[1] See Mr. Norton's "Travel and Study in Italy," p. 132.
[2] "Giudica e manda, secondo che avvinghia."
_Inf._ v. 5
[3] "Les observateurs éclairés manquaient en 1737 pour suivre la
transformation des phénomènes morbides."--Calmeil, _De la Folie_, Tom.
II. p. 317.
[4] _La Vérité des Miracles opérés par l'Intercession de M. de Pâris et
autres Appellans démontrée; avec des Observations sur le Phénomène des
Convulsions_, par Carré de Montgéron, Conseiller au Parlement de Paris.
3 vols. 4to. 2d ed. _Cologne_, 1745.
The first edition, consisting, however, of a single volume only,
appeared in 1737, and was presented to the King in person at Versailles,
by M. de Montgéron, on the twenty-ninth of July of that year. The work
was translated into German and Flemish; and besides several editions
which appeared in France, one was published in Germany and two in
Holland. It is illustrated with costly engraving.
Though the King (Louis XV.) received M. de Montgéron in an apparently
gracious manner, yet, the very night after his reception, as he had
himself foreseen, he was arrested and cast into the Bastille. Thence he
was transferred from one place of confinement to another; and at the
time he was preparing the second edition of his work, he was still (in
1744) a prisoner in the citadel of Valence. (See Advertisement to that
edition, note to page vii.) He died in exile at Valence, in 1754.
[5] Voltaire, with his usual wit and irreverence, proposed that the
notice, proclaiming the royal command, to be affixed to the gate of the
church-yard should read as follows:--
"De part le Roi, défense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu."
[6] Hecker alleges that "the insanity of the _Convusionnaires_ lasted,
without interruption, until the year 1790," that is, for fifty-nine
years, and was only interrupted by the excitement of the French
Revolution; also, that, in the year 1762, the "Grands Secours" were
forbidden by act of the Parliament of Paris.--_Epidemics of the Middle
Ages_, from the German of I.F.C. Hecker, M.D., translated by B.G.
Babington, M.D., F.R.S., London, 1846, p. 149.
There were published by Renault, parish, priest at Vaux near Ancerre,
two pamphlets against the Succorists,--one entitled "Le Secourisme
détruit dans ses Fondemens," in 1759, and the other, "Le Mystère
d'Iniquité," as late as 1788,--an evidence that the controversy was kept
up for at least half a century.
[7] "A peine l'entrée du tombeau eût elle été fermée, qu'on vit le
nombre des Convulsionnaires s'accroître extraordinairement. Les
convulsions commencèrent à s'étendre jusqu'à, des personnes qui
n'avaient ni maladie ni infirmité corporelle."--_Oeuvres de Colbert_,
Tom. II. p. 203. (This is Colbert, Bishop of Montpelier, and nephew of
Louis XIV.'s minister.)
[8] Montgéron, work cited, Tom. II. p. 36. Calmeil, _De la Folie_, Tom.
II, pp. 315, 317.
[9] For particulars and certificates in this case, see Montgéron, Tom.
II. _Troisième Démonstration_, pp. 1-58.
[10] Montgéron, work cited, Tom. II. _Pièces Justificatives de la
Troisième Démonstration_, p. 4.
[11] Montgéron, Tom. I. _Seconde Démonstration_, p. 6.
[12] "_Un coup d'épée_" is the expression employed by Montgéron; but the
facts elsewhere reported by himself do not seem to bear out, in most
cases, its accuracy. It was not usually a _thrust_ of a sword's point,
but only a _pressure_ with the point of a sharp sword, often so strong,
however, that the weapon was bent by its force.
[13] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 10.
[14] See, for the entire relation, from which I have here given extracts
only, Montgéron's work, Tom. III. pp. 24-26. Montgéron, though he
vouches for the narrator as a gentleman worthy of all credit, does not
give his name, nor that, of the physician, except as Dr. M----. The
occurrence took place in 1732.
