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    despair , ' very well ! Then give her laudanum , —laudanum , —and continue to give her laudanum until an easy death finishes her . If Clara cannot sing again ^ she will not wish to live ; she lives to

    sing ; she exists in singing . Dear doctor , oblige me thus far ; poison her quickly . I hare acquaintances in the criminal college ; 1 studied at Halle with the president ; he has an excellent heart . You need not fear anything ; I swear you need not ; but poison her , I beg of you , my good doctor !' ' When people have arrived at a certain age / said the doctor , when they have worn powder during many years , they ought not to talk in this manner about murder and poisoning ; they ought rather to sit quietly in their arm-chair , and listen with

    patience to their medical adviser . ' s Well , so I will , ' said the chapel-master , in a lamentable (tone ; I will listen to what you have to say . ' * There is , ' continued the doctor , in Clara ' s case , something so strange , that I mi ght almost be allowed to term it marvellous . She speaks freely ; she has not even the signs of a common sore throat ; she is , as far as I am able to judge , quite in a fit state

    to produce a musical tone ; yet , as soon as she endeavours to sing , the sound is stifled , or else comes out low and hoarse . This negative state of illness mocks my skill . The enemy I combat escapes like a spectre . You certainly had reason to say that Clara exists only in her art , for she frets herself to death at the idea of losing hev voice , and that redoubles the evil . I am , to tell the truth , inclined to believe that her malady is more mental than bodily . '

    c are right , doctor , ' said a third interlocutor , who sat in a corner , with crossed arms ; ' you are ri ght , doctor ; you have struck the right note ; Clara ' s illness is the physical repercussion of a mental impression ; and not less dangerous on that account . I , alone , gentlemen , can explain it all to you . '

    ' Then pray do , ' said the chapel-master , in a very dolorous voice . The doctor approached his chair towards the new speaker , and looked at him with a satirical smile ; but the dialogist took no notice either of him or of the chapel-master , and raising his eyes to the ceiling , said : —

    'I once saw , chapel-master , a pretty painted little butterfly a prisoner under the wires of your grand pianoforte . The little insect fluttered from side to side , beating them with its wings , and producing sounds infinitely sweet , just perceptible to a tympanum exquisitely fine . As the delicate insect appeared

    voluptuously borne along by the harmonic undulations , it happened that now and then a string , touched ruder , struck , as if irritated , the joyous butterfly , whose brilliant colours were scattered into diamond dust ; but it fluttered gaily , until , at last , wounded more and more by the strings , it fell lifeless upon the sounding board ; tj * e sweet sounds which intoxicated it playing its requiem .

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    82 The Sanctum

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1835, page 82, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2642/page/2/