' v - / L i 9 t MANUAL OF PSYCHOMETRY THE DAWN OF A NEW CIVILIZATION. [FOURTH EDITION.] BY JOSEPH KODES BUCHANAN, M. D., Author of "Anthropology," "Therapeutic Sarcognomy" and "Moral Edu- cation " Professor of Physiology and Institutes of Medicine in four Medical Colleges successively, from 1845 to 1881 and for five years Dean of the Eclectic Medical Institute, the parent school of American Medical Electicism Discoverer of the impres- sibility of the brain of Psychometry and of Sarcognomy. Published by the Author Los Angeles, Cal. [COPYRIGHT, 1885. RY JOfEi-n UODES BUCHANAN.] BOSTON : tfKANK H. HODGES, 1893. CONTENTS. Frontispiece Engraving Portrait of Mrs. Buchanan. PREFACE. PART I. INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL. PAGE Introduction ...--.-_--- 1-H CHAPTER I. Original Sketch of Psychometry - - - - - - 12-67 CHAPTER II. Original Sketch continued 67-124 CHAPTER III. Later Developments --------- 125-175 CHAPTER IV. The Physic Faculties their location and accidental manifestation, 176-212 PART II. PRACTICAL UTILITIES. CHAPTER V. Psychometry in Self Culture, Conjugal Relations and Business - 1-40 CHAPTER VI. Psychometry in Medical Science and Choice of Physicians - 41-86 CHAPTER VII. Psychometry in Politics 87-118 CHAPTER VIII. Psychometry in Literature 119-141 CHAPTER IX. Prophetic Intuition - 142-194 PART III. THE NEW PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. CHAPTER X. Psychometry and Anthropology ______ 1-31 CHAPTER XI. Future Life and Leaders in Religion _____ 32-74 APPENDIX. Prophecy of Cazotte Frequency of Prevision Destiny of the Young 75-90 333552 INDEX. Portrait. 2. Title Page. 6. Introduction. 3. Dedication. 4. Contents. 5. Preface. 7. Eleven Chapters. 8. Appendix. Antiquity explored, i. 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 Adams described, i. 93, 94 Antagonism to psychometry its cause, i, 166 Archbishop of Bourdeaux, his narrative of clairvoyance, i. 197, 198 Arabi Pasha described, ii. 157, 158, 159, 160 Alexander of Russia described, ii. 180 Anthropology and its departments, Hi. 3, 4 Autographs of the deceased their peculiar influence, Hi. 40 Albigenses, Hi. 68 Arnaud, Henri, the Christian hero, Hi. 70,71 Booth described, i. no Bulwer described, i. 116, 117 Bristol, Augusta Cooper poem, i. 125, 126 Back of manuscript a basis for psychom- etry, i. 154 Bible , its value determined by psychometry i. 158 Beach, Professor, described, ii. 81 Bonaparte, described, ii. 101, 102, 103 Jo- sephine, ii. 103, 104 Bismark described, ii. 105, 106, 107 Bacon, Lord, described, ii. 120, 121, 122 Buddha described, Hi. 53, 54, 55 Crime held in check by psychometry, i. 80, 81,82 Criticism by psychometry, i. 87, 88 Children investigated by psychometry, i. 90 Clay described, i. 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100 Channing described, i. 105, 106 Child. Lydia Maria, described by Bishop Otey, i. 1 10 Caldwell described, i. 121 Cardela, Angelo, described, i. 145, 146, 147 Carlyle described from autographic emana- tion, i. 148, 149; his moral defects, ii. 7 Catalysis, an explanation, i. 150, 151, 152 Cabanis, his liberal views, i. 164 College professors, their inconsistency,!. 165 Colquhoun's testimony, i. 195, 196-208 Clairvoyants, the rope maker, girl of thir- teen at Hamburgh; servant girl, report- ed by Dr. Dyce.i. 199, 5oo; Abercrom- bie's narrative, i. 202, 203, 204, 205 Chapters, I., i. 12-67; II. ,i. 68- 124; III., i. 125-175 ; IV., i. 176-212 ; V., ii. 1-39 '. VI., ii. 40-86; VII., ii, 87-118: VIII., ii. 119-141 ; IX., ii. 142- 194; X.,iii. i- 31; XI., iii. 32-74; Appendix, 75-90 Conjugal unhappiness from lack of psy- chometry, ii. 16, 17, 18 Criminals investigated by psychometry, ii. 37-38 Counterfeits detected by psychometry, ii. 39 Contagion, its philosophy , ii. 64,65,66, 67, 68 Choice of physicians, ii. 74, 75 Cooper, Sir Astley, his barbarous practice, ii. 76 Cooke, Professor, described, ii. 77, 78 Caldwell, Professor, described, ii. 82, 83 Compte described, ii. 127, 128, 129 Cicero recognizing prophesy, ii. 149 Chamberlain described, ii. 190, 191, 192 Cerebral psychology, iii. 28 Church and college, their dormant state, iii. 34 Confucius described, iii. 58, 59, 60, 61 Calvin described, iii. 61, 62 Christianity, what is, iii. 66, 67 Crimes in the name of religion, iii. 72, 73 Cazotte, his famous prophesy, appendix 75- 9 Children described by psychometry , appen- dix, 88, 89, 90 Denton's Soul of Things, i. 9 ; iii. 28 Demonstration by psychometry, i. 114, 115,' 116 Decker, psychometric talents, and remark- able experience of Mrs. C. H.,i. 132, .133. '34, '4;. '42 Divine element in man, i. 159, 160 Darkness of materialism, i. 186 Devaud, a natural clairvoyant, i 198 D'Israeli described, ii. 112, 113, 114 Death of Alexander, D'Israeli, and C..ui- baldi predicted, ii. 179; Deaths -predic- ted by Cazotte, iii. appendix Democratic Review on Dr. Buchanan's dis- coveries, iii. 5-25 Destiny of the young, appendix 8S, s ,, ;,<> Electricity transmits medical influence, i. 20 Experiments, i. 30, 31, 32, 33 ; experiments with autograph, i. 37, 38, 39; experi- ments before Women's Club, i. 129, 130 Index. Emanation from autographs, experiment with Carlyle's, i. 148, 149, 150 Ecstacy in somnambulism, i. 187 Epigastric region, i. 194 Emanation, saubarate and other, ii. 52, 53, 54 55 Electric currents, theory of Sir James Mur- ray, ii. 55 El Mahdi described, ii. 161, 162, 163, 164- 169, 170, 171, 172, 175 Fulton, Robert, described, i. in, 112, 113 Financial importance of psychometry , i 1 57 Founders of religions, i. 158 Future of America indicated by periodicity, ii. 155, 156 France and China, their action predicted, ii. 189 Future of anthropology, a grand view, iii. 21-25 Foramen caecum (blind hole) of material- ism, iii. 26 Future life and leaders in religion, iii. 32 - 74 Franklin on immortality, iii. 32 Gray, sympathetic impression of Dr. Gray, i. 140, 141 George Eliot, her inspiration, i. 212 Gallian system of phrenology, its errors, ii. 9, 10, ii Goethe on the psychometric faculty, ii. 19 Gross, advice of Professor, as to new dis- coveries, ii. 41 ; his description, ii. 80 Galvanism transferring medical influence,ii. 57) 58) 59 Gladstone described, ii. 107,108, 109,110,111 Grant described, ii. 97, 116, 117, 118 Gall, Dr., described, ii. 120 Gregory, Professor, on Gazette's prophecy, appendix 86 Harvey, Dr., described, i. 107 Hayden, psychometric talents of Mrs. , i. 13 1 Homoeopathy and Allopathy, question set- tled by psychometry, ii. 46, 47, 48, 49 Hill, Professor, described, ii. 79 Hahnemann described, ii. 84 Hippocrates described, ii. 85, 86 Humboldt, Baron, described,ii. 123, 124, 125 Homer described, ii. 138, 139, 140 Hugo, Victor, described, ii. 140, 141 Hemans, Mrs., iii. 33, 47, 48 Introduction, i. i, n Imaginative illustration, i. 68, 69, 70, 71 Inman, psychometric power of Charles, i. 128, 129 India, telepathic sympathies in, 138, 139, 140 "Irradiation of Omniscience," i. 156 Intuition, the essential of psychometry, i. 159; its cerebral location, i. 178; inac- tive life, 210 Impressibility of the brain, discovered in 1841; iii. 2; discovery announced at Little Rock, April, 1841, iii. 6; impor- tance of the discovery, iii. 8 ; number of the cerebral organs, iii, 9 Immortality demonstrated, iii. 36, 37, 38 Jackson, autograph of General, described, i. 42, 46, 47; described by General Quit- man, Bishop Otey, and Mrs. Buchanan, iii. 41, 42, 43 Judicial psychometry and detection of crime i- 77, 78, 79, 80 Kent, experiments with the Rev. Benjamin, i. 41-49. 6 5) 94 Key to universal knowledge, i. 166 Kentucky State Medical Society, their in- difference and neglect, ii. 43 Keshub Chunder Sen, described, iii. 56 Lafayette, description of General, i. 61, 62, 63 Locality of the psychic powers in man, i. 192-212 Law inadequate without psychometry, ii. Local and'pestilential influences, ii. 60, 61, 62 "Loftier Knowledge" through psychom- etry. ii. 64 Life in the spirit world, iii. 43, 44 Life or death, its determination by psy- chometry, iii. 45, 46 Laou-tsze described, iii. 57, 58 Luther described, iii. 64, 65, 66 Medical experiments, i. 20, 21,22 Martineau, description of Harriet, i. 67 Madame de Stael described, i. 108, 109 Mineral strata, accessible to psychometry, i. 156 Modern materialism, i. 162 Moral criticism, ii. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Married parties described by psychometry, 11.20-32; Carlyle, Bulwerand Byron, ii. 24-32 Mineral waters and air, ii. 54, 55 Mountain influence favorable, ii. 64 Milton described, ii. 135, 136 Mahomet described, ii. 177, 178, 179 Moral education ; the application of cerebral psychology, iii. 28 New York, first experiments there, i. 12, 26 Nervous system, its powers, i. 16 Nominal psychometry, experiment on the name of Angelo Cardela, i. 145, 146 Neglect of scientific investigations, i. 167 National Medical Association, ii. 44 New philosophy and religion, iii. 1-74 Neurology in New York, iii. 5-25; report of New York committee, iii. 13, 14, 15; letter of Dr. Buchanan, iii. 16-21 Original sketch of psychometry, i. 12-124 Otey, experiment with Bishop, i. 39 Orators described Clay, Rowan, Prentiss, Randolph^ Daviess, McDuffie, i. 123, 124 Objective and subjective ; their philosophy, i. 206 Index. Pierpont, his poem, i. 1,3 PSYCHOMETRY, an established science and useful profession, i. 7, 8, the exercise of divine faculties and explanation of mysteries,!. 10; hostility toils reception, i. 127; our mentor ; ii. 2, 3 : its portrait- ure, ii. 13, 14; its departments, ii. 18; in conjugal relations, ii. 15-32; in law and business, ii. 33-39; in medical sci- ence, ii. 40-86; the basis of diagnosis and prescription, ii. 69, 70; in politics, 11.87- 118; in literature, ii. 119-141 ; re- lieves us from traditions, dogmas, and other rubbish, iii. 35, 36; demonstrates immortality, iii. 36, 37, 38,39 Polk, marvellous sensibility of Bishop, i. 17 Psychic attraction, i. 30 Psychological chemistry, i. 33, 34, 35 Psychometric bias, i. 50, 51, 52, 64, 83 (ob- session, 86) Physical and pathological sympathy, i. 54, 55, 56 Psychometric impartiality, i. 86 Poems: by Augusta Cooper Bristol, i. 125, 126; marvels of psycnometry i. 177 ; by Father Ryan.ii. 6; addressed to Cor- nelia, ii. 193; by Mrs. Hyzer on psy- chometry, iii. 73, 74 Personal experience and sympathies, i. 133, i34, 135, 136, 143, M4, MS Photographs, engravings, and names for psychometry, i. 144, 145, 146, 152, i53 Philosophy to be established by psychom- etry, i. 159 Pansian psychometer, i. 211 Phrenology,cranioscopyandcrania,ii.i2,i3 Psychometric arbitration, ii. 35 Physical character of all tolerated science, ii. 42 Presidential candidates, ii. 88 ; St. John, ii. 89, 90; General Butler, ii. 91, 92; Mr. Elaine, ii. 92, 93; Cleveland, ii. 94, 95, 96; General Grant, ii. 97, 98; Samuel J. Tilden, ii. 98, 99, 100 Prophetic intuition, ii. 142^194 Prophecya religious endowment recognized by St. Paul, ii. 146; recognized by the ancients,ii. 146, 147, 148, 149; displayed by somnambulists, ii. 150, 151 ; nized by the Royal Academy of Mi cine at Paris, ii. 152; recognized by Goethe, Schelling, and Swedenborg,ii. I 5 2 , 153; in public affairs, ii. 156, 194 ; Psychometry the divine judgment, iii. 73> 74 prophecy of Gazette, appendix iii. 75, 90 Periodicity, its law discovered, ii. 155 Prescriptions by the departed, iii. 39 Prevision, its frequency, Dawbarn and Da- mon, appendix 85, 86, 87 Rowan, Judge, described, i. 101 Rohner, Dr. , of Tungamah, described, his views of intuition, i. 172, 173, 174, 175 Rider, Jane, her remarkable powers, i. 181, 182, 183, 184, 185 Russia and England, psychometric view, ii. 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188 Sympathetic diagnosis, i. 24, 25 Scott, experiments of Chancellor, i. 59-64 Spurzheim described, i. 120 Sealed letter described, i. 155, 156 Systems of religion judged by psychometry, i. 158 St. Ambrose, his clairvoyance, i. 164 Sensibility and clairvoyance, i. 179, 180 Sir Thomas Browne on the soul, i. 208 Spiritual guardianship, ii. 7, 8 Self-knowledge needed, ii. 18 Stolidity in the medical profession, ii. 41 Sensibility the foundation of disease, lack- ing in fishes, ii. 53 Swan's Dr., psychometric perceptionii. 71, 72, 73 Spencer, Herbet, described, ii. 129, 130, 131 Shakespeare described, ii. 133, 134, 135 Sir Walter Scott described, ii. 136, 137, 138 Sister Genevieye, her prophecy, ii. 154 Sarcognomy, iii. 29, 30, 31 Servetus, the martyr, described, iii. 63, 64 Swedenborg described, iii. 48-53 Taste through the fingers, i. 18 Transmitted influence, i. 25 Three autographs described, Spurzheim, Caldwell, Buchanan,!. 118-122 Telepathic sympathies, i. 137, 138, 139, 140 Touch important for psychometry, i. 154 Transcendentalism the minimum and pessi- mum, i. 160 Temples, connected with clairvoyance and psycnometry, i. 181 Transference of aura from writing, ii. 50, 51, 5 2 Transference of disease, experiments of Smith, ii. 56 Tyndall, Huxley and Mill described, ii. 13 1, 132 Therapeutic Sarcognomy, iii. 30 Utility of psychometry, i. 57, 58 Unconscious Sympathy, i. 84 U. S. Dispensatory, a singular admission, ii. 45, 46 Virgil on the spirit, i. 187 Vulgar errands refuted, connecting psycho- metry with mesmerism, spiritualism, and mind reading, i. 188, 189, 190, 191 Washington described, i. 103, 104 Wordsworth 'on clear seeing, i. 162 War in Egypt, ii. 165, 166, 167, 168, 169 Waldenses, iii. 68, 69, 70 Zchokke, his wonderful psychometric pow- ers, i. 168, 169, 170 PREFACE. This volume has been somewhat hastily prepared, to ful- fil the promise recently made to the public of a MANUAL OF PSYCHOMETRY a work to introduce the subject to the general reader not an elaborate memoir for scientists, which need not be offered until it is called for. Public opinion on philosophic subjects is always shallow, superficial, and erroneous, until the thought of the best thinkers has enlisted the co-operation of leading minds. In reference to Psychometry, the profound productions of Prof. Denton have attracted far less attention than that sim- ple exhibition of Psychometry which is called " Mind Read- ing," which I have never thought worthy of any special cul- tivation, but which, as an exhibition, answers the purpose of challenging skepticism, and giving to those who are pro- foundly ignorant on this subject, facts which compel their reluctant attention, and thus prepare them for scientific in- novation. When a full exposition shall be required, many volumes will be necessary one for the medical profession, one for hygienists, one for geologists, one for astronomers, one for ethnologists, one for physiologists, one for historians, one for pneumatologists, one for the devotees of religion and duty, and ten for the students of Anthropology for all these subjects are illuminated and developed by Psychom- etry. I cannot now promise that much of this will ever be writ- ten by myself as it might have been ere this for my life is too far advanced, and co-operation does not yet ap- pear. But as Psychometry develops all these departments of knowledge, these works must all be written. As this volume contains the reports of many psychome- tric experiments with Mrs. B., I would state in advance that all such experiments which I report are as pure and true an illustration of Psychometry as possible an accu- rate report of mental impressions as they arose, recorded as Preface. they were spoken deliberately. The mind of the psychom- eter in my experiments is always carefully guarded from all impressions but those which come from an invisible source by contact, without knowing what is the object or person to be described, which must be carefully concealed to insure the purity of the result. Questions are never of a leading character, being only used to direct attention to the matters that need description. The reports are as careful and faith- ful as I could possibly make them, but most of them are imperfect illustrations of her psychometric intuition, given often when fatigued by her daily duties. The present volume is larger than I designed, but a great deal of interesting and important matter has been excluded to keep it within the proposed limits. The investigations of geology, paleontology and astronomy, have been omitted. A second volume will be necessary to do justice to the in- troduction of Psychometry the introduction, merely, for I have but lifted a corner of the veil that hides incalculable wealth of knowledge and wisdom. BOSTON, JUNE i, 1885. P. S. A special volume, devoted to Pneumatology and Religion will be required to illustrate the comparative views of the world's religions, and the view of Biblical history and religion sanctioned by Psychometric exploration a view which may dissipate much superstition, but will strengthen our faith in the past, while it refines and invigorates our religious nature. INTRODUCTION. PSYCHOMETRY FROM 1842 TO 1885. The question, " WHAT is PSYCHOMETRY ? " was happily answered in a poem from the pen of the celebrated philanthropist and poet, the Rev. JOHN PIERPONT, which was delivered in August, 1850, at the grand anniversary of Yale College, and spoken of in the Tribune as the "Gem of the occasion." J. M. S., a correspondent of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, speaks of the occasion and poem as follows : " The occasion was the meeting of the Alumni of Old Yale celebra- ting her one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. By invitation from the officers of the institution, he delivered a poem the suhject was Pro- gress. After alluding to the various improvements of the day, light by gas, printing, phonography, new modes of travel, telegraphs, daguerreo- typing, etc., he touched upon this interesting subject alike unknown to the great and learned ones of Old Yale (in sorrow I say it), as to your honorable self. There were songs sung, and speeches made by various distinguished individuals, during a sitting of not less than eight hours. There were present from twelve to fifteen hundred Alumni representa- tives from classes which graduated in 1777 to the year 1850." EXTRACT FROM PIERPONT's POEM. " But much, Daguerre, as has thy genius done In educating thus Latona's son, In thus educing, in the god of light The power to paint so, at a single sight, BUCHANAN has transcended thee, as far I 2 - Introduction. As the sun's face outshines the polar star. Thine art can catch and keep what meets the eye His science, subjects that far deeper lie. Thy skill shows up the face, the outward whole His science measures and reveals the soul. Thy subjects must be present his may be Sunk in the depths of the mysterious sea ; Their bodies may have mouldered into dust, Their spirits long have mingled with the just, Made perfect : Yet if one has left behind A written page, whereon the living mind Has been pour'd out, through pencil, paint or pen, That written page shall. summon back again The writer's spirit ; pressed upon the brow, Or by the hand of many, living now : It shall the writer's character disclose, His powers, his weaknesses, his joys, his woes, The manly air, the sycophantic smile, The patriot's valor, and the traitor's wile, The fire that glowed beneath the snows of age As in the " Hero of the Hermitage," When he exclaimed (methinks I hear him still), " By the Eternal, I will not, or will ! " All is revealed ! The prompting spirit threw Itself upon the paper and the few "Spirits that are finely touched to issues fine" Will move the hand, thus touch'd, along the line, And catch the soul that issues from it yet, (As fishes taken in an evil net), And the detecting spirit shall declare "The form and pressure" of the soul that's there, With greater truth than e'er a Sybil sung. T u Introduction. 3 And with as great as fell from prophet's tongue ! Mysterious science ! that has now displayed "How fearfully and wonderfully made" Is man, that even his touch can catch the mind, That long has left material things behind ! Fearful the thought, that when my clay is cold, And the next Jubilee has o'er it rolled, he very page, that I am tracing now, With tardy fingers and a care-worn brow, To other brows by other fingers prest, Shall tell the world, not what I had been deem'd, Nor what I passed for, nor what I had seem'd, But when I was ! Believe it, friends, or not, To this high point of progress have we got, We stamp ourselves on every page we write ! Send you a note to China or the pole Where'er the wind blows, or the waters roll That note conveys the measure of your soul ! " The word Psychometry, coined in 1842 to express the character of a new science and art, is the most pregnant and important word that has been added to the English language. Coined from the Greek (psyche, soul and metron, measure) it literally signifies soul-measuring, being analogous to the words, thermometry, barometry, electrometry, and similar terms, which signify spec- ial measurements. The thermometer measures caloric (thermo, temperature). The barometer measures the weight (baro, weight) of the atmosphere; the electrometer measures electric conditions ; the psy- chometer measures the soul (psyche). 4 Introduction. In the case of Psychometry, however, the measur- ing assumes a new character, as the object measured and the measuring instrument are the same psychic element, and its measuring power is not limited to the psychic as it was developed in the first experiments, but has appeared by successive investigations to manifest a wider and wider area of power, until it became apparent that this psychic capacity was really the measure of all things in the Universe^. Hence, Psychometry signifies not merely the measur- ing of souls and soul capacities, or qualities by our own psychic capacities, but the measurement and judgment of all things conceivable by the human mind ; and Psychometry means practically measur- ing by the soul, or grasping and estimating all things which are within the range of human intelli- gence. Psychometry, therefore, is not merely an instrumentality for measuring soul powers, but a comprehensive agency like mathematics for the evolu- tion of many departments of science. As a science and philosophy, Psychometry shows the nature, the scope, and the modus operandi of those divine powers in man, and the anatomical mechanism through which they are manifested ; while as an art it shows the method of utilizing these psychic faculties in the investigation of character, disease, physiology, biography, history, paleontol- ogy, philosophy, anthropology, medicine, geology, astronomy, theology and supernal life and destiny. Granting, as this volume will show, that Psychometry gives us the command of all these sciences, it is apparent that the introduction of Psychometry must Introduction. 5 prove the dawn of a new era in science, philosophy and social progress, more important as to human en- lightenment and elevation than all the arts and sciences heretofore known to the skilful and learned ; for if all libraries, manufactories, and repositories of the arts in the world at present were suddenly des- troyed by fire, leaving only in human minds a full knowledge of Psychometry, all might be restored in one generation, and far nobler institutions of learning, of practical art, of social order and of religion would arise from the ashes, purified and relieved from a vast amount of falsehood an inheritance from ancient ignorance. I am perfectly aware that such assertions may appear extravagant, even to those who have some knowledge of the ordinary applications and powers of Psychometry, and will appear to many of the educated, or rather miseducated classes as insane as once did the doctrine of the rotundity of the earth and the existence of men at the antipodes with heads hanging downwards from us ; and according to the usual policy of those who seek popularity and repu- tation, such assertions should be reserved for the end of the volume, to be read only after the scientific methods and practical success of Psychometry have been made familiar. I prefer, however, to state at once frankly the true scope and power of Psy- chometry, and if any reader be repelled by my frankness it is well that he should be repelled, for he who cannot tolerate a novelty in science cannot do it justice, and I desire none but candid, truth-loving readers. 6 Introduction. Only to the patient students of Psychometry and explorers of psychic mysteries will my statement appear as it is a too concise statement of the grand results of psychic investigations, which not only make scientific mysteries translucent, but change the mys- tic dreamland between two worlds into a realm of luminous reality for man, the influence of which will work a far greater and speedier change in the des- tiny of the human race than the discovery of Amer- ica, or any revelation which science has heretofore made. I address these assertions to the most enlightened of today, and to my friends of the twentieth century who will know how to appreciate them ; for I cannot expect to see Psychometry enthroned in the Univer- sities until at least two generations shall have succes- sively carried down to the tomb the falsities in which they have been educated. For more than forty years I have been before the public as a teacher of new truths, and more than a thousand pupils have entered the medical profession under my professional teaching ( many of whom, like most of my contemporaries and colleagues, have passed on to a higher life), and during all this time there has been no hostile verdict upon the sciences which I have presented publicly, ever courting investigation by the learned : on the contrary every report of investigating committees has been a satisfactory endorsement of the sciences presented, and the Science of Psychometry has not only been endorsed by all who have become familiar with it, but is widely established in practical utility by psychometers who give descriptions of char- Introduction. 7 acter, and by physicians in the diagnosis of disease among present or absent patients. Hence I can speak of Psychometry as an introduced and established science. Establishment in the phil- osophic sense does not consist in currency among the multitude it does not consist in a favorable verdict from public opinion, which as Douglas Jerrold once said, is but "the average stupidity of mankind" and which is always steadily and persistently opposed to great and revolutionary discoveries. Establishment consists in the favorable verdict of the competent, as ownership depends on the acknowledged deed from the donor. The competent alone can establish, and the court of the competent is so harmonious with itself in science, that the verdict of the first score whom we meet is virtually the verdict of the thousands and the millions who succeed. The court of the com- petent consists of those who honestly love the truth, and who with earnest zeal either devote themselves to its search or hold themselves ready to give it a wel- come, and who with sound judgment make a fair and full investigation ; all such in matters of demon- strable science come to a substantial agreement, and their first verdict is as conclusive as the last. The sagacious listen and respect it, but the multitude (learned and unlearned alike) look not to the compe- tency of the court but to its personal rank, social in- fluence, and numerical strength. To the suggestion that the court of the competent is nearly unanimous in reference to demonstrable sci- ence, I must add that Psychometry greatly enlarges the amount of the demonstrable by removing from the 8 Introduction. sphere of speculation and debate many subjects here- tofore beyond the reach of positive scientific methods. It is over forty-two years since the discovery and public demonstration of the science and art of Psy- chometry. Today it is widely known the practice of Psychometry is an honorable and useful profession. Competent psychometers describe the mental and vital peculiarities of those who visit or write to them, and create astonishment and delight by the fidelity and fullness of the descriptions which they send to persons unknown, at vast distances. They give a minute analysis of character and revelation of particulars known only to the one described, pointing out with parental delicacy and tenderness, the defects which need correction, or in the perverse and depraved they explain what egotism would deny, but what society recognizes. In physiology, pathology, and hygiene, Psychome- try is as wise and parental as in matters of character and ethics. A competent psychometer appreciates the vital forces, the temperament, the peculiarities, and every departure from the normal state, realizing the diseased condition with an accuracy in which external scientific diagnosis often fails. In fact the natural psychometer is born with a genius for the healing art, and if the practice of medicine were limited to those who possess this power in an eminent degree, its pro- gress would be rapid and its disgraceful failures and blunders would no longer be heard of. But while Psychometry is thus gradually winning its place as our guide and leader in medicine, in education and self-culture, and has excited so lively Introduction. 9 an interest that a newspaper has been devoted to this subject, no complete and systematic exposition of the science is before the public. Its only exposition has been by essays in the Journal of Man thirty years ago, by chapters in my System of Anthropology, of which no new edition has been issued since 1854, and by the " Soul of Things" in three volumes, from Wm. Denton, the eminent geologist, a book of mar- velous interest and originality, developing the highest phases of Psychometry in the exploration of history, paleontology and astronomy, far beyond the utter- most limits of previous scientific investigation. His able and interesting work has not had the circulation it deserves, because it is too far in advance of the age, presenting the grandest results of Psychometry to a public not yet acquainted with the science. The present work has long been called for by those who have learned of .my discoveries, and if Psychom- etry has even the tenth part of the scientific interest, the practical value and the power of advancing scientific civilization, and elevating the condition of all humanity which is believed by those who are well acquainted with it, it is the duty of every philan- thropist to call attention to this work and promote its diffusion. But what is Psychometry (which means literally soul -measuring), what the process, the modus operandi and the results ? This question will be fully answered by a sketch of the investigations and experiments which have developed the science, but it may be briefly answered now, that Psychometry is the development and io Introduction. exercise of the divine facilities in man, a demon- stration of the old conception of poetry and mystic philosophy as to the Divine interior of the human soul, and the marvelous approximation of man toward omniscience. It is, moreover, a demonstration of the normal dignity of human nature, showing in all humanity neglected and often nearly extinct powers, which have heretofore been deemed utterly incredi- ble, or if credible at all, only as a miracle from Heaven, or as rare, anomalous, mysterious and inex- plicable facts, belonging to some abnormal phase of life, or else the hallucination of the visionary, if not the illusion of the dupe. The dark underworld of intellect in which we find the responses of oracles, the revelations of magnetic somnambules, the prophecies of the saints, the fore- casts of the fortune teller, the mysterious presenti- ments and sudden impressions by which many are guided, the warnings of death, calamity or accident, and the mysterious influences attached to places, apartments, amulets and souvenirs, is illuminated by the light of psychometric science, and its phenomena made entirely intelligible ; for Psychometry demon- strates in man, and explains the mechanism of those transcendent powers which have heretofore defied the comprehension of philosophy, and have been regarded with defiant hostility by materialistic culti- vators of mere physical science, while they have been welcomed by poetry, religion and the deepest emotions which ally man to heaven. In studying Psychometry, mystery disappears, and the most cautious inquirer in vital science will feel that he is Introduction. \ i treading on safe and solid ground. That he should enjoy this feeling of certainty and security he should be introduced to the science by the successive steps of its original development, and therefore I would take the reader back forty-three years to my first experiments, showing how Psychometry was evolved FORTY-THREE YEARS AGO. The following sketch of Psychometry appeared in BUCHANAN'S JOURNAL OF MAN (published at Cincin- nati), in 1849. It is so fei r an d complete a presenta- tion of the subject as then developed, that I prefer to republish it without change and follow it by such further discussions and expositions as are suggested by more recent investigations. CHAPTER T. ORIGINAL SKETCH OF PSYCHOMETRY. (From Buchanan's Journal of Man, Cincinnati.) First discovery in New York Introductory remarks Such investiga- tions must develop the wonderful Sensibilities discovered in Bishop Polk Found also in others Testing through the fingers Number capable of such experiments Electric transmission of influence Mode of experimenting on medicines Experiments on medical class and professors Influences felt from human beings Influences transmitted from the brain First autographic experiment with In- man Its wonderful accuracy Methods of beginning experiments Inferences from the experiments as to the laws of mind and matter Principles of psychological chemistry Value of Psychqmctry De- scription of psychometric experiments Experiments with Rev. Mr. Kent Description of Gen. Jackson Appeal from the old to the young Difference of individuals as to psychometric impressions The achromatic mind not common Illustrations of variety Extreme physical sympathy with the writer Psychometric diagnosis of Dis- ease Six applications of Psychometry Accuracy of psychometric portraiture Experiments of Chancellor Scott Description of Lafay- ette Description of Webster Of Miss Martineau. IN the autumn of 1842, in the city of New York, I had the pleasure of ascertaining and proving, by ex- periment, the existence of a wonderful power in the constitution of man, the discovery and use of which at once opens before us a wide realm of knowledge. In that single discovery lay the germ of a science of lofty pretensions, and so wonderful in its facts as to be diffi- cult of belief, if not utterly incredible, to the greater portion of our scientific men. Yet, high as its preten- sions are, they are demonstrable in the most rigid 12 Original Sketch. 13 manner, and, incredulous as the public may be, it cannot be long ere the truth of my assertions shall be familiarly known in Europe and America. I have made but little effort to bring this matter be- fore the public. Wonderful as it is, and well adapted to exciting an intense interest, I have quietly prose- cuted my experiments for the last six years without endeavoring to arouse the public mind to a conscious- ness of those sublime and beautiful truths which the investigation of the human constitution has developed. While thus feasting upon the richest intellectual ban- quet which nature offers in any department of her vast existence, I have naturally felt an earnest desire to call in the wise and good, from every quarter, to par- ticipate in the feast of knowledge. But, until the pres- ent time, there has been no suitable medium through which to address the public. I could not expect, by the mere weight of my own assertion, to make a deep impression upon the public mind, and I had good rea- son to suppose, that when my discovery of the im- pressibility of the human brain had already marshalled against me the universal spirit of skepticism, and was but beginning to receive justice from a few, the pro- mulgation of any additional wonders, still more incred- ible, would have done much to overshadow, with still darker clouds of disbelief, the dawn of true neurologi- cal science. Unwilling, therefore, to tax too heavily the public credulity of that time, I have waited for the gradual establishment of my cardinal proposition, in reference to the human brain, before presenting an essay upon Psychometry. The six years which have elapsed 14 Original Sketch. since the discovery, have produced a marked change in public opinion a prevalence of more liberal views a willingness to receive from nature newer and pro- founder truths, and a conviction that experiments upon the human brain are not entirely deceptive or fanciful. In this more favorable condition of the public mind, I would submit a frank and unreserved narrative of my experimental inquiries. This may be done with greater ease and pleasure, on account of the fact that I am now addressing a circle of readers comprising many of the most liberal and philosophical class, many who appreciate justly the science of Anthropology, who look with deep interest upon its recent developments, and who wish to sustain a journal devoted to progress in this most interesting of all sciences. With this apology for an apparently dilatory course, I would proceed by asking for my narrative, a candid and patient attention. It is not to announce a theory, that I write, nor to dogmatize in reference to any mat- ter of opinion but to present the facts which I have witnessed, and the inferences to which they most ob- viously lead. If I be but recognized as a fair, candid and careful reporter of the facts, I willingly yield to every one the privilege of reasoning upon the facts according to his own philosophy, and drawing the inferences which they suggest to his own mind. I would but ask that my personal testimony be allowed its proper force as a sincere statement, and that the questions involved be not slurred over in any indefi- nite manner by the reader, but firmly and frankly met and examined. Original Sketch. 15 I think it but just to demand upon this subject a more liberal and expansive mode of thought ttian is usually demanded by the teacher of physical science. The mind of man is so wonderful and mysterious in its action and in its whole existence is so widely separated, in its nature and in its phenomena, from the ponderable material world, that he who brings to this subject the rigid material spirit of chemistry and mechanical philosophy, will find himself unable either to perceive its phenomena or to detect their causes. Every moment of conscious thought presents a grandly beautiful mystery, for the explanation of which we must be utterly incompetent, unless we can rise to the dignity of the subject and deal familiarly with facts and laws as wonderful as the mystery which they solve.. He who expects to solve the mysteries of mind, without encountering any unusual or extraordinary facts who thinks that psychology should present nothing more profound or strange than material phil- osophy, and who is determined to resist every fact or principle which is essentially new and wonderful, may be very respectable as a man of science and learning, but he cannot possibly do much for the advancement of psychology. We should bear in mind, that all the co-operations and correlations of mind and matter, are intrinsically wonderful, but are governed by defi- nite laws, and that these laws, when discovered, must seem, at first, no less wonderful and mysterious than the nature of mind itself. If, then, any fact which I may state should, at the first glance, appear incredi- ble, the liberal reader will bear in mind, that a certain wonderous strangeness is inherent in the very nature of 1 6 Original Sketch. the sujpject, and that it cannot be possible to arrive at any explanation of the relations between mind and matter, which does not involve principles and facts essentially new. My investigations of the nervous system of man for the last twelve years, have clearly shown that its capacities are far more extensive, varied and interest- ing, than physiologists or philosophers have been willing to acknowledge. We find in the nervous system the vast aggregate of powers which constitute the vitality of man, existing in intimate connection with the vast and wonderful powers of his mind. Those faculties which, in an instant, grasp the remot- est objects of landscape which fly, in an instant, to the remotest periods of time, and which are ever reaching forth, as if seeking to become commensurate with the universe are still, with all their buoyancy and power, bound to the fibres, tubes and fluids of the nervous system, by which they instantaneously operate throughout the body. Is it rational to sup- pose that this nervous matter, which is thus so intimately correlated with mind, and upon which mind depends for the manifestation of its powers, should be entirely limited to the narrow sphere to which it has been assigned by physiologists? that it should be so intimately connected with the great eternal miracle, our spiritual existence, and yet be so incapable itself of rising above the humble grade of the ordinary operations of vitalized matter? In truth, if we glance at the subtle phenomena of the nervous matter of our constitution, we must at once perceive how inadequate are the common con- Original Sketch. 17 ceptions of the nervous system. About nine years since, in conversation with Bishop Polk,* of the Episcopal Church, he informed me that his own sensibility was so acute, that if he should, by accident, touch a piece of brass, even in the night, when he could not see what he touched, he immediately felt the influence through his system, and could recognize the offensive metallic taste. His cerebral conforma- tion indicated uncommon acuteness of the external senses ; and when I mentioned his peculiar develop- ment, he gave the above statement as an illustration of its truth. The discovery of such sensibilities in one so vigorous, both in mind and body, led me to suppose that they might be found in many others. Accord- ingly, in the neurological experiments which I soon afterward commenced, I was accustomed to place metals of different kinds in the hands of persons of acute sensibility, for the purpose of ascertaining whether they could feel any peculiar influence, recog- nize any peculiar taste, or appreciate the difference of metals, by any impression upon their own sensitive nerves. - In these experiments it soon appeared that the power was quite common, that there were many who could determine by touching a piece of metal, or by holding it in their hands, what the metal was as they recognized a peculiar influence proceeding from it, which in a few moments gave them a distinct taste in the mouth. But this power was not confined * Bishop Polk afterwards became a general in the Confederate army, and lost his life in the war. 1 8 Original Sketch. in its operation to metallic substances. Every sub- stance possessing a decided taste appeared to be capable of transmitting its influence into the system, and of being recognized by its taste. Sugar, salt, pepper, acids, and other substances of a decided taste, made so distinct an impression that each could be recognized and named by many of those upon whom the experiment was performed. It did not appear that the sense of taste was translated to the fingers, or changed any of its known laws, but it did appear that contact of the sapid substance with the papillae of the tongue was by no means necessary. The peculiar influence of the substance touched or held in the hand by sensitive persons, appeared to affect the hand locally, and thence to be transmitted gradually along the arm, recognized by some peculiar sensation as it passed, and producing no other effects until it reached the chest or the head. In the head it produced its impression upon the brain and nerves, and if possessed of sapid qualities, was recognized by their characteristic impression upon the tongue and fauces. The sweetness of sugar, the pungency of pepper, and all the peculiarities of other tastes were recognized, as if the same substances, instead of being held in the hands, had been gradually, in small quantities, introduced into the mouth. (It is perhaps necessary for me to state that these experiments were entirely independent of any mesmeric process, and consisted simply of what I have stated. The public mind has been so accus- tomed to the processes of mesmeric operators, that unless a special disclaimer is made, it may be sup- Original Sketch. 19 posed that such experiments were made upon mes- meric or somnambulic patients, prepared by a magnetizing process.) The number of individuals who could exercise the acute sensibility and taste which I have described, appeared to be variable in different localities, being greater in warm climates than in cold. In some places one fourth, or even one half of the whole population appeared to be capable of displaying this new power of the nervous system. In other places not more than one in ten or fifteen could display it distinctly. Mental cultivation and refinement, acute sensibility, delicacy of constitution, a nervo-san- guineous temperament, and a general predominance of the moral and intellectual organs, constituted the most favorable conditions for its exercise. I need not here discuss the rationale of these phenomena. It may be supposed that an impression made upon the nerves of the hand, is propagated by contiguous or coutinuous sympathy to the head, or that some imponderable agent, proceeding from, or through, the sapid substances, conveyed their influ- ence into the body. In behalf of the latter sug- gestion it may be remarked, that when I placed my hands or fingers in contact with the substance, its in- fluence appeared to pass more promptly and effec- tually than when it was left to its own power. This I attributed to the passage of nervous influence, or nervaura, from my own constitution, through the substance. I have since proved, by experiment, that a gal- vanic or electric current, passing through a medicinal 2O Original Sketch. substance, will transmit its influence into the con- stitution which receives the current. Indeed, the influences which are transmitted by mere contact, are not limited to an impression upon the sense of taste, but convey the entire medicinal power. In the first number of this Journal, the reader will recollect that my experiments in New York were reported by a scientific committee of dis- tinguished gentlemen, and among those experiments were several upon medicinal substances. These substances manifested their full effects upon the constitution of the lady upon whom the experiments were tried, by holding them in her hand. It would readily occur to the reader that in such experiments, an excitable imagination might produce important effects and materially modify the results. The desire to guard against any such delusions led me to adopt precautions to prevent the individuals experi- mented upon from knowing the name or nature of the medicine used. It was either concealed from their sight or so enveloped in paper as to be invisible, and thus the experiment was generally made in such a manner, that any play of imagination would have been immediately detected. Sometimes, as in the experi- ments at New York, the medicine was unknown to all present until the close of the experiment. It was thus fully established that a large portion of the human race may be affected by medicinal sub- stances, even without immediate contact a fact which I now consider as well settled and familiar as any other in medical science so much so as to become a necessary subject of medical instruction ; and in every Original Sketch. 21 course of lectures which I deliver to the medical class in the Institute, T state these principles and accompany them by immediate demonstration upon the members of the class. Medicinal substances, enveloped in paper, are distributed among the members of the class, who hold them in their hands, while sitting at ease, list- ening to the lecture and waiting for the effect. It frequently happens that when a vigorous emetic, ca- thartic, or stimulant, is distributed in this manner, its impression will be so distinctly recognized by some of the members of the class, as to enable them to name it correctly, if they have ever before experienced its operation as a medicine. During the present session of the Institute the usual experiment has ' been made, and the following mem- bers, out of a class of about one hundred and thirty, have experienced decided medicinal impressions by holding in their hands different medicinal substances, principally emetics and cathartics. " CINCINNATI, January, 1849. "We, the Undersigned, members of the medical class of the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, have, at the suggestion of Prof. BUCHANAN, per- formed the experiment of holding in our hands, for a short time (generally from five to twenty minutes), various medicines, enveloped in paper, so as to be unknown to ourselves, except by their medicinal effects ; and we are convinced that in these experi- ments, distinct effects were produced upon us strictly similar to those which would be produced by the 22 Original Sketch. action of the same medicines administered in the ordinary method. Wm. Owens, Jason Holloway, Wm. W. Hadley, J. Pitts, A. Bauer, J. S. M. Hawkins, Jas. G. Hunt, Jas. Milot, Benj. F. Radcliff, Edward Walker, Geo. Black, Wm. Webster, N. L. Northington, Benj. F. White, A. Hildreth, J. B. Allensworth, Thos. H.Walters, S. F. Conklin, O. D. Brooks, W. J. Wann, D. A. Austin, D. Porter Wooster, C. W. Arnold, Wm. H. Jones, Franklin Talbott, E. J. Martin, Thos. Robinson, Alfred Shepherd, T. M. Cobb, E. McKenzie, R. S. Finley, A. C. Overton, Jos. Short, M. T. Perrine, D. A. McCord, H. M. Chatterton, A. R. Brown, J. F. Baker, J. B. Jones, Edwin A. Lodge, J. T. Hance, C. H. Spining, W. H. Shepherd." The distinct effects alluded to were such, that in several instances, when an emetic (lobelia) was the subject of the experiment, the individual was able to avoid vomiting only by suspending the experiment. The forty-three gentlemen who thus testify to the effects of the experiments upon themselves, constitute nearly one half of all who actually tried the experi- ment on this occasion. I have no doubt that if the experiment had been carefully tried upon all of the class, at least sixty-five would have felt its influence. There are many physicians in our country who possess this impressibility in a high degree, several of whom are professors in medical colleges. Dr. B. Original Sketch. 23 L. Hill, Professor of Anatomy and Operative Surgery in the Institute, authorizes me to mention him as one of those who have experienced the most distinct and perfect impressions in this manner.* There is an analogy to these experiments, in the well known fact, that medicine placed in contact with the skin, especially upon the epigastrium, are capable of producing their usual influence upon the individual. But it has always been supposed that in these cases a partial absorption occurred, and the medicine was thus brought into actual contact with the nerves. Now, on the other hand, it is demonstra- ted that no such absorption or contact is necessary, and that the interposition of paper between the medicinal substance and the hand, or cuticle, does not prevent the physiological impression. It may, therefore, be recognized as a law of the nervous system, that it is capable of being affected by the subtle influences which emanate from adjacent objects. Influenced by this consideration, I supposed it probable that those who possessed this acute sensi- bility would be distinctly affected by contact with living beings, and would be able thus to appreciate the influence proceeding from the living nervous action. This conjecture was soon verified by experiment. I found that all persons of an impressible constitution were sensibly affected by placing the hand in contact * The psychometric capacity was distinctly manifested by four other medical professors of the Institute: Prof. W. Sherwood, Prof. D. Vaughan, Prof. H. F. Gatchell, Prof. John King, all well known as able scientific writers. 24 Original Sketch. with the heads or bodies of other persons. The effect might not be so prompt or forcible as to arrest their attention under ordinary circumstances, yet, by sitting still and concentrating their attention upon the experiment for a few minutes, a decided effect was experienced. In this manner, by placing the hand upon the epigastrium of a patient laboring under any disease, a morbid impression would be experienced, corresponding to the character of his case. For the last three or four years, I have myself become so sensitive to morbific impressions, that I cannot be in contact with a patient even for a few minutes, without being injuriously affected. When impressible persons thus come in contact with those who are in sound health, by placing the hand upon the different portions of the head or body, they experience, at each point, a distinct effect cor- responding to the peculiar vital functions of the part. By holding the hand upon the forehead, the seat of the intellectual organs, they experience an increased mental activity. By holding the hand upon the superior portion of the head, they experience a pleasant and soothing influence, peculiar to the moral organs. Upon each locality of the head, the influence of the subjacent organ may be recognized and although the impression is generally of but moderate force or distinctness, those who have a high degree of susceptibility may realize the exact charac- ter of the organ touched, and describe not only its general tendency, but its particular action and strength in the individual who is examined. In short, it may be stated, that any person of a Original Sketch. 2$ highly impressible temperament, who will cultivate his faculties for such investigations, may learn to place his hands upon the different portions of the head, to recognize and describe the action of the various organs, and to estimate their relative strength by the impressions which he receives from contact. Having thus ascertained that one of impressible constitution could easily diagnosticate the action of the living brain by means of contact, I found that actual contact was not indispensible, but that holding the hand in close proximity to the head, would answer the same purpose, though in a far more imperfect manner. By holding a metallic conductor in contact with the different localities of the head, the influence of each organ appeared to be transmit- ted almost as well as by direct contact of the finger. Thus I have employed impressible persons for several hours, in investigating the action of the brain in dif- ferent persons ascertaining the positions of organs, describing their functions, and estimating their com- parative strength. A pencil-case, or any other convenient metallic instrument, would be applied to the various points upon the surface of the head, and thus a psychological survey would be accomplished, of incredible minuteness and accuracy. After several months had been occupied in this manner, ascertain- ing the exact functions of the brain in its different portions, I was tempted to take a step further in advance. It seemed probable that if the psychological influ- ence of the brain could be transmitted through a suitable conducting medium, it might also be impart- 26 Original Sketch. ed to objects in proximity to it, and retained by them, so as to be subsequently recognized by one of impressible constitution. Without relating the exper- iments which established this proposition, I would proceed at once to the most wonderful experiment of all. To proceed with my narrative : It was in the latter part of '42 that I made the experiment which I would narrate now not merely to appeal to the reader's faith, but to give him an example for his own experi- mental inquiries. I had clearly ascertained in a young gentleman,* with whom I had made many experi- ments, the existence of extraordinary acuteness of sen- sibility. In a moment's contact with the head of any individual he would discover his entire character by the sympathetic impression. Reasoning, which I need not now repeat, had convinced me that he possessed the power of recognizing a mental influence in any autograph that he might touch. I was sitting with my young friend in an apartment in the Astor House, when I resolved to test his powers. I proceeded to my trunk and took forth four letters written by indi- viduals of strongly marked and peculiar characters. I placed them successively in his hands and requested him to watch the mental impressions to which they gave rise in his mind, and report his conceptions of the characters of the writers. He did so, and his de- scriptions surpassed my anticipations. He entered into the spirit of each character as familiarly as if he had been in contact with the individual,, and described not only his intellect and his principles of action, but * Charles Inman. Original Sketch. 27 even his personal appearance and physical constitu- tion. He knew not of whom he was speaking he did not even know what letters I had placed in his hands yet I can say, without exaggeration, that his description would not have been more correct if he had described the individuals from familiar personal knowledge ! Does this statement, kind reader, appear utterly in- credible? I have repeated such experiments more than a thousand times with similar results, and could adduce the testimony of thousands who have been the witnesses or the subjects of such experiments. If human testimony can establish any proposition, it is sufficiently strong upon this subject. But it is my principal object to induce you to perform similar ex- periments yourself, and thus remove every vestige of doubt from your mind. My narrative may be wonder- ful, but you will soon find that you have yourself sim- ilar wonders to relate, and will even arrive at some results more wonderful than any communicated by this essay, if you persevere in your experiments. The description of the four individuals just men- tioned, was given almost immediately on taking hold of the letters. It was not (like a description based upon physical clairvoyance) a sketch of their external appearance, and an inference of their characters it was a sympathetic impression of their minds, describ- ing them from the interior and proceeding forth from their own consciousness to their external relations and their physical development. So thoroughly did he sympathize with their views and feelings, he not only appreciated their position in relation to society, but 28 Original Sketch. even discovered their sentiments in reference to each other, and discovered that, between two of the individ- uals especially, there was an irreconcilable antagon- ism. So keenly did he feel their mutual hostility, that, after a time, he requested the suspension of the experiment, as it was disagreeable for him to enter into their contentions and realize their unpleasant feelings. As he recognized the feud, which really existed, so correctly (for the gentlemen in question had been once associated together, but were at that time in open hostility), I asked him what would be the effect of their collision, and which of the parties would be most successful if any contest should occur between them ? "This one," said he, holding the letter of the stronger man, "would crush the other." Such was the fact. They were distinguished medical men, and the one whose superiority he had so emphatically recognized, had, in fact, by superior talent and force of character, defeated and crushed the other in a well known public contest.* Another of the letters he recognized as that of a man of great mental and physical power. He was one whom I intimately knew who was as eminent in talent, eloquence and virtue, as in political rank. To obtain the most critical test possible, I requested my friend to state what he thought would be the prob- able result of a collision between these two eminent gentlemen of different professions. This he declined doing, saying that he did not believe any collision * Procuring his removal from the chair of surgery. Dr. -I. 15. Flint \\ as tin; Mir-c.on, Dr. Charles Caldwell the founder ol' the, college (ut Louisville) his opponent. Original Sketch. 29 would take place between them. I insisted that he should give his opinion of the probable result of such an event, if it should occur. He still objected, remark- ing that they would both be very reluctant to come into any collision with each other, and would maintain dignified and courteous relations. This I knew to be true, as I had been frequently struck with the grace, the dignity and the courtesy, with which they met each other on all occasions. But as I insisted upon a description of the probable results of a collision be- tween them, he at length pronounced the opinion, that if any collision should occur, it would go no further than this that the eloquent statesman might give a gentle rebuke, or check, to the other individual, by which he might slightly wound or humble his pride. This was a true statement of an occurrence which had actually taken place ! And the only instance in which any approach to a collision between these eminent gentlemen had ever occurred. Delicacy forbids my alluding to these personal matters in fuller detail. Suf- fice it to say, that in this first psychometric experi- ment of the kind, I was fully satisfied that, by this process, we might obtain a mental daguerreotype of any one whose autograph we obtain, as perfect as the physical daguerreotype of the features, obtained by the agency of solar light. In the next number I shall proceed with the narra- tive of my experiments upon autographs from the first experimental trials to the recent investigation of the characters of our presidential candidates, Gen. Tay- lor, Gen. Cass, Martin Van Buren and Gerritt Smith. Before that number is published I would earnestly 30 Original Sketch. request that each reader of the Journal should make a series of these experiments himself, that he may fully realize their character and fairly appreciate their value. To do this, select an impressible individual, according to the method presented under the head of "Interesting experiments" (in the January number), by ascertaining whether he is susceptible of attraction. When you have found an individual who is evidently attracted by placing your hand near his forehead while he is standing erect, request him to take his seat and bring his intellectual powers to bear upon a new experiment. If you are not perfectly certain of his possessing the highest degree of impressibility, commence with an experiment upon medicinal sub- stances. Select those of a marked character at first, such as stimulants of capsicum, cloves, opium, &c. ; emetics of ipecac, lobelia, tartarized antimony, &c. ; cathartics of jalap, podophyllum, gamboge, &c. ; nar- cotics of belladonna, stramonium, hyosciamus, &c. Request him to sit still and hold any of these sub- stances between his two hands (his muscles being perfectly relaxed) : let the medicines be contained in a piece of paper, if you wish to conceal from him their nature, and let the quantity used be five or ten times as much as would be required for an internal dose. In looking for the results, bear in mind that each med- icine produces numerous and complicated effects, and that we should not expect its action to be merely emetic, cathartic, stimulant, narcotic, &c., according to its classification in the Materia Medica. It we sup- pose that our patient or subject is deceiving us, merely because his descriptions do not exactly coincide with Original Sketch. 31 our imperfect conceptions, we will do him great injus- tice. Nor will his experiments always coincide with each other. The different amounts of the medicine, and the different states of his constitution at different times, will necessarily modify the result. If, in this experiment, he shows impressibility, by medicines in a high degree, it is extremely probable that he will be impressible by autographs. To ascer- tain this, select from your letters the one which was written with the greatest intensity of feeling and force of thought. If you have any written under deep grief, violent anger, lively joy, or tender love, and especially if you have such as are opposite to each other in their character, select the most marked one for experiment, and place it upon the center of his forehead. Let him place himself at ease, and quietly support the letter with one hand, resting the arm upon some convenient support. Before his taking the letter, it will generally be desirable to excite the intellectual organs by gently touching the central portion of the forehead (just above the root of the nose) for a few moments. Request your subject, while the letter is in contact with his forehead, to yield passively to the impression, and follow the natural current of his ideas or feelings. Let him state frankly his thoughts and emotions while under- going the experiment, and observe if they differ from his previous train of mental operations. If. they do, then ask him to infer or conjecture from the impres- sion made sympathetically upon his own mind, what was the mental condition, or what were the mental peculiarities, of the writer. 32 Original SkctcJi. This he will probably be reluctant to do. He may be conscious of a new and peculiar train of thoughts or feeling, but he will suppose it accidental, or attribute it to some trivial circumstance. He will be quite reluctant to suppose that he is mentally impressed by the letter. If he gratifies you by mak- ing the conjecture, and stating that the letter may have been written under feelings of sadness or grief, and if, upon opening it, he discovers that his impres- sion was true, he may be struck with the coincidence, but he will probably think it accidental. The impres- sions upon his mind were so vague and delicate, that he can scarcely believe they were produced by the letter. It is only after repeated success in such experiments, that he acquires ^confidence in his own impressions, and learns to speak out freely. Sometimes you will find your subject capable of determining correctly only the state of feeling in which the letter was written. With higher powers, he will enter more thoroughly into sympathy with the writer, and appreciate the traits of his character, the strength and peculiarities of his intellect, his favorite pursuits, his usual relations to society, his actual position, his rank or office, Mis reputation, his general career in life, his age, state of health, per- sonal appearance, and all other peculiarities of his physical constitution. Mitch more tJian this is fre- quently accomplished, but this much may easily be verified by any one in the course of a few experiments. And if we find these things true, to what do they tend ? Do they not tend to solve the problem of the relations between MIND AND MATTKK ? Original Sketch. 33 Does it not appear that something emitted from the person or mind of the writer, has become attached to, or connected with, the paper, as if the mental and the physical were capable of entering into a psycho- material combination ? That some mysterious influ- ence or mental substance is attached to the writing, is proved by the experiment. We find that imme- diate contact of the writing with the forehead, yields an impression more promptly than contact of the writing with the hands. When the letter is held between the hands, the impression is at first local in the hand. Thence it gradually passes up the arm, like the influence of a medicine, and reaches the brain, where it' affects the mental organs and gives an impression of character. We find, too, that while immediate contact of the writing with the forehead imparts readily its mental influence, that influence may be imparted even if the writing in question be enveloped in a fold of blank paper ; but every addi- tional fold of paper intervening between the head of the subject and the writing investigated, will retard the experiment, and increase the difficulty of arriving at a correct decision. Thus it appears, that a psycho- logical influence, or power, has become attached to the writing, and is capable of exerting its influence with different degrees of intensity at different dis- tances. This leads us, then, to the threshold of the science which explains the connection between the mind and matter. If such combinations or unions exist, they constitute the subjects of a science which might be analogically called Psychological Chemistry. The 34 Original Sketch. combinations of mind and matter are continually occurring in nature. The grains of corn which this year are growing in open fields, unconnected with animal life, are destined, next year, to yield their particles to enter into combination with the active minds of the present generation. The carbon, oxygen and hydrogen of the corn, are capable of entering into this union by means of a well known process. They do not change their nature, but con- tinue still the very same carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, with the same chemical powers and properties. They merely change slightly their molecular arrangement, enter the cavities of the human body, and pass, in company ,with the vita- lized blood, throughout its channels of circulation, and in contact with the various vital structures of the body. The elements of corn, after being suita- bly dissolved, become vitalized simply by contact with the interior of the living organs of the body. The most careful investigations of physiologists have gone no further than this. They show that the absorbed chyle from the digestive organs gradually approximates the character of blood, as it moves toward the lungs, and that after it has passed the rounds of the circulation (modified as it goes by various secreting organs), it becomes fully vitalized and ready to unite with the living organs. Then where a demand exists for new materials in any of the tissues, this well prepared substance takes its place, and by means of contact or union with the vital tissues, becomes a part of that living, mind- obeying machine, the human body. Previous to Original Sketch. 35 this process, the vegetable carbon had no connection with mind, but now it has become implicitly obedient to the mind operating through the brain. Thus a large number of the substances of the material world are capable of becoming united with the human mind as its obedient organs, by coming under the influence of contact with the living body in its interior. Contact and the nervous influences transmitted by contact, are the efficient causes of the change from dead to living substance, by which mind and matter are brought into union. But if any change or union is wrought by immediate contact, may not phenomena of a similar character be produced at a greater distance ? May not the vitalizing and men- talizing influence extend to substances exterior to our bodies as well as to those in the interior ? That the vital influence may thus combine with inanimate matter, is proved by the phenomena of contagious and infectious diseases, by the experi- ments of animal magnetism, and by these ex- periments on letters. Whether these mental in- fluences proceed directly from the mental organs to the paper, or are transmitted by the arm and conducted by the pen, need not be discussed at present. Suffice it to say, that any highly impres- sible individual may recognize, in any piece of writing, the entire mental and physical influence of the writer. By appreciating this influence justly, he may measure accurately the entire mental character. There are other methods of arriving at a scientific knowledge of character, or measuring the mind ; 36 Original Sketch. but the art of mind-measuring, or Psycho-metry, has no method of investigation more perfect or delicate, and universally .applicable, than this, which is, par excellence, entitled to be called PSYCHOMETRY. Will you not, kind reader, do yourself the justice to institute these experiments which I have des- cribed ? I pledge myself, that if you persevere in them, you will fully succeed. Until you have done this, let me suspend my narrative. Meantime, repeat the experiments as fully as possible which I have described, and then, when we meet again, this narrative will be continued, with all the advantages of positive knowledge and mutual sympathy. The sublime bearing of these discoveries upon the question of^Jhe nature and immortality of the soul, and their important practical application to the in- vestigation of character in public and private life, will readily occur to the reflecting mind. The phrenologist will rejoice to recognize in this new science, a method of ascertaining character far more accurate and satisfactory than craniology, and the speculative philosopher will perceive that we have reached the commencement of a new era in science. % In the application of this discovery, a series of researches may now be undertaken, which will not only unfold the general laws of mind, but elucidate the characters of living men and throw a novel light upon the darker passages of history. The course of experimental investigation is ex- tremely simple. Any one who can obtain interesting autographs, and who has a circle of intelligent ac- quaintance, is fully prepared for a course of pihlo- Original Sketch. 37 sophical experiments. I have usually selected for my first experiments, letters written under intense feelings. The best that I have used, is a letter written by a gentleman of strong character and ardent emotions, immediately after the death of his wife. The overwhelming grief and agonizing sense of desolation, with which he narrated the death of his beautiful and queenly bride, never failed to arouse vivid feelings in those of high impressibility. In one of my first experiments, that letter was placed in the hands of a lady, the wife of Dr. C. of Boston, who, as well as her husband, was entirely skeptical as to such experiments. The first effect discovered was visible in the tears which she could not restrain. Several times, in other cases, I have simply placed the letter uj^on the forehead, and left it to tell its own tale of woe, in the sad countenance and tearful eyes of the subject of the experiment. Where the sym- pathy was thus complete, they were generally able, upon composing themselves, to inform me that the feeling aroused in their own minds, was that of grief such as would be caused by the loss of some very near and dear friend or relative. Quite a number have been able to state, from their impressions, that the grief of the writer, was caused by the death of his wife ; and some have even vaguely described her appearance. When the individual (subjected to the experiment) was capable of strong emotions of grief, or had met with similar misfortunes himself, he generally appre- ciated better the feelings of the writer ; but, when naturally callous to such emotions, he would recog- 38 Original Sketch. nize the intense and unpleasant excitement, without appreciating its cause. But the characteristic effects of the letter were (in proportion as manifested) alike in all cases an accelerated action of the heart, a deeper respiration, a feeling of excitement and anxiety gradually deepening into confirmed sadness, an excitement and tension in the lateral and posterior parts of the head, over the location of the organs most excited : such were its usual effects. Some who could not receive any impression from ordinary letters, could perceive from this a feeling of excitement with an increased pulsation and respiration. Others could merely perceive that it produced a serious or grave mental condition, bordering upon melancholy. Mrs. G., a lady of vigorous mind, after holding the letter upon her head a short time, decided that^she felt no impression; but, as I perceived its effect upon her countenance and voice, I asked, what had been the direction of her thoughts ? when she confessed, that she had fallen into a melancholy vein, and was think- ing sadly of the utter worthlessness of earthly pleas- ures and objects of pursuit. It is necessary that the inquirer should be prepared to assist and encourage his subject, in their first exper- iments, to give him the requisite confidence and in- duce him to scrutinize and report the various mental operations, which he might otherwise overlook, until he has learned the nature of his task. It is an effort of very delicate observation and' self : conscious scru- tiny, for which those will be best qualified whose minds are well disciplined in meditation. It is not the insignificant and entirely passive character, which will Original Sketch. 39 excel in such experiments. Talent requires talent for its appreciation, and the various emotions or passions would be poorly conceived or described by those who had nothing equivalent in themselves. The philoso- pher, hero, orator and philanthropist, can be thor- oughly and fully appreciated only by their peers ; hence, it is important that the subjects of these experi- ments should be themselves possessed of sufficient in- tellectual power and fullness of character, to weigh and estimate judiciously the intellect and character of others. Often have I found the experiment yielding an im- perfect result on account of the incapacity of the sub- ject to appreciate the writer, when the same individ- ual could describe with fidelity others more nearly akin to himself, with whom he could establish an inti- mate sympathy. The agonizing emotions of the letter of grief, above mentioned, would upon some make no deep impres- sion ; but, no sooner was it applied to the head of the talented Bishop Otey, of Tennessee, than his warm sympathies were elicited, and he felt, as he described it, the same emotions which he experienced upon hearing of the death of his friend - , killed by the explosion, on the steamboat Lucy Walker, and thus snatched, in the prime of life, from a large circle of friends. We should be guarded against relying implicitly upon opinions pronounced in this manner, in refer- ence to character, even by those of much penetration, for unless the judgment be sound and well balanced, the emotions and passions fully deve)oped, and all 46 Original Sketch. the circumstances of the experiment fair and judicious, it may evince material errors. But, accuracy in determining character should not be regarded as our aim, or the object of the experi- ment. Its true aim is, to establish the important principle, that man possesses a psychometric sense, or power of receiving delicate impressions from any living organism, by means of some delicate, impon- derable agency, not visible to the eye, nor known to the researches of chemistry. It is important to establish this proposition, because in so doing, we lay the foundation for valuable scientific knowledge. We verify an instrumentality, by means of which, as by the galvanic battery, we acquire new powers of investigation and analysis. , To verify this power, it is necessary merely to show that the impression derived from autographs corre- sponds to the character of the autograph. This may easily be done by trying, successively, specimens in which there is a marked difference. The letter, expressing grief, I have usually followed by one of a cheerful character as a love-letter or one of lively spirit. Frequently the contrast between the two would be so striking, as to produce a burst of laughter, and to convince the subject, by the great transition of his feelings, that it was produced by something more than an accidental train of thought. Yet, sometimes it has been necessary for them to try the letters, alternately, more than once, to be fully convinced that their feelings were controlled and changed by the contact with the writing. Of course any knowledge or anticipation of the Original Sketch. 41 character of the documents used, might in some cases have an influence upon the mind of the subject, and should therefore be carefully kept from him. As the experiment has usually been tried, by placing the letters upon the forehead, he has not even seen the letter upon which the opinion is pronounced. Some- times it has been placed between his hands and a handkerchief laid over them, to prevent his seeing anything. But, in truth, these precautions are neces- sary, chiefly in reference to the spectators. The subject himself, if he really receives an impression from the letter, will find that impression sufficiently forcible and decisive to lead his mind, independent of any other suggestion. A judicious method of questioning, which imparts no information by leading questions, but which con- trols and directs the attention in a systematic manner, will be important in the initiation of those whose minds are not already well disciplined, or whose prejudices prevent their co-operating heartily. Among the most interesting of my experiments, have been those upon the autographs of our distin- guished public men. A letter from Gen. Jackson, written to my father-in-law, Judge Rowan (during the political campaign before his election) in a spirited style, was the subject of many satisfactory experiments. Among my first subjects of experi- ment, at Boston, was the Rev. Mr. Kent, a gentle- man of pure and pious character of an active mind, with a feeble physical constitution. Spending an evening, at his residence, in Roxbury, I made a number of experiments, which proved him to possess 42 Original Sketch. high impressibility, and then told him, I would demonstrate, that he possessed powers in his own constitution more incredible than anything he had yet witnessed, by making him reveal the character of persons, whom he had never seen, by means of contact with letters, which he had never read ! He expressed his incredulity and his willingness to try whatever was proposed. I placed some letters upon the table and requested him to place his hand npon them, successively, watch his mental impres- sions while in contact, and report the result. His hand was placed, first, upon the letter of grief and he experienced the usual saddening influence. It was then placed upon the letter of Gen. Jackson, and he soon caught its fiery and resolute spirit ; he rose from his seat, announced his impressions in a bold, and correct manner, and manifested so much excitement, that I deemed it necessary to interrupt the experiment, by removing his hand, in order that he might become sufficiently calm to estimate the character and express himself correctly. Mr. K. subsequently gave me his manuscript journal, in which he recorded, at the time, his own impressions of these occurrences, from which I now take the liberty of making an extract : " He then placed a folded letter wjth the sealed side only seen, on the table, and requested me to place my right hand upon it. The experiment" seemed to me preposterous ; but I remarked, that whatever, if any, sensation followed, I should truly communicate it. I felt nothing in my frame at the moment, but very soon an increasing, unusual heat Original Sketch. 43 in the palm of my hand ; this was followed by a prickling sensation, commencing in my fingers' ends and passing gradually over the top of my hand, and up the outside of my arm. I felt for nearly a minute no change in my mental condition, and stated this. Dr. Buchanan had given no hint of the nature or author of any letter he had with him and I had no bias or subject on my mind from the day's experience to influence me. A rush of sadness, solemnity and distress, suddenly came over me ;' my thoughts were confused and yet rapid and I mentioned, there is trouble and sorrow here. There is, too, perplexity in my feelings. My whole description, taken down at the time, is in other hands. I could not have remembered anything more than a general impression of it after the letter was removed. "Another letter was laid upon the table, under my hand. My first sensations were sharper and stronger than before, passing up in the same manner from my fingers' ends. In less than a minute my whole arm became violently agitated, and I yielded to an irresist- ible impulse, to give utterance to my thoughts and feelings. A determined, self-confident, daring and triumphant feeling, suggested the language I used, and it seemed to me, that I could have gone on triumphantly to the accomplishment of any purpose, however subtile or strong might be the opposition to be overcome. My whole frame was shaken, my strength wrought up to the highest tension, my face and arm burned, and, near the close of my descrip- tion (which also was taken down and is in other hands), when I retouched the letter, after repeated 44 Original Sketch. removals of my hand by Dr. B., in consequence of my great excitement, it was like touching fire, which ran to my very toes. Dr. B. afterward read the letter and signature of Gen. Jackson." The language of this letter is as forcible and con- centrated as any that ever emanated from the pen of the old Hero. He declined visiting Kentucky, lest it should afford an opportunity to his political oppo- nents to assail his motives and thus weaken the confidence of the people, so "that the people, shaken in their confidence and divided in their action, shall lose both their advocates and their cause. Thus the panders of power , mocked the efforts of the people in former times, because they were blinded by their arts, or saw them too late to counteract them. Their prominent friends and advocates, too, contributing to the calamities by attempting to fight them with their own weapons, when it would take more than the strength of a Hercules to grasp all the plans which these Pro- tean monsters could devise." When we imagine these and similar expressions in the letter, backed by the flashing and indignant eye of the old Hero of the Hermitage, we can well understand the spirit which was transfused into Mr. K., and which seemed for the moment an excitement too powerful for his delicate frame. Never did he succeed more fully in infusing his spirit into his subordinates, on the field of battle, than it was infused, on this occasion, into the meek and spiritual clergyman, at the distance of more than a thousand miles, by the agency of that thrilling letter. Original Sketch. 45 " Can such things be And overcome us like a summer's cloud, Without our special wonder?" Aye ! such facts may be taking place daily, all over the world and may become familiar as the changes of the seasons, to the intelligent and liberal portions of society, before the official dignitaries and wise men of our learned societies can become aware of their existence. And why not? Who would expect a society of learned men, the special cultivators and guardians of science, as they claim to be, to know as much of these wonderful sciences now developing, as the common kind of people, who have no artificial reputation to risk in expressing an opinion no false and inflated conceptions of dignity and stability to hold them back, and who can march right on, from truth to truth, as fast and far as experi- mental demonstration can lead them ! If any of the young men of the scientific world, unencumbered with a heavy reputation, should display a similar alacrity in the pursuit of truth, the phenomenon might be intelligible ; but, when gentlemen of forty or fifty years of age are appealed to, we cannot but anticipate that they will be as backward now as they were in the days of Harvey. Fortunately, we are not dependent upon their slow movements. The stream of human life is freshened every ten years, by substituting, for the older classes of society, a generation of youth, who have just entered upon the active duties of manhood, and who possess the true spirit of the time. YOUNG MEN ! it is to you that I appeal. Each generation advances 46 Original Sketch, beyond its predecessors, as each wave of the rising tide flows further in upon the shore. I appeal to all, who are unencumbered by prejudice or by the inertia of old habits, to realize by experi- ment, to verify and to know, the things which I have here asserted. In my experiment with Mr. K., I noted down at the time, much of the language of his description, when inspired by the influence of Gen. Jackson ; and, however imperfect the report may be, I prefer to give it as a fair illustration of such experiments. As soon as the exciting influence had begun to counteract the previous impression of sadness, he remarked, " I feel anxious still, but I have strength enough to go through with it. * ' Let it come ! Let it come ! LET IT COME ! [His hand was removed from the letter]. It seemed to me when my hand was on it, I could go through everything I had the feeling / AM sufficient for it. " Every time I touch it, I feel more and more of that resolution come high or come low I feel as John Adams, when he exclaimed, ' Live or die sur- vive or perish, etc.' ' He was asked what was the impression it made upon his mind he replied : " It teaches me that I must watch, watch, watch look at danger lurking everywhere." What kind of danger, he was asked " From those who attempt to cramp and do me injustice to put me down. But I am sure that if I do watch, there is energy enough to carry me for- Original Sketch. 47 ward. I am sure I shall carry my point. I should know what I was about." He was asked, what such a man would be fit for he replied : " He is fit to stand where very few men will stand - where it is necessary to have determination and quick decision where a man must say, that what- ever obstacles there are, must be overcome. When I have any difficulties to overcome, I should like to have this influence." Qjiestion What kind of pursuits is he adapted to? " Not private. He is a man, among men in the world. He would forget the domestic relations go into the world and leave domestic affairs to a wife." Question What would be his leading motives? ' ' Not personal ambition but I feel that I can do what other men cannot do yet there is a good deal of vain glory at the bottom. I do not think he can have the sentiment of religion very strong. I should feel like a kind father indulgent." Question What sphere of life would he occupy ? " The highest he could reach." Question How high? " Very high the very top round of the ladder. He has not solid learning. He has more of impulse and self-will than of caln* religious wisdom." He was asked, how such a character would sym- pathize with Milton, Shakspeare, Bonaparte, John Quincy Adams and Washington. With Milton, he thought he would not sympathize, but he would with Shakspeare, especially in his bat- 48 Original Sketch. tie scenes ; he would be totally different from John Quincy Adams as different from Washington as passion from wisdom, but " hale fellow well met," with Bonaparte. Question To what class of men does he belong ? ' ' To the race of Alexander ! What is it that com- pels me to say these things? " He compared him in reply to several questions to O'Connell and R. W. Emerson, from whom he dif- fered widely to Burr, who more nearly resembled him to Webster, who was merely a giant of intel- lect, while this man was a giant with intellect enough to guide him and help him to make himself " the ob- served of all observers." " He is an ambitious, pub- lic, popular man." Finally, without any question to lead him to it, he named the very author of the letter remarking, " it seems from some foreign, furious spirit, or from such a man as Gen. Jackson." He described him as a man of a strong, nervous, excitable, passionate temperament, as "just the man to be a Captain Miles Standish : he would take the lead he would fight honestly he is proud and happy in fighting for his country he would die in the last ditch before sacrificing his counfry's rights." There was no little surprise when the letter was read and proved to be from th pen of Gen. Jackson. Still more was Bishop Otey astonished, when, upon my first interview with him, after a lapse of ten years (during which these discoveries had been made), I placed upon his forehead this same letter of Gen. Jackson, to test his impressibility, and, notwithstand- Original Sketch. 