July 17, 2026

The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe | Full Gothic Horror Audiobook

The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe | Full Gothic Horror Audiobook

What could be worse than dying? Waking up after everyone has already buried you. Weekly Spooky presents a complete reading of “The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe, a claustrophobic gothic horror story built around one of humanity’s oldest and...

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Cutting Deep Into Horror

Key Takeaways

  • Edgar Allan Poe’s 'The Premature Burial' explores the primal human anxiety surrounding the possibility of being interred while still alive.
  • The story examines medical cataleptic states that mimic death, demonstrating how easily a living person could be mistaken for a corpse.
  • Poe weaves together historical anecdotes and medical accounts to blur the line between clinical fiction and terrifying reality.
  • The protagonist’s obsession with his own susceptibility to premature burial leads to extreme, desperate measures to secure his final resting place.
  • Ultimately, the episode serves as a haunting reminder of the fragility of life and the terrifying unpredictability of death.

What could be worse than dying? Waking up after everyone has already buried you.
Weekly Spooky presents a complete reading of “The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe, a claustrophobic gothic horror story built around one of humanity’s oldest and most terrifying fears: being buried alive.

Tormented by a medical condition that can make him appear dead, a man becomes consumed by accounts of premature burial. He studies coffins, graves, crypts, and horrifying cases of people awakening beneath the earth. As his obsession grows, he takes increasingly desperate precautions to ensure that he will never open his eyes inside a sealed coffin.
But fear has a way of following us into the darkness.

This classic Edgar Allan Poe audiobook is perfect for listeners searching for buried alive horror stories, gothic horror, classic scary stories, macabre fiction, claustrophobic horror, literary horror, and complete Edgar Allan Poe readings.

Tonight, the most terrifying place imaginable is not a haunted house.
It is six feet underground.

🎧 LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!

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📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!


🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the plot of The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe?

The story follows a narrator suffering from catalepsy who lives in constant terror of being buried alive, detailing his historical research into the subject and his own frantic precautions.

Was being buried alive a real fear during Poe's time?

Yes, during the 19th century, medical science struggled to definitively distinguish between death and states of suspended animation, making the fear of premature burial a common and legitimate concern.

What does the narrator mean by premature burial?

Premature burial refers to the act of being interred in a grave or tomb while the person is still biologically alive, often due to an incorrect medical diagnosis of death.

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One of my favorite memories of scaring myself as a

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child was getting a compilation book of Edgar Allan Poe's

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stories from my elementary school library. It brought me so

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much fear and so much excitement. I remember running home

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from school with that book in my backpack as the

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sky was dark and a storm was coming. I was

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in my childhood living room, but I wasn't alone. I

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had a pizza and the books of Poe. Every so

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often I'll bring you a tale of Poe, and I

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hope it gives you that scary fun sense, just the

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same as it does for me. When the clock strikes midnight,

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the story will begin. Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe.

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There are certain themes of which the interest is all absorbing,

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but which are too entirely horrible for the purposes of

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legitimate fiction. These the mere romanticist must issue if he

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do not wish to offend or to disgust. They are

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with propriety handled only when the severity and majesty of

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truth sanctify and sustain them. We thrill, for example, with

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the most intense of pleasurable pain over the accounts of

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the passage of the Beresina, of the earthquake at Lisbon,

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at the plague at London, of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew,

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or of the stifling of the one hundred and twenty

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three prisoners in the black hole at Calcutta. But in

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these accounts it is the fact, it is the reality.

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It is the history which excites. As inventions, we should

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regard them with simple abhorrence. I have mentioned some few

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of the more prominent and august calamities upon record. But

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in these it is the extent, not less than the

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character of the calamity, which so vividly impresses the fancy.

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I need not remind the reader that from the long

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and weird catalog of human miseries I might have selected

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many individual instances more replete with essential suffering than any

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of these vast generalities of disaster. The true wretchedness, indeed,

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the ultimate woe, is particular, not diffuse that the ghastly

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extremes of agony are endured by man the unit, and

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never by man the mass. For this let us thank

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a merciful God. To be buried while alive is beyond question.

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The most terrific of these extremes, which has ever fallen

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to the lot of mere mortality that it has frequently,

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very frequently so fallen, will scarcely be denied by those

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who think the boundaries which divide life from death are

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at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the

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one ends and where the other begins. We know that

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there are diseases in which occur total cessations of all

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the apparent functions of vitality, and yet in which these

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cessations are merely suspensions, properly so called, they are only

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temporary pauses in the incomprehensible mechanism, a certain period elapses,

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and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the

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magic pinions and the wizard wheels. The silver cord was

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not forever loosed, nor the golden bowl irreparably broken, but

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where meantime was the soul. Apart, however, from the inevitable

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conclusion ah priori, that such causes must produce such effects,

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that the well known occurrence of such cases of suspended

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animation must naturally give rise now and then to premature interments.

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Apart from this consideration, we have the direct testimony of

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medical and ordinary experience to prove that a vast number

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of such interments have actually taken place. I might refer

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at once, if necessary, to a hundred well authenticated instances.

