.^^Jtkji^kl., 
 
 08- 
 
 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Received. , C^^^,„, iSf" / 
 Accessions No.^^A^st^.^^ Shelf No 
 
 OS* 
 
 
M-JQ 
 
LETTERS 
 
 LAWS OF MAN'S NATURE 
 
 DEVELOP M E N T. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 LAWS OF MAN'S NATURE 
 
 DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 HENRY GEORGE ATKINSON, F.G.S., 
 
 HARRIET MARTINEAU. 
 
 " But the commandment of knowledge is yet higher than the command- 
 ment over the Will : for it is a commandment over the reason, belief, 
 and understanding of Man, which is the highest part of the mind, and 
 giveth law to the will itself. For there is no power on earth which setteth 
 up a throne, or chair of state, in the spirits and souls of men, and in 
 their cogitations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but knowledge and 
 learning." — Bacon. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN CHAPMAN, 142, STRAND. 
 
 MDCCCLT. 
 
T 
 
 EDUC, 
 
 PSYCH. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 ^^ 
 
 U'tf& 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY RICHARD KINDER, 
 
 GREEN ARBOUR COURT OLD BAILEY. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book is in reality what it appears to be, — a 
 correspondence between two friends. The responsi- 
 bility for its publication is mine. For some years, 
 I had been taking a stronger and stronger interest 
 in Mr. Atkinson^ s views on a group of subjects which 
 I had been contemplating from my youth up, with 
 incessant curiosity, and, till of late, slight satisfac- 
 tion. Last year, I asked him to permit me to 
 inquire of him, in some sort of sequence, about his 
 researches into the nature and position of the Human 
 Being ; and the replies I have received seemed to 
 me to require of us both the discharge of that great 
 social duty, — to impart what we believe, and what 
 we think we have learned. I therefore suggested 
 the publication of our letters. Among the few 
 things of which we can pronounce oui'selves certain, 
 is the obligation of inquirers after truth to commu- 
 nicate what they obtain : and there is nothing in the 
 surprise, reluctance, levity, or disapprobation of any 
 person, or any number of persons, which can affect 
 a3 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 that certainty. It may be^ or it may not be, that 
 there are some who already hold our views_, and many 
 who are prepared for them, and needing them. It 
 is no part of our business to calculate or conjecture 
 the reception that our correspondence is likely to 
 meet with. The one of us has earned, and the 
 ether has received, some knowledge, and both of us 
 have thence come to entertain views which we value ; 
 and the first duty belonging to the privilege is to 
 impart what we believe to be true. 
 
 It will at once occur to every considerate reader, 
 that to establish by evidence and argument the facts 
 and conclusions contained in these Letters would 
 require many volumes. If we put out only one, its 
 contents must be merely expository ; and such, and 
 nothing more, is the character of this volume. It 
 has neither the compass, nor the order, nor the rela- 
 tive proportion, of a treatise. I believe that it has 
 substance and connection enough to make it of value 
 in its actual shape. Such as it is, we send it forth 
 in the hope that we shall be corrected where we are 
 wrong, enhghtened where we are dim or blind, and 
 sympathized with by those who estimate truth and 
 freedom as we do. 
 
 HARRIET MARTINEAU. 
 
 Ambleside, 
 November, 1850, 
 
MOTTOES. 
 
 "To generate and superinduce a new nature, or new na- 
 tures, upon a given body, is the labour and aim of human 
 power: whilst to discover the form or true difference of a 
 given nature, or the nature to which such nature is owing, or 
 source from which it emanates (for these terms approach 
 nearest to an explanation of our meaning), is the labour and 
 discovery of human knowledge." — Bacon: Novuin Organon, 
 A. 1, Book 2nd. 
 
 " It is our office, as faithful secretaries, to receive and note 
 down such (laws) as have been enacted by the voice of Nature 
 herself: and our trustiness must stand acquitted, whether 
 they are accepted, or by the suffrage of general opinion re- 
 jected. Still, we do not abandon the hope that in times yet 
 to come, individuals may arise who will both be able to com- 
 prehend and digest the choicest of those things ; and solici- 
 tous also to carry them to perfection." — Bacon : Anticipations 
 of the Second Philosophy. 
 
 " The true end, scope, or office of knowledge, I have set 
 down to consist not in any plausible, delectable, reverend, or 
 admired discourse, or any satisfactory arguments, but in 
 effecting and working, and in discovery of particulars not re- 
 
Vm MOTTOES. 
 
 vealed before, for the better endowment and help of Man's 
 life." — Bacon : Interpretation of Nature. 
 
 " Concerning the publication of novel facts, there can be 
 but one judgment ; for facts are independent of fashion, taste 
 and caprice, and are subject to no code of criticism. Tliey 
 are more useful, perhaps, even when they contradict, than 
 when they support, received doctrines ; for our theories are 
 only imperfect approximations to the real knowledge of 
 things." — Sir H. Davy. 
 
 "The state of the speculative faculties, the character of the 
 propositions assented to, essentially determines the moral and 
 political state of the community, as we have already seen 
 that it determines the physical. Every considerable change 
 historically known to us in the condition of any portion of 
 mankind, has been preceded by a change of proportional ex- 
 ^ tent in the state of their knowledge, or in their prevalent be- 
 liefs." — Mill: System of Logic. 
 
 "The deep philosopher sees chains of causes and effects so 
 wonderfully and strangely linked together, that he is usually 
 the last person to decide upon the impossibility of any two 
 series of events being independent of each other ; and in 
 Science, so many natural miracles, as it were, have been 
 brought to light, .... that the physical inquirer is seldom 
 disposed to assert, confidently, on any abstruse subjects be- 
 longing to the order of natural things ; and still less so, on 
 those relating to the more mysterious relations of moral events 
 and intellectual natures." — Sir H. Davy : On Omens. 
 
 " The Ancients, whose genius was less limited, and whose 
 philosophy was more extended, wondered less than we do at 
 facts which they could not explain. They had a better view 
 of Nature, such as she is : a sympathy, a singular correspond- 
 ence, was to them only a phenomenon, while to us it is a 
 paradox, when we cannot refer it to our pretended laws of 
 motion. ' ' — Biifjon. 
 
MOTTOES. IX 
 
 " It does not become the spirit which characterises the pre- 
 sent age, distrustfully to reject every generalization of views, 
 and every attempt to examine into the nature of things, by 
 the process of reason and induction." — Humboldt : Introduc- 
 tion to Cosmos. 
 
 " With regard to authority, it is the greatest weakness to 
 attribute infinite credit to particular authors, and to refuse 
 his own prerogative to Time, the author of all authors, and, 
 therefore, of all authority. It is not wonderful, therefore, if 
 the bonds of antiquity, authority, and unanimity have so en- 
 chained the power of Man, that he is unable (as if bewitched) 
 to become familiar with things themselves." — Bacon: iS'oy. 
 Org., Aph. 84. 
 
 " Moreover, in these mixtures of divinity and philosophy, 
 the received doctrines only of the latter are included; and 
 any novelty, even though it be an improvement, scarcely 
 escapes banishment and extermination." — Bacon : Nov. Org., 
 Aph. 89. 
 
 " For if they mean that the ignorance of a second cause 
 doth make men more devoutly to depend upon the Provi- 
 dence of God, as supposing the effect to come immediately 
 from his hand, I demand of them, as Job demanded of his 
 friends, * Will you lie for God, as man will for man, to gratify 
 him?' " — Bacon: Interpretation of Nature. 
 
 " It is to Philo Judaeus that we owe the doctrine that no- 
 thing can subsist without certain properties. It is only the 
 metaphysical theologians that have embraced the error that 
 all activity and all action is owing to a spiritual being, and 
 that inertia is the essence of matter." — Gall. 
 
 In regard to Astronomy, " Almost all its conclusions stand 
 in open and striking contradiction with those of superficial 
 
X MOTTOES. 
 
 and vulgar observation, and with what appears to every one, 
 till he has understood and weighed the proofs to the contrary, 
 the most positive evidence of his senses." — Sir John Herschel. 
 
 " The opinions of men are received according to the an- 
 cient belief, and upon trust, as if it were religion and law." 
 .... " Another religion, other witnesses, and like promises 
 and threats, might by the same way imprint a quite contrary 
 belief." — Moritaigne. 
 
 " Is our faith on the sand or on a rock? Is it too brittle to 
 bear touching ? " — Archbishop of Dublin. 1850. 
 
 "Hobbes mentions the true revelation; but clearly shows 
 he does not believe it. Hallam considers him an Atheist. I 
 have equal right to consider Bacon so. Descartes, Hallam 
 says, professed a belief in the motion of the sun, to save him- 
 self with the priests. And Hobbes thinks Aristotle did not 
 speak as he really thought. It is surely time all this lying 
 and counterlying should be put a stop to, or a help be ren- 
 dered to so worthy an end, — that men's minds may expand 
 as freely as any other growth of nature. But in our time, — 
 no. The honey is not for us, but to work the cell ; — to work 
 in faith and hope, in the love of truth, and for justice' sake. 
 Tliis is enough ; — enough for the strong. And for the weak, 
 they should not leave their mother's side." — Private Letter. 
 
 " Add to the power of discovering truth, the desire of using 
 it for the promotion of human happiness, and you have the 
 great end and object of our existence. This is the immacu- 
 late model of excellence that every human being should fix 
 in the chambers of his heart; which he should place before 
 his mind's eye from the rising to the setting of the sun, — to 
 strengthen his understanding that he may direct his benevo- 
 lence, and to exhibit to the world the most beautiful spectacle 
 the world can behold, — of consummate virtue guided by con- 
 summate talents." — Sydney Smith : Moral Philosophy, p. 94. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Letter. Page 
 
 Preface ........ v 
 
 Mottoes ........ vii 
 
 1. — Inquiry for a Basis 1 
 
 2. — Proposal of a Basis ...... 5 
 
 3. — Preparation of the Ground . . . .11 
 
 4.— What is the Brain ? 16 
 
 5. — Inquiry about its Structure . . . . 2o 
 
 6. — Early days of Phrenology , ... 2D 
 
 7. — Inquir}' for New Discoveries .... 41 
 
 S. — iVIethods of New Discovery. Organic Arrange- 
 ment of the Brain 47 
 
 9. — Illustrative Cases 65 
 
 10. — Organic Arrangement of the Cerebrum . . 72 
 
 11. — Dr. Howe's Report on Idiocy .... 89 
 
 12.' — The Senses and Nervous System . . . 96 
 
 13. — Illustrative Comment 118 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 Letter Page 
 
 14. — Facts about the Senses under various conditions 127 
 
 15. — Raising questions ...... 157 
 
 16. — Bacon, on Matter and Causation. Inferences 
 
 and Dreams. Association of Ideas . .165 
 
 17.— Nothing -201 
 
 18. — Knowledge and Notions. Results of each . 201 
 
 19. — Release from Notions. Entrance upon Know- 
 ledge 216 
 
 20. — Natural History of Superstition . . . 223 
 
 %^ 21. — Theology and Science ..... 244 
 
 22. — Central Law and Pervasive Unity. Light. 
 Sense of Identity. Ghost-seeing. Unre- 
 vealed Human Relations .251 
 
 23.— Position and Privilege of Truth-seekers . . 282 
 
 21. — Position and Privilege of Truth-speakers . . 286 
 
 Appendix . . . , , . . 293 
 
i 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 ON THE LAWS OF 
 
 :\IAN'S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. M. TO II. G. A. 
 
 My dear Friend, 
 T rather think the reason why we have so much 
 pleasure in talking over, and writing about, the 
 powers and action of men, and the characters of indi- 
 viduals, is, that/your observations proceed upon some 
 basis of real science, and that I know that they do ; 
 and that thus we are talking to some purpose on 
 those most interesting subjects, instead of theorizing 
 without taking stock of our facts on the one hand, 
 or merely amusing ourselves with desultoiy observa- 
 tions on the other. I want, however, to look closer 
 into the matter. - I want to know precisely what your 
 scientific basis is, instead of merely profiting by your 
 ha\'ing one, and having a general notion how you 
 came by it. I want you to tell me, with great parti- 
 cularity, (if you will,) how you would have one set 
 about the study of the powers of Man, in order to 
 
2 man's nature and development. 
 
 understand his nature^, and his place^ business and 
 pleasure in the universe.^ 
 
 For thirty years past I have been disposed to this 
 kind of study ; and it is strange to think how many 
 books I have read, and how often over_, and what an 
 amount of hours I have spent in thinking, and how 
 many hundi-eds of human beings I have watched and 
 speculated upon, without being ever, for one moment, 
 satisfied that I knew what I was about,-^-for want, 
 I suppose, of some scientific basis for the inquiryT? 
 and of some laws manifesting themselves in its 
 course; — laws on which one might rest, and to 
 which one might recur, when in perplexity how to 
 proceed. I am sure I do not wonder at scientific 
 men sneering at metaphysics, if the case be at all as 
 I suppose it : — that Natural Philosophy and Mental 
 Philosophy are arbitrarily separated ;— that the one 
 is in a regenerate state (thanks to Bacon), and the 
 other in an unregenerate state ; — and that we can no 
 more get on in Mental Philosophy without an ascer- 
 tainment of the true method of inquiry, than the men 
 of the middle ages could get on with Natural Philo- 
 sophy (except in departments of detail), till a man rose 
 up to give us a Novum Organon Scientiar^um. And 
 ^fwhy Mental Philosophy is not yet included among 
 the sciences which are benefiting by the Novum 
 Organon of Bacon is a thing that I am quite unsatis- 
 fied about. I do not mean that I at all wonder that 
 the greater number of students have recourse to 
 unsound methods ; because we see that the fact is 
 so with the greater number of physical inquirers, — 
 
INQUIRY FOR A BASIS. 3 
 
 the tiTie followers of Bacon being few indeed among 
 Natural philosophers^ as they are called. My wonder 
 is^ — not that there are few so-called Mental philoso- 
 phers who use or even advocate any experimental 
 method of inquiiy into the science of mind; but 
 that there seem to me to be none. If I am wrong 
 as to the fact^ tell me ; and pray point out where I 
 may find such^ if you know them to exist. 
 
 I am well aware what the answer of metaphysi- 
 cians to this difficulty of mine would be. They 
 would plead the totally different and incompatible 
 nature of the two regions of inquiry, and therefore 
 of the method of penetrating those regions. But 
 this is exactly what I am not satisfied about. When 
 I look at the course of metaphysical inquiiy from the 
 beginning to this day, I see something very much 
 like the com'se of physical inquiry from the beginning 
 to Bacon^s day : and I am not sure that Bacon may 
 not yet throw down the barrier between the two 
 regions, and make them one. Allien I look back 
 upon the two paths, it seems to me that I see the 
 same Idols set up for worship on the way-side; 
 and I hear the same excuses for wild theorizing in 
 both departments, — that spiritual agencies are at 
 work, w^hich can be recognized only by each man for 
 himself, by means of a special spiritual sense of 
 which no one can give an account. Now, Science 
 has disabused us of our blinding and perplexing 
 notions of spiritual anti-types of material things, and 
 of spiritual interference in material operations ; and 
 we have arrived at the notion of chance-excluding 
 b2 
 
4 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Law in the physical operations of the universe. I 
 want to know why it is not possible for us to pursue 
 the same process in regard to Mental Philosophy; — 
 why we are to take for granted that the two regions 
 of science are so unlike^ that the same principle of 
 inquii-y is not applicable to both ; — and if so, what 
 we are to do next ; for we cannot remain for ever as 
 hopelessly adrift on the sea of conjecture about the 
 truths of Mental Science as we are now. I do not 
 ask you, however, to make an express reply to every 
 thing I may put in the form of a question, — as above. 
 If you will tell me how you would set to work to 
 ascertain the powers of Man, in order to understand 
 his position and destiny in the Universe, that will 
 include an answer to my speculations on past methods 
 of inquiry. 
 
 Your ideas mil descend upon this locality in cu- 
 rious contrast with some which are to be found here. 
 I like to talk with the gardener, and the cowherd^s- 
 wife, and any workman who may relish a bit of talk 
 on Sundays, on their notions of how body and mind 
 should be treated, and what they are living for, and 
 what is wrong and right in morals. There is much 
 amusement and instruction in hearing them lay 
 down the law about health and duty. And then, 
 when I meet a poet here, and a scholar there, and a 
 Quaker or Swedenborgian religionist somewhere else, 
 it seems to me that I have been carried back some 
 thousands of years, to the time when science was 
 composed of dreaming, and when men^s instincts 
 constituted the mjlhology under which they lived. 
 
PROPOSAL OF A BASIS. 5 
 
 It is all very interesting^ liowever_, and all worthy of 
 respect. To us, who are in search of facts, there is 
 no dream of any intellect, no dogmatic assm-ance, 
 no stirring of any instinct, which is not full of 
 interest and instruction. But I shall be glad of your 
 answer to my question, as guidance in using the 
 material furnished by my neighbours. 
 
 II. 
 
 H.G.Ato H.M. 
 
 ^ly dear Friend, 
 By all means let us go into this inquiiy and ex- 
 planation. Nothing will give me gi-eater pleasure ; 
 for certainly it is most important that we should 
 form a true estimate of man^s nature, and ascertain 
 the real basis of a science of Mind. Men have been 
 wandering amidst poesies, theologies, and metaphy- 
 sics, and have been caught in the web of ideal crea- 
 tions, and have to be brought back again to particu- 
 lars and material conditions ; to investigate the real 
 world, and those laws of being and action which 
 are the form and nature of things, and the pheno- 
 mena which they present, as they are here, within 
 us and about us in reality and in truth, and not as 
 we would fancy them to be. There are not two philo- 
 sophies, one for Mind and another for ^Matter. Na- 
 
'6 man's nature and development. 
 
 ture is one_, and to be studied as a whole. ^^ There 
 is nothing in nature/' says Bacon, " but individual 
 bodies, exhibiting clear individual effects,, according 
 to particular laws.'' Instinct, passion, thought, &c., 
 are effects of organised substances : but men have 
 sought to make out a philosophy of mind, by study- 
 ing these effects apart from causes, and have even 
 asserted that mind was entirely independent of 
 body, and having some unintelligible nature of its 
 owii, called free will, — not subject to law, or de- 
 pendent on material conditions ; though a man has 
 no more power to determine his own will than 
 he has wings to fly. Of course, I need not say 
 to you that these popular notions are mere delu- 
 sion. I cannot tell you how odd it seems to me 
 to have to assert such a self-e^ddent fact. All the 
 conditions of man and mental peculiarities are now 
 traced to physical causes and conditions, exhibiting 
 clear determining laws. The instinct of animals and 
 the mental condition of men are all phenomena 
 exhibited as a consequence of the bodily condition, 
 and the influences which have been acting upon it. 
 This is now as clearly understood as the jihvsical 
 conditions and cause of the rainbow and of the 
 thunder storm. What men are for the most part 
 believing now is a kind of insanity ; but, as Bacon 
 says truly, '' those who resolve not to conjecture 
 and divine, but to discover and know ; not to 
 invent buffooneries and fables about worlds, but 
 
 * Novum Organ on, II. Apli. 2. 
 
PROPOSAL OF A BASIS. 7 
 
 to inspect^ and, as it were, dissect the nature of 
 this real world, must derive all from things them- 
 selves." 
 
 We know nothing fundamental of nature, nor can 
 we conceive any thing of the nature of the primary 
 cause. We know not, nor can we know, what 
 things really are, but only what they appear to us ; 
 and the relations of their appearances. The form 
 of these relations we term Law. Whatever is must 
 have a form of being and action. It cannot be 
 what it is not ; but must be subject to the form or 
 law of its constitution. Even supposing the mind 
 was an entity separable from the body, and acting 
 independently of body, it must still have a nature 
 of its own, and be determined by the form of that 
 nature ; and this form of being and action we term 
 Law. Nothing can be of itself, or change its con- 
 dition, unless it be acted upon by something else. 
 A man cannot of himself, or by his ^\all, become a 
 tree, any more than a triangle can by any means 
 become a circle : nor are more causes to be admitted 
 than are sufficient to produce any particular change or 
 effect. Hence we require no supernatural causes when 
 we can recognise adequate natural causes inherent in 
 the constitution of nature. The phenomena of instinct 
 and reason are no exception or anomaly in nature. The 
 different characters of men arise from the differences 
 in the substance and form of their being ; just as it 
 is with other animals, and with plants and stones. 
 For every effect, there is a sufficient cause ; and all 
 causes are material causes, influenced by surround- 
 
8 man's NATL" re AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ing circumstances ; which is nothing more than 
 matter being influenced by matter. I observe that 
 di'unkenness and madness^ idiotcy, genius^ sleep, 
 dreams, murder, charity, are effects, the conse- 
 quence of material conditions; absolutely and 
 wholly so. If I pour a bottle of wine down a 
 man's throat, he becomes drunk. If I press a 
 splinter of bone into the brain, madness ensues. I 
 want no devil to account for these effects. Again, 
 if I place a naturally good disposition imder favour- 
 able circumstances, goodness is invariably the result. 
 If I place a naturally ill-disposed person under un- 
 favourable circumstances, evil is necessarily the 
 result. I want no good spirit in the one case, nor 
 evil spirit in the other, to account for these facts, 
 any more than to account for geese being geese, 
 and green gooseberries being acid, and those which 
 have ripened by exposure to the sun being of a 
 delicious flavour. We now can perceive precisely 
 why men think as they do ; how they are deceived 
 by their own thoughts and feelings : otherwise, their 
 seeming total apathy, — their inability to compre- 
 hend the natm'e of science, and the necessity of uni- 
 versal law, would make us despair of progress. 
 
 The reason why you are interested in my thoughts 
 and opinions is, not that I have more ability than 
 others, but that I have endeavoured, under favour- 
 able circumstances, to renounce all idols and supersti- 
 tions, and have drawn close to nature, to examine into 
 causes. In material conditions I find the origin of all 
 religions, all philosophies, all opinions, all virtues, and 
 
PROPOSAL OF A BASIS. 9 
 
 " spiritual conditions and influences/^ in tlie same 
 manner that I find the origin of all diseases and 
 of all insanities, in material conditions and causes. 
 I have followed Bacon^s method, because there is 
 no other that can lead to any discovery and prac- 
 tical results, or represent nature. I have but one 
 earnest desire in life, which is to acquire knowledge ; 
 and a knowledge of human nature in particular, — 
 that being the most important and the most needed. 
 And I would freely utter, on all occasions, what I 
 know and believe, honestly and without reserve, or 
 regard for the opinion of a world which is full of 
 superstition and hypocrisy on the one side, while on 
 the other we see the mental powers of men crushed 
 by excessive labour, or excessive indolence and in- 
 dulgence. 
 
 Man is everywhere against his fellow-man, and 
 every nation is ruled by the sword, or other symbol of 
 force, and none by knowledge and virtue. No mo- 
 ral principle or religious system or belief will elevate 
 men and set them free, except such as is based on a 
 knowledge of causes, and the result of a true science 
 of human nature. This position I think we may 
 stand on, as upon a rock, ^^ and thence observe the 
 wanderings up and down of other men.^^ But I 
 do not wish to dispute with any men, about their 
 belief or theii* morals, or their laws of expediency ; 
 for I say that all the systems of the whole world 
 are wrong ; — they being all founded on error in 
 the ignorance of natural causes and material con- 
 ditions. I have nothing to say to any, but that 
 B 5 
 
10 man's nature and development. 
 
 we must turn aside and begin afresh^ from tlie 
 beginning. What use is there in disputing with 
 the Mohammedan about his prophet or his hareem ? 
 or with the Roman Catholic about his saints and 
 his transubstantiation ? or with the English Pro- 
 testant about his dull formalism, his ser\dces, and 
 his worldly pride, and vulgar regard for wealth ? 
 We must begin at the beginning, and exhibit the 
 inherent causes of all the various beliefs and pas- 
 sions which have so long triumphed over truth and 
 ]\Ian's better nature. We must exhibit the real, , 
 fundamental and material causes of men's thoughts : 
 and out of a knowledge of human natm-e will grow 
 a wisdom and revelation of principles which will 
 revolutionize the world, and become the guide of 
 man in legislation and education. Let us not 
 assume anything, but intei-pret the book of na- 
 ture. Thus may we lay hold of the Science of 
 Human Nature : and till we recognise this science, 
 we live in a barbarous and dark age, and have no 
 health in us. 
 
PREPARATION OE THE GROUND. 11 
 III. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 Yesj — the reason why I want to understand your 
 views is that which you assign ; — that you have 
 abjured idols, and come with a free mind to the 
 study of a subject which is rarely entered upon from 
 the beginning. It appears to me that men come to 
 the subject wdth antecedent notions of " dignity of 
 origin^^ for man ; with words upon their lips about 
 man being made in the image of God ; and then, in 
 the fear of impiety, if this notion is invaded, they 
 lose their freedom, and desire to find the truth lying 
 in one direction, rather than another. Now, from 
 the moment that a man desires to find the truth on 
 one side rather than another, it is all over with him 
 as a philosopher. I doubt whether I have ever met 
 with any one but yourself who was perfectly free 
 from such leaning. I have sometimes supposed 
 that I had met mth a truly impartial inquirer, — 
 judging him by the sacrifices he had made for his 
 comactions. Bat, sooner or later, out it comes ! 
 He lets out, in one connection or another, that he 
 should be sorry to believe this or that, which he has 
 not yet the means of fully comprehending. He 
 may have gone further in free inquiry than his 
 neighbours, and he rejoices in what he has attained ; 
 yet, not the less does he pity those who have out- 
 
12 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 stripped him_, as the brethren and friends whom he 
 has outstripped are pitying him. He says that his 
 brethren and ancient friends cannot judge for him, 
 because they have never been in his state of mind^ — 
 have never looked from his point of view ; and he 
 straightway forgets that this is precisely his own 
 position with regard to those by whom he is out- 
 stripped. This pitying, this mutual judging, is so 
 wholly incompatible with an effectual pursuit of 
 truth, that I am concerned to hear it going forward 
 on every hand, — concerned to see that you are 
 perhaps the only person of all my acquaintance that 
 is altogether above it. I dare not say that I am. 
 I can only say that I ought to be ashamed if I am 
 not, for I have had some blessed lessons on this 
 matter. Feeling, as I do, daily comfort in the 
 knowledge of some things which I should once have 
 shrunk from supposing, it would be weak, — as 
 foolish as cowardly, — ever again to shrink from 
 knowing anything that is true, or to have any pre- 
 ferences whatever among unascertained matters of 
 speculation or fact. 
 
 As to the notion about dignity of origin that 
 inquirers bring with them as their first misleading 
 partiality, — it seems to me premature, in the first 
 place. What we want to know is what our powers 
 are, and how they work : and it would be vitiating 
 the research at once to conclude, on moral grounds, 
 against admitting evidence of physical fact. Such a 
 kind of objection appears also to be worse than pre- 
 mature ; evLii foolish. Surely it is the quality of the 
 
PREPARATION OP THE GROUND 13 
 
 powers alone whicli can determine the quality of 
 their origin : and if we set about objecting to the 
 ■universal law, or to any of its applications,, whereby 
 great things invariably issue from small beginnings, 
 we .may safely conclude that it is our notion of 
 dignity that is wrong, and not any one application 
 of that universal law. 
 
 For me it is enough that I am what I am ; — some- 
 thing far beyond my own power of analysis and 
 comprehension. By what combination of elements, 
 or action of forces, I came to be what I am, docs not 
 at all touch my personal complacency, or interfere 
 with my awe of the universe. If, because I can at 
 this moment think abstractedly and feel keenly, I 
 abjure an origin in matter which cannot think, and 
 forces w^hich cannot feel, I cannot reasonably stop 
 short of despising myself for having once been a 
 babe, '^ mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.'^ 
 But it is enough to say that we are satisfied with the 
 truism, — '^ Here we are ! We are what we are, 
 however we came to be so." 
 
 A-S to the great point of controversy between you 
 and the holders of popular views and language, — 
 the question whether there are two methods of access 
 to knowledge of man's nature open to us, or one, — 
 I think the onus rests with the holders that there are 
 two, to prove then- point against him who declares that 
 one suffices. ' You are satisfied with observation of 
 phenomena manifesting themselves through matter. 
 Others insist that there is also an interior conscious- 
 ness which teaches us things not only unattainable 
 
14 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 by otlier means, but bearing no relation to know- 
 ledge wbich comes by any other channel. We deny, 
 for our part, having any interior consciousness which 
 informs us of any spiritual existence antagonistic to, 
 or apart from, matter. If we once fancied we had, 
 we have learned that it was through an ignorant and 
 irreverent misapprehension of the powers and func- 
 tions of matter. We have a right to require evi- 
 dence of theii' assertion from those who say that 
 man is endowed with such a means of knowledge of 
 his origin and constitution. Such evidence, however, 
 can never be had. All declare it to be impossible ; 
 we, because we are confident that it does not exist ; 
 and its advocates because facts of consciousness are 
 not provable. They pity us, as Mr. Newman does, 
 in his book on " the Soul :" and we are happy in 
 having open before us (and in being free to follow 
 it) a single path which will surely lead us to what 
 we want : — ^happy and satisfied to agree with Bacon 
 that '^ all things are delivered in matter,^^ and that 
 " we must bring men to particulars." 
 
 We agree that we know only conditions. We 
 agree that we will not go a step beyond what we 
 know. We abjure dreams, whether inbred or caught 
 by infection. We must be sure of the assent of our 
 understanding at every step of the inquiry. 
 
 Thus is our ground agreed upon. You must now, 
 if you please, do as Bacon bids you, and " bring me 
 to particulars." You must exhibit to me some of 
 those conditions which are all we know. We must 
 tiy to put away that shadow of ourselves which we 
 
PREPARATION OF THE GROUND. 15 
 
 once took for a spirit^ and whicli we now know we had 
 no riglit so to pronounce upon. If we cannot set 
 ourselves back to the beginning of our reflective exist- 
 ence, and trace the whole course of our ideas and 
 experience, you can teach me much of that particular 
 department of matter through which Mind is mani- 
 fested. 
 
 At which end will you begin ? Will you indicate 
 to me what you conceive to be the powers of living 
 beings, and trace them to their origin in the brain ? 
 Or will you lay open the brain before me first, and 
 follow abroad the resulting mental actions, till we 
 are stopped by the limitations of our knowledge, — 
 however well aware that there is the infinite field of 
 the unknown lying beyond ? 
 
 I am not a whit alarmed at that declaration of 
 yours, " that all the systems of the whole world are 
 wrong.^^ Sweeping as it appears, and presumptuous 
 as many might pronounce it, it only shows you to 
 to have gone one step further than other people. 
 Evei*ybody thinks that all the systems but one of 
 the whole world are wrong ; that one being the 
 system that he upholds. At the same time, I believe 
 you are more modest than they, in as far as you 
 have no system to propound, but only an inquiry to 
 propose. 
 
16 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 IV. 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 I am glad to find that we agree so far. I will 
 not make any comment on your last note, because I 
 see you msli to proceed, at once, into the heart of 
 the subject. Nor will I now detain you with ob- 
 servations on the nature of knowledge, — or the facts 
 of organic chemistry, and some other matters which 
 appear to me to be fundamental to the subject. 
 Exactness of method does not greatly signify, in a 
 matter so interlaced ; where it is impossible to speak 
 on any one point without, in some measure, as- 
 suming an acquaintance with some other department 
 of the subject, or with some general notions only to 
 be abstracted from the whole. 
 
 What I wish to indicate in the first place, then, is 
 this : — that Man has his place in natural history : 
 that his nature does not essentially differ from that 
 of the lower animals : that he is but a fuller develop- 
 ment and varied condition of the same fundamental 
 nature or cause; of that which we contemplate as 
 Matter, and its changes, relations, and properties. 
 Mind is the consequence or product of the material 
 man, its existence depending on the action of the 
 brain. Mental Philosophy is, therefore, the phy- 
 siology of the hrain, as Gall termed it. Spurzheim 
 called it Phrenology. Perhaps I might suggest 
 
WHAT IS THE BRAIN? 17 
 
 Phreno-physiology, as a more compreliensive term. 
 The proof that mind holds the same relation to 
 the body^ that all other phenomena do to material 
 conditions (light, for instance^ or instinct in ani- 
 mals), and that it is not some soi-t of brilliant exist- 
 ence lodged in the body to be clogged and trammelled 
 by earthly conditions, is to be found by all who will 
 exert their senses and understanding, released from 
 nurseiy prepossessions. It may be found in the whole 
 cii'cumstances of man^s existence, his origin and 
 growth: the faculties following the development of the 
 body in man, and in other animals ; the direction of 
 the faculties being influenced by surrounding circum- 
 stances j the desires, the will, the hopes, the fears, the 
 habits and the opinions being effects traceable to 
 causes — to natural causes — and becoming the facts 
 of History and Statistics. "We obsene the influence 
 of climate, — of sunshine and damp, — of wine, and 
 opium, and poisons, of health and disease — the cir- 
 cumstances of idiotcy and madness ; — the differ- 
 ences between individuals and their likeness to the 
 lower animals, and the different condition of the 
 same individual at different times. But it is unne- 
 cessary to insist more to you on the evidence which 
 is now generally admitted, of the relation between 
 the body and mind. It is not so generally admitted, 
 however, that mind is the consequence and phe- 
 nomenon only of the brain. ^lind is the product of 
 the brain. It is not a thing ha\ing a seat or home in 
 the brain ; but it is the manifestation or expression 
 of the brain in action j as heat and light are of fire, 
 
18 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 and fragrance of the flower. The brain is not, as 
 even some phrenologists have asserted, " the instru- 
 ment of the mind.^^ When a glass of wine turns a 
 wise man into a fool, is it not clear that the result is 
 the consequence of a change in the material con- 
 ditions ? The thoughts and will are changed. An- 
 other glass, and even consciousness is laid at rest — 
 no longer exists ; — and hence, such existence is 
 clearly but a temporary and dependent condition ; — 
 as much so, as light or heat, fragrance, beauty, or 
 any electric or magnetic phenomena. The same 
 reasoning which induces the conclusion that the 
 brain is the instrument of the mind, must force a 
 consistent man to conclude that the steam-engine is 
 not the machine producing, but the instrument of 
 that which is produced by its action ; or that the 
 galvanic apparatus is the instrument of a galvanic 
 will or power. Men turn nature topsy-turvy, — 
 take effects for causes, to suit their fancies; — in 
 defiance of reason, and of all clear and true analogy. 
 Shall we suppose that the music plays itself, and 
 " uses the instrument to show forth its powers ?" — 
 not the powers of the instrument, but its own 
 powers ? Shall we suppose a spirit not the growth 
 of the body, but got there we know not how, — all 
 manifest imperfections being only the imperfections 
 of the instrument ? — that all spirit or mind is, in 
 reality, pure and equal ? and, by the same reason- 
 ing (or conclusion without reasoning), are we to 
 imagine the ^'^ great spirit of the universe^^ all per- 
 fection ? and that all evil, pain, blight, death, &c., 
 
WHAT IS THE BRAIN? 19 
 
 are the defects of the instnimentj Nature ? It does 
 not appear to me that such assumptions would sup- 
 port those notions about free will, and some other 
 matters, notions absurd in our eyes, which they are 
 adduced to uphold. When men desert nature, and 
 neglect fact and reason for the imagination, they are 
 sure to entangle themselves in their own web. How 
 far a man does resemble an instrument will, I think, 
 be better seen in contemplating the facts of phreno- 
 mesmerism. There, any doubt which might remain 
 in regard to the mind's independent action must, I 
 think, be swept away, and the law of dependence be 
 exhibited as clearly as in regard to all other physical 
 fact. 
 
 Of course, men do not, at first, receive willingly 
 the intelligence of this inestimable truth, of man 
 being wholly subject to law and material conditions. 
 Objections arise, in opposition to new truths, at 
 every step of the world's progress ; for error is the 
 first growth of the infant life of the world; but 
 those who study the laws of mind, and trace the 
 history of objections and errors back to their pa- 
 rentage, find interest and instruction in all con- 
 ditions of mind ; — in investigating the nature of the 
 blight of prejudice, as well as in enjo\dng the flowers 
 of truth. The bigot loathes eveiy newly-developed 
 truth which interferes with his assumptions and self- 
 endeared views ; but the morrow comes, and statues 
 are raised to' those who were persecuted in their 
 time. The new philosophy which looks so dark and 
 cheerless, at fii'st, as to make the youthful poet ex- 
 
20 man's nature and development. 
 
 claim^ "Philosophy would clip an angePs wings," 
 becomes, ere long, the guide and charm of his life. 
 
 We must keep in mind what is the scope of ob- 
 servation of the metaphysician in studying his con- 
 sciousness, which, irrespective of the errors to which 
 he is necessarily subject, is the reflexion of what are 
 but effects, and the mutual relations of such effects. 
 It is a kind of phantasmagoria, varpng according to 
 the nature and opinions of each observer, and not a 
 philosophy at all. Philosophy is the observation of 
 effects in relation to causes, in order to the discovery 
 of the laws concerned. The results of the imperfect 
 method are such as were our perceptions of light and 
 colours, before there was a science of optics ; that is, 
 previous to the tracing of the phenomena to their 
 material causes ; when the rainbow was thought to 
 be a mystic sign in the heavens. The observation 
 of mind is now at this stage of progress. It appears 
 to thousands what the rainbow was supposed to be 
 a few years back ; a thing out of the ordinaiy course 
 of nature, — having a supernat^jral cause and a 
 special end. But we are now aware that the rain- 
 bow phenomenon is a necessary consequence of the 
 laws of light, which operate universally. I feel 
 almost ashamed to offer illustrations of what seems 
 to be such simple and clear matter of fact : but it is 
 necessary to my subject, though not perhaps for 
 you. I will not now, however, detain you longer, 
 but invite you to the consideration of the brain and 
 its parts, in relation to mind, and its several 
 faculties. 
 
WHAT IS THE BRAIN? 21 
 
 AVe perceive that the bod}^ is an independent 
 whole^ a unity made up of dissimilar parts^ each 
 part having its distinct office and relation to other 
 parts, and to the whole. So, likewise, is mind a 
 unity, divided in like manner. The brain is the 
 organ of the mind; and each part has its special 
 function, and its relation to the rest, and to the 
 wants and conditions of the body at large, or to ex- 
 ternal nature. Even Dr. Sharpey, in his lectures at 
 the London University, admits that the brain has 
 special functions; but while he is so particular in 
 explaining to his pupils the nature of the facts on 
 which the different ^-iews (whether he approves them 
 or not) have been founded, in relation to every 
 other portion of the nervous system, on coming to 
 the brain he actually omits to explain the facts from 
 which GalFs views are derived; — a cui-ious instance 
 of the operation of prejudice on a mind which may 
 be otherwise working well ! — Plato, Aristotle, De- 
 mocritus, Montaigne, Bacon, and a host of others, 
 have considered that the different faculties of the 
 mind occupy different parts of the body : but they 
 have generally erred from making causes out of 
 mere sympathetic effects, in the heart, stomach, 
 liver, &c. ; and, again, from not having discovered 
 the means and right method of investigating the 
 subject with success. Gall was the first to discover 
 a clue to the difficulty ; to that which Socrates 
 thought important ; but so difficult and profound as 
 to require '^ a Delian divei*^^ to find it out. Gall 
 discovered the relation between the development of 
 
22 mak's nature and development. 
 
 the brain and the several faculties of the mind_, and 
 demonstrated the true method of dissecting the 
 brain by tracing out the origin and course of the 
 nerves and fibrous structure ; the common method 
 being to slice it through_, as if you were cutting up a 
 turnip. Sir Charles Bell, by careful investigation, 
 was enabled to exhibit the fact of there being distinct 
 nen^es for the offices of motion and of sensation ; 
 thus demonstrating a general truth already inferred 
 by Gall and Spurzheim, and confirming the funda- 
 mental principle of their philosophy. 
 
 Gall proved that each faculty of the mind was a 
 consequence of the action of a particular portion of 
 the brain, and thus laid the foundation of a true 
 science of Mind : but though the principle be correct, 
 that, other things being equal, size is a measure of 
 power, his method of obsening had its limits, owing 
 to the difficulty of observing the size of parts with 
 accuracy ; and more particularly with regard to 
 those portions of the brain not in contact with out- 
 ward portions of the skull, or with the surface exhi- 
 bited in the living head. Some help was sought in 
 obsernng brains after death : but this presented 
 other difficulties, and did not avail much. The 
 study of abnormal conditions of brain in relation to 
 abnormal conditions of mind was also resorted to ; 
 and experiments were made by injuring, irritating, 
 or destropng certain portions of the brains of living 
 animals : and comparative anatomy was put to the 
 test. But very httle has been ascertained by these 
 last methods, beyond establishing the general prin- 
 
WHAT IS THE BRAIN? 23 
 
 ciples of the science. However^ the several means 
 must be resorted to as helps, just as we require the 
 various senses to coiTect and confinn the impressions 
 of each. The more we extend our knowledge, the 
 more shall we be able to avail ourselves of the dif- 
 ferent means of confinnation : for it is essential to 
 have established certain fixed points as landmarks, 
 or our experiments will present to us nothing but 
 uncertainty and confusion. Yeiy little had been 
 ascertained by these various means, even after nearly 
 half a century, beyond the original discoveries of 
 Gall, with a few additions by his pupil and fellow- 
 labourer, Spurzheim. 
 
 On first looking into Phrenology, I felt the want 
 of some additional means of observation, and the 
 unsatisfactoiy and imperfect condition of the science. 
 I found phrenologists to be, for the most part, 
 ignorant of anatomy, and of the labours of philoso- 
 phers, and resting with the same confidence and pre- 
 sumption on their thirty or forty organs as some 
 others do upon their thirty-nine articles of faith. I 
 am not at all surprised, therefore, at the reception 
 Phrenology has met with from the scientific world ; 
 for it was easy to reject the whole where there was 
 really so much error. Phrenologists were dogma- 
 tizing and fortune-telling with strange incaution, 
 and disgusting people by their presumption and 
 blundering, while the subject was yet in its infancy, 
 and all were professors and few were students at the 
 very commencement of the inquiry. But there are 
 difficulties and imperfections and errors in all sci- 
 
24 man's nature and development. 
 
 ences ; and over-confidence^ and hasty theorizing, 
 and system-making : but when, as Bacon wisely 
 says, men dogmatize and lay down the principles of 
 a science in its infancy Tvdth a show of completeness, 
 it may add to the glory of the professor, but will not 
 leave the science in a state of growth. Phrenology 
 has been a glaring instance of the evil of making too 
 great a show of exactness and method. 
 
 I will next explain to you what has occurred to 
 me in my investigation, and what appears to me to 
 be the principle of the general arrangement and 
 division, &c., of the faculties. In the brain is cast 
 in stereot}^e, as it were, the whole nature and phi- 
 losophy of man ; and in a language which exists 
 for all nations and for all times. It is the most 
 wondrous structure, and the most beautiful in ar- 
 rangement, that men can contemplate. May we 
 approach the subject with reverence, and with a due 
 sense of its importance and of our own inability ! 
 and be guarded that in seeking truth, we assume not 
 something which is false; always being regardless 
 of the opinions of men, and however vehemently 
 they may say " No,'' so long as Nature whispers 
 " Yes." 
 
INQUIRY ABOUT THE STRUCTURE. 25 
 
 V. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 We are coming to the pith of the matter now. 
 When people speak of the brain as '^ the instrument 
 of the mind/' I want them to tell me whether they 
 think the dog, and the bee, and the ape, have each a 
 mind which puts the brain in operation : and if so, 
 whence it came, and whither it goes. You remember 
 Scott's dog, which somehow attacked or alarmed a 
 certain baker; and how this dog slunk into a 
 corner whenever his master spoke of the adventure, 
 whatever might be the tone of voice or the ai-tifice 
 with which the story was introduced; and how, when 
 the upshot was told, — '' and the baker was not hurt 
 after all,'^ — the dog came out of his corner, frisking 
 and joyful, and barking merrily. Now, this creature 
 evidently felt shame and fear, and consciousness of 
 self, relief andjoy. And, again, when the monkey puts 
 the wig into the boiler, and hides the plum-pudding, 
 and then gets out of reach of punishment, as soon 
 as any one goes near the boiler, — here is an exercise of 
 several faculties, besides the most prominent ones of 
 imitation and consciousness of self. Will any one 
 say that these creatures have a separate mind, which 
 uses the brain as a manifesting instrument ? If so, 
 what is the evidence ? and how do we know that 
 these animals are not of a nature equal to man, but 
 
 c 
 
 / 
 
26 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 furnished with a smaller apparatus of brain ? If 
 not, why suppose man to be of an essentially different 
 make from them_, while their powers are, as far as 
 they can be traced, absolutely analogous ? 
 
 In these instances, the point of most importance 
 appears to me to be the consciousness of self indi- 
 cated by the dog and the monkey. I am constantly 
 told that this consciousness is an attribute of the 
 human being alone ; whereas I cannot see how the 
 jealousies, the \dndictiveness, the moral fear, the 
 love of approbation, and the forecast of brute ani- 
 mals, can be exercised without a sense of the Ego. 
 AVe know but little of the powers and experience of 
 brutes, even as the dog knows little of the experience 
 of the cat, or the bird of that of the frog: but what we do 
 know indicates consciousness as clearly as sentience. 
 
 As for how any faculties exist at all, we are so 
 absolutely ignorant, that we may fairly pass over any 
 objections to Thought and Feeling being residts of 
 brain, from the impossibility of explaining the How. 
 AVhen we know how anything else is produced, it 
 will be time enough to require explanations of this. 
 In the old ages of Geology, before there was animal 
 existence, there were electric lights, and aroma from 
 vegetation, and solemn music from winds sounding 
 through vast cane brakes, and among clattering or 
 swinging palm and plantain leaves : but there was 
 then no sentience to grasp and appropriate these pro- 
 ducts. When the sentience was provided, it pro- 
 bably only enjoyed. After more ages, consciousness 
 followed upon the sentience; or, if consciousness 
 
 i 
 
INQUIRY ABOUT THE STRUCTURE. 27 
 
 came with the sentience, reflection followed, and the 
 results of material action were naturally, but igno- 
 rantly, attributed to preternatural agency ; as you 
 observe of the rainbow. Is there more ground (in 
 these days of our physiological ignorance) for our 
 supposing mental results to be of a spiritual origin 
 than there was for the first half-dozen men to suppose 
 lightning to be a spirit, and the harp-music of the 
 pine forest the voice of a spirit, and, in shoi-t, all 
 intangible matter and material effects to be manifes- 
 tations of spirit ? I cannot see how we can be 
 justified in falling into such assumptions, with so 
 many ancient warnings, and such vast modern 
 scientific discoveries before our eyes. 
 
 Show me, therefore, how we are to set about the 
 study of the structure and functions of the brain, and 
 what we really know of them. I have seen for 
 myself, by the actual examination of the brains of 
 the dead, how great was the folly of slicing them 
 through, instead of tracing out their convolutions 
 and compartments ; a folly even greater than that of 
 slicing through the muscles, if the view was to 
 ascertain their whole structure and use. I have a 
 distinct idea of the appearance and general form of 
 the human brain. I now look to you for an account 
 of — not what one may find arrogantly mapped out 
 in every manual of phrenology, — but what you con- 
 ceive to be clearly est^lished, what conjsctui-ed, 
 and what merely hinted, up to the present time. I 
 hope to obtain much more satisfaction from you than 
 I have ever got from all the metaphysicians I have 
 c2 
 
28 man's nature and development. 
 
 read. As you say, they have regarded only effects, 
 and the relation of those effects to each other, while 
 the effects themselves can hardly appear alike to 
 any two observers : and that the true philosophy 
 that we want is the relation of these effects to their 
 causes : an investigation which can never be made 
 while men take for granted that the real agent is, in 
 each of us, an intangible Mind or Spirit, whose 
 nature and qualities are not knowable. It is really 
 wearisome to read theories by the score, all unsup- 
 ported by any thing that can be called evidence, and 
 descriptions and so-called analyses of faculties whose 
 nature and origin are not even looked for, and whose 
 management and control cannot therefore be pro- 
 vided for. You will teach me better. You will 
 open the matter to me as if you were going to treat 
 of the eye, — showing me the structure of the ball 
 and the nerve, and what share of the brain it appro- 
 ])riates ; and then how the laws of optics bear upon 
 it ; and then, the mental facts of vision, — with some 
 curious secrets that I know you hold thereupon. 
 Now then, — what is our brain ? 
 
 Yes, indeed, we feel reverently in regard to this 
 research. The true ground of awe is in finding our- 
 selves what we are ; not in dreams of how we came 
 to be what we are. I suppose all we know is, that 
 every thing occurs and proceeds by immutable laws ; 
 and the more this fact strengthens our reliance, the 
 more it must enhance our reverence. We are what 
 we are, however we came to be : and what we are is 
 too great for our present selves to know. 
 
EARLY DAYS OP PHRENOLOGY. 29 
 
 VI. 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 '^ What is the brain?'' 
 \ The brain is the organ from whose action arises 
 all that class of phenomena which we term Mind : in 
 which I include all our sensations, perceptions,, emo- 
 tions, judgments and intuitions ; consciousness, will, 
 and certain forces which tend to regulate, stimulate 
 and control the other functions of the body.^ This, 
 you perceive, is giving to the brain a larger sphere 
 of action than is assigned to it in the works on 
 phrenology. I differ also from phrenologists in this ; 
 that I consider consciousness, will, pleasing or 
 painful sensations, &c., to be distinct faculties, and 
 the functions of special organs. You know the 
 brain ; I need therefore only remind you that there 
 are, in fact, two brains : the cerebrum occupying the 
 larger portion of the skidl, and the cerebellum in a 
 separate compartment, beneath the posterior lobe of 
 the cerebrum, occupying the space behind the ears. 
 It has happened to me to be able to demonstrate that 
 this lesser brain is not what Gall supposed it to be ; 
 that is, the organ of the amative propensity : but the 
 organ of that class of powers which might perhaps, 
 for distinction's sake, be termed the physico-func- 
 tional powers ; or those powers having a more imme- 
 diate relation to the bodily conditions — the muscular 
 
30 man's nature and development. 
 
 power, and other purely bodily relations, secretions, 
 &c. But, whatever importance I may attach to the 
 knowledge of the functions of this and of some other 
 parts, I trust you will not consider it presumption in 
 me, or that I wish in any way to force these views 
 upon others, or to take from the value of their labours. 
 "What I have done I attribute to the light thrown 
 upon the subject by the new means I have discovered 
 and made use of, rather than to any superior ability 
 or acuteness in myself. I am what I am ; a creature 
 of necessity ; I claim neither merit nor demerit. I 
 wish only to interest others in this inquiry, that they 
 may prove, or, if they can, disprove, what I announce. 
 The proofs are open to all ; the means in every one^s 
 hands ; and it is much better to test novel matters 
 by experiment and observation, than to try to reason 
 away alleged truths, in ignorance of what nature 
 may have to say upon the question. 
 
 You know that most of the parts of man are 
 double ; that he is very nearly a double being ; and 
 that the cerebrum is divided into halves, with corre- 
 sponding organs on each half. It is a fact, also^ 
 that some organs are often more developed on one 
 side than on the other, and that generally only one 
 side is in action at a time. This is one reason for 
 the variations which occur in the same character. 
 It seems certain that mind (or the conditions essen- 
 tial to mind) is evolved from the grey vesicular matter 
 which forms the external layer over the convolu- 
 tions, and exists in certain other parts where a supply 
 of power may be requisite. There is no perceptible 
 
EAKLY DAYS OF PHRENOLOGY. 31 
 
 separation, or distinction in the condition, of the 
 or2:ans ; nor, considering the nature of mind, work- 
 ing together, or evoMng results in combinations, 
 could we in reason expect that such would be the 
 case ; but there may, nevertheless, be distinctions, — 
 material distinctions, as real as those of colours, which 
 yet are blended together in the spectrum. You 
 know that there is a division between the halves of 
 the cerebrum to a certain depth ; and that there are 
 convolutions on the sides of these dividing surfaces, 
 and beneath those which appear on the surface ; and 
 that under these, again, is the arch of nerve fibre 
 joining the halves ; beneath which, again, are other 
 parts which unite the different portions — not very 
 unlike the reservoirs, machinery, and cross lines at a 
 great railway terminus, where all seems confusion to 
 any but an engineer, but where the whole is acting 
 with the nicest precision and adaptation. You know, 
 also, that there are certain convolutions on the under 
 surface of the cerebrum, particularly of the posterior 
 lobe, immediately over the cerebellum, and of the 
 anterior lobe, lying on the plate of bone, w^hich forms 
 a covering over the eyes. In the deep fissure called 
 the Silvian fissure, on the side, there are also convo- 
 lutions which do not manifest themselves on the sur- 
 face. It is veiy evident, then, that the functions of 
 all these convolutions are not to be ascertained from 
 observations made on the exposed developments of 
 the surface, which give the internal shape to the 
 skull, and may be observed on during life. The 
 cerebellum is sufficiently exposed at the surface to 
 
3.2 man's nature and develop:ment. 
 
 allow observations of measurement to be made dming 
 life to a certain extent ; and had observations been 
 made after GalFs method, or by Gall with a freer sug- 
 gestive faculty, the whole cerebellum would never have 
 been appropriated to the single function of manifesting 
 amative feeling. But you see what matter there is 
 before us, and how impossible it is for me, even if 
 desirable, to go into any full particulars. 
 
 Tlie organs of the cerebellum are double, though 
 the brain is not divided in the centre as the cerebrum 
 is. There are convolutions of a smaller and some- 
 what different character from those of the cerebrum ; 
 and these convolutions are separated into several 
 masses ; and there is also a separation between the 
 upper and the under half of the convoluted surface 
 of the cerebellum. We could hardly suppose such 
 separations to exist were the whole mass of this 
 lesser brain the organ of one faculty ; and, in con- 
 sequence, different physiologists have suggested what 
 they supposed might be the function, but without 
 agreeing, or being able to confirm their theories, or 
 to arrive at what appears now to be the fact. You 
 must remember that the two brains are united by 
 cords of nervous matter, and that both brains com- 
 municate down the spinal cord, and so to the whole 
 nervous system. You know what Sir Charles Bell dis- 
 covered of each nerve having its special function; that 
 is, that no nerve has two functions ; that there Avere 
 distinct nerves, for instance, for motion and sensa- 
 tion ; and how, being ignorant of all that Gall had 
 done, he opposed phrenology; which science does but 
 
EARLY DAYS OF PHRENOLOGY. 33 
 
 extend the principle of his own disco v'eries into the 
 brain ; its principle being, that each faculty of the 
 mind is the function of a special portion or organ of 
 the gi-eat nervous centre. 
 
 Anatomists had toiled in vain to make out the 
 uses of the brain : and then, in the study of Com- 
 parative Anatomy, there were obvious difficulties in 
 the way. Such comparisons could only be vmder- 
 stood and found available in an advanced stage of 
 our knowledge, when we had arrived at certain esta- 
 blished principles to guide us, and certain ascer- 
 tained points to start from ; except merely for ob- 
 servation on general progressive development in 
 relation to functional display. Sir Charles Bell 
 thought the only way was to ascertain the functions 
 of the nerves, and trace them to their origin in the 
 brain ; and thus infer the office of the parts of the 
 brain : and this had some show of reason in it. 
 But alas ! what appears most reasonable before hand 
 is not always found to be either available or true, 
 while that which is supposed to be most unreason- 
 able or even impossible, often turns out to be the 
 more appropriate, simple, and useful truth. But — 
 not to detain you, — it will be sufficient to say that 
 Sir Charles BelFs method failed altogether ; and he 
 retreated from the citadel, once more to devote him- 
 self to the outworks ; and, with the exception of 
 some confused results, relating to motion and com- 
 mon sensation, obtained by irritations and vivisec- 
 tion, the physiology of the brain remained at a 
 stand-still, while metaphysics, rising upon this igno- 
 re 5 
 
34 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ranee, were, and still are, perplexing the world with 
 endless and contradictory theories; and many of 
 those who have accepted phrenology as a fact have 
 endeavoured to explain away its simple reading, to 
 favour some preconceived opinion. Science was 
 advancing in the departments of Chemistry, Geo- 
 logy, Electricity, and ]\Iagnetism ; and with good 
 and useful results; while Physiology and Mental 
 Philosophy stood still. That which was united in 
 nature was separated by human reason ; and how 
 could either advance ? But we find in Mesmerism, 
 which is, as it were, the mind of phrenology, re- 
 newed light and hope, and another means of inves- 
 tigation; and apparently the only one adapted to 
 the requirements of the case. Under Mesmerism, 
 you know, we are enabled to observe at leisure all 
 those abnormal states which in their spontaneous 
 conditions have astonished and perplexed, and, I 
 might add, have deluded or guided the world in all 
 ages. However, the nature of Mesmerism, and the 
 relations of its effects to these phenomena, are not 
 to our present purpose. 
 
 I observed that under the influence of Mesmerism 
 some patients would spontaneously place their hand, 
 or rather the ends of the fingers, on the part of 
 the brain in action ; and these were persons Avholly 
 ignorant of phrenology. In some cases, the hand 
 would pass very rapidly from part to part, as the 
 orsrans became excited. If the habit of action was 
 encouraged, they would follow every combination 
 with precision : and if one hand would not do, they 
 
EARLY DAYS OF PHRENOLOGY. 35 
 
 would use both, to cover distant parts in action at 
 the same time. I was delighted with these effects ; 
 but did not consider them very extraordinary, be- 
 cause I had been accustomed to observe the same 
 phenomena in a lesser degree, in the ordinary or 
 nomial condition. I know some who, on any ex- 
 citement of their Love of Approbation, will rub 
 their hand over the organ immediately. Others I 
 have observed when irritated pass the hand over 
 Desti-uctiveness. I have obseiTcd others hold their 
 hand over the region of the attachments, as they 
 gazed on the object of their affection. I have 
 watched the poet inspired to write, with the fingers 
 pressing on the region of Ideality; and those 
 listening to music leaning upon the elbow, with the 
 finger pressing on the organ of Music; and I 
 catch myself performing these actions, continually, 
 as if I were a puppet moved by strings. You vdW 
 observe, besides, how the head follows the excited 
 organ. The proud man throws his head back : the 
 firm man can-ies his head erect : vanity draws the 
 head on one side, with the hat on the opposite side : 
 the intellect presses the head forward : the affec- 
 tions throw it back upon the shoulders : and so 
 with the rest. 
 
 You see what my aim is ; — not to magnify plain 
 things into marvels; but to reduce marvels into 
 plain things. There should be no marvels in philo- 
 sophy. To a philosopher, all things are equally 
 wonderful. It is simply the rareness, or our igno- 
 rance, that makes the difference. Now, all these 
 
36 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 actions of the natural language will occur without our 
 being conscious of any action or sensation whatever 
 in the part. It is clear^ therefore^ that there must 
 be some original directing force or sentience^ inde- 
 pendent of consciousness or will. But I found that 
 some of these sleepers wei^e conscious of the action 
 going on in the brain ; and that when any feeling 
 or sense was in existence^ they could tell you the 
 part of the brain that was in action. It was not 
 pain; nor exactly pulsation; but a clear and pe- 
 culiar sensation in the part in action. Here I 
 found a second important channel of investigation 
 tinder Mesmerism. But still_, this was not a new 
 phenomenon to me : for in certain conditions of ill 
 healthy I had been distinctly conscious of similar 
 sensations. 
 
 There is another more positive condition to be 
 remarked, when, after over-excitement or confused 
 action, &c., absolute pain is experienced ; in the 
 same way that it occurs from similar causes in other 
 parts of the body. In pain, Nature, as it were, 
 speaks out her wants, to arrest our attention ; — to 
 draw force to the part ; — to instruct the physician. 
 But the physician has not yet learned the lan- 
 guage of pain; so that, in this respect, for the 
 most part Nature cries out in vain. How little is 
 studied the nature of pains, and their sympathetic 
 connections, and their relations especially to the 
 head ! A headache is a headache ; and little regard 
 is paid to the parts affected. There is hardly one 
 of GalVs organs, the proof of which has not been 
 
EARLY DAYS OP PHRENOLOGY. 37 
 
 as clear to me from the notice of pains in tlie parts 
 affected^ as from obser\ing the external development. 
 There is hardly one organ that I have not at some time 
 obsers^ed to pain me when in unusual action ; occm*- 
 ring mostly when I was in an unusually sensitive 
 condition : and there has been a time when I have 
 kept myself unwell for days^ solely to observe these 
 phenomena. But we have other means now ; and 
 this is not necessary. 
 
 Here I must state another remarkable circum- 
 stance. You know that some mesmerized persons 
 are able to describe the condition of others by sym- 
 pathetic sensations, occurring in themselves. They 
 sometimes go beyond this : but this is one stage. 
 This is a sympathetic condition which I know to 
 exist in some persons in their natural state ; and it 
 often occurs to those ^vho mesmerize. \Yhile mes- 
 merizing, they will feel pain in the part affected in 
 the patient ; and, in some instances, imbibe the dis- 
 ease. I have seldom experienced these pains when 
 mesmerizing ; but I have felt, when very sensitive 
 from mesmerizing much, immediately on coming into 
 the presence of my patients where they were in pain 
 at the time, and what was their condition of health. 
 I have sometimes doubted my correctness when I 
 felt the pains to have changed in a way that I could 
 not suppose was the case : but on inquiry, I always 
 found that the mesmerometer was right. 
 
 I must relate another condition which was more 
 peculiar to myself. In passing my hand over a 
 patient without touching, or knowing where he had 
 
38 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 pain_, I could feel the pain in my hancl^ as distinctly 
 as tlie patient felt it in the part affected. I felt the 
 sensations as distinctly as I feel heat in passing my 
 hand over a candle : and I could tell the character 
 and precise extent of the pain. I felt in my hand 
 what the patient felt in the ailing part. The hand 
 would_, as it were, absorb the pain ; and I was aware 
 of the instant it was removed from the sufferer. ]\Iy 
 hand removed other conditions of disease in the 
 same way. The account published of my curing 
 
 Miss ^s eye was an instance of this. My hand 
 
 was always soothing and healing, even to the most 
 inflamed part, when the hands of others irritated 
 and did harm. Beyond this, I could instantly tell 
 when the patient passed into sleep, with my eyes 
 shut; simply from the sensation I experienced in 
 my hand : and the same with each distinct change of 
 condition during the sleep. Thus we may perceive 
 that in all changes, certain forces or indications are 
 evolved. And you see what admirable proofs we 
 have of the action of one living body upon another. 
 You may suppose what I thought of the objection 
 that the effects of mesmerism were only imagination 
 in the patient, while I was in possession of this test, 
 and was easing people of their pains, and even putting 
 them into the mesmeric sleep, for the first time, and 
 wholly without their knowledge. 
 
 Another mode of inquiry with sleepers is to cause 
 them, on any striking mental effects having occurred 
 to them in dreams or otherwise, to point out to you, 
 one after the other, the parts of the brain which 
 
EARLY DAYS OF PHRENOLOGY. 39 
 
 have been aiFected^ or in wliich pain has occurred, 
 in relation to the passion or feeling of the time ; and 
 also in regard to the effects of mind upon the body, 
 and of the body on the mind and brain. The ex- 
 traordinary memory and sense of these influences 
 and relations with some sleepers are very remark- 
 able, and would hardly be credited by those who 
 have not observed or investigated them. I could 
 relate to you numerous stiiking instances of this. 
 Beyond all this, you know how I found that I could 
 excite into action any portion of the brain, or arrest 
 any portion already in action, by touching the part, 
 and in some instances by only pointing to it ; and 
 by other means : so that in numerous instances, I 
 could play upon the head, and produce what actions 
 I pleased, just as distinctly as you play upon the 
 keys of the piano. The clearness of the response of 
 course depended on the condition of the patient. 
 In some cases, only a few parts are susceptible : in 
 others, the whole brain : or the brain is susceptible 
 during one condition of the sleep and not another, 
 or at one time and not at another. Tn some cases 
 patients are subject to the action of metals and other 
 substances ; and one substance will destroy the effect 
 of another, or unite and cause a third result. 
 
 In some cases, the mere pressure of inanimate 
 substances will excite the action of the part ; or the 
 mere pressure of where the head is resting. The 
 different parts of the brain can be thus excited, just 
 as we excite any other portion of the nervous 
 system : — a limb, or one finger, or two fingers at a 
 
40 man's nature and development. 
 
 time ; or a nerve of the face, so as to cause a twitch- 
 ing or other action of the part. The organs of the 
 cerebellum are generally more susceptible than those 
 of the cerebrum : but there are cases where the 
 result is confused^ or the excitement brings in a 
 combination in its habit of action with other parts. 
 In such cases, you can hardly draw any positive 
 conclusions, any more than from the confused results 
 of Majendie^s vivisections. In a few instances, some 
 parts being more susceptible than others, touching 
 in the neighbourhood of those parts will call them 
 into action, and not the less susceptible part which 
 is actually touched. This is oftener the case with 
 the organs of the cerebellum than with those of the 
 cerebrum. But these are not cases on which I 
 rely; and they are unfit for experiment. Failures 
 in such cases are not to be considered as affording 
 any objection to the clear and decided results from 
 fit subjects, any more than a pain in the special 
 organ after fatigue or distraction, — of music, for 
 instance, — is to be negatived because some men have 
 confused headache from a similar cause ; they being 
 in a different condition : or the single ache of one 
 finger is to be denied, because in some instances the 
 whole hand, and in others the whole arm, becomes 
 influenced more or less on touching any part. 
 Every case must be taken on its own merits, and 
 the cause of failure or confusion ascertained. Thus, 
 failures and modified results often become the clearest 
 proof of the truth already established from positive 
 and clear evidences. I have excited the separate organs 
 
INQUIRY rOR NEW DISCOTERIES. 41 
 
 of people in a natural sleep ; even of veiy young 
 children ; and by the acting on the muscular power, 
 have caused them to rise up and throw their anns 
 about, without waking. 
 
 Now, in this last class of experiments, what a 
 startling and undeniable proof have we of the truth 
 of phrenology, as well as of mesmerism ! Those 
 ill-disposed towards the subject might dispute the 
 size of organs on the skull, or talk of coincidences, 
 &c., but we have here as clear a result from the 
 action of the brain, and from each part of the brain, 
 as in touching the piano, or in the rubbing of a 
 lucifer match, or by adjusting a voltaic pile. And 
 can any experiment in nature be so interesting, or 
 more important ? In the next letter, I can, I think, 
 complete this part of the subject, and tell you all 
 I presume you wish to hear from me about the brain 
 and its functions. 
 
 VII. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 This last letter of yours is extremely interesting. 
 Let me say, in the first place, that there is no danger 
 of my thinking that you exaggerate the value of the 
 discoveries you have made as to the functions of 
 
42 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 some portions of the brain. I do not see how it is 
 possible to overrate them^ — supposing them proved^ 
 of which I have no doubt. 
 
 Let us just look at the course of the affair. — 
 First, I suppose, all movement, all operation of one 
 thing upon another, was concluded, before science 
 existed, to imply spirit. The winds, the waters, the 
 waving and sprouting trees, the flickering fire, were 
 all animated by spirits ; and so were the movements 
 of man, — the rolling eye and jerking limbs of the 
 new-born infant, as well as the far-reaching thought 
 of the philosopher. How very lately were still-born 
 children supposed to be damned because they had 
 not been baptized ! Then, almost eveiy organ seems 
 to have been honoured and glorified before the brain ; 
 and especially the heart. How long will the word 
 Heart stand in our parlance for soul, affections, 
 sensibility, conscience ? Then, by slow degrees, the 
 brain seems to have risen into a sort of vague con- 
 sideration as an indispensable, noble, but most mys- 
 terious part of our frame. </All along, while any 
 attention at all was paid to the brain, there seems to 
 have been some kind of general impression that its 
 size and mode of development indicated character. 
 We find a low forehead, a small head, a thick skull, 
 thought ill of ^^philosophers represented with large 
 foreheads, and gladiators with a thick base to the 
 skull : and, since GalPs time, we have met with a 
 more and more extended admission that the head 
 appears to have three regions, — the intellectual, 
 moral, and physical departments. Then came Sir 
 
INQUIRY FOR NEW DISCOVERIES. 43 
 
 Charles BelPs gi'and discoveiy about tlie nerves ; his 
 detection of the different stinicture and function of 
 the motory and sensoiy nerves : — a mighty discovery 
 in itself, but yet gi-eater for its suggestive value. 
 Here is one kind of neiTe for sensation, by which the 
 cataleptic patient may feel while wholly unable to 
 move ; and another kind for motion, by which a 
 patient may be frightfully con^^llsed mthout feeling 
 anything. A friend of mine, who told me all about 
 it, was in the first of these states, — her sentience 
 acute while wholly incapable of motion ; and she 
 had a somewhat narrow escape from being buried 
 alive. The most curious thing is, that she concluded 
 herself to be dead. She was in a state of exhaustion 
 after severe illness. A peculiar sensation ran through 
 her. Her mother stooped over her bed, and then, 
 as the patient heard, told the sister, who was by the 
 fire, that all was over. While hearing their grief, 
 and feeling their warm tears on her face, the patient 
 could not open eyes or mouth, or stir a finger ; and 
 she concluded this to be death. It did occur to her 
 to wonder how long this would last, — how many ages 
 she should lie thus in the grave ; but she does not 
 remember feeling any painful alami about this. 
 Yet, when, in the afternoon, her mother began 
 swathing her in the sheet, from the feet upwards, 
 she extremely disliked the idea of her head being 
 thus muffled up ; and, as the sheet came higher and 
 higher, she made a desperate effort, and opened her 
 eyes, — sending her mother back far from the bed, 
 with a start of astonishment. She was still so full 
 
44 man's nature and development. 
 
 of the idea which had moved her_, that she struggled 
 on till she said " Don't smother me ;'' though by 
 that time the entreaty had become unnecessary. 
 Now_, — the discovery being made that one set of 
 nerves relates to sensation and another to motion, 
 what so probable as that one portion of the bram is 
 appropriate to sensation, and another to motion ? 
 You have detected these portions, have you not ? 
 Tell me as much as you can about it, before going 
 on to report of the functions of the cerebrum. 
 
 I suppose you have two methods of ascertaining 
 and testing the portions of the brain appropriated to 
 motion and sensation ; — ^by inquiring of persons in 
 the mesmeric sleep, where they feel this or that sen- 
 sation, and getting them to point out the place; 
 and then, by exciting involuntary movement, and 
 even sensation, in other patients, by acting upon the 
 parts to which you have been directed. If you ever 
 succeed by this method, — if you thereby render a 
 patient insensible to the pain of losing a limb, for 
 instance ; or cause him to feel pleasure or pain in 
 the absence of the outward condition j or set in 
 motion particular limbs or muscles at yom* own 
 silent pleasure, — I do not see how any number of 
 failures can invalidate your discovery. Failures are 
 only the supervention of other conditions than those 
 you are seeking : and they cannot invalidate their 
 antecedents. 
 
 I can never doubt the wonderful efficacy of the 
 method, after what I have witnessed. Before I had 
 ever turned my attention to it, or had heard any- 
 
INQriRY FOR NEW DISCOVERIES. 45 
 
 thing of your researches, I was witness to a cm-ious 
 contention between a mesmerizing friend of mine 
 and her patient ; — an ignorant servant-girl, imder 
 twenty years of age. The lady desired the girl to 
 mimic a guest : she thought she ought not. Her 
 mesmeriser appealed to one faculty after another, — 
 to her power of imitation, of obedience, of affection, 
 &c., and the girl raised her hands, and touched, in 
 the course of her response. Conscience, Firmness, 
 and, finally, Combativeness. The raising, first of one 
 hand, then of the other, the stretching and quick 
 movement of both to cover the desired portions, in 
 the midst of her animated sleep, were a singular 
 sight. 
 
 I know something, too, of the peculiar sensation 
 you speak of, when portions of the brain are set 
 strongly in action, by mesmeric influence. The 
 sensation is markedly local, and extremely peculiar ; 
 a sort of creeping and lightening or melting — rather 
 agreeable thaa othei-wise, though the force of the 
 faculty is, at the time, too great for comfort. I 
 have sometimes thought it not wholly unlike the 
 sensation I have been aware of eveiy time, for weeks 
 together, that my mesmeric patients have " slipped 
 over''^ into the sleep. "\Mien three or four have 
 been in my room at one time, and I have put one 
 after another to sleep, I have found myself able to 
 detect, by a peculiar sensation throughout my whole 
 frame, the precise instant when the sleep took pos- 
 session of them, though their eyes might have been 
 so fast closed before, that it would require deep 
 
46 man's nature and development. 
 
 observation and long experience to assign the mo- 
 ment without such s}Tiipathy. As for detecting the 
 seat of pain in a patient who does not tell of it^ — I 
 do it simply by feeling pain in the fingers^ and_, if I 
 persevere^ in the ^mst^ elbow^ and shoulder^ suc- 
 cessively ; and, more frequently still, by the swelling 
 of the hand. More than once, a ring on my finger 
 has been almost hidden by the swelling which takes 
 place in a few minutes, when I mesmerize a person 
 under severe pain. But there is, in this case, no 
 sensation in me at all resembling that of the action 
 of my brain, under the hand of my mesmerizer, or 
 that which indicates the moment w^hen a patient of 
 mine passes into the sleep. 
 
