"UNDER A BAN."

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 13128, 9 November 1906, Page 2

"UNDER A BAN."

(Continued.) CHAPTER FIVE. A letter came from the Scots minister. By the grace of God Lucy was»better. Her ardent philanthropy had begun again. She was'organising Bands of Hope among the children. The power of the Lord was strong above all other powers, and out dear victim was to be saved. I was relieved, but I was also distressed. The pathos of Lucy's repentance touched me deeply; but if the world knew the truth, how it would shout itself hoarse at what it miust call her hypocrisy ! My time was not yet, but it came only too soon, only too surely. A fortnight later I heard from Mrs Hill. Lucy was betraying symptoms of another attack. The twitching of her mouth, the restlessness -of her hand's, the keen and feverish look of her eyes, these were unmistakable indications. .' " They began,"' said the nurse, " after service last Sunday morning. She took the communion! Merciful Father! What am I saying? And yet it is truth. I must not conceal it." * I had told Mrs' Hill that I had engaged a doctor who was a specialist in nervous ailments, and that I wished for due warning of the return of an attack. Her letter was intended to ask for the specialist, and I summoned La Mothe by a telegram. On the way to Euston I called on Sir George at his chambers in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He heard of my errand without either approval .or disapproval. His strong face was like a mask and gave no sign. As I was leaving his room he touched my arm and said, " Have you telegraphed to you/father ?' '~' I answered "No," and tried to hasten away. . ■ : " I mu3t do so myself," he said. : "Give me a week more," I pleaded. " There will still. be time enough to stop huV' Sir his head and I left him. He.had less than .no faith in. my errand. Only his pity for the deep entanglement of my affections suffered him to see me go on with my enterprise. Late the same night I reached Cumberland with La Mothe. We put up at the " Wheatsheaf," and I lost no time in sending a message to MePherson and to Godwin, announcing my arrival and asking them to oblige me with a call. The two men came together,.and there was a strained and painful interview. I introduced the hypnotist and told of my intention, saying I desired their countenance and assistance.

The minister refused it promptly and absolutely. His attitude was precisely that which I might hare foreseen. \ What I proposed to do, if I could do it, would be tampering with free will. His conscience was startled by such audacity. Drink was a temptation of the Devil, only to be conquered by the Grace of God. The measures we proposed to employ were the instrument of the Evil One. To subjugate the free wjll of a fellow creature, to act upon her by "suggestion," to compel her to do that which she must, and not that which she would, was to attempt to uproot the moral law, to unseat religion, ,and shake our trust in God Himself. It was in vain that T urged that it was no part of my present scheme to act upon Lucy by therapeutic suggestion, but that if I were driven to doing so as a last resource I should feel justified by the natural order of life.

" You talk," I said about conscience; "about moral responsibility, about free will. To ninety-nine out of a hundred there is no svfch thing. ..Only the hundredth has a will that is free, and; for good or evil, he slaves of the wills of the ninety and nine. The orator swaying an assembly the statesman directing affairs, the king controlling an empire, the jpretty woniain directing fashion, the yottngbride winning to her own way the husband, -who- loves her—what are they all doing but imposing the free will on ..the will that is not~ free? Every great man is great in degree as he dictates the will 3 of other men, and. he is the greatest man whom the greatest men are doomed to obey." The Scots minister listened to me with a face of horror. •,

"Why call a man great," he said "because he paralyses the souls of his fellow men? The basest and the-worst of men do that, and it is by the power of the, Devil that they do it. , The murderer who lures'his victim to a. lonely place that he may fall on hjm and kill' him, the Judas who worms-himself into the secret, of his master that he may betray and sell him, the unjust steward who seeks the care of the widow an dfatherless that he may rob them of their bread, the seducer who palters with the love of a weak woman that he may dishonour her and then fling her in the mud—these are the men who try to control the actions of "their fellow men, and they are the real X<ucifers> for they are in rebellion against God on His real throne—the' hearts of His ', crea; tures. ! ' •■ •''"'

