noticeable for the extreme spareness of his person--his lower limbs much
resembling those of John Randolph; and, also, for the whiteness of his
whiskers, in violent contrast to the blackness of his hair--the latter,
in consequence, being very generally mistaken for a wig. His temperament
was markedly nervous, and rendered him a good subject for mesmeric
experiment. On two or three occasions I had put him to sleep with little
difficulty, but was disappointed in other results which his peculiar
constitution had naturally led me to anticipate. His will was at no
period positively, or thoroughly, under my control, and in regard to
clairvoyance, I could accomplish with him nothing to be relied upon. I
always attributed my failure at these points to the disordered state of
his health. For some months previous to my becoming acquainted with
him, his physicians had declared him in a confirmed phthisis. It was his
custom, indeed, to speak calmly of his approaching dissolution, as of a
matter neither to be avoided nor regretted.

When the ideas to which I have alluded first occurred to me, it was
of course very natural that I should think of M. Valdemar. I knew the
steady philosophy of the man too well to apprehend any scruples
from him; and he had no relatives in America who would be likely to
interfere. I spoke to him frankly upon the subject; and, to my surprise,
his interest seemed vividly excited. I say to my surprise, for, although
he had always yielded his person freely to my experiments, he had never
before given me any tokens of sympathy with what I did. His disease was
if that character which would admit of exact calculation in respect
to the epoch of its termination in death; and it was finally arranged
between us that he would send for me about twenty-four hours before the
period announced by his physicians as that of his decease.

It is now rather more than seven months since I received, from M.
Valdemar himself, the subjoined note:

My DEAR P---,

You may as well come now. D--and F--are agreed that I cannot hold out
beyond to-morrow midnight; and I think they have hit the time very
nearly.

VALDEMAR

I received this note within half an hour after it was written, and in
fifteen minutes more I was in the dying man's chamber. I had not seen
him for ten days, and was appalled by the fearful alteration which the
brief interval had wrought in him. His face wore a leaden hue; the eyes
were utterly lustreless; and