Green Tea............................................................................................................................................................1

J. Sheridan LeFanu ...................................................................................................................................1

Through carefully educated in medicine and surgery, I have never practiced either. The study of each

continues, nevertheless, to interest me profoundly. Neither idleness nor caprice caused my secession from the

honorable calling which I had just entered. The cause was a very trifling scratch inflicted by a dissecting

knife. This trifle cost me the loss of two fingers, amputated promptly, and the more painful loss of my health,

for I have never been quite well since, and have seldom been twelve months together in the same place.

In my wanderings I became acquainted with Dr. Martin Hesselius, a wanderer like myself, like me a

physician, and like me an enthusiast in his profession. Unlike me in this, that his wanderings were voluntary,

and he a man, if not of fortune, as we estimate fortune in England, at least in what our forefathers used to

term "easy circumstances." He was an old man when I first saw him; nearly fiveandthirty years my senior.

In Dr. Martin Hesselius, I found my master. His knowledge was immense, his grasp of a case was an

intuition. He was the very man to inspire a young enthusiast, like me, with awe and delight. My admiration

has stood the test of time and survived the separation of death. I am sure it was wellfounded.

For nearly twenty years I acted as his medical secretary. His immense collection of papers he has left in my

care, to be arranged, indexed and bound. His treatment of some of these cases is curious. He writes in two

distinct characters. He describes what he saw and heard as an intelligent layman might, and when in this style

of narrative he had seen the patient either through his own halldoor, to the light of day, or through the gates

of darkness to the caverns of the dead, he returns upon the narrative, and in the terms of his art and with all

the force and originality of genius, proceeds to the work of analysis, diagnosis and illustration.

Here and there a case strikes me as of a kind to amuse or horrify a lay reader with an interest quite different

from the peculiar one which it may possess for an expert. With slight modifications, chiefly of language, and

of course a change of names, I copy the following. The narrator is Dr. Martin Hesselius. I find it among the

voluminous notes of cases which he made during a tour in England about sixtyfour years ago.

It is related in series of letters to his friend Professor Van Loo of Leyden. The professor was not a physician,

but a chemist, and a man who read history and metaphysics and medicine, and had, in his day, written a play.

The narrative is therefore, if somewhat less valuable as a medical record, necessarily written in a manner

These letters, from a memorandum attached, appear to have been returned on the death of the professor, in

1819, to Dr. Hesselius. They are written, some in English, some in French, but the greater part in German. I

am a faithful, though I am conscious, by no means a graceful translator, and although here and there I omit

some passages, and shorten others, and disguise names, I have interpolated nothing.

The Rev. Mr. Jennings is tall and thin. He is middleaged, and dresses with a natty, oldfashioned,

highchurch precision. He is naturally a little stately, but not at all stiff. His features, without being

I met him one evening at Lady Mary Haddock's. The modesty and benevolence of his countenance are

We were but a small party, and he joined agreeably enough in the conversation, He seems to enjoy listening

very much more than contributing to the talk; but what he says is always to the purpose and well said. He is a

great favourite of Lady Mary's, who it seems, consults him upon many things, and thinks him the most happy

The Rev. Mr. Jennings is a bachelor, and has, they say sixty thousand pounds in the funds. He is a charitable

man. He is most anxious to be actively employed in his sacred profession, and yet though always tolerably

well elsewhere, when he goes down to his vicarage in Warwickshire, to engage in the actual duties of his

sacred calling, his health soon fails him, and in a very strange way. So says Lady Mary.

There is no doubt that Mr. Jennings' health does break down in, generally, a sudden and mysterious way,

sometimes in the very act of officiating in his old and pretty church at Kenlis. It may be his heart, it may be

his brain. But so it has happened three or four times, or oftener, that after proceeding a certain way in the

service, he has on a sudden stopped short, and after a silence, apparently quite unable to resume, he has fallen

into solitary, inaudible prayer, his hands and his eyes uplifted, and then pale as death, and in the agitation of a

strange shame and horror, descended trembling, and got into the vestryroom, leaving his congregation,

without explanation, to themselves. This occurred when his curate was absent. When he goes down to Kenlis

now, he always takes care to provide a clergyman to share his duty, and to supply his place on the instant

When Mr. Jennings breaks down quite, and beats a retreat from the vicarage, and returns to London, where,

in a dark street off Piccadilly, he inhabits a very narrow house, Lady Mary says that he is always perfectly

well. I have my own opinion about that. There are degrees of course. We shall see.

Mr. Jennings is a perfectly gentlemanlike man. People, however, remark something odd. There is an

impression a little ambiguous. One thing which certainly contributes to it, people I think don't remember; or,

perhaps, distinctly remark. But I did, almost immediately. Mr. Jennings has a way of looking sidelong upon

the carpet, as if his eye followed the movements of something there. This, of course, is not always. It occurs

now and then. But often enough to give a certain oddity, as I have said, to his manner, and in this glance

A medical philosopher, as you are good enough to call me, elaborating theories by the aid of cases sought out

by himself, and by him watched and scrutinized with more time at command, and consequently infinitely

more minuteness than the ordinary practitioner can afford, falls insensibly into habits of observation, which

accompany him everywhere, and are exercised, as some people would say, impertinently, upon every subject

There was a promise of this kind in the slight, timid, kindly, but reserved gentleman, whom I met for the first

time at this agreeable little evening gathering. I observed, of course, more than I here set down; but I reserve

I may remark, that when I here speak of medical science, I do so, as I hope some day to see it more generally

understood, in a much more comprehensive sense than its generally material treatment would warrant. I

believe the entire natural world is but the ultimate expression of that spiritual world from which, and in which

alone, it has its life. I believe that the essential man is a spirit, that the spirit is an organized substance, but as

different in point of material from what we ordinarily understand by matter, as light or electricity is; that the

material body is, in the most literal sense, a vesture, and death consequently no interruption of the living

man's existence, but simply his extrication from the natural bodya process which commences at the

moment of what we term death, and the completion of which, at furthest a few days later, is the resurrection

The person who weighs the consequences of these positions will probably see their practical bearing upon

medical science. This is, however, by no means the proper place for displaying the proofs and discussing the

In pursuance of my habit, I was covertly observing Mr. Jennings, with all my cautionl think he perceived

itand I saw plainly that he was as cautiously observing me. Lady Mary happening to address me by my

name, as Dr. Hesselius, I saw that he glanced at me more sharply, and then became thoughtful for a few

After this, as I conversed with a gentleman at the other end of the room, I saw him look at me more steadily,

and with an interest which I thought I understood. I then saw him take an opportunity of chatting with Lady

Mary, and was, as one always is, perfectly aware of being the subject of a distant inquiry and answer.

