The influence of mesmerism in nineteenth century American literature

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NAME AND ADDRESS

DATE

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

THE INFLUENCE OF MESMERISM IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for thee degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

By WILLIAM D. BAKER, JR.

EVANSTON, ILLINOIS JUNE, 1950

ProQuest Number: 10060863

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PREFACE The subject of the vogue of mesmerism in America has been treated only in a very desultory manner by historians (Merle Curti, The Growth of American Thought; Alice Tyler, Freedom^ Ferment; E.D. Branch, The Sentimental Years; Woodbridge Riley,, American Thought).

Mariam BlakesleeTs

“Mesmerism and Spiritualism in Hawthorne, 1835-1858“ (MasterTs thesis, University of Chicago, 1920) omits a great deal of important material, and Sidney E. Lindfs “Poe and Mesmerism*1 (Publications of the Modern Language Association, LXII [December, 1947]), is inadequate in its treatment of Poe!s sources and their relation to his major works*

The use of

mesmerism in popular literature and in other major writers has never been recorded* Since the nature of this dissertation is in large part exploratory, it seems proper to include a prefatory note on the method of investigation.

The chief problem, of course,

was to discover the extent of the mesmeric vogue in America. Major sources of investigation were as follows: Unpublished Library catalogues:

Deering Library,

Northwestern University; Garrett Biblical Institute Library; Archibald Church Medical School Library; Newberry Library; John Crerar Library; Chicago Public Library; Harper Library, University of Chicago; Buffalo Public Library; Grosvenor Library, Buffalo, New York; Denver Public Library; Evanston i.

Public Library; Yale University Library; Williams College Library; Michigan State College Library; and University of Illinois Library. Published Library catalogues: Peabody Institute Cata­ logue; British Museum Catalogue of Books; G.K. Fortescue, Subject Index of Modern Works Added to the Library of the British Museum in the Years 1881-1900; Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General1s Office (this was by far the best source); Harvard University Catalogue (1836); Index to the Library of the University of California (1898-1900); Catalogue of the Barton Collection, Boston Public Library (1888);- Catalogue General de la Bibliothec Nationale; Cata­ logue of the Illinois State Library; Catalogue of the Ohio State Library; Catalogue of the Library of the Minnesota Historical Society; and Catalogue of the Astor Library. Registeries of publications and subject indexes: R.A. Peddie, Subject Index of Books Published before 1880; London Catalogue, (1800-1855); English Catalogue, (1801-1948); Orville A. Roorbach, Bibliotheca Americana, TrubnerTs Bibliographical Guide to American Literature; James Kelly, The American Catalogue of Books; and Joseph Sabin, Bibliotheca Americana. Periodical and Newspaper indexes and guides: PooleTs Index to Periodical Literature; Essay and General Literature Index; New York University Card File Index; index to Niles ii.

National Register (1835-1849); Winifred Gregory, Union List of Serials; Winifred Gregory, American Newspapers; Frank L. Mott, History of American Magazines; and Frank L. Mott, American Journalism; Lyle T^right, American Fiction, 1774-1850 (revised edition) was consulted for fictional work on mesmer­ ism.

Oscar Wegelin, Early American Poetry and Early American

Plays were also consulted. The two principal hooks on mesmerism published in America were the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshendfs Facts In Mesmerism (1841) and Joseph Deleuze’s Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism (1837).

In the appendexes to these and

in the pages of the American periodicals devoted to mesmerism, the Magnet, the Mesmeric Magazine, the Saint Louis Magnet, the New York Dissector, and the Albany Journal of Neurology, appear many signed articles.

I checked these names in the

Library of Congress Printed Catalogue and in Roorbachfs Bibliotheca Americana to see if there were books on mesmerism by these people.

For the most part, however, I had little

success with this procedure* An explanation of the method used in compiling the bibliography precedes that section of this dissertation. I should like to acknowledge my Indebtedness to Professor Leon Howard, who first led me to see the potential­ ities of the subject and whose constant encouragement and criticism enabled me to complete the project.

Hi.

I am also

indebted to Courtney B. Lawson for his friendly advice and counsel from the beginning,

My wife, to whom this disser­

tation is dedicated, has helped me immeasurably.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter

Page

I. THE MESMERIC VOGUE IN A M E R I C A ..................1 II. III.

MESMERISM IN THE MAGAZINES AND MINOR WRITERS

. 42.

THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS AND OTHERS'.............73

IV. HAWTHORNE AND THE MAGNETIC MIRACLES.......... 110 V. THE MAGNETIC INSPIRATION OF P O E ..............146 VI. MESMERISM AFTER THE V O G U E ....................IS3 BIBLIOGRAPHY

* * .....

...................... 201

CHAPTER I THE MESMERIC VOGUE IN AMERICA Mesmerism, or animal magnetism (the terms are inter­ changeable), was a subject of marked interest and popularity In Europe In the last half of the eighteenth century*

The

man who gave his name to the subject was Frana Anton Mesmer (1733-1815),^ an Austrian doctor, and the early history of mesmerism must properly begin with the history of his rise to popularity* In 1776 he became Interested in the influence of the astronomical bodies on human beings, and in his doctoral dissertation, De Planitorum Influxu, he claimed that a subtle fluid, which he called animal magnetism, acted between plan­ ets and humans.

Later he observed a Jesuit priest, Father

Hell, who utilized this fluid by stroking magnets, which represented planetary bodies, on the sores of his patients. Mesmer adopted the magnet technique himself, until he learned of the success of another priest, Father Gasser, who affected cures merely by using his hands.

Under these Influences

*^One of the best accounts of Mesmerfs life is in Stefan Zweig’s Mental Healers.. ♦, tr. Eden and Cedar Paul (New York; Viking Press, 1§32JT Other good accounts are in Frank Podmore’s Mesmerism and Christian Science (Philadelphia; George W* Jacobs 8c do. 1§09),' and in Alf red Binet’s and Charles Fere’s Animal Magnetism, International Scientific Series, 4th edit ion (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co*, 1898). Except where otherwise noted, all the material on Mesmer came from these books. 1.

2.

Mesmer altered his original idea and formulated a new theory. He asserted that the mysterious force which permeated the universe could be used by a skillful agent to influence others and effect miraculous cures, and he went about seri­ ously trying to use this mysterious force in his practice. He found that by restricting his experiments to patients with nervous disorders, he could achieve a high degree of success• Mesmer was a well-educated, influential doctor, and he had friends in court circles.

His successes in animal

magnetism, however, did not please his colleagues, for they distrusted a man who discarded old and established theories for something as suspicious as the hocus-pocus of animal magnetism.

Nevertheless, Mesmer was convinced of the impor­

tance of his discovery, and he earnestly tried to influence his colleagues to try his methods.

When they refused and

scoffed at him, he left his practice and went to Paris. There, in 1778, he petitioned the attention of the recently founded Academy of Medicine.

It was refused.

In 1779 he

published a report pleading for aid to help unravel the mystery of his discovery.^

The Academy still refused, but

by this time he had won many of the French court to his cause.

Marie Antoinette promised him her patronage, and

other physicians, especially Dr. Charles Delson, and later Count Puysegur aided him.

Finally, in 1784, Louis XVI

^Franz Anton Mesmer, Memoir sur la Decouverte du Magnetisms Animal (Paris, 1779).

3.

asked that a commission be established to investigate animal magnetism. A commission of highly respected physicians and eminent men of science was appointed.

The American ambas­

sador to Prance, Benjamin Franklin, was one of the members. They reported as follows: [We] have come to the unanimous conclusion with respect to the existence and utility of magnetism, that there is nothing to prove the existence of the animal magnetic fluid; that this fluid, since it is non-existent, has no beneficial effect; that the violent effects observed in patients under public treatment are due to contact, to the excitement of the imagination, and to the mechanical imitation which involuntarily impels us to repeat that which strikes our senses. At the same time...the repeated excitement of the imagination...may become hurtful,...and must in the end be productive of evil results.^ The commission did not deny all of the cures, but ascribed them to the imagination, and dismissed the subject with that. The main effect of the report was that it exerted an influence for more than sixty years.

The opponents of the

theory used the opinion of the distinguished men of the com­ mission to condemn mesmerism as unworthy of attention.

On

the other hand, the confirmed advocates of the theory realized the weight that the report carried, and in conse­ quence, they directed their attention to pointing out the ^■Binet and Fere, op. cit., p. 17. Members of the Commission were: Bailley, the naturalist and the author of the Report; Benjamin Franklin; Antoine Lavoisier, the chemist; Guillotin, after whom the decapitation instrument was named; Bory; D ’Arcet; LeRoy; and Majault. Their report was entitled France. Rapport des Commlssalres Charges par le Roi de 1'Examen du Magnfet 1sme AnimaX ("Paris, 1784).

4. errors in the report.

The controversy over the report was

reflected in most of the hooks written on mesmerism until the middle of the nineteenth century. After 1784 Mesmer continued his practice in Paris, and his popularity, which was considerably increased by the report, became so great that the whole continent soon knew of the Austrian doctor.

And it is little wonder, for given

three conditions — the nature of his method, his alleged results, and the milieu in which he worked —

it is not

difficult to account for the degree of attention which he received. His method of curing, rather unusual and unorthodox for a doctor of Mesmerfs repute, requires a word of explana­ tion.

Because of the crowds that came to him for medical

care (and no doubt, for social attention too) and because he was angered by the report of the commission, he decided to sensationalize his practice.

The following description

indicates the extent of his sensationalisms His consulting apartments were dimly lighted and hung with mirrors; strains of soft music occasionally broke the profound silence; and the patients sat round a kind of vat in which various chemical ingredients were con­ cocted. Holding each other's hands, or joined by cords, the patients sat in expectancy, and then Mesmer, clothed in the dress of a magician, glided amongst them, affecting this one by a touch, another by a look, and making “passes” with his hand towards a third. Nervous ladies became hysterical or fainted; rand"1 some men became convulsed, or were seized with palpitations of the heart or other bodily disturbances.1

■1

“Mesmer,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition.

Ho doubt news of these dramatic sessions spread quickly to the excited-seeking Parisians of Louis XVI*s Court and caused Mesmer*s popularity to grow daily* The cures allegedly produced by animal magnetism increased his popularity too. the miraculous*

They were nothing short of

After treatments by Mesmer*s method, the

blind could see, the deaf could hear, and the lame could walk.

It is not surprising that the fame of the method

spread widely and quickly once these results were broadcast to a curious world. The milieu in which Mesmer worked was ideal*

The

following quotation from Prank Podmore*s Mesmerism and Christian Science explains the situation in Paris during Mesmer*s time and indicates one reason for his success: Paris has always been ready to see or hear some new thing. But the years preceding the French Revolution were years of peculiar intellectual ferment....the result Fcan be seen] in the scientific discoveries of Lavoisier and Laplace; in the new social, political, and philosophical conceptions of Rousseau, Diderot, and the Encyclopaedists...Ho belief was too preposterous to find a following among the idle rich. The Paris which a generation previously had half believed the monstrous fables of the Count St. Germain, which a few years later was to listen Indulgently to another f,Counttt— Cagliostro— was not likely to be unduly critical In its acceptance of one who not only gave them a new sensa­ tion, but promised substantial benefits therewith.1 Ho doubt too the social standing of those who participated in the experiments and confirmed the results, and the relatively large numbers treated by Mesmer and his _

—

—

--------------------------------

Podmore, op. cit., p. 5.

6 assistants contributed to the attention which the system received. The pressure exerted on Mesmer by the report of the commission eventually led, however, to his retirement from Paris; and mesmerism was unable to survive during the excite ment caused by the stirrings of the French Revolution.

The

whole system underwent a decline in France for several years It was not until 1825 that the practice revived sufficiently to command any but passing interest.

In that

year another commission was appointed to investigate mesmer­ ism, and after six years a skeptical but not unfavorable report was read before the Academy of Medicine.^ report In 1837 vigorously denounced the practice.

A later p

In spite

of this; the method continued, and in 1843, Dr. Braid, an Englishman, disturbed some staid medical circles by emphasiz Ing the element of suggestion in mesmerism.

A few years

later, however, mesmerism had reached the end of its popular Ity, and the fad begun by an Austrian doctor seventy-two years before was over and practically forgotten. 1 Report of the Commission Appointed by the French Royal Academy of Medicine, May 1B26, and communicated to the Academy through M. Husson June 51st and 28th, 1831 (Paris, 1831). This report was published in Edinburgh (1831) by J.C. Colquhoun, in Boston (1836) by Charles Poyen, and in Philadelphia (1837) anonymously. ^Amiens Dubois, ffReport on Animal Magnetism made to the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, August 8th and 22nd, 1837,” Medical and Surgical Monographs (Philadelphia, 1838), pp. 293-308. The title of the original French publication by C. Burdin and Dubois was Histoire Academlque du Magnetism Animal, Paris, 1§37.

7

From the beginning mesmerism appealed to lay people who were anxious to see the marvelous cures performed, whether they could understand the process or not.

Then too

the discoveries in the field of magnetic electricity helped increase the attention, for it was popularly supposed that the magnetic substance which Franklin had drawn from a cloud in his famous kite experiment was akin to the magnetic fluid which Mesmer talked a b o u t T h e nature of the process, with all its mumbo jumbo, was also appealing, and it was adopted and practiced by reputable doctors.

Very soon, in natural

consequence of inadequate medical legislation, less reputable performers and even charlatans were using it. Mesmeric o societies began to spring up; universities accepted disser­ tations on mesmerism and created chairs in the subject; hospitals were built where patients were treated by mesmeriso* prizes were offered for the best memoir on animal magnetism. In Prussia only regular physicians were allowed to practice it, and they were enjoined to give an account of their results, every three months; the same was true in Russia and Denmark*

It was claimed that two thousand publications were

Issued on the subject by 1845.^

^Wbodbridge Riley, American Thought (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1923), p. 114. 2

The account of the popularity of mesmerism in this paragraph is from Charles Foyen's Progress of Animal Magnetism In New England. (Boston; Weeks, Jordan & Co., 1837), pp. 21-62 . ^George Bush, Mesmer and Swedenborg. (New York: John Allen, 1847), p. 20.

8 .

In view of these statements, it is little wonder that the American people began to take an interest in the subject, and with their notorious faculty for exhibiting curiosity about new fads and inventions, it was quite evident that mesmerism would be the subject of a great deal of attention here. Orestes Brownson, writing in 1854, displayed a keen understanding of the nature of the American people when he indicated why he felt the mesmerists were able to make such a marked impression in this country. No people are more disposed to run after every novelty, or are naturally more fond of the marvellous than the Anglo-Americans. They live in a constant state of excitement, and are always craving some new stimulant. They have been transplanted from the old homestead, are without ancestors, traditions, old associations, or fixed habits transmitted from generation to generarion through a long series of ages. They have descended, in great part, from the sects that separated in the seventeenth century from the Anglican Church, which had In the sixteenth century itself separated from the Church of Rome, and to a great extent broken with antiquity. They are a new people,— in many respects a child— people, with the simplicity, fresh­ ness, impressibility, unsteadiness, curiosity, caprice, and waywardness of children. They must have their playthings, and they no sooner obtain a new toy than they tire of it, throw it away, and seek another. Yet are they richly endowed, and they possess in the highest degree many of the nobler virtues of our nature. They are a poetical and imaginative, as well as a reasoning and practical people. They have a robust and not unkindly nature,— are susceptible of deep emotions, and capable of heroic deeds. They treat few subjects with absolute indifference, and seldom fail to give anyone who has or professes to have, something to say, a tolerably fair and patient hearing. Whoever is able to touch their fancy, stir their feelings, excite their curiosity, or their marvellousness, is pretty sure of having them run after him— for a time.^* 3-The Works of Orestes Brownson, collected and arranged by Henry P. Brownson, 20 vols. (Detroit: Thorndike Hourse, 1884) IX, The Splrit-Rapper, 14-15.

9.

In America the first noticeable interest In mesmerism may be seen in Dr. Elisha Perkin^s theory of metallic t r a c t o r s f o r the theory seemed to stem directly from mesmerism.

Elisha Perkins was a reputable Connecticut

doctor, who was, no doubt, stirred by reports of the cures effected by magnetic fluids In Europe.

In 1792 he perceived

that momentary ease was afforded his patient whenever his metallic instrument accidentally touched an inflamed or pain­ ful tumor.

He then developed the theory that some metals

might be useful as external agents In medicine.

Galvani's

experiments with the effect of metals on nerves and mus­ cles, and Volta's treatise on animal electricity helped strengthen his theory.2

After experimenting, he found a

metallic composition that seemed particularly effective, and from this he made his metallic tractors.

To the modern

eye they look more like three-inch nails than medical Instruments^

At any rate he began using them with much

success, but when, like Me s mer, he wished to Inform the world and also induce his colleagues to adopt his method, he ^The most complete account of Dr. Elisha Perkins is in Walter R. Steiner's ''Dr. Elisha Perkins of Plainfield, Conn. and His Metallic Tractors," Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago, Illinois (January, 1923), pp. 79-95. * ^Howard Haggard, The Doctor in History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 193477 p* 30U1 Dr.' Haggard*s point is this: "Perkin's bimetallic rod suggested strongly a discovery that Luigi GalvanI of Bologna had made In 1786, when he observed that the legs of a dead frog twitched when brought in contact with two different metals. In 1792 the famous Alessandro Volta of Paris, inventor of the electric battery, had written on animal electricity."

^A replica of Perkin's metallic tractors is on display In the Archibald Church Medical Library, Chicago, Illinois.

was given a cool reception.

The Connecticut Medical

Society In 1795 heard his report and dismissed it with doubt and caution.

Therefore, Perkins, like Mesmer, left

his home surroundings and went to a more hospitable place. He journeyed to Philadelphia and was welcomed there by the public hospitals, the almshouses, the infirmaries and other institutions, all of which allowed him to exploit his dis­ covery in the name of public health.

The United States

Congress was meeting in Philadelphia at that time, so he had a distinguished audience for his work.

The report is

that he took them all by storm. Of course the parallel between the tractors and mesmerism was quite apparent to the Americans.

Mesmer*s

early practice of stroking magnets over the diseased parts of his patients Is almost Identical with Perkin’s method. That George Washington knew about mesmerism is a known fact, for in 1784 Lafayette sent him a letter In which he spoke of Mesmer as follows: A German doctor called Mesmer having made the greatest discovery upon MagnetismAnimal, he has instructed scholars, among whom your humble servant is called one of the most enthusiastic--I know as much as any con­ juror ever did,...and before I go, I will get leave to let you Into the secret of Mesmer, which you may depend upon, is a grand philosophical discovery. Just how seriously Washington took this letter is not recorded, but It has been noted that he made experiments upon his own

~^The Letters of Lafayette to Washington, 1777-1799, ed♦ Louis Gottschalk (New fork: Helen Fahnestock Hubbard, 1944), p. 283.

family with the tractors and, convinced of their advantages, purchased a set for his own use.

Chief Justice Oliver

Ellsworth was so impressed that he gave Perkins a letter of introduction to his successor, John Marshall*

One gentleman

alleged that a Virginia planter "sold a plantation and took pay for it in tractors,” and that "nothing was more common than to sell horses and carriages to huy [ the tractors] ."^ Considering the deplorable currency situation of the time and the alleged value of the tractors, these statements do not seem extravagant. The popular reaction to Perkin intense*

discovery was

Abraham Rees, writing in his Cyclopaedia in 1811,

said: [When Perkin1s tractors were introduced] pamphlets were published announcing the wonderful cures accom­ plished by this simple remedy; and the periodical journals and newspapers teemed with evidence of the curative powers of the tractors.; insomuch, that in the course of a few months7 they were the subject of general conversation, and scarcely less general use.^ Dr. Perkinsfs first pamphlet of testimonials, Certificates of the Efficacy of Dr* Perkins*s Patent Metallic Instruments, was published in October, 1796, and a second edition with additions appeared four months later.3 ^Steiner, op. cit., p. 82. o Abraham Rees, ed., The Cyclopaedia (Philadelphia: Samuel F. Bradford, and Murray, ‘^airman, ST"Co., i ca. 18111), XIX, under "Imagination.” 3Elisha Perkins, Certificates of the Efficacy of Dr. Perkins1s Patent Metallic Instruments (Rewburyport; Edmund Blunt, 1796).

Dr David Reese, writing in 1838, had this to say about the pamphlets of the time: [Elisha Perkins] himself published multiplied mirac­ ulous cures, and his disciples proclaimed the like results; and the enthusiasm created “by his vast pretentions to benevolence and skill, enlisted the countenance of many of the most enlightened men In furtherance of his supernatural professions. Pamphlet after pamphlet gave wings to his renown; and the scattered partisans of Mesmer, wherever found, seemed again to rally under this new form of the old humbug, and Animal Magnetism became the reigning hobby of the times. In various sections of the American Union, Perkins found credulous dupes and designing knaves to enter into his views;...even contagion and infection, those sturdy agents in pestilence, were said to be disarmed of their venom, by the graceful application of the tractors to different parts of the body, in cases of pestilential fever. What was proclaimed to be so effectual in private practice could hardly be looked on with Indifference by the distinguished and philan­ thropic men who presided over ouf public institutions. Accordingly, Perkinism found its way into some of the most important of our public*, charities; and the Mew York Hospital, among others, afforded suitable subjects for the establishment of new truths by experimental Investigation, according to the true system of Baconian philosophy. In 1795 Benjamin Perkins, the son of the doctor, went to England to exploit the tractors, and he was immediately successful.

He claimed in his book on the tractors,^ written

three years later, that a vast number of cures had been ef­ fected.

His enthusiasm was so great that he was made the

butt of sarcasm in America.

Dr. Reese said of him:

!David Reese, Humbugs of Mew York. 2nd edition. (Mew York; John S. Taylor; £oston: Weeks,_ Jordan & Co., 1838), pp. 29-30. ^Benjamin Perkins, The Influence of Metallic Tractors on the Human Body (L o n d o n 1 7 M ). Another book was published In" 1799 by Benjamin Perkins, Experiments with the Metallic Tractors (London: Luke Hanford for J. Johnson, 1799).

Some evidence, however, corroborative of the saving Influence of Perkins’s point a, in protecting the American Constitution from the shafts of death, must have been detailed in the volume of cases, edited by Benjamin P e r k i n s . f o r it Is there set forth that no less than one million five hundred thousand patients submitted to the frictionizing agency.I That the tractors were In vogue, in spite of Dr. Reese’s sarcastic comment, cannot, however, be denied.

Even

after 1800, when an English doctor, John Haygarth, had pub­ lished a pamphlet claiming identical results obtained with fake wooden tractors'., the fad continued for a few years.2 In 1803 a charity hospital, called the Perkinean Institution, was established under the patronage of Lord Rivers.

It was

upon the occasion of the opening of the Institution that Thomas Green Fessendon read his popular satiric poem, Terrible TractorationI

•z

about which more will be said in

another chapter. Elisha Perkins himself died In 1799 in a yellow fever epidemic in Mew York, and the whole structure of Perkinism decayed and disappeared a few years later.

Most historians

attribute its downfall to Dr. Haygarth’s exposition In 1800 ■^Reese, op. clt., p. 33. 2John Haygarth, On the Imagination as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders of the feody; Exemplified by Fictitious ” Tractors, and Epidemical Convulsions"(Bath: R. £ruthwelT, 1800) •z

Thomas Green Fessendon, Terrible TractorationI1 (London 1803). The poem was published In America in 1804, 1806, 1836, and 1837. ^Por example, Rees, op. clt., Reese, op. clt., and Steiner, op. cit., claim that John Haygarth*s exposition, although written in the middle of the vogue, was primarily responsible for the eventual decay of Perkinism.

The first Indication of the American public's interest in mesmerism Itself-** was the publication of a course of lec­ tures delivered in New York in 1829 by Dr. Joseph DuCommun, second teacher of French at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.2

Dr* DuCommun's opening remarks are an interest­

ing comment on the state of mesmerism in America at that time. I am confident that many among my hearers have scarcely heard the name [animal magnetism] pro­ nounced; some may have attached to It an unfavorable idea derived from hostile publications; a few may have excited their curiosity; and a still smaller number friendly to this discovery, will encourage by their presence and support my exertions on this occasion.3 DuCommun went on to explain his theory for the general neglect of mesmerism in the United States.

He felt that the

^The American Quarterly Review (IV [1828], 426-48) In a review of five French books on animal magnetism noted: We have also had somnambulists...in the United States; the most celebrated of whom, was Miss Rachel Baker, at New York...who not only answered questions while in that condition, but also composed prayers and hymns, and preached the most admirable sermons; all of which she Was Incapable of doing when awake. Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, who appears to have been one of her disciples, or at least, believers, has favored the world with a detailed account of her case, accompanied with some choice specimens of her composition. An examination of Charles Mais's The Surprising Case of Rachel Baker, who Prays and Preaches In her Sleep (New York: S. Marks, 1814) reveals that mesmeric methods were not used on Miss Baker. Her trances seemed to stem froma religious revivalistic spirit. The minutes on her case, written by Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, were signed by John H. Douglass, Joshua E.R. Birch, Valentine Mott, and Archibald Bruce. 2DeIeuze (op. eit., p. 269) refers to the activities of an M. DuCommun in France in 1814, and It is probably the same man. 3Joseph DuCommun, Three Lectures on Animal Magnetism. New York: Berard and Moudon, 1829), p. 5.

strong "language-tie" between England and the United States prevented the Americans from getting their knowledge, science information or opinions from anywhere else.

Inasmuch as

mesmerism was neglected In England, it followed that it was neglected in America.

If his theory was not entirely correct

at least it was an Interesting expression of a Frenchman's view of American thinking.

He continued:

However, Gentlemen, do not think Animal Magnetism entirely neglected In the United States. On my arrival in 1815, I called two other persons, whom I knew in Europe as having practised the new science; we united in a society, of which they honoured me with the title of president, and we Increased our number, which at this moment is about twelve; among which there are two doctors of medicine. This society of magnetizers, small as it is, has already diffused among the public some knowledge of Its object and of its usefulness.-*Unfortunately for DuCommun, his efforts for mesmerism were not widely noticed; in fact, he is almost the forgotten man of mesmerism In America.

Those historians who treat the

subject at all attribute the rise of mesmerism In America to Charles Poyen, another French lecturer.2

However, it is not

without justification that they do this, for practically none of DuCommun* s contemporaries took notice of him, and Poyen* s introduction of the subject was certainly more effectual. ***Ibid., p. 19. 2Thus, Riley, op. cit., Podmore, op. cit., the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend, Facts in Mesmerism (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 184l), Joseph beleuze Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism, tr. Thomas C. . (revised edition.) (New York: D. Appleton 3c Co.: Philadelphia: George S. Appleton; Providence: B. Cranston & Co., 1846), Arne L. Bader, "Those Mesmeric Victorians," Colophon, 111(1958) iii, 335—53.

Poyen felt that he himself was the first to popularize the subject in America.

In his Progress of Animal Magnetism in

New England (1857) he sayas At the time when the writer commenced lecturing in New England: [in March, 1836] he found the subject almost universally unknown. The greater part of the community were not aware even of the existence of such a science....already Animal Magnetism has sprung, from a complete state of obscurity and neglect, into general notice, and become the subject of a lively interest throughout the country. The press has been everywhere awakened to the wonderful character of its claims,... At the present moment, it indisputably constitutes, in several parts of New England, the most stirring topic of conversation among all classes of society*! That the subject was not entirely neglected prior to Poyen*s efforts is attested to by the fact that Poyen himself speaks of some French works on the subject that a few people in America have read and of several articles on the subject already issued by his assistant, Mr. Hewins.^

However, as

Poyen was determined to Mdevote to [thel general improvement of the Americans, [his! small share of moral and intellectual p o w e r s , h e translated a French book on mesmerism and took it to Boston to be published.

