 Chapter 3 of the Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Revealed Edition Vol. 2 This is a LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Maya Definis The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Revealed Edition Vol. 2 A descent into the maelstrom. The ways of God in nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways, nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity and unsuchableness of His works, which have a depth in them greater than the well of democracies. Joseph Glanville We had now reached the summit to the loftiest crack. For some minutes, the old man seemed too much exhausted to speak. Not long ago, said he at length, when I could have guided you on this route, as well as the youngest of my sons. But about three years past, there had happened to me an event such as never happened to mortal man, or at least such as no man ever survived to tell off, and the six hours of deadly terror, which I then endured, have broken me up, body and soul. You suppose me a very old man, but I am not. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs and to unstrangle my nerves, so that I'd tremble at least exertion, and I'm frightened at a shadow. Do you know I can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting giddy? The little cliff, upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himself down to rest, then the weighty portion of his body hung over it, while he was only kept from falling by the tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge. This little cliff arose, a sheer unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from the world of crags beneath us. Nothing would have tempted me to win half a dozen yards of its brink. In truth, so deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my companion that I fell at full length upon the ground, clung to the shrubs around me, and there not even glanced upward at the sky, while I struck an invading divestment cell for the idea that very foundations on the mountain were in danger from the fury of the winds. It was long before I could read myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance. He must get over these fences, said the guide, for I have brought you here, but you might have the best possible view of the scene of that event I mentioned and to tell you the whole story with a spot just on your eye. We are now, you continue, in that particular rising manner which distinguished him. We are now close upon the Norwegian coast in the sixty eighth degree of latitude in the great province of Nordland and in the dreary district of Lofoten. The mountain upon whose top we sit is Helsingen the Cloudy. Now raise yourself up a little higher, hold onto the grass if you feel giddy, so and look out beyond the belt of vapor beneath us into the sea. I looked dizzily and beheld a wide expanse of ocean whose watchers wore so inky a hue as to bring at once to my mind the Nubian geographer's account on the Maritenebrarum. A panorama more deeply desolate no human imagination can conceive. To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, the layout stretched like ramparts of the world lines of hurriedly blackened beatling cliffs whose character of glue was by the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high up against its white and ghastly crest howling and shrieking forever. Just opposite the promontory upon whose apex we were placed and at the distance of some five or six miles out at sea there was visible a small, bleak-looking island or more properly its position was discernible through the wilderness of surge in which it was enveloped. But two miles nearer the land arose another of smaller size, hideously craggy and barren and encompassed various intervals by a cluster of dark rocks. The appearance of the ocean in the space between more distant islands and shore had something very unusual about it. Although at the time so strongly gale was blowing landward but bringing remote offing laid to under a double reefed tricin and constantly plunged a whole hurl out of sight still there was here nothing like a regular swell but only a short, quick, angry crust dashing of water in every direction as well in the teeth of the wind as otherwise. Of foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. The island in the distance, resumed the old man, is called by the Norwegians Vurg. The one midway is Moskvil. That, a mile into the north, where it is unbounded. Yonder is listening, Hawthorne, Cailan, Swarovn and Buckholm. First rocks between Moskvil and Vurg are Otahom, Fliman, Sanflayzen and Stuckholm. These are the true names of the places but why it has been so necessary to name them at all is more than either you or I can understand. Do you hear anything? Do you see any change in the water? We had now been about ten minutes upon the top of Helsigan which we had ascended from the interior of Lofoten so that we had to coat no glimpse of the sea until it had burst upon us from the summit. As the old man spoke, I became aware of loud and gradually increasing sound like the moaning of a vast herd of buffaloes upon an American prairie and at the same moment I perceived that what seemed in turn the chopping caught the ocean beneath us was rapidly changing into a current which set to the eastward. Even while I gazed, this current acquired monstrous velocity each moment added to its speed and to its hell-long impetuosity. In five minutes the whole scene, as far as Vurg, was lashed into a guffinable fury. But it was between Moskvil and the coast that the main uproar held its way. Here, the vast bed as the waters cut into a thousand conflicting tunnels burst suddenly into frenzied convulsion heaving, boiling, hissing, tirating and gigantic innumerable vortices and whirling and planting on the eastward with a rapidity which would never else be assumed except in precipitous descents. In a few minutes more, there came over the scene another radical alteration. The general surface grew so much more smooth and the whirlpools, one by one disappeared while prodigious streaks of foam became apparent where none had been seen before. These streaks at length spreading out to a great distance and entering into combination took unto themselves the direct emotion of the subsided vortices and seemed to form the germ of another more vast. Suddenly, very suddenly, they assumed an distinct and definite existence in a circle of more than a mile in diameter. The edge of the world was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray but no particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel whose interior, as far as the eye could fathom it, was a smooth, shining and dead black wall of water inclined to the horizon at an angle of some 45 degrees spinning dizzy round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion and sending forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar such as not even a mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to heaven. The mountain trembled to its very base and the rock rocked through myself upon a face who clung to the skin herbed in an excess of nervous agitation. This said at length to the old man, this can be nothing else than a great whirlpool of the maelstrom. So it is sometimes termed. We know regions calling the Moscow storm from the island of Moscow in the mean way. The ordinary accounts of these vortex had by no means prepared me for what I saw. That of Jonas Ramis which is perhaps more circumstantial of any cannot impart a faintest conception either of the magnificence or of the power of the scene or of a wild bewildering sense of another which confounds the beholder. I am not sure from what point of view the writer in question surveyed it nor at one time but it could neither have been from the summit of Helsinki nor during the storm. There are some passages of his description nevertheless which may be quoted for the details although their effect is exceedingly feeble in conveying an impression of the spectacle. Between Lofedin and Moscow it says the depth of the water is between 36 and 40 fathoms but on the other side to Udver this depth decreases so as not to afford a convenient passage for a vessel without the risk of splitting on the rocks which happens even in the calmest weather. When it is flawed a stream runs up the country between Lofedin and Moscow with a boisterous rapidity but the roar of its impetus up to the sea is scarce equaled by the loudest most dreadful cataracts. The noise being heard several leagues off and the vortices or pits are of such an extent and depth that if a ship comes with an interaction it is inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom and there beat two pieces against the rocks. When the water relaxes the fragments thereof are thrown up again but these intervals of tranquility are only at the turn of the ebb and flowers and in calm weather and last but a quarter of an hour its violence gradually returning. When the stream is most boisterous and its fury heightened by a storm it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it boats, yachts and ships have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were within its reach and likewise happens frequently but whales come too near the stream and are overpowered by its violence and then it is impossible to describe their howlings and bellowings and their fruitless struggles to distinguish themselves and their ones attempting to swim from Lothden to Moscow was caught by the stream and borne down while he roared terribly so as to be heard on shore large stalks of furries and pine trees after being absorbed by the current right again broken in tow under such a degree as if bristles grew upon them this plainly shows at the bottom most of craggy rocks among which there are worlds to and fro this stream is regulated by the flux and reflux of the sea it being constantly high and low water every six hours in the year 1645 early in the morning of 6th Sagesima Sunday it raged with such noise and impetuosity the very stones of the house on the coast fell to the ground in regard to the depth of the water we should see how this could have been ascertained at all in the immediate vicinity of the vortex the 40 fathoms must have reference only to portions of the channel closed upon shore either of Moscow or Lothden the depth in the centre of the Moscow's shore must be immeasurably greater and no better proof of this fact is necessary than it can be obtained from even the sidelong glances to the abyssal world which may be heard from the highest crag of Hellsagon looking down from this pinnacle upon the howling flag from below my could not help smiling at the simplicity with which the honest Jonas Rames records those much difficult of belief the anecdotes of the whales and the bears for it appeared to me in fact a self-evident thing the largest ship of the land in existence forming with an influence of a deadly attraction could resist it as little as a feathery hurricane must disappear bodily in advance the attempts to account for the phenomenon some of which I remember seem to be sufficiently plausible in perusal now more very different and unsatisfactory aspect the idea generally received is that these as well as three small vortices have no other cause than the collision of waves rising and falling that flux and reflux against a ridge of rocks and shelves which confuses the water so that it precipitates itself like a cataract and thus the higher the flood rises the deeper must the fall be and the natural result of all is a whirlpool or vortex the prodigious suction of which is sufficiently