Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

than at fall speed of q galloping horse
After several thousand years of experience
that piece OF knowledge, which seemed to be
singularly certain, was suddenly proved to
be the grossest ignorance by man who had
been IL the habit of playing with q tea
kettle when boz. We ourselves, not
very long ago, knew positively, as all men
had known siucc the beginning Of the world,
that it was quite impossible to converse with
friend at distance beyond the carrying
power of 4 speaking trumpet. To-day, 4
boy who does not know that one may talk
Very agreeahly with a friend thousand
1ailes away is an ignoramus; and expert
menterS whisper among themselves that, if
the undula:ory theory of light have any
foundation, there is no real reason why we
NAV not see that same friend at that same
distance, as we'll as talk with him. Ten
years ago we were quite sure that it was be-
yo1d the bounds of natural possibility to
produce bad burn upon the human body
bv touching the flesh with bit of cardboard
or :. common lead pencil. Now we know
with equal certainty that if upon one arm OF
q hypnotized patient we impress letter of
the alphabet cut out of wood, telling him that
it IS red-hot iron, the shape of the letter will
be on the following day found az a raw and
painful wound not only in the place we Sc
lected, but on the other arm, in the exactly
corresponding spot, and reversed as though
seeu in q looking glass; and we very Justly
consider that physician who does not know
this and similar facts is dangerously behind
the times. since the knowledge is open to
all. The inductive reasoning of many thou
sands OF Years has been knocked to pieces in
the last century by a few dozen men who
have reasoned little but attempted much. 1t
would be rash to assert that bodily death
1nay not soiDe day, and under certain con-
disicHs, be altogether escaped. 1t is nom
sense TO pretend that human lie may not
possibly, and before long, be enormously
prolonged. and that by some shorter cut to
longevity tnan temperance and sanitation.
No man can say that it will, but no man of
average intelligence can now deny that 1t
may.
Unorna had hesitated at the door, and she
hesitated now. It was in her power, and in
hers only, to wake the hoary giant, or at
least 10 modify his perpetual sleep so far as
TO obtain from him answers to her questions.
Il would be an easy matter to lay one hand
upon his brow, bidding him see and speak
how easy she alone knew. But, on the
other hand, to disturb his slumber was to in
terftre with the continuity OF the great ex-
pertinent, TO break through rule lately
made, to incur the risk OF an accident if not
Of death itself.
She drew back at the thought, as though
fearing to startle him, and then she smiled at
her own nervousness. To wake him she
mus! exercise her will There was no danger
Of his ever being reused by any sound or
touch not proceeding from herself The
crash of thunder had no reyerberation for
his ears; the explosion of a cannon wo onld
not have penetrated into his lethargy. She
might touch him, move him, even speak to
him, but unless she laid her hand upon his
waxen forehead and bid him feel and hear,
he would be as unconscious as the dead. She
returned 10 his side and gazed into his placid
face. Strange faculties were asleep in that
ancient brain, and strange wisdom was
stored there. gathered from many sources
long ago, and treasured unconsciously by the
memory 10 be recalled at her command
The man had been 4 failure in his day, a
scholar, stuOent a searcher after great Sc
crets, 4 wanderer in the labyrInths of higher
thought He had been :. failure and had
starved as failures must, in order that vul-
gar success may fatten and grow wealthy.
He had outived the few that had been dear
10 MIN; he had outlived the power to feed on
thought; he had outlived generations of men,
and cycles of change, and yet there had been
life lett in the huge gaunt limbs and sight
in the sunken eyes. Then he had outlived
pride itself, and the ancient scholar had
begged his bread. in his hundredth year he
had leaned for breath against Unorna's
door, and she had taken him in and cared
for him, and since that time she had pre-
served his lie. For his history was known
in the ancient city, and it was said that he
had possessed great wisdom in his
day. Unorna knew that this wisdom
could be hers if she could keep
alive the spark of life and that she had en-
pioyed his own learning 10 that end. Al
ready she had much experience of her
powers, and knew that if she once had the
mastery ofthe old mans free will he must
obey her fatally and INCREASINGLY. Then
she conceived the idea of embalming as it
were, the living being, in perpetual
hypnotic lethargy, from whence she recalled
MIN from time 10 time to an intermediate
state, in which she caused him to do me-
ckanically all those things which she Judged
necessary to prolong lie.
Seeing her success from the first, she had
begun to fancy that the present condition of
things might be made to continue indefi-
uitelv- Since death was to-day no nearer
than it had been seven wears ago. there was
no reason why it might not he guarded
against during seven years more, and if
during seven, why not during 10, 20, 90?
She had tor helper physician Of consum
mate practical skill-a man whose interest
IN the result of the trial was, if anything.
more keen than her own; friend, above all,
whom she believed she might trust, and
who appeared TO trust her
But in the course of their great expert
ment they had together made rules by
which they dad mutually agreed to be
bound. They had of late determined that
the old man must not be disturbed in his
profound rest by any question tending to
cause state of mental activity. The test
OF very Gne instrument had proved that
the shortest interval of positive lucidity was
followed by slight but distinctly percepti-
be rise OF temperature in the body, and
this could mean only a waste of the precious
tissues they were carefully preserving
They hoped anu believed that the grand
crisis was ut hand, and that, if the BODY did
not now lose strength and vitality for Il con-
siderable time, bota would slowly though
surely increase, in consequence OF the
means they were using to instill new blood
in:o the system But the period was supreme,
and 10 Interfere in any way with the progress
OF the experiment was to run q risk of
which The whole extent could only be real
izcd by Unorna and her companion.
She hesitated, therefore, well knowing
that her ally would oppose her intention
with all mis- might, and dreading his anger,
bold IS she was, almost as much as she
feared the danger to the old mans Efe. On
The other hand, she had motive which the
physician could not have, and which, as she
was aware, he would have dcspised a nd con-
demned. She had q question to ask, which
she considered of vital Importance to her
self, tc which she firmly believed that the
true answer would be given, and which, in
her woDanly impetuosity and impatielce,
she could not bear to have uaasked u util
the morrow, much less until months shcl1ld