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_ 1002 THE LEABEA [No, 343, Saotkdat
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WORDSWORTH: A BIOGRAnir. William Wordswo...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Animal Magnetism. Animal Momictism And S...
Every day , thousands ! Jwet , " thousands" represent onl y two thousand , and w « have seven hundred and thirty thousand partizans in one year . At p age 9 the statement is repeated : — . But every day thousands of new facts and proofs of . ' tie truth , of tins divine science are collected by thousands ; and by thousands its once most inveterate opponents are feeing converted to its belief . If this be so we really think it time that the cuckoo cry of Galileo and Harvey cease to be raised when Mesmerism- is mentioned . Let us , however , pause awhile to consider what 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 meaus the Clairvoyants impo & e 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 © f Newton—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 other 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 ¦ accoirut , 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 order . As they are produced at a distance , and toy 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 , there exists in nature a universal fluid or agent , which governs and modifies all existences , and which has , in its special relation to man ^ received the name of animal magnetism . - . ' ' ¦ . . ' . - ; . . . . ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ : . ' ; ' " ¦ ¦ . - This agent , so essentially communicable , and eo 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 .
Of those transformations , the one coming nearest to the wonderful is that .- which is so well known by the name of artificial or magnetic somnambulism . 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 , nor even distance , can stand an 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 be called in question , but which it is not zn 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 ? "W ^ e Assure M . Didier that no sane person disbelieves the existence of this *' agent , which compels such very extraordinary moral changes , " because he cannot account for it , but he does not try to account for it , because he disbelieves hi it . The dupes whom M . Didier addresses believe in the agent iieaause they cannot account for iiy 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 is 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 , reilect , and judge . It is that something which gives strength to our arms , legs—in a woxd , to our whole system . It is , in short , what we call life , and which leaves the tody 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 existence . According to this definition certainly the existence of the agent cannot he called in question , because ho man doubts his own existence . But a few pages back the agent was defined as a universal fluid , noio it is defined as the Vital Principle ; there seems some discrepancy here ; at page 23 the -aj ^ ent is called & " moral being , " and at page 39 we read : ^—
Animal Magnetism , this principle of life , -which is diffused by the Almighty thioughout 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 us 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 , his facts remain . People are generally silenced by facts , "
forgetting that the fiicts , if not utter fictioais , are capable of other interpretations than those given by Clairvoyants . In general the facts arc gross fictions . ^ M . Didier publishes letters from patients whom he hns cured , \ vhich will obtain ci'edence only from those ingenuous people who place implicit trust in advertisements , and in those requests beginning " Please eond me three more Beven-and-sixpenny boxes of your invaluable pills . " So Audacious is he in liis employment of iiction , that he 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 ' e assurance . Read this : —
Magnetism has great effect upon animals , even upon vegetables . At St . Quentin we have eeen Dr . Picard make magnetic experiments upon all kinds of plants . Wo have seen many rose bushes magnetized , especially two , of which one was dying and had only a singlo leaf , which became yellow and dropped immediately ; tlvo other was constantly green , and was well stocked . The first was magnetized to give it vitality , and the other for the purposo of depriving it of lifo 5 and so it really happened . Dr . . Ticard 1 ms also in hia garden an apricot-tree , upon which he magnetized three apricots for the purpose of increasing their size ; and this too happened , sinco these tnreo apricots are as largo as apples , whilst Che others are even less than walnuts . 10 what ifl that to bo attributed ? To mere accident ! Then Dr . Hoard ' s garden
that if he can sec through our cloth waistcoat , shirt , and ribs , into our lungs ' he can also see 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 pbclfet , because they admit of verification . When he tells us about the condition of our luno-s he may he right , or he may be wrong , there is no possible testino- 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 curious v , i , 7 nomena , since the place lies open and free to all who wish to enter it and iu . lL f themselves . . iuj "" j , e lor _ If Dr ., Picard coxild mesmerize vegetables , M . Dklier of course can do ™ likewise , and as he invites those who wish to judge for themselves to enS Dr . Picard s garden and witness the experiment , he will not object to S request to be thus enabled to judge ; and us St . Quentin is not so iJ ? accessible _ as- - Kew-Gardens , he will hardly object to perform the experiment there . We will undertake to pay every expense , M . Didier ' s own fce S eluded , for the sake of witnessing this simple phenomenon . Nay , our challenge to M . Didier shall take another shape . He professes to be able to look intothe bodies of patients , and descry the condition of tlieir organs . Ilia medical practice is founded ' on that pretension . " Neither the thickness nor opacity of bodies , nor even distance can stand in its (" 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 a simple mutter of fact . Be his theory false or true , his claim a . power of seeing through opaque bodies , iind thereby discovering the diseased condition ofx > r < rans , ° i 3 an important one : eitlier he has this power , or he has it not ; if helias ' , lie should gladly welcome any public and decisive test which will convince the world that in asserting his claim to such a power heis neither a niadinan 3 ior an iinpostor . " Will he accept that decisive test ?
