Entry 2
The transcribed personal written records of Johnathan Altman in relation to his debaucherous research in Relative Magics and their implications. The staff of the Saunders College of Magics of Boston, Massachusetts, procured them as evidence in the lead-up to his trial.
May 11th, 1896
I grow increasingly exhausted by Gillgrass and his misleading and confusing lectures that overly rely on terminology that the students may not know. I tried to confront him about this after class today. I told him that maybe we should explain the terminology used in class if it was new. This is an introductory course, after all. He told me that this wasn’t a class just to allow anyone to pass but a test for the true scholars of the next generation. He told me that he would actually fail more students if enough students had somehow learned in his class because that meant it was a failing on his part, not to make it harder on them. Then, he had the audacity to tell me that I should do the same. The audacity, I tell you. I have no intention of doing so. I did not tell him so because I knew that currently, I was only a trainee, and since he had an affinity for failing students, he may have one for failing new professors.
I wish there were something I could do for these students, but when I asked Professor Bass about whether such practices were regular. I had not noticed such things, perhaps because I was tutored. Bass said it was not uncommon, and professors were encouraged to fail at least three students. I was shaken. When I asked Alistar, he told me it was an old practice that some of the younger professors were trying to break, but the administration was more attached to the reputation of a school that tried and tested their students to the limits.
I thought deeply about this over the weekend. How could I change their minds on the topic? I would have to wait until I was a practicing professor, but I would propose to the administration to allow me to fail as few students as possible, and after five years, we would see if my students, because of my inclusive teaching methods, gained the students more notoriety for the school. This would satisfy their attachment to their notoriety and my own for human decency.
My work with Bass has been interesting. He is testing old methods of silver craft. We are attempting to determine the best method of intricate craft. While Welsh practices produced simple silver, it pared well with other metals, increasing their appearance. I told him about my interest in ironcraft. He informed me that while magic could be done to iron, it was a basic metal, and magic could not be drawn out of it. It is good that such fruitless ventures can be closed off.
I’ve sent my letter telling my sister that once summer came along, I would return and teach her weavarty. I have yet to receive a response from her, but I hope it will uplift her mood before her marriage to the Jones boy. I also let her know about my meeting with Madylin Fair. I Dare not tell my father he wishes for me to only interact with those of my own station or greater. Despite his love of romantics, he does not believe in following the heart. He would call it a fool’s errand. However, my meeting with you, Ms. Fair, was well worth it. She is such an interesting person, very worldly, despite never having left Boston. She has told me of the many people she has met through her work and the stories they tell. She herself is a great teacher. I have already learned motioned embroidery and a heating enchantment for the thread. I plan to meet her again, perhaps at an eatery for dinner. We shall see if she agrees.
On campus, outside of my position, the students grow hectic with finals approaching, which is even more of a reason I am upset with Gillgrass. But on the other hand, my workload decreases, and I am dragged into Summer’s experiments. He has gotten it somewhere in his head that I care about the results of his company. He is dreadfully loud, boisterous, and hyperbolic. However, he intrigued me with the branching out to fortune telling to finally end it. It is well documented in scholarly works that such things are false and unusable, but those are not public things, and he believes that with the number of people keeping up with his research, we may be able to convince the public of its improbability. Most of his assistants are leaving so I have agreed to return after my visit with my family. I hope that my inclusion in this will do some good, and maybe I can leave the project thereafter.
Notes for the book: (Working Title Johnathan Altman’s Introduction to Magical Practice.
- Begin with the Magical Law of Conservation
- Hierarchy of magic
- Power of homelands
- Meteria and its necessity
- The power of dates
- Exact execution
- Folk magic and it’s folly.
Notes of Mr. Mathew Maroe on the evidence above. 1911 August 16th
This entry is lax, but it shows the start of Johnathan’s interest in the power of predictive magics. It is also interesting to see. It could be made evident that it was Casey Summers who corrupted the young Altman. This may be useful. One of my jobs was to find which books and papers of Altman’s could be kept in circulation because, unfortunately, he was a prevalent person. The college wishes to retain the rights to Altman’s introductory book. I have advised them not to do so because it would make the public, who are already leaning toward Altman’s side in this affair, become upset. The motion to return these papers has been denied, which will be of great help to me.