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mesmeriser, as well as on that of every human being, though illegible by himself on account of his limitation. by the inpouring and outpouring tides of nearer sensation, is shed over to the mesmerised; who sits undisturbed, except by the temporary sound of the operator's questions. At the bidding of the enchanter, the spellbound subject looks through the world for the friend, whose image the thought of him revives, and finds him. Once discovered, it is easy to read what he is doing.

This is our hypothesis of the mystery of clear-seeing; and there is no need of expatiating upon it. In these pages, it is intended to be no more than a hint. Nor do we wish to attach any substantial value to the conjecture, except as an exercise of the mind. There are also certain physical, or hyperphysical principles involved in the fantastical fabric we are weaving, which lose none of their importance on account of the dubious investiture in which they are now presented to the reader's eye. As for the Sleeping Beauty of the Wood, for whom we have just been devising an imaginary scheme of deliverance, she is more than welcome to another century of repose.

III. It will be remembered, by such as have followed us with attention hitherto, that some mesmerists deny the phenomena of phreno-magnetism, as it has been illiterately called; and attribute the appearances which gave rise to the supposition of their existence, to the inclusive phenomenon of double consciousness, which has been discussed above. If one might trust, not the moral, but the intellectual veracity of published accounts, there would seem to be two kinds of cases. One of these might be characterised as connected with phrenology; the other only with the mesmeric double consciousness. In the former the response is immediate; in the latter, some little time elapses between the call

and the answer. In the former the reply is vivid; in the latter it is faint. Nor were it improbable that a mixed condition should occur. But it is with the phrenological instances alone that we have anything to do under this part of the subject, since community of consciousness has already been disposed of. Nor is it difficult to suppose that the touch or approximation of the operator's finger shall depolarise and liberate the cerebral organ touched or approached. Awaked by itself, alone, the particular organ rushes into a fury of activity; for it is by the balance of all these organs that we are kept in equipoise. The whole force of the spirit pours through the opened floodgate. It is like monomania, or the rapture of the saint, the poet, the sage, when the object of contemplation is not the universe, but something less. It is like everything we do, in fine; partial, exclusive, and in excess.

There only remains the application of our hypothesis to the case of the natural or spontaneous somnambulist. Being by no means prepared for an elaborate discussion of all the ambages of this mysterious subject, nor yet willing to enter more fully into it with the preparation which we have, we refer the reader to the suggestion thrown out already concerning Braid's hypnotic patients, as probably enough containing the clue to this part of the labyrinth. May not the halves of the cerebro-spinal axis in one individual become polar to one another, when the propitious circumstances are provided, say by fatigue or narcotics? Since two equal and similar things, fallen into the mutual relation of polarity, cannot become one solar and the other planetary, inasmuch as neither of them is the greater or the less; and since the idea of a dual unit, the coefficients

of which are both solar, is impossible; it follows that they become both planetary, revolving round one another like double suns, that is to say, both negative; that is to say, again, both non-sensitive, both non-voluntative, both non-cogitative; that is to say, again, both asleep. Is this the true theory of sleep? Since one hemisphere of the cerebral mass is often larger than the other, may it not in that degree and in such cases be neuro-positive; and does not such a supposition render the Joseph, or habitual dreamer, intelligible? In conclusion, may not the partial disentrancement of only one of the hemispheres, in one who sleeps, produce sleep-walking and its extraordinary concomitants, such as prevision and clearsight? At all events, it is certainly not so difficult to reduce the fact of spontaneous somnambulism under our gratuitous hypothesis as it seems at first sight.

One word more, and we have done. It is to be feared that some readers, and more especially such as are very favourable to the claims of mesmerism, will be of opinion that this hypothesis has been brought forward with unbecoming levity. It will perhaps be supposed that we do really believe in the higher phenomena just as decidedly as we have professed to do in the trance, but that we are ashamed or afraid to avow the fact. The real truth of the matter is neither far to seek nor ill to tell. The whole subject of Mesmerism was thrust on our attention early in life. We witnessed experiments of every sort, and we were too easily satisfied with their results. Then came the intellectual necessity of understanding and explaining such amazing phenomena; that is to say, of co-ordinating and co-adunating them with the uncompleted sphere of science. A little band of fellow-students looked to us for such a service; and the hypothesis, which has been outlined above, was the

product of our eager meditations. Having seen reason, however, to question the methodological validity of mesmeric evidence, our poor hypothesis is now advanced as nothing more than a playful exercitation of the intellect, in so far as all the more dubious findings of mesmeric research are concerned. Whatever may be its intrinsic worth or worthlessness as a piece of speculative thought, its value as a contribution to science is exactly equal to zero; and we do not entertain the very faintest hope, wish, or expectation concerning its future fortunes in the world.

'The earth hath bubbles as the water hath,

And this is of them!'

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

(NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.-NO. XXIX.)

IT has been frequently asserted, and that almost from time immemorial, that the common magnet is capable of reacting upon the nervous system of man. Mesmer attributed all the phenomena of animal magnetism to the efflux and the influx of a subtle fluid conceived of as specifically localised in the magnet, but radiating also from stars and planets, sun and moon, the earth and the sky, and most effectively of all from the bodies of healthy and viripotent men. Less adventurous medicasters have confined themselves to the power of the magnet proper and to metallic tractors. Partly on account of the somewhat Paracelsian character of poor Mesmer, partly because of the bombastic and unenlightened enthusiasm of the vast majority of his disciples, and partly owing to the indeterminable nature of the professed phenomena, men of positive science have generally held aloof from the whole subject. Men of observation, accustomed to the use of telescopes and equatorials, of microscopes and micrometers, barometers and thermometers, thermoscopes and electroscopes, balances and test-glasses, entertain a laudable aversion to the employment of the morbid nerve of exceptional human beings as at once the indicator and the measure of any physical force whatever.

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