It
mattered not how many or how few were present: this my second
self was sure to be present in his place, and this occasioned a
confusion in all my words and ideas that utterly astounded my
friends, who all declared that, instead of being deranged in my
intellect, they had never heard my conversation manifest so much
energy or sublimity of conception; but, for all that, over the
singular delusion that I was two persons my reasoning faculties
had no power. The most perverse part of it was that I rarely
conceived myself to be any of the two persons. I thought for the
most part that my companion was one of them, and my brother
the other; and I found that, to be obliged to speak and answer in
the character of another man, was a most awkward business at the
long run.
Who can doubt, from this statement, that I was bewitched, and
that my relatives were at the ground of it? The constant and
unnatural persuasion that I was my brother proved it to my own
satisfaction, and must, I think, do so to every unprejudiced
person. This victory of the Wicked One over me kept me
confined in my chamber at Mr. Millar's house for nearly a month,
until the prayers of the faithful prevailed, and I was restored.
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