"TRILBY."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10562, 8 January 1896, Page 3

"TRILBY."

TO THK EDITOR. j Sir,—Ycur London letter of list Saturday's I issue has the following reference to Da Msuriec's rnuch-t«lked-of novel:— [ "Trilby "appears safe for as big n "boom" in Eus;lar.d ns it win iii America. I siipabse this (is due to two feature*.—Tiilby's feet and Svenfealis byprioti«m. B-Hh Heem iinnictuely attraolive. Miss Dorothea Baird is fortunate'in heing personally an id^rfl Trilby, though nobody would imagine, so 6b the strength of tlie illustrations given bf her. ... As toy the " psychological problem " presented by Svengali, it is it mere rehash of an old exploded .phaiitiuiy, which dreiifned that a hypnotist could cause a girl, ignorant of music aod unpbEsessfed of voice, to sing at command with all the vocal beauty and artistic finish of a Patti. This, of coarse, is the purest bosh. Your com siiondeut's standing aa a critic I know not, bub feeing that so eminent a litterateur as " Q " has recently denounced tbe Utter part of "Trilby" as supernatural, I think it is time to draw attention to the following experiments conducted avhphg many J others by Mir . Jistncs Braid, of , MaiieHesler, nearly half a fieutufy aga. I qnoln from Car--1 periter's " Mental Physiology^" 1874 edition :— One of the moat remarkable of these phenomena was the exact iniiiatioh bf Mademoiselle Jenny Lind's vocal performances, which wav given by a factory girl wnbsa ■ musical powers hart received scarcely any cultivation; and who could nbt sb'nak her own Uiue;ua£e grammatically. . . This girl in thn hypnotised ttata followed 'he Swedish. Nighticgale's sonfes in differeiit I.tiifeurtstes1 so instantaneously arid corrently, ss to both words iind music, that it was difficult to distinguish the two voice?. -In order to test tbe powers of ihis Eomnatiibrile to the utmost Mademoiselle Lirtd extempdrified a lonjj and elaborate chromatic exercise, which' the girl imitated with no lisa precision, .though in her wakir.g state she durst not even attempt anything of the Bort. While t acfei sucb ais these exist, and your readers will find pieiity of corroßorative evidence in fha work cited and elsewherVi I i/birik it is hardly discreet to speik of Tfilby'B trance perforrnanceo as " a rehash of an old, exploded phantasy," the " purest bosh," or even; gehtlier (with Q'uillec Couch); as " Supernatural."—l am, &»., Duaediu, Jaii'uary 7. Psychics.