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The Purloined Letter 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, the purloined letter Edgar Allan
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Speaker 1: Poe Nil Sapi and ch e Odiosius Acumen Nemo dot Seneca.
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Speaker 1: At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the
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Speaker 1: autumn of eighteen Dash, I was enjoying the twofold luxury
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Speaker 1: of meditation and Emersham in company with my friend c
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Speaker 1: Augusta Pan in his little back library or book closet
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Speaker 1: O Truasine number thirty three Rue Dunnet, Foeber Street, Germain.
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Speaker 1: For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence,
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Speaker 1: while each to any casual observer might have seemed intently
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Speaker 1: and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that
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Speaker 1: oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself, however, I
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Speaker 1: was mentally discussing certain topics which had formed matter for
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Speaker 1: conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening.
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Speaker 1: I mean the affair of the Rue Morgue and the
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Speaker 1: mystery attending the murder of Marie Roget. I looked upon
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Speaker 1: it therefore as something of a coincidence. When the door
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Speaker 1: of our apartment was thrown open, and admitted our old acquaintance,
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Speaker 1: Monsieur g the Prefect of the Parisian Police. We gave
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Speaker 1: him a hearty welcome, for there was nearly half as
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Speaker 1: much of the entertaining as of the contemptible about the man,
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Speaker 1: and we had not seen him for several years. We
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Speaker 1: had been sitting in the dark, and Dupan now arose
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Speaker 1: for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down
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Speaker 1: again without doing so, upon g s saying that he
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Speaker 1: had called to consult us, or rather to ask the
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Speaker 1: opinion of my friend, about some official business which had
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Speaker 1: occasioned a great deal of trouble. If it is any
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Speaker 1: point requiring reflection, observed d Pan, as he forbore to
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Speaker 1: enkindle the wick, we shall examine it to better purpose
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Speaker 1: in the dark. That is another of your odd notions,
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Speaker 1: said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling every
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Speaker 1: thing odd that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived
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Speaker 1: amid an absolute legion of oddities. Very true, said to Pan,
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Speaker 1: as he supplied his visitor with a pipe and rolled
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Speaker 1: towards him a comfortable chair. And what is the difficulty now?
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Speaker 1: I asked? Nothing more? In the assassination way, I hope, Oh, no,
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Speaker 1: nothing of that nature. The fact is the business is
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Speaker 1: very simple, indeed, and I make no doubt that we
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Speaker 1: can manage it sufficiently well ourselves. But then I thought
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Speaker 1: Dupan would like to hear the details of it, because
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Speaker 1: it is so excessively odd, simple and odd, said to Pan,
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Speaker 1: Why yes, and not exactly that either. The fact is
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Speaker 1: we have all been a good deal puzzled because the
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Speaker 1: affair is so simple, and yet baffles us altogether. Perhaps
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Speaker 1: it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts
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Speaker 1: you at fault, said my friend. What nonsense you do talk,
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Speaker 1: replied the Prefect, laughing heartily. Perhaps the mystery is a
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Speaker 1: little too plain, said du Pan. Oh, good heavens, who
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Speaker 1: ever heard of such an idea? A little too self evident?
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Speaker 1: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ho ho ho, roared
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Speaker 1: our visitor profoundly, amused, Oh, Depan, you will be the
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Speaker 1: death of me. Yet, and what, after all is the
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Speaker 1: matter on hand? I asked? Why? I will tell you,
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Speaker 1: replied the Prefect, as he gave a long, steady and
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Speaker 1: contemplative puff and settled himself in his chair. I will
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Speaker 1: tell you in a few words. But before I begin,
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Speaker 1: let me caution you that this is an affair demanding
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Speaker 1: the greatest secrecy, and that I should most probably lose
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Speaker 1: the position I now hold, were it known that I
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Speaker 1: confided it to any one, proceed said I, or not?
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Speaker 1: Said de Pan. Well, then I have received personal information
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Speaker 1: from a very high quarter that a certain document of
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Speaker 1: the last importance has been purloined from the royal apartments.
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Speaker 1: The individual who purloined it is known this beyond a doubt,
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Speaker 1: he was seen to take it. It is known also
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Speaker 1: that it still remains in his possession. How is this known,
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Speaker 1: asked Depan. It is clearly inferred, replied the Prefect, from
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Speaker 1: the nature of the document, and from the non appearance
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Speaker 1: of certain results which would at once arise from its
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Speaker 1: passing out of the robber's possession, that is to say,
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Speaker 1: from his employing it as he must design in the
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Speaker 1: end to employ it. Be a little more explicit, I said, well,
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Speaker 1: I may venture so far as to say that the
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Speaker 1: paper gives its holder a certain power in a certain quarter,
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Speaker 1: where such power is immensely valuable. The Prefect was fond
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Speaker 1: of the cant of diplomacy. Still I do not quite understand,
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Speaker 1: said Dupan, no well. The disclosure of the document to
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Speaker 1: a third person who shall be nameless, would bring in
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Speaker 1: question the honor of a personage of most exalted station.
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Speaker 1: And this fact gives the holder of the document and
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Speaker 1: ascendancy over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are
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Speaker 1: so jeopardized. But this ascendancy, I interposed, would depend upon
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Speaker 1: the robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber.
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Speaker 1: Who would dare the thief? Said g is the minister
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Speaker 1: d who dares all things, those unbecoming as well as
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Speaker 1: those becoming a man. The method of the theft was
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Speaker 1: not less ingenious than bold. The document in question, a
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Speaker 1: letter to be frank, had been received by the personage robbed.
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Speaker 1: While alone in the royal boudoir. During its perusal, she
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Speaker 1: was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the other exalted personage,
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Speaker 1: from whom especially it was her wish to conceal it.
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Speaker 1: After a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it in
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Speaker 1: a drawer, she was forced to place it open, as
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Speaker 1: it was upon a table. The address, however, was uppermost,
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Speaker 1: and the contents thus unexposed. The letter escaped notice at
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Speaker 1: this juncture enters the minister d his links. I immediately
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Speaker 1: perceives the paper, recognizes the handwriting of the address, observes
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Speaker 1: the confusion of the personage addressed, and fathoms her secret.