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One of very remarkable character, and of which the circumstances

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may be fresh in the memory of some of my

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readers occurred not very long ago in the neighboring city

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of Baltimore, where it occasioned a painful, intense, and widely

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extended excitement. The wife of one of the most respectable citizens,

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a lawyer of eminence and a member of Congress, was

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seized with a sudden and unaccountable illness which completely baffled

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the skill of her physicians. After much suffering, she died,

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or was supposed to die. No one suspected, indeed, or

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had reason to suspect, that she was not actually dead.

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She presented all the ordinary appearances of death. The face

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assumed the usual pinched and sunken outline, the lips were

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the usual marble paler, the eyes were lustreless. There was

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no warmth. Pulsation had ceased for three days. The body

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was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.

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The funeral, in short, was hastened on account of the

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rapid advance of what was supposed to be decomposition. The

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lady was deposited in her family vault, which for three

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subsequent years was undisturbed. At the expiration of this term,

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it was opened for the reception of a sarcophagus, but

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alas how fearful, a shock awaited the husband, who personally

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threw open the door. As its portals swung outwardly back,

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some white apparelled object fell, rattling within his arms. It

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was the skeletal remains of his wife in her yet

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unmolded shroud. A careful investigation rendered it evident that she

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had revived within two days after her entombment, that her

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struggles within the coffin had caused it to fall from

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a ledge or shelf to the floor, where it was

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so broken as to permit her escape. A lamp, which

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had been accidentally left full of oil within the tomb,

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was found empty. It might have been exhausted, however, by evaporation.

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On the uppermost of the steps which led down into

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the dread chamber, was a large fragment of the car often,

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with which it seemed that she had endeavored to arrest

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attention by striking the iron door While thus occupied, she

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probably swooned or possibly died through sheer terror, and in

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falling her shroud became entangled in some iron work which

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projected interiorly. Thus she remained, and thus she rotted erect.

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In the year eighteen ten, a case of living inhumation

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happened in France, attended with circumstances which go far to

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warrant the ascertation that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

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The heroine of the story was a mademoiselle Victorine Laforcade,

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a young girl of ille illustrious family, of wealth and

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of great personal beauty. Among her numerous suitors was Julien Bossuet,

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a poor literature or journalist of Paris. His talents and

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general amiability had recommended him to the notice of the

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heiress by whom he seems to have been truly beloved,

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But her pride of birth decided her finally to reject

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him and to wed Monsieur Renelle, a banker and a

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diplomatist of some eminence. After marriage, however, this gentleman neglected

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and perhaps even more positively ill treated her. Having passed

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with him some wretched years, she died at least her

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condition so closely resembled death as to deceive everyone who

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saw her. She was buried not in a vault, but

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in an ordinary grave in the village of her nativity.

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Filled with despair and still inflamed by the memory of

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a profound attachment, the lover journeys from the capital to

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the remote province in which the village lies, with the

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romantic purpose of disintearing the corpse and possessing himself of

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it its luxuriant tresses. He reaches the grave at midnight.

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He unearths the coffin, opens it, and is in the

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act of detaching the hair when he is arrested by

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the unclosing of the beloved eyes. In fact, the lady

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had been buried alive, vitality had not altogether departed, and

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she was aroused by the caresses of her lover from

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the lethargy which had been mistaken for death. He bore

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her frantically to his lodgings in the village. He employed

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certain powerful restoratives suggested by no little medical learning. In

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fine she revived, She recognized her preserver. She remained with

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him until, by slow degrees, she fully recovered her original health.

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Her woman's heart was not adamant, and this last lesson

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of love sufficed to soften it. She bestowed it upon Bossuet.

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She returned no more to her husband, but concealing from

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him her resurrection, fled with her lover to America. Twenty

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years afterwards, the two returned to France in the persuasion

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that time had so greatly altered the lady's appearance that

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her friends would be unable to recognize her. They were mistaken, however,

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for at the first meeting, Monsieur Renelle did actually recognize

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and make claim to his wife. This claim she resisted,

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and a judicial tribunal sustained her in her resistance, deciding

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that the peculiar circumstances, with the long lapse of years,

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had extinguished not only equitably but legally the authority of

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the husband. The Chirogical Journal of Leipzig, a periodical of

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high authority and merit which some American booksellers would do

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well to translate and republish, records in a late number

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a very distressing event of the character in question, an

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officer of artillery, a man of gigantic stature and of

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robust health, being thrown from an unmanageable horse received a

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very severe contusion upon the head, which rendered him insensible

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at once. The skull was slightly fractured, but no immediate

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danger was apprehended. Trepanning was accomplished successfully, he was bled,

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and many other of the ordinary means of relief were adopted. Gradually, however,

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he fell into a more and more hopeless state of stupor,

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and finally it was thought that he died. The weather

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was warm, and he was buried with indecent haste in

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one of the public cemeteries. His funeral took place on Thursday,

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and on the Sunday following the grounds of the cemetery were,

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as usual, much thronged with visitors, and about noon an

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intense excitement was created by the declaration of a peasant that,

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while sitting upon the grave of the officer, he had

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distinctly felt a commotion of the earth, as if occasioned

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by someone struggling beneath. At first, little attention was paid

