighted with the grand and sublime conflict of the
elements, in a spot of such wild and compatible magnificence: the solemn
and awful emotions excited by these phenomena were exaggerated by the
peculiar mood of his mind, and now absorbed all his attention. After a
brief interval, th