lady, not unknown in literature, told
me very recently how a friend of her mother's, whom she well remembered,
had been compelled to believe in second-sight, through its manifestation
in one of her servants. She had a cook, who was a continual annoyance to
her through her possession of this gift. On one occasion, when the lady
expected some friends, she learned, a short time before they were to
arrive, that the culinary preparations which she had ordered in their
honour had not been made. Upon her remonstrating with the offending
cook, the latter simply but doggedly assured her that come they would
not, that she knew it of a certainty; and true enough they did not come.
Some accident had occurred to prevent their visit. The same person
frequently knew beforehand what her mistress's plans would be, and was
as inconvenient in her kitchen as a calculating prodigy in a
counting-house. Things went perfectly right, but the manner was
vexatious and irregular; so her mistress sent her away. This anecdote
would appear less puerile to you, if I might venture to name the lady
who told it to me, and who believed it. But, as I said before, I do not
build, in this branch of the question, upon any special evidence that I
have to adduce. I rely upon the mass of good, bad, and indifferent proof
there is already before the world, of the reality of second-sight. I
have, of course, not the least doubt that more than half of those who
have laid claim to the faculty, were not possessed of it. I have further
no doubt that those who occasionally really manifested it, often
deceived themselves, and confounded casual impressions with real
intimations; and that they were nuisances to themselves and to their
friends, through being constantly on the look-out for, and conveying
warnings and forebodings; and that the power which they possessed, was
probably never useful in a single instance, either to themselves or
others--those only having gained by the superstition, who were mere
rogues and impostors, and turned their pretended gift to purposes of
deception.

I shall now proceed to inquire how far it is conceivable that the mind
or soul, its usual channels of communication with external objects, the
senses namely, being suspended and unemployed, may enter into direct
relation with other minds.

There is a school of physiological materialists, who hold that the mind
is but the brain in action; in other words, that it is the office of the
brain to