On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ignorant Mahommedan nations adhere to the latter , while the former is embraced by those more educated and civilized ; and of this Dr . Taylor is of opinion that to reconcile it with pure Christianity would require but few alterations , and still fewer additions . The chapter on Mahommedan traditions concerning the predecessors of the Prophet , will give a just idea of the extent to which romance and
fable are mingled with sober and authentic history in the Koran , which is indebted to the Rabbinical legends of the Jews for much of the interest with which it has invested the personages who figure in its earlier annals . Abraham , Joseph , Moses , Lot , and Solomon , are depicted like heroes of an Arabian tale , and the son of Philip himself is reputed to have conquered the last as a religious reformer and vindicator of the Divine Unity , and , by consequence , is ranked as a forerunner of Mahommed .
Dr . Taylor enters into an elaborate examination of the whole state , political and religious , of the Eastern world at the time of the Prophet ' s birth , and during the promulgation of his system . The particulars of the Mahommedan creed , translated from an ancient Arabic confession of faith , are given in the fifth chapter ; and in those succeeding we have the early history of the religion , and of its division into sects , with an account of the diversities of each from the original orthodox standard .
The appendix contains some valuable selections from the Koran , a criticism on its merits , and specimens of aphorisms and prayers . The effect of the religion of Islam on science , literature , and civilization is distinctly shown , and clear proof given that the present backwardness of the Oriental world is chargeable upon the political system of the Turks , and not upon the faith which they profess ; which , under the more enlightened rule of the . Saracens , encouraged all that leads to the advancement of society .
The account of the perplexity of an Egyptian student recently returned from Europe , and the dexterity of his attempts to reconcile his new discoveries with the letter of the Koran and the decrees of its expounders , is very instructive ; as showing the difficulties which are everywhere caused by an adherence to the letter rather than to the spirit , and the consequent impossibility of apportioning their several provinces to science and to religion , to reason and to faith .
Untitled Article
Gregory ' s animal magnetism . Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism . By W . Gregory , M . D ., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh . Taylor and Walton . The Mesmeric Mania o / 1851 . "With a Physiological explanation of the Phenomena produced . A Lecture by John Hushes Bennett , M . D ., Professor of the theory of 1 'hysic in the University of Edinburgh . Sutherland and Knox . " When doctors differ ... " When do they agree ? Here are two professors of the Edinburgh University treating of that mysterious and important subject—Animal Magnetism , the one an earnest advocate calling upon all men to examine the facts and pronounce judgment ; the other an eager opponent , who , nevertheless , admits the facts—to a great extent—but thinks they may be explained by a reference to monomania . Dr . Gregory has written a calm exposition ; Dr . Bennett an insolent and evasive attack . Dr . Gregory is a man opensomewhat too open we suspect—to the reception of new truths , " be their intents wicked or charitable" ; Dr . Bennett is of that numerous class which loses temper when old dogmatisms are called in question . Adopt what side in the controversy you may , such will be your calm estimate of the two professors .
