Chapter 10 SOMETHING CURIOUS.

"Ravalette continued: 'Mesmerism's day has gone by.

Already it is found to be impossible to produce the same effects with it as were produced a few years ago, while the bastard thing that now goes by its name, is of such a nature and character that it speedily either disgusts all sensible people, or very soon lands its friends into a deep quagmire of such alkaline properties, that all the little common sense they had at starting gets thoroughly mixed therewith, and forms a compound which they carry back, instead of what they brought; and when they get home again, they peddle it out as "Divine Philosophy," when in fact it is an excellent article of soap-regular savon extraordinaire, warranted to extract brains, decency, money, and everything else worth having, from all who meddle with it-it washes so very clean. If your railway does not accomplish this, yet in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred of journeys that terminate differently, it lands its passengers in the populous Town of Fantasy, in the which all things look real, but are as hollow and as substanceless as mere Forms can be, and that is next to nothing. In fact, most of the popular clairvoyance may be said to resemble an edifice having

"?'Rich windows that exclude the light,

And passages that lead to nothing.'

There are, of course, a few, very few exceptions to the rule, but the rule obtains vastly.

"?'The sentimentalities of a puling, hysteric girl, half afflicted with catochus, and the other half love-sick-as most modern clairvoyants are-count small in the list of Fact-truths, and the mad ravings of crack-brained somnambules of the other gender go for hardly as much, for the first has at least a degree of poetry about her, but the latter none at all. No, no, friend, do not place too great reliance on the ability of Magnetism to aid your researches, for you will run a narrow chance of disappointment, and regret when too late that from Nature's stable you selected the very worst animal of the lot; one that is ring-boned, lame, spavined, and very baulky withal. Take my advice, and choose a better.'

"As the old gentleman finished what I at first regarded as a diatribe against Animal Magnetism-a thing, by the way, that I always doted on-I felt silent, and was so for the space of a minute, during which time I rapidly reviewed my entire experience in, and knowledge of, Mesmerism, and the result of the inspection surprised me not a little, for on a calm, disinterested view of the whole subject, I found it utterly impossible to gainsay or invalidate his position and assertions. Yet it was equally impossible to help feeling chagrined, and in no small degree mortified to have my pet hobby thus mercilessly cut up and dissected, laughed at, and thrown out as dog-feed. 'Twas very hard fare, at least to me, and at first seemed unfair also. For a long time I had almost worshipped it as a divine science; holding it to be the true Spiritual Telegraph, by means of which we earthlings might flash thought, not only to the bounds of the globe and the Present, but also to the ends of Time and the Ages Past, or nerved by Hope and Curiosity, dispatch a message to the Great Future and drag back the answer. It was looked upon as the great Messenger of Light, through whom we might easily read the records of a Past so distant that the coal-beds are but yesterday's creations in comparison. And here, at one fell stroke, Ravalette had toppled the castle remorselessly about my ears. I bit my lip with vexation, and for awhile was silent as, together, we walked up and down a sort of natural esplanade on the sides of the hill next Paris. Mechanically as we walked back and forth, I trod in the footprints made while going, on each return, and just as mechanically observed that Ravalette did the same. One thing struck me as curious, even while my mind was profoundly engaged in the search for arguments wherewith to confute and break down the old gentleman's positions; and that fact was this: The shoes worn by Ravalette were of a very singular pattern, totally unlike any I had ever seen before. Upwardly, they were decidedly triangular-almost perfectly so. Previously this fact had escaped my notice; now, it struck me as being very singular. But what was equally surprising was, that instead of the ordinary heel and sole, his feet-gear had four circular rims of brass, covered with rubber, and the track he made on the yielding, but plastic ground was indeed remarkable. The track and the shoe almost upset my cogitations. I looked up and observed a smile on Ravalette's face as he saw my surprise at beholding the novelty of one cross, two crescents and two triangles, and a solid bar (part of the cross), ornamenting the sole of a shoe, if shoe it could be called.

"?'That,' said he, divining my thought, 'is and yet is not a mere fancy of mine. I have a peculiar reverence for those figures, as you may plainly see.' And with this he drew my attention to an exquisite brooch or pin in his bosom.

