392 HEALTH. 



Low they would rattle and dance — what a long period of confusion 

 and elimination they must pass, before any second order as neat as 

 the first could be established ! It is the dread of death, that shab- 

 biest of fears, that everlastingly hates truth, because truth leads to 

 death, future states, or integral enlargements, of which there is no 

 end. Such is the motive of this very poor kind of conservatism, 

 though there are as many pretexts as there are ingenious lazy minds 

 who fancy that they have an interest in a well-arranged stagnation 

 of the arts. 



As we have said already, mesmerism stands upon its facts, which, 

 in proportion to time, are as numerous and rigorous as those of any 

 other science. But the facts appear so strange, and so little in the 

 order of our knowledge, that they want at least the support which 

 association of principles gives. Those who cure and are cured ob- 

 tain a grasp of the facts from mere gratitude and service ; but the 

 public require also something like a rationale in order to steady 

 their minds. Hence, though the facts are the main thing for those 

 intimately concerned, yet a view of the facts is quite necessary for 

 the fixation of mesmerism in the scientific sky. 



Nor on the principles of this Book do we find much difficulty in 

 tracing the mesmeric mechanism and its results. If herbs, waters, 

 airs, fire and motion, which are such remote kindred to us (p. 310), 

 will cure our ills, surely man himself, who is comparatively own 

 brother to every man, will go home to disease with a directer rela- 

 tionship of beneficence. If ever it has been good to be under a 

 course of mercury, shall it not be better still to be under a course 

 of humanity ? We have seen throughout, on disintegrating man, 

 that he is full of human fluids which no more cease with his surface, 

 than his voice ceases with his lips : that his influence is a combined 

 physical and moral fact whose lengths and durations can hardly be 

 measured. We also find that he subsists in an equilibrium of which 

 his own will is the centre, and that his sphere of radiance, and 

 swoop of powers, depend on the pulsations of his will. According 

 as this heart (pp. 251 — 287) is little, or large, his world is a nut- 

 shell, or an empire. In mesmerism the equilibrium is voluntarily 

 ceded, a human vacuum or obeisance is created, and the radiance 

 of the mesmerizer or active power rushes in to fill the space. A 



