Weekly Trinity journal., 1858-05-29
RIGINAL.
Vagarics Of u Chloroform Patient.

which had buried itself in the eye. | can give
but faint outline of the marvellous creations
with which that mysterious agent peopled the
mind | can almost believe that, for little
while, the soul stood on an cminonce and gazed
at a swiftly passing panorama of everything to
be conceived of by human imaglnationin in heaven,
earth and that profound prison created by The
sacred poets. Whole years passed. with the We
locity of fever dreams ; the imaginary events of
that half hour would occupy laborious painters
for hundred centuries.
A dread of surgical operations, and an unwil-
lingness to witness even the most triaing appli-
cations of the flesh knife, have always been one of
my peculiartles and when informed Of the ne
cessty of having the dreaded instrument applied
to the eye-ball, the cold sweat broke on my fore
head as though some bungling surgeon had been
cutting among the most sensitive nerves. Fear
and the agony of the wound made me gladly con-
sent to the use of supplying agent, although
aware that under the direction of the most skill
full of the faculty, only, any one should submit to
the hazardous agent which has SO often been the
instrument of involuntary homicide.
plying the handkerchief to my mouth then the
room began to magnify to gigantic proportions
common hanging lamp was transformed to
candeabrum, more luminous and costly than
ever lighted the grandest cathedral of the world
The surgeon became a giant of prodigious mag
ntude, holding huge, cleaning knife with a
single blow of which he might have severed me.
The sound of voices in the rootrrNemed like the
clamorings of vast multitude during the burn
ing of city, and sign-board, screcching out .
side, conveyed the idea of furious mob, col
lected in the street for my execution. On enter
ing the room | had noticed u large cat sitting
asleep on a shelf which turned its head lazily
toward me and then resumed its slumbers this
creature became a hideous, vampire-like mon
ster, with great, fiery ewes, and with fangs and
claws like what were tabled to belong to the
griffin, walking round, and blowing its iGted
breath on me, and pressing its frightiul paws on
my breast. But the worst of al was collection
of gigantic men sharpening Instruments for my
dissection could hear the whirrng of the
stone and the shrieking of the highly tempered
knives, as the grinders laughed and talked of the
intended dissection. One was more jocose and
heartless than the rest he was my implacabe
enemy we had quarrelcd and fought about
school mate love. Presently felt their keen
knives in every joint shrieked and screamed,
blasphemed and besought my tormentors, but
still the instruments bissed through my quiverng
flesh and grated along every bone | am salts
fled that all these emotions were experienced
within a moment after the first inhalation which
began the process of stupefacton. So swift are
the evolutons of thought when sense is subdued,
and when the phantom monarch of dreams leads
the soul through endless avenues, swfter in its
journeying than the short lived fire which falls
from the womb of an over-burdened cloud
But gradual revolution of mental perception
succeeded ; those frghtful spectres began to re-
cede the men and knives began to diminish the
cat returned to natural proportions and crept
slowly away the voices became less harsh and
threatening, and the noise in the street was sub
dued to unbroken silence ! looked into uni
verse of light with nothing visible, until indis-
tinct forms appeared on the horizon coming
towards me, and defining as they came One was
my mother, clad in grave clothes, but as m
neared, her babliments changed to the fabfEs
which gittered in the prophets vision, when be
looked over the great congregation which no
man could number Directly she stood by me
and, recognizing every feature, saw that each
age-mark was gone her cheek was fresh as the
young girls when she first bushes at the whis-
pered words of love, and STOPPING to kiss me the
80
beautiful and youthful it was the figure of my
young wife, who died in the birth of her first
child She held an infant in her arms who reach
ed down and ran his tiny fingers through my hair
but when tried to take him in my arms, infant
and mother were gone Strange, that felt no
disappointment knew that they were but pic.
lures that hung in the galleries of a fathers
heart. Everything changed to an existence of
indescribable pleasure ; l laughed and danced
like one mad with the exhileraton of unexpected
delverance from torture the air came into my
lungs gratefully as the upgushing of cool water
to the lips of q thirsty drinker. The aroma of
celestial gardens seemed about me | believed
that was in the territory of souls and wondered
how any one should fear to die. | could hear
sounds in the street, but they seemed to prolong
and swell, like the sound of great organ. Mil
lions of symetrical creatures passed in review,
along horizon of silver and gold, and yet, was
conscious that they were but the creations of
distorted imagination.
believe that superstition is Unborn and nation
al from my parents, who were descended from
the Covenanters of l743, Inherited veneration
for sacred things, and an explicable dread of the
unrevealed mysteries of the spiritual world
have never seen fash Of lightning or shootip
star, without believing, momcntarily, thai
were hurled through the air from the ha