i~
LECTURES
7
ON
CLAIRMATIVENESS,
OR
HUMAN MAGNETISM.
         BY A. J. DAVIS,



THE POUGHKEEFSIE -SEER, OR CLAIRVOYANT.
Price 121 Cents. 
 
     LECTURES

          ON

CLAIRMATIVENESS:
          OR,

  HUMAN MAGNETISM.

          WITH

      AN APPENDIX.
BY REV. GIBSON SMITH.
   NEW-YORK:
PRINTED BY SEARING & PRALL.
1848. 
   [tr»  All the Mysteries of HUMAN MAGNETISM
and CLAIRVOYANCE explained  by the  celebrated
Jackson Davis of Poughkeepsie.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year of our Lord  1H45, by
                   GIBSON SMITH,
in the Clerk's Office of the United States' District Court of the Southern
                District of the State of New-York.
•  ••
•  •••«•!•   «
«»•   •••  ••• ••• 
TO  TIIE   READER.
  The Author of this  little Work would  say, to those  into whose  hands
Boever it may fall, that  he has consented to the task of presenting it to the
public, partly from his own conviction of its truth and importance, and part-
ly from the repeated  and urgent solicitations which he  has  received from
almost every part of the Union.
  Mr. J. Davis, the Clairvoyant  from whom these facts  have been receiv-
ed,  is a young man  eighteen years of age; his moral  character  is irre-
proachable ; he is unlearned, five months  having been  the  extent  of  his
echooling.  He has worked at his trade in this village,  Poughkeepsie, for
the last six years, with the exception of about eighteen months, during
which time he has been engaged in the subject of Mesmerism and Clair-
voyance.  As a Clairvoyant subject, he has probably never been surpassed
or equalled.  His vision and knowledge, when  in the transic state,  seem
perfect and unlimited ;  and  in reference to these matters, I can only ask a
candid public to read  and judge for themselves.  For a further representa-
tion of the astonishing powers of the Clairvoyant,  the  reader is referred to
the Appendix to this  work.
  When so much has been said—and, as I suppose, well said—on the sub-
ject of Animal Magnetism and Clairvoyance, it  is a matter quite foreign to
me, and, perhaps, to  my calling,  to attempt, on my part, and from my own
investigations, to add  any thing that might essentially and substantially aid
the general cause. But as  it has fallen to my lot to witness  some of  the
most astonishing experiments of young Davis, the Clairvoyant, and listen
to the clear and forcible expositions which  he has given of  the subject, I
feel it my duty to communicate these facts to the world.  It is not the volu-
minous character of this work that is designed or expected to commend it
to the attention of the public ; but, it is its original and interesting charac-
ter, added to the clearness and perspicuity of its ex;x>s tions—its condensed
form, and the manifest  truthfulness of its every feature.  And I would here
state, what will doubtless  be evident to every competent judge, that  the
texts furnished in this small work, arc subject-matter sufficient for a large
volume,—in fact, for a series of volumes ;  but I  have studied to present the
simple naked texts to the scholar, the man  of genius and science, not only
that he may make his own comments and draw his own inferences, but also
that the work may be available  to all; and that every mind  interested in
the  investigation  and cultivation of the human  powers may be furnished 
IV
INTRODUCTION.
with this pamphlet—this embodiment of original facts as  a guide or aid to
his reflections on some of the most important interests to man, and the sub
limest laws of the universe.  And I say most emphatically, that it  is the
point,  the originality, the intrinsic value, and self-evident truthfulness of
this work, on which I rely as its highest and most substantial  recoiiiiutMi.
dation.
   The facts presented on Astronomy, the force of which,  I doubt not, will
be  readily perceived  by every scholar,  are most invaluable.   They might
have  been carried to a much greater length ;  but I have chosen, as I have
before said, to submit the mere text or principle to the investigation of the
learned and candid.
   The explanation here given of the cause of motion, and especially\he
explanation of the laws by which the motions of all the heavenly bodies  are
produced, will be adopted  by the learned; for  it  cannot be resisted, what-
ever innovations it may make upon existing systems, as  the truth, on this
transcendently sublime subject.
  The Lectures which follow are almost word for word  as I have received
them  from the Clairvoyant.  I have in some instances aided in the arrange-
ment, and for illustration, have also inserted  a few quotations from eminent
Authors.  As for instance, in the second Lecture, I have made a quotation
from "Townsend's Facts  on Mesmerism."  Of  the  first  Lecture, I would
particularly state, that it is almost precisely, both in word and arrangement,
as given by the Clairvoyant.  Of the fourth and last Lecture, I have tore-
mark, that it is every word as given by the Clairvoyant; and I would also
say, that he charged me most decidedly and repeatedly not to alter a word,
or deviate at all from the course which he arranged and  determined.
   1 have now fully stated the manner in which these facts have  been ob-
tained, and would add, that my manuscript has been constantly under the
view and supervision of the Clairvoyant during  the entire progress; and
that in every stage of our advancement, after my most careful efforts in ar-
ranging and penning the texts and statements of our preceding interview,
he would tell me at our following meeting, precisely the extent to which I
had advanced, and the degree of accuracy that had attended  my efforts,—
and all this even when my manuscript remained in my study.  Thus, when
through misapprehension or accident, I have penned any thing materially
wrong, the matter has been set right by the Clairvoyant,  and I have duly
made the correction.
  In conclusion, 1  would say, I pretend  not to infallibility in my decisions;
but still, having read the standard  works on the subject, I have no hesita-
tion in saying, that I doubt not, that the theory given in this work, is a vein
of vital truth which has been reached by no other Author.
                                                        G. SMITH.
  PoUGHKEEPSlE,  N. Y. 
LECTURES  ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
LECTURE  FIRST.
   I am aware that many learned  arid ingenious theories have been
presented  to the public on the subject of Human Magnetism; but
these theories have not unfolded the great mystery, though they have,
it must be acknowledged, thrown much light upon the science.  This
science, for a science it most assuredly is, claims the serious attention of
all.  Magnetism has long been known, but most bitterly opposed and
ridiculed.   I said it had long been  known;—no  doubt its existence
can be traced back for four thousand years, and from that time through
all succeeding centuries, it has existed under various names, in myste-
rious and  obscure positions, until, finally,  it was revived by Mesmer.
He having the power, concealed it from the  people, and clothed it in
the same mystery,  which caused the opinion to prevail that it was all
the effect of Satanic agency.  The same opinion is still entertained by
the more ignorant and uninfoimed classes of community.  But these
impressions, I trust, will not last much longer; for the subject is now
receiving  the attention  of the most learned  and scientific men; and
they can appreciate well its blessings, and the relief it affords to suffer-
ing humanity.
   The science, however, is still clothed in mystery, and so believed
to be by its own advocates ; yet they admit the truthfulness of the same,
having been convinced  by the evidence of their Ovvn senses.   Among
such, and  others, the question is asked—" Why is it so ?"   Give me
your candid attention, and I will give the answer.
  I am aware of the responsibility resting upon  me to redeem my
promise.  Then follow  me closely through with the investigation, and
see if we  cannot discover something of  the mystery of our present
mode of existence,  and  in this, the primary cause of the great subject
before us.  To Physicians, I would say—Animal Magnetism is  jased
upon physiological truths:  and, therefore, is entitled  to the serious
consideration of men of your profession.   Examine, therefore, careful-
ly the lectures here presented, and see if you cannot discover in them 
6
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
science and phylosophy.   To Clergymen,  I would say—See if there
is not in this subject, deep and  convincing evidence of tho truth of
Christianity; and  if it does  not unfold  to your view the evidences
which have so long been called  for by sceptical  minds.   The subject
before us affords the strongest argument in support  of the truth which
you have so long labored to maintain.  Candidly investigate it, there*
fore, and see if you cannot  claim it as one of your  strongest proofs in
favor of the faith once delivered to the Saints.  To the honest inquirer
after  truth, I would say—Follow me through  with these  researches,
and  see  if you cannot find in them that which will  make you view
yourself and mankind in a  new* and interesting light, .and which shall
satisfy you that your existence "is a blessing instead of a curse.  And
to all I would say^Jf Animal  Magnetism  be  not  a science—if it be
not a truth, put it down.  But this conclusion cannot be Arrived at, on
your  part, without candid and  careful attention;  and such attention
ought certainly to be bestowed.
  The  questions to  be considered  in these lectures  are the follow-
ing:—
   1st. The Brain—its physical structure, and  magnetic  power, &c.
  2d. The structure of the Muscular and Sympathetic Nerves—their
office, functions, &c.
  3d. The Production of Mind.
  4th. The Duality of Mind.
  5th. The Brain in connection with  the  Magnetic  and ELectric
Fluids.
  6th. The Production of  the Magnetic and Electric  Fluids.
  7th. The Exposition of Clairmativeness  and Clairvoyance.
  My object in these lectures will be to  convince  the understanding
of the truth, and for this reason  I shall employ plain  and simple  lan-
guage, purposely avoiding embellishment of every description.  Beau-
ty of language,—studied phrases in setting forth a  theory,—rhetorical
flights and figures, may please the fancy,  but are  not so well calculate'!
to convince the  human mind as simplicity and plainness of speech
The theory of Magnetism  itself is sublime ; and its  sublimity may best
be seen when not presented in gaudy show or borrowed  livery.
   First. The Brain has four distinct apartments.   The  larger brain,
or Cerebrum, is  situated at the  top, and extends  to  the  front of  the
head.  Its cavities are a great deal larger and more round than those
of the lesser brain ; consequently it   possesses more substance.   The
Lesser Brain lies in the back part of the head ;—this brain is divided
into two cavities or departments, and is  separated by a  strong, mem-
braneous, elastic substance,  and is covered by an  equally strong,  but 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
7
thinner substance, termed Dura Mater.  The brain itself is a soft, plia-
ble, sensitive substance.  Its appearance round the edge, in the living
subject, is of a light red color.  Externally, it has the appearance of
a compound substance,—possesses a brighter and more beautiful color.
Such is the larger brain.
  The Lesser Brain has more of a yellow color in its external appear-
ance ;—does not possess such a lively hue as the former, and is more
dull and inanimate.   It preserves the same appearance in its down-
ward extension.   This is what is termed the " Medella Oblongata."
The whole brain is made up of small sensitive nerves.  One square
inch of brain contains upwards of a6,000 fibres.
  Second. Man has five distinct senses—Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell,
and Touch.   Through these senses all external impressions are con-
veyed to the  brain, through the medium of what we shall here term
the sympathetic nerves.   These  sympathetic nerves extend through
the whole system.  Every muscle or particle of flesh is  connected
with them.   They extend to every joint, every tendon, every mem-
brane,  and  through every bone of the system.  In their  passing
through every particle of  flesh, they gather from it substances which
they carry to every membrane, tendon, muscle and ligament, which
surrounds, controls and embraces every  joint.  They are thickly dis-
persed through the bones, and are traced to the utmost extremities,
and in fibres so small, that their existence  has been questioned.
  To show that these nerves pass through every bone, we will sup-
pose a bone in any part of the body broken.  After placing the parts
together, and keeping the  limb in a quiet condition for a period of
time, they become solid as  before.  Now, if I should  ask the Physi-
cian, why the bones do grow together again ? his answer would inva-
riably be,  " It is natural."
  Ao-ain.  Suppose that  a wound is made in the flesh, and I should
ask the physician if it would heal again ?  " Certainly," would be the
answer.  Suppose I should ask him why he is convinced it will heal
again ?  His answer would be, " I know it by experience."
  ° Almost in every case the physician is not acquainted with the pri-
mary cause  of its becoming restored, but simply affirms, " I know
it by experience."
  Now we  will  take the bone  that  is broken, and  place the  parts
together, as before mentioned, and we will inquire the cause of its be-
coming sound.  The small fibres or nerves in the bone are set  at work.
They Accumulate  and carry regularly small substances or  particles
and deposit them  at the place broken.  Ten thousand of these in one
bone perform the same  action, and continue depositing small substan- 
8
I.ECTfRES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
ces until they completely unite the broken bone together.  These de-
posites become  ossified, which gives the  strength.   How plain is the
cause, therefore, why it is natural  for two bones to grow together  or
become united.   Whenever a bone in any part of the system is affected,
the pain in that bone is most insufferable.  But would such sensation
exist, in the part affected, unless there were nerves of sensation existing
in the bone itself?   Certainly not.
   Again.  In the wound in the flesh, which was mentioned, the same
nerves perform the same action,—they accumulate and keep accumulat-
ing substances, and carry them to the wound.  A deposit is never mispla-
ced ,—and if let alone,  or treated properly, never heals  too fast, and
never produces mis-action.   These nerves keep continually acting and
re-acting, until the wound is completely restored.
   Alike this, and to the same end, the ramifications are made by them
through the whole system;  and so  perfect  is their action, that  they
form, renovate, and produce an entire new system in the  space of  from
five  to  seven years—the old  particles,  through the action of these,
being thrown off by the pores and glands of the flesh, &c.
   These nerves extending from the brain itself to every part of the
body, become the grand agents of transmitting all sensations, frdm ex-
ternal objects and impressions, to the brain.  But what is the cause of
sensation arriving immediately at the brain from the seeing of an ob-
ject, the hearing of a sound, the smelling of an odour, or the touching
of any solid body?   Why is not the sensation produced or conveyed
to some other  part  of  the system,  or  upon the whole body  alike'*
There can be but one answer to this question, which is, that the brair
itself is  positive, or that  it possesses a positive attractive power over all
external communication.  Every object in existence which is subject
to the magnetic influence,  or which is  magnetic in itself, has a  posi-
tive and negative pole.  The earth  has its positive and negative poles,
the magnetised bar of steel, and the needle by which the mariner  di-
rects his course over the watery waste.   This is a  law of inert matter
which the  Deity has established, and why may not the same law in a
modified form extend to man, and to all other animated beings?
   The  sensorium of the brain is made up of more  sensitive substance
than any other  part of the system ; and being so sensitive, it draws all
other impulses  from the external organs, and is analagous  to the
wound  spoken of in the flesh.  It is with this, as has been shown to
be the case with the nerves ;—they  perform their action at the wound,
for the reason  that   the wound when  made becomes  of a  positive
or  attractive nature.   All impulses, through  the power of attrac-
tion,  arrive at  the brain  and make impressions  there.  Were no 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
9
the brain a magnet—did it not possess a positive power over all exter-
nal impulses, sight or sound would be as likely to produce  sensation
in the feet, the  hands or the body, as at the brain.   But the brain
alone is affected through these senses.   The  brain, therefore, is at-
tractive.
   The Lesser Brain possesses the  power of motion.   There  is one
distinct sense or organ which has the power of causing  locomotion.
The power is conducted from the lesser brain, down its continuation
until it joins the spinal chord.  From  thence it is conducted through
the system by thirty-two distinct pairs of nerves, commonly termed the
" muscular nerves''  All these nerves and muscles are under the con-
trol of the mind, and give  motion to the body, the limbs and all their
nppendages.  The action of these nerves is voluntary; i. e., they are
contiolleH wholly by the will, moving  at its  bidding the  eyes, the
tongue, the head, an arm, the fingers, &c.   These organs and limbs
never move unless  the mind wills  them to move.  There can be  no
muscular  action unless an effort of the  will is  first put forth.   I am
now in the position in which you behold me—standing here.   Now
if the power of willing were taken  from me at this moment,  I  should
always remain  upon this spot unless removed by some foreign power.
To change my  present position and  move to another part of the room,
I must first put forth an effort of the will.  I will, then, to move to the
other part of the room: the moment I will  to go to  that part  of the
 room, the nerves are acted upon, moving the limbs which perform the
 office of locomotion, conveying me to the spot where I had  designed
to go; so completely are these nerves under the control of the will.
   Now the mind is often deceived in the appearance of things, and a
 greater effort of the will, in consequence,  is put forth to accomplish a
 thing than is actually necessary.   For  instance, I see a large stone
 lying at my feet.  Knowing the density and weight of stones general-
 ly, I put forth  an effort to raise it.  The effort is just in proportion to
 my  previous knowledge of the general weight of stones of the size of
 that which I am about to lift.  But when I  grasp the stone  and raise
 it up very suddenly, I am, for the moment, surprised.  I find it not
 half so heavy  as I  had supposed,  owing to its  porous s-.ate,—and I
 have put forth  twice the effort of the will, and consequently twice the
 amount of force that I need  to have done to accomplish  my object.
 This is owing  to the mind or judgment's being deceived  relative to
 the  weight of the substance.  This often happens.
   Again : I approach an object—it may be a small cask.   1 stoop to
 raise°it, but do not succeed in the first attempt.  The cask is filled with
 a heavy  substance, of the  weight  of which I was ignorant; conse- 
10
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
quently, the first effort was not sufficiently powerful to raise it.  I then
put forth a greater effort, and accomplish my object.
  Now from this fact you discover that the first effort is in the will it-
self; and the force or strength, exerted in the nerves, is just in propor-
tion  to  the strength or  exercise  of the will.   Were it not  so, there
would have been just strength sufficient exerted to lift the stone in the
first instance, and no more.   And in the second,  there would have
been enough exerted to lift the cask in the first attempt.   But in both
cases the judgment was deceived; and hence,  in  the  first, a supera-
bundance of force, and in the second, not enough.
  Be it remembered then, that the nerves of motion are always con-
trolled by the mind or will, unless indeed, as is sometimes the case,
their action  is arrested  by a diseased state, as in paralytic  affections,
