600 yards of silk in one continuous thread, but it is so fine that it takes from four to six combined strands to form the staple thread of com

merce.

The moth, shortly after leaving the cocoon, commences laying her eggs, which work is completed in about four days. The eggs from the "first crop of worms are laid aside for about twelve days, when they are brought to the hatching-room prepared for the second crop, which in its turn is completed by the formation of the cocoon in from thirty to forty days. At the close of the second crop enough moths only are allowed to escape from the cocoons as may be wanted for seed. The "firmest and best" cocoons are to be set apart for this purpose-the "size" is not to be taken into consideration. The eggs are then placed in a tin box to prevent the ravages of insects, and hung up in a cool dry place, at a temperature of 40°, for the winter. Cold, and even freezing, does not affect the eggs, but heat will cause them to hatch before their food is ready for them. It is often necessary in the spring to place the box of eggs on ice to prevent premature hatching. The eggs are brought out about the 1st of May, if the season is favorable, from the wintering place at 40°, gradually, to hatching-room at 75°, when the process before described is gone through with. Constant feeding, cleanliness, an even temperature of 75°, and plenty of pure air will reward the raiser (if his stock is good) with a return of beautifully colored cocoons of natural silk for the labor and time he has expended.

The male cocoon is distinguished from the

female by being smaller-pointed at the ends, and having a depression around the centre. An equal number of each, male and female, is retained for seed. 200 or 225 cocoons are generally set aside to produce one ounce, or 40,000 eggs. Each female lays from 200 to 400 eggs. The moths do not eat anything during their short life of from four to eight days, neither do they fly.

This work of silk-raising is well calculated to add to the income of thousands of families in the United States, and is particularly adapted to the young and aged members of the family who have no other particular employment for their time. The industry should be encouraged in every possible way. If we have more silk-raisers, we will have more silk-mills in operation here, thus preventing immense amounts of money from leaving this country to enrich others There is no doubt that silk goods can be manufactured in this country fully equal to that of foreign nations. There is no such word as "fail" among us.

a

Those not wishing to enter into silk-raising as business, but who take an interest in nature's wonderful works, should raise silk-worms in small numbers for the sake of watching their habits. Day by day as they grow, it is a most interesting and beautiful study. So short is the life of this industrious creature, that no lover of nature and her mysteries can possibly tire of watching its rapid growth: its constant feeding, day and night, its preparation for its final work for the benefit of mankind, and then, covering itself with its silken shroud, disappearing from our sight forever.

IMMEDIATELY that I had graduated, I decided to go to Germany, confident I should find there others interested in those peculiar intellectual pursuits the occult sciences and speculative philosophy-which occupied my mind, aware that association with persons of congenial tastes would afford a stimulus that must be wanting if I remained in my own country, where I should be surrounded by those not only not in sympathy with my thoughts, feelings, purposes, but who deemed them the wildest, most profitless vagaries. I selected Leipsic as my place of residence, on account of its time-honored university and prolific libraries. There was no especial need that I practice economy; but I knew the novel features of a foreign life might tend to disorganize the best-laid plans, unless all contingencies were provided against. So I obtained apartments in a crazy old building in the outskirts of the city, thinking thus to reduce the provocations to laxity to a minimum.

A few days sufficed to remove all sense of strangeness, to make me feel most thoroughly at home in my retired quarters, and then I resigned myself to the studies of which I was so passionately fond. To say I was superlatively happy would be no exaggeration, for I found my suppositions with reference to the students, if possible, more than verified: that most of them were interested in the subjects for which I had so decided a predilection.

Having rooms directly over mine was a young man, Hermann Kreitzel by name; and though we were the sole tenants of the building, and lived in such contiguity, so severe was the seclusion in which he kept himself,-the majority of students in German universities are noted for their "gregariousness,"I seldom saw him, except as, entering or going from the building, I passed him; and then he never noticed me so much as with the slightest inclination of his head. Nor did any of the other students know aught of him, save that they knew absolutely nothing.

He was, perhaps, twenty-five years of age, of the medium height, rather slim than otherwise. He had sharp, clear-cut features, a finely-shaped VOL. XVII.—11

nose, and lips that indicated a refined, sensitive nature. His forehead was high and broad, and surrounded by a mass of light-brown, curling hair. His complexion, in correspondence with his hair, was pale; his eyes, in direct contrast, intensely black. His residence in Leipsic antedated mine some eighteen months. Evidently of studious habits, he never attended lectures. For hours he would sit in one or another of the libraries, his chin resting in his hands, and earnestly scan the pages of some volume placed before him, printed in characters intelligible to none of the other students; and when through with it he would restore the book to its proper place and quietly go out, seemingly conscious of nothing outside his thoughts, his fingers working nervously, as if he were trying to grasp some idea not quite within his reach.

