Wakefield," or "Sanford and Merton" possibly; or any other works of a higher or lower class, provided that they were entertaining, might furnish good subjects; so as to effect the desirable object of rousing voluntary attention. The knowledge gained in this way is so obviously superior to that which is acquired in any other, that we shall not waste our metaphysics on the proof. The first passage that we shall select is that in which Robinson discovers the footsteps of men on the sand*; and the subsequent sights of horror. 'Primam noctem Robinson in arbore egit, ut tutus a feris esset: et postera die iter persecutus est. Nec multum viæ confecerat, cum extremam insulæ partem versus meridiem attigit. Solum nonnullis in locis erat arenosum. Dum autem tendit ad tractum terræ in mare procurrentem, ecce pedem fert retro; tum pallescere, contremiscere, oculos circumferre, et subito hærere quasi fulmine repentino ictus. Videt nimirum quod hic visurum se nunquam speraverat, vestigia hominum arenæ impressa! "Tum ille territus undique circumspicit; audito vel levissimo foliorum strepitu stupet, sensusque adeo perturbantur ut stet inops consilii; tandem collectis viribus fugam corripit, quasi instarent a tergo, nec præ terrore respicere ausus est. At ecce repente substitit. Metus in horrorem vertitur. Videt nimirum fossam rotundam atque in medio ignis extincti focum. Quem circa, horresco referens, crania, manus, pedes, aliaque corporis ossa aspicit, execrandas reliquias convivii a quo natura abhorret.' We are perfectly aware of the possibility of finding fault with this translation: but, on the whole, we think that it is well and classically executed. The name of Robinson must sound odd and uncouth to classical ears; yet we question whether more would not be lost than gained by making it Robinsonus, and we are sure that Robinso would never succeed. The next scene that we shall extract is that in which Robinson, accompanied by his man Friday, having built a boat, is launching to sea: 'Robinson, arce relictaf, in tumulo imminente restitit, secum paulisper meditaturus, sociumque præire jussit. Tum vitæ solitariæ hic actæ vicissitudines mente repetit ac recordatus quanta accepisset a supremo numine beneficia, lacrymas grati animi indices effundit, manibusque expansis, ex intimo pectore summa cum pietate Deo gratias agit. 'Tum regionem illam, eo sibi cariorem quod eam mox relicturus erat, oculis perlustravit, hominis instar qui patriam linquit nulla cum spe illius unquam revisendæ. Oculi tristes madentesque in arbore quavis cujus uinbra olim recreatus fuerat, in opere quolibet quod propriis manibus multoque sudore confecerat, defixihærent. Abamicis disjungi sibi videtur. Cum vero tandem lamas ad imum montem pascentes conspexisset, faciem avertit ne carissimorum sibi animantium aspectu ipse a proposito consilio avo caretur. 'Tandem vicit caritatem animi constantia; ad fortitudinem se ipe exa * In the original it is the trace of a single foot. This would be better relicla arce; and we observe other instances of substituting the rhythm of verse for that of prose. cuit, ulnisque ad regionem totam, veluti eam amplexurus, expansis, clara voce exclamavit: Valete o calamitatum mearum testes! Valete! atque hoc ultimo vale inter singultus emisso, in viam quæ ad littus ducebat, se contulit." Much feeling is displayed in this description, and it is well maintained by the translator. We shall finish our extracts and remarks with one other citation. Robinson is about to quit his melancholy but dear solitude; and, on his departure, he gives the following excellent directions to the English and Spaniards whom he left on the island: 'Quibus convocatis suam Robinson declaravit voluntatem, his verbis: "Neminem fore spero, qui mihi jus deneget de rebus meis, id est, hac insula cum omnibus quæ in ea sunt, arbitrio meo statuendi. Opto autem ut omnium cujusque vestrum qui hic remansuri estis conditio sit beatissima; atque ad id assequendum, certas leges non habentibus meum est instituere, vestrum autem sequi. "Hæc igitur accipite. "Hos ambo Hispanos ego meos in insula vicarios constituo. Hi præoipient, vos parebitis. His committo apparatum omnem bellicum, variaque instrumenta, ea tamen lege ut illi vobis necessaria præbeant; vos au. tem cum iis honeste in pace vivatis. "Ac principio Deum colite; nulla enim civitas firma, nisi fundamentum sit pietas. "Proxima pietati sit justitia. Jus suum cuique tribuatur; ac ne cui quis noceat. "De cæteris ambo Hispani viderint. Illi fines agris assignabunt, juraque, prout res postulabit, privata publicaque statuent. Forsan et olim dabitur de vobis audire, aut me aliquando juvabit extremum in hac insula mihi carissima vitæ tempus agere. Væ illi qui interea instituta mea transgressus fuerit. Ego hominem in cymba impositum fluctibus sævissima tempestate agitatis tradam hauriendum." His auditis, assensere omnes obedientiamque polliciti sunt. A little bald Latinity is here discoverable; as in the phrases 'declaravit voluntatem;'in cymba impositum*;' obedientiam polliciti; but let us remember, "Verum opere in longo," &c.' and the difficulty of representing so much vernacular idiom in an ancient language is very honourably overcome. As we have already said, therefore, we hope that the attempt will be handsomely welcomed, and the example judiciously followed. ART. III.