It was human, it was genial, it affirmed unity and connection between remote points.”[33] Alcott was well aware of all these points of view. Moreover, she had access to the library of books eventually published on such subjects as electrical psychology, magnetic revelation, and mesmeric influence. She was drawn to the theme, as Hawthorne and Poe had been drawn. She perceived, as Hawthorne especially perceived, the violation of the human soul that might result from the penetrating intrusions of the mesmerist. And whether she believed in it or was skeptical, she knew that the subject of mesmerism would make a colorful thread to weave into a sensation tale.

            The author of “A Pair of Eyes” writes as an expert on the hypnotic function of the mesmerist’s eye, the effects of hypnotic influence upon the subject, and the use of mesmerism as an exercise in power. The eyes of Agatha Eure are “two dark wells . . . tranquil yet . . . fathomless.” Her first exercise in mesmerism is perpetrated upon her unknowing victim, the painter Max Erdmann, who reacts almost clinically:

            It seemed as if my picture had left its frame. . . . My hand moved slower and slower. . . . my eyelids began to be weighed down by a delicious drowsiness. . . . Everything grew misty. ... a sensation of wonderful airiness came over me, and I felt as if I could float away like a thistledown. Presently every sense seemed to fall asleep ... I drifted away into a sea of blissful repose. ... I seemed to be looking down at myself, as if soul and body had parted company and I was gifted with a double life. .