"In short, you mean," I said, "that if I cause Miss Clousedale to be put under the hypnotic sleep in the hope of conquering the drink crave which is destroying her; I shall be acting the part of her worst enemy?" , "You' will be attempting to break down theisanctuaries of her soul," he answered, " and pretending to a power that can only come of the grace of. God itself." I was losing patience. "Nevertheless, I intend to try." The minister flushed to his eyes.., "You shall not do so!" I set a firm lower lip and went on. "She has no legal guardian, and I am shortly to be her husband. The moral right is mine, and I am going to exercise,it.";: - : r V '•- l "p-. "Then, sir," replied the Reverend McPhersqn, bringing Ms fist down on the table,"" "I wash my hands of"your proceedings;" and with that and a flash ...of anger-he rose;and left iis. .= : '* I, had no better encouragement from the doctor. His steely eyes, had/glittered as •with amused contempt during my encounter with the minister,; and now he--spoke,: with the easy? superiority of a.man who'; believes,, himself to above: all v /feeble; superstitions:,.,.- His theories were the mo-i dern ones;- his methods the reverse of thosewho trust/to; moral,,suasion.- ■ Thp..drink, craving was a disease . The victims of it ought' jtoil be r treated;/ as: diseased r people, and kept under restraint until the madness had been,;overcome;? •»,.«*> Z7:i-3 V ~. £ Thewor4 stung me, and X coloured deeply, for he looked into my face and said, " This is no time for mock modesty. It is a time to- face the truth r For my own part I have done so from the first. Regarding Miss Clousedale as a subject of temporary insanity, I have, as you are aware, treated her accordingly." I bit my lip and asked. "With what results?" "I am not entirely responsible for results," he said, " I am only responsible for the To attempt to cure the drink crave merely by the machinery of the. temperance pledge is a course discredited in the eyes of scientific inquirers. In spite of the gigantic temperance organisation of the last fifty years, drunkenness the world over is not less, but more. Its conse-

i quences are more serious, its special cases more acute. As a whole, taken in its broadest aspects ,the temperance cause has failed. So far I "am at one with you": but " " I was shaking my head: he uaid no heed to my dissent. "- but the method with which you now propose to supersede the effete one of temperance people like this Scots minister | is not only ineffectual, it is beset wih,j terrors. You say you are going to.put the : young lady under hypnotic sleep. There is" no such thing as hypnotic sleep. What i there is in actual fact is a phenomenon I produced by imagination." i " Very well," I said, 'if you prefer to j call it imagination, let us do so; and if j imagination as a medicine, by all means let us use it," "Not so quick," he answered. "You have c'early not counted with the dangers. The phenomenon of imagination which you propose to induce is only a form of hysteria. We know what that involves, "it involves the danger of madness—incurable madness, not temporary ! madness, such as the victim of drink suffers from. Thus you are trying to jump out of the frying-pan into the fire. Even if it is. possible to put Miss Clousedale into a real, sleep of three days' duration—' a thing I entirely disbelieve—you wiuld only be reducing her by one form, of hysteria—the quiescent form, the riiost dangerous form —to a condition which must imperil her life." . " Do you mean," I said, "that she would never awake?" " I mean," he answered, " that she would probably never. awake *to the consciousness of Reason, or else, it-hat she would only awake to die." "In short, you refuse to share our responsibility ?" "I am not so simple as. to share it. What you say going to do amounts in eect, if you can dp it, to the. administration of, chloroform. Now a patient may die of chloroform. Now, a patient may die under chloroform;. and when this occurs our defence is obvious. But you are using) unrecognized means, and there is no way by which you .eari show that, such as they are, you are using them properly. If Miss Clousedale should die in your hands, what is your position in the eye of,4he law?" " She will not die." .

•" But if, my friend—if—if V ■ "If," I answered, "you know so little of what was first called hypnotism by .one of your own faculty .as to speak of its dangers in the same breath with thoseof chloroform, it is clear that we have nothing to gain by your co-operation, and nothing to lose by your, withdrawal." The hard face became harder, and the square brow more stern. " So you ask me to withdraw^ —you, wbo have no legal rights whatever—you ask me to step back in favour of God knows whom,' from God knows where, coming with Gods knows what tricks of the ad-, venturer and the charlatan?" "I ask you to remember," I replied, " that your profession has always used just such language as jda. are now using about everything and everybody that has done any great work in the interests of humanity." \ ' He had risen and was making for the door. "It is such men as you, and—and this with his hat to the hypnotist—" who are the disturbers of society, making a little burning straw and dirty smoke the scarecrow superstitions which fill the world with weakness and melancholy and insanity. I leave you to your silly work; but,l warn you that if you do what you say, and anything happens as the consequence, as sure as there is law in the land, I .will .set it in motion to punish' you." I bowed him out.■..with cold politeness, and lie went off in'anger. The hypnotist had sat ■ through),: both interviews with no better apprehension of- their djift than observation of our faces had afforded him.

