664; MESMERISM. 



man. Cornelius Agrippa ab Nettesheym asserts that a man 

 naturally, and without any miracle, unassisted by the Holy Spirit 

 or any other, may convey his thoughts in the twinkling of an 

 eye to another at any distance : ".et ego id facere novi, et saepius 

 feci. Novit idem etiam fecitque quondam Abbas Trithenius." x 

 A professor of philosophy at Padua, Petrus Pomponatius, born 

 in 1462, had contended, before Van Helmont, for the power of 

 the imagination or will of one person to send forth an influence 

 upon another ; and enumerated the conditions of the exercise of 

 this power in nearly the terms of modern magnetisers. He too 

 surpassed all, for he point blank declares that inanimate matter 

 may obey this influence. " Cum hominis animae voluntas et 

 maxime imaginativa fuerint vehementes, venti et reliqua mate- 

 rialia sunt nata obedire eis."y Still Mesmer was the great 

 restorer and modern establisher of magnetism in spite of great 

 obstacles, so that the facts have been termed mesmerism ; and, as 

 the denomination animal magnetism is incorrect, and may lead to 

 misconception, I shall in future adopt the word mesmerism. 

 Even an arbitrary word in science is better than one devised 

 from imperfect knowledge. 



Those who ascribe all to imagination, consider the agitations and 

 prophecies of the Delphian priestess of Apollo and the Sybils, and 

 all ancient prophesies, the ecstacies of Dervishes and Santons, and 

 of Shakers and Quakers, Irvingites, and of all ridiculous enthu- 

 siasts in what they strangely call religion, but which is all super- 

 stition and revolting irreverence to the infinite God of the uni- 

 verse, and the pretended miraculous cures of all ages, from the 

 days of Serapis of Egypt to those of the blessed Paris of Paris z , 

 and of our own day, and of all countries, as only of a piece with 

 mesmerism, showing how strongly fear or enthusiasm will work 

 upon the brain and all the other organs. Others discover that mag- 

 netic influence has always been acknowledged, and even adduce 

 a passage attributed to Solon, and preserved by Stobaeus, to 



x De Occulta Philosophia, 1. iii. 

 y De Incantationibus. Basil, 1577. p. 237. 



z Such ecstacies, &c. and miracles were worked at his tomb, that the govern- 

 ment closed it, and forbad any more ! 



" De par le Roi, defense a Dieu 

 De faire miracle en ce lieu." 