when the mind cannot act upon them.   In such cases,  they no longer
obey the will—its agency of producing obedience being arrested.  But
in the healthy state, the will always  controls them, but the nerves
themselves never control the will.
   The Sympathetic Nerves, of which we have before spoken, have a
different office to perform.   Their office and functions are unlike the
others.   The mind acts upon and controls the muscular nerves,—but
the sympathetic  nerves act upon the brain and  control the  mind.
Through these nerves, all sensations are conveyed to the mind.  The
sense of sight, of hearing, of taste, of smell, and of touch, are convey-
ed to the brain through these nerves unbidden  by the will, and in
many cases, absolutely against it.;   They arc complete masters of the
mind in this respect.  A person cannot prevent the sense of sight, un-
less he closes his eyes; and, if he sees an object, he cannot prevent
an impression  being made on the brain, if he closes  his eyes imme-
diately after having seen it.  He cannot prevent the sense of touch, if
you make an impression on his body, though he exert his will ever so
much.   Neither can he prevent taste, if he  put any substance in his
mouth ;—nor hearing that which may be ever so disagreeable to him,
unless he stops his ears with his fingers, or removes himself beyond
the sound of the words that are addressed to him.  We cannot  pre-
vent the smell  of a bad odor when we  come in contact with it, how-
ever nauseating it may be, unless we close with our hands the organ
of smell.
   These sensations then, are all  conveyed to the brain, unbidden by
the will, and,  in many cases, absolutely  against it;  thus acting upon
and cont oiling the mind, as the mind, through the exercise of its  own
will, act< upon and controls the muscular nerves.   From these facts,
it is sho'vn  that the mind is subject to one set of organs,  and is full
master  over another. 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.  ,
11
  All the senses that have been considered, act involuntarily;  and
the brain being positive or attractive, irresistibly receives  their im-
pulses,—for it is impossible for a person not to  receive communica-
tions from the organs of sense.   Therefore, as these communications
are irresistibly carried  to  the brain,  the former conclusion is  cor-
rect, that the brain itself is positive.   Hence, the brain is a magnet, its
operations are magnetic, and its phenomena are magnetism.
   Third.  The mind itself is formed through the five senses, and by
the medium of the sympathetic nerves.
   Reckoning the senses of man all perfect, we will proceed to show
the bearing they have on the mind.   The first organ we will notice
is the Eye.   The organ, nerve and brain, compose the sense of vision.
The eye is placed upon an object: the sense of that object is conveyed
by the nerve to the brain, and leaves an impression there.
   The  next organ to be considered is the Ear.   The organ receives
the sound: the nerves convey the sense of that to the brain,  and  leave
the impression there.
   In the third place,  we will consider Taste.  The organ receives the
substance:  the sense of that  is  conveyed by the nerve to  the brain,
and leaves the impression there.
   The fourth is Smell: an odor is received into  the organ—the sense
of that is conveyed by the nerve  to the brain, and leaves there the im-
pression.
   Fifth, the Sense of Touch.  An  impression is made on  the body:
the sympathetic nerves  convey the sense of that to the brain, and, as
in the former cases, the impression is made there.
   These are the five senses through which the  mind is formed, and
without which, no mind acting in harmony with the physical organi-
zation exists.
   To prove this, we  will take one or all of these senses, and cast them
from the body.  If a person have not the organ of vision, he has no
means whereby he can  receive the impression of sight; consequently,
no impression  of that kind can  be made on  the  brain.   He is utterly
incapable of forming any correct idea whatever as to the true nature
of sight, because that idea itself  can  only be obtained  from actual ex-
perience—from actual  vision.   Through the action of the eye and
nerve, an impression is  made on the brain, and  that impression itself
constitutes  what we term seeing.  Hence, without the organ, that im-
pression can never be made, and one, so situated, is thereby deprived
of all means by which he can ever obtain a correct idea of that sense.
The following  account, which I take from  the  " Village  Register,"
of an operation  performed by Dr. Grant, on the eyes of a  man born 
12
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
 blind, suddenly restoring him to sight, is confirmation of the above:—
   "Dr. Grant having observed the eyes of his patient, and convincing
 his friends and relatives that it was highly probable  that he could
 remove the obstacle which prevented his sight, all his friends and ac-
 quaintance who had any curiosity to be present, when one of full age
 and understanding was  to receive a new sense, assembled themselves
 on the occasion, but were desired to preserve profound silence in case
 sight was restored, in order to let the patient make his own observa-
 tions, without the advantage of discovering his friends by their voices
 Among many others, the mother,  brothers, siste/s, and a young lady
 for whom he had formed a particular attachment, were present.  The
 operation was performed with great skill,.'so that sight yras instantly
 produced.                     ■'•■..-v."       v.,       J
   When the patient received the dawn of light^ there appeared such
 extasy  in his action, that he seemed ready to swoon  away irr the sur-
 prise of joy and wonder.  The Surgeon stood before him with, his in-
 strument in his hand.    The patient observed him from head to foot,
 and then observed himself as carefully; and comparing to himself, he
 observed the hands of both were  exactly alike, excepting the instru-
 ment, which  he took to be a part of the Surgeon's  hand.  When he
 had continued  in  this amazement for several minutes, his  mother
 could no longer bear  the agitation of so  many passions as thronged
 upon her, and  fell upon his neck, crying  out—' My son, my son!'
 The young gentleman knew her voice, and could say no more than—
 'Oh, me, are you my dear mother?'  and fainted.  On his  recovery,
 he heard the  voice of his female friend, which had a surprising effect
upon him.   Having called her to him,  he appeared to view her with
admiration  and delight, and asked her what had  been done to him.
1 Whither,' said he, ' have I been carried ?  Is all this about me, the
thing that I have heard so much of?  Is this seeing 1   Were you al-
ways  thus so happy and glad to see each other?'   In all  his con-
versation, he  manifested but faint ideas of anything which  had not
been received by the ear or through the sense of touch."
  Now, all the circumstances  connected with this case, go  to show
that the blind patient had never formed any definite idea of the true
nature of vision, and hence his surprise, joy and wonder, when sight
was produced.  He was, till that moment, lacking in that part of mind
which is formed through the sense of sight.
  In the second place, let us consider the ear destroyed, or never exist-
ing: there  would be no impression made through this organ on the
brain.   As an illustration, I  give the following from  " Goldsmiths
Animated Nature:"— 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
13
  " A young man of the town of Chartres, between the age of 23 and
24, the son of a tradesman, and deaf and dumb from his birth, began
to speak all of a sudden, to the great astonishment of the whole town.
He gave them to  understand, that about three  or four months before,
he had heard the  sound of the bells for the first time, and was greatly
surprised at this new and unknown sensation.  After some time, a kind
of water issued from the left ear: he then heard perfectly well with
both.   During  these three months,  he was sedulously employed in
listening,  without saying  a word, and accustoming himself to speak
softly, (so as not to be heard,) the words spoken by others. He labored
hard also in perfecting himself in the pronunciation, and in the ideas
attached to every  sound.  At length,  having supposed himself qualified
to break silence, he declared that he could now speak, although as
yet but very imperfectly. Soon after, some able Divines questioned him
concerning  his ideas of  his  past state,  and principally with respect
to his ideas of God, his soul, and the morality or turpitude of actions.
The young man,  however, had not drawn his speculations into that
channel.   He had gone to mass, indeed, with his parents, and learned
to sign himself with the cross—to kneel down and to imitate all the
actions of a  man  that was praying;  but  he did all this without any
manner of knowledge of the design  or object.  He saw others do the
like, and that was enough for him.   He knew nothing even of death,
and it never entered into  his head:  he led a life  of pure animal  in-
stinct ; entirely taken up  with  sensible  objects,  and such as were
present."
   In the third place, consider that the taste never existed : there would
be no impression  through this organ  on the brain.
   Consider the organ of smell also  destroyed, and the former would
be the result.
   Consider, lastly,  a man existing without the sense of touch;—the
brain would be unconscious of any  such existing power.
   I have observed that without these senses there would be no mind.
Suppose a  human being entirely  destitute of all these senses,—he
 would never have any consciousness of any of these existing powers
 or agencies.  Hence, there would be no cause to produce an effect,
 i. t-.°mind.   Such a person would have no mind:—he never heard a
 sound,—has never  seen  an object,—has never experienced  taste  nor
 smell,—he is entirely destitute of all susceptibility : therefore, the for-
 mer  conclusion  would be demonstrated.   He would merely  inhale
 and exhale the breath, without being conscious  of it.—Such an  one
 would possess no mind, no judgment, no understanding.
    Now on the other  hand,  let us  ODen one of these doors  that  have 
14
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
always been shut;—let us open the organ of vision, and it opens to
him a world of objects and sights.  The sensation  is carried by the
nerve to the brain :  here is a cause producing an effect, and that effect
produces just mind  enough to make him conscious that he sees.
   Again.   Throw open  the organ of the ear, and the same effect is
produced  on the brain.   Both of these effects produce or form mind;
and this is the medium by which he receives all the mind  that he as
yet possesses—through  the opening of these two  doors.  Open two
more,  i. e., taste  and smell; and  the same  effect is produced which
causes mind.  He  is then aware of sight,  hearing, taste and smell.
With these four senses he now possesses, he is still unconscious of all
susceptibility.   Any infliction can be made on  the body without sub-
jecting him to the  least  suffering,—he  will experience no  pain  or
sensation.   He is destitute of the sense of touch, which produces that
part of mind,—he never  experienced it.   Now just open the door of
touch, and set  that sense in  operation—clear away all obstruction be-
tween  that sense and the brain, and he  is suddenly conscious of all
susceptibility.  All these organs are now set at work : the evidence of
these organs is carried  to the sensorium  of the brain : there it is di-
gested,—the digestion produces the mind—the mind  the intellect, the
judgment  and the understanding.
   I am aware that these views, concerning the origin or formation of
mind,  will subject  me to  the charge of materialism ; but such a con-
clusion would  be  wholly premature, since it will be shown in the pro-
per place, that mind itself is not a production of the gross materials of
which our bodies are formed ; and that it is dependent upon the physi-
cal system only for  its formation in the brain of man.  The mind is
an immaterial, imponderable substance-  and in no  wise dependant
upon matter for its existence.
   It is painful to see with what jealousy a certain class of  religionists
look upon every new development of science, fearful that religion, or,
at least, that which  they have erroneously called religion, will thereby
be endangered.   Such men, however strenuously they may advocate
Christianity, are the greatest sceptics in community.  Suppose it were
proved beyond a doubt,  that the mind of man was not an immaterial
or  immortal principle,—ought this, if I am a christian, to overthrow
my faith in a future state of immortal existence?   Is not Christ's  re-
surrection certain proof of life beyond the grave ?  Is not the  voice of
Revelation—" the dead shall be raised incorruptible—this mortal shall
put  on immortality" sufficient to fortify our minds and give us a well
grounded hope of future existence?   This is the only sure hope for
the christian:—the  foundation of  all  hope is the resurrection of our 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
15
blessed Lord.   This, science can never overthrow, and therefore, re-
ligion can never be endangered, whether it be proved that the human
mind is mortal or immortal—material or immaterial.  But these scepti-
cal christians,  to whom we have alluded, and who are ready to sound
the alarm against every new discovery that is made in science,as though
they themselves were the physical guardians of all that is  sacred, hug
closely to their embrace the doctrine of the immortality of the mind as
their only hope of future life ; whilst the glorious doctrine of the resur-
rection, as  set forth in the Holy Scriptures, it would seem, is one of
minor importance in their estimation !! However, there is no cause for
alarm  in the views we have  presented on that subject, since the doc-
trine of the immortality of the mind is confirmed, rather than denied.
The sentiments I have advanced upon the origin or formation of mind,
are a practical comment upon the following passage of Scripture :—
" And God formed man  of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul."   It cannot be
doubted that the " breath  of life," which God breathed into man, was
the immortal  part, or mind, which is the principle of all life and ani-
 mation.   It was this which constituted the living soul, and not the air
 which is inhaled, and exhaled by the lungs, which, it is vulgarly sup-
 posed, was the breath of God.   The breath of life, which came from
 God, was  the soul, the mind—and this was breathed  into man's nos-
 trils, or  through his senses, as the expression plainly implies.   We
 are not to understand the language of the inspired penman in its most
 literal sense, that God actually breathed the breath of life into man :—
 God is a spirit,—he  performs all his  work by fixed and unalterable
 laws.   The elements are subservient to him, and are made the agents
 by which  he performs his " handy work."  The physical  frame of
 man was first formed by  laws, doubtless, which God had  instituted for
 that end ;—then, by other laws, the " breath of life," or the intelligent,
 thinking soul, was breathed through his senses, and he awoke to life
 and consciousness, to rejoice in his newly discovered  existence.  But
 we must defer further remarks upon  this point until our fourth lec-
 ture, when we shall have occasion to  point out more  fully the nature
 of those laws by which mind is formed.         ,,,,,■  ,
   Fourth. We are to speak of the Duality of Mind.   Man has two
 distinct minds.  The brain has  two general divisions,—-the Cere-
 brum,  or  proper brain,  so called; and  the Cerebellum.  The  Cere-
 brum  is  the  uppermost  and  largest.   The  Cerebellum,  or   lesser
 brain, lies below  and behind ; being separated from the former, by
 the Tentorium   The larger brain, is the seat of one mind, and the
 lesser brain is the seat of the other.   For the  sake  of distinction we
 shall call  these minds the larger and the lesser.  By the larger  mind,
  we mean that which exists in the larger brain.  And  by  the  lesser
  mind  we mean that which exists in the lesser  bram.   We would not
 here be understood to say, that man has two distinct intelligent minds—
 this is not our idea.   There can be but one intelligent mind   which
 is that located in the larger brain.   That which we termed the lesser
 mind is unintelligent, and subordinate to the larger, and is made the
 agent or instrument of all voluntary motion ;-this is its office,  as will
 be shown in the Lectures which are to follow. 
16
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
   It has already  been shown, and the fact is generally admitted by
physiologists,  that  muscular motion  is produced  from the smaller
Drain, through the exercise of the will.  Will  is simply an attribute,
or an exercise of the laryer  mind.   This mind makes an  impression
on the less r mind, exciting it to action, and this last moves, in  conse-
quence, the nerves of motion, and  thus muscular action is produced.
This accounts for the phenomenon of sleep.  The  greater  mind,
which excites  to action the lesser, producing motion and  locomotion,
gives  up its controlling  power, when  the latter, becoming inactive,
falls into that state we commonly term sleep.   All voluntary motion
then, of course, ceases.   The five senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell
and  touch, are closed.   Impressions, through  these senses, are  no
longer made on the brain   Now, if man possessed  but one mind, and
if this mind ever became inactive, when sleep was once produced, he
would never be able of himself to wake again  from that state.  But
the larger mind never slumbers,—it is always in active operation .—it
stands sentinel during the hours of sleep.  When nature has balanced
and  recruited  her disordered forces, during the hours of repose, that
waking mind  makes an  impression upon the lesser,  rousing it to ac-
tion, and muscular motion is again performed.  Sometimes on retiring
to rest, we charge our minds with the time at which we wish to awake,
and  we are generally awakened at the time appointed.  This again is
evidence of the fact that there is, during sleep,  a waking mind  which
rouses us at the time appointed.   So far as my  own experience  is con-
cerned, I do not recollect of a single instance of failure in this respect.
I am always awakened at, or very near, the time which I had deter-
mined on before going to sleep.
   This view of the  subject also accounts for the phenomena of ordi-
nary dreaming.   The larger mind is never  inactive:—during sleep,
it is either occupied in reviewing the events to which its attention had
been  called during the day, or wandering away into the  regions of
fancy, picturing to itself scenes often of a ludicrous  and visionary cha-
racter.  Some of  its operations are distinctly  impressed upon  itself,
and these, when we wake, are  immediately recalled.   Now the very
fact of dreaming, and the  recollection of those dreams, proves most
conclusively that there is mind in active exercise during our slumbers.
It proves also the duality of mind.   If the mind be one and indivisible,
it would  be utterly  impossible for  a  part of that  mind to slumber,
whilst the other  part was in active exercise.   And that that part of
mind which has the control of  muscular or voluntary motion, is inac-
tive during sleep,  is proved from the fact  itself, that muscular  action
does not exist.   And also on the other hand, that a part of mind is ac-
tive during sleep, is proved  from the  fact of dreaming.  This estab-
lishes the doctrine of the duality of mind.
   Another evidence of the doctrine under examination is,  that a man
can perform two or more actions at the same time.   He can converse
and he can walk ; he can compose, and he can write ; he can think,
and he can give utterance to those thoughts.   In all  extemporaneous
speaking, the  two minds are in active exercise.   The larger mind
contemplates, investigates, compares and arranges the  subject or mat-
ter to be  presented, and the smaller mind, at the same moment, moves
the organs of speech which give utterance to the same.  Were it  not 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
17
m,  we could never  converse  whilst we were  walking, nor compose
whilst  we  were  writing,  nor investigate  and arrange  matter  whilst
speaking in an extemporaneous manner.
                  LECTURE  SECOND.

