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 induced by Nellie's touch was akin to that, but was far more profound. First there came a sort of mental retrocession, consequent upon my previous intellectual activity. The soul-principle seemed to bound back from its investigations of the previous moment, to a pinnacle within itself, from whence it as rapidly sunk down into one of the profoundest labyrinths of its own vast caverns.

Down, down, still lower and deeper into the awful abyss of itself it sank, until at last it stood solitary and alone in one of its own secret halls. The outer realm, with all its pains and joys, cares, sorrows and ambitions, hopes, likes, antipathies and aspirations; all its shadows and fitful gleams of light, were left behind, and naught of the great wide world remained; for its lakes and green trees, its gardens and its tiny brooks, its beetling cliffs and radiant sky grew distant, very distant, until at length a cold and chilling horror crept over me, and suggested that perhaps, after all, the fearful doctrine

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