d, among the hum of men, and pass
his melancholy hours longing for the night, when his spirit would be
again set free from its prison, to wander unrestrained through those
realms of space untrodden by mortal foot?"

"Never," I replied; "and if I were to meet with a man who imagined he
passed two different existences, what proof have I that his dreams are
nothing more than imagination? What proof have I that he _really does_
live two separate lives?"

"Proof such as you would desire to have I admit is difficult; but let us
suppose a case. What would you say if, in the course of a life-time's
experience, you were to find some few, very rare, cases of men as I
describe, who believe, as you would say, that their spirit during sleep
leaves the body and revels in a world of its own. That you were to read
of some few other cases of the same sort that have occurred now and then
at rare intervals since the world began, and that the written
description of that abode unknown to mortal tread, were to tally in
every particular with the descriptions you yourself received from some
of your patients?"

"Well," I replied, "I should say, either that my patients had been
reading these old legends until their brains were turned, or that it was
a malady, and, like all other maladies, was manifested by certain
special symptoms. Hence the similarity of the descriptions."

"I knew that would be your reply," he observed. "Doctor, doctor," he
continued, shaking his head, "you have a great deal to learn."

"Have you, then," I enquired, "ever met with a man of that sort?"

"I know _one_. What should you say, doctor, if I myself was one of those
men?"

"You! I should say that your imagination deluded you, that your present
ill state of health is sufficient to account for any freak of the brain,
however eccentric."

"Deluded mortal," he muttered. "Alas! by what circuitous paths do men
persistently seek for error, when the high road of Truth lies ever
before their eyes."

We discoursed upon various other topics, and I took my leave of Charles,
leaving instructions with his parents concerning the treatment of their
son, as I should not be able to call again for some days. I had to
attend a young lady in the country, the adopted daughter of a very old
friend of mine. I could not refuse to go, so I started next day by the
mail.

Charles' conversation had impressed me deeply, and I meditated upon it
as I sat perched up outside the stage-coac