ring him I had no thought of turning his music to
the account of a "vulgar utility." It was quite by accident. After
suffering several days very much with the toothache, I resolved to get
rid of the cause of sorrow by the aid of ether; not sorry, either, to
try its efficacy, after all the marvellous stories I had heard.
The first time I inhaled it, I did not for several seconds feel the
effect, and was just thinking, "Alas! this has not power to soothe
nerves so irritable as mine," when suddenly I wandered off, I
don't know where, but it was a sensation like wandering in long
garden-walks, and through many alleys of trees,--many impressions, but
all pleasant and serene. The moment the tube was removed, I started
into consciousness, and put my hand to my cheek; but, sad! the
throbbing tooth was still there. The dentist said I had not seemed to
him insensible. He then gave me the ether in a stronger dose, and this
time I quitted the body instantly, and cannot remember any detail of
what I saw and did; but the impression was as in the Oriental tale,
where the man has his head in the water an instant only, but in his
vision a thousand years seem to have passed. I experienced that same
sense of an immense length of time and succession of impressions;
even, now, the moment my mind was in that state seems to me a far
longer period in time than my life on earth does as I look back upon
it. Suddenly I seemed to see the old dentist, as I had for the
moment before I inhaled the gas, amid his plants, in his nightcap
and dressing-gown; in the twilight the figure had somewhat of a
Faust-like, magical air, and he seemed to say, "_C'est inutile._"
Again I started up, fancying that once more he had not dared to
extract the tooth, but it was gone. What is worth, noticing is the
mental translation I made of his words, which, my ear must have
caught, for my companion tells me he said, "_C'est le moment_," a
phrase of just as many syllables, but conveying just the opposite
sense.

Ah! I how I wished then, that you had settled, there in the United
States, who really brought this means of evading a portion of the
misery of life into use. But as it was, I remained at a loss whom to
apostrophize with my benedictions, whether Dr. Jackson, Morton, or
Wells, and somebody thus was robbed of his clue;--neither does Europe
know to whom to address her medals.

However, there is no evading the heavier part of these miseries. You
avoid the moment of