known by lesser experiments these are the words of the Encyclopedia Britannica Kutcher and others imagine that in the centre of the channel of the maelstrom is an abyss penetrating the globe an issue in some very remote part the Gulf of Bosnia being somewhat decidedly named in one instance this opinion idling itself was the one to which I was against my imagination most readily assented and mentioning it to the guide I was surprised to hear him say that although it was the view almost universally entertaining as a subject by the Norwegians it nevertheless was not his own as to the full notion he confessed his inability to comprehend it and he agreed with him for however conclusive on paper it becomes altogether unintelligible and even absurd amid the thunder of the abyss we've had a good look at the world now said the old man and if you will creep around this crack so as to get in sleep and dead in the roar of the water I will tell you us sorry that will convince you I ought to know something of the most Christian I placed myself as desired and he proceeded myself and my two brothers once old as kuna rigged smack about 70 tones birthing with which we were in the habit of fishing among the islands beyond most nearly to work in all violent areas at sea there is good fishing but proper opportunities if one has only the courage to attempt it but among the whole of the Loved and Coastmen we three were the only ones who made a regular business of going out to the islands as I tell you the usual grounds are a great way lower down to the southward there fish can be got all ours without much risk and therefore these places are preferred the choice parts over here among the rocks however not only yield the finest variety but in far greater abundance so that we often got in a single day where the more timid of the craft could not scrape together in a week in fact we made it a matter of desperate speculation the risk of life standing instead of labour and courage answering for capital we kept the smack in a curve about 5 miles higher up the coast than this and it was our practice in fine weather to take advantage of the 15 minutes slack to push across the main channel of the most coastal far above the pool then drop down upon anchorage somewhere near other home or sun place where the eddies are not so violent as elsewhere here we used to remain until nearly time for slack water again and we weighed and made for home we never set out upon this expedition without a steady sidewind for going and coming one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return and we seldom made a missed calculation upon this point twice, during 6 years we were forced to stay all night at anchor on account of a dead calm which is rare thing indeed just about here and once we had to remain on the ground nearly weeks, tarving to death owing to a gale which blew up shortly after arrival it made the channel too boisterous to be thought of upon this occasion we should have been driven out to scenes but of everything where the whirlpools threw us round and round so violently that a length we fouled our anchor and dragged it it had not been that we have drifted to one of the new ruleable cross currents here today and gone tomorrow which drips under the lee of flim and where good luck brought up now I could not tell you the 20th part of the difficulty being countered on the ground it is a bad spot being even in good weather but we made a shift always to run the gauntlet at the most crystal without accidents although at times my heart has been in my mouth when we have to be a minute or so behind of before this act the wind sometimes was not as strong as we thought it had started and then we made rather less way than we could wish my eldest brother had a son 18 years old and I had two stout boys of my own these would have been of the greatest assistance at just times in using the sweeps as well as afterwards in fishing but somehow and though we ran the risk ourselves we had another hatch to let the young ones get into the danger but after all this had ended on it was a horrible danger and that is the truth now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred it was on the 10th day of July 18 a day which the people of this part of the world will never forget for it was one which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens and yet all the morning and indeed until late in the afternoon there was a gentle instead a breeze from the south west and shone brightly so the old Seaman Marcus could not have foreseen what was to follow the three of us my two brothers Marcel had crossed over the islands about two o'clock p.m. and had soon nearly loaded the smack with fine fish which we all remarked were more plenty that day than we had ever known them it was just seven by my watch when we waited and started for home so as to make the worst of the storm slack water which we knew would be at eight we set out with the fresh wind on our starboard quarter before sometimes panged along at a great rate never dreaming of danger for indeed we saw another slightest reason to apprehend it all at once we were taken aback by a breeze from over her second the mist was most unusual something that had never happened to us before we were never going to feel a little uneasy and exactly knowing why we put the boat on the wind but could make no headway at all for the eddies and I was upon the point of proposing to return to the anchorage when looking us turn we saw the whole horizon covered with a singular copper colored cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity the meantime the breeze had had headed us off fairway and we were dead be calmed drifting about in every direction these state of things however did not last long enough to give us time to think about it in less than a minute the storm was upon us in less than two the sky was entirely overcast and what with this and the driving spray became suddenly so dark that we could not see each other in a smack such a hurricane as then blue it is folly to attempt describing the old sea many know and never experienced anything like it but our sails go by the run before it cleverly took us but at the first puff both our mast went by the board as if they had been stood off the main mast taken with it my youngest brother I lashed himself to it for safety our boat was the lightest feather on the thing that ever set upon water it had a complete flush deck with only a smaller hatch near the bow this hatch was custom to batten down when about to cross the storm by way of precaution against the dropping seas but for this circumstance we should have found it at once but we lay entirely buried for some moments how my elder brother escaped destruction I cannot say for I never had an opportunity of ascertaining for my part as soon as I had let the force hill run I threw myself flat on deck with my feet against the narrow gun on the bow and with my hands grasping of ring bolts near the foot of the fore mast it was mere instinct that prompted me to do this which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done for I was too much flourishing for some moments we were completely delused as I say at all this time I held my breath and clung to the bolt when I could turn it no longer I raised myself upon my knees keeping hold of my hands and thus got my head clear presently a little boat gave herself a shake just as it dart does in coming underwater thus rid herself in some measure of the sea I was now trying to give a better of this tube that had come over me and took away my senses so as to see what was to be done when I felt somebody grasp my arm it was my elder brother and my heart leaped for dry I was sure that he was overboard but the next moment all this joy was turned into horror for he put his mouth close to my ear and screamed out the word MOSCOW STROM no one ever will know what my feelings were at that moment my shook from head to foot as if I had had the most violent fit on the egg you I knew what he meant by enough and knew what he wished to make me understand with the wind that now drove us on we were bound for the world of the storm and nothing could save us you perceive that in crossing the storm channel we always went a long way up above the world even in the calmest weather and then had to wait and watch carefully for the slack but now we were driving right upon the pool itself how do I reckon of this to be sure I thought we shall get there just about a slack there is some little hope in that but the next moment I cursed myself for being so great a fool as to dream of hope at all I knew very well that who were doomed had we been 10 times in 90 gunship by this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself or perhaps we did not feel it so much as we scutted before it but at all events the seas which at first had been kept down by the wind and lay flat and frothing and now got up into absolute mountains a single change too had come over the heavens the reality in every direction it was still as black as pitch but nearly overhead it burst out or at once a circular rift of clear sky as clear as I ever saw and have a deep bright blue and threw it there blazed for the full moon the last time that I never before knew her to wear she lit up everything about us with the greatest stinkiness but oh god what a scene it was to light up I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother but in some manner which I could not understand but then had so increased that I could not make him hear a single word although I screamed at the top of my voice in his ear presently he shook his head looking as pale as death and held one of his finger as if to say listen at first I could not make out what he meant but soon a heady's throat flashed upon me I dragged my watch from its fob it was not going I glanced at its face by the moonlight then burst into tears I flung it far away into the ocean it had run down at seven o'clock we were behind the time of the slack and the whirl of the storm was in full fury when a boat is well built probably trimmed and not deep laden waves in strong gale which is going loud seem always to slip from beneath her which appears very strange to a landsman this is what is called riding in sea frames so far we had ridden swells very cleverly but presently a gigantic sea happened to take us right under the counter and bore us with it as it rose up up as if into the sky I would not have believed that any wave could ride so high then down we came with a sweep a slide and a plunge that made me feel sick and dizzy that I was falling from some lofty mountain top in a dream while we were up I had thrown a quick glance around and that one glance was all sufficient I saw our exact position in an instant the Moscow strong whirlpool was about a quarter of a mile dead ahead but no more than the everyday Moscow strong than the whirl as you now see it is like a mill race if I hadn't known where we were what we had to expect I should not have recognized the place at all as it was involuntarily close my eyes in horror the leads clenched themselves together as if in a spasm it could not have been more than two minutes after it until we suddenly felt the waves subside and were enveloped in foam the boat in a sharp half turn and then shut off in a new direction like a thunderbolt at the same moment the roaring noise of the water was completely drowned in a kind of shrill shriek it's just sound as you might imagine given out by the waste pipes of many thousands team battles letting out their steam altogether we were now with a belt of surf