ily exertion will not injure you; exposure might; the
weather is very warm."

"There will be nothing for me to do--at least, nothing very hard on me."

"Danger seems at present averted," said Dr. Khayme. "Your depression has
gone; if you are not worse to-morrow, I shall not oppose your going."

I plunged into the subject most interesting to me: "Doctor, do you
remember telling me, some ten years ago, that you did not think it
advisable for me to tell you of my experiences?"

"Yes," he replied.

"And that it was best, perhaps, that I should not think of them?"

"Yes," he replied,

"Yet you referred last night to what you called my peculiar powers."

"Yes, and said that it is possible to make great use of them."

"Doctor, do you know that after I left you in Charleston I had a
recurrence of my trouble?"

"I had at least suspected it."

"Why do you call my infirmity a peculiar power?" I asked.

"Why do you call your peculiar power an infirmity?" he retorted. Then,
with the utmost seriousness, he went on to say: "Everything is relative;
your memory, taking it generally, is better than that of some, and
poorer than that of others; as it is affected by your peculiar periods,
it is in some features far stronger than the average memory, and in
other features it is weaker; have you not known this?"

"Yes; I can recall any object that I have seen; its image is definite,
if it has been formed in a lapse."

"But in respect to other matters than objects?"

"You mean as to thought?"

"Yes--speculation."

"In a lapse I seem to forget any mere opinion, or speculation, that is,
anything not an established fact."

"Suppose, for instance, that you should to-day read an article written
to show that the moon is inhabited; would you remember it in one of your
'states'?"

"Not at all," said I.

"Suppose you should hear a discussion of the tariff question; would you
remember it?"

"No, sir."

"Suppose you should hear a discussion upon the right to coerce a seceded
State, and should to-day reach a conclusion as to the truth of the
controversy; now, would you to-morrow, in one of your 'states,' remember
the discussion?"

"No; certainly not."

"Not even if the discussion had occurred previously to the period
affected by your memory?"

"I don't exactly catch, your meaning, Doctor."

"I mean to ask what attitude your mind has, in one of your 'states,'
toward unsettled questions."

"No attitude whatever; I know n