second sight, which, according to the testimony of my old nurse, had
belonged to several of my ancestors, had been in my case transformed in
kind without losing its nature, transferring its abode from the sight to
the hearing, whence resulted its keenness, and my fear and suffering.




Chapter II


_The Second Hearing_.

One summer evening, I had lingered longer than usual in my rocky
retreat: I had lain half dreaming in the mouth of my cave, till the
shadows of evening had fallen, and the gloaming had deepened half-way
towards the night. But the night had no more terrors for me than the
day. Indeed, in such regions there is a solitariness for which there
seems a peculiar sense, and upon which the shadows of night sink with a
strange relief, hiding from the eye the wide space which yet they throw
more open to the imagination. When I lifted my head, only a star here
and there caught my eye; but, looking intently into the depths of
blue-grey, I saw that they were crowded with twinkles. The mountain rose
before me, a huge mass of gloom; but its several peaks stood out against
the sky with a clear, pure, sharp outline, and looked nearer to me than
the bulk from which they rose heaven-wards. One star trembled and
throbbed upon the very tip of the loftiest, the central peak, which
seemed the spire of a mighty temple where the light was
worshipped--crowned, therefore, in the darkness, with the emblem of the
day. I was lying, as I have said, with this fancy still in my thought,