 | Letters from New York |  |
LETTER XIX.
You seem very curious to learn what I think of recent
phenomena in animal magnetism, or mesmerism, which
you have described to me. They have probably impressed
your mind more than my own; because I was ten years
ago convinced that animal magnetism was destined to produce
great changes in the science of medicine, and in the
whole philosophy of spirit and matter. The reports of
French physicians, guarded as they were on every side by
the scepticism that characterizes their profession and their
country, contained amply enough to convince me that animal
magnetism was not a nine-days' wonder. That there
has been a great deal of trickery, collusion and imposture,
in connection with this subject, is obvious enough. Its very
nature renders it peculiarly liable to this; whatsoever relates
to spiritual existence cannot be explained by the laws
of matter, and therefore becomes at once a powerful
temptation to deception. For this reason, I have taken
too little interest in public exhibitions of animal magnetism
ever to attend one; I should always observe them with
distrust.
But it appears to me that nothing can be more unphilosophic
than the ridicule attached to a belief in mesmerism.
Phenomena of the most extraordinary character have occurred,
proved by a cloud of witnesses. If these things
have really happened, (as thousands of intelligent and rational
people testify,) they are governed by laws as fixed
and certain as the laws that govern matter. We call them
miracles, simply because we do not understand the causes
that produce them; and what do we fully understand?
to the laws of matter; though the world has had the experience
of several thousand years to help its investigations.
We cannot see that the majestic oak lies folded up
in the acorn; still less can we tell how it came there. We
have observed that a piece of wood decays in the damp
ground, while a nut generates and becomes a tree; and we
say it is because there is a principle of vitality in the nut,
which is not in the wood; but explain, if you can, what is
a principle of vitality? and how came it in the acorn?
They, who reject the supernatural, claim to be the only
philosophers, in these days, when, as Peter Parley says,
“every little child knows all about the rainbow.” Satisfied
with the tangible inclosures of their own penfold, these
are not aware that whosoever did know all about the rainbow,
would know enough to make a world. Supernatural
simply means above the natural. Between the laws that
govern the higher and the lower, there is doubtless the
most perfect harmony; and this we should perceive and
understand, if we had the enlarged faculties of angels.
There is something exceedingly arrogant and shortsighted
in the pretensions of those who ridicule everything
not capable of being proved to the senses. They are like
a man who holds a penny close to his eye, and then denies
that there is a glorious firmament of stars, because he cannot
see them. Carlyle gives the following sharp rebuke to
this annoying class of thinkers:—“Thou wilt have no mystery
and mysticism? Wilt walk through the world by the
sunshine of what thou callest logic? Thou wilt explain
all account for all, or believe nothing of it? Nay, thou
wilt even attempt laughter?”
“Whoso recognises the unfathomable, all-pervading domain
of mystery, which is everywhere under our feet and
among our hands; to whom the universe is an oracle and a
temple, as well as kitchen and cattle-stall—he shall be called
wilt protrusively proffer thy hand-lamp, and shriek, as
one injured, when he kicks his foot through it? Wert thou
not born? Wilt thou not die? Explain me all this—or
do one of two things: retire into private places with thy
foolish cackle; or, what were better, give it up; and weep
not that the reign of wonder is done, and God's world all
disembellished and prosaic, but that thou thyself art hitherto
a sand-blind pedant.”
But if there be any truth in the wonders of animal magnetism,
why has not the world heard of them before? asks
the inquirer. The world did hear of them, centuries ago;
and from time to time they have re-appeared, and arrested
local and temporary attention; but not being understood,
and not being conveyed to the human mind through the
medium of religious belief, they were soon rejected as fabulous
stories, or idle superstitions; no one thought of examining
them, as phenomena governed by laws which
regulate the universe.
It is recorded that when the plague raged in Athens, in
the days of Plato, many recovered from it with a total oblivion
of all outward things; they seemed to themselves to
be living among other scenes, which were as real to them,
as the material world was to others. The wisdom of angels,
perchance, perceived it to be far more real.
Ancient history records that a learned Persian Magus
who resided among the mountains that overlooked Taoces,
recovered from the plague with a perpetual oblivion of all
outward forms, while he often had knowledge of the
thoughts passing in the minds of those around him. If an
unknown scroll were placed before him, he would read it,
though a brazen shield were interposed between him and
the parchment; and if figures were drawn on the water,
he at once recognised the forms, of which no visible trace
remained.
In Taylor's Plato, mention is made of one Clearchus, who
related an experiment tried in the presence of Aristotle and
his disciples at the Lyceum. He declares that a man, by
means of moving a wand up and down, over the body of a
lad, “led the soul out of it,” and left the form perfectly
rigid and senseless; when he afterward led the soul back,
it told, with wonderful accuracy, all that had been said and
done.
This reminds me of a singular circumstance which happened
to a venerable friend of mine. I had it from her
own lips. She was taken suddenly ill one day, and
swooned. To all appearance, she was entirely lifeless;
insomuch that her friends feared she was really dead. A
physician was sent for and a variety of experiments tried,
before there were any symptoms of returning animation.
