ing the properties above mentioned-who makes no ostentatious pretensions, who promises nothing,-who merely places his hand upon the stomach, or makes some slight frictions, of the design of all which the patient is unconscious, and has never heard or read :— how it happens, that he yet produces a more decidedly curative effect, than all the remedies of some physician of high eminence and renown, on whom the patient's hopes and expectations have been centered,-whose visit has been most anxiously expected, in whose judgment and intelligence, the surest reliance has been placed,and whose medicines have been duly taken-and all his plans most religiously adhered to, with an unshaken confidence of deriving benefit from them. Here the imagination has been excited to the utmost, and yet the effect has not been comparable with the former influence, and this, to make the case still stronger, even when that influence has been exerted upon persons, who were not even neutral,—but who were very doubtful as to the utility of magnetism. This argument proceeds upon the supposed admission of the facts-if these are denied, then there is no truth in the world,and there is an end of argument :-if allowed, the cause of cure must be sought in some other agent than imagination.

"The term imagination has here been a convenient one, employed for the simple purpose of alleging a cause other than magnetism, for effects which are indisputable :-and of concealing ignorance of that cause, of which we really know nothing. It is an attempt to explain that which is inexplicable;—and to substitute one term whose qualities are unknown, for another whose qualities are equally unknown. And what is gained? The facts are established by the supposition; the mode of accounting for them is changed,—but changed without a shadow of philosophical truth. What is still worse, is, that the parties so employing this term, know not and have never even considered its meaning, or its applicability. And to take only the lowest ground, it is surely impossible to explain by this supposed cause, effects produced upon patients who had no cognisance-not even a suspicion, that anything was going forward in their particular case, and who were entirely ignorant of the whole doctrine. If the assertion be then persisted in we accept it with all joy, because it proves too much; -inasmuch as, if imagination has been excited under such circumstances, it must have been so excited by some unknown cause; and as magnetism is the only recognised agent, the probability comes out, that it must have been so excited by magnetism, thus giving up the point in dispute:—for if this cause be magnetism, opposition is at once destroyed:-if it be any other cause, this cause requires and demands investigation.

"It does not however appear to us, that the imagination of the magnetised, does contribute in any way to the magnetic effects, as such. It is not therefore denied, that imagination may exercise a considerable influence on magnetic phenomena :-but then it is the imagination of the magnetiser, not of the magnetised, a fact which proves the power, rather than impugns the reality of magnetism. "It is however readily allowed, that this faculty, thus exercised,

may produce untrue results by influencing the clairvoyant individual to perceive things through the medium of their excited organs. Perhaps this is the best method of explaining the reports of somnambulists, who have departed from the simple soundness of truth, and have wandered without rudder or compass into regions of ideality, and have given reports which are deprived even of vraisemblance.

"This idea is supported by the fact, that during clairvoyance, no knowledge is elicited, no opinion given, not previously possessed by the magnetiser or magnetised,-at least in its germ, if not in its development. For instance, a Turkish somnambulist will never give Christian views or opinions, unless the magnetiser be a Christian.

"It is then admitted that certain phenomena are the consequence of the exaltation of the imaginative faculty :-but then it is to be recollected that it is magnetism which has occasioned this exaltation; a state which may, under different circumstances, exist naturally, or be produced by a variety of other causes.

"In this way, however, a state of extatic delirium may arise,- in which a chimerical idea once introduced into the brain, may prove the idée mère of many illusions and reveries of an unreal character. In this state the imagination is unnaturally exalted, and the patient is not to be trusted. It is quite possible to become the dupe of these reveries; but the danger will become less in proportion as investigation advances, and will be entirely dissipated, when wise medical men shall superintend and direct the treatment; and when advancing knowledge on psychological subjects shall have enabled us to contrast and to compare these extraordinary phenomena, with the more simple laws of the human understanding.

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Finally, admitting that those who were cured, were so cured, through the medium of their imagination;-still, they who have discovered this method of so exciting the imagination, as to render such excitement curative of any intractable malady, have done much; -and must be entitled to at least equal credit with those who had conducted the unsuccessful treatment, or even with those who might carry on the treatment to a successful issue, by means more hurtful to the constitution.”—Pp. 196–201.

Now the great beauty of the whole of these observations is, that the main point of the whole question is here completely kept. out of view. Unquestionably magnetic phenomena and effects have been ascribed to the influence of imagination; but certainly it is not that sort of influence which distinguishes either the great poet-or the great philosopher. Imagination is one of the most important and essential faculties in all mental operations. But is also one most liable to disorder and irregularity, and requires especially to be guided and regulated by other faculties. It is not less necessary to the mathematician and to the historian than it is to the poet. But it must be imagination in its healthy and vigorous state, regulated by reason, chastened by judgment and

observation, enlarged, stored, and fortified by knowledge, and rectified by constant intercourse with mankind and the world. When Homer wrote the Iliad, though he could not have either conceived or executed that immortal poem without the aid of imagination, yet imagination alone could never have enabled him to produce so exquisite a performance. There was immense and accurate knowledge of many facts, of all the springs and motives of human action, accurate knowledge of the varieties of human character, unbounded knowledge of the state of society, of the manners of mankind, of the geography of the world as then inhabited; and all this knowledge was modelled into such a degree of verisimilitude, that many persons have doubted whether it is a work of fiction or reality. Yet all the pictures of the different scenes, and all the disputes of the chiefs and battles of the opposing hosts, the whole of the interposition of the gods, must have been composed by the aid of the imagination.

