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, indeedrthat 

 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 siecle s'honore, 

 Par qui sont replongds au se"jour infernal 

 Tous les fleaux vengeurs que ddchaina Pandore; 

 Dans son art bienfaisant il n'a pas de rival, 

 Et la Grece 1'eut pris pour le dieu d'Epidaure." 



