important secrets on this earth, for assuredly there are some up
in the stars, yonder, of a different kind of importance. Ever
since man has thought, since he has been able to express and
write down his thoughts, he has felt himself close to a mystery
which is impenetrable to his coarse and imperfect senses, and he
endeavors to supplement the feeble penetration of his organs by
the efforts of his intellect. As long as that intellect remained
in its elementary stage, this intercourse with invisible spirits
assumed forms which were commonplace though terrifying. Thence
sprang the popular belief in the supernatural, the legends of
wandering spirits, of fairies, of gnomes, of ghosts, I might even
say the conception of God, for our ideas of the Workman-Creator,
from whatever religion they may have come down to us, are
certainly the most mediocre, the stupidest, and the most
unacceptable inventions that ever sprang from the frightened
brain of any human creature. Nothing is truer than what Voltaire
says: 'If God made man in His own image, man has certainly paid
Him back again.'

"But for rather more than a century, men seem to have had a
presentiment of something new. Mesmer and some others have put us
on an unexpected track, and within the last two or three years
especially, we have arrived at results really surprising."

My cousin, who is also very incredulous, smiled, and Dr. Parent
said to her: "Would you like me to try and send you to sleep,
Madame?"

"Yes, certainly."