 By the way, can you tell me how it is, that the 
 mesmerizer feels the patient's sympathetic pain, 
 rather than the disease which causes it ? For in- 
 stance, when liver disorder causes pain in the 
 shoulder, why does the hand of the mesmerizer swell 
 in passing over the shoulder, and not the liver? 
 Or does it in both ? 
 
 But I must remember how much you have to tell 
 me in your next. You promise to go on about the 
 brain and its functions : and I know there is much 
 to be said yet under this great division of our 
 survey. 
 
METHODS OP NEW DISCOVERY. 47 
 
 VIII. 
 
 H. G. A. to H. M. 
 
 Thank you for your confirmations of so many 
 points of interest. 
 
 It seems to me, that it is only hy the study of our pe- 
 culiarities and abnoiTual conditions that we shall gain 
 light whereby to comprehend the ordinary and nonnal 
 operations of our nature : and this knowledge, again, 
 will enable us, at once, to perceive the cause and na- 
 ture of every deviation from the true foiTQ. But know- 
 ledge has a progressive growth and natural com-se ; 
 and it is not in the power of the most suggestive 
 mind to make any sudden leap. The discovery of a 
 new instrument, or of a general law, alone enables us 
 to make a stride in advance. The telescope, the 
 power of which was not credited at first, gives us an 
 extended range of observation ; the microscope 
 enables us to observe the more secret workings and 
 minute structure of parts : by the electric telegraph 
 we communicate in London with our friends in 
 Edinburgh : by the stethoscope we detect the con- 
 dition of internal portions of the body. The laws of 
 light and gravitation extend over the universe, and 
 explain whole classes of phenomena : the law of 
 physiology, that each function has a special organ, 
 and the extension of this law to the brain, explain 
 the difi'erences and variations in the condition of 
 
48 man's nature and development, 
 
 man^ and his relations towards other animals. GalPs 
 discoveries were made by observing striking in- 
 stances of particular development ; and we all of us 
 have some peculiarities of development or consti- 
 tution_, if we will but closely observe them. I am 
 glad to learn anything you will tell me about your 
 own unusual condition. I never experienced any 
 swelling of the hand,, as you and some others have, 
 from relieving pain, or other conditions : but my 
 hand has, in many instances, remained strangely 
 hot and in pain the whole day afterwards. In such 
 cases, however, there was a general irritability or in- 
 flammatory condition, as well as pain, in the patient. 
 Simple nervous pains seem to hang loosely upon the 
 nerves, and pass away quickly under mesmerism • 
 but when they have roots in some diseased condition, 
 they take more hold, and protract the process of 
 cure. I have found a diseased part and pain re- 
 lieved more readily from the sympathetic points than 
 from the part itself: — the sjTnpathetic part seems 
 to be the natural channel by which the disease dif- 
 fuses, and so relieves itself. The question of sym- 
 pathetic conditions in the same body is a question of 
 great interest. It is a kind of mesmerism or re- 
 lieving of one part of the body by another. We put 
 our hand to an aching part as instinctively as a dog 
 licks a sore. It is an extremely interesting question 
 how one disease may be made to cure another, as 
 light destroys light : to see also how one person is 
 cured by another taking the disease. I know mes- 
 merizing doctors to have given diseases that they 
 
METHODS OF NEW DISCOVERY. 49 
 
 have brouglit from other houses to those whom they 
 have mesmerized ; and thus it may be a question if 
 medical men are proper persons to mesmerize. I 
 think they cannot be too careful. The facts of con- 
 tagion and infection one would suppose would have 
 predisposed medical men to attend to mesmerism, 
 and to appreciate the importance of the inquiry. 
 
 Tn my last letter, I referred to several methods 
 which, in my opinion, are undeniable means for as- 
 certaining the functions of the brain. Just as the 
 different senses are essential to aid and confirm us in 
 om' judgments of the phenomena of external nature, 
 so likewise do we require various instruments or 
 means to aid and confirm us in our investigations 
 into the nature of the brain and nervous system. I 
 have no fancy to concoct or uphold a system, but have 
 desu-ed to seek out and bring to light all objections, 
 and let them lie side by side with the facts, that an 
 impartial judgment may be formed. But the means 
 having once been ascertained, as Bacon says, ^^it 
 remains only that men have perseverance, united 
 with great severity of judgment ; that they change 
 their instruments ; that they increase the amount of 
 evidence; that they subject to experiment each phe- 
 nomenon, and frequently, and in a variety of ways." 
 Sir Charles Bell made his discoveries by stimulating 
 the nerves separately; under mesmerism, we may 
 stimulate or repress the action of separate parts of the 
 brain, and then experiment on the function after a 
 similar method, and one which is adapted to the con- 
 dition. But^ from what I have said^ you will under- 
 
 D 
 
50 man's nature and development. 
 
 stand that we still require one other instrument^ which, 
 like the microscope and telescope, shall enable us to 
 penetrate and observe parts and phenomena to which 
 our ordinary faculties will not reach. That instni- 
 ment is found in the sensitive and more con- 
 centrated or exalted condition of the observing 
 powers under mesmerism. The existence of such 
 a condition appears a great wonder to superficial 
 minds, which, perhaps, when familiar with the fact, 
 find no interest in it, and are insensible to the 
 profoundest truth, showing how easily a state of 
 wonder may pass into that of indiff'erence. To the 
 philosopher, the spirit of prophecy, the growth of a 
 blade of grass, and the ordinary perception of any 
 object, are all equally wonderful, and deeply myste- 
 rious ; mj^sterious beyond our faculty of conception, 
 and out of the very nature of knowledge. 
 
 That such exalted conditions do exist, is now so 
 clear a matter of history and daily occui*rence, that 
 no one need trouble himself to convince those who 
 persist in ignorance, and doubt of what is so noto- 
 rious. None know better than yourself how these 
 clairvoyant powers have been manifested in a variety 
 of forms, in all periods of history, and with all na- 
 tions. We know that future events are foreseen in 
 dreams and in trances ; sometimes under the influ- 
 ence of mesmerism, and by some apparently in the 
 ordinaiy condition of their lives. We know that 
 some can see distant objects without the use of the 
 eye ; and that others can see, so to speak, through 
 opaque objects, reading what is written in a closed 
 
METHODS OF NEW DISCOVERY. 51 
 
 book^ and even the thoughts which are passing in the 
 mind of another. AYe know that many under mes- 
 merism can describe any diseased condition in them- 
 selves and in others within the sphere of their vision ; 
 that they have an instinct of remedies, — when a 
 crisis will occur, and the cure will be effected. They 
 do not go by any system, but by an instinct, so to 
 term it, of the peculiar temperament and wants of 
 each particular case. There are some who have 
 detected the properties of herbs and of other sub- 
 stances, and can observe the structure, condition, 
 action and uses of parts of the animal frame. 
 Whatever doubt any one may have as to the truth ol 
 any of these particulars, the general fact has now 
 been so clearly exhibited in almost every portion of 
 the civilized and uncivilized world, that, without regard 
 to my own experience, I presume I may say that, 
 in a general way, the fact is established. With such 
 a host of notorious instances on record, it is difficult 
 to conceive that any enlightened person would dis- 
 pute it : but there are persons even in this great me- 
 tropolis who talk on this subject as if they had been 
 born, bred, and dwelling in an obscure country village, 
 subject to its arrogant conceits and contracted sight. 
 It has been objected by some physiologists, that if 
 these facts be true, it remains to be accounted for 
 that discoveries in physiology have not been made 
 before. The answer is, that qualified men have 
 neglected the subject. The microscope might have 
 existed long enough without any discoveries having 
 been made by it, if it were used only for amusement 
 
 d2 
 
52 man's nature and development. 
 
 and to excite wonder ; to magnify flies' wings^ or to 
 watch the grotesque movements of insects in a drop 
 of water. It is a matter requiring the greatest per- 
 severance and carefulness^ and good cases are rare ; 
 the state depending, I think_, much on the condition 
 of the mesmerizer, and the direction of his mind. I 
 am, of course, alluding now to the Intuitive powers ; 
 not to the cases where the organs are excited by- 
 touch. How deeply Lord Bacon seems to have been 
 impressed with the importance of the phenomena of 
 mesmerism ! The effect of one living body upon 
 another at a distance, he considered "one of the 
 highest secrets in nature.'' He considered it in re- 
 lation to the causes and the cure of disease. This 
 has been pronounced ignorance and weakness in 
 Bacon. Well might he bequeath his speculations to 
 future ages ! I wonder whether Macaulay was aware, or 
 thought of this, when, in his essay on Bacon's philoso- 
 phy, he said that Induction might lead to the belief in 
 Mesmerism, which he, for want of the spirit of an in- 
 ductive philosophy, calls nonsense. Bacon even speaks 
 of clairvoyance under his term "Natural Divinations,"* 
 as one means of acquiring obscure knowledge, and of 
 anticipating events. What we have to attend to chiefly 
 in this matter is to be aware of cases of delusive 
 dreaming, and of false prophecy ; to receive, even in 
 the best cases, what we accept as suggestion, to be 
 tested in all possible ways ; and lastly, to reason only 
 in relation to what is known. We must be on our 
 guard against hasty assent, and generalization from 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
^lETHODS OF NEW DISCOVERY. 53 
 
 a few instances^ and incomplete experiments ; as well 
 as against (what is common in novel matters) being 
 oppressed by difficulties, without waiting to see 
 through and pass them. We must restrain enthu- 
 siasm by caution, and doubt by wisdom. We shall win 
 Nature only by waiting upon her, and conquer her by 
 submission, rejoicing in every new light without fear 
 or prejudice, remembering that the progress and inno- 
 vations of knowledge must always be good. This 
 should be a faith with us. But we shall not gain 
 knowledge by sending our patients rambling amidst 
 visions of ^^ another world" in the steps of Sweden- 
 borg and others, but rather by bending the power to 
 gain knowledge of ourselves and of what is about 
 us, and useful to us in this life and sphere of being 
 that we have to do with. AYhen somnambulists 
 think they see into another world, a world of spirits, 
 it may be clearly proved to be all delusive dreaming ; 
 and yet on such declarations do enthusiasts build up 
 a faith and religion, and are proud of what they call 
 spirituality. How the matter tempts me to wander ! 
 But you see how, from fancying the properties of 
 things to have an individual existence, and calling 
 this Spirit (meaning an existence out of matter, and 
 the ruler of matter), and the fancy recurring in the 
 dream, floating impressions are supposed to be 
 realities. Such tricks has strong Imagination ! 
 
 But where there are shadows, there is substance. 
 Let us see what it is. It has clearly appeared that 
 nothing is gained by waiting upon the revelations of 
 somnambulists. They must be used as instruments. 
 
54 man's nature and development. 
 
 They must be directed to physiological inquiry, and 
 to such matters as are found to be within the sphere 
 of their particular powers. Each case must be 
 tested,, and stand on its own ground. It must be 
 ascertained whether they can recognize what is clear- 
 seeing, in distinction from what is but vision or 
 dreaming, or impression from without : and in the 
 most unexceptionable cases, still the matter must be 
 confirmed, as I have said before, and tested by eveiy 
 available means. I do not think I am a very credu- 
 lous man ; and I say that the facts I am about to 
 state are as fully proved as facts can be. I am 
 always, thankful, however, to have any reasonable 
 objections advanced. 
 
 I will relate to you the nature of one case as an 
 example, and as the one from which I have gained 
 the most. This was a lady of fifty years of age; 
 the mother of a large family, in a weakly state of 
 health. She had lately become partially deaf; which 
 was the cause of my first mesmerizing her. She was 
 not learned ; but of a most unafi'ected and charming 
 nature. I speak not from my feelings, nor praise her 
 because she was my patient, and so clever a som- 
 nambule, (which is too often done,) but only relate 
 what is the universal impression among those who 
 knew her. She knew nothing whatever of physiolo- 
 gical subjects. She is since dead. She manifested 
 from time to time clear flashes of clairvoyant power 
 in various ways. Her constitution was breaking up; 
 and in the end, this power turned to mere delusive 
 di'eaming ; which is common in such instances : but 
 
^lETHODS OF XE^\- DISCOVERY. 55 
 
 in the meantime^ I had occupied her ^dth the brain^ 
 finding that character of sight to be her forte, I 
 could excite any part of her head^ and under any 
 combination : as I found that she could recognize 
 the size and character of each organ when in action. 
 She could explain the nature of each faculty, and its 
 precise situation, and relation to other parts. She 
 had the power of bringing into action any portion of 
 the brain at ^\ill_, whether it were among the outer 
 or inner convolutions ; and when there was any in- 
 distinctness or difficulty, she would say so, and would 
 declare when she was tired, and could no more see 
 with accuracy. She could thus see whether any 
 sentiment were a simple power, or the result of a 
 combination; and of what combination. She could 
 see the form and structure of the brain. She never 
 echoed my thoughts; but pointed out what was 
 wholly new to me ; and both in regard to the func- 
 tions of the organ, and the form of the brain, there 
 were the same difficulties and the same facilities of 
 perception, whether it related to what I already 
 knew or to what I was ignorant of. The objection 
 that such instances are merely cases of excitement of 
 the power of thought-reading was wholly out of the 
 question. There was not the slightest approach to 
 it. She would reply to me by fact after fact, and 
 reason upon reason, which proved to be correct ; but 
 not in the least what I anticipated at the time. She 
 always replied to what she supposed the question 
 referred to, and never to my thought. 
 
 It is singular that I have never produced a case 
 
56 man's nature and development. 
 
 of thought-reading, though I have mesmerized pa- 
 tients of others whom I could clearly influence to 
 think or act by my will, or by what Bacon calls the 
 force of imagination acting upon another body. The 
 powers of somnambules may often be developed, and 
 directed to what one wants them to do ; but none 
 have ever responded to my thoughts : and often^ 
 when they do so respond, one may prevent it, just 
 as you may prevent them from hearing; perhaps, 
 simply by desiring them to be deaf; when a pistol 
 fired at their ear will produce no effect. We must 
 be patient to learn in this matter, and not impatient 
 to anticipate and dictate what Nature should be. 
 
 To return to the lady. I could never catch her 
 tripping, or in error on any occasion ; and all that 
 occurred was taken down at the time, and in the 
 end compared. I cannot go into details, and shall 
 only say that I repeated the experiment from time 
 to time, in every diversified way that I could devise, 
 and questioned her for explanations on every head, 
 and then sought to test her assertions by the other 
 means I have described, and by comparison with 
 others having a similar faculty with herself. So 
 much as appears to be established, by the various 
 means I have sought, I will relate. It is not, I 
 think, requiring much of the creduhty even of those 
 who are not acquainted with the higher phenomena 
 of mesmerism as matter of fact, to suppose that when 
 the ordinary and outward action of the senses is cut 
 off, and when the body is brought into a peculiar 
 abnormal condition, the inner part of the brain 
 
METHODS OF NEW DISCOVERY. 57 
 
 might partake of the condition not required by the 
 paralyzed senses. The same relations, in fact, would 
 take an inward direction, and the brain itself become, 
 as it were, an organ of sense, with a concentrated 
 power ; the attention would be capable of exciting 
 and fixing on parts, aud the action of these parts, just 
 as in the ordinary condition it could excite to action 
 one limb or one finger, and take cognizance of the 
 sensations, or other conditions going on in such 
 part or parts. I am not now insisting on this being 
 the true explanation of the phenomena ; but such a 
 view or possible form of the fact is sufficient to help 
 us through our wonderment at the novelty. There 
 is a compensating power in nature towards the com- 
 pletion of individual growths. A branch of an 
 apple-tree broken nearly off will flower and bear 
 more abundantly : — so do the higher functions and 
 fruits of the brain, by fasting and partial paralyzing, 
 appear to be sustained in fuller action : roots will 
 appear from the stems of trees : even leaves will take 
 root : flower-buds may be changed into leaf-buds : 
 stamens take the form of leaves in double flowers ; 
 and the lost leader of a young pine-tree is supplied 
 by one of the side branches turning upwards : the 
 prevailing winds on one side of a tree will cause the 
 roots to take firmer hold of the gromid on the side 
 in the opposite direction to the wind. Shall we be 
 surprised then, in the complicated structure of Man, 
 to find, under unusual conditions, certain changes, — 
 compensations and intuitive powers evolved in an 
 abnormal state, and in the stress of disease ? Shall 
 D 5 
 
58 
 
 we be astonished that a man should have intuitive 
 insight into his wants, as an animal has a similar 
 sense in like circumstances ? And are not physi- 
 cians in the habit of trusting to these intuitions ? It 
 might be humbling to the pride of human reason to 
 learn how much of what is used in medical practice 
 now, originated in intuitive suggestion; and how 
 much of the remainder was from pure accident, and 
 how little is the result of scientific research and in- 
 duction. And after all, where have we a specific and 
 a surety ? It would be wise therefore in physicians, 
 physiologists, and divines, not to refuse the new light 
 which is yielded by mesmerism. There is no haste, 
 however. All will come out clear enough, and be in 
 the end as it should be. All that need be desired 
 is patience, and the good will of good men. 
 
 I have now given you a general notion of the dif- 
 ferent modes by which I conceive the functions of 
 the brain may be ascertained ; and I feel satisfied 
 that your sense and experience, free from any pre- 
 judice on the subject, will enable yon, at once, to 
 form a just estimate of their value. I will proceed 
 to explain to you what appears to me to be esta- 
 blished, and my views of the general arrangement of 
 the organs of the brain. This is what natural theo- 
 logians would consider the design or final cause ; 
 but I can conceive of it only as the general form of 
 certain relations, developed in nature according to 
 necessary and internal laws. If the brain be rightly 
 understood, we may expect to find the same essential 
 harmony and fitness that we discover in all other 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENTS OF THE BRAIN. 59 
 
 natural objects with whicli we are acquainted, and 
 in whicli all of necessity exist. 
 
 I begin, as you suggest, with the lower and lesser 
 brain — the cerebellum. Here I find a number of 
 organs associated in groups, and having a special 
 relation to the bodily conditions ; the functions of 
 the cerebrum, the superior brain, relating to the ex- 
 ternal world, and also to those faculties of the cere- 
 bellum. The lesser brain, I may say, for distinc- 
 tion's sake, is more especially tbe brain of the body, 
 and the cerebrum of the mind. In this seems to 
 rest the fundamental distinction between the two 
 brains. 
 
 In the second place, we must notice the groupings 
 and localities of the organs, in their relations to each 
 other, to the nerves of sense, or sense channels, and 
 to the end or object (if I may so speak) of the par- 
 ticular faculties. We shall always find that the 
 power is near its work, and in near conjunction with 
 other powers or parts with which it has to act. In 
 this principle we shall find a guide for our investi- 
 gations, both as regards ]\Ian and other animals, 
 and in the pursuit of comparative anatomy. But I 
 think I shall be best understood if I indicate the 
 separate faculties and the position of the organs in 
 the first place. 
 
 The side, or outer portion of the cerebellum, is 
 appropriate to the Muscular conditions. The part 
 immediately behind the ear relates to Muscular 
 Movements. I wish to avoid precise definitions, so 
 as to leave the subject as Bacon admonishes, as in a 
 
60 man's nature and development. 
 
 state of gi-owth. Joining with this power, and ex- 
 tending to nearly half way between the ear and oc- 
 ciput, or centre, and on the upper side of the cere- 
 helium, is what I have called the Muscular Sense. 
 It induces a sense of the condition of the muscles. 
 Beneath this is the faculty of Muscular Force. In 
 mesmerized subjects fit for the experiment, you can, 
 by exciting the first organ, cause movements, or a 
 disposition to be in motion ; or produce, when the 
 patient is insensible or rigid, the cataleptic condition, 
 or the power to move the limbs about as upon wires, 
 or as moving upon a pivot; — the limbs remaining 
 in the position in which you place them. The 
 Muscular Sense gives them the sense of these 
 positions, and other conditions also of the muscles, 
 as regards strength, &c. : and together these organs 
 induce a desire for muscular exercise. When mes- 
 merized persons are quite insensible to pressure, or 
 other conditions of the limbs, excite this organ of 
 Muscular Sense, and they instantly become sensible 
 of their muscular state. In many instances, the 
 arms may be extended rigid in the air for an hour, 
 the sleepers being quite unaware of the fact, even 
 though they may be able to converse with you. 
 Similar anomalous conditions are induced under 
 chloroform. The exciting of the organ of Muscular 
 Force induces rigidity mostly on the same side as 
 the organ excised : which rigidity seems to be undi- 
 rected and unused force. Here then you see the 
 origin of the muscular powers and of the muscular 
 sense described by Dr. Brown and others, and 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENTS OF THE BRAIN. 61 
 
 which Sir Charles Bell perceived to be necessaiy. 
 Your instance of the lady in trance is one of those 
 singular cases of which the interest is so great. I 
 have witnessed it often, induced by mesmerism, 
 when there has been the appearance of death, and 
 incapacity for the slightest movement, to indicate 
 life or attract attention. Again, there is the sleep- 
 walker, apparently without consciousness ; and the 
 opposite state, — of consciousness and fright, and the 
 feeling of inability to move, which we call night- 
 mare. Another state of dream is that of flying, or 
 being earned along, and of slipping down a preci- 
 pice ; the sense of motion, independent of exertion, 
 or of any muscular feeling. We shall begin to 
 have a better understanding of dreams, I think, 
 presently. You will see, at once, the relation of 
 these muscular powers to the different character of 
 fits, and many other abnormal conditions. 
 
 Towards the centre of the cerebellum, I find the 
 organs appropriate to the different bodily pains and 
 pleasures, temperature, &c., — such as indicate the 
 condition of the body, rather than in relation to ex- 
 ternal things. The innermost portions of the cere- 
 bellum relate to the more secret doings of the 
 internal functions, — the growth, secretions, and re- 
 plenishings of the body. In the central part of the 
 cerebellum is that which relates to the physical con- 
 ditions of the amative state ; but that love which is 
 the desire of union with the opposite sex, is the 
 central organ of the cerebrum, immediately above 
 the cerebellic organ of the physical relation. In 
 
62 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 regard to pain, we must remember one very remark- 
 able fact_, that some sleepers are so insensible to 
 pain, that you might cut off their limbs without 
 their knowledge, and while they are talking or 
 laughing with you ; and yet they will feel instantly 
 any pain inflicted on the mesmerizer. Sometimes 
 they will refer the pain to the same part in them- 
 selves ; at other times, feel it as in their mesmerizer, 
 and be greatly disturbed by it. Ann Vials, on the 
 nerves of motion or sensation in the stump of the 
 arm that had been removed, being irritated from 
 any cause, feels the motion or pain, as the case may 
 be, as in the limb ; the bending of a finger and 
 thumb, or pain in a particular spot, just as if the 
 arm were in its place. We refer pain to a disturbed 
 part, just as we refer noise to a distant place or 
 object. If a ray of light is, as it were, cut in half, 
 and reflected from a mirror, we do not see it on the 
 mirror, but as behind the mirror, the whole distance 
 it has come. 
 
 But we shall never get on if we diverge into these 
 relations by excursions into Cosmos. There does 
 certainly seem something truly wondrous in being 
 able by the slightest touch, as by magic, to cause a 
 person to be instantly sensible or insensible to any 
 degree of pain : but what we know of the effects of 
 a few breathings of chloroform diminishes the ap- 
 parent marvel, while it adds to the real interest of 
 the condition, as affording another e\idence and 
 mode of experiment. It is remarkable, the rapidity 
 with which a particular state may be induced or 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGExMENTS OF THE BRAIN. 63 
 
 removed ; — intense anger, for instance, in a moment 
 being conveited to benevolence and tears ; — the 
 sense of pain being stayed, and complete rigidity- 
 dissolved with a breath. Our friend, Mrs. AY., used 
 to go into a strange state of rigidity when mes- 
 merized. It would take, I believe, sometimes half 
 an hour to get her wholly relaxed. I saw her in this 
 state one day, and breathed on the muscular organs, 
 and she was released immediately. It is the same 
 with lockjaw as with other local rigid conditions 
 which often occur imder mesmerism. I have caused 
 children, as I mentioned before, in their natural 
 sleep to rise up and lie down again, or throw 
 about their arms without waking, by gently touching 
 the ^Muscular power, just as I cause somnambules to 
 walk in profound sleep, and when no other excite- 
 ment or pressm-e on any other part of the head, or 
 desiring them and entreating them to move, will 
 induce them to do so. In this you have a clear fact; 
 an instance wherein neither the impression of my 
 thoughts, or commands, or suggestions, or other 
 means, avail anything. The response comes as 
 truly as the sound from touching a particular note on 
 the piano. If this be a delusion, what may not be 
 a delusion ? and we may ask in despair, " what is 
 truth ?" I can cause these mesmeric sleepers to 
 dream what I will, and make them fancy they have 
 pain or pleasing sensations, as the case may be, or 
 that they are in motion, &c. xlfter any great mus- 
 cular straining or exertion, I find pain in that mus- 
 cular organ, both in myself and others : also in the 
 
64 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 central portion of the cerebellum, under tlie influence 
 of cold or indigestion. I have noted the intense and 
 often fixed pain in the central portion of the cerebel- 
 lum, in many cases of deranged physical condition. I 
 make mesmerized patients hold a weight, and tell me 
 where it influences the brain, and see how the excite- 
 ment of that part aff'ects them, and I cause them to 
 trace their various sensations, injuries, &c., to the 
 brain. Whatever road I follow, it brings me to the 
 same spot. And then, again, I take Gall's method. I 
 have observed the great development of the mus- 
 cular organs of the lateral portions of the cerebellum 
 in prizefighters and others, having great muscular 
 power, agility, or muscular sensibility. The gla- 
 diators, as you remark, were noted for having a 
 thick base to the skull. I have observed also num- 
 bers of children with precocious muscular power, 
 and the brain proti-uding at these organs, while I 
 notice men with large muscles but little strength, 
 or muscular tact and sensibility, deficient in the 
 necessary organs. When the general physical or 
 vital powers are great, the cerebellum is highly 
 developed; particularly the central portion. The 
 results of vivisections confirm my statements, and 
 cannot be explained under any other view. Anatomy 
 shows no objection, but is wholly in favour of the 
 new philosophy. Again, the efi*ects recorded under 
 morbid conditions and injuries to the brain, give 
 sanction to the same. But you see it is quite 
 impossible to do more than allude to such matters, 
 except when you wish any special explanation. 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE CASES. 65 
 
 And here I must pause again^ and leave the rest 
 I have to say about the brain for another letter. 
 But I may add^ that I am far more anxious to set men 
 inquiring by methods adapted to the subject, than 
 to establish what I have noted as new light from my 
 experiments. The knowledge of these organs of 
 the cerebellum in particular, you will perceive to be 
 highly important towards the explanation and cure 
 of disease ; and to be most suggestive and necessary 
 to those who mesmerize. Every mesmerizer should 
 understand phrenology and phreno-mesmerism ; and 
 the physician who is ignorant of these matters of 
 phreno-physiology, goes into the sick chamber with a 
 light only on one side of his subject. 
 
 IX. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 You say it would be an extremely interesting 
 question whether one disease may not be made to 
 di-ive out another. Do you mean by this anything 
 different from the ordinary medical practice of our 
 time ? I take it_, this is the whole secret of medical 
 practice, — the secret of gi\'ing calomel, and all the 
 other horrible di-ugs by which doctors are wont " to 
 set up one disease to drive out another," as they say. 
 
66 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 In this matter, my sympathies are wliolly with the 
 Homoeopathists, who prefer following natm-e, and 
 helping the actual disease out of the system, to 
 driving it out by the introduction of another. 
 But one wonders that the doctors have not got on, — 
 such facts as they have had before their eyes, — from 
 daily causing a more manageable disease to drive 
 out a less manageable one, to trying whether a 
 healthy person cannot take upon himself the malady 
 of the sick, — not only sharing, but relieving the 
 evil. You or I could at the shortest notice furnish 
 them with exemplifications of this, from om' expe- 
 rience in mesmerizing : and whenever they will 
 attend to it, and put the matter to proof under their 
 own eyes, it will be a great day for the health and 
 happiness of the human race. It is a strange thing 
 that the facts they must daily meet do not set them 
 looking into them. You know my friend Mrs. H. 
 C.^s husband died of consumption. When near 
 death, mthin a few weeks of it, he was sleepless 
 and restless, and sufi"ered more from this restlessness 
 than from any other cause. One day he told his 
 wife that when her hands were on his pillow, moving 
 near his face, he was aware of a soothing sensation : 
 and he asked her to move them again. She had 
 never, any more than himself, heard anj^thing about 
 mesmerism ; and when by experience of what suited 
 the invalid, she in fact made passes whenever he 
 needed sleep, she had no idea that she was mes- 
 merizing. He always sank presently to sleep ; and 
 she always was aware of feeling exhausted, sleepless 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE CASES. 67 
 
 and restless. How many a sufferer have I seen relieved 
 of one ailment after another, and daily recovering 
 flesh and colour and animation at the expense of a 
 pain in my hand, or wrist, or elbow, or shoulder, and 
 a nervous exhaustion which a cold bath, or an hour 
 in the sunshine, would repair ! 
 
 As to the communicating of an ailment, without 
 any corresponding advantage, I had, however, a 
 somewhat startling warning five years since. My 
 sister was mesmerizing a little boy, extremely sus- 
 ceptible, and succeeding in fixing his limbs, when I, 
 inexperienced in the mysteries of the case, put my 
 hand in, and made mischief. The boy was in a lively 
 state of sleep-waking : and I amused him by putting 
 my ear trumpet into his ear, speaking to him through 
 it, and thus breathing into his ear. Presently he 
 was found to be apparently stupid, — attending to 
 nothing that my sister and his guardian said to him. 
 At last, it struck his guardian that I had made him 
 deaf. And so I had ; and nobody but myself could 
 recover him. I was instructed what to do; and 
 glad enough I was when the hearing returned. 
 
 To come back to our present business. If we 
 will not, in order to ascertain the seat of sensation 
 and motion, question persons in the mesmeric sleep, 
 why do we not question closely those who have never 
 been mesmerized, but who yet may have something 
 to tell ? Now, you know I never have a headache. 
 "Whatever disturbance I may be under, from illness 
 or exhaustion, I never have a headache. During my 
 long illness, however, through upwards of five years. 
 
68 man's nature and development. 
 
 one sensation was never absent, except when I was 
 well opiated. A slight dull pain stretched across 
 the hack of the head, mthin such exact and narrow 
 limits that I used to call it " a bar of pain/' It was 
 slight, as I said, and of consequence chiefly from its 
 constancy, and from the regularity of the process of 
 its removal by opiates. Under any one of various 
 methods of applying opiates, the process was the 
 same. In about twenty minutes, a numbness stole 
 over '' the bar,'' and stole down either side of the 
 nape of the neck before it was felt anywhere else. 
 Is this fact of any value to you ? And have you 
 other testimony of how opiates appear to sensitive 
 patients to take effect ? During those five years, I 
 could never succeed in drawing attention to that 
 '^ bar of pain," or to the course taken by the numb 
 sensation : and no doubt I was considered ^' nervous" 
 for mentioning them so often, instead of being 
 understood to be merely cui'ious for the reason. 
 
 You speak of the value, for observ^ation, of pecu- 
 liar cases and abnormal conditions. I can offer you 
 two peculiar cases for investigation, the second of 
 which, I have always thought, must be a prodigious 
 puzzle to the metaphysicians. I cannot think how 
 any but phrenologists can make anything of it. In 
 remarkable contrast to it is my own. As you know, 
 I have never had the sense of smell (except once for 
 a few hours), nor therefore much sense of taste ; and 
 before I was twenty I had lost the greater part of my 
 hearing. When any companions give me notices of 
 distant objects or occurrences by means of any of 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE CASES. 69 
 
 these senses^ — ^when tliey tell me wliat is growing in 
 an invisible field or garden, or where there is music, 
 or what people are saying on the further side of a 
 reach of the lake on a calm summer evening, I feel a 
 sort of start, as if I were in company with sorcerers : 
 and it is as if I had once lived in a land of magic 
 when I remember reading on my little stool in a 
 corner, and being disturbed by hearing visitors 
 whispering about me. Such an unusual set of con- 
 ditions must yield some results of unusual expe- 
 rience ; and I could tell you curious things of the 
 good and evil (the evil, as I think, abounding) of the 
 undue action thrown upon certain parts of the brain 
 by the insensibility of the portions appropriate (as I 
 suppose) to the senses in question. It seems to me 
 that, for want of the " distraction'^ commonly en- 
 joyed through the play of the senses, there is too 
 little relief to the action of the busiest parts of the 
 brain ; and life is made more laborious than can 
 perhaps be conceived of by those who are using their 
 five senses through all their waking hours. Among 
 the faculties thus intensified, — if not over-wrought, 
 is that of consciousness : and this it is which I think 
 may be useful to you occasionally. If out of this 
 consciousness I can illustrate any of the doctrine 
 you communicate, I will do so, as we go along. 
 Meantime, here is the opposite case, — that of a child 
 whom I studied with the deepest interest from the 
 first year of his life till he died at the age of nine- 
 teen. 
 
 This boy was an idiot, with senses of marvellous 
 
70 man's nature and development. 
 
 acuteness. Those connected witli such cases do not' 
 like the word ^^idiot/^ and reject it if anj^ faculties 
 exist which can be pointed to as an indication of 
 mind. This boy_, however^ could not speak^ nor un- 
 derstand speech, nor communicate with, nor appear 
 to recognize, any other mind. His peculiarities arose 
 from early injury to the brain ; and there was a 
 singular sinking and contraction across the middle 
 of the skull. As for his senses, — he knew people 
 and articles of their dress by the smell : he could 
 not be cheated into taking in his food medicine taste- 
 less and scentless to every body else : the faintest 
 sound of distant music would make him roll on the 
 carpet with delight : and his delicac}^ of touch was 
 proved by the delicacy of his cuttings in paper. 
 Towards the end of his life he was losing his sight 
 from cataract ; and his eyes were never straight : but 
 I don^t know that his sight was early defective. He 
 had little muscular strength, and no agility. The 
 stiffness of the back, the absence of spring, and the 
 rolling walk, showed injury, — it was supposed to the 
 spine, — but now we might suppose it to be to the 
 cerebellum. He had little pleasure therefore in 
 active exercises; but evidently very great in the 
 exercise of the few faculties which he had in won- 
 derful strength. 
 
 I have mentioned his paper cuttings. They were 
 all symmetrical, very pretty, and always as if fetched 
 out of the kaleidoscope. Everything about him be- 
 came symmetrical. He could endure nothing out of 
 its position in space, or its order in time. If any 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE CASES. 71 
 
 new thing was done to him at any minute of the day, 
 the same thing must be done at the same minute 
 every day thenceforward. He hated personal inter- 
 ference; but one rainy day, at ten minutes past 
 eleven, we got his hair and nails cut while he was 
 wide awake, and without struggle. He hated it 
 still : but the next day, and eveiy day after, at ten 
 minutes past eleven, he, as by a fate, brought comb, 
 scissors, and towel ; and we were obliged daily to cut 
 a snip of hair before he would release himself. His 
 " understanding the clock,^' as it is called, was as 
 completely out of the question as his being taught 
 Geology : yet was he punctual to the minute in all 
 his observances, even when living on the sea shore, 
 where there was neither clock nor watch within sight 
 or hearing. About number and quantity he could 
 never be baffled. '\Mien he was out of the 
 room, I would steal a brick from the great heap of 
 little bricks in the middle of the floor : he would 
 pass his hand over them, spread them a little, and 
 then lament and wander about till the missing one 
 was restored. If seven comfits had once been put 
 into his hand, he would not rest with six ; and if 
 nine were given, he would not touch any till he had 
 returned two. Through his last illness (consump- 
 tion) he kept up his habits, which were in him like 
 propensities ; and at the vei-y last, when, in the ex- 
 haustion of approaching death, refreshment was at- 
 tempted by bathing his hands, he did his utmost to 
 turn up his shirt-cuffs precisely as he had done all 
 his life. He could not do it, and sank back ; and 
 
72 MAN^S NATURE AND DE^TILOPMENT. 
 
 this was the only point he yielded. He was exqui- 
 sitely trained ; in self-control (by means of this 
 strength of habit), in a mechanical patience,, order and 
 gentleness, which made his lot an easy one to himself 
 and others, in comparison mth what it might have 
 been. A final proof, through him, of the strength 
 of our instincts was that we mourned him when he 
 was gone with a sorrow which surprised us, and for 
 which we could not account. There was a charm 
 like that of infancy, no doubt, in his innocence and 
 unconscious dependence. Now, what can any but 
 phrenologists make of such a case as this ? 
 
 When we meet, you must give me some lessons 
 from an actual skull, that may guide me in mes- 
 merizing the sick, seeing that, as you say, every 
 mesmerizer should understand these things. 
 
 Now for the cerebrum ! Where do you begin ? 
 
 X. 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 It appears to me that the senses are simply instru- 
 mental ; that is, the media or conditions by which 
 impressions of external objects are, under ordi- 
 nary circumstances, made to the brain. I mean 
 that there is no sense or consciousness out of the 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE CEREBRUM. 73 
 
 brain : that the entire perceptive power is within the 
 brain. It is natural that we should expect to trace 
 the nerves of each sense direct to the organ in the 
 brain appropriate to that sense. However, this can- 
 not be done. The nerves from the eye, forinstance, 
 do not pass direct to the perceptive faculties, but, 
 like the other sense nerves, pass on to masses of grey 
 matter at the back of the brain, which, however, 
 communicates with the cerebrum and cerebellum. 
 It occurs to me, therefore, that it is veiy possible 
 that the sense impressions do not pass along the 
 nerves into the perceptive region of the brain as 
 electricity passes along wires ; but that the nerves of 
 sense maintain a receptive medium, or condition of 
 that medium, the impressions on which act directly 
 on the brain organ or organs relating to such impres- 
 sions. I think that the muscular and executive 
 forces of the system are more nearly alKed to elec- 
 tricity, and the receptive and mental powers rather 
 to magnetism. I think also that the passage of the 
 impressions from the nerves of sense to the organs 
 of the brain resembles that from the external object 
 to the sense ; as in the case of the retina in seeing : 
 and that the combined action and associations in the 
 brain, — in our thoughts, — occur in a similar way. 
 "VVe must not expect to find the vital actions to be 
 wholly after the fashion of mechanism; but the 
 view I have taken will seem reasonable to those who 
 will consider how light and heat and magnetism pass 
 from object to object ; and how pain may be trans- 
 ferred from one part of the body to another, and from 
 
74 MAN'S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 body to body ; and how, under appropriate condi- 
 tions, one mind is influenced by the silent will of 
 another, or sympathetically receives thought, or other 
 impressions. But I only submit this \TLew as sug- 
 gestive. I dare say, in time, I shall find some clever 
 sleeper who will be able to satisfy me upon it. 
 
 We will now cast a general glance over the facul- 
 ties of the cerebrum. Very general and very brief 
 it must be : in fact, little more than a catalogue : as 
 the object is, not to expatiate on the developments 
 of phrenological science, but to present the mutual 
 relations of the faculties, as a preparation for pursu- 
 ing our special inquiry. 
 
 The faculty of Hearing consists of the simple sense 
 
 of sound situated on the base of the brain, close 
 
 upon the bony covering of the apparatus of the 
 
 sense, and in intimate proximity to the organ of 
 
 tune, or what we may consider as the intellectual 
 
 perception of the nature and relations of sound. 
 
 There is also the sense of Colours over the centre of 
 
 the eye; and the sense of Light close beneath this. 
 
 The senses of Smell and Taste have similar divisions. 
 
 It is the same with regard to pleasure and pain, and 
 
 the Muscular sense. Weight is in connection with 
 
 the muscular powers. To measure force — perceive 
 
 or estimate weight — is quite a different matter from 
 
 the sense of the muscular conditions and strength. 
 
 Behind the organs of Weight and Colour are organs 
 
 appropriate to pleasure and pain, bearing the same 
 
 relation to the organs of Pain and Pleasure, in the 
 
 cerebellum, that music has to sound, coloui* to light. 
 
ORGANIC arrange:ment of the cerebrum. 75 
 
 and weight to the Muscular sense. There is no 
 part of the subject which has perplexed me more 
 than this — to understand these double conditions 
 apparently of the same sense ; but there are many- 
 things which we must receive as facts that we can- 
 not at first wholly understand ; and it will be long 
 perhaps before we attain a very exact and clear 
 analysis of all the faculties. There is the sense of 
 Hunger and Thirst, close beside the organ of Sound; 
 and of Feeling immediately in front of the Destructive 
 faculty : and before this again is a sense of the 
 quality of food, and what is good for food ; a faculty 
 in high development in the lower animals, and with 
 some somnambules, and sick persons. The other 
 perceptive faculties are very much as phrenologists 
 have described them; — as Number, Order, Colour, 
 Weight, Size, Form, and Individuality: — all in a 
 line over the eyes. Above these are Time, Locality, 
 Eventuality, and Comparison, relating to objects, 
 events, and resemblances in the characters of these. 
 This is the analogical faculty : and on either side of 
 it is Causality, — the sense of the sequence and neces- 
 sary dependence of things, — the sense of the con- 
 nection of effects with their causes. Joining this 
 faculty is the sense of Incongruity, — the organ called 
 Wit. It has been supposed by most phrenologists 
 that the intellectual faculties described by them in- 
 cluded the whole process of thought : but I was al- 
 ways unsatisfied about this. I find above what is 
 called the organ of Tune, a faculty for the arrange- 
 ment of ideas bearing the same relation to ideas that 
 E 2 
 
76 man's nature and development. 
 
 the organ of Order has to the arrangement of ob- 
 jects. For instance^ in a museum^ the one organ 
 would be employed upon the classification of the 
 objects ; the other to the mere objective neatness and 
 orderly arranging of them. Above the organs of 
 Wit and Causality, I discover the organ of the highest 
 conceptions of thought, whereby ideas are contrasted, 
 and we discern true distinctions. Bacon says that 
 the greatest difi"erence in the intellectual nature of 
 men is, that " some more readily perceive resem- 
 blances and others difi'erences.'' The central fa- 
 culty, unbalanced and unregulated, induces hasty 
 generalization ; the other endless distinctions. This 
 central organ seems to evolve the sense of resem- 
 blance, inducing generalization and analogical rea- 
 soning, and the ideas of unity, general laws, or con- 
 stant forms. The other faculty relates to judg- 
 ments through the sense of difference. From con- 
 trast are perceived true distinctions or particular 
 laws. Thus we have the comparing organ which 
 unites nature, and the one which divides or analyzes ; 
 aiding towards true divisions, distinctions, and defi- 
 nitions. Beneath this central organ of Comparison, 
 lying under Benevolence, is what has been termed 
 by a somnambule the Eye of the Mind. This seems 
 to be power of judgment: — we might call it the 
 Intuitive faculty ; for it is this which is chiefly con- a 
 cerned in clairvoyance. I dare say you do not find' 
 me very explicit ; but I think the less I attempt to 
 define the better, so long as I can direct attention 
 to the existence of certain faculties in particular / 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE CEREBRUM. 11 
 
 localities. This faculty, this mental eye, seems to 
 receive the result of the doings of the other faculties, 
 and to be, properly speaking, perhaps the Mind 
 sense, joining as it does with the Conscious power. 
 Here seems to be the origin of the suggestive faculty 
 of Genius. This seems to be the true Mind power, 
 or intellect. It seems to split off into the senses, 
 as light divides off into colours, or sound into notes, 
 but to contain within itself the power of mind con- 
 centrated, when cut off from the ordinary character 
 of sense and reason. Then all time seems to become 
 as one duration ; space seems as nothing ; all pas- 
 sions and desires become hushed ; truth becomes an 
 insight, or through sight ; and life a law. 
 
 The faculty of Language is at the back of the eye, 
 in the base of the intellectual lobe, and close over 
 the instrument of speech. In these regions also we 
 have the sense of Touch between Weight and the 
 Constructive power, which, together with the Mus- 
 cular sense, enables us to manipulate with such a 
 correct measure of force and precision. Nearer to 
 the centre of this under surface is the sense of 
 Smell, which seems more nearly concerned with the 
 sense of Hunger, the sense of Taste, and the Con- 
 scious faculty. Smell will relieve us in fainting, or 
 cause us to faint ; and wake us from sleep ; cause 
 hunger or nausea, and indicate the quality of food. 
 Over the ear is Destructiveness, which appears to 
 be divided into the impulse to destroy, give pain 
 or injure, and mere dislike. Anything harsh or dis- 
 cordant wiU irritate this faculty. The notion of 
 
78 man's nature and development. 
 
 Freemll lias been a constant irritation to it ; and 
 we seek to resent and to punish* with the same 
 ignorant folly that the nurse exhibits in beating the 
 naughty chair against which the child has fallen : 
 and hence the belief in evil spirits, and in a hell of 
 fire and torment for " the wicked/' Behind the 
 Destructive faculty is the Opposing impulse : — above 
 Destructiveness, the Secretive power_, which may 
 induce suspicion and disguise. Some men's lives, 
 where it is in excess, are a continued game at hide 
 and seek. Immediately in front of this last organ, 
 is the sen^e of Property, adjoining Constructiveness 
 and the Food faculty beneath. Here we have asso- 
 ciated together the faculties which make us destroy 
 for food : and when we do not kill, we cut up and 
 masticate that which we devour. And here are the 
 impulses to acquire, to construct^ and to store up 
 what we do not use. It is interesting to watch the 
 action of these faculties in the lower animals. 
 
 Above the Secretive faculty, and rather further 
 back, is Caution, inducing circumspection and care- 
 fulness. A portion of this organ causes fear, — such 
 as the fear of loss, or of giving offence, &c., accord- 
 ing as it is acting in conjunction with other faculties ; 
 and behind this organ is the sense of personal 
 danger, inducing the start of terror in fear of injury 
 or death. In front of this organ of Caution, I find 
 the impulse to labour, — the love of Industry, the 
 right exercise of which is such a spring of satis- 
 faction. In front again of this organ is Ideality, — 
 * Appendix B. 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE CEREBRUM. 79 
 
 the sense of beauty — tlie abstract sense of harmony 
 and completeness. On the top and back of the 
 head, in the centre, is Firmness; on each side of 
 which is Conscientiousness, — which di\'ides into the 
 sense of right, the impulse to sincerity and candour, 
 and the love of truth. These faculties are described 
 as being one beneath the other, — the love of Truth 
 being the lowest, and the sense of Right on the 
 surface. On the central portion of this coronal 
 region is the faculty inducing reverence, awe, re- 
 spect, deference, as the case may be. Its highest 
 object seems to be, a sense of the infinite and abstract 
 power, — the inherent force and principle of nature. 
 It seems to convey a sense of our dependence on the 
 mysterious force and rule of nature. — of that which 
 is beyond the experience of sense. It causes us 
 from its situation to look up, and speak of high 
 things, — to sink upon the knee, and to bend before 
 the semblance of power and majesty. Uninfoniied 
 and misdirected, we personify,* humanize, mate- 
 rialize, the object of this sense ; and thus we find 
 that the highest feelings, as well as those which we 
 call the lowest, have lived through periods of mis- 
 direction and idol worship. Much of what is called 
 Spiritualism, is to my mind but image worship, and 
 most objectionably material. On each side of this 
 central organ are faculties inducing Hopefulness 
 and Joy, associated with a sense of progress and 
 perfection. Near to the love of Labour is a sense of 
 Motion irrespective of muscular efi'ort. In this 
 * Appendix C. 
 
80 man's nature and DE^TILOPMENT. 
 
 region it is_, that power or mind becomes em- 
 bodied under the idea of spirit, and seems to take 
 "wing ; and we speak with reason of the flight of the 
 imagination ; for this sense of motion following the 
 central faculty, cari-jang us soaring upwards in 
 space, we look up towards an imagined Heaven, and 
 speak of high things : though, in a few hours, what 
 w^as above is now below. Allien the temporary ex- 
 citement (which may, at any time, be induced under 
 mesmerism) passes away, we lose our wings : the 
 spirit, as it were, seems to desert us ; and we are 
 content with om* fair world again, and the good 
 things and the good people that it contains. From 
 this sense of power extends the organ of Benevo- 
 lence, reaching down to the organ of Comparison ; — 
 resting there, like a crown placed upon the intellect, 
 and pointing out the highest morality and first duty 
 of man, — to make others happy, and advance the 
 general good. There is Ideality joining also to the 
 intellect lower down, bidding us elevate, refine, and 
 embellish life by real excellence and beauty; and 
 lower down is the Constructive faculty, enabling us 
 to construct what is required for use, comfort, and 
 elegance. — On each side of Benevolence is Imitation, 
 — the faculty appropriate to the fine arts, which 
 aids us to sympathize with, and enter into the spirit 
 of, all we see. — On each side of this, again, is 
 Wonder, delighting in all that is new and sur- 
 prising. It lifts us from the world of common- 
 place. There is nothing more observable in a cha- 
 racter, than the deficiency of this faculty. There is 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGE^fENT OF THE CEREBRUM. 81 
 
 a fallj at once, from poetry to tlie prosaic. The Eye 
 of the Mind I have ah*eady pointed out as extending 
 from behind Comparison, beneath Benevolence, join- 
 ing with the Conscious faculty, which is beneath 
 the central external organ we have spoken of. Be- 
 neath Firmness is "Will, — the executive minister of 
 the mind, adjoining the Conscious faculty : — as also, 
 I conceive, the sense of Being, or of Personality. 
 Nearer to the 'Will is the faculty of Attention. Con- 
 sciousness may act alone, — or almost alone ; and the 
 other powers may act without our consciousness. 
 
 Behind Fii-mness is Self-esteem, or Self-reliance ; 
 on each side of which is the Love of Approbation. 
 Acting with the CoDscientious faculty, these cause 
 us to seek self-approval, and the approval only of 
 the discerning; and for our just merits — the recog- 
 nition only of what is true. Behind this faculty of 
 self-sufficiency, is that of Concentration, or the 
 ability to gather up the strength, and combine the 
 faculties, for one effort. It induces a sense of power, 
 and often, with Self-esteem, makes men fancy they 
 are equal to anything. 
 
 Lastly, we come to the gi'oup of the organs of the 
 Affections. The love of Children and of whatever 
 presents child-like qualities is in the centre; and 
 beneath this hes love, or the desire of Union, — mar- 
 riage, — ^the blending and sympathy of two minds in 
 one existence. This faculty lies immediately over that 
 portion of the cerebellum appropriate to the physical 
 sense and condition of love. On each side of the Love 
 of Children is Friendship, or ordinary attachment. 
 E 5 
 
82 MAN^S NATURE AND DEA^ELOPMENT. 
 
 Here then ends a rougli sketcli of the faculties, as 
 far as I have observed, and in the light in which I at 
 present view them. With a phrenological bust before 
 you, you will at once see what are the new faculties 
 and their situation. Doubtless there is very much 
 to ascertain yet before we complete the physiology of 
 the brain : but, in the meantime, every fact and 
 eveiy hint is of use ; and every landmark we can es- 
 tablish is so much security gained in our researches. 
 
 Consciousness being discovered to be a separate 
 power, we can more easily understand how so much 
 is often worked out by the brain wdthout conscious- 
 ness, or conscious Will. We shall see the reason 
 why the part in which the organ is situated is the 
 most sensitive we can apply ourselves to for the 
 pui-pose of waking a somnambule, or casting him 
 into a deeper sleep, or changing his conscious state. 
 We shall understand how it is that somnambules 
 feel the mesmeric power creeping over the brain 
 until it reaches this part ; and that then they immedi- 
 ately lose consciousness ; and how it is that persons 
 who cannot sleep so often feel an action or pain in 
 that part : and also how they feel pain (as 1 have often 
 done) on being greatly disturbed during sleep, or 
 when endeavoui'ing to sleep, or when suddenly 
 awakened. We shall better understand also the 
 laws of will and choice and judgment by considering 
 the relations of these new powers, and why we have 
 a love of labour, and a satisfaction in industry, and 
 how every one is born to work. We shall be able 
 better to distinguish the character of different intel- 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE CEREBRUM. 83 
 
 lects, and to estimate the varied conditions of Love. 
 We shall perceive how it is that we dream of flying, 
 or of moving through the aii* without exertion. 
 Dreams will become intelligible in all their various 
 aspects. We shall understand why we experience 
 pain so often in the brow, over the eyes, and this 
 again in connection with pain in the cerebellum; 
 even why we frown, and half close the eye, and put 
 the hand to the eyes on experiencing pain, or wit- 
 nessing it in others. Phrenology in fact will now, I 
 think, begin to show its own worth and truth in 
 accounting more clearly for many of the before in- 
 explicable phenomena of our natui'e. These new 
 organs, like those of Gall, have been discovered one 
 by one, without anticipation. Let us now see how, 
 upon a general view, they seem to form a harmony, — 
 a consistent whole. This is an aspect of the subject 
 on which I have meditated long ; and I may say with 
 continued interest and satisfaction. 
 
 I fear that I shall convey to you but a very slight 
 and imperfect idea of the general arrangement of 
 the brain. In time, this wondrous organ,* this world 
 of thought, will be depicted in all its relations and 
 characteristics, after the manner of the physical 
 Atlas. Then we shall have a true chart of the 
 philosophy of the mind. 
 
 * " Saw Majendie, who seems afraid of venturing on his 
 experiments in London, lest hare-hunters should cry out 
 against him for cruelty. Some of his late observations on 
 the brains of animals look as if the veil might be raised, 
 which has hid the great secrets of natm-e." — ilir J. Mackin- 
 tosh, Life, II. p. 413. 
 
84 man's nature and development. 
 
 In the first place I may say tliat I find the Per- 
 ceptive organs in close approximation to the instru- 
 ments of sense to which they relate ; and again^ to 
 the object or end to which both refer. The reason 
 is this : — that the force and attention thrown in any 
 direction put that portion of the frame in action^ or 
 in tension for action_, at the same time ; or_, as it were, 
 with the same efi'ort. The organs,, for instance, 
 appropriate to perception by sight are situated im- 
 mediately round over the eyes ; the organs of Light 
 and Colom-s being in the centre over each eye : and 
 the faculties depending on these first perceptions are 
 higher and higher up, just as the faculty is less and 
 less concerned in the first or direct vision of objects. 
 The same principle of arrangement we find in the 
 viscera or organs situated within the lower body ; 
 a fitness in the relative position of the parts. 
 There is but a limited quantity of nervous force and 
 power of attention or sustainment in the brain ; and 
 this cannot well be used in two directions at once. 
 The organ of Sound is close upon the apparatus of 
 the ear ; but the sense by which we discriminate the 
 qualities of sound, and by this the characters of 
 external objects, is near to the corner of the brow ; 
 and when stimulated to listen, presses forward in the 
 direction of the sound ; it being a law of the brain 
 that the head follows the excited organ ; and this in 
 the direction of its object. This position with 
 regard to the faculty of sounds is the best possible 
 for the ear to catch sounds, and for the eye at the 
 same time to recognize the cause of the somid. A 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENT OE THE CEREBRUM. 85 
 
 similar relation or law I observe in connection with 
 all the senses and other faculties. <^The sense of 
 Hunger I find the nearest point of the brain to the 
 stomach fjand Taste is over thepalate^and Smell above, 
 and in the direction of the apparatus of the nose. 
 Language is close over the organ of the voice. 
 Those senses relating to the body generally, and not 
 to a local function, and those of touch, are, you 
 perceive, among the inner convolutions, at the base 
 of the brain. The Mental Eye is an inner convolu- 
 tion, central, and immediately behind the intellectual 
 faculties. Consciousness is an inner and the most 
 central faculty of all, as relating to all ; whilst the 
 acting minister, the Will, stands behind, adjoining 
 to the Concentrative power, and with Finnness above. 
 Those organs acting mostly together are situated 
 together. The Afi'ections are a group by themselves ; 
 with the Concentrative power above, and the Sensual 
 faculties below. When men have been wandering: 
 amidst spiritual fancies, or are foUomng the intellect 
 too long, the affections draw them back to home and 
 friends, and let the fatigued organs repose. We 
 find again Ideality bordering upon the sense of Order 
 and Harmony. The Intellectual faculties are together 
 in front. The Destructive and Opposing faculties 
 again are together, with their instrument, the Mus- 
 cular faculties, immediately behind, but with Caution 
 and Secretiveness holding a check upon them above. 
 An objection might be made to this view, that the 
 organs are double ; and the side organs, — Ideality, 
 for instance, — are widely apart. This is true : but 
 
86 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 then we must remember (and here the exception 
 may prove the rule), that we usually think only on 
 one side of the brain at a time, except under great 
 excitement. But the organs most used, and more 
 frequently required to act together, are nearer to the 
 central line, where the two organs come in close 
 contact, with slight partitions between. And if we 
 consider those central organs, that is, from Indivi- 
 duality over the nose round over the head to Love, 
 we shall find a purpose or reason for these organs 
 being central. Individuality relates to the whole, of 
 which Colour, Space, AYeight, &c., are but qualities. 
 It is a kind of abstract ; and adjoining and around 
 it are Size, Form, Locality, &c. And certainly you 
 can hardly recognize an object without a sense of 
 its position, form and size. 
 
 The next central organ recognizes events, irre- 
 spective of particulars. Above lies Comparison, — 
 the sense of resemblance, suggesting unity from the 
 analogy of knowledge. Beneath is the Eye of the 
 Mind, — the abstract Mind; — and then Consciousness, 
 or central being ; — Benevolence, contemplating uni- 
 versal happiness ; — and then the sense of universal 
 Power, Rule, and the dependence consequent on 
 these. Then Firmness, like a central hold or prop ; 
 — the Will and Concentrative faculty; — and Self- 
 reliance, — and Love; all central powers involving 
 unity or oneness. 
 
 The faculties of the Coronal region are all those 
 furthest removed from sense impressions and bodily 
 relations, with Consciousness deep in the midst, aud 
 
ORGANIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE CEREBRUM. 87 
 
 joining upon that faculty which has the power (at 
 least under certain conditions) of acting inde- 
 pendently of the ordinary processes of sense and 
 reason ; and in which perception and judgment may 
 be said to become one. The cerebellum_, on the 
 contrary_, having specially to do with the bodily 
 conditions_, is situated behind and beneath all the 
 rest. The ^luscular powers form the lateral por- 
 tionSj with their master passions^ Combativeness and 
 Destructiveness_, immediately above ; the limbs^ and 
 the organs to which they chiefly relate^ being also 
 lateral organs ; particularly the organs requiring the 
 muscular sense and direction most. I think you 
 will perceive that it is only by tracing out these re- 
 lationSj or laws of position^ that we shall discover a 
 clue, whereby to find our way through all the diffi- 
 culties of Comparative Anatomy. It appears, also, 
 that the lower side of the cerebellum has most to do 
 with the activity of the body, and the upper side 
 with the senses, — these senses bearing a relation to 
 the intellect, as well as to the bodily conditions. 
 The lateral portions more particularly of the cere- 
 bellum, the muscular organs, are united together by 
 the Pons Varolii; and with its fibres are interlaced 
 the nerves of motion which pass down the spinal 
 column. These nerves, for the most part, cross to 
 the opposite side of the body; thus forming the 
 most complete means of varied action. This crossing 
 of the nerves may account for the tendency we have 
 to cross the legs and fold the arms. 
 
 The central portion of the cerebellum, having to 
 
88 man's nature and de^t:lopment. 
 
 do with tlie secretions and general condition of the 
 body and nerves,, as regards healthy &c.^ commu- 
 nicates with the body by a thick cord of neiTC, 
 forming the back portion of the spinal column — 
 communicating by another cord with the brain and 
 neiTes of sense. From its function^ we should 
 expect to find this part the first that is formed in 
 the foetus : and this is the case. The brain of the 
 foetus '^ consists^ about the second month, chiefly of 
 the mesial parts of the cerebellum, corpora quadri- 
 gemina, Sec," and goes on expanding, as it were, 
 from this into the other parts of the convolutions. * 
 But without going further, (and I fear I have been 
 too lengthy already,) I think I am now justified in 
 saying that the views of phrenologists, and these 
 additions of mine, are in accordance with the results 
 of anatomy, and present a remarkable show of con- 
 sistent relations. 
 
 We have now gone over, in a hasty way, what I 
 regard as the means of discovering the functions of 
 the brain, and what I have as yet discovered through 
 the use of these means. What I have advanced, I 
 give simply as my opinions, and as suggestion to 
 others. I appeal to Nature as known by the facts 
 before us. I have nothing to say to any one^s rea- 
 soningsf upon the question, unless they are sup- 
 
 * See Fletcher's Rudiments of Physiology, quoted in 
 "Vestiges," p. 226. 
 
 t Galileo writes to a friend^ " O ! my dear Kepler, how I 
 wish that we could have one hearty laugh together ! Here 
 at Padua is the principal Professor of Philosophy, whom I 
 
DR. HOWE'S REPORT ON IDIOCY. 89 
 
 ported by facts, and by a knowledge of the matters 
 to which I refer. 
 
 I have written so long a letter, that I will not 
 remark upon the excellent instances you give me in 
 your last note. It is such material we want. 
 
 XL 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 I was just going to write to you yesterday, when 
 I took up Dr. Howe's Report to the Legislature of 
 Massachusetts on Idiocy : and I found it so interest- 
 ing, that I could not put pen to paper till I had 
 gone through it. One of the best things in it is 
 the quiet exhibition of the mess made by Law, Me- 
 dicine, and Philosophy, of the statement of the case 
 of idiots. One would think nothing could be done 
 in the legal direction without some definition or 
 description of Idiocy which might be of pretty ge- 
 neral application to the class of the imbecile : but 
 
 have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon 
 and planets through my glass, which he pertinaciously refuses 
 to do. Why are you not here? What shouts of laughter we 
 should have at this glorious folly ! And to hear the Professor 
 of Philosophy at Pisa labouring before the Grand Duke with 
 logical arguments, as if with magical incantations to charm 
 the new planets out of the sky !" — Galileo to Kepler, 
 
90 
 
 nothing can be more loose, and, at the same time, 
 limited, than the description that English and Ame- 
 rican law give of an idiot. The philosophers who 
 have attempted to define do no better. Proceeding 
 from the idea that the mind is one thing, and the 
 body another, only arbitrarily connected with it, and 
 entangled by the notion of freewill, they talk in the 
 most confused manner of weakness of the under- 
 standing as accounting for failm-e of the afi'ections ; 
 — of weakness in that connection which should bring 
 the other faculties under the control of the will; 
 and so on, till one wonders whether the writers 
 really believed that they had any clear idea in their 
 minds when they wrote what was so vague and 
 utterly unsubstantial. 
 
 Here we have the law saying, that a man is an 
 idiot, " if he has not any use of reason : as if he 
 cannot count twenty pence :'' ^' if he has no under- 
 standing to tell his age ; or who is his father or 
 mother .^^ Yet, again, it says, " a man shall not be 
 called an idiot if he has the understanding to learn 
 or know letters -.'^ whereas, one of the most utterly 
 silly and helpless idiots conceivable (in regard to 
 matters contemplated by the laws), was a man whom 
 I knew when he was upwards of thirty, whose 
 delight was to copy upon a slate the Scripture les- 
 sons and hymns of the preceding Sunday. He 
 could read, wi'ite, and even spell well (though 
 deficient from birth), while he had no power of 
 apprehending, in the slightest degree, the meaning 
 of what he wrote. 
 
DR. HOWE'S REPORT ON IDIOCY. 91 
 
 It must yield a sweet kind of amusement to Dr. 
 Howe to read what Blackstone says on this matter. 
 You know Dr. Howe is the benefactor of Laura 
 Bridgman and Oliver Caswell, the girl and boy who 
 are actually without eyes and ears — deaf, dumb 
 and blind, and Laura, if not Oliver, nearly or quite 
 destitute of the senses of smell and taste, while, by 
 Dr. Howe's singular wisdom and patience, they are 
 educated into a high degree of intelligence. '^A 
 man,'' says Blackstone, "who is born deaf, and 
 dumb, and blind, is looked upon by the law as in 
 the same state with an idiot; he being supposed 
 incapable of any understanding, as wanting all those 
 senses which furnish human beings with ideas." 
 Rejecting the dogmas of metaphysicians, and dis- 
 believing that Ideas are the relics of Sensations, Dr. 
 Howe examined nature, and he seems certainly to 
 have found, in the case of these two children, that, 
 as you say, " the entire perceptive power is within 
 the brain ;" and that the senses are only ordinary 
 conditions, which may be dispensed with, if the 
 brain organ can be reached by another avenue. I 
 wish this medley of legal definitions and meta- 
 physical assumptions could be exposed with us, as 
 this Report exposes it in the United States. It is a 
 very serious matter that the legal descriptions of 
 imbeciles should be such as will not stand for a 
 moment against objections : and I have no doubt we 
 shall soon hear of the Legislatm'e of Massachusetts 
 having brought up their law (in this department) 
 to the level of such science as we have, declaring 
 
92 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 what kind and degree of deficiency renders a man 
 incapable of ci\dl functions, and a fit object for the 
 protection of the State, from his inability to take care 
 of himself, without insisting on his being unable to 
 count, or to learn his letters, or to tell his own age. 
 Next we come to the endless classifications, by the 
 doctors, of mental diseases. Considering, after the 
 philosophers, the mind to be a unit, they take its 
 morbid manifestations for so many essential varieties 
 of disease ; and here we have, accordingly, a great 
 array of genera, species, and varieties, — much as if 
 we were to set to work to classify the changes on a 
 peal of bells, and conclude each change to notify the 
 bringing to bear of some new influence upon the 
 peal. Then we have the disputes and hair-splittings 
 about Instinct and Reason, and the difficulties which 
 arise from the supposition of Man having an ethereal 
 or immaterial soul ; in the face of all possible evi- 
 dence that he is occasionally as truly moved by 
 Instinct* as the trout, or the bee, or the beaver. After 
 all this, I need hardly say that Dr. Howe is a phre- 
 nologist. He could not conduct his inquiry avow- 
 edly on the principles of that science, or base his 
 report on results so obtained. He was evidently not 
 free to do so ; but it matters little : for he could 
 hardly have done more for the science, or perhaps 
 the science for his object, than we see in the volume 
 he has given us. To me it seems that he is not yet 
 so sound as he might be. He encumbers himself 
 with the unphilosophical notion of an ulterior Spirit 
 * Appendix D. 
 
DR. HOWE'S REPORT ON IDIOCY. 93 
 
 or Soul which uses the hrain as its " instrument ;'' 
 even while he points out the en-ors that have arisen 
 from " considering the mind a unit^ and not admit- 
 ting the plurality and independence of its faculties." 
 But, though it seems to us that he might take a 
 clearer and higher position than he does, his supe- 
 riority to the doctors, metaphysicians, and lawyers, 
 that have gone over the ground before him, is really 
 exhilarating to behold : and this superiority mani- 
 fests itself (among other ways) by a simple method 
 of statement, whose quietness is, in itself, irony. 
 As here — ^^ In a few instances," (among the alms- 
 houses of Massachusetts,) " men of strong natural 
 sense and of humanity, reflecting that idiots of the 
 lowest grade do not differ materially in intelligence 
 from the higher animals, have ceased to blame or 
 punish them, for waywardness or misbehaviour, any 
 more than they would punish animals for the like 
 causes ; and they have substituted kindness of treat- 
 ment and constant employment for the old modes of 
 punishment and confinement." A quiet introduction 
 of necessarian discipline, is it not ? As I seem to 
 have set in for a rambling letter, I must tell you one 
 anecdote out of this Report w^hich appears to me 
 charming. One poor idiot who had, as will be seen, 
 several faculties in w^orking order, but no " sense," 
 as we should say, and some vexatious habits, was 
 punished for his misbehaviour, from his infancy 
 upwards. The floggings and railings naturally 
 roused violence in him ; and by degrees, one after 
 another of the household became unable to cope with 
 
94 MAN'S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 him in physical force^ till the father was the only 
 person strong enough to drub him ; and to him it 
 was becoming hard exercise. The poor fellow imi- 
 tated what he saw, and inflicted what he experienced. 
 He broke the cow's leg with an axe_, and smashed 
 the farming tools, when they would not do what he 
 liked. One blessed evening, a member of the Peace 
 Society was visiting at the house, and saw the drub- 
 bing, and the father's difficulty in accomplishing it. 
 He advised other methods, and persuaded the family 
 to inflict a new punishment, as punish they would. 
 The poor creature was rebuked, sho^vn that, if he 
 misbehaved, he should have only bread and water 
 for his supper, and should lie on the floor on a little 
 straw. He was not very slow in learning thus much. 
 The next time the cow offended him, he remonstrated 
 gravely with her, led her into the yard, got a crust 
 of bread and some water, and spread a little straw on 
 the bare ground. Another day, he hurt his foot 
 with a rake in the field ; and he proceeded as he 
 had done ^ith the cow. After being duly scolded, 
 the rake was laid on a handful of straw, with a crust 
 of bread and mug of water beside it. The last 
 report of the poor fellow is, ^^ he is growing less 
 violent, and more manageable every day.'' 
 
 All this time, I have said nothing of your last 
 letter. Do not suppose, from this, that I am care- 
 less of it. It gives me a new notion, and glimmer- 
 ing of insight into phrenology, at the point to which 
 you have brought it. Order seems to arise out of the 
 allocation of the faculties ; order, which was, above 
 
• DR. HOWE'S REPORT ON IDIOCY, 95 
 
 every thing,, wanting before. The subjective and 
 objective exercise of certain faculties^ thus curiously 
 provided for : the double operation, where a hasty 
 observer would conceive of no duplicate : the dis- 
 covery of the Intuitive faculty, the sense of the 
 mind : the discovery that conscientiousness is a 
 group or series of three instead of a single faculty, — 
 these and others of your statements are profoundly 
 impressive, as it seems to me. Almost too much so 
 for satisfaction, when we begin to see dimly what 
 obstructions of ignorance we have to work through. 
 It may be that men will have to amend the specifi- 
 cations of these faculties as they advance in the 
 examination of them : but it is far more clear that 
 they will have to rectify their methods of analysis, — 
 to set out on a new track in their study of Mind 
 and Morals, and of much of external Nature. The 
 old field of (so-called) knowledge seems to melt 
 away when we look into this new and tangible exhi- 
 bition of the powers of Man : and in its stead 
 spreads out a great unexplored region, with little in 
 it clearly visible but the roads which are beginning 
 to penetrate it here and there. We are passing out 
 from the phantasmagoria to the dawn, where all is yet 
 shadowy and solemn, but wherein the chief points 
 are fixed, and we are sure of the East by the light 
 that is in it. I am glad you have not stopped to 
 define while making your sketch : but I hope your 
 entire view of the provinces and relations of the 
 faculties will come out, in the course of our survey. 
 As far as I see, the system you indicate does indeed. 
 
96 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT.^ 
 
 as you say, " present a most remarkable show of 
 consistent relations/^ 
 
 Do you continue disposed to go on next to the 
 evidences derivable from deficient senses and defective 
 or impaii'cd organs ? Dr. Howe is strong upon the 
 point that our only effectual knowledge of structure 
 and function is had from observation of disease or 
 deficiency. The exclusive study of the healthy and 
 perfect may go on for centuries comparatively 
 without result. 
 
 XII. 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 Man appearing to be the highest development of 
 nature, and his mind being evolved from this de- 
 velopment, — a glimmering light in the midst of 
 infinite darkness, nevertheless in its inter-relations 
 presenting, as far as it goes, a true impress of what 
 is, (and, if not true in relation to the universe and 
 to absolute truth, at least true in relation to Man, 
 and as a corresponding harmony, which is all that 
 we need desire,) — it is reasonable to suppose that 
 Man in his completed growth would possess as many 
 channels of sense as there are different characteristics 
 in external nature and his owti body, or distinct 
 
THE SEXSES AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 97 
 
 energies or emotions arising from such conditions. 
 But possibly Man has not yet arrived at his fullest 
 development; and some of his powers or sense 
 channels may be still more or less in a state of par- 
 tial growth^ or dormant. The entire body may be 
 considered as the organ of sense ; eye, nose, mouth, 
 ear, skin, flesh, bones, muscles, &c. ; or rather, the 
 nerves and nervous condition ramifying and filling, 
 as it were, all parts of the body. Even the brain 
 itself is an organ of sense, as well as being the centre 
 at which all sense impressions arrive, and from which 
 all sensations are evolved. The elementary outward 
 senses are said to be from Light, Sound, Taste, Smell, 
 and Feeling. But under the term Feeling we lump 
 together several distinct faculties, — such as touch, 
 sense of temperature, sense of pleasure and pain, and 
 the muscular sensations. Sight may be said to be the 
 most spiritual sense ; and then hearing ; while smell 
 and taste may be almost classed w^ith the feelings. 
 
