Part 27 (2/2)

ELECTRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS--AMUs.e.m.e.nTS--INTRODUCTION OF STRANGERS.

”....Even the daisies of the field grow in company....”

Besides theatres of another kind, there are large arenas, where the entertainments princ.i.p.ally consist of feats worked out by electricity and produce effects far beyond anything as yet known in your planet.

These arenas are open to the sky, for electric effects are not exhibited in roofed buildings, from fear of the explosions which would probably occur were antagonistic electricities brought in contact with each other in a covered s.p.a.ce.

The games exhibited are varied; but, in all, electricity has some part.

As I have already said, we have electricities, some attractive, some antipathetic to the human frame,--and by the aid of both kinds many interesting feats are performed.

I have seen a man and horse in the arena, who, at a given signal, would rise gradually and gracefully to a distance of more than fifty feet from the earth. When suspended in the air a cloud, like fire, would encircle them, and then after a certain time, sufficient for the spectators to observe and admire them, they would alight on the earth as gradually and gracefully as they had ascended.

THE FLYING CHILDREN.

In one of these arenas is a large sheet of running water, supplied by a cataract in the neighbourhood; and I have seen the most beautiful effects produced by children gliding over and as it were dancing on its surface. The children are selected from the most graceful and beautiful of those, who, not having sufficient intellect to learn, give no signs of making a progress which would fit them for more important occupations.

These children are taught and _willed_ to move in the most graceful forms. Joining hands and forming exceedingly beautiful groups, they will glide over the cascade and over the surface of the agitated lake, walking, dancing, or reposing.

WILL.

In a.s.suming these graceful forms, the children are aided by a person skilled in the use of the Will, who, with the a.s.sistance of our ”sympathetic-attracting machines,” [1] can _will_ the children to take the most varied and graceful positions. The effect is fascinating, elevating, and refining.

[Footnote 1: See p. 265.]

The man who directs the sympathetic machine, _wills_ the figures from his imagination or memory, this being part of the art in which he is skilled.

In your planet, you do not know the extent of the power of the Will; and yet it is the Will--the Will of the Soul--which sets our vital electricity in motion, directs it on particular parts of its own machine--the brain--or on the sentient faculties of others. This same vital electricity can be used with greater force and certainty of direction, when a.s.sisted by the instrument which I have called ”the sympathetic machine.”

THE DEAF AND DUMB CHILD.

I have seen one little girl deaf and dumb--the only instance in my time--in consequence of a fright her mother had experienced. The child was of so nervous a temperament, that she could not be taught anything intellectual. She was lovely, with long hair that fell about her in graceful curls, and in whatever way she sat, moved, or reclined, her poses and movements were angelic.

It was found that the only thing which would awaken her dormant senses was electricity; and that, under its influence, she would be well and happy.

This child was at length taught to remain for some time together in one of her beautiful poses.

The circus in which I saw her is built close to a mountain or steep ascent, which rises almost perpendicularly to a great height. By the power of an attractive electricity, she would be made--whilst in one of her beautiful poses--to rise gradually, and to be borne flying, as it were, in the air. She would then be made to alight on the top of the high rock, where a halo of concentrated light was thrown on her; this clung about her, attracted by a solution with which her dress was sponged. The light was calculated to remain undissipated for half an hour.

After some time, and having taken the most graceful poses, encircled with the lovely halo, the child would glide off the rock and descend slowly and gracefully through the air--with the varied colours of the halo about her--as though she were a being of the celestial stars.

Of all exhibitions, I have never seen any more beautiful than this. It served admirably to raise, refine, and rouse the spectator to enthusiasm.

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