And
since by person we understand an intelligent essence having reason,
and since there is a consciousness which always accompanies
thinking, it is this which makes us all to be that which we call
ourselves, thereby distinguishing us from other beings that think, and
giving us our personal identity. But the principium indivduationis,
the notion of that identity which at death is or is not lost for ever,
was to me, at all times, a consideration of intense interest; not more
from the perplexing and exciting nature of its consequences, than from
the marked and agitated manner in which Morella mentioned them.
But, indeed, the time had now arrived when the mystery of my wife's
manner oppressed me as a spell. I could no longer bear the touch of
her wan fingers, nor the low tone of her musical language, nor the
lustre of her melancholy eyes. And she knew all this, but did not
upbraid; she seemed conscious of my weakness or my folly, and,
smiling, called it fate. She seemed also conscious of a cause, to me
unknown, for the gradual alienation of my regard; but she gave me no
hint or token of its nature.
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