ON FORCE,

ITS

MENTAL AND MORAL CORRELATES;

AND ON THAT WHICH
IS

SUPPOSED TO UNDERLIE ALL PHENOMENA:

WITH SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM,

AND OTHER ABNORMAL CONDITIONS OF MIND.

BY CHARLES BRAY,
AUTHOR OF THE " PHILOSOPHY OF NECESSITY," THE " EDUCATION OF THE FEELINGS," ETC.
" He

who, believing that the search for truth can never be offensive to the of truth, pursues his way with an unswerving energy, may not unreasonably hope that he may assist others in their struggle towards the light, and may in some small degree contribute to that consummation when the professed belief shall have been adjusted to the requirements of the age, when the old tyranny shall have been broken, and the anarchy of transition shall have passed away." Lecky's History of nationalism.

God

"In the present

is,

one on the other," &c.

scarcely

state of science, of all subjects that on which we know least perhaps, the connection of our bodily and mental nature, the action of the Professor the Rev. Baden Powell.

"Metaphysics revolve in an endless circle of abstractions, ethics have made any permanent advance since the introduction of Christianity." Time's, January 1st, 1866. " All our conceptions are based on the implied postulate that the world is as it appears. * * * The advance of knowledge consists in the substitution
of accurate conceptions for natural ones."

Man and

James Hint on. " It remains

his Ihcelling Place, by

for philosophers to place Physiology and Mental and Moral Philosophy in the same position as positive science reached by induction." If. G.Atkinson, F.G.S.

" Men rarely recount facts simply as they happened, but mingle their own opinions with them more especially if the facts are above their comprehension, and connected with religious interests." Spinoza. "There are few delusions that a man cannot be brought to believe if they his neither stomach nor his purse." Times, April 27th, 1863. injure
;

" If the Critic speaks, it is not to tell the reader what the Philosopher thinks, but what he thinks of the Philosopher : a quite uninteresting matter."
Fortnightly Review.

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYEE.

THE RIGHT OF TRANSLATION
IS

RESERVED.

20151S5

W.

P.

TAUNTON, PBINTEB, COVENTBT.

PREFACE.

THE

doctrine of Philosophical Necessity, notwithstanding

its

supposed horrible tendency to sap the foundation of morals,

has been elevated from the regions below, where, according to
Milton,
for
its

discussion furnished
only,
to

fit

occupation and amusement

devils

form
is

the

base

of

Social
for

Science.

Philosophical Necessity
fixed order of

only another

name

"

Law"

or a

Nature in the department of Mind, and there

it.

can be no Social Science without

to

This I have endeavoured

make
it

plain in

my

work on " The Philosophy of Necessity,"

and

is

my

purpose now to show that the doctrine of the

Con-elation and Persistence of Forces,

legitimate

when thought out

to its

consequences,

gives

us a Science of Psychology

based on Physiology, by which alone we can attain to the

same command over mind,

force.

as

we already have over physical

" Take making a cannon,
it,"

The Irishman's

direction for

a long hole, and pour metal round

has been followed by

" method" Metaphysicians in making their canons, and the

IV.

PREFACE.

has produced results such as might have been expected.

Consciousness, their round hole, has no substantial existence

out of the individual mind reflecting upon

to in

it,

and

it is difficult

pour metal round

the
ipse

it,

and the canons so founded result only

the founder,

dixit

of
is

which every succeeding

philosopher thinks
cast
all

necessary to burst before he proceeds to

any of his own.

Mind

is force,

and

it

must be studied as

other forces are, as well as by "reflection on conscious-

ness," and then Metaphysics

is

may

take the place to which

it

entitled at the

head of

all

other Sciences.

The

Correlation of Forces shows that in the cycle of forces

we can always

return to the

same

starting point without a

is

break, and the Persistence of Force shows that this

always

done without loss; now these truths, not stopping short in

Physics, but carried, as they ought to be, into the higher field
of Mind, furnish, I think, the most probable explanation of "the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism, " at the present

time so

much

puzzling earnest investigators.

My

speculations
to

however are given only as speculations; I have no wish

dogmatise, I merely present an hypothesis to be rejected or

affirmed

by observation and experience.

History

now has

shown that we must not be deterred from the acceptance of

any truth from
its

supposed consequences.

Friar

Bacon was

cast into prison as a magician

by the Superior

of his Order,

and the mysteries of physical science were treated then very

much

as

the

mysteries

of mental

science are

now.

Mr.

PEEFACE.

V.

Lewes

says,

(Fortnightly Revieiv, Feb. 1, 1866),

"

We

are

warned against Materialism as cold and desolating.

real

The

warning should be against materialism as erroneous; in

of
fact,

point

we do not

find

materialists

are

cold

and

desolated,

We

any more than spiritualists are hot and happy." must not ask then, " To what will this lead? but is it

true?"
if
till

No

truth

is really at

variance with other truth, and

it

should appear to be so,

we must be
matter.

content to wait
are not bound,

we understand the whole

We

however, to attach every new truth to some old error or

superstition

and then wait

it

till

we can

reconcile

the two,

before

we reason

out to

its

legitimate consequences: this

would be to make

it

powerless and inoperative.

Thus Pro5, for

fessor Mansel, in the Contemporary Eevieic,

No.

May,

1866,
tability

says,

"Eternity and continuous

in time

duration

immu-

and creation

perfect action, yet unexhausted

power

to act

everlasting purpose

and

accessibility to prayer

general law and special providence

ledge co-existing with

complete fore-know-

human

freedom,

we cannot combine

these several elements together into a consistent whole, yet

we can
I

believe that they

are capable of combination

"
:

but

confess

find

in

myself no such wonderful power of

belief;

on the contrary, the propositions appear to

me

as

contradictory as that a thing

may be and may may

not be at the

same time.

Some

of the propositions

lie

beyond our

depth, but I certainly cannot conceive

how an
is,

occurrence can

be fore-known which

is

contingent, that

if

man

is

really

VI.

PREFACE.
or

free,

may happen
upon
it

may

not happen ; neither do I

feel
if it

myself
really

called

to believe in

any such freedom, for

existed

would completely paralyse man's action,

as there

could be no prevision either in

God

or man.

This short Treatise

only,

is

dedicated to those, and to those

all

who

love truth above

things, for its

own

sake.

PAGE

CHAPTER

I.

Os FOBCE
FORCE;
1.

CHAPTER

II.

ITS

MENTAL CORRELATES
of Phrenology

7
.

SECTION SECTION

2.

The Psychology The Persistence

of Force

...
.

23

35

CHAPTER III. UPON

CHAPTER
The
IV.

THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA

47

SPECULATIONS ON

SPIRITUALISM AND OTHER

ABNORMAL CONDITIONS OF MIND

...

69

Correlation of Force in Living Structures. Matter and Time and Space. same in Essence. The Correlation of the Vital and Mental Forces. The CondiSpirit the

tions attending Influx or Inspiration.

Memory.

SPIRITUALISM.
cation of the

AppliPhysical Force, Table Moving, Rapping, Levitation, &c. Intelligence. Investigators into Spiritual Manifestations vrho have rejected the Notion

Genuineness of the Phenomena.

Theory:

of Spirits.

History Confirms the Existence of the Pheno-

The Manifestations in the Catholic Church. The Abnormal Mental Powers of the Founders "Witchcraft. The Constitution of the Medium. of Sects. The Spirits; The Rationale of the their Abodes and Occupations. The Coming Spirit World evolved Spiritual Phenomena.
mena.
from the
Spirit

Atmosphere, the result of Cerebration.

ARGUMENT.
is but one thing known to us in the universe; this, Physical Philosophers hare " Force." The Reality or Entity underlying it, or that of which it is the Force, have called " Noumenon." It is the "Substance" of Spinoza, and the Metaphysiciaas " " Being of Hegel.

THERE
called

Everything around us results from the mode of action or motion, or correlation of

this one force, the different

Forms of which we

call

Phenomena.

of action depends upon the difference in the Structure it passes through ; such Structure consisting of concentrated Force, or centres of Force, and " has been called Matter. Every form is force visible ; a form of rest is a balance of forces ; a form undergoing change is the predominance of one over others." Huxley.
difference in the

The

mode

Heat, Light, Magnetism, Electricity, Attraction, Repulsion, Chemical Affinity, Life, or Sentience, are modes of action or manifestations of Force, and die or cease to exist when the Force passes on into other forms.

Mind

Cause and Effect form this sequence or correlation ; and each cause and effect is a new and a oew Death each form being a new creation, which dies and passes away, never to return ; for " nothing repeats itself, because nothing can be placed again in the same condition the past being irrevocable." W. B. Grove. " There is no death in the
Life
: :

concrete,

what passes away passes away

Hegel.

into its

own

self

only the passing

away passes

away."

Force passing through a portion of the structure of the brain, creates the "World" of our intellectual consciousness, with the " ego," or sense of personal identity ; passing through other portions the world of our likes and antipathies called the Moral world ; Good and Evil being purely subjective.

The character and direction of Volition depend upon the Persistent Force and the structure through which it passes. Every existing state, both bodily and mental, haa grown out of the preceding, and all its Forces have been used up in present phenomena. " Thus, everything that exists depends upon the past, prepares the future, and is related to the whole." Oersted.

As no force acts singly, but is always combined with other forces or modes of action to produce some given purpose or particular result, we infer that Force is not blind but as it is One, we infer it is the force of an intelligent Being possessing intelligent " He is the universal personality ; and that Being we have called God. Being of which all things are the manifestations." Spinoea.
:

All force or power is Will power, the will of God. " Causation is the will, Creation W. R. Grove. The will which originally required a distinct conscious the act of God." volition has passed, in the ages, into the unconscious or automatic, constituting the fixed laws and order of nature.

Vital Force exists in excess in some constitutions, living organisms, often constituting a curative agent.

and may be transferred to other

Brain Force, the result of cerebration, also exists in excess in some nervous constituit then forms a sphere or atmosphere around individuals by which one brain is brought into communication with others and mind becomes a unity. Individual willpower can act through thia medium beyond the range of individual body. In this way may be explained the Mysteries of Magic and Witchcraft, the Phenomena of Mesmerism, of so-called Spiritualism, and the Curative Power of Individuals.
tiotas
;

ERRATA.
" THERE
is is all," p.

48.

nothing underlying phenomena phenomena are correlates of force, and force By this the author simply means that motion cannot be separated from the

thing moving, or force or power be delegated, or separated from that which it is the force that is, the source of all power. " God's power," as Spinoza says, " is the same as hia of,
essence," and all change therefore
attributes, are powers,
is

but "the varied God."

to exist per
se,

Properties, qualities, or

and when said

it is

in the

same

sense.

They

have no separate existence, and are therefore untransferable. For "emotion," p. 14, line 4, read " motion." " For " read " succession line and
perception," p. 14,
7,
;

for "pass,"

same

line,

read

"

passes."

For "heaps," p. 47, line 2, read "harps." In p. 67, line 3, " if" is omitted.
read forms." For " anthropological," p. 98, liue 27, read " anthropomorphical."
p. 86, line 24,

For "assume," For " figures/'

"

p. 71, line 17,

read " resume."

"

For Tyara," p. 117, line 11, read Tyana." For "he," p. 128, last line bnt one, read " have been." For " lectation," p. 129, line 8, read " lactation."

"

FORCE,

AND

ITS

MENTAL AND MORAL

CORRELATES.

CHAPTER
ON FORCE.
NOT
very long ago
all

I.

the world believed that the sun went

round the earth

; they saw that it did ; now all the world (with a very small exception) believes in the existence of matter ;

they see
doxical as

it,

they

feel

it,

and that

is

enough.

But paro-

it

may

seem, philosophers, after the most diligent

research have failed to

Ave

find matter anywhere, and whereas were wont to speak of the impenetrability and indestruc-

tibility

of

matter,

we now speak only

of the

persistence

and conservation or
tion

indestructibility of Force.

The assump-

that

the

only therefore

force which acts upon us, and of which we know anything, belongs to something else

which

we

call

matter,

is

gratuitous,

unwarrantable,
until

and
very

altogether

unnecessary.

Heat and Light were

recently thought to be matter, but the material theory with

respect to those
is

now

given up.
iron,

Count Bumford boiled

and Sir Humphrey Davy

water

by thumping upon

As produced heat by rubbing two pieces of ice together. concussion and friction therefore produced heat, heat was
B

2
thought to
nothing,
it

FORCE. be not matter,

is

but motion.

But motion

is

the mere
it

mode

of action of Force and the

transference of

in greater or less intensity,

of space to another.

The heat from

friction

from one point and arrested

motion
of
its

is

merely an illustration of the persistence of force,

different

varying action in
it

conditions,

and of the

transference of

from one centre of force (which we call Heat and Light are the same, that is, body) to another. different modes of action or motion of the same force, as are
also
electricity,

magnetism,

and chemical and

all

affinity;

that

is

to say, they are correlates,

other without loss

forces,

change readily into each These of quantity of the original Force.

this
force,

or rather

since

all

are

convertible,

is

the source of the delusion

under with respect to For what do we when we and feel it. we see matter, say see? a minute inverted Light, which is force, photographs
are

we

on the retina, which image on the bottom of the eye acting on the Brain produces consciousness of an object.
All that
is

known

to

us

is

the

mental
is

conception,

the reality of which our conception

It is evident there is

no matter here.
see it?
to

composed is Force. But surely we feel

is

matter

if

we do not

The
motion.

sense of Feeling

mere
of

repulsion

resistance

When we
resistance
J.

speak

matter as subtle, or as

solid,

liquid, or aeriform,

we simply
to

mean

that

it

presents

more or
arises,"

less

motion.

"When

the

question
affects

says

S.

Mill,

"whether

something which

instance whether Heat or Light, or Electricity,

matter, what seems always to be

our senses in a peculiar way, as for is, or is not

meant
?

is,

does
If
all
it

it

offer

any,

however
that
it

trifling, resistance

to

motion

were shown

did, this
is

would

at

once terminate

doubt."

But

repulsion or force, which acting on the sense causes a sensation; when acting on the brain, an idea.

Resistance

ITS DIFFEKEKT

MODES OF ACTION.

In Chemistry we find only circles or centres of force ultimate atoms, which this force is supposed to surround, are an uncalled for and altogether unnecessary
the
invention.

When

I speak of body therefore or

substance,
intense or

mean
its

these circles of force in a

more or

less

condensed condition.

The way

in

upon

relation to these bodies, or

which force acts depends what have been called

"potential energies";
billiard

going in at one end of a row of

at
it

balls

it

comes out

the

other, with

little

or no

change even in quantity, but

plexity of the

varies according to the

comit

substance or organization through which

to the relation
it

passes, that
forces.

is,

bears to previously arranged

either matter or

But when we speak of

tell

force

we

speak only of the external cause of our sensations and ideas,

and these
either;

us nothing of the real nature or essence of

why

not then continue to use the term matter as

heretofore?

answer because the more general term force may include and does really include both what has hitherto been called Matter and Spirit also. We are told that " Force

We

viewed separately from matter is nothing." I think it more correct to say that matter viewed separately from force is
nothing, because

we know

that force passes into or changes

into mind, as heat into light,

and we thus include both sides

Force, in
its different

of creation

Matter and

Spirit.

modes

of action as Light, Heat, Electricity, Galvanism, Chemical

Affinity,

Attraction and Repulsion,

is

sufficient

to

produce

half the

phenomena around

us.

Life and Mind, which are

its action,

correlates of Force, or other

modes of
There
is

are sufficient

to produce the other half.

dial,

but One simple, primor-

absolute Force, with varying relations and conditions.

of Force or Effects

The modes
more nor

now

in existence are neither

less

than such as have previously existed, changed

only in form.

They have not merely

acted upon each other,

4
according to the

FORCE.

common

supposition with respect to matter,

BUT HAVE CHANGED INTO EACH OTHEE.

to be a very important distinction.

This

will

be found

creation of something which in that

existed before

Each change is a new form or mode has never

passes into another form

new

life,

and as

it

"nothing repeats itself, because nothing can be placed again in the same condition the past is irrevocable." * And may we not add irrecoverable.
or

mode,

new death

Motion or change is constantly producing new relations and conditions. We cannot speak of motion as existing

by

Force therefore

merely a mode of action of Force, and cannot be separated from it, but must always attend it; the same may be said of all the Imponitself,

as

it

is

derables,

which
It
is

are
in

mere
this

modes of

action,

or

Force in
itself

motion.

way,

probably,
its

that

Force

escapes us, because

it

is

only with

modes or motions that

we have

to do:

for

know

it

only by

its effects,

we know nothing of Force in itself, we and when we say therefore that

electrical

something takes place by the force of attraction, repulsion, or chemical affinity, &c., we only mean that a
certain group of

phenomena occur

in a certain order,

and

that they occur uniformly and invariably in that order.

Cause and Effect are mere correlation of Force, produced by organization or the manner in which forces are concentrated and arranged.
Mr. Grove says,

"I

use the term force in reference to

them
ciple
its

(the affections of matter), as

meaning the
is

active prin-

inseparable from matter which

supposed to induce
are

various changes,"!

But
to us,

as

"the various changes"

is

the only things

known

why assume that they are

any matter

inse-

parable from matter, or that there

at all ?

Correlation of Physical Forces, p. 22, by

+

W. R. Grove.

Ibid, p. 16.

MATTER UNNECESSARY.

" We know no more of Again, Professor Tyndall says, the origin of force than of the origin of matter where matter
;

is,

force
Is
it

is,

for

we only know matter through

change, or motion,
is

its

forces." *

not better then to dispense with matter altogether?

For

if all action,

owing

to force,

and

it is

impossible to conceive of force without antecedent force,

what

then becomes of matter?

This doctrine of the Persistence of

Force seems to me, not only to make matter altogether unneI shall use its cessary, hut to exclude even the very idea.
nomenclature therefore only as signs indicating Force.
Professor John Tyndall says in the eloquent peroration to
his

work on Heat:

" The discoveries and generalizations of

modern

science constitute a

yet been addressed to the

poem more sublime than has ever The natural philosoimagination.

pher of to-day may dwell amid conceptions which beggar those of Milton. So great and grand are they, that in the contemplation of
us

them a

certain force of character

is

requisite to preserve

from

bewilderment.

Look

at the integrated energies of our

world

the stored
fleets,

rivers, our

power of our coal-fields, our winds and What are they? They armies, and guns.

are

all

generated by a portion of the sun's energy, which

does not amount to one thousand three hundred millionth

part of the whole.
force intercepted

This

is

the entire fraction pf the sun's

by the Earth, and we convert but a small

Multiplying

fraction of this fraction into mechanical energy.

all

our powers by millions of millions, we do not reach the

sun's expenditure.

drain, in the lapse of

And still, notwithstanding this enormous human history we are unable to detect
Measured by our
largest terresit

a diminution of his store.

trial
is

standards, such a reservoir of power is infinite; but

our privilege to rise above these standards, and to regard

The Constitution

of the Universe.

Fortnightly Recieic,

the sun himself as a speck in infinite extension, a mere drop

in the universal sea.

We
is

analyze the space in which he

is

immersed, and which

to other systems
like

the vehicle of his power.

We

pass

and other suns, each pouring forth energy

still

our own,

but

without infringements

of the

law,

which reveals immutability in the midst of change, which

recognizes incessant transference, conversion, hut neither final

gain nor loss.

that there
is

This law generalizes the aphorism of Solomon,

nothing

new under

the sun, by teaching us to

detect everywhere, under its infinite variety of appearances,

the

same primeval force.

To

nature nothing can be added ;

from nature nothing can be taken away; the sum of her energies is constant, and the utmost man can do in the pursuit of physical truth, or in the application of physical

know-

ledge,

is

to shift the constituents of the never-varying total.

rigidly excludes

The law of conservation

annihilation.
to

both creation and

Waves may change

magnitude

to

ripples,

and ripples

waves
for

may

be substituted for number, and

number

may

asteroids may aggregate to suns, suns tesohe themselves into flora, and fauna, and florae, and

magnitude

faunts
it rolls

melt in air
in

the flux of power is eternally the same, music through the ages, and all terrestrial energy
life

the manifestations of

as well as the display of pheno-

mena

are but modulations."

CHAPTER

II.

FORCE; ITS MENTAL CORRELATES.

It is

probable that at the origin of our globe, the conof force

centration

previously diffused in

the form of so-

called nebulous matter, produced

an amount of heat which

us.

gradually took the shapes

forces

we have now around

Certain

were chemically united, as in our primary rocks, others were divorced, as the oxygen from the carbon in the
coal.

By

bringing the carbon and the oxygen in our atmo-

sphere together again

we have
it

the

same amount of

force, in

the shape of heat, which

It takes

originally took to separate them.

into

an immense amount of force to separate magnesia oxygen and magnesium, and their reunion is proporis

tionately intense, as
in the burning of

now

so beautifully
wire.

and

easily illustrated

magnesium

It is

by the action of

these forces that most of the changes

still

we

see around us are

produced.

The

force derived

from the union of oxygen

is

with the coal annually dug from the British mines

culated to be equal to that of the whole
light

cal-

human

race.

The

and heat of the sun's rays separated the carbon and oxygen in plants and vegetables, and an immense amount
of force
is

generated whenever the carbon and oxygen again

it

meet, whether

be in

the

fire-place,

or,

and

less

energetically,

in the animal body.

more amicably Thus Dr. Neil

Amott
knew

says:
well

" James Watt, when devising his great engine,

that

the

rapid

combination of the oxygen

of

FORCE, AND ITS MENTAL CORRELATES.

atmospheric air with the combustible fuel in the furnace, produced the heat and force of the engine; but he did not

know

that

in

living bodies

there

is

going on, only more

slowly, a similar combination of the oxygen of the air with

the like combustible matter in the food,

after

as this circulates

form of blood through the lungs, which combination produces the warmth and force of the
digestion
in

the

living animal.

The

chief resemblances of the two objects

are exhibited strikingly in the following table of comparison,

where, in two adjoining columns,

are set forth nearly the

same things and

actions, with difference only in the

names

The Steam Engine in action

takes
1.

The animal body in

life,

takes

Fuel, viz. : coal and wood, both being old or dry vegetable matter, and both combustible.

1.

Food,

viz.

table matter

recent or fresh vegeand flesh, both be-

ing of kindred composition, and both combustible.

2. 3.

2.
3.

Water.
Air.

Drink, (essentially water).

Breath,

(common

air.)

And
4.

produces.
4.

And

produces

Steady boiling heat of 212 degrees by quick combustion.

grees,
5.

Steady animal heat of 98 deby slow combustion.

5.

Smoke from the chimney, or air loaded with carbonic acid and
vapour.

Foul breath from the windpipe,

or air loaded with carbonic acid

and vapour.
6.

6.

Ashes, part of the fuel which does not burn.

Animal refuse, part of the food which does not burn.

Motive force, of simple alternate contraction and relaxation in the
muscles, which, acting through the levers, joints, tendons, &c.,
of the limbs, does
less variety.

7.

Motive

force, of

simple alternate
in

7.

push
which,
joints,

and

pull

the piston,

acting

bands,

&c.,

through levers, does work

of endless variety.

work of end-

LIFE NOT A PECULIAR PRINCIPLE.

8.

deficiency of fuel, water,

or

8.

deficiency of food, drink, or

first

air, first disturbs,

and then stops

breath,

disturbs, then stops

life.

the motion.
9.

the motion and the

9.

Local damage from violence in

a

machine

is

repaired by the

Local hurt or disease in a living body is repaired or cured by the

action of internal power given by

makers.*

the Creator.

We

have here

illustrated

the

mode only
it

in

which the

force in animals is generated;

the form

ultimately takes

depends entirely upon the organization through which it has but it to pass. Life was thought to be a peculiar principle
;

development and manifestation entirely upon depends the union of the ordinary physical forces with a peculiar
for its

structure or arrangement of forces

for

what are

called vital

forces are only the correlate of physical forces.

In a very small part of the acorn can develop only into an oak, and the
lie

lies

the structure that

in

human germ,
is

which

folded up the wondrous powers of

man,

is invisible

without

the aid of the microscope.

Life then

only Force acting

through special organizations, which organizations, so far as we yet know, are formed only by transmission from parent
to offspring; they are always hereditary.

But seeds
wheat

might remain

for

ever

unchanged

as

the

in the pyramids, for

being by forces from without.

a seed
is

8,000 years, until quickened into " Thus, for example, when
first

placed in the ground, the

it

process which takes

place within

is

one of decomposition.

The mass of the

This germ

seed consists of starch and albumen, in the midst of which

is

placed a small cellular body, called the germ.

will

grow, and develop

into

the future plant, but only on

condition that a process of decay goes on in the starchy and

albuminous matter with which

*

it is

in connection.

Part of

Survey of

Human

Progress, p. 159.

10

FORCE, AND ITS MENTAL COERELATES.

the latter sinks into the inorganic state, uniting with oxygen,

and passing
first

off

as carbonic acid.

The young plant

it

is

at

of less weight than the seed or root which has disapit.

peared in generating
of the
soil,

When

arrives

at

the surface
of the

new

process commences.

The rays

sun, falling

on

its leaves,

maintain in them a continuance of

first

the same process (one of chemical change) by which the

development of the
terials are

germ was determined.

Thus new ma-

added to the plant, the light exciting those chemical processes which produce the organic arrangement of fresh The leaves, under the stimulus of the portions of matter.
sun's
rays,

decompose carbonic
' '

acid,

giving

off

part

of

the oxygen, and

fix,

as

it is

said, the

carbon in union with

to

hydrogen, and sometimes with nitrogen, &c.,

various vegetable cells and their contents.

form the

"

An

animal

now consumes

this

plant.

In digestion

there takes place again a precisely similar process to that

with which

we
a

started

the germination of the seed.

;

The
it

substance of the plant partially decomposes

sinks
into
state

a portion of

approximating

to

the

inorganic,
force

while

(doubtless by more highly becomes generated)

another

portion

means of the
vitalized,

thus

and

fitted to

form

part of the animal structure.

and animal
is

digestion, are parallel processes.

The germination of the seed, Each of them

and depending on the

two-fold

a decomposing and a vitalizing action going on

its

together, the latter having

other.

origin in

Having formed part of the animal structure for a time, this living matter decomposes yet again, and again But now, instead of effecting, as in the gives off its force.
a vitalizing action, the force produces a mechanical action in the muscles, or a nervous action in the
previous cases,
brain, or, ha short, the function of whatever organ the matter

we

are

tracing

may have been

incorporated

with;

the

VITAL FORCE.
function being but another,
force

11

mode

of operation of the same

which caused the nutrition.

And
force,

thus, supposing the

action to have been a muscular exertion, say the lifting of a

weight,

we

shall

have traced the

first,

which came from the

form of the sun's rays, and was embodied in the substance of the plant, back again into
inorganic world at
in the

the inorganic world in the form of motion.

plant yields up
its
life

The

to nourish the animal body, as that

its activity

body, so nourished, in
force to

yields

up
*

its life

to impart
oft'

the world around.

its

*
effect

Every giving

of force has for

necessary

the storing

up

of force in

equal amount elsewhere.

The two halves of

this process

cannot be divided."*
*
t

Physiological Riddles.

There

is

Cornhill Magazine. an admirable paper on ''Vitality",

illustrating

this

subject, in the

"Header"

dently Professor Tyndall.

of October 29th, 1864, signed " J. T.", eviAs the subject is of so much importance

we make no apology

for quoting at some length. " In what sense, then, is the sun to be regarded as the origin of

the energy derivable from plants and animals

intelligible

? Let us try to give an answer to this question. Water may be raised from the sea-level to a high elevation, and then permitted to descend. In

descending

it

may

be made to assume various forms

to fall in cas-

cades, to spurt in fountains, to boil in eddies, or to flow tranquilly along a uniform bed. It may, moreover, be caused to set complex machinery
in motion, to turn millstones, throw shuttles,

work saws and hammers, But every form of power here indicated would be derived from the original power expended in raising the water to the There is no energy generated by the maheight from which it fell. chinery; the work performed by the water in descending is merely
and drive
piles.

the parcelling out and distribution of the work expended in raising it. In precisely this sense is all the energy of plants and animals the parcelling out and distribution of a power originally exerted by the sun.

In the case of the water, the source of the power consists in the forcible separation of a quantity of the liquid from the lowest level of the earth's surface and its elevation to a higher position, the power thus expended
being returned by the water in its descent. In the case of vital phenomena, the source of power consists in the forcible separation of the

12

FORCE, AND ITS MENTAL CORRELATES.

Thus we
peculiar
results

see that not a peculiar agent, called Life, but a

mode
we
of

of operation
vital

is

required to produce the special

call

forces,

and as Life
so

is

thus the mere

correlate

correlate

Physical forces,

Mind

is

the

of

of the carbon and hydrogen, atoms of chemical compounds by the sun example, of the carbonic acid and water diffused throughout the This atmosphere, from the oxygen with which they are combined.
for

by solar energy. The conand water are there torn asunder in spite of their mutual attraction, the carbon and hydrogen are stored up in the wood, and the oxygen is set free in the air. When the wood is burned the oxygen recombines with the carbon, and the heat then given out is of the precise amount drawn from the sun to effect the previous
separation
is effected

in the leaves of plants

stituents of the carbonic acid

" reduction" of the carbonic acid. The reunion of the carbon with the oxygen is similar to the reunion of our falling water with the earth from which it had been separated. We name the one action gravity and but these different names must not misthe other chemical affinity
'

'

'

'

lead us regarding the qualitative identity of the two forces. They are both attraction, and, to the intellect, the falling of carbon atoms against oxygen atoms is not more difficult of conception than the falling of

water to the earth. " The building up of the vegetable then is effected by the sun through All the phenomena of animal the reduction of chemical compounds.
life

tion.

are more or less complicated reversals of these processes of reducWe eat the vegetable, and we breathe the oxygen of the air, and

had been lifted from the carbon and hydrogen by the action of the sun again falls towards them, producing animal heat and developing animal forms. Through the most complithe vegetable is produced cated phenomena of vitality this law runs
in our bodies the oxygen which
:

by the
is

the animal by the falling of a weight. But the question not exhausted here. The water which we used in our first illustration
lifting,

produces all the motion displayed in its descent, but the form of the motion depends on the character of the machinery interposed in the path of the water. And thus the primary action of the sun's rays is
qualified

tributed.
will

by the atoms and molecules among which their energy is disMolecular forces determine the form which the solar energy assume. In the one case this energy is so conditioned by its atomic
;

machinery as to result in the formation of a cabbage in another case it is so conditioned as to result in the formation of an oak. So also as

VITAL FORCE.

18
arises,

Vital forces.
result of

" That no idea or feeling

force

save as a
it,

some physical

expended
that

in producing

is

fast becoming a common-place of science; and whoever duly

weighs the evidence will

see,

nothing but an over-

the form of their regards the reunion of the carbon and the oxygen reunion is determined by the molecular machinery through which the combining energy acts. In one case the action may result in the

formation of a man, while in another it of a grasshopper. " But whence comes the on the

may

result in the formation

power part of the molecules to compel the solar energy to take determinate forms ? The matter of the animal body is that of inorganic nature. There is no substance in the animal
tissues

which

is

not primarily derived from the rocks, the water, and

Are the forces of organic matter, then, different in kind from those of inorganic matter ? All the philosophy of the present day negatives the question. It is the compounding in the organic world of forces
the
air.

that belong equally to the inorganic that constitutes the mystery and the miracle of vitality. Every portion of every animal body may be reduced
to purely inorganic matter.

perfect reversal of this process of reducto the organic;

tion

would carry us from the inorganic

at least

reversal is

conceivable.

The tendency, indeed,

science is to break
ganic,

down

the wall of partition

and

to reduce both to the operation of

and such a of modern between organic and inorforces which are the same

in kind, but

whose combinations differ in complexity. " The mode in which these combinations have been brought about is a perfectly legitimate subject of scientific speculation and in this we
;

ask a single speculative question. It is generally supposed that our earth once belonged to the sun, from which Hence arises the question it was detached in a molten condition.
will here so far indulge as to
'

Did that incandescent world contain

'

latent within itself the elements

Or, supposing a planet carved from our present sun, and set spinning round him at the distance of our earth, would one of the consequences of its refrigeration be the development of organic forms?
of
life ?

Structural forces certainly lie latent in the molten mass, whether or not those forces reach to the extent of forming a plant or an animal. All the marvels of crystalline force, all those wonderful branching frostferns which cover our

window-panes on a winter morning

is

the exquisite

molecular architecture which

frozen lakes
all this
'

now known
'

to belong to the ice of our

coustructiveness

lies latent in

an amorphous

14

FOKCE, AND ITS MENTAL CORRELATES.

bias
in

whelming
explain
place
its

favour of

pre-conceived theory,
this

can

non-acceptance.

How

metamorphosis takes

how a force existing as become a mode of consciousness

forces liberated

emotion, heat, or light, can

how
we

it is

possible for aerial

vibrations to generate the sensation

call

sound, or for the

motion

by chemical changes, in the brain to give rise to these are mysteries which it is impossible to fathom.

But they

are not profounder mysteries than the transformation

of the physical forces into each other.

They

are not

more

completely beyond our comprehension than the natures of Mind and Matter. They have simply the same insolubility
as
all

other ultimate questions.

is

We

can learn nothing more

than that here

one of the uniformities in the order of

phenomena." *

The

peculiar

mode

of

operation which

force

assumes,

whether as mechanical force or motion, heat, magnetism, or feeling, emotion, or thought, depends, as we have said, upon
organization or structure, that
is,

upon the arrangement of

drop of water, and comes into play when the water is sufficiently cooled. And who will set limits to the possible play of molecular forces in the
/ cooling of a planet? " In discussing these questions it is impossible to avoid taking sideglances at the phenomena of intellect and will. Are they, by natural

Wheevolution, capable of being developed from incandescent matter ? ther they are or not, we do not seem to possess the rudiments of an organ which could enable us to comprehend the change ; we are utterly
incompetent to take the step from the phenomena of physics to those of consciousness. And, even granting the validity of the above explanation, the questions still

remain,

'

Who

or what

made

the sun and gave

his rays such

ticles of

power

Who

or what bestowed

matter the forces whose interaction,

upon the ultimate parcombined with the energy

'

of the solar rays, produces plants and animals ? Science does not know the mystery, though pushed back, remains as deep as ever." * First Principles, by Herbert Spencer, p. 280.
:

PECULIARITIES OF STRUCTURE.

15
is

permanent centres of

force.

The Natural Philosopher

fact,

constantly coming near to this

significance.

without seeing

its

full

Thus

Liehig

says,

"Isomorphism,

or

the
dif-

quality of form of
ferent

many

chemical compounds having a

composition, tends to prove that matter

the mere

consists of
all

atoms,

arrangement of

which produces
find

the

properties

of bodies.

But when we

that

a different

arrangement of the same elements gives rise to various physical and chemical properties, and a similar arrangement of
different

elements produces properties very

much

the same,

inquire whether some of those hodies which we regard as elements, may not be merely modifications of the same substance, whether they are not the same matter in

may we not

different states of
is

arrangement ?" *
passes
its

All

we have

to consider

Force as

it

through the living structure of the

human
The

body, in

various

modes of

operation.

peculiarities of structure which modify the form and

action of force in the

stock,

human body depend

principally
is

upon the

or

race, from

which the individual

descended.

Among

animals almost any form and quality of the species can be produced by crossing, but whether these changes can be said

to be improvements

upon the

original type is another thing.

Certainly mongrels among dogs and horses are not considered to be any improvement, and the same may almost invariably be
said of mixed races of
inferior gains.

men

the higher type loses what the

of English and Hindoo blood

The mixing

often results in feebleness of brain bordering

insanity.

on fatuity or
&c.
called

The modern Mexican

is

a mixture of the Spaniard

and the native Indian, and grafting

an inferior race,

We

are

familiar with this influence of stock in

in trees.

what

is

budding

bud of one

tree introduced into the

Chemical Lectures,

p. 54.

16

FORCE, AND ITS MENTAL CORRELATES.

all

bark of another retains

the peculiarities of
of

its

original

parentage, and a small branch

one tree transferred to

its

another retains

all

the specialities that distinguish

fruit,

although dependent entirely upon the root, stock, and circulatory system of another tree.
difference of structure

which
lies,

it is

Although we can trace no between the graft and the branch to attached, no doubt it is there that the difference

it

is

upon that
all

difference

of arrangement

that

the

modification of the vital force depends.