She herself was merely aware of a dizzy and peculiar
sensation, and then she found herself standing by her own
lifeless body, watching all their efforts to resuscitate it. It
seemed to her strange, and she was too confused to know
whether she were in that body, or out of it. In the meantime,
her anxious friends could not make the slightest impression
on the rigid form, either by sight, hearing, touch,
taste, or smell; it was to all appearance dead. The five
outward gates of entrance to the soul were shut and barred.
Yet when the body revived, she told everything that had
been done in the room, every word that had been said, and
the very expression of their countenances. The soul had
stood by all the while, and observed what was done to the
body. How did it see when the eyes were closed, like a
corpse? Answer that, before you disbelieve a thing because
you cannot understand it. Could I comprehend how the
simplest violet came into existence, I too would urge that
plea. It were as wise for a child of four years old to deny
that the planets move round the sun, because its infant mind
cannot receive the explanation, as for you and me to ridicule
we cannot comprehend them, in this imperfect state of
existence. Beings so ignorant, should be more humble
and reverential; this frame of mind has no affinity whatever
with the greedy superstition that is eager to believe
everything, merely because it is wonderful.
It is deemed incredible that people in magnetic sleep can
describe objects at a distance, and scenes which they never
looked upon while waking; yet nobody doubts the common
form of somnambulism, called sleep walking. You may
singe the eye lashes of a sleep walker with a candle, and
he will perceive neither you nor the light. His eyes have
no expression; they are like those of a corpse. Yet he
will walk out in the dense darkness, avoiding chairs, tables
and all other obstructions; he will tread the ridge-pole of a
roof, far more securely than he could in a natural state, at
mid-day; he will harness horses, pack wood, make shoes,
&c. all in the darkness of midnight. Can you tell me with
what eyes he sees to do these things? and what light directs
him? If you cannot, be humble enough to acknowledge
that God governs the universe by many laws incomprehensible
to you; and be wise enough to conclude that these
phenomena are not deviations from the divine order of
things, but occasional manifestations of principles always
at work in the great scale of being, made visible at times,
by causes as yet unrevealed.
Allowing very largely for falsehood, trickery, superstitions
fear, and stimulated imagination, I still believe most
fully that many things now rejected as foolish superstitions,
will hereafter take their appropriate place in a new science
of spiritual philosophy. From the progress of animal
magnetism, there may perhaps be evolved much that will
throw light upon old stories of oracles, witchcraft, and
second-sight. A large portion of these stories are doubtless
purposes; others may be an honest record of
things as they actually seemed to the narrator. Those
which are true, assuredly have a cause; and are miraculous
only as our whole being is miraculous. Is not life
itself the highest miracle? Everybody can tell you what
it does, but where is the wise man who can explain what
it is? When did the infant receive that mysterious gift?
Whence did it come? Whither does it go, when it leaves
the body?
Scottish legends abound with instances of second-sight,
oftentimes supported by a formidable array of evidence;
but I have met only one individual who was the subject of
such a story.
She is a woman of plain practical sense, very unimaginative,
intelligent, extremely well-informed, and as truthful
as the sun. I tell the story as she told it to me.
One of her relatives was seized with rapid consumption.
He had for some weeks been perfectly resigned to die;
but one morning, when she called upon him, she found his
eyes brilliant, his cheeks flushed with an unnatural bloom,
and his mind full of belief that he should recover health.
He talked eagerly of voyages he would take, and of the
renovating influence of warmer climes. She listened to
him with sadness; for she was well acquainted with his
treacherous disease, and in all these things she saw symptoms
of approaching death. She said this to her mother
and sisters, when she returned home. In the afternoon of
the same day, as she sat sewing in the usual family circle,
she accidentally looked up—and gave a sudden start, which
immediately attracted attention and inquiry. She replied,
“Don't you see cousin—?”
They thought she had been dreaming; but she said, “I
certainly am not asleep. It is strange you do not see him;
he is there.” The next thought was that she was seized
was more rational in her life: that she could not account
for the circumstance, any more than they could; but her
cousin certainly was there, and looking at her with a very
pleasant countenance. Her mother tried to turn it off as a
delusion; but nevertheless, she was so much impressed by
it, that she looked at her watch, and immediately sent to
inquire how the invalid did. The messenger returned with
news that he was dead, and had died at that moment.
My friend told me that at first she saw only the bust;
but gradually the whole form became visible, as if some
imperceptible cloud, or veil, had slowly rolled away; the
invisible veil again rose, till only the bust remained; and
then that vanished.
She said the vision did not terrify her at the time; it
simply perplexed her, as a thing incomprehensible. Why
she saw it, she could explain no better than why her
mother and sisters did not see it. She simply told it to me
just as it appeared to her; as distinct and real as any other
individual in the room.
Men would not be afraid to see spirits, if they were better
acquainted with their own. It is because we live so
entirely in the body, that we are startled at a revelation
of the soul.
Animal magnetism will come out from all the shams and
quackery that have made it ridiculous, and will yet be acacknowledged
as an important aid to science, an additional
proof of immortality, and a means, in the hands of Divine
Providence, to arrest the progress of materialism.
For myself, I am deeply thankful for any agency, that
even momentarily blows aside the thick veil between the
Finite and the Infinite, and gives me never so hurried and
imperfect a glimpse of realities which lie beyond this valley
of shadows.
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