It was a solemn moment, doctor! The chaplain could speak no longer; his voice broke, and he turned away towards the admiral: rough men, ay, to the very topman, who the night before would have led his shipmates to quench their reason in liquor, defying both God and man-ay, doctor, to myself-we were like children. The chaplain closed the book. Another minute, and the men were piped down. In the evening we were busily at work, the sea falling, and the ship headed with a steady breeze to her old course for China.

That, sir, I may say, was the turning-point of my life; I seemed to be a new man, for things began to go well with me. No further word passed between Sir Henry and myself on the point we had so singularly raised; but he ever afterwards favoured me. Almost the first news we heard in port was of the Burmese war; and I obtained an exchange

into a frigate then leaving for that service. In eighteen months I made more way than in eight years before: perhaps if I hadn't shifted about rather hastily to get into the various small scuffles that arose, I might have got on still faster; and if I hadn't married, I'm quite sure I should. But that, sir, I couldn't help-I'm not even sorry for it!

The clock of St Paul's is here heard sending the first stroke of four to Greenwich Hill: the lieutenant, who with the late excitement has risen to his feet, speaking faster and faster, stops short, and takes out his watch.

SURGEON. - We shall be just in time for dinner, I think, sir?

LIEUT. (slapping his young friend on the shoulder cheerfully.) - After it, my good fellow, as soon as the ladies are gone, I'll give you one toast, at any rate, in addition to her Majesty and her Majesty's Navy!

SIR, I was invited some weeks ago to an exhibition of Mesmerism, to witness its extraordinary powers in the person of "Adolphe." There was a preliminary lecture, in bad taste enough, vulgarly offensive, in a tone of defiance of the members of the medical profession, whom the lecturer having invited all to be present to hear the vituperation seemed to consider as generally unbelievers in the science.

This was not judicious, for medical men ought to be more able than others to test the physical facts of Mesmerism; and it should have been remembered that some eminent men of the profession are, if not inventors or discoverers, at least the great promoters of the science.

A shrewd quack doctor, in a country town, having told the gaping clowns that some of them-fixing his eyes on the proper objects-were in danger from dreadful diseases, which he alone could cure, saw an eminent regular physician approaching in his carriage. "I will appeal," said he, "to Dr

if it be not so." He stopped the carriage, and thus addressed the physician, "I have been telling these good men that they are labouring under dreadful diseases," which he named in awful Latin, and added "Qui vult decepi decipiatur: be so good, Doctor to say if that be not the truth." The Doctor bowed, and said "Undoubtedly." The infallible-cure pills were soon all sold.

I confess this manner of the lecturer told with me thus: He rather wishes to keep away the profession, fearing their scrutiny; or, in case of their being sceptical, to cast contempt upon their knowledge. I think it would have been wiser to have conciliated them. The manner was not calculated to induce belief; nevertheless, mesmerism may be true: it may be a wonderful secret of nature. For my own part, neither believing nor disbelieving, but holding my judgment in abeyance, I desire to examine the science, or whatever it might be called, by the consistency of its facts. To do this, it is necessary first

to lay down accurately what is claimed for it-not vaguely, as I find it in letters and lectures, where that which is asserted at one time as its power is denied at another; but to speak clearly of its congruent powers or asserted powers, without vacillation; then to follow these powers to their consequences-their necessary consequences-if they be powers at all; and to draw conclusions arising from the two natures upon which it works, or perhaps is worked upon-materiality and spirituality.

As to its claims. And here it is as well to make a preliminary remark-that a scientific vocabulary is wanted; for we are bewildered and misled by terms belonging only to our organs, which organs have nothing whatever to do with the phenomena of mesmerism. For instance, if the eye be closed effectually, it would be better not to use the word "seeing," and so on; and this is necessary, because while it is asserted that the organ is useless-and if so, the person mesmerised may as well have the object behind as before him-I generally notice, that the object to be known is put as near to the eye, as to the nose and mouth: but of this presently. I now only wish to lay down what is claimed as the powers. We might almost limit these to a few words, but fear to shock the reader, though in effect it must come to pretty much the same thing-that is, supposing the science not to be yet advanced to its extent-we will say then only a kind of

Omnipresence, Omniscience, not impeded by intervening solid or opaque substances, and equally valid (perhaps more valid) over the spiritual as over the material world. I speak here of a kind of-aware that it may be said that there are limits-which I am justified in doing, as no limits are defined; and the phenomena which do not succeed at one time and do succeed at another, according to the operation of the mesmeric influence, are really of the nature belonging to, and the property of omniscience and om

nipresence. And as this is important, that I may not step beyond the ground on which I am made to stand by the mesmerisers themselves, I will state what was asserted for Adolphe himself on the evening spoken of; and this will supersede the need of entering into the particulars of his exhibition.

It was given out at the conclusion of the evening, that Adolphe would be "at home"-to receive patientsto cure their diseases, and with as much infallibility as is ever claimed, by a kind of entering into the bodies of those patients; and then by a knowledge-instinctive or mesmeric, for lack of a term-not acquired by study of medicine or anatomy, of telling the exact drug or remedy for whatever disease the patient may have.

That he would likewise be "at home," for consultation on the private affairs of persons, to inform them of extreme minutia of circumstances relating to them and their concerns, whether past, present, or to comeas, for instance, for the recovery of lost papers and documents, whereby they may be enabled to recover estates, to retrieve their affairs, and to know all combinations of circumstances, making for or against their interests. I do not think that any one present will deny that such is the substance of the promises held out to all who might be disposed thereby to visit Adolphe "at home for consultation.'

