ely in a sort of hitherto undefined, and possibly
undefinable, physical influence, by which the nervous system of one
person may be affected by that of another, by special exercise of
will and effort, so as to produce an almost absolute temporary
subserviency of the whole nature to the force by which it is acted
upon, and therefore thinking it extremely possible, and not
improbable, that many of the instances of mesmeric influence I have
heard related had some foundation in truth, I have, nevertheless,
kept entirely aloof from the whole subject, never voluntarily
attended any exhibitions of such phenomena, and regarded the whole
series of experiments and experiences and pretended marvels of the
numerous adepts in mesmerism with contempt and disgust--contempt for
the crass ignorance and glaring dishonesty involved in their
practices; and disgust, because of the moral and physical mischief
their absurd juggleries were likely to produce, and in many
instances did produce, upon subjects as ignorant, but less
dishonest, than the charlatans by whom they were duped.

The thing having, in my opinion, a very probable existence, possibly
a physical force of considerable effect, and not thoroughly
ascertained or understood nature, the experiments people practised
and lent themselves to appeared to me exactly as wise and as
becoming as if they had drunk so much brandy or eaten so much opium
or hasheesh, by way of trying the effect of these drugs upon their
constitution; with this important difference that the magnetic
experiments severely tested the nervous system of both patient and
operator, and had, besides, an indefinite element of moral
importance, in the attempted control of one human will by another,
through physical means, which appeared to me to place all such
experiments at once among things forbidden to rational and
responsible agents.

I am now speaking only of the early developments of physical
phenomena exhibited by the first magnetizers and mesmerizers--the
conjurers by passes and somnolence and other purely physical
processes; the crazy and idiotic performances of their successors,
the so-called spiritualists, with their grotesque and disgusting
pretence of intercourse with the spirits of the dead through the
legs of their tables and chairs, seemed to me the most melancholy