_occupations_--Monday, Emily spends the evening with me, till I go to a
party at Miss Rogers's; Tuesday, we go to the opera; Wednesday, we dine
with the M----s, and go in the evening to Mrs. Grote's; Thursday,
dinner at Mrs. Norton's; Friday, dine with Mrs. C----, who has a ball in
the evening; Saturday, the opera again: and so, pray don't say I am
wasting my time, or neglecting my opportunities.
Yours ever,
FANNY.
CLARGES STREET, Thursday, April 2nd.
DEAREST H----,
I wrote to you yesterday, but have half an hour of leisure, and will
begin another letter to you now. If it suffers interruption, I shall at
any rate have made a start, and the end will come in time, doubtless, if
Heaven pleases....
My father is much in the same condition as when last I wrote to you....
You ask if he does not begin to count the days till Adelaide's return
[my sister was daily expected from Italy, where she had just finished
engagements at the Fenice, the San Carlo, and the Scala]: he speaks of
that event occasionally, with fervent hope and expectation; but he is
seldom roused by anything from the state of suffering self-absorption in
which he lives for the most part....
I forget whether we have heard from Adelaide herself since you left us;
but my father had a letter the other day from C----, who sent him a
detailed account of her success in "Norma," which by all accounts has
indeed been very great.
One of C----'s proofs of it amused me not a little. He said that one
night, when she was singing it, although some of the royal family were
in their box and appeared about to applaud, the people could not
restrain their acclamations, but broke out into vociferous bravos,
contrary to etiquette on such occasions, when it is usual for royalty to
give the signal to public enthusiasm.
Doubtless this was a very great proof of her power over her
fellow-creatures, and of the irresistible human sympathies which are
occasionally, even in such an atmosphere as that of a Neapolitan
theatre, with Bourbon royalty present, stronger than social
conventionalities....
You ask if the new comedy ("London Assurance") is sufficiently
successful to warrant the author's purchase of Henry's horse. I heard,
but of course cannot vouch for the truth of the report, that his fixed
remuneration was to be three hundred pounds for the piece; and when, as
I also hear (but again will not vouch for the truth of my story),
besides Henry's, that he has bought another horse, and, besides that
other horse, a miraculous "Cab," and, besides that miraculous "Cab,"
ordered no fewer than seven new coats, I think you will agree with me
that the author of "London Assurance," successful as his piece may be,
ought to have found a deeper mine than that is likely to prove to serve
so many ends. When I expressed my disapprobation of Henry's assisting by
any means or in any way such boyish extravagance, he said that the lad
had guardians; and therefore I suppose he has property besides what may
come of play-writing--for men's persons, however pretty, are seldom put
under guardianship of trustees; and Henry argued, in the proper manly
fashion, that the youth, having property, had also a right to be as
foolish in the abuse of it as he pleased, or as his guardians would let
him.
We none of us went to see "Patter _versus_ Clatter," after all, having
all some previous engagement, so that, though it was literally given for
our special amusement, we were none of us there.
I have received no less than four American letters by the last steamer,
and this, though a welcome pleasure, is also a considerable addition to
the things to be done. God bless you, dearest H----. This letter was
begun about three days ago, and now it is the second of April.
Yours ever,
FANNY.
[The young author of the clever play called "London Assurance" had a
special interest for me from having been my brother Henry's
schoolfellow at Westminster.... His career as a dramatic author and
actor has won him a high and well-deserved reputation in both
capacities, both in England and America.]
CLARGES STREET, Friday, April 9th.
MY DEAREST H----,
My father is just now much better; he has regained his appetite, and
talks again of going out....
I can tell you nothing about my daguerreotype; for having gone,
according to appointment, last Monday, and waited, which I could ill
afford to do, nearly three quarters of an hour, and finally come away,
there being apparently no chance of my turn arriving at all that day, I
saw nothing of it; and I think it was very well that it saw nothing of
me, for such another sulky thunder-cloud as my countenance presented
under these circumstances seldom sat for its picture to Phoebus
Apollo, or any of his artist sons. I am to go again on Wednesday, and
shall be able to tell you something about it, I hope.
