September 2, 2025 • 50 mins
Discover the enchanting world of Day And Night Stories, featuring fifteen captivating short tales by Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (1869 ‚ì 1951). Renowned as one of the most prolific ghost story writers, Blackwoods work blends the supernatural with the ethereal, inviting readers into a realm of wonder and intrigue. A journalist and broadcasting narrator, he has been acclaimed for his consistently exceptional storytelling, with literary critic S. T. Joshi noting that his contributions stand among the finest in the genre. Immerse yourself in these timeless narratives that explore the mysteries of life and the unknown.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Story thirteen of Day and Night Stories by Algernon Blackwood.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Story thirteen,
A victim of Higher Space. There's a extraordinary gentleman to
see you, sir, said the new man. Why extraordinary, asked
doctor silence, drawing the tips of his thin fingers through
(00:23):
his brown beard. His eyes twinkled pleasantly. Why extraordinary, barker,
he repeated, encouragingly, noticing the perplexed expression in the man's eyes.
He's so so thin, Sir, I could hardly see him
at all at first. He was inside the house before
I could ask the name, he added, remembering strict orders,
(00:47):
and who brought him here. He came alone, Sir, in
a closed cab. He pushed by me before I could
say a word, making no noise, not what I could hear.
He seemed to move so soft like. The man stopped
short with obvious embarrassment, as though he had already said
enough to jeopardize his new situation, but trying hard to
(01:09):
show that he remembered the instructions and warnings he had
received with regard to the admission of strangers not properly accredited.
And where is the gentleman now asked Doctor Silence, turning
away to conceal his amusement. I really couldn't exactly say, sir,
I left him standing in all The doctor looked up sharply.
(01:32):
But why in the hall, Barker, Why not in the
waiting room? He fixed his piercing though kindly eyes on
the man's face. Did he frighten you, he asked quickly.
I think he did, sir. If I may say so,
I seem to lose sight of him, as it were.
The man stammered, evidently convinced by now that he had
earned his dismissal. He come in so funny, like just
(01:56):
like a cold wind, he added, boldly, setting his heels
at attention and looking his master full in the face.
The doctor made an internal note of the man's halting description.
He was pleased that the slight signs of psychic intuition
which had induced him to engage Barker, had not entirely
failed at the first trial. Doctor Silence sought for this
(02:20):
qualification in all his assistance from secretary to serving man,
and if it surrounded him with a somewhat singular crew,
the drawbacks were more than compensated for. On the whole
by their occasional flashes of insight. So the gentleman made
you feel queer, did he? That was it? I think, sir,
repeated the man stolidly. And he brings no kind of
(02:43):
introduction to me, no letter or anything, asked the doctor,
with feint surprise, as though he knew what was coming.
The man fumbled both in mind and pockets, and finally
produced an envelope. I beg pardon, sir, he said, greatly flustered.
The gentleman handed me this for you. It was a
note from a discerning friend who had never yet sent
(03:06):
him a case that was not vitally interesting from one
point or another. Please see the bearer of this note.
The brief message ran, though I doubt if even you
can do much to help him. John silence paused a
moment so as to gather from the mind of the
writer all that lay behind the brief words of the letter.
Then he looked up at his servant with a graver
(03:29):
expression than he had yet worn. Go back and find
this gentleman, he said, and show him into the green study.
Do not reply to his question or speak more than
actually necessary, but think kind, helpful, sympathetic, thoughts as strongly
as you can, Barker, You remember what I told you
about the importance of thinking when I engaged you. Put
(03:53):
curiosity out of your mind and think gently, sympathetically, affectionately
if you can. He smiled, and Barker, who had recovered
his composure in the doctor's presence, bowed silently and went out.
There were two different reception rooms in doctor Silence's house.
(04:13):
One intended for persons who imagined they needed spiritual assistance
when really they were only candidates for the asylum, had
padded walls and was well supplied with various concealed contrivances
by means of which sudden violence could be instantly met
and overcome. It was, however, rarely used. The other, intended
(04:36):
for the reception of genuine cases of spiritual distress and
out of the way afflictions of a psychic nature, was
entirely draped and furnished in a soothing deep green calculated
to induce calmness and repose of mind. And this room
was the one in which doctor Silence interviewed the majority
(04:56):
of his queer cases, and the one into which which
he had directed Barker to show his present callar to
begin with. The armchair in which the patient was always
directed to sit, was nailed to the floor, since its
immovability tended to impart this same excellent characteristic to the occupant.
(05:17):
Patients invariably grew excited when talking about themselves, and their
excitement tended to confuse their thoughts and to exaggerate their language.
The inflexibility of the chair helped to counteract this. After
repeated endeavors to drag it forward or push it back,
they ended by resigning themselves to sitting quietly and with
(05:39):
the futility of fidgeting. There followed a calmer state of mind.
Upon the floor and at intervals in the wall. Immediately
behind were certain tiny green buttons, practically unnoticeable, which, on
being pressed, permitted a soothing and persuasive narcotic to rise
invisibly about the occupant of the chair. The effect upon
(06:02):
the excitable patient was rapid, admirable, and harmless. The green
study was further provided with a secret spy hole for
John Silence liked when possible to observe his patient's face
before it had assumed that mask. The features of the
human countenance invariably ware in the presence of another person.
(06:22):
A man sitting alone wears a psychic expression, and this
expression is the man himself. It disappears the moment another
person joins him, and Doctor Silence often learned more from
a few moments secret observation of a face than from
hours of conversation with its owner. Afterwards, a very light,
(06:43):
almost a dancing step followed Barker's heavy tread towards the
green room, and a moment afterwards the man came in
and announced that the gentleman was waiting. He was still pale,
and his manner nervous. Never mind, Barker, the doctor said, kindly,
if you were not psychic, the man would have had
no effect upon you at all. You only need training
(07:05):
and development, and when you have learned to interpret these
feelings and sensations better, you will feel no fear, but
only a great sympathy. Yes, sir, Thank you, sir. And
Barker bowed and made his escape, while Doctor Silence, an
amused smile, lurking about the corners of his mouth, made
his way noiselessly down the passage and put his eye
(07:28):
to the spy hole in the door of the green study.
This spy hole was so placed that it commanded a
view of almost the entire room, and looking through it,
the doctor saw a hat, gloves, and umbrella lying on
a chair by the table, but searched at first in
vain for their owner. The windows were both closed, and
(07:49):
a brisk fire burned in the grate. There were various signs,
signs intelligible at least to a keenly intuitive soul, that
the room was occupied. So far as human beings were concerned.
It was empty, utterly empty. No one sat in the chairs,
no one stood on the mat before the fire. There
(08:11):
was no sign even that a patient was anywhere close
against the wall, examining the Berklen reproductions, as patients so
often did when they thought they were alone, and therefore
rather difficult to see from the spy hole. Ordinarily speaking,
there was no one in the room. It was undeniable.
(08:31):
Yet doctor's silence was quite well aware that a human
being was in the room. His psychic apparatus never failed
in letting him know the proximity of an incarnate or
discarnate being. Even in the dark. He could tell that,
and he now knew positively that his patient, the patient
who had alarmed Barker and had then tripped down the
(08:53):
corridor with that dancing footstep was somewhere concealed within the
four walls commanded by his spy hole. He also realized,
and this was most unusual, that this individual whom he
desired to watch, knew that he was being watched, and further,
that the stranger himself was also watching. In fact, that
(09:15):
it was he, the doctor, who was being observed, and
by an observer as keen and trained as himself. An
inkling of the true state of the case began to
dawn upon him, and he was on the verge of entering. Indeed,
his hand already touched the door knob when his eye,
still glued to the spy hole, detected a slight movement
(09:37):
directly opposite between him and the fireplace. Something stirred. He
watched very attentively and made certain that he was not mistaken.
An object on the mantelpiece. It was a blue vase,
disappeared from view. It passed out of sight, together with
a portion of the marble mantelpiece on which it rested.
(10:00):
Next that part of the fire and great and brass
fender immediately below. It vanished entirely, as though a slice
had been taken clean out of them. Doctor Silence then
understood that something between him and these objects was slowly
coming into being, something that concealed them and obstructed his
vision by inserting itself in the line of sight between
(10:23):
them and himself. He quietly awaited further results before going in. First,
he saw a thin perpendicular line tracing itself from just
above the height of the clock and continuing downward till
it reached the wooly fire mat. This line grew wider, broadened,
grew solid. It was no shadow, It was something substantial.
