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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wonderful Story of Ravalette, by 
-Paschal Beverly Randolph
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
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-Title: The Wonderful Story of Ravalette
-
-Author: Paschal Beverly Randolph
-
-Release Date: March 31, 2013 [EBook #42442]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WONDERFUL STORY OF RAVALETTE ***
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42442 ***
 
                                   THE
                                WONDERFUL
@@ -6593,361 +6558,4 @@ except in obvious cases of typographical error (see list below).
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 Paschal Beverly Randolph
 
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42442 ***
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wonderful Story of Ravalette, by 
-Paschal Beverly Randolph
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Wonderful Story of Ravalette
-
-Author: Paschal Beverly Randolph
-
-Release Date: March 31, 2013 [EBook #42442]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WONDERFUL STORY OF RAVALETTE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Norbert Müller, Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-produced by the Wright American Fiction Project.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-                                  THE
-                               WONDERFUL
-                          STORY OF RAVALETTE.
-                                 ALSO,
-                        TOM CLARK AND HIS WIFE,
-  THEIR DOUBLE DREAMS AND THE CURIOUS THINGS THAT BEFELL THEM THEREIN;
-                                  OR,
-                        THE ROSICRUCIAN'S STORY.
-
-                         BY DR. P. B. RANDOLPH,
-                        "THE DUMAS OF AMERICA,"
- AUTHOR OF "WAA, GU-MAH," "PRE-ADAMITE MAN," "DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD,"
-     "IT ISN'T ALL RIGHT," "THE UNVEILING OF SPIRITISM," "THE GRAND
-              SECRET," "HUMAN LOVE--A PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE,"
-                            ETC., ETC., ETC.
-
-
-  "The fictions of genius are often the vehicles of the sublimest
-  verities, and its flashes often open new regions of thought, and throw
-  new light on the mysteries of our being."--
-
-                                                  CHANNING.
-
-
-                               NEW YORK:
-                  SINCLAIR TOUSEY, 121 NASSAU STREET.
-                                 1863.
-
-
-
-
-       ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
-                             P. B. RANDOLPH,
-
-
-In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for
-                   the Southern District of New York.
-
-
-
-
-                             INTRODUCTORY.
-
-
-In giving what follows to the world, no one can be more alive to the
-fact that this is the latter half of the nineteenth century, and that
-the present is emphatically the era of the grandest Utilitarianism,
-Revolution, Matter of Fact, and Doubt that the world ever knew, than is
-the editor of the following extraordinary tale. He has no apologies to
-make for offering it--no excuses, even as a novelist, for departing from
-the beaten track of "War, Love, Murder, and Revenge," "Politics,
-Passion, and Prussic acid," which constitute the staple of the modern
-novel.
-
-Disliking all long exordia, we propose to enter at once upon the work
-before us, by inquiring: Is there such a thing as real magic--not the
-ordinary, chemical, ambidextral jugglery, that passes current among the
-vulgar as magic--but the real old mysterious thing, whereof we read in
-old black-letter tomes?
-
-Utterly repudiating the pretensions of modern charlatans, and
-conscienceless impostors, who deal in "spirit photographs," and utter
-misty phrases about "Life in the Spheres," "Gloria," and "Jubilo,"
-together with schemes to reform the world--namely, by means of Indiana
-divorces, improved "Lieceums," "Air-lying dispatches," via _Caput
-Assinorum_, and much other.
-
-   "Canting, radical jabber and jaw,
-    'Bout Mornia and Hornia, and Starnos and 'Cor,
-    Hocus and pocus, and nong-tong-paw;
-    All stupid crams, not worth a straw."
-
-Not because there are no spirits, for one case in a million of reported
-spectral phenomena, may be true, but _all_ are totally unreliable--that
-is, they lie--and the person who places the least confidence in them in
-one thousand instances, is sure to be deceived nine hundred and
-ninety-nine times, and only reach approximate truth and fact in the
-thousandth.
-
-Spiritualism is yet the great _non sequitur_ of the age, so far as the
-vast majority of mankind is concerned--for while one portion of its
-phenomena may be really spiritual, the remaining nine hundred and
-ninety-nine portions are referable to something else than human ghosts.
-Spiritualism has done no good whatever, save in that it has called
-attention to new directions, thereby stimulating the spirit of inquiry;
-but in itself it is yet far from being among the certainties.
-
-I here disavow all intention to deride true spirit phenomena, if such
-there be; nor do I question the transmundane life of man--for the belief
-in immortality is a part of my very being--but, while ignoring the
-claims, and deriding the absurd pretensions of the vast majority of
-modern Eolists and self-styled mediums, I repeat the question: Is there
-any positive means or ways whereby even a favored few can penetrate the
-mysterious veil that hangs like an iron pall between the great human
-multitude and the infinitely greater BEYOND? Is it possible to break
-through the awful barrier--to glimpse through the Night-Curtain that
-screens and shrouds us from the Phantom-World?--if such there be.
-
-    "Deep the gulph that hides the dead--
-     Long and dark the way they tread."
-
-Can we know it? Can we by any possibility scan its secrets? Nor are we
-alone in propounding questions such as these; for every intelligent
-person, at some period or other, puts them to himself and neighbor, but,
-in the majority of cases, vainly. The writer hereof, like the great mass
-of people, has often propounded these queries, the result being a
-confirmed and indurated scepticism--which scepticism was, almost
-ruthlessly, swept away by the extraordinary series of events about to be
-recorded in these pages.
-
-
-
-
-                   THE WONDERFUL STORY OF RAVALETTE.
-
-                                BOOK I.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER I.
-
-                           THE STRANGE MAN.
-
-          "In the most high and palmy days of Rome,
-           A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
-           The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
-           Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."
-
-
-And he sat him down wearily by the side of the road. Wearily, for he had
-journeyed far that day. He was footsore, and his bodily powers were
-nearly exhausted by reason of the want and privation he had undergone.
-His looks were haggard, and a _pathetic_ pall, gloomy and tearful, hung
-and floated around him, invisible to, but sensibly felt by, all who
-lingered near, or gazed upon him. A sorrowful man was he.
-
-And as he sat there by the roadside, he leaned his head upon the staff
-which he held in his hand; and as he bowed him down, the great salt
-tears gushed from between his fingers, and watered the ground at his
-feet. In other days the cypress, plant of sorrow, sprung up there, and
-throve in sad and mournful beauty, as if to mark and guard the spot
-whereon the strong man had lifted up his voice and wept aloud--once upon
-a time.
-
-This was many years ago; and this was the occasion on which I became
-acquainted with the personage who figures so remarkably in this
-volume.[1] At that time the writer practically accepted, but mentally
-disbelieved, all the religious and psychologic faiths of Christendom;
-and, had any man even hinted at certain mysterious possibilities that
-have since then been verified and demonstrated, I should most certainly
-have laughed in his face, and have reckoned him up as a first-class fool
-or idiot. Things have changed since then.
-
-[1] The same personage is the principal character in the romance of
-"Dhoula Bel, or the Magic Globe," which will ere long be published.
-
-He was a man of middle height, was neither stout nor slender, but, when
-in full flesh, was a happy medium between the two. His head and brain
-were large, and, from certain peculiarities of form, really much more
-massive than they appeared. The skull was long and narrow at the base,
-especially about the ears; but above that line the brain was deep, broad
-and high, indicating great powers of _endurance_, with but moderate
-physical force, it being clearly apparent that the mental structure
-sustained itself to a great degree at the expense of the muscles, his
-nervous system, as in all such organizations, being morbidly acute and
-sensitive. There was, naturally or organically, nothing about him
-either coarse, brutal, low or vulgar, and if, in the race of life, he
-exhibited any of those bad qualities, it was attributable to the rough
-circumstances attendant upon him, and the treatment he received from the
-world. By nature he was open, frank, benevolent and generous to a fault,
-and of these traits men availed themselves to his sorrow. With abundant
-capacity to successfully grapple with the most profound and abstruse
-questions of philosophy or metaphysics, yet this man was totally
-incompetent to conduct matters of the least business, requiring even a
-very moderate financial ability. Such are nature's contradictions, such
-her law of compensation.
-
-As a consequence, this man, with abilities universally conceded to be
-good, was the ready victim of the first plausible knave that came along,
-from the "friend" who borrowed half his cash, and undertook to invest
-the balance--and kept the whole, to the printer of his books, who
-swindled him of both time and money.
-
-His complexion was tawny, resembling that of the Arab children of
-Beyroot and Damascus. The shape and set of the chin, jaws and lips, were
-indicative rather of power than force. The mouth, in its slightly
-protruding upper lip, and two small ridges at the corners, betokened
-executive ability, passion, courage, affection, humor, firmness and
-decision. The cheeks were slightly sunken, indicating care and trouble,
-while the cheek-bones, being somewhat high and broad, betrayed his
-aboriginal ancestry, as did also his general beardlessness, for, save a
-tuft beneath the chin of jet black silky hair, and a thin and light
-mustache, he could lay no claim to hirsute distinction. His nose, which
-had been broken by a fall when a child, was neither large nor small, and
-as a simple feature, was in no respect remarkable; but taken with the
-other features, was most decidedly so, for when under the influence of
-passion, excitement or emotion, there was an indescribable something
-about the alæ and nostrils that told you that a volcano slumbered in
-that man's brain and heart, only it required a touch, a vent, in the
-right direction, to wake its fires and cause it to blaze forth
-vehemently, transforming him in an instant from a passive, uncomplaining
-man, into the embodiment of virtuous championship of the cause that was
-true, or into a demon of hatred and vindictive fury. The good prevailed;
-for the evil spasm was ever a spasm only--save in a very few marked
-cases, where he had suffered wrongs, deep and grievous, at the hands of
-men whose meanness and duplicity toward himself he only discovered when
-they had gained their points and ruined him. These men he hated--and yet
-that word does not convey the true idea. His feeling was not vindictive,
-but was a craving for, and determination to exact justice for his
-wrongs. This satisfied, his ill will died on the instant. His eyes, or
-rather eye--for one was nearly lost from an accident--was a deep, dark
-hazel, and such as people are in the habit of describing as jet black.
-It shone with a lustre peculiar, and strangely magnetic when he let his
-soul go forth upon winged words from the rostrum, for he had been a
-public speaker in his time, and had won no small degree of fame on that
-field.
-
-Once seen and heard, this man was one whom it was impossible ever to
-forget, so different was he from all other men, and so marked and
-peculiar were his characteristics.
-
-Such, in brief, were the externals of the person to whom the reader is
-here introduced.
-
-A very singular man was he--the Rosicrucian--I knew him well. Many an
-hour, subsequent to that in which he is here introduced, have we sat
-together beneath the grateful shade of some glorious old elm on the
-green, flowery banks of Connecticut's silver stream, and under some
-towering dome palm beside the bosom of still older Nilus, in the hoary
-land of the Pharaohs, of magic and of myth, he all the while pouring
-into my ear strange, very strange legends indeed--legends of Time and
-the other side of Time--all of which my thirsty soul drank in as the
-sun-parched earth drinks in the grateful showers, or the sands of Zin
-the tears of weeping clouds. And these tales, these legends put to shame
-the wildest fictions of Germany and the terror-haunted Hartz.
-Particularly was I struck with a half hint that once escaped his lips,
-to the effect that some men on the earth, himself among the number, had
-preëxisted on this sphere, and that at times he distinctly remembered
-localities, persons and events that were cotemporary with him before he
-occupied his present form, and consequently that his real age exceeded
-that even of Ahasuerus, the Jew, who, in the dolorous road, mocked the
-Man of Calvary, as he bore his cross up the steep and stony way, for
-which _leze majeste_ he was doomed to walk the earth, an outcast and
-vagabond, from that hour till Shiloh comes, according to the legends of
-Jewry.
-
-My friend, during our intimacy, often spoke concerning white magic, and
-incidentally insisted on his curious doctrine of transmigration. Nor was
-this all: He taught that the souls of people sometimes vacated their
-bodies for weeks together, during which they were occupied by other
-souls, sometimes that of a permanently disembodied man of earth; at
-others, that of an inhabitant of the aëreal spaces, who, thus embodied,
-roamed the earth at will. He, when closely questioned, declared his firm
-belief that he had lived down through many ages, and that for reasons
-known to himself, he was doomed to live on, like the great
-Artefius--that other Rosicrucian--until a certain consummated act
-(wherein he was to be involuntarily an active party) should release him
-from it and permit him to share the lot of other men.
-
-As a consequence of his dissimilarity from others he appeared to have
-been endowed with certain hyper-mental powers, among which was a strange
-intro-vision, not the fraudulent clairvoyance claimed and palmed off
-upon the world by the arch impostor of Poughkeepsie, and others of the
-same kidney, but something analogous to that attributed to the
-oracle-priestesses of Delphos and Delos. This power, which was not
-always present, enabled him to behold and describe things, persons and
-events, even across the widest gulfs of ocean; and to read the secret
-history and thoughts of the most secretive, self-possessed and
-subtle-minded man as easily as if it were a printed scroll. When this
-ecstasy was on him he looked as if, at that moment, he beheld things
-forever sealed from the majority of eyes, and that too both with and
-without his wonderful magic mirror. At first I doubted his pretensions,
-mentally referred them to an abnormal state of mind, and, until they
-were abundantly demonstrated, laughed at the preposterous idea, as I
-considered it, of any one seriously claiming such extraordinary powers
-in the middle of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. As
-previously remarked, his complexion told that he was a _sang mêlée_--not
-a direct cross--but one in which at least seven distinct strains of
-blood intermingled, if they did not perfectly blend. Save when in high
-health and spirits, and weather extremely cold--at which times he was
-pale--his color was a rich, light bronze, like that of the youngsters
-one sees in such profusion, scampering like mad through the narrow and
-tortuous streets of Syrio-Arabic cities, demanding "Bucksheesh" from
-every Frank they see. With his large, broad, high brain, arched and open
-brow, his massive, elliptical and angular top-head, he was a marked man,
-and when his soul was at high tide, and his deep and mystic inspirations
-thrilled and filled him to the brim, his eye beamed with unearthly fire,
-glowed like the orbs of a Pythoness, and scintillated a light peculiarly
-its own. Whoever saw him then never forgot the sight, for he seemed to
-have the power of glancing instantaneously through the world--Time,
-space--everything and everywhere. Judging by his speech alone, one would
-have thought his education might not have been altogether neglected, but
-that it certainly was of a kind and quality entirely different from
-that usually received in Christian lands. There was very little, if any,
-polish about him--not that he lacked urbanity, courteousness or
-smoothness--not that he was rude or rough in any way, but his placidity
-was that of the river, forest or lake, not that of the boudoir or the
-schools of _politesse_. He was extremely enigmatical, and the most so
-when he appeared most frank in all that pertained to his inner life and
-world; and was more sphynx-like to me at the end of ten years' intimacy
-than on the first day of our acquaintance. He had, though poor,
-travelled extensively. Oriental in personal appearance and physical
-tastes, he was still more so in disposition and mind, and in all that
-pertained to dreamery, philosophy and the affections.
-
-With this description of the principal personage of this narrative, I
-now proceed to sketch another part of the man.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-
-                  HIS EARLY DAYS--THE STRANGE LEGEND.
-
-
-And there sat the man at the side of the road--sat there mournfully,
-silently weeping--the strange man!--as if his heart would break, and not
-from slight cause was he sorrowing. Not from present want of food,
-shelter, or raiment, but because his heart was full, and its fountains
-overflowing. The world had called him a genius, and as such had petted,
-praised, admired, and starved him all at once; but not one grain of true
-sympathy all the while; not a single spark of true disinterested
-friendship. The great multitude had gathered about him as city
-sight-seers gather round the last new novelty in the museum--a child
-with two heads, a dog with two tails, or the Japanese mermaid--duly
-compounded of codfish and monkey--and then, satisfied with their
-inspection, they turned from, and left him in all his deep loneliness
-and misery, all the more bitter for the transient light of sympathy
-thrown momentarily upon him. Genius must be sympathetically treated,
-else it eats its own heart, and daily dies a painful, lingering death.
-
-Throwing aside all his theories about preëxistence, and triple life, as
-being too recondite for either my readers or myself, we come at once to
-his natural, matter-of-fact history. At eight years of age he had been
-christened in the Roman Catholic Church, by the name of Beverly. From
-his father our hero inherited little save a lofty spirit, an ambitious,
-restless nature, and a susceptibility to passional emotions, so great
-that it was a permanent and positive influence during his entire life.
-His fifth year began and completed the only school education the boy
-ever had, and for all his subsequent attainments in that direction he
-was indebted to his own unaided exertions. His father loved him little;
-his mother loved him as the apple of her eye--and all the more because
-being born with a full and complete set of teeth, old gossips and
-venerable grey-beards augured a strange and eventful career; beside
-which, certain singular spectral visitations and experiences of his
-mother, ere, and shortly after the young eyes opened on the world,
-convinced her that he was born to no common destiny--much of which has
-already been detailed at length in "Dhoula Bel: or the Magic Globe." Two
-or three and twenty years prior to the opening of this tale, there lived
-at what then was No. 70 Canal street, New York city, a woman whose
-complexion was that of a Mississippi octoroon. She was a native of
-Vermont, had the reputation of being the most beautiful woman in the
-State, if indeed she was surpassed anywhere. Her mind was as rich in its
-stores and resources as her person was in feminine graces. Her life up
-to that time had been a checkered, and in the main, a very unhappy one,
-for her refinement, nature, education, character and acquirements, were
-such as to demand a broader, higher, better social sphere than what,
-from pecuniary want, she now occupied and moved in. Another cause of
-unrest was that she was maritally mismatched altogether, for her
-husband, after years of absence, during which she had deemed him dead,
-and contracted a second alliance with the father of her boy, had
-suddenly returned, and never from that moment did she receive one
-particle of what her heart yearned for--that domestic love and sympathy,
-ever the matron's due, and which alone can render life a blessing, and
-smooth the rugged, thorny pathway to the tomb.
-
-Flora Beverly claimed immediate kindred with the red-skinned sons of the
-northern wilderness, but that blood in her veins mingled with the finer
-current derived from her ancestor, the Cid--a strain of royal blood that
-in the foretime had nerved noble-souled men to deeds of valor, and fired
-the souls of Spanish poets to lofty achievements in the rosy fields of
-immortal song. She had been tenderly reared--perhaps too much so--for
-her strange and wonderful beauty, flashing out upon the world from her
-large and lustrous eyes, and beaming forth from every feature and
-movement, had been such that she had become marked in community from
-early childhood, and her parents, looking upon her as a special
-providence to them, had unwisely cultured qualities in her that had
-better have been held in abeyance. By over-care and morbid solicitude
-they had nearly spoiled God's handiwork, and she grew up an imperious,
-self-willed, exacting, and sensitive queen. She married, and expected to
-find herself the centre of a realm of unalloyed joy and delight, wherein
-her reign would be undisputed. The man she wedded took her for her
-beauty, expecting to realize a perfect heaven in its possession. Both
-were bitterly disappointed. The man could appreciate only the external
-and superficial qualities and excellences of his wife, while her inner,
-higher, better self--her soul, was a _terra incognita_ to him, which,
-like so many other husbands, he never even once dreamed of exploring; he
-had no idea whatever of the inestimable qualities of her heart,
-intellect, or spirit, and he had never found out that her body is the
-least a woman gives away--that she has gifts so regal for the man she
-loves, that glittering diamonds are sparkless, insipid, valueless in
-comparison.
-
-And so, the first delirious joy-month over, they both began to
-awaken--the man to the fact that to him his wife was a "very pretty
-doll," the woman that her husband was--a brute, whose soul slept soundly
-beneath the coverlets of sense, and herself its victim and minister. It
-was horrible; she lost heart, she despised this surface man, and sunk
-and lost bloom beneath the terrible weight of the discovery and its
-fearful results. Married, she had expected to move in a sphere very far
-above that which, by the laws of moral and mental gravity, she was
-compelled to occupy. Her horizon was henceforth to be bounded by that of
-her master and his associates. Her husband was vain of his conquest, and
-one of his greatest joys was found in parading and showing off her
-beauty to the best advantage, like a jockey does a fine horse--and
-feeling, jockey-like the while, "all this is _mine_!" Neither himself nor
-his associates in life could appreciate that more than royal loveliness
-which dwells within the breasts of educated and refined women--a beauty
-which eye hath never seen, which eye can never see, but which, like soft
-and delicate perfume, radiates from such to all who are fine enough to
-perceive it.
-
-As a matter of course, she soon grew weary and disgusted with this
-surface-life. Feeling that she was unappreciated by the living thousands
-around her, she, with the true instinct of the Indian, spurned their
-contact, fell back upon herself, and then, with every tendril of her
-soul, turned and yearned toward the teeming millions of the dead. She
-invoked them to her aid, and religiously believed her prayers
-answered--as I do--and delivering herself up wholly to their weird care
-and guidance, thenceforward lived a double life--a shadow-life in the
-world, a real life in the phantom land. True to the natural instinct of
-the human heart, just in proportion as she withdrew from the world, so
-did she approach that awful veil which is only uplifted for the sons and
-daughters of sorrow and the starbeam. She became a seeress, a dreamer,
-and, in what to her was an actual, positive communion with the lordly
-ghosts of the dead nations, whereof, in both lines, her forefathers had
-been chiefs, she sought that sympathy in her sorrows, and in her strange
-internal joys--that mysterious balm of healing, which the red man in his
-religion--or superstition, if you will--believes can only thus and there
-be had. And she found what she sought, or what to the spontaneous and
-impulsive soul amounts to the same thing, believed that she had found
-it. At first she had some difficulty in correctly translating into her
-human language of heart and word that which she took to be the low
-whisperings of the aërial dwellers of the viewless kingdom of MANATOU.
-She ardently longed for a more open intercourse with the dead, and, as
-herein stated, as well as in "Dhoula Bel," was gratified.
-
-Poor Flora! half-child of Nature and of Art, was destined to bear a
-child, and that child the man of these volumes--in the very midst of the
-conditions here sketched, under these conditions he was born.
-
-As already stated, beneath this woman's heart there slumbered the fires
-of a volcano, intense, fervent, quenchless, the result alike of her
-peculiar ancestry and peculiar training. Her full soul became
-re-incarnate in the son she bore; and with it she endowed the child with
-her own intense desire to love and be loved; all her mystic spirit, her
-love of mystery; all her unearthly aspiration toward unearthly
-association; all her resolute, yet half-desponding, quick, impulsive,
-passionate, generous nature; all, all, found in him a local habitation
-and a name, and that name was Genius.
-
-Thus moulded came he into the world, doomed from birth to strange and
-bitter experiences--to face alone and unfriended the bitter blasts of
-wintry storms, and the burning heats of summer suns; to cling to the
-hope of speedy death, all the while grasping existence with ten-fold the
-tenacity of others, yet daily pleading for life--strange
-contradiction!--dear life, at the world's stern bar; pleading daily, yet
-as often losing his suit, and being by that world sentenced to be
-utterly cast adrift on the fickle tide of Fate and Chance, and that too
-with a mind and body acutely sensitive, and constantly at war with each
-other.
-
-Compensation is a universal principle. While so alive to pain, he was
-equally so to the jouissant emotions, and his delights, when they came,
-were keen, fine, exquisite, to a remarkable degree. As throwing some
-light on the character of this man--who is not a myth, but an actual
-existence--I will here repeat the substance of an account himself gave
-of his early life and weird and ghostly experiences. He had been
-questioned in regard to certain powers of an unusual kind attributed to
-him, and the following reply was elicited:
-
-"When I was a very young child, my mother dwelt in a large, sombre and
-gloomy old stone house on Manhattan Island. At that time New York was
-about one quarter as large as at present, and that house was a long way
-out of town. It still stands in the same place, but the city has grown
-miles beyond it. The building, in times of pestilence, fever, smallpox,
-and cholera, had been used as a pest-house, or lazaretto, and in it
-thousands have died of those diseases, and from there, in my fifth year,
-the soul of my mother took its everlasting flight.
-
-"Scores of people there were ready to testify on oath that the old house
-was haunted by ghosts, who strode grimly and silently through the
-solemn, stately halls of that massive island castle. But it generally
-happened that the witnesses of these spectral visitants had neither
-time nor inclination to cultivate their acquaintance--save one, an
-apothecary named Banker, who cursed and swore at one of them on a
-certain occasion, whereupon the ghost slapped his face, and completely
-turned and withered his lower jaw by way of punishment for the _leze
-majeste_. With this exception, those who met one of these ghosts,
-invariably had urgent business in an opposite direction, and it was
-quite surprising with what wonderful speed lame persons got over the
-ground whenever a ghost was declared to be around, by those who being
-born with a 'caul' over the face, were thereby endowed with the
-spectre-seeing faculty; and as such gifted ones could see, I used often
-to wish I could meet some who had been born with _two_ cauls, so that
-they might speak to as well as see them.
-
-"Some people do not believe in ghosts. I do, ghosts of various kinds. I.
-It is possible to project an image of one's self, which image may be
-seen by another however distant. II. The phantasmal projections of
-heated fancy--spectral illusion--the results of cerebral fever, as in
-drunken delirium, opium and other fantasies. III. The spirits of dead
-men. IV. Spiritual beings from other planets. V. Beings from original
-worlds, who have not died, but who, nevertheless, are of so fine texture
-as to defy the material laws which we are compelled to obey, and who,
-coming under the operation of those that govern disembodied men, are
-enabled to do all that they do. VI. I believe that human beings, by the
-action of desperate, wicked wills, frequently call into being spectral
-harpies--the horrible embodiment of their evil thoughts. These are
-demons, subsisting so long as their creators are under the domination of
-the evil. VII. I believe in a similar creation emanating from good
-thoughts of good people, lovely out-creations of aspiring souls.
-Remember these seven. This is a clear statement of the Rosicrucian
-doctrine of the higher order of their temple. In the lower, these seven
-pass under the names of Gnomes, Dwarfs, Sylphs, Salamanders, Nereiads,
-Driads and Fays.
-
-"One day, when I was about five years old, I returned from school, and
-found the clayey vestment--the fleshly form of the only friend I ever
-had, my mother, cold and prone in the arms of icy cold, unrelenting
-Death. Ah! what a shock was that to my poor little childish heart! She
-had that morning grown weary of earth, had serenely, trustingly closed
-her darling eyes, and I was left alone to battle single-handed against
-four mighty and powerful enemies--Prejudice, Poverty and Organization
-were three of them. The fourth is almost too terrible, too wild and
-fanciful to be credited, yet I will state it:
-
-
-                               THE LEGEND.
-
-"Many, very many centuries ago, there lived on the soil where in
-subsequent ages stood Babylon and Nineveh the first, a mighty king,
-whose power was great and undisputed. He was wise, well-learned and
-eccentric. He had a daughter lovely beyond all description. She was as
-learned as she was beautiful. Kings and princes sought her hand in
-vain; for her father had sworn to give her to no man save him who should
-solve a riddle which the king himself would propound, and solve it at
-the first trial, under penalty of decapitation on failure. The riddle
-was this, 'What are the three most desirable things beneath the sun,
-that are not the sun, yet which dwell within the sun?' Thousands of the
-gay, the grave, the sage and ambitious who essayed the solution, and
-failed, left the presence to mount the horse of death.
-
-"In the meantime, proclamation was made far and wide, declaring that
-robes of crimson, chains of gold, the first place in the kingdom and the
-princess should be the reward of the lucky man.
-
-"One day there came to the court a very rich and royal embassy from the
-King of the South, seeking an alliance, and propounding new treaties;
-and among the suite was a young Basinge poet, who acted as interpreter
-to the embassy. This youth heard of the singular state of things,
-learned the conditions, and got the riddle by heart. For four long
-months did he ponder upon and study it, revolving in his mind all sorts
-of answers, but without finding any that fulfilled the three requisites.
-
-"In order to study more at his ease, the youth was in the habit of
-retiring to a grotto behind the palace, and there repeating to himself
-the riddle and all sorts of possible responses thereto. The princess
-hearing of this, determined to watch him, and did so. Now, poets must
-sing, and this one was particularly addicted to that sort of exercise;
-and he made it a point to imagine all sorts of perfections as residing
-in the princess, and he sung his songs daily in the grotto--sung himself
-desperately in love with his ideal, and so inflamed the girl herself,
-who had managed to both see and hear him, herself unseen, that she loved
-him dearer than life. Here, then, were two people made wretched by a
-whim.
-
-"Love and song are very good in their places, but, for a steady diet,
-are not comparable to many other things; and, as this couple fed on
-little else, they both pined sadly and rapidly away.
-
-"At length, one day, the youth fell asleep in the grotto, and his head
-rested directly over a fissure in the rock through which there issued a
-very fine and subtle vapor, which had the effect of throwing the young
-man in a trance, during which he fancied he saw the princess herself,
-unveiled, and more lovely than the flowers that bloomed in the king's
-garden. He also thought he saw an inscription, which bade him despair
-not, but TRY! and, at the same time, there flowed into his mind this
-sentence, which subsequently became the watchword of the mystic
-fraternity which, for some centuries, has been known as that of the
-Rosie Cross--'There is no difficulty to him who truly wills.' Along with
-this there came a solution of the king's riddle, which he remembered
-when he awoke, and instantly proclaimed his readiness to attempt that
-which had cost so many adventurers their lives.
-
-"Accordingly, the grandest preparations--including a man with a drawn
-blade ready to make the poet shorter by the head if he failed--were
-made, and, at an appointed hour, all the court, the princess included,
-convened in the largest hall of the palace. The poet advanced to the
-foot of the throne, and there knelt, saying, 'O king, live for ever!
-What three things are more desirable than Life, Light and Love? What
-three are more inseparable? and what better cometh from the sun, yet is
-not the sun? O king! is thy riddle answered?' 'True!' said the king;
-'you have solved it, and my word shall be kept!' And he straightway gave
-commands to have the marriage celebrated in royal style, albeit, through
-the influence of a high court official, he hated poets in general, and
-this one particularly so, because he thought the young man had foiled
-him in one of the treaties just made. Now, it so happened that the grand
-vizier had hoped by some means to get a solution of the riddle, and
-secure the great prizes for a young son of his own; and, as soon as the
-divan was closed, that very day, he hastened to the closet of the king,
-and there still further poisoned the mind of his master against the
-victor, by charging him with having succeeded through the aid of
-sorcery, which so enraged the king that he readily agreed to remove the
-claimant by means of a speedy, secret, and cruel death that very night,
-to which end the poet was drugged in his wine at the evening banquet,
-conveyed to a couch openly, and almost immediately thereafter removed to
-the chamber allotted to the refractory servants of the court. This
-apartment was under ground, and the youth, being thrown violently on the
-floor, revived, and was astonished to find himself bound hand and foot
-in presence of the king, his vizier, a few soldiers, and--death; for he
-saw at a glance that his days were numbered. He defended himself from
-the charge of sorcery, but in vain. He was doomed to die, and the order
-given, when, just as the blow was about to fall, there appeared the
-semblance of a gigantic hand, moving as if to stay the uplifted blade;
-but too late. The sword fell, and, as it reached the neck of the victim,
-he uttered the awful words, 'I curse ye all who--' the rest of the
-sentence was spoken in eternity; but there came a clamor and a clangor
-as of a thousand protesting spectral voices, and one of them said, in
-tones of thunder, 'This youth, by persistence of will, had unbarred the
-gates between this world and that of mystery. He was the first of his
-and thy race that ever achieved so great an honor. And ye have slain
-him, and he hath cursed thee, by reason of which thou, O king! and thou,
-O vizier! and the dead man, have all changed the human for another
-nature. The first shall go down the ages, transmigrating from form to
-form. Thou, O vizier! shall also exist till thou art forgiven;--DHOULA
-BEL shall be thy name; and thou shalt tempt the king through long ages,
-and be foiled whenever the youth--who shall be called the
-STRANGER--shall so will, for the sake of the love he bore thy daughter.
-This drama shall last and be until a son of Adam shall wed with a
-daughter of Ish, or thou, king, in one of the phases of thy being, shall
-love, and be truly, fully loved again, and for thyself alone. An
-eternity may elapse ere then!'"
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Ask me not," said the young Beverly, "_why_, but believe me when I say
-that I _know_ that ages ago I was that king; that the Stranger has been
-seen by my mother; that Dhoula Bel still haunts and tempts me for the
-sin of ages. I know the fate impending over me, and that in this my
-present form I am a neutral being, for whom there is no hope save
-through the union of myself, a son of Adam's race, with a daughter of
-Ish, one not of Adam's race.... This, then, is the dreadful fate to
-which I was left so pitilessly exposed on the morning that my mother
-died on Manhattan Island--left to pay the penalty of a crime committed
-thousands of years ago."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER III.
-
-                        A SPECTRAL VISITANT.
-
-
-It must be confessed that this was a singular story, and smelled very
-strongly of either Hartz-mountainism or its equivalent, imagination. He
-continued his story thus:
-
-"I did not know all this at five years old, of course. The only thing I
-did fully comprehend was the loss of my mother--her strange silence--the
-woeful look of those who hugged my little head and said 'Poor child!' I
-tried hard to be manly and not cry, as they bade me, but it was useless,
-and the tears welled up in floods from my poor little childish heart.
-Have you ever lost a mother?
-
-"As I nestled on the bed where she lay so very still, I asked the
-bystanding mourners where the talking part of my mother had gone to? If
-she would never talk to, love and pet me any more? and they said 'Never
-more,' and they repeated that dreadful but untrue refrain till my poor
-heart was full almost to bursting, with its load and pressure of grief;
-and then I threw myself upon her dear body, and cried till tears refused
-to flow, for I had lost my mother, sirs--I had lost my mother! Would
-that I could weep _now_ as I did _then_; it would relieve my
-over-burdened heart. But I cannot, for the tear fountain seldom thaws.
-The floods still gather and well up, but they freeze ere they reach the
-surface, and the heart strings snap and crack, but they will not break.
-I wish they would, so that I might join, even for a while, that dear
-mother whom I loved so well.
-
-"Childhood's griefs are written with a feather, upon warm parchment,
-with stainless ink; but the heart's greater woes are burned into the
-memory with a fiery iron stylus; the first lines speedily wear away; the
-last are ineffaceable. As I lay upon the cold breast of my darling
-mother, a woman said to me, 'Do not cry, poor child! She is happy now!
-She has just gone up, on her way to heaven!' And I believed what that
-woman said; and I looked out through the deep foliage of the trees hard
-by; looked eagerly up into the sky, expecting to see her ascending soul;
-and as my eye caught the shadowy fleece of a melting silvery cloud, I
-thought and believed it to be my mother's sainted soul. I half believe
-so still; for as the cloud vanished into nothingness on the breast of
-the blue, I distinctly heard a voice, gentle, soft, and sweetly
-mournful, like unto the dying notes of a wind-harp, lightly touched by
-the zephyr's breath, whisper in my ear these words--which at that time I
-could not fully comprehend--'Lonely one of the ages! there may be rest
-for thee in the life thou'rt now commencing. Let thy motto be--TRY!
-Despond not, but ever remember that how bitter soever our lot may be,
-that despite it all, WE MAY BE HAPPY YET! Peace, poor child! Thou'rt
-watched and guarded by thy mother!' 'and the stranger,' added another,
-and more silvery voice from out the deep stillness of that noon-tide
-heaven. I knew that mystic voice--the first one--and felt that it was
-from beyond Time's threshold. I trusted it's sacred words of promise,
-for I had, child as I was, an unshaken faith, an intuition, if you will,
-that instant flowing to me, that my blessed mother still lived.
-
-"From that hour commenced a strange, double existence to and in me. Two
-instances, perfectly true in all respects, I will relate, either of
-which forever settled in my mind that some human beings consciously
-survive the ordeal of death. Not long after my irreparable loss, I,
-along with several other children, went to bed in the roof chamber of
-that dark old house. Something had occurred of a merry turn, and we were
-all brimful of joy and glee, and our mirth was as loud as it dared be
-for fear of the ogres down stairs, who had a bad habit of enforcing
-silence through the medium of sundry straps and birch twigs. In the very
-midst of the uproar the bed-clothes were slowly, carefully lifted from
-off us by agencies totally invisible. We pulled them back; but again and
-again they were removed, and the movement was accompanied by a din and
-clatter, as if fifty cannon balls were rolling on the floor; and it
-immediately brought the ogres and their straps from down stairs to see
-what was the matter. So far as terror permitted we explained, whereupon
-the ogres looked scaredly wise, readjusted the quilts and retreated. No
-sooner had they left than the cannon balls began again to roll over the
-floor, and mustering courage to rise and grapple for the coverlet,
-which had again been pulled from us, I clearly and distinctly saw a
-female figure calmly standing at the foot of the bed, but not upon the
-floor, for she floated like a vapor on the air. There was but little, if
-any, light in the room, save that which surrounded, and appeared to
-emanate from the spectral figure. She stood in the midst of a silvery or
-phosphoric haze. It was by no means phantasmal in appearance, but so
-clear, sharp, well defined did the apparition seem, that to this day I
-remember distinctly the figures on what appeared to be the dress she
-wore, which fact involves a mystery no psychologist has yet been able to
-fathom satisfactorily. The children who also saw this sight were
-terrified; I was not, for I felt she would not harm me, for the reason
-that mothers love their offspring, and that figure was my mother.
-
-"Some considerable time elapsed after this. I had grown into a stout and
-active boy, having already drifted for some years up and down the world,
-and once found myself registered as cabin boy on board the brig Phoebe,
-of New Bedford, whereof one Alonzo Baker was captain--not of New
-Bedford--but the brig.
-
-"In this vessel I served for several months, to the satisfaction of no
-one, myself included, being too small, weak and delicate for the arduous
-duties required of me, and consequently had to pay the usual penalty.
-
-"Sailors, to a man, are superstitious, though less so now than in the
-days whereof I am speaking. Still, at present, it is not hard, in spite
-of the march of intellect, to find sailors who, between the dog-watch
-and eight bells, will spin you a yarn under the weather rail that will
-make a man's hair stand on end like hairs on an enraged kitten.
-
-"On board the Phoebe there were several old salts, and many were the
-tales they told of the ghosts of murdered sailors, appearing in the
-midst of dreadful storms, to encourage foremast Jacks, and frighten the
-souls of guilty mates and captains; and of course all this tended to
-deepen the vein of superstition and mysticism running through me. Often
-have I been apprized of the presence and power of the dead or of those
-who never die, and, when tempted to share the dangerous pleasures of my
-older comrades, been mysteriously saved.
-
-"Sailors, like everybody else, are fond of power, and delight in lording
-it over those whom chance or accident places in their power; and on
-every vessel there is one man who is sure to be the butt and target for
-petty tyranny and abuse. On board the Phoebe this fell to my lot; and not
-being able to forcibly resist, I took care to hide in my chest about a
-gallon of rum, into which about half an ounce of croton oil, from the
-medicine chest had previously been poured. I labelled the jug 'Poison.'
-Croton oil is the most infamously active purgative known. The sailors
-found the jug, read the label--didn't believe it--drank the liquor, and
-were actively engaged for several hours thereafter, as a consequence. A
-more earnest, swift-moving set of men were never seen. They had no
-relish for supper that night. They beat me unmercifully, but I was
-revenged. Still they abused me, until one day a sailor tweaked my nose
-in the galley, and for his pains received half a gallon of hot lard in
-the waist-band, which troubled him wonderfully.... At last I meditated
-suicide as a relief, and, in a paroxysm of rage and despair, such as
-boys only are subject to, actually ran aft to accomplish it by leaping
-over the taffrail into the surging sea, when I was arrested by a narrow
-blast of warm--almost hot air, which thrilled me to the very centre of
-my being, and almost pinned me to the deck, while at the same time there
-flowed into my soul an eloquent and indignant protest against my supreme
-folly, accompanied by the spoken words, 'Be patient! TRY!'
-
-"It is impossible to attribute all these things to imagination.
-
-"One evening, a long time after the occurrence just related, a company
-of ladies and gentlemen, in a house situated near the observatory,
-Portland, Maine, were conversing upon the general subject of ghosts, and
-rewards and punishments after death. When we sat down there were
-thirteen persons in the room, and thirteen persons only. We became
-deeply absorbed in the discussion, indeed so much so, that the host gave
-the servant strict orders not to disturb us, and to refuse admission to
-any person whatever. And thus we all talked freely, the servant seated
-in the hall, close by the door. No one was admitted. Presently one
-person, by reason of his eloquence and venerable appearance, engrossed
-all our attention by the thrilling things he told, although he did not
-join the conversation till over an hour after we had begun it; nor did
-his conversation appear at all intrusive. He was the _fourteenth_
-person, although we did not realize the fact till we were separating,
-and he had disappeared. Upon inquiry no one knew him, had ever seen him
-before, or observed his departure--not even the servant, who declared
-that for two hours no one had passed him either way. It was voted 'very
-strange,' and that for our own credit sake the matter should be 'hushed
-up;' but we agreed to meet again at the same house, that day-week, to
-discuss the matter, and compare opinions arrived at in the interim."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER IV.
-
-                  A VERY STRANGE STORY--ETTELAVAR!
-
-
-"On the appointed evening a select party of us met pursuant to
-agreement; but not one had reached a solution of the mystery. In those
-days the impostor Davis had not foisted his blasphemous absurdities on
-the world; nor had his peculiar system of morals made rogues of the one
-half of his deluded followers, or shameless harlots of the other; nor
-had lunatic asylums then been packed, as they have since, with sufferers
-ruined by his teachings; nor were graveyards dotted with the mounds
-raised by weeping friends over loved ones driven to suicide by his
-doctrines. In those days a man's wife was comparatively safe, nor were
-divorces half so common as they have since become. In those days
-husbands did not sneak off to Indiana, and by blank perjury procure
-divorce in order that they might revel in barefaced, shameless, open
-lust with their worthy paramours. In those days spiritualism had not
-broken in on the world, nor had the goblin philosophy made millions of
-fools and idiot fanatics out of material that God created for better
-purposes. In those days Joe Smith had not convinced thousands that
-harlotry is the straightest road to heaven; nor had Noyes founded his
-huge religious brothel in the centre of the State, contaminating the
-country for leagues around; and the handy system of ghostology, with its
-hundred truths and thousand falsehoods, had not then afforded a ready
-explanation of mysteries such as those I have recounted; nor had any man
-dared claim to be the confidential secretary of Almighty God.
-
-"On the night in question our conversation became, if possible, more
-interesting and absorbing than on the first occasion, owing to the novel
-_fillip_ it had then received. So absorbed did I become during the
-evening, that on one or two occasions I partially lost myself in a sort
-of semi-mesmeric coma, which gradually deepened as the discussion waxed
-warmer, until my lower limbs grew cold, and a chilling numbness crept
-upon me, creating such a terror that I resolved to make my condition
-known, even at the risk of interrupting the discussion.
-
-"I made the trial, and found, to my consternation, that I could not
-utter a syllable--I could not move an inch. Horror! The company were so
-engrossed with the matter before them, that no notice was taken of any
-change that might have been perceptible in me; nor did one person there
-suspect that I was not attentively drinking in the discourse.
-
-"With inexpressible alarm, I felt that life itself was fast ebbing from
-me, and that death was slowly and surely grasping, clutching, freezing
-my vitals. I was dying. Presently--it appeared as if a long interregnum
-had occurred between the last previous conscious moment, and the present
-instantaneous, but positive agony--a sudden, sharp, tingling pang, like
-that of hot needles thrust in the flesh, shot through my brain. This was
-followed by a sinking sensation, as if the body had resigned itself to
-passive dissolution, and then came, with electric rapidity, a succession
-of the most cruel agonies ever endured by mortal man. When it ceased
-consciousness had ceased also, and I fell to the floor as one suddenly
-dead, to the amazement of the company, as was afterwards declared.
-
-"How long this physical inanition lasted, I cannot now say, but during
-it the spiritual part of me was roused to a tenfold degree of activity,
-consciousness and power; for it saw things in a new and cryptic light,
-and far more distinctly than it ever had through the bodily eyes. An
-increase of hearing power accompanied this accretion of sight, and I
-heard a voice, precisely like that heard when my mother died, and when
-about to throw myself into the sea, which said, 'Awake! a lesson awaits
-you;' and with this there came a partial rousing from the lethargy, and
-I was led upstairs and threw myself upon a sofa, mechanically, at the
-same time fixing my eyes upon the bald white face of a rare old Flemish
-clock that occupied the entire southern angle of the room. Here I was
-left alone by my friends, who again resumed their conversation in the
-parlor below.
-
-"Gradually the old clock-face seemed to clarify and expand, until, no
-longer obstructed by substance, I gazed out, and down, and up, through
-an avenue of the most astonishing light I had ever beheld. It seemed to
-me that I no longer occupied my body, but that, freed from flesh and
-time, I had become a denizen of Eternity; and on a fleecy vapor I was
-sustained in mid-air by the potent arm of a strange-looking old man--the
-veritable and precise image of him who, ten days before, had occasioned
-us such a fright by his mysterious conversations and evanishment. He
-told me not to fear, but to repose implicit confidence in myself and
-him; that he would not injure me, but do me good; that his name was
-Ettelavar; that his years were ages long; that he was the companion of
-those who die--who die, and live again--and of those who never taste of
-death. All this, and more, he told me; and he said that his design was
-to serve both himself and me; that he was familiar with certain mighty
-secrets, that had been claimed to be possessed, through many ages, by
-the wise and learned of earth--the Narek El Gebel, the Hermetists, the
-Pythagoreans, the three temples of the Rosie Cross, the mediæval and
-modern Rosicrucians, and the scattering delvers after mystery in all
-ages, times, and places. He said that among the things that I might
-learn from him, were the priceless secret of compounding the Elixir of
-Life, the drinking of which, by mortals, would confer perpetual youth
-and surprising beauty. Then there was the Lethean Draught, and
-whomsoever drank thereof, forthwith forgot all care, was oblivious to
-all that concerned the Future, and lived intensely in the Present. Then
-there was the Water of Love, and whoever drank thereof became
-irresistibly magnetic to the opposite sex, and could kindle affection in
-the heart of ice by mere personal presence. Then there was the Wondrous
-Stone of the Philosophers, not capable of transmuting, by a touch,
-whole tons of grossest substance into solid, shining gold, but of making
-it chemically. Then there was the Magic Crystal Ball, in which the gazer
-could behold whatever he wished to, that was then transpiring on this
-earth, or any of the planets. 'All this knowledge,' said he, 'I will
-expound to you, on certain conditions to be hereafter mentioned.'
-
-"I relate these things in the briefest possible manner, and make no
-allusions to my feelings during the time I listened to the strange
-being, Ettelavar, further than to remark, that during the--temptation,
-shall it be called?--I seemed to be hovering in the aërial expanse, and
-realized a fullness and activity of life never realized before, and knew
-for the first time what it was to be a human being. My freed spirit
-soared away into the superincumbent ether, and far, very far, beneath us
-rolled the great revolving globe; while far away in the black inane,
-twinkled myriads of fiery sparks--the starry eyes of God, looking
-through the tremendous vault of Heaven. Picture to yourself a soul,
-quitting earth, perhaps forever, and hovering over it like a
-gold-crested cloud, at set of sun, when all the winds are hushed to
-sleep on the still and loving bosom of its protecting God, and thine!
-
-"By the exercise of a power to me unknown, Ettelavar arrested our
-motion, and the cloud on which we seemed to float stood still in
-mid-air, and he said to me, 'Look and learn!'
-
-"Like busy insects in the summer sun, afar off in the distance I beheld
-large masses of human beings toiling wearily up a steep ascent, over
-the summit of which there floated heavily, thick, dense, murky,
-gloom-laden clouds. Crimson and red on their edges were they, as if
-crowned with thunder, and their bowels overcharged with lightnings; and
-their sombre shadows fell upon the plains below, heavy and pall-like,
-even as shrouds on the limbs of beauty, or the harsh critic's sentence
-upon the first fruits of budding and aspiring genius. 'It is nothing but
-a crowd,' said I; and the being at my side repeated, as if in
-astonishment, '_Nothing_ but a crowd? Boy, the destinies of nations
-centre in a crowd. Witness Paris. Look again!' Obeying mechanically, I
-did so, and soon beheld a strange commotion among the people; and I
-heard a wail go up--a cry of deep anguish--a sound heavily freighted
-with human woe and agony. I shuddered.
-
-"On the extreme apex of the mountain stood a colossal monument, not an
-obelisk, but a sort of temple, perfect in its proportions, and
-magnificent to the view. This edifice was surmounted by a large and
-highly polished golden pyramid in miniature. On all of the faces of this
-pyramid was inscribed the Latin word FELICITAS; I asked for an
-explanation from my guide, but instead of giving it, he placed his
-air-like hand upon my head, and drawing it gently over my brow and eyes,
-said, 'Look!'
-
-"Was there magic in his touch? It really seemed so, for it increased my
-visual capacity fifty-fold, and on again turning to the earth beneath
-me, I found my interest almost painfully excited by a real drama there
-and then enacting. It was clearly apparent that the great majority of
-the people were partially, if not wholly blind; and I observed that one
-group, near the centre of the plain below the mountain, appeared to be
-under much greater excitement than most of the others, and their
-turbulence appeared to result from the desire of each individual to
-reach a certain golden ball and staff which lay on a cushion of crimson
-velvet within the splendid open-sided monument on the mountain. In the
-midst of this lesser crowd, energetically striving to reach the
-ascending path, was one man who seemed to be endowed with far more
-strength and resolution--not of body, but of purpose--than those
-immediately around him. Bravely he urged his way toward the mountain's
-top, and, after almost incredible efforts, succeeded. Exultingly he
-approached the temple, by his side were hundreds more; he outran them,
-entered, reached forth to seize the ball and sceptre--it seemed that the
-courageous man must certainly succeed--his fingers touched the prize, a
-smile of triumph illumined his countenance, and then suddenly went out
-in the blight of death, for he fell to the earth from a deadly blow,
-dealt by one treacherous hand from behind, while others seized and
-hurled him down the steep abyss upon which the temple abutted, and he
-was first dashed to pieces and then trampled out of existence by the
-iron heels of advancing thousands--men who saw but pitied not, rather
-rejoicing that one rival less was in existence.
-
-"'Is it possible,' cried I, internally, 'that such hell-broth of
-vindictiveness boils in human veins?'
-
-"'Alas, thou seest!' replied Ettelavar, by my side. 'Learn a lesson,'
-said he, 'from what you have seen. Fame is a folly, not worth the having
-when obtained. 'Felicitas' is ever ahead, never reached, therefore not
-to be looked for. Friendship is an empty name, or convenient cloak which
-men put on to enable them to rob with greater facility. No man is
-content to see another rise, except when such rising will assist his own
-elevation; and the man behind will stab the man in front, if he stands
-in his way. Human nature is infantile, childish, weak, passionate and
-desperately depraved, and as a rule, they are the greater villains who
-assume the most sanctity; they the most selfish who prate loudest of
-charity, faith and love. I begin my tutelage by warning, therefore
-arming you, against the world and those who constitute it. If you wish
-to truly rise, you must first learn to put the world and what it
-contains at its proper value. Remember, I who speak am Ettelavar.
-Awake!'
-
-"Like the sudden black cloud in eastern seas, there came a darkness
-before me; my eyes opened, and fell upon the old clock face. Its hands
-told me that it was exactly thirteen minutes since I had marked the hour
-on the dial. Since that hour I have had much similar experience, and it
-is this that affords ground for the unusual powers in certain respects,
-not claimed by, but attributed to me." ...
-
-Such was the substance of the young man's narrative, in answer to
-questions propounded to him long before the date at which he is
-introduced to the reader.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER V.
-
-                 LOVE. EULAMPÉA[2]--THE BEAUTIFUL.
-
-[2] Romaic--Eulampía--Evlambéah. "Bright-shining."--Lovely, mystically
-beautiful.
-
-
-The golden sun was setting, and day was sinking beneath his crimson
-coverlets in the glowing west. The birds, on thousand green boughs, were
-singing the final chorus of the summer opera; the lambs were skipping
-homeward in the very excess of joy; while the cattle on the hills lowed
-and bellowed forth their thanksgiving to the viewless Lord of Glory. Man
-alone seemed unconscious of his duty and the blessings he enjoyed.
-Toil-weary farmers were slowly plodding their way supper and bed-ward,
-and all nature seemed to be preparing to enjoy her bath of rest. Still
-sat the wanderer by the highway side; still fell his tears upon the
-grateful soil; and as the journeyers home and tavern-ward passed him by,
-many were the remarks they made upon him, careless whether he heard them
-or not. Some in cruel, heartless mockery and derision, some few in pity,
-and all in something akin to surprise, for men of his appearance were
-rarely seen in that neighborhood. At last there came along three
-persons, two of whom were unmistakably Indians, and the third, a girl of
-such singular complexion, grace, form, and extraordinary facial beauty,
-it was extremely difficult to ethnologically define what she was. This
-girl was about fourteen; the boy who accompanied her and the grey-haired
-old Indian by her side, was apparently about twelve years old. This last
-was the first to notice the stranger.
-
-"Oh, Evlambéa," said he, "see! there's a man crying, and I'm going to
-help him!" The boy spoke in his own vernacular, for he was a full blood
-of the Oneida branch of the Mohawks, fearless, honorable, quick,
-impulsive, and generous as sunlight itself. To see distress and fly to
-its relief was but a single thing for him, and used to be with his
-people until improved and "civilized" with bad morals and worse
-protection. The Indian was Ki-ah-wah-nah (The Lenient and Brave) chief
-of the Stockbridge section of the Mohawks. The girl, Evlambéa, nominally
-passed for his grandchild, but such was not the case, for although she
-might well be taken for a fourth blood, she really had not a trace of
-Indian about her, further than the costume, language, and general
-education and habit. Her name was modern Greek, or Romaic, but her
-features and complexion no more resembled that of the pretty dwellers on
-Prinkipo or the shores of the Bosphorus, than that of the Indians or
-Anglo Saxon. Many years previous to that day, this girl, then a child of
-three or four months age, had been brought to the chief and left in his
-care for a week, by a woman clad in the garb of, and belonging to a
-wandering band of gipsies, who, attracted by the universal reputation of
-the New World, had left Bohemia and crossed the seas to reap a golden
-harvest. This band had held its headquarters for nearly a year on
-Cornhill, Utica, whence they had deployed about the country in a circle
-whose radius averaged one hundred and twenty miles. The woman never came
-back to claim the child, for the members of the band suddenly decamped
-after having financiered a gullible old farmer out of several thousands
-of dollars in gold, which they had persuaded him it was necessary that
-he should put in a bag and bury in the ground at a certain hour of a
-certain night, in order to the speedy discovery of a large mine of
-diamonds that was certainly upon his farm, and would as surely be
-brought to light when the gold was exhumed after a certain time, which
-time was quite long enough for the band to dig up the gold and disperse
-in all directions, to meet again three thousand miles away. This bit of
-Cornhill swindling was considered rather sharp practice, even for that
-locality, and ended by shrouding the girl in an impenetrable mystery,
-and giving to the old chief a child, who, as she expanded and grew up
-became quite as dear to his heart as any one of his own offspring; and
-in fact, by reason of her superior intelligence, she became far more so,
-for mind ever makes itself felt and admired. Not one of the
-ethnological, physical, moral, or mental characteristics which mark the
-Romany tribes was to be noticed in this girl, and wise people concluded
-that she had somewhere been stolen by the woman, who from fear or policy
-had left her to her fate and the good old Indian's care.
-
-Esthetics is not my _forte_, hence I shall not attempt to describe the
-young girl. The name she bore was marked on her clothing in Greek
-letters, which were afterwards rendered into English by a professor of a
-college whose assistance had been asked by the Indian.
-
-Besides being known far and near as the most beautiful girl of her age,
-she was also distinguished as by far the most intelligent. She was
-undisputed queen on the Reservation, not by right, but by quiet
-usurpation. She looked and acted the born Empress, and her triplicate
-sceptre consisted of kindness, intelligence, and that nameless dignity
-and presence inherent in truly noble souls.
-
-Such was the bright-shining maiden, who, attracted by the boy's cry and
-actions, now crossed over to the side of young Beverly. Observing his
-sorrowful appearance, she placed her soft hand tenderly upon his head,
-and said in tones heart-felt and deeply sympathetic, "Man of the heavy
-heart, why weep you here? Is your mother just dead?"
-
-The young man raised his head, saw the radiant girl before him, and,
-after a moment's hesitation, during which he shuddered as if at some
-painful memory, murmuring, "No; it cannot be possible!--cannot be--in
-this part of the world, too! no!" he replied to her, saying, "Girl, I am
-lonely, and that is why I weep. I am but a boy, yet the weight of years
-of grief rest on and bear me down. To-day is the anniversary of my
-mother's death, and, when it comes, I always pass it in tears and
-prayer. Since she went home to heaven, I have had no true friend, and my
-lot and life are miserable indeed. Men call themselves my friends, and
-prove it by robbing me. Not long ago, there came a man to me--he was
-very rich--and said, 'People tell me that you are very skillful with the
-sick. Come; I have a sister whom the physicians say must die. I love
-her. You are poor; I am rich. Save her; gold shall be yours.' I went.
-She was beyond the reach of medicine, and it was possible to prolong her
-life only in one of two ways--either by the transfusion of blood from my
-veins to her own, or by the transfusion of life itself. I was young and
-strong, and we resolved to adopt the latter alternative, as being the
-only possibly effective one; and for months, during three years, I sat
-beside that poor sick girl, and freely let her wasted frame draw its
-very life by magnetically sapping my own. Finally, I began to sink with
-exhaustion and disease similar to her own, and, to save my life, was
-forced to break the magnetic cord, and go to Europe. As soon as it was
-severed she sunk into the grave, and then I returned, and received a
-considerable sum of money in the nature of a loan. This favor was
-granted me as a reward for my pains, time, and ruined health. I was to
-return it from the proceeds of a business to be immediately established.
-At that time I resolved to purchase a little home for those who depended
-on my efforts for the bread they ate, and so wrote to a man who called
-himself my friend, but who is the direct cause of most of the evil I
-have for ten years experienced. This fellow pretended to deal in lands.
-I put nine hundred dollars--half I had in the world--in this man's
-hands, to purchase a fine little place of a few acres, which place he
-took me to see. I was pleased with it, and saw a home for those who
-would be left behind me when I was dead. A few days thereafter this
-ghoul came to me again, and represented that gold bullion being down he
-could make considerable profit for me in three days, would I make the
-investment. I handed over the remainder of my money. The three days
-lengthened into years. Instead of being a capitalist he was a
-bankrupt--was not in the gold business, and had no more control of the
-land he showed me than he had of Victoria's crown. Meantime, my
-furniture was seized; I lost my name with the friend who advanced the
-sum; I became ill, and, in my agony, called this man a swindler. To
-silence me, he gave me a check on a bank. I presented it. 'No funds!'
-And yet he dared call himself an honest man. 'You have but to unsay the
-harsh things said about me,' said this semblance of a man to me one day,
-'and I am ready to pay you everything I owe.' My mind was unsettled; I
-listened to him, and the result was that, by duplicity and fraud, more
-mean and despicable than the first, if there be a depth of villainy more
-profound, he obtained my signature to an acknowledgment that the money
-of which he had openly swindled me, then in his hands, was 'a friendly
-loan.' And then he laughed, 'Ha! ha!' and he laughed, 'Ho! ho!' at me
-and my misery, and actually suffered a child in our family to perish and
-wretchedly die for the want of food and medicine. But then he told me
-that he had buried it properly, respectably, up there in the cemetery,
-and it was the only truth I ever heard from his lips. But then he sent
-the funeral bills for me to pay--all the while laughing at my
-misery--while the lordly house he occupied was redeemed from forced
-sale with my money, and himself and his feasted luxuriously every day on
-what was the price of _my heart's blood_! Still, they all laughed, 'Ha!
-ha!' and grew fat on my blood. I still have the memory of a dead child,
-up there in the cemetery. Poor starved child! It is no satisfaction to
-me to know that this man will die a disgraced pauper, dependent on
-charity for bread. Still less is it to realize, as I do, that the
-brothel and the gibbet, the gambling hell and massive prisons, are
-shadowed in the foreground of his line, and that it will utterly perish
-from off the earth in ignominy and horror. I would not have it so, but
-fate is fate; and I see, at least, one dangling form of his race
-swinging in the air! My prophetic eye beholds----"
-
-As the man uttered these terrible sentences, he shuddered as if
-horror-stricken at the impending fate of this wronger of the living and
-the dead, and it was clear to the girl that he would have freely averted
-the doom, had such a thing been possible.
-
-"Men and cliques," said he, "have used me for their purposes--have, like
-this ghoul, wormed themselves into my confidence, and then, when their
-ends were served, have ever abandoned me to wretchedness and misery.
-
-"Rosicrucians, and all other delvers in the mines of mystery, all
-dealers with the dead, all whose idiosyncracies are toward the ideal,
-the mystic and the sublime, are debtors to nature, and the price they
-pay for power is groans, tears, breaking hearts, and a misery that none
-but such doomed ones can either appreciate or understand. Compensation
-is an inexorable law of being, nor can there, by any possibility, be
-any evasion of it. The possession of genius is a certificate of
-perpetual suffering.
-
-"You now know why I am sad, O girl of the good heart. I am weak
-to-night; to-morrow will bring strength again. But, see! the golden sun
-is setting in the west. Alas! I fear that my sun is setting also for a
-long, long night of wretchedness."
-
-"You speak well, man of the sore spirit," replied the girl. "You speak
-well when you say the sun is setting; but you seem to forget that it
-will rise again, and shine as brightly as he does to-day! He will shine
-even though dark clouds hide him from us; and though you and I may not
-behold his glories, some one else will see his face, and feel his
-blessed heat. Old men tell us that the darkest hour is just before the
-break of day. I bid you take heart. _You may be happy yet!_"
-
-"The precise formula of the Mysterious Brotherhood!--the very words
-uttered by the dead mother who bore me! How did this girl obtain it?
-When? Where? From whom?"
-
-Beverly started, gazed into the mighty depths of her eye, was about to
-ask the questions suggested, but forbore.
-
-"We may all be happy yet," said she; "for the Great Spirit tells me so!"
-And she crossed her hands upon her virgin breast--breast glowing with
-immortal fervor and inspiration; and she threw, by a toss of the head,
-her long, black sea of hair behind her, and stood revealed the perfect
-incarnation of faith and hope, as if her upturned eyes met God's glance
-from Heaven. The old chief and the boy at his side said nothing, but
-each instinctively folded his hands in the attitude of confidence and
-prayer. The combined effect of all this upon the young man was electric.
-The singular incident struck him so forcibly that he rose to his feet,
-placed his hand upon the girl's head, uplifted his eyes and voice to
-heaven, and, from the depths of his soul, responded "Amen, and Amen."
-
-It was at this critical instant that I, the editor of these papers,
-chanced to come up to where this scene was being enacted. A few words
-sufficed for an introduction, and on that spot begun a friendship
-between us all that death himself is powerless to break.
-
-Two hours thereafter, the chief, his son, the girl, the youth, were,
-with myself, partaking of a friendly meal at the old man's house. After
-the repast was over, the conversation took a philosophic turn, in which
-the chief, who was a really splendid specimen of the cultivated Indian,
-took an active and interested part.
-
-Presently the old people took their pipes, the younger ones went to bed,
-and Beverly and 'Levambea, as she was almost universally called, walked
-out, and sat them down beneath an old sycamore that stretched its giant
-limbs like the genius of protection over the cottage. There they talked
-gaily enough at first, but presently in a tender and pathetic strain;
-and it was clear that there had sprung up between them already something
-much warmer than friendship, yet which was not love. When they rose to
-enter the house, the last words uttered by the girl--uttered in the
-same singularly inspired strain observed on their first meeting--were,
-"Yes! I _will_ love you; but not _here_, not _now_, perhaps not on
-_this_ earth. Yet I will be your prop, your stay, though deep seas
-between us roll. Listen! When I am in danger you will know it, wherever
-you may be. When you are in danger you will see me. Forget not what I
-say. Ask me no questions. Your fate is a singular one, but not more so
-than my own. Good night! Good-bye! We will see each other no more at
-present--_it is not permitted_!" And without another word she abruptly
-left him, darted into the house, passed up the stairs, and was gone like
-a spirit.
-
-Next day, at the solicitation of the chief and others who took an
-interest in young Beverly, he consented to go with me to my home, many
-leagues from that spot; and, accordingly, in due time we arrived there,
-and for several months he was an inmate of my house; and, while under
-the shadow of ill health and its consequent sympathetic state, I became
-intimate with many of the loftier and profound secrets of the celebrated
-Rosicrucian fraternity, with which he was familiar, and which he gave me
-liberty to divulge to a certain extent, conditioned that I forbore to
-reveal the locality of the lodges of the Dome, or indicate the persons
-or names of its chief officers, albeit, no such restriction was exacted
-in reference to the lesser temples of the order--covering the first
-three degrees in this country--to the acolytes of which the higher
-lodges are totally unknown. Oh! how often have I sat beside him, on the
-green banks of a creek that ran through my little farm, and raptly
-listened to the profoundest wisdom, the most exalted conceptions and
-descriptions of the soul, its origin, nature, powers, and its
-destinies--listened to metaphysical speculations that fairly racked my
-brain to comprehend, and all this from the lips of a man totally
-incapable of grappling successfully with the money-griping world of
-barter and of trade. Here was the most tremendous contradiction, in one
-man, that I had ever known or heard of. One who revelled in mental
-luxuries fit for an angel, yet had not forecast enough to foil a common
-trickster;--who blindly, and for years, reposed his whole trust in one
-whose sole aim was to rob him not only of his little competence, but of
-his character as a man--who suffered one near and dear to him to starve,
-literally starve to death, and then be buried, at the very moment that
-himself and his were luxuriating on the very money for which that man
-had bartered health, and almost life itself! Was it not very singular? I
-have wondered, time and again, how such things could be, and intensely
-so when he has been revealing to me some of the loftier mysteries of the
-Order; when talking of Apollonius of Tyanæ, the Platonists, the elder
-Pythagoreans; of the Sylphs, Salamanders and Glendoveers; of Cardan, and
-Yung-tse-Soh, and the Cabalistic Light; of Hermes Trismegistus, and the
-Smaragdine Tables; of sorcery and magic, white and black; of the
-Labyrinth, and Divine policy; of the God, and the republic of gods; of
-the truths and absurdities of the gold-seeking Hermetists and
-pseudo-Rosicrucians; of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius,
-and the Alexandrine Clement; of Origen and Macrobius, Josephus and
-Philo; of Enoch and the pre-Adamite races; of Dambuk and Cekus, Psellus,
-Jamblichus, Plotinus and Porphyrius, Paracelsus, and over seven hundred
-other mystical authors.
-
-Said he to me one day, "Do you remember laughing at me when I first
-began to talk about the Rosicrucians? and you asserted that, if such a
-fraternity existed, it must be composed either of knaves or fools,
-laughing heartily when informed that the order ramified extensively on
-both sides of the grave, and, on the other shore of time, was known in
-its lower degrees as the Royal Order of the Foli, and, towering
-infinitely beyond and above that, was the great Order of the Neridii;
-and that whoever, actuated by proper motives, joined the fraternity on
-this side of the grave, was not only assured of protection, and a vast
-amount of essential knowledge imparted to him here, but also of sharing
-a lot on the farther side of life, compared to which all other destinies
-were insignificant and crude. I repeat this assertion now."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER VI.
-
-  NAPOLEON III. AND THE ROSICRUCIANS--AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN AND AN
-                       EXTRAORDINARY THEORY.
-
-
-Beverly continued his very singular narrative, saying:--"You have
-already been informed of the singular doom that hangs over me--that I am
-condemned to perpetual transmigrations, unless relieved by a marriage
-with a woman in whom not one drop of the blood of Adam circulates--and
-even then, the love must be perfect and mutual. Thus my chance is about
-as one in three hundred and ninety-six billions against, to a single one
-for me. This doom has brought around me, as it did around others before
-me, certain beings, powers, influences, and at length I became a
-voluntary adept in the Rosicrucian mysteries and brotherhood. How, when,
-or where I was found worthy of initiation, of course I am not at liberty
-to tell; suffice it that I belong to the Order, and have been--by
-renouncing certain things--admitted to the companionship of the living,
-the dead, and those who never die; have been admitted to the famous
-Derishavi-Laneh, and am familiar with the profoundest secrets of the
-Fakie-Deeva Records; and through life have had ever three great
-possibilities before me: one of these--I being a neutral soul--is that
-of becoming after death a chief of a supreme order, called the Light;
-or of its opposite, called the Shadow--to which I am tempted by
-invisible, but potent agencies; and the third of which is the one I
-dread most--the perpetuation of the doom to wander the earth for ages,
-in various bodies, as the result of the curse pronounced by a dying man
-ages ago, as you already have been told, unless I be redeemed by a true
-marriage with a woman in whom not one drop of the blood of Adam
-circulates. I desire to avoid all three if possible, and to share the
-lot of other men.
-
-"I have another mysterious thing to relate to you. Doubtless you
-recollect that the curse was uttered by the young poet--and that the
-mysterious voice heard in the dungeon where he was slain, declared that
-thenceforth, until the doom was fully accomplished, this youth during
-all his ages should be known as the Stranger. Well, in the course of the
-centuries that rolled away, this Stranger became a member of an august
-Fraternity in the Heavens, known as the Power of the Light. You know,
-also, that I, who was the king, incurred the penalty of wandering till
-relieved; and you are also aware that him who was the Vizier was
-sentenced to a singular destiny under the name of Dhoula Bel. Well, he
-also became an active member of a vast Association in the Spaces, known
-as the Power of the Shadow. This is but one half of the mystery, for it
-became the object of both Dhoula Bel and the Stranger--who both knew
-that in my birth from the woman Flora--years before I underwent my
-present incarnation--that I would be in every respect a Neutral man; one
-having no tendencies whatever, naturally, to either good or evil, but
-only toward ATTAINMENT; and as such neutral man, it became possible to
-forego my doom, and to become supreme chief of either of the Orders
-named; hence both Dhoula Bel and the Stranger, beside their original,
-have the strong additional motive of making me subservient to their
-loftier views; and to achieve it, they frequently attend me in visible
-and invisible shapes--tempting, nearly ruining, and as often saving me
-from dangers worse than death itself--in what way has already been
-partly told, and will be hereafter seen.
-
-"In one of my frequent sojourns in Paris, I became acquainted with a few
-reputed Rosicrucians, and after sounding their depths, found the water
-very shallow, and very muddy--as had been the case with those I met in
-London--Bulwer, Jennings, Wilson, Belfedt, Archer, Socher, Corvaja, and
-other pretended adepts--like the Hitchcocks, Kings, Scotts, and others
-of that ilk, on American soil. At length, there came an invitation from
-Baron D----t, for me to attend, and take part in, a Mesmeric Séance. I
-attended; and from the reputation I gained on that occasion, but a few
-days elapsed ere I was summoned to the Tuilleriés, by command of his
-majesty, Napoleon III.,[3] who for thirty-four years had been a True
-Rosicrucian, and whom I had before met at the same place, but on a
-different errand than the present. What then and there transpired, so
-far as myself was an actor, it is not for me to say, further than that
-certain experiments in clairvoyance were regarded as very successful,
-even for Paris, which is the centre of the Mesmeric world, and where
-there are hundreds who will read you a book blindfold; and two--Alexis,
-and Adolph Didiér--who will do the same, though the page be inclosed in
-the centre of a dozen boxes of metal or wood, one within the other.
-
-[3] This is a fact--as is also the whole succeeding account of what took
-place at this extraordinary séance. The anachronism observable is
-purposely made.--ED.
-
-"On this occasion I had played and conquered at both chess and écarte,
-no word being spoken, the games simultaneous, and the players in three
-separate rooms. There was present, also, an Italian gentleman with an
-unpronounceable name; a Russian Count Tsovinski, and a Madame Dablin--a
-mesmerist and operatic singer. After awhile his majesty asked the
-empress, and the general (Pellisier), who afterwards became the Duke de
-Malakoff, if they would submit to a trial of mesmerism by either of the
-three professors of the art, named. They declined; whereupon the
-Emperor, speaking aloud, asked 'if any of the company were willing to
-test, in their own persons, the vaunted powers of his excellency, the
-Italian Count?' whose methods of inducing his magnetic marvels differed
-altogether from those usually adopted; inasmuch as he, like Boucicault,
-the actor, in his famous play--'The Phantom'--makes no passes, scarcely
-glances for an instant at his subjects, and invariably looks _away_
-from, not toward, them. Now, it is a well-known fact that everybody
-believes everybody else, save themselves, subject to mesmeric influence,
-as is often demonstrated at the weekly séances of the Magnetic Society,
-held in the Rue Grenelle St. Honore.
-
-"At the date of this Imperial Séance, spiritualism had not yet made
-public pretensions in France, and although the Scotch trickster, Daniel
-Hume, had crossed the Atlantic, and was at that time living at Cox's, in
-Jermyn street, Picadilly, London--yet he had not then obtained the
-notoriety that subsequently became his, nor had half Europe ran after
-those in whose presence tables tipped by heel, toe, and genuine spirit
-power. Of course, then, spiritual phenomena, so called, being then under
-bann, it could not be, and was not depended on as a means of explaining
-what there and then took place.
-
-"'With great pleasure,' said the Count, in reply to a request to exhibit
-his power. 'With great pleasure, your majesty,' and forthwith he turned
-and looked straight into a massive mirror that occupied the entire space
-between two windows of the saloon. As he spoke it struck me that,
-somewhere, at some time, I had met this Italian Rosicrucian, but where,
-for the life of me, I could not tell; yet I was certain that I had heard
-that voice, and still more certain that I had beheld that strange, sweet
-smile.
-
-"The Count's position before the mirror was such that, supposing his eye
-had been a flame, the reflected rays would strike the forehead of one of
-the company fairly in the centre. The person upon whom it struck had not
-the least suspicion of what was being done. He did not make the
-discovery until it was too late, for no sooner did the operator get him
-fairly in focus, then he clenched his hands, looked with ten-fold
-earnestness at the mirror, muttered to himself a few unintelligible
-words, and the gentleman fell to the floor as if his heart had been
-perforated by a bullet, or as if he had been struck down with a club. In
-an instant all was confusion, everybody thinking it a fit of apoplexy,
-except the Emperor, the operator, myself and the Russian.
-
-"Several went to raise him, but before they could do so he sprung to his
-feet, began to sing and dance--the truth, at the same time, flashed upon
-the company, that the phenomenon was mesmeric--and in another minute to
-plead for his life, as if before his judges, with the prison and the axe
-before him. The scene was solemn to the last degree.
-
-"Suddenly, and without a word from the Count, the pleading changed to a
-musical scena; and although, at other times totally incapable of singing
-or playing in the least degree, he performed several difficult pieces in
-magnificent style, on the harp and piano, accompanying the performances
-vocally, and in a manner that drew involuntary plaudits from every
-person present.
-
-"This part of the performance was suddenly terminated; for the sleeping
-subject placed himself in the exact spot in which the Italian had stood,
-and, like him, gazed steadily at the mirror, and in twenty seconds the
-man who stood in the line of reflection fell to the floor, and a lady
-who, in going to his assistance, chanced to strike that line, instantly
-seized, raised him as easily as if he had been a doll, and with him
-commenced a dance unique, wild and perfectly indescribable. It was
-infectious, for in less than half a minute seventeen persons, high lords
-and stately dames, were wheeling, whirling, leaping, flying about the
-room in wilder measures than were ever performed by mad Bachantes. They
-had all been magnetized by proxy.
-
-"Astonished beyond measure at this extraordinary display, I retired, the
-better to watch the progress of the strange scene, to the opposite side
-of the saloon, and leaned carelessly against one of two colossal
-Japanese josses that stood there. No person was anywhere near me, and in
-my surprise I murmured below my breath: 'What astonishing power!' and am
-certain that a person standing close at my side could not have discerned
-what I said, yet nevertheless the thought was scarcely framed before the
-Count turned square upon his heel, advanced straight toward me, smiled
-sweetly, strangely, as he did so, and said: 'All this power is
-yours--and much that is still more mysterious--if you but say the word!'
-
-"'What word?' asked I, surprised that a man should so readily read my
-thought--for it is impossible that he could have heard my exclamation.
-
-"'That you will voluntarily join the most august fraternity that ever
-earth contained! Think of it! We shall meet again.'
-
-"'When? where?' I asked hurriedly, for the august company were observing
-us, especially the Emperor, who, beneath his heavy brows, was evidently
-paying quite as much attention to us as to the wonderful things then
-occurring across the room.
-
-"He did not reply directly, but, by a continuation of his breach of
-etiquette resumed, saying: 'By the exercise of the power I possess, and
-will impart to you, conditionally; you shall be capable of depriving any
-man of speech, and make man, woman or child perfectly subservient to
-your _silent_ command, as the people yonder are to mine. There is Jean
-Boyard, in this Paris, who merely looks at any small object, and makes
-it dance toward him. You shall exceed him fifty-fold! On the Boulevart
-du Temple M. Hector produces a full-blown rose from a green bud, in
-seven minutes; you shall be able to do it in one.
-
-"'In the Rue de Bruxelles lives a girl--Julie Vimart--who exceeds Alexis
-and all the other sleepers, for she beats you at chess, tells you all
-you know, and much that you have forgotten; you shall do all that and
-more. In the street _Grand Père_, lives a boy who brings messages from
-the living, in their sleep; meets and converses with your friends--when
-_they_ slumber, and describes them as perfectly as the sun paint their
-portraits in the cameras of Talbot and Dagguerre; you shall have that
-power.
-
-"'In the Rue du Jour, is a _Sage Femme_, who cures all diseases that are
-curable, by a simple touch and prayer: you shall have that power greater
-than she can ever hope to. It is only necessary to say 'I will have
-these powers!' and they shall be yours. They all are well worth having.
-I learned my secret among the magi of the East--men not half so
-civilized as are we of the West; but who, nevertheless, _know_ a great
-deal more than the sapient men of Christendom--that is, less of
-machinery, politics, and finance; but a great deal more of the human
-soul, its nature, its powers, and the methods of their developement.
-Instead of being surprised at modern scientific revelations, we of the
-True Temple----' '_What_ Temple?' I interrupted him to ask. 'Of the
-_Supreme Dome_ of the Rosie Cross,' said he.
-
-"The Emperor must have heard this question and its answer, for he
-directly crossed over to us, and actually joined this curious
-_tête-à-tête_. The Count bowed; did not seem at all embarrassed by the
-presence of the son of Admiral Verhuiel, the great Dutch founder of the
-Second Empire--or Emperor ----.
-
-"'As I was saying,' the Count resumed, 'instead of being elated at what
-Western science has done, _we_ are ashamed of the tardy steps of
-"Progress"--Progress indeed! Where is it, save in wretchedness, poverty,
-crime, selfishness, and in the accrement of misery. Progress is more
-fancied than real. Civilization is a misnomer, utilitarianism a
-desecration of man's soul, Philosophy an imposture, and learning
-altogether false!'
-
-"I was pleased to see the Emperor join the conversation at this point,
-for two reasons: first, to hear what he had to say; and secondly, to
-observe whether the subjects on the floor could be kept under the
-Count's influence while his mind was abstracted from them and centered
-on matters entirely different.
-
-"'Do not be disturbed at what he says,' said his majesty, 'for these
-Mesmerists are all slightly mad.' And he smiled, while the Count
-shrugged his shoulders, and exclaimed:
-
-"'With a method, however!'
-
-"Then turning his attention toward the company, by some inscrutable
-power he stopped the dance, restored the subjects to their normal state,
-and almost instantly thereafter exercised it upon Madame Dablin, who
-straightway, with closed eyes, approached a grand piano, swept its keys
-with matchless skill, as a prelude, and then launched forth into one of
-the strangest, most brilliant, yet wild and weird fantasias, that genius
-ever dreamed of. I cannot now stop to describe its effect upon the
-company, nor upon myself, for my whole being was absorbed at that moment
-in matters far more important to me than a mesmeric experiment, however
-interesting and successful it might be; for at best, its effect and
-memory would be transient and ephemeral, while, on the contrary, the
-things I might learn from the Italian might last so long as my conscious
-soul endured. I was not, therefore, disappointed when he resumed his
-talk. I cannot now repeat the _ipsissima verba_ of what he said, but the
-substance, in reply to questions by the Emperor and myself, was in
-effect this:
-
-"'The soul and its qualities, passions and volume are all clearly marked
-upon the physique, and are apparent to all who possess the proper key;
-to all others, the difficulty lies in correctly reading these signs, and
-a still greater in assigning to each faculty its actual, its possible,
-and its relative strength and value. Every act that a man does has an
-effect upon both his body and soul, and the imprints thereof are
-indelibly stamped upon his features; therefore his past--even his most
-secret act or thought--can be read by the adept with as much ease as if
-his face were a printed page, the type being large, smooth and clear.