  In our  first Lecture, we  spoke—1. Of the Brain, its structure  and
magnetic power; 2. Of the sympathetic and muscular Nerves,—their
office, functions, &c.;  3. of  the Formation of Mind; and  4. Of the
Duality of Mind.
  As the doctrine of the duality of mind was  barely touched upon at
the close of the Lecture, we deem it expedient to give  a further illustra-
tion of the matter in this place, before proceeding  to a discussion of the
questions which are to occupy our attention in the present  Lecture,—
namely, the Brain, and its  connection  with the magnetic and  electric

   The  arguments  employed in support of the duality of mind, were
briefly as follows:  1. That the Brain has  two general divisions—the
 Cerebrum and the Cerebellum.  These are  separated by the Tentorium.
 2 The cerebrum  or  larger brain, is the seat of one mind, the intellec-
 tual • and the cerebellum is the seat of the other.  3. To distinguish the
 two 'that occupving the larger brain was termed the  larger  mind ; and
 that occupying the smaller brain  was  termed  the lesser  mind.   4.  It
 was argued that the larger mind was never inactive,—that it governed
 or controlled the lesser mind by the positive dictation of us own will,
 and that by thus acting upon the lesser, muscular  motion was produced.
 In this wav the phenomena of sleep and of ordinary dreaming was ac-
 counted for  In sleep, the  senses are closed, and no impressions through
 those senses are made on  the larger mind,—nevertheless the  mind  is
 still in  active operation, either reviewing the events that have occupied
 it during the day, or  wandering away into the regions of fancy.   This
 is dreaming    The lesser mind, which is  made the instrument of mus-
 cular action, is inactive during this state.   It was  further shown, that  if
 the larger mind was subject to  sleep or inactivity during our repose, we
 could never of ourselves  awake from that state,—that if the  common
 doctrine of metaphysicians were true, that the  mind is one and indivisi-
 ble  it would be utterly impossible for a part of that  mind to be active
 whilst another  part was  inactive,-that if inactivity existed at all it must
 Txi t L a 1/^in a substance which of itse   is  a unit; and that con-
 sequently, the phenomenon of dreaming could never occur  The doc-
 fr?ne  therefore, of the unity of mind, must be abandoned, and that of its

 d" Anoth^re^en^o^the fact under consideration is that of sleeptalking.
 Pereons have been known, during  the hours  of sleep, when the senses
 hm been completely closed to all external impressions to arise from
 their beds and to en^ge for some length of time  m the labors that have
 occupied  their attention  during  the day, and  to remain  unconscious
  of the same until  it has been  pointed out to  them by those who hav6 
18
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS
witnessed it, and even then they have been unable to recall any recollec-
tion of it  to their minds.  This proves most conclusively, that the mind
is in active exercise during deep sleep, and when the person himself is
unconscious of any thing  of the kind.   This  is analagous  to the mag-
netic sleep.  The mind  of the subject is active  whilst in the  magnetic
state,  but  he  is unconscious of any thing that has transpired, when
a \ aliened from that state—the external senses being closed as in  natural
sleep.  The commonly received doctrine is, that the mind is wholly  in-
active during deep slumber; and that dreaming never occurs unless the
sleep is broken or disturbed.   But  the  fact of sleep-walking,  when the
senses are completely closed, and the  individual unconscious of what
has taken place with  himself during that state, disproves this doctrine,
and at the same time confirms the other, that mind is active  during our
deepest sleep.
  In  proof of the duality of mind, it  was further stated,  that  a  man
could perform two or  more actions at the same  moment, which  could not
be done if the mind were one and indivisible.   A person can  converse,
and he can  walk ;—he  can think, and  he can give  utterance to those
thoughts.  It was stated that in all extemporaneous speaking, the two minds
were  in active operation.   The  larger mind contemplates, investigates,
compares and arranges the subject  or matter to be  presented, and  the
smaller mind at the same time, in  obedience to the  will of the  larger,
moves the organs of  speech, through which utterance is given to  the
same.  Were  it not so,  we could never arrange or investigate any sub-
ject whilst speaking  extemporaneously.  The  lesser  mind is  subject
to the larger, and is made the instrument of all voluntary motion.  We
will to move an arm,—at that moment an impression is made  on  the
lesser mind, and  the muscular nerves  are immediately contracted, and
the motion of the  limb is produced.   The lesser mind is not only subject
to the larger, but is dependent on that for its every movement.  The fol-
lowing will illustrate the idea I wish to convey:—
   Take  the common  steam-engine.   The water must first  exist in the
boiler ;—when this is heated, it sends off a steam which forces the main
piston, and this causes the voluntary motion of the engine.   So with the
subject under  examination ; the larger mind moves the  lesser—and the
lesser, like the steam  arising from the water in the boiler, produces the
voluntary motions of  the body   The  steam from the boiler cannot be
sent off without the application of heat  to the water.   So with  the lesser
mind;—it cannot receive motion without the positive exercise  of will
in the larger mind.   Will moves it: and it can have no motion without
the positive exercise of will
   During sleep,  positive volition, or will, ceases ; the lesser mind  then
is inactive,—consequently, the nerves of motion  are  at re>t or  in a lassi-
tude state.   Perhaps the following  figure will better illustrate our posi-
tion :—
   The water  in the  floom moves the  wheel which  puts in motion the
machinery of  the  mill.   The floorn is supplied with  water  from  the
pond.  Now shut the gate that admits the water from the pond into the
floom, and the  wheel will keep  in  motion until the floom has emptied
itself: it will  then stop,—and it cannot be set  in motion  again until the
gate is hoisted which prevents the escape of water from the pond.  When 
                  LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.                19

this is done, the floom  becomes filled, and  the wheel is again in active
operation.
   Now, the pond may represent the larger mind ; the floom, the lesser ;
the wheel which moves the mill, may represent the nerves of motion in
the animal body ; the gate may represent the will.   Stop the exercise of
the will, and the  lesser mind is  motionless, and the  nerves in conse-
quence  inactive.   This is  accomplished in sleep.  Now,  before mus-
cular motion can again be produced, there must be an exercise of  the
will.  The  lesser  mind, which is the agent of all voluntary motion, is
continually supplied  by five large streams, the senses,  which keep  the
fountain  full.
   Fifth.  I now proceed to  consider  the Brain  in connection with the
Magnetic and Electric  Fluids.
   It has several times  been stated that  muscular motion is performed
through the exercise  of the will, and through the medium  of the brain
and nerves.   '' But are the nerves themselves a medium fitting  for  this
wo|{ ? Let us examine them, and we shall find nothing whatever to account
tor their  marvelous capacity.   They are, to appearance, the weakest of
all weak instruments: mere soft, white filaments, enveloped in a  fine
cellular membrane, and yet the strength  and  power of all  the  body is
derived from them !  This simple fact reduces us to a dilemma.   Either
we must believe the nervous substance to be  the channel of some ulterior
and  efficient energy, to us invisible, or we must admit, according  to
Puscasl's  generally received definition, namely, an  effect exceeding the
natural force of the means  employed, that a constant (miracle is taking
place in our mortal frames.
   " But we  naturally shrink from  attributing to direct  Divine  agency
every minute corporeal motion of the  body.   It is not the will itself
which  directly moves the muscle ; if it  did, we should have to  seek no
further for an adequate agency.   But as we know the will  moves the
muscle indirectly, and through the medium of  the brain and nerves, in
this case there is a known sequence of events, and a sequence which, as
it stands at present,  is an absurdity.  The  weak, soft fibre stirs the muscle,
as we are told, so  immediately, that its  fibres shorten and become hard
without  any preparatory oscillation or hesitation, and they acquire all at
once such an elasticity that they are capable of vibrating or producing
sounds!   There is nothing in magnetism  more wonderful  than this—
more difficult of digestion to credulity itself, when we  take matter as it
stands, without bringing into view an ulterior  agency,  an efficient force.
Why shrink we from so doing ?
   " When we look upon the heavens, and behold the  magnificent sys-
tem of worlds moving round a common  centre, we acknowledge all this
harmony to be the  result of a force we call gravitation.    But what is the
wonder of the universe compared  to the mystery of mind moving mat-
ter and actuating it 1   It is wonderful—but we need not, on that account,
render it an absurdity  by inefficient causation, by denying  the mind or
will an adequate, intermediate agency.   Such  denials  betray Physiolo-
gists into  great inconsistencies; as for instance, Magendi one moment
censures attempts to explain muscular contraction, and the very next ex-
plains it himself by the vaguest of all vague terms—"Cerebral influence"—
affirmino-  at the same time, that fromjhe strength of maniacs, muscular

