The Wonderful Story of Ravalette

lness, poverty and knowledge; and had there helped to found an institution which, while it was capable of diffusing infinite blessings to all around, languished for want of seven good

to its Grand Master; to study its higher doctrines, and visit the Brethren. Second, to obtain the materials, in Jerusalem, for the composition of the Elixir of Life; not that I intended to make it, but because I wanted to use them in my medical practice, which I purposed to resume on my return

amed, before I left Paris. Promising that the advice should be followed, I accordingly one day found myself in the Palace of the Louvre, not for the first time, however, but for, perhaps, the tenth. On each of these occasions my time had been mainly spent in admiring and examining the contents of the Galleries Assyrienne and Egyptienne. The bas-reliefs, or coarse engravings rather, had commanded my attention on previous occasions, along with the sphinxes of Rhampses and Menepthah, as well as the curious statues of Amenophis, Sevekhatep, Osiris, and Se

iptions upon a series of tablets, and which arch?ology has never yet interprete

d as evidently belonging to the small remnant of the old Noblesse yet surviving on the soil of le Grand Nation, judging from his carriage, air, and manner-refined, polished, yet simple in the extreme; and from the ben

reeting was much warmer and more prolonged; for, after saluting, we drew chairs before the tablets and began conversing about the arrow-headed characters; and the old gentleman, whose name was Ravalette, said: 'Sir, how is it

s that a reason why others should? I believe I sh

t Meses and the chronologists had better be looking out for their laurels,

nder porphyritic tablets were engraved there a hundred centuries before the date of Adam-an individual, by the way, whom I certainly regard as having had an origin and existence in the imaginati

n the belief that all men s

No; because there are at least ten sepa

the diverse localizations and circumstances attending upon

nd other Indians, the Mongols and other Tartars, the Kanakas and other Islanders, the European and other Caucasians, all sprang from one pair. Indeed the thing is so plain, from a merely physical point of view, wi

ws you entertain upon the Past are, in some sense, consonant with my own; and if you are willing to be taught, I

unfold to me the rich fabric of his thought and experience. I had concluded, from a word dropped here and there, that he was at heart a believer in the Faith of Christendom, but in ord

e, have doubtless travelled much, and s

me to go on. I did so. 'Let me ask you if the result of your observations abroad, amongst men of different nations and faith-complex

are ever the same at heart. Inwardly they are all alike, sincere, beautiful, good, and religious; outwardly, the same selfish

theoretically believed, but practically ignor

nd latitudes. For instance, I found that the Catholic or Papal, the Protestant or reformed, the Hindoo and Brahminical, the Boodhistic, Lamaic, Greek, Polytheistic, Atheistic, Deistic, Magian, Guebre, Islamic, Fetisch, and all other systems and modes of belief, were, instead of being antipodal, in fact the same at bottom. This may surprise you. Do

or things. We grow daily beyond our yesterdays, and are ever reaching forth for the morrow. The world has had

revealed, they would prove that human history really extends much further b

ivilizations, arts, sciences, philosophy, and knowledge infinitely superior in some respects to what exists to-day, have blessed the earth in by

the débris of a world-wreck remembered only by the seraphim! A demonstration of this assertion is found in the pyramids, the date and purpose even of the building of which is wrapped in co

by certain other stars. This is proved by one diagram showing the relative place in the still heaven of each star of the series; another displays an a

m us that a period of 57,879 years must elapse before the same phenomenon will occur again, and that not less than 19,638 years must have elapsed

spond to the positions of stars in the diagrams, for the mapping out is quite as perfect as it

asked for over 3,000 years, and then as now, men repeated

mere hutted towns in comparison. This is proved by what has been exhumed from Earth's bosom. In that city of palaces is the wreck of one, which, from its situation with respect to other ruins, must have been merely a third or fourth-rate edifice in the golden days when Aznak flourished; yet the

ngs, and eight feet long, by actual measurement of the ruins,

atues on each side, as close as they could stand, for a distance of over one English league, and e

ly superior to aught of the kind attempted by man in this "Progressive age (?)" was, after all, but a mere addition

s of Karnak-who cut marble monsters weighing two hundred and thirteen tons out of a singl

! pulleys! screws! wedges! incli

eight have been transported a distance exceeding one thousand one hundred miles, from the mount

ighty-nine feet in length, have been erected after they were brought; and take notice, that

transported over and through vast plains of shifting, burning sands, especially for such immense distances as it is certain they were brought? A single further remark on chronology, and I have done. It has been established among the learned, that it takes not less than a period of ten thousand years for a language to be perfected, and then die out, to give place to an improved but entirely different

e dream, even supposing you to have one on the subject, could furnish you with the key? There might be fifty persons, or fifty thousand, for that matter, each one of whom might feel an interest

d: 'Very true, there might; but the true key would be that which, whenever

d gentleman's arm, and together we proceeded to his residence-which I found to be one of those stately old mansions built by the nobless of the times of Louis le Grande. We entered, and in due time sat down to a repast at once rich, liberal and friendly, and which gave me a very high notion of the man who presided over it. Wine of the rarest graced his board; plate of the richest adorned it; servants most attentive

aution to mark well the locality of the house, and to note its

we entered a café together, and together partook of some frozen coffee and other ices, after which he took me to see a guinguette-or tea garden-lately established for the common people, where the customer for ten sous might ape royalty, and sip his coffee from silver cups, and take his wine from Sèvres porcelain. Here w

n closely, and you that instant suggest rascally thoughts to him, which may bear fruit, and that fruit be crime. But place full and free confidence in those you deal with, and let the fact be known, and your conduct sanction your words, and take my word for it, your co

lette and myself, still arm in arm, pursued our walk in the environs of Belleville, and there, amidst the sweet music of nature, the melody of the sunshine, the warblings of birds, the quietude of the deep green canopy of leaves, the humming of dis

udents of the past as the Sacred Twenty-four, that there is a kind of natural magic in exis

certainl

iciate, and avail yourself thereof for certain contemplated translations? Perhap

doubtless, and, if we can discover the first (which I think we have already in Mesmerism), we can follow till we reach the great goal. I do not believe that Elfins, Fairies, Genii and Magicians are alto

an idea that such things belong to

f-hood, and that a power foreign to my soul fo

neither, but to

h ordinary means, methods or agencies. Tell me in what manner? Surely not through ordinary clairvoyance, which ever reveals foregone facts, and none other; and, therefore, can be of little use to the true student? You believe, as I do myself, that all ancient history, as it comes to us, is at best a mere fable, or bundle of myths generally, albeit, certain portions are composed of romance, that i

azed sorrowfully at

tic asylums with poor reason-bereft creatures; for stultifying a man's conscience, and for emboldening one to pass for a philosopher when one is but an ass!' and Ravalette smiled gravely. 'Distrust all mesmeric railways,' said he, 'for many of the passengers, like Andrew Jackson Davis, after

re painful rumors concerning a couple of divorces, and that some friends of mine had cut their throats in order to all the quicker reach the 'Summer-land' which he so elegantly described; but still I loved-still love him dearly. But now, when Ravalette suggested that he was a humbug, it struck me that Ravalette was right; for I suddenly recollected that once the great clairvoyant lost a little dog named 'Dick,' which his seership could not trace. I remembered that nineteen-twentieths of his prophecies from the 'superior condition' never came to pass, while the twentieth any school-boy cou

TNO

ion of human antiquity-that Adam was not the first man, but that men bui