that always surrounds the whirl and I thought of course that another moment would blend us into the ambice we could only see distinctly on account of the amazing velocity with which we were born long the boat did not seem to sink into the water at all but to skim like an air bubble upon the surface of the search as a starboard side was next to the whirl and on the lava of the world of ocean we had left still like a huge writhing wall between us in a horizon it may appear strange but now when we were the very joes of the gulf I felt more composed than when we were only approaching it having made up a mind to hope no more I got rid of a great deal that taraged unmanly at first I suppose it was this pair that strung my nerves it may look like boasting but what I tell you is truth I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner and how foolish it was to me to think of so poetry a consideration as my own individual life in view of so wonderful manifestation of God's power I do believe that I blushed with shame when this idea crossed my mind after a little while I became possessed with a keenest curiosity about the world itself I positively felt a wish to explore the flower's depth even under the sacrifice I was going to make my principal grief was that I should never be able to tell my old companions on shore about the mysteries I had seen these, no doubt, were single fancies to occupy a man's mind in such extremity and I have often thought that the revolutions that abode around the pool might have randomly lightheaded there was another circumstance which tended to restore a lot of possession and this was the cessation of the wind which couldn't reach us in our present situation for as you saw yourself the belt of the earth is considerably lower than the general bed of the ocean now this is letting our tower above us a high black mountainous ridge if you have never been at sea in a heavy gale you can form no idea the confusion of mind occasioned by the wind the blind deafens to tranquil you and take with all power of action and reflection but we were now in a great measure rid of these annoyances just as death condemned felons in prison and allowed petting dodgences forbidden them while they're doing is yet uncertain however we made the circuit of the belt it is impossible to say we careered round and round for perhaps an hour flying rather than floating and rather stirred and the nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge all this time I had never let go of the ring bolt my brother was at a stern holding onto a small empty water cask which had been securely lashed under the coupe of the counter and was the only thing on deck that had been swept overboard when the gale first took us as we approached the brink of the pit he let go his hold upon this and made for the ring in the agony of his terror he endeavored to force my hands as it was not large enough to afford a spoke a secure grasp I never felt deeper grief than when I saw him attempt this act although I knew he was a mad man when he did it a raving maniac through fright I did not care however to contest the point of him I knew it could make no difference whether either of us held him at all so I let him out of the bolt and went a stern to the cask this there was no great difficulty in doing for the smack flew round steadily enough and upon an even keel only swaying to an afro with the immense sweeps and swelters of the world scarcely had I secured myself in my new possession when we gave a wild lurch to starboard and rushed her along into the abyss I muttered hurried prayer to God and thought all was over and as I felt the sickening sweep of the descent I had instinctively tainted my hold from the barrel and closed my eyes for some seconds I had dared not open them while I expected instant destruction and wanted that I was not ready in my death's struggles with water but moment after moment elapsed the sands of falling had sealed and the motion of the vessels seemed much as it had been before while in the bell of foam with the exception but she now lay more long I took courage and looked once again upon the scene and never shall I forget the sensations of all horror and I'm irrationally which I guess about me the boat appeared to be hanging by magic midway down upon the interior surface of a funnel vast in circumference prodigious in depth and whose perfectly smooth size might have been mistaken for ebony but for the bewildering rapidity with which they spun around and for the gleaming and ghastly raging they shot forth as the rays of the full moon from that circular rift made the clouds have already described streamed in a flood of golden glory along the black walls and far way down into the inmost recesses of the abyss at first I was too much confused to observe anything accurately the general burst of terrific graduate was all that I beheld when I recovered myself a little however my gaze fell instinctively downward in this direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed view from the manner in which the smack hung on to the inclined surface of the pool she was quite upon living keel and that is to say her deck lay in a plane parallel with that of the water but this ladder sloped at an angle of more than 45 degrees so that we seemed to be lying upon a beam I could not help observing nevertheless that I had scarcely more difficulty to hold and footing this situation than if we had been upon a dead level and this I suppose was all into the speed in which we evolved the rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound gulf but still I could make out nothing distinctly on account of the thick mist in which everything there was enveloped and over which there hung a magnificent rainbow like the narrow and tottering bridge which Muslims say is the only pathway between time and eternity this mist of spray was no doubt occasioned by the clashing of the great walls of the funnel as they all met together at the bottom of the Yale that went up to the heavens from out of mist I dare not attempt to describe our first slide into the abyss itself from the belt of formal bar had carried us a great distance down the slope but our further descent was by no means proportionate round and round we swept not with any uniform movement but in dizzying swings and jerks that sent us sometimes only a few hundred yards sometimes near the complete circuit of the world and our progress down when each revolution was slow but very perceptible looking back me found the wide waist of liquid epi I perceived that our boat was not the only object in the embrace of the world both above and below us were visible fragments of vessels large masses of building timber and trunks of trees with many smaller articles just pieces of house furniture broken boxes barrels and staves I have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the place of my original terrors it appeared to grow upon me as I drew near and nearer to my dreadful doom I now began to watch with a strange interest the numerous things that floated on our company I must have been delirious for I even sought amusement and speculating upon the relative velocities other several descents through the form below this feltry I found myself at one time saying will certainly be the next thing that takes the over plunging disappears but then I was disappointed to find that a wreck of a Dutch motion ship overtook it and went down before a length after making several guesses of this nature I mean the seeds nor this fact the fact of my invariable miscalculation set me upon train of reflection that made my limbs again tremble and my heart beat heavily once more it was not new terror that affected me but the dawn more exciting hope this hope rose partly from memory and partly from present observation I called to mind a great variety of buoyant matchups through the coast of Lofoten having been absorbed and then thrown forth by the Moscow storm by far the greater number of the articles were shattered in the most extraordinary way so chafed and roughened as to have the appearance of being stuck full of splinters but then I distinctly recollected that there were some of them which were not disfigured at all now I could not account for this difference except by supposing the roughened fragments were the only ones which had been completely absorbed that the others had entered the whirl less or late at the tide or for some reason had descended so slowly after entering that they did not reach the bottom before the turn of the flood came rather than the case might be I conceived it possible in either instance but it might thus be whirled up again to the level of the ocean without undergoing the fate of those which had been drawn in more early or absorbed more rapidly I made also three important observations the first was that of a general rule the larger the bodies were, the more rapidly their descents the second, that between two masses of equal extent, the one spherical and the other of any other shape the superiority in speed of descent was with a sphere the third that between two masses of equal size one cylindrical and the other of any other shape the cylinder was absorbed more slowly since my escape I've had several conversations on this subject with an old schoolmaster at the descents and it was from him that I learned to use the words cylinder and sphere I explained to me although I have forgotten explanation how what I observed was in fact the natural consequence are the forms of the floating fragments and showed me how it happened that a cylinder swimming in a vortex offered more resistance to its suction and was drawn in with great difficulty than any equally bulky body of any form whatever there was one startling circumstance which went a great way of enforcing these observations and rendering me anxious to turn them to account and this was that at every revolution we passed something like a barrel or else the yard or the mast of a vessel while many of these things which had been on our level when I first opened my eyes upon the wonders of the world pool were now high up above us and seemed to have moved but little from their original station no longer hesitated what to do I resolved to bash myself securely to the water cask upon which I now held to cut it loose from the counter and to throw myself with it into the water I attracted my brother's attention by sight pointed to the floating bowels that came near us and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about to do I thought at length that he comprehended my design whether this was the case or not he shook his head despairingly and refused to move from his station by the rainbows it was impossible to reach him the emergency admitted of no delay and so with a bit of struggle I resigned him to his fate fasten myself to the cask by means of lashings with security to the counter and precipitated myself with it into the sea without another moment's hesitation the result was precisely what I had hoped it might be as it is myself now tell you this tale as you see that I did escape and as you are already in possession of the mole in which the escape was effected I must therefore anticipate all that I have further to say I will bring my story quickly to conclusion might have been an hour or there about after my quitting the smack when having descended to a vast distance beneath me it made three or four world gyrations in rapid succession and bearing my beloved brother with it plunged headlong I once and forever it took chaos of full glow the barrel to which I was attached sunk very little further