ples and formulas respecting human evidence, he could not withhold his assent to what was so strongly supported*.

This, according to Dr. Elliotson, was in a conversation with Chenevix about the year 1816; according to whom, (on the same authority), "In the whole range of human argument, no art or science rests upon experiments more numerous, more positive, or more easily ascertained."

While, then, we would not defer to names, however great, who merely pronounce a judgment without examination, we may properly accept the concurrent testimony of accurate thinkers and men of probity, such as have been adduced. This will free the subject from the imputation of anything vulgar, frivolous, or improper, as necessarily connected with it, and has been, to a certain extent, my surety in commencing inquiries respecting it. At this time I heard frequent conversation respecting it, with much ridicule and opposition cast upon its advocates: I proceeded to experiment, and found confirmed the statements of its friends.

* London Medical and Physical Journal, p. 500.

CHAPTER III.

THE HISTORY OF ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

It is curious, and may offer a lesson of modesty to the moderns, to observe how many principles and truths may be traced, at least in their rudiments, in times far remote from our present inquisitive and stirring age. Thus, for instance, toleration, which was only legalized in our country in A. D. 1688, received its birth in the declarations of Scripture; and the respective discoveries of Watt, Guttemburg, and Gioia, may be found, in their elements, the first among the attempts of Archimedes; and printing and the compass among the Chinese. The great distinction between the present and earlier æras is not so much in the advancement as in the diffusion of knowledge, though, again, diffusion certainly tends to advancement, from the fresh lights reflected from many minds. The wondrous temples of Baalbec and Palmyra were surrounded, probably, by shepherds' tents, as our cathedrals, when rising in beauty, overlooked almost the rudest forms of habitations. Men kept their information in guilds or crafts, or more commonly reserved it as the subject of

B

family secrets. It was a part of their capital, and the source of their honour; and a natural selfishness led them to prefer their private distinctions to a public good.

And thus truths affect us with all the air of discoveries, which have only been extended, and perhaps methodized, among us. Among these Animal Magnetism may certainly be placed. Traces of it are to be met with among the few from a very early date. Carefully guarding, as in candour we are bound, against the supposition of the miracles of scripture having been performed by this art, for among them are many circumstances recorded to which magnetism could never aspire; we yet cannot fail to observe details which render it probable that the subject was not unknown to the Hebrews and the neighbouring nations. Thus, Naaman said, when seeking for the prophet's aid, "I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, (move his hand up and down-Hebrew), and recover the leper* " Pyrrhus is recorded by Plutarch to have cured persons by the touch of his toe-the same thing is said to have been done by a family in Dauphiné from father to son in our day. The

* 2 Kings, v. 11.

prophetic oracular voices were probably rendered efficacious from the same cause as prevoyance; and the Druids, who are designated by Pliny as prophets and physicians, are said, by Pomponius Mela, to have wonderfully cured diseases, and to have predicted events soon to occur.

"In the following verses of Solon," says Mr. Colquhoun, "we have the earliest, and, perhaps, the directest testimonies to the practice of manipulation, as a sanative process, to be found in antiquity. It is surprising that they should have hitherto escaped the notice of all the writers upon Animal Magnetism, many of whom have exercised great diligence in collecting the allusions to this process which occur among the ancients—

Πολλάκι δ ̓ ἐξ ὀλίγης οδύνης μέγα γίγνεται ἄλγος,
Κ ̓ οὐκ ἂν τίς λύσαιτ ̓ ἤπια φάρμακα δούς·
Τὸν δὲ κακαῖς νούσαισι κυκώμενον ἀργαλέαις τε
Αψάμενος χειροῖν αἶψα τίθησ ̓ ὑγιῆ.

Solon apud Stobæum*.

The following remarkable expressions occur in the Amphitruo of Plautus:-" Quid, si ego illum

*Thus translated by Stanley-History of Philosophy, 1666:

-

"The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rage

More than all art of physic can assuage;
Sometimes the fury of the worst disease,
The hand, by gentle passes, will appease."

tractim tangam, ut dormiat."

These expressions are evidently used euphemistically in a humorous sense for "What if I knock him down!" but we can hardly fail to perceive that there is here an obvious allusion to some method of setting persons asleep by manipulations. In the following verses of Martial, the process in question is not merely alluded to, but pretty fully described. They occur in B. 3, Ep. 82, and appear to refer to some refinement of luxury:

Percurrit agili corpus arte tractatrix,

Manumque doctam spargit omnibus membris.

We have distinguished between the miracles of Scripture and Magnetism; for the latter makes no pretensions to such a power as that of rendering perfectly sound a withered arm, or of instantaneously giving sight, with all the effects of experience, (the greater wonder of the two), to one born blind. Locke proposes the question, supposing one born blind to be made acquainted by the touch with the surfaces of a cube and a sphere, so that he should be able to distinguish them, and that his eyes were suddenly opened, and the bodies placed before him on a table, and he were asked to tell by the sight which was the cube, which the sphere? would he be able to do so?