                      y -*iK* '*

                    i 
20
LECTURES
ON CLAIRMATIVENESS.
power may be carried to a wonderful degree by ^he action of the brain
alone!
  " What is this brain?   What are the nerves,  that they should possess
such power of action ?   Is it inherent in them?  If so, why does  it not
exist or endure when man has ceased to think and to live?   Examine a
nerve apart from the intelligent being it once served:  pore over it with
the microscope; then take the brain and weigh it well, or cut it up into
sections ;—where is the  innate power of action?  Where is all that may
truly  be called  power,  namely, the enduring and  essential capacity of
originating motion?  If then it be an absurdity to attribute an inherent
power of motion to flesh and fibre, it is also an absurdity to  attribute to
weak instruments like the nerves an inherent powl'f'of.stirring in a mo-
ment  the strong volume  of a muscle.   And if the power b<; not inherent,
where is  it ?  Grant all  we can  grant, as it regards the effidiency of will
or mind to stir  its own organizatiou, we must beware  how  we  -charge
inconsistency upon the Creator,  by snpposing him to  violate  those laws
of action  which he  points out to us by manifest signs; and  neverHbas
our experience shown, that by a weaker agent we can move a stronger;
in a case, too, where the  disproportion is manifest,  and where there are
no connecting links to prepare the way for the action of the much weak-
er upon the much stronger.  Again, I ask, where are we to look for the
force  that effects such wonders?
  " Now, we fear not to explain muscular  action in the dead by a force
we call Galvanic.   Why will we not explain it in the living by some
efficient force at least?—for here we have equally a sensible phenome-
non that calls for an adequate explanation.
  " I know not what philosophic  doubt may make of this question, but
certainly common sense  decides  from the ordinary phenomena of muscu-
lar motion, that the mind metes out and dispenses a force adequate to the
moving of the muscle, and consequently of the body.
  " One  of the most interesting  of all  philosophical inquiries has been,
whether there may not exist a special, though invisible, agency, appro-
priate to the nervous system, through which sensation is  accomplished,
and animal motion  performed.  Charles Bonnet, of Geneva, a  century
ago, suggested that there was an elastic ether resident  in the  nerves in a
manner analogous to that in which the electric fluid resides  in the solid
bodies along which it is conducted.  He says—" Should we admit that
there is in the nerves a fluid, which in elasticity resembles light or ether,
by the help of such an agency  we may easily explain the celerity with
which external impressions are communicated to the mind, and that with
which the mind executes so many diversified operations.   This sugges-
tion has been variously received orcombatted, but never absolutely drop-
ped, or decided one way or the other, by physiologists."
  But Mesmerism  does decide this question.   It  proves what Bonnet
suggested might exist, actually does exist.   That there is a  subtle fluid,
which is the agent of conveying the sense of impressions made on the
body, along the sympathetic nerves to the brain, is a  fact susceptible of
the most  complete demonstration,  and also that the mind,  through an-
other fluid as its agent, acts upon another set of nerves so as to  produce
muscular action and motion.
   These fluids are distinct and separate from each other: the  one, the
cause of all involuntary motion ;  and the other, the agent of all  volun- 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
21
tary motion.  And of the absolute existence of these fluids, we are all
made certain;  so that we are not  thrown upon  conjecture, as previous
writers have been in all that they have said of the nervous fluid.
  That fluid  which exists in the sympathetic nerves, and which is  the
grand agent of transmitting all sensations to the brain, by means of the
brain's magnetic power, is Animal  Heat ; and that fluid which moves
the muscular nerves, through the exercise of the will, is Electricity.
  Animal heat exists in the body:  this heat is what we term animal
magnetism.   It is a subtle, sensitive fluid;  and is confined  to  the sym-
pathetic nerves, and extends through the whole  animal economy.   It
exists only in animal  bodies.  The vital functions are performed by
this- every involuntary secretion is made by it;  every involuntary ac-
tion'of the system is carried on and propelled by magnetism.   All im-
pressions made upon the body are by this fluid unavoidably and  irre-
sistibly caired to the sensorium of the brain, through the attractive pow-
er of that or^an ;  and every muscular action, as before stated, is perform-
ed tlrough the exercise of the will, and by the  aid of electricity.  These
are the  agents of all voluntary and involuntary motions m the animal

 "That mao-netism, or animal heat, is the agent of all feeling, and of
transmitting all sensation, is a fact easily established.  Where animal
heat exists"sensation exists;  but where  it does  not exist,  no sensation
can be produced.   Take, for example, a limb that has  received a para-
lytic shock: it  is entirely insensible to touch—no sensation can be pro-
duced  in it   The Magnetism, or  heat, which is the cause of all sensa-
 tion is driven from that limb,—it no longer  remains there;  hence the
 limb is necessarily deprived of all feeling.  Now restore the magnetism
 to the limb, and, at that moment, it  again becomes sensitive.
   So with a limb that is frozen ;  when the frost enters, it displaces the
 magnetism; and  as the magnetism is displaced, all sensation or feeling
 in  that limb is displaced or removed with it;  and when the cold takes
 complete possession, it is no longer sensible to feeling or touch   Now
 displace the frost from the limb, by the introduction of anima  heat, and
 you find it restored to feeling-sensation returns with  the heat
   These  facts prove conclusively that heat is the  agent of all feeling;
 and it is by the same  fluid  that all impressions  made on the body are
 conducted  to the brain.  And  here we find the key which unlocks the
 mvstery of the magnetic sleep which is produced in man ; and also ex-
 plains the causes of many phenomena which  we witness m nature, and
 without which their causes would never be known.
   Writers  upon Mesmerism have generally  assumed the ground, that
 durin* the process of  mesmerising, the magnet.c fluid is .mparted from
 the system of the Operator  to that  of his  Subject.  But if the magnetic
 fluid be the cause of sensation, as has been shown  the imparting of this
 fluid in a greater  quantity to the  system of the Subject, '"stead of de-
 stroying sensation  in him, would make h.m more sens.tive ; apd the Ope-
 rator  himself  would be the one who would be insensible to  feeling, as
 Tflud  vvhieTis the agent of sensation  has left  h« system.  But the
 nrtS" theory  upon This subject should  be entirely ^versed.  The
 LSW of imparting, extract, the magnet.c fund from the sys-
 Pem o hisSubje t, and^eceives a portion of  the same into his own sys-
  em   This is seen from the fact that the Operator, during the process of 
•))
lA-.i- I  ;;l.S .in  t'LAIRM A TIVENE8S.
mesmerizing, is sensible of an inn vise of heat in his own system, so m
to produce, oftentimes,  pe sjiiration ;  whilst the < Operative  becomes col J
as he continues to advance  in the magnetic  state.   And  when  perfect
magnetic sleep  is produced,  there is just magnetism enough  left in the
system to carry on vital action.   The fluid which existed  in the nerve,
of sensation is  entirely withdrawn;  for which reason the body become*
insensible to touch, and the  other senses  closed  to external objects a>nl
impressions.  In that state,  any operation can  be performed upon the
body without producing the  least s nsation or feeling.
   Every person living is  magnetized ;  i. e. he possesses more or le.vs of
the magnetic fluid or heat.  To produce the phenomenon of the magnetic
sleep, he must  become  unm ignetiz d.   To effect  this, the mind of the
Subject must become passing whilst that of the Operator is ardri- or po-
sitive..   The pores or glands of the flesh run downwards.   The Opera-
tor, by making  the downward pisses, and by  a firm exercise-of the  will,
extracts the magnetic fluid from the  system of his subject, and  receives a
portion  of the same into his  own system.  By these means he becomes
positive, and his subject becomes  negative.   It is then that he has com-
plete command, and can attract the hand or limb of his Subject, by mo-
ving his own, in  every direction.   There is a strong sympathy existing
between the Operator and  his Subject,—and if you should inflict an  inju-
ry upon the system of the former, however slight  it might be, the latter
would be immediately sensible of it:  when if, at the same time, you were
to inflict an injury upon his  own system, he would remain insensible to
any thing of the kind.   His sense of feeling, during the magnetic state,
exists altogether in his Mesmerizer.   This is wonderful, and  yet it is a
fact which is often witnessed.  The cause of  this remarkable  phenome-
non  will be explained  in  the next Lecture, when we come to speak of
the sympathetic state.
   In  waking the Subject  out of the mesmeric sleep, the  reverse passes
are made.   As  the pores or glands of the flesh run downwards, the  Mes-
merizer, by passing his hands upwards, causes the magnetic fluid to re-
enter, through those pores, the system of his Subject, when the phenomena
that  have been witnessed disappear, and he becomes sensible as before
   The  mind of the Subject  is entirely subjected to the will of the  Mes-
merizer during  the magnetic state ; and he cannot exercise his own  will.
nor  move a limb, if the Mesmerizer wills him not to,—but otherwise he
possesses the power of motion whilst in  that state, and is capable of mus-
cular action.  This  circumstance  is conclusive evidence that muscular
power or motion  is  performed by a  fluid or agency different  from that
of the magnetic.  If muscular motion  was produced by  the magnetic
fluid, and if there were sufficient of this fluid remaining in  the system to
perform this office, the individual would  also be sensible to touch ;  but
as he is not sensible to any  feeling,  it  is evidence that a different  fluid
exists in the muscular nerves to act upon and  influence them.
   This fluid, as we have  before  stated, is  Electricity.   This is not dis-
placed  by the  operations of magnetizing.  It  is the mind's organ  or
agent of causing motion.  It acts  upon the nerves of motion by the com-
mand of the will, and  never without.   Hence the  peTSon mesmerized
cannot move a  limb if the Operator forbid him, and for the simple  rea-
son that he cannot will  to move a limb, in which case the electric  fluid
is not in action.   But the moment that  injunction  is taken off) and the 
LECTURES ON CLAIRMATIVENESS.
23
will of the Subject  is left free to act, the servant obeys its master, and
muscular motion is immediately  performed.
  It is a well known fact, that electricity acts wholly upon  the muscular
nerves, when a shock is received from the electrical machine or the gal-
vanic battery.   When  a shock is  received from the former, the whole
effect  is on the muscular nerves, contracting them  so suddenly  that  the
limb is brought upwards with a quick motion   If the galvanic battery
be applied to a dead body, the eyes and mouth are seen to open and shut
__the tongue to move, as though  the person was about to speak—the
arms, the  hands, the legs and feet also move; and if a powerful shock
be given, these  limbs will move with frightful rapidity,—and  in some
cases the corps, has been known to leap suddenly from the spot  where it
lay, as though life had again  been restored.
  From these experiments it is shown that the electric fluid acts upon the
nerves of  motion and locomotion.  In the living subject, the mind is the
o-alvanic battery which directs this fluid along the muscular nerves, con-
tracting them, and thus producing every movement of the body.   These
facts prove most conclusively that electricity is the grand agent by which
all muscular action  is performed in the animal frame.
  We have now shown that  animal  heat, or magnetism, is the cause of
all  involuntary motion, and  of all  sensation in the human system;  and
that electricity is the cause of all  muscular or voluntary motion.   But
here, however, we anticipate  an objection.
   It may  be contended that electricity itself is heat.  And probably this
idea has grown out of the supposition that this fluid sometimes  dissolves
metals and sets combustible  materials on fire.  But it is not the electric
fluid  that  sets combustible materials on fire;—it is a highly inflammable
gas, (hydrogen,) which  this fluid  comes  in contact with, that  produces
these effects :—and  the experiment may at any time be successfully tried
with  the electrical machine.
   In dissolving metals, the  electric  fluid, under certain circumstances,
possesses  the power of destroying their cohesive properties.   All metals
exist in the solid state  through cohesion.   Destroy this property, and
tluy  become soluent.  This, electricity is capable of  doing; but it is not
 because the fluid  itself  is heat.  Jewels in the  ears, and rings on the
 finders, are sometimes dissolved by  electricity; but at  the same time no
 sensation  of heat is experienced by the  persons who wear these  orna-
 ments at  the time the phenomenon  is witnessed.  Were  heat the agent
 employed in dissolving those metals, injury would result from  the same
 to the persons themselves.   But the fact that an individual may be so
 completely insolated with this fluid that a spark may be drawn  from any
 part of his body, and he experiencing no sensation  of heat atthe  .me
 affords conclusive evidence that electricity itself is not heat.  When the
 individual is thus insolated, he experiences  a chilling  sensation   The
 objection, therefore, that heat is electricity, is entirely exploded „n I affo ds
 no argument against our theory that magnetism and electricity  1by which
 all voluntary and involuntary motions are produced in the^body a e two
 distinct and separate agents or fluids.  I should remark, however, in this
 p   e, mar he doctrineDthat electricity is heat, has of  late been abandoned
 Ey some  eminent philosophers,  and  that  it .s now ™»«^ to ^£
   The theory which we have now presented of magnetism fully explains
 the cause of a remarkable phenomenon  in nature which hitherto has not 
94
LBCTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
been satisfactorily accounted  for.  It is a fact universally known, that
many insects,  reptiles and  animals, lie in a torpid state  during many
months of the year, where they neither eat nor require food to sustain
them whilst they are subject to that state.  Among these are  common
house-Jlies, toads, serpents, bats, and many species of the bear.  The house-
fly will lie insensible, and to all appearance dead, during the whole winter
season, and wake to life again in the spring.   It  is the same with
toads, bats and serpents.   These insects and animals all require food  to
sustain life when  in the natural  state.  But toads have been known  to
exist for a long series of years without a particle  of  food.  They have
often been found imbedded in solid rock, where they must have existed
for a very long period of time, and on being released from their confine-
ment they have come to  life again and have moved away.
  Now, the cause of this phenomenon is  easily  solved.   The animal
became imprisoned in the substance composing the rock before it became
petrified ;  for its existence there can never be accounted for on any other
ground.   Hence it must have been confined there for a great  length of
time before the rock could have become completely formed—probably
for centuries.   In the rock, the  same temperature is  preserved.  The
heat, or  magnetism, is drawn from the animal's system, when all vital
action ceases.   When the animal is released  from its  confinement, and
exposed to light and the  action of the atmosphere, which generate mag-
netism, this fluid again enters its system, and vital action is immediately
restored.
  Upon the same principle is produced the torpid states of the other ani-
mals of which we have spoken.  The bear,as winter approaches, retires
to his uVn: and as  the  cold  gradually increnscs, it drives  the heat or
magnetism from his system,-so much so, that vital action is nearly arrested,
and  the animal is hardly conscious  of existence.  There  is  not fluid
sufficient remaining in the system to perform the functions of digestion,
nor the  renovation which  is continually going on in  all animal bodies
when in the natural state ; and for that reason food is not required. The
animal remains in this  state until the  return of spring, when  the heat
penetrates his den, enters again his system, and he comes forth to pursue
his  pny   I have seen  bears in this  condition in  the middle of winter,
where they have  been dragged  from their dens,  and  when hardly any
signs of life could be discovered  in them till they have been exposed for
some length of time to light and the action of the atmosphere, when they
have revived.
  In the dens where these animals repose, the same temperature is pre-
served during  the winter season.  Sufficient  cold to freeze the  system
cannot enter ;  for  were this accident to happen, the  animal could never
revive.   Sometimes a sudden change of weather takes place in the mid-
dle  of winter, becoming  so  warm that the snow is  melted   from  the
ground.  On  such  occasions  these animals, by the  action of the heat,
have been roused  from their torpidness, and have issued forth from their
dens, greatly disappointed, perhaps, to find themselves waked up a month
or two too soon.
  If the  same temperature could be preserved, summer and winter, in the
dens where these animals repose, they might be kept  in the torpid state
for  hundreds of years, and then waked again to  life.  They need  no
sustenance, because the natural involuntary secretions of  the system are 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
25
suspended.  There is no  waste  to  supply—no vital energy  to feed.
These experiments have been tried  upon various animals.   Indeed, the
same results may be produced in human beings.   A place may be pre-
pared where it shall  preserve the same temperature, and where light
and  heat shall  not penetrate,  and a man in perfect health shall be con-
signed to that place, when the magnetism shall soon leave  his system,
and he become insensible,  where he may be preserved for any number
of years;  and on  removing him, he shall again wake to life.   There
is in fact at this moment  in Germany a female in this condition, where
she has remained already three years.  This woman was  condemned
to be executed.   A physician there, desirous  of trying the experiment,
made application to the proper authorities, and was told that if he could
succeed in keeping the woman  in a state of insensibility for the period
of five years, and then wake  her to life and consciousness,  she should
be pardoned.  Accordingly he built a room of granite, seven  feet square,
at one end of his dwelling, and  covered this with earth four feet deep.
He approaches this room  by a subterraneous passage from the cellar of
his dwelling, so as to prevent  the admission of light and heat.   The fe-
male was placed  in this  room, where she  lay about forty-eight hours
before she became insensible, and before all vital action ceased.   She
has  been in this  state upwards of three years, and she maintains the
same appearance  that she  did  on  her first  becoming  insensible,—no
signs of decomposition having taken place; and  indeed  decomposition
cannot take place so long as the same temperature is preserved in  the
room where she is.  At  the  end of the five years, he will  restore  her
again to consciousness and animation by removing  her  from her con-
finement.
  If  this experiment succeeds—and  I have no doubt it will, for we have
seen  the same  phenomenon produced in animals, and the cause is  the
same  in the  one case as the other—instead of executing criminals who
are condemned  to death, they may be consigned to this state of insensi-
bility and temporary death  for any number of years, when, on awaking
them  to  life, doubtless, it  would have a tendency to complet dy reform
them.  A  serious consideration  of the situation in which they had so
long  lain, shut out from the scenes of life, and wholly unconscious even
of existence  itself, during the period, must have a salutary  effect upon
their  after  life and conduct.   Such an one might in truth exclaim—" I
was once dead and am alive again,—I will return to my Father's house,
and confess that I have sinned against heaven, and in his sight."   How-
ever, we will not speculate upon this subject.   Two years more will de-
cide  whether we are correct or not.
                   LECTURE  THIRD.