-Every man is susceptible of being controlled mesmerically by another,
-because no man is collectively stronger than his weakest faculty; a
-chain is no stronger than its most defective link. Now I control men
-because I know at a glance which is the most vulnerable portion of their
-nature. Self-love, Emulation and Will are the trinity in unity around
-which the Psychal Republic revolves. One of these is always vulnerable;
-subdue that, and you subdue the man. Now, when I perform such
-experiments as those now being exhibited, I first mesmerize, not the
-entire brain, but a single faculty, which in turn speedily subdues all
-the rest. The mind of man is a mirror! Conceded. Well, then, I
-forthwith, by an effort of will, entirely vacate my own mind, thinking
-of nothing but a revolving wheel. The subject reflects my action; then
-in fancy I sing, dance, play, and the subject reflects my thought by
-appropriate action.'
-
-"'But,' said one, 'suppose your subject understands nothing about these
-accomplishments. How then?'
-
-"'All souls understand them. Bodies may not; and I bring the soul under
-subjection, not the body merely.'
-
-"'This is a dangerous power to possess,' said the Emperor, 'and none but
-a good man ought to have it.'
-
-"'A bad man cannot become a true Rosicrucian, although men have turned
-their arms against the race, and the secrets of the fraternity, like all
-things else, have been trifled with and abused. Thus it is possible for
-an expert to cure a diseased man by the exercise of the power alluded
-to. But the rule is dual: it is also possible to kill a healthy man by
-the same mysterious means; and indeed it has often been done, especially
-by the natives of Africa.
-
-"'I persuade my soul that you are sick and will die, and if I keep up
-the will and wish, nothing is more certain than that both will be
-accomplished. Some men naturally possess enormous powers of will, and
-are able to project visible images, like those of a phantasmagoria--
-images of whatever they choose to fancy--a flower, a hand, arm, or a
-human form--and these spectra will be visible to scores of startled
-observers, who, in their utter ignorance of the human mind and body, and
-their respective and conjoined powers, believe them to be the veritable
-ghosts of dead men, and objects produced by them. I learned recently
-that in London is at this moment a young Scotchman, named Hume, who
-possesses this power to a remarkable degree, and also that of
-levitation, and who is coining fame and fortune by pretending that the
-psychical phenomenon is really and truly spiritual--which is not the
-case. I learned this great secret in the Punjaub, of Naumsavi Chitty,
-the chief of the Rosicrucians of India, and the greatest reformer since
-Budha.'
-
-"At this point the Emperor asked the Count to exhibit a specimen of his
-spectre-producing power, to which the latter assented. First he walked
-rapidly several times up and down the saloon, gave directions to lower
-the lights, which was done, and then, as before, he stood still
-directly in front of the mirror for a minute or two, and then, in a
-sharp, cracked tone, repeated thrice the word 'Look!' We did so, and as
-I live, there flashed the semblance of a thousand chains of vivid
-lightning across the face of the mirror, along the floor, over the
-ceiling, up and down the walls; now like forks, then as chains of
-electric fluid; anon changing to fiery acorns, which gradually formed
-themselves into a fiery crown, rose gently, floated over the company for
-a few seconds, and then rested in the air about five inches above the
-head of Napoleon III.--a crown of fire!
-
-"'Mind,' said he, after this splendid proof of his weird ability, 'I do
-not aver that all the phenomena exhibited in these days as spiritual are
-produced as I have these; but I do say that not one-tenth part is
-attributable to spiritual agencies. That which is indeed spiritual is
-not all the product of dead men, but much of it proceeds from the Larvæ
-and inhabitants of the spaces between the rolling globes.'
-
-"Then turning to me, he repeated his invitation to become an acolyte of
-the Temple; said we should meet again; and shortly thereafter the séance
-broke up, and I left the palace, greatly wiser than when I entered it
-five hours before.
-
-"Calling a _voiture de remise_, I entered it and rode home to my hotel.
-Arrived there, I dismounted beneath the glare of a street lamp, and drew
-forth my pocket-book to pay my fare. On opening it, what was my surprise
-at finding a letter, closely sealed, within it, directed to myself. I
-paid the coachman, hastened to my chamber, and then, eagerly tearing
-the envelope, I read the following very singular letter, written in a
-female hand, and in the English language:
-
-  "'MONSIEUR,
-
-   "'Remember that you have met one human soul who knows and
-   _thoroughly_ understands your strange, mysterious and inexplicable
-   nature--your heaven's heights, your hell's depths, your spacic
-   breadth, your volcanic eruptions, your ocean of god-like calmness,
-   and all-pervading, all-sustaining, holy stillness and quiet, wherein
-   the soul in its magnificent grandeur sweeps over all space and all
-   time, and lives an infinity of lives in its own self-created world!
-   As such I see and know you. Yet in all this I see still other and a
-   greater character to arise in your being than now exists there; I see
-   a character is to arise, if you will allow the grander, diviner
-   elements of your being, and also the heavenly elements that surround
-   you, to blend into one united force of harmonic intelligence, that
-   will mould your _entire self_ into a man such as I cannot now
-   describe. Two ways, my friend, are now before you. One so grand, so
-   sublime, that I would (in order to explain it) demand the eloquence
-   of a Patrick Henry, the strength of a Cæsar, the love of a _greater_
-   still, the wisdom of a god; the other, not all these combined could
-   give me power to depict.
-
-   "'In the name of _Him_ and humanity, choose the right.
-
-   "'Such are the feelings of one who knows you.
-
-   "'Listen--be quiet! your time is precious.
-
-                                                            "'Adieu!'
-
-"This was Greek, Hebrew, Sanscrit, all combined, to me; and it continued
-so for a long, long time. It was evidently written by some one who,
-while fully aware of one of my weaknesses--a susceptibility to
-flattery--yet knew not the man himself. Still, the allusions to my awful
-secret were too palpable to admit a doubt that the writer knew far more
-than that strange letter said or hinted at. Was it the mysterious Count?
-If so, why did he take so great an interest in a stranger? I could not
-understand it.
-
-"Of course I thought much of the Italian Count, and ardently longed to
-know more of, if I did not join, the mystic Fraternity whereof he was a
-member; but to no human being had I ever opened my mind upon the
-subject, either in Paris, or Naples, whither I repaired on my way to the
-Orient. Indeed, in the latter city the subject lay _perdu_ in the
-cellars of my mind, for I sought to banish all care while in Italy, in
-order to drink full draughts of music--that balm for fevered souls.
-
-"While there, I one night went to San Carlos to hear the opera of the
-'Barber of Seville,' and to listen to the glorious strains of Mario,
-Grisi and Gassier. I had been charmed out of all my griefs by the
-celebrated 'Music Lesson' of the latter cantatrice, and as I walked
-homeward I hummed its notes as I passed along, and it rung in my ears
-long after I had lain down to sleep. With the peculiar caution of
-Americans generally, but of Californians especially--whose habits I had
-imbibed during my short residence within the Golden Gate--before
-retiring I had carefully examined the room, for Italians, especially
-Neapolitans, bear watching, to see that all was safe and right. It was
-so. Then securely fastening both doors and windows, I was soon drifting
-up and down the Dream Sea. Beneath my pillow was my money belt, in which
-was about two thousand dollars in gold, which, together with a revolver,
-loaded to the muzzle, was the property of my friend T----s.
-
-"In the morning the room was as when I slept; but the charges were drawn
-from the pistol, and the gold lay on the table arranged in the form of a
-triangle, surmounted by the letter 'R,' while, pinned to the bosom of my
-sleeping robe, was a note in English, in a bold, clear handwriting, but
-in red ink. That note was not there the night before; it could not have
-been placed there by human hands! 'Do not fail,' it read, 'to remember
-the purpose for which you crossed the seas, for your enterprise concerns
-the future ages of the world! It is not yet accomplished. Achieve it. I
-will yet serve and save you.--E.'
-
-"I was thunder-struck. Again some mysterious being was crossing my path;
-that being whose strange domain lay on either side of Time, and whose
-will seemed ever to hedge me about like a wall of fire, so that escape
-from the strange destiny that hung over me seemed almost impossible. I
-was in despair, for already had grey hairs shown themselves; I felt that
-I was growing prematurely old, and that the chances were greatly against
-me, a son of Adam, ever wedding with a daughter of Ish."
-
-
-
-
-                              BOOK II.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER I.
-
-                       ABOUT THE ROSICRUCIANS.
-
-
-It is no part of my (the editor's) design to recount all the adventures
-of Beverly, nor to trace his paths through Egypt, Syria, Turkey, nor
-Europe. Suffice it, that I became so interested in his story that I
-accompanied him on more than one long journey. Occasionally I would lose
-sight of him for months together, but by the strangest seeming accident
-we would meet again, now on the top of Ghizeh's great pyramid, now in
-the deserts of Dongola and Nubia; then in a French café, anon in the
-columned groves of Karnak and of Thebes. We often parted, and as often
-met again; and in the interim I had not failed to investigate certain
-grave secrets which he had confided to me. I did not fully believe his
-strange doctrines; but I am sure that he did, and therefore he commanded
-my sympathy and respect. As previously indicated, on my first
-acquaintance with him I was exceedingly sceptical in regard to the
-existence, in these days, of the Brotherhood of the Rosie Cross, and
-derided his assertions respecting their powers. True I had heard much,
-and read more, concerning the celebrated fraternity--an association
-that has proved a veritable God-send to scores of paper-stainers in all
-parts of the globe where letters reign, as witness Charles Mackay,
-Kingsley, Robert Southey, and fifty others, not omitting Bulwer Lytton,
-his "Zanoni," and "Strange Story," nor Hargrave Jennings and his
-"Curious Things" about "Fire" and the "Outside World."
-
-In my varied travels through Europe and the East, as well as in this, my
-native land, I have met with scores, not to say hundreds, who boasted
-themselves Rosicrucians; and it is but a little while since there
-appeared, in a "spiritual" sheet in Boston, first a learned lecture, by
-a female "medium," on the Rosicrucians, and a long communication,
-purporting to come from a deceased adept of the Order, both of which
-were quite laughable by reason of the total and utter ignorance
-displayed. Probably both of these "enlighteners" had heard or read of
-Dr. Everard's "Compte de Gabalis," and took that humorous bit of
-badinage as the real, simon-pure explanation of Rosicrucianism as,
-indeed, was natural, seeing that hundreds have fallen into the same
-comical error; for, upon applying the touch-stone to all these pretended
-adepts in the secrets, sublime and mighty, of the Order, it is found
-that, exceptionless, they are woefully deficient in even the rudiments
-of the genuine fraternity; nor have these modern pretenders any more
-real claims to the truth than the hordes of fanatics which swarmed all
-over Europe an age or two ago, and who brought ineffable disgrace both
-upon themselves and the sublime name which they stole.
-
-A good gold coin passes very quietly through the world, but your
-counterfeit makes a great noise wherever it may chance to be; so with
-the pseudo-Rosicrucians. The latter created a sensation, and then
-disappeared, only occasionally jingling their bells to let the world
-know that the fools were not all defunct; while the true Brotherhood
-went on, and still goes on, quietly performing its mission.
-
-Every student of history is, or ought to be, aware that the pretended
-"adepts" in past times laid claim to enormous amounts of the most
-wonderful knowledge, but when put to the proof, invariably failed to
-substantiate their claims. Such were the men who sought, and, in some
-instances, pretended to have succeeded, in accomplishing the composition
-of the Philosopher's Stone and the great Elixir.
-
-Vaughan, in his "Hours with the Mystics," laughs at the idea that there
-ever was really such a society as that of the Brethren of the Rosie
-Cross, and alleges that they were but the "Mrs. Harris" of certain
-romancers of the past two centuries; in other words, that they are
-altogether mistaken who suppose such a society ever had existence. Baron
-Fischer, now of San Francisco, declares that there really was such an
-order, but that it was composed of Fools, Fanatics, and Moon-struck
-Madmen, who in time became the laughing-stock of all Europe. On the
-other hand, Lydde, the traveller, asserts positively, in his great work,
-"The Asian Mystery," that he has traced the Order, under one or more of
-its names, back into the very night-time of the world's history. And
-Abdul Rahman, the Arabian author, boldly declares that _he_ has proved
-the existence of this Brotherhood in ages so remote that Christian and
-Jewish history is modern in comparison.
-
-Hein, Hun--Tse-Foh, the Chinese annalist, asserts, that the Order
-originated in Tartary thousands of years before the foundation of the
-Chinese empire, itself claiming an age of over thirty thousand solar
-years! From Tartary it went to Japan, thence to China, thence to Persia,
-thence to Arabia, thence to India, and, by stages, to Europe, having
-passed through Egypt, Jewry, and Phoenicia on its way down the ages.
-
-So much for Vaughan; now for another "authority." Under the letter "R,"
-in the American Encyclopedia, occurs the word "Rosicrucians," followed
-by--"Members of a society, the existence of which became unexpectedly
-known at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its object was
-ostensibly the reformation of Church, State, and individuals, but closer
-examination showed that the discovery of the Philosophers' Stone was the
-true object of the fully initiated. A certain Christian, Rosenkrauze,
-who was said to have lived long among the Brahmins in Egypt, etc., was
-pretended to have founded the Order in the fourteenth century; but the
-real founder is believed to have been one Andrea, a German scholar, of
-the beginning of the sixteenth century, whose object, as is thought, was
-to purify Religion, which had been degraded by Scholastic Philosophy.
-Others think that he only gave a new character to a society founded
-before him by Cornelius Agrippa, of Nettesheim. Krause, the author,
-says, that Andrea occupied his time from early youth with the plan of a
-secret society for the improvement of mankind. In 1614 he published his
-famous "Reformation of the Whole Wide World," and his "Fama
-Fraternitas." Christian enthusiasts and alchemists considered the
-poetical society, partially described in these books, as having a real
-existence, and thus Andrea became the author of the later Rosicrucian
-fraternities which extended over Europe. After a number of books had
-been written on the Rosicrucian system, and the whole exploded, the
-interest in it was revived in the latter half of the eighteenth century,
-in consequence of the abolition of the Order of Jesuits, and the story
-of their machinations, as well as of the frauds of Cagliostro and other
-notorious impostors."
-
-So much for the wiseacre who wrote this account at so much a line for
-the "American Encyclopedia."
-
-In juxta-position to the above, I quote part of pages 132-3-4 and 5,
-_verbatim_, of the autobiography of Heinrich Jung Stilling, late Aulic
-Counsellor to the Grand Duke of Baden. London: 1858. James Nisbet,
-Berners street. 3d Edition. Says this incomparable man:
-
-"One morning in the spring of 1796, a handsome young man, in a green
-silk-plush coat, and otherwise well dressed, came to Stilling's house at
-Ockershaussen. This gentleman introduced himself in such a manner as
-betrayed a polished and genteel education. Stilling inquired who he was,
-and learnt that he was the remarkable ----. Stilling was astonished at
-the visit, and his astonishment was increased by the expectation of
-what this extremely enigmatical individual might have to communicate.
-After both had sat down, the stranger began by saying that he wished to
-consult Stilling relative to a person diseased in the eyes. However, the
-real object of his visit pressed him in such a manner that he began to
-weep; kissed, first, Stilling's hand, then his arm, and said: 'Sir, are
-not you the author of the "Nostolgia?"' 'Yes, sir.' 'You are, therefore,
-one of my secret superiors' (in the Grand Lodge of the R. C.) Here he
-again kissed Stilling's hand and arm, and wept almost aloud. Stilling
-answered: 'No, dear sir; I am neither your nor any one else's secret
-superior. I am not in any secret connection whatever.' The stranger
-looked at Stilling with a fixed eye, and inward emotion, and replied:
-'Dearest friend, cease to conceal yourself! I _have been long tried_,
-and severely enough. I thought you knew me already!' Stilling: 'No, Mr.
-----, I assure you solemnly that I stand in no secret connection, and in
-reality understand nothing of all that you require of me!'
-
-"This speech was too strong and too serious to leave the stranger in
-uncertainty. It was now his turn to be astonished and amazed. He
-therefore continued: 'But tell me, then, how is it that you know
-anything of the great and venerable connection in the East which you
-have so circumstantially described in the "Nostolgia," and have even
-pointed out their rendezvous in Egypt, on Mount Sinai, in the Monastery
-of Canobin, and under the Temple at Jerusalem?' 'I know nothing of all
-this,' replied Stilling. 'But these ideas presented themselves in a
-very lively manner to my imagination. It was, therefore, mere fable and
-fiction.
-
-"'Pardon me, the matter is the truth and reality as you have described
-it. It is astonishing that you have hit it in such a manner--this cannot
-have come by chance!' The gentleman now related the real particulars of
-the association in the East. Stilling was amazed and astonished beyond
-measure; for he heard remarkable and extraordinary things, which are
-not, however, of such a nature as can be made public. I only affirm that
-what Stilling learnt from the gentleman had not the most remote
-reference to political matters.
-
-"About the same time a certain great prince wrote to Stilling, and asked
-him 'How it was that he knew anything about the association in the East,
-for the thing was as he had described it in the "Nostolgia."' The answer
-was naturally the same as that given verbally to the above-mentioned
-stranger. Stilling has experienced several things of this kind, in which
-his imagination exactly accorded with the real fact without previously
-having the least knowledge or presentiment of it. How it is, and why it
-is, God knows. Stilling makes no reflections upon the matter, but lets
-it stand upon its own value, and looks upon it as a direction of
-Providence, which purposes leading him in a distinguished manner. The
-development of the Eastern mystery is, however, a most important matter
-to him, because it has relation to the Kingdom of God. Much, indeed,
-remains in obscurity; for Stilling afterwards heard from another person
-of great consequence, something of an Oriental Alliance which was of a
-very different kind. It remains to be developed whether the two are
-distinct or identical."
-
-Thus far Jung Stilling. Quite recently I became aware of the existence
-of Rosicrucian Lodges in this country, obtained much information
-concerning the Fraternity, and have been privileged to publish the
-following Seven Paragraphs, concerning the exoteric practice of the
-Temple:
-
-                          THE ROSICRUCIANS,
-                       WHO AND WHAT THEY ARE.
-
-                     _Honor, Manhood, Goodness._
-
-                                TRY.
-
-I. The Rosicrucians are a body of good men, and true, working under a
-Grand Lodge Charter, deriving its power and authority from the Imperial
-Dome of the Third Supreme Temple of the Order, and the last (claiming
-justly to be the oldest association of men on earth, dating from the
-sinking of the New Atlantis Isle, nearly ten thousand years anterior to
-the days of Plato), and as a Grand Lodge, having jurisdiction over the
-entire continent of North America, and the Islands of the Sea. The Grand
-Lodge, and Temple, grant charters and dispensations to found or organize
-subsidiary lodges and temples, anywhere within the limits of its
-jurisdiction.
-
-II. All Rosicrucians are practical men, who believe in Progress, Law and
-Order, and in Self-development. They believe firmly that God helps those
-that help themselves; and they consequently adopt as the motto of the
-Order, the word TRY, and they believe that this little word of three
-letters may become a magnificent bridge over which a man may travel from
-Bad to Better, and from Better to Best--from ignorance to knowledge,
-from poverty to wealth, and from weakness to power.
-
-III. We constitute a large society in the world, and our ranks bid fair
-to largely swell in this land of Practical Men. There are hundreds of
-men of large culture, deep intuitions and liberal minds, who actually
-languish because they do not know each other--there being no organized
-body, save our own, which invites such men to join its ranks and find
-the fellowship which such men of such minds need. In our Lodges such men
-find all they seek, and more; in our weekly reunions the rarest and best
-intellects are brought in contact, the best thoughts are elicited, and
-the truest human pleasure experienced; forasmuch, as nothing impure,
-ignoble, mean or unmanly, is for an instant tolerated under any
-circumstance whatever; while, on the contrary, every inducement is held
-out to encourage all that is noble, good, true, beautiful, charitable
-and manly--and that, too, in a way totally unknown and unpractised in
-any other order, or association of men.
-
-IV. Every Rosicrucian is known, and is the sworn brother of every other
-Rosicrucian the wide world over, and as such is bound to render all
-possible aid and comfort (except when such aid would sanction crime or
-wrong doing, or interfere with the demands of public justice, social
-order, decency, sound morals or National prosperity and unity). In all
-things else, every Rosicrucian is bound to help another, so long as he
-can do it with a clear conscience, and not violate his honor, derogate
-from his personal dignity, or sully his own manhood. In all things
-worthy, one assists the other; in sickness, sorrow, life, death, and the
-troubles and trials of the world and society. Each man is eligible to
-one, two, or three degrees; and after once becoming a true Rosicrucian,
-it is next to impossible that he can ever afterward come to want, either
-for protection in all that is just, counsel in difficulty, food,
-raiment, shelter, and all true human sympathy;--all of which is freely
-rendered so long as the man remains a worthy DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE!
-
-Thus the Temple ensures its acolytes against want, mitigates their
-sorrow, enhances their usefulness to themselves and the world, braces
-and sharpens their intellects, fires their emulation, encourages all
-manly effort, assuages their grief, cultivates their hope, strengthens
-their self-reliance, self-respect, self-effort; it frowns on all wrong
-doing, seeks to elevate man in his own esteem, teaches due and loyal
-respect to woman, the laws, society and the world; it promotes stability
-of character, makes its votaries strive for MANHOOD in the full, true
-sense; adopts "Try" and "Excelsior" as living, practical mottoes; and
-thus, both directly and indirectly, does the Temple of Rosicrucia seek
-to increase the sum total of human happiness in the world, within and
-without its walls.
-
-V. Every man pays an initiation fee, and a monthly tax of one dollar.
-In return for which, the member has the advantage of all information the
-Lodge may be able to procure in the shape of lectures, debates, books,
-scientific papers, models, experiments in all the physical sciences,
-essays on philosophy, etc.; in addition to which he is allowed a sum,
-varying from four to fourteen dollars a week when sick, provided he
-needs such aid; he is visited, comforted, nursed, doctored, and, should
-he die, the Temple buries him--as a man and a Rosicrucian should be
-buried. If he dies an officer (and every man is eligible), his widow and
-children are properly cared for by the Order.[4]
-
-[4] The Grand Lodge contemplates the enactment of laws looking to the
-providing for the families of members when sick, and to their burial
-when dead, which will be secured by the payment of additional fees from
-time to time. It also contemplates a system of life insurance of its
-members, who, by the payment of certain fees, may secure a certain sum
-to their families at death sufficient to maintain them in comfort, but
-not in luxury or idleness. The system will probably be one of graduated
-annuities.
-
-VI. This Order is a school of the highest and best knowledge the earth
-affords. It is unlike any and all others, for, in addition to being a
-Mutual Protection Society, it reaches out in far higher and nobler
-aims--only a few, very few, of which are alluded to in this hand-book,
-which is merely printed to save much explanatory talk on the part of
-Rosicrucians who are being continually importuned for information
-respecting the said Order. One of its main objects is to be a School of
-Men; to make men more useful by rendering them stronger, more knowing,
-therefore wiser--therefore happier. As Rosicrucians we recognize the
-immense value of Sympathy, Encouragement, Emulation and Persistency--
-
-                    _Nil mortalibus, ardum est._
-
-           THERE IS NO DIFFICULTY TO HIM WHO TRULY WILLS!
-
-Whatever of good or great man has ever done, may still be accomplished
-by you and I, my brother, if we only think so, and set about in right
-good earnest, and no mistake. TRY! We proclaim the OMNIPOTENCE OF WILL!
-and we declare practically, and by our own achievements demonstrate, the
-will of man to be a supreme and all-conquering force when once fairly
-brought into play, but this power is only negatively strong when exerted
-for merely selfish or personal ends; when or wherever it is called into
-action for good ends, nothing can withstand its force. Goodness is
-Power; wherefore we take the best of care to cultivate the normal will,
-and thus render it a mighty and powerful engine for Positive Good. You
-cannot deceive a true Rosicrucian, for he soon learns how to read you
-through and through, as if you were a man of glass; and he attains this
-power by becoming a Rosicrucian only, nor can it be had through any
-other means whatever. The Temple teaches its acolytes how to rebuild
-this regal faculty of the human soul--the will; how to strengthen,
-purify, expand, and intensify it; and one of the first results
-observable after a man has become a true Rosicrucian, is that his vanity
-grows smaller by degrees, and beautifully less; for the first thing he
-fully realizes is that all he knows would probably make quite a large
-book, but that all he does not know would make a book considerably
-larger, and he therefore sets himself to learn. Where there's a will
-there's a way; and after getting rid of self-conceit, the man finds
-himself increasing in mental stature by imperceptible gradations, and
-finds himself a learned man by a process which he cannot fairly
-comprehend, and one which is neither appreciated or known outside of the
-Temple.
-
-As a consequence of travelling on this royal road to knowledge, the
-Rosicrucian soon learns to despise the weakness of wickedness, not by
-reason of any long-faced cant being poured into his ear, but because he
-finds out practically that manhood and virtue are safe investments,
-while badness or meanness won't pay. It is the universal testimony of
-all who have become true Rosicrucians, that within its symbolic walls
-there is a deeply mysterious influence for good pervading its
-atmosphere, under which every man of the Order becomes rapidly but
-normally individualized and intensified in character, manhood, and
-influence.
-
-VII. The doors of our Lodges are never closed against the honest,
-honorable or aspiring man; nor can any earthly potentate, no wielder of
-an empire's sceptre, no wearer of a kingly crown, gain admission by
-reason of his eminence; for though he be a king, he may not be a MAN, a
-title far above all others on the earth--a title nobler than any other
-ever earned by mortals! We Rosicrucians are proud of our eminence--and
-justly so--for we are a BROTHERHOOD OF MEN! and recognize MANHOOD as the
-true kingship; hence we honor that man highest who knows the most, and
-puts his knowledge to the highest and noblest uses, not only toward his
-brothers, but in any field in the world's great garden, for are not we
-all brethren? Does not the one great God rule over and love us? Even so!
-No man can enter our doors by reason of his wealth, for riches, unless
-put to manly uses, are detrimental;--bad--positively injurious! No man
-can enter our doors by reason of his fame, politics, or religion. The
-Order has nothing to do with a man's politics or religion, and it
-matters not what a man's creed is, so long as he IS A MAN. The Baptist
-is welcome, but not _as_ a Baptist; and so with men of all other faiths.
-No religion, no faith, no politics can be discussed from our platform,
-nor will their introduction be tolerated one moment. We accept men of
-all creeds, except such as outrage decency, manhood, sound morals, and
-public order, such as Free Lovers, Mormons, and birds of that feather;
-nor can any such person enter our ranks, no matter who he may be, or how
-high in fame or social place. No man is barred out of our Temple by
-reason of his poverty, for physical beggars are often kings in mind. All
-we ask or seek for in a man is HONOR, HONESTY, and ambition to KNOW MORE
-AND BE BETTER.
-
-Usually the Lodges of Rosicrucia meet once a week to hear lectures,
-exchange courtesies, thoughts, news; to listen to invited guests, debate
-questions in art, science, and philosophy; to mutually inform and
-strengthen each other; to investigate any and all subjects of a proper
-nature, and to cultivate that manly spirit and chivalric bearing which
-so well entitles their possessor to be called A MAN. These are a few of
-the good things of Rosicrucia. We seek no man--men seek us. Our
-facilities for obtaining knowledge and information on all subjects are,
-as may well be conceived, unsurpassed--unequalled. Financially we are
-satisfied. A Temple of Rosicrucia never yet felt the pressure of an
-exhausted exchequer, and probably never will. But this last is the least
-commendable thing about the Institution; yet it uses money for good
-purposes, and therefore has its chest supplied. All other essential
-information respecting the Order can be obtained BY TRYING!
-
-       .       .       .       .       .
-
-It will be seen that there is nothing magical here, yet I do not doubt
-but the members could tell strange stories if they chose.
-
-Many, but by no means all, the Alchemists and Hermetic Philosophers were
-acolytes of that vast secret Brotherhood, which has thrived from the
-earliest ages, and, under different names in different lands, has
-performed, is still performing its mission. The members of this mystic
-union were the Magi of old, who flourished in Chaldea (Mesopotamia) ages
-before one of their number (Heber) left his native plains, and on
-foreign soil founded the Hebraic confederation. They were the original
-Sabi and Sabeans, who for long ages preceded the Sages of Chaldea. They
-were the men who founded that Semitic civilization, the faint shade of
-which we find, having leaped long avenues of centuries, in the mouldy
-records of early China, itself numbering its years by the thousand. Of
-this great Brotherhood sprung Brahma, Buddha, La-otze, Zoroaster, Plato,
-the Gnostics, the Essenes, and therefore Christ himself--who was an
-Essene, and who preached the sacred doctrines of the Mountain of Light.
-They were the Dreamers of the ages--the sun of the epochs--eclipsed
-occasionally, but anon bursting forth in glory again. They were the men
-who first discovered the significance of Fire; and that there was
-something deeper than Life in man; profounder than Intellect in the
-universe. Whatever of transcendant light now illumes the world, comes
-from the torches which they lit at the Fountain whence all light
-streameth upon that mystic mountain which they alone had courage and
-endurance to climb, and climbed, too, over a ladder whose rungs were
-centuries apart. Hermes Trismegistus, Egypt's mighty king, and that
-other Hermes (Asclepius IX.), was an adept, a brother, and a Priest--as
-was Malki Zadek before him--that famous Pre-Adamite monarch, that
-Melchisedek, who was reputed to have been born of a Thought, and to have
-lived for countless ages. And so with the Greek Mercurius. Theirs, too,
-was that wondrous learning wherein Moses was skilled; and at their
-fountain the Hebrew Joseph drank. Nothing original in Thaumaturgy,
-Theology, Philosophy, Psychology, Entology, and Ontology, but they gave
-it to the world; and when Philosophers thought they had gained new
-thoughts and truths, the records of the Order prove them to have been
-old ages before the Adamic era of Chronology, and to have been the
-common property of the adepts.
-
-I have been led into these remarks and explanations, first, for the
-purpose of finally and authoritatively settling the vexed question
-concerning the Rosicrucians, and to throw light on that which is to
-follow.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER II.
-
-                      WHO WAS HE?--WHAT WAS IT?
-
-
-"I made," said Beverly to me one day, "my projected tour, and had
-returned much wiser than I went, but no nearer the consummation of my
-chief hope. I had begun the practice of medicine in the city of Boston,
-and occupied an office reputed to have been haunted by the troubled
-ghosts of sundry persons who were there attracted by some strange
-influence. I laughed at, and ridiculed the pretensions of scores of so
-called seers, who claimed to behold these flitting gentry.
-
-"There came to my office one day--it was a very stormy day in the latter
-part of the winter of the year in the spring of which I was so neatly
-swindled--there came, I repeat, on a stormy day, when the snow fell
-thick and fast; when the fierce wind blew, and the Frost-king was busily
-engaged in putting icy manacles upon all that he could reach--a lady to
-consult me upon a case of scrofula in her child. At that time my
-reputation in that specialty was great and constantly increasing; for I
-had but a few months before introduced and practised the method of
-treating that order of diseases, taught me in Constantinople by the
-famous negro sage of that metropolis. I prepared the materials required,
-and stood waiting for her to leave the office, as I was anxious to
-continue the perusal of some Hieratic manuscripts lent me that day by a
-lettered friend in Dedham. She made no movement indicative of leaving;
-but instead, challenged me to a discussion of some spiritual subject or
-other, which challenge I, from an innate horror of all strong-minded
-male-feminines, respectfully declined. She called herself my friend, and
-was, if sticking to one is a title to the name. She possessed all the
-qualities of the best adhesive plaster--it was impossible to get rid of
-her presence. She declared that she constantly saw, and held
-conversations with the dead, and she would then and there give a proof
-of her qualifications in that direction; whereupon she was instantly
-seized with an exceedingly violent trembling, accompanied with any
-amount of spasmodic jerks and twitchings. I had witnessed such things
-before, and consequently did not feel alarmed at Mrs. Graham's
-condition, but going into the rear office I procured a chair and sat
-down to wait for demonstrations; which, when they came, were but so many
-pretty word-paintings--commonplace counsel and advice addressed to me by
-what purported to be my mother--which latter, however, appeared to have
-forgotten her name, my own, and when and where she departed this life. I
-was perfectly certain that it was not my mother, and equally so that
-Mrs. Graham was not consciously acting the part of an impostor, and I
-accounted for the phenomenon on the Rosicrucian theory, then quite new
-to me, that she was obsessed, or possessed, by and with a distinct
-individuality entirely foreign to her own. To my mind the thing was
-certain that she, like scores of thousands of others are, was for the
-time being under the absolute control and dominion of a Will a myriad
-times stronger than that of any living human being that ever tenanted a
-body on this terraqueous globe of ours--beings perfectly intelligent,
-powerful, invisible, and totally conscienceless, wherein is a great
-difference from human beings.
-
-"The lady came around in a few minutes, and I frankly stated my opinion
-to her. It was new and startling. 'Not human spirits--yet intelligent?
-An intelligent thing--and guileful? It is dreadful! Horrible! What,
-then, is that Thing? Angels? No! Devils? If so, whence come they? Why?
-For what end?'
-
-"These were terrible questions; and we talked about the matter, the lady
-and I, as we sat in the back office, near the fire, for it was very
-cold; and she sat leaning on the desk near the window, and I sat near
-the door between the offices, my back nearly touching it. The outer
-door, which opened on the stair-landing, was closed, and a wire was so
-attached to it that it could not be opened, or even the latch be raised,
-without touching a spring that instantly rung a bell that was suspended
-directly over my head in the rear office. I used this rear office as a
-reading-room and laboratory, and I frequently became so absorbed in my
-reading or chemistry, that nothing less than the ringing of that bell
-would suffice to divert my attention.
-
-"And there and thus we sat and talked for more than three long hours.
-The strong-minded woman's soul had at last really been aroused; while I
-once more brought to the surface my Rosicrucian lore. In thought and
-speech we traversed a score of conjectural worlds and labyrinths of
-Being; until, at last: 'Are there, really, any intelligent, but viewless
-beings, other than man, in all the broad universe--I mean other than man
-as he is here, and disembodied likewise?--that's the question,' said the
-lady by the desk.
-
-"'_Of course there are!_ MYRIADS!' said a clear, manly voice in the
-room, right straight from the centre of the triangle formed by the desk,
-the door and the southern wall of the office! It was not the lady who
-thus replied to her own question! It was not I who spoke; nor, strange
-as it afterwards appeared, did the circumstance strike me as being at
-all out of the common. And, therefore, without an instant's hesitation,
-I rejoined to the observation of the speaker, whom I subsequently
-remember to have observed was a thin, strange-looking, scrawny,
-shrivelled little old man, with the queerest possible little sharp grey
-eyes. He looked half frozen, and acted so, for he advanced toward some
-shelves and proceeded very leisurely to warm his hands over my
-laboratory furnace, between the door and wall. The lady appeared no more
-surprised than myself at the inexplicable presence of this singular
-intruder.
-
-"'I am not so sure of that,' I replied, in answer to the words uttered
-by the strange old man--'I am not so sure that there _are_ such beings
-in existence.'
-
-"'Then you're a greater fool than I took you for! Good evening!' And he
-moved slightly toward the door, against which my chair firmly stood.
-
-"'Don't go yet, for I want you to explain,' said the lady. 'Don't you
-think he ought to?' turning to me with a very peculiar earnestness
-expressed in her countenance, especially in her eyes--very peculiar eyes
-at all times, but lit up in the most extraordinary manner at that
-moment. 'I think he ought to prove his statement, and not leave us in
-this state of uncertainty. It is positively cruel!' And, as she spoke,
-her eye met mine, and fastened it as if the encountering glances were
-riveted together.
-
-"There must be some magic in the soul that is only flashed forth on very
-rare occasions, else why did her glance so fix my gaze for ten seconds
-that I could not stir? At the end of that space of time the fascination
-ended, and, raising my eyes, I answered--
-
-"'Certainly! he ought to explain; and, of course,' said I, turning
-toward the man--'of course, you will explain yourself, and----'
-
-"_There was no man there!_ Not even a sign that he had been. He had
-disappeared, gone, utterly vanished--not through the window, for that
-was a clear fall of seventy feet to the ground, besides which it had
-been securely nailed down for over four months--not through the door,
-for my chair and back were against it!
-
-"Mrs. Graham fainted, and fell prone upon the floor!
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"I lived in Charlestown, and reached home rather early that evening. Not
-that I was frightened. Oh, no! but because home seemed cheerier than the
-office; for the weather was bitterly cold, and the storm-spirits were
-holding high, tempestuous revels in the common and the bay; and, ever
-and anon, as the shivering pedestrian jogged along, and turned the sharp
-corners of what is literally and emphatically, and in more senses than
-one, the most angular city in the world, the blast would meet him square
-in the face, side-ways, and all around him in the same blessed moment of
-time, no matter which way he headed; for a Boston snow-storm blows every
-way at once--here it is due north, around the corner it is south-east,
-behind you it is north-west; over the way it blows straight up, and in
-the middle of the street it blows straight down.
-
-"It was hard work travelling the four miles to my home that night, for
-every step had to be wearily footed. True, there were street cars, but
-no man in Boston ever remembers one going the right way when most it was
-wanted; but everybody can find scores _coming_, when everybody is bent
-upon _going_.
-
-"Well, after a perilous walk, I at last reached home, and gladly sat
-down to my comfortable supper of toast and tea in my snug little
-parlor--the same little parlor where I wrote my book and received the
-loan of money to publish it, which money I was afterwards deprived of by
-the financial acumen of as great a scoundrel as ever went loose upon the
-world.
-
-"Oh, how it stormed outside! and oh, how warm and cosy was the little
-snug harbor into which I had just moored myself!
-
-"It was the second cup of tea--orange pekoe it was, for I had bought it
-of a Chinaman in Boston, who knew all about tea--and the second slice of
-toast that I was discussing, along with my daily paper, when suddenly
-there came a loud, imperative double knock at the door, similar to that
-of an English postman when in a hurry to deliver his letters. The door
-was immediately opened by a servant, who thought some one had been taken
-suddenly ill, and that I had been sent for professionally. But what was
-my astonishment when in stalked, with as much ease and _nonchalance_ as
-if he belonged there, no less a personage than the mysterious little old
-man of the afternoon. I was thunderstruck. It was the same person who
-had treated me so rudely, and who had first come and then gone again so
-unaccountably, and who had induced an illness in Mrs. Graham that
-resulted in causing her to forever abandon her mediumatic practices--the
-same that has sent so many scores of people to premature graves, and
-will send thousands more. The strange man advanced toward the fire, and
-exclaimed--
-
-"'What a fright I caused you and your guest this afternoon! Ha! ha! It
-was capital--was it not?'
-
-"And again he laughed, but this time in a manner and with a voice which,
-had it not been for the immense physical disparity apparent, I could
-have sworn was that of the Italian Count in Paris. But this supposition
-was hardly possible. The man before me was so decidedly _human_, that,
-by a rapid and comprehensive induction, I concluded that Mrs. Graham and
-myself had been victimized for sport by one who was perfect master of
-the mesmeric art. This hypothesis was quite plausible, only I could not
-account for the non-ringing of the office bell; and the idea seemed at
-that time quite preposterous that any one could successfully magnetize
-the clapper of a bell into silence. I learned more afterwards. Neither
-did it seem quite reasonable that this man had, before entering the
-office at all, exerted his power upon our sense of hearing, rendering us
-deaf.
-
-"To his remark I replied, rather sententiously, with 'Very!' and said no
-more, for I did not fancy his joke, if such it was, nor his
-_brusquerie_, nor his decided lack of good manners, nor his rude speech;
-in fact, I did not fancy the man at all, nor anything about him. Not
-that he was hated or despised, but because there was a something about
-him that made my very flesh creep again, and caused me to instinctively
-shrink from his contact.
-
-"It is well known that one of the cardinal points of the Rosicrucian
-belief is that bodily life can be prolonged through whole ages in two
-different ways; first, by means of the Elixir of Life; secondly, by
-means of mere will alone. In the first case beauty and youth accompany
-age; but in the second, age is apparent all along the centuries. This
-latter secret and the processes were revealed by a degenerate
-Rosicrucian in 1605; and all students of medicine are aware that great
-capital was made of it in later times by a French physician named
-Asgill. This writer undertook to publicly demonstrate and teach the art
-of life-prolonging, laying it down positively, that man is literally
-immortal, or rather that any given man alive could, if he choose,
-utterly laugh at and defy death; that he need not, if so disposed, ever
-die, if he used sufficient prudence, and forcibly and constantly exerted
-his will in that direction. Asgill used to complain of the _cowardly
-practice_ of dying, considering it a mere trick, and unnecessary habit.
-The records tell us that several men have used both these means to
-perpetuate existence, and I have not the slightest doubt that it has
-been attempted and proved measurably successful; and now, on this stormy
-night, as I gazed on the withered wreck before me, it struck me that he
-was one of those wretches who had attained indefinite length of years by
-the second method, and, as a necessary consequence, had lost all fire,
-all feeling, all love, and all conscience. I shuddered as the
-possibility flashed upon me. He saw the motion, and a smile of ineffable
-scorn curled his lip as he did so. I abandoned my notion.
-
-"People who observe things as they plod their way through the world, and
-who have at all made the human soul a study, have often been made aware
-that there is a certain nameless something that comes over a man, that
-with resistless eloquence persuades his inner soul that some danger
-approaches, some peril besets, some disaster impends over him. There are
-times, when calm reigns all around him, and peace blossoms in his heart,
-that he suddenly is apprised that Calamity is flapping her way toward
-him through the terrible nebulous gloom of the Future. Many a man and
-woman has felt this; and some such feeling, some such horror-form, now
-seemed hovering, cowering, crawling near me, and preparing to seize upon
-and fang my very soul, in the presence of the queer little man at my
-side. It was a mixed feeling of guilt and dread, and yet no guilt was
-mine. I had not cheated, robbed, lied, to my best friend. I had not
-fared sumptuously every day on the proceeds of villainy; _my_ wife and
-daughters did not dress in purple and fine linen, bought with the money
-wronged from a poor man, or any man at all. I had not a fine piano, and
-parlors full of guests enjoying funds thus gotten; nor had I driven fast
-and fine horses of my own, fed and fattened on the money of a man whose
-child was at that very moment struggling, gasping, choking in the
-clutches of grim death for want of bread and medicine. True, there were
-those who did all this--and the corpse of a pretty little girl attests
-it--but I did not; why then should I be afraid? There is no answer to
-that, and yet I was in dread.
-
-"After saying 'Very!' I spoke no more, but striving to repress the
-horror creeping over me, I tried to look as indignant as possible, which
-he was not slow to observe; for he approached, slapped me familiarly on
-the back, poured out and drank a cup of tea and ate a rusk, which
-settled the question as to his being no ghost; then he dropped
-carelessly into my easy-chair, rubbed his little perked-up nose with his
-thin, little, bluish-pale fingers, and throwing himself forward, so as
-to look right up into my face, he laughed heartily, and then bawled out,
-rather than sung, at the top of his voice:
-
-           "'The storm howls drearily,
-            Let you and I live cheerily;
-    And we'll study things that never were known.
-            I've come from the West,
-            To see the man that I like best.
-            Don't think I'm all depravity--
-            _I'm_ in search of the centre of gravity--
-      And _you'll_ find out the Philosophers' Stone.'
-
-And then he again burst out into one of the wildest, most _outré_, and
-ridiculous laughs that ever fell on mortal hearing.
-
-"The wretched doggerel that I had just heard was beneath my notice; and
-little did I know of the singer, and still less did I imagine that those
-lines were to me the most important I had ever heard.
-
-"Gradually, and by imperceptible degrees, my prejudices began to wane; I
-conversed with him upon a variety of subjects, and the conference was
-maintained during four long hours, perhaps more; for if my memory serves
-me, it was nearly eleven o'clock when he arose from his seat, shook me
-cordially by the hand, said he was going, promised to call again 'when
-he wanted to serve me,' and then, opening the doors, passed out into the
-midst of one of the most fierce and vindictive tempests that ever
-desolated the shores of Boston Bay. A singular thing was this: in the
-depth of winter, this man, who refused steadily to speak concerning
-himself, was clad in the very thinnest summer raiment, not having enough
-even for a northern June, much less for such fearful weather as
-prevailed on the night of that 4th of February--a night when the glass
-in Boston told of cold twenty degrees below zero, and in New Hampshire
-nineteen lower still--a night so bitter that many and many a man went to
-eternity, borne thither on the frosty pinions of the Ice-king.
-
-"'After all it is a man, and mesmerism furnishes a key to all this
-seeming mystery,' thought I; and with this consoling supposition I went
-to bed, and there reproduced all that he had said or done. Now,
-although little was said in regard to himself, yet, from that little, I
-gathered that he was an Armenian by birth, that his name was MIAKUS,
-which is the ancient Chaldaic for Priest of Fire. He told me this as he
-bent down to kiss a sweet little prattling Cora, and said that he was
-very fond of children, and felt particularly so toward the little fairy,
-who, seated in her chair, was busily engaged in laying down the law to a
-culprit kitten, who, it appeared, had been guilty of _leze majeste_ to
-her Christmas doll. After the child had been sent to bed, Miakus
-produced from his bosom a little square, flat case, apparently of rose
-or olive wood, and about seven inches across by two and a half deep.[5]
-It was locked, and the key, a silver one, hung by a golden clasp to an
-ordinary steel watch-chain round his neck. The little man laid this case
-upon the bureau, where it lay undisturbed, although it became clear to
-me that his business there was in some way associated with that box and
-myself. It was equally clear that his air was more than half assumed,
-and that, in spite of his _nonchalance_ and _brusque_ surface, great
-trouble reigned beneath; for, occasionally, as he spoke, there was a
-melancholy cadence and plaintive modulation in his tones, that, to
-practised ears, spoke, if not of a breaking heart, at least of one most
-deeply injured and bereaved. This circumstance affected me much, for,
-through life, I have been one who grieved with those in grief, and joyed
-with those in joy. Then, after a little, he told me that one of his
-objects was to initiate me into certain mysteries of white magic, to
-teach me how to construct the magic mirror in which the majority of
-persons could glance through space, see and talk with the dead, and in
-all things, save a few, have an unerring guide through life. Said he--'I
-have such a curious looking-glass in yonder box, and perhaps--and
-perhaps not--you may test its qualities before I leave you. The fact is,
-I feel down-hearted, have been so all day, and all the more because I
-hurt your _amour propré_ by calling you a fool, which, of course, I do
-not apologize for. It struck me that I would take advantage of the
-weather to chat with you, without infringing upon your business, and
-that, possibly, you might learn something and I find relief in teaching
-you, and thus withdraw us both for a time from the great Failure'--by
-which he meant the world. 'I am weary of myself, the world, philosophers
-and philosophy. There's nothing good but magic! You have been a fool
-while striving to be wise; and are ambitious to _know_ what you have
-hitherto merely imagined.'
-
-[5] Both the incidents of the magic mirror are actual, literal facts, as
-is also its curious construction and effects as herein related. I have
-witnessed many astonishing experiments with mirrors constructed as was
-that treated of in the text. I have seen several exactly similar--one in
-Zagazik, Lower Egypt, in the hands of a Hindoo magician, two in Cairo,
-one in Thebes, two in Constantinople, and one in London. In the East,
-owing to the scarcity of the peculiar material wherewith the space
-between the glasses is filled, they cost enormous prices, and then can
-only be had by a Christian through favor. In this country, or England,
-they might cheaply be made. I have one in my possession that I would not
-part with for three thousand dollars, so wonderful, so astonishing are
-the effects witnessed in and through it.--EDITOR.
-
-"He rose, took the case, laid it on the table between us, and, while
-playing with the key, continued--'If you really desire to pierce through
-the gloom that palls the human senses, you must abandon all human loves
-and passions, most especially all that relates to woman; for woman's
-love destroys--in the very moment of man's victory over her, she
-triumphs--he yields his life, and offers up existence itself on her
-altars, and then she laughs! Is it not so? Does not every man's
-experience corroborate this? Strong as iron alone, no sooner does he
-reach the goal of love than he is lost in a sea of weakness, lethargy,
-deadness! Bah! avoid woman. You want high knowledge, and must pay high
-prices. God gives nothing--he sells all; and he who would have must
-purchase, and the price is suffering. So with love. Its life is bought
-with the coin of death. Woman is like the ivy vine mantling round some
-hoary tower, and the more you are ruined the closer she clings, and the
-closer she clings the more you are ruined! Listen. No one acts without a
-motive. I have one with regard to yourself, and it is a selfish one. It
-so happens that the possessor of the magic mirror can in it behold all
-other horoscopes but his own, beyond a certain point; and, if he would
-know it, he must consult other seers. Now, there are certain beings in
-existence whose future cannot be read except by certain persons
-specially constituted. You are one of the latter, I am one of the
-former; and such as we only meet at the beginning and the end of epochs
-and eras. The present is one of these. I will present you with the
-mirror when you have done me this favor; I will teach you the art of
-their construction; and I will give you a verbatim copy of the answers
-you shall make to the questions I shall ask you while gazing in its
-awful depths. To this I pledge a word that never yet was broken, and an
-oath that never will be. For this purpose I have followed you for years,
-patiently waiting for the hour that dawns at last. To successfully do
-the thing I ask, two things are essential. 1st, That, in a perfectly
-pure state of body, health, mind, intent, and morals, you gaze into the
-glass. 2d, That, while doing so, you make no resistance against certain
-sleepful influences that may assail you, which influences will not be
-mesmeric, nor assisted by myself in any way, but is the sacred slumber
-of _Sialam Boaghiee_, which can only be enjoyed once in a hundred years,
-and then only by persons who are singularly constituted as you
-are--whose veins are filled with the mingled blood of all the nations
-that sprung from the loins of the Edenic protoplast, the Biblical Adam,
-and who, temperamentally, and in all other respects, save sex, are
-perfectly neutral. Certain great advantages will accrue to you from this
-concession that are unattainable without. From this slumber you will
-awaken doubly; first, to the old life without; and, second, to another
-and a fuller though stranger life within, and to the power of
-comprehending innumerable mysteries that lie enshrouded in dim regions
-far beyond the ken of ordinary man. Dreamer! you shall comprehend your
-dreams. Rosicrucian! you shall comprehend the Light, the Tower, and the
-Flame, and where Artefius and Zimati failed you shall find success! It
-is difficult, if not impossible, to either over-rate the advantages to
-be derived by the possession of the power I allude to, or to define and
-characterize it in words, mainly for the reason that, although the idea
-stands out well marked and distinct before the mind, yet the language
-which you speak has no terms of symbols adequate to its naming or
-expression; for, at best, words are coarse raiment for thought, and no
-more show the beauty of what they cover, than the preposterous costumes
-of Christendom display the superlative glories of the human form. The
-soul that sleeps this slumber passes through a gate which even the
-privileged dead cannot enter, save once in a century, and then only by
-reason of neutrality, for positive people are to be counted by the
-billion on either side the grave, negative people outnumber them ten
-million to one, while neutrals are, like cold heat, very rare indeed. I
-trust we shall yet assist each other.'
-
-"Now, I had, two hours before, on seeing him eat and drink, hastily
-abandoned my ghostly hypothesis regarding the little queer old man. But
-now, as he talked so strangely, and so grandly indicated the Door of the
-Dome of all possible human knowledge and attainment, the mystery that
-wrapped him changed its character, but enveloped him in a ten-fold gloom
-and shadow, that continually grew more thick and dense, so much so,
-indeed, that, but for his eating, and the fact that several persons in
-the house beside myself had seen and exchanged speech with and touched
-him, I certainly should have doubted the evidence of my senses, and set
-the whole thing down, from the scene in the office till his departure,
-to the account of a disturbed imagination. There was a something
-unearthly about his voice and manner; and once, when he turned his
-chair, the upper part of his right thigh came in direct contact with
-the red-hot stove, and I watched it there until the chair was ruined by
-the fire, and the smoke of its varnish and seat fairly filled the room,
-and yet he was not burned, but coolly rose and opened the door for the
-smoke to escape, and then resumed his seat as if nothing whatever had
-happened; and, two or three times in the course of the evening, I not
-only felt a chilly atmosphere proceed from him, but distinctly saw his
-skeleton beneath his thin, parchment-like skin, as if but the thinnest
-integument had been loosely thrown over it to hide its naked deformity
-by some mouldy tenant of the grave, doomed to expiate its offences by
-again walking the earth with embodied human beings. Could it be that I
-had struck the truth, and that this mysterious Miakus was in reality
-such a vampire as we read of in German story?"
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER III.
-
-                 PHOSPHORUS AND THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.
-
-
-"Marvelling," said Beverly, continuing his wonderful story--"Marvelling
-on the strange events of the day and night, as said before, I retired to
-my chamber, but not to rest, for ere the morning dawned upon the world
-again, there came to me an experience that in some respects totally
-changed the current and character of my life. These incidents are
-already recorded in my narrative concerning 'Cynthia and Thotmor,' long
-since given to the world.[6]
-
-[6] See the book called "Dealings with the Dead," second series.
-
-"On the morning following this eventful night, I repaired to the office
-of a reputed to be Philosophic tooth-doctor, whose brain is a far more
-curious museum than the one near his office. With him I conversed
-awhile, and by him was introduced to a real thinker, whose name, I
-think, was Blood. After smoking a segar--_and each other_--in his
-laboratory, I repaired to Nichols', the chemist, made a few purchases,
-and forthwith went to my office.
-
-"Now, it so happened that sometime previously I had purchased a chemical
-apparatus, conducting my experiments secretly, and mainly after twelve
-at night--for the purpose of repeating La Brière's great experiment for
-the removal of the poisonous and igneous properties of Phosphorus
-without decreasing its revivifying and medicinal qualities. I had
-experimented untiringly for five months, at a cost almost ruinous to me,
-but still with an invincible conviction that I should succeed, and give
-my secret to the world, instead of perishing like the poor Frenchman,
-who burst an artery from excitement at his success, having made about
-eleven ounces that fulfilled his entire expectations. Part of his
-process only survived him, and many a man, like myself, had attempted to
-fathom the secret and gain the enormous fortune that must result from
-complete success, but hitherto in vain.
-
-"The experiment was a most important one. Churchill had produced his
-hypophosphites, and they had lamentably failed of the intention; hence,
-in working at this mine, I had avoided his and others' formulæ. Success,
-I felt, would not only benefit my own private practice, but would be of
-incalculable service to the medical profession, and still more to that
-large class of persons who by over mental exertion, severe intellectual
-and sedentary occupations, and by passional and other imprudent
-excesses, had deprived themselves of the wine of life, by draining
-themselves of nervous force; and become spiritless, semi-insane, gloomy,
-and despondent. Such a discovery I knew would place in the hands of the
-profession a true, positive, but perfectly harmless aphrodision nervous
-stimulant, invigorant and tonic. It was, therefore, worth all the time,
-trouble, and expense I devoted to it, for it would be one of the best
-things medical science had yet given to the world.
-
-"It had long been demonstrated: 1st. That Phosphorus abounded in the
-bones, nerves, and tissues of the human body, but especially in the
-human brain. 2d. That Phosphorus was invariably present in large
-quantities in the brains of healthy men who had been killed, and
-analysis thereafter made; and invariably as the brain thus analyzed was
-that of an intellectual, fine-strung, high-toned, ambitious, executive,
-or spiritual person, just in proportion was the volume of phosphorus
-found in their remains; while the low, the ignorant, coarse and brutal
-had comparatively little phosphorus in them. 3d. It had been proved that
-in the administration of phosphorus to old people; to the class of
-patients who seek private advice; to those exhausted by mental labor or
-excess, it invariably acted as a revivifier, and seemed not only to
-restore health, strength, and fire to the body, but to rejuvenate and
-tone up the mind to its pristine strength, power, and activity; while
-insanity, idiotcy, brain-softening, and causeless terror, disappeared in
-the ratio of its exhibition, for one half of the diseases of
-civilization result from the waste of phosphorus from the system, and
-for thirty years medical chemistry had sought to so prepare the article
-that it would at once assimilate with the tissues and fluids. It had not
-succeeded. True, La Brière _had_, but then his secret was dead. I
-resolved to restore it; and after a hundred failures, produced what he
-had named Phymyle.
-
-"I tried its effects upon myself; then several physicians on themselves;
-and finally, it was tried upon patients at their own request, and the
-result left not a nail to hang a doubt on, that I was perfectly
-justified in crying 'Eureka!' This preface is essential to the
-understanding of what follows.
-
-"Now, it so happened that a few days before I saw Mrs. Graham, that I
-had placed about four pounds of phosphorus, together with about five
-times that weight of other materials, in a strong glass vessel, in a
-sand-bath, ready for the production of, perhaps, one quart of the
-precious medicine; and the first thing I did on entering my office from
-the dentist's, was to light the gas beneath it. For a few minutes I
-stood watching the rich and beautiful scarlet and purple vapor as it
-rose and curled through the neck of the retort, and the long glass pipes
-leading to the condensing apparatus.
-
-"While thus intently engaged, I was suddenly startled by the
-exclamations, 'Careless fool! Look out! Run!' Mechanically I obeyed,
-leaped into the outer office, and had scarcely done so, than there
-occurred a loud explosion. The retort had burst into a million
-fragments, shattering the windows and apparatus into fine pieces, and
-scattering some pounds of ignited phosphorus upon the floor. Here was
-trouble. But not to the speaker--for, quick as light, he tore the carpet
-off the office floor, and hurled it, phosphorus and all, into the
-snow-drifts in the yard below, which soon melted under the intense blaze
-of that almost quenchless fire, until, having consumed itself, nothing
-but a white smoke was left to tell the danger I and the house had been
-in.
-
-"The fire out, and my fright subsided, I turned to see who it was that
-had so opportunely saved me, and found the little old man smiling and
-smirking before me.
-
-"'What! is it you, then?' I asked, at the same time cordially extending
-my hand toward him.
-
-"'I rather think it is!' said he, grasping it, 'and very lucky for you
-it was that I chanced to happen along
-
-    "'So early in the morning,
-      Just after break of day,'
-
-said and sung the Enigma, continuing: 'You are not an overwise chemist,
-my dear doctor, else you would never expect, either that Phosphorus gas
-could reach the condenser, with the stop-cock shut, or that a glass
-retort, already cracked, would long resist the immense pressure of the
-accumulating and continually heating vapor. I see you have turned
-Hermetist and Alchemist--Rosicrucian like! and that you are determined
-to blow yourself up, or else
-
-    "'Find out the 'lixir Vitæ,
-      Or stumble across the Philosophers' Stone,'
-
-and the little old man clapped his hands and danced about the room in
-the most exuberant glee.
-
-"'But, my friend,' said he, 'as constant trying means eventual success,
-I have not the slightest doubt but that you will yet become a very rich
-man, as well as a long-lived one; for, to tell you the truth, you have
-come nearer this morning to compounding the Elixir of Life--that very
-Elixir for which Philosophers have toiled during thousands of years, in
-vain--than any man that ever lived. For instance: had you placed a less
-quantity of phosphorus in the retort; more of the first and third, and
-less of the second, fourth, and fifth ingredients, with a slower heat,
-and the addition of two ounces of ----, and ----, and one of ----,'
-mentioning the articles, 'you would have, indeed, made the water of
-perpetual youth and health--that wonderful chemic which purifies the
-juices, removes obstructions, clarifies the fluids, and renders man
-physically invulnerable to miasmas and disease--to all things
-destructive to life, except, of course, material injury. What d'ye think
-of that? Ha! ha!' and again he burst out in a roaring squeak:
-
-    "'I'll discover the centre of gravity,
-      You'll find out the Philosophers' stone.'
-
-"It has been the habit of the wiseacres of this world to deride the idea
-that it is possible to make gold; to laugh in face of the notorious fact
-that nature is constantly making it, and that, too, of gasses in the
-earth, as all things else, save souls, are made. It has been fashionable
-to laugh at the idea of compounding a material capable of freeing the
-system of all its gross and clogging impurities--the only friction to
-the wheels of life; a mixture which would exhilarate, purify,
-strengthen, and supply to the body the chemical and dynamic forces of
-which it is constantly being robbed. But these wise people will have
-done laughing by-and-by; not by any means must it be thought that I, for
-a moment, entertained the silly notion of the alchemists and false
-Rosicrucians--of finding a material which when brought into contact
-with metals would change them into gold. We of this century are too
-knowing for that; nor that I hoped to discover, from the application of
-the old man's suggestions, that wonderful fluid alluded to awhile since;
-but I did believe it possible that I could compound a draught that when
-quaffed would repair the waste of nature, and believed until that
-moment, that in Phymyle I had found it. What, then, was my astonishment
-when the weird old man whispered in my ear that I stood upon the brink
-of the grandest success conceivable, that the grand Secret of secrets
-was all but in my grasp? To describe my sensations at that moment is
-impossible, and the more so because the old man told me the whole
-process and constituents.
-
-"What cared I even if it _was_ necessary for me to go to Jerusalem, and
-gather the precious seeds of a fruit that grows upon its walls,
-wherewith to prepare the water? In other years I did go, and the
-treasured seeds are mine.... In that awful moment of success I blessed
-the old man and internally vowed that in return I would read his
-horoscope, and sleep the sleep of Sialam; for was not the desire of my
-soul gratified? Why then should I not return the favor?
-
-"Such, in that tumultuous moment, were my thoughts. Soon I became
-calmer, and then, 'How came the old man to know the materials that were
-being used?' 'Perhaps he saw the fumes, and thus knew them!' But how of
-the contents of the condensing-chest through which the vapor was forced
-for the purpose of nullifying its injurious qualities? for no living
-human being had seen me compound or place them there. How came he to
-know the purpose for which this compound was being brewed? How had he
-become aware of the dream, the hope of my soul, the fixed purpose of my
-life during long and wearisome years?
-
-"All these queries served but to envelop their subject in a deeper robe
-of mystery; and while they were passing he stood at my side gazing
-curiously at the now white vapor, as it writhed and curled upward, and
-out upon the air, through the broken panes.
-
-"It was very, very singular!
-
-"In a little while the wreck was cleared; the old man left me, promising
-to call again that day, and I went out to order new apparatus, some
-glazing, another carpet, and to visit a number of patients; after which
-I returned. It was about three o'clock, and I had not been long in
-before Miakus, true to his word, came also."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER IV.
-
-                          THE MAGIC MIRROR.
-
-
-"'Let me give you a piece of advice,' said Miakus, 'for you need it.
-First, never intrust any secret to a friend, which, if revealed, would
-bring trouble or disgrace. Never interfere in a brawl or quarrel, no
-matter who is right or who wrong; but always let the world do its own
-fighting, while you stand by to avail yourself of any advantage that
-chance may disclose; and lastly, keep what you know until there shall be
-a market for it. Now we will test our magic glass,' and forthwith we
-went into the rear office, which by that time had been refitted, so far
-as glass and carpet were concerned.
-
-"In his hands he bore the rose-wood box, which he laid upon the table,
-while, by the aid of four gimlets, he fixed a silken screen, or curtain,
-entirely across the room, having previously closed the shutters to
-exclude every ray of daylight from the apartment.
-
-"'That,' said he 'is a magic screen. You have seen a magic-lantern
-exhibition. Well, this is to be a similar one, _without the lantern_. I
-now open this box, as you see, and take from it this mirror, which is,
-as you observe, merely two plates of French glass, with strips of wood
-around their edges to keep them half an inch apart, and so that a fluid
-poured between them shall not escape. Nothing depends for success upon
-either the box, the curtain, or the glasses, but all depends upon the
-peculiar fluid between them, which is, as you perceive, of a dark brown
-color, but at a distance, quite inky to the eye.
-
-"'I now hang this mirror by this hook, to the ring sewed to the upper
-central edge of the screen. Then closing and locking both the doors,
-thus, I place these two chairs for you and I to sit upon. Then I take
-this reflector and place it near the gas jet in such a manner as to
-throw a strong light--a perfectly circular and brilliant disk upon the
-very centre of the glass tablet, thus,--and he suited his actions to his
-words; after which we took our seats before the curtain, and I observed
-that the liquid between the glasses was of such a nature as to reflect a
-sort of semi-opalescent hue.
-
-"'Before proceeding to demonstrate the truth of Hamlet's remark to
-Horatio,' said the experimenter at my side, 'I find it essential to give
-you a why and wherefore. Know, then, that not only is there a mysterious
-and powerful sympathy between man's body and all things outside of it,
-but it is still more true that a greater one exists between these
-outside things and his soul within, as is proved by the astonishing
-power over it exerted by various substances, most of which, especially
-the last eight, ought to be banished from the earth and be accursed for
-ever--for instance, Belladonna, Cantharadin, Beng, Opium, Hasheesh,
-Dewammeskh, Hyndee, Tartooroh, Hab-zafereen, Mah-rubah, Gunjah, and many
-other vegetable preparations that might be named, and every one of
-which will not merely affect the body, but the tremendous mystery that
-lies concealed within it. They expand the soul, but they also damn it!
-Let us ascend from gross matter to the volatile--Light, for instance. By
-concave mirrors we can throw an image in open space that shall be seen
-by thousands. We chain a shadow, and whoever has a photograph possesses
-one such prisoner. We make a few passes over a glass of water, and
-charge it thus with any specific quality we choose, nauseous or
-pleasant, and it produces corresponding effects upon the patient who
-takes it. Here you have mind and matter united by an act of mere
-volition. But we go still farther: for we select materials, and with
-them render the water still more highly sensitive. We then charge it
-with our souls, to such an extent that it shall comatize a man's body,
-and illuminate his soul to the sublimest degree of clairvoyance. Still
-higher: it is possible to compound a liquid that shall seize on, and for
-a time retain, by its subtle power, any mental image thrown upon it.
-Still higher: there are direct and positive affinities and co-relations
-between every thing and person on this earth and off it. By certain
-knowledge, certain persons are able to select those things that possess
-certain affinities to and for the inhabitants of the upper worlds, and
-the dwellers in the Spaces. Now that glass disk before you contains such
-a liquid, thus compounded--'
-
-"Here he gave me the most minute explanations of the process of
-constructing such curious mirrors, and how to charge them with a liquid
-which I at once saw must of necessity be electrical, magnetic, highly
-odyllic and ethereal. Then he told me how to charge it differently for
-different uses--as a toy, a means of medical diagnosis, for the purpose
-of interpreting dreams, seeing earthly things, discovering lost
-treasures, reading the past or the future, and for many other purposes,
-as no one mirror would serve more than one end, or work in more than a
-single direction, unless specially constructed for such general use,
-which would render them too costly.
-
-"'Properly prepared,' he continued, 'your mirror becomes so amazingly
-sensitive as to not only receive and retain images of things too subtle
-for solar light, but to bring out and render them visible. Nor is this
-all. There is light within light, atmosphere within atmosphere, and
-intelligent beings who dwell within them, and who can commune with man
-only through such mirrors, upon which they can photograph the
-information they wish to convey, either by scenes depicted therein, or
-by words projected thereon. Now, observe. Thoughts are things--they are
-real, substantial actualities, if not actual matter. They are things
-that have shadows, shape, form, outline, bulk. Some are flat, others are
-sharp, cutting, pointed, and go on boring their way through the world
-from age to age. Others are solid, round, bulky, and stagger when they
-strike you or impinge upon the world. Thoughts live, die, and grow. Now,
-attend. Gaze steadily and firmly; desire to see something, no matter
-what.'
-
-"I smiled incredulously, and observed that one could see one's face in
-any bit of glass.
-
-"'True,' replied he, 'but you have never seen your soul; and this
-bauble will show you that. It will reveal events already past, that are
-now occurring, or that will transpire in the future, on the earth or off
-it.'
-
-"Much doubting what he said, I told him that, just then, the sceptical
-mood was on me, and my belief must be forced. He well knew the singular
-constitution of my mind, and that, in spite of much contrary seeming, I
-was one of the most obdurate sceptics concerning the supernatural that
-ever lived. To most of those who have known me, or read what I have
-written in past years, it may appear strange that I, who have been the
-accepted champion of all things spectral, should now make such a seeming
-confession. But human nature is a very strange compound! My heart, my
-loves, desires, and emotional nature were all on the side of the
-ghostly, and eagerly grasped and nursed the occult and weird; and when
-these reigned in my soul I bravely defended the spiritual theory against
-all comers. I rose to sublime heights of inspiration and speculation,
-and being thereby rendered morbidly sensitive to affectional influences,
-readily yielded to the specious social sophistry of the hour, and, for a
-while, pursued a course from which, had not reason been utterly blinded,
-I would have shrunk with ineffable horror; but, being surrounded by
-scores of thousands similarly deluded, it was impossible for a while to
-break through the accursed meshes of this devil's net into the clear,
-cool light of truth beyond.
-
-"This was one side of the life-web I was weaving. But there came moments
-wherein enthusiasm was exchanged for something like sober-mindedness;
-and then intellect rejected most of what heart had drank in, and
-challenged the conclusions of my own and others' in regard to the
-Phantom-Philosophy. People cried, 'Inconsistent!' 'Variable!' mistaking
-honesty for whim--and just as if anything or person was ever consistent!
-
-"In the present _séance_, logic held the reigns of mind, and I laughed,
-which Miakus observing, said: 'Laugh on, laugh on; but you must be
-careful or the laugh will be against you. Truth is a dainty and a
-jealous dame, and never relishes practical jokes at her expense. But,
-look! the mirror begins to operate.' And, instantly bending down, he
-veiled his face in both his hands, and remained thus for perhaps a
-minute, when he spoke, saying, 'What see you in the glass?'
-
-"'Nothing,' I replied, 'but the images of ourselves.'
-
-"'Have patience! Look again! Try!'
-
-"A short silence then followed, when--
-
-"'Do you see anything yet?'
-
-"'Yes; but nothing extraordinary. Only a clear spot--an
-atmospheric-looking aperture in the centre of the glass. Yes! now there
-comes a change--faint, misty, dusky shadows flit across; but nothing
-positive or distinct.'
-
-"'Is that all?'
-
-"'It is.'
-
-"'Look again.'
-
-"'Clearly and distinctly I see the fore-quarters of a large
-greyish-white dog. It grows! Now it is complete! The image stands out,
-bold and clear, _from the mirror_!'
-
-"So perfect was this appearance, that I could not realize that it was a
-phantasm. The thing was impossible. It looked like the reflection of a
-dog in a looking-glass, and I actually turned my head, not to look for
-the dog, but for the picture of one upon the wall, that might have
-caused the image in the mirror. There was no such picture. The old man
-enjoyed my surprise, and muttered--
-
-"'Nothing supernatural, ha? Remember that idiots, bigots, and fools only
-dispute the existence of that which others do, but they do not
-understand. True, many pin their faith in a hereafter upon the curious
-phenomena attributed to disembodied souls, but they err in so doing. The
-demonstration can never be afforded through any process of either
-phenomena or intellection. Of that, be assured. Immortality can never be
-thought; it must be felt. Your philosopher cannot possibly grasp the
-idea, because it is not an idea at all. It is a reality, and comes to
-man never through the intellect, but ever and always through other
-channels of the spirit--comes over roads that begin on earth and
-terminate directly at the foot of God's throne. Thus, when storms fall
-on the philosophic soul it shrinks and plays the coward. Not so the
-truly intuitional man. He feels, and, feeling, sees God through the
-gloom; and that, to him, is an insurance against loss or annihilation.
-He rides triumphant over circumstances that bar themselves effectually
-against all philosophers. Even when the shadow rests heaviest on the sky
-of life, such a soul beholds God enthroned in auroral splendor
-everywhere; he catches the sound of his voice from every echoing hill
-and dell, and it speaks to him of life everlasting, and its tones carry
-a thrilling demonstration of an hereafter that all the spiritualism of
-the earth could never impart.'
-
-"Now while I looked upon the mirror I silently marvelled whether it were
-possible, through that glass, to solve the grand secret of the ages, and
-the old man's speech could not possibly have been more apropos than it
-was. But in a moment afterward I felt indignant at having beheld such a
-figure, when he had promised I should see my soul, and told him so. 'Let
-not that offend you,' he replied, 'that figure is not spectral, it is
-correspondential. What is the type of enduring fidelity, perfect trust
-and confidence, unbounded love and faith, if its symbol be not a dog?
-Such is the quality of your soul, nor is it very bad.'
-
-"There now came a broad clean space on the glass, and the whole of it
-became clear and pellucid as the finest crystal; and in its very centre
-appeared a tiny, but very brilliant speck of white light, and its lustre
-increased till it became painful to gaze upon it. Gradually this
-expanded, and there came a space in its middle clearer than the
-brightest noon-day, into which I gazed with rapture, for the intense
-light faded away into a sort of hazy-vapor surrounding this spot.
-
-"'Into such, and through such do I wish you to look for me. But not now.
-The time is not propitious. That which you behold is the lense of a
-mystical telescope, wherewith you may scan and sweep the fields where
-revolve a myriad worlds like this, and of other millions whereof man is
-yet profoundly ignorant. Through it you can and may witness not only
-the worlds of which I speak, but also their tenants and all that they
-are doing.'
-
-"'What! Do you mean to tell me that through that telescope, as you call
-it, a living man can behold all that is going on in Mars and Jupiter?'
-
-"'Aye!' said he, 'and half a million planets, suns and systems more. It
-will reveal the fate or fortune of any one, alive or dead. But to the
-proof.' As he spoke, it seemed that a sort of tube of light extended
-itself toward my eyes, and through it I beheld, as in a diorama, each
-and all of the terrible and painful scenes of what I believe to be my
-most recent life on the earth. I beheld all my few joys and successes,
-and all the countless agonies of body and soul, by which they had been
-girdled. Men met the phantom of myself, with smiles upon their faces,
-and seemed to speak in honied phrases, to make themselves believed, and
-then these shadows stabbed at the listener and he fell, but did not seem
-to die, for a grisly phantom ever hovered over him, but from pity
-forbore to strike.
-
-"The scene changed. It appeared to be a rural village--the date, in
-fiery figures on the corner of the field, was 1852. It was a barber's
-shop, and a light, happy-hearted youth was therein pursuing his
-avocation, and earning bread and health. This youth was apparently
-gifted to look beyond the veil, and into the dim regions of the dead;
-and it seemed that this was known, for presently people flocked about
-him, and the scene closed.
-
-"Again the magic picture presented this man as in public life; cliques
-made use of him, flattered his vanity, and he was led into errors of
-conduct and judgment, but none so great as manifested by others around
-him; but, on the instant that this man discovered his error, and
-announced it, ten thousand daggers were levelled at his heart, ten
-thousand tongues defamed him--and for what? Because he had been true to
-his knowledge, his conscience and his God. He fell beneath the strokes
-of those who had sworn themselves his friends and the friends of all
-mankind. See him now with his heart bowed down.
-
-"It shifts; and lo! the man appears again. Consumed by the fires of
-hatred, envy, ingratitude and venom of his former friends, he has risen
-again. '_Je renais de mes cendres_,' was the motto on the banner that he
-floated to the breeze. He changed his mode of life. One of those who
-were the very first to take him from his labor, and bring him before the
-world, still clung to him, declared that even death should never
-alienate him (for the pantomime was as readable as speech), and the
-deceiver was believed.
-
-"Again the phantorama changed. The barber-orator had reached to
-competence--had gained much gold, a deal of philosophy, and but very
-little wisdom with it all, for he still believed the speech of people;
-measured men and women by the standard of his own heart, and believed
-that honest say was honest mean. He had forgotten that, after all, this
-is but a baby world, and still went on in the same old way, trusting and
-suffering.
-
-"He had one to provide for--a female relative--in whom his heart was
-bound, but this was not reciprocal. The relation was that of religious
-duty on his side, and self-interest on hers. Still the man nobly
-struggled for her--so it seemed--and the picture faded, but another
-came. His '_friend_' by fraud obtained all the man had, and then, with
-malignant purpose, defamed the female to his dupe, having first reduced
-the man to beggary. All this, working on the barber, nearly upset his
-reason, and the victim raged in his agony, and the financier laughed at
-him, and fed sumptuously, daily; and, having previously obtained by
-double fraud, a signature to the effect that robbery was a legal loan,
-gloated over the misery he had caused, and denounced the victim himself
-had made. Once more the picture flew on, years had gone by, the despised
-man--despised because his skin was darker than his destroyer's--had
-risen into eminence and fame.
-
-"It changed again. _Disgrace, poverty, the prison and the halter had
-avenged him._
-
-"'The way of the world!' said Miakus, 'but recollect that
-
-    "'Ever the Right comes uppermost,
-      And ever is justice done!'
-
-What could you expect else from so small a portion of a man? Trust no
-one. This was fate. Fate cannot be evaded. Submit. It will be well in
-the sequel. WE MAY BE HAPPY YET!'
-
-"Again those words! and uttered by Miakus, too!
-
-"My mind framed a desire to behold something of the future that should
-be as plain as the pictures of the past had been, and if there was any
-means whereby the blows of fate might be softened, any field in which to
-live and act free from the loneliness hitherto endured, and when next my
-eyes glanced through the magic tube, there passed across the field of
-vision a solitary human head and bust. So swiftly did it glide past that
-only an electric sense of its beauty remained with me, but there was a
-something that told me the head I saw was that of Evlambéa--that by
-woman alone could redemption come. But then the curse said, 'A daughter
-of Ish,' and she was a child of Japhet.
-
-"Scarcely had this figure flitted by than the glass became clouded,
-black, and finally resumed the appearance it had when first taken from
-the box.
-
-"'Nothing further can be seen to-day,' said Miakus, 'I have already
-endowed you with priceless gifts. You can go forth to the world and heal
-the sick, restore the insane, make mirrors and the Elixir, and read the
-past and future, and yet all this is as nothing to that which you may
-expect after you shall have solemnly sworn to sleep the sleep of Sialam
-for me.'
-
-"Readily acknowledging all he said, gratitude prompted me to assent, and
-the words were on my lips, when suddenly the same bust and head passed
-before me very slowly, within one foot of my face. It was unmistakably
-Evlambéa, and the countenance looked tearfully reproachful as it once
-more disappeared; but even as it did so there came a soft, low, musical
-voice, but sorrow-toned, saying: '_When I am in danger you will know
-it, wherever you may be; when you are in danger you will see me, though
-seas between our bodies roll!_' The identical words uttered by the girl
-at the door of the chief's cottage, years agone, when we had so sadly
-parted!
-
-"Thus mysteriously warned, my consent was withheld. Miakus looked
-pitiful and disappointed. He said nothing, however, but silently
-repacked his paraphernalia, said he wished me well, and then, passing
-with me into the street, we struck hands and parted.
-
-"It were useless attempting to describe my feelings, consequent upon
-these strange events. I could not help being grateful for the favors
-shown me by the Enigma, and yet was I certain that I had, by ghostly
-aid, triumphed over a great temptation, and that Miakus might, after
-all, mean me no good. Involuntarily clinging to the memory of the maiden
-of the valley, I blessed her from my soul, and offered up a prayer that,
-if it were possible, she might be the redeeming angel for whom my lonely
-soul so ardently longed and sighed."
-
-
-
-
-                              BOOK III.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER I.
-
-                             RAVALETTE.
-
-
-"Years rolled away," continued Beverly. "I had visited California; had
-there made friends, as I had reason to suppose, and knew that I had
-foresworn wealth and place in favor of usefulness, poverty and
-knowledge; and had there helped to found an institution which, while it
-was capable of diffusing infinite blessings to all around, languished
-for want of seven good men and true. Yet it, like all other blessings
-vouchsafed to man, may be so trodden down that it die; but nothing is
-more certain than that it will rise again to the life everlasting.
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Months passed, and a continent and an ocean lay between the Golden Gate
-and me. I was on my second journey toward the Orient, and had taken
-London and Paris on my way. My objects in the journey were triple:
-First, to visit the Supreme Grand Dome of the Rosicrucian Temple; to
-make my obeisance to its Grand Master; to study its higher doctrines,
-and visit the Brethren. Second, to obtain the materials, in Jerusalem,
-for the composition of the Elixir of Life; not that I intended to make
-_it_, but because I wanted to use _them_ in my medical practice, which I
-purposed to resume on my return to America. And, third, I needed rest,
-relaxation, and change of scene; for I felt that if I did not go, what
-between the fraud I had suffered, the wretch's scandal, the woman, the
-dead child in the cemetery, and a variety of other troubles, I should
-die; and if I died--what then?--And so I went.
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"The scene I now present before you is Paris; the date, any day you
-choose to imagine between the 16th of August, 1863, and the 11th of
-June, 1854. I had just contracted for an anatomical Venus and cabinet,
-designed for one of the Rosicrucian Lodges in America, and had paid out
-some fourteen hundred dollars thereon, when, being weary, I strolled to
-the Batignolles, from there to La Plaissance and Luxembourg, when I met
-a person whom I had known in London, and he advised me by all means to
-again visit the Emperor, and also to go to certain localities named,
-before I left Paris. Promising that the advice should be followed, I
-accordingly one day found myself in the Palace of the Louvre, not for
-the first time, however, but for, perhaps, the tenth. On each of these
-occasions my time had been mainly spent in admiring and examining the
-contents of the _Galleries Assyrienne_ and _Egyptienne_. The
-bas-reliefs, or coarse engravings rather, had commanded my attention on
-previous occasions, along with the sphinxes of Rhampses and Menepthah,
-as well as the curious statues of Amenophis, Sevekhatep, Osiris, and
-Seti, from all of which I had learned much of that strange civilization
-of the long-agone, usually assigned to the past four thousand five
-hundred years, but which had in reality utterly perished from off the
-earth at least ten thousand years earlier than the first year of that
-date! for, but a little while before I saw those statues Mariette had
-exhumed from the sands of Egypt, the celebrated sarcophagi and mummy, to
-which the best Egyptologers, including the Chevalier Bunsen, had, with
-one voice, assigned an age of not less than twelve thousand years.