49 ing his skepticism, gave him thus a vivid impression of a heroic, violent character, whom he at first compared to Napoleon, and finally pronounced to beyV/5/ such a man as Gen. Jackson: when he had reached this cli- max of his discription, I showed him the tetter in the handwriting of Gen. Jackson himself! ! whom he was thus so forcibly describing. After my experiment with Mr. K., a gentleman present produced a letter which he wished to make the subject of a similar experiment. Fearing that it might be from some one in a state of disease, or whose mental influence would be pernicious, I required an assurance, before trying the experiment, that it was not calculated to produce any injury. The following extract from Mr. K.'s journal describes the experi- ment : " Mr. A. Putnam now mentioned that he had re- cently received a letter, which he should be gratified to submit to my experiment, and after an assurance to Dr. B., that it was from the hand of no one who might impart an injurious physical or mental influence to me, it was placed in my hands. The same physi- cal sensations were felt as before, though in a much smaller degree. My mind soon took a decided tone of sympathy. I felt irresistably drawn toward Mr. P., and I leave others to speak of the result of the ex- periment, which certainly was beyond my voluntary control, charging myself to remember only the amaze- ment I felt, at the truth of my description, when the letter was read." In the numerous experiments which I have made upon this letter of Gen. Jackson, I have never seen a 50 Original Sketch. more intense impression than this upon Mr. K., but the varied results have been extremely instructive, in showing how the same impression is differently recog- nized by different minds. The minds of men are not perfectly transparent crystals, through which the light may pass unchanged, producing the same image in all. Each has its own peculiar stratification, which in some way distorts the fair image of truth, and each has its own peculiar tinge to color the picture of the external world. In our mental daguerreotypy, a perfectly transparent, achromatic intellect, is one of the rarest endowments among men especially among those whose ambition and selfish energies have given them a prominent rank. The autograph of Gen. Jackson, which always im- parted a conception of energy and force of character, produced a very different conception of his moral worth, as the individual deciding was more or less in- clined to admire his military career. Those who pos- sessed a similar spirit would use the language of eulo- gium, while those whose sympathies and opinions led them to act with the Whig party, in opposition to the General, were disposed to condemn some traits of his character, even when thus deciding by mental impres- sions, unconscious of their source. The opinions pronounced were not always in ac- cordance with the previous opinions entertained by the individual (especially when such opinions were based upon any erroneous information), but were formed in accordance with his general habits of thought, and the standard of character, which he re- Original Sketch. 51 cognized as just. Hence, a public man, overrated by common fame, would sometimes be brought to his true level in these Psychometric decisions, and others less known to fame would receive liberal justice. The opinion given, appeared to be generally a fair application of the principles and standard of character in the mind of the subject, to the essential character and spirit of the writer, uncloaked by any disguise, and uninfluenced, by public opinion, or even the pre- vious opinions of the subject, concerning the same per- son. Thus, when the Rev. Mr. K. was tested upon the autograph of Mr. Jefferson, of whom he gave a favorable description, he expressed much gratification afterward, at having been thus enabled to obtain so much higher a conception of the character of Mr. Jefferson, than he had previously entertained, having imbibed in early life some prejudice against that states- man. A lawyer of the democratic party, in Mississippi, politically opposed to Mr. Clay, and, consequently, viewing his character through the medium of party spirit, was ascertained to be highly impressible. A number of experiments convinced him of the verity of his psychometric power. A letter was subjected to his investigation, to which he gave such a charac- ter as has been given Mr. Clay by his ardent admir- ers and as he felt the impression vividly, he expressed himself strongly. When he learned who was the author of the letter, he at once frankly acknowledged that he was convinced of the admirable qualities of Mr. Clay's character, and would, henceforth, renounce his prejudices against him ! Thus the letter was the 52 Original Sketch. means of establishing a true mental contact between Mr. Clay and Mr. W., by which the latter learned his true character; and I feel well assured, from their relative characters, that if they had met in unreserved social intercourse, Mr. W. would have derived the same impression from personal associa- tion. In my first experiments with Judge T. (of the Supreme Court of Mississippi), a ^different result occurred. The Judge, though a democrat in politics, was a man of calm reflective character, and New England education one of the men in whom we should not look for any mental affinity with the Hero of New Orleans. In accordance with his usual habits, he was slow to recognize the truth of Neurol- ogy ; but, having seen a number of illustrative facts, and observed its truth as applied to himself, he began to pay some attention to the subject. I fancied that he was impressible, and made the first trial with him among the members of my class, by placing upon his forehead the autograph of GEN. WASHINGTON. His impressions were vivid and clear he gave an opin- ion in forcible and eloquent language, which intensely interested all around, and was indeed one of the best descriptions of Washington's character which I have ever heard. Before gratifying his curiosity to know of whom he had thus spoken, I requested him to pro- nounce his impressions of another autograph, which I next offered. I placed upon his forehead the autograph of Gen. Jackson. As soon as the spell of the influence of Washington had subsided, he perceived a very differ- Original Sketch. 53 ent chara6ter, and recoiled from it with an expression of aversion, seemingly reluctant to express his opin- ion. But upon reflection he renewed the experiment, expressing the apprehension that he might do some injustice by so hasty a conclusion. He then deliber- ately proceeded to portray the character, not as it would have been viewed by a political friend of the General, but just as we might suppose it would have been estimated by one of the previous education and habits of Judge T. in fact, it was just such a descrip- tion as might have been heard from the political oppo- nents of Gen. Jackson, when he was in the arena of party politics. Thus, the opinions, in these cases, proved to be just such decisions as might have been expected from the true mental contact of the men aside from all extrinsic influence. The psychometric experiment, therefore, does not infallibly develop a true estimate of men, but tries, or estimates their true character, by the standard of jus- tice and propriety in the mind of the subject. Its advantage consists in the fact, that it is a fair trial of the true man the essential spirit of his character is appreciated, stripped alike of the halo of reputation, the mists of obscurity, and the mirage of prejudice. The man is truthfully made known to those who decide upon his merits ; the spirit of the man is con- veyed by his writings, and though silent, he is fully heard and understood. Yet it may happen that the writer is so very dissim- ilar to the subject, that no proper sympathy can be established, nor any proper opinion obtained. Some- times the subject will be able to decide with facility 54 Original Sketch* and correctness upon one class of autographs, but will be utterly disqualified for appreciating another class, especially when he has strong prejudices, or carries any of his opinions to a fanatical extravagance. I was much amused with the influence of the autograph of General Jackson, upon a lady, of strong prejudices, quite zealous in behalf of anti-slavery, non-resistance, and other moral doctrines and reforms there was too great a repugnance of sentiment, for her to appreci- ate justly his character, but she was so thoroughly under the influence of the letter (knowing nothing of the name of the writer), as to get an idea of his per- sonal appearance, to feel an intense excitement of the region of Firmness in her own' head (the usual effect of the letter), and even to feel as if her face, which was round and full, was distorted in resemblance to the writer's. She complained of feeling, as though her face was hard and elongated, her cheeks hollow, and her whole temperament changed to the energetic iron tone of General Jackson's. This physical change attracted her attention even more than the traits of the character, and so vivid were her sensations, that it was only by feeling her own face with her hands, and asking those present how it looked, that she could escape the conviction, that her face had actually changed its appearance. The idea of a change in her face, was a spontaneous suggestion of her own, and surprised me by the extent to which she carried it. This physical sympathy regularly occurs in such experiments, whether observed or not. Hence, the precautions against using the manuscript of those in bad health are often important. Original Sketch. 55 A young lady, of Boston, of highly cultivated mind, with a very delicate constitution, was tried, by one of her friends, in an experiment upon the auto- graph of an eminent divine. The experiment was very satisfactory in the portraiture of his character and emotions ; but, at its close, the young lady found a great difficulty of locomotion, which was quite inexplicable to them, until they recollected the lame- ness of the writer, Rev. Mr. Gannett, to whose influence she had been subjected.' In subsequent experiments, the same young lady found herself so frequently injured by the morbid influence of auto- graphs, injudiciously urged upon her for investigation by friends, as to compel her to decline the experi- ments, for self-preservation. The extent to which this physical sympathy may be carried, renders it practicable to describe the physiological condition of the writer, as correctly as the mental. Indeed, I have sometimes resorted to this method, for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of patients at a distance. The great value of this method of diagnosis, however, is limited by the fact, that such investigations may be quite unpleasant and injurious to those who are employed in sympathetically describing disease. A long con- tinuance, or frequent repetition of such experiments, would prove decidedly injurious to their health, but a brief occasional examination, followed by manipu- lations to disperse the morbid influence and restore a healthy action, might be undertaken with impunity. The physiological and pathological influence, which attaches to a letter, is not limited to that method of 56 Original Sketch. transmission. It is true the mental influence is more thoroughly imparted in the act of writing, in which the mind is vigorously engaged ; but, even in ordi- nary contact, the influence of the whole constitution may be imparted, sufficiently for diagnosis, by the highly susceptible. Thus, a lock of hair, or an article of clothing, may be made the means of form- ing a correct diagnosis. In this fact, the philosophic mind sees but an extension of the law of contagion. The clothing of the sick, or anything with which they have been in contact, will, it is well known, transmit to healthy constitutions their peculiar form of disease. It is commonly supposed, that this law of contagion is limited in its operation to certain specific diseases ; but, in truth, there is no such definite boundary between contagion and non-conta- gion. All diseases partake in some degree of the contagious character, and whenever the disease is sufficiently intense, the number of sick sufficiently accumulated, the constitutions of the attendants suf- ficiently predisposed, or the contact with the sick sufficiently frequent and intimate, diseases are trans- mitted not only cholera, yellow fever and typhoid fever, but even diseases of a milder type, may be thus imparted. And as there is an infinite gradation and variety of sensibility in different constitutions, even reasoning a -priori should teach us, that there may be individuals upon whom all diseases exert a contagious influence, and that this contagion might be transmitted according to the usual laws of conta- gion or infection, by any substance which has been in contact with the patient. Original Sketch. 517 How absurd, then, is the conduct of those medical men, who sneer at the pretensions of mesmerism, and who refuse to believe in the sympathetic diagnosis of disease, when it is strictly in accordance with the history of epidemic diseases. If, kind reader, you have ever indulged a hasty prejudice against mes- meric subjects, who profess to diagnosticate disease by contact with a lock of hair, or any article of cloth- ing, will you not lay aside such feelings, and observe how strictly such performances are in harmony with the laws of the nervous system, and with our own experi- ments upon medicines and upon letters. If you have not yet learned that such things are possible, let me request you, in your next experiment upon a letter, to select one from an individual laboring under some disease or pain, at the time of writing, and observe whether the subject of your experiment does not sympathize with the physical suffering of the writer. After you have made a few such experiments, you will agree with me, as to the value of this method of diagnosis, and you will not doubt that physicians may hereafter rely upon this method in the treatment of patients at a distance. To develop properly the subject of Psychometry, in all its bearings, would require a large volume. In this brief sketch I can but glance at its principal relations : 1 . As a practical means of judging of the charac- ters of men more accurately, than by the aids of phrenology and physiognomy. 2. As an assistance to the study of history and biography. 58 Original Sketch. 3. As an assistance to the administration of jus- tice, in determining questions of guilt or innocence, sanity or insanity. 4. As assistant to self-cultivation, by the study of our own character, and to the education of the young, by showing their true mental and physical condition. 5. As an assistance to the practice of medicine, by furnishing a convenient method of pathological diagnosis. 6. As the means of investigating spiritual phil- osophy the existence and relations of the soul, and the various relations of the living man to the spiritual world. As a method of determining the characters of the living, Psychometry has an accuracy and delicacy which phrenology and physiognomy cannot possibly obtain. Phrenology, at best, but estimates the proba- ble tendencies of the character, from the cranial development. It determines nothing positively, for it leaves to education and circumstances a controlling influence. Psychometry determines the actual charac- ter, as it was at the time of writing tracing not only the essential personal character, but the rela- tions of the individual to those around him and his entire social position. It enters into the analysis and portraiture of his feelings, like an intimate friend speaking from personal knowledge. I have often tested its powers in relation to myself and friends, as well as to many celebrated characters, and thus have ascertained its adaptation to minute por- traiture. Indeed the subject ; will frequently not only describe the character of the writer, but speak of the Original Sketch. 59 character of the letter, the principal ideas which it conveys, and the motives of the writer in expressing those ideas. Nay more, the conceptions which the writer may entertain of the person, to whom or of whom he is writing, will frequently be distinctly described ; and, in some instances, where the person addressed is one of greater weight of character than the writer, the idea of him may even take precedence of the conception of the writer himself. The sketches of individual character, have often been so striking, that the auditors could recognize the individual by the description, while the subject, en- grossed in the study of his mental impressions, would be utterly unconscious of the accurate application of his sketch to some well-known character. In other cases, the subject would perceive its application to some known individual and declare that he knew who was the writer. One of the best portrayers of character, whom I have found, was a gentleman * of the legal profession of Jackson, Mississippi, who approached the subject with great skepticism and was very reluctant to be- lieve in the verity of his impressions ; but, after becom- ing convinced, would frequently try the experiment to gratify his friends, who had heard of his remarkable powers in these psychometric experiments. A few weeks after I had introduced him to this class of ex- periments, I learned that he had kept an account 01 his progress in that way, and that he had pronounced upon one hundred and fifty autographs, without mak- ing any very material errors in the whole of his opin * Charles Scott, subsequently Chancellor, 60 Original Sketch. ions. His success induced efforts to hoax him, which were baffled by the great accuracy of his perceptions A blank letter was given him to investigate, presum- ing that he would indulge his imagination in giving it a character, and thus afford a little sport. One of less acuteness might well have been hoaxed, by de- scribing his own frame of mind at the time, and sup- posing it to be derived from the writer of the letter ; but Mr. S., after holding it sometime upon his fore- head, perceived that no new mental condition was produced, and concluded, that as no mental impres- sion arose, the pretended letter was void of writing. Thus detecting the hoax, he turned the tables upon the hoaxers, by remarking, that the letter was like its author who presented it, a perfect blank in society. It is obvious, that such an experiment would form no proper test of the verity of these perceptions ; for most persons, in their first experiments, are by no means certain whether their mental impressions arise from their own spontaneous trains of thought, or frojn the influence of the letter hence they would not be able to discriminate between a letter and a piece of blank paper, until a sufficient amount of experience had made them familiar with the various impressions, and able to decide positively between the suggestions of association and the influence of exterior impressions. Frequently it happens, that the first impressions of a letter will be vague and even incorrect the mind not being in the right mood to sympathize with it and the individual venturing to express an opinion, before he has had time to perceive the whole charac- ter, and weigh its different tendencies. Original Sketch. 61 Thus, for example, Mr. S., on one occasion, fell into an error, in the commencement of his description of a difficult autograph, although he would usually describe the person with so much minuteness in all his relations, as to tell the exact political office which he occupied. When trying the autograph of Judge T., above mentioned, he pronounced the writer to be a lawyer, a jurist, and to be actually an occupant of the Supreme Bench of the State, which was true. In other cases he would say, this man has been President of the United States (if trying the autograph of one of the Presidents), or he aspires to that office, when he examined the autographs of presidential 'candi- dates. It happened that while Mr. S. and several other gentlemen were sitting with me, in my apartment at the Hotel (in Jackson, Mississippi), I proposed a new experiment, for the gratification of some who had never witnessed his powers. I selected an autograph, which, on previous occasions, I had avoided using, on account of the peculiar difficulty of its investigation. The difficulty in this case (which I will explain here- after), made it necessary to employ one like Mr. S., acute in perception and clear in his judgment, to de- cide correctly but even he was at first a little at fault. The letter was from GENERAL LAFAYETTE. It was placed upon his forehead no one in that re- gion even suspected that I had any such document in my possession, until after the experiment. After delib- erating a few moments he remarked : " Seems to be dead no activity in the region of the heart great quietude in the physiological condi- 52 Original Sketch. don DEAD decidedly. The impressions are less dis- tinct than usual." In a few moments he proceeded : "A character of great benevolence religion ; he is firm and decided his affections are strong ; he is philanthropic, a man of excellent judgment, rather philosophic ; he would think deeply, profoundly ; he was a man of consider- able invention ; he made his own fortune rose from humble station. [Thus far, we perceive, he had caught the character but not fully weighed it, the last remark being a hasty inaccurate conclusion.] He is well-known he lives in history. His perceptive organs are good, he has great observation, a great admirer of the beauties of nature there is more cool deliberate thought here." Question At what period did he live in what kind of scenes did he figure ? ," He figured in the revolutionary war ! " Question What part did he bear? "He bore a distinguished part was perhaps in the Continental Congress." Question Where do you locate him ? " Not in the United States in France ! " Question Why do you say so ? " It rises up before me." Question To what pursuits is he adapted ? What kind of a lawyer would he make ? " I do not think that that is his field." Question What would you think of him as a statesman ? " Very well he is almost too conscientious for a real politician." Original Sketch. 63 Question What would you think of him as a mil- itary man? " First rate ! calm, dignified, self-possessed, with great promptness and decision, he would meet it boldly. There is a great deal of philosophy in his tone of thought and observation." Question What do you think of his principles? "They are "liberal, republican he has confidence in the doctrines of self-government by the people he has no doubt about the problem." Question What reputation does he bear? " Very exalted there is no difference of opinion posterity are grateful they hold his memory dear they think him a patriotic, noble-hearted, courageous man one who had the interests of the world at heart who wished to dispense light and liberty to all the world : he would not be contented with any small matter, nor on a small theatre." Question What of his ambition ? " He has so many good qualities, I hardly know; he would be governed more by high moral faculties than by ambition." " He has been in battle ! He was in the battle of Germantown ! That rises up before me ! He has been wounded, has shed his blood ! He was wounded in that battle ! " As he had now evidently full possession of the character, and the former and latter portions of his description were rather inconsistent, I asked him to review the matter and give me his final decision. He remarked, that the latter portion of his opinion was more correct than the former, and that, as to 64 Original Sketch. invention, there was good inventive power, but it was exercised in planning rather than invention that he was deeply interested in the American war, and if not in the Congress, took a deep interest in that body. In reply to questions, he remarked, that he had been imprisoned and escaped that he had enjoyed a vigorous constitution had died a natural death at seventy-eight or eighty years of age, and had probably deceased some eight or ten years since. In the latter part of his description, I suppose he must have discovered that he was describing Lafayette ; but no allusion was made to the name by him or myself, as such allusions are carefully avoided in this class of experiments, for obvious rea- sons. Hence, the habit is acquired of excluding from the mind any thought of the name of the indi- vidual, so as to preserve strict impartiality in follow- ing the impressions. Persons in whom the inferior and occipital organs predominate, will be inclined to look on the unfavora- ble side of every character, and will thus do injustice in their psychometric decisions. But this is not often the case among those who enjoy this faculty in a high degree. Much more frequently do we find the amiable faculties so largely predominating, as to lend a roseate hue to every portrait and disqualify them for any searching criticism. Such was the case m the opinions of the Rev. Mr. K., who indulged habitually in glowing language, when he found any- thing to commend. Of this I might select, as an example, his description of an autograph, which was placed in his hands, at a private meeting of the mem- Original Skeick. 65 bers of a Neurological society, in Boston. Not having been present myself, his language was reported to me by a member of the society, as fol- lows : " I feel the influence of a great man. This man is a giant, a man who looks broadly, deeply, clearly. He is a man who holds, or has held, a high political office is one who, when he speaks, fixes every eye. He is the glory of any age and of any land. As an intellectual being, he is eloquent, thrilling, command- ing, irresistable. This letter makes me feel as though 1 had an audience before me now to address. He is still at this moment, but he is not dead. He is not inattentive to what is going on in political affairs. America is his glory. There is a good deal of the same feeling that Napoleon had, he said ' I ask only the glory of France, but I must give all all to her.' He is graceful as a speaker, and a torrent in power. He is past the middle of life. He is a much better man than his adversaries represent him. He has the good of others at heart. He is not a vain man, but he is proud. He is ambitious, in a good sense : he feels that he has the power of doing great good, and is therefore anxious to do it : I feel confident he is a public man." Question What kind, military or 'civil? , " Decidedly in civil life." " He is not in favor of slavery, yet is not an aboli- tionist. He would leave that for those to take care of who know most about it." Question Are you sure it is written by a man? " I am very certain. He is sometimes as calm as 66 Original Sketch. a child, and again as terrible as a tiger he has the sagacity of a Franklin, the penetration of a Mar- shall." Qjiestion Whom of all our public men is he most like ? " I should say in answer to that, I think the letter must be from DANIEL WEBSTER." It -was a letter written by Daniel Webster. As a fair specimen of impartial description, I might select the account of Miss HARRIET .MARTINEAU (the authoress), given me by a lady, in the experi- ment upon her autograph. " 1 think it's a very intellectual person she is not wanting in courage at all. I feel that it is a lady. She has a bold, daring spirit. I feel that I could almost face the world. She would always express her mind very freely. I think she is a public writer, and a great talker too. She is of a very kind, affec- tionate disposition, always interested in others' wel- fare. You could not but like her, although she is so self-satisfied. She is a lady of great refinement and modesty, naturally not modesty that is not the word, I do not know what word I want. She might be very sarcastic. If she were going to write of any people, she would cut them up as bad as Dickens. She is very resolute. She reminds me some of Madame de Stael, in her intellect and boldness." [This lady had previously tried the autograph of Madame de Stael.] Qjiestion Make the comparison between her and Madame de Stael? " Her intellect is like. She is not as dictatorial. I Original Sketch. 67 should give her a much higher moral character. She is strictly a moral woman. She is determined to accomplish whatever she undertakes, and therein she is like Madame de Stael." Question How do you compare her with Bulwer? "I do not like to compare her with Bulwer, I think her moral character is superior to his. There is not so much romance about her as there is about Bulwer, she is not a novelist. She is too intellectual for me, it is overpowering. It gives me an unpleasant feel- ing through my head and ears. My head feels so tight. There is a ringing in the ears." Question How does it affect your eyesight? "I do not notice any change." Question How does it affect your hearing? "I am not deaf now, but I think I might be if under this influence long. She is deaf I know who it is ! " Question Who ? "I think it is Miss Martineau, I do not know of anybody else, that is -such a woman, and deaf too." CHAPTEE IL ORIGINAL SKETCH OF PSYCHOMETRY (CONTINUED), Varieties of psychometric experiments Vast range of psychometric power, historic, biographic, paleontological Old manuscripts Prac- tical uses, arbitration, criminal investigations and detection Pene- trating power Liability to error Unconscious modification by feel- ings General impartiality Overpowering influence Criticism of self Appreciation of the young Various descriptions, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Judge Rowan, Gen. Washington, W. E. Channing, Dr. Harney, Mad. de Stael, Mrs. L. M. Child, Booth, Fulton Demon- strative character of experiments Their dependence on the autograph describing unknown autographs Bulwer Accurate description of three autographs Description of Southern orators. IT is only those ot peculiarly fine, sensitive and intellectual endowments, who can grasp, at once, the whole character, and speak of its details with the familiarity of thorough acquaintance. Generally, the opinion is formed, in a gradual manner, from a care- ful study of the impressions, and the character is opened up to the mind by a consecutive survey of its different relations. Frequently the writer will appear before the mind's eye of the psychometric explorer, with a characteristic expression of countenance and attitude illustrating some trait of his nature, or en- gaged in some characteristic act; and, after a time, he will appear in some other scene, equally character- istic, which has been actually a scene in his life, or which is a legitimate illustration of his disposition. Oftentimes the scenes which are thus presented will 68 Original Sketch. 69 be highly picturesque and poetical happily illus- trative of the true spirit of the man. In trying several autographs upon the head of the Rev. Mr. G., I was struck with several of his picturesque sketches. For example, in portraying the Rev. Mr. Bascom, the eloquent Methodist divine, who rose by his own ener- gies from an humble position, he said, that the first scene that rose to his mind was an humble forest resi- dence a small clearing in the woods the kettles hanging over the fire from forked sticks a youth of studious disposition, cultivating his mind : then vari- ous transitions occurred the country advanced in cultivation villages and cities sprang up the youth was observed in other scenes, and soon became a powerful, eloquent, and universally admired orator of the pulpit. In the autograph of the Rev. Alexander Campbell (the religious reformer), he recognized the spirit of a great leader, partaking somewhat of the traits of Washington and Lafayette, speaking with a different kind of eloquence, and amid scenes of sim- plicity and solemnity. I placed my own autograph upon his head, and it produced the scene of a leader or adventurer, marching on toward a distant height, while a multitude behind were looking upon his pro- gress, and as he looked back he paused to wait until the foremost could overtake him. He appeared to be covered, as to his head, by a species of Roman hel- met, which rendered him insensible to the missiles and weapons which he expected to encounter. As this was a true statement of my position at that time, I thought it a happy sketch ; for I had slackened my scientific investigations, and was engaged in propa- yo Original Sketch. gating my neurological discoveries, hoping that public sentiment might be gradually brought a little nearer to my advanced position in science. But, in this case, instead of locating the scene far off (in adjoining States), as in the cases of Mr. Campbell and Mr. Bascom, he said that all seemed to be located in Cin- cinnati ; and the leader, with the helmet, appeared as if standing about the summit of the first hill, in reced- ing from the river. It also seemed to him, that this personage had some connection with a locality on Lower Market street. This singular remark reminded me of the fact, that the locality of which he spoke, near the Lower Market, was, in reality, the place of my residence in childhood. The helmet, protecting the head from attacks, was a good illustration of the mental hardihood, which has made me ever indifferent to the applause or disapprobation of mankind. I feel that it is my natural place my true vocation to advocate unpopular truths, and to brave the odium which awaits those who ask the world to mend its ways. When the psychometric inquirer is less imaginative, the scene which arises to the mind may be rather a matter of fact than a fancy sketch ; and thus, in our intuitive conceptions, we find the sympathetic percep- tion of character blending with the phenomena of simple clairvoyance. For example, I placed upon the forehead of an attorney, in Mississippi, the letter of a lady addressed to her husband. He immediately fol- lowed the leading impression, and traced it to her res- idence on the Ohio river, where he observed the lady and her children, whom he described correctly, Original Sketch. 71 excepting as to their sex. Sometimes the personal appearance of the writer will be correctly described, without reference to his situation. Frequently, the most important scenes through which he has passed, or which have been most vividly impressed upon his mind or those in the midst of which he wrote will rise distinctly in view. Thus the letter of Lafayette recalled the battle of Germantown the letter of Washington Allston produced a beautiful painting, characteristic of his style a poem, written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, produced a conception of the beau- tiful scenery of summer, which the poetry described. A DRAWING of a sea-shore scene produced the identi- cal scene in the mind of the lady whose hand was in contact with the drawing, unconscious that it was not a piece of writing. She was transported mentally to the scene, and fancied she could almost hear the hum- ming of the insects in the air. The material of the writing, or the method of con- veying the idea, is unimportant. The poetry of Emerson, and the drawing of the artist, equally con^ veyed the scenes which they depicted. It is neces- sary only for the psychometer to come into contact with something upon which the author has affixed the stamp of his peculiar individuality. A drawing or painting will convey, as effectually as a letter, the conception of its author, and his mental efforts in its production. In thus exploring a portrait or a draw- ing, the psychometer not only obtains an idea of the artist; but also' perceives the idea which the artist entertained of his subject. Hence, by contact with a portrait, he may 'describe both the artist and the sub- 72 Original Sketch. ject of the picture. The same principle is equally applicable to autographs. The letter which conveys an idea of its writer, may also convey his idea of the one to whom he is writing, or of the one concerning whom he writes. If then, man, in every act, leaves the impression, or daguerreotype of his mental being upon the scenes of his life and subjects of his action, we are by this law furnished with a new clue to the history of our race ; and I think it highly probable, that, by the application of this principle, the chasms of history may be supplied, and a glimpse may be obtained of unrecorded ages and nations, whose early history is lost in darkness. The ancient manuscripts, paintings, and other works of art, which still exist the cruci- fixes, garments, armor, and other ancient relics, still preserved are doubtless still instinct with the spirit that produced them, and capable of revealing to psy- chometric exploration, the living realities with which they were once connected. At present, these relics are barren of significance. Their hidden meaning lies waiting the future explorer, as the hieroglyphics of Egypt awaited the arrival of Champollion to inter- pret their significance. And why should not the world be filled with the monuments and unwritten re- cords of its past history? It would seem, to the super- ficial thinker, that man was entirely limited to tradition and written records for his knowledge of the past; but physical science proves, that the world possesses, embodied in enduring monuments, the story of its pro- gressive existence. The geologist finds, in the differ- ent strata of the earth, in its curiously mingled and Original Sketch. 73 irregular structure, and in the fossil remains which it conceals in its bosom, the history of its various changes of surface, and of the antediluvian races of animals which have long been extinct. The huge Saurian monsters, which he portrays from their fossil relics, rise before the eye as incredible chimeras. And over this fertile region, now occupied by prosperous States, he revives, by the magic power of science, the antediluvian seas and their strange inhabitants, un- known to man. The Past is entombed in the Present! The world is its own enduring monument ; and that which is true of its physical, is likewise true of its mental career. The discoveries of Psychometry will enable us to ex- plore the history of man, as those of geology enable us to explore the history of the earth. There are mental fossils for the psychologist, as well as mineral fossils for the geologist ; and I believe that, hereafter, the psychologist and the geologist will go hand in hand the one portraying the earth, its animals and its vegetation, while the other portrays the human be- ings who have roamed over its surface in the shadows and darkness of primeval barbarism ! Aye, the men- tal telescope is now discovered, which may pierce the depths of the past and bring us in full view of all the grand and tragic passages of ancient history ! I know that, to many of my readers, unaccustomed to these investigations, and unacquainted with the first experi- mental facts of this great science, these anticipations must seem a visionary hope too grand, too roman- tic, too transcendently beautiful, to be true. But observe, that all is based upon familiar experiments, 74 Original Sketch. and these results are but legitimate deductions from familiar facts. As surely as the expansive power of steam gives premonition of the ocean steamship, does the power of Psychometry give promise of all the glorious performance to which I have alluded. The world, although well acquinted with the expansive power of steam, laughed atRumsey, Fitch and Ful- ton, when they were constructing steamboats : and when they were careering proudly over our " inland seas," the idea of crossing the ocean in -a steamship was pronounced impracticable, by men of science, up to the very time of its consummation. How timidly do we shrink from following an established principle to its legitimate results ! Does not every psychometric experiment demon- strate an indefinite range of the intuitive power ? The psychometer is not limited to a perception of the thoughts of the writer at the moment, but appreciates his entire being enters into his emotions his rela- tions to society, and his past history. Aye, in many instances, the whole career of the individual is opened out before the observer, and he traces that career from childhood to death. Let us apply this principle. Could we obtain any authentic relics of Julius Caesar, of Cicero, of Plutarch of Pericles, Plato, or Solon of Alfred the Great, Confucius, or Mohammed the ancient writings of the Hindoos, or the hiero- glyphics of Egypt and could we from these evoke the pictures of the past, as we do from an ordinary manuscript, how thrilling would be the interest with which we should listen to this resurrection of lost history ! Original Sketch. 75 Why should this be impossible ? Does the mental impression attached to a manuscript ever evaporate, or become effaced ? Does the old manuscript cease to be legible to psychometric power when a certain num- ber of years have elapsed? It may be, that there are certain limits to these experiments, or certain difficul- ties in the way of their extension, but I have not yet found any manuscript so old as to be beyond the reach of this method of exploration. The autographs of Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Burr, Knox, Schuyler, and others of the Revolution, gave prompt and distinct impressions. The oldest manuscript which I have subjected to such investigations, was that of a clergyman of the Church of England, in which the characters were so antiquated in style, as to render it very difficult to decipher. This letter, dated in 1637, appeared to be a solemn protest or re- monstrance against some arbitrary exercise of power by his Bishop, which he regarded as an encroach- ment upon his religious principles and rights. When this manuscript was placed upon the forehead of Judge T., he perceived in it a deep feeling of gloom, and described it as being such a feeling as might have been entertained by a patriot, in the dark hours of our Revolution by a physician, during the preval- ence of yellow fever in Philadelphia or by a protes- tant, in the time of the persecution of the protestants by Qjieen Mary. He described the writer as a man of deep feelings and affections of strong intellect and of eloquence inclined to meditate upon a future life, and to adopt the pursuits of a clergyman dis- posed to resist injustice, but to curb himself by relig- 76 Original Sketch. ious principles as being a man about forty or fifty years of age, and existing at some period not very recent. The Judge possessed no decided capacity for locating his impressions as to place or time. But others, with a better development of Locality and Time, have attained considerable precision. Major P., who had been a great woodsman and traveler, appeared to decide with but little difficulty, when ex- ploring a letter, from what section of the country it had been written. Since, then, there is no limit to the accuracy or extent of our preceptions, but that which arises from the imperfect development of our faculties, it is impossible to set any bounds to the future explora- tions of gifted individuals. In these days, so rapidly are our anticipations realized, and sanguine hopes converted into accomplished facts, that I cannot refrain from thus predicting the future range of psychometric power, however extravagant the pre- diction may seem to a portion of my readers. If there are any who cannot {it all digest these predic- tions, let them lay aside, upon their shelves, Vol. I of the Journal of Man, that it may improve like a bottle of wine, by age ; and when they have grown old, with a mind expanded by a wider experience of the progress of knowledge, let them re-peruse the old volume and compare its prophecy with the living verification. But, it may be asked by the practical man, cannot this power be applied to the daily purposes of life, as well as to the exploration of history? Why should it not assist our inquiries into the guilt or innocence Original Sketch. 77 of those who are arraigned before our courts of law? I know no reason why it should not. Indeed, I have no doubt that, with the proper means and arrange- ments for the investigation of character, a scientific tribunal for the decision of all controversies between man and man might be established, which would come much nearer to exact justice than we can pos- sibly reach, by our present cumbrous judicial system and laws of evidence. To propose such a tribunal would, at the present time, be premature ; but there is no reason why the science should not contribute its light to elucidate any obscure facts, or traits of character, which may have a bearing on the case that is tried. If the jury, and the public generally, were aware of the power of Psychometry, the statement of the results of a psychometric investigation, under proper circumstances, would have a decisive influence upon their opinion ; and such a statement, from com- petent persons, might be admitted upon the same principle that the testimony of medical men is often demanded, in cases of homicide, lunacy, etc., to assist in determining the facts by means of the resources of science. I have no doubt that this kind of testimony will be introduced into courts, after the principles of Psychometry have become generally known and established. In the delicate class of cases arising from the charge of lunacy, as well as in those involving high crimes, there are no methods of exploration which can compare with Psychometry, as to the power of ascertaining -the truth or falsehood of the charges. I do not mean that every psychometric experiment should be taken ^8 Original Sketch. as oracular, but that, when a sufficient amount of intellect and caution are exercised in the investiga- tion, the results are accurately true. If the individual accused of crime, or lunacy, has written a number of letters during the period embraced bv the accusation, his mind may be traced through all the phases of excitement to which it was subjected, and the truth or falsehood of the charge clearly ascertained. A letter, written by a clergyman confined in the penitentiary, was submitted to my investigation. The various degrees of guilt, indiscretion, melan- choly, contrition and anxiety which it revealed, formed an interesting subject for study. Soon afterward the man was pardoned. The discre- tionary exercise of this pardoning power is a task of no little delicacy and difficulty liable to great abuses while the arbitrary periods of confinement, fixed by law, have little reference to the proper aim of punishment the reformation of the crimi- nal. If the term of confinement were made indefi- nite, and determinable by the moral condition of the prisoner, then the observation of his conduct, and the psychometric scrutiny of his character, might determine when, with safety to society, he could be released from prison, or how much more he needed of its reformatory influence. As to the detection of crime by this means, there have been some instances recently, in the United States, of the detection of crime by means of clair- voyance ; and about two hundred years ago, an humble peasant, in France, exercised the same Original Sketch. 79 power of which I speak, and in the same manner. He visited the spot where the murder had been com- mitted, and when he came upon the ground, or touched the instrument with which the deed had been performed, he was greatly agitated by the impression which was imparted. By means of this impression, he acquired an idea of the murderers and their movements, seized upon their trail and pursued them from house to house, and from village to vil- lage, until he actually found* them. The wonderful performances of this man were attested by magis- trates and physicians, in a public manner, and were matters of so much public notoriety at the time, as to cause him to be presented at the court of Louis XIV. The establishment and use of such powers, for the discovery of innocence and guilt, will have a most salutary influence upon society. I do not mean to suggest, that any testimony of this kind should be introduced upon the same authoritative footing as the oath of a citizen, in reference to any matter which he has witnessed, but merely, that the indications and authority of science should be appealed to upon this, as upon any other subject. I do not propose any new statute upon the subject, or any departure from our present legal usages. I merely suggest, that when Psychometry shall take its place among established sciences, it will, of course, be recognized with the same degree of respect as other branches of knowl- edge which appertain to the medical profession : and, as the physician is at present appealed to, in a case of homicide, to determine the probable cause of death, and the possibility of its having been caused by acci- 8o Original Sketch. dent, or by the violence of the prisoner so, when his range of professional knowledge is increased, he will testify from the evidence, not only of surgery, anatomy, chemistry and toxicology, but also from Psychometry. At the present time, an intelligent physician would seldom testify upon the subject of insanity, without bringing into play the knowledge derived from phrenological science, or any other source which might be accessible. When I have been called upon to testify upon the charge of insanity, in court, my professional knowledge was appealed to, without any reference to its source ; and I, of course, testified upon the principles of neurological science, which affords the only satisfactory explanation of insanity that has ever yet been given. Thus will Psychometry, or any other science which may be capable of throwing light upon the matters before the court, be brought to bear by men of science, or other witnesses, whenever the soundness and authenticity of such knowledge is generally admitted. In the mean time, those who dread all changes, need be under no apprehension, as the change in question can only take place when it has been sanctioned by the general sentiment of men of science. The knowledge of such an improvement, in our methods of studying mankind, will have a powerful influence in checking crime. The temptation to crime arises from the hope of security and escape. But when the criminal knows that the Argus-eyes of his fellow-beings are capable of tracing him through all the devious ways of his life when he knows that Original Sketch. 81 his secret acts, his criminal designs and attempts, all lie bare before the spiritual eye of man he will find himself compelled to abandon his crimes. When thus society, with all-seeing but benevolent eyes, superin- tends his movements, and with its millions of strong arms reaches forth to lead him back into paths of peace and virtue, there will be an end of the high crimes that now disgrace our people. The recognition and general cultivation of Psy- chometry, when among the millions of psychometric seers there will be men of the highest order of genius, talent and wisdom, will fully realize these hopes. The introduction of this science will operate like the intro- duction of brilliant gas lights into the dark and crime haunted streets and alleys of a populous city. The crimes which previously revelled in security, will be compelled to retreat from the luminous thoroughfare. Not only will the criminal be held in check, but all of us will feel the monitory and restraining influence of this knowledge. When we know that, in every act of our lives, we are tracing a biography which may be read by a thousand eyes when we know that it is utterly impossible to be selfish or vicious and conceal the fact when we know that it is utterly impossible to gain credit for virtue, without having it in our inmost nature and that if we do cherish noble sentiments, they will not be concealed from the eyes of those whom we respect when we know, in short, that we shall appear to others, in all things, as we really arc many will wake up from their hollow and hypocritical life to the cultivation of real virtue ; and all will feel, in their private lives, the same restrain- 82 Original Sketch. ing, yet elevating influence which is produced by the presence of a good friend, before whom we are ashamed to indulge any little exhibition of a selfish or a petulant spirit. It is true, the passion ot secretiveness may at first rebel against such anticipations ; but this passion, the source of hypocrisy, lying, false modesty, Jealous reserve, deceit, moroseness and treachery, has too long ruled and corrupted mankind. The truly frank and virtuous man feels that there is not an act of his life which he would fear to have exhibited in the eyes of the universe ; and he who from a guilty shame recoils, or, from the pure love of mystery, regards concealment as one of his highest privileges, must be expected to cherish the old system of mystery, and to protest against phrenology, physiognomy, psychom- etry, and every other road to the knowledge of human nature. To such objectors I would simply remark, that men will always be eager to form opinions of their fellows ; and, whether right or wrong, these opinions will be current in society, and will form the basis of our action. The question, therefore, is, whether we shall have vague notions, prejudices, slan- ders, and idle gossip, or whether we shall have the just, systematic, and charitable knowledge of our fel- low-man, to which we are conducted by science. Yet I would by no means sanction the idea, that psychometric investigations will always lead to accurate results, or may not be abused and per- verted. As law, medicine, divinity, phrenology, etc., have all their quackeries or perversions, so will Psychometry, in the hands of the ignorant, the Original Sketch. $3 unprincipled, the prejudiced, and the reckless. A psychometric opinion may be as calm, dispassionate and pure as the thoughts of an angel, or it may be influenced by all the emotions of love or hate, of reverence or scorn, which influence our ordinary judgments. In pronouncing upon the characters of our distinguished politicians, Mr. Clay, Mr. Cal- houn, and Gen'L Jackson, I have often found the psychometer as decidedly biassed in favor of one, or against another, as if he knew of whom he was speaking. Soon after the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, I was traveling upon the Mis- sissippi, and fell in company with an accomplished lady, the wife of one of the officers, who had distin- guished himself in the service. We were trying several psychometric experiments, when one of her friends privately handed me a letter, written by her husband from the camp, immediately after those memorable battles. I had already observed, that her impressions w r ere unusually dependent upon her feelings, and that she would, in all cases, as she liked or disliked the character, elevate or condemn it in her description. I placed her husband's letter upon her forehead, and immediately she manifested a lively agitation of her feelings. Her bosom heaved with the intensity of her emotions tears came into her eyes and she was herself amazed at the tumult of feeling produced. Yet she declared the impres- sions to be more delightful than any she had yet experienced. She was peculiarly charmed with the character, and when, being a little more composed, she was asked to give her opinion, she exclaimed, 84 Original Sketch. " Oh, he is the very soul of honor ! " She then went on, in a very full description : stated 'that he was a military man that he was very fond of hunting that he was popular in his manners a good writer occupying a rank below that of Colonel, etc., etc., in short, gave a description, which, making some slight allowance for a wife's partiality, was certainly very correct. The fact, that such emotions should have been called forth as vividly as if she had been in actual mental intercourse with her husband, when she was utterly unconscious of their cause, demonstrates the necessity of caution in all such investigations. But it demonstrates something important, in reference to the laws of mental association, which may be illus- trated also by another experiment. I placed in the hands of an impressible lady, a letter from her father, who was dead, and for whom her grief had not yet been removed. In a few moments, as she com- menced speaking of the character, a deep sadness came upon her; unconscious of its cause, her eyes filled with tears, and I removed the letter without letting her know its source, although she continued for some days exceedingly curious to know what could possibly have called forth her emotions so stron 101 compare him, I have too poor a memory can't call up any body so as to compare him. He 's a great man. 1 don't know any body that he's like, alto- gether." (I wish you to find some fault?) " What is that [touching the region of affection] ? I feel a great heat there. He has great fondness .for a country life for the beauties of nature. Who is this? The faults do n't come to me ; he 's very quick tempered. \ (How would this person compare with Mr. Clay?) " He 's a better man than I thought Mr. Clay was. I shouldn't think such a person would keep slaves. This person seems more noble and elegant in his man- ners than I supposed Mr. Clay to be." JUDGE ROWAN, by G. C., Esq. Impressions de- rived from a political manuscript. " A sedate character, dignified, elevated no taste for levity. There is a love of investigation ^a love of order and arrangment in investigations, as well as in other things. This person, as a lawyer or politi- cian, would endeavor to convince by the most familiar and plain arguments. He would be powerful in de- bate, cogent in argument, and plain in his inductions and explanations. (What of his pursuits?) His mind is accustomed to legal investigations, and adapted to political. I think both, at times, had en- gaged his serious attention. (What is his rank as a lawyer?) Very high as a reasoner ; he would stand first as among the most talented. He is not without very strong feelings, and has power to appeal to the passions. Yet declamation was not his habit. But he would arouse . the feelings powerfully by the IO2 Original Sketch* strength of his perceptions and force of elucidation ; the passions would follow the judgment, and both would be aroused." (What as a politician?) " He would exert his rea- soning faculties, and attain a very high rank. His mind would be better adapted to the Senate than to the House of Representatives. I should think he had been in both, but preferred the Senate. (What of his manners?) They are bland and dignified. (Domes- tic character?) Very fine, kind, affable and digni- fied, not harsh. (As to females?) Most refined and elevated ; he would have friends among them ; they would like, respect and venerate him. (Is he living, or dead?) He is dead. (To whom would you com- pare him?) I have an impression that his mind is of the model of Judge Rowan's. (How is he as to par- ties?) He would analyze their principles, and act freely with that which he thought correct ; he would not be led by either party into advocacy of principles he did not believe correct. He is an honest politician. He would not leave his party, but would not act with the party when he thought them wrong. He would be the peer of any man as a statesman or a lawyer." Judge T., in giving his impressions from the auto- graph of Judge Rowan, described him as, in per- sonal appearance, somewhat such a man as Webster large, dignified, etc. ; a calm, deep-thinking, pure- minded man, of far-reaching intellect, great pride, honor and honesty a democrat in politics, but not carried away by party ; a man of great depth of feeling, who would be "overwhelming" in elo- quence when his feelings were aroused. In giving Original Sketch. 103 this opinion, the Judge himself, a very calm, methodi- cal man, recognized, readily, the legal ability and moral elevation, but did not perceive the capacity as a speaker, until after some reflection. Not only the character of the psychometer, but the character ot the autograph, is important as to the interest of the opinion pronounced. The psychometer partakes of the character of the writer, and modifies his style accordingly. The most eloquent and beautiful opinions which I have ever recorded, were pro- nounced upon the autograph of Judge Rowan, by a young lawyer of the South, and a lady, who made their investigation in conjunction, and expressed similar opinions in glowing language. MILITARY HEROES May, 1846. A letter on public business, relating to the war, written by a distinguished old General, was placed upon the fore- head of F. R., a young gentleman of education and talent. His remarks were: "I feel pleasant, self- satisfied it excites the occiput and crown of the head I could make a good fighting man. now. I would like to see it going on. I feel older than I was just now, feel like an old man, in fact yet 1 feel tha same disposition to see fighting going on. I know who it is, from my feelings it is General . There is no use guessing any more about it." Having thus truly detected the authorship of the letter, with so much certainty, that he refused to say anything more, I next placed upon his forehead an autograph from GENERAL WASHINGTON, he imme- diately proceeded, as follows : 104 Original Sketch. " I feel a greater sensation in the perceptive organs over the eyes, a swelling of the nostrils and a feeling of defiance , I should judge he was a man of intel- lect. Certainly, when he took a course, he would pursue it to the end. Nothing can alter his deter- mination, neither persuasion nor force." (Q^. What pursuits and sphere of life is he fit for?) " For a statesman bold, independent and straight- forward. He would make a good soldier, too, if he had opportunity a good commanding officer, who could plan well and perceive advantages. (What of his moral character?) He is a great man. He has a great deal of what I call force. (How does he compare with other men?) He has a great deal more force greatly excels them in power he is still planning, but on a larger scale he thinks more profoundly, acts from greater motives and on a large scale. He is superior to the ordinary run of great men might be estimated among the first class a much greater man than Jackson, because he had more intellect, but he would resemble him in torce of character. I feel the excitement extending back from the perceptive over the moral organs and crown of the head. I consider him a great patriot a man of great justice let justice be done though the heavens fall." (What is his appearance?) "Tall, commanding, he would look more like my idea of GEORGE WASH- INGTON, than any one else." REV. W. E. CHANNING by Miss S. W. " I feel perfectly calm. I have a burning heat in my forehead, across the middle of it." Original Sketch. 105 " I don't think the person is in perfect health. He is not very strong, physically he had more strength of mind than body. He understands himself very well. He would be a good abolitionist he would say : Freedom for all mankind. I think he's very warm, generous-hearted. I think he is entirely interested in the welfare of others he is self-sacri- iicing he would deny himself comforts for the benefit 'of others. Isn't he engaged in the anti- slavery cause? it seems to me he is. He'll be a true friend to the slave. It seems to me he is a public lecturer, or something of that sort. It is a person I should be willing to trust myself with. I could rely upon his word ; he has good judgment - he is not excitable you would always know just where to find him. There is a great deal of romance about him. He is a great lover of nature he would be very fond of poetry. He might write it ; he has great strength of sentiment. I don't think he's known as a poet, but I think he can write poetry, very sweet and beautiful. He has beautiful ideas, and expresses them beautifully. I think he must be subject to fits of melancholy. I feel sad. He was a man of tender feelings, easily wounded. I would like him right well." REV. W. E. CHANNING by Miss P., January, 1844. " Another sadness affects me but it is not a moral sadness, but a holy, tender feeling. It deepens the other, contrasting the two men not much physical force. I feel strength to bear the ills of life not a strength to fight the battles, but a soaring above them 106 Original Sketch. so high that they cannot reach me. This person would be considered a sort of abstraction by many. Some of his friends feel provoked that he does not make more of a stir; they are ambitious for him, but he knows best what is his soul's good. They are pro- voked at the very things for which they should re- vere him. He is spiritual. His choice would be private life ; but, circumstances would call him some- what into public. I think he might be a clergyman he has moral courage. He would not be practical enough to take an active part in the reforms of the day, but he would aid them by writing. Those writ- ing might not be sought after by the generality might be tedious to many. He writes deeply a merely receptive mind, without much activity, would not profit much by them must be in a similar state to his to get at what he says. An appreciation of true wit a contempt for vain attempts would have a strange joy in what the unappreciating might call his vagaries ' He has meat to eat which they know not of.' He is fitted for another sphere of existence too sublimated for this. . I reverence him should feel his lighest word it would dwell on my ear, and if I did not then understand, the means would come when I was prepared. The form of his sentences would be peculiar. Appreciates the fine arts loves poetry sonnets, perhaps. He loves philosophy. He cares for society differently from most. He is an observer a thinker. His internal activity is great. He would hear beautiful music internal harmonies lives an inward life. He would not seek the society of the great, but of those who live more naturally. He is a Original Sketch. 107 dark-haired person is not selfish, but so lost in his thought, as not to regard the comforts of others. His mind wears out his body. Better for him if his thoughts were less occupied if he had to make more physical exertion. He makes me feel brighter, hap- pier, stronger." DR. J. M. HARNEY, of Kentucky, author of Chrys- tallina, etc., was a man of decided poetical genius. He was described as follows by F. R., 1846. " I am impressed with the gorgeous beauties of na- ture.: lofty mountains lovely landscapes tumultu- ous ocean. Nature appears in her most lovely pan- oply ; my mind is on the mountain, the billowy ocean the valley, the distant city. I 'm in the coun- try. A feeling of the sublime impels me to contem- plate Deity through his works. It is the sunshine of poetic feeling nothing morbid. No disposition to speculate on man. I 'm far from the city, in the country. I feel as Coleridge in the vale of Cham- ouni, except that I see the ocean. I have the feelings of Byron in the Alps, except that I see no thunder and lightning." " I think the writer has little of the epic is not like Pope ; he has the inspiration derived from the beauties of nature. He has a vein of chaste and del- icate sentiment. He resembles Byron ; he has more of the fire of poetry than Goldsmith. He is very much like Scott, but there is more softness. He has less philosophy than Shelley. He has a vein of sen- timent : he is, perhaps, nearer to Bryant, than any I can perceive. He has originality, but not much in- vention. He is evidently a literary man, of taste for elegant literature and history. io8 Original Sketch. MADAME DE STAEL by Miss S. W. (What do you think of this person?) " I should think it is a person of very high intellect, indeed. (Male or female?) It does not seem to be a male; but if it is a female, it is a very uncommon person. If it 's a female, she is very masculine." (Give me a positive answer.) I think it 's a female ; she 's a tremendous thinker. It is a very haughty person very dictatorial ; there is very great strength of mind. She is very fearless, indeed. She 'd make a good president, or a good queen : any one would fear her, yet would respect her. Everything that she said would be law. I wouldn't dare disobey." (What are her chief aims?) " She's a great writer a very powerful woman." (What of her moral character?) " I should think more of her mind her intellect than of her morals. She is a very hard person to understand. She wouldn't condescend to notice common people. I do n't think she 's remarkably conscientious. I do n't think there 's any spirituality about her, at all. She thinks too much of worldly things. Her mind is wholly upon literary pursuits nothing else. I think she's sincere. She might be rather satirical. She 'd tell you just what she thought, whether you liked it or not. She is dignified, retiring, cold, distant. I never could get acquainted with her ; I never should try to. Every body would respect her every body would want to know her very few would take any step toward intimacy with her. It seems as though my head would burst with thinking. She would think a great deal oi having a high reputation ; she desires fame ; she 's not very easily excited. " Original Sketch. 109 (What is her reputation?) " She is by no means a cypher in the world's estimation. She has a high reputation. She is deserving of it." (Is she living, or dead?) kt I can't tell. She never thought of death. I .can only think of her in the world. I'm in doubt about it. (Why?) I don't like to think of her as being dead. She would die like a hero she would n't be afraid to die." (Can you say any thing more of her moral charac- ter?) " There seems to be a vein of selfishness. She would do good when it came in her way, but would not put herself to any inconvenience. She would not be self-sacrificing. I should not fancy her in the domestic sphere. She might be harsh, jealous, iras- cible." (What sort of wife?) " Not affectionate deter- mined to rule." (Is she American or foreign?) " I think she is a foreigner ; certainly a most manly personage." (What is the style of her writings?) " There would be a great deal of vehemence and loftiness : noble, rather pompous no, not so much in writing as in common conversation. Her thoughts are perfectly natural ; she writes without restraint. I can see her pen fly. I never knew such a woman ; there's no- body on earth I can think of, that seems like her." (Can you compare her to any one?) " No ; I can compare her to some I have read of in novels, to Ma chere Mere, in ' the Neighbors,' one of those mascu- line women." (You can't say whether she 's living or dead?) " I think she 's dead. (Why?) I do n't know ; I don't HO Original Sketch. like to think of her as dead. There 's nothing heav- enly about her. She 's better fitted for this world, than for that holier sphere. She 's not so moral as she ought to be ; she has some morality without any religion." (Have you heard of Madame de Stael? " Yes- (How would the character suit her?) I think it is her yes, I know it is." MRS. L. M. CHILD by Bishop Otey. "It seems to be sprightly, witty, humorous a laughing girl, full of social feeling. Her sprightli- ness -covers up a deep religious feeling. She would like to make sport for her friends, but there is nothing malicious about it. She has great philanthropy. She would be deeply interested in the sublime objects of Nature has a great relish for such things. She would be seriously interested in music and the fine arts. Her animal spirits are great, but she would not jest upon sacred subjects in such matters she is very sincere. She possesses very superior powers of mind, which would enable her to fill a wide space in the public eye, but does not seem to have the ambition for such distinction." BOOTH, THE ACTOR by Miss S. W., 1844. 44 More excitement than Miss Martineau. It makes me tremble. I don't think it's very intellectual. I should think he might be rather wild one of those ranters. He's very active, very bold rather haughty. Why, what is he ! He would like to make a good appearance in the world to be admired. Flattery would hurt him he can't bear it he has too much self-esteem." Original Sketch. in 44 He's a public man of some sort, but I don't know what to do with him. He can't be a lecturer. I don't think he has mind enough to write much. I must put him on the stage. That's the best place for him. It makes me tremble so. I can't think he's a very respectable character. He might be a great mimic take any one off to perfection. Is he a play-actor? I don't know what else to do with him. I think he might be a good actor, but I don't think he'd be much off the stage. I don't think he's a very moral man. He's some great star. I thought, at first, he was very comical, but I don't think he is now. I think he'd take to tragedy. He has a good memory. He's an actor has a very high reputa- tion people would make a great rush to see him." (What do you say of the soundness of his mind?) " He is not a man of great or expanded mind. He's rather feeble-minded he seems mysterious. (How is he regarded as to this matter?) I don't think he is perfectly sane. I feel in doubt about it; I can't tell. (Is he living, or dead?) I think he must be living." ROBERT FULTON by Mrs. P. " I feel it up my arm makes it ache feeling of stupor has gone off; feel very cheerful like the writer very well pleasant, cheerful fellow imagi- native, kind - hearted : seems a young man, not attained to what he might be feels as if he had the power to be anything he chose to be full of high hopes of achieving fame in some way, by doing good to his country. He is full of patriotism not H2 Original Sketch. old enough yet to have lost his joyousness, and become disappointed at all. He will be successful. 44 He is dead ! There is a feeling of indescribable sadness, as if some one had been cut down in the bloom of youth, with bright prospects before him. He was full of noble feeling had very fine intellec- tual capacity full of beauty. I feel that he was too young to have achieved much : he had a con- sciousness of power, but was too young, or else had been carried away, and not turned his powers to account. I feel as if he had died before he accom- plished anything. I feel as if he had difficulties, and did not realize his dreams. He was rather a disap- pointed man. He died, disappointed, in the midst of his undertaking disappointed in men, disappointed in life. He has left some fame not what he might have left if he had lived and justice had been done him. He was an American a Northern man dead some twenty years belongs rather to the past than the present." The letter upon which this opinion was pronounced, reads as follows : " NEW- YORK, May 18, 1812. "Dear Law Have you forgot the Ganges? What active measures are you pursuing to carry your well-conceived and highly important plans into effect, as soon as possible? Time, you know, is precious. Tt is so important an object, that I am of the opinion one of your sons should immediately come here, and go from hence to England ; and, if encouraged there, to India. What are our friends, Original Sketch. 113 the friends to science and the arts, doing for the patent law? Shall mind, which governs matter, have no protection, while a field of potatoes, the vulgar labor of mere vulgar hands, is barricaded in protecting laws? Shall war stare us in the face, and the laws give no inducement for genius to deal destruction to our enemies? If every member of Congress had the mind, the soul of a Lorenzo de Medicis, would not the country, by encouragement, exhibit w r orks of genius which would give dignity to our character, and make us respected? Write me soon. Yours, etc. " ROB'T FULTON." The lady by whom the foregoing opinion was pro- nounced, was remarkable rather for the delicacy and strength of her emotions, than for the power of investigating character. I give the experiment as an example of psychometric portraiture, frequently occuring, in which the leading impression or tout ensemble will be painted, rather than the specific details of the character and life. The power of describing the general impression and sentiment, which is associated with the letter or the life of the writer, is much more common than the power of dis- covering the particular facts. To a correct reasoner, these imperfect experiments constitute a complete demonstration of the psychome- tric power. Indeed, the most meagre of our experi- ments are sufficiently convincing, when impartially examined ; for, in describing any individual, each trait or feature of his character would admit of at Original Sketch. least a hundred different descriptions, of which only one would be true. The probabilities, therefore, are a. hundred to one against the correctness of each statement; and the entire truth of the description, if it were mere guess work, would be a coincidence beyond the utmost range of probability. If an artist should attempt to paint the portrait of an unknown individual, without any hint by which to guide his fancy, it is perfectly certain that his fancy-sketch could not, by any admissible possibility, become a true portrait. If the portrait should prove a faithful one, it would be impossible to convince any one that the artist had never seen his subject, and knew not his name, country, age, sex or pursuits. So, when a psychometric portrait proves correct, we are com- pelled to believe that the psychometer has had some means of satisfactory observation, and that a true portrait has not been painted by accident. The demonstration of a psychometric experiment is so complete, that no objection can have any material weight, excepting one which is based upon its truth. It may be affirmed that the psychometer derives his impressions, not from the letter, but from the minds of those around him that he has a sympathy with them, which enables him to interpret their views, independent of any impression from the paper. To those who have witnessed many mes- meric experiments, this suggestion has much plausi- bility ; and I would not deny that, in some cases, the sentiments of those about him may influence a very sympathetic individual, and modify his conclu- sions ; but these extraneous influences are not the Original Sketch. 115 source of his impressions. If he holds the letter in his hands, he recognizes its impression as commenc- ing at the point of contact, and traversing the arm to the brain, giving him an idea of the character only after the brain has been impressed. If it is held on the forehead, he perceives the influence more readily, which is diffused from the letter over his head, and which affects distinctly the particular organs that are most highly excited. He perceives that the letter is the source of his impressions, and if it should be enveloped in paper, each additional fold of paper increases the difficulty of receiving the impression. The immediate contact of the w r riting is the most efficient means of communicating the impression, and the different portions of the manuscript frequently communicate different ideas, according to the tenor of the writer's thoughts. The same opinions will be given by the psychome- ter in the presence of different persons, whether they have or have not any idea of the character of the autograph. He can exercise the power as well alone, as he can exercise any of his other senses. He can take a letter, the moment it has been received from the post-office, and investigate its character alone, before he has opened it to learn its source or contents. The psychometric power is a power of independent perception, not derived from the opinions of those about us, but exerted like the sense of sight or smell, by our own independent action. To demonstrate, more clearly, this independence of the psychometer, I have frequently had opinions pro- nounced upon autographs, without myself knowing n6 Original Sketch. the names until the close of the experiment. In such cases, the opinions were as bold and as accurate as when I knew the subject of the experiment. In 1844, I selected the autographs of Dr. Spurzheim, Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, the novelist, and Ellen Tree, the actress, and placing them upon the table, re- quested Miss W. to examine and give her opinions of the manuscripts before her. She proceeded to inves- tigate them without my knowing which of the three she had selected (herself totally ignorant of the nature of the autographs). When they were examined, at the conclusion of the experiment, I found that her opinions had been given as correctly as in other cases, having readily recognized one of the characters as a female, and the others as males. EDWARD L. BULWER by Miss W. (After Spurz- heim.) (Is it like the other?) " He 's a calmer sort of be- ing. I think the person would rather sit down and read and write, than any thing else. I think he 's very serious, very thoughtful, very imaginative. He 's not a very active man. I think he 's a public man, but I do n't think he 's a professional man or a politician. I guess he is n't very sociable ; he 's a soli- tary sort of being he likes to be by himself and not be disturbed he 's very intellectual. I think people generally like him better than . "I shouldn't altogether fancy him. (Why?) I do n't know what, but there 's something about him rather repulsive. He can be very refined and pol- ished, but he isn't always particular to be so; he's either a public speaker or writer. I Ve either heard Original Sketch. 117 him or read his writings. I don't think lie improves any by speaking or writing. I think he hurts himself in some way. I think he 's a great lover of nature; he has a very fine way of describing it would make you realize it." " It 's no one that I know. I only know him from something that I Ve heard or seen. He might preach up good doctrines, but he would n't always practice them. I think there 's a great deal of romance about him. I think he 's a writer, but I do n't think that what he 'd write would benefit society much ; he 's more a writer of romance and fiction. It do n't seem he 'd ever speak or write upon the reforms of the day. I do n't think I 'd like him much ; he do n't seem to take the right ground he is n't refined enough." (What 's his domestic character?) " He 's a great literary character. I can 't think of any thing else. He 's kind-hearted, and disposed to treat people well. I think he might be agreeable, but not very talkative." (How toward his wife?) " He thinks more of his pen than of his wife might preach up good doctrine, but would not practice it. He 'd always be kind and pleasant enough, but he 's more engaged in other things." (What are his leading aims and tendencies?) " I think he wants to please the people, whether it is true or not. I do n't think he 's very conscientious. (Has he any philanthropy?) Yes, I think he has, not to a very great degree. (Is he republican, or aristo- cratic?) Rather aristocratic very stately and dig- nified. (How as to taste in writing?) One would be excited in reading his writings, but I do n't think they would require a great deal of thought." n8 Original S'cdrh. ACCURATE DESCRIPTION FROM THREE AUTOGRAPHS. A description from the autographs of Dr. Spurzheim, Dr. Caldwell and Dr. Buchanan, given in 1852 by two gentleman whose intelligence and superior capaci- ties qualified them to give accurate opinions, was published in the Journal of Man at the time as an example of psychometric accuracy. Dr. Caldwell was at that time living and quite old. He was a gentleman of commanding stature, dignified, ener- getic, imposing in appearance and manners more so than any member of the medical profession I have ever known. He was bold and honest in the pursuit of truth and a vigorous controversialist. Among learned men he was the most distinguished champion of Phrenology and also of Mesmerism, notwithstanding the opposition of his colleagues. The force of his character overcame opposition. Dr. C. had led a distinguished career as a medical professor and author from the time of Rush until 1850, in Phila- delphia, Lexington and Louisville, and was the first medical professor to do justice to my own experi- ments and discoveries in 1841-42. Dr. Spurzheim the associate of Gall, after a brilliant career in Europe, was received with great honor in Boston, where he died in 1833, before he had time to extend his labors beyond the city. Pierpont said in his ode to Spurzheim : " Friend of man, of God the servant, Advocate of truths divine, Nature's priest, how pure and fervent Was thy worship at her shrine." Original Sketch. 119 When the descriptions were published Mr. Pier- point, writing of this article, said : " The last number of the Journal of Man has greatly interested me, especially in the Psychometric Department, as I have had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance, more or less intimate with all the three distinguished philoso- phers whose characters are psychometrically given Spurzheim, Caldwell and Buchanan. They are all done admirably yes, marvellously. I cannot con- ceive how their respective characters could have been more truly, more faithfully, or more discriminatingly drawn." These descriptions are condensed in the following abridgments of the reports which give the salient points. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT. SPURZHEIM. (Mr. T.) I think this individual is diseased. There is oppression of the lungs and chest, with difficult, laborious, painful breathing ; a good deal of prostration of the nervous energy. (Mr. P.) My first impression is that he is not living. His forehead was wide, high and prominent. His constitution was strong, his head large, full and predominant in front. CALDWELL. (Mr. P.) -He has a large person, full chested with vigorous lungs and circulation, and I suppose a heavy beard. BUCHANAN. (Mr. P.) This person has a large head, about six and a half inches by eight.* The brain projects anteriorly, laterally and superiorly. His * The exact size was six ami four-tenths by eight. I2O Original Sketch. head is very broad on the top, round and full. The individual is living, actively engaged and in health. (What is the relative length of the three heads?) The second is longest in proportion to its breadth. The third is next longest in proportion to its breadth. The first Was nearly round. The second is smaller as to cubic contents. The first and third differ but little in cubic bulk. The third is rather the longest antero-posteriorly, and is broadest at ideality and cautiousness. This one has not so large a body but has good vital stamina. His head is out of pro- portion to his body. He is not so large as the first and second, though he may be tall. He has less muscu- lar development. These descriptions are remarkably accurate. The dimensions of the heads are precisely correct GENERAL CHARACTER. SPURZHEIM. He is not developed in celestial spirituality but much more in intellectuality more engaged in studying the externals of Nature, the forms and relations of spiritual things than the internal or celestial. In life he had a good deal of intellectual power the perceptive and reflective were equally developed and exercised. He was a hard student, a continuous thinker. There is consid- erable firmness and decision with physical force and energy. He was a man of free thinking, liberal mind. The mainspring of his action was a feeling of trust, benevolence and philanthropy. He had a grave, reflective mind, but not a great deal of vivacity. There was not much spirituality. He Original Sketch. 121 would investigate thoroughly before expressing an opinion. He had a steady self-reliance but no egotism. He is governed by a steady purpose to accomplish the great object of his life. It was not a mind of spontaneous genius but of elaborate intellect. As a speaker he was grave and impressive, not sprightly but dignified. When excited he exhibited power and made a deep, lasting impression. His desire was to benefit the whole community, by developing science, enlightening them, and enab- ling them to understand the laws of nature under \vhich they live. CALDWELL. This individual is fully developed in the intellectual region. He has considerable ideality and imagination, is impulsive and excitable, reasons from analogy is ardent, energetic, bold, fearless. This one has more active conspicuous ambition con- nected with personal notoriety. He has more egotism, the former more modest dignity. He lives more in the present the former will live in the future. The former is more original this seems too impulsive for a very patient investigation. He ?s polite, graceful, vain, showy and courtly in manner. In speaking he is engaged in making active gestures. In controversy he is disposed to be bitter and sarcastic. When aroused he seems to have an inexhaustible fountain of intellectual material. He could attract more attention personally and have an influence wherever he went. The other would have a more creative mind producing those things which would last forever, while this would be more brilliant for a time. He aims to be conspicuous and lofty in the eyes of the world. He 122 Original Sketch. would be better fitted than the other for political and fashionable life. 3. BUCHANAN. A very clear, bright intellect; great natural capacity free and spontaneous in its action critical and philosophic. His mind is inclined to scientific and philosophic investigation. He engages in it with a good deal of energy. This mind to be appreciated belongs to the future. He has self reli- ance but no vanity. He has clearer and more accu- rate perceptions than No. i and comes more directly and correctly to conclusions. He belongs to a later period in the progress of science and is more brilliant. More philosophic and better balanced than No. 2, a more active temperament than the first. He is investigating some philosophic scientific sub- ject. It is the main object of his life to develop, found and establish it. It is not in reference to him- self but he seems inseparably connected with it. He is not pursuing it for honor or personal fame, but for the love of truth. He is willing to live only in the future or be denounced in the present, It is one of the most pleasant living autographs I have ever had on my forehead. He is governed by caution in his investigations, which are scientific rather than politi- cal or literary. His labors have not been duly appre- ciated. His ambition is intellectual not with the force and energy of the second. There is no activity in acquisitiveness. He can grasp a great deal and make it comprehended by others everything is clear -he is an architect of ideas. He will survive either of the others in reputation as he has a greater capac- ity for creation and draws ideas from sources the others Original Sketch. 