ugh the History of Mankind in all ages and all races, I find a
concurrence in certain beliefs which seem to countenance the theory that
there is in some peculiar and rare temperaments a power over forms of
animated organization, with which they establish some unaccountable
affinity; and even, though much more rarely, a power over inanimate
matter. You are familiar with the theory of Descartes, 'that those
particles of the blood which penetrate to the brain do not only serve to
nourish and sustain its substance, but to produce there a certain very
subtle Aura, or rather a flame very vivid and pure, that obtains the
name of the Animal Spirits;'(3) and at the close of his great fragment
upon Man, he asserts that 'this flame is of no other nature than all the
fires which are in inanimate bodies.'(4) This notion does but forestall
the more recent doctrine that electricity is more or less in all, or
nearly all, known matter. Now, whether in the electric fluid or some
other fluid akin to it of which we know still less, thus equally
pervading all matter, there may be a certain magnetic property more
active, more operative upon sympathy in some human constitutions than in
others, and which can account for the mysterious power I have spoken of,
is a query I might suggest, but not an opinion I would hazard. For an
opinion I must have that basis of experience or authority which I do not
need when I submit a query to the experience and authority of others.
Still, the supposition conveyed in the query is so far worthy of
notice, that the ecstatic temperament (in which phrase I comprehend all
constitutional mystics) is peculiarly sensitive to electric atmospheric
influences. This is a fact which most medical observers will have
remarked in the range of their practice. Accordingly, I was prepared
to find Mr. Hare Townshend, in his interesting work,(5) state that he
himself was of 'the electric temperament,' sparks flying from his hair
when combed in the dark, etc. That accomplished writer, whose veracity
no one would impugn, affirms that between this electrical endowment and
whatever mesmeric properties he might possess, there is a remarkable
relationship and parallelism. Whatever state of the atmosphere tends to
accumulate and insulate electricity in the body, promotes equally' (says
Mr. Townshend) 'the power and facility with which I influence others
mesmerically.' What Mr. Townshend thus observes in himself, American
physicians and pr