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to the man's asservation, but his evident terror and the

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dogged obstinacy with which he persisted in his story had

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at length their natural effect upon the crowd. Spades were heard, procured,

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and the grave which was shamefully shallow, was in a

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few minutes so far thrown open that the head of

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its occupant appeared. He was then seemingly dead, but he

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sat nearly erect within his coffin, the lid of which

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in his furious struggles he had partially uplifted. He was

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forthwith conveyed to the nearest hospital, and there pronounced to

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be still living, although in an asphytic condition. After some

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hours he revived, recognized individuals of his acquaintance, and in

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broken sentences, spoke of his agonies in the grave. From

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what he related, it was clear that he must have

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been conscious of life for more more than an hour

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while inhumed, before lapsing into insensibility. The grave was carelessly

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and loosely filled with an exceedingly porous soil, and thus

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some air was necessarily admitted. He heard the footsteps of

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the crowd overhead, and endeavored to make himself heard in turn.

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It was the tumult within the grounds of the cemetery,

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he said, which appeared to awaken him from a deep sleep.

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But no sooner was he awake than he became fully

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aware of the awful horrors of his position. This patient

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it is recorded, was doing well and seemed to be

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in a fair way of ultimate recovery, but fell a

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victim to the quackeries of medical experiment. The galvanic battle

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was applied, and he suddenly expired in one of those

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ecstatic paroxysms which occasionally it superinduces. The mention of the

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galvanic battery nevertheless recalls to my memory a well known

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and very extraordinary case in point where its action proved

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the means of restoring to animation a young attorney of

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London who had been interred for two days. This occurred

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in eighteen twenty one, and created at the time a

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very profound sensation whenever it was made the subject of converse.

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The patient, mister Edward Stapleton, had died, apparently of typhus fever,

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accompanied with some anomalous symptoms which had excited the curiosity

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city of his medical attendance. Upon his seeming decease, his

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friends were requested to sanction a post mortem examination, but

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declined to permit it. As often happens when such refusals

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are made, the practitioners resolved to dissenter the body and

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dissect it at leisure in private arrangements. Were easily affected

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with some of the numerous cores of body snatchers with

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which London abounds, and upon the third night after the funeral,

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the supposed corpse was unearthed from a grave eight feet

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deep and deposited into the operating chamber of one of

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the private hospitals. An incision of some extent had been

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actually made in the abdomen when the fresh and un

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decayed appearance of the subject suggested an application of the battery.

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One experiment succeeded another, and the customary effects supervened, with

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nothing to characterize them in any respect, except upon one

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or two occasions a more than ordinary degree of lifelikeness

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in the convulsive action. It grew late, the day was

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about to dawn, and it was thought expedient at length

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to proceed at once to the dissection. A student, however,

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was especially desirous of testing a theory of his own,

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and insisted upon applying the battery to one of the

216
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pectoral muscles. A rough gash was made and a wire

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hastily brought in contact. When the patient, with a hurried

218
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but quite unconclusive movement, arose from the table, stepped into

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the middle of the floor, gazed about him uneasily for

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a few seconds, and then spoke. What he said was unintelligible,

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but the words were uttered, the syllabification was distinct. Having spoken,

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he fell heavily to the floor. For some moments all

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were paralyzed with awe, but the urgency of the case

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soon restored them their presence of mind. It was seen

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that mister Stapleton was alive, although in a swoon. Upon

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exhibition of ether, he revived and was rapidly restored to

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health and to the society of his friends, from whom, however,

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all knowledge of his resuscitation was withheld until a relapse

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was no longer to be apprehended. Their wonder, their rapturious astonishment,

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may be conceived. The most thrilling peculiarity of this incident, nevertheless,

231
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is involved in what mister s himself asserts. He declares

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that at no period was he altogether insensible, that dully

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and confusedly, he was aware of everything which happened to him,

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from the moment in which he was pronounced dead by

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his physicians to that in which he fell swooning to

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the floor of the hospital. I am alive. Were the

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uncomprehended words, which, upon recognizing the locality of the dissecting room,

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he had endeavored in his extremity to utter it. Were

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an easy matter to multiply such histories as these, But

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I forbear for indeed, we have no need of such

241
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to establish the fact that premature interments occur. When we

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reflect upon how very rarely from the nature of the

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case we have it in our power to detect them,

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we must admit that they may frequently occur without our cognizance.

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Scarcely in truth is a graveyard ever encroached upon for

246
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any purpose to any great extent, that skeletons are not

247
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found in postures which suggest the most fearful of suspicions.

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Fearful indeed the suspicion, but more fearful the doom. It

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may be asserted without hesitation, that no event is so

250
00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:16.519
terribly well adapted to inspire the supremeness of bodily and

251
00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:24.759
of mental distress, as is burial before death, the unendurable

252
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oppression of the lungs, the stifling fumes from the damp earth,

253
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the clinging of the death garments, the rigid embrace of

254
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the narrow house, the blackness of the absolute night, the

255
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silence like a sea that overwhelms the unseen but palpable

256
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presence of the conqueror worm. These things with thoughts of

257
00:24:54.920 --> 00:24:59.880
the air and grass above, with memory of dear friends

258
00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:04.119
who would fly to save us, if but informed of

259
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:09.400
our fate, and with consciousness that of this fate, they

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00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:14.359
can never be informed that our hopeless portion is that

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of the really dead. These considerations, I say, carry into

262
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the heart which still palpitates a degree of appalling and

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intolerable horror from which the most daring imagination must recoil.

