diseased mind seemed incapable of appropriating to itself the gentle
promises of pardon and acceptance, but trembled at the denunciations
of punishment. The universal Father came not to him with open arms,
as to welcome a returned prodigal, but frowned with the severity of
a Judge about to pronounce sentence. Whithersoever the unhappy man
turned, he saw no ray of light to gild the darkness, and he himself
sometimes feared lest reason should desert her throne. But his friends
felt no apprehensions of the kind. In their presence, though grave,
he was always reasonable and on his guard--for he shrunk with the
sensitiveness of a delicate mind from exposing its wounds--nor with
the exception of the minister, and now Holden, was there one who
suspected his condition, and they probably did not realize it fully.
These remarks may serve to abate, if not to remove entirely the
reader's surprise, that one with the education, and in the position of
Armstrong, should have sought counsel from Holden. But it may be, that
the condition of mind to which Armstrong was approaching--similar in
some respects to that of the Solitary--established a sort of relation
or elective affinity between them, operating like the influence of the
magnet, to attract one to the other. We have seen how fond Holden
was of visiting the house of Mr. Armstrong. Could it be that this
mysterious influence, all unconsciously to himself, led his steps
thither, and that afar off he dimly espied the talisman that should
establish a full community between them? Or was not this community
already established? How else account for the visit of Armstrong, the
strange conversation, the confessions, concluded by an act, tender,
and perhaps graceful, but only such as was to be expected from a
deranged man?

Josiah Sill, true to his promise, arrived while the two men were still
talking, heedless of the passage of time. Mr. Armstrong stepped on