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Speaker 1: After some business transactions hurried through in his ordinary manner,
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Speaker 1: he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one in question,
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Speaker 1: opens it, pretends to read it, and then places it
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Speaker 1: in close juxtaposition to the other. Again, he converses for
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Speaker 1: some fifteen minutes upon the public affairs at length. In
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Speaker 1: taking leave, he takes also from the table the letter
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Speaker 1: to which he had no claim its rightful owner saw,
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Speaker 1: but of course dared not call attention to the act.
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Speaker 1: In the presence of the third personage, who stood at
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Speaker 1: her elbow, the Minister decamped, leaving his own letter, one
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Speaker 1: of no importance, upon the table. Here, then said depand
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Speaker 1: to me, you have precisely what you demand to make
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Speaker 1: the ascendancy complete. The robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge
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Speaker 1: of the robber, yes, replied the Prefect. And the power
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Speaker 1: thus attained has for some months past been wielded for
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Speaker 1: political purposes to a very dangerous extent. The personage robbed
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Speaker 1: is more thoroughly convinced every day of the necessity of
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Speaker 1: reclaiming her letter. But this, of course cannot be done openly.
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Speaker 1: In fine, driven to despair, she has committed the matter
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Speaker 1: to me than whom said dupan Amid a perfect whirlwind
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Speaker 1: of smoke. No more sagacious agent could I suppose be
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Speaker 1: desired or even imagined. You flatter me, replied the Prefect.
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Speaker 1: But it is possible that some such opinion may have
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Speaker 1: been entertained. It is clear, said I, as you observe
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Speaker 1: that the letter is still in possession of the minister.
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Speaker 1: Since it is this possession, and not any employment of
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Speaker 1: the letter, which bestows the power. With the employment, the
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Speaker 1: power departs, true, said g And upon this conviction I proceeded.
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Speaker 1: My first care was to make thorough search of the
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Speaker 1: minister's hotel, and here my chief embarrassment lay in the
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Speaker 1: necessity of searching without his knowledge. Beyond all things, I
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Speaker 1: have been warned of the danger which would result from
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Speaker 1: giving him reason to suspect our design. But said I,
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Speaker 1: you are quite a faded in these investigations. The Parisian
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Speaker 1: police have done this thing often before. Oh yes, And
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Speaker 1: for this reason I did not despair the habits of
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Speaker 1: the Minister gave me too a great advantage. He is
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Speaker 1: frequently absent from home all night. His servants are by
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Speaker 1: no means numerous, They sleep at a distance from their
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Speaker 1: master's apartment, and, being chiefly Neapolitans, are readily made drunk.
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Speaker 1: I have keys, as you know, with which I can
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Speaker 1: open any chamber or cabinet in Paris. For three months
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Speaker 1: a night has not passed during the greater part of
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Speaker 1: which I have not been engaged personally in ransacking the
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Speaker 1: d hotel. My honor is interested, and to mention a
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Speaker 1: great secret, the reward is enormous. So I did not
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Speaker 1: abandon the search until I had become fully satisfied that
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Speaker 1: the thief is a more astute man than myself. I
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Speaker 1: fancy that I have investigated every nook and corner of
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Speaker 1: the premises in which it is possible that the paper
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Speaker 1: can be concealed. But is it not possible? I suggested
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Speaker 1: that although the letter may be in possession of the Minister,
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Speaker 1: as it unquestionably is, he may have concealed it elsewhere
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Speaker 1: than upon his own premises. This is barely possible, said
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Speaker 1: du Pan. The present peculiar condition of affairs at court,
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Speaker 1: and especially of those intrigues in which D is known
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Speaker 1: to be involved, would render the instant availability of the
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Speaker 1: document its susceptibility of being produced at a moment's notice,
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Speaker 1: a point of nearly equal importance with its possession its
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Speaker 1: susceptibility of being produced, said I, that is to say,
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Speaker 1: of being destroyed, said du Pan. True, I observed the
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Speaker 1: paper is clearly then upon the premises, as for its
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Speaker 1: being upon the person of the minister, we may consider
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Speaker 1: that as out of the question entirely, said the Prefect.
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Speaker 1: He has been twice waylaid as if by footpads, and
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Speaker 1: his person rigorously searched under my own inspection. You might
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Speaker 1: have spared yourself this trouble, said du Pan. D I
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Speaker 1: presume is not altogether a fool, and if not, must
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Speaker 1: have anticipated these waylayings. As a matter of course, not
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Speaker 1: altogether a fool, said g But then he's a poet,
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Speaker 1: which I take to be only one removed from a fool. True,
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Speaker 1: said Dupan, after a long and thoughtful whiff from Miss Mersham.
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Speaker 1: Although I have been guilty of certain dogrel myself, suppose
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Speaker 1: you detail, said I, the particulars of your search. Why
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Speaker 1: the fact is we took our time and we searched everywhere.
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Speaker 1: I have had long experience in these affairs. I took
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Speaker 1: the entire building, room by room, devoting the knights of
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Speaker 1: a whole week to each. We examined first the furniture
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Speaker 1: of each apartment. We opened every possible drawer. And I
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Speaker 1: presume you know that to a properly trained police agent
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Speaker 1: such a thing as a secret drawer is impossible. Any
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Speaker 1: man is adult who permits a secret drawer to escape
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Speaker 1: him in a search of this kind. The thing is
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Speaker 1: so plain, there is a certain amount of bulk of
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Speaker 1: space to be accounted for in every cabinet. Then we
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Speaker 1: have accurate rules. The fiftieth part of a line could
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Speaker 1: not escape us. After the cabinets, we took the chairs,
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Speaker 1: the cushions we probed with the fine long needles you
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Speaker 1: have seen me employ. From the tables, we removed the tops.
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Speaker 1: Why so, sometimes the top of a table or other
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Speaker 1: similarly arranged piece of furniture is removed by the person
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Speaker 1: wishing to conceal an article. Then the leg is excavated,
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Speaker 1: the article deposited within the cavity, and the top replaced.
