Swabia

de Antas relates that as late as 1838, after the crushing of a Sebastianist insurrection in Brazil, certain still-believing Sebastianists were to be seen along the coast peering through the fog for the sails of the mythical ship which was to bring to them the hidden king, who was then to reveal himself.

End of The Hidden King by Bram Stoker Recording by Greg Giordano Newport Ritchie, Florida Mesmer from Famous Impostors MESMER by Bram Stoker although frederick antoine mesmer made an astonishing discovery which having been tested and employed in therapeutics for a century is accepted as a contribution to science he is included in the list of impostors because however sound his theory was he used it in the manner or surrounded with the atmosphere of imposture indeed the implement which he used in his practice and which made him famous in fashionable and idle society was set forth as having magic properties He belonged to the same period as Cagliostro, having been born but nine years before him, in 1734, in its Mang, Swabia.

But the imposter, pure and simple, easily picked up the difference by beginning his life-work earlier and following it quicker with regard to results.

mesmer was not in any sense a precocious person he was thirty-two years of age when he took his degree of doctor of medicine at vienna in seventeen sixty five however he had already chosen his subject animal magnetism as allied with medical therapeutics his early script under the title de planetarium influxi was looked on as a legal reminiscence of judicial astronomy he left vienna because he said of a cabal against him and travelled in europe particularly in switzerland before he went to paris to seek his fortune this was in seventeen seventy eight when he was some forty-four years of age his reputation which had been growing all the time preceded him he was then a man of fine appearance tall and important-looking and conveying a sense of calm power he produced much sensation and was at once credited not without his own will or intention with magic power he posed as a benefactor of humanity a position which was at once conceded to him partly owing to the fact that an extraordinary atmosphere of calm seemed to surround him which with his natural air of assurance founded on self-belief was able to convey to his patients a sense of hope which was of course very helpful in cases of nervous failure and depression he settled in the hotel bourin near the place vendome and so on the heart of paris and at once undertook the treatment of patients hitherto deemed incurable fashion took up the new medical craze or sensation and he at once became the vogue it was at this time of his life that mesmer came to the parting of the ways between earnest science and charlatanism so far as we know he still remained earnest in his scientific belief as indeed he was till the end of his days and as much as fashion requires more concrete expression of its fancies mesmer soon used the picturesque side of his brain for the service is a fashionable success so he invented an appliance which soon became the talk of the town this was the famous baquette magique or magic tub a sort of covered bath round which his patients were arranged in tiers to the bath were attached a number of tubes each of which was held by a patient who could touch with the end of it any part of his or her body at will after a while the patients began to get excited and many of them went into convulsions amongst them walked mesmer clad in an imposing dress suggestive of mystery and carrying a long wand of alleged magic power often calming those who had already reached the stage of being actually convulsed his usual method of producing something of the same effect at private seances was by holding the hand of the patient touching the forehead and making passes with the open hand with fingers spread out and by crossing and uncrossing his arms with great rapidity a well-attended seance must have been a curious and not altogether pleasant experience even to a wholesome spectator in full possession of his natural faculties the whole surroundings of the place together with the previously cultured belief the dusk and mystery the mysterious sympathy of numbers as dean farrar called it the spasmatic snapping of the chords of tensity which took away all traces of reserve or reticence from the men and women present the vague terror of the unknown that that mysterious apprehension which is so potent with the nerves of weak or imaginative people and it may be the slipping of the dogs of conscience all these combine to wreck the moral and mental stability of those present most of whom it must be remembered were actually ill or imagined themselves to be so which came practically to the same thing the psychical emotion was all very well in the world of pleasure but these creatures became physically sick through nervous strain as described by the historian they expectorated freely a viscous fluid and their sickness passed into convulsions more or less violent the women naturally succumbing more readily and more quickly than the men this absolute collapse half epileptic half hysterical lasted varying periods according to the influence exercised by the presence of the calm self-reliant operator we of a later age when electric force has been satisfactorily harnessed and when magnetism as its separate power is better understood may find it hard to understand that the most advanced and daring scientists of the time to whom frederick antoine mesmer was at least allied were satisfied that magnetism and electricity were variants of the same mysterious force or power it was on this theory that he seems to have worked his main idea to practical effect The base of his system was animal magnetism, which could be superinduced or aided by mechanical appliances.

He did not deceive himself into believing that he had invented the idea, but was quite willing to make the utmost use he could of the discoveries and inventions of others.

