paternal home, now passed away to strangers), we should make a short
excursion into Scotland, leaving Mrs. Ashleigh to await our return at the
little inn.

I had retired to my own room to answer some letters from anxious patients,
and having finished these I looked into my trunk for a Guide-Book to the
North, which I had brought with me. My hand came upon Margrave's wand,
and remembering that strange thrill which had passed through me when I
last handled it, I drew it forth, resolved to examine calmly if I could
detect the cause of the sensation. It was not now the time of night in
which the imagination is most liable to credulous impressions, nor was I
now in the anxious and jaded state of mind in which such impressions may
be the more readily conceived. The sun was slowly setting over the
delicious landscape; the air cool and serene; my thoughts
collected,--heart and conscience alike at peace. I took, then, the wand,
and adjusted it to the palm of the hand as I had done before. I felt the
slight touch of the delicate wire within, and again the thrill! I did not
this time recoil; I continued to grasp the wand, and sought deliberately
to analyze my own sensations in the contact. There came over me an
increased consciousness of vital power; a certain exhilaration,
elasticity, vigour, such as a strong cordial may produce on a fainting
man. All the forces of my frame seemed refreshed, redoubled; and as such
effects on the physical system are ordinarily accompanied by correspondent
effects on the mind, so I was sensible of a proud elation of spirits,--a
kind of defying, superb self-glorying. All fear seemed blotted out from
my thought, as a weakness impossible to the grandeur and might which
belong to Intellectual Man; I felt as if it were a royal delight to scorn
Earth and its opinions, brave Hades and its spectres. Rapidly this
new-born arrogance enlarged itself into desires vague but daring. My mind
reverted to the wild phenomena associated with its memories of Margrave.