n a
balanced mind; but doubt to the utmost, examine with the most rigorous
scepticism; I stand upon the facts alone; I offer no explanation, or at
least I make their truth dependent upon no explanation. They are or they
are not. I will prove their existence, and I will defy you to disprove
them.

It will not, we conceive, be denied, that one essential attribute of the
social mind, a jealousy of credence in apparent anomalies, is a just and
necessary guard upon human knowledge. If mere assertion were believed,
every succeeding day would upset the knowledge of the preceding day; and
however high the character of the assertor of new and abnormal facts may
be, he must not expect them to be received upon the strength of his
assertion. The best men may be deceived, and the best men may be led
astray by enthusiasm. When the slightest discovery in physical science
is published, it is immediately assailed by doubts from every quarter;
and its promulgator, if he be accustomed to research and trained to
scientific investigation, never complains of these doubts, because he
knows the vast number of perplexing deceptions in which he has himself
been entangled, and the caution with which he himself would receive a
similar announcement.

It is vain to cite instances of truths unappreciated by the age in which
they were advanced. We deprecate as much as any the persecution with
which occasionally men who have seen far in advance of their age have
been attacked; but the saying, "Malheureux celui qui est en avance de
son siecle," is not always true: if the new truth be difficult of
demonstration it will be proportionately tardy of reception, but if easy
of proof it is very rapidly received. As an example of this we may
instance the discovery of Volta. In the history of physical science,
never was a more sudden leap taken than by this illustrious man--that a
juxtaposition of matter in its least organic form should produce such
surprising effects upon the human organism, was to the world, as it
existed in the year 1800, a most marvellous phenomenon; and had the link
in the finest chain of proof been wanting, men would have been justified
in any degree of scepticism or incredulity. But it was easy of
demonstration; any one with a dozen discs of iron and zinc, and the same
number of penny-pieces, could satisfy himself; and the consequence was,
the discovery was instantly admitted. Let mesmerists put the same power
of self-satisfaction into