cutors and all others who could possibly be present, is
seen hurled into infinitesimal fragments,--there is some unavoidable
curiosity in the mind of the reader, at this juncture, to know precisely
how these very words and actions became known to the narrator, as well
as how the gunpowder was manufactured in the year of grace nine hundred
and eighty-four.

For corresponding knowledge of events in the actual present, the
believers in clairvoyance may be able to offer some explanation; but,
unfortunately or the reverse, the believers in effective clairvoyance
are in a very meagre minority; and the world will cling a little
tenaciously to the belief that what cannot be seen, heard, or otherwise
realized by the recognized natural senses, cannot be definitely
ascertained. Let it not be for one moment supposed, meanwhile, that
romances constructed on such bases will be less popular than those which
have more reason and probability at the bottom; for the majority of
novel-readers desire to be frightened, mystified or idly amused; and
perhaps that writer who makes _thought_ a condition of reading and
understanding what he writes, commits the most silly of crimes against
his own pocket and reputation.

The other mode in which romances can be written, is that in which the
writer only details that which he has enjoyed an opportunity to know,
embodying with them such speculations and reflections as seem
legitimately to grow out of the subject. This mode is unquestionably an
unprofitable one to employ; but unfortunately this narration can be
conducted on no other. Actual events and conversations _only_ are given,
and no speculations as to _what might have been_ can be indulged. It
might have been very easy to depict a disloyal or "secesh" household in
this city, and a club of fashionable people with pro-slavery sympathies,
meeting periodically, with grips, signs and passwords, and exercising an
injurious influence on the National cause by holding clandestine
correspondence with rebels in the revolted States. That such households
have existed in this city during the entire struggle, and that such
combinations of disloyal men have been doing their worst to cripple the
government and distract the nation, no rational man doubts for a moment.
But _no loyal citizen has been admitted behind the curtain, in either of
the supposable instances_. No one could have been, and still remained
loyal, without making such public revelations in the i