62 MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



given result served as the stimulus which involuntarily 

 prompted the muscles to produce it. An article in the 

 Quarterly Review for October, 1853, enabled him to answer 

 the question, &quot; What are we to believe ? &quot; as to mesmerism, 

 electro-biology, odylism, table-turning , spirit-rapping, and 

 table-talking, on physiological principles, and led him to 

 offer an earnest plea for the proper discipline of the auto 

 matic apparatus of man s nature by his will. 



The study of human nature (he urged), physical, in 

 tellectual, moral, and spiritual, is far too much neglected in our 

 educational arrangements. That the preservation of corporeal 

 health is in great degree dependent upon the observance of 

 the rules dictated by physiological science, and that a general 

 knowledge of the structure and functions of man s body is really 

 worth his possession for its own sake, is gradually coming to be 

 generally acknowledged. We would urge, however, that an 

 acquaintance with his mind is not one whit the less desirable 

 for the right development of its powers and for the preservation 

 of its health. \Ve have seen in the various phenomena we have 

 been discussing how largely the will is concerned in all those 

 higher exercises of the reasoning powers, even upon the most 

 commonplace subjects, by which our conduct ought to be 

 governed ; and how important it is that the automatic ten 

 dencies, of whatever nature, should be entirely subjugated by it. 

 We are satisfied, from extensive observation, that in a large pro 

 portion of cases of insanity, the disorder is mainly attributable 

 to the want of acquirement, in early life, of proper volitional 

 control over the current of thought ; so that the mind cannot 

 free itself from the tyranny of any propensity or idea which 

 once acquires an undue predominance. The deficiency of 

 power to repel the fascinations of some attractive delusion that 

 appeals to the vanity, to the love of the marvellous, or to some 

 other respective predisposition, by employing the reason to strip 

 off its specious disguise and expose its latent absurdities, really 

 proceeds from a want of the same kind, the supply of which 

 ought to be one of the prominent objects of educational culture 

 in every grade. 