When the publisher told him

that there was not sufficient interest in the subject to war­ rant publication, he sought to remedy the situation by

Poyen, op. cit., p. 35.

Q

Charles Poyen, Report on the Magnetical Experiments (Bostons D.K. Hitchcock**! 1636), p. ixxi. I have been unable to locate any of these articles. It is possible that they were published in local newspapers. They were not published In the Boston Journal of Medicine and Surgery. 3Poyen, Progress..., op. cit., p. 42.

17. delivering some lectures In Chauncv Hall, Boston.

Of these

he says: According to my expectation, the public on hearing that the lectures were given on the delusion exploded some fifty-three years ago by ythe great Franklin,1 laughed, and denied every thing, without examining.1 Consequently, his next step was to publish the following advertisement in the Boston papers on March 23, 1B36: The attention of the public being now awakened upon the subject of Animal Magnetism, I announce to those persons who feel an interest In it and wish for more explicit Information, that they may call upon me at my lodgings...* They will find me ready to give them as ample an Instruction as they desire, without any other compensation than the pleasure of fulfilling a duty,— that of spreading more widely a truth I have undertaken to make known In this country, as being equally Interesting to science, and useful to health. It is not enough for me to have lectured seven or eight times upon Animal Magnetism, I ought also to Instruct how to practise It for the good of society.... Should physicians overlook the study of Animal Magnetism, and foolishly disdain to practise it, it would undoubtedly fall, to the greatest regret of sensible and moral persons, into the hands of quacks,p and become, perhaps, Instrumental of dreadful abuses. His advertisement was successful, for several persons were instructed by him,^ and the "science" was on the way to being established.

Poyen was still not satisfied however,

for he felt the general public did not know enough about mes­ merism; therefore, he determined to create, if possible, a general excitement upon the subject, as being the only way of leading physicians and other persons to perform experiments."4 3-Ibid., p. 44. 2Ibid., p. 45. ^Orestes Brownson was one of Poyenls "students." Chapter Three of this dissertation. ^Poyen,

Progress..., op. cit., p. 48.

See

18. His method of creating ”a general excitement” was to give demonstrations with his lectures, actually magnetizing a person on the stage.

Some people expressed satisfaction

with this procedure, among them he mentions ”J.0r. Whittier, the poet,”-1- but he still met a great deal of opposition, so he developed the following philosophy: ...it is not the design of God that a great truth, destined, from the moment of its discovery, to grow and live forever with mankind, should have a light and easy foundation. It must be built on the rocky, uneven, but solid ground of opposition; It must develop itself through the conflict of popular preju­ dices and the scorns of ridicule! Such is the lesson taught to us by the past; let us not be surprised, therefore, at the manifestation of the popular spirit at the present time.2 Poyen finally achieved a degree of success by allowing a third person ”of well-known intelligence and morality” to magnetize his subject, thereby eliminating any possibility of suspicion that he was conniving with the subject.

ilsing

this technique, he traveled up and down New England, convinc­ ing his audiences of the ”great truth [which was] destined from the moment of its discovery, to grow and live forever with mankind.”

His technique was to have his subject, a young

woman, mesmerized, or as he says, magnetized, and then demon­ strate that she was insensible to any Influence other than that exhibited by the magnetizer.

She could not hear anyone else

even if someone shouted in her ear.

She could even be pricked

by a pin and would not feel it unless touched by the magnetIzer.

^•Xbld., p. 52.

2Ibid., pp. 52-53.

19. The itinerant mesmerists who followed in Poyen’s footsteps sometimes used the technique to excess^ and this was what aroused the ire of those seriously interested in the subject. The imitators would have a man mesmerized and then would have him stretched across two chairs while a member of the audience stood on the unfortunate victim’s chest— all this to show the marvels of mesmerism.

Another technique used by the mesmer­

ists: was to have a sick person mesmerized and then ask the patient to explain the nature of his illness and a remedy. More often than not, this technique was successful and, of course, very convincing. Poyen was undoubtedly a tireless and very effective worker, for in 1837 he had this to say about his progresst

Deleuze (op. cit., pp. 221-25) records that somnam­ bulists while in a mesmeric state were able to examine sick persons and accurately determine the nature of the disease. An example follows: ’What do you see?’ asked Dr. B. [of a person in the mesmeric state!. *A man sick.’ ’Now I want you to tell me what ails him. First look at his head; is that well?* ’Yes.’ ’How do you know? Do you mean to say that you see the internal organization?’ ’Yes.’ ’Is the liver, heart, &c., well?’ ’Yes; it looks just the same as yours, or anybody’s else.’ ’Well, do you see anything wrong?’ ’Yes, there is an enlargement of the spleen.’ Several questions were then put to confuse her, and also to ascertain If she knew what the spleen was, and where situated; to all which she gave satisfactory replies. Still the doctor was incredulous. But now comes the proof. In four days, the man died; and Dr. B., having ob­ tained permission to Institute a post mortem examination, called on every physician In the city, and narrated the story of the girl. In presence of several of them, the body was subsequently oper­ ated, when, to their surprise, the girl was right-all that ailed the man was an enlargement of the spleen.

Eighteen months ago, there was not a magnetizer in New England1 at the present day I am able myself alone, to quote forty! Eighteen months ago, there was not a magnetic somnambulist in the country, and at the present moment there are perhaps upwards of two hundred* It was said lately, in the Providence Journal, that upwards of one hundred cases had been observed in Rhode Island alone.I Prom the first effectual introduction of mesmerism in America by Charles Poyen in 1836 until the year of its decline in 1848, the mesmeric enthusiasts engaged in Intense activity, an activity that is said to be far greater than that of the Freudian enthusiasts in the 1920*s.^

The number

of books, pamphlets, magazine articles, and newspaper arti­ cles published was immense.

Unfortunately, there is no

accurate means of discovering the actual number of publica­ tions.

However, from the materials at hand some interesting

facts may be observed, which may give an adequate indication of the trend.

The New York Public Library, for example, has

nineteen books on mesmerism published in the United States between 1841 and 1845.^

The Archibald Church Medical Library

has seventy books on the subject, twenty of which were pub­ lished in the United States between 1829 and 1855.

The

Bibliography of Progressive Literature (1899) lists one

Poyen, Progress.*. , op. cit., p. 37. Q

Sidney E. Lind, ”Poe and Mesmerism,” Publications of the Modern Language Association (December, 1947), p. 1077. LIndfs comment is, Mesmerism had served its purpose and was abandoned as a means of medical treatment.

The history of mesmerism has long been neglected, apparently on the theory that the subject was pure humbug and therefore unworthy of investigation.

This study cannot

pretend to investigate every aspect of the subject in general However, the intention of the first chapter has been to indi­ cate that mesmerism enjoyed widespread popularity in America in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and that it was a sufficiently important stimulus In American thought to warrant serious Investigation. The following chapters will attempt to indicate the extent to which mesmerism was mot.teed by American authors and the method used by these authors to adapt the subject to their needs. lHerbert C* Crouch, "Anaesthesia," Encyclopaedia Britannica, op* cit., I, 908. "In November L1847] Sir James ^mpann announced his discovery of the anaesthetic properties of chloroform... .As the result, chloroform came to be widely used...."

CHAPTER II MESMERISM IN THE MAGAZINES AND MINOR WRITERS Over a half century "before the beginning of the mes­ meric vogue in America, the English playwright, Mrs. Elizabeth Inchbald, had demonstrated the dramatic effective­ ness of a satire on the new science in her play, Animal Magnetism, and forty years before the vogue Lemuel Hopkins and Thomas Green Fessenden had shown the potentialities of poetie satire on Perkinism, the forerunner of mesmerism. The poetic satirists, unfortunately, were to remain alone in the field, but Mrs. Inchbald was to be followed by two aspiring American dramatists, Nathaniel Deering and Laughton Osborn, whose playwriting activities in the 1840*s were an indication of the extent to which the writers of America had begun to focus their attention on mesmerism. The controversial aspects of the mesmerists1 activities and the extensive diffusion of their propaganda from 1856 to the late 1840*s persuaded a good many American authors to express an opinion about the mysterious magnetic force. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe wrote about mesmerism to such a marked extent that a separate chapter will be devoted to each.

Ralph Waldo Emerson voiced his opinion of

the ”black art” on more than one occasion, as did John Greenleaf Whittier, Orestes Brownson, and Margaret Fuller. 42.

Further, the subject was interesting to William Cullen Bryant, James Russell Lowell, Herman Melville and Bronson Alcott.

In addition the minor or popular writers of the

period, such as William Gilmore Simms and Timothy Shay Arthur used the celebrated but controversial magnetic miracles to boost the selling power of their wares*

Finally, the maga­

zines of the day were sufficiently aware of mesmerism to devote a considerable amount of space to a history and explanation of it. The present chapter will consider the influence of the new sciences, mesmerism and Perkinism, in the works of the early American authors and the influence

ofmesmerism as it

wae to continue in the 1830fs and 1840*3

in the works of the

minor writers and the magazines of the era.

One of the earliest American literary works which naturally comes to mind in the treatment

ofmesmerism is

Charles Broekden Brown's Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker (1799)^

The antics of participants in religious

revival meetings provide a background of interest in strange and unusual behavior during the period when Brown's novel was written.

The revival trend begun by James McGready at the

Cumberland Revival in 1796 was to continue for the next five or six years, and it was the revivals themselves which sent people into a trance-like state not unlike the state of a •^-Charles Broekden Brown, Edgar Huntly; or Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker, ed. David Lee Clark (Hew Yorks Macmillan Co., 1§28 )T

44. mesmerized subject.'1’ The possibility that Edgar Huntly stemmed from this background of interest In the physiolog­ ical effects of the religious revivals is more plausible than the theory that it grew out of the consciousness of mesmeric activities. Perkinism was the rage in 1799 and although mesmerism had been in vogue in Prance ten or fifteen years earlier, the mesmerists were no longer, the focus of attention there and had not yet gained prominence in America.

An examination

of Brown’s novel indicates that he was chiefly concerned with presenting an analysis of the unusual mental states present in somnambulism.

It should be observed that he does not

cause his characters, Clithero and Edgar Huntly, to become somnambulists by the influence of another’s will, as is al­ ways the case in mesmerism.

Both characters accomplish

somnambulistic activities which are "neither prompted by the will nor noticed by the senses of him by whom It was done.'^ Further, the somnambulistic state was brought on by a process of brooding over highly mysterious and rather tragic ^William Warren Sweet, The Story of Religion in America (New York & Londons Harper & Bros., 1939), pVl532l "X description of the effects of the revivals follows: The revival produced several peculiar bodily exereises, such as falling, jerking, rolling, running, dancing and barking. Perhaps the most common was the falling exercise which befell all classes.... The subject would generally "with a piercing scream fall like a log on the floor and ground” and appear dead, some­ times lying thus for hours at a time. All the eye­ witnesses testify to the commonness of this occurrence. ^Bt’own* op. cit., p. 293*

circumstances.

Therefore although Brown’s Edgar* Huntly

Is frequently mentioned in any consideration of the subject of trances in American literature, it can hardly be assumed from reading the novel that Brown was either writing for a public curious about mesmerism or knew anything about the subject himself. On the other hand there was during this period a subject very much related to mesmerism, Perkinism, which captured the attention of at least two American authors. The metallic tractors of Elisha Perkins attracted special notice between 1795 and 1803 when the nation’s writers were not numerous.

Nevertheless the subject was not neglected as

a theme In literature, and a consideration of its literary treatment will serve as a background for the use of the mes­ meric theme by later writers. Those who used Perkinism as a subject of their writing relied on public knowledge of the metallic tractors to popu­ larize their work.

Realizing that the tractors were

currently a focus of attention, they kept in tune with the temper of the times by employing their literary skill to that end• 3-Although Lafayette’s letter to Washington, quoted in Chapter One, and the fact that two French books on mesmerism were printed in Philadelphia in 1874 and 1875 (see bibliog­ raphy), indicate that the subject was not entirely unknown in America, there Is no evidence that it was generally known. Further, Brown’s interest in activities outside the United States makes it probable that he was not unaware of mesmerism, but he did not reveal this in Edgar Huntly.

The first fictional treatment; of Perkinism was printed in the Connecticut Courant in November, 1796, forty years before the mesmeric vogue began in America.^

The form of the

work was a poem, entitled "Patent Address" and the author, according to the fairly conclusive but admittedly circum­ stantial evidence gathered by Howard W. Haggard, was Lemuel Hopkins.^

"Patent Address," a long satire in heroic couplets,

was an attack on a pamphlet which had appeared a month earlier and which avowed enthusiastic support of Perkins’s metallic tractors.

In order to satirize his opponents Hopkins pre­

tended that he Invented the metallic points.

He asserted

that after working long and hard to acquire a medical educa­ tion, he despaired of success when his patients did not seem to respond to his treatments.

Therefore he was happy to

announce that his newly patented tractors would not only bring remarkable cures but would also do away with a long and expensive medical education.

To prove the efficacy of

his tractors, he boldly acclaimed them as a panacea for all human ailments Including, most spectacularly, old age and original sin. Hopkins’s "Patent Address" is an early indication of the appeal of the medical ramifications of Perkinism and its

3- [Lemuel Hopkins ], "Patent Address," Connecticut Courant (November 7, 1796). ^Howard W. Haggard, "The First Published Attack on Perkinism* An Anonymous Eighteenth Century Poetical Satire," Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, IX (1936), 137.

allied arts in America to the writers of the nation.

This

appeal, clearly shown in what has been called Hopkins’s "most Important single

w o r k , 1'1

waa to be continued during

the period of the mesmeric vogue, especially in the prose works of Edgar Allan Poe. Seven years after Hopkins’s "Patent Address," Thomas Green Fessenden wrote a satirical poem on Perkinism, but this time the main purpose was to applaud its effectiveness.

In

his work entitled Terrible Tractoration!! A Poetical Petition Against Galvanizing Trumpery and the Perkinistic Institution. In Four Cantos,

Most Respectfully Addressed to the Royal

College of Physicians, by Christopher Caustic, M.D., L.L.D., A.S.S. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Aberdeen, and Honorary Member of No Less than nineteen Very Learned o

Societies,

Fessenden appealed to the Royal College of

Physicians to aid him In his attack on the users of the trac­ tors, since he had absolutely no success by working on his own.

In the course of the poem he satirized the opponents of

Perkins, many well-known scientists and authors, phrenology, female education, temperance societies, and wild scientific schemes to colonize the moon.

One Interesting digression

spoke of a patent author’s mill, suggestive of Jonathan Swift’s device for printing books in the third book of 3-Leon Howard, The Connecticut Wits (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1943), p. 201• ^Thomas Green Fessenden, Terrible TractorationII... (London:..1803) •

48.

Gulliver^ Travels.1 Fessenden1s poem, written in Hudibrastic style and published as a pamphlet in London in 1803, proved to be a remarkable public success.

Since the literary merit of the

poem is not high, it is possible to conjecture that the popularity of PerkinsTs tractors accounted to some degree for its appeal.

At any rate the London critics were kind

to it and another edition, enlarged, appeared the same year. And no less than four editions were published in America from 1804 to 1837. For the 1804 American edition, Fessenden had as a critic Daniel Webster, who reviewed his work eulogistically in the Monthly Magazine (April, 1805),^ and for the 1836 edition, he had a critic par excellence, Nathaniel Hawthorne. In a review in his American Magazine of Useful and Enter­ taining Knowledge, Hawthorne, who was rooming with Fessenden at the time, wrote enthusiastically: An American bard, the commencement of whose literary career dates more than a quarter of a century back, is truly a remarkable phenomenon. He appears with a classic dignity among the poets of yesterday and today, and has a claim upon the respect of his audience, apart from the merits of his song. If, In addition to this claim, the veteran bard offers us a production which has received the applause of a former day--and if it be found to possess the rare merit of originality, and an excellence peculiar to itself— the present public should give its sanction to the favorable judgment •*-The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1939-48}, XI, 166-68. ^Daniel Webster, Monthly Anthology and Boston Review, II (April, 1805), 167-70.------

of their fathers, with even more earnestness of praise than would be the due of a younger aspirant •... The severe simplicity of our republic recog­ nizes no Poet Laureate, as an officer of the state; but the poets of America, might place a laurel crown upon his honored head and acknowledge him leader of their choir. The main design of [Terrible Tractoration11 ] wa)S to satirize the opponents of the Metallic” Tractor®, certain Implements which caused a pro­ digious sensation in the medical and philosophical world, about the commencement of the present century. But the author’s fancy was too affluent, and his powers of ridicule too universal, to be confined within the narrow scope of his normal subject; and accordingly there was no folly or humbug of the day, but what became the theme of his laughing muse. In the edition now before us, he has been equally successful In introducing most of the new absurdities, of which the present age Is no less fruitful than any preceding one.... He has a queer originality of thought, and aptness of ludicrous expression, that distinguish this poet from all others of his day. At the present day, there is a vast fund of what is called poetic sentiment, diffused throughout the community, and nothing is requisite but a sort of mechanism, to mould it into a new shape. But when Mr. Fessenden began his career, an infinite fire, an originality of thought were necessary to consti­ tute a poet. These gifts he had--nor has age yet robbed him of them.l As Hawthorne’s laudatory review Indicated, Fessenden managed a successful poetic treatment of the new science. But so far as can be determined no one during the mesmeric vogue in America saw fit to follow his example.

It may be

recorded, however, that several English poets, among them Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Tennyson, Browning, and Clough were interested In mesmerism,2 although only Shelley’s ^Nathaniel Hawthorne, ’’Fessenden’s Poems,” American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, II (June, 1836), 403-4641 2Arno L. Bader, ’’Those Mesmeric Victorians,” Colophon, III (Summer, 1938), 335-53. Bader makes no mention of either Browning’s or Shelley’s connections with the mesmerists.

’’Magnetic Lady to her Patient,” and Browning’s ’’Mesmerism,” showed direct and concrete evidence of the English poets’ literary use of the topic.1 The final edition of Fessenden’s Terrible Tractoration11 came In 1837 when the activities of the mesmerists were first becoming noticed in America.

His was the last fictional

treatment of Perkinism, but the magazines, aroused by the indefatigable Charles Poyen, were beginning to bombard the country with article after article on the latest fad, the magnetic miracles., and that subject was now due for its share of attention by writers of American fiction.

The major sources of Information for creative' writers interested in mesmerism from 1835 to 1855 were the magazines of the period.2

Almost every American magazine and a good

many British magazines devoted space to articles and book reviews on the mysterious phenomenon.

In fact no less than

five American magazines, the Mesmeric Magazine, the New York Magnet, the Saint Louis Magnet, the New York Dissector, and the Albany Journal of Neurology,5 and five British publications, ^The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 5 vols.,ed. H. Buxton Forman (London: George Bell & Co., 1901,) V, 111* The Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning (Cam­ bridge edition; Boston & New York; Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1895), p. 255. 2Frank Luther Mott’s A History of American Magazines, 3 volumes, (New York: D. Appleton & Co.", 1930), I, 447, indicates that there was much discussion of mesmerism in magazines such as the Broadway Journal, the Democratic Review, and the Knickerbocker. sThe Magnet, ed. the Reverend LeRoy Sunderland (New York, 1842-44). The Mesmeric Magazine, ed. Robert H. ColIyer

51

chiefly the Zoist#^ set as a principal aim the enlightenment of the public about mesmeric theories. Occasionally# the magazine articles were closely reas­ oned and thought-provoking.

Such# for example, were the

Reverend LeRoy Sunderland1s discussion of the subject in the Niles National Register (June 4, 1842),2 and an anonymous article in the Massachusetts Quarterly (June, 1849) .^

For the

most part# however, the articles were repetitious and pedantic. The factual material came almost entirely from Joseph Deleuze *s Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism (1837),^ and the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend*s Facts in Mesmerism (Boston, 1842 [only one issue appeared]). The New York Dissector; A Quarterly Journal of Medicine,~Surgery# Magnetism, Mesmerism... # ed. Henry Hall Sherwood (New lorkT 1844-1848 7. The Saint £ouls Magnet# ed. T.J. M*Nair and J.F. Slafter (Saint Louis, 1845-1849)♦ The Albany Journal of Neurology# devoted to physiology, phrenology# medicine, and the"’philos­ ophy of mesmerism rio44[only one Issue appeared]). Another periodical alleged to be devoted to mesmerism is the Milwaukee Anthropologist# but it is not listed in Gregory*s Uhion List of Serials. Tit was cited in Richardson Wright# Forgotten ■Ladies fFEiladelphia & London; J.P. Lippincott, 1928 JJ. 3-The Zolst (London# 1843-1856). The Mesmerist (London, 1843). The Critic (London, 1843-1844). The Bristol Mesmeric Institute Reports (London, 1849-1852). The Hag'netlzer *s Magazine (London# 1816)♦. ^LeRoy Sunderland, "Mesmerism,,f Niles National Register, LXII (June 4, 1842), 213-14. ^"Methodology of Mesmerism," Massachusetts Quarterly, II (June, 1849), 273-307; II (September,T849), 401-137 4Joseph Deleuze, Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism# tr., Thomas Hartshorn (Providence; B. Cranston & Co. 1537)7--- -

52. (1839).^

Further, the historical outlines of the new science

were all very similar to the outline published in the anony­ mous Philadelphia translation of the French reports on animal magnet ism (1837)? Deleuze’s book, the first full length work on mesmer­ ism in America, advocated the fluid theory of animal magne­ tism.^

Thomas Hartshorn’s translation of Deleuze’s book did

not make its rather dull and repetitious prose any brighter, but his style was fairly clear and the magazines had no trouble in condensing his material for their articles; as a result, most of the periodicals adopted Deleuzefs fluid theory.

Townshend’s Facts in Mesmerism, on the other hand,

advocated a theory of vibrating unparticled matter (influenced by David Hartley’s theory of vibrations) as the medium between the magnetizer and the patient.^

Hartshorn’s

^The Reverend Chsuncey Hare Townshend, Facts in Mesmerism American edition (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841). The first publication of the book was in London in 1839. ^France. Animal Magnetism...With an historical outline of the 11science,” an abstract of the report on magnetic experi­ ments made.. .in T 8 5 l (Philadelphia: EL Perkins, l837"7* ^Deleuze, (op. cit., p. 21) explains his fluid theory in this manner: As we cannot comprehend how a body can act upon another at a distance, without there being something to establish a communication between them, we suppose that a substance emanates from him who magnetizes, and is conveyed to the person magnetized, in the direction given it by the will. This substance, which sustains life in us, we call the magnetic fluid. The nature of this fluid is unknown; even its existence has not been demonstrated; but every thing occurs as if it did exiat, and that warrants us in admitting it, while we are indicating the means of employing magnetism. ^Townshend (op. cit., pp. 399-404) explains his V i b r a t ­ ing unparticled matter" tlieory by saying that mesmerism is

translation of Deleuze’s book came two years before Townshend’s publication, so that even the clear, forceful, and persuasive exposition of the latter was evidently not enough to influence the magazine articles to turn to the ’’vibrating unparticled matter” theory.

A notable exception,

nevertheless, m a y b e seen in Poe’s magazine stories.-*A majority of the magazine articles was opposed to the ’’black art”; what seems to be the first magazine article on mesmerism in America proclaimed in 1828 that the subject was ”the most philosophical of all impostures.”2

Typical of the

judgments of many writers was that of the anonymous author of an article in the Southern Literary Messenger (May, 1839) who said, We may then, as we conceive, look upon Animal Magnetism as one of those temptations of the Evil One, which like all other temptations, is allowed by God to try the age.^ Well over half of the magazine articles on mesmerism were book reviews.

For example at least three magazines,

produced by the effects of a matter so small that it is actu­ ally unparticled. An act of the magnetizer’s mind initiates a vibrating impulse which is conveyed by the unparticled matter to the will and the senses of the subject. For the relation between the theories of Townshend and Hartley, see chap. v. of this dissertation. Isee chapter v. ’’Animal Magnetism,” American Quarterly Review, IV (December, 1828), 427. 3”Theory of Animal Magnetism,” Southern Literary Messenger, V (May, 1839), 325.

54

the Eclectic Magazine, The Broadway Journal, and Graham1s Magazine, published fairly long reviews of W. Newnhamfs Human Magnetism (1845),^ and it sometimes happened that a magazine reviewed three to six books on mesmerism in one article Some magazines capitalized on the news value of celeb­ rities who were connected with mesmeric activities.

Thus,

both the Hew World and the Mesmeric Magazine printed Charles Dickon*s letter proclaiming his belief in the efficacy of the new science.^

Two American magazines, the Pissector and the

Harbinger, published interesting articles telling of the famous Jenny Lindfs experience with mesmerism at a seance at Dr. James Braid’s.^

The Miles National Register (October 1,

1842) recorded the upsetting of a plan in Richmond to mesmer­ ize Martin Van Buren and abduct him from Washington to the ^The Eclectic Magazine, V (July, 1845),431; the Broadway Journal, f (April 6, 1845), 209-10; and Graham1s Magazine, XXIXTHovember, 1846), 247-48. Poe was the reviewer for the latter two magazines. A newspaper that reviewed the work was the Mew York Mirror, I (April 5, 1845), 406. 0 ^The American Quarterly Review, op. cit., reviewed six French books on mesmerism. The PiaTT I (October, 1840), 272, reviewed three German volumes on the subject, and Littell1s Living Age, XVII (April, 1848), 28, reviewed three British books• ^The Mew World, IV (February 12, 1842), 110. The Mesmeric Magazine, I~(July, 1842), 28. 4ttJenny Lind and the Mesmerist,11 Harbinger^ V (October 23, 1847), 309. MJenny Lind and Dr. BraldTirM s s ector, IV January, 1848), 221. The Dissector, II (March, 1845), 74-87, also capitalized on Harriet Martineau* s book entitled Misjs Martineau^ Letters on Mesmerism (Mew York; Harper & Bros., 1845) by reprinting the entire book within the pages of the magazine•

55.

upper counties of North Carolina, ”in case he had been re-elected president by the state of Virginia. That the magazines were influential in establishing mesmerism as a subject of marked interest there can be no doubt.

The rise of many new periodicals coincided with the

mesmeric vogue and their popularity unquestionably boosted the popularity of mesmerism.

Further they provided the means

by which popular writers could publish their works on mesmerism.

American dramatists on the other hand were not so fortunate as the magazine writers.

At least two plays employ­

ing a mesmeric theme were written in the 1840fs but neither proved appealing to the public.

It must be noted, of course,

that American dramatic productions had not yet achieved the reputation that had been accorded novels, short stories, and poetry.

In consequence, few authors turned their talents In

that direction, and those that did found little reward. An early instance of the influence of mesmerism on dramatic productions was a play called Animal Magnetism; or,

Miles National Register, LXIII (October 1, 1942), 67. The article states that '^the Whig of September 1st published a letter from John H. Pleasants, dated August 25th, detailing a plan formed by himself and two other Individuals to abduct Martin Van Buren....,f The article continued, however: This, has been generally regarded as a hoax by the supporters of the'Whig cause, and a committee of medical gentlemen, having witnessed some magnetic experiments performed...stated that ’they are decidedly of the opinion that they (the magnetic experiments) do not tend in the least degree to establish its claims.1

Mesmerism, by that prolific English, author of popular farces, Mrs. Elizabeth Inchbald.**-

Her play deserves consideration in

this chapter because it was acted time and time again in America from 1809 to 1857.