This tall clergyman approached me byandby; and in a little time we had got into conversation. When two

people, who like reading, and know books and places, having traveled, wish to discourse, it is very strange if

they can't find topics. It was not accident that brought him near me, and led him into conversation. He knew

German and had read my Essays on Metaphysical Medicine which suggest more than they actually say.

This courteous man, gentle, shy, plainly a man of thought and reading, who moving and talking among us,

was not altogether of us, and whom I already suspected of leading a life whose transactions and alarms were

carefully concealed, with an impenetrable reserve from, not only the world, but his best beloved

friendswas cautiously weighing in his own mind the idea of taking a certain step with regard to me.

I penetrated his thoughts without his being aware of it, and was careful to say nothing which could betray to

his sensitive vigilance my suspicions respecting his position, or my surmises about his plans respecting

"I was very much interested by some papers of yours, Dr. Hesselius, upon what you term Metaphysical

MedicineI read them in German, ten or twelve years agohave they been translated?"

"No, I'm sure they have notI should have heard. They would have asked my leave, I think."

"I asked the publishers here, a few months ago, to get the book for me in the original German; but they tell

"So it is, and has been for some years; but it flatters me as an author to find that you have not forgotten my

little book, although," I added, laughing, "ten or twelve years is a considerable time to have managed without

it; but I suppose you have been turning the subject over again in your mind, or something has happened lately

At this remark, accompanied by a glance of inquiry, a sudden embarrassment disturbed Mr. Jennings,

analogous to that which makes a young lady blush and look foolish. He dropped his eyes, and folded his

hands together uneasily, and looked oddly, and you would have said, guiltily, for a moment.

I helped him out of his awkwardness in the best way, by appearing not to observe it, and going straight on, I

said: "Those revivals of interest in a subject happen to me often; one book suggests an other, and often sends

me back a wildgoose chase over an interval of twenty years. But if you still care to possess a copy, I shall be

only too happy to provide you; I have still got two or three by me and if you allow me to present one I

"You are very good indeed," he said, quite at his ease again, in a moment: "I almost despairedI don't know

"Pray don't say a word; the thing is really so little worth that I am only ashamed of having offered it, and if

Mr. Jennings laughed. He inquired where I was staying in London, and after a little more conversation on a

"I like your vicar so much, Lady Mary," said I, as soon as he was gone. "He has read, traveled, and thought,

"So he is, and, better still, he is a really good man," said she. "His advice is invaluable about my schools, and

all my little undertakings at Dawlbridge, and he's so painstaking, he takes so much troubleyou have no

"It is pleasant to hear so good an account of his neighbourly virtues. I can only testify to his being an

agreeable and gentle companion, and in addition to what you have told me, I think I can tell you two or three

"He has been writing, that is he was, but for two or three years perhaps, he has not gone on with his work,

"Well, he was writing a book, as you say; I'm not quite sure what it was about, but only that it was nothing

"And although he only drank a little coffee here tonight, he likes tea, at least, did like it extravagantly."

"Well, that's very odd! Green tea was a subject on which we used almost to quarrel."

"Yes, both; his father is only ten years dead, and their place is near Dawlbridge. We knew them very well,"

"Well, either his mother or his fatherI should rather think his father, saw a ghost," said I.

"You certainly have, and it was his father: he was a silent, whimsical man, and he used to bore my father

about his dreams, and at last he told him a story about a ghost he had seen and talked with, and a very odd

story it was. I remember it particularly, because I was so afraid of him. This story was long before he

diedwhen I was quite a childand his ways were so silent and moping, and he used to drop in sometimes,

in the dusk, when I was alone in the drawingroom, and I used to fancy there were ghosts about him."

"And now, having established my character as a conjurer, I think I must say goodnight!" said I.

"By the planets, of course, as the gypsies do," I answered, and so, gaily we said goodnight.

Next morning I sent the little book he had been inquiring after, and a note to Mr. Jennings, and on returning

late that evening, I found that he had called at my lodgings, and left his card. He asked whether I was at

Does he intend opening his case, and consulting me "professionally," as they say? I hope so. I have already

conceived a theory about him. It is supported by Lady Mary's answers to my parting questions. I should like

much to ascertain from his own lips. But what can I do consistently with good breeding to invite a

confession? Nothing. I rather think he meditates one. At all events, my dear Van L., I shan't make myself

difficult of access; I mean to re turn his visit tomorrow. It will be only civil in return for his politeness, to ask

to see him. Perhaps something may come of it. Whether much, little, or nothing, my dear Van L., you shall

On inquiring at the door, the servant told me that Mr. Jennings was engaged very particularly with a

gentleman, a clergyman from Kenlis, his parish in the country. Intending to reserve my privilege, and to call

again, I merely intimated that I should try another time, and had turned to go, when the servant begged my

pardon, and asked me, looking at me a little more attentively than wellbred persons of his order usually do,

whether I was Dr. Hesselius; and, on learning that I was, he said, "Perhaps then, sir, you would allow me to

The servant returned in a moment, with a message from Mr. Jennings, asking me to go into his study, which

was in effect his back drawingroom, promising to be with me in a very few minutes.

This was really a studyalmost a library. The room was lofty, with two tall slender windows, and rich dark

curtains. It was much larger than I had expected, and stored with books on every side, from the floor to the

ceiling. The upper carpetfor to my tread it felt that there were two or threewas a Turkey carpet. My

steps fell noiselessly. The bookcases standing out, placed the windows, particularly narrow ones, in deep

recesses. The effect of the room was, although extremely comfortable, and even luxurious, decidedly gloomy,

and aided by the silence, almost oppressive. Perhaps, however, I ought to have allowed something for

association. My mind had connected peculiar ideas with Mr. Jennings. I stepped into this perfectly silent

room, of a very silent house, with a peculiar foreboding; and its darkness, and solemn clothing of books, for

except where two narrow lookingglasses were set in the wall, they were everywhere, helped this sombre

While awaiting Mr. Jennings' arrival, I amused myself by looking into some of the books with which his

shelves were laden. Not among these, but immediately under them, with their backs up ward, on the floor, I

lighted upon a complete set of Swedenborg's "Arcana C�lestia," in the original Latin, a very fine folio set,

bound in the natty livery which theology affects, pure vellum, namely, gold letters, and carmine edges. There

were paper markers in several of these volumes, I raised and placed them, one after the other, upon the table,

and opening where these papers were placed, I read in the solemn Latin phraseology, a series of sentences

indicated by a penciled line at the margin. Of these I copy here a few, translating them into English.

