In the United States of North America communities of Methodists
have existed for the last sixty years. The reports of credible
witnesses of their assemblages for divine service in the open air
(camp meetings), to which many thousands flock from great
distances, surpass, indeed, all belief; for not only do they there
repeat all the insane acts of the French Convulsionnaires and of
the English Jumpers, but the disorder of their minds and of their
nerves attains at these meetings a still greater height. Women
have been seen to miscarry whilst suffering under the state of
ecstasy and violent spasms into which they are thrown, and others
have publicly stripped themselves and jumped into the rivers.
They have swooned away by hundreds, worn out with ravings and
fits; and of the Barkers, who appeared among the Convulsionnaires
only here and there, in single cases of complete aberration of
intellect, whole bands are seen running on all fours, and growling
as if they wished to indicate, even by their outward form, the
shocking degradation of their human nature. At these camp-
meetings the children are witnesses of this mad infatuation, and
as their weak nerves are with the greatest facility affected by
sympathy, they, together with their parents, fall into violent
fits, though they know nothing of their import, and many of them
retain for life some severe nervous disorder which, having arisen
from fright and excessive excitement, will not afterwards yield to
any medical treatment.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211