The difference is this, that in magnetism it is the morbid deranged imagination that is the great agent of the phenomena. These phenomena are very similar to the confused, wild, and extravagant images presented in the dreams of a sick man, whose whole circulation and nervous system are in an unhealthy state. No person in whom the imagination is in the subdued and subordinate condition of health ever becomes magnetic. No person ever is the subject of magnetic phenomena in whom the imagination is not previously disordered, commonly with some morbid susceptibility of the nervous system.

The author next adverts to the opinion of Chardel, that light is the principle of life; and this, he thinks, is established, or at least rendered most probable by the influence of the solar rays on the metallic salts and other bodies, as shown by Daguerreotype sketches. To the cause of these changes, which have been erroneously ascribed to light, he applies, like Chardel, the term energeia, and Mr Hunt that of actinism (axris, axrivos, a ray.)

Magnetism, as exhibited in peculiar phenomena on the human frame, embraces the phenomena of four different states, which are distinguished by most authors into, first, somnambulism, or the magnetic sleep; secondly, clairvoyance, or the faculty of seeing objects while the eyes are completely closed, and seeing them either by the epigastrium or the tips of the fingers, or some other sensible part of the body; thirdly, prevision or foresight, or the alleged power of foreseeing events that are to take place; and fourthly, ecstasis, or ecstasy, or that state of exaltation of the faculties in which the individual takes no cognizance of the affairs or persons of this world, but at least appears to carry on all his thoughts with the world of spirits.

I. The nature of somnambulism and clairvoyance, so far as these

states can be understood, are perhaps sufficiently known. At all events their beginning, approach, their course and terminations are understood as well as they are likely to be. If any one wishes more full information than has yet been given the English reader on these subjects, he will do well to peruse the chapter in the present work, which certainly contains a good selection of facts and illustrations. The chief question which these cases suggest is, whether the answers given to the questions proposed were not mere fortunate conjectures, or whether, in other cases, they were not procured by the knowledge or information of the parties? All of us know what happy guesses are made by professed fortune-tellers and conjurors; and all of us know how much these persons can turn to account their natural sagacity; their knowledge of the circumstances of the consultants, and their power of divining their wishes, their hopes, and their fears. As to the story of the young woman, the clairvoyant somnambulist of the Alton paper mills, we see in her answers and whole conduct nothing which could not be paralleled in several cases which we have known or witnessed, but which we do not think proved any thing beyond mere fortunate guesses amidst multiplied errors.

II. To the head of clairvoyance, or, as it is by some termed, lucidity, belongs the pretended faculty of possessing an intuitive knowledge of disease and the required remedies, and the alleged faculty of seeing where they are transacted, distant actions and events. The magnetised individual is represented and pretends, while before us, to know and see actions and events, which take place at the distance, not merely of yards but of miles. As the magnetic philosophers have, among their other indications of the love of the marvellous and supernatural, shown a particular predilection for the maintenance of this faculty, they have collected examples more or less pointed, and in their estimation, fitted to establish the principle for which they contend. Mr Newnham has dealt in a small degree in this way; and it is evident that he believes in the truth of the assumption. Other authors have also recorded cases calculated to establish the same inferences. All, however, have been received with more or less incredulousness and doubt; and in general the correctness of the statements have been positively denied as originating either in imposition or some mere accidental coincidence between the events and the alleged account of the magnetic observer.

No person, in this state of the question, has come forward in a manner so confident and with such strong claims on the attention of the public as Miss Martineau, who in the second of her letters represents a young female of nineteen years, to have given evidence that she was not only, when magnetised, possessed of a knowledge of medicine and astronomy, but could tell certain

events going on far from the place of her residence. Here is the

case:

"J. had for six years been subject to frequent severe pain in the left temple, and perpetually recurring inflammation of the eyes, with much disorder besides. She is active and stirring in her habits, patient and cheerful in illness, and disposed to make the least, rather than the most, of her complaints. She had, during these six years, been under the care of several doctors, and was at one time a patient at the Eye Infirmary at Newcastle; and the severe treatment she has undergone is melancholy to think of, when most of it appears to have been almost or entirely in vain. She herself assigns, in the trance, a structural defect as the cause of her ailments, which will prevent their ever being entirely removed; but, from the beginning of the mesmeric treatment, her health and looks have so greatly improved, that her acquaintance in the neighbourhood stop her to ask how it is that her appearance is so amended. There was in her case certainly no imagination' to begin with; for she was wholly ignorant of mesmerism, and had no more conception of the phenomena she was about to manifest than she has consciousness of them at this moment.

"This unconsciousness we have guarded with the utmost care. We immediately resolved that, if possible, there should be one case of which no one could honestly say that the sleeping and waking states of mind were mixed. Our object has been, thus far, completely attained,-one harmless exception only having occurred. This was when, speaking of the nature and destiny of man, an idea which she had heard in church,' intruded itself among some otherwise derived, and troubled her by the admixture. On that occasion, she remarked afterwards, that she had been dreaming, and, she thought, talking of the soul and the day of judgment. This is the only instance of her retaining any trace of anything being said or done in the trance. Her surprize on two or three occasions, at finding herself, on awaking, in a different chair from the one she went to sleep in, must show her that she has walked; but we have every evidence from her reception of what we say to her, and from her ignorance of things of which she had previously informed us, that the time of her mesmeric sleep is afterwards an absolute blank to her. I asked her one evening lately, when she was in the deep sleep, what she would think of my publishing an account of her experience with my own,-whether she should be vexed by it. She replied that she should like it very much she hoped somebody would let her know of it, and show it to her,-for, though she remembered when asleep everything she had thought when asleep before, she could not keep any of it till she awoke. It was all regularly blown away.' But if it was printed, she should know; and she should like that.

"To preserve this unconsciousness as long as possible, we have admitted no person whatever at our séances, from the first day till now, who could speak to her on the subject. We shut out our