d
pronounce persons whom we have ever respected all at once to be cheats
and liars. Yet there may be some among them who will tell you that
they themselves were entirely sceptical until they tried mesmerism,
and found they had the power in themselves. We must then, in fairness,
either acknowledge mesmerism as a power, or believe that these persons
whom we respect and esteem are practised upon and deluded by others.
And such would, I confess, be the solution of the difficulty, were it
not that there are cases where this is next to an impossibility.

But I do not mean now, Eusebius, to discuss mesmerism,[35] further
than as it does seem "a part and parcel" of that mysterious power
which has been manifested in omens, dreams, and appearances. I say
_seem_--for if it be proved altogether false, the other mystery stands
untouched by the failure--for in fact it was, thousands of years
before either the discovery or practice--at least as far as we know;
for some will not quite admit this, but, in their mesmeric dreaming,
attribute to it the ancient oracles, and other wonders. And there are
who somewhat inconsistently do this, having ridiculed and contemned as
utterly false those phenomena, until they have found them hitch on to,
and give a credit to, their new Mesmeric science.

But to return to the immediate subject. It has been objected against
dreams, omens, and visions, that they often occur without an object;
that there is either no consequence, or a very trifling one; the knot
is not "dignus vindice." Now, I am not at all staggered by this; on
the contrary, it rather tends to show that there is some _natural_
link by which the material and immaterial within and without ourselves
may be connected; and very probably many more intimations of that
connexion are given than noted. Those of thought, mental suggestions,
may most commonly escape us. It is thus what we would not do of
ourselves we may do in spite of ourselves. Nor do we always observe
closely objects and ends. We might, were we to scrutinize, often find
the completion of a dream or omen which we had considered a failure,
because we looked too immediately for its fulfilment. But even where
there is evidently no purpose attained, there is the less reason to
suspect fabrication, which would surely commence with an object. Some
very curious cases are well attested, where the persons under the
impression act upon the impulse blindly, not knowing why; and
suddenly, in