123 cannot reach. This one belongs to all future time not to the present ; the second belongs to the present. The first will be enduring but being less creative will not endure so long as this. In the Journal of Man for July, 1851, was given a description of six of the impassioned orators of the South. Henry Clay and Judge Rowan of Kentucky, John Randolph of Virginia, S. S. Prentiss of Missis- sippi, Col. Jos. H. Daviess of Kentucky and Gov. McDuffie of South Carolina. The descriptions were all faultlessly correct, and* after all had been described the following summary and comparison was made by the psychometer. CLAY is the most intuitive and best adapted to a popular audience. He could make the most friends, but WM3uld have less logical power than either, except Randolph or perhaps Daviess. ROWAN is the most powerful as an impressive speaker with most of the stern dignity that overawes. [Judge Rowan on account of his commanding bearing was commonly called " the Old Monarch." As a criminal advocate, he very rarely failed to ac- quit his client.] PRENTISS would have the most uniform mental action of a calm, well-balanced character. He would have the copiousness of Randolph with more origin- ality and versatility. RANDOLPH is the most sarcastic, with the least courtesy and moral refinement. He has the best memory and the greatest exactness. Randolph has the most intense excitement, Clay the most sustained action of the brain. Rowan has a full, well-sus- 124 Original Sketch. tained mentality. McDuffie a more intense but less uniform action. DAVIESS would compare with Prentiss and Clay. He would have more ideal pleasantness and enthu- siasm, but less of oratorical power. (The early death of Col. Daviess at the battle of Tippecanoe robbed him of a brilliant career. His name was honored in Illinois by the memento "Joe Daviess County.") McDuffie would be distinguished by greater vehe- mence and stubborn will. CHAPTER III. LATER DEVELOPMENTS. Poem Universal neglect of psychometric discoveries Early experi- ments with Mr. Inintui Delicacy of the psychometric faculty Privacy necessary to its best conditions Lecture before Women's Club Ex- periments in New York in 1878 Psychometric genius of Mrs. Dr. Haydcn jnul Mrs. Decker Previous life and remarkable experiences of Mrs. D. Sensibilities developed in myself Impressions in the mind affecting particular organs Probable contagion of mental con- ditions, especially in warm climates Vast extent of such influences Telepathic phenomena in India Familiar experiments with Mrs. T>. Personal experiences in Psychometry Nominal Psychometry Angelo Cardela described Theory of Psychometry Impressions derived from blank paper Description of Carlyle Phenomena of catalysis ana contact images Their relation to vital processes The use of pictures An index only needed Wide range of psychometric power Use of names and investigation of questions Independence of contact Examination of slates and sealed letters Of minerals Its financial importance Impressions from the back of written paper Importance of religious questions in Psychometry Investigation of the founders of religion Conclusions as to Christianity Competence of Psychometry to restore all the past, dispensing with records and monuments Psychometry based on INTUITION The Divine element in man The basis of all human intelligence Antagonized by false skep- tical and metaphysical philosophizing Science prepares for the tem- ple of philosophy to be erected by psychometric power The world's progress depends on its most spiritual powers Wordsworth quoted Modern antagonism to the psychic Testimony of Cabanis, Esdaile, Mo- reau de la Sarthe, and St. Gregory Hostility to the psychic elements of Greek philosophy and of Christianity Its cause animalism and false education Psychometry leads to a higher social condition Power of the intuitional faculties in the past Why has investigation been neglected Intuition illustrated by Zchokke The recent dark ages Intuition in religious history I ntution in Australia, Dr. Rohner. I wandered with an earnest heart Among the quarried depths of Thought 125 126 /, atcr DcTclopju cit ts . And kindled by the poet's art, I deftly wrought. I wrought for Beauty ; and the world Grew very green and smooth for me, And blossom banners hung unfurled On every tree. Upon my heated forehead lay The cooling laurel, and my feet Crushed buried fragrance out, the way Had grown so sweet. And Praise was servant of the ear And Love dropt kisses on the cheek, And smiled a passion-thought too dear For tongue to speak. But one day the ideal Good Baptized me with immortal Youth And in sublimity of mind, I WROUGHT FOR TRUTH Oh, then instead of laurel crown, The world entwined a thorny band, And on my forehead pressed it down With heavy hand. And looks that used to warm me, froze. I lost the cheer, the odor sweet The path of velvet ; glaciers rose Before my feet. Later Developments. 127 Yet truth the more divinely shone, As onward still I sought to press, And gloriously proved her own Almightiness. Augusta Cooper Bristol. This beautiful poetical utterance embodies as much of truth as beauty as is well known to all loyal ad- herents who stand in the body guard of Truth. The psychometric discoveries which should have flashed around 'the world at least as speedily as the discovery of a comet, a shell, a plant, or a new chemical com- bination, were very unanimously ignored. No college gave the subject a thought, no cyclopedia mentioned it, until against the protest of the learned corps of contributors, the publisher of Johnson's Cyclopedia introduced my statement of the principles of Psychom- etry. The science was heard of only through my own magazine and the liberal medical college, which against a bitter opposition we had successfully estab- lished in Cincinnati. I place these facts on record as a warning to the coming generation against such disloyalty to truth and the spirit of honest investigation. Denton's marvel- ous work in three volumes, " THE SOUL OF THINGS," was almost the only evidence that Truth, had. any courageous and philosophic votaries in the. sphere, of psychic science. In " Isis Unveiled," that vast, learned and marvellous -work' of Madame Blavatsky, there was a .-generous recognition, as its learned authoress was familiar with the extraordinary realm of science in which psychometry belongs her lan- guage was as follows (vol. I, p. 182 :) 128 Later Dcuclo-pm en Is . "This faculty is called by its discoverer, Prof. J. R. Buchanan Psychometry. To him the world is indebted for this most important addition to psycholo- gical sciences ; and to him, perhaps, when skepticism is found felled to the ground by accumulation of facts, posterity will have to erect a statue. The existence of this faculty was first experimentally demonstrated in 1841. It has since been verified by a thousand psychometers in different parts of the world." The experimental demonstration in 1841, was merely the recognition of impressions from the living brain. It was not until 1842 that I discovered the power of estimating psychic existence far away from the living person by the writing, and it was this fuller development of the same faculty which compelled me to coin the word Psychometry. Let me now sketch the progress of the science from its publication in the yournal of Man and in my Anthropology, to the present publication, in 1885. The first development of the psychometric power which I found in 1842, was that of Charles Inman, (a younger brother of the celebrated artist) , with whom I discovered the power of autographic Psychometry at New York. Mr. Inman enabled me to make the most minute surveys of the cephalic organs. He could define the functions not only by touching with his fingers, but by using a pencil case or a small metallic rod to touch the various parts of the cranial surface. In doing this he caught impressions of the most minute gradation and variation of functions, and it seemed to me from his descriptions that he recognized the boundaries between the convolutions where the Later Developments. 129 change was more marked than in passing along the course of a convolution. I felt a strong desire to take some bald head and map on its surface the positions of each convolution by psychometric explo- ration. Mr. I., however, was of too delicate and anemic a temperament for a perfect exercise of Psychometry, and sometimes gave negative state- ments of functions which should have been described in more active manifestation, so as to mislead me somewhat in the nomenclature. The sensitive delicacy that belongs to the psychometric constitution is ill suited to public dis- plays of the faculty. When the most delicate psychic faculties are engaged in a profound and difficult investigation, the presence of a large, expec- tant company would be too great a disturbing power, especially when the company is in a state of intense curiosity and skepticism. The psychometer, like all profound students, requires quiet and seclusion for his best efforts. I do not deny that persons accustomed to public speaking, may, if psychometric, exercise their powers on the platform, but I have always avoided such exhibitions. The nearest approach I have made to it was in April, 1874, when I addressed the New England Woman's Club in Boston. The Globe report of this occasion stated "There was a large assembly present to welcome Dr. Buchanan, including many w r hose names are prominent as writers and advocates of measures of reform." After the lecture " a psychometric circle was formed from some of the ladies present, and slips of paper containing the handwriting of a certain 130 Later Developments* individual to them unknown were given to each and they were requested to press them against their fore- heads until they experienced some sensation and then announce it." From those who proved most sensitive " Four persons were then selected and letters given them, and the autographs of the writers pressed against their foreheads. This was most suc- cessful, the ladies all experiencing some definite sensations, and one lady declared that the writer was a person of great firmness of character, another that he had a high ideal, and still another that he was a great reformer and benefactor of mankind. Mrs. Moulton, who seemed to experience this influence more strongly than the rest, said that she thought that he would stand about where Theodore Parker did." In fact, Mrs. Moulton gave a good description of Theodore Parker, evincing fine psychometric capac- ities. Mrs. L. C. Moulton is well known to the literati, especially by her poetical writings. Under proper circumstances Psychometry may be displayed before a select company, but the vulgar atmosphere and influence attending a public exhibition have pre- vented me heretofore from adopting that method of propagandism. In select companies, however, we have had many delightful evenings. The superior delicacy of the female constitution renders the psychometric faculty a much more common endow- ment of females than of males. It is well known that color blindness is much less common among females, and some recent experiments at the Univer- sity of Kansas have demonstrated that females have Later Developments. 131 a more acute taste and could detect the presence of foreign matter in water more readily. A large majority of females between sixteen and twenty years of age evince psychometric capacities. After my removal to New York in 1877, I formed a small psychometric society of ladies which held many interesting meetings for the cultivation of their powers. In the society, Mrs. Decker (now Mrs. Buchanan), and Mrs. Dr. Hayden displayed a more delicate, yet vigorous and brilliant capacity, than I had previously been accustomed to. MARIA B. HAYDEN, M. D., chiefly in conse- quence of her psychometric genius, was one of the most skilful and successful physicians I have ever known. About thirty-five years ago she visited England with her husband, Dr. W. R. Hayden, and introduced spiritualism to a distinguished circle of intelligent people. Through her agency, the venera- ble Robert Owen was converted from his benevolent agnosticism to a still more benevolent spiritualism, and Bulwer was enlightened in reference to truths for which he had no other use than to weave them into tissues of romance. Contaminated by his moral unsoundness, the gold of sacred truth became the pinch-beck of theatrical mystery. Returning to America she graduated in medicine and conducted for over fifteen years a medical practice so entirely successful that her name was forgotten at the Board of Health from not having for several years a single death to report. The psychometric talent of Mrs. Hayden was very successfully employed by the president of the Globe I ; 2 Lulcr Dci>(-'o i JiirH/s. Life Insurance Company in protecting the company against losses in insurance on lives, until forbidden by the bigoted stupidity of the board a folly which contributed largely to the ultimate wreck of the company. Mrs. H. was greatly retarded from attaining her proper professional rank by her sensitiveness and modesty. When offered a medical professorship, for which she was eminently qualified, she firmly retused it. The sphere of a medical college is certainly not attractive to a woman of refined sensi- bility. MRS. CORNELIA H. DECKER was a lady of distin- guished appearance with that remarkable delicacy and spirituality of manner which is generally associ- ated with psychometric genius. She had lived at Hudson on the Hudson River during her married life in circumstances of ease, exercising a kind hospital- ity to persons of liberal minds, and to the conspicuous representatives of spiritualism, in which she was much interested. Her graceful hospitality, her exquisite musical pow ers and bright inspiration were highly appreciated. She manifested the highest forms of the intuitional power and coming events were sometimes depicted to her vision with startling reality. A remarkable illus- tration of this was her vision of the wreck of a steam- boat opposite Hudson, and minute description of the event nearly twenty-four hours before it occurred, in 1850. She retired to rest as usual but in the night she had a vision that seemed a reality, and greatly disturbed Later Developments. Ij^ her. She seemed to be standing on a hill overlook- ing the river and saw a steamboat coming down the river with the speed stimulated by racing competition until it struck upon a projecting rock and was wrecked. There was a light snow falling as it ap- peared, and soon the bells of the city were ringing an alarm. The boats appeared rescuing the people who were struggling in the water, and carried them to the village of Athens on the shore opposite Hudson. The scene made so deep an impression that she could sleep but little more, and the next day she nar- rated the whole to her family and friends. In the evening she was visiting with some friends and when the gentlemen of the family came home at night they described the wreck which had occurred that evening just as she had seen it in every particular. The next day walking out to view the wreck, she found herself standing at the exact spot which she seemed to occupy in her vision when she saw the boat wrecked. In my first experiments with Mrs. D., I perceived her great delicacy and accuracy of psychometric per- ception. Intercourse with good psychometers ap- peared to cultivate the germ of the psychometric faculty in myself. My mind has always seemed clearer and more delicate in conducting psychometric experiments than at any other time. I succeeded once when Mrs. D. was a few miles north of my location in New York in getting a per- ception of her mental condition at the time, and when our intercourse developed a mutual esteem and affec- tion, I found it practicable to make her aware of my sentiments and purposes in her absence without Ian- 134 Later Developments. guage or correspondence. I found too that when attending patients with sympathetic interest their con- dition would affect me so that I would be aware of their suffering at the very moment it occurred. A re- markable instance of this occurred when in 1879 ^ was at the village of Owego, about two hundred miles from New York. Between two and three o' clock in the afternoon I felt an impression which made me aware of the illness at that moment of Mrs. Dr. Hayden of which I was so certain that I immedi- ately wrote to her and ascertained that my impres- sion was correct. Since then I have become accustomed to such im- pressions and feel sure that no one nearly connected or associated with me could be in suffering without my receiving an impression. Even a mental distur- bance or alarm in Mrs. B. conveys to me an impres- sion from which I can infer her condition. I have once felt a similar impression from my daughter when more than a thousand miles away. The nature of such Impressions is remarkable and may be instructive to psychometers. My knowledge of the various organs of the brain enables me to watch their condition as they are affected by pleasant and unpleasant excitements. I cannot say that there is a feeling in the interior of the brain, but at the surface the sensations are very distinct. The tension and warmth over active organs, the void unconscious- ness over the inactive, the weary aching over the fatigued, and the sharp pricking or irritative condi- tion, over those which feel adverse influences enable me to understand the mental and cerebral condition and their causes. Later Developments. 135 The complete knowledge of the condition of the brain which I derive from the local sensations has enabled me to compare mental and cerebral conditions and thus arrive by an entirely new method at a knowledge of the functions of the brain, and verify in the most positive manner, the discoveries which I made in 1841 and 1842 and subsequently. The very positive manner in which I speak of cerebral functions which have been a mystery in all past centuries is due to the four-fold certainty which I have derived from cranial observations on men and animals, from experiments in stimulating the organs, from psychometric exploration of the brain, and from my personal consciousness of its action. There are two additional confirmations derived from the mathe- matical laws of Pathognomy (a sufficient basis alone for cerebral science), and from the revelations of Pathology which have been but slightly investigated yet yield valuable confirmations. All this is expressed in my system of Anthropology. I find that my brain may be affected, not only by events or conditions with which I am acquainted, but by those which occur without my knowledge. The region of Love is especially liable to such influences. Suffering or injury in the object of affection is pain- ful to the loving sentiment and thereby affects the locality of the cerebral organ. When a certain sen- sation arises in the region of Love I know that the loved object is suffering and when it ceases I believe that relief has occurred. From the position of the sensation I know with what feeling it is associated and thus am enabled to infer whether it concerns one 136 Later Developments. very intimately connected with me or associated only by friendly compassion or respect. Hence I am sometimes uncertain as to the persons but not as to the relation they occupy toward myself. While this work has been going though the press I have vividly realized my sympathy \vith the con- dition of my patients. I was attending a severe case of dropsy affecting the heart about three miles from my Boston residence which had reached a critical stage before I saw it and had felt a considerable degree of depression from the influence of my visits. During the evening of the second day about eleven hours after my visit, I was suddenly made aware that he was suffering greatly by the sensation in the head coming on suddenly, which gives me that informa- tion. It occurred at five minutes past ten o'clock and subsided within ten minutes, leaving a restless feeling of depression. Again between four and five in the morning I perceived a very restless, unpleasant and exhausted condition, which induced me to rise and take something for its relief. When I visited him at ten o'clock I learned that his condition corres- ponded exactly to what I felt at the time of the evening and morning disturbances. I have had other much more impressive illustra- trations of my sympathetic impressibility in the last thirty years. The most severe and protracted affec- tion of the liver from which I have never entirely recovered, was a transference to myself from a case of bilious fever, which I attended in 1858, and my most obstinate attack of bronchial irritation was a transference from a patient who had been coughing Later Developments. 137 for twenty years. My sympathetic impressions are sometimes prompt enough to give me assistance in diagnosis. The acute sensibility of my head enables me to realize all influences that affect the brain, and to know at any time the condition of all the organs and faculties by reference to the superficial sensations. I believe from close observation of my experience that events or conditions with which I am not acquainted sometimes affect me in other organs besides those of friendship and love, and when I feel the sensations I generally know the cause. It is therefore entirely credible to me that in a warm climate where the entire community is much more impressible than myself, the whole commu- nity may be .moved at once by any great psychic influence, and a popular sentiment or passion affecting a large number at once may sway every individual carrying all along in one great wave which is irresis- table, and thus illustrating the solidarity of the community. It seemed to me at the approach of our late civil war, such a wave of sympathetic and irre- sistable excitement, was sweeping through society. History abounds in illustrations of popular impulses moving an entire community in a way that could not be accounted for independent of such sympathy and psychic contagion. These contagious influences my experiments show have little to do with contact and are not dependent on proximity, when* the psychic powers are active. I have no hesitation in saying that they may reach around the globe and even extend from planet to 138 Later Developments. placet. If there were many such psychometers as Mrs. B. aware of these powers and trained to exer- cise them together it would be quite practicable to establish a mental telegraphy bringing us into com- munication with all parts of the globe, conveying not only the public facts which go to the telegraph at present, but a great amount of subtle information as to the condition of all parts of the world, derived from regions to which the telegraphic wires do not extend. The New York Tribune a paper remarkable for its conservative and illiberal character, contained (March 18, 1885) a remarkable article in reference to the secret transmission of knowledge in India, headed as follows : THE " SECRET MAIL." Anglo-Indians, and all who have lived in Asiatic countries, are aware that the natives have means of conveying news which at important junctures enables them to forestall the Government. Thus throughout the Indian mutiny the intelligence of all the important events, such as battles, captures of cities, massacres and investments, was in possession of the bazaars usually hours and frequently days before it reached the authorities, and this notwithstanding the fact that the latter had often taken special measures to insure the quickest transmission possible. And it is also well-known that this " secret mail" is so trustworthy that the natives invariably act upon it with implicit confidence, speculating, for example, io the full extent of their fortunes. How the news is sent, however, has never been discovered, or at least no explanation Later Developments. 139 comprehensible or credible by the average Western mind has been reached. The London Spectator of a recent date discusses this question at much length, and suggests the employment by the Asiatics of care- fully laid " dawks" or stages. This, no doubt has the appearance of a common-sense explanation, but the difficulty about it is that no European, during the whole time Hindustan has been occupied, has ever seen such a stage in operation or come across any of its machinery. Now it may be admitted that it is possible for Asi- atics to arrange such stages or lines of communication over hundreds or thousands of miles without being discovered ; but it is certainly extremely improbable that they should have been able to do this on the con- siderable scale it must have been done to account for the facts without ever being discovered. Again, the circumstance that on one occasion, when the Government had made special arrangements for the swift despatch of news from a distant point, the "secret mail "beat the Government coursers twelve hours, appears to warrant the conclusion that some means of communication more rapid than horses or runners must be at the disposal of the natives. The Spectator thinks it possible that they transmit news by signal ; but while this may be the case where com- paratively short distances are concerned, it is not appli- cable to routes covering several hundreds of miles. Anglo-Indians as a rule refuse to accept the native explanation of the " secret mail," which involves be- lief in what is just now being called telepathy. The natives, when they are willing to talk of the matter at i^o Later Developments. all, which is very seldom to Western men, say that neither horses nor men are employed, and that no " dawk " is laid for the carrying of news, but that it results from a system of thought transmission which is as familiar to them as the electric telegraph is to us. The interest of this subject consists in the facts (i) mat the kk secret mail " is an indubitable reality, and (2) that no European or Western observer of any kind has thus far succeeded in finding even a plausi- ble solution of the mystery ; for with all its ingenuity, the explanation offered by the writer in the Spectator is not plausible." It is certainly highly discreditable to Western intel- ligence that its leaders are puzzled by such phenom- ena w^hile there are thousands who understand the subject in our midst, and its illustrations have often been given. Even if our illustrations were limited to the per- sonal experience of the dogmatic and skeptical med- ical profession, there would be abundant illustrations of telepathic sympathy if the facts could be brought out. The late Dr. John F. Gray of New York, one of the most eminent and skilful in the city, resided at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Having a patient in Jersey City whom he wished to see to ascertain his condition he turned aside from his company, and fixed his mind intently upon the man. He obtained an impres- sion of his condition, and was satisfied that he was improving. But something much more remarkable followed. The man was still more susceptible, and believed that? he was visited by Dr. Gray in person at that time. When he called on Dr. Gray after his re- Later Developments. 141 covery he affirmed that Dr. G. had visited him at the hour of this psychometric observation, had looked at him silently and withdrew without saying a word, which he considered rather singular. He could not be convinced that he was mistaken by the positive denial of the doctor. Dr. Gray, who stated these facts to myself, had many similar experiences. On one occasion while driving around the city profession- ally, he had a sudden impression that he was needed by a lady patient. He impetuously ordered his driver to turn round and drive at full speed to her residence. When he arrived within a block of the house he saw her husband hatless in the street, rushing after medi- cal assistance. He arrived, leaped out, rushed up to her room and was barely in time to save her from dying of hemorrhage. As to the subtle powers of Mrs. B. I have had daily illustration for years. When I place anything in her hands it is a common amusement to require her to describe it before seeing. I frequently hold a picture over head, to demand her description by impression, and sometimes place her hand on a book and demand her opinion of its character which is sometimes more just than a reviewer's estimate. I have even held her own picture over her head and thus procured from her a correct and judicious description of herself, which she gave without suspicion, as the psychome- ter is too closely engaged in observing the qualities which he describes to enquire into the identity of the party described. Bayard Taylor has mentioned a similar incident in reference to a New York artist, who possessed the psychometric power. One of his 142 Later Developments. friends placed his own letter in his hands and obtained from him so searching and critical a description of himself that he did not venture to let him know that it was his own letter. I have had every possible evidence of the con- tinual presence in Mrs. B. of her high powers, even when she has none of the conditions which sensitives require for their best action. I have been accustomed to approach her at any time when she is using the needle or engaged in domestic cares and protesting against being taxed when in an unintellectual mood, yet never has she failed to show that the faculty is inseparable from her nature. Under these unfavorable circumstances she would give me a just opinion of a picture held above her head, and speak of its resemblance or difference from the original whose appearance she would describe. Mollie Fancher, the famous fasting lady of Brooklyn, exercises such powers, doing delicate work without the use of her eyes and describing things about the house while she is confined to her bed. Mrs. B. has frequently involuntary impressions as to persons before she has met them. When sitting in the upper part of the house she has had very decided feelings in reference to persons who have entered on the lower floor. An amusing illustration occurred once when the visitor was equally impres- sional ; she felt uneasy at his presence and had a strong desire that he should leave. He had never seen her, but he felt that a lady wished to take him by the arm and lead him out of the house. When he stated this and described the appearance of the Later Developments* 143 lady, correctly describing Mrs. B., I thought it an amusing and remarkable incident. In the daily presence of psychometric phenomena, and with a strong desire to exercise the power, I have had but glimmerings of the faculty. The most distinct impression that I ever obtained from manuscript was nearty forty years ago, when I received an impression from the autograph of Gen. Washington, the effect of which was so great that I could perceive a marked difference in my manner of lecturing in the evening following the experiment ; I was disposed to speak in a calm and very syste- matic manner quite different from my usual mode. I have sometimes felt a faint influence from photographs when I did not know whom they represented, and once to test my capacities in 1878, I took a photo- graph of Wordsworth and thought I felt a shadow of his peculiar intellectuality. I tried the photograph of Shakespeare and as I held it before my forehead it produced a distinct feeling of activity and a tension over the occiput generally, indicating an active and forcible temperament, and impressive character. Twice I repeated the experiment at intervals, and thus obtained three times a certainty that it conveyed a strong psychic impression. My strongest impres- sions, however, are those which I feel when a good psychometer is giving a psychometric description of a marked character. My sympathy is often so keen that I acquire a positive conception of the leading traits of character' independent of any remarks by the psychometer. During the summer when I felt the influence of 144 Later Developments. Gen. Washington so distinctly I felt an equally posi- tive influence from a letter of John C. Calhoun, the statesman of South Carolina, which gave me a new conception of his character. The influence seemed not like that of a politician or a man for the multi- tude, but rather that of a purely intellectual man, a lucid thinker. In 1878 Madame Blavatsky gave me some manu- script from India to ascertain my impressions from contact. The influence on my brain from the fore- head was sufficient to induce me to describe the writer as a bold philosophic and religious leader who might in some repects compare with Luther. She was pleased with my remarks and thought them worth recording to send abroad. Since then I have frequently used the photographs and pictures of the departed, and felt that I obtained an impression of their characters, and felt their influ- ence so much as to give me a conception of the char- acter of the individual sufficiently clear and positive to guide my opinion. These psychometric impressions, however, were clouded by the doubt whether the re- sult was not partly or in some cases entirely due to my knowledge of the name of the individual, and although my impressions of Washington, Jackson, Clay, Queen Elizabeth, Josephine, Joan of Arc, Madame Roland, St. Peter, St. John, Patrick Henry, and many others were distinct mental realities, I was not sure that I could have attained such impressions without knowing the name, until I made experiments in the manner which satisfied me. A photograph was given me (Oct. 10, 1881) which Later Developments. 45 without seeing it gave me the impression of a young man of good mind but of predominant activity in the energetic and ambitious faculties, and engrossed in business. The description was recognized as correct by one intimately acquainted with him. An hour later Gen. B. handed a manuscript which I placed on my forehead which gave me a distinct conception of a man about sixty years of age with a large brain and body, of a solid, stable character and ample under- standing and business capacity, not at all impulsive, but cool, judicious and capable of understanding and managing large affairs. This perception was quite distinct, and Gen. B. said very correct. I have often attempted to realize a character by concentrated attention without any physical connect- ing link and sometimes have appeared to be quite suc- cessful and even to have discovered the mood of the individual at the time. I have had similar impressions in reference to the departed, and sometimes had them confirmed by good psychometers. I have related this personal experience because it may be encouraging to the millions whose endow- ments in this line are about equal to my own, and who would not suppose themselves to have any capability without encouragement. The power of understanding and describing any- thing of which the name is placed in the hand is so marvelous that I have been continually tempted to test it in various ways. Seeing in a magazine a short description of an Ital- ian in this country, Angelo Cardela of Nevada, speak- ing of his physical exploits, and expressing the opin- 146 Later Developments. ion that he was the strongest man in the world, I took the first opportunity to place the name in her hand and ask her to describe the person. Her first remark was that it took her into antiquity (into the time of Claudius, the gladiator) and then back to modern times. " There 's not much repose of character there 's excitability and unrest confu- sion and unsettled condition I feel entirely safe there is no feeling of fear but a sort of discontent." Not knowing anything of his life I asked her to dis- cribe his person. She said : " this is a large person in physical development a large person, of capa- cious brain a matured person, perliaps of sixty years. He has a remarkably strong constitution - a good deal of muscular strength, no nervous weakness is very solid and firm can stand a good deal of labor, mental and physical. He has broad shoulders, great strength in arms and lower limbs, large thighs great endurance. He is remarkably cool, does nothing rash does many things others cannot feats of muscular strength. He could perform feats of lifting. (How does he compare with other men?) There is no comparison where others could lift two hundred, he could lift eight hundred. He is very muscular, his loins are strong he could lift with his teeth. He has pride in his strength and has great will power too. I see great beams and timbers it carries me back to Sampson I think he is as great a miracle in modern, as Sampson in ancient times. His movements too are graceful he lifts without 9 appearing to make an effort. He could lift six men or more if he could get hold of them. His strength Later Developments. 147 is in his shoulders and hips. His bones are very large. He is very good natured." The account which I read, given by R. A. Proctor, described him as a good natured Italian laborer with "a noble development of chest and shoulders," and spoke of his lifting a man of 200 pounds to the top of a table by putting the third finger under his foot " with scarcely a perceptible effort." It also stated that he was attacked by two powerful Irishmen, " but he seized one in each hand and beat them together, till life was nearly hammered out of them." He is, however, of a quiet and peaceable disposition. Her conjecture as to his age was about fifteen years too much, but that was only an inference from his matu- rity. She saw his broad, good-natured countenance and staid manner, and conjectured his age from the appearance and feeling. She is seldom accurate as to age. In the early years of Psychometry, the dominant idea was that of a direct emanative connection or rap- port which enabled the psychometer to give descrip- tions, as when holding a medicine in the hand or describing a character from the impression given by an autograph. In these experiments, however, there were manifest indications of a wider range of power than could be traced to any aura. Medicines yielded a full impres- sion of their character when securely corked in vials, showing that the impression imparted was due to no appreciable material emanation. A blank sheet of paper which had been lying in contact with an auto- graph would sometimes give a distinct impression of of the writer. 148 Later Developments. The possibility of writing imparting a sufficient psychic influence to blank paper lying in contact with it to give an impression of the writer, required decisive experiments for its demonstration ; of course we should not expect as prompt, forcible and clear an influence from that blank paper as from the auto- graph. About thirty years ago I obtained an autograph of Carlyle a letter written to an anti-corn law meet- ing, or society, in which he expressed himself vigorously against obstructive legislation. A small portion of this autograph had been kept many years, wrapped in a piece of blank paper. I tore off a piece of the blank paper which had been in contact with the writing and placed it in her hands, recently, for an opinion. The impressions were not quite as distinct and accurate as those from his photograph especially in reference to time, but they were sub- stantially the same in character, and correct as an estimate of the man. They were as follows : " This takes me back twenty-five or thirty years. I should think the writing was by a male. It brings me into rapport with a bright mind, a clear intellect of a great deal of force. " It seems to me like a business production, princi- pally, but possibly some social question was con- cerned. I think it has to do with political economy not a common friendly letter. ," It is a mind that would grasp themes of impor- tance to the country and take a radical view in favor of reform. It is a very vigorous mind, uncommonly .' <>. He would rouse the faculties of all who listen to Later Developments. 149 "I think he is not living now he passed away many years ago I think this was written forty odd years ago I think he passed away twenty-five or thirty years ago, perhaps. " I think he wrote a great deal on governmental questions he was a partisan. I think he might have been a lawyer, or at least acquainted with jurisprudence. He was certainly not a minister. There was not much theology about him, though he had some religion, yet he was not really settled in his own mind. He wrote and addressed the public - he wrote no trashy things ; he had a variety of themes. (What was his domestic life?) I think he had a good wife. I do not think he was very agreeable in society rather morose and terse. He was not a genial and good-natured man in his family. He lived more in the intellectual than the social. He was not a jovial man never laughed much not given to joking but had a vein of sarcasm that he used as a weapon. (What capacities had he as a literary man?) I can't see that he was a poet. He wrote generally on solid matters, but not on medicine. He had an easy flowing style, which made his articles attractive. He was an educator of the people. (What reputation did he attain?) He had an enviable name. He was an authority on many sub- jects. He overtaxed himself a great deal. (How long did he live?) He was not sick long in his last illness. I think he was about sixty, or at least he did not do much work after that age, but he lived longer than that in a more quiet way. 150 Later Developments. (What country did he belong to?) He was either French or English. He was familiar with both languages. I think the English was his mother tongue. (Can you guess his name?) Not now. In the foregoing opinion I think the date of the letter was correctly given. The portion containing the date has been mislaid, but it was written in the midst of the anti-corn law agitation, which extended from 1837 to 1846. The death of Carlyle was located too far back, probably from the influence of the old letter carrying the mind back. We should not expect mathematical accuracy when there was nothing to guide the impression but the influence imparted by contact to blank paper. Such influences are not imaginary, though they elude all other senses but the psychometric. All material substances are affected by contact. The presence of a third substance causes chemical changes which will not take place without it. This, which is called catalysis, is one of the wonders of chemistry. It shows that the chemical condition and action of compound bodies is affected by whatever is adjacent. Hence if there is anything in an autograph which can affect the psychometer it must have an influence on adjacent substances. We can make a still more strong illustration of this law of contact between dry substances in which no chemical change that we can detect has occurred. If we lay a wafer on a sheet of cold polished metal and breathe upon it so that the moisture of the breath shall be con- densed on the metal, the metal retains the impressions Later Developments. 151 thus made ; for, after removing the wafer, if we breathe on the metal again, the moisture will appear only on the part that was not covered by the wafer. The dry space testifies to the lingering influences of the wafer. Mr. G. H. Lewes says that he has even "brushed the surface of the polished plate with a camel's hair brush, and yet on breathing upon it, the image of a coin previously laid upon it was distinctly visible." This seems to be a general law of nature ; metallic plates or metallic bodies when in contact exert an influence on each other which may be demonstrated, and we are authorized by facts to make this general statement all bodies in proximity are subject to the transmitted influence of their neighbors, probably caused or increased by insensible electric currents, from which no locality is exempt. We are induced to ascribe much of the effect to electricity by the fact so often demonstrated that a flash of lightning strik- ing a tree and thence diverging to strike with fatal effect some person near it, frequently impresses the image of the tree on the skin, and it is found on the corpse. The instantaneous result follows from the powerful flash, but insensible currents operating a longer time may produce a complete transference of images. An amalgamated copper plate has been placed upon an iodized silver plate, between which an engraving was placed with its face downward toward the silver plate. Fifteen hours afterwards the impression of the engraving was found transferred through the paper upwards to the upper plate. Nor are the impressions hus produced entirely superficial. 152 Later Developments. They penetrate the substance and photographers know that it is difficult to remove from a plate the impression once made by a picture. It is upon these laws of catalysis and emanation operating in contact or proximity, that all the phe- nomena of animal life depend. It is thus that foreign substance is continually imported into the body and invested with vital powers by contact and proximity with vitalized structures in which the soul power is present. The transfer of influence from an autograph to blank paper is no more remarkable than its first transference from the writer to the autograph. Influences are continually radiant from any part of our surface. Cerebral organs approximated by a small metallic rod touching the surface of the scalp, give an accurate impression of the minute locality touched. The psychometer, in describing an autograph, sometimes portrays not only the writer but the per- son in his mind to whom he was writing, and even a third party of whom he was writing. A portrait would convey an idea both of the person portrayed and the artist, and a landscape would bring the scene itself before the imagination. Hence I began to experiment with photographs and engravings, and discovered that every picture gave a good impression of the original to the fingers of the psychometer, or if held on the forehead, or even near the head. The convenience of this method made it a favorite, as it kept the psychometer entirely unacquainted with what he was describing, not know- ing what the object was, that was held over his head. Later Developments. 153 In many cases I have used this method very hap- pily for therapeutic purposes, when the character was one capable of benefiting the patient by its invigora- ting or soothing power. There was not in such cases any emanation from the person described, and the picture was merely the presentation of an idea to be grasped by the intuitive perception, which is independent of vision. The picture was not perceived by anything like a visual power, but embodied a conception (in such a way as to be grasped by the intuitive faculty) of the person represented. Hence it became apparent that the object for Psychometry was in such cases simply an index leading the mind to the object represented, and need not be a picture, a relic or anything associated in any way with the person or thing to be explored. Acting upon this view I wrote the name of a friend and placed it in the hands of a good psychometer, who had no difficulty, notwithstanding her doubts of so novel a proceeding, in giving as good a description of the character of Dr. N. as if she had made the description from an autograph. After that experiment, my operations were greatly facilitated and extended. No picture, autograph 01 relic. being needed. I was accustomed to extend my inquiries to ancient and modern historical characters, public men and every person in whose character I was interested, as well as localities which I wished to have described. As the subject for psychometric experiments need not be the person nor anything that has emanated 154 Later Developments. from him, but simply the expression of his existence by a word or an index to direct the mind, it does not appear that psychometric exploration is hindered by distance and disconnection, and I could not affirm that even the contact of the fingers with the index or starting point of the exploration is necessary to those who are highly endowed. This enables us to present experiments in a very convincing way. For example, having in my posses- sion a number of very remarkable pictures, on slates, made by spiritual power on the inside of a pair of slates under my own supervision, I have had no difficulty in having them described by placing the slate on a table, face downward, and having the psychometer place a hand on the vacant upper side of the slate. The descriptions given in this manner have been as remarkable as any I have ever had, not differing in freedom and correctness from those made by touching photographs. September 10, 1884, to illustrate the power of obtaining impressions from the back of the paper on which a name is written, I wrote the names of the presidential candidates, Cleveland, Blaine and But- ler, on three small pieces of brown paper, and laid them on the back of a book, with the blank side uppermost, requesting her to touch each of them and give her opinion of the parties as presidential candi- dates. She did so, and gave her impressions readily. The first she promptly decided had very little chance of election, and thought that if he was elected he would be very democratic in his ways and 'would not give 'general satisfaetiotai',' though' he Later Developments. 155 would endeavor to do his duty ; this was Gen. But- ler. The second made an agreeable impression ; seemed bright and able, and a great partisan ; this was Blaine. The third, she thought, had the best prospect of election, and would, if elected, perform his duties faithfully, though not as attractive or able as the second. Still there is an impairment of the facility by every step of separation. A photograph is not as facile as a writing, a word is not as satisfactory as an auto- graph. But superior powers overcome all difficulties and photographs or writings may be described with- out touching them as they lie on the table before us. Yet it is not judicious to tax the psychometric faculty for such feats unnecessarily. Mrs. B. desires always to assist her perceptions by the touch of the object and objects to sealed letters though she has often described letters in envelopes. A. letter sent to her carefully sealed conveys at once the unpleasant impression of the critical and suspicious feeling of the sender, and is therefore a disturbing, irritating influence. Hence she declines receiving such communications which her fingers cannot touch. Some years ago she 'received a letter closed by five seals for psychometric description and declined to try it ; but subsequently, probably feeling the candid and courteous spirit of the sender, she concluded to try, notwithstanding her diffidence, and sent her opinion with the sealed letter to the correspondent. In return she received a letter of ten foolscap pages elaborately illustrating the minute correctness of the description, which was made still more remarkable by the fact 156 Later Developments. that instead of being one writing as she supposed, art- other writing had been inserted written by a friend and reputed medium, which led her to say: " I am constantly taken to the sphere of another person, who is interested in the writer ; there is such a blending I am unable to feel clearly each distinct individuality." This character she did not attempt to describe, not knowing that the impression came from the enclosed manuscript. Her correspondent thought this emi- nently satisfactory. He made the experiment in that way, expecting that it would produce confusion of mind and give a more perfect test. What wonderful exhibitions of psychic penetration may occur hereafter cannot be predicted. Psychometry is the earthly IRRADIATION OF* OMNISCIENCE and it will be known hereafter that it can penetrate all things. To take in hand a mineral and describe the locality from which it came, the surrounding country, climate, people and animals, the subterranean strata and even the past geological history of the locality is a perform- ance in which Mrs. B. sometimes shows her powers, though not fond of the more laborious effort which it requires. The family of Prot. Denton have been es- pecially distinguished by their remarkable success in such explorations, and there is no lack of such power among sensitives. I have the minutes of a mineral ex- amination by Mrs. R. in which she was carried back to the period in which a mastodon was mired to death and went through the whole scene. Does not such experience as this assure us that in Psychometry we have the key to unlock the hidden wealth of mineral strata? How great then must be Later Developments. 157 its FINANCIAL IMPORTANCE. The \vorlcTs gold has probably cost all that it is worth, in the labor of explo- ration and mining, more than half the labor having been abortive for want of intuitive guidance. Some enterprising genius will hereafter give practi- cal demonstration to this. My own life is absorbed in the financially unprofitable labors of the reformer. As it became apparent that geographical and his- torical questions were robbed of their difficulty and mystery, I directed my attention to those in which I felt an interest. There is one theme of transcendent interest to all rational beings who feel at the same time a controlling sense of duty, a reverence for the vast unknown from which our own existence springs, a sense of our own possibility of nobler things than life affords at present, and a yearning to pass beyond the barriers that limit human knowledge within the petty bounds of recorded science and history. Systems of religion come with lofty claims to oui faith, enforced too often by arbitrary power and social proscription. But the systems of religion, although they undertake to solve the mystery of the Universe, and although they present ethical doctrines which command our reverence, illustrated bv many noble lives, have never yet offered a system of doc- trine or philosophy that would endure an hour's criti- cal questioning by one who thinks with untrammelled freedom. The independent thinker can neither reject the virtuous elements of all religions, nor accept their doctrinal perversions of truth. Psychometry offered the facile method of determin- 158 Later Developments. ing whether the world's religions were founded in truth and worthy of reverence,^ or founded in delusion and fraud, and destined to oblivion as a relic of bar- barism. The names of the founders and teachers of all religions being accessible it \vas necessary only to subject them to psychometric investigation to learn their moral and intellectual worth, the true story of their lives and the real foundation of their claims. Upon this view I acted by obtaining a critical view of Confucius, Buddha, Krishna, Laou-tsze, Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus, the twelve apostles and other represen- tatives of the Christian movement, including more modern lives, such as those of Joan of Arc, George Fox and Swedenborg. This investigation carries us into the marvelous and miraculous realm of inter-communication between the visible and invisible worlds into the question of the reality of the astounding events recorded in religious history, and the comparative value or truthfulness of religious systems. It opens up a subject too large for presentation in this volume, devoted to a statement of psychometric science ; but I have no hesitation in saying that it has increased my respect and love for the founders of the Chris- tian system, and my respect for the historic value of the Bible. The primitive Christian movement appears to me the noblest impulse that has ever been given to humanity. It's influence is felt to- day, and Psychometry brings it very near. If all scholarship were lost, and all historical records and monuments destroyed, Psychometry alone could revive and preserve all the important truth of Later Developments. 159 sacred history. In a second volume this subject will be fully presented, and I think it will be made clear that Psychometry leads us out of all doubt and darkness into the final religion of enlightened humanity. After such investigations we are prepared to take a more profound view of the philosophy of Psychome- try than was indicated by our first experiments in which emanations and influences were recognized. In the higher class of phenomena there is no feel- ing or perception of a delicate emanation. The picture or the word simply tells of the thing to be explored, and gives this information to an interior faculty independent of vision. That interior faculty grasps the idea in its essence, which we have offered, and then grasps the object in its wide-reaching con- sciousness. Whether it be a city in China or Africa, a saint or leader whose name has almost disappeared in the twilight of history, a pre-historic race on earth, or a body in our planetary system, it is conceived, understood and reported. The divine realm of uni- versal consciousness or intellectual omniscience seems to become occupied by man and either he comes into rapport with that limitless sphere of intelligence, or that intelligence is dormant within himself, and is roused by an effort to assert its powers. If that be the case then the exercise of Psychometry is nothing less than a display of INTUITION the manifestation of an interior power w r hich is master of all truth. This power is the divine element in man. Unlimited knowledge not dependent upon any 160 Later Developments, effort for its acquisition is our conception of a divine attribute, and man enjoys this divine intel- ligence just in proportion as he is capable of manifesting this familiarity with all truth, as clear and bright in those things which are beyond sense, memory and education, as in those few things which he has learned. How ennobling, how God -like a conception of humanity this gives how grand the prospect of future enlightenment, and how remarkable, how sad indeed to think that for so many centuries this faculty has lain almost dormant and unutilized, nay, even scorned and trampled on, while it was in reality the latent basis of all human intelligence, which converts impressions on the senses into dis- tinct knowledge of objects and events. It is the latent basis of all human knowledge as latent caloric and electricity are at the bases of all material forms. Like the sun behind the clouds it is the source of all light, though itself unseen. It informs us of reality of truth. It leads us up to the highest, grandest realms of truth, though ever resisted by the stupid animality and skepticism, which would hold us within the limits of sensation, and in their most perfect embodiment in skeptical metaphysics would make us unconscious of all reality, denying causation, and denying all things as having an reality beyond our own thought. Of all forms of human opinion, transcendental meta- physics or universal nescience is the minimum and pcssimum; and the modern materalistic doctrines are a positive decadence of philosophy from the Later Developments* 161 time when it recognized the higher powers of the soul. These two forms of error are congenial enough to run together. Material science, however, is laying a very broad and solid basis of physical knowledge for the Temple of Philosophy which Psychometry is to build. When its world-grasping power shall reveal all there is in man, all in the strata and on the surface of the earth, all in paleontology and geology, all in astronomy that the telescope fails to give, and all that we can grasp of the limitless world of psychic life then, indeed, shall we have philosophy. It may not be by a sudden flat or a sudden illumi- nation, following the command : " Let there be light : " but the time really necessary to illuminate the most enlightened and progressive minds of modern society is so brief in comparison with historical epochs that it may well be compared to the illumination of dawn and sunrise. The world's progress from the dull externality of the senses; which relate to sunlight, to sound and to physical force, into the realm of intuition and divine wisdom depends upon the cultivation of the divine faculties in man, which bring him into connection with supernal wisdom and realize in this life the wisdom of the angels. o Wisdom in thought and nobility in conduct are not compatible with the vulgar mood of mind which gen- erally prevails in the marts of commerce, in the scenes of political strife, in the drudgery of labor or in the rla^es of amusement. We must withdraw from such influences to something holier and purer that can 1 60 L alcr Dcveloptu en ts . effort for its acquisition is our conception of a divine attribute, and man enjoys this divine intel- ligence just in proportion as he is capable of manifesting this familiarity with all truth, as clear and bright in those things which are beyond sense, memory and education, as in those few things which he has learned. How ennobling, how God -like a conception of humanity this gives how grand the prospect of future enlightenment, and how remarkable, how sad indeed to think that for so many centuries this faculty has lain almost dormant and unutilized, nay, even scorned and trampled on, while it was in reality the latent basis of all human intelligence, which converts impressions on the senses into dis- tinct knowledge of objects and events. It is the latent basis of all human knowledge as latent caloric and electricity are at the bases of all material forms. Like the sun behind the clouds it is the source of all light, though itself unseen. It informs us of reality of truth. It leads us up to the highest, grandest realms of truth, though ever resisted by the stupid animality and skepticism, which would hold us within the limits of sensation, and in their most perfect embodiment in skeptical metaphysics would make us unconscious of all reality, denying causation, and denying all things as having an reality beyond our own thought. Of all forms of human opinion, transcendental meta- physics or universal nescience is the minimum and pcssimum; and the modern materalistic doctrines are a positive' decadence of philosophy from the Later Developments. 161 time when it recognized the higher powers of the soul. These two forms of error are congenial enough to run together. Material science, however, is laying a very broad and solid basis of physical knowledge for the Temple of Philosophy which Psychometry is to build. When its world-grasping power shall reveal all there is in man, all in the strata and on the surface of the earth, all in paleontology and geology, all in astronomy that the telescope fails to give, and all that we can grasp of the limitless world of psychic life then, indeed, shall we have philosophy. It may not be by a sudden fiat or a sudden illumi- nation, following the command : " Let there be light : " but the time really necessary to illuminate the most enlightened and progressive minds of modern society is so brief in comparison with historical epochs that it may well be compared to the illumination of dawn and sunrise. The world's progress from the dull externality of the senses ; which relate to sunlight, to sound and to physical force, into the realm of intuition and divine wisdom depends upon the cultivation of the divine faculties in man, which bring him into connection with supernal wisdom and realize in this life the wisdom of the angels. o Wisdom in thought and nobility in conduct are not compatible with the vulgar mood of mind which gen- erally prevails in the marts of commerce, in the scenes of political strife, in the drudgery of labor or in the rlajes of amusement. We must withdraw from such influences to something holier and purer that can 1 62 Later Developments. give the soul development. If our religion be sincere and fervent, or our love deep, tender and refined, the integrity and nobility of the soul can be maintained, in which the vision becomes clear and the truth be- comes our companion. And when the head rests upon the pillow, we reach the state described by Wordsworth : " That serene and blessed state In which the affections gently lead us on Until the breath of this corporeal form And even the motion of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body and become a living soul, While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony, and the deep power of joy We see into the life of things" Why has there been so steady an opposition in modern times to the recognition and culture of our spiritual faculties when they have been recognized and honored in the past at the fountain head of civilzation in Egypt, India and Greece, cherished and admired until, within the last two centuries, the dawn of phys- ical science and the rebellion against superstition has carried society far away from the associations in which spiritual knowledge was encircled. Yet even a hun- dred years ago there was not such a hostility as today against the belief in our psychic powers and their occasional manifestation under nervous excitement. Cabanis, notwithstanding his materialism, said in his seventh memoir on the influence of diseases : Later Developments. 163 " I think it here necessary to refer particularly to those singular acute maladies, in which intellectual faculties suddenly become developed, that have not previously existed. It is also observed, that in some spasmodic and extatic diseases, the organs of sense become susceptible of receiving impressions which were not perceptible in a normal state, and which may even be characterized as unnatural. I have frequently noticed the most singular effects arising from this sus- ceptibility of sensation in women, who would doubt- less have distinguished themselves as excellent Py- thonesses. " Some of these patients see the most microscopic objects with the naked eye, others see so clearly in the dark as to move in perfect security. There are others again who follow persons by their scent, like a. dog, and can distinguish such things as they have used or only touched. " I have seen some whose taste has acquired a peculiar delicacy, and who would demand or choose aliments, and even remedies that would be really ser- viceable to them, with a sagacity ordinarily observable only in animals. Some have the power of looking within themselves, during their paroxysms and an- nouncing the approach of certain crises, the occurrence of which soon proves the justness of their sensations ; or they notice other organic modifications attested by the state of the pulse and other still more certain signs." As every physician of extensive experience (espe- cially those who practice in mild or warm climates) must have had the same experience in some degree as 164 Later Developments. Cabanis, or even a far more- striking and marvelous experience, as Dr. Esdaile had in India, rivalling all that was developed by the followers of Mesmer in France, why has this field been so signally neglected, especially by medical colleges. Dr. Moreau de la Sarthe reports in the Encyclopedic Methodique the case of a child twelve or thirteen years old attended by himself, tk who although scarcely acquainted with the first rudiments of Latin, was sud- denly capable, during a raging fever, of speaking it in the greatest purity. The same child expressed his gratitude to those who attended him, in language superior to his age and the supposed power of his intellect " a few days before his death. It is not only under the influence of fever, but in the most perfect normal condition that exalted psychic perceptions occur. In the year 400, St. Ambrose in the church at Milan during mass fell asleep and dis- covered the death of St. Martin at Tours which had just occurred. When he awoke he said: 4k It has been a great blessing to me to sleep, since God has worked a great miracle ; know that my brother, St. Martin, has just died." They noted the day and hour and found that St. Martin had really died at that time. St. Gregory of Tours, a historical writer, states these facts. Why is it that with so vast a magazine of instructive materials under their observation, so little has been reported, and so strenuous an effort been made to maintain ignorance and skepticism in reference to the extraordinary powers of the soul, not only in the med- ical colleges of materialism, but even in the literary Later Developments. 165 departments which have no sympathy with physical science. In these departments the protestors, with a singular and absurd inconsistency, kneel at the shrine of Greek philosophy, adore Plato and Aristotle and vet ignore all the grand psychic powers and phenom- ena which the Greeks recognized and honored with a place in the temples of the Gods. Can they suppose the old philosophers whom they honor, incapable of testifying correctly as to facts? With the same psychic incapacity, the professors recognize in a perfunctory manner the miracles and prophecies of the Bible ( with an evident desire to set them aside as superfluous or unreliable) yet carefully avoid any study of their philosophy, and any recognition of the continuance of such phenomena today as was predicted by Jesus. Evidently there is a leaden weight of skepticism dragging down such minds, paralyzing their power of reasoning upon facts which would reveal the grandeur of the divine laws of the Universe. What is the nature of that all-pervading and stifling power which during the last two centuries has been at work to suppress the truth, to conceal interesting and wonderful facts, and to crush the honest inquirers who were not willing to be enslaved and silenced by the multitude. It is not sufficient to refer to the power of dogmatism in the colleges for that is but the proximate cause. Whence came that dogmatism, and why did not the haughty professors exercise their dogmatism for rather than against the psychic elements of humanity. The cause the universal and dominating cause 1 66 Later Developments . is obvious. The psychic elements are the antagonists of the animal nature and the animal nature rules the world. Force and fraud, military autocracy, priestcraft, money power and sensual selfishness, have ruled all nations, and, in various degrees, all churches and colleges. These elements of character are antagonistic to the psychic, resist them, dislike them, and cannot comprehend them. It is the same antagonism which existed between Jesus and the mob of Jerusalem the antagonism between that which leads to heaven and that which leads to the purgatory of a selfish existence. The one is cultivated in the noise, the whirl and the selfish struggles of competi- tive life, the other in the solemnities of religion, in the inspiration of song, in the soul growth of domes- tic love, in meditation with the head on the pillow, in the deep thought of the student, in the admiration of nature, and in the sacred meditations of solitude. " Thus deeply drinking in the soul of things." The culture of Psychometry may, therefore, be regarded as the intellectual precursor of a higher social condition, and the reception of Psychometry will be a test of the ethical elevation of society. But why should this science which opens our eyes to the grandeur of the universe and gi\ es us the KEY TO UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM be for the first time presented by myself before a phalanx of universal opposition. Is it a reversal of any supposed law of nature ? Is it a revelation of something totally unknown to all nations? On the contrary it is the scientific development, Later Developments. 167 > demonstration and illustration of that which has always been in the world, and in some of its aspects has always been known and in its warning voice often been heard, heeded and honored ; while in its ethical dignity it has been the monitor of nations and the prompter of religious movements which have changed the destiny of races and the face of the globe. It was the intuitional power which heard the whisperings from a higher world but did not always understand them, and which led nations to bow to unknown and invisible powers called divine, as the animal kingdom turns to the Eastern sky where the light of an unrisen sun is dispelling the darkness. Considering the vast numbers of those who in every age have enjoyed and exercised the intuitional faculties why has no one endeavored to ascertain their nature, seat and laws, their range of power, their relation to philosophy and religion and their importance to mankind? The Jews, the Egyptians, and the Greeks largely exercised and recognized these faculties, but had not the docile modesty and the inductive scientific spirit which make systematic investigation ; and the moderns who have made immense progress by inductive science have lost the spirituality and elevation of sentiment which belonged to the ancients and thus lost the taste for really philosophic studies above the realm of matter without losing any of the ancient egotism which deems itself a master of truth without investigation. o That the very same intuitional powers which are illustrated in- -this volume, have always existed and Later Developments. been in operation, may be illustrated sufficiently by referring to a single example the psychometric genius of Zchokke, the famous author, as stated by himself, who, although he enjoyed so marvelous a power, never realized its importance. Zchokke says in his autobiography : "It is well known that the judgment we not sel- dom form, at the first glance, of persons hitherto unknown, is more correct than that which is the result of longer acquaintance. The first impression, that through some instinct of the soul attracts or repels us with strangers, is afterwards weakened or destroyed by custom, or by different appearances. We speak in such cases of sympathy or antipathy, and perceive these effects frequently amongst chil- dren, to whom experience in human character is wholly wanting. But now to. my case. " It has happened to me sometimes, on my first meeting with strangers, as I listened silently to their discourse, that their former life, with many trifling circumstances therewith connected, or frequently some particular scene in that life, has passed quite involuntarily, and, as it were, dream-like, yet per- fectly distinct before me. During this time I usually feel so entirely ' absorbed in the contemplation of the stranger's life, that at last I no longer see clearly the face of the unknown wherein I undesignedly look, nor distinctly hear the voices of the speakers, which before served in some measure as a com- mentary to the text of their features. For a long time I held such visions as delusions of the fancy, and the more so as they showed me even the dresj Later Developments. 169 and motions of the actors, rooms, furniture and other accessaries. By way of test, I once in a familiar family circle at Kirchberg, related the secret history of a seamstress who had just left the room and the house. I had never seen her before in my life. People were astonished, and laughed, but were not to be persuaded that I did not previously know the relations of which I spoke, for what I had uttered was the literal truth. On my part, I was no less astonished that my dream- pictures were confirmed by the reality. I became more attentive to the subject, and when propriety admitted it, I would relate to those whose life thus passed before me the subject of my vision, that I might thereby obtain confirmation or refutation of it. It was invariably ratified, not without consternation on their part. * What demon inspires you? Must I again believe in possession ? ' exclaimed the spiri- tual Johann von Riga, when in the first hour of our acquaintance I related his past life to him. We speculated long on the enigma, but even his pene- tration could not solve it. " I myself had less confidence than any one in this mental jugglery. As often as I revealed my visionary gifts to any new person, I regularly expected to hear the answer * It was not so.' I felt a secret shudder when my auditors replied that it was true, or when their astonishment betrayed my accuracy before I spoke. Instead of many, I will mention one example, which pre-eminently astounded me. One fair day, in the city of Waldshut, 1 entered the Vine Inn in company with two voung 170 Later Developments. .student foresters. We were tired with rambling through the woods. We supped with a numerous company at the ' table cF hotej where the guests were making very merry with the peculiarities and eccentricities of the Swiss, with Mesmer's magne- tism, Lavater's physiognomy, etc. One of my companions, whose national pride was wounded by their mockery, begged me to make some reply, particularly to a handsome young man who sate opposite to me, and who allowed himself extraordi- nary licence. This man's former life was at that moment presented to my mind. I turned to him and asked whether he would answer me candidly, if I related to him some of the most secret passages of his life, I knowing as little of him personally as he did of me. That would be going a little further, I thought, than Lavater did with his physiognomy. He promised, if I were correct in my information, to admit it frankly. I then related what my vision had shown me, and the whole company were made acquainted with the private history of the young merchant his school-years, his youthful errors, and lastly, with a fault committed in reference to the strong-box of his principal. I described to him the uninhabited room, with whitened walls, where, to the right of the brown door, on a table, stood a black money-box, etc. A dead silence prevailed during the whole narrative, which I alone occasionally inter- rupted by inquiring whether I spoke the truth ? The startled young man confirmed every particular, and even what I had scarcely expected, the last men- tioned. Touched by his candor, I shook hands with Later Developments. 171 him over the table, and said no more. He asked me my name, which I gave him, and we remained together talking till past midnight. He is probably still living ! " Thousands have had experience like Zchokke's, and even more marvelous. In the coming civilization men will marvel that such things could ever have been forgotten, ignored or denied. The last three centur- ies will seem a very dark age, noth withstanding all their vast but grovelling knowledge confined to the earth and " earthy." The pall of materalism has cov- ered these recent centuries so darkly as to shut out the dawning light that once shone in Judea. Did not Jesus look into men's souls and tell them of their coming deeds, did he not tell the woman of Samaria of her five husbands? Did she not say : " Come and see a man who told me all things that ever I did" and did not Jesus promise that these very things and greater things, too, should be done by his successors, and w r ere they not done by Zchokke and Cazotte as an exercise of their familiar faculties and by Joan of Arc and George Fox and Swenbenborg, under the inspiration which accompanies the true followers of Jesus. If I had time to ransack history and biography, abundant illustrations might be found of the existence and exercise of the powers which were exercised by Zchokke and by Cazotte. Even now while I have been writing, a capital illus- tration comes from the antipodes, in the experience of a gifted gentleman whose fine intuition has led him to express the very views which are inculcated in this volume. 172 Later Developments. Placing his name unseen in the hands of Mrs. B. for psychometric description, she revealed his capaci- ties as follows : "This is altogether a new character to me. He is living, too. He is powerful in mentality and edu- cation. It takes me into a grand intellectual atmos- phere. He is humanitarian his work is mainly in that direction like one who has founded some benevolent enterprise. " He has an extraordinarily clear. mind, thoroughly original and independent. He has clairvoyant power to a remarkable extent, and exercises it, too. He is practical and brings what he knows into a practical shape. His powers are so far reaching as almost to annihilate space. He has an illuminated mind this is the most active power in his brain. (Where is he?) "Not in this country it takes me off to a very distant land a southern direction. He is bold. , He seems advanced in life. (Does he understand public affairs?) Yes, he can sit in his home aud compass almost the entire world. There seems no limit to his soul power in that way. He is not in a war-like spirit. (What is his profession?) "He may be- a physi- cian. I think he is. He would not be a lawver." The gentleman thus described is C. W. Rohner, M. D., of Tungamah, Australia, who presented in an essay, dated February 12, 1885, published at Mel- bourne, the following admirable suggestions and statements : " In defiance of all the high-wrought and elaborate definitions of old-time Psychology, I venture to ck'lino Later Developments. intuition simply as direct spiritual insight, immediate perception of both facts and truths without any prelim- inary instruction or preparation for the reception of the new truths and the new facts. Intuition, in my opinion, is one of the grandest faculties of the human mind, and although not so positive in its .data as clair- voyance, to which it is certainly and closely allied, intuition is in many respects far more valuable than clairvoyance, because it is more comprehensive in its scope, and more profound in the results of its opera- tion. ' ' Without the natural gift of intuition a man cannot rise to any high altitude of mentality in this world, for intuition is one of the most constant and reliable teachers and tutors a true mentor of mankind. He who is gifted with this rare faculty has the key of all knowledge in his possession. "Without a certain amount of intuition I hold it absolutely impossible to become a Spiritualist, for in- tuition is the first and handiest instrument to bring man in contact with things invisible from a physical point of view. Hence it is that men of magnificent intellects and grand attainments leading men of science, leading theologians, leading politicians, etc., are utterly unable to attain to spiritual sight, or to the understanding of things truly spiritual. They really have eyes and see not, as a grandly intuitive man said over 1800 years ago. " Somehow or other some people, and they are not so inconsiderable in number, cannot understand any- thing that is new ; their minds run in such rigidly conservative grooves that they cannot deviate from a 174 Later Developments. certain path ; and such men it would take perhaps half a life-time to realize so stupendous a fact as the discovery of another hemisphere. " Intuition is one of the most valuable gifts that can be bestowed upon mortal, for by the aid of intuition man may become master, not only of all knowledge, but even of all secrets, down to the best kept State secrets of the craftiest statesman of a very Bis- marck. To illustrate this fact, I have only to allude to my own intuitional experience. Some ten months ago when nobody in Australia knew anything of the de- signs of Bismarck on New r Guinea, and moreover, of his secret designs against England generally * * * * I wrote several plain leading articles on the subject, asserting in unmistakable terms that Bismarck would have New Guinea, and that the French would have their New Hebrides. I was laughed at for my trouble by almost everybody who knew my views. How could that be? some asked. I could not tell them ; I only knew that things had this tendency ; and often in the morning I would awake as if I had come from the secret council-chambers of European diplomatists, where I had heard their plans discussed in order to enable me to warn those against whom these designs w r ere forming. " Now all these things have come to pass, people cannot help believing them, however unable they may still be to realize them. I could tell hosts of similar and still more important State secrets which are going to be carried out shortly, also against England ; but my past experience is not encouraging for me to do so at present. If this article had not already spread itself Later Developments. 175 out to an undue length, I could have furnished further proofs of this my peculiar intuitional gift in connec- tion with the perpetration of what was years ago styled the " Bulgarian atrocities," which I saw per- formed on victims' as if I were standing alongside the shambles on which they were cut up like so much butcher's meat. These scenes I saw enacted regularly two or three days before an account of them would appear in the daily papers, and I was myself so as- tonished at the coincidence of what I saw intuitively (perhaps also clairvoyantly), that I took regular notes of the proceedings as they happened." i . CHAPTEE IV. THE PSYCHIC FACULTIES THEIR LOCATION AND ACCI DENTAL MANIFESTATION. Nature and location of the psychometric faculty of intuition Its associa- tion with sensibility The recognition of this by writers on animal magnetism Necessary precaution in psychometric investigations The superior intellectual or spiritual method Its connection with feeling- Magnetic experience of Hufeland, Gmelin and others The loss of consciousness as to the body Connection of the phenomena with broad foreheads Evils from sensitiveness How avoided by health and by pure psychic action Somnambulism and trance con- nected with the temples Loss of bodily consciousness Mediumship Manipulation to develope trance and Psychometry Neglect of physicians Effect of the local excitement and heat in the temples Its illustration in Jane Rider Perfect vision and remarkable intelli- gence and energy with the eyes closed and bandaged Pain in the temples Hints to physicians - - Blindfold experiments Wonderful developments of clairvoyant intelligence Their neglect by colleges The physical leads into darkness the spiritual into light Spirituality of the dying and of somnambulists views of Andral and Virgil Vulgar errors, comparing Psychometry with mesmerism, diabolism, spiritualism and thought reading Explanation of Psychometry, an independent mastery of knowledge Corporeal location of the psychic powers The soul residing in the brain as its home The body as the garden of the mansion Relation explained by the sensitive nerves Epigastric locality corresponding to the temples Transference of psychic action in sleep and dreams Superabundant illustration in natural somnambulism Reports of Colquhoun Explanation by Anthropology Why the phenomena are forgotten Phenomena of artificial somnambulism well and widely known but ignored by col- leges Exaltation of the faculties in natural somnambulism Vision of the French ecclesiastic through paper Perfect vision with closed eyes Reading with closed eyes and seeing through a plank reported to a philosophical society Suspension of sensation Case reported to medical society of Breshui Somnambulism in a young rope-maker - Perfect vision with closed eyes, and complete bodily insensibility Perfect vision in a girl of thirteen with bandaged eyes Similar case in Edinburgh Philosophical Tiansactioiis -- Utilixution of the psychic 176 Psychic Faculties i powers in Psychometry, which have been neglected by an intellectual barbarism Marvelous case related by Dr. Abercrombie Wonderful imitation and intelligence in a girl of feeble mind The true nature of the psychic faculties and their relation to the spirit world Their liability to delusrion Confusion of objective and subjective Their future emancipation of the world from superstition Grandeur of the twentieth century The intuitional faculty associated with uncon- sciousness and sleep Sir Thomas Browne Skill of somnambulists Danger of sudden awakening Identity of the somnolent faculties and our daily intuitions which bring success in life development of intuition thoroughout all ages and at present Inspiration of Shakes- peare and George Elliot. The cavern's streams from darkness come to darkness go Their source unknown. Wild storms come from transparent depths of upper air, We know not why. Comets from stellar depths, unknown, rush by, A dazzling mystery. Yet science shall reveal the whole, and trace the paths By which they come. Then shall its starry eye pierce farther, dimmer depths Of human mystery The magic of the ancient sage the Prophet's ken, The priestly power That awed the savage tribes and built the temples grand; The wondrous tales Of Angels dimly seen, and of Demoniac power; The wild insanities That come like storms to multitudes, and deeper mysteries Of mad-house life ; Extatics, dreamers, floating forms, astounding miracles At saintly tombs, And the unconscious utterance of a wisdom rare From feeble lips ; These shall be traced along the mystic lines of power That reach afar Toward that unseen and awful power that holds The farthest stars, And yet with sweet benevolence lifts up Poor, erring man, When he aspires, into the realm of Heavenly lore. What is the essential nature of the psychometric faculty? In the ultimate analysis I have called it Psychic Faculties. INTUITION. But the intuitional faculty is connected with the interior portion of the front lobe and that portion is connected by the law of coincidence or parallelism with the lateral portion of the front lobe, which is %ehind the eyebrow, and runs into connex- ion with the interior part of the middle lobe, in which is located the organ of feeling or sensibility - the aggregate of the sensitive faculties. Hence it is that the somnambulic and psychometric conditions may be brought on by gentle impressions on the sense of feeling, especially by such impressions as are made by the nervaura. The acute perceptions of the region of intuition and its coincident in somnolence, are thus associated closely by the proximity of the organs with the highest sensibilities that we possess and the exercise of the intuitional faculty is accompanied by the highest degree of sensibility, which needs to be protected from all harsh influences and even from ordinary light. Hence in clairvoyant experiments it is necessary to extinguish or lower the light or to protect the eyes. The bandage placed over the eyes is a real advantage to the clairvoyant. It follows then from the construction of the brain that in all intuitional phenomena there will be great exaltation and delicacy of the senses manifested that feeling, hearing, seeing and sympathetic im- pression will act in unison to give the delicate and profound knowledge which belongs to the intuitional region. In the language of Psychometry we find this blend- ing. The psychometer recognizes all cognizable Psychic Faculties. 179 properties, conditions and phenomena in the object of his examination. The odors in the air, the tempera- ture of the- climate, its healthy or unhealthy influ- ences, the qualities of food and medicine, the sensations of the sick, the forms and colors of landscapes, flow- ers, paintings, persons and imagery, the spirituar character of society and the purposes that pervade the people in short, all that can be comprehended by human intelligence is recognized, as if all senses and sympathies were in the highest activity. This combination of the faculties has long been recognized. " In the state of clairvoyance (says Colquhoun) the magnetic patients may be said to feel rather than to sec. Fisher's somnambulist assured him that he saw his internal parts, but not as with the eyes ; he could not describe the manner in which he perceived them. Frederic Hufeland's patient said, only in the highest degree of lucidity, "I sec;" at other times she generally used the expression, " I feel " this or that part, this or that change, etc. Gmelin's patient, too, said she did not see but feel, and with great delicacy, both internally and extern- ally ; and Scherb's patient declared, that in the mag- netic sleep, the sensations were rather those of feeling than of sight, and that the feeling during that state was much more acute and delicate than when awake. A corroboration of these views may also be derived from the following curious declaration of Dr. Des- pine's cataleptic patient. "You think," said she to those who had placed themselves en rapport with her : "that I don't .know what passes around me every evening ; but you are mistaken. I see nothing, but 1 8 2 Piy ch ic Fa en Itics . development of psychic powers was brought on by an attack with a flushed face, pain in the left side of the head which was hot, and an excited pulse. She was relieved by the physician and next morning re- called nothing of the attack. Another attack came on in about a month and produced a fine specimen of somnambulism. She rose and dressed herself with her eyes closed, and went through the whole bnsiness of preparing the table for breakfast, but next morning thought it had been done by some one else. In her numerous subsequent paroxysms with her eyes closed, she manifested the most perfect vision, even in rooms entirely dark, sewing and performing household duties with entire ease and correctness and sometimes refused to allow a lamp to be burned because she thought it was daylight. These attacks were generally if not always accompanied by pain in the temple on the left side of the head, which produced severe suffering and led her to say repeatedly, pointing to that spot, " it ought to be cut open it ought to be cut open." If the treatment had been directed to this spot as her intuition dictated her attacks might have been con- trolled and perhaps her high endowments perserved in her normal condition. In these attacks, her mental exaltation was often shown by the impetuous rapidity of her action. ** She moved with astonishing rapidity, and accom- plished whatever she attempted with a celerity of which she was utterly incapable in her natural state." Sometimes she had her paroxysm in bed, " where she sung, talked and repeated passages of poetry. Once she imagined herself at Brattleborough, spoke Psychic Facilities. 