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    Every day , thousands ! JJet " thousands" represent only two thousand , and we have seven hundred and thirty thousand partizans in . one year . At pa » e 9 the statement is repeated : — 33 ut every day thousands of new facts and proofs of the truth of this divine science tire collected by thousands ; and by thousands its once most inveterate opponents are being converted to its belief . If this be so we really think it time that the euckoo cry of Galileo and Harvey cease to be raised when Mesmerism is mentioned . Let us , however , pause awhile to consider icJiat it is these " thousands" throng to believe . The first thing that strikes us is the parade . of scientific pretension ,

    accompanied by a dexterous system of escape from , all scientific verification ; by this means the Clairvoyants impose upon the unscientific public , making them believe there is rigorous scientific evidence for what is advanced , and nonplus the scientific sceptic by denying his competence . They scatter the words Newton , Farraday , fluid , agent , imponderables , cause and effect , laws , &c , and declare that the discovery of Mesmer is precisely similar to that of N * ewtoii—which gives us a pretty accurate measure of their acquaintance with Newton . If , however , you bring scientific canons to bear upon their arguments , they nonplus you by declaring their " agent" to be no > " physical agent , " consequently not amenable to physical laws : — -

    If no otber effects of animal magnetism were known than those which are produced upon persons not in a state of somnambulism , they might be well attributed to a physical cause . Touching the emission of animal heat , an invisible emanation can account , to a certain extent , for the sensation of cold or warmth , for the inducing of sleep , as well as for the soothed or irritated state of the nerves . The phenomena presented by somnambulism are of a different ord « r . As they are produced at a distance , and by the will of the operator ; as they are attended by a singular development of the mind , they cannot be explained by attributing them to a physical cause ; they are due to a change effected by the principle of life , of sentiment , and thought . And elsewhere : — - Yes , theTe exists in nature a universal fluid , or agent , which governs and modifies all -existences ; , and "which hasj in its special relation to man , received the name of animal ¦ . magnetism . . . . : . - •• ' , ; ; '¦ . . . ¦ .. ¦; ¦ ; ¦ : . ¦ ¦ ¦ ' . . , ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ., ¦ ¦¦ ' . ¦ ¦; . .. ¦ . ' .. . This agent , so essentially communicable , and so very obedient to the will , compels the bodies it penetrates to submit to very extraordinary moral changes , but which are , for the most part , as beneficent as they are astonishing .

    that if he can see through our cloth waistcoat , shirt , and ribs , into ourlunrrg he can also sec through the waistcoat , and tell whatever happens to be ° in the pocket thereof . If he will do that on our persons , . we will not only make him a -present of ten pounds as his fee , but give the fact all the publicity this journal can give it for four successive weeks . The trial to be made in presence of any friends he chooses , provided we may bring two witnesses . We desire him to name the contents of our waistcoat pocket , because they admit of verification . When he tells us about the condition of our lun ^? he may be right , or he may be wrong , there is no possible testing of his accuracy ; but the contents of our pocket can be exhibited without any possibility of doubt .

    is full of such accidents . But it is in every one ' s power to witness these cm-ioua r , ^ nomena , since the place lies open and free to all who wish to enter it and im !^ v themselves . j 1 " - ^ tor If Dr . PicardcouhVmesmerize vegetables , M . Didier of course can do ^ likewise , and as he invites those who wish to jiu % e for themselves to entnv Dr . licard s garden and witness the experiment , he will not object to n » l request to be thus enabled to judge ; and as St . Quentin is not so- re-uln * accessible as Kew Gardens , he will hardly object to perform the exnorimonfthere . We will undertake to . payevery expense , M . Didier's own fee in eluded , for the sake of witnessing this simple phenomenon . jN T ay , our challenge to M . Didier shall take another shape . He professes to be able to look into the bodies of patients , and descry the condition of their organs . His medical practice is founded on that pretension . " jSTeitlier the thickness nor opacity of bodies , nor even distance can stand in its ( the magnetic agent ' s ) way as an obstacle to its progress . "—Now it is evident

    This , then , is our challenge to M . Didier . It relates to . 1 simple matter of fact . Be his theory false or true , his claim . a . power of seeing through opaque bodies , and thereby discovering the diseased condition of ° organs , ° i 3 an important one : either lie has this power , or he has it not ; if he n ' it , he should gladly welcome any public arid decisive test which will convince the world that in asserting his claim to such a power he is neither a madman nor an impostor . Will he accept that decisive test ?

