The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-09-20
NAPOLEON LAUGHEDAT BUMPS.
Made 1t Rule Never to Allow Himself
to BE Influenced by q Mans Face.

ism. "Mesmcr and mesmerism,' said
he. ''have never recovered from Bailly's
investiga ton made in behalf of the
Academy OF Sciences. Mesmer eXer-
| cised power over a person, magnetic
ing him as he stood face to face with
him. This same person magnetized
from behind and. not knowing what
was going on. felt nothing. 1t was
| then on his part an illusion of his inn
agination, a weakness of the faculties;
it is the S0mnambulist who at night
runs along the roofs without danger;
in the daytime he would break his
neck, because his senses would be a@i-
tated. One day at one 0f my public
audiences | took in hand the charlatan,
Puyscgur, on the subject of his som
nambule' name given to persons whom
the 'charlatan' can put into a trance,
translationL He undertook TO get on
his high horse; brought him Down by
these words alone: If it is so wise. let
= tell Us something new, In two hun
! dred years men have made much prog
rcss. Let it specify one single step for
ward it has made. Let it tell what, it
will do in eight days Let it make
known the numbers which viii De
drawn at the lottery tomorrow"
Il did the same for Gall. l contrib
uted much to the undoing. Corvisart
was his great votary: he and his like
have great penchant for materialisn:
| it would extend their science and their
domain. But nature is not 50 poor. If
she were 50 gross as to make herself
known by exterior forms we would
| make more rapid progress in our task,
and we would be better informed. Her
secrets are more subtitle and more deli
cate, more fugitive, until now they es-
| cape every effort to grasp them. A
little hunchbacls turns out 4 great
| genius; tall handsome man is only a
blockhead A large head with a big
| brain sometimes contains u single idea,
while a small brain is found to be en-
dowed with a vast intellect.
"And now look at Calls imbeciijty.
! He attributed to certain bumps pro
| pensities and crimes which spring only
| from society and the covenants OF man.
What becomes of the bump of robbery,
/ If there is no property; the bump Of
vi t'llNCuil-NN, IL IltIt - llD lrEItltHltu
| liquor in existence; that of ambition,
without the organization we call So
! ciety?
1T is the same with that arrant
! humbug, Lavater. with his relation be-
! tween the moral and the physical. Our
credulity lies in the imperfection OF
| our nature; it is in us to wish to parade
! pos tive opinions when we ought, on
| the contrary, to carefully guard against
/ this.
| Hardly do we see mans features
before we are ready to lay claim to a
| knowledge of his character. Wisdom
would lie in rejecting the idea Of such
| thing, of neutralizing these delusive
/ circumstances. Such one has robbed
me; he had gray eyes henceforward |
Will never see gray eyes without the
idea of being robbed; they are d wea-
| pom which has wounded me and which
dread wherever | see it: but indeed is
| it the gray eyes which robbed me?
Reason, experience, and have had
| great opportunity of exercising them,
| show that all these signs are lies. that
| one cannot guard against them too
| carefully, and that there is really no
other means of knowing men than that
of seeing them, trying them and a,so-
| ciating with them.
"And after all one runs across such
| hideous faces. | must confess, that the
most acute reason is at first put to Hight
and condemnation is pronounced even
| against reason. Nevertheless we mast
i I,
| only know them we'll on trial. What
| faces | have had to pass upon in my
| life, What experiments | have been
able to make. What denunciations,
| what reports | have heard. so have
| made it an invariable rule never to al
| low myself to be influenced by a mans
| face nor by words. All the humbug of
| Cagliostro, Mesmer Call and Lavater
| is swept away by this one argument,
| simple as it Is; all this can be, but it is
| not.
MAN loves the marvellous: il has an
| irresistible charm for him; he is al
ways ready to quit that with which he is
| comprised about to run after what is
| trumped up for him. He lends himself
| to what deceives him The truth is
that everything around us is mar
velous. 1t is not phenomena properly
| speaking; everything in nature is phe-
| nomenal. My existence is a phenome-
non: the wood which we throw on the
| fire and which warns us is a phenome-
non; the light which is there and
which shines upon me is a phenomenon;
all the first causes-my intellect my
| faculties-are phenomena. for it all is
! and we know not how to define it.
l leave you here in st. Helena,
where we now are: in a twinhling am
| in Paris entering the opera; ! salute
/ the spectators; | hear the acclamationS;
| ! see the actors; | listen to the music.
i Now. if can traverse the dis
! lance between this island and Paris,
| why could | not traverse the centuries?
| Why not see the future as the past?
! Would one be more extraordinary,
more marvellous than the other? No;
only that it is not. Here YOU find the
/ chain of reasoning which will always
/ destroy unanswerably all their mar
velous fancies All these charlatans,
| Cagliostro Gall and the others. some
| times talk very lntelligently: their
reasoning may be correct. they delude;
| only their conclusion is false because
! the facts are wanting. Chicago Her
| aid
| He Asked Too Much.