In a Glass Darkly Read Free Page A

destroy me, not as to the body only, but especially as to
the soul; for to destroy any man or spirit is the very delight of the
life of all who are in hell; but I have been continually protected by
the Lord. Hence it appears how dangerous it is for man to be in a living
consort with spirits, unless he be in the good of faith."...
    "Nothing is more carefully guarded from the knowledge of associate
spirits than their being thus conjoint with a man, for if they knew it
they would speak to him, with the intention to destroy him."...
    "The delight of hell is to do evil to man, and to hasten his eternal
ruin."
    A long note, written with a very sharp and fine pencil, in Mr. Jennings'
neat hand, at the foot of the page, caught my eye. Expecting his
criticism upon the text, I read a word or two, and stopped, for it was
something quite different, and began with these words,
Deus misereatur
mei
—"May God compassionate me." Thus warned of its private nature, I
averted my eyes, and shut the book, replacing all the volumes as I had
found them, except one which interested me, and in which, as men
studious and solitary in their habits will do, I grew so absorbed as to
take no cognisance of the outer world, nor to remember where I was.
    I was reading some pages which refer to "representatives" and
"correspondents," in the technical language of Swedenborg, and had
arrived at a passage, the substance of which is, that evil spirits, when
seen by other eyes than those of their infernal associates, present
themselves, by "correspondence," in the shape of the beast (
fera
)
which represents their particular lust and life, in aspect direful and
atrocious. This is a long passage, and particularises a number of those
bestial forms.

Chapter IV
— Four Eyes Were Reading the Passage
*
    I was running the head of my pencil-case along the line as I read it,
and something caused me to raise my eyes.
    Directly before me was one of the mirrors I have mentioned, in which I
saw reflected the tall shape of my friend, Mr. Jennings, leaning over my
shoulder, and reading the page at which I was busy, and with a face so
dark and wild that I should hardly have known him.
    I turned and rose. He stood erect also, and with an effort laughed a
little, saying:
    "I came in and asked you how you did, but without succeeding in awaking
you from your book; so I could not restrain my curiosity, and very
impertinently, I'm afraid, peeped over your shoulder. This is not your
first time of looking into those pages. You have looked into Swedenborg,
no doubt, long ago?"
    "Oh dear, yes! I owe Swedenborg a great deal; you will discover traces
of him in the little book on Metaphysical Medicine, which you were so good
as to remember."
    Although my friend affected a gaiety of manner, there was a slight flush
in his face, and I could perceive that he was inwardly much perturbed.
    "I'm scarcely yet qualified, I know so little of Swedenborg. I've only
had them a fortnight," he answered, "and I think they are rather likely
to make a solitary man nervous—that is, judging from the very little I
have read—I don't say that they have made me so," he laughed; "and I'm
so very much obliged for the book. I hope you got my note?"
    I made all proper acknowledgments and modest disclaimers.
    "I never read a book that I go with, so entirely, as that of yours," he
continued. "I saw at once there is more in it than is quite unfolded. Do
you know Dr. Harley?" he asked, rather abruptly.
    In passing, the editor remarks that the physician here named was one of
the most eminent who had ever practised in England.
    I did, having had letters to him, and had experienced from him great
courtesy and considerable assistance during my visit to England.
    "I think that man one of the very greatest fools I ever met in my life,"
said Mr. Jennings.
    This was the first time I had ever heard him say a sharp thing of
anybody, and such a term applied to so high a name a little startled me.
    "Really! and in what way?" I