Athothis : a satire on modern medicine / by Thomas C. Minor.
156/210

such absurd doctrines, and, though I see the strange sights you mention, nevertheless deem them but transitory illu- sions. Like the immortal Paracelsus, I labor under an hallucination, and think I view objects that have no real existence. These airy phantoms are mere creatures of the imagination, conjured up by an over-excited brain. You speak of fallen angels and spirits of the damned. As for the ghosts of men, be they good or bad, quitting their graves to haunt their friends, I believe it not; neither do I admit that our blessed dead in any manner mingle in the affairs of this world." " Seeing, you do not believe," said Athothis. " Me thought, when you invited me to a seance, that you were not sceptical in this regard. Are you aware that at this very moment you pass through space with me ? Do you doubt your own spiritual identity ?" " Perhaps I am dreaming," answered Paulus Androcy- des, " and mine are but the vivid mental impressions of a restless cerebrum. Yet, I honestly affirm myself to be in a sad state of bewilderment, and am filled with terror as night creeps over us, and the air grows chilly as a shroud." "Doubting mortal!" cried Athothis, reprovingly. " Have no fears, for I promise to return you safely to your original habitation, where, on what you deem an awakening, your perplexity will be still more profound; for, like the majority of moderns, you will doubt your own senses on points clearly perceived by the ancients." " I confess to seeing," replied Paulus Androcydes, " yet I may not be awake, but mentally dreaming." At this instant a pair of bats flew across his spiritual face, while an owl hooted loudly from the gnarled branches of an oak beneath. Paulus Androcydes drew back in af-