hese barren debates evidently proved that Mesmer himself was not
thoroughly sure of his theory, nor of the efficacy of the means of cure
that he employed. Still the public showed itself blind. The infatuation
became extreme. French society appeared at one moment divided into
magnetizers and magnetized. From one end of the kingdom to the other
agents of Mesmer were seen, who, with receipt in hand, put the weak in
intellect under contribution.

The magnetizers had had the address to intimate that the mesmeric crises
manifested themselves only in persons endowed with a certain
sensitiveness. From that moment, in order not to be ranged among the
insensible, both men and women, when near the _rod_, assumed the
appearance of epileptics.

Was not Father Hervier really in one of those paroxysms of the disease
when he wrote, "If Mesmer had lived contemporary with Descartes and
Newton, he would have saved them much labour: those great men suspected
the existence of the universal fluid; Mesmer has discovered the laws of
its action"?

Count de Gebelin showed himself stranger still. The new doctrine would
naturally seduce him by its connection with some of the mysterious
practices of ancient times; but the author of _The Primitive World_ did
not content himself with writing in favour of Mesmerism with the
enthusiasm of an apostle. Frightful pain, violent griefs, rendered life
insupportable to him; Gebelin saw death approaching with satisfaction,
so from that moment he begged earnestly that he might not be carried to
Mesmer's, where assuredly "he could not die." We must just mention,
however, that his request was not attended to; he was carried to
Mesmer's, and died while he was being magnetized.

Painting, sculpture, and engraving were constantly repeating the
features of this Thaumaturgus. Poets wrote verses to be inscribed on the
pedestals of the busts, or below the portraits. Those by Palisot deserve
to be quoted, as one of the most curious examples of poetic licences:--

"Behold that man--the glory of his age!
Whose art can all Pandora's ills assuage.
In skill and tact no rival pow'r is known--
E'en Greece, in him, would Esculapius own."[7]

Enthusiasm having thus gone to the last limits in verse, enthusiasm had
but one way left to become remarkable in prose: that is, violence. Is it
not thus that we must characterize the words of Bergasse?--"The
adversaries of animal magnetism are men who must one day