\- TV : I': %<** •" 5§ ft - ^ *A. .» o* * *_!•♦- "o •' ** % • a* . l • • . *L ■ V- PHYSICAL MEDIA in SPIRITUAL MANIFESTiffiOM (9/ THE PHENOMEN A ■ r\xn ■ RESPONDING TABLES AND THE PLANCipiTTE, AND THEIR "iP PHYSICAL CAUSE IN THE NERVOCB^^rEaNISM; ILLUSTRATED PROM G. W. SAMSON, D.D., PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIAN COLLEGE, WASHINGTON, D.O. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPHSTOOTT & CO. 1869. il "Q>q (j>ai7j ZonpaTTjg, to datfi&vtov kavrti gjiimuvelv" — Xeno- phon, "Druidibus naturae ratio, quam physiologiam appellant, nota est." — Cicero. "Les effets sont dus a une communication entre leurs sys- temes nerveux." — Cuvier. "Des effets analogues pouvaient §tre occasionnes par une fluide nerveux qui circulerait dans nos organes." — Arago. " The laws of action of the nervous principle . . . are an- alogous to those of Voltaic electricity ." — Herschel and Midler, Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by G. W. SAMSON, D.D., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia. THE AUTHOR'S SALUTATION. Eeader, — Whatever your preconceived opinions as to the subject of which the following familiar letters treat, be your impressions reverence as for something sacred or abhorrence as of sacrilege, be your convictions those of contempt for imposture or of respect for the judgment of honest minds, allow yourself for a passing hour to be addressed by the personal salutation "My Dear Charles." Thirty years ago the idea developed in these pages was conceived in the college class-room ; and nine years later its reasoning was confirmed among the Brahminic maglans of Egypt. The historic classifications wrought out in subsequent years took form in works published successively under the titles "To Daimonion" and "Spiritualism Tested;" whose exhausted editions now call for the present reprint, just at the time when an- other form of universally observed phenomena appears in the "Planchette." The " Planchette" is, as its name implies, a little table, from four to six inches in diameter, which stands upon three supports, consisting of two wheels under the lobes, and a pencil thrust through an eyelet-hole at the apex. The table moves under the touch of one or more experi- menters, and the pencil traces responses for questioners. The conditions requisite to success in operating the Planchette, as regards nervous temperament, dryness of atmosphere, and other concomitants, are precisely those (iii) iv the author's salutation. essential in table responses ; while the character of the questions as respects definiteness and relevancy, to which answers are given, is also perfectly kindred to that of those mentioned in former times. The laws of the "Planchette" are those discussed in the second and fourth letters of this volume. Its origin in Germany about 1853, its appearance at London in 1861, and its migration across the Atlantic in 1867, ex- emplify the allusions in the sixth and tenth letters to mysterious phenomena yet to pass westward from their old Asiatic seat, and to have their day of wonder amid the science of Christian Europe. Each new development of this common class of mys- terious phenomena indicates more fully the respect due to differing views of their character entertained by minds of opposite tendencies. The universal employ of material instruments in the transmission of " spiritual manifestations" should prepare believers in their super- natural origin to scrutinize carefully the "physical media" which certainly intervene. The array of facts, recorded in ages past and observed by the ablest philos- ophers, should invite an impartial examination and esti- mate by men of science. Certainly no harm can arise to any mind from a review of the history here collated,* as no motive prompts the labor of its compilation but a love of useful truth. THE AUTHOB. Columbian College, Washington, D. C, Jan. 1st, 1869. CONTENTS LETTER I. Sympathy for the Inquirer. — Repulsive Replies of some. — Hint in College Days. — Future Study of the Ancients. — No Fact Explained. — Science only Classifies. — Spiritual Knowledge most Limited. — Three Developments in "Spiritual Rappings." — The "Tapping, Writing and Speaking " Media. — Ob ; #ct, to find a General Law 9 LETTER II. The Intermediate Agent between Matter and Spirit. — Allusions of the Ancients to it. — From Franklin's Day to Herschel's sup- posed to be Electricity. — The Nervous Principle as now under- stood. — Akin to Electricity. — Mode of its Action. — Exces- sive, Deficient, and Equable Development 16 LETTER III. Possible Principles an Illustration. — The Nervous Principle pos- sibly has the Laws of Electricity and Magnetism. — Electricity affects the Senses; so the Nervous Principle. — Impression varies with Constitution. — Three Classes seen in Joan of Arc. — The Natural of one Supernatural to another. — Electricity attracts Objects, and passes over Connected Conductors; and so may the Nervous Principle. — Report of the Royal Academy on Mesmerism. — " A Special Agent." — This the Nervous Princi- ple. — Statement of Cuvier. — -The Clairvoyant the Magnetic Telegraph of the Inquirer. — Agreement of Prof. Gregory and other Mesmerists 26 i* VI CONTENTS. LETTER IV. Possible Truth guides Practice. — As in a Thunder-storm. — Tables moved. — The Nervous Energy a Sufficient Power. — "Rappings " not new. — Media, Persons of Nervous Organism. — Communications accord with Temperament. — Arm Con- vulsed, as the Orator's. — Seraphic Eloquence, as the Excited Writer. — Communications of Things Forgotten. — All seen in Excited Speaker 36 LETTER V. The Inquiry may be practical soon.— Puritans Men of Strong Sense. — Their Precedents. — History of Witchcraft. — Sir Matthew Hale. — Three Opinions. — The Facts. — Convulsions. — Other Bodily Affections. —Metals attracted. — Objects moved. — Rappings. — Wonderful Eloquence. — Mysterious Knowledge, or Clairvoyance. — Developments the same as in our Day. — Excitements and Impressions of the Age. — Causes, as in Royal Academy's Report. — Mather and Brattle agreeing in Princi- ple. — The Nervous Principle harmonizes all 45 LETTER VI. No new Suggestion. — Link in the Middle Ages to Ancient Times. — Thorough Treatise of that Day. — Magic an Exalted Study. — "Soul of the World." — All Spirits Linked. — A Superior Spirit can control the Body of a Weaker. — As a Magnet the Spirit may attract Material Objects. — Disease Cured. — Power of Numbers. — Power of Song. — The Daemon, or Spiritual Princi- ple communicating Knowledge. — Aristotle's View. — Excited like Magnetism Electricity. — Sword of iEneas. — The Daemon nothing but Nervous Excitement. — Virgil's Testimony. — In- cense and Drugs excite. — Transformations of Circe and Fasci- nations in the Middle Ages. — Wonders we are yet to see. . 59 CONTENTS. VII LETTER VH. " Ancient Authors " referred to. — Roman View practical. — Modes of seeking Knowledge. — Three Views of Source. — Juvenal's Satire, and Horace's "Wit. — Virgil's Allegory, and Interpretation of it. — Plutarch. — His Matter of Fact. — Why Poetic Oracles ceased. — Why Delphi is silent. — The Nervous Exciter failed. — Reason and Religion agreed. — Pliny the Naturalist. — "Magical Vanities." — Hold three-fold, meeting Bodily, Intellectual, and Moral Want. — Some Shades of Truth. — Homer's Spirit called up. — The Naturalist's Conclusion. — Galen, the Physician. — Medical View of Indian, Greek, and Roman Physicians. — Power of Amulets. — Electric Illustra- tions. — The Physician's Conclusion 70 LETTER VIII. Who are " the Ancients." — The Greek Reflective. — Cicero a Roman-Greek. — Divination believed in by all the Greek Schools. — Facts and Reasonings as in our day. — Source, three- fold : Illusion, Corporeal Causes, the Spiritual Medium. — Dreams. — Homer, his Spirits. — Nervous Visions. — Hesiod, his Chain. — Pythagoras, "Music of the Spheres." — Plato, Inter- mediate Principle. — Conclusion as in Later Ages 84 LETTER IX. Champollion's Clues. — Wonders of India. — Serpents charmed — Nervous Swoons. — Detecting Thieves. — Man buried a Month. — Religious Trances. — Nervous Contest. — Stone raised. — Brazen Vessel moved. — Uniform Explanation. — Trial by Rice. — "Special Agent." — Fearful Initiation. — Magic an Art. — Hindoo Philosophy of Magic. — Serpent Charmers in Egypt. — Serpent drawn from Wall. — Goat Charmer. — His- tory of Charms. — Magnetizing Magician. — Clairvoyance in Egypt. — " Special Agent " universal. — A Law. — Ancient History uniform. — Blindfold Somnambule. — Healing by Mag- netism. — Phenomena ever the same 93 VIII CONTENTS LETTER X. Old Testament "antiquated." — Science reveres Scripture. — Sci- ence behind Scripture. — Moses learned. — Eight Forms of Egyptian Mystery. — Not behind our Mysteries. — Scripture View of these. — Accredit Science. — Daniel among Magi. — Abuse of Science condemned. — The True Supernatural. — Ma- gician's Testimony. — Magi's Testimony. — Picture of an An- cient Medium. — Why Men seek them. — Contrast of Natural and Supernatural. — Penalty of Curiosity. — Ancients appre- ciated these Things. — Christian Scholar in Egypt. — " Our Rock not as theirs." 110 LETTER XI. Christian School in Egypt. — Greek Youth won. — Supernatural Revelation needed. — Greek and Roman View. — " Desire of all Nations." — Revelation not from Reason. — Not from the Spiritual Medium. — Jewish Art in Christ's Day. — Jewish Views of Christ's Miracles. — Mysterious Arts of Paul's Day. — Compared with Christ's Miracles. — Compared with Paul's Mira- cles. — Evil Spirits. — Possessions only in Christ's Day. — Good Angels. — No Revelation from them. — Miracles prove Inspira- tion. — The Ancients convinced. — All Ages convinced. . 126 LETTER XII. What Use. — Experience shows. — Dangerous Experimenting. — Physical and Moral Danger. — Nervous Epidemics. — Excite- ment on Spiritual Themes. — Cool Men cannot control it. — Avoid Exciting Causes. — Why Observers disagree. — Both Right, though differing. — Science a Growth of Ages. — Trained Men for the Risk. — Religious Experimenting. — Warning from the Past. — "Sure word of Prophecy." — No "Broken Cistern." 145 SUPPLEMENTARY LETTER, Page 157 tttitt fittl THE NATURE OF THE SPIRITUAL MEDIUM NOT TO BE EXPLAINED. " Hoc sum contentus, quod, etiam si quomodo quidque fiat ignorem, quid fiat intelligo. Pro omni divinatione idem * * respondebo. * * Quid ! de fulgurum vi, dubitare num possunt ? nonne cum multa alia mirabilia, tunc illud in primis ? * * Causarum enim ignoratio in re nova mira- tionem facit : eadem ignoratio, si in rebus usitatis est, non miramur." — Cicero de Divinatione, i.,9, 10, & n., 22. [With this I am content, that even if I am ignorant in what way any- thing happens, what does happen I know. In reference to every kind of divination I will reply the same. What ! can we doubt as to power of lightnings ? Is it not so that while there are many other things wonderful, this is among the first ? * * For ignorance of causes in a new occurrence produces wonder : the same ignorance, if it exists in common occurrences, we do not wonder at.] Sympathy for the Inquirer. — Repulsive Replies of some. — Hint in College Days. — Future Study of the Ancients. — No Fact Explained. — Science only Classifies. — Spiritual Knowledge most Limited. — Three Developments in " Spiritual Rappings." — The "Tapping, Writing and Speaking" Media. — Object, to find a General Law. My Dear Charles : I am glad you have written so freely of your obser- vations and inquiries, of your doubts and difficulties, in reference to the " Spiritual Rappings." Be assured you have one that knows how to sympathize with you ; a friend whose own mind has been struggling for years through the mist, seeking a rock to stand upon ; and 10 SYMPATHY FOR THE INQUIRER. who, with a shipwrecked comrade's eagerness, delights to reach a hand or to fling a rope to the aid of a brother yet tossed on the billows of an unsettled faith, and if possible to help him to a foot-hold. What a pity it is that youth too often doubt the sin- cerity or the ability of their elder, and, therefore, more experienced, comrades in the voyage of life ! Too often the aged and experienced, and even the intelligent and learned, do not enter into the mental trials of inquiring youth ; they do not give themselves time to come back to their own early years, and to recall to mind their own days of doubt and uncertainty. Absorbed in their own particular pursuits, they listen with but half an ear to half the story ; and they have not time nor patience to give the reasons of their own instinctive decision, — that, though mysterious, there is for these wonders of our day a natural though unexplained cause. Some- times, also, the man of matured views on these subjects replies too abruptly when questioned ; responding with one or the other of these two curt declarations, accord- ing as his temperament is secular or religious, — "It is all humbug" — or, "It is all from the devil" But, Charles, do not distrust therefore the heart or the head, the feeling or the conviction, of your experienced and intelligent friends. They may be hasty in assigning the ultimate cause of these phenomena which perplex you ; and yet they may be right in the main conviction, that there is nothing supernatural in them. Nearly twenty years since, the first experiments in " Mesmerism " were agitating our community. In the 88881 STUDY OF THE ANCIENTS. 11 city near by our university, lecturers were performing nightly ; and one of my own classmates was a successful operator. Our scientific professor visited and witnessed these exhibitions. Eagerly one morning, when on the subject that called it up, did we watch for the views of our acute Professor of Physiology. From that morn- ing the conviction rested on some of our minds, that in all the phenomena relating to spiritual media there is the working of a wondrous power in our nature, myste- rious, indeed, and unexplained, yet not supernatural. It is not delusion nor the devil ; not, on the one hand, all deception, nor, on the other hand, a supernatural influence wrought by an evil agent. As, in interested survey, histories of the past and thrilling scenes in other lands have since added their clustering confirma- tions, a lengthening chain of past testimonials, and a widening web of now witnessed facts, has seemed to invest as with the robe and insignia of truth the chance thought of the college lecture-room. In every land and every age, by men most renowned in science and letters, by Franklin and Hale, by Galen, Pliny and Cicero, by Plato, Socrates and Zoroaster, as well as by Luke and Paul and Moses, mysterious manifestations of the spir- itual medium were beheld, wondered at and commented on ; and, with an accordance of idea greater than their language at first indicates, a cause in the nature of things has been suggested. You ask, Charles, that the phenomena of the " spir- itual rappings" be explained Will you let me remind you of two things, before we begin our examination ? 12 SCIENCE ONLY CLASSIFIES. No phenomenon in nature, either in the material or spiritual world, ever has been or ever will be explained to us while we are in this life. Science itself even explains nothing ; it only classifies phenomena, draw- ing out the law or order of sequence, according to which events occur, but not accounting for the law. In the material world facts in many a field of inquiry have been grouped and generalized ; but no one fact has really been accounted for. Every plant now growing is every hour taking up from the soil through its roots, and in from the air through its leaves, chemical ingre- dients, with which it is building itself up ; actually creating, every moment, particles of matter into root, stalk, leaf and flower. Everybody sees it ; science classifies the phenomena ; but who ever thinks of explaining the process ? In the fields of spiritual investigation, in mental science, how much less has been accomplished ! While every year some new prin- ciple of material things is discovered, or some new appli- cation of natural law is made to the arts of human life, philosophers in their examination of our spiritual being seem to have noted no more facts, to have fixed no more settled conclusions, to have demonstrated no more positive laws, than were known and recorded by the ancient wise men of Greece and Rome, and even of India and Egypt. Expect not, then, my young friend, that the " spiritual rappings" will be explained to you. There are limits to human knowledge. A very Newton has to stop on the shore even of material inves- tigation, and he must be content to be but a boy picking HmilllHIIIHHIII I fllflll l l ll ll l l ll l l lll l lM^ SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE LIMITED. 