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Mesmeric Revelation by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, Mesmeric Revelation, Edgar Allan Poe.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever doubt may still envelop the rationale of Mesmerism, its
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  Speaker 1: startling facts are now almost universally admitted. Of these latter
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  Speaker 1: those who doubt are your mere doubters by profession an
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  Speaker 1: improfitable and disreputable tribe. There can be no more absolute
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  Speaker 1: waste of time than the attempt to prove at the
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  Speaker 1: present day that man, by mere exercise of will can
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  Speaker 1: so impress his fellow as to cast him into an
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  Speaker 1: abnormal condition of which the phenomena resemble very closely those
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  Speaker 1: of death, or at least resemble them more nearly than
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  Speaker 1: they do the phenomena of any other normal condition within
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  Speaker 1: our cognizance. That while in this state the person so
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  Speaker 1: impressed employs only with effort and then feebly, the external
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  Speaker 1: organs of sense, yet perceives with keenly refined perception and
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  Speaker 1: through channels supposed unknown matters beyond the scope of the
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  Speaker 1: physics organs, that moreover, his intellectual faculties are wonderfully exalted
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  Speaker 1: and invigorated, that his sympathies with the person so impressing
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  Speaker 1: him are profound, and finally, that his susceptibility to the
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  Speaker 1: impression increases with its frequency, while in the same proportion
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  Speaker 1: the peculiar phenomena elicited are more extended and more pronounced.
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  Speaker 1: I say that these which are the laws of mesmerism
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  Speaker 1: in its general features, it would be supererogation to demonstrate,
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  Speaker 1: nor shall I inflict upon my readers, so needless a
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  Speaker 1: demonstration to day. My purpose at present is a very
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  Speaker 1: different one. Indeed, I am impelled, even in the teeth
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  Speaker 1: of a world of prejudice, to detail without comment, the
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  Speaker 1: very remarkable substance of a colloquy occurring between a sleep
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  Speaker 1: waker and myself. I had been long in the habit
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  Speaker 1: of mesmerizing the person in question, mister van Kirk, and
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  Speaker 1: the usual acute susceptibility and exaltation of the mesmeric perception
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  Speaker 1: had supervened for many months. He had been laid bring
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  Speaker 1: under confirmed thysis, the more distressing effects of which have
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  Speaker 1: been relieved by my manipulations. And on the night of Wednesday,
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  Speaker 1: the fifteenth Instant, I was summoned to his bedside. The
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  Speaker 1: invalid was suffering with acute pain in the region of
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  Speaker 1: the heart and breathed with great difficulty, having all the
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  Speaker 1: ordinary symptoms of asthma. In spasms such as these, he
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  Speaker 1: had usually found relief from the application of mustard to
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  Speaker 1: the nervous centers, but to night this had been attempted
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  Speaker 1: in vain. As I entered his room, he greeted me
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  Speaker 1: with a cheerful smile, and, although evidently in much bodily pain,
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  Speaker 1: appeared to be mentally quite at ease. I sent for
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  Speaker 1: you tonight, he said, not so much to administer to
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  Speaker 1: my bodily ailment as to satisfy me concerning certain psychic impressions,
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  Speaker 1: which of late have occasioned me much anxiety and surprise.
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  Speaker 1: I need not tell you how skeptical I have hitherto
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  Speaker 1: been on the topic of the soul's immortality. I cannot
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  Speaker 1: deny that there has always existed, as if in that
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  Speaker 1: very soul which I have been denying, a vague half
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  Speaker 1: sentiment of its own existence. But this half sentiment at
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  Speaker 1: no time amounted to conviction with it my reason had
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  Speaker 1: nothing to do. All attempts at logical inquiry resulted, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: in leaving me more skeptical than before. I had been
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  Speaker 1: advised to study cousin. I studied him in his own works,
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  Speaker 1: as well as in those of his European and American echoes.
