Facts in mesmerism, with reasons for a dispassionate inquiry into it / [Chauncy Hare Townshend].

  • Townshend, Chauncy Hare, 1798-1868.
Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts in mesmerism, with reasons for a dispassionate inquiry into it / [Chauncy Hare Townshend]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    4/596
    mesmerical researches entirely apart from yourself; nay, on the other side of the Channel; and that, yet more, we were but recently made acquainted, by letter only — through the medium of a mutual friend, Avho is not a mesmeriser, but a public functionary and man of letters. Again : let it be known that I never had the pleasure of seeing you till within the last two months ; though, indeed, I must add, that I think it a loss not to have made your acquaintance earlier. It was said of some great man — Burke, I think, — that you could not stand up with him under a shed during a shower of rain, without finding out that you were in company with a fine genius. The remark may be applied, with some diversity, in most cases. Our first impressions of persons are often an instinctive judg- ment, of which our after feelings towards them are only a developement; and, with regard to yourself in particular, I am not singular in remarking, that to converse with you, but for a quarter of an hour, is to carry away a pledge of your honour as a gentleman, and of your sincerity as a man of principle ; and this, independently of the knowledge that, to the cause of truth, you have made every sacrifice except that of integrity. I must speak my opinion, — though at the risk of being suspected of flattery. You, at least, shall not have the credit of countenancing the pane- gyric, as this letter will only be read by you on the day it is given to the public. \