    Of those transformations , the one coming nearest to the wonderful is that which is so well known by the name of artificiaLjorjUiignetic somnambalism . In this state , the soul , freed from its material senses , acquires a power of perception which completely upsets all our previous notions of ordinary life . Neither the thickness nor opacity of bodies , noT even distance , can stand in its way as an obstacle to its progress . It is possessed of faculties which may be well regarded as miraculous , faculties ¦ which , from the effects they produce , cannot te called in question , but ¦ which it is not in the power of the human understanding to explain . But the power of the caloric , the action of the loadstone , and all the other

    inconceivable prodigies by which we are every moment surrounded , are also inexplicable phenomena . Who thinks , however , of questioning their reality ? Then why should we doubt the existence of animal magnetism because we cannot account for it ? "We aBBureM . Didier that no sane person disbelieves the existence . of . ' this * ' agent , which compels such very extraordinary moral changes , " beca ? isehe < annot account for it , but he does not try to account for it , because he disbelieves in it . The dupes whom M . Didier addresses believe in the agent Jiecause they cannot account for it ^ as the child believes in conjurors . We are told that

    The magnetic agent or vital fluid , which has been also styled animal electricity , and the nervous fluid ia the vital agent itself , is that mysterious something by which the human body is put in motion according to the will , and is enabled to think , reject , and judge . It is that something which gives strength to our arms , legs—in a word , to our whole system . It is , in short , what we . call life , and which leaves the body a Corpse the moment it forsakes it . According to this definition , the reality of the magnetic agent cannot be called in question , since to deny it were to deny one ' s own existeuce . According to this definition certainly the existence of the agent cannot be called in question , because no man doubts his own existence . But a few pages back the agent was defined as a universal fluid , now it is defined as the Vital Principle ; there seems some discrepancy here ; at page 23 the agent is called a " moral being , " and at page 39 we read : —

    Animal Magnetism , this principle of life , which is diffused by the Almighty throughout all nature ; which enters into light , heat , and electricity , which is acting within us , beyond us , and unknown to us ; which is developing itself under the influence of moral causes or pathological accidents ... And it is further remarked that this power hidden within , is divine . It thus appears that the Agent is a " universal fluid , " which is also our , Vital Principle ; and although the power which directs our bodies , it is itself very obedient to the will , and compels our "bodies to submit to very strange moral changes . M . Didier may reply , that let his exposition of the theory be as faulty as we please , \ ns facts remain . People are generally silenced by facts ,

    forgetting * that the facts , if not utter notions , are capable of other interpretations than those given by Clairvoyants . In general the facts are gross fictions . M . Didier publishes letters from patients whom he has cured , which will obtain credence only from those ingenuous people who plaoo implicit trust in advertisements , arid in those requests beginning " Please send me three more seven-and-sixpenny boxes of your invaluable pills . " So Audacious is lie in his employment of fiction , that lie actually quotes the celebrated prediction of Cazotte unrolling the tragic fate of the French King and Queen , which every well-informed person knows to have been written by Laharpe long after the events predicted took place . Nothing is too gross for M . Didier ' s assurance . Read this : —

    Magnetism haa great effect upon animals , oven upon vegetables . At St . Quentin wo have aeon Dr . Picard make magnetic experiments upon all kinds of plants . We have eeen many rowi bushes magnetized , especially two , of which ono was dying 1 nnd had only a Bingle leaf , which became yellow and dropped immediately ; the other was constantly green , and w « b well stocked . The first was magnetized to give it vitality , and tlio other for the purpose of depriving it of life ; and so it really happened . Dr . Aicarcl has alao in Ma garden an apricot-trco , upon which ho magnetized three apricots for tne purpose of increasing their size : and this too happened , since these three apneo s are as largo as apples , whilst the others are even less than walnuts . lo what is that to be attributed ? To mere accident ! Then Dr . Picard ' s garden

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    WOUDSWOHTII : A BIOGRAPHY . William Wordsworth : a Biography . By Edwin Pazxton Hood . W . and F . G . Cash . There was ample warrant for this attempt . The " Life" of Wordsworth , which was inflicted on a . curious public by the poet ' s nephew , was assuredly one of the meagrest and feeblest of biographies , and many persons will take up Mr . Hood ' s work with expectation , as we did , to find , alas ' . that it was possible to -write even a worse biography than I ) r . Wordsworth ' s . The very first page of the preface somewhat lowers expectation . Mr . Hood there says , " A biography , in the usual sense of the word , this book dops not profess to be . " Then why the title-passe : " TF . Worifaioortli : a Jiiur / raphy ?" It should have been thus ; " . //' . IV .: an Unusual Biography ; " and the work wouLd have fulfilled its promise .