than half the distance between the bottom of the gulf and the spot at which I leaped overboard before a great change took place in the character of the whirlpool the slope of the sides of the vast funnel became moment less and less steep the directions of the whirl grew gradually less and less violent by the greens the froth and the rainbow disappeared and the bottom of the gulf came slowly to a price the sky was clear the winds had gone down and the full moon was sitting recently in the west when I found myself on the surface of the ocean full view and shores of Lofoden and above the spot where the pool of the Moscow stream had been it was the hour of the slack but the sea still hid in mountainous waves from the effect of the hurricane I was born violently into the channel of the storm and in a few minutes was hurried down the coast into the grounds of the fishermen the boat picked me up exhausted from fatigue and now that the danger was removed speechless from the memory of its horror those who drew me on board were my old mates in the early companions but they knew me no more than they would have known to travel from their spirits now my hair which had been raven black the day before was as white as you see it now they say too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed I told them my story they did not believe it I now tell it to you and I can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry fishermen of Lofoden end of a descent into the male stream recording by the fish which we were thus born Chapter 4 of The Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe Raven Edition, Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nick Number The Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe Raven Edition, Volume 2 Von Kempelin and his Discovery After the very minute and elaborate paper by Arago to say nothing of the summary in Silliman's Journal, with the detailed statement just published by Lieutenant Mori it will not be supposed of course that in offering a few hurried remarks in reference to Von Kempelin's Discovery I have any design to look at the subject in a scientific point of view My object is simply, in the first place to say a few words of Von Kempelin himself with whom some years ago I had the honor of a slight personal acquaintance since everything which concerns him must necessarily, at this moment, be of interest and, in the second place, to look in a general way and speculatively at the results of the Discovery It may be as well, however, to premise the cursory observations which I have to offer by denying, very decidedly what seems to be a general impression gleaned as usual in a case of this kind from the newspapers, viz that this Discovery astounding as it unquestionably is is unanticipated By reference to the diary of Professor Humphrey Davy Kotlin Monroe, London, page 150 it will be seen that pages 53 and 82 that this illustrious chemist did not only conceive the idea now in question but it actually made no inconsiderable progress experimentally in the very identical analysis now so triumphantly brought to an issue by Von Kempelin who, although he makes not the slightest illusion to it is, without doubt I say it unhesitatingly and can prove it if required, indebted to the diary for at least the first hint of his own undertaking the paragraph from the courier and inquirer which is now going the rounds of the press and which purports to claim the invention for a Mr. Kissham of Brunswick Maine appears to me I confess a little apocryphal for several reasons although there is nothing either impossible or very improbable in the statement made I need not go into details my opinion of the paragraph is founded principally upon its manner it does not look true persons who are narrating facts are seldom so particular as Mr. Kissham seems to be about day and date and precise location besides if Mr. Kissham actually did come upon the discovery he says he did at the period designated nearly eight years ago how happens it that he took no steps on the instant to reap the immense benefits which the mirrors bumpkin must have known would have resulted to him individually if not to the world at large from the discovery it seems to me quite incredible that any man of common understanding could have discovered what Mr. Kissham said he did and yet have subsequently acted so like a baby so like an owl as Mr. Kissham admits that he did by the way who is Mr. Kissham and is not the whole paragraph in the courier and inquirer a fabrication got up to make a talk it must be confessed that it is an amazingly moon hoaxy air very little dependence is to be placed upon it in my humble opinion and if I were not well aware from experience how easily men of science are mystified on points out of their usual range of inquiry I should be profoundly astonished at finding into chemist as Professor Draper discussing Mr. Kissham's or is it Mr. Quism's pretensions to the discovery and so serious a tone but to return to the diary of Sir Humphrey Davey this pamphlet was not designed for the public eye even upon the decease of the writer as any person at all conversant with authorship may satisfy himself at once by the slightest inspection of the style at page 13 for example near the middle we read in reference to his research is about the protoxide of azote in less than half a minute the respiration being continued diminished gradually and were succeeded by analogous to gentle pressure on all the muscles that the respiration was not diminished is not only clear by the subsequent context but by the use of the plural were the sentence no doubt was thus intended in less than half a minute the respiration being continued these feelings diminished gradually and were succeeded by a sensation analogous to gentle pressure on all the muscles a hundred similar instances go to show that the manuscript so inconsiderately published was merely a rough notebook meant only for the writer's own eye but an inspection of the pamphlet will convince almost any thinking person of the truth of my suggestion the fact is Sir Humphrey Davey was about the last man in the world to commit himself on scientific topics not only had he a more than ordinary dislike to quackery but he was morbidly afraid of appearing empirical so that however fully he might have been convinced that he was on the right track in the matter now in question he would never have spoken out until he had everything ready for the most practical demonstration I barely believe that his last moments would have been rendered wretched could he have suspected that his wishes in regard to burning this diary full of crude speculations would have been unattended to as it seems they were I say his wishes for that he meant to include this notebook among the miscellaneous papers directed to be burnt I think there can be no manner of doubt whether to escape the flames by good fortune or by bad yet remains to be seen that the passages quoted above with the other similar ones referred to gave Von Kemplen the hint I do not in the slightest degree question but I repeat it yet remains to be seen whether this momentous discovery itself momentous under any circumstances will be of service or disservice to mankind at large that Von Kemplen and his immediate friends will reap a rich harvest it would be folly to doubt for a moment they will scarcely so weak as not to realize in time by a large purchases of houses and land with other property of intrinsic value in the brief account of Von Kemplen which appeared in the home journal and has since been extensively copied several misapprehensions of the German original seem to have been made by the translator who professes to have taken the passage from a late number of the Pressburg Schnell post Villa has evidently been misconceived as it often is and what the translator renders by sorrows is probably leaden which in its true version sufferings would give a totally different complexion to the whole account but of course much of this is merely guess on my part Von Kemplen however is by no means a misanthrope in appearance at least whatever he may be in fact my acquaintance with him was casual altogether and I am scarcely warranted in saying that I know him at all but to have seen and conversed with a man of so prodigious a notoriety as he is attained or will attain in a few days is not a small matter as times go the literary world speaks of him confidently as a native of Pressburg misled perhaps by the account in the home journal but I am pleased in being able to state positively since I have it from his own lips that he was born in Utica in the state of New York although both his parents I believe are of Pressburg descent the family is connected in some way with maelzol of a Tomaton chess player memory in person he is short and stout with large fat blue eyes sandy and whiskers a wide but pleasing mouth fine teeth and I think a Roman nose there is some defect in one of his feet his address is frank and his whole manner noticeable for Bonamy altogether he looks speaks and acts as little like a misanthrope as any man I ever saw we were fellow sojourners for a week about six years ago at Earl's Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island and I presume that I conversed with him at various times for some three or four hours altogether the principal topics were those of the day and nothing that fell from him led me to suspect his scientific attainments he left the hotel before me intending to go to New York and then to Bremen it was in the latter city that his great discovery was first made public or rather it was there that he was first suspected of having made it this is about all that I personally know of the now immortal Von Kempelin but I have thought that even these few details would have interest for the public there can be little question that most of the most rumors afloat about this affair are pure inventions entitled to about as much credit as the story of Aladdin's lamp and yet in a case of this kind as in the case of the discoveries in California it is clear that the truth may be stranger than fiction the following anecdote at least is so well authenticated that we may receive it implicitly Von Kempelin had never been even tolerably well off during his residence at Bremen and often it was well known he had been put to extreme shifts in order to raise trifling sums when the great excitement occurred about the forgery on the house of Gutsmith and Company suspicion was directed toward Von Kempelin on account of his having purchased a considerable property in Gasperich Lane and his refusing one question to explain how he became possessed of the purchase money he was at length arrested but nothing decisive appearing against him was in the end set at liberty the police however kept a strict watch upon his movements and thus discovered that he left home frequently taking always the same road invariably giving his watchers a slip in the neighborhood of that labyrinth of narrow and crooked passages known by the flash name of the Dondergott finally by dint of great perseverance they traced him to a garret in an old house of seven stories in an alley called Flatzplatz and coming upon him suddenly found him as they imagined in the midst of his counterfeiting operations his agitation as represented is so excessive that the officers had not the slightest doubt of his guilt after handcuffing him they searched his room or rather rooms for it appears he occupied all the mansard opening into the garret where they caught him was a closet ten feet by eight fitted up with some chemical apparatus