"So that Cresswell knew what his will had been able to do in the
direction of lifting Julian high up, almost above his nature. Well, then
followed certain foolish practices which I need not describe. Cresswell
and Julian joined in a certain trickery, often practised by people who
call themselves spiritualists and occultists. It certainly had an effect
upon them at the time, and I advised them earnestly to drop it. They
disregarded my advice, and the result was that Mr. Cresswell fell into
an extraordinary condition of body. He fell into a trance, became as if
he were dead, and remained so for some hours on a certain night. I was
called in to him, and actually thought that he was dead. But he revived.
Now, I believe that though he seemed to recover, and did recover in
body, he never recovered from that insensibility in mind. I believe he
went into that sleep sane and came out of it mad, and that he remains
mad to this moment. Certainly, ever since then he has been an altered
man, the man you know, not at all the man he used to be. Since that
night he, who used to be almost unconscious of the wonder of his own
will, has become intensely self-conscious, and engrossed with it, and
has wished to make it obey him and perform miracles.
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