FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Mr. Norton's "Travel and Study in Italy," p. 132.
"Giudica e manda, secondo che avvinghia."
Inf. v. 5
[3] "Les observateurs éclairés manquaient en 1737 pour suivre la transformation des phénomènes morbides."—Calmeil, De la Folie, Tom. II. p. 317.
[4] La Vérité des Miracles opérés par l'Intercession de M. de Pâris et autres Appellans démontrée; avec des Observations sur le Phénomène des Convulsions, par Carré de Montgéron, Conseiller au Parlement de Paris. 3 vols. 4to. 2d ed. Cologne, 1745.
The first edition, consisting, however, of a single volume only, appeared in 1737, and was presented to the King in person at Versailles, by M. de Montgéron, on the twenty-ninth of July of that year. The work was translated into German and Flemish; and besides several editions which appeared in France, one was published in Germany and two in Holland. It is illustrated with costly engraving.
Though the King (Louis XV.) received M. de Montgéron in an apparently gracious manner, yet, the very night after his reception, as he had himself foreseen, he was arrested and cast into the Bastille. Thence he was transferred from one place of confinement to another; and at the time he was preparing the second edition of his work, he was still (in 1744) a prisoner in the citadel of Valence. (See Advertisement to that edition, note to page vii.) He died in exile at Valence, in 1754.
[5] Voltaire, with his usual wit and irreverence, proposed that the notice, proclaiming the royal command, to be affixed to the gate of the church-yard should read as follows:—
"De part le Roi, défense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu."
[6] Hecker alleges that "the insanity of the Convusionnaires lasted, without interruption, until the year 1790," that is, for fifty-nine years, and was only interrupted by the excitement of the French Revolution; also, that, in the year 1762, the "Grands Secours" were forbidden by act of the Parliament of Paris.—Epidemics of the Middle Ages, from the German of I.F.C. Hecker, M.D., translated by B.G. Babington, M.D., F.R.S., London, 1846, p. 149.
There were published by Renault, parish, priest at Vaux near Ancerre, two pamphlets against the Succorists,—one entitled "Le Secourisme détruit dans ses Fondemens," in 1759, and the other, "Le Mystère d'Iniquité," as late as 1788,—an evidence that the controversy was kept up for at least half a century.
[7] "A peine l'entrée du tombeau eût elle été fermée, qu'on vit le nombre des Convulsionnaires s'accroître extraordinairement. Les convulsions commencèrent à s'étendre jusqu'à, des personnes qui n'avaient ni maladie ni infirmité corporelle."—Œuvres de Colbert, Tom. II. p. 203. (This is Colbert, Bishop of Montpelier, and nephew of Louis XIV.'s minister.)
[8] Montgéron, work cited, Tom. II. p. 36. Calmeil, De la Folie, Tom. II, pp. 315, 317.
[9] For particulars and certificates in this case, see Montgéron, Tom. II. Troisième Démonstration, pp. 1-58.
[10] Montgéron, work cited, Tom. II. Pièces Justificatives de la Troisième Démonstration, p. 4.
[11] Montgéron, Tom. I. Seconde Démonstration, p. 6.
[12] "Un coup d'épée" is the expression employed by Montgéron; but the facts elsewhere reported by himself do not seem to bear out, in most cases, its accuracy. It was not usually a thrust of a sword's point, but only a pressure with the point of a sharp sword, often so strong, however, that the weapon was bent by its force.
[13] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 10.
[14] See, for the entire relation, from which I have here given extracts only, Montgéron's work, Tom. III. pp. 24-26. Montgéron, though he vouches for the narrator as a gentleman worthy of all credit, does not give his name, nor that, of the physician, except as Dr. M——. The occurrence took place in 1732.
[15] Montgéron, Tom. III. pp. 107-111.
[16] Ibid. p. 688.
[17] "As murderous blows must either wound or kill, but for a miracle, there ought to be a promise or a revelation to warrant their infliction. But God has given no such promise, no such revelation, to justify the demanding or the granting of the succors. It is, therefore, a tempting of God to do so."—Vains Efforts des Discernans, p. 133.
[18] Chenet is the French expression, an andiron, or dog-iron, as it is sometimes called. Montgéron thus describes it: "The andiron in question was a thick, roughly shaped bar of iron, bent at both ends, but the front end divided in two, to serve for feet, and furnished with a thick, short knob. This andiron weighed between twenty-nine and thirty pounds."—Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 693.
[19] Vains Efforts des Discernans, p. 134.
[20] Mémoire Théologique, p. 41. This is admitted also by the Abbé, see Vains Efforts, p. 127, and by M. Poncet, Réponse, etc., p. 15.
[21] Montgéron, Tom. III. pp. 693, 694. The author takes great pains to disprove a theory which few persons, in our day, will think worth refuting. In this connection, he quotes from a memoir drawn up by a gentleman who had spent much time in examining these phenomena, as follows:—"The force of the action and movement of the instruments employed is not broken or arrested or turned aside. Experience conclusively proves this. One sees the bodies of the convulsionists bend and sink beneath the blows. One can perceive that the parts assailed are twisted, and receive all the movements which such weapons as those employed are calculated to communicate. And the violence of the blows is often such that not only are they heard from the lowest story of a house to the highest, but they actually communicate to the floor and to the walls of the apartment a shock, which is sensibly felt, and which causes the spectators to start."—p. 686.