That the new branch

its

should retain

the specialities of
is

parent stock under

for

such circumstances

both wonderful and instructive,

is

the same kind of budding and grafting

constantly going

on

in

the

intermarriages

of

human

beings,

although

the

fruit individuals

bear in consequence passes almost unnoticed.

broadly- marked
constitutional
qualities,

There

are

certain

however, which have not escaped

notice.

called by Phrenologists the Temperaments. " accomtemperaments," we are told by Mr. George Combe, panied by different degrees of strength and activity in the

These have been " There are four

brain
nervous.

the lymphatic,

the sanguine,

the

bilious,

and the

The temperaments

are supposed to depend upor

:

the constitution of particular systems of the body

the brain

and nerves being predominantly active from constitutional causes, seem to produce the nervous temperament; the lungs,
heart,
to give rise to the sanguine;

and blood-vessels being constitutionally predominant, the muscular and fibrous sysand the glands and assimilating organs These differences and their combina-

tem

to the bilious;

to the lymphatic." *

tions are very obviously

in the bodily

marked and

indicate great differences

individuals.

and mental characters of

field,

There

is

a very wide

however, open for observation beyond; the

System

of Phrenology, p. 50.

GALVANIC STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN.

bilious or fibrous

17

endurance, but

it

temperament, for instance, is said to give is by no means sufficient to account for

the great power of endurance of bodily fatigue that distin-

guished such

temperament

as Napoleon Buonaparte; the nervous supposed to give great mental activity, but this does not account for the kind of memory said to be
is

men

possessed by Sir Walter Scott

and

others,
1

were enabled to remember

almost ah they read.

by which they These

and many similar powers probably depend upon some peculiar quality or structure of body and brain yet unobserved.

The Brain
force

is

the organ

of mind, that

is,

it

is

in

the

brain and nervous system that the correlation or change of

takes place

from heat,
equivalent

electricity,

which distinguishes thought and feeling magnetism, &c., and we have the
force

of that

again

in

muscular

action,

heat,

electricity, &c.

The

brain has

peculiar

structure

fitting

it

for

its

peculiar electrical and galvanic operations;

thus, Professor

Ehrenberg

asserts that

by means of the microscope he has

discovered the fibres of the encephalon, spinal chord, and

nerves, to be tubular,
fibres,
i. e., that they do not consist of solid but of parallel or fasciculated tubes, dilated at inter-

vals

or

jointed,

and from

one-ninety-sixth

to

one-three-

thousandth parts of a line in diameter.

Also, that they

contain a perfectly transparent tenacious fluid, never visibly

globular, the liquor nervens,

which

differs

from the nervens

f

medulla as the chyle does from blood. *

*
+

Physiology, p. 466. Dr. Elliotson. extent the more recent researches of Dr. Lionel Beale, as given in his paper on " the Paths of Nerve-currents ", in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xiii., p. 386, confirm those of

Human

To what

Ehrenherg, I But Mr. Bain

not able to say, as I have not the book at hand. us that " for every fibre coming up from the senses, and every fibre going out to the limbs and moving organs there must
tells

am

18

FOKCE, AND ITS MENTAL CORKELATES.

The dependance of the mind upon the bodily organization, and upon the force derived from the food acting through it, now needs no proof. The mind like the body has its several
ages
it is

childish in childhood, strong in

manhood, weak in

sickness, frenzied in madness,

sympathises with digestion,

in the blood.

It and doting in old age. and changes with each change

it

If the circulation is rapid

quickens thought,

so that in fever

we have

delirium,

and from excess of alcohol

delirium tremens.

"With excess of carbonic acid the action

ceases altogether, and with excess of oxygen (nitrous oxygen

or laughing

gas)

the

action

is

greatly increased.

If the

purifying organs are out of order

depression, and
if

we have serious mental

but mental

we

abstract heat or give chloroform, first

vitality ceases altogether
;

mental action and then

action
first.

The dependence
requires no

of the thinking power

upon the food

is

proof, as thinking ceases altogether if food

too

long withheld;
alcohol, opium,

but close observation shows that not only do

and hashish* act upon the mind in the mode

be at least 10,000, perhaps 100,000 traversing the hrain, involving a

great and rapid multiplication in the progress through the substance. The Fortnightly Review, January, 1866.
*

cerehral

Besides the various effects which are

common

to all the principal real

narcotics, each has characteristics of its own.

Hashish produces

catalepsy,

and exaggerates rather than prevents the report of the external senses as to external objects the thorn-apple, on the other hand, causes truly spectral illusions, and enables the Indian to converse with
;

the spirit of his ancestors. The Siberian fungus gives insensibility to The common buff-ball pain without interfering with consciousness.
stops all muscular action, and leaves the perceptive powers untouched. Cocculus indicus makes the body drunk, without affecting the mind.

Coca has the wonderful power of sustaining muscular strength in the absence of food, and of preventing th wasting of the tissues of the body
during the greatest and most prolonged exertion.

The

effects

of the

THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM PREDOMINANT.

with which

19

we

are familiar, but all kinds of food affect the

mind
acts

But if the food " When the mind the the so does mind, food; upon upon
differently, causing difference in action.

the pneumo-gastric
or cut through,

or chief nerve of
its

the

stomach
to

is

tied

and

end separated so as

interrupt
is

the flow of nervous energy towards that organ, digestion

either entirely arrested or greatly impaired. *

of

But the brain and nervous system dominate in all parts the system, and influence both its action and form.
brain
is

The

nourished by the heart, and

its

if it

ceased for one

instant

to send

blood to the brain,

Sensibility

would

and the heart equally depends for motive power cease; " Powerful mental shocks the brain. upon momently arrest
the heart, and sometimes arrest
it

for ever.

That which a

powerful current will do applied to a pneumogastric nerve,

will

be done by a profound agitation of

grief

or joy

truly called a heart-shaking influence.

The

agitation of the

great

centres

of

thought
it

is

chord, and from

parts

to the nerves

communicated to the spinal which issue to different

are
violently

of

the

body;

the limbs

moved, the

glands are excited to increased activity, the tears flow, the

facial muscles contract, the chest expands, laughter or sobs, dances of delight and shouts of joy, these and the manifold

expressions of an agitated emotion are the after results

the

first

effect is

an

arrest,

more or

less fugitive, followed

not only peculiar, but often opposed. Opium and Hashish, common in most of their effects, are opposite in this, that the former diminishes sensibility to external impressions, whereas the latter
different narcotics are

almost infinitely increases

tea is to alcohol.

it. Betel is even an antidote to opium, as Tobacco suspends mental activity opium and hashish National Review, p. 94, Jan., 1858. increase it a thousand fold. * Dr. A. Combe on Digestion and Dietetics, p. 77.
;

20

FORCE, AND ITS MENTAL CORRELATES.

action.

by an increase of the heart's

a

If the organism
is

be

vigorous, the effect of a powerful emotion

ness,

a sudden paleheart.

indicating

momentary

arrest

of the

This

may be but for an instant: the heart pauses, and the lungs the breath is taken away.' This is succeeded pause with it by an energetic palpitation; the lungs expand, the blood rushes to the face and brain with increased force. Should
'

the organism be sickly or highly sensitive, the arrest longer duration, and the result. the arrest
grief
is

is

of
is

faulting,

more or

less

prolonged,

In a very sensitive or very sickly organization

final.

The shock

of

joy and the shock of

have both been known to kill."*

influence not only the

The Brain and Nervous System

functions,

but the growth of the whole body, regulating the form both of the muscles and bones of expression and
action,

and thus physiognomy and chirognomy are legitimate

is

sciences.!

But

it

a limited

quantity

of force
its

that

is

derived

from the food, and the mode of

its

action

distribution

over the body,

and the functions

depends upon it has

seen, greatly

there to perform.

This

is

regulated, as

we have

While digestion is going on the by the Temperaments. of and thinking powers feeling are proportionately decreased ;
so also great bodily exercise

and great mental

activity

are

incompatible.

Again, the great activity

of one portion of a predominating

the brain decreases the energy of another

intellect

weakens

sentiments.

feeling, and an active propensity the moral This distribution of force explains many hitherto

The Heart and the

Brain, by G. H. Lewes.

The Fortnightly

Review.
t See Psychonomy of the Hand, according to MM. D'Arpantigny and Desborralles, by Richard Beamish, F.R. S. London, F. Pitman, 20, Paternoster Bow.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL FORCE.

mysterious physiological phenomena.

21

In the nomad tribes

and the

agricultural population,
is

where great muscular outvital

door exercise

required,

and the

system consequently

greatly predominates, the vis.jnedicatrix, or natural healing

power,

is

much

stronger than in people of sedentary and

studious habits, and the one class recovers from accidents

that would be death to the other.

So

also studious habits

or strong feelings impair vital

is

power.

The
comes

sexual feeling

generally

the

strongest
force,

in

the system and

it

absorbs the

largest
activity,

amount of
it

and when

into too early

stops the growth of the body, and a large amagenerally

tiveuess

is

attended

with

deficient locomotive or

muscular power. The emasculated London cats grow to than their size unmutilated brethren in the country, greater

is,

and geldings and oxen have much more working power, that enduring muscular force, than stallions and bulls.

When
the

the

important vital action,

in

the renovation

of the

body by putting

new

tissue, is

going on, the action of

Mind

ceases altogether, and what

we

call

sleep

more

or less perfect, supervenes.

organ of Mind, is not a single organ, but a congeries or bundle of organs, manifesting a
as the
plurality of faculties,

But the Brain,

with force in proportion to the size

and quality of the organ.

Mind
attributes

as a force, as a function or
forces,
it

power of Brain, should

manifestations
in
its

be studied as other

in

its

by what

does.

Examined
verbal

in this way, Dr. Gall discovered that a strong

memory was always accompanied by

a prominent

eye, which prominence he found to

size of a convolution of the brain, lying at the

depend upon the large back of the

eye.

Pursuing his investigations he found that the special

talents of the musician, the sculptor, the artist, the

mathema-

22

FORCE, AND ITS MENTAL CORRELATES.

metaphysician, &c., were dependent

tician, the calculator, the

upon

different parts of the brain, and he and his followers,

after long

and repeated observation, have come to the know-

ledge of what faculties and feelings and what parts of the

brain are mutually connected.

As

all

organizations

differ,

and that which

is

true of one

mind, therefore, can only be relatively true of another, reflecwhich such organization the consciousness tion upon
supplies, cannot

alone be the true

method of

investigating

mind,

it

can be pursued only in conjunction with external

observation.

Following this method Phrenologists have established the

following chart of our Intellectual Faculties
:

Individuality

INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES, which perceive existence. Takes cognizance of existence and simple facts.

Form
Size

Renders

men
men

observant of Form.

Renders

observant of dimensions, and aids perspective.

Weight

Communicates the perception of ance, and aids equilibrium.

Gives perception of colour.

momentum,

weight, resist-

Colouring

INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES,
Locality

which perceive the relations of external

objects.

Gives the idea of space and relative position.

Gives the talent for calculation.

Number
Order

Communicates the love of physical arrangement.

Takes cognizance of occurrences and events.

Eventuality

Time Tune

Gives rise to the perception of duration.

The sense
Gives a

of

melody

arises

from

it.

Language

facility in acquiring a knowledge of arbitrary signs

to express thoughts

readiness in the use of

them

and a power

of inventing them.

REFLECTIVE FACULTIES, which Compare, judge, and discriminate.

Gives the power of discovering analogies, resemblances, Comparison and differences.

THE WORLD CREATED WITHIN

Causality

US.

23

Traces the dependencies of phenomena, and the relations

of cause

and

effect,

The External Senses

and
Sight,

of

Feeling or
to

Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing,

the

are necessary

connect these faculties with

into activity.

external world,

and

to hring

them

The above
I

phrenological organs furnish what are called

by metaphysicians the a
force,
if

may

The raw priori forms of thought. use the expression, taken in with the food
by the action of
into

at one part force

of the machine, is

external

upon these organs, manufactured

the beautiful

phantasmagoria of the external world.

SECTION

I.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OP PHRENOLOGY.

"

We
of,

are such

stuff,

As dreams

are

made

and our

little life

cognoscentium potius comprehenditur facultatem." is comprehended, not according to its own force, but according rather
to the faculty of those knowing."

Is rounded by a sleep." Shakspeare. " Omne non secundum sui vim, sed .secundum quod cognoscitur " All that is known

Boethius.

" For man's sense

is falsely

asserted to be the standard of things.

On

the contrary all the perceptions, both of the sense and of the mind, have reference to Man, and not to the universe." Bacon, Nov. Org.,

Aph. 41.

By
faculties

careful

observation of the

action

of the

primitive

we

are able to determine

most of those psychological

still dis-

questions upon which metaphysical philosophers are

puting,
as Mill

on Hamilton, Herbert Spencer on

Mill, &o.

24

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHRENOLOGY.

facts observed

The

logists,

however

at present

by the cerebral physiologists or phrenoignored and repudiated, furnish

conflicting

the test of the truth of these various

systems.

The
are

Intellectual Faculties supply us with ideas,

which ideas

only slight feelings

or

sensations,

differing

from our

other feelings only in intensity.

perception of ideas and feelings pass through the mind,

constitute

or rather

the

reflect or are conscious,

mind; upon this succession we and the only objects of knowledge

are these ideas and feelings.

We

are conscious of nothing

but these changes, and we never really advance one step beyond ourselves, or can know any kind of existence but those
perceptions that

We

infer,

lie in that narrow compass. however, that these ideas are connected with

the brain, that the brain

that the senses are acted

is in

connection with the senses, and

But

it is

ideas only of which

upon by something external. we are conscious, and

it is

these only therefore

we

can be said to

know;

of this " some-

thing external
it

"

we know
little.

nothing, and by what

name we

call

therefore signifies

Matter and Force are the names

we

give to this non-ego.

it

The

properties of matter which are

force, are, as

supposed to distinguish

from

we

shall see,

mere forms of thought, "

force.

clusters of sensations"; correlated

The combination

of forces which compose our

own

bodies,
reality

certain centres or reservoirs of

which constitute the

of the external world, clearly exist independently of perception,

and are not mere

abstractions,

and

if

we

disconnect

the percipient from these

external forces perception ceases.

The organs
vital

of the Brain, through which the correlation of

force to mental takes place, are of

two kinds; those

which are acted upon by external causes, through the medium of the senses, and the ideas belonging to which, therefore are

THE COMBINED ACTION OF THE FACULTIES.

25

modified by the sense; and those faculties which act upon

these ideas

when

so furnished

by the

first class.

They have

been divided into ideas of Simple and Relative Perception. All the knowledge we have therefore of an external world
of its action through the medium of the senses upon only a few of the mental faculties, and which perceptive faculties
is

alone would be quite insufficient to give us the idea of nature

as as

we now conceive
it

of

it.

The

world, as

it

appears to us
is

exists in the region of

our consciousness,

created in

our own minds by the action of the faculties of Eelative Perception and of Reflection upon the comparatively few ideas
furnished by the faculties of Simple Perception.

Our

ideas of things result from the relation between the

object or cause, the sense, and the three classes of intellectual

faculties,

and the vain

effort to untie this untieable

synthesis

has caused most of the errors of the metaphysician. " What we term the properties of an object, are the

powers
ness." *

it

exerts

of producing

sensations in our conscious-

The

object acts

upon

the sense, and the sense

upon

the perceptive faculties of Form, Size, Weight, Colour, &c.,

and we have ideas of shapes and

sizes

and colours, of exten-

sion, of weight, of solidity, hardness, strength, &c.,

and these

we

call the properties of

matter.

The

idea of extension and

solidity,
is

which

is

supposed peculiarly to distinguish matter,

derived from the faculties of form, size, and colour, which

Indivi-

give the shape, and weight, the sense of resistance.

duality unites these qualities
into

they

one, and gives the idea of the individual or substratum or nournenon upon which " The name rose is the are to

supposed

'

'

depend.

mark
sation

of the sensation of colour, a sensation of shape, a senof touch,

sensation

of

smell,

all

in

conjunction

* J. S.

MM.

26

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHRENOLOGY.

(an action of the senses and intellectual faculties combined). * * * Of those names (such as rose) which denote
clusters of sensation,
it is

some a

less,

number of

obvious that some include a greater * * * sensations. We not

only give names to clusters of sensations, but to clusters of clusters, that is to a number of minor clusters united
into

a greater cluster.

Thus we
to

give

the

name

'

wood

'

to a particular cluster of sensations, the

ther,

the

name rope

another.

many others, joined * the name ship.

names
I
tree,

together in * *

name canvas to anoTo these clusters and one great cluster, we give And again, in using the
call objects,

horse,

man, the names of what I

am

referring

only to

my own

sensations (and to

other

people's sensations); in fact, therefore, only

tain

naming a cer-

number of

sensations, regarded as in a particular state

of combination;

that

is,

in

concomitance."*

Accordingly,
is

we name only our own

lectual faculties, each of

sensation or idea, but this idea

object, the sense,

compounded equally of the

and the

intel-

which we know can

exist separately.

Thus the

noise which

sensation really in

we say we hear in the street, is a our own head, although the cause of the
in the
street

sensation is in the street and each has a separate and distinct existence.

The cause

may

affect

other

people in the

same way, and have numberless other

is

effects,

while the sensation

a correlate of physical forces, proceeding

from or put in motion in the street, which may again become The physical force and take its place in the external world.
ego and the non-ego thus pass and repass into each other

and are constantly changing

INDIVIDUALITY.
It is

places.

the form of thought peculiar to

the organ of Individuality that gives oneness

or unity

to

James Mill.

CONSCIOUSNESS, AND ITS RELIABILITY.

these clusters of sensations.
parts and functions, and

27

We

individualize all our

;

own

call it

our body

we do the same
call
it

with reference to the

succession of our ideas, and

our mind.
IDENTITY.

The

feeling of Personal

Identity which

wo
call

attach to this evanescent "cluster of ideas" which

we

body and mind,

instinct,
is

results

from a primitive mental

its special

faculty, or

connected with
the

evidenced by
feeling

organ

This organ in the brain. sometimes becoming diseased,

the

when the
becomes

of Identity

"I"

of consciousness,

lost, or double, or otherwise deranged.

BELIEF.

Each
in

intellectual faculty
it

and
is

feeling supplies

us with an instinct or intuition, and

these
faculties,

in the action of

the

intuitions

supplied

by them,

that

mankind
truths.
faculties,

necessarily believe.

They

furnish our fundamental

Faith or belief

is

not an action of the intellectual

it

but a sentiment or feeling, and

is

as easy

to
in

believe in one order of nature, or set of sequences, as

another,

until

experience

or the

intellect

has

determined

Of course we can believe what are permanent or invariable. only in what we understand; when we are said to believe in
the incomprehensible,
in so

we

believe only in the testimony, or

much

only as

we do understand.

CONSCIOUSNESS, AND ITS EELIABILITY.

the
question
:

And now comes

are

our

belief?

These

intuitions,

primitive
verdict

faculties,

worthy of from the action of our resulting constitute our Consciousness; is the
to

Instincts

or

Intuitions

of

consciousness
reject its

be

accepted
First,
is

without

appeal,

or can

we

testimony?

we must examine
its verdict.

what

is

consciousness, and what

Mill says,

the nature of

James

" To have a feeling is to be conscious ; and to be conscious is to have a feeling;" and J. S. Mill " To feel and not to know that we feel is an
says,

impossi-

28

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHKENOLOGY.

bility."

Now

the

brutes
are

have

feelings,

but there

is

no
but

evidence that they

conscious
feel.

of them; they

feel,

do not know that they

They have
is

consciousness, but

used by most writers to mean sensibility or feeling; but to be conscious is to

are not conscious; for consciousness
reflect

on

this sensibility

or feeling.

The brute when

it

chews the cud has a succession of

slightly pleasurable feelings,

the aggregate of which constitute a mild kind of happiness.

It

cannot be said to be conscious of

it

this,

but there
it.

is

not less
faculties

happiness because

does not reflect upon

feel,

The

by which we know and that we know and feel,

reflective

are

and those by which we know the different, and one class

the
trustworthiness

faculties

judges
is

of

of the

other.

But there

no more a

distinct act of consciousness

is

attending every act of mind, than there

a distinct act of

Will attending every act of body.

perceives and what
is

Nature consists of " what

is

perceived," but this

of mental faculty acting upon another

consciousness.

that

merely one class is, reflection on

" What we perceive under the condition of contact or touch, say the Berkelians, are sensations only, and
not the causes of sensations."

Now

the cause
is

is

certainly

contained in the sensation perceived, which

equally of the cause or
faculty, that
is,

the resultant

object,
is

the sense, and the mental

the sensation

the correlate or exact equiva-

lent of the force without

and the nervous force within.

BELIEF IN AN EXTERNAL WORLD.

The
it

generality

of

mankind
as

believe in an External

World

as

appears to

them,

something without and

they

entirely

independent of them-

selves;

know nothing

of consciousness

and of sensa-

tions. They understand nothing and believe nothing about the " objects of knowledge being ideas," they believe only in

things which are hot or cold, rough or smooth, hard or soft,

coloured, &c.

" an instantaneous and They have

irresistible

THE BELIEF IN AN EXTERNAL WORLD.

conviction of outward objects,"

29
of
in

but they

know nothing
They
believe

" Permanent

Possibilities

of Sensation."

material objects, and not in modifications of our sensibility,

or the Relativity of our Knowledge.
It is the

non-ego, and

not the mind

conviction
tional
*

perceiving, in

which we

first believe,
is

and

this

is

not slowly acquired, but

instinctive or intuiIt is

the result of our primitive faculties.*

doubt

"What

do mankind in general believe?

is

They

believe that the

exactly and in every respect the world which our senses report to us as external to ourselves. They believe that the rocks, the

material world

the trees, the stars, that we all see, are not mere hieroglyphics of a something different from themselves and from us, but are really what is there. That outer vastness of space in which orbs are shining
hills,
is no mere representation or visionary allegory of somethe thing itself. This is, and always has been, the popular belief of mankind in general. All mankind may therefore be described,

and wheeling
thing
;

it is

generally, as Natural Realists.

But, strange to say, Natural Realism

has been the system of but one or two modern philosophers among whom Reid is named as a type. Nay, more, among these philosophers it is not the popular form of the belief that is entertained. Mankind in
general suppose sweetness, shrillness, colour, &c., to be qualities inherently belonging to the objects to which they are attributed, while the

philosophers
'

who

are Natural Realists admit that at least these so-called

'

secondary qualities

of

objects

have no proper

outness,

but are

only physiological affections,

ing,

affections of the organs of taste, hear-

Thus the Natural sight, &c., produced by particular objects. Realism of philosophers is itself a considerable remove from the Natural Realism of the crude popular belief. It does not, with the
crude popular
belief, call

tastes, tacts,

and odours the

;

the whole apparent world, of sights, sounds, real world that would be there whether
it

man

were there or not

if I

true,

descries in that apparent world a block

or core,

may

existing, even if

so say, which would have to be thought of as really there were swept away all that consists in our rich
it.

physiological interactions with

According to this system. (Constructive Idealism) we do not perceive the real external world immediately, but only mediately that is,
the objects which
objects at
all,

"

we take
objects.

as the things actually perceived are not the real

but only vicarious assurances, representatives, or nuntii

of real

unknown

The

hills,

the rocks, the trees, the stars,

all

the choir of heaven and earth, are not, in any of their qualities, primary,

80
that
is

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHKENOLOGY.

acquired,

and we ask ourselves, Are these

intuitions to

be relied on ?
external,

For
is

as Fichte says, speaking of a tree

and things

" there

in fact nothing there, but only a manifes-

tation of

Kant also Power from something that is not I." " in our constituobserves that there is an illusion inherent
;

tions

that

we cannot help

conceiving as belonging to Things

themselves, attributes with which they are only clothed by the

laws of our sensitive and intellectual nature."

To

affirm so

much, however,
for

is

not to reject the testimony of consciousness ;

the reasoning faculties, tests
is

when one

class of faculties

the testimony of another class, any resulting contradiction

the testimony of consciousness.

" The action of the

knowledge,
infinite
is

intellectual faculties

in imparting

much more

simple in
at

its

character than the

variety of ideas

would

first

induce us to sup-

secondary, or whatever we choose to call them, the actual existence out of us, but only the addresses of a ' something ', to our physiology, or eductions by our physiology out of a They are all something.'
'

Thoughts or Ideas, with only

this peculiarity involved in

them, that

they will not rest in themselves, but compel a reference to objects out of self, with which, by some arrangement or other, they stand in relation.
as this system may be to understand, and violently as it wrenches the popular common sense, it is yet the system into which the
Difficult

great majority of philosophers in all ages and countries hitherto are seen, more or less distinctly, to have been carried by their speculations.

While the Natural Realists among philosophers have been very few, and even these have been Realists in a sense unintelligible to the popular mind, quite a host of philosophers have been Constructive Idealists. These might be farther subdivided according to particular variations in the form of their Idealism. Thus, there have been many Constructive
Idealists who have regarded the objects rising to the mind in external perception, and taken to be representative of real unknown objects, as as having their something more than modifications of -the mind itself

origin without.
ley,

Among

these have been reckoned Mallebranche, Berke-

Clarke, Sir Isaac Newton, Tucker,

et seq.

British Philosophy, p. 68,

and possibly Locke." Professor Masson.

Recent

THE SIMPLE ACTION OF THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 81

pose.
&c.,

Thus we

perceive

qualities

of form,

size,

colour,

and we attach these

perceive the

qualities to individual existences:

we

number, arrangement and

relative position

of such existences, and conceive of

them

as existing in space;

we have
conceive

ideas

also

of motion and active phenomena, and

in
time:

of their

existence

we
of

trace

also resem-

blances

and

differences,

and

relations

antecedence and

consequence, and distinguish between invariable antecedents

called causes,

and such as are not permanent. and others have

Now some

of the faculties that produce this mental action have direct

relation to external objects,

relation only to

the ideas furnished by them; so that part of our ideas only

being furnished by external causes, and part by the action

of the mental faculties
all

upon these

ideas,

we cannot say

that

our knowledge comes through the senses.

Certain im-

pressions received from without are

by the mind itself worked which we suppose to belong, or to have its prototype, hi the external world, but which is, in fact, manufactured in the mind, and exists only in minds similarly up
into a picture

constituted." *

Kow
created?
ality,

what say our Reasoning powers of a world thus

Contrary to the impressions supplied by Individuthey tell us that there are no such things as individuals ,f

We

find a world of effects,

no causes

a succession of per-

sistent forces:

"

Nothing in this world is single, All things by a law divine

In one another's being mingle."

The
*

solidified

gases which

constitute

man's bodily

indivi-

Philosophy of Necessity, p. 192. As we have said, every correlation or change of force creates a now existence or individuality, but it is part only of the great whole, and
+

could have no existence separately.

82

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHRENOLOGY.

and change with
all

duality are in constant flux

around,

and his mind

ideas.

is

a succession of separate correlated forces or

As Hume

"
says,

'Tis

still

true, that every distinct

perception, which enters into the composition of the mind, is a distinct existence, and is different, and distinguishable,

and separable from every other perception,

porary or successive."
If there be

either contemit

any individuality here,

belongs to every separate thought; but this individuality is absorbed, as we shall find, in the One Substance, the only

Unity.

EXTENSION AND SPACE.

posed to be extended ; but
a

But the external world

is

is

sup-

what

Extension ?

It results

from

the joint action of the organs of Form, Size, and Weight, that
is, it is

" The very idea of extension is copied from nothing but an impression, and But he also says, consequently must perfectly agree to it."

compound

idea.

As Hume

says,

" Can any one conceive a passion of a yard

in breadth,

in length, a foot

Thought therefore qualities wholly incompatible, and never can incorporate together into one subject." The same must
and extension are
be said of Space, so far as the idea of it is based upon But is not our idea of Space derived from the Extension.
existence of other beings, of things without ourselves

and an inch in thickness?

whose

nature or essence
is

is

thought and force ?

The

idea of extension

excluded from thought and force.

different positions,

The ego and non-ego

it

must occupy

and

is

this that gives

us

the idea of Space.

It is the

form of thought furnished by

the organ of locality, joined, perhaps, to the idea of extension.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY

QUALITIES
physicians
of bodies
existent

NOT

TENABLE.

The

distinction

which

meta-

make between
untenable
;

the Primary and Secondary Qualities

is

is

the external cause of colour

give

equally

with those which

the

ideas

of solidity

and

PBIJIARY

AND SECONDARY QUALITIES.

33

extension,

present

or

and equally existent whether the percipient be not. Mr. J. S. Mill, however, says, " The
answering to the

sensations

Secondary Qualities are only

The Secondary, with different moreover, vary persons, and with the primary
occasional, those to the Primary, constant.
sensibility
all,

of our organs:

the Primary,

when perceived
and

at

are, as far as

we know, the same

is,

to all persons

at all

times."

Now

the fact

that the strength of these percep-

tions is exactly in proportion to the size of the organs with

which they are connected. People are met with who cannot one colour from another, and others are equally distinguish blind as to forms and sizes, and who could no more be taught

draw than a person with a small organ of colour could paint, or one with a deficient organ of Tune could be taught " How do Mr. elsewhere music.
to
Mill, however,
is

says truly,

we know

that magnitude

not exclusively a property of our

sensations

of the states of subjective consciousness which

(It certainly is quite as
if

objects produce in us?

colour.)

much

so as

Or, he continues,

this
is

supposition displeases,

how do we know

that magnitude

not, as

Kant considered

it,

a form of our minds, an attribute with which the laws of

thought invest every conception that we can form, but to which there may be something analagous in the Noumenon,
the Thing in
arriving
lectual

itself?"

Kant's categories are his

mode of

by Reflection on consciousness at the list of IntelFaculties or modes of thought which Gall and his

followers have arrived at

by observation, and they correspond, than in correctly any other system, to the faculties of and Relative Our Simple Perception and Reasoning Powers.

more

ideas of Relative Perception are not derived from experience;

they are innate ideas or intuitions not derived from without,

and have therefore no

objective reality.

These

faculties act

upon those which perceive

existence, give to their

modes of

84

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHREXOLOGY.

thought symmetry and order; each adds its part, the peculiar form it is its province to create, and the picture is painted
in our consciousness,

which we

call

the external world.

RELATIVITY OF OUR KNOWLEDGE.

We
;

how we
causes
tuted,

are affected

by things external;

know then only we know only the

effect

world which such affections create in us

what

the same

may have
it is

acting on other beings, differently consti-

impossible to say, neither -can

lie

we

tell

what worlds
and

so created

without the sphere of our consciousness,

we cannot be
the "

too modest in our ignorance.

THE WILL.

The Will

is

the trigger of the mind.

it

Upon

last dictate of the

understanding"

lets off

the accu-

mulated mental force in the direction of the object or purpose

aimed

at.

The

strength of the Will

is

in proportion to the

force to be discharged,

which force depends upon the size and of the brain in which the determination of the organs quality an organ of its own, lying, according The Will has originates.

to

Mr. Atkinson, behind the

"Ego"
we

or

"I"
its

of consciouscharacteristic
",

ness and close to Firmness; thus

expression

get

"I

will", and

its

excess or abuse " wilfulness

it

and when joined to large Firmness

sistent

is

determined or per-

Will.

When
prevail,

Combativeness governs the Will, the

;

force is generally discharged outwardly

when Cautiousness

or

Secretiveness

inwardly;

often

then disturbing the

balance of other vital and mental forces.

lets off itself

The Will no more

it

than the trigger 'of a gun does:

stronger motive,
as

is

generally

pulled
feeling

by the

understanding or mere

may

prevail.

THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE.

35

SECTION

II.

THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE.

"

Human

man
is

is

Liberty of which all boast, consists solely in this, that conscious of his will, and unconscious of the causes by which it

determined."

Spinoza.

But

if

the generality of mankind have deceived themselves

it

in believing in the real existence of an external world as

appears to them,
so
is

and

their

intellectual

faith

is

untenable,

moral belief equally unsound and fallacious. They believe in Free Will, that is in the power of originating volitions of an absolute commencement of action in themtheir

selves
existent
all

whereas in nature there

is

no beginning, merely pre-

and persistent force and its correlates. All tendencies, " For volition and action, are manifestations of effects.

each manifestation of force can be interpreted only as the effect of some antecedent force: no matter whether it be an
inorganic action, an animal movement, a thought or feeling."
First Principles,

by Herbert Spencer.

We

know nothing
in

of cause but as the immediate antecedent in the great chain

of events going back to
eternity,

and centring
all

the
It is

One
easy

only originating and

to see

efficient

cause of

things.

how

this error

on the Freedom of the Will

originates.

The

Will, is governed

by the

last dictate of the

understanding,

our propensities and sentiments; and we are conscious that our volitions originate in
or of our impelling instincts
ourselves.

By

ourselves

we mean the aggregate

of

all

our

mental powers. Now we are conscious of the action of our mental powers, but not of the external forces in which

36

THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE.

they originate and upon which they depend; hence arises the delusion. * Again, we believe we are free because we can do as we please, but what we please to do depends

upon our natural powers, which of course did not endow ourselves with them, f

are derived, as

we

" It is true that, in common language, the will is spoken of as the cause of conscious thoughts and acts, but no act of will (that is, of mental energizing) can occur without its necessary co-existents and antethat is, its causes ; and such as these are, so will the act of cedents
first

will be.
is

no more a spontaneous act of will than there Strictly such an act is a creation and belongs Mind and Brain, p. 275. Dr. Lay cock. only to creative power." t The Spectator in an article on Science and Miracle, January " It is 27, 1866, says, probably true indeed that in some sense the
There
is,

in fact,

spontaneous generation.

physical forces of the Universe are an invariable quantity, which only alter their forms and not their sum total. If I move my arm, the motion,

says the physiologist, is only the exact equivalent of a certain amount of heat which has disappeared and taken the form of that motion. If I do

not move

it,

the heat remains for use in

is is

some other way.

is

In either case

the stock of force

scientific

unchanged.

This

the conviction of almost all

force is constant
its

probably true. But whether the stock of physical the certainty that human will can change direction and application can transfer it from one channel to
or not,

men and

another

is just the same. And what that really means, if Will be ever free and uncaused, though of course not unconditioned, which

is,

it, as ultimate and scientific a certainty as any in the Unino less than this, that a strictly supernatural power alters the order and constitution of nature, takes a stock of physical force in lying in a reservoir here and transfers it to a stream of effort there, short, that the supernatural can change the order and constitution of the in its essence 'pure miracle, though miracle of human, and natural,

we take
is

verse,

not of divine origin." When the writer says that the Will is free but not "unconditioned" we might suppose that he means what we do,
that

we can all do as we please subject to the laws of our own being and the circumstances in which we are placed ; but how that can be " conditioned" and yet " uncaused" it is difficult to say. Sir William Hamilton who invented the word, says (Discussions, p. 8,) he means by CondiHow can that be uncaused then, or " free", tioned, determined thought. which is "determined"? How this is to be reconciled we are told by
Sir William

Hamilton when he comes to explain the Philosophy of the

ETHICS ON A FALSE BASE.

87

assumed Freedom a whole system of error and superstition has been raised, but it is time now that Ethics were put upon the same footing as all other departments of

Upon

this

science.

The

airs

that

man

has given himself,

all his

and his

assumption of superiority over

brethren of the sentient

Conditioned " Things there are, he tells us (Discussions, p. 624,) which may, nay must, be true, of which the understanding is wholly unable to
construe to
itself

the possibility."

" The Conditioned

is

the

mean

between the two extremes

ples of contradiction

two unconditionates, exclusive of each other, neither of which can be conceded as possible, but of which, on the princisary."
(Ibid. p. 15.)

and Free

Will,

and excluded middle, one must be admitted as necesOf the two irreconcileable propositions Necessity the exigencies of the Spectator's creed require that he

should accept the latter, although " his understanding may be wholly unable to construe to itself the possibility." The principles of all men
therefore, the Spectator can

of Science equally require that they should accept the former. How, assume that half the phenomena in the

Universe
scientific

those dependent on Volition or Will,

certainty,
it

are uncaused,

is

is

difficult

to say.

Science, on the

contrary,

determines that every

effect

has a cause,

an invariable antecedent,

which
effect.

is

always equal, in the same circumstances, to produce the same But an effect without a cause is to produce something from

nothing, and this is constantly being repeated in every act of volition ; a fact of which the " understanding is wholly unable to construe to itself the possibility." but it is the more to be believed by a Hamiltonian
I suppose in consequence.
It

tator affirms

told, changes' super-natural, but that which determines this power to act is nothing, or no cause ! To say that the Will determines itself is no way of escape from the difficulty, as there must be a cause why it determines to act in one way rather than in
!

