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182 | BAILLY. 
France, angrily vowing her to the deluge of maladies 
from which it would have been in his power to save her. 
In a letter written to Marie Antoinette, the Thaumatur- 
gus declared that-he had refused the government offers 
through austerity. 
Through austerity!!! Are we then to believe that, as 
it was then pretended, Mesmer was entirely ignorant of 
the French language ; that in this respect his meditations 
had been exclusively centered on the celebrated verse— 
‘ Fools are here below for our amusement ?’’ * 
However this may be, the austerity of Mesmer did not 
prevent his being most violently angry when he learnt at 
Spa that Deslon continued the magnetical treatments at 
Paris. He returned in all haste. His partisans received 
him with enthusiasm, and set on foot a subscription of 
100 louis per head, which produced immediately near 
400,000 francs, (16,000/.) We now feel some surprise 
to see, among the names of the subscribers, those of 
Messrs. de Lafayette, de Ségur, d’Eprémesnil. 
Mesmer quitted France a second time about the end 
of 1781, in quest of a more enlightened government, who 
could appreciate superior minds. He left behind him a 
great number of tenacious and ardent adepts, whose im- 
portunate conduct at last determined the government to 
submit the pretended magnetic discoveries to be exam- 
ined by four Doctors of the Faculty of Paris. These 
distinguished physicians solicited to have added to them 
some members of the Academy of Sciences. M. de 
Breteuil then recommended Messrs. Le Roy, Bory, La- 
voisier, Franklin, and Bailly, to form part of the mixed 
commission. Bailly was finally named reporter. 
* “Les sots sont ici-bas pour nos menus plaisirs.”’ 
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