The Diamond Lens Read online

  II

  My first step, of course, was to find suitable apartments. These Iobtained, after a couple of days' search, in Fourth Avenue; a verypretty second floor, unfurnished, containing sitting-room, bedroom,and a smaller apartment which I intended to fit up as a laboratory. Ifurnished my lodgings simply, but rather elegantly, and then devotedall my energies to the adornment of the temple of my worship. I visitedPike, the celebrated optician, and passed in review his splendidcollection of microscopes--Field's Compound, Hingham's, Spencer's,Nachet's Binocular (that founded on the principles of the stereoscope),and at length fixed upon that form known as Spencer's TrunnionMicroscope, as combining the greatest number of improvements with analmost perfect freedom from tremor. Along with this I purchasedevery possible accessory--draw-tubes, micrometers, a _camera lucida_,lever-stage, achromatic condensers, white cloud illuminators, prisms,parabolic condensers, polarizing apparatus, forceps, aquatic boxes,fishing-tubes, with a host of other articles, all of which would havebeen useful in the hands of an experienced microscopist, but, as Iafterward discovered, were not of the slightest present value to me. Ittakes years of practice to know how to use a complicated microscope. Theoptician looked suspiciously at me as I made these valuable purchases.He evidently was uncertain whether to set me down as some scientificcelebrity or a madman. I think he was inclined to the latter belief. Isuppose I was mad. Every great genius is mad upon the subject in whichhe is greatest. The unsuccessful madman is disgraced and called alunatic.

  Mad or not, I set myself to work with a zeal which few scientificstudents have ever equaled. I had everything to learn relative to thedelicate study upon which I had embarked--a study involving the mostearnest patience, the most rigid analytic powers, the steadiest hand,the most untiring eye, the most refined and subtle manipulation.

  For a long time half my apparatus lay inactively on the shelves ofmy laboratory, which was now most amply furnished with every possiblecontrivance for facilitating my investigations. The fact was that I didnot know how to use some of my scientific implements--never having beentaught microscopies--and those whose use I understood theoretically wereof little avail until by practice I could attain the necessary delicacyof handling. Still, such was the fury of my ambition, such the untiringperseverance of my experiments, that, difficult of credit as it maybe, in the course of one year I became theoretically and practically anaccomplished microscopist.

  During this period of my labors, in which I submitted specimens of everysubstance that came under my observation to the action of my lenses, Ibecame a discoverer--in a small way, it is true, for I was very young,but still a discoverer. It was I who destroyed Ehrenberg's theory thatthe _Volvox globator_ was an animal, and proved that his "monads" withstomachs and eyes were merely phases of the formation of a vegetablecell, and were, when they reached their mature state, incapable ofthe act of conjugation, or any true generative act, without which noorganism rising to any stage of life higher than vegetable can be saidto be complete. It was I who resolved the singular problem of rotationin the cells and hairs of plants into ciliary attraction, in spite ofthe assertions of Wenham and others that my explanation was the resultof an optical illusion.

  But notwithstanding these discoveries, laboriously and painfully madeas they were, I felt horribly dissatisfied. At every step I foundmyself stopped by the imperfections of my instruments. Like all activemicroscopists, I gave my imagination full play. Indeed, it is a commoncomplaint against many such that they supply the defects of theirinstruments with the creations of their brains. I imagined depths beyonddepths in nature which the limited power of my lenses prohibited me fromexploring. I lay awake at night constructing imaginary micro-scopesof immeasurable power, with which I seemed to pierce through all theenvelopes of matter down to its original atom. How I cursed thoseimperfect mediums which necessity through ignorance compelled me touse! How I longed to discover the secret of some perfect lens, whosemagnifying power should be limited only by the resolvability of theobject, and which at the same time should be free from spherical andchromatic aberrations--in short, from all the obstacles over which thepoor microscopist finds himself continually stumbling! I felt convincedthat the simple microscope, composed of a single lens of such vast yetperfect power, was possible of construction. To attempt to bring thecompound microscope up to such a pitch would have been commencing at thewrong end; this latter being simply a partially successful endeavorto remedy those very defects of the simplest instrument which, ifconquered, would leave nothing to be desired.

