All about the Air Loom

I shall now proceed to develop the peculiar opinions of Mr. Matthews, and leave the reader to exercise his own judgment concerning them.

I. THE MACHINE AND ITS OPERATORS

Mr. M. insists that in some apartment near London Wall, there is a gang of villains profoundly skilled in Pneumatic Chemistry, who assail him by means of an “Air-loom”. A description of this formidable instrument will be given hereafter; but he is persuaded that an account of it is to be found in Chambers’s Dictionary, edited by Dr. Rees in 1 / 83 , under the article Loom, and that its figure is to be seen in one of the plates relating to Pneumatics.

It is unnecessary to tell the reader that he will fruitlessly search that work for such information.

The assailing gang consists of seven members, four of whom are men and three women.
Of these persons four are commonly resident, and two have never stirred abroad since he has been the subject of their persecution.
Of their general habits little is known ; occasionally they appear in the streets, and by ordinary persons would be taken to be pick-pockets or private distillers. They leave home to correspond with others of their profession ; hire themselves out as spies, and discover the secrets of govern- ment to the enemy, or confederate to work events of the most atrocious nature. At home they lie together in promiscuous intercourse and filthy community.

The principal of this crew, is named Bill, or the King : he formerly surpassed the rest in skill, and in the dexterity with which he worked the machine : he is about 64 or 5 years of age, and in person resembles the late Dr. De Valangin, but his features are coarser; perhaps, he is a nearer likeness to the late Sir William Pultney, to whom he is made a duplicate. It was on account of something worked by this wretch, that another, by the force of assailment actuated Rhynwick Williams to the commisssion of his monstrous practices. He also took Hadheld in tow, by means of magnetic impregnations, and compelled him to fire the Pistol at His Majesty in the theatre : but on this subject there is a difference of opinion, as some of the female part of the gang attribute this event to Blue-Mantle , of whom nothing farther is known. In working the machine Bill exerts the most unrelenting and murder-ous villany ; and he has never been observed to smile.

The next in order, is a being called Jack the Schoolmaster , who is the short-hand- writer to the gang : he styles himself the recorder \ somewhat tall, and about 60 years of age. It is not well ascertained if he wear a wig, but he generally appears in the act of shoving his wig back with his forefinger, and frequently says, “ So you shall, when you can ketch (catch) us at it.” Sometimes he says, “ I’m to see fair play,” and makes a merriment of the business. Jack has very seldom worked the machine.

The third person is Sir Archy , who is about 55 years of age, wears a drab- coloured coat, and, according to the old fashion, his breeches button between the legs. Some of the gang assert that Sir Archy is a woman dressed in men’s apparel ; and whenever Mr. Matthews has endeavoured, by enquiry, to ascertain this fact, Sir Archy has answered in a manner so quaint and indelicate that I cannot venture to communicate his reply. He is considered as the common liar of the gang ; a low- minded blackguard, always cracking obscene jokes and throwing out gibes and sarcasms. In his speech there is an affectation of a provincial accent, so that when Mr. M. as- serts the truth of any fact, Sir Archy replies yho (you) are misteaken (mistaken) He constantly stays in the apartment, and says he does not work the machine,, but only uses a magnet. His mode of communicat- ing with Mr. M. is principally by “ brain-sayings which term will be afterwards explained.

The last of the males is termed the Middle Man, who is about 57 years of age, of the middle stature, with a broad chest ; has a twang of the hawk countenance, not pockfretten, and much resembling the late Mr. Smeaton the engineer. He is dressed in a blue coat, with a plain waistcoat. It is said that he is a manufacturer of air-looms, and possesses the first rate skill in working this instrument. Altho’ he is unrelenting in his persecution of Mr. M. he appears to consider it as sport, and sits grinning, apparently delighted that he cannot be taken unawares. After his attacks, he generally observes that Mr. M. is the talisman ; then Sir Archy replies, with a sneer, “Yes, he is the talisman”.