I have not seen Mr. T----'s sketch of the children. He is in high
delight with it himself, I believe; and, moreover, has undertaken, in
the plenitude of his artistical enthusiasm, to steal a likeness of me,
putting me in a great arm-chair, with S---- standing on one side for
tragedy, and F---- perched on the opposite arm of the chair for comedy.
Lane was to have come here to draw the children this very evening; but
it is half-past ten and he has not been, and of course is not coming....
Good-bye, dear.
Ever affectionately yours,
FANNY.
CLARGES STREET, Monday, May 3rd, 1841.
Thank you, dearest H----, for your prompt compliance with my request
about your travelling information.... About the daguerreotype, you know,
I should have precisely the same objection to taking another person's
appointed time that I have to mine being appropriated by somebody else;
but Emily has made another appointment for me: she had made one for the
day on which my sister arrived, which rather provoked me; but I was
resigned, nevertheless, because I had told her I would go at any time
she chose to name. She let me off, however; not, I believe, from any
compassion for me, but because my father had set his heart upon my going
with him to the private view of the new exhibition, just a quarter of an
hour after the time I was to have been at the daguerreotypist's. So to
the gallery I went, an hour after Adelaide had returned from Italy; as
you know, I had not seen her for several years (indeed, not since my
marriage). And so to the gallery I went, with buzzing in my ears and
dizziness in my eyes, and an hysterical choking, which made me afraid to
open my lips. Why my father was so anxious to go to this exhibition I
hardly know; but I went to please him, and came back to please myself,
without having an idea of a single picture in the whole collection.
Emily has now made another appointment for me, or rather for you, early
on Wednesday morning, and I hope we shall accomplish something at last.
Now you want to know something about Adelaide. There she sits in the
next room at the piano, singing sample-singing, and giving a taste of
her quality to Charles Greville, who, you know, is an influential person
in all sorts of matters, and to whom Henry has written about her merits,
and probable acceptability with the fashionable musical world. She is
singing most beautifully, and the passionate words of love, longing,
grief, and joy burst through that utterance of musical sound, and light
up her whole countenance with a perfect blaze of emotion. As for me, the
tears stream over my face all the time, and I can hardly prevent myself
from sobbing aloud.... She has grown very large, I think almost as large
as I remember my mother; she looks very well and very handsome, and has
acquired something completely foreign in her tone and manner, and even
accent.... She complains of the darkness of our skies and the dulness of
our mode of life here as intolerable and oppressive to the last
degree....
I cannot believe happiness to be the purpose of life, for when was
anything ordained with an unattainable purpose?... But life, which, but
for duty, seems always sad enough to me, appears sadder than usual when
I try to look at it from the point of view of the happiness it contains.
The children are well; Lane has taken a charming likeness of them, of
which I promise you a copy. God bless you, dearest H----. I do not lean
on human love; I do not depend or reckon on it; nor have I ever MISTAKEN
any human being for my _best friend_.
Affectionately yours,
FANNY.
CLARGES STREET, May 21st.
DEAREST H----,
From the midst of this musical Maelstrom I send you a voice, which, if
heard instead of read, would be lamentable enough. We are lifted off our
feet by the perfect torrent of engagements, of visits, of going out and
receiving; our house is full, from morning till night, of people coming
to sing with or listen to my sister. How her strength is to resist the
demands made upon it by the violent emotions she is perpetually
expressing, or how any human throat is to continue pouring out such
volumes of sound without rest or respite, passes my comprehension. Now,
let me tell you how I am surrounded at this minute while I write to you.