-
-"On this visit I stood rapt in wonder and conjecture before the
-cuneiform inscriptions upon a series of tablets, and which archæology
-has never yet interpreted--Bunsen, Layard, Botta, and Champollion having
-all alike failed in the attempt.
-
-"During the five or six last visits to the museum, I had observed near
-me, apparently engaged in the same work as myself--the attempt to cypher
-out the meaning of the inscriptions--an old gentleman, evidently French,
-and as evidently belonging to the small remnant of the old _Noblesse_
-yet surviving on the soil of _le Grand Nation_, judging from his
-carriage, air, and manner--refined, polished, yet simple in the extreme;
-and from the benignance that beamed from his countenance, it was clear
-that there was happiness and content in his breast, and that he was a
-benefactor to, as well as a devoted student of, all that was interesting
-concerning mankind.
-
-"On previous occasions when we met there had passed between us merely
-the compliments of the day, and those general courtesies due between
-well-bred people. This time, however, as if by mutual concession and
-attraction, our greeting was much warmer and more prolonged; for, after
-saluting, we drew chairs before the tablets and began conversing about
-the arrow-headed characters; and the old gentleman, whose name was
-Ravalette, said: 'Sir, how is it that I see you daily here, taking
-copies, and trying to decypher letters that the best scholars in Europe
-have abandoned in sheer and hopeless despair? Surely a youth like you
-cannot hope for success where they have failed?'
-
-"'True,' was the reply, '_they_ may despair, but is that a reason why
-others should? I believe I shall yet correctly read these enigmas of the
-ages.'
-
-"The old man smiled at my antiquarian enthusiasm, and merely remarked,
-that Meses and the chronologists had better be looking out for their
-laurels, else the parvenus of the present day would not leave many to be
-gathered.
-
-"'It is my invincible conviction,' said I, 'that these sculptures were
-wrought many ages prior to the making of the pottery found beneath the
-valley of the Nile; and that the inscriptions on yonder porphyritic
-tablets were engraved there a hundred centuries before the date of
-Adam--an individual, by the way, whom I certainly regard as having had
-an origin and existence in the imaginations of ancient poets, a mere
-myth, handed down the night of Time as an heirloom to the ages--at least
-all such as had a taste for things they could not comprehend--and had
-an existence _there only_!'
-
-"'Then you do not entertain the belief that all men sprang from only one
-source?'
-
-"'Yes--no. Yes; because God created all. No; because there are at least
-ten separate and distinct families of human kind!'
-
-"'But may not all these differences spring from climate and the diverse
-localizations and circumstances attending upon a wide separation of the
-constituents of an original family?'
-
-"'No; because that will not account for different languages, physical
-differences, and anatomical diversities. It is utterly impossible for
-any sane man to believe that the Jaloff and other Negroes, the Maquaas
-and other Indians, the Mongols and other Tartars, the Kanakas and other
-Islanders, the European and other Caucasians, all sprang from one pair.
-Indeed the thing is so plain, from a merely physical point of view,
-without entering at all into the mental and psychical merits of the
-case, that he who runs may read. Observe, I have said nothing about
-superiority or inferiority, merely content to let Physiology speak for
-herself.'
-
-"'Well,' said Ravalette, 'you inform me that you desire to learn, being
-already learned to some extent. The views you entertain upon the Past
-are, in some sense, consonant with my own; and if you are willing to be
-taught, I am willing to instruct; and in any case, no harm can come of
-the abrasion of ideas, but perchance much of good.'
-
-"I was delighted to hear Ravalette talk in this manner; for I felt that
-he was in some sort, notwithstanding our relative disparity of years, a
-congenial spirit, and I longed for him to unfold to me the rich fabric
-of his thought and experience. I had concluded, from a word dropped here
-and there, that he was at heart a believer in the Faith of Christendom,
-but in order to silence the lingering doubt I still entertained on that
-point, I put to him the following questions, and attentively noted the
-substance of his somewhat curious responses thereto.
-
-"1st. Question. 'You, Monsieur Ravalette, have doubtless travelled much,
-and seen a great deal of this world of ours?'
-
-"Here he interrupted me by saying, '_And several others beside!_' I
-asked for an explanation, but he merely waved his hand and motioned me
-to go on. I did so. 'Let me ask you if the result of your observations
-abroad, amongst men of different nations and faith-complexions, has not
-been a strengthening of your belief in the Mosaic teachings, generally,
-and in what is popularly known as Christianity?'
-
-"Answer. 'No! In the many countries I have visited I found human nature
-essentially the same as we find it here in France. Men are ever the same
-at heart. Inwardly they are all alike, sincere, beautiful, good, and
-religious; outwardly, the same selfish, heedless, careless, and
-materialistic beings, as untamable, set, willful, and unreasonable as
-the heartiest cynic could wish.
-
-"'Wherever I went I found the True Religion theoretically believed, but
-practically ignored and set aside on the score of inexpediency.
-
-"'In all my travels I found but one religion, yet that religion passed
-current under a vast variety of names. All men alike believed in good
-and evil, a Heaven of some sort, and some sort of Hell likewise. I found
-that while at bottom Faith was everywhere the same, yet the names by
-which that faith was known, differed widely in different places and
-latitudes. For instance, I found that the Catholic or Papal, the
-Protestant or reformed, the Hindoo and Brahminical, the Boodhistic,
-Lamaic, Greek, Polytheistic, Atheistic, Deistic, Magian, Guebre,
-Islamic, Fetisch, and all other systems and modes of belief, were,
-instead of being antipodal, in fact the same at bottom. This may
-surprise you. Doubtless it would, were I to leave the subject just as it
-is. But I will explain. They are all one at bottom, inasmuch as that
-each and all of their respective and apparently dissimilar devotees do
-homage at the same shrine, of the same Great Mystery. The modes and
-names differ with latitude, but the _meaning_ and the principle are
-everywhere the same.
-
-"'Popular estimate or opinion can never be a true criterion either of
-persons, thoughts, events, principles, or things. We grow daily beyond
-our yesterdays, and are ever reaching forth for the morrow. The world
-has had a long night, as it has had bright days; and now another morn is
-breaking, and we stand in the door of the dawn.
-
-"'I agree with you that could the dates on the tablets here before us,
-be revealed, they would prove that human history really extends much
-further back into the night of Time than the period assigned by Moses as
-its morning.
-
-"'Human monuments are in existence that indubitably prove not only that
-the world is much older than people give it credit for, but also that
-civilizations, arts, sciences, philosophy, and knowledge infinitely
-superior in some respects to what exists to-day, have blessed the earth
-in by-gone ages, and been swept away, leaving only scattered vestiges of
-the wreck behind to inform posterity that such things have been, but are
-not.
-
-"'But what is still stronger food for thought, is the fact that amidst
-these ruins of the dead Ages, we find others that are evidently relics
-of times and civilizations still more remote--the débris of a
-world-wreck remembered only by the seraphim! A demonstration of this
-assertion is found in the pyramids, the date and purpose even of the
-building of which is wrapped in conjecture, and has been for ages past.
-The authentic history of Egypt can be traced for over 6,000 years, yet
-even in that remote past the pyramids were as much a mystery as they are
-to-day.
-
-"'This is not all: The catacombs of Eleuthas contain what in these days
-would be called "Astronomic diagrams," showing occultations of certain
-stars by certain other stars. This is proved by one diagram showing the
-relative place in the still heaven of each star of the series; another
-displays an approach toward obscuration, and so on through thirteen
-separate stages, the last being a complete emergement of the occulted
-star on the opposite side.
-
-"'Now, it so happens that we have astronomers in our day who pique
-themselves on their mental power and mathematical correctness, and these
-inform us that a period of 57,879 years must elapse before the same
-phenomenon will occur again, and that not less than 19,638 years must
-have elapsed since it did occur! Now I foresee an objection in your
-mind. "How is it known that the ancient diagrams refer to any two
-_particular_ stellar bodies?"
-
-"'The answer is: From the relative positions of known stars in the
-heavens whose places correspond to the positions of stars in the
-diagrams, for the _mapping_ out is quite as perfect as it could be done
-to-day, even with all the nice appliances of micrometrical science now
-extant.[7]
-
-[7] For the fullest and most extremely interesting proof--nay,
-demonstration of human antiquity--that Adam was _not_ the first man, but
-that men built cities over 50,000 years ago, read "Pre-Adamite Man," S.
-Tousey, N. Y.
-
-"'Who built Baal-bec? is a question that has been vainly asked for over
-3,000 years, and then as now, men repeated "Who?" and echo said
-"Baal-bec!" and says "Baal-bec" still.
-
-"'In a barren, sterile, sandy plain, which the augurs of the artesian
-borers proved to have been once a rich and fertile bottom-land or
-prairie, a very short distance westward of the Theban ruins, there once
-existed a vast and magnificent city, so splendid that the modern
-capitals of Europe are mere hutted towns in comparison. This is proved
-by what has been exhumed from Earth's bosom. In that city of palaces is
-the wreck of one, which, from its situation with respect to other ruins,
-must have been merely a third or fourth-rate edifice in the golden days
-when AZNAK flourished; yet the portico of this fourth-rate structure,
-situated in a suburb of the city, the name of which suburb was KARNAK,
-consisted of 144 Porphyritic columns, 26 feet 6 inches apart. Each one
-was 39 feet 5 inches in circumference, and not less than 52 feet high,
-and every one was hewn out of a single stone!
-
-"'Moreover, this fourth-rate palace was two miles, five furlongs, and
-eight feet long, by actual measurement of the ruins, and it required a
-journey of quite nine miles to go around it.
-
-"'This palace faced the Sacred River (Nile), from which led a broad
-avenue lined with colossal statues on each side, as close as they could
-stand, for a distance of over one English league, and every one of these
-statues commemorated either a king or a dynasty of that more than regal
-country.
-
-"'Now, mark what I say: Proof, positive proof exists that this palace,
-itself so imperial, so grand, so immeasurably superior to aught of the
-kind attempted by man in this "Progressive age (?)" was, after all, but
-a mere addition, an inconsiderable wing, a sort of appendage, a kind of
-out-house to one of the main edifices of that immortal city.
-
-"'No man knows, or for four thousand years has known, who built
-AZNAK--who laid the stones of KARNAK--who cut marble monsters weighing
-two hundred and thirteen tons out of a single block of stone, and that
-stone so hard that no modern steel will cut, or even scratch it!
-
-"'Railways! steam power! wheels! pulleys! screws! wedges! inclined
-planes! levers, did you say?
-
-"'Sir, all these things existed long ago, else how could solid obelisks
-of five hundred tons weight have been transported a distance exceeding
-one thousand one hundred miles, from the mountains where they were hewn,
-to the places where they were set up, and where we find them to-day?
-
-"'Without all the appliances enumerated, how could these monuments, some
-of which measure eighty-nine feet in length, have been erected after
-they were brought; and take notice, that some of these stone monsters
-were placed upon pedestals, themselves ten or twelve feet high?
-
-"'It would strain the treasury of a modern state to pay the expense
-attendant upon the erection of half-a-dozen such--as was proved here in
-Paris in the case of the Obelisk of Luxor, the smallest of two that
-stood before the Temple of Thebes, and which cost France over two
-million dollars to place where it now stands. Without steam power and
-railways, how could such immense masses of stone have been transported
-over and through vast plains of shifting, burning sands, especially for
-such immense distances as it is certain they were brought? A single
-further remark on chronology, and I have done. It has been established
-among the learned, that it takes not less than a period of ten thousand
-years for a language to be perfected, and then die out, to give place to
-an improved but entirely different one. Now, observe: Champollion
-declares that he, through the assistance of modern Egyptian, was able
-to master ancient Egyptian. This furnished a key to certain hieroglyphs;
-these latter proved instrumental toward simplifying a series of three
-more. He concludes that he has sufficient evidence to establish the
-fact, that several successive languages had been spoken in the two
-Egypts (Upper and Lower).
-
-"'But let us return to the original topic of conversation. How is it
-that you expect a mere dream will aid you in researches of a nature so
-profound as these? How do you suppose that a mere idle dream, even
-supposing you to have one on the subject, could furnish you with the
-key? There might be fifty persons, or fifty thousand, for that matter,
-each one of whom might feel an interest and have a dream about it, and,
-like yourself, discover a fancied key, and yet upon comparing notes no
-two dreams and no two keys would be found alike amongst the whole fifty
-or fifty thousand!'
-
-"Vulgarly, this was a 'poser;' still, an answer was expected, and so I
-said: 'Very true, there might; but the true key would be that which,
-whenever and wherever it was applied, would yield uniform and concordant
-results.'
-
-"This reply appeared satisfactory to the old gentleman, who, after a
-little further conversation, invited me to attend him to his residence
-and partake of a dinner with him at his own table. ''Tis but a short and
-pleasant walk,' said he; 'my house is situated in the Rue Michel le
-Compte, close to the grand Rue du Temple, and we shall reach it in a
-very little time.' Cheerfully accepting the invitation, I took the old
-gentleman's arm, and together we proceeded to his residence--which I
-found to be one of those stately old mansions built by the nobless of
-the times of Louis le Grande. We entered, and in due time sat down to a
-repast at once rich, liberal and friendly, and which gave me a very high
-notion of the man who presided over it. Wine of the rarest graced his
-board; plate of the richest adorned it; servants most attentive served
-it; coffee of the best followed, and tobacco of the finest finished it;
-all of which strengthened Ravalette in my esteem. After partaking of his
-elegant hospitality, he proposed a walk, and accordingly we withdrew
-from the house together, and arm in arm strolled into the Rue du Temple,
-and kept that route until we reached the limit of Paris in that
-direction, and entered one of its suburbs known as Belleville.
-
-"Before quitting the street where I dined, I had taken the precaution to
-mark well the locality of the house, and to note its number on my ivory
-tablets, which I invariably carried with me.
-
-"And now we ascended the hills overlooking Paris; and then we descended
-to the plain, and gratified the eye in viewing the rich market gardens,
-and the conservatories of choice and rare flowers, cultured carefully
-for the tri-weekly markets on the esplanade de la Madeleine and the
-Château d'Eau. Again ascending the hill, we entered a café together, and
-together partook of some frozen coffee and other ices, after which he
-took me to see a guinguette--or tea garden--lately established for the
-common people, where the customer for ten sous might ape royalty, and
-sip his coffee from silver cups, and take his wine from Sèvres
-porcelain. Here we both talked to the proprietor concerning the novelty
-of his enterprise, and made inquiries as to whether his customers--who
-were all of the lower classes of society--did not bear a great deal of
-watching, and whether they did not now and then run off with a few
-silver spoons, a chased goblet, or a silver-gilt fruit dish?
-
-"'No,' replied the man, 'I have seen enough of life and mankind to
-warrant the step, apparently foolish, certainly quite novel, which I
-have taken; and I have found out that, treat a man as if you regarded
-him a thief, and you do much toward making him one. Watch a man closely,
-and you that instant suggest rascally thoughts to him, which may bear
-fruit, and that fruit be crime. But place full and free confidence in
-those you deal with, and let the fact be known, and your conduct
-sanction your words, and take my word for it, your confidence will very
-rarely be abused, if at all. My place is the resort of thousands; my
-invested capital is large, yet I have never lost ten francs from the
-costly experiment of making the poor man realize the comforts and habits
-of the rich at the expense of ten sous.'
-
-"We could but admire the tact of Monsieur Popinarde, and frankly told
-him so as we left his place, for we felt that there was a rich vein of
-truth at the bottom of his philosophy of confidence, as he chose to call
-it. After leaving this place, Ravalette and myself, still arm in arm,
-pursued our walk in the environs of Belleville, and there, amidst the
-sweet music of nature, the melody of the sunshine, the warblings of
-birds, the quietude of the deep green canopy of leaves, the humming of
-distant sounds, and the serenity of unruffled spirits, we entered upon
-the discussion of a topic of singular interest. That topic was, 'The
-human soul, and its resources.' I shall only record the latter part of
-this conversation. Said the old gentleman--
-
-"'Then you really believe, as did a very ancient society of
-philosophers, known to some students of the past as the Sacred
-Twenty-four, that there is a kind of natural magic in existence, far
-more wonderful in its results than the lamp of Aladdin, or the ring of
-the Genii?'
-
-"'Most certainly I do.'
-
-"'How have you learned of its existence, and how do you propose to
-become a noviciate, and avail yourself thereof for certain contemplated
-translations? Perhaps you believe in Elfins, Fairies, Genii and
-Magicians?' said he, half laughingly.
-
-"'I do not absolutely know,' I replied, 'that such a magic exists, yet
-firmly believe it does. The idea came to me I know not how. By striving,
-perhaps, it may be found. There are steps leading to it, doubtless, and,
-if we can discover the first (which I think we have already in
-Mesmerism), we can follow till we reach the great goal. I do not believe
-that Elfins, Fairies, Genii and Magicians are altogether mythical
-personages. There must, it seems to me, be a foundation of truth
-underlying the rich and varied accounts of such beings that have filled,
-and still do fill the reading world with wonder.'
-
-"'Very good. But, tell me, have you an idea that such things belong to
-this world or the world of spirits?'
-
-"At that instant it seemed as if I lost my self-hood, and that a power
-foreign to my soul for a moment seized my organs and answered for me--
-
-"'_They belong to neither, but to a different world!_'
-
-"Ravalette, at this answer, looked in astonishment; and, after gazing
-attentively at me for nearly a minute, muttered, in an almost
-indistinguishable tone, the words, 'It shall be!' You spoke of Mesmerism
-as the first step toward the true magic, which you believe, and I _know_
-exists; and you thought it might be made successful use of in the
-obtainment of knowledge not to be arrived at by or through ordinary
-means, methods or agencies. Tell me in what manner? Surely not through
-ordinary clairvoyance, which ever reveals foregone facts, and none
-other; and, therefore, can be of little use to the true student? You
-believe, as I do myself, that all ancient history, as it comes to us, is
-at best a mere fable, or bundle of myths generally, albeit, certain
-portions are composed of romance, that is to say, are tales of fiction
-founded on a basis of fact, the superstructure being ten thousand times
-larger than the foundations would justify, provided things went at their
-proper value and importance. How, then, through the mesmeric force, do
-you expect to dive beneath this superincumbent ocean of fancy, and fetch
-up what few grains of truth yet sparkle at the bottom? Can you answer me
-that?'
-
-"Ravalette smiled, gazed sorrowfully at me, and then went on--
-
-"'Believe me, my excellent young friend, that Mesmerism is a fine thing
-for inducing a "superior condition," enabling one to write books which
-send their readers to suicides' graves; to discover the art of marrying
-other people's spouses; for procuring "Air-line" dispatches, and filling
-lunatic asylums with poor reason-bereft creatures; for stultifying a
-man's conscience, and for emboldening one to pass for a philosopher when
-one is but an ass!' and Ravalette smiled gravely. 'Distrust all mesmeric
-railways,' said he, 'for many of the passengers, like Andrew Jackson
-Davis, after riding on that train for many years, have landed either in
-the swamps and mires of fantasy, or on the sides of moonshine mountains,
-called "Mornia," and "Hornia," "Forlornia," and "Starnos," and
-"Sternas," and "Cor," and "Hor," and "Bore," "Gupturion," and
-"Spewrion," and forty thousand more!'
-
-"I bit my lip with vexation; for I had devoutly believed in and loved
-the subject and its advocates. I had always loved Davis, and highly
-admired his philosophy and writings, especially since a great free
-convention he once held in Central New York. I was aware that he had
-foes--people who refused to believe that God had appointed him his
-mouthpiece; who pointed to the graveyard in Quincey, Massachusetts,
-where lie the bodies of John and Hannah Grieves, surmounted by a stone
-that tells that these poor suicides came there, lost, ruined, from
-reading his books. I was well aware that there were painful rumors
-concerning a couple of divorces, and that some friends of mine had cut
-their throats in order to all the quicker reach the 'Summer-land' which
-he so elegantly described; but still I loved--still love him dearly. But
-now, when Ravalette suggested that he was a humbug, it struck me that
-Ravalette was right; for I suddenly recollected that once the great
-clairvoyant lost a little dog named 'Dick,' which his seership could not
-trace. I remembered that nineteen-twentieths of his prophecies from the
-'superior condition' never came to pass, while the twentieth any
-school-boy could guess at. I recalled the fact that his philosophy was
-most decidedly medical--highly emetic, and very cathartic--and that his
-followers soon lost what little common-sense they formerly had, else it
-were impossible for them to accept the teachings of one who constantly
-contradicted himself. Still, I respected and loved him dearly, albeit
-Ravalette had utterly demolished his pretensions; and I saw clearly
-that, in believing the stuff he wrote and talked, I was like one who
-reads 'Jack the Giant-killer,' or 'Gulliver's Travels,' or 'Baron
-Munchaussen,' and believes the stories real and true."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER II.
-
-                         SOMETHING CURIOUS.
-
-
-"Ravalette continued: 'Mesmerism's day has gone by. Already it is found
-to be impossible to produce the same effects with it as were produced a
-few years ago, while the bastard thing that now goes by its name, is of
-such a nature and character that it speedily either disgusts all
-sensible people, or very soon lands its friends into a deep quagmire of
-such alkaline properties, that all the little common sense they had at
-starting gets thoroughly mixed therewith, and forms a compound which
-they carry back, instead of what they brought; and when they get home
-again, they peddle it out as "Divine Philosophy," when in fact it is an
-excellent article of soap--regular _savon extraordinaire_, warranted to
-extract brains, decency, money, and everything else worth having, from
-all who meddle with it--it _washes_ so very clean. If your railway does
-not accomplish this, yet in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred of
-journeys that terminate differently, it lands its passengers in the
-populous Town of Fantasy, in the which all things look real, but are as
-hollow and as substanceless as mere Forms can be, and that is next to
-nothing. In fact, most of the popular clairvoyance may be said to
-resemble an edifice having
-
-    "'Rich windows that exclude the light,
-      And passages that lead to nothing.'
-
-There are, of course, a few, very few exceptions to the rule, but the
-rule obtains vastly.
-
-"'The sentimentalities of a puling, hysteric girl, half afflicted with
-catochus, and the other half love-sick--as most modern clairvoyants
-are--count small in the list of Fact-truths, and the mad ravings of
-crack-brained somnambules of the other gender go for hardly as much, for
-the first has at least a degree of poetry about her, but the latter none
-at all. No, no, friend, do not place too great reliance on the ability
-of Magnetism to aid your researches, for you will run a narrow chance of
-disappointment, and regret when too late that from Nature's stable you
-selected the very worst animal of the lot; one that is ring-boned, lame,
-spavined, and very baulky withal. Take my advice, and choose a better.'
-
-"As the old gentleman finished what I at first regarded as a diatribe
-against Animal Magnetism--a thing, by the way, that I always doted on--I
-_felt_ silent, and was so for the space of a minute, during which time I
-rapidly reviewed my entire experience in, and knowledge of, Mesmerism,
-and the result of the inspection surprised me not a little, for on a
-calm, disinterested view of the whole subject, I found it utterly
-impossible to gainsay or invalidate his position and assertions. Yet it
-was equally impossible to help feeling chagrined, and in no small
-degree mortified to have my pet hobby thus mercilessly cut up and
-dissected, laughed at, and thrown out as dog-feed. 'Twas very hard fare,
-at least to me, and at first seemed unfair also. For a long time I had
-almost worshipped it as a divine science; holding it to be the true
-Spiritual Telegraph, by means of which we earthlings might flash
-thought, not only to the bounds of the globe and the Present, but also
-to the ends of Time and the Ages Past, or nerved by Hope and Curiosity,
-dispatch a message to the Great Future and drag back the answer. It was
-looked upon as the great Messenger of Light, through whom we might
-easily read the records of a Past so distant that the coal-beds are but
-yesterday's creations in comparison. And here, at one fell stroke,
-Ravalette had toppled the castle remorselessly about my ears. I bit my
-lip with vexation, and for awhile was silent as, together, we walked up
-and down a sort of natural esplanade on the sides of the hill next
-Paris. Mechanically as we walked back and forth, I trod in the
-footprints made while going, on each return, and just as mechanically
-observed that Ravalette did the same. One thing struck me as curious,
-even while my mind was profoundly engaged in the search for arguments
-wherewith to confute and break down the old gentleman's positions; and
-that fact was this: The shoes worn by Ravalette were of a very singular
-pattern, totally unlike any I had ever seen before. Upwardly, they were
-decidedly triangular--almost perfectly so. Previously this fact had
-escaped my notice; now, it struck me as being _very_ singular. But what
-was equally surprising was, that instead of the ordinary heel and sole,
-his feet-gear had four circular rims of brass, covered with rubber, and
-the track he made on the yielding, but plastic ground was indeed
-remarkable. The track and the shoe almost upset my cogitations. I looked
-up and observed a smile on Ravalette's face as he saw my surprise at
-beholding the novelty of one cross, two crescents and two triangles, and
-a solid bar (part of the cross), ornamenting the sole of a shoe, if shoe
-it could be called.
-
-"'That,' said he, divining my thought, 'is and yet is not a mere fancy
-of mine. I have a peculiar reverence for those figures, as you may
-plainly see.' And with this he drew my attention to an exquisite brooch
-or pin in his bosom.
-
-"This rare jewel, which I had previously seen but not noticed
-particularly, consisted of a triangle formed of a crescent or quarter
-circle and a compass, or, as the instrument is improperly called, a pair
-of compasses. In the centre of this was a tiny cross formed of minute
-stars, and just where the two bars met was a rose just blooming, and
-colored with enamel to the life. Gazing still closer at this novel
-breastpin, with the aid of a fine eye-glass, I discovered a legend
-engraved in minute and strange characters upon the rim of the crescent;
-upon the left quarter of this crescent was a pelican feeding her young
-with her heart's blood; midway was a tiny black rose, and on the right
-corner was one of deep crimson.
-
-"The workmanship was exquisite, indeed quite extraordinary, for the
-entire jewel was not larger than a golden dollar. He also showed me a
-large and massive seal, pendent from his watch, and on its face was
-engraved a ladder of twelve steps, the first and fifth of which were
-broken. The foot of this ladder rested upon a broken column, near which
-lay a mason's trowel, and its top leaned against the beam and ring of an
-anchor, reversed, the lower part being lost in what represented a cloud.
-After I had sufficiently admired the seal, he semi-playfully drew forth
-his watch, to which it was attached by a fine gold 'rope'-chain, and
-observed: 'I have more of the same kind,' at the same time placing it in
-my hand.
-
-"The watch was an ordinary smooth-backed, hunting-cased gold
-chronometer, worth perhaps fifty or sixty pounds sterling, the extra
-value being acquired by an anchor fouled, done in diamond points upon
-the internal face. The opposite side presented some excellent
-enamel-work representing the cardinal points of the compass. Three stars
-gave light from the West; a tomb, with its door partly open, stood in
-the East; broken columns adorned the South; and a circle composed of
-small triangles was in the North; in the centre of this circle was a
-rose on the bars of a dotted cross; the whole executed in the same
-exquisite style as that marking the seal and pin.
-
-"To a question as to what it all meant, an evasive answer was returned.
-Waiving all my solicitations to explain the emblematic devices, the old
-gentleman resumed his remarks, by observing: 'Never mind now what these
-things mean; you will know one of these days. At present let us
-continue our talk on other matters. A little while ago you observed
-that Mesmerism was a force Spiritual; but I am not so sure that you are
-correct. In my view it is a power Physical--ultra physical or material
-it may be, but physical still.'
-
-"'What!' said I, in amazement, 'human magnetism, that mighty agent or
-power, which effects such grand effects, and works such wonderful
-effects, Physical? Impossible! The very idea, excuse me, is absurd; the
-assertion is simply ridiculous!'
-
-"'So I once thought,' rejoined Ravalette, 'but think so no longer; and,
-mark me, the time is not very distant when you will come to my side of
-the question. I will endeavor to illustrate the point, one point of
-many, that confirms my view. For instance, the serpent tribe. We know
-that those reptiles charm birds and other animals, and that they exert
-an influence upon their prey precisely like that exerted by the
-magnetizer upon his subject, with this difference, that the human
-subject exhibits none of that peculiar terror manifested by the lower
-orders of being when under the spell of fascination, and this difference
-arises from the fact that the animal has a clear instinct that the power
-is exercised for its destruction, which the human subject is, of course,
-entirely free from.
-
-"'We see the snake exert the same marvellous power that the human
-magnetizer does, and observe effects resulting therefrom no less
-remarkable, and yet no one for an instant supposes that serpents are
-spiritual beings.'
-
-"'Now you are completely at my mercy,' thought I, as I responded:
-'Certainly the snake is a spiritual being so long as he is alive, and
-exerts volition. He is a spiritual thing just as much as you or I.'
-
-"'And dead?' said Ravalette, inquiringly, 'is a mere lump of
-clay--nothing more.
-
-"'Then, Monsieur Beverly, the argument is against you, and is mine _par
-un coup majestique_! for the snake charms just as powerfully when his
-skin is stuffed with straw and cotton, as when with his own proper
-flesh, blood, and bones. Innumerable experiments, instituted expressly
-to test this question, have been made, and it has been over and over
-again decided that the charming or fascinating power is just as strong
-after as previous to death. This has been settled by the actions of
-birds, who utter the same plaintive and pathetic cries, exhibit the same
-terror and other phenomena, in presence of a stuffed as in that of a
-living serpent. This is a strong point in my favor; but one that is
-still stronger, indeed quite irrefutable, shall now be adduced. Persons
-employed in the _Jardin des Plants_, and other zoological institutions,
-find it dangerous work to clean out the dens of certain serpents, even
-for weeks after the occupants have been removed, for the
-effluvium--which, I take it, you will not claim to be other than
-physical--which they have left behind, and which constantly exhales from
-the floor and sides of the den, is found to be identical with that aura
-or sphere which it is known they exhale when excited by the presence of
-prey; and the affects of this emanation from the den are precisely
-those that characterize the action of the living, present, excited
-snake. Now, these facts had long been noticed, and the results
-attributed to the fancy of the human subject, until, at length, an
-unusual circumstance led to the institution of a course of experiments
-to set the matter at rest forever.
-
-"'India is the paradise of _charming_ snakes, and a commission was sent
-thither by the joint governments of England and France, to test this
-matter thoroughly. This commission settled upon Candeish, a province of
-the Decan, where serpents most abound, and the experiments were made
-simultaneously in the towns of Nunderbar, Sindwa, Dowlea, Chapra,
-Jamneer, Maligaum, Chundoor, Kurgoon, Chorwa, Bejagur, Hurdwa,
-Asseergurh, Hashungabad, and Boorhumpore; and they were made with thirty
-different species of serpents, on eleven hundred and fifty-three human
-subjects, of twenty-three different nations, and all sorts of
-temperaments. First, these persons were subjected--under proper
-precautions, of course--to the mesmeric glance of hungry, quiet, and
-enraged serpents. In all three cases the effects were bad, all the
-subjects alike complaining of constriction of the chest, loss of memory,
-and a very strange sort of vertigo. As soon as the last symptom
-manifested itself, the curtain that separated the serpents from the men
-was dropped, and proper baths and other restoratives resorted to.
-Secondly--these same persons were all invited subsequently to a feast,
-as a reward for their services. Serpents were securely fastened in
-wooden boxes beneath the seats of three hundred and sixteen of them,
-and of these two hundred and eighty-four manifested the same symptoms as
-when under the direct gaze of the serpents. Two months afterwards
-ninety-four of the same persons, unknown to themselves, were placed to
-work in an apartment built of the boards that had composed the serpent
-dens, and the effects, a third time, were absolutely identical! Now, in
-this light, what becomes of your spiritual hypothesis! It is gone to the
-four winds of earth. But to set the matter entirely at rest, and to give
-your spiritual notion respecting Mesmerism its eternal quietus, let me
-call your attention to the fact that if a man, any man, sits before a
-swinging disk of black glass, and fixes his eye upon it, he will
-eventually be as deeply magnetized and as lucidly clairvoyant, as he
-would under the operation of the most powerful magnetizer on the globe!'
-
-"I felt that the tables were turned, and that the old gentleman held me
-at his mercy. However, he forbore to triumph, but went on, saying--
-
-"'I do not say that the soul of man is physical, but I know that his
-spirit is so; for I proved that over sixty years ago, to my complete and
-entire satisfaction. Do not, I beg you, consider me a Materialist, or
-that I dispute the existence of spirit. Far from that! Your humble
-servant is a firm believer, not only in spirit, but in a great Spiritual
-Kingdom, more vast, varied, and beautiful than this Material one; and
-believe me, _mon ami_, when I affirm that not more than one man in ten
-thousand has any adequate idea of what he means when pronouncing the
-word Spirit; not one man in thrice that number can properly define it.
-
-"'Furthermore, _as a prelude to what may yet befall you_, permit me to
-say that, in the face of modern philosophy, and in direct contrariety to
-popular belief, it is my opinion that spirit cannot produce on spirit
-the singular movements and effects witnessed in mesmeric and analogous
-phenomena; but I do not at all doubt the ability of matter to effect it
-all. Yes, my friend, I believe that matter alone, without extrinsic aid,
-is competent to the production of the magnetic wonders, and a hundred
-others still more marvellous. For instance, I do not believe that any
-merely mesmeric power whatever, much less the dream-force of ordinary
-sleep, can, or, under any conceivable circumstances, could enable you to
-correctly read the inscriptions on the tablets in the Louvre, or probe
-the secrets of Karnak, Baalbec, Nineveh, or Ampyloe; but I can name
-purely material agencies that are more than adequate to the
-accomplishment of these, and infinitely greater things. I know a
-material means that will enable the soul to lay bare before its gaze the
-deepest mysteries of the highest antiquity, strip the Past of its mouldy
-shroud, and triumphantly lift the veil that conceals the Future from our
-view--or rather, your view.'
-
-"The strange old man ceased, and, for a little time, my mind lingered on
-his concluding words. It was plain and clear, so I thought, that he
-alluded to certain medicaments which have long been used for the
-production of a species of ecstatic dream, and so I replied--
-
-"'You are doubtless correct, and can, by physical agents, produce
-strange psychical phenomena, and curious exhibitions of mental activity
-and fantasy; but, beyond all question, you over-rate their importance
-and power, for not one of them is adequate to the office of enabling a
-clear, strong mind to move within the sphere of the Hidden, but the
-Real.'
-
-"'To what do you allude particularly, _mon ami_?'
-
-"'I allude to various chemical and botanical compounds; for instance,
-those plants which furnish a large per centage of the chemical
-principles Narcotine, Morphia, and others of the same general
-characteristics, as Opium, Beng, and Hemp, the preparations of the
-delightful but dangerous ----, the equally fascinating decoctions of
-----, not forgetting Hasheesh, that accursed drug, beneath whose sway
-millions in the Orient have sunk into untimely but rainbow-tinted
-graves, and which, in western lands, has made hundreds of howling
-maniacs, and transformed scores of strong men into the most loathly,
-drivelling idiots.'
-
-"We lapsed into silence, which at length was broken by Ravalette, who
-said, as he clasped my hand with fervor--
-
-"'My dear young friend, there is here, in Paris, a high and noble
-society, whose chief I am. This society has many Rosicrucians among its
-members. Like the society to which you belong, ours, also, has its
-head-quarters in the Orient. Ever since I have known you, I have been
-anxious to have you for a brother of our Order. Shall I direct your
-initiation? Once with us, there is no branch of knowledge, mystic or
-otherwise, that you will not be able to attain, and, compared to which,
-that of even the third temple of Rosicrucia is but as the alphabet to an
-encyclopædia.'
-
-"Much more he said, but I had no desire to join his fraternity, and
-firmly but respectfully told him so; whereupon he cut short our
-conference by rising, as he did so, observing--
-
-"'You may regret it. I can tell you no more. The society exists; if you
-need it, find it--it may be discovered. But see! my groom and horse have
-arrived, and have long been waiting. I must, therefore, leave you. Take
-this paper; open it when you see proper to do so. You will quit Paris
-to-morrow, next day, or when you choose. You may turn your face
-southward, instead of to the north as you proposed. Seek me not till in
-your hour of greatest need. In the meantime, I counsel you to obey, to
-the letter, your _highest_ intuitions. Adieu!'
-
-"And so we parted. I loved Ravalette, but not his fraternity. This
-conversation with Ravalette, and, indeed, my entire intercourse with
-him, was invested with a peculiar halo of what I may justly call the
-weird. It was evident that all his words and allusions contained a
-deeper meaning than appeared upon the surface. His conversation had
-filled my soul with new and strange ideas and emotions; and I felt that
-he had left me at the inner door of a vast edifice, after skillfully
-conducting me through the vestibule. What worlds of mystery and meaning
-lay just beyond, was a theme of profound and uneasy conjecture. I felt
-and knew that he was no common or ordinary man; and well and strangely
-was this proved afterwards.
-
-"I had solaced myself with the hope that, by deferring my contemplated
-tour through Picardy and La Normandy, I should draw closer the bonds of
-common sympathy between us, and be made wiser through the abrasion of
-such an intellect as his. How suddenly and how rudely was this hope
-shattered!
-
-"When he dismissed me so abruptly, after baiting my soul with such a
-splendid lure, I could but feel both astonished and aggrieved. Thousands
-would have been too small a price to pay for even one day more of his
-society; but, alas! thousands could not purchase it. Still, I learned a
-lesson. There are things in this world more valuable than even boundless
-material wealth--knowledges, that neither Peru's treasures nor the mines
-of Ind can buy; and that Ravalette possessed an abundant store of these
-priceless riches, there was not a single lingering doubt.
-
-"As his last words sounded the death-knell of all my fondly air-built
-castles, I became apprised of a fact that had heretofore escaped my
-notice; and this was, that, for the last ten minutes, a mounted groom,
-having a led horse in hand, had stood patiently waiting under a large
-tree at the south-eastern terminus of our promenade. As the old man
-placed the sealed paper in my hand, this groom advanced and assisted his
-master to mount, and, as soon as he was firmly seated in the saddle,
-they both gave rein and spur, and, urging the steeds into a round
-gallop, both horsemen were out of sight before I could recover from the
-stupor of surprise into which the proceeding had thrown me."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER III.
-
- NOW COMES THE MYSTERY--A MAN GOES IN A CAB IN SEARCH OF HIS OWN GHOST.
-
-
-"Perhaps three minutes elapsed before a full recovery took place, and,
-at the end of that period, I had come to the conclusion not to be
-baulked in quite such a cavalier style, but to seek and obtain one more
-interview, come what might therefrom. With this intention, I dashed
-along the hill-side, and at full speed through the principal
-thoroughfare of Belleville, till I reached the barrière leading into the
-Rue Faubourg du Temple, where, calling a cabriolet, I ordered the driver
-to land me in the Rue Michel le Compte--where, a few hours previously, I
-had dined with Ravalette--in the shortest possible space of time.
-
-"A curious thing took place while giving my orders to the driver. It was
-this: Everybody knows that, at any of the barrières leading from Paris,
-a large crowd of blouses, men and of office, women and children of the
-lower orders, may, in fair or foul weather, always be found--loiterers,
-having nothing to do, apparently, except to lounge about, to see and be
-seen. Such a crowd I found at the barrière, and amidst it I noticed a
-_bonné_, or nurse, having in charge three beautiful children, one of
-whom, a lad of seven years, appeared to take an unusual interest in
-myself, doubtless observing that I was in a great hurry to accomplish
-something. This child, as it saw me, ran to the nurse, and said, '_Ma
-bonné_, Franchette, what's the matter with the gentleman? Is he sick?
-What makes him look so queer?'
-
-"'Hush, child,' said the woman in reply; 'that gentleman is in search of
-what he won't find this long time!'
-
-"'What is that, Franchette?'
-
-"'That gentleman is in search of _his own ghost_, _mes enfants_!'
-replied the nurse, as the children clustered around her to hear the
-answer.
-
-"'_Ma foi!_' echoed the crowd of idlers, as they caught the woman's
-words--whether spoken in jest or seriously I cannot say--'_Ma foi!_ the
-gentleman takes a cab to go in search of his own ghost!' And the cab
-drove off as these words were echoed by a hundred tongues.
-
-"'What the devil does it mean?' asked I of myself, rather irreverently,
-as a Guebre would say, had one heard me. 'What does it mean?' What put
-such a queer notion as that in the woman's head?' And, while cogitating
-for an answer, the cab stopped before the required gateway. Hastily
-dismounting, I paid the man half a gold louis, refused the offered
-change, but, dismissing him with a word of praise at his alacrity, I
-hastily rang the bell to summon the concierge or porter. That personage
-speedily made his appearance, all the quicker from the unwonted vigor
-applied to the bell-rope.
-
-"'Is your master in the house, _mon ami_?'
-
-"'_Oui, monsieur_: he has not been absent to-day.'
-
-"'What! Not been absent, when he left me not thirty minutes ago?
-Impossible! Monsieur Ravalette _must_ have been absent.'
-
-"'But who _is_ Monsieur Ravalette? I know of no such person. Monsieur
-Jacques d'Emprat is my master, and not the person you have mentioned!'
-
-"Here was a fresh mystery. 'Call Monsieur Jacques d'Emprat, if you
-please.'
-
-"'_Certainement, monsieur._ Jeanette, my dear, go upstairs and tell the
-patron here's a gentleman wants to see him.'
-
-"Jeanette, a little girl of twelve years, flew to execute the errand,
-and in a few moments the landlord himself appeared; and I was surprised
-to find that the well-aproned butler who had attended upon us at dinner
-and the proprietor of the house were one and the same person. An
-explanation soon followed, and I learned that Ravalette, who was an
-entire stranger to the landlord, had come there _two_ days previously
-for the purpose of engaging a sumptuous dinner for _two_ persons, that
-being the landlord's business--a caterer. For the dinner he had paid a
-round price in advance, and had given the proprietor a small silver coin
-of peculiar workmanship as a memorial of his visit. This coin or medal
-the man produced, and, lo! it was a perfect fac-simile, on a larger
-scale, of the jewel I had that very day examined in the scarf of
-Ravalette at Belleville. To my question as to when he last saw my
-mysterious friend, the patron answered: 'I do not know him, where he is,
-when I next shall see him--nothing whatever. He left with you, and has
-not since returned. He is evidently a mysterious man; and were it not
-that I have this little medal to commemorate his visit, together with
-three hundred and ten francs in gold in my pocket, which he paid me for
-the wines and dinner, I should more than half believe that he was the
-Devil himself out for a lark in Paris. But the Devil never pays in gold,
-so those say who ought to know, and I am sure Ravalette paid me in bran
-new coin, which, on account of its beauty and full weight, I just tied
-up in one end of my long leather purse, meaning to give it to my
-daughter, at school in Dijon, for a birth-day gift. Here's the money, as
-you perceive, nicely tied up, and sealed with wax, just as I fixed it an
-hour or two after Ravalette paid me.'
-
-"With these words the honest landlord drew forth a most
-formidable-looking _bourse_, one end of which was, as he said, securely
-tied with twine, and sealed with a great blotch of red wax.
-
-"'Yes, monsieur, here's the cash; I cannot show it to you, because I
-don't like to break the string or wax; but as a sound is worth as much
-as a sight, you shall hear it jingle to your heart's content.'
-
-"And so saying, he struck the purse against the side of the gateway;
-but, instead of the merry clink of gold coin, we heard only the dull
-sound of a far less valuable metal. This startled him not a little. He
-changed color, then drew his knife, and in an instant cut the string,
-and emptied the contents of the purse upon his open palm.
-
-"Horrible! Instead of bright golden Louis, he held in his hand a small
-pile of leaden disks? Each one of these disks had a number and a letter
-on it, and one of them was engraved, on the obverse side, with the
-simple words--'Place the coins in order.' We did so, and found that each
-letter formed part of a word. When they were all placed, the inscription
-read, 'All is not gold that glitters!'
-
-"My soul quailed before the mystery. I could scarcely move or speak, so
-great was my bewilderment; and as for the patron, it is impossible to
-describe his terror and consternation, as he stood there, with open
-mouth and protruding eyeballs, gazing on the coins upon the board where
-he had laid them. I too looked upon them; and even while we did so, a
-terrible thing took place; for the letters upon the disks changed color
-before our very eyes, first to a light blue, changing to deep crimson,
-and finally assuming a blood-red color. When, at the end of thirty
-seconds, this color did not change, we looked closer at them, and, to
-our absolute amazement, found that the characters themselves had
-altered, and instead of the sentence above quoted, we read the
-following:
-
-"'Remember Ravalette! Fear not!'
-
-"With a cry of agony the man dashed the accursed coins to the ground,
-and instantly fell himself in a deathly swoon. A great excitement now
-ensued. The porter, Jeanette, and half a dozen other inmates, rushed to
-the assistance of their fallen master.
-
-"Tenderly and carefully we bore him into the house, and speedily
-resorted to those well-known means of restoration used in such cases,
-which it were superfluous to mention; suffice it that, at the expiration
-of half an hour, the man revived, and bidding him and the rest a short
-good-bye, and promising to return on the morrow if I did not quit Paris,
-I took my departure.
-
-"Before I left, however, it occurred to me that I would secure the
-marvellous coins, or, at least, a few of them; and for this purpose I,
-accompanied by the _concierge_, who had seen his master dash them away,
-went into the court-yard where he had thrown them. Carefully and long we
-searched over the smooth stone pavements. The marks where they had
-struck were there, but not a single coin could be found. It was
-absolutely certain that no person _in_ the house had picked them up, for
-all these were in attendance on the patron. It was equally certain that
-no one from the street had done so; for the gate was fast bolted and
-shut, and had been ever since I had entered the premises to inquire of
-the porter.
-
-"At length we gave up the task of finding them as utterly hopeless. I
-looked at the porter and shook my head; the porter looked at me and
-shook his head in return, as much as to say, 'It is a very strange
-affair!' At that moment a voice, coming from God knows where, for it
-seemed to issue neither from above nor below, in the house or out of
-it--a hollow, half-pathetic, half-cynical voice, echoed our unspoken
-thought--'_It is a VERY strange affair!_' The horror-stricken porter
-crossed himself devoutly, and, falling on his knees, began to pray,
-while I in the meanwhile undid the bolts, opened the port, and rushed
-into the open street.
-
-"The thing was altogether of so weird a character, that I almost doubted
-the evidence of my senses; yet, on recalling all the circumstances from
-first to last, the testimony affirming the events was altogether too
-strong, overpowering and direct, to be doubted for an instant.
-
-"In books of ancient lore; in the old Black letter volumes of antiquity;
-in the recital of the exploits of Appolonius of TYANÆ; in the Life of
-Darwin; in the story of Grugantus, and in the 'Records of the Weird
-Brethren of Appulia,' I had read of Magic Marvels, almost too wonderful
-for the belief of those ignorant masses contemporaneous with the authors
-and heroes of the various legends. But in the light of modern learning,
-all these things had been resolved into three primitive elements, and
-these were: 1st., and principal. Ignorance of the Masses. 2d. The clouds
-of superstition which for long ages hovered over the world. And, 3d.
-The amazing skill possessed by the various arch-impostors of antiquity.
-Thus I accounted for much that was reported to have taken place in 'ye
-Olden Tyme;' but how to explain away what myself and several others
-had just witnessed, on the same easy and general hypothesis, was a task
-altogether beyond achievement. To attempt to get rid of the difficulty
-on the supposition of mere 'Fancy,' was simply ridiculous: and yet,
-while one does not feel at liberty to admit the idea of Magic, here were
-circumstances of such a tremendous character, as to utterly forbid and
-defy explication upon any other ground whatever.
-
-"This was the current of my thoughts as I left the street of Michel le
-Compte, and turned up that of the Temple. As I slowly walked along,
-buried in a labyrinth of conjecture, the idea suddenly occurred to me
-that perhaps, after all, Ravalette and the people of the house in the
-Rue Michel le Compte, might merely have been performing parts in a very
-cleverly designed, and capitally acted drama; though how to account for
-the kaleidoscopic changes of the coins, I could not at first imagine.
-'Ah!' said I, at length, 'I have it! Hurrah! Bravo! Eureka, ten times
-over! The secret's out, and I'm the man that found it!' A sudden thought
-occurred to me, by the aid of which, even the coin mystery, was cleared
-up most satisfactorily; and that which ten minutes before was a profound
-and horrible mystery, was now, apparently, as clear as the noontide sun.
-Here is the train of reasoning which led me to this hopeful result:
-Ravalette was a wealthy and eccentric gentleman, who, observing my
-natural enthusiasm for the antique, and aptitude to the occult, had
-determined to either amuse himself and friends at my expense, possibly
-for the purpose of curing some of them of what, perhaps, he regarded as
-the same weakness; or, taking pity on what he looked upon as a sad and
-dangerous infatuation, had resorted to this rather costly experiment, in
-the hope that at its termination a perfect cure might be effected. The
-people in the house were, together with the woman and children at the
-_Barrière_, his confederates in the scheme. He was a learned man; saw
-that I could not be easily taken in; and therefore brought the wonders
-of chemical and ventriloquial sciences to his assistance--the latter in
-the affair of the floating voice, the former in the matter of the coins
-or disks. These coins had been coated with a substance that would, on
-exposure to the atmosphere, exhale away; and with this exhalation the
-first set of characters would of course disappear. Beneath this external
-coating was another, which, on contact with the air, would assume a
-peculiar color; beneath this, in turn, was another, and still another;
-the last of all, being that on which was written the last series of
-letters composing a sentence. The appearance of these words was the cue
-to the patron to utter his cry, dash the coins from his hands, and
-pretend to swoon. In the commotion resultant therefrom, attention would
-be drawn from the cause of the apparent disaster, and afford ample
-opportunity for their removal. The sentence, '_It is a very strange
-affair_,' would be the very one naturally suggested under the
-circumstances, and had happily been selected as the most fitting one to
-afford exercise to the ventriloquist employed; and this apparent echoing
-of an unspoken thought would add additional piquancy to the scene, and
-materially assist in piling up the horripilant.
-
-"There! was not that a fine specimen of analysis? It was almost perfect,
-and would have answered most admirably had it not been for one little
-thing, and that was, simply, that _it was not true_--a trifling
-objection, perhaps, yet one absolutely fatal. Why, will be seen
-hereafter.
-
-"I was just about half satisfied with my ingenious speculation, and no
-more, after the first burst of joy at my supposed discovery had
-subsided, and cool reason once more took the helm. Be it true or false,
-I determined to go back to Belleville and pursue my investigations a
-little further. A passing omnibus soon brought me to the _Barrière_, and
-to my great joy I saw the identical party that had made the curious
-remark about my being in search of my own ghost. The nurse and children
-were intently watching the evolutions of a set of nomadic marionettes,
-and listening to the stereo-type drolleries of the man in the box who
-worked the little puppets. Luckily the whole party, with at least three
-hundred others, were so taken up with the antics of Polichinel and his
-shrew of a wife, that the young ones nor the nurse saw me. I therefore
-stepped into a coffee-shop close at hand, called for a _tasse_, and then
-sent one of the waiters to fetch the woman with the three children
-dressed in yellow velveteen. The man obeyed, and speedily returned,
-followed by the party sent for.
-
-"Upon seeing who it was that had summoned her, the young woman felt
-alarmed, fearing that the remarks she had made, when I entered the cab
-an hour or so previously, had offended me, and that my present business
-was to cause her to be punished for her insolence. For of all places on
-this civilized earth, Paris is the one where a stranger is best
-protected from injury or impertinence--at least, it then was. I soon set
-the woman's mind at ease on that point; and having purchased some
-_gâteaux_ for the children, and the same, with a vessel of coffee, for
-the nurse, I requested her to be seated, and tell me what caused her to
-use such curious terms, with regard to myself, a little while before.
-
-"'Lord bless you, sir,' she said, 'I did but repeat what an old man said
-who stood on the side of the carriage opposite to that by which you
-entered. I had just crossed over from his side when you saw and heard
-me. As you came running down the street, everybody saw you, and that you
-were in a hurry, and several persons made observations as to the cause
-of your great haste. Said one, "The man's mad!" said another, "His woman
-has just run off with a lover, taking his twins along for company's
-sake, and he's after them with a sharp stick!" Said the old man at my
-side, "He's in search of what he won't find very soon." "What's that,
-sir?" I ventured to ask. "He's in search of--ahem!--in search of--_his
-own ghost, my dear_!" said the old man, as he darted up the street. The
-notion was so funny, that I remembered _it all the while I was crossing_
-the street--a very long time for us _Bonnes_ to recollect anything, _mon
-cher ami_; and when Auburt there asked me what ailed you, why, I looked
-wise, and repeated the grey-beard's observation, and--another cup of
-coffee, if you please--that was all.'
-
-"I breathed freer. 'But tell me, my dear, what sort of man this old
-fellow was?' 'Certainly--another _gâteau, garçon_; monsieur will pay for
-it--certainly!' and the young woman went on to describe--Ravalette! as
-well as I could have done myself, had that mysterious individual stood
-before me then and there. It was enough. I was satisfied, and determined
-to push my inquiries further. I thanked the girl, paid the bill of
-thirty-five sous, left the place, and hurried as fast as I possibly
-could to the flower-gardens, that, it will be remembered, Ravalette and
-myself had visited together. I went to the first one, and asked the
-gardener if he had seen the old man who had been my companion on a
-recent visit, an hour or two before?
-
-"'_Old_ man? Well, you _are_ a funny man, to call a boy of seventeen
-years an _old_ man! I recollect you well enough, for you bought a fine
-bouquet, one of the damask roses composing which you now carry in your
-button-hole. I remember you well enough, and the beardless stripling,
-your companion; but I have not seen him since you both left together.'
-
-"'Bah, my friend!' said I, 'it won't do. I know perfectly well that my
-comrade here was _not_ a youngster, but a man of full seventy years of
-age, if a single day!'
-
-"'_Sacré bleu!_ You'd better tell me I lie at once, and be done with it!
-You may _say_ it was an old man, but I'll be cursed if it wasn't a young
-one, not yet out of his teens; and what's more to the purpose, I'll back
-my opinion, and bet you an even bottle of _Jean Lafitte_, forty-two years
-old, that the person who accompanied you here this day was a small,
-thin, sallow-faced youth of not over fifteen years! Will you take the
-wager?'
-
-"'Yes, and forty more just like it; but who shall be our umpire, and
-decide the bet?'
-
-"'Why, let the witnesses, my men, and my wife or daughter, decide. I'll
-warrant they won't lie for the sake of a bottle of wine. Are you
-agreed?'
-
-"'Yes, call them on; I'll trust them.'
-
-"'Of course you may, for they are honest folks. My wife let you both in
-at the door; I sold you a bouquet; one of my men went round the garden
-with you, and the other ran to fetch change for the five-franc piece you
-gave me to take pay from. Here, wife, Joseph, and Pierre; come here all
-of you. I've made a bet with the gentleman, and want you three to decide
-it.'
-
-"In a moment the persons called stood before us, and the gardener said
-to me: 'Now, monsieur, you and I will go to the other end of the garden;
-when there, I will describe to you the person who accompanied you here
-this afternoon. Then we will call the witnesses, one at a time, first
-separating them, so that they cannot agree upon a uniform story for or
-against me, but give the truth exactly, as the truth appears to each
-one.'
-
-"Nothing could be fairer than this proposition, and therefore I gave my
-assent to it immediately; whereupon the two men were sent to stand at
-opposite ends of the garden, his wife took her place in a third, while
-her husband and myself went to the fourth. Having arrived there:
-
-"'Your friend,' said the gardener, 'was just as I have described him,
-with this addition, that he wore polish-leather shoes, a Leghorn or
-Panama hat, carried a switch cane, wore light jean pantaloons, a coat
-_au saque_, and vest of white Cashmere. Remember this. Now, Joseph, come
-here,' said he, raising his voice and motioning the man toward us. 'Be
-so good as to describe the person who came here to-day with this
-gentleman.'
-
-"'I will with pleasure, master. The _negro_ who came with this gentleman
-was very fat and heavy, had large splay feet, tremendous hands, broad,
-flat face, a nose that would weigh a pound, and lips twice as heavy. His
-hair was woolly, teeth very white and regular; and he wore low shoes,
-green cap, knee breeches, red vest, and purple jacket!'
-
-"It is difficult to say which of us two looked most astonished when
-Joseph finished his portrait of my companion. Joseph was the man who
-conducted us around the garden. We were the only visitors of the day,
-and--
-
-"'Damn it, Joseph, you must be crazy! for the man was'----
-
-"'Hold on!' said I to the gardener; 'remember the terms of our wager,
-and say nothing till all have been questioned on the subject;' then,
-turning to the man, I said: 'Go to your corner, Joseph. Pierre, come
-hither;' and he came.
-
-"'Now, my friend, we want you to accurately describe the individual who
-accompanied me to these gardens to-day. Tell us exactly how the person
-appeared to you. Will you, my friend?'
-
-"'_Oui, certainement._ The _old lady_ you mean. _Malateste!_ It makes me
-laugh--_pardonez moi, monsieur_, but I can't help it--it makes me laugh
-to think about her, _ma foi_! What a queer old lady it was, to be sure!
-Such a little pinched-up face; and what a nose and chin, look you! Ecod!
-it was for all the world _la casse-noix_--a regular pair of
-nut-crackers! Certes, I took her to be the grandmother of Methusalah,
-or sister to Adam's first wife. Oh, ho, ho--he, ha, _peste_! I shall die
-o' laughing! And then _such_ a dress! Not a single article of cloth
-about her, but all she wore made of thin green-and-blue morocco; and
-then such dainty slippers, looking for all the world as if made of the
-wings of _Pappilon_! and such a head-dress--withered flowers, and two
-bushels of faded ribbon! _Par le grande Dieu_, the lady _was_ a queer
-one!' and Pierre went back to his corner, laughing as if he would
-explode.
-
-"The gardener looked astonished beyond all measure. How _I_ looked
-cannot be told; but how I _felt_, no mortal pen could possibly describe.
-We both kept silent, and advanced to where Madame _la Jardinière_ stood,
-patiently waiting her turn to be questioned, and impatiently wondering
-what was the matter with Pierre, the fellow laughed so uproariously, and
-enjoyed 'the feast of memory' with such a decided gusto.
-
-"'_Ma chere femme_,' said my comrade, 'will you please be so good as to
-describe the person whom you admitted here to-day along with monsieur?
-Certes, I believe the Devil himself is at the bottom of the business,
-for no two persons are agreed in description. But you, my darling,
-_you_, who are all the while reading poetry books;--all about Vido
-(Ovid?), and Virgil, and Spearshaker, and all those great people--you
-can describe this person perfectly; can't you, my sweet?' and the
-gardener looked imploringly at his plump and buxom _compagnon de lit_.
-
-"Now, of all mortals it is most unsafe and dangerous to flatter a
-French woman, and madame was French all the way through; consequently
-she determined, on so fitting an occasion, to prove her husband's
-encomiums perfectly well founded; and she began the display with a
-quotation from the Bard of Avon's Midsummer Night's Dream.
-
-"'_Ah, mon ange avec les bottes_--my angel in boots--do you not know
-that Joseph has been a poet ever since I instructed him in trochees,
-dactyls, spondees, dythyrambics, hexameters, iambics, acatalectics,
-and--anapests--and'----
-
-"'Oh, may the devil fly away with all of your Anna cats, or Mary
-cats!--damn all cats! And as for your Anna Pests--why, what's she got to
-do with Joseph? Is she another grisette the fellow's running after? Why,
-that's fifteen different women in fifteen weeks. I can't see how the
-fellow's constitution stands it: and then _you've_ done the introducing
-business? Shame on you--you ought to be'----
-
-"Here I stepped in and told the gardener that his lady did not mean
-_cats_ or females, but simply _feet_, measures, and scansions of poetry.
-This mollified him, and the lady courtesied to me, and resumed:
-
-"'Yes, darling--_ogre_'--this last was spoken _sub voce_--'yes, dearest,
-the gentleman's right. Joseph is a poet; Pierre is a lunatic; and the
-gentleman himself is beyond all question as deeply in love as he can
-get; and these are the reasons why neither describes the person who
-attended with him alike. That prince of soldiers, who because he was so
-terrible in war, when he shook his spear, the English call
-Shake-the-spear, says that--
-
-    "'Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
-      Such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than cool
-      Reason comprehends.
-      The lover, the lunatic, and the poet are of imagination
-      All compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold--
-      That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, sees
-      Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
-      The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
-      Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
-      And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things,
-      The poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives
-      To airy nothings a local habitation and a name.'
-
-"'But what, my dear, has all this to do with the questions I asked you?
-Look here, Ninette; I believe it's you that's gone mad, rose in
-love--_sacre!_--I wish I could catch you and your Shake-the-spear loving
-once. I'd fix him and you too, my lady, that I would! I'd fix his flint
-so that he wouldn't shake any more spears around my garden, that I
-would! Will you have done with all your rigmarole, and tell what you
-know?'
-
-"'Certainly. The gentleman's sweetheart, who came with him to-day, and
-who went with me into my private room to arrange her hair and adjust her
-petticoats, was as fine and pretty a young blonde of eighteen years as
-ever sat a man's heart beating triple bobmajors against his ribs. Such
-ankles, such feet, such a bloom upon her cheeks and lips!--ah! and such
-a _tournure_! such hips, such embonpoint! _Sacristie!_ it's lucky I was
-not a man when I fixed her crinoline, or, _ma foi_! I should have gone
-mad and run off with her, leaving monsieur to mourn his loss, while I
-revelled in the essence of love with his _fiancée_. Besides that'----
-
-"'Stop, stop, Ninette--for God's sake stop! I have lost a bottle of
-_Jean Lafitte_, forty odd years old, and lost my brains besides!'
-
-"Here the whole five of us collected in a group, and an explanation
-followed which instantly banished all mirth from Pierre, and all poetry
-from _la Jardinière_.
-
-"Declining all thoughts of the wager and the wine, I left the party in a
-maze of stupor, and sped as hastily as I could to the _Guinguette_, or
-Tea-Garden, where, it will be remembered, Ravalette and myself had
-entered to converse with the proprietor regarding his novel and costly
-experiment in the way of feasting poor people _a la les richeuse_.
-
-"Entering this place, I put the same question to the proprietor that I
-had to the gardener and the man of Michel le Compte; but instead of
-surprise at his answer, I was absolutely dumb-founded, for the man
-insisted that I entered the shop _quite alone_, but that I had conversed
-with him in two separate and perfectly distinct voices, _au
-ventriloque_--which he had regarded as very singular, but concluded that
-I was a student of ventriloquism, and took every opportunity to test my
-proficiency, and had now come back to ascertain what success attended
-the experiment.
-
-"I was too much horrified to speak; but, simply nodding my adieux, took
-my departure in a mood much easier to be imagined than described.
-
-"Not yet content, I made inquiries as to whether any one had seen two
-horsemen of a peculiar description pass through any of the streets of
-Belleville.
-
-"Nobody had seen any such, or indeed any horsemen whatever. I was
-thunderstruck.
-
-"'I'll track them!' I cried, as a last resource; 'for the place where we
-walked, where the horse and groom stood waiting, and where the old man
-mounted, was a soft, yielding, grassless turf. This will decide whether
-I have been dealing with the living or the dead, and that too in this
-broad daylight.'
-
-"I ran thither. Not a trace of a horse's hoofs; not a single vestige of
-Ravalette's footprints save one, and that one the fac-simile of the
-description formerly given. My own foot-marks were plain enough, but
-only the one other was to be found! Here the mystery grew thicker and
-thicker, nor could I see the first glimmer of a way to clear it up.
-
-"Slowly and despondently, I retraced my steps toward Paris, taking care
-to inquire as I went, whether any person had seen two men on horseback
-go toward Charronne, Villette, Menilmontant, or through the Barrières. I
-might just as well not have asked.
-
-"But the chapter of devilry was not yet concluded, for what subsequently
-took place actually threw all that had gone before it entirely in the
-shade. These things I will now relate, first premising my narrative.
-
-"One day, about a week before I first spoke to Ravalette in the Louvre,
-I happened to be spending an afternoon in the Palais Royale, along with
-my friends the Barons di Corvaja and Du P----t, to both of whom I had
-taken letters from America. On the day alluded to, I met at D----'s room
-in the Rue Beaujolais, and then and there became acquainted with, an
-English gentleman of easy means and polished mind, by the name of Carr.
-This gentleman resided with his family in a splendid mansion in the Rue
-du Chemin Vert. After a long and interesting conversation, we parted,
-but not till Mr. Carr had cordially taken me by the hand, expressed a
-desire to maintain the acquaintance, and invited me to call on him at
-his residence in the Rue du Chemin Vert. I felt gratified at his
-frankness, and accepted his polite invitation. Mr. Carr named the day,
-and I agreed to go; and accordingly had spent the evening and took tea
-with him, his family and a few select guests, some five or six days
-before the eventful day, the achievement of which I have just recounted.
-The thing which I am about to narrate is not only strange, but in many
-respects horrible, and my mind is agitated to the last degree by the
-astounding occurrences--things which I beheld with my own eyes, felt
-with my own senses, realized with my own spirit; and yet I scarcely dare
-give credit to that which I am sensible _cannot, could not_ have been
-an illusion. My soul is filled with wonder; and I hasten to give a
-true version of the affair while all is yet fresh and vivid before me;
-indeed, it will ever be so, till age shall numb my faculties."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER IV.
-
-                          MURDER WILL OUT.
-
-
-"The circumstances were, briefly, these:
-
-"I attended, as before observed, the _fête sociale_, at the house of my
-friend Mr. Carr--Leonard Carr. The party was given in honor of a young
-literary friend of the family, who had recently gained great renown as a
-writer of fiction. To this young man I was introduced just before we all
-sat down to the festive board to partake of the many good things so
-bounteously set before us.
-
-"After the repast was concluded we all adjourned to the parlor and
-entered into conversation. Topic after topic had been discussed, and at
-length the 'Turning tables,' then so rife in all parts of the world, and
-Paris especially, became the theme of observation and criticism.
-
-"'Bah!' said Mrs. Carr, 'I deem the whole thing silly, besides being one
-of the most contemptible humbugs ever ran after by a pack of silly
-people--I was going to say--fools: I am convinced there is really
-nothing in it, and that all this stuff about moving furniture, and
-ghosts, and other spectral gentry, is but the product of heated fancy,
-if not of heads and hearts devoid of truth, principle, and moral
-rectitude; stories got up for swindling purposes, and to gull that
-credulous pack of ninnies known as "The Public,"--and a precious set
-they are, to be sure! Who believes, for instance, a tithe of the reputed
-wonders of the famous American "Miracle Circle," or that they are
-anything more than clever tricks played off by a set of waggish fellows
-on a gullible community of Yankees, having in view the ultimate object
-of exposing and exploding the whole so-called spiritual mysteries? I
-don't, I'm sure.'
-
-"Poor lady! She little dreamed under what cruel circumstances she was
-doomed so soon to verify the truth of the Latin motto,
-
-    "'Nemo mortalium, omnibus horis sapit,'
-
-so meaningly quoted to myself by Ravalette. Little did she then dream,
-in the plenitude of intellect, that not many days would elapse ere she
-admitted all she now so mockingly and scornfully derided and laughed at,
-and that ere long she would cower in the very extremity of terror and
-mental dread, before these very mysteries she now so dogmatically
-denied.
-
-"Her husband took upon himself the task of answering her, thus relieving
-us guests of the always unpleasant office of holding a wordy contest
-with a woman. He said:
-
-"'You are, my dear, permit me to say, in behalf of myself and these
-gentlemen, a little too hasty in your conclusions, too sweeping in your
-remarks, and in the characterization of the wonderful phenomena of these
-latter days. I know, my love, that you will give _me_ credit for rather
-more than the usual share of suspicion, scepticism, and doubt, regarding
-certain marvellous things said to have recently taken place in England,
-America, and even here in Paris. You know that it is my nature to admit
-nothing as proved--especially of such an implied nature--without
-absolute demonstrative evidence. The proof must be irrefragible--the
-testimony unbroken and indubitable, else I accept nothing. I certainly
-do not believe in spirits, much less that such things come to this world
-and flit and move around us, taking interest in all our affairs, and
-meddling with our business in a thousand ways, as it is alleged they do
-by those who believe in them. And yet, with all this, I confess that I
-have seen things that stagger me--indeed, that demonstrate beyond
-dispute the existence of a power, mighty, secret, occult, and working
-out its marvellous designs without the slightest human aid or influence
-whatever. Mind me, I do not attribute any or all of these results to
-spiritual agency, but I do say that the force at bottom is marvellously
-intelligent, and for all the world like that of man's. For instance, you
-will remember F----, who came from America to astonish the French. Well,
-actuated by curiosity, I resolved to form one of a circle of six who had
-made arrangements to test his powers at his own rooms. Accordingly we
-met him by appointment at the Café Jououy near the Palaise Royal, and
-together we seven started for his hotel. Now, as I walked along, the
-idea suggested itself, that perhaps the fellow had made arrangements in
-his rooms to surprise us by a resort to some mountebankish performance,
-and therefore, in order to try his sincerity, and at the same time guard
-against any mere trickery or legerdemain, I suggested that we repair to
-apartments elsewhere than at his hotel. To my surprise he assented to
-this arrangement without a murmur, and we repaired to a room at the
-house of one of the company, Monsieur Benjamin, in the Rue de Clichy.
-When there, we all sat around a small table with our fourteen hands laid
-flat upon its top. For a while nothing occurred, save a few knocks or
-thumps upon the table, which F---- attributed to spirits, but which I
-suspected his knees produced. While thus we sat (it was broad daylight,
-and the sun shone brightly through the windows), we distinctly saw, and
-_I_ actually, palpably felt of, a _fifteenth_ hand. This hand was
-apparently solid flesh and blood. It appeared to be that of a mulatto
-girl of fifteen or sixteen summers, and one of the party subsequently
-told me in confidence that it was the very fac-simile of the right hand
-of a girl whom he once knew in the Isle de Bourbon, and who had
-destroyed herself by poison for love of the very man who told me the
-story! This hand came from beneath the table and extended itself eight
-or ten inches over the edge at first. Then it gradually rose in the air,
-displaying a magnificent set of fingers, upon the middle joint of one of
-which appeared the semblance of a large and peculiarly-shaped brown
-mole, surrounded by three smaller ones, and it was by these marks that
-my friend pretended to recognize it. The hand was attached to about
-two-fifths of a fore-arm, completely covered with the semblance of a
-lace sleeve, terminating at the wrist in a jewelled band, and at the
-other extremity by a flaring and projecting ruffle. The hand, after a
-while, rose into the air, where it floated for two minutes. It then
-descended, seized hold of a small silver bell upon the mantel and rung
-it sharply all over the room; after which it replaced it, took hold of a
-pencil and wrote forty-seven words upon the ceiling of the lofty-vaulted
-apartment; threw down the pencil, patted each of our hands, and then
-gradually faded away in the air, just over the centre of the table. We
-rose after it had gone, placed a stand upon the table, a chair upon
-that, so as to reach the writing on the wall (which yet remained there),
-and found a short message to the company in general, and signed by the
-very name of Mr. ----'s _inamorata of the Isle de Bourbon_! Now, my
-dear, was all this hum-bug?'
-
-"To this, the lady, whose scepticism would not abate one jot, even in
-the face of such an--to all but a Rosicrucian--overwhelming
-demonstration as this, replied:
-
-"'Why, I presume you had all taken a little too much wine, fell asleep,
-got up, wrote on the wall, and--Bah! It's all humbug! and that settles
-the question at once!'
-
-"The lady was silent, and the literary lion--I will call him Mr. A----,
-for whom the party was gotten up, entered the arena of conversation, and
-observed that: 'Spectral or Spiritual science--he preferred the former
-term--was yet but in its infancy in Christendom, provided what a casual
-acquaintance of his, a man of extraordinary research in all things
-occult, and whom he had met under peculiar circumstances but a little
-while before--affirmed to be true with regard to the faith, philosophy,
-and practices of a certain branch or rather family of the Hindoos or
-other Eastern tribes.
-
-"'This individual,' pursued Mr. A----, 'is a firm and devout believer in
-Spiritualism, and yet contends that not over two-tenths of what passes
-current under that term, is really that which it is claimed to be. Nay,
-further: he declares, and gives his reasons why, which latter are very
-just and tenable, that not more than once in fifty times are the actions
-and speeches delivered under trance the result of Spiritual action; but
-that when not the absolute offspring of imposture, which is rarely the
-case, other, and very often _purely physical_ causes are at work, which
-are frequently far more potent than what is known as "spiritual
-influence," inasmuch as the results are productive of better, greater,
-and more satisfactory phenomena, and of far more interest and value to
-mankind, and which have been entirety overlooked in the haste and zeal
-with which people seek to gratify their thirst for the marvellous, by
-attributing whatever baffles their powers of analysis to a supermundane
-origin.
-
-"'This person,' continued Mr. A., 'asserted also that he could himself
-produce similar and even far more wonderful and startling effects, by
-means entirely material, than many which are claimed to originate beyond
-the earth. "This," said he, "I can do under circumstances that will
-forever put the quietus on one portion of the spiritual theory. There is
-a science in existence that may very properly be called Spectreology or
-Phantomism, whose wonders vie with the best of those emanating really
-from the spirit world!" During his travels in the Orient, he said, the
-_modus operandi_ of several startling effects had been imparted to him
-by a person named Ramo Djava, and that, were it not for his greatly
-impaired health, which rendered the experiments alluded to highly
-dangerous, he would give public displays of his power. As to the means
-used, that must remain a secret, for he had promised to initiate only
-one person, and that not till his dying hour. But, at all events, he was
-willing to demonstrate, before a select few, that there really is more
-between earth and heaven than even the loftiest savants dream of.
-
-"'Having my curiosity thus excited, I, with great difficulty, prevailed
-on this person to consent to give a display of his ability, before a
-select circle of eighteen. I have invited five persons, and the present
-company will exactly complete the requisite number, and I cheerfully
-extend you all an invitation to be present at half-past six o'clock
-precisely, at the mansion of our mutual friend, the Baron de Marc, this
-day week!'
-
-"This ended the conversation on that particular theme, and, shortly
-afterwards, the party dissolved, agreeing to meet again on the night
-mentioned, which, strange coincidence! was the very one of the singular
-adventure with 'the ghost of Ravalette;' for, to tell the truth, I had
-by this time begun to suspect that my old man of the Louvre--he who
-appeared under three different aspects at one and the same time, nay,
-under _five_, and who was heard to speak, though himself unseen, by the
-man of the Guinguette--was something more than mortal.
-
-"You must bear in mind the fact, that the party and conversation at Mr.
-Carr's took place _before_ I had ever seen Ravalette at all to speak
-with him. And now, if you please, we will continue the train of events
-in progress before I made this digression.
-
-"You will remember that, after making fruitless inquiries for the two
-horsemen, and an equally fruitless search after foot-prints on the soil
-near Belleville, that I took my way toward Paris, slowly, on foot,
-musing deeply as I went along. As I passed down the Rue Faubourg du
-Temple, the tolling of a distant clock announced the hour of four. I
-remembered my engagement at the Baron's, but, as I had fully two hours
-left in which to dress for the occasion, I determined to drop in at
-D'Emprat's, in the Rue Michel le Compte, as I went by, and hear whatever
-might have turned up in my absence.
-
-"I reached the street, and was greatly surprised to find a large and
-highly excited crowd of people before the gate, and the more so, as I
-beheld the surplices of at least a dozen priests of the Order St.
-Lazare, elbowing their way, and trying to pass both in and out of the
-house.
-
-"With heart palpitating with vague and dread uneasiness, I approached an
-intelligent-looking man, and, assuming a carelessness by no means felt,
-asked him the cause and reason of the gathering.
-
-"'Lord bless you, sir!' he said. 'Do you not know that the devil and
-five of his imps have just been on a visit to that house, and carried
-off three or four of the inmates through the roof in a flame of _blue
-fire_? If you don't know it, I assure you it is a fact!'
-
-"I saw in this answer the legitimate effect of superstition, and that
-the man's cloth belied his intelligence; I, therefore, drew out a sheet
-of paper and a pencil, and began to flourish them in the eyes of the
-crowd for the purpose of attracting its attention.
-
-"My _ruse_ succeeded; the people set me down as a reporter of the press,
-and instantly gave way right and left; so that I had but little
-difficulty in gaining an entrance to the building. Once there, I soon
-learned that the poor D'Emprat had relapsed into the swoon occasioned by
-his first fright, and had passed thence into the most frightful
-convulsions, exclaiming all the while, as the thick foam rolled from his
-bloodless lips, 'Oh, the devil! the devil has come for my soul, _because
-I killed Baptiste Lemoine thirty-seven years ago! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!
-They will drag me to hell! Ah, God!_'
-
-"His wife had exerted all her influence and power to stifle these
-dangerous cries, but without avail. His cries still increased in fury,
-until at last the police had forced an entrance into the house, and were
-speedily followed by a score of priests, who, hearing that the devil was
-in Paris, in proper person, were very anxious to try the effect of a
-little shower-bath of holy water, as well as to get a sight of their
-arch enemy, whom, doubtless, the vast majority of them regarded secretly
-as nothing more than a man--or, rather, devil--of straw.
-
-"The news spread like wild-fire that the devil had appeared, and to the
-questions asked by priest and bailiff of the porter, he confirmed the
-rumor, and told, as best he could, the incidents of the afternoon. His
-story did not rest here, however, but, taking two of the officers aside,
-he told them something which caused them to start back in the wildest
-horror, and cross themselves most devoutly. The result of the interview
-was, that the officers cautioned the porter from uttering one word of
-what he had just told them to any person else. After this, they all
-again entered the room where D'Emprat was still struggling in all the
-terrors of delirium, still accusing himself of a long-committed
-homicide, still calling on God and the priests to save him from the
-clutches of the devil, whom he averred he saw beside him armed with fork
-and trident, ready to drag his unfortunate soul to perdition and the
-damned. During all this fearful scene, Madame D'Emprat was doing all she
-could to quiet her husband, but without avail. The man went on harder
-than before. The ghosts of evil deeds were there, and avenging angels
-lashed his soul to frenzy.
-
-"'Be still,' she cried, 'for Jesus' sake, be still! They will carry you
-to Bicêtre, and from there to _le Boureau_, and you will die _au coupe
-tête_![8] Oh, be still! or, if you must talk, say something else than
-_that_!'
-
-[8] On the guillotine.
-
-"Every word uttered by the woman and the man was quietly written down,
-unobserved, by one of the officers, who used my pencil and paper, and
-the back of his comrade as a desk.
-
-"What strange, mysterious power was it that caused me mechanically to
-purchase a pencil and paper on my way from Belleville down to Michel le
-Compte?
-
-"God's ways are mysterious, altogether past finding out; and I inwardly
-praised him as the mighty fact became apparent, that the people of the
-house were _not_ in league, as I had conjectured might be the case, with
-Ravalette; and that the mysterious agent of Divine Retribution was _not_
-of an infernal nature, be it or he whatever else. A load was lifted off
-my heart--too soon, alas! to be let down heavier than before.
-
-"'You did not kill him, D'Emprat! So don't say you did any more!'
-exclaimed the woman in the accents of despair.
-
-"''Tis a _lie_! I did!' yelled the unfortunate man. 'I killed him with
-the hatchet in the cellar, and buried him under the grey horse's stall
-in the stable!'
-
-"'My God! we are ruined!' screamed the now frantic woman. 'I always
-suspected that you killed my brother, but never believed it until now.
-And, yet, I do not even now believe it; for'----
-
-"'_I can prove it_; for I well remember a bloody hatchet, and that
-master never would let me clean the stable of the grey horse; and that I
-have watched him dig gold from the ground there, and heard him accuse
-himself in his sleep!' said the _concierge_, coming forward.
-
-"'Then, D'Emprat, and you, madame, I arrest in the name of the law; and
-you, porter, as a witness. Officers, do your duty--take the
-prisoners--clear the house!' said their chief.
-
-"Five minutes afterwards, the unfortunate people were being led to
-prison, and I was on the way to my hotel to dress--even under such
-circumstances--for the soirée at the Baron's, but in a frame of mind
-that little fitted me to be a spectator of philosophical experiments.
-Yet my word was pledged, and go I must, and go I did--six o'clock
-finding me in the Baron's parlor.
