126/147 He was haunted by a sprite, who stole his books and flung his MSS. A good genius, in the form of a handsome youth, appeared and conversed with him. He lost himself for hours together in abstraction, talking aloud, staring into vacancy, and expressing surprise that other people could not see the phantoms which surrounded him. He complained that his melancholy passed at moments into delirium (which he called _frenesia_), after which he suffered from loss of memory and prostration. |