408 THE MEDIUM OF MESMERIC SENSATION.

Taking this simple view of sensation, we find nothing in mesmerism contradictory of nature. Under its influence the human frame continues to be still a system of nerves acted upon by elastic media, for the purpose of conveying to us the primal impulses of the Almighty mind, which made, sustains, and moves the universe.

409

BOOK IV. `

"To every form of being is assign'd
An active principle:
·- howe'er remov'd
From sense and observation, it subsists
In all things, in all natures, in the stars
Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,
In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone
That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
The moving waters, and the invisible air."
WORDSWORTH.

SECT. I.

THE MESMERIC MEDIUM.

HAVING, as I trust, shown the conformity of mesmerism, in all essential points, with the principles of nature and the inferences of reason, I now proceed to exhibit it in connection with such a cause as its peculiar manifestations indicate and demand.

First, I affirm that, productive of the effects called mesmeric, there is an action of matter as distinct and specific as that of light, heat, electricity, or any other of the imponderable agents, as they are called; that, when the mesmeriser influences his patient, he does this by a medium, either known already in another guise, or altogether new to our experience,

T

What proofs, it will be asked, can I bring forward of this assertion? I answer, such proofs as are considered available in all cases where an impalpable imponderable medium is to be considered; facts, namely, or certain appearances, which, bearing a peculiar character, irresistibly suggest a peculiar cause. Let us take only one of these.

Standing at some yards distant from a person who is in the mesmeric state (that person being perfectly stationary, and with his back to me), I, by a slight motion of my hand (far too slight to be felt by the patient, through any disturbance of the air), draw him towards me, as if I actually grasped him.

What is the chain of facts which is here presented to me? First, an action of my mind, without which I could not have moved my hand; secondly, my hand's motion; thirdly, motion produced in a body altogether external to, and distant from myself. But it will at once be perceived, that, in the chain of events, as thus stated, there is a deficient link. The communication between me and the distant body is not accounted for. How could an act of my mind originate in an effect so unusual?

That which is immaterial cannot, by its very definition, move masses of water. It is only when mysteriously united to a body that spirit is brought into relationship with place or extension, and under such a condition alone, and only through such a medium, can it propagate motion. Now, in some wondrous way, spirit is in us incorporate. Our bodies are its medium of action. By them, and only

I may

by them, as far as our experience reaches, are we enabled to move masses of foreign matter. sit and may will for ever that yonder chair come to me, but without the direct agency of my body it must remain where it is. All the willing in the world cannot stir it an inch. I must bring myself into absolute contact with the body which I desire to move. But, in the case before us, I will. I extend my hands; I move them hither and thither, and I see the body of another person a mass of matter external to myself, yet not in apparent contact with me- moved and swayed by the same action which stirs my own body. Am I thence to conclude that a miracle has been performed—that the laws of nature are reversed - that I can move foreign matter without contact, or intermediate agency? Or must I not rather be certain that, if I am able to sway a distant body, it is by means of some unseen lever that volition is employing something which is equivalent to a body—something, which may be likened to an extended corporeity, which has become the organ of my will?

Surely there is no effect without a cause; and from actions we may infer the existence of an agent. We do this a thousand times in other cases,-in that of mesmerism, for instance. We never behold this power but in its results. It cannot even be made evident, like the electric spark, or felt in our own persons, like the galvanic concussion. The needle that has become a magnet, has undergone no change which any mortal sight is fine enough to appreciate,

has acquired no weight which can be detected by our earthly senses. Yet, solely because we are sure that we behold certain phenomena, we allow that there is a distinct form of electricity, to which we have given the name of magnetism. Why should we refuse to mesmerism that which we grant to magnetism? It is true that as yet we have no balance of torsion, whereby the mesmeric force can be measured; but in the human body itself we do possess an instrument whereby its presence may be ascertained; nor would it be reasonable to insist upon separate agencies being detected by the same test. Why, then, but from the force of prejudice, should we call the mesmeric medium a gratuitous assumption? That such a medium exists is not a gratuitous assumption, but an unavoidable deduction of reason. But there is a class of persons who refuse to admit of anything which they cannot see, taste, or handle; with such it is difficult to argue. Should proofs by experiment be exhibited to them again and again, they still return to their cuckoo note"Show me the agent." One of these practical men, as they are called, actually said to me on one occasion, "I never will believe that what you call mesmerism exists, unless you can put it in a bottle, and submit it to analysis."

To what end, then, is reason given us, if not to judge of things invisible by those which are clearly seen? For what purpose possess we the irresistible propensity to supply deficient links in a chain of causation, if not to prompt us where our senses fail? We