aughing with an unforgettable
laugh, eating and tearing ideas and beliefs with a single word, as a
dog tears with one bite of his teeth the tissues with which he plays.

He repeated for me the comment of this Frenchman as he went away,
scared and terrified:--"I thought I had spent an hour with the devil."

Then he added,

"He had, indeed, monsieur, a frightful smile, which terrified us even
after his death. I can tell you an anecdote about it not generally
known, if it has any interest for you."

And he began, in a tired voice, interrupted by frequent fits of
coughing.

"Schopenhauer had just died, and it was arranged that we should watch,
in turn, two by two, till morning.

"He was lying in a large apartment, very simple, vast, and gloomy. Two
wax candles were burning on the bedside stand.

"It was midnight when I took up my task of watching along with one of
our comrades. The two friends whom we replaced had left the apartment,
and we came and sat down at the foot of the bed.

"The face was not changed. It was laughing. That pucker which we knew
so well lingered still around the corners of the lips, and it seemed
to us that he was about to open his eyes, to move, and to speak. His
thought, or rather his thoughts, enveloped us. We felt ourselves more
than ever in the atmosphere of his genius, absorbed, possessed by him.
His domination seemed to be even more sovereign now that he was dead.
A sense of mystery was blended with the power of this incomparable
spirit.

"The bodies of these men disappear, but they remain themselves; and in
the night which follows the stoppage of their heart's beatings, I
assure you, monsieur, they are terrifying.

"And in hushed tones we talked about him, recalling to mind certain
sayings, certain formulas of his, those startling maxims which are
like jets of flame flung, by means of some words, into the darkness of
the Unknown Life.

"'It seems to me that he is going to speak,' said my comrade. And we
stared with uneasiness bordering on fear at the motionless face with
its eternal laugh. Gradually, we began to feel ill at ease, oppressed,
on the point of fainting. I faltered:

"'I don't know what is the matter with me, but, I assure you, I am not
well.'

"And at that moment we noticed that there was an unpleasant odor from
the corpse.

"Then, my comrade suggested that we should go into the adjoining
room, and leave the door open; and I assented to his proposal.

"I took