_ 1002 The Leabea [No, 343, Saotkdat
_ 1002 THE LEABEA [ No , 343 , Saotkdat
Wordsworth: A Biogranir. William Wordswo...
WORDSWORTH : A BIOGRAnir . William Wordswortli : a Biography . By Edwin Pax ton Hood . W . and F . G . Cash . Theee . tv . is 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 Dr . Wordsworth ' s . The very first page of the preface somewhat lowers expectation . Mr . Hood there says , "A biography , in the usual sense of the wordj this book does not profess to be . " Then why the title-page : " IF . Worducorth ¦ a ' -Biography /"' It should have been thus : "• W . IV ..- an Unusual Biography •* and the work would liave fulfilled its promise .
The first chapter ef this Unusual Biography , which is entitled : ; The Gateway of Life , " informs us that " there wilt ever be felt an interest—an intuitional curiosity to know the inner world of an eminent man ; " but it does not clearly inform , us what " 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 throws 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 delined as " Life in its Ideal Attitudes , " whatever that may be . This volume is called an ^ Esthetic Ih ' ography . It docs not take tliat for lifo 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 Conipts and others , and , therefore , the actors 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 ; and if the inner world consists of the facts so . abundant , in this volume , the longer the Compts continue to ignore them , the bettor for their sanity and peace of mind . Thus , -we learn 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 a Sense of his own Consciousness . " What is that ? The capitals may involve a meaning deeper than the words express , but ignorant as we arc 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 w < j 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 beauty overall her works—a mournful beauty—the soul cannot fly bcyoml nature . Is not this felt to be as a . wholo the great generalization of licr mind ; the spirit wn 3 not free , for it was the slave and bondmni < l of an iron and inoxorablc Ncees .-Miy . This every where met it , and now this every whero meets us in her Drama , hoi' Literature , and her Lifo—Pantheism ! that word expresses the soul of Greece , and for the period of wliich wo speak it expresses tlie soul of Wordsworth too . Beautiful ! dreadful ! how it fascinates you , we say that delightful dream—it is tho summer garden of tho soul ; - \ vc sail through the glittering Archipelago ; we touch the fair Hesperides—gorgeous heavens—Tadiant earth—glorious se « 8 ; what can man or
angel want more ? It is tho moment of IuVh bounty—the Gods ! We nm the Gods —Creation behold it ! Dissolution ! Ah ! wo will not touch that dnmm and tlic spirit—why it can shod and receive divinity from all tilings around it ! from the silver linings of tho clouds—from tho golden gTovea and blossoms of the Iroe . s—from the perpetual choral chant of the hours and the birds , as they Bmg and chime responsive to each other—Phantasmjvl!—nli ! if it be so—seo the leaves arc rent from t lie trees —and the blossoms farr-haircd , and tho beautiful -flowers they dio ! die ? what . is that . and the ice comes heavily and sails over our fair rivor , and tho gloom blots our Pleiades from tho sky , and Love too ; our beautiful fair-haired boy , and our Jo , they have gone from us . Alas , thou beautiful nature , thou hast thy terrors—thy porlcntd
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18101856/page/18/
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