Page:Horrid Mysteries Volume 3.djvu/22

 their secret agents: however, the mystic appearance of Amanuel's presence, which had affected my senses so powerfully, lost its awfulness entirely through that oversight. I was no stranger to the artifices wrought through natural magic; and also not ignorant what a powerful influence a heated, overflowing, and transported imagination produces on our senses. The whole now appeared to me a mere scarecrow for children. The mystic farce was continued too long, and afterwards betrayed the whole confederacy. The mysterious veil was removed from that memorable moment, and my imagination being rectified by cool reflection, the miserable artifices of the confederates rather filled me with contempt than with awe. James's apparition in my neighbourhood opened my eyes; and my mind, being now liberated from the thraldom of a deluded imagination, firmly begins a new, decided career.