At my very table sit Trelawney and Charles Young, talking to me and to
each other; farther on, towards my father, Mr. G---- C----; and an
Italian singer on one side of my sister; and on the other, an Italian
painter, who has brought letters of introduction to us; then Mary Anne
Thackeray; ... furthermore, the door has just closed upon an English
youth of the name of B----, who sings almost as well as an Italian, and
with whom my sister has been singing her soul out for the last two
hours.... We dined yesterday with the Francis Egertons; to-morrow
evening we have a gathering here, with, I beg you to believe, nothing
under the rank of a viscount, Beauforts, Normanbys, Wiltons,
_illustrissimi tutti quanti_. Friday, my sister sings at the Palace, and
we are all enveloped in a golden cloud of fashionable hard work, which
rather delights my father; which my sister lends herself to, complaining
a little of the trouble, fatigue, and late hours; but thinking it for
the interest of her future public career, and always becoming rapt and
excited beyond all other considerations in her own capital musical
performances.... As for me, I am rather bewildered by the whirl in which
we live, which I find rather a trying contrast to my late solitary
existence in America.... The incessant music wears upon my nerves a
great deal; but chiefly, I think, because half the time I am not able to
listen to it quietly, and it distracts me while I am obliged to attend
to other things. But indeed, often, when I can give my undivided
attention to it, my sister's singing excites me to such a degree that I
am obliged, after crying my bosom full of tears, to run out of the room.
My father continues in wonderful good looks and spirits.... Here, dear
H----, a long interruption.... We are off to St. John's Wood, to dine
with the Procters: ---- is not ready; my sister is lying on the sofa,
reading aloud an Italian letter to me; the children are rioting about
the room like a couple of little maniacs, and I feel inclined to endorse
Macbeth's opinion of life, that it is all sound and fury and signifying
nothing.... Thus far, and another interruption; and now it is to-morrow,
and Lady Grey and Lady G---- have just gone out of the room, and Chauncy
Hare Townsend has just come in, followed by his mesmeric German patient,
who is going to perform his magnetic magic for us. I think I will let
him try what sort of a subject I should be.
I enclose a little note and silk chain, brought for you from America by
Miss Fanny Appleton [afterwards Mrs. Longfellow], who has just arrived
in London, to the great joy of her sister. I suppose these tokens come
to you from the Sedgwicks. I have a little box which poor C---- S----
brought from Catherine for you--a delicate carved wooden casket, that I
have not sent to you because I was afraid it would be broken, by any
post or coach conveyance. Tell me about this, how I shall send it to
you. I have obtained too for you that German book which I delight in so
very much, Richter's "Fruit, Flower, and Thorn Pieces," and which, in
the midst of much that is probably too German, in thought, feeling, and
expression, to meet with your entire sympathy, will, I think, furnish
you with sweet and pleasant thoughts for a while; I scarce know anything
that I like much better.
I was going to see Rachel this evening, but my brother and his wife
having come up to town for the day, I do not think we ought all to go
out and leave them; so that ---- is gone with Adelaide and Lady M----,
and I shall seize this quiet chance for writing to Emily, to whom I have
not yet contrived to send a word since she left town. God bless you.
Ever yours,
FANNY.
[The young lad Alexis, to whom I have referred in this letter was, I
think, one of the first of the long train of mesmerists,
magnetizers, spiritualists, charlatans, cheats, and humbugs who
subsequently appealed to the notice and practised on the credulity
of London society. Mr. Chauncy Hare Townsend was an enthusiastic
convert to the theory of animal magnetism, and took about with him,
to various houses, this German boy, whose exhibition of mesmeric
phenomena was the first I ever witnessed. Mr. Townsend had almost
insisted upon our receiving this visit, and we accordingly assembled
in the drawing-room, to witness the powers of Alexis. We were all of
us sceptical, one of our party so incurably so that after each
exhibition of clairvoyance given by Alexis, and each exclamation of
Mr. Townsend's, "There now, you see that?" he merely replied, with
the most imperturbable phlegm, "Yes, I see it, but I don't believe
it." The clairvoyant power of the young man consisted principally in
reading passages from books presented to him while under the
influence of the mesmeric sleep, into which he had been thrown by
Mr. Townsend, and with which he was previously unacquainted. The
results were certainly sufficiently curious, though probably neither
marvellous nor unaccountable. To make sure that his eyes were really
effectually closed, cotton-wool was laid over them, and a broad,
tight bandage placed upon them; during another trial the hands of
our chief sceptic were placed upon his eyelids, so as effectually to
keep them completely closed, in spite of which he undoubtedly read
out of a book held up before him above his eyes, and rather on a
level with his forehead; nor can I remember any instance in which he
appeared to find any great difficulty in doing so, except when a
book suddenly fetched from another room was opened before him, when
he hesitated and expressed incapacity, and then said, "The book is
French;" which it was.
