control, and I have several times, and without the slightest bad
result, taken measured doses under his direction; though I must
confess I have not yet ventured abroad again while under its influence.
I may mention, for example, that this story has been written at one
sitting and without interruption, except for the nibbling of some
chocolate, by its means. I began at 6.25, and my watch is now very
nearly at the minute past the half-hour. The convenience of securing
a long, uninterrupted spell of work in the midst of a day full
of engagements cannot be exaggerated. Gibberne is now working
at the quantitative handling of his preparation, with especial reference
to its distinctive effects upon different types of constitution.
He then hopes to find a Retarder with which to dilute its present
rather excessive potency. The Retarder will, of course, have the
reverse effect to the Accelerator; used alone it should enable
the patient to spread a few seconds over many hours of ordinary
time,--and so to maintain an apathetic inaction, a glacier-like
absence of alacrity, amidst the most animated or irritating
surroundings. The two things together must necessarily work an entire
revolution in civilised existence. It is the beginning of our escape
from that Time Garment of which Carlyle speaks. While this Accelerator
will enable us to concentrate ourselves with tremendous impact
upon any moment or occasion that demands our utmost sense and vigour,
the Retarder will enable us to pass in passive tranquillity through
infinite hardship and tedium. Perhaps I am a little optimistic
about the Retarder, which has indeed still to be discovered, but
about the Accelerator there is no possible sort of doubt whatever.
Its appearance upon the market in a convenient, controllable,
and assimilable form is a matter of the next few months. It will be
obtainable of all chemists and druggists, in small green bottles,
at a high but, considering its extraordinary qualities, by no means