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Speaker 1: The bottom and tops of bedposts are employed in the
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Speaker 1: same way, but could not the cavity be detected by sounding,
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Speaker 1: I asked, by no means if when the article is deposited,
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Speaker 1: a sufficient wadding of cotton be placed around it. Besides,
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Speaker 1: in our case we were obliged to proceed without noise.
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Speaker 1: But you could not have removed You could not have
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Speaker 1: taken to pieces all articles of furniture in which it
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Speaker 1: would have been possible to make a deposit in the
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Speaker 1: manner you mention, a letter may be compressed into a
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Speaker 1: thin spiral roll, not differing much in shape or bulk,
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Speaker 1: from a large knitting needle, and in this form it
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Speaker 1: might be inserted into the rung of a chair, for example.
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Speaker 1: You did not take to pieces all the chairs, certainly not.
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Speaker 1: But we did better. We examined the rungs of every
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Speaker 1: chair in the hotel, and indeed the jointings of every
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Speaker 1: description of furniture, by the aid of a most powerful microscope.
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Speaker 1: Had there been any traces of recent disturbance, we should
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Speaker 1: not have failed to detect it instantly. A single grain
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Speaker 1: of gimlet dust, for example, would have been as obvious
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Speaker 1: as an apple. Any disorder in the gluing, any unusual
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Speaker 1: gaping in the joints, would have sufficed to insure detection.
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Speaker 1: I presume you look to the mirrors between the boards
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Speaker 1: and the plates, and you probed the beds and the bedclothes,
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Speaker 1: as well as the curtains and carpets that, of course,
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Speaker 1: And when we had absolutely completed every particle of the
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Speaker 1: furniture in this way, then we examined the house itself.
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Speaker 1: We divided its entire surface into compartments, which we numbered
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Speaker 1: so that none might be missed. Then we scrutinized each
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Speaker 1: individual square inch throughout the premises, including the two houses
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Speaker 1: immediately adjoining with the microscope as before the two houses adjoining,
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Speaker 1: I exclaimed, you must have had a great deal of trouble.
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Speaker 1: We had, but the reward offered is prodigious. You include
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Speaker 1: the grounds about the houses. All the grounds are paved
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Speaker 1: with brick. They gave us comparatively little trouble. We examined
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Speaker 1: the moss between the bricks and found it undisturbed. You
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Speaker 1: looked among d s papers, of course, and into the
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Speaker 1: books of the library. Certainly we opened every package and parcel.
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Speaker 1: We not only opened every book, but we turned over
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Speaker 1: every leaf in each volume, not contenting ourselves with a
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Speaker 1: mere shake. According to the fashion of some of our
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Speaker 1: police officers. We also measured the thickness of every book
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Speaker 1: cover with the most accurated measurement, and applied to each
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Speaker 1: the most jealous scrutiny of the microscope. Had any of
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Speaker 1: the bindings been recently meddled with, it would have been
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Speaker 1: utterly impossible that the fact should have escaped observation some
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Speaker 1: five or six volumes just from the hands of the binder.
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Speaker 1: We carefully probed longitudinally with the needles. You explored the
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Speaker 1: floors beneath the carpets. Beyond doubt. We removed every carpet
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Speaker 1: and examined the boards with the microscope and the paper
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Speaker 1: on the walls. Yes, you looked into the cellars. We did. Then,
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Speaker 1: I said, you have been making a miscalculation, and the
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Speaker 1: letter is not upon the premises as you suppose. I
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Speaker 1: fear you are right there, said the Prefect. And now, Depan,
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Speaker 1: what would you advise me to do to make a
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Speaker 1: thorough research of the premises That is absolutely needless, replied
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Speaker 1: g I am not more sure that I breathe than
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Speaker 1: I am that the letter is not at the hotel.
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Speaker 1: I have no better advice to give you, said Dupan.
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Speaker 1: You have of course, an accurate description of the letter.
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Speaker 1: Oh yes, and here the Prefect, producing a memorandum book,
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Speaker 1: proceeded to read aloud a minute account of the internal,
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Speaker 1: and especially of the external appearance, of the missing document.
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Speaker 1: Soon after finishing the perusal of this description, he took
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Speaker 1: his departure more entirely depressed in spirits than I I
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Speaker 1: had ever known the good gentleman before. In about a
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Speaker 1: month afterwards, he paid us another visit, and found us
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Speaker 1: occupied very nearly as before. He took a pipe and
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Speaker 1: a chair and entered into some ordinary conversation. At length,
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Speaker 1: I said, well, but g what of the purloined letter?
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Speaker 1: I presume you have at last made up your mind
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Speaker 1: that there is no such thing as overreaching the minister
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Speaker 1: confound him say, I yes, I made the re examination however,
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Speaker 1: as to Pan suggested, but it was all labor lost,
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Speaker 1: as I knew it would be. How much was the
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Speaker 1: reward offered, did you say, as to Pan, why a
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Speaker 1: very great deal, a very liberal reward. I don't like
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Speaker 1: to say how much precisely, but one thing I will
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Speaker 1: say that I wouldn't mind giving my individual check for
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Speaker 1: fifty thousand francs to any one who could obtain me
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Speaker 1: that letter. The fact is it is becoming of more
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Speaker 1: and more importance every day, and the reward has been
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Speaker 1: lately doubled. If it were treble, however, I could do
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Speaker 1: no more than I have done. Why, yes, said Dupan,
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Speaker 1: drawlingly between the whiffs of his Meersham, I really think,
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Speaker 1: g you have not exerted yourself to the utmost in
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Speaker 1: this matter. You might do a little more, I think, Eh,
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Speaker 1: how in what way? Why? Puff puff? You might puff
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Speaker 1: puff employed counsel in the matter, Eh, puff puff puff?
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Speaker 1: Do you remember the story they tell of Abernethy? No,
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Speaker 1: hang Abernethy, to be sure, hang him and welcome. But
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Speaker 1: once upon a time a certain rich miser conceived the
17:41
Speaker 1: design of sponging upon this Abernethy for a medical opinion.
