ate of being, in which, while the senses are accessible
to the influence of surrounding objects, the process of thought is
suspended, the man seems to enjoy an inverted existence, in which the
soul sleeps, and the body remains awake and susceptible of external
impressions. I once thought I was washing myself in the lake, and that
the dashing noise of its waters rang in my ears: I also fancied myself
at home in conversation with my friends; yet, in neither case, did I
altogether forget where I was. Still in struggling to bring my mind
back, so paramount was the dread of awaking deranged should I fall
asleep, that these occasional visions--associating themselves with this
terror--and this again broken in upon by the hoarse murmurs about me,
throwing their dark shades on every object that passed my imagination,
the force of reason being too vague at the moment; these occasional
visions I say, and this jumbling together of broken images and
disjointed thoughts, had such an effect upon me, that I imagined several
times that the awful penalty was exacted, and that my reason was gone
for ever. I frequently started, and on seeing two dim lights upon the
altar, and on hearing the ceaseless and eternal murmurs going on--going
on--around me, without being immediately able to ascribe them to their
proper cause, I set myself down as a lost man; for on that terror I
was provokingly clear during the whole night. I more than once gave an
involuntary groan or shriek, on finding myself in this singular state;
so did many others, and these groans and shrieks were wildly and
fearfully contrasted with the never-ending hum, which, like the
ceaseless noise of a distant waterfall, went on during the night. The
perspiration occasioned by this inconceivable distress, by the heat of
the place, and by the unchangeableness of my position, flowed profusely
from every core. About two o'clock in the morning an unhappy young man,
either in a state of lethargic indifference, or under the influence
of these sudden paroxysms, threw himself, or fell from one of the
galleries, and was so shattered by the fall that he died next day at
twelve o'clock,--and, what was not much to the credit of the clergymen
on the island--without the benefit of the clergy; for I saw a priest
with his stole and box of chrism finishing off his extreme unction when
he was quite dead. This is frequently done in the Church of Rome, under
a hope that life may not be utterly extinct, an