It was first produced In Covent

Garden In 1788, arid the first recorded American production was at the Park Theater in Mew York In 1809.^ Mrs. Inchbald*s play used mesmerism both as an object of derision and as a technical device to work out the mechanics of the plot, and as such served to found a tradition that was to be followed during the mesmeric vogue in America. Dr. Mystery, In Mrs. Inchbald*a play, explains to a character called Doctor that a magnetic wand helps the move­ ment of the universal fluid which spreads; through all nature, and he continues: This fluid is like a river that«..gently glides... where there Is nothing to stop It— but if it encoun­ ters a mound.. .it bursts forth— it overflows the country round— throws down villages, hamlets, houses, trees, cows, and lambs, but remove obstacles which obstruct its course, and It begins again...to flow... and every thing goes on, as well as it can go on— Thus: it is with the animal fluid, which fluid obeys the command of my a r t .5 He then makes a secret sign to two girls and they amaze the Doctor by responding very easily to the Influence of the ***Mrs. Elizabeth Inchbald, ”Animal Magnetism, or Mesmeris The Minor Drama (Mew York: Samuel French [1857 ^), V. XVIII. 2The dates of the performances are noted on the page pre ceding the play. It was acted at the Walnut Street Theater, Philadelphia, in 1836, at an unnamed theater in Philadelphia in 1848, and at the Bowery Theater, Mew York, In 1857. ^Inchbald, op. cit., p. 15.

57. magnetic wand.

Later the Doctor uses his wand to relieve

another*s pain but when his patient pretends to die, the Doctor becomes panic-stricken for fear that he has used the wrong end of the wand.

As a result he is an easy mark for

the playful jibes of the other characters. The play was a farce of the simplest order, but it was sufficiently light and amusing to insure its success. As such it is a comment on the standard of taste in this coun­ try. Mrs. Inchbald’s Animal Magnetism began the tradition of presenting a satiric dramatization of mesmerism.

Over

sixty years later, at least two other plays of that type were written, Nathaniel Peering *s; The Clairvoyants (1843)-L and Laughton Osborn’s The Magnetiser: or Heady for Any Body (1845).2 Nathaniel Peering*s play, which was read before the Pnyxian Club of Portland in 1843 and produced only once (July 23, 1844, at Union Hall, Portland),

attempted to show the use

of mesmerism in what may be termed its medical-clairvoyant and traveling-clairvoyant aspects.

The plot was concerned with

the foiling of the rich old Mustard’s plans by the antics of Moneton and Daniel Digney, who employ the pompous magnetizer, ^The play Is printed In Leola Bowie Chaplin’s ’’The Life and Works of Nathaniel Peering (1791-1881),” ” Maing Studies, Second Series, XXXII (August, 19 ^Laughton Osborn, ...The Magnetiser... (New Yorks J. Miller, 1869). [Laughton Osborn], "The Magnetiser..., ” Broadway Journal, I (September 6, 13, 21, 1845), 131-35, 149-51, 164-66. " ^Chaplin, op. cit., p. 116.

58. Professor* Fungus, in their wily schemes.

It is worth noting

that the major action of the play depended on mesmerism as an efficient deus ex machine.

Professor Fungus, for example, is

to mesmerize Mustard to make him adknowledge payment of the note he holds against Moneton.

Later he plans to mesmerize

Daniel Digney so that Daniel will he able to make a physical examination of Mustard (just as the somnambulist in Deleuze*s book had examined Dr. B.’s patient.)

Fungus never actually

succeeds in mesmerizing anyone in the play, however, because the original plan is always overheard by another character who persuades Fungus to fake the mesmeric process.

In one

case Mustard asks Fungus to make a pretence at mesmerizing. Even when Fungus cries ’’Shade of Mesmerl was Science to be thus prostituted 1,11 Mustard insists on the dupery, saying: And now, Mr. Professor, recollect that this Is to be all sham, none of your genuine passes. No, no; none of your tricks upon travellers. Besides let there be ho experiments to ascertain If I am in a magnetic sleep. Ho assa foetida on my nose. No scorching of the eyebrows with your greasy csmdles. Above all don’t suffer the villains to jab me with pins till I am as full of holes as a cullender. In another case, Fungus only pretends to mesmerize Daniel, who then frightens Mustard thoroughly by telling him that one of his lungs Is ttunmarcifully shrlviilfd like a baked apple,” and that his heart has a ttdesput hard look.”^ Deering managed to poke fun at mesmerism chiefly by satirizing the Itinerant mesmerists in the character of

^lb id., p . 200, 2Ibid., p. 221.

Professor Fungus.

It is interesting to note, however, that

all of the characters in the farce believe whole-heartedly In the powers of the magnetic force.

Much of the amusement

that the play afforded was occasioned by the elaborate plans which were made to fake the process of mesmerism. The Clairvoyants was a rather crude attempt to adopt the theme of mesmerism to the stage.

Although it was much

more clumsy and forced than Mrs. Inchbald’s farce, it was nevertheless an interesting example of a playwright’s reli­ ance on mesmerism as a popularizing factor and as a deus ex machina in an early American dramatic production. A much more sophisticated attempt to use mesmerism in a play was illustrated by Laughton Osborn’s The Magnetiser; or, Heady for Any Body, although it has not been recorded that that play was ever presented on the stage.

Indeed, only

three of the five acts were printed during the mesmeric vogue, but the unusual circumstances of its publication will be dis­ cussed in another chapter in connection with Edgar Allan PoeTs contacts with the magnetizers.

Suffice it to say here that

the first three acts were published anonymously in The Broadway Journal in September 1845, and the whole play was not printed until Osborn published all his dramatic works In 1869.

The

play probably did not deserve its rather harsh fate, because, in the light of other American dramas of the period, it seems to stand up fairly well.

Osborn’s wit, which he had admir­

ably demonstrated In his long satirical poem, The Vision of

60 Rubeta, was again evident in The Magnet iser , and except for a rather digressive fourth act, the play was quite amusing. Osborn’s complete disbelief in the powers of mesmerism was evident throughout the play. In Act I Catherine Clairvoir asks her lover, Schuyler Walton, If he has ever heard of animal magnetism.

When he

admits he has, she tells him that Mrs. Dorothy Dulruse, her widowed father’s housekeeper, is a ’’convert to these fantas­ tical doctrines,”

It becomes evident that Catherine’s father,

Clairvoir, has been making daily mesmeric experiments on Mrs. Dulruse, and that the latter is merely feigning in order to get into the good graces of Clairvoir and eventually to marry him.

Scene ii makes it clear that Clairvoir thinks mesmerism

is a universal panacea.

He proclaims that man, having been

enlightened with mesmeric powers, is now omnipotent...he may be omniscient.... Heaven has given us these powers to be used. We can travel through the mind of another to the four quarters of the world.* Disease, Clairvoir cries, has now no secret for man. I will my amiable Dorothy to look Into my bowels; she does so* she sees at a glance what is there disturbed, what needs repairing; and so the doctor, no more working in the dark, prescribes with safety, and Death Is bid defiance.^ Having mesmerized Mrs. Dulruse, he sends her to the moon and she is able to see everything there, although she carefully ^ Osborn , op. cit., p. 132.

2Ibid.

61.

notes that everything is the reverse: the trees grow" on the tops of mountains not in the valleys; the people walk on their heads; they greet each other by teaching heels ; they exist in a state of "innocent and onsophistieated nature” because they wear no clothes; men milk whales instead of cows, and they milk by lying on their stomachs, feet foremost, pulling at the udders with their toes. Mr. Clairvoir has heard enough by this time, but upon Mrs. Dulrusefs return to earth, she claims her clairvoyance lets her "see" that his daughter, Catherine, will marry not Walton but her own son, Arnold Dulruse,--she sees that as "clear as everything else in this sumnamberlism."1

Next,

she turns her clairvoyance on Clairvoir and "sees” that he wishes to '’consummate their union!”

This statement startles

Clairvoir, but as he warms to the idea he says: We shall see with'magnetic vision, feel with magnetic affinity. Mrs.. Dulruse; 0, "Mr. Clairvoir! Spare my blushes! Clairvoir:^— Do all things by magnetic, somnambulistic, sympathetic correspondence. A life of unsensuality, without admixture. Mrs. Dulruse: Yes, a life of sensuality, without fix­ tures. Let us begin it at once. 0,0,0, dear, darling, apathetic magnetiser!2 At this point they are interrupted and Clairvoir "wakes” Mrs. Dulruse, who says: Who?--0! I see; I am dead with shame. Clairvoir: You should be alive with glory, Mrs. Dulruse!...It is the victory of science; the triumph of immortal mind over corrupt matter: the exultation of spirituality over corporality! 1 IlJld.

2Ibid., p. 133

Walton, study magnetism; I will lend you Townshend, Hartshorn, Stone: your sons shall he magnetisers... In a crucial moment in the final act, someone whispers to Mrs. Dulruse, who is supposed to be under the influence of the magnetic sleep and "unable to hear the roar of cannons." She quickly breaks out of her "trance" and troops off stage, much to the embarrassment of Clairvoir who feels that his magnetic powers are impotent. Osborn has used the magnetiserfs art here as an object of his sharp satire, and his success In that venture must have been evident to the few who read his play.

His creation of

Mrs. Dulruse, an American Mrs. Malaprop, was a fine touch indeed. It is a curious fact that The Magnetizer, The Clairvoy­ ants-, and Animal Magnetism are all remarkably similar.

In

each an old guardian who has been investigating the mysteries of animal magnetism was forced to admit his foolishness and allow the marriage of the heroine, his ward or daughter, to the hero, who helps show him how foolish he was.

Osborn!s

play came last in the series but it is more amusing than the others.

The characterization of Mrs. Dulruse and the very

entertaining satire of mesmerism make the play entirely un­ worthy of the utter oblivion into which it has fallen. The American playwrights, Laughton Osborn and Nathaniel peering, were able to present dramatically, and thus satirize dramatically, all the devices and claims of the mesmerists. lb id.

63. Osborn laughed at them for claiming mesmerism as a universal panacea and even for believing in the humbug in the first place.

Deering, on the other hand, satirized the people who

thought they might be able to use mesmerism in place of the traditional medical examination.

Quite obviously neither

playwright felt that he could afford to present the new science seriously or champion the cause of mesmerism.

It

remained for a dramatist of another age, Augustus Thomas, to present the serious side of the story.^

The playwrights of the 1840fs were not the only ones, however# who took occasion to satirize mesmerism or use it for a mechanical device In a plot.

The short story writers and the

popular novelists also found mesmerism an interesting theme. How and then articles of fiction based on mesmerism appeared In the periodical literature.

An anonymous author in

BlackwoodTs Magazine (September, 1837) wrote ffAnimal Magnetism In London in 1 8 3 7 , an amusing and inconsequential satire on the methods of the quacks who practised the magnetic miracles. He satirized the 1837 French report by offering a report by an Imaginary English committee of the ^Metropolitan Joint Stock Medical, Scientific, and Literary Association.n

One of the

burlesque features of the story was a report of a magnetizer1s 3-See chapter vi.

^"Animal Magnetism in London In 1837,fl Blackwood1s Magazine, XLII (September, 1837), 384-93. Reprinted In the Yale Literary Magazine, III (December, 1837), 61-67.

64. successful efforts to produce new feet on the stumps of an amputee's legs.

The satire was mada available to an American

audience when it was reprinted in the Yale Literary Magazine (December, 1837)* (Blackwood's

Another satire, ,fMesmeric Mountebanks”

August, 1846 ),*** which would have been read hy

American subscribers to the English magazine, told of a purposely faked mesmeric trance which discredited the magnetizer and sent him away amid howls of laughter. Still another amusing fictional magazine story on ffleaffleriam during the vogue wa& William Gilmore Simms's ’Mesmeri&es In a Stage Coach; or Passes en Passant” published in Godey's Lady's Book (September, 1845),

2

Simms's story

told of a man who had recently learned how to mesmerize and who tried out his newly learned hobby on a fellow stagecqach passenger, John Dalton.

When Dalton succumbs to the

power of mesmerism he rides past his stop, alights at a house further down the road, kisses the mother and daughter waiting there, and discovers he is at the wrong house.

Thereupon he

re-enters the coach and rides on to meet the return coach. Before he can do that, however, his coach overturns and he is forced to walk to the nearest inn.

Trouble threatens when

the brother of the girl Dalton had kissed, John Gilbert, ap­ pears and demands ”satisfaction” in a duel.

The mesmerist

^”Mesmeric Mountebanks,” Blackwood's Magazine IX (August, 1846), 123-37. 2William Gilmore Simms, ”MesmerIdes in a Stage Coach; or Passes en Passant,” Godey's Lady's Book, XI (September, 1845), 111-19.

65. solves all difficulties, however, when he magnetizes both Dalton and Gilbert, Dalton is forced to write an apology, and Gilbert, having had a special magnetic force exerted on his phrenological bumps of benevolence and conscientiousness, is compelled to accept the apology.

A few months later a

happy ending is effected when the mesmerist receives an announcement of the marriage of Dalton to Gilbert’s sister. The story is, of course, third-rate as fiction, but it is an interesting example of the lengths to which popular fiction writers would go to incorporate the latest fads into their works.

That Godey’s Lady’s Book would accept the story

for publication is also a comment on the type of audience to which

mesmerism appealed. Two other examples of the influence of the mesmeric

vogue on the popular literature of the period are worth consideration.

One is an anonymous story, published in pam­

phlet form, entitled Confessions of a Magnetiser;3, the other is Timothy Shay Arthur’s short novel, Agnes; or, The Possessed. A Revelation of Mesmerism•2 The full title of the anonymous story which appeared in Boston in 1845, was Confessions of a Magnetiser, Being an Espose of Animal Magnetism, By a practical magnetiser .

In

the beginning of the tale, the author took pains to point out that he held some hope for the efficacy of mesmerism. lConfessions of a Magnetiser,(Boston: United States Publishing Company * 1845). ^Timothy Shay Arthur, Agnes; or, The Possessed» A Revelation of Mesmerism (Philadelphia; T.B. Peterson,~T548).

I do humbly believe that Magnetism may be made the means of doing much good, In alleviating extreme pain, In cases of nervous affections, and when it Is necessary to perform any surgical operation.• For the most part, however, he distrusted the magnetic force, and the plot of the tale he fashioned confirmed the fears of the most rabid haters of mesmerism*

The opponents of the

magnetic miracles frequently pointed out that a girl who allowed herself to be subjected to the stronger will of a man could come to no good.

The author, musing on the theme

of subjection of the will, brought forth this story. Mr. S., after mesmerizing a seventeen-year-old beauty several times, breaks down her capacity for independent judg­ ment and marries her. hetoo wishes to Helen.

When Mr. Milton learns of

learn the Mblack art** in order

his activities, to win Miss

Milton is successful but trouble looms when S., in

Milton*s absence, arrives to give Helen mesmeric medical aid. When she awakes from the trance, he discovers that his ^influence is still upon her. 11 He can do nothing to remove it, and he relates wonderinglys Her large and love beaming eyes were bent affection­ ately upon me in earnest love. I was half delerious with smothered passion. I took her hand, pressed it to my lips, and declared my love freely.^ After parting with Helen, S. returns home to confront his wife.

Fortunately she too has learned the art of mesmer­

izing and when she realizes his unfaithfulness she simply ^-Confessions of a Magnetiser, op. cit., p. 6. 2Ibid., p. 30.

67. mesmerizes him and wills him to love her forevermore.

Here

the story closes and the reader is permitted to believe that S. has returned to his happy home for the rest of his life. But the author stays to make his moral clear.

He says;

As the principal object of this little book of confessions, or rather more properly speaking, this expose of magnetism and its evil effects, is designed and hoped to do some good in fore­ warning and thus forearming the public against this hydra-headed agency. I cannot refrain from again calling your serious attention to the evils that may be produced through its agency, and refer you for proof to the last chapters. Ought its public practice to be tolerated, and in the hands too of designing and sensual men? not possessing the least degree of shame ?i The Reverend EeRoy Sunderland undertook to answer the question in his pamphlet, uConfessions of a Magnetlser* Exposed!^

He allowed one of his telling points to be made

by Dr. Hitchcock, President of Amherst College, who was quoted as saying, I doubt not, that in regard both to Phrenology and Mesmerism, the grand principle will prove true, that the more ominous of evil any branch of knowledge seems to be,...the more prolific it will ultimately become in illustrations favorable both to morality and religion.5 Sunderland then went on to point out that some of the mesmerizers were, admittedly, not good men; namely, W.C. Tappan and J.S. Grimes.

The public should not, Sunderland continued, be

persuaded to discredit all the mesmerizers by the actions of libid., p. 33. 2LeRoy Sunderland, nConfessions of a MagnetiserT> Exposed I (Boston: Redding & Co., 1S4S). 5Ibid., p. 25.

the unscrupulous few.

He boasted that he himself has been

a firm believer in mesmerism for twenty years. To the modern reader, the earnest didacticism of Confessions of a M agnetiser and the rather indignant rejoinder by Sunderland provide but one more amusing chapter in the his­ tory of the times. the 18401s•

It was a serious matter, nevertheless, in

More than one man’s economic welfare depended on

mesmerism, and many actually thought the science would lead to something of significance. Didactic fiction based on the evils of mesmerism con­ tinued to be written in spite of Sunderland’s pamphlet, for in 1848 Timothy Shay Arthur, whom posterity remembers for his temperance novel, Ten Nights in a Barroom and What I Saw There (1854), published Agnes; or, The Possessed.

A Revelation of

Mesmerism. Arthur began his novel by a long discussion of why he considered mesmerism a black art.

He said,

Seeing with the eyes of another, and perceiving by his senses, Is not the natural and true order in which man was created, and Whenever he departs from the true order of his being, he sustains an Injury that is more or less vital according to the nature of the perversion. The will of man is that in him which Is inmost--It is that which really makes him a man. Can this be disturbed, laid quiescent, or be brought under the Control of another, as Is always the case in mesmerism, without some injury being sustained? No truly reflecting man can for a moment question this. The thing is self evident. To state it is to cause it Instantly to be perceived.1 The novel tells the story of Agnes Willmore, who is In delicate health and whose nervous system is highly susceptible Arthur, op. cit., pp. 9-10.

to impressions.

Ralph Percival, her lover, realizes that

her

weakness may make her the prey of theevil magnetizers

and

so warns her repeatedly against them. Over and over again had he expressed to her his belief, that where any one gave himself Into the hands of a magnetizer, and permitted him to take away his freedom and his reason, were It for ever so short a time, his mind would be forever disturbed from Its even balance and he would be even more Inclined than previously to let the magnetizer try his experiments upon him;— and further, that this willing­ ness would increase in a ratio with the frequency of the experiments, until he would become little more than a subject of the will of another.1

In spite of his protestations, however, she does succumb to the influence of Monsieur Plorien, a mesmerizer, who kidnaps her and carries her to New Xork.

The main part of the story

is concerned then with Ralph’s phrsuit of her.

He hunts high

and low for Agnes, always arriving at the hide-out a few hours after the villain and his victim have left for a new place of concealment.

Arthur stresses that Agnes Is unable to help

herself because the influence on her is too strong.

He says,

The state of the somnambulist, during the magnetic sleep, may be called ecstatic, In order by that epithet to indicate a suspension of the functions of the will and understanding, in the exercise of which, man*s ordinary being, or esse consists. Such a sleep plainly demonstrates, that what is said or done through the sleeper’s organs, is not the act of his soul, but of some other being who has taken possesfsTon of his organs!^ At last, Ralph, with the help of the police, locates the hiding place and breaks down the door to retrieve his lovely Agnes.

The evil magnetizer and his assistants escape but lib id., p, 67, Slbid., p. 79.

Ralph rejoices In having found Agnes alive.

They plan to be

married, as soon as Agnes has regained her health, and Arthur concludes his story by saying: In due time the marriage was celebrated, and in the quiet Joys of the wedded life they forgot the wild ®^cltement that brief period in which a disorderly, and, therefore, evil power, possessed the mind of Agnes, and destroyed her freedom of will and act from the dictated of reason. Eet all who wish to retain, undisturbed, the free volition that God has given them, be warned by this example. Though the history be fictitious, the power of mesmeric agency has not been in the least exagger­ ated, as anyone who cares to inform himself may know. To all the writer would say, ’Beware of mesmerism! Its origin is in perverted order, and it cannot, therefore, have a good influence.’! Arthur’s earnestness and his talent for writing excit­ ing stories with a heavy moral gained him the confidence of many readers.

It Is little wonder that it was said of him that,

”ha led the minds of thousands, almost imperceptibly, into the paths of virtue.”^ It is possible, indeed probable, that other works of popular fiction based on the activities of the mesmerists found the!?* way Into the hands of readers in the 1840’s.

The works

which have been sampled in this chapter, however, Indicate that for the most part the writing was of an ephemeral nature.

It

was popular and salable for the moment because mesmerism was popular.

But much of it no doubt still lies buried In maga­

zines or on the shelves of old book stores unhonored and even 1rt>ia. i p. 103.

^Louis Godey, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Bo ok. Quoted by E. Douglas Branch, The Sentimental yoara (New York; London; d! Apple ton-Century Company, 1934), p. 130.

un cataloged,— and with the exception of a courteous perusal of one or two amusing pieces by curious literary historians, that is where most of it will lie forever.

To sum up, when the predecessor of mesmerism, Perkinism, became a subject of tremendous popular attention, it was treated by Lemuel Hopkins and Thomas Green Fessenden In the literary tradition of the times, poetic satire.

Later when

mesmerism became the "most stirring topic of conversation among all classes of society,0 the magazines, which had since grown more numerous and more popular, capitalized on the vogue by allotting space to those who wished to write histories or short stories (the new literary tradition) about the magnetic mir­ acles;.

But the influence of mesmerism was no longer confined

to one genre.

So pervasive were the activities of the mesmer­

ists that every kind of literature was used to draw attention to them.

The itinerant magnetizers who traveled up and down the

country exhibiting clairvoyant maidens made such astounding claims and produced such amazing experiments that they offered an easy mark for the popular dramatic satirists who followed Mrs. Inchbald’s example, Laughton Osborn and Nathaniel Deering. Moreover, the alleged danger to morals attributed to mesmerism stimulated Timothy Shay Arthur and the anonymous author of Confessions of A Magnetizer to publish works of didactic fiction which would warn the innocent and chastise the unscrupulous.

72. Mesmerism was the r^ge from 1836 to the late 1840fs, and it was a subject fascinating enough to make everyone want to learn the hidden mysteries of the science.

The magazines

and popular writers, taking note of this great interest, pro­ vided Americans with histories, explanations, satires, and warnings on the subject.

In gill phases of the nation’s

popular literature, mesmerism played an interesting and signi­ ficant role as a stimulus to the writers1 imaginations and as an unusual subject of attraction to American readers. It remained, however, for the major American writers of the period--Emerson and the Transcendentalists,— -to present a straightforward and reasoned analysis of animal magnetism. In contrast to the popular writers they realized the many ramifications and implications of mesmerism, and they devoted a great deal of effort to an explanation of their view to a curious public.

CHAPTER III THE TRANSCENDENTA LI STS AND OTHERS It la probably a coincidence that the vogue of mesmer­ ism occurred at the same time that American writers first began to play a significant part in the culture of the new nation-

In a period of rising American nationalism the people

turned to literary men for an expression of opinion on every important subject of the day*

The country’s writers, sensing

their new role in national affairs, did not hesitate to give their considered judgments on any subject which warranted their attention*

Such was the case with mesmerism*

For the

most part the literati were curious; about the mysterious magnetic miracles, but realizing their obligation to the pub­ lic, the writers pointed out the pitfalls of allowing the "black art" of mesmerism to be carried too far*

Their

judgments were given, in most cases, after having witnessed the mesmeric experiments, and it is fairly obvious that they did not like what they saw.

They incorporated their opinions

into their literary works too and left there evidence of their distrust and distaate for the soul—invading "black art." Finally, they were able to use mesmerism as a technical liter­ ary device in their works and depended upon widespread knowledge of the subject to make the machinery of their creative efforts credible to a public that demanded a close adherence to verisimilitude* 73.

It may not be a coincidence, however, that the mesmeric vogue swept the country during the reign of the Transcenden­ tal ist s. 1

The pronouncements of Emerson, Whittier, and

Margaret Fuller, for example, indicate quite clearly the reason mesmerism was able to fit into the major philosophical concept of the period; the prevalent materialistic attitude was deplored— "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind"— and a reawakening of the spiritualistic aspects of life was a principal desideratum*,

Mesmerism, they felt, wast. one means

of bringing about a spiritualistic renaissance* The relation between mesmerism and transcendentalism has: already been suggested in Chapter One, although it should be emphasized that the eclectic nature of the philosophy renders it Inconsistent at times and allows the existence of contradictory concepts, making it possible to relate it to a variety of notions.

The divine spirit, for example, was held

to be infused in each individual, and to the extent that the Trsnscendentslista could accept mesmerism as a manifestation of the "spirit" It was commendable.

But If mesmerism was

considered as a materialistic science, as the mesmerists usually represented it as being, then it was objectionable. -^For the purpose of this study transcendentalism may be interpreted to mean that philosophy prevalent In the second quarter of the nineteenth century which called for man’s com­ munion with God and the universe through nature and things of the "spirit" as opposed to materialistic things* Since the soul of each individual was Identical with the soul of tha world, man was to seek union with this soul of the world (Over-Soul) by contacting truth, beauty, and goodness embod­ ied In nature.

In Emerson’s terms "All separation of the soul’s things from the soul Is suicidal*

So is •• .animal magnetism damned."^*

Strangely enough Emerson held both views, although not at the same time, and there seems to be adequate reason for his shift in view and his emphasis on the besmirching aspects of mesmerism.

Margaret Fuller, on the other hand, associated

it with the "lyric: Inspirations or mysterious whispers of life"2 and helped champion the cause of the new science among her fellows.

Whittier also found mesmerism worth Investiga­

tion, and he followed one part of the transcendentalist tradition when he named it "a faint light falling into the great shadow of mystery which environs us like an atmosphere of night."

Bronson Alcott was one transcendentalist who had

his own explanation for the "seeming miracle and mystery," but Orestes Brownson, who was for the most part outside the pale of transcendentalism, nevertheless, came Independently to view mesmerism as Emerson had, as an invasion of man’s soul.

Among the major figures of the period, Orestes Brownson and Margaret Fuller were the most active inquirers into the ■^The source of this remark is Indicated later in the chapter. The nature of mesmerism was, as xwe shall see in the chapter on Poe, ambiguous. There was some consideration of it as a spiritual manifestation in Podmore’s Mesmerism and Christian Science r (Philadelphia; George W. Jacobs & Co., 1909) pi viii and passim 1 and 'according to him it formed a signifi­ cant part of the background out of which Christian Science grew SThe sources of the quoted remarks In the following paragraph are all indicated later in this chapter.

nature of the new science, and they could both speak from personal experience with mesmerism.

Miss Fuller had become

curious about the subject in the initial stages of the vogue, and it captured her attention for at least the next eight or nine years.

When she was in Providence in 1837 she met John

Neal who was an enthusiastic admirer of the new science.-^He was eager to talk about Miss Lorains Bracket whose remark­ able mesmeric feats were being broadcast to the world by Colonel William

L.