Several times in my life, when standing on a dizzy eminence, I have felt the strongest impulse to hurl myself therefrom; and as, with strainedeyeballs and throbbing brain, I peered over the brink, down, down into the black space below, I would cling to any object presenting itself with frantic grasp, lest, in a moment of unusual weakness, I yield to the malign influence at work upon me, which I was able to resist only by the utmost mental exertion; conscious of the madness it was to remain, but powerless to withdraw from the spot.

This paradoxical sentiment was operative with me in reference to Hermann Kreitzel. The first time our eyes met, a shiver ran through my frame, and a vague precognition was mine that an intimacy with him would work me hirm; yet I was, thenceforth, possessed of the most intense longing to become acquainted with him. I could devise no means for bringing about such a result; but it was finally effected in the following manner:

Certain of us students had formed ourselves into a club, for the purpose of discussing metaphysical and psychical problems, and these discussions were proving more popular than at their inception we supposed they would be. was neither cliquish nor distinguished by any colors, as are most student corps in Germany.

situated at the extremity of the solar system, was found to be affected by certain perturbations, explicable in no way save on the hypothesis that another planet, exterior to all then known, did exist. It would seem a hopeless problem-the groping through space and determining the locale of such a planet; but it was attempted by M. Le Verrier, of Paris, and Mr. Adams, of Cambridge. and solved so accurately that, when actually discovered by Dr. Galle, of Berlin, it was less than one degree from the position assigned it by Verrier, and only about two degrees from its place as calculated by Mr. Adams.

"Similarly, I perceive that some of the thoughts which I have traced out by means of my delicate instruments, relics,-they sustain the same relation to the subject under consideration that the telescope bears to astronomy,—are not in harmony with other synchronous thoughts, and I know their perturbations must have resulted from the influence of thoughts exterior to the realm to which my observations are restricted. Reasoning a posteriori, I find the modifications, so clearly discerned, necessitate the existence of a particular class of thoughts, and I unhesitatingly conclude that such have been. Thus, by a continual retrogression, I approximate more and more closely to the great first thought, never quite comprehensible for the reason heretofore given."

I have detailed thus much of our conversation, because the course of reasoning he therein adopted fairly typifies Kreitzel's argumentative method on all occasions, so far as I know.

Discontinuing the subject, he became discursive, astounding me by the boldness of his ideas, the extent and profundity of his erudition, though there was no evidence of pedantry on his part. I thought, at the time, I had never seen a more sociable person; but a subsequent consideration of our interview convinced me "sociability" was a misnomer, as he had done nearly all the talking, while the listening had mostly devolved on me. I realized, too, that a vein of cynicism-faint but decided-had pervaded his remarks, that a certain levity had characterized his treatment of things which I regarded sacred, and the realization rasped my feelings. The remembrance of his lustrous eyes, which, in the semi-darkness of his room, had seemed to emit flashes of phosphorescent light, caused a dismal, oppressive sensation that remained alta meute repostum, despite my endeavors to throw it off.

From this time Kreitzel constantly associated with me, though he kept aloof from the other students as persistently as ever. I always experienced the same feeling of disquietude when in his presence, and the "seeming" of his eyes. haunted me for hours after we had been together. He rendered me valuable assistance in the prosecution of my studies; for, clear-headed and familiar with those branches to which I was giving attention, he comprehended their subtlest points, and his exposition of them was terse, vigorous, perspicuous.

His views were, in many instances, so antagonistic to those I had previously held, I could not, at first, adopt them. They were, however, presented so earnestly, with such evident self-conviction, they appeared unquestionable, and I gradually became a proselyte to his sentiments on all matters. His cynicism and lurking contemptuousness infected me more and more as the months rolled on, till my entire nature was metamorphosed. Formerly joyous and social, I grew morbidly melancholy and avoided companionship with any save him. The sense of discomfort, ever perceptible when in his presence, was one of absolute fear when I was away from him. I fully realized that he was rapidly, purposely, and completely gaining the mastery of my mind; why he desired to do this, I could not conceive.

Confident the only preventive of the mental demoralization threatening me-which, possibly, might merge into insanity-would be found in a departure from Leipsic, I, with an almost superhuman effort, burst my fetters and, without having signified my intention to any one, in early summer left the city-uncertain whither or how far my wanderings would extend. I resolved to make a purely pedestrian tour, and to avoid all largelypopulated places.

At first my spirits refused to rise from their depressed condition, but by degrees they assumed a more healthy tone. The blithe joviality of German country-life inspired me with a vigor of mind and body to which I had for a long time been a stranger; and my gloom and moroseness were supplanted by a feeling of perfect serenity. Quite by accident, I directed my steps toward the Rhine, which I reached at a point near the northern extremity of the Black Forest Mountains; and, determined to enjoy whatever was enjoyable, so leisurely did I move, it was past the middle of July when I arrived at Lake Constance.