CHAPTER X.

THE BETROTHAL.

The Judge offered very slight resistance as Doctor Medjora urged him forward, and even in the pitchy darkness of the laboratory he made no effort to free himself. He was no coward, and in defying this man whom so many feared, he showed that he feared no man.

The Doctor went straight to the trap-door, and began to descend the stairway. His reason for having no light in the laboratory was, that he did not wish the Judge to know by what way they went down. As the trap-door was open, he would not suspect its existence; all that he would be able to recall would be that they had descended a flight of stairs. Should he enter the laboratory, at some future time, he would be unable to discover the way to the crypt below.

But it was not to the temple of aesculapius that the Doctor now led his companion. He had decided not to divulge that secret to any other person, besides Leon. Mr. Barnes, it is true, had been taken into the crypt, but by hypnotic suggestion the Doctor had eradicated all recollection of that visit. You will remember that on the night when the Doctor had controlled Mr. Barnes by making him sleep, he had subsequently taken him through an old wine cellar. This vault still existed, though it had been remodelled at the time when the new house was built.

It was into this secret chamber that the Doctor now took the Judge.

Closing the door behind him, he touched a b.u.t.ton, and an electric lamp illumined the apartment.

The chamber was comfortably carpeted and furnished, and in all ways presented the appearance of a luxurious living room, except that there were no windows. On this night, a silk curtain, stretched across from wall to wall, seemed to indicate that there was something beyond. What that was, at once arrested the attention of the Judge, but he exhibited no curiosity by asking questions, preferring to await the unfolding of events as they might occur.

"Now, Judge," said the Doctor, "I must ask you to pardon my having brought you here. I may also have seemed rude or brusque in manner, which you must set down to excitement, rather than to malicious intent. You understand that I would not harm my friend?"

"I have no fear!" replied the Judge, coldly.

"Be seated, please," said the Doctor, and then both took chairs.

"Judge Dudley," continued the Doctor, "I have expressed to you my opinion that I have a claim upon your daughter. You have denied it.

Or, rather, you have probably conceded in your mind that what I have done for Agnes creates an obligation, but you are not willing to admit that on that account I should have the privilege, of selecting her husband? Do I state the facts clearly?"

"Sufficiently so! Proceed!"

"Very well! I have brought you to this apartment to demonstrate to you, first, that the obligation is greater than you suspect, and secondly, that your daughter's fate is entirely in my hands. In fact that you are powerless to oppose my will."

"I have, perhaps, more determination than you credit me with. It will be difficult for you to swerve me from my purpose."

"Those men, who have the strongest wills, are the ones most easily moved. You are as just, as man ever is. When you learn that your daughter's happiness, after this night, will depend entirely upon her marriage with Leon, you will yield."

"I certainly would make any sacrifice for the happiness of my daughter. But I must be convinced."

"You see! Already you are amenable to reason. I will proceed. Judge Dudley, a while ago I told you something of the present theories concerning the existence of germs which affect physical life. I also explained to you, how, by using greater knowledge than has as yet been generally disseminated, I have succeeded in producing in the person of your daughter a physically perfect being; one who cannot be attacked by bodily ailments. I will now unfold to you some theories which are even more in advance of the thought of to-day. It has long been conceded that man is a dual creature; that is, there is a material and, I will say, another side, to every human being. What is that other side? It is immaterial; it is intangible but nevertheless we know that it exists. At death there remains everything of the physical body that existed a moment before. What then has departed? An instant before death, a muscle will lift a given weight, and a second after, long before mortification of the flesh could operate to disintegrate the fibres, we find that one tenth of that weight will suffice to tear the same muscle. What then is this potential power which has left the body? For the purposes of the present argument, I shall call it the psychical side of man. The physical and the psychical, dwelling in harmonious unison, produces a living creature. This much is plain, and of course presents no new thought to you."

"True, but I suppose you are leading to something else?"

