A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with - Early Modern Texts

The Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft 13: Harm done by women’s ignorance
dishonest tricks to cheat silly women out of the money that
the poor cry for in vain?
[She rails against the ‘foolish women’ who resort to astrologers,
saying that this conduct is inconsistent with ‘your
religion, such as it is’, adding that these women are so foolish
that they probably wouldn’t understand her if she tried to
show that astrology is ‘absolutely inconsistent with the grand
purpose of life’. She then tries a different tack, from which
she moves on to a different kind of charlatan:]
Perhaps, however, you devoutly believe in the devil, and
imagine that he may assist those who are devoted to him?
But if you really respect the power of such a being, who is an
enemy to goodness and to God, can you go to church after
having been under such an obligation to him?
2. There is a natural transition from these delusions to the
still more fashionable deceptions practised by the whole tribe
of magnetisers. [These people used so-called ‘animal magnetism’—i.e.
hypnotism—as a supposed means to curing various ills. The process was
also called ‘mesmerism’, after the Austrian Dr Mesmer, who popularised
it.] With respect to them, also, it is proper to ask women a
few questions.
Do you know anything about the construction of the
human body? If not, you should be told something that
every child ought to know, namely that when the body’s
admirable system has been disturbed by intemperance or
inactivity—I’m talking not about violent disorders, but about
chronic diseases—it must be returned to a healthy state by
slow degrees. If the functions of life haven’t been materially
injured ·so that recovery is impossible·, the only ways that
have yet been discovered for recovering that inestimable
blessing, health—or anyway the only ones that will bear
investigation—are through a regimen of temperance, air,
exercise, and a few medicines prescribed by persons who
have studied the human body.
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Do you believe that these magnetisers, who by hocuspocus
tricks pretend to work a miracle, are •delegated
by God, or •assisted by the solver of all these kinds of
difficulties—the devil?
When the magnetisers put to flight (so they claim) disorders
that have baffled the powers of medicine, are they
working in conformity to the light of reason? Or do they
bring about these wonderful cures by supernatural aid?
A magnetiser may answer ‘We do it by communicating
with the world of spirits’. A noble privilege, we must admit!.
. . . These men are very fortunate in becoming acquainted
with such obliging spirits; but we can’t give the
spirits much credit for wisdom or goodness in choosing
these ignoble instruments as means to show themselves the
benevolent friends of man.
It is, however, little short of blasphemy to claim to have
such power.
From the over-all way that God runs the world, it seems
evident to sober reason that certain vices produce certain
effects. Can anyone so grossly insult God’s wisdom as to
suppose that a ·‘magnetising’· miracle will be allowed to
disturb his general laws, restoring intemperate and vicious
people to health merely to enable them to go back to their
old ways with impunity? ‘Be whole, and sin no more’, said
Jesus [John 5:14]. Are greater miracles to be performed by
those who do not follow in the footsteps of him who healed
the body in order to reach the mind?
The mention of the name of Christ after such vile impostors
may displease you—I respect your warmth, but don’t
forget that the followers of these ·‘magnetising’· delusions
bear his name, and profess to be the disciples of him who
said ‘By their fruits ye shall know them’ [Matthew 7:16], i.e.
know who are the children of God and who are the servants
of sin. It’s certainly easier to •touch the body of a saint or