t and science was clear and strong. Clara was attached
to her lover with all her soul, and when he parted from her, the first
cloud passed over her life. With what transport did she rush into his
arms when, as he had promised in his last letter to Lothaire, he had
actually returned to his native town and entered his mother's room.
Nathaniel's expectations were completely fulfilled; for directly he saw
Clara he thought neither of the Advocate Coppelius, nor of her
"sensible" letter. All gloomy forebodings had gone.

However, Nathaniel was quite right, when he wrote to his friend
Lothaire that the form of the repulsive barometer-seller, Coppola, had
had a most hostile effect on his life. All felt, even in the first
days, that Nathaniel had undergone a thorough change in his whole
temperament. He sank into a gloomy reverie, and conducted himself in a
strange manner, that had never been known in him before. Every thing,
his whole life, had become to him a dream and a foreboding, and he was
always saying that every man, although he might think himself free,
only served for the cruel sport of dark powers. These he said it was
vain to resist, and man must patiently resign himself to his fate. He
went even so far as to say, that it is foolish to think that we do any
thing in art and science according to our own self-acting will, for the
inspiration which alone enables us to produce any thing, does not
proceed from within ourselves, but is the effect of a higher principle
without.

To the clear-headed Clara this mysticism was in the highest degree
repugnant, but contradiction appeared to be useless. Only when
Nathaniel proved that Coppelius was the evil principle, which had
seized him at the moment when he was listening behind the curtain, and
that this repugnant principle would in some horrible manner disturb the
happiness of their life, Clara grew very serious, and said: "Yes,
Nathaniel, you are right. Coppelius is an evil, hostile principle; he
can produce terrible effects, like a diabolical power that has come
invisibly into life; but only then, when you will not banish him from
your mind and thoughts. So long as you believe in him he really
exists, and exerts his influence; only your belief is his power."

Nathaniel, quite indignant that Clara established the demon's existence
only in his own mind, would then come out with all the mystical
doctrine of devils and fearful powers. But Clara would break off
peevi