Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/403

 and I see the proof of it in the disagreeable impressions which they give rise to during their existence and after they are over. If dreams produce real relations between us and the invisible world, why should they not be an initiation into the felicities of which religion offers the hope after this earthly existence?"

Ottmar was about to raise an endless discussion on this subject, but the baron did not allow him time. "Let us break off here," said he; "I am not in a humor to begin a controversy. I remember, besides, that this day, the ninth of September, is the anniversary to me of a youthful remembrance, the thought of which awakens painful sensations." "But," interrupted the student, "is it not established that the magnetic influence"

"Oh!" exclaimed the baron, "never pronounce before me that word; the name of magnetism disgusts and wounds me excessively; he who professes this odious art pays sooner or later, by his own ruin, for the guilty curiosity which leads him to raise the veil with which God covers his works. I remember, my children, that at the time I was studying in the military academy in Berlin, there was amongst our professors a man whose features will never leave my thoughts, for I could not look at him without experiencing a secret fear. To a gigantic stature, and the leanness of a skeleton, was added one of those physiognomies which the strangest imagination would hardly dare to dream of. He was endowed with great strength and consummate skill. He related of himself that, being a major in the Danish service, he was obliged to become an exile on account of a duel; but some people supposed that instead of duel it was a murder committed on the person of his general, which had caused his flight. He was a very hard man and practised an unexampled severity towards the pupils of the academy. But there were days in which his character seemed entirely changed. He then appeared the most indulgent and affectionate man you could possibly meet with. During these moments of expansion, if he pressed