Among the females who compose this establishment, Augusta may first be described. She is about 36 years of age, of the middle stature, and her countenance is dis- tinguished by the sharpness of its features. In person she is not fleshy, nor can she be said to be a thin woman; she is not full- breasted. Ordinarily dressed, as a country tradesman’s wife, in black, without powder. Augusta seldom works the machine, but frequently goes abroad to correspond with other gangs at the West end of the town. Of agreeable deportment, and at first seems very friendly and cajoling ; but when she finds that she cannot influence and convince, becomes exceedingly spiteful and malignant. Her object is to influence women by her brain-sayings ; and she states herself to be the chief of this department. Within the last seven years the virulence of her temper has been considerably exasperated.

Charlotte , the next in review, is about the same age as Augusta, and also of the middle stature, but more fleshy ; has the appear- ance of a French woman, being a kind of ruddy brunette. She constantly stays at home with Sir Archy, and complains that she is forcibly confined to this situation. They keep her nearly naked, and poorly fed. Mr. Matthews is led to suppose that she is chained ; for she has sometimes stated herself to be equally a prisoner with himself. Charlotte always speaks French, but her language and brain-sayings are conveyed in an English idiom. Her character is that of a steady, persevering sort of person, who is convinced of the impropriety of her conduct, but cannot help herself. For several years she has not worked the machine, but is a fixed and established reporter.

A very extraordinary lady completes this malicious group. She does not appear to have any Christian name, but by the gang she is termed the Glove Woman, as she constantly wears cotton-mittens. Sir Archy dryly insinuates that she keeps her arms thus covered because she has got the itch. She is about 48 years of age, is above the middle height, and has a sharp face. On her chin and upper lip there is a consider- able quantity of fine downy hair, and she is somewhat pockfretten. Always dressed in a common fawn-coloured Norwich gown, with a plain cream-coloured camblet shawl, and wears a chip hat covered with black silk.
The glove woman is remarkable for her skill in managing the machine. She frequently goes abroad. The rest of the gang, but particularly Sir Archy, are constantly ban- tering and plucking at her, like a number of rooks at a strange jackdaw : she has never been known to speak.

II. THE FUNCTIONS OF THE MACHINE

Having described the dramatis personae, it is expedient to mention the different preparations which are employed in the air- loom, by these pneumatic adepts, for the purposes of assailment.

Seminal fluid, male and female — Effluvia of copper— ditto of sulphur — the vapours of vitriol and aqua fortis — ditto of nightshade and hellebore — effluvia of dogs — stinking human breath — putrid effluvia — ditto of mortification and of the plague— stench of the cesspool — gaz from the anus of the horse — human gaz — gaz of the horse’s greasy heels — Egyptian snuff, (this is a dusty vapour, extremely nauseous, but its composition has not been hitherto ascertained. This disgusting odour is exclusively employed during sleep, when, by their dream-workings , they have placed him, as a solitary wanderer, in the marshes near the mouth of the river Nile ; not at that season when its waters bring joy and refreshment, but at its lowest ebb, when the heat is most oppressive, muddy and stagnant pools diffuse a putrid and suffocating stench ; — the eye is likewise equally disgusted with the face of the country, which is made to assume a hateful tinge, resembling the dirty and cold blue of a scorbutic ulcer. From this cheerless scene they suddenly awake him, when he finds his nostrils stuffed, his mouth furred, and himself nearly choked by the poisonous effects of their Egyptian snuff.) — vapour and effluvia of arsenic — and the poison of toad — odour of roses and of carnation.

