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Mesmerism: Its History, Phenomena, and Practice; With Reports of Cases Developed in Scotland
Excerpt from Mesmerism
All the circumstances which are unfavourable to Mesmerism end in one fatal word, Â contempt. Every thing tends to raise a laugh at its expense; and against a laugh who shall have the courage to contend? This is the last possible degradation. Men love the mysterious and the proscribed, but they shrink from the ridiculous. They can bear to be thought wicked, but not to be deemed fools; they will endure to be hated, but not to be despised. Now, Mesmerism has become not merely a persecuted, but a ridiculous faith. There is no pomp of circum stance about it to uphold the proselyte who is called upon to defend it to the death. The glory of martyr dom for its sake, is done away. There is no dig nity in suffering in such a cause.
All the circumstances which are unfavourable to Mesmerism end in one fatal word, Â contempt. Every thing tends to raise a laugh at its expense; and against a laugh who shall have the courage to contend? This is the last possible degradation. Men love the mysterious and the proscribed, but they shrink from the ridiculous. They can bear to be thought wicked, but not to be deemed fools; they will endure to be hated, but not to be despised. Now, Mesmerism has become not merely a persecuted, but a ridiculous faith. There is no pomp of circum stance about it to uphold the proselyte who is called upon to defend it to the death. The glory of martyr dom for its sake, is done away. There is no dig nity in suffering in such a cause.
260 pages, Paperback
Published August 24, 2018
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