13 up a few pebbles, while the whole ocean of truth lies unexplored beyond. And as to researches in the spir- itual world, that is plunging beneath the surface, into the ocean, where we have no eye to see with. God has hidden all these dark depths from us, now creatures of sense, meaning that the study shall in another life have a freshness of interest ; when his own Son's promise will be realized, " What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter." Bear in mind, then, if we can but trace in human nature, in other ages and nations, developments similar to these of the spiritual rappings, if we can see enough in them to satisfy ourselves that they are not sz^er-natural, but natural, that they are not communications from disembodied spirits, but mysterious yet universal workings of our own spiritual and nervous organism, we shall have arrived at all which even science can hope to attain. It is the " spiritual rappings " in which you are interested, and which you wish explained. You are aware, however, that this term was applied to the first development of the mysterious agency, whose working is now so extensively observed and wondered at. It has now come to be synonymous with the wider expres- sion, spiritual communications. There are now thought to be three distinct modes of communication with disem- bodied spirits. There is the tapping (or rapping) me- dium ; through which communications are supposed to be given by taps on a table ; two or three successive indicating assent, or the presence of a spirit ; particular messages being received by the inquirer's touching suc- 2 14 A GENERAL LAW TO BE SOUGHT. cessively the letters of the alphabet printed on a card, noting those when touched which are responded to by the tappings, and writing down such letters in order, until words and sentences are thus obtained. There is, again, " the writing medium," the man or woman influenced seeming to lose control of the right arm, when the pen or pencil is taken ; and the hand being driven up and down and over the paper in confused scrawls, or in irregular letters and lines, making out intelligible or unintelligible words and sentences. There is, finally, " the speaking medium," the person influenced being lost in a swoon or trance, and then uttering strange and unaccountable sentiments and expressions. Moreover, it is now asserted as the teaching of these media, that the scenes of the Salem witchcraft, so called, were the attempts of the spirits in another world to make their presence known, and to convey communications to the living. It is also intimated that they may be found to have a connection with other mysterious phenomena of a similar nature, which have occurred in the history of our race. You will perceive, therefore, that an investigation of one branch of this subject requires a notice of all its branches, as now they appear; and, moreover, a judgment formed as to the developments of our day must have reference to those of other days also. It will be a thrilling, if not a pleasing adventure, to travel over the past, tracing back sometimes through the obscure by-paths of ancient history the footprints marked by the feet of men long gone from earth. It will be instructive to seek out some general law, deep- IP A LAW NOT SUPERNATURAL. 15 seated and universal in human nature, which may make these mysterious and now appalling developments to appear the familiar though unexplained occurrences of other lands and ages ; developments which need not be either dreaded or trusted, as the communications of evil or of good spirits, unseen around us ; but which may be admired as God's wondrous gift to us whom he has fear- fully and wondrously made ; a gift to be studied with humility, and to be experimented upon with caution. tilttt inrntL THE EXISTENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL MEDIUM, AND ITS EXCESSIVE, DEFICIENT, OR EQUABLE DEVELOPMENT. " Quae omnia, si a nobis non videantur, non creduntur ; sed tentata cer- tificant. Quorum enim actio ex proprietate est, rationibus unde sit, com- prehendi non potest. Rationibus autem tantum comprehenduntur, quae sensibus subministrantur. Aliquand' ergo quaedam substantiae habent proprietatem ratione incomprehensibilem propter sui subtilitatem, sensibus non submininistratum propter magnam sui altitudinem." — Galen on the Power of Incantation in Healing* [All which things, unless they are seen by us, they are not believed. For the action of these influences is from a property the principles of whose origin we cannot comprehend. In their principles, indeed, only those things are comprehended which affect the senses. Sometimes, therefore, certain substances have a property in its principle incomprehensible, on account of its subtilty, not affecting the senses because it is so deep seated.] " Of the nature of the nervous principle we are as ignorant as of the nature of light and of electricity ; but with its properties we are nearly as well acquainted as with those of light, or other imponderable agents." — Mailer's Physiology. The Intermediate Agent between Matter and Spirit. — Allusions of the Ancients to it. — From Franklin's Day to Herschel's sup- posed to be Electricity. — The Nervous Principle as now under- stood. — Akin to Electricity. — Mode of its Action. — Excessive, Deficient, and Equable Development. My Dear Charles: Let me, at this stage of our inquiry, recall to you some acknowledged principles of physiology and of men- tal science, as to the medium by which our spirits are united to our bodies, and as to the excessive, deficient or equable action of the one upon the other. There is, so say physiologists, a medium by which THE INTERMEDIATE AGENT. 1$ soul and body are united and act on each other ; an intermediate agent, neither spirit nor matter, through which the mind controls the various members of the body, and by which the bodily senses convey their impressions to the secret soul. When I will to grasp an object with my hand, some mysterious agent runs from the mind's laboratory in the brain, and coursing along the nerves, like the electric fluid along the telegraph wires, contracts muscle after muscle, just at the instant of time, and up to the precise extent, demanded for the successful movement. How obedient and dutiful a ser- vant that mysterious messenger, thus prompt to do my bidding ! How mighty the power which can cause a cord of muscular fibres so to shrink as to draw up a hundred pounds weight ! I ought to be prepared to see wondrous movements and wondrous powers exhibited, when a peculiar excitement wakes it to action. As to the nature and properties of this mysterious agent even the ancients wrote ; and men in the old and eastern climes have known more of its secret powers than we have learned. As early as the time of the first great Greek physi- cian, Hippocrates, who lived 430 years before Christ, the intermediate agent was virtually recognized under the name Quais, from which our word physical is derived. To this all the movements of the body were ascribed ; a sort of intelligence even being attributed to it. 1 Pure 1 See " An Elementary System of Physiology, by John Bos- tock, M.D., F.R.S., &c. Boston, 1825." Vol. I., Introd. pp. 2 — 4; also chap, iv., § 2, p. 201. 2^ 18 HIPPOCRATES DESCARTES. sph\t was distinguished from this under the name yvyrj ; l showing that even the early Greek mind recognized an agent intermediate between spirit and matter ; to which, as we shall see, the mysteries of the " spiritual medium " were referred. 2 Aristotle three hundred and eighty- four years before Christ, and Galen, one hundred and thirty-one years after Christ, followed up the suggestion of their earlier leader. The Romans made a similar distinction between the words anima and animus, when used in contrast. 3 The former was with them an inter- mediate principle between matter and spirit ; and to it, as we shall see, they referred, to a certain extent at least, the phenomena which even now are mysterious. 4 Descartes revived this theory; and from his day the doctrine of " the animal spirits " was regarded a feature of the philosophy called " Cartesian" As Bostock remarks, " About two centuries ago everything that could not be otherwise explained was referred to the agency of some kind of refined spirit." 5 Yet, before his day, so universal in the east was the belief in an inter- mediate agent through spirit which acted on matter, that it formed the very basis of the famed Jewish system called the " Cabbala ; " the Hebrew name " Sephiroth " being used to express those intermediate principles which 1 See Leverett's Latin Lexicon, under anima. 2 See Letter viii., pp. 87, 92. 3 Leverett's Lexicon, on these words, with his quotations from Pliny, Juvenal, Seneca, Cicero, &c. ; also Bostock's Physiol., vol. I., p. 4. 4 See Letter vi., pp. 62, 66; vn., pp. 77, 83. 5 Bostock's 1 'lysiol., vol. i., chap, iv, § 2, p. 201. ELECTRICITY THE AGENT. 19 run through the universe, having their masculine and feminine, or active and passive ; by which man's soul is united to his body, by which God operates on matter, and by which man gains a knowledge of God. 1 Since Franklin discovered the laws of electric phe- nomena, and Galvani observed how the magnetic fluid contracts the muscles, physiologists have made the medium by which the mind acts on the body a special study. The results of the investigations made up to about twenty years ago Herschel thus stated : " Among the remarkable effects of electricity dis- closed by the researches of Galvani and Yolta, perhaps the most so consisted in its influence on the nervous system of animals. The origin of muscular motion is one of those profound mysteries of nature which we can scarcely venture to hope will ever be fully explained. Physiologists, however, had long entertained a general conception of the conveyance of some subtle fluid, or spirit, from the brain to the muscles of animals, along the nerves ; and the discovery of the rapid transmission of electricity along conductors, with the violent effects produced by shocks, transmitted through the body, on the nervous system, would very naturally lead to the idea that this nervous fluid, if it had any real existence, might be no other than the electrical. But, until the discoveries of Galvani and Yolta, this could be only looked upon as a vague conjecture. The character of a vera causa was wanting, to give it any degree of rational 1 See Bibliothoca Sacra, July, 1852, art. vn. 20 THE TORPEDO. plausibility, since no reason could 6e imagined for the disturbance of the electrical equilibrium in the animal frame, composed as it is entirely of conductors ; or, rather, it seemed contrary to the then known laws of electrical communication to suppose any such. Yet one strange and surprising phenomenon might be adduced indicative of the possibility of such disturbance, namely, the pow- erful shock given by the torpedo^ and other fishes of the same kind, which presented so many analogies with those arising from electricity, that they could hardly be referred to a different source, though, besides the shock, neither spark nor any other indication of electrical ten- sion could be detected in them. " The benumbing effect of the torpedo had been ascer- tained to depend on certain singularly constructed organs, composed of membranous columns, filled from end to end with laminae, separated from each other by a fluid ; but of its mode of action no satisfactory account could be given, nor was there anything in its construction, and still less in the nature of its materials, to give the least ground for supposing it an electrical apparatus. But the pile of Volta supplied at once the analogies both of structure and effect, so as to leave little doubt of the electrical nature of the apparatus, or of the power, — a most wonderful one, certainly, — of the animal, to deter- mine, by an effort of its will, that concurrence of condi- tions on which its activity depends. "This remained, as it probably ever will remain, mys- terious and inexplicable ; but, the principle once estab- lished that there exists in the animal economy a power of m THE NERVOUS PRINCIPLE. 21 determining the development of electric excitement, capa- ble of being transmitted along the nerves, and it being ascertained, by numerous and decisive experiments, that the transmission of Voltaic electricity along the nerves of even a dead animal is sufficient to produce the most vio- lent muscular action, it became an easy step to refer the origin of muscular motion in the living frame to a simi- lar cause ; and to look to the brain, a wonderfully con- structed organ, for which no mode of action possessing the least plausibility had ever been devised, as the source of the required electrical power." l The views thus expressed by Herschel have been slightly modified since he wrote ; not, however, so as to alter at all their practical bearing on our inquiry. Dr. Miiller, the great German physiologist, distinguishes between animal electricity, which is developed on the surface of the body (as in a cat), and the nervous energy which is generated in the brain ; his experiments having led to a satisfactory conclusion, that the two differ in their nature, though not in the general laws of their action. Of animal electricity, developed on the surface of the human body, he mentions, among others, these facts : that in men, who are healthy, it is generally positive ; that in women, it is negative oftener than it is in men, though no general rule exists ; that it is more easily excited in persons of a sanguine temperament, and less in those of a phlegmatic disposition ; and that it is 1 " A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy^ by John F. W. Herschel, Esq., A.M., &c. Philadelphia, 1835." Part ii., chap, vi., pp. 255, 6 & 7. 22 THREE CLASHES OF MIND. developed in a greater degree in the evening than dur- ing the day. 1 The substance of his investigation, as to the agent by which the mind acts on the body, is con- densed in these sentences at the close of his lengthy discussion : " The laws of the action of the nervous principle are different from electricity. Of the nature of the nervous principle we are as ignorant as of the nature of light and of electricity ; but with its proper- ties we are nearly as well acquainted as with those of light, and of other imponderable agents." 2 Of the manner in which the nervous principle acts he says : " The primitive fibres of all the voluntary nerves being at their central extremity, all spread out in the brain to receive the influence of the will, we may compare them as they lie side by side in the organ of the mind, to the keys of a piano, on which our thoughts play or strike, and thus give rise to currents or vibrations of the ner- vous principle in a certain number of primitive nervous fibres, and consequently to motions." 3 By this mysterious union, our minds are thus linked to our bodies. Through this medium the mind acts upon the body, employing, to a greater or less extent the organs of sense to gain spiritual apprehensions. And according as the development of this agent has been excessive, deficient or equable, in men, so have their views of the sources of human knowledge ever varied. 1 Elements of Physiology, by J. Miiller, M.D.; translated from the German, by Wm. Baly, M.D. London, 1838. See Introduction. ^ Miiller's Physiol., B. m., § 1, chap. 3. Ibid, B. in., § 3, chap. 1. H THE REFLECTIVE CLASS, OR OVER-NERVOUS. 23 How far the mind is dependent on the body has always been a question among thinking men. On this question mental philosophers have in all ages been ranged under three great classes ; according as they have regarded the bodily senses alone, or the spirit 's intui- tions only, or the union of both these, as the ultimate source of our knowledge. 1 In each of these classes, as professed adherents to these several views, have been ranked in every age and nation the prominent and noblest minds. To one or the other of these classes have really and practically belonged the mass of men in every community and generation, though they never have read a book on mental science, nor even have imagined that there is any law on which their own minds act. To the first class generally belong the reflective men among the educated ; men who love to live within them- selves, communing with their own thoughts, or with one of kindred spirit; shrinking from society, where they meet so much that is harsh and uncongenial ; and hav- ing little to do with the material world, except to admire the beauty of its varied scenes and myriad objects, while they love not to bend their sinews to draw profit from it. To this class belong a numerous band among our- merchants, artisans and laborers, whose hands only are 1 For an exhibition of these three classes among the ancients, Hindoos, Greeks, &c, see " Epitome of the History of Philosophy," translated from the French by C. S. Henry, D.D. New York, 1842;" especially pp. 61 and 185. In confirmation of the general statement, see Cousin's History of Modern Philosophy, translated by H. 0. Wight; 2d series, 2d vol., § 12. 