[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
absolutely indispensable, of late years, to the thorough blackguard, has become the pocket-handkerchief.'
'And what are we to think,' I said, 'of the article in ?'
The Murders In The Rue Morgue And Other Stories 33
The Black Cat and Other Stories
'That it is a vast pity its inditer was not born a parrot--in which case he would have been the most illustrious
parrot of his race. He has merely repeated the individual items of the already published opinion; collecting
them, with a laudible industry, from this paper and from that. "The things had all been there,"
he says, "at least three or four weeks, and there can be that the spot of this appalling outrage has
been discovered." The facts here re-stated by are very far indeed from removing my own
doubts upon this subject, and we will examine them more particularly hereafter in connection with another
division of the theme.
'At present we must occupy ourselves with other investigations. You cannot fail to have remarked the
extreme laxity of the examination of the corpse. To be sure, the question of identity was readily determined,
or should have been; but there were other points to be ascertained. Had the body been in any respect
despoiled>? Had the deceased any articles of jewellery about her person upon leaving home? if so, had she
any when found? These are important questions utterly untouched by the evidence; and there are others of
equal moment, which have met with no attention. We must endeavour to satisfy ourselves by personal
inquiry. The case of St Eustache must be re-examined. I have no suspicion of this person; but let us proceed
methodically. We will ascertain beyond a doubt the validity of the in regard to his whereabouts
on the Sunday. Affidavits of this character are readily made matter of mystification. Should there be nothing
wrong here, however, we will dismiss St Eustache from our investigations. His suicide, however,
corroborative of suspicion, were there found to be deceit in the affidavits, is, without such deceit, in
no respect an unaccountable circumstance, or one which need cause us to deflect from the line of ordinary
analysis.
'In that which I now propose, we will discard the interior points of this tragedy, and concentrate our attention
upon its outskirts. Not the least usual error in investigations such as this is the limiting of inquiry to the
immediate, with total disregard of the collateral or circumstantial events. It is the malpractice of the courts to
confine evidence and discussion to the bounds of apparent relevancy. Yet experience has shown, and a true
philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly
irrelevant. It is through the spirit of this principle, if not precisely through its letter, that modern science has
resolved to . But perhaps you do not comprehend me. The history of human
knowledge has so uninterruptedly shown that to collateral, or incidental, or accidental events we are indebted
for the most numerous and valuable discoveries, that it has at length become necessary, in prospective view
of improvement, to make not only large, but the largest, allowances for inventions that shall arise by chance,
and quite out of the range of ordinary expectation. It is no longer philosophical to base upon what has been a
vision of what is to be. is admitted as a portion of the substructure. We make chance a matter of
absolute calculation. We subject the unlookedfor and unimagined to the mathematical of the
schools.
'I repeat that it is more than fact that the portion of all truth has sprung from the collateral; and it is
but in accordance with the spirit of the principle involved in this fact that I would divert inquiry, in the
present case, from the trodden and hitherto unfruitful ground of the event itself to the contemporary
circumstances which surround it. While you ascertain the validity of the affidavits, I will examine the
newspapers more generally than you have as yet done. So far, we have only reconnoitred the field of
investigation; but it will be strange, indeed, if a comprehensive survey, such as I propose, of the public prints
will not afford us some minute points which shall establish a for inquiry.'
In pursuance of Dupin's suggestion, I made scrupulous examination of the affair of the affidavits. The result
was a firm conviction of their validity, and of the consequent innocence of St Eustache. In the
meantime my friend occupied himself, with what seemed to me a minuteness altogether objectless, in a
scrutiny of the various newspaper files. At the end of a week he placed before me the following extracts:
The Murders In The Rue Morgue And Other Stories 34
The Black Cat and Other Stories
'About three years and a half ago, a disturbance very similar to the present was caused by the disappearance
of this same Marie Roget from the of Monsieur Le Blanc, in the Palais Royal. At the end of a
week, however, she re-appeared at her customary , as well as ever, with the exception of a slight
paleness not altogether usual. It was given out by Monsieur Le Blanc and her mother that she had merely
been on a visit to some friend in the country; and the affair was speedily hushed up. We presume that the
present absence is a freak of the same nature, and that, at the expiration of a week or, perhaps, of a month, we
shall have her among us again.' --, Monday, June 23.
'An evening journal of yesterday refers to a former mysterious disappearance of Mademoiselle Roget. It is
well known that, during the week of her absence from Le Blanc's , she was in the company of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
absolutely indispensable, of late years, to the thorough blackguard, has become the pocket-handkerchief.'