(10:47):
It defined itself more and more. Then, suddenly, at the
top of the line, and about on a level with
the face of the clock, he saw a round, luminous
disc gazing steadily at him. It was a human eye,
looking straight into his own, pressed there against the spy hole,
and it was bright with intelligence. Doctor Silence held his
(11:10):
breath for a moment and then stared back at it. Then,
like some one moving out of deep shadow into light,
he saw the figure of a man come sliding sideways
into view, a whitish face following the eye, and the
perpendicular line he had first observed broadening out and developing
into the complete figure of a human being. It was
(11:33):
the patient. He had apparently been standing there in front
of the fire all the time. A second eye had
followed the first, and both of them stared steadily at
the spy hole, sharply concentrated, yet with a sly twinkle
of humor and amusement that made it impossible for the
doctor to maintain his position any longer. He opened the
(11:56):
door and went in quickly. As he did so, he
noticed for the first time the sound of a German
band coming in gaily through the open ventilators. In some intuitive,
unaccountable fashion, the music connected itself with the patient he
was about to interview. This sort of prevision was not
(12:16):
unfamiliar to him, It always explained itself later. The man
he saw was of middle age and a very ordinary appearance,
so ordinary, in fact, that he was difficult to describe,
his only peculiarity being his extreme thinness. Pleasant, that is,
good vibrations issued from his atmosphere and met doctor silence
(12:39):
as he advanced to greet him, Yet vibrations alive with
currents and discharges, betraying the perturbed and disordered condition of
his mind and brain. There was evidently something wholly out
of the usual in the state of his thoughts. Yet,
though strange, it was not altogether distressing. It was not
the impression that the broken and violent atmosphere of the
(13:02):
insane produces upon the mind. Doctor Silence realized in a
flash that here was a case of absorbing interest that
might require all his powers to handle properly. I was
watching you through my little peephole, as you saw. He
began with a pleasant smile, advancing to shake hands. I
(13:24):
find it of the greatest assistance sometimes, But the patient
interrupted him at once. His voice was hurried and had
odd shrill changes in it, breaking from high to low
in unexpected fashion. One moment it thundered, the next it
almost squeaked. I understand, without explanation, he broke in rapidly.
(13:46):
You get the true note of a man in this way,
when he thinks himself unobserved. I quite agree. Only in
my case, I fear you saw very little. My case,
as you, of course grasp, Doctor Silence, is extremely peculiar,
uncomfortably peculiar. Indeed, unless Sir William had positively assured me
(14:08):
my friend has sent you to me, the doctor interrupted gravely,
with a gentle note of authority, and that is quite sufficient.
Pray be seated, mister Mudge. Racine Mudge returned the other.
Take this comfortable one, mister Mudge, leading him to the
fixed chair, and tell me your condition in your own
(14:29):
way and at your own pace. My whole day is
at your service if you require it. Mister Mudge moved
towards the chair in question and then hesitated. You will
promise me not to use the narcotic buttons, he said,
before sitting down. I do not need them. Also, I
ought to mention that anything you think of vividly will
(14:50):
reach my mind. That is apparently part of my peculiar case.
He sat down with a sigh and arranged his thin
legs and body into a position of comfort. Evidently he
was very sensitive to the thoughts of others, for the
picture of the green buttons had only entered the doctor's
mind for a second, yet the other had instantly snapped
(15:12):
it up. Doctor Silence noticed too that mister Mudge held
on tightly with both hands to the arms of the chair.
I'm rather glad the chair is nailed to the floor,
he remarked, as he settled himself more comfortably. It suits
me admirably. The fact is, and this is my case
in a nutshell, which is all that a doctor of
(15:33):
your marvelous development requires. The fact is, doctor Silence, I
am a victim of higher space. That's what's the matter
with me, Higher space. The two looked at each other
for a space in silence, the little patient holding tightly
to the arms of the chair which suited him admirably,
(15:53):
and looking up with staring eyes, his atmosphere positively trembling
with the waves of some unknown activity, while the doctor
smiled kindly and sympathetically and put his whole person as
far as possible into the mental condition of the other.
Higher space repeated, mister Mudge, that's what it is. Now,
(16:15):
do you think you can help me with that? There
was a pause during which the men's eyes steadily searched
down below the surface of their respective personalities. Then doctor
Silence spoke, I am quite sure I can help, he
answered quietly. Sympathy must always help, and suffering always owns
(16:36):
my sympathy. I see you have suffered cruelly. You must
tell me all about your case, and when I hear
the gradual steps by which you reached this strange condition,
I have no doubt I can be of assistance to you.
He drew a chair up beside his interlocutur and laid
a hand on his shoulder. For a moment, his whole
(16:58):
being radiated kindnesses, intelligence, desire to help. For instance, he
went on, I feel sure it was the result of
no mere chance that you became familiar with the terrors
of what you term higher space. For higher space is
no mere external measurement. It is, of course a spiritual state,
(17:18):
a spiritual condition, an inner development, and one that we
must recognize as abnormal, since it is beyond the reach
of the world at the present stage of evolution. Higher
space is a mythical state, oh cried the other, rubbing
his bird like hands with pleasure. The relief it is
(17:38):
to talk to some one who can understand. Of course,
what you say is the utter truth. And you are
right that no mere chance led me to my present condition.
But on the other hand, prolonged and deliberate study. Yet
chance in a sense now governs it. I mean, my
entering the condition of higher space seems to depend upon
(18:01):
the chance of this and that circumstance. For instance, the
mere sound of that German band sent me off, not
that all music will do so, but certain sounds, certain
vibrations at once kee me up to the requisite pitch,
and off I go. Wagner's music always does it, and
that band must have been playing a stray bit of Wagner.
(18:24):
But I'll come to all that later. Only first I
must ask you to send away your man from the
spy hole. John Silence looked up with a start, for
mister Mudge's back was to the door, and there was
no mirror. He saw the brown eye of Barker glued
to the little circle of glass, and he crossed the
room without a word, and snapped down the black shutter
(18:47):
provided for the purpose, and then heard Barker shuffle away
along the passage. Now continued the little man in the chair.
I can begin. You have managed to put me completely
at my ear ease, and I feel I may tell
you my whole case without shame or reserve. You will understand.
But you must be patient with me. If I go
(19:09):
into details that are already familiar to you, details of
higher space, I mean, and if I seem stupid when
I have to describe things that transcend the power of
language and are really therefore indescribable. My dear friend, put
in the other calmly that goes without saying to no
(19:30):
higher space is an experience that defies description, and one
is obliged to make use of more or less intelligible symbols.
But pray, proceed Your vivid thoughts will tell me more
than your halting words. An immense sigh of relief proceeded
from the little figure, half lost in the depths of
the chair. Such intelligent sympathy meeting him half way was
(19:53):
a new experience to him, and it touched his heart
at once. He leaned back, relaxing his tie hold of
the arms, and began in his thin, scale like voice.
My mother was a frenchwoman, and my father an Essex bargeman,
he said abruptly, hence my name Racine and Mudge. My
(20:15):
father died before I ever saw him. My mother inherited
money from her Bordeaux relations, and when she died soon after,
I was left alone with wealth and a strange freedom.
I had no guardian trustees, sisters, brothers, or any connection
in the world to look after me. I grew up
(20:35):
therefore utterly without education. This much was to my advantage.
I learned none of that deceitful rubbish taught in schools,
and so had nothing to unlearn. When I awakened to
my true love mathematics, higher mathematics and higher geometry, These, however,
I seemed to know instinctively. It was like the memory
(20:58):
of what I had deeply studied before. The principles were
in my blood, and I simply raced through the ordinary
stages and beyond, and then did the same with geometry. Afterwards,
when I read the books on these subjects, I understood
how swift and undeviating the knowledge had come back to me.
(21:18):
It was simply recollecting the memories of what I had
known before in a previous existence, and required no books
to teach me. In his growing excitement, mister Mudge attempted
to drag the chair forward a little nearer to his listener,
and then smiled faintly as he resigned himself instantly again
(21:39):
to its immovability, and plunged anew into the recital of
his singular disease. The audacious speculations of Boyer, the amazing
theories of Gauss that through a point more than one
line could be drawn parallel to a given line, the
possibility that the angles of a triangle are together greater
(22:00):
than two right angles, if drawn upon immense curvatures. The
breathless intuitions of Bertrami and Lubachowski, all these I hurried
through and emerged, panting but unsatisfied, upon the verge of
my my new world, my higher space possibilities, in a word,
(22:22):
my disease. How I got there? He resumed, after a
brief pause, during which he appeared to be listening intently,
for an approaching sound is more than I can put
intelligibly into words. I can only hope to leave your
mind with an intuitive comprehension of the possibility of what
I say. Here, however, came a change. At this point.
(22:45):
I was no longer absorbing the fruits of studies I
had made before. It was the beginning of new efforts
to learn for the first time, and I had to
go slowly and laboriously through terrible work. Here I sought
for the theories and speculations of others, But books were
few and far between, and with the exception of one man,
(23:07):
a dreamer the world called him, whose audacity and piercing
intuition amazed and delighted me beyond description, I found no
one to guide or help you. Of course, doctor Silence,
understand something of what I am driving at with these
stammering words, though you cannot, perhaps yet guess what depths
(23:28):
of pain my new knowledge brought me to, nor why
an acquaintance with a new development of space should prove
a source of misery and terror. Mister Racine Mudge, remembering
that the chair would not move, did the next best
thing he could in his desire to draw nearer to
the attentive man facing him, and sat forward upon the
(23:50):
very edge of the cushions, crossing his legs and gesticulating
with both hands, as though he saw into the region
of new space he was attempting to describe, and might
any moment tumble into it bodily from the edge of
the chair and disappear from view. John Silence, separated from
him by three paces, sat with his eyes fixed upon
(24:12):
the thin white face opposite, noting every word and every
gesture with deep attention. This room we now sit in,
doctor Silence, has one side open to space, to higher space.
A closed box only seams closed. There is a way
in and out of a soap bubble without breaking the skin.