  In our last Lecture it was shown—1st, that Animal Magnetism, or
beat  exists in the sympathetic nerves, and is the cause of all involuntary
motion and sensation in the system ; 2d, that electricity is the agent by
which  all voluntary motion is produced ; 3d, that the magnetic sleep is 
2ti
LECTURES (>N  CLAIRMATIVENESS
produced by divesting the system of all its magnetism, with the exception
of enough to carry on  vital  action; and 4th, it was shown that by the
same means the torpid  state is produced in animals.
   Sixth.   We are note to speak of  the prod action of Magnetism and
El'Ttricity.
   Magnetism—and I am not  here treating on that branch  of science
which refers to the properties of the magnet—is  that subtle fluid we
commonly term caloric, or heat.   This fluid is  produced from the mag-
netic influence of the sun upon the earth and planets   It originates from
the sun.  Mr. Duncan Bradford,  in  his  " Wonders  of the  Heavens,"
says :—
   " It  has lately been  discovered,  that the rays of heat  or caloric, are
distinct from each  other; for it can be demonstrated that some rays from
the sun produce heat which have  no power of  communicating light or
color.   The greatest heat is found  in the red rays, the least in the violet
ravs ; and in a  space (in the solar spectrum) beyond the red rays, where
there is no light, the temperature is the greatest.   The  rays  of the sun
have also been found to produce different  chemical  effects.  The white
muriate of silver is blackened in the violet ray, in the space of fifteen se-
conds, though the red ray will not  produce the  same effect in less than
twenty minutes    Phosphorus is kindled in  the vicinity of the red ray,
and  extinguished  in the vicinity of the violet.   The solar light,  there-
fore, consists of three different orders  of rays, one producing color, a se-
cond producing heat, and a third chemical effects.
   " The opacity of the  interior of the globe of the sun  is no reason why
it may not act a part in the production or preservation of the solar heat;
on the contrary, it  appears highly probable and consistent with the dis-
coveries, that the  dark  nucleus of  the sun is the magazine from which
its heat is discharged;   while the  luminous or phosphorescent  mantle
which the heat freely pervades,  is the region where its light is genera-
ted.   Herschell's own experiments assure  us, that invisible rays, which
have the  power of heating, and which are totally distinct from those
which produce  light, are actually emitted  from  the sun ;  and that lumi-
nous rays, incapable of producing heat, are discharged from the same
source.  These facts, therefore, not  only  confirm the theory which we
have stated, but receive  in return, from that theory, the most satisfactory
explanation.  The invisible  rays, which pervade every part of the solar
spectrum, formed by a  prism, and which extend beyond its red extremi-
ty, are emitted from the opaque nucleus, and therefore excite no sensa-
tion  of light on the human  retina ; while the colored rays, which  form
the spectrum  itself, are discharged from the  luminous matter that encir-
cles  the solid nucleus, and therefore endowed with the properties of illu-
mination.
   " Hence it is easy to assign  the  reason  why the light and heat of the
sun are apparently alwavs in a  state of combination,  and why the one
emanation cannot  be obtained without the other.   The heat  projected
from the dark body, and the light emitted from the luminous atmosphere,
are thrown off in lines diverging in every  possible direction ; so that the
two  radiations  must be  uniformy intermingled, and, as in a stream  flow-
ing from two contiguous sources, the heat must always accompany  its
kindred element.   We find the invisible heat of the sun existing sepa-
rately from its lighf, and Dossessing a degree of refrangibility less than 
                   LECTURES ON CLAIRMATIVENESS                 27

 the  least refrangible  rays of the prismatic spectrum.   Light has like-
 wise been found separate from heat; and though it may be imagined that
 this arises from the extreme tenuity of the light, yet, when the light of the
 moon  is concentrated by powerful burning mirrors, we ought certainly to
 have expected that the heat, if any did exist, would be appreciable by
 delicate  thermometers.  Every  attempt, however, to detect heat in the
 rays of the moon, has completely failed ; and we are entitled to presume
 that a  greater proportion of  heat than of light has been absorbed by that
 luminary.   If light and heat, then, be two different substances, endowed
 with different chemical and  physical properties, is it not unphilosophical
 to suppose that they are emitted  from the same source, when we have ac-
 tually  two different regions in the sun, to which we can, with more pro-
 priety, refer their origin ?"
   Atmospheric  Electricity is  produced from caloric, or heat.   All the
 phenomena of electricity can be  produced by heat.  These fluids, when
 developed, are repulsive to each other, and become the agents of all  mo-
 tion  in the universe.
   Electricity  pervades the  whole of the earth's  atmosphere,  and per-
 forms all  the  mutual  actions of nature.  It  is the main  agent  in  the
 growth of trees and plants—the cause of the rain, and of  the refreshing
 dew.  The heat which accumulates upon the surface of the earth during
 the day,  repulses the  electric fluid to the upper regions:  this fluid car-
 ries  with it vaporous  particles, which form themselves into clouds, and
 at length become so  dense that they are attracted again near to the
 earth,  when the electric fluid is gradually dissipated by the heat or maf-
 ne'ism which  it again comes in  contact with, and the watery vapor, be-
 coming disengaged,  falls  in  drops  of rain.   These  drops, hovyever,
 still  contain  a  considerable quantity of the  electric  fluid,  which is
 dispersed through the atmosphere, and which accounts for the refreshinc
 coolness of the air after a shower.  By the same agency is produced the
 dews of the night.  The heat prevents the particles of vapor, which float
 in the air, from  falling to the earth during the day, these particles being
 insolated with electricity ; but when the sun has sunk behind the west-
 ern hills,  and the heat occasioned by its  rays, is dissipated,  these parti-
 cles, with the electricity they contain, are attracted to the earth, moisten-
 ing its  herbage, and  producing  the  coolness of the  evening.  For  the
 same cause clouds always sail highest in a hot day.  All  evaporation is
 produced by the combined agency of these two fluids.
   Electricity and Magnetism keep the planets in their spheres, and cause
 their revolutions around the sun.  The sun is the great centre of the so-
 lar system.   It is the  source of light and heat.  It is magnetic, and natu-
 rally attracts all bodies to its centre.   Were it not for the great body of
 electricity that encircles the earth, it would be attracted into the sun.  But
 electricity is repulsive  to magnetism : this repulsive power of the electric
 fluid is a"  barrier to the sun's magnetic or centripetal  power, and gives
the earth  its  centrifugal force, and,  consequently,  its motion round the
sun.   The same also  with the other bodies.
   There is a  strong attraction existing between the moon and our pla-
net ; but the former contains a greater body of magnetism, or heat, than
the latter, and the electricity of the earth arrests the attractive tendency,
and  gives the  moon its motion round the earth.
   Astronomers have never been able to account satisfactorily, on any na- 
  28               LECTURES ON  CLAIRM \TIVENESS.

