ell, it is filled with a nauseous smell, with hovels, heaps of
filth, quagmires, and ill-clad persons.

And Pecuchet racked his brain in order to comprehend what was beautiful
in these revelations. To Bouvard they seemed the delirium of an
imbecile. All such matters transcend the bounds of Nature. Who, however,
can know anything about them? And they surrendered themselves to the
following reflections:

Jugglers can cause illusions amongst a crowd; a man with violent
passions can excite other people by them; but how can the will alone act
upon inert matter? A Bavarian, it is said, was able to ripen grapes; M.
Gervais revived a heliotrope; one with greater power scattered the
clouds at Toulouse.

It is necessary to admit an intermediary substance between the universe
and ourselves? The od, a new imponderable, a sort of electricity, is
perhaps nothing else. Its emissions explain the light that those who
have been magnetised believe they see: the wandering flames in
cemeteries, the forms of phantoms.

These images would not, therefore, be illusions, and the extraordinary
gifts of persons who are possessed, like those of clairvoyants, would
have a physical cause.

Whatever be their origin, there is an essence, a secret and universal
agent. If we could take possession of it, there would be no need of
force, of duration. That which requires ages would develop in a minute;
every miracle would be practicable, and the universe would be at our
disposal.

Magic springs from this eternal yearning of the human mind. Its value
has no doubt been exaggerated, but it is not a falsehood. Some Orientals
who are skilled in it perform prodigies. All travellers have vouched for
its existence, and at the Palais Royal M. Dupotet moves with his finger
the magnetic needle.

How to become magicians? This idea appeared to them foolish at first,
but it returned, tormented them, and they yielded to it, even while
affecting to laugh.

A course of preparation is indispensable.

In order to excite themselves the better, they kept awake at night,
fasted, and, wishing to convert Germaine into a more delicate medium,
they limited her diet. She indemnified herself by drinking, and consumed
so much brandy that she speedily ended in becoming intoxicated. Their
promenades in the corridor awakened her. She confused the noise of their
footsteps with the hummings in her ears and the voices which she
imagined she heard coming from the walls. One day, w