BOOK II.

SECT. I.

MESMERIC SOMNAMBULISM, OR, MORE PROPERLY,

SLEEPWAKING.*

In entering upon the examination of a new subject, we should strive to place it in the clearest and least disputable point of view. To this end, I shall for the present consider mesmerism simply as a distinct species of somnambulism, into which it has been asserted that man has the capacity of passing, through the influence of his fellow-man. Were this alldid none other of the extraordinary allegations respecting mesmerism exist, this alone appears to me a subject of deep interest, and worthy of being submitted to that patient investigation, which should either confirm it as a fact, or banish it as an illusion. Mesmeric sleepwaking- if proved to be a reality— will claim to be considered as one of the conditions of man, and, as such, must concern all mankind but especially the philosopher, who, in order to investigate our nature truly, should explore it in its

* Dr. Elliotson, in the chapter on mesmerism in his PHYSIOLOGY, has adopted the term sleepwaking, because walking is but one result of the combination of the waking with the sleeping state, and because in this state persons may not walk, or may even be unable to walk.

weakness and its strength, its integrity and its disorder. Sleep, fever, irritation of the nervous system, have each their several trains of physical and mental phenomena, which are anxiously investigated by him who would know man as he is. Even drunkenness has had its anatomists, and with what fearful interest we strive to fathom the abyss of madness, as if we could evoke from thence the secret of our complicate and wonderful existence! There is good sense in this. From the derangement of a machine we are often led to ascertain the uses of its several parts. Now, though mesmeric sleepwaking can scarcely be called a derangement of the animal economy, still it is an aberration from man's normal state; and, so considered, cannot fail to be replete with instruction to the careful observer. Unless we peruse this page, our study of the great volume of human nature must be incomplete.

Surely likewise, independently of the philosophical view of the question, all who share this suffering mortal frame all who, during long and tedious hours, have vainly courted sleep, that perverse power which, in the poet's beautiful words, is "still last to come where it is wanted most, all who mourn

but be inter

the past, or fear the future,. cannot ested in a discussion respecting the reality of a power in man to withdraw for a while the senses of his fellow-mortals from this world of troubles.

In thus considering mesmerism as nothing more than a state to be investigated like any other state into which man has the capacity of passing, I shall

probably surprise those who have been accustomed to regard the matter either as too mysterious to claim affinity with aught on earth, or as too fancifully wild to be brought under the laws of rational research. It may be doubted also, whether, with some persons, our subject may not lose its charms, when robbed of its controversial title, and whether the plain view I have taken of the question may not equally offend the argumentative opposer who seeks to show his eloquence in dispute, and the warm partisan who would invest his favourite science with an awful and unknown dignity. But the earnest and impartial pupil of nature will be content to take his stand with me on the sure ground of experimental proof, and, even should he become my opponent, will attack the true subject in debate instead of the man of straw, which has so long and so often been warred with under the name of mesmerism.

The proofs, which I shall offer, regarding this peculiar phasis of our mortal state, will be drawn, almost exclusively, from the proceeds of my own observation. To make use of the materials accumulated by others, in order to construct a theory of one's own, has always appeared to me inconsistent with the earnestness of true inquiry. That deep conviction of the reality of his subject, which is an author's life and soul, is the result of personal experience alone. Besides, it should be the aim, as I conceive, of every one who undertakes a cause, to add to the stock of real information thereupon. Thus only can the boundaries of human knowledge be en

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larged; for what new fact can be elicited by those, who copy everlastingly from the old? Moreover, a person who observes for himself may perchance remark what has hitherto escaped the notice of even clearer eyes than his. Let twenty men witness a transaction, and the attention of each will probably be directed to a different feature of that transaction. By the combined result of such individual scrutiny, we come to a perception of the whole truth. Each carefully observed fact is an heirloom to mankind; and he who verifies a new phenomenon does more, perhaps, for science than he who constructs theory.

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Before, however, bringing forward the records of my own personal experience, I must warn my reader that if he imagines I have anything miraculous to relate he will be disappointed. It is true that I might, were I so inclined, give a zest to my pages by recording circumstances which were passing strange; but I have avoided these, from reasons which partly regard myself, partly those whom I address.

With respect to the latter, I think that persons in general would only be revolted by particulars which they would scarcely credit on any testimony; and thus I should rather injure than promote the cause I have undertaken to defend.

Secondly, as concerning myself. For my own sake I shun those tracts of thought, which, if not belonging to superstition, at least closely border upon her domains. When once we pass the bounds of the

definite and the probable, we can scarcely settle with our own minds what degree of credit we ought to attach to the mystic circumstances that surround us, or on what basis we should place them. Of every fact of this nature there are ordinarily two explanations to be given a rational, and a marvellous. The marvellous would lead us too far; the rational does not content us. As, for instance, a sleepwaker describes to me what her family, in a distant house, are doing at a particular hour. I inquire subsequently into this, and find that she has been correct in every point. Now there are two interpretations of this seeming miracle:- we may either suppose that the sleepwaker has really seen what she stated; or that, from her knowledge of what the occupations of her family generally are, at a certain hour, she was enabled to divine, almost certainly, the truth.

Again: a sleepwaker tells me "My brother, who has been to the Havannah, and of whom we have not heard for some months, is returned, and is at this moment anchored off Flushing. He is just coming from watch, and on such a day he will be here." This is verified to the letter; but again there are two methods of explaining wherefore:-either the sleepwaker was gifted with extraordinary knowledge and prescience, or, from expecting her brother about a certain time, she calculated on probabilities, perhaps, more acutely than in her natural state; and this, combined with that sort of coincidence which occurs more frequently than some may suppose, is