REPORT ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 131 
“ 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.” * 
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 be 
doomed to the execration of all time, and to the pun- 
ishment of the avenging contempt of posterity.” 
It is rare for violent words not to be followed by vio- 
lent acts. Here every thing proceeded according to the 
natural course of human events. We know, indeed, that 
some furious admirers of Mesmer attempted to suffocate 
Berthollet in the corner of one of the rooms of the Palais 
Royal, for having honestly said that the scenes he had 
witnessed did not appear to him demonstrative. We 
have this anecdote from Berthollet himself. 
The pretensions of the German doctor increased with 
the number of his adherents. To induce him to permit 
only three learned men to attend his meetings, M. de 
Maurepas offered him, in the name of the king, 20,000 
francs a year for life, and 10,000 annually for house-rent. 
Yet Mesmer did not accept this offer, but demanded, as 
a national recompense, one of the most beautiful chateaux 
in the environs of Paris, together with all its territorial 
dependencies. 
Irritated at finding his claims repulsed, Mesmer quitted 
* “Le voila, ce mortel, dont le siécle s’honore, 
Par qui sont replongés au séjour infernal 
Tous les fléaux vengeurs que déchaina Pandore; 
Dans son art bienfaisant il n’a pas de rival, 
Et la Gréce l’eut pris pour le dieu d’Epidaure.” 
