Year: 1866

Carrie and were in love with eaci
other. There must be no doub
whatever upon this point, for if it II
not admitted that such Is the case
the circumstance which | am abou
to relate could not possible Lave hap
pened. /,


We were not yet engaged to eact
other; for although 1 had fully made
up my mind TO marry her, and fell
sure she would accept me, ] was moi
quite ready to ask her yet. / had
not got things quite into shape. Be
sides l wanted to place my accep-
tance beyond the possibility of fail
ure. for, to person of my peculiar
temperament. disappointment would
have been nothing short of madness.
Carrie was very attractive girl, and
you may be sure she did not lack
admirers. Lots of young chaps were
constantly sending her invitations to
60 TO concerts and lectures, and TO
have drives; fellows, too, who were
better Off in the world than / was,
but they were very rarely successful,
for kept myself well posted in re-
gard to everything that was gong
on, and i always managed it so that
Carrie would have previous en-
gagement with me, when their little
notes came to hand. Like q truly
/ devoted lover, / was at her house
every day, and often, when nobody
else called, she and / would sit in
front Of the CRATE fire in the parlor,
during the long winter evenings, con-
versing for hours in the coziest man
ner possible These were the sweet
est days of my life. and I look back
upon them now, through the midst
OF the dead year, with unalloyed
pleasure. The position | have de-
scribed is the very best one possible
to make love, and / advise all of you
Youngsters, who want to do it to ar
range matters rs I did.


have always been firm believer
in the power of the will. l am not
well enough read TO know whose doc
trine l hold; as far as ! am concerned
il is my own, for have never heard
oft, nor seen it anywhere. / hold
that the will of a strong man is al
ways omnipotent. Itwould be in eve-
ry case, if men only knew how to
control it, butt generally requires q
resolute effort that very few men are
capable of. l do not pretend to ex.
plain the principle of my doctrine,
but am confident of its practice, for
/ can so exert my will that / can
force myself upon the mind Of other
persons no matter how far distant 1
may be from them. They think OF
me unconsciously, and do not know
that they are under the control of
my mind, but it is nevertheless SO.
and l have proved it-often 10 incrrd-
ulous and can do so again. l speak
of this, TO explain to 4 certain extent
the extraordinary phenomenon which
l am going to relate. am mes
merist, too, naturally, though not at
all superstitious, for l believe mes
merism is merely the exercise of the
will of one person upon another
Well, it happened that as Carrie and
/ sat one night in front of that pleas.
ant CRATE fire, talking together upon
various subjects, felt in my soul
that could control her thoughts if
/ chose. ! said nothing about it, of
course, and went on talking quietly,
when all at once it flashed upon my
mind that it would net be impossible
TO put Carries soul into my body,
and mine into hers. l was Supplied
at the thought at first, but gradually
| became used to it, and limited it to
her. She was little frightened at
my earnestness, and then affected to
treat it as 4 jest. Thinking to gain
my end better, / treated it loosely
also, and at length laughingly pro-
posed that we should try it.


Little dreaming of the consequen-
ces, she consented. arose from my
chair, caused her TO fix her eyes
steadfastly upon mine, and then ]
mesmerized her with q. few passes of
my hands. Every one who has ever
seen mesmorized person knows that
all of her mental faculties were now
completely under my control. Then
by fierce and terrible exertion of
my will, / forced my mind upon hers
and summoned her mind out of her
body 1t would be utterly useless
to attempt an explanation of the ex-
act manner in which this was ac-
compiished. | will explain it when
any one will tell me what the spirit
is; cannot do it until then. / dealt
with mighty power that was only
partially under my control, and no
sooner had | summoned her spirit
from its abode, than found myself,
in her figure, resting in that cussion
ed arm chair by the fire, while l saw
my bodily form standing in front of
me, with a species of terror and
amazement depicted on its counte-
nance. l was somewhat bewildered
myself at this novel state of affairs,
and Carrie no doubt would have
cried, if she had been in her own
body, but the physical frame which
she now occupied had got out of the
way of shedding tears, so she merely
said in frightened tone:


"0h Joel what on earth shall we
dor"


"Do," said 1, regaining my COM
posure, "why let things remain just
as they are for while to see how we
like it. i can change back again
whenever / want to, and / move we
make the exchange for few days,
until the novelty of the thing wears
off, Carrie that was, acquiesced,
and seated my form in its old posi-
ton, and we talked over the strange
ness of the transformation, and its
probable consequences. 10 .f