24 THE DEFICIENT AND EQUABLE. employed in their necessary pursuits, while their minds are dwelling on principles and laws beyond and above their pursuits. It is truth unappreciated by the senses such love to contemplate; the mysterious properties, the hidden laws which govern nature, the moving causes acting in the world of both matter and mind. In searching for and deciding upon spiritual truth, there- fore, in seeking for knowledge of God and of the spirit- world, such minds naturally turn to and rely upon those same sources of investigation which they most love to employ. They employ and trust their own spiritual intuitions. To the second class are to be referred the dogmatical among the educated, and the merely mechanical among business men ; minds which are interested only in their own particular pursuits; intellects which demand a mathematical demonstration for everything they receive ; men who can hardly believe anything, except what they themselves or some other credible witness has seen, and who, when they think of God and religious things, admit nothing but what their parents have taught, or their church has maintained, or they themselves have scanned on the surface of the word of God. In the third class move the mighty phalanx of men who both think and act, who both observe and reflect, and whose religion is both of the heart and the head. Eemark, now, Charles, the conclusions to which we are brought bearing on the subject of our investigation. There is a spiritual medium. There is an intermediate agent by which mind acts on matter, and which is itself wmwmmwm LAWS OF ELECTRICITY MYSTERIOUS. 25 neither mind nor matter. This agent, the nervous principle, is in this respect to be ranked with the other attracting and repelling forces of nature, as the capil- lary, gravitating, magnetic, and electrical forces. In many of the modes of its operation, it is similar to the magnetic and electrical principles ; having probably its negative and its positive, an attracting and a repelling power, which may either balance each other, or over- balance and control one the other. The nervous principle is moreover developed together with animal electricity; the two being together abundant in persons of strongly nervous temperament, and the two being developed so as to overcharge the system of the person who is under great excitement of body or mind. Know- ing, then, Charles, the mysterious powers of electricity so long regarded as supernatural, — powers which even now are exciting new amazement when seen in the electric telegraph, locomotive, &c, — what wonders ought we not to be prepared to see in the working of that more subtle agent, " the nervous principle " ? 3 ttiitt €ljirL POSSIBLE LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL MEDIUM, ILLUSTRATED IN "ANIMAL MAGNETISM." " In Gallia Druidae sunt ; e quibus ipse Diviaticum Aeduum, hospitem tuum laudatoremque cognovi : qui et naturae rationem, quam physiologiam appellant, notam esse sibi profitebatur •, and partim auguriis, partim con- jectura quae essent futura dicebat." — Cicero de Divinatione. [In Gaul are the Druids ; one of whom, Diviaticus the Aeduan, thy guest and eulogizer, I myself knew : who professed that a principle of nature which the Greeks call physiology was known to himself, and partly by auguries, partly by conjecture, he told things which would come to pass.] " Of the nature of the nervous principle we are as ignorant as of the nature of electricity 5 but with its properties we are nearly as well acquainted as with those of light, and of other imponderables." — Mailer. Possible Principles an Illustration. — The Nervous Principle pos- sibly has the Laws of Electricity and Magnetism. — Electricity affects the Senses ; so the Nervous Principle. — Impression varies with Constitution. — Three Classes seen in Joan of Arc. — The Natural of one Supernatural to another. — Electricity attracts Objects, and passes over Connected Conductors; and so may the Nervous Principle. — Report of the Royal Academy on Mesmerism. — " A Special Agent." — This the Nervous Princi- ple. — Statement of Cuvier. — The Clairvoyant the Magnetic Telegraph of the Inquirer. — Agreement of Prof. Gregory and other Mesmerists. My Dear Charles: It would be presumptuous to attempt to theorize about an agent whose nature and whose laws the ablest physiologists have been able but partially to compre- hend. Yet, avoiding that folly, we may with propriety 8BSS POSSIBLE ANALOGY IN AGENTS. 27 glance at some possible principles which comparison suggests, and which experience and history seem to attest. They will be but unpretending suggestions ; hinted as illustrations, not as explanations, which, if un- sound, will harm no one, but which, if only plausible, may give us the calm confidence that the mysterious spiritual manifestations often beheld are not supernat- ural ; they are the natural working of a known though uncomprehended intermediate agent. If the nervous principle belong to the class of agents intermediate between spirit and matter, to which elec- tricity and magnetism are referred, why should not the one have properties similar to the other, and produce like effects ? Certainly it is a probable suggestion ; and a long array of facts, extending through the world's his- tory, may tend to confirm the supposition to be at least plausible. The possibility of such a similarity is enough for our purpose. Electricity and magnetism, when developed so as to surcharge a substance, become appreciable to the bodily senses. The sense of sight, of hearing, of taste, of smell, and of feeling, and the muscular sense, are all affected by their action. Why should it not be thus with the nervous principle when over-excited ? The eye of the person thus affected may see real visions, and his ear hear real sounds ; he may have the actual taste of sweet or bitter, and the actual smell of pleasant or un- pleasant odors; and his touch may suffer a positive pang, and his muscles feel a positive pressure. The impression produced on the senses by the action of the 28 SENSATION FROM NERVOUS AGENT. nervous principle may be precisely that which the cor- responding material substance would produce. In con- firmation of these hints, the following statement of Muller may suffice : — " The sensation produced by the electric shock is not peculiar to that agent ; it may be produced by any strong excitement of the nerves, whether mechanical or mental. Kastner relates that in writing he frequently sustains slight shocks in the fin- gers. Some years ago, when I was laboring under a state of nervous excitability, I had this sensation very frequently on using the fingers much." l The mental impression which this over-action of the nervous principle produces on any individual will vary according to his intellectual constitution. If he be of acute mental organism, belonging to the first of the three classes already mentioned, he will regard them as supernatural, — actual spiritual manifestations. If he be of the grosser, more physical make, his blunt nervous susceptibilities may not be affected even in the slightest degree like those of his fellow of finer mould ; and he will regard the impression of the other as a mere delu- sion. The mind of more even balance may appreciate both the earthly and the spiritual element ; and will refer them to a real but natural influence, produced by the intermediate agency of the nervous principle. As a clear and striking example of this truth, the interesting instance seen in Joan of Arc may be cited. 2 She lived 1 Miiller's Physiol., translated by Baly, B. in., sect. I., chap. Hi., p. 640. 2 See Histoire de France, par M. Michelet, Paris, 1841 ; Tome V. chap. in. MENTAL IMPRESSION VARIES. 29 in the midst of war and of political agitation ; l and, as the whole history of mankind shows, any season of excitement, especially such excitement as war produces, creates a general over-development of the nervous prin- ciple ; hence an excess of spiritual manifestations im- pressing the senses ; and hence a more than ordinary belief in supernatural influences. Joan herself, a person of most estimable character, a heroine, whose name is on every child's lip in France, as that of Washington is in America, the first in patriotism and piety, and the first in the hearts of her countrymen, 2 — Joan herself, and a class of minds like hers, believed that the visions she saw and the voices she heard came from celestial beings. 3 The dull, unimpressible brain of her hard- working father, and that of others like him, could see nothing and feel nothing of those refined influences; and he verily thought it all delusion. 4 Minds that could appreciate most thoroughly both these elements regarded it as a natural though real power, acting upon and through the inspired heroine ; a power to be admired in certain circumstances, because it accomplishes what 1 Michelet's Histoire de France, Tom. V., pp. 46, 47. The phil- osophic Shakspeare pictures only the strongly excited as seeing and hearing ghosts ; the nervous excitement gradually being aroused in mind after mind, till many see the same. — See Macbeth and Hamlet. 2 In the Protestant Sabbath-schools of France, when the chil- dren are called on to give an example of patriotism, the name of " Jeanne d'Arc " will break from every lip. 3 Michelet's Histoire de France, Tom. V., pp. 50 — 55. 4 Do., p. 58. 3# 30 NERVOUS AGENT PASSING OVEJt. well-balanced reason cannot ; a power to be deprecated always, since the person who possesses it is powerless in all points but one, and if such an affection were preva- lent in a body of men, as in the crusading host follow- ing Peter the Hermit, only one of the elements of suc- cess would be theirs. Electricity and the magnetic influence, also, when so developed as to surcharge a substance, pass off that sub- stance to another placed near them, attracting or repel- ling external objects, and imparting to them their mag- netic or electrical condition. The magnet attracts iron only, and imparts to it its own power, thus controlling its magnetic influence. An electrified body attracts other substances than iron, as pieces of paper, of wood, &c, and imparts to them its power; thus controlling their electrical influence. Why, then, may not the ner- vous principle pass over, from a person over-charged with it, to other bodies and to other persons, so as to attract or repel inanimate objects, and to control the nervous energies of other animals and persons ? Surely, Charles the suggestion is not a merely fanciful one, since the animal electricity, developed with the nervous prin- ciple, might be expected to exhibit these phenom- ena. As now we seek to apply these two suggestions of a possible analogy between the action of the nervous prin- ciple and that of electricity and magnetism, bear always in mind, Charles, it is not at all a scientific explanation which is attempted. If, however, only a possible illus- tration be adduced, it will be enough to show that all MESMER AND FRENCH ACADEMY. 31 the facts of " spiritual manifestations " may some day be traced to a natural law of the action of the nervous principle. When Mesmer, having come in 1778 from Vienna to Paris, had for five or six years kept all Paris in an ex- citement by his experiments, the king at length appointed a commission consisting of five members of the Royal Academy l (one of whom, Franklin, was at the same day investigating the laws of electricity), and four mem- bers of the faculty of Medicine, to visit, witness, and report upon his exhibitions. The experiments of Mes- mer in their presence seem not to have been as success- ful as ordinary ; for there is a natural disturbing influ- ence which every new discoverer and inventor experi- ences, when first meeting so trying an ordeal. Dr. Franklin thought lightly of Mesmer's experiments before he viewed them ; and of their practical value his opinion remained unchanged afterwards. 2 Yet the commission, in their elaborate report, allow that in what they witnessed there was something that seemed the working of a mysterious agent. They reduced Mesmer's exhibitions to four classes : — First, those which could be explained on physiological grounds ; second, those which were contrary to the laws of magnetism ; third, those where the imagination of the mesmerized person was the source of the phenomena; and fourth, facts which led them to admit a special agent (" un agent 1 The five members were Le Roy, Bailly, De Bery, Lavoisier, and our countryman, Benjamin Franklin. 2 See Works cf Franklin, Sparks' edition, vol. x., pp. 75, 76. 32 NERVOUS AGENT THE SOURCE. particulier ").? One of the Medical Commission became a convert to Mesmer's views. The intelligent observers of that day testified to cases of a magnetic control and of clairvoyance, similar to those witnessed in our times. 2 About the year 1825, the medical faculty at Paris began to institute new inquiries, continuing their inves- tigations till 1831. As an indication of the present interest of men of science, Reichenbach, in Germany, and Gregory, professor of chemistry in Edinburgh, have written extended and labored volumes. Since, then, it is universally admitted, and has been from Franklin's day, that a special mysterious agent, like to electricity, yet different from it, is seen acting in the familiarly known experiments in " animal magnet- ism," why should it seem visionary in this day, when so much is known of the action both of animal electric- ity and of the nervous principle, to refer these phenom- ena to the sufficient though unexplained natural cause already considered ? 3 Miss Harriet Martineau (whose reading on this subject certainly will not be called in question) cites Cuvier as saying of animal magnetism : " However the effects produced upon persons yet without cognizance before the operation commences, those which 1 See the French " Encyc'opedie Methodique ;" dept. "Phy- sique," art. "Magnetisme." 2 See London Family Library, vol. lxiii., p. 362, et seq. 3 This is virtually the view of scientific writers on this subject. See " Letters to a Candid Inquirer, on Animal Magnetism, by Wm. Gregory, M.D., F.R.S.E., Prof, of Chemistry in the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, 1851." Also the same author's translation of Reichenbach. cuvier's testimony. 33 take place after the same operation has caused them to lose cognizance, and those which animals display, leave little doubt that the proximity of two animate bodies in certain positions, and with a certain movement, has a real effect independent of all participation of the imagina- tion of one of the two. It appears equally clearly, also, that the effects are due to some communication which is established between their nervous systems." l With such authority as this to sanction it, it is not presumptuous to hint the following illustration of a pos- sible law. Since one class of persons (healthy males) are known to be positively electric, and another class (delicate females) are known to be negatively electric, and since in their nervous energies there may be the same difference, when by the naturally exciting manipu- lations each is charged like a Ley den jar, why should there not be between the two a mutual attraction, in which the stronger will control the movements of the weaker ? Moreover, since my nervous fluid, like an electric 1 Miss Martineau's Letters on Mesmerism, No, v., p. 19. (" Cependant les effets obtenus sur des personnes deja sans connais- sanee avant que 1 'operation commencat, ceux que ont lieu sur les autres personnes apres que i'operation meme leur a fait perdre connaissance, et ceux que presentent les animaux, ne permettent gueres de douter que la proximite de deux corps animes dans cer- taines positions et avec certain mouvements n'ait un effet real, independant de toute participation de 1 'imagination d'une des deux. II parait assezi clairement aussi que les effets sont dus a une communication quelconque qui s'etablit entre leurs systemes nerveux." (Anatomie Comparee, Tome n., p. 117. D'u system nerveux considere en action.") 34 inquirer's thought telegraphed. current, courses along the nerves leading from the brain, enters and controls the muscles of my mouth, and causes my lips to utter my thought, why may it not be, when I am put in communication with a mesmerized person, whose personal control over her nervous energy has been overpowered by another, and that nervous energy is left to be subject to the control of any one put in nervous connection with her, — why may it not occur that my nervous energy shall pass over, as electricity on con- nected telegraphic wires, to her frame, so as to control her lips ; and thus, when I am expecting the reply from her mouth, and unconsciously directing my nervous energy to her lips, through them I may speak out my own thought by an operation as purely mechanical as when I send my thought over the telegraph wires to be spoken out from a distant machine ? I think, Charles, that no instance of clairvoyance can be found in which the thought uttered by the clairvoyant may not be traced directly over to the mind of the person put in communication with her. Thoughts of which I am con- scious, facts that I once knew but did not recall at the moment (though in the mind, and capable of being recalled under mental excitement), imaginations I have conceived, and perhaps mental impressions of mine of which I am unconscious, — all these do thus speak out of the lips of the clairvoyant ; but nothing else, I think we have good authority for saying. In the long list of cases cited by Prof. Gregory of Edinburgh, (perhaps the ablest man of science who has written in the English language on this subject) there is scarcely one MESMERISTS ALLOW THIS. 35 that cannot readily be explained on this principle. 