Mesmerism. *

first head , it will perhaps be well to make two preliminary remarks : first , that we should in all investigations bear in mind our great ignorance , and the finite nature of our faculties . We have , as it were , merely opened our eyes on this

wondrous universe which required an infinite mind for its construction , a universe where , in the words of Tapper ,

" All things being are in mystery T 7 c esplain mysteries by mysteries . " The most richly endowed geniuses admitted honestly that man , at his best estate , is but a poor finite creature , groping in the dark after those truths which the Infinite One , in His wisdom , has

ordained , should be searched out only by patient exertion and travail . Newton says , " to myself I appear but as a child picking up pebbles on the sea shore , while the vast mass of unknown truth

lies hid in the unfathomable depths before me . " Bacon says : "The subtlety of nature far transcends the subtlety of either sense or intellect . " Heischell : " In the study of nature and its laws we ought at once to make up our minds to dismiss

as idle prejudices , or at least suspend as premature , any preconceived notion of what might or ought to be the order of nature in any proposed case , and content ourselves with observing as plain matter of fact what is . "

And the great and good Dr . Arnold in his lectures observes : " The study of the phenomena of electricity of magnetism , ancl above all of what is called animal magnetism ( another name for mesmerism ) , seems to promise that , in the course of years , or it may be of centuries , we may arrive at some glimpses of a yet higher mystery , the

relations of physical and moral existence towards each other , and the principle of animal life . " In the "Water Babies , " a tale hy the Rev . Charles Kingsley , one of the greatest writers of the age , we find the following most remarkable

passage : — " You must not say that this cannot be , or that is contrary to nature . You do not know Avhat nature is , or what she can do ; ancl nobody knows , not even Sir Roderick Murchison , or Professor Owen , or Professor Sedgwick , or

Professor Huxley , or Mr . Darwin , or Professor Faraday , or Mr . Grove , or any other of the great men . They are very wise men , and you must listen respectfully to all they say ; but even if they should say , which I am sure they never would , ' That cannot exist—that is contrary to nature / you must Avait a little to see , for perhaps even

they may be wrong . Wise ] men are afraid to say that there is anything contrary to nature , except what is contrary to mathematical truth ; for two ancl two cannot make five , and two straight lines cannot join twice , and a part cannot be as

great as the whole , but the wiser men are , the less they talk about " cannot . " That is a very rash , dangerous word , " cannot . " My second preliminary remark is this—that nearly all great inventions and discoveries were at

first opposed , aud the inventors ancl discoverers themselves derided and persecuted . Need I instance Galileo , whose name and persecutions are as familiar as household words to all ? Need I mention Harvey , the discoverer of the

circulation of the blood , ancl all he endured before his brilliant discovery was accepted and appreciated ?

Need I instance . Jenner , the discoverer of vaccination—that blessed discovery which , under God , has saved , and is saving countless millions of the human race from hideous and repulsive disfigurement and a loathsome death . It is reall y difficult to refrain from laughter when reading the accounts that are extant of the commotion

that vaccination caused . An anti-vaccinarian society , which was immediately formed , called " upon the public to suppress the cruel , despotic tyranny of forcing cow-pox misery on the innocent babes of the poor—a gross violation of

religion , morality , law , and humanity . " Deaths from cow-pox inoculation were actually published in the mortality bills of London . Some , after vaccination , were supposed to bellow like bulls aud cough like cows ; and one anfci-vaccinist

ingeniously suggested that , if cow-pox were known to have existed in a family , the fact might debar the members of it from the chances of matrimony , for " who would marry a young lady who might one day , like Nebuchadnezzar of old , turn to eating

grass in the shape of an ox ? " But you would suppose that inventions so harmless and useful as umbrellas and forks might escape the general dislike to innovation ; but no , the first person who ventured forth with an

umbrella was mercilessly pelted with mud and missiles of every sort ; ancl as for forks , a clergyman of our own Church preached a . sermon against them , as being the invention of the Evil One , and "intended to minister to the vanity of mankind , AA'ho were , forsooth , now becoming too proud to eat their meat with their fingers / '