-
-"I am perfectly sensible that, even in what I have narrated, the
-credulity of many persons would be taxed to the utmost. It is easy
-enough to believe that such things as I have described occurred long
-ages ago, in the green and halcyon days of Magic, but it is difficult to
-imagine such things as taking place in the broad light of this
-nineteenth century. Millions, aye hundreds of millions, have believed,
-do, and, in coming years, perhaps ages, will believe in the startling
-records of a magic similar to that I have detailed, and which is
-described so briefly, yet so graphically, in the Book of Exodus; and yet
-these people will strenuously insist that the day of such things--of
-such exhibitions of the Upper Magic--has for ever passed away, totally
-unmindful of the great fact, that, when the astonishing things there
-recorded were accomplished, there must of necessity have been a law--a
-natural law--in accordance with, and by which, they were done, and that
-no law of Nature has ever yet been repealed; consequently, they must
-exist to-day in as full perfection and power as ever.
-
-"What remains of the present affair to be told, may, with what has
-already been related (and the truth of which may be ascertained most
-readily by correspondence with the parties named), be implicitly relied
-on as correct in all essential particulars; and yet, the occurrences
-that took place on that eventful night are of a kind so horrible, so
-utterly monstrous, that, at times, I almost believe that we all--twelve
-healthful men, and six women--were laboring under some strong delusion.
-I should still cling to this belief, with the pertinacity of a miser to
-his golden god, the bigot to his creed, or the drowning wretch to the
-narrow plank that promises a renewal of life's tenure, were it not that
-facts, appalling in themselves, forever and utterly _preclude_ the
-possibility that I--that _we_--were mistaken and deceived. What these
-facts were, will be most clearly shown in the sequel."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER V.
-
-          SÉANCE AT THE BARON'S--DIABLERIE EXTRAORDINAIRE.
-
-    "With features horribler than Hell e'er traced
-     On its own brood; no Demon of the waste,
-     No church-yard ghoul, caught lingering in the light
-     Of the blest sun, e'er blasted human sight
-     With lineaments so foul, so fierce as those
-     The Impostor now, in grinning mockery shows."
-
-
-"When I reached the house I found the company above enumerated seated in
-the parlor, and all most anxiously awaiting the appearance of the
-individual who was to afford us entertainment, and, if possible, some
-instruction also. For awhile it appeared that we were doomed to be
-disappointed. The expected party had promised to attend at thirty
-minutes to eight, and it was nearly that time already, and still there
-were no signs of his coming; but, as St. Eustache tolled out the half
-hour, a ring at the door-bell announced his arrival.
-
-"The man was a tall and comely personage, apparently of Irish
-extraction, and had nothing whatever about him at all remarkable;
-indeed, he was a very so-soish sort of individual, who at first refused
-his name to everybody, because, to quote his own words: 'If I remain
-_incog._ I shall not be lionized, which in other terms means "bored,"
-and pestered by persons seeking to gratify a morbid and impertinent
-curiosity--people who look for full-grown miracles, and expect to find
-them, instead of studying arts and sciences, and therewith increasing
-their knowledge and enriching their experience by a more intimate
-acquaintance with philosophic truths, and the recondite mysteries of
-mighty Nature.'
-
-"The gentleman was very polished and polite, entering freely into
-conversation, and seemed altogether so well pleased with his audience
-that he threw off all reserve, laughed, joked, made puns, played upon
-words, and kept us in good spirits for half an hour, at the end of which
-time he gave us his name as a profound secret, to go no further. That
-name was a singular one. It was Mai Vatterale--a very curious name! He
-soon proposed an adjournment to the back parlor, and after reaching it
-he proceeded to arrange the chairs, six in a line, in the form of a
-triangle; after doing this, Monsieur Vatterale signified to the Baron
-that his part of the preliminaries was completed, whereupon that
-gentleman, turning to his guests, said: 'I was informed on the day that
-the present meeting was arranged with Monsieur, that in all cases it was
-absolutely necessary that the physical systems of all who assist at, or
-witness his experiments, should be duly fortified with food, for what
-particular reason I cannot imagine, nor is it necessary that I should
-inquire, seeing that it is his rule, of which all present were duly
-notified, so that all might forego their usual repasts at their own
-homes, and partake of a little _souper_ with me, previous to commencing
-our experiments, and'----
-
-"'_Permettez moi, s'il vous plait_,' said Vatterale, courteously. '_Si
-cela vous est agréable_'--it is my custom, and is for the purpose of
-preventing any ill effects that might result from a shock of the nerves,
-which, believe me, you will be apt to experience before we have done.'
-Of course such an explanation, indicating, as it certainly did, no small
-degree of preventive solicitude on the part of the illustrious
-foreigner, was perfectly satisfactory, and was accepted in a proper
-spirit by the whole company.
-
-"'This way, ladies; this way, gentlemen, follow me,' said the Baron,
-gaily giving his arm to his wife, and leading the way to his splendid
-_salle a manger_.
-
-"The worthy noble had called it _un petit souper_, but the magnificent
-_spread_ before us rendered it a somewhat difficult task to imagine what
-would constitute a _grand_ supper in his estimation. To describe it is
-no part of the task I am engaged on; and, therefore, I shall merely
-observe that it was a most _recherché_ affair. The furniture of the
-table, as well as the viands themselves, was of the most sumptuous
-description, everything on it being of the richest and heaviest gold and
-silver plate--heir-looms of the old Noblesse, from whom the Baron was
-descended.
-
-"Dinner or supper once over, we all left the table, and once more
-adjourned to the back parlor, and took seats in the chairs arranged in a
-triangle, the ladies, six in number, occupying those which formed the
-western arm thereof. When we all were properly and comfortably seated,
-there was quite a large vacant space before us, into which Vatterale
-placed two chairs facing each other, and also two foot-stools covered
-with damask plush-velvet close together in the other angle. He then
-proceeded to lock all the doors leading into the apartment, tied all the
-keys together with a piece of scarlet ribbon, and then hung them to one
-of the glass prisms pendent from a large gas chandelier directly over
-the centre of what I may call, not inappropriately, our circle. The jets
-of this chandelier, seven in number, were all in full play under a
-strong head of gas, and the room in all parts was quite as light as if
-the sun shone into the windows, two of which occupied the northern end
-of the parlor, both being very richly curtained, and both quite shut. I
-repeat, lest trickery in what followed should be suspected by yourself,
-that the seven jets of gas were brightly burning, and continued so all
-the evening, except when extinguished, without the aid of _human hands_;
-and as they were put out, so also were they relighted more than once.
-
-"Having disposed of the bunch of keys, Vatterale went to both windows,
-examined them closely, fastened them down securely--that is to say, the
-lower sashes; for he let down one of the upper ones, and threw the
-eastern external blinds wide open, and fastened them so. Of course, the
-master of ceremonies had never been in that dwelling before, and of
-course could not have obtained information respecting it by the usual
-methods of visit and inquiry, yet, turning to the Baron, he requested
-him to ring for the servant, and through the closed door bid him _remove
-an ornamental iron sofa from the chamber immediately above our heads,
-into the dark bed-room on the third floor_, as its presence where it
-then stood would materially affect the experiments to be made!
-
-"This request, made under such circumstances, surprised us all, but
-particularly the Baron, who stared at the man who made it, as if he
-regarded him as one risen from the dead; and it was, forsooth, rather a
-startling circumstance, to say the least. He admitted that there was
-such a room, and such a dark chamber, _au troisième_. Yet how the man
-knew it, was very strange, considering that he had been in the house but
-a short time, and had not left us for a moment, nor spoken a single word
-to any of the servants, save on entering, to inquire if this was the
-Baron's residence.
-
-"Scarcely had we recovered from the surprise natural on such an
-occasion, than we were again made sensible that we were dealing with an
-extraordinary man, for, turning to me, he begged the loan of a small
-metallic coin which I had received as a present from Mr. Carr less than
-ten minutes before Vatterale entered the house, and which coin was
-remarkably curious and valuable on account of its high antiquity, and it
-was one of the only two known to be in existence, and had been begged
-for me by Mr. Carr, from his friend Blaise de Jongé, the celebrated
-Eastern traveller, and had only been sent in a note to Mr. Carr, by that
-eminent savant, the night previous. Having received the coin, Vatterale
-placed it in his pocket, and then taking out a set of ivory tablets,
-wrote a request thereon, and handed it to Madame la Marquise de la
-Fronde, an elderly lady, foster sister to the Baron. The request was
-altogether so singular and so novel, that the old lady immediately read
-it aloud: '_Will Madame la Marquise have the goodness to retire to the
-alcove and remove from between her feet and stockings the metallic
-plates, and, separating the zinc from the copper ones, place each metal
-plate with its own kind, and restore them to her feet outside the
-hose!_' The lady almost fainted with astonishment, for she averred that
-no mortal knew that she wore such plates, but that she had for ten
-years, and found them, by reason of the electric currents they
-elaborated and imparted to her system, highly beneficial to her health.
-She retired as requested, and, returning in a minute, convinced us of
-the marvellous seeing faculty of the mysterious Mai, by exhibiting the
-plates, which were precisely as he had described. She again retired,
-and, shortly returning, resumed her seat. These preliminaries being
-concluded, Vatterale brought into the open space before us a small
-portmanteau, which he carried in his hand when he entered the mansion.
-From this he now took a coil of wire--indeed, three small coils tied
-together--also a saucer of large dimensions of stone China, or thick,
-very thick porcelain, a large vial containing a colorless liquid, a box
-of paste or gum, two large, and entirely empty, thin bottles--so thin
-that we all looked through them at the light, as he handed them to us
-for that purpose. They were as clear as the best window glass, as thin
-and as brittle, apparently, as the finest crystal. From the same
-receptacle he also took what looked like three rolls of paper, one very
-large when unfolded, the others quite small indeed. The larger bundle he
-unrolled and spread upon the floor, on the space between the chairs and
-_fauteuils_. It was about three feet in diameter, and was painted in all
-sorts of colors, and figures entirely nondescript. The centre of this
-article was immediately that of the triangle, 'The Symbolical figure of
-the Universe, or Oneness,' as he called it, and of course was directly
-beneath the large chandelier. This done, he placed the saucer right upon
-the centre of the symbolical chart, if I may so term it. Then,
-unfastening the coils of wire, he laid one along the laps of the
-gentlemen on one side, and fastened it by means of a link and hook to
-two others, which passed in front of the other two sections of the human
-trine. The wire held by the ladies (for we all were directed to grasp
-the wire before us with one hand, and the hand of the next neighbor with
-the other) was common iron, wound with silver foil; the one before
-myself was steel, wound with gold wire; and the other was of solid gold,
-wound, as were the others, at intervals, with floss silk. The ladies
-grasped with the _left_ hand, and joined their right, while with the
-gentlemen this order was reversed. The next proceeding on the part of
-Mai, was to place half of the gum into the saucer; upon this he emptied
-the vial of colorless liquid, and set fire thereto. It burned with a
-clear and steady bluish flame. The gum was gradually consumed, and a
-peculiar and most delightful fragrance floated through the room.
-
-"During the burning process, the operator sat upon the stool, and gazed
-fixedly and intently upon, or rather toward, the open sash, while the
-rest of us were chatting merrily, and wondering what would be the result
-of all these weird and curious preparations.
-
-"I said the rest of us were merrily chatting, but must qualify that
-observation by excluding from this employment one person, and that
-person was--myself, for I found it utterly impossible to mingle in the
-conversation with that abandon and unreserve which characterized the
-others. It was altogether beyond my power to forget the tremendous
-experiences of that very day, which I had undergone. A weight was on my
-spirit that could not be lifted off. The 'Ghost of Ravalette' seemed to
-be invisibly hovering over me, and although unseen, his presence seemed
-to be palpably felt by me. The events at Belleville constantly obtruded
-themselves before the eye of the mind; the affair at the gardener's, the
-singular result of his impromptu wager, the woman at the _Barrière_,
-and, above all, the frightful occurrences at the Rue Michel le Compte,
-with its sure--absolutely sure--termination on the Guillotine--the
-miserable and ignominious death of D'Emprat, and the unearthly means
-whereby his deed of crime--the crime a horrible murder, committed
-thirty-seven years before--the unearthly and mysterious means, I repeat,
-by which his guilt was brought to light--this, all this, so oppressed me
-that I could not take a present interest in what was transpiring about
-me. Indeed, I cared little for either Mai or his tricks--which, from
-observing the method of his preparations, I had already not only
-despised, but put down to the score of legerdemain--clever and
-surprising, but still nothing more than legerdemain.
-
-"How rudely this conceit was broken up, how horribly I was convinced of
-my mistaken estimate of the man before us, will very soon be seen. As
-for his skill in detecting the coin, the sofa, and the plates, I had
-already secretly accounted. I remembered Caspar Hauser, and several
-other _Sensitives_, who could detect the presence of metals by what may
-be called 'magnetic sense.' His description of the dark bed-room _au
-troisième_, was very simple, for nearly all old houses have such
-chambers on that floor; this was an old house; Vatterale saw it, and
-made what preliminary capital he could from his acuteness. With the
-present weight of experience; with the memory of the deeds of the
-mystical Ravalette still fresh in mind, of course I could not be very
-highly interested in such displays of minor magic as I felt convinced
-were very shortly to be made by the conjuring gentleman before us.
-
-"Suddenly the man whose pretensions I had just been inwardly
-criticising, partially raised himself from the stool, threw back his
-head until his long, wavy locks fell upon his shoulders, and muttered
-between his teeth, as if the word-birth was extremely painful, 'HE IS
-COMING!' and we noticed that his face, naturally of a dingy yellow,
-suddenly became of an ashen-hued paleness, and his eyes darted forth
-luminous sparks that were plainly visible even amid the glare of that
-brilliantly-lighted apartment; and at the same instant he placed his
-right hand over the region of his heart--that is to say, over that part
-where nine-and-ninety of every hundred suppose the heart to be, namely,
-under the left breast. He did this as if to repress a rising pang, then
-turning to his audience, he exclaimed--'Look sharp! Be firm! be
-fearless! be attentive! but if you would avoid danger, a nameless, but
-great danger, stir not, move not from your seats. Grasp the cord, retain
-each other's hands, make what remarks you may deem proper, _but stir not
-an inch_--a single inch from your seats, happen what may! I am going to
-surprise you.'
-
-"We all assented verbally, and not a few of the company began even to
-joke him on his sorcery and magic, when we all started from our seats,
-but were instantly motioned back by an anxious frown and a commanding,
-magisterial wave of his right hand. The simultaneous movement on our
-part, was caused by a _yell_, for such it was, that proceeded, not, as
-might be anticipated, from a female, but from a Mr. Theodore Dwight, an
-American gentleman, hailing from Philadelphia--and at the present time
-still dwelling there.
-
-"This person, as all who know him will certify, is no weak, puling,
-nerveless man, for a man more the opposite of all this could scarce be
-found in a month's search.
-
-"The sound which came from his lips was a shriek of terror, horror, and
-agony combined, as might well be fancied to come from the throats of the
-damned souls of the nether hell. It was, indeed, a paroxysm of deadly
-fright. In an instant all eyes were turned toward him. He was paler than
-a corpse, the very image of Death itself; his eyes protruded from their
-sockets, and he trembled as if he stood before the final bar; his lips
-refused to tell the cause of his distress, but his gaze was intently
-fixed, with an immovable expression of horror, upon _the saucer_ on the
-floor. Instinctively our eyes followed the same direction, except
-Vatterale's, who still was looking toward the open sash. With this
-exception, I repeat, we all looked toward the floor, when, great God!
-what a sight was there! The saucer was still there, but the two small
-rolls of paper _were gone_! _They_ had disappeared, but in their stead
-we distinctly saw--for, recollect, there were seven full jets of gas in
-full blaze right over our heads--we saw, I reiterate, with our
-eyes--physical, bodily eyes--three horrible beings, somewhat resembling
-overgrown scorpions--only, that instead of claws, they had--_hands and
-arms_! for all the world like those of a newly-born negro child! These
-detestable _things_, for I dare not blaspheme the Great Eternal by
-calling them creatures, were about five inches broad on the back, by
-some eighteen in length. Their color was a deep crimson, mottled with
-purple, green, and yellow stripes and spots, and they were completely
-covered with scales, like those of an armadillo. Conceive, if you can,
-of a tarantula or spider so large, and which--each one of them--moved
-about on the very tips of twelve legs, sixteen or eighteen inches long,
-and all the while whirling and twirling its _hands and arms_ (two of
-each), eighteen inches long and three-fourths as large as its body, and
-you will form a tolerable picture of the repulsive, unsightly, hideous
-monstrosities crawling, or rather 'stilting,' round that saucer on the
-floor.
-
-"Each one of these loathsome _things_ had four large, protruding eyes,
-closely resembling those of the monster Frog of India; but these eyes,
-unlike the frog's, were not leaden-hued; instead of this being the case,
-I think no spark of fire ever shone brighter--in fact, they fairly
-gleamed with what I can indicate by no other term than infernal redness;
-for it seemed that at every flash they emitted the concentrated venom of
-a gorgon; and beneath the fearful spell we all sat perfectly immovable
-with fear.
-
-"What our agony would have been had the accursed things ventured to move
-toward us, I dare not even imagine, but they still and ever kept in the
-one track, moving with orderly march around that saucer on the floor. We
-felt and knew that they were living, actual realities, a genuine and
-horrid trinity of _facts_, and not a mere optical illusion, or the result
-of a play upon our fancies, mesmeric or otherwise. This opinion was
-confirmed by the most positive and blasting testimony, for, as they
-solemnly, demoniacally marched about the centre of that symbolic chart,
-they left a trailing streak of greenish--_dead_, _hard_, _greenish_
-ichor or pus, behind them at each revolution, and a few drops of this
-fell upon the Baron's carpet. Some months afterward he and I exchanged
-letters on the events of that night, and he assured me that not a single
-chemical amongst the hundreds applied for the purpose had been of the
-least effect toward removing the stain. 'The carpet has been discharged
-of its colors and re-dyed, yet no dye will cover those spots!' This was
-not all, for on one of their rounds they nearly quitted the chart, and
-the Baron struck at them with his foot, whereupon one of them spirted
-forth a fetid liquid, which fell upon his boot, and made a mark there as
-if the leather had been seared with hot iron!
-
-"'Talk not to me of legerdemain after this! Speak not to me of optical
-illusion, or deceptive appearances, in the face of such facts as these,
-for here are marks,' wrote the Baron to me, 'here are palpable evidences
-that defy contradiction. They were made on that night, and there they
-yet remain, and, albeit I cry, "Out, damned spots!" they will not, but
-persist in remaining absolute confirmations of vivid, strange,
-incontrovertible _facts_!'
-
-"'But why did you not get up, under such circumstances, all of you, and
-escape from the room?' is a very natural and perhaps not unreasonable
-question, that may without impropriety be asked just here, and I reply:
-For several reasons; among which a few shall be named. First, the doors
-were all securely locked, and although we had seen Mai mount a chair,
-and hang the keys to one of the glass pendants, yet upon looking there,
-we found that they, as well as the two rolls of paper, had disappeared.
-Secondly, the windows were fastened down, besides being many feet from
-the ground--at least fifteen--and to leap that distance was altogether
-out of the question, even had we thought of it, which we did not.
-Thirdly, the earnest and solemn warning given by Vatterale before
-anything took place; his assurance that if we obeyed his injunctions not
-to stir--that, although we might be frightened, yet no harm could or
-would befall us--acted, amidst all our terror, as a sort of stopper upon
-any precipitate movement, after the first shock was over.
-
-"We could not quit the room provided even all the doors had been flung
-wide open. Hast never heard tell of the _fascination_ of Danger? If so,
-then know that it was upon us in all its terrible force and power. We
-were bound, chained, rooted, riveted to the spot, by a potentiality
-never to be questioned, never to be despised, for its might, when once
-it fastens upon its victim, is merciless, gripping, stern and
-unrelenting. We felt that to stir, was to incur the hazard of an
-unknown, unguessed-at danger. ALL were fascinated by terror; to move was
-to add ten-fold to its power! It was a feeling akin to that experienced
-by the native of Ind, who roused from his mid-day slumber, wakes to feel
-the clammy folds of the cobra-capello, the dreadful hooded serpent of
-his clime, slowly writhing and winding beneath his garments about his
-naked flesh; and who realizes, as his heart stops beating and his blood
-runs icily with agony, and as the great big beaded drops of cold sweat
-ooze out from every pore, that to stir, to breathe, to even quiver under
-the pressure of his mortal fear, is certain, irrevocable, positive
-death--knowing as he does, that nor man nor beast hath ever yet lived a
-single hour after the fangs of the hooded snake have once opened a
-passage for the entrance of the King of Terrors!
-
-"And such was the pall that rested upon the eighteen persons in that
-room, as the detestable trinity moved slowly around that saucer on the
-floor; their eyes--their great, horny, bulging eyes--all the while
-scintillating and flashing with the very essence of intense
-malignity--malignity as of a devil! The female portion of the company I
-fear may never recover from the shock that night received. They did not
-faint, or scream, or swoon, as perhaps it might have been suspected they
-would under such diabolic circumstances, simply, however, for the reason
-that the tension of soul and nerve was altogether too severe and great
-to permit, even for an instant, the reaction which is an absolute
-prerequisite to relief by or through the methods indicated.
-
-"Probably the length of time that elapsed from the shriek of our
-comrade, till the final disappearance of the three monsters, did not
-exceed three minutes, yet in that brief space we had undergone years of
-terror.
-
-"Truly, the real lapse of time is not to be reckoned by the beats of the
-clock, but only by sensations and heart-throbs. Mai, at the termination
-of the time specified, rose from his stool, took a small basket from his
-portmanteau, and then fearlessly seizing the _things_, one at a time, he
-carefully doubled up their legs under them, and placed them in it. Then
-taking the two crystal bottles already alluded to, he placed them
-lengthwise on the chart, with their necks and apertures facing each
-other, after which he resumed his seat upon the foot-stool, addressing
-no word or sign to the spectators of his movements. And now it began to
-grow dark! The jets of gas appeared to burn less clear and fully, just
-as if some one was slowly turning the cocks which let it on, with a
-gradual movement. In a little while the room was darkened, though not
-exactly dark, for there was still a dim half light--a sort of semi-blue,
-semi-dull red, misty radiance, just sufficient to enable us to
-distinguish objects vaguely, indistinct and dimly.
-
-"'Stir not! fear not!' said the thick, husky voice of Vatterale; and
-before we could reply, a scene commenced, such as it hath seldom fallen
-to man's lot to witness.
-
-"'Allow me to explain a modern mystery,' said Vatterale, 'but first let
-me remove your fears. Look!'
-
-"Scarcely had he spoken these words, than the room was suddenly
-illuminated, as if the very air was aglow with the most brilliant light,
-and we saw the two bottles quite plainly. As we gazed upon these, there
-came from one the appearance of an enormous serpent, which proceeded to
-coil itself up, until its bulk thrice exceeded that of both the bottles.
-Then there came still another, and another, until no less than twelve
-lay there, coiled up in a loathsome pile; but as the last one emerged
-from one bottle, the first one entered the other, until all had
-disappeared as they had come.
-
-"'I will now show you that you cannot always trust your own senses,'
-said Vatterale, 'nor account for what you see;' and he straightway
-emptied the basket, and broke the bottles. All three were empty! Not a
-sign of snake or scorpion was there!
-
-"'Again, I will show you a curious thing. You will please call a
-servant, seat her on one of those chairs, and bid her on a wager hold a
-skein of silk while it is being wound--merely to keep her
-attention--that is all. But,' and he spoke very earnestly, 'whatever
-you see or hear, I beg you will not utter a single word.'
-
-"This was assented to; a skein of silk was ordered, but not till the
-gaslight had displaced the other.
-
-"'It will be just seventeen minutes before the girl is ready,' said Mai;
-'and while waiting, I will _demonstrate a fallacy_. The creatures you
-have beheld to night are real, but ephemeral--they are Will-creations,
-and perish when the power ceases to act which called them into being. As
-proof of what I say, Behold!'
-
-"From the floor in the eastern corner of the room there straightway
-begun to arise a light mist, which increased in bulk until a ball of
-vapor, three feet in diameter, floated in the air. Thus it remained for
-a minute; and then, right before our eyes, began to condense and change
-its shape, until at the end of four minutes, it had assumed a human
-semblance--but, Heavens! what a caricature!
-
-"At first it was a mere vapory outline, but it rapidly condensed and
-consolidated, until what looked like a hideous, half-naked, bow-legged,
-splay-footed monster stood before us. Its height was less than three
-feet; its chest and body were nearly that in width; its legs were not
-over eight inches long; its arms were longer than its entire body; its
-head was gigantic; and it had no neck whatever, while from its horrible
-head there hung to the very ground the appearance of a tangled mass of
-wire-like worms. Its mouth was a fearful-looking red gash, extending to
-where ears should have been, but were not. Eyes, nose, cheeks, chin,
-lips or forehead, there were none whatever. Do not imagine that this
-creature was merely an appearance; it was not, for although born of
-vapor, in five minutes it became solid as iron, demonstrating the fact
-by stalking heavily across the floor right into the centre of the open
-space between us--the chains being dropped as it approached--where it
-stood, slowly swaying to and fro, as if its heart was heavy.
-
-"'Show your quality,' said Mai to the thing. 'I will,' it hissed, and
-straightway proceeding toward a table, it stood by it a few minutes, and
-it became apparent that it was charging the wood with something from
-itself, for soon the table began to turn, to tip, to move, to rise and
-float in the air, precisely as is done in spiritual circles.
-
-"'Now, ladies and gentlemen, you will please act just as if that before
-you was a human spirit, invisible to you, and desirous of imparting
-information. I dare say you will be surprised at the results. You see
-already that it is a capital table-mover, and I beg you to test its
-mental and physical powers also--for I assure you there is nothing to
-fear, now that I give you leave to break the silence--which was quite
-essential in the first part of the curious experiment.'
-
-"Thus assured, several of us asked the thing to show us what it could
-do. Whereupon it made motions as if it wanted to write. Paper and pencil
-being placed upon the table, it seized the pencil with its long
-claw-like fingers, and its hand flew over the page like lightning, and
-in ten seconds it finished, and striking the table three heavy blows
-with its fist, signified that it had finished; whereupon Mr. D----
-reached for the sheet, and read therefrom one of the most tender
-messages conceivable, from a dead mother to a living son. Even the hand
-writing was a perfect _fac-simile_ of his mother's; the name--Lucy--was
-correct, and certain dear and peculiar phrases, used by her when alive,
-were given with minute precision and fidelity; as, for instance, 'sweet
-one, mine,' instead of 'my sweet one.' Mr. D---- turned pale. 'Is it
-possible I have been so imposed upon--so horribly deceived?' said he,
-for he was a devout follower of the modern thaumaturgy.
-
-"Several further tests, equally successful and decisive, were then given
-by this ghostly thing, both by writing, tipping, rapping, and the
-production of beautiful phantom hands, faces, flowers, and other
-objects, many of which were not only singular but magnificent. Probably
-thousands of persons have seen the curious pencil drawings, executed by
-'mediums,' and which are said to be portraits of 'Spiritual
-flowers'--for most certainly they resemble nothing growing on this
-earth. Well, in less than five minutes the horrible thing there at the
-table, the eyeless monster, executed thirteen such--and they would pass
-current as splendid specimens of 'Spirit art.'
-
-"'Now,' said Vatterale, 'for something else.' And then addressing the
-thing, he said: 'You will now render yourself viewless, and show what
-you can do. And first let us have some music.' Then turning to the
-company, he said: 'Real spirits love the light, but such as _that_
-invariably act most efficiently in the dark--for then they have the
-advantage of the elements condensed upon their forms--a semi-material
-investiture--and can come in direct contact with material substances,
-which, in the case of real spirits, is exceedingly difficult of
-accomplishment.'
-
-"During this speech, our attention was diverted from the incarnated to
-the incarnator--for it must not be forgotten that the entire phenomena
-exhibited by this wondrous personage, were the creatures of his
-conscious will, brought into being and again cast out by a thought, and
-according to a _known and transferable formula_. True, there were others
-in whom this creative faculty existed, but then such persons either
-exercised the power involuntarily through the mechanical processes of
-mind and will, or else they are but the proxies of the Larvæ. When he
-ceased speaking the monster was gone from our sight, but not from our
-hearing, for Mai gently waved his hand, and as he did so there came to
-us the softest, gentlest, sweetest, and the most soul-stirring strains
-of music that ever fell on human hearing. Above, below, around, now
-here, now there, close at hand, and then afar off, it sounded; and the
-only comparison I can make is, that it sounded like a solemn requiem
-chaunted by angels over the perished form of what was once a god--the
-tones were so pathetic, so solemn, so supremely sorrow-freighted--
-reminding one of the plaintive
-
-    "'Huhm, meleagar malooshe,
-      Huhm meleagar, ma-looshe,'
-
-only that it was ten-fold more profound, and stirred depths the other
-could never reach.
-
-"This strange music was a perfect corroboration of the theory advanced
-by the Italian Count at the séance before Napoleon, already mentioned;
-for, allowing that the being who made it was a real and independent
-existence, it was impossible for such conceptions to exist in it, for
-the reason that none but a mighty soul could create them, and the thing
-itself was exceedingly, revoltingly low in the scale of organization.
-But, on the other hand, if the thing were the creature of Mai's will, it
-was conceivable that it vocally expressed his unuttered thought, itself
-totally unconscious of either the music or its meaning.
-
-"It ceased. It still remained invisible, and Mai proposed that Count de
-M---- should hold one end of an accordion, while the thing invisibly
-held and played upon the other. This was assented to, and the
-instrument, bottom up, was held at arm's length, directly beneath the
-light. _It was placed on_, in masterly style, while in that position.
-It, as well as a guitar, harp and piano, were played on when no one was
-near them, and nothing to be seen; and then, at the command of the
-arch-magician, the whole performance was repeated by the terrific thing
-in its perfectly visible form.
-
-"Presently, a knock at the door told us that the servant sent for had
-arrived, with the silk in her hand. She was admitted; the thing retired
-from view.
-
-"'Marie,' said the Baron, 'a wager is laid that one of these gentlemen
-cannot unwind a skein of silk which you are to hold, both of you being
-blindfolded. I wager that it can be done. If I win, you shall have three
-days to visit your family, besides something to carry to the old people
-and the little ones. Now, you must not laugh or speak while the silk is
-being wound; if you do I lose. Will you try?'
-
-"'Certainly,' replied the girl; 'and you shall see that I will not
-laugh. Oh, _papa, maman_, I shall have three days! _Mon Dieu!_ but it is
-a fine thing!' And, taking the seat offered, she suffered the silk to be
-placed across her wrists, and be blindfolded by the Baroness.
-
-"This having been done, Mr. D----, at a sign from Vatterale, took the
-end of the cord, and began slowly to unwind it.
-
-"'And now begin,' said the latter, speaking toward where the thing had
-disappeared. The command was heard. It came forth, touched the girl's
-hand, and instantly she was thrown into a profound trance, whence
-another touch revived her, but not to wakeful consciousness. Instead of
-this, she rose, threw down the silk, approached several musical
-instruments in succession, and played upon them most exquisitely. The
-thing touched her head, and she made love in the most tender terms to
-three gentlemen in succession, declaring to each in turn that he was her
-'eternal affinity,' and had been so from the foundation of the world.
-
-"Again it touched her; and, suddenly changing her manner, she declaimed
-in lofty strain. Now she was Charlotte Corday, then Maximillian the
-Incorruptible; again, she was the Maid of Orleans, and then a simple
-Indian maiden. Now she was Malibran, and sung divinely; anon, she was a
-strong-minded woman, and talked about the Divine creative work of
-woman;--about love--that man had made it special when it should be
-general, and, therefore, free. She raved about the Bible, called it
-excellent soft bark; called the Saviour the Nazarene; spoke of the Deity
-as the Great Positive Mind; declared she was His private secretary;
-prated about Starnos and 'Cor, Summer Lands, Gupturion, Mornia,
-divorces, and how to get them; progress and humbug, milky ways, and the
-people of Jupiter, with a hundred other follies, but which she, unlike
-her exemplars, for the time believed. The scene continued for at least
-two hours, at the end of which time Mai dismissed the thing, and
-restored the girl, who was totally oblivious of all that had occurred.
-She received sundry pieces of gold from those present, and left the
-room, doubtless desiring to unwind more silk at the same rate.
-
-"'I will now show you something equally curious,' said Mai, 'and,
-perhaps, quite as interesting as anything you have yet beheld. Look!'
-
-"We did so. Simultaneously, and from all parts of the room, there now
-arose, as from the floor, innumerable minute globules of various-colored
-fire--red, green, blue, purple, scarlet, gold, silver, crimson, white
-and violet--leaping, flashing, dancing and frisking about, as if endowed
-with sensuous, joyous gaiety. Apparently, there were thousands of them,
-all moving in disorder through the air, now lighting on the
-picture-frames suspended from the wall, now collecting in great masses
-in front of the splendid mirrors, and, anon, gliding along the floor,
-under our seats, through our feet, over the chairs, and about the
-carpet, as if in the very wantonness of sport, their every motion being
-accompanied by a hissing sound, in kind, though not in volume, like that
-emitted by an ascending rocket as it rushes through the air. Presently,
-they formed themselves into crowns, just such as I had seen years
-before, in that same Paris, float over and crown Napoleon at the behest
-of an Italian Count. In an instant I associated the two circumstances,
-and, turning to the magician, was about to speak, when, as if divining
-my purpose, he nodded to me, and said aloud--
-
-"'I told you we should meet again! Be patient--this night must pass.
-Accept the present I left for you at your hotel, and do not forget that
-we shall _meet again_!' and he became silent as before, while the
-company scarcely knew what to make of this abrupt, and apparently
-meaningless speech.
-
-"I had solved one problem. Vatterale and the Count were one and the same
-person; but who and what were the other two--Miakus and Ravalette?
-
-"The fiery crowns concluded the exhibition, and at a late hour the
-company separated, and each sought his pillow."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER VI.
-
-                       ARRIVAL OF THE EDITOR.
-
-
-"Too excited to sleep, I threw myself upon the sofa, and turned the
-strange series of events over in my mind. Two things were absolutely
-certain, nay, three--1st, That neither Ravalette, Vatterale, nor the
-Italian Count, were men as are other men; 2d, that not one of the
-company suspected this fact; and 3d, that myself was the object, sole
-and alone, of these extraordinary visitations. Above and beyond all
-these, it was plain that my destiny was rapidly approaching a crisis,
-and that the Stranger (mentioned in the legend), as well as Dhoula Bel,
-were still influencing me for purposes which I could not divine to their
-full extent. I had already become a Rosicrucian, had passed through five
-degrees, had visited the Orient, and was about to go again, had learned
-many dark and solemn mysteries, been instructed in several degrees of
-magic, knew all about the Elixir of life, the power of will, the art of
-reading others' destinies, of constructing and using magic mirrors, and
-how to discover mines of precious metal, and had deeply regretted that
-the terrible oath whereby the true Rosicrucian binds himself never to
-seek wealth for himself, and never to accept riches as the price of the
-exercise of his power, prevented me from availing myself of its
-advantages. I knew that on the altar of knowledge I had sacrificed all
-the deeper interests of my nature. I knew that my heart yearned for
-woman's love--that she held one portion of my soul captive at times, but
-never filled it--that there was a possibility of escaping what I
-dreaded, could I meet and mingle with a certain soul in whose body ran
-no drop of Adamic blood; and I almost resolved to abandon all hope,
-perform the part required of me by my tempters of Belleville, the
-Tuilleries, and Boston, when suddenly I remembered the paper that
-Ravalette had placed in my hand, as also the present left for me by
-Vatterale, but, resolving to omit all care concerning them till morning,
-at length I succeeded in falling into an uneasy slumber, from which I
-awoke late on the following morning to find that you, my dear friend
-[the Editor], had just arrived from Alexandria, and had called upon
-me."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER VII.
-
-                          THE GRAND SECRET?
-
-
-It now devolves upon the Editor of these pages to complete the narrative
-of Beverly, his friend.
-
-I had just reached Paris from Marseilles, where I had arrived a few days
-before, by way of Malta, from Alexandria. On reaching Paris it was my
-intention to rest but one night there, and then pursue my way _via_
-Rouen, in Normandy, to Diéppe and England, and thence home to America.
-Like all other travellers, I desired to spend a week in Paris, but
-business prevented, consequently I made preparations to leave the famous
-city on the day following my arrival; but I resigned myself to this
-necessity with all the more fortitude, for the reason that by so doing I
-should be able to retain the company of a very pleasant gentleman, whose
-society I had enjoyed continually from Cairo, where we first met, to
-Paris, and which I might, by making no stop in the latter place,
-continue to enjoy all the way home, as he intended to start just so soon
-as he rejoined his daughter, who, for about three years had been
-receiving her education in Paris, and whom he was about to conduct to
-his home--a newly-purchased one in New York.
-
-The history of Mr. Im Hokeis and his adventures, as related to me on
-our journey, are so well worth repeating that I shall give a short
-abstract, even at the risk of enlarging this chapter.
-
-"I was born," said he, "on the banks of the Caspian Sea, of the family
-of Hokeis--a sacred family, in whom was invested the highest order of
-Priesthood, and on whom devolved the care of the sacred fire, for we
-were Guebres, and the fire must never be extinguished, nor had it been,
-so say our records, for many thousand years, for Religion with us is
-quite a different thing from what it is among the men of Islam, India,
-Rome, or the West. We pride ourselves upon the purity of our faith, and
-its superiority to all that is professed by the children of Adam, quite
-as much as we do our Pedigree from _Ish_, the great founder of our race
-and a powerful pre-Adamite king and conqueror."
-
-I cannot now afford time to repeat the arguments by which Im Hokeis
-demonstrated the startling proposition that there _were_ other people
-living on earth besides those who claimed Adam as their founder. All
-this may be found elsewhere.[9] He said that he was destined from birth
-to be chief priest of the Faith, and had married a woman of his tribe
-and rank, at the early age of seventeen. Near the time he was about
-being ordained, war had broken out between the Guebres and their Persian
-tyrants. Himself and wife were captured, taken to Herat, and there
-condemned to lose their eyes, from which horrible fate they were
-rescued by a member of the British Embassy, with whom they remained for
-nearly three years, by which time they had mastered the English
-language. While in the service of the minister, Hokeis had the good
-fortune to save his life, in consequence of which a friendship sprung up
-between them so strong, that when the Embassy returned to Britain the
-two Guebres went with it. Arrived in London, Hokeis received an
-appointment as interpreter, and soon accumulated means, after which he
-entered into a direct trade with Persia, and although, during the nine
-years in which he was engaged therein, heaven had not sent him any
-children, yet it had blessed him with abounding wealth.
-
-[9] The argument proving the existence of the human race thousands of
-years anterior to the date of Adam, may be found in "Pre-Adamite Man."
-By Griffin Lee. New York. S. Tousey. 1863.
-
-At length, in the thirteenth year of their married life, their prayer
-was answered, and it became evident that God was about to send them a
-child. He did, and a beautiful girl was born, but the eyes of her mother
-were closed in death at the moment it first saw the light.
-
-One day the nurse, who was a relative of Hokeis' wife, was wheeling the
-child around the walks of Hampstead Heath, when they wandered within the
-precincts of a gipsy encampment, and the girl was persuaded to have her
-own and the child's fortune told. The complexion and features of the
-twain led to remarks on their nationality, and by skillful manoeuvering
-the gipsy woman ascertained that the couple before her were Guebres by
-birth, and had been by religion. The mummery over and the fee paid, the
-girl went home with her charge. They were followed, and on that very
-night, while the nurse slept, the child was stolen. Search was made for
-the gang of gipsies--the abduction having been clearly traced to them,
-by reason of a note left behind by the robber, stating that the child
-would be well cared for--but in vain, for on the very next day the whole
-gang, thirty in number, had sailed in a packet from the London Docks,
-for America.
-
-Many years rolled by, when one day, as the disconsolate father was
-walking in the garden of the same house whence the child was stolen, he
-was accosted by an old beldame, who asked him what he would pay in gold
-in return for information respecting his child. It is needless to
-narrate the successive steps taken. Suffice it that within twenty-four
-hours the father and the gipsy were on the ocean, going as fast as steam
-would carry them toward the Western World.... The child, now a regal
-woman, was found, and father and daughter lived with each other for a
-time in New York, where a fine property had been bought; for the old
-gentleman so liked the New World that he determined to settle there for
-life, after his daughter had been properly cultured in Europe, whither
-he soon took her, and then, after transmitting the bulk of his fortune
-to America, went on a final visit to his people in Persia, his friends
-and co-religionists in the East. I had met with him as already stated,
-when on his return from Egypt to France.
-
-This brings us to the night of my arrival in Paris. It being impossible
-to join his child that night, Hokeis and myself drove to a hotel in the
-Palaise Royale, and were at the satisfactory end of a supper, when a
-person who was totally unknown to either of us entered the _salle à
-manger_, and, making a profound obeisance to us both, said: "_Salute!_ I
-come to tell you, Im Hokeis, that you will not quit Paris to-morrow. But
-at the hour of four you will take your daughter to the house that is
-last but one on the left ascending the Boulevart de Luxembourg. You will
-ask me no questions, but will obey. My authority I thus give you," and
-he whispered three words in the ear of Hokeis, that caused the latter to
-start as if he had been shot. _He had received the secret countersign of
-the priests of fire!_ Then turning to me, he said, "You will go early in
-the morning to the Hotel Fleury. There you will find Beverly, your
-friend, join him; go where he goes, and quit him not for an instant for
-the next two days--_his salvation depends upon it!_ Now I go. Forget not
-the words of _the Stranger_."
-
-I was thunderstruck. Hokeis and I talked much that night before we
-slept. What we spoke of is easily to be conceived.
-
-This brings me to my next meeting with Beverly, whose fortunes we will
-now follow.
-
-It will be remembered that Ravalette had given him a paper just before
-they parted in Belleville, and that Vatterale had also left something
-for him at his hotel. Bearing this in mind, observe what followed.
-
-In a bold, strong hand was written these words in the note placed by
-Ravalette in the hands of Beverly when they parted in Belleville--"When
-you need me--when you are ready to become one of us--when you have given
-up all hope of ever probing the mystery of my existence and your
-own--then seek me in _the house that is last but one on the left
-ascending the Boulevart de Luxembourg_.--Ravalette."
-
-The identical direction, and almost in the very words given by the
-mysterious personage to Hokeis, in the hotel of the Palais Royale on the
-previous night. The circumstance made a great impression on my mind, but
-prudence forbade all mention of it to Beverly. He seemed quite glad of
-this opportunity of solving the strange riddle, and, to my great
-delight, begged and insisted that I should spend the day with him, and
-in the evening we would investigate the subject together; and that I
-readily consented, may be easily imagined. There were several motives
-prompting me in this affair--curiosity, friendship, and a vague hope of
-baffling what Beverly regarded as his doom. Those who have read
-carefully what has here been written, will remember that Beverly had
-convinced me that there was more in the strange legend, regarding the
-king, the princess, the riddle, the murder, and the curse and its
-fulfillment, than the majority of people would be willing to concede. In
-short, I was decidedly inclined to believe in Dhoula Bel and the other
-doomed one, but I had no faith whatever in either Miakus, Ravalette, the
-Italian Count, or Vatterale. I did not believe all these names belonged
-to one person, and I finally settled down on the following theory, point
-by point:--1st, That there was in existence a society, having its
-head-quarters in Paris, the members of which were practisers of Oriental
-magic and necromancy, in which they were most astonishingly expert. 2d,
-That the organization had for its object, not the attainment of wealth
-or political position, but abstract knowledge, and the absolute rule of
-the world through the action and influence of the brotherhood upon the
-crowned heads and officials of the world. 3d, That this association was
-governed by a master-mind, and that mind was Ravalette's. 4th, That this
-society had cultivated mesmerism to a degree unapproachable by all the
-world besides. That they had exhausted ordinary clairvoyance, and
-eagerly sought a brain which would admit of the most thorough
-magnetization, and whose natural tendency was toward the mystical,
-transcendental and weird, yet strong, strong-willed, logical, emulative,
-daring and ambitious; and that, to discover such, their agents had
-traversed all four continents of the globe; and that finally they had
-heard of Beverly, whose fame as a seer was world-wide; that they had
-found him, and, beyond doubt, had learned the strange particulars of his
-life, the legend, and his hope. They had seen him, and at once decided
-that, under their wonderful manipulation, he could be placed in a
-magnetic slumber many degrees more profound than is possible in one case
-in five millions, and reach a degree of mental lucidity and
-psycho-vision that would not only surpass all that the earth had yet
-witnessed in that direction, from Budha, Confucius, Zoroaster, and the
-Oracles of Greece, down to the days of Boehme and the Swede, since when
-there has been no clairvoyant really worthy of the name. True, there
-were semi-lucides in abundance, but these either were only capable of
-reading or noting material objects, and, at best, repeating the thoughts
-of other men, or giving the contents of books as original matter,
-heaven-derived--as the self-styled "great (_sic_) American seer" gave
-forth the contents of a volume written by Pierpont Greeves, mixed and
-muddled up with a few really sublime thoughts taken from the minds of
-his scribe, his mesmerizer, and the highly intellectual coterie who
-gathered round him during his séances. 5th, They knew that, unless
-Beverly's will accorded with their desire, it would be useless to
-attempt to gain their ends through him; and hence, all their efforts by
-playing the shining bait of magic for the purpose of inducing him to
-consent to anything in order to gain their power. Hence, too, their gift
-of the secrets of the Magic Mirror, the Elixir of Life, of Youth, of
-Love, and a score of others equally curious and invaluable to the
-student of the soul. 6th, It was clear that, while these men knew much
-of the Rosicrucian system, they were not in full harmony or accord with
-that brotherhood.
-
-Thus I reasoned, and it was easy to account for the scenes in the Boston
-office and at Beverly's home--the apparent immunity Miakus enjoyed from
-the effects of the fire, which burnt the chair but not his thigh, I
-accounted for on the ground that chemistry helped him, as it had a score
-of "fire-kings" beside.
-
-Thus far, I felt that my theory covered the whole ground of this clever
-fraternity; but when I recurred to the scenes witnessed by no less than
-eighteen people at the house of the Baron, I confess, candidly, that it
-utterly failed. Still, I totally rejected all supernaturalism as
-connected with the affair, and, attributing the whole to expert
-trickery, I determined to lay a trap to catch the performers in the very
-act, and flattered myself that it would be successful. "Ho! ho! Mr.
-Vatterale, I'll show you!" I exclaimed, as I shook Beverly's hand, and
-leaving him, to bathe, dress, and breakfast alone, I hurried out,
-ostensibly to go to the post-office, but, in reality, to visit the
-head-quarters of the Paris Police, which I did, and, when there, briefly
-but clearly stated my belief that a friend of mine was being victimized
-in the manner stated; to all of which the chief official lent an
-attentive ear, caused my _proces verbal_ to be recorded, directed me how
-to proceed so as not to alarm the suspected parties, and promised to
-have a _posse_ on hand very close to the house on the Boulevart de
-Luxembourg by the hour named. On my way back to the Hotel Fleury, I
-dropped in to see if Hokeis was home, but found only a note, informing
-me that he had gone to Versailles after his daughter. I rejoined
-Beverly.
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER VIII.
-
-                    THE BOULEVART DE LUXEMBOURG.
-
-
-Impatient as I was for the hour to arrive, in which all my doubts might
-be forever solved, yet Beverly was still more so. No condemned man ever
-wished more ardently for the moment when, by the halter or the glaive,
-the grand secret should be revealed to him, than did my friend for that
-in which he should know the best or the worst for him.
-
-Three o'clock found us within a stone's throw of the house designated as
-the rendezvous, and the three or four little shingles in front of it
-with "Appartements à louer," "Chambres garni," and "Cabinets meubles,"
-told at once that it was one of those middle-class establishments where
-a person might hire rooms and live undisturbed for a whole lifetime,
-provided the rent was duly paid.
-
-Into the square, paved court of this house we entered, and before the
-least inquiry was made, the _concierge_ came out of his crib, saluted us
-respectfully, and said: "You are two of the gentlemen expected here
-to-day by the occupant of the second floor. Please ascend. You will find
-him in the first room to the left," and the old fellow hobbled back to
-his nest, and instantly began pegging away at the heel of a shoe, which
-he was engaged in healing and heeling when we entered the court.
-
-Following his directions, we ascended a broad, winding stairway of
-stone, and found ourselves on a landing. From this landing one stairway
-ascended, and another led to the court below. At the further end, but on
-the side, was a door, and at the hither end another. The house itself
-stood quite isolated from all others, and the windows of the rooms, it
-was clear, must overlook the boulevart and a lane crossing it at right
-angles. We entered the first door, and found ourselves in a very
-plainly-furnished, large, square room, having two windows at the end,
-two more on the side, a cupboard, recess, and two large folding doors,
-both standing wide open, so that, finding no person in the first room,
-we passed through them into the second, but still failed to see or even
-hear the least indication that their occupant was anywhere around. I was
-glad of this, for it gave opportunity for an examination of the
-premises; therefore calling the _concierge_, I asked him the name,
-occupation, and period of occupancy of his second-floor tenant, to which
-he very readily responded, by saying that his tenant was a foreign
-scholar named Elarettav; that he was wealthy, had lived there five
-years, and saw very little company, never dined or eat in the house, and
-in short was a very fine man, indeed--he paid two louis a month for
-porter's fees! The _concierge_ left, and I carefully remarked the place,
-and found the floor and ceiling was of stone, as are all French houses.
-The cupboard was low, narrow, and filled with wine bottles and glasses,
-far more like a student's quarters than a grave philosopher's like
-Ravalette, if, indeed, that personage was the same described as
-Elarettav by the porter. The recess was small and simple, and contained
-nothing but a cot bedstead and its appropriate furniture. I concluded
-that there was no preparation for magic, if any was intended, and as
-this notion passed through my mind, the clock struck four, and we heard
-the footsteps of a man in the other room, notwithstanding the door was
-not seen to open. We went to that other room, and, "Ravalette, as I
-live!" exclaimed Beverly; and, sure enough, there stood, calmly smiling,
-just such an old gentleman as I had heard described.
-
-"You have sought, and you have found me! I hope you will profit by the
-finding," said he to Beverly; "and you, sir, have done well to accompany
-your friend," addressing me in a tone slightly insulting, and all the
-more so from being slight. It was evident that he did not relish my
-presence in the least, and as for me I had no sooner set eyes on my man
-than I felt assured of the truth of my theory, and that I stood in
-presence of one of the ablest intellects on earth--a man capable of all
-that had been attributed to him, and one who would reach his goal and
-carry his point at all hazards, even if in doing so it were necessary to
-sail through seas of human blood. I flatter myself on my ability to
-measure men and to circumvent deliberate villainy, and no sooner had I
-heard the tones of Ravalette's voice, and seen the clear-cut features of
-his face, than I at once suspected some sort of foul play was on the
-tapis, and which I determined to thwart, even if I had to give him the
-solid contents of a couple of Derringers and a Colt's revolver, which I
-had taken care to provide myself with before venturing into what might
-have been the den of unscrupulous wretches, for aught I knew to the
-contrary. It may be that Ravalette read my thoughts, for he certainly
-looked uneasy, but said nothing, for at that moment the _concierge_
-threw open the door and announced "_Monsieur Hokeis et fille_," and my
-travelling companion and his daughter--the most voluptuous and glorious
-looking woman that I had ever beheld in any land, not even excepting the
-glowing beauties of Beyrout or Stamboul--entered the room.
-
-Ravalette seemed to have been expecting them, and did not appear at all
-surprised at their uninvited presence; but the effect upon Hokeis and
-his daughter, the very moment they beheld his face, was perfectly
-electrical, yet totally dissimilar, for Hokeis instantly threw himself
-upon his knees before Ravalette, bent his head, and folded his hands in
-an attitude half supplicatory, half adoring, and said:
-
-"Oh, dread genius of the Fire and the Flame! do I see thee here? Alas! I
-am a wretched man, but thou art powerful and will forgive! My defection
-was not my choice, but that of accident, and in the religion of Isauvi
-have I found more peace than ever in thy temples of the temples of
-Astarte!"
-
-My brain fairly reeled beneath the tremendous rush of emotions,
-conflicting as a whirlwind, excited by this extraordinary scene; while,
-as for Beverly, his face was like an ashen cloth, his limbs were like an
-aspen.
-
-The next moment these emotions underwent an entire change, for the
-woman, who appeared not to have taken the least notice of her father's
-action or speech, went straight up to Ravalette, placed her jewelled
-hand upon his shoulder, looked him straight in the eye, as if she would
-wither and crush him at a glance, and in a voice low, but clear and
-deep, said: "And so, thou fiend, we meet again! Art going to essay more
-of thy tricks and magic spells? Art going to set more snares for the
-daughter of Im Hokeis? Wretch, thou art foiled again! What, tell me,
-what! thou fiend of Darkness, couldst thou gain by persecuting me now,
-as in my loneliness? What wouldst thou gain by seeing me wedded--to 'no
-matter whom'--as you said, so long as I was wedded? Why have you haunted
-me, asleep and awake, tempting, driving me toward a marriage? What hadst
-thou to gain? You do not answer. Well, I will answer for you:
-
-"Do you remember a day, long years ago, when I was a child, beyond the
-great salt sea, that you came to an old man's door and craved shelter
-for the night? Well, I do. You were received by the generous Indian. You
-shared his table, his pipe, and his cider. Then, as you sat by the fire,
-you noticed me, and must needs tell my fortune. You did so, and truly.
-You said that in one month from that day I should meet a sad-hearted
-youth, weary, weeping, miserable, lonely; that he would engage my heart,
-and that I would easily be led to love and wed him; but that _if_ I did
-so, black clouds would lower over us, and that our morn of love would
-bring a noon of dislike, an evening of sorrow, and a night of crime,
-ignominy and death. You said that my union with any other man would
-bring all that could render life desirable. I believed you, for a
-hundred things that you foretold came to pass. At length, three weeks of
-the month elapsed; and one night I had a dream, and in it I saw you, and
-the young man, whom in the body I had never yet beheld. In that dream
-you repeated all that you had said before, and then you disappeared; but
-your hateful presence had no sooner quit me than there came a glorious
-being, robed in majesty and beauty, who bade me heed you not, but to
-love this poor creature whose shadow was then before me--to love, but
-not confess it till the proper time should come;--that if I wedded
-another than him I might be happy, but that if I married him I would
-redeem a soul from a terrible fate. He bade me resist you, and to
-encourage the youth, cheer up his heart, and tell him not to despair,
-_for he might be happy yet_. He also"--but she had not time to say
-another word, for Beverly rushed forward, pushed Ravalette away, seized
-the woman's hand, kissed it, and exclaimed:
-
-"'Evlambéa!'
-
-"'Beverly!'"
-
-And in an instant they were locked in each other's arms.
-
-It was indeed the friend of long-gone years, and yet I had not even
-suspected this fact, even after hearing the story of Im Hokeis and the
-gipsy adventure.
-
-I felt that this drama was getting deeper every minute, but had not time
-to think of one half of what was occurring ere the door was opened by
-no less a personage than the Commissary of Police, followed by two of
-the _garde de ville_, while, through the open door, I saw that the
-stairs and landing were literally crowded with _gens d'arms_.
-
-The drama was getting very serious.
-
-Ravalette stood unmoved, and smiled, saying:
-
-"Your trouble is in vain, monsieur! You are not wanted here, and will
-immediately return whither you came, while monsieur here, who engaged
-you to come, is at liberty to remain."
-
-This cool speech disconcerted the official a little, but he replied: "It
-is my duty to protect all who demand it for themselves or others."
-
-"True; but in this case no act has been committed or designed that could
-in the least afford just ground for such a demand. Still, as you are
-here, why here you may remain until you are satisfied of the truth of my
-remarks. Pray be seated."
-
-The term "intensely dramatic" would not begin to give an adequate notion
-of the "situation" at this particular juncture of affairs. The only
-person who was completely at ease was Ravalette. As for Hokeis, the
-brush of Michael Angelo and Raphael combined could not have done justice
-to his portrait, nor have limned one-hundredth part of the intense and
-overwhelming astonishment and horror depicted on his countenance at what
-he beheld and heard. No two persons looked at the affair in the same
-light, nor regarded the Enigma from the same point of view, neither did
-they comprehend each other, but all were comprehended by the great
-master before them.
-
-For a while an unpleasant silence reigned, which was at length, much to
-my surprise, broken by my Rosicrucian friend, Beverly, who, looking
-Ravalette straight in the eye, said:
-
-"Whoever you are, I forgive you for the attempt to prevent myself, a son
-of Adam, wedding with this woman, Evlambéa, the Bright-shining Daughter
-of Ish; I forgive you for persecuting her toward a marriage with
-another, which marriage must have doomed me to a fate I have for
-centuries shrunk from; I forgive you all the woe you have caused me,
-because gratitude for what you have done for me exacts this; and because
-I suspect your agent saved my life when the retort burst in Boston, when
-I was repeating La Brière's experiment with phosphorus. Through you, or
-such as you, I have learned priceless secrets. The mystery of Magic
-Mirrors I am grateful for being taught. The secret of ages--the art of
-making the Elixir of Life, whereof whosoever shall drink shall never
-know decay, but so long as once a year he shall quaff thereof, may enjoy
-perpetual youth--I am inexpressibly thankful for. I shall never use this
-secret for that purpose, but five of the seven ingredients, when
-mingled, constitute what chemistry has sought in vain; and bequeathing
-this portion of the formulæ to my friend, and through him to the medical
-world, I shall atone for my few faults by giving life to thousands.
-
-"Freely, without force or compulsion, I solemnly promise to sleep the
-sleep of Sialam before I quit this house, and in it will truly answer
-you all I may be able to, on condition that you previously clear up the
-mystery surrounding yourself; thus voluntarily giving you what an age of
-fraud would not enable you to obtain, you first solemnly promising, by
-Him by whose will you exist, be you man or demon, not to influence me,
-either now or when I shall slumber."
-
-A gleam of sudden joy flashed from the eyes of the strange being before
-us. He looked like a bridegroom in the fullness of his joy, and clasping
-both hands--pale, thin, bluish-white hands--upon his breast, he looked
-up and said:
-
-"So be it! I solemnly bind myself, by the most terrible oath
-conceivable, that I accept all your conditions."
-
-Then going to the recess mentioned before, he brought thence a
-semi-circular screen, a little taller than a man, and about four feet in
-diameter. This he requested the Commissary of Police to examine, who did
-so, and declared it to be nothing but a common bedside screen.
-
-"You are right! it _is_ nothing but a bedside screen. Such as it is,
-however, I request you to select for it any spot you choose upon the
-stone floor of either of these rooms. I shall want to go behind it; and
-that you may not harbor a thought of an intended evasion on my part, I
-request that you call your men into the room and give them orders to
-_shoot me_ if I attempt to pass them!"
-
-"Just as you please, monsieur! Pierre, call the guard."
-
-In obedience to this summons, the _corps de garde_ filed into the room,
-twenty-seven strong, and as soon as the last man entered, the officer
-addressed them, saying, as he pointed to Ravalette, "This gentleman
-thinks to escape. See to it that he does not pass you alive. The very
-instant that he appears unattended by myself, fire upon him. I so
-command you: see that my orders are executed. Does that suit you,
-Monsieur Ravalette?"
-
-"Perfectly--perfectly! nothing could be better," said the latter.
-
-"You will place fourteen men around the house to watch the windows, and
-the other thirteen you will distribute on the stairs and landing," said
-the commissary.
-
-"It shall be done," said the sergeant, as he marched his men from the
-chamber--but not till I had placed a double-barrelled Deringer and a
-Colt's revolver, both freshly capped and loaded, in his hands--for I
-hated Ravalette; man or demon, I hated him religiously--that being the
-strongest kind of dislike--and I had an intense desire to ascertain
-whether he was bullet-proof or not.
-
-During all this time, the father, daughter, lover, myself, and the
-commissary's two comrades had said nothing, but at a sign from Ravalette
-we took our seats in such a position that we commanded the hall-door,
-that between the two rooms, the recess, the cupboard, and the windows on
-either side. The commissary placed the convex side of the screen toward
-us, in the middle of the room, and then taking a seat by my side, said,
-that so far as he was concerned, all was ready, and from the pallor of
-his lips, the tone in which he spoke, and from the frequency with which
-he crossed himself and muttered an orison, compounded of bad French and
-worse Latin, it was clear that he wished his hands well washed of the
-whole affair.
-
-"I, too, am ready," observed the wizard, "and I, who have nothing to
-conceal, declare that I am he whom yonder man--Im Hokeis, and his
-Guebre-tribe, have for centuries believed to be the God of Fire and of
-Flame. The mystery of my being cannot yet be solved. I am not alone! The
-mastery, over Matter and over Magic, is an inheritance of the ages. We
-who were once as others are, became doomed ones by reason of the curse
-of a dying man, and like Isaac Ahasuerus, the Hebrew of Jerusalem, who
-cursed and spat upon the Man of Sorrows when bearing his gibbet up the
-steep lane of the Dolorous Way, and whom the Meek one cursed, and bade
-tarry on earth till he came--even so is he not alone. Powerful in all
-else, not one of us can read his own future; but for that must depend on
-gifted ones like yonder Beverly. Such are seldom born; but when they
-are, there is only one opportunity to make them subservient to our
-aid--they must be unwedded in soul, else they cannot enter the sleep of
-Sialam, and in no other way can the scroll of Fate be read for us. Hence
-the obstacles thrown in his path and in that of yonder girl.... It is
-possible to shift our fate upon the neutral, whoever he may be; but in
-this case a strong motive existed to saddle the centuries upon yonder
-man, who has, in various forms, been my contemporary since ages previous
-to the laying of the foundations of Babylon and Nineveh.
-
-"There is one more in being--by him I have been foiled--the
-Stranger--and still another--the mother of this Beverly's body. I hoped
-to win him by Magic; I have failed. He has seen me thus, as I am,"--and
-so saying, Ravalette slowly moved around the screen, continuing to speak
-all the while, until he reappeared on the other corner--and saying, "and
-thus." We were astonished beyond measure at the change that had, in less
-than twelve seconds, taken place.
-
-Ravalette no longer stood before us, but instead, we saw a thin, lean,
-little, wrinkled old man, the perfect opposite in everything of the
-person we had just conversed with. "Miakus! as I live--the man of
-Portland and of Boston--the same!" exclaimed Beverly, as the figure
-passed once more from view behind the screen, and almost instantly
-reappeared in a totally dissimilar guise. "And thus!" said the wizard.
-"My heaven!" said Beverly, "it is Ettelavar, my mysterious guide and
-teacher in the kingdom of Trance and Dream!"
-
-Again this strange being passed around the screen, saying, "and thus,"
-as he reappeared successively as the Italian Count and Vatterale. The
-wizard said, when in the last form, "Mai is but a transposition of I am;
-'Miakus' is 'Myself,' Vatterale is an anagram of Ravalette, and a
-school-boy would have told you that Ettelavar is but Ravalette
-reversed--the name meaning 'The Mysterious.' To you, Beverly, I have
-been all these. Behold me now as I really am," and he passed around the
-screen, and reappeared again as a little, withered old man, clothed in
-flaming red from head to heel.
-
-"The Vampire, Dhoula Bel!" shrieked both Beverly and Im Hokeis in the
-same breath.
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-What passed during the next half hour, it would not be proper for me
-here to relate. Suffice it, that at the end of that time Beverly had
-fallen asleep, apparently of his own free will. What followed will be
-seen in the next, and concluding chapter of this work.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER IX.
-
-                        THE SLEEP OF SIALAM.
-
-
-Deep was the silence, hushed were our breaths. Quick beat our hearts,
-tearful were our eyes, for a greater than even Death was in that room on
-the Boulevart de Luxembourg!
-
-Seated in a large office-chair, his limbs stiff and cold with the damps
-of dissolution; his face paler than the Genius of Consumption; his heart
-and pulses totally moveless; his eyes wide open, and so upturned that
-not a speck of aught but the uncolored portions thereof were visible,
-was my friend. In previous years I had often seen him and hundreds of
-others in both the mesmeric and odyllic trance--the latter being the
-very common semi-comatic state into which sensitive persons often pass
-by the merest effort of volition, and in which they give off such
-high-sounding platitudes and call them philosophy transmitted direct
-from spirit-land to erring mortals, when the fact is, that the whole
-phenomena--when not simulated, which is not the case in over nine
-hundred and ninety cases in each thousand of its display--is but the
-concurrent action of a diseased body and an abnormal, unhealthy mind,
-and in many cases morals also, for it makes no matter how good or
-well-intentioned the subjects may be in the start, they are sure to
-yield before the accursed blast, and only the fires of hell itself can
-stop their mad career and turn them back to normal paths.
-
-Not such a trance was that we now were witnessing. In the course of five
-minutes there came a change in the sleeper's face, which became lighted
-up as if at that moment his soul beheld the ineffable glories of the
-great Beyond.
-
-He spoke: "Now!"
-
-As this one word escaped his lips, the door of the room was silently
-opened, and two men entered and were about taking seats, when the
-Commissary of Police suddenly rose, made a low obeisance, saluted one of
-them in military style, and exclaimed, "The Emp----"
-
-"Silence!" said the person addressed; "all are strangers here!" And then
-turning to Dhoula Bel, with whom he appeared quite familiar, this person
-said to him, "At last?"
-
-"At last!" echoed the latter; whereupon the two new comers helped
-themselves to seats.
-
-The whole affair had gone thus far so directly opposite to all my
-calculations; events had taken such sudden and totally unexpected turns,
-that I ceased to marvel at this new game of cross-purposes, but
-determined to watch the results carefully, whatever they might be. Of
-course I expected that the new comer would now take the lead of affairs.
-But no; for Dhoula Bel, as I shall henceforth call him, addressed the
-shorter of the two intruders as follows:
-
-"Why do you, too, seek to thwart me? Many years ago I found you a
-student of magic in your lonely prison, whither you had been consigned
-because you had failed on two occasions. I rescued you, gave you
-liberty, influence, power, prestige, and seated you firmly on the
-proudest throne on earth; I have made you famed and feared; I have
-humbled Britain in your name; for you I have broken the power of
-ages--the Papacy; for you I have severed Austria, and built a new empire
-on the earth. For you I have fomented the most awful war the world has
-ever seen, and have divided a nation of brothers into two parties, each
-thirsting for the other's blood; and while you have been the silent
-automaton, I have prompted your speech and moved the wires that govern
-the world, asking nothing whatever in return, and yet you are here to
-thwart me who have ever been your friend. Why is this?"
-
-"I admit--nothing. I am a man of Destiny!"
-
-"Shall I reveal it?"
-
-"I care not."
-
-"Well, I forbear; but let this sleeper tell it."
-
-"I am content. Interrogate him. This is the hour, and this the scene for
-which I long have waited. Let the oracle speak."
-
-"Listen to me," said the taller of the two intruders. "Ye have both been
-proxies of a power beyond us all; and even as I, the Stranger, have
-foiled each of ye, yet my action was decreed. The drama of ages may end
-to-day. Not one of us can read his own future; there is but one on earth
-who can read it, and there is but one hour in which it may be done. That
-person is here; that hour has come. Not with the magnetic afflatus of
-puling, babbling somnambules; not with the boastful confidence of
-self-styled explorers of mythical Summer Lands, or imaginary spheres;
-but with a vision, simple, pure and accurate, shall yonder sleeper sweep
-the horizon of the future, and reveal it. Therefore let there be
-quietude and peace, while the mystic scroll is being read."
-
-Then turning to the slumberer, he said: "What seest thou, O Soul? Look!
-investigate! reveal! What seest thou concerning France and her ruler?"
-
-"France will experience another Revolution. It will begin in Water and
-end in Blood and Fire! but the end will be delayed. Crown, Sceptre,
-Dynasty--all are swept away before the resistless tide of Political
-Reformation, and the last noble and priest shares the fate of the last
-crowned head--exile and death."
-
-"What of the other Nationalities?"
-
-"Prussia, under a new _régime_, becomes indeed a Fatherland to her
-people; Belgium, Holland, and other of the Germanic lands, become
-consolidated with empires now existing; Spain's night draws near--her
-colonies, erected into Black Republics, leave her to sink in loneliness,
-until at last she becomes, with Rome, an integral part of the great
-Italian Empire; Austria becomes dismembered; Hungary and Poland coalesce
-and form a new power on the earth; Turkey passes into Greek hands; Syria
-into Russian; England loses Canada, India, Oregon and Ireland, which
-latter becomes a Republic; the United States, rejoined, absorbs Canada,
-Mexico and all British America--her Black races found an empire which
-will extend from her southern borders to Brazil, under the rule of a
-series of Presidents; China, Christianized by the Taepings, becomes a
-first-class power in the East, blotting out Japan and a score of lesser
-kingdoms; while India and Australia become respectively an Empire and a
-Republic; and all this within sixty-three years from the seventh decade
-of the century!"
-
-"What of Religious changes? Speak! Let us know!"
-
-"All Religious systems in the world, outside of the Christian, will
-gravitate toward, and finally be wholly absorbed by it; and while this
-is taking place, there will be a quiet revolution occurring in that
-system itself; Catholicism, modified and divested of certain
-objectionable features, will become the right wing and conservative
-portion of the Religion of the entire world, while the radical portion
-of that Church, and of all other churches, will secede, rear the
-standard of Free Thought, proclaim the Religion of Reason, espouse the
-Reformatory men and principles of the age, declare itself a Positive,
-Eclectic, and Progressive Faith, abjuring the doctrines of Original Sin,
-the Adamic, Mosaic, Hebraic Atonement theories, and everything
-affirmative of Miracle, Final Judgment, and a Hell. This party will be
-in a minority, and the left wing of the grand Religious system of the
-world; it will constantly receive accessions of recruits from the other
-and barbaric element of society; but so rapid will be the human march,
-that the right flank of the grand army will constantly crowd the left
-and occupy its ground, while the latter will as constantly move on
-toward new fields, as new ideas are developed and seen."
-
-"Now, Prophet, what of thyself?"
-
-"Speedy death, relief from sorrow, a lot with other men, and comparative
-happiness--on the other side of time."
-
-"What of the Rosicrucian System?"
-
-"I have already sketched it under the name of the left wing. But ere
-long there will arise a great man--a German--a Prussian, who will
-declare that system to the world, and who will be _the_ Man of the 19th
-century; and yet his astonishing power and influence will not be felt
-until he shall be dead and the twentieth century shall reach its third
-decade. That man lives to-day--in obscurity--totally unknown; he is in
-America, but will arise to his work in Europe, and will be to the
-intellectual and philosophical world, what Budha was to India, Plato to
-Greece, Thothmes III. to Egypt, Moses to Jewry, Mahomet to Arabia,
-Luther to Europe, and Columbus to the New World. THIS GERMAN IS THE
-COMING MAN! He will first be heard of in New York city, in connection
-with a small, but powerful journal that will soon see the light, and
-begin its work in that great Metropolis. Supposing the whole field of
-possible human progress and achievement to be embraced within the circle
-of twenty-six, then this man's field embraces the figures 3, 8, 1, 18,
-12, 5, 19; 20, 18, 9, 14, 9, 21, 19,--and his motto will be TRY! The
-figures are easily solvable. This man will be simple, earnest and
-unostentatious, but firm, steadfast and uncompromising. His resources
-will be millions, and he will command all the gold he needs for the
-great work to be accomplished. He will boldly announce the grand
-Doctrines of the THIRD AND CULMINATING Temple of the Rosie Cross; and
-his followers will be as the sands of the sea in number, and their
-principles will, in time, be as resistless as its waves. He will begin
-his work personally, and by agency _before_ this great Rebellion in
-behalf of Human Slavery shall have been ended. Mark that!"
-
-As the sleeping man gave utterance to these inspired prophesies, the
-less tall of the two strangers appeared disturbed, and almost rising to
-his feet with excitement, he said:
-
-"Then this man's career will resemble my own?"
-
-"As fire resembles ice. This man's career will be peaceful; his path
-will not be stained by one single drop of blood. No maimed men will
-curse, no widows weep, no orphans cry for vengeance, nor will the
-ignorance of the people constitute the lever of his power, nor be the
-instrument by means of which he will vault into a throne!"
-
-"But I am strong!--Mexico!--Empire!--The Latin race!--The
-Church!--Maximilian! What can break this chain, supposing I establish
-the last link, as I intend to?"
-
-"Fate! The United States will, in that case, soon find time to breathe
-upon France and the New Empire! That breath will settle as a cloud, but,
-when it rises, _two_ dynasties will have disappeared _forever_!"
-
-"Damnation!" exclaimed the questioner, and he stamped his feet and
-ground his teeth with rage almost demoniac.
-
-"There will be _two_ damned nations, if that programme is carried out,"
-said the sleeping man, in tones musical and calm, as if he was
-discussing the merits of a play rather than prophesying the fate and
-destinies of Empires.
-
-For a moment there was silence. At length Ravalette spoke--
-
-"And now my turn. What, O sleeper! what of me?"
-
-The seer smiled blandly, stretched forth his hands toward both the tall
-personage and the Enigma. They went forward, grasped the sleeper's hands
-in their own, and--
-
-"The Enmity of Ages is ended!"
-
-"It is ended!" repeated the tall one.
-
-"It is finished! Thy work is done--and mine--and thine"--indicating
-Ravalette--said the seer. "Henceforward, there is rest for the
-weary--there is rest for thee! No longer doomed to walk the earth, we
-three quit it. Our paths diverge from this moment. Above our heads is a
-scroll, on which is written--
-
-    'YE MAY BE HAPPY YET!'"
-
-"Thank Heaven!" said Dhoula Bel.
-
-"Thank Heaven!" repeated the Stranger.
-
-"It is finished!" said Beverly, and, as he spoke, Dhoula Bel moved
-behind the screen, and, the very instant that he did so, there came the
-sharp crack of fire-arms in the hall and on the stairs, accompanied with
-any amount of oaths uttered in not very choice French.
-
-Immediately, running to the door along with the Commissary of Police
-and one of his comrades, I demanded to know the cause of the
-disturbance.
-
-"By the Holy Evangelists! I fired straight into his head, and it didn't
-faze him an inch!" said the sergeant.
-
-"And I struck him square in the middle of the head, and _that_ didn't
-harm him in the least!" said another.
-
-"And I put two Derringer bullets and four Colt's fair into his breast,
-at ten inches, and blast me if all six didn't fly back and hit me!"
-exclaimed a third.
-
-"And I'll swear that he didn't come through the open door, for it was
-fast shut, with my hand on the knob, every second of the time!" said the
-fourth.
-
-"It was the devil!" said a fifth.
-
-"Or his imp!" said the sixth.
-
-"And I'll swear he never passed by me on the lower stair!" observed the
-seventh man.
-
-"Come hither into the room and tell us what you are driving at," said
-the Commissary.
-
-"I'm driving at nothing just now," said the sergeant, as he came in "but
-I have been trying to drive some bullets through the devil! Do you
-remember telling me not to let a certain person go out, even if I had to
-shoot him to prevent it?"
-
-"Certainly I do. Go on."
-
-"Well, the first thing I knew, that gentleman stood outside the door,
-and said, as he made faces and ran out his tongue at me, 'I'm going out
-in spite of you, monsieur.' '_Are_ you, indeed?' 'Of course I am: just
-see me do it,' said he, and he marched straight for the stairs, and
-four of us undertook to clinch him, and did so. Gentlemen, have you ever
-picked up a hot potatoe? Well, I have, and did not let it drop quicker
-than we four let go of that individual; only that instead of burning us,
-it felt for all the world like one feels at the Polytechnic when he
-takes hold of those infernal things with wires to them, and which
-discharge a quart or two of lightning into you before you can say Jack
-Robinson! We let go of the gentleman very quickly, and he passed two or
-three steps downward, all the while laughing at us, which made me
-furious, and I fired point-blank at him, and we all attempted to cut him
-down, but you might just as well have tried to kill a shadow. Messieurs,
-that man disappeared in the smoke of our pistols! He never _passed out
-in visible_ form!"
-
-During the sergeant's relation I had determined to see if Dhoula Bel had
-really left the room, and for that purpose I carelessly walked toward
-the window and past the screen. _There was nobody_ whatever behind or
-near it. I walked back, said nothing, but resumed the seat I had
-formerly occupied.
-
-"Are you sure of what you tell us; that you are wide awake, and not
-dreaming?" said the Commissary.
-
-"As certain as I am that he is not now in this room."
-
-"Which shows how easily people may be deceived," said a voice from
-behind the screen, and instantly thereafter Dhoula Bel himself walked
-out into the middle of the floor--stone floor it was--and after pointing
-his finger scornfully at the sergeant and his men, he deliberately
-walked back behind the screen again.
-
-My hair stood up with fright and horror; not so the seven brave
-Frenchmen; for with one accord they rushed toward the screen,
-exclaiming: "But we have you now, man or devil!" dashed it away with a
-single blow, and--
-
-_There was no one whatever behind it._
-
-The sergeant fell as if he had been shot.
-
-Determined to preserve myself from surprise, I steadily kept my seat and
-watched the Stranger and his companion. The latter rose from his chair,
-advanced toward Hokeis and his daughter, who had both sat silent and
-spell-bound during the whole of this extraordinary scene of diablerie,
-and spoke a few words in a low tone to them.
-
-While this was going on, the tall Stranger passed into the other room,
-and within a period of twelve seconds I rose and followed, but he too
-had disappeared!
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-There was a marriage in Paris next day. A son of Adam had wedded with a
-daughter of Ish.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Two weeks later we carried an invalid to the baths of Switzerland. We
-remained there two months, then, finding that he grew worse, conveyed
-him back to Paris.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Three months elapsed. A funeral cortége wound up the paths of Père le
-Chaise. A coffin was lowered into a new-made grave. Upon its brink stood
-an old grey-haired man upholding and consoling a beautiful but
-sorrow-hearted woman--one who had but recently been a bride.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Four months passed: I was on the eve of quitting France. I went to the
-cemetery, and for an hour sat by a tombstone, on which was sculptured
-these words--
-
-                     "BEVERLY, THE ROSICRUCIAN.
-
-                    "_Je renais de Mes Cendres!_"
-
-That was all!
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Across the sea, I tread my native soil again. I have availed myself of
-the knowledge imparted by my friend.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Last night, in returning from the Rosicrucian lodge to which I have the
-honor to belong, I called upon a lady friend in the ----th Avenue. In
-her arms she held a bright and glowing child--"a boy," said she. "Is he
-not beautiful? Is he not like his father?"
-
-"Wonderfully like," I replied. "What is its name?"
-
-"Osiris Budh! Curious name, isn't it?"
-
-"Very!" I replied, as I took my leave--"very!"
-
-
-                          CONSUMMATUM EST.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes
-
-
-Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
-except in obvious cases of typographical error (see list below).
-
- Page ii: added missing period after B
-    P. B. Randolph
-
- Page 7: added missing " at begin of poem
-    "In the most high and palmy days of Rome,
-
- Page 10: changed : to ;
-    The good prevailed;
-
- Page 12: changed analagous to analogous
-    but something analogous to that
-
- Page 29: added period in heading
-    CHAPTER III.
-
- Page 30: changed : to ;
-    first lines speedily wear away;
-
- Page 36: changed : to ;
-    shameless harlots of the other;
-
- Page 39: changed 2 occurrences of : to ;
-    but do me good; that his name was Ettelavar;
-
- Page 59: changed unpronouncable to unpronounceable
-    with an unpronounceable name
-
- Page 61: changed acompanying to accompanying
-    on the harp and piano, accompanying the performances vocally
-
- Page 62: Added ' at end of paragraph
-    if you but say the word!'
-
- Page 90: changed by to my
-    my back nearly touching it.
-
- Page 92: changed towards to toward
-    turning toward the man
-
- Page 93: changed soundrel to scoundrel
-    of as great a scoundrel as ever went loose upon the world.
-
- Page 108: added period at end of sentence
-    to tell the danger I and the house had been in.
-
- Page 111: changed weired to weird
-    when the weird old man whispered in my ear that I
-
- Page 114: changed distahce to distance
-    you perceive, of a dark brown color, but at a distance,
-
- Page 115: changed " to '
-    Now that glass disk before you contains such a liquid, thus
-    compounded--'
-
- Page 141: completed quote with !'
-    in an almost indistinguishable tone, the words, 'It shall be!'
-
- Page 147: added period at end of sentence
-    for the entire jewel was not larger than a golden dollar.
-
- Page 160: added ' at end of paragraph
-    just as I fixed it an hour or two after Ravalette paid me.'
-
- Page 164: completed unclear end of line
-    left the street of Michel le Compte, and turned up that of the
-    Temple.
-
- Page 165: removed '
-    assist in piling up the horripilant.
-
- Page 174: changed gardiner to gardener
-    I put the same question to the proprietor that I had to the gardener
-
- Page 174: changed . to ,
-    Not yet content, I made inquiries
-
- Page 181: changed " to '
-    Now, my dear, was all this hum-bug?'
-
- Page 203: changed griping to gripping
-    fastens upon its victim, is merciless, gripping, stern and
-    unrelenting.
-
- Page 212: added ' at end of paragraph
-    quite as interesting as anything you have yet beheld. Look!'
-
- Page 230: added " at and of paragraph
-    "'Beverly!'"
-
- Page 249: changed . to ,
-    Across the sea, I tread my native soil again.
