he should be guilty of so cheap a quip in the midst of
a serious discussion, astounded me.

* * * * *

The eternity of forms. It is ridiculous. Yet is there a strange magic in
the words. If it be true, then has he not ceased to exist. Then does he
exist. This is impossible.

* * * * *

I have ceased exercising. As long as I remain in the room, the
hallucination does not bother me. But when I return to the room after an
absence, he is always there, sitting at the desk, writing. Yet I dare
not confide in a physician. I must fight this out by myself.

* * * * *

He grows more importunate. To-day, consulting a book on the shelf, I
turned and found him again in the chair. This is the first time he has
dared do this in my presence. Nevertheless, by looking at him steadily
and sternly for several minutes, I compelled him to vanish. This proves
my contention. He does not exist. If he were an eternal form I could not
make him vanish by a mere effort of my will.

* * * * *

This is getting damnable. To-day I gazed at him for an entire hour
before I could make him leave. Yet it is so simple. What I see is a
memory picture. For twenty years I was accustomed to seeing him there at
the desk. The present phenomenon is merely a recrudescence of that
memory picture--a picture which was impressed countless times on my
consciousness.

* * * * *

I gave up to-day. He exhausted me, and still he would not go. I sat and
watched him hour after hour. He takes no notice of me, but continually
writes. I know what he writes, for I read it over his shoulder. It is
not true. He is taking an unfair advantage.

* * * * *

Query: He is a product of my consciousness; is it possible, then, that
entities may be created by consciousness?

* * * * *

We did not quarrel. To this day I do not know how it happened. Let me
tell you. Then you will see. We sat up late that never-to-be-forgotten
last night of his existence. It was the old, old discussion--the
eternity of forms. How many hours and how many nights we had consumed
over it!

On this night he had been particularly irritating, and all my nerves
were screaming. He had been maintaining that the human soul was itself a
form, an eternal form, and that the light within his br