as where knowledge enters, the Marvellous recedes, so where knowledge
falters, the Marvellous advances); yet still, even in those conjectures, I
will distinguish the Marvellous from the Supernatural. But, for the
present, I advise you to accept the guess that may best quiet the fevered
imagination which any bolder guess would only more excite."

"You are right," said I, rising proudly to the full height of my stature,
my head erect and my heart defying. "And so let this subject be renewed
no more between us. I will brood over it no more myself. I regain the
unclouded realm of my human intelligence; and, in that intelligence, I
mock the sorcerer and disdain the spectre."

[1] Beattie's "Essay on Truth," part i. c. ii. 3. The story of
Simon Browne is to be found in "The Adventurer."

[2] Miller's Physiology of the Senses, p. 394.

[3] Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 281. (15th edition.)

[4] At the date of Faber's conversation with Allen Fenwick, the
(so-called) spirit manifestations had not spread from America over Europe.
But if they had, Faber's views would, no doubt, have remained the same.

[5] Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 278. (15th edition.)

This author, not more to be admired for his intelligence than his candour,
and who is entitled to praise for a higher degree of original thought
than that to which he modestly pretends, relates a curious anecdote
illustrating "the analogy between dreaming and spectral illusion, which he
received from the gentleman to which it occurred,--an eminent medical