in putting in execution a plan for ventilating one of the great prisons
of the metropolis. My illness was severe and dangerous. As long as the
fever continued, my dreams or delirium were most painful and oppressive;
but when the weakness consequent to exhaustion came on, and when the
probability of death seemed to my physicians greater than that of life,
there was an entire change in all my ideal combinations. I remained in
an apparently senseless or lethargic state, but in fact my mind was
peculiarly active; there was always before me the form of a beautiful
woman, with whom I was engaged in the most interesting and intellectual
conversation.

_Amb_.--The figure of a lady with whom you were in love.

_Phil_.--No such thing; I was passionately in love at the time, but the
object of my admiration was a lady with black hair, dark eyes, and pale
complexion; this spirit of my vision, on the contrary, had brown hair,
blue eyes, and a bright rosy complexion, and was, as far as I can
recollect, unlike any of the amatory forms which in early youth had so
often haunted my imagination. Her figure for many days was so distinct
in my mind, as to form almost a visual image. As I gained strength, the
visits of my good angel (for so I called it) became less frequent, and
when I was restored to health they were altogether discontinued.

_Onu_.--I see nothing very strange in this--a mere reaction of the mind
after severe pain--and, to a young man of twenty-five, there are few more
pleasurable images than that of a beautiful maiden with blue eyes,
blooming cheeks, and long nut-brown hair.

_Phil_.--But all my feelings and all my conversations with this visionary
maiden were of an intellectual and refined nature.