ood and he lives. Better, perhaps,
for me, if I had thought so long ago! And now I come back to England
with the intention of marrying, late in life though it be, and with such
hopes of happiness as any matter-of-fact man may form. But my hope will
not be at Derval Court. I shall reside either in London or its immediate
neighbourhood, and seek to gather round me minds by which I can correct,
if I cannot confide to them, the knowledge I myself have acquired."

"Nay, if, as I have accidentally heard, you are fond of scientific
pursuits, I cannot wonder, that after so long an absence from England,
you should feel interest in learning what new discoveries have been
made, what new ideas are unfolding the germs of discoveries yet to be.
But, pardon me, if in answer to your concluding remark, I venture to say
that no man can hope to correct any error in his own knowledge, unless
he has the courage to confide the error to those who can correct. La
Place has said, 'Tout se tient dans le chaine immense des verites;'
and the mistake we make in some science we have specially cultivated is
often only to be seen by the light of a separate science as specially
cultivated by another. Thus, in the investigation of truth, frank
exposition to congenial minds is essential to the earnest seeker."

"I am pleased with what you say," said Sir Philip, "and I shall be still
more pleased to find in you the very confidant I require. But what was
your controversy with my old friend, Dr. Lloyd? Do I understand our host
rightly, that it related to what in Europe has of late days obtained the
name of mesmerism?"

I had conceived a strong desire to conciliate the good opinion of a man
who had treated me with so singular and so familiar a kindness, and it
was sincerely that I expressed my regret at the acerbity with which I
had assailed Dr. Lloyd; but of his theories and pretensions I could not
disguise my contempt. I enlarged on the extravagant fallacies involved
in a fabulous "clairvoyance," which always failed when put to plain test
by sober-minded examiners. I did not deny the effects of imagination on
certain nervous constitutions. "Mesmerism could cure nobody; credulity
could cure many. There was the well-known story of the old woman tried
as a witch; she cured agues by a charm. She owned the impeachment, and
was ready to endure gibbet or stake for the truth of her talisman,--more
than a mesmerist would for the truth of his passes! And the charm