"Mr La Mothe," I said in French, "the gentleman wash their hands of us." He smiled. I had ..not surprised him'. CHAPTER W. Early the next morning we went up to Clouseclale Hall." I was- not surprised, to find that both doctor and clergyman were there before us. "They had come, however, to watch, not to resist, and were moving about in the breakfast-room with grim and silent faces. Mrs. Hill was looking worn and wretched. : < ..-.■: _ _• " You' are none too soon," she said.inherlOw'.'ahd nervous, voice. Then she led the way "upstairs. '-' .-, ; It was impossiblee'to say what effect the sight of Lucy had upon, me. She was sitting in a'boudoir I which had a : bearoiom opening out of it: 1 ' ■• The beautiful pale face was now flushed and hWted,-;the big hlue eyes 'were keen and' : restless, there was something electrical in her manner;"-''arid^heV-'"'glossy* "chestnut hairi almost as 'dull as tow, was partly "drag; gling over her .shoulders. When she saw me she'tried. Jto .escape, but I intercepted her at 'the tb'edrodmV. door ! and did what I could t^iOvercoxnethe^ torment of her humiliation." She" fell upon my neck, bur : led her .face in my breast, and burst into tears. As well as I was able for the sobs jthat clPokett" me, I tried to soothe and comfort her. . "You') will soon be well again, dearest. Have no fear.. I have brought a French ;specMist : 4t6' see you, and you must do all-that' he asks and-expects." '•'■'■■ : Then theihypnotist entered, and close behind him/.came the doctor and the min-" ister. . : J . ....''.' ■\ ■ .'•

Lucy ..held my hand during the first examination, and she seemed fairly quiet and tractable. , But when an, attempt was made to put her to sleep by,, causing her to fix her gaze/for a few moments on some, luminous object, she realised the intention instantly, and broke into a fit of hysteria.' It was agony to listen to her cries and to see -the cbnvulsive twitching of her features. The hypnotist called for brandy, and offered a small dose of it. She clutched: at the glass with feverish eagerness. Her: eyes, at that. moment were like,!balls- of: fire.' iii Their mid .gio%iiiig was terrnble to look'.upon. .;,■ '- - we had not 1 •comei too' soon/ The attack was: imminent.; Waganust act now or not at all. 'hypnotic agencies," said La Mothe, "are difficult in a case like, this.- so we, 'must needs try the mestaeric'Jones.'.'; : ~ -Without; (Juife realising' the difference;; I this chaWgefin'ithe ■ and then everybody'/except'.'•myself. •was i ordered out of the room. Shall I ever forget what occurred*£ scene that followed has left scars on my memory. It is: with pain like that of,tearing the bandage; from a that I now to recall it. The magaetiser put my dear one to sit on a chair J in9bh&middle tfie -floor, and 1 ! seated himself on another chair drawn up directly in front. Then, sitting face to face with her,•he proceeded to;make passes' before her, and at: length to apply'his il'eft i hand on her- breast in ..downward; movfements to what 1 now know as. the hypr | nogenic zones; After thatjie reached-o.ver and passed his fight, hand .afiross her :| shoulder' and behind: her body. Their foreheads touched; Lucy made a. low, .indis- | tinguishabie' and;,half' turned to me with'a'movement either of appeal or of reproach. * '.., * The operation went on. Slowly, very | slowly, with a calm that began to grow

hateful, the magnetise* continued the downward pressure. Lucy's hysteria seemed, -to subside at every Stroke of his hand. After a time her face,, which hod grown pale with fear, was inflamed as with pleasure, her eyes brightened and became humid, their pupils dilated and their gaze became transfixed. She dropped her head, covered her face, and sighed audibly. I wanted to stop everything, but did not -know why I should do so. The operation continued. Lucy's eyes grew-dimmer, their vision seemed to be obscured, her breathing became short and difficult, as if she were beginning to suffer from an attack of nervous suffocation.. "The room is going round and round." she said in a- thick,-low voice, and again in a half articulate murmur, "It is going faster and faster." " "All right," said La ilothe, turning to me for a "moment, and my impulse to intervene was checked. Then my darling's body began to be agitated by sudden jerky movements. This was followed by languor and prostration. Finally, as the man reached across to her again "she fell forward in his arms, swayed a" moment, dropped her head over his shoulders, with eyes closed and neck extended, and with a sigh she lost conSCIOUSII6SS ' "All right," said La Mothe again, but his tone of satisfaction revolted me. I wanted to lay hold of him by the throat and fling him out of the house. I knew now what the sensation of horror was which down to that moment had been vague.' It was horror of the power that one human creature can by the mysterious processes of Nature wield over another, putting the soul to sleep and to death — for a time, at all events. (To be Continued.)