 By the sense of sight we perceive colours, and 
 light and shade ; and through this, objects, forms, 
 spaces, localities, arrangement, number, surface, con- 
 struction, motion, events, resemblance, natural lan- 
 guage, and signs visible. By the ear we perceive 
 simple sounds or noise, tones and harmony ; and we 
 perceive also, or, as some would say, judge of, the 
 distance, locaUty and quality of objects ; and, by the 
 voice, indicate our meanings and conditions, by natu- 
 ral expressions, or by artificial language, or sounds 
 corresponding with nature, gesture, and artificial 
 signs visible. The Muscular sense relates to the 
 
 F 
 
98 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 health and energy^ passive or active^ of the muscular 
 system, or of any part of this_, and recognizes fatigue 
 and lassitude. In this sense we may include the 
 sense of action and position : and from the recogni- 
 tion of force by the muscles arises the sense of Weight, 
 by which we become aware of the force of gravity 
 in our own bodies, and in external objects. The 
 sense of Temperature must surely be considered dis- 
 tinct from the Muscular sense ; and so also that of 
 Touch, by which we recognize surface and forms. 
 And so also the sense of pleasure and pain. The tic and 
 the toothache are certainly no more touch or muscu- 
 lar sense than is taste or smell. The sexual sense 
 may be considered a division of the sense of pleasure, 
 or that faculty which, for distinction's sake, has been 
 teiTKcd Common Sensation. We must note all the 
 different characters of this sense ; nervous pain, — or 
 pain from diseased parts, or deranged functions, and 
 irregular action ; the pain from a cut, from a bruise, 
 a burn, tickling, &c. Now, for instance, it is re- 
 markable that the convolutions of the brain, though 
 not sensible of mechanical injury, are sensible of 
 diseased condition, and sympathize with the condition 
 of other parts, — of the stomach, for instance, and 
 experience great pain which is not felt in the diseased 
 parts. Thus, the pain from mechanical injury and 
 from deranged condition must be distinct ; — for in- 
 stance, the toothache and the drawing of the tooth. 
 We have aches and acute pains ; local and general 
 sensations. A pain from external injury would, as 
 relating to matter out of the body, have more to do 
 
THE SENSES AXD NERVOUS SYSTEM. 99 
 
 with the faculties of the anterior lobe, situated between 
 Weight and Constructiveness, where is the group of 
 organs relating to manipulations, and adjustment of 
 the muscular movements to an end. We have also 
 the burning sense of fever and chill, with other modi- 
 fications, besides what sense we may have of electric, 
 magnetic, or chemical conditions, and other higher 
 matters. Thus the senses, or distinct channels of 
 sense that we must recognize, are Sight, Hearing, 
 Taste, Smell, Touch, the IVIuscular sense. Tempera- 
 ture, and the class which compose what we call 
 Common Sensation; — making eight in all: and if 
 we include, as we ought, a ]\Iagnetic sense, we shall 
 reckon nine. Now, all these senses may exist sepa- 
 rately, or in various combinations, in deficiency or 
 excess ; as it is with the organs of the brain, which 
 together constitute the diversity of character ; and 
 differences suited for all situations, with the two 
 extremes of idiocy on the one side, and genius on 
 the other. 
 
 In the deficiency or excess of some perceptions, it 
 is often difficult to say whether it is the sense condi- 
 tion or the brain that is in fault. It becomes im- 
 portant, again, to consider how the exaltation and 
 use of one faculty depresses others; and how the 
 depression of one faculty will exalt others, or give 
 them a more sustained force, or new du'cction and 
 power. We know now by numerous instances of 
 casts taken at different periods of life, that any organ 
 or organs of the brain by use will increase, and by 
 inactivity decrease, just as it is with the muscles ; 
 f2 
 
100 man's nature and development. 
 
 but to a greater extent. Thus we have the means of 
 actually remodelling a man^s brain^ as well as of 
 destroying habits^ and giving knowledge, and new 
 direction to the faculties. This sounds very hopeful. 
 But why so ? Because we have searched into fun- 
 damental and material causes_, and have perceived 
 (within a certain range) the conditions* and laws 
 which determine our thoughts and actions. Without 
 determining lawsf there could be no hope, and no 
 regenerating principle ; and all teaching, preaching, 
 and training, would be useless. 
 
 We will now consider a few of those facts which 
 occur to me as throwing light upon the nature of 
 the senses. And first, let us look at that strange 
 little animal, the Bat, — that twin oddity with the 
 Ornithorhynchus : for it seems that we shall find most 
 light amidst what is strange, unusual, and eccentric ; 
 — amidst all that deviates from the balance and 
 ordinary form of nature. We shall no longer be 
 entangled by the cobwebs of learning which men 
 spin out from their own thoughts, J working under the 
 
 * " Man, the servant and interpreter of Nature, does and- 
 understands as much as he shall really or mentally observe 
 of the order of nature ; himself, meanwhile, enclosed around 
 by the order of nature." — Bacon, Conditions of Man. 
 
 t Appendix E. 
 
 X " When any one prepares himself for discovery, he first 
 enquires and obtains a full account of all that has been said 
 on the subject by others, then adds his own reflections, and 
 stirs up and, as it were, invokes his own spirit, after much 
 mental labour to disclose its oracles. All which is a method 
 without foundation, and merely turns on opinion." — Bacon, 
 Nov. Org., /Iph. 82. 
 
THE SENSES AXD NERVOUS SYSTEM. 101 
 
 lamp. The philosopher must be seen* in dissecting- 
 rooms^ and museums, and menageries, in hospitals 
 and lunatic asylums, and prisons. But on that, I 
 believe, we are agreed. You remember, perhaps, 
 that Spallanzani extracted the eyes of bats, and 
 covered the empty sockets with leather, and that, 
 nevertheless, these animals continued, in their flight, 
 to avoid every obstacle ; and would pass in and out 
 through small openings, and amidst wires, with the 
 nicest precision. It is stated in a note to the Eng- 
 lish translation of Blumenbach, that, the same hap- 
 pened when the eyes, ears and nose were all closed. 
 I may observe, besides, that bats are particularly 
 strong on the vving, and able to turn rapidly in 
 their evolutions, from the power which they have 
 over the management of their wing-s. They must, 
 therefore, possess great muscular power, and a nice 
 muscular or tactile sense ; and, accordingly, we find 
 the lateral portions of the cerebellum greatly de- 
 veloped : which is not the case in birds. The bat^s 
 wing is almost a hand as well as a wing. AVhere 
 animals are differently constituted, with the organs 
 of motion or power more central or otherwise, we 
 should expect to find a con-esponding position of the 
 muscular power, according to the rule which I ex- 
 plained in my last. We must remember that many 
 
 * "Hippocrates the famous physician lived a hundred and 
 four years, and approved and credited his own art by so long 
 a life as a man that completed learning and wisdom together, 
 very conversant in experience and observation, one that 
 hunted not after words or methods, but severed the very 
 nerves of science, and so propounded them." — Bacon. 
 
103 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 blind persons have possessed a similar power to 
 that of the blinded bat^ and are able to avoid 
 obstacles^ and to move among chairs and tables, 
 even in a strange apartment,, without touching them. 
 I had once a very remarkable patient, a somnambule, 
 who, with the eyes closed, could easily read any 
 writing I gave her. She read it from the top of her 
 head, or when placed on her hand, or, in fact, from 
 any part of her body : and it was to be noticed in this 
 case, that the more tightly you pressed upon her 
 eyes, the more clearly she could see : or she would 
 press upon them herself. Now, the ordinary re- 
 cipient of light is the eyes ; and of heat, the whole 
 surface : but light and heat are only differing con- 
 ditions of the same influence. It is not, therefore, 
 difficult to conceive that the closed eye sense might 
 produce a change on the recipient of heat, and thus 
 effect a new medium for itself. Or the sense of 
 light may be evolved from heat or magnetic con- 
 ditions, as Faraday^s experiments may show. This 
 lady, like many other somnambules and blind persons, 
 would walk and even run between objects placed 
 confusedly about the house and garden, without 
 ever stumbling, or falling against them. Her eyes 
 were always closed, and turned up and inwards. 
 The case was the same if the face was closely 
 covered. On one occasion she remained in the 
 sleep-waking state for three days and nights. This 
 w^as a young lady staying with my mother and 
 sisters ; and I may say, that no one, however scep- 
 tical, doubted clairvoyance after seeing this case. 
 
THE SENSES AND XERYOUS SYSTEM. 103 
 
 The clear e\idence and daylight facts were too strong 
 for scepticism itself. 
 
 Bacon seems strongly impressed with the fact 
 (for he repeats it several times) that ^'^in the re- 
 moving of cataracts of the eyes_, the little silver 
 needle wherewith the cataracts are removed^ even 
 when it moveth upon the pupil, within the coat of 
 the eye, is excellently seen.''' I may here obsene, 
 what a wrong conclusion has been drawn from those 
 cases in which sight has been given by an operation ; 
 as in the young man performed on by Cheselden. 
 The retina and optic nerve, and the cerebral organ 
 relating to the sense, would only gradually, by exer- 
 cise, obtain the physical health and practiced con- 
 dition necessary to the full and correct discharge of 
 the function. The relation vnih the great ganglia 
 of nervous supply in the brain, and with the cere- 
 bellum also, requires time to be fully established. 
 In Man, the senses gradually progress. First, is 
 Taste ; then Smell and Hearing ; and then Sight : 
 but the eye, when complete, has its own power, 
 without the education or existence of the other 
 senses, of judging or perceiving objects, — their size, 
 locality, and distance. The chick, and duckling, 
 and lamb, have the power of sight and motion almost 
 in a complete condition on first tumbling into the 
 world. No doubt, touch is a help to the eye, but 
 only when the eye is deceived by reflection and 
 refraction ; or if othei-wise imperfect. I have a 
 blind friend who sees in her sleep. She is a lady 
 about forty, of great intelligence — one of three 
 
104 ,MAN^S NATURE AND DE^TILOPMENT. 
 
 sisterSj all blind from birth. Among other pecu- 
 liarities^ this lady tells me that she always sees in 
 her sleep; — in her natural sleep. She has never 
 been mesmerized. This lady is so honourable_, so 
 benevolent^ and of such acknowledged excellent good 
 sense^ that all idea of her deceiving one is out of the 
 question ; and the fact of her seeing in her sleep has 
 long been known to her family. It may seem diffi- 
 cult to say how such a fact can be known ; but I 
 have elicited what is^ for my own part^ satisfactory to 
 me. She says that the perception she has in her 
 sleep is intense and clear^ and quite distinct from all 
 other impressions^ and ideas arising from them. She 
 has a sense of the chair, she says, from touch ; and 
 the idea of this sense : but her vision of form is 
 totally diiFerent from the touch impression, though 
 seeming to include it. She sees colours, and light and 
 dark; describes their effects, and the similitude of 
 those effects to musical sounds. She likens the 
 sparkling light to the brilliant music, and shade to 
 the graver sounds. She describes the distinction 
 between light and shade and colours, and the rela- 
 tion of light and dark to colours and forms and 
 feeling. She pictures the effect of light and shade 
 on objects, and describes the different qualities of 
 colours, and their harmony in relation to the feelings. 
 She sees the deep blue sky, the agreeable green of 
 the grass, the sparkling on the water, and the glare 
 of the white clouds, and simple light of the sun : 
 and this sense in all varieties is wholly distinct from 
 any other sense of perception she has when she is 
 
THE SENSES AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 105 
 
 awake. She sees distance and space in a broad 
 survey of a landscape at once^ so different from any 
 idea she could form from touch, and from moving 
 about. It seems to me clear that she has a new 
 sense opened to her in her sleep, which answers to 
 those eiFects and relations that we perceive in seeing, 
 and which is in fact Sight. But this is not all. 
 This lady is clairvoyante in other respects, and 
 frequently in her sleep perceives what is going on in 
 distant places; and she also foresees events. With 
 this fact her family are familiar ; and many striking 
 occurrenees have happened, precisely as she has fore- 
 seen them : and in such visions she perceives form.s 
 and colours such as no one covdd have guessed at, 
 such as the different colours of a person's dress : and 
 she is invariably found to be correct. Is not this case, 
 therefore, doubly conclusive ? If this lady could 
 have her eyesight given her, she could not only say 
 that red was different from green, but which was red 
 and which green : so that the boy in the celebrated 
 story related by Hobbes might not, after all, have 
 been an impostor. 
 
 There are persons who cannot distinguish colours, 
 though in other respects their eyesight is good. I 
 had a friend who could not tell red from green, and 
 therefore could not describe the relations and harmo- 
 nies of colours, as this blind lady can. It is im- 
 portant to note that impressions are made through 
 the senses which do not at the time influence, but 
 which remain latent, and afterwards become con- 
 scious perception. It is clear also that impressions 
 F 5 
 
106 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
 do emanate from all objects in the dark. "Witness 
 the experiments of Moser, wherein impressions of 
 objects are made on bright metal plates in complete 
 darkness; but^ like the latent perceptions, are not 
 seen on the plate until called forth by submitting 
 the plate to a new condition. Some persons do not 
 hear at all the sharp note of the grasshopper, whilst 
 others are equally insensible to the lowest tones of an 
 organ or piano ; and yet to each the perceptions of 
 intermediate sounds may be equally perfect. The 
 ear, like the eye, enables us to judge of distance and 
 locality ; but it is important to note that the mem- 
 brane of the tympanum, and the chain of bones of the 
 ear, may be lost without the heanng being destroyed. 
 It is a pretty simile, and a very ancient one, — that 
 which likens a man to a musical instrument, and the 
 mind to music. A harp or guitar in a room where 
 people are conversing will often mingle a note in the 
 conversation : and the note of one instiTiment sound- 
 ing will cause a response from a corresponding note 
 in another instrument. How similar is this to the sym- 
 pathy which may be induced, and which often sponta- 
 neously occurs in love, and otherwise between two 
 minds and bodies ! Petrarch absorbed the disease from 
 the eye of Laura by gazing upon her. Now, when 
 we observe such sympathy and respon dings to occur 
 throughout nature, we may see that it is not neces- 
 sary that impressions should run along the nerves 
 into the brain ; and we may the better conceive how 
 each sense, like the strings of a guitar, responds to 
 that motion of which it is the parallel, and the brain 
 
THE SENSES AXD NERVOUS SYSTEM. 107 
 
 organ again to this. Indeed, it is difficult, I should say 
 impossible, to conceive how all the variety of differ- 
 ences in form, position, colour, &c., which we 
 receive in one perception, could run through a neiTe. 
 Yet we know what a multitude of motions, so to 
 speak, occur in one medium at one time. The ray 
 or energy from every object, and eveiy part and 
 point of such object, with all the differences in 
 colour, light and shade, &c., must exist at the same 
 instant in eveiy point of space within their influence. 
 Light, heat, coloui-s in all shades and varieties,, 
 smells, magnetic virtues, — all these together can 
 hang in the air, and all in each point of the space at 
 the same time, and without disturbing sounds which 
 exist in the same way, and in the same places. The 
 marvel of this makes clairvoyance seem simple and 
 natural, — a common affair. The different senses 
 seem to pick out, or be influenced each by its class 
 of motions : they seem essential for life and practice, 
 and to prevent confusion and excess, but certainly 
 not to be necessary conditions of perception. 
 
 I have myself been aware of a sense like that 
 which has been instanced above. At one time, I 
 had a singular perception or consciousness, when 
 approaching my door at night, of letters lying on 
 my table, which had come during my absence. I 
 perceived their number, sizes, general import, and 
 from whom they were. This was no fancy of mine ; 
 for I long doubted whether it were anything more 
 than guessing and coincidence : but then, the per- 
 ception or sight of them was different from the 
 
108 man's nature and development. 
 
 image we form in the mere idea of things. At 
 length, one evening, I saw very distinctly, when a 
 few steps from my door, two letters on my table ; 
 and from the same person. Now, I thought, this 
 will show me that these perceptions are crude 
 fancies ; for I had received a letter from the same 
 person the day before ; and it was out of all proba- 
 bility that there should be two more letters the next 
 day from the same person, by the same post. On 
 entering the room, there were the two letters, sure 
 enough, and lying precisely as I had seen them : 
 and I must say it made me start ; for this I could 
 not suppose to be a coincidence. — Again, to give you 
 another piece of my experience, in relation to the 
 sympathetic qualities of the human frame, — I told 
 you, I think, of the sense of pain which I had in my 
 hand when I had been removing severe pain by 
 mesmerism. The patient would shrink from me, as 
 from an infected person ; or, if I accidentally touched 
 such patients, my hand would burn them, as they 
 said, with pain, until I had washed my hands. 
 I have thus taken a pain from one part, held it in 
 my hand, as it were, and then planted it in another 
 part of the patient, and it has gone out from me. 
 And, as I have healed others without their know- 
 ledge, so have I found the power taken out of me 
 by one requiring it, without my will or knowledge. 
 On holding letters from my patients, I have felt 
 pain or other sensations in my hands, and have thus 
 been enabled to judge of the condition of my 
 patient. This may seem incredible to some : but so 
 
THE SENSES AXD NERVOUS SYSTEM. 109 
 
 it has been. On one occasion^ I was demesmerizing 
 a patient ; and the influence seemed to pass into a 
 lady standing close by. The patient woke ; but 
 the other ran screaming away^ like one possessed ; 
 and I thought of the devils cast into the herd of 
 swine. 
 
 AYhen considering the senses, we must not forget 
 the sensitive plant, and how the state induced is 
 communicated from leaf to leaf; and how much 
 occurs in the animal economy from mere irritability, 
 and the association of parts, by which combined 
 actions are induced to an end, without consciousness 
 or conscious will. Phrenologists consider Conscious- 
 ness to be evolved in the action of every organ, and 
 to be a necessary condition of such action. But 
 this is a mistake, not only as regards actions in the 
 body, but as regards the brain and mind. The 
 calculating boy Bidder was wholly unconscious of 
 the process or steps by which he arrived at his 
 results j nor as yet have we had a somnambule who 
 can tell how he foresees events. iVll that such seers 
 can say is that it is so, or that they are told so, or 
 '^ it^^ tells them so ; or the " voice^^ tells them so. 
 And this opens a very important question in regard 
 to this apparent second self, embodying the intuitive 
 and unconscious higher condition. This voice and 
 oracle of the mind is personified, and called a spirit 
 or demon. It is called a possession ; and out of 
 it are evolved visions, revelations and religions. 
 Socrates had his attendant spirit ; and most original 
 and great thinkers have, in one form or another. 
 
110 man's nature and DEVELOPIMENT. 
 
 this intuitive faculty developed. Swedenborg is a 
 great example. He was a great clairvoyant ; but, in 
 consequence of overwork as 1 suppose, from the 
 sublime he slid into the ridiculous ; from the normal 
 into the abnormal state ; from the genius into the 
 madman. At any rate, he accepted his visions for 
 realities j and sense and di\ination mingled strange 
 matter together. He thought he saw the spirits of 
 the dead, and he embodied the properties of things. 
 He saw his sins fall out from him in the forms of 
 reptiles crawling on the ground : and the principles 
 of nature, the universal cause, the God, appeared to 
 him, and spoke to him, in the form of an aged man. 
 Consciousness and reason seem to hold a middle 
 range, between mere energy of the senses and the 
 higher sense, — of divination : for eveiy faculty of 
 the mind is but a sense or instinct. In the trance, 
 when the outer conditions of sense are dormant, 
 this inner condition often becomes more highly 
 developed, and appears to take the place of the 
 outer senses ; and we attain knowledge at first hand, 
 as it were, and stand closer to the law and principle 
 of things. But you seldom find this state pure and 
 without the alloy of common impressions and di-eam- 
 ing. ,The intuitive state throws genius into our ordi- 
 nary faculties; but our ordinary conditions often 
 damage and confuse the intuitive sense: but some clair- 
 voyants can analyze or perceive the limits and distinc- 
 tions between the false impressions and true sight. 
 But we are ascending too high. I saw a lady yesterday, 
 who is unacquainted with phrenology and with my 
 
THE SENSES AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. Ill 
 
 views, and who had had headache for the last week, 
 accompanied by slight insensibility of the arm, on the 
 same side as the headache. At one time, when she 
 used to suffer from these headaches, the arm was almost 
 insensible, and partly paralyzed. The pain is in the 
 cerebellum, at the top, and nearer to the centre than 
 the muscular power. You can cover the spot with 
 your finger. It is also in the front lobe, behind the 
 eye, in those perceptive powers relating to the bodily 
 sensations which I have refeiTed to. The pains never 
 shift to the other side of the brain, or influence the 
 other side of the body. The pain in the cerebellum 
 is a duller pain or ache than that which is in front. 
 These headaches are not bilious ; or the pain would 
 extend to the gustative organs in front of the 
 Destructive faculty. This lady has long been subject 
 to these headaches, and medical men have tried their 
 utmost to relieve them ; but now they desist, and 
 declare they can do nothing, and do not understand 
 them. But a little mesmeric sleep, and treatment for 
 half an hour, removes the e\al ; and it does not recur 
 for weeks or months. This lady related to me an 
 interesting fact also concerning the double nature of 
 om* faculties ; — that she could not get to sleep for a 
 long time the night before, on account of two noises 
 going on in her brain in different parts. She said 
 that one was a sharper sound, and she pointed out 
 the situation to me; and the other was a dull sound, 
 in the position which I have noted as the organ of 
 sound, — a faculty close upon the apparatus, or bony 
 compartment of the ear. These sounds followed 
 
112 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 each other, beat after beat, and probably had to do 
 with the pulsation. Of course, when there is any 
 lost sense, we must examine the head. In you, for 
 instance, I observe a most decided depression at the 
 organ of taste, whilst the perceptive faculties, re- 
 lating to visual impressions, ranging over the eyes, 
 are strikingly prominent. What a contrast with so 
 many who are blind ! 
 
 I met with a curious instance lately of a fact 
 well known, but always instructive in regard to the 
 force of our absorbing or receptive power. A friend^s 
 gardener, after taking a few pinches of flour of sul- 
 phur, to sprinkle over a plant, and cleansing his 
 hands immediately afterwards, found how subtle was 
 its influence through the system, and out again from 
 his body, and through his clothes, so that the money 
 in his pocket, and other metal about him, became 
 tarnished. What is there now more subtle and won- 
 derful in mesmeric action than this ? Here the 
 system receives a general influence which, though 
 unfelt by the individual, is potent in its effects. 
 Other substances wall produce similar effects. I know 
 a case of a lady who could not touch the brass knobs 
 of her doors for some weeks, from their producing 
 pain, and partly paralyzing the arm : and of another 
 lady who was differently affected by the approach of 
 various metals, and other substances. Medicines 
 rubbed on her skin would produce precisely the same 
 effects as if she had swallowed them. I know a 
 whole family who are disagreeably affected by the 
 near approach of iron. Some are aware of the pre- 
 
THE SENSES AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 113 
 
 sence of a cat, by a sensation experienced wdthout 
 seeing the animal. 
 
 From these instances^ we may better comprehend 
 the effects of minute triturated Homoeopathic par- 
 ticles dissolved upon the tongue, — and especially 
 when the system is in a particular condition in rela- 
 tion to any particular substance. One globule has 
 caused me to have, in half an hour, a most intense 
 headache. The trituration of the medicines pro- 
 bably gives them more force, and a new power to 
 act. I have had patients mesmerized, who would 
 be insensible even to the loss of a limb, who would 
 yet be moved to convulsive laughter by the approach 
 of a piece of silver ; and again, the laughter would 
 be instantly stopped by the approach of a piece of 
 steel to the part influenced by the silver. One metal 
 will generally relieve the influence of another; and 
 then, if continued, will produce its own effect ; — a 
 pretty exhibition of the Homoeopathic law ! 
 
 Light destroys light, but does not interfere with 
 sounds ; so likewise, in the animal system, two simi- 
 lar conditions cannot exist together : but that which 
 produces the same condition would increase the 
 disease, or bring it to a crisis, and so carry it off. 
 And by mesmerism or otherwise, I think a state of 
 disease in one person may be made to destroy a 
 similar condition in another person. 
 
 The difficulty I see in mesmerism is, that the same 
 medicine does not produce the same effect on dif- 
 ferent constitutions, or at different times : or a medi- 
 cine may be useful only when succeeding in a parti- 
 
114 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 cular order. But a somnambule judges by an instinct 
 of the peculiar condition and constitution of the 
 indi\'idual submitted ; and thus measures the precise 
 wants of the case. Some somnambules and other 
 sensitive persons can perceive most dehcate influ- 
 ences from metals^ crystals, &c., as Baron Reichen- 
 bacVs experiments* abundantly show us. They also 
 perceive light emanating from certain substances, 
 and from the ends of the mesmerizer's fingers, or 
 thrown off in flashes in the air. I had a patient who 
 could see different coloured lights, in a twisted fonn, 
 from my drawing out (to use the technical term) 
 from parts affected with different characters of dis- 
 ease; and would always see my face shining with 
 light, like phosphorus ; and would notice how bright 
 or dark I looked, according to the state of health 
 and force I was in. Somnambules often see through 
 into themselves, as if they were all on fire, and per- 
 ceive light emanating from the top of the head, or 
 from any faculty in action : and more so under par- 
 ticular conditions of health. We must note cases of 
 spontaneous combustion ; and those of persons who 
 cast off an influence which causes motion in surround- 
 ing objects. We all know that sparks come from 
 the hair and clothes of some persons more readily 
 than others. After I have been mesmerizing in cold 
 weather, the shaking of my flannel waistcoat will 
 throw out sparks by which I can see the time by my 
 
 • Reiclienbach's " Researches on Magnetism, &c., in their 
 relations to the Vital Force," translated by Professor Gre- 
 gory. 1850. 
 
THE SENSES AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 115 
 
 watch. A somnambule may be quite insensible to 
 injmy in his own person ; and yet^ if you cause pain 
 to his mesmerizer, he will instantly feel the same in 
 himself in the same part ; though^ in some instances, 
 there is no more than a knowledge of the pain 
 existing in his mesmerizer^ and an anxiety and dis- 
 comfort on his account. And the same in regard to 
 other sensations. 
 
 In considering all the facts in relation to the sym- 
 pathies and antipathies between individuals^ or the 
 influences of one organized body upon another, we 
 must not omit those important experiments of Mat- 
 teucci^s, by which it is clearly demonstrated that 
 contractions are induced in the leg of a dead frog, 
 even when severed from the body, by the excitement 
 of another frog^s leg close by: and Matteucci 
 shows to demonstration that the induced contraction 
 exists through an insulating layer, capable of inter- 
 cepting not only the proper or muscular currents, 
 but even tliat of the pile which excited the induced 
 contraction. Induced contraction is then, he says, 
 a phenomenon of induction of that unknown force 
 which circulates in the nerves, and produces muscu- 
 lar contraction. It is transmitted through certain 
 insulating substances, such as turpentine, oil, &c., 
 but not through very thin plates of mica. He shows 
 also that though electricity, heat, light, &c., are 
 evolved by the muscular action, there is no evidence 
 of electricity, or of an electric current in the nerves. 
 The laws of the propagation of electricity require 
 
116 man's natijre and development. 
 
 conditions which are not found in the nervous system. 
 The propagation of the nervous force is interrupted 
 by causes which would not produce a similar effect 
 upon the electric current. Matteucci considers the 
 nervous force to be due to '^ movements in the equi- 
 librium of the ether distributed in the nerves -.'' and 
 that there exists an analogy between light, heat, 
 electricity, and the nervous force ; and that^he ner- 
 vous force is capable of being transformed into elec- 
 tricity, under the influence of a peculiar structure 
 of organs;) as exemplified in the muscular actions, 
 and the influence evolved by electric fishes. But 
 the whole of Matteucci^s account must be studied, 
 to give a due appreciation of all the beauty and 
 importance of these experiments. 
 
 Even more interesting than these, is the issue of a 
 series of experiments which have of late engaged the 
 attention of the venerable philosopher, Humboldt. 
 " Occupied myself,^^ he says* in a letter to Arago, 
 " for more than half a century in this class of phy- 
 siological researches, the discovery which I have 
 announced has for me a vital interest. It is a pheno- 
 menon of Life, rendered sensible by a physical instru- 
 ment.^^ In his Annals of Chemistry for June 1849, 
 Liebig relates a method by which unquestionable 
 results, bearing upon this discovery, were obtained. 
 In order to cause a variation of the magnetic needle, 
 sixteen persons held each other^s moistened hands, 
 and simultaneously contracted their right arms ; and 
 
 * Humboldt's First Letter to Ara^o. 1850. 
 
THE SENSES AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 117 
 
 then simultaneously their left ; thus fonning a cir- 
 cuit of strong electro-motive power. The effect on 
 the needle was manifest ; and opposite, according as 
 the right or the left arm was contracted. The deflec- 
 tion reached 12°, any accidental influences being 
 overborne by the intensity of the current. The aged 
 Humboldt was not satisfied without effecting this 
 result by his own volition. " Notwithstanding my 
 advanced years," he says, " and the little strength I 
 have in my arms, the deflections of the needle were 
 very considerable : but they were naturally more so 
 when the experiment was performed by M. J. Miiller, 
 or by M. Helmkoltz, who are younger men," He 
 says that " the fact is established beyond all question 
 of doubt." — What can be more interesting than such 
 a discoveiy as this ? and what more serious and solemn 
 than the indications it yields of new regions of dis- 
 covery in regard to the essential relations of mind 
 and matter ? 
 
 But I am extending my notes too far, and must 
 end. I will only advert to the common sense of 
 pain so often experienced from a change of weather. 
 I have a friend who is quite a barometer, and speaks 
 with certainty of change in the w^eather many hours 
 before it occurs. 
 
 Thus I have noted down a few instances w^hich 
 occur to me as matter which may interest you, and 
 as an example of what I think we should collect 
 together in an orderly way, as a true mode of attain- 
 ing a knowledge of the senses in particular, and the 
 nervous system in general. Men separate the sciences 
 
118 
 
 too mucli.* We must study them in connection^ if we 
 would attain to just views,, and general laws, and re- 
 cognize the philosophy of Man in universal nature. 
 
 XIII. 
 H.MtoH.G.A. 
 
 Some parts of this last letter of yours please me 
 greatly, and set one collecting one's experiences and 
 old speculations under the new classifications in a 
 way I enjoy. You must know I was a devout 
 student of Hartley, all my youth through; and a 
 chnging heliever in him for long after I had passed 
 my youth. It is astonishing to me now that I could 
 admit without question his supposition that Man has 
 two primary powers which are enough to account for 
 everything ; the capacity for pleasure and pain, and 
 the principle of association. He does not even seem 
 to think of the desire of pleasure and the fear of 
 pain, which surely do not come under either of his 
 
 * " If all which I have mentioned is not yet accomplished, 
 it is because, neglecting the useful example of the ancient 
 sages of Greece, men have separated from each other too 
 far physiology, medicine, education, morals and legislation, 
 instead of appreciating their natural relations ; and still 
 more, because there are few philosophical physician*, who 
 can embrace the whole extent of their sphere of activity, and 
 elevate themselves to the full dignity of their rank." — Gall. 
 
ILLrSTRATIVE COMMENT. 119 
 
 two heads. It is the exquisite morale of the man, 
 his heavenly temper and holy conscientiousness, which 
 lead one away to think as he thinks, and feel as he 
 feels. — All the while, I was despising the Scotch 
 metaphysicians — as I still think they deserve — for 
 classifying and illustrating interminably, ^^-ithout 
 having ascertained any basis whatever. Hartley had 
 a grasp of something, however inadequate : they, of 
 nothing, — unless, indeed, it were a clumsy method of 
 declaring that Man has intuitions. — In the midst of 
 all this, — in the midst of exhibitions of a sort of 
 compartments of an immaterial Mind, called respec- 
 tively Memory, Imagination, Judgment, and so on, 
 stood out before me suddenly Dr. Thomas Brown^s 
 discoveiy of the Muscular Sense, — a curious piece of 
 reality amidst a symmetrical aiTay of suppositions ! 
 After this, one could never more be satisfied to lump 
 together, under the name of one sense, things so dif- 
 ferent as perceptions of temperature, resistance, mus- 
 cular ease or ache, and acute physical pain or pleasure, 
 sensations of touch, &c. Now that we are released 
 from the magical number five, in regard to the 
 senses, we are free to recognize things as they are, — 
 to number our faculties, and to enlarge the number, 
 if occasion should arise, by the development of new, 
 — that is, hitherto unkno^Mi — faculties, which bear a 
 relation to external things. 
 
 It is really vexatious that I cannot convey to you, 
 or any one, what I think I have reason to rely on 
 about this ; — the existence of some faculty or facul- 
 ties by v/hich things can be known or conceived of 
 
120 man's nature and development. 
 
 apart from all aid whatever from the senses which 
 usually co-operate in the presentment of ideas. 
 You know that I preserve some distinct recollections, 
 on awaking from the mesmeric trance^ of the ideas 
 presented in that state. Well : twice at least I have 
 perceived matters so abstract as to owe no elements 
 whatever (as far as I could discover) to the ordinary 
 senses. For instance, — I believe there are no persons 
 (not blind) who have any ideas whatever with which 
 visual impressions are not more or less implicated. 
 I have asked everybody, for many years, — everybody 
 whom I thought capable of the requisite conscious- 
 ness and analysis ; and they all tell me that there is 
 nothing so abstract but that they entertain some 
 image inseparably connected with the thought. The 
 days of the week, — the virtues and ^dces, — numbei's, 
 — geometrical truths, — even God, — all these have 
 some visual appearance, under which they present 
 themselves, — ^be it only their printed names. I have 
 not had the opportunity of questioning the blind 
 (from birth) about this : but I am assured by some 
 who have, that they have the same experience derived 
 from the other senses than that in which they are 
 deficient. Now, in certain depths of the mesmeric 
 state, I have received knowledge, or formed concep- 
 tions, devoid of all perceptible intermixture with sen- 
 sible impressions. Of course, I cannot explain what 
 they were, because they could be communicated only 
 to a person in a similar state ; and not by ordinary 
 language at all. They have since (during five years) 
 been gathering to themselves more and more visual 
 
ILir STEATITE COMMENT. 121 
 
 elements ; so that the experience remains only an 
 affair of memoiy. But it is one which assuredly I 
 can never forget. There is no pleasure that I would 
 not forego to experience it again and often ; — the 
 conscious exercise of a new facultJ^ I wonder 
 whether you saw (as I did) lately, in a newspaper, 
 an account of "Wordsworth^ s rapture in once being 
 able to smell a flower ; — the only time in his life that 
 the sense ever acted. I know what that is ; for 
 almost the same thing once happened to me : but it 
 is nothing to the other experience I spoke of. The 
 one occasions extreme and tumultuous amazement — 
 (the first experience of a new sensation) ; — a sort of 
 passionate delight, a conviction on the spot that we 
 are only groping in a universe where we think every- 
 thing ours till a new primitive sensation comes to 
 show us how far we are from comprehending* nature ; 
 and then, presently, we have had enough of it ; we 
 are tired of it, and turn to intellectual objects. You 
 may like to know how it happened with me. I had 
 not AVordsworth's good fortune, — to smell a flower. 
 I was not well that day ; — sat down to lunch with a 
 family who were dining early on a leg of mutton. 
 At the first mouthful of mutton, I poured out water 
 hastily, and drank, — so prodigious, — so strong and 
 so exquisite, — was the flavour. I went on eating 
 with amazement and extraordinary relish ; but I was 
 
 * " For Man's sense is falsely as'^erted to be the standard 
 of things. On the contrary, all the Perceptions, both of the 
 sense and of the mind, bear reference to ^Nlan, and not to 
 the universe." — Bacon, Nov. Org., Aph. 41. 
 G 
 
122 man's nature and development. 
 
 obliged to take water after eveiy mouthful. It 
 occurred to me to try if I could smell. There was a 
 bottle of Eau de Cologne on the mantelpiece. At 
 first, I could make nothing of it ; but after heating 
 it, I coidd smell it ; — not in the nose at all, — but a 
 little way do^Ti the throat. It must have been really 
 the scent ; for it was no more like the sensation from 
 taste than from colour or sound. I was presently 
 tired of it. But I was rather shocked to find myself 
 reckoning on my dinner, — a gi'eat, late dinner that I 
 was going to. I might have spared my anticipa- 
 tions ; for by that time, everything on my plate had 
 become as tasteless as ever. There was nothing like 
 this in the experience of the exercise of the new 
 faculty : — no surprise, — no tumult first, or disgust 
 afterwards. It was inexpressibly delightful, — both 
 the matter apprehended, and the power of appre- 
 hension. Nothing in the experience of my life can 
 at all compare with that of seeing the melting away 
 of the forms, aspects and arrangements under which 
 we ordinarily view nature, and its fusion into the 
 system of forces which is presented to the intellect 
 in the magnetic state. But there is no use in dwell- 
 ing on an experience which is, from its nature, in- 
 communicable. I have been led to speak of it now 
 by what you have written of our having eight or 
 nine or more senses, and of Man being yet probably 
 far from fully developed. 
 
 Did you ever see Dr. Verity's book, in which he 
 sets forth a theory and evidence that the physical 
 structure and functions of the human being change 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE CO^BIENT. 123 
 
 with new stages of his civilization ? Dr. Verity 
 thinks that our nei-vous system was really a different 
 thing a thousand years ago from what it is now ; that 
 either the structure itself has changed, or that 
 dormant powers have been brought into action. 
 This is curious : and so is the doctrine of an eminent 
 physician of my acquaintance, — that, the progression 
 of Man being the aim of Providence, that progres- 
 sion is provided for by the gift of a new endowment 
 from time to time ; the last and greatest gift being 
 that class of powers elicited by Mesmerism. Whether 
 these physicians hold the personal progression to be 
 cause or effect, they anticipate, as we do, further 
 development. My o\vn supposition is, that whatever 
 powers we have, have always been there : and that 
 what remains is for us to obtain control over them. 
 All history abounds with traces of the Natural 
 Magic which science shows, sooner or later, to be no 
 magic at all; that is, exactly as much of a miracle 
 as everything else is, and no more. Thus, we have 
 the daughter of Sesostris, who might be twin sister, 
 as to powers, with Joan of Arc ; and the cures of 
 disease by gods and priests in heathen temples ; and 
 heathen oracles, and prophecy everywhere ; and 
 witchcraft, and love-charms, and ghosts, and second- 
 sight; — all instances of the sympathy, and clair- 
 voyance and prevoyance with which we are now 
 familiar, and which science is tracing to their origin, 
 or abiding place, in the brain. Now, if we ever 
 obtain anything like the control over the intuitive 
 faculties which the wise mesmerizing phrenologist 
 G 2 
 
124 man's nature and development. 
 
 already holds over the moods and thoiig-lits of the 
 patients in a lunatic asylum^* how essentially changed 
 will be the conditions of human life ! All science is 
 changing the conditions of our life. See what 
 Geology of itself (a science younger than I am, I 
 believe) is doing ! But how much more important, 
 — how infinitely important in comparison, — must be 
 the operation on the human lot of an advancing 
 physiology ! Only conceive of the time when m^en 
 may at will have certain knowledge of things distant 
 and things future ! To expect this is merely reason- 
 able. We now obtain from somnambules, and from 
 persons whose intuitive faculty acts (as we should 
 say) spontaneously, (i. e. without the application of 
 Mesmerism,) fragmentary though indisputable know- 
 ledge of transactions chstant and future : and you 
 and others are tracing out the locality of this power 
 in the brain. You have found its locality ; and you 
 are collecting facts as to the conditions of its exercise. 
 If, as I believe, a similar scientific procedure never 
 yet failed to establish a power of control over the 
 agent which was its subject, we cannot suppose that 
 it will fail here. All influences seem to be tending to 
 the reduction of Fortuity in human life and afi*airs. 
 By this particular achievement, it may be well nigh 
 abolished. One is tempted to go into a speculation 
 upon what human life must or may be, on such 
 terms : but the subject is too prodigious. It may 
 be glorious to ponder in silence ; but it is almost too 
 great for discussion. For one thing, by the way, — 
 * Appendix F. 
 
ILLUSTRATIVE COMMEXT. 125 
 
 liow completely a matter of course will then be that 
 doctrine of Necessity,* which now appears so indis- 
 putable to you and me, but which one daily hears 
 contested with a shallowness of reasoning, and a 
 defiance of evidence, which make one wonder when 
 evidence will be received on moral, as it is on most 
 physical, questions ! 
 
 It seems to me that the most significant thing 
 you have ever written to me, — a thing as significant 
 as any one ever wrote to any body, — is that your 
 blind friend, — blind from birth, — has proved that 
 she sees in her sleep by having been actually ^;re- 
 voyante of visible incidents. If you can establish 
 this, — if proof, or sufficient testimony, of it can be 
 duly recorded during her lifetime, it surely will be 
 as vast a contribution to the science of Mind and of 
 Man as has ever been aff'orded by any age. Can this 
 be done? If not done already, will you not set 
 about it immediately ? You never in your life had 
 so important a thing to do, and most likely never 
 will again. Let us have proof that a person who 
 never saw by the eye has declared anything (not 
 coming within the range of a guess) which was hap- 
 pening at a distance, or which happened at a future 
 time, with incidents of colour or form belonging 
 thereto, and we have arrived at the greatest disco- 
 veiy ever made by accident or research. 
 
 I am thankful for what you tell me of your view 
 in regard to the experience of persons using a sense 
 for the first time, at a mature age, — as Cheselden^s 
 * Appendix G. 
 
126 man's nature and development. 
 
 patient and others. I might give you some illustra- 
 tions here, too, — illustrations of how the external 
 organ is a not indispensable apparatus for the 
 exercise of the sense ; but I am detaining you too 
 long. You are aware that when mesmerized, I, deaf 
 as I am, have occasionally heard otherwise than 
 through the ear, — as somnambules are seen to read 
 with the sole of the foot or the top of the forehead. 
 And I could give you more evidence of the same 
 kind unconnected with Mesmerism. But I have run 
 on too long : and I want you to proceed to tell me 
 what you think you know of the mutual action of 
 different parts of the brain ; by what laws, and in 
 what modes, action of one part excites action in 
 another; where the co-operation is constant, and 
 where (as we should say) fortuitous. For instance, 
 why it is that certain musical sounds and arrange- 
 ment of such sounds arouse various affections and 
 passions, — ^the same, at the same moment, in any 
 number of persons, — as when the iEolian harp wails, 
 and the war tones wake the spirit : and what you 
 make of the great fact of the Association of Ideas. 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 127 
 
 XIV. 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 I suppose that Hartley has been greatly over-esti- 
 mated, and that his philosophy was founded chiefly 
 on a rather supei'ficial generalization of Newton's 
 theory of vibrating media. I do not wonder at your 
 disrelish of the metaphysicians who have had no 
 basis of agreement. Mind was divided and parcelled 
 out into divisions or categories, by each wTiter as 
 his fancy suggested, every one differing from the 
 others, and each thinking himself most profound, 
 and as certain of his position as any sectarian is of 
 the e\ddence and principles of his particular faith. 
 You would find several distinct faculties included 
 under one term ; and then a simple faculty split into 
 several ; or a mode of action taken for a primitive 
 faculty. Thus ^lind was divided into imaginary 
 elements, just as Nature has been di\ided. Or you 
 would find men building all the laws of ^lind on 
 some one fact, such as the principle of iVssociation, — 
 just as the laws of Nature were supposed to be in- 
 cluded in the laws of Numbers. Thus ^lind was 
 fashioned into fanciful forms by the metaphysicians, 
 while the physiologists w^re, on the other hand, 
 slicing up the brain as they would a turnip, instead 
 of unfolding it, part from part, and nerve by nerve, 
 so as to trace out its intimate union, relations, and 
 
128 MAX'S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 true formation, and place in the scale of beings. 
 Men judged the mind through the deceptive, un- 
 even and varying mirror of their own idiosyncracy 
 and consciousness,* neglecting material causes, and 
 having no true method, or means of escaping any of 
 the fantastic notions which met them at every turn, 
 and stood out there like ghostly things prompting 
 only to deceive. It was Bacon who first set about 
 clearing the road, and showing what were the 
 dangers, and the helps required. But his admo- 
 2iitions have been neglected, and the consequence has 
 been a confusion of ideas, resulting, since his time, 
 in libraries filled with metaphysical works. Out of 
 the whole of these you cannot derive any exposition 
 of the means of founding a philosophy ; — a natural 
 philosophy, and true science of mind. Men have 
 been careless of the admonition of Bacon, who 
 declares in this striking passage, so fully confirmed, 
 that " that which we have often said must here be 
 specially repeated; namely, that if all the talents of 
 every age had concurred, or shall hereafter concur ; 
 if the whole human race had applied, or shall apply, 
 itself to philosophy ; and the whole globe had con- 
 sisted, or shall consist, of academies and colleges and 
 schools of the learned, yet, without such a natural 
 and experimental history as w^e shall now recom- 
 mend, it were impossible that any progress worthy 
 of mankind should have been, or should hereafter 
 be, made in philosophy and the sciences." But I 
 trust that however humble any of our individual 
 
 * Appendix H. 
 
PACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 129 
 
 efforts may be, we are now entering on a new era of 
 philosophy, which began with GalPs and BelPs dis- 
 coveries; and that we may reasonably anticipate 
 glorious results for the future. Far be it from me to 
 put myself for a moment into comparison with any 
 of the powerful thinkers and writers of this age, or 
 of any other age : but we are admonished that a 
 tortoise in the right way will beat a race-horse in the 
 wrong. My only hope is in being in the right way; 
 though it be a way trodden by few^, forbidden by 
 some, and opening to us a class of phenomena to be 
 at first discredited. But Time, which is the Mother 
 of Truth, will protect the truth in its infancy, until 
 it grows into manhood, and rules in its turn for 
 ever and ever. 
 
 I am glad you do not think that I have forced the 
 truth at all in separating the senses into so many 
 divisions. Each distinct class of impressions, having 
 a special relation, and being the result of a separate 
 nervous apparatus appropriate to a special organ or 
 organs in the brain, might perhaps be described as a 
 separate sense. The feeling of the Muscular condi- 
 tion would therefore be a separate sense from that of 
 Temperature, — assuming the existence of separate 
 nerve channels. Much confusion has arisen in our 
 notions of the senses. Montaigne calls a deception 
 of the sense the fear a man experiences when looking 
 down from a secure but very elevated position, by 
 which his apprehensions are excited, and his judg- 
 ment is deceived : but I suppose(all that is generally 
 meant by the senses is the separate channels by which 
 G 5 
 
130 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 impressions are received ; as the eye, the ear, the skin, 
 the muscles, &c. Through the ear, we have percep- 
 tions by sound : through the eye, by hght. If we 
 strike the eye, or irritate the retina, all we get is 
 light. A blow on the ear, or irritation of the nervous 
 apparatus of the ear, gives a simple sound ; and it is 
 observable that these original conditions of sense 
 are less real impressions than, so to speak, those 
 impressions evolved from or through them. For 
 instance, light and colours and sound do not exist 
 out of the impression, but only indicate conditions ; 
 whereas, forms, spaces, localities and relations do 
 exist, as they are perceived under ordinary circum- 
 stances : for these are the conditions perceived ; and 
 abstractedly, form by touch is the same as form 
 perceived by sight, or through light. The further 
 we advance from the sense, the higher and more 
 complete the truth. Beauty, for instance, is a sense 
 of completion, or the harmony of the relations con- 
 sequent on the completion; or on the way to the 
 ends of nature, — the sense, however, being subject 
 to imperfection and deceptions, like all other impres- 
 sions ; and men see beauty in distortion, and dis- 
 tortion where they had seen only beauty : and this 
 in morals, as well as in external qualities : because 
 the true seeing requires harmony Avithin, as well 
 as harmony without, the mind. Otherwise, the 
 mind, as an uneven mirror, or as coloured glass, 
 will distort or colour the object, however beautiful, 
 and torture the truth into hideous and fantastic 
 shapes. In recognizing this great truth. Bacon 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 131 
 
 founded his philosophy^ and the doctrine of the 
 Idols. 
 
 One or several organs of the brain maybe in ex- 
 cess ; and this may produce genius^ in a particular 
 way: for numbers, for instance; or for musical sounds; 
 or for construction. Or certain organs may be defi- 
 cient; and then we have inability in particular 
 directions; or more or less idiocy. It is with dif- 
 ferent men just as it is with different animals ; and, 
 as we more clearly perhaps perceive it, in a piano, 
 where the whole may be out of tune, or any note, or 
 number of notes. The tone and power of the organ 
 depends also on the quality of the substance of the 
 brain, arising from original constitution, or from ex- 
 ternal circumstances ; the condition of the stomach, 
 for example, or the air we breathe : or the mind may 
 be t\\TLsted from its proper action and proportion by 
 the influence of habit or example, or other similar 
 causes. (, But, drunk or sober, mad or idiot, a man is 
 at all times the result of his material condition, and 
 the influences without.^ Some men are, as it were, a 
 law unto themselves ; while others by their nature are 
 disposed to thieve and to murder. Some men are 
 wolves by their nature, and some are lambs : and it 
 is vain to talk of responsibility, as if men made 
 themselves what they are. " Can the Ethiopian 
 change his skin, or the Leopard its spots V* ^' We 
 do not quarrel with the stone that strikes us," says 
 Bacon : nor shall we quan-el with men when we 
 know Man^s nature, and that he merely exhibits the 
 laws of his being. But society must be protected 
 
132 man's nature and development. 
 
 from the evil-disposed ; and we must seek to develop 
 Men's nature to its full and true proportions, ^len 
 must be responsible to take the consequences of their 
 acts; but not as if they could help their nature. 
 Every thought and act is part of the development of 
 nature^ and of the history of the world, and of the 
 universe, — of the eternal and undeviating law of laws, 
 — of the fundamental but incomprehensible origin of 
 things. I feel that I am as completely the result of 
 my nature, and impelled to do what I do, as the 
 needle to point to the north, or the puppet to move 
 according as the string is pulled. It is the action of 
 the powers among themselves which directs the will, 
 and controls or induces all the results of that think- 
 ing, feeling substance which I call Me. The sub- 
 stance wastes, and is supplied wdth fresh material ; 
 which fresh matter is immediately leavened with the 
 condition of the old ; in the same way that needles 
 take the condition of the magnet. This substitution 
 occurs in the horse, just as with his rider : hence a 
 man or a horse does not remain the same man or 
 horse at the end of seven years, but a similar one : 
 just as a river is never the same, but only similar. 
 It presents the same form, but only similar reflections 
 and other phenomena. So it is with Man, who is 
 never the same, any more than the music from the 
 l^iano is the same to-day that it was yesterday. 
 Nature never rests ; but all is action, change and 
 growth. Apparent rest is but the balance of powers 
 and motives restrained. There is no death, but only 
 change. AHien the diamond becomes charcoal,, that 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SEXSES. 133 
 
 is the death of the diamond, but nothing is lost. It 
 is but another form. There is no spirit of the 
 diamond passing into space. The most disgusting 
 thing — the rotting carcase — is but a change, a trans- 
 mutation to other forms of beauty. That individuals 
 suffer for the general good^ is a law of nature and of 
 life : but good and evil are only to the part, not to 
 the whole. <^There is no mistake nor short-coming 
 in nature. Whatever is, is right, and essential to 
 the whole, and could not be otherwise than as it is. 
 The deeper our study of nature, the more clearly is 
 this fact recognized as being as fundamental and ne- 
 cessary as law itself. WTiatever we clearly understand 
 in nature, we perceive could not be otherwise than as it 
 is : as that three cannot be one, or a square a circle. 
 As we advance, every condition and law will be per- 
 ceived to be necessary truth^^I can judge something 
 of a man^s character from his head. If I knew the 
 whole laws of the mind, and the entire form of the 
 brain, and if I could recognize the whole circumstances 
 by which the individual would be influenced, and if 
 my perceptions were equal to the task, every act and 
 thought of the man^s life could be predicted. How 
 do somuambules read the future, if it be not written in 
 the present, and if the laws of the mind be not cer- 
 tain ? A Shakspere could not make himself an 
 idiot, or an idiot a Shakspere ; or any one be what 
 he is not, any more than an eel could become a 
 horse, or Lord Brougham turn into a grasshopper. 
 But enough on this theme. I have been carried 
 away by the subject. 
 
134 man's nature and development. 
 
 I spoke of the effect on the mind, of looking down 
 from a great height. It is often asked why a person 
 so situated feels as if he must fall; and even, in 
 some instances, as if he were impelled to jump. It 
 is simply that, in contemplating the act through fear, 
 the mind and nei-ves are thrown into the same con- 
 dition as if one were falling, and carry the will along 
 with the sense of the act. It is a species of imitation, 
 and allied to what we call fascination. It is a state 
 which approaches to insanity; as in the case of those 
 persons who, from imitation, and a morbid condition, 
 throw themselves, one after another, from the Monu- 
 ment. " Some from fear in the dusk, see a bush to 
 be the shape of a man.'' The eye is made the fool 
 of the other senses. — Others, on taking up a razor, 
 not being used to such instruments, feel as if they 
 must destroy themselves. The thought puts them in 
 the position of doing the act. This state becomes 
 abnormal and fixed, when people feel sure they shall 
 say or do some terrible thing, — as, that they must 
 destroy themselves, or some one else. The mind is 
 off its balance ; and the person becomes controlled 
 by the force and fixedness of an idea. This may be 
 continuous, or in fits. Executions diminish the re- 
 spect for life, and stimulate the morbid tendency to 
 destroy. The descriptions in the newspapers tend to 
 brutalize society, and make us all worse. It is only 
 knowledge of the Mind's laws, and the law of love, 
 and exhibitions of goodness and mercy, that will reform 
 the world. Inferior minds will doubtless always be 
 influenced by rewards and punishments ; but these 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 135 
 
 rewards and punishments should be of a more whole- 
 some character, and not such as brutalize, and 
 encourage the selfish impulses. Preaching the 
 horrors of a hell and eternal damnation, will never 
 induce reverence for higher things, or reform the 
 world. 
 
 Yes, I am aware that sound is received by other' 
 channels than the ear. A watch put in the mouth 
 is not heard to tick until the teeth are closed upon 
 it. But this effect may not be wholly different from 
 putting the poker to the tea-kettle to hear it boil, by 
 establishing a solid and better medium of sound 
 than the ear. It has occurred to me to try another 
 experiment. I close my ears with my fingers so that 
 I cannot hear the slightest sound ; but the moment 
 I touch my forehead upon the watch, I hear the 
 ticking distinctly. I think you told me that you 
 heard a musical box with overpowering distinctness 
 when placed on the head, while unable to hear any 
 but confused sounds from it by the ear. The harder 
 I press upon the ears, the better I hear the watch. 
 And this reminds me of my somnambule, who saw 
 more distinctly by pressing upon the eyes. I find 
 a note of this occurring to another patient to whom 
 my instance was unknowm. It is recorded that a 
 child subject to fits could only hear during their 
 continuance by the stomach being touched, and the 
 voice directed to that part. Sir C. Bell relates a case 
 of a man who was insensible to pain on " pressure, 
 who yet could feel inside his stomach by pressing on 
 the outside. In Mesmerism it is common to find a 
 
136 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 patient sensible of internal though not of external 
 pain; the internal parts being the last to lose sen- 
 sibility. Can it be thought^ then, so surprising 
 that the large nei'vous apparatus connected with the 
 stomach should becooie the medium of impressions 
 to the brain, when the other channels are closed ? 
 To close the ears, and hear the watch tick from the 
 head, seems to diminish the marvel. I noticed in my 
 last how much of the apparatus of the ear might be 
 removed without impairing hearing. It is also stated 
 that " a patient having the pupil immoveable sees 
 well enough :" and also that " persons who have had 
 the lens removed for cataract still see sufficiently 
 well '/' and it appears that the sense of smell may 
 exist without the olfactory nerve. But more evidence 
 of the precise circumstances attending such mutila- 
 tions and absent organs will be acceptable. Ann 
 Vials generally felt as if her arm were still attached 
 to the stump ; and by mesmerizing over the stump, 
 I could make her feel as if the hand closed, or only 
 two fingers or the thumb. Here is an instance of 
 the delusion of the Muscular sense; but this, of 
 course, the eye corrects, just as touch corrects the 
 delusion of the eye in seeing a stick crooked in 
 water. Why these severed nerves of the arm should 
 induce a sense of the arm being there, and of various 
 positions and motions connected with such an image, 
 is not yet very clear to me : but Ann Vials may 
 truly be said to be haunted by the ghost of her own 
 arm. That the nerves of the stump did once convey 
 impressions to and from a hand, does not clear the 
 
PACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 137 
 
 act to my mind. Two fingers crossed over a pea 
 give an impression of two peas. The eye corrects 
 the error to the judgment, but does not destroy the 
 sensation, any more than touch prevents the stick 
 from looking crooked in the water, or reason allay 
 the terror that some experience at the sight of a 
 spider, or other object of superstition. I have 
 waked in the night after lying on my arm, and found 
 it wholly dead. I could throw it about like the arm 
 of a doll, it not having a particle of sense in it. I 
 observed that I had no more sense of an arm than if 
 I had been born without it. I took hold of it with 
 my other hand, and it seemed like a dead thing 
 hanging about me, and yet w^ithout any sense of its 
 being attached to me, — causing the oddest impres- 
 sion possible, and a very uncomfortable one. So 
 that you may have persons with arms feeling as if 
 they had none, and others without arms feeling as if 
 they had them. When the whole body has lost 
 sensation, as in the trance, the mind seems to be 
 free; to have an immaterial, independent existence. 
 Those who are dying often necessarily experience 
 this disembodied sense of being. Here it is not the 
 sense, but the want of sensation that deceives. We 
 are told that our senses never deceive us ; and that 
 in the case of the stick appearing crooked in the 
 water, or the sun moving, for instance, the impres- 
 sion is true enough, but that we form a wrong judg- 
 ment from appearances. In the instance of the 
 stick in the water, it is the refracting rays of light 
 that deceive us. Here Nature seems to be undoubt- 
 
138 man's nature and development. 
 
 edly at fault : but it is these deviations that are the 
 light of philosophy. Any how, it is clear that 
 appearances do deceive us ; whether it be the false 
 appearance of a stick in the water, or the impression 
 from a person dying causing some one at a distance 
 to beheve he sees the apparition or ghost of the 
 dying person. A number of individuals may receive 
 the impression of the dying person at the same time, 
 and in different parts of the world, just as we have 
 the impression of the moon in different places at 
 once. But what is seen of the dying person is no 
 more an entity and separate individual, or the indi- 
 vidual himself, than the appearance of the moon in 
 the water is a separate and real object or ghost. 
 You may see the dying person, — that is, receive an 
 influence from him ; but what you see is not what 
 you believe you see, or in the place where you see it, 
 any more than the moon is another moon in the 
 water, though the story goes that people once thought 
 so of the moon, and brought a rake to fetch it out. 
 A ghost is no more an objective reality than I am 
 the image of myself in the glass. The dagger which 
 Macbeth saw in the air was as much a ghost as 
 the appearance of Banquo. In oui' friend Mrs. 
 Crowe's very interesting and ingenious book, ^^ The 
 Night Side of Nature,^^ she sets out with the as- 
 sumption that Mind is a spiritual entity, separate 
 from the body; and in consequence, a pervading 
 fallacy is introduced into her reasoning, and it 
 becomes but the ghost of reasoning. It is again 
 assumed that in the trance the mind goes out of the 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 139 
 
 body to a distance, and returns with information, as 
 the dove went out from the ark. But such behef is 
 wholly assumption, and mere fancy. There is no 
 more reason why it should do so in the trance than 
 in our ordinary condition of perception. Besides, 
 how can a person be describing what he is seeing at 
 a distance, and be in the distance at the same time ? 
 There are cases of two persons in the trance con- 
 versing with each other at a distance. Can they 
 both be in each place at the same time ? ^Many 
 persons, from fancying that mesmerism and clair- 
 voyance indicate a spiritual existence, or something 
 supernatural, have become converted from scepticism 
 to the belief of a future life. Mr. To\vnsend relates 
 a case of the kind in the second edition of his work 
 on Mesmerism : but mesmerism and clairvoyance are 
 as natural as the instinct of animals, and no more 
 wonderful. ^ We must profit by Bacon^s admoni- 
 tions, and not mix up theology with science. We 
 must not see ourselves reflected, — see the ghosts of 
 ourselves in Nature, and imagine we recognise design, 
 or a human origin of things. /y^Q must follow our 
 great master Bacon, and make a stand against the 
 fallacy of natural theology,^ and that exceedingly 
 weak argument of Paley^s about the watch, which 
 only places the difficulty a little further off, and 
 confounds the idea of creation with design or manu- 
 facture. To design is human. Men design by 
 following the laws which constitute nature. From 
 our infinite non-existence in the past, and from sleep 
 and other states of insensibility, we might infer 
 
140 man's nature and development. 
 
 anniliilation or change at death, in the same manner 
 as we suppose with regard to insects and other 
 animals : but<^othing in nature indicates a future 
 ^ life, unless men will take their desires for evidence .J7 
 v^'J^ Science must be wholly cleared from theology, or we 
 shall be stopped at the very entrance of the temple 
 by some self-constituted authority, or '' pampered 
 menial,^^ and beaten back, and the simplest truths 
 be obscured again for agesQ 
 
 In the contemplation of high things, too, let us 
 not be ashamed of introducing mean instances, 
 which may give most light. Socrates began his 
 discourse on beauty with a glazed pot, and he was 
 laughed at : and we may be laughed at if we try to 
 understand Man, and begin with a worm, and so 
 show the growth of greater and greater things from 
 less; the more complex from the more simple. 
 There is no difficulty now in investigating and under- 
 standing the nature of all those appearances which 
 are called ghosts or demonology, — remembering 
 always that knowledge is to be sought in the con- 
 templation of things and material laws ; that truth 
 is revealed from the analogy of knowledge. But the 
 mind must first be cleared of all fictions, prejudices, 
 superstitions, fears and longings : and this can arise 
 only from a true acquaintance with things. There 
 are some minds so beset with error and conceits that 
 there is no making any breach into them at all, 
 through which to introduce truth for the displace- 
 ment of error: and such minds, I fear, must remain 
 choked up in their conceits to the end. 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 141 
 
 You see our subject is so vast^ that I can do little 
 more than indicate to you what, in my opinion, is 
 the road we should follow, and the kind of obseiTa- 
 tions required. Ignorance sees Nature in parts, 
 personifies effects, and takes them for causes. It 
 creates horrors and spectres, and then startles at its 
 own creations. Ignorance imagines gods and devils 
 in legions. <^Knowledge establishes the true relations 
 of things in a whole, and has only one God; and 
 that, incomprehensible and unknown, and cannot 
 admit a Principle of Evil ; much less a personal 
 demon, an embodiment of all villany ; but, on the 
 contrary, sees good in evil, and the working of gene- 
 ral laws for the general good ; and sees no more sin in 
 a crooked disposition, than in the crooked stick in the 
 w^ater, or in a humpback, or a squint. Ignorance 
 conceives its Will to be free; — a strange arrogance, 
 if it could see it. Knowledge recognizes universal 
 law, and that nothing can be free or by chance : — no, 
 not even God ;* but that God is the substance of Law, 
 and origin of all things.^ Science will not permit us 
 to imagine beyond this ; for knowledge is but the 
 perception of phenomena and their relations ; and a 
 man can know no more than he has perceived. 
 Clairvoijance does not reach beyond phenomena ; nor 
 is it in our power to conceive of an)i:hing different 
 
 * " This same Mechanic is not only able to make all sorts 
 of utensils, but makes everything also which springs from 
 the earth ; and he makes all sorts of animals, himself as well 
 as others ; and besides these things, he makes the earth, the 
 heaven and the gods, and all things in heaven and in Hades 
 under the earth." — Plato, The Republic, X. 
 
143 man's nature and development. 
 
 from what we know. — When we see what we call a 
 ghost, it must always be a visible or tangible some- 
 thing. \I have had a sleeper sitting in an arm-chair, 
 and declaring that she saw her soul go from her, and 
 pass out at the door in the form of a lamb. Now, 
 how^the soul could go away, and be in the body, talk- 
 ing to me all the while, I cannot conceive ; and yet 
 by such delusions as these are men deceived^ It 
 would be hard to believe that Davis, the American 
 seer, did really see those strange creatures he describes 
 as the inhabitants of the different planets : and yet 
 we cannot disprove his assertion, except by other 
 somnambules who contradict him. — Afriendin a fever 
 used to see every day a snake crawl up the table, and 
 sip from her lemonade. I well remember when a 
 child, seeing a black man sitting beside me on the 
 bed. The impression is as distinct as if it had only 
 occurred yesterday : and even after I had screamed, 
 and the servants were in the room, the figure re- 
 mained, and gradually slid away. And I once, when 
 attending to mesmerize a very critical case of a young 
 lady in a death-like trance, heard what seemed to be 
 a voice from a part of the room where there was no 
 one, say distinctly, " Go on, — go on.'' It was at a 
 moment when I hesitated, and thought the patient 
 dead. She recovered, and is now well. — A friend of 
 mine died ; and in the evening I was writing to con- 
 dole with his child, when, looking up, I saw the 
 image of my friend in the air, projected some feet 
 from me ; and the impression lasted at least a 
 minute. A lady, who is naturally clairvoyante, and 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SEXSES. 143 
 
 familiar with visions and pre-visions^ both false and 
 ti-uC; tells me, among other remarkable circumstances, 
 that she once saw the ^dsion of an ann-chair in her 
 bed-room; that she went up to it, and walked through 
 it, and put her hand through it ; and still it re- 
 mained. When a ghost appears on horseback, and 
 in armour, we must conclude the horse and armour 
 to have ghosts, as well as men. The servant of a 
 friend of mine, at one time, used frequently to see, 
 as he drove by, a brewer's dray without horses, pass- 
 ing down a particular lane. — My patient in the 
 ecstatic dream, believed she was in heaven, and in the 
 presence of God and Christ, and angels. I asked 
 her one day w^hat Christ was doing : she said he was 
 wTiting at a desk. These delusions are in opposite 
 directions ; either the embodying of an impression, 
 or, on the other hand, the disembodying of prin- 
 ciples, or refining matter away to the minimum of 
 perceptible or conceivable existence : or \-irtues, or 
 principles, or minds, are abstractedandembodiedagain 
 in ideal foi*m. A young medical man who disbelieved 
 Mesmerism, but was in the habit of taking ether, on 
 one occasion, when under the influence of ether, was 
 thrown by me into a mesmeric sleep, in a few seconds'; 
 and he slept soundly for an hour, and answered 
 questions that were put to him, exhibiting pure som- 
 nambulism. "When under the influence of ether, this 
 young man always declared himself to be an inde- 
 structible atom ; and said that an atom was a force. 
 He said he was plapng at cricket, and that the bat 
 and ball, and the persons playing with him, were all 
 
144 MAX'S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 indestructible atoms. The eifect of etlier on me is 
 the most exquisite tipsiness ;— just a complete sense 
 of physical enjoyment ; and this dissolving away^ till I 
 have no idea but of Mind-existence andperfect content; 
 for I seemed or thought to be, all in all : the " be all 
 and end all ^' of being. — I had been dining at my 
 club one day, without taking wine, and whilst 
 observing the waiters moving about, amidst the 
 blaze of light, I seemed to lose all dependence 
 on my body; my mind seemed to be in the dis- 
 tance in what I saw — -to fill space — and yet I 
 to occupy no space. Drunken people often see 
 double. I can alter the condition of my eyes 
 in looking at an object, so as to see two objects : 
 or I can attend to the impressions of each eye, and 
 so see two objects in one in the same place. Such 
 is the double nature of our being. Much has been 
 said of the duality of the mind. It is certain that 
 we can and do think with one side of the brain at a 
 time. The organ on one side may be injured, and 
 the mind go on well enough with the one organ, as 
 we do with one eye or one lung. I have, in phreno- 
 mesmerism, wearied out an organ on one side of the 
 brain, and begun the feeling afresh on the opposite 
 organ ; just as we rest from one leg upon the other. 
 Double consciousness is another affair. I saw a very 
 complete case of this under Dr. AVilson, in the Mid- 
 dlesex Hospital ; — a natural case : but T have had a 
 mesmeric patient, who w^ent into six distinct states 
 of memory and consciousness ; and she recognized me 
 afresh, and in a different manner, in each. 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 145 
 
 But I must not proceed further in this direction. 
 There seems to be a similar difference between ordi- 
 nary sight and clairvoyance, as between common 
 light and electric light. Did you ever remark the 
 marvellous effect of a flash of lightning on a dark 
 night, when, during a momentary impression, every 
 object is seen with a distinctness quite magical? 
 AVhat you would have to pick out, part by part, as 
 it were, in daylight, is presented to you instantly, 
 wholly and clearly, by the electric light. 
 
 But I must not forget that there is one sense, if 
 I may so term it, which we have not yet considered. 
 I mean the faculty or sense of Time, for which, if we 
 term it a sense, there is no external apparatus ; and 
 yet it is as clear and real a sense, or relation, or 
 whatever else it may be tenned, as any we possess. 
 I think the idea of time may be an exception to the 
 rule, and exist independent of any visual impressions. 
 Space and time seem to be fundamental to all other 
 ideas, as the place and duration of existence. We 
 cannot imagine matter or motion, or mind, to exist 
 without space and time. We can conceive the ab- 
 sence of all matter and objects ; but it seems neces- 
 sar}^ that time and space must be and exist eternally, 
 though there were a total void : and*I think it rather 
 absurd of Kant to suppose that these fundamental 
 matters, space and time, have no existence out of our 
 sensibility.'' The faculty of Time is situated in the 
 forehead, between Music and Eventuality, the organs 
 to which it principally relates. Time, of course, can 
 have no outward sense towards objects ; but may be 
 
 H 
 
146 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 said rather to have an inward and mysterious work- 
 ing with the whole sj^stem. Time has its proportions 
 and harmonies,, equally with colours^ sounds and 
 forms. Objects and events exist in localities and 
 space, but endure in and through time. Thought, 
 being only an effect or phenomenon, as motion is, 
 has locality, but is no thing or entitj^ in itself, and 
 consequently occupies no space. Bacon thought 
 that all bodies contained a material essence or spirit 
 which, when we came to plants and animals, was 
 called soul. " The tangible parts of bodies,^^ he 
 says, " are stupid things ; and the spirits do in 
 effect all.^^* I fully agree with Bacon, and do not 
 consider, for instance, the virtue of the magnet to be 
 in the solid parts, nor the instincts of animals, or 
 thought and feelings of Man, to be the doings of the 
 solid brain, but of a spiritual condition or body eli- 
 minated from, or induced by, the action of the brain. 
 How otherwise shall we explain the simplest motion? 
 We know that solid things do not absolutely touch. 
 If I throw a stone, therefore, I do not push the solid 
 part, but influence a spiritual condition which carries 
 along the solid thing. But of this on some future 
 occasion. 
 
 Thought seems to have a measure or passage in 
 time ; but, like light, has no fixedness, and can have 
 none. Light seems to be an induced phenomenon, 
 or motion in a medium or spiritual substance ; which, 
 acting on the spirit-body of the brain, evolves its 
 
 * Natural History, Cent. I. sec. 98. 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 147 
 
 correspondent mind-forms, or what we term sight : 
 and this supposition opens, I think, a great light 
 upon our subject. Events relate to time, but do not 
 evolve the idea. It is by time that we measure 
 events : as clearly so as we measure objects by so 
 much space. How many things in the working of 
 the system occur at certain determinate periods, or 
 relations of time ! — the recurrence of affairs of habit, 
 sleep, &c., for example. And how remarkable is 
 the sense of time with many somnambulists, who 
 can often tell the exact time that a crisis in their 
 illness, or other event, will occur, and will wake at 
 the precise moment they say they shall ! I remember 
 going to see a sleeper wake who had been sleeping 
 three days, and had said she should wake precisely 
 at six o'clock the third evening. Several of us were 
 talking round the bed, paying no particular attention 
 to the time, when she rose up in her bed and opened 
 her eyes, and instantly the chm'ch-clock close by 
 struck the hour. I had a patient sleeping whom I 
 was obliged to leave, intending fully to return within 
 an hour, and I bade my servant look into the room 
 and see that the patient remained quiet. Imme- 
 diately after I had left the house, she rose from her 
 chair, and, walking to the window, and looking after 
 me, she said — " He thinks that he will return in an 
 hour — ^by seven o'clock : but he will not return till 
 eleven minutes past nine. I shall go to sleep, and 
 get up again to see him return.'' It happened, to 
 my great annoyance, that I was detained by some 
 persons I accidentally met, and whom I could not 
 H 2 
 
148 man's nature and development. 
 
 yee auotlier time; and, on returning, I saw my 
 patient looking out of tlie window, she having just 
 gone there ; and I knocked at the door at the precise 
 time she had named — eleven minutes past nine, — 
 within half a minute by my watch. 
 