"Yes! The introduction is necessary. Given then these two divisions of human life, and, I submit it to you, is it not curious that the physical has received a hundred times as much study as has the psychical? With myself it has been different. I have studied both together, because I have ever found them together. I argued that I could never fully comprehend the one, without an equal knowledge of the other. So I know as much about the psychical side of life as I do of the physical."

"Then you must know a great deal!"

"I do! In the beginning of my career I grasped one truth, which seems to have escaped the majority. The secrets of Nature are simple. We do not discover the mysteries, because we think them more mysterious than they are. The key to the knowledge of Nature's methods is in her a.n.a.logies. All natural laws operate on parallel lines, because the aim of all is the same; evolution towards perfection. Thus, in studying the psychical, I had but to master the physical and then discover the a.n.a.logy which exists between the two."

"And you claim to have done this?"

"In a great measure. Leon, before he dies, will achieve more than I, because he will begin where I shall be compelled to abandon my work.

But I have accomplished more than any other mortal man, and that is a gratifying thought, to an egotist. There is but one phase of this subject which I wish to submit to you. I have explained the germ theory of disease. I will now announce to you the germ theory of crime."

"The germ theory of crime?" asked the Judge, utterly amazed. "Do you mean that crime is produced by bacteria? As a jurist, I certainly will be interested in your new doctrine."

"You do not yet grasp my meaning. It is manifestly impossible that bacteria, which are living parasites, could affect the moral side of a man. I have said that the secret is in a.n.a.logy; the two germs, the physical and the psychical, are not identical. But I will start your thought in the right direction, when I say that all forms of vice and crime are diseases, as much as scarlet fever or small-pox. It is a curious fact that many great secrets which have escaped the individual have been recognized by the mult.i.tude. Many expressions in the language, which are counted as metaphorical, are truly exponents of unrecorded facts. One says that a girl has died of a 'broken heart,'

without suspecting that disappointed love has been known to cause an actual heart rupture, demonstrable by _post-mortem_ examination. So, to return to my subject, people say that an immoral man has 'a diseased imagination,' without realizing that they state the exact condition from which he suffers."

"Why, if such were the case, it would be improper to punish criminals!" Such an idea seemed rank heresy to the Judge.

"It is entirely wrong to punish criminals. We should however imprison them, because they are dangerous to the community. But their incarceration should be precisely similar to the forcible confinement of individuals suffering with diseases which threaten to become epidemic, and for very similar reasons. First, to endeavor to effect their cure, and second, and most important, to prevent the spread of the malady."

"You mean that jails should be reformatories?"

"Exclusively. Moreover, the length of the confinement should not be regulated by statute, but should depend upon the intensity of the attack of crime or vice, which has occasioned the arrest of the prisoner. He should be jailed until cured, just as a leper is, even though it be for life. However, I cannot now discuss that aspect of the question. I wish to more fully explain the germ theory of crime."

"I am impatient to hear you." In his interest in the subject the Judge had almost forgotten his recent feeling of animosity.

"The idea then is this. Suppose that a babe could be born, with a perfect psychical endowment. We would have a being in whom all the higher virtues would predominate, while the vices would be non-existent. But take such an individual and place him in an environment where he would daily be a.s.sociated with vice in its worst form and it would be inevitable that he would become vicious, for crime is as contagious as small-pox. The germ of a physical disease is a parasite so small in some instances, that when placed under a microscope and magnified one thousand times, it then becomes visible as a tiny dot, which might be made by a very sharp pencil. The germ of crime is even more minute and intangible. It exists as a suggestion."

"A suggestion?"