17:45
Speaker 1: Getting up for this purpose an ordinary conversation in a
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Speaker 1: private company, he insinuated his case to the physician as
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Speaker 1: that of an imaginary individual. We will suppose, said the miser,
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Speaker 1: that his symptoms are such and such. Now, now, doctor,
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Speaker 1: what would you have directed him to take? Take? Said Abernethy?
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Speaker 1: Why take advice? To be sure? But said the prefect,
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Speaker 1: a little discomposed, I am perfectly willing to take advice
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Speaker 1: and to pay for it. I would really give fifty
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Speaker 1: thousand francs to any one who would aid me in
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Speaker 1: the matter in that case, replied du Pan, opening a
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Speaker 1: drawer and producing a check book. You may as well
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Speaker 1: fill me up a check for the amount mentioned. When
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Speaker 1: you have signed it, I will hand you the letter.
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Speaker 1: I was astounded. The Prefect appeared absolutely thunder stricken. For
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Speaker 1: some minutes. He remained speechless and motionless, looking incredulously at
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Speaker 1: my friend with open mouth and eyes that seemed starting
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Speaker 1: from their sockets. Then, apparently recovering himself in some measure,
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Speaker 1: he seized a pen, and, after several pauses and vacant stairs,
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Speaker 1: finally filled up and signed a check for fifty thousand francs,
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Speaker 1: and handed it across the table to Dupan. The latter
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Speaker 1: examined it carefully and deposited it in his pocket book, then,
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Speaker 1: unlocking an escritoire, took thence a letter and gave it
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Speaker 1: to the Prefect. This functionary grasped it in a perfect
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Speaker 1: agony of joy, opened it with a trembling hand, cast
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Speaker 1: a rapid glance at its contents, and then, scrambling and
19:17
Speaker 1: struggling to the door, rushed at length, unceremoniously from the
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Speaker 1: room and from the house, without having uttered a syllable,
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Speaker 1: since Dupan had requested him to fill up the check.
19:27
Speaker 1: When he had gone, my friend entered into some explanations.
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Speaker 1: The Parisian police, he said, are exceedingly able in their way.
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Speaker 1: They are persevering, ingenious, cunning, and thoroughly versed in the knowledge,
19:40
Speaker 1: which their duties seemed chiefly to demand. Thus, when g
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Speaker 1: detailed to us his mode of searching the premises at
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Speaker 1: the hotel, d I felt entire confidence in his having
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Speaker 1: made a satisfactory investigation so far as his labors extended.
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Speaker 1: So far as his labors extended, said I, yes, said
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Speaker 1: to Pan, the measures adopted were not only the best
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Speaker 1: of their kind, but carried out to absolute perfection. Had
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Speaker 1: the letter been deposited within the range of their search,
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Speaker 1: these fellows would beyond a question have found it. I
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Speaker 1: merely laughed. But he seemed quite serious in all that
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Speaker 1: he said. The measures, then, he continued, were good in
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Speaker 1: their kind and well executed. Their defect lay in their
20:24
Speaker 1: being inapplicable to the case and to the man. A
20:28
Speaker 1: certain set of highly ingenious resources are with the prefect
20:32
Speaker 1: a sort of procrustian bed to which he forcibly adapts
20:35
Speaker 1: his designs. But he perpetually errs by being too deep
20:39
Speaker 1: or too shallow for the matter in hand. And many
20:42
Speaker 1: a schoolboy is a better reasoner than he. I knew
20:45
Speaker 1: one about eight years of age, whose success at guessing
20:48
Speaker 1: in the game of even and odd attracted universal admiration.
20:53
Speaker 1: This game is simple and is played with marbles. One
20:56
Speaker 1: player holds in his hand a number of these toys
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Speaker 1: and of another whether that number is even or odd.
21:03
Speaker 1: If the guess is right, the guesser wins one. If wrong,
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Speaker 1: he loses one. The boy to whom I allude won
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Speaker 1: all the marbles of the school. Of course, he had
21:13
Speaker 1: some principle of guessing, and this lay in mere observation
21:16
Speaker 1: and admeasurement of the astuteness of his opponents. For example,
21:21
Speaker 1: an errand simpleton is his opponent, and, holding up his
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Speaker 1: closed hand, asks are they even or odd? Our schoolboy
21:29
Speaker 1: replies odd and loses. But upon the second trial he wins.
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Speaker 1: For he then says to himself, the simpleton had them
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Speaker 1: even upon the first trial, and his amount of cunning
21:39
Speaker 1: is just sufficient to make him have them odd upon
21:42
Speaker 1: the second. I will therefore guess odd. He guesses odd,
21:45
Speaker 1: and wins now with a simpleton a degree above the
21:49
Speaker 1: first he would have reasoned us. This fellow finds that
21:52
Speaker 1: in the first instance I guessed odd, and in the
21:55
Speaker 1: second he will propose to himself, upon the first impulse,
21:59
Speaker 1: a simple variation from even to odd, as did the
22:01
Speaker 1: first simpleton. But then a second thought will suggest that
22:05
Speaker 1: this is too simple a variation, and finally he will
22:08
Speaker 1: decide upon putting it even as before. I will therefore
22:12
Speaker 1: guess even. He guesses even and wins now. This mode
22:16
Speaker 1: of reasoning in the schoolboy, whom his fellows termed lucky.
22:20
Speaker 1: What in its last analysis is it? It is merely,
22:24
Speaker 1: I said, an identification of the reasoner's intellect with that
22:27
Speaker 1: of his opponent. It is said to pan. And upon
22:31
Speaker 1: inquiring of the boy by what means he affected the
22:34
Speaker 1: thorough identification in which his success consisted, I received answer
22:38
Speaker 1: as follows. When I wish to find out how wise
22:41
Speaker 1: or how stupid, or how good or how wicked is
22:45
Speaker 1: any one, or what are his thoughts at the moment,
22:47
Speaker 1: I fashion the expression of my face as accurately as
22:50
Speaker 1: possible in accordance with the expression of his and then
22:53
Speaker 1: wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in my
22:56
Speaker 1: mind or heart, as if to match or correspond with
22:59
Speaker 1: the expression. This response of the schoolboy lies at the
23:02
Speaker 1: bottom of all the spurious profundity which has been attributed
23:05
Speaker 1: to Rochefficult, to la Bougive, to Machiavelli, and to Campanella.