    The first chapter of this Unusual Biography , wliich is entitled " The Gateway of Life , " informs us that " there will ever be felt an interest—an intuitional curiosity to know the inner world of an eminent man ; " but it does not clearly inform ' us xcTiat " intuitional curiosity" is , and we are left to surmise that it is either a curiosity about intuitions , or a curiosity which is itself an intuition ; at any rate , it must be something awful , because on the next page it thiwys itself into a prodigality of capitals , and will not mention the poet himself but as Him and He , in majestic typography . We gain , however thus much , of insight , namely , that the intuitional curiosity will expend itself wholly on " . / Esthetic Biography , " which is defined as " Life in its Ideal Attitudes , " whatever that may be . Tliis volume is called an JEsthetic Biography . It . does" not take that for life which is regarded as such by ordinary biographies . It regards rather the hidden life . We suppose that the intuitions arc needed because the life is hidden , for . This is a -world of which most people know but little , the world of inner facts , — facts by-the-by , usually ignored by Compts and others , and , therefore , tho actora on the "bustling stage of outer life engage the attention most . Who the ignoring Compts may be , must be left to intuitional curiosity to divine ; nnd if the inner wotIcI consists of the facts so abundant in this volume , the longer the Compts continue to ignore them , the better for their sanity and peace of mind . Thus , we lcurn at page 17 that intuitional curiosity detects in Wordsworth ' s poetry this fact of the inner world , namely , that " from his first years ho was followed by 11 Sense of his own Consciousness . " What is that ? The capitals may involve a meaning deeper than the words express , but ignorant as we are of the inner world in which Mr . Hood is at home , we must hint that , if Wordsworth was followed by a sense of his own consciousness , Mr . Hood is not followed by a consciousness of his own nonsense ; and on this supposition we can understand his writing the following passage , and mistaking it for eloquent wisdom : —

    Yet nature on all the soul of Greece sits like a dead weight , there is a mournful bcmity over all her works—a mournful beauty— -the soul cannot , fly beyond nature . Is not this felt to bo as a whole the great generalization of her mind ; the spirit was not free , for it was tho slave and bondmaid of an iron and inexornblo Necessity . This everywhere met it , and now this everywhere meets us in her Drama , her Literature , and her Life—Pantheism ! that word expresses tlie soul of Greece , and lor the nerioil of -which we speak it expresses tho soul of "Wordsworth too . Beautiful ! dreadful ! how it fascinates you , we say that delightful dream—it is tho summer garden of tho soul ; we sail through the glittering Archipelago ; -vvo touch tho fftir ITospcridcs—gorgeous heavens—radiant earth— glorious sons : what nan wan or Gods

    angel want more ? It is the moment of life ' s beauty—the Gods ! W «! ore the —Creation behold it ! Dissolution ! Ah ! we TV ill not touch ihnt droam and tho spirit—why it enn short nnd receive divinity from all things around it ! from the silver linings of tlio clouds—from tho golden groves and blossoms of tho trcos -from the perpetual choral chant of the hours and the birds , as they B ' mgiuul chimo responsive to each other—Phantasmal!—nh ! if it bo so—see tho loaves arc rent from the trees —and tho blossoms fnir-haired , nnd tho beautiful flowers they die ! die ? what is thntr and tho ice comes heavily and sails over our fair river , and tho gloom biota our Pleiades from tho sky , and Love too ; our beautiful fair-liaircd boy , and our Jo , they have gono from us . Alas , thou beautiful nature , thou hast thy torrory—thy portent *

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    1002 THE LEADER . [ No . 343 , Saturday i , i — ¦ ¦ - —— ^^ . ^^^^^ ^ _ ^^ 1 '^_ JL _ ' . ~ " ' ' - ——— . . _ . . . _ ¦ ¦ J

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1856, page 1002, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2163/page/18/