but the fascination of a long-entranced imagination. Up to this time I had
taken the opium as I had always been accustomed to do, in a single dose on
awaking in the morning. I now, however, divided the daily allowance into
two portions, and after a day or two into four, and then into single
grains. The chief advantage which followed this subdivision of the dose was
a certain relief to the mind, which for a few days had become fully aware
of the power which misery possesses of lengthening out the time
intervening between one alleviation and another, and which shrank from the
weary continuance of an entire day's painful and unrelieved abstinence
from the accustomed indulgence. The first three days from the commencement
of this grain by grain descent was marked by obviously increased
impatience with any thing like contradiction or opposition, by an
absolute aversion to reading, and by a very humiliating sense of the
fact that the _vis vitae_ had somehow become pretty thoroughly
eliminated from both mind and body. Still, when night came, as with
long-drawn steps it did come, there was the consciousness that
something had been gained, and that this daily gain, small as it was,
was worth all it had cost. The tenth day of the experiment had reduced
my allowance to sixteen grains. The effect of this rapid diminution
of quantity was now made apparent by additional symptoms. The first
tears extorted by pain since childhood were forced out as by some
glandular weakness. Restlessness, both of body and mind, had become
extreme, and was accompanied with a hideous and almost maniacal
irritability, often so plainly without cause as sometimes to provoke a
smile from those who were about me.

For a few days a partial alleviation from too minute attention to the
pains of the experiment were found in vigorous horseback exercise. The
friend to whose serviceableness in pecuniary matters I have already
alluded, offered me the use of a saddle-horse. The larger of the two