264
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We know of nothing so agonizing upon earth. We can

265
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dream of nothing half so hideous in the realms of

266
00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:48.440
the nethermost hell. And thus all narratives upon this topic

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00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:54.440
have an interest profound, an interest, nevertheless, which, through the

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sacred awe of the topic itself, very properly and very

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peculit uliarily depends upon our conviction of the truth of

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00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:09.559
the matter narrated. What I have now to tell you

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is of my own actual knowledge, of my own positive

272
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and personal experience. For several years I had been subject

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to attacks of the singular disorder which physicians have agreed

274
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to term catalepsy. In default of a more definitive title.

275
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Although both the immediate and the predisposing causes, and even

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the actual diagnosis of this disease are still mysteries, its

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00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:53.839
obvious and apparent character is sufficiently well understood. Its variations

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00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:59.400
seem to be chiefly of degree. Sometimes the patient lies

279
00:26:59.519 --> 00:27:03.640
for a day only, or even for a shorter period.

280
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In a species of exaggerated lethargy, he is senseless and

281
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.680
externally motionless, but the pulsation of the heart is still

282
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faintly perceptible. Some traces of warmth remain a slight color

283
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:26.839
lingers within the center of the cheek, and upon application

284
00:27:27.079 --> 00:27:31.000
of a mirror to the lips, we can detect torpid,

285
00:27:31.599 --> 00:27:38.279
unequal and vacillating action of the lungs. Then again, the

286
00:27:38.359 --> 00:27:43.759
duration of the trance is for weeks, even for months,

287
00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:49.599
While the closest scrutiny and the most rigorous medical tests

288
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:55.200
fail to establish any material distinction between the state of

289
00:27:55.279 --> 00:28:01.359
the sufferer and what we can conceive of absolute death.

290
00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:08.039
Very usually he is saved from premature interment solely by

291
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the knowledge of his friends that he has been previously

292
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subject to catalepsy. By the consequent suspicion excited, and above

293
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:24.240
all by the non appearance of decay. The advances of

294
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the malady are luckily gradual. The first manifestations, although marked,

295
00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:37.960
are unequivocal. The fits grow successively more and more distinctive,

296
00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:42.559
and endure each for a longer term than the preceding.

297
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In this lies the principal security from inhumation. The unfortunate,

298
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whose first attack should be of the extreme character which

299
00:28:53.519 --> 00:29:00.160
is occasionally seen, would almost inevitably be consigned alive to

300
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:06.000
the tomb. My own case differed in no important particular

301
00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:12.960
from those mentioned in medical books. Sometimes without any apparent cause,

302
00:29:13.640 --> 00:29:19.200
I sank little by little into a condition of hemi

303
00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:25.759
syncope or half swoon, And in this condition, without pain,

304
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:32.200
without ability to stir, or strictly speaking, to think, but

305
00:29:32.359 --> 00:29:36.640
with a dull lethargic consciousness of life and of the

306
00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:43.160
presence of those who surrounded my bed, I remained until

307
00:29:43.240 --> 00:29:49.440
the crisis of the disease restored me suddenly to perfect sensation.

308
00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:56.759
At other times I was quickly and impetuously smitten. I

309
00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:00.799
grew sick and numb, and chilly and busy, and so

310
00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:07.279
fell prostrate at once. Then for weeks all was void

311
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:14.279
and black and silent, and nothing became the universe. Total

312
00:30:14.359 --> 00:30:21.680
annihilation could be no more from these latter attacks. I awoke, however,

313
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:26.599
with a gradation slow in proportion to the suddenness of

314
00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:31.599
the seizure. Just as the day dawns to the friendless

315
00:30:31.640 --> 00:30:36.319
and houseless beggar who roams the streets throughout the long

316
00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:44.279
desolate winter night, just so tardily, just so wearily, just

317
00:30:44.519 --> 00:30:50.079
so cheerily, came back the light of the soul to me.

318
00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:56.200
Apart from the tendency to trance, however, my general health

319
00:30:56.279 --> 00:31:00.839
appeared to be good, nor could I proceed eve that

320
00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:05.200
it was at all affected by the one prevalent malady,

321
00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:12.160
unless indeed, an idiosyncrasy in my ordinary sleep may be

322
00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:19.039
looked upon as superinduced. Upon awakening from slumber, I could

323
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never gain at once thorough possession of my senses, and

324
00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:30.240
always remained for many minutes in much bewilderment and perplexity.

