be doomed to
the execration of all time, and to the punishment of the avenging
contempt of posterity."

It is rare for violent words not to be followed by violent acts. Here
every thing proceeded according to the natural course of human events.
We know, indeed, that some furious admirers of Mesmer attempted to
suffocate Berthollet in the corner of one of the rooms of the Palais
Royal, for having honestly said that the scenes he had witnessed did not
appear to him demonstrative. We have this anecdote from Berthollet
himself.

The pretensions of the German doctor increased with the number of his
adherents. To induce him to permit only three learned men to attend his
meetings, M. de Maurepas offered him, in the name of the king, 20,000
francs a year for life, and 10,000 annually for house-rent. Yet Mesmer
did not accept this offer, but demanded, as a national recompense, one
of the most beautiful chateaux in the environs of Paris, together with
all its territorial dependencies.

Irritated at finding his claims repulsed, Mesmer quitted France,
angrily vowing her to the deluge of maladies from which it would have
been in his power to save her. In a letter written to Marie Antoinette,
the Thaumaturgus declared that he had refused the government offers
through austerity.

Through austerity!!! Are we then to believe that, as it was then
pretended, Mesmer was entirely ignorant of the French language; that in
this respect his meditations had been exclusively centered on the
celebrated verse--

"Fools are here below for our amusement?"[8]

However this may be, the austerity of Mesmer did not prevent his being
most violently angry when he learnt at Spa that Deslon continued the
magnetical treatments at Paris. He returned in all haste. His partisans
received him with enthusiasm, and set on foot a subscription of 100
louis per head, which produced immediately near 400,000 francs,
(16,000_l._) We now feel some surprise to see, among the names of the
subscribers, those of Messrs. de Lafayette, de Segur, d'Epremesnil.

Mesmer quitted France a second time about the end of 1781, in quest of a
more enlightened government, who could appreciate superior minds. He
left behind him a great number of tenacious and ardent adepts, whose
importunate conduct at last determined the government to submit the
pretended magnetic discoveries to be examined by four Doctors of the
Faculty of Paris. These distinguished physicians solicited to