The effects which are produced on Mr. Matthews by the skilful manipulation of these ingredients are according to his relation dreadful in the extreme. He has stated them in the technical language of the assailing gang, and explained their operation on his intellect and person. Whoever peruses a work on Nosology will be pain- fully impressed with its formidable catalogue of human miseries ; it therefore becomes exceedingly distressing to swell the volume with a list of calamities hitherto unheard of, and for which no remedy has been yet discovered:

i.
Fluid Locking . — A locking or constriction of the fibres of the root of the tongue, laterally, by which the readiness of speech is impeded.

ii.
Cutting sold from sense . — A spreading of the magnetic warp, chilled in its expansion, from the root of the nose, diffused under the basis of the brain, as if a veil were interpored ; so that the sentiments of the heart can have no communication with the operations of the intellect.

iii.
Stone-making .— The gang pretend they can at pleasure produce a precipitation in the bladder of any person impregnated, and form a calculus. They boast of having effected this in a very complete manner for the late Duke of Portland,

iv.
Thigh- talking. — To effect this, they contrive so to direct their voice- sayings on the external part of the thigh, that the person assailed is conscious that his organ of hearing, with all its sensibility, is lodged in that situation. The sensation is distinctly felt in the thigh, and the subject understood in the brain.

v.
Kiteing . — This is a very singular and dis- tressing mode of assailment, and much practised by the gang. As boys raise a kite in the air, so these wretches, by means of the air-loom and magnetic impregnations, contrive to lift into the brain some particular idea, which floats and undulates in the intellect for hours together ; and how much soever the person assailed may wish to direct his mind to other objects, and banish the idea forced upon him, he finds himself unable ; as the idea which they have kited keeps waving in his mind, and fixes his attention to the exclusion of other thoughts. He is, during the whole time, conscious that the kited idea is extraneous, and does not belong to the train of his own cogitations.

vi.
Sudden death- squeezing ; by them termed Lobster-cracking . — This is an external pressure of the magnetic atmosphere surrounding the person assailed, so as to stagnate his circulation, impede his vital motions, and produce instant death.

“In short, I do not know any better way for a person to comprehend the general nature of such lobster-cracking operation, than by supposing himself in a sufficiently large pair of nut-crackers or lobster-crackers, with teeth, which should pierce as well as press him through every particle within and ‘without ; he expe- riencing the whole stress, torture, driving, oppressing, and crush all together.”

vii.
Stomach- skinning consists in rendering the stomach raw and sore, as if it had been scalded, and the internal coat stripped off.

viii. Apoplexy -working with the nutmeg-grater consists in violently forcing the fluids into the head ; and where such effort does not suddenly destroy the person, producing small -pimples on the temples, which are raised, and rough like the holes in a nut- meg-grater : in a day or two they gradually die away.

ix.
Lengthening the brain. — As the cylindrical mirror lengthens the countenance of the person who views himself in such glass, so the assailants have a method by which they contrive to elongate the brain. The effect produced by this process is a distortion of any idea in the mind, whereby that which had been considered as most serious becomes an object of ridicule. All thoughts are made to assume a grotesque interpretation ; and the person assailed is surprised that his fixed and solemn opinions should take a form which compels him to distrust their identity, and forces him to laugh at the most important subjects. It can cause good sense to appear as insanity, and con- vert truth into a libel ; distort the wisest institutions of civilized society into the prac- tices of barbarians, and strain the Bible into a jest book.

x.
Thought-malting.— While one of these villains is sucking at the brain of the person assailed, to extract his existing sentiments, another of the gang, in order to lead astray the sucker (for deception is practised among themselves as a part of their system ; and there exists no honor, as amongst thieves, in the community of these rascals) will force into his mind a train of ideas very different from the real subject of his thoughts, and which is seized upon as the desired infor- mation by the person sucking ; whilst he of the gang who has forced the thought on the person assailed, laughs in his sleeve at the imposition he has practised.

xi.
Laugh- making consists in forcing the magnetic fluid, rarified and subtilized, on the vitals, [vital touching] so that the muscles of the face become screwed into a laugh or grin.

