carried anti-somnambulistic irons about in
his pockets--had declared himself decidedly against mesmerism as a
cure, and strictly forbidden the doctors under his orders to practise
it.

"My surprise was all the greater, therefore, to learn, after a time,
that this very doctor himself was employing mesmerism, though quite
secretly, in the lunatic asylum.

"When I had made his acquaintance, I tried to bring him on to the
subject of mesmerism. He avoided it: but at last, as I persisted in
talking of this wondrous science, and showed that I had a certain
amount of practical knowledge on the subject, he asked what was being
done at the Residenz in the direction of curative mesmerism. I told
him, without ceremony, the story of the lady who came back so suddenly
from the realms of celestial ecstasies to this sublunary world at the
idea of being slightly burned. 'That is just it! that is just it!' he
cried, whilst his eyes flashed lightnings; and he at once changed the
subject. At last, when I had gained more of his confidence, he spoke
out his mind concerning mesmerism, to the effect that he was convinced,
from personal experience, of the existence of this mysterious natural
power, and of its beneficial effects in particular cases, but
considered the calling into action of this power to be the most
dangerous experiment possible, which should only be permitted to
doctors, in the most absolute serenity of their minds, and above any
sort of passionate enthusiasm; that there was nothing in which there
was a greater possibility of self-deception, or in which self-deception
was easier; and that he considered no experiment satisfactory in which
the person operated on had previously heard much of the marvels of
mesmerism, and possessed sufficient intelligence and education to
understand what it was all about. He considered that the charm of
penetrating into a higher spirit-world was, for poetic temperaments, or
those naturally 'exalted,' too alluring not to give rise, taken in
connection with an eager desire to attain that condition, to illusory
feelings of every kind. Moreover, he said that the magnetizer's dream
of controlling the spiritual principle of another was a source of
deception, where he lends himself wholly to the fancies of exciteable
people, instead of throwing the most prosaic cold water over them, and
thus keeping them in check as by bit and bridle. At the same time he
would not deny that he made use of the curative p