of the affair on which he was consulted,
to what length might not he have carried the deception?"

"Pray consider, your highness, how much preparation such a complicated
artifice would have required from the Armenian; how much time it takes
to paint a face with sufficient exactness; how much time would have been
requisite to instruct the pretended ghost, so as to guard him against
gross errors; what a degree of minute attention to regulate every minor
attendant or adventitious circumstance, which must be answered in some
manner, lest they should prove detrimental! And remember that the
Russian officer was absent but half an hour. Was that short space
of time sufficient to make even such arrangements as were most
indispensable? Surely, my prince, not even a dramatic writer, who has
the least desire to preserve the three terrible unities of Aristotle,
durst venture to load the interval between one act and another with such
a variety of action, or to presume upon such a facility of belief in his
audience."

"What! You think it absolutely impossible that every necessary
preparation should have been made in the space of half an hour?"

"Indeed, I look upon it as almost impossible."

"I do not understand this expression. Does it militate against the
physical laws of time and space, or of matter and motion, that a man so
ingenious and so expert as this Armenian must undoubtedly be, assisted
by agents whose dexterity and acuteness are probably not inferior to his
own; favored by the time of night, and watched by no one, provided with
such means and instruments as a man of this profession is never without
--is it impossible that such a man, favored by such circumstances,
should be able to effect so much in so short a time? Is it ridiculous
or absurd to suppose, that by a very small number of words or signs he
can convey to his assistants very extensive commissions, and direct very
complex operations? Nothing ought to be admitted that is contrary to
the established laws of nature, unless it is something with which these
laws are absolutely incompatible. Would you rather give credit to a
miracle than admit an improbability? Would you solve a difficulty
rather by overturning the powers of nature than by believing an artful
and uncommon combination of them?"

"Though the fact will not justify a conclusion such as you have
condemned, you must, however, grant that it is far beyond our
conception."

"I am almost tempted to dispu