"When man's interior sight is opened, which is that of his spirit, then there appear the things of another life,

"By the internal sight it has been granted me to see the things that are in the other life, more clearly than I see

those that are in the world. From these considerations, it is evident that external vision exists from interior

"With wicked genii there is also a fluent speech, but harsh and grating. There is also among them a speech

which is not fluent, wherein the dissent of the thoughts is perceived as something secretly creeping along

"The evil spirits associated with man are, indeed from the hells, but when with man they are not then in hell,

but are taken out thence. The place where they then are, is in the midst between heaven and hell, and is called

the world of spiritswhen the evil spirits who are with man, are in that world, they are not in any infernal

torment, but in every thought and affection of man, and so, in all that the man himself enjoys. But when they

"If evil spirits could perceive that they were associated with man, and yet that they were spirits separate from

him, and if they could flow in into the things of his body, they would attempt by a thousand means to destroy

"Knowing, therefore, that I was a man in the body, they were continually striving to destroy me, not as to the

body only, but especially as to the soul; for to destroy any man or spirit is the very delight of the life of all

who are in hell; but I have been continually protected by the Lord. Hence it appears how dangerous it is for

man to be in a living consort with spirits, unless he be in the good of faith." . . . .

"Nothing is more carefully guarded from the knowledge of associate spirits than their being thus conjoint

with a man, for if they knew it they would speak to him, with the intention to destroy him." . . . .

A long note, written with a very sharp and fine pencil, in Mr. Jennings' neat hand, at the foot of the page,

caught my eye. Expecting his criticism upon the text, I read a word or two, and stopped, for it was something

quite different, and began with these words, Deus misereatur mei"May God compassionate me." Thus

warned of its private nature, I averted my eyes, and shut the book, replacing all the volumes as I had found

them, except one which interested me, and in which, as men studious and solitary in their habits will do, I

grew so absorbed as to take no cognisance of the outer world, nor to remember where I was.

I was reading some pages which refer to "representatives" and "correspondents," in the technical language of

Swedenborg, and had arrived at a passage, the substance of which is, that evil spirits, when seen by other eyes

than those of their infernal associates, present themselves, by "correspondence," in the shape of the beast

(fera) which represents their particular lust and life, in aspect direful and atrocious. This is a long passage,

I was running the head of my pencilcase along the line as I read it, and something caused me to raise my

Directly before me was one of the mirrors I have mentioned, in which I saw reflected the tall shape of my

friend, Mr. Jennings, leaning over my shoulder, and reading the page at which I was busy, and with a face so

I turned and rose. He stood erect also, and with an effort laughed a little, saying:

"I came in and asked you how you did, but without succeeding in awaking you from your book; so I could

not restrain my curiosity, and very impertinently, I'm afraid, peeped over your shoulder. This is not your first

time of looking into those pages. You have looked into Swedenborg, no doubt, long ago?"

"Oh dear, yes! I owe Swedenborg a great deal; you will discover traces of him in the little book on

Although my friend affected a gaiety of manner, there was a slight flush in his face, and I could perceive that

"I'm scarcely yet qualified, I know so little of Swedenborg. I've only had them a fortnight," he answered, "and

I think they are rather likely to make a solitary man nervousthat is, judging from the very little I have

readI don't say that they have made me so," he laughed; "and I'm so very much obliged for the book. I

"I never read a book that I go with, so entirely, as that of yours," he continued. "I saw at once there is more in

In passing, the editor remarks that the physician here named was one of the most eminent who had ever

I did, having had letters to him, and had experienced from him great courtesy and considerable assistance

"I think that man one of the very greatest fools I ever met in my life," said Mr. Jennings.

This was the first time I had ever heard him say a sharp thing of anybody, and such a term applied to so high

"I mean this," he said: "he seems to me, one half, blindI mean one half of all he looks at is

darkpreternaturally bright and vivid all the rest; and the worst of it is, it seems wilful. I can't get himI

mean he won'tI've had some experience of him as a physician, but I look on him as, in that sense, no better

than a paralytic mind, an intellect half dead. I'll tell youI know I shall some timeall about it," he said,

with a little agitation. "You stay some months longer in England. If I should be out of town during your stay

"A mere materialist," he corrected me; "you can't think how that sort of thing worries one who knows better.

You won't tell any oneany of my friends you knowthat I am hippish; now, for instance, no one

So pray don't mention it; and, if I should have any threatening of an attack, you'll kindly let me write, or,

I was full of conjecture, and unconsciously I found I had fixed my eyes gravely on him, for he lowered his for

a moment, and he said: "I see you think I might as well tell you now, or else you are forming a conjecture;

but you may as well give it up. If you were guessing all the rest of your life, you will never hit on it."

He shook his head smiling, and over that wintry sunshine a black cloud suddenly came down, and he drew his

"Sorry, of course, to learn that you apprehend occasion to consult any of us; but, command me when and how

He then talked of quite other things, and in a comparatively cheerful way and after a little time, I took my

We parted cheerfully, but he was not cheerful, nor was I. There are certain expressions of that powerful organ

of spiritthe human facewhich, although I have seen them often, and possess a doctor's nerve, yet disturb

me profoundly. One look of Mr. Jennings haunted me. It had seized my imagination with so dismal a power

that I changed my plans for the evening, and went to the opera, feeling that I wanted a change of ideas.

I heard nothing of or from him for two or three days, when a note in his hand reached me. It was cheerful,

and full of hope. He said that he had been for some little time so much betterquite well, in factthat he

was going to make a little experiment, and run down for a month or so to his parish, to try whether a little

work might not quite set him up. There was in it a fervent religious expression of gratitude for his restoration,

A day or two later I saw Lady Mary, who repeated what his note had announced, and told me that he was

actually in Warwickshire, having resumed his clerical duties at Kenlis; and she added, "I begin to think that

he is really perfectly well, and that there never was anything the matter, more than nerves and fancy; we are

all nervous, but I fancy there is nothing like a little hard work for that kind of weakness, and he has made up

his mind to try it. I should not be surprised if he did not come back for a year."