183 of scenes and persons with which she was acquainted there, and described the characters of certain indi- viduals with great accuracy and shrewdness, and imitated their actions so exactly as to produce a most comical effect." Although she sang with propriety and correctness, she had never learned to sing, nor been known to sing, when awake. Hereafter, liberal physicians enlightened by An- thropology will know that whenever an unusual heat or excitement appears in the temples an inch behind the brow, the sensibilities are exalted, deli- cate medication is necessary, infinitesimal doses will be responded to, and delicate manipulations will be so effective (guided by Sarcognomy) as often to make medicine entirely unnecessary. Moreover in such patients they will be prepared to expect unusual psychic manifestations, and occasionally the develop- ment of an intelligence which may comprehend their own condition and make the most important sugges- tion for their treatment (as was recognized by Cabanis), or even obtain suggestions from then attendant spiritual companionship. In the case of Jane Rider the vision was during her paroxysms entirely a spiritual phenomenon. It made no difference whether her eyes were entirely open or entirely closed or covered with bandages. " On the twentieth of November, the reporter (Dr. Belden) took a large black silk handkerchief, placed between the folds two pieces of cotton batting, and applied it in such a way that the cotton came directly over the eyes, and completely filled the cavitv on each side of the nose, the silk was dis- 184 Psychic Faculties. tinctly seen to be in close contact with the skin. Various names/ were then written on cards, both of persons with whom she was acquainted, and of those who were unknown to her, which she read as soon as they were presented to her." To make the experi- ment still more perfect he " took two large wads of cotton and placed them directly on the closed eye- lids and then bound them on with the handkerchief before used. The cotton filled the cavity under the eyebrow, came down to the middle of the cheek and was in close contact with the nose. The former expe- riments were then repeated without any difference in the result." She also wrote with facility, and read with facility, writing too fine to be distinguished at the usual distance from the eye. " She occasionally exhibited an extraordinary power of imitation. This extended not only to the manner, but to the language and sentiments of the person whom she personified, and her performances in this way were so striking, and her conceptions of character so just, that nothing could be more comi- cal. This, like her other extraordinary powers, was confined to her somnambulist state at other times, she did not exhibit the slightest trace of it." Another illustration of her abnormal intellectuality was shown in learning to play backgammon. After receiving two lessons she beat an experienced player, but when awake she knew nothing about it. I have dwelt upon the mental exaltation and the spiritual vision in the case of Jane Rider because the case is so authentic and so well known, and because it illustrates so clearly the transcendent Psychic Faculties. 185 power of an interior region of the brain even in morbid conditions, which, without the use of the internal senses and external reason, the sole intel- lectual guides recognized by the world's dominant psychology and even by the Gallian Phrenology attains all the results that are attained by the pro- longed labors of observation and reasoning attains them without an effort, leaping at once into posses- sion of the harvest of knowledge and wisdom as. if all had been garnered by some celestial power and poured into the receptive soul. The full extent of the power it is true is not shown in the case of Jane Rider, but it is amply illustrated in mesmeric somnambulists, in religious trances, in the eloquent outpourings of entranced speakers in their poetic improvisations, and their grand discus- sions of themes with which they have had no acquaintance previous to their inspired utterance, in none more remarkably than in W. J. Colville, who, when a half-educated youth, gave learned disquisitions on philosophy. If there be such powers in humanity latent in many but bursting spon- taneously into expression from thousands without an effort, and in spite of repression, why is Heaven's richest intellectual gift to man ignored and defied by colleges? Why, unless that the colleges are in philosophy, the reservoir of accumulated ignorance, and, therefore, the antagonist of inspiration, as dark- ness is the antagonist of light, having followed the drifting of the animal nature into the lower or physical and verbal departments of knowledge, into which they have so deeply burrowed as to have 1 86 Psychic Faculties. lost sight of the world of life and light, so far above their plane of thought, and so grossly miseducated their pupils that apparently educated physicians will deny clairvoyance, and insult or slander those in whom it appears. The farther we go in that direction the deeper the spiritual darkness that enshrouds the world, for the spiritual and physical are our opposite polarities. In the former we find all light and freedom, all harmony and love in the latter, all darkness, tyranny and crime. When the spirit has abandoned the body forever, then only does it enjoy the perfection of its capacities for wisdom and happiness capacities which it realizes in life most perfectly when the body is in the most perfect repose, but which are often lost in the tumult of passionate life least realized surely when we are dealing with physical obstacles when the soul energy is lost in the body, as in excessive toil, and least realized in our intel- lectual life when intelligence is exclusively occupied with the physical forms and forces that resist our muscular energy. Humanity is debased in propor- tion as education is limited to the acquisition of physical knowledge, and active life to the pursuit of wealth and power. How often does the soul of the dying invalid report itself refreshed by a rich experience during the hours of prostration and apparent death, or during similar moments in somnambulism. Prof. Andral, one of the most philosophic of his French contemporaries, refers to a case in which M. Filazzi, an interne of the Hotel Dieu v totally skepti- Psychic Faculties. 187 cal, attempted to amuse himself by magnetizing a fellow-student. After twenty minutes he adds " what was my horror when I saw his fingers turn blue, his head fall powerless forward, when I heard his res- piration rattling like a dying man's and felt his skin as cold as death itself. I cannot find words to describe my sufferings. I knew not what to do. Meanwhile all these horrid phenomena increased in intensity. I trembled at the recollection of what I saw : there lay my friend, my victim, devoid of the aspect of life, in a state of complete and terrible collapse." * * * " In a quarter of an hour he recovered, and exclaiming that in the extacy he had experienced sensations of extreme delight, begged me to recommence the passes. I did so with less apprehension, and again the somnolency proceeded. The collapse, however, was less profound and ter- rific, and in some minutes he suddenly awoke with the exclamation : " What happiness is this." It is a very old and familiar thought, yet one not acted on by modern colleges, that the soul has a freedom and purity in itself which are hindered by its residence in matter, and which it does not realize until emancipated from its physical surroundings, or relieved by an extatic condition from their immediate pressure. Plato, and other spiritual philosophers of antiquity, taught this distinctly, and Virgil expressed it in the sixth book of the yneid, in the following among other passages : " Nor can the grovelling mind In the dark dungeon of the limbs confined, Assert the native skies, or own its heavenly kind; Nor death itself can wholly wash the stains, But long contracted filth e'en in the soul remains." Psychic Faculties. The collegiate policy is to recognize only the action of the soul as immersed in matter it studies its physi- cal surroundings, while debased by selfish influences, and to ignore as visionary and delusive all its trans- cendent powers, and all who possess them or who believe in their existence, unless they wrote tiun thousand years ago. The reader is now prepared by the exposition of psychometric phenomena and their connection with the brain to correct certain vulgar errors on this sub- ject among those who are unfamiliar with psychomet- ric science. As a matter of course those to whom new knowl- edge is presented generally endeavor to avoid any change in their old ideas, and either resist its recep- tion or endeavor to diminish its novelty and identify it with what they already know, or suppose they know. Thus a clergyman familiar with certain notions of the power of the Devil and his imps, and unfamiliar with primitive Christianity, when he hears of strange mental phenomena of mesmerism and spiritualism, assumes that they are but another form of the diabol- ism in which he believes. The devotee of mesmerism, when he hears of Psy- chometry and spiritualism, assumes that they are the same thing with which he is familiar as mesmerism. The devotee of spiritualism hearing of Psychome- try often assumes that it is merely an exhibition of spiritualism or power of the spirits, and supposes that supermundane beings are its source. The amateur in thought-reading also is very confi- dent that all extraordinary mental phenomena are but Psychic Faculties. 180 various forms of thought-reading to which his experi- ence is limited. The powers displayed in psychometric experiments are entirely distinct from the spiritual phenomena. We are no more dependent on spiritual help to feel the medical impression of a fluid extract in a vial, than we are in smelling a rose or tasting a beefsteak. We are equally independent in feeling the impression of an autograph and tracing the character of the writer, as we trace the character and tendency of a remedy, just as much as we should be in feeling the influence of smallpox in a piece of infected paper, and there by contracting the disease. While in the form, we have all the faculties that we shall have when emancipated from the body ; and whatever spirits can do in the way of intuitional perception, we can do likewise with a freedom and success pro- portional to our interior development. We depend neither on the living friends around us nor on the spirit friends who may be present. But in proportion as our spiritual or intuitional fac- ulties are developed, they have a wider range of more delicate perceptions, and we may recognize or feel the sentiments or thoughts of friends around us either in O the form or out, especially if they endeavor to com- municate them. Hence the psychometer may perceive that there are other opinions than his own about him, and may pay them as much deference as he thinks proper may reject them if he does not approve, or may avail himself of the clear ideas which are pre- sented, if they are acceptable to his judgment. In this he is as independent as in his associations in society. 190 Psychic Facilities. The state of m:diumship is a very different affair from psychometric investigation. The medium sur- renders his brain to the control of some spirit, and has no responsibility for what is uttered, nor, in general, any knowledge of it. The spirit may be of high or low grade ; and we are far from getting pure spiritual intelligence 1 in such cases. The spirit is using a brain not his own, and never capable of using it as freely and naturally as the owner. The spirit expression, therefore, is very imperfect at best. But in a large number of cases of mediumistic utterance there is very little spiritual influence present. The utterance is not by a real spiritual obsession, but more like the entranced utterances of the mesmeric somnambules modified slightly or not at all by a spiritual influence. In normal Psychometry the individval has the per- fect use of all his faculties in his highest intellectual condition and also generally in his best moral condi- tion, and is capable of enlarging the sphere of his cog- nition by sympathy with either surrounding or super- nal mind with which his powers may be reinforced. Psychometry is a dignified, independent and normal process, which tends if rightly practiced to the strengthening and ennoblement of character and mind. The suggestion that psychometric revelations de- pend upon thought-reading or borrowing thoughts from some one present is as groundless as the spirit- ual notion. It is much easier to take an impression from an autograph or medicine held in the hands than to extract the information from some adjacent brain, even if the information existed there in an accessible Psycktc Faculties. 191 shape. The total ignorance of the surrounding circle is r.ot the slightest hindrance to the psychometer in getting an autographic impression, and their entire absence is equally a matter of indifference or rather it is a positive advantage, for the less there is to attract or disturb attention the better for the psychometer. When Mrs. B. wishes to look into a difficult case for diagnosis or morbid conditions, she sits alone with the autograph, with her pen to record impressions as they rise. If the thought-reading hypothesis is strained to suppose that her mind must then reach out to the dis- tant patient who may be at the antipodes, we cannot but wonder at the credulity which supposes it easier to perform such a difficult task than to feel the impres- sion from something in the hands which is as clearly recognizable, beginning at the hand, as a medical influence from a drug held in the same manner, or the caloric from a warm body. Indeed, such marvelous excursions in pursuit oi knowledge (the elements of which are in the hand) would, if they were practised often, be unsuccessful, from the fact that the patient does not understand his own case, and is writing for its explanation by the psychometer, who sometimes contradicts his impres- sions, or reveals what he did not suspect or tells him what he cannot at first believe. When Mrs. B. wrote to a correspondent at Calcutta, India, that he was coming to the United States within two years, he replied that he did not see any possibility of it. But her psychometric intuition was verified within the time contrary to his anticipations. She frequently speaks of erroneous opinions entertained by patients and by 192 Psychic Faculties. their physicians. Indeed, the psychometric judgment is as entirely self-reliant and independent as any other method of arriving at conclusions, and Psychometry gives us a new method of exploring all sciences, by our own mental energy. If there were no other minds on earth or in Heaven, the true psychometer well endow r ed, could build up all knowledge and phil- osophv in grandest amplitude far beyond his power to carry it in his mind or record it by any graphic art. The treasures of knowledge which in past ages have been thus gathered have perished unrecorded the refined and sensitive minds of tropical regions thinking no more of accumulating and recording their too easily accessible knowledge, than of storing up nature's wealth of aromas, fruits and flowers which were ever within reach inviting enjoyment. In my experiments with Mrs. 13. and others, I sometimes find them incapable of answering a ques- tion, while the answer that should come, is in mv mind very distinct. Instead of giving my knowledge and opinions, they frequently state that with which I am not acquainted, and sometimes express opinions different from mine. THE LOCALITY OF THE PSYCHIC POWERS. While the great intuitional or psychometric centre is Unquestionably at the interior of the front lobes, with an adjunct location in the temples, it must be borne in mind that the science c;f Sarcognomy dis- covers an outpost in the body lor all the psychic faculties. The entire brain corresponds with tin; Psychic Faculties. 193 entire body, and whatever occurs in one has its echo in the other. As love is expressed or echoed in the bosom, firm- ness in the shoulder, and the violent passions in the lower limbs, so have all the subtle spiritual faculties their corporeal homes. The soul occupying the brain as the master occupies the mansion, looks forth upon the body, as the eye of the master rests upon his garden, and as when invited by a congenial season of pleasure, the master leaves the mansion 'for the garden, he typifies the action of the soul in occupy- ing, for a time, the body, to the apparent neglect of the brain. Even without this descent into the body, the tele- graphic connexion of the brain with all parts, by sensitive nerves establishes so intimate a sympathy, that impressions on the body become almost the same as impressions on the brain. Hence the medical impression from medicines held in the hand is in the very sensitive instantaneously recognized, though in others it requires sometime to reach the brain and become understood. Hence too, the psychometric impression from an autograph held in the hand is in the very sensitive, so promptly recognized, that they prefer to receive their impressions in that manner, and, indeed, psychometric impressions of character, like medical impressions may be received in the sensitive from any part of the surface of the body. Manifestly, however, the most perfect reception of psychic impressions may be expected at that part of the body which most nearly corresponds with the sensitive and somnolent region of the temples. Sarc- 194 Psychic Facilities. ognomy shows that there is such a locality adjacent to the median line' of the body, upon and below the sternum, its chief location occupying a few inches below the ensiform cartilage of the breast-bone. (The accurate location of the psycho-physiological func- tions in the body which constitutes the science of Sarcognomy is one of the valuable applications of Psychometry.) At this location, somnolizing effects are produced by the application of the hand or by passes toward this spot, and thus all the phenomena of somnambu- lism and somniloquence may be developed as effect- ively as through the organ of somnolence, in the temples, by which my pupils are accustomed to produce the somnolent conditions. Having thus cerebral and corporeal organs of the highest sensibilities and intuitions in close correspon- dence with each other, it follows that the most intimate union and co-operation of the soul, the brain and the body, must be possible, if any where through this apparatus of intuition and sympathetic sensibility, the two locations of which are always in close rapport, each capable of responding to the other. The cerebrum has the controlling centre nearest the soul, but when the cerebrum is in a quiescent state as in sleep, some local excitement may well attract the psychic action to this psychic region of the body, and of this, nature and art have given us ample illustration in spontaneous and induced som- nambulism, in which the exercise of perceptive or intuitive power from the sternal and epigastric region Psychic Faculties. 195 has long been observed without comprehending its philosophy, which has been given by Sarcognomy. Colquhoun says: " I brought forward abundant evidence . with the view of demonstrating the extra- ordinary fact of the occasional transference of the faculties in certain states of the organism. While engaged in collecting that evidence, I found no want, but rather a redundance of materials ; I found myself to be very much in the same situation with the inge- nious Frenchman who complained of the embarras de richesses; for this reason I conceived it sufficient to adduce only the most striking and best authenticated instances. * * Several years before, I had for a totally different purpose, made a pretty ample col- lection of the most interesting and best authenticated instances of the natural somnambulism ; and it seemed to me that it might be of use to search for, and examine, this collection with a view to discover whether it contained anything that could confer additional strength upon the cogent evidence already adduced. * I was a good deal sur- prised, though pleased, to find that in almost every one of these cases, the facts of the insensibility of the corporeal organs, and of the transference of the faculties, had been more or less distinctly observed. I have since been enabled to add several very inter- esting recent cases of a perfectly uniform character, almost all of which have been reported with great accuracy by professional men. The discovery of the manifestation of the remarkable phenomena in ques- tion appears to have been almost always made by mere accident they are seldom brought very 196 Psychic Facilities. prominently forward, and scarcely any attempt is made to account for them, excepting upon the strange and inadmissible hypothesis that the organ of one sense supplies the place and performs the functions of others." This mystery to Colquhoun disappears when we recognize the existence of a higher and all compre- hensive intuitional power, in which all intelligence is concentrated, and which having a definite location in the cerebrum, has also a corresponding location in the body. In consequence of this structure, psychomet- ric or intuitional powers may be exercised either from the central or the epigastric location, and the epi- gastric location may become the chief seat of the power or rather the manifestation, when consciousness being suspended by sleep, the entire brain has lost its excitability. The entire philosophy of this subject can be apprec- iated only after the study of organology and pa- thognomy as presented in the volumes of Cerebral Psychology and Pathognomy,* which explain the relations of the interior and exterior surfaces of the front lobe, and the action of the lateral occipital region, in suspending consciousness (while reinforcing animal life) and opening the brain to the influx of exterior intelligence which controls all action without employ- ing the consciousness of the subject by which the mental processes could be recognized and remem- oered. Hence the performances of somnambulists are like * These subjects 'will be concisely presented in a new edition of my System of Athropology, which I hope to prepare in ISXG. Psychic Faculties. 197 those of spiritual mediums, unrecorded by memory and unknown to the subject when he returns to his normal state. That artificial somnambulism is accompanied by the power of seeing with the eyes bandaged and of trav- elling in any direction, describing the regions visited as if the clairvoyant were actually looking at them has been so often verified in all civilized countries, in private circles, before scientific committees, and before public audiences that it is needless to relate instances.* That natural somnambulism, too, is accompanied by a wonderful exaltation of the perceptive powers and by the perfect exercise of the senses when the eyes are insensible, or when light is absent, has been very often observed, but so limited has been the circu- lation of th i literature in which such facts are embod- ied and illustrated that it is worth while to refer to a few authentic examples of the exaltation of the senses and their exercise in an unusual manner. One of the most famous of these is the case in the thirty-eighth volume of the French Encyclopedia, nar- rated by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, in which a young ecclesiastic was accustomed to get up at night in a state of somnanbulism, compose and write ser- * The absolute stolidity of the. colleges and a large portion of the edu- cated classes on this subject shows that the world is not yet half civilized. No matter how often the phenomena are demonstrated, nor how many thousands are convinced, the colleges and their text books remain the same, and the perennial crop of ignorance on this subject flourishes w-ith unabated abundance. If the demonstrations were not continually renewed, the colleges would entirely suppress the knowledge of such facts and sus- pend the circulation of the literature in which they are made known. Our entire University and Collegiate system needs to be superseded by a rational education. fpS Psychic faculties. mons. After writing a page he would read it aloud and correct it with his pen. The Archbishop held a piece of pasteboard under his chin to prevent his see- ing the paper, but he wrote on as usual, not regarding the interruption. Yet when the paper he was writing on was removed and another piece substituted, he immediately perceived the change. Thus he showed that he was able to perceive what he wished to see, but that he did not depend upon the transmission of light and was not hindered by an opaque substance. In this somnambulic condition he wrote pieces of music with his eyes closed, adjusting the notes and words, and correcting errors as one would do with the full use of the senses. A case of natural somnambulism occurring in Switz- erland was reported by a committee of the Philosoph- ical Society of Lausanne, and an account of it appears in the Encyclopedia Britannica. In this individual, a boy named Devaud, thirteen years and six months of age, vision was exercised in rooms perfectly dark, and with his eyes fast closed ; he recognized objects as well as if he had their use. Like the French ecclesi- astic his vision was not hindered by opaque bodies. The committee state that when he was writing down what his master dictated " though we put a thick piece of paper before his eyes, he continued to form each character with the same distinctness as before. The committee saw him with his eyes closed write and correct his school exercises and " cipher and calcu- late with great exactness." He read the titles of works in rooms absolutely dark, and " even told the title of a book, when there was a thick plank placed ^between it and his eyes." Psychic Faculties. 199 What is most extraordinary in the reports of natural somnambulism is not only the possession of intuitional power, but the suspension of ordinary sensation^ One of the best illustrations of this is a German case reported in the Transactions of the Medical Society of Breslau." " Aropemaker, twenty-three years of age, was fre- quently overtaken by sleep, even by daylight, and in the midst of his usual occupation, whether sitting, standing or walking. His eyes were firmly closed, and he lost the use of all his external senses. While in this state he sometimes recommenced doing all that he had been engaged in during the previous part of the day, from his morning devotions up to the commencement of the paroxysms. At other times he would continue the work in which he happened to be engaged at the time, and finished his business with as great ease and success as when awake. When the fit overtook him in travelling, he did not stand still, but proceeded on his journey, with the same facility and almost faster than when awake, without missing the road or stum- bling over anything. In this manner he repeatedly went from Naumburgh to Weimar. Upon one of these occasions, he came into a narrow lane, across which there lay some timber. He passed over it regularly as if awake without injury. With equal care and dex- terity he avoided the horses and carriages which came in his way. At another time he was overtaken by sleep a short while before setting out for Weimar on horseback. He rode through the river lime, allowed his horse to drink, and drew up his legs to prevent them from getting wet, then passed through several 2OO Psychic Faculties. streets, crossed the market-place which was then full of people, booths and carts, and arrived in safety at the house where his business lay." " During the continuance of the paroxysm he was quite insensible, though pricked, pinched or struck, he felt nothing. He could not see when his eyes were thrust open. He could not smell even the most volatile spirit, nor could he hear the report of a pistol when fired close beside him." Dr. Shultz, of Hamburgh, reported the case of a girl of thirteen, of respectable family, who in a state of somnambulism, while her eyes were shut, distin- guished, without difficulty, all colors that were pre- sented to her, and recognized the number of cards and the stripes upon the painted cards. She described the color of the binding of books. She wrote as well as usual, and cut out figures in paper, as she was accustomed to do for amusement in her waking state. During all this time her eyes were closed, but in order to be certain that upon these occasions she made no use of her eyes, they were bandaged upon the approach of the convulsions which preceded the somnambulism . " In a case of somnambulism described by Dr. Dyce, of Aberdeen, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transac- tions, the patient was a servant girl, and it is stated that " she became capable of following her usual employments during the paroxysm ; at one time she laid out the table correctly for breakfast, and repeat- edly dressed herself and the children of the family, her eyes remaining shut the whole time. It is needless to give any further illustrations of the Psychic Faculties. 201 independence of the soul power and its marvellous perception and intuition which grasp the truth with- out the agency of sense or reason. The power exists - it comes out spontaneously and spasmodically in spite of neglect and repression. But never has fhis power been studied in a scientific spirit so as to com- prehend its philosophy and to realize its illuminating power, when rightly directed, for all science and philosophy. Psychometry gives us a philosophic and practical knowledge of the soul power as the illuminating endowment of all humanity, which pro- tects us from falsehood, leads us to truth, and is competent to give us a mastery of limitless realms in the unknown. There is no limit to what may be achieved by the emancipation and cultivation of the soul powei in the exploration of all realms of knowledge. Psychometry appears like an entrance into celestial realms, where to will is to have, and where all knowledge is free to its seeker. If this be true, and be sufficiently shown in this volume, how can we who know these things regard the world's intellectual history down to the present time as anything but a grandly barbarian record a record of physical knowledge and physi- cal trimuphs, accompanied by calamitous ignorance in reference to a 1 ! except the mechanic arts that would ameliorate human destiny. I have dwelt upon the spontaneous, or accidental illustrations of the occult powers of the soul which have appeared in somnambulism. I could add an other illustration of the same class of accidental developments which shows what marvelous endowments may come in 2O2 Psychic FacnJtics* this spontaneous way, and how limitless are the achievements to be expected when our occult powers are fully utilized, instead of being ignored and repressed. The case is one related by Dr. Aber- cr^mbie, as follows : " A girl aged seven years, an orphan of the lowest rank, residing in the house of a farmer by whom she was employed in tending cattle, was accustomed to sleep in an apartment separated by a very thin parti- tion from one which was frequently occupied by an itinerant fiddler. This person was a musician of considerable skill, and often spent a part of the night in performing pieces of a refined description, but his performance was not taken notice of by the child except as a disagreeable noise. After a residence of six months in this family, she fell into bad health, and was removed to the house of a benevolent lady, where, on her recovery, after a protracted illness, she was employed as a servant. Some years after she came to reside with this lady, the most beautiful music was often heard in the house during the night, which excited no small interest and wonder in the family, and many a waking hour was spent in endeavors to discover the invisible minstrel. At length the sound was traced to the sleeping room of the girl, who was found fast asleep, but uttering from her lips a sound exactly resembling the sweetest sounds of a small violin. On further observation it was found that after being about two hours in bed, she became restless and began to mutter to herself; she then uttered sounds precisely resembling the tuning of a violin, and at length, after some prelude, Psychic Faculties. 203 dashed off into elaborate pieces of music, which she performed in a clear and accurate manner, and with a sound exactly resembling the most delicate modula- tions of that instrument. During the performance she sometimes stopped, made the sound of retuning her instrument, and then began exactly where she had stopped in the most correct manner. "After a year or two her music was not confined to the imitation of the violin, but was often exchanged for that of a piano of a very old description, which she was accustomed to hear in the house where she now lives, and she then also began to sing, imitating exactly the voices of several ladies of the family. In another year from this time, she began to talk a great deal in her sleep, in which she seemed to fancy herself instructing a younger companion. She often descanted with the utmost fluency and correctness on a variety of topics, both political and religious, the news of the day, the historical parts of scripture, public characters, and particularly the characters of members of the family and their visitors. In these discussions she showed the most wonderful discrimi- nation, often combined with sarcasm, and astonishing powers of mimicry. Her language through the whole was fluent and correct, and her illustrations often for- cible and even eloquent. She was fond of illustrat- ing her subjects by what she called a fable, and in these her imagery was both appropriate and elegant. She was by no means, says my informant, limited in her range. Bonaparte, Wellington, Blucher, and all the kings of the earth, figured among the phantas- magoria of her brain, and all were animadverted 204 Psychic Faculties. upon with such freedom from restraint, as often made me think poor Nancy had been transported into Madame Genlis' Palace of Truth. The justness and truth of her remarks on all subjects, excited the utmost astonishment in those who were acquainted with her limited means of acquiring information. She has been known to conjugate correctly Latin verbs which she had probably heard in the school room of the family, and she was once heard to speak several sentences very correctly in French at the same time stating that she heard them from a foreign gentleman whom she had accidentally met in a shop. Being questioned on this subject when awake, she remembered having seen the gentleman, but could not repeat a word of what he said. During her paroxysms it was almost impossible to awake her, and when her eyelids were raised, and a candle brought near the cye^ the -pupil scc:ncd insensible to the light. "For several years she was, during the paroxysms, entirely unconscious of the presence of other persons, but about the age of sixteen she began to observe those who were in the apartment, and she could tell correctly their numbers, though the utmost care was taken to have the room darkened. She now also became capable of answering the questions that were put to her, and of noticing remarks made in her presence, and with regard to both she showed aston- ishing acuteness. Her observations, indeed, were often of such a nature, and corresponded so accu- rately with characters and events, that by the country people she was believed to be endowed with supernatural powers." Psychic Faculties. 205 " During the whole period of this remarkable affec- tion, which seems to have gone on for ten or eleven years, she was when awake, a dull, awkward girl, very slow in receiving any kind of instruction, though much care was bestowed upon her, and in point of intellect she was much inferior, to the other servants of the family. In particular she showed no kind of turn for music. She did not appear to have any recollection- of what had passed during her sleep ; but during her nocturnal ramblings she was more than once heard to lament her infirmity of speaking in her sleep, adding how fortunate it was that she did not sleep among the other servants as they teased her enough about it as it was." In such cases as these, how do we account for the preternatural intelligence acquired by a dull, feeble- minded girl when her ordinary life was suspended to give place to this soul-life. As the laws of nature are invariable and the elements of human nature are the same for all human beings, it is manifest that there is a psychic power in all human constitutions which is the polar opposite of our physical life, and which' in its extreme operations withdraws all consciousness from the body and enjoys a realm of clearer percep- tion, deeper wisdom and nobler impulses. That realm is the realm of disembodied life which is called the spirit world, and they who enjoy this psychic exalta- tion either spontaneously as by disease or by artificial preparation, are in a spiritual condition approaching closely to that of our future life, when the body has been entirely cast off. These powers are not confined to the limited role in which they have been tested by 206 Psychic Faculties. the puzzled observers of accidental somnambulism, but extend to the exploration of psychic as well as physical worlds ; and volumes might be compiled of the reports which they have brought of the conditions of the spirit world and the personal appearance and post mortem life of thos whose friends have enquired about them, or of distinguished historical and relig- ious characters. In this, however, as in all matters of observation reported by travellers, we are liable to receive no lit- tle error and exaggeration, as the observer (often very ignorant) may be controlled by dominant ideas and prejudices. Such revelations coming through theo- logical or sectarian minds are far from being reliable for accuracy, because the conditions of the observation are so very different from those of this life. Here on the earth the objective and subjective are distinct and contrasted yet even here we may have delusions from subjective conditions, and on the dim horizon we may see what we anticipated instead of what exists. Such errors in microscopic observations are not uncommon. But in spirit-life the distinction of objective and subjective fades into such dimness, that the distinction is often entirely lost, and our imag- inations and emotions may make surroundings which we fail to distinguish from tha immaterial realities which have not the impenetrability of matter. If even so great and, wise a seer as Swedenborg was not exempt from such delusions, we may expe:ttj find them abundant in the spiritual literature of all ages. Nevertheless it is by the wise culture and regula- Psychic Faculties. 207 tion of the psychic faculties that the world hereafter is to achieve its highest civilization and the develop-- ment of limitless religious truth in place of the blun dering and superstitious theologies which have ruled the barbarian age of the past and still hold in sub' jection all but a few vigorous thinkers. The coming century will be THE AGE OF PSY- CHOMETRY in which mankind no longer prone and dreaming, passive before the masters of delusion. will stand erect in the conscious maturity of manhood, rejoicing in the comprehensive knowledge of WHA! IS, WHAT HAS BEEN, and WHAT WILL BE. Among the five hundred millions which our Grea) Republic may attain in that century, I shall not be ait enrolled citizen, but may be remembered as the herald who announced the coming illumination and shall not be invisible to the intelligence of that century. That a grandly intuitional power resides in the human constitution, that it occupies an interior latenl position, and comes into play best when the faculties on which we commonly rely, are quiescent, ought to have been realized by all intelligent thinkers. It is shown in the familiar phenomena of somnambulism which, when it arises spontaneously, usually begins when the subject is in profound slumber, and thus entirely unconscious of his surroundings. It often arises, too, when disease has so lowered the energy of the body as to diminish its influence upon the mind, or when the bodily energy is still farther lowered by the near approach of death. Sir Thomas Browne remarks in his Rcligio Medici: " Thus it is observed that men sometimes upon the 208 Psychic Faculties. hour of their departure, do speak and reason above themselves. For then, the soul being near freed from the ligaments of the body, begins to reason like herself, and to discourse in a strain above mortality." In like manner the best development of the intui- tional faculty for Psychometry requires that the mind should be withdrawn from surrounding objects and events concentred in the interior consciousness, and freed from the disturbances of light and sound. In fact the mind is in so peculiar a state of interior con- centration in Psychometry that the psychometer is apt to lose the memory of his statements as fast as they are given. " Somnambulists (says Colquhoun in Isis Rcvelata) apparently in a state of profound sleep, rise from their beds at night, traverse the most inaccessible places without awaking, and successfully perform the most delicate and difficult operations* whether intellectual or mechanical, and all this in the dark, and frequently with their eyes closed, as in the ordinary state of sleep. It has been observed, also, that individuals while in this state, occasionally manifest a superior knowledge of subjects and of languages which they had not previously studied, so as to remember them, or with which they had been but imperfectly acquainted. It is likewise a striking peculiarity of this state of existence, that upon Waking the indi- vidual who had thus insensibily performed all these operations, retains no recollection of anything that passed while he was under the influence of somnam- bulism. "It is worthy of notice, too, that the acts of the Psychic Faculties. 209 somnambulist are almost always performed with a degree of freedom, boldness and precision, superior to what he manifests when awake, and that he gen- erally succeeds in accomplishing everything he attempts. So far as I am aware there is no instance of a somnambulist awaking spontaneously in the midst of any operation he has once undertaken, nor of his perishing amidst the dangers which he fre- quently encounters. There are, it is true, many instances of somnambulists who have perished in consequence of having been suddenly awakened by the imprudent alarm of the witnesses of those perils to which they were apparently exposed, but the general experience of all times seems to lead us to the conclusion that the somnambulist is guided by other senses or instincts that he is protected from injury by other means and guarantees of security than those by which his conduct is regulated in his ordinary waking state. So long as he is left undis- turbed in his proceedings, he acts fearlessly, and is safe a sudden awakening alone, by restoring him to his natural state, and depriving him of the protec- tion of that instinct which governed his actions, causes him to perish." The wonderful intuitions of somnambulism having been observed chiefly in this abnormal state, such facts have become isolated from normal experience and psychic philosophy, and it is the duty of a true Anthropology to show that there is no dividing line between the wonderful intuitions of clairvoyance, etc., shown in the somnambulic state, and similar intu- itions which make a portion of our daily lite, and 210 Psychic Faculties. guide us to results which are supposed to be attained, by luck. The successful physician acts upon an intuitional impression and makes a perfect diagnosis, or prognosis to the salvation of his patients, while a more learned competitor with no intuitional power becomes singu- larly unsuccessful. The intuitional lawyer realizes the mental status and attitude of a jury, and thus is enabled to win them. The intuitional business man knows how to speculate, and with whom to associate, in business. The intuitional general is guided in campaigns and battles by what passes for superior, skill and knowledge, but is really superior intuition. Intuitional lovers often know each other's merits and sentiments or designs, independently of language, and intuitional musicians, such as Ole Bull, produce, under inspiration, almost supernal music. Thus, in every sphere of life, men are guided to success, if they have energy to perform their tasks by an interior light which vivifies and perfects their intelligence, and the possession of this interior light is revealed, or tested, in every psychometric experiment. The intuitional faculty not only mingles with and illuminates our intellectual processes, in which intui- tion is that interior light without which all would be darkness, but is often so fully developed that psycho- metric and clairvoyant faculties come forth to the as- tonishment of their possessor, and the equal astonish- ment of the cultured but miscducated classes, who have been most carefully kept in ignorance of that which was well-known to the ancients, which has been in progress publicly and privately from a pcriud anterior Psychic Faculties. 2H to the records of history, but which when forced upon their attention to-day is received with a profound arti- ficial stupidity, which never investigates or reasons. According to a late number of the London Illustrated News, the marvel of the hour in Paris is a handsome young lady in good society, of whom it says : " All secrets are apparently open to her ; she reads the past like a book, and foretels the future with marvellous exactitude ; and yet her only guides are the pins which she scatters on the floor. She is, perhaps, most for- tunate with perfect strangers. She professes complete ignorance as to the origin of her strange powers, or the mental process involved in their development." There never was a time when such phenomena were not in progress in many places ; but what avails the sunshine when men shut their eyes? So long as col- leges by false teaching perpetuate a stolid ignorance, philosophy must be stagnant. But the colleges are losing their power of repressing intelligence. The highest success in all pursuits is attained when we approach the most spiritual condition that con- dition in which our own spiritual energies seem eman- cipated from the obstructions of matter, and carry us onward in a way which is foreign to our daily life and all commonplace experience. It may be our own emancipate^ self, or it may be as we rise to the celes- tial plane of consciousness, a higher nature in sym- pathy with our own in that sphere where sympathy is universal and help not hindrance is the law, unites with our soaring spirit to carry it beyond the power of its own flight. In poetry, in romance, in music in eloquence, in heroism, in religion, in love and even in 212 Psychic Faculties. painting, the entranced thought often leans on the the supernal assistant. Shakespeare is believed to have written with the aid of inspiration, producing his plays with marvelous rapidity, and George Eliot confessed her assistance. Mr. Cross says : " she told me that in all she consid- ered her best writing there was a ' not herself which took possession of her, and that she felt her own per- sonality to be merely the instrument through which this spirit, as it were, was acting. Particularly she dwelt on this in regard to the scene in ' Middlemarch,' between Dorothea and Rosamond, saying that al- though she always knew they had, sooner or later, to come together, she kept the idea resolutely out of her mind until Dorothea was in Rosamond's drawing- room. Then, abandoning herself to the inspiration of the moment, she wrote the whole scene exactly us it stands, without alteration or erasure, in an intense state of excitement and agitation, feeling herself en- tirely possessed by the feelings of the two women." He says, too, that she had " a limitless persistency of application." " Continuous thought did not fatigue her. She could keep her mind on the stretch hour after hour ; the body might give way, but the brain remained unwearied." This sustained, unflagging power is characteristic of spiritual assistance, as those to whom it is given, per- form without fatigue what would otherwise be exhaust- ing. The psychometric power is that which reaches out for inspiration and kindles in the glory of supernal realms the light that illumes this lower life. PART II. USES AND APPLICATIONS, CHAPTER V. PRACTICAL UTILITIES PSYCHOMETRY IN SELF-CUL- TURECONJUGAL RELATIONS AND BUSINESS. SELF-CULTURE. Importance of Psychometry in self-study and culture Why advice is not well received Critical advice suppressed General insincerity Admonition needed Prayer unsound The Christian ministry inefficient A confessional needed Counsel required by all Follies and errors of the great Guardianship enjoyed by some What success depends on, virtue and psychome- tric power Psychometry as a national guide The divine in Jesus In Psychometry Will men seek its assistance Society offers no revelation of self Imperfections of Gallian Phrenology Correction by observation and experiment on the brain Cranial descriptions Imperfections of Cranioscopy Development does not indicate conditions, culture, or soul power Value of a true psychological system Criticism on the word phrenology Value of a true cranioscopy Value of the cranium Its modification by the brain Value of old crania for revelation Objection to cre- mation Psychometry a mirror sometimes flattering and ideal Great artists psychometric Different modes of viewing character. CONJUGAL RELATIONS. Importance of the conjugal question Ter- rible evils of mistakes and mistaken legislation Evils of excessive propagation Vast amount of deception and misfortune in mar- riage Evil marriage perpetuates national degradation Inadequate opportunities for true marriage Disadvantage of women Intuition their reliance Psychometric view of married parties Unfortu' nate marriage of W. and M. And of G. and C. Happy marriage i 2 Self -Culture. of S. and A. Continual mistakes in spite of intelligence Conju- gal unions as easily described before as after the event Unfortu- nate marriage of a worthy woman to a great author Unfortunate marriage to a brilliant author but bad husband Marvellous power of Psychometry Stolidity of the aversion to truth Another bril- liant author unhappy in marriage. LAW AND BUSINESS. Inadequacy of law to execute justice Supe- rior power of Psychometry Psychometric commissions and arbi- tration Restraining influence over crime Legal aspect of the Question Decision on the guilt of the accused Forgeries Expert testimony Examination of counterfeits. Counsellor, friend, and guide ! I place my hand in thine, To lead me through Earth's thorny paths, In hours of darkness, danger, and despair, When stars alone give light, and when To souls illumined from within All darkness disappears. PSYCHOMETRY OUR MENTOR. I KNOW of nothing in our religious and intellectual life more valuable and more needed at the present time than the instruction that psychometry gives as to the merit or demerit of our characters, whether innate or acquired, and as to the culture and development that we need. The great majority of mankind go through life with- out any serious or persistent effort for improvement. Their habits are formed by education, association, and the struggles or conflicts of life, and they yield to this accidental destiny without a thought of controlling it by any wise plan or principle. When their habits, prejudices, and passions are thus established they neither seek nor receive instruction as to personal improvement. Advice on such subjects is received with reluctance. Those who need it most Self-Culture. 3 do not seek it, while those who desire and seek it for moral improvement are generally the persons who need it least. Advice seldom comes from those who are competent to advise wisely, and the recipient of advice is seldom qualified to profit by it, because the very trait of character which needs to be subdued resents all in- terference, and perverts the judgment. The ill-tempered map believes that his ill-temper is natural and proper, and becomes angry if admonished on the subject. The vain man believes that he has a just foundation for his vanity, and cannot realize that it is either offensive or amusing. The selfish man feels that his selfishness is right, and does not believe in hu- man disinterestedness. The man of coarse and vulgar manners is unconscious of the disgust which he inspires in the refined. The man of feeble understanding and little ability to reason, does not perceive the shallow- ness or silliness of his own remarks. Thus every defect of character conceals itself from the one whom it degrades, by perverting his judgment and his taste, and renders him not only unwilling to improve, but unwilling to receive kindly or with ap- preciation the efforts of his friends to enlighten him. Having occasion once to give a gentleman the scientific admonition that he was not disposed to pay due respect to his superiors, he was surprised by such a suggestion, and asked at once who were his superiors, as if he had never supposed that a superior existed. Thus men go through life unconscious of their faults ; and their associates, who speak freely when they are. absent, condemning them severely, suppress all such criticism in their presence. Even the parent, or the 4 Self-Culture. conjugal companion, is restrained by the same polite- ness and fear of giving offence. And generally, the stronger or more passionate and energetic the charac- ter, the more does it impose this restraint on the expres- sions of friends, and the more intolerant the person be- comes of all comment which is not complimentary. The criticism that does express itself is generally prompted by impatience and disgust, and hence only irritates. It is not kings alone who are deceived by courtiers. Insincerity is the fashion. Flattery is current coin everywhere ; and as Bonaparte regarded lying as an essential part of the art of war, deceit and flattery are regarded by men of the world as the essential social arts of peace, and the advice of Chesterfield on this subject is generally accepted. The monitor is universally needed. The kind admo- nitions of the mother cease long before they become unnecessary. When earthly parents cease to warn and guide, it is time to look to our heavenly father and the sacred offices of religion. But prayer is not a searching pro- cess, neither is it guided by a knowledge of what is needed, for often it assumes the form of begging, of self-righteousness, and of pragmatic disquisition the long prayers that Jesus condemned, but the clergy prac- tice. The Christian ministry should here come in with searching and monitory power, but it does not. The minister is restrained by the fear of offence, and by the feeling that he has not a recognized authority as teacher or counsellor. Even if this were not in the way, the ethical education of ministers is too imperfect to make Self -Culture. 5 them competent monitors and critics. Christianity has never been so completely and vigorously interpreted as to become a corrector of the most frequent social evils. It may check the grosser crimes and vices, but the offences which are not crimes flourish under the shadow of the church, and in the midst of its membership. Avarice, vanity, selfishness, ill-temper, moroseness, peevishness, exaction, tyranny, stubbornness, sternness, and hard-hearted coldness, are entirely permissible in the church, and the man whose influence blights every- thing around him, and carries him to the higher world a pauperized soul, is neither controlled nor taught by the influences of his church to rise out of his moral deg- radation. A society composed of hungry, half-pauperized toilers, and millionnaires with pauperized souls, who live mainly for the indulgence of avarice and ostentation, is not rebuked or elevated by the priesthood. The confessional of the Catholic Church, if it could be administered by a wise and enlightened priesthood, on a philosophic plan would be just what Protestantism deplorably needs being one of the most powerful agen- cies of moral progress. Sometime hereafter a confes- sional in some form will be restored. We all need to lay before friendly eyes, our thoughts, our purposes, and our principles, that we may receive impartial suggestions from those who have not the bias produced by our per- sonal interests, our passions, and our prejudices, and who can tell us how our purposes and actions look when viewed by a standpoint different from our own. We need especially the kind admonition of those who can place themselves in harmony with the higher spheres of being, and, while giving us the kindest and best ap- 6 Self-Culture. preciation of what we are and what we do, point out the improvements that are within our power. It sometimes happens that this aid is given to men by the sympathetic, devoted love of a gifted wife, whose admonitions are never unpleasant. Had Caesar obeyed the premonitions of his wife, he might have lived through a career grand for himself and his country. While the wife of Caesar divined his dan- ger, the wife of Brutus felt her husband's deadly pur- pose, and, by her fierce courage, induced him to confess it, but being of the same stern nature herself, she let him advance to his fate, and shared it by suicide. But that is a rare incident : biography is filled with examples of women who have warned, inspired, and sustained their husbands. None are so entirely wise, so prudent, and so far-see- ing, as not to need on many occasions, an intelligence distinct from their own, coming from some calm atmos- phere beyond the reach of passion and self-interest. Fortunate would it be if all could have with them con- tinually the guardian spirit which attended Socrates, to check when erring and encourage when right. " For no eyes have there been ever without a weary tear, And those lips cannot be human which never heaved a sigh ; For without the dreary winter, there has never been a year, And the tempests hide their terrors in the calmest summer sky. So this dreary life is passing and we move amidst its maze, And we grope along together, half in darkness, half in light, And our hearts are often hardened by the mysteries of our ways, Which are never all in shadow, and never wholly bright, And our dim eyes ask a beacon, and our weary feet a guide. And our hearts of all life's mysteries seek the meaning and the key." FATHER RYAN. Self-Culture. 7 How fortunate would it have been for the world if Bonaparte could thus, like Socrates, have been admon- ished and checked in his career of insatiable ambition. How fortunate would it have been for Carlyle could he have been made to understand himself and struggle against that harshness and pessimism which vitiated his judgment and embittered his life, How fortunate both for him and Mrs. Carlyle, could he have been made to understand what is now patent in their biography the wide departure of his own character from a normal and amiable manhood. All history and all biography teem with illustrations of the folly, the error, and wrong doing of the great recognized since by the world, but apparently not real- ized by themselves. Society did not teach them, and no tender voice from the upper world reached their interior consciousness, as it reached the soul of Soc- rates. Yet there are many gifted mortals now-a-days who have more than Socrates enjoyed. Who have the daily presence of a ministering guardianship that warns of all dangers and cheers and invigorates along the path of duty. Nor is this beyond the limits of legitimate aspiration for all, for the more entirely we conquer the lower selfish nature, the more loyally we tread with zeal and courage in the path of duty, the nearer we come to the angel sphere of truth and clear-seeing intuition, which enables us to act wisely and well. The path of duty is, in the highest sense, the path of safety, honor, and reward. It may lead through conflict and apparent calamity, but it leads to final success. 8 Self-Culture. The attainment of success depends on our own interior development, which gives energy and wisdom, and on the far-seeing capacity, which commands alike the future and the environing present, which feels in every direction the current of destiny, and the latent forces that impel it. This few are permitted to enjoy, and this is what psychometry brings us a sensitive faculty which, with semi-omniscient power as far as it extends, changes the dim obscurity of opinion and conjecture to the daylight of knowledge. How fortunate would it be for any one to be thus guarded and guided through life. How fortunate for nations if their rulers would listen to the calm monitions and revelations of psychometry portraying the true character and interior motives of all in high places, revealing the drift of the future, and giving all the data necessary for a wise and prosperous administration. I hope it may not be long before nations shall thus be led into the path of wisdom. May it not be reasonably expected in the next century ? If divine elements were incarnated in Jesus to show the way to a higher life, which, nevertheless, has ever been too far above the selfish plane of life to draw any ^reat number up to the life of real wisdom, is it not a pleasing thought that the divine incarnation in another form may lead us gently upward, by coming to us as we are, and showing the successive steps that we must lake. For the psychometric guidance of humanity is really the working of the divine element, not gathered n the glowing lustre of one inspired soul, but diffused ; foruad in the atmosphere of thought, in the light of Self-Culture. 9 intelligence, revealing the truth, and showing the attractiveness of wisdom, so as to lead men gently and gradually into wiser action, and better methods of living. The psychometric soul has the rare privilege of approaching near the fountains of wisdom and holi- ness, and bringing thence the lessons of life-conduct, so clear, so beautiful, and so satisfactory, as to win us, in a most pleasing manner, to a better life. Whether the unbalanced and improper people, of whom the world is full, could be induced to avail them- selves of psychometry for personal improvement is a matter of much doubt. Yet however unbalanced men may be, the doubt must sometimes arise whether they are what they should be; whether there is not some fault that hinders success or mars their happiness. The unhappy and unsuccessful at least would be tempted to seek psychometric assistance. It is not merely exterior knowledge that we need, but that knowledge of self, which, before the advent of psychometry was unattainable. The advice of friends has all the imperfection of their own idiosyncrasies, aggravated by their inability to understand our nature in proportion as it differs from their own, and the advice of the priest has the same limitation, in addition to the limitations of a professional training, which has carried his mind away from the complex relations and ethical peculiarities of men and women in society. In whatever direction we turn, we find the prayer of Burns unanswered, and "kind heaven" has not enabled us "to see ourselves as others see us." The Gallian system of phrenology made an approxi- mation to this, and has been beneficial to many but I o Self- Culture. in the first twelve months of my attention to it, I found errors enough in the locations, the functions, and the modes of estimating the brain and the character to im- pair very seriously its value, incomplete as its analysis was at best. I found great humor where the supposed organ of Mirthfulness was deficient, great violence where the supposed location of Destructiveness was small (as in- deed it was in the Thugs of India) and great avarice where the supposed organ of Acquisitiveness was defec- tive, as well as great disregard of money where the organ was large arrogant vanity where the organ of Approbativeness was moderate, and other errors unnec- essary to mention which it required several years for me to correct by close observation of nature. But the cor- rections were made as far as possible by observation, and in 1841 my discovery of the impressibility of the brain and demonstration of its functions by experiment (being able to excite anger, joy, religion, pride, love, hate, avarice, hunger, despair, fear, or whatever I desired by stimulating the proper organ) enabled me to realize that I had a positive, accurate, and complete science of human nature. Since that discovery I have never described a charac- ter craniologically without satisfying the individual that I understood his nature well. In fact the parties were generally more surprised, pleased, and satisfied than myself. For though very positive as to the truth of all I told them and scarcely ever contradicted, there was much beyond, that they did not realize. I perceived the limitation of cranioscopy, which though it might satisfy the parties described did not satisfy myself. Self-Culture. 1 1 There were intricacies of character which it could not reach, and there were the ever present influences of ed- ucation, association, health, heredity, etc., of which cra- nioscopy gave no information. With a perfectly normal and well cultured brain, its decisions might be entirely correct, because the actual character corresponded to the original nature shown in the development, but morbid or educational deviations could not be indicated by development. The arts and skill, the tastes and habits that had been acquired were not indicated. Nor could the mere development indi- cate the power, the quality, the improvement, or the interior spiritual energy of the mind, no matter how ac- quired. That spiritual power which gives brilliance to a small brain, or by its absence leaves the large brain a mass of dulness, was not a thing to be measured by cal- lipers. Nor do practical phrenologists ever ascertain this, except by observation of the appearance, voice, and bearing, or by the exercise of their psychometric power which many of them use freely, professing to have de- rived their conclusions from cranioscopy. However, with a true psychological system there is a great deal of interest, pleasure, and benefit in the study of character. I say a psychological rather than a phren- ological system because I prefer the term psychology notwithstanding its misconception by metaphysicians to the term phrenology introduced by Gall, because the word phren or mind has. ,a more limited sense than Psyche. The materialists who think nothing real but matter ,use the word mind to signify mental phenomena merely, in which sense it represents little but the intellectual 12 Self -Culture. power of the soul, with perhaps a hint of volition. The words mind and character represent distinct aspects of the soul, but neither represents the soul in its entirety. Phrenology therefore is an inadequate term. It was used by Gall because he was a student of the phenom- ena of living beings proceeding from the brain, and not a student of the soul or cognizant of its relations to the brain and its independent life, nor of the transcen- dently psychic functions located in the brain. But mani- festly in a true science of man we should recognize the brain as the associate and instrument of the soul, but the soul itself as the chief object of study, though reached through its cephalic and corporeal environment. Yet cranioscopy, as derived from the true organology of the brain, is a very interesting and important study, the value of which I have no disposition to underrate. It gives at a glance the anatomical basis of the charac- ter, the congenital tendencies, and in connection with the facial development of the region of expression (not known in the Gallian system) it makes an approximation to the actual acquired character, for the facial development in- dicates the faculties most actively used or cultivated. Cranioscopy enables us to comprehend and classify people as we pass them, furnishing a basis for our psy- chometric intuitions by which we complete our knowl- edge. It makes a still more accurate revelation of character when we have the skull in our possession, and we can ascertain by its interior condition the growth of the brain in one part and its inactivity in another part plainly indicated by the condition of the internal lamina of bone, and thus approximate a knowledge of the influ- ences of education and habit. The deeply indented Self -Culture. \ 3 digital impressions of the convolutions on the internal plate of bone indicate the growth and acquired power of the convolutions as positively as the flattened sur- faces from osseous growth, the thickness and opacity of the bones indicate the torpor and atrophy of the subja- cent convolutions, which we commonly find at the upper surface of the brain in criminal heads. Crania, moreover, have an especial interest in the study of historical characters, whose remains are preserved, and of the ancient crania which tell the character of prehistoric races. Touched by the psychometric hand, these crania will recall not merely the character of each individual, but his whole life history, his muscular de- velopment, his life in the cave or the forest, his battles with wild animals or with his fellows, his development in language, art, and manners, in tribal government, in domestic life, and his environment of climate, forest, mountain, morass, and natural convulsions. Even the extinct animals and plants of the remotest periods will rise up before the psychometric vision. I trust that the fashion of cremation will not be al- lowed to make indiscriminate destruction of these pre- cious relics " the dome of thought, the palace of the soul " but that all whose memory is worth preserva- tion shall have an unimpaired memento in the cranial form, which is the fitting monument, the historical rec- ord of the earth -life. It was deeply interesting to me to hold in my hands the cranium of Dr. Spurzheim, which was preserved in Boston, and mark the indentations of his active percep- tive organs in the supraorbital plate of the frontal bone. The study of our character by psychometry is like the 14 Self -Culture. study of our features by a mirror or by a photograph. It shows just how we appear in the image we project on our surroundings ; and as Narcissus fell in love with his own image in the water, sometimes the truly lovely and modest are charmed in finding their virtues conspicuous in the psychometric portrait. There is, indeed, a tendency in psychometric portrait- ure to a delicate flattery. As great artists are idealists they give their own ideality to their pictures, investing them with a delicacy and refinement from their own minds, different from the hard realism of life. Even the photograph has often a greater delicacy and refine- ment than the original. The psychometer, too, is an ideal artist, more ideal than a Reynolds or a Lawrence, for the ideal faculties are the source of his power, and these faculties are refined and delicate beyond all the faculties employed in business or even in art. Raphael and da Vinci had psychometric souls. I doubt not they were actual psychometers, although their art was mate- rial in form. The true psychometer is still more ideal, and lives professionally in a delicate world of lights and shadows, auras and influences, which are not material. The psychometric power in the brain is closely associ- ated with the most refined, sympathetic, and loving emotions, and hence presents the most kind and sympa- thetic view of character. Yet, like other intellectual faculties, its operation is guided by the elements of character, and it may be used to look into the recesses of depravity. A hard and sel- fish business man, if possessed of psychometric power, would take more stern and critical views of character, and one accustomed in legal pursuits to study the work- Self-Cjdture. 1 5 ing of the selfish nature would be more competent to its psychometric description. We shall probably have a great variety of psychome- tric talent brought into use .as skill is developed for dif- ferent purposes. We shall need 1. One for the profound and kindly analysis guided by religious principle for our self-culture and improve- ment. This is the highest and most pleasing form of psychometry, and would also be applicable to the study of conjugal adaptation and the development of children. 2. One for the study of men in business relations and the psychometric judgment of business affairs. 3. One for investigation of diseases and remedies. 4. A group of different capacities for the investiga- tion of the different sciences 1. Geology, geography, and astronomy. 2. Anatomy, physiology, and zoology. 3. Anthropology, pneumatology, and religion. 4. Chemical and imponderable energies. 5. History, paleontology and evolution. PSYCHOMETRY IN CONJUGAL RELATIONS. Next to to the investigation of our own character, with reference to its improvement, which is one of the first necessities of practical ethics, and for which all the progress of civilization and religion down to the present time has failed to furnish an available method (which we find in psychometry), comes the associate question, on which the weal or woe of many a life has depended, Where shall we find our other self, the intimate com- panion for life, whose character, continually acting on our own, shall elevate or degrade us, shall kindle or 1 6 Psychometry in extinguish the intellectual flame, shall make a happy home, in which health and virtue are sustained, or dis- mal discord, which makes life not worth living, and which an insane moralism would perpetuate to the destruction of happiness, and the reproduction of a demoralized and morally deformed posterity. The the- ory of eternal conjugality is beautiful and true, when matches are made in heaven ; but to perpetuate the folly, the fraud, the madness, or the lust which causes many a wretched union is to assist and perpetuate the devil's most skilful work for the development of a pan- demonium on earth. The record must be false or inter- polated which ascribes such a doctrine to any wise and holy source. No one can observe widely the amount of domestic unhappiness, and its blighting effect on posterity (of which the large number of divorces is a poor exponent, since the number who dare to seek divorce is but a small portion of those who really need it), without feel- ing that discordant marriage is the foundation from which is ever flowing a debased humanity a fountain of bitter waters, which a delusive theology is determined to perpetuate. Nor can we avoid the suspicion that a large portion of the human race are quite unworthy of matrimonial union and perpetuation of their own moral and physical deformities. The urgent encouragement of marriage and child- bearing, devoting to this noble office the most degraded as well as the best portion of humanity, is about as wise as the conduct of the gardener who is content that his ground shall be covered with vegetation, without caring whether it shall be flowers and fruits, or noxious weeds. Conjugal Relations. I y That some psychometric guidance is necessary in this most important of all engagements is obvious, when we reflect on the millions of failures to realize domestic happiness, and the numerous obstacles in the way of happy union, even in our own country, where there is comparative freedom in the intercourse of the sexes. The sexual passion in many is so strong and delusive as to make them utterly blind tojthe incompat- ibilities of character. When the fire of passion and the glamour of imagination are at work, an imagination greatly intensified by social restraint and artificial ignor- ance promoted by the separation of the sexes, the judg- ment has but little influence, and the parties do not realize that they are deceiving each other, in their anx- iety to please and win affection. The assumed amiabil- ity vanishes, even during the honeymoon, and the sensi- tive shed tears when they realize the prospect of a dis- cordant life. How true was the language of Byron : " Ah, few or none Find what they love or could have loved, But accident, blind contact and the strong necessity of loving May have suppressed antipathies But to recur again more strong Envenomed by the mutual sense of wrong." From such discordant unions come all the demoniac ele- ments of human life. The love perishes, and the evil passions only are perpetuated. We see so much of this in our own country in comparative freedom, we can realize how much' more debasing is the tendency in other nations, where woman is practically a slave, and has little or nothing to do in selecting for herself the master of her domestic bondage. It is chiefly to this 1 8 Psychometry in cause that the relatively degraded condition of Asiatic nations is due, and it contributes powerfully to perpetu- ate the morally uncivilized condition of European nations, which are but little less blood-thirsty now than they were two thousand years ago. Our social opportunities (especially for women) are too limited to permit the general formation of happy unions. Millions who were adapted to each other never met. Marriage is a lottery of chance, directed by acci- dental proximity, and the woman or man of really marked and superior nature, for whom the true compan- ion is as one in ten thousand, is almost sure to miss the true counterpart that would have made a happy life. Even with the most assiduous cultivation of society by the young, the opportunities of knowing and under- standing thoroughly those whom we meet are quite inadequate, and a psychometric warning might prevent many a disastrous union. Two cases occur to my mem- ory now, in which misfortune was averted by psychom- etric warning. A young lady of great merit was warned against one who proved to be an unprincipled impostor, and in the other case a gentleman was warned against an unworthy union, which he was on the verge of consummating. In the following instances I have brought psychome- try to the post-marital interpretation of the relations of the parties. How fortunate would it have been for the victims of the discordant unions if they could have had an impartial and competent psychometric opinion before making their fatal mistakes. Lovers cannot always rely on their own psychometric intuition, even when they are well endowed in that way, Conjugal Relations. 19 for lovers are mutually deceptive, and love itself is deceptive in its optimism. Two of the unfortunates in the following descriptions were highly psychometric, but did not think to avail themselves of their protective intuitions. If these pages should adequately impress the young with the importance of cultivating and heeding their own psychometric intuition, or else seeking the psy- chometric power of those who are competent to advise, I shall feel that I have rendered an important service. It does not indicate a weak or fanciful mind to pay respect to its own intuitions, which are very different from whims or fancies, and have guided the greatest minds. Goethe says : "One soul may have a decided influence upon another, merely by means of its silent presence, of which I could relate many instances. It has often hap- pened to me that when I have been walking with an acquaintance, and have had a living image of something in my mind, he has at once begun to speak of that very thing. I have also known a man who, without saying a word, could suddenly silence a party engaged in cheer- ful conversation by the mere power of his mind. Nay, he could also introduce a tone which would make every- body feel uncomfortable. We have all something of electric and magnetic force within us. ... It is possi- ble, nay, even probable, that if a young girl were, with- out knowing it, to find herself in a dark chamber with a man who designed to murder her, she would have an uneasy sense of his unknown presence, and that an anguish would come over her which would drive her to the family parlor." 2O PsycJiomctry in Men have generally an advantage in their greater energy and force of character, which enables them to impress and even delude their junior females, who amia- bly yield to their fascination. Women with but limited opportunities of studying the masculine character have yet a valuable resource in their psychometric intuition, if they will but firmly use it, and recoil from all approaches in which they do not recognize moral worth and sincere love. But unless they are firm and cool they may still realize the fate of the bird, when the fas- cinating eyes of the serpent deprive it of the power to escape. What unhappy examples of this have I not witnessed. I feel it my duty to urge upon all the culti- vation of the inner light of the soul, and obedience to its dictation in the conduct of life. Alas ! that we so slowly learn to heed The secret signs and omens of the breast ! An oracle speaks low within our hearts, Low, still, yet clear, its prophet voice forewarns What to pursue, what shun. Hemans. PSYCHOMETRIC VIEW OF MARRIED PARTIES. No. I. W. and M. I placed in the hands of Mrs. B. the names of W. and M. asking her to decide on the conjugal adaptation of the parties ; she said : " I think these parties are married, but I don't think they are adapted to each other. They had too much individuality. There was more affection on the part of the woman than the man. The woman has passed over to the other world. She had pride of character and was ambitious paid great regard to public opin- ion. She was a true woman and devoted mother. Her Conjugal Relations. 21 relations to her husband were not entirely distasteful to heY, but there were points in their characters which did not harmonize. It seems to me they lived apart. There was not love enough to keep them together, and to tolerate each others faults. A cold indifference came on. He would rather be out of her society than in it. " He is not very constant, has not much affection would not treat any woman well. He was selfish and crafty and had very limited ideas of any woman's needs. He is a strong intellectual man, ambitious in some directions and very peculiar. He did not care so much for public opinion, and might do things she could not approve of. He was not liberal to his wife, would not give more than the law required. I do not see any open rupture with his wife though they lived apart. He would be apt to go off. (What offspring would they be likely to have ? ) "They would not be very exemplary or scrupulous." This description I know to be entirely true. The husband deserted his wife (a very superior woman) and left her to struggle for the support of the family. I know also that one of her children gave her a great deal of trouble. Notwithstanding her ill treatment she would not seek a divorce. No. 2. G. and C. I gave her the names of G. and C. to describe as being persons whose conjugal adaptation I wished to ascertain. Of C. she said, "This is a woman of good disposition and clear mind, possessing a good deal of merit and energy an intelligent woman. She is somewhat domestic, but likes public life better than the domestic circle. She is not very affectionate 22 Psychometry in and is rather selfish, but is a pleasing, attractive woman, fond of the fine arts, especially music. She is proud and does not sacrifice anything for others." Of G. she said, "This is a very good man, a splen- did man a little odd has some eccentricities. He is a good friend. He has fine intellectual powers." (Would these parties be likely to marry?) "I think they are married. They agree in some things but alto- gether their dispositions are not alike." (What sort of domestic life would they have ? ) " Not smooth it was not a happy union, but I see no impor- tant causes of discord unless there was some outside influence. There is no great discord between them. They have love enough to do, but no ardent affection. They do not seem to be together though they may be in communication. I do not see any divorce." (This is all true.) (What offspring would they probably have ? ) " They would be bright children but show marked differences. The parental characters would not be blended in them." No. 3. S. and A. I asked her to give the character and conjugal adaptation of S. and A. Of A. she said, "There is something in this woman to admire. She has intelligence and gentleness a good deal of love and good womanly qualities. She would stick close to her husband, bear a great deal for him, be very attentive in sickness, suffering, and poverty, and devoted to her children if she has any (Is she married ? ) I think she is." Of S. I asked, "Is she married to this man ?" She replied, " There is an adaptation, I should think this was her husband. They lead a happy life, because they are adapted to each other mentally and physically. He is a Conjugal Relations. 23 substantial man, of good executive ability. He is per- fectly satisfied with his wife and exerts himself to make her happy. They are well adapted to each other not exacting over each other, but willing to accord mutual rights. They will be apt to have good children that will turn out well. They would make home attractive to their children." All of this description I know to be strictly true. Their children bid fair to do them honor. A noble off- spring might have been expected from the first parties, W. and M. for both parents had superior abilities, but there was neither adaptation nor love, and the children were far below the parental standard, and the marriage was altogether an unhappy one. Possibly the six parties may be recognized, as I have given their true initials. The two unfortunate marriages were by persons of high intelligence and intuitive quickness of perception. A superior psychometric power could have told them as well beforehand of the results and saved them from so serious a mistake. But the same sad domestic tragedy is going on daily all over the world and will continue until psychometric wisdom shall be invoked for guidance. I have selected for illustration these accomplished results, because no demonstration would be afforded at present by a prediction which requires years for fulfil- ment. The psychometer can describe with as much ease a character not yet unfolded or tested, and a union that is only proposed, as he can describe the man and women whose careers are known. It is as easy to de- scribe any celebrity at the beginning of his career when 24 Psychometry in his abilities and true character are unknown, as after he has made his fame. In either case the psychometer has but the intuitions to guide him which arise from touching a name, a picture or an autograph. There are characters well known to the public, whose domestic life has become a familiar story. I submitted the question of their lives to Mrs. B. by plac- ing in her hands a photograph, and after its description a name written on a small slip. Without seeing either, (the photograph and the writing being turned down), she gave the following descriptions first from the photograph which ga^ve her a great intellectual stimu- lus. I too felt its intellectual brightness. My percep- tions in such cases begin as soon as she takes the subject and sometimes before she has spoken. The following is her exact language : No. 4. " This is a brightening stimulating influence a very magnetic person. There's a great deal of coolness and judgment here. I do not perceive readily whether he is living but I think it is a deceased person. " I am taken into very studious intellectual surround- ings. It seems a man of a good deal of literary power. Was he an editor, or lawyer, or professional character? His life seems devoted to intellectual pursuits. He was stirring, having great executive powers, yet a good deal of repose. He was dignified and methodical. "He had great opportunities to display his abilities. He was of humanitarian sentiments, and did much to promote humanitarian principles. If he had wealth he would do generous acts. I cannot see anything military about him. Conjugal Relations. 2$ (What was he as a writer ?) "I don't know whom to compare him to. He does not seem a poet, though he could write blank verse Miltonic. His prose writ- ings, though eccentric in style, would give him a high rank. I should like to read his productions. I should think he was more like Carlyle than any one else I can think of. (What was his domestic character ?) "I don't admire his domestic character. There is something about it not attractive. To judge from his writings you would not understand his disposition. He was not amiable or tolerant. He had too much of the fault-finding bull- dog disposition. He seems an Englishman certainly not an American. He is moody. His life was not one of pleasure, but devoted to one routine. He loved his vocation if he loved anything. He did not spend much of his time in a social way. He was not at home with many people. (Did he have a wife ? ) " Yes, he had a wife. He would think a wife a necessity had a sort of owner- ship of a wife. I don't admire his conjugal qualities. He impresses me as being overworked all the time. "This man was a contradiction in himself. While he wrote on great subjects and interested his readers, he was personally the reverse. One would be struck with the dissimilarity. You could not know him from his writings. He had some good objects : was not alto- gether morose ; had some moments when his better feelings predominated, making him quite agreeable ; but that was not his usual condition. I see things in him that many would not observe." 26 Psychometiy in IMPRESSIONS FROM THE PENCILLED NAME. " There is not as conspicuous intellectual brightness as in the last. This person did not give out as much, but there is a good deal of thought it was an elo- quent person very matured. It seems a strong woman takes me into the sphere of woman with a good deal of individuality. I think she has passed over she is not living. She was a woman of great forbear- ance, not endowed with a retaliating spirit. She would rather bear and suffer abuse than retaliate. She had most excellent control over herself. " I think she had authorship. She had the ability certainly, and I think she exercised it not to any considerable extent, did not make it her aim. She was intellectual and proud of mingling with intellectual and cultured people. She seems a prominent person of some distinction. (Was she married ? ) "I think she was married, but not happily. She did not have a happy domestic life. Her husband was not satisfied. He was a restless, ambitious man, not satisfied with her. He was not calculated to make any woman happy would rather consider woman an appendage than a companion. I think she had a great many melancholy seasons in her life brought about by this unfortunate domestic state. It reminds me of Josephine." (Is there any connection between the two characters you have just described ? ) After hesitation and careful consideration she said, " I think they were connected by marriage." Conjugal Relations. 