1 In the instance of the Bolton clairvoyant, 2 who described in England what a certain person in California was en- gaged in on a certain day, the distance and the lapse of time before the verification is too great to give any assurance. The reading of the clairvoyant with ban- daged eyes may seem an exception ; but it is not, if any person in the company is overlooking what is read, or is even familiar with it. Let a well-attested case be pre- sented, one which could any day be furnished, if such an one could be given, and it should be received. Yet so generally admitted is the fact that in clairvoyance nothing but the thought of persons in communication with the clairvoyant is reported, that Miss Martineau herself has remarked, " It is almost an established opinion, among some of the wisest students of Mesmerism, that the mind of the somnambule mirrors that of the Mesmerist." 3 1 See Gregory's Letters, Nos. vi., vn., vin., especially. 2 See Gregory, Letter xvi., p. 408. 3 See Miss Martineau's Letters, No. in., p. 11 ttiiti /nttrtjj* POSSIBLE LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL MEDIUM ILLUSTRATED IN THE " SPIRITUAL RAPPINGS." " Haec autem ego non tentavi ; sed nee etiam neganda sunt mihi ; quia si non viderimus magnetem sibi ferrum trahentem, non certificamur, nee crederemus. Similiter quod * * piscis quidam marinus se capientis sensum aufert." — Galen on the Employ of Incantation in Healing: [These things, indeed, I have not tested ; but neither, indeed, are they denied by me •, because, if we have not seen the magnet attracting iron, we are not certain of it, neither should we believe it. In like manner that a certain fish should take away the feeling of him seizing it.] Possible Truth guides Practice. — As in a Thunder-storm. — Tables moved. — The Nervous Energy a Sufficient Power. — "Rappings " not new. — Media, Persons of Nervous Organism. — Communications accord with Temperament. — Arm Con- vulsed, as the Orator's. — Seraphic Eloquence, as the Excited Writer. — Communications of Things Forgotten. — All seen in Excited Speaker. My Dear Charles : Shall we hazard an application of these principles to the phenomena called the " spiritual rappings " ? Bear in mind, Charles, the suggestion is not hinted at all as a scientific explanation ; to such presumption it would be folly to pretend. But, in the known and acknowl- edged mysterious phenomena produced in us by the nervous influence, may we not see enough to assure us it is that influence, not the communications of spirits POSSIBLE LAW RULES PRACTICE. 37 disembodied, which we see working. Less than a cen- tury ago, Franklin was first making his noble experi- ments in electricity, which proved satisfactorily to all thinking men that the bolts of heaven were no super- natural uncontrollable power, but a natural agent, which could be guided with an iron rod away from our ex- posed heads. Certainly it would have been presump- tion in a mere novice in that study to have attempted to theorize on any phenomena witnessed. Yet, bear wit- ness, it would not have been presumption, it would have been sound discretion and commendable boldness, if even a common observer had stepped forward in the cir- cle of his friends, awed by the terrible peals of a thunder- storm, and had said, " Friends, be we trustful and fear- less ; we may not explain the terrific agent rending the heavens and earth around us, but we may be sure it is a natural agent, which we should not dread." So, too, may not the spiritual phenomena, so mysterious and even awing, seen around us now, be surely referred to the action of our own nervous organism, though no scientific explanation be attempted ? Tables are moved by a mysterious power, when a cir- cle of interested spectators, with a medium, are seated around it. But remark this, Charles. Stretch forth your arm, and grasp a heavy weight and raise it. How mighty that power put forth ! Trace it back to its origin, and how wonderful ! You willed to perform that act. Instantly in your brain, as in a Ley den jar, a nervous influence was generated, which, coursing along your nerves as on metallic wires, entered your muscles • 4 38 M0VIN&S AND RAPPINGS. and there the mere shrinking of the fibres of a little muscle, the shortening of a small cord, drew up the large weight in }^our hand. How immeasurable, how unac- countable, such a power ! And now think of that circle around the table. When they first sit calmly down, no movement is seen ; none can be produced. But when for a few moments in intense mental action, a nervous energy has been generated in the frame of each, until, like a circle of Leyden jars, a whole battery is sur- charged, and there are negatives as well as positives in the circle, who can wonder if currents of nervous influ- ence should leap over from one to the other, and if tables, chairs, or anything else intervening, should be moved ? We should not wonder at any phenomena which might show themselves under such circumstances. We should only fear that, like inexperienced experi- menters in electricity, we should thoughtlessly inflict upon ourselves an incurable injury. Our kind Creator has given me this mighty and wondrous nervous agency to be carefully used as the steady mover of my body's machinery. If I overcharge myself with it, if I strain the vital organs which generate it, I may weaken my own energies for life. Mysterious rappings give response to our thoughts, uttered or merely conceived, as we sit around the table. This, however, is not a new exhibition of what we must regard an over-excitement of our own nervous energy. These raps are in nature not unlike those electric crack- ings heard amid the whizzing bands of factory wheels, and the electric snapping heard in cold weather from the MEDIA AND RESPONSES. 39 skin of animals when stroked, and from our person in drawing off a woollen under-garment. Physiologists and ordinary historians have recorded numberless instances of these electric-like shocks and reports experienced by persons of an excitable nervous temperament. 1 Moreover, Charles, reflect a moment on the character of the media, and on the nature of the communica- tions given, and see if you can believe that spirits in another world are the communicators ; see if all does not confirm the fact that these responsive rappings are the working of our own nervous organism, echoing to our own thoughts. We should not disparage at all, we wish not to do so, the character of those who are generally the media. We allude not to the fact that they are generally young, and inexperienced, and females. But observe simply this fact : they are just that class whom we ordinarily speak of as persons of a high nervous temperament, of an acute mental organism. It is the very class of persons in whom the nervous principle is active, from whom we seem to see the nerv- ous energy thus flowing off. The communications received, also, seem to correspond to the character of the inquirer ; indeed, to be the echo of his or her thought. Is the company lively, cheerful, if not humor- ous ? Little Willie, familiarly called, responds, and he asks for his favorite song or waltz ; and " the Colo- nel," laughingly asked for, echoes his presence by drum- ming a loud march on the shaking table. Is the com- 1 See Muller, as quoted Let. Third, p. 28 ; Let. Fifth, pp. 49 —51. 40 ARM CONVULSED. pany grave, spiritually if not religiously inclined ? The responses are in keeping ; and the inquirer's own favor- ite, be he Swedenborg, Channing or Wesley, is endorsed and canonized. Now, not at all because these differing religious views are responded to, can we object to these communications. But, where the sentiment expressed is ever, in its moral tone, in keeping with that of the inquirer, seems it not to indicate that the response is the echoing of our own mental organism, the telegraphic rapping out of our own electric-borne thought ? The arm, again, is convulsed and unmanned ; and, with spasmodic, rapid and uncontrollable force, it writes disjointed or connected sentences. The mere spasmodic action of the muscles here seen is not new, or at all pecu- liar. Who has not felt it when under intense excite- ment, either of fear or anxiety, or in deep thought? when, instinctively we rise and walk the room, that the overcharged nervous influence may have work to expend itself upon, a channel over which to pass off. The true orator is always more or less under its power ; the movement of his quivering fingers and arm, and of his whole agitated frame, and even the grand and almost seraphic roll of his periods and movement of his thought, showing that he is, beyond himself, moved by a power self-excited, indeed, but now, in a measure, beyond his control. Schiller and Shelley, and such minds as theirs, always have written under such an influence. Witness what, as we have already noted, the physiologist M til- ler says of himself. Yet, after all, who knows not that only his own train of thought, though at the time he THE TEST EASY. 41 be unconscious of it, and now, when the excitement has passed off and he sees it in manuscript, he can hardly believe it his, yet only his own thought has come from his pen or his tongue. The most unlettered man or woman, excited by stimulated appetite or passion, by intoxicating drink, or by fear, anger or love, talks like Gabriel ; and religion is the chief theme. Charles, if you are a writing medium, try it, and see if it be not so in these new phenomena. Bring a man to your table, a part of whose name you know ; and when that part is written, ask the spirit whom you may imagine guides your pen to write the other part. Most assuredly you will find that only your own knowledge will be responded to. Prepared, then, to watch more closely your own mind's working, go on and observe the other responses you receive. You may not at first be able to trace all you write to your own positive knowl- edge, your once known and forgotten, but in that mo- ment of intense mental action remembered thought and realized imaginings. But, if you do not, be assured you have, in the orator and the writer, carried by their own mental action, — you have in them those who can sym- pathize. No man, under such circumstances, utters or writes anything but his own thought ; but, how that expressed or written thought came into his mind, and became his, no great speaker or writer can explain. It is to him as real a wonder as can be the pencillings of the spiritual medium. Once, again, the reporting medium mentions facts and thoughts, or imaginings, which are not in her own 4# 42 EXCEPTIONS ONLY APPARENT. mind, but in that of the inquirer. She receives by the rappings, or she writes with the pen, or she utters with the voice, not her knowledge, or surmise, or impression, but that which belongs to the mind of him put in com- munication with her. He asks the name of a friend of his own, the date of his birth, &c. ; and facts known only to himself, and perhaps not recalled even by his own mind at the moment, are accurately given. He asks about the present state of a sick friend's health, or the locality of a lost or stolen piece of property ; and his surmise — sometimes, of course, right, but oftener wrong — is expressed by the medium. If any other com- munication than these, Charles, has ever come from a clairvoyant or a spiritual medium, candidly should we acknowledge it ; and, as lovers of truth, we should not only cheerfully, but with pleasure, receive the testimony of it. Cases, indeed, are reported, in which inquirers have been informed, by the medium, of circumstances in the lives of relatives of theirs, and of other facts, of which they suppose themselves never before to have had knowl- edge. But three things are here to be borne in mind. Even if our supposition as to the source of these responses be correct, it is not to be expected that all the facts can at once be classified. Every right theory in science, after being first started, though sound in the main, must go stumbling on for years, now modified here, and now revised there, as new facts, slightly different, come to be ranged under it. Yet again ; who can say certainly that any fact which REPORT OUR OWN THOUGHT. 43 is thus reported from the medium never was known to him ? We remember the famous case of the servant- girl in England, who, during a sickness which affected the brain, repeated accurately passages of the Bible in Hebrew ; and when the secret of this apparent miracle was traced out, it was found that in early life she had lived in the family of a clergyman, whom she had often heard repeating Hebrew ; and, although never a word had been comprehended, or even remembered, so as to be uttered by her, it was all lodged in her mind, and it was her own knowledge, which, under nervous excite- ment, came echoing from her lips, all unconsciously to herself. Who knows what facts, casually mentioned in his hearing in childhood, entirely uncomprehended and not noted in memory, are yet fast adhering in his men- tal organism ; and who can say, positively, that the mysterious communications of the spiritual " medium ' are not those deep-hidden impressions brought out under a strong nervous excitement ? Such responses cannot be test cases ; for in them there is, at least, uncertainty. But, what is more to the point, if anything else than what is already in the mind of the inquirer can come from the medium's tongue or pen, why may not a test case be given ? Easily, indeed, could such an undisputed case be tried ; a case where no doubt could enter. For instance, let a clairvoyant be called on to describe any scene pass- ing at the present moment in a distant place, knowledge of which could not be in the mind of either party; and let some person at the same time, in that distant place, keep an accurate record, to be compared afterwarls with the 44 MYSTERIOUS TELEGRAPH. report of the medium. But never has it been my fortune to hear of such an instance. The communications of the clairvoyant and of the spiritual medium, as to facts that can be tested, have been only the knowledge, remem- bered or forgotten, and the surmise, right or wrong, of the person consulting. That, by a united current of two persons' nervous influ- ence, the thought of one should pass over, and be rapped, written or spoken, out by another, is mysterious; but it is no more mysterious than that, by a connection of elec- tric conductors, and by an excitement of the electric prin- ciple, I can control the electric influence of a series of electric conductors, reaching from New Orleans to Bos- ton, and have my thought rapped or written out a thou- sand miles from the point where I exert the energy. It is not supernatural ; and more, it is neither unnatural nor unaccountable. Moreover, that the unremembered thought of the inquirer should be thus expressed, has its counterpart in the experience of every excited speaker and writer. Finally, that these communications should be almost entirely of a religious character is natural ; for we know that in all mental excitements the religious sensibilities are most exercised. tilht /tft|r. POSSIBLE LAWS OF THE SPIRITUAL MEDIUM ; ILLUSTRATED u He denied absolutely that there was, or could be, such a thing as witch- craft, in the current sense." — Burroughs, quoted by Bancroft. " Witchcraft seems to be the skill of applying the plastic spirit of the world unto some unlawful purposes.'' — Cotton Mather. " The Salem justices are so well instructed in the Cartesian Philosophy , that they undertake to give a demonstration how this touch does cure the afflicted persons." * * * "These afflicted persons do say, and often have declared, that they can see spectres when their eyes are shut, as well as when they are opened. This one thing I evermore accounted as very observable, and that which might serve as a good key to unlock the nature of these mysterious troubles, if duly improved by us." — Brattle. The Inquiry may be practical soon. — Puritans Men of Strong Sense. — Their Precedents. — History of Witchcraft. — Sir Matthew Hale. — Three Opinions. — The Tacts. — Convulsions. — Other Bodily Affections. — Metals attracted. — Objects moved. — Rappings. — Wonderful Eloquence. — Mysterious Knowledge, or Clairvoyance. — Developments the same as in our Day. — Ex- citements and Impressions of the Age. — Causes, as in Royal Academy's Report. — Mather and Brattle agreeing in Princi- ple. — The Nervous Principle harmonizes all. My Dear Charles : Our inquiries thus far may seem to have related to matters of mere curiosity; a decision in reference to which, either way, will be of no practical vame. May it prove so. There are scenes of by-gone days, however, that speak their warning. When noble young Brattle, 46 puritans' strong sense. distinguished by university honors in Old England, a youth of ingenuous spirit, and sympathizing heart, and of strong native sense, sat writing in the very midst of the terrible Salem excitement and executions, and penned the sentence read above, happy would he have been if " the key " had already been found to " unlock the nature of these mysterious troubles." They were men of strong sense who lived in those times. As Palfrey has remarked, " To hold an opinion entertained by Sir Edward Coke and Sir Matthew Hale, while enjoying no better opportunities for correcting it, is not to incur the reproach of any extraordinary dulness of intellect." l Mather, in illustration, records that " the Justices and Judges " " consulted the Precedents of former times, and Precepts laid down by learned writers about witchcraft ; as Keeble on the Common Law, chap. Conjuration (an Author approved by the Twelve Judges of our Nation) ; also, Sir Matthew Hale's Trials of Witches, printed An. 1682 ; Glanvil's Collec- tion of Sundry Trials in England and Ireland, in the years 1658, 61, 64 & 81 ; Bernard's Guide to Jurymen ; Baxter's & B. B., their Histories about Witches, and their Discoveries ; C. Mather's Memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts, printed 1685." 