325
00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:36.440
The mental faculties in general, but the memory in especial,

326
00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:41.960
being in a condition of absolute abeyance. In all that

327
00:31:42.119 --> 00:31:46.960
I endured, there was no physical suffering, but of moral

328
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distress and infinitude. My fancy grew charnel I talked of worms,

329
00:31:55.119 --> 00:32:01.240
of tombs and epitaphs. I was lost in reveries of death,

330
00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:08.079
and the idea of premature burial held continual possession of

331
00:32:08.119 --> 00:32:13.240
my brain. The ghastly danger in which I was subjected

332
00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:19.599
haunted me day and night. In the former the torture

333
00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:26.319
of meditation was excessive. In the latter supreme, when the

334
00:32:26.359 --> 00:32:32.720
grim darkness overspread the earth, then with every horror of thought,

335
00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:38.680
I shook, shook, like the quivering plumes upon the hearse,

336
00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:44.279
when nature could endure wakefulness no longer. It was with

337
00:32:44.359 --> 00:32:48.839
a struggle that I consented to sleep, for I shuddered

338
00:32:48.880 --> 00:32:55.000
to reflect that upon awaking I might find myself the

339
00:32:55.079 --> 00:33:02.359
tenant of a grave. And when finally I sank into slumber,

340
00:33:02.920 --> 00:33:05.799
it was only to rush at once into a world

341
00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:12.920
of phantasms, above which, with vast sable overshadowing wing, hovered

342
00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:21.720
predominant the one sepucural idea from the innumerable images of gloom,

343
00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:27.319
which thus oppressed me. In dreams I select for record,

344
00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:32.319
but a solitary vision, methought. I was immersed in a

345
00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:38.799
cataleptic trance of more than usual duration and profundity. Suddenly

346
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.240
there came an icy hand upon my forehead, and an impatient,

347
00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:54.640
gibbering voice whispered the word arise. I sat erect. The

348
00:33:54.799 --> 00:33:58.880
darkness was total. I could not see the figure of

349
00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:03.400
whom had aroused me. I could call to mind, neither

350
00:34:03.559 --> 00:34:06.519
the period at which I had fallen into the trance,

351
00:34:07.279 --> 00:34:11.880
nor the locality in which I then lay. While I

352
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:16.639
remained motionless and busied in endeavors to collect my thoughts,

353
00:34:17.480 --> 00:34:22.119
the cold hand grasped me fiercely by the wrist, shaking

354
00:34:22.159 --> 00:34:29.079
it petulantly, while the gibbering voice said again, arise. Did

355
00:34:29.079 --> 00:34:36.199
I not bid thee arise? And who I demanded? Art? Thou?

356
00:34:37.880 --> 00:34:42.159
I am called shadow in the regions which I inhabit,

357
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:49.559
replied the voice mournfully. I was mortal, but am fiend.

358
00:34:50.199 --> 00:34:56.280
I was merciless, but am pitiful. Thou dost feel that

359
00:34:56.400 --> 00:35:00.519
I shudder, My teeth chatter as I speak. Yet it

360
00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:04.039
is not with the chilliness of the night of the

361
00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:11.199
night without end. But this hideousness is insufferable. How canst

362
00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:15.079
thou tranquility sleep? I cannot rest for the cry of

363
00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:20.320
these great agonies. These sights are more than I can bear.

364
00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:24.360
Get THEE up, Come with me into the outer night,

365
00:35:24.840 --> 00:35:28.840
and let me unfold to thee the graves. Is not

366
00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:35.599
this a spectacle of woe? Behold? I looked, and the

367
00:35:35.800 --> 00:35:41.000
unseen figure, which still grasped me by the wrist, had

368
00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:45.880
cause to be thrown the open graves of all mankind,

369
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:52.639
and from each issued the faint phosphoric radiance of decay,

370
00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:58.639
so that I could see into the innermost recesses, and

371
00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:02.760
there view the shri routed bodies in their sad and

372
00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:09.679
solemn slumbers with the worm. But alas the real sleepers

373
00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:15.400
were fewer by many millions than those who slumbered not

374
00:36:15.559 --> 00:36:20.280
at all. And there was a feeble struggling, and there

375
00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:24.519
was a general sad unrest, And from out the depths

376
00:36:24.559 --> 00:36:29.440
of the countless pits there came a melancholy rustling from

377
00:36:29.480 --> 00:36:35.639
the garments of the buried and of those who seemed

378
00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:41.800
tranquility to repose. I saw that a vast number had changed,

379
00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:46.079
in a greater or less degree, the rigid and uneasy

380
00:36:46.199 --> 00:36:50.079
position in which they had originally been entuned. And the

381
00:36:50.199 --> 00:36:56.960
voice again said to me, as I gazed, is it not, oh?

382
00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:02.480
Is it not a pitiful sight? But before I could

383
00:37:02.519 --> 00:37:06.400
find words to reply, the figure had ceased to grasp

384
00:37:06.559 --> 00:37:13.840
my wrist. The phosphoric lights expired, and the graves were

385
00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:19.760
closed with a sudden violence, while from out them arose

386
00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:25.679
a tumult of despairing cries, saying, again, is it not,

387
00:37:26.239 --> 00:37:32.719
O God? Is it not a very pitiful sight? Phantasies

388
00:37:32.840 --> 00:37:38.159
such as these, presenting themselves at night, extended their terrific

389
00:37:38.360 --> 00:37:45.400
influence far into my waking hours. My nerves became thoroughly unstrung,

390
00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:51.960
and I fell a prey to perpetual horror. I hesitated

391
00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:56.519
to ride, or to walk, or to indulge in any

392
00:37:56.679 --> 00:38:02.079
exercise that would carry me from home. In fact, I

393
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:06.679
no longer dared trust myself out of the immediate presence

394
00:38:06.760 --> 00:38:11.679
of those who were aware of my proneness to catalepsy.