27 It only remains for me to add that the two parties were THOMAS CARLYLE, the author, and his wife. I then gave her another pencilled name and received the following impression in answer to the question, What do you say to this female ? "There is a serenity of character but not a vigorous mind, with amiable qualities and a desire of performing benevolent acts, domestic and cheerful, a person that would not be much disturbed or chafed by reverses has equanimity and courage." (Was she married ? ) " Yes. She would show obedience to her husband, have great respect for him. He was not morose or sullen, more convivial. She was some- what comfortable but not happy in her marriage rela- tion. There was a constrained feeling. Her husband was likely to neglect the civilities that belong to a wife. He was absorbed in his own pursuits and might not have intended to neglect her, but she seems very much alone, isolated in her affections. " She was well aware that she was not treated rightly, but made great allowance for him. It seems to me she was separated. He may have neglected her for others. They had many wordy contests. He was an excitable man and might have indulged in stimulus. She bore a great deal uncomplaining before she made her troubles known. She may have been induced finally to retaliate by advice of her friends to vindicate herself." (What of her husband, placing his name in her hand ?) "This is a high spirited, arrogant, self-willed man, but a brilliant man nevertheless. He had something to be proud of. He could wield his pen on any subject in any direction he chose, had an exceedingly prolific , mind. 28 Psychometry in But his affectional nature was stinted. He had a vivid imagination and might dwell on romantic themes, but had not a deep soul. " He had a literary career. He was a favorite with the public. His writings were sound and logical with a vein of poetry. He had great ideality, and perhaps sublimity, had a fertile imagination and could write upon a variety of subjects. He might write on govern- mental subjects, might write with humor and sarcasm. His forte was to write novels, romances. He had a weird style, something like Bulwer's. It is more like his writings so far as I know than any other." (What was his domestic character ? ) "He had a pecu- liar interior life, sometimes that would come to the surface and appear flat and insipid. It would not appear to the public. "It seems he was addicted to some sort of stimulus that changed him at times, alternating between the merry and the grand. Sometimes he would write little unbecoming things. In his younger days he might write boyish things to women.. "To his wife he would be at times over tender and loving, and then in an hour's time find cause for dis- turbance and be harsh if not abusive. He had a strange disposition. I think some stimulus was the cause. "I think his conduct produced a separation he be- came intolerable and her feelings were injured too much to bear it." (Is he living?) "I think he is not living, but his writings are, and she is either dead or in obscurity." These parties were SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON and his wife. I have brought forward the examination Conjugal Relations. 29 of the Bulwer and Carlyle families not to investigate the genius of the authors, but to show the marvellous power of ^>sychometry to investigate any past or pass- ing or future life. This intuitive power is to me a standing miracle, a perpetual revelation of the divinity in man. The won- derful power which only needs to touch a word as an index to the subject for investigation and forthwith assumes as through a knowledge of men's interior lives as if their biographies had been studied, and takes in a panoramic view of life from childhood to its present status in the world above, is a miracle before which I bow in reverence, and in which I see the noblest spe- cial gift of God to man, which our poor half developed and irreverent humanity has for ages ignored or despised. Verily the pearls have been cast before swine ! Not quite so marvellous but still to me a wonder, is the profound stolidity and intense aversion to truth which in former times assumed a ferocious aspect, and assailed such divine gifts and revelations of truth with halter, dungeon, sword, and fire, and now when diab- olism is superseded by the stolidity of selfishness, permits such things to be in progress undisturbed by the executioner, but neither honors nor seeks them, and prefers to turn away and walk in the treadmill steps of ancient ignorance. Coming generations will realize the barbarism of society to-day, the enlightened realize it now. One more example of intellectual brilliance and con- jugal unhappiness, I have thought it interesting to examine. The world attaches too much value to the intellectual powers, and, indeed, to any form of power, 36 Psychomctry in and too little to the other qualities of the soul which alone can give happiness to the possessor and his asso- ciates. Such a mistaken estimate is fatal to* conjugal happiness. When women learn to prefer soul to display and wealth, their sentiments will have a powerful influ- ence on society, but shallow souled women contribute to the tide of social degeneracy. No. 5. (This is a male give me his character.) "There is something peculiar in this mind. I don't get hold of him readily, but he impresses me with a great deal of brightness and nervous energy and suscep- tibility. He seems bright and vivid like a living person, but I am not sure I must wait. "There is so much ambition and push to the character, I cannot command the language for it. His faculties are so concentrated in what he does he does not plod over his plans, but dashes right ahead without fear or favor a strong individuality unlike any one I have ever described. It is vivid as a living person. "He was over-reaching sometimes. It would be better for him if he had more coolness in his nature. Was he not military ? I think he was. It carries me into military operations. I scarcely know where to place him his mind was so kaleidoscopic. (Can you perceive his favorite pursuits or talents?) " He was politic in his relations to the public. He was devoted to literature but did not write very exten- sively. He had great descriptive powers and excelled in description both in prose and poetry. He wrote plays. He was restless a traveller in mind and body. (What was his reputation derived from?) Conjugal Relations. 31 " From his writings. The fertility of his mind was so great that people who heard of him would want to see him. In the variety of his mind and moods he was more like Byron than any one else I can recall. His poetry would compare closely with Byron's. It brings up my old song, ' My soul is dark.' " His social position was high. He was a favorite with the nobility. He had some title. His social life was largely convivial. But he had moods, and at times he was very depressed very frequently and at such times he would write very grandly. He was not what might be called a happy man. His disposition was not adapted to happiness. Whether it was hereditary or some other misfortune connected with his birth, I think he was not a happy man and he had not good self- control. (Was he married ? ) " He was married, but his conjugal life was not happy. He was unfortunate in not selecting his proper adapta- tion. He was not the man to make any woman happy. He had lovo but not the qualities that make conjugal life happy. He expended his love on the creatures of his imagination. There are many contradictions in his character. He would not be constant to one woman in attentions, and I think there was some jealousy in his nature. He wanted more in a wife than it would be possible for a woman to yield. It makes me restless to talk about him. "There was a separation from his wife and a great deal of scandal, and even censure on both each had their friends. I will not say which was most to blame. 32 Psychometry in They never understood each other, and it would be im- possible for any woman to be happy with him as a wife from his temperament. He had a cross to bear all his life a skeleton that destroyed his happiness. (Was his domestic unhappiness from selfishness ? ) "No, he was not selfish or avaricious, but prodical. He was of a vacillating disposition towards women, and they would not place much confidence in him. (You spoke at first of a military life what do you say of that ? ) " I don't know exactly. There was something in his life that partook of the military spirit. "He is not living, but his* writings are, and are exceedingly prized. He had not a strong constitution. He lived fast, with gay companions and late hours, and passed away too soon. He did not live long enough to develop the possibilities that were in his nature. The more I feel this character, the more it seems like Byron." It was a picture of Lord Byron, and the foregoing is the concise statement of her impressions^ which she usually gives. Fully impressed with the character, she might have dictated pages, but she aims to be concise and judicial, and I do not wish to impose on her the fatigue of a longer description. At the beginning of her description I caught a suffi- ciently vivid impression to have given some of the sali- ent points of the character, in which I felt the strength of the upper occipital region which gives intensity to the mental action. The brain of Byron was not large. It was lacking in superior breadth posteriorly, and this was the deficiency that deprived him of proper self-con- trol and harmony of nature. Law and Business. 33 PSYCHOMETRY IN LAW AND BUSINESS. Law has two purposes the punishment of. guilt and the adjustment of contention, in both of which its ma- chinery is inadequate, and in both of which psychome- try is entirely competent. Law is incompetent because of its inability, in many cases, to reach the truth, to discover guilt by circum- stantial evidence, or to ascertain what is just from con- flicting or defective testimony. It is lame and inadequate, also, from the prejudices of judges and the wrong- headed ignorance of jurors. Every experienced lawyer can narrate by the hour illustrations of these lamentable conditions. Psychometry has none of these wretched deficiencies. The competent psychometer has no difficulty in deter- mining guilt or innocence without a word of testimony, and no difficulty in reaching the decision of equity and justice in cases in which law, with ample testimony, is still fallible in the administration of the best officers. The decisions of perfect psychometry are an expression of the Divine mind, through man, and approximate the justice of heaven. This being the case, human intelligence must advance to its recognition, and there must be, in the progress of enlightenment, psychometric commissions in each court of justice for the ascertainment of truth, to which the decisions of petit juries have not been competent. As we employ coroners' inquests in cases of death, and as in some States medical commissions are employed, and as cases are handed over to referees, the same principle of employing competent investigation will lead us to em- 34 Psychometry in ploy those for the ascertainment of truth who are most competent, as we now employ experienced accountants to determine on a man's conduct of his business. A psychometric committee of two or three competent psychometers should be employed to report upon the facts in all cases of accusation of crime, and in all cases of contention as to rights which are not mere matters 6f law or calculation, and especially in all cases of do- mestic infelicity and application for divorce. We need not, however, wait for the tardy action of courts and legislatures. When the entire community shall have learned that the shortest and cheapest road to justice, the least fallible and most accurate, is arbi- tration by competent psychometers, they who love peace and justice will resort to PSYCHOMETRIC ARBITRATION saving the vast expense of lawyers and courts, the loss of time, the jealousy and hostility produced by a long struggle, and the uncertainty of the result. Law will be left as the costly resort of men of evil passions, stubborn tempers, and dishonest, grasping natures, who hope by litigation to get something more than simple justice; and the very fact of a resort to law would be prima facie evidence of wrong. The friends of psychometry should in due time organ- ize in every city psychometric tribunals of arbitration, which, by their pre-eminent justice and promptness, should satisfy and attract the business community, and teach society that law is necessary only for the punish- ment of criminals, and only reliable in that when aided by psychometry. The speedy access to perfect justice thus established would enforce in all the channels of business, habits, Law and Business. 3 5 and sentiments of rectitude now unknown. Dishonest transactions would become rare, rogues would be known and kept in their places. Defalcations and embezzle- ments would cease, for every trusted financial agent would know that he was under a sleepless inspection, and that not even an overt act would be necessary to insure his dismissal, for the selfishness and cunning in which crimes are engendered would be recognized before they had shown themselves in overt acts. Lawlessness arises from impunity, and when impunity is destroyed by vigilance, the lawless impulses are re- strained by caution and cease to struggle against the moral nature. That psychometry must ultimately become the arbiter to settle all contests between men seems clear to the eye of reason providing that the world shall ever be governed by its best intellect. The true method of settling all contests is PSYCHOME- TRIC ARBITRATION ; but before that arrives there is no good reason why psychometry should not come into our courts of justice, point out the guilt or innocence of prisoners, to assist the jury, determine the credibility of witnesses, the bona fide, or selfish and malicious charac- ter, of acts, the genuineness of documents, and the reliability of trustees, guardians, commissioners, etc. This is so obvious, that a talented member of the New York bar, as soon as he was convinced of the truth of psychometry, wrote an essay for the 'Albany Law Journal (February 5, 1881), advocating the intro- duction of psychometry in courts as competent evidence in reference to guilt or innocence. The following quota- tion shows his view of this matter: 36 Psychometry in " I refer to the employment of experts as witnesses about the genuineness of signatures, or other writings. Chirography is recognized by the court as entitled to experts. On what authority does this rule rest ? No one will pretend it is legislation. Then we must get it from elementary writers and judicial rulings. What is the aim of all authors and jurists in establishing such rules and rulings ? Certainty, of course. What aids do they invoke ? Principally those of science. Is one science entitled to more consideration than another? Certainly not. Is there, then, a science that can make the conviction of a criminal guilty of perjury, and the acquittal of those wrongfully suspected, always a cer- tainty ? There certainly is. Its name is PSYCHOMETRY. Its method, the discovery of a knowledge of his own guilt or innocence in the prisoner's mind. "Psychometry is a science from which no mortal man can conceal his real thoughts. If he will dare to write what he pretends are his convictions upon paper, the moment he thus commits himself, the psychometric expert can tell with an infallible certainty whether what he said was true or false." " Psychometric experts ex- press no opinions, but deal in facts, and facts about which they all always agree. If, then, they can furnish positive evidence that can defy doubt and disproof, must it not be a higher order of evidence than conflicting opinions unsusceptible of conviction of perjury ? What, then, is to be the first step taken. It is the recognition by the courts of psychometry as a science. It asks only a test of its integrity, and its friends are aware that it will have to encounter the open and bitter enmity of every hypocrite in the world." Law and Business. 37 As the claim has thus been presented of psychome- tric infallibility in questions of guilt or innocence (which I could not affirm except of the best psychometric talent cautiously employed), it is proper that I should explain to the legal profession that although Psychometry has not yet been introduced as legal evidence, it may be of great value to the prosecuting attorney to determine in his own mind the question of guilt or innocence. A little experience with a good psychometer will enable him to determine how much reliance should be placed on his psychometric opinions. I have been accustomed for some years when accused criminals were before the public with different opinions upon their guilt to deter- mine the matter for my own satisfaction by Mrs. Buchan- an's psychometric power. Yet I have never indulged in the sensationalism of publishing such opinions. When a prisoner was arrested in London as a dynamite con- spirator (Cunningham) I obtained from her a correct description of the person, and an affirmation of his guilt, which has since been sustained by his conviction and sentence to imprisonment for life. A conscientious lawyer must often be deeply inter- ested in the question of guilt or innocence as to clients and witnesses which psychometry could decide. And not only lawyers, but many business men have fre- quently great need to know the true character of men with whom they are doing business, whom they have had little opportunity of knowing. Aided by psychom- etry one may carry on business all over the country with as great security as in his own city. Mrs. B. has been accustomed to pronounce on the capacity, character, and reliability of men placed in responsible situations. 38 Psychometry in In questions of authenticity and forgery, a psychome- tric expert who has proved his ability to detect a forgery would, I presume, be as competent a witness in court as one whose power was derived only from the study of the visible appearance of the writing. A psychometric expert who could take up an honest production and describe its writer satisfactorily, and then take up a forgery and describe the rogue with equal cor- rectness, would thereby establish evidence which coun- sel might introduce with great effect into an argument as he would argue upon any scientific or expert testi- mony. In a murder trial at Cincinnati I was called in as an expert witness by our late President, R. B. Hayes, in reference to the responsibility of the culprit. In all such cases the expert who is enlightened may be guided in his opinionsl)y psychometric investigation. The law recognizes his testimony because he is considered an expert, and a knowledge of psychometry is a part of his expert qualifications. In all executive or administrative offices where appoint- ments are made, psychometry should lend its aid to con- trol, to correct, and to accelerate the performance of such duties. From the village magistrate to the Presi- dent, and to the chambers of royalty, psychometry should be the ever-present monitor. A very useful application of psychometry may be made in the detection of any species of counterfeits. Not only counterfeit checks and forged wills, but all current moneys are subject to psychometric detection, and they are the successful detectors who have the psychometric faculty. Some few years ago a counterfeit coin was Law and Business. 39 put in circulation which almost defied detection. It seemed perfect in color, weight and size, and under the tests of acid and the file. But when it was cut open the interior proved to be of base metal. The only method by which such a counterfeit could be detected was an electric test, by passing electric cur- rents through the genuine and the suspected coin to see if their conductivities were exactly equal. This is one of the cases in which the psychometric perception would penetrate all deception with a greater delicacy than any other agency. In the detection of counterfeit notes the psychome- tric power will succeed when all other perception fails. This is already verified at Washington. A dispatch from Washington, dated February 28, says of the women in the Treasury Department : " So superior is their skill in handling paper money that they accomplish results that would be utterly unattainable without them. It has been found by long experience that a counterfeit may go through half the banks in the country without being detected, until it comes back, often torn and mu- tilated, into the hands of the Treasury women. Then it is certain of detection. They shut their eyes and feel of a note if they suspect it. If it feels wrong, in half a minute they point out the incongruities of the counter- feit." CHAPTER VI. PSYCHOMETRY IN MEDICAL SCIENCE. The medical profession ever incompetent to judge of important discov- eries Psychic discoveries have no tribunal The medical profession hostile Offer to the Kentucky State Medical Society and its failure Correspondence with Prof. Gross The discussion on homoeopa- thy Proof that medicines act without absorption and without con- sumption of matter Experiments on medicine in paper and in vials Objection to infinitesimals refuted Effects from minute agencies Influence of handwriting, and of contact of writing Emanation of influence Explanation of triturations Sensibility of morbid parts Influence of contact in mineral waters Influence of locali- ties by emanation Influence increased by electric currents Doc- trine of Sir James Murray Medical influences carried by electric currents Interesting experiments reported by Mr. Howard showing electric transference of disease My own experiments on a narcotic Contact influence through the atmosphere Sensitives affected by proximity -7- Influence on national character Vast range of influ- ences around us Psychic influences and the localities that favor them Influence of soils, saline evaporation from ocean Contagion Psychometry explains it as dependent on the nervous system, vary- ing with its development Not entirely dependent on physical causes The Black Death Contagion from touch From the glance of the eye Its recognition by the ancients Hygienic precautions Psychometry the absolute guide of diagnosis and therapeutics, and therefore the consummation of medical science All accurate diag- nosis in obscure conditions is psychometric Psychometry indicates the relation of a remedy better than Homosopathy Failure of physi- cians who lack in psychometric capacity Psychometric success of Dr. Swan My own experience satisfactory. Upon any subject relating to biological science the superficial or ill-informed are disposed to refer to the authority of the medical profession, because they do PsycJwmetry in Medical Science. 41 not know that physicians have but little independence of thought, and that the control of the profession by its colleges and societies has insured the maximum degree of conservative stolidity, as was virtually confessed by Prof. Gross when he advised that my demonstrable dis- coveries be submitted to some society not belonging to the medical prof ession, rather than to the National Med- ical Association. When we look at the landmarks of this stolidity, we see that the most rational and obvious suggestions of progressive science have been received with scorn and derision. The use of antimony was prohibited about three centuries ago. Peruvian Bark was opposed with fury because it was not introduced through colleges ; all chemical remedies were once prohibited by the fac- ulty of Paris. Jenner was once ridiculed and excluded from the college of Physicians, and to-day the same authority enforces J nner's vaccination on a reluctant people by fine and imprisonment. The discovery of valves in the veins was denied and ridiculed as shame- fully as Harvey's discovery of the circulation. Even so simple a matter as the use of the stethoscope, intro- duced by Laennec, which cafi hardly claim the dignity of an invention or discovery, was received with the same supercilious stupidity/ It is not because physicians differ from the rest of mankind, for we can find the same record of stolidity in every department of human knowledge and business where individuals are hindered by colleges, corporations or societies, and often where they are not, for there is no system of education established anywhere that will make its pupils faithful and efficient seekers of truth, 42 Psychometry in and until we have such a system the world must crawl along slowly. The publication in the Journal of Man in 1849 f m y sketches of the development of psychometry, did not attract much attention from literati and scientists. They reached only the few advanced minds that feel a sympathy with discovery and progress the only com- petent class. There was no public tribunal of competent investiga- ting scientists, to whom an appeal could be made. The common law right of trial by a jury of our peers is a right of which the psychological scientist is deprived. He has no peers, no companions, no fitting audience among the leaders of society. There has been no ex- tensive, proper, and systematic cultivation of psychic sciences by the experimental methods which trace effects to causes. All tolerated and patronized science to-day is physical and the great body of the medical profession which is the most influential scientific body, is not only physical or materialistic in its science and philosophy, but is so intensely dogmatic and so fiercely intolerant in its ma- terialism that the facts set forth in my experiments instead of receiving respectful consideration in medical colleges and medical journals if offered for their notice would seldom receive any other response, if noticed at all, than the cynical sneer which reveals the low moral status of the scoffer. The facts in reference to experiments on medicines, are so simple and so easily demonstrated even to the most obtuse intellect that I departed from my usual policy in 1877, and requested the appointment of an in- Medical Science. 43 vestigating committee by the Kentucky State Medical Society for the purpose of examining my discoveries in relation to the action of medicines. As this was in my native state, in which I had some reputation in politics as well as in authorship, having received a nomination by my friends for the gubernatorial office (which I declined) and as I was well known by the leading mem- bers of the society, my request was more courteously received than it would have been elsewhere, and a com- mittee was appointed of eminent medical professors, who might easily on the first day of their appointment have performed their duty and ascertained beyond a doubt the truth of a discovery which revolutionizes medical theories. One of these gentlemen I think it proper to mention, was my quondam friend DR. THEO- DORE BELL, the learned and dogmatic professor of med- ical practice in the flourishing Louisville school. Near the end of the year 1877 the committee had done nothing whatever in performance of their duty, and I left the state for New York more fully satisfied than ever that it was utterly useless to lay any psychic facts before the dogmatic profession, or to invite them to investigate anything beyond their narrow routine of thought and action.* * Knowing the orthodox medical journal to be absolutely controlled by the bigoted policy of the National Medical Association, I did not dis- play the verdant ignorance of attempting to reach the profession through their pages. But when the National Scientific Association met in Cincin- nati in 1850 I supposed it possible to obtain a hearing in that body, and accordingly offered a paper on CEREBRAL EMBRYOLOGY. But the same Jesuitical influence from rival medical colleges was present and positive- ly procured the suppression of my paper. The two actors in this manoeuvre are now in a world in which they are made conscious of their errors. 44 Psychometry in Nevertheless I felt that intelligent and liberal minds unacquainted with the dogmatism of medical colleges would find it difficult to believe that scientific discov- eries of such importance were absolutely barred out of the fashionable medical colleges by the imperious dogmatism of the Faculty, and would therefore suspect that as many discoveries were not recognized and hon- ored like those of Claude Bernard and Brown Sequard they might be lacking in scientific value. Hence, I thought it desirable to have on record an explicit refusal, which would show it was not due either to sciolism in my experiments or to any avoidance of scientific investigation, that I had not enjoyed the recognition which is so freely given to those who like Bernard and Majendie do not transcend the bounds of the coarsest physical science. Hence, when the National Medical Association met in New York, knowing that it would be useless to make any application to that body, I addressed its leading representative with whom I had an old acquaint- anceship, Prof. Samuel D. Gross, the most eminent sur- geon and presiding officer of the national societies, and received from him in very courteous terms the explicit information that my discovereis could not possibly be brought under the notice of the National Medical Association or subjected to their investigation, because I was not a member of the dominant medical party which is governed by a proscriptive code. The reader will, therefore, see that I have ever sought scientific investigation and criticism and that I stand unimpeached and uncontradicted as the discoverer and teacher of principles which I have been teaching and Medical Science. 45 demonstrating so many years to medical pupils, and which are now acted upon by many physicians with signal benefits and vast superiority in DIAGNOSIS which is the basis of successful practice. Marvellous facts which differ from the ordinary course of events are like the upheaved rocks which reveal deeply hidden strata. Stolid conservatism dislikes and avoids such facts because they reveal new principles and disturb old theories. In medical literature such fac#s are generally suppressed ; in medical societies they are met in a spirit of hostility and defiance. The facts which reveal the higher capacities of the nervous system have been carefully concealed from the present genera- tion of physicians. But notwithstanding this skeptical vigilance, one of the class of facts to which I endeavored in vain to call the attention of the old medical professors has somehow found its way into the United States Dispensatory (page 399, I4th edition), as follows : " It is said that in Germany persons sleeping upon grain containing much ergot have been attacked with disease in consequence ; and the case is related of a gentleman who, having gathered some fine specimens of ergot fresh from the plant and put them in his trousers pocket, found himself about half a day afterward incom- moded by a terrible spasmodic pain on the skin on the inside of the thigh, against which the pocket lay. Ascribing this to a long walk, he did not think of the real cause, until, the pain having returned on the follow- ing day, and for several days afterwards, he at length called to mind the forgotten ergot, and supposing that this might be the cause of the inconvenience, removed 46 Psychometry in it. After a time he found much, though not entire relief, and did not succeed in wholly removing his trouble until he had caused the offending pocket to be washed, after which the affection ceased. He afterward tried the experiment with other specimens of ergot with the same results. Perhaps it is only the fresh ergot, yet moist, that is capable of producing this effect. The skin was not reddened but covered with minute wrinkles as in cholera patients." The scientific presentation and explanation of such facts would not be tolerated by the National Medical Association (according to Prof. Gross) if presented by any one not in sympathy with their proscriptive code, yet such facts cannot always be concealed, and we may expect them to be presented to the Association by some of its members hereafter as an important discovery, carefully concealing its origin. Returning to the simple medical experiments in which medicines held in the hands produce all their constitu- tional effects what is its bearing upon medical philos- ophy and the controversies now in progress ? The leading controversy the most important which ever agitated the colleges, is that between the followers of Hahnemann and those who dogmatically reject not only his principles but all the vast accumulated experi- ence of many thousand well-educated and reputable physicians. Their rejection is justified only by the dogmatic materialism which my experiments have over- thrown. Learned professors satisfy themselves and amuse the ignorance of their pupils by proving that the extreme attenuations or high potencies of infinitesimal medicines Medical Science. 47 cannot possibly have an appreciable quantity of the medicinal substance in the largest dose. That the effect produced must be in proportion to the quantity of medicine employed, and that the effects must arise from internal contact from touching sen- tient surfaces in the alimentary canal, or circulating in the blood, has been assumed as a self-evident axiomatic truth upon which the whole fabric of their medical practice rests : and thus it rests upon a falsehood, for I have proved that medicine may operate from the exterior without absorption, without entering the circulation and without the slightest contact with the person. Moreover, the notion that a certain amount of medi- cine must be consumed to produce an effect, is simply a piece of vulgar ignorance, embalmed in collegiate dog- matism. No consumption of medicine is absolutely necessary to produce medical effects. On the contrary the medicines wrapped in papers remain after the experiment, as if they had not been used. But (the ultra materialist might say) those medicines in papers have emanations, and their odors may have produced the effects by passing through the paper. This is con- ceding that imperceptible emanations have power, but such a subterfuge is not available, as solid saline, me- tallic, and crystalline substances, which have no odor or perceptible emanation are effective when held in papers. To remove all possible doubt that medical potency is an imponderable quality, and operates at a distance from the substance, I have adopted the custom of plac- ing the medicines in glass vials well corked the vials 48 Psychometry in being held in the hands for experiments, and their contents unknown to the subject. In this method the experiments are as successful as with the paper envelope, and my experience leads to the conclusion that more than one-half of a miscellane- ous company will feel the effects, and often three- fourths. In a medical class of twenty at Boston there were but two who were not impressible by this experi- ment, and from my observation in the South I should say that eighty or ninety per cent, of the population in the Gulf States would feel these medical influences through glass with facility. What, then, becomes of the materialistic theories ? The same vial of medicine may be used successfully for the medication of a thousand or of ten thousand patients, and if well sealed it will have lost no portion of the medical substance, so far as we can discover. The materialistic thinker claims that the homoeopathic attenuation can have no effect, because the amount of substance present is so extremely small, but in my experiment the patient receives no substance at all. The effects are due to what the materialist considers a nonenity. The dogmatic objection to homoeopathic doses disappears entirely when we know that the potency of medicines may be realized without swallow- ing, inhaling, or touching a single particle. The objection, however, still remains that the quantity of medicine in the vial that was touched was sufficient to produce important effects, although its potency was transferred through glass, but that homoeopathic dilu- tions, attenuations, or globules, are too insignificant in quantity to produce any considerable effect, for effects Medical Science. 49 must be proportioned to causes, and it is reasonable to believe that if a grain will produce a given effect, a thousandth part of the grain will produce only the thou- sandth part of the effect. How, then, can diseases be successfully treated by millionths and decillionths of a grain ? There are several answers to this plausible statement. If the agent employed merely starts a new process, a portion of a grain may be as effective as the whole of it. A smallpox scab, for example, may develop smallpox in one who handles or tastes it, but smallpox may also be developed by handling a bank note or letter received from the patient. The visible substance produces no more effect than the invisible contamination on the paper. There is no limit to the minuteness of the dose which may affect the sensitive. As contact with a letter or a lock of hair reproduces in the sensitive, not only the traits of character, but the pathological symptoms of the writer, it is apparent that physiological and patho- logical effects may come from a cause in which we can discover no vital or medical potentiality whatever. The smallest homoepathic dose must have more medical potentiality than the sheet of paper which has been merely discolored by pen or pencil. The sensitive recognizes and describes the potential- ity of infinitesimal dilutions, globules, or powders. Soon after the announcement of my discovery in New York one of my pupils, Dr. Harris, an experienced homoeopathic physician, placed a number of globules successively in the hands of my sensitive Mr. Inman, who described their medical potency to his satisfaction. 50 Psychometry in We cannot devise any subtlety of influence which may not be followed and detected by the exalted powers of sensitives. The potentiality of handwriting as an embodiment of psychic influence is difficult to conceive ; but that potentiality may be -imparted to a blank page lying in contact with the writing and two letters or pieces of manuscript kept in contact with each other impart to each other their influences. An experimental society in Boston in 1843, was quite puzzled by this transference of character to a blank page. They were experimenting on two letters and got a satisfactory description of the two characters. One was the author Charles Dickens, the other I have forgotten. But they were startled on finding that the characters had been exchanged, and that the character of Dickens was given to the wrong letter. The letters had been in contact, so that the writing of each had pressed the blank page of the other which was touched by the psychometer. The transmission of psychic influence by contact of manuscript frequently receives accidental illustrations. A piece of manuscript from lying in contact with another absorbs an influence which mingles with or overpowers its own character. Thus Mrs. B. was called upon in New York by Dr. F., who gave her for a report a piece of manuscript from which he expected something very pleasing, as he considered it a fine specimen of spirit writing. Instead of this she described it as very dis- agreeable and irritating ; exciting an impulse to be angry, quarrelsome, and very abusive. This astonished him and led her to ask what the writing had been in contact with. It then appeared that he had placed it in his pocket book in contact with a letter from one of his Medical Science. 51 tenants, with whom he had a difference, which was of a very angry, insolent, abusive character, the influence of which entirely overpowered the writing of the medium. A good psychometer will frequently discover hetero- geneous influences in a manuscript from persons who have handled or carried it, and would therefore desire that anything for examination should be kept free from adventitious influences. To test the facility of such transfer, I placed a piece of blank letter paper for two or three hours within the folds of a manuscript over forty years old, and then asked what impression she received from it. She quickly decided that it was an impression from old writ- ing, and even gave the name of the writer. As there was a possibility of chance in guessing the name, I tried another experiment by cutting out a piece of blank paper from a letter written by the eloquent divine, Rev. J. N. Maffitt, which had lain almost fifty years in con- tact with the writing. It was a letter introducing myself to President Dubisson, dated Natchez, Dec. 25, 1835. Her impressions were given as follows : "This is not a spiritual writing. It takes me in a westerly direction (north or south ? ) towards the south. It is a positive character, a man. It was not written to you but relates to you. The writer was older than you when it was written. You were then quite a young man. It seems like an introduction to some person of influence rather than a business letter to some person holding a prom- inent intellectual position. The writer was a strong intellectual man, one who could win the esteem of the majority a professional man but not a physician. He 52 Psychometry in was a public character, stood very high before the public. I see him speaking. He was an eloquent man. He seemed at first like a statesman, now he seems a divine. He interested the people : he was popular : he was very eloquent : he was not profoundly orthodox." The ex- periment had been interrupted once, and at this point was interrupted a second time by a visitor, and was not resumed ; so the portrait is incomplete. When the letter was written, I was just twenty-one years of age and was engaged in the study and diffusion of phrenological science, in which I had interested Mr. Maffitt, who was in the zenith of his career as the most brilliant man of the Methodist pulpit. As to the con- cluding remark that he was not strictly orthodox, I would say that Maffitt, like Whitfield, was more gifted in the line of oratory and imagination than in the relig- ious sentiments. Their heads were flat in the religious region, and their lives were not according to the rever- ential pattern of Orthodoxy.* There is a perpetual emanation of influences by which each substance affects its environment. The emanations of influence from medicines pass through glass, or they pass into the paper which contains them, and which becomes a medical potency to a sensitive. A medicine triturated with sugar, or simply brought into contact with it, imparts to the sugar all its emanat- ing influence, and thus we obtain in the sugar a refined emanation combined with the saccharine qualities which are pleasant and genial. A medicated sugar or highly *Mr. Maffitt's cordial nsception of my scientific suggestions at that time assures me that if he were living to-day he would be a powerful champion of scientific truth. Medical Science. 53 saccharated medicine is a great improvement upon crude medication, not only on account of the mollifying influ- ence of the sugar, but on account of the superiority of the emanation which combines with the sugar, to the gross substance of the drug. And as this emanation power seems to be practically unlimited (since the same vial of medicine may act in perpetuity) there is no reason why we might not, from a limited quantity of medicine by proper management, obtain an unlimited amount of saccharated potentiality more genial and ap- propriate in therapeutics than the original body. The objection, however, may be made that these em- anation saccharates (or we might call them spiritual sac- charates as they do not appear to be strictly material emanations) would not affect all patients since all man- kind are not sensitives ; hence this infinitesimal or spiritual method must frequently fail. The objection is very plausible, but disease in general is a state of heightened or morbid sensibility. It origi- nates most readily in a morbid susceptibility a pre- dominance of sensibility over the vital force.* Hence disease gives, at least to the morbid organ, a very acute and delicate sensibility, which would not tolerate harsh remedies, or even a slight touch. If then the remedy has a specific action on the morbid part it ought cer- tainly to be delicate in its action, since the exalted sensibility makes the organ unusually impressible and the remedy which would scarcely affect it at all in health, is very potent in its morbid condition. * Sensibility is the foundation of disease, and it is because the sensibil- ity and nervous development of fishes are of so low a grade that they are not liable to inflammation. 54 Psychometry in The law of emanation which thus explains the value of infinitesimal doses has many other important applica- tions. It is well known that mineral waters coming through strata of the earth have important healing powers which are not accounted for by chemistry, and which are not satisfactorily realized in artificial combinations however skilfully made. Such is the general opinion of physi- cians. It is probable that the waters are affected by the subterranean strata through which they pass, the influence of which is distinct as they are taken from the spring. But they also have the virtue of saccharated remedies, as every particle of the water is impressed by the influence of all the mineral ingredients (which have been many years in solution) like the sugar in tritura- tions, and I believe that if the mineral elements could be instantly removed from the water its virtue would not be entirely lost. The agitation and motion of the water in the subterranean channels has the same effect as the percussions by which tinctures are potentized in homoeopathic pharmacy. A practical inference would be that in preparing aqueous or alcoholic solutions of med- icines we should not only use agitation but allow them to stand as long as possible to permeate the inert ele- ments with the medicines, thus rendering their effects milder and enabling us to succeed with a smaller quan- tity. All things have their sphere of emanation and every locality on the face of the globe whether it offers gran- ite, limestone, clay, sand, or humus, or is covered by fresh or salt water, pure or impure, or any species of vegetation, affects the constitution of the residents or Medical Science. 55 travellers differently from other localities. Hence med- ical men blindly recommend a " change of air " knowing that there are important effects produced by change of locality which they do not comprehend. The asthmatic and the victims of hay fever find by experience the locality that suits them best as every locality has its own pathological tendency and its own peculiar influ- ence over body and mind. Arenacious formations are exempt from cholera, and when the principles which I have enunciated are made the basis of scientific investi- gations the exact influence of all mineral elements on the constitution of man will be determined, and locali- ties will be selected and prescribed for patients with as much precision as medicines, and the physicians of each locality will understand the pathological tendencies of their residence and ' the modification of treatment re- quired. The power of each locality is greatly intensified by electric currents, which, passing upward, bring the con- stitution under the influence of the subjacent strata. Sir James Murray of England, about half a century ago, asserted very forcibly the importance of this electric influence as a source of disease, and claimed to have rendered unhealthy localities safer for residence by insu- lating thoroughly the houses inhabited. The noncon- ducting or insulating materials used in their foundations he considered a very important protection against dis- ease ; and I believe there is more in this than the mere protection against dampness. Sensitive persons, in walking, will find very decided influences in different localities. In approaching cer- tain spots permanently damp, they will feel the rheu- 56 PsycJiomctry in matic or neuralgic influence of negative conditions, and will find in drier localities, where there is less conduct- ivity, less evaporation, and a less negative state, a more comfortable condition. The doctrine that we are affected by electric currents and thereby made to feel the influence of our environ- ment, and especially of the portion of the earth on which we stand, is susceptible of demonstration. Practition- ers of electricity have often maintained that patients could feel the influence of medicines through which they received electric currents, but the medical pro- fession has been disposed to ignore such facts because not readily demonstrable with persons of moderate sen- sibility ; and the experimental facts which illustrate transmission by electricity have seldom been reported, partly because of the prejudice of observers, and partly because the great majority are not accustomed to report their experience for publication. An interesting case, however, was reported by Mr. L. Howard, F. R. S., as occurring in the experience of Philip Smith, of Fordham, in curing agues by electricity, who found that the disease was carried from the patient to himself by the electric current. In order to test the matter more decisively, he made an experiment to see if the inflammation produced by vaccination could be transferred as well as intermittent fever. He placed one of his men on the insulating sheet who had been vacci- nated seven days previously. A wire duly insulated and four inches long, was made to connect the inocu- lated spot, or pustule, on the man's arm, with a slight incision made in the arm of a lad with a new lancet, and the current of electricity applied for eight minutes. Medical Science. 57 The boy was duly observed afterwards, and proved to be as completely vaccinated by electricity as if it had been done in the usual way. The boy's vaccination was also transferred by electricity through wires to the arms of two girls, and vaccine appearances produced, but not so perfectly as on the boy. The effect, how- ever, was such that when subsequently one of the girls was vaccinated in four places, but slight effect was produced. It is very well known among electric practitioners that it is very injurious to receive the electric current in their own persons through the body of a patient. The galvanic current accelerates the passage of fluids in tubes or in blood vessels and may be used to trans- fer medicinal substance into the body or to carry me- tallic substance out of it. It is reasonable to suppose that the imponderable elements may be carried by the electric current as well as ponderable molecules. It would seem a priori as probable that the electric current would carry nervauric or medicinal emanations or accel- erate their passage, as that a breeze should bring us the odors of a tree in bloom, and the following experi- ment illustrates the electric transference of medicinal influences. A metallic tube about eight inches long and an inch in diameter was filled with paregoric and connected with the positive pole of a galvanic circuit of twelve zinc carbon plates by a wire which passed through the centre of the tube inserted corks at each end, so that the current could pass only through the paregoric to the metal tube. This was placed in the right hand of a very susceptible lady of fine physical development, 58 Psychometry in the left holding the negative electrode. She found the influence quite pleasant, nervine, soothing, stimulating to the brain and developing a little perspiration, making her realize that the medical influence was of the ner- vine anodyne class. I then reversed the connections, bringing the tube in contact with the negative pole and her left hand in connection with the positive pole, expecting thereby to prove the removal of the anodyne impression. But the effect was more decisive than I anticipated. She quickly pronounced the current too exciting and unbearable, and even when I reduced it to one-third the number of cells she insisted that it was very objectionable, refused to go on and was astonished at the strength of the battery. The anodyne influence, which she felt so agreeable when the current was enter- ing her hand through the paregoric, was almost instantly destroyed when the current flowed in the opposite di- rection. The same experiment was tried in the psychometric class on five ladies and two gentlemen, Dr. R., Mr. P., Mrs. D., Mrs. R., Mrs. H., Miss R., and Miss G., all of whom agreed in pronouncing the current felt through the tube (of the nature of which no hint had been given) very soothing, nervine, and pleasant, but when the con- qection was changed, the tube being connected with the negative pole they found it not at all soothing, but stim- ulating and exciting to a degree which soon became unpleasant and injurious. Mr. P. being a stout gentle- man, bore the non-medical current very well but decid- edly preferred the other. Mrs. D. and Miss R., who enjoyed the medical current found the other quite unen- Medical Science. 59 durable. It was probably made more so by the contrast with the pleasant influence of the medical current. To test the transmission of medical influence by contact alone, I placed a few spoonfuls of white granu- lated sugar between pieces of paper which had several weeks previously been moistened with tincture of cap- sicum and thoroughly dried. It was left in, this position about an hour, then removed into a paper box for experiment. Another portion of sugar was placed for the same time between dry paper which had once been wet with a fluid extract of belladonna and in like manner removed into a paper box. A pinch of the sugar, about a teaspoonful, was placed in the palm of the hand of each lady in a company of nine and in five minutes was recognized by seven of the nine as a warming, stimulating influence. Of the other two one felt the effect on the head and the other felt a chilly influence. The belladonna sugar was promptly recognized by all in its soothing soporific influence and decided influence upon the head, especially the frontal region the effect being much greater than I expected. In these cases the effect was due solely to the contact of the crystals of sugar with the medicated paper. - As influences thus pass by contact independently of electric currents, there is no reason why the influences which pass from vials- of -medicine -to the hands of the sensitive should -not 'pass into sugar or any other recep- tive substance in -contact with the *vial* to a sufficient extent to be. recognized. To test this I placed a quantity- of, white granulated sugar in contact with a vial of belladonna. When about two ounces of sugar 60 PsycJwmetry in was employed, Mrs. B. could not positively recognize any influence distinct from the sugar, but thought there might be a little that would be soothing to the nervous system. When, however, I gave her the amount of a grain of sugar which had been in immediate contact with the vial, she distinctly recognized an influence on the nervous system similar to that of belladonna, which she thought might proceed from a very minute amount of belladonna. It is not merely contact with the soil that affects us, but contact with the atmosphere affects a very sensitive interior region in the chest. The air is in contact with everything on the face of the earth, and not only does it absorb the moisture of bodies of water, the hot electric conditions of dry localities in the sunshine, and the odorous emanations of vegetation and decomposi- tion, but carries with it the potentialities of contact which we experience in touching a medicine. It touches ten thousand medicinal potencies in trees and plants as well as minerals, and conveys their subtile emanations to us. The sensitive feels in the forests, the meadows, and the gardens a great variety of subtile influences which are generally beneficial far more so than the dirty streets of cities in which stupid avarice neglects to place the health-giving trees and allows foulness to accumu- late in the soil. In the great convulsions of nature and in epidemics, the influence of electric currents and of atmospheric changes is greatly intensified. In the great earthquake of January, 1348, which shook nearly all the south of Europe and continued for several days, when whole villages were swallowed up and many entirely destroyed, Medical Science. 6 1 many persons experienced a feeling of stupor and head- ache and many fainted away. During a period of twenty-six years, ending in 1360, earthquakes and epidemics devestated Europe, including Great Britain, and it is estimated that twenty-five millions of lives were lost by this terrible pestilence which has been called the Black Death. In modern epidemics there are changes in the atmos- phere and great changes of electric conditions, which affect magnets and telegraphic operations and even modify chemical processes (as in making it difficult to manufacture sulphuric acid) but scientists have done very little to determine the nature of these epidemic influences. Not even an atmospheric carrier is needed by the sensitive to impress tfiem with local influences ; approxi- mation alone is sufficient to bring them in the sphere of influence, and when the soul expands in rapt con- templation of Nature all her influences are taken in as if all surrounding objects were a constellation shining into the soul. " High mountains are to me a feeling," was the expression of Byron. That chameleon power by which the soul assimilates with its surroundings is derived not merely from intellectual perception, but from the power of emanation and of psychometric sym- pathy out of which come not merely physiological and pathological results, but all the psychological con- ditions of human development. All the elements of a nation's home, in topography and climate are influential upon national character, and every invalid will find that all of his surroundings are important. The influences of localities depend on the permanent 62 Psychometry in elements of the land, and the transient or changeable elements of the surface which are under our control, in conjunction with atmospheric conditions, temperature, electricity, moisture and winds. The basis of the continent (granite and gneiss) is a wholesome foundation. The three great elements, sylex, alumina and lime, from which, with a few additions, the continents are built, are happily adapted to human welfare. The more tonic and stimulating influence of the silex in quartz, granite, sandstone, jasper, and the sands of our soils is often reinforced with the still more tonic influence of ferruginous elements in the soils and rocks. Alumina in clay and aluminous rocks adds a cool antiseptic influence which counteracts malarious and feverish conditions, and when, slightly impregnated with tonic and antiseptic iron makes the best foundation for health. Lime also imparts an antiseptic and whole- some influence. The disintegration of these three ele- ments from granite, limestone, shale and ,sandstone, forms the mineral basis of soils congenial to health and activity, upon which vegetatioji, forming carbonaceous and nitrogenous^ Compounds, easily decomposed, fur- nishes the elements of .nialaria t which, if not destroyed or buried in the soil, apcumulate in lower localities, and generate disease by decomposition. When the septic elements of vegetable matter exposed to warmth and moisture are not adaquately controlled by, the aluminous and ferruginous elements of the, jsoil, disease must result, greatly increased by extreme ,heat and cold and sudden changes, in tetnperature and elec- tricity, which sometimes ^reqde,r the ^atmosphere ex- tremely depressing to human life. Sensitive persons Medical Science. 63 feel these changes keenly, and recognize the approach of snow several hours in advance. Whatever is around us in earth, sea or air has a diffusive influence, and hence every locality has a different influence. Chemis- try cannot detect the influence, but every sensitive is powerfully affected by it. Salt is not recognized as an evaporating substance, and yet it affects the atmos- phere greatly. Cattle that require salt in the interior of the country do not require it in seacoast locations, and it is said not to be necessary in an island sur- rounded like England by oceanic evaporation. That there is an actual evaporation of the saline elements, possibly decomposed, is shown by the fact that in such locations tin cannot be used for roofing, on account of its speedy oxydation, while in our country remote from the ocean, tin roofs last well without painting, if not exposed to coal smoke. Our sensibilities reach out far beyond the sphere of contact. Light and sound bring us in relation with remote objects, and make them impressive. Odors, auras, sounds and light, come to us, but fall often on a dulled sense. Thousands of odors and auras are unrec- ognized by the average citizen. Sounds above and below a certain range of pitch are unheard. Few of the colors and tints in nature are recognized by the average masculine eye, and the actinic ray is not con- sidered visual, nor are the emanations of magnets which are visible to the sensitive. Beyond all these f the psy- chic light, by which spiritual objects are seen, is im- known to the great majority, and even denied an exi$t : ence by the physical scientist who is unacquainted with the human constitution. 64 Psychometry in There is something more than the passive perception of these emanations and influences. The soul has an active percipiency, and goes forth in the pursuit of knowledge, in which it attains the sublimest achieve- ments of psychometry. This psychometric power is most highly developed under favorable conditions. These conditions are found in elevated positions with sunshine and pure air. The light atmosphere of lofty localities developes the brain and lungs, and therefore produces a nobler and more spiritual type of humanity, with stronger religious aspi- rations, more perfect health, and more delicate intui- tions. The world's history proves the mountaineers to be the nobler portion of the race. The great cities in which populations become sodden in selfishness, corrupt in morals, and victims of pestilence, are near the sea level. The highest portion of the old world east of the Caspian Sea was the seat of the noblest, the Caucassian race, the dominant power over the whole earth the authors of civilization and science. In the mountain lands, the high plateaus and sunny climates of tropical and southern, temperate regions, intuitive wisdom will establish its empire. CONTAGION. The revelations of psychometry decisively settle the questions between, contagionists and non-contagionists which have for ages been so blindly discussed by the opponents of contagion, who look upon it merely as a physical cause, of a certain exact amount of potentiality, which should always manifest itself with the certainty of gravitation, when, in fact, contagion is essentially Medical Science. ^5 dependent on a power of the nervous system, and there- fore has no uniform rule of operation, but varies in its manifestation with every individual, every locality, cli- mate and season. To one person of high susceptibili- ties, and moderate or reduced vital power, all diseases without exception are contagious. He will contract pain, discomfort, mental disturbance, confusion of mind, headache, insanity, moral depravity, suicidal melancholy, neuralgia, rheumatism, fever, and, in short, all unfortu- nate conditions of body or mind, with certainty in pro- portion to his exposure. Such persons are disqualified from practising medicine, and cannot retain health, ex- cept by the utmost possible precaution in the most favorable locality and environment. Others with great vital power and very limited sensi- bility resist all contagions and exert great restorative powers over the sick. They can encounter small pox and contagious fevers with impunity. As there are all possible intermediate grades of sensi- bility to contagion, those who ignore the susceptibility and variety of human constitutions and suppose conta, gion to depend entirely on the quality of the disease- must necessarily adopt a chaos of contradictory opinions, as diseases continually vary (in their diffusiveness) ac- cording to national or personal idiosyncrasy and climatic conditions. Psychometric science directs our attention away from the contradictory records of the medical profession which pronounce a disease contagious and with equal positiveness pronounce it absolutely and universally non-contagious, to the study of individual susceptibility, 66 Psychometry in as it may be increased by debility and hot weather, or diminished by vital energy and cooler temperatures. Moreover the knowledge of the true causes of trans- mission of diseases relieves us at once from the illusive theories which require us to search in all cases for a physical agency, for germs, vapors, or contaminated substances, and which leads us to believe that we are safe by certain physical precautions when we are really in imminent danger. There are many who cannot ap- proach for one minute a ase of acute disease without absorbing its influence by nervous and psychic sympa- thy. The true understanding of contagion enlarges greatly our conception of the precautions necessary in a warm climate and among sensitive people, and justifies the precaution which in Italy destroys by fire all the furni- ture of the apartment that has been occupied by a con- sumptive patient. It explains also the deadly influence of hospitals which have been occupied by severe forms of disease for a long time, and which are become so pro- foundly infected by influences which are invisible, and incapable of chemical detection as to produce extreme mortality in cases that recover well in open tents. Chemical disinfection may destroy the offensive matters which are most injurious to health, but I do not believe it can entirely remove the morbid influences which are left by diseased constitutions impregnating the solid substance of an apartment. In the black death of the I4th century Prof. Hecker says, "Every spot which the sick had touched, their breath, their clothes, spread the contagion ; and as in all other places, the attendants and friends who were Medical Science. 67 either blind to their danger or heroically despised it, fell a sacrifice to their sympathy. Even the eyes of the patient were considered as sources of contagion, which had the power of acting at a distance." So in ancient times, he says, " the sight was considered as the bearer of a demoniacal enchantment."* These were correct observations. An exchange of glances for one minute with a fever patient by a perfect sensitive is sufficient to transfer a disease which may go on to the destruction of life in a feeble and predis- posed constitution, or may be thrown off by one of healthy vigor. Hence for many persons the only reli- able protection is the absolute isolation of the sick from the well, a principle long known, since physicians of the second century recommended this as the proper pre- caution against leprosy. Our knowledge of the laws of contagion, however, will not lead to the selfish abandonment of the sick, but will teach us to protect the delicate and sensitive from all morbid exposure, and to entrust nursing cares to those who can bear them. It will also teach us that * " Correct notions of contagion have descended from remote antiquity, and were maintained unchanged in the 14th century. So far back as the age of Plato, a knowledge of the contagious power of malignant inflam- mations of the eye, of which also no physician of the middle ages enter- tained a doubt, was general among the people ; yet in modern times surgeons have filled volumes with partial controversies on this subject. The whole language of antiquity has adapted itself to the notions of the people, respecting the contagion of pestilential diseases ; and their terms were, beyond comparison, more expressive than those in use among the moderns." HECKER on the Black Death. The advantage of the ancients was due to the fact that they had not fallen into the slough of materialism and did not ignore invisible influ- 68 Psychometry in great evils may be inflicted on the young by contagion when there are no acute diseases in the case. The debility of age, melancholy, feebleness, moroseness, and even phlegmatic dullness may be inflicted by association on the young to the permanent injury of their future life. All association has a contagious power, and therefore children often receive much more education or modification of character from their school compan- ions than from their teacher. Adults obey the same law of psychic contagion, and he who would train himself for a higher life than belongs to the social level around him must, to a great extent, isolate himself from society, unless he possesses the heroic constitution which overpowers everything around it. Contagion is continually in progress. Every apart- ment that is occupied, and every chair that is sat upon receives the physical and psychic impress of the occu- pant, and acquires a beneficial or injurious influence for his successor. Everything touched by the victims of the Black Death became a source of contagion, and the infection was so permanent that Hecker says that "frightful ill-consequences io\\Qwd.for many years after the first fury of the pestilence was passed." All objects, therefore, may become centres of moral and physical contagion for a great length of time, and he who has a sensitive under his care should be careful into what society or apartments the sensitive is intro- duced. While making psychometric experiments with a lady recently, we were disturbed by the restlessness, pain, and discomfort in the lower limbs which came upon her, which we did not understand until we recol- Medical Science. 69 lected that the easy chair she was sitting in had long been occupied by an invalid of restless temperament troubled with sciatica. The discomfort soon passed off after taking another chair. It is but a small part of the medical value of Psychom- etry that it illustrates the philosophy and hygiene of contagion, now resting on a false physical basis in the mind of the profession, and settles the question between gross and infinitesimal medication, by proving the value and rationality of the latter and the fallacy of the materialistic idea which lies at the basis of the old prac- tice. Its highest claims are as the ABSOLUTE GUIDE of DI- AGNOSIS and THERAPEUTICS in which the general intro- duction of psychometry and utilization of its benefits will constitute the greatest and most beneficent addition to the resources of the profession that has ever been made, not excepting the therapeutic discoveries of Hahnemann, for which I entertain the most profound respect. There is no extravagance in this claim if psychom- etry gives the power of diagnosis and the power of therapeutic selection. For the whole art of medical practice consists in correct diagnosis and prognosis fol- lowed by correct adaptation of remedies. Success in the practice of medicine (not in acquiring profit or fame, but in curative treatment) depends upon two things, the perception of the disease and the percep- tion of the remedy. Both of these perceptions belong to the sphere of intuition. No physician ever acquired an accurate knowledge of the condition of the patient without the 70 Psychometry in exercise of psychometric perception, though he might otherwise learn the prominent symptoms. Nor can there be a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the relation of a remedy to the condition of a patient, with- out the exercise of the same intuitive power. Homoe- opathy has made a long stride toward the ascertainment of this adaptation, but neither the totality of the symp- toms nor the totality of the therapeutic power in any remedy can be reached by the methods of science, because the totality is too complex, too extensive, and too delicate for any or all scientific methods. Hence medical practice has ever been a succession of blunders, intermingled with occasional approximations to correct prescriptions by a careful study of drugs and symptoms, and with true marvellous cures guided by un- conscious psychometry. Knowing nothing of psychometry and its possibilities, medical colleges are continually turning out as accom- plished physicians a heterogeneous multitude, of whom some have the genius which masters diseases and remedies, which leads them to success, however poor their instruction, while others, constitutionally blind to pathological and therapeutic indications, actually in crease the mortality of disease, while a still larger num- ber have just enough psychometric perception, after acquiring experience, to avoid gross errors. The greatest possible step to elevate the medical profession rapidly would be a preliminary examination which would reject from the profession every young man not sufficiently endowed with psychometric power to insure accuracy of diagnosis. But how is this possible Medical Science. fi when teaching is a business matter, dependent on the revenue from students' fees. In my professional instruction, thirty years ago, I en- deavored to elicit the psychometric capacity of our students, and in one of these, Dr. Grosvenor Swan, I recognized excellent psychometric capacities which jus- tified the expectation that he would excel as a practi- tioner, and would be more accurate than physicians generally in diagnosis. I might relate many instances of his skill in this respect, but two or three will be suf- ficient. In 1869 an accident occurred in Jackson County, Iowa, town of Andrew. A man had been thrown from a sled on the hard ground with such force as to injure his hip and disable the limb. The first doctor called in pronounced it a fracture at the upper third of the femur, and accordingly set it and placed the limb in a box. The patient suffered so much that he feared some- thing was wrong, and sent for another doctor, who was considered the most eminent surgeon in that part of the State. He claimed that the former physician was mis- taken, and that the fracture was at the neck of the femur, and on this theory put on a new dressing, securing the limb very firmly in a box. A great excitement was created in the neighborhood, each doctor being confident that he was right, and an opportunity was made for a meeting of doctors to settle the matter. Dr. Swan (who resided ten miles away) and six other physicians attended, and they were about equally divided in opinion as to the location of the frac- ture, which they all supposed to exist. Dr. Swan, in sitting by the patient, got a sudden 72 Psychometry in psychometric impression that there was no fracture at all, and requested the box and the dressing to be re- moved from the limb. Being asked for his opinion, he advised that the splints and dressing should be removed and replaced by hot fomentations of bitter herbs. They asked, with surprise, if he would take the responsibility of treating the case in that way, and the patient re- plied that he would take the responsibility and follow Dr. Swan's treatment, under which the man recovered the use of the limb in a week, proving that the physi- cians were all mistaken in reference to so simple and palpable a condition as a fracture. Dr. Swan's perception in this case was psychometric, not being based on any physical examination, and he had had experience enough to rely upon it as many other physicians might who possess this power, but not being trained to exercise and rely upon it they fail to do justice to themselves. In another instance, in 1869, when Dr. Swan resided at Watertown, N. Y., the case of a young lady in Rodman embarrassed the physicians and surgeons of that part of the State, and elicited a great deal of discussion. The patient was said to be suffering from a tumor in the right side, nearly opposite the umbilicus, and several consultations had been held over the case by the most eminent surgeons of that region. All agreed that it was a tumor, but did not agree as to the character of the formation and its attachments, and hence there was a hesitation as to submitting the case to an operation. Dr. Swan being called in found an enlargement about three inches in diameter, which had been blistered Medical Science. 73 until the whole surface was raw, and did not admit of a manual examination. However, his instantaneous psy- chometric impression indicated that it was an abscess, and he at once told them that it was an abscess con- taining a pint of matter, which required to be opened. Not having an instrument with him he returned to Watertown and sent Dr. Trowbridge with a trocar to perform the operation (who had believed it to be a tumor). Dr. Trowbridge reported that the contents of the abscess amounted fully to a pint as Dr. Swan had stated. Many might suppose that these were only illustrations of the superior sagacity of an experienced physician. But when a sudden impression leads one to an opinion contradictory to the opinions of all who are guided by external indications, such impressions are psychometric. Moreover, Dr. Swan has often pronounced with equal correctness upon patients at a distance. In my own limited practice, which I have never made a principal occupation, I have no hesitation in relying upon a psychometric diagnosis by Mrs. B., and directing the treatment of patients whom I had never seen, but whose assurances of correct description and satisfactory cures have been all that I could expect. A surgeon of reputation in Colorado, wrote for a diag- nosis of his own case which proved satisfactory to his critical mind. A lady in New Hampshire wrote for a diagnosis, and the description developed so large an amount of chronic disease that I was almost afraid to undertake the case, but relying implicitly on the diag- nosis a cure was effected by sending remedies. In no 74 Choice of Physicians. case have patients failed to recognize the truth of the diagnosis. I could relate the history of physicians who by their psychometric power, which I explained to them, sur- passed all competitors in their therapeutic success, and one especially, who without any previous preparation entered the profession, conducting his studies in the midst of an active business, and in four years rose to the front rank of practitioners and accumulated a hand- some estate. A volume might be filled with the records of the marvellous diagnosis and prognosis of intuition not only by physicians, but by persons wholly uninstructed in medicine who have corrected the errors of experienced physicians, but this subject properly belongs to a work for the medical profession before whom the subject must be brought. CHOICE OF PHYSICIANS. In no profession is society so frequently and so profoundly deceived as in the medical. Professional success is achieved by force of character, by selfish energy, by impressive manners, by social intrigue, by elegant display and use of money, by literary culture, by pedantic display of science in something irrelevant to healing, by professional education which has far more learning than utility, by fashionable associations and family influence in short, everything else but ability to heal the sick. Without these adjuncts, the most skilful in the healing art may creep through life in comparative obscurity and witness the success of those who accumulate wealth and acquire influence, while Choice of Physicians. 75 their patients have twice the mortality that science would recognize as legitimate. The majority of fash- ionable and wealthy physicians are not successful prac- titioners. The qualities that make a true physician are not the qualities that impress society. The modest sensitiveness that sympathizes with the patient and forms the basis of skilful intuition, the pure unselfish- ness that delights in helping a sufferer and is loth to deprive him of his toil-worn earnings, the patient study that gives him a mastery of disease while his rivals are seeking the mastery of society all these are unfriendly to his success. There is many a modest country doctor who barely obtains a modest subsistence and gives his service for modest fees, when ostentatious pretenders in the city gain wealth while consigning hundreds to the undertakers whom many a modest country doctor would have saved. The illiterate clair- voyant and magnetic healers who have no social rank nor intellectual accomplishments nor imposing man- ners, may go on healing year after year the cases aban- doned as incurable by physicians well equipped with so- cial influence, but poorly equipped with therapeutic re- sources, but society blindly follows fashion and ignores humble merit. Many a physician lives and dies in obscurity while performing cures which in those of more fortunate position would have been appreciated as wonderful. The most distinguished physician of this day, enjoy- ing the largest professional income, amounting at its height to a hundred thousand dollars per annum, was, although highly skilful in operative surgery, a medical barbarian in practice. That physician, Sir ASTLEV 76 Choice of Physicians. COOPER, was, according to authentic accounts utterly unfit to practice medicine. For we are informed in his biography by his nephew how wretchedly limited were his resources. The statement is as follows : " So sim- ple were Mr. Cooper's prescriptions, that he had five or six formulae, which under ordinary circumstances constituted his complete pharmacopoeia, and such medi- cines he kept constantly made up. . . . His remedies were limited in number and but little varied in use, for he never had any confidence in an extensive variety of medicines. I have heard him say, 'give me quinine, tartarized antimony, sulphate of magnesia, calomel and bark, and I could ask for little else.' ' The wretched ignorance expressed in this confession can be appreciated only by the well educated physician who knows how deplorable must be the results of a practice depending on such resources alone. Our present materia medica contains over one thousand remedies, and still is painfully inadequate, compelling a search for better resources. Yet the colleges have so much the spirit of Cooper that their instruction in materia medica is wretchedly inadequate. As the con- ditions of disease are infinitely diversified beyond the power of the human mind to conceive and recollect them or even to ascertain them without the aid of intuition, and as every different condition demands a different remedy, the attempt to practice the healing art with five remedies would be regarded by all enlightened physicians to-day as a very flagrant example of quackery. Psychometry pierces at once through all the surroun 1- ing ostentation to the real basis of professional charac- ter. To illustrate its power I submitted to Mrs. K the Choice of Physicians. 77 professional character of five whom I had well known as distinguished physicians of very different capacities, asking her to give their professional character as phy- sicians. No. i. The professor of practice to whose instructions I listened as a student fifty years ago was described as follows from an old letter. "He is not living." (What sort of a physician was he?) " In his particular line of practice he was well versed and might have been considered skilful. He had a good deal of magnetism, was very earnest and had great confidence in his doctrine, but I would not employ him." (Why?) "He may have understood anatomy well, but he was not progressive he never cared to change or to follow others ; he felt that he was always the best judge. He understood how to manage difficult cases, was a man of decision and a medical writer, but I would not like his drug practice he gave too large doses. He was considered an authority in trie profession but he did not apply progressive principles. He was a sincere and conscientious man, and had pro- fessional success and reputation, but was not generally successful with his patients. He got no new ideas and must have declined in his reputation. He was orthodox in religion and very tenacious in all his principles." This was Prof. John Esten Cooke, of Transylvania University, an honest and earnest man, author of a system of practice and of a volume on the "Invalidity of Pres- byterian Ordination " ; and one^ of the most perfect representatives of the horrible system of practice that prevailed in the Southwest half a century ago, when the majority of the sick were salivated by mercurials. 78 Choice of Physicians. He taught the heroic use of calomel as the leading agent in practice, beginning with twenty grains and doubling the dose on successive visits if necessary giving it in cholera in teaspoonful doses. To one of the theological students, a brilliant young man, Mr. Douglass, he gave altogether a pound and a half before he died, as I was informed by his friend, Rev. Mr. Brittan, who confessed to having taken three fourths of a pound himself from Dr. Cooke. The drift of Dr. Cooke's instruction was no better than the practice of Sir Astley Cooper. It conveyed the impression that nearly all diseases needed nothing but purgation by a pill compound of one grain each of calomel aloes and rhubarb. He did as the opinion says, "decline in reputation," for their was sufficient intelli- gence in the profession to realize after a time that his teaching was a medical barbarism, and his colleagues, unable to get rid of him in any other way, paid him a handsome bonus to procure his resignation. He was inaccessible to a new idea, and when at the residence of one of 'his friends, a trustee of the college, I made some demonstrations of the impressibility of the brain, the friend waited to hear his opinion of it after the company left, as a matter of science, but received only the remark, " I don't see how he can make any money out of it ! " Nor would he engage in the inves- tigation of the subject after being appointed on a committee for that purpose by the Board of Trustees, 'although the novel proposition which I presented were the most important which have ever been presented in the science of physiology, involving a complete demon- stration of the functions of the brain. Choice of Physicians. 79 No. 2 was described from an old letter as follows : "This is a man of intellect and appreciation, capable of receiving new ideas and*ready to acknowledge. He was a hard student loved to investigate and to prac- tise what he knew was never entirely satisfied with his knowledge. He would fall in with your ideas. He understood the use of medicines but did not give such heroic doses. He was a good surgeon and would prefer surgery to general practice, was skilful in that depart- ment, could set bones with great facility, always suc- cessful, made no mistakes. He had psychometric power. He had passed away a good many years. He was good in diagnosis, could feel the trouble in his patients, and was sympathetic. I would not fear to trust my life with him. He would be called in as counsel in difficult cases.*' (What system did he favor?) "He was Eclectic or progressive. He was very good in obstetrical cases but was inclined to surgery." (What was his constitution ?) "He was not robust but slender, would be likely to contract pulmonic dis- ease. He did not attain age, I don't think he was over fifty when he passed away." The entire description is very correct. The writer was my colleague, Dr. BENJAMIN L. HILL, professor of surgery in the Eclectic Medical Institute, a very skilful physician and surgeon with psychometric powers, great liberality and mental activity. He contributed much to the progress of the liberal movement hi medicine, accepted any demonstrations of Anthropology, and was the author of a system of surgery, one of the most valuable contributions to professional literature. 8o Choice of Physicians. He accepted Homoeopathy after giving it a practical trial. His constitution was delicate and he died of pulmonary disease as she indicated, though I have not the exact date No. 3 was described as follows, from the name : " I don't exactly fancy this man. He is rather selfish. He could talk well and lecture well. I think he was a professor and knew a great deal of anatomy, but did not know as much about the brain as he might. He made large pretensions to knowledge and speculated. He would not accept your reformatory ideas ; he was a narrow man. (What department of the profession was he devoted to?) He was good in obstetrics. He could lecture on surgery and would pay special attention to that, though he jnight have more attraction to other parts of the profession. He was probably a better operative surgeon than the last, was more dashing and fearless, having great confidence in himself, but was not as good a practitioner. He wrote well and had a very good reputation. Having a good deal of push he would rank among the first." This was the late Prof. S. D. Gross, of Philadelphia, eminent as a surgical professor and author. He could never be induced to pay any attention to my discov- eries in the brain, and courteously informed me by letter that it was impossible for my discoveries in reference to the materia medica to be brought before the National Medical Association because they were governed by the code and I was not. Hence it would be impossible even to have a committee of investigation appointed, and he advised me to bring my medical discoveries before some society not belonging to the medical profession, not Choice of Physicians. 8 1 perceiving that in giving such a recommendation he was uttering a satire upon himself and the Association by confessing their aversion to scientific progress which they could not control. A letter of Dr. Gross was one of the first four described by Mr. Inman, and his description was similar to the foregoing. No. 4 was described as follows : "This man was loyal to his profession, and would accept anything presented with good authority and utilize it. He was fond of experimenting had a good deal of brain power. He had a noble purpose. He guarded against imposition and fanciful ideas, and sought to have good authority for what he adopted. He was a well balanced man. It seems to me he published. He liked to get his ideas before the people. He was a very industrious man, not content to write prescriptions but looked into cases thoroughly to under- stand them. He accomplished much and attained some fame. He exerted a good influence in bringing forward new processes and diminishing drugging, but his views were not generally received. The profession was not prepared for such progress. His labors produced a good effect, increasing toleration and introducing a new system. He was profoundly eclectic. He discarded bleeding and harsh measures. He was a successful practitioner, very much like the second. I do not think he is living." This was a just and very accurate description of Dr. WOOSTER BEACH, the pioneer of the Eclectic reform in medical practice, whose three volumes of practice and surgery published more than sixty years ago, were at that time very far in advance of anything in medical 82 Choice of Physicians. literature. He will rank high in history as a reformer and benefactor to humanity. No. 5 was described as follows : "He was an American and above the usual size of Americans, had a large .brain, a great deal of will power and self-esteem. He was an independent thinker not intimidated by opposition, somewhat pugnacious as to doctrines and not sufficiently amiable to be generally popular. He was quite verbose and would make a stir in society. He had talent, was well read, and a good lecturer, clear headed, and popular with students, capable of lecturing on almost any medical subject, and felt that he had few superiors. He was progressive and somewhat original, would be apt to take hold of new ideas, especially phrenology, and was favorable to your ideas. He was in love with his profession, had great penetration and looked forward to results. He was fond of debating and wished to be regarded as understanding every great theme before the public. He was a very good lecturer, had a strong way of speaking. He travelled a good deal and lectured much more than he practiced. He could practice if required by necessity, but he preferred literature and lecturing. The leaders of the profession did not give him as much credit as he deserved, but considered him visionary as he was more progressive and independent." This is a very remarkable description of Prof. CHARLES CALDWELL, more vivid from impressions derived from an old letter written under excitement from the machina- tions of his colleagues. He was a man of commanding appearance and energy, of great learning, fluency and impressiveness. In his younger days he was a contem- Choice of Physicians. 