  tural principles, for the centrifugal force of the planets ; nnd hence it has
  been ascribed to the immediate power of the Supreme  IVing.  But if it
  required this  immediate power at first to  give the planets their centrifu-
  gal force and motion  round the  sun,  it  requires  also that this power
  should  be constantly exercised, to prevent their being attracted  into the
  sun.  The centripetal power of the sun must be continually balanced by
  a centrifugal  force of the planets, or, in  time, the whole solar  system
  would become wrecked and disorganized.  Mr. Burritt. in his "Geogra-
  phy of the Heavens," says :—
   " Every planet moves in its orbit with a  velocity varying every instant,
  in consequence of two forces ; one tending to the centre of the sun, and
  the  other in the direction of a tangent to its orbit, arising from the primi-
  tive impulse given at the time it was launched into  space.   The  former
 is called  its  centripetal, the latter,  its  onlrifugal force.  Should  the
 centrifugal force cease, the planet would faII'to  the sun by  its  gravity;
 were the sun not to attract it,  it would fly off from its orbit in a straight
 line.
   "By the time  a planet has  reached its aphelion, or  that  point of its
 orbit which is farthest from the sun, his  attraction  has overcome its
 velocity, and draws it towards him with such an accelerated motion, that
 it at last overcomes the sun's attraction, and shoots  past him ;  then gradu-
 ally decreasing in velocity, it arrives at the perihelion, when the sun's at-
 traction  again  prevails."
   The above  theory of the  gravitation of the heavenly bodies  is that
 now universally received by astronomers.  They are agreed in ascribing
 the centrifugal force of the planets  in the first instance to the Supreme
 Being, (and to him all worlds  owe not only their motion, but  origin.) but
 they have  failed to point out to us those  agents by which that force was
 first  given.   Motion is the result of certain fixed laws, established by the
 Deity.  In seeking for those laws we are only approaching one step nearer
 to him who is the Author and Creator of all things.   Now, astronomers
 have not only left us in the dark relative to the laws  by which the  Deity
 gave projectile force to the  bodies that move in the regions of space, but
 they have,  it seems to me, failed  in  many particulars to account for the
 gravitation of  those  bodies without a constant miracle every moment
 taking place,—or, in other words, without the constant exercise of infinite
 power.
  It  is said that centrifugal force was given the planets  when launched
 into  the regions  of  space from the hands  of  the Supreme  Being.
 Their attractive power was acquired at the same instant.  The sun being
the larger  body and the centre of the solar system the tendency  of the
planets would be towards him  ; but the centrifugal impetus, at first  given
them, so  nicely counterbalances this attraction, that they  can  neither fly
off nor rush together, but move around  him in their present  order and
harmony   But if  this  were  so, the  distances  of  the planets from the
sun,  and  from each other, would ever be invariably  the same, and their
motions would  of necessity be uniform and regular.
  Suppose, for  instance, the earth to have been  ninety-five  millions of
miles foom the sun when motion was first given  it, -and  suppose this
distance to  have been that point in space  where the centrifugal and cen-
tripetal forces were precisely adjusted and balanced ; the same distance
would have been constantly maintained between them in the  revolutions 
LECTURES ON CLAIRMATIVENESS.
29
of the one round the other, and the orbit of the earth would be perfectly
spherical, instead of elliptical, as  it now is.   And it  would maintain the
same velocity, without being either retarded or accelerated, which it had
acquired at the time when the two  powers were at first balanced.  But
the reverse is the fact.
   Again.  The  theory that,—" By the  time a planet  has reached  its
aphelion, or that point of its orbit which  is farthest from the sun, his
attraction has overcome its velocity, and draws it towards him with such
an accelerated  motion, that it at last overcomes the  sun's attraction, and
shoots past him;  then  gradually decreasing in velocity, it  arrives at the
  ferihelion, when the sun's attraction again prevails "—has its difficulties.
  f the sun's attractive force at any time overpowered the earth's centrifu-
gal, so  as to bring the same with an  accelerated  motion towards  him,
the centrifugal, from  that moment, would  decrease in the same ratio,
and the  earth would rush upon the sun.   The attractive  power which
produced the  quickened  velocity would constantly increase the nearer
the two bodies approached each other, and that accelerated motion could
never impart centrifugal  force sufficient to break or overpower that at-
traction, and cause the  earth to rush past the sun for any indefinite period
of time.  On the contrary, it would continue to move around  him with
increased  velocity, lessening its orbit, until it was  finally lost in  that
immense body.
   But then it  is said that it is the increased  velocity itself which gives
the  centrifugal force, or  tendency to  fly off, so that by this means the
attractive or centripetal force is overpowered, and the earth thus regains
the distance which it had lost when in its  perihelion.   But  is not the
increased velocity caused  by increased attraction?—and can that attrac-
tion give force to any body sufficient to overpower  itself, and cause it to
travel an equal distance beyond, or to regain its aphelion at the same
point in the heavens?   This, it seems to me, is utterly  impossible.
   The  increased velocity and tendency of the earth towards the sun,
 would  be in proportion,  or  just equal to the attractive force that  had
caused  it, and it would be no greater than this: hence, in  order to over-
power that attractive   force which  is now  held, the  earth would  require
an impetus given it lesides that which it originally  had, and that which
 was given it by attraction.
   Now, where shall we look for this required additional force?  To the
 Creator?  If so, by what means does he impart it?   The answer to this
 question has already been given :—caloric  and electricity are the agents
 employed.
   Let us suppose for a moment that the planets are struck  from the solar
 system, and that the earth is arrested in its annual  revolutions, and sud-
 denly becomes stationary.  The first motion that would be given it would
 be directly towards the sun, through its strong attractive power upon the
 earth.   And unless there were strong opposing power created upon the
 latter, it would eventually be attracted into  the former.  Now this oppos-
 ing  force does  actually exist  in  the great body  of  electricity which
 surrounds the earth,  and is produced from the  rays  of  heat  which is
 sent off from the sun.   This fluid, when sufficiently developed, would
  become repulsive  to  the great  body of magnetism  or  heat  contained in
  the sun  and thus acquire a resisting force  sufficient  to counterbalance the 
30
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
attractive force of the two bodies for each other, and  give the earth the
course which it now performs around the sun.
  The theory we have here presented is greatly confirmed by the course
of comets.   These  bodies are seen  often going in a  direct  line for the
sun ;  but when they have approached  to  that body within certain  dis-
tances, they  have  been known to diverge, and  recede directly from it.
The rays of heat  from the sun,  as they near him, create or aevelope a
sufficient quantity of the electric fluid  to give  them  a repulsive  force,
when their motion is changed and they recede with unparalleled velocity
from the point of  attraction.
  The comet of 10S0 approached within 130,000 miles of the sun.   In
that part of  its orbit which was  nearest the sun, it flew with  the amaz-
ing swiftness of  1,000,000miles in  an hour.    It was  then  exposed
to a  heat  twenty-seven thousand  times  greater than the solar  heat
at the earth.  This intensity of heat exceeds,  several thousand times,
that of red-hot iron, and indeed  all the degrees of heat we are able to
produce.  This  intense heat must have  produced a  vast  quantity  of
electricity, which  gave the comet its centrifugal force, and caused it to re-
cede with  such velocity.   Comets themselves,  it  is generally allowed,
contain more heat than other celestial bodies, and from this heat is pro-
duced much of the electric fluid, and  it is seen in the vaporous atmos-
phere which surrounds them, and in  what is  commonly termed the  tail
of comets, extending sometimes  for many millions of miles.  It is  this
great  quantity of electricity which is  constantly produced from the heat
of these bodies  that completely overpowers  the sun's  centripetal  force,
and causes  them  to remove wholly beyond  his attractive influence;—
otherwise, when they once come  within that attractive power, their orbits
would be fixed in that  relative  distance, and they would move around
the sun with the constancy and the regularity of the planets themselves.
  This view of the subject accounts for another singular phenomenon
which we witness  with regard  to  comets.   The luminous train of  a
comet usually follows it, as  it approaches the sun, and goes before  it,
when the comet recedes from the sun.   Allowing the  luminous train to
be electricity, as this fluid and heal are repulsive to each other, the phe-
nomenon just named would of necessity occur.
  Now from this  fact we derive  the most positive evidence  that an  in-
creased repulsive  force, is  communicated to the comet, when in its peri-
helion, which it neither acquired  from the attraction of  the sun, nor from
the motion it had  before it came within that attractive influence.   If  the
increased centrifugal force was effected by attraction, the luminous train
would maintain its position in the rear of the comet when receding from
the sun, the  same as when approaching him.   But the fact of its chang-
ing its entire position, and  always keeping on the side of the comet di-
rectly opposite to the sun, proves that the whole is effected  by a strong
repulsive force existing between the two bodies.
  From the fact that the electric  fluid increases when the  comet is in its
perihelion, extending its train of  electricity by means of the  intense heat
sent off from the sun from which it is  evolved,  we might expect, when
the earth wa3 in its/perihelion, to witness a  similar phenomenon.'  And
a like phenomenon  is witnessed  in what is termed the aurora  borealis.
or northern liykts. 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
31
         " The earth being in its perihelion about the first of January,  and in
^■^ its aphelion about the first of July, we are three  millions of miles  nearer
^■pthe  sun in  winter than in midsummer."  The rays of the sun then
jfr   falling vertically upon the southern regions of the, globe, create a greater
       proportion of heat, from which is evolved  a greater quantity of electri-
       city, which being thrown off by repulsion to the northern regions, and
       accumulating in a more dense body at the vicinity of the Pole, not  only
       presents, by its frequent variations, the luminous aspect  in the heavens,
       which we  denominate the  Aurora Borealis, but also accounts for what
       has never yet been adequately accounted for—the  extreme rigor of our
       winters.   Electricity is cold, and of course is repulsive to magnetism, or
       heat.  Hence but a very little heat exists in  the northern regions, it being
       repulsed by  the great body of electricity there.  The electric fluid in-
       creases in quantity also, the further you  ascend into the atmosphere,
       being repulsed  by the heat upon the earth's surface
         Were not this subject in a measure foreign to the object of these  Lec-
       tures, I should  be pleased to give these interesting  facts a further inves-
       tigation ; but inasmuch  as it is, I must  content myself with what has
       already been offered—my design having been to illustrate the fact, that
       the magnetic and electric fluids are the agents employed by the Creator,
       in causing all motion in  the  universa   But, since I have given you the
       Clairvoyant's theory on the  motions  of the  heavenly bodies,  I must be
       permitted  to  close  the same by giving his description of  the planet
       Saturn—its inhabitants—the formation of its rings, &c.
         On the evening that the experiment was  made, before he  was  put to
       sleep, in order to ascertain whether he had any correct  knowledge of the
       planet, I put to him this question :—" Jackson, can you  tell me any thing
       about Saturn?"  " About who?" said he  ''  Saturn," said I.   "No sir,"
       said  he, " I don't know him "   From this answer I was convinced  that
       he was entirely ignorant of the  subject of my inquiry, and that he under-
       stood me to refer to some person.  Indeed,  I know that he is naturally
       ignorant of astronomy, and of all other sciences;  for being born of poor,
       but respectable, parents,  and having been early apprenticed to the shoe-
       making business, the only schooling he ever had was five months.   Pri-
       vate instructors  he never had,—and he has frequently told me that he ne-
       ver read a book on any science.
         After he was thrown into the trance state, (clairvoyance,) I requested
       him  to go and take a view of  Saturn, and tell  me what he saw there.
       He immediately made a movement of the  head in the direction of the
       Slanet, and was absent in mind about ten minutes.  When he returned,
       e spoke as follows:—" O, how beautiful!   Did you see those splendid
      rinrrs ?  Now I will tell you how they are  formed, for astronomers have
      never yet understood the  matter.
        " In the first  place, the planet itself is very beautiful.   The air there, is
      more clear and serene than it is on the other planets.  The three gises.
      oxygen, hydrogen  and carbon, which compose in  part Saturn's atmos-
      phere, form the two rings.   The first, or  inner ring,  is more brilh ;nt
      than the outer one—both have seven  different colors.   The oxygen ex-
      tends from the planet to where  you see the  first ring formed, and no far-
      ther.  It being separated there  from  the gases above,  the rays of light
      from the sun falling upon it at the point of  division, makes it very  bril-
      liant, so that it can be seem from the earth, through  telescopes, in the 
32
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVT.N KSS.
form of a broad, beautiful and variegated  band, extending quite round
the planet.   It is the upper extremity of the oxygen gas, and the falling
of the rays of  light upon it, that produces this  splendid phenomenon,
which has long been the  admiration and  wonder of the world.   The
hydrogen and carbonic gases extend from the planet to where you sea
the second or outer ring.   These gases being composed of different sub-
stances from the other, and not being so clear, when  acted upon by the
light, at their outer extremity, render the second  ring, which they there
form, less brilliant than the other.
   " The other planets have their rings like Saturn, being formed in the
same  way—but the gases not being so pure on the other planets,  you are
not able to discover  them, though I can always see them when  I am in
this state.  The moon has  its rings, and you sometimes see them. They
call them ' Circle* round  the moon,' and say, ' it is a sign of a storm.'
The earth also has two rings, and if you were at the moon you could at
times see them.  The oxygen  extends from the earth's  suiface seven
miles,—there, is the  formation of the first ring.   The  carbon and hydro-
gen gases extend still further, and at their termination the second ring is
formed.   When you see what is called a double rainbow,  you see a
likeness of these very rings; and  they are, in color,  a fac-simile of
Saturn's.
   '• Do you know that Saturn is inhabited ?   The people there are  very
different  from the  people  on this earth.  They are  very beautiful, and
more intellectual—they have very high foreheads, and their symmetry is
perfect.   Their skin is so clear and transparent that you can almost^ee
the blood as it circulates  through  the veins.   There is no sin there:
they are  unacquainted  with  strife  and bitterness,—they  worship  God
with willing hearts, all  as one.   There is no sickness  there,  because
they obey the organic laws of their nature.   They live nine or ten  hun-
dred years, and die of old age, when the system has worn itself out."
                 LECTURE   FOURTH.

