flower raised itself, following the curve which a hand would have
described in carrying it toward a mouth, and remained suspended
in the transparent air, alone and motionless, a terrible red
spot, three yards from my eyes. In desperation I rushed at it to
take it! I found nothing; it had disappeared. Then I was seized
with furious rage against myself, for it is not wholesome for a
reasonable and serious man to have such hallucinations.

But was it a hallucination? I turned to look for the stalk, and I
found it immediately under the bush, freshly broken, between the
two other roses which remained on the branch. I returned home,
then, with a much disturbed mind; for I am certain now, certain
as I am of the alternation of day and night, that there exists
close to me an invisible being who lives on milk and on water,
who can touch objects, take them and change their places; who is,
consequently, endowed with a material nature, although
imperceptible to sense, and who lives as I do, under my roof--

August 7. I slept tranquilly. He drank the water out of my
decanter, but did not disturb my sleep.

I ask myself whether I am mad. As I was walking just now in the
sun by the riverside, doubts as to my own sanity arose in me; not
vague doubts such as I have had hitherto, but precise and
absolute doubts. I have seen mad people, and I have known some
who were quite intelligent, lucid, even clear-sighted in every
concern of life, except on one point. They could speak clearly,
readily, profoundly on everything; till their thoughts were
caught in the breakers of their delusions and went to pieces
there, were dispersed and swamped in that furious and terrible