 There are some mesmerizers who would explain all 
 the wonders of mesmerism by the patients reading 
 their mesmerizer's thoughts ; but I have more gene- 
 rally found the thoughts and predictions of my 
 patients opposed to my impressions. But men have 
 always been apt to generalise from particular in- 
 stances within the sphere of their obseiTation, rather 
 than wait for exceptions, which are necessary to the 
 discovery of general and true laws. Hence the 
 ^^'orld is full of parts of truth and systems, as in Medi- 
 cine, Homoeopathy, Allopathy, the Water-cure, &c. : 
 and some mesmerizers imagine that mesmerism is to 
 do eveiy thing, and cure all ills that flesh is heir 
 to. I knew a gentleman, a man of business, who 
 never carried a watch, and could even, when rambling 
 in the country, tell you with great exactness the 
 time. I have impressed on somnambules, when 
 asleep, that, when awake, at a precise moment they 
 shall do or say so and so. This will remained latent 
 in their brain. They had no consciousness of it 
 when they awoke ; but at the precise time they have 
 felt impelled to do or say what I had desired them. 
 We can understand the thought lying dormant, and 
 being born to them as a recollection ; but that it 
 should occur at the precise time, without the clock 
 striking, or any such sign, is mysterious. But it is 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 149 
 
 much the same with many of us in our ordinary 
 sleep. I have often gone to bed T\dth the impression 
 that I must get up at a particular houi*^ and have 
 waked at the precise time. Time seems to have a 
 near relation to that second soul^ or unconscious 
 sphere of action which we seem to possess, and which 
 appears to have one side towards action and the 
 working of the system, and another condition in the 
 intuitive sense, or a face towards clear seeing and true 
 knowledge. In the intuitive or unconscious condi- 
 tion, or sphere, or faculty, as we may call it, exists 
 the voice, or oracle, or guardian angel, which sleepers 
 listen to in the trance. But sometimes this attendant 
 spirit becomes a deluding demon, or madness; and 
 hence there may have been good reason for objecting 
 to witchcraft, and the mischievous delusions of false 
 prophets. Consciousness and reason, after all, seem 
 but as an outward sign of an inward principle, which 
 sees as in a glass at once, and thi*ough phenomena to 
 laws, without the process of induction : whereas, by 
 consciousness and reasoning we have to use signs^ 
 and take up Nature by parts and degrees : and after 
 all, can see but in part and superficially. We cannot 
 see, like the sun, into every corner, but go about 
 like a candle moving from place to place, and shall 
 see clearly only when we have noted our facts, placed 
 them in order, and inferred from them general laws. 
 I have heard men say — '^ We are men of facts, and 
 do not believe in clairvoyance.'^ I have replied, — 
 " You are not men of facts — or at least not of these 
 facts. You are like machines which spin out only one 
 
150 man's nature and development. 
 
 kind of fabric. You are men of one language and 
 one countiy : — prisoners, with a window to the north, 
 and declare there is no moon.'' 
 
 I am opening my mind to you as it opens to 
 myself — with the facts and the nature of the inquiiy, 
 not with any attempt at precise reasoning or exact 
 order, which must come afterwards, and grow up with 
 years and labour. And if I appear to be asserting 
 any thing dogmatically, you must only consider it 
 as a form of speech — that I am thinking more of my 
 subject than of manners. If I state what is incorrect, 
 time will prune me down, and wiser heads will set 
 me right. But I am extending this letter without 
 seeing any end to it, and seem yet to have said 
 nothing; for it is a subject the matter of which 
 appears to grow upon us faster than we can 
 house it. 
 
 I must now tell you how much interested I am in 
 youi- having once experienced the sense of smell and 
 taste. I suppose you could not recognise any thing 
 unusual at the time that should have caused this ; — 
 this marvellous unloosening for an hour, of senses 
 which have been chained up in you all your life. 
 "What, I wonder, could have slipped the collar for this 
 once ? And how odd that you should have seemed 
 to recognise the smelling in the throat ! I wish you 
 could experience it again, and tell us more about it. 
 It would be difficult, perhaps, to prove absolutely 
 that these sensations of yours were the same as we 
 experience, and call Smell and Taste : but you can 
 show that the relations and peculiarities correspond 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 151 
 
 with what we experience ; and this, I think, is suffi- 
 cient. No man can say that the impression he has 
 of blue is precisely what another man has : but he 
 could show that the sense has the same relations, and 
 place in a scale ; and this is all, I think, that is re- 
 quisite. We can best know such matters by their rela- 
 tions and correspondence. In the case of my blind 
 friend, it has been said that, she never having seen, 
 and I never havingbeen blind, there can be no common 
 ground of comparison between us. To this objection 
 I reply that the question is of her seeing ; and if she 
 has seen, as she asserts, there is the common ground 
 of comparison ; and the result of the comparison will 
 show the fact, and whether the ground of evidence 
 does exist or not : and this is the matter at issue. 
 The only difference is, that we do not see the same 
 object at the same time ; which is of no consequence. 
 Another objection urged is, that she ought not to 
 use arbitraiy tenns — such as blue, gi'cen, &c. : but 
 say sky -colour, and grass-colour. But why so ? If 
 she sees in her sleep as we see when awake, she is in 
 the same position in regard to terms as ourselves. 
 She would see the colour of the sky, and know that 
 it is called blue : and, therefore, would use the terms 
 as we use them. The proof of her clairvoyance is, I 
 think, unexceptionable ; but I will inform you of any 
 further particulars I may elicit. This is a case in 
 which I should not readily trust another person^s 
 caution and questionings : and, therefore, do not 
 expect assent to what is convincing to me. I merely 
 place the fact on record as a suggestive matter, which 
 
152 man's nature and development. 
 
 may help inquiry, and call forth observation in 
 similar instances. With regard to your sense in the 
 mesmeric sleep, of matter resolving itself into forces, 
 it is not possible, you say, to explain it ; and I, of 
 course, cannot comprehend it. So we must pause 
 till some key to the matter is invented, and we hear 
 what others, in a similar, or a higher state, say to it. 
 In the meantime, it is exceedingly interesting to 
 contemplate; only, of course, we must regard the 
 fact by the side of other facts, and consider whether 
 it is not likely to be a delusion of the senses; or 
 rather a delusion of the mind when the senses are at 
 rest, as in the case, we will say, of the gentleman 
 who thought himself an indestructible atom, and that 
 the cricket-bats and balls were all indestructible 
 atoms ; or, when etherized myself, I felt all nature 
 dissolved away, leaving only Mind. But I need not 
 suggest such comparisons to you, only that you, as a 
 matter of course, will find it difficult to abstract 
 yourself, and criticise your own case as you would 
 one in which you were only a looker-on. This is a 
 subject of such difficulty and importance that even 
 angels would seek to tread through its imagery with 
 caution. But I am not, I hope, one of those ill-dis- 
 coverers who think there is no land, because there is 
 nothing visible but sea; and, therefore, I rest upon 
 the matter with hope. 
 
 You remember Bacon says that " Plato supposed 
 forms were the true objects of knowledge, but lost 
 the real fruit of his opinions by considering of forms 
 as absolutely abstracted from matter, and not con- 
 
FACTS ABOL'T THE SENSES. 153 
 
 fined and determined by matter : and so, turning his 
 opinions upon theology, wherewith all his natural 
 philosophy is infected."* We know that nature pre- 
 sents to us a system of forces ; and Faraday, I be- 
 lieve, conceives matter to be nothing but a system of 
 forces : but I cannot conceive of force as an abstract 
 from matter, or being matter. But the question is, 
 perhaps, beyond all ordinary powers of sense and 
 reasoning. I once conceived of matter as a system 
 of forces : but I now inquire '' What is force V and 
 require an origin or cause of force ; and this brings 
 me to where I set out ; — to two things ; matter, and 
 its forces or properties. — But of course it is absurd 
 for me to be guessing what you may have seen or 
 imagined, when you say it is not possible to convey 
 the notion, from the prison-house, to ears of llesh 
 and blood; from the intuitive chamber, to ideas 
 founded upon common daylight experience. 
 
 I have seen my blind friend again, and had a long 
 conversation with her, on the nature of the facility 
 she believes that she possesses, of seeing in her sleep. 
 She says that she has seen in this way from child- 
 hood j that she constantly dreams, and always sees 
 in her dream ; and that, whether she has a sense of 
 what is then in existence, or a pre-vision of what is 
 to happen, or her dream is a mere wandering of the 
 fancy, — in each case she has the sense of sight. 
 She believes it to be the same sense that we have^ 
 because it answers to it in every respect. And to 
 
 * Advancement of Learning, Book II. 
 H 5 
 
154 man's nature and development. 
 
 me it appears, that it is only by such correspondence 
 that we can identify her experience as the same with 
 our own. That the faculty of sight is active in 
 the brain, is proved by her being able to distinguish 
 daylight from darkness : in the same way that you, 
 who want the sense of taste, recognize bitter and acid 
 things, but not flavours ; and as we are able to do 
 with our eyes closed. The faculties relating to sight 
 are shown in full development in her forehead ; and 
 in this she is in marked contrast to her sisters ; one 
 of whom, I find, could once, in childhood, see. 
 
 In her clairvoyant dreams, I do not find that 
 special attention has been paid to note the appear- 
 ance of any colours she could not have anticipated. 
 Proof exists, at present, only as to the general fact. 
 For instance, the clergyman of the parish had retired 
 for some time from his living, and gone into Devon- 
 shire, to live near to his son-in-law ; two hundred 
 miles from my blind friend^s residence. She dreamed 
 one Sunday morning in her second sleep, that she saw 
 this clergyman preaching in the pulpit of his son-in- 
 law's church ; when he suddenly fell down, and some 
 gentlemen came out of their pews, and carried him 
 into the vestry, not knowing for some time if he were 
 dead, or in a fit. She related the dream in the 
 morning, and it made a strong impression on her 
 family. On Tuesday, some friends had letters, giving 
 an account of this clerg^anan falling in the pulpit, on 
 that Sunday after the di-eam, and being earned out, 
 and their not knowing whether he was dead, or only 
 in a fit. It was a fit, and he recovered. The whole 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES. 155 
 
 circumstances accorded precisely witli the dream. 
 The clergyman had never been subject to fits. We 
 have therefore evidence^ clear enough, of this lady's 
 clairvoyant power, and also that the faculty of sight 
 exists, from the perception of the distinction be- 
 tween day and night, aud the brain being fully 
 developed. 
 
 This slight perception of light and dark would 
 enable her to recognize an extension of the same, and 
 variations in the same, and enable her the better to 
 know that what she expressed was indeed sight. She 
 says that the impression she has of a room and of 
 the furniture it contains, by touching round here 
 and there, and by putting the bits of feeling together, 
 is vei*y different from the complete sense of the whole 
 perceived at once throughout, with the distinctions 
 of form and colour in all their variety, as described 
 by us : and that the colours are quite distinct from 
 mere space or surface, and from the sense of rough- 
 ness and smoothness. — By the way, the fact, that we 
 can cause the sense of colour, by scratching on the 
 surface, may be a reason why some blind persons, as 
 it is said, can discover colours by the feel of the sur- 
 face ; each colom* probably indicating a special cha- 
 racter of surface. Thus, from an exquisite sense of 
 touch, the sense of colour may be evolved, or at least, 
 the distinctions recognized. — A person may have a 
 knowledge of differences, and what those differences 
 indicate, without seeing : so that it seems to me that 
 clairvoyance, and particularly joreVoya/ice, would be no 
 proof of sight j but only of a knov\^ledge of a fact^ 
 
156 man's nature and development. 
 
 present or to come, and of a sense of distinctions. 
 Still the seeing would have to be made out by 
 analysis,, and in the way in which I have analyzed the 
 matter with my friend, in regarding colours in relation 
 to colours, in relation to sounds and other sensations, 
 in relation to space and surface, and by the impres- 
 sion on the feelings. 
 
 This lady says, that some combinations of colours 
 are very disagreeable to her, though agreeable to 
 others, and she chooses her own dresses accordingly. 
 I will set her, however, to make more careful obser- 
 vations on her dreams and visions. — Such cases cause 
 us to reflect on the nature of the different spheres of 
 sight, and of the different characters of light, and 
 conditions of sight. The blue sky that I see with 
 my eyes open, and the sense of the blue that I have 
 when I close my eyes, are very different, and yet the 
 same. The clairvoyant sight seems again distinct. 
 I have occasionally, for a very short time, — a minute 
 perhaps, — had a clear and intense sight of objects 
 before me, when the individuality and the parts 
 seemed one : and I have had a similar sense in a 
 morning dream, and afterwards painted the view I 
 have seen, without having any difficulty in remem- 
 bering a single tint or form. It was that clear and 
 complete sight experienced under a flash of light- 
 ning. 
 
 If my friend sees at all, whether in sleep or awake, 
 with her eyes or without them, she would soon leara 
 the name of colours, as well as most of us can name 
 them ; which is very imperfectly. I do not see that 
 
RAISING QUESTIONS. 157 
 
 there would be any difficulty in that. — This case is 
 interesting, if only to make us reflect on the nature 
 of such an inquiry, — the nature of seeing, and of the 
 different kinds of light and sight, and the relation 
 which sight bears to impressions from the other 
 senses, and to the feelings ; — all bearing on Cosmical 
 inquiry. 
 
 XV. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 There is so much in your last letter, that it has 
 been longer than usual under my hand. 
 
 Thank you for your detail of facts and evidence as 
 to the blind lady^s case. I should still like more, if 
 you can obtain them ; for I can conceive of nothing 
 more momentous. 
 
 As for the resolution of Matter into forces, it does 
 not, to my mind, convey any notion of immaterial 
 existence. I observe you use the word spirit, and 
 spiritual forces, in regard to the virtues of the mag- 
 net, and the mutual operation of bilhard balls. I do 
 not object to the word, understanding as I do, that 
 by '' spiritual '^ you do not mean ^^ immaterial : '^ but 
 I should not have ventured to use the word to you. 
 I suppose the German term, ^^ Nerve-spirit" is of the 
 
158 
 
 same class. I msh we liad a term ; as people in 
 general mean by "spiritual" that wliicli is not 
 matter^ and whicli is in antagonism with it. I do not 
 know what term we have but " force. " — Here we find 
 ourselves in the dim regions where Berkeley and 
 Kant, and so many more, have sat down and tried to 
 make out what they saw, with such vaiying results. 
 When Bacon says that " the tangible parts of bodies 
 are stupid things, and the spirits do, in effect, all ; " 
 and when you agree with him, and speak of ^^ a 
 spiritual condition or body eliminated from, or in- 
 duced by, the action of the brain ; ^' and when again, 
 we find such nice distinctions necessaiy, but so diffi- 
 cult to make, between impressions of objective but 
 invisible existences, like space and time, and such as 
 receive reality only by their junction with, the human 
 sense, as light and sound (to become sight and hear- 
 ing), — we can have great sympathy with Berkeley in 
 his conviction, that the human consciousness is all ; 
 and with Kant, in his doctrine, that space and time 
 are not objective realities, but conditions of human 
 ideas : and with the common world in the ordinary 
 notion of a soul, capable of existence, independently 
 of the body. Without agreeing with any of them, 
 we see how we approach near enough to understand 
 well how they came by their \'iew of these things. 
 
 I suppose Berkeley would disallow your division 
 of our perceptions, saying that light and sound differ 
 from what are considered more unquestionably ob- 
 jective realities, — as a tree or a leaden weight, — only 
 by their appealing to one sense instead of to several, 
 
EAISING QUESTIONS. 159 
 
 while he denies the instrumentality of any and all of 
 our senses and perceptive powers of every kind. I 
 agree with you as to the distinction, in regard to 
 animal sight and hearing ; hut I should like to know 
 what you consider light to be, when (animal life 
 being, or supposed to be, absent) it aiFects the growth 
 of plants ; and what you take sound to be, when, in 
 an uninhabited place, it keeps the air from stagnating. 
 Is it by forces that light and sound thus operate ? 
 and do they remain the same forces, or originate new 
 ones, when they impinge on the eye and ear, or the 
 corresponding organs of the brain ? — And, do you 
 conclude upon an objective reality, in an always 
 equal degi*ee, as to certainty, when you find a corre- 
 sponding organ in the brain ? And, if so, where 
 would you draw the line of classification between the 
 agents (whatever they "m^y ^^) that appeal to the 
 organs of sight and hearing singly, and those that 
 address themselves at once to the muscular sense, the 
 sense of form, of weight, and of sight ; — as a leaden 
 weight ? 
 
 I should think there are cases in plenty to show 
 that you are right as to the interior sense of the 
 passage of time. Most of us can wake at any hour 
 we please to impress ourselves with ; and I suppose 
 most persons can tell pretty nearly what time it is, 
 day or night, if they trust to their instinct. I once 
 could, within five minutes, and can now, when I do 
 not stop to think. But people may say that this is 
 practice with most of us. What do they make of the 
 well-known fact of the idiot boy who had got a habit 
 
160 man's nature and development. 
 
 of imitating the striking of the church-clock, and who 
 continued the practice, absolutely unerringly, when 
 removed to a home where there was no clock or 
 watch within hearing or reach ? He would do it 
 when left alone, without being spoken to for hours 
 together. This story is related (secondarily) in 
 ^' PercivaVs Instructions -J" and a prodigious puzzle it 
 was to me in my childhood. 
 
 While we are about this matter of the senses, do 
 you think the lightning-flash reveals more than the 
 dayhght glance ? I dare say you are right ; but I 
 am not quite sure, I fancy the sudden presentment 
 may be the thing. I fancy that crossing a ridge, and 
 instantly seeing a wide champaign below, is much like 
 it. I doubt whether my perception of the view from 
 the Mountain House (on the Hudson), and of Domo 
 D'Ossola in descending the Simplon, was not as vivid 
 as when, the other night, as I was in the porch, the 
 lightning disclosed every cranny of the mountains, 
 and every distinct mass of the trees, and then left all 
 blank. 
 
 As for the one occasion of smelling, I was not 
 well, — headachy, and, I suppose, nervous. In 
 Wordsworth's case {vide " Southey's Life,'' i. 63), 
 there seems to have been no peculiar antecedent 
 state. 
 
 Let me tell you a curious thing which happened 
 twice to me — the being unable, by any effort, to see 
 a conspicuous object, directly before my eyes : I sup- 
 pose, because I must have had a wrong notion of 
 what I was to see. When I was near seven yeai*s 
 
RAISING QUESTIONS. 161 
 
 old, I was taken to Tynemouthj in a passion of de- 
 light, because I was to see the sea. Aunt Margaret 
 took me, and an older and a younger one, to the 
 haven. There, when standing on the bank, we were 
 expected to exclaim about the sea, which flowed in up 
 to the foot of the bank, directly before our eyes. The 
 other two children were delighted ; but I could not 
 see it. When questioned, I was obliged to say so ; and 
 I said it with shame and reluctance. I well remember 
 the misery. I beheve it was thought affectation, like 
 my indifference to scents. We were led down the 
 bank, which was steep, and difficult for children. 
 Not till the gentle waves were at my very toes did I 
 see the sea at all ; and then it gave me a start, and a 
 painful feeling of being a sort of idiot not to have 
 seen it before. The revelation, at last, was very like 
 that by a lightning flash. It may be mentioned that 
 my impression of my only previous sight of the sea was 
 of something quite different. I was then under three 
 years old, — not strong on my feet, — and my father led 
 me along the old Yarmouth jetty, which was full of 
 holes, through which I saw the swaying waters below, 
 and was frightened, — as I well remember. I may 
 have been occupied with this idea on the second 
 occasion. The other anecdote is yet more odd. 
 When the great comet of 1811 appeared, I was nine 
 years old. Night after night that autumn, the 
 whole family went up to the long range of windows 
 in my father^ s warehouse to see the comet. I was 
 obliged to go with them ; but I never once saw it ! 
 My heart used to swell with disappointment and 
 
\? 
 
 162 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 mortification. No effort was wanting on my part ; 
 and parents, brothers and sisters used to point and 
 say, — '^ Why, there ! — why, it is as large as a saucer ! 
 You might as well say you cannot see the moon." I 
 could not help it. I never saw it ; and I have not 
 got over it yet. The only thing I can suppose 
 is, that I must have been looking for something 
 wholly different ; and that no straining of the eyes 
 avails if the mind is occupied with another image. 
 
 i,!^ '^ V ^ Yes, — I fainted one day from having, in a freak, 
 i^fj^ ^ put a musical snuff-box on my head. The delicious 
 
 'V*^"^' \ precision of the music, and the revival of the old 
 i^' clearness, after the muffled piece of confusion that 
 instrumental music had been to me for some years, 
 overcame me in a second of time. I am sure I 
 heard that performance quite as well as any body 
 could through the ear : and I have since clapped on 
 my head every musical snuff-box I could lay hands 
 on. You may like to know the following : — When I 
 had become just deaf enough to have difficulty in 
 catching the pitch of a piece of music, in the concert- 
 room we attended, which had benches, with a long 
 wooden rail to lean against, I could always get 
 right by pressing my shoulder-blades against that 
 rail : only, the pitch was always a third below. Find- 
 ing this with music which I was familiar with, I 
 soon got to allow for it always, and so did veiy well 
 for the time. As the deafness increased, I found all 
 bass sounds lose their smoothness, and come in 
 pulses, beating upon the ear, and vibrating through 
 the pit of the stomach, while, as yet, higher sounds 
 
RAISING QUESTIONS. 163 
 
 were as formerly. And even now, treble voices are 
 smooth, as far as I hear them, while confused ; and 
 the bass are lost. Before I quite left off playing the 
 piano, I always took the treble part in duets, leaving 
 it to my partner to fit the bass to it, without any 
 cognizance of mine^ 
 
 Now, do tell me, if it is a thing which can be ex- 
 plained, or on which it is possible to have any clear 
 ideas, — how a dying person, or the event of his dying, 
 acts upon persons at a distance. I am in no way 
 disposed to question the fact of such " apparitions,^' 
 or ghosts, as they are called ; but, while I am obliged 
 to reject the customary notions, theological and phi- 
 losophical, about these phenomena, I am unprepared 
 with any solution. I am thankful to say that I need 
 not trouble you to answer, in me, the popular notions 
 about a spiritual state ; but you must addi'ess your- 
 self to an entire ignorance of the conditions under 
 which such perceptions occur. I could tell you 
 curious stories of such apparitions : — but so can 
 everybody ; and really we want no more evidence, — 
 at least, you and I do not. 
 
 Tell me, too, how you conceive that om* conscious- 
 ness of continued identity is accounted for, while our 
 whole frame (every organ of the brain among the 
 rest), is incessantly undergoing waste and renewal. 
 And is not the grand feature of Death the cessation 
 of this consciousness of continued identity ? And is 
 not this enough to sever the change of Death widely 
 from every other change of stnicture we undergo, 
 so that they cannot be likened but by a kind of 
 
164 man's nature and development. 
 
 / 
 violence ? /As to the fallacy of all arguments for a 
 
 conscious existence after deaths I agree with you 
 
 entirely. I think that, not only is the desire taken 
 
 for e\ddencej but the desire itself is a factitious 
 
 thing ; that many (and this I know) do not desire 
 
 it at all ; and that others never would, if it were not 
 
 forced upon them from the hour of the awakening of 
 
 the understanding. The argument of Compensation, 
 
 by means of a future life, appears to me as puerile 
 
 and nnphilosophical as the Design argument in 
 
 regard to " Creation,^' or the existence of things. — J7 
 
 Pray tell me, too, whether, in this last letter, you do 
 
 not, in speaking of God, use merely another name 
 
 for law ? We know nothing beyond law, do 
 
 we ? And when you speak of God as the origin 
 
 of all things, what is it that you mean ? Do we 
 
 know anything of origin ? — that it is possible ? Is 
 
 it conceivable to you that there was ever Nothing ? — 
 
 and that Something came of it ? I know how we 
 
 get out of om' depth in speaking of these things ; 
 
 but I should like to be aware where, exactly, you 
 
 think our knowledge stops. 
 
BACON ON MATTER ANI> CAUSATION. 165 
 
 XVI. 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 I will endeavour to reply to this last letter of 
 yours^ and the difficult questions you propose, as 
 well as my poor thoughts mil aid me. With regard 
 to the blind lady^s case, I wdll try to obtain for you 
 more precise details. The matter has opened an in- 
 teresting train of reflections as to the possibility of 
 such an experience,, and to the nature of sight. It 
 will lead us to consider the distinction between the 
 first — the immediate sense impression of objects, 
 and the after or image impression, — the paintings or 
 shadowed drawings in the mind when the sense is 
 closed. We shall consider, likewise, the circum- 
 stances under which these images are projected, as it 
 were, to appear like the real or first impressions, and 
 shall also have to consider whether there be any dis- 
 tinction between our ordinaiy sense impressions and 
 the clairvoyant impressions, and the difi"erent cha- 
 racters of those clairvoyant recognitions ; and, again, 
 between the mere dream and true \dsion, and what 
 is the distinction between the sense the clairvoyant 
 has, in its clearest state, of appearances existing at the 
 time, and its picture of what has not yet occurred 
 (that which we term pre-vision), and whether these 
 clairvoyant recognitions, in either case, occur inde- 
 pendently of the perceptive organs which we consider 
 necessary to ordinary sight. I have not advanced far 
 
166 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 enough at present to give you these requisite defini- 
 tions ; but it is something attained^ perhaps^ to be 
 aware of the distinctions fundamental to the in- 
 quiry. 
 
 The foresight of what has not yet occurred is at 
 present a matter quite incomprehensible : and many 
 will say impossible^ who are in the habit of measuring 
 truth by their own ignorance and limited reason. We 
 who know* that such things are, are content to receive 
 the fact as it is, and wait for the explanation. I fully 
 agi'ee with you as to the necessity of defining terms. 
 I have remarked upon this, I think, in a former 
 letter. In my opinion, there are too many terms 
 signifying the same thing, and too many distinct 
 conditions included under one term. For instance, 
 force, \drtue, power, principle, property, spirit, soul, 
 &c., are used to signify the active character or quality 
 of a body; and yet what distinct matters are in- 
 cluded under the term virtue, spirit, soul, force ! 
 The difficulty of the matter has caused a confu- 
 sion of terms ; and some of these are, of course, 
 absurd enough ; such as immaterial substance, in 
 corporeal body, or free will : and the confusion of 
 terms again enslaves the understanding, ^'^ and throws 
 eveiything into confusion, and leads mankind into 
 vain and innumerable controversies and fallacies.^' 
 I see no method of clearing the way but by closer 
 observation of nature, and by more precise defini- 
 tions of all true characteristics and distinctions. 
 Bacon says, the motions corporeal in bodies, — that 
 * Appendix I. 
 
BACON ON MATTER AND CAUSATION. 167 
 
 is, the effects which pass between the spirit and the 
 tangible parts, — are not handled, " but they are put 
 off by the names of virtues, and natures, and ac- 
 tions, and passions, and such other logical words /^ 
 Bacon speaks very positively with regard to a spiri- 
 tual nature in things, and says, "It is not a question 
 of words, but infinitely material in nature/^ ^' For 
 spirits are nothing else but a natural body, rarefied 
 to a proportion, and included in the tangible parts 
 of bodies, as in an integument/^* It is in this sense 
 that I have used the term Spirit, to express a rare 
 and subtle condition of matter. Hobbes uses the 
 term Spirit as the contraiy distinction to phantasm. 
 
 I have just seen the translation of Reichenbach's 
 " Physico-physiological Researches, in relation to 
 Vital Force,^^ with notes by Dr. Ashbumer. 
 Reichenbach speaks of the immaterial essence of 
 light, for which speech Dr. Ashburner calls him to 
 account, and declares for matter only. " It is the 
 atheist,^-' he says, " who believes in nothing.^' [1 
 confess that I can as little understand Dr. A.^s 
 meaning about the atheist believing in nothing as 
 Baron^eichenbacVs, about an immaterial essence of 
 light. ) But Reichenbach is a clear-headed man, and 
 I dare say he is right enough in his meaning ; but, 
 as you ask about the nature of Light, I wish that his 
 term had been defined. 
 
 Let us consider what Bacon thought about Matter, 
 which he declares "the Cause of causes,t itself without 
 
 * Natural History, Cent. I. sec. 98. 
 t Appendix K. 
 
168 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 a cause/' He says,* — " For a true philosopher will 
 dissect, not sever Nature, (for they who will not dis- 
 sect must pull her asunder,) and the prime matter is 
 to be laid down, joined with the primitive form, as 
 also with the first principle of motion, as it is found. 
 For the abstraction of motion has also given rise 
 to innumerable devicesf concerning spirits — -life and 
 the like, — as if there were not laid a sufficient 
 gi'ound for them through Matter and Form, but they 
 depended on their owti peculiar elements. But these 
 three are not to be separated, but only distinguished j 
 and matter is to be treated (whatever it be) in regard 
 of its adornment, appendages, and form, as that all 
 kind of influence, essence, action, and natural motion 
 may appear to be its emanation and consequence. 
 Nor need we fear that, from this, inquiry should 
 stagnate, or that variety which we perceive, should 
 become incapable of explanation. "'' How earnestly 
 Bacon admonishes us at every turn to cast away all 
 theological notions whatsoever from our philosophical 
 inquiries ! — that it must be constantly in the philo- 
 sopher's thoughts that Cupid (who represents the 
 elements of things, or fundamental nature) is with- 
 out parents, lest, perchance, his understanding turn 
 aside to empty questions ; because, in universal per- 
 ceptions of this kind, the human mind becomes 
 diffusive, and departs from the right use of itself, and 
 of its objects ; and, whilst it tends towards things 
 more distant, falls back upon those that are nearer to 
 final causes and its own natui'C, which is but a result 
 * De Cupidine. f Appendix L. 
 
BACOX OX MATTER AXD CAL'SATIOX. 169 
 
 in universal nature. Again^ he says^* — " Almost all 
 the ancients — Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Anaximenes, 
 Heraclitus, Democritus, — though disagreeing in other 
 respects upon the prime matter^ joined in this, — that 
 they held an active matter with a form, both arrang- 
 ing its own form, and having within itself the principle 
 of motion. Nor can any one think otherwise, with- 
 out leaving experience altogether. All these, then, 
 submitted their minds to nature.^' And again, he 
 says, — " But whilst the dicta of Aristotle and Plato 
 are celebrated with applause and professional osten- 
 tation in the schools, the philosophy of Democritus 
 was in great repute among the wiser sort, and those 
 who more closely gave themselves to the depth and 
 silence of contemplation.^^ 
 
 T have quoted these passages, because I think the 
 best way towards mending our terms, or agreeing 
 on their signification, is to endeavour to clear our 
 understandings from the beginning ; and this trinity 
 in unity described by Bacon, seems to be a sound 
 commencement ; Matter, Fonii, and the principle of 
 IMotion, or the power or mind of Nature, if such ex- 
 pressions be preferred, as more nearly indicating the 
 varied form and laws of Nature. As a man sees 
 himself reflected in a stream, so Nature, it may be 
 said, sees herself in man^s mind ; but only as a form 
 of her external condition : and by glimpses theolo- 
 gians have supposed man to be superior and inde- 
 pendent of the laws of Nature; whereas, he is but 
 the minister and interpreter of the law, to which he 
 * De Cupidine. 
 I 
 
170 
 
 is himself subject. He is but a part and parcel of 
 tlie whole. A flint stone might become a mirror^ in 
 which a philosopher could see himself : but under 
 new circumstances^ this Proteus matter^ — this veiy 
 mirror which had been a flint stone^ — might dissolve 
 away^ and re-form into a philosopher : and, in place 
 of the reflecting mirror^ we should have^ gradually 
 evolved from the principle of motion^ the phenomena 
 of mind. All is change^ — change eternal. Motion 
 is fundamental to the constitution of nature ; and 
 the forms of Matter,, and the condition of ]Mind 
 (which is one form of the properties of matter), are all 
 passing phenomena, fleeting and var^ang as the wind ; 
 equally determined by law, — bound down by the 
 adamantine chain of Necessity. For it is the ex- 
 tremest folly to imagine absolute freedom, or that 
 there is any inertness in matter, or chance-work in 
 nature, or in mind, which is the reflection or inter- 
 action of nature. There is nothing stable but what 
 we conceive to be fundamental to all these forms and 
 changes, but which is beyond sense impressions. 
 We assume a something and a principle, because the 
 form of mind requires it, as a thing essential, though 
 unknown : and it is this which I wi'ongly enough 
 perhaps termed God. It is that which the ancients 
 so prettily fabled as Cupid ; meaning the cause of 
 things, itself without a cause. " It is sui genei^is, 
 and admits of no deflnition drawn from the percep- 
 tion, and is to be taken just as it is found, and not to 
 be judged of from any pre-conceived idea.^^ But men 
 are not satisfied with a mystery, or content to sus- 
 
BACON OX MATTER AND CAUSATION. 171 
 
 pend their judgment. In the conceit of their igno- 
 rance, they anticipate nature, and pre-judge every 
 novelty. Even the noblest work of Man, the No-^ 
 vum Organon, was ndiculed when it appeared, not- 
 withstanding the great repute and high position of 
 the Chancellor. — Hence^he history of Man is a 
 history* of the persecutions of the world's benefactors 
 — of the bravest, the best, and the wisest men. All 
 this is caused by absurd creeds, and the ignorant 
 clamour of the interested, crying, " Great is Diana of 
 the Ephesians.''' Not being content to suppose 
 eternal and inherent principles and laws of nature, 
 evolving the sequence of events, and all the changes 
 and forms of being, they jump the mystery, and sup- 
 pose a beginning in time, and a creation ; — a some- 
 thing from nothing, and confounding sequence with 
 cause, and manufacture with creation, suppose a 
 Creator after the likeness of Man : in fact, ease 
 themselves of a difficidt}^, by imagining an impossi- 
 bility.^ Surely, if the inhabitants of some of the 
 myriad worlds, which shine in space around us, coidd 
 look upon us (and perhaps some of them can), they 
 must wonder at our follies and presumption. It is 
 thought fine logic, to suppose an extra cause of fun- 
 damental nature ; and yet the same logic does not 
 lead men to the necessity of a cause for this cause, 
 ad infnitum. If you imagine an extra cause, and 
 stop there, what are you but an Atheist at one I'e- 
 move ? And believing that three separate persons 
 are one person, and that the Son is the Eathei*, and 
 
 * Appendix M. 
 I 2 
 
172 UMAX'S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 that the cause reconciled itself to itsolf^ to the doings 
 of that child it had itself created and found perfect^ 
 by destroying itself certainly does not make the logic 
 more perfect,, or deter & reasonable man from con- 
 sidering the origin of opinions^ and of the various 
 theologies and creeds by which men are possessed. 
 It is very certain that theologians* have failed to reform 
 the world. All our hopes now lie in a true under- 
 standing and philosophy of man^s nature^ when(all 
 theologies will be found to be the offspring principally 
 of abnormal conditions or disease.") Men once be- 
 lievedj and I suppose savages do now believe^ that 
 the earth was a flat plane, and the sun and stars 
 were lights placed on the blue arch of heaven, for 
 this workVs use : but would they have supposed the 
 God of the universe to be taking so much special care 
 of Man as of a few chosen people, on this little speck 
 of earth, if they had conceived the infinite, and the 
 infinite worlds in space, or known that Herschel 
 would see light from worlds by his glass, that had 
 taken two millions of years in reaching this earth ? 
 Let us write dowTi million upon million, and for a 
 whole long lifetime, and strain imagination to its 
 extremest limit, and we shall not have nibbled away 
 a noticeable bit out of the immeasui'eable, inconceiv- 
 able, infinite. The sense of our arrogance might 
 well cause us to fall down in shame before the con- 
 templation of the solemn, I had almost said the terrible 
 infinite. Our theologies partake necessarily of the 
 presumption and contracted notions of a village 
 * Appendix N. 
 
BACON ON MATTER AND CAUSATION. 173 
 
 gossip, or of the man who thinks himself specially 
 elected for ^-race and heaven. Philosophy finds no 
 God in nature ; no personal being or creator, nor sees 
 the want of any : nor has a God revealed himself 
 miraculously; for the idea is in the mind of most 
 savage nations, because under like influences like 
 effects mil occur. The human mind, wherever placed 
 under similar circumstances of ignorance, will form 
 similar conceptions, and have similar longings and 
 superstitions. But that men in a thousand opposing 
 creeds* should be enslaved by the dreams of the 
 savage, and the ignorant superstitions of an infant 
 state of the world, only shows that the philosophy of 
 Man is but just beginning, and has jet to struggle 
 through an entangled jungle of prejudices into life. 
 Men still worship idols of one shape or another ; an 
 insect, or bird, or quadi'uped, or an ideal image of 
 themselves, a fiend, a warrior, or a thing to be flat- 
 tered and persuaded, like a poor, vain, human creature. 
 '' It were better,^' says Bacon, " to have no opinion 
 of God at all, than such an opinion as is unvvorthy 
 of him ; for the one is unbelief, the other is con- 
 tumely : and certainly superstition is the reproach of 
 the deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose : 
 ' Surely I had rather a great deal men should say 
 there was no such man^ at all as Plutarch, than that 
 they should say that there was one Plutarch that 
 would eat his children as soon as they were born/^^t 
 Now, to create a being to fall, and all other genera- 
 
 * Appendix O. 
 
 t Essays, XVIL, of Superstition. 
 
174 
 
 tions to suffer as on account of this error (for sin it 
 could not be), and to predestine what need not have 
 been created, to eternal damnation, does not show 
 very unlike a creature that would devour its own 
 childi'en as soon as they w^ere bom. If men will 
 make a fable for that which is beyond our compre- 
 hension, let the poetry be sublime, and worthy of 
 the subject. Let the God be an ideal abstract of all 
 that is unimpassioned, noble, and elevating : and 
 above all, let it be a mystery ; not a thing carved in 
 stone, or shaped out in blood and bone ; a thing of 
 human passions and imperfections, fabricating that 
 which it afterwards finds imperfect, and repenting 
 of having made it. But why go on with all the 
 details of this amazing belief; a belief, not of a few 
 miserable savages, but the belief of civilized Europe ? 
 Then, be deferential and humble as you may, what 
 can you conclude, but, with Bacon, that an universal 
 insanity reigns in men^s minds ? It is quite impos- 
 sible that a mind like Bacon^s, having any belief in, 
 or respect for, the Christian dogmas, could have placed 
 the matter in such a ridiculous light as he has done 
 in the Christian Paradoxes ; and it seems equally vain 
 to argue that they were not his writings, or done 
 only as an exercise of his wit. The Confession of 
 Faith seems only a showing of w4iat the faith of a 
 believing Christian should be, and in the least ob- 
 jectionable form. There is yet very little daylight of 
 intelligence in the world. Man^s mind is twisted 
 into a thousand fantastic shapes, and paralyzed by 
 system and authority. Bacon well knew that he must 
 
BACON ON MATTER AND CAUSATION. 175 
 
 first tr}" with a new broom to sweep a passage way 
 for reason to act in. He also knew the peril he was 
 in, and was forced to degrade himself and the truth 
 beneath a mask. What has been thought to be 
 di\ine, and prophecy, and miracle,* and inspii-ation, 
 &c,, and upon which phenomena all the various pro- 
 minent faiths have been founded, we now know to 
 be doings of Nature, — effects of abnormal conditions 
 of Man. Prophecy, clairvoyance, healing by touch,t 
 visions, dreams, revelations, and the delusion of be- 
 ne\dng themselves divinely inspired, are now known 
 to be simple matters in nature, which may be induced 
 at will, and experimented upon at our firesides, here 
 in London, — (climate and other circumstances per- 
 mitting) — as well as in the " holy land.^^ In nature 
 there can be no favouritism or predestination, though 
 all things be fated as being according to law ; law 
 which rules impartially, though individuals suffer 
 cruel extremities from necessity; ail evil, however, hav- 
 ing some tendency towards universal good, as manure 
 
 • " How many things do we call miracle and contrary to 
 Nature ! This is done by every nation, and by every man, 
 according to the proportion of his ignorance. How many 
 occult properties and quintessences do we daily discover! For, 
 for us to go ' according to nature ' is no more but to go ' ac- 
 cording to oiu- understanding/ as far as that is able to follow, 
 and as far as we are able to see into it. All beyond that is, 
 forsooth, monstrous and irregular." — Montaigyie. 
 
 " Miracles appear to be so, according to our ignorance of 
 nature, and not according to the essence of matter." — Mon- 
 taigne. 
 
 t Appendix P. 
 
176 :\rAN's nature axd development. 
 
 and decaying matter are the substance essential to 
 regeneration and the golden harvest. But men fancy 
 that they recognize the doings of a mind like their 
 own in nature^ instead of perceiving that they are of 
 a form cast from nature^ and a response to the sur- 
 face^ or phenomenal form of things without. Thus 
 deluding themselves, they wander after final causes, 
 and by an inverted reason see their own image in 
 nature, and imagine design and a designer, — creation 
 and a creator ; as if the laws of matter were not 
 fundamental, and sufficient in themselves, and design 
 were not human, and simply an imitation; or, as 
 Bacon designates it, " a memoi-y with an applica- 
 tion." To call Nature^s doings, and the fitness and 
 form of things, design, is absurd. Man designs : 
 Nature is. But how little the real spirit of Bacon^s 
 philosophy, and the aim of his labours, has yet 
 influenced the world ! Men are still wi-iting Chris- 
 tian Geology, and Christian Phrenology ; and, I sup- 
 pose, Mohammedan Phrenology, and Jewish Phre- 
 nology : and the facts of Mesmerism are perverted 
 to suit every one's theological opinions ; — to support 
 a belief in ghosts, or in miracles, or in the Thirty- 
 nine Articles. Some are running after new revela- 
 tions ; others denouncing all new revelations, and 
 clinging to old ones. The Rev. G. Sandby's in- 
 terestmg work on " Mesmerism and its Opponents," 
 in which he endeavours to support miracles* by limit- 
 ing Christ's natural powers and insight, is an in- 
 stance. Men do not perceive that the arguments 
 * Appendix Q. 
 
BACOX ON MATTER AND CAUSATION. 177 
 
 which tell against a new revelation tell with eq-aal 
 force against the old. 
 
 Sir Charles Bell set about proving design and a 
 designer from the hand. Another gentleman would 
 infer a God from an organ in the brain. Lord 
 Brougham holds out Paley, and the logic of the 
 watch story, and declares that mind does not age 
 with the body, but is independent of it ; all which 
 is most fanciful, and w^holly fallacious. You remem- 
 ber that De ^laistre, a Roman Catholic w^riter of 
 celebrity, has attacked Bacon^s philosophy in two 
 goodly volumes, as Materialism and Atheism. Bacon 
 has told us how" necessary it was to use disguise ; 
 and I fear this masking was carried further than was 
 absolutely necessary for his own security, and for 
 engaging a hearing* for his own philosophy. Be this 
 as it may, De Maistre has torn off the disguise ; and 
 while endeavouring to injure Bacon^s reputation, and 
 do a service to the Church, has done the best thing 
 he could have done for philosophy : and only what, 
 doubtless. Bacon anticipated when he said that he 
 had held up a light in the obscurity of philosophy 
 which would be seen centuries after he w^as dead. 
 He laments that he cannot " dismiss all art and cir- 
 cumstance, and exhibit the matter naked to us, that 
 we might be enabled to use our judgment. Thinkest 
 thou,'' he says, '' that when all the accesses and 
 motions of all minds are besieged and obstructed by 
 the obscurest Idols, deeply rooted and branded in, 
 the sincere and polished areas present themselves in 
 * Appendix R. 
 i5 
 
178 man's nature and development. 
 
 the true and native rays of things : but as the deli- 
 rium of phrenetics is subdued by art and ingenuity, 
 but by force and contention raised to fury : so, in 
 this universal insanity, we must use moderation/' 
 When a boy at college, he was impressed with what 
 he repeats when he was Chancellor. " In the Uni- 
 versities,'' he says, " they learn nothing but to be- 
 lieve : first, to believe that others know that which 
 they know not : and after, themselves know that 
 which they know not. They are like a becalmed 
 ship : they never move but by the wind of other 
 men's breath, and have no oars of their own to steer 
 withal.'' He speaks of the fictions of those who 
 have not feared to deduce and confirm the truth of 
 the Christian religion by the principle and authority 
 of philosophers. " In short," he says, " you may 
 find all access to any species of philosophy, however 
 ])urc, intercepted by the ignorance of divines." 
 
 Bacon seems to mean by atheism, the mere dwell- 
 ing on " second causes scattered," — the sequence 
 of events, as if brought about by a chance; and 
 hardly believes in the existence of atheism; — that 
 any one can be so stupid as not to perceive the 
 necessity of a fundamental matter, form, and law ; 
 and says therefore that even that school which is 
 most accused of atheism doth most demonstrate 
 religion : that is, the school of Leucippus, Democri- 
 tus, and Epicurus. The forms and laws of nature 
 Bacon sometimes calls the Mind of Nature ; and thus 
 he is excused for exclaiming, what would otherwise 
 from him be ridiculous and inconsistent, that he 
 
BACON ON MATTER AND CAUSATION. 179 
 
 *' had ratlier believe all the fables in the Legend, and 
 the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this uni- 
 versal frame is without a mind,^' or an affair of 
 chance j which would be nonsense, and clearly im- 
 possible. But in his Essay on Superstition, he speaks 
 approvingly of atheism, meaning the not believing 
 the dogmas of the Church, as leaving a man to sense, 
 to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputa- 
 tion. "And we sce,^^ he says, "the times inclined to 
 atheism (as the time of Augustus Ca3sar) were civil 
 times ; but superstition hath been the confusion of 
 many states, and bringcth in a new primum mobile 
 that ra\dshcth all the spheres of government. The 
 master of superstition is the people ; and in all su- 
 perstition, wise men follow fools; and arguments 
 are fitted to practice in a reversed ordcr.^^ If this be 
 true in these times, it would seem that all statesmen 
 should encourage atheism, as a means of preserving 
 order and good conduct. 
 
 Bacon protests against retributive judgments, and 
 against any interference with the laws of nature, which 
 he considers fixed and eternal ; and the ])ropcrties 
 of matter to be "self-sustained,^^ "as an adamantine 
 necessity of nature,'^ and the primitive matter to be 
 " the cause of causes, itself without a cause. ^^ 
 " For there is a certain limit of causes in nature ; 
 and it would ai-gue levity and inexperience in a 
 philosopher to require or imagine a cause for the last 
 and positive power and law of nature, as much as it 
 would not to demand a cause in those that arc 
 subordinate.'^* "Wliat can be inferred from this but 
 * De Cupidine. 
 
180 man's nature and development. 
 
 that to require a cause beyond nature, and out of 
 nature (which includes both second causes and the 
 first cause ; but_, in fact, there is but one, the first 
 cause ; and vrhat is called second cause is but the 
 form and sequence), argues levity and inexperience ? 
 but, nevertheless, he added to the cause and causes 
 {" God excepted '■') . That was to save his position 
 and chancellorship ; and he left the inconsistency to 
 be unravelled in futui'e time, when the age was ripe 
 for the whole truth being clearly understood : in 
 which times we now live. Bacon takes care, again 
 and again, to show you that you cannot perceive in 
 nature anything but phenomena. You cannot per- 
 ceive the workman in the work ; that is, the cause 
 in the phenomena — the fundamental cause of causes 
 — which is beyond the power of the senses and the 
 understanding. Speaking of the idols of the mind, 
 he declares against the idea of the first cause being 
 of human shape, or of human mind, and says, " For 
 if that great Morkmaster had been of a human dis- 
 position,-*' &c. In another place, he considers the 
 idea (maintained by the author of "The Vestiges'^) 
 of the formation of matter on mind, or " archetypal 
 ideas,'' as one of the phantasms, or spectral illu- 
 sions floating about, and playing on the surface of 
 things. It is fine to hear the thunder of Bacon's 
 eloquence against the arrogance and ignorance and 
 persecuting spirit of the theologians. Only a few 
 years before, the aged Galileo W8s taken before the 
 Inquisition, and forced to " declare truth to be what 
 the Church pleased, not what was declared in nature. 
 
BACON ON MATTER AND CArSATION. 181 
 
 but what was in ' the Holy Scriptures/ '' And 
 think you those times are passed, and men are now 
 pure and tolerant ? Have we no living instances ? 
 ^Vas not Lawrence forced to retract his opinion ? 
 And are not those noblest experiments of the age 
 by Mr. Crosse* regarded with religious horror, and 
 ridiculed by many ? Bacon denounces all introduc- 
 tion of abstracted forms, fantastical essences, final 
 causes, or first causes, to interfere vA\h. the simple 
 laws of nature, and of matter as we find it. For 
 when " Folly is worshipped/^ he says, " it is, as it 
 were, a plague-spot upon the understanding/' ^' Yet 
 some modern st have indulged this folly with consum- 
 mate inconsiderateness, that they have endeavoured 
 to build a system of natural philosophy on the first 
 chapter of Genesis, the Book of Job, and other parts 
 of Scripture, seeking thus the dead among the 
 living/' "The absurdities of some among them 
 having proceeded so far, as to seek to derive the 
 sciences from spirits and genii/' It is only lately 
 that we have ceased to believe that mad people are 
 possessed by demons ; and many now believe, as our 
 friend Mrs. Crowe, that the world is full of ghosts ; 
 and others dislike Mesmerism and Phrenology on ac- 
 count of religion, and consider that the cures by 
 Mesmerism are the casting out of devils by the 
 prince of devils. Time, Space and Causation are 
 ultimate facts recognised by appropriate faculties of 
 mind. Creation is a distinct idea from Causation, 
 
 * Appendix S. 
 
 I Novum Organum, Lib. I., Aph. 65. 
 
182 man's nature and development. 
 
 or the doings of innate and existent powers and 
 tendencies of matter; and, like immateriality of 
 being, is a fancy wholly unrealizable ; an absm*dity 
 arising out of the confusion of ideas from false 
 analogy. A man models or re-constructs what is, 
 but does not create ; his mind and will are wholly a 
 result and consequent, and not a primitive determin- 
 ing cause. His mind recognizes the phenomenal 
 world, as that world is to it ; but of the fundamental, 
 the infinite, the universal, it knows nothing : and to 
 imagine a cause like itself is to confound effects with 
 causes, and to lose the little sense which we have, 
 and to shut our eyes to that truth and nature which 
 we might have, and that good which is the fruit of 
 the tree of knowledge. 
 
 No one can read the Novum Organon, the 
 Advancement of Learning, the Fable of Cupid, or 
 the Christian Paradoxes, without perceiving clearly 
 the true nature of Bacon^s mind, and that his 
 religious professions were mere shams to shield him- 
 self from his enemies. Bacon seems to have been 
 ever practising the craft of his wit ; and he declared 
 that it was impossible to speak the truth openly : 
 that he must nurse men^s minds, and prepare them 
 for the light, and graft upon the least objectionable 
 of the old stock to obtain a hearing. He acted like 
 a waiy politician and a lawyer : and I think, even 
 for the dangerous and troubled times in which he 
 lived, he sometimes overacted. He admonished you 
 to be wise as a serpent ; and this he was himself; 
 but not always, I fear, as harmless as a dove. How- 
 
INFERENCES ANT) DREAMS. 183 
 
 ever, it may be difficult to weigh the conduct and 
 motives justly of such an original and vast intellect 
 as Bacon's. But I need not wonder at Bacon when 
 I know men in these present times facing the world 
 with a greater hj^ocrisy even than Bacon used. It 
 is time all this masquerading was at an end ; and 
 when it is good for others to hear, let us never think 
 whether or not it is wise for us to speak. Men who 
 think of expediency in questions of fact will soon 
 learn to be false and dishonest, and find for their 
 conscience plausible pretexts for their misdemeanom's. 
 Better to be plain spoken (tempering courage with 
 modesty) : and if the tide shoidd sink us, what 
 matter ? Better so, than to live in corruption. Or, 
 as the Scriptui'e has it in a selfish view, what will it 
 jirofit 3'ou to gain the whole world, and lose your 
 o^\Ti soul ? Or, in other words, for what shall you 
 exchange your love of truth, your sense of right, 
 your impulse towards candour, and the desire of 
 progi'ess and universal happiness, and the fruits of 
 knowledge, — of knowledge generally, — but the know- 
 ledge of Man, and the natui'al history of his mind, in 
 particular ? Shall you know of water in the desert, 
 and be silent, and see men perish of thirst ? 
 
 It is certainly a startling fact to those who believe 
 the resurrection of the body, that the substance of 
 the body should be constantly renewed; and, at 
 first, this fact seems to favour the idea of a soul, or 
 spirit, or mind, entirely separate from, and indepen- 
 dent of, the bodv. But, on re-consideration, we find, 
 
184. MAN^S NATURE AND DE^TiLOPMENT. 
 
 as I have explained in my last, that the matter is 
 simple enough, and has its place in the general order 
 and doings of Natm-e. New matter becomes gra- 
 dually substituted for the old, and takes its form : is 
 immediately leavened or possessed with the natm'e of 
 its position, and the condition of the being of whom it 
 composes a part. Each part of the frame gives its 
 condition to the new comer : and thus, not only the 
 brain, but the lungs, stomach, liver, hair, bones, &c., 
 continue the individuality and peculiarities of the 
 person, even to the latent qualities which may pass 
 through one generation, and come out into relief in 
 a third or fourth. In the same way, the memory of 
 the past and personality are continued, and inces- 
 santly transferred from matter to matter, and from 
 body to body, and we retain the sense of personality, 
 and thememoiy or sense of the sequence of om' lives. 
 One thing we must not forget ; that whether we be 
 considered the result of the body, or of the body used 
 as an instrument by a mind -being, we must be 
 equally the result of inherent law — be the result 
 or sequence of nature : for, if the mind be a separate 
 and independent being, it must, to be at all, have a 
 nature or law of some kind : and, if minds were all 
 equal, they would all act precisely alike, under like 
 circumstances. If not originally or fundamentally 
 alike, then the result must be in precise accordance 
 with that difference. I mean, that it is not the fact 
 of our being the result of matter, or the working from 
 and in matter, that causes the non-responsibility ; but 
 the necessity that whatever is, must have a nature of 
 
INFERENCES AND DREAMS. 185 
 
 some kind^ and must be subject to, and be its own 
 form and law. I mention tbis simply because many 
 persons believe tbat it is only tbe material and Ba- 
 conian pbilosopby w^bicb subjects ]\Ian to tbe rule of 
 necessity : and tbat wben free from substance, be 
 vfould be free in nature : wbicb is an absurdity, and 
 a mere delusion of tbe fancy. 
 
 I quite agree witb w^bat you say about tbe idea of 
 anotber life. Tbe desire of a future existence is 
 merely a pampered babit of mind, founded upon tbe 
 instinct of preservation. It is a longing ; and tbose 
 who bave it, are like drinkers or cbildi'en. Tbe 
 drunkard looks upon tbe water drinker as a lower 
 species of animal, and cannot understand bis doing 
 witbout tbe desire of drinking. Tbe child fancies its 
 own little enjoyment and promised holiday to be all 
 in all, and tbe whole world of pleasure. The young 
 man is iuAdted to No. 7, in the TeiTace, sees a young 
 lady, goes home and dreams of her, and thinks that 
 on the possession of that one woman depends his 
 happiness ; and he pities all besides for their ill luck 
 or indifference. But, had he gone to No. 8, instead 
 of No. 7, he might have seen another young lady of 
 whom he would bave thought in precisely the same 
 manner. " Such tricks bath strong imagination," 
 and such are the reasonings of desire. — It is, of 
 course, in tbe same way with a religious faith, which 
 is acquired from parents, or from the community in 
 which we live. The Jew remains a Jew, the Chris- 
 tian a Christian, and the Mohammedan a Moham- 
 medan. Each remains fixed and immoveable, as if 
 
186 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 they were casts from a mould, — which indeed they 
 are. Each is ready to die for his behef; for all his hopes 
 become centred in that belief : and yet this belief — 
 what is it but the mere accident of his birth ? — the 
 conventionalism and hereditary insanity of his class ? 
 Every one can see the extreme folly of his neighboui-^s 
 belief : but his own is a divine mystery,— a thing too 
 high for human reason. The lover worships Helenas 
 beauty in a brow of Egypt. The theologian will 
 worship bad logic, bad morality and impotency, as 
 the highest excellence : and, just as the lover was 
 caught by Miss Smith at No. 7, instead of by Miss 
 Brown at No. 8, so, from such a house you may 
 safely predict will come forth a race of Jews, and out 
 of the next a race of Jumpers : just as certainly as a 
 cat will have kittens and a dog puppies. A French- 
 man speaks French, an Englishman, English : but 
 Man is entranced, — dead asleep, — and there is no 
 power in words to cause him to wake, and see these 
 things, so full of amazement and humiliation to his 
 spiritual pride. When men awake, they will not be- 
 lieve that they have been doing and thinking what 
 they have. It mil appear all as a dream. But it is 
 no dream. It is a paralysis of one side of the under- 
 standing ; a lost sense ; a hereditaiy or induced 
 blindness ; but the lights which are already glim- 
 mering about the new philosophy will soon grow 
 brighter, and begin to arouse men from their slumber. 
 As regards belief in a future existence, the greater 
 number who receive this as a most pleasing doctrine 
 of faith, consider that we transfer our affections and 
 
INFERENCES AND DREAMS. 187 
 
 desires to the other worlds and shall there again meet 
 what has been dear to ns in this life. The wife ex- 
 pects to meet her husband and her child ; the plough- 
 boy to sit on a gate-post, and eat fat bacon all day- 
 long. Swedenborg^s notions tally wdth these worldly 
 ideas and fireside doctrines. Few would care for 
 heaven, if they were to leave all their associates in 
 this life, and become something else. I see no great 
 harm in the fancy of another life, so long as it does 
 not interfere with our good conduct in this, nor in- 
 clude the horrors of Hell, and di-ive men mad, or 
 destroy their courage and true magnanimity. So 
 long as we recognize no spiritual influences interfer- 
 ing with natural law, the day dream of another life 
 may be harmless enough. 
 
 In considering the nature of this continued iden- 
 tity, which is no more wonder than the continued 
 form of anything else, or the continued reproduction 
 of the same type, — an oak from an oak, a man from 
 a man, — we find the power chiefly to consist in habit 
 or memory, and the ability to reproduce impressions, 
 in the sequence in which they have occmi-ed, and in 
 relation to time and place. Identity is a matter of 
 memory, or an individualizing of the sequence. When 
 this does not exist, as in cases of double conscious- 
 ness, there is no identity. Many cases have occurred 
 in my experiments, when sleep -wakers have not 
 known themselves ; and some have every thing to 
 learn afresh in these states. Identity is memory 
 occurring with the sense of personality. I seem to 
 be the same that I was yesterday ; but I have no 
 
188 man's nature and development. 
 
 notion of identity ^dth what I was_, where memory 
 does not hold — when a child^ or when a baby, for 
 instance ; nor can I say when I first became a being, 
 or had the sense of personality. What becomes of 
 identity when a man believes himself a piece of glass? 
 In Bethlem Hospital there are two madmen, who 
 disputed which of them was the Christ ; each iden- 
 tifying himself with Christ. At last, some one 
 suggested that one might be Christ and the other 
 the Saviour. They were quite satisfied; and they 
 address each other now as Christ and the Saviour. 
 It is true, these are madmen, and exceptions : but to 
 a law of nature there are no exceptions. We may 
 argue that soap bubbles that we see floating in the 
 air are solid bodies : but if one comes against the 
 wall and bursts, our fancy is destroyed at the same 
 moment. One false case of identity takes away all 
 reliance or argimient, as to the continuity or unity of 
 being from the ordinary sense of identity. 
 
 With regard to the future, we experience conscious- 
 ness at rest in sleep, — annihilation for a period ; and 
 we contemplate all nature changing, and every form 
 falling away. Stones, plants, animals, all passing 
 away; and we see that Man forms no exception. 
 Sleep is ever suggesting to us the idea of rest, and 
 using us to the idea : and my aged friend is pleased 
 to contemplate the image of a sleeping child, and 
 ready to welcome eternal rest when the change comes. 
 Such is all the hope and the peaceful contemplation 
 of a Baconian philosopher in his 80th year. " All 
 that which is past,'' says Bacon, '^ is as a dream ; 
 
 ! 
 
IXFEREXCES AND DREAMS. 189 
 
 and he that hopes or depends upon time coming, 
 dreams waking/^ And again, " I make not love to 
 the continuance of days ; but to the goodness of 
 them ; nor wish to die, but refer myself to my hour/^ 
 — But many seem to think there is something noble 
 in the belief of a future, and of a retribution ; and 
 of a Father in heaven, or a personal deity ; and can- 
 not conceive of the unselfish sublimity of a more 
 philosophical view of things. But what can be more 
 impressive than the idea of the infinite and the 
 eternal omnipresent Law, and principle of Nature ? — 
 that Man is of the dust ; and that consequently every 
 grain of dust contains the latent principle of human 
 nature^ and of instincts and powers perhaps higher 
 than mind has j^et conceived of; and infinite to our 
 conceptions ? What more noble and glorious than a 
 calm and joyful indifference about self and the 
 future, in merging the individual in the general 
 good, — the general good in universal nature ? And 
 what are all these creeds and conventionalities but 
 empty vanities, — a false show, — the swaddling clothes 
 of children, — the crutches on which decaying age, 
 broken down by false stimulants, supports itself ? 
 They are the false props and stays that have cramped 
 and spoiled the natural body, and hindered its deve- 
 lopment in a vigorous growth, and its being able to 
 sustain itself in true simplicity and dignity. But 
 when men have become accustomed to false stimulus, 
 it is hard to persuade them to taste water from the 
 pure spring : and it is only the knowledge of the 
 true philosophy of human beings, and the origin of 
 
190 man's nature and de^t:lopment. 
 
 all opinions and habits of thinking and feelings that 
 will change men's thoughts^ and temper their pas- 
 sions. 
 
 We may preach these things^ and men will think 
 us madj or something worse. Truth and the pro- 
 gress of humanity have at eveiy step of advance 
 been thought a desecration ; as Eldon thought it a 
 desecration of the law to propose doing away with 
 capital punishment for stealing a handkerchief. But 
 when we once fairly pass the next corner in progress^ 
 and men acknowledge the laws of mind^ persecution 
 will cease, and be regarded as the extremest folly: 
 as much so as when the child or its nurse beats the 
 stool over which the little one has fallen. Man, who 
 has seen himself only under a mask, will at length 
 see himself as he really is. This will be the greatest, 
 and the only wholly true and lasting revelation in 
 regard to Man, the world has received. We do not 
 war against anything that is true in any one's 
 thought or belief; nor against the rights of men 
 and of property in any sense ; but only against lies, 
 hypocrisy, and delusions of every sort. We desire 
 real freedom, — the freedom of the mind to perceive 
 clearly what is true, and to reason justly on all ques- 
 tions. This only can be the beginning of the reign 
 of love, when men shall no more be irritated, by 
 notions of free-will and responsibility, to revenge and 
 pride, or be pampered in any foolish longings what- 
 soever. Ts^ature and the mind shall then be no 
 longer cabined and cribbed by ignorance of the 
 human constitution, and by the quaint follies of 
 
INFERENCES AND DREAMS. 191 
 
 conventional fashions of tliought. Art must not trim 
 and deform^ but only imitate. Nature. Reason must 
 not anticipate and prejudge, but from tbe beginning 
 learn what is true. Nor need we fear too much 
 light ; or that Nature, and the nature of ^lan, will 
 err from any amount of real freedom and real know- 
 ledge we may acquire. We cannot go far enough, 
 or dive too deep, or spread our thoughts too wide, 
 so long as we hold close to the true method of in- 
 duction j for Man, the intei-preter of Nature, is 
 himself enclosed by the laws of Nature ; and Nature 
 cannot err : but the way has been devious ; and 
 men^s wildest fancies and greatest imperfections are 
 but the necessary steps in progress. 
 
 And what a hopeful and calming influence has 
 such a contemplation of Nature ! At this moment 
 it is not I, but the nature within me, that dictates 
 my speech, and guides my pen. I am what I am. 
 I cannot alter my will, or be other than what I am, 
 and cannot deserve either reward or punishment. 
 And why should I require another life, or form of 
 the same consciousness, or the same individuality 
 and identity? Why not every grain of sand that 
 spreads over the wilderness possess a living con- 
 dition ? Why should I live on in the future rather 
 than have existed through the infinite past, — as 
 some imagine they have done ? And what a chance 
 (if I may use the term) is my existing at all ! A 
 minute later, — nay, a second later, or the slightest 
 change of circumstance in my conception, and it 
 would not have been I that was born, but some one 
 
192 MAX'S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 else. The slightest con\ailsion in the world would 
 change the whole generation to come_, and the race 
 of beings consequently for ever. Wondrous thought! 
 But it is truths and who can doubt it? But enough 
 on this topic. Let us to another. 
 
 The great fact of the Association of Ideas may be 
 said, in the first place, to be founded on the arrange- 
 ment of the organs of the brain, in harmony with 
 the relations of the faculties. Thus the great fact 
 and principle of the Association of our Ideas and 
 feelings may be read upon the plan and associated 
 arrangements of the parts of the brain which I have 
 explained. We observe how the senses are asso- 
 ciated, and how one fact is conveyed by different 
 channels to the same organ, giving the same idea. 
 The touch, for instance, gives form ; and so does 
 the eye ; and so, in a measure, does the ear. The 
 senses help and correct each other; while, at the 
 same time, each has its particular province. The 
 Perceptive faculties are associated together, first in 
 recognizing an object; then its form, space, posi- 
 tion, colour, weight ; and then we consider its pro- 
 perties ; its use, its origin, its likeness or unlikeness 
 to other things ; its beauty, its construction, &c. : 
 and then we give it a name. In all this there is a 
 natural growth or evolution of one perception or idea 
 from and with another. One relation suggests or 
 evolves another; just as from the top of one hill 
 we view the next, or several others : and the whole 
 of these ideas, as relating to one object, group, or 
 
 ! 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 193 
 
 classj may be said to form one idea^ or one con- 
 ception of such ; almost as much so as a number 
 of sheep are associated together in the idea of a 
 flock. 
 
 The brain is one great organ_, or congeries of 
 organs, evolved together in certain relations, and 
 with certain capacities. It is a world within itself, 
 and yet relating to, and depending on, all that is 
 without. The mind evolved from the material of 
 the brain is an impress of Nature, and corresponds 
 with the nature and principles of the world without, 
 rising from the mere outward perception of things 
 to the workings of principles and laws. The mind 
 depends on the condition of the brain : the brain on 
 the condition of the rest of the body; food, stomach, 
 digestion, air, exercise, &c. ; and again, on all the 
 external circumstances with which it is impressed. 
 Of all these the mind is an exact result ; as much 
 so as any music is the result of the natui'e of the 
 instrument and the powers of the musician. The 
 mind, set in action, passes into its natural and ac- 
 quired harmonies or sympathies, just as the iEolian 
 harp does. The laws are as determined in the one 
 case as in the other, and the results present an exact 
 correspondence ; for it is the same Nature, acting in 
 different spheres or forms. You have the bird^s 
 mind in its song; and you have the Man's mind in 
 his songs. Were it not so, there would be an end 
 of music and the opera. The faculties of the mind 
 play among themselves, and exhibit the peculiarities 
 of the instrument, and whether it be in tune or not, 
 
 K 
 
194 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 and what strings liave been tightened or loosened. 
 The language of music, when it is a true utterance, 
 is the most perfect development of all languages. 
 Would that the mind was always in tune, and all 
 was sweetest melody, and radiant harmony ! But 
 alas ! for the discord of passions, and the discord of 
 untruth, and the scraping on the instrument in self- 
 considerations, — and the sounding brass and tink- 
 ling cymbal in our pride and vanities ! We talk of 
 freewill. From the instrument not recognizing its own 
 harmonies, transitions and motions, we feel that we 
 can will, but not what determines the can and the will. 
 We do not see that the mind is a true republic, or 
 that the Will, the President, the Executive power, 
 is chosen by the people : that the Will which deter- 
 mines is itself determined. Will is the echo and 
 act of the majority and strongest power : as clearly so 
 as the weathercock points to the wind, and the ship 
 follows the impress of the rudder and the sails, and 
 is carried along by wind and tide. If it could think, 
 it would imagine that it slid away by its own im- 
 pulse and will, or undetermined force. The world 
 would think itself free in its motion round the sun, 
 until it discovered the laws of its motion, which 
 determine its course to be precisely what it is, — a 
 speck of dust whirling about and about, and filling 
 its little place in the harmony of the universe. Free 
 will ! the veiy idea is enough to make a Democritus 
 fall on his back and roar with laughter, and a more 
 serious thinker almost despair of bringing men to 
 reason, — to experience the advantages of knowledge. 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 195 
 
 and the calming influence of a recognition of uni- 
 versal law and necessity. 
 
 It is the varying associations of ideas and feelings 
 which constitute mind, and by which mind is in it- 
 self displayed and controlled. In the similitude of 
 things, truth is associated with light, ignorance with 
 darkness, brightness with gaiety, the quavering on a 
 stop of music with the sparkling of Hght upon the 
 water, gloom with grief. Beauty in a landscape may 
 recal any other form of beauty, — as that of woman, 
 or of man : and such similes and correspondences in 
 our associations become elements of art and poetry. 
 Eveiy simple colour or tone or form has its influence 
 and correspondence and associations in the mind, as 
 the instrument of instruments, the mirror and prin- 
 ciple of the whole. Thus music, like all external 
 nature, acts upon the mind, and finds its corre- 
 spondence : and were the brain fully developed and 
 exercised, the correspondence and response would 
 be full and complete. There is music of war; 
 "spirit-stirring drum, and ear-piercing fife,^^ and 
 martial strains. We have love music, and sa- 
 cred music, and songs of humour and conviviality. 
 And a mind in such full harmony and tune as 
 Shakspere^s would appreciate every characteristic by 
 a responding influence on his brain. Thus the cha- 
 racter of music has a conformity with the dispositions 
 and nature of the mind ; and will soothe or dispose 
 the mind in particular ways, in accordance with this 
 correspondence. Nevertheless, if the mind be pre- 
 possessed by any passion or habit, whatever stirs the 
 K 2 
 
196 man's nature and development. 
 
 spirit may only help to fan the flame of such dispo- 
 sition : and the spirit- stin-ing music which would 
 impel to war, may also incite ambition or love, &c., 
 according to the condition of the mind impressed. 
 Different sounds may become associated with parti- 
 cular ideas or feelings ; and some may not recognize 
 the distinctions between the expression of music and 
 the mere sense of sound or harmonies. Nevertheless 
 there is a true correspondence between the forms of 
 music and the forms of mind ; but the mind must 
 be capable and free to distinguish and receive true 
 impressions, or will be at fault : just as a prejudiced 
 mind finds in evidence and argument only confirma- 
 tion of its errors, and reason for that which it desires. 
 The first principle of Association is from the har- 
 mony and dependence of the faculties among them- 
 selves, and their relations to external nature : and 
 these relations are fundamental, or more or less ac- 
 quired through habit and circumstance. The mind 
 becomes crippled and warped and prejudiced and 
 diseased, after a strange fashion of mis-education and 
 error, and it is no longer sane. Whatever has come 
 together, and been presented, and appeared in com- 
 pany, becomes associated as one together : to the 
 Christian, the bible and religion ; to the Mohamme- 
 dan, the Alcoran and religion. Some have associated 
 fear with a mouse. Others I know go into fits at 
 the sight of a spider. Others shudder at the sight 
 of a pack of cards on a Sunday. We associate evil 
 with a bad man, and make it a person and black, and 
 call it the devil. The African, on the other hand, as- 
 sociates evil with a pale aspect, and makes it a per- 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. i97 
 
 son and white, and calls it the devil. "We associate 
 motion with wings_, and so paint those feathered ap- 
 pendages on those impersonated virtues we call 
 angels, whom we surround with light and halos, and 
 give them light golden hair and blue eyes. The 
 heathen gods and goddesses were impersonations 
 of qualities, an association of qualities with ideal 
 forms, personifying or representing the abstract ideas. 
 In visions, when people fancy they see spirits or 
 ghosts, impressions unconsciously evolve embodpngs, 
 projected on the \ision. Such is our tendency to 
 associate everything with persons or objects, accord- 
 ing to our familiar conception. Those who have an 
 impression of the death of friends (as several whom I 
 know have) sometimes, as it were, see the form of the 
 dying person ; at other times only have an intima- 
 tion of the circumstance. And some have a form 
 which they always associate with evil in the clairvoy- 
 ant state, if not in their ordinary condition. Others 
 in dreams have simple associations; of which last. 
 Bacon's dream on the death of his father is a good 
 instance. Bacon says,* '' There be many reports in 
 History that upon the death of persons in near rela- 
 tionship, men have had an inward feeling of it. 1 
 myself remember that, being in Paris, and my father 
 dying in London, two or three days before my fathei-'s 
 death I had a dream, which I told to divers English 
 gentlemen, that my father's house in the country 
 was plastered all over with black mortar.'' — I myself, 
 
 * Natural History, Cent. X. sec. 986. 
 
198 man's nature and development. 
 
 while sitting up with a lady who_, from extreme ill 
 health_, could be held alive only by being kept con- 
 tinually in a mesmeric state, on two occasions, in the 
 quiet of the night, have knowTi her recognize the 
 death, at the moment of its occurring, of persons at 
 a distance, whose immediate danger was unknown. 
 On one occasion, it was a clear sight of the fact and 
 circumstances, though occurring a hundred miles 
 away. This was when the dying person was a rela- 
 tion. But in the other instance there was no rela- 
 tionship. The person was very ill, like herself, and 
 it was a case with which she had great sympathy. 
 r The intimation of the death appeared in the form of 
 \ a black cat coming over her bed ; which to her was 
 the associated form of evil and death. 
 
