James Buckham

Name: ''The Black Cat''
Author: James Buckham

''The Black Cat'' (1896)

Summary

“''The Black Cat''”, published in 1896, is a work by James Buckham. It explores elements such as Amsden, ghost and proposal.

Quotes from ''The Black Cat'' (James Buckham)

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ The young clergyman paused, throwing his head back against the green baize of the easy-chair in which he sat. For a moment I thought he had fainted, and sprang for a cordial; but, without taking his slowly opening eyes from the ceiling, he motioned me back, and continued, while an indescribably sweet and almost transfiguring smile lit his pale face:
"A woman, said I? An angel! A vision of transcendent loveliness! She came into my life as a new star comes across the disk of an astronomer's telescope, shedding its undiscovered light from eternity for him alone. O my Ethel! My angel! ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ A ghost is, after all, but a ghost, whether it be attached to a bodily tenement or be simply a spirit at large, and even the most heavenly minded young woman might cherish a prejudice in favor of a fleshly lover. On the other hand, however, the choice lay not between two methods of wooing, but between this and none at all; and how easy, how delightful a method of making a proposal of marriage. It could all be performed, like a painful surgical operation, during merciful sleep. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ I looked up, and saw before me a tall and graceful young man, smooth-shaven, and dressed in the characteristic clerical garb of the Church of England. His face was singularly handsome, of the clear-cut Grecian type, and was lighted by a pair of large, thoughtful brown eyes. With the exception of the mouth, the whole face was both intellectual and spiritual; but there was a certain fulness and sensuous curve of the lips which suggested a strongly emotive and possibly passionate nature under this calm and priestly exterior. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ A condition of sleep, either cataleptic or natural, is induced by the agent in himself; but previously to falling to sleep he must concentrate his whole mental energy and will-power upon the determination to convey a certain image, or message, or both to the subjective mind of the person with whom he wishes to communicate. Then away goes his spirit—his phantasm—while he is buried in unconscious slumber, appears in his very image to the person designated, and delivers the message with his very voice and manner. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ It was just ten o'clock. "Thank heaven," he cried, "I did not wake before the time!" He went back to bed, and fell instantly into the deep slumber of complete exhaustion, from which he did not wake until late the next morning. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ But, thank God, it is over now!"
"I hardly think you are in a fit condition to endure a surgical operation," I objected.
"For God's sake, do not put it off any longer, doctor!" exclaimed the young clergyman, clutching my hand. "I would rather die than endure another day of such moral agony."
"Very well," I said; "I do not consider the experiment a dangerous one in any case—only exhausting."
Five minutes later my patient, divested of coat, vest, and collar, lay stretched on the operating table. In five minutes more he was under the influence of ether. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ ONE dull, gray afternoon in November I was sitting in my office in Raymond Square, deeply absorbed in an article in my Medical Journal, the description of an experiment conducted by a famous French surgeon for the purpose of determining whether sight could be restored to a blind person by engrafting the live nerve of a dog's eye upon the shriveled and atrophied nerve of the patient's eye. ”

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Source: Wikisource

James Buckham, ''The Black Cat'' (1896)

“ Are the functions of the brain localized in its structure? So say Gall, and Spurzheim, and not a few other eminent anatomists. Well, every practical experiment looking towards the solution of this question has its value. Here was a strong, vigorous man, evidently possessed by the amative mania. It would be an operation of little difficulty and no great degree of danger to uncover the occipital protuberance at the base of the brain, where phrenologists claim that the organ of love is situated, and then—
"Well, will you take the case?" ”

James Buckham

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Quotes from ''The Black Cat'' (James Buckham)

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