Montgéron adds his own personal experience. He says,—"That has happened frequently to myself. I have often been so much impressed with the strong motion communicated to the floor by the terrible blows dealt with stones or billets of wood with which they were striking convulsionists, that I could not restrain a shudder. For the rest, this is an occurrence to the truth of which there are as many to testify as there have been persons, whether friends or foes, who have seen the 'great succors.' One may say, that it is a fact attested by witnesses innumerable."—Montgéron, Tom. III. p 686.
Independently of the theory of Satanic intervention which the above details are adduced to disprove, they are very interesting in themselves, for the insight they give into the exact character of these terrible probations.
[22] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 694.
[23] Quoted by Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 697.
[24] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 697.
[25] Mémoire Théologique, p. 96.
[26] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 697.
[27] Ibid. p. 698.
[28] Lettre du Dr. A—— à M. de Montgéron, p. 8.
[29] Ibid. p. 7.
[30] Montgéron, Tom. II. Idée de l'État des Convulsionnaires, pp. 45, 46. Montgéron does not allege, however, that any other part of the body than that where the warning pains were felt became insensible or invulnerable. He cites (Tom. III. p. 629) the case of a convulsionist who, "at the moment when they were striking her on the breast with all possible force with a stone weighing twenty-five pounds, bade them suspend the succors for a moment, till she adjusted, in another part of her dress, a pin that was pricking her."
[31] Montgéron, Tom. II. Idée de l'État des Convulsionnaires, pp. 31, 32.
[32] Montgéron, Tom. II. Idée de l'État des Convulionnaires, p. 33.
[33] Lettre du Dr. A—— à M. de Montgéron, p. 7.
[34] Réponse des Anti-Secouristes à la Réclamation, par M. Poncet, p. 4.
[35] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 706.
[36] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 707.
[37] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 720.
[38] Ibid. pp. 713, 714.
[39] Ibid. p. 719.
[40] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 716.
[41] Ibid. p. 721.
[42] Ibid. p. 709.
[43] Montgéron, Tom. III. p. 708.
[44] Ibid. p. 718.
[45] Ibid. p. 709.
[46] Montgéron, Tom. III. pp. 722, 723.
[47] The details are given by M. Morand, a surgeon of Paris of high reputation, member of the Academy of Sciences, who had been employed by the Lieutenant of Police to make to him a report on the subject, and who reproduces the result of his observations in his "Opuscules de Chirurgie." He found four girls, the centres of whose hands and feet were indurated by the frequent perforations of the nails. He witnessed the operation of crucifying one of them, the Sister Félicité. A certain M. La Barre was the operator. The nails were of the sort called demi-picaron, very sharp, flat, four-sided, and with a large head. They were driven, at a single blow of a hammer, nearly through the centre of the palm, between the third and fourth fingers; and in like manner through each foot a little above the toes and between the third and fourth; the same stroke causing the nail to enter also the wood of the cross. Félicité gave no signs of sensibility during the operation. When attached to the cross, she was gay, and converged with whoever addressed her, remaining crucified nearly half an hour. Morand remarked, that her wounds were not at all bloody, and that very little blood flowed, even when the nails were withdrawn. See his "Opuscules de Chirurgie," Partie II. chap. 6.
[48] De la Folie, Tom. II.; the page I omitted to note.
[49] It Is desirable that the reader should look up these localities upon a map of Switzerland, that he may be impressed with the growing grandeur of these ancient glaciers, even while they were retreating into the heart of the Alps; for in proportion as they left the plain, the landscape must have gained in imposing effect in consequence of the isolation of these immense masses of ice, which in their united extension may have recalled rather the immensity of the ocean, than the grandeur of Alpine scenery.
[50] This map, with all its details and measurements, is reproduced (Pl. V. fig. 1) in my "Système Glaciaire." It was accompanied by an explanatory paper in the form of a letter to Altmann, then Professor at Berne.
[51] M. de Charpentier has published a map of this ancient glacier in his "Essay upon the Glaciers and Erratics of the Valley of the Rhone."
[52] In the last report of the New-England Emigrant Aid Company we find the following significant passage:—
"There is, undoubtedly, a general desire among the inhabitants of the Northern and Middle States to remove into the States south of them, which will soon welcome the introduction of free labor. This desire manifests itself strongly among soldiers who have seen the beauty and fertility of those States, in their duty of occupation and protection; and it has communicated itself to their friends with whom they have corresponded. Society in those States is, however, still so disturbed, and in such angry temper, that no Northern settler will be welcome or comfortable, as yet, who goes alone. To be saved the animosities and the hardships of lonely settlement, it is desirable that parties of settlers, furnishing to each other their own society, and thus far independent of dissatisfied neighbors, should go out together. The conditions on which only land can be obtained point to the same organization. Lands already under cultivation are not offered for sale in all the Border States, at very low rates. If parties of settlers could buy in the large quantities which are offered, it would prove that they could remove and establish themselves, in some instances, upon these lands, almost as cheaply as they have hitherto been able to make the expensive Western journey and take up the cheap wild lands of the Government.
"But such purchases in the Border States are only possible when large tracts of land are sold. To enable the settler of small means to take a farm of a hundred acres, there needs the intervention of the organizers of emigration. Such a company as ours, for instance, can bring together, upon one old plantation, twenty, thirty, or forty families, if necessary: it can arrange for them terms of payment as favorable as those heretofore granted by the Government or the great railroad companies of the West."
Such suggestions apply more strongly to the case of Florida, which has come within our power since this report was published. Florida is, indeed, more easily protected from an enemy's raids than any of the so-called Border States.
[53] Written—if the author will permit us to tell—by Rev. Samuel Johnson, one of the truest and ablest of our scholars.