  It was in this mood of mind that I became a constructive microscopist.After another year passed in this new pursuit, experimenting on everyimaginable substance--glass, gems, flints, crystals, artificial crystalsformed of the alloy of various vitreous materials--in short, havingconstructed as many varieties of lenses as Argus had eyes--I foundmyself precisely where I started, with nothing gained save an extensiveknowledge of glass-making. I was almost dead with despair. My parentswere surprised at my apparent want of progress in my medical studies(I had not attended one lecture since my arrival in the city), and theexpenses of my mad pursuit had been so great as to embarrass me veryseriously.

  I was in this frame of mind one day, experimenting in my laboratory ona small diamond--that stone, from its great refracting power, havingalways occupied my attention more than any other--when a youngFrenchman who lived on the floor above me, and who was in the habit ofoccasionally visiting me, entered the room.

  I think that Jules Simon was a Jew. He had many traits of the Hebrewcharacter: a love of jewelry, of dress, and of good living. There wassomething mysterious about him. He always had something to sell, and yetwent into excellent society. When I say sell, I should perhaps have saidpeddle; for his operations were generally confined to the disposal ofsingle articles--a picture, for instance, or a rare carving in ivory, ora pair of duelling-pistols, or the dress of a Mexican _caballero_. WhenI was first furnishing my rooms, he paid me a visit, which ended in mypurchasing an antique silver lamp, which he assured me was a Cellini--itwas handsome enough even for that--and some other knick-knacks for mysitting-room. Why Simon should pursue this petty trade I never couldimagine. He apparently had plenty of money, and had the _entree_ of thebest houses in the city--taking care, however, I suppose, to drive nobargains within the enchanted circle of the Upper Ten. I came at lengthto the conclusion that this peddling was but a mask to cover somegreater object, and even went so far as to believe my young acquaintanceto be implicated in the slave-trade. That, however, was none of myaffair.

  On the present occasion, Simon entered my room in a state ofconsiderable excitement.

  "_Ah! mon ami!_" he cried, before I could even offer him the ordinarysalutation, "it has occurred to me to be the witness of the mostastonishing things in the world. I promenade myself to the house ofMadame ------. How does the little animal--_le renard_--name himself inthe Latin?"

  "Vulpes," I answered.

  "Ah! yes--Vulpes. I promenade myself to the house of Madame Vulpes."

  "The spirit medium?"

  "Yes, the great medium. Great heavens! what a woman! I write on aslip of paper many of questions concerning affairs of the mostsecret--affairs that conceal themselves in the abysses of my heart themost profound; and behold, by example, what occurs? This devil of awoman makes me replies the most truthful to all of them. She talks to meof things that I do not love to talk of to myself. What am I to think? Iam fixed to the earth!"

  "Am I to understand you, M. Simon, that this Mrs. Vulpes replied toquestions secretly written by you, which questions related to eventsknown only to yourself?"

  "Ah! more than that, more than that," he answered, with an air of somealarm. "She related to me things--But," he added after a pause, andsuddenly changing his manner, "why occupy ourselves with these follies?It was all the biology, without doubt. It goes without saying that ithas not my credence. But why are we here, _mon ami?_ It has occurred tome to discover the most beautiful thing as you can imagine--a vase withgreen
lizards on it, composed by the great Bernard Palissy. It is in myapartment; let us mount. I go to show it to you."

  I followed Simon mechanically; but my thoughts were far from Palissy andhis enameled ware, although I, like him, was seeking in the dark a greatdiscovery. This casual mention of the spiritualist, Madame Vulpes,set me on a new track. What if, through communication with more subtleorganisms than my own, I could reach at a single bound the goal whichperhaps a life, of agonizing mental toil would never enable me toattain?

  While purchasing the Palissy vase from my friend Simon, I was mentallyarranging a visit to Madame Vulpes.