the world where you have such important
duties to discharge.'

"Serapion gazed at me with a sombre, penetrating gaze. Then a sarcastic
smile played about his lips and cheeks, and he said, slowly and
solemnly:

"'You have spoken, sir, long, and, as _you_ consider, wisely and well.
Allow _me_, in turn, to say a few words in reply. Saint Anthony, and
all the men of the Church who have withdrawn from the world into
solitude, were often visited by vexing spirits, who, envying the inward
peace and contentment of their souls, carried on with them lengthy
contests, until they had to lie down conquered in the dust. And such is
_my_ fortune also. Every now and then there appear to me emissaries,
sent by Satan, who try to persuade me that I am Count P---- of M----,
and that I ought to betake myself to the life of Courts, and all sorts
of unholiness. Were it not for the efficacy of prayer, I should take
these people by the shoulders, turn them out of my little garden, and
carefully barricade it against them. But I need not do so in your case;
for you are, most unmistakably, the very feeblest of all the
adversaries who have ever come to me, and I can vanquish _you_ with
your own weapons--those of ratiocination. It is insanity that is in
question between us. But if one of us two is suffering from that sad
malady, it is evident that _you_ are so in a much greater degree than
I. You maintain that it is a case of Fixed Idea that I believe myself
to be Serapion the martyr--and I am quite aware that many persons hold
the same opinion, or pretend that they do. Now, if I am really insane,
none but a lunatic can think that he could _argue_ me out of the Fixed
Idea which insanity has engendered in me. Were such a proceeding
possible, there would soon be no madmen on the face of the earth, for
men would be able to rule, and command, their mental power, which is
not their own, but merely lent to them for a time by that Higher Power
which disposes of them. But if I am _not_ mad, and if I am really
Serapion the martyr, it is insane to set about arguing me out of that,
and leading me to adopt the Fixed Idea that I am Count P---- of M----.
You say that Serapion the martyr, lived several centuries ago, and
that, consequently, I cannot be that martyr, presumably for the reason
that human beings cannot remain so long on this earth. Well, as regards
this, the notion of time is just as _relative_ a notion as that of
number; and I may say to you that,