CHAPTER 4.III.
BOOK V. — THE EFFECTS OF THE ELIXIR.
BOOK VI. — SUPERSTITION DESERTING FAITH.
BOOK VII. — THE REIGN OF TERROR.
CHAPTER 7.XVII. The Seventeenth and Last.
INTRODUCTION.
One of the peculiarities of Bulwer was his passion for occult studies. They had a charm for him early in life, and he pursued them with the earnestness which characterised his pursuit of other studies. He became absorbed in wizard lore; he equipped himself with magical implements—with rods for transmitting influence, and crystal balls in which to discern coming scenes and persons; and communed with spiritualists and mediums. The fruit of these mystic studies is seen in “Zanoni” and “A strange Story,” romances which were a labour of love to the author, and into which he threw all the power he possessed—power re-enforced by multifarious reading and an instinctive