Stone’s

pamphlet.2

Neal spoke to Margaret

about mesmerism and its predecessor, phrenology, at a soiree at Judge Albert Greene’s, and before the evening was over he had given her a phrenological examination which initiated her Interest in the whole matter of pseudo-scientific character reading. Her position from 1840 to 1842 as editor of the princi­ pal organ of the Transcendentalists, the Dial, gave Margaret ample opportunity to become acquainted with the books on mesmerism which were to be reviewed in that periodical. Accordingly there is to be noted a three volume work entitled Per Somnambulismus by a Professor Freeder Fischer, in the October, 1840, "Select List of Recent Publications,"3 and a review of a translation of Heinrich Zschokke’s The Sleep Walker ^Madeleine B. Stern, "Margaret Fuller’s Stay In Providence, 1837-1838," Americana, XXXIV (July, 1940), 358. SThe great Interest in Miss Bracket was caused by a report of her activities in Colonel Stone’s pamphlet. See chapter i* . 3The Dial, I (October, 1840), ii, 272.

in the April, 1843, Issue.i

At any rate her Interest in

mesmerism was certainly increased by 1844, when she expressed her thoughts on the subject in her Summer on the Lakes.2 She revealed in this book a fascination for Justinus Kernerfs Seeress of Prevorst,3 Which she had read In the German. Her ideas on mesmerism, as noted in Summer on the Lakes, were not strikingly original, and their kinship with those that Emerson had proclaimed in his lecture "Demonology" in 1840 is evident.4

Her presentation of the Ideas, however, is suffi­

ciently interesting and provocative to warrant consideration. She exhibited what appears: to be a very fine sense of discrim­ ination when she wrote; lb id., III (April, 1843), 535. I have encountered neither of these works In bibliographical sources. It Is possible that Margaret Fuller may have been the reviewer of Zschokke’s book. The review follows;' We would call attention to this little tale, which Is remarkably well translated. It is, In itself, very pleasing, and the natural affinities of character, as developed by means of the trance of animal magne­ tism, are treated with fineness of observation and sympathy.... The sweet and sustained tone of the magnetised, the aloofness with which the soul regards the blemishes of its personal, temporal existence, are what may be divined by those who have ever seen so much as the smile which accompanies this sleep in the body, awaking Into the spirit. 2The Writings of Margaret Fuller, ed. Mason Wade (New Yorks Viking Press, 1941), "Summer on the Lakes, in 1843." 3Justinus Kerner, Seeress of Prevorst, tr. Mrs. Gathering Crowe (New York: "Harper &~Bros77 T845). I have not seen the German edition of this book. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of Kerner Is discussed In chapter v. 4A more detailed discussion of Emerson’s "Demonology" follows later in this chapter.

["Kerner] gives a biography, mental and physical, of one of the most remarkable cases of high nervous excitement that the age so interested in such affords, with all its phenomena of clairvoyance and suscepti­ bility of magnetic influences. As to my own mental position on these subjects, it may be briefly expressed by a dialogue between several persons who honor me with a portion of friendly confidence and criticism, and myself, personified as Free Hope. The others may be styled Old Church, Good Sense, and Self-Poise .. Good Senses I wonder you can take any interest in such observations or experiments. Don’t you see how almost impossible it is to make them with any exactness.*., let us confine ourselves to [ our present sphere ] before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural. * # # Free Hope: Long before these slight attempts were made to establish as a science what is at present called animal magnetism. ..men were occupied...with [this ] human phaae of electricity...yet it may be by the rude or greedy miners some good ore is unearthed.*.* I doubt whether in the eyes of pure intellect an ill-grounded hasty rejection be not a greater sign of weakness than an ill-grounded hasty faith. # # * Old Church: ...By wild speculation and intemperate curiosity we violate His will, and incur dangerous, perhaps fatal consequences. # * ■* Free Hope: I acknowledge no limit set up byman’s opinion as to the capabilities of man. ■jf

"jfc

'«■

Self-Poise: Of our study there should be in proportion two thirds of rejection to one of acceptance. And amid the manifold infatuations and illusions of this world of emotion, a being capable of clear intelligence can do no better service than to hold himself upright, avoid nonsense, and do what chores are in his way.... # * & Free Hope: [But then there is not n in your theory or in your scope enough for the lyric inspirations or mysterious whispers of life.... As to magnetism, that is only a matter of fancy in which to wander vagrant, and if it bear a higher name, yet it may be that in the last result the trance of Pythagoras

might be classed with the more infantine trans­ ports of the Seeress of Prevorst.1

It may be seen that Margaret Fuller’s remarks here are those of a person not given to hasty judgments.

The ideas of

the personifications in her dialogue, moreover, represent quite adequately the various prevalent views of mesmerism. Old Church expressed the thoughts of men like the Reverend N.L. Rice, who said that a mesmerized person ”10363 [his] accountability both to God and man, as the laws of neither recognize such personality. ”2

Good Sense and Self-Poise

represented the thoughts of Emerson, who wondered why so

many people should bother with the humbug and who claimed that there were many more important things to do.

Finally,

Free Hope, while obviously representing Margaret’s own view, was also in accord with the thoughts of Whittier, who noted that there is ”a credulity of doubt which is more to be depreciated than that of belief,” and with those of Orestes Brownson, who saids Among the innumerable witnesses of these phenomena there may be as careful and as Intelligent observers as those who emit their oracles with solemn gravity on matters of which they confessedly know no thing. 3 Thus Margaret Fuller was able to compress into a comparatively short dialogue some of the best and most characteristic re­ marks on mesmerism in the period. 1Summer on the lakes, pp. 64-68. 2n.L. Rice, Mesmerism, an Investigation of its Mental and Phy sical Phenomena, and of Its Moral TendencTes iNew York: Robert Carter & Bros., 1849), p . 318. ^The sources of the quoted remarks of Whittier and Brownson are indicated later in this chapter.

In 1845 she wrote a review of James Stanley Grimes’s Etherology, or the Philosophy of Mesmerism and Phrenology.1 Again she indicated a well-developed sense of Independent

judgment, which on the whole is a marked characteristic of Miss Fuller.

Confessing that she believed in the reality of

mesmerism and had ’’tested some of its phenomena,’’ she continued: We see a movement [of co-operation Tin the region of exact science, and we have no doubt that in the course of fifty years a new spiritual circulation will be comprehended as clearly as the circulation of the blood is now.

In metaphysics, In phrenology, in animal magne­ tism, in electricity, In chemistry, the tendency is the same,...the mind presses nearer home to the seat of consciousness the more intimate law and rule of life, and old limits, become fluid beneath the fire of thought.... With regard to Mr. Grimes’s book, In the first place, we do not possess sufficient knowledge of the subject to criticize It thoroughly; and secondly, if we did it could not be done in narrow limits. To us his classification is inadequate, his point of view ■uncongenial. We disapprove of the spirit in which he criticises other disciples in this science, who have, we believe, made some good observations with many failures, though, like him­ self, they do not hold themselves sufficiently lowly as disciples. For we do not believe there is any man, yet, who is entitled to give himself the air of having taken a degree on the subject.... In speaking thus of Mr* Grimes’s book, we can still cordially recommend it to the perusal of our readers. Its statements are full and sincere. The writer has abilities which only need to be used with more thoroughness and a higher aim to guide him to valuable attainments.2 Here she broke off her remarks on Grimes’s book and began writing of her own experiences with the mesmerists.

When

^Margaret Fuller OssolI, Life Within and Life Without (Boston; Roberts Bros. , 1890), pp. 169-73. The “review first appeared In Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune (February 17, 1845) . 2lbid., pp. 171-72.

81.

she was introduced to a blind mesmeree1 several years previously?: The latter instantly dropped [her hand] with an expression of pain, and complained that she should have been brought in contact with a person so sick, and suffering at that moment under a violent ner­ vous headache. This really was the case, bdt no one present could have been aware of it.... She seemed touched by a profound state of pity, spoke most intelligently of the disorder of health and its causes, and gave advice, which, if followed at that time, I have every reason to believe would have remedied the ill.. Not onl^r the persons present, but the person advised also, had no adequate idea then of the extent to which health was affected, nor saw fully, till some time after, the justice of what was said by the somnambulist. There is every reason to believe that neither she, nor the persons who had care of her, knew even the name of the person whom she so affectionately wished to sleep. [The effect of mesmerism] to my own mind, [is] one of the clews granted, during this earthly life, to the mysteries of future states of being, and more rapid and complete modes of intercourse between mind and mlnd.^ Georgiana Bruce Kirby in her Years of Experience recorded another mesmeric experience of Margaret Fuller. She said:

t

Miss Fuller was a great sufferer from a severe spinal curvature, which had developed after she recovered from typhoid fever.... I venture to describe her case, because the cure is worthy of record. In the winter of 1844-45 I spent a few days from time to time, with Miss Fuller at Mr. Greeley*s, and I was nbt sorry when meeting her one morning on Broadway, she asked me to accompany her to Dr. Begere's and witness the treatment she was under­ going. [ This was probably the Theodore Leger whose Animal Magnetismr or Psycodunany was published in iMargaret Fuller in her.review, spoke of being intros duced to the blind mesmeree while she was visiting an asylum. Miss Loraina Bracket was blind, a mesmeree, and an inmate of an asylum for the blind, so she is probably the girl to whom Miss Fuller referring. ^Ossoli, op. clt., pp. 172-73.

New York in 1846.] Her garments were made to open so as to leave just the spine hare. She was seated on a convenient stool and the doctor held his right hand horizontally, close against the vertebral column, the fingers pointing towards but never touching it. Slowly he moved his hand from the very end of the spine to the base of the brain, charging it with his vigorous magnetism. There was a slight trembling of his arm as he willed the power should flow from him to the patient"!! SHe described the sensation as like having a rod of iron worked into her poor spine. In two months, so efficient was the invisible remedy, that from riding she was able to walk the distance of four miles, from Mr. Greeley*s to the doctor*s office. Her height had been carefully meas­ ured before entering on the course, and as careful a remeasurement took place after five months when it was shown that she was three inches taller than on the first occasion and her shoulders were per­ fectly flat and similar.1 Katherine Anthony, writing of Margaret Fuller's exper­ iences with Harriet Martineau In England in 1846, recounted one further series of mesmeric activities in which Miss Fuller was involved.2

Having regained her health In 1844 by using

mesmerism, Harriet Martineau wrote a book on the science *z announcing to the world the mighty curative powers of mesmerism. In her experiments on some of her guests, she had considerable success, especially with Charlotte BrontS.

But she evidently

was not sufficiently en rapport with Margaret Fuller.

It is

probable that Margaret was ready enough to witness the mesmeric 1Georgiana. Bruce Kirby, Years of Experience (New York: G.P. Putnam* s Sons, 1887), p. 213Z 2Katherine Anthony, Margaret Fuller: A Psychological Biography (New York; Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1920)>pp. 131-36. 3Harrlet Martineau, Miss Martineau*s Letters on Mesmerism (Harper Sc Bros., 1845). See chap. ii~"of this disser­ tation.

experiments of a clairvoyant order on others and was willing to let a doctor give her treatments with mesmerism, but did not wish to trust her own subconscious to the vigorous prob­ ing ofMiss

Harriet Martineau.

While she was in England,

however, she saw a great deal of Henry Atkinson whom she called "the prince of the English mesmerizers."

But whether

he ever mesmerized her has not been recorded.! To students of American literary history perhaps Margaret Fuller's most interesting mesmeric experience occurred in October, 1844, at Sarah Clarke's.

It was on that occasion

that Margaret persuaded Emerson to attend a mesmeric characterreading by Anna Bar sons, but the prelude to the meeting, recorded in the letters of Emerson and Margaret Fuller, de­ serves consideration. Caroline Sturgis and Margaret had evidently been attending mesmeric performances as early as October, 1840, when Emerson wrote to Caroline: I am a slow scholar at magnetism, dear sister.... I do not pretend to understand anything In your last letter.... There are new sects in heaven who ^Anthony, op. cit., p. 134. Henry Atkinson's relation­ ship to Harriet Martineau Is explained in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition (New York: The EneyelopedTa Britannica

Co.7"i9Trj; In 1851 Miss Martineau edited a volume of Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development. Its form is that of a correspondence between herself and H.G. Atkinson....Atkinson was a zealous exponent of mesmer­ ism and the prominence given to the topics of mesmerism and clairvoyance heightened the general disapprobation of the book, which caused a lasting division between Miss Martineau and some of her friends.

84. teach an occult religion and describe the saints as men walking with lanterns in their hands which they turned on the right side of some passengers and the dark side of others and virtue is a will o' the wisp and not the sun in the firmament* I must leave you and Margaret to your flights in the sky,, wishing you pleasant airs and a safe alighting *3The ladies were not to accept Emerson*s strictures seriously, however, for they continued their "flights in the sky.”

On January 28, 1844, Margaret wrote to him: I suppose [ you were told ] of Miss [ Anna] Parsons *s reading of a letter of yours under Mesmeric influence (of which you make light, so wittily)..*. I shall try to write down exactly what [ I was] told...about it.2

Thereupon she proceeded to relate to him all the trivial falderol of the "character reading” by Anna Parsons.

It seems

that Anna, under mesmeric influence, could take a letter in her hand and without looking at it reveal the impressions that came to her as she held it, thus "reading” the character of the writer.3

Poor Miss Parsons was probably sincere enough,,

and she certainly impressed her female acquaintances, but Emerson must have found in her exhibitions ample justification for his judgment of the "small and smoky performance." Nevertheless, the women did not hesitate to continue their activities and in February, 1844, Emerson received 3-The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ralph L. Rusk, 6 vols. (New York: Columbia Univers11 y Press, 1939), II, 345. 2Ibid., Ill, 286. 5A detailed comment on Anna Parsons*s character-reading method may b® found in Marion Dwight [Orvis 1, Letters from Brook Farm, 1844-1847, ed. Amy L. Reed (Poughkeepsie, New York: Vassar College, 1928), p. xiv. Most of the letters were writ­ ten by Marion Dwight to Anna Parsons, and some of them speak of mesmeric experiments at Brook Farm.

85 •

another letter from Margaret Puller.

This time he was

invited to Sarah Clarke’s to witness, as Margaret put it, "Mesmeric experiments of reading letters etc. tried on the same lady T Anna Parsons] of whom I wrote you in my last." Emerson managed somehow to escape that time, but undaunted, Margaret Puller tried again in October.

She told of another

proposed meeting and said: Sarah Clarke had fully intended to invite [you!..,* & submit to your eye the same revelations as to ours, when she was informed by Caroline [ Sturgis] that you had spoken of such experiments as "peeping through the keyhole," & such like... At this point Margaret recorded her conversation with Sarah Clarke, the effect of which could not fail to impress Emerson.

He must have seen that if he did not wish to insult

his friends or risk losing them he would have to attend the performance*

Margaret said to Sarah,

Shall I write to him, Sc ask him if he can go to look, believing the actor, as all law divine or human demands, innocent until proved guilty?^ to which Sarah replied, And make him aware that she neither makes show of herself, nor seeks excitement, but comes to our house as to that of a .friend, where she may expand, Sc give pleasure by the use of what seem to us real Sc uncommon powers*^ A recently discovered Margaret Fuller manuscript is the only evidence that Emerson was present that evening in October, .

*

.

i

i

i

_

-t-The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, III, 241. 8Ibld. 3Ibid.

- _____

86.

1844.1

Emerson himself never alluded to it in his letters

nor has it been recorded that he ever mentioned it afterward. In the presence of the Reverend James Ere ©man Clarke, four women (Caroline Sturgis, Sarah Clarke, Anna Parsons, and Margaret Puller),, and presumably a mesmerizer— although he was not mentioned and one of the others may have done the mesmerizing— the serious and rather dignified Ralph Waldo Elmers on listened while the mesmerized Anna Parsons was asked, "Is he [Emerson] the object of love?" and "Does he desire love?[? ]"

When Anna offered an ambiguous answer, someone

queried, "Is he susceptible of Influence[?]11 "Yes, Margaret Puller had influenced him,11 replied Anna.

Finally, "Is this

influence reciprocal?" The answer again was "Yes"; state of mind by now can readily be Imagined.

Emerson’s

His reaction

to these questions is unrecorded, but it is doubtful If he was impressed favorably by the "peeping black art."

Once was

unquestionably enough for him. Margaret Puller’s association with the mesmerists and with those interested In the science, John Neal, Loraina Bracket, Dr. Theodore Leg^re, Harriet Martineau, Henry Atkinson, Anna Parsons, Sarah Clarke, and Caroline Sturgis, indicates that she had ample opportunity to discuss the effects of the magnetic force.

One result perhaps was her

^Evelyn Winslow Orr, "Two Margaret Puller Manuscripts," New England Quarterly, XI (December, 1938), 794-98. One of the manuscripts Is a recording in Miss Puller’s handwriting of a character-reading by Anna Parsons. The quoted remarks in the that- follows are from this source. p

a

r

a

g

r

*

=

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willingness to accept as significant something which men like Emerson distrusted.

Her very interesting and thoughtful

dialogue In the review of Kernerfs Seeress of Prevorst, and her review of Grimes's Etherology, indicated quite clearly, nevertheless, that her reputation as a woman of independent judgment was not overestimated.

But her clever attempt to

entice Emerson to a mesmeric performance to persuade him of the powers of the science backfired, for in all probability it made him suspect the value not only of all the mesmerists* activities but of all activities with which the non­ discriminating public was associated.

Emerson had been

interested in and generally distrustful of mesmerism for at least nine years before his experience at Sarah Clarke’s, but the science could hardly hope for a favorable report from the Concord Sage now.

Margaret Puller’s little fanciful

plot had capped the climax.

The steps of Emerson’s progression to the mesmeric experiments in 1844 began before the mesmeric vogue In America had started and before Charles Poyen had begun his labors to "enlighten" the American public about the wonders of animal magnetism.

As early as May, 1835, Emerson had taken note of

the subject and was ready to credit it as worthy of considera­ tion If not commendation.

He noted in his journalr

Coincidences, dreams, animal magnetism, omens, sacred lots, have great Interest for some minds. They run into this twilight and say, "There’s

more than is dreamed of in your philosophy*" Certainly these facts are interesting, and deserve to be considered* But they are entitled only to a share of attention, and not a large share*••» Let their value as. exclusive subjects of attention be judged of by the Infallible test of the state of mind In which much notice of them leaves us* Read a page of Cudworth or of Bacon, and we are exhilarated and armed to many duties* Read demonology or Colquhoun1s Report pReport of the Experiments on Animal Magnetism by the Prench Royal Ac ademv (185 lTlV and we are bewildered and perhapsa little besmirched* We grope* They who love them say they are to reveal to us of unknown, unsuspected truths* But suppose a diligent collection and study of these occult facts were made, they are merely physiological, semi-medical, related to the machin­ ery of man, opening to our curiosity how we live, and no aid to the superior problems why we live, and what we do •••*,1 But the curious phenomena of animal magnetism was not readily to be dismissed from Emerson’s mind.

Two months later he was

still brooding on the problem when he wrotet If I would know the elementary distinction of spiritual and intellectual, where shall I inquire? A sentence showing a tendency is all that a cen­ tury contributes to psychology. Where shall I find the result of.. ..animal magnetism?..* By and by books of condensed wisdom may be writ by the con­ centrated lights of thousands of centuries which shall cast Bacon and Aristotle into g l o o m . . . . 2 And when he published Nature in 1836 he still indicated that his predominant attitude toward animal magnetism was curios­ ity.

It was here that he mentioned the virtues of the new

science in the light of the transcendental philosophy*

He

complained that man was applying to nature but half his force, 1The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Edward Waldo Emerson and #.E* F o r b e s ”10 vois* (Boston7~Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1909-14), III, 484* 2lbid., p. 519 (July 31, 1835).

that man was using only his understanding to relate himself to nature.

He said?

In the thick darkness, there are not wanting gleams of a better light,— occasional examples of the action of man upon nature with his entire force,— with reason as well as understanding.* and “many of the obscure and yet contested facts, now arranged under the name of Animal Magnetism” were, to Emerson, examples of this use of man’s “entire force.” After the mesmerists had awakened interest in animal magnetism by their performances In every town and hamlet in New England and the eastern United States, Emerson, who dis­ trusted mass movements and the activities of the mob, was no longer merely curious about the subject.

In a few years he

had become so disgusted with the humbuggery of those who exhibited the “mesmeric maidens” and clairvoyant somnambulists that he did not hesitate to make a complete denunciation of the whole affair.

In October, 1837, taking note of the

increasing interest shown In the subject, he recorded these remarks: I wonder at the interest that animal magnetism Inspires In fine persons; not at all that it startles the thoughtless. I feel no strong interest in it. I do not doubt the wonder, but there is wonder enough In my thumbnail already. Its phenomena be­ long to the copious chapter of Demonology, under which category I suppose everybody’s experience might write a few facts... But animal magnetism 1

The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Edward Waldo Emerson, 12 vols. (Centenary edition; Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1903-04), I, 73.

seems the phenomena of Disease, and too fuliginous and typhoid In their character to attract any but the physician.... Animal magnetism is the shovel put under our feet to show how poor pur foundations are.* Alarmed too by the thought that the practitioners of the new science might find it possible to invade the private con­ sciousness, Emerson wrote in June, 1838: Animal magnetism peeps. If an adept should attempt to put me to sleep by the concentration of his will without my leave, I should feel unusual rights over that person's person and life. Keep away from key­ holes *2 In November of that year he again damned animal magnetism saying;: Phrenology and animal magnetism are studied a little in the spirit in which alchemy and witch­ craft or the black art were, namely for power. That vitiates and besmirches them and makes them black arts. All separation of the soul's things from the soul is suicidal. So are phrenology and animal magnetism damned.3 Here, too, his remarks fit the transcendentalist philosophy, but now mesmerism Is not a virtuous device.Within two years Emerson has made a virtual about face on the subject while remaining a consistent transcendentalist. His principal public proclamation on the subject was made1 in his lecture “Demonology” two years later, in January, 1840.4

He began his lecture by voicing the thoughts on

^The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson,, IV, 311 (October 6, 1837). 2lbid., p. 488 (June 21, 1838). 5Ibid., V, 150 (November 27, 1838). 4The Complete Works of Balph Waldo Emerson, “Demonology X 1-28* This essay was one of a series entitled “Human Life, delivered In Boston (L839-40).

mesmerism he had written in his journal in 1835.

He repeated

the paragraph beginning "Coincidences, dreams, animal magnes

tism, omens, sacred lots, have great interest for some minds,tf and as he continued he incorporated other thoughts from his journal, repeating the phrase "Animal Magnetism peeps," cal­ ling it a "black art" and wondering that the subject should draw such marked attention.

But as he warmed to the topic he

began to damn it more and mores ...as Nature can never be outwitted, as in the Universe no man was ever known to get a cent’s worth without paying in some form or other the cent, so this prodigious promiser ends always and always will, as sorcery and alchemy have done before, in very small and smoky performance. Mesmerism is high life below stairs; Momus playing Jove in the kitchens of Olympus. *T is a low curiosity or lust of structure, and is separated by celestial diameters from the love of spiritual truths. It is wholly a false view to couple these things In a manner with the religious nature and sentiment, and a most dangerous super­ stition to raise them to the lofty place of motives and sanctions.• Emerson told the members of his Boston audience that by his denunciation of mesmerism he did not wish to convey the idea that he could explain the mysteries of the universe by other means.

He explained that he found an attraction to the topic

and wished to "unfold Its parts” before people because he thought:: the numberless forms in which this superstition has re-appeared in every time and every people Indicates that inextinguishableness of wonder in man; betrays his conviction that behind all your explanations is a vast and potent and 1Ibld., pp. 26-27

living Nature, inexhaustible and sublime, which you cannot explain. ••-*He concludedi The whole world is an omen and a sign. Why look so wistfully in a corner? Man is the image of God. Why run after a ghost or a dream? The voice of divination resounds everywhere and runs to waste unheard, unregarded, as the mountains echo with the bleatings of cattle.^ His essay "Demonology" was to include Emerson’s most characteristic remarks on animal magnetism, and in fact his only significant public remarks on the subject at all.

He

mentioned it in passing, however, several times later: in his essay "Nature" (Essays Second Series), he said that psychology, to the selfish, was really mesmerism, and he joked parenthetically, "(with intent to show where our spoons are gone)!tj^ in "Nominalist and Realist" he said that mesmer­ ism was a poor enough pretension, but a good criticism on the science of the day?^ and in "The Conduct of Life” he mentioned the squalor of mesmerism as an example of levity in a creed. Further reasons for his dislike of the subject were noted along with reasons for its popularity in his "Life and Letters in New England": 1Ibid., p. 27. 2Ibid., p. 28. 3Ibid., Ill, 179. 4Ibid., p. 235. 5Ibld., vl, 209.

•.*there was, in the first quarter of our nineteenth century, a certain sharpness of criticism, an eager­ ness for reform which showed itself in every quarter .. ♦* On the heels of... [Phrenology J cam® Mesmerism, which broke into the inmost shrines, attempted the explanation of miracle and prophecy, as well as of creation. What could be more revolting to the con­ templative phllosopherl But certain successes attended it, against all expectation, It was human, it was genial, it affirmed unity and connection between remote points, and as such was excellent criticism on the narrow and dead classification of what passed for science; and the joy with which it was greeted by an instinct of the people which no true philosopher could fail to profit by.1 The course of Emerson’s interest in mesmerism ranges from curiosity to distrust and distaste.

He made clear that

in the beginning the phenomena of mesmerism stimulated his inquisitiveness, but the actual performances by many untrust­ worthy itinerant mesmerists and well-meaning but rather absurd females were decidedly repugnant to him.

He could

change his mind about the science, defend both sides of the question, and still remain a consistent Transcendentalist. His attitude toward mesmerism was similar to his attitude toward many popular movements, e^g., abolitionism, Fourierism, women’s rights.

He seemed to feel that mass activities, even

if initiated by persons who had all the good intentions in the world, were soon contaminated by the lowly crowd.

John Greenleaf Whittier’s attitude toward mesmerism was unlike Emerson’s later views, still it was in line with the general transcendental trend of thought. 1Ibid., X, 337.

It is in Whittier’s

94. principal statement on mesmerism that the Transcendentalists* distrust of the materialistic and emphasis upon the spiri­ tualistic aspects of life are clearly revealed.1

In “Modern

Magic,” a chapter of his A Stranger in Lowell (1845), he said: What Is Mesmerism-—It is too late now to regard it wholly as charlatanry and imposture--to rank its phenomena with the tricks of Cagliostro and Count St. Germain. Grant, if you will, that the ever­ lasting and ubiquitous quack has taken advantage of it--that he has engrafted upon its great fact the fictions and shallow legerdemain of common jugglery, -—still a FACT remains... attested by unnumbered witnesses.... This first fact in Mesmerism dimly reveals a new world of wonder— a faint light falling into the great shadow of mystery which environs us like an atmosphere of night. It affords us a vague and dim perception of the nature of what we call LIfej it startles the Materialist with the phenomena fearfully suggestive of the conditions of a purely spiritual being.^ The chapter continued with Whittierfs comments on a mesmerized girl who was willed Into the future world where she saw a glorious vision.s

This incident Is as will be seen,

suggestive of a story by Edgar Allan Poe, “Mesmeric Revelation.” Poefs tale was published several months later in 1845, and although the chief character, Vankirk, also “sees* the future world when he is willed into it by a mesmerizer, the signifi­ cance of the parallel is not so much the matter of influence as it is the state of the popular taste* 1Compare Woodbridge Riley*s statement on this concept in chapter 1. ^John Greehleaf ?/hittier, A Stranger in Lowell (Boston: Waite, Peirce & Co., 1845), chapter xli, p. 162. Preface dated April 4, 1845. “Modern Magic” was not reprinted when Whittier published his collected works. 3ybid., p. 103.

Whittier’s final comment on mesmerism in “Modern Magic” indicated his sympathy for the new science.