The power or cause, we are

is

would indeed be a miracle, as the Specthe that "

order and constitution of the natural"

an absurdity, if not an impossibility, for undetermined by some motive or cause, it must be perfectly passive and useless or rather no will at all, the mind may deliberate, but but merely a conflicting state of mind while it deliberates there is no will. How can a man will that about
another.

In fact a free will

it

is

as long as

remains

free, that is,

which he

is

undecided or uncertain
for action

and when
be free
?

will is

thus determined
it

and prepared

how can

it

If free

is

not will,

if

88
creation

THE PEKSISTENCE OF FOECE.

are a
little

ridiculous viewed

in this light of the

persistence of force.

As we

are obliged to admit the Relativity of our

affect

Know-

ledge, and we know things only as they

so, morally,

us intellectually,

we judge
all

of actions only as they affect us.

As,

however,
force,

all

actions are the necessary result of pre-existent

they are

morally alike in themselves

right ancl

determined it is not free. " Assurance only breeds resolve." But free wiith most libertarians, means self-determined, not uncaused, as with tbe
Spectator, but self in this case, means all the attributes and powers we have derived from Nature and the action upon them of the then existing " circumstances. I am not surprised that " free will has been consigned
to the region of the supernatural, for there is nothing free in nature, all
is determined according to calculable law. It is not very long since the most ordinary physical effects the causes not being evident or understood were supposed to be supernatural and each nation had

there

its

own

peculiar

way of propitiating the unknown Agent now,

:

in civilized

countries, the supernatural is retained only in the department of

mind, where the same ignorance exists as formerly in physics, and people try to avert a moral eclipse by observances and noises differing in kind only from that clashing of pots and pans still made by certain African tribes to keep off an eclipse of the moon. The Spectator says that every
accurate thinker will see at once, that free will, Providence, and Miracles do not differ in principle at all, but are only more or less startling results of the same facts.' In this, I believe, every " accurate thinker " the Necessitarians will be disposed perfectly to agree with him. among
1
''

In the Spectator of the following week (February 3,) we have another writer on the same subject in a notice of Dr. Travis and Sir William Hamilton. Dr. Travis in " Moral Freedom ^Reconciled with
Causation ", lays down the rather startling proposition that acts may be seJ/"-determined while they are caused by something else, a position
rather difficult to reconcile with the ordinary use of logic. Although, says the Dr., we cannot control the affections acting upon our organization at any particular moment, we may indefinitely increase or diminish the force of any one, by dwelling or refusing to dwell upon the thoughts

adapted to keep it before our minds. By this spontaneous power, says Dr. Travis, man can gradually mould his character, and is therefore

THE RELATIVITY OF MORALITY.

wrong, virtue and vice, having no existence but as they
the wellbeing of the sentient creation.

89
affect

Truth, justice, and

wisdom

are only relations to finite things,

and cannot therenature.

fore be infinite or absolute in their

own

In the natural world we have strong likes and antipathies, and we call some things nice and others nasty, as they affect
us pleasurably or the reverse, but on examination we find

a free agent, not in the sense of being able to withdraw himself from the law of causality, but because these acts of attention are one of the causes by which his character at any particular instant is formed. Now,
as the Dr. admits that there
is

"a

cause for dwelling or refusing to

and that the spontaneous power is under causality, the difference between him and the necessitarians is evidently a distinction without
dwell

"

a difference.

" To make Dr. Travis's position thoroughly defensible, E. V. (says N.,) we require to show that there is some internal principle of action belonging to our minds, which accounts for our acts of atten-

tion without recourse to any external motive. principle may be proved to exist, by the fact that

We

think that such a

the

what

mind

takes to

pieces

it

has always first put together, that the reflections of thought

always relate to previous constructions of the imagination.

forbids our doing

Our space
it

more than

state this principle, which, simple as

may

appear, nevertheless casts a marvellous light on

many

of the obscurest

questions of metaphysics, not least on this question of the freedom of the will. Construction implies selection and arrangement. Now these
are essentially free acts, because they involve the power of rejection. The bird chooses and combines the materials for its nest according to

an idea supplied by
purpose.
limited.

its

own mind, throwing

of selection

aside those unsuitable to its

limited,

The range
is

limits its choice

free.

Now

in

may be man this

but within these

is

constructive power

un-

His imagination determines alike ends and means, under the

admitting the widest scope, ideas of utility, If the will which sways such a faculty beauty, harmony, unity, &c. " I should say is not free, what does freedom mean ? What indeed

guidance of principles

the absence of any possibility of either reason or science, both of which are built on " law." The very words selection, and arrangement, and
rejection,

to the will.

imply a reason for their exercise, that is a governing power The bird even has its own reasons for what he does,

40
them
all

THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE.

composed of the same simple elements of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon; and the same simple forces, or their
through different parts of the brain, proIf

correlates, acting

duce

all

the

phenomena of the moral world.

it

we

love the

rose and avoid assafoetida

will in the rose to smell
its

is

not from any supposed free

sweet and look beautiful, but because

It is the
affect

attributes affect us pleasurably.

same
us,

in the

moral world, we judge of things as they

people by their attributes.

and of

We

put the

human

rose in our

bosom, and we avoid the ugly and disagreeable person as we would assafoetida, and for the same reason. We cannot
love that which
is

disagreeable because

we know

it

did not

make

itself,

and the merit we ascribe both to things and

persons is according to qualities or attributes without refei*ence to the fact that all qualities are derived. Upon these
affections

and

antipathies,

upon

our

likes

and

dislikes,

our moral systems have been formed, which affects us pleasurably, and that
us painfully.

calling that
evil

good
affects

which

It is true we have called things by very high sounding names, and have gone up to Heaven and down to Hell to aid us in force of expression, but the truth of this

simple position has not been in the least affected,

it

has

limited

we

" may have

limited.
I It

are told, while man's constructive power is unlimited. It " the widest scope but unless it is infinite it cannot he un-

seems that according to E. V. N.'s new

tell

principle, of

which

us more, the will sways the determining power, not the determining power the will. It does not matter whether it is an " internal principle of action," or " external motive," that governs the will, and the acts dependent upon it, so that it is governed. Reasonable motive ought to govern the will, and the nearer we approach the madman and the idiot the nearer we get to freedom not that any
;

am

sorry he cannot

one, unless

it

be the Spectator, supposes even their acts or volitions to

be uncaused.

MORALITY BASED ON UTILITY.

41

onlv been obscured by thus putting words in the place of

things.

Language

is

expression of ideas,

most imperfect instrument for the even with the most philosophical; with
a

the

many
as

the names are a part of the things themselves;

things

and

were

named when they were

imperfectly

known, errors are retained and perpetuated from generation " All moral rules are derived to generation. originally from
utility,

but the pleasures and pains, or likes and antipathies

on which they are based are transmitted to offspring and thus become intuitions, similar to the feelings with which
the kitten regards a dog;
directly
it
;

from

its

opens its eyes having been the custom years ago to bait her fore-

up its back and spits at it the cow also from the same cause,
it

sets

fathers, keeps

making imaginary

tosses of the dog,

is still

whenever

she sees one ; and the bull himself

made

furious

by

the sight of a red colour, although the feeling

derived ages ago in the bull-fights of Spain.

may have been

mixed the tendencies of actions and the

in a long course of time

In this way are feelings with which

to regard
lost.
its

we

intuitively

come

them,
is

and their

original source is thus

sometimes

What

called the Intuitive School of Moralists

bases

conclusions

partly
for

on

utility,

and partly on such internal convictions,

which no reason can be assigned, except a certain feeling on the subject, and which usually takes the shape of * all men think,' we cannot help feeling,' &c. To recognize how'

ever, the obligations of morality

is

simply to recognize the

should
live,

conditions on which

it

is

desirable

men

and the
all

authority

is

enforced by pains and penalties which

are

forced to attend to whether the obligations are recognized

and acknowledged or not.

"It

is

often said that

it is

impossible to speak definitely

is

of the objects of creation, that happiness

not a sufficiently

worthy object, but that development seems more the end and

42

THE PERSISTENCE OP FORCE.

aim of the Creator than happiness.

of
'
'

But what

is

the use

development

unless attended

a pleasurable

consciousness?

by consciousness, and that a painful consciousness would

in infinite beauty

be worse than nothing.

World on world

would be the same as none without beings conscious of their a happy existence, and unless that beauty gave pleasure
consciousness,
it

would be

useless.

Were

a universe de-

veloped in all possible

fly

conscious

of

its

power and beauty and but one little existence, that little fly would be of
universe.
size,

Beings might and power, but of what use would their existence be if they were not happy, Pain checks development, or at least a source of happiness?
vastly

more importance than the

'

be

'

developed

in infinite

number,

and

all

legitimate development is attended with pleasure, and,

in fact,

we can

see

no good

in development unless

it

produces

happiness.

We

cannot see or even understand any other

:

purpose in creation to be without consciousness is the same as not being; and consciouness that was neither pleasurable

nor painful would be no consciousness, for there

is

no

negation or state of indifference, no sensation, or feeling, or

idea, attending either the intellect or sentiments that is not
slightly

either

one or

the

other.

Certainly
is

pain would

not be worth living

left.
it

for,

and happiness

the only thing

People speak of pleasure with contempt, because by

usually

is

meant something carnal and resulting from the

but
happiness
is

lower

feelings,

simply the
source

aggregate

of

pleasurable

sensation

from

whatever

derived:

again,

you

happiness as poor and paltry, worth as something scarcely having, and speak of blessedness as the end to be attained; but by blessedness they
hear
people

decry

evidently

mean

a refined kind of happiness,

composed

prin-

cipally of the religious

and

aesthetic feelings.
'

We

hear
;

much
'

also in the present

day of

Law, Order, and Unity

but

MORAL BESPONSIBILITY.
law, order

43

and unity, that serve no purpose, are no evidence

design.'

of

wisdom of

The

obligation, then, that

a
is

man

is

under to act in one way rather than in another,

pain,

owing to its tendency to happiness or to the avoidance of and Morality may be defined as the ' the science which

teaches

men

possible.'

together in the most happy manner * Bentham says, "No man ever (Helvetius.y
to
live

had, can, or could have a motive differing from the pursuit

of pleasure or the avoidance of pain."
J. S. Mill says,

"

volition

is

a moral
as

effect,

which

follows

the

corresponding

moral

causes

certainly

and

invariably as physical

effects

follow their physical causes."

moralist.

then is the object of the " To prove that the immoral action is a miscalculation of self-interest ; to show how erroneous an estimate

To

present these moral causes

the vicious

man makes

of pains and pleasures,

is

the purpose

of the intelligent moralist."

sists in

Bentham.

Man's freedom conis all-sufficient;

being able to do as he pleases, which

the object then must be to present such motives as will

make

him

please to

do that which

will

be most for the lasting

interest of himself

and

society.

MORAL
in

RESPONSIBILITY.
state

But

if

no action of our

lives

the then

of our minds, and the circumstances

in

which we were placed, could have been different, what 'beIt consists comes of our Accountability or Responsibility ?
in the consequences of our actions,

which are pleasurable or

is,

painful as they are right or wrong, that

benefit or injure ourselves or society.

as they tend to

It is for the moralist

then to guard, and

pleasures,

if

necessary to increase, these pains and

and as man necessarily seeks that which is pleasurable and avoids that which is painful, the interests of
*

Philosophy of Necessity, p. 87 to 89-90.

44

THE PERSISTENCE OF FOECE.

morality are sufficiently assured.

But

if all

actions are the

same, per se, and could not possibly have been otherwise under the circumstances, what have we to preach about?

What becomes
safely buried,

of sin and iniquity, &c. ?

all

All that

may be

do in morals as in physics, is to show the consequences of our actions. The laws of are as and and fixed, determinate, morality unvarying, as are
to

and

we have

those that keep the planets in their sphere.

The common and erroneous

man's being an accountable agent
flicting

idea of Kesponsibilty
is

of

the rightfulness of in-

punishment, that

is,

of apportioning a certain
sin,

amount

of suffering to a certain
to

amount of

which he

is

supposed

have desemed because he could have done

is

differently;

but as this
ferently,
all

not the case

as he could not have acted difthis

responsibility in

sense

would be unjust,

and as such actions are already past and could not be recalled, it would be as useless as unjust. The pains and penalties,
or punishments, attending our actions, are for our good; to

show us when we have done wrong, that

will injure us
;

is,

done that which

;

and

to prevent our doing

it

again

and we are
is,

so punished whether our actions are voluntary or not, that

whether they are what

is

called free,

or merely accidental.

Whether we
the pain
is

fall

into the fire or put ourselves in voluntarily,

the same, the object being to

make us

get out

again as soon as possible and thus avert the consequences

of being burned.
It is the

same

in other penalties, whether

the pains are those of conscience or merely bodily.

Forgive-

ness of sins then, or to be relieved from that punishment which

is

for our good,

if

not to forgive,

would be simply doing us an injury, and no good comes from punishment, would be

mere vengeance.
said,

The myriads

of

human
is,

beings

whom,

it is

God has "

fore-ordained," that

designed beforehand,

to be punished to all eternity,

" to the praise of his glorious

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT.
as the "Westminster Confession has it*,

45

justice,"

may

con-

sistently with that justice be safely released.

sibility,

Moral Respon-

so

much contended

for, is

to take revenge for injuries

merely the supposed right done to us.

* See also the sermon of Jonathan Edwards, the unanswerable " Justice of God in the champion of Philosophical Necessity, on the damnation of Sinners," and the diary of Mr. Carey on the " pleasure" and " sweetness " he had experienced in reading that sermon. Surely Free Will would be a most undesirable gift if accompanied
; surely God could never make his crea" thus to injure themselves irretrievably tures " free Infinite power and benevolence and eternal punishments are contradictions. But men

by such possible consequences

horrid

are better than their creeds, they do not realize or really believe this dogma if they did it would put a stop to all action in this world
;

work with such a possible doom hanging acting upon mere brute instinct, would dare to bring children into the world whose possible and even probable fate was endless torment. To me it appears the blackest
daily
selfish brute beast,
libel

who could go about his over him? or who but a

on the name of the Creator that Hell

is

itself

could invent, and

it

wherever we find that the doctrine

has, as

received in any seriousness,

most brutalizing tendency. Mr. Lecky, in his History of Rationalism, shows how completely this effect was produced in Scotland in the sixteenth century, in the torturing and burning of supposed witches, and in persecution generally. He says " The Reformed clergy all over Scotland applauded and stimulated The ascendancy they had obtained was boundless the persecution. and in this respect their power was entirely undisputed. One word from them might have arrested the tortures, but that word- was
expect, the
: ;

we might

never spoken. Their conduct implies not merely a mental aberration, but also a callousness of feeling which has rarely been attained in a
long career of
vice. Yet these were men who had often shown, in the most trying circumstances, the highest and the most heroic virtues. They were men whose courage had never flinched when persecution was men who had never paltered with their consciences to raging around men whose self-devotion and zeal in their attain the favour of a king sacred calling had seldom been surpassed men who, in all the private relations of life, were doubtless amiable and affectionate. It is not on them that our blame should fall it is on the system that made them what they were. They were but illustrations of the great truth, that when men have come to regard a certain class of their fellow creatures
:

46

THE PERSISTENCE OF FORCE.

As motives govern our volitions, we praise or blame, reward or punish, as motives to induce one line of conduct A man who sets up his free will and rather than another.
refuses to be governed
fool,

by motives and his actions are not the

is

either a

madman
If a

or a

less

caused.

man
all

could refuse to

be governed by the strongest motive,

moral influences,

and praise and blame, would be

useless,

and

all

reasoning upon his conduct impossible, for

we should

never be able to predict what he would do from what he

We judge of acts by their tendency; but as all mental action originates in motives, it is by motives that character must be judged, and an act is moral, not because it
had done.
is

free,

but because

it

arises in

moral motives.

excruciating agonies, and intense and realizing earnestness to the contemplation of such agonies, the result will be an indifference to the suffering of those whom they deem the enemies of their

as

doomed by the Almighty to eternal and when their theology directs their minds with

God, as absolute as it is perhaps possible for human nature to attain." Of course under such a dogma, if only half believed, intolerance and persecution become the highest duty, and all human sympathy must be

made

The Spaniards, .with their Inquisition, and the to stand aside. Scotch, only showed that they were more earnest in their belief than other nations who professed to hold the same faith. Mr. Lecky says, " If men believe with an intense and untiring faith that their own view
of a disputed question
is

further believe that those

true beyond all possibility of mistake if they who adopt other views will be doomed by

the Almighty to an eternity of misery, which with the same moral desthese peration, but with a different belief, they would have escaped, men will, sooner or later, persecute to the extent of their power. If you

Bpeak to them of the physical and moral sufferings which persecution produces, or of the sincerity and unselfish heroism of its victims, they
will reply that such arguments rest altogether on the inadequacy of what suffering that men your realization of the doctrine they believe can inflict can be comparable to the eternal misery of all who embrace the doctrine of the heretic ? what claim can human virtues have to our

forbearance,

if the Almighty punishes the mere profession of error as a crime of the deepest turpitude ? "

CHAPTEE

III.

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

" And what
if all

of animated nature
diversely framed,

Be but organic heaps

That tremble into thought, as over them sweeps, Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,

At once the soul of each, and God of

all ?

"

Coleridge.

" Then shall the dust return to the earth as

shall return to

it

was

and the

spirit

God who gave

it."

Ecclesiastes.

" In

all

we

are convinced that,

phenomena the more closely they are investigated the more humanly speaking, neither matter nor force can

be created or annihilated, and that an essential cause is unattainable. Causation is the will, Creation the act of God." W. R. Grove. Correlation of Physical Forces.

should have no grounds for supposing that matter existed

if

matter did not exert force, and the popular idea is, that matter could be separated from this force, or from its
manifestations or accidents, and that the laws which govern

matter are external to

itself.

But, as

we have

seen,

it is

most

probable that the force, or manifestations, or accidents, or laws,

are all that really exists.

Our

faculties

butes without ourselves, and

qualities

make us acquainted with qualities or attriwe assume that these must be

of something,

or

attributes

and we have called

it

Matter; we have feelings and ideas, and we equally assume that they also must belong to something, and we call it

48

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

but
there
is

Mind

in

reality

nothing
belong,
is

to

which these
se

mental

and physical
its

attributes

they exist per

as force and

correlates.

THEBE

NOTHING UNDERLYING

PHENOMENA
FORCE
is ALL.

PHENOMENA ARE CORRELATES OF FORCE, AND When we speak of Qualities, we indicate only
affected

how we

are

correlate of this physical force

by Force external; vital force is the and ideas and feelings are the
;

correlate of vital force, not existing

anything, but each idea

it

or feeling existing separately

and when

ceases to exist as
is still

an idea or
persistent.

feeling, it

merely takes some other form, and

it

What form
upon

may

possibly

take
says,

we

shall
all

speculate

in another chapter.

Hume

" Since

our perceptions are different from each other, and from everything else in the universe, they are also distinct and separable,

and may be considered as separably existent, and may separately, and have no need of anything else to support
existence."

exist

their

And

again,

thing but a perception.

"We have A substance

no perfect idea of anyis entirely different from

a perception.

We

have therefore no idea of a substance.

is

Inhesion in something

supposed to be requisite to support

*

the existence of our perceptions.

to support the existence of our perceptions.

fore

Nothing appears requisite We have there-

What possibility, then, of answering Whether perceptions inhere in a material or question, immaterial substance, when we do not so much as understand
no idea of inhesion.
that

the meaning of the question

It

would appear then, that

that which underlies phenomena, and the

noumenon and
their

the phenomena the non-ego and the ego in phenomenon Inmost Nature are the same that is, " Mind and Matter
the
;

are

only phenomenal
viz.,

modifications

of
is

the
the

same common
true doctrine of

substance,"

of force.

This

Treatise of

Human

Nature, vol.

i.,

p. 311, et. seq.

POWER NOT SEPARABLE FROM GOD.

"Absolute Identity," taught " There Hegel, and Cousin.
that
not 7,"
in another
is

49

no

fact,"

form by Schelling, " no says Fichte,

Tree there, but only a manifestation of Power from something

is

that

is,

a certain amount of force was received

into the system, and, meeting other forces into that

from without, was

compound changed done that, would pass into some other form or modification. There is not, however, an Absolute Identity between the

idea called a tree, and having

external power and the idea of the tree, since to complete the
idea other powers are supplied from within, or from the ego.

The thing known and

the

mind knowing

are one in quality or

essence, but not in quantity.

one thing in the world, Force; and Force and what Power are the same, and Power we cannot separate from that source of all power, from God, Power is God. We say the power of God, as if it could be
find then but
is

We

that?

separated from Him, or delegated; but this

ceivable.

is

clearly inconis

The one only thing we

find

anywhere

God.

The fundamental
in

principle in the doctrine of Spinoza is

the simplicity of the Universe, and the unity of that substance,

inhere.

which he supposes both thought and matter to He says, " Whatever we discover externally by
whatever we
feel internally

sensation

by

reflection

all

these

are nothing but modifications of that one simple and necessarily

existent being,

and are not possessed of any separate and

distinct existence."*

"There
Whatever

is
is,

but one
is

infinite

Substance,

and that

is

God.

in
is

God

and without

Him

nothing can be conceived.

all

of which

things

are

the

the universal Being * * * manifestations.

He

Extension and Thought are the objective and subjective, of which God is the Identity. Every thing is a mode of God's
attribute of Extension; every thought, wish, or feeling, a
*

mode

Home

on

Human

Nature,

vol.

i.,

p. 319.

60

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

of his attribute of Thought.

*#'."*

God

is

the one

'idea immanens'

the

One and All."*

The one
modern

infinite

Substance and the

"Force"

of

our
is,

Scientific conceptions are identical,

and the question

what do we and can we actually know of it ? First, then, " The Science shows its Unity. simplest germination of a
lichen is," says Lewes,

"if we apprehend

it

rightly, directly

linked with the grandest astronomical

phenomena; nor could

an infusory animalcule be annihilated without altering the Plato had some forecast of this equilibrium of the universe.

when he taught
others,

that the world

was a great animal

and

since Plato,

manifestation of

when they considered the universe the some transcendent life, with which every
life

separate individual

was

related, as parts are to the whole."

Emerson

"
says,

Every thing
is

in nature contains all the powers

of nature;

everything

made

of one hidden stuff. that

The
all

true doctrine of Omnipresence

his
is

is,

God

re-appears in

parts,
alive."

in

every moss and cobweb;

thus the Universe

The Rev.

J.

White

Mailler,

M.A., says,

"When we

view

the world as one universal

effect,

we

are at once led to the

contemplation of a universal Divine Agency.

Infinite act

Does not the

no power

on every atom ?

God

never delegates his power ;

:

He

cannot transfer divinity to a substance

there
all

is

therefore separate from Himself.

their being, "f

In

Him

things have

Science, then, proves the Unity of* Force

throughout the

Universe, as far as our observation extends, every

pulling at every other

atom
it

is is

atom;

it

also equally

shows that

not what we
active

call

dead, passive, or blind force, but universally

it

and

intelligent, that is,

partakes of the attributes which

* Lewes' History of Philosophy, vol. iii., p. 146. + The Philosophy of the Bible, pp. 35 and 40.

FOKCE NOT BLIND BUT INTELLIGENT.

61

we

If the One simple, homogeneous ascribe only to mind. substance or force did not partake of the nature of mind,

what could

at first
it

have originated change

in

it ?

whereas we
all

now know

to be the cause of all things,

and that

these

changes tend to definite purposes.

We

are accustomed only

to acribe Intelligence to sensitive beings, whereas every

is

atom

equally intelligent and tending towards a given purpose*, and one is no more an independent agency than the other,

for all things that begin to be,

whether in mind or matter, must

have a cause why they begin to be, and they are not therefore self-existent, but the foundation of their existence must be
without themselves, and the intelligence

shown

in either

mind

or atom

no part of either, but is something separate and There is nothing in nature exercising an indebeyond. pendent agency. A cause must be uncaused if produced as
is
;

all

things around us by the persistence of force,

it is

an

effect.

There can be only one cause, therefore, and

passive results.

all

the rest are

All things in nature being thus derived, the original from

which they are derived must exist somewhere. This is what we call the Great First Cause. " The meaning of a First Cause is, (says Mill,) that all other things exist, and are what they are by reason of it
* " There

lies
'

all

the

difficulties

about

these

atoms.

These

same

in which they stand to one another are anything but ' simple ones. They involve all the 'ologies' and all the ometries,' and in these days we know something of what that implies. Their
'

relations

movements, their interchanges, their hates and loves,' their 'attractions and repiilsions,' their correlations,' their what not, are all determined on the very instant. There is no hesitation, no blundering, no trial
'
'

and

error.

The presence
it

of

MIXD

is

what solves the whole

difficulty;

so far, at least, as

consciousness,

brings it within the sphere of our own and into conformity with our own experience of what

action is."

Sir J. F. W. Herschel.

52
and of

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

its

properties, but that

it is,

it

is

not

itself

made

to exist,

nor to be what
its

by anything
its

else.

It

does not depend for

existence or attributes, on other things: there is nothing existence of which

upon the

own

is

conditional:

it

exists

absolutely."

*
are those

But there
an

who say

that there

is

no First Cause,
all

but that the chain of causation goes back to

infinite

eternity

non- commencement.

They

assert that qualities

and properties and attributes are inherent, that they have always existed, and they see no evidence of purpose or design
in
creation,

but think that in the

infinite

concourse

and

commingling of atoms or forces in infinite time

nious having
itself,

and space,

the present order of things has arisen; everything inharmoa natural and

necessary tendency to destroy

is

good and harmonious being permanent or having power to continue in existence at all. But even supposing qualities to be inherent, and laws, or
and only that which
observed order of facts, to be
still
it

the longest

necessary and

permanent, anything but chance could result from the joint action of one set of laws
is

difficult

to

see

how

upon another,
do.
Sir

if

force were blind.

It is

with results, and

that

not with the primary laws

or

qualities

we have
all

to

John Herschel

tells

us,

that

"among

the

possible combinations of the fifty or sixty elements

which che-

mistry points to as existing on this earth, that some have never yet been formed" and who can say, when such combination does take place what the result will

be?

It

may

take

an almost one purpose infinite series to bring about one reciprocity, and then one more turn of the necessary screw one adverse combination, " No one law determines might take us back to chaos.
chances to
effect

a million

anything that we see happening or done around us.

* Mill on Hamilton, p. 36.

It is

THE COMBINATION OF FORCES.

53

always the result of differing or opposing forces nicely balanced

against each other.
in

The

least disturbance of the proportion

is

which any one of them

in the effect.
intricate

allowed to

tell,

change

The more we know

produces a total of nature, the

The do such combinations appear to be. existence of laws, therefore, is not the end of our physical
more
knowledge.

What we
some

always reach at
is

last

in the course of

every physical inquiry,

laws, but of
different laws
result.

the recognition, not of individual

definite relation to

each other, in which

are placed, so as to bring about a particular

is,

But

this

in other words, the principle of adjust-

ment, and adjustment has no meaning except as the instrument and the result of purpose. * * * The motion of the
earth might be exactly what
it is,

every fact in respect to our

planetary position might remain unchanged, yet the seasons

would return
in

in

vain

if

our

own atmosphere were

its

altered
if

any one of the elements of

its

composition, or

any
it

one of the laws regulating

is.

action

were other than

Under a thinner
in

air

wrapped
with

eternal

snow.

even the torrid zone might be Under a denser air, and one

different

refracting

therein might be burnt up.

in

powers, the earth * * *

and

all

that

is

Then, the relations

to the. che-

which these
life,

inorganic
constitute

compounds

stand

mistry of

another vast series in which the

principle of adjustment has applications infinite in

number,
relations

and as
are,

infinite

in ^beauty.

How

delicate

these

and how tremendous are the issues depending on their The management, may be conceived from a single fact.

same elements combined

in one

proportion are sometimes

a nutritious food or a grateful stimulant, soothing and sustaining

the

powers of
they

life

whilst,

combined

in

another

proportion,

may

be a deadly poison,

paralysing the
fibre

heart

and carrying agony along every nerve and

of

54

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

This
is

the animal frame.

It is actually

no mere
in

theoretical possibility.

the relation

which two well-known sub-

stances
active

stand to
principle

each other
of

Tea

and

Strychnia.

The
and
are

these

two substances,
so
far

" Theine "

elements

"Strychnine,"
concerned, and

are
differ

identical

as

their

from each other only in the proportions in which they are combined. Such is the power of numbers in the laboratory of Nature What havoc in this world,
!

so full of

life, would be made by blind chance gambling with such powers as these!"* It is impossible to conceive

that

inherent

forces

working blindly

could
if

unity

of purpose we everywhere see, or chances to one they did, what is to secure

produce the by a million

Were

properties

inherent,

then

it

permanence ? would be impossible to

its

escape the conviction that there

then" individual tendencies
;

is a higher force controlling but recent science shows that

there

is

nothing inherent

the very

name

itself

implies that

such forces are inherited or derived.

The

force, or rather

" form"

in

an acorn, by which

it

can only become an oak,

or the difference between an acorn and the seed of a scarlet

runner or a gourd, is, as we have seen, dependent upon Even organization, which is derived from the parent stock.

what we
rent,

call properties,

and which are assumed to be inheseen,

are,

as

we have

formed in the mind

itself,

the

result of organization.

The law

of the Persistence of Force

and the law of Evolution are the same.

state

Every

existing

has grown out of the preceding, and all its forces have been used up in present phenomena, the change from
physical to sentient and mental greatly increasing with each

Everything that exists depends upon the past, prepares the future, and is related to the whole."
succeeding age; as Oersted says,
*

"

The Reign

of Law.

By

the

Duke

of Argyle.

Good Words.

CAUSE AND EFFECT NOT A NECESSAKY CONNECTION.

55

Comte

is

of opinion that,

when properly converted

to the

" mankind will cease to refer the positive mode of thought, constitution of Nature to an intelligent will and Supreme
universe of effects,
is

Governor of the world;" on the contrary, Science finds only a nothing is what it is in itself, everything
derived; the Universal Cause
is

everywhere without, not

is

inherent, and what we see the Vital Force

to the Acorn,

we may suppose God is to the Universe. Oersted says, " The world is governed by an eternal reason, which makes known to us its actions by unalterable laws."
It is true the

Laws

of Nature are unalterable, but

effect

is

the

connection between each cause and

a necessary one, or

dependent only upon the volition of the Eternal Reason? Those who believe in inherent properties believe also in an
indissoluble necessary connection.

have clearly shown that there

necessary connection
is
;

the invariableness
is

But Hume is supposed to no proof whatever of any but that all we know and can speak of and J. S. Mill says, " What experience
is

makes known,
event

the fact of the invariable sequence between

and some special combination of antecedent every conditions, in such sort that wherever and whenever that union
of antecedents exists, the event does not
fail to

occur.

Any
again,

must in

this case,

any necessity, other than the unconditional

universality of the fact,

we know nothing

of."

And

"Whether
ignorant,

it

must do
the

so, I acknowlege myself to be entirely

be

phenomenon moral or physical;

the
is,

and

condemn,
either case.

accordingly,
All I

know

word Necessity as applied to But if we that it always does."*

can show why it always does; that the connection is a moral rather than a physical one then I think the higher probability is that such invariable connection has been established to
;

answer a special purpose, and

*

is

not necessary, but in other

Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, pp. 500, 501.

56

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

might be
dissolved.

circumstances

All

the

purposes

in

creation evidently point to one object

largest

the production of the

amount of
is

sensitive existence.

The whole

surface of

the earth

one net- work of nerves, so that, as in the

human

body, so in the body of the world,

point of a needle where there
is

you can scarcely

insert the

preserved at a high pressure.

rule,"

Life is always no sentience. " There is no exception to the

says

Darwin,

" that every organic being naturally

if

increases at so high a rate, that

not destroyed, this earth

would soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair." Without respect to individuals, the object seems to be to keep
the greatest

number

possible in the best possible state

for

enjoyment

" So careful of the type she seems,

So

careless of the single life."

Now
laws.

the enjoyment, and indeed

we may say

the

existence

of this

mass of

life,

depends upon the uniformity of nature's

of
the

The

exercise

highest

reasoning

power

in

man, equally with the lowest

instinct of the brute,

depends

upon the order of nature to-day being as yesterday; upon the being able to calculate what will be from what has been
;

upon the

between instinct and object being sustained. It has been said " That the testimony of consciousness must be believed, because to disbelieve it, would be
delicate relationship

to impute mendacity

truly observes,

"

How

and perfidy to the Creator," but Locke short soever our knowledge may be
comprehension of whatever is, it " God has concernments," and that

of a universal or perfect
yet secures our great

given us assurance enough as to the existence of things without us; since by their different application we can
in ourselves both pleasure

produce

way the world

is

and pain." In fact in whatever created within us, and however far short our

DEATH THE PARENT OF

consciousness
outer world
desires,
is

LIFE.

57

may come

of absolute truth, our relation to the

quite sufficient to guide us to the objects of our

gratification of
is

upon the

which our happiness depends ;

our consciousness
necessary, and
all

therefore
it

no deception, but
to be;

all

that

is

that

was intended

but

if after

" order of nature," attaining that knowledge of the

upon which

our safety and wellbeing depended, that order were changed,

or altered, or interfered with,
special Providence, that

by what is called Free Will, or a would certainly be a breach of faith.

effect in

Whether then the connection between cause and

cedence and consequence,
purposes of
unalterable,
life

the

order of nature be a necessary one, or mere invariable anteit

is

certainly desirable for all the

that such connection should be unaltered and

therefore

it is

most probably established and

based upon the

maintained by the Will of the Creator;

volition of the Absolute.

We We

find, then,

but one infinite Substance, and that

is

the

same with the Force or Power we

find only

see everywhere around us.

Force changing into Life, and Life into Sen-

tience

a great aggregated pleasurable Consciousness guarded

by pain.

Death and Birth are the great waste and reprois

ductive system of this great Sentient body, and the one

as

Death may be said to be the Parent of Life.* Advancing Science shows that the Cosmos, both sentient and insentient, is one and indivisible, and
necessary as the other,
as

viewed in this

light, as

a whole

it

is

ever progressing towards

increasing happiness.

By

the Natural law of Progress, called

" Natural Selection," the weak and bad and ugly are constantly making room for the strong and good and beautiful. Pleasure is the rule, pain the exception, and the aggregate of
* " There
is

away

into its

own

no death in the concrete, what passes away passes self only the passing away passes away. The conthe essential being Is."

sciousness abides

Hegel.

58

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

pleasurable sensation constitutes happiness, and this taken as

a whole must be

sufficient

completely to obliterate the pain,

which

man

calls evil.*

Thus the warp and woof of the Mind of God may be made up of the totality of the individual threads of consciousness, extending through the countless worlds of which
this is a
is

mere speck

a grain of sand.

" The phenomenal

the

life

join

men

I am not disposed, therefore, to of the Absolute." of science in their Altar to " The Unknown and

Unknowable God," because I cannot separate God from

*'

Man

in judging of the purposes of creation

and

of

what he

calls evil, confines his strictures either to

widest range to that of the

human

himself individually, or at the race. In both he errs, he must

take in the whole of sentient existence.

admirable illustration of this limitation of our view.

tree in the

woods appears quite

;

perfect.

Theodore Parker supplies an " An oak Thus, The leaves are coiled up and

cut to pieces by the tailor beetle ; eaten by the hay-moth and the polyphemus, the slug, caterpillar, and her numerous kindred; the twigs are su<5ked by the white-lined tree-hopper,
spoiled by the leaf-roller

or cut off by the oak-pruner ; large limbs are broken down by the seventeen-year locust the horn-bug, the curculio, and the timber-beetle, eat up its wood the gadfly punctures leaf and bark, converting the forces
; ;

of the tree to that insect's use

catchers are on
its

the grub lies in the young acorn flya spider weaves its web from twig to twig caterpillars of various denominations gnaw its tender shoots the creeper and the wood-pecker bore through the bark; squirrels, striped, flying,
; ;

leaves

red,

and

grey, have

gnawed
;

into its limbs,

and made

their nests
its

the

toad has a hole in a flaw in

its

base

the fox has cut asunder

fibrous

roots in digging bis burrow the bear dwells in its trunk, which worms, emmets, bees, and countless insects have helped to hollow ice and the
:

winds of winter have broken

off full

many a bough.
;

How

imperfect and
!

