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Mabch 13, 1852.] THE LEADER. 257
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PEACE THE ACCOMPLICE. An esteemed corres...
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FREDERIC'S DON CESAR. A mobe unfortunate...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Magnetic Evenings At Home.—(Concluded.) ...
mallest injury accruing to the health of , persons so treated , on their being restored to the waking state * He practically illustrated the assertion , while we were discussing the subject during a morning visit at his house . y _^____ was magnetized , and placed , sitting on the edge of her chair , with her body inclined sideways thoroughly out of the perpendicular , and one of her arms extended and raised towards her head . The magnetizer then made one " pass ** over her j and she remained in this position , as perfectly still as if she had been turned to marble ( her outstretched arm not moving by a hair ' s breadth ) , for full ten minutes ; or , in other words , until the sp ectators were tired of watching any longer . Should any readers
consider that our want of patience to sit out the half-hour , during which the Count had himself suggested that we should wait , vitiated the completeness of this experiment , I recommend those ladies or gentlemen to put themselves in V- * s position , as above described , and to try to sit quite still in it for three minutes together by a watch ; allowing a friend , at the same time , to keep an eye on the arm they will have to extend , for the purpose of noting whether it moves or not during that interval . I have myself occasionally officiated as amateur model to artist-friends , and know therefore , by experience , what the difficulty is of keeping a limb extended , or the body inclined , without sup p ort , in anything like a still position , even for so * short a time as three minutes .
V -was awakened immediately after this experiment . I asked her whether she felt any sensation of stiffness in the arm which she had held out . The reply was , " None whatever ; " and she proved its truth by immediately taking up and resuming her " crochet ** work , which our visit had interrupted . Some idea may be formed of the extent to which this petrifying power of the magnetic influence can be carried , by the fact ( communicated by letter a few days ago ) that Count P— suddenly stopped V—— ,. and struck her perfectly motionless , by a strong act of will , merely expressed by a single " pass , while she was dancing the polka / Incredible as this must appear to most people , it is nevertheless true ^ Besides the young lady ' s partner in the dance , other persons were present who saw the thing done .
I have now communicated to you the nature and result of all the experiments in Animal Magnetism which my stay in Somersetshire gave me an opportunity of witnessing—of all , at least , which I find preserved in my notes . In some few cases , I unhappily omitted to make my usual record on the spot ; and to those cases , accordingly , I shall not direct your attention . I anl unwilling to trust only to my recollection , however vivid I may consider it to be , in writing such a narrative as the present— -a narrative which I should consider to be quite valueless , unless I knew it to be throughout literally true .
In closing this short series of letters , I can merely repeat what I wrote in commencing them . Having been allowed by Count P to make public , in any form I chose , the experiments which he was kind enough to show me , I availed myself of that permission , ^ because I considered that I had enjoyed , at his house , an unusually favourable opportunity for fairly estimating , by the fairest practical demonstration , the real merits of Animal Magnetism . The proceedings which I thus resolved to report , were
proceedings conducted by a gentleman who followed the science only for its own sake , and for whose character and position I had the best and amplest guarantee . It is on this account , quite as much as on account of the internal evidence to their genuineness which I believe the experiments here reported to contain , that I venture to think my narrative at least worthy of attention from persons who will do me the common justice to read it with mi nds xmprejudiced , either one way or the other .
As to the future of Animal Magnetism , it seems to me to be already assured . The science has , of late years , gained a vast hold on the convictions of men of intellect and men of honour in all quarters . As such persons continue to study it , year by year , more closely , and to extract from it more clearly the practical uses to which it may assuredly be directed for the benefit of humanity , so will the circle of believers , whose belief is worth gaining , inevitably widen and widen ; and so will the masses , who follow , but never lead , be drawn into that circle after them . Leave the
to work its way honestly and boldly by ita own merits , its visible , actual results ; and it will certainly continue to advance , as it has already advanced . Angry partisanship will not avail it anything ; public exhibitions of it , displayed to gaping crowds at so much a head , will lend it no assistance that is of real value . Let it be studied by each man who desires know it , quietly and reverently , as a mystery too perilously important to be trifled with for mere amusement . Let the results of such studies as these , communicated by competent writers , and attested by competent m ne 88 cs » he t he only sources whence persons who doubt the science ( and
'* "l * UL It Tfl . ll * IV 1 ( QfkOU" 4 * I Whit * < vi / wt « wi r * fn + t % » wi 4 Vfci « i-ftt nfi r \ - \ - \ r \\ + Ati / iAliiul (* nm {\ Tf \ 4 uoubt it fairly ) seek their primary information or encouragement , nus practised , and thus examined , Animal Magnetism need ask no more j or then will have been conceded to it the only privilege that it evei required—tho privilege of being justly judged . W . W . C :
Mabch 13, 1852.] The Leader. 257
Mabch 13 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 257
Peace The Accomplice. An Esteemed Corres...
