The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1911-03-03
"You must pardon me, my dear

"You must pardon me, my dear
friend" ran the letter, 'Ht for the Sec
ond time | have Wilfully deceived you.
The first occasion, as yOu will remem.
Der we'll, was when you first came to
me. when l hypnotized you in my
study for the purpose of turning your
mind from the gloomy thoughts of
suicide that possessed you. On this
occasion l felt impelled to say less
than the truth for fear that you would
attempt to dissuade me from my pur.
pose.
Il told you that l intended to make
my most difficult experiment, to go
through the gates of death and to
search out and bring back with me
the soul of the imbecile child. Forgive
me for having made this statement.
1t was an impossibility. The electric
current that l sent through my own
body with my own hand destroyed
once and for all the vital powers.
Nothing on earth could have restored
them. tell you this in order that you
may not think you were remiss or
negligent in your endeavors to resus.
citate me- The two flames that you
will doubtless have seen within the
globe were not the souls, but only
those Mays which are given forth
from all living things. whether men,
beasts or trees. When the last fame
went out the organism was dead be.
yond possibility of recall.
'The child revived because the cur.
rent was so graduated that it merely
stunned, without destroying, that dull.
err organism. Had it been of a force
proportioned to that which passed
drought my own body, nothing could
have revived him. But now, to ex.
plain more fully what it was my in.
tent to do, and what l hope and think
that l have done.
LAS l have told you, I knew that no
power on earth could bring the soul
into the child's body. 1t was, in fact,
born soulless, nothing more than q
vital organism. It was my purpose,
then, in dying, to transfer my own
identity into that child's body, so that
while the Ivan Brodsky whom you
knew disintegrated slowly, according
to the natural processes of the body,
his spirit might gain a new lease Of
life and grow to manhood, forgetful
of the old ills and troubles, eager to
fulfill the work that | had laid down
for myself.
II leave him in your care. Doubt.
less within a few days he will begin
to manifect human intelligence. AS
he grows older he will have vague
memories of my own life. He will
repay your care within the truest affec.
ton, since l myself shall be his inspir-
ing spirit, and this, you know, l feel
for you. He will have, also, strange
"reminiscences, will recall faces of per
sons strange to him, but known to me.
These recollections you will discour.
age. Remember that he is a new be.
ing, whose life is as yet an unwritten
page, and that the past must remain
sealed to him through all his life.
Train him, then, in the medical
profession, and guide his mind so that
when he reaches maturity, he will
voluntarily take up those studies of
mine where l have dropped them.
have embodied these in typewriter
document which you will find in q
secret drawer at the back Of my
bureau there followed instructions
Tor enfhg III ID these instruction,
you will learn much that have never
told you of, things that, in the hands
of evil men might plunge the whole
world into barbarism and shake down
the pillars of civilization" (Here fol-
lowed some purely personal instruc-
tons. But above all, remember that
l leave everything to your absolute
discretion, since all things are ap.
pointed to their own end. and If my
hopes are vain, nothing can bring
them to fruition."
When l had finished reading this
letter / sat thinking for a long while.
Then went to the bureau and, after
some fumbling, found and pressed tn
secret spring. A drawer flew back.
In It found a typewriter paper, hall
covered with dried rose petals. I'M
folded it and began slowly to read.
read till the day was gone.
Then I committed it to the
flames.
For l felt, and still feel that, many
as were the evils which Brodsky cured
during the brief period Of our associa
ton, the world is better off without
this knowledge of his. The risks were
too many. And, after all, as he had
always said, this is a world of light;
there is a long eternity when we shall
be shut of from external activities
when the things Of the soul only will
be of account. Let us not NEEDLE with
them here, but 60 about our appointed
tasks in the manner set for US.
The boy Is growing to manhood
Already he is planning to enter the
medical school; find in him odd
traces Of Brodsky, odd flashes of mem
DRY and intuitive appreciation of the
things Brodsky cared for. But dis
courage all his interest in the realm
of psychic things. 1t may be that his