Chapter II
The doctor questions Lady
Mary and she answers
"I like your vicar
so much, Lady Mary," said I, as soon as he was gone. "He has read, traveled, and
thought, and having also suffered he ought to be an accomplished companion."
"So he is, and
better still, he is a really good man," said she. "His advice is invaluable
about my schools, and all my little undertakings at Dawlbridge, and he's so painstaking,
he takes so much trouble -- you have no idea -- wherever he thinks he can be of use. He's
so good-natured and so sensible."
It is pleasant to hear
so good an account of his neighbourly virtues. I can only testify to his being an
agreeable and gentle companion, and in addition to what you have told me, I think I can
tell you two or three things about him," said I.
"Really!"
"Yes, to begin
with, he's unmarried."
"Yes, that's right
-- go on."
"He has been
writing, that is he was, but for two or three years perhaps he has not gone on
with his work, and the book was upon some rather abstract subject -- perhaps
theology."
"Well, he was
writing a book, as you say; I'm not quite sure what it was about, but only that it was
nothing that I cared for. Very likely you are right, and he certainly did stop --
yes."
"And although he
only drank a little coffee here tonight, he likes tea, at least did like it
extravagantly."
"Yes, that's quite
true."
"He drank green
tea a good deal, didn't he?" I pursued.
"Well, that's very
odd! Green tea was a subject on which we used almost to quarrel."
"But he has quite
given that up," said I.
"So he has."
"And now, one more
fact. His mother or his father, did you know them?"
"Yes, both. His
father is only ten years dead, and their place is near Dawlbridge. We knew them very
well," she answered.
"Well, either his
mother or his father -- I should rather think his father -- saw a ghost," said I.
"Well, you really
are a conjurer, Dr. Hesselius."
"Conjurer or no,
haven't I said right?" I answered merrily.
"You certainly
have, and it was his father: he was a silent, whimsical man, and he used to bore
my father about his dreams, and at last he told him a story about a ghost he had seen and
talked with, and a very odd story it was. I remember it particularly, because I was so
afraid of him. This story was long before he died -- when I was quite a child -- and his
ways were so silent and moping, and he used to drop in sometimes, in the dusk, when I was
alone in the drawing-room, and I used to fancy there were ghosts about him."
I smiled and nodded.
"And now, having
established my character as a conjurer, I think I must say good-night," said I.
"But how did
you find it out?"
"By the plants, of
course, as the gipsies do," I answered, and so, gaily we said good-night.
Next morning I sent the
little book he had been inquiring after, and a note to Mr. Jennings, and on returning late
that evening I found that he had called at my lodgings and left his card. He asked whether
I was at home, and asked at what hour he would be most likely to find me.
Does he intend opening
his case, and consulting me "professionally," as they say? I hope so. I have
already conceived a theory about him. It is supported by Lady Mary's answers to my parting
questions. I should like much to ascertain from his own lips. But what can I do
consistently with good breeding to invite a confession? Nothing. I rather think he
meditates one. At all events, my dear Van L., I shan't make myself difficult of access. I
mean to return his visit tomorrow. It will be only civil in return for his politeness to
ask to see him. Perhaps something may come of it. Whether much, little, or nothing, my
dear Van L., you shall hear.
Chapter III
Dr. Hesselius picks up something in Latin books
Well, I have called at
Blank Street.
On inquiring at the
door, the servant told me that Mr. Jennings was engaged very particularly with a
gentlemen, a clergyman from Kenlis, his parish in the country. Intending to reserve my
privilege and to call again, I merely intimated that I should try another time, and had
turned to go when the servant begged my pardon, and asked me, looking at me a little more
attentively than well-bred persons of his order usually do, whether I was Dr. Hesselius;
and on learning that I was, he said, "Perhaps then, sir, you would allow me to
mention it to Mr. Jennings, for I am sure he wishes to see you."
The servant returned in
a moment with a message from Mr. Jennings, asking me to go into his study, which was in
effect his back drawing-room, promising to be with me in a very few minutes.
