ll inserted in
popular almanacs, (against all the rules of common sense)--all these
yield in nothing to the absurdities and superstitious notions conveyed
through the medium of astrology, dreams, and other ludicrous though by
far more imposing and interesting channels. The temple of the gulls is
now thronged with votaries as much as that of superstition formerly was;
human reason is still a slave to the most tyrannical prejudices; and
certainly, there is no ready way to excite general attention and
admiration, than to deal in the mysterious and the marvellous. The
visionary system of Jacob Boehman has latterly been revived in some parts
of Germany. The ghosts and apparitions which had disappeared from the
times of Thomasius and Swedenborg, have again left their graves, to the
great terror of fanaticism. New prophets announce their divine mission,
and, what is worse, find implicit believers! The _inventors_ of _secret_
medicines are rewarded by patents, and obtain no small celebrity; while
some of the more conscientious, but less fortunate adepts, endeavour to
amuse the public with popular systems of medicine.

One of the most dazzling and successful inventors in modern times, was
Messmer, who commenced his career of medical knight-errantry at Vienna.
His house was the focus of high life, the rendezvous of the gay, where
the young and opulent were enlivened and entertained with continual
concerts, routs, and illuminations. At a great expence, he imported into
Germany the first _Harmonica_ from this country: he established cabinets
of natural curiosities, and laboured constantly and secretly in his
chemical laboratory; so that he acquired the reputation of being a great
alchemist, a philosopher studiously employed in the most useful and
important researches. In 1766, he first publicly announced the object
and nature of his secret labours:--all his discoveries centered in the
_magnet_, which, according to his hypothesis, was the best and safest
remedy hitherto proposed against all diseases incident to the human
body.

This declaration of Messmer excited very general attention; the more so
as about the same time he established a hospital in his own house, into
which he admitted a number of patients _gratis_. Such disinterestedness
procured, as might be expected, no small addition to his fame. He was,
besides, fortunate in gaining over many celebrated physicians to his
opinions, who lavished the greatest encomiums on his ne