, and would apply
equally to an adventure from Baron Munchausen:--'it is
wonderful and we therefore give it.'...The above case
is obviously one that cannot be received except on the
strongest testimony, and it is equally clear that the
testimony by which it is at present accompanied, is not
of that character. The most favorable circumstances in
support of it, consist in the fact that credence is
understood to be given to it at New York, within a few
miles of which city the affair took place, and where
consequently the most ready means must be found for its
authentication or disproval. The initials of the
medical men and of the young medical student must be
sufficient in the immediate locality, to establish
their identity, especially as M. Valdemar was well
known, and had been so long ill as to render it out of
the question that there should be any difficulty in
ascertaining the names of the physicians by whom he had
been attended. In the same way the nurses and servants
under whose cognizance the case must have come during
the seven months which it occupied, are of course
accessible to all sorts of inquiries. It will,
therefore, appear that there must have been too many
parties concerned to render prolonged deception
practicable. The angry excitement and various rumors
which have at length rendered a public statement
necessary, are also sufficient to show that _something_
extraordinary must have taken place. On the other hand
there is no strong point for disbelief. The
circumstances are, as the Post says, 'wonderful;' but
so are all circumstances that come to our knowledge for
the first time--and in Mesmerism every thing is new. An
objection may be made that the article has rather a
Magazinish air; Mr. Poe having evidently written with a
view to effect, and so as to excite rather than to
subdue the vague appetite for the mysterious and the
horrible which such a case, under any circumstances, is
sure to awaken--but apart from this there is nothing to
deter a philosophic mind from further inquiries
regarding it. It is a matter entirely for testimony.
[So it is.] Under this view we shall take steps to
procure from some of the most intelligent and
influential citizens of New York all the evidence that
can b