(24:34):
You tell me no new thing the doctor interposed gently. Hence,
if higher space exists, and our world borders upon it
and lies partially in it, it follows necessarily that we
see only portions of all objects. We never see their
true and complete shape. We see their three measurements, but
(24:55):
not their fourth. The new direction is concealed from us.
And when I hold this book and move my hand
all around it, I have not really made a complete circuit.
We only perceive those portions of any object which exist
in our three dimensions. The rest escapes us. But once
we learn to see in higher space, and objects will
(25:17):
appear as they actually are. Only they will thus be
hardly recognizable. Now you may begin to grasp something of
what I am coming to. I am beginning to understand
something of what you must have suffered, observed the doctor soothingly.
For I have made similar experiments myself, and only stopped
(25:38):
just in time. You are the one man in all
the world who can hear, and understand and sympathize, exclaimed
mister Mudge. Grasping his hand and holding it tightly while
he spoke the nailed chair prevented further excitability. Well, he resumed.
After a moment's pause. I procured the implay elements and
(26:00):
the colored blocks for practical experiment. And I followed the
instructions carefully till I had arrived at a working conception
of four dimensional space. The Tesseract, the figure whose boundaries
are cubes, I knew by heart. That is to say,
I knew it and saw it mentally. For my eye,
of course, could never take in a new measurement, or
(26:22):
my hands and feet handle it. So at least, I thought,
he added, making a wry face, I had reached the stage,
you see, when I could imagine in a new dimension.
I was able to conceive the shape of that new figure,
which is intrinsically different to all we know. The shape
of the Tessarak. I could perceive in four dimensions. When
(26:47):
therefore I looked at a cube, I could see all
its sides at once. Its top was not foreshortened, nor
its farther side and base invisible. I saw the whole
thing out flat, so speak, and this Tesseract was bounded
by cubes. Moreover, I also saw its content, its insides.
(27:09):
You were not yourself able to enter this new world,
interrupted doctor silence. Not then, I was only able to
conceive intuitively what it was like, and how exactly it
must look. Later, when I slipped in there and saw
objects in their entirety, unlimited by the paucity of our
poor three measurements, I very nearly lost my life. For
(27:33):
you see, space does not stop at a single new
dimension of fourth. It extends in all possible new ones,
and we must conceive it as containing any number of
new dimensions. In other words, there is no space at all,
but only a spiritual condition. But meanwhile, I had come
to grasp the strange fact that the objects in our
(27:56):
normal world appear to us only partially. Mister mud Judge
moved farther forward till he was balanced dangerously on the
very edge of the chair. From this starting point he resumed.
I began my studies in experiments and continued them for years.
I had money, and I was without friends. I lived
(28:16):
in solitude and experimented. My intellect, of course, had little
part in the work, for intellectually it was all unthinkable.
Never was the limitation of mere reason more plainly demonstrated.
It was mystically, intuitively spiritually that I began to advance.
And what I learnt and knew and did is all
(28:39):
impossible to put into language, since it all describes experiences
transcending the experience of men. It is only some of
the results what you would call the symptoms of my disease,
that I can give you, And even these must often
appear absurd contradictions and impossible paradoxes. I can only tell you,
(29:01):
doctor silence. His manner became exceedingly impressive that I reached
sometimes a point of view. Whence all the great puzzle
of the world became plain to me, and I understood
what they call in the yoga books the great heresy
of separateness. Why all great teachers have urged the necessity
of man loving his neighbor as himself, How men are
(29:24):
all really one, and why the utter loss of self
is necessary to salvation and the discovery of the new
life of the soul. He paused a moment and drew breath.
Your speculations have been my own, long ago, the doctor said, quietly.
I fully realize the force of your words. Men are
(29:45):
doubtless not separate at all in the sense they imagine
all this about the very much higher space. I only dimly,
very dimly conceived, of course. The other went on, raising
his voice again by jerks but what did happen to
me was the humbler accident of the simpler disaster. Oh dear,
(30:07):
how how shall I put it? He stammered, and showed
visible signs of distress. It was simply this, he resumed
with a sudden rush of words that, accidentally, as the
result of my years of experiment, I one day slipped
bodily into the next world, the world of four dimensions.
(30:27):
Yet without knowing precisely how I got there or how
I could get back again, I discovered that is that
my ordinary three dimensional body was but an expression, a
projection of my higher four dimensional body. Now you understand
what I meant much earlier in our talk when I
(30:48):
spoke of chance. I cannot control my entrance or exit
certain people, certain human atmospheres, certain wandering forces, thoughts, desires,
even the radiations of certain combinations of color, and above all,
the vibrations of certain kinds of music will suddenly throw
(31:08):
me into a state of what I can only describe
as an intense and terrific inner vibration. And behold, I
am off off in the direction at right angles to
all our known directions, off in the direction the cube
takes when it begins to trace the outlines of a
new figure off into my breathless and semi divine higher space,
(31:32):
off inside myself, into the world of four dimensions. He
gasped and dropped back into the depths of the immovable chair,
and there he whispered, his voice issuing from among the cushions. There,
I have to stay until these vibrations subside, or until
(31:52):
they do something which I cannot find words to describe
properly or intelligibly to you. And then behold, I am
back again. First, that is, I disappear. Then I reappear,
just so, exclaimed doctor Silence. And that is why a
few why, a few moments ago, interrupted mister Mudge, taking
(32:15):
the words out of his mouth. You found me gone,
and then saw me return. The music of that wretched
German band sent me off. Your intense thinking about me
brought me back when the band had stopped. As Wagner,
I saw you approach the peep hole, and I saw
Barker's intention of doing so. Later. For me, no interiors
(32:37):
are hidden. I see inside. When in that state, the
content of your mind, as of your body is open
to me. As the day. Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear,
mister Mudge stopped and again mopped his brow. A light
trembling ran over the surface of his small body, like
wind over grass. He still held tightly to the arms
(33:02):
of the chair. At first, he presently resumed. My new
experiences were so vividly interesting that I felt no alarm.
There was no room for it. The alarm came a
little later. Then you actually penetrated far enough into that
state to experience yourself as a normal portion of it,
(33:22):
asked the doctor, leaning forward, deeply interested. Mister Mudge nodded
a perspiring face in reply. I did, he whispered, Undoubtedly
I did. I'm coming to all that. It began first
at night, when I realized that sleep brought no loss
of consciousness. The spirit, of course, can never sleep, only
(33:44):
the body becomes unconscious. Interposed John silence. Yes, we know
that theoretically. At night, of course, the spirit is active elsewhere,
and we have no memory of where and how, simply
because the brain stays by behind and received no record.
But I found that while remaining conscious, I also retained memory.
(34:07):
I had attained to the state of continuous consciousness for
at night. I regularly with the first approaches of drowsiness
entered Nolan's Volan's The four dimensional World. For a time,
this happened regularly, and I could not control it, though
later I found a way to regulate it better. Apparently
(34:30):
sleep is unnecessary in the higher the four dimensional body. Yes, perhaps,
but I should infinitely have preferred dull sleep to the knowledge.
For unable to control my movements, I wandered to and
fro attracted, owing to my partial development and premature arrival
(34:50):
to parts of this new world that alarmed me more
and more. It was the awful waste and drift of
a monstrous world, so so utterly different to all we
know and see that I cannot even hint at the
nature of the sights and objects and beings in it.
More than that, I cannot even remember them. I cannot
(35:12):
now picture them to myself even, but can recall only
the memory of the impression they made upon me, the
horror and devastating terror of it all. To be in
several places at once, for instance, perfectly interrupted John silence,
noticing the increase of the other's excitement. I understand exactly,
(35:35):
But now please tell me a little more of this
alarm you experienced, and how it affected you. It's not
the disappearing and reappearing per se that I mind, continued
mister Mudge, so much as certain other things. It's seeing
people and objects in their weird entirety, in their true
(35:55):
and complete shapes, that is so distressing. It introduces me
to world of monsters, horses, dogs, cats, all of which
I loved, People, trees, children, all that I have considered
beautiful in life. Everything from a human face to a
cathedral appear to me in a different shape and aspect
(36:17):
to all I have known before. I cannot perhaps convince
you why this should be terrible, but I assure you
that it is so. To hear the human voice proceeding
from this novel appearance, which I scarcely recognize as a
human body, is ghastly, simply ghastly. To see inside everything
(36:39):
and everybody is a form of insight peculiarly distressing. To
be so confused in geography as to find myself one
moment at the North Pole and the next at Clapham Junction,
or possibly at both places simultaneously, is absurdly terrifying. Your
imagination will read furnish other details without my multiplying my experiences. Now,
(37:05):
But you have no idea what it all means, and
how I suffer. Mister Mudge paused in his panting account
and lay back in his chair. He still held tightly
to the arms, as though they could keep him in
the world of sanity and three measurements, and only now
and again released his left hand in order to mop
(37:25):
his face. He looked very thin and white and oddly unsubstantial,
and he stared about him as though he saw into
this other space he had been talking about. John Silence
too felt warm. He had listened to every word and
had made many notes. The presence of this man had
(37:45):
an exhilarating effect upon him. It seemed as if mister
Racine Mudge still carried with him something of that breathless
higher space condition he had been describing. At any rate,
Doctor Silence had himself advanced sufficiently far along the legitimate
paths of spiritual and psychic transformations to realize that the
(38:08):
visions of this extraordinary little person had a basis of
truth for their origin. After a pause that prolonged itself
into minutes, he crossed the room and unlocked a drawer
in a bookcase, taking out a small book with a
red cover. It had a lock to it, and he
produced a key out of his pocket and proceeded to
(38:28):
open the covers. The bright eyes of mister Mudge never
left him for a single second. It almost seems a pity,
he said at length, to cure you, mister Mudge, you
are on the way to discovery of great things, though
you may lose your life in the process. That is
your life here in the world of three dimensions. You
(38:49):
would lose thereby nothing of great value. You will pardon
my apparent rudeness, I know, and you might gain what
is infinitely greater. Your suffering, of course, lies in the
fact that you alternate between the two worlds, and are
never wholly in one or the other. Also, I rather imagine,
though I cannot be certain of this from any personal experiments,
(39:13):
that you have here and there penetrated even into space
of more than four dimensions, and have hence experienced the
terror you speak of. The perspiring son of the Essex Bargeman,
and the woman of Normandy bent his head several times
in assent, but uttered no word in reply. Some strange
(39:34):
psychic predisposition, dating no doubt from one of your former lives,
has favored the development of your disease, and the fact
that you had no normal training at school or college.
