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lady of the house, being seated near her. As I had seen both one and the other get into a carriage, and set out from the château, I was much surprised at now perceiving them before me. Terror united itself to astonishment; I let go the tapestry, and, leaving the chamber, quickly descended the staircase.

"Upon meeting with the housekeeper, she remarked some alteration in my face, and asked me what was the matter. I told her all about it. She honestly assured me that I had been dreaming, and that the marchioness and my father would not return for more than an hour. I would fain have discredited her assurance, and stood fixed near the door of her room, until at length I saw them arrive. My trouble was not a little increased at the sight; for the present, however, I said nothing to my father; but when, after supper, he would have sent me to bed before him, all the selfcollection which I could muster on the occasion was to allow myself to be conducted out of his presence. Yet I waited for him to accompany me into our chamber, for I was unwilling to re-enter it but along with him. He was astonished, therefore, upon retiring, to find that I had lingered. He failed not to ask me what was the cause of it; and, after some vain excuses, I confessed to him that I was terrified, because spirits had appeared in the chamber. He derided my fear, and demanded of me to whom I was indebted for such foolish tales. I then told him my adventure; which he no sooner heard, than, intent upon undeceiving me, I was conducted by him to the granaries, or rather to the garrets to which the staircase led. It was then made known to me that these

garrets were not fit to be store-rooms for corn,-that there was actually none there, and that there never had been any. Upon my return, as I followed close to my father, he asked me to point out the place where I had lifted up the tapestry and seen the room open. I searched for it in all directions to shew him, but in vain. I could find no other door in the four walls of our chamber than that which led from the staircase.

"Events so opposite to what I had believed could be the case, alarmed me still more, and I imagined from what I had heard related of goblins,* that some of them had caused these illusions in order to abuse my senses. My father then insisted that such alleged freaks of spirits were mere fables,-more fabulous even than those of Æsop or of Phædrus, adding, that the truth was, I had slept while writing; that I had dreamt during my sleep all which I now believed I had heard and seen, and that the conjoined influence of surprise and fear having acted on my imagination, had caused the same effect upon it as would have been produced by truth itself. I had difficulty at the time to assent to this reasoning; but was obliged to acknowledge it in the end as very just.-Observe, however, how strong the impression of this dream was. I think candidly, that if the vision had not been falsified by all the circumstances which I have just noted, I should, even at this time, have received it for a truth."

The foregoing illusion scarcely requires comment.

* In the original, esprits follets.

There can be little doubt but that it was a proper waking impression, and not a dream, as the youth was reluctantly led to suppose by his father.

These remarks conclude my general view of the comparative degrees of vividness subsisting among sensations and ideas, during their successive states of excitement and depression.

The laws which we have been considering may, indeed, be applied to the solution of far more important questions than those which belong to the subject of spectral impressions. While a knowledge of them may materially assist the physician in his treatment of the mental afflictions to which our humanity is liable, the moral philosopher may likewise discover, in the same laws, certain very important principles influencing human actions and conduct, upon which doctrines of the highest value to the science of ethics may be securely built.

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