23:10
Speaker 1: And the identification I said of the reasoner's intellect with
23:14
Speaker 1: that of his opponent depends, if I understand you aright,
23:18
Speaker 1: upon the accuracy with which the opponent's intellect is admeasured
23:22
Speaker 1: for its practical value. It depends upon this, replied to Pan.
23:26
Speaker 1: And the Prefect and his cohort fail so frequently, first
23:29
Speaker 1: by default of this identification, and secondly by ill admeasurement,
23:34
Speaker 1: or rather through non admeasurement of the intellect with which
23:37
Speaker 1: they are engaged. They consider only their own ideas of ingenuity,
23:42
Speaker 1: and in searching for anything hidden, advert only to the
23:45
Speaker 1: modes in which they would have hidden it. They are
23:48
Speaker 1: right in this much that their own ingenuity is a
23:51
Speaker 1: faithful representative of that of the mass. But when the
23:54
Speaker 1: cunning of the individual felon is diverse in character from
23:56
Speaker 1: their own, the felon foils them. Of course, this always
24:01
Speaker 1: happens when it is above their own, and very usually
24:04
Speaker 1: when it is below. They have no variation of principle
24:07
Speaker 1: in their investigations. At best, when urged by some unusual emergency,
24:12
Speaker 1: by some extraordinary reward, they extend or exaggerate their old
24:16
Speaker 1: modes of practice without touching their principles. What, for example,
24:21
Speaker 1: in this case of d has been done to vary
24:24
Speaker 1: the principle of action? What is all this boring and probing,
24:28
Speaker 1: and sounding, and scrutinizing with the microscope, and dividing the
24:31
Speaker 1: surface of the building into registered square inches. What is
24:35
Speaker 1: it all but an exaggeration of the application of the
24:37
Speaker 1: one principle or set of principles of search, which are
24:40
Speaker 1: based upon the one set of notions regarding human ingenuity
24:44
Speaker 1: to which the Prefect, in the long routine of his duty,
24:47
Speaker 1: has been accustomed. Do you not see he has taken
24:50
Speaker 1: it for granted that all men proceed to conceal a
24:53
Speaker 1: letter not exactly in a gimlet hole board, in a
24:55
Speaker 1: chair leg, but at least in some out of the
24:59
Speaker 1: way whole or corner suggested by the same tenor of
25:02
Speaker 1: thought which would urge a man to secrete a letter
25:04
Speaker 1: in a gimlet hole board in a chair leg. And
25:07
Speaker 1: do you not see also that such Recherchet's nooks for
25:10
Speaker 1: concealment are adapted only for ordinary occasions, and would be
25:14
Speaker 1: adopted only by ordinary intellects. For in all cases of concealment,
25:18
Speaker 1: a disposal of the article concealed, a disposal of it
25:21
Speaker 1: in this Recherchet manner is in the very first instance
25:25
Speaker 1: presumable and presumed, and thus its discovery depends not at
25:30
Speaker 1: all upon the acumen, but altogether upon the mere care, patience,
25:34
Speaker 1: and determination of the seekers. And where the cases of
25:37
Speaker 1: importance or what amounts to the same thing in the
25:40
Speaker 1: political eyes, when the reward is of magnitude, the qualities
25:44
Speaker 1: in question have never been known to fail. You will
25:47
Speaker 1: now understand what I meant in suggesting that had the
25:50
Speaker 1: purloined letter been hidden anywhere within the limits of the
25:52
Speaker 1: prefect's examination, in other words, had the principle of its
25:56
Speaker 1: concealment been comprehended within the principles of the prefect, its
26:00
Speaker 1: discovery would have been a matter altogether beyond question. This functionary, however,
26:05
Speaker 1: has been thoroughly mystified, and the remote source of his
26:08
Speaker 1: defeat lies in the supposition that the Minister is a
26:11
Speaker 1: fool because he has acquired renown as a poet. All
26:15
Speaker 1: fools are poets, this, the Prefect feels, and he is
26:18
Speaker 1: merely guilty of a non distributional media in thence inferring
26:21
Speaker 1: that all poets are fools. But is this really the poet,
26:26
Speaker 1: I asked. There are two brothers I know, and both
26:30
Speaker 1: have attained reputation in letters. The minister, I believe, has
26:34
Speaker 1: written learnedly on the differential calculus. He is a mathematician
26:39
Speaker 1: and no poet. You are mistaken. I know him well.
26:43
Speaker 1: He is both as poet and mathematician. He would reason well.
26:47
Speaker 1: As mere mathematician, he could not have reason at all,
26:50
Speaker 1: and thus would have been at the mercy of the Prefect.
26:54
Speaker 1: You surprise me, I said, by these opinions, which have
26:57
Speaker 1: been contradicted by the voice of the world. You do
27:00
Speaker 1: not mean to set it. Not the well digested idea
27:03
Speaker 1: of centuries. The mathematical reason has long been regarded as
27:07
Speaker 1: the reason par excellence. I L. Y A. R. Perrier,
27:11
Speaker 1: replied Dupan, quoting from Chamfort k taudid public taut convention
27:16
Speaker 1: req sdnsadis car ella convenuo plus grand nombre. The mathematicians,
27:23
Speaker 1: I grant you, have done their best to promulgate the
27:25
Speaker 1: popular error to which you allude, and which is none
27:28
Speaker 1: the less an error for its promulgation as truth with
27:31
Speaker 1: an artworthy of better cause. For example, they have insinuated
27:35
Speaker 1: the term analysis into application to algebra. The French are
27:40
Speaker 1: the originators of this particular deception. But if a term
27:43
Speaker 1: is of any importance, if words derive any value from applicability,
27:47
Speaker 1: then analysis conveys algebra about as much as in Latin
27:52
Speaker 1: Ambetus implies ambition, religial religion, or hamonies onesty a set
27:57
Speaker 1: of honorable men. You have a quarrel on hand, I
28:01
Speaker 1: see said I with some of the algebraists of Paris.
