e, he retires to a sufficient distance from
them, not to be disturbed by any common noise they may make; any great
disturbance calls him back directly; likewise, he sits with his watch in
his hand, having a turn for noting the flight of time.

In contrast with the above conception of the states of sleeping and
waking, the alternations of which compose our ordinary being, I have now
to hold up another conception, resembling the first, of which it is the
double,--but vaguer, more shadowy, of larger and gigantic proportions,
from its novelty astonishing, like the mocking spectre of the Hartz;
which is yet but your own shadow cast by the level sunbeams on the
morning mist.

All the phenomena embodied in this conception, I propose to denominate
Trance. But let me premise that all do not belong to every instance of
trance. If I undertook to specify the external appearances of the human
species, I must enunciate among other things, as colours of the skin,
white, yellow, brown, black; as qualities of the hair, that it is
flowing, soft, lanky, harsh, frizzled, woolly; but I should not mean
that every human being presented all these features.

Then, as our ordinary being presents an alternation of sleeping and
waking, so does trance-existence. There is a trance-sleep and a
trance-waking to correspond with ordinary sleep and ordinary waking.

As natural sleep has different degrees of profoundness, so has trance
sleep. They present a latitude so extensive, that it is convenient and
allowable to lay down three different degrees or states of trance-sleep.

Then, of trance-sleep first, and of its three degrees.

The deepest grade of trance-sleep extinguishes all the ordinary signs of
animation. It forms the condition in which many are buried alive. It is
the so-called vampyr state in the vampyr superstition. [See Letter II.
of this series.]

The middle grade presents the appearance of profound unconsciousness;
but a gentle breathing and the circulation are distinguishable. The body
is flexible, relaxed, perfectly impassive to ordinary stimuli. The
pupils of the eyes are not contracted, but yet are fixed. This state is
witnessed occasionally in hysteria, after violent fits of hysteric
excitement.

In the lightest degree of trance-sleep, the person can sustain itself
sitting; the pupils are in the same state as above, or natural; the
apparent unconsciousness profound.

Two features characterise trance-sleep in all its grades.