2 Surely the opinions of such men must have been based on some- thing worthy of investigation ; while the terrible results 1 Mass. Hist. Collections, vol. xxix. ; Semi-centennial Discourse, by John G. Palfrey, delivered Oct. 31, 1844. 2 Mather's Magnalia, Book vi., Sadduc. debel., § 5; London Edit., 1702, p. 80. THREE OPINIONS. 47 flowing from the application of their opinions makes such an investigation a demand of humanity. A fearful and long history has " Witchcraft " had. Noticed in yet earlier times, the first mention of penal statutes in reference to it is that of Pope Innocent VIII., in 1484. Terrible was the havoc afterwards made. At Geneva, during three months of the year 1515, over five hundred persons were burned, charged with being witches. In the diocese of Como, in Italy, one thousand persons were, during one year, put to death on this charge. In England, especially under the reigns of Elizabeth and James, long and painful is the story of its victims. The able and excellent Sir Matthew Hale himself, after a protracted and candid examination, carried away by the spirit of the age, gave the authority of the highest tri- bunal, and of the most exalted powers on the seat of that tribunal, to these condemnations. 1 Surely there must have been facts unmistakable and indisputable which swayed such a mind, and so large a class of minds. The three classes of opinions already alluded to as universally prevalent among men of all ages and nations, in reference to mysteries of the Spiritual Medium, 2 are seen illustrated in New England during the reign of the " Witchcraft " excitement. Rev. George Burroughs, a burly, muscular, portly Englishman, a man all physical, when arrested and tried for witchcraft, boldly and abso- 1 " American Criminal Trials," bj Peleg W. Chandler. Boston, 1841, vol. i., pp. 67—69. 2 See Letter Second, p. 23. 48 mather's facts. lutely denied that there could be any such thing. 1 The slender and delicate Mather, a close student and full of learning, nervous and thoughtful, reflective and im- pulsive, the man all spiritual, deemed the mysterious manifestations which his senses perceived (though his imagination gave them coloring) to be supernatural. Calef, 2 the merchant, a man of strong practical sense, and Brattle, 3 a cultured scholar and finished lawyer, a man of even balance, acknowledged the facts, referring some to known causes, and leaving others for future investigation to explain or classify. Observe we, then, the attested facts, as given by eye- witnesses. In collecting these, let us do the justice, even to such a man as Mather, as to allow his truth and sin- cerity in his own parenthetical declaration: — " Reader, I write what hath fallen within my own personal obser- vation." 4 Visionary as he might be in theorizing upon his observations, as a chronicler of observed facts proba- bly no one will call in question his authority, especially where his statements are in keeping with those of other observers. Perhaps, after a collation and comparison of them, we may be surprised at the uniform history of the mysterious manifestations of the spiritual medium. 1 Bancroft's Hist, of IT. States, vol. in., p. 92. 2 " More Wonders of the Invisible World," by Robert Calef, merchant of Boston, in New England. Printed at London, 1700, and at Salem, 1796. 3 Letter of Thomas Brattle, F.R.S., written at Boston, Oct. 8, 1692. Mass. Hist. Collect., vol. v. 4 Mather's Magnalia, Book vr., p. 77. BODILY CONVULSIONS. 49 Violent convulsions of the bodies of those afflicted were the first and chief witnessed facts. Every muscle would be seen twitching; sharp pangs would dart through the limbs, as if the very bones were agonized : and the person affected would roll upon the ground, start up and leap with unnatural vehemence, and would jump and oscillate and bound upward and forward, as if furiously riding. 1 The evidence derived from these con- vulsions was especially relied upon in trials for witch- craft. The afflicted being perfectly free from convul- sions, as soon as the person accused with bewitching them was brought into the court-room severe spasms would come on. The professed witch was often identi- fied in this manner. The afflicted person was blind- folded, and several persons were caused to touch her in succession. At the touch of the accused, the convul- sions would instantly cease. Sometimes this failed, the convulsions subsiding at the touch of another than the accused; a case which gave Sir Matthew Hale a check in his confidence, although it did not alter his eventual decision. 2 Other bodily affections were witnessed. Surprising, apparently superhuman muscular strength was exhibited by persons affected. A strong man could lift a bed- stead, bed and man lying on it. 3 On this ground, the gigantic Burroughs, though cool and unaffected, was 1 See Brattle's Letter, and Mather often : especially Magnalia, B. vi., p. 74. 2 American Criminal Trials, vol. I., p. 70. 3 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., p. 72. 5 50 SUBSTANCES MOVED. condemned, though his natural power of muscle suffi- ciently spoke in its own defence. 1 Pricking sensations were often experienced in the flesh, the marks of which, as of pinches with the nails, were seen. 2 Sometimes a rigidity came over the frame, every joint becoming so stiff that it was impossible to bend it. 3 An attraction of other substances to the flesh of the affected, especially of metallic articles, such as pins, iron rods, &c, was noted by many witnesses ; and these attractions were accompanied with pricking sensations, as if the pins pierced the flesh ; 4 although, on examination it was found no wound had been inflicted. Violent motions in objects around, as if attracted and impelled by some mysterious force, were witnessed. A staff, an iron hook, shoes, keys, and even a chest, were seen to move, as if tossed by an invisible hand. A bed on which a sufferer lay shook most violently, even when several persons were seated on it. 5 Stones were hurled against houses and persons ; articles of iron, pewter and brass, were tossed about, a candlestick being thrown down, a spit flying up chimney, and a pressing-iron, a stirrup, 1 Bancroft, vol. in., p. 91. 2 Mather and Calef often; also, Narrative of Rev. Mr. Turrell, of Medford, Mass., in Mass. Hist. Collect., vol. xx., p. 9. 3 Mather's Mag., p. 72. 4 Mather's Mag., B. vt., pp. 68, 70, 72 & 79. Cases of this kind are common. One occurred about three years since at Washington, D. C, and was reported upon by Prof. Page, of the Patent Office, in the National Intelligencer. 5 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., pp. 68, 69, 70 RAPPINGS AND CLAIRVOYANCE. 51 and even a small anchor, being moved ; of which facts many persons were eye-witnesses. 1 Mysterious rappings were also heard. Audible scratch! rigs on the bedstead of a person affected were made. A drumming on the boards was heard ; when a voice seemed to say, " We knock no more ! we knock no more ! " A frying-pan rang so loud that the people at a hundred yards distance heard it. Sounds as of steps on the chamber-floor were heard. Divers noises as of the clattering of chairs and stools were heard in an adjoining room. 2 Yery varied are these instances. Wonderful powers of thought and grace of expression were exhibited by the most ignorant and uneducated, and by persons of ordinary, and even of small mental capacity. Of one person it is recorded, " He had a speech incessant and voluble, and (as was judged) in various languages." Of a little girl it is mentioned, " She argued concerning death, with paraphrases on the thirty-first Psalm, in strains that quite amazed us." 3 Cases of mysterious kriowledge, like those now called clairvoyance, are reported, even by the coolest witnesses. Brattle mentions that " several persons were accused by the afflicted whom the afflicted never had known." 4 Little girls thus affected (as we learn in the early Salem troubles, of which Brattle is here speaking) described 1 " The Stone-throwing Devil," by Richard Chamberline. (See copy Cambr. Coll. Library.) London, 1698. 2 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., pp. 69, 70. 3 Do., B. vi., pp. 70, 73. 4 Mass. Hist. Collect., vol. v., p. 73. 52 GREEK AND HEBREW READ persons they had never seen as their tormentors, and by these descriptions their parents or friends sought out the accused even in remote places. 1 In mentioning this fact, Brattle says that some persons thought that God, and others that good angels, communicated with the affected. 2 Brattle states no personal opinion, although he accredits the fact. 2 Brattle also records, " These afflicted per- sons do say, and often have declared, that they can see spectres when their eyes are shut as well as when they are open. This one thing I evermore accounted as very observable, and that which might serve as a good key to unlock the nature of these mysterious troubles, if duly improved by us." 3 Mather also states a fact, and it would seem impossible that he could have been deceived, on which he relied much, and which has oft been referred to as most mysterious. Of one of the little daughters of John Goodwin, of Boston, he says, " Perceiving that her troublers understood Latin, some trials were there- upon made whether they understood Greek and Hebrew, which, it seems, they also did ; but the Indian languages they did not seem so well to understand." 4 Of Ann Cole, Mather says, " Her tongue was improved by the Daemon, to express things unknown to herself;" and of Elizabeth Knap he writes, " Though she was in one of her fits, and had her eyes wholly shut, yet when 1 Mather's Magnalia, often. 2 Mass. Hist. Collect,, vol r. s p. 73. 3 Ibid, pp. 73, 74. 4 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., p. 75; Bancroft's U. States Hist., rol. in., p. 76. EXCITING CAUSES. 53 this innocent woman (the accused) was coming, she discovered herself wonderfully sensible of it, and was in grievous agonies at her approaches." l No one can compare the series of facts thus recorded without being struck with their almost entire similarity to those of the developments witnessed in our day. Even in the lesser details this entire analogy may be seen ; as in the rigidity or stiffness of the affected per- son's frame, 2 the reported case of one person drawn with force up to the ceiling, 3 the bringing of the sick to consult these clairvoyant advisers ; 4 and the fact that the person in a swoon remembered nothing of the com- munications given when in it, her own mind not being the actor. 5 Having glanced thus at the facts of witchcraft, notice we the sources to which different classes of minds referred them ; and draw we then our own natural inferences. There was something peculiar in the age and circum- stances of the early New England colonists, to create a more than usual general nervous excitement. They lived in a wilderness ; and the terrors of their dreary 1 Ibid, B. vi., p. 67. This same fact, that by a nervous shock an excited person actually perceives the approach of another, Shak- speare alludes to, Macbeth, Act iv., Scene i. ; the witch saying, " By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes." 2 Mather's Magnalia, p. 72. 3 Calef, Letter I., § 8. 4 Brattle's Letter, Mass. Hist. Collect., vol. v., p. 71. 5 Hale, quoted by Bancroft, Hist, of U. S., vol. in., p. 91. 5% 54 THUNDER SUPERNATURAL. abode were heightened, to those delicately brought up in Old England, by the popular religious belief, that " evil spirits " had been sent, even by Christ himself, to take up their abode in " desert places." l They dwelt among savage and heathen tribes, whose powaks, like their East India fellows, 2 recovered persons afflicted with cer- tain diseases by their incantations; and, as Mather confi- dently asserts of one, he " could precisely inform such who desire his assistance from whence goods taken from them were stolen, and whither carried." Seeing in- stances of this kind, which, as Mather says, those " who have conversed much among them have had no reason to question," and referring them to "diabolical agen cy," 3 there was, as in the days of Joan of Arc, a natu- ral reason not only for a strong belief in the supernat- ural, but there was also a natural cause exciting such an undue manifestation of the nervous energy as would produce the facts leading to that belief. Yet, again, living in a forest region, where storms, with a before unknown degree of electrical terror, burst in thunder and lightning over them, it is worthy of notice, that the same class of minds which referred the mysteries of the nervous principle seen in witchcraft to supernatural causes, — that same class regarded this associate inter- mediate agency as supernatural, and under the control of evil spirits ; not only Cotton Mather, but other minds in that day, being satisfied that Damons con- 1 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., chap, vn., p. 66. 2 Ibid, B. vi., chap v., § 1, p. 52 ; also, Postscript, p. 59. 3 Ibid, p. 52, PHYSIOLOGICAL SOURCE. 55 trolled the lightnings, because so many meeting-houses were struck by the electric fluid. 1 A candid examination and comparison would seem to indicate the same classification made by Franklin and the members of the French academy of the manifesta- tions in Mesmer's experiments. There are those for which known physiological facts may account. All the affections of " the afflicted " were evidently of a nervous kind. The subjects were nearly all children, or young females of the most ignorant and uncultured class ; 2 the natural subjects of nervous excitement. The con- vulsions were ordinary nervous spasms. Moreover, the derangement of the nervous system was plainly seen, and described as an attendant of the afflicted person's fit ; Brattle remarking that " even the judges saw that the brain of the confessors was affected ;" 3 Mather also, again and again, alluding to the manifest insanity of many of the afflicted ; mentioning of Mrs. Whetford, that after being bewitched ten years, she became crazy ; 4 relating of the Irish woman, Glover, that five or six physicians were appointed by the court to examine if " she were in no way crazed in her intellectuals ;" 5 and recording of Mr. Philip Smith, that he was conscious beforehand that mental derangement was coming on, and requested 1 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., chap, m., pp. 14, 20. 2 Brattle, Mass. Hist. Collect., vol. v., pp. 75, 77 ; and Mather everywhere. 3 Ibid, vol. v., p. 65. 4 Mather's Wonders of the Invisible "World, p. 58. 5 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., p. 72< 56 " SPECIAL AGENTS." his friends to " have a care " of him. 1 There were, again, a large class of reported facts for which known psychological causes are an explanation. To the influ- ence of excited imagination many of the sights, sounds and physical impressions felt, must be referred ; the impressions on the organs of sense of the persons affected being as real as if made by an external object. Thus spectres were seen when none appeared to unex- cited eyes ; 2 stones of great size were seen and felt to strike persons, when no stone was found and no mark of a blow left ; 3 and sometimes one portion of a company would smell the odor of brimstone, and when others around denied that they smelt the same, the affected ones would become satisfied that they had been mistaken in their impression. 4 Yet a third class of witnessed facts, allowed by all classes, must be referred to that special unknown agent which the French savans recognized in Animal Mag- netism. And it is worth noting, that among the personal observers of all classes there was virtually a surprising unanimity on this point. Even blunt George Burroughs only denied that there could be any such thing as witchcraft "in the current sense." 5 Mather, on the other extreme, explained it, as he did the light- ning, to be " a skill of applying the plastic spirit of the 1 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi , p. 70. 