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  Speaker 1: That Charles Elwood of mister Brownson, for example, was placed
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  Speaker 1: in my hands. I read it with profound attention. Throughout
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  Speaker 1: I found it logical. But the portions which were not
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  Speaker 1: merely logical were unhappily the initial arguments of the disbelieving
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  Speaker 1: hero of the book. In his summing up, it seemed
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  Speaker 1: evident to me that the reasoner had not even succeeded
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  Speaker 1: in convincing himself his end, had plainly forgotten his beginning,
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  Speaker 1: like the government of Trinculo. In short, I was not
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  Speaker 1: long in perceiving that if man is to be intellectually
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  Speaker 1: convinced of his own immortality, he will never be so
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  Speaker 1: convinced by the mere abstractions which have been so long
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  Speaker 1: the fashion of the moralists of England, of France and
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  Speaker 1: of Germany. Abstractions may amuse and exercise, but take no
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  Speaker 1: hold on the mind here upon Earth. At least, Philosophy,
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  Speaker 1: I am persuaded, will always in vain call upon us
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  Speaker 1: to look upon qualities as things. The will may assent
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  Speaker 1: the soul, the intellect never I repeat then that I
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  Speaker 1: only half felt and never intellectually believed. But latterly there
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  Speaker 1: has been a certain deepening of the feeling, until it
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  Speaker 1: has come so nearly to resemble the acquiescence of reason
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  Speaker 1: that I find it difficult to distinguish between the two.
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  Speaker 1: I am enabled, too plainly to trace this effect to
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  Speaker 1: the mesmeric influence. I cannot better explain my meaning than
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  Speaker 1: by the hypothesis that the mesmeric exaltation enables me to
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  Speaker 1: perceive a train of rachiascination which, in my abnormal existence convinces,
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  Speaker 1: but which, in full accordance with the mesmeric phenomena, does
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  Speaker 1: not extend, except through its effect into my normal condition
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  Speaker 1: in sleep waking, the reasoning and its conclusion, the cause
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  Speaker 1: and its effect are present together in my natural state,
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  Speaker 1: the cause vanishing, the effect only, and perhaps only partially remains.
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  Speaker 1: These considerations have led me to think that some good
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  Speaker 1: results might ensue from a series of well directed questions
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  Speaker 1: propounded to me while mesmerized. You have often observed the
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  Speaker 1: profound self cognizance evinced by the sleep waker, the extensive
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  Speaker 1: knowledge he displays upon all points relating to the mesmeric
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  Speaker 1: condition itself, and from this self cognizance may be deduced
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  Speaker 1: hints for the proper conduct of a catechism. I consented,
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  Speaker 1: of course, to make this experiment. A few passes through
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  Speaker 1: mister van Kirk into the mesmeric sleep, his breathing became
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  Speaker 1: immediately more easy, and he seemed to suffer no physical uneasiness.
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  Speaker 1: The following conversation then ensued V in the dialog representing
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  Speaker 1: the patient and P myself. P. Are you asleep? V? Yes, no,
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  Speaker 1: I would rather sleep more soundly. P. After a few
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  Speaker 1: more passes, do you sleep now? The yes? P. How
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  Speaker 1: do you think your present illness will result? The after
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  Speaker 1: a long hesitation in speaking as if with effort I
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  Speaker 1: must die? P. Does the idea of death afflict you
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  Speaker 1: the very quickly? No? No, P Are you pleased with
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  Speaker 1: the prospect? V? If I were awake, I should like
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  Speaker 1: to die, But now it is no matter. The mesmeric
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  Speaker 1: condition is so near death as to content me. P.
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  Speaker 1: I wish you would explain yourself, mister van Kirk. V.
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  Speaker 1: I am willing to do so, but it requires more
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  Speaker 1: effort than I feel able to make. You do not
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  Speaker 1: question me properly? P? What then shall I ask the
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  Speaker 1: You must begin at the beginning, P. The beginning. But
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  Speaker 1: where is the beginning? V? You know that the beginning
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  Speaker 1: is God. This was said in a low, fluctuating tone,
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  Speaker 1: and with every sign of the most profound veneration. P.
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  Speaker 1: What then is God? The hesitating for many minutes, I
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  Speaker 1: cannot tell. P. Is not God's spirit? The While I
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  Speaker 1: was awake, I knew what you meant by spirit. But
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  Speaker 1: now it seems only a word, such, for instance, as truth, beauty,
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  Speaker 1: a quality I mean. P. Is not God immaterial V.