'And what are we to think,' I said, 'of the article in ?'
The Murders In The Rue Morgue And Other Stories 33
The Black Cat and Other Stories
'That it is a vast pity its inditer was not born a parrot--in which case he would have been the most illustrious
parrot of his race. He has merely repeated the individual items of the already published opinion; collecting
them, with a laudible industry, from this paper and from that. "The things had all been there,"
he says, "at least three or four weeks, and there can be that the spot of this appalling outrage has
been discovered." The facts here re-stated by are very far indeed from removing my own
doubts upon this subject, and we will examine them more particularly hereafter in connection with another
division of the theme.
'At present we must occupy ourselves with other investigations. You cannot fail to have remarked the
extreme laxity of the examination of the corpse. To be sure, the question of identity was readily determined,
or should have been; but there were other points to be ascertained. Had the body been in any respect
despoiled>? Had the deceased any articles of jewellery about her person upon leaving home? if so, had she
any when found? These are important questions utterly untouched by the evidence; and there are others of
equal moment, which have met with no attention. We must endeavour to satisfy ourselves by personal
inquiry. The case of St Eustache must be re-examined. I have no suspicion of this person; but let us proceed
methodically. We will ascertain beyond a doubt the validity of the in regard to his whereabouts
on the Sunday. Affidavits of this character are readily made matter of mystification. Should there be nothing
wrong here, however, we will dismiss St Eustache from our investigations. His suicide, however,
corroborative of suspicion, were there found to be deceit in the affidavits, is, without such deceit, in
no respect an unaccountable circumstance, or one which need cause us to deflect from the line of ordinary
analysis.
'In that which I now propose, we will discard the interior points of this tragedy, and concentrate our attention
upon its outskirts. Not the least usual error in investigations such as this is the limiting of inquiry to the
immediate, with total disregard of the collateral or circumstantial events. It is the malpractice of the courts to
confine evidence and discussion to the bounds of apparent relevancy. Yet experience has shown, and a true
philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly
irrelevant. It is through the spirit of this principle, if not precisely through its letter, that modern science has
resolved to . But perhaps you do not comprehend me. The history of human
knowledge has so uninterruptedly shown that to collateral, or incidental, or accidental events we are indebted
for the most numerous and valuable discoveries, that it has at length become necessary, in prospective view
of improvement, to make not only large, but the largest, allowances for inventions that shall arise by chance,
and quite out of the range of ordinary expectation. It is no longer philosophical to base upon what has been a
vision of what is to be. is admitted as a portion of the substructure. We make chance a matter of
absolute calculation. We subject the unlookedfor and unimagined to the mathematical of the
schools.
'I repeat that it is more than fact that the portion of all truth has sprung from the collateral; and it is
but in accordance with the spirit of the principle involved in this fact that I would divert inquiry, in the
present case, from the trodden and hitherto unfruitful ground of the event itself to the contemporary
circumstances which surround it. While you ascertain the validity of the affidavits, I will examine the
newspapers more generally than you have as yet done. So far, we have only reconnoitred the field of
investigation; but it will be strange, indeed, if a comprehensive survey, such as I propose, of the public prints
will not afford us some minute points which shall establish a for inquiry.'
In pursuance of Dupin's suggestion, I made scrupulous examination of the affair of the affidavits. The result
was a firm conviction of their validity, and of the consequent innocence of St Eustache. In the
meantime my friend occupied himself, with what seemed to me a minuteness altogether objectless, in a
scrutiny of the various newspaper files. At the end of a week he placed before me the following extracts:
The Murders In The Rue Morgue And Other Stories 34
The Black Cat and Other Stories
'About three years and a half ago, a disturbance very similar to the present was caused by the disappearance
of this same Marie Roget from the of Monsieur Le Blanc, in the Palais Royal. At the end of a
week, however, she re-appeared at her customary , as well as ever, with the exception of a slight
paleness not altogether usual. It was given out by Monsieur Le Blanc and her mother that she had merely
been on a visit to some friend in the country; and the affair was speedily hushed up. We presume that the
present absence is a freak of the same nature, and that, at the expiration of a week or, perhaps, of a month, we
shall have her among us again.' --, Monday, June 23.
'An evening journal of yesterday refers to a former mysterious disappearance of Mademoiselle Roget. It is
well known that, during the week of her absence from Le Blanc's , she was in the company of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]