PEACE THE ACCOMPLICE . An esteemed correspondent has called to account one of our contributor * or hatred of that which ho accounts a false pcaco : we print our cores pondent ' letter , with the graceful verses that ho encloses , and our contb r \ TJ 1 nGXt Weclt axmwcv as 1 ) 0 hcBt can- Meanwhile , let him have e shield of u Muse not less eloquent ; wo extract the subjoined lines from
Elizabeth Barrett Browning ' s Casa Guidi Windows—a noble appeal from the false to the true Peace . ¦ . - . "A cry is up in England , which doth ring The hollow world through , that for ends of trade And virtue , and God ' s better worshipping , We" henceforth should exalt the name of Peace , And leave those rusty wars that eat , the soti ] , — ( Besides their clippings at our golden fleece . ) I , too , have loved peace , and from bole to bole Of immemorial , undeciduous trees , Would write , as lovers use , upon a scroll The holy name of Peace , and set it high Where none should pluck it down . On trees , I say , — Not upon gibbets!—With the greenery Of dewy branches and the flowery May ,. Sweet mediation ' twixt the earth and sky , Providing , for the shepherd ' s holiday ! Not upon gibbets !—though the vulture leaves Some quiet to the bones he first picked bare . Not upon dungeons ! though the wretch who grieves And groans within , stirs not the outer air As much as little field-mice stir the sheaves . Not upon chain-bolts ! though the slave ' s despair Has dulled his helpless , miserable brain , And left him blank beneath the freeman ' s whip , To sing and laugh out idiocies of pain . Nor yet on starving homes ! where many a lip Has sobbed itself asleep through curses vain ! I love no peace which is not fellowship , And which includes not mercy . I would have Rather , the raking of the guns across The world , and shrieks against Heaven ' s architrave . Rather , the Struggle in the slippery fosse , Of dying men and horses , and the wave Blood-bubbling . .... Enough said I—By Christ ' s own cross , And by the faint heart of my womanhood , Such things are better than a Peace which sita Beside the hearth in self-commended mood , And takes no thought how wind and rain by fits Are howling out of doors against the good Of the poor wanderer . What 1 your peace admits Of outside anguish while it sits at home ? I loathe to take its name upon my tongue—It is no peace . ' Tis treason , stiff with doom ,- — - 'T « gagged despair , and inarticulate wrong , Annihilated Poland , stifled Rome , Dazed Naples , Hungary faulting ' fleaththe thong , And Austria wearing a smooth olive-leaf On her brute forehead , while her hoofs outpress The life from these Italian souls , in brief . O Lord of Peace , who art Lord of Righteousness , Constrain the anguished worlds from sin and grief , Pierce them with conscience , purge them with redress , And give us peace which is no counterfeit \"
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Frederic's Don Cesar. A Mobe Unfortunate...
FREDERIC'S DON CESAR . A mobe unfortunate piece , aa regards attractiveness , Mr . Mitchell could not have chosen for Fre"deric Lemaitre's re-appearance . Every theatre in London and the provinces haa had its Don Cesar de Bazan , until people are wearied of the name on the bills . Nevertheless , for those who went to see Frdde ' ric there was a treat in store . . Perfectly unapproachable is that picturesque , original , fantastic buffoonery—so graceful , and yet so absurd ! The grand d'JEspagne has squandered his fortune , has soiled hia reputation in the company of sots and blackguards ; but he lias preserved , his honour , and with it something of the dignity and grace which he inherited with hi 3 name—the dignity to be resumed whenever the occasion needs it ; the- grace abiding ! The fiory pleasure of wine—the excitement of the dice-box—the fascination of facilo amours— -the demoralization of debts lmvo modo him a blackguard ; but Naturo gave him the birthright of a gentleman , and through all his ragged dissoluteness shines the original splendour of his nature : his pourpoint may bo old , stained with wine , and torn in a hundred quarrels , but you see it is a pourpoint , and you know what it must have boon . Vividly and artistically does Frederic paint that picture Ho has the freodom of a master-hand , conscious of the truth which will appear in its most vagabond caprices 1 The first throe acts are unrivalled . In the two last , there is groat fault to be found with him ; and I wish to insist more strongly upon his defects , bocause they are essontially stagey errors , and , with the sanction of his immense reputation , are lilcoly to bo dangerous . If tfioro is one thing which separates the Artist from the Actor , it is the subordination of details to a whole—the refusal to make " points" when those " points" are not details of character . All actors sin in this way . Applause is the only tost they have ; and if they can raise a laugh ,. the laugh is hold as valid warrant for tho means which produced it . If you object to an aotor for some mi sp laced action , look , or intonation , ho will infallibly reply , " But , you soo , it told : " i . e . laughter saluted it . But wo have only to cxtond tho liconco a little , and its absurdity becomes apparent , —wo have only , for example , to ask what tho effect would be i € a Mamlet , eager for points , wore to " gjo in for comio business" in his playful scenes : lot us suppose him digging his olbow in JPolonhis's riba , would tho certain laughter justify tho " point" P Actors forgot that an audienoo may laugh—and despise . Tho sudden transition may startle risibility , but it will not carry approbation .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 13, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13031852/page/21/
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