increased. Its malice became, in a way,
aggressive. About two years ago, some
questions that were pending between me
and the bishop, having been settled, I
went down to my parish in Warwickshire,
anxious to find occupation in my profession.
I was not prepared for what happened,
although I have since thought I
might have apprehended something like it.
The reason of my saying so, is this—"

He was beginning to speak with a great
deal more effort and reluctance, and sighed
often, and seemed at times nearly overcome.
But at this time his manner was not
agitated. It was more like that of a sinking
patient, who has given himself up.

"Yes, but I will first tell you about
Kenlis, my parish.

"It was with me when I left this for
Dawlbridge. It was my silent travelling
companion, and it remained with me at
the vicarage. When I entered on the
discharge of my duties, another change took
place. The thing exhibited an atrocious
determination to thwart me. It was with
me in the church—in the reading-desk
—in the pulpit—within the communion-rails.
At last, it reached this extremity,
that while I was reading to the congregation,
it would spring upon the open book
and squat there, so that I was unable to see
the page. This happened more than once.

"I left Dawlbridge for a time. I placed
myself in Dr. Harley's hands. I did
everything he told me. He gave my case
a great deal of thought. It interested him,
I think. He seemed successful. For nearly
three months I was perfectly free from a
return. I began to think I was safe. With
his full assent I returned to Dawlbridge.

"I travelled in a chaise. I was in good
spirits. I was more—I was happy and
grateful. I was returning, as I thought,
delivered from a dreadful hallucination, to
the scene of duties which I longed to enter
upon. It was a beautiful sunny evening,
everything looked serene and cheerful, and I
was delighted. I remember looking out of
the window to see the spire of my church
at Kenlis among the trees, at the point
where one has the earliest view of it. It
is exactly where the little stream that
bounds the parish, passes under the road
by a culvert, and where it emerges at the
road-side, a stone with an old inscription
is placed. As we passed this point, I drew
my head in and sat down, and in the corner
of the chaise was the monkey.

"For a moment I felt faint, and then quite
wild with despair and horror. I called to
the driver, and got out, and sat down at
the road-side, and prayed to God silently
for mercy. A despairing resignation
supervened. My companion was with me as I
re-entered the vicarage. The same
persecution followed. After a short struggle I
submitted, and soon I left the place.

"I told you," he said, "that the beast has
before this become in certain ways aggressive.
I will explain a little. It seemed to be
actuated by intense and increasing fury,
whenever I said my prayers, or even
meditated prayer. It amounted at last to a
dreadful interruption. You will ask, how
could a silent immaterial phantom effect
that? It was thus, whenever I meditated
praying; it was always before me, and
nearer and nearer.

"It used to spring on a table, on the back
of a chair, on the chimney-piece, and slowly
to swing itself from side to side, looking
at me all the time. There is in its motion
an indefinable power to dissipate thought,
and to contract one's attention to that
monotony, till the ideas shrink, as it were, to
a point, and at last to nothing—and unless
I had started up, and shook off the catalepsy
I have felt as if my mind were on the point
of losing itself. There are other ways,"
he sighed heavily; " thus, for instance, while
I pray with my eyes closed, it comes closer
and closer, and I see it. I know it is not to
be accounted for physically, but I do
actually see it, though my lids are closed,
and so it rocks my mind, as it were, and
overpowers me, and I am obliged to rise
from my knees. If you had ever yourself
known this, you would be acquainted with
desperation."

Now Ready, price 5s. 6d., bound in green cloth,
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MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S FINAL READINGS.

MESSRS. CHAPPELL AND CO. have great pleasure
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and conclude his interrupted series of FAREWELL
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