of which the object has not yet been ascertained in one corner of the closet was a very small furnace with a glowing fire in it and on the fire a kind of duplicate crucible two crucibles connected by a tube one of these crucibles was nearly full of lead in a state of fusion but not reaching up to the temperature of the tube which was close to the brim the other crucible had some liquid in it which as the officers entered seemed to be furiously dissipating in vapor they relate that on finding himself taken kemplin seized the crucibles with both hands which were encased in gloves that afterwards turned out to be asbedic and threw the contents on the tiled floor it was now that they handcuffed him and before proceeding to ransack the premises they searched his person but nothing unusual was found about him accepting a paper parcel in his coat pocket containing what was afterward ascertained to be a mixture of antimony and some unknown substance in nearly but not quite equal proportions all attempts at analyzing the unknown substance have so far failed but that it will ultimately be analyzed as not to be doubted passing out of the closet with their prisoner the officers went through a sort of anti chamber at which nothing material was found to the chemists sleeping room they here rummaged some drawers and boxes but discovered only a few papers of no importance and some good coins silver and gold at length looking under the bed they saw a large common hair trunk without hinges half per lock and with the top lying carelessly across the bottom portion upon attempting to draw this trunk out from under the bed they found that with their united strength there were three of them all powerful men they could not stir at one inch much astonished at this one of them crawled under the bed and looking into the trunk said no wonder we couldn't move it why it's full to the brim of old bits of brass putting his feet now against the wall so as to get a good purchase and pushing with all his force while his companions pulled with all theirs the trunk with much difficulty was slid out from under the bed and its contents examined the supposed brass with which it was filled was all in small smooth pieces varying from the size of a pea to that of a dollar but the pieces were irregular in shape although more or less flat looking upon the whole much as lead looks when thrown upon the ground in a molten state and there suffered to grow cool now not one of these officers for a moment suspected this metal to be anything but brass the idea of its being gold never entered their brains of course how could such a wild fancy have entered it and their astonishment may be well conceived when the next day it became known all over Bremen that the lot of brass which they had carted so contemptuously to the police office without putting themselves to the trouble of pocketing the smallest scrap was not only gold real gold but gold far finer than any employed in coinage gold in fact absolutely pure virgin without the slightest appreciable alloy I need not go over the details of von Kemplen's confession as far as it went and release for these are familiar to the public that he is actually realized in spirit and in effect if not to the letter the old chimera of the philosopher's stone no sane person is at liberty to doubt the opinions of a rago are of course entitled to the greatest consideration but he is by no means infallible and what he says a bismuth in his report to the academy must be taken cum grano salis the simple truth is that up to this period all analysis has failed and until von Kemplen chooses to let us have the key to his own published enigma it is more than probable that the matter will remain for years in statu quo all that is yet can fairly be said to be known is that pure gold can be made at will and very readily from lead in connection with certain other substances in kind and in proportions unknown speculation of course is busy as to the immediate and ultimate results of this discovery a discovery which few thinking persons will hesitate in referring to an increased interest in the matter of gold generally by the late developments in california and this reflection brings us inevitably to another the exceeding inopportunes of von Kemplen's analysis if many were prevented from adventuring to california by the mere apprehension that gold would so materially diminish in value on account of its plentifulness in the minds there as to render the speculation of going so far in search of it a doubtful one what impression will be wrought now upon the minds of those about to emigrate and especially upon the minds of those actually in the mineral region by the announcement of this astounding discovery of von Kemplen a discovery which declares in so many words that beyond its intrinsic worth for manufacturing purposes whatever that worth may be gold now is or at least soon will be for it cannot be supposed that von Kemplen can long retain his secret of no greater value than lead and a far inferior value to silver it is indeed exceedingly difficult to speculate prospectively upon the consequences of the discovery but one thing may be positively maintained that the announcement of the discovery six months ago would have had material influence in regard to the settlement of california in europe as yet the most noticeable results have been a rise of two hundred percent in the price of lead in nearly twenty five percent that of silver and of von Kemplen and his discovery recording by nick number chapter five of the collected works of Edgar Allen Poe Raven edition volume two this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by nick number the collected works of Edgar Allen Poe Raven edition volume two mesmeric revelation whatever doubt may still envelop the rationale of mesmerism its startling facts are now almost universally admitted of these latter those who doubt are your more doubters by profession an unprofitable and disreputable tribe there can be no more absolute waste of time than the attempt to prove at the present day that man by mere exercise of will can so impress his fellow as to cast him into an abnormal condition of which the phenomena resemble very closely those of death or at least resemble them more nearly than they do the phenomena of any other normal condition within our cognizance that while in this state the person so impressed employs only with effort and then feebly the external organs of sense yet perceives with keenly refined perception and through channel supposed unknown matters beyond the scope of the physical organs that more over his intellectual faculties are wonderfully exalted and invigorated that his sympathies with the person so impressing him are profound and finally that his susceptibility to the impression increases with its frequency while in the same proportion the peculiar phenomena elicited or more extended and more pronounced I say that these which are the laws of mesmerism in its general features it would be super irrigation to demonstrate nor shall I inflict upon my readers so needless a demonstration today my purpose at present is a very different one indeed I am impelled even in the teeth of a world of prejudice to detail without comment the very remarkable substance of a colloquy occurring between a sleep waker and myself I had been long in the habit of mesmerizing the person in question Mr. Vankirk and the usual acute susceptibility and exaltation of the mesmeric perception had supervened for many months he had been laboring under confirmed thysis more distressing effects of which had been relieved by my manipulations and on the night of Wednesday the 15th instant I was summoned to his bedside the invalid was suffering with acute pain in the region of the heart and breathed with great difficulty having all the ordinary symptoms of asthma and spasms such as these he had usually found relief from the application of mustard to the nervous centers but tonight this had been attempted in vain as I entered his room he greeted me with a cheerful smile so evidently in much bodily pain appeared to be mentally quite at ease I sent for you tonight he said not so much to administer to my bodily ailment as to satisfy me concerning certain cycle impressions which of late have occasioned me much anxiety and surprise I need not tell you how skeptical I have hitherto been on the topic of the soul's immortality I cannot deny that there is always existed as if in that very soul which I have been denying a vague half-sentiment of his own existence but this half-sentiment at no time amounted to conviction with it my reason had nothing to do all attempts at logical inquiry resulted indeed in leaving me more skeptical than before I had been advised to study cousin I studied him in his own works as well as in those of his European and American echoes the Charles Elwood of Mr. Brownson for example was placed in my hands I read it with profound attention throughout I found it the portions which were not merely logical were unhappily the initial arguments of the disbelieving hero of the book in his summing up it seemed evident to me that the reasoner had not even succeeded in convincing himself his end had plainly forgotten his beginning like the government of Trinculo in short I was not long in perceiving that if man is to be intellectually convinced of his own immortality he will never be so convinced by the mere abstractions which have been so long the fashion of the moralists of England France and of Germany abstractions may amuse and exercise but take no hold on the mind here upon earth at least philosophy I am persuaded will always in vain call upon us to look upon qualities as things the will may ascent the soul the intellect never I repeat then that I only half felt and never intellectually believed but laterally there has been a certain deepening of the feeling until it has come so nearly to resemble the acquiescence of reason that I find it difficult to distinguish between the two I am enabled to plainly to trace this effect to the mesmeric influence I cannot better explain my meaning than by the hypothesis that the mesmeric exultation enables me to perceive a train of rashiocination which in my abnormal existence convinces but which in full accordance with the mesmeric phenomena does not extend except through its effect into my normal condition in sleep waking the reasoning and its conclusion the cause and its effect are present together in my natural state the cause vanishing the effect only and perhaps only partially remains these considerations have led me to think that some good results might ensue from a series of well directed questions propounded to me while mesmerized you have often observed the profound self cognizance evinced by the sleep waker the extensive knowledge he displays upon all points relating to the mesmeric condition itself and from the self cognizance may be deduced hints for the proper conduct of a catechism I consented of course to make this experiment a few passes through Mr. Van Kirk into the mesmeric sleep his breathing became immediately more easy and he seemed to suffer no physical uneasiness the following conversation then ensued V in the dialogue representing the patient and P myself P are you asleep V yes no I would rather sleep more soundly P after a few more passes do you sleep now V yes P how do you think your present illness will result V after a long hesitation and speaking as if with effort I must die P does the idea of death afflict you V very quickly no no P are you pleased with the prospect V if I were awake I should like