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  Speaker 1: There is no immateriality. It is a mere word. That
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  Speaker 1: which is not matter is not at all unless qualities
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  Speaker 1: are things. P. Is God then? Material? The No? This
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  Speaker 1: reply startled me very much. P. What then is he?
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  Speaker 1: The After a long pause and mutteringly, I see, but
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  Speaker 1: it is a thing difficult to tell. Another long pause.
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  Speaker 1: He is not spirit, for he exists, Nor is he
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  Speaker 1: matter as you understand it. But there are gradations of
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  Speaker 1: matter of which man knows nothing. The grosser impelling the finer,
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  Speaker 1: the finer pervading the grosser. The atmosphere, for example, impels
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  Speaker 1: the electric principle, while the electric principle permeates the atmosphere.
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  Speaker 1: These gradations of matter increase in rarity or fineness until
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  Speaker 1: we arrive at a matter unparticled, without particles, indivisible one,
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  Speaker 1: and here the law of impulsion and permeation is modified.
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  Speaker 1: The ultimate or unparticled matter not only permeates all things,
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  Speaker 1: but impels all things, and thus is all things within itself.
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  Speaker 1: This matter is God. What many attempt to embody in
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  Speaker 1: the word thought, is this matter in motion? P. The
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  Speaker 1: metaphysicians maintain that all action is reducible to motion and thinking,
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  Speaker 1: and that the latter is the origin of the former. V. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: and I now see the confusion of idea. Motion is
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  Speaker 1: the action of mind, not of thinking. The unparticled matter,
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  Speaker 1: or god in quiescence is as nearly as we can
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  Speaker 1: conceive it, what men call mind, And the power of
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  Speaker 1: self movement, equivalent in effect to human volition, is in
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  Speaker 1: the unparticled matter, the result of its unity and omniprevalence.
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  Speaker 1: How I know not, and now clearly see that I
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  Speaker 1: shall never know. But the unparticled matter, set in motion
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  Speaker 1: by a law or quality existing within itself, is thinking. P.
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  Speaker 1: Can you give me no more precise idea of what
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  Speaker 1: you term the unparticled matter V. The matters of which
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  Speaker 1: man is cognizant escape the senses. In gradation, we have,
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  Speaker 1: for example, a metal, a piece of wood, a drop
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  Speaker 1: of water, the atmosphere, a gas, caloric electricity, the luminiferous ether.
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  Speaker 1: Now we call all these things matter, and embrace all
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  Speaker 1: matter in one general definition. But in spite of this,
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  Speaker 1: there can be no two ideas more essentially distinct than
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  Speaker 1: that which we attach to a metal and that which
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  Speaker 1: we attach to the luminiferous ether. When we reach the latter,
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  Speaker 1: we feel an almost irresistible inclination to class it with
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  Speaker 1: spirit or with nihility. The only consideration which restrains us
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  Speaker 1: is our conception of its atomic constitution. And here even
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  Speaker 1: we have to seek aid from our notion of an
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  Speaker 1: atom as something possessing in infinite minuteness, solidity, palpability, weight.
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  Speaker 1: Destroy the idea of the atomic constitution, and we should
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  Speaker 1: no longer be able to regard the ether as an entity,
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  Speaker 1: or at least as matter. For one of a better word,
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  Speaker 1: we might term its spirit. Take now a step beyond
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  Speaker 1: the luminiferous ether. Conceive a matter is much more rare
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  Speaker 1: than the ether, as this ether is more rare than
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  Speaker 1: the metal. And we arrive at once, in spite of
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  Speaker 1: all the school dogmas, at a unique mass and unparticled matter.
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  Speaker 1: For although we may admit infinite littleness in the atoms themselves,
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  Speaker 1: the infinitude of littleness in the spaces between them is
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  Speaker 1: an absurdity. There will be a point, there will be
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  Speaker 1: a degree of rarity at which, if the atoms are
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  Speaker 1: sufficiently numerous, the interspaces must vanish and the mass absolutely coalesce.