Believing entirely in a sort of hitherto undefined, and possibly
undefinable, physical influence, by which the nervous system of one
person may be affected by that of another, by special exercise of
will and effort, so as to produce an almost absolute temporary
subserviency of the whole nature to the force by which it is acted
upon, and therefore thinking it extremely possible, and not
improbable, that many of the instances of mesmeric influence I have
heard related had some foundation in truth, I have, nevertheless,
kept entirely aloof from the whole subject, never voluntarily
attended any exhibitions of such phenomena, and regarded the whole
series of experiments and experiences and pretended marvels of the
numerous adepts in mesmerism with contempt and disgust--contempt for
the crass ignorance and glaring dishonesty involved in their
practices; and disgust, because of the moral and physical mischief
their absurd juggleries were likely to produce, and in many
instances did produce, upon subjects as ignorant, but less
dishonest, than the charlatans by whom they were duped.
The thing having, in my opinion, a very probable existence, possibly
a physical force of considerable effect, and not thoroughly
ascertained or understood nature, the experiments people practised
and lent themselves to appeared to me exactly as wise and as
becoming as if they had drunk so much brandy or eaten so much opium
or hasheesh, by way of trying the effect of these drugs upon their
constitution; with this important difference that the magnetic
experiments severely tested the nervous system of both patient and
operator, and had, besides, an indefinite element of moral
importance, in the attempted control of one human will by another,
through physical means, which appeared to me to place all such
experiments at once among things forbidden to rational and
responsible agents.
I am now speaking only of the early developments of physical
phenomena exhibited by the first magnetizers and mesmerizers--the
conjurers by passes and somnolence and other purely physical
processes; the crazy and idiotic performances of their successors,
the so-called spiritualists, with their grotesque and disgusting
pretence of intercourse with the spirits of the dead through the
legs of their tables and chairs, seemed to me the most melancholy
testimony to an utter want of faith in things spiritual, of belief
in God and Christ's teaching, and a pitiful craving for such a
faith, as well as to the absence of all rational common sense, in
the vast numbers of persons deluded by such processes. In this
aspect (the total absence of right reason and real religion
demonstrated by these ludicrous and blasphemous juggleries in our
Christian communities), that which was farcical in the lowest degree
became tragical in the highest. I only witnessed this one mesmeric
exhibition, on the occasion of this visit paid to us by Mr. Townsend
and Alexis, until several years afterwards, in the house of my
excellent friend Mr. Combe, in Edinburgh, when I was one of a party
called upon to witness some experiments of the same kind. I was
staying with Mr. Combe and my cousin Cecilia, when one evening their
friend Mrs. Crow, authoress of more than one book, I believe, and of
a collection of supernatural horrors, of stories of ghosts,
apparitions, etc., etc., called "The Night Side of Nature" (the
lady had an evident sympathy for the absurd and awful), came,
bringing with her a Dr. Lewis, a negro gentleman, who was creating
great excitement in Edinburgh by his advocacy of the theories of
mesmerism, and his own powers of magnetizing. Mrs. Crow had
threatened Mr. and Mrs. Combe with a visit from this _professor_,
and though neither of them had the slightest tendency to belief in
any such powers as those Dr. Lewis laid claim to, they received him
with kindly courtesy, and consented, with the amused indifference of
scepticism, to be spectators of his experiments. Under these
circumstances, great as was my antipathy to the whole thing, I did
not like to raise any objection to it or to leave the room, which
would have been a still more marked expression of my feeling; so I
sat down with the rest of the company round the drawing-room table,
Mr. and Mrs. Combe, Dr. Lewis, Mrs. Crow, our friend Professor
William Gregory, and Dr. Becker--the latter gentleman a man of
science, brother, I think, to Prince Albert's private librarian--who
was to be the subject of Dr. Lewis's experiments, having already
lent himself for the same purpose to that gentleman, and been
pronounced highly sensitive to the magnetic influence.