Now, granting for a moment that he has this power, it necessarily follows he must be in spirit only, not in body, which is in the presence of the consultor, wherever the required documents are to be found, or where the personages are who are acting and designing for or against the interests to be speculated on. And here a previous knowledge as to all the whereabouts must be supposed; and this is a power of being anywhere or everywhere, and of knowing everything relating to the persons or matters to be inquired into, which is in its kind and its degree-for in human hands we may even here admit degrees-both omniscience and omnipresence.

I asserted that these powers are not impeded by solid or opaque bodies intervening let me show that this

:

also is claimed for our belief. I do so, not only by asserting that it must necessarily be inferred from the nature of the things with regard to hidden documents, and persons at distances from the operating processnot only as to rooms, but of towns or countries; but I will show it by this common mesmeric exhibition, and such was shown that evening. The mesmerised takes the hand of a person, and by so doing, as it is said, travels with him in mind; but I shall show he does more. In the instance exhibited, he "travelled" to a foreign country—that is, he crossed the sea; he entered into a house, described its furniture, its position, its form, &c. And here he could not be said to travel in the thought of the person with whom he was in "rapport," for he described a picture, which that gentleman did not think about, nor knew was there. This one fact, therefore, puts the affair out of, and beyond the category of thought-communicative-travelling or ubiquity. Now, I remember a week or two ago, seeing a letter quoted from Dr Elliotson, in which he denied that certain persons could see through solid substances; but did not Adolphe in this case assume to travel through solid substances? For there is one kind of solid substance which, bodily or spiritually, must be passed through-the solid substance of this earth itself. For you will observe, here is a very serious obstacle, it being out of all possible rule of perspective to reach, say for instance Edinburgh, from this place, through the rotundity of the globe, without passing through a portion of its solidity; that is, if the organs, outward or inward, have anything whatever to do with the affair. If they have not, there is a presence of another kind-an ubiquity of spirit, knowing all and seeing all at one and the same time; so that, as I said, solid substances intervening are no obstacle. Nor do I say that the somnambulist always succeeds; the powers are said to be sometimes weak. All I require is to have the position of the powers established; and for that purpose, it is sufficient if the somnambulist ever succeeds, and if the success is not attributable to coincidence and chance.

Now as to the two natures engaged, operating and operated upon, in Mesmerism, they must be matter and spirit; and here I cannot but note a very wonderful inconsistency in some advocates for mesmerism, who do in conversation and in published works deny that there is any such thing as spirit at all, showing at the same time phenomena that cannot belong to matter, and must belong to spirit. There are no conceivable effluvia, or electric essences, or anything whatever material, however subtle, that can foretell events-that can reveal the secret of the "to come." Prophecy must be a spiritual power; so that the pure materialists at once cut from under them the greater number and the greater of the facts upon which the claims of mesmerism are built.

Here, then, is a spiritual power: it is either inherent in the nature of man—and if so, he is in progression to be more than man; or it is imparted to him at times, and upon occasions, as with the prophets of the Scriptures. We might well be said to shrink from the former supposition; if we assume the latter, we must do so with an awe and reverence not quite suited to the circumstances of the displays of the various exhibitions we witness. So that, taking the claims at their weakest and apparently least offensive construction, it must be asserted that the somnambulist is an inspired person, and that, in this inspired state, he is at once both in and out of the body-that he can make all his bodily organs dead, inoperative; and that he acquires from a new source all their powers, and these enlarged.

Be it observed, I have not here supposed any cheat, any collusion, or illusion, trick, or conjuration whatever. That is quite out of the question, as I would treat the subject. I have only to specify, to make clear the varied claims to show what they are-not to deny them, or the facts on which they are built; but, having done thus much, I think it will follow that we cannot reasonably be called upon for so large a measure of faith, without being allowed to scrutinise the facts in every possible way- and even strongly, without offence, to express doubts

and, if it may happen, to suspect imposture.

And I do think that, in the search after so great a truth-if mesmerism be a truth-it is quite out of and below the dignity of the subject to resort to any of those exhibitions which are common with professed conjurors. I would, therefore, urge upon the members of the mesmeric body that they altogether abstain from cards and card-playing; and I would suggest—as it is professed that the somnambulist cannot see-that, instead of giving him sealed letters and books, these things should be in another room; and that there letters should be written, and books opened, of which passages are to be read for it is quite inconsistent with the claims to suppose that the somnambulist shall be able to see what is, and what is doing, in a room hundreds of miles off, and not be able to tell what is read and what is doing in the next room. I wish to see this science at one with itself-mesmerists at one with themselves. They must not blow hot and cold; and if they put down failures to a weakened mesmeric influence, they must suffer their claim, as to its full influence, to be nailed down-to be an immovable, undeniable fact that they have claimed, and do claim, directly and indirectly, a kind of omniscience and omnipresence hitherto considered impossible in man uninspired, or in one that is man only.

But there is a further startling claim. I have, as yet, considered the powers of mesmerism as operative only in congenial, or rather the same specific natures in man with man.

Its influence over other natures is now asserted. A rampant bull is arrested and fixed in the very moment of his fierce assault. Savage dogs are instantly made to quail. A cow in articulo mortis is cured, which the operator, Miss Martineau, thinks conclusive against the theory of the working upon the imagination. Now, in these brute influences, some of the old assumptions must be either given up or extended : the brute creation must be participators with us in the one case; or that peculiar sympathy, that mind-communion by rapport, must be so modified as, if not to annihilate, greatly to reduce its claim. The human diseases are discovered by the agent,