And here I may declare something in which I firmly believe, yet which very few I fear will understand as I mean it.

If this fascination and other faculties like it may be called Magical (albeit all is within the limits of science and matter), then there are assuredly in this world magicians whom we meet without dreaming that they are such.

Here and there, however rare, there is mortal who has studied deeply--but "Softened all and tempered into beauty; And blended with lone thoughts and wanderings, The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind To _love_ the universe." Such beings do not come before the world, but hide their lights, knowing well that their magic would defeat itself, and perish if it were made common.

Any person of the average worldly cast who could work any miracles, however small, would in the end bitterly regret it if he allowed it to be known.

Thus I have read ingenious stories, as for instance one by HOOD, showing what terrible troubles a man fell into by being able to make himself invisible.