Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in FranceEarly in 1788, Franz Anton Mesmer, a Viennese physician, arrived in Paris and began to promulgate a somewhat exotic theory of healing that almost immediately seized the imagination of the general populace. Robert Darnton, in his lively study of mesmerism and its relation to eighteenth-century radical political thought and popular scientific notions, provides a useful contribution to the study of popular culture and the manner in which ideas are diffused down through various social levels. |
Contents
MESMERISM AND POPULAR SCIENCE | 2 |
THE MESMERIST MOVEMENT | 46 |
THE RADICAL STRAIN IN MESMERISM | 82 |
MESMERISM AS A RADICAL POLITICAL THEORY | 106 |
FROM MESMER TO HUGO | 126 |
CONCLUSION | 160 |
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE | 171 |
APPENDIX 1 MESMERS PROPOSITIONS | 177 |
APPENDIX 2 THE MILIEU OF AMATEUR SCIENTISTS IN PARIS | 178 |
APPENDIX 3 THE SOCIETE DE LHARMONIE UNIVERSELLE | 180 |
APPENDIX 4 BERGASSES LECTURES ON MESMERISM | 183 |
APPENDIX 5 THE EMBLEM AND TEXTBOOK OF THE SOCIETES DE LHARMONIE | 186 |
APPENDIX 6 AN ANTIMESMERIST VIEW | 189 |
APPENDIX 7 FRENCH PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE TEXT | 193 |
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academicians academies Ancien Régime animal magnetism autre balloon flights Balzac Bergasse's Bibliothèque municipale bien Brissot c'est Carra century Comte Comte de Ségur Corberon Correspondance littéraire Courier de l'Europe Court de Gébelin croire cures d'Eprémesnil d'une découverte Deslon despotism Docteurs doctors doctrine du magnétisme Duport electricity être fait faut fluid Fourier France Franz Anton Mesmer French Frenchmen Girondist historique hommes humain ideas Journal de Bruxelles Journal de Paris Journal des Sçavans Journal du magnétisme Kornmann l'homme La Comédie Humaine Lafayette Lavater Lavoisier letter lois London Lyons magnétisme animal Marat médecin medicine Mémoires secrets ment merism Mesmer mesmerist mesmerist movement monde moral mystic n'est nature Nicolas Bergasse occult Parisian Parlement philosophers physical Pilâtre de Rozier political politique primitive Puységur qu'il quotations radical Rapport Restif Revolution revolutionary Rousseau scientific scientists Servan Société de l'Harmonie Society of Harmony somnambulism somnambulist spirits système theory tion tisme tout universal universel vérité