He said*

For myself, I am not willing to reject at once everything which cannot be explained in consistency with a strictly material philosophy. Our whole life is circled about with mystery. Who knows the laws of his own spiritual nature? Who can determine the precise condition of the mysterious union of soul and body?... There Is a credulity of doubt which is more to be depreciated than that of belief.1 In 1837, he had expressed satisfaction with Charles Poyen’s mesmeric experiments, but later he published an article entitled “New England Supernaturalism“ in which he spoke of the “fearfully suggestive phenomena [ of magnetism] ...erecting daily in our midst marvels which throw into o shadow the simple witchcraft of our ancestors.” Thereupon he told a fantastic story which was sure to appeal to his readers1 craving for sensationalism.

Once when an old woman

was lost, a girl was mesmerized to lead searchers by her clairvoyant powers to the old woman.

Upon finding the lost

one, they discovered “the body lying without any spirit in it --the merest husk and shell imaginable and following in the track of the wandering soul, discovered its whereabout.”3

1Ibid., p. 104. ^Poyeh, Progress of Animal Magnetism in New England Boston: Weeks, Jordan & Co•, 1857), pT 5S. ^The Writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, 7 vols. (Riverside edition; Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1889), V, 399. The article was originally printed in a slightly different form in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, XIII (September, 1843). The title in the Writings is “Magicians and Witch Folk.”

96. The interesting thing about this story is its similarity in certain particulars to Poefs "Valdemar Case.11 When Valdemar’s spirit left his body, the body crumbled away to a "detestable putrescence,11 whereas the body of the woman in Whittier1s story was lfthe merest husk and shell imaginable."1 In 1847 Whittier indicated, as had Emerson, his repugnance to the manner in which the mesmerists operated. In his "Magicians and Witch Polk," he said: We sadly fear [ that witchcraft in the form of mesmerism] is still practised to a very great extent among us. The best we can say of it is, that the business seems latterly to have fallen into younger hands; its victims do not appear to regard themselves of especial objects of com­ passion; and neither church nor state seems inclined to interfere with it.^ The progression of many intelligent men of the period from curiosity and partial acceptance to distrust and distaste is evident In Whittier.

He followed the same pattern laid

down by Emerson, although he seems to have been able to hold back his distaste for a longer period of time.

Once again the pattern was repeated by another major figure of the 1840fs, Orestes Brownson.

It should be noticed,

however, that Brownson1s interest stemmed from an even greater active participation in the new science than Margaret Fuller’s. The discussion of the theories and activities of the mesmerists by Brownson in The Spirit-Rapper, An Autobiography

1The Writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, p. 270. 2Ibid., p. 517.

(1854)1 made it one of the most interesting books on mesmer­ ism in the period.

In the preface he attempted a definition

of the genre of the book and a statement of its aims: It Is not a novel; It Is not a romance; it is not a biography of a real individual; it is not a disser­ tation, an essay, or a regular treatise; and yet it perhaps has some elements of them all, thrown together In just such a way as best suited my con­ venience, or my purpose* & x x The book, though affecting some degree of levity, is serious in its aims, and truthful in its statements. There is no fiction In it, save its machinery. What is given as fact, is fact, or at least so regarded by the author. The facts related, or strictly analogous facts, I have either seen myself, or given on what I regard as ample evidence...* X

X

X

I have not aimed at originality, or at displaying my erudition in the Black Art. I have certainly read something on the subject, and at one period of my life made myself acquainted with more "deviltry" than ever did or ever will do me any g o o d * 2 The book progressed through a series of discussions of the theories of the mesmerists and later of the spiritual­ ists and reform movements.

Brownson began by telling of his

meeting with Dr. Charles Poyen in 1836.

It was through

Poyen that he learned that the French report on animal magne­ tism, contrary to popular opinion, actually conceded the reality of the mesmeric phenomena.

Poyen thereupon persuaded

^The Works of Orestes A. Brownson, collected and arranged by Henry F. Brownson, 20 vols. (Detroit: Thorndike Hourse, 1884), V, IX, The Splrit-Happer. The Preface is dated August. 11, 1854. 2Ibid., pp. 1-2.

him that ha should learn the art in order to do his part to aid humanity.

Brownson was at first curious and somewhat

distrustful, hut he; soon became as convinced as the most ardent proponent of the theory.

He defended the science and

attacked its critics by saying:: Whatever may be the jugglery or connivance in particular cases, or whatever be the real solution of the problem, we must, as a general rule, admit the good faith of the parties. The man who could produce by address or skill, by art, the wonderful phenomena produced by the mesmerizer, who could so successfully elude the scrutiny of the most acute and Intelligent witnesses, and so effectively deceive the senses of all classes; would have no motive to practice mesmerism, for he could produce more excitement, and gain more notoriety, and more money as a professed juggler. It Is very easy for those who have never seen the mesmeric phenomena, to set them down as mere cheat, which they, if ■> present, could very easily have detected, but it is very possible that they who have witnessed:' them are as able to detect an imposition as would be those critics themselves, and are far better judges than they are, not having seen them, unless we are to suppose that the blind can in some cases see better than those who have eyes. Among the innumerable witnesses of these phenomena there may be as careful and as Intelligent observers as those who emit their oracles with solemn gravity on matters of -which they confessedly know nothing. ...what I witnessed convinced me of the reality of the magnetic sleep, and of the subjection of the somnambulist to the will of the mesmerizer, or that one person can, under certain circumstances, exer­ cise an absolute control over the organs of another, and render the somnambulist, during the magnetic sleep, absolutely insensible to all save the mesmerizer. Here was certainly a marvelous power....1 Having developed the ability to magnetize,, Brownson used the power in many ways, and at length he learned to

1The Works of Orestes A. Brownson, p. 3.

99 magnetize inanimate objects.-*■ He wanted to reform all the evil in the world by his magnetic powers, but his association with other less idealistic reformers soon discouraged him* Finally he decided that for all its beneficial effects mesmer­ ism was not the best instrument to use in matters of reform*. He concluded: ••■••it would be wrong to infer, from the fact that the proper mesmeric phenomena are, explicable on natural principles, that the practice of mesmerism is lawful or not dangerous* It is an artificial disease, and injurious to the physical constitution* It moreover facilitates the satanic invasion* Satan has no creative power, and can operate only on a nature created to his hands, and in accordance with conditions of which he has. not the sovereign control. Ordinarily he can invade our bodies only as they are In an abnormal state, and by availing himself of some natural force, it may be some fluid. *.which Mesmer called animal magnetism.... The practice of mesmerism brings this play into force, and thus gives occasion to the devil., or exposes us to his malice and Invasions. The sincerity of Brownson*s utterance here precludes the possibility of classing It with the fictionalized portion of The Spirit-Happer*

And if this were not sufficiently con­

vincing, he later expressed a similar persuasion in another work when he condemned prevalent religious views by saying: We have. ♦.reduced the son of God, first, to a promising Hebrew youth, who was a successful mesmerizer, and finally to a mythic personage.3 ^Brownson seems to be poking fun at the mesmerists when he speaks of magnetizing inanimate objects, but Deleuze (op* cit.„ p. 57) gives directions on how to prepare and use magnetI zed water: Water is magnetized by making a few passes along the vessel containing It, stirring it with the thumb, and accompanying the action with a steady exercise of the will, as to the effects which it shall produce. 2Ibid., pp. 213-14. 3Ibid., XIV, 246.

That he was actually acquainted with Dr. Charles Poyen is also attested to in his later works.

He said of Poyen:

...my personal friend, Dr. Poyen, who initiated me and so many others into the mysteries of animal magnetism. •.was .. .a mah of more ability than he usually had credit for, of solid learning, genuine science, and honest intentions. I knew him well and esteemed him highly....! But the chief significance of his acquaintance with Poyen may be seen in this statement: I owe him many hints Catholic principles, were of much service

which turned my thoughts toward and which, with Oodfs grace, to me.^

Brownson, like Emerson, derived many of his ideas of popular movements from the activities of the mesmerists.

But

Brownson grew to distrust the mesmerists not because they were tainted by the touch of the unscrupulous and absurd, but because they courted a satanic Invasion by tampering with the mysterious science.

Emerson feared an intrusion into the

sanctity of the soul by the mesmerists, but Brownson gave this

interpretation a slight twist when he imagined a malign

Influence not so much by the mesmerists themselves as by Satan •2 who penetrated through the agency of the mesmerists.0 To Brownson mesmerism was a logical piece of mechanical apparatus by which he could prove to his readers the workings -^Xbid., V. 92. 2Ibid

.

^Brownson’s concept of the satanic agency of mesmerism was not original. A book entitled Satanic Agency and Mesmerism was published in London in 1842 by James -braid.

of Satan and the weakness of popular reform movements which were intended to save the world.

A Transcendentalist and a reformer who did not bother to fit mesmerism into the conventional philosophical notions of the time was Bronson Alcott.

Recalling no doubt some of

the mesmeric experiments in the 1840*s, he later wrote an interesting note on the subject In his Concord Days (1872). There he revealed his curiosity about the physiological as­ pects of the new science when he associated phrenological theories with those of the mesmerists: The seeming miracle and mystery of the mesmeric, or clairvoyant vivacity, is best explained by con­ ceiving the Instreaming force of the operator during the magnetic current from cerebrum to the cerebellum of his victim, and there, while under the pressure, reporting the operator*s sensations and thoughts through the common brain of both. And this view Is confirmed by the further fact that under this dominating force the domain of memory is the more deeply searched, and things revealed which, separate and alone, left -unaided by such agencies, neither could have divined. It Is like one*s adding a double brain to his own, subsidizing It the while to serve his particular ends•1 With the exception of Alcott, the Transcendentalists herein considered made a conscious? effort to treat mesmerism according to their philosophy.

Some found it a positive

force; others discouraged the use of it; but all showed a keen Interest in the new science.

Nor was an interest in

^A* Bronson Alcott, Concord Days (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1872), p. 233n.

mesmerism confined to the Transcendentalists among the liter­

ary figures of the period.

There were others, including

William Cullen Bryant, James Kussell Lowell, Herman Melville, andFitz-James

O'Brien, who could not escape the influence of

this "most stirring topic of conversation among all classes of society".11 Bryant Indicated an interest in mesmerism in the early stages of the vogue, hut he, like Emerson, was not persuaded of its overwhelming beneficial effects.

In a letter written

to a friend, October 19, 1837, he said: You are right In entertaining great expectations from the electro-magnetic machine, but its claims to attention are now eclipsed by the wonders of animal magnetism and the curiosities of the Fair of the American Institute. I have a report, lately made to the French Academy of Medicine, translated partly by myself, which I mean to publish. I will send it to you. It Is a very curious affair. A magnetizer challenged the enemies of science to witness the proof, and promised to convince them of Its truth. The Academy appointed a committee of shrewd fellows, who had their eyes open, who saw through all the tricks of the magnetizer, thwarted all his arrangements, and witnessed the entire failure of every one of his experiments. I have no doubt that animal magnetism is the flam of flams.l Whether Bryant ever had published the report on the "flam of flams*1 is difficult to determine.

It Is probable

that he referred to the report made In August of that year, a translation of which, entitled Report on Animal Magnetism, made to the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, August 8th & 1Parke Godwin, A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, with Extracts from his Private Correspondence, 2 vols• (Hew York: D. Appleton & Company, I, 361.J letter to Miss Sands.

22nd, 1857. was published in 1838 by d'Amiens E. Dubois.-*■ Nine days before Bryant wrote his letter, an anonymous work entitled Animal Magnetism, Report of Dr. Franklin and their commissioners.. .With...an abstract of the report on magnetic experiments?, made by a committee of the Royal academy of medicine, in 1851, was published In Philadelphia.2

Since

Bryant speaks of a Report lately made," he must have meant the 1837 report, and so probably had no connection with the anonymous work.

It is barely possible that he may have aided

Dubois, since he says that the work of translating was only "partly by myself."

A more likely possibility is that he

Intended to have published his translation and later changed his mind when Dubois's article appeared.

There is, at any

rate, no evidence to indicate just what happened to his plan. A comprehensive survey of Bryant's editorials on the New York Evening Post would probably lead to some further notice of his Interest in the fad.3

The issue for December 6,

1842, for example, has, a report signed by Bryant, John L. O'Sullivan, and Dr. Forry, confirming the authenticity of a 4 mesmeric experiment by Dr. Buchanan. Perhaps Bryant and his ld'Amiens Dubois, "Report on Aftimal'Magnetism made to the Royal Academy of Medicine In Paris, August 8th & 22nd, 1837," Medical and Surgical Monographs (Philadelphia, 1838), 293-308. 2Animal Magnetism. Report of Dr. Franklin and other commissioners..., op. cit. 3Allan Nevins's The Evening Post: A Century of Journalism (New York: Boni LIverlght, 19225 is the fullest treatment of Bryant as editor, yet only selected editorials are reprinted. Further comment on Bryant's interest in mesmerism must await research of his activities as an editorial writer on the Evening; Post. Writer had no access to the files of that paper. 4The signed report is reprinted in Deleuze, op. cit., p.390.

colleagues were less successful than the French investigators, whom Bryant had so warmly applauded, in detecting the impos­ tures of the mesmerists.

At any rate, the signatures of

Bryant and O ’Sullivan are an Interesting illustration of public esteem for the opinions of the nation’s literary men.1 Among the other major literary figures of the period, only two show anything that seems to be an interest in mesmer­ ism, although in neither case was there a direct reference to the new science.

There is, however, a suggestion of influence

in the works of James Russell Lowell and Herman Melville. That Lowell knew about the activities of the most widely known mesmerist of the period is attested to In "A Fable for Critics.”

There he satirized the "Poughkeepsie

Seer,” Andrew Jackson Davis, when he wrote: I told Philothea his struggles and doubts, And how he considered, the ins and the outs Of the visions he had, and the dreadful dyspepsy, How he went to the seer that lives in Po’keepsie, How the seer advised him to sleep on It first, And to read his big volume In case of the worst, And further advised him he should pay his five dollars For writing Hum Hum, on his wristbands and collars. 2 Lowell also lampooned the phrenologists in his ’'Disquisition

^■In 1837 John L. O ’Sullivan, In collaboration with S.D. Langtree, established the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, a magazine which became "the mouthpiece for the exuber­ ant nationalism of the period.” From August 1844 to 1846, O ’Sullivan edited the New York Morning News. He was a good friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Julius W. Pratt, "John Louis 0 ’Sullivan," Dictionary of American Biography.) 2The Writings of James Russell Lowell, 10 vols. (Riverside edition: Boston & New i!ork: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1890), IX, 76 (11, 1377-84).

on Foreheads”1 and the spiritualists in "The Unhappy Lot of Mr. Knott."2

in both his satires he seemed satisfied to make

witty sallies at the fads and did not attempt a serious com­ ment.

There was, however, a suggestion of a serious comment

on mesmerism in "A Legend of Brittany."

The opponents of

mesmerism, the Reverend N.L. Rice, for example, emphasized that it was dangerous and sinful to allow a man to gain domin­ ance over the will of a young maiden.5

The Knight Templar in

Lowell’s "A Legend of Brittany" gained control over Margaret’s will by a strange power which, considering the emphasis on mesmerism in the period, might well be that mysterious force. Lowell’s judgment on one who dominate®, another’s will may be seen in these lines: Full oft they met, as dawn and twilight meet In northern climes, she full of growing day As he of darkness, which before her feet Shrank gradual [sic], and faded quite away Soon to return; for power had made love sweet, To him, and, when his will had gained full sway, The taste began to pall; for never power Can sate the hungry soul beyond an hour.^ The conventional view of the itinerant mesmerists and their "magnetic maidens" was very similar to Lowell’s comment on the Knight Templar and Margaret here, and although there la no corroborative evidence, the suggestion that Lowell was Tgarly Prose Writings of James Russell Lowell, ed. E.E. Hale (London & New York: Jdhri iane, 1903), pp. 51-65• %The Writings of James Russell Lowell, pp. 96-125. 5Rice, op. cit., p. 304. ^The Writings of James Russell Lowell, I, 91, (Part Two, Stanza V)~.

106 thinking of the mesmerists is quite plausible. Herman Melville was traveling on the seven seas during the greater part of the mesmeric vogue, and his tales of the South Sea Islanders contained no obvious references to mag­ netic activities.

It Is, however, tempting to conjecture

(although once again there is no supporting evidence) that Captain Ahab may have had some sort of mass mesmeric effect on the crew of the Pequod In Moby-Diok (1851).

After he had

nailed the gold doubloon to the mast, Ahab stared at his mates: It seemed as though, by some nameless, Interior volition, he would fain have shocked into them the same fiery emotion accumulated within the Leyden jar of his own magnetic life. The three mates quailed before his strong, sustained, and mystic aspect....-*Previous to the publication of Moby-Pick Melville had written to Evert Duyckinck that he spent his evenings In a o f,sort of mesmeric state” in his room, and this statement pro­ vides some evidence at least that he knew about the mesmerists. It would, however, be difficult to make a strong c ase for the influence of mesmerism on Melville.

FItz-James O ’Brien was neither a major figure during the period nor was he present in this country during the days of mesmerism’s greatest popularity.

Yet when he arrived in

^-Willard Thorp, Herman Melville: Representative Selections (American Writers Series; New York: American Book Co.,19587> P. 235. ^Ibid., p. 383.

Letter dated December 10, 1850.

this country from Ireland in the early 1850’s, he was unques­ tionably fascinated by mesmerism’s possibilities in the direction of clairvoyancy.

His attempt to fan the public’s

waning interest in mesmerism by publishing a story entitled "The Bohemian" in Harper’s Magazine (July, 1 8 5 5 deserves attention because It Is an interesting illustration of the use of mesmerism for a sensational effect which was not devoid of moral purpose. "The Bohemian" is a Poe-like tale of buried treasure and ratiocinative men.

Annie Deane, the heroine, is an

extremely Impressionable girl; even the slightest changes In the weather affect her strangely.

Like the frequently magne­

tized girls of the mesmerizers, she Is unusually responsive to the mere physical presence of another human being. Upon the entrance of certain persons Into a room where she was, even if she had never seen them before, her frame would sink and shiver like a dying flower, and she would not recover until they had left the apartment.2 When the Bohemian, Philip Braun, mesmerizes Annie to utilize her clairvoyant powers, her agonizing struggle against his overpowering will leaves her extremely weak.

Her lover,

Cranstoun, and Braun are enabled to find buried treasure by the aid of a map she had drawn for them while in a mesmeric trance, but the unscrupulous Braun knocks Cranstoun on the ^-Fitz-James O ’Brien, "The Bohemian," Harper’s Magazine, XI (July, 1855), 233-42. 2rbid., p. 234.

head and takes half the treasure.

When Cranstoun recovers

consciousness he finds Braun’s note bidding him "return to the city but return in doubt."

In an extreme state of anxi­

ety Cranstoun hurries to his beloved Annie, but he is too late.

She is deadj the effects of over—excitement produced

by the mesmerizer were too much for her.

Cranstoun is left

brooding over the paradox of finding riches but losing his most priceless possession, his dear Annie. O ’Brien’s story, written in a carefully-fashioned, intense tone, was, next to Poe’s "Valdemar Case," and "Mesmeric Revelation," (to be considered in Chapter Five) the most interesting tale with a mesmeric theme.

O ’Brien,

like Poe, was very conscious of the need for unity and verisimilitude and his efforts toward those ends in this story were largely successful.

But unlike Poe, O ’Brien felt

It was necessary to add a moral purpose to the tale, to point out as had the strong defenders of the transcendental tradition before him, that an impressionable individual’s soul must be kept free from contamination by the "black art" of mesmerism. O ’Brien was probably the last writer to confront the public with a story of mesmerism during the vogue.

When the

itinerant mesmerists turned after 1848 to the more spectacular* humbuggery of table-turning and spirit-rapping, American authors began to satirize or deplore the moral principles of

this successor to the magnetic miracles*

Even spiritualism,

however, could not compete on a grand scale with the interest generated by the events which led to the Civil War, and the whole general subject of mesmerism and spiritualism died away as a topic of general Interest soon after 1855*

From time to

time a new American writer would become curious about the "black art," but at no period was there the sustained degree of interest which had been manifested between 1835 and 1855. The number of writers who published material on the subject Is an indication of the extent of the vogue.

Emerson

led the way by interpreting the new^ science in the light of whichever part of the transcendentalist philosophy he happened to be emphasizing at the moment.

His shift from curiosity to

distrust was, however, generally characteristic of the chang­ ing attitude of many of the major figures in the period.

The

same tendencies may be seen In the works of Orestes Brownson and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Margaret Fuller was the most

sympathetic, while William Cullen Bryant, James Russell Lowell, and FItz-James O ’Brien showed a tendency to distrust mesmerism whenever they encountered the new science. The apparent lack of interest shown by Henry Wadsworth tongfellow, Henry David Thoreau,^* and Walt Whitman indicates ^Thoreau wassecretary of the Concord Lyceum from 1841 to 1843, and he may have heard lectures or debates on mesmerism like those which occurred in 1838. On February 14, 1838, A.H. Helson delivered a lecture on "Animal Magnetism" and later that evening and during the next meeting (February 21, 1837), the question "Is Animal Magnetism true?" was debated by the mem­ bers. (Letter from Miss Sarah Bartlett, Librarian, Concord Public Library, August, 1949.)

that their attention was focused elsewhere during this period, but few indeed were those who could resist comment on one of the most fascinating mysteries of the era.

The mesmerists

stimulated the curiosity of American writers like no other scientific topic until the widespread interest in Freudian ideas in the 1920Ts,*** and a record of the writers1 response to the mesmeric vogue provides an illuminating study in the history of American culture.

The study is not complete,

however, without a discussion of the influence of mesmerism on two major figures of the period, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe %

^"The best survey of the attraction of literary men to Freudian ideas is John Frederick Hoffmanfs Freudianism and the Literary Mind (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1945).

CHAPTER IV HAWTHORNE AND THE MAGNETIC MIRACLES One of the major American writers during the period when mesmerism was in vogue in this country was Nathaniel Hawthorne, and he was sufficiently stimulated by the ’’magnetic miracles11 to give them important consideration in The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance

It Is to this

author that one must turn to see one of the foremost expres­ sions of a moral reaction to the mesmeric phenomena* How completely Hawthorne believed in the facts of mesmerism is not easy to decide.

It is probable that like

many other clear-thinking men of his time, he accepted certain parts of the ’’miracles” as plausible mainly because he found them impossible to explain as humbug or dupery.

In 1841 he

wrote that he did not ’’distrust” that certain of the mesmeric phenomena had actually occurred,2 and later, speaking of spiritualistic Incidents (which he felt were closely allied to mesmeric Incidents),, he said, ’’...they are absolutely proved

***A11 treatments of Hawthorne and mesmerism are sketchy and incomplete*. The best treatment Is Randall Stewart*s discussion In his introduction to Hawthorne’s American Note-' books, ed.- Randall Stewart (New Haven: Yale University Pres"s, T§3^). Mariam Blakeslee’s ’’Mesmerism and Spiritualism in Hawthorne, 1835-1858” (Unpublished Master’s dissertation, University of Chicago, 1920) is inadequate and introduces no new material. %The Love Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1841-1863 (Chicago T Society of the Dafobs, 1907), II, 62. 110.

to be sober facts by evidence that would satisfy us of any other alleged realities;,..1 tions.

Yet Hawthorne had his reserva­

The whole system of mesmerism, he felt, was foreign

to man's spirit.

Exactly what it was that was foreign, he

was not sure, and when he spoke out against mesmerism, he spoke in the manner of a Transcendentalist.

Concerning the

facts of both mesmerism and spiritualism, he said:: They are facts to my understanding, which, it might have been anticipated, would have been the last to acknowledge them;; but they seem not to be facts to my intuitions and deeper perceptions. My inner soul does not in the least admit them; there is a mistake somewhere. 2 On the other hand, he was willing and even eager to have the phenomena further explained by men trained to do it.

His

final words on the subject, in 1858, were these: There remains, of course, a great deal for which I cannot account, and I cannot sufficiently wonder at the pigheadedness both of metaphysicians and physiol­ ogists, in not accepting the phenomena, so far as to make them the subject of investigation.3 These remarks, together with his use of mesmerism in a serious manner in his writings, indicate the extent of his Nathaniel Hawthorne, Complete Works, ed. George P. &athrop, 12 vols., Riverside edition, Vol. X, Passages from the French and Italian Note-Books (Boston and ftew York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1888), p. 394. All references to Hawthorne fs works, except The American Hot e-books (op. cit. ) and f,The Ghost of Doctor Harris1*(see below; refer to thisedition. Inasmuch as Hawthorne considered spiritualism akin to mesmerism, no differentiation will be made between them here, except where specifically noted., 2 ibid. 3 Ibid., p. 396.

belief, and the extent to which he qualified his belief, in the actual phenomena of mesmerism.

His feelings about and

his moral reaction to the effect of the “magnetic miracles” on humans, were, however, another matter.

Hawthorne’s review of Fessenden’s Terrible Tractorationt1 written in June 1836 made no mention of the analogy between the metallic tractors and mesmerism, and the first recorded note of Hawthorne’s knowledge of mesmerism is found in his American Notebooks, the entry for July 24, 1837.

A Monsieur Schaeffer,

whom Hawthorne’s good friend Horatio Bridge had employed as a French teacher, interested Hawthorne greatly*

Some of the

early pages of his notebooks record his impressions of Schaeffer, and one report concludes, "Once he offered to mag­ netize me in the manner of Monsieur F o y e r . T h e r e is just that brief and rather tantalizing note and nothing more.

Is it a

matter-of-fact comment, or is he saying it tongue-in-cheek? He had probably seen or heard evidence of the effects of mesmerism, however, much earlier than 1837*

His mention of

Monsieur "Poyer" indicates a familiarity with the efforts of that early mesmeric enthusiast.

It is quite probable, too,

that he had read the article entitled "Animal Magnetism" in the December 1835 issue of the American Magazine of Useful and -*-The American Notebooks, p. 17. "Poyer" is undoubtedly Charles Poyen, the Frenchman who stirred up the initial interest in mesmerism in America. Perhaps Stewart mistook the final "n" on Poyer for an "r." The reproductions of the pages from Hawthorne’s notebook that I have seen indicate that such a mis­ reading Is entirely possible.

113.

Entertaining Knowledge, for he began his editorship of that magazine with the very next issue.

The author of the article

explained the phenomena in a straight-forward manner, and discussed the question whether or not "animal power can operate or quicken the senses."

Speaking of some cases recently nar­

rated In a publication of the French Academy, the writer indicated a partial acceptance of the phenomena by concluding, "nor do we perceive how they can be considered as effects of the imagination alone."-*• Salem also had mesmeric experiments which Nathaniel Hawthorne could not have failed to notice*

Charles Poyen

records the mesmeric activities of Dr. J.E, Fisk of Salem in his Progress of Animal Magnetism in New England (1837), and he observes that Besides Dr. Fisk’s, other experiments have been tried with the greatest success, In Salem, by an eminent lawyer of the city, who now holds a public office,... Every one knows him In Salem, not only as a professional man, but as a magnetizer.2 Finally, he could have learned about the new science from his fiancee, Sophia Peabody.

Sophia’s sister, Elizabeth, had

translated from the French an article on animal magnetism,^ ^"Animal Magnetism," The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, II (December, 1835 ), p. 160. 2Charles Poyen, Progress of Animal Magnetism in New England... (Boston: Weeks, Jordan & Co. , 1837), p. 201. ^Louise Hall Tharp, The Peabody Sisters of Salem, (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1950), p. 103. Mrs. Tharp does not state the exact sources of her information, but since she had access to most of the relevant manuscripts her statements must be tak­ en to be substantially correct. I have not been able to locate the title of the book Elizabeth is alleged to have translated.

and her father, Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, acquired a young magnetizer for his partner in his dental office.