395
00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:17.079
Lest falling into one of my usual fits, I should

396
00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:23.119
be buried before my real condition could be ascertained. I

397
00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:28.400
doubted the care the fidelity of my dearest friends. I

398
00:38:28.480 --> 00:38:33.199
dreaded that, in some trance of more than customary duration,

399
00:38:34.119 --> 00:38:39.079
they might be prevailed upon to regard me as irrevocable.

400
00:38:39.880 --> 00:38:43.719
I even went so far as to fear that, as

401
00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:48.199
I occasioned much trouble, they might be glad to consider

402
00:38:48.280 --> 00:38:54.320
any very protracted attack as sufficient excuse for getting rid

403
00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:59.440
of me altogether. It was in vain. They endeavored to

404
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:04.880
reassure me by the most solemn promises. I exacted the

405
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:09.360
most sacred oaths, that under no circumstances they would bury

406
00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:14.639
me until decomposition had so materially advanced as to render

407
00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:21.760
further preservation impossible, and even then my mortal terrors would

408
00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:27.519
listen to no reason, would accept no consolation. I entered

409
00:39:27.559 --> 00:39:32.239
into a series of elaborate precautions. Among other things, I

410
00:39:32.320 --> 00:39:35.960
had the family vault so remodeled as to admit of

411
00:39:36.079 --> 00:39:41.320
being readily opened from within. The slightest pressure upon a

412
00:39:41.400 --> 00:39:46.079
long lever that extended far into the tomb would cause

413
00:39:46.119 --> 00:39:51.159
the iron portals to fly back. There were arrangements also

414
00:39:51.719 --> 00:39:55.400
for the free admission of air and light, and convenient

415
00:39:55.519 --> 00:40:00.039
receptacles for food and water within immediate reach of the

416
00:40:00.079 --> 00:40:06.320
coffin intended for my reception. This coffin was warmly and

417
00:40:06.519 --> 00:40:11.440
softly padded, and was provided with a lid fashioned upon

418
00:40:11.519 --> 00:40:14.920
the principle of the vault door, with the addition of

419
00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:19.559
spring so contrived that the feeblest movement of the body

420
00:40:20.199 --> 00:40:25.360
would be sufficient to set it at liberty. Besides all this,

421
00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:29.800
there was suspended from the roof of the tomb a

422
00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:34.320
large bell, the rope of which it was designed should

423
00:40:34.320 --> 00:40:38.079
extend through a hole in the coffin, and so be

424
00:40:38.280 --> 00:40:41.920
fastened to one of the hands of the corpse. But

425
00:40:42.039 --> 00:40:46.840
alas what avails the vigilance against the destiny of man,

426
00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:52.800
not even these well contrived securities sufficed to say from

427
00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:58.039
the uttermost agonies of living inhumation a wretched to these

428
00:40:58.079 --> 00:41:05.480
agonies foredoomed. There arrived an epic, as often before there

429
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:10.119
had arrived, in which I found myself emerging from total

430
00:41:10.239 --> 00:41:18.239
unconsciousness into the first feeble and indefinite sense of existence. Slowly,

431
00:41:19.239 --> 00:41:24.679
with a tortoise gradation, approached the faint gray dawn of

432
00:41:24.760 --> 00:41:31.199
the cycle day, a torpid uneasiness, an apathetic endurance of

433
00:41:31.679 --> 00:41:38.800
dull pain, no care, no hope, no effort. Then, after

434
00:41:38.920 --> 00:41:45.159
a long interval, a ringing in the ears, Then, after

435
00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:50.920
a lapse still longer, a pricking or tingling sensation in

436
00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:58.360
the extremities. Then a seemingly eternal period of pleasurable acquiescence,

437
00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:03.679
during which the way awakening feelings are struggling into thought.

438
00:42:04.320 --> 00:42:10.440
Then a brief re sinking into nonentity, then a sudden

439
00:42:10.519 --> 00:42:15.280
recovery at length, the slight quivering of an eyelid, and

440
00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:22.000
immediately thereupon an electric shock of terror, deadly and indefinite,

441
00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:25.639
which sends the blood in torrents from the temples of

442
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:32.400
the heart. And now the first positive effort to think,

443
00:42:33.559 --> 00:42:39.800
and now the first endeavor to remember, and now a

444
00:42:39.960 --> 00:42:45.559
partial and evanescent success. And now the memory has so

445
00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:50.840
far regained its dominion. In some measure, I am cognizant

446
00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:56.039
of my state. I feel that I am not awaking

447
00:42:56.159 --> 00:43:00.960
from ordinary sleep. I recollect that I have been subject

448
00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:06.440
to catalepsy. And now, at last, as if by the

