yself not ill of my business,--they asked no
more,--and neither offered nor expected personal interest or
friendship.

As the months rolled on, I became more interested than formerly in
medical reading. Absorbed entirely in my books, I even fancied that
the healing apathy which sheltered my life was growing more profound.
This was a mistake; the thickening of the vapors that shut out the
external world, really denoted that they were about to condense and
precipitate themselves into a new creation. New interests were
preparing, that should presently claim from my nature all the energy,
enthusiasm, and passion which had once been devoted to the old. Of
this I became aware in the following manner. One day, among a package
of books sent to me from Paris, arrived a pamphlet just written in
defence of a new theory concerning the movements of the human heart.
My curiosity was excited by the idea of a new theory on such a famous
subject, and my interest was by no means abated after perusal of the
pamphlet. Exposition of this theory would demand a crowd of technical
details, unintelligible to the general reader, and therefore
inappropriate in this place. But let such an one take the trouble
to listen for a moment to the ticking of a heart, seemingly so
monotonous, simple, and easy to understand, and then reflect that the
slight elements discoverable in this little sound, have been forced
by human intellect into at least twenty different combinations, and
afforded ground for as many theories, each defended with impassioned
earnestness by a different observer. He may then realize something of
the interest which attaches to the explanation of this phenomenon--may
even experience a sort of mental vertigo, as if he had witnessed the
evolution of a world out of nothing. Owing to the paucity of the facts
to be observed, the finesse requisite for the observation, and the
intellectual dexterity needed to retain such minute circumstances
before the mind long enough to think about them, the problem is one of
the most delicate and intricate offered by physiological science. Once
engaged in its discussion, the mind becomes hopelessly fascinated, and
continues to pirouette about an invisible point, that is neither a
thought nor a material phenomenon, but, as it were, a refined essence
of both.

As in all series of vital actions, each item of the phenomenon in
question is so interlinked with the rest, that an explanation of a
part can never