"This rare jewel, which I had previously seen but not noticed particularly, consisted of a triangle formed of a crescent or quarter circle and a compass, or, as the instrument is improperly called, a pair of compasses. In the centre of this was a tiny cross formed of minute stars, and just where the two bars met was a rose just blooming, and colored with enamel to the life. Gazing still closer at this novel breastpin, with the aid of a fine eye-glass, I discovered a legend engraved in minute and strange characters upon the rim of the crescent; upon the left quarter of this crescent was a pelican feeding her young with her heart's blood; midway was a tiny black rose, and on the right corner was one of deep crimson.

"The workmanship was exquisite, indeed quite extraordinary, for the entire jewel was not larger than a golden dollar. He also showed me a large and massive seal, pendent from his watch, and on its face was engraved a ladder of twelve steps, the first and fifth of which were broken. The foot of this ladder rested upon a broken column, near which lay a mason's trowel, and its top leaned against the beam and ring of an anchor, reversed, the lower part being lost in what represented a cloud. After I had sufficiently admired the seal, he semi-playfully drew forth his watch, to which it was attached by a fine gold 'rope'-chain, and observed: 'I have more of the same kind,' at the same time placing it in my hand.

"The watch was an ordinary smooth-backed, hunting-cased gold chronometer, worth perhaps fifty or sixty pounds sterling, the extra value being acquired by an anchor fouled, done in diamond points upon the internal face. The opposite side presented some excellent enamel-work representing the cardinal points of the compass. Three stars gave light from the West; a tomb, with its door partly open, stood in the East; broken columns adorned the South; and a circle composed of small triangles was in the North; in the centre of this circle was a rose on the bars of a dotted cross; the whole executed in the same exquisite style as that marking the seal and pin.

"To a question as to what it all meant, an evasive answer was returned. Waiving all my solicitations to explain the emblematic devices, the old gentleman resumed his remarks, by observing: 'Never mind now what these things mean; you will know one of these days. At present let us continue our talk on other matters. A little while ago you observed that Mesmerism was a force Spiritual; but I am not so sure that you are correct. In my view it is a power Physical-ultra physical or material it may be, but physical still.'

"?'What!' said I, in amazement, 'human magnetism, that mighty agent or power, which effects such grand effects, and works such wonderful effects, Physical? Impossible! The very idea, excuse me, is absurd; the assertion is simply ridiculous!'

"?'So I once thought,' rejoined Ravalette, 'but think so no longer; and, mark me, the time is not very distant when you will come to my side of the question. I will endeavor to illustrate the point, one point of many, that confirms my view. For instance, the serpent tribe. We know that those reptiles charm birds and other animals, and that they exert an influence upon their prey precisely like that exerted by the magnetizer upon his subject, with this difference, that the human subject exhibits none of that peculiar terror manifested by the lower orders of being when under the spell of fascination, and this difference arises from the fact that the animal has a clear instinct that the power is exercised for its destruction, which the human subject is, of course, entirely free from.

"?'We see the snake exert the same marvellous power that the human magnetizer does, and observe effects resulting therefrom no less remarkable, and yet no one for an instant supposes that serpents are spiritual beings.'

"?'Now you are completely at my mercy,' thought I, as I responded: 'Certainly the snake is a spiritual being so long as he is alive, and exerts volition. He is a spiritual thing just as much as you or I.'

"?'And dead?' said Ravalette, inquiringly, 'is a mere lump of clay-nothing more.

"?'Then, Monsieur Beverly, the argument is against you, and is mine par un coup majestique! for the snake charms just as powerfully when his skin is stuffed with straw and cotton, as when with his own proper flesh, blood, and bones. Innumerable experiments, instituted expressly to test this question, have been made, and it has been over and over again decided that the charming or fascinating power is just as strong after as previous to death. This has been settled by the actions of birds, who utter the same plaintive and pathetic cries, exhibit the same terror and other phenomena, in presence of a stuffed as in that of a living serpent. This is a strong point in my favor; but one that is still stronger, indeed quite irrefutable, shall now be adduced. Persons employed in the Jardin des Plants, and other zoological institutions, find it dangerous work to clean out the dens of certain serpents, even for weeks after the occupants have been removed, for the effluvium-which, I take it, you will not claim to be other than physical-which they have left behind, and which constantly exhales from the floor and sides of the den, is found to be identical with that aura or sphere which it is known they exhale when excited by the presence of prey; and the affects of this emanation from the den are precisely those that characterize the action of the living, present, excited snake. Now, these facts had long been noticed, and the results attributed to the fancy of the human subject, until, at length, an unusual circumstance led to the institution of a course of experiments to set the matter at rest forever.