-
-On page 44 the list of words in the footnote of the heading of Chapter 5
-included a Greek word. This has been removed as the transliteration,
-Eulampía, is still in the list.
-
-
-
-
-
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-Paschal Beverly Randolph
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+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42442 ***</div>
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wonderful Story of Ravalette, by
-Paschal Beverly Randolph
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: The Wonderful Story of Ravalette
-
-Author: Paschal Beverly Randolph
-
-Release Date: March 31, 2013 [EBook #42442]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WONDERFUL STORY OF RAVALETTE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Norbert Mueller, Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier
-and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-produced by the Wright American Fiction Project.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-                                  THE
-                               WONDERFUL
-                          STORY OF RAVALETTE.
-                                 ALSO,
-                        TOM CLARK AND HIS WIFE,
-  THEIR DOUBLE DREAMS AND THE CURIOUS THINGS THAT BEFELL THEM THEREIN;
-                                  OR,
-                        THE ROSICRUCIAN'S STORY.
-
-                         BY DR. P. B. RANDOLPH,
-                        "THE DUMAS OF AMERICA,"
- AUTHOR OF "WAA, GU-MAH," "PRE-ADAMITE MAN," "DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD,"
-     "IT ISN'T ALL RIGHT," "THE UNVEILING OF SPIRITISM," "THE GRAND
-              SECRET," "HUMAN LOVE--A PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE,"
-                            ETC., ETC., ETC.
-
-
-  "The fictions of genius are often the vehicles of the sublimest
-  verities, and its flashes often open new regions of thought, and throw
-  new light on the mysteries of our being."--
-
-                                                  CHANNING.
-
-
-                               NEW YORK:
-                  SINCLAIR TOUSEY, 121 NASSAU STREET.
-                                 1863.
-
-
-
-
-       ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
-                             P. B. RANDOLPH,
-
-
-In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for
-                   the Southern District of New York.
-
-
-
-
-                             INTRODUCTORY.
-
-
-In giving what follows to the world, no one can be more alive to the
-fact that this is the latter half of the nineteenth century, and that
-the present is emphatically the era of the grandest Utilitarianism,
-Revolution, Matter of Fact, and Doubt that the world ever knew, than is
-the editor of the following extraordinary tale. He has no apologies to
-make for offering it--no excuses, even as a novelist, for departing from
-the beaten track of "War, Love, Murder, and Revenge," "Politics,
-Passion, and Prussic acid," which constitute the staple of the modern
-novel.
-
-Disliking all long exordia, we propose to enter at once upon the work
-before us, by inquiring: Is there such a thing as real magic--not the
-ordinary, chemical, ambidextral jugglery, that passes current among the
-vulgar as magic--but the real old mysterious thing, whereof we read in
-old black-letter tomes?
-
-Utterly repudiating the pretensions of modern charlatans, and
-conscienceless impostors, who deal in "spirit photographs," and utter
-misty phrases about "Life in the Spheres," "Gloria," and "Jubilo,"
-together with schemes to reform the world--namely, by means of Indiana
-divorces, improved "Lieceums," "Air-lying dispatches," via _Caput
-Assinorum_, and much other.
-
-   "Canting, radical jabber and jaw,
-    'Bout Mornia and Hornia, and Starnos and 'Cor,
-    Hocus and pocus, and nong-tong-paw;
-    All stupid crams, not worth a straw."
-
-Not because there are no spirits, for one case in a million of reported
-spectral phenomena, may be true, but _all_ are totally unreliable--that
-is, they lie--and the person who places the least confidence in them in
-one thousand instances, is sure to be deceived nine hundred and
-ninety-nine times, and only reach approximate truth and fact in the
-thousandth.
-
-Spiritualism is yet the great _non sequitur_ of the age, so far as the
-vast majority of mankind is concerned--for while one portion of its
-phenomena may be really spiritual, the remaining nine hundred and
-ninety-nine portions are referable to something else than human ghosts.
-Spiritualism has done no good whatever, save in that it has called
-attention to new directions, thereby stimulating the spirit of inquiry;
-but in itself it is yet far from being among the certainties.
-
-I here disavow all intention to deride true spirit phenomena, if such
-there be; nor do I question the transmundane life of man--for the belief
-in immortality is a part of my very being--but, while ignoring the
-claims, and deriding the absurd pretensions of the vast majority of
-modern Eolists and self-styled mediums, I repeat the question: Is there
-any positive means or ways whereby even a favored few can penetrate the
-mysterious veil that hangs like an iron pall between the great human
-multitude and the infinitely greater BEYOND? Is it possible to break
-through the awful barrier--to glimpse through the Night-Curtain that
-screens and shrouds us from the Phantom-World?--if such there be.
-
-    "Deep the gulph that hides the dead--
-     Long and dark the way they tread."
-
-Can we know it? Can we by any possibility scan its secrets? Nor are we
-alone in propounding questions such as these; for every intelligent
-person, at some period or other, puts them to himself and neighbor, but,
-in the majority of cases, vainly. The writer hereof, like the great mass
-of people, has often propounded these queries, the result being a
-confirmed and indurated scepticism--which scepticism was, almost
-ruthlessly, swept away by the extraordinary series of events about to be
-recorded in these pages.
-
-
-
-
-                   THE WONDERFUL STORY OF RAVALETTE.
-
-                                BOOK I.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER I.
-
-                           THE STRANGE MAN.
-
-          "In the most high and palmy days of Rome,
-           A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
-           The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
-           Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."
-
-
-And he sat him down wearily by the side of the road. Wearily, for he had
-journeyed far that day. He was footsore, and his bodily powers were
-nearly exhausted by reason of the want and privation he had undergone.
-His looks were haggard, and a _pathetic_ pall, gloomy and tearful, hung
-and floated around him, invisible to, but sensibly felt by, all who
-lingered near, or gazed upon him. A sorrowful man was he.
-
-And as he sat there by the roadside, he leaned his head upon the staff
-which he held in his hand; and as he bowed him down, the great salt
-tears gushed from between his fingers, and watered the ground at his
-feet. In other days the cypress, plant of sorrow, sprung up there, and
-throve in sad and mournful beauty, as if to mark and guard the spot
-whereon the strong man had lifted up his voice and wept aloud--once upon
-a time.
-
-This was many years ago; and this was the occasion on which I became
-acquainted with the personage who figures so remarkably in this
-volume.[1] At that time the writer practically accepted, but mentally
-disbelieved, all the religious and psychologic faiths of Christendom;
-and, had any man even hinted at certain mysterious possibilities that
-have since then been verified and demonstrated, I should most certainly
-have laughed in his face, and have reckoned him up as a first-class fool
-or idiot. Things have changed since then.
-
-[1] The same personage is the principal character in the romance of
-"Dhoula Bel, or the Magic Globe," which will ere long be published.
-
-He was a man of middle height, was neither stout nor slender, but, when
-in full flesh, was a happy medium between the two. His head and brain
-were large, and, from certain peculiarities of form, really much more
-massive than they appeared. The skull was long and narrow at the base,
-especially about the ears; but above that line the brain was deep, broad
-and high, indicating great powers of _endurance_, with but moderate
-physical force, it being clearly apparent that the mental structure
-sustained itself to a great degree at the expense of the muscles, his
-nervous system, as in all such organizations, being morbidly acute and
-sensitive. There was, naturally or organically, nothing about him
-either coarse, brutal, low or vulgar, and if, in the race of life, he
-exhibited any of those bad qualities, it was attributable to the rough
-circumstances attendant upon him, and the treatment he received from the
-world. By nature he was open, frank, benevolent and generous to a fault,
-and of these traits men availed themselves to his sorrow. With abundant
-capacity to successfully grapple with the most profound and abstruse
-questions of philosophy or metaphysics, yet this man was totally
-incompetent to conduct matters of the least business, requiring even a
-very moderate financial ability. Such are nature's contradictions, such
-her law of compensation.
-
-As a consequence, this man, with abilities universally conceded to be
-good, was the ready victim of the first plausible knave that came along,
-from the "friend" who borrowed half his cash, and undertook to invest
-the balance--and kept the whole, to the printer of his books, who
-swindled him of both time and money.
-
-His complexion was tawny, resembling that of the Arab children of
-Beyroot and Damascus. The shape and set of the chin, jaws and lips, were
-indicative rather of power than force. The mouth, in its slightly
-protruding upper lip, and two small ridges at the corners, betokened
-executive ability, passion, courage, affection, humor, firmness and
-decision. The cheeks were slightly sunken, indicating care and trouble,
-while the cheek-bones, being somewhat high and broad, betrayed his
-aboriginal ancestry, as did also his general beardlessness, for, save a
-tuft beneath the chin of jet black silky hair, and a thin and light
-mustache, he could lay no claim to hirsute distinction. His nose, which
-had been broken by a fall when a child, was neither large nor small, and
-as a simple feature, was in no respect remarkable; but taken with the
-other features, was most decidedly so, for when under the influence of
-passion, excitement or emotion, there was an indescribable something
-about the alae and nostrils that told you that a volcano slumbered in
-that man's brain and heart, only it required a touch, a vent, in the
-right direction, to wake its fires and cause it to blaze forth
-vehemently, transforming him in an instant from a passive, uncomplaining
-man, into the embodiment of virtuous championship of the cause that was
-true, or into a demon of hatred and vindictive fury. The good prevailed;
-for the evil spasm was ever a spasm only--save in a very few marked
-cases, where he had suffered wrongs, deep and grievous, at the hands of
-men whose meanness and duplicity toward himself he only discovered when
-they had gained their points and ruined him. These men he hated--and yet
-that word does not convey the true idea. His feeling was not vindictive,
-but was a craving for, and determination to exact justice for his
-wrongs. This satisfied, his ill will died on the instant. His eyes, or
-rather eye--for one was nearly lost from an accident--was a deep, dark
-hazel, and such as people are in the habit of describing as jet black.
-It shone with a lustre peculiar, and strangely magnetic when he let his
-soul go forth upon winged words from the rostrum, for he had been a
-public speaker in his time, and had won no small degree of fame on that
-field.
-
-Once seen and heard, this man was one whom it was impossible ever to
-forget, so different was he from all other men, and so marked and
-peculiar were his characteristics.
-
-Such, in brief, were the externals of the person to whom the reader is
-here introduced.
-
-A very singular man was he--the Rosicrucian--I knew him well. Many an
-hour, subsequent to that in which he is here introduced, have we sat
-together beneath the grateful shade of some glorious old elm on the
-green, flowery banks of Connecticut's silver stream, and under some
-towering dome palm beside the bosom of still older Nilus, in the hoary
-land of the Pharaohs, of magic and of myth, he all the while pouring
-into my ear strange, very strange legends indeed--legends of Time and
-the other side of Time--all of which my thirsty soul drank in as the
-sun-parched earth drinks in the grateful showers, or the sands of Zin
-the tears of weeping clouds. And these tales, these legends put to shame
-the wildest fictions of Germany and the terror-haunted Hartz.
-Particularly was I struck with a half hint that once escaped his lips,
-to the effect that some men on the earth, himself among the number, had
-preexisted on this sphere, and that at times he distinctly remembered
-localities, persons and events that were cotemporary with him before he
-occupied his present form, and consequently that his real age exceeded
-that even of Ahasuerus, the Jew, who, in the dolorous road, mocked the
-Man of Calvary, as he bore his cross up the steep and stony way, for
-which _leze majeste_ he was doomed to walk the earth, an outcast and
-vagabond, from that hour till Shiloh comes, according to the legends of
-Jewry.
-
-My friend, during our intimacy, often spoke concerning white magic, and
-incidentally insisted on his curious doctrine of transmigration. Nor was
-this all: He taught that the souls of people sometimes vacated their
-bodies for weeks together, during which they were occupied by other
-souls, sometimes that of a permanently disembodied man of earth; at
-others, that of an inhabitant of the aereal spaces, who, thus embodied,
-roamed the earth at will. He, when closely questioned, declared his firm
-belief that he had lived down through many ages, and that for reasons
-known to himself, he was doomed to live on, like the great
-Artefius--that other Rosicrucian--until a certain consummated act
-(wherein he was to be involuntarily an active party) should release him
-from it and permit him to share the lot of other men.
-
-As a consequence of his dissimilarity from others he appeared to have
-been endowed with certain hyper-mental powers, among which was a strange
-intro-vision, not the fraudulent clairvoyance claimed and palmed off
-upon the world by the arch impostor of Poughkeepsie, and others of the
-same kidney, but something analogous to that attributed to the
-oracle-priestesses of Delphos and Delos. This power, which was not
-always present, enabled him to behold and describe things, persons and
-events, even across the widest gulfs of ocean; and to read the secret
-history and thoughts of the most secretive, self-possessed and
-subtle-minded man as easily as if it were a printed scroll. When this
-ecstasy was on him he looked as if, at that moment, he beheld things
-forever sealed from the majority of eyes, and that too both with and
-without his wonderful magic mirror. At first I doubted his pretensions,
-mentally referred them to an abnormal state of mind, and, until they
-were abundantly demonstrated, laughed at the preposterous idea, as I
-considered it, of any one seriously claiming such extraordinary powers
-in the middle of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. As
-previously remarked, his complexion told that he was a _sang melee_--not
-a direct cross--but one in which at least seven distinct strains of
-blood intermingled, if they did not perfectly blend. Save when in high
-health and spirits, and weather extremely cold--at which times he was
-pale--his color was a rich, light bronze, like that of the youngsters
-one sees in such profusion, scampering like mad through the narrow and
-tortuous streets of Syrio-Arabic cities, demanding "Bucksheesh" from
-every Frank they see. With his large, broad, high brain, arched and open
-brow, his massive, elliptical and angular top-head, he was a marked man,
-and when his soul was at high tide, and his deep and mystic inspirations
-thrilled and filled him to the brim, his eye beamed with unearthly fire,
-glowed like the orbs of a Pythoness, and scintillated a light peculiarly
-its own. Whoever saw him then never forgot the sight, for he seemed to
-have the power of glancing instantaneously through the world--Time,
-space--everything and everywhere. Judging by his speech alone, one would
-have thought his education might not have been altogether neglected, but
-that it certainly was of a kind and quality entirely different from
-that usually received in Christian lands. There was very little, if any,
-polish about him--not that he lacked urbanity, courteousness or
-smoothness--not that he was rude or rough in any way, but his placidity
-was that of the river, forest or lake, not that of the boudoir or the
-schools of _politesse_. He was extremely enigmatical, and the most so
-when he appeared most frank in all that pertained to his inner life and
-world; and was more sphynx-like to me at the end of ten years' intimacy
-than on the first day of our acquaintance. He had, though poor,
-travelled extensively. Oriental in personal appearance and physical
-tastes, he was still more so in disposition and mind, and in all that
-pertained to dreamery, philosophy and the affections.
-
-With this description of the principal personage of this narrative, I
-now proceed to sketch another part of the man.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-
-                  HIS EARLY DAYS--THE STRANGE LEGEND.
-
-
-And there sat the man at the side of the road--sat there mournfully,
-silently weeping--the strange man!--as if his heart would break, and not
-from slight cause was he sorrowing. Not from present want of food,
-shelter, or raiment, but because his heart was full, and its fountains
-overflowing. The world had called him a genius, and as such had petted,
-praised, admired, and starved him all at once; but not one grain of true
-sympathy all the while; not a single spark of true disinterested
-friendship. The great multitude had gathered about him as city
-sight-seers gather round the last new novelty in the museum--a child
-with two heads, a dog with two tails, or the Japanese mermaid--duly
-compounded of codfish and monkey--and then, satisfied with their
-inspection, they turned from, and left him in all his deep loneliness
-and misery, all the more bitter for the transient light of sympathy
-thrown momentarily upon him. Genius must be sympathetically treated,
-else it eats its own heart, and daily dies a painful, lingering death.
-
-Throwing aside all his theories about preexistence, and triple life, as
-being too recondite for either my readers or myself, we come at once to
-his natural, matter-of-fact history. At eight years of age he had been
-christened in the Roman Catholic Church, by the name of Beverly. From
-his father our hero inherited little save a lofty spirit, an ambitious,
-restless nature, and a susceptibility to passional emotions, so great
-that it was a permanent and positive influence during his entire life.
-His fifth year began and completed the only school education the boy
-ever had, and for all his subsequent attainments in that direction he
-was indebted to his own unaided exertions. His father loved him little;
-his mother loved him as the apple of her eye--and all the more because
-being born with a full and complete set of teeth, old gossips and
-venerable grey-beards augured a strange and eventful career; beside
-which, certain singular spectral visitations and experiences of his
-mother, ere, and shortly after the young eyes opened on the world,
-convinced her that he was born to no common destiny--much of which has
-already been detailed at length in "Dhoula Bel: or the Magic Globe." Two
-or three and twenty years prior to the opening of this tale, there lived
-at what then was No. 70 Canal street, New York city, a woman whose
-complexion was that of a Mississippi octoroon. She was a native of
-Vermont, had the reputation of being the most beautiful woman in the
-State, if indeed she was surpassed anywhere. Her mind was as rich in its
-stores and resources as her person was in feminine graces. Her life up
-to that time had been a checkered, and in the main, a very unhappy one,
-for her refinement, nature, education, character and acquirements, were
-such as to demand a broader, higher, better social sphere than what,
-from pecuniary want, she now occupied and moved in. Another cause of
-unrest was that she was maritally mismatched altogether, for her
-husband, after years of absence, during which she had deemed him dead,
-and contracted a second alliance with the father of her boy, had
-suddenly returned, and never from that moment did she receive one
-particle of what her heart yearned for--that domestic love and sympathy,
-ever the matron's due, and which alone can render life a blessing, and
-smooth the rugged, thorny pathway to the tomb.
-
-Flora Beverly claimed immediate kindred with the red-skinned sons of the
-northern wilderness, but that blood in her veins mingled with the finer
-current derived from her ancestor, the Cid--a strain of royal blood that
-in the foretime had nerved noble-souled men to deeds of valor, and fired
-the souls of Spanish poets to lofty achievements in the rosy fields of
-immortal song. She had been tenderly reared--perhaps too much so--for
-her strange and wonderful beauty, flashing out upon the world from her
-large and lustrous eyes, and beaming forth from every feature and
-movement, had been such that she had become marked in community from
-early childhood, and her parents, looking upon her as a special
-providence to them, had unwisely cultured qualities in her that had
-better have been held in abeyance. By over-care and morbid solicitude
-they had nearly spoiled God's handiwork, and she grew up an imperious,
-self-willed, exacting, and sensitive queen. She married, and expected to
-find herself the centre of a realm of unalloyed joy and delight, wherein
-her reign would be undisputed. The man she wedded took her for her
-beauty, expecting to realize a perfect heaven in its possession. Both
-were bitterly disappointed. The man could appreciate only the external
-and superficial qualities and excellences of his wife, while her inner,
-higher, better self--her soul, was a _terra incognita_ to him, which,
-like so many other husbands, he never even once dreamed of exploring; he
-had no idea whatever of the inestimable qualities of her heart,
-intellect, or spirit, and he had never found out that her body is the
-least a woman gives away--that she has gifts so regal for the man she
-loves, that glittering diamonds are sparkless, insipid, valueless in
-comparison.
-
-And so, the first delirious joy-month over, they both began to
-awaken--the man to the fact that to him his wife was a "very pretty
-doll," the woman that her husband was--a brute, whose soul slept soundly
-beneath the coverlets of sense, and herself its victim and minister. It
-was horrible; she lost heart, she despised this surface man, and sunk
-and lost bloom beneath the terrible weight of the discovery and its
-fearful results. Married, she had expected to move in a sphere very far
-above that which, by the laws of moral and mental gravity, she was
-compelled to occupy. Her horizon was henceforth to be bounded by that of
-her master and his associates. Her husband was vain of his conquest, and
-one of his greatest joys was found in parading and showing off her
-beauty to the best advantage, like a jockey does a fine horse--and
-feeling, jockey-like the while, "all this is _mine_!" Neither himself nor
-his associates in life could appreciate that more than royal loveliness
-which dwells within the breasts of educated and refined women--a beauty
-which eye hath never seen, which eye can never see, but which, like soft
-and delicate perfume, radiates from such to all who are fine enough to
-perceive it.
-
-As a matter of course, she soon grew weary and disgusted with this
-surface-life. Feeling that she was unappreciated by the living thousands
-around her, she, with the true instinct of the Indian, spurned their
-contact, fell back upon herself, and then, with every tendril of her
-soul, turned and yearned toward the teeming millions of the dead. She
-invoked them to her aid, and religiously believed her prayers
-answered--as I do--and delivering herself up wholly to their weird care
-and guidance, thenceforward lived a double life--a shadow-life in the
-world, a real life in the phantom land. True to the natural instinct of
-the human heart, just in proportion as she withdrew from the world, so
-did she approach that awful veil which is only uplifted for the sons and
-daughters of sorrow and the starbeam. She became a seeress, a dreamer,
-and, in what to her was an actual, positive communion with the lordly
-ghosts of the dead nations, whereof, in both lines, her forefathers had
-been chiefs, she sought that sympathy in her sorrows, and in her strange
-internal joys--that mysterious balm of healing, which the red man in his
-religion--or superstition, if you will--believes can only thus and there
-be had. And she found what she sought, or what to the spontaneous and
-impulsive soul amounts to the same thing, believed that she had found
-it. At first she had some difficulty in correctly translating into her
-human language of heart and word that which she took to be the low
-whisperings of the aerial dwellers of the viewless kingdom of MANATOU.
-She ardently longed for a more open intercourse with the dead, and, as
-herein stated, as well as in "Dhoula Bel," was gratified.
-
-Poor Flora! half-child of Nature and of Art, was destined to bear a
-child, and that child the man of these volumes--in the very midst of the
-conditions here sketched, under these conditions he was born.
-
-As already stated, beneath this woman's heart there slumbered the fires
-of a volcano, intense, fervent, quenchless, the result alike of her
-peculiar ancestry and peculiar training. Her full soul became
-re-incarnate in the son she bore; and with it she endowed the child with
-her own intense desire to love and be loved; all her mystic spirit, her
-love of mystery; all her unearthly aspiration toward unearthly
-association; all her resolute, yet half-desponding, quick, impulsive,
-passionate, generous nature; all, all, found in him a local habitation
-and a name, and that name was Genius.
-
-Thus moulded came he into the world, doomed from birth to strange and
-bitter experiences--to face alone and unfriended the bitter blasts of
-wintry storms, and the burning heats of summer suns; to cling to the
-hope of speedy death, all the while grasping existence with ten-fold the
-tenacity of others, yet daily pleading for life--strange
-contradiction!--dear life, at the world's stern bar; pleading daily, yet
-as often losing his suit, and being by that world sentenced to be
-utterly cast adrift on the fickle tide of Fate and Chance, and that too
-with a mind and body acutely sensitive, and constantly at war with each
-other.
-
-Compensation is a universal principle. While so alive to pain, he was
-equally so to the jouissant emotions, and his delights, when they came,
-were keen, fine, exquisite, to a remarkable degree. As throwing some
-light on the character of this man--who is not a myth, but an actual
-existence--I will here repeat the substance of an account himself gave
-of his early life and weird and ghostly experiences. He had been
-questioned in regard to certain powers of an unusual kind attributed to
-him, and the following reply was elicited:
-
-"When I was a very young child, my mother dwelt in a large, sombre and
-gloomy old stone house on Manhattan Island. At that time New York was
-about one quarter as large as at present, and that house was a long way
-out of town. It still stands in the same place, but the city has grown
-miles beyond it. The building, in times of pestilence, fever, smallpox,
-and cholera, had been used as a pest-house, or lazaretto, and in it
-thousands have died of those diseases, and from there, in my fifth year,
-the soul of my mother took its everlasting flight.
-
-"Scores of people there were ready to testify on oath that the old house
-was haunted by ghosts, who strode grimly and silently through the
-solemn, stately halls of that massive island castle. But it generally
-happened that the witnesses of these spectral visitants had neither
-time nor inclination to cultivate their acquaintance--save one, an
-apothecary named Banker, who cursed and swore at one of them on a
-certain occasion, whereupon the ghost slapped his face, and completely
-turned and withered his lower jaw by way of punishment for the _leze
-majeste_. With this exception, those who met one of these ghosts,
-invariably had urgent business in an opposite direction, and it was
-quite surprising with what wonderful speed lame persons got over the
-ground whenever a ghost was declared to be around, by those who being
-born with a 'caul' over the face, were thereby endowed with the
-spectre-seeing faculty; and as such gifted ones could see, I used often
-to wish I could meet some who had been born with _two_ cauls, so that
-they might speak to as well as see them.
-
-"Some people do not believe in ghosts. I do, ghosts of various kinds. I.
-It is possible to project an image of one's self, which image may be
-seen by another however distant. II. The phantasmal projections of
-heated fancy--spectral illusion--the results of cerebral fever, as in
-drunken delirium, opium and other fantasies. III. The spirits of dead
-men. IV. Spiritual beings from other planets. V. Beings from original
-worlds, who have not died, but who, nevertheless, are of so fine texture
-as to defy the material laws which we are compelled to obey, and who,
-coming under the operation of those that govern disembodied men, are
-enabled to do all that they do. VI. I believe that human beings, by the
-action of desperate, wicked wills, frequently call into being spectral
-harpies--the horrible embodiment of their evil thoughts. These are
-demons, subsisting so long as their creators are under the domination of
-the evil. VII. I believe in a similar creation emanating from good
-thoughts of good people, lovely out-creations of aspiring souls.
-Remember these seven. This is a clear statement of the Rosicrucian
-doctrine of the higher order of their temple. In the lower, these seven
-pass under the names of Gnomes, Dwarfs, Sylphs, Salamanders, Nereiads,
-Driads and Fays.
-
-"One day, when I was about five years old, I returned from school, and
-found the clayey vestment--the fleshly form of the only friend I ever
-had, my mother, cold and prone in the arms of icy cold, unrelenting
-Death. Ah! what a shock was that to my poor little childish heart! She
-had that morning grown weary of earth, had serenely, trustingly closed
-her darling eyes, and I was left alone to battle single-handed against
-four mighty and powerful enemies--Prejudice, Poverty and Organization
-were three of them. The fourth is almost too terrible, too wild and
-fanciful to be credited, yet I will state it:
-
-
-                               THE LEGEND.
-
-"Many, very many centuries ago, there lived on the soil where in
-subsequent ages stood Babylon and Nineveh the first, a mighty king,
-whose power was great and undisputed. He was wise, well-learned and
-eccentric. He had a daughter lovely beyond all description. She was as
-learned as she was beautiful. Kings and princes sought her hand in
-vain; for her father had sworn to give her to no man save him who should
-solve a riddle which the king himself would propound, and solve it at
-the first trial, under penalty of decapitation on failure. The riddle
-was this, 'What are the three most desirable things beneath the sun,
-that are not the sun, yet which dwell within the sun?' Thousands of the
-gay, the grave, the sage and ambitious who essayed the solution, and
-failed, left the presence to mount the horse of death.
-
-"In the meantime, proclamation was made far and wide, declaring that
-robes of crimson, chains of gold, the first place in the kingdom and the
-princess should be the reward of the lucky man.
-
-"One day there came to the court a very rich and royal embassy from the
-King of the South, seeking an alliance, and propounding new treaties;
-and among the suite was a young Basinge poet, who acted as interpreter
-to the embassy. This youth heard of the singular state of things,
-learned the conditions, and got the riddle by heart. For four long
-months did he ponder upon and study it, revolving in his mind all sorts
-of answers, but without finding any that fulfilled the three requisites.
-
-"In order to study more at his ease, the youth was in the habit of
-retiring to a grotto behind the palace, and there repeating to himself
-the riddle and all sorts of possible responses thereto. The princess
-hearing of this, determined to watch him, and did so. Now, poets must
-sing, and this one was particularly addicted to that sort of exercise;
-and he made it a point to imagine all sorts of perfections as residing
-in the princess, and he sung his songs daily in the grotto--sung himself
-desperately in love with his ideal, and so inflamed the girl herself,
-who had managed to both see and hear him, herself unseen, that she loved
-him dearer than life. Here, then, were two people made wretched by a
-whim.
-
-"Love and song are very good in their places, but, for a steady diet,
-are not comparable to many other things; and, as this couple fed on
-little else, they both pined sadly and rapidly away.
-
-"At length, one day, the youth fell asleep in the grotto, and his head
-rested directly over a fissure in the rock through which there issued a
-very fine and subtle vapor, which had the effect of throwing the young
-man in a trance, during which he fancied he saw the princess herself,
-unveiled, and more lovely than the flowers that bloomed in the king's
-garden. He also thought he saw an inscription, which bade him despair
-not, but TRY! and, at the same time, there flowed into his mind this
-sentence, which subsequently became the watchword of the mystic
-fraternity which, for some centuries, has been known as that of the
-Rosie Cross--'There is no difficulty to him who truly wills.' Along with
-this there came a solution of the king's riddle, which he remembered
-when he awoke, and instantly proclaimed his readiness to attempt that
-which had cost so many adventurers their lives.
-
-"Accordingly, the grandest preparations--including a man with a drawn
-blade ready to make the poet shorter by the head if he failed--were
-made, and, at an appointed hour, all the court, the princess included,
-convened in the largest hall of the palace. The poet advanced to the
-foot of the throne, and there knelt, saying, 'O king, live for ever!
-What three things are more desirable than Life, Light and Love? What
-three are more inseparable? and what better cometh from the sun, yet is
-not the sun? O king! is thy riddle answered?' 'True!' said the king;
-'you have solved it, and my word shall be kept!' And he straightway gave
-commands to have the marriage celebrated in royal style, albeit, through
-the influence of a high court official, he hated poets in general, and
-this one particularly so, because he thought the young man had foiled
-him in one of the treaties just made. Now, it so happened that the grand
-vizier had hoped by some means to get a solution of the riddle, and
-secure the great prizes for a young son of his own; and, as soon as the
-divan was closed, that very day, he hastened to the closet of the king,
-and there still further poisoned the mind of his master against the
-victor, by charging him with having succeeded through the aid of
-sorcery, which so enraged the king that he readily agreed to remove the
-claimant by means of a speedy, secret, and cruel death that very night,
-to which end the poet was drugged in his wine at the evening banquet,
-conveyed to a couch openly, and almost immediately thereafter removed to
-the chamber allotted to the refractory servants of the court. This
-apartment was under ground, and the youth, being thrown violently on the
-floor, revived, and was astonished to find himself bound hand and foot
-in presence of the king, his vizier, a few soldiers, and--death; for he
-saw at a glance that his days were numbered. He defended himself from
-the charge of sorcery, but in vain. He was doomed to die, and the order
-given, when, just as the blow was about to fall, there appeared the
-semblance of a gigantic hand, moving as if to stay the uplifted blade;
-but too late. The sword fell, and, as it reached the neck of the victim,
-he uttered the awful words, 'I curse ye all who--' the rest of the
-sentence was spoken in eternity; but there came a clamor and a clangor
-as of a thousand protesting spectral voices, and one of them said, in
-tones of thunder, 'This youth, by persistence of will, had unbarred the
-gates between this world and that of mystery. He was the first of his
-and thy race that ever achieved so great an honor. And ye have slain
-him, and he hath cursed thee, by reason of which thou, O king! and thou,
-O vizier! and the dead man, have all changed the human for another
-nature. The first shall go down the ages, transmigrating from form to
-form. Thou, O vizier! shall also exist till thou art forgiven;--DHOULA
-BEL shall be thy name; and thou shalt tempt the king through long ages,
-and be foiled whenever the youth--who shall be called the
-STRANGER--shall so will, for the sake of the love he bore thy daughter.
-This drama shall last and be until a son of Adam shall wed with a
-daughter of Ish, or thou, king, in one of the phases of thy being, shall
-love, and be truly, fully loved again, and for thyself alone. An
-eternity may elapse ere then!'"
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Ask me not," said the young Beverly, "_why_, but believe me when I say
-that I _know_ that ages ago I was that king; that the Stranger has been
-seen by my mother; that Dhoula Bel still haunts and tempts me for the
-sin of ages. I know the fate impending over me, and that in this my
-present form I am a neutral being, for whom there is no hope save
-through the union of myself, a son of Adam's race, with a daughter of
-Ish, one not of Adam's race.... This, then, is the dreadful fate to
-which I was left so pitilessly exposed on the morning that my mother
-died on Manhattan Island--left to pay the penalty of a crime committed
-thousands of years ago."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER III.
-
-                        A SPECTRAL VISITANT.
-
-
-It must be confessed that this was a singular story, and smelled very
-strongly of either Hartz-mountainism or its equivalent, imagination. He
-continued his story thus:
-
-"I did not know all this at five years old, of course. The only thing I
-did fully comprehend was the loss of my mother--her strange silence--the
-woeful look of those who hugged my little head and said 'Poor child!' I
-tried hard to be manly and not cry, as they bade me, but it was useless,
-and the tears welled up in floods from my poor little childish heart.
-Have you ever lost a mother?
-
-"As I nestled on the bed where she lay so very still, I asked the
-bystanding mourners where the talking part of my mother had gone to? If
-she would never talk to, love and pet me any more? and they said 'Never
-more,' and they repeated that dreadful but untrue refrain till my poor
-heart was full almost to bursting, with its load and pressure of grief;
-and then I threw myself upon her dear body, and cried till tears refused
-to flow, for I had lost my mother, sirs--I had lost my mother! Would
-that I could weep _now_ as I did _then_; it would relieve my
-over-burdened heart. But I cannot, for the tear fountain seldom thaws.
-The floods still gather and well up, but they freeze ere they reach the
-surface, and the heart strings snap and crack, but they will not break.
-I wish they would, so that I might join, even for a while, that dear
-mother whom I loved so well.
-
-"Childhood's griefs are written with a feather, upon warm parchment,
-with stainless ink; but the heart's greater woes are burned into the
-memory with a fiery iron stylus; the first lines speedily wear away; the
-last are ineffaceable. As I lay upon the cold breast of my darling
-mother, a woman said to me, 'Do not cry, poor child! She is happy now!
-She has just gone up, on her way to heaven!' And I believed what that
-woman said; and I looked out through the deep foliage of the trees hard
-by; looked eagerly up into the sky, expecting to see her ascending soul;
-and as my eye caught the shadowy fleece of a melting silvery cloud, I
-thought and believed it to be my mother's sainted soul. I half believe
-so still; for as the cloud vanished into nothingness on the breast of
-the blue, I distinctly heard a voice, gentle, soft, and sweetly
-mournful, like unto the dying notes of a wind-harp, lightly touched by
-the zephyr's breath, whisper in my ear these words--which at that time I
-could not fully comprehend--'Lonely one of the ages! there may be rest
-for thee in the life thou'rt now commencing. Let thy motto be--TRY!
-Despond not, but ever remember that how bitter soever our lot may be,
-that despite it all, WE MAY BE HAPPY YET! Peace, poor child! Thou'rt
-watched and guarded by thy mother!' 'and the stranger,' added another,
-and more silvery voice from out the deep stillness of that noon-tide
-heaven. I knew that mystic voice--the first one--and felt that it was
-from beyond Time's threshold. I trusted it's sacred words of promise,
-for I had, child as I was, an unshaken faith, an intuition, if you will,
-that instant flowing to me, that my blessed mother still lived.
-
-"From that hour commenced a strange, double existence to and in me. Two
-instances, perfectly true in all respects, I will relate, either of
-which forever settled in my mind that some human beings consciously
-survive the ordeal of death. Not long after my irreparable loss, I,
-along with several other children, went to bed in the roof chamber of
-that dark old house. Something had occurred of a merry turn, and we were
-all brimful of joy and glee, and our mirth was as loud as it dared be
-for fear of the ogres down stairs, who had a bad habit of enforcing
-silence through the medium of sundry straps and birch twigs. In the very
-midst of the uproar the bed-clothes were slowly, carefully lifted from
-off us by agencies totally invisible. We pulled them back; but again and
-again they were removed, and the movement was accompanied by a din and
-clatter, as if fifty cannon balls were rolling on the floor; and it
-immediately brought the ogres and their straps from down stairs to see
-what was the matter. So far as terror permitted we explained, whereupon
-the ogres looked scaredly wise, readjusted the quilts and retreated. No
-sooner had they left than the cannon balls began again to roll over the
-floor, and mustering courage to rise and grapple for the coverlet,
-which had again been pulled from us, I clearly and distinctly saw a
-female figure calmly standing at the foot of the bed, but not upon the
-floor, for she floated like a vapor on the air. There was but little, if
-any, light in the room, save that which surrounded, and appeared to
-emanate from the spectral figure. She stood in the midst of a silvery or
-phosphoric haze. It was by no means phantasmal in appearance, but so
-clear, sharp, well defined did the apparition seem, that to this day I
-remember distinctly the figures on what appeared to be the dress she
-wore, which fact involves a mystery no psychologist has yet been able to
-fathom satisfactorily. The children who also saw this sight were
-terrified; I was not, for I felt she would not harm me, for the reason
-that mothers love their offspring, and that figure was my mother.
-
-"Some considerable time elapsed after this. I had grown into a stout and
-active boy, having already drifted for some years up and down the world,
-and once found myself registered as cabin boy on board the brig Phoebe,
-of New Bedford, whereof one Alonzo Baker was captain--not of New
-Bedford--but the brig.
-
-"In this vessel I served for several months, to the satisfaction of no
-one, myself included, being too small, weak and delicate for the arduous
-duties required of me, and consequently had to pay the usual penalty.
-
-"Sailors, to a man, are superstitious, though less so now than in the
-days whereof I am speaking. Still, at present, it is not hard, in spite
-of the march of intellect, to find sailors who, between the dog-watch
-and eight bells, will spin you a yarn under the weather rail that will
-make a man's hair stand on end like hairs on an enraged kitten.
-
-"On board the Phoebe there were several old salts, and many were the
-tales they told of the ghosts of murdered sailors, appearing in the
-midst of dreadful storms, to encourage foremast Jacks, and frighten the
-souls of guilty mates and captains; and of course all this tended to
-deepen the vein of superstition and mysticism running through me. Often
-have I been apprized of the presence and power of the dead or of those
-who never die, and, when tempted to share the dangerous pleasures of my
-older comrades, been mysteriously saved.
-
-"Sailors, like everybody else, are fond of power, and delight in lording
-it over those whom chance or accident places in their power; and on
-every vessel there is one man who is sure to be the butt and target for
-petty tyranny and abuse. On board the Phoebe this fell to my lot; and not
-being able to forcibly resist, I took care to hide in my chest about a
-gallon of rum, into which about half an ounce of croton oil, from the
-medicine chest had previously been poured. I labelled the jug 'Poison.'
-Croton oil is the most infamously active purgative known. The sailors
-found the jug, read the label--didn't believe it--drank the liquor, and
-were actively engaged for several hours thereafter, as a consequence. A
-more earnest, swift-moving set of men were never seen. They had no
-relish for supper that night. They beat me unmercifully, but I was
-revenged. Still they abused me, until one day a sailor tweaked my nose
-in the galley, and for his pains received half a gallon of hot lard in
-the waist-band, which troubled him wonderfully.... At last I meditated
-suicide as a relief, and, in a paroxysm of rage and despair, such as
-boys only are subject to, actually ran aft to accomplish it by leaping
-over the taffrail into the surging sea, when I was arrested by a narrow
-blast of warm--almost hot air, which thrilled me to the very centre of
-my being, and almost pinned me to the deck, while at the same time there
-flowed into my soul an eloquent and indignant protest against my supreme
-folly, accompanied by the spoken words, 'Be patient! TRY!'
-
-"It is impossible to attribute all these things to imagination.
-
-"One evening, a long time after the occurrence just related, a company
-of ladies and gentlemen, in a house situated near the observatory,
-Portland, Maine, were conversing upon the general subject of ghosts, and
-rewards and punishments after death. When we sat down there were
-thirteen persons in the room, and thirteen persons only. We became
-deeply absorbed in the discussion, indeed so much so, that the host gave
-the servant strict orders not to disturb us, and to refuse admission to
-any person whatever. And thus we all talked freely, the servant seated
-in the hall, close by the door. No one was admitted. Presently one
-person, by reason of his eloquence and venerable appearance, engrossed
-all our attention by the thrilling things he told, although he did not
-join the conversation till over an hour after we had begun it; nor did
-his conversation appear at all intrusive. He was the _fourteenth_
-person, although we did not realize the fact till we were separating,
-and he had disappeared. Upon inquiry no one knew him, had ever seen him
-before, or observed his departure--not even the servant, who declared
-that for two hours no one had passed him either way. It was voted 'very
-strange,' and that for our own credit sake the matter should be 'hushed
-up;' but we agreed to meet again at the same house, that day-week, to
-discuss the matter, and compare opinions arrived at in the interim."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER IV.
-
-                  A VERY STRANGE STORY--ETTELAVAR!
-
-
-"On the appointed evening a select party of us met pursuant to
-agreement; but not one had reached a solution of the mystery. In those
-days the impostor Davis had not foisted his blasphemous absurdities on
-the world; nor had his peculiar system of morals made rogues of the one
-half of his deluded followers, or shameless harlots of the other; nor
-had lunatic asylums then been packed, as they have since, with sufferers
-ruined by his teachings; nor were graveyards dotted with the mounds
-raised by weeping friends over loved ones driven to suicide by his
-doctrines. In those days a man's wife was comparatively safe, nor were
-divorces half so common as they have since become. In those days
-husbands did not sneak off to Indiana, and by blank perjury procure
-divorce in order that they might revel in barefaced, shameless, open
-lust with their worthy paramours. In those days spiritualism had not
-broken in on the world, nor had the goblin philosophy made millions of
-fools and idiot fanatics out of material that God created for better
-purposes. In those days Joe Smith had not convinced thousands that
-harlotry is the straightest road to heaven; nor had Noyes founded his
-huge religious brothel in the centre of the State, contaminating the
-country for leagues around; and the handy system of ghostology, with its
-hundred truths and thousand falsehoods, had not then afforded a ready
-explanation of mysteries such as those I have recounted; nor had any man
-dared claim to be the confidential secretary of Almighty God.
-
-"On the night in question our conversation became, if possible, more
-interesting and absorbing than on the first occasion, owing to the novel
-_fillip_ it had then received. So absorbed did I become during the
-evening, that on one or two occasions I partially lost myself in a sort
-of semi-mesmeric coma, which gradually deepened as the discussion waxed
-warmer, until my lower limbs grew cold, and a chilling numbness crept
-upon me, creating such a terror that I resolved to make my condition
-known, even at the risk of interrupting the discussion.
-
-"I made the trial, and found, to my consternation, that I could not
-utter a syllable--I could not move an inch. Horror! The company were so
-engrossed with the matter before them, that no notice was taken of any
-change that might have been perceptible in me; nor did one person there
-suspect that I was not attentively drinking in the discourse.
-
-"With inexpressible alarm, I felt that life itself was fast ebbing from
-me, and that death was slowly and surely grasping, clutching, freezing
-my vitals. I was dying. Presently--it appeared as if a long interregnum
-had occurred between the last previous conscious moment, and the present
-instantaneous, but positive agony--a sudden, sharp, tingling pang, like
-that of hot needles thrust in the flesh, shot through my brain. This was
-followed by a sinking sensation, as if the body had resigned itself to
-passive dissolution, and then came, with electric rapidity, a succession
-of the most cruel agonies ever endured by mortal man. When it ceased
-consciousness had ceased also, and I fell to the floor as one suddenly
-dead, to the amazement of the company, as was afterwards declared.
-
-"How long this physical inanition lasted, I cannot now say, but during
-it the spiritual part of me was roused to a tenfold degree of activity,
-consciousness and power; for it saw things in a new and cryptic light,
-and far more distinctly than it ever had through the bodily eyes. An
-increase of hearing power accompanied this accretion of sight, and I
-heard a voice, precisely like that heard when my mother died, and when
-about to throw myself into the sea, which said, 'Awake! a lesson awaits
-you;' and with this there came a partial rousing from the lethargy, and
-I was led upstairs and threw myself upon a sofa, mechanically, at the
-same time fixing my eyes upon the bald white face of a rare old Flemish
-clock that occupied the entire southern angle of the room. Here I was
-left alone by my friends, who again resumed their conversation in the
-parlor below.
-
-"Gradually the old clock-face seemed to clarify and expand, until, no
-longer obstructed by substance, I gazed out, and down, and up, through
-an avenue of the most astonishing light I had ever beheld. It seemed to
-me that I no longer occupied my body, but that, freed from flesh and
-time, I had become a denizen of Eternity; and on a fleecy vapor I was
-sustained in mid-air by the potent arm of a strange-looking old man--the
-veritable and precise image of him who, ten days before, had occasioned
-us such a fright by his mysterious conversations and evanishment. He
-told me not to fear, but to repose implicit confidence in myself and
-him; that he would not injure me, but do me good; that his name was
-Ettelavar; that his years were ages long; that he was the companion of
-those who die--who die, and live again--and of those who never taste of
-death. All this, and more, he told me; and he said that his design was
-to serve both himself and me; that he was familiar with certain mighty
-secrets, that had been claimed to be possessed, through many ages, by
-the wise and learned of earth--the Narek El Gebel, the Hermetists, the
-Pythagoreans, the three temples of the Rosie Cross, the mediaeval and
-modern Rosicrucians, and the scattering delvers after mystery in all
-ages, times, and places. He said that among the things that I might
-learn from him, were the priceless secret of compounding the Elixir of
-Life, the drinking of which, by mortals, would confer perpetual youth
-and surprising beauty. Then there was the Lethean Draught, and
-whomsoever drank thereof, forthwith forgot all care, was oblivious to
-all that concerned the Future, and lived intensely in the Present. Then
-there was the Water of Love, and whoever drank thereof became
-irresistibly magnetic to the opposite sex, and could kindle affection in
-the heart of ice by mere personal presence. Then there was the Wondrous
-Stone of the Philosophers, not capable of transmuting, by a touch,
-whole tons of grossest substance into solid, shining gold, but of making
-it chemically. Then there was the Magic Crystal Ball, in which the gazer
-could behold whatever he wished to, that was then transpiring on this
-earth, or any of the planets. 'All this knowledge,' said he, 'I will
-expound to you, on certain conditions to be hereafter mentioned.'
-
-"I relate these things in the briefest possible manner, and make no
-allusions to my feelings during the time I listened to the strange
-being, Ettelavar, further than to remark, that during the--temptation,
-shall it be called?--I seemed to be hovering in the aerial expanse, and
-realized a fullness and activity of life never realized before, and knew
-for the first time what it was to be a human being. My freed spirit
-soared away into the superincumbent ether, and far, very far, beneath us
-rolled the great revolving globe; while far away in the black inane,
-twinkled myriads of fiery sparks--the starry eyes of God, looking
-through the tremendous vault of Heaven. Picture to yourself a soul,
-quitting earth, perhaps forever, and hovering over it like a
-gold-crested cloud, at set of sun, when all the winds are hushed to
-sleep on the still and loving bosom of its protecting God, and thine!
-
-"By the exercise of a power to me unknown, Ettelavar arrested our
-motion, and the cloud on which we seemed to float stood still in
-mid-air, and he said to me, 'Look and learn!'
-
-"Like busy insects in the summer sun, afar off in the distance I beheld
-large masses of human beings toiling wearily up a steep ascent, over
-the summit of which there floated heavily, thick, dense, murky,
-gloom-laden clouds. Crimson and red on their edges were they, as if
-crowned with thunder, and their bowels overcharged with lightnings; and
-their sombre shadows fell upon the plains below, heavy and pall-like,
-even as shrouds on the limbs of beauty, or the harsh critic's sentence
-upon the first fruits of budding and aspiring genius. 'It is nothing but
-a crowd,' said I; and the being at my side repeated, as if in
-astonishment, '_Nothing_ but a crowd? Boy, the destinies of nations
-centre in a crowd. Witness Paris. Look again!' Obeying mechanically, I
-did so, and soon beheld a strange commotion among the people; and I
-heard a wail go up--a cry of deep anguish--a sound heavily freighted
-with human woe and agony. I shuddered.
-
-"On the extreme apex of the mountain stood a colossal monument, not an
-obelisk, but a sort of temple, perfect in its proportions, and
-magnificent to the view. This edifice was surmounted by a large and
-highly polished golden pyramid in miniature. On all of the faces of this
-pyramid was inscribed the Latin word FELICITAS; I asked for an
-explanation from my guide, but instead of giving it, he placed his
-air-like hand upon my head, and drawing it gently over my brow and eyes,
-said, 'Look!'
-
-"Was there magic in his touch? It really seemed so, for it increased my
-visual capacity fifty-fold, and on again turning to the earth beneath
-me, I found my interest almost painfully excited by a real drama there
-and then enacting. It was clearly apparent that the great majority of
-the people were partially, if not wholly blind; and I observed that one
-group, near the centre of the plain below the mountain, appeared to be
-under much greater excitement than most of the others, and their
-turbulence appeared to result from the desire of each individual to
-reach a certain golden ball and staff which lay on a cushion of crimson
-velvet within the splendid open-sided monument on the mountain. In the
-midst of this lesser crowd, energetically striving to reach the
-ascending path, was one man who seemed to be endowed with far more
-strength and resolution--not of body, but of purpose--than those
-immediately around him. Bravely he urged his way toward the mountain's
-top, and, after almost incredible efforts, succeeded. Exultingly he
-approached the temple, by his side were hundreds more; he outran them,
-entered, reached forth to seize the ball and sceptre--it seemed that the
-courageous man must certainly succeed--his fingers touched the prize, a
-smile of triumph illumined his countenance, and then suddenly went out
-in the blight of death, for he fell to the earth from a deadly blow,
-dealt by one treacherous hand from behind, while others seized and
-hurled him down the steep abyss upon which the temple abutted, and he
-was first dashed to pieces and then trampled out of existence by the
-iron heels of advancing thousands--men who saw but pitied not, rather
-rejoicing that one rival less was in existence.
-
-"'Is it possible,' cried I, internally, 'that such hell-broth of
-vindictiveness boils in human veins?'
-
-"'Alas, thou seest!' replied Ettelavar, by my side. 'Learn a lesson,'
-said he, 'from what you have seen. Fame is a folly, not worth the having
-when obtained. 'Felicitas' is ever ahead, never reached, therefore not
-to be looked for. Friendship is an empty name, or convenient cloak which
-men put on to enable them to rob with greater facility. No man is
-content to see another rise, except when such rising will assist his own
-elevation; and the man behind will stab the man in front, if he stands
-in his way. Human nature is infantile, childish, weak, passionate and
-desperately depraved, and as a rule, they are the greater villains who
-assume the most sanctity; they the most selfish who prate loudest of
-charity, faith and love. I begin my tutelage by warning, therefore
-arming you, against the world and those who constitute it. If you wish
-to truly rise, you must first learn to put the world and what it
-contains at its proper value. Remember, I who speak am Ettelavar.
-Awake!'
-
-"Like the sudden black cloud in eastern seas, there came a darkness
-before me; my eyes opened, and fell upon the old clock face. Its hands
-told me that it was exactly thirteen minutes since I had marked the hour
-on the dial. Since that hour I have had much similar experience, and it
-is this that affords ground for the unusual powers in certain respects,
-not claimed by, but attributed to me." ...
-
-Such was the substance of the young man's narrative, in answer to
-questions propounded to him long before the date at which he is
-introduced to the reader.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER V.
-
-                 LOVE. EULAMPEA[2]--THE BEAUTIFUL.
-
-[2] Romaic--Eulampia--Evlambeah. "Bright-shining."--Lovely, mystically
-beautiful.
-
-
-The golden sun was setting, and day was sinking beneath his crimson
-coverlets in the glowing west. The birds, on thousand green boughs, were
-singing the final chorus of the summer opera; the lambs were skipping
-homeward in the very excess of joy; while the cattle on the hills lowed
-and bellowed forth their thanksgiving to the viewless Lord of Glory. Man
-alone seemed unconscious of his duty and the blessings he enjoyed.
-Toil-weary farmers were slowly plodding their way supper and bed-ward,
-and all nature seemed to be preparing to enjoy her bath of rest. Still
-sat the wanderer by the highway side; still fell his tears upon the
-grateful soil; and as the journeyers home and tavern-ward passed him by,
-many were the remarks they made upon him, careless whether he heard them
-or not. Some in cruel, heartless mockery and derision, some few in pity,
-and all in something akin to surprise, for men of his appearance were
-rarely seen in that neighborhood. At last there came along three
-persons, two of whom were unmistakably Indians, and the third, a girl of
-such singular complexion, grace, form, and extraordinary facial beauty,
-it was extremely difficult to ethnologically define what she was. This
-girl was about fourteen; the boy who accompanied her and the grey-haired
-old Indian by her side, was apparently about twelve years old. This last
-was the first to notice the stranger.
-
-"Oh, Evlambea," said he, "see! there's a man crying, and I'm going to
-help him!" The boy spoke in his own vernacular, for he was a full blood
-of the Oneida branch of the Mohawks, fearless, honorable, quick,
-impulsive, and generous as sunlight itself. To see distress and fly to
-its relief was but a single thing for him, and used to be with his
-people until improved and "civilized" with bad morals and worse
-protection. The Indian was Ki-ah-wah-nah (The Lenient and Brave) chief
-of the Stockbridge section of the Mohawks. The girl, Evlambea, nominally
-passed for his grandchild, but such was not the case, for although she
-might well be taken for a fourth blood, she really had not a trace of
-Indian about her, further than the costume, language, and general
-education and habit. Her name was modern Greek, or Romaic, but her
-features and complexion no more resembled that of the pretty dwellers on
-Prinkipo or the shores of the Bosphorus, than that of the Indians or
-Anglo Saxon. Many years previous to that day, this girl, then a child of
-three or four months age, had been brought to the chief and left in his
-care for a week, by a woman clad in the garb of, and belonging to a
-wandering band of gipsies, who, attracted by the universal reputation of
-the New World, had left Bohemia and crossed the seas to reap a golden
-harvest. This band had held its headquarters for nearly a year on
-Cornhill, Utica, whence they had deployed about the country in a circle
-whose radius averaged one hundred and twenty miles. The woman never came
-back to claim the child, for the members of the band suddenly decamped
-after having financiered a gullible old farmer out of several thousands
-of dollars in gold, which they had persuaded him it was necessary that
-he should put in a bag and bury in the ground at a certain hour of a
-certain night, in order to the speedy discovery of a large mine of
-diamonds that was certainly upon his farm, and would as surely be
-brought to light when the gold was exhumed after a certain time, which
-time was quite long enough for the band to dig up the gold and disperse
-in all directions, to meet again three thousand miles away. This bit of
-Cornhill swindling was considered rather sharp practice, even for that
-locality, and ended by shrouding the girl in an impenetrable mystery,
-and giving to the old chief a child, who, as she expanded and grew up
-became quite as dear to his heart as any one of his own offspring; and
-in fact, by reason of her superior intelligence, she became far more so,
-for mind ever makes itself felt and admired. Not one of the
-ethnological, physical, moral, or mental characteristics which mark the
-Romany tribes was to be noticed in this girl, and wise people concluded
-that she had somewhere been stolen by the woman, who from fear or policy
-had left her to her fate and the good old Indian's care.
-
-Esthetics is not my _forte_, hence I shall not attempt to describe the
-young girl. The name she bore was marked on her clothing in Greek
-letters, which were afterwards rendered into English by a professor of a
-college whose assistance had been asked by the Indian.
-
-Besides being known far and near as the most beautiful girl of her age,
-she was also distinguished as by far the most intelligent. She was
-undisputed queen on the Reservation, not by right, but by quiet
-usurpation. She looked and acted the born Empress, and her triplicate
-sceptre consisted of kindness, intelligence, and that nameless dignity
-and presence inherent in truly noble souls.
-
-Such was the bright-shining maiden, who, attracted by the boy's cry and
-actions, now crossed over to the side of young Beverly. Observing his
-sorrowful appearance, she placed her soft hand tenderly upon his head,
-and said in tones heart-felt and deeply sympathetic, "Man of the heavy
-heart, why weep you here? Is your mother just dead?"
-
-The young man raised his head, saw the radiant girl before him, and,
-after a moment's hesitation, during which he shuddered as if at some
-painful memory, murmuring, "No; it cannot be possible!--cannot be--in
-this part of the world, too! no!" he replied to her, saying, "Girl, I am
-lonely, and that is why I weep. I am but a boy, yet the weight of years
-of grief rest on and bear me down. To-day is the anniversary of my
-mother's death, and, when it comes, I always pass it in tears and
-prayer. Since she went home to heaven, I have had no true friend, and my
-lot and life are miserable indeed. Men call themselves my friends, and
-prove it by robbing me. Not long ago, there came a man to me--he was
-very rich--and said, 'People tell me that you are very skillful with the
-sick. Come; I have a sister whom the physicians say must die. I love
-her. You are poor; I am rich. Save her; gold shall be yours.' I went.
-She was beyond the reach of medicine, and it was possible to prolong her
-life only in one of two ways--either by the transfusion of blood from my
-veins to her own, or by the transfusion of life itself. I was young and
-strong, and we resolved to adopt the latter alternative, as being the
-only possibly effective one; and for months, during three years, I sat
-beside that poor sick girl, and freely let her wasted frame draw its
-very life by magnetically sapping my own. Finally, I began to sink with
-exhaustion and disease similar to her own, and, to save my life, was
-forced to break the magnetic cord, and go to Europe. As soon as it was
-severed she sunk into the grave, and then I returned, and received a
-considerable sum of money in the nature of a loan. This favor was
-granted me as a reward for my pains, time, and ruined health. I was to
-return it from the proceeds of a business to be immediately established.
-At that time I resolved to purchase a little home for those who depended
-on my efforts for the bread they ate, and so wrote to a man who called
-himself my friend, but who is the direct cause of most of the evil I
-have for ten years experienced. This fellow pretended to deal in lands.
-I put nine hundred dollars--half I had in the world--in this man's
-hands, to purchase a fine little place of a few acres, which place he
-took me to see. I was pleased with it, and saw a home for those who
-would be left behind me when I was dead. A few days thereafter this
-ghoul came to me again, and represented that gold bullion being down he
-could make considerable profit for me in three days, would I make the
-investment. I handed over the remainder of my money. The three days
-lengthened into years. Instead of being a capitalist he was a
-bankrupt--was not in the gold business, and had no more control of the
-land he showed me than he had of Victoria's crown. Meantime, my
-furniture was seized; I lost my name with the friend who advanced the
-sum; I became ill, and, in my agony, called this man a swindler. To
-silence me, he gave me a check on a bank. I presented it. 'No funds!'
-And yet he dared call himself an honest man. 'You have but to unsay the
-harsh things said about me,' said this semblance of a man to me one day,
-'and I am ready to pay you everything I owe.' My mind was unsettled; I
-listened to him, and the result was that, by duplicity and fraud, more
-mean and despicable than the first, if there be a depth of villainy more
-profound, he obtained my signature to an acknowledgment that the money
-of which he had openly swindled me, then in his hands, was 'a friendly
-loan.' And then he laughed, 'Ha! ha!' and he laughed, 'Ho! ho!' at me
-and my misery, and actually suffered a child in our family to perish and
-wretchedly die for the want of food and medicine. But then he told me
-that he had buried it properly, respectably, up there in the cemetery,
-and it was the only truth I ever heard from his lips. But then he sent
-the funeral bills for me to pay--all the while laughing at my
-misery--while the lordly house he occupied was redeemed from forced
-sale with my money, and himself and his feasted luxuriously every day on
-what was the price of _my heart's blood_! Still, they all laughed, 'Ha!
-ha!' and grew fat on my blood. I still have the memory of a dead child,
-up there in the cemetery. Poor starved child! It is no satisfaction to
-me to know that this man will die a disgraced pauper, dependent on
-charity for bread. Still less is it to realize, as I do, that the
-brothel and the gibbet, the gambling hell and massive prisons, are
-shadowed in the foreground of his line, and that it will utterly perish
-from off the earth in ignominy and horror. I would not have it so, but
-fate is fate; and I see, at least, one dangling form of his race
-swinging in the air! My prophetic eye beholds----"
-
-As the man uttered these terrible sentences, he shuddered as if
-horror-stricken at the impending fate of this wronger of the living and
-the dead, and it was clear to the girl that he would have freely averted
-the doom, had such a thing been possible.
-
-"Men and cliques," said he, "have used me for their purposes--have, like
-this ghoul, wormed themselves into my confidence, and then, when their
-ends were served, have ever abandoned me to wretchedness and misery.
-
-"Rosicrucians, and all other delvers in the mines of mystery, all
-dealers with the dead, all whose idiosyncracies are toward the ideal,
-the mystic and the sublime, are debtors to nature, and the price they
-pay for power is groans, tears, breaking hearts, and a misery that none
-but such doomed ones can either appreciate or understand. Compensation
-is an inexorable law of being, nor can there, by any possibility, be
-any evasion of it. The possession of genius is a certificate of
-perpetual suffering.
-
-"You now know why I am sad, O girl of the good heart. I am weak
-to-night; to-morrow will bring strength again. But, see! the golden sun
-is setting in the west. Alas! I fear that my sun is setting also for a
-long, long night of wretchedness."
-
-"You speak well, man of the sore spirit," replied the girl. "You speak
-well when you say the sun is setting; but you seem to forget that it
-will rise again, and shine as brightly as he does to-day! He will shine
-even though dark clouds hide him from us; and though you and I may not
-behold his glories, some one else will see his face, and feel his
-blessed heat. Old men tell us that the darkest hour is just before the
-break of day. I bid you take heart. _You may be happy yet!_"
-
-"The precise formula of the Mysterious Brotherhood!--the very words
-uttered by the dead mother who bore me! How did this girl obtain it?
-When? Where? From whom?"
-
-Beverly started, gazed into the mighty depths of her eye, was about to
-ask the questions suggested, but forbore.
-
-"We may all be happy yet," said she; "for the Great Spirit tells me so!"
-And she crossed her hands upon her virgin breast--breast glowing with
-immortal fervor and inspiration; and she threw, by a toss of the head,
-her long, black sea of hair behind her, and stood revealed the perfect
-incarnation of faith and hope, as if her upturned eyes met God's glance
-from Heaven. The old chief and the boy at his side said nothing, but
-each instinctively folded his hands in the attitude of confidence and
-prayer. The combined effect of all this upon the young man was electric.
-The singular incident struck him so forcibly that he rose to his feet,
-placed his hand upon the girl's head, uplifted his eyes and voice to
-heaven, and, from the depths of his soul, responded "Amen, and Amen."
-
-It was at this critical instant that I, the editor of these papers,
-chanced to come up to where this scene was being enacted. A few words
-sufficed for an introduction, and on that spot begun a friendship
-between us all that death himself is powerless to break.
-
-Two hours thereafter, the chief, his son, the girl, the youth, were,
-with myself, partaking of a friendly meal at the old man's house. After
-the repast was over, the conversation took a philosophic turn, in which
-the chief, who was a really splendid specimen of the cultivated Indian,
-took an active and interested part.
-
-Presently the old people took their pipes, the younger ones went to bed,
-and Beverly and 'Levambea, as she was almost universally called, walked
-out, and sat them down beneath an old sycamore that stretched its giant
-limbs like the genius of protection over the cottage. There they talked
-gaily enough at first, but presently in a tender and pathetic strain;
-and it was clear that there had sprung up between them already something
-much warmer than friendship, yet which was not love. When they rose to
-enter the house, the last words uttered by the girl--uttered in the
-same singularly inspired strain observed on their first meeting--were,
-"Yes! I _will_ love you; but not _here_, not _now_, perhaps not on
-_this_ earth. Yet I will be your prop, your stay, though deep seas
-between us roll. Listen! When I am in danger you will know it, wherever
-you may be. When you are in danger you will see me. Forget not what I
-say. Ask me no questions. Your fate is a singular one, but not more so
-than my own. Good night! Good-bye! We will see each other no more at
-present--_it is not permitted_!" And without another word she abruptly
-left him, darted into the house, passed up the stairs, and was gone like
-a spirit.
-
-Next day, at the solicitation of the chief and others who took an
-interest in young Beverly, he consented to go with me to my home, many
-leagues from that spot; and, accordingly, in due time we arrived there,
-and for several months he was an inmate of my house; and, while under
-the shadow of ill health and its consequent sympathetic state, I became
-intimate with many of the loftier and profound secrets of the celebrated
-Rosicrucian fraternity, with which he was familiar, and which he gave me
-liberty to divulge to a certain extent, conditioned that I forbore to
-reveal the locality of the lodges of the Dome, or indicate the persons
-or names of its chief officers, albeit, no such restriction was exacted
-in reference to the lesser temples of the order--covering the first
-three degrees in this country--to the acolytes of which the higher
-lodges are totally unknown. Oh! how often have I sat beside him, on the
-green banks of a creek that ran through my little farm, and raptly
-listened to the profoundest wisdom, the most exalted conceptions and
-descriptions of the soul, its origin, nature, powers, and its
-destinies--listened to metaphysical speculations that fairly racked my
-brain to comprehend, and all this from the lips of a man totally
-incapable of grappling successfully with the money-griping world of
-barter and of trade. Here was the most tremendous contradiction, in one
-man, that I had ever known or heard of. One who revelled in mental
-luxuries fit for an angel, yet had not forecast enough to foil a common
-trickster;--who blindly, and for years, reposed his whole trust in one
-whose sole aim was to rob him not only of his little competence, but of
-his character as a man--who suffered one near and dear to him to starve,
-literally starve to death, and then be buried, at the very moment that
-himself and his were luxuriating on the very money for which that man
-had bartered health, and almost life itself! Was it not very singular? I
-have wondered, time and again, how such things could be, and intensely
-so when he has been revealing to me some of the loftier mysteries of the
-Order; when talking of Apollonius of Tyanae, the Platonists, the elder
-Pythagoreans; of the Sylphs, Salamanders and Glendoveers; of Cardan, and
-Yung-tse-Soh, and the Cabalistic Light; of Hermes Trismegistus, and the
-Smaragdine Tables; of sorcery and magic, white and black; of the
-Labyrinth, and Divine policy; of the God, and the republic of gods; of
-the truths and absurdities of the gold-seeking Hermetists and
-pseudo-Rosicrucians; of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius,
-and the Alexandrine Clement; of Origen and Macrobius, Josephus and
-Philo; of Enoch and the pre-Adamite races; of Dambuk and Cekus, Psellus,
-Jamblichus, Plotinus and Porphyrius, Paracelsus, and over seven hundred
-other mystical authors.
-
-Said he to me one day, "Do you remember laughing at me when I first
-began to talk about the Rosicrucians? and you asserted that, if such a
-fraternity existed, it must be composed either of knaves or fools,
-laughing heartily when informed that the order ramified extensively on
-both sides of the grave, and, on the other shore of time, was known in
-its lower degrees as the Royal Order of the Foli, and, towering
-infinitely beyond and above that, was the great Order of the Neridii;
-and that whoever, actuated by proper motives, joined the fraternity on
-this side of the grave, was not only assured of protection, and a vast
-amount of essential knowledge imparted to him here, but also of sharing
-a lot on the farther side of life, compared to which all other destinies
-were insignificant and crude. I repeat this assertion now."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER VI.
-
-  NAPOLEON III. AND THE ROSICRUCIANS--AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN AND AN
-                       EXTRAORDINARY THEORY.
-
-
-Beverly continued his very singular narrative, saying:--"You have
-already been informed of the singular doom that hangs over me--that I am
-condemned to perpetual transmigrations, unless relieved by a marriage
-with a woman in whom not one drop of the blood of Adam circulates--and
-even then, the love must be perfect and mutual. Thus my chance is about
-as one in three hundred and ninety-six billions against, to a single one
-for me. This doom has brought around me, as it did around others before
-me, certain beings, powers, influences, and at length I became a
-voluntary adept in the Rosicrucian mysteries and brotherhood. How, when,
-or where I was found worthy of initiation, of course I am not at liberty
-to tell; suffice it that I belong to the Order, and have been--by
-renouncing certain things--admitted to the companionship of the living,
-the dead, and those who never die; have been admitted to the famous
-Derishavi-Laneh, and am familiar with the profoundest secrets of the
-Fakie-Deeva Records; and through life have had ever three great
-possibilities before me: one of these--I being a neutral soul--is that
-of becoming after death a chief of a supreme order, called the Light;
-or of its opposite, called the Shadow--to which I am tempted by
-invisible, but potent agencies; and the third of which is the one I
-dread most--the perpetuation of the doom to wander the earth for ages,
-in various bodies, as the result of the curse pronounced by a dying man
-ages ago, as you already have been told, unless I be redeemed by a true
-marriage with a woman in whom not one drop of the blood of Adam
-circulates. I desire to avoid all three if possible, and to share the
-lot of other men.
-
-"I have another mysterious thing to relate to you. Doubtless you
-recollect that the curse was uttered by the young poet--and that the
-mysterious voice heard in the dungeon where he was slain, declared that
-thenceforth, until the doom was fully accomplished, this youth during
-all his ages should be known as the Stranger. Well, in the course of the
-centuries that rolled away, this Stranger became a member of an august
-Fraternity in the Heavens, known as the Power of the Light. You know,
-also, that I, who was the king, incurred the penalty of wandering till
-relieved; and you are also aware that him who was the Vizier was
-sentenced to a singular destiny under the name of Dhoula Bel. Well, he
-also became an active member of a vast Association in the Spaces, known
-as the Power of the Shadow. This is but one half of the mystery, for it
-became the object of both Dhoula Bel and the Stranger--who both knew
-that in my birth from the woman Flora--years before I underwent my
-present incarnation--that I would be in every respect a Neutral man; one
-having no tendencies whatever, naturally, to either good or evil, but
-only toward ATTAINMENT; and as such neutral man, it became possible to
-forego my doom, and to become supreme chief of either of the Orders
-named; hence both Dhoula Bel and the Stranger, beside their original,
-have the strong additional motive of making me subservient to their
-loftier views; and to achieve it, they frequently attend me in visible
-and invisible shapes--tempting, nearly ruining, and as often saving me
-from dangers worse than death itself--in what way has already been
-partly told, and will be hereafter seen.
-
-"In one of my frequent sojourns in Paris, I became acquainted with a few
-reputed Rosicrucians, and after sounding their depths, found the water
-very shallow, and very muddy--as had been the case with those I met in
-London--Bulwer, Jennings, Wilson, Belfedt, Archer, Socher, Corvaja, and
-other pretended adepts--like the Hitchcocks, Kings, Scotts, and others
-of that ilk, on American soil. At length, there came an invitation from
-Baron D----t, for me to attend, and take part in, a Mesmeric Seance. I
-attended; and from the reputation I gained on that occasion, but a few
-days elapsed ere I was summoned to the Tuilleries, by command of his
-majesty, Napoleon III.,[3] who for thirty-four years had been a True
-Rosicrucian, and whom I had before met at the same place, but on a
-different errand than the present. What then and there transpired, so
-far as myself was an actor, it is not for me to say, further than that
-certain experiments in clairvoyance were regarded as very successful,
-even for Paris, which is the centre of the Mesmeric world, and where
-there are hundreds who will read you a book blindfold; and two--Alexis,
-and Adolph Didier--who will do the same, though the page be inclosed in
-the centre of a dozen boxes of metal or wood, one within the other.
-
-[3] This is a fact--as is also the whole succeeding account of what took
-place at this extraordinary seance. The anachronism observable is
-purposely made.--ED.
-
-"On this occasion I had played and conquered at both chess and ecarte,
-no word being spoken, the games simultaneous, and the players in three
-separate rooms. There was present, also, an Italian gentleman with an
-unpronounceable name; a Russian Count Tsovinski, and a Madame Dablin--a
-mesmerist and operatic singer. After awhile his majesty asked the
-empress, and the general (Pellisier), who afterwards became the Duke de
-Malakoff, if they would submit to a trial of mesmerism by either of the
-three professors of the art, named. They declined; whereupon the
-Emperor, speaking aloud, asked 'if any of the company were willing to
-test, in their own persons, the vaunted powers of his excellency, the
-Italian Count?' whose methods of inducing his magnetic marvels differed
-altogether from those usually adopted; inasmuch as he, like Boucicault,
-the actor, in his famous play--'The Phantom'--makes no passes, scarcely
-glances for an instant at his subjects, and invariably looks _away_
-from, not toward, them. Now, it is a well-known fact that everybody
-believes everybody else, save themselves, subject to mesmeric influence,
-as is often demonstrated at the weekly seances of the Magnetic Society,
-held in the Rue Grenelle St. Honore.
-
-"At the date of this Imperial Seance, spiritualism had not yet made
-public pretensions in France, and although the Scotch trickster, Daniel
-Hume, had crossed the Atlantic, and was at that time living at Cox's, in
-Jermyn street, Picadilly, London--yet he had not then obtained the
-notoriety that subsequently became his, nor had half Europe ran after
-those in whose presence tables tipped by heel, toe, and genuine spirit
-power. Of course, then, spiritual phenomena, so called, being then under
-bann, it could not be, and was not depended on as a means of explaining
-what there and then took place.
-
-"'With great pleasure,' said the Count, in reply to a request to exhibit
-his power. 'With great pleasure, your majesty,' and forthwith he turned
-and looked straight into a massive mirror that occupied the entire space
-between two windows of the saloon. As he spoke it struck me that,
-somewhere, at some time, I had met this Italian Rosicrucian, but where,
-for the life of me, I could not tell; yet I was certain that I had heard
-that voice, and still more certain that I had beheld that strange, sweet
-smile.
-
-"The Count's position before the mirror was such that, supposing his eye
-had been a flame, the reflected rays would strike the forehead of one of
-the company fairly in the centre. The person upon whom it struck had not
-the least suspicion of what was being done. He did not make the
-discovery until it was too late, for no sooner did the operator get him
-fairly in focus, then he clenched his hands, looked with ten-fold
-earnestness at the mirror, muttered to himself a few unintelligible
-words, and the gentleman fell to the floor as if his heart had been
-perforated by a bullet, or as if he had been struck down with a club. In
-an instant all was confusion, everybody thinking it a fit of apoplexy,
-except the Emperor, the operator, myself and the Russian.
-
-"Several went to raise him, but before they could do so he sprung to his
-feet, began to sing and dance--the truth, at the same time, flashed upon
-the company, that the phenomenon was mesmeric--and in another minute to
-plead for his life, as if before his judges, with the prison and the axe
-before him. The scene was solemn to the last degree.
-
-"Suddenly, and without a word from the Count, the pleading changed to a
-musical scena; and although, at other times totally incapable of singing
-or playing in the least degree, he performed several difficult pieces in
-magnificent style, on the harp and piano, accompanying the performances
-vocally, and in a manner that drew involuntary plaudits from every
-person present.
-
-"This part of the performance was suddenly terminated; for the sleeping
-subject placed himself in the exact spot in which the Italian had stood,
-and, like him, gazed steadily at the mirror, and in twenty seconds the
-man who stood in the line of reflection fell to the floor, and a lady
-who, in going to his assistance, chanced to strike that line, instantly
-seized, raised him as easily as if he had been a doll, and with him
-commenced a dance unique, wild and perfectly indescribable. It was
-infectious, for in less than half a minute seventeen persons, high lords
-and stately dames, were wheeling, whirling, leaping, flying about the
-room in wilder measures than were ever performed by mad Bachantes. They
-had all been magnetized by proxy.
-
-"Astonished beyond measure at this extraordinary display, I retired, the
-better to watch the progress of the strange scene, to the opposite side
-of the saloon, and leaned carelessly against one of two colossal
-Japanese josses that stood there. No person was anywhere near me, and in
-my surprise I murmured below my breath: 'What astonishing power!' and am
-certain that a person standing close at my side could not have discerned
-what I said, yet nevertheless the thought was scarcely framed before the
-Count turned square upon his heel, advanced straight toward me, smiled
-sweetly, strangely, as he did so, and said: 'All this power is
-yours--and much that is still more mysterious--if you but say the word!'
-
-"'What word?' asked I, surprised that a man should so readily read my
-thought--for it is impossible that he could have heard my exclamation.
-
-"'That you will voluntarily join the most august fraternity that ever
-earth contained! Think of it! We shall meet again.'
-
-"'When? where?' I asked hurriedly, for the august company were observing
-us, especially the Emperor, who, beneath his heavy brows, was evidently
-paying quite as much attention to us as to the wonderful things then
-occurring across the room.
-
-"He did not reply directly, but, by a continuation of his breach of
-etiquette resumed, saying: 'By the exercise of the power I possess, and
-will impart to you, conditionally; you shall be capable of depriving any
-man of speech, and make man, woman or child perfectly subservient to
-your _silent_ command, as the people yonder are to mine. There is Jean
-Boyard, in this Paris, who merely looks at any small object, and makes
-it dance toward him. You shall exceed him fifty-fold! On the Boulevart
-du Temple M. Hector produces a full-blown rose from a green bud, in
-seven minutes; you shall be able to do it in one.
-
-"'In the Rue de Bruxelles lives a girl--Julie Vimart--who exceeds Alexis
-and all the other sleepers, for she beats you at chess, tells you all
-you know, and much that you have forgotten; you shall do all that and
-more. In the street _Grand Pere_, lives a boy who brings messages from
-the living, in their sleep; meets and converses with your friends--when
-_they_ slumber, and describes them as perfectly as the sun paint their
-portraits in the cameras of Talbot and Dagguerre; you shall have that
-power.
-
-"'In the Rue du Jour, is a _Sage Femme_, who cures all diseases that are
-curable, by a simple touch and prayer: you shall have that power greater
-than she can ever hope to. It is only necessary to say 'I will have
-these powers!' and they shall be yours. They all are well worth having.
-I learned my secret among the magi of the East--men not half so
-civilized as are we of the West; but who, nevertheless, _know_ a great
-deal more than the sapient men of Christendom--that is, less of
-machinery, politics, and finance; but a great deal more of the human
-soul, its nature, its powers, and the methods of their developement.
-Instead of being surprised at modern scientific revelations, we of the
-True Temple----' '_What_ Temple?' I interrupted him to ask. 'Of the
-_Supreme Dome_ of the Rosie Cross,' said he.
-
-"The Emperor must have heard this question and its answer, for he
-directly crossed over to us, and actually joined this curious
-_tete-a-tete_. The Count bowed; did not seem at all embarrassed by the
-presence of the son of Admiral Verhuiel, the great Dutch founder of the
-Second Empire--or Emperor ----.
-
-"'As I was saying,' the Count resumed, 'instead of being elated at what
-Western science has done, _we_ are ashamed of the tardy steps of
-"Progress"--Progress indeed! Where is it, save in wretchedness, poverty,
-crime, selfishness, and in the accrement of misery. Progress is more
-fancied than real. Civilization is a misnomer, utilitarianism a
-desecration of man's soul, Philosophy an imposture, and learning
-altogether false!'
-
-"I was pleased to see the Emperor join the conversation at this point,
-for two reasons: first, to hear what he had to say; and secondly, to
-observe whether the subjects on the floor could be kept under the
-Count's influence while his mind was abstracted from them and centered
-on matters entirely different.
-
-"'Do not be disturbed at what he says,' said his majesty, 'for these
-Mesmerists are all slightly mad.' And he smiled, while the Count
-shrugged his shoulders, and exclaimed:
-
-"'With a method, however!'
-
-"Then turning his attention toward the company, by some inscrutable
-power he stopped the dance, restored the subjects to their normal state,
-and almost instantly thereafter exercised it upon Madame Dablin, who
-straightway, with closed eyes, approached a grand piano, swept its keys
-with matchless skill, as a prelude, and then launched forth into one of
-the strangest, most brilliant, yet wild and weird fantasias, that genius
-ever dreamed of. I cannot now stop to describe its effect upon the
-company, nor upon myself, for my whole being was absorbed at that moment
-in matters far more important to me than a mesmeric experiment, however
-interesting and successful it might be; for at best, its effect and
-memory would be transient and ephemeral, while, on the contrary, the
-things I might learn from the Italian might last so long as my conscious
-soul endured. I was not, therefore, disappointed when he resumed his
-talk. I cannot now repeat the _ipsissima verba_ of what he said, but the
-substance, in reply to questions by the Emperor and myself, was in
-effect this:
-
-"'The soul and its qualities, passions and volume are all clearly marked
-upon the physique, and are apparent to all who possess the proper key;
-to all others, the difficulty lies in correctly reading these signs, and
-a still greater in assigning to each faculty its actual, its possible,
-and its relative strength and value. Every act that a man does has an
-effect upon both his body and soul, and the imprints thereof are
-indelibly stamped upon his features; therefore his past--even his most
-secret act or thought--can be read by the adept with as much ease as if
-his face were a printed page, the type being large, smooth and clear.
-Every man is susceptible of being controlled mesmerically by another,
-because no man is collectively stronger than his weakest faculty; a
-chain is no stronger than its most defective link. Now I control men
-because I know at a glance which is the most vulnerable portion of their
-nature. Self-love, Emulation and Will are the trinity in unity around
-which the Psychal Republic revolves. One of these is always vulnerable;
-subdue that, and you subdue the man. Now, when I perform such
-experiments as those now being exhibited, I first mesmerize, not the
-entire brain, but a single faculty, which in turn speedily subdues all
-the rest. The mind of man is a mirror! Conceded. Well, then, I
-forthwith, by an effort of will, entirely vacate my own mind, thinking
-of nothing but a revolving wheel. The subject reflects my action; then
-in fancy I sing, dance, play, and the subject reflects my thought by
-appropriate action.'