No leading by the poor intellect into the cul de
sac falsely called knowledge, has further caused your exceedingly rapid
movement along the lines of direct inner experience. None of
(39:58):
the knowledge you have, for shit shadowed, has come to
you through the senses, of course. Mister Mudge, sitting in
his immovable chair, began to tremble slightly. A wind again
seemed to pass over his surface, and again to set
it curiously in motion like a field of grass. You
are merely talking to gain time, he said, hurriedly in
(40:21):
a shaking voice. This, thinking aloud, delays us, I see
ahead what you are coming to. Only please be quick,
for something is going to happen. A band is again
coming down the street. And if it plays, if it plays, wagner,
I shall be often a twinkling. Precisely I will be quit.
I was leading up to the point of how to
(40:43):
effect your cure. The way is this. You must simply
learn to block the entrances. True, true, utterly true, exclaimed
the little man, dodging about nervously in the depths of
the chair. But how in the name of space is
that to be done by concentration. They are all within you,
(41:03):
these entrances. Although outer cases such as music, color, and
other things lead you towards them. These external things you
cannot hope to destroy. But once the entrances are blocked,
they will lead you only to bricked walls and closed channels.
You will no longer be able to find the way.
(41:23):
Quick quick, cried the bobbing figure in the chair. How
is this concentration to be effected this little book, continued
Doctor Silence calmly, will explain to you the way he
tapped the cover. Let me now read out to you
certain simple instructions, composed as I see you, divine entirely
(41:44):
from my own personal experiences in the same direction. Follow
these instructions, and you will no longer enter the state
of higher space. The entrance will be blocked effectively. Mister
Mudge sat bolt upright in his chair to listen, and
John Silence cleared his throat and began to read slowly
in a very distinct voice. But before he had uttered
(42:08):
a dozen words, something happened. A sound of street music
entered the room through the open ventilators. For a band
had begun to play in the stable muse at the
back of the house, the march from Tom Houser. Odd
as it may seem that a German band should twice
within the space of an hour, enter the same muse
and play Wagner, it was nevertheless the fact. Mister Racine
(42:32):
Mudge heard it. He uttered a sharp, squeaking cry and
twisted his arms with nervous energy round the chair. A
piteous look that was not far from tears spread over
his white face. Gray shadows followed it, the gray of fear.
He began to struggle convulsively. Hold me fast, catch me,
(42:54):
for God's sake, keep me here. I'm on the rush already.
Oh it's fright, he cried in tones of anguish, his
voice as thin as a reed doctor silence. Made a
plunge forward to seize him, but in a flash, before
he could cover the space between them, mister Racine Mudge,
screaming and struggling, seemed to shoot past him into invisibility.
(43:19):
He disappeared like an arrow from a bow propelled at
infinite speed, and his voice no longer sounded in the
external air, but seemed, in some curious way to make
itself heard somewhere within the depths of the doctor's own being.
It was almost like a faint singing cry in his head,
like a voice of a dream, a voice of vision
(43:42):
and unreality. Alcohol. Alcohol, it cried, give me alcohol. It's
the quickest way, alcohol, before I'm out of reach. The doctor,
accustomed to rapid decisions and even more rapid action, remembered
that a brandy flask stood upon the mass mantlepiece, and
in less than a second he had seized it and
(44:03):
was holding it out towards the space above the chair
recently occupied by the visible Mudge. Then before his very
eyes and long ere he could unscrew the metal stopper.
He saw the contents of the closed glass pial sink
and lessen, as though someone were drinking violently and greedily
of the liquor within. Thanks enough, it deadens the vibrations,
(44:28):
cried the faint voice in his interior. As he withdrew
the flask and set it back upon the mantelpiece, he
understood that in Mudge's present condition, one side of the
flask was open to space, and he could drink without
removing the stopper. He could hardly have had a more
interesting proof of what he had been hearing described at
(44:50):
such length. But the next moment, the very same moment,
it almost seemed, the German band stopped midway in its tune,
and there was mister Mudge back in his chair again,
gasping and panting. Quick he shrieked, stop that band, send
it away, catch hold of me, Block the entrances, block
(45:11):
the entrances, give me the red book. Oh, the music
had begun again. It was merely a temporary interruption. The
Tonheuser march started again, this time at a tremendous pace
that made it sound like a rapid two step, as
though the instruments played against time. But the brief interruption
(45:32):
gave doctor Silence a moment in which to collect his
scattering thoughts. And before the band had gone through a
half a bar, he had flung forward upon the chair
and held mister Racine Mudge, the struggling little victim of
higher space, in a grip of iron. His arms went
all round his diminutive person, taking in a good part
(45:53):
of the chair. At the same time. He was not
a big man, yet he seemed to smother Mudge completely.
Yet even as he did so and felt the wriggling
form underneath him, it began to melt and slip away
like air or water. The wood at the arm chair
somehow disentangled itself from between his own arms and those
(46:14):
of Mudge. The phenomenon known as the passage of matter
through matter took place. The little man seemed actually to
get mixed up in his own being. Doctor Silence could
just see his face beneath him. It puckered and grew dark,
as though from some great internal effort. He heard the thin,
reedy voice cry in his ear to block the entrances,
(46:37):
Block the entrances. And then, but how in the world
to describe what is indescribable? John Silence half rose up
to watch Racine Mudge, his face distorted beyond all recognition,
was making a marvelous inward movement, as though doubling back
upon himself. He turned funnel wise like water enough swirling vortex,
(47:01):
and then appeared to break up somewhat as a reflection
breaks up and divides in a distorting convex mirror. He
went neither forward nor backward, neither to the right nor
to the left, neither up nor down. But he went.
He went utterly. He simply flashed away out of sight,
(47:21):
like a vanishing projectile all but one leg. Doctor Silence
just had the time and the presence of mind to
seize upon the left ankle and boot as it disappeared.
And to this he held on for several seconds, like
grim death. Yet all the time he knew it was
a foolish and useless thing to do. The foot was
(47:43):
in his grasp one moment and the next. It seemed
this was the only way he could describe it, inside
his own skin and bones, and at the same time
outside his hand, and all round it it seemed mixed
up in some amazing way with his own flesh and blood.
Then it was gone, and he was tightly grasping a
(48:04):
draft of heat. Adare gone, Gone, Gone, cried a thick
whispering voice somewhere deep within his own consciousness. Lost, lost, Lost.
It repeated, growing fainter and fainter, till at length it
vanished into nothing, and the last signs of mister Racine
Mudge vanished with it. John Silence locked his read book
(48:28):
and replaced it in the cabinet, which he fastened with
a click, And when Barker answered the bell, he inquired
if mister Mudge had left a card upon the table
it appeared that he had, and when the servant returned
with it, Doctor Silence read the address and made a
note of it. It was in North London. Mister Mudge
(48:48):
has gone, he said quietly to Barker, noticing his expression
of alarm. He's not taking a hat with him, sir.
Mister Mudge requires no hat where he is now, continued
the doctor, stooping to poke the fire. But he may
return for it and the humbrella, sir, and the umbrella.
He didn't go out my way, sir, if you please,
(49:11):
stuttered the amazed servant, his curiosity overcoming his nervousness. Mister
Mudge has his own way of coming and going, and
prefers it. If he returns by the door at any time,
remember to bring him instantly to me, and be kind
and gentle with him, and ask no questions. Also, remember
(49:31):
Barker to think pleasantly, sympathetically affectionately of him while he
is away. Mister Mudge is a very suffering gentleman. Barker
bowed and went out of the room, backwards, gasping and
feeling round the inside of his collar with three very
hot fingers of one hand. It was two days later
(49:53):
when he brought in a telegram to the study, Doctor
Silence opened it and read as follows. Bombay just slipped
out again. All safe have blocked entrances thousand thanks address
Cook's London. Mudge. Doctor Silence looked up and saw Barker
staring at him bewilderingly. It occurred to him that somehow
(50:15):
he knew the contents of the telegram. Make a parcel
of mister Mudge's things, he said briefly, and addressed them
Thomas Cook and sons, Ludgate Circus, and send them there
exactly a month from to day, and marked to be
called for. Yes, Sir, said Barker, leaving the room with
a deep sigh and a hurried glance at the waste
(50:37):
paper basket where his master had dropped the pink paper.
