FRANZ ANTONY MESMER.
For some weeks great excitement had existed in Vienna. In all
assemblies, coffee-houses, and restaurants, in the streets and on the
public places, the topic of conversation had been the wonderful cures of
the Suabian physician, Mesmer. These cures contravened all past
experience, and set at naught all reason. Mesmer made no use of
decoction or electuary--he prescribed neither baths nor cataplasms; he
cured his patients by the power of his hand and the glance of his large,
dark eye. He breathed upon their foreheads, and forthwith they saw
visions of far-off lands; he passed the tips of his fingers over their
faces, and pain and suffering vanished at his touch. No wonder that
physicians denounced him as a charlatan, and apothecaries reviled him as
an impostor.
No wonder that the populace, so prone to believe the marvellous, had
faith in Mesmer, and reverenced him as a saint. Why should he not
perform miracles with his hand, as did Moses with a rod, when he struck
the rock? Why should not the power of his eye master disease, as once
the glance of the Apostles gave speech to the dumb, and awakened life in
the dead?
Mesmer, too, was an apostle--the apostle of a new faith. He bade
suffering humanity turn to heaven for relief. "The reflection from the
planets," said he, "and the rays of the sun, exercise over the human
system a magnetic power. The great remedy for disease lies in this
magnetic power, which resides in iron and steel, and which has its
highest and most mysterious development in man."
The people believed, and sought his healing hand. He mastered their
infirmities, and soothed their sufferings. But the more the world
honored and trusted him, the more bitter grew the hatred of the faculty.
Each day brought him fresh blessings and fresh imprecations. The
physicians, who, in Salzburg, had hurled Paracelsus from a rock, dared
not attempt the life of Mesmer; but they persecuted him as an impostor,
and proved, by learned and scientific deduction, that his system was a
lying absurdity.
Those who affected strength of mind, and refused to believe any thing
except that which could be demonstrated by process of reasoning, gave in
their adherence to the indignant physicians. Those, on the contrary, who
had faith in the mysteries of religion, were disciples of Mesmer; and
they reverenced him as a prophet sent from heaven, to prove the
supremacy of nature over knowledge.
Mesmer's fame had reached the court, and the empress herself became
interested in his extraordinary achievements. In vain Van Swieten and
Stork besought her to silence the audacious quack, who was ruining a
great profession. She shook her head, and would have nothing to do with
the feud.
"I shall wait and see," said she. "His system is harmless, and I shall
not fetter him. One thing is certain. His manipulations will never
poison anybody, as many a regular physician's prescription has done, and
he shall not be molested. He has voluntarily sought an ordeal which will
determine his position before the world. If he cures the blindness of my
little protege, Therese, I shall give in my adherence with the rest; for
he who restores the blind to sight, holds his skill from above."
This young girl was known to all Vienna. In her second year, after an
attack of suppressed measles, she had become blind, and all attempts to
restore her sight had proved unavailing. But if sight had been denied to
her eyes, her soul was lit up by the inspiration of art. When Therese
sat before the harpsichord and her dexterous fingers wandered over its
keys--when, with undisturbed serenity, she executed the most difficult
music that could be written for the instrument, no one who saw her
beautiful eyes could have surmised their inutility. Her features were
expressive, and those sightless eyes apemed at times to brighten with
joy, or to grow dim with sorrow. Nevertheless, Therese von Paradies was
wholly blind; her eyes were merely the portals of her soul--they sent
forth light, but received none in return.