ind that in certain cases of nervous
debility a substance like nitric acid is efficacious, it is because
the nitric acid has a virtue in locking up, as it were, the nervous
energy,--that is, preventing all undue waste. Again, in some cases of
what is commonly called feverish cold, stimulants like ammonia assist
Nature itself to get rid of the disorder that oppresses its normal
action; and, on the same principle, I apprehend, it is contended that
a large average of human lives is saved in those hospitals which
have adopted the supporting system of ample nourishment and alcoholic
stimulants."

"Your medical learning surprises me," said I, smiling; "and without
pausing to notice where it deals somewhat superficially with disputable
points in general, and my own theory in particular, I ask you for the
deduction you draw from your premises."

"It is simply this: that to all animate bodies, however various, there
must be one principle in common,--the vital principle itself. What if
there be one certain means of recruiting that principle; and what if
that secret can be discovered?"

"Pshaw! The old illusion of the mediaeval empirics."

"Not so. But the mediaeval empirics were great discoverers. You sneer at
Van Helmont, who sought, in water, the principle of all things; but Van
Helmont discovered in his search those invisible bodies called gases.
Now the principle of life must be certainly ascribed to a gas.(1) And
what ever is a gas chemistry should not despair of producing! But I can
argue no longer now,--never can argue long at a stretch; we are wasting
the morning; and, joy! the sun is up! See! Out! come out! out! and greet
the great Lifegiver face to face."

I could not resist the young man's invitation. In a few minutes we
were in the quiet lane under the glinting chestnut-trees. Margrave was
chanting, low, a wild tune,--words in a strange language.

"What words are those,--no European language, I think; for I know a
little of most of the languages which are spoken in our quarter of the
globe, at least by its more civilized races."

"Civilized race! What is civilization? Those words were uttered by men
who founded empires when Europe itself was not civilized! Hush, is it
not a grand old air?" and lifting his eyes towards the sun, he gave vent
to a voice clear and deep as a mighty bell! The air was grand; the words
had a sonorous swell that suited it, and they seemed to me jubilant and
yet solemn. He stopped abrup