28:04
Speaker 1: But proceed. I dispute the availability and thus the value,
28:09
Speaker 1: of that reason which is cultivated in any especial form
28:12
Speaker 1: other than the abstractly logical. I dispute, in particular the
28:16
Speaker 1: reason adduced by mathematical study. The mathematics are the science
28:21
Speaker 1: of form and quantity. Mathematical reasoning is merely logic applied
28:25
Speaker 1: to observation upon form and quantity. The great error lies
28:29
Speaker 1: in supposing that even the truths of what is called
28:31
Speaker 1: pure algebra are abstract or general truths, and this error
28:36
Speaker 1: is so egregious that I am confounded at the universality
28:39
Speaker 1: with which it has been received. Mathematical axioms are not
28:43
Speaker 1: axioms of general truth. What is true of relation of
28:47
Speaker 1: form and quantity is often grossly false in regard to morals.
28:51
Speaker 1: For example, in this latter science, it is very usually
28:55
Speaker 1: untrue that the aggregated parts are equal to the whole.
28:59
Speaker 1: In chemistry, also, the axiom fails in the consideration of
29:03
Speaker 1: motivate fails, for two motives, each of a given value,
29:07
Speaker 1: have not necessarily a value when united, equal to the
29:11
Speaker 1: sum of their values. Apart. There are numerous other mathematical
29:15
Speaker 1: truths which are only truths within the limits of relation.
29:19
Speaker 1: But the mathematician argues from his finite truths through habit
29:23
Speaker 1: as if they were of an absolutely general applicability, as
29:26
Speaker 1: the world indeed imagines them to be. Bryant, in his
29:30
Speaker 1: Very Learned Mythology, mentions an analogous source of error when
29:34
Speaker 1: he says that although the pagan fables are not believed yet,
29:37
Speaker 1: we forget ourselves continually and make inferences from them as
29:41
Speaker 1: existing realities, with the algebraists, however, who are pagans themselves.
29:47
Speaker 1: The pagan fables are believed, and the inferences are made
29:50
Speaker 1: not so much through laps of memory as through an
29:53
Speaker 1: unaccountable addling of the brains. In short, I never yet
29:57
Speaker 1: encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out of
30:00
Speaker 1: equal roots, or one who did not clandestinely hold it
30:03
Speaker 1: as a point of his faith that x two plus
30:05
Speaker 1: p x was absolutely and unconditionally equal to Q. Say
30:09
Speaker 1: to one of these gentlemen, by way of experiment, if
30:12
Speaker 1: you please that you believe occasions may occur where x
30:15
Speaker 1: two plus p x is not altogether equal to Q,
30:18
Speaker 1: And having made him understand what you mean, get out
30:21
Speaker 1: of his reach as speedily as convenient. Beyond doubt, he
30:25
Speaker 1: will endeavor to knock you down, I mean to say,
30:28
Speaker 1: continued to Pan, while I merely laughed at his last observations,
30:32
Speaker 1: that if the Minister had been no more than a mathematician,
30:35
Speaker 1: the Prefect would have been under no necessity of giving
30:37
Speaker 1: me this check. I know him, however, as both mathematician
30:42
Speaker 1: and poet, and my measures were adapted to his capacity
30:45
Speaker 1: with reference to the circumstances by which he was surrounded.
30:49
Speaker 1: I knew him as a courtier too, and as a
30:51
Speaker 1: bold intregaunt. Such a man, I considered, could not fail
30:56
Speaker 1: to be aware of the ordinary politial modes of action.
31:00
Speaker 1: He could not have failed to anticipate. And events have
31:03
Speaker 1: proved that he did not fail to anticipate the waylayings
31:06
Speaker 1: to which he was subjected. He must have foreseen. I
31:10
Speaker 1: reflected the secret investigations of his premises, his frequent absences
31:15
Speaker 1: from home at night, which were hailed by the Prefect
31:18
Speaker 1: as certain aids to his success, I regarded only as
31:21
Speaker 1: rouses to afford opportunity for thorough search to the police,
31:24
Speaker 1: and thus the sooner to impress them with the conviction
31:27
Speaker 1: to which g in fact did finally arrive, the conviction
31:31
Speaker 1: that the letter was not upon the premises. I felt
31:34
Speaker 1: also that the whole train of thought which I was
31:37
Speaker 1: at some pains in detailing to you just now, concerning
31:40
Speaker 1: the invariable principle of politial action in searches for articles concealed,
31:44
Speaker 1: I felt that this whole train of thought would necessarily
31:47
Speaker 1: pass through the mind of the Minister. It would imperatively
31:51
Speaker 1: lead him to despise all the ordinary nooks of concealment
31:55
Speaker 1: he could not, I reflected, be so weak as not
31:58
Speaker 1: to see that the most intricate and remote recess of
32:00
Speaker 1: his hotel would be as open as his commonest closets,
32:03
Speaker 1: to the eyes, to the probes, to the gimlets, and
32:06
Speaker 1: to the microscopes of the Prefect. I saw in fine
32:10
Speaker 1: that he would be driven, as a matter of course
32:12
Speaker 1: to simplicity, if not deliberately induced to it as a
32:16
Speaker 1: matter of choice. You will remember, perhaps, how desperately the
32:20
Speaker 1: Prefect laughed when I suggested, upon our first interview that
32:24
Speaker 1: it was just possible. This mystery troubled him so much
32:26
Speaker 1: on account of its being so very self evident. Yes,
32:30
Speaker 1: said I, I remember his merriment. Well, I really thought
32:34
Speaker 1: he would have fallen into convulsions. The material world continued
32:39
Speaker 1: to pan abounds with very strict analogies to the immaterial,
32:43
Speaker 1: and thus some color of truth has been given to
32:45
Speaker 1: the rhetorical dogma that metaphor or simile may be made
32:49
Speaker 1: to strengthen an argument as well as to embellish a description.