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  Speaker 1: But the consideration of the atomic constitution being now taken away,
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  Speaker 1: the nature of the mass inevitably glides into what we
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  Speaker 1: conceive of spirit. It is clear, however, that it is
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  Speaker 1: as fully matter as before. The truth is it is
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  Speaker 1: impossible to conceive spirit, since it is impossible to imagine
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  Speaker 1: what is not. When we flatter ourselves that we have
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  Speaker 1: formed its conception, we have merely deceived our understanding by
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  Speaker 1: the consideration of infinitely rarefied matter. P It seems to
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  Speaker 1: me an insurmountable objection to the idea of absolute coalescence.
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  Speaker 1: And that is the very slight resistance experienced by the
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  Speaker 1: heavenly bodies in their revolutions through space, or resistance now ascertained,
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  Speaker 1: it is true to exist in some degree, but which
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  Speaker 1: is nevertheless so slight as to have been quite overlooked
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  Speaker 1: by the sagacity even of Newton. We know that the
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  Speaker 1: resistance of bodies is chiefly in proportion to their density.
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  Speaker 1: Absolute coalescence is absolute density. Where there are no interspaces,
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  Speaker 1: there can be no yielding. An ether absolutely dense would
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  Speaker 1: put an infinitely more effectual stop to the progress of
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  Speaker 1: a star than would an ether of adamant or of iron.
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  Speaker 1: The your objection is answered with an ease which is
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  Speaker 1: nearly in the ratio of its apparent unanswerability. Dot As
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  Speaker 1: regards the progress of the star, it can make no
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  Speaker 1: difference whether the star passes through the ether or the
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  Speaker 1: ether through it. There is no astronomical error more unaccountable
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  Speaker 1: than that which reconciles the known retardation of the comets
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  Speaker 1: with the idea of their passage through an ether. For
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  Speaker 1: however rare this ether be supposed, it would put a
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  Speaker 1: stop to all sidereal revolution in a very far briefer
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  Speaker 1: period than has been admitted by those astronomers who have
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  Speaker 1: endeavored to slur over a point which they found it
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  Speaker 1: impossible to comprehend. The retardation actually experienced is on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, about that which might be expected from the
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  Speaker 1: friction of the ether in the instantaneous passage through the
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  Speaker 1: orb In the one case, the retarding force is momentary
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  Speaker 1: and complete within itself. In the other it is endlessly accumulative. P.
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  Speaker 1: But in all this, in this identification of mere matter
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  Speaker 1: with God, is there nothing of irreverence? I was forced
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  Speaker 1: to repeat this question before the sleep waker fully comprehended
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  Speaker 1: my meaning. The can you say why matters should be
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  Speaker 1: less reverence than mind? But you forget that the matter
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  Speaker 1: of which I speak is in all respects the very
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  Speaker 1: mind or spirit of the schools, so far as regards
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  Speaker 1: its high capacities, and is moreover the matter of these schools.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, God, with all the powers attributed
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  Speaker 1: to spirit, is but the perfection of matter. P. You assert, then,
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  Speaker 1: that the unparticled matter in motion is thought. The in general,
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  Speaker 1: this motion is the universal thought of the universal Mind.
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  Speaker 1: This thought creates all created things. Are but the thoughts
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  Speaker 1: of God? P. You say in general the yes, the
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  Speaker 1: universal mind is God. For new individualities, matter is necessary. P.
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  Speaker 1: But you now speak of mind and matter as do
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  Speaker 1: the metaphysicians. The yes. To avoid confusion, When I say mind,
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  Speaker 1: I mean the unparticled or ultimate matter bite matter, I
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  Speaker 1: intend all else. P. You were saying that for new individualities,
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  Speaker 1: matter is necessary. The yes for mind existing unincorporate is
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  Speaker 1: merely God. To create individual thinking beings, it was necessary
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  Speaker 1: to incarnate portions of the divine mind. Thus man is individualized.
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  Speaker 1: Divested of corporate investiture, he were God. Now the particular
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  Speaker 1: motion of the incarnated portions of the unparticled matter is
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  Speaker 1: the thought of man, as the motion of the whole
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  Speaker 1: is that of God. P. You say that divested of
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  Speaker 1: the body, man will be God. The after much hesitation,
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  Speaker 1: I could not have said this. It is an absurdity. P.
