Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-05-10
EVENING STAR.
THE PURL0INED LETTER.
I CONTINUED.


st is, said Dupin and, upon inquiriDg
Of the boy by what means he effected the
thorough indentifcation in which his success
consisted, 1 received answer as follows: "Whe
L wish to find out how wise, or how stupid, or
how good, or how wicked, is any one, or what
are his thoughts at the moment, fashion the
| expression Of my face, as accurately as posi-
BILE, in accordance with the expression of his,
and then wait to see what thoughts or senti-
| ments arise in my mind or heart as If to
| match or correspond with the expression"
This response of the schoolboy lies at the bot
tom of all the spurious profundity which has
| been attributed to Rochefoucsult, to La Bou-
| give, to Machiavelli, and to Campanella
"And the Identification" L said, Z" Of the
reasoner's intellect with that of his opponent
depends, if understand you Alright upon the
accuracy with which the opponents intellect
is admeasured 2"
"For it's practical value it depends upon
this" replied Dupin; "and the prefect and
his cohOrt fail so frequently, first, by default
of this Identification, and, secondly, by ill.,
admeasurement, or rather through non -ad-
| measurement, of the intellect with which they
| are engaged. They consider only their otcR
ideas of ingenuity; and, in searching for hid
den, advert only to the modes in which they
would have hidden They are right in this
much-that their own ingenuity is faithful
representative Of that Of the mass but when
the cunning of the individual felon is diverse
| IN character from their own, the feion foi's
them of course. This always happens when
1t is above their own, and very usually when
it is below. They have no variation of prin-
| clple In their Investigations at best, when
urged by some unusual emergency-by some
extraordinary reward-they extend or exag-
gerate their old modes of practice, without
touching their principles What, for exam.
pie, in this case of D., has been done to
vary the principle of action? What is all
this boring, and probing, and sounding, and
serutinizing with the microscope, and dividing
the surface of the building into registered
square inches which is at all but an exag-
! geration of tie application Of the one princi-
| pie, or set of principles Of search, which are
| based upon the one set of notions regarding
human ingenuity, to which the prefect, in the
| long routine Of his duty, has been accustomed
Do you not see he has taken it for granted
that all men proceed to conceal a letter-not
| exactly In gimlet. hole bored in a chair-leg
but at least IN some out-of the-way hole or
| corner suggested by the same tenor of thought
which would urge man to secrete a letter in
a gimlct- hole bored in a chair-leg' And do
you not see, also, that such hooks for conceal
| ment are adapted only for ordinary occa-
siOns, and would be adopted only by ordinary
| intellects for, in all cases Of concealment,
| disposal Of the article concealed-a dispo-
sal OF it in this recherche manner-is in the
very first instance, presumed and presumabIe;
and thus its discovery depends not at all upon
| the acumen, but altogether upon the mere
| care, patience, and determination of the seek
ers; and where the case is of importance, or,
what amounts to the same thing in the polit-
Ical eyes, when the reward is OF magnitude
the qualities in question have never been
known to fail. You will now understand what
l meant in suggesting that, had the purlioned
| letter been hidden any where within the linn
| It's OF the projects examinatiOn-in other
words, had the principle of its couce alment
| been comprehended within the principles of
| the project, Its discovery would have been a
matter altogether beyond question. This func-
| tionary, however, has been thoroughly mysti-
lied and the remote source Of his defeat lies
in the suppOsition that the minister would do
what he would have done himself-take vast
care to conceal the letter on account of its
being so very precious. / went to work diff
ferently. My measures were adapted 10 the
ministers capacity, with reference 10 the cir
cumstances by which he was surrounded. L
knew him as a courtier, too, and as a bold in
trlguant. Such a man, L considered, could
not fail to be aware of the ordinary polcial
modes Of action. He could not have failed to
anticipate-and events have proved that he |
did not fail to anticipate-the wsylayings to
which he was subjected. He must have fore
seen, L reflected, the secret investigation of |
his premises. His frequent absences from !
home at night, which were hailed by the pre- |
only as ruses, to afford opportunity for thor |
ough search to the police, and thus the sooner |
TO impress them with the conviction to which |
G-, in fact, did finally arrive-the convic- |
tlon that the letter was not to be found upon
the premises.
&c felt, also, that the whole train of thought
which was at some pains in detailing to you
just now, concerning the invariable principle
OF political action in searches for articles con-
cealed-I felt that This whole train Of thought
would necessarily pass through the mind of |
the minister. Itwould imperatively lead him |
to despise all the ordinary n0okS of conceal |
ment. He could not, I reflected, be so weak |
as not to seek that the most intricate and most
remote recess Of his hotel would be as open as /
his commonest closets to the eyes, to the /
probes, to the gimlets, and to the microscopes |
OF the prefect. saw, in fine, that he would /
be driven, as a matter Of course, to SIMPLICITY,
II not deliberately induced to it as matter Of /
choice. This conjecture was above or beneath 1
the understanding of the prefect. He never /
once thought it probable or possible that the /
minister had deposited the letter Immediately
beneath the nose Of the whole world, by way
OF best preventing any portion Of that world
from perceiving it.
But the more reflected upon the daring, |
dashing, and discriminating ingenuity of D.,
upon the fact that the document must always
have been at hand if he intended to use
it to good purpose; and upon the deci-
sive evidence, obtained by the prefect, that il
was not hidden within the limits of that dig
nitary's ordinary search, the more satisfied L
became that, to conceal this letter, the min
lister had resorted to the comprehensive and
sagacious expedient of not attempting to con-
ceal 1t at all.
"Full of these ideas, L prepared myself
with pair of green spectacles, Rnd called
one fne msrning, quite by accident, at the
ministerial hotel. / found l" at home, !
yawning, lounging, and dawling as usual, i
and pretending TO be in the last extremity of J
ennui. He is, perhaps, the most really ell q
ergetic human being now aliye-but that is I
only when nobody sees him.
ITO be even with him complained of my !
weak eyes, aud lamented the necessity of my +
spectaclss, under cover of which / cautiously 5
and thoroughly surveyed the whole apart
ment, while seemingly intent only upon the
Of my host
81 paid especial attention To large writing '
table near which he sat, and upon which lay 3
,opfu Sadlu sama miSnallapan,s Iatt.xs | II