-
-"'But,' said one, 'suppose your subject understands nothing about these
-accomplishments. How then?'
-
-"'All souls understand them. Bodies may not; and I bring the soul under
-subjection, not the body merely.'
-
-"'This is a dangerous power to possess,' said the Emperor, 'and none but
-a good man ought to have it.'
-
-"'A bad man cannot become a true Rosicrucian, although men have turned
-their arms against the race, and the secrets of the fraternity, like all
-things else, have been trifled with and abused. Thus it is possible for
-an expert to cure a diseased man by the exercise of the power alluded
-to. But the rule is dual: it is also possible to kill a healthy man by
-the same mysterious means; and indeed it has often been done, especially
-by the natives of Africa.
-
-"'I persuade my soul that you are sick and will die, and if I keep up
-the will and wish, nothing is more certain than that both will be
-accomplished. Some men naturally possess enormous powers of will, and
-are able to project visible images, like those of a phantasmagoria--
-images of whatever they choose to fancy--a flower, a hand, arm, or a
-human form--and these spectra will be visible to scores of startled
-observers, who, in their utter ignorance of the human mind and body, and
-their respective and conjoined powers, believe them to be the veritable
-ghosts of dead men, and objects produced by them. I learned recently
-that in London is at this moment a young Scotchman, named Hume, who
-possesses this power to a remarkable degree, and also that of
-levitation, and who is coining fame and fortune by pretending that the
-psychical phenomenon is really and truly spiritual--which is not the
-case. I learned this great secret in the Punjaub, of Naumsavi Chitty,
-the chief of the Rosicrucians of India, and the greatest reformer since
-Budha.'
-
-"At this point the Emperor asked the Count to exhibit a specimen of his
-spectre-producing power, to which the latter assented. First he walked
-rapidly several times up and down the saloon, gave directions to lower
-the lights, which was done, and then, as before, he stood still
-directly in front of the mirror for a minute or two, and then, in a
-sharp, cracked tone, repeated thrice the word 'Look!' We did so, and as
-I live, there flashed the semblance of a thousand chains of vivid
-lightning across the face of the mirror, along the floor, over the
-ceiling, up and down the walls; now like forks, then as chains of
-electric fluid; anon changing to fiery acorns, which gradually formed
-themselves into a fiery crown, rose gently, floated over the company for
-a few seconds, and then rested in the air about five inches above the
-head of Napoleon III.--a crown of fire!
-
-"'Mind,' said he, after this splendid proof of his weird ability, 'I do
-not aver that all the phenomena exhibited in these days as spiritual are
-produced as I have these; but I do say that not one-tenth part is
-attributable to spiritual agencies. That which is indeed spiritual is
-not all the product of dead men, but much of it proceeds from the Larvae
-and inhabitants of the spaces between the rolling globes.'
-
-"Then turning to me, he repeated his invitation to become an acolyte of
-the Temple; said we should meet again; and shortly thereafter the seance
-broke up, and I left the palace, greatly wiser than when I entered it
-five hours before.
-
-"Calling a _voiture de remise_, I entered it and rode home to my hotel.
-Arrived there, I dismounted beneath the glare of a street lamp, and drew
-forth my pocket-book to pay my fare. On opening it, what was my surprise
-at finding a letter, closely sealed, within it, directed to myself. I
-paid the coachman, hastened to my chamber, and then, eagerly tearing
-the envelope, I read the following very singular letter, written in a
-female hand, and in the English language:
-
-  "'MONSIEUR,
-
-   "'Remember that you have met one human soul who knows and
-   _thoroughly_ understands your strange, mysterious and inexplicable
-   nature--your heaven's heights, your hell's depths, your spacic
-   breadth, your volcanic eruptions, your ocean of god-like calmness,
-   and all-pervading, all-sustaining, holy stillness and quiet, wherein
-   the soul in its magnificent grandeur sweeps over all space and all
-   time, and lives an infinity of lives in its own self-created world!
-   As such I see and know you. Yet in all this I see still other and a
-   greater character to arise in your being than now exists there; I see
-   a character is to arise, if you will allow the grander, diviner
-   elements of your being, and also the heavenly elements that surround
-   you, to blend into one united force of harmonic intelligence, that
-   will mould your _entire self_ into a man such as I cannot now
-   describe. Two ways, my friend, are now before you. One so grand, so
-   sublime, that I would (in order to explain it) demand the eloquence
-   of a Patrick Henry, the strength of a Caesar, the love of a _greater_
-   still, the wisdom of a god; the other, not all these combined could
-   give me power to depict.
-
-   "'In the name of _Him_ and humanity, choose the right.
-
-   "'Such are the feelings of one who knows you.
-
-   "'Listen--be quiet! your time is precious.
-
-                                                            "'Adieu!'
-
-"This was Greek, Hebrew, Sanscrit, all combined, to me; and it continued
-so for a long, long time. It was evidently written by some one who,
-while fully aware of one of my weaknesses--a susceptibility to
-flattery--yet knew not the man himself. Still, the allusions to my awful
-secret were too palpable to admit a doubt that the writer knew far more
-than that strange letter said or hinted at. Was it the mysterious Count?
-If so, why did he take so great an interest in a stranger? I could not
-understand it.
-
-"Of course I thought much of the Italian Count, and ardently longed to
-know more of, if I did not join, the mystic Fraternity whereof he was a
-member; but to no human being had I ever opened my mind upon the
-subject, either in Paris, or Naples, whither I repaired on my way to the
-Orient. Indeed, in the latter city the subject lay _perdu_ in the
-cellars of my mind, for I sought to banish all care while in Italy, in
-order to drink full draughts of music--that balm for fevered souls.
-
-"While there, I one night went to San Carlos to hear the opera of the
-'Barber of Seville,' and to listen to the glorious strains of Mario,
-Grisi and Gassier. I had been charmed out of all my griefs by the
-celebrated 'Music Lesson' of the latter cantatrice, and as I walked
-homeward I hummed its notes as I passed along, and it rung in my ears
-long after I had lain down to sleep. With the peculiar caution of
-Americans generally, but of Californians especially--whose habits I had
-imbibed during my short residence within the Golden Gate--before
-retiring I had carefully examined the room, for Italians, especially
-Neapolitans, bear watching, to see that all was safe and right. It was
-so. Then securely fastening both doors and windows, I was soon drifting
-up and down the Dream Sea. Beneath my pillow was my money belt, in which
-was about two thousand dollars in gold, which, together with a revolver,
-loaded to the muzzle, was the property of my friend T----s.
-
-"In the morning the room was as when I slept; but the charges were drawn
-from the pistol, and the gold lay on the table arranged in the form of a
-triangle, surmounted by the letter 'R,' while, pinned to the bosom of my
-sleeping robe, was a note in English, in a bold, clear handwriting, but
-in red ink. That note was not there the night before; it could not have
-been placed there by human hands! 'Do not fail,' it read, 'to remember
-the purpose for which you crossed the seas, for your enterprise concerns
-the future ages of the world! It is not yet accomplished. Achieve it. I
-will yet serve and save you.--E.'
-
-"I was thunder-struck. Again some mysterious being was crossing my path;
-that being whose strange domain lay on either side of Time, and whose
-will seemed ever to hedge me about like a wall of fire, so that escape
-from the strange destiny that hung over me seemed almost impossible. I
-was in despair, for already had grey hairs shown themselves; I felt that
-I was growing prematurely old, and that the chances were greatly against
-me, a son of Adam, ever wedding with a daughter of Ish."
-
-
-
-
-                              BOOK II.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER I.
-
-                       ABOUT THE ROSICRUCIANS.
-
-
-It is no part of my (the editor's) design to recount all the adventures
-of Beverly, nor to trace his paths through Egypt, Syria, Turkey, nor
-Europe. Suffice it, that I became so interested in his story that I
-accompanied him on more than one long journey. Occasionally I would lose
-sight of him for months together, but by the strangest seeming accident
-we would meet again, now on the top of Ghizeh's great pyramid, now in
-the deserts of Dongola and Nubia; then in a French cafe, anon in the
-columned groves of Karnak and of Thebes. We often parted, and as often
-met again; and in the interim I had not failed to investigate certain
-grave secrets which he had confided to me. I did not fully believe his
-strange doctrines; but I am sure that he did, and therefore he commanded
-my sympathy and respect. As previously indicated, on my first
-acquaintance with him I was exceedingly sceptical in regard to the
-existence, in these days, of the Brotherhood of the Rosie Cross, and
-derided his assertions respecting their powers. True I had heard much,
-and read more, concerning the celebrated fraternity--an association
-that has proved a veritable God-send to scores of paper-stainers in all
-parts of the globe where letters reign, as witness Charles Mackay,
-Kingsley, Robert Southey, and fifty others, not omitting Bulwer Lytton,
-his "Zanoni," and "Strange Story," nor Hargrave Jennings and his
-"Curious Things" about "Fire" and the "Outside World."
-
-In my varied travels through Europe and the East, as well as in this, my
-native land, I have met with scores, not to say hundreds, who boasted
-themselves Rosicrucians; and it is but a little while since there
-appeared, in a "spiritual" sheet in Boston, first a learned lecture, by
-a female "medium," on the Rosicrucians, and a long communication,
-purporting to come from a deceased adept of the Order, both of which
-were quite laughable by reason of the total and utter ignorance
-displayed. Probably both of these "enlighteners" had heard or read of
-Dr. Everard's "Compte de Gabalis," and took that humorous bit of
-badinage as the real, simon-pure explanation of Rosicrucianism as,
-indeed, was natural, seeing that hundreds have fallen into the same
-comical error; for, upon applying the touch-stone to all these pretended
-adepts in the secrets, sublime and mighty, of the Order, it is found
-that, exceptionless, they are woefully deficient in even the rudiments
-of the genuine fraternity; nor have these modern pretenders any more
-real claims to the truth than the hordes of fanatics which swarmed all
-over Europe an age or two ago, and who brought ineffable disgrace both
-upon themselves and the sublime name which they stole.
-
-A good gold coin passes very quietly through the world, but your
-counterfeit makes a great noise wherever it may chance to be; so with
-the pseudo-Rosicrucians. The latter created a sensation, and then
-disappeared, only occasionally jingling their bells to let the world
-know that the fools were not all defunct; while the true Brotherhood
-went on, and still goes on, quietly performing its mission.
-
-Every student of history is, or ought to be, aware that the pretended
-"adepts" in past times laid claim to enormous amounts of the most
-wonderful knowledge, but when put to the proof, invariably failed to
-substantiate their claims. Such were the men who sought, and, in some
-instances, pretended to have succeeded, in accomplishing the composition
-of the Philosopher's Stone and the great Elixir.
-
-Vaughan, in his "Hours with the Mystics," laughs at the idea that there
-ever was really such a society as that of the Brethren of the Rosie
-Cross, and alleges that they were but the "Mrs. Harris" of certain
-romancers of the past two centuries; in other words, that they are
-altogether mistaken who suppose such a society ever had existence. Baron
-Fischer, now of San Francisco, declares that there really was such an
-order, but that it was composed of Fools, Fanatics, and Moon-struck
-Madmen, who in time became the laughing-stock of all Europe. On the
-other hand, Lydde, the traveller, asserts positively, in his great work,
-"The Asian Mystery," that he has traced the Order, under one or more of
-its names, back into the very night-time of the world's history. And
-Abdul Rahman, the Arabian author, boldly declares that _he_ has proved
-the existence of this Brotherhood in ages so remote that Christian and
-Jewish history is modern in comparison.
-
-Hein, Hun--Tse-Foh, the Chinese annalist, asserts, that the Order
-originated in Tartary thousands of years before the foundation of the
-Chinese empire, itself claiming an age of over thirty thousand solar
-years! From Tartary it went to Japan, thence to China, thence to Persia,
-thence to Arabia, thence to India, and, by stages, to Europe, having
-passed through Egypt, Jewry, and Phoenicia on its way down the ages.
-
-So much for Vaughan; now for another "authority." Under the letter "R,"
-in the American Encyclopedia, occurs the word "Rosicrucians," followed
-by--"Members of a society, the existence of which became unexpectedly
-known at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its object was
-ostensibly the reformation of Church, State, and individuals, but closer
-examination showed that the discovery of the Philosophers' Stone was the
-true object of the fully initiated. A certain Christian, Rosenkrauze,
-who was said to have lived long among the Brahmins in Egypt, etc., was
-pretended to have founded the Order in the fourteenth century; but the
-real founder is believed to have been one Andrea, a German scholar, of
-the beginning of the sixteenth century, whose object, as is thought, was
-to purify Religion, which had been degraded by Scholastic Philosophy.
-Others think that he only gave a new character to a society founded
-before him by Cornelius Agrippa, of Nettesheim. Krause, the author,
-says, that Andrea occupied his time from early youth with the plan of a
-secret society for the improvement of mankind. In 1614 he published his
-famous "Reformation of the Whole Wide World," and his "Fama
-Fraternitas." Christian enthusiasts and alchemists considered the
-poetical society, partially described in these books, as having a real
-existence, and thus Andrea became the author of the later Rosicrucian
-fraternities which extended over Europe. After a number of books had
-been written on the Rosicrucian system, and the whole exploded, the
-interest in it was revived in the latter half of the eighteenth century,
-in consequence of the abolition of the Order of Jesuits, and the story
-of their machinations, as well as of the frauds of Cagliostro and other
-notorious impostors."
-
-So much for the wiseacre who wrote this account at so much a line for
-the "American Encyclopedia."
-
-In juxta-position to the above, I quote part of pages 132-3-4 and 5,
-_verbatim_, of the autobiography of Heinrich Jung Stilling, late Aulic
-Counsellor to the Grand Duke of Baden. London: 1858. James Nisbet,
-Berners street. 3d Edition. Says this incomparable man:
-
-"One morning in the spring of 1796, a handsome young man, in a green
-silk-plush coat, and otherwise well dressed, came to Stilling's house at
-Ockershaussen. This gentleman introduced himself in such a manner as
-betrayed a polished and genteel education. Stilling inquired who he was,
-and learnt that he was the remarkable ----. Stilling was astonished at
-the visit, and his astonishment was increased by the expectation of
-what this extremely enigmatical individual might have to communicate.
-After both had sat down, the stranger began by saying that he wished to
-consult Stilling relative to a person diseased in the eyes. However, the
-real object of his visit pressed him in such a manner that he began to
-weep; kissed, first, Stilling's hand, then his arm, and said: 'Sir, are
-not you the author of the "Nostolgia?"' 'Yes, sir.' 'You are, therefore,
-one of my secret superiors' (in the Grand Lodge of the R. C.) Here he
-again kissed Stilling's hand and arm, and wept almost aloud. Stilling
-answered: 'No, dear sir; I am neither your nor any one else's secret
-superior. I am not in any secret connection whatever.' The stranger
-looked at Stilling with a fixed eye, and inward emotion, and replied:
-'Dearest friend, cease to conceal yourself! I _have been long tried_,
-and severely enough. I thought you knew me already!' Stilling: 'No, Mr.
-----, I assure you solemnly that I stand in no secret connection, and in
-reality understand nothing of all that you require of me!'
-
-"This speech was too strong and too serious to leave the stranger in
-uncertainty. It was now his turn to be astonished and amazed. He
-therefore continued: 'But tell me, then, how is it that you know
-anything of the great and venerable connection in the East which you
-have so circumstantially described in the "Nostolgia," and have even
-pointed out their rendezvous in Egypt, on Mount Sinai, in the Monastery
-of Canobin, and under the Temple at Jerusalem?' 'I know nothing of all
-this,' replied Stilling. 'But these ideas presented themselves in a
-very lively manner to my imagination. It was, therefore, mere fable and
-fiction.
-
-"'Pardon me, the matter is the truth and reality as you have described
-it. It is astonishing that you have hit it in such a manner--this cannot
-have come by chance!' The gentleman now related the real particulars of
-the association in the East. Stilling was amazed and astonished beyond
-measure; for he heard remarkable and extraordinary things, which are
-not, however, of such a nature as can be made public. I only affirm that
-what Stilling learnt from the gentleman had not the most remote
-reference to political matters.
-
-"About the same time a certain great prince wrote to Stilling, and asked
-him 'How it was that he knew anything about the association in the East,
-for the thing was as he had described it in the "Nostolgia."' The answer
-was naturally the same as that given verbally to the above-mentioned
-stranger. Stilling has experienced several things of this kind, in which
-his imagination exactly accorded with the real fact without previously
-having the least knowledge or presentiment of it. How it is, and why it
-is, God knows. Stilling makes no reflections upon the matter, but lets
-it stand upon its own value, and looks upon it as a direction of
-Providence, which purposes leading him in a distinguished manner. The
-development of the Eastern mystery is, however, a most important matter
-to him, because it has relation to the Kingdom of God. Much, indeed,
-remains in obscurity; for Stilling afterwards heard from another person
-of great consequence, something of an Oriental Alliance which was of a
-very different kind. It remains to be developed whether the two are
-distinct or identical."
-
-Thus far Jung Stilling. Quite recently I became aware of the existence
-of Rosicrucian Lodges in this country, obtained much information
-concerning the Fraternity, and have been privileged to publish the
-following Seven Paragraphs, concerning the exoteric practice of the
-Temple:
-
-                          THE ROSICRUCIANS,
-                       WHO AND WHAT THEY ARE.
-
-                     _Honor, Manhood, Goodness._
-
-                                TRY.
-
-I. The Rosicrucians are a body of good men, and true, working under a
-Grand Lodge Charter, deriving its power and authority from the Imperial
-Dome of the Third Supreme Temple of the Order, and the last (claiming
-justly to be the oldest association of men on earth, dating from the
-sinking of the New Atlantis Isle, nearly ten thousand years anterior to
-the days of Plato), and as a Grand Lodge, having jurisdiction over the
-entire continent of North America, and the Islands of the Sea. The Grand
-Lodge, and Temple, grant charters and dispensations to found or organize
-subsidiary lodges and temples, anywhere within the limits of its
-jurisdiction.
-
-II. All Rosicrucians are practical men, who believe in Progress, Law and
-Order, and in Self-development. They believe firmly that God helps those
-that help themselves; and they consequently adopt as the motto of the
-Order, the word TRY, and they believe that this little word of three
-letters may become a magnificent bridge over which a man may travel from
-Bad to Better, and from Better to Best--from ignorance to knowledge,
-from poverty to wealth, and from weakness to power.
-
-III. We constitute a large society in the world, and our ranks bid fair
-to largely swell in this land of Practical Men. There are hundreds of
-men of large culture, deep intuitions and liberal minds, who actually
-languish because they do not know each other--there being no organized
-body, save our own, which invites such men to join its ranks and find
-the fellowship which such men of such minds need. In our Lodges such men
-find all they seek, and more; in our weekly reunions the rarest and best
-intellects are brought in contact, the best thoughts are elicited, and
-the truest human pleasure experienced; forasmuch, as nothing impure,
-ignoble, mean or unmanly, is for an instant tolerated under any
-circumstance whatever; while, on the contrary, every inducement is held
-out to encourage all that is noble, good, true, beautiful, charitable
-and manly--and that, too, in a way totally unknown and unpractised in
-any other order, or association of men.
-
-IV. Every Rosicrucian is known, and is the sworn brother of every other
-Rosicrucian the wide world over, and as such is bound to render all
-possible aid and comfort (except when such aid would sanction crime or
-wrong doing, or interfere with the demands of public justice, social
-order, decency, sound morals or National prosperity and unity). In all
-things else, every Rosicrucian is bound to help another, so long as he
-can do it with a clear conscience, and not violate his honor, derogate
-from his personal dignity, or sully his own manhood. In all things
-worthy, one assists the other; in sickness, sorrow, life, death, and the
-troubles and trials of the world and society. Each man is eligible to
-one, two, or three degrees; and after once becoming a true Rosicrucian,
-it is next to impossible that he can ever afterward come to want, either
-for protection in all that is just, counsel in difficulty, food,
-raiment, shelter, and all true human sympathy;--all of which is freely
-rendered so long as the man remains a worthy DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE!
-
-Thus the Temple ensures its acolytes against want, mitigates their
-sorrow, enhances their usefulness to themselves and the world, braces
-and sharpens their intellects, fires their emulation, encourages all
-manly effort, assuages their grief, cultivates their hope, strengthens
-their self-reliance, self-respect, self-effort; it frowns on all wrong
-doing, seeks to elevate man in his own esteem, teaches due and loyal
-respect to woman, the laws, society and the world; it promotes stability
-of character, makes its votaries strive for MANHOOD in the full, true
-sense; adopts "Try" and "Excelsior" as living, practical mottoes; and
-thus, both directly and indirectly, does the Temple of Rosicrucia seek
-to increase the sum total of human happiness in the world, within and
-without its walls.
-
-V. Every man pays an initiation fee, and a monthly tax of one dollar.
-In return for which, the member has the advantage of all information the
-Lodge may be able to procure in the shape of lectures, debates, books,
-scientific papers, models, experiments in all the physical sciences,
-essays on philosophy, etc.; in addition to which he is allowed a sum,
-varying from four to fourteen dollars a week when sick, provided he
-needs such aid; he is visited, comforted, nursed, doctored, and, should
-he die, the Temple buries him--as a man and a Rosicrucian should be
-buried. If he dies an officer (and every man is eligible), his widow and
-children are properly cared for by the Order.[4]
-
-[4] The Grand Lodge contemplates the enactment of laws looking to the
-providing for the families of members when sick, and to their burial
-when dead, which will be secured by the payment of additional fees from
-time to time. It also contemplates a system of life insurance of its
-members, who, by the payment of certain fees, may secure a certain sum
-to their families at death sufficient to maintain them in comfort, but
-not in luxury or idleness. The system will probably be one of graduated
-annuities.
-
-VI. This Order is a school of the highest and best knowledge the earth
-affords. It is unlike any and all others, for, in addition to being a
-Mutual Protection Society, it reaches out in far higher and nobler
-aims--only a few, very few, of which are alluded to in this hand-book,
-which is merely printed to save much explanatory talk on the part of
-Rosicrucians who are being continually importuned for information
-respecting the said Order. One of its main objects is to be a School of
-Men; to make men more useful by rendering them stronger, more knowing,
-therefore wiser--therefore happier. As Rosicrucians we recognize the
-immense value of Sympathy, Encouragement, Emulation and Persistency--
-
-                    _Nil mortalibus, ardum est._
-
-           THERE IS NO DIFFICULTY TO HIM WHO TRULY WILLS!
-
-Whatever of good or great man has ever done, may still be accomplished
-by you and I, my brother, if we only think so, and set about in right
-good earnest, and no mistake. TRY! We proclaim the OMNIPOTENCE OF WILL!
-and we declare practically, and by our own achievements demonstrate, the
-will of man to be a supreme and all-conquering force when once fairly
-brought into play, but this power is only negatively strong when exerted
-for merely selfish or personal ends; when or wherever it is called into
-action for good ends, nothing can withstand its force. Goodness is
-Power; wherefore we take the best of care to cultivate the normal will,
-and thus render it a mighty and powerful engine for Positive Good. You
-cannot deceive a true Rosicrucian, for he soon learns how to read you
-through and through, as if you were a man of glass; and he attains this
-power by becoming a Rosicrucian only, nor can it be had through any
-other means whatever. The Temple teaches its acolytes how to rebuild
-this regal faculty of the human soul--the will; how to strengthen,
-purify, expand, and intensify it; and one of the first results
-observable after a man has become a true Rosicrucian, is that his vanity
-grows smaller by degrees, and beautifully less; for the first thing he
-fully realizes is that all he knows would probably make quite a large
-book, but that all he does not know would make a book considerably
-larger, and he therefore sets himself to learn. Where there's a will
-there's a way; and after getting rid of self-conceit, the man finds
-himself increasing in mental stature by imperceptible gradations, and
-finds himself a learned man by a process which he cannot fairly
-comprehend, and one which is neither appreciated or known outside of the
-Temple.
-
-As a consequence of travelling on this royal road to knowledge, the
-Rosicrucian soon learns to despise the weakness of wickedness, not by
-reason of any long-faced cant being poured into his ear, but because he
-finds out practically that manhood and virtue are safe investments,
-while badness or meanness won't pay. It is the universal testimony of
-all who have become true Rosicrucians, that within its symbolic walls
-there is a deeply mysterious influence for good pervading its
-atmosphere, under which every man of the Order becomes rapidly but
-normally individualized and intensified in character, manhood, and
-influence.
-
-VII. The doors of our Lodges are never closed against the honest,
-honorable or aspiring man; nor can any earthly potentate, no wielder of
-an empire's sceptre, no wearer of a kingly crown, gain admission by
-reason of his eminence; for though he be a king, he may not be a MAN, a
-title far above all others on the earth--a title nobler than any other
-ever earned by mortals! We Rosicrucians are proud of our eminence--and
-justly so--for we are a BROTHERHOOD OF MEN! and recognize MANHOOD as the
-true kingship; hence we honor that man highest who knows the most, and
-puts his knowledge to the highest and noblest uses, not only toward his
-brothers, but in any field in the world's great garden, for are not we
-all brethren? Does not the one great God rule over and love us? Even so!
-No man can enter our doors by reason of his wealth, for riches, unless
-put to manly uses, are detrimental;--bad--positively injurious! No man
-can enter our doors by reason of his fame, politics, or religion. The
-Order has nothing to do with a man's politics or religion, and it
-matters not what a man's creed is, so long as he IS A MAN. The Baptist
-is welcome, but not _as_ a Baptist; and so with men of all other faiths.
-No religion, no faith, no politics can be discussed from our platform,
-nor will their introduction be tolerated one moment. We accept men of
-all creeds, except such as outrage decency, manhood, sound morals, and
-public order, such as Free Lovers, Mormons, and birds of that feather;
-nor can any such person enter our ranks, no matter who he may be, or how
-high in fame or social place. No man is barred out of our Temple by
-reason of his poverty, for physical beggars are often kings in mind. All
-we ask or seek for in a man is HONOR, HONESTY, and ambition to KNOW MORE
-AND BE BETTER.
-
-Usually the Lodges of Rosicrucia meet once a week to hear lectures,
-exchange courtesies, thoughts, news; to listen to invited guests, debate
-questions in art, science, and philosophy; to mutually inform and
-strengthen each other; to investigate any and all subjects of a proper
-nature, and to cultivate that manly spirit and chivalric bearing which
-so well entitles their possessor to be called A MAN. These are a few of
-the good things of Rosicrucia. We seek no man--men seek us. Our
-facilities for obtaining knowledge and information on all subjects are,
-as may well be conceived, unsurpassed--unequalled. Financially we are
-satisfied. A Temple of Rosicrucia never yet felt the pressure of an
-exhausted exchequer, and probably never will. But this last is the least
-commendable thing about the Institution; yet it uses money for good
-purposes, and therefore has its chest supplied. All other essential
-information respecting the Order can be obtained BY TRYING!
-
-       .       .       .       .       .
-
-It will be seen that there is nothing magical here, yet I do not doubt
-but the members could tell strange stories if they chose.
-
-Many, but by no means all, the Alchemists and Hermetic Philosophers were
-acolytes of that vast secret Brotherhood, which has thrived from the
-earliest ages, and, under different names in different lands, has
-performed, is still performing its mission. The members of this mystic
-union were the Magi of old, who flourished in Chaldea (Mesopotamia) ages
-before one of their number (Heber) left his native plains, and on
-foreign soil founded the Hebraic confederation. They were the original
-Sabi and Sabeans, who for long ages preceded the Sages of Chaldea. They
-were the men who founded that Semitic civilization, the faint shade of
-which we find, having leaped long avenues of centuries, in the mouldy
-records of early China, itself numbering its years by the thousand. Of
-this great Brotherhood sprung Brahma, Buddha, La-otze, Zoroaster, Plato,
-the Gnostics, the Essenes, and therefore Christ himself--who was an
-Essene, and who preached the sacred doctrines of the Mountain of Light.
-They were the Dreamers of the ages--the sun of the epochs--eclipsed
-occasionally, but anon bursting forth in glory again. They were the men
-who first discovered the significance of Fire; and that there was
-something deeper than Life in man; profounder than Intellect in the
-universe. Whatever of transcendant light now illumes the world, comes
-from the torches which they lit at the Fountain whence all light
-streameth upon that mystic mountain which they alone had courage and
-endurance to climb, and climbed, too, over a ladder whose rungs were
-centuries apart. Hermes Trismegistus, Egypt's mighty king, and that
-other Hermes (Asclepius IX.), was an adept, a brother, and a Priest--as
-was Malki Zadek before him--that famous Pre-Adamite monarch, that
-Melchisedek, who was reputed to have been born of a Thought, and to have
-lived for countless ages. And so with the Greek Mercurius. Theirs, too,
-was that wondrous learning wherein Moses was skilled; and at their
-fountain the Hebrew Joseph drank. Nothing original in Thaumaturgy,
-Theology, Philosophy, Psychology, Entology, and Ontology, but they gave
-it to the world; and when Philosophers thought they had gained new
-thoughts and truths, the records of the Order prove them to have been
-old ages before the Adamic era of Chronology, and to have been the
-common property of the adepts.
-
-I have been led into these remarks and explanations, first, for the
-purpose of finally and authoritatively settling the vexed question
-concerning the Rosicrucians, and to throw light on that which is to
-follow.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER II.
-
-                      WHO WAS HE?--WHAT WAS IT?
-
-
-"I made," said Beverly to me one day, "my projected tour, and had
-returned much wiser than I went, but no nearer the consummation of my
-chief hope. I had begun the practice of medicine in the city of Boston,
-and occupied an office reputed to have been haunted by the troubled
-ghosts of sundry persons who were there attracted by some strange
-influence. I laughed at, and ridiculed the pretensions of scores of so
-called seers, who claimed to behold these flitting gentry.
-
-"There came to my office one day--it was a very stormy day in the latter
-part of the winter of the year in the spring of which I was so neatly
-swindled--there came, I repeat, on a stormy day, when the snow fell
-thick and fast; when the fierce wind blew, and the Frost-king was busily
-engaged in putting icy manacles upon all that he could reach--a lady to
-consult me upon a case of scrofula in her child. At that time my
-reputation in that specialty was great and constantly increasing; for I
-had but a few months before introduced and practised the method of
-treating that order of diseases, taught me in Constantinople by the
-famous negro sage of that metropolis. I prepared the materials required,
-and stood waiting for her to leave the office, as I was anxious to
-continue the perusal of some Hieratic manuscripts lent me that day by a
-lettered friend in Dedham. She made no movement indicative of leaving;
-but instead, challenged me to a discussion of some spiritual subject or
-other, which challenge I, from an innate horror of all strong-minded
-male-feminines, respectfully declined. She called herself my friend, and
-was, if sticking to one is a title to the name. She possessed all the
-qualities of the best adhesive plaster--it was impossible to get rid of
-her presence. She declared that she constantly saw, and held
-conversations with the dead, and she would then and there give a proof
-of her qualifications in that direction; whereupon she was instantly
-seized with an exceedingly violent trembling, accompanied with any
-amount of spasmodic jerks and twitchings. I had witnessed such things
-before, and consequently did not feel alarmed at Mrs. Graham's
-condition, but going into the rear office I procured a chair and sat
-down to wait for demonstrations; which, when they came, were but so many
-pretty word-paintings--commonplace counsel and advice addressed to me by
-what purported to be my mother--which latter, however, appeared to have
-forgotten her name, my own, and when and where she departed this life. I
-was perfectly certain that it was not my mother, and equally so that
-Mrs. Graham was not consciously acting the part of an impostor, and I
-accounted for the phenomenon on the Rosicrucian theory, then quite new
-to me, that she was obsessed, or possessed, by and with a distinct
-individuality entirely foreign to her own. To my mind the thing was
-certain that she, like scores of thousands of others are, was for the
-time being under the absolute control and dominion of a Will a myriad
-times stronger than that of any living human being that ever tenanted a
-body on this terraqueous globe of ours--beings perfectly intelligent,
-powerful, invisible, and totally conscienceless, wherein is a great
-difference from human beings.
-
-"The lady came around in a few minutes, and I frankly stated my opinion
-to her. It was new and startling. 'Not human spirits--yet intelligent?
-An intelligent thing--and guileful? It is dreadful! Horrible! What,
-then, is that Thing? Angels? No! Devils? If so, whence come they? Why?
-For what end?'
-
-"These were terrible questions; and we talked about the matter, the lady
-and I, as we sat in the back office, near the fire, for it was very
-cold; and she sat leaning on the desk near the window, and I sat near
-the door between the offices, my back nearly touching it. The outer
-door, which opened on the stair-landing, was closed, and a wire was so
-attached to it that it could not be opened, or even the latch be raised,
-without touching a spring that instantly rung a bell that was suspended
-directly over my head in the rear office. I used this rear office as a
-reading-room and laboratory, and I frequently became so absorbed in my
-reading or chemistry, that nothing less than the ringing of that bell
-would suffice to divert my attention.
-
-"And there and thus we sat and talked for more than three long hours.
-The strong-minded woman's soul had at last really been aroused; while I
-once more brought to the surface my Rosicrucian lore. In thought and
-speech we traversed a score of conjectural worlds and labyrinths of
-Being; until, at last: 'Are there, really, any intelligent, but viewless
-beings, other than man, in all the broad universe--I mean other than man
-as he is here, and disembodied likewise?--that's the question,' said the
-lady by the desk.
-
-"'_Of course there are!_ MYRIADS!' said a clear, manly voice in the
-room, right straight from the centre of the triangle formed by the desk,
-the door and the southern wall of the office! It was not the lady who
-thus replied to her own question! It was not I who spoke; nor, strange
-as it afterwards appeared, did the circumstance strike me as being at
-all out of the common. And, therefore, without an instant's hesitation,
-I rejoined to the observation of the speaker, whom I subsequently
-remember to have observed was a thin, strange-looking, scrawny,
-shrivelled little old man, with the queerest possible little sharp grey
-eyes. He looked half frozen, and acted so, for he advanced toward some
-shelves and proceeded very leisurely to warm his hands over my
-laboratory furnace, between the door and wall. The lady appeared no more
-surprised than myself at the inexplicable presence of this singular
-intruder.
-
-"'I am not so sure of that,' I replied, in answer to the words uttered
-by the strange old man--'I am not so sure that there _are_ such beings
-in existence.'
-
-"'Then you're a greater fool than I took you for! Good evening!' And he
-moved slightly toward the door, against which my chair firmly stood.
-
-"'Don't go yet, for I want you to explain,' said the lady. 'Don't you
-think he ought to?' turning to me with a very peculiar earnestness
-expressed in her countenance, especially in her eyes--very peculiar eyes
-at all times, but lit up in the most extraordinary manner at that
-moment. 'I think he ought to prove his statement, and not leave us in
-this state of uncertainty. It is positively cruel!' And, as she spoke,
-her eye met mine, and fastened it as if the encountering glances were
-riveted together.
-
-"There must be some magic in the soul that is only flashed forth on very
-rare occasions, else why did her glance so fix my gaze for ten seconds
-that I could not stir? At the end of that space of time the fascination
-ended, and, raising my eyes, I answered--
-
-"'Certainly! he ought to explain; and, of course,' said I, turning
-toward the man--'of course, you will explain yourself, and----'
-
-"_There was no man there!_ Not even a sign that he had been. He had
-disappeared, gone, utterly vanished--not through the window, for that
-was a clear fall of seventy feet to the ground, besides which it had
-been securely nailed down for over four months--not through the door,
-for my chair and back were against it!
-
-"Mrs. Graham fainted, and fell prone upon the floor!
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"I lived in Charlestown, and reached home rather early that evening. Not
-that I was frightened. Oh, no! but because home seemed cheerier than the
-office; for the weather was bitterly cold, and the storm-spirits were
-holding high, tempestuous revels in the common and the bay; and, ever
-and anon, as the shivering pedestrian jogged along, and turned the sharp
-corners of what is literally and emphatically, and in more senses than
-one, the most angular city in the world, the blast would meet him square
-in the face, side-ways, and all around him in the same blessed moment of
-time, no matter which way he headed; for a Boston snow-storm blows every
-way at once--here it is due north, around the corner it is south-east,
-behind you it is north-west; over the way it blows straight up, and in
-the middle of the street it blows straight down.
-
-"It was hard work travelling the four miles to my home that night, for
-every step had to be wearily footed. True, there were street cars, but
-no man in Boston ever remembers one going the right way when most it was
-wanted; but everybody can find scores _coming_, when everybody is bent
-upon _going_.
-
-"Well, after a perilous walk, I at last reached home, and gladly sat
-down to my comfortable supper of toast and tea in my snug little
-parlor--the same little parlor where I wrote my book and received the
-loan of money to publish it, which money I was afterwards deprived of by
-the financial acumen of as great a scoundrel as ever went loose upon the
-world.
-
-"Oh, how it stormed outside! and oh, how warm and cosy was the little
-snug harbor into which I had just moored myself!
-
-"It was the second cup of tea--orange pekoe it was, for I had bought it
-of a Chinaman in Boston, who knew all about tea--and the second slice of
-toast that I was discussing, along with my daily paper, when suddenly
-there came a loud, imperative double knock at the door, similar to that
-of an English postman when in a hurry to deliver his letters. The door
-was immediately opened by a servant, who thought some one had been taken
-suddenly ill, and that I had been sent for professionally. But what was
-my astonishment when in stalked, with as much ease and _nonchalance_ as
-if he belonged there, no less a personage than the mysterious little old
-man of the afternoon. I was thunderstruck. It was the same person who
-had treated me so rudely, and who had first come and then gone again so
-unaccountably, and who had induced an illness in Mrs. Graham that
-resulted in causing her to forever abandon her mediumatic practices--the
-same that has sent so many scores of people to premature graves, and
-will send thousands more. The strange man advanced toward the fire, and
-exclaimed--
-
-"'What a fright I caused you and your guest this afternoon! Ha! ha! It
-was capital--was it not?'
-
-"And again he laughed, but this time in a manner and with a voice which,
-had it not been for the immense physical disparity apparent, I could
-have sworn was that of the Italian Count in Paris. But this supposition
-was hardly possible. The man before me was so decidedly _human_, that,
-by a rapid and comprehensive induction, I concluded that Mrs. Graham and
-myself had been victimized for sport by one who was perfect master of
-the mesmeric art. This hypothesis was quite plausible, only I could not
-account for the non-ringing of the office bell; and the idea seemed at
-that time quite preposterous that any one could successfully magnetize
-the clapper of a bell into silence. I learned more afterwards. Neither
-did it seem quite reasonable that this man had, before entering the
-office at all, exerted his power upon our sense of hearing, rendering us
-deaf.
-
-"To his remark I replied, rather sententiously, with 'Very!' and said no
-more, for I did not fancy his joke, if such it was, nor his
-_brusquerie_, nor his decided lack of good manners, nor his rude speech;
-in fact, I did not fancy the man at all, nor anything about him. Not
-that he was hated or despised, but because there was a something about
-him that made my very flesh creep again, and caused me to instinctively
-shrink from his contact.
-
-"It is well known that one of the cardinal points of the Rosicrucian
-belief is that bodily life can be prolonged through whole ages in two
-different ways; first, by means of the Elixir of Life; secondly, by
-means of mere will alone. In the first case beauty and youth accompany
-age; but in the second, age is apparent all along the centuries. This
-latter secret and the processes were revealed by a degenerate
-Rosicrucian in 1605; and all students of medicine are aware that great
-capital was made of it in later times by a French physician named
-Asgill. This writer undertook to publicly demonstrate and teach the art
-of life-prolonging, laying it down positively, that man is literally
-immortal, or rather that any given man alive could, if he choose,
-utterly laugh at and defy death; that he need not, if so disposed, ever
-die, if he used sufficient prudence, and forcibly and constantly exerted
-his will in that direction. Asgill used to complain of the _cowardly
-practice_ of dying, considering it a mere trick, and unnecessary habit.
-The records tell us that several men have used both these means to
-perpetuate existence, and I have not the slightest doubt that it has
-been attempted and proved measurably successful; and now, on this stormy
-night, as I gazed on the withered wreck before me, it struck me that he
-was one of those wretches who had attained indefinite length of years by
-the second method, and, as a necessary consequence, had lost all fire,
-all feeling, all love, and all conscience. I shuddered as the
-possibility flashed upon me. He saw the motion, and a smile of ineffable
-scorn curled his lip as he did so. I abandoned my notion.
-
-"People who observe things as they plod their way through the world, and
-who have at all made the human soul a study, have often been made aware
-that there is a certain nameless something that comes over a man, that
-with resistless eloquence persuades his inner soul that some danger
-approaches, some peril besets, some disaster impends over him. There are
-times, when calm reigns all around him, and peace blossoms in his heart,
-that he suddenly is apprised that Calamity is flapping her way toward
-him through the terrible nebulous gloom of the Future. Many a man and
-woman has felt this; and some such feeling, some such horror-form, now
-seemed hovering, cowering, crawling near me, and preparing to seize upon
-and fang my very soul, in the presence of the queer little man at my
-side. It was a mixed feeling of guilt and dread, and yet no guilt was
-mine. I had not cheated, robbed, lied, to my best friend. I had not
-fared sumptuously every day on the proceeds of villainy; _my_ wife and
-daughters did not dress in purple and fine linen, bought with the money
-wronged from a poor man, or any man at all. I had not a fine piano, and
-parlors full of guests enjoying funds thus gotten; nor had I driven fast
-and fine horses of my own, fed and fattened on the money of a man whose
-child was at that very moment struggling, gasping, choking in the
-clutches of grim death for want of bread and medicine. True, there were
-those who did all this--and the corpse of a pretty little girl attests
-it--but I did not; why then should I be afraid? There is no answer to
-that, and yet I was in dread.
-
-"After saying 'Very!' I spoke no more, but striving to repress the
-horror creeping over me, I tried to look as indignant as possible, which
-he was not slow to observe; for he approached, slapped me familiarly on
-the back, poured out and drank a cup of tea and ate a rusk, which
-settled the question as to his being no ghost; then he dropped
-carelessly into my easy-chair, rubbed his little perked-up nose with his
-thin, little, bluish-pale fingers, and throwing himself forward, so as
-to look right up into my face, he laughed heartily, and then bawled out,
-rather than sung, at the top of his voice:
-
-           "'The storm howls drearily,
-            Let you and I live cheerily;
-    And we'll study things that never were known.
-            I've come from the West,
-            To see the man that I like best.
-            Don't think I'm all depravity--
-            _I'm_ in search of the centre of gravity--
-      And _you'll_ find out the Philosophers' Stone.'
-
-And then he again burst out into one of the wildest, most _outre_, and
-ridiculous laughs that ever fell on mortal hearing.
-
-"The wretched doggerel that I had just heard was beneath my notice; and
-little did I know of the singer, and still less did I imagine that those
-lines were to me the most important I had ever heard.
-
-"Gradually, and by imperceptible degrees, my prejudices began to wane; I
-conversed with him upon a variety of subjects, and the conference was
-maintained during four long hours, perhaps more; for if my memory serves
-me, it was nearly eleven o'clock when he arose from his seat, shook me
-cordially by the hand, said he was going, promised to call again 'when
-he wanted to serve me,' and then, opening the doors, passed out into the
-midst of one of the most fierce and vindictive tempests that ever
-desolated the shores of Boston Bay. A singular thing was this: in the
-depth of winter, this man, who refused steadily to speak concerning
-himself, was clad in the very thinnest summer raiment, not having enough
-even for a northern June, much less for such fearful weather as
-prevailed on the night of that 4th of February--a night when the glass
-in Boston told of cold twenty degrees below zero, and in New Hampshire
-nineteen lower still--a night so bitter that many and many a man went to
-eternity, borne thither on the frosty pinions of the Ice-king.
-
-"'After all it is a man, and mesmerism furnishes a key to all this
-seeming mystery,' thought I; and with this consoling supposition I went
-to bed, and there reproduced all that he had said or done. Now,
-although little was said in regard to himself, yet, from that little, I
-gathered that he was an Armenian by birth, that his name was MIAKUS,
-which is the ancient Chaldaic for Priest of Fire. He told me this as he
-bent down to kiss a sweet little prattling Cora, and said that he was
-very fond of children, and felt particularly so toward the little fairy,
-who, seated in her chair, was busily engaged in laying down the law to a
-culprit kitten, who, it appeared, had been guilty of _leze majeste_ to
-her Christmas doll. After the child had been sent to bed, Miakus
-produced from his bosom a little square, flat case, apparently of rose
-or olive wood, and about seven inches across by two and a half deep.[5]
-It was locked, and the key, a silver one, hung by a golden clasp to an
-ordinary steel watch-chain round his neck. The little man laid this case
-upon the bureau, where it lay undisturbed, although it became clear to
-me that his business there was in some way associated with that box and
-myself. It was equally clear that his air was more than half assumed,
-and that, in spite of his _nonchalance_ and _brusque_ surface, great
-trouble reigned beneath; for, occasionally, as he spoke, there was a
-melancholy cadence and plaintive modulation in his tones, that, to
-practised ears, spoke, if not of a breaking heart, at least of one most
-deeply injured and bereaved. This circumstance affected me much, for,
-through life, I have been one who grieved with those in grief, and joyed
-with those in joy. Then, after a little, he told me that one of his
-objects was to initiate me into certain mysteries of white magic, to
-teach me how to construct the magic mirror in which the majority of
-persons could glance through space, see and talk with the dead, and in
-all things, save a few, have an unerring guide through life. Said he--'I
-have such a curious looking-glass in yonder box, and perhaps--and
-perhaps not--you may test its qualities before I leave you. The fact is,
-I feel down-hearted, have been so all day, and all the more because I
-hurt your _amour propre_ by calling you a fool, which, of course, I do
-not apologize for. It struck me that I would take advantage of the
-weather to chat with you, without infringing upon your business, and
-that, possibly, you might learn something and I find relief in teaching
-you, and thus withdraw us both for a time from the great Failure'--by
-which he meant the world. 'I am weary of myself, the world, philosophers
-and philosophy. There's nothing good but magic! You have been a fool
-while striving to be wise; and are ambitious to _know_ what you have
-hitherto merely imagined.'
-
-[5] Both the incidents of the magic mirror are actual, literal facts, as
-is also its curious construction and effects as herein related. I have
-witnessed many astonishing experiments with mirrors constructed as was
-that treated of in the text. I have seen several exactly similar--one in
-Zagazik, Lower Egypt, in the hands of a Hindoo magician, two in Cairo,
-one in Thebes, two in Constantinople, and one in London. In the East,
-owing to the scarcity of the peculiar material wherewith the space
-between the glasses is filled, they cost enormous prices, and then can
-only be had by a Christian through favor. In this country, or England,
-they might cheaply be made. I have one in my possession that I would not
-part with for three thousand dollars, so wonderful, so astonishing are
-the effects witnessed in and through it.--EDITOR.
-
-"He rose, took the case, laid it on the table between us, and, while
-playing with the key, continued--'If you really desire to pierce through
-the gloom that palls the human senses, you must abandon all human loves
-and passions, most especially all that relates to woman; for woman's
-love destroys--in the very moment of man's victory over her, she
-triumphs--he yields his life, and offers up existence itself on her
-altars, and then she laughs! Is it not so? Does not every man's
-experience corroborate this? Strong as iron alone, no sooner does he
-reach the goal of love than he is lost in a sea of weakness, lethargy,
-deadness! Bah! avoid woman. You want high knowledge, and must pay high
-prices. God gives nothing--he sells all; and he who would have must
-purchase, and the price is suffering. So with love. Its life is bought
-with the coin of death. Woman is like the ivy vine mantling round some
-hoary tower, and the more you are ruined the closer she clings, and the
-closer she clings the more you are ruined! Listen. No one acts without a
-motive. I have one with regard to yourself, and it is a selfish one. It
-so happens that the possessor of the magic mirror can in it behold all
-other horoscopes but his own, beyond a certain point; and, if he would
-know it, he must consult other seers. Now, there are certain beings in
-existence whose future cannot be read except by certain persons
-specially constituted. You are one of the latter, I am one of the
-former; and such as we only meet at the beginning and the end of epochs
-and eras. The present is one of these. I will present you with the
-mirror when you have done me this favor; I will teach you the art of
-their construction; and I will give you a verbatim copy of the answers
-you shall make to the questions I shall ask you while gazing in its
-awful depths. To this I pledge a word that never yet was broken, and an
-oath that never will be. For this purpose I have followed you for years,
-patiently waiting for the hour that dawns at last. To successfully do
-the thing I ask, two things are essential. 1st, That, in a perfectly
-pure state of body, health, mind, intent, and morals, you gaze into the
-glass. 2d, That, while doing so, you make no resistance against certain
-sleepful influences that may assail you, which influences will not be
-mesmeric, nor assisted by myself in any way, but is the sacred slumber
-of _Sialam Boaghiee_, which can only be enjoyed once in a hundred years,
-and then only by persons who are singularly constituted as you
-are--whose veins are filled with the mingled blood of all the nations
-that sprung from the loins of the Edenic protoplast, the Biblical Adam,
-and who, temperamentally, and in all other respects, save sex, are
-perfectly neutral. Certain great advantages will accrue to you from this
-concession that are unattainable without. From this slumber you will
-awaken doubly; first, to the old life without; and, second, to another
-and a fuller though stranger life within, and to the power of
-comprehending innumerable mysteries that lie enshrouded in dim regions
-far beyond the ken of ordinary man. Dreamer! you shall comprehend your
-dreams. Rosicrucian! you shall comprehend the Light, the Tower, and the
-Flame, and where Artefius and Zimati failed you shall find success! It
-is difficult, if not impossible, to either over-rate the advantages to
-be derived by the possession of the power I allude to, or to define and
-characterize it in words, mainly for the reason that, although the idea
-stands out well marked and distinct before the mind, yet the language
-which you speak has no terms of symbols adequate to its naming or
-expression; for, at best, words are coarse raiment for thought, and no
-more show the beauty of what they cover, than the preposterous costumes
-of Christendom display the superlative glories of the human form. The
-soul that sleeps this slumber passes through a gate which even the
-privileged dead cannot enter, save once in a century, and then only by
-reason of neutrality, for positive people are to be counted by the
-billion on either side the grave, negative people outnumber them ten
-million to one, while neutrals are, like cold heat, very rare indeed. I
-trust we shall yet assist each other.'
-
-"Now, I had, two hours before, on seeing him eat and drink, hastily
-abandoned my ghostly hypothesis regarding the little queer old man. But
-now, as he talked so strangely, and so grandly indicated the Door of the
-Dome of all possible human knowledge and attainment, the mystery that
-wrapped him changed its character, but enveloped him in a ten-fold gloom
-and shadow, that continually grew more thick and dense, so much so,
-indeed, that, but for his eating, and the fact that several persons in
-the house beside myself had seen and exchanged speech with and touched
-him, I certainly should have doubted the evidence of my senses, and set
-the whole thing down, from the scene in the office till his departure,
-to the account of a disturbed imagination. There was a something
-unearthly about his voice and manner; and once, when he turned his
-chair, the upper part of his right thigh came in direct contact with
-the red-hot stove, and I watched it there until the chair was ruined by
-the fire, and the smoke of its varnish and seat fairly filled the room,
-and yet he was not burned, but coolly rose and opened the door for the
-smoke to escape, and then resumed his seat as if nothing whatever had
-happened; and, two or three times in the course of the evening, I not
-only felt a chilly atmosphere proceed from him, but distinctly saw his
-skeleton beneath his thin, parchment-like skin, as if but the thinnest
-integument had been loosely thrown over it to hide its naked deformity
-by some mouldy tenant of the grave, doomed to expiate its offences by
-again walking the earth with embodied human beings. Could it be that I
-had struck the truth, and that this mysterious Miakus was in reality
-such a vampire as we read of in German story?"
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER III.
-
-                 PHOSPHORUS AND THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.
-
-
-"Marvelling," said Beverly, continuing his wonderful story--"Marvelling
-on the strange events of the day and night, as said before, I retired to
-my chamber, but not to rest, for ere the morning dawned upon the world
-again, there came to me an experience that in some respects totally
-changed the current and character of my life. These incidents are
-already recorded in my narrative concerning 'Cynthia and Thotmor,' long
-since given to the world.[6]
-
-[6] See the book called "Dealings with the Dead," second series.
-
-"On the morning following this eventful night, I repaired to the office
-of a reputed to be Philosophic tooth-doctor, whose brain is a far more
-curious museum than the one near his office. With him I conversed
-awhile, and by him was introduced to a real thinker, whose name, I
-think, was Blood. After smoking a segar--_and each other_--in his
-laboratory, I repaired to Nichols', the chemist, made a few purchases,
-and forthwith went to my office.
-
-"Now, it so happened that sometime previously I had purchased a chemical
-apparatus, conducting my experiments secretly, and mainly after twelve
-at night--for the purpose of repeating La Briere's great experiment for
-the removal of the poisonous and igneous properties of Phosphorus
-without decreasing its revivifying and medicinal qualities. I had
-experimented untiringly for five months, at a cost almost ruinous to me,
-but still with an invincible conviction that I should succeed, and give
-my secret to the world, instead of perishing like the poor Frenchman,
-who burst an artery from excitement at his success, having made about
-eleven ounces that fulfilled his entire expectations. Part of his
-process only survived him, and many a man, like myself, had attempted to
-fathom the secret and gain the enormous fortune that must result from
-complete success, but hitherto in vain.
-
-"The experiment was a most important one. Churchill had produced his
-hypophosphites, and they had lamentably failed of the intention; hence,
-in working at this mine, I had avoided his and others' formulae. Success,
-I felt, would not only benefit my own private practice, but would be of
-incalculable service to the medical profession, and still more to that
-large class of persons who by over mental exertion, severe intellectual
-and sedentary occupations, and by passional and other imprudent
-excesses, had deprived themselves of the wine of life, by draining
-themselves of nervous force; and become spiritless, semi-insane, gloomy,
-and despondent. Such a discovery I knew would place in the hands of the
-profession a true, positive, but perfectly harmless aphrodision nervous
-stimulant, invigorant and tonic. It was, therefore, worth all the time,
-trouble, and expense I devoted to it, for it would be one of the best
-things medical science had yet given to the world.
-
-"It had long been demonstrated: 1st. That Phosphorus abounded in the
-bones, nerves, and tissues of the human body, but especially in the
-human brain. 2d. That Phosphorus was invariably present in large
-quantities in the brains of healthy men who had been killed, and
-analysis thereafter made; and invariably as the brain thus analyzed was
-that of an intellectual, fine-strung, high-toned, ambitious, executive,
-or spiritual person, just in proportion was the volume of phosphorus
-found in their remains; while the low, the ignorant, coarse and brutal
-had comparatively little phosphorus in them. 3d. It had been proved that
-in the administration of phosphorus to old people; to the class of
-patients who seek private advice; to those exhausted by mental labor or
-excess, it invariably acted as a revivifier, and seemed not only to
-restore health, strength, and fire to the body, but to rejuvenate and
-tone up the mind to its pristine strength, power, and activity; while
-insanity, idiotcy, brain-softening, and causeless terror, disappeared in
-the ratio of its exhibition, for one half of the diseases of
-civilization result from the waste of phosphorus from the system, and
-for thirty years medical chemistry had sought to so prepare the article
-that it would at once assimilate with the tissues and fluids. It had not
-succeeded. True, La Briere _had_, but then his secret was dead. I
-resolved to restore it; and after a hundred failures, produced what he
-had named Phymyle.
-
-"I tried its effects upon myself; then several physicians on themselves;
-and finally, it was tried upon patients at their own request, and the
-result left not a nail to hang a doubt on, that I was perfectly
-justified in crying 'Eureka!' This preface is essential to the
-understanding of what follows.
-
-"Now, it so happened that a few days before I saw Mrs. Graham, that I
-had placed about four pounds of phosphorus, together with about five
-times that weight of other materials, in a strong glass vessel, in a
-sand-bath, ready for the production of, perhaps, one quart of the
-precious medicine; and the first thing I did on entering my office from
-the dentist's, was to light the gas beneath it. For a few minutes I
-stood watching the rich and beautiful scarlet and purple vapor as it
-rose and curled through the neck of the retort, and the long glass pipes
-leading to the condensing apparatus.
-
-"While thus intently engaged, I was suddenly startled by the
-exclamations, 'Careless fool! Look out! Run!' Mechanically I obeyed,
-leaped into the outer office, and had scarcely done so, than there
-occurred a loud explosion. The retort had burst into a million
-fragments, shattering the windows and apparatus into fine pieces, and
-scattering some pounds of ignited phosphorus upon the floor. Here was
-trouble. But not to the speaker--for, quick as light, he tore the carpet
-off the office floor, and hurled it, phosphorus and all, into the
-snow-drifts in the yard below, which soon melted under the intense blaze
-of that almost quenchless fire, until, having consumed itself, nothing
-but a white smoke was left to tell the danger I and the house had been
-in.
-
-"The fire out, and my fright subsided, I turned to see who it was that
-had so opportunely saved me, and found the little old man smiling and
-smirking before me.
-
-"'What! is it you, then?' I asked, at the same time cordially extending
-my hand toward him.
-
-"'I rather think it is!' said he, grasping it, 'and very lucky for you
-it was that I chanced to happen along
-
-    "'So early in the morning,
-      Just after break of day,'
-
-said and sung the Enigma, continuing: 'You are not an overwise chemist,
-my dear doctor, else you would never expect, either that Phosphorus gas
-could reach the condenser, with the stop-cock shut, or that a glass
-retort, already cracked, would long resist the immense pressure of the
-accumulating and continually heating vapor. I see you have turned
-Hermetist and Alchemist--Rosicrucian like! and that you are determined
-to blow yourself up, or else
-
-    "'Find out the 'lixir Vitae,
-      Or stumble across the Philosophers' Stone,'
-
-and the little old man clapped his hands and danced about the room in
-the most exuberant glee.
-
-"'But, my friend,' said he, 'as constant trying means eventual success,
-I have not the slightest doubt but that you will yet become a very rich
-man, as well as a long-lived one; for, to tell you the truth, you have
-come nearer this morning to compounding the Elixir of Life--that very
-Elixir for which Philosophers have toiled during thousands of years, in
-vain--than any man that ever lived. For instance: had you placed a less
-quantity of phosphorus in the retort; more of the first and third, and
-less of the second, fourth, and fifth ingredients, with a slower heat,
-and the addition of two ounces of ----, and ----, and one of ----,'
-mentioning the articles, 'you would have, indeed, made the water of
-perpetual youth and health--that wonderful chemic which purifies the
-juices, removes obstructions, clarifies the fluids, and renders man
-physically invulnerable to miasmas and disease--to all things
-destructive to life, except, of course, material injury. What d'ye think
-of that? Ha! ha!' and again he burst out in a roaring squeak:
-
-    "'I'll discover the centre of gravity,
-      You'll find out the Philosophers' stone.'
-
-"It has been the habit of the wiseacres of this world to deride the idea
-that it is possible to make gold; to laugh in face of the notorious fact
-that nature is constantly making it, and that, too, of gasses in the
-earth, as all things else, save souls, are made. It has been fashionable
-to laugh at the idea of compounding a material capable of freeing the
-system of all its gross and clogging impurities--the only friction to
-the wheels of life; a mixture which would exhilarate, purify,
-strengthen, and supply to the body the chemical and dynamic forces of
-which it is constantly being robbed. But these wise people will have
-done laughing by-and-by; not by any means must it be thought that I, for
-a moment, entertained the silly notion of the alchemists and false
-Rosicrucians--of finding a material which when brought into contact
-with metals would change them into gold. We of this century are too
-knowing for that; nor that I hoped to discover, from the application of
-the old man's suggestions, that wonderful fluid alluded to awhile since;
-but I did believe it possible that I could compound a draught that when
-quaffed would repair the waste of nature, and believed until that
-moment, that in Phymyle I had found it. What, then, was my astonishment
-when the weird old man whispered in my ear that I stood upon the brink
-of the grandest success conceivable, that the grand Secret of secrets
-was all but in my grasp? To describe my sensations at that moment is
-impossible, and the more so because the old man told me the whole
-process and constituents.
-
-"What cared I even if it _was_ necessary for me to go to Jerusalem, and
-gather the precious seeds of a fruit that grows upon its walls,
-wherewith to prepare the water? In other years I did go, and the
-treasured seeds are mine.... In that awful moment of success I blessed
-the old man and internally vowed that in return I would read his
-horoscope, and sleep the sleep of Sialam; for was not the desire of my
-soul gratified? Why then should I not return the favor?
-
-"Such, in that tumultuous moment, were my thoughts. Soon I became
-calmer, and then, 'How came the old man to know the materials that were
-being used?' 'Perhaps he saw the fumes, and thus knew them!' But how of
-the contents of the condensing-chest through which the vapor was forced
-for the purpose of nullifying its injurious qualities? for no living
-human being had seen me compound or place them there. How came he to
-know the purpose for which this compound was being brewed? How had he
-become aware of the dream, the hope of my soul, the fixed purpose of my
-life during long and wearisome years?
-
-"All these queries served but to envelop their subject in a deeper robe
-of mystery; and while they were passing he stood at my side gazing
-curiously at the now white vapor, as it writhed and curled upward, and
-out upon the air, through the broken panes.
-
-"It was very, very singular!
-
-"In a little while the wreck was cleared; the old man left me, promising
-to call again that day, and I went out to order new apparatus, some
-glazing, another carpet, and to visit a number of patients; after which
-I returned. It was about three o'clock, and I had not been long in
-before Miakus, true to his word, came also."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER IV.
-
-                          THE MAGIC MIRROR.
-
-
-"'Let me give you a piece of advice,' said Miakus, 'for you need it.
-First, never intrust any secret to a friend, which, if revealed, would
-bring trouble or disgrace. Never interfere in a brawl or quarrel, no
-matter who is right or who wrong; but always let the world do its own
-fighting, while you stand by to avail yourself of any advantage that
-chance may disclose; and lastly, keep what you know until there shall be
-a market for it. Now we will test our magic glass,' and forthwith we
-went into the rear office, which by that time had been refitted, so far
-as glass and carpet were concerned.
-
-"In his hands he bore the rose-wood box, which he laid upon the table,
-while, by the aid of four gimlets, he fixed a silken screen, or curtain,
-entirely across the room, having previously closed the shutters to
-exclude every ray of daylight from the apartment.
-
-"'That,' said he 'is a magic screen. You have seen a magic-lantern
-exhibition. Well, this is to be a similar one, _without the lantern_. I
-now open this box, as you see, and take from it this mirror, which is,
-as you observe, merely two plates of French glass, with strips of wood
-around their edges to keep them half an inch apart, and so that a fluid
-poured between them shall not escape. Nothing depends for success upon
-either the box, the curtain, or the glasses, but all depends upon the
-peculiar fluid between them, which is, as you perceive, of a dark brown
-color, but at a distance, quite inky to the eye.
-
-"'I now hang this mirror by this hook, to the ring sewed to the upper
-central edge of the screen. Then closing and locking both the doors,
-thus, I place these two chairs for you and I to sit upon. Then I take
-this reflector and place it near the gas jet in such a manner as to
-throw a strong light--a perfectly circular and brilliant disk upon the
-very centre of the glass tablet, thus,--and he suited his actions to his
-words; after which we took our seats before the curtain, and I observed
-that the liquid between the glasses was of such a nature as to reflect a
-sort of semi-opalescent hue.
-
-"'Before proceeding to demonstrate the truth of Hamlet's remark to
-Horatio,' said the experimenter at my side, 'I find it essential to give
-you a why and wherefore. Know, then, that not only is there a mysterious
-and powerful sympathy between man's body and all things outside of it,
-but it is still more true that a greater one exists between these
-outside things and his soul within, as is proved by the astonishing
-power over it exerted by various substances, most of which, especially
-the last eight, ought to be banished from the earth and be accursed for
-ever--for instance, Belladonna, Cantharadin, Beng, Opium, Hasheesh,
-Dewammeskh, Hyndee, Tartooroh, Hab-zafereen, Mah-rubah, Gunjah, and many
-other vegetable preparations that might be named, and every one of
-which will not merely affect the body, but the tremendous mystery that
-lies concealed within it. They expand the soul, but they also damn it!
-Let us ascend from gross matter to the volatile--Light, for instance. By
-concave mirrors we can throw an image in open space that shall be seen
-by thousands. We chain a shadow, and whoever has a photograph possesses
-one such prisoner. We make a few passes over a glass of water, and
-charge it thus with any specific quality we choose, nauseous or
-pleasant, and it produces corresponding effects upon the patient who
-takes it. Here you have mind and matter united by an act of mere
-volition. But we go still farther: for we select materials, and with
-them render the water still more highly sensitive. We then charge it
-with our souls, to such an extent that it shall comatize a man's body,
-and illuminate his soul to the sublimest degree of clairvoyance. Still
-higher: it is possible to compound a liquid that shall seize on, and for
-a time retain, by its subtle power, any mental image thrown upon it.
-Still higher: there are direct and positive affinities and co-relations
-between every thing and person on this earth and off it. By certain
-knowledge, certain persons are able to select those things that possess
-certain affinities to and for the inhabitants of the upper worlds, and
-the dwellers in the Spaces. Now that glass disk before you contains such
-a liquid, thus compounded--'
-
-"Here he gave me the most minute explanations of the process of
-constructing such curious mirrors, and how to charge them with a liquid
-which I at once saw must of necessity be electrical, magnetic, highly
-odyllic and ethereal. Then he told me how to charge it differently for
-different uses--as a toy, a means of medical diagnosis, for the purpose
-of interpreting dreams, seeing earthly things, discovering lost
-treasures, reading the past or the future, and for many other purposes,
-as no one mirror would serve more than one end, or work in more than a
-single direction, unless specially constructed for such general use,
-which would render them too costly.
-
-"'Properly prepared,' he continued, 'your mirror becomes so amazingly
-sensitive as to not only receive and retain images of things too subtle
-for solar light, but to bring out and render them visible. Nor is this
-all. There is light within light, atmosphere within atmosphere, and
-intelligent beings who dwell within them, and who can commune with man
-only through such mirrors, upon which they can photograph the
-information they wish to convey, either by scenes depicted therein, or
-by words projected thereon. Now, observe. Thoughts are things--they are
-real, substantial actualities, if not actual matter. They are things
-that have shadows, shape, form, outline, bulk. Some are flat, others are
-sharp, cutting, pointed, and go on boring their way through the world
-from age to age. Others are solid, round, bulky, and stagger when they
-strike you or impinge upon the world. Thoughts live, die, and grow. Now,
-attend. Gaze steadily and firmly; desire to see something, no matter
-what.'
-
-"I smiled incredulously, and observed that one could see one's face in
-any bit of glass.
-
-"'True,' replied he, 'but you have never seen your soul; and this
-bauble will show you that. It will reveal events already past, that are
-now occurring, or that will transpire in the future, on the earth or off
-it.'
-
-"Much doubting what he said, I told him that, just then, the sceptical
-mood was on me, and my belief must be forced. He well knew the singular
-constitution of my mind, and that, in spite of much contrary seeming, I
-was one of the most obdurate sceptics concerning the supernatural that
-ever lived. To most of those who have known me, or read what I have
-written in past years, it may appear strange that I, who have been the
-accepted champion of all things spectral, should now make such a seeming
-confession. But human nature is a very strange compound! My heart, my
-loves, desires, and emotional nature were all on the side of the
-ghostly, and eagerly grasped and nursed the occult and weird; and when
-these reigned in my soul I bravely defended the spiritual theory against
-all comers. I rose to sublime heights of inspiration and speculation,
-and being thereby rendered morbidly sensitive to affectional influences,
-readily yielded to the specious social sophistry of the hour, and, for a
-while, pursued a course from which, had not reason been utterly blinded,
-I would have shrunk with ineffable horror; but, being surrounded by
-scores of thousands similarly deluded, it was impossible for a while to
-break through the accursed meshes of this devil's net into the clear,
-cool light of truth beyond.
-
-"This was one side of the life-web I was weaving. But there came moments
-wherein enthusiasm was exchanged for something like sober-mindedness;
-and then intellect rejected most of what heart had drank in, and
-challenged the conclusions of my own and others' in regard to the
-Phantom-Philosophy. People cried, 'Inconsistent!' 'Variable!' mistaking
-honesty for whim--and just as if anything or person was ever consistent!
-
-"In the present _seance_, logic held the reigns of mind, and I laughed,
-which Miakus observing, said: 'Laugh on, laugh on; but you must be
-careful or the laugh will be against you. Truth is a dainty and a
-jealous dame, and never relishes practical jokes at her expense. But,
-look! the mirror begins to operate.' And, instantly bending down, he
-veiled his face in both his hands, and remained thus for perhaps a
-minute, when he spoke, saying, 'What see you in the glass?'
-
-"'Nothing,' I replied, 'but the images of ourselves.'
-
-"'Have patience! Look again! Try!'
-
-"A short silence then followed, when--
-
-"'Do you see anything yet?'
-
-"'Yes; but nothing extraordinary. Only a clear spot--an
-atmospheric-looking aperture in the centre of the glass. Yes! now there
-comes a change--faint, misty, dusky shadows flit across; but nothing
-positive or distinct.'
-
-"'Is that all?'
-
-"'It is.'
-
-"'Look again.'
-
-"'Clearly and distinctly I see the fore-quarters of a large
-greyish-white dog. It grows! Now it is complete! The image stands out,
-bold and clear, _from the mirror_!'
-
-"So perfect was this appearance, that I could not realize that it was a
-phantasm. The thing was impossible. It looked like the reflection of a
-dog in a looking-glass, and I actually turned my head, not to look for
-the dog, but for the picture of one upon the wall, that might have
-caused the image in the mirror. There was no such picture. The old man
-enjoyed my surprise, and muttered--
-
-"'Nothing supernatural, ha? Remember that idiots, bigots, and fools only
-dispute the existence of that which others do, but they do not
-understand. True, many pin their faith in a hereafter upon the curious
-phenomena attributed to disembodied souls, but they err in so doing. The
-demonstration can never be afforded through any process of either
-phenomena or intellection. Of that, be assured. Immortality can never be
-thought; it must be felt. Your philosopher cannot possibly grasp the
-idea, because it is not an idea at all. It is a reality, and comes to
-man never through the intellect, but ever and always through other
-channels of the spirit--comes over roads that begin on earth and
-terminate directly at the foot of God's throne. Thus, when storms fall
-on the philosophic soul it shrinks and plays the coward. Not so the
-truly intuitional man. He feels, and, feeling, sees God through the
-gloom; and that, to him, is an insurance against loss or annihilation.
-He rides triumphant over circumstances that bar themselves effectually
-against all philosophers. Even when the shadow rests heaviest on the sky
-of life, such a soul beholds God enthroned in auroral splendor
-everywhere; he catches the sound of his voice from every echoing hill
-and dell, and it speaks to him of life everlasting, and its tones carry
-a thrilling demonstration of an hereafter that all the spiritualism of
-the earth could never impart.'
-
-"Now while I looked upon the mirror I silently marvelled whether it were
-possible, through that glass, to solve the grand secret of the ages, and
-the old man's speech could not possibly have been more apropos than it
-was. But in a moment afterward I felt indignant at having beheld such a
-figure, when he had promised I should see my soul, and told him so. 'Let
-not that offend you,' he replied, 'that figure is not spectral, it is
-correspondential. What is the type of enduring fidelity, perfect trust
-and confidence, unbounded love and faith, if its symbol be not a dog?
-Such is the quality of your soul, nor is it very bad.'
-
-"There now came a broad clean space on the glass, and the whole of it
-became clear and pellucid as the finest crystal; and in its very centre
-appeared a tiny, but very brilliant speck of white light, and its lustre
-increased till it became painful to gaze upon it. Gradually this
-expanded, and there came a space in its middle clearer than the
-brightest noon-day, into which I gazed with rapture, for the intense
-light faded away into a sort of hazy-vapor surrounding this spot.
-
-"'Into such, and through such do I wish you to look for me. But not now.
-The time is not propitious. That which you behold is the lense of a
-mystical telescope, wherewith you may scan and sweep the fields where
-revolve a myriad worlds like this, and of other millions whereof man is
-yet profoundly ignorant. Through it you can and may witness not only
-the worlds of which I speak, but also their tenants and all that they
-are doing.'
-
-"'What! Do you mean to tell me that through that telescope, as you call
-it, a living man can behold all that is going on in Mars and Jupiter?'
-
-"'Aye!' said he, 'and half a million planets, suns and systems more. It
-will reveal the fate or fortune of any one, alive or dead. But to the
-proof.' As he spoke, it seemed that a sort of tube of light extended
-itself toward my eyes, and through it I beheld, as in a diorama, each
-and all of the terrible and painful scenes of what I believe to be my
-most recent life on the earth. I beheld all my few joys and successes,
-and all the countless agonies of body and soul, by which they had been
-girdled. Men met the phantom of myself, with smiles upon their faces,
-and seemed to speak in honied phrases, to make themselves believed, and
-then these shadows stabbed at the listener and he fell, but did not seem
-to die, for a grisly phantom ever hovered over him, but from pity
-forbore to strike.
-
-"The scene changed. It appeared to be a rural village--the date, in
-fiery figures on the corner of the field, was 1852. It was a barber's
-shop, and a light, happy-hearted youth was therein pursuing his
-avocation, and earning bread and health. This youth was apparently
-gifted to look beyond the veil, and into the dim regions of the dead;
-and it seemed that this was known, for presently people flocked about
-him, and the scene closed.
-
-"Again the magic picture presented this man as in public life; cliques
-made use of him, flattered his vanity, and he was led into errors of
-conduct and judgment, but none so great as manifested by others around
-him; but, on the instant that this man discovered his error, and
-announced it, ten thousand daggers were levelled at his heart, ten
-thousand tongues defamed him--and for what? Because he had been true to
-his knowledge, his conscience and his God. He fell beneath the strokes
-of those who had sworn themselves his friends and the friends of all
-mankind. See him now with his heart bowed down.
-
-"It shifts; and lo! the man appears again. Consumed by the fires of
-hatred, envy, ingratitude and venom of his former friends, he has risen
-again. '_Je renais de mes cendres_,' was the motto on the banner that he
-floated to the breeze. He changed his mode of life. One of those who
-were the very first to take him from his labor, and bring him before the
-world, still clung to him, declared that even death should never
-alienate him (for the pantomime was as readable as speech), and the
-deceiver was believed.
-
-"Again the phantorama changed. The barber-orator had reached to
-competence--had gained much gold, a deal of philosophy, and but very
-little wisdom with it all, for he still believed the speech of people;
-measured men and women by the standard of his own heart, and believed
-that honest say was honest mean. He had forgotten that, after all, this
-is but a baby world, and still went on in the same old way, trusting and
-suffering.
-
-"He had one to provide for--a female relative--in whom his heart was
-bound, but this was not reciprocal. The relation was that of religious
-duty on his side, and self-interest on hers. Still the man nobly
-struggled for her--so it seemed--and the picture faded, but another
-came. His '_friend_' by fraud obtained all the man had, and then, with
-malignant purpose, defamed the female to his dupe, having first reduced
-the man to beggary. All this, working on the barber, nearly upset his
-reason, and the victim raged in his agony, and the financier laughed at
-him, and fed sumptuously, daily; and, having previously obtained by
-double fraud, a signature to the effect that robbery was a legal loan,
-gloated over the misery he had caused, and denounced the victim himself
-had made. Once more the picture flew on, years had gone by, the despised
-man--despised because his skin was darker than his destroyer's--had
-risen into eminence and fame.
-
-"It changed again. _Disgrace, poverty, the prison and the halter had
-avenged him._
-
-"'The way of the world!' said Miakus, 'but recollect that
-
-    "'Ever the Right comes uppermost,
-      And ever is justice done!'
-
-What could you expect else from so small a portion of a man? Trust no
-one. This was fate. Fate cannot be evaded. Submit. It will be well in
-the sequel. WE MAY BE HAPPY YET!'
-
-"Again those words! and uttered by Miakus, too!
-
-"My mind framed a desire to behold something of the future that should
-be as plain as the pictures of the past had been, and if there was any
-means whereby the blows of fate might be softened, any field in which to
-live and act free from the loneliness hitherto endured, and when next my
-eyes glanced through the magic tube, there passed across the field of
-vision a solitary human head and bust. So swiftly did it glide past that
-only an electric sense of its beauty remained with me, but there was a
-something that told me the head I saw was that of Evlambea--that by
-woman alone could redemption come. But then the curse said, 'A daughter
-of Ish,' and she was a child of Japhet.
-
-"Scarcely had this figure flitted by than the glass became clouded,
-black, and finally resumed the appearance it had when first taken from
-the box.
-
-"'Nothing further can be seen to-day,' said Miakus, 'I have already
-endowed you with priceless gifts. You can go forth to the world and heal
-the sick, restore the insane, make mirrors and the Elixir, and read the
-past and future, and yet all this is as nothing to that which you may
-expect after you shall have solemnly sworn to sleep the sleep of Sialam
-for me.'
-
-"Readily acknowledging all he said, gratitude prompted me to assent, and
-the words were on my lips, when suddenly the same bust and head passed
-before me very slowly, within one foot of my face. It was unmistakably
-Evlambea, and the countenance looked tearfully reproachful as it once
-more disappeared; but even as it did so there came a soft, low, musical
-voice, but sorrow-toned, saying: '_When I am in danger you will know
-it, wherever you may be; when you are in danger you will see me, though
-seas between our bodies roll!_' The identical words uttered by the girl
-at the door of the chief's cottage, years agone, when we had so sadly
-parted!
-
-"Thus mysteriously warned, my consent was withheld. Miakus looked
-pitiful and disappointed. He said nothing, however, but silently
-repacked his paraphernalia, said he wished me well, and then, passing
-with me into the street, we struck hands and parted.
-
-"It were useless attempting to describe my feelings, consequent upon
-these strange events. I could not help being grateful for the favors
-shown me by the Enigma, and yet was I certain that I had, by ghostly
-aid, triumphed over a great temptation, and that Miakus might, after
-all, mean me no good. Involuntarily clinging to the memory of the maiden
-of the valley, I blessed her from my soul, and offered up a prayer that,
-if it were possible, she might be the redeeming angel for whom my lonely
-soul so ardently longed and sighed."
-
-
-
-
-                              BOOK III.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER I.
-
-                             RAVALETTE.
-
-
-"Years rolled away," continued Beverly. "I had visited California; had
-there made friends, as I had reason to suppose, and knew that I had
-foresworn wealth and place in favor of usefulness, poverty and
-knowledge; and had there helped to found an institution which, while it
-was capable of diffusing infinite blessings to all around, languished
-for want of seven good men and true. Yet it, like all other blessings
-vouchsafed to man, may be so trodden down that it die; but nothing is
-more certain than that it will rise again to the life everlasting.
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Months passed, and a continent and an ocean lay between the Golden Gate
-and me. I was on my second journey toward the Orient, and had taken
-London and Paris on my way. My objects in the journey were triple:
-First, to visit the Supreme Grand Dome of the Rosicrucian Temple; to
-make my obeisance to its Grand Master; to study its higher doctrines,
-and visit the Brethren. Second, to obtain the materials, in Jerusalem,
-for the composition of the Elixir of Life; not that I intended to make
-_it_, but because I wanted to use _them_ in my medical practice, which I
-purposed to resume on my return to America. And, third, I needed rest,
-relaxation, and change of scene; for I felt that if I did not go, what
-between the fraud I had suffered, the wretch's scandal, the woman, the
-dead child in the cemetery, and a variety of other troubles, I should
-die; and if I died--what then?--And so I went.
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-"The scene I now present before you is Paris; the date, any day you
-choose to imagine between the 16th of August, 1863, and the 11th of
-June, 1854. I had just contracted for an anatomical Venus and cabinet,
-designed for one of the Rosicrucian Lodges in America, and had paid out
-some fourteen hundred dollars thereon, when, being weary, I strolled to
-the Batignolles, from there to La Plaissance and Luxembourg, when I met
-a person whom I had known in London, and he advised me by all means to
-again visit the Emperor, and also to go to certain localities named,
-before I left Paris. Promising that the advice should be followed, I
-accordingly one day found myself in the Palace of the Louvre, not for
-the first time, however, but for, perhaps, the tenth. On each of these
-occasions my time had been mainly spent in admiring and examining the
-contents of the _Galleries Assyrienne_ and _Egyptienne_. The
-bas-reliefs, or coarse engravings rather, had commanded my attention on
-previous occasions, along with the sphinxes of Rhampses and Menepthah,
-as well as the curious statues of Amenophis, Sevekhatep, Osiris, and
-Seti, from all of which I had learned much of that strange civilization
-of the long-agone, usually assigned to the past four thousand five
-hundred years, but which had in reality utterly perished from off the
-earth at least ten thousand years earlier than the first year of that
-date! for, but a little while before I saw those statues Mariette had
-exhumed from the sands of Egypt, the celebrated sarcophagi and mummy, to
-which the best Egyptologers, including the Chevalier Bunsen, had, with
-one voice, assigned an age of not less than twelve thousand years.
