Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/114

 "The great covenant has consigned thee to my care."

I had a thousand questions to ask, and a thousand objections to urge. But no sooner had I made a grasp to seize the phantom, than all became black darkness around me.

A stillness of death ensued, the piercing dawn made me discover, that every object was in its proper place, and I laid down again. As I rose, I found the door and windows as fast as I had made them, and the natural situation of the room precluded the very idea of secret communication. Deception was impracticable, my whole belief in the non-existence of a spiritual world began to totter, and reason forced me to be persuaded of the presence of my genius Amanuel.

—"Alas," said I to myself, "what can be the object his mission? Must I abandon my beloved Elmira to that cruel Cabal of mysterious strangers? Is this the happiness that has been promised me? Were I not happier, if I had never seen that mystic society, whose inconceivable arts will make my hair turn grey in the blossom of my youth.