The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 02 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original IllustrationsHood, Thomas
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The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 02 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original Illustrations
Hood, Thomas
English poetry -- 19th century; English wit and humor; Humorous poetry, English
OF all the signs of the times--considering them literally as
_signs_, and the public literally as “a _public_”--there are none
more remarkable than the Hahnemann’s Head,--the Crown and Compasses,
devoted to Gall and Spurzheim’s entire,--and the Cock and Bull, that
hangs out at the House of Call for Animal Magnetizers. The last
concern, especially--a daring, glaring, flaring, gin-palace-like
establishment--is a moral phenomenon. That a tap dispensing a raw,
heady, very unrectified article, should obtain any custom whatever,
in a reputed genteel and well-lighted neighbourhood, seems quite
impossible; yet such is the incomprehensible fact;--respectable
parties, scientific men, and even physicians, in good practice in
all other respects, have notoriously frequented the bar, from which
they have issued again, walking all sorts of ways at once, or more
frequently falling asleep on the steps, but still talking such
“rambling skimble-skamble stuff” as would naturally be suggested by
the incoherent visions of a drunken man. Such exhibitions, however are
comparatively rare in London to their occurrence in Paris, which city
has always taken the lead of our own capital in matters of novelty.
It is asserted by a good authority, that at a French concern, in the
same line, no less than seventy-eight “medical men, and sixty-three
other very intelligent individuals,” became thoroughly muzzy and
mystified, and so completely lost all “_clairvoyance_” of their own,
that they applied to an individual to read a book and a letter to
them; to tell them the hour on their own watches; to mention the pips
on the cards; and by way of putting the state of their “intuitive
foresight” beyond question, they actually appealed to the _back_sight
of a man who was sound asleep! A bout on so large a scale has not been
attempted, hitherto, in the English metropolis; but as all fashions
transplanted from Paris flourish vigorously in our soil, it is not
improbable that we may yet see a Meeting of the College of Physicians
rendered very how-come-you-so indeed by an excess of Mesmer’s
“particular.” The influence of such an example could not fail to have
a powerful influence on all classes; and a pernicious narcotic would
come into general use; the notorious effect of which is to undermine
the reason of its votaries, and rob them of their common senses. To
avert such a national evil, surely demands the timely efforts of
our philanthropists; and above all, of those persons who have set
their faces against the Old Tom--not of Lincoln, but of London--and
in their zeal for the public sobriety, aim at even converting the
brewers’ kilderkins into pumpkins.--Seriously, might not the Temperance
Societies extend the sphere of their operations by a whole hemisphere,
and perhaps with equal advantage to mankind, by attacking mental
dram-drinking, as well as the bodily tippling of ardent spirits? The
bewildered rollings, reelings, and idiotic effusions of mere animal
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