End of story thirteen.
Story thirteen of Day and Night Stories by Algernon Blackwood.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Story thirteen,
A victim of Higher Space. There's a extraordinary gentleman to
see you, sir, said the new man. Why extraordinary, asked
doctor silence, drawing the tips of his thin fingers through
(00:23):
his brown beard. His eyes twinkled pleasantly. Why extraordinary, barker,
he repeated, encouragingly, noticing the perplexed expression in the man's eyes.
He's so so thin, Sir, I could hardly see him
at all at first. He was inside the house before
I could ask the name, he added, remembering strict orders,
(00:47):
and who brought him here. He came alone, Sir, in
a closed cab. He pushed by me before I could
say a word, making no noise, not what I could hear.
He seemed to move so soft like. The man stopped
short with obvious embarrassment, as though he had already said
enough to jeopardize his new situation, but trying hard to
(01:09):
show that he remembered the instructions and warnings he had
received with regard to the admission of strangers not properly accredited.
And where is the gentleman now asked Doctor Silence, turning
away to conceal his amusement. I really couldn't exactly say, sir,
I left him standing in all The doctor looked up sharply.
(01:32):
But why in the hall, Barker, Why not in the
waiting room? He fixed his piercing though kindly eyes on
the man's face. Did he frighten you, he asked quickly.
I think he did, sir. If I may say so,
I seem to lose sight of him, as it were.
The man stammered, evidently convinced by now that he had
earned his dismissal. He come in so funny, like just
(01:56):
like a cold wind, he added, boldly, setting his heels
at attention and looking his master full in the face.
The doctor made an internal note of the man's halting description.
He was pleased that the slight signs of psychic intuition
which had induced him to engage Barker, had not entirely
failed at the first trial. Doctor Silence sought for this
(02:20):
qualification in all his assistance from secretary to serving man,
and if it surrounded him with a somewhat singular crew,
the drawbacks were more than compensated for. On the whole
by their occasional flashes of insight. So the gentleman made
you feel queer, did he? That was it? I think, sir,
repeated the man stolidly. And he brings no kind of
(02:43):
introduction to me, no letter or anything, asked the doctor,
with feint surprise, as though he knew what was coming.
The man fumbled both in mind and pockets, and finally
produced an envelope. I beg pardon, sir, he said, greatly flustered.
The gentleman handed me this for you. It was a
note from a discerning friend who had never yet sent
(03:06):
him a case that was not vitally interesting from one
point or another. Please see the bearer of this note.
The brief message ran, though I doubt if even you
can do much to help him. John silence paused a
moment so as to gather from the mind of the
writer all that lay behind the brief words of the letter.
Then he looked up at his servant with a graver
(03:29):
expression than he had yet worn. Go back and find
this gentleman, he said, and show him into the green study.
Do not reply to his question or speak more than
actually necessary, but think kind, helpful, sympathetic, thoughts as strongly
as you can, Barker, You remember what I told you
about the importance of thinking when I engaged you. Put
(03:53):
curiosity out of your mind and think gently, sympathetically, affectionately
if you can. He smiled, and Barker, who had recovered
his composure in the doctor's presence, bowed silently and went out.
There were two different reception rooms in doctor Silence's house.
(04:13):
One intended for persons who imagined they needed spiritual assistance
when really they were only candidates for the asylum, had
padded walls and was well supplied with various concealed contrivances
by means of which sudden violence could be instantly met
and overcome. It was, however, rarely used. The other, intended
(04:36):
for the reception of genuine cases of spiritual distress and
out of the way afflictions of a psychic nature, was
entirely draped and furnished in a soothing deep green calculated
to induce calmness and repose of mind. And this room
was the one in which doctor Silence interviewed the majority
(04:56):
of his queer cases, and the one into which which
he had directed Barker to show his present callar to
begin with. The armchair in which the patient was always
directed to sit, was nailed to the floor, since its
immovability tended to impart this same excellent characteristic to the occupant.
(05:17):
Patients invariably grew excited when talking about themselves, and their
excitement tended to confuse their thoughts and to exaggerate their language.
The inflexibility of the chair helped to counteract this. After
repeated endeavors to drag it forward or push it back,
they ended by resigning themselves to sitting quietly and with
(05:39):
the futility of fidgeting. There followed a calmer state of mind.
Upon the floor and at intervals in the wall. Immediately
behind were certain tiny green buttons, practically unnoticeable, which, on
being pressed, permitted a soothing and persuasive narcotic to rise
invisibly about the occupant of the chair. The effect upon
(06:02):
the excitable patient was rapid, admirable, and harmless. The green
study was further provided with a secret spy hole for
John Silence liked when possible to observe his patient's face
before it had assumed that mask. The features of the
human countenance invariably ware in the presence of another person.
(06:22):
A man sitting alone wears a psychic expression, and this
expression is the man himself. It disappears the moment another
person joins him, and Doctor Silence often learned more from
a few moments secret observation of a face than from
hours of conversation with its owner. Afterwards, a very light,
(06:43):
almost a dancing step followed Barker's heavy tread towards the
green room, and a moment afterwards the man came in
and announced that the gentleman was waiting. He was still pale,
and his manner nervous. Never mind, Barker, the doctor said, kindly,
if you were not psychic, the man would have had
no effect upon you at all. You only need training
(07:05):
and development, and when you have learned to interpret these
feelings and sensations better, you will feel no fear, but
only a great sympathy. Yes, sir, Thank you, sir. And
Barker bowed and made his escape, while Doctor Silence, an
amused smile, lurking about the corners of his mouth, made
his way noiselessly down the passage and put his eye
(07:28):
to the spy hole in the door of the green study.
This spy hole was so placed that it commanded a
view of almost the entire room, and looking through it,
the doctor saw a hat, gloves, and umbrella lying on
a chair by the table, but searched at first in
vain for their owner. The windows were both closed, and
(07:49):
a brisk fire burned in the grate. There were various signs,
signs intelligible at least to a keenly intuitive soul, that
the room was occupied. So far as human beings were concerned.
It was empty, utterly empty. No one sat in the chairs,
no one stood on the mat before the fire. There
(08:11):
was no sign even that a patient was anywhere close
against the wall, examining the Berklen reproductions, as patients so
often did when they thought they were alone, and therefore
rather difficult to see from the spy hole. Ordinarily speaking,
there was no one in the room. It was undeniable.
(08:31):
Yet doctor's silence was quite well aware that a human
being was in the room. His psychic apparatus never failed
in letting him know the proximity of an incarnate or
discarnate being. Even in the dark. He could tell that,
and he now knew positively that his patient, the patient
who had alarmed Barker and had then tripped down the
(08:53):
corridor with that dancing footstep was somewhere concealed within the
four walls commanded by his spy hole. He also realized,
and this was most unusual, that this individual whom he
desired to watch, knew that he was being watched, and further,
that the stranger himself was also watching. In fact, that
(09:15):
it was he, the doctor, who was being observed, and
by an observer as keen and trained as himself. An
inkling of the true state of the case began to
dawn upon him, and he was on the verge of entering. Indeed,
his hand already touched the door knob when his eye,
still glued to the spy hole, detected a slight movement
(09:37):
directly opposite between him and the fireplace. Something stirred. He
watched very attentively and made certain that he was not mistaken.
An object on the mantelpiece. It was a blue vase,
disappeared from view. It passed out of sight, together with
a portion of the marble mantelpiece on which it rested.
(10:00):
Next that part of the fire and great and brass
fender immediately below. It vanished entirely, as though a slice
had been taken clean out of them. Doctor Silence then
understood that something between him and these objects was slowly
coming into being, something that concealed them and obstructed his
vision by inserting itself in the line of sight between
(10:23):
them and himself. He quietly awaited further results before going in. First,
he saw a thin perpendicular line tracing itself from just
above the height of the clock and continuing downward till
it reached the wooly fire mat. This line grew wider, broadened,
grew solid. It was no shadow, It was something substantial.
(10:47):
It defined itself more and more. Then, suddenly, at the
top of the line, and about on a level with
the face of the clock, he saw a round, luminous
disc gazing steadily at him. It was a human eye,
looking straight into his own, pressed there against the spy hole,
and it was bright with intelligence. Doctor Silence held his
(11:10):
breath for a moment and then stared back at it. Then,
like some one moving out of deep shadow into light,
he saw the figure of a man come sliding sideways
into view, a whitish face following the eye, and the
perpendicular line he had first observed broadening out and developing
into the complete figure of a human being. It was
(11:33):
the patient. He had apparently been standing there in front
of the fire all the time. A second eye had
followed the first, and both of them stared steadily at
the spy hole, sharply concentrated, yet with a sly twinkle
of humor and amusement that made it impossible for the
doctor to maintain his position any longer. He opened the
(11:56):
door and went in quickly. As he did so, he
noticed for the first time the sound of a German
band coming in gaily through the open ventilators. In some intuitive,
unaccountable fashion, the music connected itself with the patient he
was about to interview. This sort of prevision was not
(12:16):
unfamiliar to him, It always explained itself later. The man
he saw was of middle age and a very ordinary appearance,
so ordinary, in fact, that he was difficult to describe,
his only peculiarity being his extreme thinness. Pleasant, that is,
good vibrations issued from his atmosphere and met doctor silence
(12:39):
as he advanced to greet him, Yet vibrations alive with
currents and discharges, betraying the perturbed and disordered condition of
his mind and brain. There was evidently something wholly out
of the usual in the state of his thoughts. Yet,
though strange, it was not altogether distressing. It was not
the impression that the broken and violent atmosphere of the
(13:02):
insane produces upon the mind. Doctor Silence realized in a
flash that here was a case of absorbing interest that
might require all his powers to handle properly. I was
watching you through my little peephole, as you saw. He
began with a pleasant smile, advancing to shake hands. I
(13:24):
find it of the greatest assistance sometimes, But the patient
interrupted him at once. His voice was hurried and had
odd shrill changes in it, breaking from high to low
in unexpected fashion. One moment it thundered, the next it
almost squeaked. I understand, without explanation, he broke in rapidly.