Notwithstanding all this confidence, only two days later I had this note, dated from his house off Piccadilly:

DEAR SIR,I have returned disappointed. If I should feel at all able to see you, I shall write to ask you

kindly to call. At present, I am too low, and, in fact, simply unable to say all I wish to say. Pray don't mention

my name to my friends. I can see no one. Byandby, please God, you shall hear from me. I mean to take a

run into Shropshire, where some of my people are. God bless you! May we, on my return, meet more happily

About a week after this I saw Lady Mary at her own house, the last person, she said, left in town, and just on

the wing for Brighton, for the London season was quite over. She told me that she had heard from Mr.

Jenning's niece, Martha, in Shropshire. There was nothing to be gathered from her letter, more than that he

was low and nervous. In those words, of which healthy people think so lightly, what a world of suffering is

Nearly five weeks had passed without any further news of Mr. Jennings. At the end of that time I received a

"I have been in the country, and have had change of air, change of scene, change of faces, change of

everythingand in everythingbut myself. I have made up my mind, so far as the most irresolute creature

on earth can do it, to tell my case fully to you. If your engagements will permit, pray come to me today,

tomorrow, or the next day; but, pray defer as little as possible. You know not how much I need help. I have

a quiet house at Richmond, where I now am. Perhaps you can manage to come to dinner, or to luncheon, or

even to tea. You shall have no trouble in finding me out. The servant at Blank Street, who takes this note, will

have a carriage at your door at any hour you please; and I am always to be found. You will say that I ought

I called up the servant, and decided on going out the same evening, which accordingly I did.

He would have been much better in a lodginghouse, or hotel, I thought, as I drove up through a short double

row of sombre elms to a very oldfashioned brick house, darkened by the foliage of these trees, which

overtopped, and nearly surrounded it. It was a perverse choice, for nothing could be imagined more triste and

silent. The house, I found, belonged to him. He had stayed for a day or two in town, and, finding it for some

cause insupportable, had come out here, probably because being furnished and his own, he was relieved of

The sun had already set, and the red reflected light of the western sky illuminated the scene with the peculiar

effect with which we are all familiar. The hall seemed very dark, but, getting to the back drawingroom,

whose windows command the west, I was again in the same dusky light. I sat down, looking out upon the

richlywooded landscape that glowed in the grand and melancholy light which was every moment fading.

The corners of the room were already dark; all was growing dim, and the gloom was insensibly toning my

mind, already prepared for what was sinister. I was waiting alone for his arrival, which soon took place. The

door communicating with the front room opened, and the tall figure of Mr. Jennings, faintly seen in the ruddy

We shook hands, and, taking a chair to the window, where there was still light enough to enable us to see

each other's faces, he sat down beside me, and, placing his hand upon my arm, with scarcely a word of

The faint glow of the west, the pomp of the then lonely woods of Richmond, were before us, behind and

about us the darkening room, and on the stony face of the sufferer for the character of his face, though still

gentle and sweet, was changed rested that dim, odd glow which seems to descend and produce, where it

touches, lights, sudden though faint, which are lost, almost with out gradation, in darkness. The silence, too,

was utter: not a distant wheel, or bark, or whistle from without; and within the de pressing stillness of an

I guessed well the nature, though not even vaguely the particulars of the revelations I was about to receive,

from that fixed face of suffering that so oddly flushed stood out, like a portrait of Schalken's, before its

"It began," he said, "on the 15th of October, three years and eleven weeks ago, and two daysI keep very

accurate count, for every day is torment. If I leave anywhere a chasm in my narrative tell me.

"About four years ago I began a work, which had cost me very much thought and reading. It was upon the

"I know," said I, "the actual religion of educated and thinking paganism, quite apart from symbolic worship?

"Yes, but not good for the mindthe Christian mind, I mean. Paganism is all bound together in essential

unity, and, with evil sympathy, their religion involves their art, and both their manners, and the subject is a

"I wrote a great deal; I wrote late at night. I was always thinking on the subject, walking about, wherever I

was, everywhere. It thoroughly infected me. You are to remember that all the material ideas connected with it

were more or less of the beautiful, the subject itself delightfully interesting, and I, then, without a care."

"I believe, that every one who sets about writing in earnest does his work, as a friend of mine phrased it, on

somethingtea, or coffee, or tobacco. I suppose there is a material waste that must be hourly supplied in

such occupations, or that we should grow too abstracted, and the mind, as it were, pass out of the body, unless

it were reminded often enough of the connection by actual sensation. At all events, I felt the want, and I

supplied it. Tea was my companionat first the ordinary black tea, made in the usual way, not too strong: but

I drank a good deal, and increased its strength as I went on. I never, experienced an uncomfortable symptom

from it. I began to take a little green tea. I found the effect pleasanter, it cleared and intensified the power of

thought so, I had come to take it frequently, but not stronger than one might take it for pleasure. I wrote a

great deal out here, it was so quiet, and in this room. I used to sit up very late, and it became a habit with me

to sip my teagreen teaevery now and then as my work proceeded. I had a little kettle on my table, that

swung over a lamp, and made tea two or three times between eleven o'clock and two or three in the morning,

my hours of going to bed. I used to go into town every day. I was not a monk, and, although I spent an hour

or two in a library, hunting up authorities and looking out lights upon my theme, I was in no morbid state as

far as I can judge. I met my friends pretty much as usual and enjoyed their society, and, on the whole,

"I had met with a man who had some odd old books, German editions in medi�val Latin, and I was only too

happy to be permitted access to them. This obliging person's books were in the City, a very outoftheway

part of it. I had rather outstayed my intended hour, and, on coming out, seeing no cab near, I was tempted to

get into the omnibus which used to drive past this house. It was darker than this by the time the 'bus had

reached an old house, you may have remarked, with four poplars at each side of the door, and there the last

passenger but myself got out. We drove along rather faster. It was twilight now. I leaned back in my corner

"The interior of the omnibus was nearly dark. I had observed in the corner opposite to me at the other side,

and at the end next the horses, two small circular reflections, as it seemed to me of a reddish light. They were

about two inches apart, and about the size of those small brass buttons that yachting men used to put upon

their jackets. I began to speculate, as listless men will, upon this trifle, as it seemed. From what center did

that faint but deep red light come, and from whatglass beads, buttons, toy decorationswas it reflected?