83 porary and competitor of Rush. In his latter days he was a medical professor of Transylvania University, where I had the pleasure of attending his lectures in 1834. He was famous for his ability, his copious writings, his power as a lecturer, his self-esteem, and his progressive liberal independent views. His moral courage in sustaining Phrenology and Animal Magnet- ism against the hostility of the profession deserves great honor. Although the phrenology of Gall was an imperfect science, it had a large amount of demonstrated truth of which Prof. Caldwell became the American champion. His independence was shown in his cordiality toward my own discoveries, which he was about to present to the National Medical Association when his career was interrupted by death thirty-one years ago. The fact brought out in the description that he was a lecturer but not a practitioner was remarkable. During my acquaintance of twenty years he was not engaged in practice. This minute portraiture and exact estimate of charac- ter by psychometry is a transcendent marvel. In this case the description not only portrays the man perfectly but states exactly how he was regarded by the leaders of the profession. A man of Jess force of character would have been unable to sustain himself. I would be tempted to suspect that it was assisted by thought reading and owed its accuracy to my own knowledge of the subject, did I not know that the opinions are equally true when I have no knowledge of the subject ; and when letters come from unknown persons at great distances or specimens of writing are sent, her answers are as satisfactory to., the correspondents as the above 84 Choice of Physicians. descriptions are to myself. She is never confined to my knowledge of the subject or to the particular aspect it assumes in my mind. The next description I think equally remarkable. No. 6 was described as follows : "This is a physician of scientific mind, who has made a great name, a very earnest student. It is not Harvey, but he has made some reformatory discoveries. He was not a brilliant man, but would attract attention and respect. He had to wade through a great deal of opposition before attaining his highest success. He was educated in the old Allopathic system, and became disgusted with it and made innovations. Before he passed away he became a celebrity, and still he seems a modest man. He had a very stormy career there was so much opposition and satire all sorts of opposi- tion. He put his practice into print and wrote books on his system. He introduced a system entirely and radically new, which brought down all possible violence from the old practitioners, but he lived to see the benefit of his system. (What was he as a practitioner ? ) " In the beginning he felt unsatisfied with what he had been taught. He would be successful in- practice by his own system. He was skilful in diagnosis and prescriptions. He cared more for curing people than for the emoluments. He was a true physician. I think he was the discoverer of the infinitesimal doses." This was Samuel Hahnemann, and in this description we perceive an instantaneous grasp of the whole character and status of the man. Sometimes, as in this case, she seems to grasp the character instantaneously, Choice of Physicians. 85 especially when it is congenial, but in others less con- genial or easy to describe, she develops the character piecemeal and acquires the summary estimate only after studying its elements, so that the preliminary portion of the description, should be rejected as imper- fect. The description of Hahnemann is so perfect and concise that it 49 difficult for any one to realize that she did not know of whom she was speaking. My first experiments with Mr. Inman manifested as prompt and sometimes as delicate perceptions, but I have found no one with so complete and correct appreciation of every character investigated, however peculiar. Hence, I feel no doubt in relying upon her judgment of persons whose character is somewhat equivocal, and of literary or historical characters of whom I wish to speak ; and I feel safe in accepting her judgment of the founders of religions and the leaders in philosophy. HIPPOCRATES (following HOMER.) "This is not living. He is not as ancient as Homer but is an ancient scholar and writer. I think he wrote on medical subjects. He was very well versed in medi- cal science. He was a man of extraordinary intellect mental force. He was a great student of Nature. I think he knew something of hygiene, but not so much as we know to-day. He was a great botanist and understood the virtues of plants and trees. He wrote upon such subjects. He spent his time in making discoveries in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. " I think he founded a school. He understood the human constitution understood anatomy as well as it was known then. He knew more than his cotempo- 86 Choice of Physicians. raries on such subjects. He had a strong muscular constitution and great will-power. (What do you think of him as a physician ?) " I don't think he understood surgery. In many of his remedies there was a want of adaptation to the disease ; but he opened the way for others to follow. He left it in a crude state. He was a practical man guided by experience, mainly, but he had his theories. (What of his moral nature ? ) "He was a man of good character not a reckless man he had a religious nature. He left a good reputation. He is referred to to-day." (If he were here to-day what would be his medical policy ?) " He would adopt the eclectic practice." CHAPTER VII. PSYCHOMETRY IN POLITICS. Its importance in filling high offices President Cleveland an example Prophetic view of the election as to the four candidates Description of Gov. St. John Of Gen. Butler Of Mr. Elaine, coincident with the opinions of his opponents Authority of Psy- chometry as a tribunal Description of Gov. Cleveland, of Gen. Grant, of Samuel J. Tildeii Method of obtaining the descriptions Description of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine Of Bismark Of W. E. Gladstone Of D'Israeli Of Gen. Grant in 1885. If the claims of Psychometry as the interpreter of character are well grounded, it is a far more reliable guide than popular elections or the choice of electoral colleges for filling high offices, and when the people of the United States become sufficiently enlightened to be guided by it, we shall have a political millennium the country being ruled by the wisest and best. Pope says " For forms of government let fools contest That which is best administered is best." But the United States having an admirable form of government already, the able and wise administration which Psychometry might select would be such an improvement as to be properly called a political millen- nium. We are at the present time enjoying a slight intimation of what Psychometry might give us in Presi- dent Cleveland, who was psychometrkally indicated as the proper man for the Presidency. 87 88 Psychometry in During the late Presidential contest I sought the counsel of psychometry several times to determine for myself what was the comparative merit of the candidates and what were their prospects of success. A full report was made upon each of the candidates and this report I read to a public audience in Boston at Berkeley Hall, who received it with much apparent approbation. The question as to the result of the election was happily answered. BLAINE. When Mr. Blaine was described my ques- tion was, " What of his future ? " The reply came, " I think he will go on as he has. He has the greatest struggle now that he has ever had. He has no doubt of success. He thinks himself irresistible but I think he will fail, something will disappoint, but I can't see what, I can't explain. I believe this must be Blaine," which ended the description. Gov. ST. JOHN'S concluded as follows : " I believe he will establish a permanent and powerful party, and his career for the rest of his life will be very successful, but he will never be president." GEN. BUTLER was described as "aiming for office with a nomination for it, but I don't think he will succeed. ... He will live many years yet, and has a good chance to hold some prominent office again, but he will never be higher than governor." Of Gov. CLEVELAND after an accurate description had been given, I asked " Is he a candidate?" Reply, " I think he is, from the excitement connected with him." (If he is a candidate, what seems to be the probable result does he anticipate success?) "I think he Politics. 89 s he does not care a great deal about it, but for the principles of his party. Unless some great wrong is clone, I think he may be elected really and honestly, but how much fraud may come in I cannot see. There will be a terrible time in this election. There is a secret organization the people do not dream of for the purpose of defeating this man. It will be the most corrupt canvass ever known in this country. Still his chances are good, but I cannot be certain. Is it Cleve- land ? " (" It is.") " If the election is fair he will have the majority, but there is an underground force against him." Thus the description was emphatically against the success of each of the other three candidates when they were investigated separately and emphatically in favor of Cleveland's election if not interfered with by a fraudulent conspiracy of which she psychometrically recognized the existence, and of which the public saw some indication in the animus of the contending par- ties. She did not say that the conspiracy would be successful, but expressed an apprehension what was cer- tainly well founded. These impressions were confirmed by other psychometers of less reputation. As to the character and fitness of each of the candi- dates I obtained an accurate report. The following is the description of GOV. ST. JOHN. "This an entirely different character nothing like Blaine. It is a man of quiet unobtrusive nature com- pared to Blaine not pretentious or overbearing. He is a man of good impulses and good principles, also 90 PsycJiomctry in good judgment. He is an intellectual man a man of sterling qualities. " I would not call him a trimmer, but he has a good deal of policy and approbativeness would do some things for effect. He is an aspirant for office. He has .bright dreams for the future. He seems to have a good deal of repose of character. He is not a very magnetic man. He could win friends more by his seeming generosity, but he is not fond of display. "He would like an office for its emoluments and eclat, and he is a party man. He would work for his party, but there is a principle in it. He thinks his party is right and he would not work for a party that was not right. " There is a retirement in his nature. He does not really desire to be forced into politics, but he is. Possi- bly he is one of the candidates, I think he is. (For what is he a candidate ? ) It is not for governor, he is one of the candidates for president. He has held some office possibly he has been governor. "This man is not understood. He has better quali- ties than he is reported to have by his opponents, but he is not very sensitive to public opinion and can defend himself when necessary. He would be a good lawyer. He stirs up the thinking people, the judicious people not the rabble. (Q. What are his principles?) " He is a humanitarian. If fortunate enough to become President, he would make a good one. He would astonish the nation and do away with a good deal of the folly at Washington. He is not a showy man, does not care for show. I might call him a democrat Politics. 91 (Q. What are the most important principles he is concerned in ?) " He is an equal rights man and would give suffrage to women. He is very much interested in the latter question and in prohibition. I don't see wha he thinks of the tariff question. " I believe he will establish a permanent party, and his career for the rest of his life will be very success- ful though he will never be president." GEN. BUTLER was described as follows : " He is a person of research, who would have the capacity of making great researches. He would have succeeded well as an antiquarian. *"He seems a stout man, pretty well advanced in life, older than he looks to be. He has a very brilliant intellect and large brain. He has cultured his intellect and exercised his mental powers greatly though he does not seem a literary man. He has turned his mind greatly to the accumulation of wealth. " He would have succeeded in the clerical or medical profession, and it would have suited his nature better, but his inclination has been diverted and he has engaged in politics and legal practice. He is successful as a lawyer and has good practical ability. He possesses a great deal of zeal and throws his whole soul into what- ever he undertakes to do, and is a pugnacious man. "He aims high, desires a high position and works for it. He has very good oratorical powers, and is very clear in statement and throws a good deal of magnetism over his hearers. He has wit and sarcasm. "This man is not really understood. It is hard to make people understand him. His course excites preju- g2 Psychometry in dice and envy. He has many good impulses but is not uniform in his purposes does not always carry them out systematically and in order. In the past there have been breaks in his life work, some sort of change or interruptions. He has lent himself to the influence of party and mistakes in this way which have obscured him for a time. " He seems to have an independent set of principles which belong to himself and seem original. He wants to hold to his principles and yet hold on to the influence of party and is something of a trimmer, but does not lose sight of his principles. "He seems destined to wield considerable power in this country. He has already made himself a name in some way. I think he has a war record. He would favor the people of the working classes. He seems identified with them. "He is deeply interested in the present canvass aiming for office with a nomination for it, but I don't think he will succeed. He will not be a success in what he is aiming at. Those whom he considers his friends will not support him as he expects. For some reason he will not be able to hold them. But he will have a career. He will keep the people stirred up. He will live many years yet, and has a good chance to hold some prominent office but he will never be higher than governor." Of MR. BLAINE the description was powerful and graphic. It was admired as a descriptive sketch for its close and unmistakable fidelity, but I have decided not to insert it in this volume. I offered it to a Boston editor after the election and he expressed unwillingness Politics. 93 to publish anything which would revive the unpleasant memories of the recent contest in which his friends had been much divided. For a similar reason I shall omit it, though I esteem it a splendid illustration of psychometry. It embodied the same views of Mr. Blaine which were expressed and illustrated by his political opponents and the persons who had been intimately acquainted with him but independent enough to resist his influence. It was a thorough vindication of the independent Republican movement prompted by his moral obliquities which saved our country from a politi- cal calamity. It was remarked by Senator Wadleigh soon after the beginning of Cleveland's administration, that he had found no one who regretted having voted for Cleveland but many who regretted their vote for Blaine. Psychometry expressed in this as in other cases the verdict of the enlightened the verdict of public opinion after the excitement of the hour has subsided describing his remarkable abilities, his magnetic control of men, his remarkable career, and his final failure, with the opinion that "he would be a dangerous man in power." There is no better method than the psychometric of settling the debated questions that disturb society, and listening in advance to the voice of posterity. In the realm of divine intuition time is no barrier past and future are comprehended in the eternal Now. I have not failed to appeal to this power in reference to my own labors. Vanity and enthusiasm may deceive us, but psychometry may be the telephone of future ages, and fortified by their voice we can ignore 94 Psychometry in with equal ease the vulgar sentiment of the rabble and the pedantic assumptions of collegiate ignorance. I have weighed in the balance of Psychometry the claims not only of our own public men, but of men of other countries and times, whom I was interested to understand, and believe that I see them clearly, unhin- dered by the thick mists of history. In reference to Mr. Elaine, I have submitted his character to some of my psychometric pupils hoping that its dark shades might be softened by some one, but on the contrary the darker aspects of his character were stated in still more emphatic language. GOV. CLEVELAND. Of Gov. Cleveland the following description was given and was confirmed by other psychometers. "It seems a person in prominent position at the present time. There is not much bluster about him, not much self-conceit. I think he is modest. "He has dignity of character, and seems to have an inborn sensitiveness. I feel like going into his soul nature. He is a thinking man. He has a great deal of nobility of character is not at all selfish but is sometimes imprudent in small things. (I do not mean in business life.) In business he is a good man, wholly reliable and trustworthy, and of exceedingly just princi- ples. He seems to have a high sense of his moral obligations. He is not ostentatious. He has a keen sense of his own abilities, and would not undertake anything unless he knew he could fill the requirements. What he does he does well, no matter what it is. He is not lax in doing things. He looks high but has not Politics. 95 any particular aim as to his own aggrandizement he is not a vain man. " He holds a high position now, possibly in the politi- cal world." (g. What of his past and future ? ) " I am looking at the man and am attracted to his domestic nature. He has great filial love. There does not seem to be much domesticity about him. He don't seem to have had time to cultivate domestic life. His life has been filled with work or duties that precluded domestic life. " He is a comfortable looking man, as if the affairs of the world did not trouble him much. He is conscien- tious, very scrupulous and nice in his transactions. "I do not see any generalship. He never had a military career, he seems like a citizen. He has an army of friends. He is a hard and close worker." (g. What are his domestic relations?) "I don't see any domestic life around him. He has appreciation of women, but I see no family around him. His life in that respect is like the average of men. I don't think his associations would lead him to abandoned women. He is not a young man, and he might have had some unpleasant relations with women in early life like other men, but he is not a bad man in any way. "A great many people envy him, they don't wish to do him any bodily injury ; but would like to defame him if they could. "He would be a splendid manager. He has great ability for managing large things has great foresight, (}6 Psychometry in shrewdness and keen judgment. He seems now like a statesman but not a diplomatic man." (Q. How would you like to place him ? ) "He could conduct the affiairs of a nation with a good deal of system and do honor to the position. If the people should nominate him and place him in the White House, it woqld be the best thing for the country. He seems much like President Buchanan as a dignified gentleman. He would give dignity to the position better than any one who has been there for years. I begin to think this is Gov. Cleveland. He seems to have some relation to the White House." (Q. Is he a candidate ? ) "I think he is from the excitement connected with him." (Q. If he is a candidate what seems to be the probable result does he anticipate success?) "I think he does he does not care a great deal about it but for the principles of his party. Unless some great wrong is done I think he will be elected really and honestly, but how much fraud may come in I cannot see. There will be a terrible time this election. There is a secret organization, the people do not dream of for the purpose ef defeating this man. It will be the most corrupt canvass ever known in this country. Still his chances are good, but I cannot be certain. Is it Cleveland?" (A. It is.) "If the election is fair he will have the majority, but there is an underground force against him. I have not said half I might say of his intcior character." Politics. 97 GEN. GRANT. (After the description of Alexander of Russia, Dec. 26, 1879.) " This character is more humane not so tyrannical. He trusts to his own judgment. He has greater ability for conducting military campaigns, and would have more humane feelings. He would surrender a claim sooner than shed much blood. He does not love war, would seek peace, but would not be considered a coward. " He is a pillar of strength. He holds power individ- ually it is innate." (What has been his career?) " He has advanced by degrees as stepping stones. He is far-seeing, far-reaching. He has a great ambition, likes to rule. His ambition has been gratified. He has held a high position as a ruler, but is dethroned is not in power now. He would not be averse to making his mark again in war. His ambition is not dead. He aims at political power, seeks it by his emissaries- or friends who adhere to him. He could command all the money he would need. He is not making it manifest, but waiting developments, expecting and prepared." (Will his anticipations be fulfilled ? ) " I fear not to his entire satisfaction, that he will not attain as much as he wishes. He feels sad. He would like to be on the same pedestal as before, and promises to himself tc rule in a different way more humanita- rian, but he fears disappointment. I feel that it is doubtful. If war takes place he would be brought forwaid, but 1 think he will be disappointed in attaining 98 Psychometry in the position he had before. There will be rivalry. Rivals will leave nothing undone to defeat him." (Look to the future for a few years ? ) " I see in the future pleasant surroundings, a charm- ing landscape, happiness and content are there." (What is the cause or the source of his power?) "I think he has inspiration. He has through his lineage spirits that come and take possession of him old spirits Jewish some of them." (From which parent did he derive this ? ) "From his mother. He is clairvoyant but does not know it. Ideas come to him that surprise him, he has prophetic ideas. He does not show out as many do but has an interior nature. He has great determination and courage, does not know fear, has great hopes." SAMUEL J. TILDEN (Sept. 4, 18/9). "This is a male person, and one who figures or has figured extensively and is well known. He might possibly over-reach himself, but he is cautious and methodical. He adjusts things very nicely, he is quite adroit. " He does not seem to be one who has figured in the literary world or as an author, but is intellectually great and looked up to. He writes a great deal and has an extensive correspondence. "He occupies or has occupied a very high position in life, and would make a great many firm friends and has many enemies. His attributes of character do not make men hate him, but he is bold and would make enemies. " He wields or has wielded power though not at all Politics. 99 military, but is a man of the people a politician and a strong one. He does not mean to be a trickster, but persons would sometimes construe him as one. He acts from his best impulses and what seems to him right. He's not absolutely selfish, but not a humanita. rian, he never took part in any humanitarian movement, but in case of suffering would give willingly. He does not embrace advanced ideas, but is genial with his friends. "He would acquire wealth and has acquired it, but is not a Vanderbilt or Stewart. I feel that he has held high position in a political career. He aims at the highest office that could be offered him, and likes popu- larity for the sake of carrying his points. To some he is agreeable, but to others he is cold and reserved, but is popular with many friends. Yet there are many who are adverse to him and do not wish to se^him elevated. They regard him with jealousy and fear- They misconceive him and blame his acts which he considers right. " In political matters he would not be a philanthropist but a politician, yet he would be strict and discreet and disappoint his enemies at the same time sticking to his principles. He would show more greatness if he had the opportunity of the high office he desires, and would disappoint his enemies. " He is naturally selfish in business and would con- sider self chiefly. He has great will-power and thinks a great deal of himself but I don't think he is dishonest. He could be trusted. He would not go to work to carry on *a fraud but would look sharply to advance his own interests. He would oppose fraud and try to bring loo Psychometry in it to light for the public good, even if his friends were in the fraud. He would dare to expose them, for he is fearless and aims high, having great ambition. He is cunning and adjusts his decisions and speeches to the question of popularity. " He has large hopes and is not to be disheartened, and will work to carry his aim, having much power over others, but there are too many obstacles for his political success." These portraitures of public men may be read by many to whom Psychometry is unfamiliar, and who would have great difficulty in realizing that any one can give so accurate a description of a person of whom they knew nothing before, and whom they describe merely by listening to the inner voice of intuition, guided by the impressions coming through the fingers without the slightest intimation whom the person may be whether male or female, young or old, living or dead, honorable or criminal, gifted or idiotic. Such persons must by force of habit suspect that in some way the psychome- ter received some hint or was guided by leading ques- tions, or saw something to guide the mind in a picture or autograph. I can only assure them that no such hints or assistance have been tolerated, that the thing described is always kept invisible, that leading questions are carefully avoided, and that sometimes descriptions are given without a single question being asked. Knowing the reliability of psychometry I am very careful to avoid anything which could influence the imagination or make any impression on the mind, as such impression might tend to impair the photographic accuracy of psychometry. An opinion may be given of Politics. 10 1 one whom she knows, but the probability is that it would not be as searching, accurate, and impartial as if all knowledge had been excluded. To very skeptical minds all evidence loses its value when it concerns matters beyond the range of their experience and contrary to their fixed opinions. Such persons can learn only by their personal experience, and therefore when I assure them that we have in the United States a hundred thousand persons in whom psychometrical power can be developed, they may realize that perhaps I am not indulging in delusions but simply dispelling a vast amount of ignorance which pervades our literature, science, and collegiate instruc- tion. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE (Dec. 14, l88o). "This is a spirit. There's more warmth in this brain than in Swedenborg's. It gives me great fulness of the whole forehead. He was full of intellect his brain was a great workshop. " He was a self-made man had no great advantages in youth. It was not till he arrived at manhood that he got into the sphere nature intended. He studied very hard and came out a self-reliant man of genius. Growing out of books he threw away authors and dis- approved of others opinions generally. " He seems to stand alone. He did not identify him- self with any religious or political sect, but stood isolated. He felt like breaking up the old systems and traditions. Nothing would suit him better than to rush on and demolish the past. He did not believe in tradi- tions or the Bible ; he was skeptical. IO2 Psychometry in " He seems somewhat philanthropic for the public good and philosophized in that direction. He was industrious and energetic, singular in deportment, careless in his habits. Society rather feared him. He was not popular except with a few friends. He was regardless as to people's opinions. He did not covet riches, but loved fame, power and popularity. He attained distinction. He could rouse great interest in himself and obtain great applause. - He could talk well. "He never was quiet. He delighted to break up the old order, though I would not call him a disorganizer. He was ambitious to be known as a leader in politics. If he could get the supreme authority he would not hesitate to do dark deeds. I don't know that he would murder, but he would commit crimes." (How does he compare with Caesar ? ) "I do not like him as well as Caesar. He has not the same grandeur of character. His love of power would lead him to do things Caesar would not have done. He would undermine friendships. He had great secretive- ness and employed spies and did many things that were not just. He would betray a trust. His love of fame and power overpowered his better qualities. "He had considerable love, but more of lust. He loved women and they liked him. He had a command- ing power over women irresistible. " In private life he might be truthful and honorable, but in everything that concerned ambition he was unscrupulous and not to be trusted. He was a skilful liar. " After all he had a love of flattery and did not try to see through it. He was really great and grew in power Politics. 103 naturally. He had military skill on sea and land. He was not a mere general but a commander-in-chief of armies. He cared not how anything was done if it was done. He was very successful and a great conqueror, but after all was not satisfied. His latter years were passed in seclusion. He looked at his past as being all vanity. " He loved more than one. He had control of women mistresses. He loved his first wife and always respected her more. There was one woman who was equal to any emergency. She seemed to control him or keep him in his place a mistress perhaps. She had a high temper. "He was a benefit to the world, for he was a grand mover, stimulated people, .brought out their energies. "His character is not to be admired. He has a similar character in the spirit world, but he would be a different man now, a powerful spirit. His grand work now would be to apply his great ideas to philanthropy. His first wife instructs him now. JOSEPHINE (Oct. 19, 1880). " This is a woman a character noted for gentleness and humane qualities. Her deeds shone out in great brightness, she was a humanitarian. " She is not living now. Was she not the wife of a king ? " (Yes.) " Her subjects adored her for her many grand qualities. She had a troubled life, not caused by herself or her own acts. Had she not some trouble with her husband ? " (Yes.) " I feel that he was tyran- nical and cruel. He was not careful of her nature or about wounding her feelings. He could not appreciate IO4 Psychometry in her love and tenderness. There is a warring element here. She had some deep sorrow in her life. There was a spirit of turbulence and jealousy about her it seemed like a conspiracy in which women were con- cerned and her husband's tyranny and jealousy. "Her best talents from nature were never fully developed in consequence of her marriage. It was not a love marriage. " She was religious and devotional. She had the capacity in society to attract always distinguished personages. She did not always seek them, but loved the people and helped the unfortunate. She was noted for her benevolent sympathetic nature. "In her love she would compare with Cleopatra though less voluptuous. She had great power of attrac- tion for men of the highest rank and literary men. She was fond of art. She would not rule with as much force as Cleopatra ; her disposition was more amiable, not so wilful." (Was she an authoress ?) " She could have been, she had the ability, but I don't think she was. "Her taking off was rather unnatural. Was not there a separation from her husband ? She suffered terribly from jealousy. "Now she is all right brilliant her whole nature free, and would seem changed but not so, only devel- oped fully. She takes a great interest in social ques- tions. She is not in the same work as her husband. He is not her spirit mate unless he has changed greatly. They come together because she is developing him but they are not spiritually mated. She is very fresh and Politics. 105 youthful very impulsive much like Serafina. She has great dignity but simplicity. All her acts are char- acterized by gentleness and simplicity. She never repelled any one. She seems like a Spanish or Greek or Roman character." BISMARCK (Jan. 3, 1880). " This is a male. He desires to wield power would like to attain eminence without chicanery (this remark was in contrast to a politician previously described) by his ability. He don't want any bombast or false state- ments. " He holds an office of some kind and of great power immense power, in state affairs. His word is re- spected. He is naturally authoritative and dogmatic but modifies this appearance by his policy and by some wit or humor." (Q. What are his leading motives ?) "His motives are selfish self first the public next. He is not philanthropic but patriotic. "He has a great brain a remarkable insight into governmental affairs, their rights and wrongs. He is a great statesman in high position. He is jealous of Russian power and despotism. People from his country are under Russian rule." PRINCE BISMARCK OF GERMANY. The foregoing words unseen in the hands of the Mrs. B, (April 29, 1885) elicited the following: 'This is a very bright active mind seems to be ever on the alert. There is a peculiar keenness about this character. It is an exceedingly adroit mind pen- 106 Psychometry in etrating and far-seeing. It seems like something I have read before (She had described Bismarck some years previously). "I think it is a man. There are many strides in his life, or epochs. He has lulls and then goes on and makes his mark. I cannot express all that I perceive. This character does not require pushing. He has so much spontaneity, he is ready and alert when called on. I should not be surprised if he is a military man he understands military operations. " He is a diplomatic man. I don't think he would favor war, or willingly engage in it. He would not en- gage in war on account of prestige, but would use a different policy, and endeavor to settle difficulties, so that the governments could feel that they had not yielded or conceded. His policy has great ingenuity and skill. Is he a general or something higher he seems something higher in command than a general. He has a great deal of friendliness in his nature toward his friends and honorable opponents." (How does he exercise his power ?) " He is commanding much depends upon his word. He has a power like an emperor or president, but has not as strong a control of the government as he would like. His principles altogether are not just what you would consider correct, but he is disposed to be benevo- lent and not in any way revengeful or cruel. He has good sympathies is a sympathetic man when called out and has some sentiments of devotion. He might be called a religious man. He exercises his authority by speech as much as any other way he addresses hi s people. His delivery is clear, deep and fervid not Politics 107 boisterous or loud. If he is engaged in war, it would be more defensive than aggressive." (What is his nationality ?) " He seems like a German. He is a great statesman. He has great diplomacy. I am sure I know who it is.'' (What are his views as to war between England and Russia ?) "He will make an effort to avert it though he looks upon it as a foregone conclusion. He has been watch, ing this thing a long time. In his real sentiments he sympathizes with England, but it would not do to show his feelings, as he wishes to avert it. It would give him great pain to see these nations go into war. I must tell you this is Bismarck. He is not indifferent as to the war. Both nations have respect for him. He can. not remain indifferent. I think even now he is maturing some plans to secure peace. He feels that it is not al- together under his control I feel that he is not at rest he is using his pen at this time. [At that moment it was about one o'clock P. M. at Berlin]. "He has had much controversy on this subject, as to the plans of negotiation and the management of the army not with the emperor who favors peace, but others. There is a class in Germany who would like to see war not a large element nor of the best classes." (How does he compare with Gladstone ?) "Gladstone is more cool and deliberate and more phil- anthropic I like him best. Bismarck is more diplo- matic and authoritative." W. E. GLADSTONE. The first psychometric investigation of Mr. Gladstone Io8 Psychometry in by Mrs. B, at New York, Sept. 25, 1882, was published as follows in a London journal, with the editorial re- mark, " Mrs. Buchanan's psychometry seems to be of a wonderful character. There is an incisive grasp about the delineation of Mr. Gladstone, which carries conviction of truth with it." DESCRIPTION. " I feel so much power and activity of brain ! So very clear and cautious ! It seems to me this is a man that holds a great deal of power at this present time ; one who is swaying the public mind. "This man is remarkably far-sighted, shrewd, and ex- ecutive a tactician, or one who has great tact. " I feel so much heat in the blood ! This man's brain is so intense ; a man could not live with such intensity all the time but he is living, and will live. "I feel that he is ruling a great ruling power, like generalship not as king, or emperor, but guiding and directing. He is full of courage, but does not aim at the aggrandizement of personal ambition. He seems like a man whose ambition would lead him to benevo- lent designs not benevolent exactly, but humane and statesmanlike, for the general good. He seems to have strategy, being far-seeing; strategy to counteract op- posing forces or designs. I feel all filled with fire and energy to accomplish a certain purpose. He does not fail in any great purpose, or cause, he might be called to defend. He is a valorous man a man fearless in times of great trouble, and very cool. He seems born for what he is. Nature has endowed him with fine capa- Politics. 109 bilities ; but he is highly cultured, has studied hard looked into causes. " I think this is not an American ; though I think he speaks the English language. He seems more like an Englishman. Am I correct in that?" (Reporter: "Yes.") "He seems to me like a person who would have to rest. He needs rest at this present time rest for his brain he's been so long in action. Oh, this is terrible ! It gives me pain in the temples. [Pressing her hands on her temples.] Oh, what a mental strain he has had ! Such sleepless nights ! He's been en- gaged among some wonderful scenes, where responsi. bility rested upon him, and he has not thought of self. Oh, such terrible things he has passed through ; he has been wonderfully tortured in mind. He is a soldier a wonderfully astute and clear-headed general he keeps his own counsel. He would not be afraid to go into action into active duty on the field of bat- tle. I must hold my head and rest a little." [She presses her hands upon her head.] (Reporter : " What has he been attending to, or con- ducting lately?") " I feel that he has had to do with a turbulent condi- tion it seems like war. Yes, cannonading, all kinds of missiles of warfare. He has been directing it, as some great director at the helm." (Reporter : " Is there anything else that engages his attention ?") " It is hard to get away from that I have been talking about. I am waiting to see if he is a literary man. He is very intellectual, and has talent for literature. 1 1 Psychometry in "He has always occupied high places. I don't think he can be ranked as a literary man, but he is fond of literature. His mind would run more to State and government than to literature. "He's a man of great decision would not change his mind from sympathy with surroundings. He is not easily turned, for he decides with great deliberation and coolness. He is a man in whom the people have great confidence. He shows the people that he is humane. If he were a ruler, he would be compassionate and just to his subjects he seems almost in such a capacity. He sways great power, and has to do with European Powers seems to be constantly dictating. He's a strict adherent to the honor of his country a true Englishman in that respect. " Oh, now, I begin to think this is the Queen's Premier, Gladstone. He's so grand so thoroughly English." (Reporter ; " You are right. Tell us his policy as to Ireland and Egypt") " He is Ireland's best friend, and he will make them see it yet. He will exercise a humane policy towards Ireland, and they will give him praise for his acts to- wards them. " He don't concede very much don't yield, but he seems ever prompted by a spirit of justice. He is not an intriguer. As to Egypt, his action will be concilia- tory he will be a great assistant. He will assist the Khedive, and be an adviser and co-operate in the best means to bring that country up to its proper standing among other nations. He will encourage self-depen- dence. He would desire to establish harmony of Politics. 1 1 1 feeling with that country as an ally of England, and that will be the case. The better spirit of both coun- tries will be brought out. He will avoid collision with other countries if possible : when war can be averted he will avert it, but when it is inevitable he will be equal to task." Another investigation of Mr. Gladstone was made on the 23d of April, 1885, when the war with Russia was by many considered inevitable, and I felt curious to know how the subject appeared in her mind. The im- pression of Gladstone from his photograph followed immediately that of Shakespeare before its influence had subsided. The following was her expression : "This too seems a literary man a man of genius. But I feel very restless something comes in as a shad- ow over me. I feel a great deal of life in him he is living. He holds a high position, with a high standard of intellect people admire him toady to him. "It is an agreeable influence but restless. He has something to do with government affairs affairs of the country. He is not hopeful and bright at this time. Things he has most at heart are not successful or pro- mising as he wishes. I think he feels as if a crisis is coming on in his life that may turn out badly for his plans badly for the country to its disadvantage. Is it not Mr. Gladstone ? It is like him ; but I feel a restlessness I did not feel from him formerly. I am in too much sympathy with him to describe him well." (It is Mr. Gladstone. What does he think on the question of peace or war ?) " I think he feels hopeful and still doubtful though hopeful it may be averted. He thinks there is a great deal of treachery on the part 112 PsycJwuietry in of his foreign opponents and some of his own country too." (Does he anticipate mediation ?) "Yes, he looks to some power interfering and pacifying the Russian government. His physical condition is improved since my last description." As to the restlessness and the feeling of treachery at home and abroad, Mr. Gladstone with his family and guests had been interrupted at breakfast that morning (April 23d) by the sound of the explosion at the Admiralty office (suspected to be caused by Fenians). In addition to the threatening position of Russia, France was threatening Egypt on account of the suppression of the Bosphore Egyptian newspaper in which England was necessarily involved. D'ISRAELI, THE STATESMAN AND AUTHOR. "This is a man. He does not seem living (You are right). He seems to have left a record which has done him justice. He is not. a man to make many enemies. He was a great thinker and hard student. He had a philosophic mind, sound and clear. He was intellectual and could write or talk on almost any theme with fluency. "He seems a literary man. He aimed at literary notoriety. But he was placed in some prominent posi- tion where he swayed a great deal of influence. He acted in a satisfactory manner. His career was an enviable one. He ranked among the higher powers. If American, he would rank as high as President. He was not despotic, but had a good deal of the American spirit/' Politics. 1 1 3 (What was his language ?) " He understood several. He was a scholar, a fine linguist, understood French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew." (What would be his policy in government ?) "Some- what like Mr. Gladstone's, but a little more arbitrary. He has a great deal of decision of character. He does not decide hastily gives a great deal of thought to a subject. He has travelled and familiarized himself with various affairs and seems almost to have lost his nation- ality. It is difficult for me to decide on it. " After deliberating, he would act with a great deal of promptness. He would put down a rebellion with a great deal of energy. He was judicious, but he would never retract." (What would be his policy as to peace or war?) "He would take great pains to conciliate, but when nations were aggressive, he would put them down with a great deal of vigor." (What do you think of him as a speaker ?) "He was very forcible in language and manner. His energy would be much like that of Jackson. There was a great deal of magnetism in his voice. His points in argument were very clear. He would bring down a great deal of applause. He always made his speeches tell. It feels to me as if he was a Member of Parlia- ment. There was a great deal of the Parliamentary about them. He observed Parliamentary rules and etiquette." "To compare him with our orators and statesmen, he was more like Clay than any I can think of." (What was he in society ?) "I should think he was a great favorite with Queen 1 14 Psychometry in Victoria. His policy and character were such she would look upon him with great favor. In social life he was at home with ladies a friend to women. In his do- mestic life he was all right, had no discord, was har- moniously situated." (What was his literary life?) "The Hebrew language comes to my mind. It seems to me he was a novelist (Like whom ? ) More like D'Israeli than any one I can think of." (How does his public career compare with D'Israeli?) " I believe it is he. I am startled with the resem- blance it is so close a resemblance he must have the same blood in his veins." (You are right. How does he appear to compare with Gladstone according to your impressions of each ? ) Holding the two pictures she replied : " He has more ingenuity and policy. . His love of approbation is greater. He would throw more energy in his speeches, but Mr. Gladstone would be more im- pressive. They would address different feelings. I should prefer Mr. Gladstone's policy he is more tole- rant and would take more pacific measures in foreign difficulties. Their dispositions are different, but they are true to their positions, and viewed difficulties in the same light, but would have different modes of settling them." (How would it be as to Ireland ? ) "D'Israeli would consider them a difficult people to deal with, and would employ very strict measures. Gladstone, would be more tolerant. He would employ a firm, decided method, but would endeavor to make them feel that their government was not oppressive." Politics. 115 In the foregoing opinion, it is quite characteristic that she should be puzzled as to the nationality of D' Israeli. His Jewish extraction and peculiar character would not suggest an Englishman. Of the character and career of D'Israeli she knew very little, and the impressions were quite new. to her mind. GEN. U. S. GRANT (May IO, 1885). " This gives me a headache. I feel brain-weary, as if overtaxed. I think it is a man who studies. He is engaged in some mental work that calls for a great deal of strength, and draws upon his memory of events. I don't know what it is ; he does not seem an ordinary literary character not like the old poets or historians. I get a fresh feeling as if it were just now. " What an eventful career ! It seems to me like a person who had originated humbly was in ordinary life with nothing in his early manhood that showed .any capacities beyond ordinary men. "There was some occurrence, some universal agita- tion, some sudden call for * energy and activity, what can it be? it seems like war. I am all stirred up; something has called him out, brought out his capacities and ingenuity, and placed him in high position. "It seems a person of no ordinary power. I feel as if being braced up by the situation, physically and men- tally. He is alive. Some overshadowing condition brought out his shrewdness and executive ability, all going in one direction, for one purpose. I don't yet see what it is. "Now I see it. He is a military man, a soldier. He is not one who would give up a cause he had espoused. 1 1 6 Psychometry in He seems almost like a tiger in his strength, he holds on so to his will his wonderful will-power and sagacity in military tactics. "I feel that this man is one of the great successful generals in our late war ; not a Confederate, a Union man : but what has that to do with the literary work that I felt at first ? " His popularity did not cease with the close of the war. It was greater then than ever. He had none before the war. This war brought out and developed characteristics which he did not know existed. Had it not been for the war, this man would have been a com- mon citizen. He had not ambition to go in pursuit of fame." (What was the nature of his powers ?) "He had an iron will. He was a bold man had no trepidation though he did not court personal danger. He was wise in laying his plans, and very adroit in his movements. He has a great deal of intuitive power, but it does not display itself in ordinary life. In mili- tary affairs he took in the whole situation by intuition ; he was intuitive in selecting officers, and in giving orders. " He is a politician, a radical politician. He would stand by his party and his country. He loves power, and his whole military career was a successful period - everything tended to success. He carried the un- bounded good wishes of the people with him." (To what result ?) " I see him holding a very prominent office ; I see him travelling. The people had great confidence in him, Politics. 117 and wished to give him a position to show their grati- tude. They made him President. " Now I think this is Gen. Grant. I see him as President. (Tell us of his present condition?) "At first I felt the pressure on the intellectual facul- ties from drawing too sharply on his memory. Now that I know who it is, I don 't wish to speak of his con dition, but he is not going to pass away soon. His will-power will keep him alive, but I do not wish to speak of it" What but a marvellous intuition transcending all conceivable laws of mind, could produce such a portrait of Gen. Grant from impressions received only by the touch of a picture unseen. It gave her instantaneously a sympathy with his condition at that moment wearied by the work on his memoirs, and from that perfect sympathy she evolved his whole life, and could, if ques- tioned have given far more in detail. The remark that he would have been but a common citizen if the war had not called him out, and developed his powers, and that his success was due to an iron will and an intuitive comprehension of the military situation, a comprehen- sion not shown in ordinary business, shows a thorough understanding of the man. General Badeau says of Grant in a recent essay : " Grant's genius was always ready ; it was always brightest in an emergency. All his faculties were sharpened in battle ; the man who to some seemed dull or even slow, was then prompt and decided. When the circumstances were once presented to him, he was never long in determining. He seemed to have a facility Ii8 Psychometry in Politics. of penetrating at once to the heart of things. He saw what was the point to strike, or the thing to do, and he never wavered in his judgment afterward, unless of course, under new contingencies. Then he had no false pride of opinion, no hesitation in undoing what he had ordered ; but if the circumstances remained the same, he never doubted his own judgment." The immediate sympathy of the psychometer with Grant before describing his character or realizing it was shown in feeling his physical condition his brain wearied with the tax on his memory. The experiment was at four o'clock in the afternoon, and dispatches published the next day showed that he was at this time engaged on his book, and had spent several hours upon it the day before. General Sherman said of Grant, according to a cor- respondent of the Montreal Gazette, when asked why he recognized Grant's superiority, " Because, while I could map out a dozen plans for a campaign, every one of which Sheridan would swear he could fight out to vic- tory, neither he nor I could tell which of the plans was the best one ; but Grant, who simply sat and listened and looked, while we had been talking over the maps, would at the end of our talking, tell us which was the best plan, and in a dozen or two words the reason of his decisions, and then it would all be so clear to us that he was right, that Sheridan and I would look at each other and wonder why we hadn't seen the advan- tage of it ourselves." CHAPTER VIII. PSYCHOMETRY IN LITERATURE. Value of Psychometry in furnishing correct and condensed views of his- torical and literary characters and questions. Psychometric descriptions of Lord Bacon, Baron Humboldt, Dr. Gall, Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Prof. Tyndall, Prof. Huxley, John Stuart Mill, Shakespeare, Milton, Sir Walter Scott, Homer, Victor Hugo. Literature, history and biography furnish an immense mass of material, the mastery of which would require a much longer period than any human life even were it not involved in the trouble and difficulties of controversy and criticism. Yet every one who aspires to an honora- ble rank in general intelligence desires to have a sum- mary conception of whatever is most important in these three fields of knowledge. Psychometry renders such a periscope possible for those who are not professional literati, and who have no time to burden themselves with useless knowledge. It gives us a distinct and compact conception of all who have figured in the past or are conspicuous to-day, and saves us from the necessity of reviewing old discussions and burdening the mind with a multitude of remote incidents that have little or no bearing on present affairs. It gives us correct estimates of the past with its personalities and its important questions and throws a light upon personal character which renders our read- ing far more satisfactory and instructive. Moreover, it T2O Psychometry in pronounces the sentence of justice upon all that is past as well as upon that which is contemporary. From my portfolio of psychometric investigations I have selected the following reports as specimens of the application of Psychometry in the investigation of literary character. LORD BACON. " This is a man not a modern character he belongs to the past but is not one of the ancients. He was a man of great ability and prominence, of marked intellectuality and a great deal of mental power. It stimulates me, I feel it in the region of firmness. He had pride and ambition. He had a great deal of sway- ing power. I think he is known and quoted now. " I don't consider him an evenly balanced mind. He was subject to moods, and was not always to be depended upon. ' (What sort of a life did he lead ?) " A life of excitability. He kept things stirring all the while. He was in the political world. He was not an amiable man. People served him more through fear than love. He was an over-weening man. I don't fancy his principles. He was revengeful and loved to display his power. His integrity was not reliable. He was traitorous, false to his friends. I should fear him as an enetny. He had no conscientious scruples in gaining his purposes. He would not treat women properly as human beings but would only use them for his purposes. " He was eminently intellectual. He was a writer. He wrote on deep subjects. I do not exactly see what they were they were deep and far-reaching. He was too critical to give any one much credit. I think he would write on philosophical subjects, embracing sci- ence, religion, church and state. " He was a very attractive author and attained a very Literature. 12 1 high reputation. He has been much admired and much criticised in later times. He was more distinguished in literary than political life." (With whom was he acquainted as his contempora- ries ?) [After a pause.] " It seems to me that it was under the reign of Elizabeth. He held some appointment under her. I think he knew Shakespeare. I feel that he lived in a bloody period. His career was restless and varied. He had periods of adversity and prosperity. He left a high character among literati, but he lived in a licentious age and he was a licentious man. His character is not esteemed by those who know it." Another very graphic description of Lord Bacon was given psychometrically by Mrs. Hayden as follows : " This is a different character altogether (referring to Dr. Harvey whom she had just described). He is more jocose, would not take things to heart too seriously. He is a quick thinker, quick in speech and in action, elevated, enjoying wealth, power, and luxury, not ab- stemious. There's a jovial, rollicking, reckless spirit. His moral character is far inferior to Harvey's," (What of his intellectual powers ?) "They are very fine. It seems such a pity to see such a noble intellect connected with such reckless profligacy. Whatever came from his pen was brilliant and grand. He might write his best after a debauch, perhaps half drunk. He was a spendthrift regardless of the future. He could get money easily, spend it, be reduced to poverty and rise again. But he had a splen- did intellect. What an abortion of a superior man ! He is indeed a remarkable character. He has been dead a long time, I can't define it exactly." (Were there any remarkable events in his life?) " It was full of the most remarkable events. He was from the lowest stage to the highest, a life most event- ful. I think he would do impudent daredevil things 122 Psychometry in nobody else would dare to do. He had no special moral nature but was at times scrupulously refined ; at other times cared neither for women nor anything else. I never felt so remarkable a character. He had a nobleness and independence that was really grand. Money was used only for his pleasure. " He wrote and his writings were brilliant. He was brilliant as a philosopher, with large causality, large perceptions and intuition. He had a fine education and a great command of language. All through his writings were striking sentiments and expressions. He was not scientifically profound like Harvey : he was more brilliant than scientific ; he was more original than Harvey. He detested plagiarism and borrowed from nobody." (Could he have written Shakespeare's plays ?) " Yes, he could have written them. The passages of doubtful chastity would have suited him. He certainly wrote plays, and the language of his plays was charac- teristic. There is a good deal of similarity intellectually. He was equal to Shakespeare if not superior, with a more refined education. . . . But he did not seek fame though he had it. He would as lief be regarded as a notorious roue. He was sensual and shameless. He handled money loosely and made it fly not like Harvey who handled his money carefully." These two terse and emphatic descriptions make quite a complete picture of Bacon. Either of the psy- chometers could have told the whole story and eluci- dated many other points in Bacon's character and his- tory, if the examination had been more prolonged and I had questioned them as witnesses to develop all they could discover. But I had never adopted this method, preferring a spontaneous description of the salient points that impress themselves on the psychometer, and not desiring to tax their mental energies by any fatigue ing task. Literature* 123 In this, as in all my reports of psychometric descrip- tions, I perceive a remarkable clearness and comprehen- siveness of statement such as might be made by one entirely familiar with the life work of the subject. No one fully acquainted with Bacon's career could have spoken more clearly and comprehensively. His profli- gacy, treachery, licentiousness, malignity, versatility, restlessness, sudden reverses, intellectual brilliance, famous authorship and even the modern criticism to which he has been subjected were all stated, and his career located under Queen Elizabeth. Pope did not understand him any better when a century after Bacon's death he called him " the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." BARON HUMBOLDT. " This seems like a philosopher who has passed away, he is not living. He was a scientist. He is a great scholar and student, always engaged in the pursuit of knowledge. I think him a great man. He was warm- hearted, genial and temperate. He was fond of writing upon deep questions. It seems as though he did every- thing. He was a broad man in every sense of the word, nothing narrow or stinted about him. He was not an American, I think his nationality might be Ger- man. His nation would be very proud of him. He did a great deal for his country but not as a military man, yet his opinions would be freely given on those subjects. He was not a novelist, he did not write light literature. He was engaged in discoveries, being very scientific. He was esteemed very highly as an author. He was very liberal in his religion but had not much of what the church would call religion, possibly they might call him an infidel. " It gives me the feeling of plunging into nature, her physical and occult forces." 124 Psychometry in (What sciences would it be ?) " I don't know unless it is the science of the universe. He would look into the origin of races and sociological subjects. He was a fine linguist. There was no science out of his reach. He is quoted as an authority. He had a capacious brain and physical endurance to write and give out his views. He attended to medical science but it was not very prominent, and was interested in chemistry. He was a very critical observer and criti- cised sharply the productions of others who differed with him. He was rather iconoclastic and keen in his replies. He was not speculative but solid. " I like him very much. I would have liked him as a man. He had a genial happy temperament. " He occupied a very high position ; he associated with the highest classes, and royalty they felt honored by his presence but he was not strictly a society man. He did not look down on the poor. He was widely known by other nations than his own, almost universally such a man could not be hid. He had a good constitution and attained old age, possibly over eighty, and enjoyed life." Mrs. HAYDEN'S psychometric description was as follows : "This is not so legible character as the one just described (Compte). There is a vast difference. This is a man, I am sure, but not so open and frank as Compte. I can't describe him so well, can't approach him so easily, but he is very clever and talented, has great thoughts, large ideas. He has a great forehead, has strong perceptive faculties, and intense thought. There is too much of him to be analyzed easily. He achieved a great name, he did a great work, and is known round the globe. He was a scientist and a leader : a very celebrated man. He could not be an ordinary man with such a brain. He could write well on any subject. He was splendidly educated, and was a splendid conversationalist. He drew around him the highest classes and was much courted ; was elegant in Literature. 125 manners and conversation, and was attractive to women. He catered more to the religious idea than Compte, but did not believe much. He had a high standard of principle, and moved in high society. He was fond of advancing the condition of mankind, chiefly by scientific labor. He did much and was proud of it." (Q. How does he compare with Lord Bacon ?) " He was more solid or talented, but had not so much genius. He could write better than either Mill or Spencer. He was a pleasing writer without any effort. His pen flew rapidly. He is a great character, and I am not satisfied that I can do him justice." (Q. What was his nation- ality ?) " He was not American. He was fluent in both English and German. I think German was his mother tongue. He has no Americanism." (Q. How does he compare with Huxley?) "Huxley is too coarse and material in comparison. This man was refined and dignified ; there is a sublimity in his career. In the sciences he would be a Geologist and Mineralogist. To-day he is making deep researches. He excelled in Mineralogy and Geology." The assertion that " to-day he is making deep re- searches," may surprise those who do not know that the most gifted psychometers always follow a character into the post-mortem as well as the ante-mortem life. Indeed, some are so spiritual as to get the impression first of the life in the higher spheres before the career on earth. There is a vast wealth of philosophy attainable in this direction. Hereafter we shall have psychometric minds capable of communicating directly with Humboldt and all others who in the clearer light of Heaven have been looking deeply into philosophy and science. It is practicable now, and it is for this that I proposed to establish the COLLEGE OF THE SOUL. I trust there may be sufficient enlightenment on the earth to-day to co-operate in such a purpose. 126 Psyckometry in DR. GALL: the Founder of Phrenology. " This gives a great influence, that of a very powerful person. It goes into the muscular system, fills my body, feels like a large, strong man. This is one who had uncommon ability to talk, and sway the people by his intellectual power. I feel an enlargement of the forehead and eyes. It inflates my whole body, even the lungs. I feel a great desire to reason out things. He must have been a powerful reasoner, and strong in the intuitive powers. He would combat a doctrine with great power. He has a strong will, and is exceedingly zealous. His strong reasoning powers would overwhelm common minds. I feel a power in the temples. He was not nervous, would hardly know that he had nerves. He seems muscular. He had a large heart, would go into generous acts of philanthropy, and be interested in any great work for the benefit of mankind, but he does not have in himself a great love of power or display he is modest. He would love like a torrent, yet is not demonstrative. He is both passionate and sentimental. In his domestic relations, he had not all he could wish. His wife would oppose him in many things, and he could not bear opposition from his inferiors. He could meet the opposition of great thinkers, but the opposi- tion of the petty would annoy him. He did not live with his wife happily, or did not live with her at all. She was inferior in many things, but she appeared better when he chose her. Her ambitions did not run in the same direction as his ; it was a vanity that did not please him. His investigations were as to the mind. He would pay attention to the possible powers of the mind and the brain. He would study individuals and history the past, present, and future. He had a great knowledge of the brain and body. He under- stood the anatomy of the brain thoroughly, was thor- oughly educated in anatomy. Destructiveness was large in him. He would apply his knowledge of anat- Literature. 1 27 omy in every pursuit. He understood the organic functions of the brain I feel his life and warmth as if he were present. He would not belong to a church. He does not look to God as a ruler, or an object of fear." (Q t What does he think of the discoveries and exper- ments of Dr. Buchanan ?) " He thinks they are grand. He approves the groundwork, and the way he has started." He says the structure he is building will leave a monument to future generations." AUGUSTE COMPTE. (Founder of the Positive Philosophy.) " I seem to be taken into the past, very far oack ; an influence from the remote past attended this person. There is a great deal of grandeur of thought, sublimity of ideas. I first get the spiritual attendant of this per- son. It is a woman. All thought this brain generates seems well balanced, even, systematic. He was a phil- anthropist and a discoverer. He would unfold or enlarge discoveries originated in other minds, and make them clear. There is a peculiar originality. He had his own way of saying things. He never followed. He would not say anything others had said before him, unless in an entirely new dress. He theorized a great deal, but did not reduce the theories to practice. He was eccentric in religious opinions, yet believed in God and a future state : no he was not settled in his mind as to the ultimate condition of man. His views would change. His opinions were not popular, though he had followers. He spoke out freely his changes of opinion. He was not very poetical. He seems very eccentric, but had many grand ideas. He was a great friend to woman, would sacrifice a great deal for her elevation. He would like to establish rules, making woman equal to man. In religion he would be favorable to commu- nities, and to a religion of good conduct. He would teach morality. He was not an advocate of the marriage relation, as it now exists There is a great deal in this 128 Psyckometry in character that is hard to describe." (Q. Was he ever liable to insanity ?) " I think he was, from the confusion and fickleness of ideas that I get. Insanity might come from intense thought, and some trouble in his life that preyed on his mind. He seemed to be moody and mis- anthropic at times, but at his death he was in his right mind." (Q. What was his nationality ?) " He spoke more than one language, but I think he was French." (Q. What was his domestic life ?) " His domestic life was not successful ; he did not marry the one he loved best. He may have appeared cold, but he had strong love, though he was exacting. There was a failure in the fruition of his love. He was attended by the spirit of the woman he loved, as well as by an ancient spirit." The portrait of Compte is completed by adding the psychometric description given by Mrs. Hayden as follows : "This is a man, a positive influence, a man past mid- dle age with rather a high head, a long, intelligent face, somewhat narrowing to the chin. He is a man of few words, but of great powers of discrimination and expres- sion, saying exactly what he wants to say. He is bold, yet timid : a child could lead him, but when roused he is like a lion. He has led an eventful life. He has an analytical brain. His career was one that required deep thought. He is set and mature in his ideas, rather opinionated. I think he is not living. He is not an American. His manners and looks are rather English. His style of character rather German. He is so much of a linguist I cannot tell which is his own language. He knows French, German, and Greek. He is a scholar. There is not much poetry about him. He is a substantial prose writer writes scientific books, with something historical. He is more like Mill than Spencer ; is fully equal to Mill. He is not egotistic. He touches no subject without understanding it." (Q. What do you say as to his religion and morals ?) " I do Literature. 129 not think he has much religion. He is moral and hon- orable, but has no more God than Herbert Spencer. He has no historic idea of Deity. He is very free and liberal in many things. He has strict conscientious scruples : he can be depended on." (Q. What was his relation to woman ?) " He respects woman very highly, but his domestic life was not harmonious ; it was full of jar and distraction ; still, he thinks love is sacred, and though his own life has been checkered it has not spoilt him. His real love passed away, and left him sad ; he spoke as if bereft. He has been careful about express- ing his ideas fully. His marriage was very unhappy. He was very original in all his writings. He was a pleasing, interesting, vigorous writer. But he did not realize his ambition, and was disappointed as to appre- ciation. Yet he was regarded by his followers with idolatry, and is still. He left a name that will not die. Those who loved him were very devoted. He was a self-sacrificing man, and devoted his life to humanity." HERBERT SPENCER. (The philosopher of evolution and sociology.) After some deliberation : " This character is foreign to my nature and does not stimulate as much as some others. His position gives him influence among intellectual people. He seems to be versed in literature and a writer. He does not seem to be a philanthropist what he does in that way is more for influence and reputation, than from true benev- olence. I do not perceive much soul in what he does, but I think he is popular, with the public, because he advances humane ideas which have a good influence. " He is a man of strong impulses, and sometimes led by them too much. He might be considered true to his principles which he considers right ; he is not a dis- sembler. He looks upon what he does as a matter of duty that is the way I see him. He is a courteous man. T3O Psychometry in " I think he has a fine intellect. The resources of his mind are large and he labors to make his subjects ac- ceptable he works hard." (To what subjects is he giving attention ?) " He is doing something in political science. He is a fresh writer, original, not dealing in anything stale. " His aim would be to improve the condition of the poor and working classes He would write upon politi- cal economy and kindred subjects. He would improve the social status. He would be interested in communi- ties that have grievances. I feel that he is not an American ; I am sure of it but he has great friendli- ness for American systems of government. "His policy would have a democratic tendency. It is very cautious he would not expend a great deal in direct assistance but would give opportunities for pro- gress and improvement. He seems to be English in character." (What of his moral and religious character ?) " In religion he is heterodox and tolerant does not believe any religion taught in the churches is skeptical as to the Bible and would follow nature. " His code of morals is good he believes in mar- riage, temperance, industry arid similar virtues ; he is a moral man. He may have a school of his own on such subjects. "His mind is skeptical and somewhat dogmatic but disposed to give due credit to facts. He inclines more to materialism than to spiritualism, and feels satisfied with his present views, somewhat like Ingersoll's. But he has a great spirit of investigation." (What of his general career and success ?) " His life has been varied. He has kept himself prominent and in good repute. He has an extensive reputation standing high with thinking people, and the working classes consider him their friend. " He has encountered some difficulties, but is success- ful upon the whole. He is well received and carries Literatttre. 131 considerable weight with the intellectual classes. He has overtaxed and fatigued himself and impaired his health." (How does he compare with Humboldt, Compte, Mill, Lord Bacon, Carlyle and Bulwer as they have impressed you ?) " He is not so theoretical as Compte, not so great as Humboldt, not as great or brilliant as Bacon, though a far better man. He is more like Mill than any one I can think of. He is more sound and practical than Bulwer and Carlyle. " A very similar opinion was pronounced some years ago by Mrs. Hayden in more emphatic language, which differed slightly in reference to the physical constitution as it was given before the decided impairment of health mentioned by Mrs. B. PROFESSOR TYNDALL. "This is a man. It inspires me with almost a complete character, well developed, and refined. The region of intellect was developed very early in life. He was born for his position. There was an uninterrupted develop- ment and education. He was not a self-made man. He is an author. His writing is in prose. He has taken a decided stand in opinions. He is familiar with matters concerning the health of nations. He is practi- cal, carries out his theories clearly, decidedly. He is a very judicious man, seldom mistaken. He is popular with many, is above the grade of public intelligence, having a very superior mind. His reputation is wide. He has many warm admirers, devoted to him." (Q. How does he compare with Compte ?) " He is equal to Compte, but more advanced in his knowledge, and less erratic. He does not fall into moods." (Q. What is he as a lecturer?) " As a lecturer he is ready, profound and thorough ; he interests his hearers ; he is an ex- 132 Psychometry in ceedingly pleasant speaker." (Q. What as a writer?) "As a writer, he would rank among the first." (Q. What of his religious views ?) " His religious ideas are liberal. He is skeptical, and slow of belief. He is a fearless and profound exponent of what he believes. He is very scientific. His life has been devoted to science and investigation." PROFESSOR HUXLEY. " This is a very strong character, with a stubborn will, hard to convince, but when convinced immovable. He has great firmness of purpose. He has more method, he is more demonstrative and dogmatic, he has more intolerance than No. I (Tyndall), but is fully equal in ability. He would be disposed to run into the same investigations, but takes a different method. Upon the whole, they are about equal. This one has more poetry, but less refinement ; he has more of the animal, more inclination to license ; he has less appreciation of woman, might be jealous of her intellectual merits. He has great self-esteem, which carries him on." (Q. What is he as a lecturer ?) " As a lecturer, he draws large audiences. He could make a fine political speech. His writings are popular. He is rather a disturber of the old order of things." (Q. What of his religion ?) " His religion is only Nature. He is not entirely skepti- cal as to futurity, but does not tell his views freely." JOHN STUART MILL. "This seems different from Nos. i and 2 ; full of me- thod, not so rapid, more deliberate, but, when fully pre- pared, has great brilliancy and power. This is a prefera- ble character to Nos. i and 2 (Tyndall aud Huxley), one whom women could love." (Q. What, as a writer?) " He would write upon the establishment of new systems, and renovating the old : is a philosopher and reformer. He has a great desire not to break up, but to adjust, Literature. 133 governments and all political and religious affairs. He shows great ability, and has been sharply criticised for his ideas, but he does not fear it. He cares little for public opinion. He is a well-adjusted man, of firm brain, not vain nor ostentatious. He stands high among thinking men. His opinions would be quoted, and he would rank as a great mind." (Q. How does he compare with others ?) " I feel that he has made great discoveries. He is like Dr. Buchanan in many things. I would estimate him upon the whole above Nos. i and 2, not as enthusiastic in his opinions as Compte, but a sounder mind ; not erratic. He is a great philosopher and reformer, and has acquired a great deal by hard study." SHAKESPEARE. April 23, 1885, I gave her an excellent photograph of Shakespeare as a man to be described unseen. She said : " I like the feeling of this ; it brings a genial glow, such a feeling as I have in thinking of some grand, noble woman. This person has a wonderful, far-seeing mind. He had psychometric power. I don't think he is living. " He does not seem a philanthropist, but fond of influence and popularity. A strong willed man of strong determination. He was social and convivial knew he had something to give the world, and was anxious to do it. " I do not place him among the nobility, but he was not a commonplace man. He was a foreigner, a writer, a literary man. It seems to me he was a writer of plays. I find a poetical element. He did not live long enough to finish his career, but what he wrote was accepted by the people of his own and other countries. His reputation is high to-day perhaps higher than ever. His reputation has been gaining. 134 Psychometry in "He was something like Dickens in character. There was a good deal of sadness in his interior life the public did not see. He had a deep nature and his writ- ings were not always in the same vein. He seems like one of the dramatists. He was an Englishman. He would compare with Shakespeare and Bulwer. A flash of impression now and then suggests Shakespeare. He was keen and witty. His comparisons were adroitly made. He had a wonderful individuality in his writing. I think he was inspired. I think he wrote under inspi- ration a great part of his time psychometric inspira- tion. His expresions had a prophetic character to a careful reader a prophetic wisdom. I feel now a strong admiration for this character there was no one like him. He was the chief among all the dra- matic writers. He fills my mind with tragic ideas. Richard the Third and Othello come to my mind and Midsummer Night's Dream. I think it is Shakespeare as it brings up those plays." In this case she felt the influence of the picture so completely by touch as to induce her to say that she believed the picture was in her hands upside down, which was the fact. Her fingers recognized the head as the lower part of the picture. The psychometric description of Shakespeare by Mrs. Hayden developed the same sympathy and admiration as follows : "This feels good, genial, warm like meeting a friend. There is a warmth that can't be mistaken a great wealth of mind rich with all that is delightful and lovely. I can't talk I can't express it fully can't do this individual justice. I'm delighted with it. It is a beautiful face in outlines and symmetry. No sen- suality here. It gives me the feeling of a reformer, a frank freethinker He lo^es progress has given up Literature. 135 the spirit of the dark ages. Seems a statesman and a poet a controlling influence a power that leads and guides others with his councils. He is not in this world, not on earth gone sometime, but left a name that will never die. He had a versatility of power could catch up his pen and write could direct and instruct others had great versatility of power. You had but to know him to love him. He could not have done a mean act." (What as a writer ?) " One of great power very clear, of great descriptive power. He brought the picture right before you nothing prosy there was too much matter-of-fact for a mere poet it was not fiction, but he might have been a great drama- tist. His description is unusually clear. There was a moral in his writings." (Does he resemble Bulwer?) " No, he is very different. When I saw Bulwer at Kenil- worth he impressed me very differently from this." MILTON. "This produces an easy, glowing, dreamy feeling takes me to a spiritual region. This feeling is exceed- ingly luminous and highly intellectual. It produces a different surrounding from anything I ever came in contact with. "There seems to be such an amount of power and intensity of thought, taking such a wide range, I can scarcely bring it to a point for anything specific. " This person was thoroughly magnetic had great magnetic power far-reaching. His mind would soar above the ordinary minds it came in contact with. It was a leader of exceedingly fine organization. He had the love element, well-balanced, universal. " He had great intellectual powers. Nature did much, and education and surroundings added to his powers to make him great. His writings would be quoted and respected among all classes for their ability. He loved humanity, he recognized God." (Q. Living or dead male or female ?) 136 Psychometry in " A male and in the spirit world. It seems fresh - seems near." (What was the earthly career ?) " One of great activity. He wrote a great deal of prose I do not feel the poetical so much. He was familiar with literature, science, and history, and used them. He was radical more democratic than monarchic liberal in his views, liking a government good for all classes. He believed in divorce for causes such as incompati- bility or physical discord. His own domestic life was not as happy as he would wish, but not as bitter an experience as Dr. Gall or Socrates. He had many clouds to contend with. There seemed to be clouds as if he was in darkness. " He realized some reputation in life, but like many superior men, his writings have lived beyond the tomb, and he has more reputation now." (Q. If he wrote poetry, what would be its char- acter ?) " His poetry would partake of the grand and terrific. It would not be of the sentimental, like Moore. Milton comes into my mind. His poetry would be decidedly intellectual. It takes a scholar to appreciate it. It was like Dante also. When he gave his friendship it was lasting. You could have no better friend." SIR WALTER SCOTT. "This has a comfortable, natural feeling not an excitable influence. There is a good deal of inspiration about it. I should think this person was a writer. It is a man. If I felt in a more intellectual mood I might go into ecstasies over this author He is not living he is one of the poets of the past " He had a very ardent nature, full of fire and earnest ness. His poems were very descriptive Whatever might be his themes they were very descriptive. There seems to be a martial tone to his poetry. He is Scotch Literature. 137 or Irish ; but he does not seem Irish not like Moore, more like Byron he is a Scotch poet. Who is the author of the " Lady of the Lake " ? I think he was the author of it, but the name escapes me. " He was a titled man his life was literary." (What else beside poetry did he write ? ) "I think his prose partook of the historical character. I think he was a historian ; he may have written on political and ecclesiastical subjects. " He was musical, had fine sensibilities. He could write on jurisprudence, I think. His inclination was to poetry. He was a man of deep feelings, and could express them better in poetry. He could write plays and fiction. Fiction was not his forte, but he could succeed in it, because he wrote so vividly. He some- times indulged in the humorous or amusing. It was easy for him to go from the pathetic to the humorous. It was his born in him. His novels would be founded on facts, somewhat like Dickens, though he was a very different writer. He was faithful to nature he could depict the elements with great descriptive power. " He had ups, and downs, and perplexities in his life, but always ranked high before the public. I think he was contemporary with Moore. I think they were friends. He lived to develop his genius, and make a lasting name. " He was highly prized in society, being genial and social in his nature, jovial with men, full of anecdote a good companion. I think he had a happy home. He was domestic in feeling, but monarchic in his theories, as that seemed to him the best form of government. He brings up Scotch poetry to my mind.' 1 (What as to Spiritualism ? ) " He had some weird ideas, but could not be called a Spiritualist/' (What can you say of his head ? ) 'It was high in the moral region," 1 38 Psychometry in I then showed her the picture, but she did not rec- ognize it, and could not think of the name her mem- ory of names is very defective. The face of Scott is a beautiful illustration of the true principles of Physiog- nomy, and his head indicates a very strong and noble character, being high and deep. In MRS. HAYDEN'S description of Scott, she said he was " very brilliant in conversation, witty, original, and very pleasing. His company was sought. He had great wealth of mind. He was not very religious in the sectarian way. He seems like a historian. If he wrote fiction it would be peculiar truth as the founda- tion not mere fiction, but historical. He is a man of very sound judgment and deep ideas perhaps a little dry from his matter-of-fact way. I 'd like to hear him talk rather than hear his writings. He has a fine face. I like his influence. His integrity is marked. What- ever he believed he had the courage to express. He passed away before much was said about Spiritualism. If he had been living he would have adopted it. He was an irreparable loss to the society in which he moved. HOMER. The school of German skeptics having thrown doubt upon the very existence of Homer, as another class of skeptics doubt the existence of Biblical characters, this gave me an additional interest in verifying his existence and character. The following opinion was based on an old (unseen) engraving of Homer's bust. "This is an ancient character very ancient. He was very brilliant, and of a buoyant nature. He looked upon the world with great satisfaction. He was a Literature. 139 writer." (I asked for a more definite statement of his chronology, but as Mrs. B. is somewhat defective in numbers or calculation she could not give any definite reply.) (What do you say of the people and climate of the country where he lived ? ) " It was a very genial climate, and a genial good feel- ing prevailed. It does not seem a time of bloodshed. It is a very congenial influence. It takes me to Greece. I wonder if he was not a Greek. It brings a variety of scenes, an age of unfoldment and athletic sports, sculp- ture, grandeur, great processions. " It seems as though he was a poet and wrote blank verse. He wrote on solid subjects. Everything he wrote has to be translated into our language. He was one of the old Greek poets ; very inspirational, wise, and scholarly ; not an orator, but a man of thought and feeling. He is known to-day only from his writings." (What of his personal life ? ) " His personal life was very harmonious he enjoyed life. If living to-day he would be called a medium. He communed with the invisibles, felt their influence and inspiration. He had a very harmonious, beautiful nature, was very simple in his manner of living, did not cater to his personal desires, was self-sacrificing, had few desires for his personal comforts. I think he was poor. I see no grandeur in his immediate surroundings. He was modest, and did not care for it, but had enough for his daily wants. If he did not he would not care for it." (What of his domestic life ?) "He was married and agreeably ; there was no dis- cord in his conjugal life. (Was he ever poor enough to beg ? ) " He was very poor. He might beg if his bodily and mental sufferings were great enough. His genius was not appreciated as it is now. People were given more 140 Psychometry in to the physical. They would think a poet of little value. But he had a few choice appreciative friends." (What of his religion ? ) " He was a religious man, drawing his inspiration from the universe. From his interior nature he could write grand things. He was a wonderful man. He is better understood to-day than in his own age. His writings are quoted to-day. He had a deep religious nature. He was not acquainted with Christianity. He looked to the grandeur and beauty of the universe and supreme power. Perhaps he may have believed in dei- ties of a lower grade, and in the elements. He saw God in all. I admire his sentiments, but I have never read any of his writings." (Did he believe in communication with the spirit world ? ) " He did ; ne had evidence in his own experience of the power of the departed to commune with us. He has exerted an influence himself as a spirit upon poets of ancient and modern times. It brings up Mrs. Hemans ; perhaps he inspired her. He inspired Milton and Shakespeare. I think it is Homer. ' As to his inspiring his admirers, I recollect a sugges- tion in Plato's writings that an eloquent reader of Homer's poems was actually inspired by the spirit of Homer. VICTOR HUGO. (By Mr. B., of the New York Bar, 1878.) " A powerful man ; intellectual; an old man. He'll never be any older. He's old in years, but fresh and vigorous as a boy. " He 's a creator. If an architect, he 'd copy from no one; if a painter, his style is his own : if a writer, he's different from any one else. He's crisp, sharp, epigram- matic. If he were here, in a few sentences he 'd instantly impress you as a remarkable man. Literature. 