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Transcript

02 - The Mysterious Parchment - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter two, The Mysterious Parchment, I declare, cried my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: striking the table fiercely with his fist. I declare to
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  Speaker 1: you it is runic and contains some wonderful secret, which
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  Speaker 1: I must get at at any price. I was about
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  Speaker 1: to reply when he stopped me. Sit down, He said,
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  Speaker 1: quite fiercely, and write to my dictation. I obeyed. I
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  Speaker 1: will substitute, he said, a letter of our alphabet for
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  Speaker 1: that of the runic. We will then see what that
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  Speaker 1: will produce. Now begin and make no mistakes. The dictation
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  Speaker 1: commenced with a following incomprehensible result. M m r n
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  Speaker 1: l l s is ruel s e e c j
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  Speaker 1: d e s g t s s m f u
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  Speaker 1: n t e I E f n e e d
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  Speaker 1: e r k e k t comma s.
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  Speaker 2: A m n A t r A t e s
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  Speaker 2: s a O d r r n e m t
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  Speaker 2: n a e I n u a e c t
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  Speaker 2: r r I l s a A t v a
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  Speaker 2: A r dot n s c r c I e
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  Speaker 2: a a b s c c d r m I
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  Speaker 2: e e U t u i'll f r a n
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  Speaker 2: t U d T comma I A c o s
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  Speaker 2: E I B O K E D I I Y
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  Speaker 2: scarcely giving me time to finish. My uncle snatched the
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  Speaker 2: document from my hands and examined it with the most
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  Speaker 2: wrapped and deep attention. I should like to know what
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  Speaker 2: it means, he said, after a long period. I certainly
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  Speaker 2: could not tell him, nor did he expect me to,
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  Speaker 2: his conversation being uniformly answered by himself. I declare, it
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  Speaker 2: puts me in mind of a cryptograph, he cried, unless
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  Speaker 2: indeed the letters have been written without any real meaning.
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  Speaker 2: And yet why takes so much trouble? Who knows? But
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  Speaker 2: I may be on the verge of some great discovery.
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  Speaker 2: My candid opinion was that it was all rubbish. But
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  Speaker 2: this opinion I kept carefully to myself, as my uncle's
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  Speaker 2: showler was not pleasant to bear. All this time he
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  Speaker 2: was comparing the book with a parchment. The manuscript volume
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  Speaker 2: and the smaller document are written in different hands.
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  Speaker 1: He said. The cryptograph is of much later date than
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  Speaker 1: the book. There is an undoubted proof of the correct
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  Speaker 1: of my surmise, an irrefragable proof I took it to be.
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  Speaker 1: The first letter is a double M, which was only
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  Speaker 1: added to the Icelandic language in the twelfth century. This
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  Speaker 1: makes the parchment two hundred years posterior to the volume.
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  Speaker 1: The circumstances appeared very probable and very logical, but it
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  Speaker 1: was all surmise to me. To me, it appears probable
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  Speaker 1: that this sentence was written by some owner of the book.
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  Speaker 1: Now who was the owner is the next important question. Perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: by great good luck, it may be written somewhere in
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  Speaker 1: the volume. With these words, Professor Hartwick took off his spectacles, and,
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  Speaker 1: taking a powerful magnifying glass, examined the book carefully. On
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  Speaker 1: the fly leaf was what appeared to be a blot
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  Speaker 1: of ink, but on examination proved to be a line
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  Speaker 1: of writing, almost effaced by time. This was what he sought,
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  Speaker 1: and after some considerable time he made out these letters
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  Speaker 1: are in at Sargnosem. He cried, in a joyous and
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  Speaker 1: triumphant tone. That is not only an Islandic name, but
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  Speaker 1: of a learned professor of the sixteenth century, a celebrated alchemist.
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  Speaker 1: I bowed as a sign of respect. These alchemists, he continued,
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  Speaker 1: havichena Bacon, Lully, Paracelsus were the true, the only learned
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  Speaker 1: men of the day. They made surprising discoveries, may not
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  Speaker 1: this SARGNOSEM nephew mine have hidden on this bit of
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  Speaker 1: parchment some astounding invention. I believe the cryptograph to have
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  Speaker 1: a profound meaning, which I must make out. My uncle
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  Speaker 1: walked about the room in a state of excitement, almost
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  Speaker 1: impossible to describe. It may be so, Sir, I timidly observed.
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  Speaker 1: But why conceal it from posterity? If it be a useful,
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  Speaker 1: a worthy discovery? Why how should I know? Did not
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  Speaker 1: Galileo make a secret of his discoveries in connection with Saturn?
