more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium—­the bitter lapse into everyday life—­the hideous dropping off of the veil.  There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—­an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.  What was it—­I paused to think—­what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?  It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered.  I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth.  It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—­but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—­upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.  Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting.  A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country—­a letter from him—­which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no other than a personal reply.  The MS. gave evidence of nervous agitation.  The writer spoke of acute bodily illness—­of a mental disorder which oppressed him—­and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady.  It was the manner in which all this, and much more, was said—­it was the apparent heart that went with his request—­which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons.

Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend.  His reserve had been always excessive and habitual.  I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties, of musical science.  I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was,