With regard to Animal Magnetism these are the questions to be studied : —I . Are the facts reported to be accepted as true ? II . If true , is the cause objective or subjective ? Is there an external agency fluid—odylo—or magnetism which produces these effects ? III . What connection is there between such a fluid and clairvoyance , prospective and retrospective ? It is perfectly clear that the facts may be all lanations
precisely as stated , though all the exp bo imperfect ; and consequently the public is bound to do its utmost in fully investigating these facts which must in time bring their own explanation with them . But in general , people resolutely , angrily deny the facts , because they will not accept the " absurd notions " which they imagine these facts indissolubly bound up with . It is unwarrantable insolence to treat as charlatans the many grave ami scientific thinkers who profess belief in magnetism ; und to disbelieve their facts without examination—to reject them merely
because they are " so preposterous" is to treat the professors as charlatans . Dr . Gregory ' s object is to lay before the public a statement of the facts . He adds , indeed , no small amount of theoretic matter ; but he leaves that to the reader ' s judgment . At present he finds that in " Every society or company , the large majority do not even profess to have studied it , although that does not prevent many from expressing tolerably decided opinions . And we find , even among such , as have paid a little attention to the subject , many ideas and views which , are quite erroneous . In point of
fact , therefore , a new work on animal magnetism is far from being superfluous ; and it is hoped that this humble effort may have its use , were it merely in exciting the attention of some , and correcting the false impressions of others . It makes no pretension to a full and systematic treatment of the vast subject ; and its only object is to convince the reader that there exist , in nature , a multitude of most valuable and interesting facts , which , in spite of their appearing strange or incredible at first sight , are true , and , being so , demand and deserve the most patient and complete investigation . "
We can cordially recommend his work as a full , clear , and interesting exposition of the subject ; and we do this in spite of our strong dissent from the opinions therein set forth . We are still sceptics . Though desirous of giving due weight to all the evidence brought forward—though neither pledged nor committed by any interest nor by any phrasewe have not yet met with anything to affect our scepticism of what are termed " the higher phenomena / ' The ordinary facts of mesmeric coma , insensibility , rigidity , &c ., are , we presume , beyond controversy . When patients have their limbs
removed , and are by mesmerism rendered insensible to the operation , it is preposterous for scepticism to iterate its doubts ; and as chloroform produces an analogous insensibility , there is no reason why other influences should not produce it . Besides , the testimony on this point is overwhelming . Were the testimony less profuse , the facts are not of so incredible and contradictory a nature that we could not accept them on reasonable evidence : they are merely new facts . Whereas the facts of clairvoyance are not only new and astounding , but they are incongruous , incredible , and contradictory to all known truths . This does not render them altogether inadmissible—it only renders their admission a matter of extreme caution , and forces us
to demand the most explicit unequivocal evidence . Dr . Gregory does not seem to appreciate this difference between the two classes of evidence required . He argues in this way : You formerly doubted the ordinary facts , though they were attested by respectable persons ; you have now , from your own experience , been made to believe in those facts , therefore you ought to believe in the " higher phenomena" which are attested by the same respectable persons . This argument leaves out of sight the possibility of what we suspect to be the actual case , viz ., that minds become so distended with the marvels of mesmerism , as to receive without suspicion any greater marvel that may present itself in connection with mesmerism .
Be that as it may , the facts of clairvoyance are to be accepted only upon the most unequivocal evidence and for these reasons : they are incongruous , they are equivocal , and they are contradictory to all known truths . A few words will indicate our views on these points . They are incongruous . By which we mean that , except through the agency of mesmerism , no one pretends that human beings can nee without eyes , can see what is going on in distant cities of America , or amidst the ice floes of the Northmuch less penetrate into the past and future . In dreams and divinations sober men have no faith .
