ppeared to me wholly incredible, and
as all of them were unfamiliar to my practical experience, and
could only be verified or falsified by tests that would require no
inconsiderable amount of time and care, I passed with little heed over
the pages in which they were set forth. I was impatient to arrive at
that part of the manuscript which might throw light on the mystery in
which my interest was the keenest. What were the links which connected
the existence of Margrave with the history of Sir Philip Derval? Thus
hurrying on, page after page, I suddenly, towards the end of the volume,
came upon a name that arrested all my attention,--Haroun of Aleppo. He
who has read the words addressed to mee in my trance may well conceive
the thrill that shot through my heart when I came upon that name, and
will readily understand how much more vividly my memory retains that
part of the manuscript to which I now proceed, than all which had gone
before.

"It was," wrote Sir Philip, "in an obscure suburb of Aleppo that I at
length met with the wonderful man from whom I have acquired a
knowledge immeasurably more profound and occult than that which may be
tested in the experiments to which I have devoted so large a share of
this memoir. Haroun of Aleppo had, indeed, mastered every secret in
nature which the nobler, or theurgic, magic seeks to fathom.

"He had discovered the great Principle of Animal Life, which had
hitherto baffled the subtlest anatomist. Provided only that the great
organs were not irreparably destroyed, there was no disease that he
could not cure; no decrepitude to which he could not restore vigour:
yet his science was based on the same theory as that espoused by the
best professional practitioner of medicine, namely, that the true art
of healing is to assist nature to throw off the disease; to summon, as
it were, the whole system to eject the enemy that has fastened on a
part. And thus his processes, though occasionally varying in the
means employed, all combined in this,--namely, the re-invigourating
and recruiting of the principle of life."

No one knew the birth or origin of Haroun; no one knew his age. In
outward appearance he was in the strength and prime of mature manhood;
but, according to testimonies in which the writer of the memoir
expressed a belief that, I need scarcely say, appeared to me egregiously
credulous, Haroun's existence under