Alcott, Louisa May - SSC 20 Read Online Free Page B

. . It was human, it was genial, it affirmed
unity and connection between remote points.” [33] Alcott was well
aware of all these points of view. Moreover, she had access to the library of
books eventually published on such subjects as electrical psychology, magnetic
revelation, and mesmeric influence. She was drawn to the theme, as Hawthorne
and Poe had been drawn. She perceived, as Hawthorne especially perceived, the violation of the
human soul that might result from the penetrating intrusions of the mesmerist.
And whether she believed in it or was skeptical, she knew that the subject of
mesmerism would make a colorful thread to weave into a sensation tale.
                 The
author of “A Pair of Eyes” writes as an expert on the hypnotic function of the
mesmerist’s eye, the effects of hypnotic influence upon the subject, and the
use of mesmerism as an exercise in power. The eyes of Agatha Eure are “two dark
wells . . . tranquil yet . . . fathomless.” Her first exercise in mesmerism is
perpetrated upon her unknowing victim, the painter Max Erdmann, who reacts
almost clinically:
                 It
seemed as if my picture had left its frame. . . . My hand moved slower and
slower. . . . my eyelids began to be weighed down by a
delicious drowsiness. . . . Everything grew misty. ... a sensation of wonderful airiness came over me, and I felt as if I could float
away like a thistledown. Presently every sense seemed to fall asleep ... I
drifted away into a sea of blissful repose. ... I seemed to be looking down at
myself, as if soul and body had parted company and I was gifted with a double
life. . . . then my sleep deepened into utter
oblivion. . . .
     
    [33.] Stoehr, " Hawthorne and Mesmerism," 35,
quoting from Emerson's "Historic Notes on Life and Letters in New England ," and 54-55,
discussing Hawthorne and the unpardonable sin.
See also Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks . . . edited by Randall
Stewart (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1933), PP- Ixxiv-lxxvi;
Madeleine B. Stern, Heads & Headlines: The Phrenological Fowlers (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), pp. 70-85, discussing Poe's "Mesmeric
Revelation."
     
                 Erdmann
is expertly roused from the mesmeric state. “A pungent odor seemed to recall me
to the same half wakeful state. ... an unseen hand
stirred my hair with the grateful drip of water, and once there came a touch
like the pressure of lips upon my forehead. ... I clearly saw a bracelet on the
arm [of Agatha] and read the Arabic characters engraved upon the golden coins
that formed it; I . . . felt the cool sweep of a hand passing to and fro across
my forehead.” Alcott seems to have studied seriously the mesmeric process, the
efficacy of mesmeric passes, and even the use of a bracelet as a magnetic aid.
                 Later
in “A Pair of Eyes,” in the course of their tempestuous marriage, Agatha
exercises her mesmeric powers upon Max with the sole purpose of subduing his
will to hers. Aware of the telepathic influence being exerted upon him, Erdmann
consults a physician. “Dr. L---” is temporarily absent, and while Max awaits his
arrival, his attention is drawn to a book on magnetism, which opens “a new
world” to him. In all likelihood, the book that elucidates his victimization is
Theodore Leger’s Animal Magnetism; or PsycodunaMy , [34] a volume
that includes a general history of the subject, a chapter on Mesmer, and an
account of the progress of the pseudoscience in the United States. “These
operations,” Leger expounded, “are as simple as possible; . . . No apparatus is
necessary. ... It is only necessary that you find a person of impressible
temperament, which is indicated generally by the largeness of the pupils of the
eves.” Theodore Leger happened also to have been physician to the great
American feminist Margaret Puller, and his office was the place of assignation
for her and her lover James