adually, which he meant to do
without hope of reward."

Messmer, too politic to part with his secret for so small a premium, had
a better prospect in view; and his apparent disinterestedness and
hesitation served only to sound an over-curious public, to allure more
victims to his delusive practices, and to retain them more firmly in
their implicit belief. Soon after this he was easily prevailed upon to
institute a private society, into which none were admitted, but such as
bound themselves by a vow to perpetual secrecy. These pupils he agreed
to instruct in his important mysteries, on condition of each paying him
_one hundred louis_. In the course of six months, having had not less
than three hundred such pupils, he realized a fortune of _thirty
thousand louis_.

It appears, however, that the disciples of Messmer did not adhere to
their engagement: we find them separating gradually from their
professor, and establishing schools for the propagation of his system,
with a view, no doubt, to reimburse themselves for the expenses of their
own initiation into the magnetising art. But few of them having
understood the terms and mysterious doctrines of their foreign master,
every new adept exerted himself to excel his fellow-labourers, in
additional explanations and inventions: others, who did not possess, or
could not spare the sum of one hundred louis, were industriously
employed in attempts to discover the secret, by their own ingenuity; and
thus arose a great variety of magnetical sects. At length, however,
Messmer's authority became suspected; his pecuniary acquisitions were
now notorious, and our _humane and disinterested philosopher_ was
assailed with critical and satirical animadversions from every quarter.
The fertility of his process for medical purposes, as well as the bad
consequences it might procure in a moral point of view, soon became
topics of common conversation, and ultimately even excited the
apprehensions of government. One dangerous effect of magnetical
associations was, that young voluptuaries began to employ this art, to
promote their libidinous and destructive designs.

Matters having assumed this serious aspect, the French government, much
to its credit, deputed four respectable and unprejudiced men, to whom
were afterwards added four others of great learning and abilities, to
inquire into, and appreciate the merits of the new discovery of animal
magnetism. These philosophers, among whom we find the