National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-01-06
A Curious Story.

Inef0 comes tO uS from Dhnlhn
paper most curious story. Believing
MS much or as little oi it a. We may, the
story is worth reading. The paper AS
serts that a scientific gentleman has sue
ceeded in fabricating man-not II
" steam man, nor man who goes by
clock-work or springs, but veritabe
man--whose flesh is such as is common
TO the genus homo, whose bones are filed
with true marrow; who, if he does not
think, talks MS if he did whose hair and
nails grow; who breathes, lives, moves,
and has his being, and in all particulars
is such as he would have been had he
been turned ont in natures workshop,
and not in that of Grin Nasto.
The way in which the monster was
constructed is peculiar He was not
made of wood and iron, but OF various
pieces OF dead human bodies, carefully
selected, preserved, prepared, and ad-
jtlsted TO each other i'll such way that
after the head was put on the shoulders
and the two pieces of the spinal column
Joined mt the neck, in an instant the
nervous machinery acted, the heart pal
pitated, the lungs inhaled and eXhaled
air. the eyes opened, color came INTO the
hitherto livid face and all the processes
of life began the theory of this being
that, us no two bodies are ever in natu-
raj contact, the molecules of mans body
nre not Vital processes do not there
fore need actual contact of particles III
which they appear; there is, therefore,
no necessary interreation between them,
and if by compression they can be forced
to within the same distances from each
other which they have i'll life, life must
ensue when, by connecting the spinal
-~i,..-.- ..:l. A. L..-:.. t."nn,uisSiun VI
nerve force becomes possible.
After twenty years passed in hitherto
fruitless experiments, it may be believed
that Grin Vasta was excited when, all
things prepared for the calling into being
of a monster, he proceeded with the
s.perime@fnm c7'ucis Of joining the brain
and the spinal marrow. To say that he
was appalled, by what he instantly saw is
not to say an incredible thing, and, in
very fright, he fell to the floor, where
upon the newly created being did the
same thing but, whon Grin arose, his
creature lay still, for he very simple
reason that it is very easy to fall but not
to rise again till one la. found out how
to do SO. But the fabricator helped his
newly made friend to rise, and seated
him in chair, whereupon ali sorts of
emotions We're expressed in the man S
face ut what must have seemed to him a
strange doubling and cracking OF him
self, but, i'll reality, as he afterwards ex-
planned, he had no such thought at all
but was merely q curious machine in
which emotions were expressed i'll the
face because of reflex action of the ner-
vous system. This is a curious point
for during all the time which interviewed
between his creation and the develop
ment of speech in him he says he felt
neither Joy nor sorrow, pain nor salts
faction, although he would often be seen
to weep and laugh and express all emo
tons and passions as human being
expresses them. If struck, he would
cry out and quicker up his face as m iu-
FAINT does, but as he afterwards remem-
bered how he felt at such moments, and
could relate his thoughts, Of course his
experience is valuable where II child's
cannot be obtained, since the first two
or three years of mans ordinary life are
utterly forgotten and lost. Thus this
singular being said that when he was
struck he knew it merely because he saw
it, and experienced a new sensation1n
his heal, and which did not refer to
the place smitten. He had no desire to
quicker up his face and cry, nor
did he know that he did so till another
different sensation which he felt IN his
ears seemed to set his head all in a whill
one sensation begetting another until
at last he thought That his head was all
there was-that the room and bis fabri-
Gator were all in it, and acting there
alone. In other words, he was a sort of
idealist getting the universe under his
own hat, Could he have expressed him
self in philosophical language he would
not have said with Hume, that ideas
and impressions were all that existed,
but with some Germans, that ideaS are
all. But to do him justice, he did not
remain long in this condition of mind,
for when his fabricator made him walk
he obtained an idea Of locality, and con-
sequently of something that was not he,
thereby making great stride.
As time wen on and the man had be
come gradually separated from his notion
that he was all that existed, feeling of
awe and reverence sprang up within him
for Nasta, whom naturally enough he
called his maker, and whom he consid-
cred superior being, inasmuch as he
felt himself in his power He would
pray that he might see his face always,
for he loved him. To try all experiment
Vasta withheld food from his creature
for day, and when asked for it took it |
from his pocket and bestowed it upon
the poor fellow, who thenceforth for
some time begged him night and morn
ing not to withhold food from him. |
Afterwards Nasta discovered that the |
man had formulated prayer in which |
he, Nasta, was cllled the Bread giver,"
and, merely from philanthropic motives,
he dispelled this illusion, as he knew
that its inevitable result would be to
make the man very lazy. At first he had
no idea of size Solidity, perspective, or
the ordinary properties of matter; but,
when taught geometry, made most rapid
progress, and when told one day that IL
straight line was the shortest distance
between two points. astonished his mas
5er by saying No; line is not dis
,ance at all; a straight line is the short
ast line between wo-points." He looked
IT all things IN the most matter-of-tact
way, but accounted for them in the most
whimsical. There was, according to him.
4 goodness " that made things good,
IN "evil principle that made them bad,
| beauty" that made them beautiful,
IN intellect that made his master
wise, and 'chairness or "boxness
hat made things chairs and boxes.
The HoRRoR OF WAR-Ten days ago
,nys CORRESPONDENT a marty of Erench