141 " He's a historian, a historical writer, or, if not, he ought to be. It ought to be his profession. He would be unequalled. It might not all be true, but it would be interesting. " He isn't dead. He would be fairly disposed to inves- tigate new truths. He does not believe in falsehood because it is venerable. He's a sort of socialistic re- former ; a man of the people ; most intense in feeling and expression. He has an utter contempt for a rotten government or a system of theology not well founded, or anything else false. He is incapable of forgiving wrong, injury, or irTsult. " His style is too intense and wild, but it is attractive. He is a positive thinker not satisfied with less than absolute proof. He enjoys life loves good eating and drinking and physical enjoyment." As to Hugo's habits and character, there is a good illustration of the foregoing description in the remarks of H. H. Boyesen, since the death of Hugo, who says, "In 1879 he looked wonderfully vigorous, and his gait and voice were those of a young man." " He rose at five in the morning and worked till eight." "At dinner he appeared to the best advantage, and his conversa- tional powers were most brilliant. As Daudet once said, he ate with " the magnificent insolence of a man who always feels well, bathes in ice water, and works with his windows open." " While the young authors and depu- ties who sat at his table selected carefully the most easily digestible dishes, the hearty octogenarian con- sumed tarts, cucumbers, and lobster salads with superb unconcern." "Victor Hugo's presence was most im- pressive, his bearing courtly and erect, and his manner never devoid of a certain ceremoniousness, which was a fine mixture of courtliness and dignity." CHAPTER IX. PROPHETIC INTUITION. Antagonism of the world's present condition to the higher faculties of man Foresight inseparable from intelligence Prophecy belongs to intuition Evils of credulity Recognition of the prophetic power by St. Paul, by the ancients, by Machiavel, by many eminent men, by Athenagoras, the Sybils, the Druids, Jamblicus, Maupertuis, Sir Henry Halford, Areteus, Cicero, Dr. Hoffman, Dr. Sprengel, Dr. Georget, the Committee of the Royal Academy of Medicine, M. Chardel, the philosopher Schelling, Goethe, Swedenborg Gazette's prophecy Hoag's prophecy of our civil war Prophecy of the downfall of the Pope's temporal power, and reformation of the church Modus ope- randi of prophecy Law of periodicity Future fate of the United States. PROPHECY IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. Prophecy as to Ireland Prophecy in Egyptian affairs Description of Arabi Pasha and his fate Opin- ion of Khedive Ismail Investigation of El Mahdi in 1883 The progress of affairs in Egypt and the Soudan illustrates the opinion Absurd and wicked management of the war Vindication of El Mahdi Second description and its verification in 1884 Third de- scription in 1885 and prophecy of universal peace Description by pupils in Psychometry Comments on the descriptions Psycho- metric report on El Mahdi's picture His personal history Descrip- 'tion of Mohammed Death of Alexander, D'Israeli, and Garibaldi predicted Description of the Czar Alexander Psychometric view of Russia and England Foreign news in March, 1885 Psychome- tric opinion on the condition The Czar and his purposes Foreign news in April indicating war Prophecy repeated Repeated again Censure of the church France and China in April Psychome- tric description and prediction Psychometric description of the Hon. Joseph Chamberlain of England Poem addressed to Cor- nelia. Quench not the spirit despise not prophesyings. Thes. 5, 20. " Follow after charity and spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may pro- phesy. . . He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and ex- 142 Prophetic Intuitior. 143 hortation and comfort." " He that prophesieth edifieth the church." " I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied." 1 Cor. 11. The higher any faculty rises in its character, the nearer it approaches a spiritual and divine nature. The more thoroughly the divine inspiration appears in its manifestations, the more repugnant does it become to the animal nature of man ; and there is no better evi- dence of the extent to which a nation, a community, or a class is sunk in selfishness and animalism than its repugnance to understanding, appreciating, or even tolerating the most sacred phenomena of life. How can European nations be expected to make progress in the sacred philosophy which comprehends the mysteries of life when they are still in their national bearing as morally barbarous as in the days of Caesar, and face each other, arms in hand, like kennels of wild beasts, waiting only for a convenient opportunity to devour each other with the least difficulty and danger, without sufficient moral sentiment anywhere to interpose between the ferocious combatants, and command the peace. It is due to the moral power of Gladstone alone that we are not to-day looking on cannonade and slaughter. In the midst of these ferocious powers and in full sympathy with them, stands the church, a participant in all their feuds, not a soothing and restraining power, but an accessary to their dark deeds. The college is the same it perpetuates the glory of criminal warriors and sends forth no aspiration to a higher social condi- tion. Psychometry therefore has no home in either state, church, or college, until a nobler century shall have 144 Prophetic Intuition. arrived, when a genial and religious philosophy shall comprehend man's highest nature. My modest presen- tation of the science in the middle of this century seems to have produced but little more effect than a whisper addressed to a mob, and I might not have presented the subject again, but for the fact that I have survived long enough to reach a more progressive period, in which the laws of Destiny assure me that the century will not pass without an honorable recognition of the truth. As a part of this great truth I present the prophetic power of the divine element in man, so stolidly ignored to-day. Forecast or prophesy is inseparable from intel- ligence. If we were deprived of this power we would be reduced to helpless idiocy, unable to do anything. The perfect nescience of metaphysical speculation ap- proximates this form of idiocy. Pyrrhonic skepticism ignores the relation of cause and effect, and would pre- vent one from knowing that he would be killed by walking over a precipice. In that condition, destitute of forecast, men would be like the brainless hens experi- mented on by Flourens, incapable of acting from the inability to have an idea of doing anything. No one can deny the power of foreseeing many events of which we comprehend the causes, and thus making scientific prophecies. The range of astronom- ical forecast is immense, and it is equally great along any line of simple causation. It is only when the number of conspiring causes which affect the event become too great and conflicting for exact estimate, that we feel our incompetence as to prediction, and yet shrewd men are continually predicting with various Prophetic Intuition. 145 degrees of success, the conduct of individuals, the course of commerce, and the conduct of nations. Whether complex affairs can be predictively compre- hended and their possible result at a remote period foreseen, is the question. It is obvious that this cannot be done by the same mental processes by which we construct a house, transact commercial business or determine the construction of a -road, for the compre- hension of a remote event in human affairs involves the appreciation of so many contributory causes, that we may safely say no human intellect can grasp, even if it could ascertain them, and therefore no human in- tellect by any reasoning process can prophesy as to the remote and complex. Prophecy in the proper sense of the word is possible only when there are intuitive faculties at work which have a far wider range than the external intellect, and which in a semi-omniscient correlation with the entire sphere of complexity, feel its aggregate drift and re- sults. The working of these divine powers has been recognized by the enlightened in all ages. In present- ing their claims to-day, I should very much regret their credulous acceptance by persons who without carefully ascertaining the existence of prophetic power, should trust to the predictions of a class of psychometric and mediumistic persons who assume to speak of the future without any real foresight. I refer to the warning ex- ample of a gentleman of fine intelligence, integrity, and moral worth, who has been reduced to abject pov- erty, suffering and despair by trusting to prophetic inti- mations of his own future in a visionary enterprise commended by psychometers and mediums whom he 146 Prophetic Intuition. supposed reliable in prediction, because they had other capacities. No prudent individual would rely upon any prediction without some positive knowledge of the pre- dictive capacity, as tested by experience. The prophetic power is recognized by St. Paul as a common endowment in the church, not a miraculous and exceptional gift. It was rightly recognized by him as one of the powers that should be developed in the church ; for the religious and spiritual faculties are the ones that nourish and sustain the prophetic power, and where true religion exists, prophetic powers are as sure to be developed as the spirit of love and the power of healing. The general absence of all these in modern Protestant churches exhibits a declension which it would not be unjust to call an apostacy. The enlightened have ever reckoned propnecy a nor- mal human faculty, but the superstitious have supposed it a divine manifestation and proof that the prophet was especially connected with the Deity. This superstition was but a reverential exaggeration of the truth and depreciation of humanity. Cicero and the Greek phil- osophers did not deem prophecy above the normal power of the soul. Lamprias wisely said, " It is not probable that the soul gives a new power of prophecy after separation from the body, and which it did not before possess. We may rather conclude that it pos- sessed all these powers during its union with the body, although in lesser perfection." I cannot give the reason (said Machiavel in a histori- cal discourse), but it is an attested fact in all history, both ancient and modern, that no great misfortune ever happened to a city or province that was not predicted Prophetic Intuition. 147 by some soothsayer, or announced by revelations, prodi- gies or other celestial signs. It is very desirable that the matter should be discussed by men learned in mat- ters natural and supernatural, an advantage that I do not possess. Be that as it may, the fact is undeniable." " Were we to give the names of all the known charac- ters holding a high position in science, (says Briere de Boismont) with correct judgment and extensive knowl- edge, who have had their warnings and presentiments we should find ample matter for reflection." He then narrates a story coming from the secretary of Talleyrand, of his escape from death by a sudden intuition. " The prince remarked, " I can never forget that I was once gifted for a moment with an extraordi- nary and inexplicable prescience which was the means of saving my life ; without that sudden and mysterious inspiration, I should not be here to recount these details." Athenagoras, a Greek philosopher of the second cen- tury who embraced Christianity, speaks of the soul as capable of predicting future events and curing diseases. The application of the soul power of somnambulists and others to diagnosis and healing, has been the cause of that jealousy of the medical profession which has obscured and discredited the psychic powers which have been so long known. The ancient Sybils predicted like modern somnambu- lists and mediums, in a psychological state, St. Justin says that after the afflatus was past, they had no recol- lection of what they had said. The Druid priests were prophets and physicians, according to Cicero and Pliny. Cicero speaks espe- 148 Prophetic Intuition. daily of one of them residing in Gaul, named Divi- tiacus. Jamblicus, a leading philosopher of the fourth century, in his treatise on the mysterious, recognizes prevision as one of the powers of the Soul, which it exercises more freely in the ecstatic state or in sleep, when it is released from everything corporeal. Such were the common doctrines of Plato, Plotinus, Proclus and other ancient philosophers. As far back as we can trace civili- zation, prophecy was recognized as a power of the soul. Maupertuis, a mathematician and early advocate of Newtonian system at the beginning of the eighteenth century, endeavored to explain philosophically the fac- ulty of prevision as produced by the more exalted con- dition of the soul. Sir Henry Halford has some very judicious remarks on this subject in reviewing the work of Aretaeus on brain fever, as follows : " The author Aretaeus, states that the first effect of the subsidence of the violent excitement is, that the patient's mind becomes clear, that all his sensations are exquisitely keen ; that he is the first person to discover that he is about to die, and announce this to the attend- ants ; that he seems to hold converse with the spirits of those who have departed before him, as if they stood in his presence ; and that his soul acquires a prophetic power. The author with all the appearance of being himself convinced that this power has really been ac- quired by the patient in the last hour of his life, re- marks that the bystanders fancy him to be rambling and talking nonsense, but that they are afterwards as- tounded at the coming to pass of the events which had Prophetic Intuition. 149 been predicted. Indeed he attempts to account for it by supposing that the soul whilst, " shuffling off this mortal coil " whilst disengaging itself from the incum- brance of the body, becomes purer, more essential, en- tirely spiritual, as if it had already commenced its new existence." "That a prophetic power did attend man's last hour generally was a notion entertained of old, and has been transmitted down to us from the earliest records of mankind. We read in the Pentateuch, that, " when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost." Now with these solemn injunctions were mixed up much prophetic matter, many predictions of their future fate and fortunes ; as for instance " the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him shall the gathering of the people be." Sir Henry continues, referring to the prophecies of Isaiah and the Sibylline leaves " What wonder then if the philosophers, both Grecian and Roman, if the poets, (who may be considered as historians of popular notions) concurred in transmitting down this accredited opinion ? Cicero, a most accomplished philosopher as well as orator, himself an augur too, and therefore prob- ably well acquainted with the contents of the Sibylline leaves (for they were committed to the custody of the College of Augurs) in his first work on Divination, gives a story of the prediction of the death of Alexander the Great, by an Indian about to die on the funeral pile." The language of Cicero is as follows : " When the mind is separated by sleep from the society and conta- 150 Prophetic Intuition. gion of the body, it then remembers the past, perceives the present, and foresees the future. For the body of a sleeper lies like that of one dead, but the mind lives and is vigorous. How much more so after death, when it shall have altogether separated from the body ? For this reason, upon the approach of death it becomes much more capable of divination. And who has not observed that sick persons, especially hysterical females, of whom I have seen several, attacked with cataleptic and ecstatic affections, either during or after the paroxysms, have predicted fiiture events, and have spoken in languages which they themselves had never learnt, although their parents knew them." Is it not remarkable that facts so familiar as these from the earliest ages should have been expelled from the colleges and from the entire republic of letters, chiefly by the agency of the medical profession, the works of enlightened authors who have honestly re- corded such facts being kept from general circulation. The learned Dr. Hoffman, physician to the king of Prussia, was one of those who recognized the exalted powers of the soul ; and Dr. Sprengel who had no supe- rior in his day, in medical learning says in his Institutes of Medicine published in 1810, speaking of the magnetic somnambulists "that instinct revives, by means of which the patient acquires a knowledge of his own state of health, and of that of any other person who is placed en rapport with him and is also enabled to pre- dict the duration of the crisis and its termination, and to prescribe appropriate remedies. These remedies are generally vulgar and domestic, when recommended by the rustic, or officinal preparations, when prescribed by Prophetic Intuition. 1 5 1 the better educated man. They are frequently such as a physician would scarcely think of prescribing such as culinary salt, a pepper bath, etc., but in most cases they do good, and Dr. Weinholt does not recollect a single instance in which they were administered with- out beneficial effects." Dr. Sprengel further says : " The somnambulists pre- dict the crisis of their complaints, and determine their duration and end. I have myself seen a young man, a relation of my own, who had never been treated in this artificial manner, who in the very crises themselves, predicted with the utmost certainty, the repetitions of the accesses, prescribed the appropriate remedies, and foretold the period when the disease should terminate." The testimony of Dr. Sprengel is the more valuable as he was originally an opponent of animal magnetism. Dr. Brandis, physician to the King of Denmark, was another of the sceptical class who honestly recognized the phenomena that he witnessed. " The magnetized person (said he) predicts most exactly the progress of his disease, and especially the individual incidents : attacks of convulsions, syncope, evacuations, etc., with all their concomitant circumstances ; and with the same precision points out the period of his cure. I confess that the exactness with which all such predic- tions of our clairvoyants, whom I myself have hitherto had an opportunity of observing, were verified, greatly astonished me." Dr. Georget, one of the most gifted modern physiolo- gists and physicians of France, goes so far as to say " I believe that no perfect medicine can exist but that of the somnambulists in everything which concerns I tj 2 Prophetic Intuition. themselves, and that it is possible to derive advantage from their admirable instinct in the case of other patients." The Committee of the Royal Academy of Medicine at Paris (1826), which reported the truth of clairvoy- ance as seen in their experiments, stated also that they recognized powers of prevision, as follows : " In two somnambulists we recognized the faculty of foreseeing the acts of the organism, more or less remote, more or less complicated. One of them announced repeatedly, several months previously, the day, the hour and the minute of the access and return of epileptic fitsT The other announced the period of his cure. Their previs- ions were realized with remarkable exactness." They also state that they found a somnambulist " who pointed out the symptoms of the diseases of three persons with whom he was placed in magnetic connection." It would be very unnecessary for me to quote authori- ties to illustrate facts which are so numerous and well known if it were not for the persistent suppression and concealment of truth by medical colleges and other institutions of learning, sending forth their pupils in profound ignorance of some of the most important truths in science ; and not only ignorant but bitterly prejudiced. M. Chardel, in an essay on Physiological Psychology,, observes very justly that he could adduce hundreds of examples of such phenomena as the foregoing, as they occur in almost every magnetic treatment, but that it seemed superfluous to illustrate thus facts so amply established. The German philosopher Schelling gives a very inter- Prophetic Intuition. 153 esting narrative (in the Jarbucher der Mediciri) of the sudden discovery by a clairvoyant of a death in her family at a distance of more than a hundred and fifty leagues, stating at the same time that a letter convey- ing the intelligence was then on its way, which in a few days was verified. Goethe says in his autobiography that his grand- father had the power of prophecy, especially in matters relating to himself, of which he gives some instances, and also says that persons supposed to be destitute of the power sometimes acquired it in the presence of his grandfather, which reminds us of the modern method of developing mediumship. Swedenborg's clairvoyance, seeing and describing a fire in Stockholm when he was in Germany, is a well- known fact, and attested by Kant. These are a few of the abundant illustrations of the higher powers of the soul and their recognition by wise men which modern materialism conceals and sup- presses. But opinions have little weight in comparison with facts. Prophecy is to me a fact of almost daily occur- rence, and there are many famous prophecies which show the wondrous extent of this faculty none per- haps more remarkable than that of M. CAZOTTE, uttered to a distinguished company in Paris just before the breaking out of the French Revolution, in which he predicted the deaths of many eminent persons, and the very mode in which they would occur, which the reader will find in the latter part of this volume the Ap- pendix. It is well known that the civil war of secession was 154 Prophetic Intuition. foreseen and predicted a quarter of a century in ad- vance by the Quaker, Joseph Hoag, who saw it begin- ning in religious schisms and going on to war. The Pope's loss of temporal power was predicted in 1858. Miss Bremer was in Rome that year, residing a few weeks in the Convent of the Sacred Heart, to wit- ness their mode of life. She says in her " Switzer- land and Italy," " Last evening the prophetic spirit fell upon Sister Genevieve, under the influence of which, drawing herself up to her full height, she, with upraised arms, foretold the fall of the temporal power of the Pope, war, bloodshed, and great revolutions, but out of which the Catholic Church shall come forth renovated, victorious, poor, but holy and powerful as in the earliest times." The prediction is already fulfilled as far as time per- mits, and I believe that it will probably all be fulfilled, for, although the Catholic Church as an ecclesiasticism has been more barbarous and bloody than any tribe of savages, it has always had a core of deep and fervent self-sacrificing piety and spirituality, surpassing that of the followers of Luther and Calvin. In the horror that I have expressed for the past and present, tyrannical, avaricious, warlike, bloody, and cruel condition of the so-called Christian Church, the church of universal apostacy, I do not for a moment forget that vital relig- ion, inspiration, spirituality, devotion, fidelity, love and self-sacrifice have come down from the earliest periods in the midst of all this corruption and cruelty. Hu- manity is a marvellous jumble of celestial and infernal elements, without the wisdom and firmness necessary to bring order into this chaos of contradictions, in Prophetic Intuition. 1 5 5 which he who looks for evil can find all that is horrible, and he who looks for good alone, can find a heavenly radiance through all these dark ages, a continual succes- sion of noble, heroic deeds, and a perpetual humanizing influence for society. In these I rejoice, hoping and believing they will ultimately prevail, but the candid inquirer must recognize as much truth in the criticisms of Voltaire and Ingersoll as in the more pleasing Gesta Christi of Mr. Brace. To return to these prophecies, their source and methods. The mechanism or modus operandi of Omni- science can never be compassed by man. Prophecy is too divine to be entirely analyzed, but we can see lines of causation along which any mind may advance to the future, and concerning which there is no dispute. The range of astronomic foresight is incalculable. In hu- man affairs prophecy runs on occult lines. One of these occult lines I have discovered. It is the law of perio- dicity, or at least one law ; I know not how many other laws may exist. For thirty-five years I have been trac- ing and testing that law which governs alike individuals, nations, and all known phenomena. I have found no important exception to its truth as it is verified in my own life, in the progress of my discoveries, which are passing from their recent Nadir to their Zenith, in the lives of all whom I have investigated, and in the history of nations. This law enabled me, in 1859, to predict six years of calamity to the United States (in the Loii- isville Journal}^ and enables me now to predict and fearlessly announce a period of calamity thirty years hence, culminating to the worst in 1915. Our first era of calamity was from 1812 to 1818, signalized by 156 Prophecy in war and financial distress. The second was at its Nadir in 1865, '66, the utter prostration from war. The third will realize its worst in 1914 and 1915 a period I cannot expect to witness. What form will it assume ? That I do not predict ; but, although there will probably be social disturbances, it seems more probable that it will be elemental convulsion on the Pacific side of the conti- nent, and I would prefer not to reside in San Francisco at that time. By psychometric intuition and by scientific prophecy based on universal laws and forces, connected with peri- odicity, which is as apparent in a fever as in planetary movements, nations, and individuals will hereafter be taught (when true civilization begins) to advance in their destiny with the same reliable prescience with which the farmer now anticipates the seasons and his crops. PROPHECY IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. The prophetic power is quite necessary in the inves- tigation and comprehension of public affairs. It is the one indispensable faculty for philosophic and statesman- like views. Knowing its high development in Mrs. B., I have been accustomed to use her wonderful power to elucidate current events in public life and their probable issue. When, about three years ago, Ireland, if we should judge from the newspapers, appeared to be on the verge of a bloody revolution, I directed her attention to the condition of that country in the usual way, by a word or a question in her hand, and was informed that there would be no military outbreak that the excitement would subside and be quieted within two years, without Public Affairs. 157 bloodshed. I watched for the fulfilment of her predic- tion, and at the end of the two years the condition of the country was so quiet and peaceable, that the magis- trates commented on the fact that there were fewer crimes than usual. The trouble in Egypt early attracted my attention, and the condition has been psychometrically inspected clown to the present time. On the appearance of Arabi Pasha there was a great difference of opinion as to his character and his future. Many were hailing him as the Bolivar of Egypt, and even so intelligent a gentleman as M. de Lesseps spoke of the probability of a long, bloody, and doubtful war. " The English" said de Lesseps at Paris, "will not have to fight against a leader of insurgents, but against the sovereign of an entire people, since the whole of Egypt is with Arabi." I procured an engraving of Arabi and placed it in the hands of Mrs. B., who, without seeing it, gave the fol- lowing impression from the picture of ARABI PASHA. " I feel that this is a restless, great mind ; it 's a man, a character that never seemed to be satisfied unless he was accomplishing some great purpose. He seems a great worker for some special cause. He has some great cause something to accomplish. "To tell the truth, I don't like him ; he 's a partisan ; he seems like some leader ; but I get a great deal of death around him, a great many spirits. He don't seem sick, but I 'd not be surprised if he 's a spirit himself before long. Perhaps he will not live long. He brings me restless, turbulent scenes. I don't feel happy. It's all anxiety and conflict, as if I were going to be besieged. 1 5 8 Prophecy in " I think the man is exceedingly shrewd, but at the same time not diplomatic. He wants to arrive at some great position, but mostly for self-aggrandizement. " He is not near, not like one of us ; he seems distant. His organism now is only acting out his true character. It has been slumbering a long period, now he is acting out the full measure of his designs ; I call them iniqui- tous. I don't like the man. I thought at first he was philanthropic, but he is not. He would lend him- self to secret manoeuvres and intrigues. He does not value human life, he is despotic and cruel. Has he got any negro blood in him ? he seems like Indian or negro ; he is not Anglo Saxon, he has a mingling of nationali- ties. He has a taint of negro and Indian character ; he is stealthy. " He has a following, but those who follow him are being misled. He has magnetic influence and tactics he buys them by promises. No intelligent, civilized people would follow him. He would hold out promises to his followers. " He seems a military man. His career is not for a principle so much as policy and self-aggrandizement. He is in a plot ; he seems the originator of some great plot ; some of the important actors in it are not known. It was for power to subdue for some secret purpose or some imaginary wrong that they feel. " The great restlessness^.ncl turbulence of this man's nature must come out. This affair is the outgrowth of his character. He is warring and destroying. I get all sorts of destruction, and missiles of every form, destroy- ing life and property. I see ships. His career will end in great disgrace if he does not lose his life. Those he depends on most will turn against him and become his enemies. I feel that decidedly. He is not a Napoleon by any means. He is decidedly cruel and does not re- gard human life ; yet I think he is cowardly as to his own life he wants to live. " He brings such an army of accusers from the spirit- Public Affairs. 159 world hordes of them. His career will not last long. If he were killed, or should die, this work, this disturb- ance would soon cease. There is no one to take his place. He is despotic. It makes my head ache." (Q. What is his personal appearance ?) " It is hard to get his personal appearance. I think he has broad shoulders, is not a slight man. His com- plexion is dark. His eyes have an unnatural expression all the fire of his nature is concentrated in the ex- pression of his face. He has great determination no expression of repose the expression of a tiger.* " He don't seem to have any real love. He would as soon war with his own father or brother, as anybody else. The result of his turbulence and mischief will not be advantageous in any way to his own country or to those he endeavors to wrong. He is not going to escape he will be either captured or killed his career is short lived the seen and unseen powers warring against him forbid him to succeed. " I wonder if these scenes are not in the Egyptian war. I see the shattered walls standing, and great pil- lars supporting buildings, lying in confusion and de- struction." (You are right. This is Arabi Pasha. What do you say of his* religious character?) " He has nothing spiritual. He inherited this turbu- lent nature, which has long been lying dormant." The truth of this description is apparent to all who have watched the progress of events in Egypt. The true character of Arabi was fully developed by the former Khedive Ismail whose opinion was reported in the London Times as follows : * M. de Rossi wrote a Paris newspaper an account of an interview with Arabi, in which he says : " When he spoke of the thousand of Marsala, he grew excited, and his eyes, which till then had been soft as a woman's, shot fire like those of a lion. He gesticulated wildly, and once nearly broke the apparatus with the weight of his fist." 160 Prophecy in " I do not for a moment believe either in the genuine- ness, extent, or patriotism of the so-called National feeling. The agitation, such as it is, is the natural re- sult of the weakness of the Egyptian Government on the one hand, and the success of the Turkish intrigues on the other. Pan-Islamism is as old as my time, and older, but I would never hear of it. Different counsels have since prevailed ; and we are now face to face with the consequences. I always managed by some means or other to control and direct the religious fervor of my subjects in Egypt, but when the control came from Constantinople and not from Cairo, religious fervor became religious fanaticism, and the existence, influence and temporary success of an Arabi became a possi- bility. I remember Arabi well. He became a lieu- tenant-colonel when very young, and, in the second or third year of my administration was t^ied by court- martial for breach of trust. He should have been broken, but one of my generals persuaded me to par- don him, and I did so. He was then transferred to the Commissariat, and only quite recently returned to active service in the army. Arabi can be painted in a word he is what the French call a blageur. He can talk and do nothing else. He is the tool of Mahmoud Fehmy and Toulba, about both of whom I have nothing good to say. Arabi is, and always was, an arrant cow- ard. I always said he would run away, and he certainly decamped very quickly at Tel-el-Kebir. The only brave men in his party are Ah Fehmy and Abdelal ; they are soldiers, but I would defy Arabi himself to define either " patriotism " or " National feeling." He certainly has neither one nor the other, although half Europe seems inclined to regard him as the would-be savior of his country. The truth is that the Egyptian people must lean on something and follow some one. The Egyptian Government was hopelessly weak, and Arabi and his friends knew it. He and his partisans achieved three, visible and striking successes, and the Egyptians saw Pitblic Affairs. 161 this, and saw, moreover, the representatives of great Powers practically in treaty with him. Arabi pointed triumphantly to these facts, and told the Egyptians he could and would restore Egypt to the Egyptians ; and it is not surprising in the circumstances that the Egyp- tians clung to him as the stronger vessel. The move- ment he headed was from the first actively encouraged at Constantinople, but it is very improbable that either the Sultan himself or any of his responsible Ministers were ever in direct communication either with him or his associates. Direct communication is not a feature of Turkish intrigue, as the desired effect can be pro- duced without it. Arabi and his accomplices must be severely punished. An example should certainly be made of the leaders of the revolt, and half-measures will only be a premium to future disturbances. They may give to Egypt a succession of Arabis. Arabi him- self should be treated as a vulgar mutineer and rebel- lious soldier ; to look on him as an Egyptian Garibaldi is a capital mistake, and one which augers ill for the future/' The British government took this view, believing that Arabi did not represent any genuine aspirations of the Egyptians, but merely the purpose of military chiefs and corrupt functionaries to attain power, and pillage the tax payers. Acting on that belief they wisely sup- pressed him. When El Mahdi came forward apparantly in defence of the liberty of his country, but denounced as the false prophet, I felt a lively interest and procured a psychometric opinion on the 26th of November, 1883, (using only his name) as follows : EL MAHDI. (NOV. 26, 1883.) " I think it is a living person, It produces a singular 1 62 Prophecy in electric current in the fingers. I'll have to wait awhile and collect myself. "It comes to me as a person of great intellectual vigor quite remarkable thoroughly original and practical. I'm trying to think what he does. It does not seem military affairs, yet he seems a ruler of some kind, some kind of a potentate. " I think he is very scientific, interested in scientific discoveries, has wonderful forethought is systematic. I don't see what he is doing now. He seldom does any- thing of a personal character always reaching out for some grand or I might say humanitarian labor. "He seems near 70, at least not a young man. I can't locate him except in a foreign country." (Q. What kind of a climate has his country ?) " It seems warmer than this more genial." (Q. What kind of people are around him ?) "He has a good many crude people with no ideas or crude ideas." (Q. What is he doing with them ?) " Instructing and developing them. He seems to travel a great deal." (Q. How is he engaged at this time ?) " He is in a perplexing condition ; in a tight place ; environed by some difficulties. The conditions are not friendly like one who is combating and endeavoring to extricate from his surrounding conditions. " He seems fond of scientific illustrations. He is not a great scientist, but has an intuitive understanding. He has indomitable will and perseverance, throws a great deal of energy and fire into what he does. I wonder if he has not colonizing schemes for developing countries and colonizing inhabitants harmonizing crude elements. He has a broad comprehensive mind great vigilance, is fearless, would expose himself to danger without consideration. He has been in close proximity to danger from assault and capture. He is in that condition now with suspicious people not familiar Public Afiairs. 163 with his methods. He is not really fond of military operations, but is not afraid of them." (Q. Has he been in any military operations?) " He has but is not in love with it. " I feel that he is a foreigner not an American. I get a foreign element, like Indians and Chinese a crude people. He seems alone, single-handed in his work. He has great ambition; likes popularity has a great deal. "He is very penetrative. He likes to develop the resources of people and countries. He is a peace maker would like to work with government officials." (Q. Has he been engaged in war ?) " I seem to get surveying, engineering implements. I perceive reconstruction, breaking up of old things, and reconstructing new. His warring nature has been held in abeyance, but he has been, or is, engaged with antagonist forces like war, but I don't see fighting. He is a good tactician, in politics, a power behind the throne." (Q. Has there been a battle ?) "There has been a loss of life, by contending warring forces, yet he does not appear as a military officer, but as one who would take the weaker side and stimulate them by his own courage rather than go into active war. Yet if neccessary he would do it. The cause of contest would be the claims to territory." ( Q. Will he have success or failure ?) "He will not be a failure not as successful as he anticipates, but in spite of any reverses he will be an ultimate success as a liberator of the oppressed." (Q. What of his religion ?) " He has a humane religion, not cramped. He is not a Catholic. He may be a Mahometan more like that than any thing else. He will be a leader and exer- cise a good deal of authority. He has great ambition and will have honors conferred. He will make his name and mark in history. He is capable of achieving exten- 164 Prophecy in sive influence and receiving progressive ideas ; possibly Americanized before he dies accepting our methods. He does not love war, and will not perpetuate it, though he will protect his people and insist on justice to them. But the war will not continue long. There is great apprehension of continued losses, but it will not con- tinue. England will be called in, but rather as an arbi- ter than an ally." (Q. Has he any anticipation of great influence among Mahometans ?) " He is skilful in curing diseases, and is a seer of great power, equal to Swedenborg, though not in the same direction. He is grandly prophetic, and people believe in him. He is a medium, likely to be controlled and influenced by Mahomet. He is a well-developed man, but of a very dark complexion and a strong physique, not injured by active life." Since the examination I have several times submitted the character of the Mahdi to the psychometric investi- gation of my best pupils, and found a unanimous agree- ment in the essential characteristics of the foregoing- description. Let us observe how thoroughly it is sustained by all that we have heard of El Mahdi through the press. An Egyptian government, the most profligate and infamous of all among civilized nations, becomes deeply involved in debt to foreigners by its unprincipled rulers. This government acknowledges itself subordinate to Turkey, and also claims the control of a vast and valuable territory in the Soudan, inhabited by high- spirited Arabs and harmless blacks, where its intolerable despotism excites a revolt of which El Mahdi becomes the leading figure. In the helpless weakness of Egypt, foreign govern- P tib lie Affairs, 165 ments interfere with no other pretext than to secure the payment of the Egyptian debt. Great Britain, as the custodian of Egypt, assumes to intervene for its protec- tion against rebellion. For this they are detested by the Egyptians, who are ready to revolt against the British authority and their own cunning Khedive, allied with foreigners. A military revolt under Arabi, is crushed by British cannon at Cairo. The revolt in the Soudan to throw off a foreign yoke is grappled in a most incompre- hensible manner by the British government though con- fessing in Parliament that El Mahdi is battling for liberty, and that England will not undertake his subjugation, yet a military force is sent to sustain the Egyptians, under pretence of evacuating the Soudan and rescuing the troops of Egypt. Yet why send troops for such a pur- pose ? What difficulty would there be in the withdrawal of troops if they surrendered all claim and proposed a peaceful evacuation ? The difficulty lay solely in the effort to maintain the shadowy and worthless claim of Egypt and Turkey to the sovereignty of the Soudan. To maintain this fictitious title England, professing to be but an arbiter engages in an actual war on a small scale against the people who are struggling only for liberty, and whose struggle enlists the sympathy of the Irish, and the sympathy of a large portion of the English people. Possibly there was another motive, in the purpose to retain the friendship of Turkey and the fear that the success of the Mahdi might unite the Mohammedan population of India. Another latent influence was the practical control of Egypt obtained in crushing Arabi, and the desire of a strong party in England for the an 1 66 Prophecy in nexation of Egypt, which would have excited European jealousy. The impossibility of conquering and holding the Sou- dan against its dangerous climate and the warlike Arabs, under El Mahdi convinced both England and Egypt that evacuation was the only safe course. January 8th 1884, the Khedive said to a correspondent that he must abandon the Soudan and that if life was lost in try- ing to defend Kartoum the responsibility for this loss of life would rest on him. Nubar Pasha at the same time spoke of the evacuation of the Soudan as inevitable. Jan. 12, Col. Coetlogan commanding at Kartoum under Egypt, requested orders for a retreat, the Mudir of Kartoum urged the immediate withdrawal of the Christian population and Nubar Pasha issued an order ' to that effect. El Mahdi was said to be advancing with a large force and the surrender of Kartoum was de- manded. Gen. Baker urged the abandonment of Kar- toum, the population of which sympathized with the Mahdi and objected to resistance. The British govern- ment thus far agreed with the Khedive in reference to evacuation. The recent destruction of the army of Gen. Hicks in his attempt at invasion, the de- struction of a small Egyptian army near Suakim in December, and the successful advance of El Mahdi's army left no other course within the limits of common sense but a speedy evacuation and friendly negotiation with the Mahdi, or else the summoning of all the power of England to defend some well defined territorial boundary. Neither was done. There was no assertion of a territorial boundary no attempt to negotiate with Public Affairs. 167 the Soudanese no determination either to recognize the independence of the people or to conquer them. The policy of peaceful withdrawal was partly rejected and partly adopted, or professed. Military forces were sent to co-operate with Egypt against the Soudanese and a contradictory confused policy carried out professing peace yet practicing war rejecting the idea of con- quest, yet assisting the party that aimed at conquest a policy which nobody understood at home or abroad, which provoked the severest denunciation in Parliament and threats of resignation from the Egyptian ministry in April 1884. A cabinet council convened in March was said to be unable to come to any conclusion, and it was said that the foreign secretary Earl Granville insisted upon the recall of Gen. Gordon, doubting his sanity. The cam- paign was regarded as a failure up to that time. Mr. Stanley in the commons urged the witholding of sup- plies until a full and explicit statement of the Egyptian policy should be made. Sir Wilifred Lawson denounced the battle of Teb as a massacre and the English policy as hypocritical and wicked. Mr. Labouchere had pre- viously (in February) askSd the government to renounce its blood-thirsty policy ; and in April 94 members of the House of Commons lacking only ten of a majority, voted that the loss of British and Arab life in the Soudan was unnecessary. But the policy was pursued to still more disastrous results. The change from the avowed design of peaceful and prompt withdrawal without the use of British troops began apparently in January 1884, soon after the peace- ful expressions of the Khedive, who said to a corres- 1 68 Prophecy in pondent that he must abandon the Soudan, and that if life was lost in defending Kartoum the responsibility would rest on himself. This seemed to be the policy Col. Coetlogan commanding at Kartoum, requested orders to withdraw from that city, and orders were sent by Nubar Pasha for the withdrawal of the Christian population as requested by the Mudir. Nubar expressed his conviction of the necessity of giving up the Soudan. The change of policy was initiated by the Egyptian war minister, Abd el Kader, considered a man of mili- tary abi i; ty, who, refusing to yield Kartoum, said the Egyptian government had 21,000 men, sufficient to hold the Soudan and that it would require seven months and cost a million of pounds to evacuate. So far as the telegraphic reports explained the situa- tion, this appeared to be the beginning in conjunction with the influence of Turkey of the cruel and disastrous policy to which the British cabinet yielded, costing not only a great loss of life but the sacrifice of more than sixty millions of dollars with more than the usual amount of military blundering and commissariat villa- nies. The only excuse publicly given was that England must not go back on her assurances to Egypt. As late as January 2ist it was said that Kartoum would be evacuated when the 2000 soldiers expected from Sennaar arrived. The plan of the Egyptian minis- try when they determined to hold on was to establish a new kingdom of Kordofan and Darfoor with Kartoum as the capital. It would be foreign to my purpose to dwell on the twelve months of folly, in which a civilized nation was occupied in upholding an odious despotism against the ruler whom the people longed for. I speak Public Affairs. 169 of these things in justice to El Mahdi whose noble character and whose rights have been so shamefully ignored. This cruel folly is nearing its end. The opin- ion of those familiar with Egpyt is that England must discontinue this course, which at present is interrupted by the climate. How much better would it have been to have carried out the policy of January 1884 or to have acted on Gen- eral Gordon's suggestion to recognize the independence of the Soudan. Since this was written the Soudan has been evacuated and a criminal folly ended, in which I can but believe that Mr. Gladstone yielded against his own judgment to a war party in England. We can learn very little of El Mahdi but the first reports of atrocities proved to be entirely false. The army of Gen. Hicks was entirely annihilated but many prisoners have been retained, and so far as reports have come, prisoners have been kindly treated. The Mahdi is said to have invited the Frenchman Olivier Pain to remain with him and see that his policy was not bar- barous. The course of events for the five months since the foregoing psychometric description has been in accord- ance with it. On the 2ist of January 1884 four ladies were present in our parlor and to give them an illustra- tion of psychometry, I placed in the hands of Mrs. B, the words " El Mahdi the Prophet " asking her to tell me the present condition of the party whose name I had given her. I recorded her impressions as follows : " This is a great ways off a very sensitive person. I think he feels in good condition, as if successful. He is I/O Prophecy in going on successfully. He has wonderful brain power, activity, assurance. He seems like one who had the good of a large class of people at heart, and is guided and pushed on to do a great work. He has wonderful powers. He is commanding forces people." (What will he accomplish in the next three months ?) " He is going on to victory I don't know where, but he is going to achieve a most wonderful victory over his enemies. He is an extraordinarily strong man. What an immense force he has against him. People stand aghast, afraid of him, but they ought not to be. " This man acts from inspiration a power behind him. He has an indomitable spirit, and would die for a principle. He is gathering new force all the time, cut- ting off or thwarting the opposing forces, and gaining power. He will spread himself to a great extent. It is difficult to say how much power he will have. He is a great ruler now and has a large following. This follow- ing comes from some principle that is of a profound nature." (Is it political, religious or mercantile?) " More religious than anything else. He does not aim at self-aggrandizement. He is destined to a suc- cessful career. His career will be one of achievement. When he subsides it will be with a feeling of victory, and having things much his own way. He will have a bright future, with now and then clouds arising from turbulence. He has to deal with sinister people, who come to him with great claims of no real value. " It seems like one I have described that Prophet. He is a good example of courage, and whatever may happen, he will make a great inroad on professions of religion. His religion is an old one, with many truths not followed as they should be. He is in a better con- dition than when I saw him last." (Is he about to capture a city ? ) " He is preparing for an attack, and will be repulsed ; but if his people hold out as he expects, he will succeed ; Public Affairs. 1 7 1 but he looks with distrust upon the forces and their commanders. I never saw such unbounded faith as he has in his undertaking." This production was verified by the repulse of his forces until his capture of Kartoum, January 27, 1885, a year from this examination. I again directed her attention to El Mahdi, January 24, 1885, by placing in her hands the words, "El Mahdi, what is his condition ? " In advancing mentally, she first recognized a scene of flowers. Then : " My mind is now led to an individual but I am a little puzzled. There are elements of brightness, clear and serene. This person is not surrounded with impos- sibilities ; everything seems possible ; yet there's a great deal of turbulence. There is something familiar about it a great deal of something that I have described before. The scenes that present themselves are fluctu- ating ; they bring hope and anxiety, yet nothing seems impossible to his mind. I feel it is a male. I like him, but there is so much anxiety ! Still there is a fearless- ness that will not despair. I don't like the condition that comes into his life there is so much antagonism. " He is excessively independent. I have never seen this man, but I seem to be in sympathy with the ele- ments that belong to his life, but not with that around him it is too treacherous. " I feel myself in a very warm climate, far away ; I get the perfumes, the odors of the foliage ; it is a trop- ical region, far away. I see gorges and deserts. I feel like him, as if a centre in a certain radius, perfectly collected and valiant. He is a religious man. He com- mands a great deal of devotion from his subjects. He is a sort of ruler. "I wish you were here to see what is going on. They are piling up breastworks for defence. There ! I see a man just hurt badly. He fell, and a weapon stuck into 1/2 Prophecy in his side some kind of a spear. Many are sitting down, some are lying down. I see people that have been wounded. There is going to be terrible bloodshed a terrible attack in connection with this scene and this person a fearful fight, and hundreds killed and wounded a savage fight before March arrives. It does not appear that anybody will have a victory. A great many of these people will be killed. The enemy will have to divide forces and go back where they came from. These people will hold their position. The peo- ple that attack them are English." (What next ? ) " That will not be the end. There may be operations through some other power. The people who are attack- ing these people have not their hearts in it. It is more for prestige. There will be no great victories. They have gone too far to relinquish, but will resort to subter- fuges to give good cause for settling the difficulty. There is not spirit enough to make a great struggle. The spirit is on the side of these people ; the others only aim at a certain point in war tactics. " I don't like to stay in this country. It seems barren and listless. They are a superstitious people. " The leader has no fear of outwitting or thwarting his opponents. The war will not continue in the summer, it would be fatal to foreigners. The troops will probably withdraw and turn their backs on the people. I cannot see the result of the war because the struggle seems so imminent. " Where is Gen. Gordon, he is not in full vigor. He is sick at present, but I don't think he will die. I must leave this scene and go down the Nile. It is too excit- ing and dreadful. Now the scenery is beautiful. I see the beautiful fish in the waters. Everything seems quiet and beautiful. " Now I see George Washington before me with the most beautiful heavenly smile I ever saw. He reaches out his arms and says, ' Peace shall reign over this Public Affairs. 173 entire globe wit/tin five years a thing that has not been for many years in the past/ " Now he shows me a beautiful tableau, beautiful beyond expression. The colors from every nation standing behind him, and on his breast is the flag of his own country." The enquirer may ask, was this but a figurative or emblematic embodiment of her prevoyant ideas, or was it an actual communication from the spirit of Washing- ton. It is not necessary to decide ; psychometric impressions often embody themselves in metaphorical forms as do the thoughts of poets, and it is difficult to draw the line between the subjective and the objective, between the things seen as past, present or future, and the visions that embody or illustrate a truth. Three days later I submitted the name El Mahdi to a group of psychometrical pupils, ladies in my parlor, in my usual mode of placing a small written slip in the hand. The substance of their general impressions is expressed as well as practicable in the following lan- guage noted down at the time. " It is elevating, a serious feeling, a congenial magnet- ism, brightening the mind and the eyes, quiet and soothing, but powerfully magnetic, disposed to think, well balanced, elevated above all things, intellectual, musical, an attractive person, not stout, symmetrical, a foreigner who does not speak the English language. He is not comfortably situated. He is active in war or something of that kind, in trouble, often on horse- back or on some animal. He has quite a large army not English they wear loose dress-capes. He has great spirit power, is a powerful medium ; there is a power from spirits surrounding him. He is fighting for the right, the other army are invading him. He is Prophecy in defending his own country. The war will be disastrous to him but he feels perfect assurance of final success. He is obliged to do violent things which he would not do if not thus attacked. He will hold his own. We sympathize with him. He is fighting for a principle." This group of psychometers perceived the character and position of the.man but not the exact events of the moment. In my report of January 24, three days before the capture of Kartoum, the military condition was correctly given. She spoke of terrible battles and bloodshed " before March arrives," great slaughter " of the people " but no victory for any body, and the retreat of the English with divided forces, going " back where they came from," while "these people will hold their posi- tion." "The war will not continue in summer, it would be fatal to foreigners." The sanguinary battles of January, February and March which were so bloody to the Arabs and the practical cessation of active hostili- ties in March verified the prediction. The ex-Khedive Ismail Pasha explained to King Humbert, of Italy on the fifth of April, the utter impossibility of conquering the Soudan and said that England was temporizing with a view of abandoning the Soudan "as soon as it could be done without undignified haste." He thought that England and El Mahdi would come to an agreement next autumn. In April '85 I procured for the first time a picture of El Mahdi, purporting to be derived from a photograph, and thinking that it might perhaps give a more vivid impression than the name, I placed it in her hands the Public Affairs. 175 face turned down, on which she gave the following opinion. " It seems the picture of a man, a prominent leader, whether religious or political. It seems a strong man. There is a great deal of ardor and excitability. " He has one purpose at heart ; he is entirely suited to it. He is a foreigner. It takes me off to the East to the countries around the Mediterranean. He is sur- rounded with a- good deal of opposition to his work. I feel a restive warlike element around him. "There is no pretension about this man. He is sin- cere and courageous, and I think him religious. It would take a great amount of opposing power to make him submit or change his policy. I feel as if in the midst of contention and war, very much as I do when I take the character of El Mahdi. I feel almost that it is he." (In what condition is he at present ?) " He is in a hopeful condition as to the ultimate suc- cess of his policy. Tell me if it is El Mahdi. I think it is." (You are right, it is El Mahdi.) "I need not say any more." (What is his present condition ?) " I wish I had not discovered him so soon. I think at the present time he feels that the prolonged delay is somewhat disappointing. He thought that the culmi- nation would be reached sooner. But he is gaining prestige all the time, notwithstanding the circulation of hostile rumors. His people are getting weary, they want to see an end to this but he is strong to-day, strong in his cause. He looks to the spirit world for aid with as strong faith that he will be carried through by the aid of higher powers as any of the orthodox. He has undoubted fidelity to his religion." (What of the sanguinary proclamations attributed to him ?) 176 Prophecy in " That was probably to pacify the ignorant and fanati- cal people around him. He may have said something like what was reported." (How old do you think he is ?) " Between forty and fifty." This shows a prompt perception of his character and a more accurate judgment of his age than was formed from the name alone. On the i /th of May, she announced that he had been defeated, which corresponded to the telegraphic news* but at the same time that he was not discouraged and had received large reinforcements. The Mahdi or Mahadi is a Mahometan Messiah, a reincarnation of the old prophet Mohammed the I2th Imam and I2th in descent from Ali, who is the original prophet, who is believed to reincarnate to revive the glory of Moslemism. The family name of the present prophet is Mohammed Ahmed. He is a man of medium size, very thin, of a light copper color, with a very black beard. He was born at Dongolah ; his parents were poor, but by the aid of his brothers who were car- penters and boat builders he was kept at school near Kartoum, and had completed the study of the Koran at twelve. After completing his studies, he lived on the island of Aba on the White river for about fifteen years, and is said to have occupied a subterranean apart- ment or cave. Here he began to assume the position of the Mahdi and gained so many devotees that when he was sent for to appear before the governor-general at Kartoum and explain his purposes, he refused to go. When two hundred soldiers were sent to capture him, they were slain by his followers. Two months later in Public Affairs. 177 1 88 1, five hundred soldiers sent for the same purpose, were also destroyed. The rebellion developed ; the garrisons of the Soudan, numbering seven thousand men were concentrated at Gudir, and were attacked by an immense army under the Mahdi. It is said that only one hundred and twenty-four soldiers escaped massacre. He led a conquering force sweeping down everything before him, and laid siege to El Obeid with a force reported at 192,000, but no doubt vastly exag- gerated. The place was captured and severely pun- ished, and his career of conquest continued, signalized by the entire destruction of the army of Hicks Pasha. Newspapers report the destruction of a hundred thou- sand lives by his rebellion, but all intelligence from that quarter has been unreliable. In his present position as master of Kartoum with an unconquerable people be- hind him, the prediction of his success is evidently des- tined to fulfilment ; and the superficial sneers of the London Times at the impostor will not be ^ustained by history. As El Mahdi is in spiritual affinity with Mahomet, I would introduce here the impression of him given some years since by Mrs. B. as follows : MAHOMET THE FOUNDER OF ISLAMISM. " I feel a great illumination and development coming like waves of inspiration. It brings a purple color with it. It takes me back a great ways, is not modern, but not as ancient as Crishna. It is nearer the period of Christ. " There seems to be a period when the world was looking for development to take it out of gloom, a wait- ing for something. 1/8 Prophecy in "This was a regenerator. He took hold of people by storm, almost by force. It brings great heat and fervor, an imaginative mind that grasped great truths, great ideas. There was great imagination and fulfilment, it might be called prophesies fulfilled. There is a burst- ing volcanic feeling. " From birth he seemed born for his mission. He was the founder of a doctrine approximating somewhat the teaching of Christ, but not as his nor idolatrous. He would not teach the worship of idols, but led the people out of it. It seems he took a step in advance of his predecessors, paid more respect to woman in his dispensation than in former ages. "What troublous times he had often in the deepest troubles from antagonisms, there was so much jealousy existing and so much animality. The people he dealt with had very little spirituality. He talked with spirits claimed to do it and did. He lived simply and pre- pared himself for the revealments through him. "He succeeded in establishing his doctrines and had his followers has now. A great deal of force was used he had to fight his way. Great powers were against him and treachery, but he never yielded his faith. " His doctrines were such as to impose great moral responsibility on the person not like the Old nor the New Testament. He believed personal sacrifices neces- sary to obtain happiness. He believed in another existence. His heaven was not work, or praise and song, but one of grandeur and rest. " He hardly taught that we should have the same pleasures and pursuits as here. He did not feel that there was much atonement in heaven. The mind would not take on the same conditions, but be trans- formed. "He did not diffuse knowledge to the masses but would rather teach this doctrine of inevitable fate. " He was abstemious as to drink. If he saw the Public Affairs. 179 demoralizing effect of wine, he would oppose it. He had a liberal spirit in that, but would not tolerate de- bauchery. "As to women he would teach plurality of wives would not abuse women, but be kind to his favorites. He was loving and voluptuous would prefer to be served by women, but perhaps not counsel much with them, though he recognized their inspiration. "He had inspiration from high sources had visions and prophecies, and felt that he had direct communica- tion with the departed or angels. He was an inspired leader, and left a better example than they had been following he advanced- them. " He had some opposition to Christianity, not viewing Christ as we do. "He had talents was an orator and made powerful addresses in a commanding voice of magnetic force he charmed his audiences. They sought him with avidity. " He had power to heal and did, somewhat after the manner of Christ, even at a distance. His dress was plain. He compared with Christ as a leader, and in magnetic force, but was not so self-sacrificing. He had more adherents from the opulent than Christ had. He has dropped many of his ideas, and would harmonize with your views of philanthropy." ALEXANDER, D'lSRAELI, AND GARIBALDI DEATH PRE- DICTED. December 26, 1879. Mrs. B. gave a graphic descrip- tion of Alexander, the Czar of Russia, ending with the assertion "he will certainly be killed assassinated,'' and that " many of the great men of Europe will be lost in the next two years D' ISRAELI and GARIBALDI, and Spain will also send her quota of prominent men to the spirit world." These successful prophecies were the I So Prophecy in more remarkable as they were spontaneous, and not at all associated in any way with the fate of Alexander. The description of Alexander in which these prophe- cies occurred was as follows. She grasped the charac- ter almost instantly and recognized it as living. " I get a living influence. I feel a person endowed with good share of common sense and great ability in directing. He knows how to direct a body of men. That is his forte. He is intellectual, and at home in intellectual society. There is a flush of business about him. " He is not altogether popular. He is in a position of directing by authority, and he is under direction by others. He is engaged in publishing something something like journalism. He is easily read by those who are near him. He lives in style, but the external of the building is not so stylish as its interior." (Why is he unpopular ?) " He is so self-willed and extreme. It is not a char- acter that I would admire. He has an intense love of self is very opinionated. He is gifted has learning, and has looked into deep subjects. Does he not have women under his control ? I see them. But he is not popular with women, except so far as they desire to get benefits from him. He is obeyed from fear of his power." (Is he interested in the public welfare ?) "Yes, if he could have his own way. He does not adopt other people's views." (Has his unpopularity ever brought on any trouble ?) "Yes, he has been in danger of personal violence from his enemies. He is careless as to wounding others not at all sympathetic." (What does he think of democratic institutions ?) " He is rather favorable to them. That is one of his extremes. He likes to see industry going on, and is Public Affairs 181 industrious himself, but he likes to have his own system in everything. He is bull-headed in many respects. He cares more for the country's prosperity than for the comfort of the people. He likes to take the reins over everything and supervise it." (What is the climate of his country ?) " Generally temperate, but in certain winter months, very cold." PSYCHOMETRIC VIEW OF RUSSIA AND ENGLAND. March 26, 1885, our evening paper gave warlike news- which prompted me to learn from psychometry the probable course of events. The foreign news was headed: "War nearing. English and Russian stocks falling. Great excitement in England. 25,000 militia said to have been called out. Bombay troops to pre- pare for service. Finishing steel vessels at Chatham. Chicago canning beef for the English army. England preparing, getting ready her big ships, calling in and inspecting her rifles. The British reserves and militia to be called into permanent service. Queen Victoria's message. 15,000 troops for India. Horse artillery pro- ceed at once. Burmah contributes 1,000 camels." It was also stated that " 14,000 rifles will be forwarded to India to-morrow," and that " Gen. Roberts' corps will go to Bolan Pass," and " rumors are thick that Russia has rejected the English proposals." At the same time the conviction was expressed at the Department of State, Washington, that war was inevitable. These and other warlike rumors implied a very strong probability of war, and to test the prophetic power, I placed in the hands of Mrs. B. the words, pencilled on a very small slip of paper, " England and Russia ; will 1 82 Prophecy in there be war ? " saying that it was a question concern- ing persons, places, and events on which I wished her opinion. I knew she had no opinion formed on the subject, as she seldom looked at the foreign news, and was not aware of the pending difficulties. Her impres- sions were given deliberately, as follows : " It's all mixed up. It gets me excited. Is it El Mahdi's war?" (No ; it is something for you to determine as to the future.) " It stirs me up considerably, but I don't think it's a very serious matter. There seems to be a great deal of froth and swagger about it. " I am carried away a great ways, into a remote region. I see Indians, or something that looks like uncivilized people. " It seems to me there are two forces in a menacing attitude toward each other. This region seems a new place I have never explored before. I don't know what this disturbance is about whether invasion of terri- tory or subjugation. I think it is chiefly that. There is some religious feeling or fancy about it. " The people where this scene is located are not white, they seem copper colored or darker. There are other parties concerned. It is not a home affair or up- rising, but a foreign intervention. They are an unscru- pulous people. They would like to exterminate the natives if they could, and take their country. It is a rich country with mineral wealth. " They will not be able to do this, because these peo- ple will have friendly power to assist them European power." (In what direction do the invaders come?) " It is all east from here. The invaders are Europe- ans ; they come from a northern direction. The natives will have assistance from a southern direction. This Public Affairs. 183 intervening element does riot wish to meddle for honor, but to go in for principle. They are a mixed people, copper colored and dark, with some whites, but so mixed up I cannot speak clearly of the nationality." (Will there be a collision ? ) " I think there will be hostilities, and the nefarious designs against a defenceless people will be checked. There may be some collision, but the intervention will check the invasion, which is certainly wrong." (What do you say of the invading party and their government ? ) " They seem to rule by force and tyranny. I don't like their principles and methods." (Is it the fault of the nation or its government ? ) "It is the government. They are unfeeling, and have no sympathy with any nation unless they can pro- mote their own aggrandizement. It is an arbitrary government." (Will there be anything like war?) " I don't think there is much collision yet, but there is a very menacing, aggressive, tantalizing attitude. There will be bloodshed, and a formidable attack, but it will not last. The natives, though not well prepared, will fight with desperation." (How soon will it be settled ? ) " It will not take many months to establish peace." This opinion was soon verified by Gen. Komaroff's attack on the Afghans four days later, and their cour- ageous resistance. The signs of war and the military preparations were increasing until my next experiment. April u, 1885, the imminent probability of a war between England and Russia as generally believed and the vast military preparations in progress induced me to look again into the question by investigating the charac- ter of the Czar upon whom it seemed to depend. I placed in her hands " the Czar of Russia," saying 184 Prophecy in there was a character for her to investigate. Her impression was given as follows : " It seems like a public character. He has a great deal of will-power strong mentality. It is a man. I don't think I have ever described him. He is an entire stranger to me. " He is one I don't take to. He seems an unfeeling man. I may be wrong but he does not seem scrupu- lous. He would go ahead without much sympathy for others, he is sharp, cutting. He has a very active brain, a good deal of engineering, has a far-reaching mind, seeking self-aggrandizement and power. He has a great deal of skill I don't know whether military skill or in general management. I feel that he is commanding forces a power. " He is a repulsive man to me, makes me feel restless and uncomfortable. His purposes are sinister. He expects to make a great name. He cares nothing for human suffering. His name would be offensive to philanthropic minds ; but the people don't see him just as I do. I cannot locate him. " He is full of cupidity. He may be somewhat of a success, but he will never be what the world will sanc- tion as true greatness. He likes to go into large opera- tions. " People can't really tell where to find him, he is a tactician with flank movements. I feel that he is instigating trouble war. He would like to stir up and instigate war bring up causes to provoke disturb- ances. He is happy only in governing and command- ing people serfs. He is seeking conflict with people who will give him more than he wants before h*e gets through it. He seems an invader who would trample on the rights of others." (Will the people sustain him ?) " He holds power and the people will sustain him, but there will not be a general feeling in his favor." Public A fairs. 185 * (Will there be a war ?) " I think there will be a backing out. You can't tell where to find him when it comes to the issue, He has made some reputation he does not deserve by his diplomacy." (What will be his future ?) " I think he is in the Russian trouble in an exalted position." (Russian or English ?) u He seems a Russian. Emperor of Russia. He will not have a brilliant setting to his sun. He will go down in a cloud. He will not have a long reign. It will be a tortuous one. I would not be surprised if he was deposed. It is possible I don't say positively. I don't believe he will be reformed, though he may yield his principles to retain power. He is so unreliable I cannot tell what he will do. Some of the people do want to depose him. He is fond of power and of self, and is so politic he might do a great deal to retain it. He could find an excuse for making any surrender. He is a very difficult man to read. He has made great bluster and show of power, but " (What as to war ?) " He will make his demands less imperious, and endeavor to conciliate or negotiate. His acquisitive- ness is large." (What is his domestic character ?) " He does not show his tyrannical nature at home, though a little morose." (Is there any probability of his being assassinated ?) " There may be attempts. There are evil eyes on him with a menacing feeling. I do not think he will be in a very great war. His people do not go to war willingly." April 23, 1885. Everything in the news to-day at Boston indicates the strong probability of war. The Vienna dispatch of April 22 says : 1 86 Prophecy in " Information which has been received here from St. Petersburg political circles creates a great sensation. It is to the effect that the only condition on which peace can be assured is that England shall ac- knowledge the complete neutrality of Afghanistan and the extinction of English influence upon the Ameer's country. In this case only, it is said, is a peaceful understanding between England and Russia possible. This demand on the part of Russia has been communi- cated as an ultimatum to London. The highest military circles in Russia are bringing great pressure to bear on the government to declare war. They say that the chances of victory for Russia were never so favorable as at the present time. Russia it is further said, is only waiting the moment when the Volga shall be free of ice, as this river is essential for the transportation of her troops. As soon as the river is open, Russia will cast aside further attempts at diplomatic negotiations." The London despatch says : " The press association asserts that it is enabled to state that further communications have been received from St. Petersburg to the effect that the Russian government has refused to hold a further inquiry in regard to Gen. KomarofFs report of the engagement of March 30. It is the opinion, therefore, in English and Russian diplomatic circles that peace cannot be main- tained. "A later dispatch says: The Russian reply to the communication sent to M. de Giers through Sir Edward Thornton yesterday, after the receipt of Sir Peter Lumsden's supplementary report of the battle of March 30, has just been received. M. de Giers replies that Public Affairs. 187 Russia declined to enter upon any further discussion of the Penjdeh incident" The London News of same date says : " No disposition is shown by Russia to retreat from the false position she has assumed. Forbearance has been pushed to its limits and will bear little further extension on the part of England." Russia was also announced to be fortifying Batoum and gathering a military force there in violation of its treaty stipulations. The latest despatch from London on the morning of the 23d (5 A. M.), says " the Porte is to be neutral, and peace, after Sir Peter Lumsden's papers is impossible. The war preparations at Woolwich yesterday were im- mense." Fearing that there might be a failure after all in the pacific prophecy, I again placed the name of the Czar in her hand and asked, her as to the mental condition and designs of the man whose name I gave her. She promptly said it was the Czar that he was roused and earnest, and endeavoring to inspire a warlike spirit in the people, but that there would be no war, however great the preparation, that there would be mediation, and Germany would be the mediating party. May 8. Throughout the month of April the war-cloud was vast and dark, the military preparations went on. The declaration that war must soon begin, coming from diplomatic circles, from the press, from foreign specta- tors, from correspondents in Russia, and other sources, and the ardent desire of large parties in Russia and England to bring on the conflict, the wide spread con- viction that war was inevitable and that Mr. Gladstone 1 88 Prophecy in was but timidly postponing the crash, gave me great uneasiness, and, at each fresh alarm, I again appealed to her psychometric judgment, only to be assured with unhesitating positiveness that there would be no war. Her opinion was psychometric, she knew but little, and thought less of the newspaper reports and could not be induced to admit, either consciously or unconsciously, as in my experiments, that war was possible, whether speaking of England and Russia or interpreting an im- pression from an unknown writing. Now that peace is assured, we may reflect on the greatness of the crisis and the moral grandeur of Glad- stone in warding off unspeakable calamity and crime from two of the greatest nations, unaided by those who should have stood by him, and against all outside influ- ence from other nations. Oh that it were possible to consummate his grand career by dis-establishing that fraud upon Christianity, the Church of England. It was well said by a Wesleyan clergyman in an English journal : "The country has a special right to complain of the establishment. We give these gentle- men five million pounds a year, and a position of unique authority and honor in order that they may teach us all to be Christians. But if at a crisis like this, they have either nothing to say to us, or worse still like the Canon of Litchfield, preach the gospel of Moloch, it will be difficult to show cause why they should not be dis-estab- lished at once, and dis-endowed without a penny of com- pensation. Public Affairs. 189 FRANCE AND CHINA. April 5, 1885. I placed in her hands the words, " France and China Peace or War ; " with the follow ing result : "It suggests disruption and confusion I see lights and shadows kaleidoscopic a great deal of uncer- tainty and new developments, with antagonistic forces at work. " I don't know whether everybody is in earnest or not. I don't see that anybody is in earnest. I go to seek the causes. I don't see any real cause. It is like something started in the minds of a few individuals for notoriety, power, and self-aggrandizement. " El Mahdi occurs to my mind, but not in connection with this. It has something to do with Afghanistan, but very remotely. It seems like an epidemic of warlike distemper. Can there be an atmospheric or planetary influence at work ? " There is going to be a great deal of bloodshed, and then they will stop. They are preparing to fight, though they don't seem to have any heart, and it is not to revenge any grievance, a sort of warlike epidemic. They are going through with it soon, probably within a year." (Is it possible it may be settled sooner ?) " It is the desire of some of the parties to negotiate. What are they fighting about? It is not a religious war. I don't see the cause." (Do you see the assailing party ?) " They are a bloodthirsty set. I see brilliant colors, sails, national colors. They look like Chinese people." (What are the other parties ?) "They are a better-looking people, of more distinct features, more like French than anything else." (What is to be the result ?) 190 Prophecy in "Many are to be killed. The assailants have no more humane feeling than if they were fighting with animals. It looks as if there would be some interfer- ence some nation coming in as friends to the Chinese advising, or assisting and promoting a settlement." The settlement was effected through the friendly of- fices of ,an Englishman, very soon after this opinion, the whole difficulty having occupied less than a year. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN. ( Q^ Is this character dead or living ? ) * * It seems a living man. He has a very broad and a very pecu- liar mind. I don't know that I can do him justice. He seems a literary man. He has many technical ideas and expressions like a lawyer. He is very criti- cal, but a fair man in his criticisms. He is a man of noble impulses a genuine man he feels what he espouses." (Q^ What are his aims and purposes? ) He is strong and persistent in his views, but at the same time conciliating and yielding to the wisdom of others. He is interested in educational matters and improve- ments. He has wonderful ability for regulating great questions, making good suggestions is a man of very broad mind, a very busy man interested in the questions of the day, not wrapped up in his own affairs, but with a universal benevolence. He is in some sort of public life it seems an official life. It does not seem to be in this country. He is descended from a good family and has a good social position. He is financially independent, but not very wealthy. He may mingle with society, but is not a votary of pleasure. He has good business capacity but is not selfish enough to accumulate largely." (Q^ What government is he living under?) " It seems a monarchy, but constitutional the people have Public Affairs. 191 a great deal of influence, much as they do herel He favors a very tolerant policy, a policy for the people. He s not autocratic." (Q^ What measures would he introduce ?) * ' He would favor peace and arbitration. He would like to establish freedom in religion. He would not favor a church establishment, but would denounce it. He would not favor polygamy. In reference to land, he would wish every man to have his own home on land, and to have a government much like ours. He would differ much with the laws of England. He has very good ideas on the land question. He believes in human rights, and works for them. He greatly disapproves any law hindering the ownership of land. He favors the elevation of woman, too, if that question comes up. He tolerates no despotism for any class no form of slavery. He thinks education should be free. He would favor compulsory education of chil- dren. He is a good talkerand writer expresses himself very clearly and forcibly both in writing and speaking. As a public speaker he is very effective and carries a great deal of power." (Qc What is his future?) " He will have in- fluence his views will not be lost to the world. He has push and perseverance. He will do a great deal to establish his principles. He will have an influen- tial position. He will have hard work to establish his principles, but will do it finally. He will not be a disappointed man." "A great deal is depending on him. He has taken great pains to discover the condition and feelings of the working classes, and feels that they could be unanimous with him in making changes. He wants to better their condition." "He is oeyonci middle age, and is going to have a long life and work hard, and hold a high position, 192 Prophecy in but he does not care about that, except to protect the people." (Q^. How does he regard Mr. Gladstone ?) "He falls in with his ideas to a great extent. There is an agreement of character no antagonism though they may have different modes of carrying out their measures the results would be the same. I think he will probably out-live Gladstone and will be as in- fluential hereafter, though I do not think he is work- ing for position. He is a growing man, adding to his powers and his influence." The psychometer in this instance had not the slight- est conception of the career of Mr. Chamberlain, nor even of his name, when I placed his name in her hands unseen, which instantly gave her an impres- sion of his general character. Her mind being con- centrated on that, she had no idea of his location or nationality, as the attention in psychometric investi- gations is generally concentrated upon the matter under scrutiny, but when I asked her as to the gov- ernment under which he lived, she immediately recog- nized his environment. In this, as in other descriptions of remote objects or persons, statements were made which were beyond my own knowledge. I have never found my own ignorance upon any subject any hindrance to her ready recognition of the unknown conditions. In the foregoing practical illustrations of the pro- phetic power of the human intellect, candid readers will find sufficient reason to believe that the ancients were right in recognizing and relying upon the prophetic faculty of the human mind, and that the religious world Public Affairs. 193 has not been mistaken in recognizing extraordinary prophecy as an evidence of inspiration, but an inspira- tion which could not occur unless there were a prophetic faculty to be inspired, The recognition of this power in Mrs. B. was expressed by one of her admirer 5 in a poem published in 1 880, as follows : TO CORNELIA THE PRIESTESS. Above the mountain tops of snow ! Above the clouds and vales below ! The wild bird flieth wild and free From Eastern shores to Western sea. And the forest fades in the dim twilight, As the stars come out in the sky of night ; And field and mountain, river and sea, Are lost in a realm of mystery. Then stars seem near in their mystic power, And deep is the mystery of that hour When viewless forces from stellar spheres Are weaving the web of the coming years. Like that wild bird thy spirit flies Beyond the star-gemmed midnight skies To realms of beauty, radiant, rare To realms of bliss beyond compare, To deeper realms of mystic lore Than ever sages pondered o'er. And high in spheres of prophet souls The scroll of Fate for thee unrolls ; And whispers of divinest thought In sacred spheres, to thee are brought. Dear Priestess of the sacred shrine Where angels come from spheres divine, No Delphic temple yet is thine ; But flowers shall yet thy path surround, And Honor bring its glittering crown ; And grateful hearts shall turn to thee, INTERPRETER OF MYSTERY! Fair herald for celestial spheres Of joy and light in coming years ! PSYCHE. 