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current opinion of the clay. But what is unfashionable is not al- 

 ways false. It is thought by some to be in all cases a sufficient 

 proof that nothing beyond natural disease has happened, because, 

 when by medical aid bodily health has been restored, the mind is 

 again perfectly free and tranquil. He esteemed this argument by 

 no means satisfactory. There are persons who will converse with 

 you coolly and rationally on any subject whatever, who yet 

 have occasionally propositions darted into their mind (as they be- 

 lieve and express themselves) as distinct from their own train of 

 thoughts, as if they were pronounced by another person. To al- 

 lege that the body occasions these things, is surely to assign an 

 effect without a cause; or, which is the same thing, without an 

 adequate cause; for it is not, I hope, the body that creates thoughts 

 and forms propositions. To say again that the mind itself is the 

 sole agent in the business, is to argue against the consciousness 

 and conviction of that mind; for the person thus molested shall at 

 the sarne instant be talking with you cheerfully on a subject totallj r 

 different; shall be reading, or praying. If these momentary inter- 

 ruptions are seldom experienced but when the body is more or 

 less indisposed, and cease when it has regained the full tone and 

 vigour of health, this only shews that a disordered body was the 

 predisposing occasion or organ, but does not prove it to have been 

 the immediate or efficient cause. It will not be denied that there 

 are malignant beings, who watch every opportunity, and eagerly 

 seize every permitted mode, of assaulting us; and where then 

 is the absurdity of supposing they may be able to harass us, 

 when one part of the machine is disordered, in a different manner 

 or degree, from what is in common cases possible, when the whole 