[15] Montgéron, Tom. III. pp. 107-111.
[16] _Ibid._ p. 688.
[17] "As murderous blows must either wound or kill, but for a miracle,
there ought to be a promise or a revelation to warrant their infliction.
But God has given no such promise, no such revelation, to justify the
demanding or the granting of the succors. It is, therefore, a tempting
of God to do so."--_Vains Efforts des Discernans_, p. 133.
[18] _Chenet_ is the French expression, an andiron, or dog-iron, as it
is sometimes called. Montgéron thus describes it: "The andiron in
question was a thick, roughly shaped bar of iron, bent at both ends, but
the front end divided in two, to serve for feet, and furnished with a
thick, short knob. This andiron weighed between twenty-nine and thirty
pounds."--Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 693.
[19] _Vains Efforts des Discernans_, p. 134.
[20] _Mémoire Théologique_, p. 41. This is admitted also by the Abbé,
see _Vains Efforts_, p. 127, and by M. Poncet, _Réponse_, etc., p. 15.
[21] Montgéron, Tom. III. pp. 693, 694. The author takes great pains to
disprove a theory which few persons, in our day, will think worth
refuting. In this connection, he quotes from a memoir drawn up by a
gentleman who had spent much time in examining these phenomena, as
follows:--"The force of the action and movement of the instruments
employed is not broken or arrested or turned aside. Experience
conclusively proves this. One sees the bodies of the convulsionists bend
and sink beneath the blows. One can perceive that the parts assailed are
twisted, and receive all the movements which such weapons as those
employed are calculated to communicate. And the violence of the blows is
often such that not only are they heard from the lowest story of a house
to the highest, but they actually communicate to the floor and to the
walls of the apartment a shock, which is sensibly felt, and which causes
the spectators to start."--p. 686.
Montgéron adds his own personal experience. He says,--"That has happened
frequently to myself. I have often been so much impressed with the
strong motion communicated to the floor by the terrible blows dealt with
stones or billets of wood with which they were striking convulsionists,
that I could not restrain a shudder. For the rest, this is an occurrence
to the truth of which there are as many to testify as there have been
persons, whether friends or foes, who have seen the 'great succors.' One
may say, that it is a fact attested by witnesses
innumerable."--Montgéron, Tom. III. p 686.
Independently of the theory of Satanic intervention which the above
details are adduced to disprove, they are very interesting in
themselves, for the insight they give into the exact character of these
terrible probations.
[22] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 694.
[23] Quoted by Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 697.
[24] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 697.
[25] _Mémoire Théologique_, p. 96.
[26] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 697.
[27] _Ibid._ p. 698.
[28] _Lettre du Dr. A---- à M. de Montgéron_, p. 8.
[29] _Ibid._ p. 7.
[30] Montgéron, Tom. II. _Idée de l'État des Convulsionnaires_, pp. 45,
46. Montgéron does not allege, however, that any other part of the body
than that where the warning pains were felt became insensible or
invulnerable. He cites (Tom. III. p. 629) the case of a convulsionist
who, "at the moment when they were striking her on the breast with all
possible force with a stone weighing twenty-five pounds, bade them
suspend the succors for a moment, till she adjusted, in another part of
her dress, a pin that was pricking her."
[31] Montgéron, Tom. II. _Idée de l'État des Convulsionnaires_, pp. 31,
32.
[32] Montgéron, Tom. II. _Idée de l'État des Convulionnaires_, p. 33.
[33] _Lettre du Dr. A---- à M. de Montgéron_, p. 7.
[34] _Réponse des Anti-Secouristes à la Réclamation_, par M. Poncet,
p. 4.
[35] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 706.
[36] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 707.
[37] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 720.
[38] _Ibid._ pp. 713, 714.
[39] _Ibid._ p. 719.
[40] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 716.
[41] _Ibid._ p. 721.
[42] _Ibid._ p. 709.