32:53
Speaker 1: The principle of the vis inertia, for example, seems to
32:56
Speaker 1: be identical in physics and metaphysics. It is not more
33:00
Speaker 1: true in the former that a large body is with
33:03
Speaker 1: more difficulty set in motion than a smaller one, and
33:05
Speaker 1: that its subsequent momentum is commensured with this difficulty than
33:09
Speaker 1: it is in the latter. That intellects of the vaster capacity,
33:13
Speaker 1: while more forcible, more constant, and more eventful in their
33:17
Speaker 1: movements than those of inferior grade, are yet the less
33:20
Speaker 1: readily moved, and more embarrassed and full of hesitation in
33:23
Speaker 1: the first few steps of their progress. Again, have you
33:27
Speaker 1: ever noticed which of the street signs over the shop
33:30
Speaker 1: doors are the most attractive of attention? I have never
33:34
Speaker 1: given the matter a thought, I said. There is a
33:37
Speaker 1: game of puzzles, he resumed, which is played upon a map.
33:41
Speaker 1: One party playing requires another to find a given word
33:45
Speaker 1: the name of town, river, state, or empire, any word
33:49
Speaker 1: in short, upon the motley and perplexed surface of the chart.
33:53
Speaker 1: A novice in the game generally seeks to embarrass his
33:56
Speaker 1: opponents by giving them the most minutely lettered names, but
33:59
Speaker 1: the added select such words as stretch in large characters
34:03
Speaker 1: from one end of the chart to the other. These,
34:06
Speaker 1: like the over largely lettered signs and placards of the street,
34:10
Speaker 1: escape observation by dint of being excessively obvious. And here
34:13
Speaker 1: the physical oversight is precisely analogous with the moral inapprehension
34:17
Speaker 1: by which the intellect suffers to pass unnoticed those considerations
34:20
Speaker 1: which are too obtrusively and too palpably self evident. But
34:25
Speaker 1: this is a point it appears somewhat above or beneath
34:28
Speaker 1: the understanding of the Prefect. He never once thought it
34:32
Speaker 1: probable or possible that the Minister had deposited the letter
34:35
Speaker 1: immediately beneath the nose of the whole world by way
34:38
Speaker 1: of best preventing any portion of that world from perceiving it.
34:42
Speaker 1: But the more I reflected upon the daring, dashing, and
34:45
Speaker 1: discriminating ingenuity of d upon the fact that the document
34:49
Speaker 1: must always have been at hand if he intended to
34:51
Speaker 1: use it to good purpose, and upon the decisive evidence
34:54
Speaker 1: obtained by the Prefect that it was not hidden within
34:58
Speaker 1: the limits of that dignitary's or ordinary search, the more
35:01
Speaker 1: satisfied I became that to conceal this letter, the Minister
35:05
Speaker 1: had resorted to the comprehensive and sagacious expedient of not
35:08
Speaker 1: attempting to conceal it at all. Full of these ideas,
35:12
Speaker 1: I prepared myself with a pair of green spectacles, and called.
35:15
Speaker 1: One fine morning, quite by accident at the Ministerial Hotel,
35:20
Speaker 1: I found d at home, yawning, lounging and dawdling as usual,
35:25
Speaker 1: and pretending to be in the last extremity of oley.
35:29
Speaker 1: He is perhaps the most really energetic human being now alive,
35:33
Speaker 1: but that is only when nobody sees him to be
35:37
Speaker 1: Even with him, I complained of my weak eyes and
35:39
Speaker 1: lamented the necessity of the spectacles, under cover of which
35:43
Speaker 1: I cautiously and thoroughly surveyed the whole apartment. While seemingly
35:46
Speaker 1: intent only upon the conversation of my host, I paid
35:50
Speaker 1: a special attention to a large writing table, near which
35:53
Speaker 1: he sat, and upon which lay confusedly some miscellaneous letters
35:57
Speaker 1: and other papers, with one or two musical inns, instruments,
36:00
Speaker 1: and a few books. Here. However, after a long and
36:04
Speaker 1: very deliberate scrutiny, I saw nothing to excite particular suspicion.
36:09
Speaker 1: At length, my eyes, in going the circuit of the room,
36:12
Speaker 1: fell upon a trumpery filigree card rack of pasteboard that
36:16
Speaker 1: hung dangling by a dirty blue ribbon from a little
36:18
Speaker 1: brass knob just beneath the middle of the mantelpiece. In
36:22
Speaker 1: this rack, which had three or four compartments, were five
36:25
Speaker 1: or six visiting cards and a solitary letter. This last
36:29
Speaker 1: was much soiled and crumpled. It was torn nearly in
36:33
Speaker 1: two across the middle, as if a design in the
36:36
Speaker 1: first instance, to tear it entirely up as worthless had
36:40
Speaker 1: been altered or stayed. In the second. It had a
36:44
Speaker 1: large black seal bearing the D cipher very conspicuously, and
36:48
Speaker 1: was addressed in a diminutive female hand to D the
36:52
Speaker 1: Minister himself. It was thrust carelessly, and even as it
36:57
Speaker 1: seemed contemptuously, into one of the upper divisions of the rack.
37:02
Speaker 1: No sooner had I glanced at this letter than I
37:04
Speaker 1: concluded it to be that of which I was in search.
37:08
Speaker 1: To be sure, it was, to all appearance radically different
37:11
Speaker 1: from the one of which the Prefect had read us
37:13
Speaker 1: so minute a description. Here the seal was large and black,
37:18
Speaker 1: with the D cipher. There it was small and red,
37:21
Speaker 1: with the ducal arms of the s family. Here the
37:25
Speaker 1: address to the Minister diminutive and feminine. There the superscription
37:30
Speaker 1: to a certain royal personage was markedly bold and decided.
