agitation of nature a harmony. So with our sense of smell, which
is weaker than that of a dog, and so with our sense of taste,
which can scarcely distinguish the age of a wine!

Oh! If we only had other organs which could work other miracles
in our favor, what a number of fresh things we might discover
around us!

May 16. I am ill, decidedly! I was so well last month! I am
feverish, horribly feverish, or rather I am in a state of
feverish enervation, which makes my mind suffer as much as my
body. I have without ceasing the horrible sensation of some
danger threatening me, the apprehension of some coming misfortune
or of approaching death, a presentiment which is no doubt, an
attack of some illness still unnamed, which germinates in the
flesh and in the blood.

May 18. I have just come from consulting my medical man, for I
can no longer get any sleep. He found that my pulse was high, my
eyes dilated, my nerves highly strung, but no alarming symptoms.
I must have a course of shower baths and of bromide of potassium.

May 25. No change! My state is really very peculiar. As the
evening comes on, an incomprehensible feeling of disquietude
seizes me, just as if night concealed some terrible menace toward
me. I dine quickly, and then try to read, but I do not understand
the words, and can scarcely distinguish the letters. Then I walk
up and down my drawing-room, oppressed by a feeling of confused
and irresistible fear, a fear of sleep and a fear of my bed.