So far as we can gather, his intentions from his acts, the main object of his scientific work, was to simplify the processes of turning a motion into effect magnetism had already been largely studied and means were being constantly sought for increasing its efficacy father hale had brought to a point of accepted perfection the manufacture of metal plates used in magnetic development and these mesmerized with the result that a violent controversy took place between them so far as we can follow after the lapse of time mesmer was consistent in his theories and their applications he held that the principle was one of planetary influence on the nervous system and its manifestation was by a process of alternate intention and remission it is possible that mesmer who held that the heavenly bodies floated in a limitless magnetic fluid that he could make all substances even such things as bread or dogs magnetic had in his mind the wisdom of following the same theory in matters of lesser significance though of more individual import than those of astronomy and its correlated sciences if so he was wise in his generation for later electricians have found that the system of alternating currents especially at high tension is of vast practical importance that he was practical in his use of the ideas of others is shown by the fact that he preferred the metallic plates of father hale to his own passes even though the report of the royal commission ruined him at any rate checked his success by stating that similar effects to those attending his passes could be produced by other means and that such passes had no effect unless through the patient's knowledge in fact that it was all the work of imagination mesmer had been asked to appear before the commission of the faculty of medicine appointed in seventeen eighty four to investigate and report but he kept away would not have injured any man to have appeared before such a commission if his cause had been a good one there were two such commissions the first was the leading physicians of paris and included such men as benjamin franklin lavoisier the great chemist and bally the historian of astronomy it was distinctly to his disadvantage that mesmer always kept at a distance the whole corps of savants such as the faculty of medicine and the academy of sciences for they would no doubt have accepted his views visionary though they were if he could have shown any scientific base for them true medical science has always been suspicious of and cautious regarding empiricism whether once he stood in his own light in this matter whether through obstinacy or doubt of his own theory does not matter for instance in vienna when his very existence as a scientist was at stake in the matter of the effects of his treatment at mademoiselle paradis he introduced a humiliating clause in his challenge to the faculty which caused them to refuse to accept it mademoiselle paradis was blind and subject to convulsions after treating her by his own method mesmer said she was cured an oculist said after testing that she was as blind as ever and her family said that she was still subject to convulsions but mesmer persisted that she was cured that there was a conspiracy against him and that mademoiselle paradis had fainted he challenged the faculty of medicine on the subject of his discovery twenty-four patients were to be selected by the faculty of these twelve were to be treated by mesmerism and the other half by the means ordinarily in use the condition he imposed was that the witnesses were not to be of the faculty again when in answer to a request on his part that the french government for the good of the community should subsidize him a proposal was made to him he did not receive it favorably the request he made to marie antoinette was that he should have an estate and chateau and a handsome income so that he might go on experimenting with the broad figures at four hundred or five hundred thousand francs the government's suggestion was that he should have a pension of twenty thousand francs and the cross of st michael knighthood if he would communicate for public use to a board of physicians nominated by the king such discoveries as he might make after his refusal of the government proposition mesmer went to spa taking with him a number of his patients and there opened a magnetic establishment where he renewed his paris success he asked parliament to hold an impartial examination into the theory and working of animal magnetism foiled in his scheme of state purchase on his own terms he sold his secret to a group of societies the members of which were to pay him a subscription of a hundred louis per capita by this means he realized some three hundred forty thousand lire representing to-day over a million the associated body was composed of twenty-four societies called societies de la harmonie a sort of freemasonry under a grand master and chiefs of the order a member had to be at the time of admission twenty-five years of age an honest state and good name not to smoke tobacco and to pay an annual subscription of at least sixty francs there were three grades in the order initiated associates corresponding associates and uninitiated amongst those belonging to the society were such men as lafayette de parmesanel and bretelet the great chemist bretelet had however peculiar privileges amongst which was the right of criticism on one occasion he had a row with mesmer about his charlatanism at length the french public wearied with his trickeries and angry with his cupidity openly expressed their dissatisfaction whereupon he left france taking with him a fortune of three hundred and forty thousand francs he went to england and thence to germany Finally he settled down in Merseburg, in his native country, Swabia, where he died in 1815, at the age of 81.

A NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE by Hubert G. Ripley

From the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs.

But it was a very popular piece in the 11th century.

And it identifies the protagonist, who's a horrible, horrible man, as a Swabian.

So from Southwest, And of course, it wasn't written to be performed in Swabia.

It was written to be performed in the Rhineland.

On the one flank was the Catholic Duchy of Bavaria and the bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg.

On the other flank were the ecclesiastical electorates on the Rhine and the Moselle, the bishoprics of Worms, Speyer, and Strasbourg, the Austrian lands in Swabia and Alsace, and the long line of the Spanish frontier in Franche-Comté and the Netherlands, garrisoned by the troops of the first military monarchy in Europe.

What wonder if men so endangered were in haste to cut the knot which threatened to strangle them, and to meet the enemy by flying in his face rather than by awaiting the onslaught which they believed to be inevitable.

Under the influence of this feeling, the princes of these southern regions for the most part adopted a religion very different from the courtly Lutheranism of the north.

If a complete junction of all the Protestant forces was not to be had, something at least was attainable.

On April 23rd, 1633, the League of Heilbrunn was signed.

The four circles of Swabia, Franconia, and the Upper and Lower Rhine formed a union with Sweden for mutual support.

It is not difficult to explain the defection of the Elector of Saxony.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Christoph Stangenberg The Cold Heart by Wilhelm Hauf Translated by John Oxenford Section 1 those who travel through swabia should always remember to cast a passing glance into the schwarzwald not so much for the sake of the trees though pines are not found everywhere in such prodigious numbers nor of such a surpassing height as for the sake of the people who show a marked difference from all others in the neighborhood around they are taller than ordinary men broad-shouldered have strong limbs and it seems as if the bracing air which blows through the pines in the morning has allowed them from their youth upwards to breathe more freely and has given them a clearer eye and a firmer though ruder mind than the inhabitants of the valleys and plains the strong contrast they form to the people living without the limits of the wald consists not merely in their bearing and stature but also in their manners and costume those of the schwarzwald of the baden territory dress most handsomely the men allow their beards to grow about the chin just as nature gives it and their black jackets white trousers which are plaited in small folds red stockings and painted hats surrounded by a broad brim give them a strange but somewhat grave and noble appearance their usual occupations are the manufacturing of glass and the so-called dutch clocks which they carry about for sale over half the globe Another part of the same race lives on the other side of the Schwarzwald, but their occupations have made them contract manners and customs quite different from those of the glass manufacturers.

Their Wald supplies their trade.

Felling and fashioning their pines, they float them through the Nargold into the Neckar, from there down the Rhine as far as Holland, and near the sea the Schwarzwälder and their long rafts are well known.

Thank you.

I assume you're in Swabia.

What's your MFRA?

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Tonight our journey takes us south, over the Alps and into Italy, to the richest, proudest and most argumentative city of the 15th century.

We have walked the stews of Bankside in London, and the women's house of Nerdlingen in Swabia.

Now we come to Florence.

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