and be a villain?' When will no one find it difficult to make out a correct list of his friends? How much longer will men addict themselves to deceptive Professions? How much longer will they continue to wear masks and cloaks? "MADAME HORTENSE takes three minutes and a half to enter into somnambulism. The bandage which is to cover her eyes is folded up and applied by M. Bouillard, an illustrious unbeliever. In an hour she reads a verse in a book printed in small Roman type. The bandage which comes down to the ala nasi wasnot displaced even a single line." "All the lights are put out, and profound darkness reigns through the apartment. M. H. is then disengaged from her bandage." "Could you read this, Madame ?—Yes, sir.-Well, what is the title of the book?-M. Cormac several times says in a low voice, Rousseau's Works.-No, sir, they are the Poems of Malherbe!" "Here is a box, let one of you write legibly whatever phrase he likes; let the box be corded, and sealed, and if on the morrow I send you the whole untouched, with an accurate copy of the phrase, will you believe?-Yes." "On the next day I wrote to Dr. Frapart-'There is in your box, 'le possible est immense.' M. Frapart said, 'We have gained; for M. K Hortense has really read the hemistich of Lamartine.' As M. Latour, who till then distrusted only magnetism, now did us the honour of distrusting us, it became necessary to re-commence the experiment for him. It was he, then, who wrote the phrase, and without revealing what he had written, deposited the scroll in the box. Three days after I called on Dr. A. Latour, and returned him the box; he examined it, and recognised the seals." Well?""L'eau est composé d'hydrogène et d'oxygène."—" Well, you are the devil, or magnetism is true." Manuel Pratique. Truly, le possible EST immense; which means, in plain Latin, nihil mortalibus arduum est; or, still better, in the vernacular,— "Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible, Yea, get the better of them! What's to do?" There seems to be no reason for suspecting that this box was ever passed through the Post Office. Many of the arguments put forward in opposition to the truth of Mesmerism, would be quite as apposite, mutatis mutandis, if advanced in opposition to the truth of Homeopathy, or Hydropathy, or any other medical improvement or reform. The mesmerist recollects the rancour with which Vaccination was assailed on its advent; and considers it as no wonder "that a subject which opposes the pecuniary interests of the more unworthy members of the medical profession, threatening at once their pudding and their praise, should be assaulted with malignant virulence." Not many years have passed since the writer himself, undergoing the purgatorial process of qua rantine off the coast of Brazil, did not scruple to allude to the disciples of Mesmer in very depreciating language; he is not afraid to confess this-Southey, when a reformed character, was not ashamed to own Wat Tyler ; O ye who handle the mesmeric tools, Fright'ning the ladies into fits and starts,- O come and paw that monster! 66 A formal recommendation of Bacon in the present day would savour of the coxcomical; yet his lordship's works are sadly neglected by some of our schoolmen. Every medicine is an innovation; and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils. A froward retention of a custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times, are but a scorn to the new. I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the judgment of Esop's cock, that preferred the barley-corn before the gem; being a figure of those which prefer custom and habit before all excellency." These are the men to whom the poet refers,— 'Philosophers who darken and put out But the mesmerist fixes his eye upon the magnet, and holds on his course in defiance of obscurity, vulgar prejudice, and professional hostility; "Extremes are only in the master-mind!" On the other hand, the great public seems to stand in need of a little gentle admonition; urticæ proxima sæpe rosa est-the most distinguished magnetists proclaim this. Many events of daily occurrence are characterized by mystery, to an extent calculated to awake suspicion, that the occult power universally diffused," in some undefinable manner, is contributory to their production. What 66 strangely mystic power does the gamester exercise over the dupe! the schemer over the capitalist! the quack over the valetudinarian ! the editor over the world! Is there nothing magnetic in gold"the world's soul, that makes men do all things?" Do not some juries deliver their verdict as if the address of the advocate had put them to sleep? Sir Thomas Wylde was pleased very recently to excite the risible muscles of grave judges at the expense of the mesmerists; but in spite of his protestations, is it not manifest that there is some occult power lurking beneath that wig of his? Is not the learned Sergeant's power of face frequently petrific? the effect of his words and gestures often cataleptical? By suggestions, does he not sometimes" make the patient (witness) say any thing" that suits his client's purpose? by cross-not leading-questions, often " entangle him in another man's mind?" Then again, are not the pulpit-attitudes of some divines almost proverbially somniferous? Cowper, pointing to the rector in his place, exclaims, "Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk And sweet the clerk below!" And Ben Jonson says, 66 we had a preacher that would preach folk asleep still; and so they were prescribed to go to church, by an old woman that was their physician, thrice a week." And in the senatehouse of the land, what is the charm that so frequently constringes the senses of many of the members, covering the benches with the supine, while business of importance (to their constituents) is being forwarded a stage? And what the suggestive cause of that medley of queer sounds, of noises "peculiar to animals, fish, and birds," which some of the junior senators occasionally indulge in? And has not Sir Robert Peel been accused of throwing a spell over all the farmers in the country? and all the bankers too? Are not the landed interest, and the sugar interest, and various other interests, now in convulsions from an influence-analogous in its effects to cross-mesmerism-put forth by the Premier, the noble leader of her Majesty's Opposition, and the head of the League? Is not the accomplished politician-like the American solitaire-frequently the occupant of more than one place at a time? The magnetist boasts that he can make his subject terious power that not rare suppleness and trappings? Yot. patrict, to.. Wa a. any thing: what is the mys make: statesmer riva nariequi in presses of VORT SER An. seems to every gazer al 11 WALL.... I will address - candour vou attack He bow, turns reună, and wiị-the man « m black Pernap, to vaiga" eyes, bestrides the state. Yet whet n deigu ms real shape: assume. Goldsmith. The truth is that Mesmerism. is at. agency of which we know so little," that until a plenteons induction shall have increased our intimacy with it, it benooves every one to move about with great circumspection. There is on record the case of a lady who was magnetised by means of a letter, sent to her from a distance by an enthusiastic professor; and there is reason for suspecting that ladies are often subjected to similar treatment, while every one knows that a book frequently exercises a soporific power. F such should happen to be the case with respect to this book, the writer most seriously asserts that it will not result from his volition; and for the consolation of any who may be caught nodding over his pages, he deems it right to declare, that in every such instance, to the best of his belief, the sleeper will be in a normal state, and the sleep itself perfectly natural CITY STEAM PRESS, LONG LANE: D. A. DOU DNEY. |