It is , therefore , only as clairvoyance , i . e ., as a higher phenomenon of mesmeric agency , that we are asked to believe in the astounding facts reported . Now , did it never occur to Dr . Gregory that granting the existence of odyle or of any other universally diffused fluid , which the passes of the magnctist concentrate and call forth under peculiar forinH—granting this ody le to be exactly what Reichenbach describes it—nevertheless , it is a fluid , not an intelligence—it is the analogue of
magnetism , not omniscience . To suppose that " pasties "—however highly they may excite the nervous apparatus and illuminate the perceptions of the patient , —can , through the odyle , communicate to the patient knowledge which it is impossible otherwise for him to have known , which was known to no other living person—can make the patient unravel the past history of three hundred years , and that too relating to such trivialities as the
vicissitudes of a ring ( p . 415 , et seq . )— can make the patient see what has been and foresee what will be ( p . 405-6)—is to identify odyle with omniscience . The incongruity , therefore , lies in this : that a fluid supposed to be magnetism has the qualities attributed to it of impersonal intelligence . This may be ; we do not absolutely and unconditionally deny it . A fact is a fact be it never so marvellous . But this leads us to be sceptical of the evidence which attests such a fact . Here is one of Dr . Gregory ' s cases—with the name of the ** respectable witness" given in full : —
" Sir Walter C . Trevelyan , Bart ., having received a letter from , a lady in London , in which the loss of a gold watch , supposed to have been stolen , was mentioned , sent the letter to Dr . H ., to see whether B . could trace the watch . She very soon saw the lady , and described her accurately . She also described minutely the house and furniture , and said she saw the marks of the watch ( the phrase she employs for the traces left by persons or things , probably luminous to her ) , on a certain table . It had , she said , a gold dial-plate , gold figures , and a gold chain with square links ; in the letter it was simply called a gold watch , -without any description . She said it
had been taken by a young woman , whom , she described , not a habitual thief , who felt alarmed at what she had done , but still thought her mistress would not suspect her . She added , that she would be able to point out the writing of the thief . On this occasion , as is almost always the case with E ., she spoke to the person seen , as if conversing with her , and was very angry with her . Sir W . Trevelyan sent this information , and requested the writing of all the servants in the house to be sent . In . answer , the lady stated , that E . ' s description exactly applied to one of her two maids , but that her suspicion rested on the other . She also sent several pieces of writing , including that of both maids . E . instantly selected that of the girl she had described , became very angry , and said , you are thinking of pretending
to find the watch , and restoring it , but you took it , you know you did . ' Before Sir W . Trevelyan ' s letter , containing this information , had reached the lady , he received another letter , in which he wa 9 informed , that the girl indicated as the thief by E . had brought back the watch , saying she had . found it . In this case , Sir Walter Trevelyan was at a great distance from Bolton , and even had he been present , he knew nothing of the house , the watch , or the persons concerned , except the lady , so that , even had he been in Bolton , and beside the clairvoyante , thought-reading was out of the question . I have seen , in the possession of Sir Walter , all the letters which passed , and I consider the case as demonstrating the existence of sympathetic clairvoyance at a great distance . "
Dr . Gregory also mentions another clairvoyante who recovered fifteen bales of cotton which had been stolen from a ship in New Orleans , and traced it thence in another ship to Havre . But we cannot help asking how it is that clairvoyantes perform these wonderful feats under such equivocal circumstances , when thousands of opportunities are daily occurring : which would be decisive . Let a clairvoyante point out to the police the present whereabouts of the murderers they are in search oflet a clairvoyante read the number of any one of those bank notes deposited in various parts of England , and deposited with the promise of the money becoming the property of whoever can read the number—let those who have clairvoyance at heart select some public , decisive , unequivocal example , and if half the success attend it which attends the strange cases reported in mesmeric wiitings , there will no longer be any possible doubt . Read this case : — "It is pretty generally known , that this elairvoyunte was tried with the writing of Sir John Franklin , and a part of what she said has appeared in the newspapers . I had the opportunity of bocoming acquainted with what ehe did really say , and , although of course the greater part of it cannot be verified until the return of Sir John , yet I am bound here to testify , although she has probably mixed up and confused many things , which wo huvo not tho means of distinguishing , that K . haa tmid nothing concerning him which may not prove correct . It appears that some clairvoyants , of whom 1
knownothing , went so far an to predict the return of Sir John during last autumn . If such predictions were made , by genuine and honest clairvoyants , 1 conjecture that they have been of that cIusb , who are strongly affected by sympathy with the feelings and wishes of those who consult them , which feelings and wishes they , aw it wore , reflect . . But this is not the caso with 11 . She has made no prediction in tho matter , but has simply , nt various times , with the aid of Sir John ' s handwriting , gone , in her phrase , to hoc him . She was not told , and does not , I believe , oven yet know , whose writing it was ; but nhe found the writer in one of two shipa , fixed in ice , and surrounded with walls of snow . Th « s « » h ) po she first
Untitled Article
May 17 , 1851 . ] j £ f > * % ta % tt * 467
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 17, 1851, page 467, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1883/page/15/
-