449
00:43:06.519 --> 00:43:12.000
rush of an ocean, my shuddering spirit is overwhelmed by

450
00:43:12.039 --> 00:43:18.119
the one grim danger, by the one spectral and ever

451
00:43:18.280 --> 00:43:24.280
prevalent idea. For some minutes after this fancy possessed me,

452
00:43:25.119 --> 00:43:30.320
I remained without any motion. And why I could not

453
00:43:30.519 --> 00:43:34.679
summon courage to move, I dared not make the effort

454
00:43:34.719 --> 00:43:39.000
which was to satisfy me of my fate. And yet

455
00:43:39.199 --> 00:43:43.480
there was something at my heart which whispered me. It

456
00:43:43.639 --> 00:43:49.800
was sure despair, such as no other species of wretchedness

457
00:43:50.079 --> 00:43:57.119
ever calls into being. Despair alone urged me, after long

458
00:43:57.199 --> 00:44:01.280
irresolution to uplift the heavy life lids of my eyes.

459
00:44:02.159 --> 00:44:10.360
I uplifted them. It was dark, all dark. I knew

460
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:14.960
that the fit was over. I knew that the crisis

461
00:44:14.960 --> 00:44:19.239
of my disorder had long passed. I knew that I

462
00:44:19.320 --> 00:44:24.159
had fully recovered the use of my visual faculties. And

463
00:44:24.239 --> 00:44:31.320
yet it was dark, all dark, the intense and utter

464
00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:40.079
raylessness of the night that endureth forevermore. I endeavored to shriek,

465
00:44:40.440 --> 00:44:45.119
and my lips and my parched tongue moved convulsively together

466
00:44:45.239 --> 00:44:50.519
in the attempt, But no voice issued from the cavernous lungs,

467
00:44:51.679 --> 00:44:56.639
which oppressed, as if by the weight of some incumbent mountain,

468
00:44:57.199 --> 00:45:01.199
gasped and palpitated with the heart at every elaborate and

469
00:45:01.400 --> 00:45:07.480
struggling inspiration. The movement of the jaws in this effort

470
00:45:07.800 --> 00:45:13.280
to cry aloud showed me that they were bound up,

471
00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:20.000
as is usual with the dead. I felt, too, that

472
00:45:20.119 --> 00:45:25.880
I lay upon some hard substance, and by something similar,

473
00:45:26.119 --> 00:45:32.079
my sides were also closely compressed. So far I had

474
00:45:32.119 --> 00:45:36.320
not ventured to stir any of my limbs. But now

475
00:45:36.360 --> 00:45:39.840
I violently threw up my arms, which had been lying

476
00:45:39.880 --> 00:45:45.519
at length with the wrists crossed, they struck a solid

477
00:45:45.559 --> 00:45:50.000
wooden substance which extended above my person, at an elevation

478
00:45:50.199 --> 00:45:56.280
of not more than six inches from my face. I

479
00:45:56.360 --> 00:46:01.599
could no longer doubt that I posed within a coffin.

480
00:46:02.400 --> 00:46:09.320
At last, and now amid all my infinite miseries, came

481
00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:15.599
sweetly the cherub of hope. For I thought of my precautions.

482
00:46:16.360 --> 00:46:21.639
I writhed and made spasmodic exertions to force open the lid.

483
00:46:23.199 --> 00:46:27.519
It would not move. I felt my wrists for the

484
00:46:27.519 --> 00:46:34.199
bell rope. It was not to be found. And now

485
00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:42.840
the comforter fled forever, and a still sterner despair reigned triumphant,

486
00:46:43.400 --> 00:46:46.920
for I could not help perceiving the absence of the

487
00:46:46.960 --> 00:46:53.960
paddings which I had so carefully prepared. And then too,

488
00:46:54.079 --> 00:46:59.639
there came suddenly to my nostrils the strong, peculiar odor

489
00:47:00.679 --> 00:47:07.519
of moist earth. The conclusion was irresistible. I was not

490
00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:11.360
within the vault. I had fallen into a trance, while

491
00:47:11.480 --> 00:47:16.599
absent from home, while among strangers, when or how I

492
00:47:16.679 --> 00:47:20.440
could not remember. And it was they who had buried

493
00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:24.920
me as a dog, nailed up in some common coffin,

494
00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:31.159
and thrust deep, deep, and forever into some ordinary and

495
00:47:31.440 --> 00:47:39.840
nameless grave. As this awful conviction forced itself thus into

496
00:47:39.880 --> 00:47:45.199
the innermost chambers of my soul, I once again struggled

497
00:47:45.760 --> 00:47:52.800
to cry aloud, And in this second endeavor I succeeded.

498
00:47:53.679 --> 00:47:59.360
A long, wild and continuous shriek or yell of agony

499
00:48:00.079 --> 00:48:07.320
resounded through the realms of the subterene night. Hello, Hello,

500
00:48:07.480 --> 00:48:13.119
there said a gruff voice in reply. What the devil

501
00:48:13.199 --> 00:48:17.679
is the matter? Now? Said a second. Get out of that,

502
00:48:18.679 --> 00:48:22.800
said a third. What do you mean by yawling in

503
00:48:22.880 --> 00:48:27.679
that air kind of style like a catymount? Said a fourth.