xii.
Polling, or pushing up the quicksilver . — When the person assailed possesses an intellect sufficiently strong to be conscious of his impregnation, he naturally revolts at the atrocities practised upon him by the workers of this infernal machine, and be- comes prompted to express his indignation at their perfidy. While in the act, as he supposes, of venting the burst of indignation, they contrive to push a seeming thread of fluid through his back diagonally in the direction of his vitals. Its operation is instantaneous, and the push appears to elevate the fluid about half an inch. This magic touch disarms the expression of his resent- ment, and leaves him an impotent prey to the malignity of their scorn and ridicule.

xiii.
Bladder -filling is filling the nerves of the neck with gaz, and by continued dis- tension, effecting a partial dislocation of the brain. This frequently repeated, produces weakness of intellect.

xiv.
Tying-down ; fettering the energy of the assailed’s judgment on his thoughts.

xv.
Bomb-bursting is one of the most dreadful inflictions performed by the infernal agency of the air-loom. The fluid which resides in the brain and nerves, the vapor floating in the blood-vessels, and the gaz which occu- pies the stomach and intestines, become highly rarified and rendered inflammable occasioning a very painful distension over the whole body. Whilst the assailed person is thus labouring, a powerful charge of the electrical battery (which they employ for this purpose ) is let off, which produces a terrible explosion, and lacerates the whole system. A horrid crash is heard in the head, and if the shock do not prove instantly fatal, the party only recovers to express his astonishment that he has survived the murderous attempt.

xvi.
Gaz-plucking is the extraction of mag- netic fluid from a person assailed, such fluid having been rarified and sublimed by its continuance in the stomach and intestines. This gaz is in great request, and considered as the most valuable for the infernal pur- poses of these wretches. They contrive, in a very dexterous manner, to extract it from the anus ot the person assailed, by the suction of the air-loom. This process is per- formed in a very gradual way, bubble by bubble.

&c.
The explanation of the forementioned terms will enable the reader sufficiently to understand others which belong to the science of assailment, as. foot -curving, lethargy-making, spark- exploding, knee-nailing, burning out, eye-screwing, sight- stopping, roof -stringing, vital- tearing, fibre- ripping, &c. &c. &c.

III. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE ASSAILANTS AND THE ASSAILED

The correspondence between Mr. M. and the members of this gang is kept up to a considerable extent by brain- sayings, which may be defined as a sympathetic communication of thought, in consequence of both parties being impregnated with the magne- tic fluid, which must be rarified by frequent changing, and rendered more powerful by the action of the electrical machine. It is not hearing ; but appears to be a silent convey- ance of intelligence to the intellectual atmosphere of the brain, as subtlely as electricity to a delicate electrometer : but the person assailed (if he be sufficiently strong in intellect) is conscious that the perception is not in the regular succession of his own thoughts. The first hint Mr. M. received of the possibility of such sympathetic com- munication was in France, before the period of his confinement. He there, in one of the prisons, became acquainted with a Mr. Cliavanay, whose father had been cook to Lord Lonsdale. One day, when they were sitting together, 'Mr. Chavanay said, “ Mr. Matthews, are you acquainted with the art of talking with your brains?” Mr. M. replied in the negative. Mr. C. said, “It is effected by means of the magneto”.

They likewise impart their thoughts to him by voice- sayings. This is an immediate conveyance of articulate sound to the auditory nerves, without producing the ordinary vibrations of air; so that the communication is intelligibly lodged in the cavity of the ear, whilst the bystander is not sensible of any impression.

Even during sleep they contrive to annoy him with their dream- workings , which consist in the power they exert of forcing their phantoms and grotesque images on his languid intellect. These assassins hold in their possession puppets of uncouth shape, and of various descriptions ;by looking steadily at which they can throw the form into his brain, and thus render the perception more vivid to the dreamer ; and the crafty solicitude with which they glean his waking opinions on the mysteries which, during the night, have danced in his imagination, is both wonder- ful and distressing.

