Shelled!
I mean taken out of the carcass.
What do you think of a hic-cup! physician?
Dont mention them! ugh! ugh! ugh! (Here his Majesty retched violently.) I never tasted but one that rascal Hippocrates! smelt of asafoetida ugh! ugh! ugh! caught a wretched cold washing him in the Styx and after all he gave me the cholera morbus[35].
The hiccup wretch! ejaculated Bon-Bon, the hic-cup! absorption of a pill-box! and the philosopher dropped a tear.
After all, continued the visitor, after all, if a dev if a gentleman wishes to live, he must have more talents than one or two; and with us a fat face is an evidence of diplomacy.
How so?
Why, we are sometimes exceedingly pushed for provisions. You must know that, in a climate so sultry as mine, it is frequently impossible to keep a spirit alive for more than two or three hours; and after death, unless pickled immediately (and a pickled spirit is not good), they will smell you understand, eh? Putrefaction is always to be apprehended when the souls are consigned to us in the usual way.
Hiccup! hiccup! good God! how do you manage?
Here the iron lamp commenced swinging with redoubled violence, and the devil half started from his seat; however, with a slight sigh, he recovered his composure, merely saying to our hero in a low tone: I tell you what[36], Pierre Bon-Bon, we must have no more swearing.
The host swallowed another bumper, by way of denoting thorough comprehension and acquiescence, and the visitor continued.
Why, there are several ways of managing. The most of us starve: some put up with the pickle: for my part I purchase my spirits vivente corpore[37], in which case I find they keep very well.
But the body! hiccup! the body!
The body, the body well, what of the body? oh! ah! I perceive. Why, sir, the body is not at all affected by the transaction. I have made innumerable purchases of the kind in my day, and the parties never experienced any inconvenience. There were Cain and Nimrod, and Nero, and Caligula, and Dionysius, and Pisistratus, and and a thousand others, who never knew what it was to have a soul during the latter part of their lives; yet, sir, these men adorned society. Why possession of his faculties, mental and corporeal? Who writes a keener epigram? Who reasons more wittily? Who but stay! I have his agreement in my pocket-book.
Thus saying, he produced a red leather wallet, and took from it a number of papers. Upon some of these Bon-Bon caught a glimpse of the letters Machi Maza Robesp with the words Caligula, George, Elizabeth. His Majesty selected a narrow slip of parchment, and from it read aloud the following words:
In consideration of certain mental endowments which it is unnecessary to specify, and in further consideration of one thousand louis dor, I being aged one year and one month, do hereby make over to the bearer of this agreement all my right, title, and appurtenance in the shadow called my soul. (Signed) A[38] (Here His Majesty repeated a name which I did not feel justified in indicating more unequivocally.)
A clever fellow that, resumed he; but like you, Monsieur Bon-Bon, he was mistaken about the soul. The soul a shadow, truly! The soul a shadow; Ha! ha! ha! he! he! he! hu! hu! hu! Only think of a fricasséed shadow!
Only think hiccup! of a fricasséed shadow! exclaimed our hero, whose faculties were becoming much illuminated by the profundity of his Majestys discourse.
Only think of a hiccup! fricasséed shadow!! Now, damme! hiccup! humph! If I would have been such a hiccup! nincompoop! My soul, Mr. humph!
Your soul, Monsieur Bon-Bon?
Yes, sir hiccup! my soul is
What, sir?
No shadow, damme!
Did you mean to say
Yes, sir, my soul is hiccup! humph! yes, sir.
Did you not intend to assert
My soul is hiccup! peculiarly qualified for hiccup! a
What, sir?
Stew.
Ha!
Souflée.
Eh!
Fricassée.
Indeed!
Ragout and fricandeau and see here, my good fellow! Ill let you have it hiccup! a bargain. Here the philosopher slapped his Majesty upon the back.
Couldnt think of such a thing[39], said the latter calmly, at the same time rising from his seat. The metaphysician stared.
Am supplied at present, said his Majesty.
Hiccup e-h? said the philosopher.
Have no funds on hand.
What?
Besides, very unhandsome in me
Sir!
To take advantage of
Hiccup!
Your present disgusting and ungentlemanly situation.
Here the visitor bowed and withdrew in what manner could not precisely be ascertained but in a well-concerted effort to discharge a bottle at the villain, the slender chain was severed that depended from the ceiling, and the metaphysician prostrated by the downfall of the lamp.
Morella
Αυτό χατ αυτά μετ αύτοϋ μονοειδές αιεί φν
Plato. Sympos[40]April 1835
With a feeling of deep but most singular affection I regarded my friend Morella. Thrown by accident into her society many years ago, my soul, from our first meeting, burned with fires it had never known but the fires were not of Eros and bitter and tormenting to my eager spirit was the gradual conviction that I could in no manner define their unusual meaning, or regulate their vague intensity. Yet we met: and Fate bound us together at the altar: and I never spoke of love, or thought of passion. She, however, shunned society, and, attaching herself to me alone, rendered me happy. It is a happiness to wonder. It is a happiness to dream.