-
-"On this visit I stood rapt in wonder and conjecture before the
-cuneiform inscriptions upon a series of tablets, and which archaeology
-has never yet interpreted--Bunsen, Layard, Botta, and Champollion having
-all alike failed in the attempt.
-
-"During the five or six last visits to the museum, I had observed near
-me, apparently engaged in the same work as myself--the attempt to cypher
-out the meaning of the inscriptions--an old gentleman, evidently French,
-and as evidently belonging to the small remnant of the old _Noblesse_
-yet surviving on the soil of _le Grand Nation_, judging from his
-carriage, air, and manner--refined, polished, yet simple in the extreme;
-and from the benignance that beamed from his countenance, it was clear
-that there was happiness and content in his breast, and that he was a
-benefactor to, as well as a devoted student of, all that was interesting
-concerning mankind.
-
-"On previous occasions when we met there had passed between us merely
-the compliments of the day, and those general courtesies due between
-well-bred people. This time, however, as if by mutual concession and
-attraction, our greeting was much warmer and more prolonged; for, after
-saluting, we drew chairs before the tablets and began conversing about
-the arrow-headed characters; and the old gentleman, whose name was
-Ravalette, said: 'Sir, how is it that I see you daily here, taking
-copies, and trying to decypher letters that the best scholars in Europe
-have abandoned in sheer and hopeless despair? Surely a youth like you
-cannot hope for success where they have failed?'
-
-"'True,' was the reply, '_they_ may despair, but is that a reason why
-others should? I believe I shall yet correctly read these enigmas of the
-ages.'
-
-"The old man smiled at my antiquarian enthusiasm, and merely remarked,
-that Meses and the chronologists had better be looking out for their
-laurels, else the parvenus of the present day would not leave many to be
-gathered.
-
-"'It is my invincible conviction,' said I, 'that these sculptures were
-wrought many ages prior to the making of the pottery found beneath the
-valley of the Nile; and that the inscriptions on yonder porphyritic
-tablets were engraved there a hundred centuries before the date of
-Adam--an individual, by the way, whom I certainly regard as having had
-an origin and existence in the imaginations of ancient poets, a mere
-myth, handed down the night of Time as an heirloom to the ages--at least
-all such as had a taste for things they could not comprehend--and had
-an existence _there only_!'
-
-"'Then you do not entertain the belief that all men sprang from only one
-source?'
-
-"'Yes--no. Yes; because God created all. No; because there are at least
-ten separate and distinct families of human kind!'
-
-"'But may not all these differences spring from climate and the diverse
-localizations and circumstances attending upon a wide separation of the
-constituents of an original family?'
-
-"'No; because that will not account for different languages, physical
-differences, and anatomical diversities. It is utterly impossible for
-any sane man to believe that the Jaloff and other Negroes, the Maquaas
-and other Indians, the Mongols and other Tartars, the Kanakas and other
-Islanders, the European and other Caucasians, all sprang from one pair.
-Indeed the thing is so plain, from a merely physical point of view,
-without entering at all into the mental and psychical merits of the
-case, that he who runs may read. Observe, I have said nothing about
-superiority or inferiority, merely content to let Physiology speak for
-herself.'
-
-"'Well,' said Ravalette, 'you inform me that you desire to learn, being
-already learned to some extent. The views you entertain upon the Past
-are, in some sense, consonant with my own; and if you are willing to be
-taught, I am willing to instruct; and in any case, no harm can come of
-the abrasion of ideas, but perchance much of good.'
-
-"I was delighted to hear Ravalette talk in this manner; for I felt that
-he was in some sort, notwithstanding our relative disparity of years, a
-congenial spirit, and I longed for him to unfold to me the rich fabric
-of his thought and experience. I had concluded, from a word dropped here
-and there, that he was at heart a believer in the Faith of Christendom,
-but in order to silence the lingering doubt I still entertained on that
-point, I put to him the following questions, and attentively noted the
-substance of his somewhat curious responses thereto.
-
-"1st. Question. 'You, Monsieur Ravalette, have doubtless travelled much,
-and seen a great deal of this world of ours?'
-
-"Here he interrupted me by saying, '_And several others beside!_' I
-asked for an explanation, but he merely waved his hand and motioned me
-to go on. I did so. 'Let me ask you if the result of your observations
-abroad, amongst men of different nations and faith-complexions, has not
-been a strengthening of your belief in the Mosaic teachings, generally,
-and in what is popularly known as Christianity?'
-
-"Answer. 'No! In the many countries I have visited I found human nature
-essentially the same as we find it here in France. Men are ever the same
-at heart. Inwardly they are all alike, sincere, beautiful, good, and
-religious; outwardly, the same selfish, heedless, careless, and
-materialistic beings, as untamable, set, willful, and unreasonable as
-the heartiest cynic could wish.
-
-"'Wherever I went I found the True Religion theoretically believed, but
-practically ignored and set aside on the score of inexpediency.
-
-"'In all my travels I found but one religion, yet that religion passed
-current under a vast variety of names. All men alike believed in good
-and evil, a Heaven of some sort, and some sort of Hell likewise. I found
-that while at bottom Faith was everywhere the same, yet the names by
-which that faith was known, differed widely in different places and
-latitudes. For instance, I found that the Catholic or Papal, the
-Protestant or reformed, the Hindoo and Brahminical, the Boodhistic,
-Lamaic, Greek, Polytheistic, Atheistic, Deistic, Magian, Guebre,
-Islamic, Fetisch, and all other systems and modes of belief, were,
-instead of being antipodal, in fact the same at bottom. This may
-surprise you. Doubtless it would, were I to leave the subject just as it
-is. But I will explain. They are all one at bottom, inasmuch as that
-each and all of their respective and apparently dissimilar devotees do
-homage at the same shrine, of the same Great Mystery. The modes and
-names differ with latitude, but the _meaning_ and the principle are
-everywhere the same.
-
-"'Popular estimate or opinion can never be a true criterion either of
-persons, thoughts, events, principles, or things. We grow daily beyond
-our yesterdays, and are ever reaching forth for the morrow. The world
-has had a long night, as it has had bright days; and now another morn is
-breaking, and we stand in the door of the dawn.
-
-"'I agree with you that could the dates on the tablets here before us,
-be revealed, they would prove that human history really extends much
-further back into the night of Time than the period assigned by Moses as
-its morning.
-
-"'Human monuments are in existence that indubitably prove not only that
-the world is much older than people give it credit for, but also that
-civilizations, arts, sciences, philosophy, and knowledge infinitely
-superior in some respects to what exists to-day, have blessed the earth
-in by-gone ages, and been swept away, leaving only scattered vestiges of
-the wreck behind to inform posterity that such things have been, but are
-not.
-
-"'But what is still stronger food for thought, is the fact that amidst
-these ruins of the dead Ages, we find others that are evidently relics
-of times and civilizations still more remote--the debris of a
-world-wreck remembered only by the seraphim! A demonstration of this
-assertion is found in the pyramids, the date and purpose even of the
-building of which is wrapped in conjecture, and has been for ages past.
-The authentic history of Egypt can be traced for over 6,000 years, yet
-even in that remote past the pyramids were as much a mystery as they are
-to-day.
-
-"'This is not all: The catacombs of Eleuthas contain what in these days
-would be called "Astronomic diagrams," showing occultations of certain
-stars by certain other stars. This is proved by one diagram showing the
-relative place in the still heaven of each star of the series; another
-displays an approach toward obscuration, and so on through thirteen
-separate stages, the last being a complete emergement of the occulted
-star on the opposite side.
-
-"'Now, it so happens that we have astronomers in our day who pique
-themselves on their mental power and mathematical correctness, and these
-inform us that a period of 57,879 years must elapse before the same
-phenomenon will occur again, and that not less than 19,638 years must
-have elapsed since it did occur! Now I foresee an objection in your
-mind. "How is it known that the ancient diagrams refer to any two
-_particular_ stellar bodies?"
-
-"'The answer is: From the relative positions of known stars in the
-heavens whose places correspond to the positions of stars in the
-diagrams, for the _mapping_ out is quite as perfect as it could be done
-to-day, even with all the nice appliances of micrometrical science now
-extant.[7]
-
-[7] For the fullest and most extremely interesting proof--nay,
-demonstration of human antiquity--that Adam was _not_ the first man, but
-that men built cities over 50,000 years ago, read "Pre-Adamite Man," S.
-Tousey, N. Y.
-
-"'Who built Baal-bec? is a question that has been vainly asked for over
-3,000 years, and then as now, men repeated "Who?" and echo said
-"Baal-bec!" and says "Baal-bec" still.
-
-"'In a barren, sterile, sandy plain, which the augurs of the artesian
-borers proved to have been once a rich and fertile bottom-land or
-prairie, a very short distance westward of the Theban ruins, there once
-existed a vast and magnificent city, so splendid that the modern
-capitals of Europe are mere hutted towns in comparison. This is proved
-by what has been exhumed from Earth's bosom. In that city of palaces is
-the wreck of one, which, from its situation with respect to other ruins,
-must have been merely a third or fourth-rate edifice in the golden days
-when AZNAK flourished; yet the portico of this fourth-rate structure,
-situated in a suburb of the city, the name of which suburb was KARNAK,
-consisted of 144 Porphyritic columns, 26 feet 6 inches apart. Each one
-was 39 feet 5 inches in circumference, and not less than 52 feet high,
-and every one was hewn out of a single stone!
-
-"'Moreover, this fourth-rate palace was two miles, five furlongs, and
-eight feet long, by actual measurement of the ruins, and it required a
-journey of quite nine miles to go around it.
-
-"'This palace faced the Sacred River (Nile), from which led a broad
-avenue lined with colossal statues on each side, as close as they could
-stand, for a distance of over one English league, and every one of these
-statues commemorated either a king or a dynasty of that more than regal
-country.
-
-"'Now, mark what I say: Proof, positive proof exists that this palace,
-itself so imperial, so grand, so immeasurably superior to aught of the
-kind attempted by man in this "Progressive age (?)" was, after all, but
-a mere addition, an inconsiderable wing, a sort of appendage, a kind of
-out-house to one of the main edifices of that immortal city.
-
-"'No man knows, or for four thousand years has known, who built
-AZNAK--who laid the stones of KARNAK--who cut marble monsters weighing
-two hundred and thirteen tons out of a single block of stone, and that
-stone so hard that no modern steel will cut, or even scratch it!
-
-"'Railways! steam power! wheels! pulleys! screws! wedges! inclined
-planes! levers, did you say?
-
-"'Sir, all these things existed long ago, else how could solid obelisks
-of five hundred tons weight have been transported a distance exceeding
-one thousand one hundred miles, from the mountains where they were hewn,
-to the places where they were set up, and where we find them to-day?
-
-"'Without all the appliances enumerated, how could these monuments, some
-of which measure eighty-nine feet in length, have been erected after
-they were brought; and take notice, that some of these stone monsters
-were placed upon pedestals, themselves ten or twelve feet high?
-
-"'It would strain the treasury of a modern state to pay the expense
-attendant upon the erection of half-a-dozen such--as was proved here in
-Paris in the case of the Obelisk of Luxor, the smallest of two that
-stood before the Temple of Thebes, and which cost France over two
-million dollars to place where it now stands. Without steam power and
-railways, how could such immense masses of stone have been transported
-over and through vast plains of shifting, burning sands, especially for
-such immense distances as it is certain they were brought? A single
-further remark on chronology, and I have done. It has been established
-among the learned, that it takes not less than a period of ten thousand
-years for a language to be perfected, and then die out, to give place to
-an improved but entirely different one. Now, observe: Champollion
-declares that he, through the assistance of modern Egyptian, was able
-to master ancient Egyptian. This furnished a key to certain hieroglyphs;
-these latter proved instrumental toward simplifying a series of three
-more. He concludes that he has sufficient evidence to establish the
-fact, that several successive languages had been spoken in the two
-Egypts (Upper and Lower).
-
-"'But let us return to the original topic of conversation. How is it
-that you expect a mere dream will aid you in researches of a nature so
-profound as these? How do you suppose that a mere idle dream, even
-supposing you to have one on the subject, could furnish you with the
-key? There might be fifty persons, or fifty thousand, for that matter,
-each one of whom might feel an interest and have a dream about it, and,
-like yourself, discover a fancied key, and yet upon comparing notes no
-two dreams and no two keys would be found alike amongst the whole fifty
-or fifty thousand!'
-
-"Vulgarly, this was a 'poser;' still, an answer was expected, and so I
-said: 'Very true, there might; but the true key would be that which,
-whenever and wherever it was applied, would yield uniform and concordant
-results.'
-
-"This reply appeared satisfactory to the old gentleman, who, after a
-little further conversation, invited me to attend him to his residence
-and partake of a dinner with him at his own table. ''Tis but a short and
-pleasant walk,' said he; 'my house is situated in the Rue Michel le
-Compte, close to the grand Rue du Temple, and we shall reach it in a
-very little time.' Cheerfully accepting the invitation, I took the old
-gentleman's arm, and together we proceeded to his residence--which I
-found to be one of those stately old mansions built by the nobless of
-the times of Louis le Grande. We entered, and in due time sat down to a
-repast at once rich, liberal and friendly, and which gave me a very high
-notion of the man who presided over it. Wine of the rarest graced his
-board; plate of the richest adorned it; servants most attentive served
-it; coffee of the best followed, and tobacco of the finest finished it;
-all of which strengthened Ravalette in my esteem. After partaking of his
-elegant hospitality, he proposed a walk, and accordingly we withdrew
-from the house together, and arm in arm strolled into the Rue du Temple,
-and kept that route until we reached the limit of Paris in that
-direction, and entered one of its suburbs known as Belleville.
-
-"Before quitting the street where I dined, I had taken the precaution to
-mark well the locality of the house, and to note its number on my ivory
-tablets, which I invariably carried with me.
-
-"And now we ascended the hills overlooking Paris; and then we descended
-to the plain, and gratified the eye in viewing the rich market gardens,
-and the conservatories of choice and rare flowers, cultured carefully
-for the tri-weekly markets on the esplanade de la Madeleine and the
-Chateau d'Eau. Again ascending the hill, we entered a cafe together, and
-together partook of some frozen coffee and other ices, after which he
-took me to see a guinguette--or tea garden--lately established for the
-common people, where the customer for ten sous might ape royalty, and
-sip his coffee from silver cups, and take his wine from Sevres
-porcelain. Here we both talked to the proprietor concerning the novelty
-of his enterprise, and made inquiries as to whether his customers--who
-were all of the lower classes of society--did not bear a great deal of
-watching, and whether they did not now and then run off with a few
-silver spoons, a chased goblet, or a silver-gilt fruit dish?
-
-"'No,' replied the man, 'I have seen enough of life and mankind to
-warrant the step, apparently foolish, certainly quite novel, which I
-have taken; and I have found out that, treat a man as if you regarded
-him a thief, and you do much toward making him one. Watch a man closely,
-and you that instant suggest rascally thoughts to him, which may bear
-fruit, and that fruit be crime. But place full and free confidence in
-those you deal with, and let the fact be known, and your conduct
-sanction your words, and take my word for it, your confidence will very
-rarely be abused, if at all. My place is the resort of thousands; my
-invested capital is large, yet I have never lost ten francs from the
-costly experiment of making the poor man realize the comforts and habits
-of the rich at the expense of ten sous.'
-
-"We could but admire the tact of Monsieur Popinarde, and frankly told
-him so as we left his place, for we felt that there was a rich vein of
-truth at the bottom of his philosophy of confidence, as he chose to call
-it. After leaving this place, Ravalette and myself, still arm in arm,
-pursued our walk in the environs of Belleville, and there, amidst the
-sweet music of nature, the melody of the sunshine, the warblings of
-birds, the quietude of the deep green canopy of leaves, the humming of
-distant sounds, and the serenity of unruffled spirits, we entered upon
-the discussion of a topic of singular interest. That topic was, 'The
-human soul, and its resources.' I shall only record the latter part of
-this conversation. Said the old gentleman--
-
-"'Then you really believe, as did a very ancient society of
-philosophers, known to some students of the past as the Sacred
-Twenty-four, that there is a kind of natural magic in existence, far
-more wonderful in its results than the lamp of Aladdin, or the ring of
-the Genii?'
-
-"'Most certainly I do.'
-
-"'How have you learned of its existence, and how do you propose to
-become a noviciate, and avail yourself thereof for certain contemplated
-translations? Perhaps you believe in Elfins, Fairies, Genii and
-Magicians?' said he, half laughingly.
-
-"'I do not absolutely know,' I replied, 'that such a magic exists, yet
-firmly believe it does. The idea came to me I know not how. By striving,
-perhaps, it may be found. There are steps leading to it, doubtless, and,
-if we can discover the first (which I think we have already in
-Mesmerism), we can follow till we reach the great goal. I do not believe
-that Elfins, Fairies, Genii and Magicians are altogether mythical
-personages. There must, it seems to me, be a foundation of truth
-underlying the rich and varied accounts of such beings that have filled,
-and still do fill the reading world with wonder.'
-
-"'Very good. But, tell me, have you an idea that such things belong to
-this world or the world of spirits?'
-
-"At that instant it seemed as if I lost my self-hood, and that a power
-foreign to my soul for a moment seized my organs and answered for me--
-
-"'_They belong to neither, but to a different world!_'
-
-"Ravalette, at this answer, looked in astonishment; and, after gazing
-attentively at me for nearly a minute, muttered, in an almost
-indistinguishable tone, the words, 'It shall be!' You spoke of Mesmerism
-as the first step toward the true magic, which you believe, and I _know_
-exists; and you thought it might be made successful use of in the
-obtainment of knowledge not to be arrived at by or through ordinary
-means, methods or agencies. Tell me in what manner? Surely not through
-ordinary clairvoyance, which ever reveals foregone facts, and none
-other; and, therefore, can be of little use to the true student? You
-believe, as I do myself, that all ancient history, as it comes to us, is
-at best a mere fable, or bundle of myths generally, albeit, certain
-portions are composed of romance, that is to say, are tales of fiction
-founded on a basis of fact, the superstructure being ten thousand times
-larger than the foundations would justify, provided things went at their
-proper value and importance. How, then, through the mesmeric force, do
-you expect to dive beneath this superincumbent ocean of fancy, and fetch
-up what few grains of truth yet sparkle at the bottom? Can you answer me
-that?'
-
-"Ravalette smiled, gazed sorrowfully at me, and then went on--
-
-"'Believe me, my excellent young friend, that Mesmerism is a fine thing
-for inducing a "superior condition," enabling one to write books which
-send their readers to suicides' graves; to discover the art of marrying
-other people's spouses; for procuring "Air-line" dispatches, and filling
-lunatic asylums with poor reason-bereft creatures; for stultifying a
-man's conscience, and for emboldening one to pass for a philosopher when
-one is but an ass!' and Ravalette smiled gravely. 'Distrust all mesmeric
-railways,' said he, 'for many of the passengers, like Andrew Jackson
-Davis, after riding on that train for many years, have landed either in
-the swamps and mires of fantasy, or on the sides of moonshine mountains,
-called "Mornia," and "Hornia," "Forlornia," and "Starnos," and
-"Sternas," and "Cor," and "Hor," and "Bore," "Gupturion," and
-"Spewrion," and forty thousand more!'
-
-"I bit my lip with vexation; for I had devoutly believed in and loved
-the subject and its advocates. I had always loved Davis, and highly
-admired his philosophy and writings, especially since a great free
-convention he once held in Central New York. I was aware that he had
-foes--people who refused to believe that God had appointed him his
-mouthpiece; who pointed to the graveyard in Quincey, Massachusetts,
-where lie the bodies of John and Hannah Grieves, surmounted by a stone
-that tells that these poor suicides came there, lost, ruined, from
-reading his books. I was well aware that there were painful rumors
-concerning a couple of divorces, and that some friends of mine had cut
-their throats in order to all the quicker reach the 'Summer-land' which
-he so elegantly described; but still I loved--still love him dearly. But
-now, when Ravalette suggested that he was a humbug, it struck me that
-Ravalette was right; for I suddenly recollected that once the great
-clairvoyant lost a little dog named 'Dick,' which his seership could not
-trace. I remembered that nineteen-twentieths of his prophecies from the
-'superior condition' never came to pass, while the twentieth any
-school-boy could guess at. I recalled the fact that his philosophy was
-most decidedly medical--highly emetic, and very cathartic--and that his
-followers soon lost what little common-sense they formerly had, else it
-were impossible for them to accept the teachings of one who constantly
-contradicted himself. Still, I respected and loved him dearly, albeit
-Ravalette had utterly demolished his pretensions; and I saw clearly
-that, in believing the stuff he wrote and talked, I was like one who
-reads 'Jack the Giant-killer,' or 'Gulliver's Travels,' or 'Baron
-Munchaussen,' and believes the stories real and true."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER II.
-
-                         SOMETHING CURIOUS.
-
-
-"Ravalette continued: 'Mesmerism's day has gone by. Already it is found
-to be impossible to produce the same effects with it as were produced a
-few years ago, while the bastard thing that now goes by its name, is of
-such a nature and character that it speedily either disgusts all
-sensible people, or very soon lands its friends into a deep quagmire of
-such alkaline properties, that all the little common sense they had at
-starting gets thoroughly mixed therewith, and forms a compound which
-they carry back, instead of what they brought; and when they get home
-again, they peddle it out as "Divine Philosophy," when in fact it is an
-excellent article of soap--regular _savon extraordinaire_, warranted to
-extract brains, decency, money, and everything else worth having, from
-all who meddle with it--it _washes_ so very clean. If your railway does
-not accomplish this, yet in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred of
-journeys that terminate differently, it lands its passengers in the
-populous Town of Fantasy, in the which all things look real, but are as
-hollow and as substanceless as mere Forms can be, and that is next to
-nothing. In fact, most of the popular clairvoyance may be said to
-resemble an edifice having
-
-    "'Rich windows that exclude the light,
-      And passages that lead to nothing.'
-
-There are, of course, a few, very few exceptions to the rule, but the
-rule obtains vastly.
-
-"'The sentimentalities of a puling, hysteric girl, half afflicted with
-catochus, and the other half love-sick--as most modern clairvoyants
-are--count small in the list of Fact-truths, and the mad ravings of
-crack-brained somnambules of the other gender go for hardly as much, for
-the first has at least a degree of poetry about her, but the latter none
-at all. No, no, friend, do not place too great reliance on the ability
-of Magnetism to aid your researches, for you will run a narrow chance of
-disappointment, and regret when too late that from Nature's stable you
-selected the very worst animal of the lot; one that is ring-boned, lame,
-spavined, and very baulky withal. Take my advice, and choose a better.'
-
-"As the old gentleman finished what I at first regarded as a diatribe
-against Animal Magnetism--a thing, by the way, that I always doted on--I
-_felt_ silent, and was so for the space of a minute, during which time I
-rapidly reviewed my entire experience in, and knowledge of, Mesmerism,
-and the result of the inspection surprised me not a little, for on a
-calm, disinterested view of the whole subject, I found it utterly
-impossible to gainsay or invalidate his position and assertions. Yet it
-was equally impossible to help feeling chagrined, and in no small
-degree mortified to have my pet hobby thus mercilessly cut up and
-dissected, laughed at, and thrown out as dog-feed. 'Twas very hard fare,
-at least to me, and at first seemed unfair also. For a long time I had
-almost worshipped it as a divine science; holding it to be the true
-Spiritual Telegraph, by means of which we earthlings might flash
-thought, not only to the bounds of the globe and the Present, but also
-to the ends of Time and the Ages Past, or nerved by Hope and Curiosity,
-dispatch a message to the Great Future and drag back the answer. It was
-looked upon as the great Messenger of Light, through whom we might
-easily read the records of a Past so distant that the coal-beds are but
-yesterday's creations in comparison. And here, at one fell stroke,
-Ravalette had toppled the castle remorselessly about my ears. I bit my
-lip with vexation, and for awhile was silent as, together, we walked up
-and down a sort of natural esplanade on the sides of the hill next
-Paris. Mechanically as we walked back and forth, I trod in the
-footprints made while going, on each return, and just as mechanically
-observed that Ravalette did the same. One thing struck me as curious,
-even while my mind was profoundly engaged in the search for arguments
-wherewith to confute and break down the old gentleman's positions; and
-that fact was this: The shoes worn by Ravalette were of a very singular
-pattern, totally unlike any I had ever seen before. Upwardly, they were
-decidedly triangular--almost perfectly so. Previously this fact had
-escaped my notice; now, it struck me as being _very_ singular. But what
-was equally surprising was, that instead of the ordinary heel and sole,
-his feet-gear had four circular rims of brass, covered with rubber, and
-the track he made on the yielding, but plastic ground was indeed
-remarkable. The track and the shoe almost upset my cogitations. I looked
-up and observed a smile on Ravalette's face as he saw my surprise at
-beholding the novelty of one cross, two crescents and two triangles, and
-a solid bar (part of the cross), ornamenting the sole of a shoe, if shoe
-it could be called.
-
-"'That,' said he, divining my thought, 'is and yet is not a mere fancy
-of mine. I have a peculiar reverence for those figures, as you may
-plainly see.' And with this he drew my attention to an exquisite brooch
-or pin in his bosom.
-
-"This rare jewel, which I had previously seen but not noticed
-particularly, consisted of a triangle formed of a crescent or quarter
-circle and a compass, or, as the instrument is improperly called, a pair
-of compasses. In the centre of this was a tiny cross formed of minute
-stars, and just where the two bars met was a rose just blooming, and
-colored with enamel to the life. Gazing still closer at this novel
-breastpin, with the aid of a fine eye-glass, I discovered a legend
-engraved in minute and strange characters upon the rim of the crescent;
-upon the left quarter of this crescent was a pelican feeding her young
-with her heart's blood; midway was a tiny black rose, and on the right
-corner was one of deep crimson.
-
-"The workmanship was exquisite, indeed quite extraordinary, for the
-entire jewel was not larger than a golden dollar. He also showed me a
-large and massive seal, pendent from his watch, and on its face was
-engraved a ladder of twelve steps, the first and fifth of which were
-broken. The foot of this ladder rested upon a broken column, near which
-lay a mason's trowel, and its top leaned against the beam and ring of an
-anchor, reversed, the lower part being lost in what represented a cloud.
-After I had sufficiently admired the seal, he semi-playfully drew forth
-his watch, to which it was attached by a fine gold 'rope'-chain, and
-observed: 'I have more of the same kind,' at the same time placing it in
-my hand.
-
-"The watch was an ordinary smooth-backed, hunting-cased gold
-chronometer, worth perhaps fifty or sixty pounds sterling, the extra
-value being acquired by an anchor fouled, done in diamond points upon
-the internal face. The opposite side presented some excellent
-enamel-work representing the cardinal points of the compass. Three stars
-gave light from the West; a tomb, with its door partly open, stood in
-the East; broken columns adorned the South; and a circle composed of
-small triangles was in the North; in the centre of this circle was a
-rose on the bars of a dotted cross; the whole executed in the same
-exquisite style as that marking the seal and pin.
-
-"To a question as to what it all meant, an evasive answer was returned.
-Waiving all my solicitations to explain the emblematic devices, the old
-gentleman resumed his remarks, by observing: 'Never mind now what these
-things mean; you will know one of these days. At present let us
-continue our talk on other matters. A little while ago you observed
-that Mesmerism was a force Spiritual; but I am not so sure that you are
-correct. In my view it is a power Physical--ultra physical or material
-it may be, but physical still.'
-
-"'What!' said I, in amazement, 'human magnetism, that mighty agent or
-power, which effects such grand effects, and works such wonderful
-effects, Physical? Impossible! The very idea, excuse me, is absurd; the
-assertion is simply ridiculous!'
-
-"'So I once thought,' rejoined Ravalette, 'but think so no longer; and,
-mark me, the time is not very distant when you will come to my side of
-the question. I will endeavor to illustrate the point, one point of
-many, that confirms my view. For instance, the serpent tribe. We know
-that those reptiles charm birds and other animals, and that they exert
-an influence upon their prey precisely like that exerted by the
-magnetizer upon his subject, with this difference, that the human
-subject exhibits none of that peculiar terror manifested by the lower
-orders of being when under the spell of fascination, and this difference
-arises from the fact that the animal has a clear instinct that the power
-is exercised for its destruction, which the human subject is, of course,
-entirely free from.
-
-"'We see the snake exert the same marvellous power that the human
-magnetizer does, and observe effects resulting therefrom no less
-remarkable, and yet no one for an instant supposes that serpents are
-spiritual beings.'
-
-"'Now you are completely at my mercy,' thought I, as I responded:
-'Certainly the snake is a spiritual being so long as he is alive, and
-exerts volition. He is a spiritual thing just as much as you or I.'
-
-"'And dead?' said Ravalette, inquiringly, 'is a mere lump of
-clay--nothing more.
-
-"'Then, Monsieur Beverly, the argument is against you, and is mine _par
-un coup majestique_! for the snake charms just as powerfully when his
-skin is stuffed with straw and cotton, as when with his own proper
-flesh, blood, and bones. Innumerable experiments, instituted expressly
-to test this question, have been made, and it has been over and over
-again decided that the charming or fascinating power is just as strong
-after as previous to death. This has been settled by the actions of
-birds, who utter the same plaintive and pathetic cries, exhibit the same
-terror and other phenomena, in presence of a stuffed as in that of a
-living serpent. This is a strong point in my favor; but one that is
-still stronger, indeed quite irrefutable, shall now be adduced. Persons
-employed in the _Jardin des Plants_, and other zoological institutions,
-find it dangerous work to clean out the dens of certain serpents, even
-for weeks after the occupants have been removed, for the
-effluvium--which, I take it, you will not claim to be other than
-physical--which they have left behind, and which constantly exhales from
-the floor and sides of the den, is found to be identical with that aura
-or sphere which it is known they exhale when excited by the presence of
-prey; and the affects of this emanation from the den are precisely
-those that characterize the action of the living, present, excited
-snake. Now, these facts had long been noticed, and the results
-attributed to the fancy of the human subject, until, at length, an
-unusual circumstance led to the institution of a course of experiments
-to set the matter at rest forever.
-
-"'India is the paradise of _charming_ snakes, and a commission was sent
-thither by the joint governments of England and France, to test this
-matter thoroughly. This commission settled upon Candeish, a province of
-the Decan, where serpents most abound, and the experiments were made
-simultaneously in the towns of Nunderbar, Sindwa, Dowlea, Chapra,
-Jamneer, Maligaum, Chundoor, Kurgoon, Chorwa, Bejagur, Hurdwa,
-Asseergurh, Hashungabad, and Boorhumpore; and they were made with thirty
-different species of serpents, on eleven hundred and fifty-three human
-subjects, of twenty-three different nations, and all sorts of
-temperaments. First, these persons were subjected--under proper
-precautions, of course--to the mesmeric glance of hungry, quiet, and
-enraged serpents. In all three cases the effects were bad, all the
-subjects alike complaining of constriction of the chest, loss of memory,
-and a very strange sort of vertigo. As soon as the last symptom
-manifested itself, the curtain that separated the serpents from the men
-was dropped, and proper baths and other restoratives resorted to.
-Secondly--these same persons were all invited subsequently to a feast,
-as a reward for their services. Serpents were securely fastened in
-wooden boxes beneath the seats of three hundred and sixteen of them,
-and of these two hundred and eighty-four manifested the same symptoms as
-when under the direct gaze of the serpents. Two months afterwards
-ninety-four of the same persons, unknown to themselves, were placed to
-work in an apartment built of the boards that had composed the serpent
-dens, and the effects, a third time, were absolutely identical! Now, in
-this light, what becomes of your spiritual hypothesis! It is gone to the
-four winds of earth. But to set the matter entirely at rest, and to give
-your spiritual notion respecting Mesmerism its eternal quietus, let me
-call your attention to the fact that if a man, any man, sits before a
-swinging disk of black glass, and fixes his eye upon it, he will
-eventually be as deeply magnetized and as lucidly clairvoyant, as he
-would under the operation of the most powerful magnetizer on the globe!'
-
-"I felt that the tables were turned, and that the old gentleman held me
-at his mercy. However, he forbore to triumph, but went on, saying--
-
-"'I do not say that the soul of man is physical, but I know that his
-spirit is so; for I proved that over sixty years ago, to my complete and
-entire satisfaction. Do not, I beg you, consider me a Materialist, or
-that I dispute the existence of spirit. Far from that! Your humble
-servant is a firm believer, not only in spirit, but in a great Spiritual
-Kingdom, more vast, varied, and beautiful than this Material one; and
-believe me, _mon ami_, when I affirm that not more than one man in ten
-thousand has any adequate idea of what he means when pronouncing the
-word Spirit; not one man in thrice that number can properly define it.
-
-"'Furthermore, _as a prelude to what may yet befall you_, permit me to
-say that, in the face of modern philosophy, and in direct contrariety to
-popular belief, it is my opinion that spirit cannot produce on spirit
-the singular movements and effects witnessed in mesmeric and analogous
-phenomena; but I do not at all doubt the ability of matter to effect it
-all. Yes, my friend, I believe that matter alone, without extrinsic aid,
-is competent to the production of the magnetic wonders, and a hundred
-others still more marvellous. For instance, I do not believe that any
-merely mesmeric power whatever, much less the dream-force of ordinary
-sleep, can, or, under any conceivable circumstances, could enable you to
-correctly read the inscriptions on the tablets in the Louvre, or probe
-the secrets of Karnak, Baalbec, Nineveh, or Ampyloe; but I can name
-purely material agencies that are more than adequate to the
-accomplishment of these, and infinitely greater things. I know a
-material means that will enable the soul to lay bare before its gaze the
-deepest mysteries of the highest antiquity, strip the Past of its mouldy
-shroud, and triumphantly lift the veil that conceals the Future from our
-view--or rather, your view.'
-
-"The strange old man ceased, and, for a little time, my mind lingered on
-his concluding words. It was plain and clear, so I thought, that he
-alluded to certain medicaments which have long been used for the
-production of a species of ecstatic dream, and so I replied--
-
-"'You are doubtless correct, and can, by physical agents, produce
-strange psychical phenomena, and curious exhibitions of mental activity
-and fantasy; but, beyond all question, you over-rate their importance
-and power, for not one of them is adequate to the office of enabling a
-clear, strong mind to move within the sphere of the Hidden, but the
-Real.'
-
-"'To what do you allude particularly, _mon ami_?'
-
-"'I allude to various chemical and botanical compounds; for instance,
-those plants which furnish a large per centage of the chemical
-principles Narcotine, Morphia, and others of the same general
-characteristics, as Opium, Beng, and Hemp, the preparations of the
-delightful but dangerous ----, the equally fascinating decoctions of
-----, not forgetting Hasheesh, that accursed drug, beneath whose sway
-millions in the Orient have sunk into untimely but rainbow-tinted
-graves, and which, in western lands, has made hundreds of howling
-maniacs, and transformed scores of strong men into the most loathly,
-drivelling idiots.'
-
-"We lapsed into silence, which at length was broken by Ravalette, who
-said, as he clasped my hand with fervor--
-
-"'My dear young friend, there is here, in Paris, a high and noble
-society, whose chief I am. This society has many Rosicrucians among its
-members. Like the society to which you belong, ours, also, has its
-head-quarters in the Orient. Ever since I have known you, I have been
-anxious to have you for a brother of our Order. Shall I direct your
-initiation? Once with us, there is no branch of knowledge, mystic or
-otherwise, that you will not be able to attain, and, compared to which,
-that of even the third temple of Rosicrucia is but as the alphabet to an
-encyclopaedia.'
-
-"Much more he said, but I had no desire to join his fraternity, and
-firmly but respectfully told him so; whereupon he cut short our
-conference by rising, as he did so, observing--
-
-"'You may regret it. I can tell you no more. The society exists; if you
-need it, find it--it may be discovered. But see! my groom and horse have
-arrived, and have long been waiting. I must, therefore, leave you. Take
-this paper; open it when you see proper to do so. You will quit Paris
-to-morrow, next day, or when you choose. You may turn your face
-southward, instead of to the north as you proposed. Seek me not till in
-your hour of greatest need. In the meantime, I counsel you to obey, to
-the letter, your _highest_ intuitions. Adieu!'
-
-"And so we parted. I loved Ravalette, but not his fraternity. This
-conversation with Ravalette, and, indeed, my entire intercourse with
-him, was invested with a peculiar halo of what I may justly call the
-weird. It was evident that all his words and allusions contained a
-deeper meaning than appeared upon the surface. His conversation had
-filled my soul with new and strange ideas and emotions; and I felt that
-he had left me at the inner door of a vast edifice, after skillfully
-conducting me through the vestibule. What worlds of mystery and meaning
-lay just beyond, was a theme of profound and uneasy conjecture. I felt
-and knew that he was no common or ordinary man; and well and strangely
-was this proved afterwards.
-
-"I had solaced myself with the hope that, by deferring my contemplated
-tour through Picardy and La Normandy, I should draw closer the bonds of
-common sympathy between us, and be made wiser through the abrasion of
-such an intellect as his. How suddenly and how rudely was this hope
-shattered!
-
-"When he dismissed me so abruptly, after baiting my soul with such a
-splendid lure, I could but feel both astonished and aggrieved. Thousands
-would have been too small a price to pay for even one day more of his
-society; but, alas! thousands could not purchase it. Still, I learned a
-lesson. There are things in this world more valuable than even boundless
-material wealth--knowledges, that neither Peru's treasures nor the mines
-of Ind can buy; and that Ravalette possessed an abundant store of these
-priceless riches, there was not a single lingering doubt.
-
-"As his last words sounded the death-knell of all my fondly air-built
-castles, I became apprised of a fact that had heretofore escaped my
-notice; and this was, that, for the last ten minutes, a mounted groom,
-having a led horse in hand, had stood patiently waiting under a large
-tree at the south-eastern terminus of our promenade. As the old man
-placed the sealed paper in my hand, this groom advanced and assisted his
-master to mount, and, as soon as he was firmly seated in the saddle,
-they both gave rein and spur, and, urging the steeds into a round
-gallop, both horsemen were out of sight before I could recover from the
-stupor of surprise into which the proceeding had thrown me."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER III.
-
- NOW COMES THE MYSTERY--A MAN GOES IN A CAB IN SEARCH OF HIS OWN GHOST.
-
-
-"Perhaps three minutes elapsed before a full recovery took place, and,
-at the end of that period, I had come to the conclusion not to be
-baulked in quite such a cavalier style, but to seek and obtain one more
-interview, come what might therefrom. With this intention, I dashed
-along the hill-side, and at full speed through the principal
-thoroughfare of Belleville, till I reached the barriere leading into the
-Rue Faubourg du Temple, where, calling a cabriolet, I ordered the driver
-to land me in the Rue Michel le Compte--where, a few hours previously, I
-had dined with Ravalette--in the shortest possible space of time.
-
-"A curious thing took place while giving my orders to the driver. It was
-this: Everybody knows that, at any of the barrieres leading from Paris,
-a large crowd of blouses, men and of office, women and children of the
-lower orders, may, in fair or foul weather, always be found--loiterers,
-having nothing to do, apparently, except to lounge about, to see and be
-seen. Such a crowd I found at the barriere, and amidst it I noticed a
-_bonne_, or nurse, having in charge three beautiful children, one of
-whom, a lad of seven years, appeared to take an unusual interest in
-myself, doubtless observing that I was in a great hurry to accomplish
-something. This child, as it saw me, ran to the nurse, and said, '_Ma
-bonne_, Franchette, what's the matter with the gentleman? Is he sick?
-What makes him look so queer?'
-
-"'Hush, child,' said the woman in reply; 'that gentleman is in search of
-what he won't find this long time!'
-
-"'What is that, Franchette?'
-
-"'That gentleman is in search of _his own ghost_, _mes enfants_!'
-replied the nurse, as the children clustered around her to hear the
-answer.
-
-"'_Ma foi!_' echoed the crowd of idlers, as they caught the woman's
-words--whether spoken in jest or seriously I cannot say--'_Ma foi!_ the
-gentleman takes a cab to go in search of his own ghost!' And the cab
-drove off as these words were echoed by a hundred tongues.
-
-"'What the devil does it mean?' asked I of myself, rather irreverently,
-as a Guebre would say, had one heard me. 'What does it mean?' What put
-such a queer notion as that in the woman's head?' And, while cogitating
-for an answer, the cab stopped before the required gateway. Hastily
-dismounting, I paid the man half a gold louis, refused the offered
-change, but, dismissing him with a word of praise at his alacrity, I
-hastily rang the bell to summon the concierge or porter. That personage
-speedily made his appearance, all the quicker from the unwonted vigor
-applied to the bell-rope.
-
-"'Is your master in the house, _mon ami_?'
-
-"'_Oui, monsieur_: he has not been absent to-day.'
-
-"'What! Not been absent, when he left me not thirty minutes ago?
-Impossible! Monsieur Ravalette _must_ have been absent.'
-
-"'But who _is_ Monsieur Ravalette? I know of no such person. Monsieur
-Jacques d'Emprat is my master, and not the person you have mentioned!'
-
-"Here was a fresh mystery. 'Call Monsieur Jacques d'Emprat, if you
-please.'
-
-"'_Certainement, monsieur._ Jeanette, my dear, go upstairs and tell the
-patron here's a gentleman wants to see him.'
-
-"Jeanette, a little girl of twelve years, flew to execute the errand,
-and in a few moments the landlord himself appeared; and I was surprised
-to find that the well-aproned butler who had attended upon us at dinner
-and the proprietor of the house were one and the same person. An
-explanation soon followed, and I learned that Ravalette, who was an
-entire stranger to the landlord, had come there _two_ days previously
-for the purpose of engaging a sumptuous dinner for _two_ persons, that
-being the landlord's business--a caterer. For the dinner he had paid a
-round price in advance, and had given the proprietor a small silver coin
-of peculiar workmanship as a memorial of his visit. This coin or medal
-the man produced, and, lo! it was a perfect fac-simile, on a larger
-scale, of the jewel I had that very day examined in the scarf of
-Ravalette at Belleville. To my question as to when he last saw my
-mysterious friend, the patron answered: 'I do not know him, where he is,
-when I next shall see him--nothing whatever. He left with you, and has
-not since returned. He is evidently a mysterious man; and were it not
-that I have this little medal to commemorate his visit, together with
-three hundred and ten francs in gold in my pocket, which he paid me for
-the wines and dinner, I should more than half believe that he was the
-Devil himself out for a lark in Paris. But the Devil never pays in gold,
-so those say who ought to know, and I am sure Ravalette paid me in bran
-new coin, which, on account of its beauty and full weight, I just tied
-up in one end of my long leather purse, meaning to give it to my
-daughter, at school in Dijon, for a birth-day gift. Here's the money, as
-you perceive, nicely tied up, and sealed with wax, just as I fixed it an
-hour or two after Ravalette paid me.'
-
-"With these words the honest landlord drew forth a most
-formidable-looking _bourse_, one end of which was, as he said, securely
-tied with twine, and sealed with a great blotch of red wax.
-
-"'Yes, monsieur, here's the cash; I cannot show it to you, because I
-don't like to break the string or wax; but as a sound is worth as much
-as a sight, you shall hear it jingle to your heart's content.'
-
-"And so saying, he struck the purse against the side of the gateway;
-but, instead of the merry clink of gold coin, we heard only the dull
-sound of a far less valuable metal. This startled him not a little. He
-changed color, then drew his knife, and in an instant cut the string,
-and emptied the contents of the purse upon his open palm.
-
-"Horrible! Instead of bright golden Louis, he held in his hand a small
-pile of leaden disks? Each one of these disks had a number and a letter
-on it, and one of them was engraved, on the obverse side, with the
-simple words--'Place the coins in order.' We did so, and found that each
-letter formed part of a word. When they were all placed, the inscription
-read, 'All is not gold that glitters!'
-
-"My soul quailed before the mystery. I could scarcely move or speak, so
-great was my bewilderment; and as for the patron, it is impossible to
-describe his terror and consternation, as he stood there, with open
-mouth and protruding eyeballs, gazing on the coins upon the board where
-he had laid them. I too looked upon them; and even while we did so, a
-terrible thing took place; for the letters upon the disks changed color
-before our very eyes, first to a light blue, changing to deep crimson,
-and finally assuming a blood-red color. When, at the end of thirty
-seconds, this color did not change, we looked closer at them, and, to
-our absolute amazement, found that the characters themselves had
-altered, and instead of the sentence above quoted, we read the
-following:
-
-"'Remember Ravalette! Fear not!'
-
-"With a cry of agony the man dashed the accursed coins to the ground,
-and instantly fell himself in a deathly swoon. A great excitement now
-ensued. The porter, Jeanette, and half a dozen other inmates, rushed to
-the assistance of their fallen master.
-
-"Tenderly and carefully we bore him into the house, and speedily
-resorted to those well-known means of restoration used in such cases,
-which it were superfluous to mention; suffice it that, at the expiration
-of half an hour, the man revived, and bidding him and the rest a short
-good-bye, and promising to return on the morrow if I did not quit Paris,
-I took my departure.
-
-"Before I left, however, it occurred to me that I would secure the
-marvellous coins, or, at least, a few of them; and for this purpose I,
-accompanied by the _concierge_, who had seen his master dash them away,
-went into the court-yard where he had thrown them. Carefully and long we
-searched over the smooth stone pavements. The marks where they had
-struck were there, but not a single coin could be found. It was
-absolutely certain that no person _in_ the house had picked them up, for
-all these were in attendance on the patron. It was equally certain that
-no one from the street had done so; for the gate was fast bolted and
-shut, and had been ever since I had entered the premises to inquire of
-the porter.
-
-"At length we gave up the task of finding them as utterly hopeless. I
-looked at the porter and shook my head; the porter looked at me and
-shook his head in return, as much as to say, 'It is a very strange
-affair!' At that moment a voice, coming from God knows where, for it
-seemed to issue neither from above nor below, in the house or out of
-it--a hollow, half-pathetic, half-cynical voice, echoed our unspoken
-thought--'_It is a VERY strange affair!_' The horror-stricken porter
-crossed himself devoutly, and, falling on his knees, began to pray,
-while I in the meanwhile undid the bolts, opened the port, and rushed
-into the open street.
-
-"The thing was altogether of so weird a character, that I almost doubted
-the evidence of my senses; yet, on recalling all the circumstances from
-first to last, the testimony affirming the events was altogether too
-strong, overpowering and direct, to be doubted for an instant.
-
-"In books of ancient lore; in the old Black letter volumes of antiquity;
-in the recital of the exploits of Appolonius of TYANAE; in the Life of
-Darwin; in the story of Grugantus, and in the 'Records of the Weird
-Brethren of Appulia,' I had read of Magic Marvels, almost too wonderful
-for the belief of those ignorant masses contemporaneous with the authors
-and heroes of the various legends. But in the light of modern learning,
-all these things had been resolved into three primitive elements, and
-these were: 1st., and principal. Ignorance of the Masses. 2d. The clouds
-of superstition which for long ages hovered over the world. And, 3d.
-The amazing skill possessed by the various arch-impostors of antiquity.
-Thus I accounted for much that was reported to have taken place in 'ye
-Olden Tyme;' but how to explain away what myself and several others
-had just witnessed, on the same easy and general hypothesis, was a task
-altogether beyond achievement. To attempt to get rid of the difficulty
-on the supposition of mere 'Fancy,' was simply ridiculous: and yet,
-while one does not feel at liberty to admit the idea of Magic, here were
-circumstances of such a tremendous character, as to utterly forbid and
-defy explication upon any other ground whatever.
-
-"This was the current of my thoughts as I left the street of Michel le
-Compte, and turned up that of the Temple. As I slowly walked along,
-buried in a labyrinth of conjecture, the idea suddenly occurred to me
-that perhaps, after all, Ravalette and the people of the house in the
-Rue Michel le Compte, might merely have been performing parts in a very
-cleverly designed, and capitally acted drama; though how to account for
-the kaleidoscopic changes of the coins, I could not at first imagine.
-'Ah!' said I, at length, 'I have it! Hurrah! Bravo! Eureka, ten times
-over! The secret's out, and I'm the man that found it!' A sudden thought
-occurred to me, by the aid of which, even the coin mystery, was cleared
-up most satisfactorily; and that which ten minutes before was a profound
-and horrible mystery, was now, apparently, as clear as the noontide sun.
-Here is the train of reasoning which led me to this hopeful result:
-Ravalette was a wealthy and eccentric gentleman, who, observing my
-natural enthusiasm for the antique, and aptitude to the occult, had
-determined to either amuse himself and friends at my expense, possibly
-for the purpose of curing some of them of what, perhaps, he regarded as
-the same weakness; or, taking pity on what he looked upon as a sad and
-dangerous infatuation, had resorted to this rather costly experiment, in
-the hope that at its termination a perfect cure might be effected. The
-people in the house were, together with the woman and children at the
-_Barriere_, his confederates in the scheme. He was a learned man; saw
-that I could not be easily taken in; and therefore brought the wonders
-of chemical and ventriloquial sciences to his assistance--the latter in
-the affair of the floating voice, the former in the matter of the coins
-or disks. These coins had been coated with a substance that would, on
-exposure to the atmosphere, exhale away; and with this exhalation the
-first set of characters would of course disappear. Beneath this external
-coating was another, which, on contact with the air, would assume a
-peculiar color; beneath this, in turn, was another, and still another;
-the last of all, being that on which was written the last series of
-letters composing a sentence. The appearance of these words was the cue
-to the patron to utter his cry, dash the coins from his hands, and
-pretend to swoon. In the commotion resultant therefrom, attention would
-be drawn from the cause of the apparent disaster, and afford ample
-opportunity for their removal. The sentence, '_It is a very strange
-affair_,' would be the very one naturally suggested under the
-circumstances, and had happily been selected as the most fitting one to
-afford exercise to the ventriloquist employed; and this apparent echoing
-of an unspoken thought would add additional piquancy to the scene, and
-materially assist in piling up the horripilant.
-
-"There! was not that a fine specimen of analysis? It was almost perfect,
-and would have answered most admirably had it not been for one little
-thing, and that was, simply, that _it was not true_--a trifling
-objection, perhaps, yet one absolutely fatal. Why, will be seen
-hereafter.
-
-"I was just about half satisfied with my ingenious speculation, and no
-more, after the first burst of joy at my supposed discovery had
-subsided, and cool reason once more took the helm. Be it true or false,
-I determined to go back to Belleville and pursue my investigations a
-little further. A passing omnibus soon brought me to the _Barriere_, and
-to my great joy I saw the identical party that had made the curious
-remark about my being in search of my own ghost. The nurse and children
-were intently watching the evolutions of a set of nomadic marionettes,
-and listening to the stereo-type drolleries of the man in the box who
-worked the little puppets. Luckily the whole party, with at least three
-hundred others, were so taken up with the antics of Polichinel and his
-shrew of a wife, that the young ones nor the nurse saw me. I therefore
-stepped into a coffee-shop close at hand, called for a _tasse_, and then
-sent one of the waiters to fetch the woman with the three children
-dressed in yellow velveteen. The man obeyed, and speedily returned,
-followed by the party sent for.
-
-"Upon seeing who it was that had summoned her, the young woman felt
-alarmed, fearing that the remarks she had made, when I entered the cab
-an hour or so previously, had offended me, and that my present business
-was to cause her to be punished for her insolence. For of all places on
-this civilized earth, Paris is the one where a stranger is best
-protected from injury or impertinence--at least, it then was. I soon set
-the woman's mind at ease on that point; and having purchased some
-_gateaux_ for the children, and the same, with a vessel of coffee, for
-the nurse, I requested her to be seated, and tell me what caused her to
-use such curious terms, with regard to myself, a little while before.
-
-"'Lord bless you, sir,' she said, 'I did but repeat what an old man said
-who stood on the side of the carriage opposite to that by which you
-entered. I had just crossed over from his side when you saw and heard
-me. As you came running down the street, everybody saw you, and that you
-were in a hurry, and several persons made observations as to the cause
-of your great haste. Said one, "The man's mad!" said another, "His woman
-has just run off with a lover, taking his twins along for company's
-sake, and he's after them with a sharp stick!" Said the old man at my
-side, "He's in search of what he won't find very soon." "What's that,
-sir?" I ventured to ask. "He's in search of--ahem!--in search of--_his
-own ghost, my dear_!" said the old man, as he darted up the street. The
-notion was so funny, that I remembered _it all the while I was crossing_
-the street--a very long time for us _Bonnes_ to recollect anything, _mon
-cher ami_; and when Auburt there asked me what ailed you, why, I looked
-wise, and repeated the grey-beard's observation, and--another cup of
-coffee, if you please--that was all.'
-
-"I breathed freer. 'But tell me, my dear, what sort of man this old
-fellow was?' 'Certainly--another _gateau, garcon_; monsieur will pay for
-it--certainly!' and the young woman went on to describe--Ravalette! as
-well as I could have done myself, had that mysterious individual stood
-before me then and there. It was enough. I was satisfied, and determined
-to push my inquiries further. I thanked the girl, paid the bill of
-thirty-five sous, left the place, and hurried as fast as I possibly
-could to the flower-gardens, that, it will be remembered, Ravalette and
-myself had visited together. I went to the first one, and asked the
-gardener if he had seen the old man who had been my companion on a
-recent visit, an hour or two before?
-
-"'_Old_ man? Well, you _are_ a funny man, to call a boy of seventeen
-years an _old_ man! I recollect you well enough, for you bought a fine
-bouquet, one of the damask roses composing which you now carry in your
-button-hole. I remember you well enough, and the beardless stripling,
-your companion; but I have not seen him since you both left together.'
-
-"'Bah, my friend!' said I, 'it won't do. I know perfectly well that my
-comrade here was _not_ a youngster, but a man of full seventy years of
-age, if a single day!'
-
-"'_Sacre bleu!_ You'd better tell me I lie at once, and be done with it!
-You may _say_ it was an old man, but I'll be cursed if it wasn't a young
-one, not yet out of his teens; and what's more to the purpose, I'll back
-my opinion, and bet you an even bottle of _Jean Lafitte_, forty-two years
-old, that the person who accompanied you here this day was a small,
-thin, sallow-faced youth of not over fifteen years! Will you take the
-wager?'
-
-"'Yes, and forty more just like it; but who shall be our umpire, and
-decide the bet?'
-
-"'Why, let the witnesses, my men, and my wife or daughter, decide. I'll
-warrant they won't lie for the sake of a bottle of wine. Are you
-agreed?'
-
-"'Yes, call them on; I'll trust them.'
-
-"'Of course you may, for they are honest folks. My wife let you both in
-at the door; I sold you a bouquet; one of my men went round the garden
-with you, and the other ran to fetch change for the five-franc piece you
-gave me to take pay from. Here, wife, Joseph, and Pierre; come here all
-of you. I've made a bet with the gentleman, and want you three to decide
-it.'
-
-"In a moment the persons called stood before us, and the gardener said
-to me: 'Now, monsieur, you and I will go to the other end of the garden;
-when there, I will describe to you the person who accompanied you here
-this afternoon. Then we will call the witnesses, one at a time, first
-separating them, so that they cannot agree upon a uniform story for or
-against me, but give the truth exactly, as the truth appears to each
-one.'
-
-"Nothing could be fairer than this proposition, and therefore I gave my
-assent to it immediately; whereupon the two men were sent to stand at
-opposite ends of the garden, his wife took her place in a third, while
-her husband and myself went to the fourth. Having arrived there:
-
-"'Your friend,' said the gardener, 'was just as I have described him,
-with this addition, that he wore polish-leather shoes, a Leghorn or
-Panama hat, carried a switch cane, wore light jean pantaloons, a coat
-_au saque_, and vest of white Cashmere. Remember this. Now, Joseph, come
-here,' said he, raising his voice and motioning the man toward us. 'Be
-so good as to describe the person who came here to-day with this
-gentleman.'
-
-"'I will with pleasure, master. The _negro_ who came with this gentleman
-was very fat and heavy, had large splay feet, tremendous hands, broad,
-flat face, a nose that would weigh a pound, and lips twice as heavy. His
-hair was woolly, teeth very white and regular; and he wore low shoes,
-green cap, knee breeches, red vest, and purple jacket!'
-
-"It is difficult to say which of us two looked most astonished when
-Joseph finished his portrait of my companion. Joseph was the man who
-conducted us around the garden. We were the only visitors of the day,
-and--
-
-"'Damn it, Joseph, you must be crazy! for the man was'----
-
-"'Hold on!' said I to the gardener; 'remember the terms of our wager,
-and say nothing till all have been questioned on the subject;' then,
-turning to the man, I said: 'Go to your corner, Joseph. Pierre, come
-hither;' and he came.
-
-"'Now, my friend, we want you to accurately describe the individual who
-accompanied me to these gardens to-day. Tell us exactly how the person
-appeared to you. Will you, my friend?'
-
-"'_Oui, certainement._ The _old lady_ you mean. _Malateste!_ It makes me
-laugh--_pardonez moi, monsieur_, but I can't help it--it makes me laugh
-to think about her, _ma foi_! What a queer old lady it was, to be sure!
-Such a little pinched-up face; and what a nose and chin, look you! Ecod!
-it was for all the world _la casse-noix_--a regular pair of
-nut-crackers! Certes, I took her to be the grandmother of Methusalah,
-or sister to Adam's first wife. Oh, ho, ho--he, ha, _peste_! I shall die
-o' laughing! And then _such_ a dress! Not a single article of cloth
-about her, but all she wore made of thin green-and-blue morocco; and
-then such dainty slippers, looking for all the world as if made of the
-wings of _Pappilon_! and such a head-dress--withered flowers, and two
-bushels of faded ribbon! _Par le grande Dieu_, the lady _was_ a queer
-one!' and Pierre went back to his corner, laughing as if he would
-explode.
-
-"The gardener looked astonished beyond all measure. How _I_ looked
-cannot be told; but how I _felt_, no mortal pen could possibly describe.
-We both kept silent, and advanced to where Madame _la Jardiniere_ stood,
-patiently waiting her turn to be questioned, and impatiently wondering
-what was the matter with Pierre, the fellow laughed so uproariously, and
-enjoyed 'the feast of memory' with such a decided gusto.
-
-"'_Ma chere femme_,' said my comrade, 'will you please be so good as to
-describe the person whom you admitted here to-day along with monsieur?
-Certes, I believe the Devil himself is at the bottom of the business,
-for no two persons are agreed in description. But you, my darling,
-_you_, who are all the while reading poetry books;--all about Vido
-(Ovid?), and Virgil, and Spearshaker, and all those great people--you
-can describe this person perfectly; can't you, my sweet?' and the
-gardener looked imploringly at his plump and buxom _compagnon de lit_.
-
-"Now, of all mortals it is most unsafe and dangerous to flatter a
-French woman, and madame was French all the way through; consequently
-she determined, on so fitting an occasion, to prove her husband's
-encomiums perfectly well founded; and she began the display with a
-quotation from the Bard of Avon's Midsummer Night's Dream.
-
-"'_Ah, mon ange avec les bottes_--my angel in boots--do you not know
-that Joseph has been a poet ever since I instructed him in trochees,
-dactyls, spondees, dythyrambics, hexameters, iambics, acatalectics,
-and--anapests--and'----
-
-"'Oh, may the devil fly away with all of your Anna cats, or Mary
-cats!--damn all cats! And as for your Anna Pests--why, what's she got to
-do with Joseph? Is she another grisette the fellow's running after? Why,
-that's fifteen different women in fifteen weeks. I can't see how the
-fellow's constitution stands it: and then _you've_ done the introducing
-business? Shame on you--you ought to be'----
-
-"Here I stepped in and told the gardener that his lady did not mean
-_cats_ or females, but simply _feet_, measures, and scansions of poetry.
-This mollified him, and the lady courtesied to me, and resumed:
-
-"'Yes, darling--_ogre_'--this last was spoken _sub voce_--'yes, dearest,
-the gentleman's right. Joseph is a poet; Pierre is a lunatic; and the
-gentleman himself is beyond all question as deeply in love as he can
-get; and these are the reasons why neither describes the person who
-attended with him alike. That prince of soldiers, who because he was so
-terrible in war, when he shook his spear, the English call
-Shake-the-spear, says that--
-
-    "'Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
-      Such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than cool
-      Reason comprehends.
-      The lover, the lunatic, and the poet are of imagination
-      All compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold--
-      That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, sees
-      Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
-      The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
-      Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
-      And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things,
-      The poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives
-      To airy nothings a local habitation and a name.'
-
-"'But what, my dear, has all this to do with the questions I asked you?
-Look here, Ninette; I believe it's you that's gone mad, rose in
-love--_sacre!_--I wish I could catch you and your Shake-the-spear loving
-once. I'd fix him and you too, my lady, that I would! I'd fix his flint
-so that he wouldn't shake any more spears around my garden, that I
-would! Will you have done with all your rigmarole, and tell what you
-know?'
-
-"'Certainly. The gentleman's sweetheart, who came with him to-day, and
-who went with me into my private room to arrange her hair and adjust her
-petticoats, was as fine and pretty a young blonde of eighteen years as
-ever sat a man's heart beating triple bobmajors against his ribs. Such
-ankles, such feet, such a bloom upon her cheeks and lips!--ah! and such
-a _tournure_! such hips, such embonpoint! _Sacristie!_ it's lucky I was
-not a man when I fixed her crinoline, or, _ma foi_! I should have gone
-mad and run off with her, leaving monsieur to mourn his loss, while I
-revelled in the essence of love with his _fiancee_. Besides that'----
-
-"'Stop, stop, Ninette--for God's sake stop! I have lost a bottle of
-_Jean Lafitte_, forty odd years old, and lost my brains besides!'
-
-"Here the whole five of us collected in a group, and an explanation
-followed which instantly banished all mirth from Pierre, and all poetry
-from _la Jardiniere_.
-
-"Declining all thoughts of the wager and the wine, I left the party in a
-maze of stupor, and sped as hastily as I could to the _Guinguette_, or
-Tea-Garden, where, it will be remembered, Ravalette and myself had
-entered to converse with the proprietor regarding his novel and costly
-experiment in the way of feasting poor people _a la les richeuse_.
-
-"Entering this place, I put the same question to the proprietor that I
-had to the gardener and the man of Michel le Compte; but instead of
-surprise at his answer, I was absolutely dumb-founded, for the man
-insisted that I entered the shop _quite alone_, but that I had conversed
-with him in two separate and perfectly distinct voices, _au
-ventriloque_--which he had regarded as very singular, but concluded that
-I was a student of ventriloquism, and took every opportunity to test my
-proficiency, and had now come back to ascertain what success attended
-the experiment.
-
-"I was too much horrified to speak; but, simply nodding my adieux, took
-my departure in a mood much easier to be imagined than described.
-
-"Not yet content, I made inquiries as to whether any one had seen two
-horsemen of a peculiar description pass through any of the streets of
-Belleville.
-
-"Nobody had seen any such, or indeed any horsemen whatever. I was
-thunderstruck.
-
-"'I'll track them!' I cried, as a last resource; 'for the place where we
-walked, where the horse and groom stood waiting, and where the old man
-mounted, was a soft, yielding, grassless turf. This will decide whether
-I have been dealing with the living or the dead, and that too in this
-broad daylight.'
-
-"I ran thither. Not a trace of a horse's hoofs; not a single vestige of
-Ravalette's footprints save one, and that one the fac-simile of the
-description formerly given. My own foot-marks were plain enough, but
-only the one other was to be found! Here the mystery grew thicker and
-thicker, nor could I see the first glimmer of a way to clear it up.
-
-"Slowly and despondently, I retraced my steps toward Paris, taking care
-to inquire as I went, whether any person had seen two men on horseback
-go toward Charronne, Villette, Menilmontant, or through the Barrieres. I
-might just as well not have asked.
-
-"But the chapter of devilry was not yet concluded, for what subsequently
-took place actually threw all that had gone before it entirely in the
-shade. These things I will now relate, first premising my narrative.
-
-"One day, about a week before I first spoke to Ravalette in the Louvre,
-I happened to be spending an afternoon in the Palais Royale, along with
-my friends the Barons di Corvaja and Du P----t, to both of whom I had
-taken letters from America. On the day alluded to, I met at D----'s room
-in the Rue Beaujolais, and then and there became acquainted with, an
-English gentleman of easy means and polished mind, by the name of Carr.
-This gentleman resided with his family in a splendid mansion in the Rue
-du Chemin Vert. After a long and interesting conversation, we parted,
-but not till Mr. Carr had cordially taken me by the hand, expressed a
-desire to maintain the acquaintance, and invited me to call on him at
-his residence in the Rue du Chemin Vert. I felt gratified at his
-frankness, and accepted his polite invitation. Mr. Carr named the day,
-and I agreed to go; and accordingly had spent the evening and took tea
-with him, his family and a few select guests, some five or six days
-before the eventful day, the achievement of which I have just recounted.
-The thing which I am about to narrate is not only strange, but in many
-respects horrible, and my mind is agitated to the last degree by the
-astounding occurrences--things which I beheld with my own eyes, felt
-with my own senses, realized with my own spirit; and yet I scarcely dare
-give credit to that which I am sensible _cannot, could not_ have been
-an illusion. My soul is filled with wonder; and I hasten to give a
-true version of the affair while all is yet fresh and vivid before me;
-indeed, it will ever be so, till age shall numb my faculties."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER IV.
-
-                          MURDER WILL OUT.
-
-
-"The circumstances were, briefly, these:
-
-"I attended, as before observed, the _fete sociale_, at the house of my
-friend Mr. Carr--Leonard Carr. The party was given in honor of a young
-literary friend of the family, who had recently gained great renown as a
-writer of fiction. To this young man I was introduced just before we all
-sat down to the festive board to partake of the many good things so
-bounteously set before us.
-
-"After the repast was concluded we all adjourned to the parlor and
-entered into conversation. Topic after topic had been discussed, and at
-length the 'Turning tables,' then so rife in all parts of the world, and
-Paris especially, became the theme of observation and criticism.
-
-"'Bah!' said Mrs. Carr, 'I deem the whole thing silly, besides being one
-of the most contemptible humbugs ever ran after by a pack of silly
-people--I was going to say--fools: I am convinced there is really
-nothing in it, and that all this stuff about moving furniture, and
-ghosts, and other spectral gentry, is but the product of heated fancy,
-if not of heads and hearts devoid of truth, principle, and moral
-rectitude; stories got up for swindling purposes, and to gull that
-credulous pack of ninnies known as "The Public,"--and a precious set
-they are, to be sure! Who believes, for instance, a tithe of the reputed
-wonders of the famous American "Miracle Circle," or that they are
-anything more than clever tricks played off by a set of waggish fellows
-on a gullible community of Yankees, having in view the ultimate object
-of exposing and exploding the whole so-called spiritual mysteries? I
-don't, I'm sure.'
-
-"Poor lady! She little dreamed under what cruel circumstances she was
-doomed so soon to verify the truth of the Latin motto,
-
-    "'Nemo mortalium, omnibus horis sapit,'
-
-so meaningly quoted to myself by Ravalette. Little did she then dream,
-in the plenitude of intellect, that not many days would elapse ere she
-admitted all she now so mockingly and scornfully derided and laughed at,
-and that ere long she would cower in the very extremity of terror and
-mental dread, before these very mysteries she now so dogmatically
-denied.
-
-"Her husband took upon himself the task of answering her, thus relieving
-us guests of the always unpleasant office of holding a wordy contest
-with a woman. He said:
-
-"'You are, my dear, permit me to say, in behalf of myself and these
-gentlemen, a little too hasty in your conclusions, too sweeping in your
-remarks, and in the characterization of the wonderful phenomena of these
-latter days. I know, my love, that you will give _me_ credit for rather
-more than the usual share of suspicion, scepticism, and doubt, regarding
-certain marvellous things said to have recently taken place in England,
-America, and even here in Paris. You know that it is my nature to admit
-nothing as proved--especially of such an implied nature--without
-absolute demonstrative evidence. The proof must be irrefragible--the
-testimony unbroken and indubitable, else I accept nothing. I certainly
-do not believe in spirits, much less that such things come to this world
-and flit and move around us, taking interest in all our affairs, and
-meddling with our business in a thousand ways, as it is alleged they do
-by those who believe in them. And yet, with all this, I confess that I
-have seen things that stagger me--indeed, that demonstrate beyond
-dispute the existence of a power, mighty, secret, occult, and working
-out its marvellous designs without the slightest human aid or influence
-whatever. Mind me, I do not attribute any or all of these results to
-spiritual agency, but I do say that the force at bottom is marvellously
-intelligent, and for all the world like that of man's. For instance, you
-will remember F----, who came from America to astonish the French. Well,
-actuated by curiosity, I resolved to form one of a circle of six who had
-made arrangements to test his powers at his own rooms. Accordingly we
-met him by appointment at the Cafe Jououy near the Palaise Royal, and
-together we seven started for his hotel. Now, as I walked along, the
-idea suggested itself, that perhaps the fellow had made arrangements in
-his rooms to surprise us by a resort to some mountebankish performance,
-and therefore, in order to try his sincerity, and at the same time guard
-against any mere trickery or legerdemain, I suggested that we repair to
-apartments elsewhere than at his hotel. To my surprise he assented to
-this arrangement without a murmur, and we repaired to a room at the
-house of one of the company, Monsieur Benjamin, in the Rue de Clichy.
-When there, we all sat around a small table with our fourteen hands laid
-flat upon its top. For a while nothing occurred, save a few knocks or
-thumps upon the table, which F---- attributed to spirits, but which I
-suspected his knees produced. While thus we sat (it was broad daylight,
-and the sun shone brightly through the windows), we distinctly saw, and
-_I_ actually, palpably felt of, a _fifteenth_ hand. This hand was
-apparently solid flesh and blood. It appeared to be that of a mulatto
-girl of fifteen or sixteen summers, and one of the party subsequently
-told me in confidence that it was the very fac-simile of the right hand
-of a girl whom he once knew in the Isle de Bourbon, and who had
-destroyed herself by poison for love of the very man who told me the
-story! This hand came from beneath the table and extended itself eight
-or ten inches over the edge at first. Then it gradually rose in the air,
-displaying a magnificent set of fingers, upon the middle joint of one of
-which appeared the semblance of a large and peculiarly-shaped brown
-mole, surrounded by three smaller ones, and it was by these marks that
-my friend pretended to recognize it. The hand was attached to about
-two-fifths of a fore-arm, completely covered with the semblance of a
-lace sleeve, terminating at the wrist in a jewelled band, and at the
-other extremity by a flaring and projecting ruffle. The hand, after a
-while, rose into the air, where it floated for two minutes. It then
-descended, seized hold of a small silver bell upon the mantel and rung
-it sharply all over the room; after which it replaced it, took hold of a
-pencil and wrote forty-seven words upon the ceiling of the lofty-vaulted
-apartment; threw down the pencil, patted each of our hands, and then
-gradually faded away in the air, just over the centre of the table. We
-rose after it had gone, placed a stand upon the table, a chair upon
-that, so as to reach the writing on the wall (which yet remained there),
-and found a short message to the company in general, and signed by the
-very name of Mr. ----'s _inamorata of the Isle de Bourbon_! Now, my
-dear, was all this hum-bug?'
-
-"To this, the lady, whose scepticism would not abate one jot, even in
-the face of such an--to all but a Rosicrucian--overwhelming
-demonstration as this, replied:
-
-"'Why, I presume you had all taken a little too much wine, fell asleep,
-got up, wrote on the wall, and--Bah! It's all humbug! and that settles
-the question at once!'
-
-"The lady was silent, and the literary lion--I will call him Mr. A----,
-for whom the party was gotten up, entered the arena of conversation, and
-observed that: 'Spectral or Spiritual science--he preferred the former
-term--was yet but in its infancy in Christendom, provided what a casual
-acquaintance of his, a man of extraordinary research in all things
-occult, and whom he had met under peculiar circumstances but a little
-while before--affirmed to be true with regard to the faith, philosophy,
-and practices of a certain branch or rather family of the Hindoos or
-other Eastern tribes.
-
-"'This individual,' pursued Mr. A----, 'is a firm and devout believer in
-Spiritualism, and yet contends that not over two-tenths of what passes
-current under that term, is really that which it is claimed to be. Nay,
-further: he declares, and gives his reasons why, which latter are very
-just and tenable, that not more than once in fifty times are the actions
-and speeches delivered under trance the result of Spiritual action; but
-that when not the absolute offspring of imposture, which is rarely the
-case, other, and very often _purely physical_ causes are at work, which
-are frequently far more potent than what is known as "spiritual
-influence," inasmuch as the results are productive of better, greater,
-and more satisfactory phenomena, and of far more interest and value to
-mankind, and which have been entirety overlooked in the haste and zeal
-with which people seek to gratify their thirst for the marvellous, by
-attributing whatever baffles their powers of analysis to a supermundane
-origin.
-
-"'This person,' continued Mr. A., 'asserted also that he could himself
-produce similar and even far more wonderful and startling effects, by
-means entirely material, than many which are claimed to originate beyond
-the earth. "This," said he, "I can do under circumstances that will
-forever put the quietus on one portion of the spiritual theory. There is
-a science in existence that may very properly be called Spectreology or
-Phantomism, whose wonders vie with the best of those emanating really
-from the spirit world!" During his travels in the Orient, he said, the
-_modus operandi_ of several startling effects had been imparted to him
-by a person named Ramo Djava, and that, were it not for his greatly
-impaired health, which rendered the experiments alluded to highly
-dangerous, he would give public displays of his power. As to the means
-used, that must remain a secret, for he had promised to initiate only
-one person, and that not till his dying hour. But, at all events, he was
-willing to demonstrate, before a select few, that there really is more
-between earth and heaven than even the loftiest savants dream of.
-
-"'Having my curiosity thus excited, I, with great difficulty, prevailed
-on this person to consent to give a display of his ability, before a
-select circle of eighteen. I have invited five persons, and the present
-company will exactly complete the requisite number, and I cheerfully
-extend you all an invitation to be present at half-past six o'clock
-precisely, at the mansion of our mutual friend, the Baron de Marc, this
-day week!'
-
-"This ended the conversation on that particular theme, and, shortly
-afterwards, the party dissolved, agreeing to meet again on the night
-mentioned, which, strange coincidence! was the very one of the singular
-adventure with 'the ghost of Ravalette;' for, to tell the truth, I had
-by this time begun to suspect that my old man of the Louvre--he who
-appeared under three different aspects at one and the same time, nay,
-under _five_, and who was heard to speak, though himself unseen, by the
-man of the Guinguette--was something more than mortal.
-
-"You must bear in mind the fact, that the party and conversation at Mr.
-Carr's took place _before_ I had ever seen Ravalette at all to speak
-with him. And now, if you please, we will continue the train of events
-in progress before I made this digression.
-
-"You will remember that, after making fruitless inquiries for the two
-horsemen, and an equally fruitless search after foot-prints on the soil
-near Belleville, that I took my way toward Paris, slowly, on foot,
-musing deeply as I went along. As I passed down the Rue Faubourg du
-Temple, the tolling of a distant clock announced the hour of four. I
-remembered my engagement at the Baron's, but, as I had fully two hours
-left in which to dress for the occasion, I determined to drop in at
-D'Emprat's, in the Rue Michel le Compte, as I went by, and hear whatever
-might have turned up in my absence.
-
-"I reached the street, and was greatly surprised to find a large and
-highly excited crowd of people before the gate, and the more so, as I
-beheld the surplices of at least a dozen priests of the Order St.
-Lazare, elbowing their way, and trying to pass both in and out of the
-house.
-
-"With heart palpitating with vague and dread uneasiness, I approached an
-intelligent-looking man, and, assuming a carelessness by no means felt,
-asked him the cause and reason of the gathering.
-
-"'Lord bless you, sir!' he said. 'Do you not know that the devil and
-five of his imps have just been on a visit to that house, and carried
-off three or four of the inmates through the roof in a flame of _blue
-fire_? If you don't know it, I assure you it is a fact!'
-
-"I saw in this answer the legitimate effect of superstition, and that
-the man's cloth belied his intelligence; I, therefore, drew out a sheet
-of paper and a pencil, and began to flourish them in the eyes of the
-crowd for the purpose of attracting its attention.
-
-"My _ruse_ succeeded; the people set me down as a reporter of the press,
-and instantly gave way right and left; so that I had but little
-difficulty in gaining an entrance to the building. Once there, I soon
-learned that the poor D'Emprat had relapsed into the swoon occasioned by
-his first fright, and had passed thence into the most frightful
-convulsions, exclaiming all the while, as the thick foam rolled from his
-bloodless lips, 'Oh, the devil! the devil has come for my soul, _because
-I killed Baptiste Lemoine thirty-seven years ago! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!
-They will drag me to hell! Ah, God!_'
-
-"His wife had exerted all her influence and power to stifle these
-dangerous cries, but without avail. His cries still increased in fury,
-until at last the police had forced an entrance into the house, and were
-speedily followed by a score of priests, who, hearing that the devil was
-in Paris, in proper person, were very anxious to try the effect of a
-little shower-bath of holy water, as well as to get a sight of their
-arch enemy, whom, doubtless, the vast majority of them regarded secretly
-as nothing more than a man--or, rather, devil--of straw.
-
-"The news spread like wild-fire that the devil had appeared, and to the
-questions asked by priest and bailiff of the porter, he confirmed the
-rumor, and told, as best he could, the incidents of the afternoon. His
-story did not rest here, however, but, taking two of the officers aside,
-he told them something which caused them to start back in the wildest
-horror, and cross themselves most devoutly. The result of the interview
-was, that the officers cautioned the porter from uttering one word of
-what he had just told them to any person else. After this, they all
-again entered the room where D'Emprat was still struggling in all the
-terrors of delirium, still accusing himself of a long-committed
-homicide, still calling on God and the priests to save him from the
-clutches of the devil, whom he averred he saw beside him armed with fork
-and trident, ready to drag his unfortunate soul to perdition and the
-damned. During all this fearful scene, Madame D'Emprat was doing all she
-could to quiet her husband, but without avail. The man went on harder
-than before. The ghosts of evil deeds were there, and avenging angels
-lashed his soul to frenzy.
-
-"'Be still,' she cried, 'for Jesus' sake, be still! They will carry you
-to Bicetre, and from there to _le Boureau_, and you will die _au coupe
-tete_![8] Oh, be still! or, if you must talk, say something else than
-_that_!'
-
-[8] On the guillotine.
-
-"Every word uttered by the woman and the man was quietly written down,
-unobserved, by one of the officers, who used my pencil and paper, and
-the back of his comrade as a desk.
-
-"What strange, mysterious power was it that caused me mechanically to
-purchase a pencil and paper on my way from Belleville down to Michel le
-Compte?
-
-"God's ways are mysterious, altogether past finding out; and I inwardly
-praised him as the mighty fact became apparent, that the people of the
-house were _not_ in league, as I had conjectured might be the case, with
-Ravalette; and that the mysterious agent of Divine Retribution was _not_
-of an infernal nature, be it or he whatever else. A load was lifted off
-my heart--too soon, alas! to be let down heavier than before.
-
-"'You did not kill him, D'Emprat! So don't say you did any more!'
-exclaimed the woman in the accents of despair.
-
-"''Tis a _lie_! I did!' yelled the unfortunate man. 'I killed him with
-the hatchet in the cellar, and buried him under the grey horse's stall
-in the stable!'
-
-"'My God! we are ruined!' screamed the now frantic woman. 'I always
-suspected that you killed my brother, but never believed it until now.
-And, yet, I do not even now believe it; for'----
-
-"'_I can prove it_; for I well remember a bloody hatchet, and that
-master never would let me clean the stable of the grey horse; and that I
-have watched him dig gold from the ground there, and heard him accuse
-himself in his sleep!' said the _concierge_, coming forward.
-
-"'Then, D'Emprat, and you, madame, I arrest in the name of the law; and
-you, porter, as a witness. Officers, do your duty--take the
-prisoners--clear the house!' said their chief.
-
-"Five minutes afterwards, the unfortunate people were being led to
-prison, and I was on the way to my hotel to dress--even under such
-circumstances--for the soiree at the Baron's, but in a frame of mind
-that little fitted me to be a spectator of philosophical experiments.
-Yet my word was pledged, and go I must, and go I did--six o'clock
-finding me in the Baron's parlor.
-
-"I am perfectly sensible that, even in what I have narrated, the
-credulity of many persons would be taxed to the utmost. It is easy
-enough to believe that such things as I have described occurred long
-ages ago, in the green and halcyon days of Magic, but it is difficult to
-imagine such things as taking place in the broad light of this
-nineteenth century. Millions, aye hundreds of millions, have believed,
-do, and, in coming years, perhaps ages, will believe in the startling
-records of a magic similar to that I have detailed, and which is
-described so briefly, yet so graphically, in the Book of Exodus; and yet
-these people will strenuously insist that the day of such things--of
-such exhibitions of the Upper Magic--has for ever passed away, totally
-unmindful of the great fact, that, when the astonishing things there
-recorded were accomplished, there must of necessity have been a law--a
-natural law--in accordance with, and by which, they were done, and that
-no law of Nature has ever yet been repealed; consequently, they must
-exist to-day in as full perfection and power as ever.