194 Postscript. POSTSCRIPT. An accident, at the last moment, gives me the opportunity of referring to the continued fulfilment of the prophetic anticipations concerning El Mahdi, who no longer finds an English foe before him, and is said to be massing his forces for more extensive conquest. May I not ask, is the time far off, in which the ship of state, sailing into the unexplored sea oi futurity, full of hidden dangers, shall have its pilot, its telescope, and its electric light ? Does not the grandeur of the responsibility, when nations of fifty or a hundred mil- lions are drifting into collision in the dark, and when the unknown dangers of immovable caste, upheaving discontent, communism, nihilism, materialism, corrup- tion, monopoly, selfishness, turbulence, ignorance and pestilence are ever impending as storm-clouds, demand adequate precautions. Has the Divine Benevolence left man as the helpless victim of unknown and un- controllable misfortune, and ordained an endless martyrdom for humanity, or has it not given to man dominion over all things, in his over-mastering intelli- gence, of which he is but beginning in this juvenile age to be conscious. I am firmly convinced there is 'a Divine intelligence in the interior of humanity, which may solve all prob- lems and guide all destinies. With a view to its evo- lution I have proposed the COLLEGE OF THE SOUL, which one-millionth part of the wealth now annually worse than wasted, might establish as the guide of nations in all things, and especially in the realm belonging to that prophetic wisdom which I have shown to be implanted in humanity. PART III THE NEW PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION, CHAPTER X. PSYCHOMETRY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. As a matter of scientific progress, the crowning glory of Psychometry is its participation in the devel- opment of Anthropology. The masterpiece of creation, the human brain, the organic structure which comes into conjugal union with the divine element, the structure through which Divinity is manifested, the organ most mysterious and difficult of all in its anatomy the centre alike of psychological and physiological life, exercising in its various organs all that belongs to the life of man and, therefore, holding in itself all the secrets of human existence, the source of all philosophy, all thought, all action, all art, all passion, all movements of indi- viduals and nations, and, therefore, the richest, grand- est, sublimest and most complex of all subjects of human study remained until the end of the last cen- tury an inaccessible mystery, and still remains to-day nothwithstanding the profound exposition of its anat- omy, the greatest of all impregnable mysteries in the schools of biological science. i 2 Psychomctrv and Anthropology* And yet the knowledge locked up in this mysteri- ous organ, being that which is nearest to ourselves and most important to our well-being is worth all other knowledge, and, therefore, worthy of the concen- trated labor of all scientific minds, since the full development of this knowledge would be worth more than all that has been hitherto done for human enlightenment. To perform this great neglected task to open the richest treasury, not only of knowledge but of wis- dom, has been the aim of my life for fifty years, which was crowned with success in 1841, by discovering the impressibility of the brain and the ease with which its functions may be demonstrated. The rational and practical investigations of Gall, at the close of the last century, gave the first clear understanding of the anatomy of the brain, and the first just conception of its functions a grand work incomplete and inaccurate, but greater and more orig- inal than any of the scientific achievements of past ages. To test its truth, to supply its deficiencies, correct its errors and expand the phrenological doctrine into a complete science of the brain, as the organ the soul and the controlling region of the body, was the work to which I gave seven years of gratifying, fascinating and successful labor, crowned by the discovery of the impressibility of the brain, which enabled me to stim- ulate its various organs by the hand or by galvanism, and make them reveal their functions as clearly as the sensitive and motor nerves had been demonstrated by Majendie. Psychometry and Anthropology. 3 At this point Psychometry came in to reinforce the demonstration, and carry my investigations farther in the most delicate exploration of the cerebral organs. Had 'I discovered first the psychometric process of investigation, that would have been sufficient for the entire task, and Psychometry would have had the honor of the entire discovery, to which indeed it was entirely competent, but in which it comes in as the assistant, to perfect and complete the science of man a science the magnitude and value of which are beyond all computation, and may not be realized by many for half a century. This science to which I have alluded, merely to show the power and value of Psychometry, comprehends alike the action of the brain as the organ of the soul, which may be called Cerebral Psychology, and its action as the commanding region of the body, in Cerebral Physiology. The Cerebral Psychology includes not only normal Psychology, but all that is abnormal and insane while the Cerebral Physiology includes the philosophy of disease as well as of healthy action, and, therefore, establishes a medical philosophy. In addition to these systems of science, Anthropology shows that the entire body and entire brain operate in close and systematic sympathy so that whatever function may be operative in one has a correspondent function in the other. Hence the body has in a different sphere, the same combination of psychic and physiologial powers as the brain, and the scientific map of these functions constitutes the Science of SARCOGNOMY, which is the accurate basis ot electric and magnetic practice, as well as of the phil- Psychomctrv and Anthropology. osophy of disease. In addition to these three sciences, Cerebral Psychology, Cerebral Physiology and Sarc- ognomy, Anthropology presents the fundamental mathematical law of action for both brain and body which governs every gesture, every vital process or movement, all expression of character, and in short all relations of the psychic to the physical in man and also throughout the Universe. The accompany engraving is an illustration of the positive system of Psychology which I have thus demonstrated, the outlines of which were, given in my System of Anthropology published in 1854, which has been accepted as true by all who have become acquainted with its principles and their il- lustrations. The presentation of the science at New York in 1842, caused the appointment of a committee of investi- gation whose report was noticed in an in- teresting article in the Democratic Review of January, 1843, of which I reproduce a portion to give the reader a further illus- tration of the science and its recognition by the enlightened gentlemen who examined its claims at New York. Psychometry and Anthropology. 5 Tn the first presentation of my discoveries I used the most comprehensive term possible, viz. NEUROLOGY - which as the science of all nervous matter and its functions includes all Biology or Physiology all forms of animal life that have ever existed. But as the popular presentation of the subject relates chiefly to man, I have since preferred the term Anthropology. This explains the title adopted in the Review as follows : NEUROLOGY IN NEW YORK.* QILEQUE IPSE VIDI. In surveying the history of discoveries in natural science, one of the most peculiar facts that strike the view is the circumstance that for years, aye and even ages, preceding the development of some important principle, many of the leading phenomena had been repeatedly observed ; and when the grand conclu- sion deduced from these phenomena was once announced to the world, the result excited less astonishment than the circumstance of its having been so long unperceived. Men of the most exal- ted genius would seem often to stumble over these facts, and even not unfrequently to pick them up and handle them, and still fail to discover their most obvious bearing. Hence it has always occurred that attempts have been made to rob the discoverer of his honors, however well merited, on the ground that certain of the essential facts had been previously well known. Thus has it been with the kindred subject * From the Democratic Review January, 1843. 6 Psychometry and Anthropology. of Phrenology, whose enemies, failing in the effort to subvert its principles, endeavored to show that what was true in it was not new, and what was new was not true. And in illustration of the circumstance just adverted to, that the tendency of natural phe- nomena is often by no means appreciated even by the most acute observers, it may be mentioned that Gall himself once struck accidentally upon one of the most important facts of " Neurology " without discovering the general law to which it most obvi- ously pointed. The same remark is applicable to the experiments without number performed during the last fifty years in France, Germany, England, and the United States, upon subjects put into the somnambulic state by means of the Mesmeric pro- cess. The earliest knowledge that we have of these discoveries in "Neurology" on the part of Dr. Buchanan, is, that in April, 1841, he was giving public lectures and experiments on the subject at Little Rock, Arkansas. We are the more particu- lar in referring to this date, as an attempt has been made in the city of New York to establish a priority of claim, based upon experiments made in the latter part of the same year. But by this time the announcement of Dr. Buchanan's discoveries had spread, by means of the journals of the day, over the whole extent of our wide domain. " These experiments," in the words of their author, "occu- pied the whole ground of Phrenology ; more than doubled the number of distinct organs ; and estab- lished propositions in physiology and therapeutics, Psychomctry and Anthropology. 7 of much more importance than the Phrenological doctrines which had thus been established." Instead of hastening to our Atlantic cities, in the reasonable hope that here a discovery of such magnitude would be speedily and fully appreciated, Dr. Buchanan remained in the far West, quietly prosecuting his investigations to the end of perfecting his system of Neurologv. So far as regards cerebral excita- o./ o bility, he could not but be aware that others would, by this process, attract the public mind, and that it would be caught up even for popular exhibitions ; but justly considering this as entirely subordinate to the science he aimed to establish by this means, he directed his efforts solely to the accomplishment of the scientific end in view. As these discoveries embrace, in their wide range, not only the mental physiology of the brain, consti- tuting Phrenology, but also the physiology of every corporeal organ as dependent upon special portions of the cerebral mass, it follows that it was necessary to substitute a new term. Were the functions of the brain exclusively mental, the term, Phrenology, would be sufficiently comprehensive ; but as its con- trol over the corporeal functions is ruot less decided and important, the term Neurology^ or science of the nervous substance, has been judiciously selected as expressive of all the phenomena comprised within its wide limits. These two classes of functions, Dr. Buchanan distinguished by the terms -psychological and -physiological, which are, indeed quite expres- sive in their more popular acceptation ; but, as the phenomena of the mind, in our present existence, 8 Psychometry and Anthropology. can be manifested only through the cerebral struc- ture, we cannot see that this class of functions is less physiological than the other. This double function of the brain, as demonstrated by Dr. Buchanan, we consider as its mental and corporeal physiology. To Dr. Buchanan is due the distinguished honor of being the first individual to excite the organs of the brain by agencies applied externally directly over t/iem,before which the discoveries of Gall, Spurzheim, or Sir Charles Bell men who have been justly regarded as benefactors of their race dwindle into comparative insignificance. This important discovery has given us a key to man's nature moral, intel- lectual, and physical ; for, by this means, in "impressible" subjects, have become discoverable the various cerebral organs which are not only con- nected with the phenomena of thought and feeling, but control the corporeal functions. As man is per- vaded by the imponderable and invisible fluids, which radiate from him unceasingly, such as the electric, galvanic, magnetic, and (according to Dr. Buchanan) " nervauric," the laws of these he would seem also to have demonstrated. He has likewise clearly estab- lished the geheral truths of Phrenology, corrected many errors of detail, and developed the subject with such a degree of minuteness, that it now may be said to resemble the full-grown adult as compared with the child. " Neurology, " says Dr. Buchanan, " while it incorporates the entire mass of Physiology with Phrenology, makes a revolution in the latter science. Although the greater portions of the organs discov- Psychometry and Anthropology. 9 ered by Gall and Spurzheirn, have been, in the main, correctly described, yet experiment has proved about one-third of the number to have been incorrectly understood. Nor does the catalogue of Gall, Spurz- heim, Combe, or Vimont, embrace a sufficient num- ber of functions to explain the diversified phenomena of human character. * * * The number of indepen- dent functions which may thus be demonstrated by experiment with an adequately susceptible person, amounts to one hundred and sixty-six ; but, for con- venience of instruction, I demonstrate usually not more than one hundred. With a subject of large brain, well cultivated mind, and high susceptibility, I have no doubt that even as many as two hundred might be shown distinctly." The agent employed most generally by Dr. Buchanan to excite the various functions of the nervous system, is the same as that used in the operations termed Mesmerism or Animal Magne- tism, viz. : the aura of the nevous system, which is radiated and conducted freely from the human hand. Instead, however, of putting the subject first into the Mesmeric somnambulic condition, which renders the phenomena that follow highly deceptive and inacu- rate, Dr. Buchanan operates upon his subject in the waking state, free from the mental delusions which may be supposed to pertain to somnambulism. This impressible class, which is a very limited one, may not only have a portion of the brain so energetically stimulated, by the touch of another, as to manifest its particular function predominantly ; but the indi- vidual becomes equally excited when he places his io Psychomctry and Anthropology. fingers on the cranial regions of the cerebral organs of another person. These characteristic and leading principles of Dr. Buchanan's system, are here adverted to merely in a general way, as they will be again brought under notice by us, both in a sketch of the principles of Neurology by Dr. Buchanan himself, and in the diversified experiments of a committee, appointed by a public audience in the city of New York, for the purpose of investigating the pretensions of Dr. Buchanan to the claim of having enlarged the boundaries of anthropological science. These announcements are, indeed, of a startling character, extraordinary to all, and to many wholly beyond credence. Had Dr. Buchanan lived in an earlier age of the world, when philosophy had not yet asserted its noble prerogative of releasing the mind from the bondage of superstition, instead of being regarded as a bold and original thinker and an untiring searcher after truth, he would have been dreaded, or perhaps persecuted, as a necromancer casting his magic spells over the body and soul of his victim. But, notwithstanding the wise in all ages, seeing the deceptions constantly practiced on man- kind by the marvellous, have been very justly on their guard against easy credulity, it does not become the true philosopher of the nineteenth century to close the organs of his five external senses against the intrusion of any evidence which might possibly disturb some favorite and long cherished system. It does not become the philosophic enquirer to decide precipitately that any phenomenon is too marvellous for belief. Psychomctrv and Anthropology. II Many natural phenomena, which were formerly regarded with superstitious awe, as, for instance, the Spectre of Brocken, which consisted of the gigantic image of a man delineated on the sky the fact of troops performing their evolutions on the surface of a lake, or on the face of an inaccessible precipice or the equally extraordinary phantasm of a ship's being seen in the air, in the solitude of the ocean's waste, notwithstanding no vessel was within reach of the eye are all now satisfactorily explained by the unequal refractive powers of the atmosphere arising from its variable temperature. " It is impossible," says Dr. Brewster, " to study these phenomena with- out being impressed with the conviction, that nature is full of the marvellous, and that the progress of science, and the diffusion of knowledge, are alone capable of dispelling the fears which her wonders must necessarily excite, even in enlightened minds." In like manner, to those unaware that each mental faculty has its distinct organ in the brain, the proposi- tion that these emotions or faculties may be excited at will, as when we call forth the different notes of a musical instrument, is so startling as to be beyond credibility ; but to the mind of the phrenologist, who has been wont to contemplate the great truths of his science, the announcement of such results offers no violence. This field of scientific research, which offers a harvest rich in new and valuable facts, is open to every laborer ; and we find, accordingly, that it has been already entered upon by many philosophical enquirers. We, as well as may others, have wit- nessed repeated experimental verifications of the 12 Psychometry and Anthropology. excitement of the separate organs of the brain, thus calling forth, in an intense degree, their natural lan- guage and action. Although the number of those having brains thus excitable is comparatively small, yet in every society of a few hundred individuals, there will be found some subjects impressible in a greater or less degree. To those in whom scepticism is a predominant organ, we would seriously recommend the perusal of the following lines written by Galileo to Kepler, which are not the worse for having been often quoted : " Here, at Padua, is the principal -professor of philosophy, whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glasses, which he pertinaciously refuses to do" We would now proceed to illustrate the general subject of NEUROLOGY, by bringing before the reader certain portions of a report on experimental inves- tigations, published in the Evening Post of the 6th December, entitled " Minutes of the proceedings of a Committee appointed by the public audience attending the lectures of Dr. Buchanan, to superin- tend experiments relating to Neurology,' and to pre- pare experiments suitable for public exhibition." The committee met on the 4th and 5th of Novem- ber, and spent several hours each day in the perfor- mance of a variety of experiments ; but, as a general impression prevailed that the results exhibited were not, on the whole, of a character so marked and une- quivocal as to be very satisfactory, Dr. Buchanan stated that he had relied on the expectation that some impressible subjects would be brought to the meeting Psychomctry and, Anthropology. 13 by members of the committee, but that there had not been any of a character other than very imperfect and doubtful. He suggested that a sub-committee should be appointed, who could witness experiments, in greater privacy, upon some subjects who might be found unwilling to appear before so large a number as the general committee, and who would also be able to bestow more time on the investigation of the subject than could be done by the larger number. This 'sug- gestion being adopted, the following gentlemen were appointed as that sub-committee : Rev. Henry W. Bellows, Messrs. William C. Bryant and John L. O'Sullivan, and Dr. Samuel Forry. The first named of these gentlemen was prevented by absence from the city from being present at the greater part of the experiments made, and from participating in the report. We will present, in the first place, the conclusions of this sub-committee : " REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEEc " The sub-committee, appointed to witness private experiments by Dr. Buchanan, beg leave to report, to the committee from which their appointment emanated, that they have held meetings, of which an account is given in their minutes subjoined. Their object has been to give the subject an attention, at the same time cautious and candid, and to present a simple statement of their observations, to serve as a basis for the deductions of others, rather than of any positive conclusions of their own, as to the correctness of 14 Psychomctry aiid Anthropology. those views and opinions to which Dr. Buchanan has given the name of the science of ' Neurology,' as discovered and developed by 'him. " For the sake of rendering more intelligible the bearing of the facts and appearances observed, upon those principles propounded by Dr. Buchanan, of which they are presented as illustrations and evi- dences, the sub-committee present also a brief and general statement of the outlines of Dr. Buchanan's system, as furnished by himself at their request. " In justice to Dr. Buchanan, they at the same time feel bound to declare the highly favorable man- ner in which, throughout all the intercourse growing out of this investigation, they have been impressed by the evident intelligence, sincerity, and earnest- ness of convictions, and truthfulness of conduct and deportment, strongly characterizing that gentleman ; and that they are fully satisfied of the honorable motives prompting his present devotion to these investigations, in the sole spirit of a student of science, a pursuer of truth, and a friend of his race. They will also add that, feeling every reason to believe in the good faith and veracity of the subjects of these experiments independent of those experi- ments which were, in themselves, of a nature to preclude deception they deem it their duty, in view of the extraordinary facts they have witnessed, to say that, although they have obtained a very imper- fect knowledge of the system of Dr. Buchanan, and have been prevented by the pressure of their other avocations from bestowing on the subject as much time as would have been desirable to themselves ; Psychomctrv and Anthropology. 15 they have had sufficie'nt evidence to satisfy them that Dr. Buchanan's views have a rational experimental foundation, and that the subject opens a field of investigation second to no other in immediate interest, and in promise of important future results to science and humanity. " The different members of the sub-committee have not all been present at all the meetings described in their minutes. Some of them have, however, in private, on other occasions than those here referred to, witnessed other similar experiments, of the most interesting and satisfactory character, which are not here described, because not witnessed by them col- lectively, in that capacity in which alone they have to make the present report. The absence of Mr. Bellows from the city, at the time of submitting this report, renders it necessary to forego the advantage of his participation in it. The minutes were pre- pared by Dr. Forry, from notes taken at the time of the various experiments. The papers appended to this report are a brief and general statement, by Dr. Buchanan, of the outlines of his system or science of ' Neurology,' and the minutes of the pro- ceedings of the sub-committee. " All of which is respectfully submitted. " WM. C. BRYANT, "J. L. O'SULLIVAN, " SAMUEL FORRY, M. D." Every reader must determine for himself the degree of confidence to which the statements of this commit- tee are entitled. The name of one of its members 16 Psychometry and Anthropology. is already classical in the English language ; Dr. Forry's recent excellent work on the Climate and Endemic Influences of the United States has given him, though a young man, an honorable place among the scientific observers and writers of the day ; while, however otherwise obscure, the remaining name is not unknown to the readers of the Review, through which he has the honor, monthly, of coming into a relation with them, grateful on the one side, and not unfriendly, it is hoped, on the other. The following outlines of the principles of Neuro- logy, by Dr. Buchanan himself, will, in connection with the remarks already made, afford the reader at least some general idea of the subject : ' ' Gentlemen As you desire from me a sketch of the principles of Neurology, I submit the folio wing- brief statement, hoping that its brevity will not render it obscure : " The word Neurology, as it relates to man, is but another name for the great science of Anthropology, because the science of the nervous substance neces- sarily includes all the manifestations of mind and life connected with or dependent upon that substance, which we know is the seat of life and the organ of the mind. " Physiology, Pathology, Insanity, and what has been called Animal Magnetism, Mental Philosophy or Phrenology, Cranioscopy, Physiognomy, Educa- tion, etc., are partial views of the phenomena and systematic laws of the human constitution, which constitute the science of Neurology. * ' The characteristic feature of that system of Neu- Psychomctrv and Anthropology. 17 rology which I have brought before the public is. that it has been established by means of cautious and decisive experiments, and may easily be verified by any individual who has the necessary patience to pur- sue the investigation of the subject. " The experiments consist in exciting the various functions of the nervous substance in the cranium or the body by the application of the proper stimulating agents. Every article of the materia medica pos- sesses in some form, or to some extent, the power of exciting and modifying the functions ; Galvanism, Electricity, Magnetism, and Caloric, possess efficient exciting powers ; but no agent that I have used pos- sesses so efficient, and at the same time, so congenial an influence, as the aura of the nervous system. " This Nervaura, which is the agent by which one 'individual makes a physiological impression upon another, when in contact, is radiated and conducted freely from the human hand. The experiments which I have made in your presence, consist in applying this Nervaura to the various portions of the brain, upon which it may make an impression through the cranium and the face, which present no obstacles to its transmission. ' ' To develop important results from such experi- ments, it is necessary that we should make them upon persons whose cerebral action is easily excited, or deranged by slight influences. It is necessary that the portion of the brain which we excite should be so energetically stimulated as to become predominant over all the other portions, and to manifest its func- tions in a pure and distinct form, unmingled with 1 8 Psyctometry and Anthropology. any different or counteracting functions. It is also extremely desirable that the experiments should be made upon persons whose mental cultivation, sagac- ity, and integrity, render their descriptions of their own sensations cautious, exact, and worthy of implicit confidence. " As my experiments have been repeated by many Phrenologists and others, and have generally been attempted by them during the state of somnambulism superinduced by mesmeric operations, I would remark that such experiments are often highly deceptive and inaccurate. Experiments should be made in the nat- ural condition of the subject, and free from the imag- inative excitement which belongs to somnambulism. As far as I have heard of the result of the somnam- bulic experiments, I know of but few cases in which the operator has not been misled by his imaginative subject. " An extensive course of experiments upon persons of intelligence, in their natural state of mind, has established and placed beyond a doubt, the fact that the brain, as a psychological organ, manifests an immense number of mental functions, and that there are no phrenological divisions in the brain, other than the anfractuosities of the convolutions, and that ther; are no simple primitive cerebral organs manifesting a pure special single function, unless we carry our sub- divisions so far as to make a primitive organ of each constituent fibre of a convolution. " The number of cerebral organs which we may recognize is, therefore, a matter of arbitrary arrange- ment, as we may divide the brain, for convenience, Psychometry and Anthropology. 19 into three, four, or five regions, or with equal preci- sion and functional accuracy, into three, four, or five hundred. From fifty to a hundred subdivisions would be as many as we can learn to locate correctly, and is a sufficient number for practical purposes. "It is. established with equal certainty, that the brain is as much a physiological organ as a psychol- ogical organ, and that it maintains its sympathies with the body, and exercises its controlling power over it by means of certain conductor organs at the base of the encephalon, by which it radiates volitionary, cir- culatory and secretory influences to the muscular sys- tem and other tissues of the body. Each portion of the brain has an intimate relation or sympathy with its particular region of the body, and exercises a modi- fying influence upon the general circulation and inner- vation of the system. It is through the conductor organs that the special relations of the brain and the body are established, and all the physiological effects which may be produced by operating upon the brain, "may be as easily, and, indeed, more promptly evolved by operating upon the corresponding conductors, which transmit their influence directly. "Thus do we explain the relations of the brain to the body, and by carrying out the mathematical laws of cerebral physiology, we show the influence of each hemisphere of the brain upon the opposite hemis- phere, and through that upon the correlative half of the body. " To explain the relations of the mind to the brain, and the peculiar mode or laws of their connection, would not be a more difficult task than to explain the 2O Psychomctry and Anthropology. relation between the brain and the body either of which would seem to the novice a chimerical under- taking. s *This higher psychological philosophy, however, constitutes no part of the psychologico-physiological system to which I have called the attention of the public, and which aims at extensive educational and medical utility. Of this system, I have given you a few imperfect illustrations, and regret that I have not had the opportunity of illustrating, in your presence, the beneficial influence which may be exerted upon the sick. "The experiments with medicines applied to the fingers, were designed to illustrate some important principles in reference to human impressibility, and the mode in which medicines produce their effects. " The experiment of bringing an impressible per- son into contact with the head of another, illustrates the laws of the transmission of the nervaura, and pre- sents us a method of accomplishing a perfect diagno- sis of disease, as well as of exploring the physiology of the brain, and ascertaining the characters of differ- ent individuals. This method, which I have been for some time engaged in applying to practice, must ulti- mately take the precedence of all other methods of diagnosis and examination, either for character, for disease, or for the establishment of scientific principles. " In conclusion, permit me to remark, that the prin- ciples of Neurology have been established by innum- erable coincident harmonious facts, similar to those which you have witnessed, and that unless the testi- mony of our senses is utterly false, or unless a large Psychometry and Anthropology p , 21 number of intelligent observers have been suddenly seized by an epidemic and methodic insanity, a new class of facts has been developed, and a new science exists, which imperiously demands the attention of all lovers of truth or friends of man, and which, if even half of its bright promise is realized, must originate a great and happy era in the history of human progress. "With high respect, enhanced by the cordiality, courtesy and promptness with which you have engaged in your recent duties, I remain, ' ' Your humble servant, "Jos. R. BUCHANAN. " Messrs. Bryant, Forry and O'Sullivan." In view of the preceding observations, it may be asked Whither is this new science to lead us ? Are the old landmarks of knowledge to be set aside ; and are we to pull down every system which has been built up upon consciousness, or upon the tedious gatherings of observation? Is this new system to subvert all its predecessors, and then be overwhelmed in turn by another theory a still shorter royal road to wisdom? We answer, No. Systems pass away, but truths survive ; and every new truth added to our stock of knowledge, notwithstanding it may destroy som^ error, cannot crush or obscure a previously known truth. The new demonstrative school of meta- physics will, we are confident, develop and confirm many of the principles which, heretofore, as no expe- rimental mode of testing them was known, have been sustained by reason alone. We observe that memory 22 Psychotnctry and Anthropology* has been restored to its rightful place in the catalogue of our faculties by the new system. Consciousness and abstraction are also recognized as special facul- ties, dependent upon special organs. We expect to see many of the doctrines of Locke, Reid, Stewart and Brown established experimentally on the new physiological basis. We expect to see a subtile and intricately arranged philosophy spring up from these investigations, as different from the crude system of Gall, as is the bright face of Nature, with all her diversities of mountain, plain, forest, field, river, and sea, from the rudely sketched outline of a school-boy's map. But to what else will it lead? If impressibility is most frequently found among those of refined organi- zation, why may it not be evinced by some man of genius? If so, may not the intellectual organs be stimulated to a higher degree of activity, than results from ordinary influences ? May not a cerebral power be generated, bordering upon the supernatural energy of insanity? And may not this intense intellectual excitement be directed to useful purposes, in the investigation or illustration of truth? May not the student rouse his memory, when it fails to recall the knowledge that it once possessed? May not the naturalist and the artift have the external senses rendered more acute ? May not the faculties of sight, touch, taste, and smell, be sharpened, for minute investigation of physical science? May we not, by various excitements, produce all t'iu' diseases and all the conditions to which the human mind and body are subject? May we not Psychomctry and Anthropology. 23 ascertain the condition of the mind and of the brain in insanity, sleep, dreaming, trance, and the act of dying? May we not determine the seat of life, and discover in what portion of the brain the mental action is last perceived from what spot the soul takes its final departure? May we not besiege and torture Nature with ingenious and searching experi- ments, until we compel her to confess her secrets? We put these questions because they seem natur- ally to arise from the establishment of the fact, that we can compel the various fibres of the brain to manifest their functions ; and thus we may interro- gate Nature as it were, by the most rigid examina- tions. We believe that all that we have hinted at, and much more, is comprehended in the system of Dr. Buchanan ; and that these various points have been made the subject of experiment, we know. His views have not yet been embodied in a volume, to which we might refer for their nature and scope ; but we know that he aspires to go as far as human intel- lect can pierce the almost impenetrable mysteries of life and mind. Should he ever present to the public that " higher psychological system of philosophy," of which he speaks as distinct from Neurology, we anticipate something of a still more strange and startling character. If all the elements of humanity can be summoned up at the beck of the skillful experimentalist, we cannot but believe that many a rare and strange fea- ture of our common nature will be brought to light. The elements of genius, of poetry, of love, and of the mysterious sympathies of mind with mind, will 24 Psychometry and Anthropology. be brought forth, and subjected, like the gay orna- ment of the skies the rainbow to philosophical analysis. As the natural philosopher explains its beau- tiful effect by the laws of that luminous medium, which, by passing through the drops of water, presents to the eye a brilliant spectrum ; so will he, perhaps, explain how that higher medium the Divine Aura of life and thought passing through the white and gray matter of the cerebral convolutions, originates the affections and all the poetry of life. Would it be strange if he* should discover through what medium the soul acts upon its corporeal tenement, or that there are media heretofore unknown, and of a nature different from the galvanic and magnetic? Would it be incredible that faculties should be discovered in man, which have been sometimes supposed to exist in the gifted few, but which are entirely unknown and unfelt by the multitude? In the great ideal of Humanity, in which we embody its digniy and its powers worthy to be the servant and the agent of Divinity we perceive that which we realize in no individual. There are none to be found who even approximate the great and per- fect type of humanity. How far the noble nature of man has been debased cannot be told, nor how many of the world-knowing and world-conquering faculties, bestowed by his Creator, have been enfeebled or destroyed. There are continual aspirations to some- thing greater and better, which are not gratified, and which we cannot carry into execution ; but which seem like vestiges to remind us of w r hat we should be, and what may once have been the nature of man. Psychometry and Anthropology. 25 In the system of BUCHANAN, these vestiges are rec- ognized ; a range of faculties has been discovered, which are now dormant, and which have been, per- haps, dormant for ages, in the greater portion of the human race. These faculties, giving a stimulus to the mind, and expanding greatly its range of knowl- edge, may, hereafter, be developed as features of our common nature, and be made the means of obtaining a loftier species of knowledge than has ever yet been obtained by human kind." The present volume of Psychometry is an illustra- tion of the concluding remarks of the Review as to the possibility of developing dormant intellectual pow- ers and attaining " a loftier species of knowledge than has ever yet been obtained by human kind" That loftier knowledge is attained in the psychic exploration of the spirit-world, in which are dwelling now the millions of millions who have occupied this earth since it has been habitable for man, and who, in the world of emancipation from matter and of far reaching intelligence have attained a profundity of wisdom and holiness of nature which would be not only inaccessible but unintelligible to the juvenile and immature beings who occupy this nursery-ground of Immortality. The short-sighted beings who inhabit this earth, and whose proudest representatives in governments, colleges and churches live in the unconscious spiritual blindness which turns away from truth and mistakes darkness for light, are but embryonic men in intelli- gence, compared to what they will become when 26 Psychomctry and Anthropology. matured and developed in the Divine light of the nor- mal life, they vindicate by their nobility the assertion that man was made in the image of God an asser- tion which might seem blasphemous to those who know nothing of man matured, developed and edu- cated in the supernal sphere of wisdom. It does not seem to have occurred to the philoso- phers of the present century, that the realm of light and life is not in matter but far away from its contract- ing sphere, and that all attempts to penetrate the mys- teries of life by delving deeper in the chemistry of material atoms, but plunge the mind in the darkness of , the non-living basis of organization where every path of inquiry ends in a "foramen ccecum" The imbecility generated by the habit of confining thought to the material and external has rendered it possible for Christian nations to believe the world of disembodied spirit to be in its highest sphere a realm of monotonous and harmless imbecility, occupied like an immense Kindergarden in twanging harps and singing songs, with hysterical emphasis, while its boundless depth and breadth is occupied by the resounding cries of human agony. Psychometry dismisses to oblivion these idiotic pue- rilities, and assures us by direct perception of the departed, that the law of progress has no illustration on earth comparable in any degree to the grand illus- tration which we realize when man in becoming a disembodied spirit begins to manifest the divinity of his nature. It tears away the veil which has hidden from our vision the home of light, of life and joy, and showing Psychometry and Anthropology 27 how earth and heaven may commune, assures us thereby of the advent of a higher civilization in which there shall be not only wisdom, but the nobler ele- ment without which all is dross the Divine element of Love which exists in perfection in its supernal home which Psychometry teaches us is accessible to man and is the source of his inspiration. The enlightened reader will perceive that in these remarks it is implied that the world's religions are all to be recast, reformed, elevated, purified, enlightened and made worthy of our highest conceptions of the Divine. If we have free access to the higher world and free access to all the world's past history, the records, monuments and traditions upon which religions are based are no longer needed. .Our sacred books may still be held in esteem and love, although like the lamps and lanterns that guide us in the night, they cease to be necessary when daylight reveals all. Psychometry is, therefore, the herald of the Religion of the Future not the religion of the intellect toward which many are drifting which is not religion at all but the true religion of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom which shall terminate the war of arms, the war of competitive commerce and industry, and the war of the criminal classes, and shall embrace to uplift all the unfortunate and degraded classes of society. Regarding this as the grandest and most beneficent work of Psychometry, the uplifting of humanity into the sphere of religious life, and religious wisdom, I regard it as secondary matter that it extends our knowledge through the vast realms of geology, pale- 28 Psychometry and Anthropology. ontology and astronomy heretofore inaccessible to all the methods and apparatus of science. Of this I have given but a hint in this volume, and in reference to this vast therne I would refer the reader to Prof. Denton's three splendid and fascinating volumes entitled " The Soul of Things," a rich repository of the' most marvelous knowledge to be found in any sci- entific publication. The death of this gifted author was a calamity to science. My own studies have been concentrated upon that which relates most nearly to man and his welfare. Greatest among these themes is that which concerns his religious and moral elevation. The science of Cerebral Psychology illustrated by the engraving on page 4, is not a mere matter of intellectual speculation to suit the demands of those who have been called metaphysicians and psycholo- gists, but a profoundly practical view of human nature which illustrates our duties, our social relations and all the laws of culture and development the practi- cal application of which has been shown in my work entitled ' ' Moral Education " which shows how to lift society above the level of pauperism, intemperance, ignorance and crime. This new Psychology embracing the animal king- dom as well as man will require an extensive work for its illustration and it is not probable that I shall be able to do it full justice within the limits assigned me by the tables of mortality. THE SCIENCE OF SARCOGNOMY. The great scientific and utilitarian work in which Psychomctr*; and Anthropology. 29 Psychometry has been my assistant, and for which T have received the grateful and enthusiastic expression of the most enlightened physicians has been the solu- tion of that greatest of mysteries the relation of soul, brain and body a mystery so vast and so enshrouded in darkness that the boldest intelligence of all past ages has shrunk from its exploration, and only GALL and SWEDENBORG in modern times have invaded this realm of mystery in partial explorations. The law of correspondence and association between the brain and body is like that between the soul and brain. Every function of the eternal or spiritual man, whether intellectual, emotional or physiological has its special apparatus in the nervous structure of the brain, and cannot be manifested in any other way. In like manner every function and organ of the brain has a corporal correspondence or region of the body with which it is in close sympathy. The science of this correspondence and connexion is called SARCOGNOMY ; and as it determines for every portion of the surface of the body the exact physiological and psychic influ- ence which belongs to it, it enables us to understand why every disease has certain mental symptoms and why each emotion has a special influence on the body favorable or unfavorable to certain diseases. By showing the seat of each vital energy and the nature of the influx by which life is sustained it gives us an intelligent mastery of the vital forces never before possible. The human body is analytically revealed before us with all its capacities and powers scientifically located, and the physician who would operate upon it is in the 30 Psychomctrv a IK? Anthropology. position of a musician standing by the piano and knowing in what keys to find all its tones. If he would apply heat or cold, stimulants, counter-irritants, positive and negative poles of batteries or the power of the human hand, he knows where to apply for the desired effect. Such knowledge as this must, therefore, be the basis of a large amount of medical practice and my recent work Therapeutic Sarcognomy not a full exposition of the science but an exposition of its application to the healing art, was received with great cordiality by enlightened physicians and the whole edition sold out in four months. I present herewith a miniature copy of the chart of Sarcognomy which is now in use by many physicians as a guide in practice. An important philosophic doctrine which Sarcog- nomy has illustrated is the. proposition which over- turns the doctrines of the medical profession taught in all colleges and text books that life is but the aggre- gation of properties in the tissues as though man were but a chemical compound and aggregation of organ- ized substance. Therapeutic Sarcognomy demon- strates that life is not in the tissues but is entirely and absolutely an influx coming through the nervous sys- tem aided by the lungs form a source of life which is not material and thus leading us from matter which has been vainly supposed to possess the potency of all things in itself to the true source of all power which is invisible and spiritual. Sarcognomy has many interesting applications beside those of the healing art. It interprets the the human form to the sculptor and painter, and lies Psychomclry and Anthropology. 31 at the foundation of the laws of expression. It gives to the hygienist and the educator the laws of devel- opment and principles of culture for th^ human body to attain the highest physical perfection in harmony with the development of the virtues. In short the science of Anthropology by its exposi- tions of Cerebral Psychology, Physiology and Sar- cognomy becomes the monitor and guide for individ- uals and nations in the culture of all that is desirable" and ennobling. The following sketch from the upper portion of the chart of Sarcognomy will give the reader some idea of its character. The fundamental princi- ple of Sarcognomy is that every facultv of the soul is associated with a special portion of the brain, and that every organ of the brain is in intimate sym- pathy with a correspond- ing portion of the body, through which sympathies the body and soul are brought into close con- nexion. The brain is the common centre, its action downward, in the body being physiological, and its action upward or distinct from the body being psychic. The knowledge of these localities enables the phy- sician to understand the philosophy of disease, and to operate upon the mind through the body or upon the body through the mind, thus giving an exact science to guide electric and magnetic practice. CHAPTEK XI. FUTURE LIFE AND LEADERS IN RELIGION. Franklin and Hemans The gloomy view of agnosticism The gloomy influence of college and cloister The honest inquirers driven into agnosticism Fsychometry restores their mastery of the truth and buries obstructive rubbish Education has paraiyzed reason P.sy- chometry resisted, other discoveries withheld Psychometry the demonstration of immortality Compared to a telescope Even agnostics may recognize the departed They are not like hidden stars, because they have been seen Death like a passage over a bay with a visible shore Psychometric communication with the dead and medical advice Post mortem wisdom Nearness of the departed Different impressions from the living and dead Impressions from the letter of Gen. Jackson Life in the spirit world Discovery of life and death Discrimination between the living and the dead Experimental test with eleven names Psychometric description of leaders in religion Swedenborg Buddha Keshub Chuuder Sen Laoutze Confucius John Calvin Michael Servetus Martin Luther Albigenses Waldenses Henri Arnaud, the Christian Hero. " Existence here on earth is hardly to be called life. "Tis rather an embryo state a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he is dead. Why, then, should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals. " (Dr. Benjamin Franklin to Miss EC Hubbard, February 12, 1756.) " O, thou rich world unseen! That curtained realm of spirits ! Thus my cry Hath troubled air and silence; dost thou lie Spread all around, yet by some filmy screen Shut from us ever? 32 Future Life. 33 " Cold, weak and cold Is earth's vain language, piercing not one fold Of our deep being ! Oh, for gifts more high ! Foi a seer's glance to rend mortality ! " [Mrs. Hemans. Psychometry brings the " seer's glance" for which so many millions have longed in vain, not because God hath withholden this blessing, but because human ignorance has neglected it, human bigotry has crushed it out of sight, human arrogance and vanity have despised it, and human animality has sunk below the level of refined intelligence, until vast multitudes live and die in darkness, uncheered and unsustained by the knowledge of the Infinite Benevo- lence, and their own vast estate in realms of wealth, to which earth has no parallel. Amaurotic in soul- vision, they are honestly deluded by the " feeble sense " which cannot see beyond life's dim horizon of materiality, and think like the old Spanish poet : Our lives like hasting streams must be, That into one eugulphing sea Are doomed to fall The sea of death whose waves roll on O'er king and kingdom, crown and throne, And swallow all. Alike the river's lordly tide, Alike the humble rivulets glide, To that sad wave. Death levels poverty and pride, And rich and poor sleep side by side "Within the grave. I, too, have known something of this ignorance and delusion before I had maturely investigated the 34 Future Life. problem of life, and in the optimism of youth was almost willing to surrender to an eternal sleep, br.t ah, how gloomy is the thought to those in whom hope is dead, and who see in this life only the " martyr- dom of man " the great army of the defeated and unsuccessful for whom there is neither pleasure, nor bodily comfort, nor love, nor friendship, nor hope. For them I speak, to them I appeal, with the scientific assurance that death does not end all. Could trumpet-tongued eloquence penetrate the cold halls of collegiate pedantry and the dim clois- ters of the church, to teach the human mind its innate power and dignity, and sever with lightning flash the bonds that bind men to the past, what a mar- velous and sudden transformation society would show. But it cannot be. Daylight dawns too slowly for impatient watchers. The mass of mankind like half- grown youth have depended on instruction from their seniors or leaders, and adhered to traditions which not only had the disadvantage of coming from an earlier and consequently more ignorant period, but were essentially changed by priestcraft and statecraft. The ambitious speculation of the ancients, far outrun- ning their knowledge, filled the world with visionary systems of mythology, theology and metempsychosis which were sufficiently delusive when not corrupted by church and state influence. The greatest energy exerted by inquiring minds was shown in the study of ancient writings and monu- ments or in agnostic contention against the popular faith at the risk of liberty and life. The religious impulse in enlightened minds as well as the ani- Future Life. 35 mal impulse of the coarser class has ever rebelled against the corrupt religion of churches, yet in aban- doning traditional religion it could but wander in darkness and uncertainty. Only for those gifted with intuition could there be any clear conviction of the future life, after renouncing the faith of their fore- fathers. The incredible tales of the supernatural circulated by the superstitious populace and the priest- hood made all records of the supernal or spiritual seem incredible, and when all facts of that class were rejected as imposture, the honest inquirer was com- pelled to settle down into an uncompromising material- ism, which explained all the remaining phenomena, after the rejection of spiritual facts as unsustained by the character of the testimony. Psychometry places the intelligent inquirer in a different position. Guided by this science, he no longer needs the aid of old traditions and monu- ments, since Psychometry enables us to go to the ori- gins of religions and determines the characters and motives of their founders. The mind endowed with psychometric intuition becomes independent of his- tory, of exegesis and criticism. Nor does it need the evidences afforded by modern spiritualism to settle the question of human immortality since it has direct evidence and personal perception. When we think of the vast amount of ecclesiastic and theological rubbish which Psychometry enables us to consign to oblivion the aggregation of nineteen centuries of ignorance for the European race, filling large libraries we realize what a burdensome, stifling load is taken off the back of struggling humanity. 36 future Life. It is these senseless dogmas which have been most effectual in paralyzing reason and perpetuating stolid- ity, for philosophy is a plant of tender growth, which needs all fostering influences, and when its first ger- mination is crushed as it has ever been in our systems of education, when the frank inquiries of childhood are frowned upon or laughed at, and the adolescent mind, deprived of its freedom, is forced into the tread- mill of dogmatic teaching, less monotonous and stu- pid than that of China, but sufficiently mechanical and memorital to repress all originality and compel the reception of self-evident and malignant absurdi- ties (such as the infinite torture of nearly all mankind) it is but a natural consequence that the aggregate intelligence of humanity should become incapable of dealing with the problems of human destiny and incapable of recognizing the scientific demonstration of the higher class of psychic phenomena. Every demonstration of psychometric or of spiritual phenom- ena has to overcome a stubborn resistance in the majority of the spectators, until they are convinced by their senses (not their reason) and to overcome the still more stolid resistance of those who avoid all investigation. Hence it is that Psychometry has not been welcomed and other equally important truths must be withheld to a later period of human progress. The truth of immortality is fully established by Psychometry, and no other evidence is necessary to a logical mind. We begin by establishing the credibility and power of Psychometry in reference to medicines held in the hand. We soon find that its reports are ample and accurate. We test it in reference to char- Ptiture Life* 37 acter and disease when the subject is present and we know his condition. We find it accurate, with a pen- etrating power and truthfulness not approached either by medical diagnosis or by craniology, which are about equally reliable in their respective spheres. We then test it upon the absent whose writing we may have, and find the report to be as accurate as if the individual were present, with this difference, that in certain cases the psychometer reviewing the whole life, discovers the change called death, and yet speaks of the post mortem life as freely and positively as of the ante mortem. Surely if he is competent to speak truthfully of the personal appearance and the life of one whom we know," but whom he knows only by impressions received from a piece of writing if his descriptions have that accuracy in a multitude of details which we know by mathematical reasoning it is utterly impossible could occur by chance if he has traced the life up to death and discovered that change as an incident of continued life, why is not the latter part of his statements in which he discovers neither sleep nor any suspension of mental activity but a brighter and happier mode of life and most nat- ural reflections upon his past career, as credible as any other portion of his statement. If a telescope be trustworthy and accurate in all its revelations of terrestrial objects that we know, is its accuracy and reliability at all impaired by being directed to the stars which are beyond our reach and beyond vision by the naked eye, concerning which the telescope alone gives us information? Would not the scientist be suspected of insanity who would 38 Future Life. advocate such an opinion? Equally insane would it be to suppose that a psychometric faculty upon which we have found it safe to rely in reference to all the phases of human life and in reference to historic affairs shrouded in the obscurity of many centuries, would suddenly fail and lose its reliability when it 'speaks of the hidden life of the departed, which is no more hidden from mortal eye than the secret pur- poses and intentions which are often psychometrically revealed. This perception of the departed and their spirit life is not due to any prior theory" upon the subject but arises clearly in the minds of those who w r ere previously agnostic. The lady upon whom the New York committee experimented (Bryant their chair- man) was distinguished as an agnostic and had harangued many meetings against Christianity when Re D. Ow r en and Frances Wright were conducting their agnostic agitation in New York. But she was profoundly impressed and astonished when she first psychometrically perceived the existence of the deceased which she said she had been accustomed to believe entirely impossible. The report upon the departed is not properly com- parable to a report upon hidden stars, but rather to telescopic observations on those that we see, for the departed are not entirely hidden from mortal view. Thousands in all countries have seen them and even heard them, and thus corroborate by countless wit- nesses the testimony of Psychometry to their exis- tence and mode of life. It would be a parallel case when of the population Future Life. 39 upon an island a number are impelled to swim a wide sound to the opposite mainland. The spectators see them going until they are lost to view, and may infer that they are drowned until those of more acute vision catch a glimpse of their forms and the lovely scenery in which they dwell on the far shore. That testimony the skeptical reject, because they, too, can- not see the distant shore, but when the telescope is brought which has been tested for its accuracy, and tells the whole story, like a camera, doubt is no longer rational the photograph must be recognized The emigrants are not only seen but signal back messages in accordance with their characters and through Psychometry we may communicate with them so as to profit by their knowledge and advice. We may counsel with departed physicians as to the treatment of disease, and however cramped or erro- neous their views in earth life, their post mortem suggestions never mislead. Such at least has been my experience. / have never received a medical suggestion from departed -physicians which was not truthful, wise and successful in its application. We may counsel with statesmen as to public policy and its results and find if we have a competent channel and genuine communication they have a higher wis- dom than they ever displayed in earth life and a greater capacity for foreseeing the results of every measure. We may counsel with eminent teachers of religion and we find that those who were in the love of good have dropped all their sectarian follies and mutual antagonisms and advanced into the sphere of love and wisdom, while the bigots are losing their bigotry and becoming philosophic. 40 Future Life. No one can give his attention to the higher phe- nomena of Psychometry without realizing that the world of disembodied mind is as positive a world of life as that which is immersed in matter, and that they who are " beyond the river," called death, are no farther removed then they who have been trans- ferred across the Atlantic ocean. The incident which first most forcibly illustrated the effect of death on the psychometric perception was an experiment on the autograph of Gen. Jackson, a political letter of very forcible expression, addressed in 1826 to my father-in-law, Judge Rowan. The powerful and thrilling effect which this letter produced upon the Rev. Benj. Kent, at Boston, in 1843, has already been stated. In the summer of 1846, being in Mis- sissippi, I made an experiment with the same letter upon W. B. S., (now a prominent and wealthy busi- ness man in New York), then a young teacher, and found the effect altogether of a calm and meditative character, to which, indeed, his own temperament inclined him. He approached the character from the spiritual side. It will frequently be the case with persons of a calm temperament and feeble vitality that autographs of the deceased will produce so sedative an effect as to fail to rouse the full perception of the character, and even to produce a depressing influence. As Mrs. R. expressed it, they produce a coldness or inaction at the heart. One psychometer will take a letter of great energy, enter into the spirit of the writer as he was in writing, and after a time arrive at the perception of his death Future Life. 41 and post mortem condition. Another more spiritu- ally constituted will sympathize at once with the post mortem condition, while one more fully developed will grasp the entire condition and describe with equal ease the ante mortem and post mortem condi- tions. Men of energetic, active temperaments are more apt to grasp the living conditions than the post mor- tem, as in the psychometric descriptions of this letter by Gen. Quitman, of Mississippi, and Bishop Otey, of Tennessee. The description given by Gen. Qjiit- man, in 1846, was as follows : " He is brave, firm, decided, intellectual. It gives an impression of gravity, of a high, elevated purpose and determination to carry out and execute. There is strength, energy and great gravity, and determina- tion of purpose." (What of his pursuits and sphere of life?) " Some lofty pursuits it would call into action energy nothing of a scientific character the feeling is rather that of firmness and determination." (What were his pursuits ?) ' ' Several especially military there is planning of any description and a settled purpose also political aims he would soar high. (What is there in this letter?) " Some determined purpose specifying manner and plan of execution determination gravity fearlessness it might be warlike it might be a political measure. (What of the moral character?) "Very good, brave, lofty, noble, perfectly honest too generous to be rich patriotic and ambitious ambitious for 42 Future Life. wealth, power and fame, but more for reputation than wealth. (What is he fit for?) " For any great purpose particularly for the command of armies he has been tried." Bishop OTEY, of Tennessee, had remarkably active psychometric faculties, and in a few seconds after this letter was placed on his forehead asserted that the writer was one of the class of Alexander and Napo- leon. He manifested the usual astonishment of a novice when he learned that it was the letter of Gen. Jackson. A high psychometric power like that ol Mrs. B. grasps the whole character at once with so thorough an understanding as to be able to portray it concisely in comprehensive language, recognizing at once the existing as well as the post mortem condition of the departed. The following is her impression of GEN- ERAL ANDREW JACKSON. " This is an illuminated mind it is a spirit. This brain had jets of fire and far reaching thought. He was voluble and had no trouble in expression. He had a great soul. He spoke out fearless and earnest and still had a human side the sentiment of love. He loved (like every thing else) powerfully, with his whole soul. " He was called before the public his. business was to guide and direct he had quick far-seeing per- ception. He was a politician, who occupied high positions as high as could be given. " He would rule his friends and many times against their judgment. He had the power of controlling them. Even his opponents could not stand against his power ; he had great power of persuasion and Future Life. 43 force to carry his points. He could combat with opponents, so they would be forced to yield. k ' If called on to manage the country in the office of president, he would leave the office with pride and satisfaction with fewer faults than most men. " In some respects he was like Washington, in his candor, his strong judgment and his devotion to duty though he was not entirely in the same mould ; his brain was differently constructed. I do not think his military ability equal to Washington's, for he was not so cautious was much more reckless and impulsive." " His course was not as commendable as Washing- ton's. He was firm, bra\e and unflinching in carry- ing a point ; he would never admit that he had made a mistake. He was not as just and conciliatory to opponents as Washington had not as much benevo- lence and spirituality.' "People admired his boldness even his oppo- nents admired it. He is often quoted. His character will not die out, but lives in the minds of the people, He was a southern man of Democratic feelings. " Tn spirit he lias advanced rapidly. In ladies society his language was fluent and very appropriate, gnllant and fascinating. In rough society he would be apt to sweai vigorously." In post mortem descriptions I generally enquire into the present status ol the spirit and his present senti- ments and objects of interest : the answers to which have been interesting and satisfactory. Some spirits 1 find actively engaged in philanthropic work on earth, impressing the minds of the benevolent and spiritual or watching over their surviving friends and relations- Others are enjoying celestial associations, or looking deeply into a philosophy and knowledge of the Universe which were not accessible on earth. 44 Future Life* The great founders of religion and philanthropy are living in accordance with their exalted character, the knowledge of which has been to me a profound pleasure, as it relieves the dreariness of the moral land- scapes on earth, to look aloft and find something we can admire, revere and love. The revelations of pneumatology and religion which come through Psychometry will be given in a second volume. To perfect the argument for immortality derived from Psychometry it is desirable to verify as thor- oughly as possible the power of Psychometry to dis- cover whether the writer is living in the body or not. To make a satisfactory test of this matter which had indeed been tested a hundred times before, I wrote down eleven names of living and dead persons, and placed them successively in the hands of Mrs. B. without any intimation whatever as to their personal- ity. Within about fifteen minutes she gave her opin- ion of all, as to life, with some remarks on their character, without a single error or doubt. In such experiments there are two sources of diffi- culty. The recently dead, who passed from a life of restless energy and activity carry with them so much of that activity as to make it difficult to distinguish them from the living. This was especially the case with Gen. Gordon. On the other hand persons of a very gentle spiritual temperament have so much of the calmness of spirit-life as to make it sometimes doubt- ful if they are living. But when vigorous persons in active life are compared with those who have long passed away the discrimination is not difficult. Future Life. 45 The power of determining in reference to any indi- vidual whether he is living or dead, became a matter of special interest at the time when contradictory reports were received about the death of Gen. Gor- don. To test the power of Mrs. B. I wrote upon small slips of paper the names of living and dead persons, viz. : Qjieen Elizabeth, Geo. Fox, Gen. Garfield, Robert Ingersoll, Arabi Pasha, El Mahdi, Gen. Gordon, Gladstone, Swedenborg, Joseph Rodes Buchanan, Joan of Arc, and brought them to her sitting room proposing to place a few names in her hand and ask her if the parties were living or noto She was very reluctant and doubtful of her ability, of which, however, I had very little doubt* Her expressions were as follows, holding in her hands : >ucen Elizabeth. ' I think it is a spirit; I think a woman of a good deal of character." Geo. Fox. " I believe this is a spirit a peculiar character individualized." She also spoke of him as religious, and having many friends. Gen. Garficld. ''This comes like a man as much alive as dead a wide awake man seems alive whether in or out of the body. If he has passed over it is not long. I conclude he is dead, but not long." Robert Ingersoll. " First I thought he was dead, then I saw so much brightness around him I think he is alive. He has too much brain force and activity for me. I think he is alive." She felt the influence on her head as she did when she once described his character. Arabi Pasha. " This is a less active brain a 46 Future Life. good deal of physical force hard to kill he's alive." El Mahdi. " It seems this is a man. He's alive a man of intellectual capacity. He spreads him- self over a good deal of territory has a wide range, but with good solid sense." Gen. Gordon. " How different they all feel. It seems to me the man is dead he has crossed a bridge. His ruling desire was for power for aggrandizment an ambitious character of high aims. His purposes were good." Gladstone. "There's such a paleness about this man. I feel the feebleness, but it is a man. If he is not dead he is on the brink from great feebleness. But he is alive. He has the feebleness of age of wasted vital force. He is a man of fine capacities, fine managing abilities understands finance and government affairs is diplomatic." Sivedenborg. " There is more brightness here a permeating influence magnetic. I judge this man is in the other world. I think it is a man. He brings a powerful spirit influence very powerful. He had great individuality of character. There was no one like him." Joseph Rodcs Buchanan. She laughs immod- erately and seems to have a mischievous, sportive feeling. " The man's alive and well. What makes me laugh so?" (In what part of the world is he?) " Very near here. It's just like you." Joan of Arc. "I don't think this person is living dead a long time. When this person died, the work died too. But now I see the blossoms coming Future Life. 47 up. This life was not in vain. This person lives in the hearts of many. I see a woman now. I might think it a man from the strength of character, but it is a woman dressed in a plain garb no ornament a woman of medium height." The whole experiment occupied not more than fifteen or twenty minutes. Psychometry is not confined to the mere perception of continued life. It follows that life in supernal worlds as clearly as here on earth. (That theme, however, would be too much for this introductory volume). It realizes the fruition of what millions have sighed for in vain, and what thousands have in all ages enjoyed what Mrs. Hemans described from her own experience. " He died Jie died On whom my lone devotedness was cast ! I might not keep one vigil by his side, J, whose wrung heart watched with him to the last! " Know'st thou what I sought ? For what high boon my struggling spirit wrought ? Communion with the dead ! I sent a cry Through the veiled empires of Eternity A voice to cleave them ! " I sat beneath that planet I had wept My love to stillness, every night-wind slept; A hush was on the hills; the very streams "Went by like clouds, or noiseless founts in dreams, And the dark tree o'er shadowing me in that hour, Stood motionless, even as the gray church tower, Whereon I gazed, unconsciously. There came A low sound like the tremor of a flame, Or like the light, quick shiver of a wing, Flitting through twilight woods across the air; And I looked up. Before me there He, the departed, stood! Aye, face to face, So near and yet how far. He spoke! How shall i tell thee of the startling thrill 48 Leaders in Religion* In that low voice, whose breezy tones would fill My bosom's infinite ? O, friend, 1 woke Thus first to heavenly life. I sought that lighted eye From its intense and searching purity I drank in soul ! I questioned of the dead Of the hushed, starry shores their footsteps tread, And I was answered. Full and high "Was that communion with eternity ; Too rich for aught so fleeting ! Like a knell Swept o'er my sense its closing words : " Farewell On earth we meet no more ! " and all was gone* SWEDENBORG. The following psychometric description of Sweden- borg strikes me as very correct. I have never read any of his works, and have avoided doing so, not from any aversion or indifference, but because when I first presented the doctrines of Anthropology develop- ing the faculties of the soul, brain and body, and their laws of connexion, correspondence and inter-action, the devotees of Swedenborg would often say that my doctrines were similar to his. As these doctrines had been derived entirely from experimental investigation, uninfluenced by the theories of my predecessors, excepting only the discoveries of Gall, which I impar- tially investigated to compare with cranial devel- opments, pathology and experiments, I wished to preserve my independence and isolation as a witness of the truth, independent of any influence from previ- ous suggestions. Hence I have postponed reading Swedenborg's writings to the completion of my own researches hereafter, but no one who mingles in soci- ety or peruses current literature can avoid learning the essentials of Swedenborg's doctrines the system of Leaders in Religion. 49 thought introduced by him, in which he assumed an attitude of authority and imposed his theological spec- ulations on his followers as a finality discouraging that further research, which has given us so much more simple, accurate and satisfactory views. His influence has tended to discourage free investigation and has done more to develop a refined scholarly intellectuality among his followers than to exalt or intensify the religious sentiments. SWEDENBORG. " This is not very far back not more than seventy years a character that made an impression on the minds of the people. There were some who would adhere to him, to any length, and others who would not. " He had a great amount of positiveness in his character too much by which he lost sight of his best impressions. I feel that very sensibly he was so strong willed. He had a great deal of materiality about him, yet he taught spiritual things. He abounded in opinions or doctrines and was quite orig- inal an originator of new thoughts. " He was calculated to dispel the ideas of modern theology was not a believer in the doctrines taught in the churches. He was somewhat a martyr to his opinions not exactly a martyr but he had great opposition from priests and creedists but he rather courted opposition than otherwise. If he had had more of the spirit of Christ he would have felt the oppositton more sensitively. " He was an author who published works. His books met with considerable acceptance but called down much criticism. Were any of his works sup- pressed I think some were not published. He was 50 Leaders in Religion. very radical I do not think he had much religious fervor. " He was plain and comprehensive in his writings more scientific and philosophic than religious. I do not feel as much warmth as a religious teacher requires. There is a cool, calculating spirit a good deal of the mathematical in his character. " I think he believed in inspiration but not to so freat an extent as we think only to a few himself eing inspired. He claimed to be an ambassador sent for the purposes to which he devoted his life. He felt a special divine favor bestowed on him. I think he claimed more for himself than was true. He was guided by ancient savans but he thought a great deal and followed his own speculations, mathematical and physical. He had his theories about life and specu- lated largely about physical life. I presume he adopted a system of physical training for spiritual development. He did not indulge in luxury, but lived rather abstemious and plain. " His ideas were not altogether just as to getting inspiration from God, but he was very easy in receiv- ing impressions and would lose sight of their source. He had a circle of profound logicians. He had sea- sons of great mental exaltation and was clairvoyant and saw into the spirit-world and saw many things correctly through the help of his guides, but he had not any such communications from the Most High as he claimed. Spirit influences were so strong sometimes he might seem strange or insane. He was sometimes accessible to the lower order of spirits, but he would soon throw them off. , He did not understand the laws of spirit intercourse as fully as we do now. " He had immense assumption assumed much more than was true he would suppose something given to him when it was the impression of his own mind. He had psychological illusions which were purely subjective. Leaders in Religion. 5 1 " His intellect was of a higher and more spiritual character than Arnold ;* he was more positive and emphatic and had more intellectual spiritual associa- tions. He would give the sentiments of exalted spirits. (Q^ How is he now how does he regard his former teachings?) " I think he would alter his teachings materially. He is not well satisfied with his teachings. He knows his claims as to Divine com- munication were not correct. He is no nearer God now than myriads of others. SECOND DESCRIPTION from an engraving. " I feel a great mental power. The front of my brain and side of my forehead are very active - largely developed in the perceptives. I feel that this is a man, am I correct? (Yes.) A very original, deep thinker. I think he was an author. I think this person's writing was largely on theological sub- jects. He had a great deal of method and accuracy of judgment. His great power of reasoning always carried him on and made him victorious in argument when in controversy or propounding a subject. " His work was intellectual. His subjects were theological, but he was engaged in reconstructing governmental affairs, but not military. He was very eloquent in his address. He knew his own power but was not an opinionated man. He gave much of his attention to the literature of others was a great reader, but very select, seeming to be governed by some intuition in the pursuit of knowledge never given to anything trashy or superficial a great student. " It seems to me he was of some Christian denomi- nation in early life, but his own freedom of thought carried him beyond any creed or sect ; he had great love of independence. * Arnold was a spiritual writer professing to make very wonderful revelations from the spirit world. 52 Leaders in Religion. " I think he was once obscure, and accident had something to do with bringing him forward. His views were all reformatory, in government as well as religion. He had broad, philanthropic views. I think he is not alive. " He had spiritual impressions that assured him of immortality, but did not believe in spiritual matters as we do. He conversed with spirits, saw spirits and had visions of the other world. His belief was very peculiar it seems mythical to me ; I cannot describe it. " He lived a religious life. His whole life was governed by justice toward others. His teachings were something like Swedenborgianism, so far as I understand it. " He seemed alone in a portion of his life. He had a few followers and was obliged to devise methods to get his doctrines established He lived to see his teachings widespread. He had many followers he has many now. His teachings were obscure and men ridiculed them, but he gave such marvelous evidence that he established men in his faith after a time. He was a great humanitarian had wonderful psycho- metric power, though he did not give it that name. " Many times he was restless and uneasy, not knowing what was the matter. Something in the air told him things were not right. 4 ' He had great determination never faltered or lost his balance. He did not fear death. He knew just when he was going. He carried with him the .same principles, and as a spirit he teaches the same doctrines with very little change, though he may not approve of all his writings. If he were to write now he would not have so much mystery. He made his writings rather obscure to the general reader now he would be more plain and clear. He was a frugal man had few wants was temperate in all things. " He is interested in systems of religion and gov- Leaders in Religion. 53 ernmental systems. He would regulate and arrange all things that depress men. He is a hater of slavery in any form. I have never known this man, but he is not a stranger to Psychometry and to you. Many of your ideas meet his approval, and he would give you credit for knowing more than he did of the cere- bral faculties. He never knew from what source his knowledge came. He never analyzed the brain cor- rectly. " He holds now a very high rank in spirit life has great veneration and religion. As to the doctrines he taught, I should not approve them entirely, and he now regards many of his doctrines as speculative, and not really correct from his present standpoint. If he were here he would reform his church he must have had some church organization. When he passed away he did not suffer his life passed out like a breath it was like a translation. He is as active as ever, and as ready to respond to calls. He looks upon the believers in his doctrines with a great deal of pride and satisfaction. " He did not live in this country, but far away. I believe I know who this is it is Emanuel Sweden- borg." GAUTAMA BUDDHA. " This is a man he has passed away. He seems like a historical character, as though he had figured in the world's history. " As I reach out into his character, it seems his morals were elevated and pure. He was a very good man. [At this moment I caught an impression of an elevated and very intellectual being.] His tenden- cies were liberal and religious. His main purpose in life was to perpetuate a religious system. He seems like one bursting the shell of tyranny and old systems an undaunted spirit fearless in promulgating his sentiments. 54 Leaders in Religion. " He takes me away back among the martyrs, and brings up those terrible scenes." (What were his surroundings?) " He was surrounded by those who might be called idolaters, and started out almost single-handed and alone to work out a better system. In early life he was bound to a system very distasteful to him and he gradually outgrew it. 44 The climate was warm. In his early life the country around him was not very populous the government was tyrannical ; had no mercy on any form of crime. His own position was in the higher ranks, and among the most intelligent. He stood very high, socially, and was greatly admired. He did not aim at wealth." (What was his career?) " He started out as a reformer in religious and political conditions, for all seemed wrong to him in government and church rule, - he turned his back on it all. He was a great educator. He spent years in meditation, and almost solitary, before he made his purposes known, then came out boldly and preached his views with great success. He startled the people. There was a general uprising against him as an innovator and dangerous man by the priests. It caused a revolu- tion. The authorities strove hard to suppress him - he had great trouble and sometimes danger of his life. He was unjustly accused. He was finally suc- cessful in establishing his doctrines and received the acclamations of the intellectual and civilized. He perpetuated his doctrines even to this day." (Where did all this occur?) 44 In a warm country, farther South than this to the East very far ; I cannot tell the distance ; it was in the old country. I get more of his spirit and career than of any loca- tion." (What is the magnitude of his following to-day?) " It ranks as high as any denomination, or higher." Leaders in Religion. 55 (In what era was this?) " It was before the Christian era, and yet he had many of the principles of Christ he was like Jesus was prophetic. 5 ' (How does he compare with Jesus?) " He was very much like him. His birth might have been pre- dicted like Jesus', and his character resembled. " He performed things considered miracles he healed the sick. He taught morality and a belief in God, instead of idols, he taught love and faith, and doing as we would be done by. He would prohibit war and mal-treatment of animals." (What of his system and his followers to-day?) " They are a dark colored people, about as dark as Arabs not a large people. They are peaceable and temperate in all things. They adhere to his system well grounded in their belief, which has become traditional. It has some resemblance to the Catholic, in forms. They consider their doctrine older and better than Christianity. They seem to be vegetarians averse to the use of flesh." (What do you think was the mode of his death?) " He was not crucified as Christ, but I think there was some betrayal for there was always a rancor between his followers and the priests. He seems betrayed in some way into the hands of his enemies, and thereby he lost his life through treachery." This opinion does not say much of the intellectual character of Buddha and Buddhism which I find mentioned in a very good psychometric description of Buddha some years since by Dr. P., substantially like the foregoing. The following passage, however, gives an additional illustration. " He is not like the old Bible spirits was not among the followers of Christ did not feel as the Apostles did. His vein of thought is separated from them, and like the Greek philosophers. It was a religion of the intellect reasoned out. Miracles did not have much place in it. His religious ideas were 56 Leaders in Religion. founded on reason and naturalism, discarding mira- cles somewhat like the Unitarians. He believed in a measure in the immortality of the soul, but did not realize it like the Christians. It was not as clearly well defined as we would like it. He did not see the spiritual life clearly, though he had considerable of the spiritual element." KESHUB CHUNDER SEN Before his Death. " This is very different from El Mahdi. I like him but do not get into him easily. 44 It is a good character, benevolent, active, very astute, quick in seeing into things. He is a good teacher has great brain force, strong affectional nature, industry and conscientiousness. He has had to struggle with the ignoramuses like yourself a man of great genius and hopefulness. He does not lose his balance. He has battled with reverses. " He is truly religious, but not sanctimonious. He has inspiration from the spiritual faculties. lie is unlike others has great independence. He is not bombastic or overbearing. He is a good family man, admirable at home a favorite with many. " He takes- the unpopular side to some extent, but his merits are appreciated by many. He is a diligent, fluent writer and a public speaker. Every one that knows him (except the envious) likes him. He is always ahead of his hearers far advanced beyond the people no common man. (Q^ What people are around him?) " They are civilized that is about all. There are self-impor- tant people whom he don't like much. He does not have battles but he do n't admire the elements around him. " He is too forgiving. He does not take to heart the assaults of people or regard them a high- minded, whole-souled, grand man. It is not a rigid Leaders hi Religion. 57 climate but a genial one where he lives* He will carry out much that he desires, but not accumulate wealth yet he is in easy circumstances. "He will reform the religion. He will not be orthodox. He does not cater to the rich. He has important work in contemplation and begun. He seems like an abolitionist in principle. His work is symmetrical. He will live to see a good deal of suc- cess. He is somewhat like John the Baptist a great religious teacher." LAOU-TSZE the Chinese Philosopher. " There is a great deal of spirituality and venera- tion in this. " It does not seem a Bible character, but a spirit that existed long, long ages past, and has become holy and god-like. " This spirit once had great ambition and desire for power, and attained it. He seems to have lived anterior to the Christian dispensation. When he lived all religious teaching was crude. There was no stand- ard by which the people could be led ; there was con- fusion of thought. It seems there were wars and disturbances and a reaching for power and aggrand- izement at that time a perpetual strife. No man or woman was safe in their home. " I seem in a city, in constant fear of invasion by hostile forces. He passed away before the accom- plishment of his purposes, in the midst of strife a beautiful spirit. He had great moral elevation great spiritual elevation he saw and felt the needs of the people. "He was an intuitive scientist a geologist and philosopher. He did not accept the current theories. He had remarkably clear perception and clairvoyant powers. But he had something intolerant in his char- acter. He was rather too positive for a great teacher. His mode of expression was forcible and magnetic. 58 Readers in Religion. " He is a glorious spirit now. He would engage in regulating governments if he could. He would favor the teachings of Christ now." (Q^ Whom is he most like?) " I can't think of any one. He has warmth, philanthropy, positiveness and intolerance of opposition." (Q^ How does he compare with Confucius?) " More favorably than with Socrates. He does not differ very widely. His teachings would be similar, but he is clearer and presents his thought more clearly than Confucius more like the principles of Jesus. He does not follow authority he is original. He is more independent than Confucius, and would not adhere to the old books. He had more genius and originality than Confucius, but there was considera- ble resemblance." Another psychometer said : " He differs from Con- fucius in greater power to originate, construct and carry out." (Q^ How would Confucius have regarded him?) " Confucius might not have regarded him as an equal, but would regard him as a great thinker. (Q^ Is he interested in the world here?) " He is given to great devotion. He would exhort to patience and devotion through mediums. He does not come much to America chiefly to the eastern continents. He is more in harmony with Jesus than Confucius. He wrote a great deal and spoke a great deal in life. He was an authority a founder of new thought in philosophy and religion. I would have chosen him before Confucius. He has followers still to the present time." CONFUCIUS.