(13:46):
You get the true note of a man in this way,
when he thinks himself unobserved. I quite agree. Only in
my case, I fear you saw very little. My case,
as you, of course grasp, Doctor Silence, is extremely peculiar,
uncomfortably peculiar. Indeed, unless Sir William had positively assured me
(14:08):
my friend has sent you to me, the doctor interrupted gravely,
with a gentle note of authority, and that is quite sufficient.
Pray be seated, mister Mudge. Racine Mudge returned the other.
Take this comfortable one, mister Mudge, leading him to the
fixed chair, and tell me your condition in your own
(14:29):
way and at your own pace. My whole day is
at your service if you require it. Mister Mudge moved
towards the chair in question and then hesitated. You will
promise me not to use the narcotic buttons, he said,
before sitting down. I do not need them. Also, I
ought to mention that anything you think of vividly will
(14:50):
reach my mind. That is apparently part of my peculiar case.
He sat down with a sigh and arranged his thin
legs and body into a position of comfort. Evidently he
was very sensitive to the thoughts of others, for the
picture of the green buttons had only entered the doctor's
mind for a second, yet the other had instantly snapped
(15:12):
it up. Doctor Silence noticed too that mister Mudge held
on tightly with both hands to the arms of the chair.
I'm rather glad the chair is nailed to the floor,
he remarked, as he settled himself more comfortably. It suits
me admirably. The fact is, and this is my case
in a nutshell, which is all that a doctor of
(15:33):
your marvelous development requires. The fact is, doctor Silence, I
am a victim of higher space. That's what's the matter
with me, Higher space. The two looked at each other
for a space in silence, the little patient holding tightly
to the arms of the chair which suited him admirably,
(15:53):
and looking up with staring eyes, his atmosphere positively trembling
with the waves of some unknown activity, while the doctor
smiled kindly and sympathetically and put his whole person as
far as possible into the mental condition of the other.
Higher space repeated, mister Mudge, that's what it is. Now,
(16:15):
do you think you can help me with that? There
was a pause during which the men's eyes steadily searched
down below the surface of their respective personalities. Then doctor
Silence spoke, I am quite sure I can help, he
answered quietly. Sympathy must always help, and suffering always owns
(16:36):
my sympathy. I see you have suffered cruelly. You must
tell me all about your case, and when I hear
the gradual steps by which you reached this strange condition,
I have no doubt I can be of assistance to you.
He drew a chair up beside his interlocutur and laid
a hand on his shoulder. For a moment, his whole
(16:58):
being radiated kindnesses, intelligence, desire to help. For instance, he
went on, I feel sure it was the result of
no mere chance that you became familiar with the terrors
of what you term higher space. For higher space is
no mere external measurement. It is, of course a spiritual state,
(17:18):
a spiritual condition, an inner development, and one that we
must recognize as abnormal, since it is beyond the reach
of the world at the present stage of evolution. Higher
space is a mythical state, oh cried the other, rubbing
his bird like hands with pleasure. The relief it is
(17:38):
to talk to some one who can understand. Of course,
what you say is the utter truth. And you are
right that no mere chance led me to my present condition.
But on the other hand, prolonged and deliberate study. Yet
chance in a sense now governs it. I mean, my
entering the condition of higher space seems to depend upon
(18:01):
the chance of this and that circumstance. For instance, the
mere sound of that German band sent me off, not
that all music will do so, but certain sounds, certain
vibrations at once kee me up to the requisite pitch,
and off I go. Wagner's music always does it, and
that band must have been playing a stray bit of Wagner.
(18:24):
But I'll come to all that later. Only first I
must ask you to send away your man from the
spy hole. John Silence looked up with a start, for
mister Mudge's back was to the door, and there was
no mirror. He saw the brown eye of Barker glued
to the little circle of glass, and he crossed the
room without a word, and snapped down the black shutter
(18:47):
provided for the purpose, and then heard Barker shuffle away
along the passage. Now continued the little man in the chair.
I can begin. You have managed to put me completely
at my ear ease, and I feel I may tell
you my whole case without shame or reserve. You will understand.
But you must be patient with me. If I go
(19:09):
into details that are already familiar to you, details of
higher space, I mean, and if I seem stupid when
I have to describe things that transcend the power of
language and are really therefore indescribable. My dear friend, put
in the other calmly that goes without saying to no
(19:30):
higher space is an experience that defies description, and one
is obliged to make use of more or less intelligible symbols.
But pray, proceed Your vivid thoughts will tell me more
than your halting words. An immense sigh of relief proceeded
from the little figure, half lost in the depths of
the chair. Such intelligent sympathy meeting him half way was
(19:53):
a new experience to him, and it touched his heart
at once. He leaned back, relaxing his tie hold of
the arms, and began in his thin, scale like voice.
My mother was a frenchwoman, and my father an Essex bargeman,
he said abruptly, hence my name Racine and Mudge. My
(20:15):
father died before I ever saw him. My mother inherited
money from her Bordeaux relations, and when she died soon after,
I was left alone with wealth and a strange freedom.
I had no guardian trustees, sisters, brothers, or any connection
in the world to look after me. I grew up
(20:35):
therefore utterly without education. This much was to my advantage.
I learned none of that deceitful rubbish taught in schools,
and so had nothing to unlearn. When I awakened to
my true love mathematics, higher mathematics and higher geometry, These, however,
I seemed to know instinctively. It was like the memory
(20:58):
of what I had deeply studied before. The principles were
in my blood, and I simply raced through the ordinary
stages and beyond, and then did the same with geometry. Afterwards,
when I read the books on these subjects, I understood
how swift and undeviating the knowledge had come back to me.
(21:18):
It was simply recollecting the memories of what I had
known before in a previous existence, and required no books
to teach me. In his growing excitement, mister Mudge attempted
to drag the chair forward a little nearer to his listener,
and then smiled faintly as he resigned himself instantly again
(21:39):
to its immovability, and plunged anew into the recital of
his singular disease. The audacious speculations of Boyer, the amazing
theories of Gauss that through a point more than one
line could be drawn parallel to a given line, the
possibility that the angles of a triangle are together greater
(22:00):
than two right angles, if drawn upon immense curvatures. The
breathless intuitions of Bertrami and Lubachowski, all these I hurried
through and emerged, panting but unsatisfied, upon the verge of
my my new world, my higher space possibilities, in a word,
(22:22):
my disease. How I got there? He resumed, after a
brief pause, during which he appeared to be listening intently,
for an approaching sound is more than I can put
intelligibly into words. I can only hope to leave your
mind with an intuitive comprehension of the possibility of what
I say. Here, however, came a change. At this point.
(22:45):
I was no longer absorbing the fruits of studies I
had made before. It was the beginning of new efforts
to learn for the first time, and I had to
go slowly and laboriously through terrible work. Here I sought
for the theories and speculations of others, But books were
few and far between, and with the exception of one man,
(23:07):
a dreamer the world called him, whose audacity and piercing
intuition amazed and delighted me beyond description, I found no
one to guide or help you. Of course, doctor Silence,
understand something of what I am driving at with these
stammering words, though you cannot, perhaps yet guess what depths
(23:28):
of pain my new knowledge brought me to, nor why
an acquaintance with a new development of space should prove
a source of misery and terror. Mister Racine Mudge, remembering
that the chair would not move, did the next best
thing he could in his desire to draw nearer to
the attentive man facing him, and sat forward upon the
(23:50):
very edge of the cushions, crossing his legs and gesticulating
with both hands, as though he saw into the region
of new space he was attempting to describe, and might
any moment tumble into it bodily from the edge of
the chair and disappear from view. John Silence, separated from
him by three paces, sat with his eyes fixed upon
(24:12):
the thin white face opposite, noting every word and every
gesture with deep attention. This room we now sit in,
doctor Silence, has one side open to space, to higher space.
A closed box only seams closed. There is a way
in and out of a soap bubble without breaking the skin.
(24:34):
You tell me no new thing the doctor interposed gently. Hence,
if higher space exists, and our world borders upon it
and lies partially in it, it follows necessarily that we
see only portions of all objects. We never see their
true and complete shape. We see their three measurements, but
(24:55):
not their fourth. The new direction is concealed from us.
And when I hold this book and move my hand
all around it, I have not really made a complete circuit.