  In this Lecture we are to speak, 1st, of the production of Animal Mag-
netism ;  2d, of Clarmativeness;  and 3d, of Clairvoyance.
  [The  whole of this Lecture was given by the Clairvoyant, word  for
word, as I penned it from his own mouth  at the time]
  Animal Magnetism is a modification of caloric or atmospheric magnet-
ism.  When  this fluid enters  the  system  by the lungs, and through the
pores and glands of the flesh, the action of the physical system so chan-
ges and modifies it, that it  becomes of a more subtle and  refined nature,
so that it is fitted for its office in the sympathetic nerves, producing sen-
sation and all the involuntary motions of the body, and transmitting these
sensations to  the brain.   At the brain, it  undergoes another  change or
modification.   The  volitive and magnetic action of the brain so changes
this fluid, tiiat it takes the  most .subtle and refined form that is cupable of
being pro uced, when it composes the substance of mind itself.  Mind is
magnetism.   It is produced, or rather formed in the brain, by means of 
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.                33
^the five senses, as we showed in our first Lecture.  It is then life—pure
 ■kitelligence—that breath of God  which he breathed  into man  when he
|Recame a living soul.
     The mind which is thus produced, composes what, in our former  re-
   marks, was termed the larger mind.  This spiritual principle is endow-
   ed with the power of producing, through the exercise of its own volition
   or will, a fluid, which was denominated  the lesser mind, and which we
   shall^here term  Animal Electricity.  It is the most refined of all the
   electric fluids, and is the agent of all muscular and voluntary motion.
    The utter impracticability of mind moving matter, without  an ade-
   quate intermediate agency, has often been demonstrated.  And what
   other agency can the mind employ than that of which we have  spoken ?
   We know that when we will to move the  body or limbs, they  obey us.
   Is not this fact evidence sufficient that the will itself has the power of
  dispensing that force, or agent, which is adequate to the moving of the
  muscle, and  consequently of the body?
    That there is such a fluid  as  animal electricity, is proved by the tor-
  pedo, or electric eel,  so called.  This animal can at pleasure paralyze a
  limb  at some distance, and even produce instant death,  in the smaller
  animals.  Now, if this fish can at will discharge a current of electricity,
  which produces  these effects, is  there anything more marvellous in the
  fact, that the  human  mind is capable of discharging, through the exer-
  cise of its own will, a like fluid,  to subserve the purposes of motion and
  locomotion of body?  Certainly not.
    I am aware that this subject is exceedingly difficult of satisfactory in-
  vestigation.   Most men require  ocular demonstration of a thing before
  they will consent to believe it; but this is a subject, among many others,
  which will not admit of such demonstration.   I, however, have this oc-
  cular  demonstration whilst I am in the  clairvoyant state, for I can see
  this fluid,  as  it  is discharged by the  will into the cerebellum,  passing
  from thence along the muscular nerves, contracting them, and thus pro-
  ducing voluntary motion.  I  can also see the magnetic fluid which ex-
  ists in the sympathetic nerves,—it is very brilliant, and lights up to my
  view the whole  system, so that I can see every  part of the animal frame.
  I can also see the mind itself, which is still more refined and luminous •__
  I can  see every motion of the mind,  and that is the reason why I am
 able to tell you all your thoughts,—thought is  simply the motion of the.
 mind.
   Now there is  not much magnetic  fluid in the sympathetic nerves of
 my system, because it has been taken away by magnetizing me, and that
 is the reason that there is no sensation or feeling in my  limbs.    If you
 should  inflict any injury upon  my flesh, I  should  not  be  sensible of
 any pain, because there is no fluid to transmit that sensation to the brain.
 You see that  the five senses  are entirely closed to all  external  impres-
 sions.   I  neither see  nor hear  now through the natural organs.  My
 eyes are now closed and bandaged, (which was the fact,) and yet I see
 every part of  your system.  You may stop my  ears, and it will make no
 difference  with  regard to my hearing.   When J  am in this state, no
 impressions are made upon my brain  through  the natural organs.   In
 this state, my previous developments are not only enlarged, but all my
 mental faculties are set in perfect action.   I possess the power of extend-
 ing my vision throughout all space,—can see things past, present, and to 
*  34
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS
come.   I have now arrived to  the highest degree of knowledge whicl^gjjg^
the human mind  is capable of acquiring.  I would always like to re*^^K
main in this state, for here I am separated from the world, and  am po*» f^m
fectly happy.  I am in the spirit, as was he of old.   When the body is ^Qr
cast off. I shall be as I now am.
  2d. I am to speak of Clairmativeness, or the different stato of  magnet-
ism.
  Clairmativeness is a compound word, and  literally signifies—clearly
reversed.  I have given this new word, and applied it to the subject be-
cause it is significant of the magnetic state, and because there is no word
in English which is expressive of this  science.   The  science is new,
and therefore demands a new name.
  The minds of  magnetized persons are completely reversed.   If you
place the hand of a magnetized person  upon a table, and tell him he
cannot raise it,  you will discover  that  in his  endeavors to do so, he is
pressing down,  though   he imagines he is trying  to raise  it.  Tell him
to bear down, and he will immediately lift the hand from  the table. Thus
the mind  being reversed, he calls  up,  down—and down,  up.   But this
experiment must  be done by a third  person, and not  by the magne-
tizer ; i. e. the magnetize.-  shall tell the subject that  he  cannot raise his
hand, when he  will bear down,—but if a third person tells him to press
down, he will then raise it up.  The "best method of trying this experi-
ment is, to place the hand of the subject against your own and tell him
he cannot remove it, and you will find he is pressing against yours.
  There are, properly, four magnetic states.  In the first,  no particular
phenomena are witnessed, only that the external  organs being  in some
measure divested  of their  ordinary share of magnetism, a feeling of
dullness pervades  the system.   Persons  in this state lose  none of  their
faculties, but are  susceptible to all external  impressions.   They  have
also the full power  of muscular action,—and if nearly situated between
the first and second states, they are inclined to  happy feelings.
  In the second state, the magnetic sleep is  produced.   They still retain
their intellectual faculties, but are divested of all muscular  power.  The
pupil of the eye expands, and the natural organ of vision refuses to act
on the brain.  The membrane and tympanic cavity of the ear expand,
and refuse to perform action.  The extremities are also somewhat cold.
In the latter part of this state,  all sensation  and feeling  are destroyed in
the system, so  that any surgical operation can  be  performed without
giving pain.
   Third State.   The ear is not entirely closed to sound  in the first part
ef the third state.  They can hear  indistinctly—possess the power of
speech, and partly of muscular action.   About the middle of this state
the ear is  completely closed, and  all impressions  made upon the brain,
from external objects, are at an end.  They are then  placed in a state of
unconscious existence, so far as the external world is concerned.  Divested
of their ordinary  share  of magnetism,  they possess just enough to per-
form vital action.
  In this state there is a strong sympathy existing between the Operator
and his Subject.  The chain of sympathy  which connects the  mind of
the Operator with that of his Subject, is animal electricity.—the same
fluiu  which  is the agent  of  all  muscular motion.   It  is  through the
agency of this  fluid that  magnetic sleep is effected or  induced.  The 
LECTURES ON CLAIRMATIVENESS.
35   ,
i
Operator sits down with the determination to put his Subject to sleep :-—
|_ll the  powers of his  mind are concentrated to this object.  His will
  ■, tuu tj\s*v\ji.o \jx  lllO I1X1I1U aiO 1>U1IUI/I1W1U^U «.V WJ»o  vujv^i.*   -. — —■ . . ---
  ;ing exercised to this point, the electric fluid passes from his own  brain
  id nerves to the brain and  system of his patient, and forms between
»ie two the chain of sympathy.  The one then is completely subject to
the control of the other ; and in this  manner you may easily account for
all the phenomena witnessed in the sympathetic somnambulist.
  Fourth  State—Perfect  Vision.    The  chain of  sympathy is  now
broken, and the Subject's mind is completely his own—no longer subject
to, or  controlled by, that of the Operator.
  Under this  head of our subject  we are to notice a most mysterious
phenomenon, not till lately developed ;—the phenomenon that the  mind
of man can be clothed with the power and faculty of unclouded reason.
It is the highest evidence of the original, fundamental truths of Chris-
tianity, delivered from  the same source to unbelieving and  sceptical
men, and which now should spread  a  mantle of deep shame for such
sceptical neglect.   The great pace of intellect which has evidently been
seen taking rapid strides from  one generation to another,  has  not wiped
away  this foul scepticism, but the transic state, clairvoyance, is still looked
upon, with all the pride, and pomp, and  bigotry, of by-gone ages, as be-
ing wrapped in mystery, and is dropped in the darkness of preconceived
fanaticism.   Hence, no  scientific investigation has ever been resorted to
in order to solve the mystery.  Hence, too, it is clothed in the same mys-
tery still, and is looked upon, as it was  in the days of the apostles, by
many, as tn effect of Satanic agency.  And the mind is more willing to
receive it as such than it is to throw off the mystery and go into the
search for the primary cause.
  The primary cause has been, in the  former Lectures, found out asd
explained.  All the mystery of man's physical existence,—the structure
of his own frame and  mind,  has  been solved.—and in doing this, we
have found the key to animal  magnetism   And in  solving the mystery
of animal magnetism, we have found  another  key, which unlocks the
mystery of clairvoyance.
  The medium through which the mind exists is that of electronomy.
It has before  been shown, that when  the Operator's mind is positive,
the Operative's is negative.  The chain  of sympathy existing between the
positive and negative minds, through the medium of animal  electricity,
makes the Subject a sympathetic  somnambulist.   In this state,  every
contraction of the  muscular  nerves is  produced through the investi-
•ntionof the  magnetizer.   \nd  when the connecting chain is  not so
strongly existing in sympathy, he becomes a more perfect somnambulist
   The. transic state, clairvoyant,  is produced  when the Subjects mind
becomes completely positive.  In this state the will of the Operator has
no powe-  or  control over his  mental  capacities.  Consider, for  a mo-
ment, the condition of one so situated : every physical organ is complete-
ly shut from all impressions from  the external world.  Nothing is then
left but the created mind.   It is, then, like a stone that is thrown into the
writer-—the  wave from the  origin swells, extends,  expands, until  it
reaches the distant shore.  The mind is so situated that  ,t expands, ex-
tends,  reaches  and searches, until  its wave has battered against the
re-ions of space !   It is imponderable,   immaterial  immortal   It is  he
same  that exists over, through, and  in you all!   If you should take the
w™as of the morning, and fly to the utmost bounds of the universe, yon 
36
LECTURES ON  CLAIRMATIVENESS.
 have begun only at the commencement of its existence I   It is then that
 the mind becomes clothed with the ever-pervading infiuite mind !   Sue
 is the condition of tho transic Clairvoyant.
   The simple action of the  heart, when viewed, affords a beautiful illus*
 tration of the  flight of spiritual mind.   The heart beats,  and its effect is
 instantaneousJy felt  at  the  remotest extremity of the  system.  It illus-
 trates  the instantaneous expansion of the mind, carried through the me-
 dium  of the gifted spirit.
   The sight of the Clairvoyant, when the mind is first launched from its
 nidulated state, is  described as being a beautiful, great  and  expansive
 light,  above  the glory and  brightness of  the  sun.  This expands
 throughout the regions of space.
   The sight,  so called, is not sight literally;  but it is the knowledge ;—
 which knowledge belongs to every child and  offspring of the ever-perva-
 ding, and rightly exalted Supreme Omnipotence.
   The transic  Clairvoyant,  when in that state,  addresses  the  world
 through the medium of the organs of speech.   It is designedly so, that
 he may hold familiar conversation.  Were it not thus, the communica-
 tion which  he holds with the external  world  would  only be as an echo
 of a sound.   But instead of that,  he is able to communicate what  know-
 ledge is necessary to be revealed to the external  world through the me-
 dium of the G«eat  Mind,  acting upon  his  mind, and that familiarly,
 through the organs of speech.
   A Clairvoyant does not literally see, but knows.   But when speaking
 to people whom he  knows are ignorant of such existing truths, speaks
 familiarly, in order to be  understood.   He sees  by the  understanding
 acted  upon  by the  Great  Positive Mind, heretofore explained.   His
 knowledge is  vast, beyond conception.
   He often states that he is not permitted to do such and such things :—
 he is governed by the dictates of reason—knows what is good to°com-
 inunicate, and hence, communicates what is good.  This accounts for the
 fact  th it he  sometimes refuses to gratify the idle curiosities of the people.
   These truly wonderful,  existing and eternal truths, will afford an an-
 chor of sure hope to  the benighted mind of the sceptic.  It throws new
 light where  darkness now reigns—and is  the clearest evidence, design-
 edly so, of immortality to the dark and hidden spirit of man.   When'in
 the s'ate that I now  <m, I am master of the general sciences—can  speak
 all languages—impirt instructions upon those deep and hidden things in
 niture, which  the world have not  been able to solve, as I have done in
 these Lectures—can  name  trie different organs in the  human system-
 point out their office and functions—and,  as I have  often done, tell the
 nature  cause and symptoms of disease, and prescribe the remedies that
 will effect the  cure.   These things should cause us to rejoice with ex
 celling great joy, with the evilence and assurance of being so olestfrom
 above.   This  is opening the door to a revolution which will  lead to a
 ne.v en—a  field never  before espied,—paths  that are untrodden.   The
d<>or op ming at the explanation and discovery of the mode of our exist-
ence—.ml a glance  through that  door, openel  to our view a strange,
s -no is sigm—that of Animal Magnetism !  Th- sigh* called for an ex-
 pl-in ui m, m 1 at th •  wry threshold we dared  to ask,   ' Is it so ?"   And
calm v t:i;.vired, • // it truer  This is the commencement of the new
e.-i   V  nr.h.T  - ght of investigation  unfoldel  a  new mystery to our
        1 h:  Hiveitigition of that mystery, opens to our view a brightei
it
View 
LECTURES ON CLAIRMATIVENESS.
37
ar
Pi'
and more luminous prospect.   The prospect and untrodden paths lead,
Jthrough the medium of the last investigation, unto glory, honor, immor-
 ility and eternal life!  I would then say to all—hoist the flood-gates of
 inchuded reason, and  let them pore over these serious, solemn and eter-
nal truths.
   The mystery is solved—the door is open—the broad field is before us.
Let us all improve the time  allotted us, to enter more  fully into those
blessings, and to participate in the blessings arising therefrom.
APPENDIX
  In subjoining a few remarks to  the foregoing Lectures, I respond to
an urgent call,°which  is almost universally made upon me, for some ac-
count of the Clairvoyant, and a brief statement of the circumstances un-
der which, from time to time, his disclosures and experiments have been
made.  In this, however, I  shall give only a very few statements,  as a
specimen of the many  which I could present.
  Mr Davis is well known here—he has resided, for the first 12 years
of his life, at Hyde Park, a place five miles distant from this.   Since that
period, a  term  of about six years, he has resided in this-place.   He is a
shoemaker  by trade, and has neither been favored with privileges by
which to  obtain an education, nor  has his mind at all been turned to the
investigation of scientific matters.   These statements are  capable of the
most satisfactory confirmation.  I  have said that Mr  D.  is not an edu-
cated man, nor has he now, in his wakeful state, the  least idea o those
sublime and lucid representations which he gives in the Clairvoyant state,
only as some one who hears his revelations may describe them unto him.
  I have been located in this place seven months.   Previous  to my set-
tlement here, I have for many years been a believer in Mesmerism, but
  verydeckTed unbeliever in Clairvoyance.  But the frequent attestatmns
which  I  have witnessed as  given by my neighbor, Mr. D, have con-
vinced me of the truth of this new and wonderful development of mind
-its powers in Clairvoyance.  Experiments  have been  so  varied  and
multiped  that I can noVnger remain an unbeliever.   The truth is irre-
sistible and I am compelled to believe it.
  Tt'he first of my observations, Mr. D. examined my own  system-

telling me very -^J^^fi The^in SicL° 1^

S^                     *> t perfectldy>  Furthherh
he nreTcdbed  medicine for me which cured my disease, and from which
& perfectly fre. ^^^3!^^ STcS
K^'aSwlSJ^^ -P-entafion, he  explained

"TnSJ"ed his examination of a young lady.   He described her
    ^n r^ rfectlv a* was acknowledged at the time—pointing out the
12^Therdiseas^nd pain, designating the different organs by their
technical or scientific names, and  locating every part of the system wh,,h 
 88                LECTURKS  o.\ Cl.AIRM \TIVEN ESS.

