AESCULAPIUS. 499 



the splendors of the heaven of human reason and common 

 sense. 



In the van of this army of innovators, comes the Ger- 

 man dreamer and mystic, Hahnemann. From the land of 

 visions and seers, from the charmed realm of metaphysical 

 figments and poetical fables, the true home-world of spiritual 

 sea-serpents, mermaids, "gorgons, hydras, and chimeras 

 dire," comes this portentous shape, "form of the formless," 

 this inconceivable being. 



"The shadow came! a tall, thin, gray-haired figure, 

 That looked as it had been a shade on earth ; 

 Quick in its motions, and with an air of vigor, 

 But naught to mark its breeding or its birth. 

 Now it waxed little, and again grew bigger, 

 With now an air of gloom or savage mirth ; 

 But, as you gazed upon its features, they 

 Changed every instant to what none could say. 

 The more intently the ghosts gazed, the less 

 Could they distinguish whose the features were ; 

 The devil himself seemed puzzled even to guess ; 

 They varied like a dream now here, now there ; 

 And several people swore, from out the press, 

 They knew him perfectly ; and one could swear 

 He was his father, upon which another 

 Was sure he was his mothers cousin's brother ; 

 Another that he was a duke, or knight, 

 An orator, a lawyer, or a priest, 

 A nabob, a man-midwife ; but the wight 

 Mysterious, changed his countenance at least 

 As oft as they their minds : though in full sight 

 He stood, the puzzle was increased ; 

 The man ivas a phantasmagoria in 

 Himself, he was so volatile and thin." 



This shadow, like the heroes of Ossian, cloudy, vague, and 

 indefinite, comes surrounded by mists and inarticulate mut- 

 terings, a true son of the realm of transcendental ecstasy and 

 dreamy philosophy. With Thor-hammer in hand he tried to 

 crush the skulls of the past, essayed to pulverize to infinitesi- 

 mal powder the labors of the intellect of man for six thousand 

 years, to dissipate and dilute into an ocean of nothingness 