We only perceive those portions of any object which exist
in our three dimensions. The rest escapes us. But once
we learn to see in higher space, and objects will
(25:17):
appear as they actually are. Only they will thus be
hardly recognizable. Now you may begin to grasp something of
what I am coming to. I am beginning to understand
something of what you must have suffered, observed the doctor soothingly.
For I have made similar experiments myself, and only stopped
(25:38):
just in time. You are the one man in all
the world who can hear, and understand and sympathize, exclaimed
mister Mudge. Grasping his hand and holding it tightly while
he spoke the nailed chair prevented further excitability. Well, he resumed.
After a moment's pause. I procured the implay elements and
(26:00):
the colored blocks for practical experiment. And I followed the
instructions carefully till I had arrived at a working conception
of four dimensional space. The Tesseract, the figure whose boundaries
are cubes, I knew by heart. That is to say,
I knew it and saw it mentally. For my eye,
of course, could never take in a new measurement, or
(26:22):
my hands and feet handle it. So at least, I thought,
he added, making a wry face, I had reached the stage,
you see, when I could imagine in a new dimension.
I was able to conceive the shape of that new figure,
which is intrinsically different to all we know. The shape
of the Tessarak. I could perceive in four dimensions. When
(26:47):
therefore I looked at a cube, I could see all
its sides at once. Its top was not foreshortened, nor
its farther side and base invisible. I saw the whole
thing out flat, so speak, and this Tesseract was bounded
by cubes. Moreover, I also saw its content, its insides.
(27:09):
You were not yourself able to enter this new world,
interrupted doctor silence. Not then, I was only able to
conceive intuitively what it was like, and how exactly it
must look. Later, when I slipped in there and saw
objects in their entirety, unlimited by the paucity of our
poor three measurements, I very nearly lost my life. For
(27:33):
you see, space does not stop at a single new
dimension of fourth. It extends in all possible new ones,
and we must conceive it as containing any number of
new dimensions. In other words, there is no space at all,
but only a spiritual condition. But meanwhile, I had come
to grasp the strange fact that the objects in our
(27:56):
normal world appear to us only partially. Mister mud Judge
moved farther forward till he was balanced dangerously on the
very edge of the chair. From this starting point he resumed.
I began my studies in experiments and continued them for years.
I had money, and I was without friends. I lived
(28:16):
in solitude and experimented. My intellect, of course, had little
part in the work, for intellectually it was all unthinkable.
Never was the limitation of mere reason more plainly demonstrated.
It was mystically, intuitively spiritually that I began to advance.
And what I learnt and knew and did is all
(28:39):
impossible to put into language, since it all describes experiences
transcending the experience of men. It is only some of
the results what you would call the symptoms of my disease,
that I can give you, And even these must often
appear absurd contradictions and impossible paradoxes. I can only tell you,
(29:01):
doctor silence. His manner became exceedingly impressive that I reached
sometimes a point of view. Whence all the great puzzle
of the world became plain to me, and I understood
what they call in the yoga books the great heresy
of separateness. Why all great teachers have urged the necessity
of man loving his neighbor as himself, How men are
(29:24):
all really one, and why the utter loss of self
is necessary to salvation and the discovery of the new
life of the soul. He paused a moment and drew breath.
Your speculations have been my own, long ago, the doctor said, quietly.
I fully realize the force of your words. Men are
(29:45):
doubtless not separate at all in the sense they imagine
all this about the very much higher space. I only dimly,
very dimly conceived, of course. The other went on, raising
his voice again by jerks but what did happen to
me was the humbler accident of the simpler disaster. Oh dear,
(30:07):
how how shall I put it? He stammered, and showed
visible signs of distress. It was simply this, he resumed
with a sudden rush of words that, accidentally, as the
result of my years of experiment, I one day slipped
bodily into the next world, the world of four dimensions.
(30:27):
Yet without knowing precisely how I got there or how
I could get back again, I discovered that is that
my ordinary three dimensional body was but an expression, a
projection of my higher four dimensional body. Now you understand
what I meant much earlier in our talk when I
(30:48):
spoke of chance. I cannot control my entrance or exit
certain people, certain human atmospheres, certain wandering forces, thoughts, desires,
even the radiations of certain combinations of color, and above all,
the vibrations of certain kinds of music will suddenly throw
(31:08):
me into a state of what I can only describe
as an intense and terrific inner vibration. And behold, I
am off off in the direction at right angles to
all our known directions, off in the direction the cube
takes when it begins to trace the outlines of a
new figure off into my breathless and semi divine higher space,
(31:32):
off inside myself, into the world of four dimensions. He
gasped and dropped back into the depths of the immovable chair,
and there he whispered, his voice issuing from among the cushions. There,
I have to stay until these vibrations subside, or until
(31:52):
they do something which I cannot find words to describe
properly or intelligibly to you. And then behold, I am
back again. First, that is, I disappear. Then I reappear,
just so, exclaimed doctor Silence. And that is why a
few why, a few moments ago, interrupted mister Mudge, taking
(32:15):
the words out of his mouth. You found me gone,
and then saw me return. The music of that wretched
German band sent me off. Your intense thinking about me
brought me back when the band had stopped. As Wagner,
I saw you approach the peep hole, and I saw
Barker's intention of doing so. Later. For me, no interiors
(32:37):
are hidden. I see inside. When in that state, the
content of your mind, as of your body is open
to me. As the day. Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear,
mister Mudge stopped and again mopped his brow. A light
trembling ran over the surface of his small body, like
wind over grass. He still held tightly to the arms
(33:02):
of the chair. At first, he presently resumed. My new
experiences were so vividly interesting that I felt no alarm.
There was no room for it. The alarm came a
little later. Then you actually penetrated far enough into that
state to experience yourself as a normal portion of it,
(33:22):
asked the doctor, leaning forward, deeply interested. Mister Mudge nodded
a perspiring face in reply. I did, he whispered, Undoubtedly
I did. I'm coming to all that. It began first
at night, when I realized that sleep brought no loss
of consciousness. The spirit, of course, can never sleep, only
(33:44):
the body becomes unconscious. Interposed John silence. Yes, we know
that theoretically. At night, of course, the spirit is active elsewhere,
and we have no memory of where and how, simply
because the brain stays by behind and received no record.
But I found that while remaining conscious, I also retained memory.
(34:07):
I had attained to the state of continuous consciousness for
at night. I regularly with the first approaches of drowsiness
entered Nolan's Volan's The four dimensional World. For a time,
this happened regularly, and I could not control it, though
later I found a way to regulate it better. Apparently
(34:30):
sleep is unnecessary in the higher the four dimensional body. Yes, perhaps,
but I should infinitely have preferred dull sleep to the knowledge.
For unable to control my movements, I wandered to and
fro attracted, owing to my partial development and premature arrival
(34:50):
to parts of this new world that alarmed me more
and more. It was the awful waste and drift of
a monstrous world, so so utterly different to all we
know and see that I cannot even hint at the
nature of the sights and objects and beings in it.
More than that, I cannot even remember them. I cannot
(35:12):
now picture them to myself even, but can recall only
the memory of the impression they made upon me, the
horror and devastating terror of it all. To be in
several places at once, for instance, perfectly interrupted John silence,
noticing the increase of the other's excitement. I understand exactly,
(35:35):
But now please tell me a little more of this
alarm you experienced, and how it affected you. It's not
the disappearing and reappearing per se that I mind, continued
mister Mudge, so much as certain other things. It's seeing
people and objects in their weird entirety, in their true
(35:55):
and complete shapes, that is so distressing. It introduces me
to world of monsters, horses, dogs, cats, all of which
I loved, People, trees, children, all that I have considered
beautiful in life. Everything from a human face to a
cathedral appear to me in a different shape and aspect
(36:17):
to all I have known before. I cannot perhaps convince
you why this should be terrible, but I assure you
that it is so. To hear the human voice proceeding
from this novel appearance, which I scarcely recognize as a
human body, is ghastly, simply ghastly. To see inside everything
(36:39):
and everybody is a form of insight peculiarly distressing. To
be so confused in geography as to find myself one
moment at the North Pole and the next at Clapham Junction,
or possibly at both places simultaneously, is absurdly terrifying. Your
imagination will read furnish other details without my multiplying my experiences. Now,
(37:05):
But you have no idea what it all means, and
how I suffer. Mister Mudge paused in his panting account
and lay back in his chair. He still held tightly
to the arms, as though they could keep him in
the world of sanity and three measurements, and only now
and again released his left hand in order to mop
(37:25):
his face. He looked very thin and white and oddly unsubstantial,
and he stared about him as though he saw into
this other space he had been talking about. John Silence
too felt warm. He had listened to every word and
had made many notes. The presence of this man had
(37:45):
an exhilarating effect upon him. It seemed as if mister
Racine Mudge still carried with him something of that breathless
higher space condition he had been describing. At any rate,
Doctor Silence had himself advanced sufficiently far along the legitimate
paths of spiritual and psychic transformations to realize that the
(38:08):
visions of this extraordinary little person had a basis of
truth for their origin. After a pause that prolonged itself
into minutes, he crossed the room and unlocked a drawer
in a bookcase, taking out a small book with a
red cover. It had a lock to it, and he
produced a key out of his pocket and proceeded to
(38:28):
open the covers. The bright eyes of mister Mudge never
left him for a single second. It almost seems a pity,
he said at length, to cure you, mister Mudge, you
are on the way to discovery of great things, though
you may lose your life in the process. That is
your life here in the world of three dimensions. You
(38:49):
would lose thereby nothing of great value. You will pardon
my apparent rudeness, I know, and you might gain what
is infinitely greater. Your suffering, of course, lies in the
fact that you alternate between the two worlds, and are
never wholly in one or the other. Also, I rather imagine,
though I cannot be certain of this from any personal experiments,
(39:13):
that you have here and there penetrated even into space
of more than four dimensions, and have hence experienced the
terror you speak of. The perspiring son of the Essex Bargeman,
and the woman of Normandy bent his head several times
in assent, but uttered no word in reply. Some strange
(39:34):
psychic predisposition, dating no doubt from one of your former lives,
has favored the development of your disease, and the fact
that you had no normal training at school or college.
