Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Travels through Finland - Chapter XIX
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THROUGH FINLAND. 271
happening to pafS by Uleaborg at the fame time, flopped a day,
that they might obferve fome of the magnetical performances.
From previous concert one of them was to affume the appearance
of being affected ; but at the moment when the magnetifer fhould
fees confident that his art had taken effect, he who was to feign
himfelf afleep, at a fign given him by the other, was to awake
in furprize, and thus difappoint the credulity of the operator and
his audience. The experiments accordingly began: one of them
was unfufceptible of the magnetic impreffion, the other was ac-
tually affected, and his companion might make what figns he
pleafed; he was deaf, incapable of underftanding any thing, and
in fuch a languid and lethargic ftate, that every act of volition
was entirely fufpended. ‘The two gentlemen will probably give
fome account of their travels, and poffibly confirm the truth of
my relation of thefe almoft incredible experiments.
It is to be regretted, that the mefmerians in general have their
minds fo heated by the extraordinary, I had almoft faid fuperna-
tural, afpect of thofe phenomena, that they fuffer themfelves to
be fo hurried away by the imagination, as to mount to the fkies
in order to find. the phyfical caufe of thofe effects among the
clouds, inftead of confulting and inveftigating nature in the prac-
tice of frequent experiments, and with that fobriety of mind
which ought to be the faithful guide of philofophy in all her en-
quiries into the caufes of things. The imagination, fafcinated —
and enflaved by the charm of fomething preternatural, tries,
while bewildered with confufed conceptions, to divine the meaning,
the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
