[CHAPTER II.]
SOMETHING CURIOUS.
“Ravalette continued: ‘Mesmerism’s day has gone by. Already it is found to be impossible to produce the same effects with it as were produced a few years ago, while the bastard thing that now goes by its name, is of such a nature and character that it speedily either disgusts all sensible people, or very soon lands its friends into a deep quagmire of such alkaline properties, that all the little common sense they had at starting gets thoroughly mixed therewith, and forms a compound which they carry back, instead of what they brought; and when they get home again, they peddle it out as “Divine Philosophy,” when in fact it is an excellent article of soap—regular savon extraordinaire, warranted to extract brains, decency, money, and everything else worth having, from all who meddle with it—it washes so very clean. If your railway does not accomplish this, yet in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred of journeys that terminate differently, it lands its passengers in the populous Town of Fantasy, in the which all things look real, but are as hollow and as substanceless as mere Forms can be, and that is next to nothing. In fact, most of the popular clairvoyance may be said to resemble an edifice having
“ ‘Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.’
There are, of course, a few, very few exceptions to the rule, but the rule obtains vastly.
“ ‘The sentimentalities of a puling, hysteric girl, half afflicted with catochus, and the other half love-sick—as most modern clairvoyants are—count small in the list of Fact-truths, and the mad ravings of crack-brained somnambules of the other gender go for hardly as much, for the first has at least a degree of poetry about her, but the latter none at all. No, no, friend, do not place too great reliance on the ability of Magnetism to aid your researches, for you will run a narrow chance of disappointment, and regret when too late that from Nature’s stable you selected the very worst animal of the lot; one that is ring-boned, lame, spavined, and very baulky withal. Take my advice, and choose a better.’
“As the old gentleman finished what I at first regarded as a diatribe against Animal Magnetism—a thing, by the way, that I always doted on—I felt silent, and was so for the space of a minute, during which time I rapidly reviewed my entire experience in, and knowledge of, Mesmerism, and the result of the inspection surprised me not a little, for on a calm, disinterested view of the whole subject, I found it utterly impossible to gainsay or invalidate his position and assertions. Yet it was equally impossible to help feeling chagrined, and in no small degree mortified to have my pet hobby thus mercilessly cut up and dissected, laughed at, and thrown out as dog-feed. ’Twas very hard fare, at least to me, and at first seemed unfair also. For a long time I had almost worshipped it as a divine science; holding it to be the true Spiritual Telegraph, by means of which we earthlings might flash thought, not only to the bounds of the globe and the Present, but also to the ends of Time and the Ages Past, or nerved by Hope and Curiosity, dispatch a message to the Great Future and drag back the answer. It was looked upon as the great Messenger of Light, through whom we might easily read the records of a Past so distant that the coal-beds are but yesterday’s creations in comparison. And here, at one fell stroke, Ravalette had toppled the castle remorselessly about my ears. I bit my lip with vexation, and for awhile was silent as, together, we walked up and down a sort of natural esplanade on the sides of the hill next Paris. Mechanically as we walked back and forth, I trod in the footprints made while going, on each return, and just as mechanically observed that Ravalette did the same. One thing struck me as curious, even while my mind was profoundly engaged in the search for arguments wherewith to confute and break down the old gentleman’s positions; and that fact was this: The shoes worn by Ravalette were of a very singular pattern, totally unlike any I had ever seen before. Upwardly, they were decidedly triangular—almost perfectly so. Previously this fact had escaped my notice; now, it struck me as being very singular. But what was equally surprising was, that instead of the ordinary heel and sole, his feet-gear had four circular rims of brass, covered with rubber, and the track he made on the yielding, but plastic ground was indeed remarkable. The track and the shoe almost upset my cogitations. I looked up and observed a smile on Ravalette’s face as he saw my surprise at beholding the novelty of one cross, two crescents and two triangles, and a solid bar (part of the cross), ornamenting the sole of a shoe, if shoe it could be called.
“ ‘That,’ said he, divining my thought, ‘is and yet is not a mere fancy of mine. I have a peculiar reverence for those figures, as you may plainly see.’ And with this he drew my attention to an exquisite brooch or pin in his bosom.
“This rare jewel, which I had previously seen but not noticed particularly, consisted of a triangle formed of a crescent or quarter circle and a compass, or, as the instrument is improperly called, a pair of compasses. In the centre of this was a tiny cross formed of minute stars, and just where the two bars met was a rose just blooming, and colored with enamel to the life. Gazing still closer at this novel breastpin, with the aid of a fine eye-glass, I discovered a legend engraved in minute and strange characters upon the rim of the crescent; upon the left quarter of this crescent was a pelican feeding her young with her heart’s blood; midway was a tiny black rose, and on the right corner was one of deep crimson.
“The workmanship was exquisite, indeed quite extraordinary, for the entire jewel was not larger than a golden dollar. He also showed me a large and massive seal, pendent from his watch, and on its face was engraved a ladder of twelve steps, the first and fifth of which were broken. The foot of this ladder rested upon a broken column, near which lay a mason’s trowel, and its top leaned against the beam and ring of an anchor, reversed, the lower part being lost in what represented a cloud. After I had sufficiently admired the seal, he semi-playfully drew forth his watch, to which it was attached by a fine gold ‘rope’-chain, and observed: ‘I have more of the same kind,’ at the same time placing it in my hand.
“The watch was an ordinary smooth-backed, hunting-cased gold chronometer, worth perhaps fifty or sixty pounds sterling, the extra value being acquired by an anchor fouled, done in diamond points upon the internal face. The opposite side presented some excellent enamel-work representing the cardinal points of the compass. Three stars gave light from the West; a tomb, with its door partly open, stood in the East; broken columns adorned the South; and a circle composed of small triangles was in the North; in the centre of this circle was a rose on the bars of a dotted cross; the whole executed in the same exquisite style as that marking the seal and pin.