to die but now it is no matter the mesmeric condition is so near death is to content me P I wish you would explain yourself Mr. Van Kirk V I am willing to do so but it requires more effort than I feel able to make you do not question me properly P what then shall I ask V you must begin at the beginning P the beginning but where is the beginning V you know that the beginning is God this was said in a low fluctuating tone and with every sign of the most profound veneration P what then is God V hesitating for many minutes I cannot tell P is not God's spirit V while I was awake I knew what you meant by spirit but now it seems only a word such for instance truth beauty a quality I mean P is not God immaterial V there is no immateriality it is a mere word that which is not matter is not at all unless qualities are things P is God then material V no this reply startled me very much P what then is he V after a long pause and mutteringly I see but it is a thing difficult to tell another long pause he is not spirit for he exists nor is he matter as you understand it but there are gradations of matter of which man knows nothing the gross are impelling the finer the finer pervading the grosser the atmosphere for example impels the electric principle while the electric principle permeates the atmosphere these gradations of matter increase in rarity or fineness until we arrive at a matter unparticled without particles indivisible one and here the law of impulsion and permeation is modified the ultimate or unparticled matter not only permeates all things but impels all things and thus is all things within itself this matter is God what men attempt to embody in the word thought is this matter in motion P the metaphysicians maintain that all action is reducible to motion and thinking and that the latter is the origin of the former V yes and I now see the confusion of idea motion is the action of mind not of thinking the unparticled matter or God in quiescence is as nearly as we can conceive it what men call mind and the power of self movement equivalent in effect to human volition is in the unparticled matter in omniprevalence how I know not and now clearly see that I shall never know but the unparticled matter set in motion by a law or quality existing within itself is thinking P can you give me no more precise idea of what you term the unparticled matter V the matters of which man is cognizant escape the senses in gradation we have for example a metal a piece of wood a drop of water gas caloric electricity the luminiferous ether now we call all these things matter and embrace all matter in one general definition but in spite of this there can be no two ideas more essentially distinct than that which we attach to a metal and that which we attach to the luminiferous ether when we reach the latter we feel an almost irresistible inclination to class it with spirit or with nihility the only consideration which restrains us is our conception of its atomic constitution and here even we have to seek aid from our notion of an atom as something possessing an infinite minuteness, solidity palpability, weight destroy the idea of the atomic constitution and we should no longer be able to regard the ether as an entity or at least as matter for a want of a better word we might term it spirit take now a step beyond the luminiferous ether conceive a matter as much more rare than the ether as this ether is more rare than the metal and we arrive at once in spite of all the school dogmas at a unique mass, an unparticled matter for although we may admit infinite littleness in the atoms themselves the infinitude of littleness in the spaces between them is an absurdity there will be a point, there will be a degree of rarity at which if the atoms are sufficiently numerous the interspaces must vanish and the mass absolutely coalesce but the consideration of the atomic constitution being now taken away the nature of the mass inevitably glides into what we conceive of spirit, it is clear however that it is as fully matter as before the truth is it is impossible to conceive spirit since it is impossible to imagine what is not when we flatter ourselves that we have formed its conception we have merely deceived our understanding by the consideration of infinitely rarefied matter P there seems to me an insurmountable objection to the idea of absolute coalescence and that is the very slight resistance experienced by the heavenly bodies in their revolutions through space a resistance now ascertained it is true to exist in some degree but which is nevertheless so slightest to have been quite overlooked by the sagacity even of Newton we know that the resistance of bodies is chiefly in proportion to their density absolute coalescence is absolute density where there are no interspaces there can be no yielding an ether absolutely dense would put an infinitely more effectual stop to the progress of a star than would an ether of adamant or of iron V your objection is answered with an ease which is nearly in the ratio of its apparent unanswerability as regards the progress of the star it can make no difference whether the star passes through the ether or the ether through it there is no astronomical error more unaccountable than that which reconciles the known retardation of the comets with the idea of their passage through an ether for however rare this ether be supposed it would put a stop to all sidereal revolution in a very far briefer period than has been admitted by those astronomers who have endeavored to slur over a point which they found it impossible to comprehend the retardation actually experienced is on the other hand about that which might be expected from the friction of the ether in the instantaneous passage through the orb in the one case the retarding forces momentary and complete within itself in the other it is endlessly accumulative P in this identification of mere matter with God is there nothing of irreverence I was forced to repeat this question before the sleep waker fully comprehended my meaning V can you say why matter should be less reverence than mind but you forget that the matter of which I speak is in all respects the very mind or spirit of the schools so far as regards its high capacities and is moreover the matter of these schools at the same time God with all the powers attributed to spirit is but the perfection of matter P you assert then that the unparticle matter in motion is thought V in general this motion is the universal thought of the universal mind this thought creates all created things are but the thoughts of God P you say in general V yes the universal mind is God individualities matter is necessary P but you now speak of mind and matter as do the metaphysicians V yes to avoid confusion when I say mind I mean the unparticle or ultimate matter by matter I intend all else P you were saying that for new individualities matter is necessary V yes for mind existing God to create individual thinking beings it was necessary to incarnate portions of the divine mind thus man is individualized divested of corporate investiture he were God now the particular motion of the incarnated portions of the unparticle matter is the thought of man as the motion of the whole is that of God P you say that divested of the body man will be God V after much hesitation I cannot have said this it is an absurdity P referring to my notes you did say that divested of corporate investiture man were God V and this is true man thus divested would be God would be unindividualized but he can never be thus divested at least never will be else we must imagine an action of God returning upon itself a purposeless and futile action man is a creature creatures the thoughts of God it is the nature of thought to be irrevocable P I do not comprehend you say that man will never put off the body V I say that he will never be bodyless P there are two bodies the rudimental and the complete corresponding with the two conditions of the worm in the butterfly what we call death is but the painful metamorphosis our present incarnation is progressive preparatory temporary our future is perfected ultimate immortal the ultimate life is the full design P but of the worms metamorphosis we are palpably cognizant V we certainly but not the worm the matter of which our rudimental body is composed is within the can of the organs of that body or more distinctly our rudimental organs are adapted to the matter of which is formed the rudimental body but not to that of which the ultimate is composed the ultimate body thus escapes our rudimental senses and we perceive only the shell which falls in decaying from the inner form not that inner form itself but this inner form as well as the shell is appreciable by those who have already acquired the ultimate life P you have often said that the mesmeric state very nearly resembles death how is this V when I say that it resembles death resembles the ultimate life for when I am entranced the senses of my rudimental life are in abeyance and I perceive external things directly without organs through a medium which I shall employ in the ultimate unorganized life P unorganized V yes organs are contrivances by which the individual is brought into sensible relation with particular classes and forms of matter to the exclusion of other classes and forms the organs of man are adapted to his rudimental condition and to that only his ultimate condition being unorganized is of unlimited comprehension in all points but one the nature of the volition of God that is to say the motion of the unparticle matter you will have a distinct idea of the ultimate body by conceiving it to be entire brain this it is not but a conception of this nature will bring you near a comprehension of what it is a luminous body imparts vibration to the luminiferous ether the vibrations generate similar ones within the retina these again communicate similar ones to the optic nerve the nerve conveys similar ones to the brain the brain also similar ones to the unparticle matter which permeates it the motion of this latter is thought of which perception is the first undulation this is the mode by which the mind of the rudimental life communicates with the external world and this external world is to the rudimental life limited through the idiosyncrasy of its organs but in the ultimate unorganized life the external world reaches the whole body which is of a substance having affinity to brain as I have said with no other intervention than that of an infinitely rarer ether than even the luminiferous and to this ether in unison with it the whole body vibrates setting in motion the unparticle matter which permeates it it is to the absence of idiosyncratic organs therefore that we must attribute the nearly unlimited perception of the ultimate life to rudimental beings organs are the cages necessary to confine them until fledged P. you speak of rudimental beings are there other rudimental thinking beings than man V. the multitudinous conglomeration of rare matter into nebulae planets suns and other bodies which are neither nebulae suns nor planets is for the sole purpose of supplying pabulum for the idiosyncrasy of the organs of an infinity of rudimental beings but for the necessity of the rudimental prior to the ultimate life there would have been no bodies such as these each of these is tenanted by a distinct variety of organic rudimental thinking creatures in all the organs vary with the features of the place tenanted at death or metamorphosis these creatures enjoying the ultimate life immortality and cognizant of all secrets but the one