2 Brattle and Mather, often. 3 Mather's Magnalia, B. vi., p. 69. 4 Calef 's Letters, p. 47. s Bancroft's U. S., vol. m., p. 92. OPINIONS OF THAT DAY. 57 world ; " l this intermediate agent being simply supposed by him to be, in common with the lightning, allowed by the Creator to come under the control of dcemons. Mather remarks, in reference to the opinions of his day, that " many good men " thought there ought not to be any condemnations for witchcraft ; and that " they had also some philosophical schemes of witchcraft, and of the method and manner wherein magical poisons operate, which further supported them in their opinion.' ,2 Brat- tle, too, early in the troubles, says that there were at- tempts to explain these affections "on the Cartesian philosophy ;" 3 and it is interesting to observe this, since Descartes is the very one to whom the modern theory of " the animal spirits," the " nervous principle," or the spiritual medium, is referred. 4 Surely, then, Charles, after such a survey as this, who shall say the suggestion is visionary, that possible laws of the nervous principle, analogous to known laws of electricity (an associate intermediate agency), may be the source of these mysterious phenomena ? Glance, then, over the list of facts ; and, not at all as a scien- tific explanation, but as a just illustration, suppose an application of laws of the nervous principle similar to the established laws of electricity. Surprising strength, rigidness of muscle, and pricking sensations like those of a current from the galvanic battery, certainly need 1 Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 56. 2 Mass. Hist. Collect., by Barber, p. 223. 3 Brattle's Letter, Mass. Hist. Collect., vol. v., pp. 62, 63. 4 Bostock's Physiology, vol. i., chap, vi., § 2, p. 201. 58 NERVOUS PRINCIPLE ACCORDS. no comment. Metallic substances may be attracted as by a magnet, and adhere to the flesh, and various arti- cles may be drawn about as by electric currents. Mys- terious " rappings," like electric snappings, may be heard as about a surcharged receiver. Wonderful power of thought and utterance, like to that shown by every per- son under strong nervous excitement, may be displayed. Moreover, if it be so that the mind of the clairvoyant is perfectly inactive, and that the thought of another per- son present is uttered through her lips, certainly the cases related by Brattle and others, both as to the com- munications of the Indian powahs, and of " the afflicted," were but the uttering of the thought of others present, by a connected nervous energy. Surely, when the afflicted girl read to Cotton Mather Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and Indian " not so well," it was the precise echo of his own learning coming from her lips. At least, Charles, there is a coincidence here worthy of further examination and comparison. ttittx liit jr. "THE MYSTERIOUS DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SPIRITUAL AS SEEN AND COMME? IN THE MIDDLE AGES. MEDIUM AS SEEN AND COMMENTED UPON 5) " Perturbationes item sive passiones malae, quae phantasiam sequuntur, vehementer nedum proprium, sed alienuum corpus possunt transcendere, ac illud immutare adeo ut mirabilis possint produci irnpressiones in demen- tis, item rebus extrinsecis ; sicque sanabiles quosdam morbos esse citra medicinae adminiculum. Inest certe hominum animis virtus quaedam deli tescens immutandi, attrahendi, ligandi, potissimum si maximo imaginationis, mentis, voluntatisque excessu, in id quod vel attrahere, vel immutare, vel ligare vel impedire cupit." — Scholiast of the Middle Ages. [Excitements, also, or diseased affections, which follow a fantasy, can strongly overpower not only one's own, but a foreign body, and so change it that wonderf ul impressions may be produced in the elements, also in objects without us 5 and thus certain diseases may be curable without the adminis- tering of medicine. There is certainly in the souls of men a certain myste- rious power of attracting, of changing, of binding (especially where there is the greatest excess of imagination, of mental energy, of will), over that which it desires either to attract, or change, or bind, or impede.] No new Suggestion. — Link in the Middle Ages to Ancient Times — Thorough Treatise of that Day. — Magic an Exalted Study. - • " Soul of the World." — All Spirits Linked. —A Superior Spirit can control the Body of a Weaker. — As a Magnet the Spirit may attract Material Objects. — Disease Cured. — Power of Numbers. — Power of Song. — The Daemon, or Spiritual Princi pie communicating Knowledge. — Aristotle's View. — Excited like Magnetism Electricity. — Sword of iEneas. — The Daemon nothing but Nervous Excitement. — Virgil's Testimony. — In- cense and Drugs excite. — Transformations of Circe and Fasci- nations in the Middle Ages. — Wonders we are yet to see. My Dear Charles : Does it seem to you empirical, unfounded and hasty theorizing, and a suggestion of personal vanity in your 60 LINK TO ANCIENT TIMES. friend, when thus it is hinted that these apparent spir itual influences may be referred to the action of natu ral causes, to the operation of our own nervous organ- ism ? Judge not your friend too hastily ; for he has ardently, if not sincerely, been seeking after truth. If he errs in referring these phenomena neither to a good nor an evil supernatural influence, but to natural causes, he has a large experience of great and good men, in many an ancient land and clime, erring with him ; for even Cicero and Socrates and Moses may be found suggestors of the same hint. We have already alluded to the fact that the first philosophic examination of the experiments of Mesmer led scientific men to trace back the history of similar developments far into the middle ages. We have just seen that the mysterious developments of witchcraft have a history equally hid in the twilight of the dark ages. Now, Charles, let me lead you back over the fields of history, until we tread the soil of old Greece and Rome, and mingle among the cultured men who trod the earth some eighteen, and some even twenty-two centuries ago. I forewarn you that we shall find the philosophic Cicero, Pliny and Plutarch, the physicians Luke and Galen, and even old Socrates and Plato, wit- nessing phenomena similar to those we now are wonder- ing at ; while, moreover, they ascribed them to similar causes. We will let a profound scholar, of the middle ages * 1 See an extended aid learned Note on the first and second chapters of the Thirtieth Book of Pliny's Natural History, first SOUL OF THE WORLD. 61 introduce us into that alcove of the library of the an- cients where are stored their voluminous and deep- studied treatises on Spiritual Media ; and his researches will reveal to us scenes in ancient days such as we now behold, and many that we are probably yet to see in suc- cession revived among us. The scholiast says 1 "that, although often abused by bad men, magic is the science of supernatural influences, and has in all ages been regarded the highest of studies. Plato and Pythagoras, and the ablest and best Greeks, believed in it, and studied and practised it, in common with the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, and, indeed, all ancient nations. It is, properly speaking, the active por- tion of natural philosophy. Of its proper employ Plato said that " the magic of Zoroaster seemed to him nothing else than the knowledge and worship of divine beings. " The source whence originate the spiritual communi- cations received through magic, the ancient philosophers found in their idea of ' the soul of the world.' One great universal spirit, so the eastern sages long before Plato believed, pervades immensity ; whose influence is the moving principle in all material things, and from whom all human souls and various ranks of superior spirits are emanations. Every human soul is part of the universal spirit ; and capable, under favorable cir- cumstances, of partaking of the knowledge of all other spiritual beings. There is in natural existences a kin- published at Lyons, A. D. 1531 ; found in the Paris edition of 1778. 1 It is a brief abstract, not a translation, which is attempted. 6 62 CONTROL OF FOREIGN BODIES. dred principle, either of repulsion or attraction, seated in their hidden powers. This attracting power the Egyptians called natural magic, the Greeks sympathy. The spiritual principle in man is not united to the body, except by the living principle ; nor the intellect with the living principle, except by the spiritual principle. 1 When nature would form a human body, she draws the living principle from the universe. This link reaches celestial existences. Thus demons and departed spirits can be called up. Thus, too, as the ancients say, there is something divine 2 in natural things. So, too, we read in Galen, Hippocrates and the Platonists, that many human souls excel to such an extent, that they can so raise themselves above everything material, as to be restored to themselves and to their vigor when the body has been laid off; 3 as to agitate, to impel, and at will to employ any members of the world, and to control as their own any human body in which the spiritual principle is subjected. 4 Behold here, Charles, in the germ, at least, an illustration of the controlling and moving of material objects, and of the employing 1 "When contrasted, intellectus and animus seem to represent the intellect, the soul, that is, pure spirit ; anima, the spiritual princi- ple, the nervous principle, the spiritual medium ; and spiritus, the living principle. When not in contrast, spiritus mundi and anima mundi seem to be synonymous. In the former case, the words are rendered as indicated ; in the latter, the expression is rendered simply spirit or soul of the world, 2 The history of a philosophy now popular may be traced here. 3 See the case cited in Letter Mnth, p. 96. 4 Histoire de PLne. Paris edit., 1778. Tom. X., pp. 139—142. DISEASES CURED. 63 of the body of another, seen in our day. Let us i dIIow up the theory. " There are four fluids which the spiritual principle employs at will. As the magnet has a wondrous and peculiar power of attracting iron, so, through the soul of the world, man has a wondrous power. The soul of one existence goes out and enters into another, and excites, impels, or impedes its operations ; as the dia- mond impedes the magnetic stone in attracting iron. The medium of existing things is the spirit of the world. Through this spirit every hidden property of things in- animate, as metals and stones, and of things animate, as plants, is propagated ; and this reaches up through man to celestial existences. This is the chain of Homer ; these are the circles of Plato. To excite this influence the perturbations or passions of the mind greatly con- duce. These perturbations or passions can pass over to a foreign body, and change it so that wonderful impres- sions can be produced on the elements, even on external objects ; and thus diseases can be cured without the aid of medicine. There surely is in the souls of men a cer- tain power of changing, of attracting, of binding (espec- ially where there is the greatest outgoing of imagination, of mind and of will), whatever it desires to attract, to change, or to bind. For thus, as the Magi hold, through affections of the soul, as well as through direct aid of certain celestial influences, fortunately in apposi- tion, wonders can be performed. The Arabian philoso- phers gave rules for training the soul to this power." 1 1 Histoire de Pline, Tom. X., pp. 142—150, Note. 64 POWER OP NUMBERS. How plainly, Charles, the learned ancient accounts for the healing of the sick, the power of the magnetizer over another, and the moving of tables, &c, seen in our day, on the principle of nervous excitement. " The Magi assert, too, that numbers enter in a cer- tain manner into the composition of substances ; and, having a certain connection in the divine mind, a won- derful property is originated. Thus, the Pythagoreans employed the number three in purifications, to which Yirgil several times symbolically refers. The Magians, by this effect of a number, do, indeed, bind, remove, and cure diseases." 1 This form of the mysterious development of the spiritual medium, Charles, is not yet introduced into our circles ; but it lives still in the East, 2 and will cross the water, doubtless, in due time. " By the power of song, too, enchantresses, like Circe, excited and controlled men through this influence. Of this Lucan, Virgil and Tibullus, speak." 3 Another art of the East, which has begun to be employed in con- nection with the development of our day. " We come now to another class of magic, that exer- cised through inspiration from spiritual beings. There are three grades of nature ; gods and men being the ex- tremes, and the middle grade being called demons^ from their superior knowledge. In his book on * Sleep and 1 Histoire de Pline, Tom. X., pp. 151 — 153, Note. 2 See Let. Ninth., p. 105. Shakspeare mentions this magic charm of the number three, Macbeth, Act. I., Scene 3. 3 Histoire de Pline, Tom. X., pp. 157, 158. aristotle's view. 65 Vigils,' Aristotle says, ' The blood descending in great abundance to the sensitive principle, at the same time there descend forms conceived in the imagination ; by which means demons can move the fluids, both of the interior and exterior senses, and thus present to the organs certain forms, just as they would outwardly meet us, not only in sleep, but when awake.' Thus demons do really affect us and communicate knowledge." l Here, again, is a further attempt, Charles, on the part of the ancients, even to explain the physiological law by which the " sensitive principle " is thus affected, so that impressions like real sensations are produced on the bodily senses, and thus real knowledge of distant and of future events communicated to the mind. And now we come to the concluding part of the scholiast's treatise, and meet a thought yet more in point. The spiritual medium, the spirit of the world, which is the medium of existences, appears to be noth- ing else than the electrical and nervous fluids, of which physiologists now speak ; being excited by the same means, and manifesting the same phenomena when excited. Remember, the soul of the world spoken of by the ancients was nothing more nor less than what we call " the laws of nature ; " and which we regard not spirit, but, like electricity, intermediate between mat- ter and spirit ; 2 and remembering this, observe how 1 Histoire de Pline, Tom. X., pp. 168—170. 2 It is just this neglect to distinguish between pure spirit and the intermediate principles which characterizes Mr. Emerson's ex- pression, " I look for the new teacher * * that shall see the 6* 66 THE DEMON THE NERVOUS ENERGY. the excitement here spoken, the source of it, and its passing over from one person to another, is just that we have before hinted. " The demon " (or spiritual princi- ple), says the scholiast, " dreads iron." On this account, those who would drive away the demon (or spiritual principle) hold before them swords, iron, javelins ; which also the Mantuan Homer (Virgil) seems to notice in the sixth iEneid : — " Procul, procul este profani Conclamat Vates, totoque absistite luco. Tuque invade viam, vaginaque eripe/erram." On this account, iEneas also had a consecrated sword. 1 One can hardly avoid, Charles, comparing this with Mesmer's use of the iron-rod, and the bits of metal now employed by magnetizers. And now remark a statement even more important, showing that the Platonists meant by demons nothing else than the spiritual or nervous principle. " Saint Thomas (Aquinas) writes, that ' fear, grief and joy, cannot exist in demons, as they are perturbations ; since they are these sensitive appetites ; and an appetite properly is a property in an organ of the body. Virgil seems to allude to this same view when he says : — 6 Diine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt, Euriale 1 an sua cuique Deus fit dira cupido.' A good desire of the soul, then, is called God, by identity of gravitation with purity of heart." Address at Cam- bridge, July 15, 1838. 1 Histoire de Pline, Tom. X., p. 172. DRUGS AND SONG. 67 him. Jamblicus writes, that a demon proper is nothing else than the intellect." l The further we pursue this subject, Charles, the more shall we feel that there were men of strong common sense, in ancient times, as well as now ; and that, if we can but work under the shell and get at the kernel of their thought, we shall find that human minds and human opinions are as truly the same as nuts are, in all lands and in all ages. " The cultivators of magic," he proceeds, " employed the burning of incense in calling forth the spiritual influence ; " a method not yet introduced into our coun- try ; though now, 2 and from the most ancient times, em- ployed in the East. " The smoke had two virtues ; in it, especially if made from burning the heart, head or wind-pipe, of a chameleon, they thought they had a power of inducing an electrical influence (tonitrua) ; and in it they made the images of the spirits to appear. The influence of stimulating drugs and of song also was employed, as Virgil, Tibullus and Cato describe; by which an influence so great, over the imagination, and really over the souls of men, was exerted by Circe and other sorceresses, that they not only seemed to them- selves to be, but actually were, turned into swine, or anything else the enchantress pleased." 