Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/243

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Lady Hester Stanhope.
229

examining the Turkish dress, shudders all over: that is a proof that her star is not good for her, and yet Miss L. uses more kind expressions to her than anybody; but that makes no difference; there is no sympathy in their stars.

"Animal magnetism is nothing but the sympathy of our stars. Those fools who go about magnetizing indifferently one person and another, why do they sometimes succeed, and sometimes fail?—because, if they meet with those of the same star with themselves, their results will be satisfactory, but with opposite stars they can do nothing. Some people you may magnetize, some you cannot; and so far will the want of sympathy act in some, that there are persons whom it would be impossible to put in certain attitudes: they might be mechanically placed there, but their posture never would be natural; whilst others, from their particular star, would readily fall into them. Oh! if I had your friend, Mr Green,[1] here, I could give him some useful hints on choosing models for his lectures.

"There are animals, too, under the same star with human beings. I had a mule whose star was the same as mine; and, at the time of my severe illness, this mule showed as much sensibility about me, and more, than some of the beasts who wait on me. When that

  1. Mr. Joseph Green, lecturer on anatomy at the Royal Academy.