"Are you suffering?"
"No, William; now you have come. I thought I was alone again. That
thought made me so miserable! Will you not sit with me a while until I
become calm?"
"You may be sure I shall not leave you again. Now try to sleep."
He was fast gaining control of himself; as he gained in this respect,
she grew more quiet and soon was fast asleep.
The doctors both came in answer to the summons, but James told them that
their services were unnecessary, so they returned to their homes. After
this episode, knowing the cause of the difficulty, William remained
almost constantly with Clarissa, taking a large measure of happiness
from the knowledge his presence was necessary to her happiness. He kept
her as quiet and cheerful as possible.
As he studied the book she had given him, he discussed many points with
her, when she was awake, acknowledging frankly his surprise at her quick
understanding. He told her the truth when he said he enjoyed talking
science with her better than with any man he had met, for her perception
was very keen and accurate, though she had little knowledge of
mesmerism, as a practical and demonstrated science.
She proved herself capable to reason, and interpret some points obscure
to him, owing to the fact his mind had been trained in a certain groove
of thought, and was thus prejudiced and partial; having no certainly
defined theories, she could absorb and embrace new and higher facts far
more quickly than he. Whenever a new assertion was presented to him, he
could not help but compare it with his past work or ideas, and was
prejudiced in their favor when the balance was nearly equal, owing to
the fact he had performed such feats of power by following the guidance
of former schools of wisdom: on the other hand, Clarissa had supreme
faith in every word Alice had given her, so she tried to make William
believe all the book contained.
Her will was untrained, while his was, and developed to the highest
degree. What she lacked in training, she made up in persistence. She was
a staunch ally of Alice's assertions, striving by every ingenuity of her
mind to successfully pit Alice's ideas against William's tried
experiments. Both were stubborn;--William, because he felt actual
experience was of more value than theory; Clarissa, because she knew
both her own and Alice's mind was unprejudiced when the facts in the
book were given.
William had entranced Alice every time, and, in fact, brought her out.
Alice had never known for what reason she was entranced and did not now
know she had been instigating intelligence to produce a book upon
mesmeric influence.
Clarissa knew her mind had not prejudiced Alice in the slightest, as she
knew too little of the science to do so; thus when it came to a conflict
of faith between William and Alice, she always advocated Alice's
assertions with the full might of her power.
That book had been a work of love, upon their part. Alice had said while
in the trance, that the acceptance of those facts would make William a
greater and more illustrious man. Clarissa believed it, and used all her
power of persuasion and logic to make him understand and accept them.
She was successful, far beyond her hopes. He listened to her arguments
and reasons as he would have done to no man's. When their ideas clashed,
he tried by all the arguments he knew to convince her.
Take a man and woman of equally developed wisdom, and the woman's mind
has been acknowledged by the most competent judges to be the more
subtle and intuitive, avowing, often, upon the impulse, precepts and
assertions convincing to their listeners, which, if called upon to
explain, they would be powerless to do so. This fact has given birth to
the axiom "Men reason logically;--women intuitively." Thus it was that
Clarissa could confound, perplex and convince William, while the deep
basic principles underlying the effects she so strenuously asserted,
were entirely unknown to her.
William never acknowledged, even in after times, how much real knowledge
Clarissa imparted to him, and as her one thought had been to avouch and
do justice to Alice's work, she did not give herself the due amount of
praise. When she succeeded in convincing William, upon a point of
disagreement, she gave the credit instinctively to Alice.
In this communion and the almost constant conflict of wills both were
growing immensely, without their consciousness of the fact, but Clarissa
could never hope to be the practical demonstrator of the science that
William was, and would be. She could acquire through sensitiveness,
knowledge he could manifest, but could never gain originally.
This is a good proof of the law that all finite lives are fallible, one
excelling in one branch of knowledge or execution, and another, in
other branches. One eternally leans upon and depends upon the other for
something, as it is only the Infinite that embraces all there is within
itself.
The word "infinite" implies all; therefore, all individual or finite
lives are faulty and fallible, furnishing less developed lives with
power and knowledge, while they are, themselves, compelled to depend
upon other lives still higher in the evolutionary chain of existence for
similar favors.
Clarissa and William were both positive and strong souls, and the union
of their forces and intellects meant a much stronger power than either
could ever hope to reach alone. The very fact they took opposite views
of the question was a beneficial factor to both. The conflict of wills
drew from both higher wisdom than they knew they possessed. Neither
wanted to be defeated, so each tried to bring forth the most persuasive
and logical powers. The natural result was that both were benefited and
advanced.