On some occasions Mr. M has been able to discern them ; but whenever be has been watching their manoeuvres, and endeavouring to ascertain their persons minutely, they have appeared to step back , and eluded his search, so that a transient glimpse could only be obtained.

“ Diffugient comites, et nocte tegentur opaca. ”

But the gang relate that they do not actually step back ; but, at the moment when they are observed, that they grasp a metal which has the power of weakening the sympathy between them and the person, and of benumbing his perception. This metal appears to be formed like a distaff or truncheon, and two such are fixed on the top of the machine. At other times, they have pretended that each member of the gang is furnished with a separate metal.

IV. DIAGRAM OF THE MACHINE

The annexed figure of the air- loom, sketched by Mr. Matthews, together with his explanations, will afford the necessary information concerning this curious and wonderful machine.

References.

“ a. The top of the apparatus, called by the assassins air-loom machine, pneumatic machine, &c. being as a large table.

“ b. The metals which the workers grasp to deaden the sympathy.

“ c. The place where the pneumaticians sit to work the loom.

“ d. Something like piano-forte keys, which open the tube valves within the air-loom, to spread or feed the warp of magne- tic fluid.

“ e. Levers, by the management of which the assailed is wrenched, stagnated, and the sudden -death efforts made upon him, &c. The levers are placed at those points of elevation, viz. the one nearly down, at which I begin to let go my breath, taking care to make it a regular, not in any way a hurried breathing. The other, the highest, is where it begins to strain the warp, and by which time it becomes necessary to have taken full breath, to hold till the lever was so far down again. This invariably is the vital- straining. But in that dreadful opera- tion by them termed lobster- cracking, I al- ways found it necessary to open my mouth somewhat sooner than I began to take in breath : I found great relief by so doing, and always imagined, that as soon as the lever was at the lowest, (by which time I had nearly let go my breath) the elasticity of the fluid about me made it recoil from
the forcible suction of the loom, much in the manner as a wave recoils or shrinks back alter it has been forced forward on the sands in the ebbing or flowing of the tide : and then remains solely upon its own gravity, till the general flux or stress again, forces it forward in form of a wave. Such appears to me the action of the fluid, which, from the time the lever being fully down, loses all suction-force upon it. I always thought that by so opening my mouth, which many strangers, and those familiar or about me, called sometimes singularity, at others affectation and pretext, and at others asthmatic, &c. instantly let in such momentarily emancipated fluid about me, and enabled me sooner, easier, and with more certainty, to fill my lungs without straining them, and this at every breathing.

“ f. Things, apparently pedals, worked by the feet of the pneumaticians.

“ g. Seemingly drawers, forming part of the apparatus as eudiometer, &c. &c.

“ h. The cluster of upright open tubes or cylinders, and by the assassins termed their musical glasses , which I have so often mentioned, and perceived when they were endeavouring to burst my person, by ex- ploding the interior of the cavity of the trunk. I now find an exact likeness in the Cyclopedia, which, being in electricity, is termed a battery.

“ i. The apparatus mentioned as standing upon the air-loom, which the assassins were ever so watchful and active, by deadening the sympathy, to prevent my holding sight of ; so that I could never ascertain what the bulky upper parts were, although the lower parts have appeared as distinct as the strength of the drawing shews. But I never had longer than the slow-glimpse-sight.

“ k l m. The bulky upper parts, which, though always indistinct, appeared once or twice to be hid by a horizontal broad as projection, and which has often made me query whether they rose through an aperture of the cellar ceiling into the room above, which the assassins’ brain-sayings have frequently seemed to acknowledge.

“ n. The windmill kind of sails I have so often mentioned, only seen by the glimpse of sympathy ; and to prevent my judging of which, the assassins would dash with full strong sympathy or brain-saying, ‘a whirligig,’ used by children for amusement. But such windmill ever appeared as standing on the table.