 Association arises out of similitudes, — of likeness 
 in the same sphere, or resemblance and correspond- 
 ence in some other sphere : and again, in contrasts. 
 Associations arise from habit, and from re-action and 
 exhaustion, from sympathy and antipathy. We fall 
 upon re-action, contrast, &c., just as after looking at 
 a red spot, the sense falls for relief upon the oppo- 
 site condition, and presents a green image. How 
 many silly persons you see scold and coax by 
 turns ; and ridiculously short turns they often are ! 
 Light to truth, truth to beauty, beauty to good- 
 ness, are similitudes or correspondences in different 
 spheres : and we see these associations in different 
 media by the terms we use : — '^ a beautiful charac- 
 ter :" ^' sweet music :'' '^ a bitter feeling :'' '^ a tone of 
 mind :'' " a bright conception -.'^ " flashes of \dt" 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 199 
 
 The sympathies and relations in mind and body 
 are natural associations : and so again is the expres- 
 sion of these in the language of actions, motions, or 
 sounds; and this again developed into artificial 
 signs ; all which matter you doubtless understand 
 as well as I. Habit is a great principle of xlssocia- 
 tion, and likewise of Memory. Habit induces repe- 
 tition. Associated ideas present themselves toge- 
 ther, or follow in regular sequence. If I would 
 recal a passage from a book, I see the page, and the 
 place on the page where I saw it first. If I would 
 recal an event, I place myself as nearly as possible 
 in the position in which '^t occurreu; ^^ h^Lve a 
 pre-notion that in memory we l-^^rrr a fii pg, and look 
 for it, as it were, in a circle, and direct the attention 
 as if there were places in memoiy. Phrenologists 
 have denied a separate faculty of attention : and yet 
 there is no faculty which acts more alone, and 
 appears to be more distinct. The dog associates 
 sport wdth the sight of the gun ; — as much so as his 
 master. How pretty to see the flocks of pigeons at 
 Venice, all fluttering about in the Piazza, at the 
 sound of the bell of St. Mark^s striking twelve ! 
 
 Most of our muscular movements are unconscious, 
 associated movements ; and results not interrupting 
 but often essential to the abstraction and continuance 
 of thought. The associations in time are more in- 
 teresting, and perhaps least understood. We know 
 what strange, but quite natural associations occur in 
 our dreams ; and often when we are awake. And 
 when we would think well, the more freelv we let 
 
200 man's nature and development. 
 
 tlie mind act by its own power and laws of associa- 
 tion, the better. Some minds do not sustain these 
 associations in sequence well. They want the faculty 
 of order, and they fly off to something grotesque, 
 or away from the matter. We generally spoil the 
 results by forcing attention ; and in trying too hard 
 to remember, often forget the more. Newton said, 
 that he let his mind rest upon a subject, and waited 
 for the ideas to come. I have often tried the effects . 
 of indirect association in the mind by speaking out 
 my thoughts as they occurred, and suggested each 
 other, wholly without guidance; and I have been 
 astonished ^^ ^^q happy scl^iiences that would occur, 
 and the e: i jgQf>e and originality of the matter, and 
 the mod ^e. expression, — s-wLh as I cannot effect 
 when I sit dow^n to direct my attention and write. 
 One of our most eloquent writers and speakers tells 
 me that he can wTite only by first walking about the 
 room, and uttering his sentiments as in a speech. 
 Again, (and now I must end,) we know how asso- 
 ciating words with music, and sense with rhymes, 
 assists the memory. We should never recal the num- 
 ber of days in each month, but for the lines " Thirty 
 days hath September, &c.'' Of course, the strength 
 and peculiarity of our associations depend on the 
 natural strength of particular faculties, and the 
 exercise of these. One associates things or ideas 
 better vdth forms ; others with colours or sounds. 
 Some are for ever associating persons in resemblance. 
 It is quite a propensity with some to see how like 
 one person is to another ; — the new comer to some 
 
 I 
 
KNOWLEDGE AND NOTIONS. 201 
 
 familiar. Some attribute their own evil ways and 
 thoughts to the whole world. Others more happily 
 dwell on the good and the beautiful, and associating 
 qualities of hfe with inanimate things, find 
 
 "... tongues in the trees, books in the running brooks ; 
 Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 
 
 XVII. 
 H. M. TO H. G. A.'- 
 
 Thank you for the reply you have sent ^o some of 
 my questions. I do not see how you can help 
 making your letters so long, if I ask so many ques- 
 tions as in my last. Will you now please to dispose 
 of more of them ? Others are rising in my mind, 
 while I wait for your solution of these : but I will 
 keep them back till I have heard from you again. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 H.G.A. ToH.M. 
 
 It appears to me that men for the most part have 
 no clear notion of the nature of science, or of the 
 k5 
 
202 man's nature and development. 
 
 laws of action and thouglit ; but nature in general, 
 and the nature of man in particular, seems to tliem 
 to be a species of conjuring. But the true physiologist 
 studies the laws of matter, and the whole process of 
 development, disentangling himself from all spiritual 
 and metaphysical dogma, and will take into conside- 
 ration all the circumstances which influence the man 
 from childhood to the grave. He will observe the 
 conditions of the parents before the child is born, or 
 even conceived ; and back through many generations, 
 noting those conditions and tendencies which more 
 particularly descend, and are impressed on the con- 
 stitution, even to the third and fourth generation. 
 He will observe the condition of the mother during 
 the period of gestation, and the influences by which 
 she has been suiTOunded; and after the child is 
 bom, he will watch the treatment of the infant, and 
 the gradual development of its instincts and powers, 
 and the acquiring of names to things, which Hobbes 
 considers to be the basis of the understanding. He 
 will note how the child is trained to good or to evil 
 how its passions are stimulated and directed j and will 
 observe how it is excited to anger and vengeance, 
 often at a veiy early period, and even against 
 inanimate objects; and whether it be pampered and 
 trained to vanity and pride, concealment, terror, 
 superstition, selfishness, and falsehood ; what it 
 acquires by the force of example, and what is owing 
 its peculiar constitution ; how evil circumstances 
 will subdue a good tendency, and how a good natural 
 disposition will triumph over evil influences. He 
 
KNOWLEDGE AND NOTIONS. 203 
 
 will not lose sight of his object when the child has 
 become a young man at college, where we might 
 expect to find the best education the knowledge 
 of the age can afford. But here he will lament to 
 observe inducements to idleness and dissipation, and 
 vanity exhibited in an imitation of the lowest \ices of 
 society, which the youth is induced to think a fine 
 thing, and to be a kind of wild manliness of his 
 nature. Seldom do we find* the youth animated to 
 solemn aspiration, and made earnest and hopeful in 
 the pursuit of real knowledge. More frequently our 
 future legislator will be found strutting abroad, with 
 an immense Joinville tie, driving a stage coach, horse 
 racing and betting, or 23erhaps doing what is far 
 worse ; acknowledging no higher object in life than 
 pleasure and ambition — pleasure in low pursuits, and 
 ambition towards wealth and position. His studies 
 are not of much account. The ability to make a few 
 quotations from the classics, and a smattering of 
 mathematics, are the chief results of a college educa- 
 tion. The sciences and modern languages are 
 neglected, and he learns but little of general litere- 
 ture and history. Above all, he remains ignorant of 
 himself — of physiology and the laws of Man^s nature, 
 which, of all knowledge, is most conducive to a moral 
 and useful life. He will imbibe a confused notion of 
 unintelligible dogmas, — which are called religion, it 
 is true, and which are vainly supposed to be all- 
 sufficient to guide him through life, and to attain for 
 him a place in a heaven after he is dead. He is 
 * Appendix T. 
 
204 man's nature and DEYELOP:NrENT. 
 
 taught tliat the first man was created perfect by a 
 being who is all-powerful and all goodness ; that 
 this man nevertheless erred_, and brought death into 
 the world; and that, though he made not himself, 
 he was punished for being what he was : and that all 
 others inherit condemnation on this man's account ; 
 that satisfaction is required by the designer and 
 creator of this abortion for his own doing, and what 
 he had predestined from the beginning : that he 
 makes himself a son — who is himself — and is nailed 
 upon a cross to be his own satisfaction* for what he 
 has done ; and that, in believing this, men shall 
 be saved, and forgiven the sin which is in their 
 nature, and inherited from another. At the same 
 time, man cannot believe unless he be made to 
 believe. He is taught to respect the morality of 
 vengeance, and of partiality ; that man can do no 
 good of himself, and yet has free will ; and that the 
 soul or life can be separated as an entity, and be in- 
 dependent of the living thing. He is taught that 
 few are chosen to heaven, but the greater number to 
 
 * " It was a strange fancy to think to gratify the divine 
 bounty with our afflictions, like the Lacedaemonians, who 
 regaled their Diana with the tormenting of young boys, whom 
 they caused to be whipped for her sake, very often to death. 
 It was a savage humour to imagine to gratify the architect 
 by the subversion of his building, and to think to take away 
 the punishment due to the guilty, by punishing the innocent. 
 And that poor Iphigenia, at the port of Aulis, should by her 
 death and immolation acquit towards God the whole army 
 of the Greeks from all crimes they had committed." — Mon- 
 taigne. 
 
KXO^YLEDGE AND NOTIONS. 205 
 
 damnation ; and this is to be considered a most con- 
 soling doctrine. And while men may be born to hell- 
 fire^ they are instructed to love God with all their 
 hearts,, and to forgive one another to the seventy 
 times seven. Stimulated to selfishness by the idea of 
 reward and punishment, they are required to be un- 
 selfish, and urged to set their hearts on high things. 
 They are taught to believe that they could not have 
 existed as a consequence of nature, and as nature ; 
 but that they were created by a being resembling 
 themselves, who is at the same time incomprehensi- 
 ble ; that all nature is a fabric made out of nothing; 
 but that this wondrous Being — the first cause — is 
 himself without a cause or beginning. They are to 
 consider it necessary that man should have a maker, 
 but that the demand of causality is to rest there. 
 When each was a child, he was told that he came in 
 the doctor^ s pocket, and that he must ask no more 
 questions. He is now told that he was brought out 
 of nothing by the great physician, and that it is 
 wicked to inquire further. A lesser difficulty is thus 
 solved only by a greater difficulty of the same natm'e ; 
 or rather, it is thus that a difficulty which does not 
 exist is invented and solved. 
 
 This restless and craving absurdity of human 
 wisdom may truly be called vain philosophy. Men 
 are taught logic ; but it would seem to be the most 
 useless invention, seeing that they afterwards believe 
 in the most illogical conclusions. They are taught, 
 in fact, to beheve in what is intellectually most absurd 
 and monstrous, and morally vicious and most bar- 
 
206 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 barous. But why proceed j for the extent and folly 
 of all this you know as well as I^ and the horrors 
 upon horrors which have been the consequences of 
 these dogmas, the philosophy and origin of which 
 may now be understood. 
 
 There are thousands of noble minds now free from 
 the dogmas of Christianity, which they see to be 
 neither reasonable nor moral, nor logically deduced 
 from the scripture records ; and that these records 
 are contradictory, and fail in historical evidence. 
 But there are other minds still in the transition 
 state, not wholly released from supernaturalism and 
 the habit of thoughts which they have acquired; 
 and these, desiring sympathy and a continued exist- 
 ence, please themselves in the belief of a God and a 
 future. To some persons so situated it seems most 
 sad and terrible to be left alone mthout a god upon 
 this dreary earth. The stars and the sunlight, and 
 all the loveliness of nature, but deepen their solitude, 
 and se^m a fearful mockery. They find no solace in 
 the uncertain and transient nature of human affec- 
 tions. What is all the world to them if to-morrow 
 they die and are no more ? They have found that 
 Christianity is not historically true ; and they shrink 
 from finding their remnants of supernaturalism un- 
 philosophical : and argument will start up from this 
 feverish fancy, and mislead them for a time. The 
 horror of lonehness in life, and annihilation at death, 
 leads men to build upon '' their pleasing hopes and 
 fond desires," and create an ideal object and belief to 
 satisfy this longing; and the result is, that their 
 
KNOWLEDGE AND NOTIONS. 207 
 
 affections are perverted from their proper sphere of 
 action ; which is in the love and companionship of 
 their fellow-creatures. Men must learn to forget 
 themselves in their Icve of nature^ and the love of 
 their fellow-men ; and we must live on our thoughts 
 towards others^ and not on theirs towards us. All 
 else is ^^vanity and vexation of spirit." We must learn 
 to submit to the rule of nature, and remember that 
 unhappiness and discontent are selfishness — impos- 
 sible to a truly heroic and loving nature. 
 
 Such men as Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Milton, 
 Gibbon, have remarked on the unsatisfactory nature 
 of the education afforded at our colleges. '\^Tiile 
 knowledge advances with rapid strides, our colleges 
 remain entranced, or hardly move at a snaiPs pace ; 
 so that wise young men have to educate themselves, 
 after they leave the University, and are fortunate if 
 they but gradually unlearn the dogmas they have 
 been taught. Philosophy has always been engaged in 
 unteaching the world ; and it has still a mighty task 
 to perform in this respect. Chemistiy, Geolog}^, 
 Astronomy, Optics, &c., are now freed from super- 
 stition, and have become true sciences. It remains 
 for philosophers to place Physiology and Mental and 
 Moral Philosophy in the same position as positive 
 science reached by induction.* The delusions of 
 ignorance and superstition are doubtless inveterate, 
 and will not yield without a struggle and a spasm : 
 but progress is a law of nature ; and to remain where 
 we are, were it possible, would be convulsion and 
 • Appendix U. 
 
208 man's nature and development. 
 
 ruin. Democracy is advancing upon society. Neither 
 priest nor soldier can restrain its natural course. 
 Henceforth^ the philosophy of INIan^ rightly under- 
 stood, must restrain and guide man 'oisely and 
 gradually into his true position — the position which 
 his knowledge and his nature demand. 
 
 But to form institutions in advance of society is a 
 great mistake : and a still greater mistake is to keep 
 our institutions behind the advance of intelligence. 
 It is a conmion remark_, that so long as human nature 
 remains the same, things will remain pretty much as 
 they are. But, on the contrary, I say that with a 
 better philosophy we must advance : and that one 
 day society will enjoy, to a great extent, liberty, 
 equality and fraternity. The time will come when 
 these will not be mere idle words upon a banner, but 
 sentiments deeply engraven on men's hearts, and ex- 
 hibited in their conduct. We may prophesy this 
 with the same certainty with which Bacon prophesied 
 the advance and influence of general science : and it 
 is right that we should do so ; for it is the end that 
 gives value to the means, and life and interest to the 
 labour. Men and nations get on much in the same 
 way under all religious persuasions. It is not there- 
 fore the particular faith that is so essential, but the 
 moral law which their faith binds them to whilst they 
 are yet ignorant of the true philosophy of Man, — of 
 the laws of his nature, the right mode of expanding 
 his intellectual and moral being, and the conse- 
 quences of misconduct. — Pure spirituality is exhibited 
 and understood only through high intelligence. It 
 
RESULTS OF KNOWLEDGE. 209 
 
 is only by knowledge of Man that the principles of 
 morals can be applied in all their force and useful- 
 ness to practice. There is a certain negative perfec- 
 tion and simplicity in ignorance^ no doubt : but this 
 becomes lost in superstition^ and can only be regained 
 and brought to its highest state by real knowledge. 
 The innocence of the child will re-appear in the wis- 
 dom of the philosopher ; and the lesser minds will 
 be led by the stronger ones, as the sheep w^hich in the 
 East follow the shepherd. 
 
 From the recognition of universal law, we shall de- 
 velope a universal love ; the disposition and ability to 
 love without offence or ill-feeling towards any. (We 
 shall see that no one can be a true friend to us who 
 is not a friend to all. "VVe shall learn that dirt is 
 beauty unformed ; that evil is undeveloped good ; 
 or rather, that we judge the universal in reference to 
 ourselves, not ourself in reference to the universal.^ 
 Men, for the most part, know not that which they 
 believe they know, nor perceive the depth and 
 breadth of their ignorance ; but each is wise in his 
 ov\Ti conceit, and secure in his own folly : and " the 
 fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his 
 heart may discover itself." He is wise in his genera- 
 tion who preaches to the world what the w^orld al- 
 ready knows, and flatters the conceits of men. A 
 Christ for these times will be persecuted by these 
 times ; for a true prophet must ever be an offence to 
 the world, until the philosophy of Man has become 
 recognized as a true science, based wholly upon 
 natural causes. Men have no faith in truth ; but 
 
210 
 
 will uphold eiTor^ believing it necessary as a kind of 
 police force. They exaggerate the danger of a new 
 truthj and do not recognize the good. In what is old 
 they exaggerate the good^ and do not recognize the 
 evil. They do not perceive what is essential to the 
 development of the time, and must be ; but wait the 
 deluge. Men run after every new fashion in trap- 
 pings ; stare at the stupid diamonds which are stuck 
 on an Indian prince, and hurry to see a new beast 
 at the Zoological Gardens. All the while, their ideas 
 " round about in darkness.^' They are ridden down 
 by puritanical priestcraft. The press dares not speak 
 out; and, "for fear of the folk," wise men are 
 silent. ^' Punch" is the wisest and merriest fellow 
 among us. He attacks the British lion without 
 hesitation; but is no snake-charmer, and recoils 
 before the venom of British bigotry. Government, 
 the press, scientific men, and all, are prostrate slaves; 
 not before nature, who is only won by obedience ; 
 not before Baconian wisdom, or Christ's morality : — 
 these are pushed aside, that men may lie prostrate 
 before old wives' fables, far too silly for a nursery tale. 
 And then we hear of miracles, as if it were not true, 
 as Montaigne has well said, that belief in miracles 
 is a measure of our ignorance. And, as for the ful- 
 filment of prophecy, what can that prove but that 
 the power of foreseeing events is a power in nature ? 
 In ignorant times it is supposed to be Divine inspi- 
 ration : and that the supposed miracles should have 
 been reported correctly, and without exaggeration, 
 would have been a greater miracle than that which 
 
I 
 
 RESULTS OF KNOWLEDGE. 211 
 
 is reported. Most of that which is reported, and is 
 supposed to be miraculous, is now easily accounted 
 for. Errors and contradictions in the narratives are 
 apparent. Make but a necessary and reasonable 
 deduction for exaggeration, and the whole is under- 
 stood. If no alteration is to be allowed, though 
 error be proved, and supposed miracles are shown to 
 be natural consequences, why then, to be consistent, 
 we must believe in the miracles of other religions, 
 and all equally well-authenticated tales. If men 
 will not be reasonable, we must insist upon their 
 being consistent in their folly. Carry out the prin- 
 ciple on which any folly rests to the end, and it will 
 destroy itself, and become its own condemnation ; 
 whereas, the farther you extend a truth, the more 
 clear and consistent it appears. Those who think 
 their religion true vdW not fear the approach of 
 light, but will be heartily glad to welcome every 
 new truth ; being satisfied that truth cannot oppose 
 truth, but that eveiy addition of fact must help to 
 confirm or illustrate what was known before. Those 
 who are uncertain of their position, or of their ability 
 to prove what they profess and desire to retain, are 
 the first to oppose the advance of science. But we 
 must disregard Man^s thoughts, and think only of 
 Nature^ s truth. 
 
 Mr. Sandby, in his interesting work on " Mes- 
 merism and its Opponents,^''* has confidently asserted 
 that no comparison can be made between the facts of 
 
 * " Mesmerism and its Opponents," by Rev. George 
 Sandby. Longman. 
 
212 man's nature and DEVELOPMExNT. 
 
 Mesmerism and tlie supposed miracles of Christ. Mr. 
 Sandby wholly overlooks the fact that Christ (taking 
 the narrative as it stands) was constitutionally a clair- 
 voyant ; that he had "the gift of prophecy," and 
 the ability to read men's thoughts, and to know the 
 nature of their diseases, and their cure. He list- 
 ened to the voice within him as somnambulists do. 
 He had his attendant spirit, as Socrates had : and 
 this voice of the intuitive faculty, he, like Sweden- 
 borg and others, believed to be the voice of God. 
 He believed that he was divinely inspired, — a mis- 
 sionary^, a prophet, the child of God : and out of 
 this other delusions arose, as in all similar cases ; 
 and the carpentei'^s son, like the boy Davis in Ame- 
 rica, astonishes men with his learning. He prays 
 and fasts, and is subject to ecstatic fits, which are 
 termed transfiguration. He possesses an extraor- 
 dinary power to influence others, and to heal diseases, 
 on account of his ])eculiar abnormal condition ; and 
 he has a belief in an almost invincible force of faith ; 
 that is, if you will but have faith in your ability, 
 you may move mountains. Such being the case, 
 Mr. Sandby's arguments fall to the ground : Christ 
 would necessarily have an intuitive knowledge of 
 diseases, and whether he could cure them or not ; 
 and therefore would never fail. In the same way, 
 he would know whether a person were dead or only 
 in a trance, from which he might arouse him, and 
 even at a great distance. He would also, in choosing 
 his disciples, know those who possessed the neces- 
 sary qualifications, both as regards the mental and 
 
RESrLTS OF NOTIONS. 213 
 
 physical power. He was subject to the ideas of his 
 sect, as somuambules are to the religious atmosphere 
 in which they exist : and like them, too, he was 
 possessed with the notion of a mission : that he was 
 divinely inspired, and destined to reform the world. 
 Had he lived a little longer, this feature of the state 
 would doubtless have grown into extravagance ; and 
 the world would have lost its Christianity. If we 
 were to receive all we find in the account as fact, 
 what can we say to the sick persons being actually 
 inhabited by devils; which devils spoke to Christ, 
 and on one occasion besought him to let them go 
 into a herd of swine; and that the herd of swine, to 
 the number of two thousand, rushed into the sea, 
 and were destroyed ? That he had not always ^^clear 
 sight'"* is shown in the instance of his going to the tig- 
 tree, and being disappointed that there were no tigs : 
 and are we to approve of his declaring therefore that 
 the tree shall henceforth bear no fruit ? Surely these 
 are not the doings of pure intelligence and high 
 morality. Mr. Sandby adduces the account of the 
 fig-tree instantly withering away, as a matter alto- 
 gether out of the pale of ^lesmerism : but Bacon 
 did not think thus, though he was not acquainted 
 with the wonders of mesmeric power ; but gives it as 
 an experiment to be tried, — whether, by the force 
 of imagination, you cannot cause a tree suddenly to 
 fade. — But Mr. Sandby quotes only one version of 
 the story. He forgets that in Mark it is stated that 
 it was only noticed that the tree had withered the 
 following day. This is very important to note ; be- 
 
314 man's nature and development. 
 
 cause sucli discrepancy shows that the accounts can- 
 not be relied on for accuracy; and it reheves us of 
 the idea of the instant aneousness of the effect; which 
 is the point jNIr. Sandby rehes on. 
 
 There are many most distressing cases of purely 
 nervous condition which I have cured almost in- 
 stantaneously. Nor is touching always requisite, as 
 Mr. Sandby supposes. In the case of the man who 
 was dumb and had an impediment in his speech, it 
 is described that Christ took him aside from the 
 multitude, and put his fingers into his ears; and he 
 spat, and touched his tongue, &c. This is clearly a 
 mesmeric process ; and we know not how long the 
 process occupied. The patient was taken aside for 
 the purpose. — In another instance, Christ spat on 
 the ground, and made clay of the spittle; and he 
 anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 
 and then bade him go and w^ash in the Pool of 
 Siloam. — Again, in the case of the man with the 
 dumb spirit, after his fit, he becomes " as one 
 dead/' or in a mesmeric sleep ; and Christ took 
 him by the hand, and he arose. — Again, in the 
 case of blindness, the influence is clearly not in- 
 stantaneous ; for, first, there is a partial recovery, — 
 the seeing persons like moving trees. The opera- 
 tion is renewed before the complete sight is restored. 
 — But I need not continue these instances, which 
 nothing but professional blindness in one aware of 
 the nature of Mesmerism could overlook. — Again, 
 Mr. Sandby is not aware that the peculiar condition 
 of one person can be conveyed to another. He is 
 
RESULTS or NOTIONS. 215 
 
 not aware of the influence of faith_, and of mind on 
 mind ; and that Christ might choose his disciples as 
 fitting material to act upon. Mr. Sandby considers 
 it miraculous that the apostles were able to do what 
 Christ did, and had his powers conveyed to them. 
 It is one of the remarkable facts of Mesmerism, that 
 the nervous condition of one person may influence 
 another in a similar way, and enable him in mesme- 
 rizing to produce similar efi*ects. One person may 
 influence another as the loadstone influences a piece 
 of iron, and makes a magnet. — On one occasion 
 Christ felt the virtue going out of him. At the 
 time when I was worn with mesmerizing night and 
 day, and very sensitive, I experienced this repeatedly, 
 and that patients under certain circumstances have 
 the power to help themselves to the sanitary influ- 
 ence, just as they might attract a contagious disease.* 
 As for the appearance of Christ after death, there 
 are thousands of ghost stories of a similar character. 
 In all cases, these appearances are subjective pheno- 
 mena. AVhen we think of the power manifested by 
 such men as Greatrakes, Swedenborg and Zschokke, 
 
 * Goethe describes instances of his grandfather's insight or 
 clairvoyance, and says that " it is worthy to note also, that 
 persons who showed no signs of prophetic insight at other 
 times, acquired for the moment, wliile in his presence, and 
 that by means of some sensible evidence, presentiments of 
 diseases or death, which were then occurring in distant 
 places ; but no such gift has been transmitted to any of his 
 children, or grandchildren, who for the most part have been 
 hearty people enjoying life, and never going beyond the 
 diCiwdiV— Goethe. Autohiographi/. 
 
216 man's nature and development. 
 
 we need not marvel at the prophets of the East ; 
 nor, once admitting the existence of a faculty, can 
 we well limit its development. Christ, the prophets, 
 the oracles, all exhibit features of the same great 
 fact, — the existence of faculties in Man beyond 
 sense, experience, and reason; which faculties are 
 chiefly called forth under abnormal conditions, but 
 are seldom exhibited in a wholly pure state. — In 
 this state, men listen to the voice of intuition, — 
 fancy themselves inspired, — are carried away by the 
 delusion, — and delude the world with their wander- 
 ings. Christ's case seems to me as clear as daylight. 
 — But I will end now, and reply to your questions 
 in another letter. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 I am glad I asked you in what sense you used the 
 words " God," " Origin," &c., for your reply comes 
 to me like a piece of refreshing sympathy, — as rare 
 as it is refreshing. I cannot tell you how the pain 
 grows upon me of seeing how httle notion men have 
 of the modesty and largeness of conception necessary 
 in approaching the study of themselves or any other 
 part of nature; and in the conduct of their mere 
 
RELEASE FROM XOTIOXS. 217 
 
 daily business. Of all the people I have ever known, 
 how few there are who can suspend their opinion on 
 so vast a subject as the origin and progression of the 
 universe ! How few there are who have ever thought 
 of suspending their opinion ! How few who would 
 not think it a sin so to suspend their opinion ! To 
 me^ however, it seems absolutely necessary^ as well 
 as the greatest possible relief, to come to a plain un- 
 derstanding with myself about it : and deep and 
 sweet is the repose of having done so. There is no 
 theory of a God,* of an author of Nature^ of an origin 
 of the miiverse, which is not utterly repugnant to 
 my faculties ; which is not (to my feelings) so irre- 
 verent as to make me blush; so misleading as to 
 make me mourn. I can now hardly beUeve that it 
 was I who once read ^lilton with scarcely any recoil 
 from the theology' ; or Paley^s Natural Theology 
 with pleasure at the ingenuity of the mechanic-god 
 he thought he was recommending to the admiration 
 of his readers. To think what the God of the mid- 
 titude is, — morally, as well as physically ! To think 
 what the God of the spiritualist is ! and to remember 
 the admission of the best of that class, that God is 
 a projection of their own ideal faculty, recognizable 
 only through that class of faculties, and by no means 
 through any external evidence ! to see that they 
 give the same account of the origin of Idols ; and 
 simply pronounce that the first is an external reality, 
 
 * Bacon says of Epicurus (Essay XVI.), "His words are 
 noble and divine : ' non deos vulgi negare profanum ; sed 
 vulgi opiniones diis applicare profanum.' 
 L 
 
218 man's nature and development. 
 
 and the last an internal illusion ! To think that 
 they begin with the superstition of supposing a God 
 of essentially their own nature,, who is their friend 
 and in sympathy with them, and the director of all 
 the events of their lives, and the thoughts of their 
 minds ; and how, when driven from this grosser super- 
 stition by the evidences of Law which are all 
 around them, they remove their God a stage from 
 them, and talk of a general instead of a particular Pro- 
 vidence, and a Necessity which modifies the character 
 of prayer; and how, next, when the absolute domi- 
 nion of Law opens more and more to their percep- 
 tion, excluding all notions of revelation and personal 
 intercourse between a God and man, and of same- 
 ness of nature in God and man ; — to think that, when 
 men have reached this point under the guidance of 
 science, they should yet cling to the baseless notion 
 of a single, conscious Being, outside of Nature, — 
 himself unaccounted for, and not himself accounting 
 for Nature ! — How far happier it is to see — how 
 much wiser to admit — that we know nothing what- 
 ever about the matter ! And, from the moment 
 when we begin to discover the superstition of our 
 childhood to be melting away, — to discover how ab- 
 surd and shocking it is to be talking eveiy day about 
 our o-^^i passing moods and paltiy interests to a sup- 
 posed author and guide of the universe, — how well 
 it would be for us to set our minds free altogether, — 
 to open them wide to evidence of what is true and 
 what is not ! Till this is done, there is every danger 
 of confusion in our faculties of reverence, of con- 
 
ENTRANCE UPON KNOWLEDGE. 219 
 
 science^ of moral perception, and of the pursuit and 
 practice of truth. When it is done, what repose be- 
 gins to penade the mind ! ^^llat clearness of moral 
 purpose naturally ensues ! and what healthful ac- 
 tivity of the moral faculties ! When we have finally 
 dismissed all notion of subjection to a supreme law- 
 less Will, — all the perplexing notions about sin and 
 responsibility, and arbitrary reward and punishment, 
 — and stand free to see where we are, and to study 
 our own nature, and recognize our own conditions, — 
 the relief is like that of comins: out of a cave full of 
 painted shadows under the free sky, ^nth the earth 
 open around us to the horizon. What a new percep- 
 tion we obtain of ^''the beauty of holiness,^'' — the 
 loveliness of a healthful moral condition, — accordant 
 with the laws of nature, and not with the requisitions 
 of theology ! VHu'dt a new sense of reverence 
 awakens in us when, dismissing the image of a 
 creator bringing the universe out of nothing, we 
 clearly perceive that the very conception of origin is 
 too great for us, and that deeper and deeper down in 
 the abysses of time, further and further away in the 
 vistas of the ages, all was still what we see it now, — 
 a system of ever-working forces, producing forms^ 
 uniform in certain lines and largely various in the 
 whole, and all under the operation of immutable 
 Law ! But I need not enlarge to you on the privi- 
 leges of a state of freedom and reality. You know 
 what it is to have no longer cause to blush for the 
 moral character of your faith, and to tremble when a 
 passing breeze finds its way into the old cavern, and 
 L 2 
 
220 man's nature and development. 
 
 shakes the painted vapours^ and threatens to dissolve 
 them. I will only just ask whether you know the 
 passages in Sir James Mackintosh's Diary^ on Im- 
 mortality and the Theists' and philosophical Atheists' 
 conceptions of God and Virtue.* They interested me 
 deeply, many years ago, not only on account of the 
 solemnity of their subject and the majestic composure 
 of their tone, but because they first (as far as I re- 
 member) opened to me a full conception of the wis- 
 dom and beauty of a suspensive state of mind on 
 the subjects of origin and destination or issue. Oh ! 
 if we could have Bacon back again, now, when 
 science is daily chastening our views, and he might 
 speak what he knew and thought, and find response 
 in the midst of reprobation ! What you quote from 
 him is extremely interesting, and ought to set us 
 studying him from end to end, — separating the real 
 from the pretended, — tracking the vessel in which he 
 stretched out over the broad ocean of Truth, rather 
 than the tubs he threw out to the whales. 
 
 In reading over again your account of the training 
 of a youth of our own time, I can but rejoice that 
 natui'e is, on the whole, too strong for our perverse- 
 ness : that the brain of every human creature will 
 work, in some sort of balance of its parts, through all 
 the mischief we do it by our ignorance and faulty 
 aims. A^Tiat beautiful conscientiousness and earnest- 
 ness we meet with here and there, amidst the Vanity 
 Fair of such a college life as you describe ! — and 
 what a hail to truth makes itself heard now and then 
 
 * Appendix V. 
 
ENTRANCE UPON KNOWLEDGE. 221 
 
 amidst the hubbub of dogmatism and denunciation ! 
 I see^ however^ more and more, from year to year, 
 the moral mischief that is arising from the. loose and 
 uncertain way in which Christianity is regarded, here 
 and there throughout society in England, and espe- 
 cially in the Universities. I shall be glad of any in- 
 crease of Science, chemical, physiological, logical, or 
 moral, — which may put an end to the state of pre- 
 tence in which we are going on from day to day. It 
 would interest you to see a letter I am going to 
 answer from a clergyman far in the interior of the 
 United States, who declares that his people, as well 
 as himself, want only truth — sure that it can never 
 be hostile to holiness. They are not satisfied of the 
 Christian religion being a revelation attested by 
 miracles, and do not see (being Theists)why its value 
 depends on the establishment of such a claim. The 
 phenomena of Mesmerism, — the healing of diseases, 
 thought-reading, clairvoyance^ and pre-\dsion, — have 
 awakened this clergyman, as you might suppose, 
 leaving him with a very different impression of the 
 scripture miracles from that which he brought from 
 college. \If I c^oiild admit the narratives of Jesus and 
 his mii'acles to be historically true, I should adopt 
 your \dew of the powers by which he wrought them. 
 I am disposed, rather, to regard Strauss^s exposition 
 of the case to be the true one, and to admit that the 
 tales are mainly legendary, and a perpetuation of the \ 
 ideas, and repetition of the narratives, of old Jewish 
 traditionSj> In that case, however, the explanation 
 answers alike well : for the endowment of orientals 
 
222 man's X ATI" re and development. 
 
 with gi'eater mesmeric powers than the western races 
 would ahke be at the bottom of the case. No one 
 w^io has travelled in the East^ aware of the facts of 
 mesmerism^ can wonder at any amount of belief and 
 statement of " miracles/' which there abound on 
 every hand. A^Tioever and whatever Jesus might be 
 (of w^hich I think we know little or nothing-)^ the tra- 
 ditions which settled on his head are easily derivable 
 from the physiological and theological peculiarities of 
 the vace, its locality and period of time. 
 
 I agree, from my heart, with you about the sup- 
 posed need of reciprocity of religious affections with 
 a divine being arising from a deficiency of moral de- 
 velopment. I am confident that a man who cannot 
 find full exercise for his moral nature in our actual 
 life is below profiting by ^^ divine " intercourses. I am 
 confident that the true moral life is found in going 
 out of ourselves, — that " it is more blessed to give 
 than to receive " of the treasures of the affections ; 
 and it is refreshing to read your strong assertion of 
 this. I look back with a kind of horror, as well as 
 deep pity, on myself, in the days when I thought it 
 my duty to cultivate (against nature) an anxious solici- 
 tude about my own "salvation,'' — my o^ti future 
 spiritual welfare. I should now think this as bad as 
 engrossing myself with storing up means of prospe- 
 rity while my brother had need. How sweet it is to 
 be loose from all such solicitude, and to let one^s 
 best nature have its free play from hour to hour ! 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 223 
 
 XX. 
 
 H. G. A. to H. M. 
 
 I will look at those passages you refer to in Sir J. 
 Mackintoshes Diary the first opportunity. Atheism 
 and Materialism are terms used by vulgar minds 
 to frighten the ignorant. '' We fool ourselves* with 
 our own fopperies and inventions, like childi*en who 
 are frightened with the same face of their playfellow, 
 that they themselves have smeared and smutted." 
 Vulgar men strive to raise themselves by degrading 
 others ; and when they are foiled by reason, they 
 swear and use bad names. To say that a man is an 
 Atheist is to ^' smear and smut " his reputation, and 
 to cause him to be avoided with fear and disgust, as 
 if he were possessed of the plague, or were a mur- 
 derer, and devourer of human flesh. Every theolo- 
 gian, though difi'eringfrom other theologians, assumes 
 that he is in the true faith, and worships the true 
 God j and that his faith is a revelation proved by 
 miracles ; and he conceives, with a strange appear- 
 ance of presumption, that he is called upon to abuse 
 all the rest of the world, and to strive to convert 
 them to his particular faith, that they may partake 
 of its advantages. But we must judge of the tree 
 by its fruits, and not by its promises. Men have 
 
 * Montaigne. 
 
224 man's nature and development. 
 
 faith euough ; but not in the best things. It is not 
 faith that is wanted, but knowledge. Faith will not 
 give knowledge,, but knowledge wall give faith, and 
 elevate its character. Blind faith is a stumbling 
 block : enlightened faith is a clear path, and a heaven 
 on earth. 
 
 How many significations are there to the term 
 Materialism ! And yet men who ought to know 
 better, use this word as a term of reproach, T\'ithout 
 defining what they mean by it. Words have as many 
 significations as the chamelion has colours. One un- 
 derstands by the term God, precisely what another 
 understands by xltheism. What we imderstand by 
 Christianity, another considers utter infidelity. What 
 one sees as a terrible fatalism, another recognizes as 
 beautiful harmony, eternal and universal law. It is 
 astonishing how much ill-feeling is avoided by bring- 
 ing men to the definition of terms ; by bringing men 
 out of their feelings and imaginations down to the 
 matter of fact ; — to discuss the nature and evidence 
 of their opinions as we should a problem in Euclid. 
 We may express a dislike to hypocrisy, to gluttony, 
 to irreligion, to indecency and worldliness; but a 
 good mind will not dislike the men, but only their 
 immoral condition. Much less will he slander any 
 one for his honest intellectual comdctions. Chris- 
 tians have hunted down and destroyed theii' victims 
 in their turn, as Christ was hunted do^Yll and 
 destroyed. Under every religious faith men perse- 
 cute and are persecuted. 
 
 Christianity has not christianized the world. It 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 225 
 
 is those who are guilty of the like offence who are 
 the first accusers. The immoral woman hunts her 
 sister into the street. The proud man is for ever 
 trampling upon his brother^s pride. The cunning 
 and the vain see nothing but hypocrisy and vanity in 
 the world. The savage destructive priest condemns 
 men to hell fire,— dwelling upon those qualities of 
 their God which predominate in themselves. The 
 worldly mind misconstrues motives, and cannot com- 
 prehend a generous nature. The "unchristian^^ 
 mind calls the Jew " dog.-''' It is not the pure and 
 intellectual that persecute men for their opinions, 
 but the ignorant and the bigoted. The selfish cried 
 out " Great is Diana of the Ephesians : '' the blind 
 and ignorant called for Barabbas. Democritus might 
 well laugh at the foolishness of men. He would 
 sometimes hardly know whether it were more right 
 to laugh or to weep, or become indifferent. Men try 
 to paint a flattering likeness of themselves, and call 
 it Godj and they usually exhibit a monster. It is 
 said that Man is a god to the dog : but this is a mis- 
 take. Dogs fear and follow men, and bite men ; 
 but they do not worship them. We might learn 
 from the lower animals many of the errors which 
 strugghng reason falls into. They reprove us for 
 our fears and our hopes, and are free from the follies 
 of philosophers and divines. But we must mend 
 through knowledge, and cultivate men^s -virtues, 
 rather than reprove them for their failings. 
 
 Xenophanes pleasantly said, as Montaigne tells 
 us, " that if beasts frame any gods to themselves, as 
 L 5 
 
226 MAN^S NATrUE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 it is likely they do, they make them certainly such 
 as themselves are, and glorify themselves in it, as we 
 do. For why may not a goose say thus : All the 
 parts of the universe I have an interest in. The 
 earth serves me to walk upon ; the sun to light me ; 
 the stars have their influence upon me ; I have such 
 an advantage by the winds, and such by the waters. 
 There is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon 
 so favourably as me. I am the darling of Nature. 
 Is it not man that keeps, lodges, and serves me ? 
 It is for me that he both saws and grinds. If he 
 eats me, he does the same by his fellow-men ; and 
 so do I the worms that kill and devour him." And 
 Montaigne says, " As much might be said by a 
 crane, and with greater confidence, upon the account 
 of the liberty of his flight, and the possessing of 
 that high and beautiful region. Tam blanda con- 
 ciliatrix, et tam sui est lena ipsa Natura. So flatter- 
 ing and wheedling a bawd is Nature to herself." We 
 judge according to our impressions, and the con- 
 ditions of our minds. A child believes that its parent 
 knows all things, and can do all things : and when 
 it awakes from this dream, it is only to transfer 
 its notion to an ideal object, — to an universal parent. 
 How natural the growth of the idea, and the transfer^ 
 Great men have been thought gods all-powerful; 
 and gods have been thought of as great men. " Au- 
 gustus had more temples than Jupiter ; served with 
 as much religion and belief in miracles." "We only 
 know phenomena : and phenomena are no repre- 
 sentation of the cause of the eternal and inherent 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 227 
 
 force of nature. — The dreams and promises of theo- 
 logians do not exhibit what men know, but what 
 they wish ; and their wishes are follies. — The sailor 
 wished that the earth was all tobacco, and the 
 rivers brandy. The psalm-singer^s highest notion 
 of heaven is to be singing God^s praises conti- 
 nually. Men " sing to the praise and gloiy of God/^ 
 seeing in him a jealous man, — a wretched image 
 of their own miserable selves. A man can but 
 image what he knows, and what he feels. The im- 
 pressions he has received are the materials from 
 which the picture is composed : and though he 
 cannot make a smallest w^orm or particle of dust, 
 imagines a creator or cause to be the same vain, in- 
 competent animal as himself. The first aphorism 
 of the Novum Organon is, " I\lan, as the minister 
 and interpreter of Nature, does and understands as 
 much as his observations on the order of Nature, 
 either with regard to things or the mind, permit 
 him ; and neither knows nor is capable of more.^-* 
 
 But in vain does !Man endeavour to search the 
 secrets of heaven by the " waxen wings of the senses.^^ 
 ^How strange is the phenomenon of a mind like that 
 of Mr. F. W. Newman, which, in leaving revela- 
 tion, does not yet advance, but floats over from one 
 form of error to another, and " loses itself in a mix- 
 ture of its own inventions V^ Mr. Newman forgets 
 that many among those whom he calls Atheists have 
 gone through the experience of those religious sen- 
 sations by which he is now influenced. They deny 
 that Nature, which exhibits forms and ends as de- 
 
228 man's nature and development. 
 
 termined and necessaiy consequences of what is, is 
 designed, or could have been designed; since we 
 must, after all, go back to a fundamental cause 
 which is not designed, but the cause of the designer^ 
 but they do not deny this from inexperience of reli- 
 gious emotions. Ha^dng had his experience, they 
 are fully capable of meeting him in argument. Fit- 
 ness in nature is no evidence of design. That the 
 lungs are fitted for breathing, and the eye for seeing, 
 is no more evidence of design than that the seal is 
 fitted to the impression, or that the two halves make 
 the whole. Mr. Newman would say that we are 
 " deficient in the religious faculty,^' and yet I be- 
 lieve that a predominance of the religious faculty has 
 been manifested in a marked way by both of us, 
 from our youth upwards, and has borne us past all 
 the forms of fiction which are the ofi'spring of igno- 
 rance and a false philosophy, to seek out and respect 
 the real substance of faith as found in Man's nature, 
 in relation to universal nature ; — the substance, in 
 fact, of all the shadows which men, seeing cast before 
 them, have fallen in love with. 
 
 Mr. Newman says,* very properly, " A God un- 
 caused, and existing from eternity, is to the full as 
 incomprehensible as a v/orld uncaused, and existing 
 from eternity." His w^hole argument rests on the 
 belief in the impossible thing free-will, and in the 
 illogical conclusion that fitness shows design, — an 
 equally impossible thing. As I have said before, 
 
 * " The Soul," p. 3G. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 229 
 
 fitness in art argues design; but in nature only- 
 points to a law; to the form and nature of that 
 which is_, and of which design is an inter-reflexion. 
 Absolute free-will and creative power are a down- 
 right impossibility. We must be content wdth the 
 solemn^ incomprehensible fact of nature^ — all at- 
 tempts to comprehend which are " vain philosophy 
 and human Tvdsdom/^ But those who cannot main- 
 tain an abstract idea, and from the constant con- 
 templation of material forms, and by the obtruding 
 self, and false analogy with self, lose themselves in 
 generalization, personify and limit the powers of 
 nature. 
 
 He who does not suppose a personal God, or look 
 for a future, may, nevertheless, be most unselfish 
 and deeply religious : so religious, that he shrinks 
 from all the forms of worship, because he sees in 
 them all but forms of worship, and forms of fancy, 
 and not the spirit and the image of truth. There 
 are thousands upon thousands who have no clear 
 knowledge on any one question relating to their 
 religion, and yet are most proud in declaring 
 themselves Christian, although it be not certain 
 that they possess any one Christian self-denying 
 virtue. 
 
 Were Christ to appear among such persons, he 
 would not be recognised; nor would he recognise 
 them as Christian. Saying, ^^ I am a Christian,^^ and 
 crying, '' Lord, Lord !" will not open the gate of 
 heaven to any man ; and those who would jostle in 
 before their neighbours, shall be the last to enter. 
 
230 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 and tlie least in heaven ; — in the heaven of a truly 
 virtuous and loving heart. I think a man may be 
 so religious as to be quite shocked with all notions 
 of prayer, and all familiar intercourse with ^^ deity^^ 
 whatsoever. We must pause in wonder before the 
 great mystery of natui'e_, — the hidden truth and the 
 cause, and learn that knowledge is power, and 
 knowledge is wisdom, and wisdom and power are in 
 obedience : for, by yielding to the law, the law^ is 
 fulfilled, and works are accomplished. Christ lived 
 and died for the good of mankind. Socrates lived 
 and died for the good of mankind : and so ought 
 we all to live and die for the good of mankind : and 
 only by forgetting self shall we elevate and ennoble 
 life. I would not accept of " heaven if I thought 
 that others were to go to hell.^^ 
 
 The idea of a God and ruler is essential in rude 
 and barbarous times, just as the idea of loyalty may 
 be essential, though the king be never seen : and 
 the fear of hell may be useful as the fear of the 
 gallows is useful, — in barbarous times like the 
 present. Creeds stagnate, and prevent development 
 and progress. Christian morals are considered per- 
 fect ; but they will require much weeding and de- 
 veloping before they can be accepted by high and 
 philosophic minds, — by the best and most en- 
 lightened minds of the present day. And is therc 
 no place for man's faith when he has ceased the 
 worship of Idols ? It is the idlest folly to suppose 
 that the idea of Necessity would set men loose 
 among their evil passions. But, that we require 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 231 
 
 something to reverence,, and elevate our thoughts 
 towards^ is true. Knowledge gives us a more 
 elevated poetry, gives us the chart and laws of mind 
 to guide us^ and will exhibit to us higher objects 
 for reverence. Is it nothing to have faith in na- 
 ture ; to have faith in knowledge, and in goodness, 
 which is the fruit of knowledge ? Is it nothing 
 to have faith in love ? Is it nothing to regard 
 Nature in all her forms with profound reverence ? 
 to love truth, and worship goodness, and find no 
 place for contempt of any living thing or condition 
 of matter ? Trained in the knowledge of the laws 
 of mind, to find it impossible to take ofi'ence : — 
 what a soothing infiuence ! AYhat a blessing, this 
 one circumstance ! what a foundation for virtue and 
 generosity ! and for peace of mind ! Is it nothing 
 to cast away ambition ? to desire excellence rather 
 than to excel ? to feel a noble contentment in 
 reflecting that you are a part of nature — a form of 
 the eternal ? Is there nothing in that faith which 
 seeks for happiness out of self in the happiness of 
 others, and the glories of nature, — -content that in 
 death the sense of personality shall pass away, and 
 that you shall be as you were before you were — in 
 a sleep for evermore ? — to know that self-derived 
 individual and human power is a fiction, a form, and 
 nothing more ? If the Mohammedan or the Chris- 
 tian would preach to me, let his doctrine be wholly 
 unselfish, or I should not attend to him. — Bishops, 
 the representatives of Christ, live in palaces. 
 How odd it sounds ! Christ's representative in a 
 
232 man's nature and development. 
 
 palace; and in 1850 years^ cannot settle what the 
 effect is of a few drops of water sprinkled on a child's 
 face ! How wonderful the phenomena of credulity 
 and priesthood ! 
 
 We have watched the influence and working of 
 men's faith^ and learned to estimate their prejudices 
 and habits of mind, and the force of the different 
 weights which balance and move their thoughts : 
 and when men disparage one another, and bluster 
 about as champions of a faith, we may know what is 
 going on ; " by what string the puppet has been 
 moved;" and he ceases to have power to move us. 
 We cannot be moved, except by the force of reason, 
 and the example of a disinterested life. It is the 
 light of truth which must guide our steps : it is the 
 wannth of goodness which must develop the latent 
 good that is in us. How little those who are pleased 
 to represent human nature as selfish — that even good- 
 ness is a selfishness — ^how little they understand the 
 laws of mind, and how, for instance, the impulse of 
 benevolence, the love of truth, or the sense of beauty, 
 is wholly independent of selfishness ! Of course, as 
 a part of Nature, as a creature of necessity, as 
 governed by law, Man is neither selfish nor un- 
 selfish, — neither good nor evil, — worthy nor unwor- 
 thy ; but simply nature, and what is possible to 
 natui'e, and could not be otherwise. 
 
 Plato says that " Nature is nothing but an enig- 
 matic poesy :" Montaigne says that philosophy is 
 " only sophistical poetry :" and with some truth in 
 regard to the philosophy then existing, and before 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 233 
 
 Bacon's time. However this be, it seems to me that 
 our nature is essentially romantic ; that from child- 
 hood to old age, we are exhibiting the spirit of 
 romance, in one form or other; but the highest 
 truth exhibiting the highest poetry and the noblest 
 romance. We are all heroes and worshippers of 
 heroes. Eveiy period of life has its poetry, its hopes 
 and fears, — its castle buildings in the air, — its ideal 
 and its idols. We are all lovers and poets. The 
 world too is full of insane doctrines and customs, 
 fashioned in om- ignorance ; and each thinks he can 
 see the insanity of his neighbour, but does not see 
 his own. Men strive beyond the power and very 
 nature of the understanding, and repose upon the 
 incongruities of a disturbed dream : but " the sub- 
 tilty of Natm*e is far beyond that of the sense, or of 
 the understanding." Even the finer sense of the 
 clairvoyant cannot reach beyond phenomena ; and if 
 he could perceive the whole process of his prophecies, 
 it would not dip one line's breadth beyond this. 
 Men are for ever running after some will-o'-the-wisp 
 or other, — seeking after gold or power, — luxury or 
 pure spirituality ; — fame over the wide world, or that 
 strange phantom, posthumous fame. When I was a 
 child, and I wandered into the woods after butter- 
 flies and birds' eggs, what a romance it was ! My 
 heart beats now to think of the wonder, the ecstacy 
 and romance of those days ; and when I believed in 
 spirits and hobgoblins, — in Jack the Giant Killer ; 
 and afterwards in Robinson Crusoe and his man 
 Friday, and in Don Quixote. ! what delightful 
 
234.. 
 
 romance it all was ! — the impression of those books ! 
 and then came the greatest romance of all; — the 
 romance of the Bible and a religion. A strange tale 
 that to relate ; — how the impressions came and grew ; 
 how they influenced me, and how they passed away. 
 And then the strange feehng, — to seem to be walking 
 wide awake through the world while in a dream, — 
 men pressing after one wild delusion or another, as if 
 drawn by enchantment ; — and each opposed to each, 
 and nation opposed to nation, — all wandering away, 
 as in " a mighty maze without a plan.^^ It is only 
 when we begin to interpret these dreams by a know- 
 ledge of causes, and of the laws and conditions of 
 Mind, that we seem to be again at ease, and in sym- 
 pathy with our fellows, and perceive our true posi- 
 tion and relations, and the necessity of all that 
 exists in its time and in its place. When people say 
 that there is no longer any romance in the world, it 
 is because they love romance, and their heart is full 
 of it. The lover, the mother, the grandmother, how 
 romantic they all are ! The speculations of trade, 
 even the mind of the poor man who gathers water- 
 cresses, and carries them from door to door along the 
 street, has its romance. The warrior, the sportsman, 
 is carried away by enthusiasm into danger, and 
 delights in adventure. Look into the libraries, and 
 theatres, and ball-rooms, and you find romance the 
 iniling passion. And what is religion but another 
 feature of romance, with its wonders upon wonders, 
 — ^its hopes, its terrors, its fictions ! Baron Mun- 
 chausen is a tame affair to it. And then to become 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITIOxV. 235 
 
 one of the elect, to win salvation, and an enchanted 
 life beyond tlie grave ; — to convert others, and win 
 salvation for them ; to be caiTicd into the seventh 
 heaven, — is it not the very ecstacy of romance? 
 And to believe that it is all true ; that the prophecies, 
 the miracles, the morals, all prove it to be true ; the 
 Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mother, 
 — what personages these are ! Sweep away these 
 ideas, and clear the ground ; — how sad it seems ! 
 how blank the space where they were ! It is hard 
 for reason and for history to struggle against such 
 romance as this ; to throw off the glorious promises, 
 and awake to common life. But every change has 
 its immediate evil. We live, not for the past, but 
 for the future : and wake men must, however painful 
 it be. We must speak out the truth that is within 
 us, even though we shall grievously offend our mother 
 or our sister, or our dearest friend : and Truth shall 
 be to us as a mother, a sister, and a friend. A man 
 is loved for his virtue so long as his virtue gives no 
 offence to the prejudices, vanities, or vices of others. 
 The reformer must disturb the opinions of many ; 
 and he is as a robber, and breaks into men^s habits, 
 and robs them of the opinions which may have been 
 their stay, their character, their w^ealth, child and 
 idol. How pitiful to observe the miser when he is 
 losing his hoard; the proud when they fall; the 
 lover who has just lost his mistress 1 It were almost 
 better that such men had never been born. And 
 how terrible for a man to lose his God, and all his 
 hope of heaven ! But fortunately the waking is 
 
236 MAN'S NATURE AXD DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 generally very gradual, and from stage to stage. 
 Those who are in the delightful condition of mes- 
 meric sleep pray you to let them sleep on, and for 
 ever. 
 
 There are many who have a half knowledge that 
 their religion is but a waking dream, yet beg you 
 will not disturb them. The miser would not have 
 you wake him to a true sense of the value of his 
 gold. To throw dow^n his glittering idol would 
 appear to him a worse evil than to take his life ; for it 
 would seem as if it would deprive him at once of all 
 hope and joy, and leave him utterly desolate. How 
 ten'ible is the account Charles Lamb gives of himself, 'J^ 
 — how he had become a drunkard, and was forced to 
 return to his liquor ! I believe few men are aware 
 of what abject slaves they are to custom and to 
 prejudice, so that " be it the Obi or the worship of 
 images, or any other absurdity, when it is once in- 
 troduced, an artful or an enlightened statesman may 
 prolong it for centuries." A beneficed clergyman of 
 the Church of England is no more able to judge 
 fairly of arguments opposed to those thirty-nine 
 articles of faith he has sworn to maintain, than is a 
 jMohammedan able to judge correctly of the argu- 
 ments of a Christian. Men are much the same in 
 all professions. When I speak of the clergyman or 
 the physician, I speak not of any individual or 
 class of men, but of human nature under particular 
 influences. " The wisdom of the law-maker is 
 one,'"' says Bacon, ^^and of a la^v}^er another." 
 * Essays of Elia. "Confessionsof a Drunkard." 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 237 
 
 Few men are whollj^ honest : and but few again 
 of these honest men are capable of suspending 
 theii* judgment^ but, when their prejudices are 
 concerned, "have ears more deaf than adders to 
 the voice of any time decision/^ Those who have 
 cut themselves free from all inveterate habits and 
 the world^s ties, may still have their prejudices : 
 but they are bound only by threads instead of by 
 cables. Their circle is widened, their liberty the 
 greater, and their judgment free. Men cannot help 
 themselves. How can a man suspend his judgment 
 on the wayside, when he is already thrust into a 
 prison, and is taught to believe this prison to be a 
 beautiful palace ? He no more desires freedom, or 
 can conceive a better state of things, or a higher 
 truth, than the poor women you describe in a hareem. 
 Rattling their ovra chains the while, it is odd to see 
 how men compassionate others* whom they see to be 
 in bondage. A madman, who thinks himself made 
 of glass, sees clearly enough the folly of one who 
 declares himself Jesus Christ. But the folly which 
 exists about freedom of will prevents men from ac- 
 knowledging the entireness of this bondage, or from 
 being startled at their o^n position. Allien we re- 
 cognise the helplessness and dependence of men 
 under various conditions of life, and habits of mind, 
 we shall learn to sympathize with all, to bear with 
 all, and deeply commiserate those who are disturbed, 
 and awaking from a dream. If happiness be the 
 end and aim of life, as some think, it seems to me 
 * Appendix W. 
 
that ecstacy is tlie highest state of enjoyment we are 
 capable of ; and had we been designed, and our hap- 
 piness considered, I think we should have been left 
 to the joys of ecstacy for ever, and each individual 
 multiplied fifty million times, and to infinity. This 
 is not nonsense. Either the possibility or the bene- 
 volence must be limited, if happiness be not com- 
 plete, continuous, and infinite. 
 
 But these are speculations for poets and the 
 divines. The philosopher has only to do ^nth things 
 as they are, — with second causes. He knows no 
 final cause, nor the natui'e of that cause-condi- 
 tion fundamental to phenomena. Men take up 
 knowledge by fragments. There are few whose 
 circle is complete; so that it seems as if society was 
 composed of fragments of men. A man does some 
 noble thing in one direction, and delights us ; but 
 we are painfully impressed with his shortcoming in 
 some other department. It is the entireness, the 
 compass of the circle, the universality, that is the 
 greatness of Bacon. His greatness is more in the 
 matter even than in the method. He urged the 
 importance of phrenology, or a physiological account 
 of the mind. He fully recognised the importance 
 of those matters which come under the term Mesme- 
 rism. He suggested the homoeopathic character of 
 medicine. He recognised the principle urged by the 
 author of " Vestiges of Creation,^^ &c. The highest 
 object of a philosopher should be universality, and 
 to attain to that state in which we may appreciate 
 and enjoy all things ; recognising the true value and 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 239 
 
 relations of every character^ condition^ and circnm- 
 stance ; our knowledge being so full^ and our enjoy- 
 ments so high, that we regret nothing. A truly 
 enlightened and noble mind would not be subject 
 to gi'ief. 
 
 But our religious systems have done their part, for 
 good and for evil. They are now lumber, blocking 
 up the path of knowledge ; that knowledge which 
 must push them all out of the way. A selfish theo- 
 logian is not for this age. His theology prevents the 
 admission of higher truths, and the development of 
 man^s nobler nature. Strange as it may appear, and 
 impossible as it may seem to so many, pie Christian 
 religion is, in fact, and will soon be generally, re- 
 cognised as no better than an old wife^s fable.] 
 Those who make the Bible an oracle tell us that the 
 earth was created 4,000 years before Christ. Science 
 declares that the piece of rock over which the waters 
 of Niagara fall has taken at least 30,000 years to 
 wear away. I should think Lyell a better authority 
 than Moses on such a subject. That man is of the 
 dust, and to the dust returns, is time ; and the dust 
 itself may return to what it was before it was dust ; 
 but that the earth is cursed, and that labour is an 
 evil, is not true. And what has become of Eden, 
 and the tree of life preseiTcd by the Cherubim at the 
 eastern gate, and by the flaming sword which turned 
 every way ? And it will one day be asked, what has 
 become of Christianity and Mohammedanism, and 
 Judaism, and Buddhism, and Fohism. The Bible 
 will be a curious and charmins: book for those days. 
 
,.L' 
 
 240 man's nature and deahelopment. 
 ^1 when men will be burning all rubbish of theologies 
 
 L ,-) ■ which fills our libraries 
 
 But here I am ranning on like a n old go ssip^ 
 when I simply wished to saj^, that to believe in a 
 cause of the phenomena which we call Nature^ and 
 which constitutes the thinking man^ seems essential 
 to all reasoning beings. I am far from being an 
 Atheist, as resting on second causes. As well might 
 we, resting on the earth, deny that there is any depth 
 beneath, or, living in time, deny eternity. I do not 
 say, therefore, that there is no God : but that it is 
 extravagant and irreverent to imagine that cause a 
 Person. All we know is phenomena : and that the 
 fundamental cause is wholly beyond our conception. 
 In this I do not suspend my judgment : but rather 
 assert plainly that of the motive power or principle 
 of things we know absolutely nothing, and can know 
 nothing : and that no form of words could convey 
 any knowledge of it : and that no form of thought 
 could imagine that which is wholly aside of Nature, 
 (as Natm-e is to us,) and of the nature of the mind, 
 and, as it were, behind the understanding. A 
 " cause of causes " is an unfathomable mystery. 
 Phenomena necessarily have a certain form and order 
 which we term Law. The most fundamental and 
 general law is what Bacon terms Forms. I cannot 
 believe in a manufacturing God as implied in the 
 idea of a Creator, and a creation ; nor can I believe 
 in any beginning or end to the operations of Nature. 
 The cause in nature or of nature is eternal and 
 immutable. The earth and stars may pass away 
 
NATURAX HISTORY OF SUPERSTITION. 241 
 
 into otlier forms; but the law is eternal. Man, 
 animals, plants, stones, are consequently in nature. 
 The mind of j\Ian, the instincts of animals, the sym- 
 pathies (so to speak) of plants, and the properties of 
 stones, are results of material dev^elopment ; that 
 development itself being a result of the properties of 
 matter, and the inherent cause or principle which is 
 the basis of matter. If to have this conception of 
 things is to be an Atheist, then am I an Atheist. If 
 to renounce all idolatiy, and to repose upon the 
 deep and solemn conviction of an eternal and neces- 
 sary cause, — such a Cause as that, with our faculties, 
 we could not know, or, as it is expressed, ^^ could 
 not see and live ;" — if this be atheism or materialism, 
 — be it so. I care not about terms. I hold that 
 there never has been, or can be, any miracle, or 
 interruption of the laws of nature : " for certain it 
 is,^^ says Bacon,* " that God worketh nothing in 
 nature but by second causes : and if they would 
 have it otherwise believed, it is mere imposture, as 
 it were in favour towards God, and nothing else but 
 to offer to the author of truth the unclean sacrifice 
 of a lie.^^ Spinoza was not an Atheist, but rather 
 what he has been called, — "a god-intoxicated 
 man." 
 
 There is a vast number of superior minds which 
 clearly see that all religions founded upon supposed 
 revelations exhibit a low morality, and are unsup- 
 ported by fact or history, but have not yet cleared 
 
 * Advancement of Learning, Book I. 
 M 
 
242 man's nature and development. 
 
 themselves of self-delusion. They want more support 
 and companionship than they find in society, owing 
 to this undeveloped nature and ignorance ; and they 
 imagine an ideal, and take the want for a proof of 
 this ideal being real. Again, they have an instinct 
 of life, and consider this a proof of a future existence, 
 and say, " Plato, thou reasonest well ; else whence 
 this pleasing hope, this fond desire, — this longing 
 after immortality.'' And thirdly, they feel them- 
 selves in a measure free, and have been accustomed 
 to the untrue and immoral doctrine of moral respon- 
 sibility; and consider this sense of freedom and 
 responsibility proof against mind being subject to 
 law. In the same way they might say, being accus- 
 tomed to wars, therefore war is right; that their 
 great ancestors painted their skins and ate one 
 another ; and therefore to paint our skins and eat 
 one another is right : that we have a sense that the 
 sun goes round the earth, and therefore Galileo was 
 wrong. When our feelings guide reason, instead of 
 reason searching into the cause of our feelings, thus 
 it has been. — There is a rivalry going on now between 
 the insanity doctors and the judges. The doctor 
 says, by the laws of mind, this man is not respon- 
 sible ; but the judge insists on opposing the laws of 
 the land to the laws of nature, and declares the 
 man a criminal. The newspapers take up the mat- 
 ter, and write about the shocking doctrine of a man 
 not being able to resist an impulse ; for newspapers 
 but echo the opinions, prejudices, and ignorance of 
 the world, or of a party. So the confusion goes on ; 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OY SUPERSTITION. 243 
 
 and the most absurd contradictions and shifts occur 
 in the courts of law ; and the question remains a 
 difficulty, and as unsettled as ever. The question 
 still is urged, what is the limit of Man's responsi- 
 bility ? You may as well try to ascertain the limits 
 of time, and where eternity begins. The folly of all 
 this is, that men judge by their feelings, and not by 
 their reason and the fact : and again, from their 
 want of faith in truth ; for they will say, '' suppose 
 this thing to be true, it is not wise to say so :'' 
 which is the presumption of human wisdom. A wise 
 churchman hath said, "Whenever I perceive any 
 glimmering of truth before me, I readily pursue, 
 and endeavour to trace it to its source, without any 
 reserve or caution of pushing the discovery too far, 
 or opening too fresh a glare of it to the public/' 
 
 Until the philosophy of human nature be admitted 
 among the sciences, and laws and material conditions 
 of mind understood, it seems to me that we are little 
 removed from savages, and are still living in the 
 dark ages, — romancing rather than using our " gift 
 of reason .'' All that a judge and juiy have to 
 ascertain is how a man has behaved : but it remains 
 for wiser men than judges and jurias at present are 
 to say what treatment the moral patient requires ; 
 the undergoing which treatment will be the best 
 check upon other inferior natures. We must remove 
 the gallows, and no more use the rod; for these are 
 not instruments of reform and civilization, but the 
 instruments of barbarism* and the cause of brutality. 
 * Appendix X. 
 M 2 
 
244 man's NATI3EE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Hell drives men to despair and to madness : the 
 gallows ripens crime, and brutalizes and degrades a 
 nation. How men can repeat tlie Lord's Prayer, 
 and hang a man in the same breath, is astonishing, 
 and exhibits the utter depravity of a Christian 
 Legislation. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 Ah ! how true it is that Christianity has not, as 
 you say. Christianized the world ! There is some- 
 thing curious in the spectacle of the embaiTassment 
 of eveiy sect of Christians in accounting for this 
 fact. I know no subject on which there is more 
 miserable floundering among incompatible views 
 and untenable assertions. From those who, with 
 a foregone conclusion, set about estimating how much 
 Christianity has done for the world, to those who 
 give the matter up, and declare the delay to be a 
 mysteiy of Providence, I find none with whom I 
 can for a moment agree. To me, the wonder would 
 be if it had Christianized the world. Its unfitness 
 for sa\ing the race, — for an universal reception by 
 mankind, — seems to be shown clearly enough by the 
 rise of Mohammedanism, and by the spread of that 
 faith so far beyond the extent that Christianity ever 
 
THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE. 245 
 
 attained as to include, in our day, a fifth part of 
 the whole human race. That religion, imperfect as 
 we see it to be, met needs and gratified faculties, 
 among certain races of men, which Christianity 
 wholly neglected. We are not of the races whose 
 needs could be met by Mohammedanism: nor are 
 we supplied, even on the most supei-ficial view, by 
 what Christianity ofi'ers us. As the omission of 
 a provision for the antagonistic at once with the 
 fatalistic faculties of men made Mohammedanism 
 necessary, so the neglect, amounting to discoun- 
 tenance, by Christ, of the domestic passions and 
 affections, nullifies its operation with us. After all 
 the straining of divines to make the most of the 
 Can a marriage, and of all incidental mention of any 
 of the family relations of the disciples, there remains 
 an unquestionable vacancy in regard to the passions 
 and affections which are of the most importance in 
 our life. It is not necessary that there should have 
 been either teaching or sentiment in regard to the 
 domestic institutions which are still of high import- 
 ance among ns : such as the conjugal and parental, 
 as at present existing ; because these, and all group- 
 ings into households by the rule of marriage and 
 blood-relationship, may be easily conceived to be a 
 matter of rule and arrangement, and therefore of 
 limited duration ; but the passions and affections of 
 which these arrangements are the temporary form, 
 seem not to be recognized by Christianity, — or, if at 
 all, not in any proportion to their place among our 
 
246 man's nature and development. 
 
 faculties. — Yet more striking, perhaps, is the ignoring 
 of the faculties, and their action, which are concerned 
 in the pursuit of science and speculative truth. But 
 there is no need to dwell on the particular omissions, 
 while the fact is before us that Christianity has not 
 Christianized the world, nor has the slightest pros- 
 pect at present of doing so, — failing even to produce 
 the remotest likeness of itself where it is most loved 
 and honoured. From some once Christian nations 
 it has avowedly died out : and among us, and in 
 America, where it is supposed to be held in its 
 highest purity, it fails to make men less worldly, 
 more sincere, more courageous, or more kindly, 
 than they are elsewhere. At home, we have bishops 
 living in palaces, while hundreds and thousands of 
 the people are neither taught nor duly fed : and in 
 America, we see the clergy, and prayerful merchants 
 and professional men, taking the aristocratic and 
 oppressive side on the slavery question, — rushing to 
 conquest, grasping at wealth, and indulging in a 
 conceit and boasting as little compatible with the 
 spirit of the Gospel as the march of a caravan to 
 Mecca, or the fetish rites of the savage on the Niger 
 or the Ganges. — And we have quite as much, hap- 
 pily, of the breaking out of the higher as of the 
 lower impulses of men, in opposition to Christianity, 
 or independence of it. We have ^' nature bm-sting 
 through theology" in an upward, as well as a do\^Ti- 
 ward direction. What an insult it is to our best 
 moral faculties to hold over us the promises and 
 
 I 
 
THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE. 247 
 
 threats of heaven and hell, as if there were nothing 
 in us higher* than selfish hope and fear ! Did you 
 ever meet with those anecdotes of Wilberforce and 
 Clarkson, which, put together, make one of the most 
 instructive stories I know ? They give us the cha- 
 racters of the two friends, and ofi'er us very much 
 more. — Some one was one day praising Wilberforce 
 to his face for his toils and sacrifices on behalf of the 
 slave. " Oh ! you know I must," said the good 
 man, w^ho w^as quite unconscious how much better 
 he was than the doctrine he professed. " You 
 know I must do this work, for the sake of my 
 salvation. I must save my immortal soul." At 
 another time and place, a pious friend admonished 
 Clarkson to attend to his religious duties, inquiring 
 w^hether he had not been neglecting the safety of his 
 immortal soul. " ^ly soul !" said the simple old 
 man, as he sat rubbing his knees, wdth his earnest, 
 business-like look; '^why, I don't know. I have 
 been so busy about these poor negroes, that I don't 
 think I have thought at all about my own soul." 
 "VYho would not have been the Clarkson here ? 
 though we all know that Wilberforce was far above 
 being benevolent from selfishness, however he thought 
 it his duty to persuade himself that such were his 
 reasons. 
 
 If it is argued that such views of Christianity as 
 he held were corrupt, — that the primitive Christianity 
 did not promise and threaten the popular heaven and 
 
 * Appendix Y. 
 
248 man's nature and development. 
 
 hell^ I agree to tlie statement : but then the fact 
 comes out clearer than ever^ that, instead of saving 
 men_, Christianity has become corrupt_, and tends to 
 degrade them : — a liability which could not occur to 
 a saving revelation. If it is now wanting in purity, 
 and was always wanting in universality, it seems 
 perverse to claim for it the dignity of a revelation 
 sent to save the human race. 
 
 And then comes the obvious question which must 
 always recur in regard to any revelation. Is that 
 which is said to be revealed within the compass of 
 the human faculties, or is it not ? If not, we have 
 a mere jingle of words. If the matter cannot be 
 received and comprehended, it is no revelation. If, 
 on the other hand, it can be compassed by the human 
 faculties, it could, of course, be attained by them 
 through their natural action. The common escape 
 from this question is by the assertion that revelation 
 anticipates Man's natural knowledge. To say nothing 
 of the bareness of the assumption here, it is clear 
 that when the knowledge is arrived at in natural 
 course, the revelation expires. It is proved an in- 
 strument of temporary use, and falls to pieces when 
 done with ; an end far different from that which is 
 supposed to await Christianity. 
 
 But how veiy different from this is in truth the 
 direction of our faculties ! How very far is the 
 knowledge they give us from confirming the essential 
 doctrines of any religion declared to be revealed ! 
 The history of the rainbow, as instanced in one of 
 your letters, is a good epitome of the history of the 
 
THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE. 249 
 
 connection of the universe with the mind of Man 
 from the beginning. Everything that moved^ — 
 everything that was not pei-manent and stationary, — 
 was at first a sign and a revelation_, in the absence of 
 science. From the moment when science was con- 
 ceived of, the exorcism began ; and it has been going 
 on ever since. Spirits have been driven out wherever 
 she has turned her hght, wherever she has fixed her 
 gazCj wherever her firm and gentle voice has bidden 
 them come forth, and trouble the timid no more. 
 There is much yet to do ; but enough is done to 
 show what must be the fate of all remaining dreams 
 and delusions. The fresh dawn of science has for 
 some time been brightening upon the nightmare 
 period of theology ; and the full and perfect day is 
 the surest prophecy afloat in the universe. The 
 great step of all is achieved, — the learning what 
 knowledge is. Even theologians have got so far as 
 to struggle to show that science and revelation can 
 be made to agree. In this, we know, they will not 
 succeed ; but it is a testimony to the strength and 
 consideration which science has attained. 'WTiile to 
 those who are outside of the theological haze, the 
 prospect of the issue appears as clear as the horizon 
 at noonday, it is a strange spectacle to them to 
 witness the tumult caused by Popish aggression, and 
 other quarrels within the theological enclosure, at 
 the same time that a power greater than that of Pope 
 or Prerogative, of Councils or Chui'ches, is steadily 
 advancing to the overthrow of them all. It should, 
 M 5 
 
250 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 however^ be called rather a renovation than an over- 
 throw : for Science can abolish nothing but what is 
 unreal ; and then^ only in order to substantiate what 
 is real. Her office is to take out the vital principle 
 from forms, once beautiful, when they begin to grow 
 hideous with age, and to transfuse it into new forms 
 of beauty which we may love without fear and 
 without disgust. She comes to relieve us from our 
 liag-ridden state, and to bring about us forms as 
 fresh as the morning, and as beautiful as the spring. 
 When we see the Pope and the Church about to fly 
 ofi", — ^two old witches on broomsticks,, — it is an odd 
 sight to see their wrangling before they start ; and 
 but for the genuine affections and serious moral 
 associations of so many persons that are involved in 
 the struggle, it would be purely ludicrous. 
 