We were lumbering along gently, having nearly a mile still to go. I had not solved the puzzle, and it be came

in another minute more odd, for these two luminous points, with a sudden jerk, descended nearer and nearer

the floor, keeping still their relative distance and horizontal position, and then, as suddenly, they rose to the

"My curiosity was now really excited, and, before I had time to think, I saw again these two dull lamps, again

together near the floor; again they disappeared, and again in their old corner I saw them.

"So, keeping my eyes upon them, I edged quietly up my own side, towards the end at which I still saw these

"There was very little light in the 'bus. It was nearly dark. I leaned forward to aid my endeavor to discover

what these little circles really were. They shifted position a little as I did so. I began now to perceive an

outline of something black, and I soon saw, with tolerable distinctness, the outline of a small black monkey,

pushing its face forward in mimicry to meet mine; those were its eyes, and I now dimly saw its teeth grinning

"I drew back, not knowing whether it might not meditate a spring. I fancied that one of the passengers had

forgot this ugly pet, and wishing to ascertain something of its temper, though not caring to trust my fingers to

it, I poked my umbrella softly towards it. It remained immovableup to itthrough it. For through it, and

"I can't, in the least, convey to you the kind of horror that I felt. When I had ascertained that the thing was an

illusion, as I then supposed, there came a misgiving about myself and a terror that fascinated me in impotence

to remove my gaze from the eyes of the brute for some moments. As I looked, it made a little skip back, quite

into the corner, and I, in a panic, found myself at the door, having put my head out, drawing deep breaths of

the outer air, and staring at the lights and tress we were passing, too glad to reassure myself of reality.

"I stopped the 'bus and got out. I perceived the man look oddly at me as I paid him. I dare say there was

something unusual in my looks and manner, for I had never felt so strangely before."

"When the omnibus drove on, and I was alone upon the road, I looked carefully round to ascertain whether

the monkey had followed me. To my indescribable relief I saw it nowhere. I can't describe easily what a

shock I had received, and my sense of genuine gratitude on finding myself, as I supposed, quite rid of it.

"I had got out a little before we reached this house, two or three hundred steps. A brick wall runs along the

footpath, and inside the wall is a hedge of yew, or some dark evergreen of that kind, and within that again the

"This brick wall is about as high as my shoulder, and happening to raise my eyes I saw the monkey, with that

stooping gait, on all fours, walking or creeping, close beside me, on top of the wall. I stopped, looking at it

with a feeling of loathing and horror. As I stopped so did it. It sat up on the wall with its long hands on its

knees looking at me. There was not light enough to see it much more than in outline, nor was it dark enough

to bring the peculiar light of its eyes into strong relief. I still saw, however, that red foggy light plainly

enough. It did not show its teeth, nor exhibit any sign of irritation, but seemed jaded and sulky, and was

"I drew back into the middle of the road. It was an unconscious recoil, and there I stood, still looking at it. It

"With an instinctive determination to try somethingany thing, I turned about and walked briskly towards

town with askance look, all the time, watching the movements of the beast. It crept swiftly along the wall, at

"Where the wall ends, near the turn of the road, it came down, and with a wiry spring or two brought itself

close to my feet, and continued to keep up with me, as I quickened my pace. It was at my left side, so dose to

"The road was quite deserted and silent, and it was darker every moment. I stopped dismayed and bewildered,

turning as I did so, the other wayI mean, towards this house, away from which I had been walking. When I

stood still, the monkey drew back to a distance of, I suppose, about five or six yards, and remained stationary,

"I had been more agitated than I have said. I had read, of course, as everyone has, something about 'spectral

illusions,' as you physicians term the phenomena of such cases. I considered my situation, and looked my

"These affections, I had read, are sometimes transitory and sometimes obstinate. I had read of cases in which

the appearance, at first harmless, had, step by step, degenerated into something direful and insupportable, and

ended by wearing its victim out. Still as I stood there, but for my bestial companion, quite alone, I tried to

comfort myself by repeating again and again the assurance, 'the thing is purely disease, a wellknown

physical affection, as distinctly as smallpox or neuralgia. Doctors are all agreed on that, philosophy

demonstrates it. I must not be a fool. I've been sitting up too late, and I daresay my digestion is quite wrong,

and, with God's help, I shall be all right, and this is but a symptom of nervous dyspepsia.' Did I believe all

this? Not one word of it, no more than any other miserable being ever did who is once seized and riveted in

this satanic captivity. Against my convictions, I might say my knowledge, I was simply bullying myself into

"I now walked homeward. I had only a few hundred yards to go. I had forced myself into a sort of

resignation, but I had not got over the sickening shock and the flurry of the first certainty of my misfortune.

"I made up my mind to pass the night at home. The brute moved dose betide me, and I fancied there was the

sort of anxious drawing toward the house, which one sees in tired horses or dogs, sometimes as they come

"I was afraid to go into town, I was afraid of any one's seeing and recognizing me. I was conscious of an

irrepressible agitation in my manner. Also, I was afraid of any violent change in my habits, such as going to a

place of amusement, or walking from home in order to fatigue myself. At the hall door it waited till I

"I drank no tea that night. I got cigars and some brandy and water. My idea was that I should act upon my

material system, and by living for a while in sensation apart from thought, send myself forcibly, as it were,

into a new groove. I came up here to this drawingroom. I sat just here. The monkey then got upon a small

table that then stood there. It looked dazed and languid. An irrepressible uneasiness as to its movements kept

my eyes always upon it. Its eyes were half closed, but I could see them glow. It was looking steadily at me. In

all situations, at all hours, it is awake and looking at me. That never changes.

"I shall not continue in detail my narrative of this particular night. I shall describe, rather, the phenomena of

the first year, which never varied, essentially. I shall describe the monkey as it appeared in daylight. In the

dark, as you shall presently hear, there are peculiarities. It is a small monkey, perfectly black. It had only one

peculiaritya character of malignityunfathomable malignity. During the first year looked sullen and sick.

But this character of intense malice and vigilance was always underlying that surly languor. During all that

time it acted as if on a plan of giving me as little trouble as was consistent with watching me. Its eyes were

never off me. I have never lost sight of it, except in my sleep, light or dark, day or night, since it came here,

"In total dark it is visible as in daylight. I do not mean merely its eyes. It is all visible distinctly in a halo that

"When it leaves me for a time, it is always at night, in the dark, and in the same way. It grows at first uneasy,

and then furious, and then advances towards me, grinning and shaking, its paws clenched, and, at the same

time, there comes the appearance of fire in the grate. I never have any fire. I can't sleep in the room where

there is any, and it draws nearer and nearer to the chimney, quivering, it seems, with rage, and when its fury

rises to the highest pitch, it springs into the grate, and up the chimney, and I see it no more.