No leading by the poor intellect into the cul de
sac falsely called knowledge, has further caused your exceedingly rapid
movement along the lines of direct inner experience. None of
(39:58):
the knowledge you have, for shit shadowed, has come to
you through the senses, of course. Mister Mudge, sitting in
his immovable chair, began to tremble slightly. A wind again
seemed to pass over his surface, and again to set
it curiously in motion like a field of grass. You
are merely talking to gain time, he said, hurriedly in
(40:21):
a shaking voice. This, thinking aloud, delays us, I see
ahead what you are coming to. Only please be quick,
for something is going to happen. A band is again
coming down the street. And if it plays, if it plays, wagner,
I shall be often a twinkling. Precisely I will be quit.
I was leading up to the point of how to
(40:43):
effect your cure. The way is this. You must simply
learn to block the entrances. True, true, utterly true, exclaimed
the little man, dodging about nervously in the depths of
the chair. But how in the name of space is
that to be done by concentration. They are all within you,
(41:03):
these entrances. Although outer cases such as music, color, and
other things lead you towards them. These external things you
cannot hope to destroy. But once the entrances are blocked,
they will lead you only to bricked walls and closed channels.
You will no longer be able to find the way.
(41:23):
Quick quick, cried the bobbing figure in the chair. How
is this concentration to be effected this little book, continued
Doctor Silence calmly, will explain to you the way he
tapped the cover. Let me now read out to you
certain simple instructions, composed as I see you, divine entirely
(41:44):
from my own personal experiences in the same direction. Follow
these instructions, and you will no longer enter the state
of higher space. The entrance will be blocked effectively. Mister
Mudge sat bolt upright in his chair to listen, and
John Silence cleared his throat and began to read slowly
in a very distinct voice. But before he had uttered
(42:08):
a dozen words, something happened. A sound of street music
entered the room through the open ventilators. For a band
had begun to play in the stable muse at the
back of the house, the march from Tom Houser. Odd
as it may seem that a German band should twice
within the space of an hour, enter the same muse
and play Wagner, it was nevertheless the fact. Mister Racine
(42:32):
Mudge heard it. He uttered a sharp, squeaking cry and
twisted his arms with nervous energy round the chair. A
piteous look that was not far from tears spread over
his white face. Gray shadows followed it, the gray of fear.
He began to struggle convulsively. Hold me fast, catch me,
(42:54):
for God's sake, keep me here. I'm on the rush already.
Oh it's fright, he cried in tones of anguish, his
voice as thin as a reed doctor silence. Made a
plunge forward to seize him, but in a flash, before
he could cover the space between them, mister Racine Mudge,
screaming and struggling, seemed to shoot past him into invisibility.
(43:19):
He disappeared like an arrow from a bow propelled at
infinite speed, and his voice no longer sounded in the
external air, but seemed, in some curious way to make
itself heard somewhere within the depths of the doctor's own being.
It was almost like a faint singing cry in his head,
like a voice of a dream, a voice of vision
(43:42):
and unreality. Alcohol. Alcohol, it cried, give me alcohol. It's
the quickest way, alcohol, before I'm out of reach. The doctor,
accustomed to rapid decisions and even more rapid action, remembered
that a brandy flask stood upon the mass mantlepiece, and
in less than a second he had seized it and
(44:03):
was holding it out towards the space above the chair
recently occupied by the visible Mudge. Then before his very
eyes and long ere he could unscrew the metal stopper.
He saw the contents of the closed glass pial sink
and lessen, as though someone were drinking violently and greedily
of the liquor within. Thanks enough, it deadens the vibrations,
(44:28):
cried the faint voice in his interior. As he withdrew
the flask and set it back upon the mantelpiece, he
understood that in Mudge's present condition, one side of the
flask was open to space, and he could drink without
removing the stopper. He could hardly have had a more
interesting proof of what he had been hearing described at
(44:50):
such length. But the next moment, the very same moment,
it almost seemed, the German band stopped midway in its tune,
and there was mister Mudge back in his chair again,
gasping and panting. Quick he shrieked, stop that band, send
it away, catch hold of me, Block the entrances, block
(45:11):
the entrances, give me the red book. Oh, the music
had begun again. It was merely a temporary interruption. The
Tonheuser march started again, this time at a tremendous pace
that made it sound like a rapid two step, as
though the instruments played against time. But the brief interruption
(45:32):
gave doctor Silence a moment in which to collect his
scattering thoughts. And before the band had gone through a
half a bar, he had flung forward upon the chair
and held mister Racine Mudge, the struggling little victim of
higher space, in a grip of iron. His arms went
all round his diminutive person, taking in a good part
(45:53):
of the chair. At the same time. He was not
a big man, yet he seemed to smother Mudge completely.
Yet even as he did so and felt the wriggling
form underneath him, it began to melt and slip away
like air or water. The wood at the arm chair
somehow disentangled itself from between his own arms and those
(46:14):
of Mudge. The phenomenon known as the passage of matter
through matter took place. The little man seemed actually to
get mixed up in his own being. Doctor Silence could
just see his face beneath him. It puckered and grew dark,
as though from some great internal effort. He heard the thin,
reedy voice cry in his ear to block the entrances,
(46:37):
Block the entrances. And then, but how in the world
to describe what is indescribable? John Silence half rose up
to watch Racine Mudge, his face distorted beyond all recognition,
was making a marvelous inward movement, as though doubling back
upon himself. He turned funnel wise like water enough swirling vortex,
(47:01):
and then appeared to break up somewhat as a reflection
breaks up and divides in a distorting convex mirror. He
went neither forward nor backward, neither to the right nor
to the left, neither up nor down. But he went.
He went utterly. He simply flashed away out of sight,
(47:21):
like a vanishing projectile all but one leg. Doctor Silence
just had the time and the presence of mind to
seize upon the left ankle and boot as it disappeared.
And to this he held on for several seconds, like
grim death. Yet all the time he knew it was
a foolish and useless thing to do. The foot was
(47:43):
in his grasp one moment and the next. It seemed
this was the only way he could describe it, inside
his own skin and bones, and at the same time
outside his hand, and all round it it seemed mixed
up in some amazing way with his own flesh and blood.
Then it was gone, and he was tightly grasping a
(48:04):
draft of heat. Adare gone, Gone, Gone, cried a thick
whispering voice somewhere deep within his own consciousness. Lost, lost, Lost.
It repeated, growing fainter and fainter, till at length it
vanished into nothing, and the last signs of mister Racine
Mudge vanished with it. John Silence locked his read book
(48:28):
and replaced it in the cabinet, which he fastened with
a click, And when Barker answered the bell, he inquired
if mister Mudge had left a card upon the table
it appeared that he had, and when the servant returned
with it, Doctor Silence read the address and made a
note of it. It was in North London. Mister Mudge
(48:48):
has gone, he said quietly to Barker, noticing his expression
of alarm. He's not taking a hat with him, sir.
Mister Mudge requires no hat where he is now, continued
the doctor, stooping to poke the fire. But he may
return for it and the humbrella, sir, and the umbrella.
He didn't go out my way, sir, if you please,
(49:11):
stuttered the amazed servant, his curiosity overcoming his nervousness. Mister
Mudge has his own way of coming and going, and
prefers it. If he returns by the door at any time,
remember to bring him instantly to me, and be kind
and gentle with him, and ask no questions. Also, remember
(49:31):
Barker to think pleasantly, sympathetically affectionately of him while he
is away. Mister Mudge is a very suffering gentleman. Barker
bowed and went out of the room, backwards, gasping and
feeling round the inside of his collar with three very
hot fingers of one hand. It was two days later
(49:53):
when he brought in a telegram to the study, Doctor
Silence opened it and read as follows. Bombay just slipped
out again. All safe have blocked entrances thousand thanks address
Cook's London. Mudge. Doctor Silence looked up and saw Barker
staring at him bewilderingly. It occurred to him that somehow
(50:15):
he knew the contents of the telegram. Make a parcel
of mister Mudge's things, he said briefly, and addressed them
Thomas Cook and sons, Ludgate Circus, and send them there
exactly a month from to day, and marked to be
called for. Yes, Sir, said Barker, leaving the room with
a deep sigh and a hurried glance at the waste
(50:37):
paper basket where his master had dropped the pink paper.
End of story thirteen.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through the top sports stories of the day.