Miss. Martineau's Letters on Mesmerism #268646

Mesmerism six years ago, when I related a series of facts, on the testimony of five persons whom I could trust, to one whose intellect I was accustomed to look up to, though I had had occasion to see that great discoveries were received or rejected by him on other grounds than the evidence on which their pretensions rested. He threw himself back in his chair when I began my story, exclaiming, Is it possible that you are bit by that nonsense? On my declaring the amount of testimony on which I believed what I was telling, he declared, as he frequently did afterwards, that if he saw the incidents himself, he would not believe them he would sooner think himself and the whole company mad than admit them. This declaration did me good; though, of course, it gave me concern It showed me that I must keep my mind free, and must Observe and decide independently, as there could be neither help nor hindrance from minds self-exiled in this way from the region Of evidence. From that time till June last, I was, as I have said, a believer in Mesmerism on tes timony. The reason why I did not qualify myself for belief or disbelief on evidence was a substantial one. From the early summer of 1839, I was, till this autumn, a prisoner from illness. My recovery now, by means of mesmeric treatment alone, has given me the most thorough know ledge possible that Mesmerism is true.