 he hid occasion to name, with the  most astonishing readiness and pro-
 priety.
   Since the examinations named above, I have witnessed his examina^
 tion of some 70 or £0 persons, the seat of whose diseases and  pains, to-J
 gether with their  causes, sympti ins, etc.,  he has described with equal1
 readiness and truth—many of which  persons were  brought in before
 him after he was put to sleep, and of whom he had  no previous know-
 ledge.  Indeed, there  can be no reasonable doubt that the human sys-
 tem is transparent  before him when he is in the Clairvoyant state
   At the time of  my examination, as above alluded to, I requested Mr.
 Davis to go to the  house of Mr. A. P. Spooner, in New Portland, Me.—a
 distance of some 500 miles at  least, to examine his  house, describe  his
 family, &e.  He gave an accurate description of the house from  cellar
 to garret,  speaking in the  outset  of the  unusually tall  chimney, and
 then  proceeding to  a very definite  representation  of the rooms,  and a
 most accurate and  minute description of the various articles of furniture
 within them—pointing out even the number of pictures in a certain  room.
 He described also  Mr. Spooner  and wife, and a child of adoption with
 them—stating their height, size, complexion, &c.; and most correctly did
 he describe the disease with which Mr. S. had for some years been trou-
 bled, stating that  it was occasioned by injuring the spinal chord  when
 lifting a  heavy burden,  some  three  years p.e.'ious to  the time of this
 examination.  He  described also other houses in the place, recognizing
 and  pointing out my portraiture  in  a certain  room, and  making  many
 other most truthful representations  altogether too numerous and minute
 to mention in this account
  Among the many other instances of his power  in describing distant
 objects and events  which  I witnessed, I would speak of  his visit to Eng-
 land. Mr. Wm. Brown, of this place, feeling  anxious about his wife
and  child, who were on  a visit to  their friends in England,  requested
 Mr. D., the Clairvoyant, to go and inquire after their health and welfare.
 He went, and returned, and informed Mr. B. that his wife and child had
been very sick—described their complaints, and said they were then re-
covering.   He also gave  a representation of the  house in which they re-
sided—of many other things in its vicinity—speaking particularly of an
antiquated meeting-house which stood near.  He  stated that there were
four persons  in the  house  at which Mrs. B  was visiting, and that one
of them appeared, from the soot upon his clothes, and from his  complex-
ion, as a coal-inan.    For his own satisfaction, Mr. B. immediately  wrote
to England,  making inquiry with  reference to all these items, and re-
ceived an answer confirming the entire account  as given by Mr. D.   A
man of the household was engaged in the coal business—the account  of
the antiquated building was also true, and the wife and child had been
sick as represented above, and were convalescent at the  time of Mr. D.'a
 examination.
  As another instance which I will name, as  a specimen of the powers
of the Clairvoyant, I would relate the fact that Mr. Davis, a young man
of this place, had been long absent at sea, and his friends becoming very
anxious  about him, requested that Mr. D., the Clairvoyant, be requested
to go in search of  him.   He accordingly went,  and found him at  a dis-
 tance of 8,000 miles.  He told his  precise condition : that by a fall  he
 had  broken his leg; and that at this moment  he was in a long  build
 ing, confined to his bed—that  he was then talking with a  tall  man 
*
                        LECTURES ON CLAIRMATIVENESS.               39

^a»w  dressed  in white pants, with a  green jacket, and that he, Mr. D., was
    ^^veeping, being in conversation relative to his mother, whom he then ex-
     Hpected never again to see.  Mr. Davis, the clairvoyant, however, said
   ^pthat the young man  would return  home  again to his  friends.   The
^"•^  young man has since returned according to the testimony of  the Clair-
       voyant, and he has also confirmed the entire  statement of the Clairvoy-
       ant.  He had received the fall,—his  leg was broken ;  the long building
       was a hospital, to which he was taken after receiving his calamity—he
       had conversation with a tall man, as named  above, in reference to his
       mother, whom then he did not expect again to see ;  and he wept on the
       occasion, as testified by the Clairvoyant;—all of which account can be con-
       firmed to the abundant satisfaction of any inquirer.  When the young
       man arrived,  his friends told him  they knew the accident that  had be-
       fallen him ;  at wha tdistance it occurred ; the conversation which he held
       with the tall man, &c. ;  all of which  was readily acknowledged and con-
       firmed by the returning son.
         I will in this place present a letter which I have  received from Rev.
       L. P. Rand, of Orono, Me.—a gentleman whose  character for discern-
       ment, candor, and integrity is not to be questioned.
                                                 Orono, May 9th, 1845.
         Br. Smith—Agreeably to your request, I send you the  following
       statements, in  reference to the mesmeric  experiments which I witnessed
       in  Poughkeepsie some  few weeks  since,  as given by Mr.  Davis, the
       Clairvoyant, of that place.   And I would first speak of His examination
       of my own person.  By what power  he made his discoveries,  or formed
       his decisions I know not; but certain I am they were correct.   He very
       accurately pointed out  certain difficulties of the stomach with which I
       had long  before been afflicted, but which the energies of my system had
       resisted and  thrown off, and from  which  I  was then free.   He also
       pointed  out certain other difficulties, which, from much  exposure, I had
       experienced, with such  exact precision, that I could not doubt that my
       system was transparent in his view.   I made some inquiries, upon which
       he replied that I was not diseased—that my lungs and chest were sound,
       save a slight irritation upon  the bronchial tubes, occasioned by much ex-
       posure, and a bad  cold with which I was then most manifestly afflicted.
         I would further state, that I requested the Clairvoyant to go to Orono,
       Me., and examine a man of my acquaintance.   He went and found him,
       (the name having been given,) and described  him, his height, size, &c,
       a-nd spoke also of a large scrofulous  tumor  on the side of his neck.   He
       described the  size, shape  and appearance of the tumor very  accurately
       and minutely,—much more so than  I could have done, although I had
       frequently seen the man thus afflicted.   The  Clairvoyant also spoke of
       the method and gave the directions by which the tumor could be removed.
         Among other examinations and prescriptions which I witnessed, was
       the case of a child in Poughkeepsie,  afflicted with khe croup.  The f ither
       of the child came  into the room in much apparent excitement and anx-
       iety, and requested that Mr. D., who was then  in the  clairvoyant state,
       be requested to prescribe medicine for  his child.   The Clairvoyant pau-
       sed for a  moment, as  he usually does before  an effort of tne  kind, and
       then proceeded to prescribe as follows:—Take onions and mustard-seed,
       the greater part  onions, pound, mix, and lay them upon the stomach, 
*>
40                LECTURES ON CLAIRMATIVENESS.

high up,—take also  molasses two parts, heat it very hot,  and add one
part of brandy :—give the child one teaspoon-full a minute until he va'
mits.   The Clairvoyant was then requested to go and looT< at the child!
and see how  he might be at that  moment.  He went, and having evi-
dently beheld  him, said,  yes—he is very sick ; he lies in the  woman
lap now;  he  chokes very much ;  he is very black ;  and, speaking to
the father, said, you had better go quick, the medicine  I have named will
be good for him.  The remedy, as prescribed, was immediately applied :
in a  short time the  child vomited, as was  foretold,—was relieved, and
recovered.  These facts can be confirmed, to the satisfaction of any one,
by the most indubitable testimony.
  And now, dear sir, having carefully and  very truthfully penned the
above, I remain, with much respect, yours, &c.
  Rev. G. Smith.                                 L.  P. RAND.

  I would remark in this place, that I could give very many testimo-
nies like those presented  above, but  I deem what I  have already pre-
sented, authentic as they  are, sufficient to show that Mr.  Davis, when in
the clairvoyant state,  has  powers most wonderful and  sublime; and that
his knowledge entirely surpasses the ordinary conceptions of  man.  In
fact, it would seem that when in this state the powers of his  mind ex-
 fiand  indefinitely, extending to every department  of science and know-
 edge, grasping not only the minutest  intricacies in  the vegetable and
animal kingdoms, but also the vast mechanism and laws of the planetary
worlds.  Me seems equally familiar and at home,  whether speaking of
the earth's atmosphere, its extent, its gases, its mists and clouds, or of the
heart and its  appendages, with  the life-current that flows through it to
the ten thousand avenues  of the  human  form—the same,  whether giving
a botanical description of the herb  of  the field,  explaining the forma-
tion of a dew-drop, or expounding the principles by which  the  fierce
comet is controlled in its fiery path !   Now, he  talks of the  brain, its
structure, its formations ;  of the formation  of mind, as acting in connec-
tion with the physical organization ; and now he speaks familiarly  of the
unspeakable gifts and capacities of superior  beings in the angelic  state.
The sick  man is brought in before him, or  he is requested to  visit him,
hundreds of miles distant  and his system being transparent in his  view,
he examines,  detects  the cause, describes the disease, and prescribes a
remedy.   When he has thus pointed out the disease, he pauses for a mo-
ment, as if to  look through  the whole arcana of  nature, then  analyzes,
compounds and prescribes with the most perfect readiness and propriety.
Nor is it less  astonishing, that having given  long and minute  prescrip-
tions, embracing a great variety of ingredients—prescriptions given with
wonderful rapidity—he should accurately remember the  whole, even the
quality and quantity  of the smallest article, to any number of weeks and
months afterwards,  when in the transic state.  His diction is  free from
errors or blunders;  he speaks rapidly and correctly, using words suited
to his subject,.—giving the  scientific name  to the medicine he recom-
mends; and converses freely and accurately  in any language he has oc-
casion to up -.   I confess  that these statements would  seem to  be almost
too much t > publish to the world, but they  are nevertheless true.
                          -: ■AfoicAL' "i .*.             G SMITH,
                      .jp: MEDICAL t)(ift^
i'a~
W...            *y  ■ 
•
\ 
Valuable  Cheap  Fublicatftns.
For Sale by  WILSON AND  COMPANY,  15 Sprue,
Stntt, New York.
         The Human Hair.
A Treitfse on the  Hrtir, with Rules for it*
  Management and proper treatment under all
  circumstances.
This is the most valuable Book on the  Hair
ever published   It treats on every possible sub-
ject relative to the preservation, growth, and
cultivation of the Hair.  It  is an  impartial
work, and does not puff any quack prapaxation
for the h«rir.  Price l2i cents.

         The  Human Skin
A TrenuVe  on the Diseases and AfFectinn of
  the  Skin, showing how a person may always
  keep a clear aud beautiful  skin, aud at the
  same time enjoy excellent health.
  Thia valuable little work has passed through
twenty editious in London.   Ii is the best  trea-
tise ever written  on the skin, and will  give the I on the art of writing letters  in a  proper
         The Elliott Family.
  This is an excellent m^ral tale of tj
a New York Seamstress—how
through poverty, and finally triumpl
unhappy condition in life.  It contu
ges.  Price 12$ cents per copy.

     A Guide to  Phrenology.

  This books shows the place, order, and i
bination of the several Organs of the  han*an
head,  and classifies  each.  It is a  complete
guide book to persons who commence the study
of the interesting science of Phrenology.  It hi
illustrated with suitable engravings.   Price 12}
cents per copy.

   Letter  Writing  Simplified.

  TMs work contains a plainly-written treatise V,
reader pome new id'-a* which he will be aston-
ished  at as well as  pleased.   Puce only  12J|
cents  per copy.

      Treatment of the Teeth.
  We have a valuable  and in'tmstini? book on
the treatment of the TeeMi which slumld be r« ad
by every person from 12 y-urs eld, upwards  1|
if t>T Dr J. Burd*;!, ol iIim city, and it c •t.taiiih
useful iiiti'innliun, wi'h suitib'e ei.gr i\in;;i. il-
ln«tr tin* the various diseases cf the teeth, ttiul
th* proper mo le of preserving tlirm.  This i« h
hanoVomo  aiifl  wel  printed buoK  wi'h  over 4H
engravings.  Price- 12$ centit per copy.

   The Physiology of Heajth.
  This is a valuable physiological  wort  by-*».
Pereira, containing a clearly written cYscrtp.
lion of the  varions organs and luhctiuns ol tlu
Human body, with directio is for  the maiiat;e.
m»i:t  vf each  particular  function to pr-mou
sound aud la-ti'ij/ health, and thus live to a good
o.d *e;e>.   It also centaur a Dieteiical Regimen
for  Dyspeptics, coinpdring  the nourishment of
different foods and drinks.  It is very cfieap at
12$ cen*a per copy.

    The Young Bride's Book.
  Tliis is a neatly printed little manuel  lor la
dies, eelting forth the social and . oni^ptic du-
ties of woman as the Wife and the Mother.  It
is a book suitable to be presented toevry young
Udy on her marriage day.  Price 12$ cenuper
copy.
  Synopsis of Phrenology and
             Physiology.
  This book contains engravings of over thirty
different human heads, and is of itself a com
nlete history of the two intervening sciences  of
Phrenology aud Physiology.  It k written in the
plainest possible manner, aud any one mny ea-
sily understand the principles of these seieno
by its  perusal.  Price 12} cents per copy.
 fashionable, manner. It also contains speciinet
 or drifts of letters of all kind*, such as bat
 letters, letters of friendship, love letters, leWf
 to cousins and every degree of relationship, i-pe-
 cimens of notes, invitations of all ki|ds, ic.
 Persons buying this book will never be at a loss
 how to write  a letter of any description   Price,
 12$ cents per copy                        j

         The Home  Doctor.
   This is a Family Manuel, by Dr. J. B. N*
 mau ;  being a suf. guide both in health aud,
 sickness.  U  gives Hie Causes, Symptoms aud
 Proper Trcftineilt of all D;«eas"s, and valuable*
 Recip-s for making various  p...   m-s and arti-
 cles of Dn-t for tne sick room   It )ou buy this
 book,  you  may  save  many unnecessary  visits
j from the Doctor,  as  it describe*  the symptom*
! of almost  -very  disease  common to  families.
'and |  ..iits out the cure.  Price  12$ cents pecJi
 copy

i The  Mother's  Medical  Adviser.
   This is a little Treatise on the l^eaex and
 Management of Children, which  should be  in
I the hands of  every mother.  It gives the, most
| plain  and specific directions to be  pursued  bj'
 cases of sic linens among infants and children i
 any age.  The possession of this  hook will not
 only save much anxiety, but a great deal of ex-
 penjse  in procuring the doctor when his services
 tfe^innecessary.  Price 12$ cents per copy.

 * The Sibyl's Book of Fate.
   This is an  interesting  Treatise on Physiog-
 nomy, and the  analyzation of Dreams.  Also,*
 it contains a  Fortune Teller, or Book of Fata^
 prepared and  drafted in the most approved i
 ner of both Modern and Ancient Astroli
 It embraces in one book,all the books everpu
 lushed  of the  kihd.  Price  12$ cents per toff.
             WILSON &.  CO Publisher*.
              15 Sprsce street, Hew Yodt