The pain­

less extractions of the new partner, who was, incidentally, the same Dr. J.E. Fisk that Poyen had mentioned, were said to be the talk of Salem.^

But Louise Hall Tharp in The

Peabody Sisters of Salem indicates that Dr. Fisk did not confine his magnetic powers to dentistry alone: When Sophia’s headaches returned, young Dr. Fisk was sure that he could cure them by mesmerism. He found himself with plenty of spare time due to the conspicuous lack of Salem patients willing to be "put to sleep." Sophia reported daily for treat­ ments: and said she felt "soothed." But when Dr* Fisk tried to induce hypnotic sleep in Sophia, he failed, much to his surprise and disappointment. She seemed so gentle and so pliable! He never sus­ pected that Sophia had a strong will and that she prized the freedom of her spirit.2 There was no indication of Hawthorne’s moral reaction to the subject, however, until 1842,

In that year, in a

letter to Sophia, written while Hawthorne was at Brook Farm, he explained his feelings as emphatically as he could.

Sophia

evidently had not yet completely recovered from her long ill­ nesses, for she frequently complained of headaches, and when 3

she asked Hawthorne’s opinion of using mesmerism to cure them, his response was an unqualified no.

Because this letter Is of

primary importance to an understanding of Hawthorne’s position libid. 2Ibid., p. 104. ^Unfortunately the letter In which Sophia asked Hawthorne’s opinion is not available. He burned Sophia’s leters in June, 1853. The American Notebooks, p. 280.

mesmerism, and because it is on the whole quite charactertic of his attitude toward the fad, it is here quoted in full. Most dear wife, I received thy letter and note, last night, and was much gladdened by them; for never has my soul so yearned for thee as now. But, belovedest, my spirit Is moved to talk to thee today about these magnetic miracles, and to beseech thee to take no part In them. I am unwilling that a power should be exercised on thee, of which we know neither the origin nor the consequence, and the phenomena of which seem rather calculated to bewilder us, than to teach us any truths about the present or future state of being. If I possessed such a power over thee, I should not dare to exercise it; nor can I consent to its being exercised by an­ other. Supposing that the power arises from the transfusion of one spirit Into another, it seems to me that the sacredness of an individual is violated by it; there would be an Intrusion Into thy holy of holies— and the intruder would not be thy husband. Canst thou think, without a shrinking of thy soul, of any human being coming into closer communion with thee than I may?--than either nature or my own sense of right would permit me? I cannot. And, dearest, thou must remember, too, that thou art now a part of me, and that, by surrendering thyself to the Influence of this magnetic lady, thou surren­ d e r e d more than thine own moral and spiritual being— allowing that the influence Is a moral and spiritual one. And, sweetest, I really do not like the Idea of being brought, through thy medium, into such ah intimate relation with Mrs. Park. Now, ownest wife, I have no faith whatever that people are raised to the seventh heaven, or to any heaven at all, or that they gain any Insight into the mysteries of life beyond death, by means of this strange science. Without distrusting that the phenom­ ena which thou tellest me of, and others as remarkable, have really occurred, I think that they are to be accounted for as the result of a physical and material, not of a spiritual, influence. Opium has produced many a brighter vision of heaven (and just as susceptible of proof) than those which thou recountest. They are dreams, my love--and such dreams $s thy sweetest fancy, either waking or sleep­ ing, could vastly improve upon* And what delusion can be more lamentable and mischievous, than to mistake thy physical and material for the spiritual?

What so miserable as to lose; the soul’s true, though hidden, knowledge and consciousness of heaven* in the mist of an earth-born vision? Thou shalt not do this. If thou wouldst know what heaven is, before thou comest hither hand In hand with thy husband, then retire Into the depths of thine own spirit, and thou wilt find it there among holy thoughts and feelings; but do not degrade high Heaven and its inhabitants into any such symbols and forms as those which Miss Larned deacribes--do not let an earthly effluence from Mrs. Park’s corporeal system bewilder thee, and perhaps contaminate something spiritual and sacred. I should as soon think of seeking revelations of the future state in the rottenness of the grave-~where so many do seek it. Belovedest wife, X am sensible that these arguments; of mine may appear to have little real weight; indeed, what I write does no sort of justice to what I think. But I care the less for this, because I -know that my deep and earnest feeling upon the subject will weigh more with thee, than all the arguments in the world. And thou wilt know that the view which I take of this matter is caused by no want of faith in mysteries, but from a deep reverence of the soul and of the mysteries which it knows within itself, but never transmits to the earthly eye or ear. Keep thy imag­ ination sane--that is one of the truest conditions of communion with Heaven. Dearest, after these grave considerations, it seems hardly worth while to submit a merely external one; but as it occurs to me, I will write it. I cannot think, without invincible repugnance, of thy holy name being bruited about in connection with these magnetic phenomena. Some (horrible thought I) would pronounce my Dove an impostor; the great majority would deem thee crazed; and even the few believers would feel a sort of interest in thee, which it would be anything but pleasant to excite. And what adequate motive can there be for exposing thyself to all this misconception? Thou wilt say, perhaps, that thy visions and experiences would never be known. But Miss Larned’s are known to all who choose to listen.^ 1Love Letters, II, 62-66. Immediately before their wed­ ding, Hawthorne relented a bit and gave Sophia his permission to be mesmerizedBelovedest, dids’t thou sleep well, last night? My pillow was haunted with ghastly dreams, the details whereof have flitted away like vapors, but a strong impression remains about thy being magnetized.

The letter offers almost all one could ask for in the way of a revelation of Hawthorne’s attitude toward mesmerism. There was not a reasonable doubt in his mind that mesmerism was morally wrong, and the letter clearly shows this.

At the

same time, however, the letter poses several questions.

One

would like to know, for example; who is the Mrs. Park that Hawthorne seemed to dislike so much, and who is Miss Larned? Mrs. Park is mentioned as almost a family friend of the Peabody’s two or three times in Hawthorne’s love letters."*" But she Is not identified there.

It is quite probable, however,

that she was the Cornelia Parks who had purchased several of Sophia’s paintings and who was one of the two friends (outside the family) present at Sophia’s wedding.2 a mystery.

Miss Larned remains

Even though Hawthorne stated that her visions and

experiences were known Mto all who choose to listen,” she was not mentioned by any of the writers on mesmerism.

3

And

inasmuch as Hawthorne seems to speak with some authority on God save me from any more sucht I awoke in an absolute" quake. Dearest, I cannot oppose thy submitting to so much of this influence as will relieve thy headache; but, as thou lovest me, do not suffer thyself to be put to sleep. My feeling on this point is so strong, that it would be wronging us both to conceal it from thee. Ibid., 103-04 (June 30, 1842). It is interesting to note that Sophia’s interests were not confined to mesmerism alone among the ”cure-all” sciences of the day. She wrote in her journal in 1830, ”1 have been reading Combe; I admire the book exceedingly, and feel very much inclined to believe in Phrenology.” (Julien Hawthorne, op. cit., I, 79. 3-Love Letters, I, 106, 187; II, 27. 2Tharp, op. cit.., p. 149. ^She may be related to the William Larned who wrote The Magnetism Organization of the Human System. (Hew York: 1850;.

the subject, one would also like to know of what were his sources.

A claim for any one book would be difficult to

substantiate because his sources could have been any number

of books, pamphlets, or newspaper accounts published in the period.

Xt is quite possible, however, that his opinions

may have been confirmed by Rev. David M. Reese, whose Humbugs of New York (1838)1 was the outstanding voice of opposition to mesmerism in that time* Probably the most important source in Hawthorne's back­ ground leading him to speak so sharply against mesmerism, was transcendentalism.

Through his acquaintance with the Transcen-

dentalists, he undoubtedly came in contact with the idea of the sacredness of the Individual soul.

Emerson affirmed this

Idea in Nature (1836) when, speaking of his experiences in the woods, he said, ,fI became a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.”

To Hawthorne it must

have seemed as If the mesmerists were trying by their magnetic folderol to control the currents of the Universal Being that circulate through man, and he felt that that was sacrilege. 1 David M. Reese, Humbugs of New York (New Yorks John S. Taylor, Bostons Weeks, Jordan & Co., 1&38) 2 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Complete Works, Vol. I, Nature, p* 3.

In 1837 Hawthorne had borrowed Sir Walter Scott's book» letters' on DemOnology and Witchcraft... (1830) from the Salem Athenaeum,1 and there he found (if he read at least the first few.paragraphs) more confirmation for his idea of the divinity of the soul*

Scott stated It in this way:

The general, or it may he termed, the universal belief of the inhabitants of the earth, in the existence of spirits separated from the.*.body, is grounded on the consciousness of the divinity that speaks in our bosoms, and demonstrates to all men, except the few who are hardened to the celestial voice, that there Is within us a portion of the divine substance, which is not subject to the law of death.. ..2 Although the concept of the sacredness of the Individual spirit was common among the transcendentalist thinkers of the day, the effort of Scott to connect that concept with demonology, and as he later indicated, with mesmerism, Is worth noting here.

In view of the fact that Hawthorne read the

book, It offers fairly concrete evidence for a confirmation of Hawthorne's belief. A third possible source for Hawthorne's attitude toward mesmerism may be found in a book by Hawthorne's old college professor, Dr. Thomas C. Upham.

In his Outlines of Imperfect

Harriet Sylvester Tapley, "Books Read by Nathaniel Hawthorne at Salem Athenaeum,w Essex Institute Historical Collections, EXVIII (January, , 65. Hawthorne borrowed Scott's book twice; once on October 4, 1837 and once on October 18, 1837. ^Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft.. (London: John Murray, 1830), p. 3.

andl Disordered Mental Action (1839)1 Upham warns that the sympathetic imitation used by mesmerists and others may be attended by nonbenefielal results, and he infers that anyone inclined to nervous affections should not use mesmerism. Hawthorne's esteem for his friend and his respect for his mental powers would quite likely lead him to follow Dr. Upham's suggestion. Given the influence of these three sources, Hawthorne's attack on the mesmerist® seems quite logical from the moraL and even from the medical point of view.

His advice to Sophia,

however, may possibly be based on at leaat one further external factor. In 1837 Colonel William L. Stone had successfully pub­ licized the activities of a Miss Loraina Bracket of Provincetown, Rhode Island.^

She had raised considerable attention

(not all of it favorable) by her much discussed "magnetic” qualities.

In view of Hawthorne's rather slurring remark

about Miss Larned, it is quite probable that she was imitating Miss Bracket.

In addition, Reese's Humbugs of New York had

already shown that no respectable girl would allow herself to

1Thomas C. Upham, Outlines of Imperfect and Disordered Mental Action , Family Library ed.; (New York: Harper and brothers, 1840), pp. 317, 325. On p. 316 Upham wrote an ex­ tract of the 1784 report of the French Academy on mesmerism, which report was unfavorable to the subject. The same extract appears in Upham's Elements of Mental Philosophy... (New York: Harper and Brothers, l84l)‘, fl, 385'. Animal

^William L. Stone, Letter to Doctor A. Brigham on Magnetism... (New York: George Dearborn & Co., 1837).

become a "sleeping beauty"; so for social as well as moral and medical reasons, Hawthorne opposed Sophia's use of mesmerism.

Further evidence of Nathaniel Hawthnrne's concern with mesmeric and spiritualistic phenomena appear from time to time in various places, generally in his notebooks.

At times he

appeared to believe in the phenomena and at other times he was skeptical.

It seems worth noting here that most of the

incidents relating to mesmerism or spiritualism that happened to Hawthorne himself, occurred in 1842 and 1843, when the mesmeric vogue was at one of its highest points.

Sometimes

he showed a great deal of interest in the subject, sometimes he was puzzled by the interest and curiosity that others showed.

A case in point is his reaction to a rather strange

experience that befell him a few months after he wrote the aforementioned letter to Sophia.

He recounted the incident

several years later, while he was American consul in Liverpool, at the request of Mrs. John Pemberton Heywood.

When she heard

him tell the story at her dinner party, she begged him to write it down for her.1

After saying that the story was a "'sober

statement of a veritable fact," Hawthorne told of his daily visits to the Boston Athenaeum in the winter and spring of 1841. ^Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Ghost of Doctor Harris," Nineteenth Century,XLVTI (January, 1900), 88-93. An introduc­ tory note oy A.M. Wilberforce explains the circumstances of the writing. The story was also printed in Living Age, VI (February 16, 1900), 345—49*

There he was; fascinated by the wry old Reverend Harris, a Unitarian preacher.

Although he had not been introduced to

the clergyman, Hawthorne was greatly interested in him. Indeed, In the light of future developments, one might easily say that he was attracted almost magnetically to the striking old gentleman.

Every day he saw him sitting in the same fire­

side chair reading the Boston Post.

So forcibly did the aged

clergyman attract Hawthorne's attention, that when one day Dr. Harris did not visit the Athenaeum, Hawthorne imagined him there.

When he was informed that Dr. Harris had died

that day (April 3, 1842),^ he realized that he had seen an apparition.

He continued:

The next day, as I ascended the steps of the Athenaeum, I remember thinking within myself, "Well, I never shall see old Doctor Harris again!" With this thought in mind, as I opened the door of the reading room, I glanced toward the spot and chair where Doctor Harris usually sat, and there, to my astonishment, sat the grey, Infirm figure of the deceased Doctor, reading the newspaper as was his wont!... I have no recollection of being greatly discomposed at the moment, nor indeed that I felt any extraordinary emotion whatever....2 The apparition took no notice of me, nor behaved otherwise in any respect than on any previous day. Nobody but myself seemed to notice him, and yet the old gentlemen round about the fire, beside his chair„ were his lifelong acquaintances.... I have forgotten how the ghost of Doctor Harris took Its departure from the Athenaeum on this occasion, or, in fact, whether the ghost or I went first. This equanimity, and almost indifference, on my part— the careless way In which I glanced at so singular a mystery and left it aside— is what now surprises me as much as anything else in the affair. ^"Thaddeus Mason Harris," Dictionary of American Biography, ed. Dumas Malone (New York: Charles "Scribner's Sons, 1932). sHawthorne, "The Ghost of Doctor Harris," p. 90.

123

Prom that time, for a long while thereafter— for weeks at least, and I know not but for months I used to see the figure of Doctor Harris quite as frequently as before his death. It grew to be so common that at length I regarded the venerable defunct no more than any other of the old fogies who basked before the fire and dozed over the newspapers » ...I might have tested him in a hundred waysj but I did nothing of the kind. Perhaps I was loth to destroy the illusion, and to rob myself of so good a ghost story, which might probably have been explained in some very common­ place way....1 The story of the ghost of Dr. Harris was not written until fourteen years after It happened, and it was written, In one sense, to contend with a number of other ghost stories that were told at Mrs. Haywood1s dinner party.

Further,

between 1842 when Dr. Harris died, and 1858 when Hawthorne wrote his story, mesmerism had become passe as a topic of conversation while spiritualism had become fashionable. These factors account In part at least for the concluding statement in Hawthorne*s story. I have only to add that it was not until long after I had ceased to encounter the ghost that I became aware how very odd and strange the whole affair had been; and even now I am made sensible of its strangeness chiefly by the wonder and incredulity of those to whom I tell the story.2 ^Ibid., p. 91. An earlier reference to Dr. Harris "whose soul walks "about without a body/1 may be found in the Dove Letters II, 97 (June 20, 1842). ?Ibid., p. 93. There is an interesting parallel to this story in the Love Letters I, 27 (May 26, 1839). Hawthorne writes; po you never start so suddenly from a dream that you are afraid to look round the room, lest your dreampersonages (so strong and distinct seemed their exist­ ence, a moment before) should have thrust themselves out of dream-land Into the midst of realities. I do, sometimes.

In the summer of 1842, only a few months after the death of Dr. Harris;, Hawthorne had another curious experience. His comments on it Indicate his disbelief in mesmerism and spiritualism, yet one hesitates to consider his comments as final, In view of his statement, quoted above, that some of the incidents "are absolutely proved to be sober facts by evidence that would satisfy us of any other alleged realities:." It is sufficient to say, perhaps, that Hawthorne would always wish to qualify explanations of "unusual" incidents with res­ ervations of his own.

At any rate, Julian Hawthorne adds this

bit of lore to Hawthorne’s spiritualistic experiences: In one of my father’s unpublished diaries he writes, In reference bo the stories with which he was being regaled by Powers, the Brownings, and others, that he was reminded of an incident that took place at the old manse, in the first summer of [his]*... .marriage [In 1842]. [The entry from Hawthorne’s diary relates:] One night, about eleven o ’clock, be>fore either my wife or I had fallen asleep (we had been talking together just before), she suddenly asked me why I had touched her shoulder? The next instant she had a sense that the touch was not mine, but that of some third presence in the chamber. She clung to me In great affright, but I got out of the bed and searched the chamber and adjacent entry, and, finding nothing, concluded that the touch was a fancied one. My wife, however, has never varied in her belief that the incident was supernatural and connected with the apparition of old Dr. Harris, who used to show himself to me daily in the reading-room of the Boston Athenaeum. I am still Incredulous both as to the doctor’s identity and as to the reality of the myster­ ious touch. 3It is difficult to reconcile Hawthorne’s final statement above concerning the doctor’s identity with the prefatory statement that he was recounting "a sober statement of 1Julian Hawthorne, Hawthorne and his Circle (New York and Londons Harper and Brothers, 1903), p. 348.

veritable fact."

On the one hand the statement above indi­

cates that the story Hawthorne wrote in 1858 was not entirely fanciful or made up on the spur of the moment, and on the other hand it Indicates that he did not believe In ghosts. Suffice it to say that the story demonstrates quite plainly that Hawthorne had a strong imagination. In that same summer another unusual experience occurred. Hawthorne again indicated his disbelief as he recorded the incident in his journal, as follows: That same summer of our honeymoon, too, George; Hillard and his wife were sitting with us In our parlor, when a restling as of a silken robe passed from corner to corner of the room, right among my wife and the two guests, and was heard, I think, by all three. Mrs. Hillard, I remember, was greatly startled. As for myself, I was reclining on the sofa at a little distance, and neither heard the rustle nor believed It.1 In October 1842 Hawthorne continued to note his interest in mesmerism by jotting down an Idea he later used to advan­ tage.

He wrote, "Questions as to unsettled points of history,

and mysteries of nature, to be: asked of a mesmerized person."2 The idea may be seen adroitly employed in the attempts of Matthew M^ule to obtain information about an unsettled point of local history from the mesmerized Alice Pyncheon, in The: House of the Seven Gables

1Ibid. 2The American Notebooks., p. 93. ^The House of the Seven Gables, pp. 239-51.

Another instance of Hawthorne’s use of mesmerism for an Idea in a story came soon after the above notebook entry, and although the Idea certainly is not developed to the extent of the

former, it is tinged with an aura of mystery that makes

It worth noting.

In February, 1843 Hawthorne’s original ver­

sion of "The Hall of Fantasy" appeared in The Pioneer, a new magazine edited by James Russell Lowell and Robert Carter.1 In that story Dr. Robert Collyer (whose mesmeric activities were well known in New England)

p

Is reported to have sent

several spirits to the Hall of Fantasy in a magnetic sleep. Nothing more is made of Collyer and his magnetic spirits than that, yet in the 1845 edition of the story in Mosses from an Old Manse, there is no mention of either Collyer or the spirits.

Why?

One apparently acceptable answer to this

puzzle has been offered by Harold P. Miller,^ who holds that Hawthorne, having been criticized about losing himself in a dream world, was self-conscious about it.

For this reason,

he included a large group of living persons (Collyer was only one of many) in order to "flavor his fantasy with the spice of contemporary life."

He must have felt misgivings later,

however, says Miller, for he knew that a story in Mosses from an Old Manse would probably endure longer than a story In The ^ h e Pioneer (February, 1843) ed. James Russell Lowell and Robert Carter (New York: Scholars’ Facsimilies and Reprints 1947), P* 55. 2Collyer edited the Mesmeric Magazine and wrote the T?ftpr>T»t of the Boston Committee on Animal Magnetism, (J841). ^Harold P. Miller "Hawthorne Surveys his Contemporaries, American Literature;, XII (May, 1940), 234.

Pioneer.

In order to assure himself that later readers would

understand his story, therefore, he decided to eliminate ref­ erences to minor writers and transitory circumstances*

It is

tempting to speculate further on this question, however, for It is quite possible that Hawthorne feared that a moral reac­ tion to the mesmeric vogue would give his story an unsavory tinge.

Whenever he used mesmerism later, he was careful to

indicate his distrust of the morality of it, and to have done so in this story would not have suited his purpose. Many years later, when most of the material published In Hawthorne’s lifetime had appeared, and when the mesmeric vogue had given way to spiritualism, he could no longer find Interest In the subject. In 1855 he had a talk with an Englishman about the spirit world, and his comment in his notebook is as followss I hope he will not bore me any more, though he seems to be a very sincere and good man; but these enthusi­ asts [about spiritualism 1 who adopt such extravagent ideas appear to me to lack imagination, instead of being misled by It, as they are generally supposed to be. 1 Two years later he wrote In his notebook, This matter of spiritualism is surely the strangest that I ever heard of; and yet I feel unaccountably little interest in it,— a sluggish distrust, and repugnance to meddle with it^--insomuch that I hardly feel as if It were worth this page or two in my not very eventful journal Finally in 1858 he said, 3-Passages from the English Uote-Books, p. 6. 2Ibid., p. 597.

I have forgotten other incidents as striking as these [tales of spiritualism told by Powers]; but, with the exception of the spirit-hands, they seemed to be akih to those that have been produced by mesmerism, returning the inquirer’s thoughts and veiled recollections to himself, as answers to his queries.... But what astonished me Is the indifference with whicjs I listen to these marvels... * I cannot force my mind to interest myself in them.,.. So Idle and empty do I feel these stories to be, that I hesi­ tated long whether or no to give up a few pages of this not very important journal to the record of them.1 Hawthorne’s comments on mesmerism and spiritualism as indicated above have ranged from curiosity, interest and al­ most violent distrust, to apathy and indifference, but before he had reached the final stage of Indifference, he had fin­ ished the writings that contain his most interesting and characteristic use of mesmerism, notably The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance.

Although he was not of the same stamp as the various reforming zealots he saw about him (indeed, he criticized reformers on more than one occasion),^ Hawthorne was a reform­ er of sorts, consciously or no.

In an age of reform he

devised his own means of correcting certain evil aspects of society..

The matter of mesmerism, as has been indicated, had

been dwelling In the back of his mind for thirteen years, and oy the late 1840’s his broodings on the subject led to action. 1 Pas sages from the French and Italian Note-Books, p. 303. ^Hollingsworth, the reformer, was attacked in The Blithedale Romance, and In ’’The Procession of Life” (bosses from an Old Manse J, the type of person who Is devoted to one species or reform was criticized because he is apt to become narrow.

He saw in the ”magnetic miracles” two distinct types of evil; on one hand It led people to rely too placidly on the efforts of science to perfect the human race; on the other hand it violated the sanctity of the human soul.

He had written

about these evils in a general way before; in fact, they had become two of his major themes.

When he created two of his

chief works of fiction he found that mesmerism would serve, as excellent illustrative material for these themes* Hawthorne’s distrust of the attempts of science to perfect the human race was essentially a manifestation of the general romantic philosophy of the early nineteenth cen­ tury.

Evidence of his distrust may be seen as early as 1837

when, In ”Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” he told a story of an unsuccessful attempt to use science to prolong life* Aylmer* s attempt to perfect Georgians in ”The Birthmark” (184&) also showed a tragic use of science.

The same may be

said for the tragedy of ’’Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844). Finally, Ethan Brand, in the story that bears his name (1850), repeated the mistakes of Dr. Heidegger, Aylmer, and Rappaccini, by trying to perform a ’’psychological experiment” on the mys­ terious Esther, the tragic result of his use of science (which was quite probably mesmerism) was that ”he wasted, absorbed, and perhaps annihilated her soul, In the process.”^* ^As Randall Stewart says (The American Notebooks, p. lxxv.) it is very probable that the psychological experiment is mesmerism. I agree. By a process of elimination, mesmerism Is about the only prevalent process Hawthorne knew of which he might conceive of as having the power to destroy the soul.

Having, then, developed the theme of the distrust of science, Hawthorne was ready to use it in The House of the Seven Gab lea (1851).

Accordingly, one finds that Matthew

Maule needed to mesmerize the delicate Alice Pyncheon only once, in order to have complete control over her soul.

As.

a result of the misuse of science, therefore, the poor crea­ ture died.

If Alice had not been susceptible, one feels she:

would have been able to overcome the evil influence (as Priscilla was able to do in The Blithedale Romance).

But

Hawthorne knew that some people were more susceptible than others, and therefore deliberately put a woman’s sensitive soul in the rough grasp of the impudent Matthew Maule.1 Thus by dramatizing his theme In a strikingly effective manner, he showed that one of the blackest wrongs was to trust science with matters of the human spirit. Earlier in The House of the Seven Gables, he had led up to the theme more gently by pointing out that Holgrave— the daguerreotypist--had been a public lecturer on mesmerism. Thereupon he proceeded to poke fun at the science by saying that Holgrave showed Phoebe that he had ”very remarkable endow­ ments” along mesmeric lines, which he satisfactorily proved to her f,by putting Chanticleer, who happened to be scratching near by, to sleep.”2

Again Hawthorne ridiculed the science

1The House of Seven Gables, p. 251. ^Ibid., p. 212. Still earlier Hepzebsh was noted as suspecting that Holgrave practised animal magentism. Ibid *, p

.

1

0

9

.

when Clifford, whom he has shown to he mentally weak, babbled on to his railway-car companion about mesmerism being able to purge the grossness out of human life, and about spiritualism knocking at the door of substance.1 Another theme that is constantly present in Hawthorne’s work is the problem of sin.

The worst sin of all, the

unpardonable sin as he called It in "Ethan Brand," is the violation of the sanctity of a human spirit.

Randall Stewart

has traced Hawthorne’s preoccupation with this problem to several notes in his journal.2

For example, In 1838

Hawthorne recorded a suggestion that may quite possibly be based on current mesmeric activities, and certainly indicates his preoccupation with the privacy of the human soul*

He

wrote this story idear The situation of a man in the midst of a crowd, yet as completely in the power of another, life and all, as if they two were in the deepest solitude.3 Again, in 1842 he wrote another story suggestion in his note­ book, and this too may have been based on current mesmeric activities: Some man of powerful character to command a person, morally subjected to him, to perform some act. The commanding person to suddenly die, and, for all the rest of his life, the subjected one continues to perform the act3 1Ibid., p, 312. Slhe American Motebooks, pp. lxxil-lxxvi. Passages from the American notebooks, p. 113. 4The American notebooks, op. cit., p. 92.

In the former quotation and in the first sentence of the latter, the relationship between Matthew Maule and Alice Pyncheon is plainly anticipated* One of the sins of Kappaccini, besides his use of sci­ ence to perfect his daughter, is his violation of the sanctity of her soul.

Further, Chillingworth’s sin in The Scarlet

Letter (1850) Is of the same stamp.

Dimmesdale tells Hester:

We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world./ There Is one worse than even the polluted priest I That old man’s revenge; has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, In cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart.I To emphasize this theme, Hawthorne again was able to call mesmerism to his aid as a perfect example of the evil that one might Incur.

The letter to Sophia on October 18, 1841,

gave adequate forewarning of Hawthorne’s feeling about the mat­ ter.

In that letter as well as in The House of the Seven

Gables and The Blithedale Romance, he not only indicates his distrust of science but also takes particular pains to communi­ cate as effectively as possible the idea that mesmerism is wrong because it enables one person to invade another person’s "holy of holies."

Thus Matthew Maule in the former book is

very carefully shown as a person who Is a villain because he has provoked evil by subjecting Alice’s will to his own, and the effect on Alice is very sharply drawn in order to make the greatest possible impression on the reader.

