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Rare Original writings of Franz Anton Mesmer
Animal magnetism must be considered, in my hands, as a sixth "artificial"
sense. The senses can be neither defined nor described: they are
experienced. It would be useless to try to explain the theory of
colors to a person blind from birth. It is necessary that he see
them; that is to say, they must be experienced.
It is the same with animal magnetism. It must, in the first place,
be transmitted by experience. Experience alone can render my theory
intelligible.
For example, one of my patients had, to my comprehension, more
of an inclination to experience results than the rest of the people,
and was accustomed to feeling the effects, which I produced.
The supposition of a sixth "artificial" sense should
not be shocking: everyone who has used a microscope has-expressing
it in a strict sense-made use of a sixth "artificial"
sense.(a)
If the microscope were not known and a person with an agile mind
were to think of it and were to predict its invention and its marvelous
effects, people would not pay attention to him; at best, he would
be received as a clever dreamer.
lie would, to no purpose, establish the possibility of his system
through profound calculations based on the mechanics of the eye
and the phenomena of light. His language, necessarily abstract,
would be relegated to obscurity.
If he were subsequently to announce the hope, near at hand, of
realizing what, up until then, he only had as presentiment, his
confidence would be considered as presumptuous.
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(a) Hearing, vision, smell, and taste are nothing more than extensions
of touch, so that there is only one sense. However, in associating
oneself with what is perceptible to sense, one counts five. One
must admit that the microscope is to the eye what the eye is to
touch: an extension of the organ. This idea should not be too abstract,
except for persons who have little familiarity with the language
of science.
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If by the perseverance of his labor he were to finally succeed
in becoming the owner of a microscope, and lie were to invite scholars
in order to convince them by their own eyes of the truth and the
advantages of his discovery, wouldn't it be ungracious of these
scholars to refuse this on the grounds that they had not been given
a previous description of the instrument and the theory of its effects?
Would one accuse the author of dishonesty if he claimed that the
description of a microscope could in no way take the place of the
possession of a microscope?
Would it not be admissible if he were to assert that the definition
of this instrument could only be intelligible to those who already
had a clear idea of what is involved with a piece of glass shaped
in the form of a lens?
By the time the microscope would have become, by means of intelligent
workers, as universal as it is today, people would regard it to
be as simple as playing a game. However, in order that there be
a single observer worthy of the greatness of Nature, how many narrow,
inept, even impertinent observers are there!
The simplest act of the inventor would have been to lavish this
admirable piece of machinery upon the world without taking any precautions
That the world disregards quaint articles, and even misuses them
up to a point, would be a trivial inconvenience.
However, were his discovery to affect the safety, health, life
or death of his fellow man, he would have committed a very imprudent
act: sacred matters regarding which there is so much frivolity.
The thoughts, which I have just presented, can be applied to animal
magnetism, and two principal conclusions can be drawn from them.
The first is that I have tried in vain to present the theory of
my doctrine without any preliminaries: no attention has been paid
to it, nor has it been understood. The second is that once my doctrine
has become universally established, it will, in its usage, appear
to be standard to those glancing at it superficially, while it will
completely occupy all of the intellectual faculties of those worthy
of its administration.
Having acknowledged these two conclusions, one must understand
the kind of prudence involved in my desire to produce students who
understand me, to whom I can transmit the fruits of my experience
without danger, and who would be able, in turn, to form new students.
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