ful head, and appear no more in
public.

Immediately after this I was seized with a strange distemper, which
neither my friends nor physicians could comprehend, and it confined me
to my chamber for many days; but I knew, myself, that I was bewitched,
and suspected my father's reputed concubine of the deed. I told my
fears to my reverend protector, who hesitated concerning them, but I
knew by his words and looks that he was conscious I was right. I
generally conceived myself to be two people. When I lay in bed, I
deemed there were two of us in it; when I sat up I always beheld
another person, and always in the same position from the place where I
sat or stood, which was about three paces off me towards my left side.
It mattered not how many or how few were present: this my second self
was sure to be present in his place, and this occasioned a confusion in
all my words and ideas that utterly astounded my friends, who all
declared that, instead of being deranged in my intellect, they had
never heard my conversation manifest so much energy or sublimity of
conception; but, for all that, over the singular delusion that I was
two persons my reasoning faculties had no power. The most perverse part
of it was that I rarely conceived myself to be any of the two persons.
I thought for the most part that my companion was one of them, and my
brother the other; and I found that, to be obliged to speak and answer
in the character of another man, was a most awkward business at the
long run.

Who can doubt, from this statement, that I was bewitched, and that my
relatives were at the ground of it? The constant and unnatural
persuasion that I was my brother proved it to my own satisfaction, and
must, I think, do so to every unprejudiced person. This victory of the
Wicked One over me kept me confined in my chamber at Mr. Millar's house
for nearly a month, until the prayers of the faithful prevailed, and I
was restored. I knew it was a chastisement for my pride, because my
heart was lifted up at my superiority over the enemies of the Church;
nevertheless I determined to make short work with the aggressor, that
the righteous might not be subjected to the effect of his diabolical
arts again.

I say I was confined a month. I beg he that readeth to take note of
this, that he may estimate how much the word, or even the oath, of a
wicked man is to depend on. For a month I saw no one but such as came
into my room, and, for all that, it will be