 I have run on till I may have reminded you, to my 
 own disadvantage, of Bacon^s warning not to think 
 about theology when pursuing science, or science 
 when pursuing theology. But I believe it has been 
 natural to us both, and even inevitable, to contem- 
 plate theology to the extent that we have done, 
 because it is at present an impediment in the way of 
 science. We do not turn aside after it, I think; 
 but finding it in our way, we discuss it, and pass on. 
 Will you now pass on to the questions I asked you ? 
 — about the connection between light and sight ; 
 and about how you conceive our consciousness of 
 identity to run through all our life, while the material 
 of life is incessantly changing ; and also about how 
 
CENTRAL LAW AND PERVASIVE UNITY. 251 
 
 you conceive we may set to work to imagine tlie 
 manner of tlie fact that we know to be fact, — that 
 djing people impress others at a distance with a 
 knowledge,, by sensation, that the process of death 
 is taking place ? 
 
 XXIL 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 How natural it was for men to use false similes ! 
 for instance, to liken to the making of a loaf of 
 bread the material existence and growth of the corn 
 out of which the bread was made. We are so apt to 
 forget that man creates nothing ; that to invent or 
 make, is but to place materials in juxtaposition j and 
 that Nature does all the rest ! All the effects of 
 Nature, and all the doings of Man, who is part of 
 Nature, are the consequents of the interaction of 
 matter, of the influence of body on body. Science 
 has brought us to this ; and we must not let the 
 truth escape us. '^ The mind of Man,'^ says Bacon, 
 " is like an enchanted glass ; full of superstition and 
 imposture, if it be not delivered and reduced.^^ — 
 " Nay,* it is not credible, till it be opened, what a 
 
 * Advancement of Learning. Idols of the Mind. 
 
252 man's nature and development. 
 
 number of fictions and fancies the similitude of human 
 action and arts, together with making of Man com- 
 
 unis mensura, have brought into natural philosophy, 
 not much better than the heresy of the anthropomor- 
 phites, bred in the cells of gross and solitary monks; 
 and the opinions of Epicurus, answerable to the same 
 in heathenism, who supposed the gods to be in human 
 shape. And therefore, Velleius, the Epicurean, 
 needed not to have asked why God should have 
 adorned the heaven with stars, as if he had been an 
 iEdihs ; one that should have set forth some magni- 
 ficent shows or plays. For if that great Work- 
 master had been of a human disposition, he would 
 have cast the stars into some pleasant and beau- 
 tiful works and orders, like the frets in roofs of 
 houses j whereas one can scarce find a posture in 
 square, or triangle, or straight line, among such an 
 infinite number j so differing an harmony there is 
 between the spirit of Man, and the spirit of Nature.-'^ 
 
 In the infancy of knowledge, men look upon the 
 growth of a tree and the birth of an animal as mira- 
 culous. The bursting forth of the foliage in Spring 
 is as if the earth had been toufched by the wand of a 
 magician : as if a great magician had said, " Let 
 there be new growth and beauty over the earth ; '^ 
 and growth and beauty were. The sunset was the 
 showing forth of gloiy, and the stimulus to praise 
 and worship. The rainbow and the eclipse are as 
 signs in the heavens. The sun is made to shine for 
 man : the moon and the myriad stars are lights set 
 up to shine for man, — the lamp-lighting for the 
 
CENTRAL LAW AND PERVASIVE UNITY. 253 
 
 night's use. It was yet to be known that the sun 
 which was to rule the day^ was the cause of the day. 
 Day and nighty it was said, were created on the first 
 day, and the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day. 
 It was not knowTi that the sun, and the earth, and 
 moon, are but atoms in the universe. The thunder 
 was the voice of the Great Spirit ; the hghtniug, the 
 thunderbolt, was the instrument of his vengeance. 
 The Great Spirit was busy in the battle field, and the 
 plague was the effect of his wTath. Misfortunes and 
 good fortune were all the doings of the Great Spirit. 
 — Under such ideas, men blindly submitted to an in- 
 sci-utable destiny, and believed in the most fatal of 
 fatalisms. Or, if they exerted themselves, it w^as in 
 prayer and beseechings ; in offerings, to propitiate their 
 offended God. Science is gradually leading through 
 these notions of the cave into open daylight, by 
 showing the undeviating laws of nature : and thus 
 men are gradually drawn out of the church into the 
 lecture-room. The divine will become the philoso- 
 pher ; and the philosopher the divine. Knowledge 
 is power, and rules the mind, as well as enables the 
 mind to rule. In a transition state, men may reject 
 innovation, and storm, and feel deeply shocked, and 
 most indignant at the new doctrine ; while Science, 
 like the needle, guides them through the darkness, 
 and shows the cause of the storm, and how the storm 
 of the mind is related to the storm in the clouds ; 
 how they are the same foot-prints of Nature on dif- 
 ferent surfaces or spheres. 
 
 From a knowledge of particular laws, we gain a 
 
254 man's nature and development. 
 
 notion of universal Law : and from this occurs the 
 idea of a Unity in Nature, just as from the finite 
 we suppose the infinite, and universality. I remem- 
 ber when a youth, sitting on the marble rocks of 
 Devonshire, to rest, after investigating the natui'e of 
 the marbles and the plants of the district. I had 
 observed that certain dark veins in the marble must 
 have been cracks, filled up by vegetable deposits, 
 which afterwards became stone : and then I thought 
 of the diamond which I had been told was convert- 
 ible into charcoal : and I picked up a blade of grass 
 and asked myself, " What was this a month ago ? 
 And those sheep, — what were they a few months ago ? 
 And myself, — what was I a few years back ? And 
 will not the grass grow fresh upon my grave when I 
 am dead ? And what was the substance of the globe 
 before it took the form of chalk and clay and silex, — 
 vegetables and thinking substances V And I became 
 impressed with the fact that Nature is one, and that 
 all things are but varieties of the same material : and 
 I was elated with the idea, which seemed to me to 
 be of vast consequence ; and I determined to collect 
 specimens and facts to illustrate the notion. I was 
 not then awai-e that the notion was as old as the hills ; 
 that the ancients, with less fact to support them, had 
 thought the same ; and that the alchemists, in the 
 same belief, were seeking how to convert one sub- 
 stance into another. 
 
 Science is now afi'ording proof of what was before 
 only conjecture ; though a conjecture ha^dng the ap- 
 pearance of a necessary consequence or fact, Liebig 
 
CENTRAL LAW AND PERVASIVE UNITY. 255 
 
 says,* " Isomorpliism, or the quality of form of many 
 chemical compounds having a different composition, 
 tends to prove that matter consists of atoms, the 
 mere arrangement of which produces all the proper- 
 ties of bodies. But when we find that a different ar- 
 rangement of the same elements gives rise to various 
 physical and chemical properties, and a similar ar- 
 rangement of different elements produces properties 
 very much the same, may we not inquire whether 
 some of those bodies which we regard as elements, 
 may not be merely modifications of the same sub- 
 stance, whether they are not the same matter in dif- 
 ferent states of arrangement ? &c." Thus we draw 
 the circle of facts closer and closerf to the centre, 
 which is Unity. In this centre the Mind holds its 
 position, and is enabled to take in the whole range 
 of facts. Not as before, to be whirling round and 
 round in a little eddy of fact : but floating down the 
 wide stream of knowledge. Bacon was very near the 
 centre of the circle : and consequently, how few have 
 understood him ! But, while we dilate the sight in 
 the sense of the unity of Nature, and the relations of 
 the sciences, we must not forget to contract the sight 
 to every particular and circumstance ; that nothing 
 may be omitted, and Natm*e may be searched for the 
 truth which is said to lie at the very bottom of the 
 well : for that which is most potent, and has most 
 the character of universality, is most hid, and least 
 palpable to the ordinary sense, indolently applied. — 
 
 + Appendix Z. 
 
256 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT, 
 
 Bacon compared knowledge to a pyramid : physical 
 facts nearest the ba?e^ and gradually narrowing and 
 rising to metaphysics : and again^ to a tree, in which 
 there is no division ; but all the branches form a 
 whole, and unite in one stem. And this is the true 
 cosmical view of Nature : the sense of variety in unity, 
 and unity in variety : the whole in the parts, and the 
 parts in the whole ; all of one growth and origin, and 
 consequently presenting those true correspondences, 
 exhibiting the same law under various aspects, and 
 all evolved, and fitting together as closely as the seal 
 to the print, each symbolical of all, and all of each. 
 
 As it is with the conditions of matter, so it is 
 with the properties of matter. It is now recognised 
 by Faraday and others, that all the properties of 
 matter are but various conditions of the same : that 
 light, heat, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity, 
 &c., are convertible, or evolved one by the other. 
 This wondrous fact is now exhibited, daily, at the 
 Polytechnic Institution. Decompose one grain of 
 water, and the power which held the particles of gas 
 together in the form of water evolves into as much 
 electricity as we have exhibited in an ordinary thun- 
 der-storm. Electricity is evolved in a most brilliant 
 light which lives under water, the decomposing or 
 consuming substance being at a distance ; and the 
 influence or power passes unobserved along the wire, 
 and is manifested at the end. Thus flame is not, as 
 was supposed, a heated substance in the ordinary 
 sense. Instead of light, intense heat may be made 
 to occur or magnetism. The lecturer suggests the 
 
CENTRAL LAW AND PERYASm: UNITY. 257 
 
 question,, — What is electricity, liglit, heat, &c. ? 
 The cause, he says, is not yet discovered : but he 
 would more properly have said that the cause never 
 could be discovered ; that we know only the form of 
 matter, and not its cause. So, likewise, we know 
 only the foi-m or character of the phenomena of 
 matter, and the order of its development. The 
 cause is material, that is, inherent in what we call 
 substance. We know no more ; nor can we know 
 more. All that we can know is the fonn of the con- 
 ditions, and the form of the effects — the laws. 
 More we neither know nor can know. It is the 
 real and fundamental law and conditions of the 
 fact that we want to know : and this we may know. 
 Electricity, light, heat, are not fluids, but forms of 
 action, — the same as common motion or force. By 
 friction, new chemical powers are given to the ho- 
 moeopathic medicines. Squeeze a pear, and it 
 becomes sweet. By friction, light, heat, electricity, 
 or magnetism, is evolved. And what are the instinct 
 of animals and the mind of man but a result of 
 chemical action or material process ? What is mind 
 but an evolved condition or form of the powers of 
 nature, like light, heat, magnetism ? — a form of the 
 phenomena of the fundamental power which is acting 
 throughout nature, and may, perhaps, be said to 
 constitute nature. Mind, that is, thought, and sen- 
 sation, which we term mind, pass away like light, 
 and influence things without. Mind is but a transient 
 condition : and memory but acquired forms. Light 
 evolves thought; and thought again evolves light. 
 
258 man's nature and development. 
 
 Mind evolves motion in tlie limbs; and motion 
 again evolves thought. Mind acts on the body as 
 light and heat act on the material from which they 
 are evolved^ (a lamp or candle^ for instance,) and 
 help the evolution of fresh heat and light. Disturb 
 the chemical action of the body through the stomach 
 or lungs, or by electricity, and j^ou disturb or 
 paralyse the mind's action ; or the disturbed mental 
 action will derange the action of the body. In the 
 one case, you may have idiocy or insanity ; in the 
 other, a liver complaint. 
 
 When I say the mind is a function of brain, I 
 mean no more than when I say that the briUiant 
 electric light I see under water is a result or pro- 
 perty of certain materials under particular conditions. 
 The light and the mind are equally phenomena, and 
 the cause or nature of both is equally obscure : 
 and both are phenomena evolved or existing during 
 the consumption or change going on in matter. 
 But light, magnetism, mind, &c., though evolved by 
 the action of matter, are conveyed by solid bodies, 
 and through space, to other bodies at a distance. 
 Thoughts pass from one brain, and become con- 
 sciousness in another brain. This we call sympathy 
 of minds, or thought-reading. Now .the question 
 occurs, what is the medium through or by which 
 power of any form is conveyed from one body to 
 another. We say, that electricity is conveyed by a 
 wire, and sound by the air : but these are very shallow 
 notions. We have yet to learn whether there be a 
 universal medium, or different media interfused for 
 
CENTRAL LAW AND PERYASKE UNITY. 259 
 
 eacli distinct character of power, or cardinal motion : 
 and if these phenomena of light, electricity, mind, 
 &c., are actions from solid matter to this medium, 
 or if there be a spirit contained and close about all 
 bodies ; and particularly from animals, and man^s 
 brain, and the action first taking place in this ; or 
 if all effects are from an agitation, as it were, of the 
 universal medium or media pervading all things, 
 and all space; — if bodies, animate or inanimate, 
 have a particular evolved or eliminated spirit con- 
 dition, which is acted upon by the body on one side, 
 and by impressions through the universal medium 
 condition on the other. 
 
 •^ But body does not act directly on body, we know^ 
 because bodies do not touch : and, therefore, it is 
 clear, that whatever the spiritual condition or con- 
 ditions be, all actions are by and through such 
 spirit conditions. Therefore, in fact, solid body 
 does not act on body in any case, nor spirit on 
 body : but spirit acts on or in spirit, and through 
 spirit. Perhaps, in the end, it may be seen that 
 some of those that are called INIaterialists are the 
 most spiritual in their notions ; and those that pride 
 themselves on their spiritualism, are, in reality, the 
 Materialists }) who talk of gross materialism, and, at 
 the same time, evoke their God material, as he sits 
 on his throne ; who talk disparagingly of human 
 affections, and human wisdom, and poor human 
 nature, and, at the same time, fashion their God in 
 their own likeness. They scoff at those who may be 
 too spiritual to bend to their idolatry, or yield to 
 
260 MAN^S NATURE AND DEA^LOPMENT. 
 
 the ruinous influence of custom and formalism. To 
 see how men are dead while they yet live, and how 
 they are wise in their own conceit, and pure in their 
 own wisdom, — is it not enough to make one mourn, 
 and almost despair of progress ? and of that 
 
 . . . . " Philosophy which is 
 Not harsh and crahbed as dull fools suppose, 
 But musical as is Apollo's lute " ? 
 
 And thousands have despaired, and been content to 
 listen to the sweet strains of an indolent philosophy, 
 because they have overlooked causes, or mistaken 
 the plan of Natm-e, and the universal application of 
 inductive science. 
 
 I wish that I could give you a satisfactoiy reply 
 to your questions respecting the nature of Light. I 
 believe that the different theories of undulations and 
 vibrations, and darting corpuscules, &c., must all 
 dissolve away before the simple facts of the case; 
 just as ghosts and demons, and spiritual influences, 
 and retributive judgments, &c., vanish before the 
 light which we now bring upon mental science. It 
 seems certain that two things cannot occupy the 
 same space at the same time, unless we suppose with 
 Kant, that Space is a mere fiction. It seems, also, 
 that two similar actions or conditions, — two similar 
 diseases, for instance, cannot exist in action in the 
 same body at the same time, and that we must have 
 different organs for the different mental powers, and 
 
LIGHT. 261 
 
 for conveying sensation and motion ; and, indeed^ 
 for each distinct function of our nature. The in- 
 tellect is working in one part^ and the affections in 
 another ; the consciousness and will in a third ; 
 benevolence in a fourth ; and so on ; while a train 
 of impressions to the brain cannot run along the 
 same rail which is^ at the same time_, conveying a 
 baggage-train of muscular force outwards from the 
 brain. 
 
 These seem to be recognised facts ; and yet^ with 
 regard to impressions from object to object in those 
 influences which have been called " immaterial vir- 
 tues/^ we come to a fact which seems to be wholly 
 at variance with the rule. For instance, I hold up 
 a pin's point ; and the influence from this point 
 fills the whole space of the room, bearing upon every 
 point of matter on the objects and walls around 
 which face it ; — and beyond this : — but so much is 
 palpable. Yet, at the same time, and in the same 
 space, and in direct lines, come impressions from all 
 this surface around to the pin point. And if the pin 
 point was multiplied by millions, and the surface 
 around extended, every point of the space would 
 contain a direct impression from every point of sur- 
 face. In fact, the whole surface and the whole 
 space would contain impressions from every point, 
 and each point the impression of the whole : and 
 these impressions (for the most part, at least) have 
 to pass in opposite directions in the same lines in 
 space. And this would be the case, not only in 
 
262 man's nature and development. 
 
 regard to light, but to heat, sound, magnetism, and 
 evei-y shade of colour : indeed, of all the characters 
 of all the influences present, — to say nothing of the 
 secondary or diffused effects. 
 
 To every point that the sun shines upon comes a 
 direct ray or line of impression from every point of 
 the surface of the sun which is presented towards 
 us. How" impressions coming in direct lines from 
 point to point widen as the space extends is another 
 difficulty, which I do not think has yet been solved. 
 All seem to consider it necessary that there should 
 be an ether, or medium of some sort, pervading 
 space, and communicating impressions from body to 
 body : and certainly a material medium between 
 bodies does seem essential, unless you assume imma- 
 teriality. But not matter and nothing are terms for 
 the same nonentity. When we are in want of a 
 something, we cannot fall back upon nothing. Can 
 we for a moment suppose, for instance, light to be 
 an action without body moving through empty 
 space ? No, we require a substance to convey 
 a motion or energy from one body to another. 
 But what kind of substance can this ether be ? for, 
 if the particles touch, it would seem it must be a 
 solid : and if they do not touch, what conveys the 
 action from particle to particle ? or, are there no 
 particles ? is there no embodiment at all ? Thus 
 we shall have to come to the fact, humbling to some, 
 that that which is beyond the senses is beyond the 
 understanding. — Ask the wisest man " what is 
 
LIGHT. 263 
 
 mind V^ or " instinct V or *^ tlie principle of the 
 form of tilings V '' What is light ? What is matter ? 
 "V^Tiat is power, or space,, or time V And he will 
 teU you that his wisdom in this is the wisdom of 
 Socrates, in perceiving that he knows nothing. Or 
 he will reply that mind is mind, light is light, time 
 is time, &c. : that knowledge consists in the percep- 
 tion of things as they are to us, and in recognising the 
 relations of things in the order of nature : and that 
 all inquiries as to what things really are, are fruit- 
 less. The higher laws, those more fundamental, 
 universal, and operative, will be discovered only by 
 acute inductive reasoning upon accumulated expe- 
 rience of the obscurer workings of Nature. No one 
 can grasp the infinite, — in space, in time, or in cau- 
 sation. — Of the fundamental principle of things we 
 know nothing. We are just like one startled from 
 sleep in the midst of the night, glancing round by 
 the light of a taper : — the beginning and the end, 
 the past and the future, are all wonder and dark- 
 ness :^or can we know any thing of the subtle 
 actions of Nature beyond what our senses give us, 
 of which our reason is able to judge as by a second 
 sight. Many, upon such considerations, have left 
 experience altogether, and i*ushed into icetaphysics 
 and scepticism, or think themselves wdser and more 
 secure under some religious faith : because men wull 
 not be content to rest on w^hat they know, and what 
 it is possible for them to know : but they will follow 
 after any phantom that is presented to them, and 
 
264 MAN^S NATUEE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 leave Nature, which will disclose to them far more 
 wonderful things than they can imagine^ 
 
 I think that much confusion is caused by endea- 
 vouring to understand remote things by those that 
 are near, — the cause by the result, — the imponder- 
 able by the ponderable, &c. : that which is insen- 
 sible by that which is sensible ; the whole by a part ; 
 the universal by a particular mode or form; the 
 future by the present, &c, ; instead of observing the 
 order of things, and judging accordingly. That which 
 is too subtle for the sense must be judged of by the 
 circumstances, or by experiment. How could we 
 infer the laws of the atmosphere or the winds from a 
 heap of pebble-stones ; or the laws of fluids from a 
 rock of granite ? How absurd then to liken the 
 action of a supposed subtle ether, of inconceivable 
 nature and rarity, to waves and vibrations ! — No 
 waves or vibrations can explain the actions which 
 result in mind ; nor the action which is the cause of 
 vibrations and waves ; nor the infinite action going 
 on in the universal medium. — We must begin our 
 inquiries afresh : free from all scientific or theolo- 
 gical hypotheses whatever, or be sure that our hypo- 
 thesis does not wai'p the judgment on the facts as 
 we find theui. 
 
 "ili^onsidering the question of media, and how 
 that which we require to be in closer contact, if not 
 absolute union, can be imperceptible to our senses, 
 we may note that gold is more porous than less dense 
 substances ; that ice contains less matter in the same 
 
LIGHT. 265 
 
 bulk tlian cold water : — musk seems to fill the space 
 around continuously without losing weight : and the 
 smallest portion of colouring matter will perv^ade a 
 whole butt of water. Considering these instances^ 
 we shall not be oppressed by notions of infinite 
 division^ and the existence of subtle media : or that 
 each distinct action, or cardinal motion, may have a 
 distinct medium to itself, that there may be as many 
 media as there are characters of action, each per- 
 vading each, and all existing together in a way too 
 subtle for our sense and understanding. We must 
 acknowledge that the nature of such media, and their 
 action, are wholly incomprehensible. We might sup- 
 pose particles mo\dng, as in a row of billiard-balls, 
 — as when you strike the ball at one end, and the 
 furthest one flies ofi*, the intermediate balls remain- 
 ing unmoved : or we may imagine elasticity, as in 
 a fluid confined in a vessel, when a pressui^e on any 
 part is communicated viith equal force through the 
 whole mass. But these observations only approach 
 the subject, and leave us still ^^-ith the puzzle of a 
 thousand influences, crossing from all directions, ex- 
 isting in the same point at the same time, and 
 passing in opposite directions without interfering ; 
 with the puzzle, again, of a body capable of re 
 flexion and refraction, passing clear through ciystal 
 without apparent diminution; as electricity passes 
 through a we a thousand miles long or thick. 
 Common air seems a veiy subtle and incomprehen- 
 sible form of substance ; but it is blocks of granite 
 
 N 
 
266 man's nature and development. 
 
 compared to the subtlety of this medium, which seems 
 to be a totally distinct_, but unknown, condition of 
 matter. This medium, too, must be requisite even 
 to convey action through air. 
 
 You see how little I can reply to your question, 
 except by raising difficulties, and showing our igno- 
 rance : but, happily, the strangeness or the difficulty 
 of one matter often throws light upon another. The 
 principle of a whole being influenced or leavened by 
 each part, and each part by the whole, will aid us in 
 the explanation of matters otherwise incomprehen- 
 sible : such as that a portion of the seed of a plant 
 or animal under appropriate circumstances is deve- 
 loped into a similar plant or animal; and, where 
 individual peculiarities are repeated, the peculiarity 
 often continuing in a latent form, to be reproduced 
 only in a third or fourth generation. — Eor the spon- 
 taneous generation of the higher animals and plants, 
 the fitting conditions do not seem now to exist on 
 this globe. — Again, the fact that the various influ- 
 ences or appearances of a landscape, or of an object, 
 become evolved in the mind at once, in the form of 
 an individual or general idea, comes under the same 
 class : and again, that somnambules should read the 
 whole influence from a person, and even his entire 
 history, from a touch, or from a bit of hair, or even 
 from such an object as a piece of leather touched by 
 the person ; or from the influence hanging about 
 another individual, who has been in company with, 
 or otherwise influenced by, the person in question. — 
 
LIGHT. 267 
 
 Here we find the principle of memory, and how it is that 
 in such cases as that of the Swiss historian Zschokke* 
 the histoiy of a stranger is brought under review, 
 just as if the memoiy of one person was transferred 
 to another. — Here again we recognize a basis for 
 palmistiy and future-seeing; — facts, of course, like all 
 other facts, — medicine, for instance, — affording wide 
 opportunity for imposition, assumption, and folly. 
 — How marvellous is the influence of a homoeopathic 
 infinitesimal substance as an infection through the 
 whole nenous system ! and how complete is the in- 
 fluence of the system on the new matter which we 
 take in to compensate for waste ! How marvellous 
 that the habits and memories which age effects are 
 continually transferred to fresh matter ! Men marvel 
 at the contagious, subduing, infusing, or leavening 
 power of mesmerism ; as if we were not continually 
 emitting the force and condition of ourselves! The 
 very throwing of a stone is the transmitting the 
 power from the arm to the stone, for the hand does 
 not absolutely touch the stone. All your thoughts 
 and your whole condition, and those of thousands of 
 others, may be lying latent in my constitution at 
 this moment, if I had ability to recognize them, as 
 the contagion of disease is earned about by one 
 person, without his being conscious of it, and com- 
 municated to another, whom it destroys. And how 
 wondi'ous those storms of ^^tal force, or other (so to 
 term it) electric condition, which produce cholera, 
 scarlet fever, or the potato disease ! And what are 
 * Appendix A. 
 n2 
 
268 man's nature and development. 
 
 these diseases ? "V\Tience come they, and what are 
 their laws ? And why does not the influence afi*ect 
 all equally ? And why is one particular species of 
 plant or animal carried off" at one time, and other 
 species at another? Those who will not believe 
 unless they have reason, and who object to mes- 
 merism because it does not influence all equally, let 
 them answer this. Men^s minds are so beset with 
 ^^ gross materialism/' with their concrete and mecha- 
 nical notions, that they shrink from the obscure, 
 imponderable agents, and the study of vital action, 
 and the real powers of Nature, as if it were ^^the 
 night side of Nature,'' and the sphere of ghosts. 
 Nor will they stoop to consider the kind of evidence 
 required, and the method adapted to a new inquiry. 
 Matteucci, Reichenbach, and others, are now doing 
 for us some good work in the right direction. — 
 Reichenbach's experiments are most usefully made, 
 and most important ; but I do not agree with our 
 friend Professor Gregory in supposing that they 
 give any explanation of mesmeric action, beyond what 
 the facts of mesmerism had shown before. We were 
 familiar with the fact that sensitive patients could 
 see flames and other light, and feel influence from 
 people, and magnets, crystals, and other materials, 
 not appreciable by the ordinary sense powers, be- 
 fore these German experiments. We knew that 
 their influence did not exhibit the form of magnetism 
 or electricity. Do not suppose that I am under- 
 valuing the beautiful and varied experiments of 
 Reichenbach. — Possibly objections may be raised in 
 
LIGHT. 269 
 
 regard to some of the effects, on account of a mes- 
 meric influence or contagion imparted to the objects 
 used, or of an influence on the mind of the patient. 
 I do not say it is so : but it seems to be likely. The 
 value of such experiments will be greatly enhanced 
 by a full recognition of such objections. The great 
 point is, as Reichenbach strenuously insists, to have 
 the experiments repeated under various circumstances, 
 and by individuals of different temperaments. — I am 
 sony that Reichenbach has not appreciated the facts 
 of Phrenology. 
 
 It is to be remarked that rays of light, emanating 
 from one and the same source, but with a different 
 length of path, destroy each other, — produce dark- 
 ness. Light has the character of being diffused; 
 and yet it passes in straight lines. How it is that 
 we perceive the luminous object in the direction that 
 light comes to the eye, even when bent, as in re- 
 flexion ; and at the distance the light has travelled 
 that we see an object in the place in which it is, is 
 not understood ; and whether we see into space when 
 there is no object before us, — whether we do really 
 see into space when looking at the sky, for instance, 
 any more than we do when we seem to see into dark- 
 aess on closing our eyes, is to me a question. Sound 
 is heard as in the place from which it comes ; and, as 
 happens with light, it indicates direction, as well as 
 distance. Vfhj does it not sound all along the 
 passage from the object to the brain ? The con- 
 dition of action in the object must be different from 
 the influence sent forth ; and it evolves in the spirit 
 
270 man's nature and development. 
 
 of the brain an action we term sound, wliicli cor- 
 responds to the original action in the sounding body, 
 somewhat in the same way as when a sounding body 
 influences another body, with a corresponding action 
 or sound. In the same way, light seems to put in 
 action the light-condition of other bodies, and enables 
 us to see them, as we hear the responding sounding 
 body. Touch, pain in the muscular sense, &c., 
 convey a knowledge of locality and space also. 
 Sound influences the air and solid bodies ; but it 
 seems to me most absurd to suppose that sound 
 is caused by the motion of air. It is no more so 
 than electricity passing through a wire is caused 
 by the moving wire, though air, as a solid body, 
 may be as essential to the conveyance of sound, as 
 the wire to the conveyance of the electricity. 'When a 
 gun goes off, I feel no motion of air against my face ; 
 and yet the mere sound has broken the window, and 
 caused the frame-work to rattle. Is it not by the 
 subtle spii'it pervading all bodies and space that all 
 power and action occur ? — sound, electricity, heat, 
 light, mind, &c. Is it not all the energy of 
 nature acting by this spirit ? Bacon thought that 
 the spirit evolved from the body is the body of the 
 mind ; that, as the body is to this spirit, so is this 
 spirit to mind. Newton could not get on without 
 supposing an universal interstellar medium. Our 
 senses do not perceive it ; but the facts require it, 
 and reason infers it. The brain does not think; nor 
 does the bell ring ; but the spirit does all. The ball 
 does not move ; but is moved by the energy let loose 
 
LIGHT. 271 
 
 by the decomposing of the gunpowder. Such being 
 the case,, you will understand that the sense of sound 
 would be a true impression and correspondence wdth 
 the action of the body, or spirit-condition of the 
 body without. That the mind sometimes hears 
 sourds from an internal activity or stimulus, only 
 shows a capacity to be impressed in a certain way, 
 as it has been acted upon before. The impression 
 of hearing corresponds with the action or condition 
 heard. Seeing precisely corresponds ^nth what w^e 
 see. It is as the seal to the impression. As sounds 
 correspond with colours, so much more does the 
 subjective correspond with the objective. The chair 
 is one thing, and what I see as the chair is another, 
 no doubt : but the proportions and relations in the 
 object and the subject are the same : — as much so, 
 and infinitely more so, than the likeness we take by 
 the sun resembles the object. Seeing is an inter- 
 action of the subtle conditions of nature, an exact 
 corresponding of the object and the subject. Electro- 
 magnetism, acting on the direction of the polarized 
 ray of light, produces modifications like chemical 
 mixtures. By scratching the surface of a piece of 
 metal, so as to have a given number of lines in a 
 given space, we can cause the same substance to 
 appear of any colour we please. Heat will produce 
 all the colours from the same substance. Colour 
 therefore seems only to represent a particular con- 
 dition or texture. 
 
 Light and sound, out of the sense, of course are 
 
272 man's nature and development. 
 
 but forces^ or motions : and the whole universe is^ in 
 reaUty, absolute darkness and solemn universal 
 silence. The subjective corresponds with what light 
 indicates, rather than with light, which is but a 
 medium or form of communication. If I am lold 
 that I have no right to infer the objective from the 
 subjective, I reply, ^' Very well : then, you who otject 
 must believe only in your own mind, and that only 
 in the impression that is then passing.^' Idealism 
 forces itself to this position, where I am content to 
 leave it, to meditate how the thought that is past 
 may be a delusion of the present, and how the future 
 may not come. The important thing for us is to 
 ascertain relations and laws ; not what things are, 
 or how mind differs from matter. We must con- 
 sider things as we find them. Light, sound, colour, 
 taste, smell, touch, indicate condition : and those 
 conditions, differences or relations indicated are true. 
 This is what we call knowledge ; and it is equally 
 important and efficient, whatever may be our opinions 
 in regard to the subject and the object. 
 
 There is an electric character in Light ; and in- 
 fluences are constantly existing from all bodies irre- 
 spective of the light condition; or the sense to 
 receive a certain amount of force we term ordinary 
 light or seeing. As all influences are but different 
 conditions of the same, and may evolve each, it is 
 no wonder that an electric condition may evolve the 
 mental condition of sight, and produce seeing in the 
 dark. By considering what I have said before in 
 
LIGHT. 273 
 
 connection with this, clairvoyance does not seem 
 qnite so unintelligible, to the extent that ordinaiy 
 sight is intelligible. 
 
 ^Moser's experiment of the influence of objects on 
 metal plates in the dark is very instructive. However, 
 I must not venture on the subject of the different 
 characters of Light. The subject is too wide : but, 
 in reply to your question, I may say here that the 
 effect of the electric light being different from 
 common light is shown by a wheel revolving with 
 celerity sufficient to render its spokes invisible. 
 When illuminated by a flash of lightning, it is seen 
 for an instant w4th all its spokes distinct, as if it were 
 in a state of absolute repose. Your not seeing the 
 comet and the sea is a very interesting fact. I have 
 experienced the same inability on some occasions 
 myself, when the mind seemed to lose its power and 
 concentration, somewhat in the way that it loses a 
 word and cannot recal it. I remember a lady whose 
 mind is not very collected under excitements, at 
 Ascot Races, looking anxiously to see the Emperor of 
 Russia driven past. He drove past, a few yards from 
 us. We had a capital sight of him ; but this lady 
 saw nothing. She might as well have been at home. 
 If emotions so blind the sense, how much more do 
 they obscure the understanding ! When any interest 
 or prejudice is stronger than the love of truth, truth 
 will suffer. The blindness, both as regards the 
 sense and the mind, often arises from our looking 
 for something different from the fact. And again, 
 we often invest an object with a form it has not, or 
 N 5 
 
274 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 evidence with conclusions foregone. How careful 
 we should be to keep the mind steady and clear ! 
 
 You wish to know how our consciousness of con- 
 tinned Identity is to be accounted for, whilst our 
 whole frame (and every organ of the brain among 
 the rest) is incessantly undergoing waste and renewal, 
 ^e sense of ^Jdjeatity seems to follaiuas^a conse- 
 quence from -the sense of Personality or Individuality. 
 -It is a fact of the j\Iemory_, presenting similitude, or 
 sameness of impression. Memory is a recurrence of 
 impressions. Habit is a form of memory. Fits are 
 a form of habit, and often have relation to time. 
 To identify myself as an Englishman is a habit of 
 thought. In certain states of the nerves a man may 
 know or believe as a fact that which he no longer 
 has a sense of, or can identify in feeling. The I 
 which represents the individualism seems to arise from 
 a faculty whose organ is situated near to the Con- 
 scious sense and the Will, and close beneath Self- 
 esteem and Firmness. " I think ; therefore I am,^^ 
 is a conclusion from the Conscious sense and the 
 sense of Personality. The organ of Personality is a 
 central organ. And its function a collective sense 
 like the perceptive indi\d duality. Love is this sense 
 of being and personality blending with another exist- 
 ence ; two in one. In cases of doubt or divided 
 consciousness, this sense of identity loses its single 
 form, and is usually accompanied by the loss of 
 memory, — the memory of one of the lives or states. 
 Mesmerised persons often speak of themselves as of 
 
SENSE OF IDENTITY. 275 
 
 another indmdual, and regard, again, this intuitive 
 character as another person, and speak of it as '' the 
 voice/^ &c., telling them so and so. In some cases, 
 the patient may be thrown into several conditions ; 
 and in each assume a new and separate identity. 
 As there are different states of magnetism and of 
 light, and as chemical affinity may become electricity, 
 and electricity magnetism, so these brain states, or, 
 as it were, spheres of action, have their changes, 
 each state having an individuality, like a separate 
 existence. 
 
 It would be difficult to identify one^s self in 
 another bodily form, as in a new mental form, even 
 with the help of Memory. I can hardly identify myself 
 with my condition of childhood; nor in a calm mo- 
 ment feel myself to be the same as when under the 
 influence of any passion. It is the same power which, 
 in one state, is love or hate ; in another, obstinacy ; 
 in another, generosity, or the sense of colour, &c. 
 I think we shall, in time, trace forms of mind, cor- 
 responding with those of light and sound, and 
 material forms, &c. Cosmical inquiries must lead to 
 this, and exhibit the true cardinal fonns of nature, 
 with general and fundamental laws, on which the 
 whole depends. We must examine Nature as a 
 whole, if we would discover the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of Nature, and comprehend the analogical 
 bearings of the whole, and why apparently remote 
 things resemble each other. Then, indeed, shall we 
 find that knowledge is power, and poetry, and de- 
 light ; and be elevated into the noble position of 
 manhood, passing out of all conventionalities into 
 
276 man's nature and development. 
 
 the solemn and glorious path of intelligence and 
 pure reason. The intuitive faculty will then become 
 as an instrument of light to the understanding. 
 
 You have heard of this new calculating man. I 
 wonder what those who find it hard to admit any 
 power beyond ordinary sense im23ressions and rea- 
 son, make of such undeniable facts as these. 
 
 I think I have explained before_, that the renewal 
 of the matter of the brain is a gradual process, and 
 that the new material takes the character of that to 
 which it joins company ; — in the same manner in 
 the brain, of course, as in the liver or the lungs. If 
 I can influence another person to think as I think, 
 or to imagine himself a candle, or a wild beast, or 
 to acquire my condition of memory, it is easy to 
 understand that new particles become immediately 
 leavened by the old, and that no change would be 
 perceptible. The new material would evolve wisdom 
 or imbecility, or disease or age, as the case may 
 be. Each organ seems to evolve or induce that 
 spirit-condition which is the basis of its particular 
 faculty : and thus, faculties blend as colours blend, 
 and change with the conditions ; or as sounds blend 
 in a general harmony. Each sense faculty is adapted 
 to receive the peculiar influence or impression to 
 which it relates : but the instrumentality or inter- 
 vention of the external sense does not seem always 
 requisite. The internal faculties appear to be 
 loosened from the sense, and to receive impressions 
 direct from without; to be open to conditions to 
 which the senses were not fitted. It does not seem 
 to be any strain upon reason to suppose this. Few 
 
GHOST SEEING. 277 
 
 can give an account of the process by whicli they 
 come at many of their conclusions ; any more than 
 the calculating boy Bidder could of the process by 
 which he ari'ived at his conclusions. Clairvoyance 
 or prophecy is no greater step from our ordinaiy 
 condition than seeing would be to a blind person^ 
 who would say^ ^' I could only take up Nature bit 
 by bit before, and put these bits together, and then 
 forai but a very imperfect conception : but now I 
 recognise all at once ; the distant, as well as that 
 which is near." You set free the inner faculties, 
 and open '^the eye of the mind" to the outward in- 
 fluences of the grosser sense ; and knowledge flows 
 in unobstructed. You are as one who was blind, but 
 can now see. The new sense and the old are equally 
 intelligible, and both inexplicable. You cannot ex- 
 plain a process where there is none. The imperfect 
 sense, the blind have a process to explain : but in 
 clear-seeing there is no process but the fact. 
 
 I must now reply to your inquiries relating to 
 dying persons. 
 
 Your question about the influence of dying per- 
 sons on those at a distance opens the whole subject 
 of mesmeric action, and the influence of body over 
 body, of the mind on body, and of the body on mind ; 
 of the nature of sleep, somnambulism, trance, and 
 clairvoyance. — I must confine myself to a few obser- 
 vations. 
 
 The influence is usually received by those who 
 have in some way been brought into relation or 
 
278 man's nature and development. 
 
 rapport witli tlie dying person : and the influence is 
 generally received during sleep^ when the internal 
 senses are freed from the ordinary senses^ and quali- 
 fied to receive direct influences from without. Any 
 change occurring in the condition of those with whom 
 they were held more immediately in relation^ (^^lag- 
 netic relation I will call it^) would be felt^ and awake 
 attention, just as any change upon our ordinary 
 senses, either when awake or sleeping, arouses atten- 
 tion, — such as a candle going out when one is 
 asleep, or a strange noise occurring, or a familiar one 
 ceasing. 
 
 Again, a person dying is often more or less falling 
 into the trance condition — the bodily condition 
 weakening ; and the senses either become more acute, 
 or the spirit-condition of the brain has a freer com- 
 munication, or inter-relation with the universal me- 
 dium vdthout the dying person. Thinking of the 
 indi\ddual impressed may be sometimes a condition of 
 the effect j but this is far from being an universal 
 cause. Persons are held in relation, as it were, by 
 threads, the slightest alteration or loosening of which 
 arrests attention and gives the impression. A som- 
 nambule or mesmerized person has much more in- 
 fluence in mesmerizing than a person in the normal 
 state ; and many a dying person partakes of this con- 
 dition. I have known a d\dng child mesmerize a 
 strong man by a few waves of the hand, the man 
 having previously resisted the influence of powerful 
 mesmerism. Any change in the nervous condition 
 affects others. I have told you how distinctly I felt 
 
 k 
 
UNREVEALED HUMAN RELATIONS. 279 
 
 the commencement of tlie mesmeric condition in my 
 patient^ as of a slight electric shock ; and I have been 
 sensible of each change during the sleep^ and of the 
 flowing away of disease. When diseases are dying 
 out they influence others. It is even so with a com- 
 mon cold^ which passes away to another. And so, 
 likewise, the state of the dying person influences : — 
 flies ofi", as it w^ere ; disturbs or influences the universal 
 medium, and thus reaches those in whom there was 
 rapport, if they be in a fit condition to receive. 
 
 Generally, the time most fitted to receive impres- 
 sions of this nature is in a second sleep. Some per- 
 sons die in an insensible heavy sleep. I should not 
 think that such a death would be felt like those in 
 which a more trance-like state occurs, or where there 
 is a blazing up and going out at once. In such a 
 case as this last I have no doubt that a sensitive per- 
 son would see light emitted. Experiments might be 
 made with the sensitive upon dying animals. A 
 trance or fainting fit sometimes impresses persons at 
 a distance in the same way as a death, and it is be- 
 lieved that death has occurred. 
 
 The presentiment of death is the intuitive faculty 
 influenced by the changing condition, and by the 
 intuitive condition, perhaps, of the dying person. 
 The intuitive sense seems to act often unconsciously : 
 but the same state may become consciousness to 
 another. The foreseeing events, or prophecy, seems 
 to be the least comprehensible form of these singu- 
 larly interesting phenomena. 
 
 To estimate properly the efi'ects of persons dying, 
 
280 man's nature and development. 
 
 we require more correct data as to time and circum- 
 stance ; and it is difficult to attain this. But of the 
 existence of the fact I have e\idence in the form of 
 many good instances; and so have you: and most 
 persons have some case of the kind to relate. When 
 the dying person appears to another in a form, such 
 as of a black cat, or a shadow, or as a person, it is 
 merely an induced condition, or subjective embodi- 
 ment of an impression made. How any one can 
 conclude otherwise seems marvellous. When a man 
 is dead, he is dead — as a magnet is dead when the 
 magnetic force is removed. A diamond is dead when 
 it becomes charcoal. A certain constrained force, so 
 to speak, is released, and this it is which influences. 
 In every change force is released, and a disturbance 
 caused. 
 
 We have yet to learn the relations we bear to each 
 other : how we may influence each other by our good 
 or ill condition. We have yet to learn that we 
 may not do as we will with our own ; for our own is 
 othei's\ The knowledge which mesmerism gives of 
 the influence of body on body,* and consequently of 
 mind on mind, will bring about a morality we have 
 not 3^et dreamed of. And who shall disguise his 
 nature and his acts when we cannot be sure at any 
 moment that we are free from the clairvoyant eye of 
 some one who is observing our actions and most secret 
 thoughts, and our whole character and history may 
 be read off at any moment ! Few have the faintest 
 idea of the influence these great truths will have upon 
 * Appendix AA. 
 
UNREVEALED HUMAN RELATIONS. 281 
 
 the morals of men^ and upon our notions generally. 
 Yes, there are indeed '^ more tiniths in heaven and 
 earth than are^^ told ^^of injour philosophy/^ Men 
 may smile no doubt. But so they did at the railway and 
 the electric telegraph, and gas-lights, and phrenology, 
 and the cumulation of the blood ; and at the news 
 that there were men standing with their feet towards 
 ours ; that the stars are worlds ; that the earth 
 moves round the sun. Men have smiled, and ridiculed, 
 and blasphemed against every truth as it has been 
 revealed. When will the world learn wisdom by the 
 past, and hope for the future, and be ashamed and 
 humble when it wants knowledge ? Only, I think, 
 when the philosophy of Man and Mind, raised from 
 its true basis of material fact, is developed, and ad- 
 mitted as a Science by the world. That men cannot 
 imagine beyond their knowledge, is clear from every 
 new truth being at first considered impossible and 
 unnatural. 
 
 Of one thing I am sure, — that we are as yet but on 
 the very threshold of knowledge, and that our social 
 condition is depravity through and through, and 
 from end to end. But the true philosopher will be 
 all patience for the present, and confidence for the 
 future, and never in haste to form institutions in ad- 
 vance of knowledge and the condition of society. 
 
282 MAN^S NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 H. M. TO H. G. A. 
 
 I do not like to say anything after your last letter. 
 I do not like to toucli it, or the state of mind it pro- 
 duces in me. Yet it is right to tell you that it does 
 so work upon any one mind as it does upon mine. — 
 AVhat an emancipation it is, — to have escaped from 
 the little enclosure of dogma, and to stand, — far in- 
 deed from being wise, — but free to learn ! How I 
 wonder at myself now for having held (and very con- 
 fidently held forth upon it, I am ashamed to say) 
 that at all events it was safe to believe dogma : that 
 for instance, whether there was a future state or not, 
 it was safe and comfortable to believe it : — that if, 
 even, there was no God, serving as a model to ^lan, 
 — the original of the image, — it was safe and tran- 
 quillizing to take for granted that there was. The 
 enormity of this mistake was not fully apparenttome till 
 last year, when a young man destined for the church, 
 but not satisfied about aU its doctrines, and in a state 
 of fluctuation about his duty altogether, laid down as 
 the one certain thing in his own and every other case, 
 that at all events it was safe to take for granted 
 what the Church prescribed. The very first step he 
 took from this position was to conclude that his diffi- 
 culties about a leading doctrine arose from personal 
 sinfulness, and must be resolutely put down. I 
 
POSITION AND PRIVILEGE OP TRUTH-SEEKERS. 283 
 
 found then how clear and strong had become my 
 vision and grasp of the truth that the holding of 
 error is an incapacitating condition : — an evil infi- 
 nitely worse than the merely being occupied with 
 what is untrue, — bad as that is. I saw clearly how 
 enervating and depraving is the practice of harbour- 
 ing, through timidity or indolence, what is suspected 
 to be untrue. The mere exclusion of the truth, by 
 presence of the eiTor, is a prodigious e^il : but far 
 greater is the misfortune of the deterioration of all the 
 powers, — from the lowest faculties of perception up 
 to the highest of conscientiousness, reverence and 
 benevolence, — which ensues upon all tampering with 
 our own best nature. — And what a feeling it is, — 
 that which grows up and pervades us when we have 
 fairly returned to our obedience to Nature ! What 
 a healthful glow animates the faculties ! what a 
 serenity settles down upon the temper ! One seems 
 to have even a new set of nerves, when one has 
 planted one^s foot on the broad common of Nature, 
 and clear daylight and bracing breezes are about one, 
 and there are no more pit-falls and rolling vapours, 
 — no more raptures and agonies of selfish hope and 
 fear, — but sober certainty of reliance on the immu- 
 tability of Nature's laws ; and the lofty liberty that 
 is found in obedience to them. — We are still, and our 
 kind must long continue to be, injured in power and 
 in peace by the operation of past ignorance, which 
 has mournfully impaired the conditions of human 
 life ; but the emancipation which may be obtained, 
 is abeady precious beyond all estimate. Ignorant as 
 
284 MAN^S NATURE AND DE\T:L0PMENT. 
 
 we yet are, — hardly able yet (even the wisest of men) 
 to snatch a glimpse of the workings of Nature, or to 
 form a conception of the existence of Law, — obvious 
 as it is that our condition is merely that of infant- 
 waking upon the world of existence, the privilege of 
 freedom, as far as we are able to go, is quite inesti- 
 mable : — perhaps indeed as great as it can ever be. 
 It is hard to conceive that it can do more for indivi- 
 duals at any time than animate their intellects, reno- 
 vate their consciences, elevate and refine their moral 
 conceptions and conduct, and lift them out of the 
 condition of passionate children into one of serene 
 maturity of faculty, though not of knowledge. 
 
 I thank you for the indications you give in this 
 last letter of yours of the immediate nature and im- 
 measurable extent of our ignorance. What a field it 
 opens ! what a prospect of ever-growing enjoyment 
 to succeeding generations, in the development of the 
 universe under their contemplation ! ^If we, — you 
 with your habit of study, and I with my growing con- 
 ception of what study is, — are daily sensible of the 
 enjoyment of that " perpetual spring of fresh ideas " 
 which ]\Irs. Barbauld so well holds out, what must 
 be thej)rivilege of_ future— gener ations who sh alLat 
 the same time be more naturally free tolearn, and 
 find themselves in a bright noon-day re^ion' ^and 
 s easonToT Tiiquiiy !^It is truly cheering to think of. 
 If we feel a contentment in our own lot which must 
 be sound because it is derived from no special ad- 
 ministration of our afi'airs, but from the impartial and 
 necessary operations of Nature, we cannot but feel. 
 
POSITION AND PRIVILEGE OF TRUTH-SEEKERS. 285 
 
 for the same reasons^ a new exhilaration on account of 
 the unborn multitudes who will^ ages hence^ enter 
 upon existence on better terms than those on which 
 we hold it, — contented as we are with our share of 
 the good and the evil of human life. — It is a pleasant 
 thing to have a daily purpose of raising and disci- 
 plining ourselves for no end of selfish purchase or 
 ransom, but from the instinctive tendency to mental 
 and moral health. It is a pleasant thing to be free 
 from all arbitrary restraint in ministering to the good 
 — great or small, — of any who are about us. But 
 what a thing it is to have, over and above all this, the 
 conception of a future time, when all discipline will 
 consist in a sweet and joyful surrender to Nature, 
 and all the forces of the universe will combine to lift 
 Man above his sorrows, to expand his old faculties, 
 and elicit new, and to endow him at once with all the 
 good obtained by former generations, together with 
 newaccessions far beyond the compassof our thought ! 
 — Nothing short of this seems to be the prospect of 
 our race : and does it not shed back a light to our 
 very feet, — not only on high occasions of intercourse 
 or meditation, but every day ? 
 
286 man's nature and development. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 H. G. A. TO H. M. 
 
 It seems to me there are three principal funda- 
 mental forms of the moral life ; namely — active hu- 
 manity, industry in acquiring knowledge^ and ho- 
 nesty in imparting what we know. — It is one of the 
 highest duties of Man to learn to know himself; 
 and, secondly, to allow himself to be known — but 
 the contending and false systems of the world are a 
 great hindi*ance to simplicity of character and moral 
 growth. — The mathematician, the linguist, the geo- 
 logistj the chemist^ may be very wise in those mat- 
 ters which they have studied, but very bad moralists, 
 and wholly incompetent to govern and educate men. 
 The power to govern is in the knowledge of the 
 nature of the thing governed. The mathematician 
 may be a very bad reasoner on physiological matters, 
 and the linguist no wiser for the ability to utter the 
 same idea in several languages. If you would regu- 
 late your clock, you apply to the clockmaker ; if you 
 would regulate a steam-engine, you apply to the 
 engineer : if you would cure a disease, you send for 
 the physician : but^f you would develope Man's 
 natm-e, and learn how to regulate his conduct, both 
 as an individual and as a member of society, would 
 you send to Cambridge for a mathematician, or to 
 Oxford for a linguist, or apply to the clockmaker or 
 the village doctor ? — ^' Man knows no more than he 
 
 I 
 
POSITION AND PEIVILEGE 01 TRUTH-SPEAKERS. 287 
 
 has observed \'^ .^but^ wliose profe ssi on is it to ^observe 
 the laws of Man^s nature and development ? Phy- 
 sicians follow sj^stemSj take up their subject only in 
 part ; and to this day are disputing about the most 
 ordinaiy diseases^ and the right method of cure ; 
 both as regards the physical conditions and the 
 required phenomena. The homoeopathic law — that 
 " like cures like" — is doubtless a great truth, but 
 certainly not the only principle of cure — nor of uni- 
 versal application. It is painful to see how every 
 fresh application of a principle is twisted into a sys- 
 tem — becomes a dogma, and hangs like a log about 
 men^s heels. Physicians, again^ remain ignorant of 
 the most important facts in physiology, not clearly 
 recognizing the principle that every part of a subject 
 must be studied by itself, — and also in relation to 
 the whole, and the whole again in relation to a class 
 of truths, and to universal nature. The body cannot 
 be understood when studied as a matter separate 
 from its phenomenon jMind j nor Mind irrespective 
 of physical conditions, causes and laws. ^ The me- 
 taphysician again meditates upon his sensations and 
 their sequence : and sees but in part, and veiy imper- 
 fectly, strangely unaware of the delusions to which 
 he is subject : but could he even perceive coiTCctly 
 the whole phenomena of his thoughts and their order 
 of development, it would only be like studying his 
 bodily constitution by looking at himself in a glass : 
 and he could tell you no more about the mind''s 
 action,, the difference of men and the laws and causes 
 of development, than the old woman in the village 
 
288 man's nature and development. 
 
 can tell you in regard to medicine and the true 
 nature and cause of diseases ; and the metaphy- 
 sician's mind is prejudiced and stuffed up by 
 learning and abstract thought, and requires as 
 much free air and ventilation as the old woman's 
 cottage, and, cleared of the cobwebs, will have 
 to commence study afresh after another method.-^ 
 Man is the result of organization — the external 
 circumstances acting upon this, and the force of 
 knowledge. Plato was fully impressed with this ; 
 and his only hope for man was in producing good 
 organizations, which were to be trained and developed 
 under the most favourable circumstances ; the whole 
 to be regulated by pure morality and correct 
 reasoning, after the inductive method. He would 
 force the best men to govern, and would not allow 
 the legislator to accumulate wealth or to marry : but 
 would have his mind left as free as possible from all 
 selfish considerations and temptations, from all influ- 
 ences likely to damage his love of truth, his honesty, 
 or desire for the general good. The cause of the theo- 
 logical errors of Plato and Socrates we can now 
 clearly understand ; and is it not the duty of every 
 man to endeavour to know himself, and the origin 
 of his opinions ? " Know thyself," was the wise 
 saying of Thales. " Bear and forbear," the constant 
 admonition of Epictetus. In the confusion of opinions 
 which now exists, and which seems likely to increase, 
 I see no hope but in a thorough investigation and 
 reconsideration (so to speak) of Man^s nature, the 
 laws of his development, and the cause and origin of 
 
POSITION AXD PRIVILEGE OE TRUTH-SPEAKERS. 289 
 
 the opinions which he holds^ and which men quarrel 
 about^ not seeing that their opinions are involuntary, 
 and that, consequently, it is as great folly to quarrel 
 about our opinions, as about the shape of our 
 different noses. But I hear, on every hand, that 
 men want courage to speak the truth : that those 
 who do declare their honest and full convictions 
 often suffer in their worldly affairs, and find them- 
 selves stigmatized by the clergy. This, I fear, is 
 but too true ; and it exhibits the demoralizing in- 
 fluence of articles of faith, and creeds, and 
 dogmas ; but surely to utter the truth that is within 
 you dispassionately, and in pure affection, and for 
 the general good — is most worthy of a good nature ; 
 and as natural as the desire of freedom, and the 
 growth of beauty. To an honest mind, the courage 
 would seem to be in the daring to secrete the truth, 
 and to oppose the dictates of conscience, and the 
 free action of the mind. 
 
 Shall we be content to receive all the benefits of 
 life, delighting in the free developing and beauty of 
 nature whilst we remain ourselves under a mask, 
 standing there a conscious criminal in the midst ? for 
 to disguise or deny what is true is to live in a lie, 
 brave towards right, and a coward towards men : but 
 there are many persons, and most respectable, good, 
 and pious persons, too, who have no faith in know- 
 ledge ; in that faith of faiths, that rest for hope, 
 that solace of grief ; in that which so surely contri- 
 butes to peace and peace of mind ; to true wusdom 
 and good works. And these persons talk of dan- 
 
290 man's nature and development. 
 
 gerous truths^ as if all the danger did not come from 
 the side of ignorance and error ; or as if any one 
 truth could be opposed to any other truth — or to 
 any system or faith founded on that which is true. 
 
 To appear respectable in the eyes of the worlds how 
 
 many there are who attend churchy say grace^ and 
 
 stickle for the sabbath ; and who^ if necessary^ w^ould 
 
 change their religion ! and yet, if all would be 
 
 truthful and sincere, we should be saved from much 
 
 of this fearfully demoralizing hypocrisy and cant ; 
 
 and there would soon be an end to persecution and 
 
 the reign of terror. Men, again, desire a continuance 
 
 of existence, and a renewed life : yet it is not the 
 
 future they want, but a continuance of the present, 
 
 for they shrink from every change, and struggle 
 
 against every new truth, and with a bitterness and 
 
 alarm that shows like insanity : but no wise man 
 
 will desu'e that any one thing be true in preference 
 
 to another ; nor that nature should stand still for his 
 
 special gratification ; and when he is in error, he will 
 
 be most thankful for correction, and receive the 
 
 news as gladly as if he had discovered a new 
 
 truth. Nor must we forget that all conditions of 
 
 things and opinions are right, and the best they can 
 
 be in the time in which they exist — ^ha^g their 
 
 place in the plan of nature's progressive development. 
 
 Again, that evil to indi\dduals is universal good, and 
 
 the calamities of life the occasion for magnanimity 
 
 and the highest virtues — Pain or pleasure — good or 
 
 evil report, will follow as a consequence of our acts ; 
 
 but must never be the reason or motive of action : 
 
POSITION AND PRIVILEGE OF TRUTH- SPEAKERS. 291 
 
 and men must be admonished that the recognition 
 of philosophical Necessity, or the sense of universal 
 LaWj will not^ as some suppose^ set men loose from 
 restraint to indulge their passions and evil desires. 
 These good people seem strangely possessed with no- 
 tions of Man^s innate wickedness. On the other hand, 
 it will not induce people " to lie down in a ditch and 
 die/^ because they cannot help themselves. The 
 reverse will be the fact : for a knowledge of the 
 cause wdll give a reason for exertion, and a confidence 
 they did not possess before. The knowledge of the 
 *cause will present a means to an end, and induce 
 the application : and those who believe in freedom, 
 (that is, in a cause uncaused in the will, and which, 
 after all, w^ould not be freedom,) are those who are 
 most indolent and doubting, believing, as they do, in 
 a kind of chance, (which is the most fatal of all fatal- 
 isms,) though, at the same time, inconsistently enough 
 by their prayers, teachings, and preaching, rewards 
 and punishments, &c., acknowledging, in practice, 
 a belief in moral results from sufficing causes. 
 In a strange confusion of ideas, they neglect true 
 fundamental causes, and the study of the Laws of 
 Man^s Nature and Development, and even deny 
 the existence of such laws. But none are to blame, 
 though so many are in error : — in error from w ant 
 of knowledge, and a clear untarnished mind, and a 
 Right Method of Inquiry. 
 
 o 2 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A.— (Page 52.) 
 
 " Divination hath been anciently and fitly divided into 
 artificial and natural : whereof artificial is, when the mind 
 maketh a prediction by argument, concluding upon signs 
 and tokens : natural is, when the mind hath a presentation 
 by an internal power, without che inducement of a sign. 
 Artificial is of two norts : either when the argument is 
 coupled with a derivation of causes, which is rational ; or 
 when it is only grounded upon a coincidence of the effect, 
 which is experimental ; whereof the latter, for the most 
 part, is superstitious ; such as were the heathen observa- 
 tions upon the inspection of sacrifices, the flights of birds, the 
 swarming of bees, and such as was the Chaldean astrology, 
 and the like. For artificial divination, the several kinds 
 thereof are distributed amongst particular knowledges. 
 The astronomer hath his predictions, as of conjunctions, 
 aspects, eclipses, and the like. The physician hath his pre- 
 dictions, of death, of recovery, of the accidents and issues 
 of diseases. The politician hath his predictions, ' urbem 
 venalem, et cito perituram, si emptorem invenerit ! ' which 
 stayed not long to be performed in Sylla first, and after in 
 Csesar ; so as these predictions are now impertinent and 
 
294 APPENDIX. 
 
 to be refeiTed over. But the divination which springeth 
 from the internal nature of the soul, is that which we now 
 speak of; which hath been made to be of two sorts, primi- 
 tive, and by influxion. Primitive is grounded upon the 
 supposition, that the mind, when it is withdrawn and col- 
 lected into itself, and not diffused into the organs of the 
 body, hath some extent and latitude of pre-notion, which 
 therefore appeareth most in sleep, in ecstacies, and near 
 death, and more rarely in waking apprehensions ; and is 
 induced and furthered by those abstinences and obser- 
 vancies which make the mind most to consist in itself : by 
 influxion, is grounded upon the conceit that the mind, as a 
 mirror or glass, should take illumination from the fore- 
 knowledge of God and spirits ; unto which the same regi- 
 men doth likewise conduce. Tor the retiring of the mind 
 within itself, is the state which is most susceptible of divine 
 influxions, save that it is accompanied in this case with a 
 fervency and elevation, which the ancients noted by fury, 
 and not with a repose and quiet, as it is in the other." — 
 Bacon : The Advancement of Learning. 
 
 " Tf there be any force in the imagination and affections of 
 singular persons, it is probable the force is much more in 
 the joint imaginations and affections of multitudes : as if a 
 victory should be won or lost in remote parts, whether is 
 there not some sense thereof in the people whom it con- 
 cerneth ; because of the great joy or grief that many men 
 are possessed with at once ? Pius Quaintus at the very 
 time when that memorable victory was won by the Christians 
 against the Turks, at the naval battle of Lepanto, being 
 then hearing of causes in consistory, brake oft' suddenly, 
 and said to those about him, ' It is now more time we 
 should give thanks to God for the great victory he hath 
 granted us against the Turks :' it's true, that victory had 
 
APPENDIX. 295 
 
 a sympathy with his spirit : for it was merely his work to 
 conclude that league. It may be that revelation was 
 divine ; but what shall we say then to a number of examples 
 amongst the Grecians and Romans ? where the people being 
 in Theatres at plays, have had news of victories and over- 
 throws, some few days before any messenger could come." 
 — Bacon: Natural Hidory, \Wi Century. 
 
 '' But if Plutarch, besides several examples that he pro- 
 duces out of antiquity, tells us of his certain knowledge, 
 that in the time of Domitian the news of the battle lost by 
 Anthony, in Germany, w^as published at Rome many days' 
 journey thence, and dispersed throughout the whole world 
 the same day it was fought : and if Csesar was of opinion 
 that it has often happened that the report has preceded the 
 event, shall we say that, forsooth, these simple people have 
 suffered themselves to be deceived with the vulgar, not 
 having been so clear-sighted as we ? " — Montaigne^ ch.xxvi. 
 
 " Our souls, then, having this inbred power, though 
 weak, obscure, and hardly able to express theii' appre- 
 hensions ; yet sometimes they spread forth and recover 
 themselves, either in dreams or in the time of sacrifice or 
 religious worship, when the body is well purified, and is 
 indued with a certain temperature proper to this effort ; 
 or when the rational or speculative part being released 
 and freed from the solicitude after present things, joins 
 with the irrational and imaginative part, to think of, and 
 represent what is to come; for it is not, as Euripides 
 saith, that he is the best prophet who guesses well ; but 
 he is the wisest man, not whose guess succeeds well in 
 the event, but who, whatever the event be, takes reason and 
 probability for his guide. Now the faculty of divining, 
 
296 APPENDIX. 
 
 like blank paper, is void of any reason or determination 
 of itself, but is susceptible of fantasies and pretensions, and 
 without any ratiocination or discourse of reason, touches 
 on that which is to come, when it is farthest off from the 
 present, out of which it departs, by means of a certain 
 disposition of body, which we call inspiration or enthu- 
 siasm. Now the body is sometimes indued naturally with 
 this disposition ; but most times the earth casts forth to 
 men the sources and causes of several other powers and 
 faculties, some of which carry men beside themselves into 
 ecstasy and phrenzy, and produce maladies and mortali- 
 ties ; others again are sometimes good, gentle, and profita- 
 ble, as appears by those who have had the experience of them. 
 But this spring, or wind, or spirit of divination, is most 
 holy and divine, whether it be raised by itself through the 
 air, or be compounded and mixt with a watery or liquid 
 substance. For being infused and mixed with the body 
 it produces an odd temperature and strange disposition in 
 the soul, which a man cannot exactly express, though he 
 may resemble or compare it to several things ; for by heat 
 and dilation it openeth certain pores that make a disco- 
 very of future things ; like wine, which causing fumes to 
 ascend up into the head, puts the spirits into many un- 
 usual motions, and reveals things that were laid up in 
 secret." — '"Tis no wonder then, if the earth, sending up 
 many exhalations, only those of this sort transport the soul 
 with a divine fury, and give them a faculty of foretelling 
 future things. And without doubt, what is related 
 touching the oracle of this place, does herewith agree. 
 For it is here that this faculty of divining first showed 
 itself, by means of a certain shepherd, who chanced to 
 fall down and began to utter enthusiastic speeches con- 
 cerning future events ; of which, at first, the neighbours 
 took no notice ; but when they saw what he foretold come 
 
APPENDIX. 297 
 
 to pass, they had him in admiration, and the most 
 learned among the Delphians, speaking of this man, are 
 used to call him by the name of Coretas." — " And as to 
 the oracle of Mopsus, I can, from my own knowledge, 
 tell you a strange story about it. The Governor of 
 Cilicia was a man inclining to scepticism, and doubtful 
 whether there be gods ; and had about him several Epi- 
 cureans, who are wont to mock at the belief of such 
 things as seem contrary to reason. He sent a freed ser- 
 vant of his in the nature of a spy, with a letter sealed, 
 wherein was the question he was to ask the Oracle, no- 
 body knowing the contents thereof. This man, then, as 
 the custom of the place is, remaining all night in the 
 temple-porch asleep, related the next morning the dream 
 which he had ; for he thought he saw a very handsome 
 man stand before him, who said only this word, ' Black,' to 
 him, and nothing else, for he vanished away immediately. 
 This seemed to us very impertinent, though we could not 
 tell what to make of it ; but the Governor marvelled at 
 it, and was so nettled with it, that he had the Oracle 
 in great veneration ever since ; for, opening the letter, he 
 showed this question which was therein : Shall I sacrifice 
 to thee a white bull or a black ? which dashed his Epi- 
 cureans quite out of countenance ; and he offered the 
 sacrifice required, and to the day of his death continued 
 a devout admirer of Mopsus." — " But to what purpose, 
 if it be true, that souls are naturally indued with the 
 faculty of prediction, and that the chief cause that excites 
 this faculty and virtue, is a certain temperature of air or 
 wind ? and what signifies then the sacred institutions and 
 setting apart these religious prophetesses, for the giving of 
 answers ? And why do they return no answer at all, un- 
 less the sacrifice tremble all over, even from the very feet, 
 5 
 
298 APPENDIX. 
 
 while the wine is poured ou its head ? " — Plutarch^ 
 07'acles. 
 
 Extract from Mr. Wesley's Journal, under the head 
 
 ''July, 1761." 
 " About one, I preached at Bramley, where Jonas Eush- 
 ford, about fourteen years old, gave me the following rela- 
 tion: — ' About this time last j^ear I was desired by two of our 
 neighbours, to go with them to Mr. Crowther's at Skipton, 
 who would not speak to them, about a man that had been 
 missing twenty weeks, but bid them bring a boy twelve 
 or thirteen years old. When we came in he stood reading 
 a book. He put me into a bed with a looking-glass in 
 my hand, and covered me all over. Then he asked me, 
 whom I had a mind to see ; and I said " My mother." I 
 presently saw her with a lock of wool in her hand, stand- 
 ing just in the place and the clothes she was in, as she told 
 me afterwards. Then he bid me look again for the man 
 that was missing, who was one of our neighbours : and I 
 looked and saw him riding towards Idle ; but he was very 
 drunk : and he stopped at the ale-house and drank two 
 pints more ; and he pulled out a guinea to change. Two 
 men stood by, a big man and a little man ; and they went 
 on before him and got two hedge-stakes. And when he came 
 up, on Windhill common, at the top of the hill, they pulled 
 him off his horse and killed him and threw him into a coal- 
 pit. And I saw it all as plainly as if I were close to 
 them : and if I saw the men I should know them again. 
 We went back to Bradford that night, and the next day I 
 went with our neighbours, and shewed them the spot 
 where he was killed, and the pit into which he was 
 thrown. And a man went down and brought him up: 
 and it was as I told them : his handkerchief was tied 
 about his mouth, and fastened behind his neck.' 
 
APPENDIX. 299 
 
 " On which Mr. Wesley makes this remark : — 
 " ' Is it improbable only, or flatly impossible, when all 
 the circumstances are considered, that this should all be 
 pure fiction ? They that can believe this, may believe a 
 man's getting into a bottle.' " 
 
 Another extract from Mr. Wedeys Works, vol. x. p. 163. 
 "A little before the conclusion of the late war in 
 Flanders, one who came from thence gave us a very 
 strange relation. I knew not what judgment to form of 
 this ; but waited till John Hairae should come over, of 
 whose veracity I could no more doubt, than of his uuder,- 
 standing. The account he gave was this : — ' Jonathan 
 Pyrah was a member of our society, in Flanders. I knew 
 him some years, and knew him to be a man of unblameable 
 character. One day he was summoned to appear before 
 the board of general officers. One of them said, " What 
 is this which we hear of you ? We hear you are turned 
 prophet, and that you foretell the dow^ifall of the bloody 
 house of Boui'bon, and the haughty house of Austria. 
 We should be glad if you were a real prophet, and if 
 your prophecies came true. But what sign do you give 
 to convince us you are so; aud that your predictions 
 will come to pass?" He readily answered: — "Gentle- 
 men, I give you a sign. To-morrow at twelve o'clock, 
 you shall have such a storm of thunder and lightning, as 
 you never had before since you came into Flanders. I 
 give you a second sign : — As little as any of you expect 
 any such thing, as little appearance of it as there is now, 
 you shall have a general engagement with the French 
 within three days. I give you a third sign : I shall be 
 ordered to advance in the fii-st line. If I am a false 
 prophet T shall be shot dead at the first discharge. But 
 if I am a true prophet I shall only receive a musket-ball in 
 
300 APPENDIX. 
 
 the calf of my left leg." A twelve the next clay there was 
 such thunder and lightning as they never had before in 
 Flanders. On the thu'd day, contrary to all expectation, 
 was the general battle of Fontenoy. He was ordei-ed to 
 advance in the first line, and at the very first discharge he 
 received a musket-ball in the calf of his left les.' " 
 
 Swedenhorg* 8 Clairvoyance independent of Mesmerism. 
 
 Kant gives a relation concerning a Madame Von Marse- 
 ville, and continues thus : — 
 
 " But the following occurrence appears to me to have 
 the greatest weight of proof, and to set the assertion re- 
 specting Swedenborg's extraordinary gift out of all possi- 
 bility of doubt. In the j^ear 1759, when M. de Sweden- 
 borg, towards the end of February, on Saturday, at 4 
 o'clock, p.m., arrived at Gottenburg from England, Mr. 
 William Cost el invited him to his house, together with a 
 party of fifteen persons. About 6 o'clock M. de Sweden- 
 borg went out, and after a short interval returned to the 
 company quite pale and alarmed. He said that a dan- 
 gerous fii-e had just broken out in Stockholm, at the 
 Suderraalm, (Gottenburg is about three hundred miles from 
 Stockholm,) and that it was spreading very fast. He was 
 restless and went out often : he said that the house of one 
 of his friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, and 
 that his own was in danger. At 8 o'clock, after he had 
 been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, ' Thank God ! 
 the fire is extinguished the third door from my house.' 
 This news occasioned great commotion through the whole 
 city, and particularly amongst the company in which he 
 was. It was announced to the Governor the same even- 
 ing. On the Sunday morning, Swedenborg was sent for 
 by the Governor, who questioned him concerning the 
 disaster. Swedenborg described the fire precisely, how it 
 
APPENDIX. 301 
 
 had begun, in wliat manner it had ceased, and how long it 
 had continued. On the same day the news was spread 
 through the city, and, as the Governor had thought it 
 worthy of attention, the consternation was considerably 
 increased ; because many were in trouble on account of their 
 friends and property, which might have been involved 
 in the disaster. 
 
