"Sean Russell - River Into Darkness 1 - Beneath the Vaunted Hills" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Sean)

тАЬClara will do nothing in her present state that she would find objectionable while awake. She is
mesmerized, but her morals are perfectly awake, let me assure you.тАЭ

тАЬCan you cure illnesses, then?тАЭ someone asked. тАЬSome make such a claim.тАЭ

тАЬSome illnesses, yes. I have had encouraging results treating nervous dyspepsia, insomnia, dropsy, and
brain fevers, to name but a few. Consumption, I regret to say, it will not affect, though it will take away
some discomfort from the consumptive patient. Irrational fears 1 have treated with great success.
Recurrent nightmares I have solved utterly.тАЭ

тАЬCan people really remember back to their very childhood, Doctor? To their birth, even?тАЭ

тАЬI have seen long-lost memories surface, often, but I cannot claim perfect success. I treated the great
Lord Skye, who as you know can remember nothing that took place before his childhood accident, but
we were unable to recover his past. It is lost, I believe. Lost when he suffered his terrible injury.тАЭ

тАЬBut his intellect was not affectedтАж ?тАЭ

тАЬOnly his speech, slightly. But otherwise we do not know. Perhaps if he had not suffered his tragedy, he
would have shown even greater genius. But what is a memory? Can it be weighed or measured? If one is
forgotten, does the brain weight less? How is it that we hold so many in our minds? And where are they
kept?тАЭ He looked around at the gathering as though expecting answers, but when none were
forthcoming, he continued. тАЬThere are those who
E A N KUSSELL
claim the mind and the brain are not one and the same, but clearly when the brain is injured, so also is the
mind. Thus Skye lost his memoriesтАФas though they were destroyed when his brain was damaged. But in
an undamaged brain I believe the memories are never truly lost, but only misplaced. Memories of every
event and smell and taste and emotion, all there, like perfect novels in infinite numbers. The novels of our
lives. It is one of the mysteries that empiricism has yet to explain.тАЬ He turned to the sleeping woman. тАЭBut
let us see what Clara can remember. Perhaps she has some memories long forgotten. Clara? I want you
to turn your mind to your childhoodтАж Your very earliest memory.тАЬ

Erasmus drifted away. He had seen such displays before. Fascinating the first time or two, but largely
quackery, he thought. This man had made more modest claims than most, who were milking the ignorant
for their hard-earned coin with promises to cure all manner of illness and deformity, and much more.
Which only made this man slightly less of a charlatan.
But what is memory?

Perhaps not an entirely foolish question, Erasmus thought, but he was more interested in knowing why
one could not forget. Or how one could forget. For that he would hand over his own money, and gladly.

A young woman offered him a glass of champagne. She was wearing nothing but lingerie of black lace,
sheer black stockings, and an astonishing tumble of dark curls.

тАЬYou look, sir, as though you might require some help erasing that troubled expression from your brow,тАЭ
she said in a lovely warm voice. Erasmus was usually easy prey for a beautiful voice.

тАЬI cultivate looking troubled,тАЭ he answered. тАЬIt keeps people at a distance.тАЭ