... incomplete the oak tree looks, so broken, gnarled, and grim But it has served its complicated purpose ... no doubt the good God is quite content with His oak, and says Well done, good and
' :

faithful servant

' !

"

We
it

commonly look on
:

on that crooked oak

and because

the world as the carpenter and millwright it does not serve our turn completely,

we think

an imperfect world."

THE WORLD A MANIFESTATION OF GOD.

Nature, but believe that what we can learn of one,
also of the other
:

59

we know

would

simply transfer our Theology, as

distinguished from Religion, from the Pulpit to the Lecture-

room.

Our

Priests

must be one with our men of

:

science,

our Prophets are the Poets

that:

their Inspiration tells us truly

" All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and God the soul."
" These as they change, Almighty Father, these, Are but the varied God."

" But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, Man marks not thee," &c.

To him who thus "

the wind,"
living

sees

God
he
is

in clouds

and hears him in

who cannot

separate

Him

from one atom of the

universe of which

the author and supporter,

the orthodox, but ignorant disparagement of this beautiful

world, appears impious, libellous, and above

grateful.

all

things un-

On
as
J.

this

subject

the

ancient

Hindoo and Greek mind

to the conclusion,

arrived at the

same

results.

They came
is

we

learn from the profound

and condensed work of Dr.

a manifestation of God,

W.

Draper, that the world

they held also, that the soul

emanating from Him, and being re-absorbed into Him again ; is immortal, but as it issued
it

from the Deity so would

be re-absorbed.

"As

a drop of

water pursues a devious course in the cloud, in the rain, in

the river, a part of a plant, or a part of an animal, but

sooner

or

later
it

inevitably finds

its

way back

to
its

the

sea

from which

came, so the soul, however various

fortunes

may have
which
it

been, sinks back at last into the Divinity from

emanated."

little

rivulet of force
little

has been taken

it

from the general ocean to turn our

mill

again hastens

60
back

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

to regain its source, again
its

Great Sun to go

round as before.

and again to be raised by the Man's early intuitions

are

made him
Spirit;

feel that

everything was the work of the Great

generally so right at
calls
is
first,

now

his

intuitions,

laws of nature

obscured by secondary causes which he and thus " Nature, which

;

science

and

the Time- vesture

of God, and reveals

Him

to the wise, hides

Him

from the

foolish."*
*

The

following letter from Mr.

H.

G-.

Atkinson, P. G.

S.,

which I

have permission to insert, may I think interest many of my readers: " I have been deep into the mystery of things this morning

comparing Plato with the Kahbalah. One thing occurs to me as fundamental to almost all religious schemes and principles of faith, including
the modern spiritualists, that the form of the faith or creed is little more than a mere reflex of the course of nature as we observe it about us and

At one time we have a God representing the first principles or an architect framing the universe of things, as a man and Father And again, the Great Frst Cause is proclaimed to be of all mankind.
within us.

a profound mystery and hidden secret.

The unknown and unknowable

of philosophers and men of science and the En Soph of the Kabbalah, and inconceivable Trinity in Unity of the Christian representing the secret subtle source or principle of action and formative power in nature.

And even

impossible to explain

could we discover the nature of God, says Plato, it ; and yet he tells you that God is
after the

it

would be
acting

mind

upon matter, somewhat

watch

manner

of a

watchmaker milking a

the intractible nature of the material being the origin of evil; with arguments for the immortality of the soul, not very logically conBut in the Kabbalah we have the original cause without mind, vincing.

Now representing insensible matter, from out of which mind develops. these different ideas do but reflect the form and nature of things about us. The fact and process of observed natural action either in respect
own nature or the nature without us, and in a roundabout way we have simply emanations falling back again upon their source, and as in the Kabbalah and with the Buddhist, a longing for peace in rest and eternal sleep a re-absorption, and in fact annihilation as the end most
to our

devoutly to be wished in fact the getting quit of ourselves as a very good riddance to bad rubbish, and which is actually the sum and substance of the pervading idea of the Buddhist religion. And the notion
;

forcibly presents itself to

my

mind, that

it

is

the tendency under an

NATURE AN INFINITELY DIVIDED GOD.

61

The

^highest

minds seem everywhere

very

to have come,

by
:

very different

roads,

much
is

to

similar

conclusions

thus Schelling says, "

tending powers within

The world
the
is

but a balancing of conof the absolute."

sphere
a
finite

The

Ego
soul.

in

Fechte's system
it

Ego

it

is

the

human
the
all

In Schiller's

is

the Absolute
;

the Infinite

which Spinoza called Substance and this Absolute manifests itself in two forms in the form of the Ego and in the form
:

of the

Non-Ego
it is

as Nature

and as Mind.
its

the Non-Ego, but not by

own

force,

not out of

The Ego produces its own

nature

the universal Nature which works within us and

;

which produces from out of us which here is conscious of itself.

it

is

the universal Nature

are but

Men

the innu-

merable individual eyes with which the Infinite World-spirit

beholds himself.*
Schiller says

"Nature

is

an

infinitely

ignorance of real causes and the sources of particular effects, to misextraneous or sympatake (as in the belief in ghosts and spirits,
thetic) the effects for causes,

and hence we have the

affections ascribed

to the heart,

and

called heart to this day;

whilst the actor

upon the

puts his hand to his heart as a natural action in the expression of the warmth of his affections, though no such action is the irascible passions which Plato plants ever observed in real life. originate in pride and resentment,' in the breast, because under
stage
still
'

the love of are experienced in that region pleasure or concupiscent part of the soul,' he seats in the belly and ' final inferior parts of the body-"-, taking the means for the origin or cause', &c. ; but in placing the reasoning and judging powers in the head as a firm citadel, and of which the senses are its guides and
their action sensations
; '

'

servants,'
verified

he was

right,

because every

man
;

is

sensible of the fact

now

by so many other tests and reasons and without being misled by the sympathy with other parts of the system. To collect, analyse, and record all such specious notions and speculative anticipations
misleading illusions of long ages of error, before the true principles of a real science burst upon us, is extremely interesting and profoundly
instructive." * Lewes's

Biographical History of Philosophy, vol.

iv.,

p. 189.

62

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

" The Divine One has dispersed

divided God," and again,

itself into

innumerable sensible substances, as a white beam

decomposed by the prism into seven coloured rays. And a divine being would be evolved from the union of all
of light
is

these substances, as the seven coloured rays dissolve again

into the clear-light optic glass,

beam.

The

existing

form of nature

is

the

and

all

the activities of spirit are only an infinite

colour-play of that simple divine ray.

Should

it

ever please

the Almighty

to shatter this prism, then the barrier

fall

between

himself and the world would

disappear into one infinite

to ruin

all

spirits

would

spirit, all

accords would melt into

one harmony,

all

streams would rest in one ocean.

The

attraction of the elements gave to nature its material form.

The
must

attraction of spirits, multiplied

and continued

to infinity,

finally lead to the abolition of the separation, or

it,)

(may

I utter

create

God."*
to Hegel,
is

The Universe, according

act of our

a thought, a beat,
*

a pulse, of the Absolute Mind.

In the minutest
meta-

mind

is

the same secret

logical, physical,

physical
underlies

as in the entire Universe.!

all

And

again,

"Being
creation,

"Being
contains

modes and forms of being," and in Becomes." Emerson says, "Everything

all

in nature

the powers of nature

everything

is

made
is,
;

of one

hidden

stuff.

The
all

true doctrine of Omnipresence

that

God

reappears in
universe
finite,

his parts in every

moss and cobweb

thus the

is alive." J

Theodore Parker says, "If God be In-

then he must be imminent, perfectly and totally present in Nature and in Spirit. Thus there is no point in space, no

atom of matter, but God

of soul, but
*

is

there

no point of
yet
finite

spirit,

no atom
finite

God

is

there.

And

matter and

Philosophical Letter, p. 40.

+ Masson's Recent British Philosophy, p. 279.

J

Essay on Compensation.

GOD

IS

ALL IN ALL.

68

spirit

do not exhaust God.

spirit
;

He

transcends the world of matter

and of

and

in virtue of that transcendence continually

fairer,

makes the world of matter

wiser.

and the world of

spirit

So there

is

really a progress in the manifestation of

God, not a progress

in

God

the manifesting."

Professor

Ferrier, of St. Andrew's, says,

"All absolute existences are

One, but only necessary; and that
is

contingent except one; in other words, there

one, Absolute Existence which
existence
is

is

strictly

a supreme and infinite and everlasting

all
:

Mind

in

synthesis with

things."*

Carlyle also

" This

fair universe,

in the

meanest pro-

vince thereof, is in very deed the star-domed City of

God

through every

star,

through

every grass-blade,

and most

through every living soul, the glory of a present God still beams But Nature, which is the Time-vesture of God, and
:

reveals

Him

to the wise, hides

is,

Him

from the foolish." f

live

The
Devil

Christian doctrine

that

"In Him (God) we

is all in all,

and

move and have our

the pulpit.

being."

That God

and the

something besides, is only the unanswerable logic of

I

* Institutes of Metaphysics
+

The Theory

of

Knowing and Being.

Sartor Resartus, p. 274.

those who support this influence or J We are told repeatedly by personage that we are not to rest in second causes, and yet they make " and not his Maker. The fact is that a the Devil the " Origin of Evil

Being who
his
is

is

always in pursuit of pain, that

is

ordinary intelligence,

is, of evil, who, with above always systematically acting in opposition to

own

interest, is

an impossibility.

We

know

of

no creature who

" not seeking the greatest apparent good, in the pursuit of pleasure the Author or the avoidance of pain." God is the Great First Cause of all things, and if He could have made a world like this earth, with all
it

the happiness

now

contains, without pain,

limit either

no doubt he would have

His Goodness or His Power, and we prefer the latter, as it is not derogatory to the character of God that he He could not make that not to have cannot perform impossibilities. done
so.

We

must

64

UPON THAT WHICH UNDEBLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

The Duke
in the

of Argjle, in the admirable paper on the Reign

of Law, from which

we have already quoted, says

is

"
:

Science,

modern

doctrine of the Conservation of Energy,

and

Convertibility of Forces,

already getting something

like a

firm hold of the idea that

all

kinds of force are but forms and

manifestations of some one central Force, issuing from

some

one fountain-head of power.

hesitated to say that
'

Sir

John Herschel has not

it is

but reasonable to regard the force

of gravitation as the direct or indirect result of a conscious-

ness and a will existing somewhere.'

And

even

if

we cannot

assume that force,

in all its forms, is

due to the direct working

or even separate

of the Creator, at least let us not think or speak of the forces

of nature as
if

from, His Power.

they were independent * * *

of,
is

Nothing

more remarkable
what may be And what
all

in the present state of physical research than

called the transcendental character of its results.

is

transcendentalism but the tendency to trace up

things to

the relation in which they

stand to abstract ideas?

physical phenomena phenomena of mind?

And
old

what

is this

but to bring

all

nearer and

nearer into relation with the

speculations

The

of

philosophy

which
little

cut

the

ground

from

materialism by showing

how

we know

of matter, are

now

being daily reinforced by the subtle analysis of the physiologist, the chemist,

and the

electrician.

Under

that analysis

matter dissolves and disappears, surviving only as the phenomena of Force ; which again is seen converging along all its
lines to

some common centre

*

sloping through darkness

up

to

God."

Creation by

Law

Evolution by

Law

been, which has been, or the half equal to the whole, or give finite beings infinite attributes, which is the same thing. Limited intelligence
therefore

must be always

liable to error,

and we cannot conceive of a

more

effectual

check to error than pain.

BISHOP BERKELEY.

65
these kindred ideas,

Development by Law, or as including

the

all

Reign

of

Law,

is

nothing but the

Force,
control

directed

by

Creative

of Creative

Power,

Reign of Creative worked under the Knowledge, and in fulfilment of Creative

Purpose."

Mr. R. S. Wyld, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, says, " Recent discoveries have established that
heat
is

without loss.
tions

mechanical force, the two being mutually convertible The attraction of gravity and chemical attracall

and repulsions are

the same physical force, and the

it,

entire external world is nothing but a manifestation of

simple and grand conception, and one which enters alike the domain of physics, of speculative philosophy, and of theology, and which in all of these sciences is equally important. It
represents the external world and
its

Creator as possessed of

one immaterial and

spiritual essence

power and

intelligence

being the attributes of the Creator, and power subordinate and sustained the characteristic of the Creation." *

various

Bishop Berkeley holds that Deity inspires or causes the mental sensations, and that there is no external
;

world

Mr. Wyld that there

is

is

no such thing as matter,

of Divine power

but that the world

exhibited
existence.
in

a manifestation
that
I

space

so

the

outer
able

world
to

has a real

For myself,
separate
thfe

am

not

possible to

power of

how it is God from God himself;

see

this conception

may

suit the exigencies of

an ethical creed
are only the

not based on Law, but as

mind and matter

phenomenal modifications of the

same common substance, so God and the power of God are equally inseparable, and I know nothing of poicer subordinate and sustained as something
*

On

the World as a Dynamical and Immaterial World.

v.,

Pro-

ceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. p. 387.

1864-5.

No. 67,

66

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

I can arrive at

separate from the Creator Himself.

no other

conclusion but that

God and Nature

Indivisible.

the Creator and the

Creation

are

One and

Unity and Beauty is a not less worthy representation of the Absolute. " All we see is but the vesture of God, and what we call laws
flesh,

And need we fear God manifest in the

to accept this conclusion ?

If

we have

surely the Universe in

its

of Nature are attributes of Deity."*

We

feel that

" The awful shadow of some unseen Power

Floats tho' unseen

among
"

us."

Shelley.

And

I have felt

A presence

that disturbs
;

me

with the joy

Of elevated thoughts a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean, and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man
:

motion and a
rolls

spirit that

impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And

through

all

things."

Wordsworth.

" There lives and works

A
"

soul in all things,

and that soul

is

God."

Cowper.

Earth, ocean,
If our great

air,

beloved brotherhood

Mother have imbued

my

soul

With aught of natural piety to feel Your love, and recompense the boon with mine If dewy morn, and odorous noon, and even, With sunset and its gorgeous ministers,

And solemn
If

midnight's tingling silentness

autumn's hollow sighs in the sere wood, And winter robing with pure snow and crowns

Of

starry ice the grey grass

and bare boughs

Philosophy of Necessity, p. 445.

THE NEW PANTHEISM.

If spring's voluptuous pantings

67

when she breathes

Her

sweet kisses, have been dear to no bright bird, insect, or gentle beast,
first

me

have injured, but still loved my kindred; then forgive This boast, beloved brethren, and withdraw
I consciously

And

cherished these

No

portion of your wonted favour

now

!"

Shelley.

" Neither
higher
to

is it

we have been destined

:

only to the Old Pantheism, and nothing more, that to return after all but surely to something much
;

least, if not in kind, than that which the purest wisdom of antiquity was able to attain. For the self-knowledge which we may now say that our whole of Nature has

something higher, in degree at

gained of itself, is that it is the farthest possible from being entitled to claim absolutely for itself the proud name of the Whole of Things!

That

is

to say, the utmost that

man

is

enabled to embrace even in his

vaguest conceptions, is immeasurably inferior to the actual to pan. Outside and beyond that which is the Whole to us, is always the unknown and unknowable that belongs to GOD only. The clear separation of the
ideas,

the

Whole

that is our's,

and the Whole that

is

not our's, but

that includes our's as a part, is our great gain over those highest minds of antiquity that may still have been dimly conscious of it. That

Deity which was the Pan in the highest form to the philosophic world in general, has become to us subordinate to the still higher conception of
the Divine Mystery that never can be unveiled to men. "And the lower domain of Pantheism, that which

we
:

call

lower

because

was the higher because they had yet no means of estimating the degrees of remoteness this present belief which has come again to agree with that of Old, in recognizing
it is

accessible,

though to them

it

that through the entirety of the Universe exists the whole of Deity that has at the same time the advantage we can either know or conceive,

over it, by all that the ages of experience have added. It is a Pantheism which contains within itself the rich contents of all the Religions and all and yet farther, the Philosophies the world has hitherto possessed
;

having the power now seen to be contained in it, the blessed necessity, of going on to make more and better Say we are returned to a parallel
!

condition with that of the world in the time of Xenophanes ; what is there other than reason for rejoicing if we have also before us, in prophetic anticipation, a parallel repetition to be undergone, on a higher
stage, of that succession of reigning mythologies

whose early phase has

68

UPON THAT WHICH UNDERLIES ALL PHENOMENA.

Nay, imprinted so much of permanent delight in 'immortal song'! is it not actual experience, and of a lovely sort, that instantly the mind
recurs to the recognition of this Religion of Universal Nature, it seems of liebliches Geschlecht instinctively to feel the living return of all the
' '

the

'

Goiter Griechenlands !

'

Schiller

was

false to those inner breath-

ings of true and present Deity which were the soul of his poetry, when The old cry of the elder he could lament for the entgotterte Natur ! deities, the dispossessed genii of mountain, stream, and wood, that sent
' '

when the triumphant personality of the lord of the cry which creation asserted itself in its first engrossing egoism: the followers of the newly-incarnate Christ exulted in as the woe of
forth their plaintive wail
' Ai, the great Pan is dead departing demons, when it mourned comes back to our ears with a sense of beauty altogether new, now that
' !

we are no longer obliged to pervert its music by transposing it into the mythic representation of fact for which Christian Realism has taken it. and Knowing, now, that the great Pan is not dead, and can never die seeing that what that Christian Realism took for fact was fancy, and that
;

what it took for fancy was fact; we listen to the far- subdued plaint aa pouring itself from the genuine pang of ancient severed faith, torn from a reverberating moan that which was truly substance of its substance
:

that has never hushed, sighing along the ages, a night-wind through primaeval pines, until its exquisite discord in a minor key is now once more resolving itself into the full harmony of an universal religion !

" And attuned to the

spirit of religion

such as

this,

has

it

not been

always that a Wordsworth, an Emerson, and every true poet-nature has loved to stroll back into the world's early pastime, and see, forgetting all ' its store of grown-up acquisitions, what wisdom to the berries went ;
'

silencing with

'

pleasant fancies
'

'

the over-inquisitive

self- ism

that asks

What influence me preferred Elect to dreams thus beautiful ?

'

Ungratefully-contemned Nature
like truth,

what happy return of innocent

child-

the lovely opposite of childish conceit, far superior is her own naturalness to that which super-natural, only because we were slow to believe

is it to feel

how

we had esteemed

how much
!

greater

Nature could be in herself than that which we had imagined In this sense, truly farthest from us be the notion of passing out of the range
of the supernatural,

and

sitting

down contented with the mere

'

actual

and present!
"

Only, into our heaven, not alone the

faithful dog',
!

but
"

this little daisy,

budding into

spring-life,

must bear us company

Thoughts

in aid of Faith,"

by Sara S. Hennell,

CHAPTER

IV.

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM AND OTHER ABNORMAL CONDITIONS OF MIND.

" The perfect observer in any department of science, will have it were opened, that they may be struck at once by any

his eyes as

occurrence, which, according to received theories ought not to happen, Sir for these are the facts which serve as clues to new discoveries."
J. Herschel.

He who ventures to treat, a priori, a fact as absurd, wants He has not reflected on the numerous errors he would committed in regard to many modern discoveries." Arago.
dence.
'

"

pru-

have

" With regard to the miracle question, I can only say that the word impossible is not to my mind applicable to matters of philosophy. That the possibilities of nature are infinite is an aphorism with which
'
'
'

am wont

to worry

my

friends.

And

if

John Smith

tells

me

to-morrow

that by a word he can

make a

stone

fall

upwards, or cause the Record to

speak with decency and fairness, or (say) the Bishop of Oxford, I may not think it worth while to go into the question, the value of Jdhn Smith's critical faculty being unknown to me, while the general course
of experience to be
is terribly

a priori impossible.

against him, but I will not declare what he says But if my friend Professor Tyndall should

make

either or both of the

same

assertions, I should feel

bound

at least

to suspend

my

judgment

until such time as the matter could be fully

investigated."

Professor Huxley.

" In the last number of the Spectator (February 10, 1866), Professor Huxley has paid me the great compliment of stating that were I to tell

him to-morrow that I could by a word cause a stone to fall upwards, he would feel bound to suspend his judgment until such time as the matter
could be fully investigated. It is not often that I find myself unable to But on the present reciprocate the sentiments of my eminent friend.

70

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

occasion I feel bound to say, that were he to confide to me the statement of his ability to reverse by a word the action of gravity, my judgment regarding him would find mournful expression in the line
:

'

what a noble mind

is

here o'erthrown.' " *

Professor Tyndall.

The

Correlation of Force in Living Structures.

WHETHER

the egg

came before the chicken, or the chicken

whether organization depends upon life, or life upon organization, is still under dispute. What took "In to the it is difficult place say, but at the beginning"
before the egg;

present time there

organization

upon
is,

life

seems to be a mutual dependence of Life and life upon organization.

the vital spark,

for I hold the

as far as we know, in all cases hereditary "spontaneous generation" theory to be at " not Life is transmitted from parent to present proven." and that offspring, offspring is dependent upon organization
for

the

peculiar

vital

forces
life,

it

displays;

and with the

organization perishes the

at least in that form.

As we

have seen, however, the

* It will

vital

spark

may

lie

dormant in
more

be seen that

I look

upon Huxley's as by
"

far the

phi-

see a stone " fall upwards losophical position. word or volition, or nervous force, from the arm.

We

when

Now

projected by a is it certain that

mental

upon the stone through no other medium but the nerves and muscles of the arm? Huxley says, " I won't " let me see look, the man's mad it, that's all" Tyndall says, that asks me." Has gravitation then no correlate like the other forces ? We find whole seas ascending from their basins, and descending again
force,

correlate of physical, can act

with a force sufficient to turn

all

the machinery in the world.

In the

following pages I wish it to be distinctly understood that personally I cannot vouch for the truth of what are called the spiritual manifestations; I have seen

enough to induce me to believe they may be true, and the testimony of such men as Professor de Morgan, and many
others equally honest, if not equally competent, I hold to be sufficient to warrant full investigation, and to " speculate " as I have done on their cause.

FUNCTION DEPENDENT UPON STBUCTUKE.

71

the seed for thousands of years until quickened into growth

by heat and moisture; whether the same thing can take

place in

animals
in

as for

instance in the toad said to be

found

alive

the

red

sandstone,

is

very

problematical.

Force, passing through the organization of the

human

body,

accomplishes a great variety of work, according to the peculiarity

of the structure through which

it

it

passes; and that

liver, lungs,

which
heart,

does unconsciously through the stomach,

circulation,

muscles,

&c., is quite as wonderful,

intelligence as that

and

attended with quite as

much

consciously through the brain.

which passes The perfection with which

the different functions of the body are performed depends upon the condition of
its

organ.

" The highest degree of organizaIf the structure

is

tion giving the highest degree of thought."

is

impaired, disease takes place,

is

and what

called the vis

medicatrux natura,
that
all

vital

structure

probably nothing but the strong tendency has to assume its natural form

or type.

The usual

inlets to the

mind

for the forces without, are

said to be the five senses of Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste,

and Feeling; but the whole body is an inlet to the mind, and we have besides a sense of temperature, of pleasure and
pain,

and a muscular sense.*

The

bat,

and somnambules

See " Man's Nature and Development," p. 97, et

sec.,

by H. G.

Atkinson, F.G. S., and Harriet Martineau. I consider this work the most valuable contribution towards Psychology based on Physiology which we have had since Gall and Spurzheim's works on Cerebral
Physiology, or Phrenology.
Professor Gregory, in the Preface to his

work on Mesmerism says " The reader will find, in the work recently published by Mr. Atkinson and Miss Martineau, many striking facts connected with animal magnetism, which is one of the subjects treated of. Mr. Atkinson's observations on the functions of different parts of
the brain as exhibited in the magnetic sleep are of the highest value, from that gentleman's great experience and intimate knowledge of the

72

SPECULATIONS ON SPIBITUALISM.
the same

and mesmerised people see without ey6s; that

force of light is

is,

conveyed
heat, and

to the brain

through a different

medium.

Heat and
light,

electricity

system, and

pervade the whole nervous electricity, are but differing con-

ditions of the

same

force or influence,

and

this seeing with-

out eyes therefore

may be

accounted

for.

Dr. Howe, in his

possible
it

education of Laura Bridgman, showed

how

was to

reach the mind through other than

its

ordinary inlets.

The

sense of pleasure and pain must be distinguished from the

feeling that attends the propensities

and sentiments and other

mental faculties and sensations.

Mr. Atkinson, very properly, I think, gives them their separate organs in the brain. In
accordance with this we find that as each organ can manifest
only a limited amount of force according to its peculiar function, so only a certain amount of pain can at one time be
endured.
I

know

a lady

who
first

lately

had

eight teeth taken

felt

out at a sitting; after the

little

three she says she

very

pain

and martyrs

at the stake

and criminals on the rack

fortunately could only feel a limited

amount of

pain.

Pain

and Pleasure are transformed

Mr. Atkinson
as
it

force

mental correlates; and

in

were, in the hollow of his

mesmerising found that he could hold pain hand; he could transfer it

from another body to his own, and from one person to another, " and " sleepers who were so insensible that you might cut
off their

any pain

limbs without their knowledge, would inflicted on the mesmeriser.

feel instantly

subject. until the

I should have

made use

of

whole of the

first

part of

them but his work did not appear mine was written." I have received

this work, while

communications from Mr. Atkinson relating to the subjects of it has been going through the press, which I think are valuable, and which I have given in the Appendix.
several

THE OBSERVATION OF UNBOUNDED SPACE.

73

Hatter and Spirit the same in Essence^

As we have
how, then, can
or

seen, external force, acting

organization, produces the

spirit

upon our peculiar phantom which we call the world

:

be more ethereal than this external force ?

how can

ghosts be more ghosts than what

/

we

call gross

material matter

Spirits, therefore, if they exist, cannot be

more

ethereal

they may, however, be unseen, or we

because they

may be

unconscious of their existence,

relation to our senses.

may

have no

Time and Space. That Time and Space are only " modes of thought," and can have no objective existence, or rather that the reality
cannot accord with our conception,
is

evident from the fact

that, according to our idea, the half of either

is

Time or Space

as great as the whole

thus

we have the

infinite divisibility

of atoms, and a past, as long as a future eternity. *

We

know

" * Professor Tyndall tells us that, Though we are compelled to think of space as unbounded, there is no mental necessity to compel us to think of it either as filled or as empty; whether it is filled or

empty must he decided hy experiment and observation."

tion of the Universe."
true,
still
:

(" Constitu-

we must

Now this may be very P\j-tnightly Review.) admit that the ground would take some time to get
fast traveller
;

over

he, in fact

must be a

who could go over

infinite

space in less than infinite time particularly, if as the Professor tells us, the luminous ether the interstellar medium, although infinitely more those of attenuated than any gas, has definite mechanical properties a solid rather than a gas, " resembling jelly rather than air." We are told that we are by no means to consider this as a vague or fanciful

them

conception on the part of scientific men, for that of its reality most of are as convinced as they are of the existence of the sun and

planets.

Now
it

although this "jelly"

may

cies of the vibratory theory with respect to light

be necessary to the exigenand beat, it must be

evident that

renders the "observation" as to whether unbounded

74

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
its

only of thought, and of the force

correlate or equivalent
?

and can a thought be a mile long or a yard square

What,

space

is filled

or not,

still

more

difficult.

do not think that the term

infinite or

boundless can be used in any other sense than as exceeding the bounds of our knowledge ; whenever it is attempted to be used
otherwise our

first philosophers immediately fall into contradictions and Righteousness, Holiness, Purity, Goodness, have only a relative existence, that is, can exist only in relation to finite things,

absurdities.

how then can they be infinite ? In fact Infinite Goodness and Infinite Wisdom are contradictions, for goodness must be good to something,
and knowledge must be of something, that is of some limited thing. Suppose there to have been a time when these things did not exist, these
attributes could not have existed either.

According to

J. S. Mill there is

no incorrectness of speech in the phrase Infinite Power but in speaking of Knowledge, absolute is the proper word and not infinite. The highest degree of knowledge that can be spoken of with a meaning only amounts
to knowing
all

that there

is to

be known

when

that point is reached,

:

knowledge has attained its utmost limit. So of goodness or justice they cannot be more than perfect. To which the learned critic (Mansel " I am told,) in the Contemporary Review replies, Surely whatever Divine Power can do, Divine Knowledge can know as possible to be
done.

The one

therefore

must be as

infinite as the other."

Quite so,

none of these attributes can be more than

to tell us

relative manifestations

and

" Will Mr. Mill have the kindness therefore finite, for as the writer says,

what he means by goodness and knowledge out of all relation,' i. e., a goodness and knowledge related to no object on which they can be exercised a goodness that is good to nothing, knowledge which
' ;

knows nothing?"

As

attributes then

must be

finite,

that

is,

can be

exercised only in relation to finite objects, God is without attributes, that But that which has no attributes and nothing, to finite is, Pure Being.

capacity
is to

is the same thing. The object then of the Hegelian Philosophy show how this nothing could become something nothing however
;

meaning not non-existence, but existence independent of sense or phenomena. " Being underlies all modes or forms of being." God creates, that is, Being becomes, and the fundamental principle of Hegelism is said to be " That God awoke to consciousness, and acquired a will, in the consciousness and will of man." But " what can we reason, but from what we know" on this or on And what do we know? Perhaps as much as any other subject.

EXTENSION NOT AN ATTRIBUTE OF THOUGHT.

then,
that
is
is,

75

distance ? and can

to

it

apply to thought and feeling,

what we

call

spirit ?

and need there be space,

?

therefore, necessarily

separating mind from mind

The Correlation of

the

Vital

and Mental Forces.

to be

We
that
:

are

told,

on what I believe
speaking,

"

Generally

the

average

good authority, amount of daily

this:

the world was without form and void, that

it

is

nebulous, and

as the force or heat concentrated,

gradually took first the inorganic and then the special living forms that now lie deep buried in the earth's crust, and with each stratum or layer, was a fresh correlation of mind
or sentiency an evolution, which covering the whole earth with a network of nerves, and passing again and again through different forms was refined and spiritualized till after countless ages it culminated in man,

and " God became conscious in Humanity."

the highest intelligence here:

But with respect

to

man,

" Think you this mould of hopes and fears Could find no statelier than his peers

In yonder hundred million spheres ?

This truth within thy mind rehearse, in a boundless universe
Is boundless better, boundless worse."'

That

Tehnyson.

"

Go

to

You know nor

this nor that

Man

has no measuring rod

For Nature, Force, and Law, and what The best of men call God. For law, and life, and all the course Of lovely, shifting Nature,
Are but the play of one wise Force, Which Moses called Creator.

Think on your knees

'tis

better so,
;

Than without wings

to soar

What

sharp-eyed Logic thinks to

find

know
" J. S. B.

We

when we

adore.

College, Edinburgh."

76

SPECULATIONS ON SPIBITUALISM.

food necessary for healthy

men

is

estimated at twelve ounces

of beef, twenty ounces of bread, with about half-an-ounce of

butter.

These

articles

contain a force

capable,

if

applied

by a machine, of
contained in them

raising fourteen million

is,

pounds weight to

a height of one foot; that

the oxidation of the elements

rise

would give But to that effect. equivalent

it

to an

amount of heat
body, though

in the

human

far surpasses all machines, in

amount of power

attainable

economy of force, the utmost from them is not more than

equivalent to three-and-a-half millions

the height of a foot

of pounds raised to and an average day's labour does not

exceed two millions of pounds thus raised.

is

The

difference

mainly due, doubtless, to the number of internal actions which are carried on in the living body; such as the circulation, the

movements of

respiration,

and the production of

These consume a great part of the force of the and leave food, only a remainder to be disposed of in muscular
animal heat.
exertion." *

Of course there must be great

difference of opinion, not

only as to the amount of force generated by the food, but Thus we have Dr. also as to the mode of its expenditure.
Carpenter, supported by Helmholtz and Joule, differing from

Professor Playfair, and the Professor differing from the above

writer in the Cornhill,

and we are prepared

to receive the

latter statement, therefore,

only as a very wide approximation.

is

But the question immense force

found, I think,

is,

since force

indestructible,

how

is

this

in every estimate

expended
feeling

It will

be

that

thinking

portion than the vital

absorb a larger powers, and the vital than the merely

and

In a notice of Dr. Playfair's book on " Food and Work," in the Reader of June 3, 1865, the writer says with
muscular.

Cornhill Magazine, September, 1861.

DISTRIBUTION OF FORCE IN THE BODY.

reference to the distribution of this force:

77
the steam-

"In

engine there are only two forces to he considered, the

chanical and the thermal.
different forces,

me-

In man's body there are

is

many

but the study of them

difficult,

rendered in one
fact that,

sense easy, and in another

varied they

by the

however

may

be within the economy, they pass away into

the external world in two phases only, the same phases in

which they leave the steam-engine viz., heat and movement. We speak of mental or cerebral force, of plastic or organic
force,

we look in upon the forces that go whirling round in our bodies, threading a devious path amid countless changes, working through most intricate machinery but there are only
;

can be measured by one standing without. They either produce muscular movements, or increase the temperature of the body. Intense mental effort

two ways

in

which

their effects

cannot by

itself

be measured by the physiologist.

The

slight

muscular movements through which it strives to express itself, Its are in no way to be thought of as gauging its intensity.
only true measure
is

the amount of heat produced by that

tissue,

combustion of cerebral
development.

which

is

the condition of

its

So, also, the true measure of the force con-

cerned in the fashioning of a hand, or of any other piece of

wonderful organic work,

all

is

that heat which

is

the outcome of

the molecular processes busied therein.

divide the

We

may,

if

we

like,

work of the body

into various kinds.

We

may

speak of the opus meehanicum, the muscular labour or

such as the
roll,

useful work; of the opus mentale, or brain work; of the opus

meehanicum internum, or inner muscular

heart's beat, the breath's play,
arterial grasp
;

woi'k,

the intestinal

and the

of the opus

vitale,

or chemical and fashioning

work; of the opus calorijicum, or the labour of keeping the body warm. Yet all these issue from the body as two kinds of work only, the opus meehanicum, the amount of foot-pounds

78
a

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
can
in a

man

lift

hard day's work, and the opus caloriftcum,

the quantity of ice his body will cause to melt during the

same time."
I believe this will prove to be a very inadequate account

of the

way

in
it.

which the force received into the body again

passes from

The body

is

a system of solidified gases, or

concentrated forces, (for particulars, see them as bottled up separately at the Kensington Museum,) in constant flux
influx

and

efflux

with everything around.

is

No mention

is

here

made

of the electricity which

the body in quantities more or less,

constantly flowing from as the nervous or other

temperaments predominate in

its

structure.

Nothing

is

said

of the Odyle, to Reichenbach's sensitives visibly streaming

from the extremities, and other parts of the body; or of the nervous force, composed perhaps of both the above, and which
constitutes the peculiar strength of the magnetiser.

But the most

elaborate apparatus in the

the production of mental force.

body is that for Here no doubt is the expen-

diture of the greater part of the fourteen million

force that enters through the food,

what becomes of
mental
effort

it

pounds lifting and the great question is The writer above truly says, " Intense

itself be measured by the physiologist," and yet in this direction lies the future course of a psychology based on physiology. And also Herbert Spencer ''Those modes of the unknowable which we call motion, heat, light,

cannot by

chemical

affinity,

&c., are alike transformable into each other,

distin-

and into those modes of the unknowable which we

guish as sensation, emotion, thought
:

these, in their turns,

being directly or indirectly re-transformable into the original

but when, where, Exactly, "re-transformable!" and how ? What becomes of every thought, as it is turned out of its " form" or mould in the brain ? We know it is the exact
shapes."
equivalent of the physical force expended in producing
it,

and

THE SPIRITUAL OB THOUGHT MEDIUM.

sometimes, to our cost,
if

79

we make a man
:

angry,

we

get

its

exact equivalent in physical force again

but where
is,

it

takes

the form of muscular motion or of heat,

exception, not the rule.

I think, the

Many

facts

now

point to an atmos-

phere, or reservoir of thought, the result of cerebration, into

which the thought and

tinuously passing.

feeling generated

by the brain

is

con-

The

brains and nervous systems of the

whole sensitive existence are increasing and intensifying this mental atmosphere. The question is, does force exist more

commonly

as physical force or as mental ?

passing from us become free thought, or does

odylic or other

Does thought it join some

medium

?
is,

retain its identity, that

;

and does each separate thought the form impressed upon it by

our organization or does it change its form, lose its conThe sciousness, and thus no longer be thought and feeling ?
Manifestationists,
doctrine,

we
if

"which,

by Professor Masson, hold the developed, would assert nothing less than
are told

the phenomenal recoverability within the * It tiency that had ever belonged to it."
that force cannot exist by
else
itself,

Cosmos of
is

all

sen-

the general belief

must be the

force of something

but must belong to something but I think I have

;

previously shown that

this belief is untenable.

