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184 T HE LEADER. [Sa^rj)^
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K E d O L L E C,TJ .0 NS., I leapt from ...
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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.
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Magnetic Evenings At Home. Iiettee Iii.—...
the attitude of prayer , and a look came over her face which no one , even among those who had known her longest , had ever seen ^ n it before . __ She was a remarkably pretty girl , —a thoroughly English beauty . Han-, eves , complexion , and outline of face were all eloquent of her native land . Her natural expression was anything but a sad or a serious one , —that was English , too , in its unaffected happiness and good-humour . " A rosebud set with little wilful thorns , And sweet as English air could make her , she . " But now the natural expression was all gone , and in its stead was
something so calm , so solemn , so spiritual in its rapt loveliness , —something so beautiful , yet not with the beauty of earth , that a great hush stole over us all , while we stood before her . It was as if the soul was , at that moment , looking out from the calm young face , clearer and nearer to our eyes than they had ever yet beheld it ; —a look that silenced us , —a look not to be forgotten . Never have I seen before , oh any other human face , the indescribable divinity of earthly beauty which Raphael has given to his Madonnas , —I saw it then on hers .
She was asked whether she felt quite happy , and free from all pain , and faintly answered , " Yes ! quite happy ! " " Did she wish to be awakened ?" " No . " She then remained for about ten minutes , still in the same reclining position , still with the same expression , and with the hands uplifted in the gesture of prayer . No further experiments could be tried with her , for , shortly after this , her mother desired that she might be awakened . The process was easily accomplished , she opened her eyes , and resumed her old expression again , with the same suddenness , and the same absence of any appearance of an intermediate condition between sleeping and waking , which I mentioned in my last letter , as characteristic of T- , under similar circumstances .
As soon as she was awake , I asked whether she had any recollections of her condition while in the magnetic sleep . She answered just as V answered on a former occasion : " No recollections whatever . " She had no idea , for instance , that her breathing had been painfully impeded , until we told her so . The next two experiments that were tried on two of the other young ladies present , proved unsuccessful . In one case , the Count expressed his own conviction , beforehand , that the temperament was peculiarly unsusceptiblelto magnetic influence . In the other , the young lady herself declared that she was once or twice on the point of losing all consciousness ,
when a whisper , or an accidental noise in the room , disturbed and startled her . The third attempt , after the two first had been abandoned , was made on one of the gentlemen present , who had never befpre been magnetized . The result proved to be of a very unexpected and a very startling nature : it was not repose which was produced in this instance , but agitation—agitation so violent as to excite the liveliest apprehensions in every one present . At the time when the new patient submitted himself to the magnetizer , the scene was one of the most picturesque I ever remember to have witnessed . It was now evening—a still , cold , clear winter evening . Dim shadows were gathering over the room j contrasted on one side by the ruddy
firelight , on the other by the last rays of the setting sun , floating through the window . The positions of the spectators , as they anxiously watched the progress of the new experiment ; the strange , wild contrasts of light and shade falling on every figure j the beauty and variety of the attitudes into which the children and the young girls accidentally fell , as they sat , reclined , or stood together ; the natural harmony and grace in the formation of the different groups , made the room a perfect school for painters , a treasury of beautiful compositions , waiting to enrich with new material the
resources of Art . Beyond the spectators , appeared the figures of the magnetizer and the patient , placed apart , just before the window , darkly and grandly relieved in their still positions by the mysterious evening light j while , without , the background to the whole scene was formed by the twining , weird shapes of leafless trees ; the wave of the deep blue hills beyond ; and the blood-red sun above , just glowing ifcs last under a canopy of towering purple clouds . Rembrandt alone could have painted such a picture as the drawing-room at the parsonage-house presented at this
moment . We were all very silent just now , The children were getting weary , and consequently quiet ; and considerable expectation was excited among their elders by the chance now afforded them of seeing how the magnetic influence acted upon a man . The first interruption to the stillness prevailing among us was of a very merry nature—the patient began to laugh . This was attributed , naturally enough , to his sense of the curious position in which he was placed , and to the apparently odd gestures of the magnetizer . His laughter was infectious ; everybody joined it , until it gradually became so loud , harsh , and incessant , as to awaken a general
