before us, and to examine generally
the phenomena of mesmerism, we shall do our utmost to avoid the vices of
partial advocacy which we censure; we moreover agree with Mr Townshend,
that ridicule is not the weapon to be used. Satire, when on the side of
the majority, is persecution; it is striking from a vantage
ground--fair, perhaps, when the individual contends with the mass, as
when an author writes to expose the fallacies of social fashion; but
unfair, and very frequently unsuccessful, when directed against
partially developed truths, or even against such phenomena as we believe
mesmerism presents, viz. novel and curious psychical truths, o'erclouded
with the dense errors of sometimes enthusiasm, sometimes knavery. We
shall soberly examine the subject, because we think that much good may
be done by its investigation. The really skilful and judicious steer
clear of it from a fear of compromising their credit for commonsense;
and while the caution necessarily attendant upon habitual scientific
studies, dissuades the best men from meddling with that which may blight
their hardly-earned laurels, the public is left to be swayed to and fro
by an under-current of fallacious half-truths, far more seductive and
dangerous than absolute falsehoods. We cannot undertake to say, thus far
is true, and thus far false;--to mark out the actual limits of true
mesmeric phenomena, demands the very difficult and detailed enquiries
which, for the reasons just mentioned, have been hitherto withheld;--but
we think we shall be able to succeed in showing, that, though there be
much error, there is some truth, and truth of sufficient importance to
merit a calm and careful investigation.

We may class the phenomena of mesmerism, as asserted by its professors,
as follows:--

1st. Sleep, or coma, induced by external agency, (partly mental,
partly physical.)

2d. Somnambulism, or, as called by Mr Townshend, sleep-waking;
_i.e._ certain faculties rendered torpid while others are
sensitive.

3d. Insensibility to pain and other external _stimuli_.

4th. Physical attraction to the mesmeriser, and repulsion from
others; community of sensation with the mesmeriser.

5th. Clairvoyance, or the power of perception without the use of
the usual organs; and second-sight, or the power of prediction
respecting the mesmeric state and remedial agencies.

6th. Phreno-mesmerism, or the connexion betw