bly towards the end of her childhood,
notwithstanding that according to Jean d'Aulon, childhood was a state
out of which she never completely developed.[77]

[Footnote 77: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 19.]

Although it is always hazardous to found a medical diagnosis on
documents purely historical, several men of science have attempted to
define the pathological conditions which rendered the young girl
subject to false perceptions of sight and hearing.[78] Owing to the
rapid strides made by psychiatry during recent years, I have consulted
an eminent man of science, who is thoroughly conversant with the
present stage attained by this branch of pathology, to which he has
himself rendered important service. I asked Doctor Georges Dumas,
Professor at the Sorbonne, whether sufficient material exists for
science to make a retrospective diagnosis of Jeanne's case. He replied
to my inquiry in a letter which appears as the first Appendix to this
work.[79]

[Footnote 78: Briere de Boismont, _De l'hallucination historique, ou
etude medico-psychique sur les voix et les revelations de Jeanne
d'Arc_, 1861, in 8vo. Le Vicomte de Mouchy, _Jeanne d'Arc, etude
historique et psychologique_, Montpellier, 1868, in 8vo, 67 pp.]

[Footnote 79: Vol. ii, Appendix i.]

With such a subject I am not qualified to deal. But it does lie within
my province to make an observation concerning the hallucinations of
Jeanne d'Arc, which has been suggested to me by a study of the
documents. This observation is of infinite significance. I shall be
careful to restrict it to the limits prescribed by the object and the
nature of this work.

Those visionaries, who believe they are entrusted with a divine
mission, are distinguished by certain characteristics from other
inspired persons. When mystics of this class are studied and compared
with one another, resemblances are found to exist which may extend to
very slight details: certain of their words and acts are identical.
Indeed as we come to recognise how vigorous is the determinism
controlling the actions of these visionaries, we are astonished to
find the human machine, when impelled by the same mysterious agent,
performing its functions with inevitable uniformity. To this group of
the religious Jeanne belongs. In this connection it is interesting to
compare her with Saint Catherine of Sienna,[80] Saint Colette of
Corbie,[81] Yves Nicolazic, the peasant of Kernanna,[82] Suzette
Labrousse, the inspired woman o