the blind fancied
they saw the light which they did not see--the deaf imagined that they
heard--the lame that they walked straight, and the paralytic that they had
recovered the use of their limbs. An idea of health made the sick forget
for a while their maladies; and imagination, which was not less
active in those merely drawn by curiosity than in the sick, gave a false
view to the one class, from the desire of seeing, as it operated a false
cure on the other from the strong desire of being healed. Such was the
power of the Irishman over the mind, and such was the influence of the
mind upon the body. Nothing was spoken of in London but his prodigies; and
these prodigies were supported by such great authorities, that the
bewildered multitude believed them almost without examination, while more
enlightened people did not dare to reject them from their own knowledge.
The public opinion, timid and enslaved, respected this imperious and,
apparently, well-authenticated error. Those who saw through the delusion
kept their opinion to themselves, knowing how useless it was to declare
their disbelief to a people filled with prejudice and admiration."

About the same time that Valentine Greatraks was thus _magnetising_ the
people of London, an Italian enthusiast, named Francisco Bagnone, was
performing the same tricks in Italy, and with as great success. He had
only to touch weak women with his hands, or sometimes (for the sake of
working more effectively upon their fanaticism) with a relic, to make them
fall into fits, and manifest all the symptoms of magnetism.

Besides these, several learned men, in different parts of Europe, directed
their attention to the study of the magnet, believing that it might be
rendered efficacious in many diseases. Van Helmont, in particular,
published a work on the effects of magnetism on the human frame; and
Balthazar Gracian, a Spaniard, rendered himself famous for the boldness of
his views on the subject. "The magnet," said the latter, "attracts iron;
iron is found every where; every thing, therefore, is under the influence
of magnetism. It is only a modification of the general principle, which
establishes harmony or foments divisions among men. It is the same agent
that gives rise to sympathy, antipathy, and the passions."[68]

[68] _Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism_, by Baron
Dupotet de Sennevoy, p. 315.

Baptista Porta, who, in the whimsical genealogy of the weapo