I sat by Dr. Becker, and opposite to Dr. Lewis, with the width of
the table between us. What ulterior processes were to be exhibited I
do not know, but the first result to be obtained was to throw Dr.
Becker into a mesmeric state of somnolence, under the influence of
the operator. The latter presently began his experiment, and,
drawing entirely from his coat and shirt sleeve a long, lithe, black
hand, the finger-tips of which were of that pale livid tinge so
common in the hands of negroes, he directed it across the table
towards Dr. Becker, and began slowly making passes at him. We were
all profoundly still and silent, and, in spite of my disgust, I
watched the whole scene with considerable interest. By degrees the
passes became more rapid, and the hand was stretched nearer and
nearer towards its victim, waving and quivering like some black
snake, while the face of the operator assumed an expression of the
most concentrated powerful purpose, which, combined with his sable
color and the vehement imperative gestures which he aimed at Dr.
Becker, really produced a quasi-diabolical effect. The result,
however, was not immediate. Dr. Becker was apparently less
susceptible this evening than on previous occasions; but Dr. Lewis
renewed and repeated his efforts, each time with a nearer approach
and increased vehemence, and at length his patient's eyelids began
to quiver, he gasped painfully for breath, and was evidently
becoming overpowered by the influence to which he had subjected
himself; when, after a few seconds of the most intense efforts on
the part of Dr. Lewis, these symptoms passed off, and the
mesmerizer, with much appearance of exhaustion, declared himself,
for some reason or other, unable to produce the desired effect
(necessary for the subsequent exhibition of his powers) of
compelling Dr. Becker into a state of somnolency--a thing which he
had not failed to accomplish on every previous occasion. The trial
had to be given up, and much speculation and discussion followed as
to the probable cause of the failure, for which neither the
magnetizer nor his patient could account. Believing in this strange
action of nervous power in one person over another, I am persuaded
that I prevented Dr. Lewis's experiment from succeeding. The whole
exhibition had from the very beginning aroused in me such a feeling
of antagonism, such a mingled horror, disgust, and indignation,
that, when my neighbor appeared about to succumb to the influence
operating upon him, my whole nature was roused to such a state of
active opposition to the process I was witnessing that I determined,
if there was power in human will to make itself felt by mere silent
concentrated effort of purpose, I would prevent Dr. Lewis from
accomplishing his end; and it seemed to me, as I looked at him, as
if my whole being had become absorbed in my determination to defeat
his endeavor to set Dr. Becker to sleep. The nervous tension I
experienced is hardly to be described, and I firmly believe that I
accomplished my purpose. I was too much exhausted, after we left the
table, to speak, and too disagreeably affected by the whole scene to
wish to do so.
The next day I told Mr. Combe of my counter-magnetizing, or rather
neutralizing, experiment, by which he was greatly amused; but I do
not think he cared to enter upon any investigation of the subject,
feeling little interested in it, and having been rather surprised
into this exhibition of it by Mrs. Crow's bringing Dr. Lewis to his
house. That lady being undoubtedly an admirable subject for all such
experiments, having what my dear Mr. Combe qualified as "a most
preposterous organ of wonder," for which, poor woman, I suppose she
paid the penalty in a terrible nervous seizure, a fit of temporary
insanity, during which she imagined that she received a visit from
the Virgin Mary and our Saviour, both of whom commanded her to go
without any clothes on into the streets of Edinburgh, and walk a
certain distance in that condition, in reward for which the sins and
sufferings of the whole world would be immediately alleviated. Upon
her demurring to fulfil this mandate, she received the further
assurance that if she took her card-case in her right hand and her
pocket-handkerchief in her left, her condition of nudity would be
entirely unobserved by any one she met. Under the influence of her
diseased fancy, Mrs. Crow accordingly went forth, with nothing on
but a pair of boots, and being immediately rescued from the terrible
condition of mad exposure, in which she had already made a few paces
in the street where she lived, and carried back into her house, she
exclaimed, "Oh, I must have taken my card-case and my handkerchief
in the wrong hands, otherwise nobody would have seen me!" She
recovered entirely from this curious attack of hallucination, and I
met her in society afterwards, perfectly restored to her senses.