"?'India is the paradise of charming snakes, and a commission was sent thither by the joint governments of England and France, to test this matter thoroughly. This commission settled upon Candeish, a province of the Decan, where serpents most abound, and the experiments were made simultaneously in the towns of Nunderbar, Sindwa, Dowlea, Chapra, Jamneer, Maligaum, Chundoor, Kurgoon, Chorwa, Bejagur, Hurdwa, Asseergurh, Hashungabad, and Boorhumpore; and they were made with thirty different species of serpents, on eleven hundred and fifty-three human subjects, of twenty-three different nations, and all sorts of temperaments. First, these persons were subjected-under proper precautions, of course-to the mesmeric glance of hungry, quiet, and enraged serpents. In all three cases the effects were bad, all the subjects alike complaining of constriction of the chest, loss of memory, and a very strange sort of vertigo. As soon as the last symptom manifested itself, the curtain that separated the serpents from the men was dropped, and proper baths and other restoratives resorted to. Secondly-these same persons were all invited subsequently to a feast, as a reward for their services. Serpents were securely fastened in wooden boxes beneath the seats of three hundred and sixteen of them, and of these two hundred and eighty-four manifested the same symptoms as when under the direct gaze of the serpents. Two months afterwards ninety-four of the same persons, unknown to themselves, were placed to work in an apartment built of the boards that had composed the serpent dens, and the effects, a third time, were absolutely identical! Now, in this light, what becomes of your spiritual hypothesis! It is gone to the four winds of earth. But to set the matter entirely at rest, and to give your spiritual notion respecting Mesmerism its eternal quietus, let me call your attention to the fact that if a man, any man, sits before a swinging disk of black glass, and fixes his eye upon it, he will eventually be as deeply magnetized and as lucidly clairvoyant, as he would under the operation of the most powerful magnetizer on the globe!'

"I felt that the tables were turned, and that the old gentleman held me at his mercy. However, he forbore to triumph, but went on, saying-

"?'I do not say that the soul of man is physical, but I know that his spirit is so; for I proved that over sixty years ago, to my complete and entire satisfaction. Do not, I beg you, consider me a Materialist, or that I dispute the existence of spirit. Far from that! Your humble servant is a firm believer, not only in spirit, but in a great Spiritual Kingdom, more vast, varied, and beautiful than this Material one; and believe me, mon ami, when I affirm that not more than one man in ten thousand has any adequate idea of what he means when pronouncing the word Spirit; not one man in thrice that number can properly define it.

"?'Furthermore, as a prelude to what may yet befall you, permit me to say that, in the face of modern philosophy, and in direct contrariety to popular belief, it is my opinion that spirit cannot produce on spirit the singular movements and effects witnessed in mesmeric and analogous phenomena; but I do not at all doubt the ability of matter to effect it all. Yes, my friend, I believe that matter alone, without extrinsic aid, is competent to the production of the magnetic wonders, and a hundred others still more marvellous. For instance, I do not believe that any merely mesmeric power whatever, much less the dream-force of ordinary sleep, can, or, under any conceivable circumstances, could enable you to correctly read the inscriptions on the tablets in the Louvre, or probe the secrets of Karnak, Baalbec, Nineveh, or Ampyloe; but I can name purely material agencies that are more than adequate to the accomplishment of these, and infinitely greater things. I know a material means that will enable the soul to lay bare before its gaze the deepest mysteries of the highest antiquity, strip the Past of its mouldy shroud, and triumphantly lift the veil that conceals the Future from our view-or rather, your view.'