act all things and pass everywhere by mere volition dwelling not the stars which to us seem the sole palpabilities and for the accommodation of which we blindly deem space created but that space itself that infinity of which the truly substantive vastness swallows up the star shadows blotting them out as non-entities from the perception of the angels P. you say that but for the necessity of the rudimental life there would have been no stars but why this necessity V. in the inorganic life as well as in the inorganic matter generally there is nothing to impede the action of one simple unique law the divine volition with the view of producing impediment the organic life and matter complex substantial and law encumbered were contrived P. but again why need this impediment have been produced V. the result of law in violet is perfection right negative happiness the result of law violet is imperfection wrong positive pain through the impediments afforded by the number complexity and substantiality of the laws of organic life and matter the violation of laws rendered to a certain extent practicable thus pain which in the inorganic life is impossible is possible in the organic P. but to what good end is pain thus rendered possible V. all things are either good or bad by comparison a sufficient analysis will show that pleasure in all cases is but the contrast of pain positive pleasure is a mere idea to be happy at any one point we must have suffered at the same never to suffer would have been never to have been blessed but it has been shown that in the inorganic life pain cannot be thus the necessity for the organic the pain of the primitive life of earth is the sole basis of the bliss of the ultimate life in heaven P. still there is one of your expressions which I find it impossible to comprehend the truly substantive vastness of infinity V. this probably is because you have no sufficiently generic conception of the term substance itself we must not regard it as equality but as a sentiment it is a perception in thinking beings of the adaptation of matter to their organization there are many things on the earth which would be nihility to the inhabitants of venus many things visible and tangible in venus which we could not be brought to appreciate is existing at all but to the inorganic beings to the angels the whole of the unparticle matter is substance that is to say the whole of what we term space is to them the truest substantiality the stars mean time through what we consider their materiality escaping the angelic sense just in proportion as the unparticle matter through what we consider its immateriality eludes the organic as the sleep waker pronounced these latter words in a feeble tone I observed on his countenance a singular expression which somewhat alarmed me and induced me to awake him at once no sooner had I done this than with a bright smile irradiating all his features he fell back upon his pillow and expired I noticed that in less than a minute afterward his corpse had all the stern rigidity of stone his brow was of the coldness of ice thus ordinarily should it have appeared only after long pressure from Azrael's hand had the sleep waker indeed during the latter portion of his discourse been addressing me from out the region of the shadows end of mesmeric revelation recording by nick number the facts in the case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe this is a Libravox recording all Libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libravox.org the facts in the case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe of course I shall not pretend to consider it any matter for wonder that the extraordinary case of M. Valdemar has excited discussion it would have been a miracle had it not especially under the circumstances though the desire of all parties concerned to keep the affair from the public at least for the present had further opportunities for investigation through our endeavors to affect this a garbled or exaggerated account made its way into society and became the source of many unpleasant misrepresentations and very naturally of a great deal of disbelief it is now rendered necessary that I give the facts as far as I can comprehend them myself they are succinctly these my attention for the last three years had been repeatedly drawn to the subject of mesmerism and about nine months ago it occurred to me quite suddenly that in this series of experiments made hitherto there had been a very remarkable and most unaccountable omission no person had as yet been mesmerized in articular mortis it remained to be seen first whether in such a condition there existed in the patient the susceptibility to the magnetic influence secondly whether if any existed it was impaired or increased by the condition thirdly to what extent or for how long a period the encroachments of death might be arrested by the process there were other points to be ascertained but these most excited my curiosity the last and the special from the immensely important character of its consequences looking around me for some subject by whose means I might test these particulars I was brought to think of my friend Im Ernest Waldemar the well-known compiler of the bibliotech of forensica and author under the nom de plume Isaac R. Marx of the polis version of Wallenstein and Gargantua Im Waldemar who has resided principally in Harlem in why 1839 is or was particularly noticeable for the extreme spareness of his person his lower limbs must resembling those of John Randolph and also for the whiteness of his whiskers in violent contrast to the blackness of his hair the latter in consequence being very generally mistaken for a wick his temperament was markedly nervous and rendered him a good subject for mesmeric experiment on two or three occasions I had put him to sleep with little difficulty but was disappointed in other results which his peculiar constitution had naturally led me to anticipate his will was at no period positively or thoroughly under my control and in regard to Clairvoyance I could accomplish with him nothing to be relied upon I always attributed my failure at these points to the undiscovered state of his health for some months previous to my becoming acquainted with him his physicians had declared him in a confirmed thesis it was his custom indeed to speak calmly of his approaching disillusion as of a matter neither to be avoided nor regretted when the ideas to which I have alluded first occurred to me it was of course very natural that I should think of in Voldemort I knew this study philosophy of the man too well to apprehend any scrupules from him and he had no relatives in America who would be likely to interfere I spoke to him frankly upon the subject and to my surprise his interest seemed vividly excited I say to my surprise four although he had always yielded his person freely to my experiments he had never before given me any tokens of sympathy with what I did his disease was of that character which would admit of exact calculation in respect to the epic of its termination and death and it was finally arranged between us that he would send for me about 24 hours before the period announced by his physicians as that of his disease it is now rather more than seven months since I received from in Voldemort himself this subjoined note my dear P you may as well come now D and F are agreed that I cannot hold out beyond tomorrow midnight and I think they have hit the time very nearly Voldemort I received this note within half an hour after it was written and in 15 minutes more I was in the dying man's chamber I had not seen him for 10 days and was appalled at the fearful alteration which the brief interval had wrought in him his face were a leaden hue the eyes were utterly lustrous and the emanciation was so extreme that the skin had been broken through the cheekbones his expectivation was excessive the pulse was barely perceptible he retained nevertheless in a very remarkable manner both his mental power and a certain degree of physical strength he spoke with distinctness took some palliative medicines without aid and when I entered the room was occupied in penciling memoranda in a pocketbook he was propped up in bed by pillows doctors D and F were in attendance after pressing Voldemort's hand I took these gentlemen aside and obtained from them a minute account of the patient's condition the left lung had been for 18 months in a semi-osseous or cartilaginous state and was of course utterly useless for the purpose of vitality the right in its upper portion was also partially if not thoroughly ossified while the lower region was merely a mass of purulent turbicles running one into another several extensive perforations existed and at one point permanent adhesion to the ribs had taken place these appearances in the right lobe were of comparatively recent date the ossification had preceded with very unusual rapidity no sign of it had been discovered a month before and the adhesion had only been observed during the three previous days independently of the pthesis the patient was suspected of aneurysm of the aorta but on this point the osseous symptoms rendered an exact diagnosis impossible it was the opinion of both physicians that in Voldemort would die about midnight on the following morrow Sunday it was then 7 o'clock on Saturday evening on quitting the invalids bedside to hold conversation with myself doctors D and F had bitten him a final farewell it had not been their intention to return but at my request they agreed to look in upon the patient about 10 the next night when they had gone I spoke freely with Mr. Voldemort on the subject of his approaching disillusion as well as more particularly of the experiment proposed he still professed himself quite willing and even anxious to have it made and urged me to convince it at once a male and female nurse were in attendance but I did not feel myself altogether at liberty to engage in the task of this character with no more reliable witnesses than these people in the case of sudden accident might prove I therefore postponed operations until about 8 the next night when the arrival of a medical student with whom I had some acquaintance with Dr. L relieved me from further embarrassment it had been my design originally to wait for the physicians but I was induced to proceed first by the urgent entreaties of M. Voldemort and secondly by my conviction that I had not a moment to lose as he was evidently sinking fast Mr. L was so kind to a seed to my desire that he would take notes of all that occurred and it is from his murmur Miranda I have now to relate is for the most part either condensed or copied verbatim it wanted about 5 minutes of 8 when taking a patient's hand I begged him to state as distinctly as he could to Mr. L whether he Mr. Voldemort was entirely willing that I should make the experiment of mesmerizing him in his then condition he replied feebly and yet quite audibly yes I wish to be mesmerized adding immediately afterwards I fear you have deferred it too long when he spoke with us I commenced the passes which I had already found most effectual in subduing him he was evidently influenced with the first lateral stroke of my hand across his forehead but although I exerted all my powers no further perceptible effect was induced until some minutes after 10 o'clock when doctors D and F called according to the appointment I explained to them in a few words what I designed and as they opposed no objection saying that the patient was already in the death agony I proceeded without hesitation exchanging however