MESMERISM.

EUREKA! Eureka! sure under the sun
There never till now were such prodigies done !
By the Mesmerist's fiat the blackness of night
Is rendered diaphanous-brilliant as light!
Walls of stock, stone, or brick-

No matter how thick

To the clairvoyant Seer

As crystals are clear;

While, without intervenient optical gear,

He kens the remote quite as well as the near;
What a vast field of vision is open'd to view!
Mind no longer will march, but with impetus new,
Will dash on at a rate, which were Babbage to strain
His machine to find out, 'twould be labour in vain;
From the flight of the sunbeam in vain should we seek
For light or for data-the matter's unique ;

What an age do we live in! in matters of mind

We're leaving the ancients some cent'ries behind;
But nil nisi bonum of men that are dead-

We all shall be ancients some cent'ries ahead.

All matter is seen through, and so is all-mind,-
The Essence of Spirit philosophers find
In cerebral bumps,

And frontal lumps;

Men's ossified humps

Are thinking clumps!

Our five common senses the spirit encumber,
The moderns forge tools which lop off all the lumber;
Then the mind's eye can view,

By lens transcendental,

And see through and through

The simple and gentle,

All forces and entities now in creation,
Nay-scan the profounds of efficient causation.

The modern Philosopher raises his hand,
He does n't incant, or make use of a wand,
But, wielding more pow'r than did Archimage ever,
By a coup de main Pass soul from body does sever *

*Sometimes by a coup d'œil pass-a species of fascinating regard; sometimes by simple "volition;" and it is thought that the effect can also be secured by the party fixing his own gaze upon some

Or else he subjects to the former the latter,

So that no more the thrall, mind's the master of matter, (An issue instructive to those who essay

To mend the world's morals, but this by the way,)
And free from its clog,

It feels all agog

To be off, and disseminate light for the million,
Make the Universe bright as Aladdin's pavilion,
Annihilate Error, exterminate Doubt,

Put charlatans-knaves of all sorts-to the rout.
What the Traveller is it were hard to declare,
Though not a ghost proper, 'tis certes as rare,

point above or below the plane of easy vision." This however is mysterious-if the active principle, thus excited, is disposed to go astray, who is to call it home again? Would there not be some danger of its going on-like the artificial leg that wanted a catchtill it lost itself, leaving its own relics in a state of indescribable destitution? The trait however, if carefully pursued, may possibly lead to the detection of the volatile intelligence that now wanders about unseen.

It behooves the Professor himself to be very wary, lest some day -raising a spirit that refused to be laid-he share the fate of Frankenstein, or of Acteon; the writer has seen a young girl, under the demesmerising hand, go off into what would have been termed a fit of hysterics, by those who knew no better; and, says a recent writer, "all in the trance, if any attempt be made to puzzle them, are wroth, and will not reply to impertinent questions-they will have their own way."

Mesmer certainly made use of a wand, though such utensils are now regarded as useless; in the demesmerising process, puffing is frequently brought into operation.

For it glides to and fro in complete incognition

(It at least can defy,

When it chooses, the eye

Volition its motive, its light Intuition.

With ease, by mere digital contact*, one-half
Of the soul is excited to fondle and laugh;
While the other, thrown into synchronical dumps,
Discloses its feelings by threat'nings and thumps!
You may finger what organs you like-in the mind
Any vis-à-vis powers may with ease be combin'd;
Things not at all fitted for pulling together,
By Art are attached to a singular tether;
Pro and Con in a compact are subtilely bound,
In a tête-à-tête Virtue and Vice may be found ;—
Such facts may elucidate ethical gloom,

May serve to illustrate the Travels of Br―m,
The Prestiges de Joinville, and Bull's Civil Wars,
The Castles of Owen, and Family Jars.

It may be that Science yet lower will go,
And light on the brutal economy throw †,—

* The organs are sometimes excited by the effluent finger of the Flamen," without contact."

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If any one should feel disposed to regard this speculation as a mere Utopianism, let him remember that very recently, as the Edinburgh Reviewer tells us, we have seen the aspect of all chemical, and a great part of physical science changed, in consequence of the convulsions excited in the limbs of a DEAD frog."

That birds, beasts, and fishes-the nether creation

Subjected to mesmeric manipulation,

May show mind and matter in rare catenation;
Cataleptical dogs,

Quasi clairvoyant hogs,

The fowl of the skies,
Geese, popinjays, pies,
Bees, ants, Spanish flies,
E'en the watery fries,

May bristle our hair

With their tales full of wonder,

And make people stare,

As they do at loud thunder!

Who knows, but that Instinct if taken in hand,
And well educated,

May put on new attributes, take a new stand,
And with Reason be rated!

Burns affectionately apostrophized a mouse as his "fellow-mortal;" Byron declared that the only friend he ever knew was his dog; and Goldsmith celebrated the moral qualities of brutes generally, in the following language,—

"Who ever knew an honest brute

At law his neighbour prosecute?
Bring action for assault and battery?
Or friend beguile with lies and flattery?
Brutes never meet in bloody fray,
Nor cut each other's throats for pay;
They undertake no dirty job,

Nor draw the quill to write for Bob!"