round, sir, you
may hear the mineral waters springing up at immeasurable depths; you
may judge of their volume, their currents, and the obstacles which they
meet!

"Do you wish to go further? Enter a subterranean vault which is so
constructed as to gather a quantity of loud sounds; then at night when
the world sleeps, when nothing will be confused with the interior
noises of our globe--listen!

"Sir, all that it is possible for me to tell you at the present
moment--for in the midst of my profound misery, of my privations, and
often of my despair, I am left only a few lucid instants to pursue my
geological observations--all that I can affirm is that the seething of
glow worms, the explosions of boiling fluids, is something terrifying
and sublime, which can only be compared to the impression of the
astronomer whose glass fathoms depths of limitless extent.

"Nevertheless, I must avow that these impressions should be studied
further and classified in a methodical manner, in order that definite
conclusions may be derived therefrom. Likewise, as soon as you shall
have deigned, dear and noble master, to transmit the little sum for use
at Neustadt as I asked, to supply my first needs, we shall see our way
to an understanding in regard to the establishment of three great
subterranean observatories, one in the valley of Catania, another in
Iceland, then a third in Capac-Uren, Songay, or Cayembe-Uren, the
deepest of the Cordilleras, and consequently--"

Here the letter stopped.

I let my hands fall in stupefaction. Had I read the conceptions of an
idiot--or the inspirations of a genius which had been realized? What am
I to say? to think? So this man, this miserable creature, living at the
bottom of a burrow like a fox, dying of hunger, had had perhaps one of
those inspirations which the Supreme Being sends on earth to enlighten
future generations!

And this man had hanged himself in disgust, despair! No one had
answered his prayer, though he asked only for a crust of bread in
exchange for his discovery. It was horrible. Long, long I sat there
dreaming, thanking Heaven for having limited my intelligence to the
needs of ordinary life--for not having desired to make me a superior
man in the community of martyrs. At length the rural guardsman, seeing
me with fixed gaze and mouth agape, made so bold as to touch me on the
shoulder.

"Mr. Christian," said he, "see--it's getting late--the burgomaster must
have come back from th