the other's
presence. At the end of a minute the hypnotised patient was found to
have acquired the other's hemiplegia. The experiment was repeated
every day, and in four days the new comer was relieved of her
trouble, which had lasted over a year. The same experiment was tried
in many cases, and always succeeded, although in some of them the
affections imitated were of a very complex character, such as
paralysis of half the tongue. With these facts in view, the alleged
experiences of the older mesmerists appear by no means impossible.

APPENDICES

I. IN DEFENCE OF A GREAT AND BELOVED POET WHOSE CHARACTER IS
DELINEATED IN THIS STORY.

II. A KEY TO "AYLWIN," BY THOMAS ST. E. HAKE,
REPRINTED FROM "NOTES AND QUERIES."

APPENDIX I

D. G. R.

Thou knewest that island, far away and lone,
Whose shores are as a harp, where billows break
In spray of music and the breezes shake
O'er spicy seas a woof of colour and tone,
While that sweet music echoes like a moan
In the island's heart, and sighs around the lake,
Where, watching fearfully a watchful snake.
A damsel weeps upon her emerald throne.

Life's ocean, breaking round thy senses' shore,
Struck golden song, as from the strand of Day:
For us the joy, for thee the fell foe lay--
Pain's blinking snake around the fair isle's core,
Turning to sighs the enchanted sounds that play
Around thy lovely island evermore.

Certain remarks that have been made upon the character of _D'Arcy_ in
_Aylwin_ have rendered it an imperative--nay, a sacred--duty for the
author to seize an opportunity that may never occur again of saying
here a few words upon the subject.

It is universally acknowledged that characters in fiction are not
creations projected from the author's inner consciousness, but are
founded more or less upon characters that he was brought into contact
with in real life.

Mr. A. C. Benson, in his monograph on D. G. Rossetti, in _English Men
of Letters_, says, 'It was for a long time hoped that Mr.
Watts-Dunton would give the memoir of his great friend to the world,
but there is such a thing as knowing a man too well to be his
biographer. It is, however, an open secret that a vivid sketch of
Rossetti's personality has been given to the world in Mr.
Watts-Dunton's well-known romance _Aylwin_, where