Bacon says

" The magnetic or attractive energy allows of interposed media without destruction, and, be the medium what it may,
the energy

nothing to
is,

is not impeded. But if that energy or action has do with the interposed body, it follows that there

at

an actual time and

action
in

in

an actual place, an energy or

natural
neither

subsisting

without

body
the
serve

since

it

subsists

the

terminal

nor in

intermediate
as

bodies.

Wherefore magnetic action

may

an Instance of

Divorce in relation to corporeal nature and natural action.

* Recent British Philosophy, p. 297.

80

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
this

To

may be
:

added, by

way

of corollary, tbe following

important result

that a proof thus be had, even

by the mere

philosopher of sense, of the existence of separate and incorporeal entities and substances.
action emanating from a

For

if

natural energy and

at a time

body can
it

exist,

and
it

in a

place, entirely without body,

originally

is

pretty

clear

that

may

For a emanate from an incorporeal substance. nature as much for seems just required corporeal supporting and conveying as for exciting or generating natural action."*
"We

have

no

difficulty

in

conceiving of

electricity

as

existing freely throughout space; but thought or mind, and electricity, are the same force in different forms or modes

of manifestation.

Electricity, although apparently in existence

itself to

everywhere, only manifests

us through some kind of

machine or body, so free thought can only manifest itself We know that to us through some kind of organization.
physical force everywhere
is

in direct communication;

that
it;

the remotest star

is

influencing our earth and our earth

is

that every centre of force or body

acting

body.

It is not less so in the force

is

upon every other which we call mind.

Mind

in connection with all other mind.

tribes, in

There are certain individuals and nomadic

whom
are

the vital system so predominates and the vital powers

so strong that they

may

literally

be cut in two

lose legs

and arms and

in

life

not be destroyed;

and there are others

whom

the nervous system so predominates that thought

and

feeling are generated so rapidly

is

and

in

such quantities
re-trans-

that there

no time

for

their

re-correlation or

formation through the bodily organization,

over into the general reservoir of mind.
also be

and they flow Nervous force may

made

to

overflow

into

other

bodily systems.

To

Kovum

Organon, Lib.

xi.,

Aph. 37.

THE MENTAL, NERVOUS, AND OTHER FORCES.

what
extent,

81

nervous force,

and in what way conscious thought and feeling, electricity, and odyle, differ from each other

or are necessary to each other, has not, I think, been correctly determined.

The
strate

interesting experiments of

Duhois Eaymond demonelectricity,

the difference between nervous force and

is

but Matteucci shewed that nervous force

transformed into
liar

capable of being

electricity,

under the influence of a pecu-

structure, as illustrated in electrical fishes.

Raymond's

instruments
along the

may
nerve,

correctly

measure the rate of the current

but such experiments only show forcibly

It is a step only in the our philosophers, like Tyndall, pay the same attention to vital and mental forces as they now

how much

requires to be done.

right direction.

When

do to physical, we
I that

may hope

to advance rapidly.

know

that

it is

the general belief, even of the spiritualists,

mind cannot

exist apart

from organization, but

if

force

can exist apart from body, mind, which is only another form of force, may do so also. Thought and feeling are transformed
force

and cannot cease

to exist,

and the question

is

when

it

Does it retain passes from us, in what form does it exist? that In sleep consciousness, is, remain thought and feeling?
what becomes of and
is

it?

There I think
vital

it

takes another forai

added to the

force, as I

have said before; but

under a

slight pressure

of the action of the heart,

on the brain, or temporary stoppage what becomes of it then? It is

impossible to say what

mind may be out

its

of the body, as

nothing can be known to us but in

that
is

action

upon us

relatively

mind

therefore

cannot

be
is,

known
our

to

us but in connection with organization,

organization.

that

own

Sentiency

is

known

to us only in connection

with the brain

reflection

upon

this sentiency,

and nervous system, and consciousness is and is known to us only in

82

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
that

connection with the highest intelligence here,

is,

Man.

That some kind of

plants I think
is

feeble

sentiency attends the vitality of

very probable.

We
is

cannot go further down,

is,

for although every

atom

acts intelligently, that

towards a
it.

given purpose, the consciousness

of

it,

not in

When

speak

then

of a

"thought"

atmosphere,

"mental" atmosphere, or a "general" mind, I mean either mind or sentiency, or that condition of force which immediately
precedes mind or consciousness, and which must exist in the
brain,
ceases.

when from a

slight

pressure upon

it,

consciousness

To

the transference of nervous force, and even mental

it,

states with

of individual
I think
it

from one body to another, and to the union mind with the mental atmosphere, are owing
be found,
all

will

the varied

phenomena of somis

nambulism, mesmerism, and clairvoyance, and of what

called spiritualism.

The Senses are considered to be the only inlets of the world without to the mind within, but they are also the
regulators
is

by which no more of the

is

influx of the general

mind

admitted than
life,

common

in the sphere of duties in

is

good for our conduct and happiness in which we are placed.

barrier between individual

Somnambule

enabled to do without the senses, and in a

state of trance or

mesmerism the
partially

and general mind seems

broken down.

Tlie Conditions attending Influx or Inspiration.

The
that

bodily conditions requisite to induce this state seem

to be that the
all

"meddling senses" should be

laid asleep,
little

and

other parts of the body should have as

to

do as

possible.

efficacious to this end.

Prayer and fasting and solitude are particularly In solitude the senses are quiet, and
vital

under long and continued fasting the

system having

ABSORPTION IN UNIVERSAL BEING.

to do,

83
and

little

becomes

partially absorbed in the nervous,

prayer induces a concentration of mental action on subjects that have no direct connection with the body.

The

bodily conditions
in

we

are

considering

predominate

much more

some races than

in others

in the Eastern

and

sunny, than in the Western and more Northerly.

the Hindoos they
are

Among

most prevalent. The Hindoos are much better subjects for mesmerism than Europeans, and the arts of Divination and Magic, which are based on this partial
breaking down of the barrier between general and individual

mind, have always been

much more
is

in practice.

To be

absorbed in universal Being

fanatic in India,

the great aim of the religious

in

even

in

the
is

body.

and many succeed " The one

becoming

partially so,

infallible

diagnostic

of

Buddhism
intellect.

a belief in the infinite capacity of the human * * * The idea of Deified man is there;
itself

but this loses

in

another, that

there

is

in

man,

in

humanity, a certain Divine Intelligence, which at different

times and in different places manifests * * * The natural completely."
itself

more or

less

eye takes

account

only of appearances;

it

requires the severest discipline for a

man

to behold the Eeality.

Wisdom

is

viewed as

and experimental in one; internal and mystical in the second; strangely mixed with what is superhuman and eternal in the third." *
wholly social

The Buddhist
and see

Priest

as being able to listen to

all

by the aid of irdhi is represented all sounds, and know all thoughts,
and watch' the course of
all

former

births,

all

transmigrations, and learn the cause of

stage

causes.

The next

the great desideratum,

is,

that having been subject to

* The Religions of the World and their Relation to Christianity, pp. 76, 85, 93, by Rev. F. D. Maurice.

84

SPECULATIONS ON SPIEITUALISM.

birth, decay, sorrow, weeping, grief, discontent,

and vexation

the consummation of the whole series of births and deaths

is

now

attained,

and that

is,

to pass again into " Nothing-

ness." *

This doctrine originated some 623 years before the Chiristian Era, and yet we might almost suppose that the

doctrine of eternal torments

had

cast its

shadow

before.

Important news travels faster in India by Mental Telegraph than by the Electric Telegraph. The results of important battles have been known days before the intelligence could
arrive

by the ordinary or

official

means.

The source

of these

tidings cannot be traced; the natives say "it is in the air," and there has often been a generally uneasy feeling pervading

mens' minds preceding been known.

ill

news, when nothing definite has

The weakening
action.

of the vital force

paralysis, often intensifies the

by mind and

disease,

or partial
it

sustains

in fuller

Bacon

tells

us that " when the mind

is

withdrawn and

collected within itself,

and not
which
is

diffused into the organs of the

body,

is

the

state

most

susceptible

of

divine

influxions."

In trance, and seeing in the crystal, and under hypnotism and mesmerism, " The mind is withdrawn and collected within itself, and not diffused into the organs of the body," and it is
thus intensified, and the barriers between
it

and between
down.

it

and the general mind, are

and other minds, partially broken

"The

internal faculties appear to be loosened from

the sense, and to receive impressions direct from without. "f

*

The Legends and Theories

of the Buddhists,

by B. Spencer

Hardy.
" Each sense t faculty is adapted to receive the peculiar influence or impression to which it relates but the instrumentality or intervention of the external sense does not seem always requisite. The internal
:

INSPIRATION.

85
act in

Of course any

influx of

mind can only

cannot
is, it

and through the

limits

human

faculties,

and

overstep

the

of their

power or function, that

can give no kind of knowledge

faculties

from the sense, and to receive impressions open to conditions to which the senses were not fitted. It does not seem to be any strain upon reason to suppose this. Few can give any account of the process by which they came at many of their conclusions. Clairvoyance or prophecy is no greater step

seem

to be loosened
;

direct

from without

to be

from our ordinary condition than seeing would be to a blind person, who would say, I could only take up Nature bit by bit before, and put these bits together, and then form but a very imperfect conception : but now I recognize all at once the distant, as well as that which is
' ;

and open the eye of the mind to the outward influences of a grosser sense; and knowledge flows in unobstructed. You are as one who was blind, but can now see. The new sense and the old are equally intelligible, and both inexplicable. You cannot explain a process where there is none. The imperfect sense, but in clear-seeing there is no the blind have a process to explain Han's Xature and Development, p. 276. process but the fact." Mr. Atkinson also says, " I think it is worthy of remark what Bacon has suggested, that we might receive other and fuller information from external objects had we other senses fitted to receive the impressions, and I think this may be demonstrated to be true, and hence if the inner
near.'

You

set free the inner faculties,

'

'

sense can be brought in relation to the whole truth by shutting up the ordinary sense media and by mesmeric action, &c., enabling such inner powers to be brought in direct contact with the entire fact, a deeper insight would be attained, as seems to be the case, and men acquire a more
^

intuitive perception

and clairvoyant character, under such

irregular

and

abnormal conditions. And certainly things do become often, as it were, reversed under unusual conditions a dog attaining the instinct to seek the medicine it requires when sick the stem of a tree throwing out The instances are root, the root developing into flowers, and so on.
;

innumerable and the laws of the normal action would be brought to light by such irregular actions and transformations under unusual conditions,
just as the irregular or exceptional phenomena of the planets have given the rule proved in the a knowledge of the laws of their motion

exception."

86
which
it

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
is

not their province to bestow.

What

is

the limit

of that power
excited has

when the organs

are very large or very

much

What is the by no means been determined. power that enabled Sir Isaac Newton and George Bidder to
make
their algebraic, geometric,

and arithmetical calculations,

it

giving at

a glance results that

on paper?
Locality is
it

What

peculiar

constitution

took long to work out of the organ of

its

that guides the carrier pigeon on

its

homeward

progress, or the blind seal that found

dogs that have

long way home, or come home from abroad, without, as far as we

?

know, consulting any of the finger posts

What

is it in

the
first

more

excitable brain of

woman
men
as

that enables her, on a

interview, often to read character correctly,

and which in the

larger

Shakspeare and Scott has enabled them to read the natural language of the mind, and paint character so correctly without any principle or knowledge
organs of such
of mental Science ?

Again,

we have the

action of the organ

of

Wonder

or Faith.

The

senses call the Perceptive faculties

reality

into action,

and Wonder gives a sense of

In
the

a belief in

the real objective existence of something corresponding to the

ideas

which they furnish.

state
itself

abnormal
action

or

greatly

excited

of

this

organ,

a reflex

takes

place;

Wonder

calls the Perceptive faculties

into

play,

and

figures are produced which appear just as real as

when the

action on the Perceptives

comes through the senses. Many be accounted for in this way. The ^Esthetic ghosts may faculties also when isolated from worldly cares and passions

or

when

naturally predominant,

or

unusually active
direct union with

or excited, seem to bring the

nature.

mind

into

Heat and
body; so
is

electricity

are constantly passing off from the

influence every one

mind.

We

and every thing

photograph our

about us, and are influenced by them.

We

THE EYE OP THE MIND.

mental states on
all

87

the rooms

we inhabit. *

We

have probably

some organ

that takes cognizance of such " emanations,"

and

which places us en rapport with the general mind. What Mr. Atkinson calls the " Eye of the Mind" may exercise some
such function, f This faculty
is

supposed to bear the same

relation to the internal action of the mind, as the

mind

itself

does to external objects or forces.

It sees at

a glance, and
is

generalizes the action of all the mental faculties, and

fore

there-

the highest

of

all

our

powers.

As the Perceptive

faculties, aided

by the Senses, take cognizance of body or the

It is a sort of inner sense,

action of physical forces, this takes cognizance of Spiritual

or Mental forces.

medium we may be put

oui-selves as well as the

in

through whose communication with mind without

within.

mind

This organ,

if

existing
partially

at

all,

which I think highly probable, seems but very

*
of his

A madman may be
mind

influences even healthy brains injuriously.

detected by the smell, and the diseased condition With respect to

man

bodily emanations we must remember that a bloodhound will follow a over fifty or even one hundred miles of country what would these emanations have been if confined to a single room ! These emanations

also have a distinctive character, for a

dog seeking his master knows

if

he

organ of Comparison, lying under Benevowhat has been termed by a somnambule the Eye of the Mind '. we might call it the Intuitive This seems to be power of judgment: * * * faculty for it is this whi^h is chiefly concerned in clairvoyance. This faculty, this mental eye, seems to receive the results of the doings
lence, is
'
;

has been in a room although " Beneath the central +

fifty

other

men may

be there.

of the other faculties,

sense, joining as
it

and to be, properly speaking, perhaps the mind does with the Conscious power. Here seems to
This seems to be
It

be the organ of the suggestive faculty of Genius.

the true

Mind power,

or intellect.

seems to

split off into the senses,

as light divides off into colours, or sound into notes, but to contain

within itself the power of mind concentrated, when cut off from the ordinary character of sense and reason. Then all time seems to become as

space seems as nothing all passions and desires become bushed; truth becomes an insight, or through-sight ; and life a law." Nature and Development, p. 76. (See also Appendix A.)

one duration

88

SPECULATIONS ON SPIEITUALISM.
action

developed in the bulk of mankind, and

its

is

altogether

misconstrued in those in
blindness and ignorance
' '

whom

it is

fully developed.

In our

we have but one term

for

such powers

imagination
&c., as

all

imagination

overstrained imagination,"

we

call

the action of our higher feelings, sentimental. habits and intercourse of the world, where
all

The ordinary
are
ception,
little

absorbed in mere externals

and

little

chance for

and perordinary and animal cares carking impulses, give but the growth and activity of such an inner
sense
its

sense,

and

it is

not surprising that

promptings should be

misunderstood and misinterpreted.

only what our faculties
tell us,

Of course we can know

with what

we have

feelings to sympathize with

and we can sympathize only our strongest

;

feelings induce us to protect and take care of our own bodies

we have
Society;

feelings also that

make us a

part of the

body of

we have

feelings that place us in relation to the

;

beauties and

harmony of Creation
call it

and we have

this faculty
spirit.

that places us in relation to the general

mind or

Mr.

Atkinson says, Clairvoyants " The call it

Spiritualists

the "

Eye
it

of the Mind,"

Spiritual

Eye,"

is

the principal

source of Influx or Inspiration, and probably places us in the same relation to the Universal Spirit as our other faculties

do to our fellow creatures.

By

the general

mind

mean

the general

mind of humanity,

or perhaps I ought to say of the whole of sensitive existence,

for I

have not seen evidence of any knowledge that can be

said to be

superhuman,

that force is everywhere connected, atom with atom, and world with world, is to say that mind, its correlate, is everywhere connected is one and indivisible; but what

To say

we can

see in the great mirror of

mind when

in union with

it,

remains to be investigated: so far as that investigation has proceeded, I think what we can see in no case exceeds the

CLAIRVOYANCE.

89

combined

intellectual

power of the whole

is,

Whatever has been, or

in the

human mind. human mind, or which our

see,

natural powers can reach, that

we can

and that only.

What we

can see cannot exceed the power of the instrument.

The prescriptions by clairvoyants for the cure of disease in Mesmer's time were always in accordance with the fashionable
modes of cure of that time
;

and Andrew Jackson Davis, and

other Seers, although often reaching the highest rounds in

philosophy, never go past what has been already known, or

what human faculty can teach or comprehend. They can read the mind of the age, but they rarely if ever anticipate
scientific discovery.

They

give us, as in Davis's case,

what

the Edinburgh Review (October, 1865), calls

"a

mad jumble
Swedenborbe found

of Spinozaisrn, Fourierism, Saint Simonianism,

gianism, and Rationalism," and although here

may

the most important psychological truths and the most advanced

social science, yet there is so

that observation and experience

much nonsense mixed with sense is as much required to sift the

come
union of

true from the false in these revelations, as in any that

mind through the ordinary means of knowing. By with the general thought medium, and of mind with mind,
that
is

seen which cannot be seen by the natural eye, both

near and distant, time and space forming no impediments. I have heard a young'-girl, in the mesmeric state, minutely
describe
all

that was seen

by a person with

whom

she was en

rapport, and in some cases more than was seen or could be seen, such as the initials in a wateh which had not been

opened, and also describe persons and scenes at a distance,

which I afterwards discovered were correctly described, beyond a possibility of doubt. But Prevision! surely there are
instances of prevision that are

superhuman ?
is

Science enables

us to anticipate the future; there

nature everywhere, and
it is

an established order of

a correct calculation of cause and

90
effect that

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
enables us to prophesy.
It is the

organ of causality
sequence, and

that takes

cognizance

of this invariable

we

have only to suppose that organ from largo size or excitement, to be as abnormal in its action and power of calculation as the
organ of number often
is

in arithmetical calculation,

and we

might see very far into the future. * Perhaps one of the most singular and best authenticated cases of preternatural mental

power

is

that related

biography, pp. 169, 172.

by Zschokke of himself, in his AutoHe says, " It has happened to me,

meeting with strangers, as I listened former life, with many
has passed quite involuntarily,

sometimes on

my

first

silently to their discourse, that their

trifling

circumstances therewith connected, or frequently some

life,

particular scene in that

and, as

it

were, dream-like, yet perfectly distinct before me.

of the fancy, and the

For a long time I held such visions as delusions more so as they showed me even the

dress and motions of the actors, rooms, furniture, and other

* * * I myself had less confidence than one in this mental So often as I revealed my any jugglery. visionary gifts to any new person, I regularly expected to hear
accessories.

the answer:

'

It

was not
it

so.'

felt

a secret shudder

when

my

auditors replied that

was

true, or

when

their astonishment

* " It is, however, admitted that this foresight does not extend to the influence of external circumstances by which the ordinary course
of the phenomena may be interrupted. Thus, a patient may predict that on a certain day and at a certain hour he may have an epileptic fit, but in the mean time he may be accidentally killed or intentionally murdered. His predictions of the phenomena of his own disease are to be

understood in the same sense as the prediction of the astronomer of the rise and fall of the tides in a particular port, that is, subject to the implied condition, that the natural course of things shall not be deranged

by any external and irregular disturbing cause." Monthly Chronicle, vol. i., p. 298. It would thus seem, as I have said, that the prevision does not exceed the preternatural (See also Appendix B.)

power of the organ of causality.

MEMORY.
betrayed

91
* * *
I shall

my

accuracy before they spoke.

gift

not say another word of this singular

I cannot say
it

of vision, of which
it

was ever of the

slightest service;

manifested

itself rarely, quite

independently of

my

will,
little

and several times

to look through.

in reference to persons

whom

I cared

Neither

am

I the only person in possession of this power."

tells us,
ft

He

met, he

with an old Tyrolese,

who for some

time

after fixing

is

eyes upon him, read him as he had read others.

What has been

called Socrates's

Demon was an

intuition of a

similar kind, although quite different in its function, as

by

it

Socrates was repeatedly

made acquainted with

it

events about to

happen.

He

is

said to have regarded

in very

much

the

Zschokke did; he was, however, an implicit believer in supernatural communications. We have previously
light as

same

said

that whatever has

been, or

is,

in the

human mind,
atten-

clairvoyants can recognize; but

tion

what should turn the

and apparently confine the power to this one particular direction? Here in Zschockke's case, was a mental indithe whole of a man's previous existence, presented
retained in such perfect form that
it

viduality
to

him and

could be

recognized by separate and indifferent person, and had its possessor not been still living, it might have been, and no doubt would havf been, claimed as the soul of the " departed communicating."
a

What
The
help
to
difficult

is

Memory?

consideration of the nature of

memory may perhaps

question.
It
is

throw

some

light

upon

this

subject this of

Memory,

of which

we must not speak

too confidently,

and cannot speak too modestly.

Ah
1

the

powers in nature could not make the acorn grow into anything Yet what can we see or recognize in the else than an oak.

92

SPECULATIONS ON SPIEITUALISM.

small, soft, apparently

can give

it

the entire

homogeneous germ in the acorn that Life, and power of action and resistance ? character and direction of that life, depend upon
this

structure, so

do the forms of thought, and any subject or

structure ;

object of attention and interest acting upon the brain, pho-

tographs

itself there, that is, it slightly alters

its

and fresh mental force passing over these " moulds," turns out similar thoughts and feelings to those that formed them.
This
it

is,

joined to certain powers of Association, or auto-

matic action of the brain, by which thoughts and feelings are

blended and made to follow each other in a definite order, which

possibly
constitutes

memory.

It

is

probably

these

old

photographs which Zschokke's "Eye of the Mind," or other organ which gives "the intuition of character," as he himself

seemed

to suppose, could read.

The youthful brain

is

the

easily impressible, and the memory becomes bad and retains few impressions as the brain ossifies and its plastic

most

power decreases
other

in age

that part going

first

which came the

earliest into activity

the

memory

for

names, &c.

On

the

hand there

is

a tendency in nature to rebuild the early

structure

to produce the original type

on which a particular

kind

of

memory

depended,

and

the

memory

of

youth

returns.

Mr. A. Bain makes memory to depend on " specific growth;" he says, "For every act of memory, every exercise of bodily

aptitude,

every habit,

recollection, train

of

ideas, there is a specific grouping, or co-ordination, of sensa-

tions

cell junctions,

and movements, by virtue of specific growths in the and of separate nervous growths for each new

and separate acquisition." *

The
1,

Intellect

viewed

Physiologically.

Fortnightly

Review,

February

1866.

THE FACTS OF SPIRITUALISM.

93

SPIRITUALISM.Genuineness of the Phenomena,

But

is

the above hypothesis, and the normal and abnordescribed, sufficient to account for the

mal condition of mind

phenomena

of Spiritualism?

Of such phenomena

as

are

genuine I think they are. genuine are not fraud and superstition and
;

But

are any of the alleged facts

self- delusion suf-

ficient to

account for them

for

be accounted

Although a great deal may in this way still a large residue remains of
all ?

most important psychological phenomena. The spiritualists have a theory to support, for the good, as they suppose, of all mankind; we must not be surprised therefore if the facts
require a
little

forcing to

fit

that theory, and

if

the theorists
to see.

often think they see

what they so strongly wish

facts

For

most of the alleged

of twelve

we may readily find the testimony honest witnesses, and we must not reject that testiin ignorance of

mony, because
conditions

mental science, and the bodily

upon which it depends, such facts are used to support superstitions which are vanishing before the advancing light of
the age.

The

strength of intolerance and bigotry

is

generally

in proportion to ignorance, but I

do not think any candid

person, after examination, can resist the testimony in favour

of the facts themselves.

The
is

article in the Corn/rill

Magazine,

"

Stranger than Fiction,"

rightly attributed I believe to

it,

Robert Bell, and Dr. Gully, of Malvern, says of

that article

"I

can
in

state with the greatest positiveness that the record

is,

made

in every particular correct,"

and " that no

sleight-of-hand, or other artistic contrivance produced

what

we heard

may be presumed that Dr. Gully was present on this occasion, and as Mr. Home is stated in
or beheld."
it

So

94

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

that account in the Cornhill to have floated about the room,

over the heads of the persons present, witches riding about

on broom-sticks

maybe "founded

in fact"

after all.

The

above statement of Dr. Gully's is to be found in " Incidents of my Life," by D. D. Home; of which book a " Friend" in the " Introductory Remarks," says, " whatever be the preconceptions of the reader regarding Mr.
fail after

Home, he

will scarcely

reading this

volume, to acknowledge that the author

writes as a

man

thoroughly in earnest, and

who has

himself

no doubt of the phenomena that attend him." heartily concur; still Mr. Home may not be altogether from the unconscious effort to make facts square to
theory, or,

In this I most
free

his

when "the

were not
little

sufficiently

on some important occasion, demonstrative, from giving to them some

spirits",

assistance.

Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, writing from Florence to the " I have been Aihenaum, March 21, 18G3, says, present at very many sittings of Mr. Home in England, many in my
'
'

own house
Florence.

in Florence,

some
I

in the house of a friend in

felt

have seen and

physical facts

wholly and utterly inexplicable, as I and generally received physical laws.

believe,

by any known

I unhesitatingly reject

the theory which considers such facts to be produced by means

familiar to

the

best

professors

of

legerdemain.

have

witnessed also very surprising and extraordinary metaphysical

manifestations.

But

I cannot say that

any of these have

been such as wholly to exclude the possibility of their being and indeed, to use the honest word required by deceptive,
the circumstances, fraudulent.

" This
expression.

is

my

testimony reduced to

its briefest

possible

"If
left

it

be asked what impression, on the whole, has been

on

my mind

by

all

that I have witnessed in this matter, I

PROFESSOR DE MORGAN'S TESTIMONY.

answer, one of perplexed doubt, shaping
conviction that deserves the
itself into

95
only one

name

of an opinion, namely, that

to

quite sufficient cause has been

shown

demand further patient

and

careful inquiry

the qualifications
alleged and the
to

from those who have the opportunity and needed for prosecuting it ; that the facts
testifying

number and character of the persons

them

are such that real seekers for truth cannot satisfy

themselves by merely pooh-poohing them."

But the testimony most

the phenomena
is

to

be relied on for the reality of

that of perhaps one of the most acute and

spiritualist

hard-headed philosophers of this day, not a

but

a Professor of Mathematics, Augustus de Morgan. In the " admirable Preface to Mrs. de Morgan's book, From Matter to Spirit", he says " I am perfectly convinced that I have
both seen and heard, in a manner which would make unbelief
impossible, things called spiritual which cannot be taken

by

a rational being to be capable of explanation by imposture, coincidence or mistake." He says " there has been a sudden

and general recognition of the existence of phenomena which historical enquiry shows never to have been entirely

unknown."
us
is

The base

of the spiritualist hypothesis he tells

" tiat some

intelligence,

which

is

not that of any

human
refers

beings clothed in flesh and blood, has a direct share in the

phenomena."

And

again,

"

My

state of

mind which

the whole either to unseen intelligence, or something which

man
"
if

has never had any conception

these things be spirits, they
liars are to

of,

proves

me
but,

to be out

of the pale

of the Royal Society," (p. 27,)

he says,

show that pretenders, cox"

combs, and
as well as

found on the other side of the grave

on

this."

(p. 44.)

When

it

comes

to

what

is

the cause of these phenomena, I find I cannot adopt any

explanation which has yet been suggested.
to choose If I were

bound

among

things that I can conceive, I should say that

96
there
is

SPECULATIONS ON SPIEITUALISM.

some

sort of action of

some combination of
is

will,

intellect,

and physical power, which

beings present.

not that of any of the

it

human
the
lion

But thinking

very likely that

universe

may

contain

a few agencies

say half-a-mil-

about which no

man knows

anything, I cannot but

suspect that a small proportion of these agencies

thousand
all

say five be to the may severally competent production of the phenomena, or may be quite up to the task among

them.

The

physical explanations which I have seen are easy,

;

but miserably insufficient

cient,

the spiritual hypothesis

is

suffi-

but ponderously

difficult."

Of the

possible existence

of such occult forces Mr.

W.

on Spiritualism, but on Light,

E. Grove, writing however not " The conviction that

says,
its

everv transient gleam (of light) leaves on the world's history, also leaves the the

permanent impress
to

mind

ponder over

many

possible agencies of which

we

of the present day

may

be as ignorant as the ancients were of the chemical

character of light."*

Dr. Ashburner
Spiritualism,"
p.

tells

us (quoted in

"An
which

Exposition of
is

290), that

"A

force

a material

agent, attended by or constituting a coloured light, emanates that his will can from the brain of man, when he thinks
direct its

impingement

and that

it

is

a motive power." f 295,) says,

Mr. Atkinson

also, in the

same work,

(p.

" The

so called spiritual manifestations arise from a force projected

and directed by the unconscious sphere of the mind or soul": and before the occurrence of such manifestations he

* Correlation of Physical Force, p. 152. t The Catholics tell us that the heads and countenances of Saints in
their

Church have shone out with a glorious brightness, as the face of an No douht the " auriole " was the odylic light of Reichenbach, angel. or this coloured light of Dr. Ashburner, much more evident, even to
"sensitives", in some persons than in others.

MEXTAL AND PHYSICAL FORCES.

remarked, (Letters, p. 114,)
into are all cases of persons

97

"

who

amongst matter to be inquired cast off an influence which

causes motion in surrounding objects," &c.# Mr. D. D. Home's explanation is, " That

the

spirits

accomplish what they do through our life-sphere, or atmosphere, which was permeated by our wills and if the will
;

was contrary the sphere was unfit for being acted upon," f He tells consequently scepticism marred the forces at work.
us

"One

of his friends was converted from previous unbelief,

visible to all in the

by seeing a female hand, which was

assumed
but he
all

room,
it

slowly forming in the air a few inches above the table, until

the apparent materiality of a real hand, (p. 132)

spirits

have great difficulty in presenting, and thus inccirnating these hands out of the vital atmosphere of those present, and that their work was spoilt, and had to be
tells us,

recommenced, when they were interfered with." (p. 77.) We are also told in "Incidents in my Life," that Dr. " thinks these Carpenter phenomena are produced by uncon" and Mr. J. D. Morell refers them to "reflex scious cerebration,'
'

action of the

mind"; we may presume,

therefore, that both

these gentlemen accept the genuineness of the phenomena,

and

their

explanation,
differ,

taken jointly, with Dr. Ashburner's,

does not

much

probably, from

my

own, although they

Every fragment or material we can hold or see is a storehouse In the case of certain compounds like gunpowder, we know how to unlock chemical forces of affinity and cohesion, and to ohtain by a sudden expansion and re-arrangement of atoms, a mechanical
of force.

"

that the

power that rends the rock or propels the ball but it is startling to think most quietly-behaved bodies we find on the globe, the granite frames of mountains, or the very dust particles on the road, are like
;

sleeping lions,

full

of potential force, which they can give out the

mo-

ment the balance of their affinities are disturbed." The Intellectual Observer, April, 1866.
t

"

Physical Forces.''

Incidents of

my

Life, p. 75.

98

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

might repudiate
atmosphere
is

it.

What

I have called a mental or thought

cerebration,

the result of

and as
it

far as

we

know

it

is

devoid of consciousness, until

in our

becomes so as

" reflected"
or mind, as

own

organizations.
is

Conscious cerebration,

we have

seen,

transformed force, received into

is,

the body in the food, and

like

all

force,

persistent

or

indestructible, passes from us, it probably becomes unconscious cerebration, and joins other force of the same

and when

it

nature, and through

its

medium
is

all

bfains are brought into

union, so that what one brain

conscious of another

may

be,

and what
perty.

is

in the

mind of sentiency becomes common pro-

This "unconscious cerebration," the produce of the

whole of sentient existence,

animals

may

again become sentiency in

and consciousness in man, and thus we have so

of

much
The

as is true in the doctrine of transmigration of souls.

light

the

soul

beams

brightly

for

a time in our

consciousness, but the rays although scattered never cease to

exist,

own.

but form a gradually intensifying atmosphere of their As the individual constituents of our bodies take new

forms, so no one particle of

mind

is lost.

Application of the TJieory

Physical Force, Table Moving,

Bopping, Levilation, dc.

Now "From

let

us see

how

the facts of Spiritualism accord with

our Theory.

Mrs.

de Morgan's record of these facts in

Matter to Spirit," is on the whole fair, and even philosophical, when not encumbered by old superstitions and

an anthropological theology. We have to account for physical force and intelligence supposed to be not that of any human beings present.

With

respect to physical force, gravitation and nervous force

is,

or "unconscious cerebration," are con-elates, that

trans-

GRAVITATION AND NERVOUS FORCE.

like

99
other,

fortnable,
like heat

heat and electricity,

electricity,

into

each

and,

and

although quantitatively the same,

that
is,

they are qualitatively

different,

they

differ in

their

mode

of action, and
it

when

a table becomes charged with the

nervous force
gravitation,
rising

seems
it

to dispossess or
less

change the character of

attraction.

and

acts

as a

downward

The
of

and moving of
accords
in

tables

and other
of

articles of

furniture

exactly

the

mode

action

with this loss

gravitation or weight.

When

intelligence appears,

and this

nervous force or "cerebration" acts more or less consciously

under the power of the Will, we are told in the history of

"Mary Jane"*,
animal body
I
say, .more
it

that the physical force ceases;

is

as in the

changed

in

its

form of manifestation.
because the rapping
is

or

less

consciously,

sometimes the

effect

of conscious but more often of unconillustration of the conscious,

scious cerebration.

As an

Mrs.

de Morgan says,

" As each rap seemed

to be shot through

my

was accompanied by a feeling like a slight blow or " This shock of electricity, and an aching pain," &c. " seemed to prove that the nerves of experiment," she says,
arm,
it

the

human body were

necessary,

if

not for the production, at

least for the propagation of the sounds." f

Her maid Jane

described the effect produced, as "first a throbbing, then a

creaking, then a full-formed sound like a concussion of air,

which she said passed through her arms like an electric shock" (p. 21.) I have not seen much of these phenomena, but what I once saw by a celebrated medium was of this
character: he took

my

umbrella and held

it

at arm's length

against the looking glass and the door and other things, and

got three distinct throbbing pulsations, but he could not do

Mary Jane

or Spiritualism Chemically Explained.

to Spirit, p. 17.

From Matter

100

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

the same with his

of his other hand.

own

small stick

till

a gentleman took hold

more nor

less,

That the raps were always three, neither showed, I inferred, that they were to some
That these raps are
I think is evidenced

extent under the control of the will.

subjective,

and not made by

their attending only

constitution,

by some and those of upon people, peculiar and that these people, as in Mr. Home's case,
spirits,

sometimes lose the power, and that for months together. The author of " Spiritualism Chemically Explained," says, "But now a further progressive phase took place; it was not
necessary to
sit at

the table

if

my

wife lay

on the

sofa, the

responsive taps would

come apparently from behind the

sofa

and even

in bed, the conversation

was carried on by Mary

'

Jane, (the name he gave to the supposed cause of or instrument in these manifestations, -as he did not believe in the
spirits,')

either

chest of drawers close

in bed, I

by raps over our heads, or apparently on a by the bed. One night, after we were

my

was talking with Mary Jane, and I perceived that wife was getting sleepy, and it entered my mind to test

whether the emanations continued during sleep, so I continued

the conversation.

By

degrees, the responses

became slower

and

fainter,

and by the time I was convinced that

(p.

my

wife

was

fast asleep, they ceased altogether."

310.)

Generally
to do.

Mary Jane would rap anywhere she was asked

(p.

319.)

During
to

his wife's illness, from

whom

he supposed

Mary Jane

be an Odylic emanation, the manifestations

(p.

were very feeble.

823.)

When we

consider the power generated by the food in the

a power equal to raising fourteen millions of pounds body, one foot, the consumption of not half of which is at present accounted for; and considering the great number of purposes
to

which

this

power

is

applied,

and the

different

forms

it

takes in the

human

body,

we ought not

to

feel

surprised

THE FORCE OF WILL.

that individuals should possess this power of rapping.