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  Speaker 1: Referring to my notes, you did say that divested of
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  Speaker 1: corporate investiture, man were God the and this is true. Man,
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  Speaker 1: thus divested would be God, would be unindividualized. But he
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  Speaker 1: can never be thus divested, at least never will be else.
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  Speaker 1: We must imagine an action of God returning upon itself,
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  Speaker 1: a purposeless and feudal action. Man is a creature. Creatures
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  Speaker 1: are thoughts of God. It is the nature of thought
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  Speaker 1: to be irrevocable. P. I do not comprehend you say
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  Speaker 1: that man will never put off the body. The I
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  Speaker 1: say that he will never be bodiless. P. Explain the
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  Speaker 1: there are two bodies, the rudimental and the complete, corresponding
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  Speaker 1: with the two conditions of the worm and the butterfly.
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  Speaker 1: What we call death is but the painful metamorphosis. Our
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  Speaker 1: present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal.
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  Speaker 1: The ultimate life is the full design P. But of
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  Speaker 1: the worm's metamorphosis we are palpably COGNIZANTV. We certainly, but
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  Speaker 1: not the worm. The The matter of which our rudimental
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  Speaker 1: body is composed is within the ken of the organs
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  Speaker 1: of that body. Or more distinctly, our rudimental organs are
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  Speaker 1: adapted to the matter of which is formed the rudimental body,
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  Speaker 1: but not to that of which the ultimate is composed.
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  Speaker 1: The ultimate body thus escapes our rudimental senses, and we
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  Speaker 1: perceive only the shell which falls in decaying from the
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  Speaker 1: inner form, not that inner form itself. But this inner form,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the shell, is appreciable by those who
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  Speaker 1: have already acquired the ultimate life. P. You have often
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  Speaker 1: said that the mesmeric state very nearly resembles death. How
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  Speaker 1: is this V? When I say that it resembles death,
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  Speaker 1: I mean that it resembles the ultimate life. For when
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  Speaker 1: I am entranced, the senses of my rudimental life are
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  Speaker 1: in abeyance, and I perceive external things directly without organs,
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  Speaker 1: through a medium which I shall employ in the ultimate
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  Speaker 1: unorganized life p unorganized v yes. Organs are contrivances by
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  Speaker 1: which the individual is brought into sensible relation with particular
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  Speaker 1: classes and forms of matter, to the exclusion of other
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  Speaker 1: classes and forms. The organs of man are adapted to
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  Speaker 1: his rudimental condition, and to that only. His ultimate condition,
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  Speaker 1: being unorganized, is of unlimited comprehension in all points but
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  Speaker 1: one the nature of the volition of God, that is
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  Speaker 1: to say, the motion of the unparticled matter. You will
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  Speaker 1: have a distinct idea of the ultimate body by conceiving
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  Speaker 1: it to be entire brain. This it is not. But
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  Speaker 1: a conception of this nature will bring you near a
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  Speaker 1: comprehension of what it is. A luminous body imparts vibration
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  Speaker 1: to the luminiferous ether. The vibrations generate similar ones within
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  Speaker 1: the retina. These again communicate similar ones to the optic nerve.
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  Speaker 1: The nerve conveys similar ones to the brain. The brain
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  Speaker 1: also similar ones to the unparticled matter which permeates it.
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  Speaker 1: The motion of this latter is thought, of which perception
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  Speaker 1: is the first undulation. This is the mode by which
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  Speaker 1: the mind of the rudimental life communicates with the external world.
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  Speaker 1: And this external world is to the rudimental life limited
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  Speaker 1: through the idiosyncrasy of its organs. But in the ultimate
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  Speaker 1: unorganized life, the external world reaches the whole body, which
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  Speaker 1: is of a substance having affinity to brain, as I
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  Speaker 1: have said, with no other intervention than that of an
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  Speaker 1: infinitely rarer ether than even the luminiferous, And to this ether,
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  Speaker 1: in unison with it, the whole body vibrates, setting in
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  Speaker 1: motion the unparticled matter which permeates it. It is to
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  Speaker 1: the absence of idiosyncratic organs, therefore, that we must attribute
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  Speaker 1: the nearly unlimited perception of the ultimate life to rudimental beings.
