ence, not because it wants authentication, but on the ground of its apparent inconsistency with law. This is a violation of the inductive system of philosophy, because the existence of the phenomenon must be judged of, not by its probability, but by the evidence which we obtain regarding it. If that evidence be satisfactory, and no counter-evidence presents itself to throw suspicion upon it, we must give it that measure of belief to which the evidence entitles it, and carefully inquire after more phenomena of a similar description. The unexpected phenomenon does not destroy our former opinions, it only adds to them, and every additional phenomenon, in the same direction, increases our knowledge, as well as defines the position and the character of the new fact.

It is in this way that some of our greatest discoveries have been made. When the perturbations of the planet Uranus were first observed, they were not denied on the pretended ground that they were contrary to known laws, although they appeared to be so. Adams and Leverrier knew this, and therefore they collected these apparent contradictions, in order to ascertain exactly their character; and, by doing so, discovered that they had a regularity of their own, and were caused by the gravitation of another planet, Neptune, whose existence was previously

unknown.

not so.

The phenomena that are called mesmeric may at first sight appear to be contrary to law, but in reality they are If it be true that the spirit and the brain are naturally fitted to one another, so that they give and receive impressions or impulses to and from one another; and if, moreover, alien spirits are capable of exercising their relative functions upon the nervous system of men, why should we conceive it impossible or contrary to law

that the spirits of living persons should be able to influence the nervous system of others? If it be true, also, that the soul is a substantive principle of life, by whose agency the healthful action of all the internal organs is maintained, why should it be considered impossible that the soul of one person should be able to stimulate the sympathetic nerves of another? These two classes of influence constitute a large portion of the peculiarities of mesmerism, and may be classified in the following manner :—

1. When the spirit of one person receives impressions from the sensitive nerves of another: as, when the mesmeriser puts salt into his mouth, unobserved by the person mesmerised, the latter feels the taste of the salt, and endeavours to spit it out; or, when the mesmeriser pricks himself with a pin, the mesmerised person feels the pain, and shrinks from the supposed infliction.

2. When the spirit of one person acts upon the motive nerves of another. This is illustrated when the mesmeriser is able to produce involuntary motions in the body of the person mesmerised, either by the force of his will, or by corresponding movements of his own body, unobserved by the mesmerised.

3. When the soul of one person is made to affect the sympathetic nerves of another. This is exemplified by the cures that are effected by means of passes, or contact by means of the hand.

There is another interesting question opened up by the mesmerist whether the spirit is capable of receiving impressions from, and conveying impressions to external nature, without the intermediate agency of a nervous system? We must confess that we cannot, a priori, assert that this cannot be. The nervous tissue is matter; and if the spirit is able to impress and be impressed by the

nervous tissue, the correlation between spirit and matter is already established. It may be that nervous tissue is, more than any other substance, capable of acting on, and being impressed by spirit, in the same manner as iron is more susceptible of magnetism than any other substance: still, the correlative impressibility of spirit and matter being ascertained, all questions connected with it must be settled by means of observation and experiment, and not by our notions regarding its possibility.

There is but one other feature presented by mesmerism which we must notice, as somewhat important in its moral bearings; and that is the increased sensitiveness to spirit influence which mesmerised persons may gradually acquire: it conducts, therefore, in a direction which may lead to demoniacal intercourse. Already have we had indications of such a consummation having taken place in the persons of those unhappy individuals who give themselves out as mediums, in what is called "spirit-rapping." It seems exceedingly probable that, besides some constitutions being more predisposed than others to mesmeric sensibility, there are means, and certain kinds of training, to which the nervous system may be subjected, by which such a power may be acquired, and such connexions may be formed; but it would certainly not be for the benefit of mankind that such methods should be made public. The ground that ought to be taken by the philosopher and the Christian should be, not a determination to deny the facts, but an indignant condemnation of the whole system. They can afford to believe, upon sufficient evidence, anything that is affirmed to have taken place. Those persons who are called mediums, through whose instrumentality the familiar spirits are enabled to communicate with their devotees, are, on their own shewing, necromancers, sooth

sayers, wizards, or witches, as the case may be; and although their revelations may be opposed to Christianity, science, or common sense, there is nothing wonderful or startling in all this, even though they should personate spirits now in heaven. It was much more wonderful that the "spirit of divination" should have directed the Philippians to Christianity as the true way of salvation, than that the demons of the present day should give more unequivocal evidence of their affinity to the father of lies.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE SPIRIT AFTER DEATH-HADES AND GEHENNAH.

In the previous chapters we have endeavoured to trace the natural history of the human species, or rather, we may say, the natural history of the sons of God; for there seems to be every reason to believe that man is only one of a large class of intelligent and moral beings scattered over the universe, whose constitution is everywhere the same, although their history may be widely different. We have ascertained that their constitution consists of a body, a soul, and a spirit; that the first state of each individual is the natural or psychical state, corresponding to the condition in which Adam was created, and continued to exist, up to the time of his Fall. We have found that this natural state provided for the propagation of the species, at least during the earlier period of existence, and also for its ultimate transition or development into the spiritual state, without the necessity of dying. This spiritual state we have found profusely illustrated, by the accounts given in Scripture of the spiritual bodies of what are called the angels of God, or the angels of heaven, as well as the resurrection body of our Saviour; and we have the glad assurance given to us in the Word of Promise, that the spiritual bodies of the resurrection saints shall be like that of their Saviour; so that, in the resurrection, they also shall be as the angels of God.