-
-"What remains of the present affair to be told, may, with what has
-already been related (and the truth of which may be ascertained most
-readily by correspondence with the parties named), be implicitly relied
-on as correct in all essential particulars; and yet, the occurrences
-that took place on that eventful night are of a kind so horrible, so
-utterly monstrous, that, at times, I almost believe that we all--twelve
-healthful men, and six women--were laboring under some strong delusion.
-I should still cling to this belief, with the pertinacity of a miser to
-his golden god, the bigot to his creed, or the drowning wretch to the
-narrow plank that promises a renewal of life's tenure, were it not that
-facts, appalling in themselves, forever and utterly _preclude_ the
-possibility that I--that _we_--were mistaken and deceived. What these
-facts were, will be most clearly shown in the sequel."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER V.
-
-          SEANCE AT THE BARON'S--DIABLERIE EXTRAORDINAIRE.
-
-    "With features horribler than Hell e'er traced
-     On its own brood; no Demon of the waste,
-     No church-yard ghoul, caught lingering in the light
-     Of the blest sun, e'er blasted human sight
-     With lineaments so foul, so fierce as those
-     The Impostor now, in grinning mockery shows."
-
-
-"When I reached the house I found the company above enumerated seated in
-the parlor, and all most anxiously awaiting the appearance of the
-individual who was to afford us entertainment, and, if possible, some
-instruction also. For awhile it appeared that we were doomed to be
-disappointed. The expected party had promised to attend at thirty
-minutes to eight, and it was nearly that time already, and still there
-were no signs of his coming; but, as St. Eustache tolled out the half
-hour, a ring at the door-bell announced his arrival.
-
-"The man was a tall and comely personage, apparently of Irish
-extraction, and had nothing whatever about him at all remarkable;
-indeed, he was a very so-soish sort of individual, who at first refused
-his name to everybody, because, to quote his own words: 'If I remain
-_incog._ I shall not be lionized, which in other terms means "bored,"
-and pestered by persons seeking to gratify a morbid and impertinent
-curiosity--people who look for full-grown miracles, and expect to find
-them, instead of studying arts and sciences, and therewith increasing
-their knowledge and enriching their experience by a more intimate
-acquaintance with philosophic truths, and the recondite mysteries of
-mighty Nature.'
-
-"The gentleman was very polished and polite, entering freely into
-conversation, and seemed altogether so well pleased with his audience
-that he threw off all reserve, laughed, joked, made puns, played upon
-words, and kept us in good spirits for half an hour, at the end of which
-time he gave us his name as a profound secret, to go no further. That
-name was a singular one. It was Mai Vatterale--a very curious name! He
-soon proposed an adjournment to the back parlor, and after reaching it
-he proceeded to arrange the chairs, six in a line, in the form of a
-triangle; after doing this, Monsieur Vatterale signified to the Baron
-that his part of the preliminaries was completed, whereupon that
-gentleman, turning to his guests, said: 'I was informed on the day that
-the present meeting was arranged with Monsieur, that in all cases it was
-absolutely necessary that the physical systems of all who assist at, or
-witness his experiments, should be duly fortified with food, for what
-particular reason I cannot imagine, nor is it necessary that I should
-inquire, seeing that it is his rule, of which all present were duly
-notified, so that all might forego their usual repasts at their own
-homes, and partake of a little _souper_ with me, previous to commencing
-our experiments, and'----
-
-"'_Permettez moi, s'il vous plait_,' said Vatterale, courteously. '_Si
-cela vous est agreable_'--it is my custom, and is for the purpose of
-preventing any ill effects that might result from a shock of the nerves,
-which, believe me, you will be apt to experience before we have done.'
-Of course such an explanation, indicating, as it certainly did, no small
-degree of preventive solicitude on the part of the illustrious
-foreigner, was perfectly satisfactory, and was accepted in a proper
-spirit by the whole company.
-
-"'This way, ladies; this way, gentlemen, follow me,' said the Baron,
-gaily giving his arm to his wife, and leading the way to his splendid
-_salle a manger_.
-
-"The worthy noble had called it _un petit souper_, but the magnificent
-_spread_ before us rendered it a somewhat difficult task to imagine what
-would constitute a _grand_ supper in his estimation. To describe it is
-no part of the task I am engaged on; and, therefore, I shall merely
-observe that it was a most _recherche_ affair. The furniture of the
-table, as well as the viands themselves, was of the most sumptuous
-description, everything on it being of the richest and heaviest gold and
-silver plate--heir-looms of the old Noblesse, from whom the Baron was
-descended.
-
-"Dinner or supper once over, we all left the table, and once more
-adjourned to the back parlor, and took seats in the chairs arranged in a
-triangle, the ladies, six in number, occupying those which formed the
-western arm thereof. When we all were properly and comfortably seated,
-there was quite a large vacant space before us, into which Vatterale
-placed two chairs facing each other, and also two foot-stools covered
-with damask plush-velvet close together in the other angle. He then
-proceeded to lock all the doors leading into the apartment, tied all the
-keys together with a piece of scarlet ribbon, and then hung them to one
-of the glass prisms pendent from a large gas chandelier directly over
-the centre of what I may call, not inappropriately, our circle. The jets
-of this chandelier, seven in number, were all in full play under a
-strong head of gas, and the room in all parts was quite as light as if
-the sun shone into the windows, two of which occupied the northern end
-of the parlor, both being very richly curtained, and both quite shut. I
-repeat, lest trickery in what followed should be suspected by yourself,
-that the seven jets of gas were brightly burning, and continued so all
-the evening, except when extinguished, without the aid of _human hands_;
-and as they were put out, so also were they relighted more than once.
-
-"Having disposed of the bunch of keys, Vatterale went to both windows,
-examined them closely, fastened them down securely--that is to say, the
-lower sashes; for he let down one of the upper ones, and threw the
-eastern external blinds wide open, and fastened them so. Of course, the
-master of ceremonies had never been in that dwelling before, and of
-course could not have obtained information respecting it by the usual
-methods of visit and inquiry, yet, turning to the Baron, he requested
-him to ring for the servant, and through the closed door bid him _remove
-an ornamental iron sofa from the chamber immediately above our heads,
-into the dark bed-room on the third floor_, as its presence where it
-then stood would materially affect the experiments to be made!
-
-"This request, made under such circumstances, surprised us all, but
-particularly the Baron, who stared at the man who made it, as if he
-regarded him as one risen from the dead; and it was, forsooth, rather a
-startling circumstance, to say the least. He admitted that there was
-such a room, and such a dark chamber, _au troisieme_. Yet how the man
-knew it, was very strange, considering that he had been in the house but
-a short time, and had not left us for a moment, nor spoken a single word
-to any of the servants, save on entering, to inquire if this was the
-Baron's residence.
-
-"Scarcely had we recovered from the surprise natural on such an
-occasion, than we were again made sensible that we were dealing with an
-extraordinary man, for, turning to me, he begged the loan of a small
-metallic coin which I had received as a present from Mr. Carr less than
-ten minutes before Vatterale entered the house, and which coin was
-remarkably curious and valuable on account of its high antiquity, and it
-was one of the only two known to be in existence, and had been begged
-for me by Mr. Carr, from his friend Blaise de Jonge, the celebrated
-Eastern traveller, and had only been sent in a note to Mr. Carr, by that
-eminent savant, the night previous. Having received the coin, Vatterale
-placed it in his pocket, and then taking out a set of ivory tablets,
-wrote a request thereon, and handed it to Madame la Marquise de la
-Fronde, an elderly lady, foster sister to the Baron. The request was
-altogether so singular and so novel, that the old lady immediately read
-it aloud: '_Will Madame la Marquise have the goodness to retire to the
-alcove and remove from between her feet and stockings the metallic
-plates, and, separating the zinc from the copper ones, place each metal
-plate with its own kind, and restore them to her feet outside the
-hose!_' The lady almost fainted with astonishment, for she averred that
-no mortal knew that she wore such plates, but that she had for ten
-years, and found them, by reason of the electric currents they
-elaborated and imparted to her system, highly beneficial to her health.
-She retired as requested, and, returning in a minute, convinced us of
-the marvellous seeing faculty of the mysterious Mai, by exhibiting the
-plates, which were precisely as he had described. She again retired,
-and, shortly returning, resumed her seat. These preliminaries being
-concluded, Vatterale brought into the open space before us a small
-portmanteau, which he carried in his hand when he entered the mansion.
-From this he now took a coil of wire--indeed, three small coils tied
-together--also a saucer of large dimensions of stone China, or thick,
-very thick porcelain, a large vial containing a colorless liquid, a box
-of paste or gum, two large, and entirely empty, thin bottles--so thin
-that we all looked through them at the light, as he handed them to us
-for that purpose. They were as clear as the best window glass, as thin
-and as brittle, apparently, as the finest crystal. From the same
-receptacle he also took what looked like three rolls of paper, one very
-large when unfolded, the others quite small indeed. The larger bundle he
-unrolled and spread upon the floor, on the space between the chairs and
-_fauteuils_. It was about three feet in diameter, and was painted in all
-sorts of colors, and figures entirely nondescript. The centre of this
-article was immediately that of the triangle, 'The Symbolical figure of
-the Universe, or Oneness,' as he called it, and of course was directly
-beneath the large chandelier. This done, he placed the saucer right upon
-the centre of the symbolical chart, if I may so term it. Then,
-unfastening the coils of wire, he laid one along the laps of the
-gentlemen on one side, and fastened it by means of a link and hook to
-two others, which passed in front of the other two sections of the human
-trine. The wire held by the ladies (for we all were directed to grasp
-the wire before us with one hand, and the hand of the next neighbor with
-the other) was common iron, wound with silver foil; the one before
-myself was steel, wound with gold wire; and the other was of solid gold,
-wound, as were the others, at intervals, with floss silk. The ladies
-grasped with the _left_ hand, and joined their right, while with the
-gentlemen this order was reversed. The next proceeding on the part of
-Mai, was to place half of the gum into the saucer; upon this he emptied
-the vial of colorless liquid, and set fire thereto. It burned with a
-clear and steady bluish flame. The gum was gradually consumed, and a
-peculiar and most delightful fragrance floated through the room.
-
-"During the burning process, the operator sat upon the stool, and gazed
-fixedly and intently upon, or rather toward, the open sash, while the
-rest of us were chatting merrily, and wondering what would be the result
-of all these weird and curious preparations.
-
-"I said the rest of us were merrily chatting, but must qualify that
-observation by excluding from this employment one person, and that
-person was--myself, for I found it utterly impossible to mingle in the
-conversation with that abandon and unreserve which characterized the
-others. It was altogether beyond my power to forget the tremendous
-experiences of that very day, which I had undergone. A weight was on my
-spirit that could not be lifted off. The 'Ghost of Ravalette' seemed to
-be invisibly hovering over me, and although unseen, his presence seemed
-to be palpably felt by me. The events at Belleville constantly obtruded
-themselves before the eye of the mind; the affair at the gardener's, the
-singular result of his impromptu wager, the woman at the _Barriere_,
-and, above all, the frightful occurrences at the Rue Michel le Compte,
-with its sure--absolutely sure--termination on the Guillotine--the
-miserable and ignominious death of D'Emprat, and the unearthly means
-whereby his deed of crime--the crime a horrible murder, committed
-thirty-seven years before--the unearthly and mysterious means, I repeat,
-by which his guilt was brought to light--this, all this, so oppressed me
-that I could not take a present interest in what was transpiring about
-me. Indeed, I cared little for either Mai or his tricks--which, from
-observing the method of his preparations, I had already not only
-despised, but put down to the score of legerdemain--clever and
-surprising, but still nothing more than legerdemain.
-
-"How rudely this conceit was broken up, how horribly I was convinced of
-my mistaken estimate of the man before us, will very soon be seen. As
-for his skill in detecting the coin, the sofa, and the plates, I had
-already secretly accounted. I remembered Caspar Hauser, and several
-other _Sensitives_, who could detect the presence of metals by what may
-be called 'magnetic sense.' His description of the dark bed-room _au
-troisieme_, was very simple, for nearly all old houses have such
-chambers on that floor; this was an old house; Vatterale saw it, and
-made what preliminary capital he could from his acuteness. With the
-present weight of experience; with the memory of the deeds of the
-mystical Ravalette still fresh in mind, of course I could not be very
-highly interested in such displays of minor magic as I felt convinced
-were very shortly to be made by the conjuring gentleman before us.
-
-"Suddenly the man whose pretensions I had just been inwardly
-criticising, partially raised himself from the stool, threw back his
-head until his long, wavy locks fell upon his shoulders, and muttered
-between his teeth, as if the word-birth was extremely painful, 'HE IS
-COMING!' and we noticed that his face, naturally of a dingy yellow,
-suddenly became of an ashen-hued paleness, and his eyes darted forth
-luminous sparks that were plainly visible even amid the glare of that
-brilliantly-lighted apartment; and at the same instant he placed his
-right hand over the region of his heart--that is to say, over that part
-where nine-and-ninety of every hundred suppose the heart to be, namely,
-under the left breast. He did this as if to repress a rising pang, then
-turning to his audience, he exclaimed--'Look sharp! Be firm! be
-fearless! be attentive! but if you would avoid danger, a nameless, but
-great danger, stir not, move not from your seats. Grasp the cord, retain
-each other's hands, make what remarks you may deem proper, _but stir not
-an inch_--a single inch from your seats, happen what may! I am going to
-surprise you.'
-
-"We all assented verbally, and not a few of the company began even to
-joke him on his sorcery and magic, when we all started from our seats,
-but were instantly motioned back by an anxious frown and a commanding,
-magisterial wave of his right hand. The simultaneous movement on our
-part, was caused by a _yell_, for such it was, that proceeded, not, as
-might be anticipated, from a female, but from a Mr. Theodore Dwight, an
-American gentleman, hailing from Philadelphia--and at the present time
-still dwelling there.
-
-"This person, as all who know him will certify, is no weak, puling,
-nerveless man, for a man more the opposite of all this could scarce be
-found in a month's search.
-
-"The sound which came from his lips was a shriek of terror, horror, and
-agony combined, as might well be fancied to come from the throats of the
-damned souls of the nether hell. It was, indeed, a paroxysm of deadly
-fright. In an instant all eyes were turned toward him. He was paler than
-a corpse, the very image of Death itself; his eyes protruded from their
-sockets, and he trembled as if he stood before the final bar; his lips
-refused to tell the cause of his distress, but his gaze was intently
-fixed, with an immovable expression of horror, upon _the saucer_ on the
-floor. Instinctively our eyes followed the same direction, except
-Vatterale's, who still was looking toward the open sash. With this
-exception, I repeat, we all looked toward the floor, when, great God!
-what a sight was there! The saucer was still there, but the two small
-rolls of paper _were gone_! _They_ had disappeared, but in their stead
-we distinctly saw--for, recollect, there were seven full jets of gas in
-full blaze right over our heads--we saw, I reiterate, with our
-eyes--physical, bodily eyes--three horrible beings, somewhat resembling
-overgrown scorpions--only, that instead of claws, they had--_hands and
-arms_! for all the world like those of a newly-born negro child! These
-detestable _things_, for I dare not blaspheme the Great Eternal by
-calling them creatures, were about five inches broad on the back, by
-some eighteen in length. Their color was a deep crimson, mottled with
-purple, green, and yellow stripes and spots, and they were completely
-covered with scales, like those of an armadillo. Conceive, if you can,
-of a tarantula or spider so large, and which--each one of them--moved
-about on the very tips of twelve legs, sixteen or eighteen inches long,
-and all the while whirling and twirling its _hands and arms_ (two of
-each), eighteen inches long and three-fourths as large as its body, and
-you will form a tolerable picture of the repulsive, unsightly, hideous
-monstrosities crawling, or rather 'stilting,' round that saucer on the
-floor.
-
-"Each one of these loathsome _things_ had four large, protruding eyes,
-closely resembling those of the monster Frog of India; but these eyes,
-unlike the frog's, were not leaden-hued; instead of this being the case,
-I think no spark of fire ever shone brighter--in fact, they fairly
-gleamed with what I can indicate by no other term than infernal redness;
-for it seemed that at every flash they emitted the concentrated venom of
-a gorgon; and beneath the fearful spell we all sat perfectly immovable
-with fear.
-
-"What our agony would have been had the accursed things ventured to move
-toward us, I dare not even imagine, but they still and ever kept in the
-one track, moving with orderly march around that saucer on the floor. We
-felt and knew that they were living, actual realities, a genuine and
-horrid trinity of _facts_, and not a mere optical illusion, or the result
-of a play upon our fancies, mesmeric or otherwise. This opinion was
-confirmed by the most positive and blasting testimony, for, as they
-solemnly, demoniacally marched about the centre of that symbolic chart,
-they left a trailing streak of greenish--_dead_, _hard_, _greenish_
-ichor or pus, behind them at each revolution, and a few drops of this
-fell upon the Baron's carpet. Some months afterward he and I exchanged
-letters on the events of that night, and he assured me that not a single
-chemical amongst the hundreds applied for the purpose had been of the
-least effect toward removing the stain. 'The carpet has been discharged
-of its colors and re-dyed, yet no dye will cover those spots!' This was
-not all, for on one of their rounds they nearly quitted the chart, and
-the Baron struck at them with his foot, whereupon one of them spirted
-forth a fetid liquid, which fell upon his boot, and made a mark there as
-if the leather had been seared with hot iron!
-
-"'Talk not to me of legerdemain after this! Speak not to me of optical
-illusion, or deceptive appearances, in the face of such facts as these,
-for here are marks,' wrote the Baron to me, 'here are palpable evidences
-that defy contradiction. They were made on that night, and there they
-yet remain, and, albeit I cry, "Out, damned spots!" they will not, but
-persist in remaining absolute confirmations of vivid, strange,
-incontrovertible _facts_!'
-
-"'But why did you not get up, under such circumstances, all of you, and
-escape from the room?' is a very natural and perhaps not unreasonable
-question, that may without impropriety be asked just here, and I reply:
-For several reasons; among which a few shall be named. First, the doors
-were all securely locked, and although we had seen Mai mount a chair,
-and hang the keys to one of the glass pendants, yet upon looking there,
-we found that they, as well as the two rolls of paper, had disappeared.
-Secondly, the windows were fastened down, besides being many feet from
-the ground--at least fifteen--and to leap that distance was altogether
-out of the question, even had we thought of it, which we did not.
-Thirdly, the earnest and solemn warning given by Vatterale before
-anything took place; his assurance that if we obeyed his injunctions not
-to stir--that, although we might be frightened, yet no harm could or
-would befall us--acted, amidst all our terror, as a sort of stopper upon
-any precipitate movement, after the first shock was over.
-
-"We could not quit the room provided even all the doors had been flung
-wide open. Hast never heard tell of the _fascination_ of Danger? If so,
-then know that it was upon us in all its terrible force and power. We
-were bound, chained, rooted, riveted to the spot, by a potentiality
-never to be questioned, never to be despised, for its might, when once
-it fastens upon its victim, is merciless, gripping, stern and
-unrelenting. We felt that to stir, was to incur the hazard of an
-unknown, unguessed-at danger. ALL were fascinated by terror; to move was
-to add ten-fold to its power! It was a feeling akin to that experienced
-by the native of Ind, who roused from his mid-day slumber, wakes to feel
-the clammy folds of the cobra-capello, the dreadful hooded serpent of
-his clime, slowly writhing and winding beneath his garments about his
-naked flesh; and who realizes, as his heart stops beating and his blood
-runs icily with agony, and as the great big beaded drops of cold sweat
-ooze out from every pore, that to stir, to breathe, to even quiver under
-the pressure of his mortal fear, is certain, irrevocable, positive
-death--knowing as he does, that nor man nor beast hath ever yet lived a
-single hour after the fangs of the hooded snake have once opened a
-passage for the entrance of the King of Terrors!
-
-"And such was the pall that rested upon the eighteen persons in that
-room, as the detestable trinity moved slowly around that saucer on the
-floor; their eyes--their great, horny, bulging eyes--all the while
-scintillating and flashing with the very essence of intense
-malignity--malignity as of a devil! The female portion of the company I
-fear may never recover from the shock that night received. They did not
-faint, or scream, or swoon, as perhaps it might have been suspected they
-would under such diabolic circumstances, simply, however, for the reason
-that the tension of soul and nerve was altogether too severe and great
-to permit, even for an instant, the reaction which is an absolute
-prerequisite to relief by or through the methods indicated.
-
-"Probably the length of time that elapsed from the shriek of our
-comrade, till the final disappearance of the three monsters, did not
-exceed three minutes, yet in that brief space we had undergone years of
-terror.
-
-"Truly, the real lapse of time is not to be reckoned by the beats of the
-clock, but only by sensations and heart-throbs. Mai, at the termination
-of the time specified, rose from his stool, took a small basket from his
-portmanteau, and then fearlessly seizing the _things_, one at a time, he
-carefully doubled up their legs under them, and placed them in it. Then
-taking the two crystal bottles already alluded to, he placed them
-lengthwise on the chart, with their necks and apertures facing each
-other, after which he resumed his seat upon the foot-stool, addressing
-no word or sign to the spectators of his movements. And now it began to
-grow dark! The jets of gas appeared to burn less clear and fully, just
-as if some one was slowly turning the cocks which let it on, with a
-gradual movement. In a little while the room was darkened, though not
-exactly dark, for there was still a dim half light--a sort of semi-blue,
-semi-dull red, misty radiance, just sufficient to enable us to
-distinguish objects vaguely, indistinct and dimly.
-
-"'Stir not! fear not!' said the thick, husky voice of Vatterale; and
-before we could reply, a scene commenced, such as it hath seldom fallen
-to man's lot to witness.
-
-"'Allow me to explain a modern mystery,' said Vatterale, 'but first let
-me remove your fears. Look!'
-
-"Scarcely had he spoken these words, than the room was suddenly
-illuminated, as if the very air was aglow with the most brilliant light,
-and we saw the two bottles quite plainly. As we gazed upon these, there
-came from one the appearance of an enormous serpent, which proceeded to
-coil itself up, until its bulk thrice exceeded that of both the bottles.
-Then there came still another, and another, until no less than twelve
-lay there, coiled up in a loathsome pile; but as the last one emerged
-from one bottle, the first one entered the other, until all had
-disappeared as they had come.
-
-"'I will now show you that you cannot always trust your own senses,'
-said Vatterale, 'nor account for what you see;' and he straightway
-emptied the basket, and broke the bottles. All three were empty! Not a
-sign of snake or scorpion was there!
-
-"'Again, I will show you a curious thing. You will please call a
-servant, seat her on one of those chairs, and bid her on a wager hold a
-skein of silk while it is being wound--merely to keep her
-attention--that is all. But,' and he spoke very earnestly, 'whatever
-you see or hear, I beg you will not utter a single word.'
-
-"This was assented to; a skein of silk was ordered, but not till the
-gaslight had displaced the other.
-
-"'It will be just seventeen minutes before the girl is ready,' said Mai;
-'and while waiting, I will _demonstrate a fallacy_. The creatures you
-have beheld to night are real, but ephemeral--they are Will-creations,
-and perish when the power ceases to act which called them into being. As
-proof of what I say, Behold!'
-
-"From the floor in the eastern corner of the room there straightway
-begun to arise a light mist, which increased in bulk until a ball of
-vapor, three feet in diameter, floated in the air. Thus it remained for
-a minute; and then, right before our eyes, began to condense and change
-its shape, until at the end of four minutes, it had assumed a human
-semblance--but, Heavens! what a caricature!
-
-"At first it was a mere vapory outline, but it rapidly condensed and
-consolidated, until what looked like a hideous, half-naked, bow-legged,
-splay-footed monster stood before us. Its height was less than three
-feet; its chest and body were nearly that in width; its legs were not
-over eight inches long; its arms were longer than its entire body; its
-head was gigantic; and it had no neck whatever, while from its horrible
-head there hung to the very ground the appearance of a tangled mass of
-wire-like worms. Its mouth was a fearful-looking red gash, extending to
-where ears should have been, but were not. Eyes, nose, cheeks, chin,
-lips or forehead, there were none whatever. Do not imagine that this
-creature was merely an appearance; it was not, for although born of
-vapor, in five minutes it became solid as iron, demonstrating the fact
-by stalking heavily across the floor right into the centre of the open
-space between us--the chains being dropped as it approached--where it
-stood, slowly swaying to and fro, as if its heart was heavy.
-
-"'Show your quality,' said Mai to the thing. 'I will,' it hissed, and
-straightway proceeding toward a table, it stood by it a few minutes, and
-it became apparent that it was charging the wood with something from
-itself, for soon the table began to turn, to tip, to move, to rise and
-float in the air, precisely as is done in spiritual circles.
-
-"'Now, ladies and gentlemen, you will please act just as if that before
-you was a human spirit, invisible to you, and desirous of imparting
-information. I dare say you will be surprised at the results. You see
-already that it is a capital table-mover, and I beg you to test its
-mental and physical powers also--for I assure you there is nothing to
-fear, now that I give you leave to break the silence--which was quite
-essential in the first part of the curious experiment.'
-
-"Thus assured, several of us asked the thing to show us what it could
-do. Whereupon it made motions as if it wanted to write. Paper and pencil
-being placed upon the table, it seized the pencil with its long
-claw-like fingers, and its hand flew over the page like lightning, and
-in ten seconds it finished, and striking the table three heavy blows
-with its fist, signified that it had finished; whereupon Mr. D----
-reached for the sheet, and read therefrom one of the most tender
-messages conceivable, from a dead mother to a living son. Even the hand
-writing was a perfect _fac-simile_ of his mother's; the name--Lucy--was
-correct, and certain dear and peculiar phrases, used by her when alive,
-were given with minute precision and fidelity; as, for instance, 'sweet
-one, mine,' instead of 'my sweet one.' Mr. D---- turned pale. 'Is it
-possible I have been so imposed upon--so horribly deceived?' said he,
-for he was a devout follower of the modern thaumaturgy.
-
-"Several further tests, equally successful and decisive, were then given
-by this ghostly thing, both by writing, tipping, rapping, and the
-production of beautiful phantom hands, faces, flowers, and other
-objects, many of which were not only singular but magnificent. Probably
-thousands of persons have seen the curious pencil drawings, executed by
-'mediums,' and which are said to be portraits of 'Spiritual
-flowers'--for most certainly they resemble nothing growing on this
-earth. Well, in less than five minutes the horrible thing there at the
-table, the eyeless monster, executed thirteen such--and they would pass
-current as splendid specimens of 'Spirit art.'
-
-"'Now,' said Vatterale, 'for something else.' And then addressing the
-thing, he said: 'You will now render yourself viewless, and show what
-you can do. And first let us have some music.' Then turning to the
-company, he said: 'Real spirits love the light, but such as _that_
-invariably act most efficiently in the dark--for then they have the
-advantage of the elements condensed upon their forms--a semi-material
-investiture--and can come in direct contact with material substances,
-which, in the case of real spirits, is exceedingly difficult of
-accomplishment.'
-
-"During this speech, our attention was diverted from the incarnated to
-the incarnator--for it must not be forgotten that the entire phenomena
-exhibited by this wondrous personage, were the creatures of his
-conscious will, brought into being and again cast out by a thought, and
-according to a _known and transferable formula_. True, there were others
-in whom this creative faculty existed, but then such persons either
-exercised the power involuntarily through the mechanical processes of
-mind and will, or else they are but the proxies of the Larvae. When he
-ceased speaking the monster was gone from our sight, but not from our
-hearing, for Mai gently waved his hand, and as he did so there came to
-us the softest, gentlest, sweetest, and the most soul-stirring strains
-of music that ever fell on human hearing. Above, below, around, now
-here, now there, close at hand, and then afar off, it sounded; and the
-only comparison I can make is, that it sounded like a solemn requiem
-chaunted by angels over the perished form of what was once a god--the
-tones were so pathetic, so solemn, so supremely sorrow-freighted--
-reminding one of the plaintive
-
-    "'Huhm, meleagar malooshe,
-      Huhm meleagar, ma-looshe,'
-
-only that it was ten-fold more profound, and stirred depths the other
-could never reach.
-
-"This strange music was a perfect corroboration of the theory advanced
-by the Italian Count at the seance before Napoleon, already mentioned;
-for, allowing that the being who made it was a real and independent
-existence, it was impossible for such conceptions to exist in it, for
-the reason that none but a mighty soul could create them, and the thing
-itself was exceedingly, revoltingly low in the scale of organization.
-But, on the other hand, if the thing were the creature of Mai's will, it
-was conceivable that it vocally expressed his unuttered thought, itself
-totally unconscious of either the music or its meaning.
-
-"It ceased. It still remained invisible, and Mai proposed that Count de
-M---- should hold one end of an accordion, while the thing invisibly
-held and played upon the other. This was assented to, and the
-instrument, bottom up, was held at arm's length, directly beneath the
-light. _It was placed on_, in masterly style, while in that position.
-It, as well as a guitar, harp and piano, were played on when no one was
-near them, and nothing to be seen; and then, at the command of the
-arch-magician, the whole performance was repeated by the terrific thing
-in its perfectly visible form.
-
-"Presently, a knock at the door told us that the servant sent for had
-arrived, with the silk in her hand. She was admitted; the thing retired
-from view.
-
-"'Marie,' said the Baron, 'a wager is laid that one of these gentlemen
-cannot unwind a skein of silk which you are to hold, both of you being
-blindfolded. I wager that it can be done. If I win, you shall have three
-days to visit your family, besides something to carry to the old people
-and the little ones. Now, you must not laugh or speak while the silk is
-being wound; if you do I lose. Will you try?'
-
-"'Certainly,' replied the girl; 'and you shall see that I will not
-laugh. Oh, _papa, maman_, I shall have three days! _Mon Dieu!_ but it is
-a fine thing!' And, taking the seat offered, she suffered the silk to be
-placed across her wrists, and be blindfolded by the Baroness.
-
-"This having been done, Mr. D----, at a sign from Vatterale, took the
-end of the cord, and began slowly to unwind it.
-
-"'And now begin,' said the latter, speaking toward where the thing had
-disappeared. The command was heard. It came forth, touched the girl's
-hand, and instantly she was thrown into a profound trance, whence
-another touch revived her, but not to wakeful consciousness. Instead of
-this, she rose, threw down the silk, approached several musical
-instruments in succession, and played upon them most exquisitely. The
-thing touched her head, and she made love in the most tender terms to
-three gentlemen in succession, declaring to each in turn that he was her
-'eternal affinity,' and had been so from the foundation of the world.
-
-"Again it touched her; and, suddenly changing her manner, she declaimed
-in lofty strain. Now she was Charlotte Corday, then Maximillian the
-Incorruptible; again, she was the Maid of Orleans, and then a simple
-Indian maiden. Now she was Malibran, and sung divinely; anon, she was a
-strong-minded woman, and talked about the Divine creative work of
-woman;--about love--that man had made it special when it should be
-general, and, therefore, free. She raved about the Bible, called it
-excellent soft bark; called the Saviour the Nazarene; spoke of the Deity
-as the Great Positive Mind; declared she was His private secretary;
-prated about Starnos and 'Cor, Summer Lands, Gupturion, Mornia,
-divorces, and how to get them; progress and humbug, milky ways, and the
-people of Jupiter, with a hundred other follies, but which she, unlike
-her exemplars, for the time believed. The scene continued for at least
-two hours, at the end of which time Mai dismissed the thing, and
-restored the girl, who was totally oblivious of all that had occurred.
-She received sundry pieces of gold from those present, and left the
-room, doubtless desiring to unwind more silk at the same rate.
-
-"'I will now show you something equally curious,' said Mai, 'and,
-perhaps, quite as interesting as anything you have yet beheld. Look!'
-
-"We did so. Simultaneously, and from all parts of the room, there now
-arose, as from the floor, innumerable minute globules of various-colored
-fire--red, green, blue, purple, scarlet, gold, silver, crimson, white
-and violet--leaping, flashing, dancing and frisking about, as if endowed
-with sensuous, joyous gaiety. Apparently, there were thousands of them,
-all moving in disorder through the air, now lighting on the
-picture-frames suspended from the wall, now collecting in great masses
-in front of the splendid mirrors, and, anon, gliding along the floor,
-under our seats, through our feet, over the chairs, and about the
-carpet, as if in the very wantonness of sport, their every motion being
-accompanied by a hissing sound, in kind, though not in volume, like that
-emitted by an ascending rocket as it rushes through the air. Presently,
-they formed themselves into crowns, just such as I had seen years
-before, in that same Paris, float over and crown Napoleon at the behest
-of an Italian Count. In an instant I associated the two circumstances,
-and, turning to the magician, was about to speak, when, as if divining
-my purpose, he nodded to me, and said aloud--
-
-"'I told you we should meet again! Be patient--this night must pass.
-Accept the present I left for you at your hotel, and do not forget that
-we shall _meet again_!' and he became silent as before, while the
-company scarcely knew what to make of this abrupt, and apparently
-meaningless speech.
-
-"I had solved one problem. Vatterale and the Count were one and the same
-person; but who and what were the other two--Miakus and Ravalette?
-
-"The fiery crowns concluded the exhibition, and at a late hour the
-company separated, and each sought his pillow."
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER VI.
-
-                       ARRIVAL OF THE EDITOR.
-
-
-"Too excited to sleep, I threw myself upon the sofa, and turned the
-strange series of events over in my mind. Two things were absolutely
-certain, nay, three--1st, That neither Ravalette, Vatterale, nor the
-Italian Count, were men as are other men; 2d, that not one of the
-company suspected this fact; and 3d, that myself was the object, sole
-and alone, of these extraordinary visitations. Above and beyond all
-these, it was plain that my destiny was rapidly approaching a crisis,
-and that the Stranger (mentioned in the legend), as well as Dhoula Bel,
-were still influencing me for purposes which I could not divine to their
-full extent. I had already become a Rosicrucian, had passed through five
-degrees, had visited the Orient, and was about to go again, had learned
-many dark and solemn mysteries, been instructed in several degrees of
-magic, knew all about the Elixir of life, the power of will, the art of
-reading others' destinies, of constructing and using magic mirrors, and
-how to discover mines of precious metal, and had deeply regretted that
-the terrible oath whereby the true Rosicrucian binds himself never to
-seek wealth for himself, and never to accept riches as the price of the
-exercise of his power, prevented me from availing myself of its
-advantages. I knew that on the altar of knowledge I had sacrificed all
-the deeper interests of my nature. I knew that my heart yearned for
-woman's love--that she held one portion of my soul captive at times, but
-never filled it--that there was a possibility of escaping what I
-dreaded, could I meet and mingle with a certain soul in whose body ran
-no drop of Adamic blood; and I almost resolved to abandon all hope,
-perform the part required of me by my tempters of Belleville, the
-Tuilleries, and Boston, when suddenly I remembered the paper that
-Ravalette had placed in my hand, as also the present left for me by
-Vatterale, but, resolving to omit all care concerning them till morning,
-at length I succeeded in falling into an uneasy slumber, from which I
-awoke late on the following morning to find that you, my dear friend
-[the Editor], had just arrived from Alexandria, and had called upon
-me."
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER VII.
-
-                          THE GRAND SECRET?
-
-
-It now devolves upon the Editor of these pages to complete the narrative
-of Beverly, his friend.
-
-I had just reached Paris from Marseilles, where I had arrived a few days
-before, by way of Malta, from Alexandria. On reaching Paris it was my
-intention to rest but one night there, and then pursue my way _via_
-Rouen, in Normandy, to Dieppe and England, and thence home to America.
-Like all other travellers, I desired to spend a week in Paris, but
-business prevented, consequently I made preparations to leave the famous
-city on the day following my arrival; but I resigned myself to this
-necessity with all the more fortitude, for the reason that by so doing I
-should be able to retain the company of a very pleasant gentleman, whose
-society I had enjoyed continually from Cairo, where we first met, to
-Paris, and which I might, by making no stop in the latter place,
-continue to enjoy all the way home, as he intended to start just so soon
-as he rejoined his daughter, who, for about three years had been
-receiving her education in Paris, and whom he was about to conduct to
-his home--a newly-purchased one in New York.
-
-The history of Mr. Im Hokeis and his adventures, as related to me on
-our journey, are so well worth repeating that I shall give a short
-abstract, even at the risk of enlarging this chapter.
-
-"I was born," said he, "on the banks of the Caspian Sea, of the family
-of Hokeis--a sacred family, in whom was invested the highest order of
-Priesthood, and on whom devolved the care of the sacred fire, for we
-were Guebres, and the fire must never be extinguished, nor had it been,
-so say our records, for many thousand years, for Religion with us is
-quite a different thing from what it is among the men of Islam, India,
-Rome, or the West. We pride ourselves upon the purity of our faith, and
-its superiority to all that is professed by the children of Adam, quite
-as much as we do our Pedigree from _Ish_, the great founder of our race
-and a powerful pre-Adamite king and conqueror."
-
-I cannot now afford time to repeat the arguments by which Im Hokeis
-demonstrated the startling proposition that there _were_ other people
-living on earth besides those who claimed Adam as their founder. All
-this may be found elsewhere.[9] He said that he was destined from birth
-to be chief priest of the Faith, and had married a woman of his tribe
-and rank, at the early age of seventeen. Near the time he was about
-being ordained, war had broken out between the Guebres and their Persian
-tyrants. Himself and wife were captured, taken to Herat, and there
-condemned to lose their eyes, from which horrible fate they were
-rescued by a member of the British Embassy, with whom they remained for
-nearly three years, by which time they had mastered the English
-language. While in the service of the minister, Hokeis had the good
-fortune to save his life, in consequence of which a friendship sprung up
-between them so strong, that when the Embassy returned to Britain the
-two Guebres went with it. Arrived in London, Hokeis received an
-appointment as interpreter, and soon accumulated means, after which he
-entered into a direct trade with Persia, and although, during the nine
-years in which he was engaged therein, heaven had not sent him any
-children, yet it had blessed him with abounding wealth.
-
-[9] The argument proving the existence of the human race thousands of
-years anterior to the date of Adam, may be found in "Pre-Adamite Man."
-By Griffin Lee. New York. S. Tousey. 1863.
-
-At length, in the thirteenth year of their married life, their prayer
-was answered, and it became evident that God was about to send them a
-child. He did, and a beautiful girl was born, but the eyes of her mother
-were closed in death at the moment it first saw the light.
-
-One day the nurse, who was a relative of Hokeis' wife, was wheeling the
-child around the walks of Hampstead Heath, when they wandered within the
-precincts of a gipsy encampment, and the girl was persuaded to have her
-own and the child's fortune told. The complexion and features of the
-twain led to remarks on their nationality, and by skillful manoeuvering
-the gipsy woman ascertained that the couple before her were Guebres by
-birth, and had been by religion. The mummery over and the fee paid, the
-girl went home with her charge. They were followed, and on that very
-night, while the nurse slept, the child was stolen. Search was made for
-the gang of gipsies--the abduction having been clearly traced to them,
-by reason of a note left behind by the robber, stating that the child
-would be well cared for--but in vain, for on the very next day the whole
-gang, thirty in number, had sailed in a packet from the London Docks,
-for America.
-
-Many years rolled by, when one day, as the disconsolate father was
-walking in the garden of the same house whence the child was stolen, he
-was accosted by an old beldame, who asked him what he would pay in gold
-in return for information respecting his child. It is needless to
-narrate the successive steps taken. Suffice it that within twenty-four
-hours the father and the gipsy were on the ocean, going as fast as steam
-would carry them toward the Western World.... The child, now a regal
-woman, was found, and father and daughter lived with each other for a
-time in New York, where a fine property had been bought; for the old
-gentleman so liked the New World that he determined to settle there for
-life, after his daughter had been properly cultured in Europe, whither
-he soon took her, and then, after transmitting the bulk of his fortune
-to America, went on a final visit to his people in Persia, his friends
-and co-religionists in the East. I had met with him as already stated,
-when on his return from Egypt to France.
-
-This brings us to the night of my arrival in Paris. It being impossible
-to join his child that night, Hokeis and myself drove to a hotel in the
-Palaise Royale, and were at the satisfactory end of a supper, when a
-person who was totally unknown to either of us entered the _salle a
-manger_, and, making a profound obeisance to us both, said: "_Salute!_ I
-come to tell you, Im Hokeis, that you will not quit Paris to-morrow. But
-at the hour of four you will take your daughter to the house that is
-last but one on the left ascending the Boulevart de Luxembourg. You will
-ask me no questions, but will obey. My authority I thus give you," and
-he whispered three words in the ear of Hokeis, that caused the latter to
-start as if he had been shot. _He had received the secret countersign of
-the priests of fire!_ Then turning to me, he said, "You will go early in
-the morning to the Hotel Fleury. There you will find Beverly, your
-friend, join him; go where he goes, and quit him not for an instant for
-the next two days--_his salvation depends upon it!_ Now I go. Forget not
-the words of _the Stranger_."
-
-I was thunderstruck. Hokeis and I talked much that night before we
-slept. What we spoke of is easily to be conceived.
-
-This brings me to my next meeting with Beverly, whose fortunes we will
-now follow.
-
-It will be remembered that Ravalette had given him a paper just before
-they parted in Belleville, and that Vatterale had also left something
-for him at his hotel. Bearing this in mind, observe what followed.
-
-In a bold, strong hand was written these words in the note placed by
-Ravalette in the hands of Beverly when they parted in Belleville--"When
-you need me--when you are ready to become one of us--when you have given
-up all hope of ever probing the mystery of my existence and your
-own--then seek me in _the house that is last but one on the left
-ascending the Boulevart de Luxembourg_.--Ravalette."
-
-The identical direction, and almost in the very words given by the
-mysterious personage to Hokeis, in the hotel of the Palais Royale on the
-previous night. The circumstance made a great impression on my mind, but
-prudence forbade all mention of it to Beverly. He seemed quite glad of
-this opportunity of solving the strange riddle, and, to my great
-delight, begged and insisted that I should spend the day with him, and
-in the evening we would investigate the subject together; and that I
-readily consented, may be easily imagined. There were several motives
-prompting me in this affair--curiosity, friendship, and a vague hope of
-baffling what Beverly regarded as his doom. Those who have read
-carefully what has here been written, will remember that Beverly had
-convinced me that there was more in the strange legend, regarding the
-king, the princess, the riddle, the murder, and the curse and its
-fulfillment, than the majority of people would be willing to concede. In
-short, I was decidedly inclined to believe in Dhoula Bel and the other
-doomed one, but I had no faith whatever in either Miakus, Ravalette, the
-Italian Count, or Vatterale. I did not believe all these names belonged
-to one person, and I finally settled down on the following theory, point
-by point:--1st, That there was in existence a society, having its
-head-quarters in Paris, the members of which were practisers of Oriental
-magic and necromancy, in which they were most astonishingly expert. 2d,
-That the organization had for its object, not the attainment of wealth
-or political position, but abstract knowledge, and the absolute rule of
-the world through the action and influence of the brotherhood upon the
-crowned heads and officials of the world. 3d, That this association was
-governed by a master-mind, and that mind was Ravalette's. 4th, That this
-society had cultivated mesmerism to a degree unapproachable by all the
-world besides. That they had exhausted ordinary clairvoyance, and
-eagerly sought a brain which would admit of the most thorough
-magnetization, and whose natural tendency was toward the mystical,
-transcendental and weird, yet strong, strong-willed, logical, emulative,
-daring and ambitious; and that, to discover such, their agents had
-traversed all four continents of the globe; and that finally they had
-heard of Beverly, whose fame as a seer was world-wide; that they had
-found him, and, beyond doubt, had learned the strange particulars of his
-life, the legend, and his hope. They had seen him, and at once decided
-that, under their wonderful manipulation, he could be placed in a
-magnetic slumber many degrees more profound than is possible in one case
-in five millions, and reach a degree of mental lucidity and
-psycho-vision that would not only surpass all that the earth had yet
-witnessed in that direction, from Budha, Confucius, Zoroaster, and the
-Oracles of Greece, down to the days of Boehme and the Swede, since when
-there has been no clairvoyant really worthy of the name. True, there
-were semi-lucides in abundance, but these either were only capable of
-reading or noting material objects, and, at best, repeating the thoughts
-of other men, or giving the contents of books as original matter,
-heaven-derived--as the self-styled "great (_sic_) American seer" gave
-forth the contents of a volume written by Pierpont Greeves, mixed and
-muddled up with a few really sublime thoughts taken from the minds of
-his scribe, his mesmerizer, and the highly intellectual coterie who
-gathered round him during his seances. 5th, They knew that, unless
-Beverly's will accorded with their desire, it would be useless to
-attempt to gain their ends through him; and hence, all their efforts by
-playing the shining bait of magic for the purpose of inducing him to
-consent to anything in order to gain their power. Hence, too, their gift
-of the secrets of the Magic Mirror, the Elixir of Life, of Youth, of
-Love, and a score of others equally curious and invaluable to the
-student of the soul. 6th, It was clear that, while these men knew much
-of the Rosicrucian system, they were not in full harmony or accord with
-that brotherhood.
-
-Thus I reasoned, and it was easy to account for the scenes in the Boston
-office and at Beverly's home--the apparent immunity Miakus enjoyed from
-the effects of the fire, which burnt the chair but not his thigh, I
-accounted for on the ground that chemistry helped him, as it had a score
-of "fire-kings" beside.
-
-Thus far, I felt that my theory covered the whole ground of this clever
-fraternity; but when I recurred to the scenes witnessed by no less than
-eighteen people at the house of the Baron, I confess, candidly, that it
-utterly failed. Still, I totally rejected all supernaturalism as
-connected with the affair, and, attributing the whole to expert
-trickery, I determined to lay a trap to catch the performers in the very
-act, and flattered myself that it would be successful. "Ho! ho! Mr.
-Vatterale, I'll show you!" I exclaimed, as I shook Beverly's hand, and
-leaving him, to bathe, dress, and breakfast alone, I hurried out,
-ostensibly to go to the post-office, but, in reality, to visit the
-head-quarters of the Paris Police, which I did, and, when there, briefly
-but clearly stated my belief that a friend of mine was being victimized
-in the manner stated; to all of which the chief official lent an
-attentive ear, caused my _proces verbal_ to be recorded, directed me how
-to proceed so as not to alarm the suspected parties, and promised to
-have a _posse_ on hand very close to the house on the Boulevart de
-Luxembourg by the hour named. On my way back to the Hotel Fleury, I
-dropped in to see if Hokeis was home, but found only a note, informing
-me that he had gone to Versailles after his daughter. I rejoined
-Beverly.
-
-
-
-
-                            CHAPTER VIII.
-
-                    THE BOULEVART DE LUXEMBOURG.
-
-
-Impatient as I was for the hour to arrive, in which all my doubts might
-be forever solved, yet Beverly was still more so. No condemned man ever
-wished more ardently for the moment when, by the halter or the glaive,
-the grand secret should be revealed to him, than did my friend for that
-in which he should know the best or the worst for him.
-
-Three o'clock found us within a stone's throw of the house designated as
-the rendezvous, and the three or four little shingles in front of it
-with "Appartements a louer," "Chambres garni," and "Cabinets meubles,"
-told at once that it was one of those middle-class establishments where
-a person might hire rooms and live undisturbed for a whole lifetime,
-provided the rent was duly paid.
-
-Into the square, paved court of this house we entered, and before the
-least inquiry was made, the _concierge_ came out of his crib, saluted us
-respectfully, and said: "You are two of the gentlemen expected here
-to-day by the occupant of the second floor. Please ascend. You will find
-him in the first room to the left," and the old fellow hobbled back to
-his nest, and instantly began pegging away at the heel of a shoe, which
-he was engaged in healing and heeling when we entered the court.
-
-Following his directions, we ascended a broad, winding stairway of
-stone, and found ourselves on a landing. From this landing one stairway
-ascended, and another led to the court below. At the further end, but on
-the side, was a door, and at the hither end another. The house itself
-stood quite isolated from all others, and the windows of the rooms, it
-was clear, must overlook the boulevart and a lane crossing it at right
-angles. We entered the first door, and found ourselves in a very
-plainly-furnished, large, square room, having two windows at the end,
-two more on the side, a cupboard, recess, and two large folding doors,
-both standing wide open, so that, finding no person in the first room,
-we passed through them into the second, but still failed to see or even
-hear the least indication that their occupant was anywhere around. I was
-glad of this, for it gave opportunity for an examination of the
-premises; therefore calling the _concierge_, I asked him the name,
-occupation, and period of occupancy of his second-floor tenant, to which
-he very readily responded, by saying that his tenant was a foreign
-scholar named Elarettav; that he was wealthy, had lived there five
-years, and saw very little company, never dined or eat in the house, and
-in short was a very fine man, indeed--he paid two louis a month for
-porter's fees! The _concierge_ left, and I carefully remarked the place,
-and found the floor and ceiling was of stone, as are all French houses.
-The cupboard was low, narrow, and filled with wine bottles and glasses,
-far more like a student's quarters than a grave philosopher's like
-Ravalette, if, indeed, that personage was the same described as
-Elarettav by the porter. The recess was small and simple, and contained
-nothing but a cot bedstead and its appropriate furniture. I concluded
-that there was no preparation for magic, if any was intended, and as
-this notion passed through my mind, the clock struck four, and we heard
-the footsteps of a man in the other room, notwithstanding the door was
-not seen to open. We went to that other room, and, "Ravalette, as I
-live!" exclaimed Beverly; and, sure enough, there stood, calmly smiling,
-just such an old gentleman as I had heard described.
-
-"You have sought, and you have found me! I hope you will profit by the
-finding," said he to Beverly; "and you, sir, have done well to accompany
-your friend," addressing me in a tone slightly insulting, and all the
-more so from being slight. It was evident that he did not relish my
-presence in the least, and as for me I had no sooner set eyes on my man
-than I felt assured of the truth of my theory, and that I stood in
-presence of one of the ablest intellects on earth--a man capable of all
-that had been attributed to him, and one who would reach his goal and
-carry his point at all hazards, even if in doing so it were necessary to
-sail through seas of human blood. I flatter myself on my ability to
-measure men and to circumvent deliberate villainy, and no sooner had I
-heard the tones of Ravalette's voice, and seen the clear-cut features of
-his face, than I at once suspected some sort of foul play was on the
-tapis, and which I determined to thwart, even if I had to give him the
-solid contents of a couple of Derringers and a Colt's revolver, which I
-had taken care to provide myself with before venturing into what might
-have been the den of unscrupulous wretches, for aught I knew to the
-contrary. It may be that Ravalette read my thoughts, for he certainly
-looked uneasy, but said nothing, for at that moment the _concierge_
-threw open the door and announced "_Monsieur Hokeis et fille_," and my
-travelling companion and his daughter--the most voluptuous and glorious
-looking woman that I had ever beheld in any land, not even excepting the
-glowing beauties of Beyrout or Stamboul--entered the room.
-
-Ravalette seemed to have been expecting them, and did not appear at all
-surprised at their uninvited presence; but the effect upon Hokeis and
-his daughter, the very moment they beheld his face, was perfectly
-electrical, yet totally dissimilar, for Hokeis instantly threw himself
-upon his knees before Ravalette, bent his head, and folded his hands in
-an attitude half supplicatory, half adoring, and said:
-
-"Oh, dread genius of the Fire and the Flame! do I see thee here? Alas! I
-am a wretched man, but thou art powerful and will forgive! My defection
-was not my choice, but that of accident, and in the religion of Isauvi
-have I found more peace than ever in thy temples of the temples of
-Astarte!"
-
-My brain fairly reeled beneath the tremendous rush of emotions,
-conflicting as a whirlwind, excited by this extraordinary scene; while,
-as for Beverly, his face was like an ashen cloth, his limbs were like an
-aspen.
-
-The next moment these emotions underwent an entire change, for the
-woman, who appeared not to have taken the least notice of her father's
-action or speech, went straight up to Ravalette, placed her jewelled
-hand upon his shoulder, looked him straight in the eye, as if she would
-wither and crush him at a glance, and in a voice low, but clear and
-deep, said: "And so, thou fiend, we meet again! Art going to essay more
-of thy tricks and magic spells? Art going to set more snares for the
-daughter of Im Hokeis? Wretch, thou art foiled again! What, tell me,
-what! thou fiend of Darkness, couldst thou gain by persecuting me now,
-as in my loneliness? What wouldst thou gain by seeing me wedded--to 'no
-matter whom'--as you said, so long as I was wedded? Why have you haunted
-me, asleep and awake, tempting, driving me toward a marriage? What hadst
-thou to gain? You do not answer. Well, I will answer for you:
-
-"Do you remember a day, long years ago, when I was a child, beyond the
-great salt sea, that you came to an old man's door and craved shelter
-for the night? Well, I do. You were received by the generous Indian. You
-shared his table, his pipe, and his cider. Then, as you sat by the fire,
-you noticed me, and must needs tell my fortune. You did so, and truly.
-You said that in one month from that day I should meet a sad-hearted
-youth, weary, weeping, miserable, lonely; that he would engage my heart,
-and that I would easily be led to love and wed him; but that _if_ I did
-so, black clouds would lower over us, and that our morn of love would
-bring a noon of dislike, an evening of sorrow, and a night of crime,
-ignominy and death. You said that my union with any other man would
-bring all that could render life desirable. I believed you, for a
-hundred things that you foretold came to pass. At length, three weeks of
-the month elapsed; and one night I had a dream, and in it I saw you, and
-the young man, whom in the body I had never yet beheld. In that dream
-you repeated all that you had said before, and then you disappeared; but
-your hateful presence had no sooner quit me than there came a glorious
-being, robed in majesty and beauty, who bade me heed you not, but to
-love this poor creature whose shadow was then before me--to love, but
-not confess it till the proper time should come;--that if I wedded
-another than him I might be happy, but that if I married him I would
-redeem a soul from a terrible fate. He bade me resist you, and to
-encourage the youth, cheer up his heart, and tell him not to despair,
-_for he might be happy yet_. He also"--but she had not time to say
-another word, for Beverly rushed forward, pushed Ravalette away, seized
-the woman's hand, kissed it, and exclaimed:
-
-"'Evlambea!'
-
-"'Beverly!'"
-
-And in an instant they were locked in each other's arms.
-
-It was indeed the friend of long-gone years, and yet I had not even
-suspected this fact, even after hearing the story of Im Hokeis and the
-gipsy adventure.
-
-I felt that this drama was getting deeper every minute, but had not time
-to think of one half of what was occurring ere the door was opened by
-no less a personage than the Commissary of Police, followed by two of
-the _garde de ville_, while, through the open door, I saw that the
-stairs and landing were literally crowded with _gens d'arms_.
-
-The drama was getting very serious.
-
-Ravalette stood unmoved, and smiled, saying:
-
-"Your trouble is in vain, monsieur! You are not wanted here, and will
-immediately return whither you came, while monsieur here, who engaged
-you to come, is at liberty to remain."
-
-This cool speech disconcerted the official a little, but he replied: "It
-is my duty to protect all who demand it for themselves or others."
-
-"True; but in this case no act has been committed or designed that could
-in the least afford just ground for such a demand. Still, as you are
-here, why here you may remain until you are satisfied of the truth of my
-remarks. Pray be seated."
-
-The term "intensely dramatic" would not begin to give an adequate notion
-of the "situation" at this particular juncture of affairs. The only
-person who was completely at ease was Ravalette. As for Hokeis, the
-brush of Michael Angelo and Raphael combined could not have done justice
-to his portrait, nor have limned one-hundredth part of the intense and
-overwhelming astonishment and horror depicted on his countenance at what
-he beheld and heard. No two persons looked at the affair in the same
-light, nor regarded the Enigma from the same point of view, neither did
-they comprehend each other, but all were comprehended by the great
-master before them.
-
-For a while an unpleasant silence reigned, which was at length, much to
-my surprise, broken by my Rosicrucian friend, Beverly, who, looking
-Ravalette straight in the eye, said:
-
-"Whoever you are, I forgive you for the attempt to prevent myself, a son
-of Adam, wedding with this woman, Evlambea, the Bright-shining Daughter
-of Ish; I forgive you for persecuting her toward a marriage with
-another, which marriage must have doomed me to a fate I have for
-centuries shrunk from; I forgive you all the woe you have caused me,
-because gratitude for what you have done for me exacts this; and because
-I suspect your agent saved my life when the retort burst in Boston, when
-I was repeating La Briere's experiment with phosphorus. Through you, or
-such as you, I have learned priceless secrets. The mystery of Magic
-Mirrors I am grateful for being taught. The secret of ages--the art of
-making the Elixir of Life, whereof whosoever shall drink shall never
-know decay, but so long as once a year he shall quaff thereof, may enjoy
-perpetual youth--I am inexpressibly thankful for. I shall never use this
-secret for that purpose, but five of the seven ingredients, when
-mingled, constitute what chemistry has sought in vain; and bequeathing
-this portion of the formulae to my friend, and through him to the medical
-world, I shall atone for my few faults by giving life to thousands.
-
-"Freely, without force or compulsion, I solemnly promise to sleep the
-sleep of Sialam before I quit this house, and in it will truly answer
-you all I may be able to, on condition that you previously clear up the
-mystery surrounding yourself; thus voluntarily giving you what an age of
-fraud would not enable you to obtain, you first solemnly promising, by
-Him by whose will you exist, be you man or demon, not to influence me,
-either now or when I shall slumber."
-
-A gleam of sudden joy flashed from the eyes of the strange being before
-us. He looked like a bridegroom in the fullness of his joy, and clasping
-both hands--pale, thin, bluish-white hands--upon his breast, he looked
-up and said:
-
-"So be it! I solemnly bind myself, by the most terrible oath
-conceivable, that I accept all your conditions."
-
-Then going to the recess mentioned before, he brought thence a
-semi-circular screen, a little taller than a man, and about four feet in
-diameter. This he requested the Commissary of Police to examine, who did
-so, and declared it to be nothing but a common bedside screen.
-
-"You are right! it _is_ nothing but a bedside screen. Such as it is,
-however, I request you to select for it any spot you choose upon the
-stone floor of either of these rooms. I shall want to go behind it; and
-that you may not harbor a thought of an intended evasion on my part, I
-request that you call your men into the room and give them orders to
-_shoot me_ if I attempt to pass them!"
-
-"Just as you please, monsieur! Pierre, call the guard."
-
-In obedience to this summons, the _corps de garde_ filed into the room,
-twenty-seven strong, and as soon as the last man entered, the officer
-addressed them, saying, as he pointed to Ravalette, "This gentleman
-thinks to escape. See to it that he does not pass you alive. The very
-instant that he appears unattended by myself, fire upon him. I so
-command you: see that my orders are executed. Does that suit you,
-Monsieur Ravalette?"
-
-"Perfectly--perfectly! nothing could be better," said the latter.
-
-"You will place fourteen men around the house to watch the windows, and
-the other thirteen you will distribute on the stairs and landing," said
-the commissary.
-
-"It shall be done," said the sergeant, as he marched his men from the
-chamber--but not till I had placed a double-barrelled Deringer and a
-Colt's revolver, both freshly capped and loaded, in his hands--for I
-hated Ravalette; man or demon, I hated him religiously--that being the
-strongest kind of dislike--and I had an intense desire to ascertain
-whether he was bullet-proof or not.
-
-During all this time, the father, daughter, lover, myself, and the
-commissary's two comrades had said nothing, but at a sign from Ravalette
-we took our seats in such a position that we commanded the hall-door,
-that between the two rooms, the recess, the cupboard, and the windows on
-either side. The commissary placed the convex side of the screen toward
-us, in the middle of the room, and then taking a seat by my side, said,
-that so far as he was concerned, all was ready, and from the pallor of
-his lips, the tone in which he spoke, and from the frequency with which
-he crossed himself and muttered an orison, compounded of bad French and
-worse Latin, it was clear that he wished his hands well washed of the
-whole affair.
-
-"I, too, am ready," observed the wizard, "and I, who have nothing to
-conceal, declare that I am he whom yonder man--Im Hokeis, and his
-Guebre-tribe, have for centuries believed to be the God of Fire and of
-Flame. The mystery of my being cannot yet be solved. I am not alone! The
-mastery, over Matter and over Magic, is an inheritance of the ages. We
-who were once as others are, became doomed ones by reason of the curse
-of a dying man, and like Isaac Ahasuerus, the Hebrew of Jerusalem, who
-cursed and spat upon the Man of Sorrows when bearing his gibbet up the
-steep lane of the Dolorous Way, and whom the Meek one cursed, and bade
-tarry on earth till he came--even so is he not alone. Powerful in all
-else, not one of us can read his own future; but for that must depend on
-gifted ones like yonder Beverly. Such are seldom born; but when they
-are, there is only one opportunity to make them subservient to our
-aid--they must be unwedded in soul, else they cannot enter the sleep of
-Sialam, and in no other way can the scroll of Fate be read for us. Hence
-the obstacles thrown in his path and in that of yonder girl.... It is
-possible to shift our fate upon the neutral, whoever he may be; but in
-this case a strong motive existed to saddle the centuries upon yonder
-man, who has, in various forms, been my contemporary since ages previous
-to the laying of the foundations of Babylon and Nineveh.
-
-"There is one more in being--by him I have been foiled--the
-Stranger--and still another--the mother of this Beverly's body. I hoped
-to win him by Magic; I have failed. He has seen me thus, as I am,"--and
-so saying, Ravalette slowly moved around the screen, continuing to speak
-all the while, until he reappeared on the other corner--and saying, "and
-thus." We were astonished beyond measure at the change that had, in less
-than twelve seconds, taken place.
-
-Ravalette no longer stood before us, but instead, we saw a thin, lean,
-little, wrinkled old man, the perfect opposite in everything of the
-person we had just conversed with. "Miakus! as I live--the man of
-Portland and of Boston--the same!" exclaimed Beverly, as the figure
-passed once more from view behind the screen, and almost instantly
-reappeared in a totally dissimilar guise. "And thus!" said the wizard.
-"My heaven!" said Beverly, "it is Ettelavar, my mysterious guide and
-teacher in the kingdom of Trance and Dream!"
-
-Again this strange being passed around the screen, saying, "and thus,"
-as he reappeared successively as the Italian Count and Vatterale. The
-wizard said, when in the last form, "Mai is but a transposition of I am;
-'Miakus' is 'Myself,' Vatterale is an anagram of Ravalette, and a
-school-boy would have told you that Ettelavar is but Ravalette
-reversed--the name meaning 'The Mysterious.' To you, Beverly, I have
-been all these. Behold me now as I really am," and he passed around the
-screen, and reappeared again as a little, withered old man, clothed in
-flaming red from head to heel.
-
-"The Vampire, Dhoula Bel!" shrieked both Beverly and Im Hokeis in the
-same breath.
-
-                *       *       *       *       *
-
-What passed during the next half hour, it would not be proper for me
-here to relate. Suffice it, that at the end of that time Beverly had
-fallen asleep, apparently of his own free will. What followed will be
-seen in the next, and concluding chapter of this work.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER IX.
-
-                        THE SLEEP OF SIALAM.
-
-
-Deep was the silence, hushed were our breaths. Quick beat our hearts,
-tearful were our eyes, for a greater than even Death was in that room on
-the Boulevart de Luxembourg!
-
-Seated in a large office-chair, his limbs stiff and cold with the damps
-of dissolution; his face paler than the Genius of Consumption; his heart
-and pulses totally moveless; his eyes wide open, and so upturned that
-not a speck of aught but the uncolored portions thereof were visible,
-was my friend. In previous years I had often seen him and hundreds of
-others in both the mesmeric and odyllic trance--the latter being the
-very common semi-comatic state into which sensitive persons often pass
-by the merest effort of volition, and in which they give off such
-high-sounding platitudes and call them philosophy transmitted direct
-from spirit-land to erring mortals, when the fact is, that the whole
-phenomena--when not simulated, which is not the case in over nine
-hundred and ninety cases in each thousand of its display--is but the
-concurrent action of a diseased body and an abnormal, unhealthy mind,
-and in many cases morals also, for it makes no matter how good or
-well-intentioned the subjects may be in the start, they are sure to
-yield before the accursed blast, and only the fires of hell itself can
-stop their mad career and turn them back to normal paths.
-
-Not such a trance was that we now were witnessing. In the course of five
-minutes there came a change in the sleeper's face, which became lighted
-up as if at that moment his soul beheld the ineffable glories of the
-great Beyond.
-
-He spoke: "Now!"
-
-As this one word escaped his lips, the door of the room was silently
-opened, and two men entered and were about taking seats, when the
-Commissary of Police suddenly rose, made a low obeisance, saluted one of
-them in military style, and exclaimed, "The Emp----"
-
-"Silence!" said the person addressed; "all are strangers here!" And then
-turning to Dhoula Bel, with whom he appeared quite familiar, this person
-said to him, "At last?"
-
-"At last!" echoed the latter; whereupon the two new comers helped
-themselves to seats.
-
-The whole affair had gone thus far so directly opposite to all my
-calculations; events had taken such sudden and totally unexpected turns,
-that I ceased to marvel at this new game of cross-purposes, but
-determined to watch the results carefully, whatever they might be. Of
-course I expected that the new comer would now take the lead of affairs.
-But no; for Dhoula Bel, as I shall henceforth call him, addressed the
-shorter of the two intruders as follows:
-
-"Why do you, too, seek to thwart me? Many years ago I found you a
-student of magic in your lonely prison, whither you had been consigned
-because you had failed on two occasions. I rescued you, gave you
-liberty, influence, power, prestige, and seated you firmly on the
-proudest throne on earth; I have made you famed and feared; I have
-humbled Britain in your name; for you I have broken the power of
-ages--the Papacy; for you I have severed Austria, and built a new empire
-on the earth. For you I have fomented the most awful war the world has
-ever seen, and have divided a nation of brothers into two parties, each
-thirsting for the other's blood; and while you have been the silent
-automaton, I have prompted your speech and moved the wires that govern
-the world, asking nothing whatever in return, and yet you are here to
-thwart me who have ever been your friend. Why is this?"
-
-"I admit--nothing. I am a man of Destiny!"
-
-"Shall I reveal it?"
-
-"I care not."
-
-"Well, I forbear; but let this sleeper tell it."
-
-"I am content. Interrogate him. This is the hour, and this the scene for
-which I long have waited. Let the oracle speak."
-
-"Listen to me," said the taller of the two intruders. "Ye have both been
-proxies of a power beyond us all; and even as I, the Stranger, have
-foiled each of ye, yet my action was decreed. The drama of ages may end
-to-day. Not one of us can read his own future; there is but one on earth
-who can read it, and there is but one hour in which it may be done. That
-person is here; that hour has come. Not with the magnetic afflatus of
-puling, babbling somnambules; not with the boastful confidence of
-self-styled explorers of mythical Summer Lands, or imaginary spheres;
-but with a vision, simple, pure and accurate, shall yonder sleeper sweep
-the horizon of the future, and reveal it. Therefore let there be
-quietude and peace, while the mystic scroll is being read."
-
-Then turning to the slumberer, he said: "What seest thou, O Soul? Look!
-investigate! reveal! What seest thou concerning France and her ruler?"
-
-"France will experience another Revolution. It will begin in Water and
-end in Blood and Fire! but the end will be delayed. Crown, Sceptre,
-Dynasty--all are swept away before the resistless tide of Political
-Reformation, and the last noble and priest shares the fate of the last
-crowned head--exile and death."
-
-"What of the other Nationalities?"
-
-"Prussia, under a new _regime_, becomes indeed a Fatherland to her
-people; Belgium, Holland, and other of the Germanic lands, become
-consolidated with empires now existing; Spain's night draws near--her
-colonies, erected into Black Republics, leave her to sink in loneliness,
-until at last she becomes, with Rome, an integral part of the great
-Italian Empire; Austria becomes dismembered; Hungary and Poland coalesce
-and form a new power on the earth; Turkey passes into Greek hands; Syria
-into Russian; England loses Canada, India, Oregon and Ireland, which
-latter becomes a Republic; the United States, rejoined, absorbs Canada,
-Mexico and all British America--her Black races found an empire which
-will extend from her southern borders to Brazil, under the rule of a
-series of Presidents; China, Christianized by the Taepings, becomes a
-first-class power in the East, blotting out Japan and a score of lesser
-kingdoms; while India and Australia become respectively an Empire and a
-Republic; and all this within sixty-three years from the seventh decade
-of the century!"
-
-"What of Religious changes? Speak! Let us know!"
-
-"All Religious systems in the world, outside of the Christian, will
-gravitate toward, and finally be wholly absorbed by it; and while this
-is taking place, there will be a quiet revolution occurring in that
-system itself; Catholicism, modified and divested of certain
-objectionable features, will become the right wing and conservative
-portion of the Religion of the entire world, while the radical portion
-of that Church, and of all other churches, will secede, rear the
-standard of Free Thought, proclaim the Religion of Reason, espouse the
-Reformatory men and principles of the age, declare itself a Positive,
-Eclectic, and Progressive Faith, abjuring the doctrines of Original Sin,
-the Adamic, Mosaic, Hebraic Atonement theories, and everything
-affirmative of Miracle, Final Judgment, and a Hell. This party will be
-in a minority, and the left wing of the grand Religious system of the
-world; it will constantly receive accessions of recruits from the other
-and barbaric element of society; but so rapid will be the human march,
-that the right flank of the grand army will constantly crowd the left
-and occupy its ground, while the latter will as constantly move on
-toward new fields, as new ideas are developed and seen."
-
-"Now, Prophet, what of thyself?"
-
-"Speedy death, relief from sorrow, a lot with other men, and comparative
-happiness--on the other side of time."
-
-"What of the Rosicrucian System?"
-
-"I have already sketched it under the name of the left wing. But ere
-long there will arise a great man--a German--a Prussian, who will
-declare that system to the world, and who will be _the_ Man of the 19th
-century; and yet his astonishing power and influence will not be felt
-until he shall be dead and the twentieth century shall reach its third
-decade. That man lives to-day--in obscurity--totally unknown; he is in
-America, but will arise to his work in Europe, and will be to the
-intellectual and philosophical world, what Budha was to India, Plato to
-Greece, Thothmes III. to Egypt, Moses to Jewry, Mahomet to Arabia,
-Luther to Europe, and Columbus to the New World. THIS GERMAN IS THE
-COMING MAN! He will first be heard of in New York city, in connection
-with a small, but powerful journal that will soon see the light, and
-begin its work in that great Metropolis. Supposing the whole field of
-possible human progress and achievement to be embraced within the circle
-of twenty-six, then this man's field embraces the figures 3, 8, 1, 18,
-12, 5, 19; 20, 18, 9, 14, 9, 21, 19,--and his motto will be TRY! The
-figures are easily solvable. This man will be simple, earnest and
-unostentatious, but firm, steadfast and uncompromising. His resources
-will be millions, and he will command all the gold he needs for the
-great work to be accomplished. He will boldly announce the grand
-Doctrines of the THIRD AND CULMINATING Temple of the Rosie Cross; and
-his followers will be as the sands of the sea in number, and their
-principles will, in time, be as resistless as its waves. He will begin
-his work personally, and by agency _before_ this great Rebellion in
-behalf of Human Slavery shall have been ended. Mark that!"
-
-As the sleeping man gave utterance to these inspired prophesies, the
-less tall of the two strangers appeared disturbed, and almost rising to
-his feet with excitement, he said:
-
-"Then this man's career will resemble my own?"
-
-"As fire resembles ice. This man's career will be peaceful; his path
-will not be stained by one single drop of blood. No maimed men will
-curse, no widows weep, no orphans cry for vengeance, nor will the
-ignorance of the people constitute the lever of his power, nor be the
-instrument by means of which he will vault into a throne!"
-
-"But I am strong!--Mexico!--Empire!--The Latin race!--The
-Church!--Maximilian! What can break this chain, supposing I establish
-the last link, as I intend to?"
-
-"Fate! The United States will, in that case, soon find time to breathe
-upon France and the New Empire! That breath will settle as a cloud, but,
-when it rises, _two_ dynasties will have disappeared _forever_!"
-
-"Damnation!" exclaimed the questioner, and he stamped his feet and
-ground his teeth with rage almost demoniac.
-
-"There will be _two_ damned nations, if that programme is carried out,"
-said the sleeping man, in tones musical and calm, as if he was
-discussing the merits of a play rather than prophesying the fate and
-destinies of Empires.
-
-For a moment there was silence. At length Ravalette spoke--
-
-"And now my turn. What, O sleeper! what of me?"
-
-The seer smiled blandly, stretched forth his hands toward both the tall
-personage and the Enigma. They went forward, grasped the sleeper's hands
-in their own, and--
-
-"The Enmity of Ages is ended!"
-
-"It is ended!" repeated the tall one.
-
-"It is finished! Thy work is done--and mine--and thine"--indicating
-Ravalette--said the seer. "Henceforward, there is rest for the
-weary--there is rest for thee! No longer doomed to walk the earth, we
-three quit it. Our paths diverge from this moment. Above our heads is a
-scroll, on which is written--
-
-    'YE MAY BE HAPPY YET!'"
-
-"Thank Heaven!" said Dhoula Bel.
-
-"Thank Heaven!" repeated the Stranger.
-
-"It is finished!" said Beverly, and, as he spoke, Dhoula Bel moved
-behind the screen, and, the very instant that he did so, there came the
-sharp crack of fire-arms in the hall and on the stairs, accompanied with
-any amount of oaths uttered in not very choice French.
-
-Immediately, running to the door along with the Commissary of Police
-and one of his comrades, I demanded to know the cause of the
-disturbance.
-
-"By the Holy Evangelists! I fired straight into his head, and it didn't
-faze him an inch!" said the sergeant.
-
-"And I struck him square in the middle of the head, and _that_ didn't
-harm him in the least!" said another.
-
-"And I put two Derringer bullets and four Colt's fair into his breast,
-at ten inches, and blast me if all six didn't fly back and hit me!"
-exclaimed a third.
-
-"And I'll swear that he didn't come through the open door, for it was
-fast shut, with my hand on the knob, every second of the time!" said the
-fourth.
-
-"It was the devil!" said a fifth.
-
-"Or his imp!" said the sixth.
-
-"And I'll swear he never passed by me on the lower stair!" observed the
-seventh man.
-
-"Come hither into the room and tell us what you are driving at," said
-the Commissary.
-
-"I'm driving at nothing just now," said the sergeant, as he came in "but
-I have been trying to drive some bullets through the devil! Do you
-remember telling me not to let a certain person go out, even if I had to
-shoot him to prevent it?"
-
-"Certainly I do. Go on."
-
-"Well, the first thing I knew, that gentleman stood outside the door,
-and said, as he made faces and ran out his tongue at me, 'I'm going out
-in spite of you, monsieur.' '_Are_ you, indeed?' 'Of course I am: just
-see me do it,' said he, and he marched straight for the stairs, and
-four of us undertook to clinch him, and did so. Gentlemen, have you ever
-picked up a hot potatoe? Well, I have, and did not let it drop quicker
-than we four let go of that individual; only that instead of burning us,
-it felt for all the world like one feels at the Polytechnic when he
-takes hold of those infernal things with wires to them, and which
-discharge a quart or two of lightning into you before you can say Jack
-Robinson! We let go of the gentleman very quickly, and he passed two or
-three steps downward, all the while laughing at us, which made me
-furious, and I fired point-blank at him, and we all attempted to cut him
-down, but you might just as well have tried to kill a shadow. Messieurs,
-that man disappeared in the smoke of our pistols! He never _passed out
-in visible_ form!"
-
-During the sergeant's relation I had determined to see if Dhoula Bel had
-really left the room, and for that purpose I carelessly walked toward
-the window and past the screen. _There was nobody_ whatever behind or
-near it. I walked back, said nothing, but resumed the seat I had
-formerly occupied.
-
-"Are you sure of what you tell us; that you are wide awake, and not
-dreaming?" said the Commissary.
-
-"As certain as I am that he is not now in this room."
-
-"Which shows how easily people may be deceived," said a voice from
-behind the screen, and instantly thereafter Dhoula Bel himself walked
-out into the middle of the floor--stone floor it was--and after pointing
-his finger scornfully at the sergeant and his men, he deliberately
-walked back behind the screen again.
-
-My hair stood up with fright and horror; not so the seven brave
-Frenchmen; for with one accord they rushed toward the screen,
-exclaiming: "But we have you now, man or devil!" dashed it away with a
-single blow, and--
-
-_There was no one whatever behind it._
-
-The sergeant fell as if he had been shot.
-
-Determined to preserve myself from surprise, I steadily kept my seat and
-watched the Stranger and his companion. The latter rose from his chair,
-advanced toward Hokeis and his daughter, who had both sat silent and
-spell-bound during the whole of this extraordinary scene of diablerie,
-and spoke a few words in a low tone to them.
-
-While this was going on, the tall Stranger passed into the other room,
-and within a period of twelve seconds I rose and followed, but he too
-had disappeared!
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-There was a marriage in Paris next day. A son of Adam had wedded with a
-daughter of Ish.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Two weeks later we carried an invalid to the baths of Switzerland. We
-remained there two months, then, finding that he grew worse, conveyed
-him back to Paris.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Three months elapsed. A funeral cortege wound up the paths of Pere le
-Chaise. A coffin was lowered into a new-made grave. Upon its brink stood
-an old grey-haired man upholding and consoling a beautiful but
-sorrow-hearted woman--one who had but recently been a bride.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Four months passed: I was on the eve of quitting France. I went to the
-cemetery, and for an hour sat by a tombstone, on which was sculptured
-these words--
-
-                     "BEVERLY, THE ROSICRUCIAN.
-
-                    "_Je renais de Mes Cendres!_"
-
-That was all!
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Across the sea, I tread my native soil again. I have availed myself of
-the knowledge imparted by my friend.
-
-                        *       *       *
-
-Last night, in returning from the Rosicrucian lodge to which I have the
-honor to belong, I called upon a lady friend in the ----th Avenue. In
-her arms she held a bright and glowing child--"a boy," said she. "Is he
-not beautiful? Is he not like his father?"
-
-"Wonderfully like," I replied. "What is its name?"
-
-"Osiris Budh! Curious name, isn't it?"
-
-"Very!" I replied, as I took my leave--"very!"
-
-
-                          CONSUMMATUM EST.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes
-
-
-Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
-except in obvious cases of typographical error (see list below).
-
- Page ii: added missing period after B
-    P. B. Randolph
-
- Page 7: added missing " at begin of poem
-    "In the most high and palmy days of Rome,
-
- Page 10: changed : to ;
-    The good prevailed;
-
- Page 12: changed analagous to analogous
-    but something analogous to that
-
- Page 29: added period in heading
-    CHAPTER III.
-
- Page 30: changed : to ;
-    first lines speedily wear away;
-
- Page 36: changed : to ;
-    shameless harlots of the other;
-
- Page 39: changed 2 occurrences of : to ;
-    but do me good; that his name was Ettelavar;
-
- Page 59: changed unpronouncable to unpronounceable
-    with an unpronounceable name
-
- Page 61: changed acompanying to accompanying
-    on the harp and piano, accompanying the performances vocally
-
- Page 62: Added ' at end of paragraph
-    if you but say the word!'
-
- Page 90: changed by to my
-    my back nearly touching it.
-
- Page 92: changed towards to toward
-    turning toward the man
-
- Page 93: changed soundrel to scoundrel
-    of as great a scoundrel as ever went loose upon the world.
-
- Page 108: added period at end of sentence
-    to tell the danger I and the house had been in.
-
- Page 111: changed weired to weird
-    when the weird old man whispered in my ear that I
-
- Page 114: changed distahce to distance
-    you perceive, of a dark brown color, but at a distance,
-
- Page 115: changed " to '
-    Now that glass disk before you contains such a liquid, thus
-    compounded--'
-
- Page 141: completed quote with !'
-    in an almost indistinguishable tone, the words, 'It shall be!'
-
- Page 147: added period at end of sentence
-    for the entire jewel was not larger than a golden dollar.
-
- Page 160: added ' at end of paragraph
-    just as I fixed it an hour or two after Ravalette paid me.'
-
- Page 164: completed unclear end of line
-    left the street of Michel le Compte, and turned up that of the
-    Temple.
-
- Page 165: removed '
-    assist in piling up the horripilant.
-
- Page 174: changed gardiner to gardener
-    I put the same question to the proprietor that I had to the gardener
-
- Page 174: changed . to ,
-    Not yet content, I made inquiries
-
- Page 181: changed " to '
-    Now, my dear, was all this hum-bug?'
-
- Page 203: changed griping to gripping
-    fastens upon its victim, is merciless, gripping, stern and
-    unrelenting.
-
- Page 212: added ' at end of paragraph
-    quite as interesting as anything you have yet beheld. Look!'
-
- Page 230: added " at and of paragraph
-    "'Beverly!'"
-
- Page 249: changed . to ,
-    Across the sea, I tread my native soil again.
-
-On page 44 the list of words in the footnote of the heading of Chapter 5
-included a Greek word. This has been removed as the transliteration,
-Eulampia, is still in the list.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wonderful Story of Ravalette, by
-Paschal Beverly Randolph
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