"Yes! Suggestion is the most potent factor in the affairs of the world. There is never a suggestion without an effect. Wherever it occurs an impression is created. No living man is free from its influence. A common example which I might cite is the congregation of a crowd. Without knowing what he goes to see, a man crosses the street and swells a growing crowd merely because others do so. The idea is suggested, and the impulse becomes almost irresistible. Even if resisted, the temptation will be appreciated. The suggestion has produced an effect. To explain the specific growth of a crime by this means, I will remind you of the woman who, when leaving home, told her children not to go into the barn and steal any apples, but that if they did go, above all things not to lie about it when she should return. Of course they went, and of course they lied to her upon her return. She had suggested both actions to them. The child who sees theft for the first time, may look upon it with abhorrence, because home influence has suggested to it that stealing is wrong. But permit a daily a.s.sociation with theives, and the abhorrence will pa.s.s into tolerance, and thence into imitation."

"I begin to perceive your meaning, and after all it is only the old idea, that conscience is merely the result of education."

"Precisely so! But that very expression is but another example of the indefinite recognition of an important fact. You say my theory is old.

Perhaps! But my utilization of it is new. Just as there are pathogenic bacteria which produce disease, so there are also non-pathogenic bacteria which not only do not cause bodily affliction, but which actually are essential and conducive to perfect health. The one takes its sustenance by destroying that which is needed by man, at the same time generating poisons which are deleterious, while the latter thrives upon that which is harmful to the human body. a.n.a.logously, just as there are germs, or suggestions which debase the morality, so also there are suggestions which produce the highest moral health."

"That seems probable enough!"

"By the means which I have explained to you, your daughter was born, immune to all diseases. You have heard that certain maladies, as consumption, can be transmitted, and are therefore inherited. This is not true. But a parent who has suffered with phthisis, may transmit to his progeny what is termed a diminished vital resistance. The child is not born consumptive, but he is poorly equipped to contend against the germ of that disease. If thrown into contact with it, consumption will probably follow. But it is possible that as he matures his environment may be such, that his vital resistance may increase, so that the time might come when he would not acquire the disease, even though brought into contact with it. The reverse follows as a logical deduction.

Agnes was born with an enormous stock of vital resistance, which would operate to protect her from all diseases. But it would have been possible for her to degenerate as she matured. This I guarded against.

By cultivating her companionship, and yours, I have had access to her at all times, and I have periodically supplied her with potions containing those germs which are conducive to health. In a similiar way, I have cared for her psychical life, by advancing her moral nature!"

"What is that? I do not comprehend your meaning!"

"I have said that no person is exempt from the influences of suggestion. But it has been demonstrated that, when hypnotized, an individual is singularly susceptible to suggestion, and many phenomena have been recorded. But as yet little practical use has been made of this knowledge. With me it has been an endless source of power.

Especially have I used hypnotic suggestion for the moral advancement of your daughter!"

"You mean that you have hypnotized Agnes?" The Judge was stunned by the announcement.

"I began the practice when she was five years of age, and have continued it up to the present moment. By this means I have made her psychically as perfect as she is physically. I have inculcated in her the highest virtues, and I have taught her to love intellectuality above all things. Thus again I show you a claim that I have upon her.

But the highest obligation is that which is based upon the good of the world, and the advancement of science. She is now so fond of knowledge that she would never marry any ordinary man. There is but one man living, to whom she can be united, and be happy, and as yet she does not suspect it. That one is Leon. Do you not see that you must consent to this union?"

"Not yet! I must be convinced of the truth of all the extraordinary things which you have told me."

"You ask for proof? You shall have it! For that I brought you here!

Watch what you shall see, but stir not, however great may be the temptation. If you make an effort to interfere, it would be doubly useless, first, because I would restrain you by physical strength, and second, because though you will see your daughter, you will be unable to make her see or hear you. Beware how you trifle with what you do not understand! A false move on your part might mean a lifelong injury to Agnes. Behold!"

The Doctor touched a spring and the silk curtains parted. The Judge started forward with a cry, but the Doctor grasped him by the arm and cried "Beware!" upon which he subsided, but gazed with intense anxiety upon what followed.

Behind the curtains, there appeared a sort of stage, which was divided in half by yet another curtain. To one side, Leon lay reclining on a couch, as though asleep, his eyes closed. On the other side, Agnes lay in similar posture. The Doctor spoke: