Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/276

 that no one remarked his presence, and I was the sole witness of the chimerical honours that this imaginary individual seemed to render to me. This phantasy of my brain did not make a very strong impression on me, although it made me conceive doubts as to the state of my health, and the effects it would produce upon my reason.

"This second phase of my malady, like the first, also came to an end. Some months after, the usher of the Upper House ceased showing himself, and he was replaced by an apparition that was at once wearing to the mind and terrible to the sight. It was a skeleton. Whether I was alone or in company this frightful image of death never quitted me; it dogged my footsteps and followed me everywhere, and seemed to be a shadow inseparable from myself. It was in vain that I repeated to myself a hundred times over that the vision was not real, and was only an illusion of my senses. The reasoning of philosophy and my religious principles, strong though they are, are powerless to triumph over the influence that besets me, and I feel that I shall die a victim to this cruel evil."

"It seems then," interrupted the doctor, "that this skeleton is always before your eyes?"

"It is my evil fate to see it continually before me."

"In which case it is at this moment visible to your eyes?"

"It is at present."

"And in what part of the room do you imagine that you see it now?" asked the doctor.

"At the foot of my bed," replied the patient: "when the curtains are half open I can see it place itself in the empty space between them."

"You say that you are convinced that it is only an illusion," replied the doctor; "have you the firmness to convince yourself of it positively? Have you the necessary