Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Animal Magnetism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism

    Describes a discussion with Colonel Jones about animal magnetism and clairvoyance. The narrator admits to Jones that he believes in what he calls animal magnetism and clairvoyance, but seeks proof of the stories of such powers claimed by others. From his own experiments he claims that, because a subject can find treasure hidden by himself, that is not a 'good reason' to believe that 'she can tell me what I do not know and never did know'. Questions the possibility that a subject could 'always, and with certainty' locate hidden treasure, and Jones, whose experiments on a subject had convinced him of the truth of clairvoyance, admitted the existence of 'some few mistakes' in his investigations. (346) Jones describes how a pirate called Greenleaf and his friends had buried treasure on a desolate island and agreed to retrieve it only after fifteen years. Except for Greenleaf and Thomas Taylor all the pirates perish and subsequently Greenleaf charters a new vessel to retrieve the treasure. Adds that during a 'magnetic sleep' a fortune-teller accurately identified the place and composition of the treasure, and later accurately predicted the location of a skeleton and more treasure. (346–47)