“ o. The barrels, which I perceived so distinctly after such long watching, to catch the sight of the famous goose-neck- retorts, which, by the assassins, are asserted to be about their loom, for supplying it with the distilled gazes, as well poisoned as magne- tic, but which did not expose the goose- necks, which are here given, to shew the kind the assassins have, during ten years, some thousand times asserted they had : for while I was dwelling upon retorts them- selves, which I had expected to find of metal, as stills, but which appeared distinctly hooped barrels standing on end on the floor, they cut the sympathy, and have ever since at all my attempts dashed or splashed the inward nerves of vision to bully and bathe me out of it.

“ p q r. That part ot the brass apparatus, so often seen distinctly of bright brass, standing on a one step-high boarded floor having a bright iron railing around it, the part not here shewn was never distinct.

“ s. The warp of magnetic-fluid, reaching between the person impregnated with such fluid, and the air-loom magnets to which it is prepared ; which being a multiplicity of fine wires of fluid, forms the sympathy, streams of attraction, repulsion, &c. as putting the different poles of the common magnet to objects operates ; and by which sympathetic warp the assailed object is affected at pleasure : as by open- ing a vitriolic gaz valve he becomes tortured by the fluid within him; becoming agitated with the corrosion through all his frame, and so on in all their various modes of attacking the human body and mind, whether to actuate or render inactive ; to make ideas or to stear others; to bewilder or to deceive ; thence to the driving with rage to acts of desperation, of to the drop- ping dead with stagnation, &c. &c. &c.
Though so distinct to me by sympathy I have never caught the inward vision thereof, not even by glimpse ; but the assassins pretend, when heated, that it becomes luminous and visible to them for some yards from the loom, as a weakish rainbow, and shews the colours according to the nature of the gazes from which it is formed, or wherewith the object is impregnated : as green for the copper-streams or threads, red for the iron, white for the spermatic animal - seminal, &c.

“ t. Shews the situation of the repeaters, or active worriers, when such were em- ployed during the active exertions so long made to worry me down.

“ u. One of the assassins called by the rest Jack the Schoolmaster, who calls his exertions to prevent my writing or speaking correctly, dictating , he ever intruding his own style and endeavouring to force it upon me. He pretends to be the short- hand- writer, to register or record every thing which passes. He appears to have a seat with a desk some steps above the floor.

“ v. The female of the gang called by the others Charlotte : she has always spoken French, even by her brain-sayings ; but I yet doubt whether she be a French woman, though so much of that description of person, for frequently it is English-French : though this may be from their vocabulary being English and French combined.

“ w. The one I call the common liar of the gang, by them termed Sir Archy, who often speaks in obscene language. There has never been any fire in the cellar where the machinery is placed.

“ x. Suppose the assailed person at the greater distance of several hundred feet, the warp must be so much longer directly towards him, but the farther he goes from the pneumatic machine, the weaker becomes its hold of him, till I should think at one thousand teet he would be out of danger. I incline to think that at such distance or little more, the warp would break, and that the part nearest his person would withdraw into him, and that next the loom would shrink into whatever there held it.

“ y. The middle man working the air- loom, and in the act of Lobster-cracking the person represented by the figure X. “

V. THE LOCATION OF THE AIR-LOOM AND MAGNETIC IMPREGNATION

“ The assassins say they are not five hundred feet from me ; but from the uncommon force of all their operations, I think they are much nearer.”

