The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume 9 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...their identity, especially as M. Valdemar was well known, and had been so long ill as to render it out of the question that there should be any difficulty in ascertaining the names of the physicians by whom he had been attended. In the same way the nurses and servants, under whose cognizance the case must have come during the seven months which it occupied, are of course accessible to all sorts of inquiries. It will, therefore, appear that there must have been too many parties concerned to render prolonged deception practicable. The angry excitement and various rumors which have at length rendered a public statement necessary are also sufficient to show that Something extraordinary must have taken place. On the other hand, there is no strong point for disbelief. The circumstances are, as the Post says, 'wonderful'; but so are all circumstances that come to our knowledge for the first time, and in mesmerism everything is new. An objection may be made that the article has rather a magazinish air, Mr. Poe having evidently written with a view to effect, and so as to excite rather than to subdue the vague appetite for the mysterious and the horrible which such a case, under any circumstances, is sure to awaken; but apart from this there is nothing to deter a philosophic mind from further i J inquiries regarding it. It is a matter entirely for./)C. testimony. So it is. Under this view we shall / take steps to procure from some of the most intelli (( (I gent anc influential citizens of New York all the evidence that can be had upon the subject. No steamer will leave England for America till the 3d of February, but within a few weeks of that time we doubt not it will be possible to lay before the readers of the Record information which will enable them to come to a...