Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/295

. Aleksyéy Vladímirovich, put him in a trance!

. No, Antón Borísovich is here, and he has more practice in this matter than I, and power—Antón Borísovich!

. Ladies and gentlemen, I am not really a spiritualist. I have only studied hypnosis. Hypnosis I have studied, it is true, in all its known manifestations, but that which is called spiritualism is entirely unknown to me. From the trance of a subject I may expect certain familiar phenomena of hypnosis: lethargy, aboulia, anæsthesia, analgesia, catalepsy, and all kinds of suggestion. But here not these, but other phenomena are to be subjected to investigation, and so it would be desirable to know what these expected phenomena are, and what scientific significance they have.

. I fully concur with Mr. Grossmann's opinion. Such an elucidation would be very interesting.

(to the Professor). I think, Aleksyéy Vladimirovich, you will not refuse to make a short explanation.

. I do not object. I can explain it, if you so wish. (To the Doctor.) You, please, measure the temperature and pulse. My exposition will, unavoidably, be superficial and brief.

. Yes, brief, brief.

. Directly. (Takes out a thermometer and gives it to Semén.) Well, my good fellow! (Places it in his mouth.)

. Yes, sir.

(rising and turning to the Stout Lady, then sitting down). Ladies and gentlemen! The phenomenon which we are investigating generally represents itself, on the one hand, as something novel, and, on the other, as something transcending the natural order of things. Neither the one nor the other is correct. This phenome-