ersecution? Of what nature
were the studies he had cultivated, and the discoveries he boasted to
have made?

When he was about sixteen, Philip Derval had begun to read the many
mystic books which the library contained; but without other result
on his mind than the sentiment of disappointment and disgust. The
impressions produced on the credulous imagination of childhood vanished.
He went to the University; was sent abroad to travel: and on his return
took that place in the circles of London which is so readily conceded to
a young idler of birth and fortune. He passed quickly over that period
of his life, as one of extravagance and dissipation, from which he was
first drawn by the attachment for his cousin to which his letter to
Strahan referred. Disappointed in the hopes which that affection had
conceived, and his fortune impaired, partly by some years of reckless
profusion, and partly by the pecuniary sacrifices at which he had
effected his cousin's marriage with another, he retired to Derval Court,
to live there in solitude and seclusion. On searching for some old
title-deeds required for a mortgage, he chanced upon a collection of
manuscripts much discoloured, and, in part, eaten away by moth or damp.
These, on examination, proved to be the writings of Forman. Some of
them were astrological observations and predictions; some were upon the
nature of the Cabbala; some upon the invocation of spirits and the magic
of the dark ages. All had a certain interest, for they were interspersed
with personal remarks, anecdotes of eminent actors in a very stirring
time, and were composed as Colloquies, in imitation of Erasmus,--the
second person in the dialogue being Sir Miles Derval, the patron and
pupil; the first person being Forman, the philosopher and expounder.

But along with these shadowy lucubrations were treatises of a more
uncommon and a more startling character,--discussions on various occult
laws of nature, and detailed accounts of analytical experiments. These
opened a new, and what seemed to Sir Philip a practical, field of
inquiry,--a true border-land between natural science and imaginative
speculation. Sir Philip had cultivated philosophical science at the
University; he resumed the study, and tested himself the truth of
various experiments suggested by Forman. Some, to his surprise, proved
successful, some wholly failed. These lucubrations first tempted the
writer of the memoir towards the studies in which the r