3 Surely, Charles, this belief in enchantment could not have had such a hold on intelligent men, as in many an age, and espec- ially in the middle ages, it gained, unless there does i Histoire de Pline, Tom. X., pp. 172—173. 2 See Let. Ninth, p. 105. 3 Histoire de Pliae, Tom. X., pp. 173—175. 68 NOVELTIES FOR LECTURERS. exist some mysterious power, which, under nervous ex- citement, one person can exert on another. The concluding portion of the scholiast's note describes the various methods by which this spiritual communica- tion is gained. The experimenters of our day may wonder at the list, on which they have as yet only entered. " There is Hippomantia, divining by the poi- sonous excrescence of the colt, of which Virgil speaks. There is the use of the sword of the executioner im- mersed in wine ; there is Axiomantia, the employ of axes ; and there is Lecanomantia, which the Assyrians employed, filling a skin with water, and placing in it silver, amber, and certain precious stones ; " all of which seem to indicate that the excitement of the spiritual influence by the ancient Magi was through an agency similar to what was afterwards called the discovery of Galvani. Then " there was Aeromantia, and Botano- mantia, and Cleromantia, and Gastromantia, 1 and Geo- mantia, and Pyromantia, and Capnomantia, and Necro- mantia, and Scyomantia, and Literomantia, and Um- bilicomantia, and Chiromantia;" 2 a list most discourag- ing to him who thinks of investigating this whole sub- ject, most interesting to him who can see the germ of these old systems yet living in the different parts of the 1 This form of magic deserves special note, as it is one often alluded to among the Komans, Greeks, Hebrews, and the Orientals generally. The scholiast's description of it is, " One class is per- formed with a large-bellied jar, into which it was the practice for a boy to gaze." The descriptions of the other classes we omit. 2 Histoire de Pline, Tom. X., pp. 175—177. THE UNIVERSAL HAS A LAW. 69 world, most exhilarating to itinerant lecturers who anx- iously are looking for something to supply the last novelty, and most instructive to him who can assure him- self that through them all runs one great principle, and in them all is seen the same intermediate agent working, the " nervous principle," which is the spiritual medium. The learned scholiast who has given so grand and wide an introduction to the ancient theory of the spirit- ual medium now takes his leave of us, with this con- cluding remark, " Thus much concerning the kinds of magic. These are facts which we have culled from cer- tain authors and monuments, and their teachings, them- selves most ancient, and by name and title unknown." The remark will prepare us for our next conference. tttitt #0£tttll- THE MORBID ACTION OF THE SPIRITUAL MEDIUM, AS OBSERVED AND THEORIZED UPON BY THE PRACTICAL ROMANS. " Proinde ita persuasum sit, intestabilem, irritam, inanem esse, haben- tem tamen quasdam veritatis umbras." — Pliny on Magic. [Thus, therefore, he was persuaded that it is dishonest, useless and frivolous, but has nevertheless some shades of truth.] " No superstition can ever be prevalent, and widely diffused through ages and nations, without having a foundation in human nature." — Schlegel on the Witches of Shakspeare. Ancient Authors " referred to. — Roman View practical. - • Modes of seeking Knowledge. — Three Views of Source. — Juvenal's Satire, and Horace's Wit. — Virgil's Allegory, and Interpretation of it. — Plutarch. — His Matter of Fact. — Why Poetic Oracles ceased. — Why Delphi is silent. — The Nervous Exciter failed. — Reason and Religion agreed. — Pliny the Naturalist. — "Magical Vanities." — Hold three-fold, meeting Bodily, Intellectual, and Moral Want. — Some Shades of Truth. — Homer's Spirit called up. — The Naturalist's Conclusion. — Galen, the Physician. — Medical View of Indian, Greek, and Roman Physicians . — Power of Amulets. — Electric Illustra- tions. — The Physician's Conclusion. My Dear Charles : The scholiast of the middle ages, over whose pages we have just been poring, mentioned in his conclusion that he had gleaned his facts and reasonings from the " teachings " of "ancient authors." Among the old Ro- mans, and older Greeks, types of two classes of minds, ROMAN VIEW PRACTICAL. 71 we naturally look for his authorities. We may find them agreeing in their facts, and, perhaps, only appar- ently differing in their conclusions drawn from those facts. Although among every nation of men all classes of mind are met, yet in his natural bent the pure Roman was a practical man. The Romans, at no period, had a national oracle; 1 although caves whence issued me- phitic gases, like those which excited the raving Pytho- ness at Delphi, abounded in volcanic Italy. More- over, although a few minds of a certain cast were drawn to visit the old Grecian shrines, yet, in the ad- vance of Roman intelligence, the Pythoness there ceased, firs4 to chant in poesy, and then to give even in prose her responses. 2 In the Roman writers, therefore, a practical view of the manifestation of the spiritual medium may be expected. While in various modes, through the spiritual medium, men sought knowledge otherwise unattainable, the common mind regarded the witnessed mysteries as supernatural ; the artful practiser on popular belief, half-deceived and half-de- ceiving, knew part to be deceptive, and part real and mysterious ; and the philosophic mind of the poet, the orator, the physician, and the scholar, is seen ever con- demning the artifice, yet respecting the facts, and seeking a law for them. The two prominent modes of seeking such knowledge were through dreams, and through persons under nerv- 1 Eschenberg's Manual of Classical Literature, Part iv. 3 § 226. 2 Juvenal and Plutarch ; see pp. 74 76. 72 MODES OF SEEKING KNOWLEDGE OE THE FUTURE. ous excitement, or inspiration. By the philosophic, however, trust in such communications was regarded a thing of the past, a reliance of their revered Trojan and Latian ancestors ; ! and for all the knowledge thus really communicated they found a philosophic explanation. 2 They especially marked that the supposed inspired persons were females of nervous temperament ; as the Pythoness of Delphi, the Sibyl who brought the famed books to Tarquin, and the Cumsean Sibyls. The vari- ous other methods by which superhuman knowledge was sought among the Romans have been thus clas- sified. 3 First, Sacrifices. In solemn pomp the bullock was brought to the altar and slain, and his entrails and liver were laid bare, when the solemn aruspice inspected their appearance, and from it divined the future. Second, Birds and other animals. The auspice watched how the raven, crow, owl and cock, sounded their shrill notes, how the eagle and vulture flew, how the sacred chickens picked up their food, and how vari- ous quadrupeds crossed his path ; and thence augured. Third, Electrical phenomena. Early in the morn, or when a storm-cloud gathered, the augurs gazed and listened ; and, if lightning flashed or thunder rolled on the left, good was promised. Fourth, The heavenly bodies. At dead of night, or at early twilight, the inquirer went to the astrologer's tower, usually a Chal- 1 See Virgil, p. 75. 2 See Cicero, Let. Eighth, p. 87. 3 See the invaluable " Roman Antiquities " of Alex. Adam, L.L.D., New York, 1830, pp. 252, 274; with his scholar-like refer- ences. Also, " Eschenberg," part iv., § 75. THREE VIEWS. 73 dean from old Babylon. Taking his book of recorded conjunctions, of risings and settings of the stars and planets, by the aspect of the heavens the Magian di- vined good or ill. Especially from calculating what star was rising at the moment of one's birth, he fore- told the fortunate or adverse destiny of the consulter. Fifth, Lots, Thrown like dice, and their fall observed, or, placed in a vase, sometimes filled with water, and drawn out thence by a boy, or by the consulter at the oracle, the priest interpreted the meaning of their pe- culiar appearance. Sixth, Magic art. Among these, what the Greeks called gastromantia, and the Latins ventriloquism, or speaking from the abdomen, is prom- inent. The student of Roman literature gathers this picture of it. A boy sits watching the appearance of water in the belly (or bulging portion, yauT^rj) of a tall glass vase, while the artful ventriloquist, near by, utters guttural and mysterious responses. Seventh, Omens. At important crises, the slightest accident or incident was interpreted favorably, or otherwise ; as sneezing, stumbling, spilling salt at table, &c. In ref- erence to all these, it is worthy here to note the three classes of views in every age entertained. The impuls- ive and ignorant, as well as the cultivated man of nervous temperament, saw in them supernatural manifestations ; a rough, fear-naught soldier, like Plautus, could in scorn throw the sacred chickens overboard, if they did not eat to suit him ; while a man of even balance, of thorough wisdom and address, like Caesar, when he stumbled and fell on his face in stepping on the shore 7 74 of Africa, could turn the bad omen into a good one, by grasping the sand, and kissing it, as he fell, saying, " Teneo te, Africa" — I seize thee, Africa. 1 Among the able writers of Rome this same difference of view is seen. Juvenal, who flourished A. D. 190, satirizes all trust in such communications. He pictures the man of weak mind and conscience trembling for his imagined faults, going to seek pardon, imagining that he sees the silver serpent of the diviner move his head, and that the gods speak to his spirit at night. Dis- trustful of his own supposed revelations, he seeks the crafty fortune-teller of Judea, the pretended interpreter of the laws of Solyma, and for a paltry copper the Jew sells any dreams he wishes. He hies, then, to the Armenian augur ; and, as a last resort, seeks the Chal- dean astrologer, the oracle of Delphi having now ceased to respond. The shrewd poet thus presents the two sources of mysterious communications, through one's own agitated dreams, and through the excited and myste- rious working of another's fancy ; and he seems to hint that, through the nervous principle (anima), the myste- rious knowledge comes to the mind (mens), both when in dreams the excited sleeper seizes sometimes the truth, and when the practised fortune-teller by his understood art gains a knowledge of his consulter's secret thought. 2 In the same strain oft writes the pleasure-loving Horace; rallying his friend, Leuconoe, for trying Babylonian numbers, and being too credulous ; and declaring that 1 Adam's Roman Antiquities, pp. 254, 256; with his copious references. 2 Juvenal, Satire vi., 410—450. virgil's allegory. 75 intelligent and brave men must be diseased in mind, and fanatical, when they give way to superstitious belief in spiritual manifestations. 1 On the other hand, the sickly, melancholy Virgil, the very type of the reflect- ive man, gives the opposite picture ; dating the view he expresses, however, in a distant age, and throwing in many a reference to philosophic solutions of his own time. The Trojan iEneas goes in confident devotion to the cave of the Cumsean Sibyl. Wondrous is the •knowledge of his family she displays ; as wondrous as that coming from a similar medium in our day ; but she speaks in a nervous frenzy, in which her own mind is lost. With a golden bough and a consecrated sword, with metallic exciters of the nervous influence, his way to gain spiritual communications is prepared. From spirits called up by a triple invocation, not from the Sibyl herself, he is to learn. From the shade of his father, Anchises, he receives communications ; and his responses first present the theory by which spirits are supposed to communicate with the living, through the nervous prin- ciple (spiritus), and the intelligent principle (mens), which pervade the universe. And finally the secret is revealed, that not at all an actual descent of JEneas to the spirit-world has the philosophic poet recorded ; any more than Bunyan, in his Pilgrim, writes anything but allegory. It is in magnetic trance, in sleeping vis- ion, iEneas and the Sibyl have gained their communica- tions ; for from the ivory gate of " sleep " Anchises at last releases them. In another picture, free from allegory, 1 Horace's Odes, B. i., No. 11; Satire in., verses 80, 278. 76 plutarch's matter of fact. Virgil expressly calls the maiden having the prophetic furor one " deranged in intellect ;" he describes as per- fectly as our Salem ancestors saw it the wild-fire spread of the uncontrollable excitement among her companions of like temperament, and paints to life the magic art. 1 There is philosophy worthy of modern study here. We have seen thus in Rome's poets the two extreme views of spiritual manifestations. In her practical writers we shall meet the middle view ; which admits the facts, and refers them to a natural and sufficient cause, that of the nervous principle, or spiritual medium. The story-telling Plutarch, who wrote in the later Roman age, and in the Greek language, was so interested in these subjects as to pen two books ; the one on the question, " Why Pythia does not now give Oracles in Metre ; " and the other, " Concerning the Cessation of Oracular Responses." Discussing the first question, he presents the theory that " the body of the dead passes into plants, and thence into animals ; and so in the entrails of the animal the spirit of the dead may appear. God uses the prophetic maiden as the sun does the moon, to reflect from her his thought. The enthusiasm called the divine instinct, seen in her, is from two sources, from a bodily affection, and from the mind's nature. She speaks in poetry on the same principle that astrologers and philosophers, and even men full of wine, and minds under any strong excitement, break out in song. No grave questions now are presented ; i Virgil's JEneid, Book vi. ; vers. 46— 50 5 100—102, 137, 260, 506, 893—8; and vn., 376—396. Also Eclog. vm. WHY DELPHI IS SILENT. 77 do excitement of war, sedition, of tyranny, and fearful calamity, calls forth the frenzy. The trifling inquir- ies of servants and young women, to itinerant fortune- tellers, about marriage, their health, &c, are unworthy an answer in verse. Finally, as it is puerile to admire the rainbow, and rings about the sun and moon, and comets, more than the sun and moon, so the fondnes? for enigmas and allegories in obscure poetry is not becoming those who employ reason to gain a knowledge of God." l On the second theme, Plutarch gives a brief history of oracles, from Egypt and its priests to Britain and its Druids. " In Greece the oracle had ceased, chiefly on account of the insignificant inquiries made at the shrine. Divination, however, remained. Through the demons or genii (of which Homer spoke in general terms, but the later Greeks more philosophically ^ , knowl- edge from the spirit world is gained. There is a uni- versal medium ; for, since there are very many worlds, and to each one its own medium, and at the same time its own peculiar motion, in some to the medium, in some from it, and in some around it, all gravitating (^grj 9 gravia) substances must on all sides be drawn together towards one medium. 2 The knowledge gained by this medium some regarded as supernatural. It is in reality natural ; a faculty of our minds. Memory in us is as the hearing of deaf persons, and the seeing of the blind ; 1 Plutarchi Opera, Lipsiae, 1777; vol. vn., pp. 566, 592—594, 604, 607, 608, and 611. 2 The germ, it would almost seem, of Newton's law of gravita- tion. 7# 78 REASON AND RELIGION AGREED. therefore it is not wonderful if, apprehending, as it does, many things which have ceased to be, it also gains knowledge of many which do not yet exist. Since, therefore, souls have this power of mind innate, yet hidden, some suddenly manifest it in dreams or at sac- rifices, and employ it. Probably it is as when wine, its vapors being borne to the brain, produces great move- ment in the mind ; for the chief power of divining is in the raving and furor. Moreover, it is not equable, but subject to changes. It is extinguished in great rains, is dissipated in places where lightning is prevalent, and especially subsides in an earthquake. A certain tempering of the air and the w ind affects it. It vehe- mently excites the frame." " I wish not to call into doubt anything which is regarded divine. I will free myself from the charge, Plato being called out as my witness and defender. For he blamed Anaxagoras the ancient, because, too much immersed in natural causes, and always seeking after and tracing out the necessity of those affections which occur in natural bodies, he omit- ted the final and efficient cause, the more exalted in the order of causes, and the more potent principles. In the mean time, Plato himself was the first or most promi- nent of all philosophers in uniting these two ; so that, indeed, he ascribed to God the origin of those things which are performed through a general principle. We do not make divination to occur without God, or without a general principle, when we regard the human soul (animum) as its subject, and the spirit (spiritum) or " MAGICAL VANITIES." 