^The Scarlet Letter, p. 234.

Hawthorne wrote:

But, alas for the beautiful, the gentle, yet too haughty Alice! A power that she had little dreamed of laid Its grasp upon her maiden soul. A will most unlike her own, constrained her to do its gro­ tesque and fantastic bidding....while Alice Pyncheon lived, she was Maulefs slave, in a bondage more humil­ iating, a thousand-fold, than that which binds its chain around the body. Seated by his humble fireside, Maule had but to wave his hand; and wherever the proud lady chanced to be,.. .her spirit passed from beneath her own control, and bowed itself to Maule.... It seemed to be Maule’s Impulse, not to ruin Alice, nor to visit her with any black of gigantic mischief, which would have crowned her sorrows with a grace of tragedy, but to wreak a low, ungenerous scorn upon her. Thus all the dignity of life was lost. She felt herself too much abased, and longed to change natures with some worm!1 It is quite plain that Hawthorne had fesired that the same sort of evil might have befallen Sophia if she had used mesmerism, and it is possible that he wrote in a particularly imaginative manner about Alice, partly to justify or make clear his rather stern rebuke of Sophia in the 1841 letter. Equally impressive is the effect on Matthew Maule when he realized his error: ...last In the [ funeral ] procession, came Matthew Maule, gnashing his teeth, as if he would have; bitten his own heart in twain,— the darkest and wofullest man that ever walked behind a corpse! He meant to humble Alice, not to kill her; but he had taken a woman’s delicate soul into his rude grasp, to play with— and she was dead.*5 Another interesting use of mesmerism by Hawthorne in developing this theme may be seen in the passage immediately following the tale of Matthew Maule and Alice Pyncheon.

!The House of the Seven Gables, pp. 249-50. 2Ibid., p. 251.

134.

Holgrava has been telling the story of Maule and Alice to Miss Phoebe, and he begins to realize that in the act of tel­ ling the story of the mesmerizing carpenter, he has been using the gestures of a mesmerist and has almost put Phoebe Into a trance.

Hawthorne wrote: It was evident, that, with but one wave of his hand and a corresponding effort of his will, he could complete his mastery over Phoebe’s, yet free and virgin spirit; he could establish an influence over this good, pure, and simple child, as dangerous, and perhaps a& disastrous, as that which the carpenter of his legend had acquired and exercised over the ill-fated Alice.1 Having placed Holgrave in this situation, Hawthorne was

in a position to indicate Holgrave’s character to best advan­ tage.

Accordingly he said: To a disposition like Holgrave’s, at once specu­ lative and active, there is no temptation so great as the opportunity of acquiring empire over the human spirit; not any idea more seductive to a young man than to become the arbiter of a young girl’s destiny. Let us, therefore,— whatever his defects of nature and education, and In spite of his scorn for creeds and institutions,--concede to the daguerreotypist the rare and high quality of reverence for another’s individuality. Let us allow him integrity also, forever after to be confided In; since he forbade himself to twine that one link more which might have rendered his spell over Phoebe indis­ soluble*2

Thereupon Holgrave made the appropriate de-magnetizing ges­ tures and Phoebe was. saved.

Having passed what Hawthorne

conceived to be a severe test of character, Holgrave was ready to take his place as Phoebe’s mate, when the exigencies of the story should make that possible. ^Ibid., p. 253 2Ibid.

The theme is continued In The Blithedale Romance.1 When Miles Coverdale attended the mesmeric exhibition of the Veiled Lady at the lyceum-hall, he heard some tales of the influence of mesmerism that he admitted were difficult to believe.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that Hawthorne’s

purpose was admirably served by recounting those tales, for he impressed his reader with the moral evil of mesmerism. Coverdale relates the following: I heard from a pale man in blue spectacles, some strahger stories than ever were written in a romance; told, too, with a simple, unimaginative steadfastness, which was terribly efficacious In compelling the audi­ tor to receive them into the category of established facts. He cited instances of the miraculous power of one human being over the will and passions of another; insomuch that settled grief was but a shadow beneath the Influence of a man possessing this potency, and the strong love of years melted away like a vapor. At the bidding of one of these wizards, the maiden, with her lover’s kiss still burning on her lips, would turn from him with Icy Indifference; the newly made widow would dig up her buried heart out of her young husband’s grave: before the sods had taken root upon It; a mother with a babe’s milk in her bosom, would thrust away her child* Human character was but soft wax in his hands; and guilt, or virtue, only the forms which he should see fit to mould it. The religious senti­ ment was a flame which he could blow up with his breath, or a spark that he could utterly extinguish. It Is unutterable the horror and disgust with which I listened, and saw that, if these things were to be believed, the individual soul was virtually annihilated, and all that is sweet and pure in our present life debased, and that the idea of man's eternal responsi­ bility was made ridiculous, and immortality rendered at once impossible, and not worth acceptance. But I would have perished on the spot sooner than believe it. 1In a letter to Edwin Whipple, Hawthorne discussed vari­ ous titles for this novel. He rejected the title "The Veiled Lady" because It was too melodramatic, "and besides, he said, 't d o not wish to give prominence to that feature of the Romance." Q u o t e d in The American Notebooks, p. 309. ^The Blithedale Romance, pp. 544-45. Hawthorne merely ridicules mesmerism In the first few paragraphs of the novel. Later he attacks It more vehemently.

Coverdale continues (and here it is very difficult to ascertain whether the author or the narrator is speaking):1 Alas my countrymen, methinks we have fallen on an evil age! If these phenomena have not humbug at the bottom, so much the worse for us. What can they Indicate, In a spiritual way* except that the soul of man is descending to a lower point than it has ever before reached while incarnate?2 This is quite probably Hawthorne’s view as well as Coverdale’s, and it indicates very clearly to the reader that the author holds out no hope for mesmerism or spiritualism where matters of the spirit ( by which he meant the human soul) are concerned. Inasmuch as the scene of The Blithedale Romance was Brook Farm, It would be interesting to know if any mesmeric experiments were conducted In 1841-1842 while Hawthorne was there*

A few years later, in 1844, Marion Dwight mentioned

one or two mesmeric experiments in character reading (of the type Emerson was forced to witness at Sarah C l a r k e ’ s),^ but there is no evidence that Hawthorne knew of this type of experiment while he was at Brook Farm. Priscilla, the Veiled Lady of this novel, was; fortu­ nately able to keep what Hawthorne called her "virgin reserve and sanctity of soul" throughout.

Unlike Alice Pyncheon,

1Ariin Turner in his "Autobiographical Elements in Hawthorne’s ’Blithedale Romance,’" op. cit*, p. 45, says, "Coverdale...is surely speaking for the author when he ex­ presses disapproval of spiritualists and mesmerists." gThe Blithedale Romance, p . 545* ^Marion Dwight Orvis , Letters from Brook Farm, 18441847, ed. Amy L. Reed (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1928), pTT2.

Priscilla's part in the story was not over after she was mesmerized, and she had to be allowed to live to take care of Hollingsworth years later*

Priscilla had been endowed

(Hawthorne was careful to point out) with the "true heartthrob of a woman’s affection, [which ] was too powerful for the jugglery that had hitherto environed her*"1

It is to be

noted, however, that the Priscilla of the later stages of the novel was not the girl, who seemed by her "simple, careless, childish flow of spirits* •.like a butterfly at play In a flickering bit of sunshine."

Her susceptibility to the influ­

ence of the professional magnetizer and her even greater susceptibility to Hollingsworth’s influence had somehow deadened her spirits*

^he physical Priscilla lived on, but

the spiritual Priscilla had fallen away to a shadow. Hawthorne took pains to contrive his plot so that his charac­ ters were not destroyed by having the sanctity of their souls invaded (i*e *, Priscilla and Phoebe), but at the

same time

he effectively Indicated the danger and positive moral evil of an attempted invasion by mesmerism. The use of this theme of the unpardonable sin was begun early in Hawthorne’s writing, and its particular adapta­ tion to mesmerism was seen as early as the aforementioned 1841 letter to Sophia.

It is worth pointing out, however, that there

was a book published In 1849, just one year before Hawthorne’s work on The House of the Seven Gables and two years before 1 lb Id * * p * 550.

138.

Blithedale Romance, which has significant parallels to Hawthorne’s writing.

It is the Reverend N. L. Rice’s

Mesmerism; An Investigation of its Mental and Physical Phenomena, and of its Moral Tendencies. Rice said that the question about mesmerism he was most interested in was whether a mesmerized person "loses all consciousness of his own, and becomes completely Identified with the mesmerizer, in feeling, In thought, and in volition."1

It is apparent at once that

this was also Hawthorne’s chief concern about mesmerism. Rice continued: If there is nothing more In Mesmerism, that the workings of the Imagination, these are sufficient in many cases, to give to the mesmerizer an undue and unsaf® influence over patients whose confidence he has secured. As for those gentlemen who take about with them, from place to place, young females for the purpose of public exhibitions, we could not trust them. Human nature is a corrupt thing...*2 Hawthorne gdopted an idea and an attitude similar to this when he created a character like Professor Westervelt In The Blithedale Romance.

Rice went on to say that,

...if the mind of the person mesmerized becomes the passive recipient of the thoughts, feelings and voli­ tions of the operator, it Is evident that the moral agency of the former is, for the time, suspended. The operator has the entire direction of the mind, and this Is by a physical necessity which he cannot resist. Now we submit the question, Whether anyone has the right to allow himself to be placed for hours or days, under the entire control of another mind. Let each one answer for himself the question... Is It right, is It safe, to allow our minds to become the passive recipients of the thoughts and feelings Lr ice, op. cit •, p

247.

of others, when permanent impression of an injurious character may be felt?1 Here again are the germinal ideas for characters like Phoebe and Priscilla and Alice Pyncheon, and here too is the prevail­ ing attitude toward mesmerism in Hawthorne’s writings.

It Is

seen further in the concluding comments by Rice: Neither men nor women have the right thus to subject themselves to the will of any human being, whatever confidence they have in his purity. The best men are imperfect; and the worst often appear as whited sepulchers...2 From a state of beatific inspiration the devoted somniloquist Is degraded to the condition of a mere passive and unresisting recipient of the thoughts, feelings, and will of those in communication. Her Ideas are no longer her own;--who is compelled to feel what others feel;--she cannot move but at their bid­ ding. The barriers of her mind are broken down, and the ’blue spirits and black, white spirits and grey’ enter without opposition, and revel in its mansions without molestation. Her personal consciousness has become a tertium quid, composed of her own and that of another united. She is transformed Into a spir­ itual hybrid, and loses her accountability both to God and man, as the laws of neither recognize such personality.3 It is possible that Hawthorne may have read Rice’s book, and the possibility is increased in view of the fact that Robert Carter, Hawthorne’s friend and admirer, was the publisher.

Certainly Rice and Hawthorne thought alike on the

subject, but inasmuch as Hawthorne’s first expression against mesmerism came much earlier than the publishing date of ^Xbid*, p • 303. 2rbid., p. 305. 3 lb id., p. 318. Rice Is quoting from Daniel Drake’s Analytical Report of...Mesmeric Somnlloquism... (Louisville: F *W. Presco'ct & Co •, 1844) •

Rice's book (1849), It is unlikely that Rice radically influenced Hawthorne, and if he did influence him at all, it was merely to confirm an opinion which Hawthorne already held*, It is equally unrewarding to attempt to find a definite source for Hawthorne's knowledge of the physical maneuvers necessary to mesmerize a person.

He could easily have learned

the technique from Sophia who probably knew about it from Dr. Pisk and Mrs. Park, or perhaps Monsieur Schaeffer explained it to him.

In addition, many of the writers on mesmerism in

this period explained the actions and manipulations that a mesmerizer must use, so that when Matthew Maule makes gestures toward Alice ”as if directing a slow, ponderous, and invisible weight upon the maiden,” when he bade her father to attempt to rouse her by shaking or shouting, when Alice bent toward Maule upon hearing his voice, when she followed his beckoning blindly, and when he “waved his hands with an upward motion” to awaken her, he was merely employing the usual and generally accepted mesmeric devices, devices that were common knowledge to almost every literate person in the age.

The same may be said of

Holgrave!s near attempt to mesmerize Phoebe. Maule's ability to exert an influence on Alice when she was far away from him is not, however, one of the ordinary mesmeric tricks.

The only mesmerizer of the time who claimed to

perform a trick similar to that one was the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend. it as follows.

In his Pacts in Mesmerism... (1841) he spoke

One evening, when sitting with my family, the idea occurred to me,--"Could I mesmerize Anna M there, as I then was, while she was In her own house?11 to which X knew she was just then confined by slight indisposition. Acting on this thought, I begged all the party present to note the hour (It was exactly nine o ’clock), and to bear me witness that then and there I attempted ~a mesmeric experiment. This time I endeavored to bring before'my imagina­ tion very vividly the person of my sleepwaker, and even aided the concentration of my thoughts by the usual mesmeric gestures; I also, at the end of an hour, said, "I will now awake Anna," and used appro­ priate gestures. We now awaited with more curiosity than confidence the result of this process. The following morning Anna made her appearance, just as we were at breakfast, exclaiming, "Oh, sir, did you magnetize me last night? About nine o ’clock X fell asleep, and mother and sisters say they could not wake me with all their shaking of me, and they were quite frightened; but after an hour I woke of myself; and I think from all this that my sleep must have been magnetic.... These were the exact words of Anna M__ It Is not difficult to Imagine Hawthorne’s alarm at such an action and the attention he would give to such a report.

The popularity of Townshend’s book makes it seem

likely that Hawthorne had either read it or learned of some of the Incidents related in the book.

It is possible, for

example, that he may have read of Townshend’s influence on Anna M

in Rice’s book.

Rice said:

...the operator can throw [people] Into the [mesmeric] sleep without their consent, when they are ignorant of his design, and even when he is at a distance from them. Mr. Townshend states, that he threw one of his ■^Townshend, op. cit., p. 442. One more possible source for the Idea of mesmerizing at a distance Is Edgar Allan Poe(s "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains." (See chapter v). In this tale Dr. Templeton Is able to place his patient in a hypnotic trance over any distance by mere volition.

female patients into the sleep, while she was convers­ ing with his wife, and knew nothing of his purpose; and again when she was in a house at some distance from him... It is marvelous that any female would allow herself to he placed in such a connection with any man. It is not right; and it is not safe.1 That Hawthorne turned to mesmerism as excellent illus­ trative material for his themes concerning the unpardonable sin and the distrust of science Is probably adequate justifi­ cation for his use of it.

Another purpose that mesmerism

served, however, is that it helped Hawthorne to Inject a note of realism Into his writing.

In 1837 he told Dongfellow that

he felt the trouble with Twice-Told Tales was that there was not enough reality in them.

He saidt

I have...great difficulty in the lack of materials; for I have seen so little of the world, that I have nothing but thin air to concoct my stories of; and it Is not easy to give a life-like semblance to such shadowy stuff.2 Thereafter, conscious of his need,3 he deliberately sought material with which to counteract or balance the "shadowy stuff," and his reliance on mesmerism to fill this need indicates an attempt to show his reader that he was aware of one of the popular fads of the period.

The same motive

probably prompted him to include Dr. Robert Collyer and his mesmerized spirits In the "Hall of Fantasy." ^ice, op. cit., p. 304. ^quoted in The American Notebooks, op. cit., p. xlii. ^Randall Stewart (Ibid*) stresses Hawthorne’s "persis­ tent effort beginning in 18377 through his journal, to bring his art closer to tangible reality."

Hawthorne seems to have felt that if he indicated his awareness of the widespread- belief in mesmerism, his readers would be less likely to accuse him of living in a dream world. A particularly interesting example of his recognition of the extent of the vogue is the way he uses mesmerism in The House of the Seven Gables.

There he makes clear Clifford’s lack of

participation in his uncle’s death by adopting the explanation put forth by a mesmeric seer.

To be sure, Hawthorne seems to

concede this grudgingly, and he cannot refrain from ridiculing the mesmerists in passing, but it remains that he was content to allow the mesmeric explanation to stand as appropriate and pi au sib1e .

He says,

Whencesoever originating, there now arose a theory that undertook so to account for these circumstances as to exclude the idea of Clifford’s agency. Many persons affirmed that the history and elucidation of the facts, long so mysterious, had been obtained by the daguerreotypist from one of those mesmerlcal seers, who, nowadays, so strangely perplex the aspect of human affairs, and put everybody’s natural vision to the blush, by the various which they see with their eyes shut.1 This passage also serves as an illustration of Hawthorne’s artistic talent.

Mesmerism very neatly unravels

the mystery of the tale, a mystery which certainly would have been clumsy to unravel by means of the author’s direct expla­ nation, and which none of the characters could have been allowed to do.

1The House of the Seven Gables, p. 368.

In the final analysis Hawthorne can be said to have used mesmerism in a number of different ways and for a number of different purposes.

His imagination was stirred by various

incidents of a mesmeric or spiritualistic nature in his own life.

In one case these stirrings prompted him to send a

serious warning to his fiancee, in another to write of his experiences in a ghost story, in others simply to record the incident in his notebook.

In two of his most important fic­

tional works, he used It to illustrate two of his major themes.

He had already shown his distrust of science in

many of his short stories, and in The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance he used mesmerism as the perfect example of a science to be distrusted.

Moreover, he

used mesmerism to indicate his grasp of worldly affairs and to prove to his readers that he was not concerned wholly with a dream world.

Perhaps his most significant use of the new

science, however, was in The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance, where he employed It as he had in some of his short stories and in The Scarlet letter, as the best possible illustration of a moral evil resulting from an invasion and violation of the sanctity of the soul. In almost all aspects Hawthorne’s concern for mesmerism, an understanding of which contributes significantly to an understanding of the man and author, was in marked contrast to the' reaction of the other major American writer of the

period who was- equally interested In the new science, Edgar Allan Poe.

It Is to the latter that one must turn for an

application of the curious philosophical ramifications and spectacular effects of mesmerism.

146 ,

CHAPTER V THE MAGNETIC INSPIRATION OF POE The sensational and sometimes grotesque effects pro­ duced by the mesmerists and the fascinating philosophical speculations stimulated by the popular fad proved to be especially appealing to Edgar Allan Poe.1

He used mesmerism

to a great extent in two of his stories, "The Facta in the Case of M. Valdemar," and "Mesmeric Revelation," and Inciden­ tally in "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains," and in his prosepoem Eureka. The date of Poe’s first acquaintance with mesmerism is difficult to determine.

Joseph DuCommun, who was probably

one of Poe’s French teachers at West Point, delivered the first lecture on animal magnetism in the United States in 1829.^ He was one of the two French instructors when Poe was at West Point in 1830, and Poe, who stood second in his French class and was therefore likely to be on good terms with his instructor, might possibly have learned about mesmerism from him.3

If the military academy followed the same practice of

1Some of the material for this chapter was noted in an article by Sidney P. Lind, entitled "Poe and Mesmerism," PMLA LXII (December 1947), 1077-94. ^Joseph DuCommun, Three Lectures on Animal Magnetism... (New York: Berand and Mondon, 1629). 3The fact that DuCommun is mentioned on the title page is corroborated in Register of United States Military Academy EEFFoughs, 1«^4), p.

was an instructor at West Point of his book. This Information Officers and Graduates of the from 1801-1844 (New York; W.L.

rotating instructors in 1830 as it does today, Poe certainly would have had DuComimin for an instructor.1

On the other

hand, if there was any contact between the two, no mention of it was made by Poe and no direct or indirect influence may be seen in his early work. A book entitled The Philosophy of Animal Magnetism: By A Gentleman of Philadelphia and published in 1837 has been attributed to Poe.2

It is possible that Poe could have writ­

ten the book although there are some facts which make the case for his authorship rather doubtful.

Joseph Jackson, who argues

for Poe’s authorship, offers the following evidence.

Poe was

In Philadelphia in the autumn of 1837 and In that year of financial panic was desperately in need of money, so he may have tried to capitalize on what may be termed a current vogue. The title page, Jackson continues, is decidedly typical of Poe: the word "philosophy" in the title is suggestive of Poe’s titles, "The Philosophy of Furniture," and "The Philosophy of Composition"; the sub-title uses the word "rationale," again suggestive of Poe title, viz., "The Rationale of Verse"; the' words, "By a Gentleman of Philadelphia," call to mind Poe’s first book, Tamerlane:.. .By a Bostonian, and the uncommon Greek inscription Is another typical Poe device.

Jackson cites

-*-Por this information I am indebted to a letter from^ Major C.E. COvell, Department of Tactics, U.S.M.A., West Point (November 15, 1949). 2Joseph Jackson, The Philosophy of Animal Magnetism, by a gentleman of Philadelphia (Edgar Allan Poe) with an essay on Poe (Philadelphia: J.P. Horn & Co., 1928).

as internal evidence the use of the terms "literati," and Ha posteriori," plus the constant use of Italics and small Caps, which he claims are "Poesque touches."

In addition,

Jackson says that the "tremendous, confident, erudite manner in which the book is written" makes him feel that the same hand wrote Eureka and the review of Arabia Petraea.

His final

comment is, "it may be concluded as an ascertained fact that [Poe] was the author."1

The arguments against Poe’s author­

ship, however, are strong enough to cause his bibliographers, Charles F. Heartman and Kenneth Rede, to say that Poe had nothing to do with the book.2

If Poe had written The Philosophy

of Animal Magnetism, it is quite likely that he would not have allowed seven years to elapse before he utilized the vogue for material in his artistic creations.

Neither would he be likely

to retain his anonymity because of a feeling of shame for the book.

His serious use of mesmeric material in "Mesmeric

Revelation" indicates that he would not be ashamed to acknow­ ledge authorship of a book which professed a belief in mesmerism.

Further, if he had written it, he probably would

have either acknowledged it or at least made reference to It in his review of Newnham’s Human Magnetism (1844) or in his notes or letters concerned with his stories of mesmerism. 1lb id., p. xxix. ^Charles F. Heartman and Kenneth Rede, A Census of First Editions and Source Materials by Edgar Allan Poe In American Editions (Metuchen, New Jersey: American Book Collector, 1932), p . 63n.

To sum up, then, there may have been reason for Poe to write the book, but there was not sufficient reason to retain the anonymity.

Certainly more biographical and historical data

will have to be presented before the question can be settled. In particular, Poe’s activities in the autumn of 1837, as well as those of the minor writers of Philadelphia, will have to be ascertained with some degree of accuracy.

Meanwhile, one

ought perhaps to conclude as Sidney B. Lind concludes:

Poe’s

authorship of The Philosophy of Animal Magnetism is at best a moot point.1 It is possible that Poe may have been influenced by the mesmeric vogue when he wrote "Ligeia" In 1838.

"Ligeia" is

motivated by what Roy P. Basler calls the "idee fixe or obses­ sion11 of the power of the psychical over the physical,^ and Poe himself said that the vision of the story came to him as "a glimpse of the spirit's outer world."

With the exception

of these implications, however, there Is no discernible evi­ dence of the influence of mesmerism. The earliest definite evidence of Poe's interest in the mesmeric vogue came in 1844 when, as Lind has recently shown, Poe made use of animal magnetism in his story, "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains."4

Thereafter, Poe's contacts with the vogue

1Lind, op. cit,, p. 1094n. 2Roy P. Basler, "The Interpretation of Ligeia," College English, V (1944), 364. 3Ibid•, p. 371, (Poe’s penciled comment on a mss. later.) 4Lind, op. cit., pp. 1079-85.

were more numerous *

Later in 1844 he wrote "Mesmeric Revelation,"

and in that same year, if Bervey Allen is correct, Poe attended some of the lectures of the mesmerist, Andrew Jackson Davis.1 In 1845 he reviewed W. Newnham's Human Magnetism and wrote the mesmeric story, "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar." Further, his letters and "Marginalia” during the period from 1844 to 1849 offer ample evidence of his interest in the fad.

At this point it is of interest to ask, did Poe actually believe in mesmerism?

If he did, the fact may throw some light

on the seriousness with which he expected his stories to be interpreted and may explain the relationship of some of his earlier works to Eureka.

The answer must depend to some extent

on an interpretation of the evidence in his letters and in his "Marginalia" comments on "Mesmeric Revelation" and "Tha Valdemar Case.”

All of the available letters In which there

is a mention of "The Valdemar Case" are very clearly Intended to convey the idea that the story is in the nature of a practi­ cal joke.

He wrote to the inquisitive Scottish druggist, Arch

Ramsay, for example, that [ the word "hoax" was ] precisely the word suited to M. Valdemar*s Case.... The article was generally copied in England and is now circulating in France. Some few persons believe it— but _I do not-—and don't you.2 1Hervey Allen, Israfel (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1926) II* 688n• 2The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. John Ward OstrOm (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1948), II, 337 (December 30, 1846). This edition will be referred to henceforth as Letters.

He told. Evert Duyckinck that he "had not the slightest idea that any person should credit [ ’The Valdemar Case’ las any­ thing more than a ’Magazine paper’...," but earlier he had written to Duyckinck, By the enclosed letter from Stonehaven, Scotland TArch Ramsay’s letter], you will see that the ’Valdemar Case" still makes a talk, and that a pamphlet edition of it has been published.... My object in enclosing the Scotch letter... is to ask you to do me a favor which (just at this moment [December 30, 1846]) may be of great importance. It is, to make a paragraph or two for some one of the city papers, stating the facts here given.•• Poe was pushing the publicity value of his "hoax” as far as it would go.

When George W. Eveleth wrote to ask if the story

were really true, Poe replied, "’The Valdemar Case’ was a hoax, of course."2

He even tried to do somewhat the same thing for

"Mesmeric Revelation," telling his "Marginalia" readers that "Mesmeric Revelation" was "pure fiction from beginning to end.’$ The above comments relating to these stories seem to Indicate that Poe tried to make people believe he was poking fun at the mesmerists.

In the particular instances mentioned

the mesmeric facts were not all true, and he took very human delight in noting that he had fooled people by his careful adherence to the possible.

One of Poe’s favorite techniques

^Ibid., II, 433 (March 8, 1849); II, 336 (December 30, 1846). 2Ibid., II, 349 (March 11, 1847). 3The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. James Harrison,' 17 voTs. ^ork: Thomas Y. Crowell and Co., XVI, 71. This edition will be referred to henceforth as The statement was originally published In Godey’s Lady’s August, 1845).

A. 1902), Works. Book

was to give every detail in his stories the illusion of accuracy, and he was pleased that his illusions were success­ ful here.

It is fairly obvious from other "Marginalia"

comments, however, that he was not trying to fool his readers about the powers of mesmerism itself.

He once told his public

that all of the symptoms in "The Valdemar Case" "might have appeared— the identical symptoms have appeared, and will be presented again and again,"1 and In another "Marginalia" peper he said that he had made certain points In "The Valdemar Case" purely as a matter of emphasis, to make the facts conform to verisimilitude.2

These statements, plus Internal evidence In

his stories to be indicated later, lead one to conclude that Poe really believed, as many of his contemporaries also be­ lieved, in the powers of the miraculous animal magnetism.

"A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" published in April 1844 and republished In the Broadway Journal in 1845,3 is Poe’s first mesmeric story, and as Sidney Bind logically concludes, mesmerism should be accepted as "the broad foundation for the imaginative plausibility of the tale."4

Lind asserts that

1Ibid,, p. 179. 2Ibid., XVII, 342. Was Poe ever mesmerized? Mary E. Phillips 'ln~her Edgar Allan Poe The Man [2 vols. (Chicago: John C. Winston rinue des Faits_Relatifs au_Magn6tismg l ^ t m a r ~ 7 ^ I ^ ~in Avril l?81^ a r K. Mesmer, nondres.1781.

22 h.