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  Speaker 1: Organs are the cages necessary to confine them until fledged.
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  Speaker 1: P you speak of rudimental beings, are there other rudimental
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  Speaker 1: thinking beings than man? The the multitudinous conglomeration of rare
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  Speaker 1: matter into nebulae, planets, suns, and other other bodies, which
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  Speaker 1: are neither nebulae, suns, nor planets, is for the sole
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  Speaker 1: purpose of supplying pabulum for the idiosyncrasy of the organs
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  Speaker 1: of an infinity of rudimental beings. But for the necessity
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  Speaker 1: of the rudimental prior to the ultimate life, there would
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  Speaker 1: have been no bodies such as these. Each of these
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  Speaker 1: is tenanted by a distinct variety of organic rudimental thinking creatures.
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  Speaker 1: In all the organs vary with the features of the
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  Speaker 1: place tenanted at death or metamorphosis. These creatures, enjoying the
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  Speaker 1: ultimate life immortality and cognizant of all secrets, but the
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  Speaker 1: one act all things, and pass everywhere by mere volition
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  Speaker 1: in dwelling. Not the stars, which to us seem the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: sole palpabilities, and for the accommodation of which we blindly
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: deem space created, but that space itself, that infinity of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: which the truly substantive vastness swallows up the star shadows,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: blotting them out as non entities from the perception of
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the angels. P You say that but for the necessity
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of the rudimental life, there would have been no stars.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: But why this necessity v in the inorganic life, as
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: well as in the inorganic matter. Generally, there is nothing
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: to impede the action of one simple, unique law, the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: divine volition. With the view of producing impediment, the organic
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: life and matter, complex, substantial, and law encumbered were contrived P.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: But again, why need this impediment have been produced V.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: The result of law and violate is perfection right negative happiness.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: The result of law violate is imperfection, wrong positive pain.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Through the impediments afforded by the number, complexity, and substantiality
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: of the laws of organic life and matter, the violation
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: of law is rendered to a certain extent practicable. Thus, pain,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: which in the inorganic life is impossible, is possible in
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the organic P. But to what good end is pain
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: thus rendered possible? The all things are either good or bad.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: By comparison, A sufficient analysis will show that pleasure in
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: all cases is but the contrast of pain positive pleasure
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: is a mere idea. To be happy at any one point,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: we must have suffered at the same never to suffer
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: would have been never to have been blessed. But it
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: has been shown that in the inorganic life pain cannot
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: be Thus the necessity for the organic the pain of
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the primitive life of Earth is the sole basis of
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the bliss of the ultimate life in Heaven. P. Still,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: there is one of your expressions which I find it
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: impossible to comprehend, the truly substantive vastness of infinity v.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: This probably is because you have no sufficiently generic conception
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of the term substance itself. We must not regard it
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: as a quality, but as a sentiment. It is the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: perception in thinking beings of the adaptation of matter to
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: their organization. There are many things on the Earth which
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: would be nihility to the inhabitants of Venus, many things
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: visible and tangible in Venus which we could not be
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: brought to appreciate as existing at all, But to the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: inorganic beings. To the angels, the whole of the unparticled
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: matter is substance. That is to say, the whole of
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: what we term space is to them the truest substantiality.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: The stars meantime, through what we consider their materiality, escaping
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the angelic sense, just in proportion as the unparticled matter,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: through what we consider its immateriality, eludes the organic. As
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: the sleep Waker pronounced these latter words in a feeble tone,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I observed on his countenance a singular expression which somewhat
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: alarmed me and induced me to awake him at once.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: No sooner had I done this than with a bright smile,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: irradiating all his features, he fell back upon his pillow
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and expired. I noticed that in less than a minute afterward,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: his corpse had all the stern rigidity of stone. His
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: brow was of the coldness of ice. Thus, ordinarily should
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: it have appeared only after long pressure from Azrael's hand,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: had the sleep waker. Indeed, during the latter portion of
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: his discourse been addressing me from out the region of
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the shadows,