504
00:48:28.119 --> 00:48:33.760
And hereupon I was seized and shaken without ceremony for

505
00:48:33.920 --> 00:48:39.119
several minutes by a junto of very rough looking individuals.

506
00:48:40.079 --> 00:48:43.280
They did not arouse me from my slumber, for I

507
00:48:43.440 --> 00:48:48.360
was wide awake when I screamed, But they restored me

508
00:48:48.480 --> 00:48:54.719
to the full possession of my memory. This adventure occurred

509
00:48:54.840 --> 00:48:59.639
near Richmond in Virginia. Accompanied by a friend I had

510
00:48:59.639 --> 00:49:04.760
pursued upon a gunning expedition some miles down the banks

511
00:49:05.119 --> 00:49:10.159
of the James River. Night approached and we were overtaken

512
00:49:10.280 --> 00:49:14.760
by a storm. The cabin of a small sloop lying

513
00:49:14.880 --> 00:49:19.159
at anchor in the stream and laden with garden mold,

514
00:49:19.880 --> 00:49:24.519
afforded us the only available shelter. We made the best

515
00:49:24.599 --> 00:49:28.239
of it and passed the night on board. I slept

516
00:49:28.280 --> 00:49:30.880
in one of the only two berths in the vessel,

517
00:49:31.599 --> 00:49:34.719
and the berths of a sloop of sixty or seventy

518
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:39.960
tons need scarcely be described. That which I occupied had

519
00:49:40.199 --> 00:49:45.599
no bedding of any kind. Its extreme width was eighteen inches,

520
00:49:46.480 --> 00:49:49.559
the distance of its bottom from the deck overhead was

521
00:49:49.920 --> 00:49:54.320
precisely the same. I found it a matter of exceeding

522
00:49:54.440 --> 00:50:02.559
difficulty to squeeze myself in. Nevertheless, I slept soundly, and

523
00:50:02.639 --> 00:50:05.800
the whole of my vision, for it was no dream

524
00:50:05.920 --> 00:50:11.519
and no nightmare, arose naturally from the circumstances of my position,

525
00:50:12.679 --> 00:50:18.119
from my ordinary bias of thought, and from the difficulty

526
00:50:18.519 --> 00:50:21.840
to which I have alluded of collecting my senses, and

527
00:50:22.079 --> 00:50:27.000
especially of regaining my memory. For a long time after

528
00:50:27.119 --> 00:50:31.559
awaking from slumber, the men who shook me were the

529
00:50:31.679 --> 00:50:36.039
crew of the sloop and some laborers engaged to unload it.

530
00:50:37.039 --> 00:50:41.760
From the load itself came the earthly smell. The bandage

531
00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:45.239
about the jaws was a silk handkerchief in which I

532
00:50:45.320 --> 00:50:50.960
had bound up my head in default of my customary nightcap.

533
00:50:51.760 --> 00:50:57.280
The tortures endured, however, were indubitably quite equal for the

534
00:50:57.400 --> 00:51:03.719
time to those actual sepulty. They were fearfully they were

535
00:51:04.039 --> 00:51:10.679
inconceivably hideous, but out of evil proceded good. For their

536
00:51:10.880 --> 00:51:16.000
very excess wrought in my spirit an inevitable revulsion. My

537
00:51:16.199 --> 00:51:22.639
soul acquired tone, acquired temper. I went abroad, I took

538
00:51:22.760 --> 00:51:28.000
vigorous exercise, I breathed the free air of heaven. I

539
00:51:28.079 --> 00:51:34.559
thought upon other subjects than death. I discarded my medical books,

540
00:51:35.159 --> 00:51:40.440
Buchan I burned. I read no night thoughts, no fustian

541
00:51:40.519 --> 00:51:46.320
about church yards, no bugaboo tales such as this. In short,

542
00:51:46.440 --> 00:51:51.480
I became a new man and lived a man's life.

543
00:51:52.039 --> 00:51:57.400
From that memorable night, I dismissed forever my charnel apprehensions,

544
00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:01.639
and with them vanished the cat eleptic disorder of which

545
00:52:01.960 --> 00:52:07.000
perhaps they had been less the consequence than the cause.

546
00:52:08.159 --> 00:52:11.639
There are moments when, even to the sober eye of reason,

547
00:52:12.239 --> 00:52:16.840
the world of our sad humanity may assume the semblance

548
00:52:17.320 --> 00:52:20.920
of a hell. But the intellect of man is no

549
00:52:21.199 --> 00:52:28.840
carathis to explore with impunity. It's every cavern alas the

550
00:52:28.880 --> 00:52:36.159
grim legion of sepucural terrors cannot be regarded as altogether fanciful,

551
00:52:36.760 --> 00:52:41.719
But like the demons in whose company Afrosiab made his

552
00:52:41.920 --> 00:52:47.880
voyage down the Oxus, they must sleep, or they will

553
00:52:47.920 --> 00:52:55.199
devour us. They must be suffered to slumber, or we

554
00:52:55.360 --> 00:53:09.599
perish