[43] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 708.
[44] _Ibid._ p. 718.
[45] _Ibid._ p. 709.
[46] Montgéron, Tom. III. pp. 722, 723.
[47] The details are given by M. Morand, a surgeon of Paris of high
reputation, member of the Academy of Sciences, who had been employed by
the Lieutenant of Police to make to him a report on the subject, and who
reproduces the result of his observations in his "Opuscules de
Chirurgie." He found four girls, the centres of whose hands and feet
were indurated by the frequent perforations of the nails. He witnessed
the operation of crucifying one of them, the Sister Félicité. A certain
M. La Barre was the operator. The nails were of the sort called
_demi-picaron_, very sharp, flat, four-sided, and with a large head.
They were driven, at a single blow of a hammer, nearly through the
centre of the palm, between the third and fourth fingers; and in like
manner through each foot a little above the toes and between the third
and fourth; the same stroke causing the nail to enter also the wood of
the cross. Félicité gave no signs of sensibility during the operation.
When attached to the cross, she was gay, and converged with whoever
addressed her, remaining crucified nearly half an hour. Morand remarked,
that her wounds were not at all bloody, and that very little blood
flowed, even when the nails were withdrawn. See his "Opuscules de
Chirurgie," Partie II. chap. 6.
[48] _De la Folie_, Tom. II.; the page I omitted to note.
[49] It Is desirable that the reader should look up these localities
upon a map of Switzerland, that he may be impressed with the growing
grandeur of these ancient glaciers, even while they were retreating into
the heart of the Alps; for in proportion as they left the plain, the
landscape must have gained in imposing effect in consequence of the
isolation of these immense masses of ice, which in their united
extension may have recalled rather the immensity of the ocean, than the
grandeur of Alpine scenery.
[50] This map, with all its details and measurements, is reproduced (Pl.
V. fig. 1) in my "Système Glaciaire." It was accompanied by an
explanatory paper in the form of a letter to Altmann, then Professor at
Berne.
[51] M. de Charpentier has published a map of this ancient glacier in
his "Essay upon the Glaciers and Erratics of the Valley of the Rhone."
[52] In the last report of the New-England Emigrant Aid Company we find
the following significant passage:--
"There is, undoubtedly, a general desire among the inhabitants of the
Northern and Middle States to remove into the States south of them,
which will soon welcome the introduction of free labor. This desire
manifests itself strongly among soldiers who have seen the beauty and
fertility of those States, in their duty of occupation and protection;
and it has communicated itself to their friends with whom they have
corresponded. Society in those States is, however, still so disturbed,
and in such angry temper, that no Northern settler will be welcome or
comfortable, as yet, who goes alone. To be saved the animosities and the
hardships of lonely settlement, it is desirable that parties of
settlers, furnishing to each other their own society, and thus far
independent of dissatisfied neighbors, should go out together. The
conditions on which only land can be obtained point to the same
organization. Lands already under cultivation are not offered for sale
in all the Border States, at very low rates. If parties of settlers
could buy in the large quantities which are offered, it would prove that
they could remove and establish themselves, in some instances, upon
these lands, almost as cheaply as they have hitherto been able to make
the expensive Western journey and take up the cheap wild lands of the
Government.
"But such purchases in the Border States are only possible when large
tracts of land are sold. To enable the settler of small means to take a
farm of a hundred acres, there needs the intervention of the organizers
of emigration. Such a company as ours, for instance, can bring together,
upon one old plantation, twenty, thirty, or forty families, if
necessary: it can arrange for them terms of payment as favorable as
those heretofore granted by the Government or the great railroad
companies of the West."
Such suggestions apply more strongly to the case of Florida, which has
come within our power since this report was published. Florida is,
indeed, more easily protected from an enemy's raids than any of the
so-called Border States.
[53] Written--if the author will permit us to tell--by Rev. Samuel
Johnson, one of the truest and ablest of our scholars.