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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
243
So
whether
we
accuse,
or
whether
we
think
that
the
word
"accuse"
over-dignifies
an
attitude
toward
a
quasi-astronomer,
or
mere
figment
in
a
super-dream,
our
acceptance
is
that
Leverrier
never
did
formulate
observations--
That
he
picked
out
observations
that
could
be
formulated--
That
of
this
type
are
all
formulas--
That,
if
Leverrier
had
not
been
himself
helplessly
hypnotized,
or
if
he
had
had
in
him
more
than
a
tincture
of
realness,
never
could
he
have
been
beguiled
by
such
a
quasi-process:
but
that
he
was
hypnotized,
and
so
extended,
or
transferred,
his
condition
to
others,
that
upon
March
22,
1877,
he
had
this
earth
bristling
with
telescopes,
with
the
rigid
and
almost
inanimate
forms
of
astronomers
behind
them--
And
not
a
blessed
thing
of
any
unusuality
was
seen
upon
that
day
or
succeeding
days.
But
that
the
science
of
Astronomy
suffered
the
slightest
in
prestige?
It
couldn't.
The
spirit
of
1877
was
behind
it.
If,
in
an
embryo,
some
cells
should
not
live
up
to
the
phenomena
of
their
era,
the
others
will
sustain
the
scheduled
appearances.
Not
until
an
embryo
enters
the
mammalian
stage
are
cells
of
the
reptilian
stage
false
cells.
It
is
our
acceptance
that
there
were
many
equally
authentic
reports
upon
large
planetary
bodies
that
had
been
seen
near
the
sun;
that,
of
many,
Leverrier
picked
out
six;
not
then
deciding
that
all
the
other
observations
related
to
still
other
large,
planetary
bodies,
but
arbitrarily,
or
hypnotically,
disregarding--or
heroically
disregarding--every
one
of
them--that
to
formulate
at
all
he
had
to
exclude
falsely.
The
denouement
killed
him,
I
think.
I'm
not
at
all
inclined
to
place
him
with
the
Grays
and
Hitchcocks
and
Symonses.
I'm
not,
because,
though
it
was
rather
unsportsmanlike
to
put
the
date
so
far
ahead,
he
did
give
a
date,
and
he
did
stick
to
it
with
such
a
high
approximation--
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