The Purple Cloud Read online

back in time shewent; in describing present events she appears to have felt herself _on_(the earth); while, as regards the future, she invariably declared that"_us_" were so many miles "within" (the earth).

  To her excursions in this last direction, however, there seemed to existcertain fixed limits: I say seemed, for I cannot be sure, and only meanthat, in spite of my efforts, she never, in fact, went far in thisdirection. Three, four thousand "miles" were common figures on her lipsin describing her distance "above"; but her distance "within" never gotbeyond sixty-three. Usually, she would say twenty, twenty-five. Sheappeared, in relation to the future, to resemble a diver in the deepsea, who, the deeper he strives, finds a more resistant pressure, till,at no great depth, resistance becomes prohibition, and he can no furtherstrive.

  'I am afraid I can't go on: though I had a good deal to tell you aboutthis lady. During fifteen years, off and on, I sat listening by her dimbed-side to her murmuring trances! At last my expert ear could detectthe sense of her faintest sigh. I heard the "Decline and Fall" frombeginning to end. Some of her reports were the most frivolous nonsense:over others I have hung in a horror of interest. Certainly, my friend, Ihave heard some amazing words proceed from those wan lips of MaryWilson. Sometimes I could hitch her repeatedly to any scene or subjectthat I chose by the mere exercise of my will; at others, the flightywaywardness of her spirit eluded and baffled me: she resisted--shedisobeyed: otherwise I might have sent you, not four note-books, buttwenty, or forty. About the fifth year it struck me that it would bewell to jot down her more connected utterances, since I knew shorthand.

  The note-book marked "I.," [1] which seems to me the most curious,belongs to the seventh year. Its history, like those of the other three,is this: I heard her one afternoon murmuring in the intonation used when_reading_; the matter interested me; I asked her where she was. Shereplied: "Us are forty-five miles within: us read, and another writes";from which I concluded that she was some fifteen to thirty years in thefuture, perusing an as yet unpublished work. After that, during someweeks, I managed to keep her to the same subject, and finally, I fancy,won pretty well the whole work. I believe you would find it striking,and hope you will be able to read my notes.

  'But no more of Mary Wilson now. Rather let us think a little of A.L.Browne, F.R.C.P.!--with a breathing-tube in his trachea, and Eternityunder his pillow...' [Dr. Browne's letter then continues on a subject ofno interest here.]

  [The present writer may add that Dr. Browne's prognosis of his own caseproved correct, for he passed away two days after writing the above. Mytranscription of the shorthand book marked 'III.' I now proceed to givewithout comment, merely reminding the reader that the words form thesubstance of a book or document to be written, or to be motived(according to Miss Wilson) in that Future, which, no less than the Past,substantively exists in the Present--though, like the Past, we see itnot. I need only add that the title, division into paragraphs, &c., havebeen arbitrarily contrived by myself for the sake of form andconvenience.]

  [Footnote 1: This I intend to publish under the title of 'The LastMiracle; 'II.' will bear that of 'The Lord of the Sea'; the present bookis marked 'III.' The perusal of 'IV.' I have yet finished, but so far donot consider it suitable for publication.]

  (_Here begins the note-book marked 'III.'_)