134 OF VITAL MOTION. 



appeared that it had been the old man's custom, for 

 years, to walk up and down a passage of his house 

 into which the kitchen door opened, and to read to 

 himself, with a loud voice, out of his favourite books. 

 A considerable number of these were still in the 

 niece's possession. She added that he was a very 

 learned man, and a great Hebraist. Among the 

 books were found a collection of Rabbinical writings, 

 together with several of the Greek and Latin fathers ; 

 and the physician succeeded in identifying so many 

 passages with those taken down at the young woman's 

 bedside, that no doubt could remain in any rational 

 mind concerning the true origin of the impressions 

 made on her nervous system. 



" This authenticated case," Coleridge proceeds to 

 say, " furnishes both proof and instance that reliques 

 of sensation may exist for an indefinite time in a 

 latent state, in the very same order in which they 

 were originally impressed ; and as we cannot 

 rationally suppose the feverish state of the brain 

 to act in any other way than as a stimulus, this 

 fact (and it would not be difficult to adduce several 

 of the kind) contributes to make it even probable 

 that all thoughts are in themselves imperishable ; 

 and that if the intelligent faculty should be rendered 

 more comprehensive, it would require only a different 

 and apportioned organization the body celestial^ 

 instead of the body terrestrial to bring before every 



