ns.

I suppose it is _prima facie_ evidence of credulity, to take the trouble
to inquire into the subject at all; at any rate it was quite evident I
was set down as a good subject, from the moment of my appearance. Even
the _somnambule_ testified to this, though she would not then consent to
be put into a trance in order to give her opinion its mystical sanction.

The powers of a really good _somnambule_ are certainly of a very
respectable class. If a lock of hair be cut from the head of an invalid,
and sent a hundred leagues from the provinces, such a _somnambule_,
properly magnetised, becomes gifted with the faculty to discover the
seat of the disease, however latent; and, by practice, she may even
prescribe the remedy, though this is usually done by a physician, like
M. C----, who is regularly graduated. The _somnambule_ is, properly,
only versed in pathology, any other skill she may discover being either
a consequence of this knowledge, or the effects of observation and
experience. The powers of a _somnambule_ extend equally to the _morale_
as well as to the _physique_. In this respect a phrenologist is a pure
quack in comparison with a lady in a trance. The latter has no
dependence on bumps and organs, but she looks right through you, at a
glance, and pronounces _ex cathedra_, whether you are a rogue, or an
honest man; a well-disposed, or an evil-disposed child of Adam. In this
particular, it is an invaluable science, and it is a thousand pities all
young women were not magnetised before they pronounce the fatal vows, as
not a few of them would probably wake up, and cheat the parson of his
fee. Our sex is difficult to be put asleep, and are so obstinate, that I
doubt if they would be satisfied with a shadowy glimpse of the temper
and dispositions of their mistresses.

You may possibly think I am trifling with you, and that I invent as I
write. On the contrary, I have not related one half of the miraculous
powers which being magnetised imparts to the thoroughly good
_somnambule_, as they were related to me by M. C----, and vouched for by
four or five of his patients who were present, as well as by my own
companion, a firm believer in the doctrine. M. C---- added that
_somnambules_ improve by practice, as well as _magnetisers_, and that he
has such command over one of his _somnambules_ that he can put her to
sleep, by a simple effort of the will, although she may be in her own
apartment, in an adjoining street. He