AND BODILY STATES UPON THE IMAGINATION. 233 



from what has been said in this series of lectures, that the balance 

 of mental power rests entirely between these two. It has produced 

 more diseases than the whole of the physical agents of the universe. 

 It is, in many instances, the most powerful auxiliary to their cure. 

 A knowledge of its effects upon the constitution of man led the in- 

 genious Mesmer to invent that system of imaginary medicine which 

 bears the name of animal magnetism. It gave rise to the metallic 

 tractors — it produced all the benefits attributed to the inhalation of 

 the various gases in case of bodily disease — it is the grand sheet- 

 anchor of empiricism. Numbers of cases might be adduced where 

 affections of the most decided and confirmed nature have been re- 

 moved by acting upon the Imagination of the sufferers alone ; not 

 only in circumstances of imaginary diseases of a nervous kind — such 

 as hypochondria and others — but where even change of structure, 

 from the healthy to the diseased character has taken place. It is 

 difficult, as in the cases of spectral hallucinations and disordered 

 perception, generally to explain these facts ; but they combine to 

 lend an additional certainly to that view which considers them as 

 changing the circulation, or at least the mode of action, of the 

 nervous fluid. 



I have now finished the remarks I had to offer on a subject cer- 

 tainly of great interest, and also of much importance. I regret I 

 have not been able to do it more justice. A great part of it has 

 been strictly of a scientific character, admitting, however, of consi- 

 derable elucidation and illustration from various branches of litera- 

 ture. Literature is the handmaid of science. The latter is an 

 unostentatious personage, plain in her attire and homely in her 

 language ; the former decks her in beauty, and gives her an elo- 

 quence at once powerful and enchanting. Philosophy is the gene- 

 ral benefactor of mankind. She does not minister to the selfishness, 

 to the pride, to the exaltation of individuals alone, but, by the pro- 

 duction of useful arts, by the removal of real inconveniences and 

 dangers — she improves the condition of all by giving sightliness to 

 what was deformed, and utility to what was hurtful — she is not a 

 being of one country, her speech is not confined to one language, 

 nor her dress to materials drawn from one quarter of the globe. 

 All nations bow before her, the people of all climes worship 

 at her feet. She is like a building which the inhabitants of the 

 world determined to erect, whose united efforts were to produce a 

 structure perfect in strength and beauty. The various sciences and 

 arts were engaged in the composition of the shell and the decora- 

 tions of the walls. The mathematician gave it form and regulated 



VOL. V. — NO. XVIII. 2 G 