“ They have likewise related that many other gangs are stationed in different parts of the metropolis who work such instru- ment for the most detrimental purposes. Near every public office an air-loom is concealed, and if the police were sufficiently vigilant, they might detect a set of wretches at work near the Houses of Parliament, Admiralty, Treasury, &c. and there is a gang established near St. Luke’s Hospital. The force of assailment is in proportion to the proximity of the machine; and it appears that the interposition of walls causes but a trifling difference : perhaps at the distance of 1000 feet a person might be considered out of the range of its influence. Independently of the operation of this com- plex and powerful machine termed an Air- loom, which requires the person assailed to be previously saturated with magnetic fluid, a number of emissaries, who are termed novices , are sent about in different directions to prepare those who may hereafter be em- ployed in the craft and mystery of event-working. This is termed Hand- impregnation, and is effected in the following manner : an inferior member of the gang, (generally a novice,) is employed in this business. He is furnished with a bottle contain- ing the magnetic fluid which issues from a valve on pressure. If the object to be assailed be sitting in a coffee-house, the pneumatic practitioner hovers about him, perhaps enters into conversation, and during such discourse, by opening the valve, sets at liberty the volatile magnetic fluid which is respired by the person intended to be as- sailed. So great is the attraction between the human body and this fluid, that the party becomes certainly impregnated, and is equally bound by the spell as the lady was fixed to the chair of Comus, or the harmless fly is enveloped in the shroud of the spider.

“ In order to ascertain whether a person be impregnated, let him, fasting, imitate the act of swallowing, and if he should perceive a grating noise in his ears, somewhat resembling the compression of a new wicker- basket he is certainly attained. “

VI. THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE AIR-LOOM

“ In consequence of the numerous gangs established in this metropolis, all the persons holding high situations in the government are held impregnated. An expert of the gang, who is magnetically prepared, contrives to place himself near the person of a minister of state also impregnated, and is thus enabled to force any particular thought into his mind and obtain his reflections on the thought so forced. — Thus, for instance, when a Secretary at War is at church, in the theatre, or sitting in his office and thinking on indifferent subjects ; the expert magnetist would suddenly throw into his mind the subject of exchange of prisoners. The Secretary would, perhaps, wonder how he became possessed of such a subject, as it was by no means connected with his thoughts ; he would however turn the topic in his mind and conclude that such parti- cular principle ought to form the basis of the negotiation. The expert magnetist, having, by watching and sucking, obtained his opinion, would immediately inform the French Minister of the sentiments of the English Secretary, and by such means become enabled to bathe him in the exchange.

“ The same process would take place with the other ministers of state, and their opinions would be communicated to the enemy on the subjects of peace, commercial intercourse, or the fitting out of armaments. Let the plan be ever so well devised, the magnetists would be certain to paralyze and bewilder the person chosen to command the expedition. This they effected in a very complete manner at Buenos Ayres, and still more recently in the Island of Walcheren. “

VII. DEFENSE FROM ASSAILMENT

Notwithstanding the dreadful sufferings which Mr. Matthews experiences from being assailed, he appears to derive some consolation from the sympathy which prevails between himself and the workers of the machine. — Perilous as his present situation may be, it would be rendered still more alarming if he could not watch their proceedings, and thus be prepared to avert the force of their engine. This reciprocal impregnation and continuity of warp enables him to perceive their motions and attain their thoughts. Such seems to be the law of this sympathy, that mutual intelligence is the result ; nor can the assailants, with all their skill and dexterity, deprive him of this corresponding perception in proportion as their scientific advancement has instructed them in new and ingenious arts of tormenting, the progression of his experience has taught him to diminish the force of their attacks.

These assassins are so superlatively skillful in every thing which relates to pneumatic chemistry, physiology, nervous influence, sympathy, human mind, and the higher metaphysic, that whenever their persons shall be discovered, and their machine exhibited, the wisest professors will be astonished at their progress, and feel ashamed at their own ignorance. The gang proudly boast of their contempt for the immature science of the present era.

Under all these persecutions and formi- dable assailments, it is the triumph of Mr. M. that he has been enabled to sustain himself; and this resistance has depended on the strength of his intellect and unremitting vigilance. Whenever he has perceived them about to make the wrench by suction, he has recoiled as one expecting to receive a blow shrinks back in order to avoid it.

Without such ability and precaution he must long since have become the victim of bomb-bursting, lobster-cracking, or apoplexy-working with the nutmeg-grater.

Submitted November 25, 2019 at 04:38PM by Aconitum_columbianum https://ift.tt/33epHlb