101

When

we throw a stone the motion

bodies,
ceases,
is

is

owing

to force derived

from our

which force
the

is

again given out as heat

when the motion

arm

is

merely the leverage by which the force

not force be used, projected as this
is

used.

Why may

by the Will, without such leverage? to a visible and tangible medium, and we confound

We

are accustomed
this

mere

medium with

the force

itself.

Professor Tyndall, in a corre-

spondence on Science and Prayer, in the Pall Mall Gazette, " The external motion of your arm (October, 1865,) says, it is derived immediately from a motion within your arm,
is

in fact this

motion in another shape.

While you were

pushing your inkstand a certain amount of oxidation occurred

muscles of your arm, which oxidation, under normal circumstances, produces a certain definite amount of heat.
in the

To move

the inkstand, a certain quantity of that heat has

is

been consumed which

the exact amount of the work done.

You

could do the same work with the same amount of heat

from an ordinary fire. The force employed is the force of your food which is stored up in your muscles. The motor
nerves pull the trigger and discharge the force.

You have

here a series of transformations of purely physical energy,

with one
critical

" what causes point involved in the question,

Is the cause physical Is

the motor nerves to pull the trigger?

or super-physical?
prick or purpose, or

it

a sound or a gleam, or an external

internal uneasiness that stimulates

some

the nerves to unlock the muscular force

or

is it

free will?"

There can, I think, be no doubt as to the source of the force

causing the rapping
sion caps,
it

the body lets off a series of percus-

does not discharge the whole machine, and the

is

question
effected,

is

through what medium out of the body this

for
it is

and what pulls the trigger?

is

evident that the

rapping

not always voluntary, or under the control of

102
the
will.

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

Mr.

Home

declares

that the manifestations

that

attend upon him

are quite without his

own

control.

They

are

sometimes voluntary, however, as Mary Jane would rap whenever she was asked, and the power of the will, inside the

body as well as

outside,

Spectator, in the article

we have already

The has yet to be ascertained. " Science

quoted,

and Miracle," says " almost every physiologist will admit the power which pure Will has over the nervous system, that it can prolong consciousness and even life itself for
certain short spaces,
tell

pose.

Physicians

by the mere exertion of vehement puryou constantly that such and such
important, by a
settle his affairs,

a patient

great effort

may no doubt, if it be sufficiently command his mind sufficiently to

will
it will

but that

it

short, that
tive

be at the expense of his animal force, in be a free transfer of force from the diges-

and so to say vegetating part of his system, to that part

were, to the will, (and which in fact
will).

of his physical constitution, his nervous system, which lies

closest, as
it

is

changed

in form

and becomes

Nay, we have heard physicians

will,

say that patients, by a great effort of pure

believe prolonged then-

have, as they
is,

own

lives for a

small space, that

have imparted we suppose, through the excitement produced by the will on the nervous system and so downwards, a
certain slight increase of capacity to assimilate food to the
failing

organic powers

of the

body.
is

In other words, we
to
its

conclude, just as the

organism

failing

draw supplies
power of doing

of physical force from the outward world, so

may

be slightly prolonged,
it

the outward world drained of

a small amount of force

stock,

would otherwise have kept in

to absorb
it

and the organism compelled

by a pure

volition.

Can

there be a clearer case of action of the supernatural, even

is

natural on
of physical

the

granting that the

sum

total

force

not

altered,

but only

its

application

AN EMANATION FROM ALL BRAINS.

103

changed?"

No

doubt the
it

cians thus ascribe to

such power supernatural, pure

sical

will has all the power that physiand more, but there is nothing in "A as the

Spectator

supposes.

volition
force,

"
is

the correlate or equivalent of so

this

much phy-

and

change of vital or vegetative force to

vital,
is

mental, and of mental back to the commonest facts in nature

is

seen to be one of
observed.
if

when once

There

always a sufficient mental force in reserve,

it

the will be

strong enough to bring

that
is,

into action, to act

the digestive and

force for a time

assimilative

upon the vital, powers, and thus to

gain

new

from the world without.

Intelligence.

Besides the "levitation" and rappings, the Spiritualist " the hypothesis assumes co-operation of an Intelligence which
is

not that of any

human

being," and Professor de Morgan's

either to unseen

state of

mind he says "refers the whole

intelligence or to something which

man
is

has never had any

that
there
is

conception

of."

My own
all

opinion

an

emanation from

brains, the result of both conscious and

spirits,

unconscious cerebration, forming, not

spiritual atmosphere,

but a mental or
constitutions

by means of which peculiar

mediums and

others, are put en rapport with other brains

is

or minds, so as to become conscious of whatever

there.

going on

I believe the intelligence which manifests itself in

a "

circle," which is not that of any person present, or as Mrs. de Morgan expresses it, "the elementary idea or truth sought to be conveyed, and which does not originate with the

medium,"

is

the simple result, upon an enlarged and

more

general state, of that "thought reading" which

we

see every

day in clairvoyants.
bring the

This spiritual atmosphere

is

also able to

mind

into

immediate contact, without the aid of the

104

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
it

senses, with whatever

pervades, so that people can see both

near and
eyesight.

distant

what they could not see with ordinary

only another well

This

is

known phase
tells

of Clair-

voyance.

Indeed Mrs.
effect

de Morgan

us

" that every

its

wonderful
explanation
(p. 49.)
is

produced by mesmerism has since found

its

counterpart in spiritual phenomena." " It is she says Again indisputable that the medium
is

or

under mesmeric influence, but what

it

that influence ?

and

in

proceed?" and under what conditions, through this atmosphere of cerebration, mind can act on mind, can only be matter of observation and experiment.

these cases whence does

To what

extent,

First we have to consider the conditions under which we can be put into contact or communication with this " atmo-

sphere."

The

bodily constitutions requisite seem greatly to

vary both in power and the mode of manifestation, and among what are called "mediums" there seems to be a power of both
efflux

and

afflux,

as

we have

the mesmeriser and the

mesmerised

the giver and receiver.

Some mediums have

the power of intensifying the spiritual atmosphere, others of

receiving whatever
exercise of
to

" Great atmosphere may contain. mediumship," Mrs. de Morgan tells us, "is likely
this

exhaust the more delicate

constitution

of the

nervous

sanguine, (p. 4,) while great activity in the brains of those concerned interferes with the experiment," (p. 6,) the one
to the first class of mediums, the other " The unseen power," we are told, "prefers a state to a action of the brain," (p. 39,) and passive positive our own force requires to be exhausted by physical effort,
state

referring

to the latter.

by illness, by watching, fasting, or prayer, before we can become the recipient of the new, and that thus the condition necessary for impression is one in the

medium and

the

inspired prophet.

"In such

a case I have seen," says the

WHENCE THE INTELLIGENCE

author of "

IS

DERIVED.

105

From Matter

to Spirit,"
if

"

every limb thrown

into strong convulsive action, as

the <unseen influence

must
it

permeate every nerve and fibre before the power wielding

could obtain
telegraph."
full control

of the wires of the

human

electric

*(p. 276.)

The

ancient oracles were generally

thrown into convulsions before they gave utterances, and

convulsions
often

precede the trance,

spirit.

a state particularly

favourable to the influx of this

disturbed

This influx "

is

often

by the
in the

entrance

of a third person."

(p.

295.)

The

sun, the source, as

we have
body,

seen, of all power, physical

and mental,
Power, the

human

"

is

always given in modern

spiritual experience as the material outbirth of the Highest

first

remove from pure

spirit."

(p.
it

298.)

As

-regards

the nature of the Intelligence

appears to

it

depend entirely upon the character of the brain from which emanates, and upon the knowledge possessed by the mind

with which the

medium

or other

member
is

of the circle

may
has

at the time be en rajtport.

There

ground

also for ren-

dering

it

highly probable that whatever knowledge

man

once possessed, whatever discoveries he has once made, are

preserved in the spirit atmosphere, or in some organizations with which this atmosphere is in union. Of course then the
revelations

we

receive are various in proportion to the organ-

izations through

which they come to

us,

and the source from

which they are received; and no wonder therefore that they

are very conflicting. First as to the instruments through which we may receive them. The author of "Adam Bede" " we do not hear that Memnon's statue observes, gave forth
its

melody

at all

or in response to any other influence divine or

certain short-lived
to

under the rushing of the mightiest wind, human than

sunbeams of morning; and we must learn accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those

cunningly- fashioned instruments called

human

souls have only

106

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

a very limited range of music, and will not vibrate in the

least

under a touch that

fills

others with tremulous rapture

or quivering agony." *

So

also,

although some, as we have

seen, have superior power, the great majority of organizations

tinder the influx of the spirit atmosphere have quite as limited

a range, and they can

reflect

only so

much

of other minds as

the peculiar structure of their

told

own

permits.

Thus we

are

" that no surname could be by Mrs. de Morgan given Jane's through mediumship," (" From Matter to Spirit,"

and that a similar limitation of faculty applies to every " We have reason, then, to believe," phase of mediumship. " she says, that the spirit or communicating power is cognizant of all the different forms in which truths may be
p. 21,)

medium

conveyed through a variety of mediums, but that each is chosen for a special quality, which enables him to

transmit the sentiment required." "I would say (72.) then that the elementary idea or truth sought to be conveyed does not originate with the medium the language, spelling,
;

and form of expression are his or hers."

(31.)

As

to the

mode

of inspiration or influx,

we

are told that " Spirits take

the place of an earthly mesmeriser."

(116.)
is

As touching the
derived, Mrs. de

source from
tells us,

Morgan

which "Intelligence" " considerations

Many
still

yet

remained, and

many
full

experiments were

to be tried, before

we could have

was concerned,

reason for believing that another intelligence or, in other words, that an invisible being

directed the operations of the telegraph wire,

whose mechanism

* * * was in our own organisation." "The (p. 33.) instances already given, and which might be supported by

hundreds besides, prove that their source

in the

is

not to be found

medium

or in any other

member

of the circle.

The

Adam

Bede,

vol.

i.,

p. 177.

THE SPIRITS DISAGREE AMONG THEMSELVES.

communications are coherent and

107

intelligible; often too, quite

new

to every person present.

It see'rns

assumption that they are the

being, acting

work of an

then not a hasty intelligent unseen

by means of a force similar to mesmerism upon " The mesmeric force the system of the medium." (p. 96.) or fluid, or one whose effects on the system are precisely
similar, but

perhaps more refined,

is

that

by which

all

the

operations of mediumship are carried on, and the source

from

which

it

immediately flows
itself to

is

an unseen and

intelligent being,

asserting

be a spirit,

which has quitted the material

earthly form."

May
the
sent to

(p. 100.) not then this force be an emanation from

all brains,

medium increasing its density so as to allow others precome into communion with it, and the intelligence,
source upon the

" new to every person present," that of some brain in the

distance acting through this

mind of the

medium
says,

or others

of the
is

circle?

A. J. Davis, the Seer,

"

My

information

not derived from any persons that

exist in the

sphere into

which

my mind

enters; but is the

law of truth, emanating from the Great Positive Mind. * * * I pass from the body with a desire for a particular kind of
information.

This desire attracts the particular kind of truth

it

of which I would be informed, separates

things,

from

all

other

and causes it to flow into the mind." * The " Spirits " no more seem to agree among themselves
shade of opinion, and every creed in quite as communicative
as

in the disembodied state than they did while in the body, in

fact they reflect every
religion,

" was and " Mary Jane

to as

when appealed

Mary Jane,

when addressed
at whist,

as dear

Spirit; she also played a

good hand

and dominoes

with the faces turned down, and we are told that the more
* "

Principles of Nature."

108

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

the room was inhabited during the

power.

It is

day the stronger the found that the Mahomedan can " communicate " and a Catholic
with every Saint
St.

with Mahomed,
calendar;

in

the

and the Archangel Raphael and

friends

Michael are

quite as willing to hold converse as St. Paul;

living with

and friends

those
told

it

person invoke a myth or allegorical person, he will get an answer in the name of that person." In fact, the "spirits" are more
(p.

by

departed, and even with has turned out were not departed and we are Allen Kardic, that even " if a
relatives
;

and

376,)

" given to personation" than our most corrupt electoral constituencies.

What

really

seems to take place

reflect the

is,

that the

"communications" represent or

mind

of the

me-

dium, or of others present, or of absent persons with whom they most sympathise in feeling and idea, and with whom,

from certain other natural causes, they are most en rapport. As A. J. Davis tells us, they desire a particular kind of
information, and the desire attracts the particular kind, and
it to flow into the mind, from some other mind in which such ideas are prominent. Thus we get " Scripture" reflected in every varying sect and denomination, and all its

causes

facts
circle

and

allusions,

and then reasoning

in the usual vicious

we

find

Scripture brought as a proof of the truth of

those " reflections," and the " reflections" as evidences of the

truth of revealed religion.

made use

of as a

means

for retaining

In this way also Spiritualism is and supporting all the

childish superstitions of the infancy of the race.

We

know
is

that the world,

and

all

of which

we

are conscious,

manifestation of

One Divine Power everywhere present

the " of

one great central force, whose origin is in the will of the Most High." We know that our likes and antipathies, our
personal and social relations, and our ideas of good and
evil,

are purely subjective, and have no existence out of ourselves;

THE SPIRITUALIST HEAVEN.

and vet
all

109

these feelings and prejudices, which are merely

human
"

relations,

and have no existence per

se,

are carried

" spirits" into their upper spheres, and by the

we hear

of

" earth-tending" spirits, and that matter earth-clinging" and is "gross" and spirit "pure"; and that the farther we get

away from
is

earth, the nearer

we

are to heaven, for that heaven

above, although, with reference to this earth

its axis,

and the move-

ment on
next.

is below the " Souls quite earthly," we are told by Mrs. de Morgan, " wrap themselves in the nerve-spirit, and give thereby the characteristic form to their spirit. By the aid of this subis

what

above one twelve hours

stance, they can

make themselves
tells

seen, heard,

and

felt

by

men."

("

From Matter
de Morgan

to Spirit," p. 135.)

Professor

us in his admirable Preface

that " the worthy Priest, Jean Meslier, (the author of a book
called
its
'

Good

Sense,' which

had a considerable

circulation in

day,) to

whom

there was no God,

if

knew how the universe

would have been fashioned

at the

there

had been one: he looked

(Ibid,

First Cause from an earlier point of view."

what they p. 35.) see of God's work here, they think that hi many things he was evidently in the wrong, and they have created a very

So the

Spiritualists are not satisfied with

superior world indeed,

and

called

it

heaven.

Here the great

sustaining and directing Power, of which the whole Universe, with its countless suns and systems, is but a manifestation, is

represented as sitting upon a throne, with ministering angels,

in the style of

an Eastern monarch, with feelings and ideas

It is into this sphere, I

not greatly differing.

Professor de
enter with his that

presume, that

Morgan

"ponderously difficult" to wife and the " Spirits," and it is here certainly
finds
it

so

Mrs.

de

Morgan, so candid and philosophical in her

remarks, so correct generally in her observation, appears to

lose herself, seeking a resting place for all her better feelings

110

SPECULATIONS ON SPIKITUALISM.

and higher aspirations in company with the female mind in I agree with her, however, entirely in what follows general.
:

" I have tried to show, that both by reasoning from the

phenomena, and by the assertions of the unseen

and forming soul of which the outer world
If this be so,
it

influences,

we

are led to conclude that the world of spirit is as the vitalizing

is

the material husk.

follows as a consequence that every object in

creation outlies and typifies its animating cause in the world

of

spirit.

power,

And so every created thing represents some spirit each power being a modification of the one great
whose origin
is

central force,
(p.

in the will of the

Most High."

298.)
is

But here the " animating cause"

" said to be " spirit

"a
and

modification of the one great central force," not spirits,

hi case of the natural birth, life

and the "spirit" are

always transmitted through organization; but there is no evidence of continued organization in the supposed birth into
the spirit world.
or

We

find

"object," individuality emanating cause," except the human body, and such perhaps as the human will may have the power of forming out of what
I have called the mental, thought, or spirit atmosphere, the
result of general cerebration.

no evidence of any intelligent "outlying and typifying its

If also spirits existed, in the

spiritualists,

number they
to our

are supposed to do by around our atmosphere, would not the

in

and

fact

become evident
light

men

of science,

by

their

action

on

and other

imponderables? It is true that we may ask the same with respect to our "cerebration" atmosphere; but the existence of such atmosphere is being made more and more evident " sensitives" of Baron Reichenbach and through the by mesmerisers generally.
It is true that the believers in the

"Spirits" are greatly

on the increase both

in this country

and America.

The New

INVESTIGATORS

WHO REJECT THE

SPIRITS.

Ill

England

Spiritualists' Association affirms that half the

mem-

bers of Congress and the State Legislates, as well as half

the scientific and literary

men

of America, are Spiritualists.*

of these, having witnessed

Probably

far the greater

number

the phenomena, and finding that they cannot all be ascribed to fraud or self- delusion, believe in spirits, because they do

not

know

to

what

else the

power and

intelligence manifested

can be ascribed.

Investigators into Spiritual Manifestations

who have

rejected the

Notion of

Spirits.

But there are many investigators who discard the notion of spirits. Thus the author of " Mary Jane; or, Spiritualism
Chemically Explained." He believes the influence to be an Odylic emanation from his wife, and entirely dependent upon " I have seen a table her for its existence. He
says,

move,

totally alone

and a chair move,

totally alone

move, just as

you and

see a leaf carried along

I have reasonable conversations with

by the wind on a turnpike-road, Mary Jane whenever

I please;

but I have neither seen nor heard anything to

convince me, in the slightest degree, that

spirit of a deceased person.

Mary Jane

is

the

It is

only a hitherto unexplained

phenomenon

of nature, which, until chemists and scientific

men

analyse,
(p.

many."

be made use of to get money from the " * * * What, then, is this myste301.)
will

rious being ?

I will explain to

you

my

version of

it

pre-

mising that science has an immense, an enormous, and a most invaluable field for discovery in its researches into the nature
of
it
;

and that
it

if

ever

it

is

taken up by

scientific

men

in the

manner

deserves to be,

more

light will

be thrown on the

generation and subsequent changes and progressive perfection

*

Edinburgh Renew, October, 1865.

112

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
all

of organic bodies of

sorts,

and

in the action of food

and

medicines, and very probably on the causes of the motions of

the planetary bodies, than by any study that has hitherto

occupied the
lays

scientific

world."

(p.

325.)

The

writer then

down

sixteen propositions that

he considers proved by

the

phenomena he has not only witnessed but apparently

I need give only a few of these
:

investigated.
4.

"When

these

vapours

(which

Reichenbach

calls

Odylic,) emanate from certain persons, who appear to have phosphorus in excess in the system, they form a positively
living, thinking, acting

body of material vapour, able

to

move

a heavy table, and to carry on a conversation, &c., &c., &c.

" That this Odylic being thinks and feels exactly as the from bodies it emanates: that it possesses all whose persons
8.

the senses

seeing,

hearing,

smelling, tasting,
for

feeling,

and

thinking;

that

it

makes up

the

muscular organs of

speech, by either an electrical power of rapping, or by guiding

the medium's hand, or by direct writing with pen and pencil.

its power of sight is electrical, for under a domino, or what is in the adjoining room

9.

" That

it

can see
in short,

where the human eye cannot. 14. " That its conversations with

different persons will

be

responsive to the affections, the sentiments, and the religious

belief of

each person

it

is

talking with,

although they are

drawn from one common source

trated at, or with which the table

the Odylic vapour concenis

charged

those religious creeds are entirely at variance.

for the

And

and although if asked

name

of the (pre- supposed) spirit,

it

will give the

name

either of the desired relative, or of

some high authority (on

making

religious matters) in the specific creed of the person

the enquiry.
15. " That, from various concurrent testimony,
it

appears

fully proved that this Odylic vapour possesses the power of

THE COMING MILLENNIUM.

118

taking the shape of hands, arms, dress, &c., and even of an

entire person,

dressed, &c. 16. " That, nevertheless, the

high thought, philosophy,

reflection

independence,

conciseness,

and deep

evinced

by

many
fluid,

of the answers

point to

its

and sentiments expressed by the Odylic connection with a general thought atmo-

sphere, as all-pervading as electricity,

and which possibly

is

in itself, or is in intimate connection with, the principles

of

causation of the whole universe." *

But

this

Author

tigated these

is not the only person who has inves" modern spiritual manifestations," and who,

seeing and believing the phenomena, yet does not believe in

" the
a

spirits."

little

A Mr. William Robert Bertolacci has written " Christian book, called Spiritualism," in which he
experiences.

details his
is

He He

come, or fast coming,

Spirit

when God
says,

His

on

all flesh."

seems to think that the time " to is about pour out " It is thus at this
that,
all

time,

when

the resources of material science, in their

but

miraculous nature and the astounding rapidity of their succession,

seem

to be drawing to a close, that the

most wide-

spread manifestations of an invisible power that have ever

been heard
that there

of,
still

are sent to this globe of ours, to

exists

show us

an order of things far surpassing the of our temporal reason, and capable of subverting sphere all the theories which we, in the vanity of our material
science,

have laid down as the laws of nature.' " Should we not consider these uncalled-for, spontaneous of those " at a manifestations as
'

"

forming,

least,

portion

signs

of the times" which are immediately to precede the spiritual

reign of Christ on earth

?"f

*
+

Mary Jane

or,

Spiritualism Chemically Considered, p. 354.

Christian Spiritualism, p. 86.

114

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

" Souls of the departed," hut ascribes most of the phenomena to our own occult spiritual This power he considers is to be developed by trainpower. and he has used it in the education of his own family, in ing, " Alter the extension and of their natural

He

rejects the intervention of

quickening

powers.

he says, " my young people were thrown into the magnetic sleep, and in that state could read in books with their eyes bandaged and well padded up could see and hear

some

trials,"

things in far-distant places

were made insensible to pain,

and deprived of their memory on being awakened, or retained a perfect recollection of all that had passed during their

somnambulic
to us

state."
spirit,

It

was made known

that
this

by the
the

(not the spirits,)

power to

obstruct
that

or retain the

memory

could be vastly extended;

memory

with the faculties of perception could be

so strengthened as to
ple the easiest of
all

make the education

of our

young peo-

things
it is

an amusement, a real recreation

instead of being, as * * * process."

now, a slow, tedious and fatiguing

of the

The acquirements
little

somnam-

bulic condition could, with a

pains and perseverance, in the great majority of subjects, be transferred to their normal waking state." By this species of training, by the

use of hypnotism,
conditions of

and the power of

faith,

the

abnormal
daily

mesmerism were brought

into

common

use, without, so far as I understand, injuring the health or

We are told that whole weakening the natural faculties. can be retained in the pages memory by a process of instanof this kind taneous " and the whole
Psychotyping,"
process
of clairvoyant education
is

given at some length.

I give only

an

illustration.

" The students are also by the faculty they

acquire for receiving inspiration, so perfectly identified with

everything belonging to the places spoken of in their study of geography, that they feel as though they were on the

CURES BY THE SPIRIT OF COMMUNION.

115

spot.

So correct

are the impressions

all

made by

the ubiquitous

power of their souls on

selves to be, not

the organs -of the body in their

temporarily perfected condition, that they appear to them-

where the lessons are going on, but in the

very places therein referred to; seeing, hearing, and feeling

all

that they are required or desirous to see, hear, or feel."

But Mr. Bertolacci not only aided the development of our " latent spiritual faculties" by training and " initiation",
but he alleviated
of the
souls

pain and cured diseases by

living.

communion

of the

He

tells

us that " the most

miraculous cures can be, and have been lately performed

upon persons whose maladies had

science."

all medical " This has been brought about by the laying on

set at

nought

of hands

"

or by a certain
sufferer.

number

of persons forming a chain

gives

round the

Of these cures he

many

instances

both within his own family and upon persons without, whose
faith in his

"

spirit of

communion

"

was

sufficiently strong.

"

It is manifest,"

he says, " that the souls of two or more

their
life

persons

can,

during
is

on

earth,

unite

and form
is

one soul
stituted

union

strength; and

when

that strength

con-

upon the conditions laid down by the Christian Doctrine, it becomes divine power, omnipotent in its principles,

and without any limitation

in its effects other than

that

imposed

upon

it

at

the

time

by the degree of the

faith of its constituents."

state of that

" In consequence of the present degeneration and helpless Church of Redemption, primitively established
direct disciples, but divided at the present

by Jesus'
all sorts

day into
every

of sects, and totally absorbed in vain forms,

new demonstration
supernatural,

of invisible forces

is

termed, improperly,

by a very great majority of those who witness them, and who, having sought for the cause of them in the
erroneous philosophies of

bygone ages,

have adopted the

116

SPECULATIONS ON SPIBITUALISM.
produced by the
to

fallacious creed, that these things are

inter-

vention of the Souls of the departed,

participation in them
(p. 82.)

the exclusion of all

by our own occult spiritual power." " " The Communion of Saints," he Bays, although
has never lately been understood and in their hearts. They have

on the

lips of Christians,

appreciated, and therefore not

been taught to understand that Saints are exclusively such persons as, having led a very pious and pure life on earth,
are after their death, received

up into a

local
is

heaven in the

presence of

God

infinite,

who, however,
sides

there seated on a
&c.
(p.

throne

surrounded
the

on

all

by

angels,

62.)
strict

Whereas

Apostles taught that they

and

their

adherents and followers were Saints.

says,
'

" Our Saviour," he

" told the Samaritan

is Spirit,'

woman
and

at the well of Sichar, that

God

(not a

Spirit,

which he shows from the Greek

that

to be a misinterpretation),

what should be worshipped

as

God

teas

the Spirit of Truth.

Among

the teachings

we

have received in the inspired writings given to us by the spirit of our communions, has been the following: God is not
'

an extraneous,
collective,

individual,

isolated
life

Being, but the

all

internal

and contiguous

and constitution of

things;

not a heterogeneous force, but the intrinsic strength;

concrete, but abstract; not relative but absolute,
principle.

not

as to the

I trust that what I have said will go some way towards dispelling, in my readers' minds, those narrow ideas of a materialistic education which leads them to look upon the

Deity

as of a 'nature distinct'

from that of creation; a

species of outward looker-on, instead of being, as

He

is,

the
all

intimate
things."

constitution,

action,

life,

and
it

intelligence

of

Mr. Bertolacci admits that

is

only by the most

determined Will, of which strong faith is the main ingredient, that we can hope to attain to and to persevere in, the

" new

life

in the Spirit."

" I have, he

says,

had

to

arm

DIVINATION AND MAGIC.

117

a "Will and myself with the most undaunted determination," determination, I fear, to which very few at present will be

found equal; but as I have said before, the power of Will, and of joint Wills, has yet to be tested.

History Confirms the Existence of

tJie

Phenomena.
which we have " that

But
adverted,
historical

speaking

of

the

phenomena
tells

to

Professor de

Morgan

us very truly,

enquiry shows their existence never to have been

entirely

unknown."
it

Thus we have

exhibited before Apollonius of Tyara,

on the best authority that the Brahmins who was born four years

before Christ, most of the

phenomena

of

modern

spiritualism,

such as the moving of furniture, levitation, &c., and Apollonius himself is reported to have performed many miracles, and to

things

have wrought many cures. In the East, in his time, these were Divination and Magic; in the west, especially the middle ages, Witchcraft. The practice of Magic by during

the Magi or wise

men

of the East,

was

originally the develop-

ment of the

occult powers to which

we have

referred;

it

was

a reference to a certain vital or spiritual sympathy in the

universe, and the attracting
of,

or union with, these influences

religious rites.

or invisible powers,

by devotion, and

Taylor?
intellec-

in his Notes to Pausanias, observes: tual eye is strong

"He

whose

with

enough to perceive that all things sympathise be convinced that magic, cultivated by the ancient philosophers, is founded on a theory no less sublime
all,

will

than rational and true.

Such a one

will consider, as Plotiuus

observes, the nature of soul everywhere easy to be attracted,

when

a proper subject

is at

hand which

is easily

passive to

its

influence."

118

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISE

known

Mesmerism, clairvoyance, divination, and magic were also to the Egyptians, and formed a considerable part of the

mysteries of their Religion.

Of the

truth

of the

prophecies and responses

of the

Oracles of Greece and the

Roman

Sybils, the testimony of

the Historians

account for
true

unanimous; the only question was how to them. Thus Rollin says, " admitting it to be
is

some

oracles have been followed precisely

by the events

foretold,

God, to prevent the blind and sacrilegeous credulity of pagans, has sometimes admitted demons to have knowledge of things to come, and to foretel
believe that

we may

them distinctly enough. Which conduct of God, though very much above human comprehension, is frequently attested in
the Holy Scripture." the result of " local

Dr. Rogers accounts for the oracles as

mundane emanations,"

acting

upon the

nervous system of the Pythia, and developing to a wonderful degree the pre-sension, or divining power of the brain,
standing,
as he affirms
it

did, in

a general relation to

all

matter.

He

holds that the controlling action of mind being a

specific

suspended, her brain became entirely subject to

mundane

influence,

which being reflected back upon the outer

as in the

world, was called the oracle of the gods,

modern

medium

it is

called

" communications from the

invisible spirit

world." *
guess.

And

Dr. Rogers has probably made a very good

Plato and Pythagoras believed in a " Luciform ajtherial

and Plato says " man does not participate in the divinely-inspired and true prophecy as a reasoning being, but alone when he is either deprived, during sleep, or through
vehicle,"
sickness, of the exercise of reason, or
tion,

when by some

inspira-

he cannot command himself."

The Two Worlds,

p. 26.

MANIFESTATIONS AMONG THE NEO-PLATONISTS.

119
as

But

it

was

at Alexandria,

they were

called,

that

among the Neo-Platonists we had the fullest development

of

these phenomena.

"

We

have here," says the Eev. Charles

Kingsley, in his Exposition of the Alexandrian Philosophy,

" the very phenomena which are puzzling us so now-a-days. are all there, these modern puzzles, in those old books They
of the long bygone seekers for wisdom."

The Neo-Platonists

taught that the soul

may

in ecstacy attain to divine visions,

see beyond the present, and predict the future.

generally regarded as

Plotinus,

the founder of that the Infinite?

school,

says

"You
The

ask,

how can we know

It is the office of

I answer, not

by reason.

reason to distinguish and define.

Infinite, therefore,

cannot be ranked

among

its

objects.

You can
to reason,
finite

only apprehend the Infinite by a faculty superior

self

by entering into a state in which you are your no longer, in which the Divine Essence is comThis
is

municated to you.
condition
is

ecstacy

But
It is

this

sublime

not of permanent duration.

only

then that we can enjoy this elevation (mercifully sible for us) above the limits of the body and the world.

now and made posI

myself have realised

hitherto not once.

but three times as yet, and Porphyry All that tends to purify and elevate the
it

mind

will assist

you

in this

attainment,

and

facilitate

the

There approach and recurrence of these happy intervals. are then, different roads by which this end may be reached.

The
the

love of beauty which exalts the poet; that devotion to

One and

that ascent of science which

;

makes the ambition

of the philosopher

and that love and those prayers by which some devout and ardent soul tends in its moral purity towards
These are the great highways conducting to that above the actual and the particular, where we stand height in the immediate presence of the infinite, who shines out as
perfection.

from the deeps of the soul."

120

SPECULATIONS ON SPIKITUALISM.

lamblichus, or the writer of the treatise that bears his " The name, says: pomp of emperors becomes as nothing
in comparison with the glory that surrounds the heirophant.

His nature
him.

is

the instrument of Deity

who

fills

and impels

Men

of this order do not

employ

in the elevation they

experience, the waking senses as do others.

They have no

purpose of their own, no mastery, over themselves.

They

speak wisdom they do not understand, and their faculties absorbed in a divine power become the utterance of a superior
will.

Frequently,

not

merely the

ordinary

exercise of reason, but sensation and animal life would appear to have been suspended; and the subject of the
afflatus

has not

felt

the application of

fire,

has been pierced

with

spits, cut with knives, and not been sensible of pain.

Yea, often, the more the body and the mind have been alike

impeded by

vigils

and

fasts,

the more mentally imbecile and

is

ignorant a youth

may

be who

brought under this influence,

the more freely and unmixedly will the divine power be

manifest.

made

So

clearly are these

wonders the work, not of

!

human

skill

racteristics,

and wisdom, but of supernatural agency Chasuch as these I have mentioned are the marks of

the true inspiration."

Victor

Hugo

also bears his testimony

is

on

this subject
itself

he says, " There

in a mysterious

a time when the unknown reveals

to the spirit of

way

man.

sudden rent in

the veil of darkness will

seen,

make

manifest things hitherto un-

and then close again upon the mysteries within. Such visions have occasionally the power to effect a transfiguration
in those

into

whom they visit. They convert a poor camel-driver Mahomet; a peasant girl tending her goats into a Joan of Arc. Solitude generates a certain amount of sublime
a
exaltation.
It
is

like the

smoke

arising

from the burning

bush.

INSPIRATION ACCORDING TO VICTOB HUGO.

121

"

mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts

the student into a seer, and the poet kito a prophet: herein

we

find a

key to the mysteries of Horeb, and Ebron, and

Ombos;

to the intoxication of Castalian laurels, the revela-

tions of the

month Busion.

Hence

too,

we have

Peleia at

Dodona, Phernonoe at Delphos, Trophonius in Zebadea, Ezekiel on the Chebar, and Jerome in the Thebais. " More this state overwhelms and
frequently
victim.

visionary
is

stupifies

its

There

besotedness.

The Hindoo

fakir bears

such a thing as a divine about with him the

burden of his

vision, as the Cretin his goitre.

Luther hold;

ing converse with devils in his garret at Wittenburgh

Pascal

shutting out the view of the infernal regions with the screen
of his cabinet;

the African Obi conversing with the whiteare each and

all

faced god Bossurn;

the same phenomena,

diversely interpreted by the minds in which they manifest

themselves, according to their capacity and power.

Luther
is

and Pascal were grand, and are grand

a poor half-witted creature, &c. +
its

***
is

still

the Obi

simply

**
nebulous
it is

"

Reverie, which

thought in

state,

borders

closely upon the land of sleep, by which

bounded as by
world, in the

a natural frontier.

The

discovery of a
filled

new

form of an

atmosphere transparent creatures, would be a beginning of a knowledge of the vast unknown. But beyond opens out the illimitable domain of the possible,

with

other phenomena.

teeming with yet other beings, and characterised by All this would be nothing supernatural,
infinite variety

but merely the occult continuation of the

creation."*
*

of

Toilers of the Sea,

v. i.,

c. 7.

122

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

The Manifestations
It
is

in the Catholic Church.

in the history of the Catholic

trations

and martyrs that we find and the fullest confirmation of the phenomena of modern spiritualism, but these were misunderstood and missaints

Church among its the most numerous illus-

interpreted by the Church, as they are in the present day

by
as

spiritualists.

By

Protestants they have

all

been regarded

pious frauds.

The study
will teach

of the subject, however, as a

branch of physiology

us to be more discriminating.

The

fact of persons being raised from the ground and borne

air

through the

has been variously attested.

Francis

" The fact

is

authentically attested of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Dominick,

St.

Dunstan,

St.

of

Assissium,

St.

Teresa,

St.

Cozetan, St. Bernard Ptolasmaei, St. Catharine of Ricci, and

several

others."

which came under his own observation:

Calmet remarks, among other instances " I knew a nun, to

herself, to see herself

whom
it

it

has often happened, in spite of

thus raised up in the air to a certain distance from the earth ;

choice, nor from any wish to distinguish was truly confused at it."* With respect to what were thought to be miraculous cures, the testimony of the Church is overwhelming. Mr. Lecky,

was neither from

since she

herself,

with Middleton,

rejects

the

old

Protestant

theory,

that

" miracles became gradually fewer and fewer, till they at last entirely disappeared ;" and accepts without reserve the state-

ment

of this intrepid writer in his " Free Inquiry," that as far

as the

Church historians can

"there
is

illustrate

or throw light
all

on
so
all

anything,

not a single point in

history

constantly, explicitly,
*

and unanimously affirmed by them

p. 58.

The Two Worlds,

CURATIVE POWERS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

as

123
powers

the continual
all

succession

of

these

(miraculous)
first

through

ages, from the

earliest

Father who

mentions

to the time of the Reformation." So far from " rare and miracles were being exceptional phenomena," supposed to be of familiar and daily occurrence in the lives of the early and mediaeval saints. * The British Quarterly Review for October, 1861, in an article on " Christianity " The and the true remarks: interCivilizations,"

them down

frequent

vention of

supernatural agencies

in

human

affairs

was an

admitted fact in the faith of the Ancients, and hardly less so

in the faith of the Middle Ages.