the lateral passes for downward ones and directing my gaze entirely into the right eye of the sufferer by this time his pulse was imperceptible and his breathing was sturturous and at intervals of half a minute this condition was nearly unaltered for a quarter of an hour at the expiration of this period however a natural although very deep sigh escaped the bosom of the dying man and the sturturous breathing ceased that is to say its sturtuousness was no longer apparent the intervals were undiminished the patient's extremities were of an icy coldness at five minutes before 11 I perceived unequivocal signs of the mesmeric influence the glassy roll of the eye was changed for that expression of uneasy inward examination which has never seen accepting cases of sleepwalking and which is quite impossible to mistake with a few rapid lateral passes I made the lids quiver as in incipient sleep and with a few more I closed them all together I was not satisfied however with this but continued manipulations vigorously and with the fullest exertion of will until I had completely stiffened the limbs of the slumberer after replacing them in a seemingly easy position the legs were at full length the arms were nearly so and reposed on the bed at a moderate distance from the loins the head was very slightly elevated when I had accomplished this it was fully midnight and I requested the gentleman present to examine in Voldemar's condition after a few experiments they admitted him to be in an unusually perfect state of mesmeric trance the curiosity of both the physicians was greatly excited Dr. D resolved at once to remain with the patient all night while Dr. F took leave with a promise to return at daybreak Mr. L and the nurses remained we left in Voldemar distantly undisturbed until about 3 o'clock in the morning when I approached him and found him in precisely the same condition as when Dr. F went away that is to say he lay in the same position the pulse was imperceptible the breathing was gentle scarcely noticeable unless through the application of a mirror to the lips the eyes were closed naturally and the limbs were as rigid and cold as marble still the general appearance certainly not that of death as I approached in Voldemar I made a kind of half effort to influence his right arm into pursuit of my own as I passed the ladder gently to and fro above his person in such experiments with this patient I had never perfectly succeeded before and assuredly I had little thought of succeeding now but to my astonishment his arm very readily although feebly followed every direction I signed it with mine I determined to hazard a few words of conversation in Voldemar I said are you asleep he made no answer but I perceived a tremor about the lips and was thus induced to repeat the question again and again at its third repetition his whole frame was agitated by a very slight shivering the eyelids unclosed themselves so far as to display a white line of the ball the lips moved sluggishly and from between them and a barely audible whisper issued the words yes asleep now do not wake me let me die so I here felt the limbs and found them as rigid as ever the right arm as before occupied the direction of my hand I questioned the sleep waker again do you still feel pain in the breast in Voldemar the answer now was immediate but even less audible than before no pain I am dying I did not think it advisable to disturb him further just then and nothing more was said or done until the arrival of Dr. F who came a little before sunrise and expressed unabounded astonishment at finding the patient still alive after feeling the pulse and applying a mirror to the lips he requested me to speak to the sleep waker again I did so saying in Voldemar do you still sleep as before some minutes elapsed error reply was made and during the interval the dying man seemed to be collecting his energies to speak at my fourth repetition of the question he said very faintly almost and audibly yes still asleep dying it was now the opinion or rather the wish of the physicians that in Voldemar should be suffered to remain undisturbed in his present apparently tranquil condition until death should supervene and this it was generally agreed must now take place within a few minutes I concluded however to speak to him once more and merely repeated my previous question while I spoke there came a market change over the countenance of the sleep waker the eyes rolled themselves slowly open the pupils disappearing upwardly the skin generally assumed a cadaverous hue resembling not so much parchment as white paper and the circular hectic spots which hitherto had been strongly defined in the center of each cheek went out at once I used this expression because the suddenness of their departure put me in a mind of nothing so much as the extinguishment of a candle by a puff of the breath the upper lip at the same time writhed itself away from the teeth which it had previously covered completely while the lower jaw fell with an audible jerk leaving the mouth widely extended and the disclosing in full view the swollen and blackened tongue I presume that no member of the party then present had been unaccustomed to deathbed whores the idiotious beyond conception was the appearance of Im Voldemar at this moment that there was a general shrinking back from the region of the bed I feel that I have reached a point of this narrative at which every reader will be startled into positive disbelief it is my business however simply to proceed there was no longer the faintest sign of vitality in Im Voldemar and concluding him to be dead we were consigning him to the charge of the nurses when a very strong vibratory motion was observable in the tongue this continued perhaps for a minute at the expiration of this period there issued from him such a distended and motionless jaws a voice such as it would be madness in me to attempt describing there are indeed two or three epithets which might be considered as applicable to it in part I might say that the sound was harsh and broken and hollow but the hideous whole is indescribable for the simple reason that no similar sounds have ever jarred upon the ear of humanity there were two particulars nevertheless which I thought then and still think might fairly be stated as characteristic of the intonation as well adapted to convey some idea of its unearthly peculiarity in the first place the voice seemed to reach our ears at least mine from a vast distance or from some deep cavern within the earth in the second it impressed me I fear indeed that it will be impossible to make myself comprehended as gelatinous or glutinous matters impress the sense of touch I have spoken both of sound and of voice I mean to say that the sound was one of distinct of even wonderfully thrillingly distinct syllabification imbaldemar spoke obviously in reply to the question I had propounded to him a few minutes before I had asked him it will be remembered if he still slept he now said yes no I have been sleeping and now I am dead no person present even affected to deny or attempt to repress the unutterable shuttering hover which these few words thus uttered were so well calculated to convey Mr. L the student swooned the nurses immediately left the chamber and could not be induced to return my own impression I would not pretend they were intelligible to the reader for nearly an hour we busied ourselves silently without the utterance of a word and endeavors to retrieve Mr. L when he came to himself we addressed ourselves again to an investigation of imbaldemar's condition it remained in all respects as I have last described it with the exception that the mirror no longer afforded evidence of respiration an attempt to draw blood from the arm failed I should mention too that this limb was no further subject to my will I endeavored in vain to make it follow the direction of my hand the only real indication indeed of the mesmeric influence was now found in the vibratory movement of the tongue whenever I dressed Mr. Valdemar a question he seemed to be making an effort to reply but no longer had sufficient volition to queries put to him by any other persons than myself he seemed utterly insensible although I endeavored to place each member of the company in a mesmeric report with him I believe that I have now related all that is necessary to an understanding of the sleepwalkers state at this epic other nurses were procured and at 10 o'clock I left the house with the company of two physicians and Mr. L in the afternoon we all called again to see the patient his condition remained precisely the same we had now some discussion as to the propriety and feasibility of awakening him but we had little difficulty and agreeing that no good purpose would be survived by doing it was evident that so far death or what was usually termed death had been arrested by the mesmeric process it seemed clear to us all that to awaken M. Voldemar would merely be to ensure his instant or at least his speeding dissolution from the period until the close of the last week an interval of nearly seven months we continued to make daily calls at M. Voldemars house accompanied now and then by medical and other friends all this time the sleep waker remained exactly as I have last described him the nurses' attentions were continual it was on Friday last that we finally resolved to make an experiment of awakening or at least attempting to awaken him and it is the perhaps unfortunate result of the latter experiment which has given rise to so much discussion in private circles to so much of what I cannot help thinking unwarranted popular feeling for the purpose of revealing M. Voldemar from the mesmeric trance I made use of the customary passes these were for a time unsuccessful the first indication of revival was afforded by a partial descent of the iris it was observed as especially remarkable that this lowering of the pupil was accompanied by the profuse outflowing of a yellowish icor from beneath the lids of a pungent and highly offensive odor it is now suggested that I should attempt to influence the patient's arm as here to for I made the attempt and failed Dr. F then intimated a desire of me put a question I did so as follows in Voldemar can you explain to us what are your feelings or wishes now there was an instant return of the hectic circles on the cheeks the tongue quivered or rather rolled violently in the mouth although the jaws and lips remained rigid as before and that length the same hideous voice already described broke forth for God's sake quick quick put me to sleep or quick waken me quick that I am dead I was thoroughly unnerved and for an instant remained undecided what to do at first I made an endeavor to recompose the patient but failing in this through total abeyance of the will I retraced my steps I honestly struggled to awaken him in this attempt I soon saw that I should be successful or at least I soon fancy that my success would be complete and I am sure that all in the room were prepared to see the patient awaken for what really occurred however it is quite impossible that any human being could have been prepared as I rapidly made the mesmeric passes amid ejaculations of dead absolutely bursting from the tongue and not from the lips of the sufferer his whole frame at once within the space of a single minute or less shrunk crumbled absolutely rotted away beneath my hands upon the bed before the whole company there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome of detestable putrescence end of The Facts and the Case of M. Voldemort by Edgar Allen Poe