Redemption and two other plays Part 73

Yes, yes, take it.... However, I shall come upstairs again.

ANNA PaVLOVNA. Yes, please do. (Loud.) When it is over, mesdames et messieurs, I shall expect you to come to me upstairs to rest from your emotions, and then we will finish our rubber.

FAT LADY. Oh, certainly.

SAHaTOF. Yes, thanks!

[Exit ANNA PaVLOVNA.

BETSY (to PETRiSTCHEF). You must stay, I tell you. I promise you something extraordinary. Will you bet?

MaRYA KONSTANTiNOVNA. But you don't believe in it?

BETSY. To-day I do.

MaRYA KONSTANTiNOVNA (to PETRiSTCHEF). And do you believe?

PETRiSTCHEF. "I can't believe, I cannot trust a heart for falsehood framed." Still, if Elizabeth Leonidovna commands....

VASiLY LEONiDITCH. Let us stay, Marya Konstantinovna. Eh, what? I shall invent something epatant.

MaRYA KONSTANTiNOVNA. No, you mustn't make me laugh. You know I can't restrain myself.

VASiLY LEONiDITCH (loud). I remain!

LEONiD FYoDORITCH (severely). But I beg those who remain not to joke about it. It is a serious matter.

PETRiSTCHEF. Do you hear? Well then, let's stay. Vovo, sit here, and don't be too shy.

BETSY. Yes, it's all very well for you to laugh; but just wait till you see what will happen.

VASiLY LEONiDITCH. Oh, but supposing it's true? Won't it be a go! Eh, what?

PETRiSTCHEF (trembles). Oh, I'm afraid, I'm afraid! Marya Konstantinovna, I'm afraid! My tootsies tremble.

BETSY (laughing). Not so loud.

[All sit down.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. Take your seats, take your seats. Simon, sit down!

SIMON. Yes, sir.

[Sits down on the edge of the chair.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. Sit properly.

PROFESSOR. Sit straight in the middle of the chair, and quite at your ease.

[Arranges SIMON on his chair.

[BETSY, MaRYA KONSTANTiNOVNA and VASiLY LEONiDITCH laugh.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH (raising his voice). I beg those who are going to remain here not to behave frivolously, but to regard this matter seriously, or bad results might follow. Do you hear, Vovo! If you can't be quiet, go away!

VASiLY LEONiDITCH. Quiet, quiet!

[Hides behind FAT LADY.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. Alexey Vladimiritch, will you mesmerise him?

PROFESSOR. No; why should I do it when Anton Borisitch is here? He has had far more practice and has more power in that department than I ...

Anton Borisitch!

GROSSMAN. Ladies and gentlemen, I am not, strictly speaking, a spiritualist. I have only studied hypnotism. It is true I have studied hypnotism in all its known manifestations; but what is called spiritualism, is entirely unknown to me. When a subject is thrown into a trance, I may expect the hypnotic phenomena known to me: lethargy, abulia, anaesthesia, a.n.a.lgesia, catalepsy, and every kind of susceptibility to suggestion. Here it is not these but other phenomena we expect to observe. Therefore it would be well to know of what kind are the phenomena we expect to witness, and what is their scientific significance.

SAHaTOF. I thoroughly agree with Mr. Grossman. Such an explanation would be very interesting.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. I think Alexey Vladimiritch will not refuse to give us a short explanation.

PROFESSOR. Why not? I can give an explanation if it is desired. (To the DOCTOR.) Will you kindly note his temperature and pulse? My explanation must, of necessity, be cursory and brief.

LEONiD FYoDORITCH. Yes, please; briefly, quite briefly.

DOCTOR. All right. (Takes out thermometer.) Now then, my lad....

[Places the thermometer.

SIMON. Yes, sir!

PROFESSOR (rising and addressing the FAT LADY--then reseating himself). Ladies and gentlemen! The phenomenon we are investigating to-night is regarded, on the one hand, as something new; and, on the other, as something transcending the limits of natural conditions.

Neither view is correct. This phenomenon is not new but is as old as the world; and it is not supernatural but is subject to the eternal laws that govern all that exists. This phenomenon has been usually defined as "intercourse with the spirit world." That definition is inexact. Under such a definition the spirit world is contrasted with the material world. But this is erroneous; there is no such contrast!

Both worlds are so closely connected that it is impossible to draw a line of demarcation, separating the one from the other. We say matter is composed of molecules....

PETRiSTCHEF. Prosy matter!

[Whispering and laughter.

PROFESSOR (pauses, then continues). Molecules are composed of atoms, but the atoms, having no extension, are in reality nothing but the points of application of forces. Strictly speaking, not of forces but of energy, that same energy which is as much a unity and just as indestructible as matter. But matter, though one, has many different aspects, and the same is true of energy. Till recently only four forms of energy, convertible into one another, have been known to us: energies known as the dynamic, the thermal, the electric, and the chemic. But these four aspects of energy are far from exhausting all the varieties of its manifestation. The forms in which energy may manifest itself are very diverse, and it is one of these new and as yet but little known phases of energy, that we are investigating to-night. I refer to mediumistic energy.

[Renewed whispering and laughter among the young people.

PROFESSOR (stops and casts a severe look round). Mediumistic energy has been known to mankind for ages: prophecy, presentiments, visions and so on, are nothing but manifestations of mediumistic energy. The manifestations produced by it have, I say, been known to mankind for ages. But the energy itself has not been recognised as such till quite recently--not till that medium, the vibrations of which cause the manifestations of mediumistic energy, was recognised. In the same way that the phenomena of light were inexplicable until the existence of an imponderable substance--an ether--was recognised, so mediumistic phenomena seemed mysterious until the now fully established fact was recognised, that between the particles of ether there exists another still more rarefied imponderable substance not subject to the law of the three dimensions....

[Renewed laughter, whispers, and giggling.

PROFESSOR (again looks round severely). And just as mathematical calculations have irrefutably proved the existence of imponderable ether which gives rise to the phenomena of light and electricity, so the successive investigations of the ingenious Hermann, of Schmidt, and of Joseph Schmatzhofen, have confirmed beyond a doubt the existence of a substance which fills the universe and may be called spiritual ether.

FAT LADY. Ah, now I understand. I am so grateful....