of his victim, and transfers the ghost that haunts him to another
subject.
The portrait of a so-called Nathan Early, at the beginning of Osgood
Mason's book, has the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth of a much mesmerised man.
The mouth has not become stiffened into a laugh, as he was of a gentle
firm disposition, and the hypnotism probably was from a distance.
The possessed hypnotist transferred it to his victim, Mrs. Juliette
Burton.
The qualification, "at first," is important; visions are perhaps not
easily transferred to a new subject, but the question of what is good
policy for the rascals may have to be considered. This may limit
the experience of those who have been more seriously victimised than Miss
Freer and her garrison were.
The experiments reported in Mr. Podmore's excellent book, though
invaluable, are probably not exhaustive.
Colonel Meysey Thompson's Reminiscences relate a wonderful occurrence
connected with his father, but it is believed that more striking matters
occurred even than this. To return to the haunted house.
The cottage to the east of the glen--Ballechin cottage--(there is no
reason for not using the name except that B---- is shorter than
Ballechin; indeed the public and the Perthshire police should combine
to clear the neighbourhood of the gang who have troubled a charming
country house)--was once a place for retreat for nuns. The fact was not
known to Miss Freer and her friends until several visions of nuns had
been seen in the glen.[18]
[Footnote 18: "Haunting of B---- House," p. 136.]
The poor religious women, like the priests, must have been a favourite
prey of the hypnotists.
The writer believes that the late Cardinal Manning approved of religious
ladies residing with their families and carrying on works of charity, a
less wretched life than the usual nun's life often unavoidably must be.
English Catholics have not been subjected to the terrors of a _casa de
exercitios_ such as broke the courage of Mrs. Grahame's spinster
friend.[19] It must have been extremely repulsive to the feelings of a
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