79 vapors of enthusiasm as its instrument." l Read thought- fully, Charles, these statements ; and bear witness that our supposition was no novelty ; it was not baseless in reason, nor repugnant to religion. Another work of this same age will naturally attract our notice. Here are ranged twelve large quarto vol- umes, the works of Pliny, the naturalist, 2 who closed his long life's investigations, when, in pressing on to behold nearer the belching flames of Vesuvius, the smoke suffocated him, and, wrapping his mantle about his head, he fell amid the ashes that were burying Pompeii. Draw we out the tenth volume, and turn we to his thirtieth book. We have already read the long Latin commentary here introduced at the bottom of the pages; and now we will glance at Pliny's own text. " Magical vanities," — these are the first words that strike our eyes. Surely here is a cool practical man, of the observing cast, not likely to be carried away by deceptive appearances, but leaning rather to the oppo- site extreme, to which a mind given to observation of material facts is sure to tend. We will hear him, and then we shall have the other side. " By fraudulent arts often the science of the Magi has gained wide hold on the belief of all ages and nations. 3 Its relation to medicine gave it its first grasp on human belief; and its connection with religion on the one hand, and mathematical science 1 Plutarchi Opera, vol. vn., pp. 613, 621, 627, 631—633, 639, 658, 659, 665, 698, 699, 702, 708, 712, 715, 718. 2 See the Paris edition of 1778, already referred to. 3 Pp. 138, 140. 80 SOME SHADES OF TRUTH. on the other, has confirmed its controlling power over the intellect and the heart." * Taking possession thus of the senses of man by its triple appeal to the bodily, intellectual and moral wants of men, Pliny traces its history from Zoroaster to his day. Everywhere the medicinal virtue attributed to it seems to be its intro- duction ; reminding us of the chief promise of kindred developments in our day. At the head of the Jewish Magi he mentions Moses; 2 no unimportant testimonial, coming from one of Pliny's age, nation and personal character. The Druids of old Gaul and Britain he refers to "this class of prophets and medical men." 3 Of the methods by which knowledge of spiritual things is gained, he mentions, that it is sought " by water, and spheres, and air, and stars, and lamps, and basins, and axes, and by conversations with disembodied spirits, and with inferior deities." 4 He gives an account, then, of the famed magician, Tiridates, from whom Nero in vain sought to draw his art ; and states his conclusion, that though the art is in general injurious and useless, " yet it has some shades of truth." 5 He closes by mentioning that the *' celebrated gram- marian, Apion, whom he had seen when a young man, had published that there was an herb named cynoceph- alia (in Egypt called osyrites), which enabled a man to divine, and secured him against all poisons ; and Apion declared that he himself had called up departed spirits, in order to inquire of Homer of what country 1 Pp. 142—148. 2 p. 164. 3 p. 166. 4 Pp. 168, 170. 5 P. 178. GALEN, THE PHYSICIAN. 81 and w'lat ancestors he was born ; while, nevertheless, he did not dare to publish what he had replied." 1 Surely Pliny gives us enough to show that the scenes of our day were familiar to Apion and himself, and that the same views as to their supernatural or natural origin then prevailed among thinking men. He decides that the influence certainly was connected with physical causes, arising from an excitement of the nervous organ- ism by means of an intoxicating plant, or some other stimulant acting on the nervous system. Are you weary of these old Latin authors ? Be patient till we can look at one more, a Roman medical writer of the second century. Here, staring on the back of four tall folios, is the gilded title, " Galeni Opera," the works of Galen. Out we lift the cumbrous one marked Tom. III., and, turning to page 1497, read the article headed, "de Incantatione, Adjuratione et Suspensione," concerning incantation, adjuration and suspension (or the wearing of amulets). In a familiar letter, like ours, that early and most able, as well as voluminous medical writer, commences thus : " You have asked, my dearest son, concerning incantation, adjuration and suspension, if they can do any good ; and if I have found them in the books of the Greeks, as they are found in the books of India." From his pro- longed reply we copy these sentences. " Plato says, 1 When the human mind loves anything, although it is not beneficial, it assures itself that the thing does it good ; and, simply from the bias of mind, that thing i P. 180. 82 THE amulet's power. does t>enefit the body. For example, if any one is con- fident that incantation will do him good, whatever may be his character, him, indeed, it does benefit. 5 " Galen adds to this statement of Plato, " I have seen this, indeed, that there are causes of daily-recurring disorders of the health, especially of those disorders which spring from nervous affections. In healthy per- sons, indeed, the causes of infirmity have been these same ones. Whence Socrates says, 'Incantations are words leading astray rational minds, according to the inception of hope or the incitement of fear.' The Indi- an medical men only believe that the incantation and adjuration is an aid ; while the ancient Grecian physi- cians thought by these to recall into the wandering soul its own perfection ; which, being recovered, it was neces- sary that the body be recovered by it." Galen himself seems to adopt this explanation ; " as the fluids of the body, being changed, change the action of the mind, so the action of the mind, being changed, changes the fluids." He speaks then of the reputed efficacy of amulets ; saying of it, " which I do not deny can be done, on account of the conformation of the mind of which I have spoken." After a long enumeration of medicinal specifics of this kind, he thus concludes. "These things I have culled from the books of the ancients. # =fc I have not tried them ; but yet they are not to be denied by me ; because, if we had not seen the magnet attracting iron to itself, we should not be assured of it, we should not believe it. So also that lead breaks adamant, which iron does not do ; that a physician's conclusion. 83 stone which is called nitrum is burned in the fire ; and that a certain fish takes away the feeling of one seizing it. All which things, unless they are seen by us, are not believed ; but, being tried, they are certain. And perhaps the sayings of the ancients have the same mean- ing. ^ * Sometimes certain substances have a prop- erty incomprehensible in its character, on account of its own subtilty ; not appreciable to the senses, on account of its own inscrutableness." Thus this last and one of the greatest of the Roman philosophers decides that the mysteries of the spiritual medium are not to be denied ; but that they have a general and natural, though incom- prehensible, cause ; and that the books of both the Greeks and Hindoos, from whom he gathered his facts, explained these phenomena virtually on the same prin- ciple. Moreover, in illustration of the natural agency, or property, by which spiritual communications are thus made, he adduces the very examples to which physiolo- gists now refer; the mysterious properties of the magnet, and the electric power of the torpedo. ttiitt tftgjijf. THE FASCINATING MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRITUAL MEDIUM, AS SEEN AND STUDIED BY THE IMAGINATIVE GREEKS. — "&VWV re yaQ (pavsQog l\v nollaxig /nev oixoi, rroXXaxig Se Ini Twv xoivcov rijg TioXstog ^w/itoiv 9 xai /uavTivrj xQw/uBvog otjx acpavijg qv* Sisrt-dQ7'XXt]To yuQ, 'tag (palrj ^oxQarrjg, to dai^oviov savrco otjuaivsiv." — Xenophon's Memorabilia. [For that he offered sacrifices was manifest, often at home, and often on the common altars of the city, and that he employed divination was not unapparent ; for it was commonly reported that Socrates said the demon made communications to him.] Who are "the Ancients." — The Greek Reflective. — Cicero a Roman-Greek. — Divination believed in by all the Greek Schools. — Facts and Reasonings as in our day. — Source, three- fold: Illusion, Corporeal Causes, the Spiritual Medium. — Homer, his Spirits, Nervous Visions. — Hesiod, his Chain. — Pythagoras, "Music of the Spheres." — Plato, Intermediate Principle. — Conclusion as in Later Ages. My Dear Charles: When did " the ancients " live ? Really, to reach them seems like reaching " the West," which ever re- treats as we advance. The scholiast of the middle ages spoke of the ancients as his authorities ; and when we had gone back to the old Roman writers, we might have thought we had reached our limit. Rut now Plutarch and Pliny and Galen are found still pointing DIVINATION UNIVERSALLY REVERENCED. 85 us back. " Alps on Alps arise ; " and if we would gain the topmost peak for a look-out, many a distant summit is yet to be climbed. Courage, Charles, and we shall breathe a higher air yet. As the Roman was practical, so the Greek was re- flective. Dreams of the imagination filled his mind, and in art he embodied them. To him the excitement of the nervous principle gave a pleasing thrill, and its undue manifestations were to him most fascinating. This was the Greek characteristic ; though all classes of minds met and clashed with each other in Athens. Cicero was a true Greek, though not born on Grecian soil. He defended the use of the Greek language by his countrymen, he loved Grecian studies, and drank deeply into the spirit of Greece. So thoroughly Gre- cian is his discussion of the subject we are tracing, that we must read him among the Greeks as their inter- preter. Shall we steal up and look over the shoulder of the masterly Cicero, as in the maturity of his years he pens down, in two lengthy books on " divination, 1 ' the thoughts of his ripening age on the spiritual medium ? With the fervor of a sincere heart, he eloquently argues the certainty that there is a medium by which we gain knowledge of the spirit world, and of events which only by spiritual intuition can be known; showing that among all nations, and by the ablest philosophers of all nations, divination has been believed and practised; among the Greeks, for example, Pythagoras and Soc- rates, the Academy, the Peripatetics, and the Stoics, 8 86 KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM IT. all but the Epicurean, cherishing faith in it ; the ideal- ist and materialist extremes, and the mediating ration- alist, all agreeing that mysterious knowledge is derived from the spiritual medium, while the sceptic alone doubted. 1 As to the mode of its manifestation and its concomi- tants, he gives scattered hints. It shows itself when the mind of the diviner is dormant, either in sleep or in prophetic furor; and an intelligence from without utters its thought through the passive organs of the speaker ; reminding us of the quiescence of the clair- voyant, and of the medium of our times. 2 It manifests itself, as Aristotle remarks, in unhealthy persons, espec- ially those subject to melancholy ; 3 it has the aspect of ordinary, strong mental excitement ; 4 and Pythagoras thought that some kinds of diet, as beans, were unfavor- able to its development ; 5 all of which points to the nervous principle as the source. The Stoic hints that wonders of healing, and strange powers of reading and writing, accompanied the influence ; 6 which seem the counterpart of the mysteries of our day. Of its nature scattered hints from many a source are presented ; through which, however, a chain of union seems to run. The Stoics thought there was much of it deception, and that all could be explained on natural principles. Cato said that lie wondered that the sooth- 1 Cicero de Divin., Lib. I., § 1, 39, &c. 2 Ibid, I., 50. 3 Ibid, i., 38. * Ibid, i., 50. 5 Ibid, ii., 58. 6 Ibid, n., 59. SOURCE IMAGINARY, CORPOREAL, OR SPIRITUAL. 87 sayer did not laugh when he saw his fellow-soothsayer. 1 He queried why it was that an insane man should know more of futurity than a sane one ; and that the crazy girl, Cassandra, should be inspired, when the venerable and wise king, Priam, was not ; 2 questions about the character of the medium, similar to those now heard. The Stoic compared the right responses of the diviner to the mysterious mental acumen sometimes shown by intoxicated persons ; 3 and Democritus compared the eloquent language of the Pythoness to that of the poet under high artistic excitement ; 4 a suggestion similar to an illustration already adduced for our times. Cicero says that an eminent Druid, an acquaintance of his, pro- fessed that a natural principle, which the Greeks called physiology, was known to himself; and that partly by auguries, partly by conjecture, he foretold the future. 5 Cicero himself, in an elaborate argument, refers the source to the sympathy by which human souls are linked to the soul of the world, through which, the spirit set free from the body (as some easily are), either when we are asleep or awake, really gains the knowledge of other spirits, and of the universal soul. 6 In what way this influence from without so mysterious is communicated cannot be explained, any more than can the myste- ries of nature's simplest operations, as the growth of plants, and the healing action of medicines ; 7 and forci- 1 Cicero de Divin., Lib. n., 24. 2 ibid, i., 39; n., 54. 3 Ibid, ii., 59. 4 Ibid, i., 37. 5 Ibid, i., 41. 6 ibid, i., 49, 51, 52, and I., 60. 7 Ibid, i., 7, 9, 51. 88 DREAMS FULFILLED. bly ho remarks, " Ignorance of causes in a new thing produces wonder ; but if there is the same ignorance in things familiar, we do not wonder." * Of dreams Cicero speaks at length ; and with their frequent remarkable agreement with fact, he, as well as many others, in both ancient and modern times, was specially impressed. Of these striking cases there seem to be two classes : dreams of future events, which after- wards become real; and dreams of events passing at the instant in some distant place, which are found to agree with facts which were at the moment occurring. As to the first class there may be various explanations. As dreams are but a continuance of our waking thoughts, it may be that in one case of thousands, our imagination, or dreaming conjecture, may be correct, accordant with fact ; and this accidental agreement seems striking only because the thousand wrong conjec- tures are overlooked, and the single right conjecture is remembered. It may be, further, that a dream — for instance, of success or failure in any enterprise — may so affect the mind and through it the bodily powers, that this itself will insure the fulfilment of the dream. As to the second class, the same may be true : the one right conjecture may be reported, while a thousand wrong ones may be unreported; or the kindred impression resting on two minds at a distance from each other, — for instance, the conviction of both the sick man and of his absent friend that he will not survive long, — this 1 Cicero de Divin., Lib. n., 22. cicero's explanation. 89 impression may induce the dream of the latter and the death of the former ; and that at points of time so near that the dream will seem to be a revelation of the death. There are cases, however, where apparently the knowl- edge or thought of a person at a distance seems reported to the mind of the dreamer ; as also apparently (though probably not really) the thought of absent persons seems reported through the medium, in the manifestations of our day. Suffice it to say, that Cicero, and men further back than he, referred all those cases to the action of the " Soul of the World " of Plato and the Indian phi- losophers, to the " animal spirits " of Descartes, to the " plastic spirit of the world " of Mather and Brattle's time, to the " nervous principle " of the modern physi- ologist. What has such a universal and uniform history must have a law. We may confidently trust there is a science here ; though what it is, man may never know. 1 Is it not now apparent, Charles, when we remember that the " Soul of the World " of the Platonist, and the 11 nature " of the Stoics, as seen in men excited by any natural cause, and the "nervous principle" now spoken of by the physiologist, are the same, — is it not apparent, as Cicero seems to conclude, 2 that different minds, after all, must reach about the same conclusion ? The super- natural of the one is the natural of the other. The Platonic Cicero has his representatives now ; and so 1 Ibid, i., 20 et seq. As a modern instance, see "Watchman