"'Rich windows that exclude the light, And passages that lead to nothing.'
There are, of course, a few, very few exceptions to the rule, but the rule obtains vastly.
"'The sentimentalities of a puling, hysteric girl, half afflicted with catochus, and the other half love-sick--as most modern clairvoyants are--count small in the list of Fact-truths, and the mad ravings of crack-brained somnambules of the other gender go for hardly as much, for the first has at least a degree of poetry about her, but the latter none at all. No, no, friend, do not place too great reliance on the ability of Magnetism to aid your researches, for you will run a narrow chance of disappointment, and regret when too late that from Nature's stable you selected the very worst animal of the lot; one that is ring-boned, lame, spavined, and very baulky withal. Take my advice, and choose a better.'
"As the old gentleman finished what I at first regarded as a diatribe against Animal Magnetism--a thing, by the way, that I always doted on--I _felt_ silent, and was so for the space of a minute, during which time I rapidly reviewed my entire experience in, and knowledge of, Mesmerism, and the result of the inspection surprised me not a little, for on a calm, disinterested view of the whole subject, I found it utterly impossible to gainsay or invalidate his position and assertions. Yet it was equally impossible to help feeling chagrined, and in no small degree mortified to have my pet hobby thus mercilessly cut up and dissected, laughed at, and thrown out as dog-feed. 'Twas very hard fare, at least to me, and at first seemed unfair also. For a long time I had almost worshipped it as a divine science; holding it to be the true Spiritual Telegraph, by means of which we earthlings might flash thought, not only to the bounds of the globe and the Present, but also to the ends of Time and the Ages Past, or nerved by Hope and Curiosity, dispatch a message to the Great Future and drag back the answer. It was looked upon as the great Messenger of Light, through whom we might easily read the records of a Past so distant that the coal-beds are but yesterday's creations in comparison. And here, at one fell stroke, Ravalette had toppled the castle remorselessly about my ears. I bit my lip with vexation, and for awhile was silent as, together, we walked up and down a sort of natural esplanade on the sides of the hill next Paris. Mechanically as we walked back and forth, I trod in the footprints made while going, on each return, and just as mechanically observed that Ravalette did the same. One thing struck me as curious, even while my mind was profoundly engaged in the search for arguments wherewith to confute and break down the old gentleman's positions; and that fact was this: The shoes worn by Ravalette were of a very singular pattern, totally unlike any I had ever seen before. Upwardly, they were decidedly triangular--almost perfectly so. Previously this fact had escaped my notice; now, it struck me as being _very_ singular. But what was equally surprising was, that instead of the ordinary heel and sole, his feet-gear had four circular rims of brass, covered with rubber, and the track he made on the yielding, but plastic ground was indeed remarkable. The track and the shoe almost upset my cogitations. I looked up and observed a smile on Ravalette's face as he saw my surprise at beholding the novelty of one cross, two crescents and two triangles, and a solid bar (part of the cross), ornamenting the sole of a shoe, if shoe it could be called.