"When first this happened, I thought I was released. I was now a new man. A day passeda nightand no

return, and a blessed weeka weekanother week. I was always on my knees, Dr. Hesselius, always,

thanking God and praying. A whole month passed of liberty, but on a sudden, it was with me again."

"It was with me, and the malice which before was torpid under a sullen exterior, was now active. It was

perfectly unchanged in every other respect. This new energy was apparent in its activity and its looks, and

"For a time, you will understand, the change was shown only in an increased vivacity, and an air of menace,

as if it were always brooding over some atrocious plan. Its eyes, as before, were never off me."

"No," he replied, "it has been absent exactly a fortnight and a dayfifteen days. It has sometimes been away

so long as nearly two months, once for three. Its absence always exceeds a fortnight, although it may be but

by a single day. Fifteen days having past since I saw it last, it may return now at any moment."

"Nothingno," he said. "It is simply with me again. On lifting my eyes from a book, or turning my head, I

see it, as usual, looking at me, and then it remains, as before, for its appointed time. I have never told so much

I perceived that he was agitated, and looking like death, and he repeatedly applied his handkerchief to his

forehead; I suggested that he might be cured, and told him that I would call, with pleasure, in the morning,

"No, if you don't mind hearing it all now. I have got so far, and I should prefer making one effort of it. When

I spoke to Dr. Harley, I had nothing like so much to tell. You are a philosophic physician. You give spirit its

"We can discuss it byandby, and very fully. I will give you all I think, " I answered after an interval.

"Wellvery well. If it is anything real, I say, it is prevailing, little by little, and drawing me more interiorly

into hell. Optic nerves, he talked of. Ah! wellthere are other nerves of communication. May God Almighty

"Its power of action, I tell you, had increased. Its malice became, in a way, aggressive. About two years ago,

some questions that were pending between me and the bishop having been settled, I went down to my parish

in Warwickshire, anxious to find occupation in my profession. I was not prepared for what happened,

although I have since thought I might have apprehended something like it. The reason of my saying so is

He was beginning to speak with a great deal more effort and reluctance, and sighted often, and seemed at

times nearly overcome. But at this time his manner was not agitated. It was more like that of a sinking

"It was with me when I left this place for Dawlbridge. It was my silent traveling companion, and it remained

with me at the vicarage. When I entered on the discharge of my duties, another change took place. The thing

exhibited an atrocious determination to thwart me. It was with me in the churchin the reading deskin the

pulpitwithin the communion rails. At last, it reached this extremity, that while I was reading to the

congregation, it would spring upon the book and squat there, so that I was unable to see the page. This

"I left Dawlbridge for a time. I placed myself in Dr. Harley's hands. I did everything he told me. he gave my

case a great deal of thought. It interested him, I think. He seemed successful. For nearly three months I was

perfectly free from a return. I began to think I was safe. With his full assent I returned to Dawlbridge.

"I traveled in a chaise. I was in good spirits. I was moreI was happy and grateful. I was returning, as I

thought, delivered from a dreadful hallucination, to the scene of duties which I longed to enter upon. It was a

beautiful sunny evening, everything looked serene and cheerful, and I was delighted, I remember looking out

of the window to see the spire of my church at Kenlis among the trees, at the point where one has the earliest

view of it. It is exactly where the little stream that bounds the parish passes under the road by a culvert, and

where it emerges at the roadside, a stone with an old inscription is placed. As we passed this point, I drew my

"For a moment I felt faint, and then quite wild with despair and horror, I called to the driver, and got out, and

sat down at the roadside, and prayed to God silently for mercy. A despairing resignation supervened. My

companion was with me as I reentered the vicarage. The same persecution followed. After a short struggle I

"I told you," he said, "that all the beast has before this become in certain ways aggressive. I will explain a

little. It seemed to be actuated by intense and increasing fury, whenever I said my prayers, or even meditated

prayer. It amounted at last to a dreadful interruption. You will ask, how could a silent immaterial phantom

effect that? It was thus, whenever I meditated praying; It was always before me, and nearer and nearer.

"It used to spring on the table, on the back of the chair, on the chimneypiece, and slowly swing itself from

side to side, looking at me all the time. There is in its motion an indefinable power to dissipate thought, and

to contract one's attention to that monotony, till the ideas shrink, as it were, to a point, and at last to

nothingand unless I had started up, and shook off the catalepsy I have felt as if my mind were to a point of

losing itself. There are no other ways," he sighed heavily; "thus, for instance, while I pray with my eyes

closed, it comes closer and closer and closer, and I see it. I know it is not to be accounted for physically, but I

do actually see it, though my lids are closed, and so it rocks my mind, as it were, and overpowers me, and I

am obliged to rise from my knees. If you had ever yourself known this, you would be acquainted with

"I see, Dr. Hesselius, that you don't lose one word of my statement. I need not ask you to listen specially to

what I am now going to tell you. They talk of the optic nerves, and of spectral illusions, as if the organ of

fight was the only point assailable by the influences that have fastened upon meI know better. For two

years in my direful case that limitation prevailed. But as food is taken in softly at the lips, and then brought

under the teeth, as the tip of the little finger caught in a mill crank will draw in the hand, and the arm, and the

whole body, so the miserable mortal who has been once caught firmly by the end of the finest fibre of his

nerve, is drawn in and in, by the enormous machinery of hell, until he is as I am. Yes, Doctor, as I am, for a

while I talk to you, and implore relief, I feel that my prayer is for the impossible, and my pleading with the

I endeavoured to calm his visibly increasing agitation, and told him that he must not despair.

While we talked the night had overtaken us. The filmy moonlight was wide over the scene which the window

"Perhaps you would prefer having candles. This light, you know, is odd. I should wish you, as much as

possible, under your usual conditions while I make my diagnosis, shall I call itotherwise I don't care."

"All lights are the same to me," he said; "except when I read or write, I care not if night were perpetual. I am

going to tell you what happened about a year ago. The thing began to speak to me."