 " On the Monday evening a messenger arrived at Got- 
 tenburg, who was despatched during the time of the fire. 
 In the letters brought by him, the fire was described pre- 
 cisely in the manner stated by Swedenborg. On the 
 Tuesday morning the royal courier arrived at the Go- 
 vernor's with the melancholy intelligence of the fire, of 
 the loss which it had occasioned, and of the houses it had 
 damaged and ruined, not in the least diff'ering from that 
 which Swedenborg had given immediately after it had 
 ceased, for the fire was extinguished at 8 o'clock. 
 
 " What can be brought forward against the authenticity 
 of this occurrence? My friend, who wrote this to me, 
 has not only examined the circumstances of this extra- 
 ordinary case at Stockholm, but also about two months ago, 
 at Gottenburg, where he is acquainted with the most 
 respectable houses, and where he could obtain the most 
 authentic and complete information ; as the greatest part 
 of tlie inhabitants who are still alive were witnesses to the 
 memorable occurrence. 
 
 " I am, with profound reverence, &c., 
 
 "Emanuel Kant." 
 
 " Koenigsburg, Aug. 10, 1768." 
 
 ZSCHOKKE S DIVINATION.'*' 
 
 " There was, however, no want of agreeable society in 
 
 * He is well known as an author, statesman, philosopher, and 
 reformer. 
 
3 02 APPENDIX. 
 
 my new retirement, either that of some select families 
 and individuals in the city, or old friends and acquaint- 
 ances of the Union, who never forgot me when they 
 passed, or in visits from travellers allured by the love of 
 wandering into Switzerland, or blown hither by the wind 
 of destiny. I never failed to receive such visitors with 
 all due honour, having learned from experience how gladly 
 in travelling, we make use of such opportunities to till up 
 vacant moments, in order to acquii*e information, to enrich 
 the haiwest of remembrance. I, therefore, submitted to 
 my fate with resignation. If this kind of virtue became 
 burdensome at times, it was rewarded at others by making 
 the acquaintance of remarkable persons, or by the op- 
 portunities it yielded for the exercise of a singular kind 
 of prophetic gift which I called my * inward sight,' but 
 which has ever been enigmatical to me. I am almost 
 afraid to speak of this, not because I am afraid to be 
 thought superstitious, but that I may thereby strengthen 
 such feelings in others. And yet it may be an addition 
 to our stock of soul-experiences, and, therefore, I will 
 confess ! 
 
 " It is well known that the judgment we not seldom 
 form at the first glance of persons hitherto unknown, is 
 more correct than that which is the result of longer ac- 
 quaintance. The first impression that through some 
 instinct of the soul attracts or repels us with strangers, is 
 afterwards weakened or destroyed by custom, or by dif- 
 ferent appearances. We speak in such cases of sympa- 
 thies or antipathies, and perceive these efi"ects frequently 
 among children to Avhom experience in human character 
 is wholly wanting. Others are incredulous on this point, 
 and have recourse rather to the art of physiognomy. Now 
 for my own case. 
 
 It has happened to me, sometimes, on my first meeting 
 
APPENDIX. 303 
 
 with strangers, as I listened silently to tbeir discourse, 
 that their former life, with many trifling circumstances 
 therewith connected, or frequently some particular scene 
 in that life, has passed quite involuntarily, and, as it were, 
 dream-like, yet perfectly distinct, before me. During this 
 time I usually feel so entii'ely absorbed in the contem- 
 plation of the stranger life, that, at last, I no longer see 
 clearly the face of the unknown wherein I undesignedly 
 read, nor distinctly hear, the voices of the speakers, which 
 before served, in some measiu'e, as a commentary to the 
 text of their features. For a long time I held such 
 visions as delusions of the fancy, and the more so as they 
 showed me even the dress and motions of the actors, 
 rooms, furniture, and other accessories. By way of jest, 
 I once, in a family circle at Kirchberg, related the secret 
 history of a seamstress w^ho had just left the room and the 
 house. I had never seen her before in my life ; people 
 were astonished and laughed, but were not to be per- 
 suaded that I did not previously know the relations of 
 which I spoke, for what I had uttered was the literal 
 truth ; I, on my part, was no less astonished that my 
 dream-pictures were confirmed by the reality. T became 
 more attentive to the subject, and when propriety ad- 
 mitted it, I would relate to those whose life thus passed 
 before me, the subject of my vision, that I might thereby 
 obtain confirmation or refutation of it. It was invariably 
 ratified, not without consternation on their part.* I 
 myself had less confidence than any one in this mental 
 
 * " ' What demon inspires you ? Must I again believe in pos- 
 session?' exclaimed the spirt^we/ Johann von Riga, when, in the 
 first hour of our acquaintance, I related his past life to him, with 
 the avowed object of learning whether or no I deceived myself. 
 We speculated long on the enigma, but even his penetration could 
 not solve it." 
 
304 APPENDIX. 
 
 jugglery. So, often as I revealed my visionary gifts to 
 any new person, I regularly expected to hear the answer : 
 * It was not so.* I felt a secret shudder when my auditors 
 replied that it was true, or when their astonishment be- 
 trayed my accuracy before they spoke. Instead of many, 
 I wDl mention one example, which pre-eminently as- 
 tounded me. One fair day, in the city of Waldshut, I 
 entered an inn (the Vine), in company with two young 
 student-foresters : we were tired with rambling through 
 the woods. We supped with a numerous society at the 
 table d'Jidte, where the guests were making very merry 
 ■with the peculiarities and eccentricities of the Swiss, 
 with Mesmer's magnetism, Lavater's physiognomy, &c., 
 &c. One of my companions, whose national pride was 
 wounded by their mockery, begged me to make some 
 reply, particularly to a handsome young man who sat 
 opposite us, and who had allowed himself extraordinary 
 licence. This man's former life was at that moment 
 presented to my mind. I turned to him and asked 
 whether he would answer me candidly if I related to 
 him some of the most secret passages of his life, I know- 
 ing as little of him personally as he did of me. That 
 would be going a little further, I thought, than Lavater 
 did with his physiognomy. He promised, if I were correct 
 in my information, to admit it frankly. I then related 
 what my vision had shown me, and the whole company 
 were made acquainted with the private history of the young 
 merchant ; his school years, his youthful errors, and lastly, 
 with a fault committed in reference to the strong box of 
 his principal. I described to him the uninhabited room 
 with whitened walls, where, to the right of the brown door, 
 on a table, stood a black money-box, &c., &c. A dead 
 silence prevailed during the whole narration, which I alone 
 occasionally interrupted by inquiring whether I spoke the 
 
APPENDIX. 305 
 
 truth. The startled young man confirmed every particu- 
 lar, and even, what I had scarcely expected, the last men- 
 tioned. Touched by his candour, I shook hands with him 
 over the table, and said no more. He asked my name, 
 which I gave him, and we remained together talking till 
 past midnight. He is probably still living ! 
 
 " I can well explain to myself how a person of lively 
 imagination may form, as in a romance, a correct picture of 
 the actions and passions of another person, of a certain 
 character, under certain circumstances. But whence came 
 those trifling accessories which 7ioicise concerned me, and 
 in relation to people for the most part indifferent to me, 
 with whom I neither had, nor desired to have, any con- 
 nexion ? Or, was the whole matter a constantly recurring 
 accident ? Or, had my auditor, perhaps, W'hen I related 
 the particulars of liis former life, very different views to 
 give of the whole, although in his first surprise, and misled 
 by some resemblances, he had mistaken them for the same? 
 And yet impelled by this very doubt, I had several times 
 given myself trouble to speak of the most insignificant 
 things which my waking dream had revealed to me. I 
 shall not say another word on this singular gift of vision, 
 of which T cannot say it was ever of the sKghtest ser\dce ; 
 it manifested itself rarely, quite independently of my will, 
 and several times in reference to persons whom I cared 
 little to look through. Neither am I the only person in 
 possession of this power. On an excursion I once made 
 with two of my sons, I met with an old Tyrolese who car- 
 ried oranges and lemons about the country, in a house of 
 public entertainment, in Lower Hanenstein, one of the 
 passes of the Jura. He fixed his eyes on me for some 
 time, then mingled in the conversation, and said that he 
 knew me, although he knew me not, and went to relate 
 what I had done and striven to do in former times, to the 
 
306 APPENDIX. 
 
 consternation of the country people present, and the great 
 admiration of my children, who were diverted to find 
 another person gifted like their father. How the old 
 lemon merchant came by his knowledge he could explain 
 neither to me nor to himself; he seemed, nevertheless, to 
 value himself somewhat upon his mysterious wisdom." — 
 Autobiography of ZscJiokke, pp. 169-172. 
 
 " The path is difficult, secret, and beset with terror. 
 The ancients called it ecstacy or absence, a getting out of 
 their bodies to think. All religious history contains traces 
 of the trance of saints : a beatitude, but without any sign 
 of joy ; earnest, solitary, even sad ; ' the flight,' Plotinus 
 calls it, ' of the alone to the alone.' Mwea-is, the closing 
 of the eyes, whence our word mystic. The trances of 
 Socrates, Plotinus, Porphyry, Behmen, Bunyan, Fox, 
 Pascal, Guion, Swedenborg, will readily come to mind. 
 But what as readily comes to mind is the accompaniment 
 of disease." — Emerson, on Swedenborg. 
 
 " I was never so willing to believe philosophy in any- 
 thing as this : it is a pure enthusiasm wherewith sacred 
 truth has inspired the spirit of philosophy, which makes, 
 I confess, contrary to its own proposition, that the most 
 calm, composed, and healthful estate of the soul that 
 philosophy can seat it in, is not its best condition ; our 
 waking is more a sleep than sleep itself ; our wisdom less 
 wise than folly ; our dreams are worth more than our 
 meditations — and the worst place we can take is in our- 
 selves." — Montaigne. 
 
 " We better ourselves by the privation of our reason 
 and by drilling it. The two natural ways to enter into 
 
APPENDIX. 307 
 
 the cabinet of the Gods, and there to foresee the course of 
 destiny, are Fury and Sleep." — Montaigne. 
 
 B.— (Page 78.) 
 
 " When we make a general assertion, unless it be a true 
 one, the possibility of it is unconceivable; and words 
 whereby we conceive nothing but the sound, are those we 
 call absurd, insignijicant, and non-sense. And therefore, 
 if a man should talk to me of a round Quadrangle or 
 accidents of bread in cheese ; or immaterial substance ; or 
 of a free subject ; a free will ; or any free, but free from 
 being hindered by opposition ; I should not say he was in 
 an error ; but that his words were without meaning ; that 
 is to saj absurd." — Hobbes : LeviatJian. 
 
 " And indeed it may almost be asserted that all intem- 
 perance in any kind of pleasure, and all disgraceful conduct, 
 is not properly blamed as the consequence of voluntary 
 guilt ; for no one is voluntarily bad ; but he who is de- 
 praved becomes so through a certain bad habit of body, 
 
 and an ill-governed education." " All the vicious 
 
 are vicious through two most involuntary causes, which 
 we should always ascribe rather to the planters than the 
 things planted, and to the trainers rather than those 
 trained ; but still it should be our anxious endeavour as 
 far as we can, by education, studies and learning, to fly from 
 vice and acquire its contrary virtue." — Flato : Timcetis. 
 
 "Others cut off particular provinces of nature as ex- 
 ceptions from the plan of constant order. "VMiatever part 
 
308 APPENDIX. 
 
 is dubious or obscure, to mankind generally, or to tbem- 
 selves in particular, there they rear the torn standard of 
 the arbitrary system of divine rule. Human volitions form 
 such a region to many who know not that Quetelet has 
 reduced these to mathematical formulae ; and that one of 
 our most popular divines has written a Bridgewater Trea- 
 tise to show the predominance of natural law over mind, 
 as a proof of the existence and wisdom of God." — Sequel to 
 the Vestiges of Creation, p. 125. 
 
 "Moreover, what foundation of this justice can the 
 Gods take notice of, or reward man after his death for his 
 good and virtuous actions, since it was themselves that 
 put them in the way and mind to do them ? And why 
 should they be offended at, or punish, him for wicked 
 ones, since themselves have created in him so frail a con- 
 dition, and when, with one glance of their will, they might 
 prevent him from falling." — Montaigne. 
 
 " Neither is it possible for any power to burst the chain 
 of causes ; nor is nature to be overcome, except by sub- 
 mission." — Bacon. 
 
 " The necessary connexion of natural causes with their 
 effects, is the reason for employing the former as the 
 means for the attainment of the latter. But when the 
 only useful change is ascribed to agents, of which the very 
 essence is, that their agency is influenced by no laws ascer- 
 tainable or comprehensible by Man, I am at a loss to dis- 
 cover how we can justify, in argument, the attempt to use 
 means, of which we begin by denying the efficacy." — Si)' 
 J. Mackintosh. 
 
APPENDIX. 309 
 
 C— (Page 79.) 
 
 " And in these four things, opinions of ghosts, igno- 
 rance of second causes, devotion towards what men fear, 
 and taking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the 
 natural seeds of religion ; which, by reason of the different 
 fancies, judgments, and passions of several men, hath 
 grown up into ceremonies so different, that those w^hich are 
 used by one man, are, for the most part, ridiculous to 
 another." — Hohbes : Leviathan.'^ 
 
 *' But men foolishly think that Gods are born like as 
 men are ; and have, too, a dress like their own, and their 
 voice, and their figure ; but if oxen and lions had hands 
 like our own, and fingers, then would horses like unto 
 horses, and oxen to oxen, paint and fashion their god- 
 forms ; and give to them bodies of like shape to their own, 
 as they themselves, too, are fashioned." — Xenophanes. 
 
 " The uneducated man regards the whole system of the 
 world as resulting from, and depending upon, the imme- 
 diate working and guidance of an Almighty Being, who 
 acts, in each case, as may seem to him most meet, exactly 
 as human creatures do." — Sequel to the Vestiges of 
 Creation. 
 
 " You are fit," (says the supreme Krishna to a sage) 
 " to apprehend that you are not distinct from me. That 
 which I am, thou art, and that also is the world, with its 
 Gods, and heroes, and mankind. Men contemplate dis- 
 
 * Hobbes' disbelief and ignorance of the adventitious and 
 inner range of the mind's action, forced him into a ^arJ scepti- 
 cism, and spoiled his usefulness. — H. G. A. 
 
310 APPENDIX. 
 
 tinctions because they are stupified witli ignorance, "- 
 Emerson, on Plata . 
 
 D.— (Page 92.) 
 
 " But Deceearchus, in three books, gives us an account 
 of the disputings of several learned men at Corinth, and 
 introduces Pherecrates, an old man of Phthios (reported to 
 be of the family of Deucalion), arguing that there is no 
 such thing as the soul, but that it is merely an empty 
 name, and that the using the words animantia^ and ani- 
 malia, is ridiculous, inasmuch, as neither man nor beast 
 has any soul, in Latin, anima ; and that the power by 
 which we do and suffer is equally spread in all living crea- 
 tures alike, and inseparable from the body, as being 
 nothing but the body so figured as by force of nature to 
 have life and sense." — Cicero, on Contempt of Death. 
 
 " Again, let the required nature be the discursive power 
 of the mind : the classification of human reason, and 
 animal instinct appears to be perfectly correct, yet there 
 are some instances in the actions of brutes, which seem to 
 show that they too can syllogize." — Bacon : Nov. Org., 
 Aph. 35. 
 
 " Many philosophers even furnished the brutes with a 
 soul. The pious and benevolent Bonnet promised them 
 immortahty." — Call. 
 
 " The mind of man, of the dog, and of all other ani- 
 mind, is part of the vital actions : it is the result of the 
 
APPENDIX. 311 
 
 elaborate mecLanism perfected by nature." — Smee, on In- 
 stinct and Reason. 
 
 " It is not prudence that distinguishes men from beasts. 
 There be beasts, that at a year old observe more, and pur- 
 sue that which is for their good, more prudently than a 
 child can do at ten." — Hohhes. 
 
 E.— (Page 100.) 
 
 " Tor although nothing exists in nature except indi- 
 vidual bodies, exhibiting clear individual effects, according 
 to particular laws ; yet, in each branch of learning, that 
 very law, its investigation, discovery and development, 
 are the foundation both of theory and practice." — Bacon : 
 Nov. Org., ApTi. 2, Book 2nd. 
 
 " I do not believe that there is now one object or event 
 in all our experience of nature, within the bounds of the 
 solar system, at least, which has not either been ascer- 
 tained by direct observation to follow laws of its own, or 
 been proved to be exactly similar to objects and events, 
 which, in more familiar manifestations, or on a more 
 limited scale, follow strict laws : our inability to trace the 
 same laws on a larger scale, and in the more recondite 
 instances, being accounted for by the number and com- 
 plication of the modifying causes, or by their inaccessibility 
 to observation." — MilVs System of Logic, ii. 116. 
 
 "No more causes, or any other causes of natural 
 effects, ought to be admitted but such as are both tru 
 
312 APPENDIX. 
 
 and are sufficient for explaining their appearances. "- 
 Newton. 
 
 " Every branch of human knowledge hath its proper 
 principles, its proper foundation, and method of reason- 
 ing : and if we endeavour to build it upon any other 
 foundation, it will never stand firm and stable. Thus, 
 the historian builds upon testimony, and rarely indulges 
 conjecture. The antiquarian mixes conjecture with testi- 
 mony ; and the former often makes the larger ingredient. 
 The mathematician pays not the least regard either to 
 testimony or conjecture, but deduces everything by de- 
 monstrative reasoning, from his definitions and axioms. 
 Indeed, whatever is built upon conjecture is improperly 
 called science : for conjecture may beget opinion, but 
 cannot produce knowledge. Natural philosophy must be 
 built upon the phenomena of the material system dis- 
 covered by observation and experiment." — Heid. 
 
 " Sir Isaac Newton has the merit of giving the form of 
 a science to this branch of (Natural) Philosophy ; and it 
 need not appear surprising, if the philosophy of the 
 Human Mind should be a century or two later in being 
 brought to maturity." — Beid. 
 
 F.— (Page 124.) 
 
 " Having expressed my desire to j^ou, gentlemen, to 
 avail myself of Dr. Strong's liberal oifer to try the effect of 
 mesmerism upon the inmates of the Insane Hospital here. 
 
APPENDIX. 313 
 
 you were kind enough to sanction a monthly expenditure 
 of 20 rupees for this purpose, which has been spent in 
 paying ten of the guards 2 rupees a-month each to act as 
 mesmerisers. Being familiarwith the soothingand strength- 
 ening effects of mesmerism upon the debilitated and irri- 
 table nervous systems of the sane, and believing that 
 insanity, in general, originates in debility or functional 
 derangement of the brain, I expected to find mesmerism 
 of service in the treatment of madness, like every thing 
 else that restores tone and regularity to the system. But 
 functional derangement of the brain, if long neglected, 
 becomes as inveterate as other chronic diseases of func- 
 tion, and success under any treatment will mainly depend 
 upon early attention being paid to the case. The iVsylum 
 here only contains the most unfavourable and dishearten- 
 ing subjects to work upon ; the inmates being generally 
 poor, friendless wretches, picked up by the police in high- 
 ways, or confined by order of the magistrate for offences 
 committed in paroxysms of madness. T\'e have seldom 
 any previous history of the individual to enable us to 
 guess whether the disease is one of organic lesion or func- 
 tional derangement only of the brain, and possibly the 
 persons may never have been sane in their lives ; under 
 these circumstances, any success whatever from a new mode 
 of treatment would surely be very satisfactory and encou- 
 raging. By habitually expecting little, and being thankful 
 for the smallest favour from nature, I have generally had 
 my expectations more than realized. 
 
 " The patients were taken in the order of their names 
 in the register, and none were rejected, except for old age 
 or self-evident idiotcy; care being also taken that the 
 persons were then perfectly mad, lest a lucid interval might 
 be the commencement of a permanent cure. During the 
 P 
 
314 APPENDIX. 
 
 last six months, thirty-seven persons have been mes- 
 merised, and the results are : — 
 
 8 cured. 
 
 1 cured, and relapsed. 
 18 no change. 
 1 died. 
 
 9 under treatment — 5 much improved. 
 
 37 
 " As I mentioned, we found tlie insane as readily af- 
 fected as tJie sane ; many of the patients being thrown into 
 the trance, although it was not desired to do so, it not 
 being thought necessary. One morning I found a new 
 man being mesmerised, without orders ; the native doctor 
 said, that he had come to the hospital that morning, and, 
 as his throat was cut, he had desired him to be entranced, 
 if possible, to have it sewn up. On examining the man 1 
 found him intensely entranced (after half an hour), and fk. 
 to bear any operation; but, I not having the necessary 
 instiTiments at hand, it was put off. Next day, he was 
 again found entranced, and, the edges of the wound 
 having become callous, they were pared raw with a knife, 
 and the wound was then brought together with stitches 
 and plaster. He was in no way disturbed by this, and, 
 on waking, was sm-prised to find himself no longer breath- 
 ing through the whole in his neck. Several of the men 
 dated their recovery from a certain day, saying, that after 
 awaking on such a day they had felt their ' heads ligJd- 
 ened' or their ^hearts opened;' and their conduct and ap- 
 pearance agreed with this statement. The rapid change 
 effected in one man, named Beekoram, was very striking. 
 ^Vhen brought before us, he was the very picture of a 
 moping madman, his mind and body being equally listless 
 
APPENDIX. 315 
 
 and apathetic; liis countenance was void of expression, 
 and no rational answers to questions could be got from 
 liim. This was one of the men who passed into the 
 trance, and at the end of ten days he was absolutely a new 
 being, and had become as active and intelligent as he had 
 formerly been torpid and stupid. 
 
 " Dr. Strong, one da}'', asked me in conversation, if 
 there was any reason to suppose that the natives of this 
 country knew mesmerism before we introduced it among 
 them. I replied that it could not be reasonably doubted, 
 and that their medical conjurors are often genuine mesme- 
 risers, as I have described in my Mesmerism in India. This 
 has been confirmed from different quarters, and especially 
 by Dr. Davidson, late resident at Jeyepore. This gentle- 
 man, visiting our hospital, and seeing the mesmerisers 
 stroking and breathing upon the patients, said, ' I now 
 understand what the jar-phoonk of Upper India means ; 
 it is nothing but mesmerism.' Being requested to explain 
 himself, he continued : — ' Many of my people, after T had 
 tried in vain to cure them of different severe complaints, 
 used to ask leave for several weeks to be treated by the 
 Jadoo-wallah, or conjuror ; and, to my great surprise, they 
 often returned quite well, and, in reply to my inquiries, 
 they always said that they had undergone a process called 
 jar-phoonJc. I could never understand what this was, 
 but I now see it before me; it is the combination of 
 stroking and breathing; jama, being to stroke, and 
 phoonka, to breathe; which very correctly describes the 
 mesmeric process.' 
 
 " This conversation with Dr. Strong took place in the 
 presence of the mesmerisers and patients ; and, turning to 
 the former, I asked if any of them knew what the/ar- 
 phoonk was in Upper India ; but they were chiefly Benga- 
 lese, and had not heard of it. Beekoram, who had been 
 p 2 
 
316 APPENDIX. 
 
 listening, said, * Jar-plioonk ? yes, I know it, — I am 
 an up-country man, and will tell you all about it ; this is 
 the way the Jadoo-wallahs do ;' and he went through the 
 process with great precision, pretty much as I have 
 described it as practised in Bengal. TJiis man, and three 
 other recovered patients, were taught to mesmerise, and in a 
 few trials subdued their subjects as well as could be 
 desired, and, as a moral discipline, they were required to 
 report upon the conduct of their patients during the day, 
 which they did very satisfactorily every morning. These 
 men, being criminals, have not been discharged, and may 
 be conversed with in the hospital now. 
 
 " Dr. Kean, of Berhampore, writes to me that he has 
 had much more striking success in his Lunatic Asylum, 
 probably owing to more regular superintendence, which is 
 indispensable ; for if not done with a ivill, it need not be 
 done at all. 
 
 •' Dr. Kean says : — ' Taking a hasty glance over the 
 years 1847 and 1848, I see that about 74 patients were 
 mesmerised ; and that of these, 64 were discharged cured 
 to all appearance, and I think it has been successful in every 
 case of epilepsy.' 
 
 " It thus appears, that mesmerism is likely to be as ser- 
 viceable in the treatment of insanity, as it is in general 
 medicine and the practice of surgery, and I should like 
 extremely to prosecute the subject to the extent it deserves, 
 both for its physical and metaphysical interest; for the 
 physical effects of mesmerism comprise only one-half of 
 the subject, and we must be familiar with both the bodily 
 and mental phenomena before we can attempt to reason 
 with any success upon the nature and laws which govern 
 this wonderful vital agent." — Second HaJf-Yearly Report 
 of the Calcutta Mesmeric Hospital, 1849. 
 
APPENDIX. 317 
 
 G.— (Page 125.) 
 
 *' If we bear in mind that as no occurrence in the world, 
 so also no phenomena of nature, either in the animal or 
 vegetable kingdom, can appear without standing in relation 
 to, or as the immediate result of, another that has preceded 
 it ; (as the present condition of a plant or animal is de- 
 pendent upon certain pre-existing conditions ; ) it is clear, 
 that if all the causes that affect one condition, and that 
 influence upon time and space, with their properties, are 
 known to us, we shall be able to declare what other condi- 
 tions will succeed the former one. The extreme of these 
 conditions or relations, is what we term a natural law." 
 — On Investigatmi pursued according to Physiological laws, 
 by Justus Liehig. 
 
 " It seems to me that a like degree of empiricism at- 
 taches to descriptions of the universe and to civil history ; 
 but in reflecting upon physical phenomena and events, and 
 tracing their courses by the processes of reason, we become 
 more and more convinced of the ancient doctrine, that the 
 forces inherent in matter and those which govern the moral 
 world, exercise their action under the control of pre-mor- 
 dial necessity, and in accordance with movements occurring 
 periodically, after longer or shorteriutervals." — Humboldt : 
 Cosmos i vol. i. p. 30. 
 
 H.— (Page 128.) 
 
 " Contrary to the wishes and counsels of those profound 
 and powerful thinkers, who have given new life to specula- 
 
318 APPEXDIX. 
 
 tions whicTi were already familiar to the ancients, systems of 
 natural philosophy have in our own country for some time 
 past turned aside the minds of men from the graver study 
 of mathematical and physical sciences. The abuse of 
 better powers, which has led many of our noble but ill- 
 judging youth into the saturnalia of a purely ideal science 
 of nature, has been signalized by the intoxication of pre- 
 tended conquests, by a novel and fantastically symbolical 
 phraseology, and by a predilection for the formulae of a 
 scholastic rationalism, more contracted in its views than 
 any known to the middle ages. I use the expression 
 * abuse of better powers,' because superior intellects de- 
 voted to philosophical pursuits and experimental science 
 have remained strangers to these saturnalia. The results 
 yielded by an earnest investigation in the path of experi- 
 ment, cannot be at variance with a true philosophy of 
 nature." — Humholdt : Cosmos, end of Litroduction . 
 
 " He who hath not first, and before all, intimately ex- 
 plored the movements of the human mind, and therein 
 most accurately distinguished the course of knowledge and 
 the seats of error, shall find all things masked, and as it 
 were enchanted, and, till he undo the charm, shall be un- 
 able to interpret." — Bacon : Impediments of Interpretation. 
 
 " But men are more disposed to give themselves to 
 speculation than to the painful study of nature. At each 
 step the metaphysicians come in to retard the progress of 
 the naturalists : and in general it is to the metaphysicians 
 that we must attribute the ignorance in which we are still 
 involved respecting the true nature of Man: and this 
 shameful slavery will continue so long as we refuse to ac- 
 quire the details of an organization capable of explaining 
 all the phenomena of sensibility, all the various instincts, 
 
APPENDIX. 319 
 
 propensities and intellectual faculties." — Gall, vol. ii. 
 p. 15. 
 
 " The understanding, like the eye, whilst it makes us 
 see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself : 
 it requires art and pains to set it at a distance, and make 
 it its own object." — Locke. 
 
 " So that it is not the insufficiency or incapacity of man's 
 mind, but it is the remote standing or placing thereof, that 
 breedeth these mazes and incomprehensions : for as the 
 sense afar off is full of mistaking, but is exact at hand, so 
 is it of the understanding ; the remedy whereof is not to 
 quicken or strengthen the organ, but to go nearer to the 
 object." — Bacon : Advancement of Learning. 
 
 " Por however men may be satisfied with themselves, 
 and rush into a blind admiration and almost adoration of 
 the human mind, one thing is most certain, namely, that 
 as an uneven mirror changes the rays proceeding from 
 objects according to its own figure and position, so the 
 mind, when affected by things through the senses, does 
 not act in the most trustworthy manner, but inserts and 
 mixes her own nature into that of things, whilst clearing 
 and recollecting her notions." — Bacon : Distribution of 
 the work. 
 
 "As far as relates to the first notions of the under- 
 standing, not any of the materials which tlie understanding, 
 when left to itself, has collected, are unsuspected by us ; 
 nor will we confirm them unless they themselves be put 
 upon their trial and be judged accordingly." — Lbid. 
 
 We have at length arrived at the important truth 
 
320 APPENDIX. 
 
 which now seems so very obvious a one, that the mind is 
 to be known best by observation of the series of changes 
 which it presents, and of all the circumstances which pre- 
 cede and follow these ; that in attempting to explain its 
 phenomena, therefore, we should know what these pheno- 
 mena are, and that we might as well attempt to discover, 
 by logic, unaided by observation or experiment, the various 
 coloured rays that enter into the composition of a sun- 
 beam, as to discover by dialectic subtilties, d prio7% the 
 various feelings that enter into the composition of a single 
 thought or passion," — Dr. Thomas Broion. 
 
 But when a thing lies still, unless something else stii* 
 it, it will lie still for ever, is a truth no one doubts of. 
 But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally be 
 in motion unless somewhat else stay it, though the reason 
 be the same, (namely, that nothing can change itself,) is 
 not so easily assented to : for men measure not only 
 other men, but all other things, by themselves." — Hobbes, 
 on Imagination. 
 
 "No one has yet been found possessed of sufficient 
 firmness and severity to resolve upon and undertake the 
 task of entirely abolishing common theories and notions, 
 and applying the mind afresh, when thus cleared and 
 levelled to particular researches. Hence our human reason 
 is a mere farrago and crude mass, made up of a great deal 
 of credulity and accident ; and the peurile notions it ori- 
 ginally contracted." — Bacon: Novum Organon, A. 97. 
 
 "It may happen in science, as in building, that an 
 error in the foundation shall weaken the whole, and the 
 further the building is carried on, the weakness shall be- 
 come more apparent and the more threatening. Some- 
 
APPENDIX. 321 
 
 thing of this kind seems to have happened in cur systems 
 concerning the mind." — Reid. 
 
 I._(Page 166.) 
 
 " It appears but as yesterday ; yet, nevertheless, it was 
 at the beginning of the year 1788. We were dining with 
 one of our brethren at the Academy, — a man of conside- 
 rable wealth and genius. The company was numerous 
 and diversified — courtiers, lawyers, academicians, &c. ; 
 and, according to custom, there had been a magnificent 
 dinner. At dessert, the wines of Malvoisin and Constantia 
 added to the gaiety of the guests that sort of liberty which 
 is sometimes forgetful of bon ton : — we had arrived in the 
 world, just at that time when anything was permitted 
 that would raise a laugh. Chamfort had read to us some 
 of his impious and libertine tales, and even the great 
 ladies had listened without having recourse to theu' fans. 
 From this arose a deluge of jests against religion. One 
 quoted a tirade from the Pucelle; another recalled the 
 philosophic lines of Diderot, — 
 
 * Et des boyaux du dernier pretre, 
 Serrez le cou du dernier roi,' 
 
 for the sake of applauding them. A third rose, and 
 holding his glass in his hand, exclaimed, ' Yes, gentlemen, 
 I am as sure that there is no God, as I am sure that Homer 
 is a fool ;' and, in truth, he was as sure of the one as of 
 the other. The conversation became more serious ; much 
 admiration was expressed on the revolution, which Voltaire 
 had effected, and it was agreed that it was his first claim 
 p 5 
 
322 APPENDIX. 
 
 to the reputation he enjoyed : — he had given the prevailing 
 tone to his age, and had been read in the ante-chamber, as 
 well as in the drawing-room. One of the guests told us, 
 while bm-sting with laughter, that his hairdresser, while 
 powdering his hair, had said to him — * Bo you observe , sir, 
 that altliougli I am hut a poor miserable barber, I have no 
 more religion than any other' We concluded that the 
 revolution must soon be consummated, — that it was in- 
 dispensable that superstition and fanaticism should give 
 place to philosophy, and we began to calculate the pro- 
 babihty of the period when this should be, and which of 
 the present company should live to see the reign of reason. 
 The oldest complained that they could scarcely flatter 
 themselves with the hope ; the younger rejoiced, that they 
 might entertain this very probable expectation ; — and they 
 congratulated the Academy especially for having prepared 
 this great loorh, and for having been the great rallying 
 point, the centre, and the prime mover of the liberty of 
 thought. 
 
 " One only of the guests had not taken part in all the 
 joyousness of this conversation, and had even gently and 
 cheerfully checked our splendid enthusiasm. This was 
 Cazotte, an amiable and original man, but unhappily in- 
 fatuated with the reveries of the illuminati. He spoke, 
 and with the most serious tone. ' Gentlemen,' said he, ' be 
 satisfied ; you will all see this great and sublime revolu- 
 tion, which you so much desire. You know that I am a 
 little inclined to prophesy : I repeat, j^ou will see it.' He 
 was answered by the common rejoinder, ' One need not be 
 a conjuror to see that^ ' Be it so ; but perhaps one must 
 be a little more than conjm-or, for what remains for me to 
 tell you. Do you know what will be the consequence of 
 this revolution, — what will be the consequence to all of 
 you, and what will be the immediate result, — the well- 
 
APPENDIX. 323 
 
 established effect, — the thoroughly recognisecl consequence 
 to all of you who are here present?' ' A.h !' said Con- 
 dorcet, with his insolent, and half-suppressed smile, ' let 
 us hear, — a philosopher is not sorry to encounter a pro- 
 phet.' ' You, Monsieur de Condorcet, you will yield up 
 your last breath on the floor of a dungeon ; — you will 
 die from poison, which you will have taken, in order to 
 escape from execution, — from poison which Hie Jiappiness 
 of that time will oblige you to carry about your person.' 
 
 " At first astonishment was most marked ; but it was 
 soon recollected, that the good Cazotte is liable to dream- 
 ing, though apparently wide awake, and a hearty laugh is 
 the consequence. ' Monsieur Cazotte, the relation which 
 you give us is not so agreeable as your Diable Amoureux' 
 — (a novel of Cazotte' s). 
 
 " ' But what diable has put into your head this prison, 
 and this poison, and these executioners ? What can all 
 these have in common with philosophy and the reign of 
 reason ?' * This is exactly what I say to you ; it is in the 
 name of philosophy, — of humanity, — of liberty ; — it is 
 under the reign of reason, that it will happen to you thus, 
 to end your career ; — and it will indeed be the reign of 
 reason ; for then she will have her temples, and indeed, at 
 that time, there will be no other temples in France than 
 the temples of reason.' ' By my truth,' said Chamfort, 
 with a sarcastic smile, 'you will not be one of the priests 
 of those temples.' * I do not hope it ; but you. Monsieur 
 de Chamfort, who will be one, and most worthy to be so, 
 you will open your veins with twenty-two cuts of a razor, 
 and yet you will not die till some months afterwards.' They 
 looked at each other, and laughed again. ' You, Monsieur 
 Vicq d'Azir, you will not open your own veins, but you 
 will cause yourself to be bled, six times in one day, during 
 a paroxysm of the gout, in order to make more sure of 
 your end, and you will die in the night. You, Monsieur 
 
324 APPENDIX. 
 
 de Nicolai, you will die upon the scaffold ; — you, M. Bailly, 
 on the scaffold ; — you, Monsieur de Malesherbes, on the 
 scaffold.' — ' Ah ! God be thanked,' exclaimed Boucher, 
 ' it seems that Monsieur has no eye, but for the Academy ; 
 — of it he has just made a terrible execution, and I, thank 
 
 heaven ' ' You ! you also will die upon the 
 
 scaffold.' ' Oh, what an admirable guesser,' was uttered 
 on all sides ; ' he has sworn to exterminate us all.' ' No, 
 it is not I who have sworn it.' — ' But shall we then be 
 conquered by the Turks or the Tartars ? Yet again . . .' 
 * Not at all ; I have already told you, you will then be 
 governed only by philosophy, — only by reason. They 
 who will thus treat you, will be all philosophers, — will 
 always have upon their lips the self-same phrases which 
 you have been putting forth for the last hom% — will 
 repeat aU your maxims, — and will quote, as you have done, 
 the verses of Diderot, and from La Pucelle.' They then 
 whispered among themselves ; — ' You see that he is gone 
 mad;' — for he preserved all this time the most serious and 
 solemn manner. ' Do you not see that he is joking ? and 
 you know that, in the character of his jokes, there is always 
 much of the marvellous.' ' Yes,' replied Chamfort, ' but 
 his marvellousness is not cheerful ; — it savours too much 
 of the gibbet, — and when will all this happen ?' ' Six 
 years will not pass over before all that I have said to you 
 shall be accomplished.' 
 
 " ' Here are some astonishing miracles,' (and this time, 
 it was I myself who spoke,) ' but you have not included 
 me in your list.' ' But you will be there, as an equally 
 extraordinary miracle ; you will then be a Christian.' 
 
 " Vehement exclamations on all sides. ' Ah,' re- 
 plied Chamfort, ' I am comforted, if loe shall perish only 
 when La Harpe shall be a Christian, we are immortal.' 
 
 " ' As for that,' then observed Madame la Duchess de 
 Graramont, ' we women, we are happy to be counted for 
 
APPENDIX. 325 
 
 nothing in these revolutions : — when I say for nothing, 
 it is not that we do not always mix ourselves up with them 
 a little, but it is a received maxim, that they take no no- 
 tice of us, and of our sex.* * Your sex, ladies, will not 
 protect you this time; and you had far better meddle 
 with nothing, for you will be treated entirely as men, 
 without any difference whatever.' ' But what, then, are 
 you really telling us of, Monsieur Cazotte? — You are 
 preaching to us the end of the world.' ' I know nothing 
 on this subject : but what I do know is, that you, Madame 
 la Duchesse, will be conducted to the scaffold, you and 
 many other ladies with you, in the cart of the executioner, 
 and with your hands tied behind your backs.' ' Ah ! I hope 
 that, in that case, I shall have a carriage hung in black.' 
 ' No, madame ; higher ladies than yourself will go like you 
 in the common car, with their hands tied behind them.' 
 
 * Higher ladies ! what ! the princesses of the blood ?' 
 
 * Still more exalted personages.' — Here a sensible emo- 
 tion pervaded the whole company, and the countenance of 
 the host was dark and lowering : — they began to feel that 
 the joke was become too serious. Madame de Gram- 
 mont, in order to dissipate the cloud, took no notice of 
 the reply, and contented herself with saying, in a careless 
 tone, — ' You see that he will not leave me even a confessor.^ 
 
 * No, madame, you will not have one, neither you, nor any 
 one besides. The last victim to whom this favour will be 
 aft'orded, will be ' He stopped for a moment. 
 
 * Well 1 who then will be the happy mortal, to whom this 
 prerogative will be given ? ' ' 'Tis the only one which he 
 will have then retained — and that will be the king of 
 France.' 
 
 " The master of the house rose hastily, and every one 
 with him. He walked up to M. Cazotte, and addressed 
 him with a tone of deep emotion ;-=* My dear Monsieur 
 
326 APPENDIX. 
 
 Cazotte, this mournful joke has lasted long enough. You 
 carry it too far, — even so far as to derogate from the so- 
 ciety in which you are, and from your own character.' 
 Cazotte answered not a word, and was preparing to leave, 
 when Madame de Grammont, who always sought to dis- 
 sipate serious thought, and to restore the lost gaiety of 
 the party, approached him, saying, ' Monsieur the pro- 
 phet, who has foretold us of our good fortune, you have 
 told us nothing of your own.' He remained silent for 
 some time, with downcast eyes. ' Madame, have you ever 
 read the siege of Jerusalem, in Josephus ? ' ' Yes ! who 
 has not read that ! But answer as if I had never read 
 it.' * Well then, madame, during the siege, a man for 
 seven days in succession, went round the ramparts of the 
 city, in sight of the besiegers and besieged, crying un- 
 ceasingly, with an ominous and thundering voice. Woe to 
 Jerusalem ; and the seventh time he cried, JFoe to Jerma- 
 lein, woe to myself — and at that moment an enormous 
 stone, projected from one of the machines of the besieging 
 army, struck him, and destroyed him.' 
 
 " And, after this reply, M. Cazotte made his bow and 
 retired. 
 
 " "VYhen, for the first time, I read this astonishing pre- 
 diction, I thought that it was only a fiction of La Harpe's, 
 and that that celebrated critic wished to depict the asto- 
 nishment which would have seized persons distinguished 
 for their rank, their talents, and their fortune, if, several 
 years before the revolution, one could have brought before 
 them the causes which were preparing, and the frightful 
 consequences which would follow. The inquiries which 
 I have since made, and the information I have gained, 
 have induced me to change my opinion. M. le Comte 
 A. de Montesquieu, having assured me that Madame de 
 Genlis had repeatedly told him that she had often heard 
 
APPENDIX. 327 
 
 this prediction related by M. de La Hai'pe, I begged of 
 him to have the goodness to solicit from that lady more 
 ample details. This is her reply : — 
 
 " ' November, 1825. 
 
 " ' I think I have somewhere placed, among my souvenirs, 
 the anecdote of M. Cazotte, but I am not sure. I have 
 heard it related a hundred times by M. de La Harpe, be- 
 fore the revolution, and always in the same form as I have 
 met with it in print, and as he himself has caused it to 
 be printed. This is all that I can say, or certify, or au- 
 thenticate by my signature. — Comtesse de Genlis.' 
 
 " * I have also seen the son of M. Cazotte, who assured 
 me that his father was gifted in a most remarkable man- 
 ner, with a faculty of pre-vision, of which he had num- 
 berless proofs ; one of the most remarkable of which was, 
 that on returning home on the day on which his daughter 
 had succeeded in delivering him from the hands of the 
 wretches who were conducting him to the scaffold, instead 
 of partaking the joy of his surrounding family, he declared 
 that in three days he should be again arrested, and that he 
 should then undergo his fate ; and in truth he perished on 
 the 25th of Sept. 1792, at the age of 72.' 
 
 *' In reference to the above narrative, M. Cazotte, jun., 
 would not undertake to affirm that the relation of La Harpe 
 was exact in all its expressions, but had not the smallest 
 doubt as to the reality of i\\e facts. 
 
 " I ought to add, that a friend of Vicq d'Azir, an in- 
 habitant of Reimes, told me, that that celebrated physician, 
 ha\dng travelled into Brittany some years before the revo- 
 lution, had related to him, before his family, the prophecy 
 of Cazotte. It seemed that notwithstanding his scepti- 
 cism, Yicq d'Azir was uneasy about this prediction. 
 
 " Letter on this subject addressed to M. Mialle by M. le 
 Baron Delamothe Lanson : — 
 
328 APPENDIX. 
 
 " ' You inquire of me, my dear friend, what I know 
 concerning the famous prediction of Cazotte mentioned 
 by La Harpe. I have only on this subject to assui-e you 
 upon my honour that I have heard Madame le Comtesse 
 de Beauharnais many times assert that she was present at 
 this very singular historical fact. She related it always in 
 the same way, and with the accent of truth ; — her evi- 
 dence fully corroborated by that of La Harpe. She spoke 
 thus, before all the persons of the society in which she 
 moved, many of whom still live, and could equally attest 
 this assertion. 
 
 " ' You may make what use you please of this communi- 
 cation. 
 
 " ' Adieu, my good old friend. I remain with inviolable 
 attachment, yours, 
 
 "'Baron Delamothe Langon.'" 
 
 " ' Paris, Dec. 18th, 1833.' " 
 — La Harpe: Posthumous Memoirs, Paris, 1 806, vol.i. p. 62 
 
 A FEW PASSAGES FROM THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 " On the 12th of February, 1428, on which the disas- 
 trous battle of Rouvray- Saint-Denis was fought, Joan said 
 to M. Robert de Badricourt, Governor of Vaucouleurs, 
 that the king had suffered great losses before Orleans, and 
 would experience further losses unless she were sent to 
 him. The exactitude of this announcement determined 
 Baudricourt to send her. 
 
 " The next day, on her departure, many persons asked 
 Joan how she could possibly undertake^this journey, since 
 the whole country was overrun with soldiers : she an- 
 swered that she should find the way clear. No accident 
 happened to her, nor to those who accompanied her, and" 
 even very few difficulties during the whole journey, which 
 lasted eleven days, through an enemy's country, at the 
 
APPENDIX. 329 
 
 close of winter, over a distance of one hundred and fifty- 
 leagues, and intersected by several deep rivers. 
 
 " On the 27th of February, when she was about to be 
 presented to the king, a man on horseback who saw her 
 passing, employed some blasphemous expressions. Joan 
 heard him, and turning her head, said, ' Ha, dost thou 
 blaspheme the n me of God, and yet so near to death ?' 
 In about an hour afterwards, this man fell into the water, 
 and was drowned. 
 
 " The following month Joan informed the doctors, who 
 were commissioned to examine her at Poictiers : — 
 
 "1. That the English would be beaten ; that they would 
 raise the siege of Orleans ; and that this city would be 
 delivered from the said English ; 
 
 " 2. That the king would be consecrated at Eeims; 
 
 "3. That the city of Paris would be restored to its 
 loyalty ; 
 
 " 4. That the Duke of Orleans would return from Eng- 
 land. 
 
 " The king, in council, having determined to send Joan 
 to Orleans, they commissioned her to conduct a convoy of 
 provisions of which the place stood in the greatest need. 
 It was observed to her, that it would be a difficult enter- 
 prise, considering its fortifications, and the English be- 
 siegers, who were strong and powerfid. ' By the help of 
 my God,' answered she, ' we will put them into Orleans 
 easily and wdthout any attempt to prevent us on the part 
 of the English.' 
 
 " The generals of Cliarles VII. not daring to take the 
 route which Joan had pointed out to them, the convoy 
 was obliged to halt at some leagues from Orleans, from the 
 want of water, and from adverse winds. Everybody was 
 confounded and in grief; but Joan announced that the 
 wind would soon change, and that the provisions would 
 
330 APPENDIX. 
 
 be easily thrown into the town, in spite of the English : 
 all which was completely verified. 
 
 " The English retained one of the heralds whom Joan 
 had sent to summon them to surrender ; — they even 
 wished to burn him alive ; — and they wrote to the uni- 
 versity of Paris to consult upon the subject : Joan assured 
 them, that they would do him no harm. 
 
 "When Joan appeared on the redoubt, called the 
 boulevard de la Belle-Croix, to summon them to raise the 
 siege, these loaded her with abuse, especially one of the 
 officers, to whom Joan replied, * that he spoke falsely, 
 and in spite of them all they would soon depart but 
 that he would never see it, and that many of his people 
 would be killed. In fact, when the fort of Tournelles 
 was taken, this officer wished to make his escape by the 
 bridge which separated the fort from the suburbs ; but an 
 arch gave way beneath his feet, and he, with all his men, 
 were drowned. 
 
 " Having introduced the convoy of provisions and am- 
 munition into Orleans, Joan foretold to the inhabitants, 
 that in five days not an Englishman would remain before 
 their walls. 
 
 " On the 6th of May, Joan informed her confessor, 
 that on the next day she should be wounded above the 
 bosom, while before the fort at the end of the bridge. 
 And in fact she received a lance between the neck and 
 the shoulder, which passed out nearly half a foot behind 
 the neck. 
 
 " On the morning of the 7th, her host having invited 
 her to partake of some fish which had been brought him, 
 she desired him to keep it till night, because she would 
 then bring him a stranger who would do his part in eating 
 it. She added, that after having taken the Tournelles, 
 she would re-pass the bridge, — a promise which seemed 
 
APPENDIX. 331 
 
 impossible to any body — but which nevertheless was ful- 
 filled, like all the other impossibilities. 
 
 " The iiTesolution of the king was the greatest punish- 
 ment to Joan : ' I shall only continue for a year, and a 
 very httle more,' said she ; ' I must try to employ that 
 year well.' 
 
 " The Duchesse d'Alengon was greatly alarmed, on see- 
 ing her husband at the head of the army, which was about 
 to enforce the coronation of the king at Eeims. Joan 
 told her to fear nothing, — that she would bring him back 
 safe and sound, and in a better condition than he was at 
 that moment. 
 
 "At the attack of Jargean, the Due d'Alencon was 
 attentively reconnoitring the outworks of the toA^Ti, when 
 Joan told him to remove from the spot on which he was 
 standing, or that he would be killed by some warlike 
 missile. The duke removed, and almost immediately after- 
 wards, a gentleman of Anjou, by the name of M. de Lade, 
 was struck in the very place which the duke had just 
 left. 
 
 " The English generals, Talbot, Searles, and Falstafi", 
 having arrived with four thousand men to the relief of 
 the Castle of Beaugenie, in order to raise the siege of that 
 place, Joan predicted that the English would not defend 
 themselves — would be conquered — and that this triumph 
 would be almost bloodless on the part of the royal army — 
 and that there would be very fete — not quite to say no one 
 — killed of the Prench combatants. In truth, they lost 
 but one man^ and almost all the English were killed or 
 taken. 
 
 " Joan had told the king not to fear any want of troops 
 for the expedition to Reims, — for that there would be 
 plenty of persons, and many would follow him ; in truth. 
 
332 APPENDIX. 
 
 the army increased visibly from day to day, and numbered 
 twelve thousand men by the end of June 1429. 
 
 " When the army had arrived before Troyes, that city 
 shut its gates, and refused to yield. Mter five days' wait- 
 ing, and useless efforts of capitulation, the majority of 
 the council advised to return to Gien ; but Joan declared 
 that in less than three days she would introduce the king 
 into the city by favour or by force. The chancellor said 
 that they would even wait six days if they could be sure 
 of the truth of her promises. ' Doubt nothing,' said she — 
 * you will be master of the city to-morrow^ Immediately 
 preparations w^ere made for the projected assault, which 
 so alarmed the inhabitants and their garrison, that they 
 capitulated next day. 
 
 " Charles feared that the city of Reims would oppose a 
 long resistance to his arms, and that it would be difficult 
 to make himself master of it, because he was deficient in 
 artillery. ' Plave no doubt,' said Joan, ' for the citizens of 
 the town of Reims will anticipate you. Before you are 
 close to the city, the inhabitants will surrender.' On the 
 16th of July the principal inhabitants of the city laid its 
 keys at the feet of the king. 
 
 " During her captivity, Joan made the following predic- 
 tions on the 1st of March, 1430, in the presence of fifty- 
 nine witnesses, whose names are given faithfully by M. le 
 Brun de Charmettes : ' Before seven years are past, the 
 English will abandon a larger prize than they have done 
 before Orleans, and will lose everything in France. 
 
 " ' They will experience the severest loss they have ever 
 felt in France ; — and this will be by a great victory which 
 God will bestow upon the French.' 
 
 " Paris was actually re-taken by the French under the 
 command of the Marshal de Richemont and the Count de 
 Dunois on the 14th of April, 1436. 
 
APPENDIX. 333 
 
 " As to the great victory which should prove so fatal to 
 the English, M. le Brun thinks may be understood, either 
 the battle of Tormigny, gained by the French in 1450, 
 and which resulted in the conquest of Normandy, — or the 
 battle of Castillon, fought in 1452, in which the renowned 
 general Talbot perished, and which completed the submis- 
 sion of la Guinne to Erance. 
 
 " In order to explain the expression, will lose everything 
 in France, the same author recals the fact, that the people 
 in general restricted the term Erance to what had origi- 
 nally composed the immediate dominion of Hugo Capet and 
 his successors, as I'lsle de Erance, I'Orleannais, le Berri, 
 la Touraine, &c. Thus Joan of Arc, born at Domreny, at 
 the extremity of la Champagne, said that Saint Michel had 
 ordered her to go into Erance." 
 
 K.— (Page 167.) 
 
 " The process of condensation, which formed a part of 
 the doctrine of Anaximenes, and of the Ionian School, ap- 
 pears to be going on before our eyes. This subject of in- 
 vestigation and conjecture is especially attractive to the 
 imagination, for in the study of the animated circles of 
 Nature, and of the action of all the moving forces of the 
 universe, the charm that exercises the most powerful in- 
 fluence on the mind is derived less from a knowledge of 
 that which is, than from a perception of that which will 
 be, even though the latter be nothing more than a new 
 condition of a known material existence ; for of actual 
 creation, of origin, the beginning of existence from non- 
 existence, we have no experience, and can therefore form 
 
334 APPENDIX. 
 
 no conception." — Cosmos : Humholdt^ on Celestial PJieno- 
 tnena. 
 
 " Wrongly do the Greeks suppose that aught begins or 
 ceases to be ; for nothing comes into being or is destroyed : 
 but all is an aggregation or secretion of pre-existent things; 
 so that ' all becoming ' might more correctly be called 
 'becoming-mixed/ and all corruption 'becoming separate,'" 
 — Anaxagoras. 
 
 " Fools ! who think aught can begin to be, which for- 
 merly was not. Or that aught which is, can perish and 
 utterly decay. Another truth I can unfold ; no natural 
 birth is there of mortal things ; nor death, destruction 
 final ; nothing is there but a mingling, and then a separa- 
 tion of the mingled, which are called a birth and death by 
 ignorant mortals." — Emjpeclocles. 
 
 " The world was made neither by god or man ; and it 
 was, and is, and ever shall be, an ever living fire in due 
 measure self-enkindled, and in due measure self-extin- 
 ffuish e d . " — HeracUtus . 
 
 L.— (Page 168.) 
 
 " Where then shall we find proofs of the mind's in- 
 fluence on the bodily structure ? of that mind which, like 
 the corporal frame, is infantile in the child, manly in the 
 adult, sick and debilitated in disease, frenzied or melan- 
 choly in the madman, enfeebled in the decline of life, doting 
 in decrepitude, and annihilated by death." — Lawrence. 
 
APPENDIX. 335 
 
 " Suet as to eactmau is the nature of his many-jointed 
 limbs, 
 Such also is the intelligence of each man ; for it is 
 The nature of limbs (organization) which thinketh in men, 
 Both in one, and in all ; for the highest degree of orga- 
 nization gives 
 The highest degree of thought." 
 — Farmeiiides . 
 
 Thought is the same thing as the cause of thought : 
 For without the thing in which it is announced 
 You cannot find the thought ; 
 For there is nothing, nor shall be 
 Except the existing." 
 -Farmenides. 
 
 " But in proportion as certain observers arrived at tlie 
 knowledge of the properties of bodies, they abandoned 
 these external agents. Already Empedoclis, Leucippus, 
 Democritus, the school of Hippocrates, the Stoics, Hera- 
 clides, Epicurus, Asclepiades, Archigenes, Lucretius, Are- 
 taeus, regarded life and all its operations as an effect of or- 
 ganization." — Gaily vol. ii. p. 14. 
 
 " The natural philosophy of Democritus and some others, 
 (who did not suppose a mind or reason in the frame of 
 things, but attributed the form thereof able to maintain 
 itself, to infinite assays or proofs of nature which they 
 term fortune,) seemeth to me, as far as I can judge by the 
 recital and fragments which remain unto us, in particula- 
 rities of physical causes, more real and better inquired than 
 that of Aristotle and Plato; whereof both intermingled 
 Pinal Causes ; the one as a part of theology, the other as 
 a part of logic, which were the favourite studies respec- 
 
336 APPENDIX. 
 
 tively of both tliose persons." — Bacon : Advancement of 
 Learning, 
 
 " For altliougli the greatest generalities in nature must 
 be positive, just as they are found, and, in fact, not 
 camable, yet the human understanding, incapable of rest- 
 ing, seeks for something more intelligible. This, how- 
 ever, whilst aiming at further progress, it falls back to 
 what is actually less advanced, namely, Final Causes ; for 
 they are clearly more allied to man's own nature than the 
 system of the universe ; and from this source they have 
 wonderfully corrupted philosophy." — Bacon : Nov. Org., 
 ^.48. 
 
 M.— (Page 171.) 
 
 Hobbes says of Harvey, " He is the only man I know, 
 that, conquering envy, hath established a new doctrine in 
 his lifetime," — and yet twenty-five years elapsed before 
 this was accomplished. And at Harvey's death, no phy- 
 sician in Europe, above the age of forty, believed in his 
 discovery. 
 
 " The persecution of Harvey appears to have been 
 prompted only by the mean passions of his contemporaries. 
 No other motive is obvious ; for it is difficult to see in 
 what way ' the craft' was endangered. In this case, how- 
 ever, as in many others, it almost appeared as if men had 
 some strong personal interest in keeping back the truth, 
 so eagerly did they exert themselves to resist it." — 
 Chambers's Journal^ vol. vi. p. 41. 
 
APPENDIX. 337 
 
 " Facts," says Sir C. Bell, *' have been denied with a 
 heat and pertinacity which I can never understand. 
 
 " Whatever may be thought of the reasoning pursued 
 in this volume, the facts admit of no contradiction : and, 
 perhaps hereafter, curiosity may be excited, to know in 
 what manner they were first received. The gratification 
 in the enquiry has been very great ; the reception by the 
 profession has been the reverse of what I expected. The 
 early announcement of my occupation failed to draw one 
 encouraging sentence from medical men. When the pub- 
 lication of these papers by the Eoyal Society made it im- 
 possible to overlook them altogether, the interest they 
 excited di-ew countenance on those who opposed them, 
 or who pretended to have anticipated them. To myself 
 this has ceased to be of any consequence ; but I con- 
 fess, I regret to leave those young men who have 
 honourably and zealously assisted me in these enquiries, in 
 the delusive hope of labouring to the gratification of their 
 own profession. The pleasure arising from the pursuit of 
 natural knowledge, and the society of men of science, 
 must be their sufficient reward." — Si?- C. BeJVs Preface to 
 " The Nervous System'' 1830. 
 
 " Democritus, the father of experimental philosophy, 
 declared that he would prefer a discovery of one great 
 cause of the works of nature to the diadem of Persia. He 
 was accused of insanity; and Hippocrates was ordered to 
 enquire into the nature of his disorder. The physician 
 had a conference with the philosopher, and declared that 
 not Democritus, but bis enemies, were insane." — Bacon: 
 Holy War. 
 
 " Not the feeblest grandam, not the mowing idiot, but 
 uses what spark of perception and faculty is left to chuckle 
 
338 APPENDIX. 
 
 and triumph in his or her opinion over the absurdities of 
 all the rest. Difference from me is the measure of absur- 
 dity : but one has a misgiving of being wrong." — 
 Einersoti. 
 
 " But if any one be influenced by an inveterate uni- 
 formity of opinion, as though it were the decision of time 
 — let him learn that he is relying on a most fallacious and 
 weak argument." — Bacon : Preface to Inatauration. 
 
 "Touching the operation upon the spirits, that they 
 remain youthful, and renew their vigour, — thus much : 
 which we have done more accurately, for that there is, for 
 the most part, among the physicians, and other authors, 
 touching these operations, a deep silence." — Bacon : His- 
 tory of Life and Death. 
 
 "And even should the odium I have alluded to be 
 avoided, yet it is sufficient to repress the increase of 
 science that such attempts and industry pass unrewarded. 
 For the cultivation of science and its rewards belong not 
 to the same individual. The advancement of science is 
 the work of a powerful genius ; the prize and reward be- 
 long to the vulgar, or to princes who (with a few ex- 
 ceptions) are scarcely moderately well-informed. Nay, — 
 such progress is not only deprived of the rewards and 
 beneficence of individuals, but even of popular praise : for 
 it is above the reach of the generality, and easily over- 
 whelmed and extinguished by the winds of common 
 opinion. It is not wonderful, therefore, that little success 
 has attended that which has been little honoured." — 
 Bacon: Nov, Org.y Apli. 91, Part I. 
 
APPENDIX. 339 
 
 N.— (Page 172.) 
 
 " In the progress of time I was declared old enough to 
 be initiated into the mysteries of the Christian faith, and 
 sanctified by my first participation in the sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper. Whether I was fit for the holy ceremony 
 was never asked at all. The Christianity of our en- 
 lightened Europe is for the most part mere matter of 
 ceremony and habit, and the present representatives of the 
 Apostles among our Christian congregations, trouble them- 
 selves often about little else than their own emoluments 
 and dignities, while professing to be called to their holy 
 office by a divine spirit." — Life of Zscliokke, p. 13. 
 
 " (At Havre) I found it no easy matter to procure a pas- 
 sage for my Mulatto charge on board an American ship : 
 nearer intercourse with him was thought offensive. When 
 I took the boy with me to the table dli6te in the evening, 
 an American captain was about to quit the table in disgust, 
 if his own wife had not prevented the commission of this 
 folly ! The arrogant contempt of these Eepublicans for 
 their coloured fellow-creatuxes is know^n to all the world. 
 Europeans justly think this prejudice ridiculous or revolt- 
 ing; yet, with all their supposed freedom from similar 
 prejudices, they find the difference between noble and ig- 
 noble blood, and belief in degradation through unequal 
 marriages, as they are called, neither one nor the other. 
 Do they stand one inch higher above the slough of middle- 
 age prejudice than the Americans? In sad and sober 
 earnest, our Europeans and Americans, so proud of their 
 mental culture, their art, their science, and their Chris- 
 tianity, seem to me, with their smooth moral pretences, 
 a2 
 
340 APPENDIX. 
 
 without morality; their systematised human slaughter, 
 their justice-defying state maxims, not much wiser or 
 more Christian than the world of heathen Athens and 
 Eome 2,000 or 3,000 years ago V'—Life of ZschokJce, 
 p. 191. 
 
 0.— (Page 173.) 
 
 What a satire upon 'theology is the history of all 
 faiths, and the ill-feeling and confusion arising from the 
 conflicts of opinion going on at this moment ! such dis- 
 agreements among the professors being proof sufficient 
 of fundamental error and delusion — the badge of false 
 science, as Bacon has it. There are as many shepherds 
 as sheep ; and where every one is tinkling his little bell, in 
 what direction should a poor fellow turn, who would wil- 
 lingly give up his conscience and his reason to be saved 
 by the true specific ? Truly, in this age, a man may well 
 be puzzled to know where to go to get either his body or 
 his soul healed ; and if in this dilemma you venture to 
 think for yourselves, the whole host — sheep, shepherds, 
 and all — come at you like a pack of wolves. And there is 
 no peace for a thinking man or a suffering one, but in 
 silence, or the common resource- — hypocrisy. And, after a 
 trial of thousands of years, where is the evidence of those 
 fmits which the world has been promised, as the sure and 
 only evidence of the true doctrine and inspired faith? 
 Where are we to look for purity, and peace, and good 
 fellowship ? Have not the praiseworthy efforts of the 
 Peace advocates been ridiculed on all sides ? " More 
 Bibles," and "more churches," is the constant and ineffec- 
 
APPENDIX. 341 
 
 tual cry of the clmrchmen ; — whilst the legislator, seeing- 
 no chance of improvement by these or any other means he 
 can devise, looks to his armies, and his ships, and his 
 police force, and Acts of Parliament, as the only means of 
 securing quiet and protection for society. Barbarians all ! 
 for how shall we rule nature, except by obedience to the 
 laws of nature ? And who, of our legislators or bishops, 
 pretend to know these laws, or ever appeal to them, or 
 even acknowledge their existence ? Yet, except by the 
 knowledge of nature's laws in the constitution of Man, 
 how can we exhibit any certain means of ameliorating 
 his condition ? What use the sumptuous ceremonies of 
 the church and court, the gabbling of creeds and the bow- 
 ing of heads, and bending of knees — the standing up for 
 one prayer, the sitting down for another ; first in one pul- 
 pit, then in another a little lower — then at the altar ; now 
 in one dress, now another — with all the hubbub about 
 inessentials, stupid paraphernalia, and lifeless ceremonies, 
 taking much more heed of what clothes shall be put on 
 than of the truth which should be naked and without 
 covering at all ; — in the name of common sense, what is it 
 all worth if we do not accomplish the well-being of man- 
 kind ? The little that is known of Man's nature is not 
 acted upon, or is used against him. We boast of our 
 breeds of cattle and our dogs — of our tulips and our fine 
 geraniums — of the gas-lightings and the steam-engine, 
 and pass ourselves by, " and the passions which govern 
 all the rest are themselves ungoverued," and the under- 
 standing without law. 
 
 The only way to clear the mind of doubt or from con- 
 fusion, is by drawing closer to the object, and to the 
 material conditions. Men have deserted the substance 
 for the shadow — we must draw them back again from the 
 shadow to the substance. Theologians can hardly tolerate 
 
342 APPENDIX. 
 
 one another, except in the supposition that they may all 
 be wrong. But let no one suppose, for a moment, that I 
 wish to uproot the faculty of reverence and love, and true 
 humility, or that I desire to cast a blight upon the pure 
 and even prayerful aspirations towards infinite excellence 
 and wisdom^ acknowledging those higher truths beyond 
 our understanding, and the reach of our senses ; for there 
 is a holy temple in the heart and understanding where each 
 may worship according as his feelings, his understanding, 
 and his conscience dictates ; and in lonely hours, from the 
 promptings of that still small voice, acknowledging cheer- 
 fully the divine rule of the God of nature, shall we seek 
 to attain to holier thought and purer aspirations. All that 
 I desire is from the temple of the true God to cast out a 
 trading theology, selfish and false theories, hypocrisy and 
 the worship of images and idols of all descriptions — 
 whether in the form of man or beast, or other thing ex- 
 isting upon the face of the earth or in the water under 
 the earth. I would destroy the worship of gold, of power, 
 of life, nor acknowledge any capricious, lawless rule in the 
 " web of fate." No, the hard atheistical philosophy of 
 mere sense reason and " human wisdom" is not my phi- 
 losophy — that " philosophy which is not harsh and crabbed 
 as dull fools suppose, but musical as is Apollo's lute." 
 All nature is miraculous — man is a miracle to himself, and 
 his mind a perpetual revelation, on, and on, and on, in 
 the march of time. If Christ could now view the systems 
 which have arisen from his life, he would wish that he 
 had never been born, so strange has the perversion been, 
 and so strange the contradictory interpretations. We must 
 become again as little children, and learn — not from the 
 Bible of man, erroneously supposed divine, but from the 
 Bible of God, which is nature— a language and revelation 
 unchangeable and universal; but whilst men speak irre- 
 
APPENDIX. 343 
 
 verently of matter and slightingly of nature, are they not 
 degraded by falsehood, and to be born again ere they can 
 appreciate high things ? It is true, that I see no evidence 
 of a future life, and I desu'e to see men raised above the 
 want, believing with the pious and excellent Zschokke 
 that it is a higher moral condition to live without such a 
 hope ; but I would not diminish one happy and good im- 
 pulse when consistent with truth, but let the whole man 
 and all his powers be freely and fully developed. Like 
 the little moth at the candle, the child man is ever flutter- 
 ing in his hope that he may touch the light of infinity, 
 and fearing lest he be cast back into darkness. Under 
 the influence of damp and darkness, a man desires life 
 and continued existence, a j massing from infinite night to in- 
 finite day. When under the influence of high and elevating 
 joy, and a bright atmosphere — when in our true normal and 
 best condition — we are ready to die and melt away into 
 the form and nature of the light and beauty with which 
 we are surrounded ; but the understanding and "spiritual" 
 being is clouded by a depressing theology and vulgar 
 notions. What Englishman will believe you, that the close 
 stove of Uussia is more agreeable and healthful than our 
 bright blazing open fires ? but such is the fact. Nor will 
 men easily loosen from theu' errors, and enter the temple 
 of nature, and of the God of nature, which is, that infinite 
 cause in nature, eternal, omnipresent, and without change — 
 the principle of matter and of the properties of matter, 
 motion, and the mind of matter, but neither matter, nor 
 property, nor mind. W^hat it is, is beyond our compre- 
 hension, and folly to suppose. The finite cannot grasp the 
 infinite, nor phenomena a cause. 
 
344 APPENDIX. 
 
 P.— (Page 175.) 
 
 CURATIVE POWER OF GREATRAKES. 
 
 " The seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth cen- 
 turies present us with several examples of private persons, 
 who were supposed to have a miraculous power of curing 
 by touch. The most celebrated was a Mr. Valentine 
 Greatrakes, a Protestant gentleman of the county of Wa- 
 terford, born in 1628 — a thoroughly sound Christian and 
 good man, and occupying a highly respectable place in 
 society. It was some time after the Restoration, while 
 acting as clerk of the peace to the county of Cork, that 
 Mr. Greatrakes first arrived at a conviction of his posses- 
 sion of healing powers. In an account of himself, which 
 he wrote in 1666, he says, 'About four years since, I had 
 an impulse which frequently suggested to me that there 
 was bestowed on me the gift of curing the king's evil, 
 which, for the extraordinariness thereof, I thought fit to 
 conceal for some time ; but at length I told my wdfe ; for, 
 whether sleeping or waking, I had this impulse ; but her 
 reply was, that it was an idle imagination. But to prove 
 the contraiy, one William Maher, of the parish of Lismore, 
 brought his son to my wife, who used to distribute medi- 
 cines in charity to the neighbours ; and my wife came and 
 told me, that I had now an opportunity of trying my 
 impulse, for there was one at hand that had the evil 
 grievously in the eyes, throat, and cheeks ; whereupon I 
 laid my hands on the places afl"ected, and prayed to God, 
 for Jesus' sake, to heal him. In a few days afterwards, 
 the father brought his son with the eye so changed, that 
 the eye was almost quite whole ; and to be brief (to God's 
 glory I speak it), within a month he was perfectly healed, 
 and so continues.' 
 
APPENDIX. 345 
 
 "Another person, still more afflicted, was soon aftercured 
 by Mr. Greatrakes in the same manner ; and he then began 
 to receive an 'impulse,' suggesting that he could cure 
 other diseases. This he soon had an opportunity of proving, 
 for ' there came unto me a poor man, with a violent pain 
 in his loins, that he went almost double, and having also 
 a grievous ulcer in his leg, very black, who desired me, for 
 God's sake, to lay my hands on bim ; whereupon I put my 
 hands on his loins and flank, and immediately went the pains 
 out of him, so that he was relieved, and could stand upright 
 without trouble ; the ulcer also in his leg was healed ; so 
 that, in a few days, he returned to his labour as a 
 mason.' 
 
 " He now became extensively known for his gift of heal- 
 ing, and was resorted to by people from greater distances, 
 with the most of whom he was equally successful. Wounds, 
 ulcers, convulsions, and dropsy, were among the maladies 
 which he cured. In an epidemic fever he was also eminently 
 successful, healing aU who came to him. So great was the 
 resort to his house, that all the outhouses connected with 
 it were usually filled vnih. patients, and he became so much 
 engaged in the duty of healing them, as to have no time 
 to attend to his own afl'airs, or to enjoy the society of his 
 family. The clergy of the diocese at length took alarm at 
 his proceedings, and he was cited by the Dean of Lismore 
 before the Bishop's Court, by which he was forbidden to 
 exercise his gift for the future — an order which reminds 
 us of the decree of Louis XIV., commanding that no more 
 miracles should be performed at the tomb of the Abbe 
 Paris. Ml*. Greatrakes, nevertheless, continued to heal as 
 formerly, until his fame reached England. In August, 
 1665, he received a visit from Mr. Plamstead, the astro- 
 nomer, who was afflicted with a constitutional weakness; 
 ' ut he failed in this case. Early in the ensuing year, he 
 a5 
 
346 APPENDIX. 
 
 went to England for tlie purpose of curing the Viscountess 
 Conway of an inveterate headaclie, in which also he failed. 
 But, while residing at Ragley, with the Conway family, he 
 cured many hundreds afflicted with various diseases. Lord 
 Conway himself, in a letter to his brother, thus speaks of 
 the healer : — ' I must confess, that, before his arrival, I 
 did not beheve the tenth part of those things which I have 
 been an eye-witness of; and several others, of as accurate 
 judgment as any in the kingdom, who are come hither out 
 of curiosity, do acknowledge the truth of his operations. 
 This morning, the Bishop of Gloucester recommended to 
 me a prebend's son in his diocese, to be brought to him 
 for a leprosy from head to foot, which hath been judged 
 ncurable above ten years, and in my chamber he cured him 
 perfectly ; that is, from a moist humour, it was imme- 
 diately dried up, and began to fall off; the itching was 
 quite gone, and the heat of it taken away. The youth was 
 
 transported to admiration After all, I am 
 
 far from thinking that his cures are at all miraculous. I 
 believe it is by a sanative virtue and a natural efficiency , 
 which extends not to all diseases, but is much more pro- 
 per and effectual to some than to others, as he doth also 
 dispatch some with a great deal of ease, and others not 
 without a great deal of pains.' 
 