----- • Supplement aux Observations de M« Berga.sse, ou Rgplemens_dee Socletea de l'HarmnniP Universe! 1p n.p., 1785. Mesnil de Maricourt, R. Viscount. Paris: 1884, Mialle, S. n.d.

Souvenirs d'un MacnSt.l nmir. ------ ----------

Exp o s& __..de s Cures par le Magnetisme Animal . "n.p., v

Mongruel, L.P. Prodiges et Merveilles de l1Esprit Huinain sous 1 Influence Magnetiaue. Paris: 1849. Morand, J.S. Morin, A.S. 1860 .

Le Magnetisme Animal.

Paris: 1889.

Du Magnetisme et des Sciences Occultes. Paris:

[Mouilleseaux]. Appel au Public sur le Magnetisme Animal, cu Pro jet d un Journal pour le Seul Avantage du Public et Pont il Serait le Cooperateur. n.p., 1789. Moutin, L.

Le Magnetisme Humain. Paris: 1701.

Mouteyre, A.J. Du Magnetisme Animal et de ses Partisans, ou Recueil de Pieces Importarite® sur cet Object. Paris: 1812

.

Oppert, C. Observations Relatives it la Lettre de M. Friedlander sur l'Etat Actuel du Magnetisme in Allemagne. Paris: 1817. Perronnet.

Du ^agnetlsme Animal.

Lons le Souvier: 1884.

Peteten, J .H .D . Decouverte des Ph$nom£nes que Presentent la Cataleosie et le Somnambulisme. Lyon:1787. _______. Electricite Animal. Paris: 1808. Phenornenes du Mesmerisme. Paris: 1824. Philips, J.P. [pseud. J.P.Durand de G-ros]. Cours Theorique et Pratique de Bra,idisme ou Hypnoptisme Uerveux. n.p., I860 . Pierant • Le Magnetisme . le Somnambulisme et le— 8piritua 1isiiie dans 1 1Hi stoire. n.p., 1858. P igea ir e , J . Puissance d 1 1Electricity Animaj^_ 0 i i J h O ^ n g t i j ^ Vital et de ses Rapports avec la Physique,— la_Pnysio 1og l.e et la Mfdecine. Paris: 1839. Poincarre.

Etudes sur le Magnet!sme_Animal. Paris: 1865.

Pronz C.C F.M.R. lopvelles Cures Qpergs par le Ma?n6ti am* Animal. Paris: 1784. £LiPropaga^eur;,— Le_*— du_ Magnetisme Animal par une Societe de jledecins. 5 vols. Paris: 1827-1828. ~ ~— Pug&ul e-Le grun.

Kncore du Magnetisme1 . Paris: 1817.

Puysegur, Amand-Marc-Jacques de Chastenet, Marquis de. Appel Savans, Observateurs du Dix I.euvieme Sigbie de i t -P sj£i,.g.j-pn Portee par leurs Predecisseurs contre le Mas£l^..k-i.B.me^Animal» et -.in■du Traitement du Jeune H^rber 1. Paris: 1813. ' Pl-Bcours Prononce par M. de Puvseg-u.r dans la Seance du_ 10 Juin 1790. Paris: n.d. ; Oes Fous. les Insenses, les Maniaques et les Frenjtiques ne Seraient-.ils que des Somnambules Penordonnes? Paris: 1812. * Pu Magnetisme Animal. Consider^ dans ses Rapports avec Dlversfes Branches de la Physique G-enerale. Paris: 1807. 2nd edition. 1820. 3rd edition. 1820. Memoires pour Servir a l fHistolre et si 1 13?stablissement du Magnltisme Animal, n.p., 1784-1785* 2nd edition. 1809. 3I'd edition. Paris: J .G-.Dentu, 1820. . Proces-verbal du Traitement par 1 'Action Magnetiaue d'une Femme Malade par Suite de la Rupture d !un Vaisseau dans la Poitrlne. n.p., 1807. Rapport des Cures Oper^es sE Bayonne par le Magnetisme Animal. Bayonne: 1784. Remontrance des Malades aux Medeclns de la Faculte de. Paris. Amsterdam: 1785. Reponses sE 1 ’Auteur des Doutes d fun Provincial, Proposes_a_ MM. les Med eo In eg Commi ssalres. Charges par le Roi de 1* Fxamen du Magnetisme Animal. Londres: lfSp. Resimont, C . Le Magnetisme Animal Considere_ Oqmme Moyer? Th^rapeutique. Paris: 1843* Reumont.

Magnetisme Animal Therapeutique. n.p., 1843.

Ricard, J.J.A. 1844.

Rivet, J.

PhvBioloqta et Hyaline du I^Knltisme .

Les Maanetlseure devant la..Justice.,

Paris:

Savanay: 1932.

Rouget, F. Tralti Pratique ae Magngtlsme Humaln. or Rg suing ae_t.Qus les Prlncipes et Procedfes du J-lae-ngt.ia.no Humaln. Paris: 1858. — ----Rouxel.

Hisboire, et Philosophie du Magnetisme.

Salzide ,_C , Ibfff Segond. Senso.

Paris: 1895.

Lettres sur le Magnetisme Animal Cnnsir^ere sous de VU6 PhvsiQ-lQG;lG|Ue et Pgvcholo^ique. Paris:

Theorie Positive du Ma&netlsme Animal, n.p., 1853. La Verite sur le Magnetisme Animal.

Society du Magnetism. 1817-1819.

Lausanne; 1881.

Bibliotheaue du Magnetisme Animal.

Paris

Sousselier de la Tour. L fAml de la Mature, ou Mani^re de Traiter les Maladies oar le Pr^tenduMagnetisme Animal. Dijon: 1784. " Strombeck, F.G. Histoire de la Guerison d'une Jeune Personne •par le Magnetisme Animal. Produit par la Nature elle-meme. Paris: 1814. Surville, C. 1871.

Hedecine Magnetique et Somnambullque. Toulouse:

T[andy] De M [orave11e]. Journal du Traitement Magnetique de Madame B . Strasbourg: 1787. Teste, A. .

Manuel Pratique du Magnetisme Animal. Paris: 1840. Le Magnetisme Animal Sxplique.

Theorie du Mesmerisme.

Paris: 1845.

Paris: 1817*

Thouret, Michel Augustin. Extrait de la Correspondence de la Soci£t£ Royale de Hedecine, Relativement au Magnetisme Animal. Paris: *imprirnerie royal, 1785. Recherches et Doutes sur le Magnetisme Animal. Paris: 1784. Tissot. H.

L 1Anti-Magne t1sme Animal.

Bagnols: 1841.

Valleton de Boissiere. Lettre _■§ M. Thouret pour Sery_ir_deRefutation & l'Etrait de la Corre sp^danc^d^la^^c^jte Royal de F^decineT Relativement au Magnet!sme_Animal. Philadelphia: 1785. Ve 1ye . Du Fluide Universal,___de son Activlte^t ,de l ^y^ili.M I f l les Subs^nc^e^^n^aJ.e^s_daujj__le Traitement des Maladies. Paris: l80o.

227.

Vinchon, J. Yung, E.

Mesmer et son Secret,

n.p,, 1935.

Le„.SomiDellJ__MagnStlsme Anlma.i, g+.o

Paris:

1883.

IV. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS PRINTED IN GERMAN ^ ~ ~ 011^ m ^

3-chen G u r •

Frankfort &

Ave-Lallemant, F.G.B. Per Magnet ism us mit seinen Mvstischsn Verirrungen. Leipzig: 1881. ----- -----Baader, F. Ugber die Extase oder das Verzucktsevn der Ifesnetischen Schlafredner. Leipzig: 1817. Bartels, E . Grundzugi,einer Physiologle und Phvsik des Animalischen Magnetismus. Frankfort: 1812. Barth, George.

Der Lebensmagnetismus.

Leipzig: 1852.

Baumler, C. Der Spgenannte Animalische Magnetlsmus oder Hypnotismus. Leipzig: 1881. Bird, F. Mesrnerismus und Bllletristikin ihren Sch&dlichen Einflussen auf die Psvchlatrie. Stuttgart: 1839. Bittel, C. Der Beruhmte Hr. Poet. Mesmer, 1734-1815. Uberlingen: 1939. Bodenmuller, B. Ueber das Verholtniss des Schlafes und des Wachens- zum Mesrnerismus. -Ulm: 1817. Carus, C .G . Ueber Lebensmagnetismus und uber die Magischen Wirkungen uberhaupt. Leipzig: 1857. Csanady, S. Medicinische Philosophle und Mesrnerismus. Leip­ zig: 1860. DuBois—Heymond, E. Untersuchungen uber Thierische Blektricitat. 2 vols. n.p., 1848-1860. Ennemoser, J. " Anleitung zur Me sme rischen.Praxis. n.p., 1852. ,

. Per Magnetisinus in Verhaltnisse zur Natur und...Reli­ gion . Stuttgart: J.G.Gotta, 1842.

Ermon. W. Der Tierlache Magnetismus in Preussen vor und_nach den Frleheltskriegen. Munchen: 1925. El son, Count d* . Beobachungen uber den Thierischen .ragnetlsmus. Carlsruhe: 1781.

Fischer,

P er_Sog.enannte Lebensmagnetismus. Mainz: 1883.

E.L.

Fischer, Freeder. 1840].

Per Somnambulismus. 3 vols. n.p., [ca.

Fritzsehen, F.J.E,, Geschichtliches uber die Anwpndimo- nes ^ogenannten. Thierlschen Magnet1smns in der Medioim. R ^ 1 -i

• 1«7n

------------- ----------- — — —

*

Funck, H • Pgr Magnetismus in der Badischen Markgraffschaft. n.p., 1894.-------------------------------- --------Gessmann, G.

Magnetismus und Hypnotismus.

Haddock, J.W.

Somnolismus und Psvchelsmus. Leipzig: 1852.

Heidenhain, Rudolph* Leipzig: 1880. Kerner, A . J . 1877.

n.p., 1887.

Per Sogenannte Thierische Magnetismus.

Die Seherin von Prevorst. 5th edition. Stuttgart

Kiesewetter, C.

Mesmer1s Leben und Lehre.

Leipzig; 1893*

Kluge, G .A .F . Versuch einer Darstellung dis Animalischen Mag­ netismus als Heilmlttel. Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1815. Krauss, F, Nothschree eines Magnetisch-Vergiftenten. gart: 185?

Stutt­

M., A. Aufkl£rung fur Wissbegierde uber Magnetismus. Pressburg: 1882. Magnetismus und Hypnotismus und ihre Gefahnen. Basle: 1901. Maxwell, W. Drei Bucher der Magnetenohen Heilkunde. gart: 1855-

Stutt­

Mesmer, Franz Anton. Abhandlung uber die Entdeckung des Thierischen Magnetismus. Carlsruhe: 1781. _______. Kurze Geschlcte des Thierisehen Magnetismus bis April 1781. Carlsruhe: 1783. Neubert-h, .J. 1843 •

Die dleiikraft der Menschlichen Hand.

vxrimma.

Passavant, J .C • Untersuchungen uber den Leoensmagneuismus und das Hellschen. Frankfurt: 1837. Reichenbach, Karl Ludwig Friedrich. Physikallsche-phygip.lp.sische Untersuchugen ueber die Dynamide _de_s—Magnetgismus • n.p., n.d.

223.

■ — • Aphorismen liber Sensitivatat und Od. Wien: 1866. Rohn, P.I.

Per Marne tismus als Heilkraft. Mannheim: n.d.

Salli s ,"J .8-. Per- Ti.erische Magneti sinus (hypnotismus) und seine Genesi. Leipzig: S. Gunther, 1887. Schroeder, P. Geschichte des Lebens Magnetismus und des Hypnotismus. Leipzig: 1899. Schuerer-Waldheim. A nton Mesmer. Ein Katurforscher ersten Ranges. Wien: 1930. Swiatlotysky. . Per i'ierlsche Magnetismus. Sympathelisch-Magnetische t Die.

St .Petersburg: 1881.

Stuttgart: 1051.

Ti schner, M • Ueber den Werth und die ^nwendunp; des Thieri schen Magnetismus. Wien: 1846. Tisohner, R. Franz Anton ilesmer. Munchen: 1928.

Leben. Werk, und Wirkungen.

Weinholt..A. Heilkraft des Thierischen Magnetismus. nach eisenen Beobachtingen. Lemgo: 1802-1805. Wo1fart, K .C . Der Magnetismus gegen ale Stieglitz-Hufelandische Schrift uben den Thierischen Magnetismus in seinen wahren Werth Behaupted. Berlin: 1816. Ziermann, J .C .L . Geschlehtliche Darstellung des Thierischen Magnetismus als Heilmittels. Berlin: 1824.

V. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS IK OTHER LAHGUAGES Amoretti, G. Della Raddomanzia Qssla Elettrometria Animale, Recerche Fislche e Storiche. n.p., n.d. Bake, H .A . Verhandelingen over het Dierlilk Magnetismus door de Heerin B. Franklin. Ma.lault etc. Leyden; 1791. Basevi.

Del Magnet!smo Animale. Florence: 1826.

Berardinelli, P. n.p., 1872.

Gludlzio 'aul Magnetismo Animal1,_Rag.1onamento.

Riflessioni e Giudizii sul Magnetismo Animahe. n.p., 1873. Bruining, G. 1815.

Schediasma de Hesnerismp_anti Hesmerum. n.p.,

230.

Burggravius, J.E. Biolychnium seu Lucerna. cum vi +.a e iu«^ - S M accensa est mystice. Huic aoceaalt onra morvor^Fa 'maEnetlca ex Theophrastus. Franekerae: 1 6 1 1 . ~ Gonsoni, T. del. Sagglo_..Intorno ai Principal:! Fenomeni del Me smerismo. n.p., 1849.------------------------ ----Czynski, G.

Magnetyzm

Fossius, P.

De Guratlonlbus ^gnptinls Vulgo Dictlo. Hafniae:

1

Hypnotvzm. etc.

Krakow:

1 8 8 9 ..

J_ I U c~ «

Fraenkel, E.

.Magnetisme oy Hypnotisme. Kj Yale University Press, 1944.

New Haven:

Hardinge, Emma. Thp History of Modern Spiritualism. American iNiews Co., 1870. Hartley, David. Observations on Ban. Richard Cruttwell, 1810. Hawthorne, don:

5

th edition.

Julian. Hawthorne a n d J i j i s ^ C Ircle . Harper & Bros., 1903-

New

New York: London:

Pork

Lon­

24l.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The American Notebooks of A\athaniel Hawthorne. ed. Randall Steward. New Haven: Yale Univer­ sity Press, 1932. -

— • ghe_Compl,ete Works of ^athaniel Hawthnrnp . ed. G-eorge P. Lathrop. 12 vol's. Riverside edition. & New York: Houghton, Mifflin Go., 1888.

-Boston

, — • The Love Letters of Nathaniel hawthorne, 1841-1863. 2 vols. Chicago: Society of the Dafobs, 1907.■ Hay garth, John. On the Imagination, as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders of the Body; Exemplified by Fictions Tractors, and Epidemical Convulsions. Bath: R. Cru.ttwellj 1800. Hearn,_ Lafcadio* Occidental G-learnings. 2 vols. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1925. ~ Heartman, Charles F. and Rede, Kenneth. A Census of First Editions and Source Materials by Edgar Allan Poe in American Editions. Metuchen, New Jersey: American Book Collector, 1932. Hoffman, John Frederick. Freudian!sm and the Literary Bind. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1945. Holmes, Oliver Wendell. The Complete Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes. 13 vols. Autocrat edition. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1892. Howard, Leon. The Connecticut Wits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1943. Howells, William Dean. The Undiscovered Country. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1900. Jackson, David K. The Contributions and Cpntriputors to the Southern Literary Messenger, 1834-1864. Charlottesville: Historical Publishing Co., 1936, James, Henry . The American Novels and Gtorie_s of Henry—5ame_s. ed • Francis 0. Matthiessen• New xork. All red A. Knopf, 1947. Hawthorne.

New York: carper cc Bros., 1879 .

Kirby, Georgiana Bruce. Years of Experience. Putnam ,-s ^ons, 1887.

new Yorx: j .P

■■ ^ L af ave tt e to Washington de. ew York: Helen Fahnes, ^ w_. Lou.... toe k Hubfcard, 1944. Boston B New York: L a w r e n c e , R.M. Primative Psychotherapy. 1910.

242.

Lemaitre, G-eorges. From Cubism to Surrealism in French Litera­ ture. Cambridge: harvard University Press, 1941. Literary, The, _History of the United States, eds. Soiller, Johnson, Canby. 3 vols. New York: Macmillan Co., 1948. Lowell, James Russell. Early Prose Writings of James Russell Lowell, ed. E.E. Hale. London & New York: John Lsne. 1903 . ______ _* The Writings of James Russell Lowell. 1 0 vols. Riverside edition. Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & 0 o ., 1 8 9 0 . McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of the United States. 8 vols. New York & London: D. Appleton & Co., 1883-1913. Matthiessen, 'Francis 0 . American Renaissance. York: Oxford University Press, 1941.

nondon & New

Minnegerode, Meade. The Fabulous Forties. 1840-1850. New York London: G-.P. Putnam s ^ons, 1924. Moll, Albert.

Hypnotism.

London: Walter Scott,

M 0 re, Paul Elmer. Shelburne Essays. 1 st Series. London: G-.P .Putnam1 s Sons, 1904.

1890.

New York

1

Nevins, Allan, The Evening; Post: A Century of Journalism. New York: Boni Liveright, 1 9 2 2 . Osborn, Laughton. Confessions of a Poet. Lea & Blanchard, 1835. The Vision of Rubeta.

Philadelphia: Carey,

Boston: Weeks, Jordan, 1838.

[Orvis], Marion Dwight. Letters from Brook Farm, 1844-1847. ed. Amy L. Reed. Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1928. Os soli, Margaret Fuller. Life Without and Liie //ithin. ArthurFuller. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1 8 9 0 .

ed.

Parrington, Vernon L. Main Currents in American— ihougnt. New York: Harcourt, brace c Co., 1927* Perkins, Benjamin J. Experiments with the retailic_ Tr^cy.ors. London: Luke Hanford fro J. Johnson, 1799. The Influence of Metallic Tractors on the Human Body London: 1798. Perkins, Elisha, Certificates of the_gfflcacy of Dr. PejSclnelj Patent Metallic Instruments. Kewburyport. h.Blunt, 17io.

243. PhlH i p g . M a r y E. Edp;ar Allan Poe: Phe fen. delphia:. John CM WinsBon u o . , 1 926 .

2

vols. Phila-

PioneerT Thar eds. James Russell Lo-well and Robert Garter. New York: Scholars Facsimilies & Reports, 1947. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Works of Edgar ^llan Poe. ed. James A. Harrison. 17 vols. Virginia edition. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell 1 Go., 1 9 0 2 . ^7— * — Last Letters of Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman. ed. James A. Harrison. New York & London: G-.P .Putnam 1 s Sons, 1909. • The Letters of Poe, ed. John Ward Ostrom. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948.

2

vols.

Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. New York & London: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1941. Rambles and Reveries. Philadelphia: Thomas T. Watts, 1855Ray, Marie Beynon. & Go., 1942. Rees, Abraham, ed.

Doctors of the Mind.

Boston: Little, Brown

The Cyclopedia. Philadelphia.: 1811.

Register of Officers and (Graduates of the United States Mill tarv Academy, from 1801 to 1844. New York: William L. Bu rrough s, 1844. Richards, I. A. Principles of Literary Criticism. 5th edition. New York: Harcourt, Brace J Co., 1934. Riegel, Robert E. Young America: 1S50-184Q. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949. Riley, Woodbridge. Co., 1923.

American Thought. New York: Henry Holt &

Robinson, Victor. Victory over Pain: A History of Anesthesia. New York: Henry Schurnan, 1946. Rusk, Ralph. The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949-

New York:

Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. Orestes A. Brownson; A Pilgrim* s Progress. Boston: Little, Brown ^ ^o., ^3^. Scott, Sir Walter.

Letters on PemonoloKy,_and_Wltchcraft. L o nd on : J o h n Murray, 1830.

Seldes, (Gilbert. Co., 1928.

The Stp^mpr1.ng Century.

New York: John Day

244.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shellev. 5 vols. London: George Bell & Go., 1 9 0 1 . Shryock, Richard Harrison. The Development of Modern Medicine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1936. Snyder, Edward D. Hypnotic Poetry. of Pennsylvania Press, 1 9 3 0 .

Philadelphia: University

Stern, Madeleine B. The Life of Margaret Fuller. E.P.Dutton & Co., 1942.

New York:

Stewart, Randall, Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biogra.phy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948. Sweet, William Warren. The Story of Religion in America. New York & London: Harper & Bros., 1939. Swift, Jonathan. The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis. Oxford: B.Blackwell, 1939-1948. Tharp, Louise Hall# The Peabody Sisters of Salem. Little, Brown & C 0., 1 9 5 0 .

Boston:

Thoma s, Augu stu s. The Witching Hour. A Drama in Four Acts * Revised edition. New York: Samuel French, 1 9 1 6 . Thorp, Wi 1 lard. Herman Melville. Representative Selections. American Writers Series. New York: American Book Co., 1938. Tichnor, Garoline. Sons, 1 9 1 6 .

Poe1s Helen. New York: Charles Scribner's

Turner, Arlin. -Hawthorne as -Editor. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1941. Tyler, Alice. Freedom's Ferment. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1944. Upham, Thomas C . Outlines of Imperfect and Disordered Rental Action. New York: Harper B Bros., 1855. Whitman, Sarah Helen. Edgar Poe and His Critics. New xork. Rudd & Carleton, i860. Whittier, John G-reenleaf. A Stranger in Lowell. Waite, Peirce 3c Go., 1845*

Boston:

The Writings of John G-reenleaf Whittier. 7 vols. -----Riverside edition. B o s t o n 3c New York: Hou ghton, Mifflin Co., 1889. Winters, Ivor. PrlmativAsm asnd_Decah:Qnce: A Study.,of_^gencan Experimental Poetry♦ New Yorx: A r r o w Editors, l>o7.

245.

Woodberry, G-eorge E. Letters Series.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. American Men of Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1902.

— _• The Life of Edgar, Allan Poe. 2 vols. Revised edition. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Oq., 1 9 0 9 . Wright, Richardson, Forgotten Ladies. J*B.Lippencott Co., 1928.

Philadelphia & London:

II. PERIODICALS Easier, Roy P. 11The Interpretation of'Ligeia'," College Eng­ lish, V (1944), 365-72. ■ BeattyArthur. "Wordsworth, Hartley, and English Philosophy," University of Wisconson Studies in Language and Literature, XVII (1 9 2 2 ), 8 9 -1 1 6 . Campbell, Killis. "Poe's Reading," University of Texas Studies in English. V (1925), 1 6 6 -9 6 . Chandler, Elizabeth L. "A Study of the Sources of the Tales and Romances Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne Before 1853," Smith College Studies in Modern Languages. VII (1 9 2 6 ), iv. Clark, Harry H. "Emerson and Science," Philological Quarterly. X (1931), 225-60. Davidson, Frank. "A Note on Poe's 'Berenice'," American Litera­ ture, XI (1939), 212-13. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Fessenden's Poems," Amer ican maga.zine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, II (1935;, 403-04. "The Ghost of Doctor Harris," Nineteenth Century, XJVII (1900), 88-93. .

"Hall of Fantasy," The Pioneer7 I (1843), 52-57.

Hicks, G-ranville. "Margaret Fuller to^ Sarah Helen Whitman. An Unpublished Letter, American Litera tur e, I vl^30j, 419-21. Hoagland, Clayton. "The Universe of Eureka," 5ouGherc_L.lt,erarv Messenger, I (1939), 307-13* Hotson, Clarence. "Emerson and the Swedenborgians," Studies in Philology, XXVII (1930;, plf-4b. ord, Edward. "Poe and Phrenology," Amernx.an_i^terature, r" II (1930), 209-31*

Hun^erf

245.

James, Henry.

"Professor Fargo," Galaxy. XVIII (1874), 233-53.

Kesselring, Marlon L. "Hawthorne's Reading, 1828-1852," Bulletin of the New York Public Library, LIII (1940) 134^44. Lafleur, Laurence J. "Edgar Allan Poe as Philosooher " Personal!st. XXII (1 9 4 1 ), 401-05. Mabbott,' Thomas Olive. "English Publications of Poe's 'Vsldemar Case , Notes and Queries. CLXXXIII (1 9 4 2 ), 312. Miller, Harold P. Hawthorne Surveys His Contemporaries " American Literature. XII (1 9 4 0 ), 228-35. Neale, Walter G. The Source of Poe's 'Morelia'American Literature. IX (1937), 237-39. O'brien, Fitz—James. (1855), 233-42.

"The Bohemian," Harper's Magazine. XI ----

Orr, Evelyn Winslow. "Two Margaret Fuller Manuscripts," New England Quarterly. XI (1938), 794-98. "Poe's, Mr., Lecture," Literary World. Ill (1848),

30

.

Rhodes, S.A. "Baudelaire and the Aesthetics of the Sensations," Philological Quarterly, VI (1927), 351-6l. _______.

"Candles for Isis," Sewanee Review, XLI (1933), 212-*24.

Simms, William Gilmore. "Mesmerides in a Stage Coach; or Passes en P a s s a n t G-odey's Lady's Book, XI (1845), 111-19. Skinner, B.F. ."Has Gertrude Stein a Secret?" Atlantic Monthly. CLIII (1934), 50-57. Steiner, Walter R. "Dr. Elisha Perkins of Plainfield, Conn., and His Metallic Tractors," Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago, H I (1923), 79-95. Stern, Madeleine B. "The House of Expanding boors," Hewjtprk History, XIII (1942), 45-52. _______. "Margaret Fuller's Stay in Providence, 1837-1838," Americana, XXXIV (1940), 353-69. Stewart, Randall. "netters to Sophia," Huntington Library Quarterly, VII (1944), 387-95. T ur n e r , A r l i n . " A u t o b i o g r a p h i c a l Elements in H a w t h o r n e s u l i t h e d a l e Romance'," U n i v e r s i t y of Texas Studies in._LnglJ._sh, XV,

(1935), 39-63.

247.

—

"Hawthorne's Literary Borrowings," Publications of the Modern Language Association. LI (1936), 543-62.

Warfel, Harry R. "Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson," Publications of the Modern Language Association, L "(1935) , 576-94. Whittier, John G-reenleaf. "Hew England Supernaturalism," United States Magazine and Democratic Review, XIII (1843), 389-415. Wilt, Napier. "Poe’s Attitude Toward His Tales," Modern Philology. XXV (1927), 101-05.

III. UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL Bartlett, Miss Sarah. Letter to William D. Baker. [Records a lecture on mesmerism at Concord Lyceum, February 12, 1837.] September, 1949. Blakeslee, Mariam. "Mesmerism and Spiritualism in Hawthorne, 1835-1858," Unpublished Master's Theses, University of Chicago, 1920. Covell, Major Cranston E. Letter to William D. Baker. [On Poe's French Teacher at West Point.] November 16, 1949.

VITA Marne : Born: College:

William DeG-rove Baker, Jr. March 5, 1924; Buffalo, hew York. Buffalo State Teachers' College (1941-1943); Hobart College, Geneva, hew York (1943-1944, 1947) B.A. University of Chicago (1948) M.A. (English). Northwestern University (1948-1950) Ph.D. Positions: Ensign U.S.N.R. (1944-1945), Lieutenant (j.g (1946). Commanding Officer,L.C,T. 1045, Mediterranean Theater. Instructor in English, Hobart College (1947) Instructor, Foundation for Better Reading, Chicago, Illinois (1950}.