37:33
Speaker 1: The size alone formed a point of correspondence. But then
37:38
Speaker 1: the radicalness of these differences, which was excessive, the dirt,
37:42
Speaker 1: the soiled and torn condition of the paper, so inconsistent
37:45
Speaker 1: with the true methodical habits of d and so suggestive
37:48
Speaker 1: of a design to delude the beholder into an idea
37:51
Speaker 1: of the worthlessness of the document. These things, together with
37:55
Speaker 1: the hyper obtrusive situation of this document full in the
37:58
Speaker 1: view of every visitor, and thus exactly in accordance with
38:01
Speaker 1: the conclusions to which I had previously arrived. These things,
38:05
Speaker 1: I say, were strongly corroborative of suspicion in one who
38:08
Speaker 1: came with the intention to suspect. I protracted my visit
38:12
Speaker 1: as long as possible, and while I maintained a most
38:15
Speaker 1: animated discussion with the Minister upon a topic which I
38:18
Speaker 1: knew well had never failed to interest and excite him,
38:20
Speaker 1: I kept my attention really riveted upon the letter. In
38:24
Speaker 1: this examination I committed to memory its external appearance and
38:27
Speaker 1: arrangement in the rack, and also fell at length upon
38:31
Speaker 1: a discovery which set at rest whatever trivial doubt I
38:34
Speaker 1: might have entertained. In scrutinizing the edges of the paper,
38:38
Speaker 1: I observed them to be more chafed than seemed necessary.
38:41
Speaker 1: They presented the broken appearance, which is manifested when a
38:44
Speaker 1: stiff paper, having been once folded and pressed with a folder,
38:48
Speaker 1: is refold in a reverse direction in the same creases
38:51
Speaker 1: or edges which had formed the original fold. This discovery
38:55
Speaker 1: was sufficient. It was clear to me that the letter
38:58
Speaker 1: had been turned as a glove inside out, redirected, and
39:02
Speaker 1: re sealed. I bade the Minister good morning, and took
39:06
Speaker 1: my departure at once, leaving a gold snuff box upon
39:09
Speaker 1: the table. The next morning, I called for the snuff
39:12
Speaker 1: box when we resumed quite eagerly the conversation of the
39:16
Speaker 1: preceding day. While thus engaged, however, a loud report, as
39:21
Speaker 1: if of a pistol, was heard immediately beneath the windows
39:24
Speaker 1: of the hotel, and was succeeded by a series of
39:27
Speaker 1: fearful screams and the shoutings of a terrified mob. D
39:31
Speaker 1: rushed to a casement, threw it open, and looked out.
39:35
Speaker 1: In the meantime, I stepped to the card rack, took
39:38
Speaker 1: the letter, put it in my pocket, and replaced it
39:41
Speaker 1: by f a c simle. So far as regards externals,
39:44
Speaker 1: which I had carefully prepared at my lodgings, imitating the
39:47
Speaker 1: d cipher very readily by means of a seal formed
39:51
Speaker 1: of bread. The disturbance in the street had been occasioned
39:55
Speaker 1: by the frantic behavior of a man with a musket.
39:58
Speaker 1: He had fired it among a crowd of win women
40:00
Speaker 1: and children. It proved, however, to have been without ball,
40:04
Speaker 1: and the fellow was suffered to go his way as
40:06
Speaker 1: a lunatic or a drunkard. When he had gone, D
40:10
Speaker 1: came from the window whither I had followed him immediately
40:13
Speaker 1: upon securing the object in view. Soon afterwards I bade
40:17
Speaker 1: him farewell. The pretended lunatic was a man in my
40:21
Speaker 1: own pay. But what purpose had you, I asked, in
40:25
Speaker 1: replacing the letter by a fac simile. Would it not
40:29
Speaker 1: have been better at the first visit to have seized
40:32
Speaker 1: it openly and departed? D replied, du Pan is a
40:36
Speaker 1: desperate man and a man of nerve. His hotel, too,
40:41
Speaker 1: is not without attendance devoted to his interests. Had I
40:44
Speaker 1: made the wild attempt you suggest, I might never have
40:47
Speaker 1: left the ministerial presence alive. The good people of Paris
40:51
Speaker 1: might have heard of me no more. But I had
40:54
Speaker 1: an object apart from these considerations. You know my political prepossessions.
41:00
Speaker 1: In this matter, I act as a partisan of the
41:03
Speaker 1: lady concerned. For eighteen months the Minister has had her
41:07
Speaker 1: in his power, she has now him in hers. Since,
41:11
Speaker 1: being unaware that the letter is not in his possession,
41:14
Speaker 1: he will proceed with his exactions as if it was.
41:17
Speaker 1: Thus will he inevitably commit himself at once to his
41:21
Speaker 1: political destruction. His downfall, too, will not be more precipitate
41:25
Speaker 1: than awkward. It is all very well to talk about
41:29
Speaker 1: the facilus desensus of Ernie, but in all kinds of climbing,
41:32
Speaker 1: as Catalani said of singing, it is far more easy
41:35
Speaker 1: to get up than to come down. In the present instance,
41:39
Speaker 1: I have no sympathy, at least no pity for him
41:42
Speaker 1: who descends. He is that monstrum horrendum, an unprincipled man
41:46
Speaker 1: of genius. I confess, however, that I should like very
41:51
Speaker 1: well to know the precise character of his thoughts. When
41:54
Speaker 1: being defied by her, whom the Prefect terms a certain personage,
41:57
Speaker 1: he is reduced to opening the letter which I left
42:00
Speaker 1: for him in the card rack. How did you put
42:04
Speaker 1: anything particular in it? Why? It did not seem altogether
42:08
Speaker 1: right to leave the interior blank. That would have been insulting.
42:12
Speaker 1: D At Vienna once did me an evil turn, which
42:15
Speaker 1: I told him, quite good humoredly, that I should remember. So,
42:20
Speaker 1: as I knew he would feel some curiosity in regard
42:23
Speaker 1: to the identity of the person who had outwitted him,
42:25
Speaker 1: I thought it a pity not to give him a clue.
42:28
Speaker 1: He is well acquainted with my m s. And I
42:30
Speaker 1: just copied into the middle of the blank sheet the
42:32
Speaker 1: words on decain s i fon este Silney, digni dia
42:36
Speaker 1: tree s digny de vyeste. They are to be found
42:40
Speaker 1: in crebulence a tree