Produced by Irma Špehar, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) THE DEVIL'S ELIXIR. FROM THE GERMAN OF E. T. A. HOFFMANN. _In diesem Jahre wandelte auch her_ DEUVEL _offentlich auf den Strassen von Berlin.----_ _Haftit Microc. Berol. p. 1043._ In that yeare, the Deville was alsoe seene walking publiclie on the streetes of Berline.---- VOL. II WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH: AND T. CADELL, LONDON. 1829. THE DEVIL'S ELIXIR. CHAPTER I. Who is there, over the wide world, who has not, at one period or another, in a more or less degree, felt the mysterious influences of love?--Whoever thou art, then, courteous reader, who shalt, after the lapse of years, turn over these papers, recall, I beseech you, to recollection that noontide interval of dazzling brightness--contemplate once more that beautiful image, which came, like an impersonization of the abstract spirit of love, from divine regions, to meet you. At that time, it was through her,--through her alone, that thou seemed'st assured of thine own existence! Canst thou not yet remember, how the rushing streams, the waving trees, and the balmy winds of evening, spoke to thee, in articulate and intelligible accents, of her, and of the prevailing passion which possessed thy whole heart and soul?--Canst thou yet behold how the flowers unfolded their bright beaming eyes, bearing to thine from her kisses and salutation? Yet, suppose that she herself had actually come--that she vowed to be thine, and thine only--to live for thee alone--then didst thou fold her in thy embraces, and it seemed as if Heaven opened its eternal realms to receive you--as if thou could'st raise thyself with her above all the petty sorrows or enjoyments of this every-day and earthly sphere. Yet scarcely hadst thou formed such hopes ere she was lost! The bland illusion was broken. No longer could'st thou hear the music of her celestial voice; and only the sorrowful complaints of the despairing and forsaken lover sounded amid the desolate loneliness!