To

reject all credence of that

nature

is

peculiar to

modern times."
observes:

Mr. Morison, in his

"Miracles, ghostly

"Life of

Saint Bernard,"

apparitions, divine
affairs,

and demoniac interference with sublunary were matters which a man of the twelfth century would
doubt of than of his own existence.

less readily

To

disbelieve

such phenomena would have been considered good primd facie evidence of unsoundness of mind."

" Saint Bernard, the most

fitting

marked representative

and

type of that central period of the middle ages, had

visions and revelations, in which future events were revealed

to him,

and accuracy."

and which he predicted with the greatest particularity His healing power was most extraordinary.

Herman, Bishop of Constance, and nine others, kept a diary of what they saw with their own eyes, during his progress through " from this " the Rhine
country.

Many
if

miracles," they say,

time shone forth, which,

stones would proclaim
deaf,

we should pass over, the very The halt, the blind, the

Bernard."

and dumb, were brought from all parts to be touched by We learn that Bernard himself became perplexed f

The Contemporary Review, The Two Worlds, p. 53.

p. 375.

124

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

and uneasy at these wonders. He knew that they were not done by his own power, and disclaimed all merit in them. He said: " I can't think what these miracles mean, or why God has thought fit to work them through such a one as I.
I do not

remember

to have read, not even in Scripture, of

anything more wonderful. Signs and wonders have been men and I feel conscious wrought by holy by deceivers.
neither of holiness nor
saintly merits which
deceit.

know
by

I have not those

miracles.
I
trust,

are illustrated

however, that I do not belong to the number of those who do wonderful things in the name of God, and yet are unknown
to the Lord." *

But we are not dependent upon what

the fabulous ages of the
tration of the curative

are considered to be
illus-

Roman

Catholic Church for an

power that belongs to

some

individuals.

Mr. Valentine Greatrakes, a Protestant gentleman of the county of Waterford, born in 1628, a thoroughly sound Christian and
in society,

good man, but no Saint, occupying a highly respectable place showed a power quite equal to that related of St.

Bernard.

An

account

is

given of this gentleman in Chambers'

Journal, No. 314, and quoted in the Appendix to the Atkinson

and Martineau's Letters

derable mesmeric power in the

Mr. Atkinson having himself consisame way. Mr. Greatrakes,

after practising with great success at

home, went

to

England

for the

purpose of curing the Viscountess Conway of an inveterate headache, in which he failed. But while residing at
Ragley, with the
afflicted

Conway

family, he cured

many hundreds
in a letter to

with various diseases.

Lord Conway,

his brother, thus

speaks of the healer:

"I must

confess

that, before his arrival, I did not believe the tenth part of * * * those things which I have been an eye-witness of.

After

all,

am

far

from thinking that his cures are

*
Ibid, p. 55.

all

CUBATIVE POWER OF MR. GREATRAKES.

miraculous.
efficiency,

125

I believe it is by a sanative i-irtue and a natural which extends not to all diseases, but is much more

proper and effectual to some than to others, as he doth also despatch some with a great deal of ease, and others not
without a great deal of pains."

He was

invited

by the King
the

to

London, whither he

went, curing very

There the Royal way. and then green, threw the light young Society, evidently of their countenance and wisdom upon the matter, publishing

many by

and accounting for " a sanative by contagion in Mr. Greatrake's to some particular diseases and body, which had an antipathy " sanative contagion" had an " antinot to others." The pathy" to diseases mostly connected with the nervous system,
in their Transactions,

some of the cures

as produced

them

upon which Mind and

"Will are

known

to exercise

most

in-

fluence, the nervous fluid

from one body being infused into

another. We are told by a contemporary writer, Henry More, mentioned by Southey in his " Omneana," that Greatrakes was successful in " cancers, scrofula, deafness, king's evil,

headache, epilepsy,
palsy,

fevers,

(though quartan ones^) leprosy,

pains of the body, nay,
I

tympany, lameness, numbness of limbs, stone, conptysick,

sciatica,

vulsions,

ulcers,

blind and

dumb

in

some measure, and

us that "

know not but he

in the nervous

cured the gout." Mr. Atkinson

tells

Any change

condition affects others.

distinctly I felt the

I have told you," he says, "

how

commencement

of the mesmeric condition

;

in

my

patient, as of a slight electric shock

and I have been

the flowing

sensible of each change during the sleep,

and of

away of disease.
others.
It is

"When diseases are dying

out, they influence

even so with a

common
were

cold,

which passes away

to another.

And
flies

so, likewise, the state of a dying person

off,

influences

as

it

disturbs or influences the

126
universal
rapport,

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

medium, and thus reaches those

they be in a
fit

in

whom

there
It

was

if

condition to receive."* f
if

seems
a feat

from Greatrake's case, that

which
is

we can take we take

disease
J

not denied

so also can

health.

* Man's Nature and Development, p. 279. " established" t The only ghosts that were considered to be by the " Oxford Ghost Club" a body formed expressly for the investigation
of such supposititious phenomena, -were those that appeared at death. The Brain contains a whole reservoir of correlated force called soul or
spirit, and as the vital functions cease it must pass away through some other medium. " I have known," says Mr. Atkinson, " a dying child mesmerise a powerful man," (Letters, p. 278,) and from the numerous well-authenticated cases of people appearing to others at their deaths, it would seem that such force was able for a tune at least, to retain some kind of identity and individuality and to impress it on The most modern ghost of this sort on record with which I am others.

" I was," says the reverend acquainted is the one seen by Dr. Pusey: " down a somewhat crowded street in Oxford, when I waa doctor, passing surprised to perceive at my elbow a man whom I believed to be too ill at
the time to leave his bed ; he said
'

Hell the last hour for that

sional).'

lie I

told

Dr. Pusey, I have been burning in you (it is supposed in the confes-

I turned round," the doctor

In great surprise, I hastened to and learnt at his door, that he had been dead about an hour." This anecdote was told to the Sisters in Osnaburg Street, and is taken from the as yet uncontradicted statement made by Miss Good" Sisterhoods in the Church of man, in her England," p. 25. It is
his residence

explanation, but the people pressed figure of the man who accosted me.

went on to say, "to ask an npon me, and I lost sight of the

impossible that a man of the well-known character of Dr. Pusey, can have The " passing away" of the mental force of wholly invented this story. his acquaintance may have impressed itself on his mind, with even hia
last thought;

or the ghost only may have been a reality, and the " Hell and Purgatory" the produce merely of a strong faith and imagina-

tion.
J

See Appendix C.
Since this was written, that
is,

on

May

7th, 1866, I attended a

lecture at Saint Mary's Hall, Coventry, by a Mr. George Powell,

styles himself Practical

who

Mesmerist, Phrenologist, and Medical Electrician. The lecturer, after a few preliminary remarks to show that vital power was transmissible, as in the well known case of young people
sleeping with old ones, &c., &c., proceeded to mesmerise about twenty

CURATIVE POWER OF MR. POWELL.

127

Witchcraft.

Witchcraft
delusion.

is

now

generally

believed

to

be entirely a

But we must
So

recollect that the belief

was current

throughout, not only Christendom, but the whole world, for

many

centuries.
at

late

as

1664, two

women were

con-

demned

Suffolk, by Sir Matthew Hale, for witchcraft, on the ground first, that Scripture had affirmed the reality of

of the audience, all but one of

He

whom he put to sleep immediately. then selected six of the most sensitive to illustrate electro-biology,

phreno-ruesmerism, and mesmerism, in which he showed great power,

and was completely successful, to the great amusement, delight, and wonder of the spectators. He then said that if there were any there suffering from pain he could probably dismiss it at once. Only one young
gentleman came forward, who had been suffering from tooth ache, he said, all day; the pain was dismissed with a touch, and had certainly
left the room, probably an hour after. After the was waiting for Mr. Powell, in about a quarter of an hour, he cured two people of tooth ache, one of rheumatism and greatly relieved another, one lady of a pain and lameness in the foot, and another old lady of a bad head ache to which she was subject, and from which she had been suffering all day. I had no opportunity of

not returned when we

lecture, while I

ascertaining how far these cures were permanent, but Mr. Powell has since supplied me with a number of testimonials and letters of gratitude from persons who profess to have been cured of the most obstinate
diseases, of the class

which, Powell

it

was

said,

mentioned above as cured by Mr. Greatrakes, and had previously resisted all medical treatment. Mr.
full

is

a self-educated man, with a

development of the coronal

region of the brain, a very large chest, and highly sanguine temperament. He discovered his power by accident, while staying at a farmhouse and pretending to mesmerise a gentleman's knee for rheumatism.

transmit to others
that in

His bodily system seems to generate immense vital power, which he can and we must infer, I think, from these experiments
;

most nervous cases

it

is

the want of vital power in the part

affected that causes the disease.

128
witchcraft

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

and secondly, that the wisdom of

against

all

nations had
crime.
Sir

provided laws

persons

accused of the

Thomas Browne,

the

well-known author of the

trial,

"

Eeligio

Medici," was called as a witness at the

and swore " that

he was clearly of opinion that the persons were bewitched." Not only so, but More and Cudworth, both of them belonging
to the enlightened

band of Cambridge

Platonists,
;

strongly

expressed their belief in the reality of witchcraft

and more

" Joseph Glanvil, the author of the Scepsis Scientifica," and the most daring theological thinker, perhaps, of his time, wrote a special defence of the decaying superstition, under the name of " Sadducismus Triumphatus," probably the ablest book ever published in its defence. So far as mere arguments
than
all,

were concerned, the divines seemed to have it all their own " The books in defence of the belief were not only far way. more numerous than the later works against it, but they also
represented far more learning, dialectic
ability."
skill,

The mass

of evidence

seemed

in

and even general favour of it.

" Those who lived when the evidences of witchcraft existed in

profusion, and attracted the attention of
all classes

and of

all

grades of

intellect,

must surely have been

it

as competent judges

as ourselves of the question, were

evidence

It is, I think, difficult to

merely a question of examine the

subject with impartiality without coming to the conclusion,

that

the historical
is
it

evidence

establishing

the
is

existence

of

witchcraft
disbelieve

so vast and varied,

that

it

impossible to

without what, on other subjects,

we should deem

the most extraordinary rashness."*

It is highly probable, in-

deed, that the people of those times were not such fools as

we

take

them

to be.

"Witchcraft appears to have been based

upon

the occult powers to which

we have

referred,

and which were

Lecky on Rationalism, from The Contemporary Review, part

3.

INSPIRATION OF QUAKERS, SHAKERS AND JUMPERS.

129

then as
been.

much
" The

misinterpreted as they are

facts,

now and have always ridden by theories, were misunderstood,

compounded The

and viewed

in the light of a baneful superstition,

of Paganism, Judaism, and a corrupted Christianity." *

author of "

Mary Jane"

(p.

361) thus
:

identifies witchcraft

with the modern phenomena; he says

animals, as well as man,
gestation
is

" The female of

all

so constituted for the purposes of

and

lectation as to eliminate

more

liquids,

and pro-

that hence more women bably consequently more vapours are mediums than men. That old women, from their sedentary
habits, probably secreted

more phosphorus, or
where
it

at least elimieffects

nated

it

in confined rooms,

produced those

which we witness, and so becoming conscious of a power which they understood nothing of the nature of, they used it to get a livelihood, and thus, poor things, from Moses's time
downwards, got burnt as witches and there is no doubt, that when they saw the extraordinary phenomena they could
;

produce, and that the church, and the magistrates, and the
judges, and the

mob,

all

declared that they were witches and

possessed by evil
it

spirits, that

the poor things really believed

the wrong persons were burned, in

my

opinion."

Still

there was Scripture warrant for what was done, for

told (Lev. xx. 27) that " a

we

are

man

also, or

woman,

that hath a

familiar spirit, shall surely be put to death."

The Abnormal Mental Powers of

the

Founders of

Sects, <fc.

Abnormal powers attended many great and good men and

founders of sects, some phase of such powers being more
strongly developed in

some cases than

in others, giving the

name

to particular sects,

such as Quakers, Shakers, Jumpers,

The Two Worlds,

p. 102.

180

SPECULATIONS ON SPIKITUALISM.

Methodists, &c., according as the powers of efflux and influx

first

displayed themselves, and which were afterwards thought

necessary and therefore took that form in the disciples.

the history of such cases, and of
this subject, I

For

many

others connected with

com" The from which I have called pendium previously quoted, Two "Worlds, the Mental and the Spiritual," published by
refer the reader to the admirable

must

Pitman, Paternoster Row.

This book shows great research

admirably and candidly written, although in support of individual spirit manifestations; but I think the facts will

and

is

better bear the

I

interpretation that I have put

upon them.
all

would especially call attention to the fact that festations, whether subjective or objective,
from the minds of persons

the mani-

reflected

the

opinions of either the district, country, or age, and were

living,

warm

and not from such as had

passed into another sphere, where they might be supposed to have gained fresh knowledge. The only " spirit" with which
the world can really be said to be familiar
is one having a head with the of the extremities satyr of the heathen goat's and most whether or she he, probably, is a reflex mythology, " a of our own minds conclusion established and foregone

favoured by the then dominant theology," or a real objective existence, must be left for each person to determine for
himself.

The author
is

of

"The Two Worlds"

says,

"True

Spiritualism

God
is

in the Soul;"

in this at least I heartily

agree with him.

says:

The same
the

writer, speaking of Irving's time,

"

]S"or

healing

by

spiritual

power the only

point of correspondence in the spiritual manifestations of Mr.

Irving's time

and of our own.

In both periods we have

spiritual utterances independent of the volition of the speaker, in the native,

in foreign,

under

spiritual

and in unknown tongues; writing influence and from spiritual dictation; sudand discernment

den inward illumination and impression;

JOHN WESLEY OX THE MANIFESTATIONS.

131

of thoughts, and answers to questions, both mental and oral.

In the spiritual utterances then and

now we

find the

same
'

general character of virtue and piety, with occasional incon-

and discrepancies, and other indications of a varying origin ; evidencing that the same differences in character and state which we find among men in the natural world
sistencies
'

prevail also in the spiritual world."

told

Irving himself,

we

are

" by Mr. Baxter, regarded the manifestations as of varying origin, that the utterances at one time might be of God,

and

at another time of Satan,

even in the same person."

that attended

John Wesley's opinion of the manifestations

his church appear to
is

have been very similar.

that

The

following

an extract from his Journal:

"I. God suddenly and

sinners; the

strongly convinced

many
II.

they were lost

natural consequences whereof were sudden outcries and strong

bodily convulsions.
that believed,

To

strengthen and encourage

them

and to make his work more apparent, He favoured several of them with divine dreams, and others with
trances or visions.
III.

In some of these instances, after a

IV. Satan likewise mimicked

time, nature mixed with grace.

the work of
yet
it

God

in order to discredit the

whole work; and

is

not wise to give up this part any more than to give

up the whole.

At

first

It is partly so at this

how

far, in

every case,

was doubtless wholly from God. day; and he will enable us to discern the work is pure, and where it mixes
it

or degenerates."

This very correctly characterises what takes

It is

place at Revivals at the present time.

a spirit circle

on a large scale, and influx or inspiration, or what is " borne " on the mind is the reflex of the public opinion present, in
often mixed with other occult powers.

One of the most peculiar outbreaks of this kind is what has been called, the " Preaching Epidemic," of Sweden, in 1842, described by Mary Howitt. Fortunately we have the

182

SPECULATIONS ON SPIBITUALISM.

aid of a very sensible

logical

man

in the investigation of this psycho-

phenomenon, who, if it was of divine origin as was generally supposed, was yet bent upon determining the conditions under which it took place. Dr. J. A. Butsch, bishop of
Skara, in Westgothland, reports to the archbishop of Upsala, on the subject. " The bishop was of opinion that it was a
disease originally physical, but affecting the
liar

mind

in a pecu-

manner.

He

arrived at this conclusion by attentively

itself.

studying the phenomenon

ness was an ingredient in

At

all

events, bodily sick-

was proved from the fact that, although every one affected by it, in describing the commencement of their state, mentioned a spiritual excitement as its
it,

as

original cause, close examination proved that

an internal bodily

disorder, attended by pain, had preceded or accompanied this

excitement.

Besides, there were persons who, against their

own
of

wills,

its

were affected by the quaking fits which were one most striking early outward symptoms, without any

previous religious excitement; and these,

when

subjected to
said that the

medical treatment, soon recovered.

effects

The bishop
The

corresponded very

much

with what he had heard and

probability
is

read respecting animal magnetism."

that

the internal bodily disorder was the " medium," or induced

condition,

by which the peculiar

spiritual

atmosphere entered

their nervous systems.

The

Constitution of the

Medium.

in

" that there are persons some way peculiarly constituted, whose presence appears to

We

are told in the

"Two Worlds"

furnish

conditions

requisite to

enable

Spirits

to

act

upon
it

Matter, or to manifest their agency in any

way

cognizable to

man.

In

what

this

peculiarity

consists,

whether

be

chemical, electrical, magnetic, odylic, or some combination of

A MEDIUM NECESSARY IN EVERY CIRCLE.

these, or

183

somewhat

else,

it

would lead

me
I

too far from

my

present purpose to consider.

At present,

would only point

out the fact that the presence of one such person at least is necessary in every circle before any spiritual manifestation can

be obtained.
called
'
'

Such persons
'

in past times
'

have been variously

'

seers,'

prophets,'
'

revelators,'

inspired

persons,'
called

gifted persons,'

instruments,' &c.

They

are

now

Mediums."

If our author

would say "

to enable spirit" the

result of cerebration, to act

upon matter, and not

theory
is

"spirits," I

should agree with him.

My

that the

medium, from

peculiarity of constitution, intensifies the spirit atmosphere,

so as to bring the other

members

of the circle into

communion

with

it,

* and that the manifestations are the often unconscious

* As a mere physical illustration of

how

spiritual force

may

be en

rapport with some minds and not with others, let me mention an in" Let me He says give teresting experiment by Professor Tyndall.
:

you one other illustration of the influence of Synchronism on musical vibrations. Here are three small gas-flames inserted in three glass tubes of different lengths. Each of these flames can be caused to emit a musical note, the pitch of which is determined by the length of the tube surrounding the flame. The shorter the tube the higher the pitch.

The flames are now them can be caused

this

silent within their respective tubes,

but each of

room.

sounded anywhere in have here an instrument called a syren, by which I can

to respond to a proper note

produce a powerful musical note. Beginning with a low pitch, and ascending gradually to a higher one, I finally reach the note of the
flame in the longest tube.
into song.
I stop

The moment

it is

reached, the flame bursts

you to hear that its But the other flames are still I urge the instrument on six higher notes silent within their tubes. the second flame has now started, and the third alone remains. But a still higher note starts it also. Thus, as the sound of the syren rises gradually in pitch, it awakens every flame in passing, by striking it with a series of waves whose periods of recurrence are similar to its own." Lecture delivered in the Royal Institution, January 19th, 1866, on " The Relations of Radiant Heat to Chemical Constitution, Colour,
re-excite the syren, to enable

and

note and the flame's note are identical.

and Texture."

Fortnightly, February 15.

134
reflex

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
of their mental states, intensified

by the

influx

from

poured out only through the organization or vessels present, and is mixed with what is found there. From predominating propensities and
without.
inspiration
is

This influx or

active passions

we

get devilish manifestations, and vice versa

when

the aesthetic, the religious, or the moral feelings pre-

dominate.

But we not only have the

circle,

reflex

of the minds

forming this

whom
spirit

these are en rapport by

but often that of others not present with means of the all pervading

atmosphere.

Of course the

difficulty here,

and that

which has necessitated the assumption of separate individual spirits, is the existence of consciousness and will without any of
the

persons present being

difficulty,

conscious

of

exercising

either.

The

however,

is

not greater than in the unconscious-

ness that attends somnambules and the mesmeric states, and in

the unconscious cerebration which regulates the great majority
of
all

our actions supposed

to

be voluntary,

and which

originally

were

so.

in

my

school days,

From having been drilled hard in Murray I can now repeat the whole of my adverbs,

prepositions,
else,

in

the

and conjunctions, while thinking of something same way that ladies will play polkas and
and carry on a conversa-

quadrilles, or other familiar tunes,

time. The difficulty is merely with the Will, because we do not at present understand what is its power, or the nature and extent of its action. Physiologists tell us that
tion at the

same

although the action of the cerebral hemispheres and

other parts
of

many

system must be attended by a great and still there must be consciousness, sensibility with no of nervous attended force consciousness, generation and that the channels through which this discharges itself
the nervous

depends upon the nature and acquired tendencies of

organism.
bules ?

the

Can we say what

It is Will

is the Will power of Somnampower that has created and sustains the

THE ABODES OF

SPIRITS.

135

Universe, and who shall say what may he the limit and amount that may be exercised by each individuality, or how this individual force may act when joined to others. But if
there
is

a difficulty attending

my
is

explanation, that attending

the theory of spirits that have passed away

of disembodied sentient being,

"

ponderous

the existence " indeed.

The

Spirits

their

Abodes and Occupations.

is

We

are told

" by Mrs. de Morgan that Within the body

first

the soul, which passes away at the

animated by the

spirit,

becomes the body of the new

is

change, death, and, * * life.

spirit,

The
that

internal of the

man,

the external of the

and
find

extending the principle from individuals to the mass,

the

we
*

inner state of the material world forms the outer

of the spiritual sphere."

or phenomenal form

*
also

assert,"

("From Matter to Spirit," p. 268.) " that their we are

told,

"Clairvoyants

perceptions resemble those

of persons immediately after death,

when

the soul has be-

come the body, and the entranced person holds converse

with those dwellers in the
spirit

spheres with

whom

he

is

in

harmony or
idea

*
affinity."

(Ibid, p. 269.)

"Whatever
and the same

the impressing spirit thinks, the

medium

sees,

may be conveyed by saying, that, as every thought or feeling in the earth-life leaves its impress on the soul, the soul, when it becomes the body of the spirit, has only to
recall the

memory

of any particular condition to produce the

(p.
is

appearance required."

264.)

evolved from the body

the body of the

Bacon thought that the spirit mind that as the

;

body

is

to this spirit, so is this spirit to mind. *

There seems

considerable similarity between the two ideas, but Mrs. de

*

Man's Nature and Development,

p. 270.

136

SPECULATIONS ON SPIBITUALISM.

Morgan goes considerably farther, and describes the whole process of the new birth into the spirit world, which persons
whose
It

spiritual eyes are opened have repeatedly witnessed. has a marked resemblance to our birth into this world, some
;

of the spirits of the departed generally attending as midwives

and we are told that

new-born
is

sensitives can always distinguish these

also that

spirits,

and

" a person whose

spirits

spiritual eye

opened

will

always see the

p.

with

whom

he

is

en

rapport."

(Ibid,

247.)

However, the whole process of

the

"new birth"

so

much

resembles the old that the "spirits"

cannot be

said- to

be more than the children of those from

whom
father.

they had their birth on earth, and can no more be said

to be the

same people than the son can be

said to be his

own

born are not called away, as we might expect, to inhabit other worlds in this illimitable universe, but remain hi different spheres in close contiguity with this earth,

The

Spirits so

the distance varying according as the spirit retains more or

less of its gross, "earth-clinging tendencies:" the best

among

them, however, are not so far

paid to a medium,

off

but that for half-a-crown,

they

may

generally

be summoned to

to them,

"communicate," or to answer any questions that may be put and from their replies we may justly conclude that
strictly limit

they

themselves to the capacity of their quesof those " earth-tending

spirits"

tioners.

The occupations

who

continue in close contiguity with this earth, do not seem

always of the most dignified or desirable character.

in attendance on former friends

They

are

and
is

relations,

at the

elbow

of the

new husband

or wife

who

saying just the same things

;

over again as were said on the former happy occasion

are putting good or evil

or they

thoughts into people's minds, or

attending the tables of spiritualist circles, or waiting upon

the sick or dying.

existed

And, as the soul-bodies of

all

who have

are

present, they must be rather thick upon the

SPIRITUALISM AND A FUTURE STATE.

ground, so that we
questions that so

137
with the
as to

may soon be again occupied much interested the middle ages,

how

many angels can stand upon the point of a needle at once, or, if a spirit were in vacua, whether the void could truly be called
perfect?
fleshly

Mr. Gully says, "spiritual bodies that have quitted bodies may be at work. I, for one, wish that it may
;

be proved to be so
a

for a

more solemn discovery than

that of

means of communication between embodied and disembodied

The discovery, if it has sentient beings cannot be imagined." been made, has certainly not yet been attended with all the solemnity that Mr. Gully anticipated and as to the communi;

cation between the embodied and the disembodied, one can at

least

imagine

many

occasions in which

it

would not be thought

has been

desirable.

It is

probable that nothing in the world of mind

lost to the race
:

worth retaining has ever been

it

preserved to us in improved organizations, by tradition, and by

printing
;

and the intercourse we can

all

have with the minds

of the great and good that have departed, in our libraries,

furnishes a higher response than anything that has yet been

got out of the tables.

The
future
as

pictures
life"

which the
their

less

gross

spirits

give of

" the

in

higher

spheres,

show such a world

this

poetical

young

ladies
it,

would have made

fall

had they

been consulted about

glory
;

of flowers and green fields and

but when such pictures and other information cannot

literally

be received

by such

sensible,

grown-up women as
is,

Mrs. de Morgan, they are accepted symbolically, that

they

are translated into a language of preconceived ideas.

But

" a future state

the
first

spiritualism, "
:

we

are

told,

proves

the

existence

of

it

certainly

may make

people doubt, for

is desirable.

time perhaps, whether such a future state

It is also said to

prove the Immortality of the Soul; now,

is

nothing

is

better proved than that all force or spirit

per-

188
sistent or

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.
is

indestructible;

it

the form only that changes;

and spiritualism furnishes no evidence that the form the spirit takes in the spirit world is more immutable than the
one
it

had

in this world.

As

to the spirit being

born again
is

into another world, the nature of spirit is that

it

always

being born again, and

it is

known

to us only through such

new

births or changes.

It is the question of identity

only

that remains, and each person

must

settle that for

himself;

only I would suggest that a

place
in
this

spirit's

knowledge of what took

it

world

is

no proof that

was
its

in

any way

connected with the events,

with the person to

much

less

of

being identical

whom

they happened.

The Immortality

of the Soul, or to what extent our Identity

in

may
by
is

be retained
spiritualism

the

future,

as
it

regards

proof,

is

left

exactly where

was.

The tendency

of opinion

amongst

men

of science of the present day, however,

rather against

They seem rather to agree with Dr. Louis Biichner, who says, " L'immortalite de la force indique, de la meine maniere que la permanence de la matiere, un enchainement sans commencement ni fin de cause primithe retention of Identity.
tive et d'effet: 1'eternite, la perpetuite et I'immortalite,

non pas

assurement de
la

1'etre pris

isolement ou de I'individu, mais de

masse ou de tout 1'ensemble.

Plus la science naturelle

avance dans ces recherches, plus

elle apprend a connaitre que rien ne se cree et rien ne disparait, mais que tout reste dans un cercle eternel qui se subvient a luimeme, dans lequel

commencement commencement." *
tout

est

une

fin

et

toute fin

un nouveau

The
receive

occult powers have been present in the world from

the earliest ages, but the world has never yet been able to

them.

In

the East

in

India, they

dictated

the

Science et Nature.

OCCULT POWERS MISINTERPRETED.

139

Vedas, they being the revelations of Seers "who attained to inspiration in the Trance, in which state they were supposed
to attain to inward sight

and to communicate
to

directly

with

God
on

the highest good,

it

was thought,

which

man

can attain

They left a system of castes, based upon their which In religion, stereotyped the then existing civilization. the same were used to extend and confirm the Egypt powers
earth.

authority of the priesthood, which authority, through Moses,

who graduated

in their colleges, has been

handed down

to the

In early Christendom among its Saints this power present day. did God's work, among the Witches afterwards it did the
Devil's
;

and now when

it

has again broken out under the form

of

modern "
is it

spiritual manifestations," the question is

?

whose

work

doing

As

to checking, as

materialistic tendencies of the age,

supposed to do, the for one convert it makes

it is

ten scoffers, and as the power

is

not understood, age

to
fill

it

is

fast

assisting the over brain-work of the

our mad-

houses.
arising

Mediumship is but too often a form of disease, from a too unequal distribution of the force received
body,
the nervous
for

into

the
best

system unduly predominating.

manifestations
are

The

subjects

spiritual

already

bordering on madness, from exaltation of temperament or nervous susceptibility, and the "influx" or indeed the additional excitement about ghosts

and

devils

and the

spirits of

departed friends

is

all

that

is

required to push

them

over.

Our

greatest poet says:

" Great wits are to madness near allied

The

lunatic, the lover,

all

and the
compact

Are of imagination

poet, "
!

And

Plato says, "

The

greatest blessings

we have
"
:

spring from

madness, when granted by Divine bounty

probably alluding

140
to

SPECULATIONS ON SPIKITUALISM.
his in

day.

some of the higher forms of spiritual manifestation in Accordingly we find that the lunatic asylums

America are overcharged with the victims of Spiritualism. "The In the Times of April 3rd, 1863, is the following:
Courier of Lyons states, that in one of the private lunatic

asylums, in the neighbourhood of that city, there are not less than forty persons confined, labouring under mental aberration

paper,

caused by spiritualism." And a month before, in the same we had the following
:

"

'

Demonosophy''

in

France.

The

lunatic

France have of

late received large additions to their

asylums of inmates

from the admission of various patients whose maladies have

been the result of the new-fangled doctrines of spiritualism,
including the usual accompaniments of table-turning, mediums, * rappings, and intercourse with demons." lady who signs

herself " Comfort," in a

letter

to

Mrs. Newton Crosland,

given by Mrs. de Morgan, describes the process by which this

kind of monomania

one form of

this

particular kind

of

insanity, takes place; she says,

"I have many and many

air,

times started up and walked rapidly into the fresh

every power of

using

withdraw myself from the inner into my a power far mightier than my the external life but in vain
to
; ;

mind

own

will

had commenced

its

lovely, mysterious

work within

me, and was moulding my mind and body into that mystic organism for which we at the present day have no other term,
or, perhaps, dare

use no other, than

medium

of

spirit.

So

many

of these organisms are being developed at the present

time that

it is the bounden duty, especially of medical men, to and calmly philosophically investigate the phenomena." f I think so indeed Still if this power were understood and
!

used instead of abused,

it

might do as much

for the cure of

Mary Jane,

p. 347.

From Matter

to Spirit, p. 285.

GRAVITATION AND LEVITATION.

141

insanity,

drive people

by supplying healthy brain-power, as it now does to mad. Judge Edmonds, the American great spi-

ritualist authority, writes

of insanity.

My
it,

" I know something of the disease professional and judicial life has compelled
:

me

to study

insane; and I

am

and I have communed with many who died convinced that there are no means known

among men
disease as

that can do so

much

to cure

and eradicate the

spiritual intercourse

well

understood and wisely

guided."

If

"

spiritual intercourse

" well understood and wisely guided," instead of " " we should use the " influx of
healthy
in its

cerebration, then I should quite agree with the

Judge

curative influence, especially in this disease.

The Rationale of

the Spiritual

Phenomena.
in very
little

The

spiritual

hypothesis places us

better

position with respect to mental science than

we were with

respect to

physical science

supposed

to

be some

God

or Spirit
sea,

when every unknown cause was we had gods of the winds,

;

of the thunder,

and of the

and smaller

spirits for

the

streams, &c., and subject, not to any

to their caprice.

known

law, but only

But

if

we can

lay these spirits, and discover

the laws upon which these abnormal powers, and extraor-

dinary phenomena are dependent,

we may add

the most useful

chapter of

all

to the

book of

science.

We

have discovered
in the

the law of gravitation, and

we now want a Newton

want now to know the law, not of but of Levitation, by which Brahmins, and Saints, gravitation, and Mr. Home, and tables float. We want to know the exact
department of mind.
conditions under which vital force becomes mental
scious force, and of
its

We

or con-

re-correlation into unconsciousness in

sleep or under pressure

on the brain

or

when

it

passes from

the brain into the body through the nerves or directly into

142
space.

SPECULATIONS ON SPIEITUALISM.

" Swedenborg tells us that thought is presence;" but we want to know more definitely how mind is brought into
the presence of mind,

how

brain acts upon brain, through an

independent thought or spirit

in increased

medium, and what

is

the result

and what

is

power or otherwise by joining brain with brain; the nature and extent of will power automatic
;

or unconscious, and conscious

into the other,

under what conditions one passes

conscious

and through what mediums will or unconscious, can act, and at what distances ?
the healing power possessed by such

What

also

is

men

as Greatrakes
?

and in a minor degree by modern mesmerists

These and

many

other things

suggested by

mesmerism, clairvoyance,

and the " modern

spiritual manifestations," apparently within

the boundaries of our faculties, are

tion

now

pressing for explanais

and reduction to law, and when that

accomplished, or

even investigated, the power of mind will be as greatly and rapidly increased as physical power has been by recent discoThe author of " veries in steam and
electricity.
tells

Spiritualism

Chemically Considered"

us that the "manifestations"

till

increased with use, and decreased,

they entirely disappeared,

when no

longer

attended to; and Mr. Bertolacci used the

initiation.

abnormal powers in his family by training and

investigation of these psychological
logical basis

The

phenomena on

a physio-

would show us the conditions on which the

formation of a strong and healthy mind depends.

health
is
;

The general

dependent on ozone where iodine is deficient we have Mr. cretinism, and where phosphorus is in excess, madness. " If the brain of a man has one-andtells us that

Kyan

only
;

a-half per cent, of phosphorus, he

is

an imbecile
is

if

he has
if

two to two-and-a-half per

half per cent., a

cent.,

he

of sound intellect;
if

three per cent., a degree of eccentricity;

four to four-and-a-

madman."

As

certain elements in the soil

are necessary to the growth of wheat, so certain ingredients in

A PSYCHOLOGY BASED ON PHYSIOLOGY.

143

the food, and even in the atmosphere, are necessary to thought.

We

want the physical

intellect.

facts hearing

on the production of the

human

In the dry atmosphere of America the nervous system unduly predominates, and in England John Bull's mind is getting smothered in fat,* and we get genius
at the

expense of the

vital functions.

But we must

learn

how

combine the temperaments of genius with robust health, The and bring back Holy to its original meaning healthy. germ of the oak seems little influenced by the surrounding
to

pabulum

in the acorn,
;

growth depends woman than the man.

forces of -the mother,
dictate

but the

upon the chemical changes in which its human germ depends more upon the

It is fed upon the mental and vital and yet there has been no attempt to If we would make what those forces shall be.

Shakspeares and Newtons we must begin with the germ and race, but the coming child is left to chance, and when it does come there is no attempt to gauge its capabilities,

to

train

its

special

faculties,
life

and

to

save
it

it

an

infinity of pain and labour through

by

starting
is

in the

right direction: or at least

unscientific in its

what

effort is

made

altogether

character, judged even by the light we on such subjects. Few get right aims, and already possess
failures

the

in

life

are

in

proportion.

No

doubt we

are

"

We,

in our dry atmosphere, are getting too nervous, haggard,

dyspeptic,
grosser.

attenuated, unsubstantial, theoretic,

Bull,

John

and need to be made on the other hand, has grown bulbous, long-bodied,

lish.

short-legged, heavy-witted, material, and, in a word, too intensely EngIn a few more centuries, he will be the earthliest creature ever

the world saw. Heretofore, Providence has obviated such a result by timely intermixtures of alien races with old English stock ; so that each successive conquest of England has proved a victory, by the revivification and improvement of its native manhood. Cannot America

and England hit upon some scheme to secure even greater advantages to both nations?" Our Old Home, vol. i., p. 99. By Nathaniel
Hawthorne.

144

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

bordering upon a great advance.

on Physiology

With a Psychology based have any kind of men we like, with any type of body, and any kind of feeling. At present man is little better than an animal of the pig and peacock species; building a golden sty, feeding from silver troughs, we can
and
strutting,

and spreading his

trust

tail,

for

all

the

world to

admire.

But I
the

we

are about to rise above the

mere

animal, to

exercise

of those

faculties

that distinguish

man

as

man.

God becomes

conscious of Himself only in

is

humanity.
higher nature

The supreme good

;

to be found only in our

till

the inner sense does not open

is

the outer of

the mere animal

closed

and

it is

in that serene quiet only

that Nature unveils, and admits us to

communion and union.

