troisjours. Alors il lui promet, que par la vertu de son souffle, il enflamera d'amour toutes les filles et femmes qu'il voudra posséder; mais, qu'il faut que le souffle parvienne jusqu'à l'odorat des personnes à qui il voudra inspirer une forte passion." He exercises this power over one Madeline, the daughter of a gentleman; and so influences the mother by his "souffle" that she becomes his accomplice. In the end, Gaufridy is condemned as a sorcerer—confesses, and is burnt; and Madeline, bitterly repentant, ends her days in a convent. It is curious that, in his confession, he says that he could, on opening his window, be transported to the "Sabbat"—the witches' meeting. Whoever has seen mesmerism must have seen something very like this "souffle" in appearance. I would not in the least insinuate as to its effects, but every one has seen enough to be convinced that the mesmeriser ought, in all cases, to be a strictly moral, conscientious person.
Philosophers have supposed that the passion of love arises from a kind of "souffle,"—an emanation of the one person sensibly received through the "odorat" of another. Indeed, the phenomena of love are extraordinary enough: do we unconsciously mesmerise each other? I knew a man who, on a visit to a friend, accidentally went with him to a house in the neighbourhood, where was a lady, neither very young nor handsome, nor did she enter into conversation with him; but he looked at her, and she at him. The friends did not remain half an hour in the house. On leaving it, the visitor said to his host—"That woman will be my wife;" and so it was. Was this in the breathing, or in the eye?—was it mesmeric?—does the serpent's eye fascinate? Dante has it that Charon, by the power of his fiery eye, beckons and collects the wicked
" Caron dimonio, con occhi di bragia
Loro accenando, tutte le raccoglie?
Medusa's head, reported to turn the gazer into stone—did it merely fix the limbs and whole person in catalepsy? The Rosicrucians seem to have anticipated the whole powers of the science, and preserved the secret. Sir Kenelm Digby was no fool, but a wise man, and discreet. What were his sympathetic powders to cure wounds at a distance? And, if the story of him be true, he seems not to have been without the fascinating power. It is said an Italian prince, having no children, ardently desired that his princess should present him with one whereof so wise a man should be the father.
What was Cagliostro's art? Talleyrand's interview with him, told in his Mémoires, is at least interesting and curious; for the female figure in black mantle, who tells him strange things, which turn out to be true, has all the air of a clairvoyante. Then we are told how Talleyrand puts his hand to the forehead of a countess or marchioness, and is not able to withdraw it; and ultimately, in endeavouring to do so, tears away the flesh from the forehead—by which he loses her friendship for ever. It is true we must suspect the great man, who is evidently given to get up good stories. Yet the interview may have taken place; and there is the clairvoyante.
The wonderful things said to have been done among us by Alexis, a few years ago, every one must remember; many who may read this may have witnessed his powers. There is a story told of him, how he came to leave England so suddenly: I know not if it be true. It is said that he and a clairvoyante either met, or mesmerically, at a distance, so affected each other, that a mutual passion was the result; but that it would not do, and he was accordingly withdrawn to Paris. No incantations of the deserted clairvoyante were able to bring him back. If she possessed in her fit the same insight into language and literature as into circumstances and futurity, she might have quoted the line—
" O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas."
It was then Adolphe came to England. Is he not brother to Alexis?
The friend of Adolphe, or partner, who lectured on mesmerism, as I thought, in so objectionable a manner, asserted that persons had received great advantages in recovering property by means of Adolphe's clairvoyance; but would it not be better that cases should be well attested? One real undoubted fact of this kind
