and in different circumftances; and I find myfelf fatisfied as to.
the exiftence o f fome natural caufe or principle which has hitherto
remained unknow n : i t is wrapt up in obfcurity, and is as yet
inexplicable to the underftanding. I am very far from attempting,
after the Baron’s example, to account for i t ; though I think
that a folution o f this problem may be referved for a period of
higher improvement in the knowledge o f nature, the ftudy o f
which has been fo fuccefsfully purfued, and fo rapidly advanced,
in the courfe o f the prefent century. I faw my fellow traveller,
as incredulous as myfelf, fall into a profound ileep by the mere
motion o f the magnetifer’s fingers ; I heard him fpeak in his
fleep, and reply to whatever queftions I propofed to him ; 1 faw
him again awake by the fimple motion o f the magnetifer’s fingers,
while I was unable to roufe him from his fomnolency, though I
brought fire clofe to his hand, an experiment to which he was as
infenfible as a dead body. He awoke, after fleeping from five to
fix hours, remembering nothing o f what he had faid, denying
obftinately that he had been afleep, and yielding with difficulty
at laft to the authority o f his watch, and the teftimony o f all
thofe who had witneffed the circumftance. I might mention a
number o f fails relative to this fubjed, by which I ffiould be able
to prove, that in thefe trials there could be neither connivance
nor impofture, nor previous arrangement; but this dodrine ftill
lies too much under fufpicion for me to dwell any longer upon it.-
I ihall only add, that two Englifh travellers, better informed, and,
i f poffible, greater infidels than myfelf refpeding. mefmerifm,
happening
happening to pafs by Uleaborg at the fame time, flopped a day,
that they might obferve fome o f the magnetical performances.
From previous concert one o f them was to affume the appearance
o f being aft'eded ; but at the moment when the magnetifer ihould
feem confident that his art had taken effed, he who was to feign
himfelf afleep, at a fign given him by the other, was to awake
in furprize, and thus difappoint the credulity o f the operator and
his audience. T h e experiments accordingly began : one o f them
was unfufceptible o f the magnetic impreffion, the other was actually
affeded, and his companion might make what figns he
pleafed; he was deaf, incapable o f underftanding any thing, and
in fuch a languid and lethargic flate, that every a d o f volition
was entirely fufpended. T he two gentlemen will probably give
fome account o f their travels, and poffibly confirm the truth o f
my relation o f thefe almoft incredible experiments.
It is to he regretted, that the mefmerians in general have their
minds fo heated by the extraordinary, I had almoft faid fuperna-
tural, afped o f thofe phenomena, that they fuffer themfelves to.
be fo hurried away by the imagination, as to mount to the ikies-
in order to find the phyfical. caufe o f thofe effeds among the
clouds, inftead o f confulting and inveftigating nature in the practice
o f frequent experiments, and with that fobriety o f mind
which ought to be the faithful guide o f philofophy in all her enquiries
into the caufes o f things. T he imagination, fafcmated
and enflaved by the charm o f fometbing preternatural, tries*
while bewildered with confufed conceptions, to divine the meaning,
the