"Yes; speak in words and consecutive sentences, with perfect coherence and articulation; but there is a

peculiarity. It is not like the tone of a human voice. It is not by my ears it reaches meit comes like a

"This faculty, the power of speaking to me, will be my undoing. It won't let me pray, it interrupts me with

dreadful blasphemies. I dare not go on, I could not. Oh! Doctor, can the skill, and thought, and prayers of

"You must promise me, my dear sir, not to trouble yourself with unnecessarily exciting thoughts; confine

yourself strictly to the narrative of facts; and recollect, above all, that even if the thing that infests you be, you

seem to suppose a reality with an actual in dependent life and will, yet it can have no power to hurt you,

unless it be given from above: its access to your senses depends mainly upon your physical conditionthis

is, under God, your comfort and reliance: we are all alike environed. It is only that in your case, the 'paries,'

the veil of the flesh, the screen, is a little out of repair, and sights and sounds are transmitted. We must enter

on a new course, sir,be encouraged. I'll give tonight to the careful consideration of the whole case."

"You are very good, sir; you think it worth trying, you don't give me quite up; but, sir, you don't know, it is

gaining such an influence over me: it orders me about, it is such a tyrant, and I'm growing so helpless. May

"Yes, yes; it is always urging me to crimes, to injure others, or myself. You see, Doctor, the situation is

urgent, it is indeed. When I was in Shropshire, a few weeks ago" (Mr. Jennings was speaking rapidly and

trembling now, holding my arm with one hand, and looking in my face), "I went out one day with a party of

friends for a walk: my persecutor, I tell you, was with me at the time. I lagged behind the rest: the country

near the Dee, you know, is beautiful. Our path happened to lie near a coal mine, and at the verge of the wood

is a perpendicular shaft, they say, a hundred and fifty feet deep. My niece had remained behind with meshe

knows, of course nothing of the nature of my sufferings. She knew, however, that I had been ill, and was low,

and she remained to prevent my being quite alone. As we loitered slowly on together, the brute that

accompanied me was urging me to throw myself down the shaft. I tell you nowoh, sir, think of it!the

one consideration that saved me from that hideous death was the fear lest the shock of witnessing the

occurrence should be too much for the poor girl. I asked her to go on and walk with her friends, saying that I

could go no further. She made excuses, and the more I urged her the firmer she became. She looked doubtful

and frightened. I suppose there was something in my looks or manner that alarmed her; but she would not go,

and that literally saved me. You had no idea, sir, that a living man could be made so abject a slave of Satan,"

There was a pause here, and I said, "You were preserved nevertheless. It was the act of God. You are in His

hands and in the power of no other being: be therefore confident for the future."

I made him have candles lighted, and saw the room looking cheery and inhabited before I left him. I told him

that he must regard his illness strictly as one dependent on physical, though subtle physical causes. I told him

that he had evidence of God's care and love in the deliverance which he had just described, and that I had

perceived with pain that he seemed to regard its peculiar features as indicating that he had been delivered

over to spiritual reprobation. Than such a conclusion nothing could be, I insisted, less warranted; and not only

so, but more contrary to facts, as disclosed in his mysterious deliverance from that murderous in fluence

during his Shropshire excursion. First, his niece had been retained by his side without his intending to keep

her near him; and, secondly, there had been infused into his mind an irresistible repugnance to execute the

As I reasoned this point with him, Mr. Jennings wept. He seemed comforted. One promise I exacted, which

was that should the monkey at any time return, I should be sent for immediately; and, repeating my assurance

that I would give neither time nor thought to any other subject until I had thoroughly investigated his case,

Before getting into the carriage I told the servant that his master was far from well, and that he should make a

I merely called at my lodgings, and with a travelingdesk and carpetbag, set off in a hackney carriage for an

inn about two miles out of town, called "The Horns," a very quiet and comfortable house, with good thick

walls. And there I resolved, without the possibility of intrusion or distraction, to devote some hours of the

night, in my comfortable sittingroom, to Mr. Jennings' case, and so much of the morning as it might require.

(There occurs here a careful note of Dr. Hesselius' opinion on the case, and of the habits, dietary, and

medicines which he prescribed. It is curioussome persons would say mystical. But, on the whole, I doubt

whether it would sufficiently interest a reader of the kind I am likely to meet with, to warrant its being here

reprinted. The whole letter was plainly written at the inn where he had hid himself for the occasion. The next

I left town for the inn where I slept last night at halfpast nine, and did not arrive at my room in town until

one o'clock this afternoon. I found a letter m Mr. Jennings' hand upon my table. It had not come by post, and,

on inquiry, I learned that Mr. Jennings' servant had brought it, and on learning that I was not to return until

today, and that no one could tell him my address, he seemed very uncomfortable, and said his orders from

DEAR DR. HESSELIUS.It is here. You had not been an hour gone when it returned. It is speaking. It

knows all that has happened. It knows every thingit knows you, and is frantic and atrocious. It reviles. I

send you this. It knows every word I have writtenI write. This I promised, and I therefore write, but I fear

"About eleven last night: the man was here again, and has been here three times today. The last time is

Thus answered, and with the notes I had made upon his case in my pocket, I was in a few minutes driving

I by no means, as you perceive, despaired of Mr. Jennings' case. He had himself remembered and applied,

though quite in a mistaken way, the principle which I lay down in my Metaphysical Medicine, and which

governs all such cases. I was about to apply it in earnest. I was profoundly interested, and very anxious to see

I drove up to the sombre house, and ran up the steps, and knocked. The door, in a little time, was opened by a

tall woman in black silk. She looked ill, and as if she had been crying. She curtseyed, and heard my question,

but she did not answer. She turned her face away, extending her hand towards two men who were coming

downstairs; and thus having, as it were, tacitly made me over to them, she passed through a sidedoor

The man who was nearest the hall, I at once accosted, but being now close to him, I was shocked to see that

I drew back a little, and the man, passing downstairs, merely said in a low tone, "Here's the servant, sir."

The servant had stopped on the stairs, confounded and dumb at seeing me. He was rubbing his hands in a

"Jones, what is it? what has happened?" I asked, while a sickening suspicion overpowered me.

The man asked me to come up to the lobby. I was beside him in a moment, and, frowning and pallid, with

I went upstairs with him to the roomwhat I saw there I won't tell you. He had cut his throat with his razor.

