F0URTH STUDY

It is difficult to explain the attraction which the uncanny and eventhe horrible have for most minds. I have seen a delicate woman halffascinated, but wholly disgusted, by one of the most unseemly ofreptiles, vulgarly known as the "blowing viper" of the Alleghanies.She would look at it, and turn away with irresistible shuddering andthe utmost loathing, and yet turn to look at it again and again, onlyto experience the same spasm of disgust. In spite of her aversion,she must have relished the sort of electric mental shock that thesight gave her.