affections of the patient, are infinitely more awake to circumstances than at any other time; that in vain they may seem buried in the profoundest lethargy, a word, a look, a sign, from the magnetiser will recall their attention! of course, no effort can be required to discover the intention of the ravisher; nor any design against the virtue of the fair sex, be in the least favoured by the influence of magnetism under the direction of any man,

If this is not enough, let it be supposed for a moment, that such a power of fascination over woman, is really a property of magnetism, and that it doth in fact exist; must we admit the power to be common to every man; or to 'what number, and to what order of men, is this wonderful faculty to be confined? With such a power acknowledged, the propensity to avail of it would hardly be wanting; yet, among this number, how many are the instances of infidelity known, and chargeable to the irresistible power of magnetism?-None-But were the power to be proved by a thousand instances, a thousand arguments are raised by these proofs, that it can be of no avail to preach against it.-What, cry down an irresistible power?

Away such nonsense! Let it be said again, that the power of of . magnetism is in its purpose alone: it must be a virtuous purpose: an innocent purpose at least! it cannot consist with duplicity! It cannot, therefore, get into improper, or, what is meant to be said by improper, evil designing hands! Into ignorant hands, so far improper, it may have gotten, because simplicity and ignorance are, in their extremes, of kin; and in such hands, of course, it inay have been misapplied, and as often attended with extravagant effects.

These have given rise to most of the scandal which hath been raised against it; but they have served also as wholesome admonition to the observing; for the effect of error in magnetism is corrective of itself, and the effect of abuse a total dereliction.

Thus magnetism hath appeared at times, and disappeared. Appeared with good and virtuous men, and lost with the want of them! not exploded and consigned to oblivion by a breath of slander, as the wicked would have us to understand; but always present, as light is always present to the blind: and always ready to prove its beneficence to the pure of spirit and the well disposed.

As long as there shall be any virtue in man, so long shall the magnetic virtue be his comforter and friend. When God created man, he created him perfect: informed him (or who informed him) by his informing spirit, of all things needful for his use and guidance; and his whole care and complacency was in this favourite creature man. God raised him perfect from the dust, (let the doctors peruse this wonderful work!) and will be pleased, when man shall be pleased to acknowledge the greatness of his providence, and the excellency of his workmanship; to raise him from his fall to dust again:-so great is his tender mercy and loving kindness toward his ungrateful, but strangely misguided

creature man.

OTHER AUTHORITIES CONCERNING MAGNETISM,

CONSIDERED.

Esculapius at Pergamo, one thousand years before Christ. Extracted from a work entitled in French,

HISTOIRE Philosophique et Politique du Commerce, de la Navigation, et des Colonies des Anciens dans la Mer noire; en deux volumes par Formaleoni, traduit par le Chevr. de Henin, officier de dragons, et chargé des affaires de France près la Republique de Venise.

Vol. ii. p. 80, 81. "Constantin ordonna l'autre pillage remarquable contre le fameux temple d'Esculape, Dieu de la Santé, du don celeste le plus precieux dont l'homme ait besoin, et celui même qui fait le premier objet de ses vœux. Lucien, Censeur severe des anciens dieux, nous donne une fastueuse idée des richesses accumulées dans le temple de ce Dieu à Pergame; où les plus riches et les plus considérables personnages de l'Empire Romain accouroient de toutes les parties de la terre pour demander à la Divinité d'Esculape, la guérison de leurs maux incurables. On ne sauroit aisément deviner quel étoit le moyen dont les prêtres se servoient pour opérer les cures prodigieuses qui soutenoient le credit de leurs Sanctuaires. Le malade se presentoit avec ses offrandes dans le silence de la nuit. Le prêtre l'introduisoit dans le temple, où, couché sur les peaux des victimes les plus reçemment offertes, il s'abandonnoit au sommeil, et il ne se reveilloit point que le Dieu ne lui eut revelé la cause de son mal et le remède pour s'en delivrer s'il étoit encore possible.

On doit croire, (dit le traducteur,) qu'en ces rits, il y entroit une bonne portion de cette doctrine secrette que nous voyons renouveller aujourdhui avec tant de

hardiesse par ceux à qui on donne le titre de professeurs de magnetisme animal, et qui osent se vanter de pouvoir communiquer par le sommeil aux malades, la vertu prophetique de connoitre leurs maux, et ceux d'autrui, et comme autant d'Oracles en prescrire la cure et les remèdes."

Commentary. According to this extract, the richest and most considerable personages of the Roman empire, (not surpassed in riches or respectability, by the richest and most illustrious personages of any succeeding empire,) were seen to repair from all parts of the earth in throngs, to the temple of Esculapius, for a chance of being cured of incurable ills.

Lucien (180 of the Christian æra), a severe censor of the (by him so called) ancient gods, has given a sumptuous display of the riches accumulated in that famous temple. The patient, he saith, having presented his offerings in the silence of the night, the priest introduced him into the temple, where, distended upon hides of victims the most recently offered, he abandoned himself to sleep; from which state of sleep, the patient did not awaken, until the god had revealed to him the cause, and the remedy fitting, provided it were yet in time, to cure him of his complaint. Lucien is at a loss to devine the means resorted to by the priests to effectuate the prodigious cures, by the fame whereof the credit of the temple had in reality been so long (1300 years) sustained.

The translator is pleased to animadvert upon this, saying, "One cannot help assuming that in these rites, there must have entered a great portion of that secret doctrine which in our days (1790) we see renewed with so much boldness by those on whom is bestowed the title of professors of magnetism; and who dare pretend to possess within themselves, a power of communicating to the patient, through the medium of the magnetic sleep, the prophetic virtue of knowing the cause and nature of their own

ills, the ills of others, (if required,) and of prescribing, like so many oracles, the remedy and the cure.

Now it must be recollected, respecting the magnetism of our days, that we have asserted it to be a fact, “that a principle had been discovered to exist, which being exercised by some men, toward others of a certain character or susceptibility of affection, would sink the patient into a state of apparent lethargy or sleep; who, from this state of apparent lethargy or sleep, would answer to questions put to him on any matter, innocent in itself, but especially having a tendency to the welfare of mankind, with great perspicacity and precision, and moreover with equal certainty as to the effect."

And so far the coincidence remarkable between the effects obtained by magnetism in our days, and the effects reported to have been obtained by the mode in use at the temple of Esculapius, is all but identity itself. The ceremony indeed of distending the patient upon hides of victims the most recently offered, hath not, we believe, been resorted to, nor found necessary to the effect by our professors of magnetism. Nor can they say from experience that the patient will not awaken from his sleep, until the god may have revealed to him the cause of his illness, and the remedy fitting to restore him if possible to a state of primordial health. They are bold however to aver, what hath already been asserted with great truth, i. e. that an effect of magnetism in our days, is to sink the patient into a state of apparent lethargy or sleep; and that the patient will declare from that state, the nature of his disease, and of the disease of others concerning whom he may be consulted, and will then, as an oracle of heaven, prescribe the remedy and the cure; the which remedy being

"Every truth is an oracle of God,"