22
NIGHTMARE ABBEY.
ample time and space to germinate into a fertile crop of chimæras, which rapidly shot up into vigorous and abundant vegetation.
He now became troubled with the passion for reforming the world.[1] He built many castles in the air, and peopled them with secret tribunals, and bands of illuminati, who were always the imaginary instruments of his projected regeneration of the human species. As he intended to institute a perfect republic, he invested himself with absolute sovereignty over these mystical dispensers of liberty. He slept with Horrid Mysteries under his pillow, and dreamed of venerable eleutherarchs and ghastly confederates holding midnight conventions in subterranean caves. He passed whole morn-