—On the Sentient Faculty and Principles of Human Magnetism, translated from the French of Count de Redern, and elucidated with Notes. By FRANCIS CORBAUX, Esq. 8vo. Pp. 217. SOME years ago, when engaged in a quest concerning decayed knowledge and obsolete studies, we met with a venerable book of a very philosophical appearance, the name of which we dare not * This, indeed, is wrong; it should be cymbæ or in cymbam; and perhaps nisi fundamentum, &c. would be more correct than fundamento. charge our memories with at this moment, wherein it was cogently set forth that there was a progression in all organized life. We will not go so far as to say, that the author absolutely maintained that man was originally an oyster; but his opinion certainly had a tendency to some proposition of that sort; for he stated, that in all likelihood, certain animals which he named, were at one time much inferior to what they are at present,-instancing, that we might yet see about some, the indications of members, the use of which it would be difficult to describe. We do also recollect, that in the merry days of our juvenility, the sapient members of the household sex, in rebuking us at our daffing, imputed to us the loss of our seven senses, being two more than philosophy ever allowed us to have been endowed withall. But, without contesting the grounds of these respective opinions, experience has really taught us to believe with Hamlet, that there are more things in the heavens and earth than are dreamt of in philosophy; and, joking apart, the whole of our sympathies and antipathies are of this occult nature. Let the metaphysicians say what they will, all the doctrines of the association of ideas that have ever been promulgated by all the professors that have ever lectured, will never afford a satisfactory commentary on the well-known epigram— I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, The reason why I cannot tell; I do not like thee, Doctor Fell. Being of this opinion, and observing that his Majesty of Prussia, together with other sagacious potentates of Germany, has been extending his royal patronage to the cultivation of animal magnetism, we were induced to look into the grounds of the opinions concerning that curious pretension, with the view of giving some account of its history and progress; when a learned friend presented us one day, in order to cure our unbelief, with a copy of the book, the title of which heads this article. Whether the power of the superstition of the magnetizers, for we know not any fitter name to give it, have its foundation in the sympathies or antipathies, or merely in the imagination of their subjects, we shall not presume to determine; but we may venture to affirm, that the history of the science, as they call it, presents a singular view, not only of the folly but of the ingenuity of man. The magnetizers find evidences of the antiquity of their profession, in the mysteries of the ancient Pagan religion, and especially in the rites attending the consultation of the oracles, asserting that the ecstacies of the Pythia were nothing but the consequences of a high magnetic state, the power of producing which had been discovered by the priests, who preserved the secret among the holy traditions communicated to the initiated only F. A. Wolf, one of the most distinguished of the magnetic writers, says that the Egyptians cured diseases by Contaction, and that this was particularly the case at Memphis, where the patients, being conducted into the Temple of Serapis, were reduced to a kind of lethargy, and in that state cured by the touch, which, says Professor Kluge, is very like what has been practised in modern times, under the appellation of magnetizing. He adds, that among the Egyptian hieroglyphics still extant, two human figures are sometimes met with, represented sitting precisely in the attitude which the magnetizers assume. Schelling surmises that the Romans were acquainted with the art of inducing sleep by a certain application of the hands; and Plautus, in his Amphitruo, makes Mercury say, "Quid si ego illum tractim tangam ut dormiat?" According to the report of the French missionaries in 1768, the Chinese were for ages in the practice of healing diseases by the imposition of hands. From the year 1060, the faculty of healing the scrofula by the touch was ascribed to the kings of Europe. Edward, the Confessor, of England, is said to have possessed this faculty in a very eminent degree, and, in consequence, the disease in England was denominated the King's Evil. His cotemporary, Philip I. of France, is likewise said to have possessed the same power for a time; but lost it in consequence of changing his way of life. Under the succeeding kings, both of France and England, the custom of imposing the royal hands to cure scrofula was practised till a very late period,-in England, till the reign of Queen Ann, by whom Dr. Samuel Johnson was touched. At the consecration of a new king in France, he was anciently instructed in the manner of Contaction; and it is to this ceremony that the Duke d'Espernon alluded, on being told that Louis XIII. had appointed Richelieu Generalissimo against the Spaniards. "What!" exclaimed the duke, "has Louis reserved nothing to himself but the power of curing the king's evil?" Amongst the German princes, the counts of Hapsburg pretended also to be possessed of this miraculous power. But the art of curing by contaction was not confined to the sacred race of princes. About a century and a half ago, in London, one Levret, a gardener, practised with some reputation; Greatrakes, an Irish gentleman, acquired still more renown; and lastly, Dr. Streper, soon after, is described as having been singularly successful in his operations. But in all this there was nothing that laid claim to the dignity of a scientific name. The pretensions of princes were considered as a peculiar endowment of the regal nature bestowed in the act of consecration, and those of Greatrakes and the others, as a peculiar and a divine gift,-a species of instinct which they alone possessed, and the faculty of which could neither be taught nor communicated. The first who in modern times affected to treat of it as an art dependent on philosophical principles, was Anthony Mesmer, a Swiss by birth. He went to Vienna with the intention of study ing medicine. After he had attended the lectures of Swieten and Haen a few years, and obtained the degree of Doctor, he practised as a physician, and married a lady with a considerable fortune, which relieved him from the drudgery of following a profession entirely for subsistence. H was naturally of an enthusiastic temperament, prone to recondite lore and mystical studies. In fact, he chose for his thesis in 1766, when he took his degree, a topic at variance with the whole practice of medicine, being nothing less than a disquisition on the influence of the plenets on the human body. The consequence was that by most people he was derided, though a few saw in his enthusiasm and selfpersuasion the vagrant elements of a singular genius. Instead of being deterred by the ridicule of the one party, or dissuaded from his opinions by the advice of the other, he only laboured with the more assiduity in the hope that he should finally overcome the prejudices of both. Agreeably to his notion of the influence of the stars upon the human frame, there must be a substance diffused universally throughout all nature, and which serves as the agent of that influence. In this, certainly, there is nothing contrary_to_genuine philosophy; and, if we do not mistake, the celebrated La Place, in his great work, maintains something of the same opinion. But Mesmer proceeded to discribe this hypothetical fluid, and supposed that it was electricity. Repeated experiments convinced him of the insufficiency of that fluid to account for the phenomena. After spending many years in this sort of conjectural science, he thought the magnetic fluid answered better to his idea, his attention being directed to it by the astronomer Maximilian Helle. Accordingly, in November 1773, he began a set of experiments by rubbing his patients in certain directions with artificial magnets prepared hy Helle. He afterwards tried the effect of placing the diseased parts of the body in constant communication with his magnets, and, according to his account, obtained the most gratifying results. He now made the public acquainted with his discoveries, by which he got into a dispute with his friend Helle, having called on him to bear testimony to the production of some phenomena, which the other asserted he had never seen. But, after the interchange of some bickering, they were reconciled, the difference between them having originated in a misconception. We cannot enter into all the details of the controversies which this magnetic method of curing diseases excited at the time. Suffice it to say, that several persons of the most respectable character did declare that they received great benefit, and were cured of inveterate maladies by the treatment of Mesmer; while others, equally respectable, who tried it, derided these as credulous, and asserted that they themselves had experienced no benefit whatever from it. The regular physicians of Vienna treated Mesmer as a quack and impostor, and rendered his situation so disagreeable that he resolved to abandon his practice in that city. In the years 1775 and 1776, he made several journeys into Bavaria and |