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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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any purpose to any great extent, that skeletons are not
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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
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terribly well adapted to inspire the supremeness of bodily and
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of mental distress, as is burial before death, the unendurable
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oppression of the lungs, the stifling fumes from the damp earth,
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the clinging of the death garments, the rigid embrace of
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the narrow house, the blackness of the absolute night, the
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silence like a sea that overwhelms the unseen but palpable
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presence of the conqueror worm. These things with thoughts of
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the air and grass above, with memory of dear friends
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who would fly to save us, if but informed of
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our fate, and with consciousness that of this fate, they
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can never be informed that our hopeless portion is that
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of the really dead. These considerations, I say, carry into
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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.
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We know of nothing so agonizing upon earth. We can
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dream of nothing half so hideous in the realms of
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the nethermost hell. And thus all narratives upon this topic
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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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the matter narrated. What I have now to tell you
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is of my own actual knowledge, of my own positive
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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
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to term catalepsy. In default of a more definitive title.
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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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obvious and apparent character is sufficiently well understood. Its variations
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seem to be chiefly of degree. Sometimes the patient lies
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for a day only, or even for a shorter period.
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In a species of exaggerated lethargy, he is senseless and
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externally motionless, but the pulsation of the heart is still
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faintly perceptible. Some traces of warmth remain a slight color
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00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:26.839
lingers within the center of the cheek, and upon application
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of a mirror to the lips, we can detect torpid,
285
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unequal and vacillating action of the lungs. Then again, the
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duration of the trance is for weeks, even for months,
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While the closest scrutiny and the most rigorous medical tests
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fail to establish any material distinction between the state of
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the sufferer and what we can conceive of absolute death.
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Very usually he is saved from premature interment solely by
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the knowledge of his friends that he has been previously
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subject to catalepsy. By the consequent suspicion excited, and above
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all by the non appearance of decay. The advances of
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the malady are luckily gradual. The first manifestations, although marked,
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are unequivocal. The fits grow successively more and more distinctive,
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and endure each for a longer term than the preceding.
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In this lies the principal security from inhumation. The unfortunate,
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whose first attack should be of the extreme character which
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is occasionally seen, would almost inevitably be consigned alive to
300
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the tomb. My own case differed in no important particular
301
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from those mentioned in medical books. Sometimes without any apparent cause,
302
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I sank little by little into a condition of hemi
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00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:25.759
syncope or half swoon, And in this condition, without pain,
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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
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the crisis of the disease restored me suddenly to perfect sensation.
308
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At other times I was quickly and impetuously smitten. I
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00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:00.799
grew sick and numb, and chilly and busy, and so
310
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fell prostrate at once. Then for weeks all was void
311
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and black and silent, and nothing became the universe. Total
312
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annihilation could be no more from these latter attacks. I awoke, however,
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00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:26.599
with a gradation slow in proportion to the suddenness of
314
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the seizure. Just as the day dawns to the friendless
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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.
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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
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unless indeed, an idiosyncrasy in my ordinary sleep may be
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looked upon as superinduced. Upon awakening from slumber, I could
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never gain at once thorough possession of my senses, and
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always remained for many minutes in much bewilderment and perplexity.
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The mental faculties in general, but the memory in especial,
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being in a condition of absolute abeyance. In all that
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I endured, there was no physical suffering, but of moral
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distress and infinitude. My fancy grew charnel I talked of worms,
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00:31:55.119 --> 00:32:01.240
of tombs and epitaphs. I was lost in reveries of death,
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and the idea of premature burial held continual possession of
331
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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
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grim darkness overspread the earth, then with every horror of thought,
335
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I shook, shook, like the quivering plumes upon the hearse,
336
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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
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to reflect that upon awaking I might find myself the
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tenant of a grave. And when finally I sank into slumber,
340
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it was only to rush at once into a world
341
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of phantasms, above which, with vast sable overshadowing wing, hovered
342
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predominant the one sepucural idea from the innumerable images of gloom,
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which thus oppressed me. In dreams I select for record,
344
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but a solitary vision, methought. I was immersed in a
345
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cataleptic trance of more than usual duration and profundity. Suddenly
346
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there came an icy hand upon my forehead, and an impatient,
347
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gibbering voice whispered the word arise. I sat erect. The
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darkness was total. I could not see the figure of
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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
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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
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the cold hand grasped me fiercely by the wrist, shaking
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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
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I am called shadow in the regions which I inhabit,
357
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replied the voice mournfully. I was mortal, but am fiend.
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I was merciless, but am pitiful. Thou dost feel that
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I shudder, My teeth chatter as I speak. Yet it
360
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is not with the chilliness of the night of the
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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
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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
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this a spectacle of woe? Behold? I looked, and the
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00:35:35.800 --> 00:35:41.000
unseen figure, which still grasped me by the wrist, had
368
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cause to be thrown the open graves of all mankind,
369
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and from each issued the faint phosphoric radiance of decay,
370
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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
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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