The

Coming

Spirit

World Evolved from

the

Spirit

Atmosphere, the Result of Cerebration.

"We have, I think, yet to discover Man's place in Nature, but in " Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," Mr. Huxley " The whole tells us analogy of natural operations furnishes so
complete and crushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the production
of
all

the

phenomena of the

universe,

that, in view of the

intimate relations between

man and

the rest

of the

living
all

world, and between the forces exerted

by the latter and

all

other forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that

co-ordinated terms of
nature's great

are

progression, from

the

formless to the formed, from the inorganic to the organic,

from blind force to conscious

seen,

intellect

and

will."

As we have
and the
is

do

not recognize blind force

anywhere,

persistence of force shows that in that respect there

difference

no

between one force and another, either conscious or

unconscious.

Every atom tends

to purpose; then,

we have the

MAN'S POSSIBLE SUCCESSOR.

but unconscious

145

vital powers ; for vital action is not than mental, only it goes on unconsciously; we have instinct or sentient intelligence without reasoning, and
intelligent'

less intelligent

conscious and reasoning intellect and

caused,
all

will,

but

all

are equally

are effects or second causes.

Purely mental states

or conscious volitions,

when

sufficiently repeated, pass into the

unconscious, and
the

all

the great laws of nature are probably but

will of the Great Supreme. Mr. Huxley to show in what I differed from him, but to show that I recognize fully the great law of " From the formless to the evolution. from the

automatic or unconscious
I did not quote

But

formed,

inorganic to the organic,"

we have the conversion

of force or

intellect power and will of man;" but as Huxley elsewhere tells us, " Naturalists find man to be no centre of the living world, but one amidst endless modifications of life," and that " present

into sentiency, culminating in

" the conscious

existences are

but the

last

of

an immeasurable
is

series

of

predecessors."

Undoubtedly man

the highest in the series,

of mind, as
it

but

is

he to remain so ?

The aggregate

has been

passing and repassing during countless ages through living forms, from the monad to man, has been gradually improving
in delicacy

and intensity of
it

feeling

and consciousness, and what

may

be the next form

theory be

may

take

who can

tell?

May

not the
?

spiritualist

merely

casting

its

shadow before

Plants prepare the food for animals, and the elaborate machine
of the

animal body prepares the food for mind,

that

is,

sentiency and conscious intelligence, and may not this result of cerebration, which has been intensifying for centuries, furnish

ground for a new

start

for the existence

all

of mind, in an

individual form, without

the present cumbrous machinery

"We have a world of spiritual food already prepared, so that there would be no necessity If it be true, as is testified by the for the old apparatus.
for the correlation of force ?

146

SPECULATIONS ON SPIRITUALISM.

spiritualists, that

hands and arms are now formed

tell

in such

an

atmosphere,
will

who can

what

will

be the ultimate

effect of

power

for I hold the

whole universe to be the

effect

of will power on certain prepared conditions

as the thought

or spirit atmosphere intensifies by the greatly increased action of brain

now

going

on?

If such an additional link should

if

ever be added to the chain of intelligence,

such a creation

new being should ever take place, it will probably be evolved and come into existence, as man did, out of the newlyof a

prepared circumstances and conditions, and not individually

Such any previously existing living entity. would be would railno clairvoyant, certainly require beings roads, and no electric telegraph, being governed by a law of
representing
levitation, rather

powers and cerebration having furnished a

in a higher degree of

than of gravitation, and would possess all the which we have only had a glimpse
;

sufficient

atmosphere and
all its

food for their existence, might cease, and the world, with
increased and increasing beauty, be given up to them.

The

"

spheres," the present

abode of

spirits,

according to the

Spiritualists,

seem very comfortless regions.

But, of course,
in-

mere speculation. What we have now to do is to vestigate and test the abnormal powers surrounding us
this is

to

reduce them to law, and thus to pass them on from Man, by

they have hitherto been only abused, to Humanity, which by they might be used to make the greatest spiritual advance hitherto achieved.

whom

THE END.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

While these sheets have been going through the press, I have received several communications on the subjects under
discussion

from Mr. H.

Gr.

Atkinson, which will be very

valuable, I think, to the advanced student in Psychology; I

have therefore given them below. to questions by me.

They

are chiefly in reply

A.
The way we speak

(Page 87.)
I find

points to the position of these faculties.

the seat of judgment behind comparison, and before the sense of Self, and the Will, and the Attention, which is Mental Concentration, a
close attendant.
I

think, therefore I
faculty, the

am.

There you have the judging or proper

individual
'

thought

personality.

Eye of the Mind and the sense of the Again I will, the two organs together again, or

compare

judge,' the organ of comparison naturally before the judgment The more one or resolution of the forces or elements of the case.
reflects

and

on the matter from

all directions

the

more natural and admirable

the arrangement seems, and the more clear and absolute necessity for the new organs in question. I hope you will come to see it though
is most difficult and profound, but it is discovery, and no invention of mine. The intuition, so to speak of character as with Sir Walter Scott, is really a profound insight or judgment, not mere imitation as in acting, and so thus your observation tallies with mine, and the inner organ above

doubtless the matter

would be raised, as in the case of the protruding

eye,

from the enlarged

150
organ behind.
are

APPENDIX.

Then

again, those inner powers being essential to

life

protected, being the inner or beneath convolutions, rationale of the matter presents itself on every hand.

more

and so the

Now
each in

if

all,

the truth and stamp of all is everywhere, as I have said, (See " Letters," p. 256.

all

in each part and Triibner and Co.)

the inner sense, assuming the ability, could have the truth within itself instead of merely taking up the sittings of a few particulars through the

Now do you see it all, and the deep sense of the thing, by a glimpse at the reason for the faith that is in me, the offspring of long and patient experimenting, and no one can say I have been anxious to make a vain display and not for lack of the means to do so, as you,
sense channels.
;

I think,

know.
is

The inner sense

the synthetic power, or formative power and sense,

to define, distinguish, abstract, summing-up all mean the same, and realise the truth and law. The process itself being instinctive and indefinite to our senses, or only cognizable in the effect and fact. The feeling of motion or sense of moving, combines with its

neighbour the impulse towards action, sloping towards the destructive and combative impulses. Here we live the busy life, and very much independent of the will. First we have the sense of being, the moi,
or King; the will we may call prime minister, preceded by the Ego the judge, and the impulse or desire of action is the executive. So the mind may find a very pretty simile in a government in the " Letters "
it is

likened to a republic, and in fact

it is

a government or republic, and

the simile very complete. This will be a point I shall work out because it will fix the map and plan and principle of the arrangement of the

organs and of the faculties in the mind of learners and thinkers, and it is a great thing to exhibit a rational order and reason for that order
with an evidently more natural and complete analysis of the component parts of the mind, in their true meaning and relations, all which must

be set forth in a very clear manner. What I have said in the "Letters" was only as a suggestion to aid others in then1 enquiries, but as they will not inform themselves I

must now develop

but concise form.

my

discoveries

and views more

it is

fully

and in a

clear

not from any doubt, but rather in the consciousness of wealth, and that I have made a' very great advance in laying the foundation of a true Psychological science.
If I have been silent

Phrenology as

it stood was hardly that, nor was its method sufficient the very nature of the matter requires other means to aid and but it will be accepted again correct and complete Gall's discoveries
;

under proper cautions and with the new aids that can now be offered. I cannot however think so little of Gall's method as you infer, when I hold to so much arrived at by that system alone. Do not let there be

APPENDIX.

151

the slightest misconception upon this. However thongh the organology be doubted, if I can exhibit a very intelligible order and scheme with an
evidently fuller and closer analysis of the faculties than was ever devised before, a great advance will be recognised even by those who remain

and we shall show certain fundamental laws of and reason, that have never been even thought of, and shall be chiefly indebted to mesmerism, by which we have been able to make man an object of experiment as well as of observation. Now if this be and we know that it is so, there can be no question but that we true, have discovered one of the greatest and most valuable truths ever revealed to man: the means and power of investigating his own nature. Whatever doubt may be cast upon the discoveries already supposed to have been made, there can be no question as to the immense importance of the means discovered, and of the Psychological laws exhibited in such means. Difficulties of course there are in the application of such means ; but the difficulties arise from other new truths discovered not less marvellous and important, such as the power of thought reading, clairvoyance, and the like wonders, but only wonderful from the novelty and for in truth no fact in nature is more wonderful than another, rarity or really more intelligible. The facts and conditions and laws are all we can know and all we need to know. All dreaming and other abnormal conditions is like nature experimenting for us, and showing us the way to separate the action of the powers, that we may observe and analyse them better; it is like the opening of a window in the breast, that Momus sighed for; and there is no saying to what extent experiment may reach in extraordinary instances under abnormal conditions. No doubt the faint recurrence of what has occurred in dreams as from another self may cause some persons, with Plato, to fancy they have lived before, and that all we experience is but the recollection of the Past but we shall now learn what the tricks of the imagination are, and the reason of the opinions at the root of the different schemes of religion and philosophy. A true science of mind can alone bring men to agree upon sure and rational grounds. I have just read in Mason Good's " Book of Nature," on Sleep,
opposed to phrenology
action
; ;

that after studying the opinions on dreaming from the days of Aristotle to our own day he has never met with anything in the least degree satisfactory or capable of unsolving the perplexities in which it lies entangled. " Whence comes to " that ideas can at all exist in the pass," he says,

brain during sleep, or that all the internal senses are not as much locked-up as the external senses," &c., nor could philosophy previous to my discoveries make any better handle of the subject ; but when we
find there are inner parts of the brain

to the internal senses

a more central group pertaining and individualism, the whole is explained and

152
intelligible at

APPENDIX.

once and the difficulty solved for ever, and every condition and trance made clear. But what I am writing to you now will not be very intelligible, and seem but as brittle sticks until fully developed and properly bound together in their true correlations.
of dreaming

"

It

was a dream, and yet

it

was not

all

a dream."
is

Byron.

In reply to your question as to whether there

of the inner faculties in dreaming
?

any special action

differ

Ordinary dreaming does not

from ordinary thinking, though a more partial life under less control from the incomplete relation on account of the sleeping portion; but

we must
paid you

action since

also consider dreaming to be a special condition of mental we attain a clear and real-like vision of objects suggested. I a visit in a large handsomely-furnished apartment I imagined

you had taken in my dream last night, and saw you and your wife and the pattern and rich colouring of the carpet and all the objects of the room, with as vivid and exact a sense of their reality, and to infinite Here then we find particulars as what I see about me at this moment. the source of the imagination and invention of the thoughts presenting clear and distinct imagery, but which is all very different from our The sense power or perceptive faculty would thinking when awake. seem to have a double face, one towards the sense channel and the real objects perceived, the other towards the inner discerning powers which and the decide, imagine and invent, and are more specially intuitive imagined objects become pictures, on what I may call the plane or sphere of the senses. In thinking when awake the relation is open between the inner power and the senses, but when these are closed the inner powers are thrown upon other relations and have other resources and channels of communicating without. Thus to reflect and perceive
;

by the mind's eye

sions of nature
is

direct is very different

from the reception of impres-

by the channel of the senses.

Though

to

judge or reason

perception as the sense of a form, a colour, or similitude in fact, the entire conscious mind is but as a mirror by a congeries of and even so of the will itself, which is not a power perceptive powers
as
at all but the sense of a

much

comitant.

man

is

power of which it is merely the image and conin a dream somewhat beside the question, in an unbalanced and fragmentary state, and by this disar-

But

all

this is

rangement comes other

relations,

somewhat as with many

tipsy people,

APPENDIX.

153

or in taking ether. I do not think there is any ahsolnte difference in the action of seeing visions in sleep from seeing objects when awake, because all seeing is by vision, and of which fact the idealist

makes the most or rather asserts it to be all and everything and when we see extraordinary visions or ghosts when awake and in clear daylight we for a time are so far and partly as in a dream, and on which rests those remarkable facts of electro-biology under which you can make
;

another person believe they see whatever you suggest to them, and in many cases lead them by your silent will, cases which throw great light

upon the matter of your enquiry, and help to bring Psychology fairly a change coming amongst the inductive and experimental sciences over the spirit of our dream, or rather a real science founded on material causes and ascertained rules takes the place of mere contentious and metaphysical dreaming. The effects of electro-biology are then similar
to the vision in ordinary dreaming, but which though ordinary is yet abnormal as under disjointed and partial condition and in which you may

have clairvoyance and direct impressions from without to the inner and central life, and that will occur which so often does occur in sleep, the

knowledge of a death taking place at a distance, with a vision of the dying person embodied in their ordinary clothes, or may be in those
the sleeper has last seen them wear, or a mere fancy substitute. Miss Hardinge accounts for which remarkable fact by a real
spirit,

and
seen

its spiritual
it

in the form
is

biologising or ernpressing the seer with its presence, and chooses, so that even according to these believers what is

but a subjective appearance. Then, omitting the belief in the actuality of the presence of a spirit, I agree very closely with the explanation given, and the fact falls in with the general facts of the ordinary action of our minds. Now as the dreamer receives impressions direct
to the inner sense so those powers are free to influence others en rapport

and induce corresponding dreams, and indeed influence them to an extent we hardly yet suspect and which we may call a mental contagion, and we
see the reason of those spiritual epidemics, religious revivals, the spiritrapping phenomena, and the like. Similar phenomena occurring simulso that what taneously or in close sequence in different localities occurs more readily in sleep and mesmeric trance when the senses are

mostly closed with new relations and conditions of nervous action set up, does occur under favouring and special conditions in the waking
state,

and hence we have those wonderful records of clairvoyance and of

thought-reading by singularly- gifted individuals, such as Swedenborgh and the Swiss historian Zschokke, (See Letters, p. 377,) or in regard to
(P. 215.) contagious influences, see the case of the Goethe family. Now when we see a vision in broad daylight and clearly have a

double action going on, and the inner senses project an image over the place of the ordinary sight, blotting out or covering a part of it, you

104

APPENDIX.

see how interesting the subject becomes, and that we seem now to be getting to the roots of the difficulty of that which has perplexed the world since men began to think at all and to deny the possibility of
:

the truth of clairvoyance is but to support those who know the actuality of the fact in the logical conclusion that being unnatural it must be
supernatural. find that the

But when our new facts have been well digested we shall phenomena which has astonished and really frightened us

at first, take their place under the ordinary laws of our nature better understood, and do not essentially differ from the normal processes of our ordinary life. The colour of the rainbow the mystic arch in the

heavens, puzzled the world for ages we now know its laws and natural causes and so it will be with those colours of the mind, that are " " passed over now as very strange," or as supernatural and unaccountable " but we shall now give a very good account of them and
; ; ;

man's place in nature and the laws by which he is governed, " the destiny he is to fulfil, and be able to say with Quitelet L'experieace nous apprend dans le fait, avec toute 1'evidence possible, ce qui a premiere vue, parait absurd."
exhibit

The real absurdity is to suppose we could ever attain a knowledge of the laws of the human mind by the only methods that have been followed, and by which no advance has been made though the profoundest
have ever been engaged in the pursuit, but with a too high an estimating of the power of logical argumentation, omitting altogether the fundamental facts concerned.
intellects

You wish

to have

some account
Space
will

of the state of the mental faculties

during mesmeric sleep.

not allow
all

deeply interesting subject, or go into

me to enlarge upon this those marvellous matters to

more than just
to indicate

which

it

relates.

I shall therefore attempt no

the general distinguishing characteristic of the state. " With the mesmeric sleeper and somnambule, we have the brain awake and the sense dead asleep and generally insensible to touch or

sound a pistol fired off at the ear will not produce the least effect nay you may cut the sleeper to pieces, limb by limb, and he will not awake or be aware of anything going on. I have held a patient's hand and talked to her on indifferent matters while her leg was being amputated, and could not detect the slightest sign of her having any knowledge
; ;

of the circumstance

but only pinch the

little

finger of the

mesmeriser

APPENDIX.
and she would
feel it intensely

155
upon
herself :

as of an action

becoming

a perfect response to the condition of the power that had influenced her. There is then a state induced under which, in a certain sense, instead of
being imprisoned the powers are loosened, or at least a sensitiveness to impressions set up for which the ordinary conditions of the nervous

system are inadequate. In a similar way the patient will read your thoughts and even revive in herself impressions latent in your own brain, or the memory of things long forgotten or may be able to receive other
:

subtle impressions as they may be directed according to the particular powers and speciality of the case.

" So that we may consider the ordinary senses as rather impediments, or as the veiling of the mental powers to prevent excess and confusion and to utilise the powers to the practical requirements of life. Besides,

we must remember the imperfections

to

of the senses
all

and the delusions

not by a process of

which they are

all subject,

and in

cases

it is

reasoning but by the decision of judgment that the errors are reconciled ; reason is but a sort of mental mechanism, whereas judgment is the
sense of the result and truth by a higher or thorough perception of tho Now the organ of this power is active elements of the particular case.
that central intelligent faculty we have called the inner sense, or eye it is the of the mind, as I have described it judgment seat or tripod on which is seated the high priestess of the ' reasonable soul and true
'

source of

all

real genius

and what has ever been termed

inspiration.

And

this inner power, together with the conscious power, the sense of

identity,

and others discovered by me fill and make good the gap and want that has always been pointed out in the phrenological scheme. The entranced person having no sense of the physical world by the
senses, or of the existence of his

accidents and fears.

notion.

own body, feels perfectly free from all Hence many a religious delusion and spiritual Now the medium is in a somewhat different position, there

being no mesnieriser, but a self-existent or induced semi-trance condition, from the action of the circle, so that the sense or feeling or voice of the
inner power is attributed to a spirit ; a very natural and necessary delusion under the circumstances. Wanting the control and tie as it were
of the mesnieriser the loosened power has a free course in influencing matters without but this is a question too delicate and complicated to
;

Spiritual Magazine most interesting case by William Howitt, of a spiritual

go into at this moment. " In the last number of the

'

'

will

be found a

clairvoyant,

who,

" He in whom this inner sense, this eye alluding to the inner sense says, of the spirit, has opened, sees those things invisible to others which are
in union with him.

and so many

of-

From the inner sense religions have proceeded, the apocalypses of the olden and present times." The

156

APPENDIX.

attendant spirit of Socrates, or voice of warning, was but a seeming from the inner sense and inward utterance, or 'still small voice'
only look upon the remarkable form of his head in that round swelling protuberance of the higher and central portion of the forehead ; a clear phrenological indication in that extraordinary man. " The greatest geniuses have always more or less partaken of the Lord clairvoyant character, whether poet, painter, or philosopher.

Bacon was a

clairvoyant,

and he curiously

relates,

and thus delivered

himself on the distinction between the ordinary powers of sense and reason and of the higher or farther and fuller powers we are
considering:

"

'

For though the responses of a divine oracle and of the senses

are different, no doubt both in the matter and the mode by which it finds access to the mind ; yet the spirit of man which receives both is one and

the same, just as different liquors passing through different apertures are received into one and the same vessel, and that part which seems to fall
is itself a species of history with the prerogative of deity stamped upon it, of making all time one duration, BO that the narrative may anticipate the fact.'

without the division, prophecy,

I would only add the further remark, that those extraordinary powers we are now considering are really not essentially distinct from the ordinary actions of the brain and will be found, and I think I have

"

found them, to be included within the same law; a general law with but what has never been done before, these exceptional instances cannot be expected to be discovered and revealed by any of the older
:

means and methods.

But

all

we do
is

is

natural in

its

time and place, and

distrust or insensibility to

habitual experience is the matters brought to light do seem very strange and unlikely until But in fact, being such as they are, if we deny their investigated.
existence in place of endeavouring to give a rational account of them can only happen that ignorant people will believe them to be super-

out of a man's particular line and a law of our nature, and indeed we must confess

what

it

natural and cling to them with a blind pertinaciousness and mischievous religious fanaticism.

" I dare say that I often repeat myself in reply to your questions; but that cannot be helped, from the bearing of your enquiries to a particular end."

APPENDIX.

157

B.

(Page 90.)

The clairvoyance or other exalted or additional sense or power of more sensitive to impressions in divers directions must be guided and used as the other powers and ordinary senses are and in no other way that is, simply as instrumental to discovery and so the abnormal states made to become lights by which to detect the laws of the normal condition, as I have shown and exemplified in the Letters to Miss M. and just as we use the additional power derived
the
;

from the telescope which

look into, to see a
clearer into that

at first professors pertinaciously refused to

little farther,

which

is

before us

or of the microscope, to see a little otherwise it is merely another confolly,

dition of dreaming, with sense

and nonsense, truth and

clear-

seeing and illusions commingling fantastically together. The extra sense and power must be also tested as to its truth, speciality and limits, as

with

all

ful witnesses in court,

other powers, and cross-questioned as with any foreign or doubtby our common senses and previous knowledge

truths

and by the result as it shall be made to appear in fact, opposed by other and tested in every possible or known way; and just as the

ordinary senses are made each to correct each or to witness to each other, so we shall find as in all other matters, that the exceptional phenomena duly weighed and examined will, in the end, exhibit the rule
of ordinary action in the reason of the exception. But to wait upon the revelations of clairvoyants, and their grand and pretentious utterances often to brings you to nothing but a contradictory confusion of ideas

what

is

both extremely beautiful and most true

but to nothing that

is

super- excellent or actually new, for the somnambule left to itself is in a similar position to the metaphysicians in their subjective waking dreams,

each producing a scheme reflecting his imbibed notions and special nature and after thousands of years of such metaphysical scheming and spin-

ning out of cobwebs, as Bacon calls it, they have come to no agreement, but are going over the same ground in the same contentioiis and ineffectual way, showing great power and learning but depending upon the light

from within with a mistaken estimate of the mind's nature and powers, instead of referring to the real physical causes and facts of objective
nature bearing upon the special enquiry, as in every other correctly scientific method of proceeding, for instance, when a somnambule or

entranced person

is

so sensitive that the organs of the brain will respond

and just aa to the magnetic touch which I discovered to be the fact the keys of the piano answer to the pressure of the finger, so also another
instrument near at hand and in perfect accord will often respond again

158

APPENDIX.

to the particular note, as the sensitive patient responds or becomes influenced as by a contagion, with the thoughts and feelings or even latent conditions of another en rapport with them ; and so on, I could

recount to you a whole volume of such beautiful and deeply interesting facts in illustration of these profound truths the most choice and
precious lights of philosophy to all future ages when men have awakened, and ceased to be entranced by their prejudices and pre-conceptions, anticipating in place of interpreting nature deeming clairvoyance and

most astonishing

the like extraordinary powers to be impossible, and yet to know which fact as to the limits of the possible in nature they must

themselves be possessed of clairvoyance. However what is said by Dr. " Matter and Buchner, in his Force," to be impossible, you and I know to be true, and not very difficxtlt to comprehend either. As to the
belief in spirits, the entire history of science

and of mankind exhibits a

However the progress of knowledge advancing over spiritual belief. modern spiritualist does not mean by spiritual anything supernatural, but that the spirits after passing through the shadow of death are as

much

different

a part of nature as before, and the released spirit not essentially from when enclosed and imprisoned in the body, like a bird in

a cage, fretting against the wires, longing to be set free. But the besetting notion of the all glorious nature of spiritual substance and power as contradistinguished from GKOSS materiality, when not mere

when they suppose man and propensities and the like, I had almost said, insult nature by ignorant and impious sentimentalities to please man's conceit and fancies tending to his own Whereas the real noble thought, and the noblest perhaps, glorification. is in a sense of our own insignificance in the immensity of nature and of powers unknown and beyond our ken. In such intellectual humility the man is most exalted, rising in the calm satisfaction of having conclap-trap is very foolish nonsense, just as degraded by his so-called animal faculties

quered his own irrational pride, which may well be designated the vanity of vanities, and whatever we do, let us not be ridiculous but show our
superiority in the attainment of knowledge and by rendering a true gift of reason loving truth in the faith that it ever must conduce to man's highest and noblest inspirations under all life's

account of the

trials,

and the

battle

we should make from

is

first to last to

conquer

self.

before you (May 12th), I would call your attention to the clairvoyance of the celebrated Bottineau, which Mr. Trood endeavours to account for; but if the facts he relates were even

Whilst this week's Reader

and true, they would not in the least account for the sight of a ship 400 miles away. To accept snch-like explanations would be indeed to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Now, Mr. Bottineau declared
possible

that strength of eyesight had nothing to do with his observations, and

APPENDIX.

159

he might have added that indeed his eyes had nothing at all to do in the matter; that he perceived by an inner sense that he conld not account
for.

But

think I have accounted for

it,

and traced the power

to its

source and seat.

The

case

is

so clear and well authenticated that I

it
;

think you would do well to refer to

say whether an
'

and

in presence of such notorious

is impossible to does not really exist in the mind, seldom developed indeed, but which may have a power of presentment. All the external senses have their correspondent in the mind; the eye can see an

historical evidence, Coleridge wisely

remarks that "It

inner sense

'

it is distinctly apprehended. Why may there not be a corresponding power in the soul ? The power of prophecy might have been (" Table Talk," merely a spiritual excitation of this dormant faculty." I do not hold with Coleridge that the exhibition of clairvol. 1, pp. 36-7).

object before

voyance but that

is
it

may

from any so-called spiritual excitation of a dormant faculty, be accounted for, as experiment seems to show, from an

extraordinary action of the ordinary faculties under special conditions, by which the 'eye of the mind,' or 'inner sense,' receives impressions independent of the sense channels, and arrives at conclusions without the
intervention, or at least without a recognition, of the intellectual process

leading to such conclusions, and which is more or less the case with the "most of our determinations under ordinary circumstances ; and when

remarkably displayed, is what we call inspiration, or intuition, or genius ; and thus the astonishing facts that men are apt to discredit are but extraordinary after all, and are all to be reduced to a general and uniform law. It is clear that many of the lower animals bird, beast, and insect

have such impressions from a distance, and are so guided, as we say, by Then is it hard instinct instances will immediately occur to every one.
;

to suppose that

more highly- developed man should under all circumstances be wholly free from such so-called instinct, but which in fact is The ordinary sense channels, but another or inner sense set free?
indeed,

seem rather

to be

selection of special actions,

tion to particular facts instance, in the case of the bat with its eyes removed, and yet able to avoid objects even in the dark with equal precision. In fact, we are still

impediments to avoid confusion and for the and as a means by which to direct the attenor qualities, and may be dispensed with as, for

confounded by the
sense.

false notion that the perception is in the

organs of the

Once quite

clear of this error,

and the

difficulty of

understanding

the existence of finer sensibilities and higher powers ceases ; and we may I cannot too well feel ashamed of the foolishness of our objections.
often repeat this: that the course of our enquiries is simply to show that what seems so wonderful and at first to be impossible is really not essc-ntially different

from the ordinary action of the mind

in its purely

normal

state.

160

APPENDIX.

C.

(Page 126.)

Here we have an undoubted case of clairvoyance, happening to a High Church party. A man still living in our midst and able to answer for the truth of the statement, and which is not denied. And how does the matter stand ? There is certainly no actual bodily presence such as the ordinary senses could take cognizance of, but an impression by the passing off of a certain vital nervous force from the dying man, affecting the inner sense of one
learned divine and leader of the great
in sufficient rapport with his special condition, and from which inner sense and abstract self is projected on the sense plain as it were the image of the person in question, and even to an echo of the sense within

sound and utterance as of a voice, and conveying an intelligent meaning, the intelligence of the death and of the lie but the truth conveyed mingling with the particular convictions of the recipient in
in the
:

fact

In this we may read an analysis of the Psychical and the anatomy of ghosts, there is a clear impression on the inner sense from a force without upon one in sympathetic relations or
his belief of Hell.

rapport with the distant dying person, and an embodiment from such impression, but with a colouring and fashioning by the special conviction of the recipient a fiction founded on fact with the vision and all just as in a dream, like the fancy when it plays tricks with fact in our waking moments, and really there is very little difference, all happening
; ;

under one and the same law.

No doubt Dr. Pusey believes that he has seen a spirit bringing him immediate intelligence of Hell, and the spiritualists would claim him as a medium only they do not believe in a Hell, but only in a gradual progression, and that sin is simply imperfection, under universal law
at least such is the "inspired" doctrine of that marvellously eloquent lady Miss Hardinge, whose impressions and promptings (when in a " are semi-trance,") from the inner sense she takes to be a spirit
really replete with
it

how she may; from her own

I believe
is
;

profound learning and most admirable sense, come by very excellent nature under certain

abnormal conditions
conviction that she

and that she

is perfectly serious in

her

inspired

deem

all

those

who

differ

by a spirit. Men who are so ready to from them to be insincere impostors would

do well to remember that in such judgment they do bxit reflect their ignorance, stupidity, and own unenviable qualities and bad natures. I
say then, "judge not,
It often

ye be judged." as I walk along the streets that I imagine I see a friend approaching, but on nearer inspection I see it is some one
lest

happens to

me

APPENDIX.
else not

161

having the least resemblance to the

Mend

supposed

diately after, perhaps within a minute, I do really

but immemeet the friend I had

;

just supposed I

had seen as

it

and

I never

have made the mistake except when

were covering the figure of the stranger it has been followed by

;

the presence of the friend supposed. The explanation is that you have a real impression from the approaching friend whilst not yet in sight an

impression taken up by the inner sense and which impression is projected and embodied upon the first form that approaches, somewhat as forms
in the dusk will shape themselves in accordance with imaginary fears, in fact we exhibit for the time a similar power to the somnambule and

clairvoyant who has such a sensitive impression of the physical condition of the mesineriser even when he is at a distance as to produce a
reflexion of his thoughts

and even latent memories.

reported to

have just seen a Ghost! I was thinking of friends just dead as me by Miss M., buried amidst the spring's primroses, and

turning

my face to the window I saw on the opposite side a woman carrying a basket on her head, full of flowers, (common enough now in so beautiful, with a mass of yellow primroses in the London,) oh I midst, I thought I had never seen any look so bright and beautiful.
!

my head away but was no woman or flowers

turned

for

an

instant, I looked again,

it

and

lo there

was just a vision as in a dream, occurring maybe from having a cold and liver out of order and some head-ache, but there was the vision sure enough or seeming appearance, even brighter than reality, and in the midst of sunshine. I think I
at all

you that I have marvellous visions of objects in my sleep, with every minute particle and variety of object as clear as possible, and palpable as real objects seen in daylight, and I have recalled the clear impression in every minute particular and delicate difference of shade and colour,
told

and painted it in the morning. Now does not all this open a window for us and give us some light into the inner sense and Psychology of the mind and as depending on physical conditions similar to the effect under electro-biology ? Indeed our ordinary perceptions are not essentially different,

being entirely visionary though corresponding with the object producing the impression, and this again causing the vision or perception much as a picture represents its subject, and so of the vital photography and reflected imagery of the mind we call seeing.

162

APPENDIX.

Shakspeare was right about the causes, the indwelling upon thought and " heat-oppressed brain," and the action and reflex is from the mirror of the sense power just as when the sense channels are closed by sleep, and yet the interior faculties awake in the dream, with the sense power reversed as it were and producing all that inner and other world a mere pictorial exhibition with occaby remembering and reflection such as we produce sional intuitive presentments and clairvoyance under mesmerism and by which we do but produce artificially what occurs under certain conditions in special subjects in the normal state I mean we create no new faculty or power, but only produce conditions under which the ordinary power may act in an extraordinary way; indeed in mesmerism we have the power of experimenting on man and mind as the chemist and electrician deals with inanimate matter. Any one who does not see the deep importance of such a power must be
;

either very ignorant or very stupid.

In regard to the slight and somewhat doubtful instances I Lave given to you by way of explaining the general nature of visual illusions, I must again repeat that in gathering facts by which to arrive at the
true laws of vision

we cannot be

too curious in recording exceptional

and seeming
bounds.

trivial instances,

or what

may
it

be called deviating instances,

tinder unusual conditions

when

as

were you catch nature out of

theless the

Foolish critics have pointed ridicule at me for saying this, nevermethod applies to all science, and the history of every science

will exhibit the truth

and value of the

principle, but

which applies with

infinitely greater force in regard to the

study of the more complex and varied phenomena of mind, whose mysterious and hidden truths have escaped detection by all the means and methods and modes of demonstration hitherto practised.

The

fact

is,

man

himself has been regarded as an

exceptional instance in nature, degraded in one sense as a creature incapable of attaining any excellence of itself, and on the other haud
exalted into a free
essentially different

from other living creatures, so that the

agent and almost supernatural being, apart and real man has

remained unrevealed in bis true nature to this hour.

consider

But we must now

as a natural body, producing individual effects according to particular laws in harmony with general and universal principles, and
whilst omitting none of the facts concerned

man

we must be

careful to avoid

APPENDIX.

163

hasty generalising, a glaring instance of the folly of which may be noticed in Berkeley's celebrated theory of vision founded upon the appearance

moon he had made a gness at what looked like the truth and never followed up the inquiry into all the circumstances of the case,
of the rising never, in fact, cross- questioned his witnesses; but indeed his entire theory and argument is fallacious throughout. And again, he inconsistently denies the existence of the material external world whilst

dogmatically insisting on a universal immaterialism and world of spirits not seeing that the sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If I

were dying I think my last words of admonition to the student in Psylook out for the exceptional instance, and for similar chology should be
facts occurring in other creatures

and under

different conditions

but

there

nothing new in this, which was urged with so much force and sagacity by Bacon but proud man has scorned the application to his own nature, and yet it is a principle that none with a genius for scientific
is
;

moment dispute, and is in fact no more than a very general rule which may be exemplified as I have said in- all and each of the sciences from the extraordinary instances in regard to the motions of the planets to the trifling action of the Frog's leg, that in a natural
enquiry would for a
the most wonderful achievesequence resulted in the Electric Telegraph of modern science. So let no one despair of magnificent and useful results from the study of Psychology after a true method and

ment

But Psychology must be based on Physimilar line of investigation. a science of phenosiology, must be regarded as a physical science

mena

traced to their material and real causes, or

it will

end as

it

has

ever done, in mere disputation, and in fact would be no science at all. For if a tree be cut away from its roots, no wonder if it shall perish,

me

and there be no further growth. Metaphysical schemes always remind of the bunches of wild flowers that children gather in the fields, each declaring that his own bunch is the best but alas they are all of little value, and wither in the poor children's hot hands ere they reach home. And so it is with those children of thought, the metaphysicians, who take up the flowers of the mind irrespective of the causes that produce them, the source from which they emanate, the roots from which
;
!

they develop, the soil in which they grow, the atmosphere by which they are surrounded and light that is shed upon them, and much besides
that

and with a proud exalting of the unassisted power unmindful of the faulty nature beyond the fact and inequality of the mirror and imperfections of the instrument
is

disregarded,

of the

human mind,
into
its

far

searching

own

nature.

And

as a child in regard to its

parents, the metaphysician is necessarily unconscious of the causes of the phenomena he reflects upon, and hence insensibly passes over the true reason of the differences and speciality of men's nature and of

164

APPENDIX.

the opinions they incline to on account of such differences. The whole aim of science is a search into causes to ascertain on what effects depend

and the laws by which they are governed, and the

entire relations

and

correlations hi the analogy of knowledge, in those general laws which link the phenomena together in the eternal and universal chain of
existence,

as like causes
like,

and the uniform rule, since all truth is necessary truth so far must always produce like effects, or they would not be
else.

but something

Metaphysicians are aptly compared in that valuable periodical the Reader to the Kilkenny cats, that fought and ended in eating each other
up, leaving only their
tails behind for metaphysicians are pretty much engaged, each in destroying the argument of his opponent, and the very universe and Great Cause inherent therein is lost in the argument between
;

them and reduced to the merest shadow, without the slightest shame or remorse on their part so that the reviewer pointedly and justly remarks that " the ground has been cleared, and he who can prove the existence of God will inherit it." Now Mr. Mill, after feasting upon Hamilton,
;

has in turn been gobbled up himself, leaving only a metaphysical tail " Permanent behind, in the form of a remarkable expression, namely, " but what is in a name with only folly and illogical reasons Possibilities
:

behind

and at the end of it ? For a very clear refutation and lucid exposure of which folly see an admirable little work published by Newby, called " Odd Bricks," by a very acute reasoner and learned friend of mine, who goes into such questions con amore having a special gift for logical reasoning and no theory of his own to defend, which is a blinding influence with most men, Mr. Mill certainly not excluded, whose ignorance of Race, and inability to discern the value of physiology as the necessary and essential baais of mental science, is most lamentable, and from his reputation and authority now most obstructive and
it,

-mischievous.

W.

F.

TAUNTON, PEINTEK, COVENTRY.

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