It was a frightful gash. The two men had laid him on the bed, and composed his limbs. It had happened, as

the immense pool of blood on the floor declared, at some distance between the bed and the window. There

was carpet round his bed, and a carpet under his dressing table, but none on the rest of the floor, for the man

said he did not like a carpet on his bedroom. In this sombre and now terrible room, one of the great elms that

darkened the house was slowly moving the shadow of one of its great boughs upon this dreadful floor.

I beckoned to the servant, and we went downstairs together. I turned off the hall into an oldfashioned

paneled room, and there standing, I heard all the servant had to tell. It was not a great deal.

"I concluded, sir, from your words, and looks, sir, as you left last night, that you thought my master was

seriously ill. I thought it might be that you were afraid of a fit, or something. So I attended very close to your

directions. He sat up late, till past three o'clock. He was not writing or reading. He was talking a great deal to

himself, but that was nothing unusual. At about that hour I assisted him to undress, and left him in his

slippers and dressinggown. I went back softly in about halfanhour. He was in his bed, quite undressed,

and a pair of candles lighted on the table beside his bed. He was leaning on his elbow, and looking out at the

other side of the bed when I came in. I asked him if he wanted anything, and he said No.

"I don't know whether it was what you said to me, sir, or some thing a little unusual about him, but I was

"In another half hour, or it might be a little more, I went up again. I did not hear him talking as before. I

opened the door a little. The candles were both out, which was not usual. I had a bedroom candle, and I let

the light in, a little bit, looking softly round. I saw him sitting in that chair beside the dressingtable with his

clothes on again. He turned round and looked at me. I thought it strange he should get up and dress, and put

But I only asked him again if I could do anything for him. He said, No, rather sharp, I thought. He said, 'Tell

me truth, Jones; why did you come againyou did not hear anyone cursing?' 'No, sir,' I said, wondering

"'No,' said he, after me, 'of course, no;' and I said to him, 'Wouldn't it be well, sir, you went to bed? It's just

five o'clock;' and he said nothing, but, 'Very likely; goodnight, Jones.' so I went, sir, but in less than an hour

I came again. The door was fast, and he heard me, and called as I thought from the bed to know what I

wanted, and he desired me not to disturb him again. I lay down and slept for a little. It must have been

between six and seven when I went up again. The door was still fast, and he made no answer, so I did not like

to disturb him, and thinking he was asleep, I left him till nine. It was his custom to ring when he wished me to

come, and I had no particular hour for calling him. I tapped very gently, and getting no answer, I stayed away

a good while, supposing he was getting some rest then. It was not till eleven o'clock I grew really

uncomfortable about himfor at the latest he was never, that I could remember, later than half past ten. I got

no answer. I knocked and called, and still no answer. So not being able to force the door, I called Thomas

from the stables, and together we forced it, and found him in the shocking way you saw."

Jones had no more to tell. Poor Mr. Jennings was very gentle, and very kind. All his people were fond of him.

So, dejected and agitated, I passed from that terrible house, and its dark canopy of elms, and I hope I shall

never see it more. While I write to you I feel like a man who has but half waked from a frightful and

monotonous dream. My memory rejects the picture with incredulity and horror. Yet I know it is true. It is the

story of the process of a poison, a poison which excites the reciprocal action of spirit and nerve, and paralyses

the tissue that separates those cognate functions of the senses, the external and the interior. Thus we find

My dear Van L, you have suffered from an affection similar to that which I have just described. You twice

Who, under God, cured you? Your humble servant, Martin Hesselius. Let me rather adopt the more

emphasized piety of a certain good old French surgeon of three hundred years ago: "I treated, and God cured

I have met with, and treated, as my book shows, fiftyseven cases of this kind of vision, which I term

There is another class of affections which are truly termed though commonly confounded with those which

I describespectral illusions. These latter I look upon as being no less simply curable than a cold in the head

It is those which rank in the first category that test our promptitude of thought. Fiftyseven such cases have I

encountered, neither more nor less. And in how many of these have I failed? In no one single instance.

There is no one affliction of mortality more easily and certainly reducible, with a little patience, and a rational

confidence in the physician. With these simple conditions, I look upon the cure as absolutely certain.

You are to remember that I had not even commenced to treat Mr. Jennings' case. I have not any doubt that I

should have cured him perfectly in eighteen months, or possibly it might have extended to two years. Some

cases are very rapidly curable, others extremely tedious. Every intelligent physician who will give thought

You know my tract on "The Cardinal Functions of the Brain." I there, by the evidence of innumerable facts,

prove, as I think, the high probability of a circulation arterial and venous in its mechanism, through the

nerves. Of this system, thus considered, the brain is the heart. The fluid, which is propagated hence through

one class of nerves, returns in an altered state through another, and the nature of that fluid is spiritual, though

not immaterial, any more than, as I before remarked, light or electricity are so.

By various abuses, among which the habitual use of such agents as green tea is one, this fluid may be affected

as to its quality, but it is more frequently disturbed as to equilibrium. This fluid being that which we have in

common with spirits, a congestion found on the masses of brain or nerve, connected with the interior sense,

forms a surface unduly exposed, on which disembodied spirits may operate: communication is thus more or

less effectually established. Between this brain circulation and the heart circulation there is an intimate

sympathy. The seat, or rather the instrument of exterior vision, is the eye. The seat of interior vision is the

nervous tissue and brain, immediately about and above the eyebrow. You remember how effectually I

dissipated your pictures by the simple application of iced eaudecologne. Few cases, how ever, can be

treated exactly alike with anything like rapid success. Cold acts powerfully as a repellant of the nervous fluid.

Long enough continued it will even produce that permanent insensibility which we call numbness, and a little

I have not, I repeat, the slightest doubt that I should have first dimmed and ultimately sealed that inner eye

which Mr. Jennings had inadvertently opened. The same senses are opened in delirium tremens, and entirely

shut up again when the overaction of the cerebral heart, and the prodigious nervous congestions that attend it,

are terminated by a decided change in the state of the body. It is by acting steadily upon the body, by a simple

process, that this result is producedand inevitably producedI have never yet failed.

Poor Mr. Jennings made away with himself. But that catastrophe was the result of a totally different malady,

which, as it were, projected itself upon the disease which was established. His case was in the distinctive

manner a complication, and the complaint under which he really succumbed, was hereditary suicidal mania.

Poor Mr. Jennings I cannot call a patient of mine, for I had not even begun to treat his case, and he had not

yet given me, I am convinced, his full and unreserved confidence. If the patient do not array himself on the