"The strange old man ceased, and, for a little time, my mind lingered on his concluding words. It was plain and clear, so I thought, that he alluded to certain medicaments which have long been used for the production of a species of ecstatic dream, and so I replied-

"?'You are doubtless correct, and can, by physical agents, produce strange psychical phenomena, and curious exhibitions of mental activity and fantasy; but, beyond all question, you over-rate their importance and power, for not one of them is adequate to the office of enabling a clear, strong mind to move within the sphere of the Hidden, but the Real.'

"?'To what do you allude particularly, mon ami?'

"?'I allude to various chemical and botanical compounds; for instance, those plants which furnish a large per centage of the chemical principles Narcotine, Morphia, and others of the same general characteristics, as Opium, Beng, and Hemp, the preparations of the delightful but dangerous --, the equally fascinating decoctions of ----, not forgetting Hasheesh, that accursed drug, beneath whose sway millions in the Orient have sunk into untimely but rainbow-tinted graves, and which, in western lands, has made hundreds of howling maniacs, and transformed scores of strong men into the most loathly, drivelling idiots.'

"We lapsed into silence, which at length was broken by Ravalette, who said, as he clasped my hand with fervor-

"?'My dear young friend, there is here, in Paris, a high and noble society, whose chief I am. This society has many Rosicrucians among its members. Like the society to which you belong, ours, also, has its head-quarters in the Orient. Ever since I have known you, I have been anxious to have you for a brother of our Order. Shall I direct your initiation? Once with us, there is no branch of knowledge, mystic or otherwise, that you will not be able to attain, and, compared to which, that of even the third temple of Rosicrucia is but as the alphabet to an encyclop?dia.'

"Much more he said, but I had no desire to join his fraternity, and firmly but respectfully told him so; whereupon he cut short our conference by rising, as he did so, observing-

"?'You may regret it. I can tell you no more. The society exists; if you need it, find it-it may be discovered. But see! my groom and horse have arrived, and have long been waiting. I must, therefore, leave you. Take this paper; open it when you see proper to do so. You will quit Paris to-morrow, next day, or when you choose. You may turn your face southward, instead of to the north as you proposed. Seek me not till in your hour of greatest need. In the meantime, I counsel you to obey, to the letter, your highest intuitions. Adieu!'

"And so we parted. I loved Ravalette, but not his fraternity. This conversation with Ravalette, and, indeed, my entire intercourse with him, was invested with a peculiar halo of what I may justly call the weird. It was evident that all his words and allusions contained a deeper meaning than appeared upon the surface. His conversation had filled my soul with new and strange ideas and emotions; and I felt that he had left me at the inner door of a vast edifice, after skillfully conducting me through the vestibule. What worlds of mystery and meaning lay just beyond, was a theme of profound and uneasy conjecture. I felt and knew that he was no common or ordinary man; and well and strangely was this proved afterwards.

"I had solaced myself with the hope that, by deferring my contemplated tour through Picardy and La Normandy, I should draw closer the bonds of common sympathy between us, and be made wiser through the abrasion of such an intellect as his. How suddenly and how rudely was this hope shattered!

"When he dismissed me so abruptly, after baiting my soul with such a splendid lure, I could but feel both astonished and aggrieved. Thousands would have been too small a price to pay for even one day more of his society; but, alas! thousands could not purchase it. Still, I learned a lesson. There are things in this world more valuable than even boundless material wealth-knowledges, that neither Peru's treasures nor the mines of Ind can buy; and that Ravalette possessed an abundant store of these priceless riches, there was not a single lingering doubt.

"As his last words sounded the death-knell of all my fondly air-built castles, I became apprised of a fact that had heretofore escaped my notice; and this was, that, for the last ten minutes, a mounted groom, having a led horse in hand, had stood patiently waiting under a large tree at the south-eastern terminus of our promenade. As the old man placed the sealed paper in my hand, this groom advanced and assisted his master to mount, and, as soon as he was firmly seated in the saddle, they both gave rein and spur, and, urging the steeds into a round gallop, both horsemen were out of sight before I could recover from the stupor of surprise into which the proceeding had thrown me."