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  Speaker 1: But we shall see. Until I discover the meaning of
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  Speaker 1: this sentence, I will neither eat nor sleep, my dear uncle,
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  Speaker 1: I began, Nor you neither, he added, I was lucky
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  Speaker 1: I had taken double allowance that day in the first place,
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  Speaker 1: he continued, there must be a clue to the meaning.
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  Speaker 1: If we could find that, the rest would be easy enough.
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  Speaker 1: I began seriously to reflect the prospect of going without
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  Speaker 1: food and sleep was not a promising one. So I
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  Speaker 1: determined to do my best to solve the mystery. My
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  Speaker 1: uncle meanwhile went on with his SOLILOQUI. The way to
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  Speaker 1: discover it is easy enough. In this document there are
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty two letters, giving seventy nine consonants
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  Speaker 1: to fifty three vowels. This is about the proportion found
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  Speaker 1: in most Southern languages, the idioms of the North being
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  Speaker 1: much more rich in consonants. We may confidently predict, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: that we have to deal with a Southern dialect. Nothing
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  Speaker 1: could be more logical, now, said Professor Hartwick. To trace
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  Speaker 1: the particular language as Shakespeare says, that is the question,
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  Speaker 1: was my rather satirical reply. This man, Sarknussm, he continued,
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  Speaker 1: was a very learned man. Now, as he did not
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  Speaker 1: write in the language of his birthplace, he probably, like
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  Speaker 1: most learned men of the sixteenth century, wrote in Latin. If, however,
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  Speaker 1: I prove wrong in this case, we must try Spanish, French, Italian, Greek,
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  Speaker 1: and even Hebrew. My own opinion, though, is decidedly in
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  Speaker 1: favor of Latin. This proposition startled me. Latin was my
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  Speaker 1: favorite study, and it seemed sacrilege to believe this Gibrish
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  Speaker 1: to belong to the country of Virgil barbarious Latin in
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  Speaker 1: all probability, continued my uncle. But still Latin, very probably,
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  Speaker 1: I replied. Not to contradict him, Let us see into
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  Speaker 1: the matter, continued my uncle. Here you see we have
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  Speaker 1: a series of one hundred and thirty two letters apparently
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  Speaker 1: thrown pellmell upon paper without method or organization. There are
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  Speaker 1: words which are composed folly of consonants, such as M, M, point, R, N,
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  Speaker 1: l s, others which are nearly all vowels, the fifth,
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  Speaker 1: for instance, which is auntief and one of the last orsabo.
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  Speaker 1: This appears an extraordinary combination. Probably weih shall find that
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  Speaker 1: the phrase is arranged according to some mathematical plan. No doubt,
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  Speaker 1: a certain sentence has been written out and then jumbled up,
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  Speaker 1: some plan to which some figure is the clue. Now
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  Speaker 1: hurry to show your English wit. What is that figure?
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  Speaker 1: I could give him no hint. My thoughts were indeed
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  Speaker 1: far away. While he was speaking. I had caught sight
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  Speaker 1: of the portrait of my cousin Gretchen, and was wondering
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  Speaker 1: when she would return. We were affianced and loved one
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  Speaker 1: another very sincerely. But my uncle, who never thought even
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  Speaker 1: of such sublunary matters, knew nothing of this. Without noticing
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  Speaker 1: my abstraction, the professor began reading the puzzling cryptograph. All
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  Speaker 1: sorts of ways according to some theory of his own.
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  Speaker 1: Presently rousing my wondering attention, he dictated one precious attempt
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  Speaker 1: to me. I mildly handed it over to him. It
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  Speaker 1: read as follows, m m E s s u n
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  Speaker 1: k A s e n r A dot I c
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  Speaker 1: e f d o k dot s e g n
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  Speaker 1: I t t A m u r t n e
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  Speaker 1: c e r t s E r r e t
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  Speaker 1: t E comma r O t a I v s
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  Speaker 1: A d u A comma e d n e c
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  Speaker 1: s E d s A d n e l A
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  Speaker 1: c A r t n I I I l r
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  Speaker 1: j s I r A t r A c s
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  Speaker 1: a r b m U t A b I l
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  Speaker 1: e d m E k m E r e t
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  Speaker 1: A r c s I n l u c o
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  Speaker 1: y s l e f f e n s n
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  Speaker 1: I do. I could scarcely keep from laughing, while my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: on the contrary, got in a towering passion, struck the
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  Speaker 1: table with his fist, darted out of the room, out
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  Speaker 1: of the house, and then taking to his seals, was
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  Speaker 1: presently lost to sight. End of Chapter two