suspicion that " something must be wrong . ' The next nioment it grew frightfully shrill and vehement ; and the next , rose to piercing hysterical screams . This was an example of the power of the magnetic influence which nobody had anticip ated , and which caused considerable terror among the young ladies , who had been all laughing heartily but a minute before . The Count ordered the window to bo oponcd immediately ; and , making the passes necessary to relieve the patient , ordered him , in a firm voice , to be quiet . The effect was nearly instantaneous ; his screams sank to a few low , inarticulate sounds ; and he soon became perfectly tranquil . His face , during the attack , was flushed to a deep red , almost turning towards purple : it seemed more than probable that in another minute or bo , the hysterics
would have ended in convulsions , but for the presence of mind and expe rience which enabled the magnetizer at once to hit on the ri ght process for restoring the agitated nervous system to its proper tone . The Count ' s explanation of the . scene which had just taken place was that it had been produced by a too exclusive direction of the magnetic in ' fluence to the region of the head-r-an error into which he had fallen fron [ ignorance of the peculiarities of temperament in the person whoin he was account of the sensations
magnetizing . The patientVown he had expe . rienced during the attack , fully bore out this theory . He described his condition as that of a maa feeling a painful sensation of heat in the head— . a red-hot air pouring , as it were , into his brain fronx : ; the Count ' s hands . Throughout the r est of the evening he suffered from a sense of oppression in his head , and occasionally felt a disposition to burst into tears , whic h it was not very easy to control . ,
No attempt was made to continue this experiment , and to produce ( by magnetizing the patient , away from his head ) the sleep Which had just been interrupted by the hysterical attack . It was growing , late in the evening , and we were obliged to separate . Compared with the cases which I have mentioned in former letters , the two cases here described contain , I am well aware , little that is remarkable in themselves , But they are , I think , of some importance in their bearing on the general subject ; for they tend to prove , by the fairest possible test , the actual existence of such a phenomenon as the magnetic influence . Here were two persons selected for experiment , who had never before been magnetized . One of these persons in three minutes , and in the midst of incessant interruption and confu * sion—is thrown into a sleep which entirely alters the natural expression
of her face , and from which no noise whatever can possibly awaken her The other ( a man , be it remembered ) is affected with a fit of hysterics—a species of attack from which he had never suffered on any previous occasion . These , assuredly , are real tangible effects—effects produced by one person standing opposite to another , steadily regarding him , steadily making certain gestures with the hand , and steadily exercising the whole time a strong effort of will . If there be no such thing as the magnetic influence , what produced the phenomena which I have just been describing ? In my next letter , I shairreturn to V , and shall have to relate some new experiments that were tried upon her—experiments in clairvoyance . W . W . C . ( To be continued . ) ¦ '
184 T He Leader. [Sa^Rj)^
184 T HE LEADER . [ Sa ^ rj )^
K E D O L L E C,Tj .0 Ns., I Leapt From ...
K E d O L L E C , TJ . 0 NS ., I leapt from my couch , and went forth with th * day 5 I challenged the brooks , and raced fleetly as they } I praised the round sun when I saw him , unfold j , f His banner , embroidered with purple ana gold ; I waded for king-cups in grass to my knees , And with garlanded forehead I climbed the tall trees , And I rock ' d when they rock ' d , shouting loud to the breeze
I wandered with one whom I loved through a wood , With her golden hair loosed o ' er her little red hood : Oh ! her face , like a rose , was so full and so glad , And her eyes were the sweetest that face ever had : Her fingers were playing like flashes of light , And I caught them , and kiss'd them ; but fingers so white , Blushing red on the lips , must bewilder the sight .
I read by the marge of a river that flowed Through the wood to the mill on the side of the road ; And I knew that grave men and fair women must pass , But the boy lay concealed by the trees and the grass ; And still as I read I could hear them go by—I was glad that we all were beneath the same sky , That they could not behold me and yet were so nigh .
I Wandered one morning when Summer was young- ^ I sang like a bird to the birds as they sung . The large lilac flowers waved princely and proud , And the larks were all choiring above the grey cloud ; Delicious and wild was the blossomy smell , And I fancied that angels were singing , as well As the birds in the clouds , to the birds in the dell . I stood on the rocks , with the stars overhead ; There are stars , there are suns underneath me , I said ;
And I thought in a moment the earth rolled away , But the sky still was there , and the stars held their sway . AH the black-blue abysses were swarming with light , And beneath , as above me , pavilioned in night The firmament domed , and I wept at the sight . . O beauty and gladness , like sorrow and dread , Teach the children of wisdom , wherever they tread ; And I know that the soul that eternally weaves The garments of worlds , never fails or deceives . In grief , as in joy , we may blesa and be bleat , We may work and may sing , with the love in our breast That makes men like the nngels when angels are host . fill *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 21, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21021852/page/20/
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