HONESTY. 279 



tion-book, until his imagination was worked up to 



such a pitch as easily transformed one object into 

 the appearance of another, to which the fumes of 

 aromatic smoke no doubt greatly contributed . His 

 servant, knowing his master studied magic, and find- 

 ing great preparations for some secret performance, 

 bad, with a very natural curiosity, contrived to 

 secrete himself in the room, instead of retiring to 

 rest ; but when the lights were extinguished, and 

 the coloured flame of burning drugs threw a 

 ghastly effect over the figures of the apartment and 

 the countenance of his master, he became so pos- 

 sessed by fear, and influenced by the fumes of the 

 drugs, that at the moment when his master ex- 

 pected to see a spectre, he being no longer able to 

 contain himself in his hiding place, rose up slowly, 

 and forgetting he was under a table, threw it over. 

 In this confusion, his eyes caught the reflection of 

 his own face in a mirror, to which the burning 

 salts had given such a cadaverous appearance, that 

 he very naturally mistook his own living figure for 

 a supernatural agent, which so effectually worked 

 on his imagination, that he leaped suddenly on a 

 grand piano-forte, and broke it with a tremendous 

 crash. This only heightened the fears of both 

 master and man. The former, believing he had 

 raised a spirit which he could not lay, wisely quit- 



