132 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 Segur, d'Epremesnil. 



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." 



