Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
Among these mind-readers, distance is not an insuperable obstacle to the
transfer of thought. My companion was in communication with our friends,
and from time to time conveyed to me messages of anguish from my dear
love; for, being well aware of the nature of the currents and the
unapproachableness of the islands, those we had left behind, as well
as we ourselves, knew well we should see each other's faces no more.
For five days we continued to drift to the northwest, in no danger
of starvation, owing to our lading of provisions, but constrained to
unintermitting watch and ward by the roughness of the weather. On the
fifth day my companion died from exposure and exhaustion. He died very
quietly,--indeed, with great appearance of relief. The life of the
mind-readers while yet they are in the body is so largely spiritual that
the idea of an existence wholly so, which seems vague and chill to us,
suggests to them a state only slightly more refined than they already
know on earth.
After that I suppose I must have fallen into an unconscious state, from
which I roused to find myself on an American ship bound for New York,
surrounded by people whose only means of communicating with one another
is to keep up while together a constant clatter of hissing, guttural,
and explosive noises, eked out by all manner of facial contortions and
bodily gestures. I frequently find myself staring open-mouthed at those
who address me, too much struck by their grotesque appearance to bethink
myself of replying.
I find that I shall not live out the voyage, and I do not care to. From
my experience of the people on the ship, I can judge how I should fare
on land amid the stunning Babel of a nation of talkers. And my friends,
--God bless them! how lonely I should feel in their very presence! Nay,
what satisfaction or consolation, what but bitter mockery, could I ever
more find in such human sympathy and companionship as suffice others
and once sufficed me,--I who have seen and known what I have seen
and known! Ah, yes, doubtless it is far better I should die; but the
knowledge of the things that I have seen I feel should not perish with
me. For hope's sake, men should not miss the glimpse of the higher,
sun-bathed reaches of the upward path they plod. So thinking, I have
written out some account of my wonderful experience, though briefer far,
by reason of my weakness, than fits the greatness of the matter. The
captain seems an honest, well-meaning man, and to him I shall confide
the narrative, charging him, on touching shore, to see it safely in the
hands of some one who will bring it to the world's ear.
Note.--The extent of my own connection with the foregoing document is
sufficiently indicated by the author himself in the final paragraph.--
E.B.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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