This was really a study
-- almost a library. The room was lofty, with two tall slender windows and rich dark
curtains. It was much larger than I had expected, and stored with books on every side,
from the floor to the ceiling. The upper carpet -- for to my tread it felt that there were
two or three -- was a Turkey carpet. My steps fell noiselessly. The bookcases standing out
placed the windows, particularly narrow ones, in deep recesses. The effect of the room
was, although extremely comfortable and even luxurious, decidedly gloomy, and aided by the
silence, almost oppressive. Perhaps, however, I ought to have allowed something for
association. My mind had connected peculiar ideas with Mr. Jennings. I stepped into this
perfectly silent room of a very silent house with a peculiar foreboding, and its darkness
and solemn clothing of books, for except where two narrow looking-glasses were set in the
wall they were everywhere, helped this somber feeling.
While awaiting Mr.
Jennings' arrival, I amused myself by looking into some of the books with which his
shelves were laden. Not among these but immediately under then, with their backs upward,
on the floor, I lighted upon a complete set of Swedenborg's Arcana Cælestia in
the original Latin, a very fine folio set, bound in the natty livery which theology
affects, pure vellum, namely gold letters, and carmine edges. There were paper markers in
several of these volumes. I raised and placed them, one after the other, upon the table,
and opening where these papers were placed I read in the solemn Latin phraseology a series
of sentences indicated by a pencilled line at the margin. Of these I copy here a few,
translating them into English.
"When man's
interior sight is opened, which is that of his spirit, then there appear the things of
another life, which cannot possibly be made visible to the bodily sight."...
"By the internal
sight it has been granted me to see the things that are in the other life more clearly
than I see those that are in the world. From these considerations, it is evident that
external vision exists from interior vision, and this from a vision still more interior,
and so on."...
"There are with
every man at least two evil spirits."...
"With wicked genii
there is also a fluent speech, but harsh and grating. There is also among them a speech
which is not fluent, wherein the dissent of the thoughts is perceived as something
secretly creeping along within it."
"The evil spirits
associated with man are indeed from from the hells, but when with man they are not then in
hell, but are taken out thence. The place where they then are is in the midst between
heaven and hell, and is called the world of spirits -- when the evil spirits who are with
man are in that world, they are not in any infernal torment but in every thought and
affection of man, and so in all that the man himself enjoys. But when they are remitted
into their hell, they return to their former state."...
"If evil spirits
could perceive that they were associated with man, and yet that they were spirits separate
from him, and if they could flow in into the things of his body, they would attempt by a
thousand means to destroy him; for they hate man with a deadly hatred."...
"Knowing,
therefore, that I was a man in the body, they were continually striving to destroy me, not
as to the body only, but especially as to the soul. For to destroy any man or spirit is
the very delight of the life of all who are in hell, but I have been continually protected
by the Lord. Hence it appears how dangerous it is for man to be in a living consort with
spirits, unless he be in the good of faith."...
"Nothing is more
carefully guarded from the knowledge of associate spirits than their being thus conjoint
with a man, for if they knew it they would speak to him, with the intention to destroy
him."...
"The delight of
hell is to do evil to man, and to hasten his eternal ruin."
A long note, written
with a very sharp and fine pencil in Mr. Jennings' neat hand, at the foot of the page
caught my eye. Expecting his criticism upon the text, I read a word or two and stopped,
for it was something quite different, and began with these words, Deus misereatur mei
-- "May G-d compassionate me." Thus warned of its private nature, I averted
my eyes and shut the book, replacing all the volumes as I had found them, except one which
interested me and in which, as men studious and solitary in their habits will do, I grew
so absorbed as to take no cognisance of the outer world, nor to remember where I was.
I was reading some
pages which refer to "representatives" and "correspondents," in the
technical language of Swedenborg, and had arrived at a passage, the substance of which is
that evil spirits, when seen by other eyes than those of their infernal associates,
present themselves, by "correspondence," in the shape of the beast (fera)
which represents their particular lust and life, in aspect direful and atrocious. This is
a long passage, and particularises a number of those bestial forms.
