I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of
superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit. Darkness
had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to me merely the
receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of
beauty and strength, had become food for the worm. Now I was led to
examine the cause and progress of this decay and forced to spend days
and nights in vaults and charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon
every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human
feelings. I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I
beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I
saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain. I paused,
examining and analysing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified
in the change from life to death, and death to life, until from the
midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me--a light so
brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that while I became dizzy with
the immensity of the prospect which it illustrated, I was surprised
that among so many men of genius who had directed their inquiries
towards the same science, that I alone should be reserved to discover
so astonishing a secret.
Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman. The sun does not
more certainly shine in the heavens than that which I now affirm is
true. Some miracle might have produced it, yet the stages of the
discovery were distinct and probable.
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