 " He was now invited by the king to come to London, 
 whither he accordingly proceeded ; and as he went along 
 through the country, we are told that the magistrates of 
 cities and towns begged of him that he would come and 
 cure theii' sick. The king, though not fully persuaded of 
 his wonderful gift, recommended him to the notice of his 
 physicians, and permitted him to do all the good he pleased 
 in London. He went every day to a particular part of the 
 city, where a prodigious number of people, of all ranks, and 
 of both sexes, assembled. The only visible means he took 
 
APPENDIX. 347 
 
 to cure them, was to stroke the parts affected. The gout, 
 rheumatism, and other painful affections, were diiven by 
 his touch from one part to another, until lie got them ex- 
 pelled at the very extremities of the body, after which the 
 patient was considered as cm'ed. Such phenomena could 
 not fail, in the most superstitious era of our history, to ex- 
 cite great wonder, and attract universal attention. The 
 cavalier wits and courtiers ridiculed them, as they ridiculed 
 every thing else that appeared serious. St. Evremond, 
 then at court, wrote a sarcastic novel on the subject, under 
 the title of the Irish Prophet. Others, including several 
 of the faculty, defended him. It even appears that the 
 Koyal Society, unable to refute the facts, were compelled 
 to account for them as produced by ' a sanative contagion 
 in Mr. Greatrakes's body, which had an antipathy to some 
 particular diseases, and not to others.' They also pub- 
 lished some of his cures in their Transactions. A severe 
 pamphlet by Dr. Lloyd, chaplain of the Charter-House, 
 caused Mr. Greatrakes at this time to publish the account 
 of himself which has been already quoted. In it, he says, 
 ' Many demand of me why some are cured, and not all. 
 To which question I answer, that God may please to make 
 use of such means, by me, as shall operate according to the 
 dispositions of the patient, and therefore cannot be ex- 
 pected to be alike efficacious in all. They also demand of 
 me why some are cured at once and not all ? and why the 
 pains should fly immediately out of some, and take such 
 ambages in others ? and why it should go out of some at 
 their eyes, and some at their fingers, some at their ears or 
 mouths ? To which I say, if all these things could have a 
 j9^^/^accountgivenof them, there would be no cause to count 
 them strange. Let them tell me what substance that is 
 which removes and goes out with such expedition, and it will 
 be more easy to resolve their questions. Some will know of 
 
348 APPENDIX. 
 
 me why or how I do pursue some pains from place to place till 
 I have chased them out of the body, by laying my hands on 
 the outsideof the clothes only (as is usual), and not all pains? 
 To which I answer, that — and others have been abundantly 
 satisfied that it is so — though I am not able to give a 
 reason, yet I am apt to believe there are some pains which 
 afflict men after the manner of evil spirits, which kind of 
 pains cannot endure my hand, nay, not my gloves, but 
 fly immediately, though six or eight coats or cloaks be 
 put between the person and my hand, as at the Lady 
 Kanelagh's at York House in London, as well as in Ire- 
 land, has been manifested. Now, another question will arise, 
 whether the operation of my hand proceeds from the tem- 
 perature of my body, or from a divine gift, or from both. 
 To which I say, that I have reason to believe that there is 
 some extraordinary gift of God.' At the end of his nar- 
 rative are appended a number of certificates as to his cures, 
 signed by the most respectable, pious, and learned persons 
 of the day, amongst whom are the Honourable Robert 
 Boyle, Bishop Rust, Dr. Cudworth, Dr. Patrick, Dr. 
 Whichcot, and Dr. Wilkins. Li 1667, he returned to 
 Ireland, where he lived for many years, but without sus- 
 taining his reputation for curing. It appears, however, 
 that, upon the strictest inquiry, no blemish could ever be 
 found to attach to the chamcter of this extraordinary man. 
 All he did w^as done in a spirit of pure piety and bene- 
 volence. The truth of the impressive words with which 
 he concludes his own narrative was never challenged — 
 ^ Whether I have done my duty as a Christian, in em- 
 ploying that talent which God had entrusted me withal, 
 to the good of people distressed and afflicted, or no, judge 
 you and every good man. Thus far I appeal to the world 
 whether I have taken rewards, deluded or deceived any 
 man. AU further I will say is, that I pray I may never 
 
APPENDIX. 349 
 
 be weary of well-doing, and that I may be found a faithful 
 servant when I come to give up my last account.' "* — 
 Charnbers'' s Journal^ No. 314. 
 
 Besides Greatrakes, there was De Loutherbourg, the 
 well-known painter: Gassner, a Koman Catholic priest 
 in Swabia : and an English gardener, named Levret, w^ho 
 used to say that so much virtue went out of him that 
 he was more exhausted by touching thirty or forty people 
 than by digging eight roods of ground. — H. G. A. 
 
 " In almost every canton of Switzerland are found per- 
 sons endowed with the mysterious natural gift of discover- 
 ing, by a peculiar sensation, the existence of subterranean 
 waters, metals, or fossils. I have known many of them, and 
 often put their marvellous talents to the proof. One of these 
 was the Abbot of the Convent of St. Urban, in the Canton 
 of Lucerne, a man of learning and science; and another, a 
 young woman, who excelled all I have ever known. I car- 
 ried her and her companion with me through several dis- 
 tricts entirely unknown to her, but with the geological 
 formation of which, and the position of its salt and sweet 
 
 * " Mr. Southey, in his ' Omniana,' quotes some curious passages 
 respecting Greatrakes, from a contemporary writer, Henry More. 
 It seems to have been More's opinion that there maybe a sanative 
 and healing contagion, as well as a morbid and venomous. He 
 states that Greatrakes's hand had ' a sort of herbous aromatic 
 scent,' and that he could also cure by his spittle. More 
 was not surprised by the cures of Greatrakes, having, ten years 
 before, seen 'one Coker,' who, 'by a very gentle chafing or 
 rubbing of his hand,' cured diseases, but not so many as Great- 
 rakes, who was successful, he says, in 'cancers, scrofulas, deafness, 
 king's evil, headache, epilepsy, fevers, (though quartan ones,) 
 leprosy, palsy, tympany, lameness, numbness of limbs, stone, 
 convulsions, ptysick, sciatica, ulcers, pains of the body, nay, blind 
 and dumb in some measure, and I know not but he cured the 
 gout' More, at the same time, states, that ' he did not succeed 
 in all his applications, nor were his cures always lasting.' " 
 
350 APPENDIX. 
 
 waters, I was quite familiar, and I never once found her 
 deceived. The results of the most careful observation 
 have compelled me at length to renounce the obstinate 
 suspicion and incredulity I at first felt on this subject, and 
 have presented me with a new phase of nature, although 
 one still involved in enigmatical obscurity. To detail cir- 
 cumstantially every experiment I made to satisfy myself 
 on the point, would take up too much space at present ; 
 but I think it right to mention some of the causes which 
 have led me occasionally to vary from others in my views 
 of nature and of God." — Life of ZscJiokke, p. 143. 
 
 La Physique Occulte^ ou Trade de la Baguette Bivinatoire, 
 par M. L. L. de Vallemont^ M.B., ^c. 
 
 " On the 5th of July, 1692, a dealer in wine and his 
 wife residing at Lyons were murdered in a cellar, for the 
 sake of robbing them of a sum of money kept in a shop 
 hard by, which was at the same time their chamber. All 
 this was executed with such promptitude and secresy 
 that no one had witnessed the crime, and the assassins 
 escaped, 
 
 " A neighbour, struck with horror at the enormity of 
 the crime, having remembered that he knew a man named 
 Jacques Aymar, a wealthy peasant, who could follow the 
 track of thieves and murderers, induced him to come to 
 Lyons, and introduced him to the king's attorney- general. 
 This peasant assured the functionary that if they would 
 lead him to the place where the murder was committed, in 
 order that he might receive from it a certain influence, he 
 would assuredly trace the steps of the guilty parties, and 
 would point them out wherever they were. He added, 
 that for his purpose he should make use of a rod of wood, 
 such as he was in the habit of using to find springs of 
 
APPENDIX. 351 
 
 water, metals, and hidden treasure. The man was con- 
 ducted to the cellar where the murders were committed. 
 There he was seized with emotion ; his pulse rose as if 
 he were suffering from a violent fever, and the forked rod 
 which he held in his hands turned rapidly over the two 
 places where the murdered bodies had lain. 
 
 " Having received the impression, Aymar, guided by his 
 rod, passed through the streets through which the assassins 
 had fled. He entered the court yard of the archbishop's 
 palace. Arriving at the gate of the Khone, w^hich was shut, 
 it being night, he could then proceed no further. The next 
 day he went out of the town by the bridge of the Ehone, 
 and, always guided by the rod, he went to the right along 
 the bank of the river. Three persons, who accompanied 
 him, were witnesses that he sometimes recognised the 
 tracks of three accomplices, and that sometimes he found 
 only two. In this uncertainty he was led by the rod to the 
 house of a gardener, where he was enlightened as to the 
 number of the criminals. For, on his arrival, he main- 
 tained that they had touched a table, and that of three 
 bottles which were in the room, they had touched one, over 
 which the rod visibly rotated. In short, two boys of nine 
 and ten years of age, who, fearing their father's anger, 
 had at fii'st denied the fact, at last acknowledged that 
 three men, whom they described, had entered the house, 
 and had drunk the wine which was contained in the bot- 
 tles indicated by the peasant. As they were assured by 
 the declaration of the children, they did not hesitate to go 
 forward with Aymar, half a league lower than the bridge 
 on the bank of the Rhone. All along the bank for this 
 distance the footsteps of the criminals were traced. Then 
 they must have entered a boat. Aymar followed in an- 
 other on their track as clearly by water as by land ; and 
 his boat was made to go through an arch of the bridge of 
 
853 APPENDIX. 
 
 Vienne, which is never used, upon which it was concluded 
 that these wretches had no boatman, since they wandered 
 out of their way. 
 
 ** On the voyage, Aymar went ashore at all the places 
 where the fugitives had landed, went straight to their 
 coverts, and recognised, to the great surprise of the hosts 
 and spectators, the beds on which they had slept, the tables 
 on which they had eaten, and the pots and glasses they 
 had touched. 
 
 " He an-ived at the camp of Sablon, where he was con- 
 siderably agitated. He believed that in the crowd of 
 soldiers he should find the murderers. Lest the soldiers 
 should ill-treat him, he feared to operate with his rod. 
 He returned to Lyons, whence they made him go back to 
 the camp of Sablon by water, having furnished him with 
 letters of recommendation. The criminals were no longer 
 to be found there. He followed them to the fair of Beau- 
 caire, in Languedoc, and always remarked, in his course, 
 the beds, the tables, the seats, where they had been. 
 
 " At Beaucaire, the rod conducted him to the gate of 
 a prison, where he was positive one of the wretches would 
 be found. Fourteen of the prisoners were paraded before 
 him, and the rod turned on a man with a humped back, 
 who had been sent to the prison about one hour before for 
 a petty larceny. The peasant did not hesitate to declare 
 his conviction that the hump-backed man was one of the 
 assassins ; but he continued to search for the others, and 
 found that they had gone towards Nismes. No more was 
 done at that time. They transferred the hump-backed 
 man to Lyons. On the journey he asseverated his inno- 
 cence ; but finding that all the hosts, at whose inns he 
 had lodged, recognised him, he avowed that he had been 
 the servant of two men of Provence who had engaged him 
 to join them in this foul deed : that these men had com- 
 
APPENDIX. 353 
 
 mitted the murder, and had taken the money, giving him 
 but six crowns and a half from their booty of one hundred 
 and thirty crowns. He corroborated the accuracy of the 
 indications of the peasant as to the gardener's house, the 
 camp of the Sablon, the fair of Beaucaire, and the other 
 places through which the three had passed, extending 
 over forty-five French leagues. All these things, of course, 
 excited immense interest. At Lyons, many repetitions of 
 the observations respecting the turning of the rod in the 
 cellar were made in presence of many persons. Monsieur 
 I'Abbe Bignon gives his testimony to the truth of the 
 statement of facts, in a letter inserted by Vallemont in his 
 work. There can be no doubt that such statements require 
 very strong corroboration, and here they apparently obtain 
 it. Yallemont, quoting the authority of the Royal Society 
 of London, in the second part of the history, seventeenth 
 section, one hundred and twenty-fifth page, says, that in 
 all countries where men are governed by laws, the testimony 
 in a matter of life and death, of only two or three wit- 
 nesses, is required : but is it, then, treating an affair of 
 physics equitably, when the concurrence of sixty or a 
 hundred persons is insufficient ? It is difl&cult to define 
 the just boundaries of credulity ; but in all these recitals 
 of histories of events, there is this general consent, that in 
 those who can make use of the rod, there is always an 
 agitation, a fever, or some sensation which indicates a 
 nervous commotion ; and the best evidence of the closest 
 investigation goes to the point that most frequently the 
 rod is of hazel wood. How far these stories tend to the 
 conclusion that organic tests appear to require the re- 
 agencies of organic force is, at present, a matter of specu- 
 lation ; but it is to be hoped, that the effort to attract 
 -serious attention to this class of facts is not uninteresting 
 or unimportant." 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 Q.— (Page 176.) 
 
 Mr. Sandby, in supporting his belief that the reputed 
 scripture miracles are matters wholly beyond the powers 
 of nature, and, consequently, that a faith in them need not 
 be shaken by a full recognition of the facts of mesmerism, 
 says, *' Thus was it with astronomy, with chemistry, with 
 geology. The Bible speaks of the rising of the sun, but 
 Copernicus and Galileo were charged with upsetting the 
 Bible, for they proved that the sun was the centre of its 
 system, and, consequently, did not rise to gladden the 
 earth. The theory of another hemisphere was heretical 
 for a season, and Columbus was, in turn, taxed with 
 weakening the validity of scripture. Cuvier, in like man- 
 ner, was treated as the antagonist of Moses ; and Gall 
 w^as accused of leading his followers to a belief in the 
 coarsest materialism. And thus it went on for a" season, 
 then trembled at the truth ; and the truth itself lay hid 
 behind the mists of a partial knowledge and discovery. 
 Soon, however, a brighter state of things came on. Pro- 
 founder researches dispelled the anxiety of the timid, 
 faith and science were not found incompatible." This is 
 a somewhat startling assertion ; and one would be glad to 
 learn what those " profound researches" are which have 
 charmed away the materialism of Gall, and reconciled the 
 facts of geology, and astronomy, and chemistry, to the 
 scripture accounts. Mr. Sandby 's report is, however, 
 sufficient proof of the evil to science resulting from an 
 ignorant belief in supernatural causes, and of interruptions 
 to the eternal rule and laws of nature. Is not the very 
 fact of his writing a book to show that the blessings of 
 mesmerism are the " gift of God," and not of the devil. 
 
APPENDIX. 355 
 
 sufficient proof of the still existing and inveterate oppo- 
 sition of religious fancies to the facts of nature — and that, 
 " in short," as Bacon says, " you may find all access to any 
 species of philosophy, however pure, intercepted by the 
 ignorance of divines ?" But what is true in the matter is 
 this : that fact always, in time, triumphs over fancy ; and 
 the religious world become reconciled to new incon- 
 sistencies in the faith of their childhood or adoption. 
 When a certain priest was asked how he could reconcile 
 his belief in transubstantiation, he replied, that he had 
 swallowed the apple of Eve in his youth, and had 
 found no difficulty in digesting anything else since. 
 The savage who was told by the missionary that after 
 his death he would have to meet his father in heaven, re- 
 plied — " Meet my father in heaven ! why, we ate him last 
 week." I do not state this in ridicule, but in most 
 solemn sadness. Men must either set up reason in the 
 judgment seat, or be content to receive all things as from 
 the authority of a Pope. 
 
 Men strain at a gnat and swallow a camel — Let them 
 swallow the camel or reject the whole : for reason only ad- 
 mits authorities, says Bacon, as " counsels to advise, not as 
 dictators to command." The scriptures cannot be recon- 
 ciled with themselves ; much less with nature. It seems 
 to me, the errors of scripture consist in historical error, 
 in scientific error, in moral error. — The accounts are full 
 of false or exaggerated statements by enthusiasts and de- 
 ceivers ; facts became distorted by repetition, and by the 
 colouring of existing superstitions, and men were deceived 
 by words and myths — each of the Idols described by Bacon 
 was in full operation. Supernatural causes were assigned 
 for the commonest facts — and it was thought to be abso- 
 lutely necessary to govei'n the multitude by imposing on 
 them. Even Plato talks of administerins: untruth as a 
 
356 APPENDIX. 
 
 drug. There has always been a rule of terror : and terrors 
 always produce phantoms before which the poor faculty of 
 reason, developed in ignorance, become prostrate. Eulers 
 encouraged the folly; and the folly became orthodox 
 belief: and it then became the policy, as with Solon and 
 many of the most worthy authorities, not to give the people 
 what was most true and consequently best, but the best 
 they were likely to receive ; for established error is the 
 worst of all tyrants : but to a certain extent of course this 
 policy was wise, and essential in its place in progress. It 
 was supposed, as it is still supposed, that foretelling events 
 was a matter beyond nature. The prophets believed them- 
 selves inspired, as they do now. They dreamed dreams, 
 and saw visions ; and they were not then able to interpret 
 their true nature, or separate the true insight or fore- 
 sight from the false appearances, or recognize the true 
 cause in their own abnormal or peculiar condition. It was 
 so with the greatest minds. It was so with Christ. It 
 was so with Socrates. It was so with Swedenborg. It 
 was so lately with Davis in America : and so it is with a 
 hundred others in our own country, and at this day, and 
 in all parts of the world : but the crow^ning error was to 
 suppose the fundamental principle — the inherent inter-de- 
 termining character — or the " nature of natm-e " as Bacon 
 terms it — to be of the nature of man, who is a result in 
 nature : that the root was the same as the flower. Thus 
 man, looking into the depths of the well for the truth that 
 was at the bottom, was deceived by his own image on the 
 surface. Then there grew up the fictions of abstract "forms'* 
 and of intelligence in nature : and not content with con- 
 sidering mind and motion as phenomena of matter and 
 nonentities, as much so as time and space, they embodied 
 these phenomena, calling them spiiits or souls, and, in 
 reality, came back to matter. The very life and principle of 
 
 I 
 
APPENDIX. 357 
 
 matter they could only conceive as matter, and named it 
 spirit or breath of life. The same philosophers would at 
 onetime designate mind as a phenomenon or action of a soul, 
 the body or cause of it, and liken it to music : at another 
 time, thought or the conscious phenomenon itself to be 
 the soul and its own cause. The theories are contradictory 
 and endless. Here is an example of a modern authority, 
 the pious Schlegel, from his Philosophy of Life : " The ex- 
 istence of the brutes is simple, because in them the soul is 
 completely mixed up and merged in the organic body, and 
 is one with it ; on the destruction of the latter it reverts to 
 the elements, or is absorbed in the general soul of nature." 
 And again, " Triple is the nature of man, but fourfold is the 
 human consciousness ; for spirit or mind, like the soul, 
 divides and falls asunder, or rather is split and divided into 
 two powers or halves — the mind, namely, into understand- 
 ing and will, the soul into reason and fancy." Thus com- 
 plexing the question strangely enough, and making his soul 
 and mind separate portions of the conscious phenomenon, 
 just as if in the rainbow we should call violet and blue soul, 
 and green and yellow, mind. Was there ever such con- 
 fusion of ideas ? Spirit or soul — the substance, entity and 
 body of thought, could not explain thought — or be thought, 
 any more than brain is thought. It seems to me that 
 spiritualists and materialists — so called — have fallen, with- 
 out knowing it, into similar views and the same error. Nor 
 have any of the supposed revelations at all cleared the 
 question, or done anything but confuse men the more, Re- 
 tarding the progress of real science and clear notions. 
 
 Nor can we marvel at such delusion and confusion, 
 when we find even among divines, in this " enlightened 
 age," one asserting a fact to be miraculous, and a divine 
 favour, and another asserting that it is the doings of the 
 devil : whilst a third, without inquiry, refuses evidence of 
 
358 APPENDIX. 
 
 most ample and unquestionable testimony, and declares, in 
 the conceit of his own wisdom, that such attested facts are 
 mere delusions. Now we have Mr. Sandby remonstrating 
 with the world against the supposition that certain pheno- 
 mena of mesmerism and of somnambulism are miraculous, 
 whilst in his own turn — not recognizing the broad fact, 
 that all belief in supematuralism is but a measure of igno- 
 rance — he rests wholly satisfied with his advance, and 
 ability to give a final judgment, and declare the limit of 
 the possible in nature, and to proclaim the supernatural 
 character, at least, of some of the " mii'acles." But I 
 deny Mr. Sandby's consistency in giving any such judg- 
 ment, even granting the authenticity of the narratives : for 
 the matters referred to are no more seeming impossible to 
 his mind, than are other facts which he recognizes as 
 truths in nature so to other minds. This inconsistency 
 is not from any want of good common sense, but only 
 exhibits the blinding influence of his imbibed opinions and 
 clerical position : nor can my intelligent friend object to 
 this argument against finality or limitation — for it is 
 precisely what he has so ably urged against M'Neile ; and 
 .it is what every discoverer in mesmerism has had to urge 
 against the "human reason" so nicely defined by Bacon, — 
 of churchmen and others. " Knowledge comes, but wisdom 
 lingers ;" nor does the history of the world's errors seem 
 to help us much : yet how shallow all our knowledge ! what 
 depth in our ignorance ! How little we know, and there- 
 fore can conceive, of the possible in natm-e, or what is the 
 power of true faith ! or rather of that power which, being 
 developed, induces faith — for faith, of course, like will, is 
 not a power, but only the final result and evidence of 
 power — the evidence of a power or truth within us and 
 within the nature of things. It is the conscious form of 
 the intuitive sense. All mind phenomena are but the result 
 
 I 
 
APPENDIX. 359 
 
 and concomitant of power or action, an expression, so to 
 speak — the fleeting form and evidence of existence and 
 of the forces of nature ; but a passage in time, and flowing 
 away never to return, any more than the same beauty or 
 form of the same rose can ever be again. The new spring 
 brings a new birth of similar and beautiful roses out of 
 the old materials. Mind is the last result — like the form 
 of beauty. " Last, the bright consummate flower-spirit's 
 odorous breath," is Milton's beautiful simile. But let us 
 be patient, and wait with reverence upon nature — for it is 
 the doing — the progress rather than any ultimate or full 
 result, that is to be obtained. The world is ^ but in its 
 baby life, and we shall not live to see its manhood, when 
 universal law and a true philosophy shall be recognized, 
 and become the basis of men's actions ; and all the false 
 systems now existing will have passed away. In the mean- 
 time, I would say with Democritus, that " I would prefer 
 the discovery of one of the causes of the works of nature 
 to the diadem of Persia ;" and with Meric Casaubon, that 
 " I meddle not with policy, but nature : nor with evil 
 men so much, as the evil consequences of the ignorance of 
 
 natm-al causes My business shall be, as by 
 
 example of all professions in all ages, to show how men 
 have been prone upon some grounds of nature, producing 
 some extraordinary, though not supernatural effects, really, 
 not hypocritically, yet falsely and erroneously ' to deem 
 themselves or their co-religionists inspired :' and my wish 
 is, * to dive into the dark mysteries of nature, for probable 
 confirmation of natural operations falsely deemed super- 
 natural.' " — Treatise on Enthusiasm^ 1655, c. i. p. 4. See 
 Mr. Sandby's Account of Miracles and Mesmerism, Devo- 
 tional testacies, ^c. — H, G. A. 
 
360 APPENDIX. 
 
 R.— (Page 177.) 
 
 " Spinoza in this," (his political treatise), " as in his 
 other writings, is more fearless than Hobbes ; and though 
 he sometimes may throw a light veil over his abjuration 
 of moral and religious principle, it is frequently placed in 
 a more prominent view than his English precursor in the 
 same system had deemed it secure to advance. Yet, so 
 slio-ht is often the connection between theoretical tenets 
 and human practice, that Spinoza bore the character of a 
 virtuous and benevolent man. We do not know, indeed, 
 how far he was placed in circumstances to put his fidelity 
 to the test. In this treatise of Politics, especially in the 
 broad assertion that good faith is only to be preserved 
 so long as it is advantageous, he leaves Machiavel and 
 Hobbes at some distance, and may be reckoned the most 
 phlegmatically impudent of the whole school." — Hallam : 
 Literature, vol. iv. p. 362. 
 
 When Hallam speaks of the light veil which Spinoza 
 and Hobbes, and others used, to conceal their real opinions, 
 and save themselves from the ignorant fury of the religious 
 world, he should remember that they, in sober honesty 
 and the love of truth, took care that the veil was transpa- 
 rent enough to be seen through : while many who have 
 called themselves philosophers have spent their lives in 
 nursing their own reputation by flattering the prejudices 
 of the world ; not caring what becomes of the ship of the 
 state so long as they save themselves in the cockboat of 
 their own fortunes. Thus, many who are in high favour 
 and esteem, are, in truth, but lying hypocrites, walking 
 through life under a mask, put on according to the 
 
APPENDIX. 361 
 
 fashion of men's prejudices and superstitions in their 
 time. Thus, instead of helping the world on, they only 
 help to obstruct the way. Thus it is with many of our 
 saintly philosophers, — wise in their own generation. What 
 the next will think of them, time will show. — H, G. A. 
 
 S.— (Page 181.) 
 
 THE ACAEUS CRCESSII. 
 
 Letter from, Mr. Crosse to H. Martineau. 
 
 " Madam, — Your communication of August the 3rd is 
 now before me. I shall endeavom- to reply to your ques- 
 tions in such a manner as they deserve. 
 
 " Allow me, in the first place, to state, that I have not 
 the slightest objection to your dealing as you please with 
 this answer of mine. You are welcome to publish it, if 
 you think proper ; or thrust it into the fire, where many 
 of those kind commentators on some of my experiments 
 would gladly have thrust me. It is the bounden duty of 
 philosophical men not to reject or admit as fact any asser- 
 tion without close and fair investigation. This would save 
 a world of trouble, and be of the highest importance tq 
 the science concerned. 
 
 " Ever since I have enjoyed the faculty of thinking, two 
 feelings, apparently somewhat opposed to each other, 
 have been predominant in my mind; — the first exciting 
 within me an ardent wish of knowing more ; and the last 
 causing a conviction, that the utmost extent of human 
 knowledge is but comparative ignorance. "Feeling as I have 
 done, the whole of my life, — it is not likely that I should 
 
 R 
 
362 APPENDIX. 
 
 plume myself upon any imaginary successful result of a 
 course of experiments, or that I should presume to lay 
 down a theory upon so mystical, and pei'haps unap- 
 proachable, a subject as the origin of animal life. 
 
 "As to the appearance of the acari, under long-continued 
 electrical action, I have never, in thought, word or deed, 
 given any one a right to suppose that I considered them 
 as a creation, or even as a formation from inorganic mat- 
 ter. To create, is to form a something out of a nothing. 
 To annihilate, is to reduce that something to a nothing. 
 Both of these, of course, can only be the attributes of the 
 Almighty. In fact, I can assure you, most sacredly, 
 that I have never dreamed of any theory sufficient to ac- 
 count for their appearance. I confess that I was not a 
 little surprised, and am so still, and quite as much as I 
 was, when the acari made their first appearance. Again, 
 I have never claimed any merit as attached to these expe- 
 riments. It was a matter of chance. I w^as looking for 
 siliceous formations, and animal matter appeared instead. 
 The first publication of my original experiment took place 
 entirely without my knowledge. Since that time, and 
 surrounded by death and disease, I have fought my way 
 in the different branches of the science which I so dearly 
 love, and have endeavoured to be somewhat better ac- 
 quainted with a few of its mysteries. Now, suppose that 
 a future son of science were to discover that certain 
 novel arrangements should produce an effect quite contrary 
 to all pre-conceived opinion, would this discovery, however 
 vast it might be, humanly speaking, be such as to stir up 
 iu a mind properly constituted, an inferior sense of the 
 omniscience of the Creator? It is really laughable to 
 anticipate such a result, which could only be engendered 
 in the brains of the enemies of all knowledge. 
 
 " In a great number of my experiments made by passing a 
 
APPENDIX. 363 
 
 long-continued current of electricity through various fluids, 
 (and some of them were considered to be destructive to 
 animal life,) acari have made their appearance ; but never 
 excepting on an electrified surface, kept constantly moist- 
 ened; or beneath the surface of an electrified fluid. In 
 some cases, these little animals have been produced two 
 inches below the surface of a poisonous liquid. In one 
 instance, they made their appearance upon the lower part 
 of a small piece of quartz, plunged two inches deep into 
 a glass vessel of fluo-silicic acid, or, in other words, into 
 fluoric acid holding silica in solution. A current of elec- 
 tricity was passed through this fluid for a twelvemonth or 
 more ; and at the end of some months, three of these 
 acari were visible on the piece of quartz which was kept 
 negatively electrified. I have closely examined the pro- 
 gi-ess of these insects. Their first appearance consists in 
 a very minute whitish hemisphere formed upon the sur- 
 face of the electrified body ; — sometimes at the positive 
 end, and sometimes at the negative ; sometimes between 
 the two, or in the middle of the electrical current ; and 
 sometimes upon all. In a few days, this speck enlarges 
 and elongates vertically, and shoots out filaments of a 
 whitish, wavy appearance, and easily seen through a lens 
 of very low power. Then commences the first appearance 
 of animal life. If a fine point be made to approach these 
 filaments, they immediately shrink up and collapse, like 
 zoophytes upon moss : but expand again some time after 
 the removal of the point. Some days afterwards, these 
 filaments become legs and bristles, and a perfect acarus 
 is the result, which finally detaches itself from its birth- 
 place, and, if under a fluid, climbs up the electrified wire, 
 and escapes from the vessel, and afterwards feeds either 
 on the moisture on the outside of the vessel, or on paper, 
 or card, or other substance in its vicinity. If one of them 
 r2 
 
364 APPENDIX. 
 
 be afterwards thrown into the fluid in which he was 
 produced, he is immediately drowned. They are much 
 annoyed by exposure to light, and require to be kept on a 
 moist surface in a rather warm and dark place. They live 
 for some months, but are destroyed by the first frost. I 
 have noticed their formation in concentrated solutions of 
 nitrate and sulphate of copper, and in various other fluids, 
 but generally in silicate of potash, or other siliceous solu- 
 tions, but never in arsenious solutions. In one experi- 
 ment, (which was conducted with every possible caution,) 
 the following result took place : I took black gun-flints, 
 made them red hot, threw them into water, dried and 
 reduced them to powder. Of this powder I took one 
 ounce, and mixed it wdth three ounces of carbonate of 
 potash — fused the mixture in a crucible for five hours — 
 poured the melted mass, which was a soluble transparent 
 glass, into a heated iron mortar — reduced it to a coarse 
 powder, and, while hot, threw it into boiling distilled 
 water, in which it was speedily and wholly dissolved. 
 "Whilst still hot, I poured it into a glass retort, the bulb 
 of which was half filled with the solution : — this retort had 
 just been w^ashed out with hot alcohol, and was placed in 
 a frame made for the purpose ; and its neck was closely 
 stopped with a glass stopper, ground to fit perfectly air- 
 tight. — The long end of the retort was dipped into a glass 
 basin of fresh distilled mercury; and two wires of pla- 
 tinum, hermetically sealed, passed through the two oppo- 
 site sides of the retort, and were immediately connected 
 with the opposite poles of a weak volcanic battery, in 
 constant action. The electric current acted directly on 
 the solution of silicate of potash, and oxygen and hy- 
 drogen gases were evolved, which passed in a succession 
 of bubbles out of the long end of the retort, and through 
 the mercurv iu the aiass basin. 
 
APPENDIX. 365 
 
 " The apparatus was deposited on a shelf in a cupboard, 
 in a dark subterranean cellar. Now, observe, first, — that 
 the solution was considerably caustic : — next, that the 
 portion of atmospheric air above the solution, and con- 
 tained in the upper part of the glass retort, was speedily 
 driven out by the evolution of the gases, so that the 
 atmosphere of the retort was a compound of oxygen and 
 hydrogen, and consequently an explosive compound : — 
 thirdly, that all contact with atmospheric air was com- 
 pletely cut off; — yet at the expiration of 140 days, I 
 plainly discovered by the light of a lamp, one fat acarus, 
 actively crawling on the surface of the upper part of the 
 bulb of the retort. A.t first I thought that it miist be on 
 the outside, and I passed my finger over the spot ; bat 
 no, — it was on the inside, and visible for a considerable 
 time. I kept this apparatus in action for upwards of a 
 twelvemonth, but did not detect any other acarus. I 
 think it highly probable that others existed, but that they 
 fell down, and were lost in the solution. The experiment 
 I have not yet published; but it was most accurately 
 made. My friend, Mr. Weekes of Sandwich, has obtained 
 similar results with myself. 
 
 "As to what the opinion of scientific men may be on this 
 matter, I know not. I have merely described the results 
 T have met with; and I heartily wish that those who 
 possess time and patience would institute a series of ex- 
 periments on this interesting branch of science. Con- 
 flicting opinions have existed, as to whether the acarus 
 developed under the above circumstances be of a new 
 description or not. I know not whether this may be of 
 any consequence, as it is very easy for so minute an 
 animal to have escaped particular observation ; and 
 besides, I have observed a variety amongst the acari so 
 produced: but this I leave to entomologists. I have 
 
366 APPENDIX. 
 
 never before heard of acnri having been produced under a 
 fluid ; or of their ova throwing out filaments ; nor have I 
 ever observed any ova previous to, or during, electriza- 
 tion, except that the speck which throws out filaments be 
 an ovum : but when a number of these insects, in a per- 
 fect state, congregate, ova are the result. I may now 
 remark, that in several of these experiments, fungi have 
 made their appearance ; and, in some cases, have been 
 followed by the birth of acari. In one instance, a crop of 
 fungi was produced upon the upper end of a stick of oak 
 charcoal, plunged into a solution of silicate of potash, kept 
 negatively electrified for a considerable time ; and covered 
 by a bell glass inverted over it in a glass dish of mercury. 
 The charcoal, before being used, was taken red hot from a 
 fire. There is, evidently, a close connection between 
 animal and vegetable life ; but one thing is necessary to 
 be observed : that such experiments as those I have just 
 touched on must be varied in every possible form, and 
 repeated over and over again, with unflinching perse- 
 verance, and with the most sharp-sighted caution, in order 
 to attain satisfactory results. 
 
 " In conclusion, I must remark, that in the course of 
 these and other experiments, there is a considerable 
 similitude between the first stages of the birth of acari, 
 and of certain mineral crystallizations electrically pro- 
 duced. In many of them, more especially in the forma- 
 tion of sulphate of lime, or sulphate of strontia, its com- 
 mencement is denoted by a whitish speck, — so it is in the 
 birth of the acarus. This mineral speck enlarges and 
 elongates vertically, — so it does with the acarus. Then 
 the mineral throws out w^hitish filaments, — so does the 
 acarus speck. So far it is difficult to detect the difference 
 between the incipient mineral and the animal ; but as these 
 filaments become more definite in each — in the mineral 
 
APPENDIX. 367 
 
 they become rigid, shining, transparent, six-sided prisms ; 
 — in the animal, they are soft and waving filaments, and 
 finally endowed with motion and life. 
 
 " I might add much more to the above sketch, but it 
 would be then more fit for a pamphlet than for a 
 letter. 
 
 "Andrew Crosse." 
 
 " However rigid were the conditions in any case adopted, 
 th is much is certain ; that the acari have invariably ap- 
 peared in the several solutions under electrical influences, 
 while their absence has been as invariably remarked, in 
 spite of the nicest scrutiny, in all negative tests, provided 
 to accompany the respective primary experiments." — 
 W, H, Weekes : Letter to the Author of Vestiges of Creation. 
 
 T.— (Page 203.) 
 
 Speaking in his noble tract upon education of young 
 men when they quit the University, Hobbes says, " They 
 now, when poverty or youthful years call them impor- 
 tunely their several ways, and hasten them with the sway 
 of friends either to an ambitious and mercenary, or igno- 
 rantly zealous divinity ; some allured to the trade of the 
 law, grounding their purposes not on the prudent and 
 heavenly contemplation of justice and equity which was 
 never taught them, but on the promising and pleasing 
 thoughts of litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing 
 fees; others betake them to state affairs, with souls so 
 unprincipled in virtue and true generous breeding, that 
 flattery and court shifts, and tyrannous aphorisms, appear 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 to them the highest points of wisdom. Others, Lastly, of 
 a more delicious and airy spirit, retire themselves, know- 
 ing no better, to the enjoyment of ease and luxury, living 
 out their days in feast and jollity." — Hobbes. 
 
 " Nature, as it is, hath given us but a few sparks of 
 understanding, which, by our vicious manners and opinions, 
 we so effectually quench, that scarce the least glimpse of 
 the light of nature appears ; for there are in our minds 
 innate principles of virtue, which, if they were suffered to 
 grow, would themselves lead us to a happy life. But now, 
 as soon as ever we come into the world, we are engaged in 
 all manner of depravity and perverseness of opinions, so 
 that we seem, together with our nurse's milk, to have 
 sucked in errors : and, afterwards, when we are brought 
 to our parents, we are delivered over to tutors, from whom 
 we imbibe so many mistaken notions, that truth is found 
 to give way to vanity, and nature herself to yield to 
 opinion." — Cicero, on Grief of Mind. 
 
 " Government should never found academies, for they 
 serve more to oppress than to encourage genius. The 
 unique method of making the arts and sciences flourish, is 
 to allow every individual to teach what he thiuks at his 
 own risk and peril." — Spinoza. 
 
 Dr. Arnold taught a doctrine precisely similar to that 
 taught by the reviled and persecuted Spinoza. Compare 
 Arnold's introductory lectures on Modern History : Ap- 
 pendix to first lecture. 
 
APPENDIX. 369 
 
 U.— (Page 207.) 
 
 " Authorities, I admit, are of little weight in matters of 
 science, in the face of positive facts : but it is necessary 
 that these facts exist, that they have been subjected to 
 severe examination, that they have been skilfully grouped 
 with a view to extract from them the truth they conceal. 
 He who ventures to treat, cl priori, a fact as absurd, wants 
 prudence. He has not reflected on the numerous errors 
 he would have committed in regard to many modern 
 discoveries. T ask for example if there can be anything 
 in the world more bizarre, more incredible, more inadmis- 
 sible, than the discovery of Dr. Jenner ? Well ! the bizarre, 
 the incredible, the inadmissible, is found to be true ; and 
 the preservative against the small-pox is by unanimous 
 consent to be sought for in the little pustule that appears 
 in the udder of the cow." — Arayo. 
 
 "And like as the West Indies had never been dis- 
 covered, if the use of the mariner's needle had not been 
 fii'st discovered, though the one be vast regions and the 
 other a small motion ; so it cannot be found strange if 
 sciences be no further discovered, if the art itself of in- 
 vention and discovery hath been passed over." — Bacon : 
 Advancement of Learning. 
 
 " Whilst men regard the property inherent in matter of 
 being self-sustained, and not dropping into annihilation or 
 dissolution, as an adamantine necessity in nature, they 
 ought to permit no method to escape them of torturing 
 and agitating matter if they would detect and draw to 
 light its ultimate workings and obstinately preserved 
 secrets." — Bacon : Thoughts on the Nature of Things. 
 r5 
 
370 APPENDIX. 
 
 " But if any require at least particular promises, let him 
 know that by that knowledge which is now in use, men 
 are not skilled enough even for wishing. But what is of 
 less moment, should any of the politicians, whose custom 
 it is from personal calculations to estimate everything, or 
 from examples of like endeavours to form conjecture, 
 presume to interfere his judgment in a matter of this sort, 
 I would have told that ancient saying, ' Claudus in via, 
 cursorem extra viam antevertet' and not to think about 
 examples, since the matter is without example." — Bacon : 
 Interpretation of Nature. 
 
 " Men see clearly, like owls in the night of their own 
 notions, but in experience, as in day-light, they wink 
 and are but half-sighted." — Bacon : History of Life and 
 Death. 
 
 " Some impose upon the world that they believe that 
 which they do not ; others, more in number, make them- 
 selves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate 
 into what it is to believe." — Montaigne. 
 
 v.— (Page 220.) 
 
 " Those who frequently contemplate the entire subjec- 
 tion of every part of the animal frame to the laws of che- 
 mistry, and the numerous processes through which all the 
 organs of the human body must pass after death, acquire 
 habits of imagination unfavourable to a hope of an inde- 
 pendent existence of the thinking principle, or of a re- 
 
APPENDIX. 371 
 
 newed existence of the whole man. These facts have a 
 more certain influence than any reasonings on the habi- 
 tual convictions of men. Hence arises, in part, the preva- 
 lent incredulity of physicians. The doctrine of the resur- 
 rection could scarcely have arisen among a people who 
 buried their dead. 
 
 " 18th — Sunday. — I went to the funeral sermon. The 
 principal part consisted of some arguments of the immorta- 
 lity of the soul. In the eloquence of Cicero, of Fenelon, 
 and Addison, the reasons in behalf of this venerable and 
 consolatory opinion had appeared strong and sound ; but, 
 in the preacher's statement, they shrunk into a mortifying 
 state of meagreness, and contemplations passed in my mind 
 which I should be almost afraid to communicate to any 
 creature. 
 
 " 19th. — In the necessary ascending progress of the 
 understanding to divert the infinite perfect-Being of all 
 resemblance to imperfection, he at length approaches a 
 very faint and imperfect personality. I acknowledge, 
 indeed, that the heart has an equally inevitable descending 
 progress ; in which the divinity is more and more indi- 
 vidualised, brought nearer, and made liker to ourselves, 
 that he may be more the object of affection. But to con- 
 fine myself to speculation ; a person, commonly called an 
 Atheist, might certainly feel the most ardent moral enthu- 
 siasm, or the warmest love of perfect virtue ; he, conse- 
 quently, has the feeling, of which devotion is a modifica- 
 tion, or another name. This perfect virtue he must often 
 personify. How small is the difference, in pure specula- 
 tion, between the evanescent individuality to which the 
 reasonings of the philosophical Theist reduce or exalt the 
 divinity, and the temporary mental reality into which the 
 imagination of him who is called an Atheist brightens 
 his personification of virtue ! 
 
372 APPENDK. 
 
 " Let me apply the same mode of examination to the 
 other elements of religion, the doctrine of a future state. 
 The foundation of that doctrine is the desire that beings, 
 capable of an indefinite progress in virtue and happiness, 
 may accomplish the destiny which seems open to them, 
 and the belief that the interruption of that noble progress 
 by death is only apparent. The fear of hell, or the desire 
 of reward for ourselves, may, like the fear of the gallows, 
 prevent crimes ; but, at most, it can only lead to virtue ; 
 it never can produce it. I leave below me those coarse 
 rude notions of religion which degrade it into a supplement 
 to police and criminal law. All such representations are 
 more practically atheistical, more derogatory from the 
 grandeur of religious sentiment, than any speculative 
 system called Atheism. When the mind is purified from 
 these gross notions, it is evident that the belief of a future 
 state can no longer rest on the merely selfish idea of pre- 
 serving its own individuality. When we make a further 
 progi-ess, it becomes indifferent whether the same indivi- 
 duals who now inhabit the universe, or others who do not 
 yet exist, are to reach that superior degree of vu'tue and 
 happiness of which human nature seems to be capable ; 
 the object of desire is the quantity of virtue and happi- 
 ness — not the identical beings who are to act and enjoy. 
 Even those who distinctly believe in the continued exist- 
 ence of their fellow men, are unable to pursue their 
 opinions through any considerable part of its consequences : 
 the dissimilarity between Socrates at his death, and So- 
 crates in a future state, ten thousand years after death, 
 and ten thousand times wiser and better, is so very great, 
 that to call these two beings by the same name, is rather 
 a consequence of the imperfection of language, than of 
 exact views in philosophy. There is no practical identity. 
 The Socrates of Elysium can feel no interest in recollecting 
 
APPENDIX. 373 
 
 what befel the Socrates at Athens. He is infinitely more 
 removed from his former state than Newton was in this 
 world from his infancy. 
 
 " Now the philosopher, who for his doubts is called an 
 Atheist, may desire and believe the future progress of 
 intelligent beings, though he may doubt whether the pro- 
 gress being made by the same individuals be either proved 
 or very important. His feelings will scarcely differ at all, 
 and his opinion very little, from him who is called a Theist. 
 When I speak of a coincidence of feeling, I confine myself 
 to those primary feelings which are the root of the opinion ; 
 for there are derivative feelings which arise out of these 
 differences, rather in modes of thinking than in opinion, 
 of the utmost importance in their operation on human life. 
 That importance aiises from the greater or less difficulty 
 of maintaining the love of perfect virtue, and the desire 
 of future progress, according to two different habits of 
 thought. In this practical point, Theism has a great 
 superiority. The ideas are more definite. They more re- 
 semble the common objects of pursuit ; they more easily 
 enter the imagination and affect the feelings ; and they 
 mingle more naturally, as well as blend more completely, 
 with all the active principles. The other manner of think- 
 ing, which presents qualities, rather than individuals, to the 
 mind, is not adapted to excite any feelings in the immense 
 majority of men. It will produce ardent feelings in very 
 few, and stable sentiments, perhaps, scarcely in any in- 
 dividual educated in the present circumstances of the 
 world. The difference is great, but it is almost entirely 
 practical. Morality is usually said to depend upon religion ; 
 but this is said in that low sense in which outward conduct 
 is considered morality. In that higher sense in which 
 morality denotes sentiment, it is more exactly true to say, 
 that religion depends on morality, and springs from it — 
 
374 APPENDIX. 
 
 virtue is not the conformity of outward actions to a rule ; 
 nor is religion the fear of punishment or the hope of re- 
 ward. Virtue is the state of a just, prudent, benevolent, 
 firm, and temperate mind. Eeligion is the whole of those 
 sentiments wliich such a mind feels towards an infinitely 
 perfect being. 
 
 " I am pleased with contemplations which trace piety to 
 so pure and noble a source — which show that good men 
 have not been able to differ so much from each other as 
 they imagined ; that, amidst all the deviations of the un- 
 derstanding, the beneficent necessity of their nature keeps 
 alive the same sacred feelings; and that Turgot and 
 Malesherbes, so full of love for the good and fair, had not 
 apostatised from the true God of Socrates and Jesus." — 
 Life of Mackintosh, ii. 1 2 0—1 2 3 . 
 
 W.— (Page 237.) 
 
 " A certain Uueen, in some South Sea Island, I have 
 read in Missionary books, had been converted to Chris- 
 tianity, did not any longer believe in the old gods. She 
 assembled her people, said to them, ' My faithful people, 
 the gods do not dwell in that burning-mountain in the 
 centre of our isle. That is not God, no, that is a common 
 burning-mountain ; mere culinary fire bui-ning under pe- 
 culiar circumstances. See, I will walk before you to that 
 burning-mountain ; will empty my wash-bowl into it, cast 
 my slipper over it, defy it to the uttermost, and stand the 
 consequences !' She walked accordingly, this South Sea 
 heroine, nerved to the sticking-place ; her people follow- 
 ing in pale horror and expectancy : she did her experi- 
 
APPENDIX. 375 
 
 ment ; — and, I am told, they have truer notions of the 
 gods in that island ever since ! Experiment which it is 
 now very easy to repeat, and very needless. Honour to 
 the brave, who deliver us from phantom-dynasties in 
 South Sea islands, and in North !" — CarlyWs Cromwell, 
 i. 444. 
 
 X.— (Page 243.) 
 
 We shall soon be exhibiting our fine fabrics to all the 
 world ; but of the fabric of the mind we know nothing : and, 
 stranger still to say, we don't seem to care to know. We 
 follow our crude notions and blind instincts, like a very 
 worm that crawls, rather than walk erect in true manhood 
 and the light of knowledge. We neglect the true pre- 
 rogative of man, to know himself, and to guide himself by 
 that knowledge. We try to frighten men to good be- 
 haviour, and endeavour to patch up grievances, and the 
 last thing we appeal to is the law and authority of Nature 
 herself. As knowledge advances, step by step, the 
 world falls back upon precedents and parchments, endea- 
 vouring to shut out the light, and ruin the philosophy, 
 and the noblest benefactors of their race have been scoffed 
 at in the streets, and hunted out of their country like poor 
 Windsor, for his gas-lighting ; who, escaping with his 
 life, died in poverty abroad. It will be long, I fear, 
 before there is any efficient and general system of training 
 and education, and men fully recognise the fact that the 
 interest of each is in the advance of the whole ; and that 
 the many are not to be sacrificed for the selfish aggran- 
 dizement of the few. I cannot tell you with what dehght 
 I read the following announcement in the Times^ which 
 
376 APPENDIX. 
 
 should be printed in gold. " There appears, we rejoice 
 to say, but little doubt that the recent reforms in the 
 military economy have stood the test of experience. So 
 far has discipline been unaffected by the practical abolition 
 of corporal punishment, that it has reached a higher pitch 
 than ever ; and it has been observed, by careful compari- 
 son, that whereas a soldier once Hogged was perpetually 
 exposing himself to a repetition of the penalty, those sub- 
 jected to the operation of less brutahzing discipline are 
 rarely found offending again. The readiness to receive 
 instruction is quite remarkable." After this, I trust the 
 T'mies will cease to advocate, not only that " brutalizing" 
 but devilish custom of capital punishments. I believe my 
 old school, the Charter House, still disgraces itself by a 
 brutal use of the rod. I am sorry to say, that I have ever 
 found clergymen advocate harsh measures — in not sparing 
 the rod — and by upholding capital punishment on the 
 authority of the Scriptures ; and military men declaring 
 the " brutalizing" discipline indispensable in the army. 
 Oh ! how sick I have felt to hear them declare opinions 
 which I knew to be as false as they were brutal. 
 
 Y.— (Page 247.) 
 
 "This then, is the office of the real priests of God, 
 whether found on thrones, or in council chambers, in 
 pulpits or professors' chairs, or merely at writing tables ; 
 to render more truly humane the human race around 
 them. Whether for their reward thorns shall grow for 
 them on earth, or palms in heaven, need concern them 
 little. I, at least, no longer felt myself troubled with 
 
APPENDIX. 377 
 
 thoughts of what might be my ftite after death. I had a 
 living certainty of the providence of God, and that tran- 
 quilized me concerning all the rest. 
 
 " It was at this time I wrote the ' Yearning after the 
 Invisible/ which expressed the joyful state of my feelings. 
 I often smiled at the strange proofs of the immortality of 
 the soul, which philosophers had discovered, and thought 
 that pure, disinterested virtue would be an impossibility 
 to us, if we possessed any absolutely irrefragible proof, 
 any indubitable certainty on this point. I thought, like 
 Petrous Pomponatus, an independent thinker of the six- 
 teenth century, who, I may say, en passant, w-as one of 
 my old favourites, ' a virtue which should depend on the 
 fear of punishment, or the hope of reward in eternity, 
 could be, at best, but a holy virtue, or, perhaps, only a kind 
 of mercantile speculation.' " — Life of ZscJiokke, p. 134. 
 
 Z.— (Page 255.) 
 
 In recording some of those singular instances of per- 
 sons living for weeks and months, and even for years, 
 without food, cases similar to the one I had under my 
 charge, and to that which is now existing near to Bath, 
 and to the still more extraordinary instance of the Fakeer, 
 in India, witnessed by Sir Claude Wade, Dr. Mason Good 
 remarks, in his Book of Nature (Pub. 1820), that " Air or 
 water, or either separately, may contain the rudimental 
 materials of all the rest. We behold metallic stones, and 
 of large magnitude, fall from the air; and we suppose 
 them to be formed there ; we behold plants suspended in 
 
378 APPENDIX. 
 
 the atmosphere, and still, year after year, thriving and 
 blooming, and diffusing odours : we behold insects appa- 
 rently sustained from the same source : and worms, fishes, 
 and, occasionally, man himself, supported from the one or 
 the other, or from both. These are facts : and as facts 
 alone we must receive them : for we have, at present, no 
 means of reasoning upon them. There are innumerable 
 mysteries in matter, as well as in mind ; and we are not 
 yet acquainted with the nature of those elementary prin- 
 ciples from which every compound proceeds, and to which 
 everything is reducible. We are equally ignorant of their 
 shapes, their weight, or their measure." And again, in 
 reference to certain uncommon states of sleep and trance, 
 both in the cases of man and other animals, he says, 
 " these are extraordinary facts, and may be difficult to be 
 comprehended : but they are facts nevertheless ; and may 
 be proved at any time, by any person." But all things 
 are easily comprehended, when the conditions are ascer- 
 tained ; and Liebig thus gives us 
 
 " HOPES," 
 
 " the time will come, although, perhaps, the present 
 generation wiU barely live to see it, when a numerical 
 expression for chemical formulae shall have been obtained 
 for the measurement of all the normal energies of the 
 organism, and of the deviations in the functions of indi- 
 vidual parts, by means of the corresponding deviations in 
 the composition of the matter of which these parts consist, 
 or of the products to which they give rise." — Chemutry 
 and Physics m relation to Physiology and Pathology. 
 
APPENDIX. 379 
 
 AA.— (Page 280.) 
 
 THE PREACHING EPIDEMIC OF SWEDEN. 
 
 By Mary Howitt. 
 
 " One of the most singular psychological phenomena of 
 the present day has occurred in Sweden ; and as but little, 
 if anything, is known of it by the British public at large, 
 I think it will be interesting to the readers of this Journal 
 to lay before them such information as I have been able to 
 obtain on the subject. 
 
 "That portion of southern Sweden formerly called 
 Smaland, and which now comprises the provinces of Kal- 
 mar, Wexio, and Jonkopping, though one of the poorest 
 parts of the kingdom, is inhabited by a laborious and 
 contented people. Their lot, which is one of extreme 
 suffering and privation, is rendered endurable to them by 
 their natural simplicity of character and deep religious 
 feeling. About sixty years ago, a very strong religious 
 movement took place among them, which, for political 
 reasons, or otherwise, government thought fit to put a 
 violent stop to, and with great difficulty it was done. 
 Whether there be a predisposition among these simple but 
 earnest people for religious excitement, we cannot tell ; 
 but certain it is, that at the commencement of 1842 the 
 singular phenomenon of which we are about to speak made 
 its appearance among them ; and from its rapid spread, 
 and apparently contagious character, and from the peculiar 
 nature of its manifestations, it was popularly called the 
 Preaching Epidemic. 
 
 "Dr. J. A. Butsch, Bishop of Skara, in Westgothland, 
 
380 APPENDIX. 
 
 wrote a long letter on this subject to Dr. C. F. Wingard, 
 Archbishop of Upsala, and Primate of all Sweden, which 
 letter is considered so perfectly authority on the matter, 
 that it is published in an appendix to Archbishop Win- 
 gard's 'Eeview of the Church of Christ,' an excellent 
 little work, which has been translated into English by G. 
 W. Carlson, Chaplain to the Swedish Embassy in London, 
 a gentleman of great erudition and accomplishments. 
 To this letter we shall have frequent occasion to refer. 
 
 " The reader will naturally ask, as the bishop himself 
 does, what is the Preaching Epidemic ? What it really 
 was, nobody as yet has been able to say. Among the 
 peasantry the most general belief was, that it was an im- 
 mediate Divine miracle, in order to bestow grace on such 
 as were afflicted with the disease ; and as a means of 
 warning and exhortation to those who saw and heard the 
 patients. Among others, somewhat above the class of 
 peasants, many denied altogether the existence of the 
 disease, declaring the whole to be either intentional de- 
 ception in the desire of gain and notoriety ; or else self- 
 delusion, produced partly by an overstrained religious 
 feeling, or by that passion of imitation which is common 
 to the human mind. The bishop himself was of opinion 
 that it was a disease, originally physical, but affecting the 
 mind in a peculiar manner. He arrived at this conclusion 
 by attentively studying the phenomenon itself. At all 
 events, bodily sickness was an ingredient in it, as was 
 proved from the fact that, although every one affected by 
 it, in describing the commencement of their state, men- 
 tioned a spiritual excitement as its original cause, close 
 examination proved that an internal bodily disorder, at- 
 tended by pain, had preceded or accompanied this excite- 
 ment. Besides, there were persons who, against their own 
 will, were affected by the quaking fits, which were one of 
 
APPENDIX. 381 
 
 its most striking eariy outward symptoms, without any 
 previous religious excitement ; and these, when subjected 
 to medical treatment, soon recovered. 
 
 *' The bishop must be a bold man, and not afraid of 
 ridicule; for, though writing to an archbishop, he says 
 that though he will not give the disease a name, still he 
 will venture to express an opinion ; which opinion is, that 
 the disease corresponds very much with what he has heard 
 and read respecting the effects of animal magnetism. He 
 says that he carefully studied the eflPect of sulphur and 
 the magnet upon several sick persons, and found the 
 symptoms of the Preaching Epidemic to correspond with 
 the effect of animal magnetism, as given in Kluge's 
 * Vermeil einer Barstellung des AnimaliscJien Magnethmus 
 ah Heilmittel.' In both cases there was an increase of 
 activity of the nervous and muscular system ; and, further, 
 frequent heaviness in the head, heat at the pit of the 
 stomach, prickling sensation in the extremities, convulsions 
 and quakings ; and, finally, the falling, frequently with a 
 deep groan, into a profound fainting fit or trance. In this 
 trance, the patient was in so perfect a state of insensibility 
 to outward impressions, that the loudest noise or sound 
 would not awaken him, nor would he feel a needle thrust 
 deeply into his body. Mostly, however, during this trance, 
 he would hear questions addressed to him, and reply to 
 them ; and, which was extraordinary, invariably in these 
 replies applied to every one the pronoun tJiou. The 
 power of speech, too, in this state, was that of great elo- 
 quence, lively declamation, and the command of much 
 purer language than was usual, or apparently possible, for 
 him in his natural state. The invariable assertions of all 
 the patients, when in this state, were, that they were 
 exceedingly well, and that they had never been so happy 
 before; they declared that the words they spoke were 
 
382 APPENDIX. 
 
 given to them by some oue else, who spoke by them. 
 Their disposition of mind was pious and cahn ; they seemed 
 pre-disposed for visions and predilections. Like the early 
 Quakers, they had an aversion to certain words and 
 phrases, and testified in their preaching against ' places of 
 amusement, gaming, excess in drinking,' may-pole festivi- 
 ties, gay clothing, and the crooked combs which the peasant 
 women wear in their hair, and which, no doubt, were 
 objects of vanity and display. 
 
 " There was in some families a greater liability to this 
 strange influence than in others ; it was greater also in 
 children and females than in grown-up people and men ; 
 and amongst men, those of a sanguine choleric tempe- 
 rament are most susceptible. The patients invariably 
 showed a strong desire to be together, and seemed to 
 feel a sort of attraction, or spiritual afiinity, to each other. 
 In places of worship, they would all sit together ; and it 
 was remarked that when a person afflicted with the Preach- 
 ing Epidemic was questioned about the disease in him- 
 self individually, he always gave his answer on behalf of 
 them all, and thus said ' we^ where the inquirer naturally 
 expected '/.' 
 
 "From these facts the learned bishop infers that the 
 Preaching Epidemic belonged to that class of operations 
 which have been refen-ed to animal magnetism. He says 
 that, whatever may be the cause of this singular agency or 
 influence, no doubt exists of its always producing a re- 
 ligious state of mind, which was strengthened by the 
 apparently miraculous operations from within. He goes 
 then into the question, whether the religious impres- 
 sion produced be in accordance with the established notions 
 of the operations of ' grace on the heart,' and decides this 
 not to be the case, because * the excited person, imme- 
 diately after he begins to quake, experiences an unspeak- 
 
APPENDIX. 383 
 
 able peace, joy, and blessedness, not on account of 
 new-born faith through atoning grace, but by a certain 
 immediate and miraculous influence from God.' These 
 are the bishop's own words. But with the polemical 
 question we have nothing to do. However, the bishop 
 goes on to say, that, ' whatever the origin of the disease 
 may be, it characterises itself by Christian language, and 
 makes its appearance with many truly Christian thoughts 
 and feelings ;' and that, ' probably, the disease has uni- 
 versaDy met with something Christian, previously im- 
 planted in the heart, to which it has, in an exciting way, 
 allied itself.' 
 
 " With respect to the conduct and conversation of the 
 patients, during the time of their seizure, he says he never 
 saw anything which was improper, although many strange 
 rumours to the contrary were circulated and believed, to 
 the great disadvantage of the poor people themselves. In 
 the province of Elfsborg, where the disease prevailed to 
 a great extent, bands of cliildren and young people under 
 its influence went about singing what are called Zion's 
 hymns, the effect of which was singularly striking, and even 
 afl"ecting. He says that to give a complete and detailed 
 description of the nature of the disease would be difficult, 
 
 * because, like animal magnetism,*— we use his own words — 
 
 * it seems to be infinite in its modification and form.' In the 
 above-mentioned province of Elfsborg, it was often said, 
 
 * Such and such a person has begun to quake, but he has 
 not as yet dropped down, nor has seen visions, nor has 
 preached.' 
 
 " This quaking, of which so much is said, appears to 
 have been the first outward sign of the influence; the 
 inward vision and the preaching being its consummation; 
 though when this consummation was reached, the fit 
 mostly commenced by the same sign. Nevertheless, in 
 
384 APPENDIX. 
 
 some patients the quaking decreased in proportion to the 
 strength which the disease gained. These quakings also 
 seem to have come on at the mention of certain words, the 
 introduction of certain ideas, or the proximity of certain per- 
 sons or things, which in some mysterious manner appeared 
 inimical or unholy to the patient. Sometimes, also, those 
 very words and things which at first affected the patient 
 ceased to do so as he advanced to the higher stages of the 
 disease ; and other words or things, which hitherto had 
 produced no effect, began to agitate bim in the same way. 
 One of the patients explained this circumstance thus — 
 that according as his spiritual being advanced upward, 
 ' he found that there existed in himself, and in the world, 
 many things which were worse than that which previously 
 he had considered as the worst.' In some cases the patients 
 were violently affected by the simple words, ' yes,' and 
 * no ;' the latter word in particular was most painful and 
 repulsive to them, and has frequently been described by 
 them as ' one of the worst demons, tied with the chains 
 of darkness in the deepest abyss.' It was remarked also 
 that they frequently acted as if they had a strong temp- 
 tation to speak falsehood, or to say more than they were 
 ' at liberty to say.' They would therefore exhort each 
 other to speak the truth ; and so frequently answered 
 dubiously, and even said they did not know, when a con- 
 trary answer might have been confidently expected, that 
 an unpleasant impression was frequently produced on the 
 mind of the hearer ; and some persons imbibed from this 
 very circumstance unfavourable ideas of their truthfulness ; 
 when, in fact, this very caution and hesitation was a 
 peculiarity of the disease. 
 
 " In the province of Skaraborg, the bishop says he has 
 seen several persons fall at once into the trance, without 
 any preparatory symptom. In the province of Elfsborg, 
 
APPENDIX. 385 
 
 the patients preached with their eyes open, and standing ; 
 whilst in his own province of Skaraborg, he himself saw 
 and heard them preaching in a recumbent posture, and 
 with closed eyes, and altogether, as far as he could dis- 
 cover, in a state of perfect insensibility to outward impres- 
 sions. He gives an account of three preaching-girls in the 
 parish of Warnham, of ages varying from eight to twelve. 
 This account, but principally as relates to one of them, we 
 will lay before the reader. 
 
 " It was shortly before the Christmas of 1842, when he 
 went, together with a respectable farmer of the neighbour- 
 hood, the Rev. Mr. Linqvist, and the Eev. Mr. Smed- 
 mark, to the cottage where a child lived, who, by all ac- 
 counts, had advanced to the highest stage of the disease. 
 Many persons, besides himself and his friends, were pre- 
 sent. As regards all the three children, he says that, for 
 their age, as is generally the case in Sweden, they were 
 tolerably well-informed on religious matters, and could 
 read well. They were naturally of good disposition, and 
 now, since they had been subject to the disease, were re- 
 markable for their gentleness and quiet demeanour. Their 
 manners were simple, as those of peasant children ; but, 
 being bashful and timid, were not inclined to give 
 much description of their feelings and experience ; still, 
 from the few words they spoke, it was evident that, like 
 the rest of the peasantry and their own relatives, they 
 considered it a divine influence, but still asserted that they 
 knew not exactly what to think either of themselves or 
 their situations. When in the trance, they declared that 
 they were exceedingly well ; that they never had been so 
 cheerful, or felt so much pleasure, before. On being 
 awoke, however, they complained, sometimes even with 
 tears, of weakness in the limbs, pain in the chest, head- 
 ache, &c. 
 
 s 
 
386 APPENDIX. 
 
 "In the particular case of the one child to which we have 
 referred, the symptoms were precisely the same: there 
 came on, in the first place, a violent trembling or quaking 
 of the limbs, and she fell backwards with so much vio- 
 lence as to give the spectator a most painful sensation — 
 but no apparent injury ensued. The patient was now in 
 the trance, or state of total unconsciousness, and this 
 trance, which lasted several hours, divided itself into two 
 stages, acts, or scenes, totally different in character. In 
 the first place, she rose up violently, and all her actions 
 were of a rapid and violent character. She caught at the 
 hands of the people round her ; some she instantly flung 
 aside, as if the effect produced by them was repugnant to 
 her ; others she held gently, patted, and rubbed softly : 
 and these the people called ' good hands.' Sometimes she 
 made signs, as if she were pouring out something, which 
 she appeared to drink ; and it was said by her father and 
 another man present, that she could detect any one in the 
 company who had been dram-drinking ; and she would in 
 this w^ay represent every glass he had taken. She went 
 through — for what purpose it seems impossible to say— the 
 operation of loading, presenting, and firing a gun, and 
 performed most dramatically a pugilistic combat, in which 
 she alone sustained and represented the action of both 
 parties ; she likewise acted the part of a person dressing ; 
 and what rendered all this most extraordinary was, that, 
 though she was but a simple, bashful peasant child, clad in 
 her peasant's dress — a sheep-skin jacket — yet all her ac- 
 tions and movements were free, and full of the most 
 dramatic effect : powerful and vigorous when representing 
 manly action, and so indescribably graceful, and easy, and 
 full of sentiment, when personating female occupations, as 
 to amaze the more cultivated spectators; and, as the bishop 
 says, to be ' far more like the motions of an image in a 
 
 ( 
 
APPENDIX. 387 
 
 dream than a creature of flesh and blood.' Another cir- 
 cumstance is peculiar : although these children differed 
 from each other in their natural state, yet, while under the 
 influence of the disease, their countenances became so 
 similar as greatly to resemble each other. 
 
 "To return now to the child who had advanced into the 
 second stage of the trance ; this was characterised by a 
 beautiful calmness and quietness of demeanour and coun- 
 tenance ; and with her arms folded meekly on her breast, 
 she began to preach. Her manner in speaking was that of 
 the purest oratory ; her tones were earnest and solemn, and 
 the language of that high spiiitual character which, when 
 awake, it would have been impossible for her to use. 
 
 " The little discourse ran somew^hat as follows, for the 
 bishop noted it dowm on his return home : — 
 
 " * My friends, let us turn fi-om the evil of our ways ; 
 let us, my friends ! The Saviour \\ashes it. Think how 
 pleasant it would be to come to him ; and if we woidd 
 we might. He does not desire that any one should 
 perish : from the lowest depths of hell all may be saved, 
 and come to Him. How pleasant it will be to come to 
 Him ; to receive our wedding garments, and sit down with 
 Him. Oh, how pleasant that will be ! 
 
 " ' But if we will not turn to Him, we commit a great 
 sin, and grieve him. Think, if he meet us with angry 
 looks ; think, if he bid us go to the left side ! to the place 
 of darkness, where we are separated from him ! Knock 
 gently, knock gently, my friends, and he will certainly 
 open to you. 
 
 " * Then let us now, my dear friends, raise a sigh — a 
 good sigh — which shall penetrate through the clouds to 
 the Saviour ! Let us go in the narrow way ; let us go in 
 the thorny path ! Will you not go there ? Then I will go 
 there by myself alone ; but go you also, and do not think 
 s 2 
 
388 APPENDIX. 
 
 that it is painful ! It is not painful, if we only go to the 
 Saviour ! And though I am young, and my words are 
 those of a child, yet you must believe them. Although 
 they are the words of a child, they are meant for your 
 well-being ! 'For God's sake, believe them, dear friends !* 
 
 " Such were some of the words of the child, who, in this 
 extraordinary state, had something saint-like in her appear- 
 ance. Her utterance was soft and clear ; not a word was 
 retracted or repeated ; and her voice, which in her waking 
 state had a peculiar hoarseness, had now a wonderful 
 brilliancy and clearness of tone, which produced great 
 effect. The whole assembly observed the deepest silence, 
 and many wept. 
 
 " These children, during all the time they were subject to 
 tliis influence, had, as the parents stated, tolerably good 
 appetites, although they were particular as to the food they 
 ate, taking, by preference, milk and fruit, especially dried 
 apples and chen'ies, of which it was necessary for the 
 parents to keep a good stock. 
 
 " The bishop teUs us that these children were cured by 
 medicines which he himself procm-ed for them. The dis- 
 ease, according to his account, was frequently cured thus, 
 though generally in its earlier stages. He does not any 
 where state that death was the consequence of it ; though 
 he says that the patient sometimes foretold his own death. 
 He tells us that many of the 'quaking people' were 
 taken to the hospitals, and on their arrival there were 
 found to be free from any symptom of the disease what- 
 ever ; but scarcely had they returned home, when it again 
 appeared in its full force. Many individuals also, by 
 means of a firm wiU and a faithful endeavour to counter- 
 act it, succeeded in doing so. Others, on the contrary, 
 from their belief of the disease being of a divine character, 
 became predisposed for the contagion, both bodily and 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 mentally; and thus, being attacked, helped to make it 
 worse by their own superstition and submission to it. 
 
 " He concludes by saying, that as the phenomenon in 
 question lay out of the sphere of human knowledge and 
 experience, its extraordinary and miraculous character 
 struck the mind with awe, which produced a veiy general 
 religious movement among the perfectly healthy portion of 
 the community. The consequence of this has been to send 
 multitudes of persons to the churches and meeting-houses, 
 who otherwise would never have gone there ; and in many 
 instances it has effected the most vital change in life and 
 sentiments. Many a one has thus become a diligent 
 reader of the Scriptures, and has been weaned from 
 drunkenness and other vices ; and showy dresses, crooked 
 combs, dancing, and the much abhorred May-pole meni- 
 ment, in many parts, have fallen into disuse. The bishop 
 himself saw by the roadside a May-pole which had been cut 
 down from this cause ; and he also knew a poor man who 
 gained his livelihood by fiddling, who burned his violin, 
 that it might not be a cause of sin to himself or others. 
 How Kke is this to many a passage in the books of the early 
 Quakers ! 
 
 " In the province of Skaraborg alone, where the disease 
 did not prevail so generally as in other parts, the num- 
 ber of persons affected by it amounted, in 1843, to from 
 two to three thousand ; and in this province many healthy 
 people, particularly boys, gave themselves out as belonging 
 to this class, and rambled from place to place, making 
 reKgious harangues, and thus gaining a good livelihood. 
 These impostors were often mistaken for the preaching- 
 diseased, and through their means honest afflicted persons 
 were brought into discredit, and often made to suffer. 
 
 "As in the case of the Bishop of Skara, the clergy, 
 throughout the districts where the disease prevailed, used 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 all the means in their power to put a stop to it, but in 
 vain; the governors of the pro\dnces then interfered. 
 Medical men were sent out ; many of the patients placed 
 in hospitals, and others were attended at home ; and by 
 the end of 1843, the disease had almost ceased to exist. 
 Nothing of the kind seems to prevail at present : but as I 
 am informed by a Swedish clergyman, the good effect pro- 
 duced by it on the minds of many an otherwise hardened 
 sinner, remains to testify of its truth and reality, although 
 no one, whether learned in the science of phvsical or 
 spiritual life, can yet explain the cause and natm-e of this 
 extraordinaiy mental phenomenon." — HowiWs Journal, 
 
 A dancing mania extended throughout the whole of 
 Germany in 1374. The "sufferers" neither saw nor 
 heard, being insensible to external impressions through 
 the senses, but were haunted by visions, their fancies con- 
 juring up spirits, whose names they shrieked out ; and 
 some of them afterwards asserted that they felt as if they 
 had been immersed in a stream of blood, which obliged 
 them to leap so high : others, dming the paroxysm, saw 
 the heavens open and the Saviour enthroned with the 
 Virgin Mary, according as the religious notions of the age 
 were strangely and variously reflected in their imagina- 
 tions, ^x*^"'^ -"■""**•»*»*». 
 
 UNIVEESITY 
 
 Printed by Richard Kinder, «reen Arbour Court, Old Bailey, Londou. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 7 mrmt 
 
 wmi 
 
 DUR(N6 
 
 Wo 
 
 SESSIONS 
 
 MAY 6 m\ **'^^'^i'fON-PSyCHoiOG 
 
 mMT 
 
 Jei'SUM 
 
 AY !3R£CJ 
 
 Q P l \ 
 
 «« 
 
 95t 
 
 ie'b/-4PM 
 
 APR 25 Ki^Uu -1 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 / / 
 
 MTFR! i BRA RY LOAN 
 
 m l7tD67 
 
 tAt^ 
 
 ^M^ 
 
 iUoaa 
 
 N!V. OF CAUF., BERK. 
 
 ^ 
 
 _ ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 ^ •" u: 
 
 or 
 
 tm ^ 4 1991 
 
 QQ 
 
 -- o 
 
 i^ 
 
 LD 21-50m-8,'57 
 (.C8481sl0)476 
 
 General LiSfary 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley