Sympathies have rarely been proved; they afford a kind of pleasure which
those who are so happy as to possess them rarely speak of unless they
are abnormally singular, and even then only in the privacy of intimate
intercourse, where everything is buried. But the antipathies that arise
from the inversion of affinities have, very happily, been recorded when
developed by famous men. Thus, Bayle had hysterics when he heard water
splashing, Scaliger turned pale at the sight of water-cress, Erasmus was
thrown into a fever by the smell of fish. These three antipathies were
connected with water. The Duc d'Epernon fainted at the sight of a hare,
Tycho-Brahe at that of a fox, Henri III. at the presence of a cat, the
Marechal d'Albret at the sight of a wild hog; these antipathies
were produced by animal emanations, and often took effect at a great
distance. The Chevalier de Guise, Marie de Medici, and many other
persons have felt faint at seeing a rose even in a painting. Lord Bacon,
whether he were forewarned or no of an eclipse of the moon, always fell
into a syncope while it lasted; and his vitality, suspended while
the phenomenon lasted was restored as soon as it was over without his
feeling any further inconvenience. These effects of antipathy, all well
authenticated, and chosen from among many which history has happened
to preserve, are enough to give a clue to the sympathies which remain
unknown.
This fragment of Lambert's investigations, which I remember from among
his essays, will throw a light on the method on which he worked. I
need not emphasize the obvious connection between this theory and the
collateral sciences projected by Gall and Lavater; they were its natural
corollary; and every more or less scientific brain will discern the
ramifications by which it is inevitably connected with the phrenological
observations of one and the speculations on physiognomy of the other.
Mesmer's discovery, so important, though as yet so little appreciated,
was also embodied in a single section of this treatise, though Louis did
not know the Swiss doctor's writings--which are few and brief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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